"Ruling could clarify Missouri's executioner secrecy law," is by Jeremy Kohler in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Here's the beginning:
Last month, federal Judge Beth Phillips said in a ruling in a death penalty case that it weighed heavily on her that condemned inmate Herbert Smulls had no legal means to learn more about how Missouri’s execution drug is made.
Under a Missouri law enacted in 2007, information that could be used to identify Missouri executioners is exempt from the state’s open records law. Under one of the law’s provisions, executioners can sue anyone who knowingly releases their identities. When Missouri hired a compounding pharmacy last fall to produce drugs for its lethal injections, the Department of Corrections said it considered the pharmacy, as part of the execution team, to be secret under the law.
By the time Smulls’ case got to Phillips, the 8th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals had already ruled that he was not entitled to learn more about the pharmacists making Missouri’s drugs for executions. The issue was moot, the court said, because Smulls had not proposed a more humane way to die. Phillips denied Smulls’ petition for a stay of execution, and the state of Missouri executed him Jan. 29.
But now Phillips, a judge in the U.S. District Court Western District of Missouri in Kansas City, is expected to rule on a First Amendment challenge to that law. The American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri sued the Department of Corrections last year to try to overturn the law so it could post documents to its website that identified executioners without fear of being sued.
"State's execution rules need legislative oversight, Burlison says," is the Springfield News-Leader report by Jonathan Shorman.
The Department of Corrections would have to run its proposed rules for executions through a legislative committee, under a bill proposed Wednesday by a Springfield lawmaker.
Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Springfield, wants the department’s execution rules to be reviewed by the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, a panel made up of senators and representatives. Currently, the department is exempt from JCAR review.
Burlison’s proposal comes as Missouri’s lethal injection method faces scrutiny and concerns have been raised over the sourcing of the drugs used in the executions.
And:
Burlison, who filed his proposal, House Bill 1737, on Wednesday, said he wants to increase transparency of the process. Switching the drug used in an execution is the kind of rule change that would come before JCAR if Burlison’s bill became law.
"Corrections, executions and humanity," is Jamala Rogers' column in the St. Louis American.
There are numerous examples of the inhumane and corrupt nature of the prison industrial complex. Over two million citizens languish behind bars. Most of them are non-violent offenders who experience little or no rehabilitation during their stay. Reforms may seem challenging for this institution, but they’re not impossible.
Earlier coverage from Missouri begins at the link.
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