"Alabama out of execution drug, can't carry out death sentences," is the AP report, via AL.com.
Alabama can't execute death row inmates because the state has run out of the critical first drug given at the start of each lethal injection, authorities said Tuesday.
Clay Crenshaw, of the Alabama attorney general's office, said the state currently does not have access to pentobarbital, the first drug in its three-drug execution process. There are 16 death row inmates who have exhausted appeals and are awaiting execution, but the state Department of Corrections has no pentobarbital needed to carry out the death sentence, he said.
"Pentobarbital is still manufactured and sold and it maybe one day that DOC can get access to it, but right now we don't have access," Crenshaw said.
And:
Normally, the state attorney general's office asks the Alabama Supreme Court to set an execution date for an inmate when all appeals have been exhausted. Crenshaw said difficulty in obtaining the lethal injection drug has slowed the pace of executions in Alabama. From six executions in 2011, the state went to none in 2012 and one in 2013.
The Alabama Department of Corrections won't say where it has purchased drugs for recent executions.
State Rep. Lynn Greer, R-Rogersville, has cited the state's trouble obtaining the drugs while urging lawmakers to approve a bill that would make suppliers' names a state secret.
The Alabama Department of Corrections is seeking legislation this session that would make the names off-limits to both the public and the courts. The House passed the bill on a 77-19 vote earlier this month. A Senate committee put an amendment on the bill that would specify that a judge could order the information released.
Earlier coverage from Alabama begins at the link.
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