The most up-to-date AP filing is, "US Supreme Court to decide Texas execution drug case," via the Lubbock Avalanche Journal. It's by Michael Graczyk.
The U.S. Supreme Court will be asked to halt Thursday’s execution of a Texas serial killer whose attorneys are challenging the state’s refusal to release information about where it gets its lethal injection drug.
Lawyers for Tommy Lynn Sells are making the last-minute plea after a federal appeals court allowed the execution to stay on schedule. A lower court had stayed the execution Wednesday, ordering Texas to reveal more information about its drug supplier, but the ruling was quickly tossed on appeal.
And:
But 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with Texas prison officials, who argued that information about the drug supplier must be kept secret to protect the company from threats of violence. It also found that the stock of the pentobarbital, a powerful sedative, falls within the acceptable ranges of potency.
The court said that had Texas wanted to use a drug never used before for executions or a completely new drug whose efficiency or science was unknown, “the case might be different.”
It’s unclear how the Supreme Court would rule. Last month it rejected similar arguments from a Missouri inmate’s attorneys who challenged the secrecy surrounding where that state obtained its execution drugs, and the condemned prisoner was put to death.
Less up-to-date coverage includes:
"Appeals court overturns Texas execution delay," by Dane Schiller and Mike Ward for the Houston Chronicle.
At least one execution was back on late Wednesday after a federal appeals court overturned a Houston federal judge's ruling that put two deaths on hold until the state of Texas shares details of the drugs that will be used to end the mens' lives.
An appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court was expected Thursday.
Texas prison officials, who are seeking to keep the name of the drug maker secret due to security concerns, planned to proceed with the executions after the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Wednesday evening overturned an order issued earlier in the day by U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore of Houston.
"Appeals court allows Texas executions to proceed," is by Jon Herskovitz and Heide Brandes of Reuters, via KELO-TV.
A U.S. appeals court overturned a temporary stay of execution on Wednesday for two Texas inmates challenging the state's lack of disclosure about the supplier of the drugs to be used in their lethal injections this month.
The decision puts back on track an execution scheduled for Thursday evening that had been suspended temporarily earlier on Wednesday by a federal judge in Houston, who found that Texas has hidden information about the supplier of the drugs.
U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore ordered the state to disclose, under seal, information regarding its execution drug, finding that Texas had provided information about the process by which the inmates would be executed and "masked information about the product that will kill them."
And:.
"In sum, plaintiffs are speculating that the newly acquired pentobarbital being supplied by a new compounder may be different and may cause a risk of severe pain," the ruling said. "Speculation is not enough."
Earlier coverage of the Texas lethal injection challenge begins at the link. I'll be updating throughout the day.
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