The StandDown Texas Project

Pennsylvania Commentary & News

"Disclose drug source," is the editorial published by the Scranton Times-Tribune.

Executions in Pennsylvania are carried out in the name of the commonwealth, the people of Pennsylvania. The state government has a duty to the people to disclose details about the irrevocable punishment it intends to administer.

Unfortunately, U.S. District Judge Yvette Kane, of the Middle District of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg, sealed the name of the compounding pharmacy for a feeble reason: According to the state, the company might not provide the drugs if its name is revealed.

That’s the company’s problem, not a reason to keep Pennsylvanians in the dark about an execution to be conducted in their name.

"Crack open the secrecy surrounding execution drugs," isMitchel Olszak's column in the New Castle News.

The commonwealth claims the provider of the drugs wants to remain secret and if identified, the firm will halt delivery of its product.

Perhaps you don’t care where these drugs come from and whether or not they are safe. Convicted killers aren’t a particularly sympathetic lot, so those views are understandable.

But government secrecy has a habit of spreading. Citizens should always demand openness and accountability from government as a matter of fundamental policy.

Do you really want a system where government information is concealed based on little more than a whim on the part of a private business? If that is the standard, be prepared for all sorts of new secrecy to come down the pike.

"Lawsuits, drug scarcity preventing Pa. executions," is AP's summary of recent developments, written by Mark Scolforo.  It's via the Observer-Reporter.

Gov. Tom Corbett’s decision this week to indefinitely delay the execution of a convicted murderer illustrated some of the practical and legal challenges the state faces these days in carrying out the death penalty.

And:

Corbett, a former prosecutor, signed 35 execution warrants, but he’s trailing badly in the polls as he seeks re-election. The Democratic candidate, Tom Wolf, said he won’t sign the warrants and will issue temporary reprieves while the state studies the issue of wrongful convictions.

Earlier coverage from Pennsylvania begins at the link.  With no drugs to carry out executions, Pennsylvania has a de facto moratorium on executions.

ACLU, Journalists Sue Pennsylvania Over LI Drug Secrecy

The Filing in Chester v. Wetzel is at the link.

The Guardian posts, "ACLU challenges Pennsylvania over execution drugs secrecy in federal court," by Ed Pilkington.

The secrecy imposed on the identity of the compounding pharmacy that supplied lethal drugs to Pennsylvania for use in executions is challenged today in an emergency legal motion lodged with a federal court.

The ACLU of Pennsylvania has asked judge Yvette Kane of the US district court in Harrisburg to unseal a set of legal documents that contain hidden details about the source of the state’s lethal injection drugs. In tune with many other death penalty states, Pennsylvania has shrouded its execution procedure in secrecy in the hope of keeping supply routes to the medicines open in the face of a tight international boycott led by the European Commission.

The next execution scheduled in the state is on 22 September, when convicted murderer, Hubert Michael, 57, is set to die by an injection of three separate lethal drugs. The execution is currently on hold awaiting the decision of the 3rd circuit court of appeals, but the stay could be lifted at any time which would pave the way for the first judicial killing in Pennsylvania for 15 years.

The condemned man, who pleaded guilty to raping and murdering a 16-year-old girl, Trista Eng, has been on death row for two decades and has exhausted almost all his legal options. He would be the first death row inmate in Pennsylvania to be put to death since 1999.

The ACLU’s action has been brought on behalf of the Guardian and three state newspapers – the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Philadelphia City Paper.

"City Paper sues to disclose supplier of lethal-injection drug," is by Daniel Denvir for City Paper Philadelphia.

Philadelphia City Paper joined three other newspapers today in asking a federal judge to unseal court records identifying the supplier of the drugs it will use in the planned lethal injection execution of Hubert Michael, Jr. which could take place as soon as September 22.

The motion was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania on behalf of City Paper, the Guardian US, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and seeks to intervene in a class action lawsuit filed by death row inmates against the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, Chester v. Wetzel, which contends that the state's lethal injection procedure is unconstitutional because it carries the risk of extreme pain and suffering.

In 2012, U.S. Magistrate Judge Martin C. Carlson ordered the DOC to provide plaintiffs with the identity of the supplier of drugs to be used in lethal injections but ordered that all such information be kept confidential.

The motion filed today by the ACLU contends that the identity of the supplier has been revealed in numerous confidential filings, including documents concerning a Food and Drug Administration investigation related to entities involved in the state's lethal injection supply chain. It is impossible, the motion avers, to evaluate the state's death penalty protocol without examining the efficacy of the drugs—which cannot be done without knowing the identity of the supplier. The death row inmates claim that the pentobarbital that the state plans to use for executions will fail to anesthetize the inmate as ostensibly intended.

"Attorney seeks injunction for York County man facing drug execution," is by Paula Reed Ward in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Hubert Michael, 58, is scheduled to be executed Sept. 22 for the 1993 kidnapping and murder of a 16-year-old York County girl.

Gov. Tom Corbett issued a death warrant for Michael in July. That is currently stayed by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal pending a decision for reargument on an issue related to his case. But according to a motion filed on Michael's behalf Tuesday, there is no way to know whether the stay will continue past the date set for execution.

“In light of the recent string of horrifically botched executions, the public is entitled to know how the state obtained the drugs it plans to use to carry out executions here in Pennsylvania,” said Reggie Shuford, executive director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania.

On Tuesday, an attorney for Michael asked Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court for a preliminary injunction halting the execution, arguing that the state Department of Corrections is not following state law regarding the drug cocktail required to complete the lethal injection.

The 1990 law required the first drug to be given in the combination to be an ultra-short-acting barbiturate. But there no longer are any domestic suppliers of that drug, and the state DOC in 2012 wrote a new protocol, changing the drug cocktail.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports, "Court asked to ID secret supplier of Pa.’s execution drugs," by Joseph A. Gambardello.

Four news organizations, including The Inquirer, filed a motion in federal court Thursday seeking the name of the firm contracted to provide the drugs Pennsylvania would use in an execution by lethal injection scheduled for this month.

The state has said the compounding pharmacy it contracted to supply the drugs would likely refuse to do so if its name was made public, according to the court papers filed in Harrisburg.

In their motion, The Inquirer, Guardian US, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Philadelphia City Paper said recent botched executions in other states "have greatly increased the public's interest in lethal injection executions."

U.S. District Court Judge Yvette Kane ordered the company's name sealed at the state's request. The issue emerged in conjunction with an attempt by the American Civil Liberties Union to win a stay of execution for Hubert Lester Michael Jr.

Earlier coverage from Pennsylvania begins at the link.

Editorial, Commentary, News From Missouri

Today's St. Louis Post-Dispatch publishes the editorial, "Lies and secrets in administering the ultimate punishment."  It's a must-read.

Thanks to diligent reporting by Chris McDaniel of St. Louis Public Radio, we now know that Missouri uses two drugs in its “single-drug” execution process. Inmates get an intravenous dosage of the sedative midazolam after they’re taken to the death chamber at the Bonne Terre prison. They usually get the sedative a half-hour or so before the execution time at 12:01 a.m. on the date specified by the Supreme Court.

Two questions then: Does this mean Missouri is jump-starting its executions before the time set by the court? And why did Corrections Director George Lombardi specifically deny in February that midazolam is used as part of the execution process?

Either Mr. Lombardi didn’t know what midazolam was or he lied about it. Either way it doesn’t offer much confidence in the man charged with making sure that the ultimate punishment is administered according to law. Sadly, it’s part of a pattern at the Department of Corrections.

In part because of all the challenges made under the Ringo lawsuit, the state has become very furtive in the way it executes people — and the way it intends to execute Earl Ringo.

 "'Thorough justice' in execution process," is an OpEd by Joan Bray, also in today's Post-Dispatch.  Bray is a former member of the Missouri Legislature.  Here's the beginning:

Speaking in the aftermath of events in Ferguson, Gov. Jay Nixon stated: “To get justice it has to be transparent justice, it has to be thorough justice.”

He was right. His assertion should apply in all cases, including, maybe even especially, in the administration of the death penalty.

Missourians, as well as the men to be executed and their families, have an absolute right to know the truth about the execution process. Instead, Missouri’s Department of Corrections has misled the public and obstructed access to the truth. Appointed by the governor and represented by the attorney general, these public officials must be held accountable for transparent, thorough justice.

The Springfield News-Leader publishes, "Racial bias influences Missouri executions," by Cheryl Clay.  She is the President of the Springfield NAACP chapter.

For the past few weeks, citizens of the world have been questioning the equality of the criminal justice system in Ferguson. And yet, very few seem to be asking if racial bias affects how the most drastic, irreversible act of the law – executions – are carried out in Missouri, the state ranked fifth in executions since they were reinstated in1976.

On September 10, Earl Ringo is scheduled to be the fourth black man executed in Missouri this year. Mr. Ringo was sentenced to death as a result the robbery of a restaurant after-hours that resulted in the deaths of two employees. The one African-American from the Cape Girardeau county jury pool who was actually questioned about her qualifications to serve on Mr. Ringo's jury was struck for cause at the request of the Prosecuting Attorney and under dubious circumstances. Mr. Ringo was thus tried by an all-white jury in front of a white judge by a white Prosecuting Attorney. Both of the people who died on the night of the offenses were white.

The handing down of the death penalty in America is clearly affected by the color the defendant's skin. African Americans have always been, and continue to be, disproportionately put to death at the hands of the American "justice" system. Currently African Americans account for 42% of the nation's death row population, even though they make up only 13% of the nation's civilian population.

"Missouri, Texas plan executions Wednesday,"is by Jim Salter and Michael Graczyk of Associated Press.  It's also available from USA Today.

Two of the nation's most active death penalty states are planning executions Wednesday, even as attorneys for the condemned men try to save them.

Earl Ringo Jr. is scheduled to die at 12:01 a.m. for killing two people during a robbery at a Columbia, Missouri, restaurant in 1998. Hours later, Texas plans to execute Willie Trottie for fatally shooting his common-law wife and her brother in Houston in 1993.

The executions would be the eighth this year in both states. Florida also has performed seven executions in 2014. All other states have a combined six executions.

"Missouri Fights Lethal Injection Suit on Eve of Earl Ringo Execution," is by Tracy Connor of NBC News.

While Texas remains the leading capital-punishment state in America — 16 murderers were put to death in the state last year — Missouri could break its own state record for executions by January. If his appeals fail, Ringo will be the eighth prisoner to enter the death chamber in 2014, the most in 15 years.

State officials have shown no inclination to slow the pace. In fact, Attorney General Chris Koster suggested this year that the prison system should make its own lethal injections so it doesn't have to rely on suppliers that demand anonymity.

Ringo is a plaintiff in the suit the Eighth Circuit will hear en banc, meaning all the judges will weigh in as opposed to a select few. His lawyer said it was not clear if that would help him win a temporary reprieve, noting that courts have declined to issue 11th hour delays for most other inmates involved in the case.

Earlier coverage from Missouri and Texas, at the links.

New Disclosures & Questions in Missouri

St. Louis Public Radio posts, "Missouri Swore It Wouldn’t Use A Controversial Execution Drug. It Did."  It's by Chris McDaniel.  There are documents, audio, and infographics at the link.  Here's teh beginning of this detailed must-read:

In Ohio, the execution took 26 minutes, as the inmate gasped and snorted. In Oklahoma, it took 43 minutes until a conscious inmate died of what the state said was a heart attack. In Arizona, it took nearly two hours, with the inmate "gulping like a fish on land."

The three worst botched executions this year had at least one thing in common: The states all used a drug called Midazolam to sedate the inmate, with varying levels of success.

Botched executions in other states led to questions in Missouri, a state as secretive as the others. Top Missouri officials were asked about the state's methods. They defended their own protocol each time, pointing out that Missouri doesn’t use the same drugs as those other states.

But an investigation by St. Louis Public Radio shows that wasn't entirely true.

According to documents we obtained, Missouri has used Midazolam in every execution since November of last year. In all nine executions since then, Missouri's execution team has injected the condemned with significant amounts of the sedative.

This is occurring in spite of the fact that Missouri's top corrections officials testified Midazolam would never be used in a Missouri execution.

"ACLU Demands Info on Execution Witnesses," is by Joe Harris for Courthouse News Service.

The American Civil Liberties Union has filed another lawsuit against the Missouri Department of Corrections, seeking information on state-selected execution witnesses.

The ACLU and two people sued the Missouri DOC on Tuesday in Cole County Court. It is the sixth lawsuit ACLU has filed against the Missouri DOC, involving the state's execution protocol.

"Troubled by the secrecy surrounding Missouri's execution process and Missouri's use of execution witnesses to vouch for its narrative that those killed by the state do not suffer, plaintiffs began investigating the process by which such witnesses are selected," the complaint states.

The ACLU says it submitted a written request for public records on May 2 to the Missouri DOC's Custodian of Records. It sought records identifying invitees of the DOC to witness scheduled executions in the past 12 months; the records of the responses from those invitees; all records of requests by the public or the media to witness executions in the past 12 months; all records of consideration of those requests; and all records of actual witnesses to executions in the past 12 months.

"So far, all we have received are a handful of heavily censored documents," said ACLU legal director for Missouri Tony Rothert said in a statement.

Earlier coverage from Missouri begins at the link.

From Kentucky

"Records show Kentucky prison videotaped moments before 2 inmates' executions, but not deaths," is Brett Barrqouquere's report for Associated Press, via the Tribune.  Here's an extended excerpt from the beginning:

Kentucky prison cameras captured on videotape condemned inmates heading for the death chamber in two of the state's executions as part of a little-known archive that now could come under wider scrutiny from a legal challenge over how lethal injections are carried out, according to records obtained by The Associated Press.

The surveillance camera videotapes have never been made public and their existence was known only to corrections officials. The AP uncovered references to the videos in a personnel file of a former prison employee and when the Department of Corrections rejected a records request from the AP for the videos.

The videos — made before an electric chair death in 1997 and a lethal injection execution in 1999 — apparently do not show the execution, but the transfer of the inmates to the execution chamber. The AP has not been granted permission to view the tapes.

Now, their presence could become drawn into disputes over access to the execution chamber by defense attorneys seeking to take photographs and shoot video inside the chamber at the maximum-security Kentucky State Penitentiary in Eddyville. The effort is part of ongoing litigation over how the state conducts lethal injections. Attorneys for inmates want experts to review photos and videos of the chamber to look for any potential problem that might cause an execution to go awry as part of a challenge to the constitutionality of Kentucky's execution methods. None of Kentucky's executions had apparent glitches. Prosecutors are fighting the efforts.

It also could raise Kentucky's profile amid the widening disputes around the country over the deadly mixture of drugs used in executions.

Earlier coverage from Kentucky begins at the link.

Justices Silent Over Execution Drug Secrecy

That's the title of Mark Sherman's report for Associated Press.

No one on the Supreme Court objected publicly when the justices voted to let Arizona proceed with the execution of Joseph Wood, who unsuccessfully sought information about the drugs that would be used to kill him.

Inmates in Florida and Missouri went to their deaths by lethal injection in the preceding weeks after the high court refused to block their executions. Again, no justice said the executions should be stopped.

Even as the number of executions annually has dropped by more than half over the past 15 years and the court has barred states from killing juveniles and the mentally disabled, no justice has emerged as a principled opponent of the death penalty.

This court differs from some of its predecessors. Justices William Brennan and Thurgood Marshall dissented every time their colleagues ruled against death row inmates, and Justices Harry Blackmun and John Paul Stevens, near the end of their long careers, came to view capital punishment as unconstitutional.

"They're all voting to kill them, every so often. They do it in a very workmanlike, technocratic fashion," Stephen Bright, a veteran death penalty lawyer in Georgia, said of the current court.

Earlier coverage of Arizona's botch execution begins at the link.  There will be more Arizona coverage, next.

Related posts are in the Supreme Court category index.

Eric Holder on Lethal Injection Problems & Secrecy

Video of the PBS NewsHour interview with U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is at the link.

"Eric Holder 'greatly troubled' by spate of botched executions," is by Lauren Gambino for the Guardian.

Speaking out for the first time since a botched execution in Oklahoma led to a Justice Department investigation, the US attorney general, Eric Holder, said on Thursday that death-row inmates should have the right to know what drugs the state is using to put them to death.

Holder told Gwen Ifill on PBS NewsHour that he is “greatly troubled” by the series of prolonged executions carried out in the US states of Ohio, Oklahoma and most recently Arizona.

"For the state to exercise that greatest of all powers, to end a human life, it seems to me, just on a personal level, that transparency would be a good thing, and to share the information about what chemicals are being used, what drugs are being used,” Holder said during the interview.

NBC News reports, "Attorney General Holder: Condemned Should Know Lethal Drugs," by Pete Williams.

Attorney General Eric Holder said Thursday that condemned prisoners have a right to know the composition and sources of the drugs to be administered in carrying out the death penalty.

His comments, during an interview with Gwen Ifill on the PBS NewsHour, come as the Justice Department is working to complete a study, ordered by President Obama in May, on the growing controversy over lethal injection.

And:

Attempts to use new combinations and dosages have resulted in botched executions in Ohio, Oklahoma, and Arizona.

State and federal courts have divided on whether those subject to the death penalty are entitled to know which drugs a state intends to use and where they came from.

"Eric Holder calls for more transparency in lethal injections," is by Alex Seitz-Wald for MSNBC.

“For the state to exercise that greatest of all powers – to end a human life – it seems to me, just on a personal level, that transparency would be a good thing and to share the information about what chemicals are being used, what drugs are being used,” he said.

The controversy over lethal injection comes in the aftermath of several botched executions, including a recent high-profile case in Arizona, in which the condemned man stayed alive for almost two hours after the injection.

“There might not be a legal requirement for transparency and just talking about or describing the drugs that are used. But we sometimes have to go beyond that which is legally required to do something that is right,” Holder told Ifill.

Earlier coverage of Arizona's botched execution begins at the link.

Texas Tribune Examines Texas LI Drugs

The Texas Tribune posts, "Timeline: A History of Lethal Drug Use in Texas," by Terri Langford, Alex Duner and Jessica Hamel.  There are infographics and a video at the link.

For nearly 30 years, Texas used the same three-drug lethal injection cocktail to execute death row inmates: sodium thiopental, an anesthetic, followed by pancuronium bromide, a muscle relaxant, and then potassium chloride, which brings about cardiac arrest. 

Drug manufacturers in the U.S. and abroad began cutting off supplies in 2011, refusing to allow their use in executions. The dwindling supply set in motion a national scramble among death penalty states, including Texas, to find drugs that could be used to administer the ultimate punishment. 

Relying on news stories and TDCJ documents provided to death row inmates' attorneys, The Texas Tribune compiled a timeline of TDCJ’s drug purchases and its use of execution drugs since 2011.

Earlier coverage of Texas lethal injection issues begins at the link.

Missouri Execution Date Setting

MissouriNet reports, "Supreme Court limits setting execution dates," by Bob Priddy.

The Missouri Supreme Court has decided it will not order more than one execution per month. A court source has told the Missourinet the policy has been enacted at the request of the Department of Corrections, which conducts executions at its prison in Bonne Terre.

The Department of Corrections has refused to explain why it asked the court to establish that practice or to make available any department officials to discuss the issue. A spokesman for Attorney General Chris Koster says he is aware of the policy but will not comment on it. About a year ago, Koster said that delays in setting execution dates threaten the state’s ability to administer capital punishment. He asked the court two years ago to set execution dates for nine inmates. One of them, Herbert Smulls, was executed in January. Another, Michael Worthington, is scheduled to die on August 6.

Executions have been held monthly since last November, except for May, when questions about Russell Bucklew’s physical fitness to be executed produced a court-ordered stay. The next execution scheduled is that of John Middleton next week. Another is set for August 6th.

"Nixon and Obama share dubious legacy: secrecy," is the St. Louis Post-Dispatch editorial.  Here's an extended excerpt from the beginning:

There’s a kind of poetry in the last sentence of a news release giving Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon a dubious national distinction that cements a legacy he never wanted.

Last week, the Investigative Reporters and Editors named Mr. Nixon the winner of the “Golden Padlock” award recognizing the most secretive government agency in the country in 2014. Mr. Nixon shared his award with Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin. She is a Republican. He is a Democrat. Both refuse to honor numerous requests from the press and other organizations asking for details about the drugs the states use to kill men and women on death row.

Here’s the last sentence of that news release dishonoring the two governors:

“IRE invited a representative from the winning agencies to attend and receive the honor. No response was received.”

Of course not. Unresponsiveness has been a touchstone of the administration of of a governor who once fought his predecessor over the failure to release public documents.

“No response was received.”

Missourians have come to expect secrecy from this governor, not just in big things like the death penalty, but in small things as well.

Earlier coverage from Missouri begins at the link.

Continued Reporting From the Tulsa World

Today's Tulsa World reports, "State fails to autopsy most inmates," by Ziva Branstetter and Cary Aspinwall.  Here's the beginning:

The state has conducted autopsies on less than half of the inmates executed in Oklahoma since 1990 and, in many cases, does not perform tests that could show whether inmates were awake and paralyzed as painful drugs flowed into their veins, a Tulsa World investigation has found.

Because state records are inconsistent and blood is sometimes drawn long after inmates die, it is difficult to say how many inmates were conscious when they received potassium chloride, the third drug in Oklahoma’s lethal injection process. Medical experts, judges and attorneys for the state agree that potassium chloride is excruciatingly painful if given to a conscious person.

The botched execution of Clayton Lockett on April 29 has sparked a nationwide discussion about the death penalty and new scrutiny in how Oklahoma and other states put people to death.

The World created a database using 109 medical examiner’s reports from Oklahoma inmates executed since 1990, including the levels of anesthetic in their blood following death where available. Experts in anesthesiology and clinical pharmacology reviewed the data to spot issues and problem cases.

The World also reports, "State's execution secrecy law passed quietly."  It's also by Branstetter and Aspinwall. 

A law that cloaks executions in secrecy and sparked a constitutional crisis in Oklahoma sailed through the state Legislature with scant debate.

When he introduced House Bill 1991 in 2011, then-Rep. Dan Sullivan described his legislation this way: “It changes the provisions as it relates to carrying out the death penalty. This is a request bill from the Department of Corrections and the Attorney General’s Office.”

“It doesn’t change who can witness the deal, does it?” one lawmaker asked.

Sullivan, R-Tulsa, replied that the bill “doesn’t really change that.”

Without further debate, House lawmakers passed the bill 94-0. In the Senate, where debates are not videotaped, the measure received three no votes.

The bill did change procedures for carrying out the death penalty, deleting specific language about the type of drugs that would be administered in lethal injections. However, the bill would have a far more sweeping impact because it also provided complete anonymity to execution participants and suppliers.

Ziva Branstetter and Cary Aspinwall talked about their reporting on Oklahoma's botched lethal injection, last night, on MSNBC's Rachel Maddow show.  There is video at the link.

Rachel Maddow highlights reporting by the Tulsa World newspaper examining the extent of the dysfunction in the state’s death penalty system, including a crude means of communication with the executioners, poking colored pencils through a hole in the wall.

Earlier coverage from Oklahoma begins at the link.

News Coverage of the Georgia & Missouri Executions

"This is a civilized society? Three face possible executions this week," is Scott Martelle's post at the Los Angeles Times Opinion LA blog.

It is a flawed, ineffective and barbaric system. And the state of its nature is compounded now by secrecy and sketchy legal tactics by the authorities charged with carrying out our public business. All in the name of revenge.

"Marcus Wellons executed," is by Rhonda Cook and Bill Rankin at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Wellons, 58, was pronounced dead at 11:56 p.m. after his final appeals were denied by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Wellons apologized to the family of India Roberts the teenager he was convicted of killing and said, “I ask and hope they will find peace in my death.”

He thanked his family and friends for their love and prayers and added, “I’m going home to be with Jesus.”

Wellons hummed as prayer was being said and as the warden read the death warrant. Otherwise there was little movement visible as he lay on the gurney. He was seen to exhale a couple of times before his body seemed to quiver and then there was no more movement.

Three minutes before Wellons was declared dead a nurse standing to his left was seen asking one of the corrections officers if he was ok, just before the officer fainted.

And:

On Tuesday, a three-judge panel of the federal appeals court in Atlanta unanimously declined to stop Wellons’ execution. The court said Wellons failed to clear a legal threshold by showing that the lethal-injection protocol to be used in his execution created a “demonstrated risk of severe pain that is substantial when compared to the known alternatives.”

But Judge Charles Wilson, writing separately, expressed concern over the state’s secrecy law. How could Wellons, the judge asked, show that he faced a risk of needless pain and suffering “when the state has passed a law prohibiting him from learning about the compound it plans to use to execute him?”

Wilson questioned the need to keep information about the lethal-injection process concealed from the public and the courts, “especially given the recent much-publicized botched execution in Oklahoma.”

“Unless judges have information about the specific nature of a method of execution,” Wilson wrote, “we cannot fulfill our constitutional role of determining whether a state’s method of execution violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment before it becomes too late.”

The New York Times reports, "Georgia Inmate Is Put to Death in First U.S. Execution Since Botched Procedure," by Alan Blinder.

Although the state acknowledged that it used a substantial dose of a single drug — pentobarbital, a barbiturate — from a compounding pharmacy to execute Mr. Wellons, many of the procedures surrounding his death were kept secret. A state law that took effect last summer and was upheld in May by the State Supreme Court allowed the authorities in Georgia to withhold information about the people and companies involved in executions.

That secrecy was a subject of one of Mr. Wellons’s many appeals in the federal and state courts, which continued well into Tuesday. Defense lawyers argued that the confidentiality exposed Mr. Wellons to the threat of a cruel and unusual punishment because they could not evaluate the qualifications of members of the execution team or the safety record of the compounding pharmacy.

"Georgia, Missouri execute convicted killers; first since botched lethal injection," by Matt Pearce, Ryan Parker for the Los Angeles Times.

Wellons and Winfield both had asked the U.S. Supreme Court to examine the secrecy laws in their states as a reason to stay their executions because of the undisclosed drug cocktails that would be used to kill them.

Secrecy laws like Georgia's and Missouri's have come under especially heavy scrutiny from death penalty opponents after Oklahoma inmate Clayton Lockett writhed and groaned before his death in April.

"Weeks after botched Oklahoma execution, multiple executions scheduled for 24-hour window," by Mark Berman in the Washington Post.

It has been seven weeks since an inmate was executed in the United States. The last time it happened was on April 29, a botched execution in Oklahoma that drew considerable criticism and cast a bright spotlight on the issues surrounding capital punishment as it currently exists in this country.

Since that incident, other executions were halted, some with just hours to spare. There are currently four executions scheduled during a 24-hour period from Tuesday night to Wednesday night, though it’s unclear how many of these will actually occur. (At least one is likely to be stayed, while the Supreme Court on Tuesday night denied requests to stay two of the other executions.) Still, on Tuesday night, the U.S. saw its first execution in nearly two months.

"Georgia and Missouri carry out first US executions since Oklahoma incident," is the updated AP report, via the Guardian.

Nine executions nationwide have been stayed or postponed since late April, when Oklahoma prison officials halted the execution of Clayton Lockett after noting that the lethal injection drugs weren't being administered into his vein properly. Lockett's punishment was halted and he died of a heart attack several minutes later.

"I think after Clayton Lockett's execution, everyone is going to be watching very closely," Fordham University School of Law professor Deborah Denno, a death penalty expert, said of this week's executions.

Georgia, Missouri and Florida all refuse to say where they obtain their drugs, or if they are tested.

Lawyers for Wellons and Winfield had challenged the secretive process used by some states to obtain lethal injection drugs from unidentified, loosely regulated compounding pharmacies.

Georgia and Missouri both use the single drug pentobarbital, a sedative. Florida uses a three-drug combination of midazolam hydrochloride, vecuronium bromide and potassium chloride.

Additional coverage includes:

"Georgia, Missouri inmates put to death, first since botched Oklahoma execution," by Reuters, via the Chicago Tribune.

"Georgia And Missouri Carry Out First Executions Since The Botched Lethal Injection," by AFP, via Business Insider.

The Wall Street Journal posts, "States Carry Out First Executions Since Botched Oklahoma Case," by Cameron McWhirter and Ashby Jones.

"US executions continue despite concerns over secretive drugs," by Wilson Dizard for Al Jazeera America.

"Georgia execution is first since botched Oklahoma procedure," by Ed Payne and Ralph Ellis for CNN.

The ABA Journal posts, "Prison official faints during execution; sentence was upheld despite jurors’ gag gifts, drug secrecy," by Debra Cassens Weiss.

Earlier coverage from Florida, Georgia, and Missouri, at the links.

Additional News From Missouri

"Hearing set for convicted murderer whose execution was halted in May," is by Mike Lear at MissouriNet.

A hearing date of September 9 has been set for the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals to hear arguments in the case of a convicted Missouri inmate whose execution was halted last month.

The U.S. Supreme Court wants the Appeals Court to hear the claims by attorneys for 46-year-old Russell E. Bucklew that he has a medical condition that could result in suffering if he undergoes a lethal injection, which would violate constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment.

Bucklew has a condition known as cavernous hemangioma that results in malformed blood vessels. His attorneys argue that could cause, among other things, a painful or prolonged lethal injection.

Attorney Cheryl Pilate says the potential for suffering is greater because of Missouri’s policy of secrecy regarding its execution procedures and drugs.

“A protocol in which virtually nothing is known about either the drug itself or its safety or where it came from or how certain things are going to be done during the execution,” says Pilate. “The secrecy is a factor that is common to all these executions that we’ve seen carried out in Missouri but because of Mr. Bucklew’s unique medical condition, we believe the risks to him were heightened.”

"Bucklew's death penalty case set for federal appellate court in September," by Emily Priddy for the Southeast Missourian.

A federal appellate court will take up convicted murderer Russell Bucklew's case in September.

Bucklew, 46, had been scheduled to die by lethal injection May 21, but less than six hours before his death warrant was set to expire, the U.S. Supreme Court granted his application for a stay of execution pending appeal in the federal Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.

The stay ended several days of legal wrangling between Bucklew's attorneys and Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster's office.

The appellate court now is poised to take up Bucklew's case Sept. 9 in St. Louis, federal court records show.

AP reports, "Missouri NAACP launches biggest push to abolish death penalty." It's via the Kansas City Star.

The Missouri chapter of the NAACP is vowing to mount its "largest-ever effort" to abolish the death penalty in the state.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has historically opposed the death penalty, partly because of what it says are racial disparities in how it's applied. The Missouri NAAACP says it will spend more time and resources than it ever has to rally people against the death penalty and pressure lawmakers to repeal it.

Missouri has recently accelerated its pace in executing inmates after several years in which court challenges slowed down the schedule.

The Republican-led Legislature has given no indication that it's likely to repeal the death penalty.

Earlier coverage from Missouri begins with the preceding post.  You can also jump to news of Russell Bucklew's case.

Austin American-Statesman Editorial

"Abbott does an about-face on open records," is the editorial published in the Saturday Austin American-Statesman.

Attorney General Greg Abbott’s recent ruling that Texas prison officials do not have to disclose the source of the state’s execution drug was a defeat for open government and brings into question Abbott’s commitment to government transparency.

The decision, issued May 29, represents a change of mind for Abbott, the Republican candidate for governor. Three times since 2010, the attorney general had stood with the Texas Public Information Act and rejected attempts by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to keep secret the source of the drug it uses in lethal injections. His office, citing lack of proof provided by the department, rejected arguments that disclosing the information would endanger the drug suppliers.

This time, however, Abbott agreed that revealing the supplier’s name would put it at “substantial threat of physical harm.” Abbott’s office relied on a “threat assessment” from Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw for allowing the open-records exception. McCraw’s letter referred to threats made against The Woodlands Compounding Pharmacy, a Houston-area pharmacy that previously supplied the state with pentobarbital, the barbiturate it uses in lethal injections, but didn’t specify what the threats were or what was being done about them.

And:

We have never before had occasion to question Abbott’s commitment to open government. Unfortunately, with his about-face on this important issue, that’s no longer the case.

Earlier coverage of the Texas Attorney General's Open Records Decision begins at the link.

News & Commentary From Oklahoma

"State botching execution investigation," is the editorial published in today's Tulsa World.

Since the curtain came down 16 minutes into the state's botched effort to execute murderer Clayton Lockett in April, the state has maintained a cloak of secrecy over what happened and why.

Thirty-nine days later, by maintaining that secrecy, the state appears determined to botch the investigation into the Lockett affair as badly as it botched the execution.

And:

Capital punishment is the ultimate expression of governmental power. It must be used constitutionally, efficiently and transparently.

All evidence at this point is that Oklahoma has failed on all three accounts.

"Okla. prisons take no action on execution probe," is by Sean Murphy of Associated Press, via the Enid News & Eagle.

Oklahoma Board of Corrections met behind closed doors for part of its meeting Thursday for a briefing on an investigation into the botched execution of a death row inmate.

After meeting privately for about 45 minutes with the seven-member board and the agency's general counsel at the Mack Alford Correctional Center, Oklahoma's prison chief Robert Patton declined to discuss anything related to the April 29 execution of Clayton Lockett.

"I'm informed (the Department of Public Safety) is making very good progress on its investigation," Patton said. "Once the investigation is complete, I'll be happy to sit down with anyone and talk about any changes that need to be made, but not until that time."

Public bodies in Oklahoma are authorized to go into closed-door sessions to discuss ongoing investigations and possible litigation, among other things.

And:

Patton has said previously he supports an extensive review of Oklahoma's protocols and plans to explore best practices from other states. Among the changes he has already recommended is making the director, not the prison warden, responsible for all decisions regarding the execution. He also has said prison staff will "require extensive training and understanding of new protocols before an execution can be scheduled."

Earlier coverage of Oklahoma's botched execution begins at the link.

Missouri Court Rejects John Winfield's Stay Request

The Circuit Court of Cole County Order in Winfield v. Lombardi is available via St. Louis Public Radio.

"Inmate's challenge to execution secrecy rejected," is the AP report, via WGEM-TV.

A Cole County judge has rejected a Missouri death row inmate's request to halt his upcoming execution by challenging the state's refusal to disclose the identity of its drug supplier for lethal injections.

Condemned inmate John Winfield sought a preliminary injunction that would postpone the June 18 execution. He argued that the Missouri Department of Corrections is violating state public records laws by keeping the details about where it obtains the drug secret.

Circuit Judge Jon Beetem was sympathetic to Winfield's appeal In a ruling issued Friday but sided with the state's argument that the Sunshine Law challenge needed to be brought to trial rather than through a court order.

St. Louis Public Radio posts, "With Injunction Denied, Death-Row Inmate Faces Execution Before His Sunshine Law Case Is Heard," by Chris McDaniel.

On Friday, a Cole County judge denied a death row inmate's request to order the state to turn over records on the lethal drugs that will be injected into him.

Inmate John Winfield attempted to speed up the legal process with a preliminary injunction because his execution is scheduled for June 18.

His lawyer, Joe Luby, argued that the Missouri Department of Corrections is violating the sunshine law by keeping secret the identity of the supplier of the execution drug.

"The General Assembly has set the balance by decreeing that public records, not subject to an exception, must be disclosed," wrote Judge Jon Beetem in the Cole County 19th Judicial Circuit Court in his order. "That balance is protected by providing a process, i.e. a lawsuit and judgment, before compelling disclosure when there is a dispute." (Emphasis his.)

Speaking before the judge on Wednesday, Luby argued that it was "a matter of simple dignity."

The following is a statement from one of Mr. Winfield’s attorneys, Joseph Luby:

“Missouri case law and the State’s Sunshine Statute are clear that government records are open to the public. No exception applies here. The government must function in an open, transparent and honest manner, especially in the context of taking the life of one of its citizens. Without the records we have requested, there is no way to ensure that Mr. Winfield’s scheduled execution would be carried out in a humane manner, in compliance with state and federal law, and the U.S. Constitution.

“In light of recent botched executions in Oklahoma, South Dakota, and other states, as well as the stay granted by the U.S. Supreme Court to Missouri prisoner Russell Bucklew, the State must not be permitted to move forward with the execution of Mr. Winfield until much more is known about the drugs the State plans to use. Because Missouri plans to use pentobarbital from a compounding pharmacy, Mr. Winfield is at additional risk for a prolonged, torturous death.

“The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent stay of Mr. Bucklew’s execution shows that the judiciary is properly concerned about Missouri’s execution procedures. Today’s ruling emphasized that the court was denying only a preliminary injunction rather than deciding the ultimate question of whether the Sunshine Law provides access to records about the Department of Corrections’ execution drugs and where those drugs come from. At this point, there is not time for the court or the parties to complete their lawsuit to the point of a final judgment before the scheduled execution date of June 18. Mr. Winfield will therefore be asking the Missouri Supreme Court to stay his execution so that his meritorious claims do not become moot.”

Before the ruling, River Front Times reported, "Will John Winfield Be the Fourth Inmate Missouri Executes During A Federal Appeal?"  It's by Danny Wicentowski.

Missouri's affair with the death penalty has become a monthly ordeal. Six inmates have been executed since November, and it would have been seven if not for a convicted murderer's birth defect.

Now, we've got June 18 to look forward to -- that's the date John Winfield is scheduled to die for murdering two women in 1996. But Winfield's lawyer worries that Missouri will prematurely kill his client before the higher courts can fully review his motions. That's not a baseless worry, either.

"It's only Missouri that has this nasty habit of executing people while state remedies are still pending," says attorney Joesph Luby, who cites three other recent executions where Missouri offed an inmate before receiving the federal go-ahead to do so.

Earlier coverage of John Winfield's case begins at the link.

Coverage of Missouri Hearing

"Missouri death row inmate challenges drug supplier secrecy as execution looms," is the AP report filed by Alan Scher Zagier, via the Greenfield Daily Reporter.

The next Missouri death row inmate scheduled to die by injection wants a judge to halt his June 18 execution over concerns that the state's refusal to disclose its drug supplier violates a law protecting the public's right to know.

An attorney for condemned inmate John Winfield asked a Cole County circuit judge on Wednesday to issue a preliminary injunction that would postpone the execution. The legal challenge argues that the Missouri Department of Corrections is violating state public records laws by keeping the identity of its execution drug supplier and other details secret.

The state says such anonymity is vital to protecting the compounding pharmacy that supplies pentobarbital and its employees from retaliation, including possible physical harm.

"There's not a more public act than executing a prisoner," attorney Joseph Luby told Judge Jon Beetem during a hearing in the state capital. "It's called the Sunshine Law for a reason. We have a strong policy of promoting open government."

Beetem didn't immediately rule on the injunction request but said he expects to do so soon. The execution is in two weeks.

St. Louis Public Radio posts, "Judge Hears Arguments Over Missouri Execution Secrecy," by Chris McDaniel.

Missouri relies on compounded pentobarbital for its executions. The quality of compounding drugs can vary from batch to batch, and Luby argued that knowing the supplier is essential to knowing the quality of the drug.

A St. Louis Public Radio investigation revealed the state's previous supplier was not licensed to sell in the state and had been cited for questionable practices. The state has since found a new supplier but has kept virtually all information about it hidden.

The attorney general's office argued that the secrecy was important for the state's interests in carrying out executions. If the identity of those supplying the drugs were to become public, they wouldn't be able to carry out executions, they said.

"If this information were to get out, there's no putting the genie back in the bottle," said Stephen Doerhoff, an assistant attorney general.

The judge did not seem to be convinced by that argument.

There is another issue in the case, as well.  "Missouri Officials Intimidated Prison Employee Who Sought To Halt Inmate’s Death Sentence, Lawsuit Alleges," is by Nicole Flatow at Think Progress.

A Missouri inmate is scheduled to die June 18 for the murder of two women. One unidentified staff member who has worked with John Winfield in the years since his conviction has said he has “not the same person who committed the crime that sent him to death row” and does not deserve to die. In conversations with Winfield’s lawyers, he said Winfield is in the “elite one percent of all inmates” who “shows his remorse for his crime in his every day actions and the life that he chooses to live” and will make positive contributions to the lives of many others if permitted to live.

But on the day after this staff member told his supervisors he planned to write a letter in support of Winfield, he became the subject of an investigation by the prison that threatened his employment status and caused him to revoke his statements, according to legal filings by Winfield’s lawyers.

The staff member, whose name is being withheld because of threats against him, was told he was being investigated for “overfamiliarity” with Winfield. The staff member has been a state Department of Corrections employee for more than 20 years, and worked with Winfield for several years while he was employed at Potosi Correctional Center. The staff member stated that he was a strong supporter of execution at the beginning of his career, but has, over time, “met a few exceptional individuals who have been sentenced to death, but who have become changed men.” He considers Winfield one of those men, pointing to both Winfield’s exceptional work ethic, and numerous examples of Winfield’s “dedicat[ion] to helping those who are in pain.”

Earlier coverage of John Winfield's case begins at the link.

Sponsor Pulls Louisiana LI Secrecy Bill as Legislative Session Ends

The New Orleans Times-Picayune reports, "Louisiana legislator pulls bill to keep death penalty drugs confidential," by Julia O'Donoghue.

State Rep. Joe Lopinto, R-Metairie, has decided to scrap his legislation to keep the source of death penalty drugs confidential in Louisiana. The measure was sailing through the Louisiana Legislature, but opposed by defense attorneys, government transparency groups and journalists.

"I didn't know where this was going to lead us," said Lopinto, "We've had two botched executions [in other states] since [the legislation was introduced]."

Under the measure, the source of the death penalty drugs would not only have been kept secret, but the Louisiana Department of Corrections would have been allowed to purchase the medication from out-of-state pharmacies for the first time.

"Louisiana shelves execution secrecy law," is by Ed Pilkington for the Guardian.

A bill in Louisiana that would have given the state one of the toughest execution secrecy regimes in the US has been pulled by its Republican sponsor at the last minute.

Observers had expected the bill, HB 328, to go through without difficulty. It had already received the approval of both houses of the state legislature and was awaiting final agreement on amendments. Among its provisions HB 328 would have prevented the public from knowing the source of the state's lethal injection drugs.

But with just hours to go before the end of the assembly's legislative session its proposer, Joe Lopinto, killed the bill unilaterally. He told reporters from local papers that he had decided in the wake of the recent uproar over botched executions in other states to play a longer game.

“We passed a resolution today to study this issue. There’s no reason for us to rush through and pass piecemeal legislation that will only be a short-term fix for something that needs a long-term solution,” Lopinto told the Shreveport Times.

He added: “Why make Louisiana spend a whole bunch of money defending court cases when other states are doing that as we speak?”

As the Baton Rouge Advocate notes, the Louisiana 2014 legislative session ended yesterday.

Earlier coverage from Louisiana begins at the link.

Continuing Coverage of the AG's Open Records Ruling

Sunday's Fort Worth Star-Telegram published the editorial, "Greg Abbott switches position on Death Row drugs sources."

Abbott told officials of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice on Thursday that they “must withhold the identifying information of the pharmacy and pharmacist” that are the state’s latest source of the drug used in death penalty cases.

It’s understandable that the latest case might be different. The death penalty is fraught with controversy, and circumstances change rapidly where emotions run high.

But what exactly has changed? Texans are left to guess.

According to Abbott’s letter to TDCJ, a “threat assessment” from the Texas Department of Public Safety is what caused him to change his mind this time. But DPS won’t release that assessment or say whether any pharmacies are in danger or what the agency might be doing to investigate.

A TDCJ spokesman told The Associated Press it’s all “law enforcement sensitive information.”

Understandably, attorneys for Death Row inmates are sensitive about it, too.

AP reports, "Texas Won't Detail Threats Behind Drug Reversal," by Nomaan Merchant.  It's via ABC News.

Texas law enforcement officials are refusing to say what threats were behind a key letter that led the state attorney general to reverse his long-held position that the identity of Texas' execution drug provider should be made public.

The Texas Department of Public Safety's one-page letter was cited Thursday by the Texas Attorney General's Office, which ruled state prison officials could keep its provider a secret. On Friday, the Department of Public Safety called any details about threats "law enforcement sensitive information," refusing to say if any pharmacies were in danger or what the agency was doing to investigate.

Anti-death penalty advocates have accused Texas and other states of trumping up threats to avoid disclosing their providers. So far, state and local law enforcement agencies have said little publicly about why they feel pharmacies are in danger.

The state prison system has long argued that safety concerns required it to keep suppliers' information private. Three times, Attorney General Greg Abbott's office refused the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's requests, saying the agency hadn't done enough to prove a threat.

In one of those opinions, issued two years ago, the office said that "while we acknowledge the department's concerns, we find you have not established disclosure of the responsive information would create a substantial threat of physical harm to any individual."

Earlier coverage of the Texas Attorney General's open records decision begins at the link.

Missouri AG Calls on State to Manufacture LI Drugs

"Attorney general proposes that Missouri make its own lethal injection chemicals," is by Tony Rizzo of the Kansas City Star.

Missouri’s struggles to obtain drugs to carry out executions have been plagued by controversy and legal challenges.

On Thursday, Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster proposed a solution: Missouri should make its own lethal injection chemicals.

“The legislature should appropriate funds to establish a state-operated, DEA-licensed laboratory to produce the execution chemicals in our state,” Koster said in a speech to a bar association group at the Lake of the Ozarks.

Today's St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports, "Missouri attorney general: State needs its own execution pharmacy," by Jeremy Kohler.

“Lethal injection relies upon an uneasy cooperation between medical professionals who assist in the executions, pharmaceutical companies that provide the chemicals, and the state,” Koster said, according to a copy of his speech. “In recent years, this cooperative arrangement has become so strained that continued use of lethal injection as the preferred execution method is currently being reconsidered in several states.”

Last week in Tennessee, for example, the governor signed into law a bill that would allow for death by electrocution if drugs for lethal injections were not available.

Koster noted that journalists and condemned inmates have pressed the state for disclosure about how the drugs are made, and who makes them.

Earlier this month, the Post-Dispatch and other news organizations sued the Missouri Department of Corrections to compel it to release information about the drugs the state uses for injection executions.

You can read the Missouri Attorney General's prepared remarks, thanks to the Post-Dispatch.

"Missouri official proposes execution drug lab," is the AP report filed by Jim Salter, via the Springfield News-Leader.

Missouri should establish its own laboratory to produce chemicals for use in executions rather than rely on an "uneasy cooperation" with medical professionals and pharmaceutical companies, the state's attorney general said Thursday.

Attorney General Chris Koster, a Democrat, spoke to the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis during the group's meeting at Lake of the Ozarks.

"For Missouri to maintain lethal injection ... it is my belief the Legislature should remove market-driven participants and pressures from the system and appropriate funds to establish a state-operated, DEA-licensed, laboratory to produce the execution chemicals in our state," said Koster, according to a transcript provided by his office.

A state-operated execution drug lab would be a first, and it isn't clear if it could be implemented through a simple change in Missouri's protocol or if legislative approval would be necessary. Messages seeking comment from officials with the Department of Corrections and the Attorney General's office were not returned.

St. Louis Public Radio posts, "Expressing Concern Over Execution Secrecy, Koster Calls On State To Make Lethal Injection Drugs," by Chris McDaniel.

The announcement comes at a time when there are few willing suppliers, which Koster admitted in his speech.

"The vast majority of medical professionals refuse to participate in any aspect of the procedure, believing it conflicts with their Hippocratic Oath," Koster said, according to a copy of his speech, which he delivered to  a conference of the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis at the Lake of the Ozarks.

To hide the identity of those that are willing, the state made the supplier of its execution drugs a secret last October. An investigation by St. Louis Public Radio revealed that the state’s previous supplier was not licensed to sell in Missouri and had been cited in the past by regulatory agencies.

To keep it a secret, the state was paying this pharmacy a little more than $11,000, all in cash, each execution.

Koster has ardently supported secrecy in the past. But speaking in Lake of the Ozarks, he said the transparency questions should "concern all of us deeply."

“While this creeping secrecy is legal, it may not be prudent, and it merits the attention of state lawmakers,” he said.

"Missouri attorney general wants the state to produce its own lethal injection drugs," is by Mark Berman of the Washington Post.

Missouri has executed four people in 2014, which is as many people as the state executed between 2006 and 2013.

The botched execution of Clayton Lockett in Oklahoma last month drew worldwide attention, reviving a debate over the death penalty and the way it is carried out in the United States. An execution in Texas, set to be the first since the botch in Oklahoma, was halted hours before the injection after a court cited the intellectual disability of inmate Robert James Campbell.

As a result, Missouri’s scheduled execution of Russell Bucklew last week would have been the first in the country since the Oklahoma episode. That execution was halted, reinstated and halted again during a judicial back-and-forth before the Supreme Court ultimately stayed the execution and sent it back to lower courts. Attorneys for Campbell and Bucklew had criticized the secrecy involved in the lethal injection process in both states.

Additional coverage includes:

"Attorney General Koster Thinks Missouri Should Make Its Own Execution Drugs," by Lindsay Tolerfor River Front Times.

ABA Journal posts, "AG’s unique solution to dearth of execution drugs: State should manufacture its own supply," by Martha Neil.

Earlier coverage from Missouri begins at the link.

Texas AG Reverses Earlier Open Records Rulings on LI Drug Info

The following is a statement from attorney Maurie Levin, whose public information request was denied by the Attorney General today:

"It is deeply disturbing and frankly quite shocking that the highest law enforcement official in the state has suddenly reversed his position on disclosure when it comes to lethal injection, particularly considering the horrifically botched execution in Oklahoma last month that was the direct result of secrecy surrounding the process.

Serious questions surround this about-face, including why our Attorney General, who once championed transparency, is suddenly now supporting secretive government practices.”

"Abbott switches mind on death drug secrecy," is Mike Ward's report for the Houston Chronicle.

In a surprise legal about-face, Attorney General Greg Abbott on Thursday ruled that state prison officials no longer have to tell the public where they obtain drugs used to execute condemned criminals.

Abbott's decision falls in line with other states that have sought to keep secret the source of their lethal drugs, to keep death-penalty opponents from pressuring suppliers to quit selling to execution chambers. His decision reversed three rulings since 2010 that had mandated the information about the suppliers be made public.

Abbott, the Republican nominee for governor in the state that operates the nation's busiest death chamber, said in his five-page decision that he was swayed to allow secrecy by a "threat assessment" from Steve McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, that disclosure of details could endanger suppliers.

AP coverage is, "Abbott backs secrecy on drugs for executions," by Nomaan Merchant and Michael Graczyk, via the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Texas prison officials don’t have to tell the public where they get execution drugs, Attorney General Greg Abbott said Thursday, reversing himself on an issue being challenged in several death penalty states.

Since 2010, Abbott, the Republican nominee for governor in the nation’s busiest death penalty state, had three times told prison officials that they should reveal the source of the drugs. He ruled that the benefits of government transparency outweighed the state’s objections.

But on Thursday, Abbott’s office sided with state prison officials who said their supplier would be in danger if identified, citing a “threat assessment” signed by Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw.

The assessment, a one-page letter dated March 7, said pharmacies “by design are easily accessible to the public and present a soft target to violent attacks.” Naming a pharmacy that supplies execution drugs “presents a substantial threat of physical harm … and should be avoided to the greatest extent possible,” the letter said.

Abbott’s decision, which can be appealed to the courts, came the same day that Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster said his state should consider creating its own laboratory for execution drugs rather than relying on “uneasy cooperation” with outside sources. A state-run lab would be a first, and it wasn’t clear whether Missouri could implement the change without approval from the Legislature.

 "Greg Abbott: Keep execution drug supplier secret," is by Chuck Lindell for the Austin American-Statesman.

Prison officials had tried — and failed — to use that Supreme Court ruling in previous attempts to withhold the name of the state’s execution drug supplier. In July 2012, for example, Abbott’s office found that prison officials had failed to prove that harassment of suppliers “could escalate into violence.”

The latest effort, however, included a “threat assessment” from Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw that changed the outcome, according to the letter written by Assistant Attorney General Yen-Ha Le.

“It is our assessment that some of the threats made to the Woodlands Compounding Pharmacy that we identified should be taken seriously,” McCraw wrote. “Pharmacies by design are easily accessible to the public and present a soft target to violent attacks.”

Naming the state’s execution drug supplier “should be avoided to the greatest extent possible,” McCraw wrote.

In the letter to prison officials, Le said the Supreme Court noted that “deference must be afforded” to risk assessments made by law enforcement experts. Given McCraw’s evaluation, Le concluded, “We find the department must withhold the identifying information of the pharmacy and pharmacist.”

The Texas Tribune posts, "AG: Prisons Can Keep Info About Execution Drugs Secret," by Terri Langford.

Abbott, in his ruling, said that the DPS “threat assessment” was the proof needed to keep private information about suppliers of lethal drugs used by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. The ruling allowing secrecy is noteworthy because it was made in the midst of Abbott's campaign for Texas governor against Democratic Sen. Wendy Davis and because in three prior rulings, Abbott has ruled for transparency when it comes to execution information. Calls to Abbott's state office and his campaign office were not immediately returned Thursday.

Earlier coverage of Texas lethal injection issues begins at the link.  Also available, unrelated, more recent coverage from Texas.

The Secret Shame of the Death Penalty

That's the title of the Friday editorial in the New York Times.

Welcome to the macabre absurdity of the modern American death penalty. Of course, death by lethal injection became the standard method only because earlier methods — from hanging to the firing squad to the electric chair — were deemed too “barbaric,” not because the state was taking a human life, but because the method of execution offended the sensitivities of the public in whose name the killing is carried out.

By now, it is clear that lethal injection is no less problematic than all the other methods, and that there is no reason to continue using it. But capital punishment does not operate in the land of reason or logic; it operates in a perpetual state of secrecy and shame.

In most cases, it is conducted late at night, behind closed doors, and as antiseptically as possible. Were it to be done otherwise, Americans would recoil in horror, as they did after the debacle in Oklahoma. Mr. Bucklew’s unusual case shows that death-penalty supporters can’t have it both ways. If they want the United States to remain a global outlier by killing its citizens, they must accept that there are no clean executions.

"Execution drugs unavailable, states eye electric chairs, firing squads," is Scott Martelle's column in the Los Angeles Times.

So what do you do when you’re a death penalty state and the rest of the civilized world refuses to sell you the drugs for your lethal injections? Turn back the clock, apparently.

In Tennessee, Gov. Bill Haslam on Thursday signed a law that would allow prison officials to strap the condemned into an electric chair should drugs become unavailable for lethal injections. In Wyoming, there’s talk of bringing back the firing squad (the state already allows for poison gas as a backup, but apparently it doesn’t have a gas chamber). What’s next, mass public hangings? Drawing-and-quartering, with heads left on pikes at the city gates?

That states are looking to previously rejected execution methods indicates just what a problem this has become. Most of the industrialized world — the United States’ peer nations — did away with this barbaric practice long ago. European-based pharmaceutical companies refuse to export drugs to prisons for use in executions. The American Medical Assn., the American Board of Anesthesiologists and the American Nurses Assn. proscribe members from conducting executions, and activist groups are pressuring the American Pharmacists Assn. to adopt a similar ethics policy. Those policies’ influence, though, is limited: State-level laws shield most doctors from sanctions.

Earlier coverage from Missouri and Tennessee at the links.

Georgia Supreme Court OKs State LI Secrecy Law

The Georgia Supreme Court ruling in Owens et al v. Hill is available in Adobe .pdf format.  The ruling was issued yesterday.

"Court upholds lethal-injection secrecy law," is by Bill Rankin in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The Georgia Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of a state law that keeps secret the identities of the makers and suppliers of Georgia’s lethal-injection drugs.

The court, in a 5-2 decision, rejected a challenge to the statute filed by lawyers for condemned killer Warren Hill. The ruling should clear the way for a number of executions, which have been on hold while the case was pending.

And:

Benham, who authored the dissent, noted the recently botched execution in Oklahoma of inmate Clayton D. Lockett, who died of a heart attack after he writhed, gasped and struggled to lift his head after being declared unconscious on the lethal-injection gurney.

“I write because I fear this state is on a path that, at the very least, denies Hill and other death row inmates their rights to due process and, at the very worst, leads to the macabre results that occurred in Oklahoma,” wrote Benham, who was joined by Justice Carol Hunstein. “There must be certainty in the administration of the death penalty.”

The case involved an appeal by the state from an order issued last July by Fulton Superior Court Judge Gail Tusan, who found the law was likely unconstitutional. In her ruling, Tusan halted the execution of Hill so she could more closely examine the secrecy law. But the court reversed Tusan’s decision.

AP coverage is, "Georgia high court upholds law protecting anonymity of execution drug suppliers," by Kate Brumback.  It's via the Greenfield Daily Reporter.

Presiding Justice P. Harris Hines wrote in the 33-page majority opinion keeping secret the identity of entities involved in an execution can shield them from harassment or retaliation from family members of inmates or from death penalty opponents. Hines added that, without that confidentiality, there is a significant risk that entities needed for an execution might be unwilling to participate.

"(W)e conclude that Georgia's execution process is likely made more timely and orderly by the execution-participant confidentiality statute and, furthermore, that significant personal interests are also protected by it," the majority opinion says.

In a dissenting opinion, Justice Robert Benham recounted the details of the botched April 29 execution of Oklahoma inmate Clayton Lockett, who writhed on the gurney, gritted his teeth, and moaned before dying of an apparent heart attack 43 minutes after the start of his execution. The secrecy law puts the state on a path that denies death row inmates their rights to due process and could lead to a result similar to what happened in Oklahoma, Benham wrote.

"The fact that some drug providers may be subject to harassment and/or public ridicule and the fact that authorities may find it more difficult to obtain drugs for use in executions are insufficient reasons to forgo constitutional processes in favor of secrecy, especially when the state is carrying out the ultimate punishment," the dissenting opinion says.

"Georgia Supreme Court rules secret source for lethal injection drugs law constitutional," in the Albany Herald.

The Georgia Supreme Court has reversed a stay of execution for Warren Lee Hill, who murdered another inmate at the state prison in Leesburg in 1990. The court in a 5-2 vote rejected the arguments of Hill’s attorneys that Georgia’s refusal to disclose the source of its lethal drugs was unconstitutional.

Last July, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Gail Tusan postponed Hill’s execution to review at 2013 state law that makes the identities of those who supply or compound drugs used in Georgia executions “a confidential state secret.”

Jesse Wegman writes, "In Georgia, Secrecy Is More Important Than Life," at the New York Times Taking Note blog.

Putting aside for the moment whether an executioner’s (or drugmaker’s) interest in avoiding harassment should outweigh the constitutional rights of a condemned man, it is notable that courts never seem to identify any actual instances of harassment, only the “risk” of it.

The death penalty in America long ago lost any claim to being consistently or fairly applied, if it ever was. But as Justice Benham argued, there must at the very least be “certainty” in its administration.

“Georgia’s confidential inmate state secret statute,” he wrote, “does nothing to achieve a high level of certainty. Rather, the law has the effect of creating the very secret star chamber-like proceedings in which this State has promised its citizens it would not engage.”

Earlier coverage of Warren Hill's case begins at the link.

Although it was not an issue in this ruling, Warren Hill is acknowledged to have intellectual disability.   

As I often point out, mental retardation is now generally referred to as a developmental or intellectual disability. 

Because it has a specific meaning with respect to capital cases, I continue to use the older term on the website.  More on Atkins v. Virginia, the Supreme Court's 2002 ruling banning the execution of those with mental retardation, is via Oyez.

Related posts are in the mental retardation category index.

News Coverage of the Missouri Sunshine Lawsuits

The lawsuit filed by the five news organizations is available in Adobe .pdf format, as is the other lawsuit, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press & McDaniel v. Missouri Department of Correction.

Today's New York Times reports, "News Groups Sue for Data on Missouri’s Executions," by Julie Bosman.

The lawsuit contends that the disclosure of drug sources “promotes the functioning of the process itself and is essential for democracy to function.” It added, “The public cannot meaningfully debate the propriety of lethal injection executions if it is denied access to this essential information about how individuals are being put to death by the state.”

The Guardian spearheaded the lawsuit, but after Mr. Lockett’s execution, it was joined by The Associated Press, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The Kansas City Star and The Springfield News-Leader. The news organizations said the Department of Corrections had routinely provided information on the drugs, but “unilaterally changed course” in October 2013 and began to deny access. Since then, six Missouri inmates have been executed, without the state’s “revealing the source or quality of the drugs used to inflict death.”

The Department of Corrections has responded to requests for information by invoking the state’s so-called Black Hood Law, which protects the identities of people who provide direct support to executions, the lawsuit said. The department did not return a phone call on Thursday.

"Journalists launch legal assault on Missouri execution secrecy laws," is by Matt Pearce for the Los Angeles Times.

Thursday's lawsuit in Missouri had been in the works for months -- and was filed the same day as a similar lawsuit by a St. Louis Public Radio reporter, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri.

Reporters involved in the lawsuits who spoke with the Los Angeles Times said they hadn't known about each other's lawsuits.

“Over a span of late October till now, [the Missouri Department of Corrections has] gradually been getting worse and worse about responding to open-records requests," said Chris McDaniel, a St. Louis Public Radio reporter who has been covering capital punishment in Missouri.

In December, after Missouri prison officials began to dole out redacted records, McDaniel published an investigation revealing that the state's execution drug supplier was an Oklahoma compounding pharmacy that wasn't licensed in Missouri.

"Media organizations filed a lawsuit to force Missouri to reveal the source of its lethal injection drugs," is by Mark Berman for the Washington Post.

This lawsuit, which comes less than a week before the next scheduled execution in the state, arrives as executions in the United States are facing heightened scrutiny after a widely publicized botched lethal injection in Oklahoma. But it also comes after years of states struggling to obtain the drugs needed for executions, which has caused officials to use unproven drug cocktails, secretly hand drugs across state lines and, in some states, conceal the sources of the drugs.

In the lawsuit, which was filed in the Circuit Court of Cole County, Mo., the news organizations say that they repeatedly tried to locate information about the drugs for the lethal injection under the state’s Sunshine Law, but the state declined.

The public has a right to learn “the composition, concentration, quality, and source of drugs used in lethal injection executions,” according to the suit.

"Media file lawsuit challenging secrecy of Missouri execution drug," is at CBS News.

Missouri is among the many U.S. states that refuse to disclose where they purchase execution drugs, their makeup and how they are tested.

The sourcing of execution drugs has become an issue countrywide since major drugmakers, many based in Europe, began to refuse selling their products if they were to be used in an execution.

Many states have turned to compounding pharmacies, which are not as heavily regulated as traditional pharmaceutical companies but are able to make the required drugs. Several have refused to name their supplier, sometimes citing security concerns and threats to the pharmacies.

"Associated Press and The Guardian join media push for details on lethal injection mix," is by AFP, via Raw Story.

Time posts, "Newspapers Sue Missouri Over Execution-Drug Secrecy," by Denver Nicks and Josh Sanburn.

"Media organizations launch lawsuit over Missouri lethal injection secrecy," is by Justin Scuiletti for PBS NewsHour.

Mother Jones posts, "News Organizations Sue Missouri to Reveal the Contents of Its Execution Drugs," by Mariah Blake.

"The AP and the Guardian Are Suing Missouri Over Its Death Penalty Secrecy," by Abby Ohlheiser at the Wire.

"News Organizations Sue Missouri Department Of Corrections Over Drug Executions," by Dan Margolies at KCUR-FM.

"Prison System Faces Lawsuit Alleging Lethal Injection Secrecy," at KOLR-TV.

The Guardian publishes commentary, "Why the US constitution gives you the right to know lethal injection's secrets," by Jane E. Kirkley.

In their lawsuit, the news organizations are not only arguing that the DOC is violating its own state law. They contend that the new policy also violates the First Amendment. They cite the unbroken line of supreme court decisions recognizing that public access to the criminal justice process is essential to preserve the integrity of the system and to promote public confidence in it. This constitutional right not only protects reporting information about what the government is up to; it protects the right to obtain the information in the first place.

Although the high court has not yet ruled explicitly that these rights extend to executions, history and experience support the argument. The death penalty – the ultimate expression of the state's power over human life and death – has always been subject to public oversight, and for good reason. The government executes prisoners in the name of the public. To have confidence in that process, the public must have as much information as possible about it. We should know how officials treat those who are paying the ultimate penalty. We cannot call ourselves a democracy if we cede this kind of activity to a secretive government in blind faith and without question.

That the DOC formerly made this information public but now chooses to suppress it – well, that is even more damning. In the words of retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, dissenting in the 1978 decision in another prison access case, Houchins v KQED, "concealing such knowledge from the public by arbitrarily cutting off the flow of information at its source" abridges both the freedoms of speech and the press.

Earlier coverage of the media lawsuits against the Missouri Department of Corrections begins at the link.

Media Outlets Sue Missouri Over LI Secrecy

This morning, the Yale Law School’s Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic brought a lawsuit against the Missouri Department of Corrections, on behalf of a coalition of international, national and local media organizations, including The Associated Press, The Guardian US, The Kansas City Star, the Springfield (Missouri) News-Leader, and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.  The lawsuit seeks the names of the compounding pharmacy(ies) from whom Missouri purchases lethal injection drugs for use in carrying out executions, and asserts claims under both the Missouri Sunshine Law and the First Amendment.

St. Louis Public Radio posts, "Suits Challenge Missouri Over Secrecy About Execution Procedures," by Margaret Wolf Freivogel, with material from AP.

Two suits were filed Thursday in Jefferson City challenging Missouri officials for failing to disclose information about the drugs the state uses in lethal injections.

In the first, The Associated Press and four other news organizations argue that the state's actions prohibit public oversight of the death penalty. The second suit, under the state sunshine law, was filed by Chris McDaniel, a reporter for St. Louis Public Radio, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri. It challenges the state's refusal to disclose information and documents relating to executions.

McDaniel, along with Veronique LaCapra, has reported extensively on Missouri's lethal injection process and disclosed the previous supplier of the drug to the state. He has numerous Sunshine Law requests pending to gain more information.

"Media file lawsuit to challenge execution secrecy," is the full AP report filed by Jim Salter.  It's also available from the Springfield News-Leader.

The Associated Press and four other news organizations filed a lawsuit Thursday challenging the secret way in which Missouri obtains the drugs it uses in lethal injections, arguing the state's actions prohibit public oversight of the death penalty.

The lawsuit asks a state court judge to order the Missouri Department of Corrections to disclose where it purchases drugs used to carry out executions along with details about the composition and quality of those drugs.

"We assert that there is a constitutional right for the public to know the drugs that are used when a state puts someone to death," said Dave Schulz, an attorney for the news organizations and co-director of the Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic at Yale Law School.

And:

The sourcing of execution drugs has become an issue nationwide since major drugmakers, many based in Europe, began to refuse selling their products if they were to be used in an execution.

Many states have turned to compounding pharmacies, which are not as heavily regulated as traditional pharmaceutical companies but are able to make the required drugs. Several have refused to name their supplier, sometimes citing security concerns and threats to the pharmacies.

Asked about these threats, law enforcement officials in several states have told the AP they do not know about them, are not actively investigating them or do not consider them to be serious.

"KC Star, others sue Missouri over execution drug secrecy," is by Tony Rizzo of the Kansas City Star.

The suit, filed in Cole County Circuit Court in Jefferson City, alleges that the corrections department is violating the Missouri Sunshine Law by denying repeated requests for information about the “composition, concentration, source and quality of drugs used to execute inmates in Missouri.”

By withholding access to information that historically has been publicly available, the department also is violating the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution, according to the suit.

In separate court actions, attorneys for men facing execution in Missouri have unsuccessfully attempted to obtain information about the drugs.

They have argued that the information is needed to determine if executions are being carried out in a constitutional manner. If the drugs are not properly manufactured and administered, a prisoner could suffer pain and suffering that would violate the constitutional protection against cruel and unusual punishment, they have contended.

Thursday’s suit makes a similar argument that public disclosure of the information “reduces the risk that improper, ineffective or defectively prepared drugs are used.”

“The constitution thus compels access to historically available information about the type and source of drugs used in lethal injection executions because disclosure promotes the functioning of the process itself and is essential for democracy to function,” according to the suit.

The Guardian posts, "Guardian challenges lethal injection secrecy in landmark Missouri lawsuit," by Ed Pilkington and Jon Swaine.

The growing secrecy adopted by death penalty states to hide the source of their lethal injection drugs used in executions is being challenged in a new lawsuit in Missouri, which argues that the American people have a right to know how the ultimate punishment is being carried out in their name.

The legal challenge, brought by the Guardian, Associated Press and the three largest Missouri newspapers, calls on state judges to intervene to put a stop to the creeping secrecy that has taken hold in the state in common with many other death penalty jurisdictions. The lawsuit argues that under the first amendment of the US constitution the public has a right of access to know “the type, quality and source of drugs used by a state to execute an individual in the name of the people”.

It is believed to be the first time that the first amendment right of access has been used to challenge secrecy in the application of the death penalty.

Deborah Denno, an expert in execution methods at Fordham University law school in New York, said that more and more states were turning to secrecy as a way of hiding basic flaws in their procedures. “If states were doing things properly they wouldn’t have a problem releasing information – they are imposing a veil of secrecy to hide incompetence.”

"Secret America: how states hide the source of their lethal injection drugs," is an interactive feature at the Guardian.

Earlier coverage from Missouri begins at the link.  Related posts are in the journalism and lethal injection category index.

Attorney Statement

Below is a statement from attorney Madeline Cohen, who represents Charles Warner. Mr. Warner was scheduled to be executed tonight in Oklahoma, but his execution has been stayed for 14 days, following the botched execution of Clayton Lockett.

"After weeks of Oklahoma refusing to disclose basic information about the drugs for tonight's lethal injection procedures, tonight, Clayton Lockett was tortured to death.

'Without question, we must get complete answers about what went wrong. There must be an independent investigation conducted by a third-party entity, not the Department of Corrections. We also need an autopsy by an independent pathologist and full transparency about the results of its findings. Additionally, the state must disclose complete information about the drugs, including their purity, efficacy, source and the results of any testing. Until much more is known about tonight's failed experiment of an execution, no execution can be permitted in Oklahoma."

Earlier coverage of tonight's botched execution in Oklahoma begins with the preceding post.

News Coverage of the Pending Oklahoma Executions

Madeline Cohen, attorney for Charles Warner, issued the following statement regarding tonight's scheduled executions:

“Tonight, in a climate of secrecy and political posturing, Oklahoma intends to kill two death row prisoners using an experimental new drug protocol, including a paralytic, making it impossible to know whether the executions will comport with the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual suffering.  Because the issue of secrecy in lethal injection has not been substantively addressed by the courts, Clayton Lockett and Charles Warner will be executed without basic information about the experimental combination of drugs used in their deaths. Despite repeated requests by counsel, the state has refused, again, and again, to provide information about the source, purity, testing and efficacy of the drugs to be used. It’s not even known whether the drugs were purchased legally.

‘In addition to the secrecy surrounding these executions, intense and inappropriate political pressure on Oklahoma’s judiciary from the Oklahoma Governor and Legislature has put a permanent stain on this entire process. Following an unconscionable 48-hour period of political intimidation, including the Governor attempting to override the Court’s stay of execution, and the introduction in the Oklahoma House of Representatives of articles of impeachment against the Justices who voted for the stay, the state’s highest court rescinded the stays. In a more appropriate political climate, Oklahoma’s Supreme Court could have taken a thorough look at this secrecy and ensured that all laws were carefully followed. Instead, we will never know.”

"Oklahoma prepares for execution of 2 inmates," is the updated AP report filed by Bailey Elise McBride, via the San Francisco Chronicle.

Two Oklahoma death row inmates whose executions were delayed while they challenged the secrecy behind the state's lethal injection protocol are scheduled to die Tuesday in the state's first double execution in nearly 80 years.

Clayton Lockett and Charles Warner will receive a new lethal injection formula that includes the sedative midazolam as the first in a three-drug combination.

Madeline Cohen, Warner's attorney, said the inmates have exhausted all of their appeals.

"We are really out of legal options, because the challenges that were brought to the execution were brought under state law, and they were decided as a matter of state law," Cohen said.

It is the first time since 1937 that two men have been executed on the same day in Oklahoma, although it has happened in other states since the death penalty was reinstated in the U.S. in 1976. The last double execution was in Texas in 2000.

The Tulsa World reports, "Oklahoma's rare double execution drawing global media interest," by Ziva Branstetter.

Oklahoma's rare dual execution Tuesday is drawing international attention, with reporters from Japan, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands requesting to serve as media witnesses, prison officials say.

Barring any last-minute court rulings in their favor, inmates Clayton Lockett and Charles Warner will be executed Tuesday at 6 p.m. and 8 p.m., respectively, at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.

Jerry Massie, a spokesman for the state Department of Corrections, said 17 news organizations, including 12 from Oklahoma, have requested media credentials to cover the executions.

Media outlets from outside the state requesting to witness the executions are The New York Times, The Guardian, Esquire Magazine UK, Kyoto (Japan) News and NRC, a newspaper based in the Netherlands.

The Department of Corrections allows up to 12 media witnesses, with preference given to The Associated Press and to Oklahoma media outlets, including the Tulsa World, The Oklahoman and local newspapers where the crimes occurred. Because more than that have requested credentials, the DOC likely will hold a lottery to select the media witnesses for each execution, Massie said.

"Oklahoma's first double-execution since 1937 set for Tuesday night," is by Graham Lee Brewer for the Oklahoman.

The state announced this month that after an exhaustive search, it was able to acquire the drugs to be used — midazolam, vecuronium bromide and potassium chloride — directly from a manufacturer.

As recently as Friday, the convicted murderers’ attorneys appealed to the state Court of Criminal Appeals for another delay in the executions. The court rejected that request.

National Journal posts, "Oklahoma Is About to Perform the First ‘Double Execution’ In 14 Years," by Dustin Volz.

The executions of Clayton Lockett and Charles Warner, which will go forward barring any extraordinary legal intervention, will also put an end—for now—to a "constitutional crisis" in Oklahoma that found the Republican governor and state Supreme Court locked in an unprecedented legal showdown concerning the secrecy of its supply of lethal-injection drugs.

The carousel of heated back-and-forth litigation culminated last week with dueling orders from Gov. Mary Fallin and the Oklahoma Supreme Court. A day after the court ruled to stay the executions indefinitely, Fallin issued a temporary, seven-day stay on Lockett's execution, which had been scheduled for April 22. Fallin's order, which was a de facto override of the court's decision, drew scrutiny from legal experts, prompting some to declare the state was mired in a constitutional crisis.

But the court quickly balked, choosing instead to nullify its own stay and reverse a lower-court ruling that found a law allowing the state to keep secret the source of its lethal drugs unconstitutional. Death-penalty opponents have accused state officials of succumbing to political pressure.

Oklahoma's morass reflects a growing challenge states are facing nationally to carry out their death sentences because of lethal-drug shortages. As European manufacturers make it increasingly difficult for states to procure chemicals intended for lethal injections, states are being forced to look elsewhere to procure the necessary ingredients. In Oklahoma, as well as other states such as Texas and Missouri, states have turned to secret compounding pharmacies to produce the lethal cocktails.

"Oklahoma former prison warden: death penalty does not help families," is by Katie Fretland for the Guardian.

As Oklahoma prepares for its first double-execution since 1937 after an unprecedented dispute between two courts, the governor and the legislature, the former warden of the state prison says he has come to see the death penalty as a very expensive punishment that fails to deter crime or bring closure to most victims’ families.

Randy Workman saw intimate details of the death penalty that are kept from the public eye in the United States. As the warden of the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester he handpicked secret executioners, walked people to their deaths and saw the process of obtaining lethal injection drugs. He participated in 32 executions during various jobs in more than two decades working for the corrections department before retiring in 2012.

And:

“The only thing I can tell you for certain whenever people say do you believe that the death penalty will stop crime, I can guarantee you that person will never commit a crime again, and that is as far as I’m going to say,” Workman said. “Do we need to have the death penalty? Yeah I’m an advocate for it. I think we do. Is it cost effective? Gosh no. We spend millions of dollars on these cases and going through the process and the end result is the family, do they feel vindicated? I’d say 90% of the time the people I’ve seen don’t.”

Reuters posts, "Oklahoma to execute two convicts after ending court case on drugs," by Heide Brandes.

Lockett and Warner had been scheduled to be executed in March but had their death sentences put on hold after lower courts ruled that the state needed to provide more information on the drugs that would be used to execute them and the supplier of the pharmaceuticals.

The crimes for which they were convicted were not related, but their executions became linked in a lawsuit about the lethal injection drugs.

Oklahoma had set up a new lethal injection procedure and cocktail of chemicals earlier this year after it was no longer able to obtain the drugs it had once used for executions.

"Anti-Death Penalty Group To Host Protest, Vigil In OKC," is by the Associated Press, via KOTV-TV.

An Oklahoma anti-death penalty group will host a protest and vigil to show their objection to the execution of two death-row inmates, the state's first double execution since 1937.

The Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty on Tuesday will host a sit-in at Gov. Mary Fallin's office, followed by a vigil at the governor's mansion.

Earlier coverage from Oklahoma begins with the preceding post.

Alabama Editorial

The Dothan Eagle publishes the editorial, "Will Alabama bring back its electric chair?"

There are 197 condemned inmates on Death Row in Alabama, and 16 of them have run out of options and are awaiting execution. But that’s not likely to happen anytime soon, unless the state brings its electric chair, Yellow Mama, out of the attic to carry out the sentences.

That’s not likely to happen, either. The last electrocuted inmate died in Yellow Mama in 2002; after that, inmates were given a choice of execution and lethal injection. Yellow Mama has been in storage since.

The problem Alabama now faces is the same one that plagues all capital punishment states – a shortage of a key drug used in the execution.

Earlier coverage from Alabama begins at the link.

Where Things Stand in Oklahoma

The New York Times reports, "Execution Case Roils Oklahoma Courts," by Erik Eckholm.

The legal wrangling in Oklahoma over the planned executions of two convicted murderers reached a new level of confusion on Tuesday as the State Supreme Court quickly rejected the attorney general’s claim that it had exceeded its power by granting stays of execution, only to have Gov. Mary Fallin assert that she was taking control and would arrange for the men to be put to death next week.

On Monday, the Supreme Court, which does not normally handle criminal matters, reluctantly stepped in to delay the executions of Clayton Lockett and Charles Warner while their challenge to lethal injection methods is argued. The Court of Criminal Appeals had refused on technical grounds to consider the appeal for a delay, leading to weeks of increasingly barbed confrontation between the two courts.

The attorney general, Scott Pruitt, filed a motion on Tuesday asking the State Supreme Court to remove the stay, saying it had no jurisdiction over executions and calling the separate case over lethal injection drugs a diversionary tactic by the condemned men.

"Oklahoma execution halted amid confusion over stay orders," is by Heide Brandes of Reuters, via GlobalPost.

Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin issued a one-week stay in the execution of a death row inmate due to die by lethal injection on Tuesday, in a move to clear up confusion over which state body has the final say over executions.

Fallin ordered the stay for convicted murderer Clayton Lockett a day after the state Supreme Court issued its own emergency stay for Lockett and a second inmate, Charles Warner, amid legal wrangling over drugs used in lethal injections.

The stay issued by Fallin moves back Lockett's execution to April 29, the same day Warner is scheduled to be executed.

"While I have great respect for the honorable men and women of the Supreme Court, this attempted stay of execution is outside the constitutional authority of that body," Fallin, a Republican, said in a statement.

"Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin stays execution," is by Graham Lee Brewer in the Oklahoman.

Faced with conflicting orders, Gov. Mary Fallin delayed Tuesday’s scheduled execution of a convicted murderer.

Her executive order is the latest development in what the attorney general’s office calls a judicial crisis.

At issue is who has the authority to say when an Oklahoma death row inmate can be executed.

The state Court of Criminal Appeals had ordered convicted murderer Clayton Derrell Lockett to be executed Tuesday for the 1999 murder of Stephanie Neiman.

However, a divided Oklahoma Supreme Court, for the first time in state history, blocked the execution in an order Monday.

The Tulsa World reports, "Gov. Mary Fallin issues 7-day stay for inmate's execution," by Ziva Branstetter.

Saying the state's highest court exceeded its authority in granting stays to two inmates, Gov. Mary Fallin issued a seven-day stay of execution Tuesday for one of the inmates.

Fallin's office said it now plans to execute both inmates — Clayton Lockett and Charles Warner — on the same day, April 29.

Both executions were ordered stayed indefinitely by the state Supreme Court on Monday while it considers appeals of a lower court's ruling that the state's execution-secrecy law is unconstitutional.

And:

Under the state's constitution, the Court of Criminal Appeals is the state's highest court for criminal cases. The Supreme Court generally has jurisdiction over civil matters, including whether state laws are constitutional.

The Supreme Court has never issued an execution stay in the past, but the court noted in its opinion Monday that it has "sole power" to determine which court has jurisdiction to issue a stay.

The World also posted Gov. Fallin's Executive Order in Adobe .pdf format.

"Oklahoma finally did the right thing in stopping two executions," is by Scott Martelle for the Los Angeles Times Opinion LA blog.

Sanity prevailed in Oklahoma on Monday.

Oklahoma County District Court Judge Patricia Parrish recently ruled that the state's secrecy-shrouded lethal-injection protocol denies condemned prisoners due process. The compelling point: How can prisoners weigh the constitutionality of their executions if they are barred from knowing with what drugs they will be killed? The state, naturally, is appealing that decision. But in a Kafka-esque twist of legal absurdities, one of the men, Clayton Lockett, came awfully close to execution anyway.

Through a bizarre legal convolution, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled after Parrish's decision that the authority to issue a stay of execution rested with the state Court of Criminal Appeals. But the appeals court said that no, in fact, it did not have that authority, even though the Supreme Court, which has the power to determine authority, said it did. Stalemate.

So while a judge had ruled that the condemned men raised legitimate issues over the constitutionality of the execution process, two other courts became bogged down bickering over which had the authority to keep the men from being executed before the legal issues were resolved.

Additional coverage includes:

"Court halts Oklahoma executions: why lethal injection is now so controversial," by Mark Guarino for the Christian Science Monitor.  It's also available from Yahoo News.

Al Jazeera America posts, "US executions on hold over lethal drug secret."

Earlier coverage of Oklahoma lethal injection issues begins at the link.

Oklahoma Supreme Court Stays Pending Executions

The Oklahoma Supreme Court ruling in Lockett & Warner v. Evans is available in Adobe .pdf format, via the Tulsa World.

The New York Times reports, "2 Executions in Oklahoma Are Stayed, Ending Tussle," by Erik Eckholm.

The Oklahoma Supreme Court stayed the imminent executions of two murderers late Monday, ending a Kafkaesque legal showdown in which courts argued over jurisdiction even though the prisoners had successfully challenged the legality of the state’s secrecy in obtaining lethal drugs.

On Monday, lawyers for Clayton Lockett, who was to be executed at 6 p.m. Tuesday, and Charles Warner, who was to be executed at 6 p.m. next Tuesday, filed the latest of several appeals to the Oklahoma Supreme Court, asking it to set aside its odd jurisdiction battle and grant a delay while there was still time.

“The irreparable harm that would result from their executions cannot be overstated,” the lawyers wrote. On Monday afternoon, as prison officials prepared to go ahead with Tuesday’s execution, the court took action despite previous statements that a separate criminal court of appeals should handle the case.

The Oklahoma attorney general, Scott Pruitt, who had called the appeals nothing more than ploys to delay execution, reacted angrily to the decision. “The Oklahoma Supreme Court has acted in an extraordinary and unprecedented manner, resulting in a constitutional crisis for our state,” he said in a statement Monday evening.

"Oklahoma court stays executions of 2 inmates," is AP coverage, via CBS News.

A sharply divided Oklahoma Supreme Court on Monday stayed the execution of two death row inmates who have challenged the secrecy surrounding the source of the state's lethal injection drugs.

In a 5-4 decision, the state's highest court issued the stays just one day before death row inmate Clayton Lockett was scheduled to be executed for the 1999 shooting death of 19-year-old Stephanie Nieman.

The second inmate, Charles Warner, was convicted in the 1997 death of his roommate's 11-month-old daughter. He was scheduled to die on April 29.

Oklahoma County District Judge Patricia Parrish last month struck down the state's execution law in a ruling that said the protocol that prevented the inmates from seeking information about the drugs used in lethal injections violated their rights under the state constitution.

The state changed its execution protocol on March 21 to allow five different potential drug combinations for execution by lethal injection. The state informed lawyers for the inmates on April 1 that the inmates would be executed using a combination of midazolam, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride never before used in the state. Executions have been conducted using the drug combination in Florida with lower doses.

The Tulsa World reports, "Oklahoma Supreme Court delays executions of two inmates suing state."

"This case presents a very narrow question: whether these appellants should have some access to an appellate tribunal for consideration of a stay of execution based on the consideration of grave first impression constitutional issues regarding the manner in which their lives will be taken," the justices wrote in their decision.

"More simply, the sole issue presented to this Court on this date is whether some court should hear their plea for a stay and ensure their constitutional right to access the courts."

Yesterday afternoon, prior to the stay being issued, Andrew Cohen posted, "Oklahoma Courts at War Over Lethal Injection Secrecy," at the Atlantic.

How chaotic has the fight over lethal injection secrecy become? The top two courts in Oklahoma today are in conflict with one another over whether two condemned men should be executed there this month before state officials have to disclose basic information about the drugs they intend to use to carry out the executions. It is conceivable that both men will be executed, even though the Oklahoma Supreme Court has declared that the legal issues the men have raised about injection secrecy ought to be fully adjudicated before their deaths.

Earlier coverage from Oklahoma begins at the link.

Beaumont Enterprise Editorial on LI Drug Secrecy

Today's Beaumont Enterprise publishes the editorial, "Texas must reveal source of execution drugs."

Attorney General Greg Abbott was right the first time: The state of Texas must reveal the source of the execution drugs it uses - just as it must identify virtually every company or individual it does business with. That's how open government works. You don't carve out exceptions, because if you do, pretty soon you don't have the transparency that taxpayers deserve when their tax dollars are involved.

Yet Abbott is wavering now because he's running for governor, and his legal opinion could slow or stop the politically popular death penalty - even though Abbott supports it, and that could cost him some votes.

The argument that manufacturers of lethal drugs could be subject to harassment or threats if their identity were revealed doesn't hold up. There's no indication that would happen.

Earlier coverage of Texas lethal injection issues begins at the link.

Politics and Lethal Injection Secrecy

"Abbott faces thorny choice," is the Associated Press report, via the Longview News-Journal.

The death penalty is like gun rights in Texas politics: Candidates don’t dare get in the way of either. But Republican Greg Abbott, the favorite to succeed Gov. Rick Perry, must soon make a decision as attorney general that could disrupt the nation’s busiest death chamber.

It’s an election-year dilemma for Abbott. But in Texas, it’s one that Democratic rival Wendy Davis can’t easily exploit, illustrating how little room there is to maneuver on this issue.

Abbott must soon decide whether to stick with his earlier opinions that Texas must disclose the source of the execution drugs it uses. That revelation that could prompt attention-shy suppliers to halt their drug deliveries and stop Texas’ executions.

If Abbott holds firm, he’ll please death penalty opponents who prison officials say want to target the companies with protests and threats. Reversing course would go against his vows for transparency in government.

“There’s no political upside. It puts him in a little bit of a tough position,” said Republican consultant Matt Mackowiak said.

Earlier coverage of Texas lethal injection issues, at the links.

An Update From Oklahoma

"Oklahoma Secures Non-Compounded Execution Drugs," is the report compiled by Associated Press & KGOU-FM.  The document referenced is available at the link.

Lawyers for the state of Oklahoma said in a letter to attorneys for two death row inmates that no compounded drugs would be used in their executions.

In a letter from Assistant Attorney General John Hadden on Friday the state informed lawyers for Clayton Lockett and Charles Warner that the state had secured non-compounded vercuronium bromide, the second of the three drugs it intends to use in the inmates' executions.

"The state previously had acquired manufactured versions of the two other drugs used in the lethal injection process (midazolam and potassium chloride)," AG Spokesman Aaron Cooper said in an email. "This means all three drugs to be used in the executions of Locket and Warner will be from manufactured sources. There will be no compounded drugs used in their executions."

The Guardian reports, "Oklahoma says it has obtained secret supply of execution drugs," by Katie Fretland in Tulsa.

Oklahoma officials on Friday said the state had obtained manufactured pharmaceuticals from a secret supplier for use in the executions of two men later this month, avoiding concerns over the use of compounded drugs but leaving unanswered questions about how it obtained them.

In a letter to defence lawyers, an assistant attorney general, John Hadden, said the state “has recently acquired a manufactured source of vecuronium bromide. That means there will be no compounded drugs used in the executions of your clients. This will resolve the concerns you and your clients have expressed regarding compounded drugs.”

Earlier coverage from Oklahoma begins at the link.

Secret Drugs, Agonizing Deaths

That's the title of an OpEd published in today's New York Times, written by Megan McCracken and Jennifer Moreno.  They are attorneys with the Death Penalty Clinic at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law.  Here's the beginning:

FACING a critical shortage of lethal injection drugs, prison officials in a number of states have recently engaged in an unseemly scramble to obtain new execution drugs, often from unreliable and even illegal sources. Not only does this trend raise serious questions about the constitutionality of executions, it also undermines the foundations of our democratic process. In the name of security, states are now withholding vital information about their death penalty procedures — from death row prisoners’ lawyers and from judges, whose stamp of approval they need to impose the ultimate sanction, as well as from the public, in whose name the sentence is carried out.

Earlier coverage of lethal injection secrecy issues begins at the link.  Related posts are in the lethal injection category index.

Los Angeles Times on LI Drug Secrecy

Today's Los Angeles Times publishes the editorial, "The lethal injection debate: How much should death row inmates know?"

This page opposes the death penalty as barbaric and immoral, the irreversible end result of an often flawed judicial process. While most of the industrialized world has done away with the practice, 32 states and the U.S. government still pursue it.

Many states, though, are having trouble procuring drugs because manufacturers are increasingly refusing to sell to executioners. Some states have turned to compounding pharmacies, which ordinarily customize drugs for patients for whom manufacturers' drugs don't work. A subset of those states have adopted laws barring public disclosure of the compounding pharmacies to preclude protests.

This is wrong, as we've said before in the Oklahoma case. If the government insists on executing its citizens, it must do so in as transparent a way as possible, so that death row inmates can know whether their punishment violates the 8th Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

And that goes for California too.

Earlier coverage of lethal injection drug secrecy begins at the link.

Lethal Injection Roundup

"In Most States, Execution Drugs Are Surrounded By Secrecy," is an extensive review by the Associated Press writers Jim Salter and Andrew Welsh-Huggins, via Huffington Post.  It's also available from the Southeast Missourian.  Here's the beginning:

Dating to the days when the guillotine operator or the hangman wore a mask, a certain amount of anonymity has always surrounded executions. But that secrecy is increasingly coming under fire, with judges, death penalty opponents and lawyers questioning why so little can be known about a state's most solemn responsibility.

An Associated Press survey of the 32 death penalty states found that the vast majority refuse to disclose the source of their execution drugs. The states cloaked in secrecy include some with the most active death chambers — among them Texas, Florida, Oklahoma and Missouri.

Most states have recently begun relying on loosely regulated "compounding pharmacies" for execution drugs but refuse to name them, citing concerns about backlash that could endanger the supplier's safety. But many states refuse to provide even more basic information — how much of the drug is on hand, the expiration date, how it is tested. Those who question the secrecy wonder how an inmate's constitutional right against cruel and unusual punishment can be guaranteed if nothing is known about the drug being used to kill him.

"As far as we know, it could be coming from a veterinary source, it could be coming from some dark corner of the Internet," said Cheryl Pilate, a Kansas City, Mo., attorney who handles death row appeals. "We simply don't know."

"Glance: Execution drug secrecy in 5 states," is an AP sidebar, via the Washington Post.

An Associated Press survey of the nation’s 32 death penalty states found that the vast majority refuse to disclose the source of their execution drugs. Some states with laws shielding information about execution drugs and policies and the challenges to those laws:

"Judge: Lawsuit on Missouri executions may continue." is also by AP's Jim Salter, via the Southeast Missourian.

A federal judge is allowing a lawsuit to move forward that challenges Missouri's refusal to provide the name of the pharmacy where it acquired the drug for executions.

U.S. District Judge Beth Phillips on Thursday denied a motion from the Missouri Department of Corrections to dismiss a lawsuit filed in October by the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri. The ACLU lawsuit questions a state statute that prohibits identifying members of the execution team.

At issue is Missouri's refusal to provide the name of the compounding pharmacy that makes pentobarbital for executions. The state considers the pharmacy to be part of the execution team and won't say who makes the drug.

"Since we filed this lawsuit, five people have been killed by the state of Missouri in a procedure that has been shrouded in secrecy," Jeffrey A. Mittman, the ACLU-Missouri's executive director, said in a statement. "Decisions by the Department of Corrections about how to execute must be transparent and open to debate. This secrecy is an effort to avoid public scrutiny."

"Lawyers for 2 Oklahoma death row inmates scheduled to die this month to seek execution stays," is by Bailey Elise McBride of AP, via the Greenfield Reporter.

Lawyers for two Oklahoma death-row inmates say they believe they will be successful in their challenge to the state's execution law, despite adverse U.S. Supreme Court rulings for condemned men from Missouri and Texas.

Clayton Lockett and Charles Warner sued the state of Oklahoma in February over what they called a "veil of secrecy" surrounding execution protocols and the origins of the drugs used in lethal injections. Although the state has released the method of execution it intends to use, the lawyers want to know where the drugs are coming from and who will be testing them to ensure efficacy and purity.

Recent cases in Missouri and Texas also seeking information on drug suppliers were not taken up by the U.S. Supreme Court, though lawyers for Lockett and Warner aren't concerned because they're not pursuing claims in federal court.

"We're in a unique situation here because we only have state law claims," said Seth Day, one of the inmates' lawyers.

Lethal injection drug secrecy was a topic on MSNBC's Saturday Melissa Harris-Perry program.  There is video at the link.

Earlier coverage from Missouri and Oklahoma, at the links.  Related posts are in the lethal injection category index.

Threats to Compounding Pharmacies?

"Evidence of threats cited by Texas for keeping supplier of execution drugs a secret is scant," by Nomaan Merchant and Bailey Elise McBride is via U.S. News & World Report.  Here's the beginning of this extensive report:

Texas prison officials have offered scant evidence to support their claim that pharmacies that supply the state with execution drugs would be in danger of violence if their identities were made public.

If those officials are investigating the threats, including a suggestion a truck bomb could blow up a such a pharmacy, as a serious risk to the safety of the pharmacies or their employees, they refuse to acknowledge doing so.

The Associated Press could find no evidence that any such investigations are underway in Texas, and police in the community where one such pharmacy is located said they are not concerned. In neighboring Oklahoma, the attorney general said Thursday he was investigating such a threat, but several other law enforcement agencies told the AP his office has never mentioned it.

Instead, anti-death penalty advocates believe Texas and other states are trumping up the possibility of violence to avoid having to disclose their name of suppliers, ensuring they can keep buying the drugs they need to put condemned inmates to death.

Related posts are in the lethal injection category index.

Supreme Court to Make Texas LI Decision

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.

Commentary of Texas LI Drug Secrecy

Before today's federal district court action, Texas newspapers were speaking out on the TDCJ's penchant for secrecy.

Today's Austin American-Statesman published the editorial, "Execution drug transparency needed."

The writing of another chapter in Texas’ troubled history with the death penalty is underway, and is being shaped by questions about the state’s supply of lethal injection drugs and the right of the public to know what is being used in its name.

Last week, State District Court Judge Suzanne Covington in Austin delivered a limited victory for transparency and the rights of defendants when she ordered the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to tell the attorneys of two death row inmates the source of the new supply of pentobarbital it plans to use in upcoming lethal injections. The state had argued secrecy was needed to protect the safety of the maker of the pentobarbital; Covington did not order the state to publicly disclose the supplier’s name.

The next morning a three-judge panel of the 3rd Texas Court of Appeals rightly upheld Covington’s ruling. Friday afternoon, however, the Texas Supreme Court stopped Covington’s order from taking effect until justices could study the issue further.

And:

Given the need to honor constitutional protections and transparency, we see no compelling reason why the state shouldn’t reveal information about its supply of pentobarbital.

"Give source of execution drug," is the editorial in today's Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Texas has been adamant in carrying out death sentences and has executed 512 people since 1982. The state’s power in these cases is extreme.

It is incumbent on a society bent on putting offenders to death to allow them wide latitude in fighting for their lives in well-ordered courts.

They may have been convicted of horrendous crimes, but the state must not lower itself to their level by inflicting cruel pain on them with improperly prepared execution drugs.

American-Statesman Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Ken Herman writes, "Drugs, death and the OU game."

Thanks to good work by Katie Fretland of the Colorado Independent, a nonprofit news operation, we know that even matters of life and death are not immune from lawyerly humor.

Fretland recently wrote about states’ ongoing problems in procuring execution drugs. She got 172 pages of emails sparked by Texas Assistant Attorney General Laura Grant Turbin’s January 2011 request for advice from assistant AGs around the nation on using different drugs for executions.

“Records show Oklahoma officials wanted perks for helping Texas in search for scarce lethal injections,” said the headline.

We’re not talking about real perks, really wanted. We’re talking about email humor related to executions. “Disturbing flippancy,” Fretland called it.

Gurney humor, I’d call it.

Earlier coverage of Texas lethal injection issues begins with the preceding post.

Federal District Judge Orders TX LI Drug Disclosure, Stays Executions

The Federal District Court Order is available at the link.

Attorneys Maurie Levin and Jonathan Ross, representing the Texas plaintiffs, have issued the following statement:

“The District Court's Order honors and reflects the crucial importance of transparency in the execution process.  We hope that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice will finally decide to comply with the law, and cease attempting to shroud in secrecy one aspect of their job that, above all others, should be conducted in the light of day.  It is TDCJ's attempt to manipulate the system and evade accountability and the rule of law that compelled this last minute litigation, and the need for a stay of execution to permit Plaintiffs and the courts to review the constitutionality of the means and methods by which Texas intends to carry out their execution."

The most recently updated AP report is, "Judge halts Texas executions over drug secrecy," filed by Michael Graczyk, via the Houston Chronicle.

A federal judge on Wednesday halted two executions in Texas, declaring that the state's prison system must disclose to defense attorneys more information about the supplier of a new batch of lethal-injection drugs.

U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore issued a temporary injunction halting the executions of Tommy Lynn Sells, a convicted serial killer who was set to die Thursday, and Ramiro Hernandez-Llanas, another inmate scheduled to die next week.

Texas officials have insisted the identity of the drug supplier must be kept secret to protect the company from threats of violence and that the stock of the sedative pentobarbital falls within the acceptable ranges of potency.

"Federal judge halts executions over drug details," is by Mike Ward for the Chronicle.

A Houston federal judge on Wednesday blocked the executions of two condemned killers who argued that the state's failure to disclose details about the drugs that will be used to kill them violated their constitutional rights.

In a five-page order, U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore also ordered prison officials to disclose the names of suppliers of the drug used in executions, the powerful sedative pentobarbital, among other details concerning the acquisition and testing of the drugs.

"Judge blocks 2 executions in drug-source fight," is by Chuck Lindell for the Austin American-Statesman.

“Texas law does not specify what substance will be used in carrying out lethal injections, but federal law requires that any protocol or method used cannot violate the constitutional prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment,” Gilmore wrote in a five-page order.

“Until plaintiffs have full disclosure of the product with which Texas will cause their death, they cannot fully develop a challenge to its process,” she wrote.

Gilmore chided Texas lawyers for providing her with the “last-minute disclosure” of a redacted lab report said to verify the potency of the pentobarbital. The redactions, however, excluded important information, Gilmore wrote, including the source of the drug, what tests were performed, who did the testing and “numerous other details essential to assessing the quality and efficacy of the drug.”

Gilmore also ordered state officials to disclose — under seal, and therefore not available for public inspection — information about the pentobarbital, including its supplier, and an unredacted report of the lab tests on the drug.

The Texas Tribune posts, "Federal Judge Orders Execution Drug Disclosure," by Terri Langford.

The Attorney General’s office notified the inmates' attorneys and the court that the state's attorneys will appeal Gilmore’s decision.

"Texas executions stayed by federal judge over state's lethal drug source," by Tom Dart for the Guardian.

In a court filing, Texas officials argued that prior executions using pentobarbital have taken place apparently without the inmates enduring obvious pain and cited a report which says that their latest supply has been "tested by an independent laboratory and found to be 108% potent and free from contaminants".

Gilmore noted in her ruling that the state withheld this information until the last minute.

"Even though the report is dated March 20, 2014, Defendants have delayed the production of the report until just two days before the first scheduled execution," she wrote. "That copy, however, has been redacted to exclude important information, presumably including the source of the drugs, who performed the testing, and where it was performed."

"Judge Halts Texas Execution Over Lethal Injection Secrecy," by Tracy Connor at NBC News.

The battle over pharmacy confidentiality has been playing out in states across the country since drug manufacturers stopped selling their wares for executions, causing a nationwide shortage.

Judges in some states have allowed executions to go forward, while others have raised concerns.

 Earlier coverage of Texas lethal injection issues begins at the link.  More on the subject in the next post.

Texas Supreme Court Stay LI Info Order

"Texas Supreme Court halts release of drug supplier," is by Micahel Graczyk of AP, via the Austin American-Statesman.

Texas' new supplier of execution drugs will remain a secret — at least for now — after the state Supreme Court on Friday temporarily blocked a ruling that the prison agency must disclose the information to attorneys for two death row inmates.

Earlier Friday, an appeals court upheld a district judge's ruling from a day earlier that prison officials should disclose the source of a new batch of pentobarbital to the attorneys of the two inmates scheduled to be executed with the drug next month.

Although the high court's order doesn't address the merits of the case, it allows prison officials to withhold the supplier's name while the justices consider the issue.

Earlier coverage of the Texas lethal injection litigation begins at the link.

5th Circuit Will Not Overturn Louisiana Federal District Court Order

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit's ruling, In Re: LeBlanc, is available in Adobe .pdf format.

"Louisiana must tell death row inmate the origin of drugs for his execution, appeals court says," is the AP report  filed by Kevin McGill, via the New Orleans Times-Picayune.  It's also available from the Shreveport Times.

A federal appeals court Thursday refused to block a lower court’s order requiring Louisiana to provide a condemned child killer, formerly of Mansfield, with information about the seller and maker of drugs the state uses in executions.

Corrections Secretary Jimmy LeBlanc and Louisiana State Penitentiary Warden Burl Cain have argued that if they identify how they’re getting the drugs, they could have trouble buying more because companies don’t want to be known as helping in an execution.

However, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the argument, noting that U.S. District Judge James Brady’s order, as amended earlier this month, only requires that the information be given to death row prisoner Christopher Sepulvado, his defense lawyers, defense team experts and court personnel.

And:

In January, Louisiana announced a new execution protocol that would use a two-drug combination, following the method carried out for the first time in Ohio. It includes the sedative midazolam and the painkiller hydromorphone.

The change came only days before Louisiana planned to execute Sepulvado. After objections from his lawyer, Sepulvado’s lethal injection was delayed.

Brady will hold a trial June 16 about the constitutionality of the new execution protocol.

Earlier coverage from Louisiana begins at the link.  You can also jump to Louisiana lethal injection news.

Additional Coverage of the Texas LI Ruling

"Judge orders Texas to release information on execution drugs," is by Mike Ward for the Houston Chronicle.

Thursday's courtroom drama was the latest development in an increasing fight by states nationwide to keep details from the public about execution drugs, including suppliers' names, amounts on hand, dosages and even the amount of taxpayer money being spent on them.

Several states have passed laws keeping secret the information that just a few years ago was routinely made public.

One reason is an aggressive campaign by death penalty opponents to cut off the drug supplies, first by successfully lobbying U.S. pharmaceutical firms to stop making the drugs most commonly used or to move the manufacturing overseas. In the past two years, European countries that oppose the death penalty have blocked shipments of drugs to be used in U.S. death chambers.

Texas, which has the busiest death chamber in the United States, has been at the forefront of the continuing jockeying for suppliers. Like several other states, it was forced to switch from a three-drug combination to a single overdose of pentobarbital to carry out executions.

The updated AP report is, "Texas Must Tell Attorneys Execution Drug Supplier," by Michael Graczyk and Paul J. Weber, via ABC News.

A judge ordered Texas prison officials Thursday to disclose the supplier of a new batch of lethal injection drugs to attorneys for two inmates set to be executed next month, but she stopped short of revealing the identity of the manufacturer to the public.

The ruling by state District Judge Suzanne Covington came after the Texas Department of Criminal Justice argued that threats against execution suppliers are escalating. The agency recently obtained a threat assessment from law enforcement officers, and pictures on the Internet suggest physical harm against pharmacists making the drugs, Assistant Attorney General Nicole Bunker-Henderson said.

State prison officials have lost previous attempts to keep information about its execution drug supplier confidential.

"TDCJ Will Appeal Judge's Ruling on Execution Drugs," by Aamena Ahmed for the Texas Tribune.

Currently, similar lawsuits are pending in other death penalty states where prison officials are seeking to keep the source of execution drugs confidential.

Because Texas operates the nation's busiest execution chamber in Huntsville, with 511 executions since 1983, including three so far this year, the case is being watched closely nationwide.

The Guardian posts, "Texas prison officials ordered to reveal source of lethal injection drugs," by Tom Dart in Houston.

The ruling in a district court in Austin on Thursday came after attorneys for the men filed a lawsuit against the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) arguing that knowing the provenance of the drugs and their purity was vital to determining whether the inmates might be subjected to unconstitutional levels of pain during their executions.

The outcome follows a decision on Wednesday in Oklahoma in which a judge found that a state law keeping the source of lethal injection drugs a secret to be unconstitutional and in violation of inmates' right to due process.

“The ruling signals, as other courts have done recently, that it is unacceptable to keep prisoners or the public in the dark regarding how executions are carried out – including the source of the drugs,” Maurie Levin, a lawyer for the Texas pair, Tommy Sells and Ramiro Hernandez, said in a statement.

The judge issued a protective order meaning that Texas officials must provide details to the inmates’ lawyers but the information will not be made available to the public, at least for the time being.

Additional coverage includes:

"Texas judge orders prisons to name lethal injection drug supplier," by Jon Herskovitz for Reuters.

"Judge Orders Texas to Reveal Lethal Injection Connection," by Tracy Connor at NBC News.

"Texas Must Come Clean on Death Drugs," by David Lee for Courthouse News Service.

"Judges: Texas and Oklahoma Must Lift Veil of Secrecy on Execution Drug Suppliers," by Steven Hsieh at the Nation.

Earlier coverage of the Texas lethal injection ruling begins at the link.

Breaking News in Texas LI Challenge

"Texas must tell attorneys execution drug supplier," is the breaking news AP report by Michael Graczyk and Paul J. Weber, via the Austin American-Statesman.  It's also available from the Houston Chronicle.

A state judge ordered the Texas prison agency Thursday to disclose its supplier of a new batch of execution drugs to attorneys for two inmates set to be put to death.

The ruling Thursday in Austin came one day after attorneys for two death row inmates filed a lawsuit against the Texas Department of Criminal Justice seeking the information. It was not immediately clear if the agency would comply or appeal the ruling.

The prison agency lost its previous supplier last year after the compound pharmacy's name was made public and it received threats. Prison officials contend the identity of the new drug source should be withheld to protect the new supplier.

The lawsuit against the state agency contends the prisoners cannot evaluate the risk that could result in them being subjected to unconstitutionally cruel pain.

And:

The state attorney general's office previously has said the information should be public and is waiting for arguments from the agency on why the policy should be changed.

Maurie Levin, the attorney for the two men, has issued a "Statement from Attorney for Petitioners in Response to Today’s Ruling by Austin District Court that TDCJ Must Disclose to Attorneys the Source of Its Execution Drugs."  Here's the full text:

“Today’s ruling ensures that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice will do what the Texas Attorney General has repeatedly made clear that they must do – disclose the source of execution drugs, specifically compounded pentobarbital, to be used in upcoming executions.  The ruling signals - as other courts have done recently - that it is unacceptable to keep prisoners or the public in the dark regarding how executions are carried out - including the source of the drugs.

‘The information will be disclosed under protective order, so that those facing imminent execution can have the information necessary to evaluate whether Texas' execution process will violate their right to be free of cruel and unusual punishment.  While we believe TDCJ is ultimately accountable to the people of Texas, and that transparency in this process is essential, the assessment of the broader public's right to know will be made at a later date.

‘Secrecy surrounding the lethal injection process is, as today’s ruling shows, unacceptable. The condemned must have clear information about the drugs to be used, so that the courts can make an accurate assessment of the viability and constitutionality of any impending execution. In particular, pentobarbital for lethal injections now comes from compounding pharmacies, which are coming under increased scrutiny precisely because they are not adequately regulated. Indeed, executions carried out with compounded drugs in other states have led in some instances to prolonged and seemingly torturous executions.”

Earlier coverage of the Texas lethal injection challenge begins at the link.

Additional Coverage of the Oklahoma LI Ruling

"Oklahoma Told It Can’t Shield Suppliers of Execution Drugs," is by Erik Eckholm for the New York Times.

An Oklahoma judge ruled on Wednesday that the state could not keep secret the identities of the suppliers of lethal-injection drugs, raising doubts about the executions of two prisoners next month and fueling a growing legal battle in several states over secrecy in methods of execution.

The state argued that a supplier-secrecy law, passed in 2011, was necessary because of a shortage of execution drugs and threats against companies that supply them. But lawyers for the two prisoners, Clayton Lockett and Charles Warner, countered that without knowing the source of the drugs, courts could not determine whether the execution protocol satisfied the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment, and prisoners were denied the right to know, and potentially question, how they would be put to death.

Judge Patricia Parrish, of the Oklahoma County District Court, declared the secrecy statute to be an unconstitutional violation of due process in an oral decision from the bench.

The updated AP report is, "Oklahoma Judge Strikes Execution Law Over Privacy," by Bailey Elise McBride, via ABC News.

"Judge Parrish's decision is a major outcome that should have a reverberating impact on other states that are facing similar kinds of transparency issues," said Deborah W. Denno, a professor of law at Fordham University.

And:

Jen Moreno, a staff attorney at U.C. Berkeley School of Law's Death Penalty Clinic, said Parrish's decision "shows there is a growing concern by courts that states are keeping information secret."

"Ultimately, I think her decision is obviously a good step toward bringing transparency and accountability to what's happening in Oklahoma," she said. "I think turning to the secrecy and turning to untested or risky compounded drugs and risky procedures is a trend we've seen in a lot of states and a push to keep that information secret."

The supply of drugs used in lethal injections has dried up in recent years as European manufacturers object to their use in executions and U.S. companies fear protests or boycotts.

"Oklahoma law allowing execution drug secrecy ruled unconstitutional," by Katie Fretland, reporting in Oklahoma City for the Guardian.

An Oklahoma judge ruled Wednesday that a state law that makes the source of execution drugs a secret is unconstitutional.

Oklahoma county district court judge Patricia Parrish said the law violates death row inmates' right to access to the courts in order to argue against their own executions. The statute denies even the judge information about execution drugs, she said.

"I do not think this is even a close call," Parrish said.

Oklahoma assistant attorney general John Hadden said the state will appeal Parrish's decision to the Oklahoma supreme court.

And:

The 2011 law the judge found to be unconstitutional states: “The identity of all persons who participate in or administer the execution process and persons who supply the drugs, medical supplies or medical equipment for the execution shall be confidential and shall not be subject to discovery in any civil or criminal proceedings."

"Oklahoma judge finds aspect of state execution law unconstitutional," by Graham Lee Brewer for teh Oklahoman.

Moments after the ruling, lawyers for the two inmates acknowledged an appeal to the state Supreme Court by the state was likely but said they were happy with Parrish’s decision.

“This case was all about transparency, having access to information,” said Susanna Gattoni, one of their attorneys. “And, so we’re very, very pleased that the district court ruled that people do have the right to know what the government’s doing. That’s essentially what she said today. They have to give us the information, and now they will.”

It is unclear who exactly the state must reveal its lethal drug source to or what time frame it has to do so.

Lockett and Warner’s executions are scheduled for April 22 and 29, respectively, said state Corrections Department spokesman Jerry Massie. Massie declined to comment further on any aspect of the executions, including whether or not the state has the drugs necessary to carry them out.

“We will confer with the attorney general’s office once we have received the written order to determine our legal course of action,” Massie said.

"Judge strikes down Oklahoma execution law," by Michael Muskal for the Los Angeles Times.

“The secrecy statute is unconstitutional because it denies both the inmate and the court access to the information,” Chelsea Adkins, bailiff for Parrish, told the Los Angeles Times, describing the jurist’s ruling on the case. The ruling will likely be appealed.

Even though the ruling was made by a state judge, it could have an effect beyond Oklahoma’s borders, Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, a Washington-based nonprofit group that tracks death penalty issues, told The Times.

“A ruling like this can set a precedent on issues like this.”

Parrish issued her ruling in response to a request from inmates Clayton Lockett and Charles Warner, who are scheduled to be executed on April 22 and April 29, respectively. Both have requests to stay their executions pending in other courts.

Additional coverage includes:

"Oklahoma Judge Says Execution Drug Secrecy Is Unconstitutional," by Tracy Connor for NBC News.

"Okla. judge rules execution law unconstitutional," by Doug Stanglin at USA TODAY.

"Oklahoma Judge Says State Can’t Keep Execution Drugs Secret," by Josh Sanburn for Time.

ABA Journal posts, "Judge strikes Oklahoma lethal injection law because source of drugs is secret," by Martha Neil.

"Judge Blocks Oklahoma From Using Secret, Unverified Drug In Executions," by Nicole Flatow at Think Progress.

Earlier coverage of the Oklahoma court ruling begins at the link.

Arizona Switches Drugs Used for Executions

That's the title of Michael Kiefer's report in today's Arizona Republic.  It's subtitled, "2-drug ‘cocktail’ caused convulsing, gagging only time it was used."

The Arizona Attorney General's Office announced this morning that it will change the drugs used to execute persons condemned to death.

The new drugs, a cocktail of a Valium-like drug called Midazolam and a morphine derivative called Hydromorphone, will replace the single barbiturate, pentobarbital, which has become unavailable because its manufacturer does not want it to be used to kill people.

Consequently, commercially manufactured pentobarbital supplies have dried up for corrections departments nationwide, forcing them to change drugs or to have them custom made by "compounding pharmacies."

There are four Arizona death row prisoners whose appeals have run out and who are eligible for execution. But the Attorney General's Office has not asked the state Supreme Court to set execution dates for those prisoners because there were no drugs available to carry out the executions.

The Midazolam-Hydromorphone combination was used in January to perform an execution in Ohio, but not without problems. According to press accounts of that execution, the condemned man gasped for air and took more than 20 minutes to die. Arizona inmates executed with pentobarbital or an earlier drug, thiopental, which also is unavailable, usually die in about ten minutes.

The Attorney General's press release says Arizona will use a stronger concentration.

"Arizona changes drugs to be used in executions as previous drug becomes unavailable," is the AP coverage, via the Greenfield Reporter.

Arizona is changing from a single drug for executions to a two-drug combination already used in Ohio because it is no longer able to obtain the previous drug.

And, this excerpt quotes Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne:

The previous 11 executions conducted by the state since 2011 used pentobarbital. But its sole manufacturer has refused to sell it to states for use in executions. Oklahoma and Texas turned to compounding pharmacies to obtain the drug but Horne said in a statement that those pharmacies faced threats.

Earlier coverage from Arizona begins at the link.  You can also jump to news of Arizona lethal injection issues.

Also available, coverage of Ohio's botched execution of Dennis McGuire, using midazolam and hydromorphone.  Related posts are in the lethal injection category index.

Texas Lawsuit Seeks New LI Drug Info

Today's Houston Chronicle reports, "2 condemned killers sue for execution-drug details," by Mike Ward.  The former Austin American-Statesman reporter has covered lethal injection issues for years.  He recently moved to the Hearst Newspapers Capitol Bureau.

Two condemned killers, including a onetime drifter who once claimed he killed 70 people in a cross-country crime spree spanning 19 years, sued state officials on Wednesday to force them to disclose details about the execution drugs that will be used to end their lives.

In a lawsuit filed in Travis County state court, Tommy Lynn Sells, 49, and Ramiro Hernandez Llanes, 44, alleged that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice is illegally refusing to provide their attorneys with information about the powerful barbiturate pento­barbital that will be used to execute them, despite earlier court orders and attorney general opinions requiring that information be made public.

The suit comes just days after Texas prison officials announced that they had obtained an additional supply of the state's execution drug, but would not disclose anything about the suppliers, manufacturers and other details about the drugs as they have in the past.

The case comes at a time when similar suits are pending in other states, as prison officials across the country are moving to keep the source of their execution drugs confidential. In recent years, several manufacturers have stopped making the drugs or prohibited their use in executions after their names were disclosed, and suppliers have quit shipping to Texas and other states for the same reason.

"Lawsuit seeks to ID source of Texas execution drug," is Michael Graczyk's AP report, via the Austin American-Statesman.

Attorneys for two Texas inmates facing execution next month with a new batch of pentobarbital obtained by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice filed a lawsuit Wednesday demanding the prison agency disclose the identity of the new supplier.

The petition filed in state court in Austin also sought an emergency order requiring state authorities to identify when the drug was obtained and any results of tests on its potency and purity.

The attorneys represent convicted killers Tommy Lynn Sells, set to die April 3, and Ramiro Hernandez, scheduled for April 9.

The current supply of pentobarbital used for lethal injections in Texas expires April 1. Prison officials said last week they have a new supply but cited security reasons for declining to name the provider.

The state attorney general’s office previously has said the information should be public and is waiting for arguments from the agency on why the policy should be changed.

Earlier coverage of Texas lethal injection issues begins at the link.

No Pentobarbital at Alabama Department of Corrections

"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.

Oklahoma Judge Tosses State Execution Law - Updated

That's the title of an Associated Press breaking news report filed by Bailey Elise McBride, via the Oklahoman.  It's also available from the Tulsa World.

An Oklahoma judge ruled the state's execution law unconstitutional Wednesday because its privacy provision is so strict that it that prevents inmates from finding out the source of drugs used in executions, even through the courts.

After an Ohio inmate gasped while dying and an Oklahoma prisoner complained that he felt his body burning, inmates Clayton Lockett and Charles Warner had wanted to know who was making the drugs that would kill them next month and whether the material was pure.

However, under Oklahoma law, no one is allowed to disclose the source of those drugs — even if an inmate sues and wants the information as part of the discovery process. Oklahoma County District Judge Patricia Parrish said that prevents the inmates from exercising their rights under the Constitution.

"I think that the secrecy statute is a violation of due process because access to the courts has been denied," Parrish ruled.

Attorneys for Charles Warner and Clayton Lockett in Response to State District Court Ruling Finding Oklahoma's Secrecy Statute Unconstitutional have issued the following statement:

“Today, Judge Patricia Parrish in Oklahoma City ruled that Oklahoma's secrecy statute is unconstitutional because it denies prisoners facing execution access to the courts. This decision is an important step towards greater transparency and accountability in Oklahoma's execution system.

‘We hope that no execution will go forward until the state reveals full information about the source of its execution drugs, particularly in light of the new, controversial protocol it unveiled last week, which lists five different methods, four of which appear to require the use of non-FDA approved compounded medicines and two of which are highly experimental.

‘Particularly in light of that new protocol, we are considering all available legal remedies, including an appeal to the Oklahoma Supreme Court of the claims, denied in today's ruling, that the protocol need not comply with the public notice and hearing requirements of the Administrative Procedures Act, and that the legislature delegated too much discretion to the Department of Corrections to determine execution procedures.”

The statement was made by Madeline Cohen, Assistant Federal Public Defender.

Reuters posts, "Oklahoma's lethal injection protocol unconstitutional: judge," by Heide Brandes.

County district court judge Patricia Parrish ruled that the state violated due process protections in the U.S. Constitution by not providing the name of the drug supplier, the combination of chemicals and the dosages used in implementing the death penalty.

The judgment comes as more states have trouble obtaining the lethal chemicals used in executions because of restrictions placed on their sale by drugmakers. It also strengthens the arguments made by lawyers that untested chemicals may could cause undo suffering.

The Oklahoma case was brought by lawyers for two inmates, Clayton Lockett and Charles Warner, who were due to be executed this month but their sentences were pushed back until April because the state said it could not obtain the drugs it has used for years in its lethal cocktail.

Earlier coverage of Oklahoma lethal injection issues begins at the link.

Missouri Prepares to Execute

"Man facing execution Wednesday remains upbeat, lawyer says," is AP report by Jim Salter, via the Springfield News-Leader.

Missouri death row inmate Jeffrey Ferguson is holding out hope that his life will be spared, but he is ready to accept his fate either way, his attorney said Monday.

Ferguson, 59, is scheduled to die by injection at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday for raping and killing a 17-year-old girl in 1989. Prosecutors say Ferguson abducted Kelli Hall from the St. Charles service station where she worked, sexually assaulted her and stabbed her to death. Her body was found 13 days after her abduction in Maryland Heights, another St. Louis suburb.

Attorney Jennifer Herndon has asked the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to intervene, citing concerns that Missouri's execution drug, purchased from an unnamed compounding pharmacy, could cause pain and suffering for Ferguson. Another appeal, to the U.S. Supreme Court, seeks a delay in the execution until the courts can determine other issues, including whether Ferguson's conviction was based in part on false testimony from an FBI agent.

Gov. Jay Nixon was also weighing a clemency request.

And:

Rita Linhardt, chairwoman of the board of Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, said Ferguson has been a model prisoner since turning his life around behind bars and accepting Christianity. Ferguson helped start a hospice program for other inmates, facilitated a program in which victims talked to inmates about the harms of their crimes, and has counseled other inmates.

"What We Know (And Don't Know) About Missouri's Upcoming Execution," is by Chris McDaniel for St. Louis Public Radio.

On Wednesday, Missouri is scheduled to carry out another execution. Although it will be the state's fifth execution in as many months, there are still numerous unknowns. Here's what we know and don't know about the upcoming execution.

We know the state is getting its execution drug from a compounding pharmacy. Since virtually no drug manufacturer wants its product to be used in an execution, the state isn't going to a drug manufacturer. Instead, it uses what's called a compounding pharmacy to mix the drug. Compounding pharmacies are not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration and have a high failure rate. In inspections over the last decade, the Missouri Board of Pharmacy found that about one out of every five drugs failed to meet standards. That information is important because the Eighth Amendment forbids cruel and unusual punishment.

Also from Missouri, AP reports, "Saint Louis University law school to study Missouri death penalty cases."  It's via the Tribune.

A new research center at Saint Louis University's law school will analyze administration of the death penalty in Missouri over the past 25 years.

Law students, professors and researchers with the Missouri Capital-Sentencing Research Program will review the 72 executions carried out by the state since 1989 as well as the death sentences handed down to 42 additional inmates.

Earlier coverage from Missouri begins at the link.

New Republic Conversation with Deborah Denno

"The Evolution of the Death Penalty in One Map," is by Lane Florsheim at the New Republic.  There is an infographic at the link.  Here's an excerpt from the beginning of the conversation:

Lane Florsheim: Your paper “Lethal Injection Secrecy Post-Baze” catalogs the numerous issues with lethal injection as an execution method. Are the drawbacks of lethal injection at odds with the public’s perception of the method?

Dr. Deborah Denno: I think the public is becoming more educated about the drawbacks of the method, because there’s been so much media coverage about these lethal injection challenges. That said, I still think there’s quite a bit of public ignorance about all the problems associated with lethal injection. Most people are used to seeing these pictures of an inmate serenely on a gurney, looking like the inmate’s going to sleep. I think that for the most part that might be the larger public perception. And we all know, that person is paralyzed, at least the people who are sort of ensconced in this issue. It’s hard to know, but I think that might still be the overwhelming public perception.

LF: Why do states that have seemingly prioritized finding a “humane” execution method for more than a century take measures to conceal problems with lethal injection like non-traditional drug sources and shifting protocols?

DD: Because what they’re doing actually conflicts very much with the effort to find a humane method of execution. I mean, it’s a catch 22.

Related posts are in the lethal injection category index.