The StandDown Texas Project

Continuing Coverage From Alabama

"Gag orders: Even before drug shortage, Alabama sought secrecy about lethal injection," is by Tim Lockette in the Anniston Star.

 Across the country, death penalty states are working feverishly to keep capital punishment on track years after manufacturers of key execution drugs pulled out of the business. Inmates have challenged new drug combinations as potentially cruel and unusual punishments, or on the grounds that they simply have a right to know, in advance, what poisons will be used to kill them.

States have increasingly responded by making large swaths of the death penalty process a secret. At least a half-dozen states have laws on the books that make part or all of the process for lethal injection confidential, and most of those laws have been passed or strengthened since the death-drug shortage began in 2011.

Alabama may soon join them. The House of Representatives voted 77-19 earlier this month to pass a bill that would make confidential the names of people involved in performing executions — and, crucially, the names of the people or companies who make the drugs.

"Lawyer: Ala. could name execution drug suppliers," is by Kim Chandler of Associated Press, via the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

A lawyer for a death-row inmate argued Friday that Alabama is free to disclose the suppliers of its lethal-injection drugs, and is wrong to cite her client's case as a reason not to do so.

Suhana Han, who leads the defense team for death-row inmate Thomas Arthur, said in a statement that state corrections officials had no basis to cite a confidentiality order in the case as a reason for denying separate public-records requests seeking information on the suppliers filed by The Associated Press and other news media outlets.

Anniston Star coverage is, "Lawyer: Court order shouldn't block death penalty info," also by Lockette.

A lawyer for an inmate on Alabama's death row says a court-ordered confidentiality clause in her client's case shouldn't prevent the Alabama Department of Corrections from releasing information on suppliers of drugs for lethal injection.

"Information about the suppliers belongs to the State of Alabama, and the state is free to disclose that information as it sees fit," lawyer Suhana Han wrote in an emailed statement Friday.

Han is the lead defense attorney for Thomas Arthur, a death row inmate who has challenged the state's practice of execution by lethal injection. Arthur alleges that the state's lethal injection drug cocktail could subject inmates to pain and suffering that violates the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

"Corrections come under fire for refusal to release death penalty information," is by Kala Kachmar and Brian Lyman in the Montgomery Advertiser.

An attorney involved in a challenge to Alabama’s execution methods said Friday that the Department of Corrections “had no basis” to use a protective order to deny Freedom of Information requests from the Montgomery Advertiser and other Alabama news outlets.

Suhana S. Han, a New York attorney representing death row inmate Thomas Arthur who is challenging the procedures, said in a statement that the 2012 order “only governs information produced in the litigation.” Representatives of the state, the statement said, “had not agreed to supply any information about the suppliers of lethal injection drugs.”

“Such information about the suppliers belongs to the state of Alabama, and the state is free to disclose that information as it sees fit,” Han said.

The Advertiser, The Anniston Star and the Associated Press filed separate freedom of information requests on the drugs being used and the protocols employed in the state’s executions. The Advertiser sought the information in light of questions about the drugs being used in capital punishment, reports of drug shortages, questions about the ways other states, most notably Missouri, were acquiring them, and Alabama Legislative efforts to make the identities of those involved in the manufacture of drugs used in lethal injections confidential.

Earlier coverage from Alabama begins at the link.

Tennessee's Lethal Injection Plans

There is lethal injection news from several jurisdictions today.  Let's begin in Tennessee.

"Tennessee plans executions in secret," is by Brian Haas for the Tennessean.  It's via USA Today.  Here's the beginning:

The state of Tennessee doesn't want you to know how it will kill the condemned.

It doesn't want you to know who will flip the switch, sending a lethal dose of pentobarbital through the veins of death row inmates. And it doesn't want you to know how it obtained that pentobarbital — which isn't available from any legal drug manufacturer — as well. State correction officials have even banned the media from visiting inmates on death row.

As Tennessee makes an unprecedented push to set execution dates, it is doing so in the shadows, cloaking its plans in secrecy. Legislators passed a bill a year ago that allowed the state to withhold all information about the drugs it plans to use to execute death row inmates. Georgia, Oklahoma and Missouri have enacted similar laws shrouding information about their lethal injection drugs.

But a collection of death row inmates has sued Tennessee to pull back that shroud.

"Law reportedly allows Tennessee to plan executions in secret," is by Aliyah Frumin at MSNBC.

“Tennesseans should be concerned because these executions are ostensibly for them,” Kelley Henry – an assistant federal public defender representing 11 inmates suing the state to make the information public – told the newspaper. “They are carried out in the name of the people.”

He added: “The people have a right to know that the Department of Corrections isn’t torturing citizens using public funds.”

The state has scheduled at least 10 executions through 2015. Since 1960, the state has only executed six people.

Earlier coverage from Tennessee begins at the link.

An Update From Mississppi

"Parties: Dismiss suit over details on execution drug," is the AP reporet by Jack Elliott Jr., via the Jackson Clarion-Ledger.

The Mississippi Department of Corrections and attorneys for a death row inmate have agreed to dismiss a lawsuit over release of information on execution drugs and suppliers.

The decision to dismiss was made after the attorney general’s office and the agency provided information sought about the drugs, attorneys for Michelle Byrom said in a statement.

Special Assistant Attorney General Paul Barnes said in court documents filed this week that the Corrections Department erred in not providing the information sought by Byrom and has now done so.

Byrom and her attorneys had asked Hinds County Chancery Judge William Singletary to hold the agency in violation of Mississippi’s public records law for failing to provide information on whether the drugs are safe and reliable or whether they may have been tainted, expired, counterfeited or compromised in some way.

And:

Vanessa Carroll, an attorney with the New Orleans office of the MacArthur Justice Center, said the center has determined the Corrections Department is buying the lethal injection drugs from a compounding pharmacy in the state and that the center has determined the identity of the pharmacy.

Earlier coverage from Mississippi begins at the link.

Continuing Coverage From Alabama

Today's Anniston Star publishes the editorial, "Execution and privacy — Alabama shouldn’t shield information about death penalty from public view."

Alabama’s rush to hide the drugs used to execute prisoners is the perfect explanation of a state swimming against the tide of public opinion with a little crony capitalism tossed in for good measure. Granted, this is a familiar posture for Alabama.

And:

The state of Alabama is in a big-time rush to protect a few businesses from public scrutiny. We’re left wondering what’s happened to all those full-throated advocates of the free market in Montgomery.

Do they have duct-tape covering their mouths? That must be it.

Why else would they shield a few businesses from the public’s right to know and possibly protest those companies’ actions?

The Star reports, "State: Court order blocks release of Alabama death penalty information," by Tim Lockette.

The Alabama Department of Corrections has turned down requests from The Anniston Star and other news outlets for information about the manufacturers of drugs used in executions by lethal injection.

A court order in the case of death row inmate Tommy Arthur prohibits the state from releasing any new information about death penalty procedures, the DOC declared in a statement sent to The Star at 4:48 p.m. Thursday.

"This Confidentiality Order… prevents public disclosure, and in fact deems 'confidential information' a list of items, to include the Department's execution protocol and the information contained in it, and the identities of persons/entities currently or previously involved in executions," Prisons commissioner Kim Thomas said in the emailed statement.

The Star, the Montgomery Advertiser and the Associated Press asked for the information after Rep. Lynn Greer, R-Rogersville, filed a bill in the Alabama Legislature that would make the names of people involved in executions, and the suppliers of drugs used in executions a state secret.

The Montgomery Advertiser reports, "Prison system denies 'Advertiser' request for death penalty information," by Brian Lyman.

The Alabama Department of Corrections on Thursday denied a freedom of information request from the Montgomery Advertiser regarding information on death penalty protocols currently used in the state.

In a statement released by the DOC, commissioner Kim Thomas cited an order issued by U.S. Magistrate Judge Terry Moorer on Sept. 28, 2012, in a lawsuit brought by inmate Thomas Arthur over the state’s administration of the death penalty. The order from Fuller prevents disclosure of information on the written execution protocol used by the state, including information on current and past procedures, the drugs used and all testimony, information and documents related to prior executions of Alabama inmates.

“While the department generally considers execution related documents confidential and exempt from public disclosure under Alabama law, because of the pending litigation, I will abide by the court order and will not release any execution information,” Thomas said in his statement.

The order does not cover information about the process already in the public domain. The motion for the protective order, filed on Sept. 27, 2012, by the Department of Corrections and Arthur’s representatives, said the department and the state of Alabama had a “vital and compelling interest in protecting the confidentiality of the procedures, the identities of persons who participate in the enforcement of death sentences, and all aspects of the manner of enforcing a death sentence in the State.” The reasons were not listed in the motion.

AL.com posts, "Citing federal court order, Alabama prison officials won't divulge execution procedures," by Brendan Kirby.

Citing a 2012 federal court order, the Alabama Department of Corrections on Thursday indicated that it would not divulge details about its execution procedures.

The Legislature this year is considering a proposal to make confidential the information about the drugs used during lethal injection, including the vendors selling those chemicals. Different versions have passed the House and Senate.

In a statement released Thursday, the department suggested that the court order mandates confidentiality far beyond the drugs involved in executions.

Earlier coverage from Alabama begins at the link.

More LI Coverage From Oklahoma

"Summary judgment sought by both sides in Oklahoma death-row inmates lawsuit over lethal drugs," is the AP report by Bailey Elise McBride, via the Greenfield Reporter.

Lawyers for two Oklahoma death-row inmates who are suing for information about lethal injection drugs and lawyers for the state each have asked for the judge to rule in their favor without hearing arguments in court.

The state filed for summary judgment in Oklahoma County District Court on Thursday and responded to a motion for summary judgment filed last week by lawyers for inmates Clayton Lockett and Charles Warner.

A hearing in district court is set for Wednesday in front of Judge Patricia Parrish on whether it's proper for the state to keep execution procedures behind a "veil of secrecy."

The Colorado Independent reports, "Democracy Now! and Susan Greene on Oklahoma’s ‘Team Pentobarbital’."

Colorado Independent Editor Susan Greene appeared on Democracy Now! Thursday morning to talk with hosts Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez about the scramble in Oklahoma reported by Katherine Fretland for The Colorado Independent this week to find drugs to conduct prisoner executions.

The story of the drug scramble highlights the way drug manufacturers — many of them headquartered in Europe — have pulled back on supplying them to avoid fueling the U.S. system of capital punishment, which has been condemned by human rights groups for decades. Responding to the shortage of drugs, state officials around the country have turned to a shadowy market supplied by pharmacies that mix unregulated versions of the drugs. These products may or may not be working properly, subjecting prisoners to unknown effects and raising questions about whether the executions where they are used are running afoul of constitutional bans on cruel and unusual punishment.

Democracy Now posts, "'Team Pentobarbital': OK Officials Joked About Seeking Football Tix for Help with Execution Drugs."  There is video and a transcript at the link.  Here's one excerpt from the interview:

SUSAN GREENE: We exposed these flippant emails back and forth between assistant attorneys general, who felt—had felt thwarted by Texas. There’s a shortage in the country of lethal injection drugs, and so they’re all sort of scrambling to find them so they can kill people on time. And Texas had apparently not supplied Oklahoma with the drugs it needed in an earlier execution. And Texas, a few years ago, was asking for help from states all around the country for how to deal with the shortage. And so these attorneys general in Oklahoma, feeling a little embittered by the lack of help from Texas, were joking that, as you said, they wanted, in exchange for their help, 50-yard-line tickets to a football game between Oklahoma and Texas. And then another colleague said, "Actually, you know, we want more than that. They should—Texas should throw the game for four years, for four years, in exchange for our help." And then, they went on to say, "Yes, you know, we should be brought onto the field during halftime and sort of lauded and celebrated for our valor in helping Texas carry out its tradition of death penalty injections, lethal injections." And then they actually took it further and said, "You know, for this, we should actually get passes to tollways and other sort of roads that cost money in Texas."

Earlier coverage from Oklahoma begins with the preceding post.  You can also jump to the Colorado Independent's reporting from earlier this week.

Alabama LI Secrecy Legislation Continues to Move Forward

"Ala. panel OKs secrecy for execution drugs, legislator says its needed to 'resume' executions," is by Kim Chandler of Associated Press.  It's via the Tribune.

Rep. Lynn Greer, the sponsor of a bill that would make the names of the drug suppliers confidential, said states are having trouble obtaining the drugs because pharmacies fear lawsuits and backlash from death penalty opponents.

"This body has got to make a decision that either we can resume capital punishment by passing this legislation or we can come back next year and repeal this law and go back to the electric chair," said Greer,R-Rogersville.

Asked by an Associated Press reporter if the word "resume" meant the state had exhausted its lethal injection drug supply, Greer referred questions to the Alabama Department of Corrections.

"I think you are on target though," Greer said.

The Department of Corrections has declined to comment. The last execution in Alabama occurred on July 25 when Andrew Lackey was put to death. It was the state's first execution since October 2011.

The Montgomery Advertiser posts, "Death penalty secrecy bill moves forward in the Senate," by Brian Lyman.

A Senate committee approved a bill Wednesday that would keep information of those who manufacture and distribute drugs used in executions from the public. However, further negotiations over the legislation remain before it emerges in the Senate.

The key question is language that, as passed the House, would prevent discovery and admission of evidence in any state court. Sponsor Lynn Greer, R-Rogersville and death penalty supporters said that without that language, those involved in the distribution of death penalty drugs would be unwilling to provide them.

"Lawmaker: Make death drugs secret or bring back electric chair," is Tim Lockett's latest report for the Anniston Star.

Alabama will have to go back to use of the electric chair if lawmakers don't pass a bill that makes lethal injection drugs confidential, the bill's sponsor told a Senate committee Wednesday.

"We have a choice," said Rep. Lynn Greer, R-Rogersville. "We can pass this bill this year, or we can go back to the electric chair next year."

Earlier coverage of the Alabama legislation begins at the link.

Texas Buys New Stock of Pentobarbital

"Texas finds new execution drug supply," is the Associated Press report filed by Michael Graczyk.  It's also available via HuffPost.  This detailed report also reviews the Texas' Open Records Act.

Texas has obtained a new batch of the drugs it uses to execute death row inmates, allowing the state to continue carrying out death sentences once its existing supply expires at the end of the month.

But correction officials will not say where they bought the drugs, arguing that information must be kept secret to protect the safety of its new supplier. In interviews with The Associated Press, officials with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice also refused to say whether providing anonymity to its new supplier of the sedative pentobarbital was a condition of its purchase.

The decision to keep details about the drugs and their source secret puts the agency at odds with past rulings of the state attorney general's office, which has said the state's open records law requires the agency to disclose specifics about the drugs it uses to carry out lethal injections.

And:

Texas law does not specifically spell out whether officials can refuse to make the name of drug suppliers public, but Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott's office has on three occasions rejected arguments by the agency that disclosing that information would put the drug supply and manufacturers at risk.

In a 2012 opinion, his office rejected the argument that disclosing the inventory would allow others to figure out the state's suppliers, dismissing the same kind of security concerns raised this week.

"Upon review, 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," Assistant Attorney General Sean Opperman wrote.

Clark said the prison agency planned to ask Abbott to reconsider the issue.

The Houston Chronicle reports, "New shipment of legal drugs allows state to continue executions," by Allan Turner.

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice has received a new shipment of the lethal drug used in executions, allowing it to continue putting convicted killers to death through mid-May.

Prisons spokesman Jason Clark on Wednesday said the agency would have run out of pentobarbital, commonly used to euthanize pets, after two executions scheduled this month.

Three prisoners are scheduled to be executed in April; Harris County killer Robert Campbell is scheduled for execution on May 13.

Time posts, "Texas Officials Get More Execution Drugs, But Won’t Say How," by David Stout.

Earlier coverage of Texas from Texas begins with the preceding post.  Also available, more on the state's lethal injection issues.  Related posts are in the lethal injection and open records category indexes.

The Mississippi Lethal Injection Challenge

"Miss. inmate sues over execution drug info," is the AP report filed by Jack Elliott Jr., via the Washington Times.

The Mississippi Department of Corrections is asking a state judge to rule that information on execution drugs and suppliers is confidential and exempt from the state’s Public Records Act.

The motion came in its response to a lawsuit filed by lawyers for a woman who faces the death penalty for killing her husband. Attorneys for Michelle Byrom say the state is providing no information on whether the drugs are safe and reliable or whether they are tainted, expired, counterfeited or compromised in some way.

The corrections agency said it has provided essentially everything requested except for the drug maker’s identity.

Byrom and her attorneys asked Hinds County Chancery Judge William Singletary to hold the agency in violation of Mississippi’s public records law.

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

Also, today, the Jackson Free Press posts, "An Innocent Woman? Michelle Byrom vs. Mississippi," by Ronni Mott.  Case documents are at the link.

Michelle is now down to what could be her final appeal.

On Feb. 24, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case, and Jim Hood, Mississippi's attorney general, requested an execution date: March 27.

If Mississippi executes Michelle, now 56, she will be the first woman the state has put to death in 70 years. It may also be a horrible injustice.

"John Grisham couldn't write this story," said Warren Yoder, executive director of the Public Policy Center of Mississippi, in an interview with the Jackson Free Press.

"In any reasonable world, this would be a short story by Flannery O'Connor," Yoder wrote in an email. "Instead, it is happening now in our Mississippi."

Junior's confession isn't the only evidence the jury did not get to see.

An Update From Alabama

The Anniston Star reports, "Inmates seek death drug info as secrecy bill approaches vote," by Tim Lockette.

Since 2011, five death row inmates have sought more information on the drugs in Alabama’s changing lethal injection cocktail as part of court challenges to their executions, court documents suggest.

Two of those inmates have since died on the executioner's gurney. And all of the others could be blocked from access to information on the death penalty process if the Alabama Senate passes a bill, scheduled to come before a Senate committee Wednesday, that would make death penalty drugs and their manufacturers a state secret.

Rep. Lynn Greer, R-Rogersville, sponsored the bill, which would allow the state to hide the names of people involved in an execution, as well as the drugs used in lethal injection and the suppliers of those drugs. The bill passed the House 77-19 earlier this month.

Greer has told lawmakers the bill needs to pass to protect the state's supply of lethal injection drugs. Boycotts by European countries and shortages in the U.S. market have states struggling to maintain supplies of key parts of their lethal injection cocktails.

Earlier coverage of the Alabama legislation begins at the link.

More Oklahoma LI Commentary & News Coverage

Today's Los Angeles Times publishes the editorial, "Oklahoma's stealth executions are an injustice."

A month from now, if all goes according to plan in Oklahoma, two convicted murderers will be executed by lethal injection, and without knowing exactly how the killing cocktail was put together or by whom. Without that knowledge, they could well be denied their basic constitutional protection against cruel and unusual punishment.

The death penalty, as we've written before, is an indefensible mess of immorality, gamed judicial processes, misapplication based on race and class, and public expense. Now we can add that, at least in Oklahoma, it is being carried out in a climate of unacceptable secrecy. If the government is going to insist that it has the right to execute citizens, it must be transparent about the process and be ready to defend it in court.

The LA Times also reports, "Oklahoma court delays executions over plan to change lethal drugs," by Molly Hennessy Fiske.

The inmates' attorneys accused the state of secretly turning to a Tulsa compounding pharmacy that has also supplied Missouri with the drugs.

Because compounding pharmacies are not regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, they argue there is a risk that inmates could suffer as they die. They believe Oklahoma used compounded pentobarbital in a January execution during which the inmate complained, "I feel my whole body burning.”
Corrections officials initially balked at identifying lethal injection drug suppliers, saying they wanted to protect their anonymity.

But in a legal filing Monday, state officials said they “remained without the drugs (pentobarbital, vecuronium bromide, potassium chloride) needed to carry out the lawful sentence of death.”

"Oklahoma Injected Lethal Drugs Into Its Death-Row Convicts–After They Were Executed," is the National Journal report by Dustin Volz.

The state of Oklahoma injected executed convicts with lethal drugs for "disposal purposes," newly published state records show.

The macabre practice, first reported Tuesday by The Colorado Independent, could tamper with postmortem toxicology results in a way that obscures from public knowledge the amount of pain endured during execution, a revelation that calls into question the state's methods for administering capital punishment at a time when lethal-injection protocols nationwide are drawing renewed scrutiny.

"Convicts executed in Oklahoma have in some cases died from overdoses of pentobarbital or sodium thiopental, the anesthetic, rather than the second and third injections in the three-drug cocktail, according to documents obtained by The Independent," reporter Katie Fretland writes. "Records show executioners then injected the remaining two drugs into convicts' dead bodies for what forms turned over in response to an open-records request refer to as 'disposal purposes.' "

 "Oklahoma court postpones executions because state can’t get drugs in time," by Lindsey Bever for the Washington Post.

The problem Oklahoma is facing is caused by the increasing reluctance of pharmaceutical companies to supply the drugs needed for lethal injections and of pharmacies to prepare the compounds necessary to ensure a quick death. Many companies based in Europe with longtime opposition to the death penalty simply stopped selling to prisons and corrections departments.

The scarcity is forcing states to search for substitutes.

Already this year, the drug shortage prompted a failed attempt in Virginia’s legislature to allow the state to use the electric chair and another in Wyoming to allow the use of firing squads. A provision in Oklahoma’s state law kept it from falling back on either option this week.

The Guardian posts, "Oklahoma delays two executions amid lethal drugs shortage," by Amanda Holpuc.

US states have faced increasing difficulty in obtaining the drugs needed for an execution following a European-lead boycott.

Oklahoma’s execution process requires pentobarbital as a sedative, vecuronium bromide as a muscle relaxant and a third drug to stop the heart. Oklahoma said on Monday that it did not have any remaining supplies of those drugs.

"Okla. delays 2 executions because of drug shortage," by Gregg Zoroya at USA Today.

The struggle to procure pharmaceuticals plays out as executions appear to be on the decline. Although a majority of states -- 32-- still have the death penalty, the number of executions has fallen from 98 in 1999 to 39 last year.

In recent years, New York, New Jersey, New Mexico, Illinois, Connecticut and Maryland have abolished the death sentence; and governors in Washington, Colorado and Oregon have suspended the punishment. Courts have halted executions in Georgia, Arkansas, Tennessee and Louisiana over lethal injection issues.

Like many states that turned to this method in recent decades -- rejecting age-old methods such as electrocution, gas chamber or firing squad -- Oklahoma state officials use a three-drug protocol. They first anesthetize the condemned with a barbiturate such as pentobarbital, then paralyze them with vecuronium bromide and stop their hearts with potassium chloride.

Additional coverage includes, "Oklahoma executions postponed after state fails to procure drugs," at Reuters.

"US halts 2 executions over drug shortage," by AFP, via News 24.

Al Jazeera America posts, "Oklahoma unable to buy lethal injection drugs for upcoming execution."

"Oklahoma delays two executions due to lack of drugs," by Sarah Muller at MSNBC.

"Oklahoma Ran Out of Drugs to Execute People, And That’s a Sign of Things to Come," by Josh Sanburn at Time.

"Oklahoma postponed two executions because it ran out of lethal injection drugs," by Jon Terbush for the Week.

"Oklahoma delays two executions due to lack of drugs needed for lethal injection," by Martha Neil at ABA Journal.

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

Oklahoma Update - DoC Document Release, Executions Postponed

The Oklahoma Department of Corrections documents obtained by the Colorado Independent are available at DocStoc.

"Oklahoma scrambles to find lethal injections for two imminent executions," is Katie Fretland's report for the Independent.  Here's the beginning of this must-read:

A national scarcity of lethal-injection drugs has postponed two executions Oklahoma planned for this week and next.

Complaints about that state’s secrecy around death penalty procedures convinced the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals today to delay the execution of Clayton Lockett from this Thursday to April 22, and the execution of Charles Warner from March 27 to April 29.

The murder convicts’ defense lawyers – including members of Colorado’s federal public defenders office – are seeking to stop the executions because of Oklahoma’s involvement in seeking potentially unregulated lethal injections in an era when pharmaceutical companies have yanked the drugs off the market for death penalty use.

Oklahoma announced Monday that its secret deal to buy lethal injections fell through, highlighting a shadowy market for death penalty drugs and raising questions about protecting secret drug suppliers from public scrutiny. Records obtained by The Colorado Independent reveal a disturbing flippancy among high-level officials who have been involved with executions in Oklahoma.

Meanwhile, AP reports, "Oklahoma Court Resets Executions Amid Drug Search."  It's by Bailey Elise McBride, via ABC News.

An Oklahoma court on Tuesday rescheduled a pair of executions set for this week and next so state prison officials will have more time to find a supply of drugs for the lethal injections.

The decision came in a lawsuit in which two inmates had sought more information about the drugs that would be used to execute them later this month. The inmates had sought a stay of their executions, but the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals said that request was moot because the state Department of Corrections doesn't have enough drugs on hand to carry out their death sentences.

"The attorney general's attestations give this court no confidence that the state will be able to procure the necessary drugs before the scheduled executions are carried out," the court wrote.

While the judges didn't rule on the merit of the inmates' stay request, they pushed their executions back a month — Clayton Lockett to April 22 and Charles Warner to April 29.

"Executions postponed so state can procure lethal drugs," is by Cary Aspinwall for the Tulsa World.

The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals has vacated two upcoming execution dates and moved both to April, to allow the Department of Corrections time to procure two of the drugs it needs for lethal injections.

State officials revealed Monday that they were having trouble obtaining the approved drugs for the first two stages of Oklahoma’s three-part lethal injection cocktail.

And:

State corrections officials have been told that pentobarbital remains in short supply and vecuronium bromide is now "difficult, if not impossible, even for hospitals and medical professionals to obtain."

The state intends to pursue "any and all leads" to obtain the lethal injection drugs and proceed with the executions as planned, according to the Attorney General’s Office.

Madeline Cohen, a federal public defender representing Warner, said: “We are relieved that the OCCA's decision allows Mr. Warner and Mr. Lockett to proceed on their constitutional challenge to Oklahoma's execution-secrecy law and execution protocol. We hope that no execution will go forward until we are able to obtain full information about how Oklahoma intends to conduct those executions, including the source of its execution drugs.”

"Oklahoma Executions Delayed Amid Drug Shortage," is the NBC report by Tracy Connor.

At least two compounding pharmacies have reneged on deals to provide lethal injection drugs amid public pressure and legal challenges.

Against this backdrop, states are eager to keep the source of their chemicals secret — sparking lawsuits like the one filed by Warner and Lockett, who say the information must be made public.

Their argument: the prisoners' legal teams must be able to insure the drugs won't cause suffering that would violate the constitutional protection against cruel and unusual punishment.

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

Alabama LI Secrecy Legislation Moves to Senate

"Death penalty secrecy bill nears passage; state has yet to release info on drug sources" is Tim Lockette's report in the Anniston Star.

A bill that would make information about Alabama's death penalty process, including the names of manufacturers of the drugs used in lethal injection, could reach a vote in the Alabama Senate as early as this week.

Supporters of the bill say the names of death penalty drug makers aren't protected by law now. The Alabama Department of Corrections has so far not complied with a request, made more than two weeks ago by The Anniston Star, for receipts for the drug and records of payment to medical professionals who participated in executions or volunteers who did the same.

"Please know that our resources are limited and there are other requests pending ahead of yours," DOC general counsel Anne Hill wrote in a letter to The Star on March 5. Attempts to reach officials in Hill’s office Monday were not successful.

Members of the Alabama House of Representatives voted 77-19 earlier this month to pass HB379,a bill by Rep. Lynn Greer, R-Rogersville, that would make the names of anyone who manufactures or administers drugs in a lethal injection execution "confidential, not subject to disclosure, and ... not admissible as evidence or discoverable in any action in any kind of court."

Earlier coverage of the Alabama legislation begins at the link.

Missouri's Lethal Injection Secrecy

St. Louis Public Radio posts, "Political Rundown: Legislative Deals, Disabilities, Death," by Susan Hegger.

Our own reporter Chris McDaniel is one of the sources interviewed in "Under the Hangman's Hood," a recent story in the Columbia Journalism Review about the difficulties journalists face in covering the death penalty as states cloak executions under layers and layers of secrecy. As the article notes, Missouri is spearheading a somewhat dubious trend.

Missouri is "at the forefront of a nationwide battle over transparency and secrecy in capital punishment, in which states, responding to gains made by death-penalty opponents, have increasingly moved to conceal execution protocols — or the identities of people who help in any way to carry them out — from public view."

Execution is, as the article notes, the "gravest action a state can take against one of its citizens." As such, it would seem a matter of intrinsic public interest. So do the people of Missouri -- in whose name executions are carried out -- have the right to know whether this "gravest action" is implemented legally and ethically?

Apparently not. When the St. Louis Post-Dispatch discovered that an incompetent doctor was overseeing Missouri's executions, Missouri responded by making it illegal to reveal “the identity of a current or former member of an execution team.” Last year, "the ban was broadened to include even the pharmacies that now compound lethal drugs for the state."

 The Columbia Journalism Review report is, "The First Amendment vs. death penalty secrecy laws," by Deron Lee.  It's a must-read:

“Their answer to the public finding out they had an incompetent doctor was making it impossible to find out who the doctor is,” says Tony Rothert, legal director at ACLU of Missouri, which has fought the state in numerous death-penalty cases.

Executions have since resumed in Missouri; there have been four in the last four months alone. But the prohibition against identifying members of the “execution team” remains. And last fall, the ban was broadened to include even the pharmacies that now compound lethal drugs for the state—a move that challenges news organizations’ freedom to report on the state’s brewing death-penalty debate and has reportedly stopped the ACLU and lawyers for condemned inmates from sharing information with journalists. The civil-liberties group has filed a lawsuit against the state, arguing that the application of the law is an unconstitutional violation of the First Amendment.

The legal challenge puts Missouri at the forefront of a nationwide battle over transparency and secrecy in capital punishment, in which states, responding to gains made by death-penalty opponents, have increasingly moved to conceal execution protocols—or the identities of people who help in any way to carry them out—from public view. The trend has frustrated death-penalty opponents and lawyers for convicts sentenced to death. It has also raised alarm among champions of free speech.

Earlier coverage from Missouri, and more on state secrecy and LI drugs, at the links.

The Louisiana LI Challenge

"Louisiana appeals order to release execution drug source," is the AP report by Melinda Deslatte, via the Alexandria Town Talk.

Rather than release the seller and manufacturer of Louisiana's execution drugs, state corrections officials notified a federal judge Tuesday that they were asking an appeals court to overturn his disclosure order.

U.S. District Judge James Brady had ruled that the corrections department must reveal by this week the information about where it obtained its two lethal injection drugs.

Instead of filing the information, a lawyer for the Department of Corrections and the Louisiana State Penitentiary filed a notice of appeal and asked to keep the information secret while the appeal is pending.

Attorney James Hilburn described the judge's order as "an abuse of discretion."

Corrections Secretary Jimmy LeBlanc and state prison 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 facilitate an execution.

The Lens posts, "State appeals judge’s order to reveal source of lethal injection drug." by Della Hasselle.

Lawyers for the state Department of Corrections haven’t complied with a federal judge’s order to disclose information about the source of Louisiana’s lethal injection drugs, instead asking an appeals court to reverse the decision.

Lawyers representing a convicted child-killer on death row responded Tuesday, saying this “is simply the latest effort by the Defendants to shroud their lethal injection protocol in secrecy.”

Last week, U.S. District Court Judge James Brady ordered the state to reveal the manufacturer and source of the lethal injection drugs that officials plan to use in execution.

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

Oklahoma Inmates Seek Stay of Execution

"2 Oklahoma death row inmates seek stay for appeal," is by Bailey Elise McBride of Associated Press.  It's via the San Francisco Chronicle.

Lawyers for two Oklahoma death row inmates on Tuesday asked the Oklahoma Supreme Court for a stay of execution while their lawsuit makes its way through state court.

Attorneys for Clayton Lockett and Charles Warner simultaneously filed an appeal and an emergency application for a stay of execution to the state's highest court, writing the inmates "will suffer irreparable harm" if a stay is not granted. Oklahoma County District Judge Patricia Parrish on Monday denied their request to halt the executions that are scheduled for later this month.

Parrish denied the request on grounds that the case was not under her jurisdiction. Lockett and Warner sued the Oklahoma Department of Corrections last month, challenging a law that bars disclosure of the state's execution procedures.

The Oklahoman reports, "Death row inmates ask Oklahoma Supreme Court for a stay of execution," by Graham Lee Brewer.

The men are not appealing their sentences, but are asking for a delay in their executions until their case is adjudicated. Clayton Derrell Locket, 38, is scheduled for execution March 20, and Charles Frederick Warner, 46, is scheduled for execution March 27.

Lockett and Warner are challenging the constitutionality of the state law allowing the state Corrections Department to shield its source of pentobarbital, a barbiturate used in Oklahoma’s lethal injection process, and whether or not a change allowing the use of pentobarbital was a violation of the Oklahoma Administrative Procedures Act.

Monday, Oklahoma County District Court Judge Patricia Parrish agreed with an objection filed by the state attorney general’s office which asserts since the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals set the execution dates and denied previous appeals by the men, the appeals court is the proper venue to hear the case.

Earlier coverage of the Oklahoma LI drug challenge begins at the link.

No Stay in Oklahoma LI Challenge

"No delay for executions during drug suit," is AP coverage, via the Muskogee Phoenix.

An Oklahoma County district judge ruled Monday that she would not delay the executions of two death row inmates scheduled for later this month while the inmates challenge the state over the origins of the drugs used to carry out the death penalty.

Citing a 1992 state Supreme Court decision, District Court Judge Patricia Parrish said the state Court of Criminal Appeals, which sets execution dates, must decide on requests for stays of execution. State lawyers earlier Monday filed an objection stating Parrish has no jurisdiction in the case.

Susanna M. Gattoni, one of the lawyers for Lockett and Warner, said her office would appeal Parrish’s decision with the Oklahoma Supreme Court within 24 hours.

Parrish said, however, that she or another civil judge could handle the death row inmates’ challenge to the state’s execution procedure because the Court of Criminal Appeals does not have jurisdiction to rule in a civil matter. Clayton Lockett and Charles Warner have sued the Oklahoma Department of Corrections to learn more about the drugs that would be used to execute them.

The Oklahoman reports, "Judge denies stay of execution for two Oklahoma inmates," by Graham Lee Brewer.

The state Attorney General’s Office filed an objection to the restraining order early Monday morning in which it asserts the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals is the proper venue to hear the case. That court would be the third to hear the case. The restraining order was originally scheduled for hearing in district court, but the case was moved to federal court last week at the request of the state and then moved back to district court by a federal judge.

At the Monday hearing, attorneys for both parties discussed the lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the law allowing the state to shield the identity of its source of pentobarbital, a barbiturate used in the lethal injection process.

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

Adam Liptak on LI Drug Secrecy

Today's New York Times Sidebar column by Adam Liptak is, "Deciding if Inmates Get to Know How They’ll Be Executed."  Here's the beginning of this must-read:

 The capital justice system is in turmoil, with drug shortages leading states to use secret and suspect chemicals to execute condemned inmates.

“We’ve never seen so many changes and so many troubles in getting these drugs,” said Deborah Denno, a law professor at Fordham and a leading authority on methods of execution. “The states are more secret than they’ve ever been. And it’s a much riskier process than it’s ever been.”

In a little-noticed dissent last month, three Supreme Court justices suggested that it was time for their court to resolve the crucial threshold question: Are death row inmates entitled to know how the government means to kill them?

That information is a “state secret,” prison officials say. But it is hard to see how death row inmates can argue that a given method of execution violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment if they are barred from knowing what the method is.

The dissent, written by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Feb. 25, was only a sentence long. It said that she, along with Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, would have granted a stay of execution to a condemned inmate in Missouri so the court could consider whether to hear his appeal “in the ordinary course.” The inmate, Michael A. Taylor, was executed hours later, just after midnight.

The dissent was, in truth, pretty cryptic. But Justice Ginsburg tipped her hand with one phrase, saying a hard look at the case was needed “for reasons well stated” by Judge Kermit E. Bye of the federal appeals court in St. Louis. Judge Bye had filed a statement when he failed to persuade his court to stop Mr. Taylor’s execution.

Earlier coverage of the scramble for lethal injection drugs begins at the link.  Also available, more on Missouri's execution of Michael Taylor and Judge Bye's dissent.

Death Penalty in U.S. Spurs Wild West Scramble for Drugs

That's the title of a must-read recap of the current status of the scramble for LI drugs by departments of corrections, by Gregg Zoroya in USA Today.  It's subtitled, "Capital punishment in the USA is in decline as states wrestle to find drugs for lethal injections."

Here's the beginning:

Prison guards meet in the desert to hand off chemicals for executions. A corrections boss loaded with cash travels to a pharmacy in another state to buy lethal sedatives. States across the country refuse to identify the drugs they use to put the condemned to death.

This is the curious state of capital punishment in America today.

Manufacturers are cutting off supplies of lethal injection drugs because of opposition to the death penalty, and prison officials are scrambling to make up the deficit — sharing drugs, buying them from under-regulated pharmacies or using drug combinations never employed before in putting someone to death.

At the same time, growing numbers of states are ending capital punishment altogether. Others are delaying executions until they have a better understanding of what chemicals work best. And the media report blow-by-blow details of prisoners gasping, snorting or crying out during improvised lethal injection, taking seemingly forever to die.

The last major multi-jurisdictional news article on the topic is at the list.  Related posts are in the lethal injection category index.

Alabama Legislation Update

"Alabama House approves bill to keep lethal injection drug suppliers secret," is the AP report filed by Kim Chandler, via AL.com.  It's also available from the Greenfield Reporter.

Makers and suppliers of Alabama's execution drugs would be kept secret and not released to the public or the courts under a bill approved Thursday in the Alabama House of Representatives.

House members voted 77-19 for the bill being sought by the Alabama Department of Corrections. It now moves to the Alabama Senate.

Rep. Lynn Greer, R-Rogersville, said companies are becoming hesitant to supply the drugs because of the threat of lawsuits and backlash from death penalty opponents.

And:

Birmingham lawyer Richard Jaffe, who has handled multiple capital cases, said the background of the drug production and manufacturer is important to know in challenges over the execution method.

"I just don't understand the need for secrecy and question whether it is constitutional. I believe it will lead to more expensive and protracted litigation," Jaffe said.

WSFA-TV posts, "Alabama House approves execution drug secrecy bill," by Max Reiss.

Democrats met the bill with some stiff opposition on the House Floor, raising constitutional concerns over hiding information from taxpayers who foot the bill for executions. They also questioned those who provide the drugs to the state in the first place.

"If you're such ashamed of it, why do it?" asked Rep. Napoleon Bracy, D - Prichard. "If you feel like you can't go to your church and sit on the front pew of your church after creating this drug and selling it to the Alabama prisons to kill people, then you shouldn't do it."

Bracy and other members of the minority party also pointed out the irony of making parts of the death penalty more secret during a week of political theater that included the passage of four anti-abortion bills in the Alabama House of Representatives.

Lawmakers in the state of Georgia passed a similar that is currently under review by the Georgia Supreme Court.

Alabama has 197 people on death row, which is tied for fourth most in the country Pennsylvania behind California, Texas and Florida.

Earlier coverage from Alabama begins at the link.

Oklahoma OpEd

"Oklahoma's secrecy over execution drugs is wrong," is the Oklahoman OpEd by Oklahoma State University professor Joel Senat.

A recent lawsuit filed by two Oklahoma death row inmates should remind opponents and proponents of the death penalty why open government is crucial to an informed public’s oversight of its policymakers.

The inmates, scheduled for March executions, sued the Department of Corrections because Oklahoma law keeps secret — even from the prisoners and the courts — the supplier of the lethal injection drugs used in its executions. The statute even exempts the purchase of the drugs from the state’s Central Purchasing Act. Such secrecy in government typically breeds corruption, incompetency and inefficiency.

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

Delaware Lacks Lethal Injection Drugs

That's the title of an Associated Press report by Randall Chase, datelined Dover, Delaware.  It's via KCAU-TV, and is also available from the Guardian.  Here's the beginning of this detailed article:

Delaware has 17 condemned prisoners facing the death penalty, but no means of executing any of them.

Like other states, Delaware prison officials have found it difficult to get the drugs used in lethal injections because major manufacturers several years ago began prohibiting the use of their products in executions out of ethical concerns and fearing the unwanted publicity.

As a result, supplies of two of the three drugs used in Delaware executions have expired, according to records obtained by the Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act. Moreover, prison officials aren’t even trying to get the necessary drugs.

“These drugs can be costly, and these drugs have a shelf life,” correction department commissioner Robert Coupe said. “There is also the challenge of navigating the marketplace because of the attention that this type of purchase gets.”

The source of the drugs is moving to the forefront of the death penalty debate, as lawyers and death penalty opponents seek to find out which companies are providing the drugs. Compounding pharmacies — which custom-mix prescription drugs for doctors and patients — seemed like the answer, but some of them are starting to back away, too.

Earlier coverage from Delaware begins at the link.

Federal Judge Orders Louisiana to Disclose LI Drug Info

The federal district court ruling in Hoffman v. Jindal is available in Adobe .pdf format, via NOLA.com.

"Louisiana judge orders state release information on lethal injection drugs," is by Lauren McGaughy for the New OrleansTimes-Picayune.

Louisiana corrections officials must reveal the manufacturer and source of the state's lethal injection drugs within the week, a federal judge ordered Wednesday (March 5).

U.S. District Judge James J. Brady also ordered the names of the staff and healthcare professionals involved in executions must be released. But this can be done under seal to protect their identities, Brady's ruling added.

The ruling was the latest development in a legal fight dating to 2012 between two death row inmates and the state over its execution policy. The suit, brought by convicted killers Jessie Hoffman and Christopher Sepulvado, was filed in December 2012 with the ultimate purpose of unsealing documents pertaining to the nature and place of origin of the state's lethal injection drugs as well as who has control over their management.

The lawsuit resulted in the state releasing its execution protocol in June 2013. But Hoffman's lawyer Michael Rubenstein called the information "inadequate" because it did not include the names of the manufacturer or the prison personnel handling the drugs.

"La. ordered to disclose source of execution drugs," is AP coverage by Melinda Deslatte, via the San Francisco Chronicle.

"The mere potentiality of harassment and adverse consequences is insufficient to overcome the Plaintiffs' need to adequately present their case," the judge wrote in his decision.

Brady ordered most of the responses filed without shielding, but he agreed to let the corrections department file information about the health care workers who will be performing the execution under seal, hidden from the public.

"While the Court finds that this identifying information is relevant and pertinent to the Plaintiffs' claims, the Court also deems it prudent to protect the privacy of the individuals who will be directly and personally involved in the process of carrying out the execution," Brady wrote.

The state's request for a protective order to keep the execution drug information hidden was made in the back-and-forth of an ongoing federal lawsuit filed by attorneys representing two men on death row.

The lawsuit seeks more details about Louisiana's execution method, to determine whether it violates a condemned inmate's constitutional right against cruel and unusual punishment.

Earlier coverage from Louisiana begins at the link.

Mississippi Lethal Injection Challenge

"Miss. inmate sues over execution drug info," is the AP report by Jeff Amy, via the San Francisco Chronicle.

Lawyers for a woman facing the death penalty in Mississippi say the state isn't telling them enough about where it's getting execution drugs and how it plans to use them.

Michelle Byrom and her lawyers sued the Mississippi Department of Corrections on Monday, saying it failed to follow public records laws. They asked Hinds County Chancery Judge William Singletary to find that the department has violated the state public records law by not releasing the expiration date of lethal injection drugs that the state currently has and by saying it was too hard to search for other documents.

"MDOC's evasive and obstructionist response clearly runs afoul of the public records act, and hides from public view important details of the state's infliction of the most serious and irrevocable penalty against one of its citizens," the lawsuit states.

And:

Byrom was sentenced to death in 2000 in Tishomingo County in the killing of her husband, Edward "Eddie" Byrom Sr. Attorney General Jim Hood has asked the state Supreme Court to set a March 27 execution date for Byrom.

The state also wants to set an execution date for Charles Ray, who was sentenced to death in 1994 in Tippah County for the murder and rape of college student Kristy Ray.

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

NBC News Examines LI Secrecy

"Will Courts Lift Veil of Secrecy Around Lethal Injections?" is Pete Williams' report at NBC News.

Despite growing controversy over the use of anonymous pharmacies for lethal injections, the U.S. Supreme Court has thus far declined to block any executions based on 11th-hour appeals challenging the drug connections.

That includes the case of Michael Taylor, a convicted rapist and murderer who was put to death at 12:10 a.m. Wednesday in Missouri after a furious legal battle that stretched into the night.

It's worth nothing, however, that three high court justices wanted to block Taylor's execution and cited the words of an appeals judge who said so little was known about the source of the deadly dose of pentobarbital that it "could be nothing more than a high school chemistry class."

The strongly worded dissent from Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Kermit Bye — echoed by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan — is giving some defense lawyers hope the veil of secrecy will be lifted by the judiciary.

"It seems that the issues raised in Judge Bye's dissent are starting to at least resonate with some members of the Supreme Court," said Allen Bohnert, a federal capital defender from Ohio.

More on the Bye dissent and coverage of Missouri lethal injection issues, at the link.

Oklahoma Lethal Injection Challenge Filed

You can read the lawsuit, Lockett & Warner v. Evans, thanks to the Tulsa World.

"Judge schedules Tuesday hearing on challenge to Oklahoma's death row procedures," is the AP report, via the Greenfield Reporter.

An Oklahoma County judge next week will consider whether to delay the scheduled executions of two death row inmates.

Clayton Lockett and Charles Warner want to know more about drugs administered by the state Department of Corrections during executions. They've asked District Judge Patricia Parrish to delay their executions until the state says how and when it obtained the drugs.

Parrish will hold a hearing Tuesday morning.

Lockett is scheduled to die March 20 and Warner is to die a week later.

An earlier AP report is, "Oklahoma death row inmates sue over drugs' secrecy," by Bailey Elise McBride.

Under state law, no one may disclose who provides Oklahoma with the three drugs it uses to execute condemned prisoners. Lawyers for Charles Warner and Clayton Lockett fear the men could suffer severe pain if Oklahoma is allowed to maintain a "veil of secrecy."

"Plaintiffs have no means to determine the purity of the drug which may be used to execute them, and whether that drug is contaminated with either particulate foreign matter or a microbial biohazard that could lead to a severe allergic reaction upon injection," the lawyers wrote in their state court lawsuit.

"'Cloak of secrecy' on executions alleged in Oklahoma death row inmates' lawsuit," is by Ziva Branstetter for the Tulsa World.

Two Oklahoma inmates who are set to be executed next month have sued the state over its "cloak of secrecy" involving the death penalty.

The suit by attorneys for Clayton Lockett and Charles Warner asks a judge to invalidate a state law barring the release of information about drugs used in executions. It also asks for relief including an injunction against executing Lockett and Warner until details about execution drugs are provided to their attorneys.

The suit was filed Wednesday in Oklahoma County District Court against the Department of Corrections and its director, Edward Evans.

And:

In 2011, a change in state law made the source of drugs used in executions confidential and gave more control to the DOC in how to carry them out. The change occurred after the only FDA-approved manufacturers of two execution drugs blocked their use in U.S. executions.

In 2012, the DOC publicly stated that it had obtained 20 doses of pentobarbital, one of three drugs used in executions.

Since then, the state has executed 11 people, and "plaintiffs have been unable to obtain any information about how many still remain of the 20 doses ... or whether any or all of those doses are expired," the lawsuit states.

The Oklahoman reports, "Two Oklahoma death row inmates sue state Corrections Department over lethal injection secrecy," by Graham Lee Brewe.

Two Oklahoma death row inmates are challenging the constitutionality of the law allowing the state to keep secret its source of lethal injection drugs.

According to the lawsuit filed Wednesday in Oklahoma County District Court, Clayton Lockett and Charles Warner have reason to believe Oklahoma’s execution method carries with it “a substantial risk of inflicting severe pain,” which would violate their constitutional rights against cruel and unusual punishment.

And:

Assistant Federal Public Defender Madeline Cohen, who represents Warner, makes much the same argument attorneys representing a Missouri death row inmate made in recent months, that the policy of secrecy by the state Corrections Department keeps death row inmates from knowing the quality of the drug that will be used to kill them.

Cohen contends Pentobarbital, a barbiturate used in the execution process to render the condemned person unconscious, doesn’t stop the inmate from feeling pain but only works to keep them paralyzed.

“The second drug is basically only used for optics, to make the execution look placid,” Cohen said.

On Jan. 9, Michael Lee Wilson, 38, was put to death by the state for participating in the 1995 murder of Tulsa store clerk Richard Yost. Wilson’s final words were “I feel my whole body burning.” The petition filed Wednesday uses his last words as an example of the uncertainty of the process.

The Los Angeles Times posts, "Condemned Oklahoma inmates sue: What's in the drug that will kill us?"  It's by Molly Hennessy-Fiske.

Oklahoma, Ohio, Missouri and other death penalty states have been scrambling for lethal injection drugs after major manufacturers — many based in Europe with longtime opposition to the death penalty — stopped selling to them.

The issue sparked national controversy last month when relatives of an Ohio inmate who witnessed his execution complained that he took more than 15 minutes to die, appearing to gasp and snort. They have since sued the state and drug makers.

Previously, inmates received a sedative while paralytic drugs killed them. As supplies dried up of the sedative, sodium thiopentol, some states switched to another drug, pentobarbitol, and stopped disclosing information about lethal injections.

Earlier coverage from Oklahoma begins at the link.  Also available, news coverage of a lawsuit against an Oklahoma compounding pharmacy linked to supplying lethal injection drugs.

Missouri, the New Ground Zero

"'Ground zero' for the death penalty," is by Tal Kopan for Politico.  Here's the beginning:

Missouri executed its fourth inmate in as many months early Wednesday, even as the issue of capital punishment has sparked a new and reshaped political debate in the state and across the country.

The Midwestern state has become a key battleground: As lethal-injection drug supplies have been disrupted, states have been scrambling to adapt, and Missouri lawmakers from both sides of the aisle aren’t happy with what they say is excessive secrecy about the process and questions about whether the sentences are being competently carried out.

The issue crosses party lines. Missouri’s Democratic governor and attorney general are both pro-death penalty, while some bills recently filed to challenge the executive’s approach to executions are sponsored by Republicans who also back capital punishment.

Earlier coverage from Missouri begins with the preceding post.

ABA Journal Looks at State Secrecy in LI Drug Supply

"States keep mum on where lethal injection drugs are made," is an excellent overview by Wendy N. Davis in the March issue of ABA Journal.  Here's the beginning, which starts in Missouri:

Like other states with the death penalty, Missouri is facing a shortage of the lethal injection drug pentobarbital, primarily because its Danish manufacturer won’t allow it to be used in executions.

So when the state initially set an execution date for convicted serial killer Joseph Paul Franklin, officials announced that they would instead inject Franklin with a lethal dose of propofol, the same anesthetic that killed Michael Jackson.

But after the European Union threatened to limit shipments of propofol to the United States, as a protest against capital punishment, Gov. Jay Nixon had to order the state Department of Corrections to devise a different method of execution. A few weeks later, the state decided to use pentobarbital after all, and to obtain it from a compounding pharmacy, a company that manufactures the drug but without the same level of federal oversight as big manufacturers.

Earlier coverage from Missouri begins with the preceding link.  Also available, more on international pressure; related posts are in the lethal injection category index.

The Ohio Drugs

"Ohio got death penalty drugs from Illinois maker that objects to execution use," is the AP report by Andrew Welsh-Huggins.  It's via the Greenfield Reporter.

Ohio's most recent batches of lethal injection drugs were produced by a company that wants states to stop using them for capital punishment, records show.

Lake Forest, Illinois-based Hospira Inc. says it manufactures the drugs, the sedative midazolam and the painkiller hydromophone, to enhance and save the lives of patients it helps treat. The company says it objects to their use in capital punishment.

Hospira's position adds to the state's difficulties obtaining drugs to put condemned inmates to death at a time when several other states, including Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas, face similar challenges obtaining drugs.

Other drug makers have prohibited the use of their drugs in executions, and states are running out of options.

Ohio purchased the Hospira-made drugs in 2012 and 2013 from San Francisco-based drug distributor McKesson, according to invoices and packing slips obtained by The Associated Press through a public records request.

The two drugs are required by Ohio's execution policy. Their first use, in the prolonged execution last month of a pregnant woman's condemned killer, sparked calls for a moratorium on capital punishment.

Earlier coverage from Ohio begins at the link.

The Latest From Missouri

Today's St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports, "Missouri says it's ready to execute murderer – the question is how," by Jeremy Kohler.

The Missouri Department of Corrections said Tuesday that it planned to go ahead with the execution of Michael A. Taylor on Feb. 26, even though its access was cut off to a sedative it had planned to use for the lethal injection.

The unanswered question was how.

An Oklahoma pharmacy agreed Monday not to provide Missouri corrections officials with pentobarbital and acknowledged it had not already provided the drug for the execution. Taylor had sued the pharmacy after attorneys and other death penalty opponents had publicly named the pharmacy as the source of Missouri’s execution drug.

Taylor’s attorneys said in documents filed in federal court that they believed the state had no pentobarbital. But on Tuesday, a spokesman for the Department of Corrections said in an email that Missouri was “prepared to carry out the execution … following the established execution protocol” using pentobarbital.

He would not say directly whether the state had the drug on hand.

"Missouri officials declined comment on execution supply," is the AP report, via the Springfield News-Leader.

The head of the Missouri Corrections Department is remaining silent on whether the state has enough of its execution drug to carry out next week’s scheduled lethal injection.

Director George Lombardi told the Senate Appropriations Committee on Wednesday that he couldn’t comment on the state’s drug supply. But he did say the state cannot stockpile pentobarbital produced by a compounding pharmacy because of its shelf life.

"Missouri execution of Michael Taylor remains on track, governor says," is the Kansas City Star report by Tony Rizzo and Jason Hancock.

“We will be prepared to move forward with the necessary responsibility to effectuate the ultimate penalty next week,” the governor said.

In their motion for a stay, attorneys for Taylor said any pentobarbital the state previously had stockpiled now would be expired.

And reports that the state may have alternative lethal injection chemicals on hand, if true, would leave Taylor little time to mount a legal challenge, his attorneys argued.

While being questioned during a recent deposition, a Missouri corrections official testified that the state had obtained the drugs midazolam and hydromorphone as a “backup” for use in executions.

But the state’s written lethal injection protocol only specifies the use of pentobarbital. In a written statement released Tuesday afternoon, the Department of Corrections said it was prepared to carry out the execution “following the established execution protocol.”

St. Louis Public Radio posts, "Another Federal Judge Criticizes Missouri For Haste In Carrying Out Executions," by Chris McDaniel.  There is audio at the link.

Missouri's recent executions have sparked controversy lately -- not just for the secrecy and the source of the execution drug but also for the state's speed in carrying them out.

The Department of Corrections has carried out three executions in as many months. In all those cases, the inmate still had appeals pending at the time the state executed him.

It's something legal experts have expressed concern and alarm over. Last week, 8th Circuit Chief Judge William Riley admonished the state for its actions.

"The state of Missouri executed somebody -- which they probably had the right to do -- right in the middle of the petition for rehearing voting," Riley said to Missouri Assistant Attorney General Stephen Hawke. "And I wanted you take back the word [to the attorney general's office] that some of the members did not appreciate that. We were right in the middle of voting on that."

Hawke was appearing before the court in an unrelated case.

Additional coverage includes:

"US state says execution to continue as drug supplier backs out," by AFP.

Courthouse News Service posts, "Drug Questions Won't Derail Missouri Execution," by Joe Harris.

"Missouri says it's ready to execute Taylor following proper protocol," by UPI.

"Missouri scrambles for execution drugs after pharmacy cuts off supply," by Ed Pilkington for the Guardian.

"Missouri Denied Execution Drugs By Pharmacy," by Josh Sanburn for Time.

"Pharmacy agrees not to provide execution drugs," by Meredith Clark of MSNBC.

Reuters posts, "Oklahoma pharmacy agrees not to supply drug for Missouri execution," by Carey Gillam.

"Missouri Execution Stalled Over Lethal Drugs In Short Supply," by Laura Sullivan on yesterday's edition of NPR's All Things Considered.  There is audio and a transcript at the link.

The NPR and WBUR produced, Here & Now interviews St. Louis Public Radio reporter Chris McDaniel, who has done much of the enterprise reporting on th issue in, "Oklahoma Pharmacy Says No To Providing Execution Drug."  Again, there is audio at the link.

"A death penalty dilemma for Missouri as drug supplier backs out," is by Scott Martelle at the Los Angeles Times' Opinion LA blog.

"Missouri Fights to Execute Michael Taylor, Who Is Suing the Maker of Lethal Drug," is by Nick Chiles for Atlanta Black Star.

Earlier coverage of the pending Missouri execution begins at the link.

Lethal Injection Drugs

"Can Europe End the Death Penalty in America?" is by Matt Ford at the Atlantic.

Lethal injection is by far the predominant method of execution in the United States. Before the drug shortage, virtually every lethal-injection protocol used the same three-drug method. A first drug, sodium thiopental, anesthetized the prisoner. Then a second drug, pancuronium bromide, paralyzed the inmate and halted his or her breathing. Finally, an injection of potassium chloride stopped the heart. Jay Chapman, an Oklahoma medical examiner with little pharmacology experience, first proposed the three-drug protocol in 1977. Asked about his qualifications by a New York Times reporter 30 years later, Chapman described himself as “an expert in matters after death but not in getting people that way.”

Texas became the first state to use lethal injection when it executed Charles Brooks, Jr. on December 7, 1982. Since then, U.S. states have executed over 1,000 death-row inmates by lethal injection. By the time the three-drug cocktail's constitutionality came before the U.S. Supreme Court in 2008 in Baze v. Rees, lethal injection had become the preferred method of execution for 36 states and the federal government. Thirty of those states used Chapman’s method. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the three-drug protocol in a 7-2 decision.

The European Union, for its part, makes no secret of its death-penalty stance. EU guidelines call for its “universal abolition” and declare that doing so would “[contribute] to the enhancement of human dignity and the progressive development of human rights.” EU diplomats and leaders frequently petition U.S. governors and state parole boards to halt forthcoming executions. Sometimes, the supranational organization even works in more subtle ways: EU agencies contributed over $4.8 million in donations to U.S. anti-death-penalty organizations between 2009 and 2013.

NBC News posts, "Death by Lethal Injection Faces New Hurdles," by Tracy Connor.

Until about 2010, most death-penalty states used a three-drug cocktail that was upheld as constitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court: the anesthetic sodium thiopental, the paralytic pancuronium bromide, and heart-stopping potassium chloride to stop the heart, causing death.

In 2011, Hospira, the sole U.S. producer of sodium thiopental, stopped making the drug, and the European manufacturer balked at exporting it to the U.S. if it were to be used in executions.

Manufacturers of substitute drugs like pentobarbital have also refused to supply it for executions, forcing states to turn to compounders, who mix specialty drugs from their basic components.

Defense lawyers argue that's illegal, claiming the lack of oversight prevents jailers from guaranteeing an execution won't be agonizing enough to violate the constitutional protection against cruel and unusual punishment.

They have attacked states' attempts to keep the names of the pharmacies secret — Georgia's highest court is set to decide soon whether it's legal — and it's easy to see why.

"Lethal Injection Drug Shortage Becomes More Acute," is by Jim Salter of Associated Press.  It's via HuffPost.

The nation's shortage of execution drugs is becoming increasingly acute as more pharmacies conclude that supplying the lethal chemicals is not worth the bad publicity and the legal and ethical risks.

The scarcity of drugs for lethal injections has forced states to scramble for substitutes. And experts say that whatever alternatives are found will almost certainly face costly court challenges made more complicated by laws that cloak the process in secrecy.

And:

Lethal injection has faced increasing scrutiny over the past decade. Major drug makers, many of them based in Europe with longtime opposition to the death penalty, have stopped selling to prisons and corrections departments. The source of the drugs is moving to the forefront of the death penalty debate.

Compounding pharmacies — which custom-mix prescription drugs for doctors and patients — seemed like the answer. They are generally overseen by state boards, not the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, although a law adopted last year allows larger compounding pharmacies to register with the FDA and submit to federal inspections.

But now, some compounding pharmacies are starting to back away, too.

Experts say they're not surprised, given the limited profit in selling execution drugs, ethical concerns in the medical profession, potential legal costs and unwanted publicity.

"This is not a good business model for compounding pharmacies, to be making drugs for executions, particularly with all the secret ways they're doing it," Fordam Law School professor Deborah Denno said.

Earlier coverage of international pressures and restrictions by pharmaceutical makers, at the link.

Related posts are in the international and lethal injection category indexes.

News Coverage of Georgia Supreme Court Hearing

"State’s lethal-injection secrecy law challenged," is by Bill Rankin for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The state’s highest court on Monday gave no clear indication whether it will decide the constitutionality of a new Georgia law that keeps secret that identities makers and suppliers of Georgia’s lethal-injection drugs.

But a number of the court’s justices expressed concern that the law’s secrecy may prevent a condemned inmate from determining if he faced an execution that could subject him to cruel and unusual punishment.

“For something as critical as life itself, the state is just saying, ‘Trust us, we’ll do the right thing,’” Justice Robert Benham said during the arguments.

The case involves 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 Warren Hill so she could more closely examine the secrecy law. The Supreme Court’s ruling, expected in the coming months, will decide whether Tusan gets to conduct that review.

AP coverage is, "Georgia justices hear arguments in death penalty case," by Kate Brumback, via the Augusta Chronicle.

Lawyers for the state and for a Georgia death row inmate sparred Mon­day over whether prisoners awaiting execution should have access to information about where the state gets its death penalty drug.

In July, Fulton County Su­perior Court Judge Gail Tusan issued a stay of execution for Warren Lee Hill after his attorneys challenged the constitutionality of a new state law that classifies certain information about executions, including the source of the drug, as a “confidential state secret.”

Lawyers for the state appealed Tusan’s order to the Geor­gia Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments Monday.

Sabrina Graham, of the state attorney general’s office, asked the high court to rule that Tusan didn’t have the authority to halt the execution and find the law constitutional.

Manoj Varghese, a lawyer for Hill, said the stay was appropriate and that death row inmates need to have information about where the execution drug comes from so they can challenge it if they believe it could cause unnecessary suffering.

"Attorneys Ask Georgia Supreme Court to Strike Down Execution Drug Secrecy Law," is by Lisa George for WABE-FM.  There is audio at the link.

Lawyers for death row inmate Warren Lee Hill, Junior, went before the Supreme Court of Georgia today trying to get the state’s secrecy law about its execution drug ruled unconstitutional.

The law lets state officials withhold all information about the source of the execution drug it plans to use. Hill’s lawyers say they need information to decide whether to mount a claim that the drug might cause needless suffering. The Attorney General’s office argues that the secrecy laws protect the pharmacies.

Presiding Justice P. Harris Hines asked if knowing some information might help, such as state the drug came from, because of Georgia’s history of using compounding pharmacies which are not federally regulated.

Defense attorney Sachin Varghese responded, “This court could certainly find that withholding information from the judiciary is unconstitutional. And that’s precisely the fundamental problem with this statute: is it prevents the judiciary from closely scrutinizing the death penalty in the state of Georgia."

Creative Loafing Atlanta posts, "Georgia's Supreme Court hears oral arguments in Warren Hill appeal," by Max Blau.

Assistant Attorney General Sabrina Graham defended the state's lethal-injection secrecy law's constitutionality. She argued the measure hadn't limited Hill's ability to mount a legal defense in court. The state law, which Gold Dome lawmakers passed last year, allows state officials to conceal details about where Department of Corrections officials obtain execution drugs.

Hill attorney Sachin Varghese called for greater transparency related to how the state conducts its executions. In his client's case, the lack of knowledge regarding who or where the state's lethal-injection supplies comes from makes it difficult to assess if Hill's Eighth Amendment rights, which protect him from cruel and unusual punishment, were violated. If drugs are improperly administered, he argued, the death-row inmate could be subjected to unnecessary suffering in what's supposed to be a relatively painless process.

In addition, both sides debated the importance of compounding pharmacies - labs that create their own drugs and are often unregulated by the Federal Drug Administration - to the current appeal. Varghese argued that the varying degree of state regulations for such pharmacies made it difficult to know the full details needed for a proper legal defense. On the other hand, Graham said no proper case had been made regarding possible cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment.

Earlier coverage of the Georgia case begins at the link.

Apothecary Shoppe Will Not Supply LI Drugs to Missouri

"Okla. pharmacy won't give drug for Mo. execution," is the AP report by Tim Talley and Justin Juozapavicius.  It's also available from ABC News.

An Oklahoma pharmacy will not provide a drug for a scheduled execution next week in Missouri as part of a settlement with the death row inmate's attorneys. But it's unclear whether the agreement will prevent or delay the lethal injection.

A court hearing is scheduled Tuesday in the federal lawsuit filed by inmate Michael Taylor against The Apothecary Shoppe, a compounding pharmacy in Tulsa that his attorneys said was providing a drug that could cause "inhumane pain" during his Feb. 26 execution.

In court documents filed late Monday, his lawyers asked a judge to dismiss the case because the company had agreed not to prepare or provide any drug for use in Taylor's lethal injection. The pharmacy also acknowledged it had not already provided any drug to the Missouri Department of Corrections for the execution, said Taylor's attorney, Matt Hellman.

However, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon indicated last week that the state could move forward with the execution even after the judge issued a temporary restraining order that blocked the company from providing the drug. He did not directly say "yes" or "no" when asked if Missouri had enough drugs for the execution, but he twice stressed that the Department of Corrections was prepared.

A slightly different version of the report is posted at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

According to the documents, the Apothecary Shoppe, of Tulsa, will not prepare or provide pentobarbital or any other drug for use in Michael Taylor’s execution. The documents ask a judge to dismiss the case that Taylor’s lawyers had filed against the pharmacy seeking to stop it from providing the execution drug. A hearing is scheduled for today.

Taylor’s attorney, Matt Hellman, said that as part of the deal, the pharmacy acknowledged it has not already provided any such drug to the Missouri Department of Corrections for the execution, which is scheduled for Feb. 26.

St. Louis Public Radio posts, "Oklahoma Pharmacy Agrees Not To Sell Execution Drug To Missouri," by Chris McDaniel.

Last week, a federal judge ordered the pharmacy to hold off on selling the drug to Missouri until further review. Before that could take place, however, the pharmacy and the inmate came to an agreement.

"The Apothecary Shoppe has agreed that it will not prepare or provide pentobarbital or any other drug for use in the execution of Michael Taylor," Carrie Apfel, Taylor's attorney, said in a written statement. She also said the pharmacy had not sold any drugs to the Department of Corrections for this execution yet.

The Apothecary Shoppe could not be reached for comment.

We reported in December that Missouri had been obtaining its execution drug from a compounding pharmacy not licensed to sell here. The Apothecary Shoppe sold the state compounded pentobarbital for three executions, but it only recently became licensed with the Missouri Board of Pharmacy. A Corrections official had been taking thousands of dollars in cash to the Tulsa pharmacy.

"Oklahoma pharmacy capitulates, won't supply Missouri with execution drug," is by Steve Vockrodt for the Pitch of Kansas City.

On the eve of a court hearing in Oklahoma, on whether to prolong an injunction against the pharmacy from supplying Missouri with pentobarbital, the Apothecary Shoppe reached a deal with Michael Taylor's attorneys to not make the drug for his upcoming execution. Taylor's attorneys succeeded last week in getting a temporary restraining order against the pharmacy's supply chain to the Missouri Department of Corrections while federal courts sorted out the issues surrounding Missouri's death-penalty protocol.

Missouri has made headlines around the country in recent months for its cat-and-mouse execution methods. The state either changes the drugs it uses or cloaks its drug supplier under a broad interpretation of state law that keeps members of its execution team secret. The Apothecary Shoppe did its business with Missouri in secret until The Pitch identified the compounding pharmacy in Tulsa as the likely supplier in January.

At issue is whether Missouri properly obtains its drug and whether it can definitively vouch for the efficacy of that drug. But Missouri's insistence on secrecy as well as troubling revelations about how it gets the drug have cast doubt on the state's promises that it's doing its executions appropriately.

"Missouri execution: pharmacy will not supply compounded pentobarbital," is at the Guardian.

The Apothecary Shoppe has not acknowledged that it supplies a compounded version of pentobarbital to Missouri for use in lethal injections, as Taylor says, and says it can’t because of a Missouri law requiring the identities of those on the state’s execution team to be kept confidential.

In his lawsuit Taylor alleged that Missouri turned to the Apothecary Shoppe to supply compounded pentobarbital because the only licensed manufacturer of the drug refuses to provide it for lethal injections. That company, Illinois-based Akorn Inc, agreed to that condition when it bought the exclusive rights to the drug in January 2012 from a Danish company that had produced it under the trade name Nembutal.
Taylor contends that several recent executions in which compounded pentobarbital was used showed it would likely cause him “severe, unnecessary, lingering and ultimately inhumane pain”.

Earlier coverage from Missouri begins at the link.

More From Missouri

"Lethal injection questions could delay killer's execution again," is the St. Louis Post-Dispatch report by Jeremy Kohler.

Michael A. Taylor has been here before.

The state of Missouri was hours away from taking his life in June 2006 for the abduction, rape and murder of 15-year-old Ann Harrison in Kansas City.

But Taylor’s lawyers raised questions about whether Missouri’s three-drug lethal injection protocol would pass constitutional muster. Their inquiry led to a blockbuster disclosure: The state’s lead executioner testified that he was dyslexic and sometimes mixed up drug amounts. His testimony raised questions about whether the state’s execution protocol put Taylor at risk of suffering a cruel and unusual punishment.

A federal judge put a moratorium on Missouri’s death penalty.

Years later, Missouri uses a single drug, pentobarbital. The state has used it to execute three inmates since November. Taylor is next in line for the injection, scheduled for Feb. 26. But once again, questions from Taylor’s lawyers about Missouri’s execution protocol threaten to keep the state from seeking justice.

The Post-Dispatch also publishes, "Frequently asked questions about Missouri's death penalty," by Kohler.

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

In Georgia

"Georgia’s high court to take look at lethal-injection secrecy law," is Bill Rankin's report in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Georgia cannot carry out executions without a new law that shields from public view the identities of those who make and supply lethal-injection drugs to prison officials, state officials say.

But it is a legal challenge to the secrecy law, which took effect last year, that has ground executions here to a halt.

In July, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Gail Tusan ruled that the new statute was likely unconstitutional and stayed the execution of condemned killer Warren Hill. Since then, the state has scheduled no other executions.

Monday, the Georgia Supreme Court will hear arguments in Hill’s case and could ultimately determine whether Georgia’s lethal-injection secrecy law is constitutional. The court could avoid the issue altogether and decide whether Tusan had the authority to issue the stay. But the state Attorney General’s Office is asking the justices to address the issue head-on because it is “almost certain” a challenge to the law will be back before the court again.

The court is hearing the case at a time when prison officials in Georgia and across the nation are scrambling to obtain drugs that allow them to carry out executions. Just last week, Wyoming lawmakers considered but rejected the use of firing squads to execute condemned inmates, and Virginia legislators shelved consideration of bringing back the electric chair. The proposals were being considered because of the scarcity of lethal-injection drugs.

"High court to hear oral arguments in Hill case," is the AP preview filed by Kate Brumback.  It's via the Marietta Daily Journal.

The Georgia Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments today in its review of a lower court’s order temporarily halting an execution because of a challenge to a new state law prohibiting the release of information about the source of the state’s execution drug.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Gail Tusan in July issued a stay of execution for Warren Lee Hill. At issue is a law that classifies certain information about executions, including the source of the drug, as a “confidential state secret.”

Hill’s lawyers say the statute is unconstitutional. State attorneys have said the law is constitutional and necessary to discourage retaliation against those who take part in executions.

The high court has asked the two sides to address four questions:

• Is the case moot because the state’s supply of execution drug pentobarbital has expired and it is unclear where the state would get more?
• Did the Fulton County Superior Court have the authority to halt Hill’s execution?
• Could the issue of the law’s constitutionality be avoided if Hill were given a sample of the drug for testing or if he were given other information not prohibited by the law?
• Did Tusan make a mistake when she stopped the execution based on Hill’s challenge of the law’s constitutionality?

Earlier coverage of Georgia lethal injection issues begins at the link; also available,  coverage of Warren Hill's case.  Related posts are in the lethal injection category index.

Warren Hill's stay of execution grows from his lawyers' challenge to the Georgia law restricting information on the state's lethal injection drugs.  Georgia's standard for determining mental retardation (now generally referred to as intellectual disability) is also an issue in his case.

Stop the Execution Train

That's the title of an editorial in today's edition of the Tennessean.

If the state of Tennessee has its way, it will put 10 people to death in a period of 18 months between April 22, 2014, and Nov. 17, 2015.

The federal public defender’s office in Nashville has doubts that any of the 10 are solid cases for the death penalty — if there is such a thing as a solid case for institutionalized cruelty.

And:

It took unlawful actions by the Correction Department, flouting federal statutes over drug imports, and then changing Tennessee’s own open-records law to keep a shroud of secrecy over new sources of lethal drugs, to bring us to the point where Tennessee feels it is ready to execute so many people so quickly.

Other states are putting executions on hold because lethal injections are proving to be tantamount to torture. Not Tennessee; its correctional system, with the help of state Supreme Court justices who suddenly appear to be worried about job security, can’t wait to start the intravenous drip.

Earlier coverage from Tennessee begins at the link.

Continuing Coverage From Missouri

"Execution secrecy draws criticism in Missouri," is the Kansas City Star report by Jason Hancock.  Here's the beginning of this detailed must-read:

The drug Missouri used to execute three men in as many months remains shrouded in secrecy.

The state has gone to great lengths to keep it that way.

Everything from how the lethal pharmaceuticals ended up in Missouri — a cash-carrying courier was dispatched to a neighboring state — to exactly where they came from has stirred controversy.

Citing a 2007 law prohibiting the public disclosure of the identities of members of the execution team, such as doctors and nurses, the identity of the pharmacy that created the drugs remains officially unknown. Yet mounting evidence points to a compounding pharmacy in Tulsa, Okla.

The opaque nature of the drug acquisition has rubbed some state legislators the wrong way, even those who firmly support the death penalty.

A handful of bills have been introduced this year aimed at forcing more transparency into the process. A House committee has vowed to hold hearings on the issue.

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

Oklahoma Execution Still Reverberating

The Oklahoman reports, "Condemned man's last words lead to questions about lethal injection 'cocktail' in Oklahoma, U.S.," by Graham Lee Brewer.  It's also available from Corrections One.

The final words of two condemned men have placed Oklahoma at the forefront of the national debate over capital punishment and the constitutionality of the drugs used in lethal injections.

On Jan. 9, Michael Lee Wilson, 38, was put to death for participating in the 1995 murder of Tulsa store clerk Richard Yost. Shortly after the drugs began to flow into Wilson's body, he expressed love to his family and the world. After a short pause he gave his final words: “I feel my whole body burning.” Seconds later he was dead.

On Jan. 23, Kenneth Eugene Hogan said he had a metallic taste in his mouth as he was executed for stabbing to death a college student in Oklahoma City.

Could the statements by Wilson and Hogan indicate a problem with the three-drug cocktail used to carry out executions in Oklahoma and other states, or violate constitutional protection against cruel or unusual punishment?

Wilson's last words were cited in a lawsuit brought against the Missouri Department of Corrections by death row prisoners seeking basic information about the pentobarbital intended for use in their executions.

And:

On Thursday, a colleague of [Jen] Moreno's, Eighth Amendment Resource Counsel for the UC Berkeley School of Law's Death Penalty Clinic Megan McCracken, filed a lawsuit against the Oklahoma Department of Corrections for not promptly responding to a Jan. 1 open records request asking for, among other things, drug chain of custody documents, correspondences with pharmacies, and any records or documents regarding the manufacturers and distributors of any drugs used for the purpose of execution.

“What we know about Oklahoma is that we really don't know very much,” Moreno said.

“It's probably one of the states where we get the least amounts of information about what they're doing.”

According to Oklahoma statute, “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.”

I want to point back to AP coverage of the Texas execution of Rickey Lynn Lewis, in April 2013.  Texas also uses a Pentobarbital by itself to execute.

As the drug began taking effect, he said he could feel it “burning my arm.”

“I feel it in my throat. I’m getting dizzy,” Lewis said before he started to snore and, seconds later, lost consciousness.

He was pronounced dead 14 minutes after the lethal dose began.

Earlier coverage from Oklahoma begins at the link; you can also jump to posts of the two Oklahoma executions, at the links.

Lethal Injection Roundup

Andrew Cohen writes, "America Is Terrible at Killing People Legally," for Politico Magazine.

Herbert Smulls, a convicted murderer, was put to death by Missouri officials while his final appeal was still being considered by the United States Supreme Court. The process by which lethal drugs were pushed into the condemned man’s veins began at 10:11 p.m. Missouri officials told me last Friday that they proceeded with the execution, despite the pendency of an appeal, because there were no stays in place at the time and because the justices in Washington had repeatedly rejected Smulls’ requests for a stay in the hours leading to his death. Smulls was pronounced dead at 10:20 p.m. In figuring that the Supreme Court would again decline to stop the execution, Missouri guessed correctly this time. The Court denied Smulls’s final stay request at 10:24 p.m. He was dead four minutes before his legal rights were exhausted. Death penalty experts, people who have spent decades working on capital cases, were mortified. It’s just not supposed to happen that way.

This is just the latest episode suggesting a level of chaos, a form of lawlessness even, in the administration of the death penalty in America. Other examples abound and include the continued execution of the “mentally retarded,” (an outdated term the Court continues to use) which was supposed to be outlawed by the Supreme Court in 2002 but which is occurring anyway. Another example lies in the Court’s lax standards, and negligible oversight, in evaluating capital cases involving prosecutorial misconduct or ineffective assistance of counsel. In Texas, even the correctional officers’ union is calling for improved conditions for death row inmates while lawmakers in states like Virginia and Missouri (and others) are considering the return of firing squads and electric chairs. Through inaction or indifference, the justices have signaled to state officials that they can push envelopes in capital cases they would not have pushed five or 10 years ago.

The most litigious current example of this phenomenon surrounds the use of secretive new approaches by state officials in Missouri, Louisiana, Texas and elsewhere to hide critical information about the drugs they want to use to execute inmates. This lack of transparency raises profound constitutional questions and yet so far the justices have been unwilling or unable to provide answers. Thus we have entered a newly unsettled era of death penalty law—unsettled even by the contentious standards of modern death penalty jurisprudence—that requires judicial oversight. The Supreme Court must act now to bring order to this growing chaos.

Democracy Now posts, "Execution Chaos: Witnesses Say Executions Are Botched As States Use Untested, Secret Drug Cocktails," with Amy Goodman.  There is video at the link.

 As drug companies refuse to let their products be used for the death penalty, states are using untested drug combinations that have resulted in deaths like that of Dennis McGuire in Ohio, where the state used untested two-drug method despite warnings it might cause immense suffering. We speak with the reporter who witnessed the execution, and with a lawyer for a man executed in Missouri with an entirely different lethal drug cocktail, made by a pharmacy the state refused to name.

And:

We speak with Alan Johnson, reporter with the Columbus Dispatch in Ohio, who witnessed McGuire’s execution and says he observed him gasping for air, and that he appeared to be choking. We are also joined by Cheryl Pilate, one of the lead attorneys for Herbert Smulls, who was executed Jan. 29 with a lethal dose of pentobarbital that was made by a compounding pharmacy the state refuses to name. Also joining is is Megan McCracken, attorney with the University of California, Berkeley School of Law’s Death Penalty Clinic, where she is an expert on lethal injection methods.

"New complications in executions bring new death penalty discussions," is by Patricia Zapor of Catholic News Service.  It's via the Boston Pilot.

International law, the risk of using inhumane methods of execution and opposition to capital punishment by the survivors of murder victims are among issues that are bringing fresh energy to debate about the death penalty.

In mid-January, Father Lawrence Hummer, of St. Mary's Catholic Church in Chillicothe, Ohio, witnessed the execution of Dennis McGuire for the 1989 rape and murder of 22-year-old Joy Stewart, who was 30 weeks pregnant.

A week later, publications around the world were printing the priest's account of watching what he called an inhumane procedure in which the convicted murderer struggled for 26 minutes while a previously untested mixture of drugs was used to execute McGuire.

At about the same time, the execution of a Mexican citizen drew international attention and warnings from the U.S. State Department that the refusal of the State of Texas to review the man's conviction in light of an international court ruling might put U.S. citizens at risk while traveling abroad.

Meanwhile, in Colorado, the parents of a prison guard who was beaten to death by an inmate in 2002 are battling the county prosecutor for the right to be heard at the retrial of the man who previously confessed to killing their son.

"States that actually murder by the death penalty," syndicated columnist and civil libertarian Nat Hentoff's latest.  It's via the Columbia Daily Herald.

While some states have ended the death penalty, it still persists in others, and capital punishment remains a federal death sentence.

Indeed, a shocking (and, to me, sickening) lead editorial in The New York Times last week revealed the means that certain states use to continue creating death penalty corpses. These states viciously violate not only the Constitution, but also the most basic American rules of law and our most profound national values.

How many of us know what those are?

Deserving at the very least a Pulitzer, this editorial explained how certain remaining death penalty states “hide the means by which they kill people”

 Earlier coverage of Herbert Smulls' execution, Andrew Cohen's earlier writing on Missouri's rush to execute, Ohio's botched execution of Dennis McGuire, Texas execution of Edgar Tamayo Arias, and Bob Autobee's demonstration in Colorado, at the links.

Related posts are in the lethal injection index.

Missouri Roundup

"Ruling could clarify Missouri's executioner secrecy law," is by Jeremy Kohler in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.  Here's the beginning:

Last month, federal Judge Beth Phillips said in a ruling in a death penalty case that it weighed heavily on her that condemned inmate Herbert Smulls had no legal means to learn more about how Missouri’s execution drug is made.

Under a Missouri law enacted in 2007, information that could be used to identify Missouri executioners is exempt from the state’s open records law. Under one of the law’s provisions, executioners can sue anyone who knowingly releases their identities. When Missouri hired a compounding pharmacy last fall to produce drugs for its lethal injections, the Department of Corrections said it considered the pharmacy, as part of the execution team, to be secret under the law.

By the time Smulls’ case got to Phillips, the 8th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals had already ruled that he was not entitled to learn more about the pharmacists making Missouri’s drugs for executions. The issue was moot, the court said, because Smulls had not proposed a more humane way to die. Phillips denied Smulls’ petition for a stay of execution, and the state of Missouri executed him Jan. 29.

But now Phillips, a judge in the U.S. District Court Western District of Missouri in Kansas City, is expected to rule on a First Amendment challenge to that law. The American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri sued the Department of Corrections last year to try to overturn the law so it could post documents to its website that identified executioners without fear of being sued.

"State's execution rules need legislative oversight, Burlison says," is the Springfield News-Leader report by Jonathan Shorman.

The Department of Corrections would have to run its proposed rules for executions through a legislative committee, under a bill proposed Wednesday by a Springfield lawmaker.

Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Springfield, wants the department’s execution rules to be reviewed by the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, a panel made up of senators and representatives. Currently, the department is exempt from JCAR review.

Burlison’s proposal comes as Missouri’s lethal injection method faces scrutiny and concerns have been raised over the sourcing of the drugs used in the executions.

And:

Burlison, who filed his proposal, House Bill 1737, on Wednesday, said he wants to increase transparency of the process. Switching the drug used in an execution is the kind of rule change that would come before JCAR if Burlison’s bill became law.

"Corrections, executions and humanity," is Jamala Rogers' column in the St. Louis American.

There are numerous examples of the inhumane and corrupt nature of the prison industrial complex. Over two million citizens languish behind bars. Most of them are non-violent offenders who experience little or no rehabilitation during their stay. Reforms may seem challenging for this institution, but they’re not impossible.

Earlier coverage from Missouri begins at the link.

Georgia & Secrecy

Altanta Public Radio WABE-FM reports, "State Laws Contradict on Georgia Lethal Injection Secrecy Statute," by Rose Scott.  There is audio at the link.   

Later this month the Supreme Court of Georgia will hear arguments regarding the constitutionality of a law that shields information about the manufacturer of the state’s execution drug.

And:

Last March lawmakers passed House Bill 122.

The legislation keeps confidential any information regarding a person or entity that participates in or administers an execution.

That includes identifying any person or entity that manufactures, supplies, compounds, or prescribes the execution drug.

Some U.S prisons are turning to compounding pharmacies to acquire the drug.

At the time, Governor Nathan Deal told WABE the law was necessary.

“It is such a scrutinized issue that for any pharmacy that provides any of the chemical makeups [you know] possibly could suffer other consequences by virtue of that and that’s the reason the identity was protected.”

A month later, Deal signed House Bill 209.

It revised guidelines and procedures for out of state pharmacists, pharmacies and compounding pharmacies to do business in Georgia.

For example, the law details the requirements needed to obtain a license to sell and ship drugs to Georgia.

That information would be public record.

Which poses this question, does House bill 209 contradict House bill 122?

Earlier coverage of the Georgia secrecy legislation is at the link.

Related posts are in the lethal injection category index; the issue of secrecy in obtaining lethal injection drugs is an issue playing out in several states right now.. 

Commentary From Louisiana

"Louisiana must cancel this planned execution," is a column from James Varney at the New Orleans Times-Picayune.  Here's the beginning of a must-read:

The first execution I witnessed at Angola State Penitentiary happened just after midnight. The state likes to do its killing when most everyone is asleep and the media is short handed.

Why such stealth? Polls consistently show majority support for the death penalty, and politicians spanning the gamut from Bill Clinton to local sheriffs have made splashy hay of their embrace of capital punishment.

Yet the state puts people to death in the dead of night. At some level, that timing reflects a less than perfect peace with what is happening. After all, when a deed is confined to the cover of darkness and seeks as little attention as possible, it's a good bet said deed would be better left undone.

When it comes to Louisiana's plans to execute Christopher Sepulvado on Feb. 5, however, the death penalty's creepy, hidden currents are getting exposed. The state's maneuvers surrounding the poison it will inject into Sepulvado, and the fact that the deadly elixir's composition is still unclear, also indicate a bedrock (and yet understandably human) unease we have with the death penalty itself.

Once again, we see the state striving to impose an irrevocable punishment as far from the glare of publicity as possible. What's happening right now in Louisiana is a very slippery business and something no American should be comfortable with.

Also in the Times-Picayune, columnist Jarvis DeBerry writes, "Louisiana, let's stop pretending we can do executions right."

While reading of the fight over how much of a drug is in stock and when and where those drugs were acquired and how much pain, if any, the condemned can suffer, you might be fooled into thinking that there is a right and acceptable way to put the condemned to death. You might think that so long as all the i's are dotted and all the t's are crossed, that such adherence to protocol makes executions all fine and acceptable. It doesn't.

I understand the lawyers' strategy as they advocate for their clients who are facing execution. The courts are not going to be moved by arguments that the death penalty is immoral for a government that has the power and the infrastructure to make sure captured killers never kill again. But they might be moved, temporarily at least, by a state not following its own rules.

The courts' example of doing things right might include carrying out executions to the letter. But just because that's their idea of what's right doesn't mean it has to be ours.

"Political Horizons: Pending execution renews questions about capital punishment," is the column by Mark Ballard in the New Orleans Advocate.

In the 15 or so years that have passed since regularly covering death row news in Texas, I’ve been able to dodge the uneasy questions about the role of the death penalty in civilized society.

But that hiatus is likely to end this week.

Prosecutors and capital punishment lawyers give the state a better than even chance of executing Christopher Sepulvado on Wednesday. He was convicted in 1993 of torturing to death a 6-year-old over a three-day period.

Sepulvado will be the first person executed in this state — against his will — since 2002.

The renewal of executions brings back all the uncomfortable questions that were put aside when nobody was being put to death by state government.

Also in the New Orleans Advocate, "Managing complications of capital punishment," by James Gill.

However long it takes Sepulvado to die, the attending physician, Jason Haydel Collins, will no doubt be watching closely. Collins’ specialty, according to Corrections Department records obtained by the defense, is obstetrics/gynecology. You have to admire the versatility of a doctor who can alternate between the delivery room and the death house.

A gynecologist may seem an odd choice for this job, but the Corrections Department probably didn’t have that many candidates to choose from. The majority view among doctors, and pharmacists, too, is that their proper role is keeping people alive.

Still the attending physician’s main responsibility is to confirm death, and for that chore, Collins will have the assistance of West Feliciana Deputy Coroner James Groody. If Sepulvado is not dead after 30 minutes — and with these drugs it could be touch and go on that issue — a second dose will be administered. And so on until a flat line is achieved.

Nothing whatsoever to worry about, then. Justice will be done Wednesday and our guys will be ready to handle any hitch.

Earlier coverage from Louisiana begins with the preceding post.  Next, comment from Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal.

The Latest From Louisiana

With an execution set, there is a great deal of news and commentary from Louisiana as the clock ticks.  I'm going to break it out into three posts.  This one links to news coverage.  Next, commentary, followed by comments from the governor.

Today's Alexandria Town Talk reports, "DeSoto Parish man set to die Wednesday for killing stepson," by Vickie Welborn.

 Christopher Sepulvado has an appointed day to die — between 6 and 9 p.m. Wednesday.

Standing between him and the executioner’s needle are a federal judge in Baton Rouge and the nation’s high court in Washington. The man who so brutally beat and scalded his 6-year-old stepson to death almost 22 years ago can only hope at least one of the judicial panels intervenes.

The child killer, now 70, has faced the death sentence before. Almost a year ago, Sepulvado was days from his scheduled execution when yet another of his multitude of legal battles drew support and halted plans to kill him by lethal injection.

"Louisiana has two-drug cocktail in stock for Wednesday execution, official says," is by Lauren McGaughy of the New Orleans Times-Picayune.

Louisiana corrections officials said Friday (Jan. 31) the state has in stock the two-drug cocktail it plans to use to execute condemned killer Christopher Sepulvado on Wednesday. The confirmation came a week after the state admitted it could not secure the drug it originally intended to use in the lethal injection, and just four days after it amended its execution protocol to allow for change in drugs.

"It is common for the Department's two pharmacies to carry the drugs listed in the revised execution protocol (midazolam and hydromorphone)," Pam Laborde, communications director for the Department of Corrections, said in an email Friday. "The Department has sufficient supplies of both drugs to carry out the execution of Christopher Sepulvado as currently scheduled on February 5, 2014."

On Jan. 24, the DOC said it did not have a sufficient supply of the barbiturate pentobarbital in stock to undertake the execution. On Monday (Jan. 27), the state amended its execution protocol to substitute pentobarbital for the same two-drug cocktail used to execute Ohio killer Dennis McGuire earlier this month.

During the 26-minute execution, McQuire appeared to writhe and gasp for air while remaining unconscious. His family has filed suit, claiming the execution amounted to cruel and unusual punishment and adding the drugs were illegally used to put him to death.

The Baton Rouge Advocate reports, "Louisiana rethinks options in face of drug scarcity," by Michelle Millhollon.

Twenty-three years after the state retired Gruesome Gertie and switched to lethal injection for executions, the electric chair could make a comeback in Louisiana.

States are scrambling for death penalty alternatives because of a clampdown on the availability of deadly drugs for executions. Old-time tools that were banished to states’ history museums when lethal injection came onto the scene could once again come into vogue. In Missouri and Wyoming, firing squads are under consideration. Gas chambers and electrocutions also are up for discussion as legislators across the country balk at being hemmed in by drug companies’ aversion to facilitating the death penalty.

In Louisiana, where 81 men and two women await execution, state Rep. Joseph Lopinto said he expects to file legislation this year diversifying the state’s death penalty law. At the moment, executions in Louisiana must be carried out through a needle. A hangman’s noose, gas chamber, electric chair and firing squad are not legally allowed alternatives.

“I’m going to bring back the electric chair,” said Lopinto, R-Metairie.

Before making any changes to the state’s death penalty law, Louisiana plans to execute 70-year-old Christopher Sepulvado this week.

Earlier coverage from Louisiana begins at the link.  In the next post, extensive commentary from Louisiana.

Commentary From Mary Sanchez

The Kansas City Star syndicated columnist' latest is, "The death penalty has become a game of chess," via the Chicago Tribune.

Americans have developed a nearly insatiable appetite for morbid details about crime, as any number of docudramas, Netflix series and Hollywood movies attest.

There is one notable exception: executions. Here, we'd just rather not know too much about current practices. Better to just think of prisoners quietly going to sleep, permanently.

And:

All of this adds to the growing case against the death penalty, showing it as a costly and irrational part of the criminal justice system. We know the threat of it is not a deterrent. We know it is far more costly to litigate than seeking sentences for life with no parole. We know extensive appeals are excruciating for the families of murder victims. And we know that some of society's most unrepentant, violent killers somehow escape it.

And now we've got states going to extremes to find the drugs -- and hide information about how they got then -- just to continue the killing.

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

Investigative Journalists Discuss LI Drugs

St. Louis Public Radio posts, "Live Chat: St. Louis Public Radio & The Lens Discuss Lethal Injection Drug Controversy In Mo., La."

Thank you for joining us for the live chat, which has now concluded. The full archive of the chat is below.

The controversy surrounding the drug now used for executions in Missouri is not confined to the Show Me state. Louisiana is wrangling with a similar situation.

Missouri executed an inmate using the drug late Wednesday night, and Louisiana is scheduled to do so next week.

Join us this afternoon at 1 p.m. CT for a live chat with our Chris McDaniel, who has done extensive reporting on the topic in Missouri, and Della Hasselle, a reporter who has covered the issue for the New Orleans nonprofit news outlet The Lens.

The chat contains links to the extensive reporting the two outlets have done in recent weeks.  Follow this link to the archived live chat.

Earlier coverage from Louisiana and Missouri, at the links. 

New Execution Rules Coming to Washington State

"State to extend witnesses’ access to more parts of executions," is the AP report by Rachel La Corte of AP, via the Seattle Times.  It's also available directly from AP.

Washington state will allow witnesses to executions to see the entire process, including the insertion of intravenous catheters during a lethal injection, state officials told The Associated Press.

The new witness protocol, currently a draft that is in its final stages of approval, includes the use of television monitors to show the inmate entering the death chamber and being strapped down, as well as the insertion of the IVs, which had both previously been shielded from public view. The new technology has already been installed, and officials say the protocol will be finalized within the next week.

Through public disclosure requests, the AP had sought information about any potential changes to execution protocols. State corrections officials spoke with the AP about the new procedures this week.

The change is in response to a 2012 federal appeals court ruling that said all parts of an execution must be fully open to public witnesses. That ruling was sparked by a case brought by the AP and other news organizations who challenged Idaho’s policy to shield the insertion of IV catheters from public view, in spite of a 2002 ruling from the same court that said every aspect of an execution should be open to witnesses.

Earlier coverage from Washington State begins at the link; also available, coverage of the 9th Circuit ruling involving execution witnesses.

Lethal Injection Commentary

"Secrecy Behind Executions," is the editorial published in today's New York Times.  Here's the beginning:

It is bad enough that the death penalty is barbaric, racist and arbitrary in its application, but it is also becoming less transparent as the dwindling number of death-penalty states work to hide the means by which they kill people.

The increased secrecy around lethal-injection drug protocols is only the latest tactic of pro-death-penalty legislators and corrections officials around the country. In Missouri, this secrecy was upheld last week by a federal appeals court, which denied a condemned inmate’s constitutional claim that he is entitled to basic information about the drugs that would be used to put him to death.

Herbert Smulls was executed late Wednesday for the 1991 murder of a jewelry-store owner. Missouri refused to name the pharmacy or pharmacies involved in producing the execution drugs.

Missouri’s secrecy, along with new legislation in states such as Georgia and Tennessee, is a response to a mounting “crisis” in death-penalty states: Because many drug manufacturers now refuse to supply drugs for use in executions, states are scrambling to replenish their stocks. This often means turning to compounding pharmacies, which exist in a largely unregulated world.

Northwest Missourian columnist Dustin McMahon writes, "Debate over lethal injection drugs missing the point."

I find it extremely difficult to understand what people mean by a “humane execution.” Perhaps this phrase may be used to separate the state from the animals it decides to give an “eye-for-an-eye” style of justice to. For, if the state commits a “humane execution,” the death can be justified as being more ethical than the original.

Maybe a solid alternative, and an undoubtedly more humane one, would be to eliminate the death penalty. I know it sounds crazy, to euthanize the state’s harshest penalty for criminals, but consideration is warranted.

It is quite clear that, in an advanced society, a state can find much more humane ways to treat prisoners and criminals than to simply kill them off. If there is any dispute over the inhumane nature of the method(s) used to kill prisoners, it is not unreasonable to call for the abolition of the entire practice.

 Coverage from Missouri begins with the preceding post.

Justice Alito Stays Missouri Execution

The stay issued by Justice Alito is in effect, "pending further order of the undersigned or of the Court."

"U.S. Supreme Court halts execution of Missouri inmate Herbert Smulls," is the AP report, via the Kansas City Star.

Justice Samuel Alito signed the order that was sent out Tuesday night after President Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech.

Smulls’ lawyers had made last-minute pleas Tuesday to spare his life, focusing on the state’s refusal to disclose from which compounding pharmacy they obtain the lethal-injection drug, pentobarbital. Missouri has argued the compounding pharmacy is part of the execution team — and therefore its name cannot be released to the public.

Defense attorney Cheryl Pilate contends, however, that the secrecy makes it impossible to know whether the drug could cause pain and suffering during the execution process.

Pilate said the stay is temporary while the high court reviews the case, but she is hopeful it will become permanent.

Missouri statutes allow executions to occur at any time of the day they are scheduled. That’s that’s why the state always sets the execution time for one minute after midnight, in case there are court delays. If the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately decides in favor of the state, the execution could still occur Wednesday.

"Supreme Court grants stay of execution for killer Herbert Smulls," is by AP and Jeremy Kohler for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

The execution team will reconvene at noon today, expecting the stay to have been lifted, said Mike O’Connell, spokesman for the Department of Public Safety.

Pilate had made last-minute pleas to spare Smulls, focusing on the state’s refusal to disclose from which compounding pharmacy it had obtained the lethal-injection drug, pentobarbital. Missouri has argued that the pharmacy is part of the execution team so its name can’t be released.

St. Louis Public Radio posts, "Supreme Court Justice Temporarily Halts Execution Of Missouri Inmate," by Chris McDaniel.

Late Tuesday evening, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito granted a temporary stay of execution for Missouri inmate Herbert Smulls. He was set to be put to death early Wednesday morning.

Alito's stay will likely be in place until the full Supreme Court can consider the matter Wednesday morning.

At issue is the quality and source of the execution drug. The state has attempted to keep the supplier a secret, but we've reported the pharmacy is the Apothecary Shoppe in Oklahoma. That pharmacy is not licensed to do business in Missouri.

The laboratory that tests the drug has controversy of its own. Analytical Research Laboratories approved a batch of steroids for commercial use that ended up killing dozens in 2012.

The attorney general's office has argued the identities do not matter.

“The information… must remain a secret,” the attorney general’s office wrote in December. “The name or the identifying information… does not matter when the court knows the end-product was potent, pure, sterile and worked effectively."

The state contends a Missouri statute that prohibits naming members of the "execution team" applies to the pharmacy that supplies the drug. The attorney general has said the identity of the testing lab is a "state secret," which is normally reserved for matters of national security.

"Supreme Court stays execution of Missouri murderer," is by Carey Gillam and Kevin Murphy of Reuters, via GlobalPost.

Missouri and several other states have turned to compounding pharmacies, which are not regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, to acquire drugs for executions after an increasing number of pharmaceutical manufacturers have objected to their drugs being used in capital punishment.

The U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday ruled for Missouri on the use of pentobarbital, finding that Smulls' lawyers did not propose a "feasible or more humane alternative" and have not shown that Missouri sought to cause him unnecessary pain by using the drug.

And on Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Beth Phillips denied Smulls a 60-day stay of execution, citing earlier U.S. appeals court rulings that pentobarbital does not inflict cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the constitution.

Also on Monday, Smulls filed a motion claiming errors were made during his trial, and said he had new evidence that should be considered.

"Justice Alito Skipped the State of the Union Address to Stay an Execution," by Sara Morrison at the Atlantic Wire.

Four Supreme Court justices skipped the State of the Union address: Antonin Scalia, Sonia Sotomayor, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito. Alito, at least, had an excuse: he was signing an order to stay the execution of a Missouri death row inmate.

And:

Missouri refused to disclose which pharmacy supplied the drug it would use to kill Smulls, which his lawyer argued would make it impossible to know if he would face pain and suffering when it was administered. For one, the drug that will be used to kill Smulls has been stored at room temperature for several days longer than pharmacy industry standards dictate. Though Missouri's governor Jay Nixon and federal courts denied Smulls' appeal for clemency, Alito signed a temporary stay just two and a half hours before Smulls was scheduled to be killed.

The Guardian posts, "Herbert Smulls: supreme court halts Missouri execution after drug challenge," by  Ed Pilkington.

"Supreme Court Stays Execution of Missouri Inmate," by Nate Rawlings at Time.

"Tulsa pharmacy faces questions over lethal drug to be used in execution," is also by Ed Pilkington for the Guardian.  Here's an extended excerpt:

State authorities have tried to obscure the identity of the compounding pharmacy that supplied the drug, going to such lengths as making the name of the business, like the execution team, protected from disclosure under Missouri law. But Cheryl Pilate, one of the defence lawyers fighting for Smulls's life, has named the Apothecary Shoppe, a compounding pharmacy in Tulsa, as the source of tonight's lethal injection drug.

“We have studied publicly available documents – information that any citizen can obtain – and concluded that the Apothecary Shoppe was the source,” Pilate told the Guardian.

Lawyers acting for Smulls, 56, who was sentenced to death for the 1991 murder of a jewelry store owner Stephen Honickman, have lodged a court motionprotesting that the secrecy surrounding the source of the execution drugs is a violation of the prisoner's first amendment rights as well as his right to proper legal representation.

“We are being subjected to government secrecy at its most extreme. There is no greater manifestation of a state's power than to execute one of its citizens – and when that is done, it has to be done correctly,” Pilate said.

Maya Foa, a leading campaigner for greater public access to information about death penalty drugs, said “there can be no way of guaranteeing that the execution will not amount to torture. This begs the question of what states are really trying to hide.”

The contention of Smulls's attorneys that secrecy combined with the relatively light regulation of compounding pharmacies could subject prisoners to drawn-out and potentially painful deaths through the use of weak or ineffective lethal drugs was underlined earlier this month in Oklahoma’s execution of Michael Wilson. The prisoner's final words as he was put to death by a massive overdose of pentobarbital, obtained from an unnamed Oklahoma compounding pharmacy, were: “I feel my whole body burning.”

The Apothecary Shoppemakes up – or compounds – medication customised to individual customers under the jingle “the most important thing we did today was fill your prescription”. The Guardian contacted the owner of the Apothecary Shoppe, a pharmacist called DJ Lees, on Friday. He flatly denied any involvement with prison services in any state: “We do prepare compounded medication, but not in this case. You have got the wrong pharmacy,” he said.

But St Louis public radio, basing its deductions on documents released to the public under court order, has named the Apothecary Shoppe as the likely supplier of the pentobarbital in Missouri's possession.

Earlier coverage from Missouri begins at the link.

The Latest From Missouri

"Missouri using sneaky execution protocol," is the editorial in today's Kansas City Star.  Here's an extended excerpt from the beginning:

Missouri is poised to commit a despicable act.

Unless Gov. Jay Nixon intercedes, as he should, the state will execute Herbert Smulls early Wednesday, despite profound questions regarding the medical ethics and the humanity of the killing method it plans to use.

The state plans to obtain a lethal dose of pentobarbital — a sedative used to euthanize animals — from a compounding pharmacy in Oklahoma. The pharmacy is not regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or registered in Missouri.

If they use the Oklahoma product to execute Smulls, state officials will be gambling that the drug was properly compounded and will not violate the U.S. Constitution by causing severe pain or a prolonged death. Moreover, the state will be breaking its own law prohibiting out-of-state, unlicensed pharmacies from selling products in Missouri.

The Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dealt a blow to transparency by ruling that an inmate could not obtain a stay of execution based on the potential that a shadowy pharmacy may produce an inferior product and increase the risk of a botched execution. The burden is on the inmate to prove a risk of severe pain.

But Smulls’ attorneys have been barred from investigating the Oklahoma pharmacy. So there is no way to produce the evidence required by the court.

Today's Columbia Daily Tribune publishes the editorial column, "The Tribune's View: Another murder," by Henry J. Waters III.

If Herbert Smulls is not put to death by the state of Missouri early Wednesday morning, it will stem from a red herring of a debate over the source of the chemical used for his lethal injection. Whether it makes sense to continue Missouri's lethal policy will not be the subject.

As Jeff Stack noted in these pages yesterday, without doubt Smulls is guilty of murder, but his execution will not in any way undo the fact. The death penalty process is more expensive than incarceration for life, and I believe most Missourians now have an internal objection to the very idea of state-imposed death. But politically we respond to the other public instinct, the one that wants to exact revenge — the eye-for-an-eye reaction.

"Judge Rejects Execution Delay Over Use of Compounded Drug," is the New York Times report by Dan Frosch and Sabrina Tavernise.

Lawyers for a Missouri inmate said Monday that they would appeal a decision not to grant a delay in his execution, arguing that the drug to be used was likely to be substandard, and thus could cause him severe pain, because it was produced in a compounding pharmacy not subject to federal drug safety regulations.

The condemned man, Herbert Smulls, 54, is scheduled to be put to death on Wednesday for the 1991 killing of a jewelry store owner. The decision to deny the stay was handed down late Monday by a federal district judge in Kansas City.

In her decision, Judge Beth Phillips ruled that simply speculating about unknown dangers associated with the drug was not enough to prove that it would cause “needless suffering.” But the judge also acknowledged that it had been impossible for Mr. Smulls to find out more information, saying it “weighs heavily on the court.”

"Efforts continue to spare condemned Mo. inmate," is AP coverage by Jim Salter, via the San Francisco Chronicle.

Attorneys for condemned inmate Herbert Smulls pressed on with concerns Monday about Missouri's execution drug, even as the state prepares for its third execution since November.

Smulls is scheduled to die at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday for killing St. Louis County jeweler Stephen Honickman in 1991. On Sunday, attorneys for Smulls filed a motion with U.S. District Court alleging that the state's refusal to name the compounding pharmacy that makes Missouri's execution drug prohibits them from proving that the execution method could cause pain and suffering for the inmate.

"Bound and gagged by statute and court order, counsel cannot prove Missouri's current execution protocol represents a 'constitutionally unacceptable' risk without further investigation," the appeal states.

St. Louis Public Radio posts, "Federal Judge Denies Stay Of Execution For Missouri Inmate," by Chris McDaniel.

Smulls will be injected with a drug made by the Apothecary Shoppe in Oklahoma, which isn't licensed to sell in Missouri. The state has argued the drug is safe, however, by pointing to a report by a testing laboratory.

The testing lab is Analytical Research Laboratories in Oklahoma City, OK. In 2012, the lab approved a batch of steroids for commercial use that ended up killing dozens.

The lab found an unknown substance in the execution drug but ultimately approved it. Smulls' attorneys argue that the lab's history should call into question their judgment and that the drug has a high risk of causing Smulls intense pain. He asked for a 60 day stay to investigate further.

Reason posts, "Herbert Smulls To Be Executed With Secret (and Likely Illegal) Drugs at Midnight," by Lauren Galik.

Both Missouri's and Louisiana’s state correctional departments argue that the identities of these pharmacies are protected under a state law that allows the identity of those involved with executions to be kept confidential.

Lawyers that represent both condemned prisoners argue that states must answer questions about whether or not the execution will be humane and comport with the Constitution. Without information about the drugs, those questions have gone unanswered.

According to Megan McCracken, Eighth Amendment Resource Counsel at U.C. Berkeley School of Law's Death Penalty Clinic, “If lawyers for the condemned prisoners can't get the information [about the drugs], then they cannot meet their legal burden in court to show that there's a substantial risk of harm.”

By keeping this information a closely guarded secret, states are asking condemned inmates to take their word for it that the source is legitimate and the drugs won’t result in cruel and unusual punishment when administered.

There will be more from Louisiana in the next post.

"Three Missouri Offices Are Responsible For Controversial Execution Plans," is also by Chris McDaniel at St. Louis Public Radio.

For the death penalty to be carried out in Missouri, it requires three agencies in particular to work in sync. The Department of Corrections performs the executions. The governor appoints the head of the Department of Corrections and can offer clemency to death row inmates. The attorney general defends the state when the execution method is challenged.

Each agency has found itself in the spotlight recently as Missouri's execution procedure has come under scrutiny. 

Lawmakers have filed bills that would halt executions while the state legislature investigates, and a separate hearing is planned for the Department of Corrections to testify under oath. Lawyers also asked two state Boards of Pharmacy and U.S. attorneys to investigate.

Additional reporting includes:

"Appeals against US executions amid drug controversy," from AFP.

"Execution moratorium to be sought," by Bob Priddy at MissouriNet.

"Herbert Smulls, 36 hours from execution, remains stuck in a Kafkaesque legal bottleneck," by Steve Vockrodt at the Pitch in Kansas City.

"Missouri Is About to Execute Its Third Death Row Inmate with Dubious Drug Cocktails," by Ben Richmond at Motherboard.

"Federal Appeals Court Lets Missouri Use Secret, Unverified Lethal Injection Drug For Death Penalty," by Nicole Flatow at Think Progress.

Earlier coverage from Missouri begins at the link.

Louisiana Journalism on LI Drug Production

"State has explored illegally obtaining drug for upcoming execution," is by Della Hasselle for the Lens of New Orleans.  Here's an extended excerpt from the beginning of the article:

Louisiana prison officials have looked into illegally obtaining a lethal-injection drug from an Oklahoma pharmacy for the Feb. 5 execution of convicted child killer Christopher Sepulvado, according to just-released state documents.

The Tulsa-based compounding lab, called The Apothecary Shoppe, is not listed in the state pharmacy board’s online database of suppliers licensed to provide drugs to any pharmacy in Louisiana. That would make the sale of pentobarbital from that business to the Louisiana State Penitentiary Pharmacy an illegal transaction under state law.

A September email shows that The Apothecary Shoppe asked the state to complete a non-disclosure agreement. The document spells out the confidentiality agreement between the pharmacy and the signatory.

Although the Department of Corrections said Friday that the state didn’t have any pentobarbital, it was in the “process of procuring” it, department attorney James Hilburn wrote in a court document.

No other recent purchase records were made available, nor any other records that show written communication with any other pharmacy regarding pentobarbital, according to state documents given to Sepulvado’s lawyers and records obtained by The Lens.

The Apothecary Shoppe is one of three pharmacies suspected of supplying pentobarbital for the recent Oklahoma execution of Michael Lee Williams, who reportedly said “I feel my whole body burning” as he was killed in early January, said Sophie Cull, the director of the Louisiana Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.

That same pharmacy is suspected of being the source of Missouri’s pentobarbital, according to Cull, and it is not licensed to sell drugs in that state, either.

Last week, the Lens reported, "State is late in getting lethal-injection drug; potential supplier kept secret."  It's also by Hasselle.

Three weeks before the scheduled execution of convicted child killer Christopher Sepulvado, the state had no lethal injection drugs on hand with which to kill him, but it was in contact with a supplier, a lawyer for the prison system said in an email to The Lens recently.

The Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections’ execution protocol requires that the state procure the deadly sedative pentobarbital at least 30 days before a scheduled execution.

On Thursday, the department told Sepulvado’s lawyers that the state “is in the process of implementing the lethal injection protocol, including procuring the pentobarbital,” according to records provided to The Lens in response to a public-records request.

Sepulvado’s execution date is set for Feb. 5.

Earlier coverage from Louisiana begins at the link.

More LI News From Missouri

"Federal Judges Rule Execution Drug Supplier Can Be Secret, But Documents Point To Likely Identity," is the St. Louis Public Radio report by Chris McDaniel.

Late Friday night, a group of federal judges found that the compounding pharmacy making Missouri's execution drug can remain secret, but new emails point to one pharmacy as the likely supplier.

As we revealed in last month's investigation, we narrowed the possible suppliers down to three pharmacies that could be supplying the execution drug to Missouri; none were licensed to do business in this state. Emails published Saturday by the Louisiana-based investigative outlet the Lens show that the Apothecary Shoppe in Oklahoma has apparently offered to supply execution drugs to other states.

The Apothecary Shoppe was one of the three pharmacies that we were looking at last month. When we called the pharmacy in December, employees refused to answer our questions.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports, "Pharmacy boards in OK, MO take no action on execution drug complaint," by Jeremy Kohler.

The boards of pharmacy in Oklahoma and Missouri said Friday that they would not take action on complaints about a compounding pharmacy in Oklahoma that produces Missouri’s execution drug.

Attorneys for Missouri death row inmate Herbert L. Smulls, who is scheduled to be executed Wednesday, had alleged that Oklahoma laws and rules were violated because the pharmacy, which is licensed in Oklahoma, was not licensed in Missouri. They also said Missouri prison officials had mishandled the drug by storing it at room temperature, and asked the Oklahoma pharmacy board to recall the drug to prevent it from being used in an execution.

And:

As debate continued, the Missouri Supreme Court on Friday set a Feb. 26 date to execute Michael Taylor, convicted of raping and murdering Ann Harrison, 15, after abducting her from a school bus stop in Raytown, Mo., outside Kansas City, on March 22, 1989.

"State wallows in Jim Crow justice," is a Columbia Daily Tribune OpEd written by Jeff Stack.  He is with the Mid-Missouri Fellowship of Reconciliation.

No matter how fussed up it is with legalese, the Missouri Supreme Court's "warrant of execution" directing Herbert Smulls to be killed soon after midnight Wednesday reeks of murder premeditated by a thuggish state. His planned execution further reminds us of the death penalty's geographic arbitrariness and that a Jim Crow system of justice persists in Missouri, which this month marks 25 years of executions. It's a morbid anniversary starkly contrasting with the compassionate vision shared by the family of the Rev. Martin Luther King, whose birth our nation recently celebrated.

Earlier coverage from Missouri begins with the preceding post.