execution drugs – National Freedom of Information Coalition

Texas court weighs secrecy exemption for execution drugs

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A state appellate court hinted Wednesday that it had little interest in expanding government secrecy in a case involving the public's right to know who supplies the lethal drugs Texas uses to execute convicted criminals.

A decision in favor of openness by the state's 3rd Court of Appeals could a have limited effect because the Texas Legislature passed a law last year requiring state prison officials to keep the identities of the drug makers secret.

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Editorial: MO Judge appropriately rules to release execution drug info

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When it comes to the death penalty, we have opined before that all matters of execution deserve extra scrutiny.

Even when appeals are inconvenient to the survivors of victims of horrible crimes, our legal system has a constitutional obligation, and in our view a moral one, to examine every aspect to ensure that those we are executing have exhausted their legal protections and their rights under the constitution. Continue…

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Texas lawmakers press to shield suppliers of execution drugs

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Saying that executions in Texas are becoming “increasingly difficult to carry out,” state officials Wednesday urged lawmakers to send Republican Gov. Greg Abbott a bill that would prevent even death row inmates from knowing the identity of lethal injection drug suppliers.

The debate in the Legislature took place just hours before the sixth person this year was set to die in Texas, where the nation’s busiest death chamber is again running low on inventory.

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