A federal judge has halted a Texas execution scheduled for this week until state officials reveal where they got the drug they want to use in the lethal injection.
Tommy Lynn Sells, who was convicted of the 1999 stabbing murder of a 13-year-old girl and who allegedly confessed to many other slayings, was scheduled to get a lethal dose of pentobarbital on Thursday.
But the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's refusal to disclose which compounding pharmacy provided the drug has put that on hold.
A state judge ruled last week that prison officials must give the pharmacy's name to Sells' attorney, but the order was appealed.
U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore issued a temporary injunction stopping the execution until the supplier's name is turned over.
'While the state has provided plaintiffs information about the process by which they will be executed, it has masked information about the product that will kill them,' Gilmore wrote.
In court papers, Texas jailers argued that they need to keep the name of their drug connection secret to protect them from threats and harassment - even though the state's own attorney general ruled in 2011 that the details should be public.
Defense lawyers say they need to know the origin of the execution drugs so they can investigate their quality and ensure they would not cause an excruciating death in violation of the constitutional protection against cruel and unusual punishment.
Gilmore's order 'honors and reflects the crucial importance of transparency in the execution process,' Sells' lawyers, Maurie Levin and Jonathan Ross, said in a statement.
'We hope that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice will finally decide to comply with the law, and cease attempting to shroud in secrecy one aspect of their job that, above all others, should be conducted in the light of day.'
The prison agency had no immediate comment, but Levin said the state has already given notice that it intends to appeal to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The battle over pharmacy confidentiality has been playing out in states across the country since drug manufacturers stopped selling their wares for executions, causing a nationwide shortage.
First published April 2 2014, 10:18 AM
Posted by Unknown on Wednesday, April 2, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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