In most states, secrecy shrouds death penalty
Critics question lack of details on execution drugs.
st. louis » Dating to the days when the guillotine operator or the hangman wore a mask, a certain amount of anonymity has always surrounded executions. But that secrecy is increasingly coming under fire, with judges, death penalty opponents and lawyers questioning why so little can be knownabout a state’s most solemn responsibility.
An Associated Press survey of the 32 death penalty states found that the vast majority refuse to disclose the source of their execution drugs. The states cloaked in secrecy include some with the most active death chambers — among them Texas, Florida, Oklahoma and Missouri.
Most states have recently begun relying on loosely regulated “compounding pharmacies” for execution drugs but refuse to name them, citing concerns about backlash that could endanger the supplier’s safety.
But many states refuse to provide even more basic information — how much of the drug is on hand, the expiration date, how it is tested. Thosewho question the secrecy wonder how an inmate’s constitutional right against cruel and unusual punishment can be guaranteed if nothing is known about the drug being used.
“As far as we know, it could be coming froma veterinary source, it could be coming from some dark corner of the Internet,” said Cheryl Pilate, a KansasCity, Mo., lawyer who handles death row appeals.
The most prolific death penalty states have deflected most challenges to secretive protocols. But momentum is building toward unlocking details.
To many death penalty supporters, the debate over secrecy is a ploy to delay executions.
“We’re overly worried about the convict,” said Jim Hall, of suburban St. Louis. His daughter, 17-year-old Kelli Hall, was abducted from a St. Charles, Mo., gas station in 1989 and murdered. Hall watched last week as Jeffrey Ferguson was put to death.
Kent Scheidegger, legal director of the Californiabased Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, which supports capital punishment, said forcing states to reveal their drug source can amount to obstruction of justice.
Delaware, Nevada, Ohio andVirginia are exceptions to the secrecy rule. Three of the four have purchased their execution drugs from Cardinal Health in Ohio.