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Tennessee Supreme Court delays execution (update on drug secrecy issue)

By Deborah Fisher|2019-06-19T09:32:49-05:00December 11, 2013|Categories: execution drugs, exemptions|Tags: Claudia Bonnyman, execution drugs, public records exemption|0 Comments

The Tennessee Supreme Court today reset the execution date for Billy Ray Irick to Oct. 7, 2014, noting the issues raised in a case in Davidson County Chancery Court over the state's new one-drug lethal injection protocol. Irick had been scheduled for execution on Jan. 15, 2014. In the case before Chancellor Claudia Bonnyman, attorneys for the death row inmates argue the constitutionality of the state's new protocol, which uses pentobarbital, common in animal euthanasia. Among other challenges to the protocol and use of pentobarbital, the attorneys also challenge the secrecy of a new state exemption to the Open Records Act passed last legislative session to shield the name of [...]

Should execution drugs be a state secret?

© Photographer1773 | Dreamstime Stock Photos & Stock Free Images By Deborah Fisher, Executive Director of Tennessee Coalition for Open Government Does the public have a right to know about the drugs used to execute death row inmates? This question has been raised in recent months in court in at least three states, two of which recently enacted new laws or protocols to keep secret from citizens the source of execution drugs. In 2011, at least six states, including Tennessee, had their execution drugs seized or taken by the DEA after it became clear that the drugs had been imported illegally. States have sought to keep their new [...]