USA - Alabama. Death penalty secrecy bill fails

Death penalty secrecy bill fails; Proposal would have masked identity of manufacturers of execution drugs. Lawmakers were unable to approve a bill today that would have masked the names of individuals and companies that manufacture drugs used in executions. The move, said Sen. Cam Ward, R-Alabaster, who carried the bill in the Senate, meant that the death penalty might enter into a moratorium in Alabama. "What it does is it puts death penalty implementation off for a year in Alabama," Ward said after the chamber adjourned on Thursday. The Alabama Attorney General's Office acknowledged late last month that it had run out of pentobarbital, a sedative used in the state's 3-drug execution cocktail. The Alabama Department of Corrections has denied Freedom of Information Act requests from The Anniston Star, the Associated Press and the Montgomery Advertiser seeking access to information on execution procedures. The DOC has cited a court order in an ongoing lawsuit over the efficacy of the drugs used in the state's execution protocols.