USA - Tennessee. Tennessee fights release of execution team identities.

Tennessee fights release of execution team identities. State officials fought to block lawyers for 10 death row inmates from getting information about exactly who will kill their clients. Appearing today before the Tennessee Court of Appeals in Nashville, attorneys for the state argued that Davidson County Chancery Court Judge Claudia Bonnyman improperly ordered them to reveal the names of the lethal injection team that would execute prisoners. Bonnyman in January ordered the state to provide the execution team's identities to attorneys representing the death row inmates, but forbade the public - or the inmates - from seeing that information. Bonnyman's ruling came in a lawsuit involving 10 death row inmates suing for more information about who would execute them and the drugs that would end their lives. "We are here today because for the 1st time in the history of lethal injection in the state of Tennessee a court has ordered the state to disclose the identities of those people who are involved in the lethal injection process," said Special Assistant Attorney General Kyle Hixson. "This is an abuse of discretion." Tennessee is one of many states where inmates are challenging secrecy in court. A law passed in Tennessee in 2013 that made all details about lethal injection - from the execution team to how the state intends to get its lethal injection drugs - secret. The inmates sued, saying that without knowing details about how the drugs are being obtained and who is providing them, there's no way to ensure they'll work as intended and protect their right against "cruel and unusual punishment," which is outlawed by the U.S. Constitution. Stephen Kissinger, an assistant federal public defender representing some of the death row inmates, argued Monday that there was no "executioner's privilege" that prevents the state from turning over identities of the execution team in a court case - particularly since they would be under seal. He said that if the state were allowed to use that 2013 law to keep such information secret even in court cases, it would have far-reaching implications. The appeals panel on Monday seemed skeptical of Hixson's arguments, pressing him on whether the 2013 law applied to evidence in court cases. "Condemned inmates do not have, nor have they ever had, the right nor the ability to supervise the manner in which their executions are carried out," Hixson replied. "It's never existed in the entire history of this state or of the United States." "But they have a right, do they not, to at least to make sure that the drugs that they're given are potent enough, that the drugs that they're given are free of impurities that would damage the effect of the drugs?" asked Appeals Court Judge Andy Bennett, 1 of the 3 jurists on the panel. At last count, 10 death row inmates had execution dates, an unprecedented number of scheduled executions in state history. Billy Ray Irick, who raped and murdered a 7-year-old girl in 1985, is scheduled to die 1st, on Oct. 7. But the lawsuit that appeared before the appeals panel Monday has pushed back several execution dates. The appeals court took Monday's arguments under advisement. A decision could take weeks or even months.