USA - Texas. Judge: Texas Must Reveal Execution Drug Maker.

Judge: Texas Must Reveal Execution Drug Maker. Judge Darlene Byrne of the 126th Judicial District Court in Travis County has ordered Texas to release the name of the compounding pharmacy that provides the state its execution drug, but attorneys pushing for the disclosure said Friday that they don't expect to get the information anytime soon. Judge Byrne granted summary judgment in favor of three lawyers who often work for death row inmates in Texas - Maurie Levin, Naomi Terr and Hilary Sheard - in a little-watched lawsuit filed in Austin earlier this year. Judge Byrne ruled that the company's name is a matter of public record, despite arguments from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice that disclosing it would be a safety risk. Texas had released the name of its drug suppliers for years, but in May, Attorney General Greg Abbott changed course and cited undisclosed threats made to a new company supplying the drug. Similar fights are ongoing in other death penalty states like Oklahoma, Missouri and Ohio. But courts - including the U.S. Supreme Court - have yet to halt an execution based on a state's refusal to reveal its drug supplier. The Department of Criminal Justice plans to appeal, according to spokesman Jason Clark. Texas uses one drug during its lethal injections, pentobarbital.