Associated Press and The Guardian join media push for details on lethal injection mix

Source: Agence France-Presse

Associated Press and The Guardian join media push for details on lethal injection mix
By Agence France-Presse
Thursday, May 15, 2014 16:13 EDT

A group of U.S.-based media outlets on Thursday launched a legal bid to obtain information about drugs due to be used in a lethal injection in Missouri next week following a botched execution in Oklahoma.

Convicted murderer Russell Bucklew is scheduled to be executed on May 21 by Missouri, one of several death penalty states which refuses to disclose the origin of drugs it uses in lethal injections.

The 32 states which practice the death penalty have faced a crisis ever since the European manufacturers of the most commonly used lethal injection drugs ceased supplying them.
States have increasingly turned to compounding pharmacies outside U.S. federal regulation to provide drugs for execution, despite criticism that the drugs can cause excruciating pain to those being put to death.

A 26-page legal filing lodged by the media outlets said information about executions had historically been made available to the public under the U.S. Constitution.

Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/05/15/associated-press-and-the-guardian-join-media-push-for-details-on-lethal-injection-mix/#sthash.TgOcRO0F.dpuf