Oklahoma Can't Hide Suppliers of Execution Drugs

An Oklahoma judge ruled Wednesday that the state could not keep secret the suppliers of lethal-injection drugs, fueling a growing legal battle in several states over secrecy in methods of execution. The state argued that a supplier-secrecy law, passed in 2011, was necessary because of a shortage of execution drugs and threats against companies that supply them. But lawyers for two prisoners, Clayton Lockett and Charles Warner, countered that without knowing the source of the drugs, courts could not determine whether the execution protocol satisfied the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

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