AUSTIN - Two condemned killers, including a onetime drifter who once
claimed he killed 70 people in a cross-country crime spree spanning 19
years, sued state officials on Wednesday to force them to disclose
details about the execution drugs that will be used to end their lives.
In a lawsuit filed in Travis County state court,
Tommy Lynn Sells, 49, and
Ramiro Hernandez Llanes, 44, alleged that the
Texas Department of Criminal Justice
is illegally refusing to provide their attorneys with information about
the powerful barbiturate pentobarbital that will be used to execute
them, despite earlier court orders and attorney general opinions
requiring that information be made public.
The suit comes just
days after Texas prison officials announced that they had obtained an
additional supply of the state's execution drug, but would not disclose
anything about the suppliers, manufacturers and other details about the
drugs as they have in the past.
The case comes at a time when
similar suits are pending in other states, as prison officials across
the country are moving to keep the source of their execution drugs
confidential. In recent years, several manufacturers have stopped making
the drugs or prohibited their use in executions after their names were
disclosed, and suppliers have quit shipping to Texas and other states
for the same reason.
Because Texas operates the nation's busiest
death chamber in Huntsville - 511 have been executed since 1983,
including three so far this year - the case is expected to be watched
closely by corrections officials and death-penalty opponents nationwide.
Source: Houston Chronicle, March 26, 2014
