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U.S. | 'I comfort death row inmates in their final moments - the execution room is like a house of horrors'

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Reverend Jeff Hood, 40, wants to help condemned inmates 'feel human again' and vows to continue his efforts to befriend murderers in spite of death threats against his family A reverend who has made it his mission to comfort death row inmates in their final days has revealed the '"moral torture" his endeavor entails. Reverend Dr. Jeff Hood, 40, lives with his wife and five children in Little Rock, Arkansas. But away from his normal home life, he can suddenly find himself holding the shoulder of a murderer inside an execution chamber, moments away from the end of their life. 

Texas: 2 condemned killers sue for execution-drug details

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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
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