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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 trying to replenish execution drug supply

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Death House, 'The Walls' Unit, Huntsville, Texas
HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) -- Texas prison officials are scurrying to find a supplier to replenish a dwindling inventory of execution drugs.

Their search is taking place amid a pending court order that would no longer allow the state to protect the supplier's identity.

The nation's most active death penalty state has enough pentobarbital for executions scheduled this week and next week. But prison officials don't yet know about lethal injections of four others scheduled for April.

Texas Department of Criminal Justice Executive Director Brad Livingston says it's a challenge facing not only his agency but prison departments nationwide.

Texas officials have cited security concerns for withholding the name of its execution drug supplier. 

A judge in Austin last year ordered the name disclosed, but state attorneys are appealing that ruling in the courts.

Source: The Associated Press, March 10, 2015

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