Attorney General Greg Abbott has decided Texas can keep the name of its supplier for its execution drugs hidden after law enforcement argued that suppliers face serious danger, according to The Associated Press.
Abbott's Office cited a "threat assessment" signed by Texas Department of Public Safety director Steven McGraw that says pharmacies selling execution drugs face "a substantial threat of physical harm," the AP reported.
The assessment cited by Abbott's office is a one-page letter dated March 7 in which McCraw says a Houston-area compounding pharmacy that was publicly identified as Texas' previous drug supplier received threats that "should be taken seriously," according to the AP.
His letter did not specify those threats, and a DPS spokesman last month said he was not aware of any investigation into threats made against the supplier, the Woodlands Compounding Pharmacy, the AP reported.
Thursday's decision was a reversal for the state's top prosecutor on an issue being challenged in several death penalty states, according to the AP.
On the same day, Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster said his state should consider creating its own laboratory for execution drugs rather than relying on "uneasy cooperation" with outside sources, the AP reported.
While courts have consistently refused to stop executions over the privacy issue, lawyers for death row inmates say they need the information to verify the drugs' potency and protect inmates from unconstitutionally cruel and unusual punishment, according to the AP.
Unlike some states, Texas law doesn't specifically say whether prison officials must disclose where they buy lethal injection drugs, the AP reported.
The opinion from Abbott's office says that "in this instance and when analyzing the probability of harm, this office must defer to the representations of DPS, the law enforcement experts charged with assessing threats to public safety," according to the AP.
Death penalty states have been scrambling to find new sources of drugs after several drugmakers, including many based in Europe, refused to sell drugs for use in lethal injections, the AP reported. That's led several states to compounding pharmacies, which are not as heavily regulated by the Food and Drug Administration as more conventional pharmacies.
