AUSTIN - In a surprise legal about-face, Attorney General Greg Abbott on Thursday ruled that state prison officials no longer have to tell the public where they obtain drugs used to execute condemned criminals.
Abbott's decision falls in line with other states that have sought to keep secret the source of their lethal drugs, to keep death-penalty opponents from pressuring suppliers to quit selling to execution chambers. His decision reversed three rulings since 2010 that had mandated the information about the suppliers be made public.
Abbott, the Republican nominee for governor in the state that operates the nation's busiest death chamber, said in his five-page decision that he was swayed to allow secrecy by a "threat assessment" from Steve McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, that disclosure of details could endanger suppliers.
In arguing for the secrecy, officials with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, which conducts the executions, insisted pharmacies supplying the drug pentobarbital used in executions could be subject to death threats if their identity was known - an assertion an Associated Press investigation could not validate as true.
Opposition raised
Prison officials applauded the ruling, but attorneys for condemned convicts and open-government advocates warned it will unnecessarily shield details of Texas' ultimate punishment and could cover up mistakes in executions.
"It is deeply disturbing and frankly quite shocking that the highest law enforcement official in the state has suddenly reversed his position on disclosure when it comes to lethal injection, particularly considering the horrifically botched execution in Oklahoma last month that was the direct result of secrecy surrounding the process," said attorney Maurie Levin, who has challenged the secrecy in recent months in representing execution-bound convicts.
An Oklahoma convict did not die after the lethal drugs were administered, possibly because of a vein problem, and died of a heart attack. An investigation continues.
Levin and other attorneys have tried unsuccessfully to get access to drug information so they can validate the purity of the drugs many states, including Texas, are buying from so-called compounding pharmacies. These manufacturers are more lightly regulated than major pharmaceutical companies.
Drugs unavailable
In recent years, most of these manufacturers have stopped supplying drugs used in executions because of public pressure or because they are based in Europe, where the death penalty is not used.

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