US judge halts Texas executions over drug supplier information

By Jon Herskovitz AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - A U.S. federal judge has temporarily suspended the execution of two inmates planned for this month in Texas, saying the state has hidden information about the supplier of the drug to be used in the lethal injections. "The court stays plaintiffs' scheduled executions until the information identified is produced," U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore wrote in Houston in a temporary injunction issued on Wednesday. The decision is part of a series of court rulings in recent weeks that have mandated states to release information about drugs used for lethal injection, saying that keeping the information secret violates due process protections of the U.S. Constitution. Several states have struggled to obtain drugs for executions, while many pharmaceutical companies, mostly in Europe, have imposed sales bans because they object to having medications made for other purposes used in lethal injections.



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