[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., OHIO, TENN., ARIZ.

[Rick Halperin]

July 26



TEXAS:

Death row inmate Scott Panetti to get further competency review



Scott Panetti, 59, remains on death row in Huntsville, convicted of killing a 
Fredericksburg couple in 1992.

"It's still so fresh in my mind, " said Rowena Alvarado. Alvarado's parents, 
Joe and Amanda Alvarado, were shot and killed by Panetti.

Panetti was the couple's son-in-law, and married to Rowena's sister. "We never 
saw it in him."

Panetti has already been sentenced to death and has been granted stays of 
execution.

>From the very beginning, Panetti's case has been about mental illness. 
Panetti's attorneys claim he's suffered from severe mental illness for nearly 4 
decades and that he's also a paranoid schizophrenic.

Panetti represented himself during his 1995 trial, he also dressed up as a 
western TV cowboy and tried to subpoena the Pope, John F. Kennedy, and Jesus 
Christ.

"We had no idea, nor did he have any episodes. He was just a normal guy," 
Alvarado went on to say.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has now returned Panetti's case 
to the federal district court in Texas to further review Panetti's competency.

"The taxpayers have been paying for this for many years, and that is just not 
fair for us," added Alvarado.

While Alvarado says she has forgiven Panetti.

"I'm kinda in between because I do feel that the death penalty would be too 
good for him," she said.

Panetti's legal team issued the following statement:

"We are grateful that the court found that Mr. Panetti's nearly 4 decades of 
documented schizophrenia and severe mental illness provided a sufficient 
showing to obtain experts and resources to pursue the claim that he is 
currently incompetent for execution. And we are grateful to the Texas Defender 
Service for their support, which allowed us to obtain a stay and to litigate on 
behalf of Mr. Panetti in the Fifth Circuit. Mr. Panetti has not been evaluated 
by any mental health experts since 2007 and his severe mental illness has only 
worsened while in prison. We are confident that when the lower court is 
presented with all the evidence, it will find that Mr. Panetti, a schizophrenic 
man who insisted on representing himself at trial and attempted to subpoena the 
Pope, John F. Kennedy, and Jesus Christ, is not now competent for execution. 
Ultimately, commuting Mr. Panetti's sentence to life in prison without parole 
would keep the public safe and affirm our shared beliefs in a humane and moral 
justice system."

(source: foxsanantonio.com)








FLORIDA:

'NICOLE WAS LEFT TO DIE': Prosecutors call 1st witnesses in Sean Bush death 
penalty trial



Jurors heard the 1st day of testimony Monday as prosecutors began laying out 
their case against Sean Alonzo Bush, who is facing the death penalty should he 
be convicted of 1st-degree murder in the death of his estranged wife Nicole 
Bush.

During her opening statement in Circuit Judge Howard Maltz's St. Johns County 
courtroom, Assistant State Attorney Jennifer Dunton told the all-white jury 
that Nicole Bush was shot 5 times in the face, stabbed, and beaten with an 
aluminum baseball bat in the early morning hours of May 31, 2011, in her 
Julington Creek townhome.

"Nicole was left to die, but she didn't die right away," Dunton said.

Instead, she explained, the mother of 2 managed to get a phone call out to a 
friend who, in-turn, called another friend who called 911 and travelled to the 
home to see what was the matter.

Jurors heard from both of those friends Monday morning as well as the 1st 
responding deputy and a paramedic who was at the scene. The 1st friend, Tracie 
Walker, testified that she only heard Nicole Bush whisper "help" into the phone 
when she answered a call around 6 a.m. When the call went silent, Walker called 
another friend, Lenora Jerry, who said that she called Nicole Bush who answered 
but was "whispering" like "she was struggling to speak."

Jerry said her friend told her, "Send help, I can't make it to the door."

A deputy, she said, arrived at the home shortly after she made it to Julington 
Creek.

That deputy, Graham Harris, told jurors that he found Nicole Bush lying in a 
pool of a blood in the doorway to her bedroom. She was wearing only a bra and a 
pair of ripped underwear.

Lieutenant Michelle Grant with St. Johns County Fire Rescue, who was a 
paramedic at the time, described some of the efforts to save the woman and the 
wounds that were apparent at the scene.

Grant said Nicole Bush had at least 1 exit wound from a gunshot on top of her 
head and was suffering from a good deal of swelling. She said she appeared 
"like her head was dipped in blood."

Grant and Harris both testified that Nicole Bush was speaking somewhat when 
they began rendering aid but she could not identify who attacked her.

Nicole Bush died later that day after being flown to a Jacksonville hospital.

Through the testimony of St. Johns County Sheriff's Office crime scene 
technician Stefanie Whittington, jurors were shown dozens of photos taken from 
inside the home that detailed the massive amount of blood spatter on the walls 
and door of Nicole Bush's bedroom. That door and a portion of one of the walls 
were on display in the courtroom for part of the day Monday.

The defense team worked hard to highlight what they saw as holes in the state's 
case, including Nicole Bush's inability to identify her attacker, and possible 
"tool markings" that were photographed on the door between the garage and the 
kitchen, despite courtroom testimony that Sean Bush had access to keys to the 
home.

Lead counsel for the defense, Ray Warren, with the Public Defender's Office, 
told jurors in his opening statement that he believed there were likely 2 men 
who entered the home that morning. He promised jurors that they will learn 
during the trial that a man's DNA was recovered from a bath towel at the scene 
that didn't belong to Sean Bush. There was also male DNA found on a laptop 
computer recovered from the home.

"Their DNA is at the scene and the state will never be able to explain it 
away," he said.

The trial continues today with jurors set to hear a roughly 50-minute interview 
that Sean Bush recorded the afternoon he learned his wife had been killed.

Dunton and Assistant State Attorney Mark Johnson are expected to have all of 
their witnesses called by the end of the week, leaving Warren and the defense 
team of Rosemarie Peoples and Joshua Mosley to call any of their own witnesses 
after the state rests its case.

Maltz has set aside 2 weeks for the trial.

Sean Bush is also facing a single count burglary of a dwelling with a person 
assaulted.

(source: St. Augustine Record)








MISSISSIPPI:

Man accused of killing deputy, 7 others due in court



A Mississippi man charged with killing a deputy, his mother-in-law and 6 others 
who were his relatives or acquaintances is due in court on Wednesday.

Willie Cory Godbolt has been jailed without bond since his arrest May 28, 
shortly after the fatal shootings that started after witnesses say Godbolt was 
arguing with his estranged wife.

The killings May 27 and 28 occurred at three homes in and around the south 
Mississippi city of Brookhaven, about 70 miles (110 kilometers) south of 
Jackson. A deputy responded to a disturbance call at Godbolt's in-laws' home, 
and the shootings started there.

Deputy William Durr, Godbolt's mother-in-law Barbara Mitchell and 2 others were 
killed at the 1st home in the small town of Bogue Chitto. An 11-year-old and an 
18-year-old, who were each other's cousins, were killed at the 2nd home, in 
Brookhaven. A husband and wife were killed at the 3rd home, also in Brookhaven.

Defense attorney Gus Sermos said Godbolt is scheduled to attend Wednesday's 
hearing, where prosecutors will ask a judge to send the case to a grand jury 
for the possibility of indictment.

Godbolt is charged with 1 count of capital murder, which could carry the death 
penalty, in the deputy's killing. He's also charged with 7 counts of murder, 
which could carry life without parole.

Moments after he was arrested May 28, a handcuffed Godbolt told a reporter from 
The Clarion-Ledger, on video, that someone in the 1st house called law 
enforcement while he was talking to his wife and in-laws about his wish to take 
his children home.

"My pain wasn't designed for him. He was just there," Godbolt said of the 
deputy.

Godbolt also said in the video: "My intentions was to have God kill me. I ran 
out of bullets. Suicide by cop was my intention. I ain't fit to live, not after 
what I done."

(source: Associated Press)








OHIO----impending execution

US Supreme Court denies stay of execution for Ohio convict



A condemned child killer was scheduled to die on Wednesday in the state's 1st 
execution in more than 3 years after the U.S. Supreme Court denied his requests 
for more time to pursue legal challenges.

Ronald Phillips was transported to the death house at the Southern Ohio 
Correctional Facility in Lucasville on Tuesday morning, about 24 hours before 
his execution was planned. He was convicted of the 1993 rape and killing of his 
girlfriend's 3-year-old daughter in Akron.

Justices denied the 43-year-old Phillips a stay on 3 requests, with a pair of 
justices dissenting on a request by Phillips that was joined by 2 other death 
row inmates with upcoming execution dates. The inmates had asked the court for 
a delay while they continue challenging Ohio's new lethal-injection method.

Justices Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, dissented, 
arguing the inmates had demonstrated a likelihood of success at trial. 
Sotomayor objected to the court's "failure to step in when significant issues 
of life and death are present."

The death penalty has been on hold in Ohio since January 2014, when a condemned 
inmate repeatedly gasped and snorted during a 26-minute procedure with a 
never-before-tried drug combination. Republican Gov. John Kasich halted 
upcoming executions after that, and delays have continued because the state had 
trouble finding new supplies of drugs and death row inmates sued on the grounds 
the state's proposed new 3-drug execution method represented "cruel and unusual 
punishment."

Phillips' arguments were backed up by 15 pharmacology professors, who stepped 
in Monday to argue that a sedative used in the process, midazolam, is incapable 
of inducing unconsciousness or preventing serious pain.

A federal court last month upheld the use of midazolam, which has been 
problematic in several executions, including Ohio's in 2014 and others in 
Arkansas and Arizona.

Phillips also sought a delay based on his age at the time of the killing. He 
was 19, older than the Supreme Court's cutoff of 18 for the purposes of barring 
executions of juveniles. His request argued the age should be 21. His lawyers 
said he had such "psychosocial deficits" when he was picked up by police that 
they initially took him to a juvenile, rather than an adult, facility.

Attorneys for the state argued Phillips made meritless, often conflicting, 
legal claims.

"Phillips argues that youth, like IQ, cannot be reduced to a number. But he 
also argues that the Eighth Amendment prohibits the execution of adults under 
age 21," they wrote in a court document filed Tuesday. "He cannot have it both 
ways; if age cannot make one eligible for death, it cannot make one ineligible 
for death."

They added that continued delays in Phillips' case were harming the state by 
costing time and resources.

Phillips has had several previous delays to scheduled executions, most notably 
in 2013, when he made a last-minute plea to donate his organs. He said that he 
wanted to give a kidney to his mother, who was on dialysis, and possibly his 
heart to his sister. His request was denied. His mother has since died.

Phillips was being permitted to see family, friends, spiritual advisers and 
attorneys on Tuesday and Wednesday morning.

(source: Associated Press)

***********************

ABA expresses concern about Ohio plan to resume executions



The ABA is "deeply concerned" about Ohio's plans to resume executions, 
according to a statement by ABA President Linda A. Klein.

Ohio has not implemented important reforms to improve the accuracy and fairness 
of the death penalty that were recommended in a 2007 report, according to 
Klein's statement.

The ABA had worked with Ohio experts to produce the report, which found 
geographic and racial bias had resulted in inconsistent and unfair 
administration of the death penalty. The report also found inadequate 
protections for defendants with mental illnesses.

Ohio has not executed an inmate since January 2014, when inmate Dennis McGuire 
gasped for air and made guttural noises for about 10 minutes during a 
longer-than usual execution process, the Associated Press reports. The 
execution used a 2-drug cocktail, the Akron Beacon Journal reports.

Executions are set to resume Wednesday when Ronald Phillips is scheduled to die 
for the 1993 rape and murder of his girlfriend's 3-year-old daughter. The state 
will use 3 drugs in the execution.

The ABA does not take a position on the death penalty as a means of punishment, 
but it does believe the death penalty should be implemented fairly, accurately 
and with due process.

Ohio has implemented a handful of death-penalty reforms in the last few years, 
but a majority of the recommendations in the 2007 report have not been 
implemented, Klein says in the statement.

(source: abajournal.com)

***************************

Kasich must halt July 26 execution of Ronald Phillips: editorial



To ensure that justice is done, Gov. John Kasich must stop Ohio from resuming 
executions until the legality of the state's death-drug cocktail can be fully 
evaluated.

That's not to pander to murderers. Ronald Phillips, scheduled to die Wednesday, 
committed particularly heinous crimes, savagely raping and murdering his 
girlfriend's 3-year-old daughter.

Ohio's executions shouldn't resemble torture.

Rather, it is about ensuring a just process in imposing the ultimate penalty.

Last Monday, after the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a temporary 
halt on Ohio executions intended to allow a deeper legal review, lawyers for 
death-row inmates Phillips, Gary Otte and Raymond Tibbetts asked the U.S. 
Supreme Court for a stay.

Yet Kasich must be the ultimate guardian of justice in Ohio.

Our editorial board has long opposed the death penalty on fairness, ethical, 
moral, cost and legal grounds. But resuming executions before the new 3-drug 
death cocktail -- unveiled in October -- can get a full judicial review simply 
would be wrong.

First is the mounting evidence that midazolam, the sedative that Ohio wants to 
use in place of hard-to-get barbiturates, may not actually knock people out, 
opening the door to possible excruciating pain. Florida and Arizona already 
have stopped using midazolam.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael R. Merz cited these problems in part in 
temporarily halting Ohio executions in January.

Other drugs in Ohio's 3-drug cocktail are ones the state pledged not to use in 
2009 during an earlier federal court challenge of its death-drug protocol. This 
allowed Ohio to proceed with executions using a different drug. Merz found that 
created an effective legal bar to reinstating the drugs now.

The 6th Circuit, ruling en banc and along largely ideological lines, overturned 
Merz's ruling late last month, allowing use of the new drug combination to 
proceed.

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday said it would allow the 
state of Ohio to use a certain 3-drug mixture to carry out lethal injections, 
paving the way for the state to resume executing those on death row.

But this is not an ideological question. It's a question of justice. Justice 
requires Kasich to step in and insist on a fuller legal examination of the 
state's death-drug protocol before the state puts anyone else to death.

(source: Editorial Board, ThePlain Dealer)

**********************

Group hopes to stop executions in Ohio, delivers petition with 100,000 
signatures



Nearly a dozen anti-death penalty groups are hoping nearly 100,000 signatures 
will get Ohio Governor John Kasich to put the state's 1st execution in more 
than 3 years on hold.

Ronald Phillips, 44, is scheduled to die Wednesday for raping and beating his 
girlfriend's young daughter in Summit County in 1993.

"Any death penalty case has some pretty tough, terrible circumstances. You 
could also look at who is serving a life sentence without parole today and 
there really is no difference," said Kevin Werner, Executive Director with 
Ohioans To Stop Executions.

Phillips date with death was put on hold in 2014, after a federal judge stopped 
all state lethal injections, when a botched execution involving Dennis McGuire, 
who raped and killed a woman, gasped for breath after being given 2 drugs 
designed to take his life.

"Frankly, we don't have confidence, that the same mistakes made in the past 
won't be made again," said Werner.

Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections says it's made changes to its 
execution protocol to prevent further mishaps. A 3rd drug has now been added to 
the lethal injection cocktail.

Monday, the group dropped off nearly 100,000 signatures to the Governor's 
office, requesting Kasich doesn't go through with resuming the state's death 
penalty.

"Ohio doesn't need the death penalty anymore, most of the capital punishment 
cases end up with life in prison without parole, or less," said Werner.

Equal Justice U.S.A., The American Civil Liberties Union in Ohio, and Amnesty 
International, among the groups that gathered signatures that were delivered to 
Kasich. ABC 6/FOX 28 contacted Kasich's office after the signatures were 
dropped off. A spokesman for the governor says he has no plans to change his 
decision.

The Governor will be skipping opening day of the fair to monitor events in 
Lucasville at the statehouse.

Last week, Phillips' legal team made a 2nd appeal to the US Supreme Court 
requesting an emergency stay of his execution claiming he was under 21 at the 
time of the murder. Phillips was 19 when he killed his young victim.

(source: ABC News)

************************

On the Eve of Phillips' Execution, the Bar Association Raises Questions About 
Ohio's Death Penalty



After hiatus of more than 3 years, Ohio is set to resume executions at 10 this 
morning by putting Ronald Phillips of Akron to death. His lawyers filed 
last-minute arguments that the drug combination Ohio plans to use has a 
troubling history. But as WKSU???s M.L. Schultze reports, that's not the only 
argument being offered.

Ronald Phillips is to be the 1st die, but more than 2 dozen other executions 
are set in Ohio over the next 4 years. The American Bar Association says it is 
"deeply concerned" about the state resuming executions because it has yet to 
address major concerns over accuracy and fairness in death-penalty cases.

The lawyers' group worked with Ohio on reviews of its death penalty dating back 
to 2007. The studies found big problems with geographic and racial bias that 
the bar association says "resulted in inconsistent and unfair administration." 
It also says Ohio has inadequate protections for people with mental illness.

A task force appointed by the Supreme Court of Ohio and the Ohio State Bar 
Association endorsed many of the reforms recommended, but they weren't 
implemented.

The bar association notes that it has no position on the death penalty as means 
of punishment, but says it should be implemented equitably.

Phillips was convicted of raping and killing his girlfriend's 3-year-old 
daughter. The now 43-year-old has been on death row for 23 years.

(source: WKSU news)

************************

Court rules convicted killer will still face death penalty



A man convicted of killing 10-year-old Harrison girl in 1991 will still face 
the death penalty, Ohio Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.

The court upheld Jeffrey Wogenstahl's death sentence for the murder and 
kidnapping of Amber Garrett, who was found stabbed and beaten to death in 
Indiana.

In March, Wogenstahl claimed Ohio didn't have jurisdiction to try him for 
murder because evidence could not determine where Garrett was killed. The 
appeal was filed after his execution date was set, the court said.

In the slip opinion, the court said Ohio had jurisdiction over aggravated 
murder charge because Garrett was killed in either Ohio or Indiana but it could 
not be determined which.

A Hamilton County trial court sentenced Wogenstahl to death in early 1993 after 
a jury found him guilty of aggravated murder, kidnapping, and aggravated 
burglary, according to the Supreme Court. He also lost appeals in 1994 and 
1996.

According to court documents, an employee of a United Dairy Farmers store in 
Harrison saw Garrett alive in the front seat of Wogenstahl's car as he drove 
toward Indiana around 3:15 a.m. Police later found blood smears and stains in 
his Ohio apartment., documents said.

Despite witness testimony, it could not be determined where Garrett was killed. 
The 10-year-old had 11 stab wounds and suffered head trauma, documents said.

(source: Cincinnati Enquirer)

***********************

Key evidence challenged in Greene County capital murder case



2 Greene County common pleas judges must decide whether critical evidence in a 
potential death penalty case will be allowed in trial.

Motions to suppress evidence have been filed by the defense attorneys for 
Dustin and Bret Merrick, 2 brothers who stand charged with murder in the Jan. 
15 fatal shootings of their neighbors near Yellow Springs -- William "Skip" 
Brown and Sherri Mendenhall.

The Merrick brothers are being tried separately and could face the death 
penalty if convicted. Bond was set at $5 million for each defendant as they are 
being held in the Greene County Jail on suspicion of aggravated murder, 
aggravated burglary and other charges.

Judge Michael Buckwalter presided over a motion to suppress hearing in Dustin 
Merrick's case last week. in which the investigators were called to the stand 
to testify.

According to the motion filed by Dustin's attorney Gregory Meyers, Dustin 
Merrick did not consent to his 9 mm handgun being seized by detectives during 
an interview at his home Jan. 20.

Dustin allowed the officers to see and handle the gun, but he "expressly and 
clearly denied consent" for it to be seized, but the officers cited "exigent 
circumstances" and seized the gun anyway, according to the defendant's motion 
to suppress.

"Law enforcement officials cannot merely utter 'exigent circumstances' to 
magically make their constitutional duties vanish. The state bears a heavy 
burden to prove with specific, articulable facts that the circumstance in this 
case constitutionally justified a warrantless seizure," the defendant's motion 
to suppress reads.

Buckwalter must decide whether the evidence will be presented in Dustin 
Merrick's case, and Judge Stephen Wolaver must decide on the issue in Bret 
Merrick's case.

A date has not been scheduled for Buckwalter's ruling. A motion to suppress 
hearing is scheduled in September in Bret Merrick's case.

A response from the prosecutor's office for this story has been requested.

(source: Dayton Daily News)








TENNESSEE:

Parents in Gatlinburg hot car toddler death charged with felony 
murder----Police Chief Randall Brackins said he did not know yet whether 
charges will be brought up in the case of the 2-year-old boy who died after 
being left in a hot car overnight.



The parents of a 2-year-old boy who died after being left in a vehicle 
overnight were arrested Monday on felony murder charges, according to a news 
release from Fourth District Attorney General Jimmy Dunn.

A grand jury returned presentments against 24-year-old Jade Elizabeth Phillips 
and 26-year-old Anthony Dyllan Phillips, charging them with 1st-degree murder 
committed in perpetration of aggravated child neglect, 1st-degree murder 
committed in the perpetration of aggravated child abuse, aggravated child 
neglect and aggravated child abuse, according to the release.

The Phillips were arrested in Westmoreland, Tenn. Each is being held in the 
Sumner County jail in lieu of a $250,000 bond. Their court dates have not yet 
been set.

Gatlinburg police found the Phillips' son, Kipp, dead around 2 p.m. on July 14, 
after 1 of the parents called E-911 and reported they had left him in a vehicle 
overnight and into the afternoon as the temperature outside approached 90 
degrees.

Authorities released little information about the case the following week, 
choosing to withhold the names of the child and the parents, the address where 
the child was found, and whether anyone had been taken into custody.

Next-door neighbor Freeda Hall said the couple "seemed like good parents," and 
that they both worked at the Apple Barn in Sevierville on opposite shifts so 
they could take care of their son. A manager at the restaurant declined to 
comment Thursday.

Hall said the couple was friendly and offered to cut her yard and bring her 
food.

"They seemed like good people, but I guess you never know," Hall said.

Last week Gatlinburg Police Chief Randall Brackins said of the parents, "They 
were distraught, very upset. They were very unbelieving of what was occurring. 
They just couldn't believe it was happening."

The Phillips are charged under a section of the 1st-degree murder statute known 
as felony murder. Under that law, the state must only show the child was killed 
as a result of the felony crimes of abuse and neglect, not that they planned to 
kill the child.

There is no difference in penalty. A person convicted of 1st-degree murder is 
subject to the death penalty, life without parole or life with a mandatory 
51-year prison term.

(source: The Tennessean)








ARIZONA:

Official: Firms won't sell execution drugs to Arizona



An Arizona prison official in charge of buying drugs to carry out the death 
penalty testified Tuesday in a media lawsuit over access to execution 
information that pharmaceutical companies will no longer sell drugs to carry 
out the punishment.

Carson McWilliams, a division director in charge of prison operations for the 
Arizona Department of Corrections, testified at a 1-day trial in Phoenix over 
whether the state must reveal its source of lethal-injection drugs and the 
qualifications of executioners.

Like other states, Arizona is struggling to obtain execution drugs after U.S. 
and European pharmaceutical companies began blocking the use of products for 
lethal injections.

McWilliams said it has gotten more difficult to find companies to sell drugs to 
Arizona, even though a law protects the firms from being publicly identified.

McWilliams said he was once shown an anonymous letter in which a supplier was 
threatened and told the business would be ruined if it sold drugs to state 
prisons.

"I don't know anyone in the United States where we could acquire chemicals to 
do executions," McWilliams said. "No one that I know will do business with the 
Department of Corrections."

The news organizations, including The Associated Press, filed the federal 
lawsuit after the 2014 death of condemned Arizona inmate Joseph Rudolph Wood, 
who was given 15 doses of a 2-drug combination before he died in what his 
attorney called a botched execution.

The lawsuit asserts that the public has a First Amendment right to information 
that would help determine whether executions are carried out humanely.

The trial ended after 3 witnesses testified. U.S. District Judge Murray Snow, 
who will decide the case, didn't say when he would issue his ruling.

Despite McWilliams' testimony, a lawyer for the news organizations said the 
state didn't prove that drug suppliers were refusing to do business with 
Arizona. Instead, attorney John Langford said suppliers don't want to be 
involved with the death penalty.

"The execution of an individual is the most significant exercise of state 
power, bar none," Langford said. "The public is entitled to the information 
necessary to understand how that power is being exercised."

The plaintiffs say information about executions has historically been open to 
the public and noted that journalists witness executions as proxies for the 
general public. They argued such information helps promote public confidence in 
the criminal justice system.

The state countered that the confidentiality that protects the identity of an 
execution team extends to suppliers of the drugs.

Jeffrey Sparks, an attorney representing prison officials, said the public is 
already given information about executions, including the types of drugs that 
will be used and the qualifications for execution team members putting IV lines 
in condemned inmates.

The lawsuit was filed by the AP, Arizona Republic, Guardian News & Media, 
Arizona Daily Star, CBS 5 (KPHO-TV) and 12 News (KPNX-TV).

The news organizations won a partial victory last year when a judge ruled the 
state must let witnesses view the entirety of an execution, including each time 
drugs are administered.

Arizona currently has 118 prisoners on death row.

(source: Associated Press)