From [HERE] The Alabama House of Representatives on 3/12/15 voted to keep execution drug suppliers' names secret and to bring back the use of the electric chair when chemicals for lethal injection are not available. The members of the House added the drug suppliers secrecy section to a bill that is currently under debate. The bill would allow the use of the electric chair in the state whenever the state is unable to acquire lethal injection drugs or if the execution method is deemed unconstitutional. Representative Lynn Greer stated [AP report] that Alabama and other states are having issues acquiring the drugs because pharmacies fear lawsuits from death penalty opponents. However, there was some opposition to the provision, as representative Chris England stated that drug purchases are public record and the state has no authority to hide this information from the public. The members passed the bill by a vote of 76-26, sending it now to the Alabama Senate.
Nationally, Alabama ranks 23rd in population, but second in executions . In Alabama, African-Americans are 27% of the population, yet comprise 63% of the prisoners. And while 65% of murders involve black victims, 80% of death sentences involve white victims. Further, according to the Equal Justice Initiative, 60% of black death row prisoners were convicted of killing a white person, although cases involving black defendants and white murder victims represent a mere 6% of the murders in Alabama.
In the past 10 years, 23 Alabama death penalty cases have been overturned because prosecutors had illegally struck black people from the juries. Alabama has no black appellate judges, and only one black prosecutor. And nationally, 98% of prosecutors are white. [MORE]