From [HERE] It's a dark day for Oklahoma. That metaphor is particularly apt this week, as the Sooner State just redoubled its commitment to keeping capital punishment in the shadows by hiding its lethal injection process from public view and oversight.

Five months after Clayton Lockett's (Black man) horrifically botched execution and the state's promise to investigate and improve its execution process, the government responded yesterday with a brand-new "execution policy" that only makes it more difficult for the public to know anything about how the government is carrying out the ultimate punishment. No need to read between the lines – the state has listed explicit measures to deepen the mystery surrounding lethal injection and keep the public at bay.

The policy slashes the number of media witnesses allowed to attend an execution from 12 to 5, and it expressly reserves the right to regulate their access on the fly. Even crazier, the policy gives the state the power to close the execution viewing curtain on a whim, and to remove witnesses – as state officials see fit.

"The government took a process already corrupted by secrecy and made it even more difficult for the public to know anything about it," said my colleague Ryan Kiesel at the ACLU of Oklahoma. That's exactly right – and it's a shameful truth that gives the lie to the state's continual references to the ideals of transparency.

We remember how the state responded to Lockett's botched execution on April 29 – with more secrecy. The new execution policy, and its reduction of public oversight, will only increase the likelihood of more cruel and unusual deaths at the hands of the state.