“Darrell Grayson was executed by the state of Alabama on July 26. I was Grayson’s attorney. Hours before he was executed, Grayson learned no court was going to examine whether Alabama’s method of killing him met minimal constitutional standards.

Neither Grayson nor I fully understood how the state was going to kill him. But no one really did. Almost everything about Alabama’s process of killing people was secret: Who stuck the needle in the condemned’s arm? Exactly what drugs were used? Did anyone on the “execution team” have proper training in how to kill people? We never got the answers to those questions.

Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court decided the answers to these questions are important, and it agreed to hear a case from Kentucky challenging the lethal three-drug “cocktail” used to kill people.”

. . .

“Now is the time to subject the whole death-penalty process to a shining light. Why are some people prosecuted for capital murders while others, who commit crimes no different, are not? Why are so few counties in Alabama responsible for putting so many people on Death Row? Why are we the only state in the country that doesn’t provide lawyers to Death Row inmates after direct appeals? What explains the poor quality of legal representation received by many indigent capital defendants in this state?”

read then entire letter here.