"Controversial bill proposed to get stalled SC executions back on track", 6 Mar. 2016

[Under] state law, the [South Carolina Department of Corrections] must use fresh drugs when executing killers. But all the expiration dates have passed on the toxic drugs the department uses to execute the condemned. And there’s no easy way of getting new drugs. Drug companies are refusing to sell the state those chemicals.

A bill proposed in the General Assembly could help get executions back on track...

Legal challenges, protests and fear of bad publicity are the reason that pharmaceutical companies won’t sell the drugs, [state Department of Corrections Director Bryan] Stirling said.

“Death penalty activists have been very good at stopping departments of corrections in states that have the death penalty from obtaining these drugs,” Stirling said... [He supports a bill under consideration] that would shield the identities of companies that sell drugs to the DOC...[which] might help convince companies to sell lethal drugs to DOC, Stirling said...

Death penalty foes call [the law] a “secrecy” law and say it goes against American traditions of open government.