The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area Texas has drawn some criticism due to the executions of Adam Ward and Coy Westbrook. Both men showed evidence of mental disability but were considered above the legal threshold of mental disability in Texas law – an IQ of 70. However, according to a petition to the Supreme Court, Adam Ward suffered from delusions and paranoia fed by his bipolar disorder. The Supreme Court denied the appeal about two hours before the execution.186 In the case of Coy Westbrook, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rejected a last-minute appeal that had been filed because of concerns over Wesbrook’s possible mental impairment.187. Public information procedures and execution methods In the Republic of Belarus, prisoners might be only informed hours, or even minutes, before they are executed, and relatives receive no prior notification. Executions are carried out by firing squad. In practice, all executions are carried out in undisclosed locations by a shot fired into the back of the head of the condemned person. The bodies are not returned to relatives, nor are the families told were they are buried. The United States publically announce the dates of executions months in advance. Families of the condemned and a set of witnesses, including the media and the family of the victims, are allowed to be present at executions. The primary method of execution is lethal injection, but there are other methods available, including electrocution (in eight states), gas chamber (five), hanging (three) and firing squad (three). Tennessee allows for electrocution to be used if the drugs for lethal injections are not available. Utah might allow for firing squads to be used for executions in the event that the drugs required for lethal injection are unavailable. The unavailability of such drugs has grown in the last five years, as manufacturers, seeking to avoid association with executions, have barred the sale of their products to corrections agencies. More than 20 American and European drug companies have already adopted such restrictions, citing moral or business reasons. The latest company to do so is Pfizer, which, on 28 March 2016, decided to impose sweeping controls on the distribution of its products to ensure that none are used in lethal injections. States’ reactions to such bans have included enacting laws that prohibit the disclosure of information regarding the drugs used in lethal injection protocols, “including the identity of the drug manufacturers, and the types, dosages, and expiration dates of the drugs”.188 The majority of the 31 states with the death penalty have such secrecy provisions, making it increasingly more difficult for prisoners to obtain the 186  See, Jon Herskovitz, REUTERS, “Texas executes man who killed city inspector in 2005”, 22 March 2016, <http://www.reuters.com/article/us-texas-execution-idUSKCN0WO1AO>. 187  See, Death Penalty News, “Texas executes Coy Wesbrook”, 10 March 2016, <http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.com/2016/03/texas-executes-coy-wesbrook.html>. 188  Submission to the UN Committee against Torture, 27 June 2015, <http://textlab.io/doc/9586557/june-27-2016-the-undersigned-groups-welcome-the-opportun...>. 46