Mike Ward has posted, "AG: Make public info about execution drugs," at the Austin American-Statesman.
In a new decision, Attorney General Greg Abbott has ordered Texas prison officials to make public previously secret details about the drugs they use in lethal executions.
The five-page ruling dismisses the arguments by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice that the quantities, expiration dates and purchase information should be kept a state secret because it could disrupt the execution process in the state with the busiest death chamber.
The decision represented a victory for disclosure advocates, who had argued that prison officials were incorrect in insisting that making the details public might trigger violent protests outside the execution chamber in Huntsville or even embolden death penalty opponents, if they knew the state was about to run short of the drugs.
TDCJ could release the information, or file suit against the attorney general. If it releases the information, the documents could provide the first details in years about the three drugs Texas uses in executing criminals, information that used to be public but in recent years has been restricted.
Abbott’s ruling came after requests from the Austin American-Statesman for information about suppliers and costs of the three-drug cocktail used to execute condemned prisoners. The request followed news reports last month that supplies of one drug — sodium thiopental — were running low in other states and executions were being delayed.
And:
Assistant Attorney General Leah Wingerson, who signed the ruling on Abbott’s behalf, dismissed prison officials’ arguments that the release of information about the drugs would be disruptive and embarrassing.
Michelle Lyons, a spokesman for the corrections agency, said plans were underway to comply with Abbott’s mandate later today.
"The Sun Shines In Texas on Lethal Injection," is Nathan Koppel's post at the Wall Street Journal Law Blog.
The Lone Star State has to disclose the source of its supply of thiopental sodium, according to a ruling yesterday by the Texas Attorney General’s Office, which could prompt other states to be more transparent about their drug supplies.
As we have noted, the nationwide shortage of thiopental has touched off many legal scrums, as states have sought backup supplies of the drug or proposed using alternate drugs.
Throughout the drama, criminal defense lawyers and advocacy groups have pushed states to divulge the steps they have taken to acquire thiopental, citing concerns that inmates could suffer severe pain during executions if states acquire thiopental from a questionable source.
Texas and other states have pushed back, contending that suppliers of thiopental could suffer retribution from death-penalty opponents if their identities are disclosed. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice, for example, likened the debate over the death penalty to the abortion wars and suggested that protests over executions could turn violent.
Yesterday, the attorney general of Texas, the nation’s most active death penalty state, sided in favor of transparency, ruling that the state correctional department must disclose the quantity of execution drugs in its supply and the names of the drugs’ suppliers.
“This is information the public has a right to know,” said Jennifer Moreno, an attorney with a death-penalty legal clinic at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, which had filed a request with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to disclose the information. “We need to know where [thiopental] is coming from to make an assessment about the quality of the drug and whether it will be effective,” she said.
And:
A similar disclosure fight is underway in Arizona. The state has disclosed that it obtained thiopental from Britain, but not from whom.
“To protect our ability to get these drugs, we want to be sure we protect our sources,” said a spokeswoman with the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, which used imported thiopental to perform the Oct. 26 execution of Jeffrey Landrigan. The U.S. Supreme Court signed off on the state’s use of imported thiopental.
“Arizona should follow Texas’s lead on this,” said Dale Baich, an Arizona federal public defender who represented Mr. Landrigan and is counsel to other death-row inmates in the state. “ The lack of transparency by Arizona continues to be troubling and is not good government,” he said.
Earlier coverage from Texas is at, "Sodium Thiopental, Texas, and the State's Desire for Secrecy." Coverage of the issue in California is at the link. The next post will have more from Arizona. The Open Records Letter Decision, OR2010-17507, is in Adobe .pdf format
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