Judge: Arkansas too secretive about execution procedures, must disclose more information

6:15 P.M. UPDATE:

A judge says Arkansas is being too secretive about part of its execution procedures ahead of an unprecedented run of lethal injections and must disclose more information about the drugs it intends to use.

Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffin found that state confidentiality laws apply to sellers and suppliers, not pharmaceutical companies.

He gave the state 30 minutes to hand the information over to a lawyer who has sought it.

Prison officials who want to execute eight inmates in an 11-day period next month had refused to release packing slips that detail how the drugs are to be used. The Associated Press has previously used the labels to identify drugmakers whose products would be used in executions against their will. The prison system has promised its suppliers anonymity.

Lawyer Steven Shults has said he wants the package inserts to ensure the inmates are put to death as humanely as possible.

Read Friday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.

EARLIER:

LITTLE ROCK — A lawyer went to court Thursday hoping to obtain information about the three drugs Arkansas will use in an unprecedented run of executions next month, but prison officials say the material is part of a secret they must keep to protect its supplier.

Steven Shults sued the Arkansas Department of Correction last week, saying the agency is required under the law to release the drugs' packing labels. While he said disclosure could ensure that the inmates will be put to death with properly manufactured drugs, state prison officials say the drugs are pure and that Shults and others should take them at their word.

Because The Associated Press used previously disclosed labels to identify manufacturers, state prison officials say they will no longer release the packing slips.

"It is not possible to redact the labels or package inserts in a manner that would ... maintain confidentiality," the state said in rejecting Shults' request for information under the state's Freedom of Information Act and Method of Execution Act.

Arkansas has scheduled eight executions for an 11-day period next month and hopes to kill eight of its longest-serving death row inmates before one of the state's lethal drugs expires April 30.

In court papers filed ahead of Thursday's hearing, Shults said state secrecy protections extend only to the seller of the drug, not the manufacturer. He said in his lawsuit that it "appears to be an attempt by the state to shield a person or entity that is selling these drugs to ADC, purportedly in direct violation of their contracts with the manufacturer's ... wishes."

In addition to keeping information about the drugs secret, the prison will not release details on its training plan, the experience level of its execution team members, the identity of potential citizen witnesses and the times that the executions will be held.

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