A legislative committee Thursday recommended paying a Little Rock attorney $48,578 for legal fees incurred during a yearslong effort to obtain documents about the state's execution drug supply from the Department of Correction.
The decision came from a subcommittee of the Joint Budget Committee that meets to review decisions of the state Claims Commission. The subcommittee's recommendations then go through the Legislature.
The issue over documents dates back to early 2017, when the state was preparing to resume lethal injections for the first time in more than a decade. At the time, Steven Shults, a lawyer based in Little Rock, filed a Freedom of Information Act request for documents regarding the three drugs the state was planning to use in executions. Shults took the prison system to court.
Shults' lawsuits were among a dizzying number of suits filed in relation to the state's unprecedented effort to execute eight men over a period of two weeks in April 2017. The effort attracted international attention. Four executions were carried out.
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At Thursday's meeting, Jim DePriest, an attorney for the Correction Department, explained that the department denied parts of Shults' request for legal fees based on its belief that the 2015 Method of Execution Act allowed the prison system to keep secret the identities of the manufacturers of execution drugs.
Many pharmaceutical makers are averse to having their products used in executions. In the past, companies have petitioned the state to return their products after learning of the intent to use them to kill death row inmates.
In response to having his public records request denied, Shults filed lawsuits against the Correction Department, challenging its interpretation of the Method of Execution Act. Twice, circuit court judges ordered the department to release the documents, and twice the Department of Correction appealed the decision to the Arkansas Supreme Court.
In two separate decisions, the Supreme Court ruled that the Department of Correction must release the drug labels and inserts.
The court did allow, however, for officials to redact specific information, such as batch, lot and control numbers, from the documents.
DePriest told the subcommittee that the court's exception to allow some information to be kept secret showed that Shults "didn't really prevail" and thus was unable to collect attorney's fees under Claims Commission rules.
The Claims Commission, and Alec Gaines, Shults' attorney, disagreed.
The commission had previously awarded Shults two separate claims, for $15,000 and $33,578, for each of his lawsuits.
After hearing arguments, state Sen. Stephanie Flowers, D-Pine Bluff, made a motion to affirm the full amount of the award decided by the Claims Commission. In response, state Sen. Bart Hester, R-Cave Springs, filed a separate motion to reduce the award to nothing.
Hester's motion failed to get enough votes to pass the committee, which was missing several of its members. Instead, the committee voted for Flowers' motion -- and the $48,578 -- with only Rep. Lane Jean, R-Magnolia voicing his dissent.
Before being paid, the award must still be affirmed by the full budget committee and later included in an appropriations bill.
"For all intents and purposes, I think this ends the two-year process," said Shults' attorney, Gaines, following the subcommittee's ruling.
Metro on 02/22/2019