The issue of secrecy surrounding the source of execution drugs is heating up in the wake of some botched executions.
The Associated Press joined other Missouri newspapers in challenging that state’s insistence that its laws allow the corrections department to keep the source of the drug secret.
Here’s a rundown on the litigation in Missouri.
TCOG first wrote about the secrecy of execution drugs in December, eight months after the Tennessee Legislature passed a bill to make the source of drugs confidential, along with the already confidential name of the medical personnel involved in the execution.
Since then, the secrecy issue has become national. The Tennessee Legislature in the most recent session passed a bill that would allow the use of the electric chair if lethal injection drugs became unavailable or their use ruled unconstitutional.
To read more about this issue from a public records perspective, visit TCOG’s most recent blog post when The Tennessean in Nashville explored the issue in March.
