Execution-drug info must be revealed, court rules
A state appeals court has ordered prison officials to identify pharmaceutical companies they contacted in search of drugs to be used in executions, saying the public is entitled to the information even if it leads to a backlash against the companies.
The ruling by the First District Court of Appeal emphatically rejected the reasoning of a San Francisco Superior Court judge, who said in February that the strong public views on both sides of capital punishment, and the prospect of boycotts and other actions against potential suppliers of execution drugs, justified withholding the companies' names.
In Tuesday's ruling, the appeals court said "the passionate nature of the death penalty debate ... heightens public interest in the information at issue in this case."
Only evidence of a potential security threat to a pharmaceutical company would justify concealing its name, and state officials have offered no such evidence, said Presiding Justice J. Anthony Kline in the 3-0 ruling.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which sued the state for information about its search for chemicals to be used in lethal injections, said the ruling was a victory for public accountability.
"We have the right in this state to know how our tax dollars are being spent," said ACLU attorney Michael Risher. He said the court decision "reaffirms the fundamental value that the more controversy there is over a government policy, the more important it is that we have an informed debate."
Terry Thornton, a spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, said the department was reviewing the ruling, and declined further comment.
Executions in California have been on hold since early 2006 because of federal court rulings questioning the state's lethal-injection procedures and staff training. Meanwhile, the sole U.S. manufacturer of sodium thiopental, the sedative used in the three-drug sequence, has ceased production, prompting California and other states to search for new supplies from hospitals and foreign countries.
The state has disclosed that it obtained additional supplies from a British manufacturer and verified their safety through independent testing. But the ACLU said in its lawsuit that questions remain about quality control, costs, compliance with importation laws and a largely secretive contracting process.
In a February ruling granting the state's request to conceal the identities of drug companies contacted by the state, Superior Court Judge Charlotte Woolard said the death penalty was a "highly heated issue, one that causes great concern."
"I think that not only is there a safety problem potential, there is a potential problem with boycott and business interests," Woolard said. She also said the Corrections Department was entitled to withhold parts or all of 15 documents that reflected its "decision-making process" in acquiring the drugs.
But the appeals court said the department had failed to show that its attempts to purchase the drug "involved the formulation of policy" - the legal basis for withholding the documents - or that revealing the names of potential suppliers would interfere with policymaking or put anyone in danger.
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