On December 11 District Judge Darlene Byrne ruled that the source of Texas’ lethal injec­tion drugs is a mat­ter of pub­lic record, and the state should release the infor­ma­tion. Texas has been obtain­ing pen­to­bar­bi­tal from an unnamed com­pound­ing phar­ma­cy. The deci­sion result­ed from a suit filed ear­li­er this year on behalf of death row inmates, two of whom have since been exe­cut­ed. Texas had been open about the source of its exe­cu­tion drugs until May, when Attorney General Greg Abbott decid­ed that releas­ing the iden­ti­ty of the drug sup­pli­er could be a safe­ty risk. Maurie Levin, one of the attor­neys who filed the suit, said, ​“This is about the drugs, but it’s also about open gov­ern­ment.” Similar suits have been filed in Oklahoma, Missouri, and Ohio, where drug sup­pli­ers are also shield­ed by secre­cy poli­cies. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice plans to appeal the decision.

(W. Weissert, ​“Judge: Texas Should Reveal Execution Drug Supplier,” Associated Press, ABC News, December 12, 2014). See Lethal Injection and Compounding Pharmacies.

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