FBI records show that state claims that exe­cu­tion drug sup­pli­ers have been the sub­ject of threats by anti-death penal­ty activists are large­ly unsub­stan­ti­at­ed and exag­ger­at­ed, accord­ing to an inves­ti­ga­tion by BuzzFeed News. BuzzFeed found that ​“few con­crete exam­ples” of the alleged harass­ment, intim­i­da­tion, and phys­i­cal threats states claim have been made against drug sup­pli­ers, and that ​“the states’ mar­quee exam­ple — in which the FBI alleged­ly inves­ti­gat­ed a seri­ous bomb threat sent to a drug sup­pli­er — is con­tra­dict­ed by inter­nal FBI doc­u­ments.” Instead, BuzzFeed found, ​“the real dan­ger to drug sup­pli­ers appears to be legal and eco­nom­ic risk, not risk of vio­lence.” Texas and Ohio have claimed secre­cy was nec­es­sary to pro­tect the safe­ty of poten­tial drug sup­pli­ers, cit­ing an alleged threat against a dis­graced and now defunct Tulsa, Oklahoma phar­ma­cy, The Apothecary Shoppe, that had been sup­ply­ing exe­cu­tion drugs to Missouri. That ​“threat” appears to have con­sist­ed of an email sent by a retired col­lege pro­fes­sor who used his own name and includ­ed his own phone num­ber, and which the pro­fes­sor has char­ac­ter­ized as a warn­ing to the phar­ma­cy to be cau­tious. An expert wit­ness for the two states — a for­mer Secret Service offi­cer named Lawrence Cunningham who is now employed by a pri­vate secu­ri­ty com­pa­ny — tes­ti­fied in lit­i­ga­tion over their secre­cy poli­cies that the email con­sti­tut­ed a ​“seri­ous threat,” as evi­denced by the fact that it was inves­ti­gat­ed by the FBI. However, FBI and Tulsa Police Department records show that nei­ther agency was aware of any threats against the phar­ma­cy until a reporter called the FBI months lat­er to ask about alleged threats. The phar­ma­cy had not filed any com­plaint about the email and, FBI records show, did not come for­ward with copies of any threat­en­ing emails after hav­ing been giv­en an oppor­tu­ni­ty to do so. Cunningham also tes­ti­fied in the Ohio case that the Texas Department of Public Safety had inves­ti­gat­ed the email, includ­ing inter­view­ing the pro­fes­sor — a claim that is con­tra­dict­ed by Cunningham’s own sworn tes­ti­mo­ny in the Texas case and, BuzzFeed says, by Texas DPS doc­u­ments, sworn state­ments of the DPS depart­ment head, and FBI inter­nal doc­u­ments. Indeed, Colonel Steven McCraw of Texas DPS tes­ti­fied in a depo­si­tion, ​“I did not do any inves­ti­ga­tions. We didn’t look at any peo­ple. We didn’t do any­thing.” Officials in Mississippi, Ohio, and Missouri also exag­ger­at­ed threats by stat­ing sup­pli­ers were ​“harmed” or ​“threat­ened” by fac­ing law­suits or dis­parag­ing com­ments in the media. 

(C. McDaniel, ​“FBI Documents Don’t Back Up Claimed Threat To Execution Drug Supplier,” BuzzFeed News, August 29, 2016.) See Lethal Injection.

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