A recent arti­cle by Prof. Eric Berger of the University of Nebraska College of Law argued that defen­dants fac­ing exe­cu­tion have a fun­da­men­tal right to know impor­tant infor­ma­tion about the lethal injec­tion drugs they will be giv­en. Berger wrote, ​“Judicial recog­ni­tion of this due process right would both pro­tect Eighth Amendment val­ues and also encour­age states to make their exe­cu­tion pro­ce­dures more trans­par­ent and less dan­ger­ous.” After dis­cussing the his­to­ry of recent devel­op­ments in lethal injec­tion, the right to dis­cov­er evi­dence under the Federal Rules of Procedure, and the need to be ful­ly informed in order to demon­strate the cru­el­ty of a method of exe­cu­tion, the arti­cle con­clud­ed: ​“By per­mit­ting states to exe­cute inmates with­out dis­clos­ing key details about their lethal injec­tion pro­ce­dures, courts are not only deny­ing inmates their Eighth Amendment due process rights but are also implic­it­ly bless­ing states’ secre­tive and often unpro­fes­sion­al admin­is­tra­tion of their most solemn task.”

(E. Berger, ​“Lethal Injection Secrecy and Eighth Amendment Due Process,“55 Boston College Law Review 1367, 1367, 1440 – 41 (2014); DPIC post­ed Feb. 16, 2015). See Law Reviews and Lethal Injection.

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