Controversies sur­round­ing lethal injec­tions con­tin­ue in many parts of the coun­try. In Georgia, the leg­is­la­ture passed a bill to clas­si­fy the names of those involved in exe­cu­tions as ​“state secrets.” The bill requires the iden­ti­ty of any enti­ty that ​“man­u­fac­tures, sup­plies, com­pounds or pre­scribes” lethal injec­tion drugs to be kept secret. In Arkansas, a state judge ruled that death row inmates can­not use the state’s Freedom of Information Act to obtain infor­ma­tion about the source, his­to­ry, or qual­i­ty of the drugs the state will use dur­ing exe­cu­tion. An attor­ney for the inmates claimed they should have a right to the infor­ma­tion because of prob­lems with drugs obtained in the past. On March 25, a fed­er­al appeals court heard argu­ments in a case involv­ing death row inmates from across the coun­try argu­ing that the Food and Drug Administration act­ed inap­pro­pri­ate­ly in 2010 when it allowed some states to import lethal injec­tion drugs from for­eign sources. Eric Shumsky, an attor­ney rep­re­sent­ing the inmates, said, ​“This case is … about ensur­ing that ille­gal drugs are not used in car­ry­ing out oth­er­wise legal exe­cu­tions.” Also recent­ly, the Israel-based drug com­pa­ny Teva announced that it would resume man­u­fac­tur­ing the seda­tive propo­fol, but would not allow its use in exe­cu­tions. Missouri has pro­posed using propo­fol for its executions.

(B. Rankin, ​“Bill would cloak lethal injec­tion infor­ma­tion in secre­cy, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, March 21, 2013; M. Strattford, ​“Judge: Ark. lethal injec­tion records FOIA exempt, Associated Press, March 26, 2013; M. Doyle, ​“Appeals court to hear argu­ments against lethal-injec­tion drug,” Washington Post, March 24, 2013). See Lethal Injection.

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