On September 11, four news organizations filed suit in federal court challenging Pennsylvania’s secrecy about the source of its lethal injection drugs as a violation of the first amendment rights of the media and the citizens of Pennsylvania. The suit was filed by the Guardian, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and the Philadelphia City Paper in advance of the execution of Hubert Michael, which had been scheduled for September 22, but has now been stayed because the state was not prepared to carry it out. Under a court order from 2012, the identity of the compounding pharmacy that provides the lethal injection drugs was kept secret. Information was released to Mr. Michael’s lawyers, but not to the public or the media. “The information sought by our clients is central to the debate about capital punishment. If the drugs are not made properly, they will not work properly, and the public should be very concerned about that possibility given the gruesome executions we have heard about in other states,” said Mary Catherine Roper, the lawyer who is representing the newspapers. Media organizations have also filed similar suits in Missouri and Oklahoma over execution secrecy.

(E. Pilkington, “Pennsylvania challenged over execution drugs secrecy in federal court,” The Guardian, September 11, 2014). See Lethal Injection and DPIC’s latest podcast on Lethal Injections.

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