A judge has ordered Texas to reveal the source of its execution drugs but the state plans to appeal the ruling.
District Judge Darlene Byrne’s decision in an Austin court on Thursday is the latest development in an ongoing battle between attorneys for death row inmates, who argue their clients have the right to know details about drugs that will be used to kill them, and Texas prison officials who say that withholding information is necessary to protect the safety of suppliers.
A shortage of its preferred lethal injection drugs forced Texas to turn last year to bespoke supplies from compounding pharmacies, which are often lightly regulated. When an Associated Press article revealed the name of a compounding pharmacy in suburban Houston that was providing pentobarbital for use in Texas executions, the pharmacy asked for its drugs back. Texas refused.
Boycotts led by European manufacturers have meant that other states have struggled to find execution drugs in recent years, but Texas, the nation’s most prolific modern-era executioner, has continued to locate supplies of compounded pentobarbital.
However, this year the state refused to comply with open-records requests asking for the name of the makers and for detailed information about the quality of the sedative.
Texas attorney general and Republican governor-elect Greg Abbott had previously issued rulings ordering the Texas department of criminal justice (TDCJ) to comply with such requests. The agency asked for a fresh decision this year, and Abbott decided in May that it was now entitled to keep details about its execution supplies secret from both inmates’ attorneys and the general public.
Attorneys for death row inmates have argued that without full verification of the potency and origins of the drugs, there is a risk that inmates could suffer drawn-out and painful executions in violation of the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishments.
“I’m encouraged that the court saw through TDCJ’s unfounded and unsupported arguments,” Maurie Levin, one of the attorneys who brought the suit, told the Guardian.
“The agency will appeal the ruling,” TDCJ spokesman Jason Clark said in a statement on Friday. “As we have said before, disclosing the identity of the pharmacy would result in the harassment of the business and would raise serious safety concerns for the business and its employees.
“It would also have a significant impact on the agency’s ability to carry out executions mandated by state law. Protecting the identity of the compounding pharmacist has been previously litigated in both state and federal courts and the agency anticipates winning on appeal, as it has before, when the courts examine the case further.”
