Drugs set for use in Arkansas executions spree questioned

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- A judge peeled back the veil on a part of Arkansas’ highly secret execution procedure Thursday, saying prison officials must disclose more information about the lethal drugs they plan to use as part of an accelerated timetable of putting condemned inmates to death next month.

Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen said packing slips that accompanied 100 vials of recently acquired potassium chloride must be released to prove they meet purity standards. The Arkansas Department of Correction said its word was good enough.

“Just because you say it, doesn’t make it so,” Griffen told assistant attorney general Colin Jorgensen. “The department should have no problem disclosing that proof.”

At 5:01 p.m., the judge gave the prisons department a half-hour to turn over the leaflets, saying the agency has known for a week, through a lawsuit, that there was a demand for the material. Because it was after-hours, Jorgenson asked when the clock would start to run.

“This information was never confidential,” Griffen said. “Thirty sure-enough, for-real minutes. Sooner is better than later and now is better than sooner.”

Jorgensen reached out to prison officials immediately after the hearing. Later Thursday, he notified the court that the state would appeal the judge’s order.

The prison officials, who plan to execute eight inmates in a 10-day period next month before one of the state’s lethal drugs expires April 30, have refused to release packing slips that detail how the drugs are to be used. The Associated Press has previously used the labels to identify drugmakers whose products would be used in executions against their will. The AP renewed its request after the state acquired its potassium chloride, but was also rejected. The AP started another request after the court session Thursday; the agency has 72 hours to comply because the AP was not part of the court proceeding.

The prison system said its suppliers need anonymity to take part in executions and fears that releasing the package labels would somehow identify the state’s supplier. Griffen found that state confidentiality laws don’t apply to pharmaceutical companies that merely produce drugs.

A lawyer, Steven Shults, has said he wants the package inserts to ensure the inmates are put to death as humanely as possible. He declined comment after the hearing.

Because The Associated Press used previously disclosed labels to identify manufacturers, state prison officials say they would no longer release the packing slips, even redacted.

“It is not possible to redact the labels or package inserts in a manner that would ... maintain confidentiality,” the state had said in rejecting Shults’ request for information under the state’s Freedom of Information Act and Method of Execution Act.

In court papers filed ahead of Thursday’s hearing, Shults said holding back the material “appears to be an attempt by the state to shield a person or entity that is selling these drugs to ADC, purportedly in direct violation of their contracts with the manufacturer’s ... wishes.”

In addition to keeping information about the drugs secret, the prison will not release details on its training plan, the experience level of its execution team members or the identity of potential citizen witnesses. It also has not disclosed the times that the executions would take place.

The state previously released redacted versions of packing slips for midazolam and vecuronium bromide. The AP has asked for full versions.