Judge rules Missouri must name source of execution drug

ST. LOUIS -- A Missouri judge has ruled the state must reveal the source of the drug it uses to execute prisoners, finding the state's Department of Corrections "knowingly violated" Missouri's open-records law.

Cole County Circuit Judge Jon Beetem's ruling late Monday won't take effect until appeals are exhausted. Nanci Gonder, spokeswoman for Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster, said the ruling is under review and declined to say whether there would be an appeal.

Since 2013, Missouri has executed 18 men using the drug pentobarbital. Where the state gets the drug is unknown.

Major drug companies for the past several years have refused to allow their drugs to be used in executions. Missouri and many other active death-penalty states refuse to disclose the source of their drugs, though the sources are widely believed to be compounding pharmacies -- organizations that make drugs tailored to the needs of a specific client.

Those pharmacies do not face the same approval process or testing standards of larger pharmaceutical companies.

Missouri officials have claimed the drug source could be withheld under an exemption to the Missouri Sunshine Law.

The lawsuit was filed in 2014 by media organizations that included The Associated Press, Kansas City Star and St. Louis Post-Dispatch. It argued public disclosure reduces any risk "improper, ineffective or defectively prepared drugs are used."

Bernie Rhodes, a Kansas City lawyer for the media organizations, said he hopes the ruling ends litigation costing taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars.

"How much more are they going to spend to keep this information from the public when we now have a well-respected, non-partisan judge who has ruled twice now that the information is not exempt under the Missouri Sunshine Law?" Rhodes asked.

Beetem wrote the Missouri Department of Corrections "knowingly violated the Sunshine Law by failing to comply with statutory time limits, withholding whole categories of requested documents without justification, refusing to provide redacted records, and citing irrelevant exceptions to the Sunshine Law to justify withholding responsive documents."

Missouri law protects the identity of members of the execution team, and the state has claimed the drug-providing pharmacy is part of that team.

The judge ruled otherwise.

As part of his ruling, Beetem ordered the state to pay $73,000 in attorney fees to the plaintiffs.