Missouri appeals court order to reveal execution-drug source

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Casting it as "a question of exceptional importance," Missouri has asked a federal appellate court to block temporarily and ultimately scuttle a ruling that requires the state to reveal one of its most-guarded secrets: who supplies its lethal-injection drug.

Wednesday's appeals urged the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to suspend last week's ruling by a panel of three of its judges, who unanimously rejected Missouri's claim disclosing how it gets pentobarbital could crimp its ability to obtain such chemicals for future executions.

Unless the 8th Circuit intervenes, Missouri must identify any sources by Sept. 16 to two Mississippi death-row inmates who have subpoenaed the state for details about pentobarbital, which is a sedative.

Missouri separately requested the full court to hear the matter.

The state insists "execution of its criminal sentences" is a "core state function," and the Missouri Department of Corrections "has demonstrated for years that if it reveals the identity of the supplier, then the supplier will no longer provide chemicals to Missouri."

"This case presents a question of exceptional importance: Must the Missouri Department of Corrections disclose the identity of the supplier that provides the chemicals used in executions?" Wednesday's appeal stated. "The question is whether the subpoena places an undue burden on Missouri. It does."

Missouri gets its execution drug from a compounding pharmacy and has shielded the source's name, with similar secrecy cloaking to what extent the drug is tested.

Arguing Mississippi should consider adopting a one-drug execution method as Missouri, Texas and Georgia have done, inmates Richard Jordan and Ricky Chase have sued those states for specifics about their execution drugs as part of their federal challenge of Mississippi's three-drug execution protocol, which they describe as torturous and unconstitutionally cruel. The inmates hope to show alternatives to Mississippi's execution protocol exist.

"It would be a classic Catch-22 to require our clients to produce evidence of a known, available alternative to Mississippi execution procedures but deny us the power to obtain the information we need to produce that evidence," the inmates' attorney, Jim Craig, said last week. He didn't reply immediately to requests for comment regarding Missouri's latest appeals.

Missouri has 25 death-row inmates. Prison officials have argued any of the state's execution-drug providers "require the assurance of confidentiality," given fears of threats and other harassment.

One of the appeals alleged, "As a matter of law, the identity of Missouri's supplier is not relevant to Mississippi inmates."

While acknowledging such disclosure "may have detrimental consequences for a state," the 8th Circuit panel ruled last week Missouri's claims regarding a possible loss of drug supply were "inherently speculative" and "hearsay."