Supreme Court to unseal records about Alabama’s death penalty

The nation’s highest court has ordered that documents to the protocol Alabama uses to execute death row inmates be made public.

Monday’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling came after reporters from National Public Radio and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press asked for document filed to the court by the Alabama Attorney General’s Office-- which had paragraphs of information regarding its lethal injection protocol blacked out-- to be unsealed.

The U.S. Supreme Court didn't write an opinion on the case, but granted the motion to unseal the files.

The sealed records were filed in the case of Christopher Price, an Alabama inmate who was executed by the state in May. In the days leading up to Price's May 30 execution, both his attorneys and representatives from the AG's Office filed motions in a federal district court and appeals court that were sealed.

When Price’s attorneys asked the U.S. Supreme Court for a stay of execution in the hours leading up to his death, the records remained sealed. A motion from NPR and RCFP to the high court said, “Both parties sought leave to file their papers under seal with redacted copies for the public record, again stating that their submissions would reference material designated ‘confidential’ under the discovery protective order entered by the magistrate judge. On May 30, this Court granted those requests. The parties filed heavily redacted briefs with this Court.”

NPR and RCFP's motion also said "sealing judicial proceedings and records implicates the First Amendment and common law rights of access."

The filings in Price’s case that were sealed dealt primarily with his argument he should be executed by the newly-approved method of nitrogen hypoxia, not the three-drug lethal injection protocol Price contended will cause or is likely to cause severe pain.

In a response to the request for the records to be unsealed, the AG’s Office said in a court filing that certain information was asked to remain secret because it, if released, could pose a security risk to the Alabama Department of Corrections, its personnel, inmates, and visitors. “Of particular interest to [the state] was keeping confidential the ADOC’s execution protocol, which the ADOC has long sought to protect from disclosure for these reasons.”

While Price took his argument to the Supreme Court, the court twice refused to hear his claims on the issue: Once on his first scheduled execution date in April, and again before he died in May.

Breyer had issued his dissent at the time the nation’s highest court lifted the stay of execution in the early morning hours of April 12. He admonished court conservatives for overruling two lower court stays “in the middle of the night” without discussing it further at a morning conference.

“What is at stake in this case is the right of a condemned inmate not to be subjected to cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment,” Breyer wrote.

In another case in which Alabama has tried to keep its execution protocol secret, the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in March that Alabama must release its protocol to news organizations following requests by Alabama Media Group - parent company of AL.com - and other news organizations.

The request involved the case of another death row inmate - Doyle Lee Hamm. The ruling became final on June 12 and it is not clear whether Alabama will appeal that ruling.

Source: al.com, Ivana Hrynkiw, June 24, 2019

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