The arguably lesser of two major open government developments in the US Supreme Court as the Court unseals records submitted to it in an Alabama death penalty case.
The sealed records related to the drugs and execution protocol used in Alabama and an inmate's request that he be executed with nitrogen gas rather than lethal injection.
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and National Public Radio petitioned the Supreme Court to unseal the records which had been sealed at the insistence of the Alabama attorney general.
They argued that "sealing judicial proceedings and records implicates the First Amendment and common law rights of access."
The Court did not issue an opinion but granted the petition to unseal the records.
The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled that the Alabama execution protocol must be released to the Alabama Media Group and other news organizations.
In Kentucky, the issue of access to execution protocols has been raised twice.
In 2001, the Office of the Attorney General issued a decision to a University of Kentucky law school professor who requested information about Kentucky's execution protocols.
The attorney general's staff found that the Department of Corrections violated the open records law in failing to respond to the request for information, but that it was not obligated to answer questions about the protocol.
The staff suggested that the professor resubmit her request in the form of a request for records rather than posing a series of questions.
It is not clear whether she submitted a second request.
https://ag.ky.gov/orom/20011/01ORD247.doc
The issue was again presented in 2016 — shortly before my retirement — but I can locate no open records decision issued after my retirement dealing with the issue. In cases such as this, it is possible that the appeal was withdrawn or that the parties settled their open records dispute.
In light of the other development at the US Supreme Court yesterday, the Court's decision to grant the petition filed by NPR and RCFP was, indeed, good news.
