Mississippi Wants Execution-Drug Supplier's Name Kept Secret

Mississippi’s attorney general is asking a judge to keep the identity of the state’s execution-drug supplier secret while he appeals her order to release the name.

Hinds County Chancery Judge Denise Owens ruled earlier this month that the state’s public-records law requires officials to release the information, sought by death-penalty opponents at the Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice Center.

The judge hasn’t yet ruled on Attorney General Jim Hood’s latest request, made last week.

States across the country are wrestling with similar issues as they face shortages of lethal-injection drugs and some drug companies are refusing to provide the drug if their identity is not kept anonymous. Mississippi lawyers say one such pharmacy has refused to sell them further drugs after its identity became known through a public-records request submitted by the MacArthur center