6 years ago

Court: Alabama can’t keep its lethal injection method secret

ATLANTA — A federal appeals court sided with news media organizations Monday in ruling that Alabama can’t keep its lethal injection protocol secret from the public. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta rejected Alabama’s argument that its execution method is not a court record and thus should remain secret. Monday’s decision upheld a federal judge’s ruling last year that the public has “a common law right of access” to the records. Last year’s ruling found that the execution protocol and related records “clearly concern a matter of great public concern, i.e., how Alabama carries out its executions,” the appeals court wrote in Monday’s ruling.

Associated Press

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