MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The state of Alabama must reveal details of its lethal injection procedure, a federal judge has ruled, granting the request of news organizations to unseal court records in the wake of an aborted execution.
US Judge Karon O. Bowdre ruled Wednesday that the public has a ‘‘common law right of access to the sealed records relating to Alabama’s lethal injection protocol.’’
The judge said some information can remain secret in the interest of security, such as the names of low-level prison employees involved in executions. But she ordered the state to tell her by June 7 if there is identifying information in any of the records the court plans to make public. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall’s office is reviewing the order, his spokesman said.
The Associated Press, the Montgomery Advertiser, and the Alabama Media Group asked the court in March to unseal records in a lawsuit brought by death row inmate Doyle Lee Hamm, whose death was halted at the last minute in February when the execution team could not connect an intravenous line to his veins, which were damaged by lymphoma, hepatitis, and past drug use.
‘‘It may also help the public to understand how the same scenario might be repeated or avoided under the protocol as it currently stands,’’ Bowdre wrote in ordering the release of the information.
Alabama for years has released scant details about its execution process or where it obtains the drugs used, according to Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center.
ASSOCIATED PRESS