Capital Chronicle lawsuit prompts state of Indiana to release amount paid for execution drug

The Indiana Capital Chronicle reported last week that the state of Indiana spent $900,000 to acquire a new lethal injection drug that recently enabled the state to carry out its first execution in 15 years. 

The Indiana Department of Correction turned over a document containing the amount the state paid for the execution drug pentobarbital weeks after the Indiana Capital Chronicle sued the department for access to the information with free legal support from Kris Cundiff, the Indiana Local Legal Initiative attorney for the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. However, the news outlet is still negotiating with the state for access to additional information, including how much of the drug was purchased.

“Revealing the amount paid for pentobarbital is only the first step toward transparency in this case,” Cundiff said. “‘Cost’ necessarily includes more than a dollar amount, and our clients will continue to fight for the information that puts this number in context. The press and the public have a right to know more detailed information when the state chooses to put an offender to death.”

The Capital Chronicle initially filed a request seeking access to records showing the cost of pentobarbital last June. The request came a few days after Indiana’s then-Gov. Eric Holcomb and Attorney General Todd Rokita announced that the acquisition of the drug would enable the state to execute death row inmate Joseph Corcoran, who was convicted of murdering four people in 1997.

A few months later, the IDOC denied the news outlet’s request, claiming that the records are shielded from disclosure under exemptions to Indiana’s Access to Public Records Act. After the Capital Chronicle filed a complaint with the Indiana Public Access Counselor, which helps members of the public and government officials navigate the state’s public access laws, the IDOC claimed that disclosing the cost of the lethal injection drug might reveal the identities of individuals connected with the execution of death sentences in the state.

The PAC issued an informal opinion in December — the same month that Indiana used pentobarbital to execute Corcoran — but the agency did not reach a definitive conclusion about whether records showing the cost of the lethal injection drug are protected from disclosure under Indiana’s public records law.

In January, the Capital Chronicle sued the IDOC, alleging that the department violated the state’s public records law by failing to respond to the news outlet’s records request within a reasonable time and by unlawfully withholding disclosable public records. The lawsuit, filed in the Marion Superior Court, disputed the government’s claim that the release of records showing the cost for the drug would reveal the identities of the people who carry out executions in the state. 

A couple of weeks after the lawsuit, Indiana Gov. Mike Braun suggested that he could reverse the previous administration’s refusal to disclose the cost to acquire pentobarbital. As the Capital Chronicle reported at the time, a statement released by Braun said the governor has “directed his legal team to evaluate how to provide the greatest level of transparency under current law in hopes of resolving the current lawsuit.”

Now that the state has released the amount paid for the drug, the Capital Chronicle is pushing for more information that will help contextualize the $900,000 figure. 

“Additional context is vital to understanding the true cost of the drug,” Cundiff said. “Our clients intend to continue to seek the information to which the law entitles them.”