Missouri wins delay in revealing its source of lethal injection drugs

The state of Missouri has been granted a delay in a court order that it must reveal the source of its lethal injection drug supplier.

On Sept. 2, a three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the state to reveal its source of pentobarbital.

Missouri officials asked the court to delay that order so they could seek a rehearing from the three-judge panel or have the full court of appeals consider the case.

On Friday, that request was granted.

Missouri Department of Corrections officials have argued that its drug supplier “requires the assurance of confidentiality” and that providing the information would result in the state no longer being able to obtain the drug used to carry out executions.

Attorneys for that supplier have also filed a motion seeking to be included in the case. In their motion, they asked that the supplier be identified anonymously as M7.

They argue that revealing the supplier’s identity would place their “life and well-being” in jeopardy.

The attorneys for M7 said in their legal filings that if the identity is revealed, they will cease supplying the drug to Missouri, “in order to prevent retribution, both physical and financial, from death penalty opponents.”

The order to reveal Missouri’s drug source came in the case of two Mississippi inmates who are challenging the constitutionality of that state’s three-drug lethal injection protocol.

To prevail on their challenge, the inmates are required to show that there is an available alternative to Mississippi’s method.

That prompted their attorneys to subpoena Missouri officials to obtain information about its drug source. Missouri officials sought to quash that subpoena, but U.S. District Judge Stephen R. Bough denied that request earlier this year and ordered the state to provide the requested information.

The state appealed, but the appeals court panel upheld Bough’s ruling on Sept. 2.

This story was originally published September 9, 2016 at 3:06 PM with the headline "Missouri wins delay in revealing its source of lethal injection drugs."