USA - Federal judge Charles Stampelos has ordered Florida to give documents about lethal drugs to Arizona death row inmates

Rejecting arguments that the records must be kept secret, federal judge Charles Stampelos has ordered the Florida Department of Corrections to give a decade's worth of documents about drugs used in the state's lethal-injection procedure to lawyers representing 7 Arizona death row inmates challenging Arizona's use of Midazolam for its lethal injections. Lawyers for the Arizona inmates and the First Amendment Coalition of Arizona in June filed a subpoena seeking years of records related to Florida's three-drug lethal injection protocol, including the types of drugs purchased, the strengths and amounts of the drugs, the expiration dates of the drugs and the names of suppliers. The lawyers sought and received similar information from other states, including Georgia, Missouri and Texas, according to court records. The Florida Department of Corrections refused to release the documents, arguing that the information is exempt under the state's broad open-records law and that the Arizona lawyers were on a "fishing expedition." But on Monday, Stampelos (magistrate Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida) gave the corrections agency 21 days to provide the documents, outlining specifically how the records can be redacted to comply with state law. The Department of Corrections is "reviewing the request and will comply with the court order," agency spokeswoman Michelle Glady said in an email Thursday. The request for the records came in an Arizona death-penalty challenge focused on whether the use of midazolam, the 1st step in a 3-drug lethal injection cocktail, violates Eighth Amendment protections against cruel or unusual punishment. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that, in those types of cases, prisoners must provide an available alternative to the method of execution being challenged. Gathering the information from the other states is a "core component" to the inmates' claim that Arizona's lethal-injection process is unconstitutional, the Arizona lawyers argued. While the state must provide the redacted documents to the Arizona lawyers, the records may not be available to the general public, based on Stampelos' order.