Indiana unlawfully withheld execution drug purchasing records, judge rules

An Indiana judge has ruled that the Indiana Department of Correction violated the state public records law when it refused to disclose to the Indiana Capital Chronicle how much it paid for a new lethal injection drug that enabled the state to carry out its first execution in 15 years.  

Last week, Marion Superior Court Judge Clayton Graham sided with arguments made by Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press attorney Kris Cundiff, who sued the IDOC on behalf of the Capital Chronicle last year. Judge Graham ordered the department to release the requested records to the news outlet.

“Transparency is essential to accountability, and the court’s ruling affirms that the people of Indiana have a right to know how the state spends taxpayer money to carry out the death penalty,” Cundiff, who’s based in Indiana, told the Capital Chronicle. “We hope this decision sends a clear message that government agencies cannot withhold public records to avoid scrutiny of their most consequential decisions.”

Indiana officials previously attributed the state’s 15-year suspension of the death penalty to its inability to acquire execution drugs. The Capital Chronicle initially filed a request seeking access to records showing the cost of pentobarbital in June 2024, a few days after officials announced that Indiana had obtained the drug necessary to resume executions. 

Claiming that releasing the information could reveal the identities of individuals connected with the execution of death sentences in the state, the IDOC denied the news outlet’s request for six months — which ultimately forced the Capital Chronicle to sue. 

The lawsuit prompted the state to turn over a heavily redacted document containing the amount it paid for pentobarbital. But Judge Graham noted that the cost figure of $900,000 “was provided without context.” Key details were missing, the Capital Chronicle reported, like how much of the drug was purchased.

Judge Graham concluded that the IDOC’s response was insufficient. He also found that the Capital Chronicle was entitled to recover attorney’s fees and costs from the government. (Journalists and newsrooms never pay a penny for legal support from the Reporters Committee. But as Cundiff told the Indiana Supreme Court in 2024, fee-shifting is an important tool to enforce the public’s right to know.) 

This ruling is the latest victory in a broader Reporters Committee effort to help local journalists and newsrooms fight government secrecy surrounding executions. Cundiff is part of a team of Reporters Committee attorneys representing the Capital Chronicle and other news outlets in a First Amendment lawsuit challenging an Indiana law that prohibits news media witnesses at executions.   

And in Tennessee, a judge recently ordered the state to expand press access to executions after a coalition of news outlets, represented by Reporters Committee attorneys, filed a similar lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Tennessee’s restrictions on media witnesses. 

To learn more about the decision, check out the Capital Chronicle’s reporting.