Judge rules Arkansas lethal injection records exempt from FOIA

From SFGate:

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Death-row inmates cannot use Arkansas' open records law to obtain information about the origin, history of quality of the drugs the state will use to execute them, a state judge ruled Monday.

Pulaski County Circuit Judge Collins Kilgore ruled after a hearing Monday that communication between the Department of Correction and a drug company was not subject to disclosure under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act — even for the inmates who may one day receive a fatal dose.

Six condemned killers sought the information despite a section of the FOI law that limits the release of certain information about execution procedures — including how the drugs are obtained.