Group says MDOC violated public records act

A New Orleans public interest group says in a lawsuit that the Mississippi Department of Corrections failed to comply with the state's Public Records Act by not producing records of the state's procedure for carrying out executions.

The Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice Center said in the lawsuit filed last week in Hinds County Chancery Court it requested records in a dozen categories, but MDOC provided 10 heavily-redacted pages of documents, and didn't disclose the identity of vendors supplying drugs used in lethal injections nor a written explanation – as required by law – of what Public Records Act exemptions were used to black out information on the public documents. MDOC also didn't explain whether its failure to provide other documents was because the records don't exist or because access was denied, the center said.

"MDOC's evasive and obstructionist response clearly runs afoul of the Public Records Act, and hides from public view important details of the state's infliction of the most serious and irrevocable penalty against one of its citizens," according to the lawsuit.

MDOC spokeswoman Grace Fisher said the department doesn't discuss pending litigation.

The McArthur Justice Center said recent botched injection executions have raised concerns about the manufacturers of the drugs and the mix of drugs used in lethal injection "We have no reason to believe MDOC is capable of executing a citizen any more humanely than has been done recently in other states," said Jim Craig, co-director of the MacArthur Justice Center.

Prior to taking a job in New Orleans, Craig represented several Mississippi death row inmates on appeal.

Last year, the McArthur Justice Center filed a lawsuit against MDOC on behalf of two then-death row inmates arguing the state was buying drugs used in executions that are locally mixed and not from a primary manufacturer and could be counterfeit, contaminated or have other problems. That lawsuit asked a judge to bar executions of the inmates until the state proves the integrity of the drugs.

Contact Jimmie E. Gates at jgates@jackson.gannett.com or (601) 961-7212. Follow @jgatesnews on Twitter.