Execution records sought in Oklahoma lawsuit
OKLAHOMA CITY — A retired New York attorney is suing the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, saying its claim to have no records pertaining to the drugs it plans to use in upcoming executions “defies belief.”
Fred Hodara, who filed the lawsuit Tuesday in Oklahoma County District Court, is asking the court to compel the Corrections Department to comply with his open-records requests for documentation of its execution plans.
In the lawsuit, he said that in response to his requests for the records, including some the department is legally required to keep, the agency told him that none exist, the Tulsa World reported.
“In light of the scope and nature of the requests, the assertation defies belief,” the lawsuit states, arguing that the agency has a history of refusing to search for and produce records that are subject to the state’s Open Records Act.
Oklahoma is preparing to execute John Marion Grant on Oct. 28.
It would be the state’s first execution since 2015, when then-Gov. Mary Fallin put a moratorium on them after the execution of Charles Warner with a drug that wasn’t authorized for that purpose.
A year earlier, the state botched the execution of convicted murderer Clayton Lockett, who was the first Oklahoma inmate to be put to death with the drug midazolam. Lockett writhed and moaned on the gurney before state officials tried to halt the execution midway through. He died 43 minutes after the execution began.
In his lawsuit, Hodara said he requested records including “drug inventories or logs, records containing drug expiration dates, documents related to the quality testing of drugs, as well as documents and correspondence related to the purchase of the drugs.” He said he did so because of the department’s problematic past executions and to ensure that it follows the law when it resumes them.
“I simply wanted to know through the open records request what has changed, how they’re going to do this in an accountable way with good governance,” Hodara told The Associated Press.