The ACLU of South Carolina is asking a federal court to remove a shroud of secrecy around South Carolina’s death penalty.
The new federal lawsuit challenges the constitutionality of the 2023 secrecy statute that forbids the publication of information about the procurement of lethal injection drugs, among other key information regarding the death penalty.
The lawsuit argues that the law bars public access to “a vast swath of information” — both current and historical — “related to execution-related drugs and/or equipment, including procurement; repairs and maintenance done after acquiring the drugs or equipment; protocols; risk mitigation measures; compliance with state and federal regulations; and cost.”
Why this case?
South Carolina's execution secrecy law chills political speech. Rather than persuade the public and pharmaceutical companies that it is moral to purchase poison for the purpose of executing South Carolinians, leading politicians have instead sought to suppress speech that they find inconvenient. To quote from our initial complaint:
This ban not only further departs from the state’s history of making execution-related information publicly available but criminalizes the disclosure of this information by anyone for any reason. It thus silences the scientists, doctors, journalists, former correctional officials, lawyers, and citizens who have scrutinized the safety, efficacy, morality, and legality of South Carolina’s use of lethal injection.
That approach is repugnant to the First Amendment. The Secrecy Statute serves an impermissible goal—to silence disfavored speech—by facially discriminating against speech based on its viewpoint and content and restricting the public’s right of access to information. The First Amendment permits none of that.
The latest
We filed an amended preliminary injunction on January 31, 2025. We're asking the court to issue a preliminary injunction, allowing the ACLU-SC to publish information about the death penalty that is currently censored by the Secrecy Statute.
