BOISE - A University of Idaho professor is suing the Idaho Department of Correction under the state's Public Records Act for refusing to hand over documents about the department's use of execution drugs.
Aliza Cover, an associate professor of law at the University of Idaho's College of Law, asked prison officials for records including purchase orders, receipts, source paperwork and other documents on the drugs Idaho used in its two most recent executions and that it expects to use in future executions.
But the Idaho Department of Correction turned down the record request, contending that the records were exempt under department rules.
In the lawsuit, Cover says the Department has previously released at least some of the records and even produced them as evidence in some court cases. She says the state is being arbitrary and capricious in the way it responds to public record requests.
