Georgia's Rising Secrecy and Costs Around Lethal Injections Revealed Through Lawsuit
Court-ordered document release shows Georgia has spent over $1.1 million since 2020 on lethal injection contractors while carrying out a single execution, reflecting broader state efforts to conceal execution methods.
What happened
A ProPublica journalist obtained sealed records from Georgia after suing the state to overcome its Lethal Injection Secrecy Act, which prohibits disclosure of names and details of those involved in executions. The released documents reveal Georgia has paid over $1.1 million since the COVID-19 pandemic to at least one contractor working on lethal injections, despite conducting only one execution during that period. State spending on lethal injection-related costs has averaged over $150,000 annually over the past decade—substantially higher than pre-2017 amounts. The state Attorney General and Department of Corrections declined to explain the rising costs or justify the secrecy.
Context
Georgia adopted secrecy laws around 2013 after transitioning from the electric chair to lethal injections in the early 2000s, when death penalty opponents pressured pharmaceutical companies to stop supplying execution drugs. After the DEA seized Georgia's lethal injection drug supply in 2011 and the European Union effectively banned drug sales for executions, Georgia turned to minimally regulated compounding pharmacies to produce custom drugs. Legal experts cite the high costs and extensive secrecy as evidence that the lethal injection process is problematic—as one Fordham law professor stated, the expense reflects the difficulty in finding willing medical professionals and the process's capacity to inflict severe pain on prisoners. State officials have argued that without secrecy protections, they would be unable to find contractors and pharmacists willing to participate in executions.