Minnesota Lawyer
Where a District Court ordered the director of the Missouri Department of Corrections to disclose to opposing counsel in death penalty cases the identities of the doctor who prescribes the chemical used in state executions, the pharmacist who compounds the chemical and the laboratory that tests the chemical, the discovery orders are vacated because the plaintiffs have not stated a claim without an allegation of a feasible and more humane alternative method of execution, so the District Court abused its discretion by ordering disclosure since the state could be prevented from obtaining the necessary chemicals. Writ granted.
Dissenting opinion by Bye, J.: “The Director is not entitled to the extraordinary remedy of a writ of mandamus. Such a remedy is proper only in cases of ‘a judicial usurpation of power or a clear abuse of discretion,’ and only if the party seeking mandamus relief ‘show[s] that his right to issuance of the writ is clear and indisputable.’ Cheney v. U.S. Dist. Court for D.C., 542 U.S. 367, 380-81 (2004) Because the District Court did not clearly abuse its discretion in ordering the Director to disclose the identities of the compounding pharmacist and the testing laboratory, the petition for a writ of mandamus should be denied.”
13-3699 In re: George A. Lombardi, appealed from Western District of Missouri
