[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit [official website] ruled [opinion, PDF] Tuesday that Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt may join a lawsuit that seeks to compel the state of Missouri to unseal details on its execution methods. This decision reverses [AP report] a lower court ruling that found that the magazine publisher did not have standing to join in the suit. The appeals court found that a lower court’s finding that Flynt’s “generalized interest” in the suit was not enough to justify his being a part of it came from the application of the wrong legal standard. Flynt argued [Reuters report] that he has a right to see the sealed records, citing the First Amendment [text] of the US Constitution. Whether Flynt’s request to unseal the records is granted will be decided by a federal court in Jefferson City, Missouri. He hopes to that unsealing these dockets will shed light on the state’s execution protocol.

The death penalty and the use of alternative drug protocols in lethal injections remain controversial topics [JURIST archive] in both the US and abroad. Earlier this month the Delaware Senate voted [JURIST report] 11-9 to repeal the death penalty. In March Utah Governor Gary Herbert signed a bill [JURIST report] to restore the firing squad as a method of execution, making Utah the only US state with such an option. Also in March the Alabama House of Representatives voted to keep execution [JURIST report] drug suppliers’ names secret and to bring back the use of the electric chair when chemical related lethal injection methods are not available. In February US Attorney General Eric Holder voiced his support [JURIST report] for a moratorium on the death penalty pending a decision by the Supreme Court in Glossip v. Gross [SCOTUSblog backgrounder]. The court granted certiorari [order, PDF] in late January to determine the constitutionality of Oklahoma’s three-drug execution protocol.