Judge Lynn Norton of Idaho’s Fourth Judicial District Court [official profile] on Monday modified her previous decision [opinion, PDF] that called for the state to turn over execution records to allow for redactions of any identification of the source of drugs used during lethal injections.

In the underlying case, Cover v. Idaho Board of Corrections, University of Idaho professor Aliza Cover sued for access to these documents under the Idaho Public Records Act [act, PDF].

In his petition [PDF] to the court, Cover stated,

The death penalty is a matter of enormous significance to the people of Idaho. The order to disclose public records about how the state conducts executions is crucial to promoting government accountability and a meaningful public discourse about this issue.

Officials within the Department of Corrections have argued that any records disclosing the source of the drugs could risk their ability to carry out state executions.

A trial will be held in the future to decide whether the Act allows for these redactions.