Providence freelance writer Phil Eil has been trying for more than four years to use the Freedom of Information Act request to get access to evidence used in a 2011 drug trial in Ohio. The US Justice Department blamed the defendant in the case, Dr. Paul Volkman, for the overdose death of four patients, and he was sentenced to four consecutive life terms in prison. Yet federal officials have refused to release thousands of pages of trial evidence to Eil, a former Providence Phoenix news editor. This week is Sunshine Week, an annual national initiative to promote discussion about the importance of open government and freedom of information.

One of the state’s top political reporters, Ian Donnis joined The Public’s Radio in 2009. Ian has reported on Rhode Island politics since 1999, arriving in the state just two weeks before the FBI...