Ohio can’t stop EMTs from working as executioners

COLUMBUS (AP) — A state attorney has ruled that Ohio has no authority to stop certified emergency medical technicians from working as executioners in death penalty cases.

The legal opinion by Heather Frient, a lawyer with the Ohio Department of Public Safety, says the volunteer executioners are not acting as EMTs when they put offenders to death.

Frient says the EMTs are included on the state execution team because they possess skills such as inserting IVs, not because they are working as EMTs under medical direction.

The State Emergency Medical Services Board requested the opinion after it was revealed that two members of the execution team are certified as EMTs.

The prison system says the EMTs are allowed to administer the drugs because the execution is not a medical procedure.