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Bill would shield names of pharmacists who mix execution drugs
By Marc Kovac
COLUMBUS
Legislation that would shield the names of pharmacists who mix lethal injections for the state passed the Ohio House on Thursday.
HB 663 moved on a vote of 61-25 and heads to the Ohio Senate for further consideration.
Backers say the proposed law changes are needed so that Ohio can move ahead with already-scheduled executions.
Executions have been on hold for most of the year after a federal judge postponed scheduled lethal injections while state prison officials consider changes to the execution process.
The stay initially was implemented after the prolonged death in January of Dennis McGuire, who received a capital sentence for the rape and murder of a pregnant Preble County woman.
McGuire was the first inmate executed using a new two-drug combination; the process took about 25 minutes, and witnesses described him gasping for breath.
Under execution protocols adopted last year, state prison officials could purchase lethal-injection mixtures from compounding pharmacies — a change that was made after the manufacturer of such drugs refused to sell them for use in executions.
But Attorney General Mike DeWine said last month that the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction has had difficulty finding pharmacies willing to provide the lethal-injection drugs because they don’t want to be identified publicly.
HB 663 seeks to address the issue by blocking the public disclosure of pharmacy names and others involved in the execution process.
The bill says the identity of anyone who assists “the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction in carrying out executions by lethal injection must be kept confidential to protect them from harassment and possible physical harm,” according to an analysis by the state’s Legislative Service Commission.
Related records would be kept confidential and not subject to the state’s open-records laws, with limited access by judges reviewing death-penalty cases.
Businesses would have to request anonymity, via an application to state prison officials. And their names would be released after 20 years.