OPINION

Opinion: Secrecy won’t fix death penalty

Mike Brickner

Mike Brickner is senior policy director for ACLU of Ohio.

It is no secret that Ohio has had many problems with executions over the last decade. In that time span, we have had four botched executions and 10 people granted clemency. These problems came to a head in 2014 with the botched execution of Dennis McGuire using experimental new drugs that prolonged the lethal injection and likely resulted in a torturous and unconstitutional execution.

With botched executions and growing controversy around lethal injections in Arizona, Oklahoma and elsewhere, a federal judge in Ohio rightfully paused executions until the state could adopt new protocols.

Given all of these problems, the most recent move from leaders in the Ohio Statehouse is downright confounding.

What is their solution to Ohio’s execution problems?

Close the curtain and keep the public out.

Statehouse leaders have announced that they will rush through legislation during the last few weeks of 2014 that would shield drug manufacturers and medical professionals who assist in executions from public records laws. It would also provide those individuals with immunity from ethical or professional reprimands for their participation.

No matter what your position is on the death penalty, it is important to understand that this level of secrecy will be detrimental for Ohio. The government represents the people and should be accountable to us. We have laws that require government officials to provide public records and have open meetings in order to prevent corruption, abuse and incompetence. Taking a person’s life is the ultimate punishment that the public can dole out, which means we have to take even greater pains to ensure the government does it humanely and legally.

Allowing anonymity for drug manufacturers is particularly problematic. Ohio would like to use compounding pharmacies, which are totally unregulated by the Food and Drug Administration for safety and efficacy. Compounding pharmacies make small batches of drugs, with each one being unique. This means that some batches might be more potent than another, and some might be contaminated. Only a few years ago, dozens of people in the United States died from a contaminated batch of steroids produced by a compounding pharmacy. And now Ohio leaders want to introduce more secrecy and less accountability to this situation?

Unfortunately, secrecy is the typical reaction of the government in any number of circumstances – when problems crop up, they want to hide the truth from the people.

Ohio has had its share of problems with lethal injections. Secrecy will only guarantee that those problems will continue. Whether you are a supporter or opponent of the death penalty, we all must agree that the government should play by the rules and must be accountable to us.

What is needed here is more accountability, not less. If we are to have a death penalty, the public, courts and condemned prisoners must all understand how executions are to be carried out and that they will comply with our laws. Anything less only violates the public’s trust – and our Constitution.