2112/2015 Virginia Senate says suppliers, ingredients of execution drugs should be secret - Daily Press
Virginia Senate says suppliers, ingredients of execution
drugs should be secret
By Dave Ress
dress @dailypress.com
FEBRUARY 10, 2015, 9:40 PM
\ 7 irginia could keep the suppliers of the drugs used in executions secret, as well as all the components
they mix to make the drug cocktail used in lethal injections under a bill the state Senate approved
Tuesday.
But the measure the Senate passed dropped a section of the original proposal, which would have exempted all
information about how executions are conducted from the Freedom of Information Act or from discovery in
court cases.
The purpose of the measure is to authorize the Department of Corrections to contract with compounding
pharmacies to obtain drugs for lethal injections, Senate Minority Leader Richard Saslaw, D-Springfield, said.
Current state law says firms that compound drugs must do so for therapeutic purposes.
And to ensure the state can get those drugs, it needs to take the additional step of keeping confidential the
names of those firms and details about what they use to make the compounds, Saslaw argued.
Many of his fellow Democrats weren't so sure.
"This is the public's business," state Sen. Barbara Favola, D-Arlington, said.
She said when the state takes a life, the process should be as transparent as possible.
State Sen. John Edwards, D-Roanoke, said keeping information about execution drugs and their suppliers
confidential raised significant constitutional issues.
One of the key challenges to executions in recent years has been over whether the ways they are carried out
constitute cruel and unusual punishment, which the Eighth Amendment prohibits.
The U.S. Supreme Court has halted the scheduled executions of three Oklahoma prisoners, after agreeing in
January to review a challenge to that state's lethal injection procedures. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in a
2008 challenge to Kentucky’s lethal injection procedure that putting people sentenced to death at risk of
excessive pain violates the Constitution.
Some legal scholars say keeping information about the drugs secret denies prisoners sentenced to death their
legal rights to go to court to make sure their executions are constitutional.
State Sen. Charles Carrico, R-Grayson, who co-sponsored the bill, said the purpose was simply to make sure
the state could carry out the executions the law allows and courts order.
State Sen. Thomas A. Garrett, R-Louisa, agreed, and said his fellow senators needed to think about the victims
of those sentenced to death.
"This bill is not about the death penalty, this bill is about government secrecy," replied state Sen. Jennifer
Wexton, D-Loudoun.
http/vww dailypres: 9 r y-20150210-story =1
2112/2015 Virginia Senate says suppliers, ingredients of execution drugs should be secret - Daily Press
The Senate passed the measure 23-14. The vote drew a quick, sharp response from the American Civil Liberties
Union.
"This bill prevents the public and the press from knowing anything about the drugs (their source, materials, or
components) used in an execution," said Frank Knaack, the group's public policy director.
"The awesome power of the government to kill in our name must be accompanied by transparency and
accountability, both of which would go away if this bill becomes law," he said.
In other action, the Senate:
Voted to clear the way for local governments to help finance major tourism projects.
The measure, sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Tommy Norment, whose district is anchored in Virginia's
Historic Triangle, would allow local governments to provide gap financing for tourism projects involving
investments of more than $100 million. The gap involved would be the difference between the cost of
developing the project and the amount of money the developer is putting in, whether out of its own pocket or by
borrowing. If the project meets several tests, local governments could allocate amounts equal to the amount
generated by a 1.5 percent state sales tax on transactions taking place at the tourism project.
«Approved changes to the state's horse-racing laws that would allow New Kent County's Colonial Downs track
and the horse-owners association it used to contract with to go their separate ways, a deal that would allow the
track to run the shorter season it wants, while continuing to operate off-track betting shops, while giving the
horse owners a share in the fees the state charges the track.
«Approved legislation saying police can use unmanned aircraft — drones — only if they have a search warrant,
except if needed for an Amber Alert for a missing child or for search and rescue work or for training.
Said people should not be allowed to own monkeys or apes as pets.
-Approved a measure requiring colleges and universities to tell parents if a student shows suicidal tendencies.
While the Senate chugged quickly through a list of more than four dozen bills, some of them marching through
all three formal readings and debate in the space of minutes, senators did pause for some speechifying.
One effort featured Carrico, a former Virginia state police trooper, speaking up for his former colleagues in the
Virginia State Police by urging a new pool of money funded by car and truck registrations to deal with their pay
squeeze and the need to add 70 troopers to the force.
Carrico, arguing for a $1.25 a year fee hike for vehicle registration over the next decade, bringing the total add-
on to $12.50 by fiscal year 2025, recounted a story his pastor told at the funeral of a state trooper a few years
back.
The story was about a sheepdog, and how sheep sometimes resented the way the dog snapped and growled at
them — but also how they wished for more sheepdogs when the dog stood alone against a herd of wolves, and
perished.
"I guess I'm just a sheepdog," Carrico said.
Other oratory included state Sen. Emmett Hanger’s musings about a new state song for Virginia.
Hanger, who at one point was sued by an unsuccessful songwriter rejected in a statewide competition,
plumped for the A.P. Carter classic "Longing for Old Virginia."
http/vww dailypres: 9 r y-20150210-story =1
2112/2015 Virginia Senate says suppliers, ingredients of execution drugs should be secret - Daily Press
But he sadly acknowledged that the co-chairmen of the Senate Finance Committee, Sens. Charles Colgan, D-
Prince William, and Walter Stosch, R-Henrico, had opted for another approach — and that he was hoping to
be assigned again to the committee that negotiates compromises between the Senate and House versions of the
budget.
"T've had the pleasure of listening to probably 500" suggestions for the state song, Hanger said, before hinting
that some states have more than one choice. Tennessee's state website lists 10.
But Stosch said his aim was diplomacy. In addition to his favorite, "Sweet Virginia Breeze," the bill he and
Colgan sponsored also would designate "Our Great Virginia," sponsored by Speaker of the House William
Howell.
When state Sen. Frank Wagner, R-Virginia Beac!
said he'd never heard the Speaker's choice and asked for a
rendition on the floor, Stosch demurred.
He and Colgan are both retiring this year. "Our intention," he said, "was not to give a swan song."
Ress can be reached by phone at 757-247-4535
Copyright © 2015, Daily Press
http/vww dailypres: 9 r y-20150210-story =1
