LOGIN. SIGNUP SUBSCRIBERSERVICES EEDITION
Richmond
“Education should
EVENTS
Against lethal injection secrecy in Virginia - Richmond.com: Guest-columnists
FOOD& DRINK SPORTS VIEWPOINTS
turn up your personality.”
VIRGINIA POLITICS
CLASSIFIEDS FINDLOCAL CARS HOMES JOBS ADVERTISE
SEARCH
OUTDOORS —_ALLSECTIONS
DEATH PENALTY
Against lethal injection secrecy in
Virginia
story
Recommend Tweet] 2) (B4)/0
Quote
Plain and simple,
Virginia's proposed
secrecy law is
special-interest
legislation designed
to shield the
government's death-
drug suppliers from
moral criticism.
Print Fant Size
By Corinna Barrett Lain and Kevin C. Walsh
By Corinna Barrett Lainand Kevin C.
Walsh
Last week the Virginia Senate passed a
bill — Senate Bill 1393 — to hide from
public view both the components of the
drugs used to execute convicted capital
criminals in the commonwealth and the
identity of the companies that supply
these drugs.
We think it the essence of bad
government to enshroud the state in
secrecy when it exercises the awesome
power to extinguish human life.
(One of us (Lain) contends that there are
serious constitutional problems with this
bill. The other (Walsh) is unconvinced. But
we both agree that passage of this bill will
provide capital convicts with a new set of
legal claims that could halt the
administration of the death penalty in
Virginia for months, maybe years.
And for what?
The Department of Corrections says that
the compounding pharmacies now mixing the lethal concoction for Virginia's
executions will not sell the drugs if their identities are known. These companies do
not want to feel the same heat that led large, publicly traded pharmaceutical
companies to extricate themselves from executions several years ago.
But shielding Virginia's newer, less-regulated drug suppliers from public criticism
would be just wrong. The death penalty is controversial, but the right answer to
controversy in a free society is not to hide what the government is doing, or to
protect for-profit companies from bad publicity from their unsavory deals.
It would be a different matter — and one calling for a different solution — if
compounding pharmacies were illegally threatened or intimidated. As Justice Antonin
Scalia has written in a related context, “There are laws against threats and
http://www.richmond.com/opinion/their-opinion/guest-columnists/article_e343409f-b2b5.
ADVERTISE!
Ditginia Wayside Far
ee FINE FURNITURE & INTERIOR DESIGN STORE
SAVE $50
on your next purchase
New! p
urnilure
scjp
SUBMIT YOUR LETTERS
Share your opinion! Fill out this form to
submit a Letter to the Editor.
Submit letters
MEET THE EDITORIAL TEAM
Todd Culbertson
Editor of the Editorial Pages
Email Todd
Bob Rayner
Email Bob Le |
Associate Editor of the Editorial Pages
Bart Hinkle
Editor, columnist and blogger of
thought-provoking ramblings and
rants
Email Bart
Robin Beres
Associate Editor, Editorial Pages and
Email Robin
Cindy Paris
Editor of the Op/Ed page
Email Cindy
YOUR LIFE IS. OUR BLUEPRINT
[INO YOUR NEW HOME TOD
EY MARTIN HOME
Page | of 3
2/15/2015
Against lethal injection secrecy in Virginia - Richmond.com: Guest-columnists Page 2 of 3
intimidation; (but) harsh criticism, short of unlawful action, is a price our people have
traditionally been willing to pay for self-governance.”
Plain and simple, Virginia’s proposed secrecy law is special-interest legislation
designed to shield the government's death-drug suppliers from moral criticism. And
it comes at a time when the importance of public scrutiny of the death penalty has
never been greater. States are trying new, untested combinations of lethal injection
drugs and turning to new, less-regulated sources to provide them. Virginia is an
example of both national trends. Now it proposes to insulate its private-sector death
penalty partners from scrutiny, and for the very purpose of stifling public debate. We
dissent.
Sadly, the Virginia Senate that just passed SB 1393 is the same legislative body that
also passed the famous Virginia Resolutions of 1798. What James Madison wrote
then remains no less true today: Legislation that insulates the government against
criticism (then the Alien and Sedition Acts) is the exercise of “a power, which more
than any other, ought to produce universal alarm, because itis levelled against that
right of freely examining public characters and measures ... the only effectual
guardian of every other right.” The cornerstone of democracy is public debate, so let
it come and lead where it may.
Given that SB 1393 is a brazen rejection of government transparency, a point on
which Democrats and Republicans generally agree, you might wonder who is in favor
of this bill. The politics are highly unusual. The bill was introduced by a Democratic
senator from Northern Virginia and is backed by Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe.
But it was passed largely on the strength of overwhelmingly Republican support
(19-1), For the most part, Senate Democrats said no (13-4).
What gives?
The tenor of the debate in the Senate was “If you support the death penalty, you
should vote for this bil.” But in fact, just the opposite is true. SB 1393 will lead to
more legal fighting, not less, and on terrain that will be harder for Virginia's lawyers
to defend.
Also a part of Senate debate were discussions of death row inmates’ gruesome
capital crimes, the implication being that we should not concern ourselves with what
is in the syringe given what these perpetrators have done. But one’s position on SB
1393 should not turn on revulsion toward capital convicts and their crimes. This isn't
about them. It’s about us, and the transparency Virginia's citizens rightly deserve
when the state takes a life in our name.
Senate Bill 1393 does drug companies’ bidding, not the public’s. We're calling it out
for what it is — a shame for the commonwealth and our best traditions of
transparency and public debate.
Corinna Barrett Lain is a professor of law at Univei
of Richmond School of Law;
contact her at clain@richmond.edu. Kevin C. Walsh is an associate professor of law at
the University of Richmond School of Law; contact him at kwalsh@richmond.edu.
Recommend {35]/ Tweet|(@] (Bei
[Discuss ] Print
Posted in Guest-columnists, Vew-oped-nosig on Saturday, February
Similar Stories Most Read
+ Peace: House passes halanced, conservative + Kroger goes grower with 8 beer taps
budget
+ Hamby: Living phoneless
+ Richmond family on Family Feud
++ Former Carmike cinema wil be dinner-and-a
+ Acts of Faith: Partnerships build strong movie theater
community + Boka Gril and Growlers opening Wed. in South
+ A peculiar disagreement on autism Richman!
ow history scientists say
http://www.richmond.com/opinion/their-opinion/guest-columnists/article_e343409f-b2b5-.... 2/15/2015
