Don't add secrecy to the lethal injection formula

Published July 30, 2015

Editorial by Fayetteville Observer, July 29, 2015.

The legislative urgency to get North Carolina back into executing murderers has reached a fever pitch that looks a lot like bloodlust. It's an ugly spectacle.

A bill approved by the state Senate late Monday would cast a shroud of secrecy over executions and could end physician participation in them.

The measure - House Bill 774 - would repeal a requirement that a physician monitor all executions. It would instead allow any licensed medical professional - a physician assistant, a nurse or even an emergency medical technician - to supervise the administration of the lethal injection.

That change is rooted in the state's inability to find doctors willing to preside over executions. Most argue that it's a violation of their medical codes of ethics and the Hippocratic oath. That's one key reason why there have been no executions in North Carolina for the past nine years, a problem for some lawmakers that they appear desperate to solve.

The bill also would cast a dark curtain over the details of executions, barring release of the names of the companies that make or provide the drugs used for lethal injections. Nor could there be disclosure of the kinds of drugs or the sequence of their administration. And the state Rules Review Commission would lose its oversight of execution protocols.

In short, North Carolina executions would mostly turn into a state secret, away from any possible oversight.

What all of this will do, we expect, is heighten the likelihood that the courts will find North Carolina's executions to be the "cruel and unusual punishment" that the Constitution forbids.

This attempt to obscure the execution process comes at a time when serious questions are being raised about the death penalty, including two justices of the U.S. Supreme Court wondering in an opinion this year whether the death penalty is constitutional.

That debate will surely continue, and it should. We need thoughtful discussion of the issue and whether we're imposing a fair sentence or simply seeking revenge for a terrible crime.

What we don't need is a General Assembly slicing away at reasonable public understanding of the state's execution protocols, instead choosing to wrap it all in secrecy.

We'd like to believe it's still our government, not the personal property of a privileged few in the halls of state government.

http://www.fayobserver.com/opinion/editorials/our-view-don-t-add-secrecy-to-the-lethal-injection/article_61a9324b-6b78-56f3-97c8-6978652a8ab7.html