On December 4, the Ohio Senate Judiciary Committee held a hear­ing on HB 663, which would shield the iden­ti­ty of those who pro­duce lethal injec­tion drugs for the state. Previously, crit­ics of the bill had warned that the mea­sure could be uncon­sti­tu­tion­al because it inter­feres with the courts and vio­lates the First Amendment right to free speech. Among those tes­ti­fy­ing at the com­mit­tee hear­ing was Kevin Smith of the Society of Professional Journalists, who called the bill, ​“one of the most over-reach­ing in terms of secre­cy we have encoun­tered.” Public defend­ers and the Ohio ACLU also tes­ti­fied against the bill. The Ohio House has already passed the bill. Additional Senate hear­ings are sched­uled for next week.

(“Ohio Senate con­tin­ues debate on bill to shield source of state’s lethal injec­tion drugs,” Associated Press, December 4, 2014; addi­tion­al infor­ma­tion from Alan Johnson (@ohioaj), Columbus Dispatch, via Twitter.)

 From: http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/ee75eb0931664c31b55977b270de61d6/OH--Death-Penalty-Ohio
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