The Ohio legislature is considering a bill that would prevent the public and the courts from knowing the name of compounding pharmacies that produce lethal injection drugs for the state and the identity of medical personnel participating in executions. Critics of the bill say such interference with the courts and the First Amendment right to free speech would be unconstitutional. At a committee hearing, Dennis Hetzel, executive director of the Ohio Newspaper Association, said, “This bill likely will prompt endless litigation – a precise situation you are trying to avoid.” Similar secrecy laws in Pennsylvania, Missouri, Arizona, and Oklahoma are being challenged in court by media organizations. The non-partisan Legislative Service Commission also raised constitutional concerns about a provision of the bill that would void any contract if it had a clause prohibiting the sale of lethal injection drugs to the state, saying that could violate state and federal prohibitions against impairing contracts. Ohio State University law professor Doug Berman questioned whether the state should go to such lengths to preserve lethal injection: “If the only way we can preserve this method of execution is by making it more secret, that, to me, is something of a sign that we shouldn’t be trying to preserve this method of execution.”

(J. Pelzer, “Death-penalty reform bill may violate constitution, lawmakers told,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, November 19, 2014). See Lethal Injection and Recent Legislation.

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