Sanders: SC execution-secrecy bill would set a new low in accountability

S. 553 and H.3853 would eliminate transparency and accountability in the government’s exercise of the extraordinary power of taking the life of one of its citizens. They would prevent the public from ever learning what happens in carrying out executions by lethal injection, even when they go wrong.

The bills make all aspects of obtaining the drugs for lethal injection a state secret. The confidentiality applies to everything from the names of those involved in carrying out the sentence to the suppliers and manufacturers of the drugs, the type of drugs used and even the cost to the Department of Corrections. Whether one is in favor of or opposes the death penalty, we should be able to agree that we deserve transparency and accountability if the state takes a life in our name.

The bills have been presented as a way to help the Department of Corrections more easily obtain lethal injection drugs; in actuality, this is about government secrecy.

The need for public scrutiny of executions by lethal injection has never been greater. Removing transparency will allow the sate to obtain untested drugs from unregulated compounding pharmacies, essentially allowing for human experimentation. This increases the risk of horrifically botched executions, like those of Clayton Lockett in Oklahoma and Joseph Wood in Arizona last year. Worse yet, the secrecy would inhibit outside investigations of executions that go wrong, and prevent the public from holding state officials accountable.

Last month, the Senate Corrections and Penology Committee rejected the Senate bill, but the House bill is still alive, and the language could be added to the budget in the Senate. Only by opposing this legislation can legislators demonstrate their commitment to open and accountable government.

Not since the Spanish Inquisition in 1492 has a so-called civilized nation willfully executed people in secret. If South Carolina is going to continue to kill people, don’t you think we should know – if we are interested – all aspects of the means of their execution? What if the lawyer for a person facing execution is able to show that the drugs the state is planning to use will cause a horribly painful, protracted death and may not even cause death? Of course, I’m not imagining the possibility; that is exactly what has happened on more than one occasion.

Please don’t think for a minute that I am speaking up for criminals. I am speaking for all civilized and decent South Carolinians.

Columbia

This story was originally published April 5, 2015 at 11:00 PM with the headline "Sanders: SC execution-secrecy bill would set a new low in accountability."