In Ohio, unlike certain other states, when they have a problem with their execution method their leaders actually show some leadership and do something about it. Jackie Borchardt of Northeast Ohio Media Group reports:
State lawmakers will revise Ohio's lethal injection procedure by the end of the year, Statehouse leaders said during a legislative preview event here on Thursday.House Speaker William Batchelder and Senate President Keith Faber, both Republicans, said concerns about Ohio's two-drug cocktail need to be addressed soon. The two leaders spoke briefly about what they want to accomplish before this legislature ends its work in late December and what might be among the first issues the next General Assembly will tackle in January.* * *
Batchelder and Faber both said they plan to pass legislation to address concerns with Ohio's lethal injection method.
"That is something that we cannot leave in abeyance, otherwise we're going to have people who pass away prior to execution," Batchelder said.
Batchelder didn't provide details of the legislation, but he later told reporters it would involve providing anonymity to "compounding pharmacies" that prepare lethal injection drugs and extending immunity to physicians who advise the state on executions.
Attorney General Mike DeWine has called for the two reforms, saying Ohio's death penalty is at risk without legislative action.
Ohio, along with many other states, has been struggling to settle on an execution method, as many pharmacy companies have refused to sell drugs used for lethal injection. The state's current two-drug cocktail is being challenged in court by the family of a murderer who took an unexpectedly long 25 minutes to die in January.
Batchelder also said the bill will incorporate some of the recommendations of the Ohio Supreme Court's death penalty task force, though he declined to elaborate.
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