http:\/\/www.newsobserver.com\/news\/local\/crime\/article28770190.html<\/p>\n
JULY 26, 2015 5:47 PM<\/p>\n
NC Senate to take up execution protocol changes<\/p>\n
Bill hides lethal injection details<\/p>\n
Legal challenges expected<\/p>\n
No executions in NC since 2006<\/p>\n
BY ANNE BLYTHE<\/p>\n
ablythe@newsobserver.com<\/p>\n
RALEIGH \u2013 As botched executions across the country have turned the public focus toward methods used to kill death-row inmates, the state Senate is poised to take up a bill that would hide the supplier, manufacturer and dosage of lethal drugs used for capital punishment in North Carolina.<\/p>\n
The bill, titled \u201cRestoring Proper Justice Act,\u201d is scheduled for a vote by the full Senate Monday night. The proposed legislation, which was introduced in the state House of Representatives by Rep. Leo Daughtry, a Republican from Smithfield, also repeals the law requiring physicians to monitor lethal injections.<\/p>\n
Instead, under the wording approved on Thursday by a Senate judiciary committee, medical professionals, such as physician assistants, nurse practitioners, registered nurses, paramedics or emergency medical technicians could stand in if a doctor refused.<\/p>\n
Daughtry, who was at the committee meeting to introduce the proposal already approved by the House, said several times the lawmakers were not there for \u201can argument about the death penalty.\u201d \u201cWe already have the death penalty,\u201d Daughtry said. \u201cThe roadblocks in front of the death penalty have stopped us from using the punishment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though North Carolina is one of 31 states with the death penalty, there has not been an execution since 2006. A series of lawsuits filed in the state courts has created a de facto moratorium on executions for the past nine years. And some wonder whether more legal challenges will follow the proposed changes to the execution protocol.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not going to speed up executions,\u201d said Ballard Everett, a Republican consultant with Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty who voiced his opposition at the committee meeting. \u201cLawsuits are inevitable with this piece of legislation.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo we\u2019re encouraging the legislature to really debate the bigger question \u2014 so if we\u2019re not going to use the death penalty, why not go ahead and replace it with life in prison without parole and save the state $11 million dollars this year?\u201d<\/p>\n
The debate last week, though, was about how much information the public should possess about North Carolina\u2019s execution protocol. Botched executions in Oklahoma, Ohio and Arizona in 2014 have prompted some states to hide that information from public view and oversight. Other states have called for more openness.<\/p>\n
The North Carolina bill would exempt the execution procedure from any oversight by the state\u2019s Rules Review Commission and leave the decision about whether to make the protocol public up to the secretary of the state Department of Public Safety, a non-elected post.<\/p>\n
Sen. Angela Bryant, a Democrat and lawyer from Rocky Mount, introduced several proposed amendments in an attempt to remove the cloak of secrecy from the way the state carries out its harshest punishment. \u201cThis is not a time to remove public input and awareness of what you\u2019re doing in government,\u201d Bryant said.<\/p>\n
There are 148 people on North Carolina\u2019s death row, one of whom has been there since 1985.<\/p>\n
In 2013, the public safety secretary changed North Carolina\u2019s execution protocol from using a three-drug cocktail to a single-drug lethal injection. The change came at a time when many European-based drug manufacturers had banned U.S. prisons from using their drugs in executions. The protocol change also came shortly before an important court hearing for a lawsuit filed by N.C. death row inmates in 2007, challenging the lethal injection as \u201ccruel and unusual punishment\u201d and therefore a constitutional violation. That lawsuit is pending.<\/p>\n
Bryant failed to persuade the Senate judicial committee to provide the public with information about the manufacturer of the lethal drugs to be used in executions. \u201cIt\u2019s a volatile issue,\u201d Daughtry said. \u201cIf you tell them where the drug comes from, there\u2019ll be 300 people outside the (manufacturer\u2019s) building. That is not something we want to occur.”<\/p>\n
Bryant responded: \u201cAbortion is a controversial thing, but we don\u2019t try to hide where the clinics are. There could be 300 people out there, and you\u2019d stand on your head for their rights.\u201d<\/p>\n
David Weiss, a staff attorney for the Durham-based Center for Death Penalty Litigation, argued during the public comment period for more openness for what he described as \u201cone of the most important, one of the most serious functions that our state government undertakes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe process should be done openly, transparently so the people of North Carolina have input,\u201d Weiss said. \u201cThis really removes transparency from the execution process.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
http:\/\/www.newsobserver.com\/news\/local\/crime\/article28770190.html JULY 26, 2015 5:47 PM NC Senate to take up execution protocol changes Bill hides lethal injection details Legal challenges expected No executions in NC since 2006 BY ANNE BLYTHE ablythe@newsobserver.com RALEIGH \u2013 As botched executions across the country have turned the public focus toward methods used to kill death-row inmates, the state Senate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-textcache"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1965"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1965\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2351,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1965\/revisions\/2351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}