That's the title of Andrew Welsh-Huggins' AP report on yesterday's meeting of the oint Task Force to Review the Administration of Ohio's Death Penalty. It's via the Canton Repository.
Doctors and other medical professionals should be allowed to help put condemned inmates to death to promote “a humane execution” and state law should be changed to protect them from professional sanctions if they offer such assistance, the lawyer for Ohio’s prisons agency said Thursday.
Legislation may also be needed to protect pharmacies that might mix a supply of Ohio’s execution drug, and without such a law the state might not be able to obtain execution drugs in the future, said Gregory Trout, general counsel for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.
Trout made the surprise announcements to a state Supreme Court committee considering changes to Ohio’s death penalty law. It’s unclear if either issue is something the committee would deal with. Trout said he felt both were important enough to bring to the committee’s attention.
He didn’t say when the agency might request such legislation and the prisons department declined to comment further.
And:
The Ohio State Medical Association said Thursday it wouldn’t support any law shielding physicians from professional sanctions or otherwise requiring physicians to participate in executions. It said it follows the American Medical Association’s prohibition on doctors helping with capital punishment.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court task force also discussed prosecutors’ proposals to require that lawyers representing death penalty clients would have to extensively document their time and track their reasons for calling or not calling particular witnesses.
Earlier coverage from Ohio begins at the link.
Doctors and other medical professionals should be allowed to help put condemned inmates to death to promote “a humane execution” and state law should be changed to protect them from professional sanctions if they offer such assistance, the lawyer for Ohio’s prisons agency said Thursday.
Legislation may also be needed to protect pharmacies that might mix a supply of Ohio’s execution drug, and without such a law the state might not be able to obtain execution drugs in the future, said Gregory Trout, general counsel for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.
Trout made the surprise announcements to a state Supreme Court committee considering changes to Ohio’s death penalty law. It’s unclear if either issue is something the committee would deal with. Trout said he felt both were important enough to bring to the committee’s attention.
He didn’t say when the agency might request such legislation and the prisons department declined to comment further.
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