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Ohio Senate Passes Bill To Shield Lethal Injection Drug Makers

The Ohio Senate has approved a bill backers say is needed to restart executions. The legislation would shield the names of companies that provide lethal injection drugs to Ohio, a provision backers say is necessary to obtain supplies of the drugs because the manufactures don't want the products used for taking human life. Ohio Public Radio's Andy Chow reports.

The debate over the confidentiality bill essentially broke into two arguments: transparency and the death penalty as a whole.  
 
The drug used for lethal injections came from Europe and is no longer available but pharmacies and chemists can recreate the compound. Supporters of the bill—like Republican Senator Bill Seitz of Cincinnati—say it’s important to provide confidentiality in order to get these entities to participate in executions.  
 
Seitz: “We are making progress in this bill toward untethering ourselves from this European drug cartel.”  
 
Republican Senator Frank LaRose of Akron—and other opponents—took issue with the lack of transparency.  
 
LaRose: “That this most serious act that government can do needs to be conducted with any secrecy then we probably need to wait until we find a better way to do it.”  
 
The House will now have to approve changes the Senate made to the original House bill.

Jim has been with WCBE since 1996. Before that he worked as a reporter at another Columbus radio station, and for three newspapers in Southwest Florida.
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