A bill that would conceal the identities of companies that sell lethal injection drugs and equipment to Louisiana clears committee and is headed to the House floor.
Bill sponsor, Hammond Representative Nicky Muscarello, says this bill would incentive companies to begin selling the state lethal injection components again.
“The death penalty is legal in Louisiana, and the families of the victims wait patiently for decades for us to follow through, and it consumes them. We need to give them the closure that they expect.”
Over a dozen other states like Texas have similar laws.
Loyola New Orleans race and racism researcher Dr. Nicholas Mitchell says covering up the names of companies and their products could result in a situation where the state is administering extremely painful injections, without public knowledge…
“HB258 would remove the scrutiny required to guarantee that an execution is not tantamount to torture.”
Louisiana Conference of Catholic Bishops representative Rob Tasman says the state owes it to the tax payers to be open and honest when dealing with a subject as sensitive as killing someone.
“The punishment of an execution by virtue of a sentence of the death penalty focuses on the taking of a life. So in that context transparency and accountability need to be of the highest standard.”
Muscarello agreed that the bill does promote government contracting secrecy, but says if it helps the state resume executions, it’s worth giving up a bit of transparency.
“We made a commitment to the tax payer when we told them that we would put the persons to death and we are not doing that, so sometimes there are sacrifices to be made.”
The state has not carried out an execution since 2010.