Bill introduced to keep lethal injection drug source secret

By REBECCA BOONE

Associated Press

BOISE — Legislation that would bar Idaho officials from releasing where they obtain the drugs used in lethal injection executions was introduced by the House State Affairs Committee on Monday.

The Idaho Department of Corrections has long tried to keep details about where and how it obtains lethal injection drugs secret, but the bill from Caldwell Republican Rep. Greg Chaney would make that secrecy part of state law.

Chaney said the secrecy bill was needed because of “woke cancel culture," claiming that anti-death penalty advocates were trying to identify and then publicly shame the companies that provide lethal injection drugs. Chaney said such instances had happened around the country, though he didn't provide any details.

Now the companies are refusing to sell the lethal injection drugs to Idaho unless they are guaranteed confidentiality, he said.

“They’ve been successful enough around the country that the word they are giving to our Department of Corrections is don’t even call us if you cannot provide us with anonymity,” Chaney said.

The State Affairs Committee agreed to introduce the bill on a voice vote.

The suitability and origin of lethal injection drugs are frequently called into legal question when states are planning executions. Ineffective drugs can lead to botched executions, violating the U.S. Constitution’s Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.

Idaho’s prison officials have long said they fear they won’t be able to obtain drugs for future executions if their suppliers believe they could be exposed. Major pharmaceutical companies have refused to sell medications to states if they think they will be used for executions, forcing some states to look for more novel sources, including compounding pharmacies and drugs from other countries like India.

More than a dozen states have passed laws since 2011 preventing the release of information about the source of their execution drugs, while several other states have invoked existing laws or regulations to keep that information secret.

In 2020, the Idaho Supreme Court ordered the Idaho Department of Correction to turn over information about where officials obtained lethal injection drugs used in recent executions in response to a public record lawsuit. In that case, the state had to release the identity of a drug supplier who was no longer in the business of suppling the drugs.

Access to lethal injection drugs could become an issue in the case of Gerald Ross Pizzutto Jr., who was sentenced to death for the 1985 slayings of two gold prospectors near McCall.

The Idaho Department of Corrections was scheduled to execute Pizzutto last year for the murders of two gold prospectors near McCall in 1985. But that execution was canceled after the state’s parole commission recommended that Pizzutto’s sentence be commuted to life in prison without parole. The state is asking the Idaho Supreme Court to allow the execution to move forward as planned; arguments in that case have not yet been scheduled.

Pizzuto’s attorneys with the Federal Defender Services of Idaho have also sued the state over its execution procedures, and the high court has not yet released a ruling in that case.