News & Commentary

Ohio’s death penalty has had a long and sordid history. Just look at the past decade: » Four botched executions. » Ten people granted clemency by the governor. » Fifty-six recommendations from an Ohio Supreme Court taskforce of experts to revamp our broken system. With botched executions and growing controversy around lethal injections in Arizona, Oklahoma, and elsewhere, a federal judge in Ohio rightfully paused executions until the state could adopt new protocols. Given all of these problems, the most recent move from Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine is downright confounding. What is his solution to Ohio’s execution problems? Close the curtain and keep the public out. The attorney general announced during a press interview that he was pursuing legislation that would block the public’s access to what compounding pharmacy manufactures drugs for lethal injections and the identities of medical personnel who assist in executions. He also wants to provide immunity for those individuals from professional or ethical reprimands for their participation. No matter what your position is on the death penalty, it is important to understand that this level of secrecy will be detrimental for Ohio. The government represents the people and should be accountable to us. We have laws that require government officials to provide public records and have open meetings in order to prevent corruption, abuse, and incompetence. Taking a person’s life is the ultimate punishment that the public can dole out, which means we have to take even greater pains to ensure the government does it humanely and legally. Allowing anonymity for drug manufacturers is particularly problematic. Ohio would like to use compounding pharmacies, which are totally unregulated by the Food and Drug Administration for safety and efficacy. Compounding pharmacies make small batches of drugs, with each one being unique. This means that some batches might be more potent than another, and some might be contaminated. Only a few years ago, dozens of people in the United States died from a contaminated batch of steroids produced by a compounding pharmacy. And now Attorney General DeWine wants to introduce more secrecy and less accountability to this situation? Unfortunately, secrecy is the typical reaction of the government in any number of circumstances—when problems crop up, they want to hide the truth from the people.

Have you ever wanted to know more information about how the government is operating? Do you wonder what your local city council, municipal court, or the state General Assembly is up to? If you think an open government is important, then you should request a public record. Transparency is the key to holding government accountable. Public records belong to you, the people. The government merely preserves the records for you. A great way for you to be involved in the democratic process is to request a public record from your local government. Public records can reveal discrimination, corruption, fiscal decisions not widely reported, and which elected officials are supporting particular measures, among much more information.

In June 2013, The Ohio Attorney General’s office flipped the switch on a new facial recognition program that allows the government to compare anonymous snapshots to the state’s existing database of license photos and mug shots in order to look for a match.

A message from ACLU of Ohio Executive Director Christine Link
Honor Constitution by Ending Unnecessary Government Secrecy
On September 17, people around the country will celebrate Constitution Day, which marks the date the U.S. Constitution was ratified in 1787. It is because of this foundation that all eligible Americans are able to vote, have access to fair and speedy trials, and speak out on topics ranging from health care to education and everything in between.