Post by Logan on Apr 24, 2016 23:44:07 GMT -6
Pharmacies that supply Virginia with lethal injection drugs soon will be shielded from public scrutiny after the General Assembly voted Wednesday to accept a proposal from Gov. Terry McAuliffe to exempt such contractors from open-records laws and state regulations.
The bill — offered as a substitute to legislation that would have required prisoners to die in the electric chair if no drugs were available — put McAuliffe at odds with many of his Democratic colleagues in the legislature. In the Senate and House of Delegates, the proposal passed with mostly Republican backing.
“My amendments offered legislators a choice between a practical approach to moving forward with Virginia’s death penalty law or a moratorium on executions in our commonwealth,” McAuliffe said in a prepared statement Wednesday night. “Their final decision will allow the Virginia Department of Corrections to continue to enforce the law without resorting to barbaric measures like the electric chair.”
Critics said the bill, the most controversial piece of unfinished business dealt with in Wednesday’s veto session, would shroud an uncomfortable government act in secrecy to solve a drug crisis that may not be as pressing as it’s made out to be.
Read more: www.richmond.com/news/virginia/government-politics/article_25377abb-93b9-5887-b314-c63adb8b0380.html
The bill — offered as a substitute to legislation that would have required prisoners to die in the electric chair if no drugs were available — put McAuliffe at odds with many of his Democratic colleagues in the legislature. In the Senate and House of Delegates, the proposal passed with mostly Republican backing.
“My amendments offered legislators a choice between a practical approach to moving forward with Virginia’s death penalty law or a moratorium on executions in our commonwealth,” McAuliffe said in a prepared statement Wednesday night. “Their final decision will allow the Virginia Department of Corrections to continue to enforce the law without resorting to barbaric measures like the electric chair.”
Critics said the bill, the most controversial piece of unfinished business dealt with in Wednesday’s veto session, would shroud an uncomfortable government act in secrecy to solve a drug crisis that may not be as pressing as it’s made out to be.
Read more: www.richmond.com/news/virginia/government-politics/article_25377abb-93b9-5887-b314-c63adb8b0380.html