The AG is calling on the death penalty states to reveal the source of their lethal drugs
During an interview on Thursday’s PBS News Hour, Attorney General Eric Holder called on the death penalty states to reveal the source of their lethal drugs. In reacting to several botched executions, Holder said:
There may not be a legal requirement for transparency and talking about, describing the drugs that are used. But you sometimes have to go beyond that which is legally required to do something that is right. For the state to exercise that greatest of all powers, to end a human life, it seems to me, just on a personal level, that transparency would be a good thing, and to share the information about what chemicals are being used, what drugs are being used.
Make no mistake about it, Holder’s request is nothing more than a veiled attempt to abolish the death penalty. He has admitted being an opponent of capital punishment. Holder is being rather disingenuous when he calls for transparency of the chemicals and drugs being used in executions. The death penalty states have been pretty forthcoming about the lethal drugs they use. The actual issue is over the identification of the pharmaceuticals that furnish the lethal drugs.
Holder knows damn well that once the identity of the supplying pharmaceutical has been revealed, that source of lethal drugs will no longer be available. And that in effect abolishes the death penalty.
Holder also revealed that he has ordered officials in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and the Criminal Division to look into the protocols used to execute murderers. That's another veiled attempt to block executions.
What scares me is that Holder, who plans to resign at the end of this year, will be appointed to the Supreme Court by Obama if the President gets the chance to do so before he leaves office.
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