How to stop Ohio politicians from making a HUGE mistake

Dear friend,

A month ago, OTSE shared with you intelligence that Attorney General Mike DeWine and Ohio prosecutors were drafting a “Secret Executions” Bill that would conceal many elements of our state’s death penalty by marking them “state secrets.”

It gets worse: the Secret Executions Bill is not a draft anymore. It’s House Bill Number 663 and the leaders of Ohio’s General Assembly have vowed to pass it in this year’s lame duck session. Here’s how the Republican Speaker of the House rationalized the Secret Executions Bill:

Here’s some things the bill would do:

Make the sources of Ohio’s lethal injection drugs state secrets that cannot be revealed even in court of law or as a result of a subpoena.
Encourage medical professionals to violate their codes of ethics by participating in executions and give them legal protection if they do.
Make null and void any local, state, national, or international contract that prevents executions in Ohio from being carried out (i.e., a manufacturer prohibiting the use of its drugs or other equipment in executions).

OTSE and our partner organizations have already begun organizing an emergency response against the Secret Executions Bill before it can be rammed through the lame duck session. We’re prepared to pull out all the stops to expose the absurdity of this bill. You can help by supporting the OTSE Action Fund, our 501 (c)(4) advocacy arm that will engage in vigorous lobbying on your behalf.

Donate to the OTSE Action Fund here.

I wanted to make sure you knew about the Secret Executions Bill as developments arose. As always, you can look for more updates on our Facebook and Twitter. You’ll be getting another message from me in the next few days with more concrete actions you can take against this bill.

Thank You,

Kevin Werner

Executive Director

PS – Let's stop efforts to shroud our criminal justice system in darkness. You can support efforts to lobby against the Secret Executions Bill today by giving to OTSE’s new advocacy arm: the OTSE Action Fund. Donate to the OTSE Action Fund here.