Corrections chief: Team's safety trumps public's right to know

ST. LOUIS -- Missouri's corrections director said Monday he is pleased and relieved by passage of a bill shielding the identities of people who help execute condemned prisoners.

The measure -- which includes a right to sue anyone who outs them -- would help preserve the reputation and well-being of past and present members of execution teams, Department of Corrections director Larry Crawford said.

He said the bill also should make it easier to recruit a doctor to assist in executions. For the past year, Missouri has been unable to find a willing physician with an expertise in anesthesia, as demanded by a federal judge, and executions have been on hold.

The state is willing to open its lethal injection protocol to public scrutiny, including the types, amounts and timing of drugs used, even the education and work history of the doctor and execution team, Crawford said. Just no names and addresses, he said.

"We don't want to hide, but we need commonsense protection," Crawford said. "The value of the public's need to know is trumped by the safety of both the guard and doctor and their family."

The Missouri Press Association complained that the measure would violate the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of the press.

Under the Missouri measure, anyone -- including members of the media -- who knowingly discloses the identity of executioners could be sued for both actual and punitive damages. An earlier version of the bill would have made it a misdemeanor crime punishable by up to a year in jail.

A spokeswoman for Gov. Matt Blunt would not say whether he would sign the bill, which won final passage Thursday.

Some of the 37 other states with the death penalty also shield the identities of their executioners. But if this measure is signed into law, Missouri may be the only state to attach a specific penalty to revealing the names, said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center.

Dieter, whose group monitors execution trends, said he understands the need to protect the identity of corrections employees who might be harmed if outed. But it's essential to name the doctor who oversees an execution to know whether he or she is qualified, he said.

"It's a democracy," he said. "This is how we judge things. We can't assume the state did everything OK. There is nothing about the death penalty that should be secret."

Dieter said if the naming of doctors makes it difficult to recruit them for executions, so be it.

"I don't think the First Amendment allows any state to hold someone either criminally liable or liable for damages for publication of truthful information," said Jean Maneke, an attorney for the Missouri Press Association.

Crawford said the legislation was prompted by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch last July revealing the identity of Dr. Alan Doerhoff of Jefferson City, who subsequently acknowledged in an interview with the AP that he had participated in dozens of executions.

"A federal judge halted executions in Missouri because of questions raised by Dr. Doerhoff's anonymous testimony," St. Louis Post-Dispatch editor Arnie Robbins said.

"No matter how anyone feels about the death penalty, the public in a democracy has a right to know how its execution process works."

Doerhoff's role emerged in June when he testified anonymously before a federal judge in a Kansas City death penalty case challenging the state's lethal-injection procedures.

He came under criticism after disclosing that he occasionally altered the amount of anesthetic given to inmates, and after news reports that had been sued for malpractice more than 20 times.

Last month, the state said it will no longer use his services.

Crawford said his department is not actively searching for a doctor until the court issues a ruling.

Missouri has 48 people are awaiting the death penalty.

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Execution bill is HB820.

On the Net:

Legislature: http://www.moga.mo.gov

Missouri Department of Corrections: http://www.doc.mo.gov/

Death Penalty Information Center: http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/