A House Committee that has investigated issues including the state’s role in a failed sucralose plant in Moberly and the Revenue Department’s handling of personal documents provided by applicants for Missouri driver’s licenses and concealed carry permits will hold a hearing on the state’s execution protocol.
Representative Jay Barnes (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
According to a post on the website of Representative Jay Barnes (R-Jefferson City), the House Committee on Government Oversight and Accountability, which he chairs, will hold that hearing Tuesday at 2 p.m.
Barnes says the committee will look into two areas of the execution process. One is how the Department has determined whether a condemned individual has exhausted all of his constitutional appeals. That stems from a dissenting opinion filed by Judge Kermit Bye related to the execution of Allan Nicklasson, December 11.
Judge Bye wrote, “At approximately 10:52 p.m. on December 11, 2013, Missouri executed Allen Nicklasson before this court had completed its review of Nicklasson’s request for a stay of his execution, a request he brought in a pending action challenging the constitutionality of Missouri’s execution protocol. That bears repeating. Missouri put Nicklasson to death before the federal courts had a final say on whether doing so violated the federal Constitution.”
Barnes says the committee will also examine how the Department determined that it would use pentobarbital for executions, including the allegation that it obtained the drug from a pharmacy not licensed in Missouri. Some death penalty opponents say this could violate state law.
In his post, Barnes says, “Regardless of what anyone thinks of the death penalty, everyone should agree that it must be carried out according to the requirements of the Constitution and laws of our state.”
House Speaker Tim Jones (R-Eureka) told Missourinet previously that he was considering asking Barnes to call a hearing on the issue.
“This is just another example where I believe the Governor … his departments … perhaps have done something in error,” Jones said on Monday. “I’ve asked Representative Barnes if he would look into that and he said he absolutely would.”
