Proposal seeking to punish CT companies that aid in death penalty moves forward
mark pazniokas / ctmirror.org
Bianca Tylek holds a picture of Chris Vialva, one of the 13 federal prisoners executed with drugs from Connecticut, as Valve's mother, Lisa Brown, testifies at a public hearing in Hartford.
The legislature’s Judiciary Committee voted Monday to advance a proposal that would penalize companies that manufacture and sell drugs or devices that can be used in capital punishment.
The legislation initially emerged in response to an episode of John Oliver’s “Last Week Tonight” in April 2024, in which Oliver said he was “pretty sure” that the Hamden-based company Absolute Standards Inc. had provided phenobarbital, a lethal injection drug used in federal executions.
The proposal had a public hearing in February, but was never voted out of committee. Instead, its provisions were incorporated into a separate bill — dealing with importing and compounding drugs used in medically-induced abortions — which the Judiciary Committee heard Monday.
Under the proposal, the Commissioner of the Department of Consumer Protection can refuse to issue a certificate of registration to a business that manufactures or sells items the business knows will be used to “execute a sentence of death.” The department can also suspend or revoke a registration that already exists.
On Monday, Sen. John Kissel, R-Enfield, raised oppositions to the bill, pointing out that while capital punishment was illegal in Connecticut, it still takes place in other U.S. states. He proposed an amendment that would eliminate certain sections of the bill.
“I, first of all, felt that that was wrong — to try to impose our position regarding the death penalty in other states by means of restricting the lawful sale of an item by a business in Connecticut,” Kissel said.
Kissel also questioned whether the proposal might violate an interpretation of the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution, known as the Dormant Commerce Clause. He cited the 1978 case Philadelphia v. New Jersey, which ruled that the state of New Jersey could not refuse to import waste from Philadelphia because it would “discriminate” economically against imports from another state.
Rep. Craig Fishbein, R-Wallingford, ranking member on the Judiciary Committee, agreed with Kissel, noting that the Dormant Commerce Clause prevents individual states from taking action that would interfere with trade taking place across state lines.
“In a nutshell, the proposed legislation, should it pass, is ripe for a likely successful [legal] challenge, and it would be irresponsible for the legislature to set the state on that path,” Fishbein said in an email.
Sen. Gary Winfield, D-New Haven, said he felt the bill deserved to be debated more broadly, on the floor of the Senate, and that he feared that amending the bill “would effectively kill it” because of how little time they had left before the legislative session ends.
Winfield told the Connecticut Mirror that he hadn’t yet looked into the case Kissel cited, but he said he believed the circumstances of the case were different. He said while he did not want to see Connecticut export lethal drugs to other states, lawmakers needed to consider whether Kissel’s concern was legitimate.
The bill passed through the Judiciary Committee with a vote of 28-13.
Rep. Josh Elliott, D-Hamden, one of the sponsors of the initial legislation prohibiting the manufacture of these drugs and devices, told CT Mirror on Tuesday that he felt it was important to pass the legislation this year because of the Trump administration’s support for the death penalty.
“We can really sort of pave the way for other states to do the same thing,” Elliott said. “By limiting the market, we make it more likely that less lethal injection will happen across the U.S.”
Absolute Standards has since ceased manufacturing phenobarbital, according to a letter that company president John Criscio wrote to Connecticut lawmakers last year.
Along with Absolute Standards, a subsidiary of the company Walter Surface Technologies, which has its U.S. headquarters in Windsor, reportedly manufactures respirator safety masks used during executions in Alabama. Elliott said he’s not aware of any other companies in Connecticut manufacturing materials used in capital punishment.
During the February public hearing, Elliott’s bill received some opposition from disability rights advocates and the CT Catholic Public Affairs Conference, who protested that the bill penalized companies for aiding in capital punishment but not companies or individuals who provided drugs to aid in assisted suicide or euthanasia.
Absolute Standards and Walter Surface Technologies did not respond to emailed requests for comment.
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments