Secrecy Not Solution For State

Even in an election year, January is a little early to get too bent out of shape over anything a candidate does or says. The filing period for party candidates doesn’t even start until noon Feb. 24. But, folks who enjoy politics are listening already, and every Arkansan needs to perk his ears up to hear from the candidates when they have the chance. Some candidates are looking for their opportunities to earn some name recognition and get their ideas into the public’s view.

Perhaps you won’t recognize David Sterling’s name. He’s a GOP candidate for Arkansas’ attorney general, the chief law enforcement officer in the state and its top legal eagle.

So why offer our thoughts on Mr. Sterling now?

To his credit, he’s given us something to think about with his hot-topic news releases. Not so much to his credit, however, is he’s already off the mark for a guy who wants to be attorney general.

Here’s the latest: Sterling said in a Jan. 22 statement he’s got a plan to “get Arkansas’ death penalty functioning.”

What’s wrong with the state’s death penalty?

Nothing directly, but pharmaceutical companies who want to avoid intense, heavy-handed protests of the anti-capital punishment demonstrators are making it diffcult for Arkansas to obtain drugs used in the execution of death row inmates. The incessant legal maneuvering of those forces has also helped prevent Arkansas from carrying out an execution since 2005. The state has 36 people on death row, the oldest conviction dating back to 1989 in Ashley County. Benton and Washington counties have two men each on Death Row.

The situation has gotten so bad (or good, depending on where you fall on the argument) Attorney General Dustin McDaniel has questioned whether it’s worthwhile to even have a death penalty anymore.

Now, in steps Sterling with his grand ideas: He’ll push the Legislature to allow the use of a drug Ohio and Texas have both switched to. But here’s his other notion of good politics/law: “I’ll also ask the state Legislature to pass a law closing public records regarding individuals and businesses involved in manufacturing and delivering death penalty drug compounds from Freedom of Information Act requests.” Sterling says he wants to make it easier for the state to contract with pharmacies for “this critical product.”

So, this man who would be attorney general, typically an office that advocates for the state’s public records and open meetings law, so quickly in his campaign turns to secrecy in government as his solution for the death penalty. What a shame.

And naive, too.

As soon as an inmate sues the state over its method of execution, his attorneys will be able to obtain the information Sterling would make secret to the public, from whom the authority to carry out an execution arises. Sterling’s desire for a solution moved quickly to secrecy, and Arkansans ought to be concerned about that. If anything deserves to be carried out under the scrutiny of the public, it’s the death penalty.

Sterling earlier called for a new “stand your ground law” in Arkansas similar to that in Florida that helped George Zimmerman shoot and kill Trayvon Martin without repercussion. Arkansas is doing just fine without it, thank you very much.

Such ideas may pass as Sterling, but they’re certainly not gold.