21 March 2022 :

HB 658 clears Legislature
The Senate voted 21-14 to pass House Bill 658, a bill designed to conceal the identity of all execution drug suppliers to maintain Idaho’s death penalty by lethal injection. The bill is now only a governor’s signature away from becoming law.
The bill, co-authored by the Idaho attorney general’s office and Idaho Department of Correction, passed the House by a narrow margin on February 24 (see). 
Proponents have said the law is necessary to continue Idaho’s overarching policy of capital punishment.
State prison officials have said that suppliers won’t sell them lethal injection drugs out of concerns that they will be identified and face public scorn for involving themselves in the polarizing national issue of capital punishment. Proponents of the bill have said allowing the names of drug sources and medical participants to be released will lead to protests of the homes and businesses of those who assist, to shame them out of helping Idaho carry out an execution.
The lethal injection confidentiality bill came about as a result of an Idaho Supreme Court ruling in 2020 that compelled the Idaho Department of Correction to release documents identifying past execution drug sources in response to a public records lawsuit. The documents were later used to show the 2 out-of-state pharmacies that provided the state with the lethal injection drugs for executions in 2011 and 2012 had dubious safety histories.
The documents released under court order also revealed the lengths to which state prison leadership went to keep its execution drug sources secret. Such covert tactics included the use of confidential cash accounts and state-chartered flights, as well as leveraging the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare to acquire the drugs on IDOC’s behalf.
After House Bill 658’s Senate passage Friday, the ACLU of Idaho called on Gov. Little to veto the bill.
“We are disappointed with today’s Senate vote,” Lauren Bramwell, the ACLU of Idaho’s policy strategist, said in a written statement to the Statesman. “It is inconsistent for lawmakers to tout the importance of government transparency, while simultaneously cloaking the state’s greatest power — the power to end someone’s life — in a veil of secrecy. Without transparency, cases of incompetence or misconduct can continue unchecked.”

Idaho bill to shield lethal injection drug sources passes | Idaho Statesman