FLOWERY BRANCH – In March, Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens had to unexpectedly cancel his speaking engagement at the monthly meeting of the South Hall Republican Club. The on-again, off-again execution of Kelly Gissendaner from Barrow County was finally set and he was required to be at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson for the event and could not be at the SHRC meeting that same night.
Even more unexpectedly, Gissendaner’s execution was postponed shortly before taking place because of concern over the lethal drug used for the procedure. The pentobarbital appeared cloudy, something that is not supposed to happen. The execution was postponed.
Nevertheless, Olens agreed to honor his pledge to address the SHRC and did so Monday evening at the Spout Springs Library, but he wasn’t there with the intent of rehashing the postponed execution five weeks earlier. Only when he was asked about the national news story did he share his thoughts.
“So why didn’t somebody think to check the drug the day before to make sure it wasn’t cloudy?” Olens was asked from the audience during the final segment of the meeting.
“That’s a discussion I’m not going to have publicly,” Olens answered; he then added, “That’s a discussion that we will have sooner than you think.”
“I know the answer to that question but now’s not the appropriate time for me to have that discussion. By now we know all the facts involved in that, and that will become known sooner than later in that regard.”
Curiosity began to grow among the forty-plus guests at the meeting as evidenced by the total silence that fell across the room. All ears were directed to what would be said next. “You will hear the answers that will come out (of the investigation into the drug problem) sooner than later.”
Olens was also asked about reports suggesting the state was still having problems procuring the necessary drugs for the lethal injection. He quickly allayed that concern.
“Actually the Department of Corrections and I pretty much have that taken care of,” Olens said.
Olens did repeat several times that the decision to postpone the execution was done with safety as the dominant reason.
Olens had not planned to bring up the topic of capital punishment; nearly all of his speech was focused on the legal battles Georgia is engaged in, many of which are with the federal government.
He began the evening by saying, “I want to talk about federal overreach, where the Administration has gone above and beyond the limits of the Constitution.”
Olens listed off half-a-dozen specific suits Georgia is partner in against the Obama Administration, but said no single issue is the cause for the all the legal challenges.
“The issue is not immigration (or others things such as health care or the environment), the issue is the authority of the federal government in the name of the Executive Branch to change Congressional action…to make decisions that are contrary to our system of government,” Olens explained.
“When Congress passes a law the President needs to follow the law faithfully, execute the law and enforce the law,” Olens said.
