Virginia Del. Jackson H. Miller (R-Manassas) wants the opinion of Attorney General Mark Herring on a plan by Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) to hire pharmacies to secretly supply the state with lethal-injection drugs. (Steve Helber/AP)

A prominent Republican lawmaker on Friday asked Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring to weigh in on the legality of Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s plan to hire pharmacies to secretly supply the state with increasingly scarce lethal injection drugs.

The move by Del. Jackson H. Miller (R-Manassas) puts Herring (D), who is running for reelection in 2017, in a difficult spot on a tough issue.

Herring, a former state senator, has become a hero to liberals and a lightning rod for conservatives for actions he has taken as attorney general to advance gay marriage, abortion rights and immigration.

But he has supported the death penalty in the past, including in 2009, when he voted for a bill to allow certain accomplices, not just the actual “triggerman,” to be charged with capital murder. That vote put Herring to the right of his conservative Republican predecessor in the attorney general’s office, Ken Cuccinelli II, who opposed the bill as a senator.

Continued support for the death penalty could cost Herring the support of some liberals, particularly at a moment when perceived mistreatment of minorities by law-enforcement officers has become a rallying cry for Democrats. Yet Herring might be reluctant to undercut a plan advanced by McAuliffe, a fellow Democrat.

“It is imperative that Attorney General Herring reply to this request before the General Assembly session on April 20,” Miller said in a written statement Friday. “Undoubtedly the governor’s office has already consulted with the attorney general on this issue, so he should be able to quickly provide similar counsel to the General Assembly.”

[Virginia’s pharmacy chief questioned legality of special-ordering execution drugs]

Herring’s spokesman, Michael Kelly, said that the attorney general would work “expeditiously” to answer the legal questions raised by Miller “and it will then be for the General Assembly to decide the policy issues at hand. We trust that this request comes from a sincere desire to understand the legal framework surrounding one of the most serious powers of the state.”

Kelly noted that “Attorney General Herring believes that capital punishment should be an option for the most heinous offenders.”

As a general rule, the attorney general’s office does not discuss legal advice provided to the governor, lawmakers or others.

McAuliffe’s spokesman, Brian Coy, declined to comment on Miller’s request. But Thursday, Coy and other administration officials said that there is no legal problem with the plan, which a handful of other states have already implemented.

“Precedent is overwhelmingly on the side of the administration,” Coy said then.

Miller asked Herring for a legal opinion just days after McAuliffe drastically amended one of his bills, which had been intended to let the state rely on the electric chair when it could not obtain lethal-injection drugs.

[Lacking lethal-injection drugs, Va. might turn to the electric chair]

McAuliffe’s amendment would scrap that approach and instead allow the state to specially order the drugs from compounding pharmacies. Their identities would be kept secret in order to shield them from the sort of public pressure that has driven American pharmaceutical companies to prohibit the use of their drugs for executions and led Europe to ban exports of the substances to the United States.

[McAuliffe guts Virginia’s electric-chair bill]

The administration proposed a bill to the same effect last year, but the measure was ultimately defeated by conservative and liberal skeptics of government secrecy.

Miller supported the 2015 bill and signaled a willingness to accept McAuliffe’s amendment after the governor announced it Monday. On Friday, Miller said he was still inclined to do so when the General Assembly reconvenes for its veto session next week.

But he also said he wanted to hear from Herring on the legality of the pharmacy scheme — particularly because the state’s pharmacy chief privately raised questions about whether such a plan would violate state and federal law in emails sent in 2014. The Washington Post reported the emails Thursday.

“There are significant legal questions, even within the McAuliffe administration, about the governor’s amendment,” Miller said in a written statement.

Miller asked Herring if state or federal laws that would prohibit Virginia from acquiring lethal-injection drugs from a compounding pharmacy or a similar operation known as an “outsourcing facility” prohibit the pharmacy from providing it or prevent the state from using the drugs for an execution.

In internal emails from 2014 obtained by The Post, Caroline D. Juran, executive director of the Virginia Board of Pharmacy, voiced concern that the plan might run afoul of state and federal laws that pertain to the handling of controlled substances and the practice of pharmacy and medicine.

She said that the plan might violate laws requiring that drugs only be dispensed with a valid prescription and only for medicinal or therapeutic purposes. She also questioned whether the secrecy provisions could prevent authorities from investigating a pharmacy in the event of a botched execution.

McAuliffe’s plan seeks to get around those issues by exempting pharmacies that compound the lethal-injection drugs from normal state oversight. A 2012 Richmond Circuit Court ruling supported that approach, finding that “execution by lethal injection by the Commonwealth of Virginia is not the regulated practice of medicine, pharmacy or anesthesiology.”

Some anti-death-penalty activists contend that the plan does nothing to address violations of federal law. But administration officials said this week that they were on solid ground.