[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----ARK., NEB., CALIF., USA

[Rick Halperin]

April 14




ARKANSAS----impending execution

7 Executions in 11 Days: EU Calls on the US to Stop Death Penalty


The European Union has criticized the US state of Arkansas for scheduled 
executions for the period between 17 April and 27 April on the grounds that it 
de-facto breaks the moratorium on capital punishment observed by Arkansas since 
November 2005. The southern US state bordering the Mississippi River would 
become the 1st state in the country to conduct 7 executions over an 11-day 
period since the resumption of the use of death penalty in 1977 in the United 
States.

Capital punishment is illegal in the 19 out of the 50 US states and the 
District of Columbia. In 2016, the United States did not rank among the world's 
5 biggest executioners for the 1st time since 2006 and only the 2nd time since 
1991. Amnesty International reports that only 5 US states executed people in 
2016: Alabama (2), Florida (1), Georgia (9), Missouri (1), Texas (7), with 
Texas and Georgia, accounting for 80% of the country's executions in 2016. The 
number of executions (20) has fallen to the record low in any year since 1991 
and the number of executions has fallen every year since 2009 (except for 2012 
when it stayed the same).

According to the EU, the executions in Arkansas, if carried out as planned, 
would be a serious setback in this overall development. Europe has long 
advocated that while capital punishment fails to act as a deterrent to crime, 
it represents an unacceptable denial of human dignity and integrity and cannot 
be justified under any circumstances. More than 140 countries in the world are 
now abolitionist in law or practice. The EU has called on the Governor of 
Arkansas to commute the sentences and grant the convicts relief from the death 
penalty.

(source: eubulletin.com)

*****************

Arkansas death penalty opponents want mass protest before 'execution assembly 
line' begins


Death penalty opponents hope to build on strong social media momentum and 
attract hundreds of protestors to the Arkansas state capital on Good Friday in 
a show of force against the slew of upcoming executions slated to take place 
between Monday, April 17 and Thursday April 27.

In what the convicted inmates' defense attorneys have decried as an "execution 
assembly line," Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson scheduled 7 executions to take 
place over 11 days - 3 nights of double executions and 1 single one. Last week, 
a judged stopped a planned 8th execution.

Of the original eight death row inmates, 7 are currently set to be executed by 
lethal injection before the end of April.

Furonda Brasfield, executive director of Arkansas Coalition to Abolish the 
Death Penalty, hopes that hundreds of demonstrators will descend on Little Rock 
on Good Friday.

"Arkansas is known across the world for the Little Rock 9 and all of that 
atrocity," Furonda said, referencing the landmark 1957 battle to desegregate 
the state's high schools. "And now it's the Little Rock 8 in 10, and it paints 
our state in such a horrible light."

(source: Deutsche Welle)

*******************

The Legal Battle Over Arkansas' Plan to Execute 7 Men in 10 Days


Arkansas has scheduled executions of 7 inmates in quick succession because the 
state's supply of midazolam, 1 of the drugs used in its procedure, is set to 
expire at the end of April. Hearings ended on Thursday in a lawsuit arguing 
that the pace of the executions and the use of midazolam are unconstitutional. 
A decision is expected before the 1st scheduled execution on Monday.

An Unprecedented Schedule

Since 1976, the year the death penalty was reinstated nationally, multiple 
executions in one state on a single day have occurred only 10 times. The last 
time was 17 years ago in Texas. Arkansas conducted double executions nearly a 
year before that.

Arkansas is planning to carry out 7 executions in 10 days. No state has tried 
to execute so many people in such a short period. Virginia is the only other 
state with an execution scheduled this month.

The last attempt to carry out 2 executions in a day resulted in chaos. In April 
2014 in Oklahoma, the inmate Clayton Lockett was awake and writhed in pain 
during the administration of the lethal drugs, even though earlier a doctor had 
announced that Mr. Lockett was unconscious. The state canceled a second 
execution originally scheduled on that day.

The Oklahoma Department of Public Safety later recommended that executions be 
at least 7 days apart, citing the botched execution and saying it was partly a 
result of "extra stress" from having 2 executions planned on the same day.

The Missouri Supreme Court adopted a rule in 2016 that limited executions to 1 
per month.

"Corrections officers are not hired executioners," states the Arkansas inmates' 
federal complaint. It argues that the emotional toll of the job and the rushed 
schedule greatly increase the risks of causing unnecessary pain and suffering 
for the inmates, a violation of the Eighth Amendment.

A letter to the Arkansas governor, Asa Hutchinson, from dozens of former 
corrections officials and administrators also expressed concerns that the 
schedule "will impose extraordinary and unnecessary stress and trauma on the 
staff responsible with carrying out the executions."

"Multiple executions create rushed circumstance. Rushed circumstances risk 
error," said Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information 
Center, a nonprofit research group on capital punishment.

Mr. Dunham argued further that the only reason for such a compressed schedule 
was the expiration date of the injection drugs, calling it "an arbitrary 
kill-by date."

The Drug in Question: Midazolam

After other medications became unavailable, Arkansas turned to midazolam, a 
common sedative that has become a drug of choice for executions in several 
states.

The complaint filed by the Arkansas inmates argues that the use of midazolam is 
unconstitutional because the lack of anesthetic potency of the drug is all but 
certain to cause "excruciating suffering."

A number of pharmaceutical companies have restricted the use of their drugs in 
executions, contending that their products are made to promote human health, 
not for killing. Roche, a developer of midazolam, publicly stated in 2015 that 
it "did not supply midazolam for death penalty use and would not knowingly 
provide any of our medicines for this purpose."

Since midazolam's 1st use in an execution in October 2013, there have been at 
least 4 botched executions involving the drug. After the execution team 
administered midazolam and confirmed that the inmates were sedated, the 
individuals awoke, struggled or convulsed while being injected with the 
subsequent lethal drugs.

In 2015, the Supreme Court ruled that the use of midazolam did not violate the 
constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment. But since then at least 3 
states - Arizona, Kentucky and Florida - have abandoned the drug. A similar 
case is still being argued in the appeals court in Ohio.

(source: New York Times)

******************

Governor Hutchinson Says He's "Fairly Comfortable" Executions Will Go as 
Planned


In a private meeting with the press Thursday morning, Governor Asa Hutchinson 
spoke on the upcoming executions of 7 death row inmates.

Governor Hutchinson said he has not made a final clemency decision yet on any 
inmate, but he did say he doesn't expect to rethink things.

He said he is "fairly confident" everything will go as according to schedule, 
but as far as a possible last-minute commutation, Hutchinson added, "You have 
to maintain that option until the end."

During the meeting, Hutchinson went through each case and read graphic details 
of what the men did to their victims.

"Those are facts that we should remember and the history of how this began. It 
didn't begin when I became governor," Hutchinson said.

He called these executions "the state's responsibility", and said they reflect 
the severity of the crimes.

"I think the death penalty is an appropriate punishment in the most serious and 
heinous crimes in our country," Hutchinson said.

He told the press he has listened to the victim's families, though we could not 
confirm how many family members total he has met with. Hutchinson said he kept 
the victims and their families and what they had endured over years in mind 
when he set the execution dates.

"I know they need closure and they don't believe they have it," Hutchinson 
said. "Until punishment is set and carried out, it's impossible to have 
closure."

The governor said he believes there is "not any question of guilt in these 
cases." He said he believes the men have been afforded good legal counsel and 
due process.

After talking with the Arkansas Department of Corrections (ADC) staff on 
training and preparation, Hutchinson said he thought two executions in one 
night was the maximum amount he felt comfortable with.

"I think it was the right judgment," Hutchinson said. As for the stress on the 
officials carrying out the executions, Hutchinson said, "There's so much time 
that goes into preparation. If you spread it out to four months, you'll have 
four months of stress."

He said he met the personnel who will be carrying out the executions and 
reviewed the entire process in detail twice in order to fully understand it. He 
said the specifics of the protocol are confidential.

"I was satisfied that they know what they're doing and this protocol is what we 
need to do to carry this out," Hutchinson said.

On the staff carrying out the execution, Hutchinson said, "They are 
experienced... they practice it... they don't take it lightly. They know what 
they're doing."

On the nights of the scheduled executions, Hutchinson said he will be at the 
Governor's Mansion or at his office in the Capitol.

He noted that he felt he had to set politics aside in these specific cases, 
"It's not something I have a choice in. It's something that was put in my lap. 
The voters will hold me accountable."

Wednesday, the governor visited the Varner Unit, which included a trip to the 
death chamber.

When he was questioned about the three-drug cocktail they plan to use, he said, 
"The courts have approved these 3 drugs... to carry out the law, that is our 
option. We can't say we're going to use a different drug."

He was further questioned about the controversial drug Midazolam, which was 
used in the botched execution in Oklahoma.

"Midazolam is effective... it can be done right and that's what we're going to 
do," Hutchinson said.

He added that he doesn't think Arkansas could have acquired the drug without 
keeping it as confidential as they have.

Another pressing topic -- the drugs' expiration date, which is listed for the 
end of this month. Though the expiration date on the current drugs is nearing 
quickly, Hutchinson said obtaining additional supply of the drugs would be 
difficult.

"The future in terms of drug supply is unknown... we understand the difficulty 
of it," Hutchinson said. "We have no option but to do it in this fashion. We're 
going to do it and learn from it, learn that it's successful and effective."

The governor said he is aware of the expiration date and he feels that he 
developed a reasonable time frame for the executions.

When attorneys argued about what they felt was an unfair timeline, Hutchinson 
said, "That's like arguing we're somehow surprised a date has been set."

He added that if anything about the drugs or the process were to be changed, it 
would "delay everything for years."

When questioned about the possibility of going back to other means of 
execution, the governor said he does not think that's wise.

"Part of my responsibility is to do this in the right way that satisfies any 
question counsel may have," Hutchinson said.

The governor was asked for his stance on the abundance of national and 
international attention these executions are receiving.

"If I were to speed out the executions over 5 months, would they be less 
critical?" Hutchinson responded. "Remember, we have a federal death penalty... 
this is a United States position. We get the criticism but I don't see any 
consequence."

31 states in the U.S. allow the death penalty.

Hutchinson said this is not a desirable aspect of his job as governor, but it's 
the role he was elected to do.

"There's really only one thing on my mind in the month of April. It's the 
heaviest and most serious responsibility I will ever have as governor."

The 1st of the 7 imminent executions is scheduled for April 17.

(source: arkansasmatters.com)

********************

Arkansas' Rushed Plan to Execute 7 Men----Botched Death Penalty Cases Should 
Raise Red Flags


The US state of Arkansas plans to execute 7 men currently on death row in a 
10-day span before the end of the month, in a flurry of state-sanctioned 
killings unseen in the modern history of the US death penalty.

The executions - the 1st in Arkansas in 12 years - are being rushed through 
before the expiration date in May for the state's supply of midazolam, a 
controversial sedative that is 1 of 3 drugs used in lethal injections. State 
officials do not know when they will be able to obtain a new supply of 
midazolam.

Don Davis and Bruce Ward are scheduled to be put to death on April 17, Stacey 
Johnson and Ledell Lee 3 days later, followed by Marcel Williams and Jack Jones 
on April 24, and Kenneth Williams on April 27. The men make up 20 % of 
Arkansas' entire death row population.

Lawyers for the inmates have a case before a federal judge seeking to block the 
executions, contending that such hasty executions risk mistakes. History bears 
them out: in April 2014, the last time a state tried to perform a double 
execution on the same day, it ended in disaster, when Oklahoma botched the 
execution of Clayton Locket. It took more than 40 minutes for him to die. Human 
Rights Watch called that execution "nothing less than state-sanctioned 
torture." Even under "normal" circumstances, midazolam has been linked to 
botched executions in Alabama, Arizona, and Ohio.

19 US states have abolished the death penalty, including 7 in the past 7 years. 
Another 12 have the death penalty on their books but haven't executed anyone in 
at least a decade. Since 1973, 157 prisoners have been released from death rows 
in the US after evidence was presented of their innocence, and at least 20 
death-row inmates have been put to death, then later discovered to be likely 
innocent. According to 1 study, 88 % of criminologists polled said the death 
penalty was not a deterrent to murder.

The death penalty is widely rejected by rights-respecting democracies around 
the world, including every country in Europe except for Belarus. Human Rights 
Watch opposes capital punishment in all cases because of its inherent cruelty 
and finality. It is inevitably and universally plagued with arbitrariness, 
prejudice, and error.

Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchison should commute these planned executions and 
instead push to abolish the death penalty in his state. Otherwise, he will risk 
another botched execution from a controversial drug, and perpetuate a barbaric 
policy that rejects the dignity of human life.

(source: Human Rights Watch)

*************************

Innocence Project Asks Court to Grant DNA Testing In Ark. Death Row 
Case----World's media focusing in on upcoming executions


The Innocence Project has asked an Arkansas circuit court to grant new DNA 
testing to death row inmate Stacey Johnson. The inmate is 1 of 7 men set to be 
executed in a 10-day span starting on April 17.

The Innocence Project is a non-profit legal organization that works to 
exonerate those who may have been wrongly convicted. Their most famous case was 
the original exoneration of Steven Avery, who served 18 years in prison for a 
sexual assault he never committed.

In a press release, the group said newer DNA testing has "never been performed" 
in Johnson's case and could potentially prove he is innocent of the crime he's 
been charged with.

Johnson was convicted of the murder of Carol Heath in April of 1993. She was 
found only wearing a t-shirt. The evidence shows she was stabbed in the throat 
and raped. Johnson has maintained his innocence throughout his entire time in 
prison.

"While opinions are divided on whether the death penalty is a reasonable form 
of punishment, I hope we can all agree that no one should be put to death where 
DNA testing could prove innocence," said Karen Thompson, a staff attorney with 
the Innocence Project, "especially in situations like this one where 
potentially probative evidence from the crime scene was never even submitted 
for DNA testing despite a defense request."

Heath's purse was later on found at highway rest stop, where DNA tests proved 
the purse was stained in her blood.

(source: WFMY news)






NEBRASKA:

Company: Nebraska shouldn't have gotten death penalty drug


A German pharmaceutical manufacturer whose drugs ended up in Nebraska's lethal 
injection supply never intended for state officials to obtain them and tried 
unsuccessfully to get the corrections department to return them, a company 
spokesman said Thursday.

Nebraska's corrections department was only able to buy potassium chloride in 
2015 because 1 of its U.S. distributors made a mistake, said Fresenius Kabi 
spokesman Matt Kuhn.

His comments came after The Associated Press asked whether company officials 
were aware that the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services had bought 
their product for use as a lethal injection drug. The AP identified the 
manufacturer through an open records request, but a bill slated for debate in 
the Legislature would allow the state to hide the identities of its suppliers.

"This was a case in 2015 where human error by the distributor resulted in the 
Department of Corrections receiving our product," said Kuhn, who is based in 
Illinois. "We expressed our concerns and the distributor requested the 
(corrections department) return the product, which did not occur."

Kuhn said the company discovered the sale through an internal audit. While the 
company takes no formal position on capital punishment, it requires 
distributors to sign an agreement promising not sell certain drugs to state 
corrections departments.

"Our products are developed and approved solely for patient care, and we 
expressly restrict the sale of our products for use in lethal injection," he 
said.

A Department of Correctional Services spokeswoman did not respond to a phone 
call or follow-up questions sent by email after the records request.

Potassium chloride was the only lethal injection drug Nebraska prison officials 
possessed before Republican Gov. Pete Ricketts approved a new protocol in 
January. The new rules give state corrections director Scott Frakes broad 
authority to decide which drugs to purchase, so he is no longer bound to use 
potassium chloride.

Death penalty opponents said the company's statement shows the importance of 
requiring the state to disclose its suppliers. The American Civil Liberties 
Union of Nebraska, a leading critic of capital punishment, called on lawmakers 
to reject the push for secrecy and launch an investigation.

"These shocking allegations are just the latest illustration of how Nebraska's 
death penalty is broken beyond repair," said Danielle Conrad, the group's 
executive director. The company's statement "underscores the need to honor 
Nebraska's strong tradition of open government and the need to ensure 
transparency in the death penalty process."

Death penalty supporters said companies shouldn't dictate how their products 
are used once they're sold and blamed anti-death penalty activists for 
pressuring companies to stop selling drugs with legitimate medical purposes.

"Once you sell something to someone, it becomes their property," said Sen. John 
Kuehn of Heartwell. "Can you sell your car to someone and say, 'You can have 
this car just as long as you never sell it to a teenager?'"

Kuehn, a veterinarian, said he has lost access to some of the best drugs to 
treat animals because death penalty opposition has made them scarce. Kuehn has 
introduced a bill that would let the department conceal the names of its 
suppliers, saying it's critical for the state to proceed with executions. 
Debate on the measure is slated to begin next Wednesday.

Voters signaled their support for the death penalty last year when they 
overturned the Legislature's 2015 decision to abolish capital punishment. The 
issue was placed on the ballot through a referendum partially financed by 
Ricketts, who supports capital punishment.

Nebraska's original 3-drug protocol called for sodium thiopental to induce 
unconsciousness, pancuronium bromide to paralyze an inmate's breathing and 
muscles, and potassium chloride to stop the heart. The state's potassium 
chloride supply from Fresenius Kabi expired in January, according to labels 
obtained through the records request.

In February, Frakes told a legislative committee it would be "very difficult" 
to acquire lethal injection drugs if the department was forced to identify its 
suppliers. Of the 31 states with the death penalty, 15 have enacted similar 
shield laws.

Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said 
shield laws make it easier for corrections departments to mislead distributors 
about how they will use the drugs and helps distributors violate their 
contractual agreements not to sell drugs to prisons.

"It's difficult for companies to track, because there are legitimate sales to 
departments of corrections for medicinal purposes," said Dunham, whose group 
takes no stance on the death penalty but is critical of how it's administered.

Dunham said many pharmaceutical companies are worried about negative publicity 
and economic consequences in addition to moral concerns about the death 
penalty. In 2015, the Dutch public employees' pension fund sold off 25 million 
euros worth of Mylan shares after fund managers learned the Virginia Department 
of Corrections had obtained one of the pharmaceutical company's drugs for 
executions.

Nebraska had a similar run-in with a drug manufacturer in 2012 when Naari AG, a 
Swiss pharmaceutical company, issued a voluntary recall for sodium thiopental 
held by state officials.

Naari AG said at the time that the drug had been "illegally diverted from the 
company's supply chain," but state officials refused to return them and the 
U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it wouldn't enforce the voluntary 
recall. The Swiss company said the sodium thiopental Nebraska purchased through 
an India-based middleman was a sample intended to be used as an anesthetic in 
Zambia. Corrections officials under a previous administration insisted they had 
purchased the drug in a legitimate matter.

(source: The Daily Journal)






CALIFORNIA:

Speed up death-penalty appeals, but add this safeguard


Speed up death-penalty appeals, but add safeguard

Re "Voters' attempt to speed executions should be quickly nullified" (Erwin 
Chemerinsky, April 6).

While supporting Proposition 66, which limits the appeals process for death row 
prisoners to 5 years, I also partly agree with columnist Erwin Chemerinsky that 
there are conditions under which the law should be considered unconstitutional.

This exists when specific death row defendants have had their 5-year appeals 
process expired and now are due for sentencing, yet it has been proven that 
they did not receive a proper legal defense. In those specific cases, the 
accused should be granted an extension of appeal time.

Instead of nullifying the law, there needs to be an amendment to Prop. 66, 
granting an appeals extension when proven that the accused did not receive 
proper legal representation.

Isadora Johnson, Seal Beach

(source: Letter to the Editor, Long Beach Press-Telegram)






USA:

Winnifred F. Sullivan talks capital punishment and its religious 
influences----Sullivan: "It's not a legal, but an ethical, judgement."


Winnifred F. Sullivan spoke about the nuances of the death penalty and its 
relationship with religion to a room of about 100 people on April 6 in Wrench 
Auditorium.

"The death penalty is always relevant - the U.S. is the only developed nation 
to have it, and also in the context of recent interest in prison reform and 
criminal punishment, there seems to be interest in it," said Richard Callahan, 
associate professor and chair of the religious studies department.

Sullivan's speech was the 9th annual Distinguished Lecture on Religion and 
Public Life hosted by the department of religious studies, which hosts a 
distinguished scholar each year for a "public talk of relevance to both 
scholars of religion and the general public." She is a professor and chair of 
the department of religious studies at Indiana University and affiliated 
professor of law at the university's Maurer School of Law.

"I am not going to speak for or against the death penalty," Sullivan said at 
the start of her speech.

Sullivan acknowledged that church and state has become an "old-fashioned topic" 
that's shifted recently to church and politics. She said that though the death 
penalty is currently used for less than 1 percent of cases that are brought to 
trial, it still does "vital political work."

Sullivan discussed the role of the jury in a death trial. She said the jury is 
the ultimate decider of the fate of the defendant.

"Jurors must take responsibility for their decision on whether [a] defendant 
should live or die," Sullivan said.

The jury is not allowed access to any outside resources when they make the 
decision, Sullivan said. The only information they are given is what is said in 
the courtroom and the laws as they are told to them. "The jury is not allowed a 
bible," Sullivan said.

"I thought this was interesting and I got started on this project to try to 
figure out why that was," Sullivan said.

She also questioned former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's stance on the 
death penalty. Scalia once said that "Christians aren't afraid to die" and that 
they believe the government is exercising divine power.

He said there is a tight link between religion and the death penalty, and that 
it fits with the broader narrative linking conservatism with religiosity, 
claiming that a reason why it's still so popular in the U.S. is due to the fact 
that Americans believe in free will.

Sullivan called this stance into question. "It's not clear that Scalia is 
speaking for all Christians," she said. "Scalia gave himself the role of 
speaking for all orthodox religion."

Sullivan said the use of the Bible in courtrooms is not uncommon, and the 
meaning of the Bible changes as time passes and people interpret it in 
different ways. She said that in 1880, there were already 2,000 different 
versions of the Bible available to Americans.

Sullivan said a death penalty jury becomes isolated during the trial and 
eventually starts to pressure a sole indecisive juror into a decision.

"The decision ends up being a distinctly accidental one," Sullivan said. "It's 
not a legal but an ethical judgement."

(source: themaneater.com)