[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.H., ALA, MISS., TENN., KY., ARK. COLO.
Rick Halperin
rhalperi at smu.edu
Wed Jul 11 10:15:11 CDT 2018
July 11
TEXAS----impending execution
Faith leaders, family members appeal for stay of execution for SA man----Chris
Young scheduled to die by lethal injection July 17
Relatives and clergy members rallied Tuesday morning in Main Plaza to appeal
for a stay of execution for a San Antonio man scheduled to die by lethal
injection next week.
Chris Young, 33, was found guilty in 2006 of capital murder for fatally
shooting convenience store owner Hasmukh Patel on Nov. 21, 2004, during a
robbery.
Young was 21 at the time of the fatal shooting.
According to the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, Young is
challenging his conviction and seeking a new trial based on a constitutional
violation of the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause.
During the jury selection process in his trial, a member of the jury panel was
struck from service based solely on her affiliation with the Outreach
Ministries Program at Calvary Baptist Church in San Antonio.
Some members of the program minister to prisoners, an activity prosecutors
argued might indicate a potential juror favored the defendant, but the
prospective juror made clear she did not participate in ministering to
prisoners, the coalition said. The woman's personal religious beliefs were not
questioned.
The coalition is calling on the state of Texas to uphold its commitment to
religious liberty by disavowing the discrimination that occurred in the case
and giving Young a new trial untainted by bias against jurors of faith.
Stephanie Collier, a family friend who was among those in attendance at the
rally, feels Young should get a 2nd chance.
"For beginners, I would love for him to receive another chance, another trial,
to be able to better tell his side of the story and show his side of the story.
I believe a lot of that wasn't put forward. I would like for him to continue
what he's doing, mentoring people, speaking to people, advocating on behalf of
others, to use his life for good."
Young said in a prison interview that his death sentence saved his life by
causing him to mature and be a positive force for his daughters and a mentor
for troubled youth.
He said that before being sent to death row, he was a gang member who didn't
have an appreciation for life.
Supporters hope their message will reach Gov. Greg Abbott's office in an effort
to get Young a new trial.
(source: KSKAKT news)
******************
Execution date pushed back for Texas 7 escapee after paperwork error on death
warran----Joseph Garcia is scheduled for execution in August.
Citing a court's clerical mistake, prosecutors this week asked for a new
execution date for Texas 7 escapee Joseph Garcia.
The condemned Dallas County killer was scheduled to die on Aug. 30, but on
Wednesday the court approved a new Dec. 4 date after the clerk failed to issue
a death warrant in time.
"This statutory violation could result in a last-minute stay of execution,"
prosecutors wrote in a Tuesday court filing.
State law requires that the court issue a death warrant within 10 days of
greenlighting the execution date. But in Garcia's case, a Dallas County judge
set the date on May 24, and the warrant wasn't issued until June 6 - 3 days
late.
Last February, a similar issue forced the state to grant a stay in the case of
Tilon Carter, a Tarrant County death row prisoner. In that case, defense
lawyers were notified a day late, and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ended
up calling off the execution four days before he was set to die.
Paperwork errors last year also forced the cancellation of execution dates for
Larry Swearingen and Juan Castillo. In both cases, defense wasn't properly
given the requisite 90-day notice.
At the time of the notorious escape, Garcia was already in prison for a crime
out of Bexar County, where he stabbed a man at least a dozen times.
In December 2000, he was serving time at the Connally Unit when he teamed up
with 6 fellow prisoners to plot the biggest break-out in Texas prison history.
The men busted into the prison armory, stole weapons and stormed out of the
unit in a prison truck. After orchestrating two robberies in Houston, they
headed up to the Dallas area.
There, on Christmas Eve, the men held up a store in Irving and made off with
$70,000 and 44 guns. But on the way out, they ran into a cop.
The escapees surrounded Officer Aubrey Hawkins' patrol vehicle and shot him 11
times before running over his body with an SUV on the way out, according to
court records.
They were captured in Colorado a month later. Though 1 of the men killed
himself rather than surrender, the other 6 were captured and sent to death row.
3 have since been executed.
(source: San Antonio Expres-News)
**********************************************
Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----34
Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982----present-----552
Abbott#--------scheduled execution date-----name------------Tx. #
35---------July 17----------------Christopher Young-------553
36---------Sept. 12---------------Ruben Gutierrez---------554
37---------Sept. 26---------------Troy Clark--------------555
38---------Sept. 27---------------Daniel Acker------------556
49---------Oct. 10----------------Juan Segundo------------557
40---------Oct. 24----------------Kwame Rockwell----------558
41---------Dec. 4----------------Joseph Garcia------------559
(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)
********************
It's time to get rid of the death penalty in Texas
As a legislator, I often struggle to decide what I should do, what I can do,
and most of all, why I should do it. The answers are frequently difficult, both
to find and to accept. In the days leading up to Easter this year, a holiday in
the shadow of a state-sponsored execution, I led the Texas House Committee on
Criminal Jurisprudence as it wrestled with these considerations at a hearing
about the death penalty.
Texas has long had the dubious distinction of being a leader in capital
punishment, which has also made it a leader in litigation which has exposed
many constitutional and practical problems in our system. It's a shameful fact
that we've occasionally executed the innocent and frequently applied the death
penalty unevenly to the guilty, including to people suffering from serious
mental illnesses and significant intellectual and developmental disabilities,
an explicit focus of our recent hearing.
Judge Elsa Alcala, who sits on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (CCA) - our
highest criminal court - is an expert in these issues and was gracious enough
to share her knowledge and experience with us. She didn't paint an encouraging
picture.
She wasn't surprised by the U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling in Moore v.
Texas that our courts weren't using medically accurate standards for evaluating
intellectual disability: Our current laws provide no guidance at all for when,
how and to whom the death penalty applies when mental health issues are a
factor. Intellectual and developmental disability isn???t even defined in our
statutes, while other important definitions and instructions are incomplete and
confusing.
We apply the death penalty too broadly and very inconsistently. Procedures vary
wildly between the state's 254 different counties, and many people face death
who constitutionally shouldn't - like those who were seriously mentally ill at
the time of their offenses and those who had only minor roles in a crime. We've
even let what we've later found to be junk science sway juries into handing
down death sentences and then provided few ways to challenge those verdicts
afterwards.
The striking thing about Judge Alcala's testimony was that it wasn't political.
She carefully avoided any opinion about whether we should practice capital
punishment and focused purely on the technical defects in the system we have
today. There were so many to cover that, even striving for brevity and reading
from detailed notes, it took her nearly an hour to give us the most basic
overview.
Those many procedural problems (which are foundationally disturbing in their
own right) are separate and apart from the fundamental reality that the death
penalty is a terrible investment. Execution costs much more than life
imprisonment, and no capital murderer has ever been deterred for fear of the
death penalty. Ultimately, we spend a great deal solely for the grim
satisfaction of retribution. And when we get it wrong, capital punishment is
the only penalty which leaves us no way to fix our mistake and make the injured
innocent person whole.
Yet the Moore case highlights our rabid institutional eagerness to kill. Bobby
Moore is an intellectually disabled man with poor adaptive functioning who has
sat on death row for nearly 40 years over a killing during a supermarket
stickup. Texas courts besides the CCA and even the prosecutor in charge of the
case have all agreed his disability is too severe to legally and conscionably
execute him. But last month, after and despite the scolding it got from the
U.S. Supreme Court, the Texas CCA again contorted relevant standards to find
that Bobby should be killed. Judge Alcala and 2 of her colleagues dissented.
I can't fathom why Texas is so hungry to execute a man with obvious
intellectual disability that it continues to pour millions of dollars and
thousands of man-hours into this quest for bloody revenge.
Most of all, though, I regret the cost that can't be measured in money. We lose
a piece of ourselves with every unnecessary killing; we lower ourselves
morally. Something that resonated at our hearing was the testimony of Shane
Claiborne, pastor and author of the fantastic book Executing Grace. "The death
penalty isn't about whether a person deserves to die," he said, "but whether we
deserve to kill."
>From any moral standpoint, we all know that mercy is a show of strength, not
weakness. Executions by the state put us on a short list with the likes of
North Korea, Iran, and China, far out of step with the bastions of democracy
and freedom we call allies. Texas is better than capital punishment.
That's why I've moved from longtime support of capital punishment to the moral
certainty that it's time for Texas to abolish the death penalty.
We must set aside anger and fear and embrace grace. I encourage Texans to keep
open minds and open hearts, give some serious thought to this issue, and join
me in the growing bipartisan effort to end capital punishment in this state.
(source: Joe Moody, State representative, HD-78, Texas Tribune)
************************
Families of Chris Young and the man he killed call for a halt to his
execution----At a small rally in San Antonio's main plaza, faith leaders joined
Chris Young's aunt and the son of the man he killed to call for a stop to
Young's execution next week.
Standing in front of the grandiose facade of the cathedral in the city's main
plaza, Valerie Harris begged Gov. Greg Abbott to spare her nephew's life.
"The man who went into the prison years ago is the not the same man," she said
through the sweat and tears that streamed down her face. "If you need a body,
if you need a sacrifice, I would trade my life any day of the week for what's
inside Christopher Young."
Harris, a pastor and spiritual adviser to her nephew on death row, was one of
several faith leaders who came out in the hot July sun Tuesday to call for a
stop of Young's execution - set exactly 1 week later. Young, 34, is set to be
executed next Tuesday evening in the 2004 murder of store owner Hasmukh Patel.
Patel's son also joined the group, calling for mercy for the man who killed his
father.
Young's advocates have placed their hope in a long-shot attempt to halt the
execution based on his life on death row and a new appeal that claims his trial
was tainted by religious discrimination - a potential juror was struck from the
pool because her church group was associated with a prison ministry program,
according to the court brief.
Young was 21 when he shot Patel in the chest while robbing Patel's San Antonio
mini-mart and dry cleaner store, according to court records. A Bexar County
jury convicted him, and he was sentenced to death in February 2006. After his
more than 12 years on death row, however, his aunt and his lawyers say he is a
changed man.
"He has educated himself, become grounded in his religion, actively parents his
daughters, and mentors troubled young people beyond the prison walls," said his
lawyers, Jeff Newberry and David Dow, in a joint statement last month upon
filing his clemency petition to the parole board. "He is deeply remorseful for
killing Mr. Patel."
The Bexar County District's Attorney Office, which prosecuted Young, did not
immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday.
Patel's son, 36-year-old Mitesh, also joined the clemency petition, which asks
the parole board to recommend that the governor change Young's death sentence
to one of life in prison, or temporarily halt the execution. Mitesh Patel
attended the small rally Tuesday and said Young's execution wouldn't "take us
toward any positive outcome."
Under the shade of a tree in the plaza, Patel said that over time, he was able
to forgive Young for killing his father, and that Young's compassion for his
daughters was a main reason he spoke out against the execution. Patel lost his
father in his early 20s, and Young was only 8 when his father was murdered as
well, according to the clemency petition. Patel has said he doesn't want
Young's daughters to grow up without a father, too.
The son also mentioned Young's work on death row trying to help other people.
"He actually has a desire to break the chain of other people possibly in his
shoes from continuing down that path," Mitesh Patel said. "My family and I
would rather see that come to fruition because that speaks better to what my
dad stood for."
Young's case has garnered widespread attention, in part due to a social media
campaign and video interviews of Young on death row. An online petition started
by the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty supporting Young's clemency
petition had garnered more than 23,000 signatures as of early Tuesday
afternoon.
"I think that if I would have never came to death row, I wouldn't be the
individual that I am today," Young said in one of the videos. "I wouldn't be
mature, I wouldn't be able to explain to my daughters life, the appreciation of
life."
He said he was running with gangs as a young adult and that, ironically, death
row saved his life. Otherwise, he would likely already be dead from gang
violence.
"I'm actually happy I came here first, because the person I am today, I???m
really, really satisfied with," he said.
The parole board is set to vote on Young's clemency petition Friday, Newberry
said, but the board hardly ever recommends relief. Young's lawyers also filed a
new appeal this month in the Court of Criminal Appeals, arguing that a
potential juror was removed by the prosecution because of her ties to a church
that had some members who worked as prison ministers.
The filing said court precedent allows for potential jurors to be struck for
personal religious beliefs, but not that of a religious group.
"The basis for the State's challenge removing [the potential juror] was neither
her personal religious belief nor her personal religious activity but solely
her mere affiliation with a church, some of whose members ministered to
prisoners," Newberry wrote in the filing.
The Rev. Paul Ziese, from a local Lutheran church, spoke outside the church
Tuesday on behalf of more than 15 other faith leaders. He mentioned that the
group members don't all agree on the death penalty, but that they are joined by
their belief against religious discrimination.
The state has yet to file a brief in response to Young's latest appeal, but the
court has only halted 1 execution so far this year. There are no other appeals
pending. If the attempts to stop his execution fail, Young will be executed
next Tuesday, becoming the eighth person put to death in Texas this year. 6
other executions are scheduled through October.
(source: Texas Tribune)
************************
'What Happened to Justice?': Rodney Reed' Mother Responds to Supreme Court
Decision Denying Her Son Access to DNA Testing
"The state of Texas still wants to take my son's life," reads the 1st sentence
of Sandra Reed's opinion piece in the Statesman about her son, Innocence
Project client Rodney Reed, who has served more than 20 years on death row for
a murder for which he maintains his innocence.
On June 25, 2018, the United States Supreme Court denied Mr. Reed's petition to
review the denial of his request for access to DNA testing by the Texas Court
of Criminal Appeals. DNA testing, Mr. Reed and his attorneys argue, could
provide dispositive proof of his innocence.
Additional appeals raising new forensic evidence of Mr. Reed's innocence remain
pending.
"A world-renowned pathologist testified that my son couldn't have committed the
murder. But the state of Texas refuses to DNA test all the evidence," writes
Ms. Reed.
Ms. Reed recounts how DNA was used to convict her son even though it had
nothing to do with the murder. But not all of the DNA reports were presented to
the jury. For example, Ms. Reed recalls a DNA report hidden from the jury that
revealed beer cans found at the scene excluded Mr. Reed and implicated 2 police
officers and the victim. "Why not test the remaining evidence?" Ms. Reed
pleads.
Ms. Reed contends there was no proof her son was involved in the murder.
Without definitive proof, why does the state of Texas want to execute her son?
In her words: "Why is Texas determined to take my son's life based on old DNA,
seemingly corrupt cops, lawyers, and yes, all of the state's experts who said
my son was guilty have since recanted their testimony. There is no proof, all
that remains is the age-old prejudice that a white girl wouldn't be involved
with my son."
In addition to so-called evidence Ms. Reed cites, she considers the intangible
factors that led to her son's conviction: "Tell me, what happened to the
reasonable doubt? What happened to compassion? What happened to empathy? What
happened to justice? My son didn't receive any of the above."
Mr. Reed's experience has made her realize that her son isn't the only innocent
person on death row; there are many innocent people, like her son, waiting to
be executed. As a result, Ms. Reed is now an advocate for death penalty
abolition and, on a broader scope, for a justice system that "seek[s] the
truth."
(source: innocenceproject.org)
NEW HAMPSHIRE:
Time to rethink death penalty
To the Editor:
Despite my prior lifelong adamant position of "no death penalty" and "under no
circumstances," I believe it is now time to reassess our position as to "what's
up?" What are we going to do with these ever so present undeniable mass
murderers that are within our schools, our churches, newsrooms, etc.?
If the evidence is steadfast, unequivocal with no ambiguities of guilt
whatsoever, the persons to whom are alleged with these acts should be brought
of a federal prosecution for due process of a fair trial within a short
timeframe prescribed by law. If convicted a quick appeals timeframe should
further be adopted with sentence and punishment being meted out quickly and
decisively once all legal and inherent issues have all been expeditiously
addressed.
I believe this retributive justice will give us all proportionality, finality,
and closure we as a society are entitled to in regards to these loser misfits
and who knows what of a deterrent effect which could be had, by giving these
random punks the absolute knowledge that their own lives will be forfeit soon
from their own hand shortly thereafter.
Sincerely,
Steven Nichols
Hampton
(source: Letter to the Editor, seacoastonline.com)
ALABAMA:
Alabama death row inmates elect alternate method of execution, drop lethal
injection suit
The attorney for several Alabama death row inmates and the Alabama Attorney
General's Office have asked a judge to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the
state's lethal injection method because the inmates want to be executed a
different way.
Court records show John Palombi, a federal public defender for the Middle
District of Alabama, and Deputy AG Thomas Govan filed a motion to dismiss the
case on Tuesday because the inmates named in the lawsuit have elected a new
form of execution, which was made legal last month. Because they've now opted
to die by nitrogen hypoxia instead of lethal injection, their claims in the
lawsuit are moot.
The case was originally filed in 2012 by multiple death row inmates, including
several who have been executed since that time. The case focused on what the
inmates said were challenges to the constitutionality of Alabama's current
3-drug method of execution, which includes the sedative midazolam.
According to the joint motion, Gov. Kay Ivey signed into state law on March 22
a bill that approved nitrogen hypoxia as a method of execution. Under the
amended law, lethal injection will remain the primary method of capital
punishment, but inmates sentenced to die will be provided an opportunity to
choose nitrogen hypoxia instead.
Inmates who were already on death row had the option to pick the nitrogen
method and notify the Department of Corrections of their choice by June 30.
The motion shows each surviving plaintiff in the suit-- Carey Dale Grayson,
Demetrius Frazier, David Lee Roberts, Robin Dion Myers, Gregory Hunt, Geoffrey
Todd West, Charles Lee Burton, and David Wilson-- chose the method of nitrogen
hypoxia and alerted the DOC last month.
The Federal Defender's office released a statement Tuesday afternoon: "These
plaintiffs pled nitrogen hypoxia as an alternative method of execution, and the
state's adoption of nitrogen hypoxia as an authorized method rendered the suit
moot. The plaintiffs in this case, and anyone else who elected the new method,
cannot now be executed by lethal injection...While the best way to reduce the
risks of botched executions would be to abolish the death penalty, if the death
penalty does exist, it must be carried out in a constitutional manner with the
respect and dignity that is required of such a solemn event. We urge the
Department [of Corrections] to make any new execution protocol public, as
virtually all other death penalty states do, so that the people of the state of
Alabama know what is being done in their name."
The office also said the inmates in the lawsuit have not waived the right to
challenge the details of nitrogen hypoxia in the future, and they should be
able to do so "to ensure that Alabama carries out this method in a humane
manner."
The AG's office has not returned AL.com's request for comment.
(source: al.com)
***************************
8 death row inmates request execution by nitrogen gas
A lawsuit challenging Alabama's lethal injection process took an unexpected
turn Tuesday after 8 inmate plaintiffs asked to be put to death by the state's
new execution method: inhaling nitrogen gas.
The Alabama attorney general's office and lawyers for inmates submitted a joint
motion Tuesday to dismiss the litigation. Lawyers said the inmates' claims
challenging the state's lethal injection process as inhumane are now moot,
"because their executions will be carried out at the appropriate time by
nitrogen hypoxia."
Breathing the inert gas causes oxygen depletion in the blood stream.
Alabama had previously carried out executions by lethal injection and
electrocution. Alabama in March added nitrogen to the list, becoming the 3rd
state to authorize executions by nitrogen. No state has yet used the method.
According to the motion, the eight inmate plaintiffs in the lawsuit had a June
30 deadline to request execution by nitrogen and all did so.
"The plaintiffs in this case, and anyone else who elected the new method,
cannot now be executed by lethal injection," said John Palombi, an attorney
with the Federal Defenders Program, who is representing inmates in the lawsuit.
It's not clear how many inmates had the choice or how many altogether have
requested nitrogen.
A spokesman for Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said his office did not
have additional comment. A spokesman for the Department of Corrections could
not immediately be reached for comment late Tuesday.
Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said
it could be some time before the inmates see a death chamber with nitrogen.
"At least for the prisoners who elected nitrogen gas over lethal injection,
there will be no executions until Alabama has an approved nitrogen-gas protocol
in place. It will take time for that to happen and, because the gas protocol
will also be untried, it will face its own set of legal challenges," Dunham
wrote in an email.
Dunham said the 8 inmates also may "prefer the unknown risks of nitrogen
hypoxia to the known risks" of lethal injection drugs while Alabama avoids
having to litigate the lethal-injection issue by voluntarily dismissing the
case.
Palombi said the 8 inmates did not waive their rights to eventually challenge
the humaneness of execution by nitrogen and urged the state to make the
protocol public when it is developed.
"While the best way to reduce the risks of botched executions would be to
abolish the death penalty, if the death penalty does exist, it must be carried
out in a constitutional manner with the respect and dignity that is required of
such a solemn event," Palombi said.
(source: Associated Press)
MISSISSIPPI:
A juror's regret on sentencing a Mississippi man to his death
She was Juror No. 2 on one of the panels that sentenced Bobby Glen Wilcher to
death in 1994.
Wilcher was 43 when he was put to death 12 years later in October 2006 for the
1982 stabbing deaths of Katie Bell Moore and Velma Odell Noblin. The two Scott
County women were stabbed more than 20 times each aftergiving Wilcher a ride
home from a Forest nightclub.
Wilcher was tried separately for each woman's death.
Lindy Lou Wells Isonhood of Yazoo City, or Juror No. 2, regrets agreeing to
sentence Wilcher to death, not because she believed him to be innocent, but
rather because of what it did to her as a juror.
Isonhood, who went by the last name of Wells at the time, details her
experience in the Wilcher case in a national documentary that will air on
Mississippi Public Broadcasting, July 16 at 9 p.m..
Isonhood said she was once like most conservative Mississippians who believed
an eye for an eye, that if someone murdered another person, he or she should
get the death penalty. But her views changed after serving as a juror in
Wilcher's trial in 1994.
She said she was struck during the trial at how Wilcher's defense didn't put up
an offense. She said it was like his attorneys totally expected the death
penalty for their client.
Isonhood said she wanted to give Wilcher life without parole but was given
erroneous information when the jury was deliberating that the state didn't have
a life without parole penalty at the time.
The "Point of View" documentary follows Isonhood as she reconnects with fellow
jurors to discover how the case has or hasn't challenged their views on the
death penalty.
Isonhood became friends with Wilcher years after he was put on death row, and
she visited him the day of his execution.
"'Lindy Lou, Juror Number 2' is a film that deals with the criminal justice
system in an unusual way. It is not about the murderer or the murders
themselves, nor is it about the victims or the investigators. It is about us,
about our moral responsibility when the state gives the people the power to
decide about someone's life," Florent Vassault, the French filmmaker and
director of the documentary, said in a statement. "Because any citizen in
America could potentially serve on a jury, I thought this story would offer an
opportunity to shift our vision of the death penalty from a vague and distant
idea to something more tangible and complex."
Isonhood said when she returned after serving on the jury, she was angry and
just wanted to be alone and that went on for weeks.
"Jurors were the forgotten ones," Isonhood said. "We walked out of the
courthouse and just went home."
Isonhood said she didn't enjoy life anymore after serving on the jury. She said
she found it difficult to talk to anyone about the case because no one wanted
to hear about a death penalty case.
Isonhood said she eventually attended professional counseling. "It has helped
me heal."
After serving in death penalty cases, jurors should receive counseling or be
given the opportunity for it, Isonhood said.
It's far-reaching, Isonhood said, when serving as a juror on a death penalty
case. "Most walk away a changed person," she said.
Mississippi's last execution was in 2012. Executions have been delayed partly
because of legal challenges to the drugs used in execution.
(source: Jackson Clarion Ledger)
TENNESSEE----impending execution
Knox County death row inmate set to die in August----Irick, 59 of Knox County,
was convicted of the 1985 rape and murder of a 7-year-old girl
Tennessee death row inmate Billy Ray Irick is set to die in August.
The execution is scheduled for Aug. 9, 2018 at 8 p.m. eastern.
Irick, 59 of Knox County, was convicted of the 1985 rape and murder of a
7-year-old girl.
The order for Irick sets the stage for what could be the 1st execution in East
Tennessee in nearly a decade.
He had been scheduled to die by lethal injection in January 2014, in a wave of
executions Tennessee was seeking to carry out. But the Supreme Court
rescheduled the execution for Oct. 7, 2014, because of new legal challenges to
the way Tennessee planned to put the condemned to death.
In that time, advocates and inmates tried unsuccessfully to win a legal battle
arguing against the use of lethal injection and the death penalty.
In March 2017, the Tennessee Supreme Court ruled against dozens of death row
inmates who'd filed suit against the practice.
(source: WBIR news)
KENTUCKY:
Kentucky and the death penalty
The complexities of the death penalty in America were highlighted during a
hearing in front of the state's Interim Joint Judiciary Committee last week.
According to the statistics provided by CNHI Kentucky journalist Ronnie Ellis,
Kentucky has executed 163 people since 1910 but only 1 since 2008 and only 3
since the U.S. Supreme Court re-instituted the death penalty in 1976.
Ellis reported there are 31 people - including 1 woman - on death row in
Kentucky. On average, a person condemned to die in Kentucky spends more than 24
years on death row.
Think about that for a second. The state spends all the energy and resources
necessary to put someone on death row and then it takes nearly a quarter
century, on average, to put someone to death.
Not acceptable in our view.
There were other important facts discerned as well during the hearing. As the
state fine-tunes its protocols, a recent American Bar Association report notes
Kentucky law does not require the preservation of biological or DNA evidence
through the actual execution of condemned prisoners; it does not require the
recording of entire suspect interrogations; and a survey of jurors in capital
cases found jurors often don???t understand jury instructions.
"We are not imposing it in a fair and timely manner," said Sen. Ray Jones,
D-Pikeville, who said while he has conflicts about the death penalty, he
generally supports it for especially heinous crimes.
Another fact: 50 of 78 prisoners sentenced to death since 1976 had their
convictions overturned because of trial error - a rate of 60 %.
Philosophically, we support the death penalty for the offenders who are truly
cold-blooded, calculated killers; for those who commit crimes so heinous they
sacrifice their right to live. But philosophy and practicality are 2 different
things -- Kentucky, and the rest of America, has a long ways to go before
anyone can begin to say that this system is working.
Clearly it is not. In our view it is time to come to terms with this situation
-- we either, as a society, need to commit all the resources necessary to make
it work correctly or, in the alternative, accept the reality that the
imposition of a death sentence is no longer practical.
(source: Opinion; Daily Independent)
ARKANSAS:
Plan would further restrict Ark. execution drug info----Arkansas' governor says
he supports an effort that would keep the manufacturers and labels of state's
lethal injection drug supply off-limits to the public
Arkansas' governor said Tuesday he supports an effort to increase the secrecy
surrounding the state's lethal injection drug supply by keeping the drugs'
manufacturers and labels off-limits to the public.
Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson told reporters he supports a plan to expand a
2015 law keeping secret suppliers of the three drugs the state uses to put
inmates to death. The state Board of Corrections is expected on Wednesday to
review the proposal, which are among several measures prison officials have
recommended going before the Legislature next year.
The proposed changes are in response to two state Supreme Court rulings over
the past year that a 2015 law preventing the disclosure of the state's lethal
injection drug supplier did not apply to the drug manufacturer. The court in
November and again in March ruled that the state must release the package
insert and labels for its execution drugs, noting that the law did not
specifically prevent the drugmakers from being identified.
"Because the law had a gap in it that didn't include manufacturers, the whole
intent of the original law has been prevented," Hutchinson said. "So it needs
to be amended so the original intent is accomplished so that the supply chain
for the supplier of lethal injections is confidential."
Hutchinson and state prison officials say that releasing the information has
made it difficult for Arkansas to find execution drug supplies. Arkansas'
supply of vecuronium bromide, 1 of 3 drugs used in executions, expired in March
and the state has not found a replacement.
The proposal adds manufacturers to the list of information that can't be
released about the state's lethal injection drugs, according to a letter to the
board's chairman dated July 2. The proposal would also prohibit the release of
the drug labels and inserts, even in redacted form. Department of Correction
spokesman Solomon Graves said the change wouldn't prevent the state from
releasing information about when the drug was obtained, how much was paid for
it, or its expiration date.
It would also require the Department of Correction's director to certify under
oath that the drugs were approved by the Food and Drug Administration and made
by an FDA-approved manufacturer. The director would also have to certify that
they were obtained from a facility registered with the FDA or from a nationally
accredited compounding pharmacy.
Arkansas was sued last year after it refused to release the labels and inserts.
The Associated Press has previously used the labels - with the manufacturer's
name blacked out - to identify drugmakers whose products would be used in
executions. The state Supreme Court has allowed the state to redact other
information from the labels, such as the lot and batch numbers of the drug.
Arkansas put 4 inmates to death over an eight-day period last year under a plan
that had originally called for executing eight inmates before the state's
supply of midazolam, a sedative used in lethal injections, expired. A lawsuit
by a group of death row inmates challenging Arkansas' lethal injection process
is pending in federal court. An attorney for two of the inmates in the lawsuit
said secrecy surrounding the drugs increases the risk that an execution would
violate the Constitution's prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment.
"The ability to know where it's from is an important check to make sure the
government is doing it the proper way," Jeff Rosenzweig said.
(source: Associated Press)
COLORADO:
Couple Facing Possible Death Penalty
Prosecuters say they will seek the death penalty for 2 men accused of killing a
pair of Coronado High School students.
18-year old Diego Chacon and 20-year old Marco Garcia-bravo are both facing
1st-degree murder charges.
Investigators say they fatally shot 16-year-old Natalie Cano-Partida and
15-year-old Derek Greer in March of 2017.
Both suspects will appear in court later this month for a motions hearing. A
total of 10 people were arrested for their roles in the crimes.
(source: KVOR news)
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