[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----OKLA., COLO., CALIF., USA

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 12



OKLAHOMA:

Pruitt says execution drug shortage a continuing problem


"Anti-death penalty zealots" are causing shortages of execution drugs and 
contributing to the uncertainty marking lethal injection, Oklahoma Attorney 
General Scott Pruitt said Thursday.

Speaking to the Sapulpa Chamber of Commerce, Pruitt said "issues with 
administration" of a 3-drug combination, and not the drugs themselves, appear 
to have been the reason that murderer Clayton Lockett's death took much longer 
- about 43 minutes - than expected. Indicating some irritation at criticism of 
the "cocktail" of midazolam, vecuronium bromide and potassium chloride used in 
Lockett's execution, Pruitt said it did more or less what it was supposed to 
do.

"There were obviously issues with administration. ... There were circumstances 
(Corrections Department) officials need to be able to handle,??? Pruitt said. 
"But we also know (Lockett) was unconscious after 7 minutes. It did take 43 
minutes for his ultimate demise, but he was unconscious after 7 minutes.

"I believe the state takes its job seriously. Up until this last execution, 
they'd done it ... so well (that) some people believe if anything happens and 
it takes more than 5 minutes, it must violate the Eighth Amendment. That's not 
the case."

Pruitt spoke at some length about Lockett's victim, 19-year-old Stephanie 
Neiman, and the lengthy appeals process that followed Lockett's conviction.

"Ultimately," Pruitt said, "we must keep in mind that justice was served in 
that situation."

Midazolam, vecuronium bromide and potassium chloride had been used by other 
states in executions but not in the same proportions used on Lockett. Oklahoma 
had never used the three drugs.

Pruitt emphasized the difficulty in obtaining drugs for lethal injection and 
said the combination previously used by Oklahoma had become impossible to 
obtain.

"You have anti-death penalty zealots around the globe that protest, that bring 
attention to the manufacturers of these drugs," Pruitt said. "Supply issues are 
going to continue because of the pressure that's applied to these 
manufacturers.

"The state has to find an answer to that if the viability of lethal injection 
is to continue."

(source: Tulsa World)






COLORADO:

Poll: Death penalty not major factor for Colorado voters


While the death penalty has been at the forefront of debate in the Colorado 
governor's race this year, a new Denver Post poll suggests the issue may lack 
bite.

It's failing to play much of a role in most voters' decisions, with only 18 % 
of likely voters in the SurveyUSA poll saying the issue is a major factor. Most 
of those who say the death penalty is a major factor are backing Bob Beauprez, 
the Republican challenger to Gov. John Hickenlooper.

Hickenlooper has faced criticism from death penalty supporters since he granted 
Chuck E. Cheese killer Nathan Dunlap a reprieve on his death sentence in May 
2013, leaving the decision to the next governor. Recently Hickenlooper 
suggested he might grant Dunlap clemency if he does not win reelection.

Countering that, Beauprez has vowed on the campaign trail to execute Dunlap, 
making the issue into an applause line.

The Post's poll - which found the race neck and neck - surveyed voters on the 
death penalty.

63 % of respondents said they support the death penalty, and 28 % are opposed 
while 10 % are unsure. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.9 % points.

The nearly 1 in 5 respondents who say the death penalty is a major factor in 
their vote for governor back Beauprez 3-to-1, SurveyUSA says.

But 47 % say it's a minor factor, and their support is split between the 
candidates, the pollster says.

Among the 33 % who say the death penalty isn't a factor, most - by a 2-to-1 
margin - back Hickenlooper.

Colorado governor's race

The Denver Post's poll by SurveyUSA was conducted Sept. 8 through Sept. 10. 
Pollsters started with 850 Colorado adults and narrowed the field to 664 likely 
voters. SurveyUSA contacted both landlines and cell phones. The poll results 
have a margin of error of plus or minus 3.9 percentage points. Pollsters 
weighted the sample by gender, age, race and region, but not by party 
identification. The party affiliation breakdown of the sample, with numbers 
rounded, was 33 % Republican, 33 % Democratic and 33 % unaffiliated.

(source: Denver Post)






CALIFORNIA:

Support for death penalty falls to 50-year low, Field Poll shows


Support for the death penalty among registered voters in California has dropped 
to 56 %, the lowest level reported in nearly 50 years but one that still 
indicates a considerable majority in favor of capital punishment, according to 
a Field Poll released Friday.

The survey, conducted from Aug. 14 to Aug. 28, found 34 % in favor of 
abolishing the death penalty and 10 % with no opinion.

In 2011, the same poll found 68 % in support of the death penalty and 27 % 
opposed. The current majority is the lowest on record since 1965, when 51 % of 
the state's registered voters said they favored capital punishment.

The poll numbers may actually understate public opposition, in view of the 
narrow defeat of a 2012 ballot measure that would have repealed California's 
death penalty and replaced it with life in prison without parole. More than 47 
% of those who went to the polls supported the proposal.

A spokeswoman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, 
which backed the 2012 initiative, said the latest survey is a further 
indication that capital punishment is losing support.

"I think that the public is becoming very aware that the California death 
penalty is broken beyond repair ... that we're spending millions on a system 
that fails to deliver the promise of justice, is wildly unfair, doesn't deter 
crime, and it will always risk (taking) an innocent life," said the 
spokeswoman, Daisy Vieyra.

Tired of waiting to fix

Death penalty backer Kent Scheidegger, legal director of the Criminal Justice 
Legal Foundation, said the poll shows that public support remains strong but 
that some are tired of waiting for solutions to problems in California's death 
penalty system. The state, which has more than 750 inmates on death row, has 
not had an execution since 2006, when a federal judge found multiple flaws in 
lethal injection procedures and staff training.

"I think if the people had a choice between fixing (the system) and abolition, 
they would vote overwhelmingly to fix it," said Scheidegger, whose organization 
proposed an initiative this year that would have limited the right to appeal 
death sentences and sought to speed up the review process. The measure failed 
to qualify for the ballot, but Scheidegger said it will be circulated again in 
2016.

The Field Poll also asked voters about a federal judge's ruling in July that 
declared California's death penalty unconstitutional because of delays of 25 
years or more in carrying out executions, which the judge said have led to an 
arbitrary and irrational system.

Asked how the state should respond, 52 % said it should speed up the execution 
process, 40 % said it should replace the death penalty with life without 
parole, and 8 % voiced no opinion.

Support for the death penalty varied by age, gender, religion, region and 
political ideology.

The poll said 51 % of voters aged 18 to 29, and 50 % of those 65 and older, 
were in support, compared with majorities of 57 to 61 % for other age groups.

Men were more likely to be pro-death penalty than women, by 59 to 53 %, while 
both Protestants and Catholics favored death sentences by 60 % or more, about 
15 % higher than the support from members of other religions and nonbelievers.

Lowest in Bay Area

Regionally, support for capital punishment was lowest in the Bay Area, at 51 %, 
and highest in the Central Valley, at 64 %. It was also highest among those who 
described themselves as strongly conservative, at 78 %, compared with 29 % 
among self-described strong liberals.

The Field Research Corp. said its telephone survey of 1,280 registered voters 
had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.

(source: San Francisco Chronicle)

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

Field Poll: Death penalty support slips in California


Support for the death penalty in California is at its lowest point in nearly 50 
years, although more than 1/2 of the state's registered voters still favor it, 
a new Field Poll has found.

The poll found 56 % still believe the death penalty should be kept as a 
punishment for serious crimes, with 34 % opposed and 10 % undecided.

The findings come as states nationwide are grappling with a shortage of drugs 
used for lethal injections and critics who say some recent executions have been 
botched and left inmates suffering as they died. They also come after a July 
ruling by a federal judge in Los Angeles that found lengthy delays in executing 
California inmates have made the death penalty unconstitutional in the state.

Support for the death penalty in California has been eroding steadily for 
years, falling from a high of 83 % in 1985 and 1986 Field Polls to its current 
level, the lowest since a 1965 survey found only 51 % approval. The last Field 
Poll done on the issue, in 2011, found 68 % in favor of keeping the death 
penalty, compared to 27 % opposed.

"To me, it's interesting that a small plurality is continuing to support the 
death penalty," said poll director Mark DiCamillo, who noted that the Field 
Poll has asked the same question of voters since 1956, when support for the 
death penalty was 49 %, the only year it has fallen below 50 %.

But opponents and supporters still differ sharply over whether the latest 
figures mean the state can expect a successful effort to ban the death penalty, 
as a handful of other states have done in recent years. Both sides say they 
expect to see ballot measures in 2016 over the issue.

"I think the trend is going to be in the direction of 'Let's abolish it' for 
the foreseeable future until it is abolished," said Sacramento attorney Don 
Heller, a 1-time supporter of capital punishment who campaigned 2 years ago for 
California to become the 19th state that does not allow for execution as a 
punishment option.

That effort, which would have voided death sentences for the state's 749 
condemned inmates and replaced them with sentences of life without parole, 
failed 52 % to 48 %. But the close result encouraged death penalty opponents 
into believing they eventually can succeed in banning executions.

"I think with some of the things that have occurred around the country - 
screw-ups with executions, people on death row that were exonerated by DNA 
evidence - those are the things that cause reasonable people to say, 'Let's 
just abolish it and life without parole is a sentence that protects the safety 
of the general public,'" Heller said.

The 2012 campaign for Proposition 34 was well-funded and based on selling the 
public on the argument that maintaining the death penalty was wasting billions 
of dollars, especially in light of the fact that only 13 inmates have been 
executed since 1978, the last in 2006.

But death penalty supporters reject those arguments and say opponents have 
created the delays and added the expense of maintaining the system through 
endless court appeals.

"I don't think there's a real shift in the number of people who believed that 
the death penalty is right," said Kent Scheidegger, legal director for the 
Criminal Justice Legal Foundation in Sacramento.

Scheidegger conceded that there may be a "fatigue factor" among some supporters 
because of delays and skepticism over whether the system ever will see 
executions resume on a regular basis.

"I do think that it is important that we fix the problems and get it 
restarted," he said. "The best argument they have is that because they've been 
blocking it we should give up," he said. "There are people who believe that 
death is the just and correct punishment for the worst murderers, but who are 
just frustrated and fatigued."

The issue of continued delays led to pollsters crafting a new question for 
voters based on the federal judge's ruling that California's death penalty is 
so slow it is unconstitutional. That question asked what California should do 
in light of the ruling, and 52 % of respondents said the state should speed up 
the execution process. By comparison, 40 % said the death penalty should be 
replaced with life without parole, and 8 % had no opinion.

There were few surprises in which voters support keeping the death penalty and 
who opposes it, DiCamillo said, with registered Republicans and conservatives, 
as well as Protestants and voters living in the Central Valley the strongest in 
favor of maintaining capital punishment.

Those most likely to oppose death as an option were Democrats, liberals, Bay 
Area residents, voters under 30 and those who expressed no religious 
preference.

(source: Sacramento Bee)






USA:

Death penalty decision could take a year before trial of 4 men accused in 
cabbie's killing


The trial of 4 men accused of killing a Bronx cab driver may be a year away 
because federal prosecutors 1st have to decide whether to seek the death 
penalty, lawyers in the case suggested Thursday after the defendants pleaded 
not guilty.

With their hands cuffed in front of them and shackled to their waists, Takiem 
Ewing, 22; Tyrone Felder, 25; Kareem Martin, 26; and Tommy Smalls, 26, all of 
the Bronx, entered the not guilty pleas.

They are accused in the Aug. 12 slaying of driver Aboubacar Bah, 62.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Gerber said Bah "was shot in the head and his 
body dumped on the street." A video showing the body being tossed out of Bah's 
livery cab before the Toyota Camry is driven away is among the evidence in the 
case.

The charge, carjacking with intent to cause death, carries a maximum sentence 
of death, but prosecutors can choose to seek life in prison instead. Before any 
trial, they have to consider not only the evidence they have but also whatever 
arguments the defense makes against capital punishment. Each defendant has an 
extra lawyer, an expert in capital punishment law, for the process.

A final decision would be made by the U.S. attorney general.

Felder's attorney, Andrew Patel, told federal Judge Vincent Briccetti it would 
be "a year before we know what the Department of Justice wants." The judge 
asked Gerber if he disagreed and Gerber said no.

Some of the time before trial will also be used to share evidence, which Gerber 
said includes the video, DNA tests, rap sheets, and a boot impression.

Briccetti set Dec. 12 for both sides to meet with him for any updates.

The judge asked about the killing of another Bronx cabbie, Maudo Kane, on Aug. 
5, which is mentioned in the criminal complaint. No one has been charged in 
Kane's death, and Gerber said the investigation continues.

The complaint said different guns were used to kill the 2 cabbies, but both 
guns were used in a May 29 shooting in the Bronx.

New York City police Commissioner William Bratton has said Bah's killing was 
"senseless and motivated by greed."

(source: Associated Press)