[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----S.C., GA., FLA., ALA.

[Rick Halperin]

April 17





SOUTH CAROLINA:

South Carolina and the Death Penalty



There are 2 very high-profile capital murder cases in the headlines this week: 
one in Massachusetts, with the Boston Marathon bomber the defendant, and one 
here in South Carolina, with a former North Charleston policeman as the 
defendant. The cases are very different. Each provides us with the opportunity 
to rethink when, how often, and why we as a society condemn convicted murderers 
to death.

The argument in favor of the death penalty is much easier to make in the case 
of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the surviving Boston Marathon bomber. His crime was 
heinous. As of this writing, his trial for the crime itself is over; he has 
been found guilty on 30 counts, including killing 3 people and injuring over 
250 others. Everyone with a television has been a witness to the act itself. 
The victims were utterly innocent, and the killers were politically motivated 
individuals whose sole purpose was to instill terror - and, in their minds, to 
have vengeance against the country who had in their eyes committed murder on a 
vastly larger scale, in the Middle East.

In this country, our laws do not allow for vengeance killings. The death 
penalty itself is allegedly not about vengeance, it is about justice and about 
deterrence. In our nation we profess to follow the Judeo-Christian teaching 
that "Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord." Renounce "eye-for-an-eye" vengeance, 
our religion tells us.

It is a statistically proven fact that the death penalty does not deter murder. 
Terrorists are not deterred by the prospect of their own death; indeed, many 
terrorist killings are suicide bombings. The south has by far the most death 
penalty executions in the nation. All but 897 out of 2040 such executions since 
1976 have taken place in the south, and 635 of those 897 took place in Texas 
and Oklahoma. The northeast has seen just four (4). And yet the murder rate in 
the south is higher, not lower, than in the northeast. If deterrence worked, 
the south would have the nation's lowest murder rate, and we don't.

Justice should be the answer. Justice, that is, seen as the greatest punishment 
for the crime. If I were to glance into the troubled psyche of the 21-year-old 
Tsarnaev, I would dread much more the prospect of spending some 70 years in 
prison than being put to death in a year or 2. Should not justice take that 
into account?

Then there is the case of North Charleston's Michael T. Slager, the former 
police officer whose act of murder - not yet come to trial - has also been seen 
by anyone with a television set. His act was much less heinous than that of 
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. He killed an unarmed man who was running away at the time. 
His crime took place in South Carolina, where there are currently 47 inmates in 
prison on death row - and not in Massachusetts, where none have been executed 
in over 30 years. Is the death penalty more appropriate for Slager than for 
Tsarnaev? Here's a different question: given those numbers, is the death 
penalty more likely for Slager than for Tsarnaev?

I would argue that vengeance is the only reason for the death penalty, and it 
is not a good reason. Unlike Tsarnaev or Slager, most murderers are not 
captured on video. According to the "Death Penalty Information Center," while 
those 2040 executions were taking place, 140 people have been released from 
death row having been determined innocent after their sentencing. If we agree 
to execute only those we are most sure are guilty, we as a society are still 
statistically certain to execute some innocent men and women. We should not 
take that step, even in cases as obvious as that of Tsarnaev - much less that 
of Slager, whom geography has placed here in South Carolina, unlike 
Massachusetts a confirmed "death penalty state." It should not be about 
vengeance. It should be about justice. Justice does not require us to kill 
people, even murderers. We are better than they are.

(source: Opinion, Robert Scott; Edgefield Advertiser)

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

Without a drug supplier, South Carolina faces moratorium on executions



Trying to overcome pharmaceutical companies??? reluctance to be associated with 
capital punishment, S.C. lawmakers are considering a law guaranteeing secrecy 
to manufacturers that provide drugs needed to execute death-row inmates.

Department of Corrections Director Bryan Stirling told the House Judiciary 
Constitutional Laws Subcommittee on Thursday that the last set of drugs the 
state had expired in September 2013. Since then, the state has had no way of 
executing death-row inmates, he said, until it can obtain more through a 
different provider or the inmate chooses South Carolina's only other option - 
death by electrocution.

"I'll just put everybody on notice that we could have someone come in tomorrow 
and say, 'I choose to waive my appeals and I want to die,'" said Stirling.

If that happened, he said, the state would be unable to carry out the death 
penalty.

"They could still choose the electric chair," Stirling said. "However, if they 
came to us and said 'I want lethal injection,' we could not carry out that 
sentence."

Rep. Walt McLeod, D-Little Mountain, called the conversation "gory" and 
"macabre" but said the state had to look into how other states have handled the 
nationwide shortage of lethal injection drugs.

In March, Utah became the only state to allow firing squads for executions when 
no lethal injection drugs are available. Tennessee brought back the electric 
chair last year for when the drugs run out but suspended the practice last week 
amid legal challenges.

The House panel adjourned without a vote. The Senate's version died in 
committee on a tie vote in March.

An attempt to revive it Thursday failed when senators balked at attaching it to 
the budget instead of voting on changing state law.

States across the country have been struggling to find a method of execution 
that will stand up to legal challenges. And obtaining lethal injection drugs 
has been getting harder.

As manufacturers have refused to sell drugs to prisons for executions, prison 
officials across the U.S. have turned to compounding pharmacies, which make 
drugs specifically for individual clients. But those versions have also become 
difficult to come by because pharmacists are reluctant to expose themselves to 
possible harassment.

Last month, the American Pharmacists Association adopted a policy discouraging 
its members from providing drugs for lethal injections, saying that runs 
contrary to the role of pharmacists as health care providers.

South Carolina has 44 inmates on death row but doesn't have an execution set 
for at least another 5 years, said Emily Paavola, executive director of the 
Death Penalty Resource and Defense Center. 2 inmates were sentenced to death 
last year, and the last execution performed in the state was in 2011.

Paavola and attorney Heath Taylor argued against the cloak of privacy, citing 
past botched executions after the drugs were changed.

The U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear arguments on whether Oklahoma's 3-drug 
method of lethal injection is constitutional, after the botched execution of an 
inmate who writhed and moaned before dying 43 minutes after being injected.

"The temptation to cut corners is always greater when no one is looking," 
Paavola said.

(source: The Post and Courier)








GEORGIA:

Problem with Georgia execution drug caused by storage at low temperature, 
pharmacy expert says



A problem with a lethal injection drug that caused the last-minute postponement 
of an execution in Georgia was likely caused by shipping and storing the drug 
at a temperature that was too low, according to an analysis by a pharmaceutical 
expert.

State officials on March 2 called off the scheduled execution of Kelly Renee 
Gissendaner, saying the lethal injection drug they intended to use appeared 
"cloudy."

The state Department of Corrections on Thursday released lab reports, a sworn 
statement from a pharmaceutical expert hired by the state and a short video 
showing a syringe of clear liquid with chunks of a white solid floating in the 
solution.

"After viewing a video of the solution and learning about the shipment and 
storage of the solution, my assessment of the formulation indicates that 
pentobarbital had precipitated or fallen out of solution," University of 
Georgia College of Pharmacy professor Jason Zastre wrote in a sworn statement.

There is no evidence that the solution was adulterated, Zastre wrote.

The compounded pentobarbital the department planned to use in Gissendaner's 
execution had been shipped on frozen gel packs and stored at about 37 degrees 
for more than seven days, Zastre wrote.

The most likely cause of the formation of solids is that the solution was 
shipped and stored at a temperature that was too low, Zastre wrote. Another 
possible cause could be that the pharmaceutical solvent used to dissolve 
pentobarbital sodium during the compounding process could have either absorbed 
some water or evaporated during preparation, he wrote.

"The State of Georgia can minimize the possibility of precipitation within the 
solution by storing the solution at a controlled room temperature above 59 
degrees Fahrenheit, and by assuring that the pharmacist preparing the solution 
takes steps to minimize the possibility that the pharmaceutical solvent 
evaporates or absorbs water during the pharmaceutical compounding process," he 
wrote.

The department has reviewed the recommendations and plans to implement them, 
Department of Corrections spokeswoman Gwendolyn Hogan said in an e-mail.

The day after Gissendaner's execution was halted, corrections officials 
suspended executions in the state until the drug analysis was done. Hogan did 
not immediately respond to an e-mail Thursday asking if the state planned to 
immediately resume scheduling executions.

Gissendaner's attorneys did not have a comment on the analysis.

In a court filing on March 9, they asked a judge to prohibit the state from 
proceeding with her execution until the court has concluded her constitutional 
rights will not be violated. They also asked the judge to order the state to 
disclose information necessary for a "meaningful investigation" into what 
happened.

Lawyers for the state on Thursday filed a motion to dismiss Gissendaner???s 
civil rights complaint. Her claim that she suffered anguish and fear in the 
hours following the postponement of her execution because she didn't know if 
the state would try to proceed the next day is unfounded and she is not 
entitled to receive the additional information her lawyers requested, they 
argued.

Along with their filing, they submitted copies of the laboratory reports and 
Zastre's statement, as well as the video of the syringe.

Gissendaner is the only woman on Georgia's death row and would have been the 
first woman executed by the state in 70 years. She was convicted of murder in 
the February 1997 slaying of her husband, Douglas Gissendaner. Prosecutors said 
she conspired with her lover, Gregory Owen, who stabbed Douglas Gissendaner to 
death. Owen is serving a life prison sentence and is eligible for parole in 8 
years.

DEVELOPMENTS IN OTHER STATES

-- South Carolina legislators might wait for a U.S. Supreme Court decision 
before voting on a bill that prison officials say will help them secure a drug 
they need for executions.

House Judiciary Chairman Greg Delleney said Thursday that there's a "good 
possibility" his committee will wait to consider the ruling.

"I don't see any urgency to get ahead of the Supreme Court," said Delleney, 
R-Chester.

A Judiciary subcommittee took no action on a bill that keeps secret the 
information of any company or pharmacist who provides execution drugs. Last 
month, a Senate committee rejected a similar bill on a 7-7 vote. That 
committee's chairman, Sen. Mike Fair, of Greenville, withdrew his attempt to 
insert the proposal into the state budget Thursday, saying he'll try to 
resurrect the bill in committee later this session.

Department of Corrections Director Bryan Stirling said the privacy guarantee 
should help his agency buy a drug used in the state's 3-drug lethal injection. 
The state's supply of pentobarbital expired in 2013, and attempts to buy more 
have failed.

-- Nebraska is considering repealing the death penalty amid a shortage of 
lethal injection drugs, with legislation to eliminate capital punishment 
clearing a major hurdle Thursday.

Lawmakers voted 30-13 to advance the bill that would replace capital punishment 
with life imprisonment in 1st-degree murder cases. If that support holds, death 
penalty opponents would have enough votes to override Republican Gov. Pete 
Ricketts' promised veto.

A coalition of Republicans who voted for the bill cast the death penalty as a 
wasteful and bungling government program, but Ricketts released a statement 
urging them to reconsider.

Nebraska hasn't executed anyone since 1997 and has no way to carry out 
sentences for the 11 men sitting on death row because its supply of sodium 
thiopental, an anesthetic that's part of its execution protocol, expired in 
December 2013. Ricketts and Republican Attorney General Doug Peterson have 
vowed to find a solution, but the Department of Correctional Services has yet 
to obtain a new supply.

(source: Associated Press)








FLORIDA:

Walton County Murderer Remains on Death Row



The Florida Supreme Court had bad news Thursday for a Walton County Murderer.

The high court refused to vacate Jesse Guardados conviction and death sentence 
for the 2004 murder of 75 year old Jackie Malone.

Guardado failed to convince the court his defense attorney had been 
ineffective.

Mrs. Malone had befriended Guardado, gave him money, and became his landlord.

She evicted him shortly before he robbed and killed her.

Guardado was on a crack cocaine binge, and in desperate need of money.

He went to the elderly victim's secluded home, bludgeoned her numerous times 
with a steel breaker bar, stabbed her in the chest, and cut her throat.

Guardado received the death penalty after pleading no contest to 1st degree 
murder.

(source: WJHG news)








ALABAMA:

Luther Strange urges Supreme Court to keep execution drug



Alabama is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold a lethal injection drug that 
the state plans to use at is next execution.Attorney General Luther Strange on 
Wednesday filed the brief ahead of April 29 arguments regarding the 
effectiveness of the sedative midazolam in rendering an inmate unconscious at 
the start of executions.

An Oklahoma inmate challenged the drug as cruel and unusual punishment after it 
was used in problematic executions.

The outcome of the Oklahoma case will directly impact the death penalty in 
Alabama. The state last year announced a switch to a new drug combination that 
begins with an injection of midazolam.

"These killers have raped and murdered children and stabbed prison guards to 
death. It is outrageous for them to argue that lethal injection has too high a 
risk of pain to be a constitutional method of execution. It is better than they 
deserve," Strange said.

Death penalty states have struggled in recent years to find lethal injection 
drugs after European manufacturers became hesitant to supply the chemicals for 
use in executions.

Florida developed the new protocol using midazolam and has used it in 11 
executions, lawyers for Alabama wrote.

"After watching Florida successfully execute inmates without incident, Alabama 
and other states that were unable to obtain barbiturates began using midazolam 
as well," lawyers for the state said.

"The fact remains that midazolam is the one of the best drugs the states have 
available to render an inmate unconscious."

Alabama announced a switch to a new drug combination last year but has yet to 
use it in an execution. Midazolam would be given at the start of an execution 
to render an inmate unconscious before injections of rocuronium bromide and 
potassium chloride stop an inmate's breathing and heart.

The Oklahoma inmate has argued that midazolam is ineffective as a sedative and 
that he would feel the painful effects of the later drugs. Midazolam was used 
in a botched Oklahoma execution last year when inmate Clayton Lockett took 43 
minutes to die.

An Alabama death row inmate, Tommy Arthur, also challenged the proposed use of 
midazolam. However, the litigation and executions in the state were put on hold 
pending the outcome of the Oklahoma case.

Alabama is not a party in the Oklahoma case.

Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, Tennessee, 
Texas, Utah and Wyoming joined Alabama in its court filing.

(source: Associated Press)

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

Man on Alabama death row is freed after 15 years ---- William Ziegler's murder 
conviction had been overturned but, threatened with a retrial, he struck plea 
deal on lesser charge of aiding and abetting



An Alabama prisoner has become the 2nd within 2 weeks to avoid the state's 
death penalty, agreeing to a plea deal that avoids his retrial on a murder 
chanrge.

William Ziegler, 39, has argued he is innocent but pleaded guilty to aiding and 
abetting in the killing of Russell Allen Baker to end the case. A Mobile county 
judge gave him credit for the more than 15 years he already has served in 
prison.

Ziegler was convicted of capital murder in 2001 and sentenced to die for 
Baker's killing. Circuit Judge Sarah Stewart overturned Ziegler's conviction in 
2012, indicating there were numerous errors and serious doubts about his guilt.

Prosecutors had said they planned to try him again but Ziegler instead was 
allowed to plead guilty to the reduced charge.

During a hearing Stewart urged Ziegler to resist turning bitter and said she 
knew he recognised God's grace. "I want you to appreciate that gift," she said. 
"You need to be very careful with your gift ... The world is a very different 
place than it was 15 years ago when you went to jail."

The decision came less than 2 weeks after another condemned Alabama prisoner 
was freed after claiming he was innocent. Anthony Ray Hinton was released on 3 
April after nearly 30 years on Alabama's death row for a pair of killings in 
Jefferson county. Charges in the 1985 gunshot deaths of 2 fast-food workers 
were dismissed after new testing on the defendant's gun could not prove it 
fired the fatal shots.

Baker's body was found in a wooded area in Mobile county in 2000. Authorities 
said Ziegler had argued at a party and Ziegler was convicted along with 3 
accomplices.

But a key witness who claimed Ziegler had threatened Baker later recanted, 
helping lead to Stewart's decision to overturn the case.

Ziegler's plea acknowledged that his conduct helped lead to Baker's death.

Relatives of both Ziegler and Baker, from Bayou La Batre, came away from the 
hearing disappointed. O'Della Wilson, the defendant's mother, said she was 
happy he would go free but angry that he had to plead guilty to any crime.

Baker's relatives were not happy Ziegler would be released. "He's a menace to 
our society. He will be back," said Beth Johansen, the victim's aunt. "This is 
not justice for our nephew."

(source: The Guardian)