[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----OHIO, ARK., IND., UTAH

[Rick Halperin]

Feb. 27



OHIO:

Church avoids death sentence in 2009 murders in Lima



Hager Church was sent off to prison Wednesday with 2 additional life sentences 
after a jury refused to give him the death penalty for setting a fire that 
killed 2 people in 2009.

"I'm sorry, truly sorry for what I did," Church said. "It's something I can 
never take back and I got to live the rest of my life with this. Now I can move 
on and move forward and spend the rest of my life in prison."

Church, 30, also turned to the family of the woman he killed in 2010 and for 
which he is serving a life sentence with no chance for parole.

"I know I am completely wrong. For whatever reason I did these things. I ask 
for your forgiveness not for me but so you can move on so you don't have any 
hard feelings," he said.

Church's comments were the opposite of several earlier statements he gave which 
he said he deserved the death penalty and wanted it.

Deb Henderson's mother, Nancy Henderson, who was at the trial every day even 
though Church was convicted and sentenced in 2011 for that murder, said she 
accepts the jury's decision. She said she learned of more details about her 
daughter's death and cleared up some misperceptions.

"This is OK because we knew he wouldn't get out of" prison, she said.

She said while her daughter's name may be only a name in the newspaper to 
people who didn't know her, Deb Henderson always will be her daughter and a 
family member to the rest of the relatives in the courtroom.

"This is our lives that we're living and it's been very hard," she said. "It 
will give us peace."

Church also turned to the jury and thanked them for sparing his life. Church 
said he would not appeal his sentence.

The jury had to reach a unanimous verdict for the death penalty in order for a 
death sentence. It was not announced how many jurors voted against the death 
penalty.

Judge Jeffrey Reed of Allen County Common Pleas Court sentenced Church to 2 
additional life sentences with no chance for parole, stacked on top of a life 
sentence with no chance for parole for Henderson's murder.

Although disappointed the jury did not return a death sentence, Prosecutor 
Juergen Waldick said the verdicts and sentence will keep Church in prison where 
he belongs if a court later overturns one of his convictions.

"We still have other ones," Waldick said. "The public can be pretty sure he 
will never get out of prison. We have that insurance policy."

Church was sentenced on 2 counts of aggravated murder and one count of 
aggravated arson in the deaths of Massie "Tina" Flint, 45, and her boyfriend, 
Rex Hall, 54. He is accused of beating Flint and then starting a fire to cover 
it up and ultimately killed the 2. The crime happened June 14, 2009, in a house 
at 262 S. Pine St.

Lima Fire Investigator Toby Jenkins initially ruled the fire accidental but a 
couple of years later Church began telling inmates about it. When other inmates 
tried to gain a favor by reporting Church, he came forward and confessed to a 
Lima Police Department detective.

Waldick said there was information Ohio law prevented him from telling the jury 
such as Church already was serving a life sentence with no chance for parole. 
He also was not allowed to tell the jury Church severely beat a man in prison 
and was convicted of felonious assault for it.

Church also attacked a person in the Allen County jail, Waldick said.

"I think it would have let the jury get a really clear picture of the character 
of this individual," Waldick said.

Although the public is safe from Church, Waldick said those working in the 
state prison system will have to deal with him and his violent tendencies for 
the rest of his life.

"He still presents a lot of danger," Waldick said. "Somebody serving a life 
sentence does not have anything to lose."

Church's lead attorney, Greg Meyers, said he was grateful the jury carefully 
considered his argument about Church's troubled childhood and arrived at a life 
sentence.

"The sanction of life in prison is appropriate," Meyers said.

The families of Flint and Hall did not attend the trial. A representative of 
Crime Victims Services said it was too painful for them.

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

Judge enters not guilty plea for man



A man facing the death penalty for allegedly beating a man to death inside a 
Uniopolis apartment refused to enter a plea Thursday.

Aaron M. Dietrich Sr., 26, of Wapakoneta, was in court on the charges of 2 
counts of aggravated murder and 1 count each of aggravated burglary, kidnapping 
and intimidation of a witness.

Judge Frederick Pepple entered a not guilty plea on all charges on Dietrich's 
behalf after he refused. Bond was continued at $5 million and a pretrial 
scheduled for March 30.

Dietrich and 2 other men are facing the death penalty over the June 9 death of 
Charles Hicks, 54, who was found dead in his apartment at 2 Main St., 
Uniopolis.

The indictment said Hicks was killed to prevent his testimony as a witness in a 
criminal case.

(source for both: limaohio.com)

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

Ricky Jackson: How America's Longest Serving Exoneree Went From Death Row to 
Freedom



In late 1975, 19-year-old Ricky Jackson was sentenced to die by electrocution. 
Almost 40 years later, his conviction was overturned, and he walked out the 
front door of the Cuyahoga County courthouse a free man. Ricky is now the 
longest serving American exoneree on record.

The crime that sent him to prison was the brutal murder and robbery of a white 
money order salesman named Harold Franks. In May 1975, 2 men attacked Franks as 
he left a corner store. They threw acid in his face and shot him multiple times 
in a struggle over his briefcase. The men also shot the store's owner, before 
fleeing down the street and into a green getaway car.

Just after the shooting, a crowd of close to a hundred ended up gathering at 
the scene, including a 12-year-old boy, Eddie Vernon. Like most of the 
neighborhood, Eddie was close with the store owner who had been nearly killed. 
He wanted to help, and he told police he knew what happened. Based on his 
story, police arrested Ricky, Ronnie Bridgeman and Ronnie's brother Wiley for 
the crime.

In his initial statements, Eddie seemed reluctant to provide details. When he 
did, he got many of the major facts about the crime wrong. Police, however, 
interpreted this reluctance as authenticity, and they latched onto Eddie very 
early as the critical witness in the case. Evidence pointing other directions 
was abandoned, including witnesses who saw the shooters and told police they 
were not the defendants, and witnesses who placed Eddie on a school bus during 
the shooting. Incredibly, police were even able to match the license plate 
number of the alleged green getaway car to a known felon in the area -- with no 
connection to any of the 3 defendants. By that time, however, police appeared 
to have made up their minds and were content to rest the entire case on Eddie 
Vernon's young shoulders. His testimony alone was enough for the jury to 
convict and sentence all 3 to death.

In the late 1970s, all 3 had their sentences commuted to life in prison, when 
the Supreme Court held Ohio's procedures for capital sentencing were 
unconstitutional.

In 2014, the Ohio Innocence Project filed for a new trial on Ricky Jackson's 
behalf. This past November, Eddie Vernon -- now in his early 50s -- admitted 
in emotional testimony that he had never seen the crime. According to Eddie, he 
was initially just trying to be helpful and passing along rumors to police. His 
mother knew he was lying, and convinced him just days after the crime that he 
needed to set the record straight and tell the truth. So when Eddie went to a 
police line-up just days after the crime, the 12 year old tried to back out. He 
refused to pick any of the three arrested men.

According to his testimony in 2014, police were furious. They took young Eddie 
into a back room, pounded on the table, screamed at him, and threatened that 
his parents could go to jail if he backed out. Eddie relented and picked the 3 
men out of a lineup. Over a number of follow up interviews, Eddie was fed 
details of the crime through leading questions. By the time of trial, his story 
was consistent with other actual witnesses to the crime.

At the end of a 2 day hearing in 2014, to their immense credit, county 
prosecutors conceded that the case against Ricky Jackson should be dismissed. 
Last Tuesday, a judge formally recognized that Ricky and his 2 co-defendants 
never committed the crime for which all 3 were nearly executed.

Wrongful convictions can happen for dozens of different reasons. Junk science. 
Faulty witness memories. Tunnel vision or overzealousness by police and 
prosecutors. Most of these cases involve human beings who are trying to reach 
the right result, but who have made good faith errors about the facts. 
Sometimes they may have become biased about facts in ways that are difficult to 
undo. Only rarely is there evidence of actual intentional corruption. Of 
course, this is small consolation to Ricky and the hundreds of other exonerees 
who have spent significant portions of their lives in prison. But it does 
matter when it comes to how we can best prevent these miscarriages from 
happening in the future.

The basic blueprint for meaningful reform is already taking shape. Progress is 
slowly being made in recognizing and rejecting junk forensic science like 
microscopic hair comparison or "bite mark" analysis. Video recording interviews 
is becoming ubiquitous. Procedures are being developed that address hidden 
biases, not only from witnesses, but from police and forensic analysts. New 
investigation procedures can avoid tainting fragile witness memories by use of 
double-blind line up procedures. There is much left to be done, of course, but 
even small reforms may have made a difference in Ricky's case.

Of course, better procedures will not prevent all wrongful convictions. There 
is nothing to suggest that overt racism led to Ricky Jackson's conviction. But 
like most criminal cases in the country, it is impossible to divorce the 
circumstances of Ricky Jackson's conviction from the issue of race. Juries are 
more likely to give the death penalty for crimes where the victim is white and 
the accused is black. Perhaps the same factors make them more likely to convict 
in those circumstances, even where the evidence is weak. Overlapping issues of 
race and class mean that African-Americans defendants are forced to rely on 
overworked public defenders at greater rates than white defendants. Black 
people are more likely to be subject to wrongful convictions, not because of 
anything particularly special about these cases, but often for the same 
systematic reasons that lurk in the background of almost every criminal case in 
this country. In that sense, Ricky's case is more mundane. These problems are 
more than procedural, they are societal, and fixing them will almost certainly 
require changes beyond the criminal justice system.

(source: This post is part of the "28 Black Lives That Matter" series produced 
by The Huffington Post for Black History Month. Each day in February, this 
series will shine a spotlight on one African-American individual who made 
headlines in 2014 -- mostly in circumstances we all wished had not taken place. 
This series will pay tribute to these individuals and address the underlying 
circumstances that led to their unfortunate outcomes. To follow the 
conversation on Twitter, view #28BlackLives.----Huffington Post)

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

Jury ends 1st day of deliberations without returning verdicts for Daniel Tighe, 
accused of killing son, former girlfriend



A Summit County jury has begun deliberating capital murder charges against the 
man accused of killing a Tallmadge woman and her son whose decomposing bodies 
were found behind their suburban duplex.

Daniel Tighe, 41, declined to testify Thursday. After closing arguments by 
attorneys, the jury began its deliberations in midafternoon. The jurors, who 
were ordered sequestered by Common Pleas Judge Lynne Callahan until they reach 
unanimous verdicts, will reconvene Friday after a break was called following 6 
hours of deliberations Thursday.

Tighe would face a death penalty sentencing hearing if jurors convict him of 
the July 2013 slaying of his former girlfriend, Wendy Ralston, and their 
5-year-old son, Peyton.

Prior to trial, Tighe declined a plea deal that would have spared his life and 
left him with a lifelong prison term. He has pleaded not guilty.

Assistant Prosecutor Jonathan Baumoel told jurors in his closing arguments that 
Tighe and Ralston, 31, had a combative, on/off relationship and that Tighe 
might have killed her, possibly through strangulation, during an argument or 
fit of rage. Tighe was homeless and unemployed and had moved into Ralston's 
home 3 months before her death.

Baumoel could not say why Tighe might have killed his own son, but he 
speculated that the boy might have witnessed his mother's death inside her 
Stone Creek Drive home.

Prosecutors believe that after the killings, Tighe wrapped the bodies in sheets 
and blankets and put them in the woods behind the home "like a piece of trash."

The remains were found Aug. 10, 2013, about 2 weeks after Ralston made a final 
posting on her Facebook page, July 23. An exact cause of death could not be 
determined because of the extensive decomposition.

"Daniel Tighe did the unthinkable," Baumoel told jurors. "When I try to come up 
with words to describe killing your own 5-year-old son, I can't come up with 
words to describe that. It's beyond senseless. It's beyond heinous. It's beyond 
horrific."

There are no witnesses to the slaying, and the state's case is largely 
circumstantial. Defense attorney Joseph Gorman reminded jurors of that fact 
during his closing remarks. He reminded jurors of Ralston???s lifestyle and 
multiple boyfriends, none of whom, he said, were as closely investigated by 
Tallmadge police as Tighe was from the outset.

Gorman said prosecutors lacked physical evidence and instead chose to focus on 
text messages Tighe supposedly sent that included words of hatred toward 
Ralston and their son. Evidence also has suggested that Tighe was physically 
and verbally abusive toward them.

"You may not like Daniel Tighe, but that doesn't make him a murderer," Gorman 
told jurors.

Baumoel discounted Tighe's cooperation and instead asked jurors to focus on key 
pieces of evidence collected from the home and the woods where mother and child 
were left.

The boy's body was wrapped in a green blanket along with three stuffed animals, 
including a giraffe that Peyton favored. A juice box, just like the ones from 
inside the house, was also near the child's body. Ralston's remains were bound 
with electrical tape and wrapped in a floral comforter. The tape matched a roll 
found inside the home.

(source: ohio.com)





ARKANSAS:

Lawmaker plans to file firing squad legislation



A lawmaker whose 12-year-old daughter was murdered by a man now on death row 
said Thursday that she will work to make the firing squad a legal execution 
method in Arkansas because court challenges have stalled efforts to resume the 
death penalty using lethal injections.

Republican Rep. Rebecca Petty of Rogers said she was spurred to introduce a 
proposal aimed at resuming executions after a state Senate committee on 
Wednesday advanced a bill to eliminate the death penalty as a sentencing option 
in capital murder cases. That bill to eliminate the death penalty is unlikely 
to clear the GOP-dominated Senate or House.

"It felt like a slap in the face," she said of the legislative action to 
eliminate the death penalty.

The death penalty is legal in Arkansas and there are 32 inmates on death row. 
But the state hasn't executed anyone since 2005 due to ongoing legal challenges 
over lethal injection protocol. Capital punishment is authorized in 32 states, 
according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Similar bills to allow firing squad executions are being considered by the Utah 
and Wyoming Legislatures and Oklahoma lawmakers are considering legislation 
that would allow that state to use nitrogen gas to execute inmates. Petty said 
she will look at what is working in other states to help fill in the details of 
her legislation.

Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson last week signed into law a separate bill from 
Petty that lets family members of murder victims witness executions in-person. 
The bill was named "Andi's Law," after her 12-year-old daughter, who was killed 
in 1999.

That bill was supported 95-0 in the House and 34-0 in the Senate.

Petty, a freshman legislator, is hopeful the support for execution viewings 
translates to support for restarting them. She said lengthy legal processes and 
delays keeps family members of victims in limbo and that they deserve closure.

"It's very difficult to live through appeals after appeals after appeals and 
it's not right," Petty said.

Even if the change is embraced by the Republican legislature, it could face 
hurdles at the executive level. Both Hutchinson and Attorney General Leslie 
Rutledge indicated they support the approved method of lethal injection.

"In my view, the most timely opportunity to carry out the death penalty will be 
by focusing on the legislative mandate for lethal injection in a manner that is 
acceptable to the courts," Hutchinson said in an email Thursday.

Rutledge campaigned last year on restarting the death penalty and defeated an 
opponent who wanted to bring back the electric chair. She didn't comment on the 
firing squad proposal, but spokesman Judd Deere said her preferred method is 
lethal injection.

"The Attorney General is committed to working with the Assembly to strengthen 
Arkansas' death penalty laws," Deere said.

Tony Pirani, president of the Arkansas Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, 
opposes execution regardless of method, but said firing squads would be a step 
backward for the state.

"I don't think that's the direction that Arkansans are looking to go on this," 
Pirani said.

(source: Associated Press)

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

Local Attorney Supports Bill That Abolishes Arkansas Death Penalty



A former public defender in Washington and Benton Counties is urging Arkansas 
legislators to abolish the death penalty in Arkansas.

Tony Pirani, who identifies as a Republican, said he believes the state should 
be held to higher standards. On Wednesday (Feb. 25) Pirani testified before the 
Senate Judiciary Committee in Little Rock to support a bill filed by Sen. David 
Burnett, D-Osceola.

"1 person wrongfully executed is too many," Pirani said.

Pirani said he used to be for the death penalty, but his Christian beliefs 
changed his mind.

"We are all more than our worst moment," Pirani said.

Some say they can understand why Arkansas has the death penalty.

"Some [people] are [for the death penalty] because they think the death penalty 
is okay," said Anthony Harris.

"[The government thinks] people will not commit the same crimes," said Jose 
Pena. "They will see the real example the government is trying to implement."

But, Pirani said that's not the case.

"The death penalty does not serve as the effective deterrent," Pirani said. 
"The people who are committing these crimes are not thinking about what may 
happen in court later. They're in the heat of the moment when those things 
occur. A life in prison is a more severe punishment than the death penalty, 
because there is no exit."

Pena said some families may see the death penalty as a way to get closure.

"They might feel on their hearts that it will help in some way," Pena said.

Pirani believes life in prison, without parole, should be the state's highest 
punishment because there's a chance a prisoner wrongly prosecuted.

"Once we make that ultimate decision, it is too late to fix those mistakes," 
Pirani said.

Pirani also argues keeping inmates in prison for life is cheaper than executing 
them. He said preliminary court proceedings for those facing the death penalty 
can cost the state a minimum of $100,000.

Right now, Arkansas has 31 inmates on death row, but Pirani said there hasn't 
been an execution in the state in more than a decade.

Burnett's bill passed through the Senate Judiciary Committee on a roll call 
vote. It has to pass the full House and Senate and be signed by the governor in 
order to become law.

(source: KFSM news)

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

Hearing set to consider mental evaluation for suspect in Realtor killing



A judge will consider next week a mental evaluation that found the man charged 
in the kidnapping and killing of a Little Rock real estate agent fit to proceed 
to trial.

Arron Lewis, 34, was scheduled to appear in court Thursday, but he was not 
transported from an Arkansas Department of Correction facility and Pulaski 
County Circuit Judge Herbert Wright set a hearing next Wednesday instead.

Lewis' mental evaluation, which was filed Thursday, found him fit to proceed 
despite being found to have antisocial personality disorder. Wright still must 
accept the finding, which is expected to be one matter discussed at the 
hearing.

Lewis and his estranged wife, 42-year-old Crystal Lowery, are each charged with 
capital murder in the killing of Realtor Beverly Carter, whose body was found 
last year in a shallow grave in northern Pulaski County days after she 
disappeared after going to show a home in Scott.

Lowery, who is being held at the Pulaski County jail pending trial, was in 
court Thursday, though no action was taken beyond setting the Wednesday hearing 
date for her as well. Lowery's attorney has not requested a mental evaluation 
for her.

Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney John Johnson said he wasn't clear on the 
complication that caused Lewis not to be transported, though he believed it was 
a transportation problem. Lewis, who was returned to prison after his parole 
was revoked, is being held in the Department of Correction's maximum security 
unit at Tucker.

The Arkansas State Hospital report from clinical psychologist Dr. Melissa 
Dannacher, released after the hearing, noted that Lewis complained frequently 
about this attorney but has an "adequate level of factual understanding of 
criminal proceedings" despite having a "highly negative view of his attorney."

The mental evaluation was requested by Lewis' attorney, Jim Hensley, over 
Lewis' objections.

"...[T]he manner in which [Lewis] tends to handle disagreements is reflective 
of the pervasive impulsivity and narcissism associated with his severe 
personality pathology," Dannacher wrote. "Nevertheless, he does not display 
symptoms of a mental disease or defect that would preclude his capacity to work 
with his attorney effectively if he so chooses."

Dannacher said Lewis in an interview expressed concerns about getting a fair 
trial.

"Mr. Lewis was well aware of his legal charges and the evidence in his case," 
she wrote. "He also understood the possible outcomes in his case as 'pleading' 
down to life in prison or receiving the death penalty. He claimed to prefer the 
death penalty over life in a state prison."

Dannacher added that Lewis said he would not testify or accept a plea bargain. 
And she wrote that Lewis claimed his confession to investigators was "coerced" 
while denying he was responsible for Carter's kidnapping or killing.

"He claimed that during the interrogation, 'They were beating the s*** out of 
me,' and that his face was 'smashed into the wall in the bathroom,'" Dannacher 
wrote. "He further claimed that he was 'yelling for help' and asked for his 
lawyer repeatedly."

Lewis repeatedly said he did not intend to pursue a defense of innocent by 
reason of mental disease or defect, Dannacher wrote. She wrote that because of 
that, she did not include Lewis' statements about "events on the day of the 
alleged offenses."

Dannacher wrote that Lewis "rambled off-topic a great deal," answered only 
questions to which he could speak about his own concerns and at times even made 
"pejorative statements" about Carter.

"For example, he stated, 'It'll be a real shocker when everyone hears what the 
good girl did,'" Dannacher wrote.

Johnson said he could not comment on the findings in Lewis' mental evaluation 
before the judge decides whether to accept its findings at the next hearing.

(source: arkansasonline.com)








INDIANA:

Angela Davis equates lynchings with prisons, death penalty



Iconic civil rights leader Angela Davis opened her lecture Wednesday evening at 
Purdue University by evoking Black History Month - setting the stage for a 
moving presentation that connected past stories of oppression to today's 
movements for freedom.

"It is often assumed that Black History Month is primarily for black people, 
for people of African descent in this country," she said. "But let me say that 
black history is integral to the history of this hemisphere. One cannot 
understand the history of North America, or of Central or South America, 
without understanding black history."

Davis spoke to a crowd of about 2,750 people. The lecture was coordinated by 
the Division of Diversity and Inclusion. Other Purdue sponsors included the 
LGBTQ Center, Black Cultural Center, College of Liberal Arts, College of 
Agriculture's Office of Multicultural Programs, and Women's, Gender, and 
Sexuality Studies.

Davis was notoriously placed on the FBI's "10 Most Wanted" list and arrested in 
1970 for charges related to a courtroom escape attempt. She was acquitted in 
1972 and went on to become a leading writer, activist and educator for feminist 
issues and prisoners' rights.

She has authored nine books, including, "Women, Race, & Class" "Abolition 
Democracy: Beyond Empire, Prisons, and Torture" and "Are Prisons Obsolete?"

At age 71, she is still very much an activist. She continues to travel the 
country, speaking on issues of police brutality, racism and other forms of 
discrimination. She is professor emerita in the History of Consciousness and 
Feminist Studies Departments at University of California Santa Cruz and her 
recent work focuses on prisoners' rights. She is a founding member of Critical 
Resistance, a national organization aiming to eliminate imprisonment, policing 
and surveillance.

During her talk at Purdue, Davis tied the historical tradition of the black 
struggle against oppression to multiple contemporary movements against racist 
violence, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, homophobia and able-ism.

"The black radical tradition can be claimed by anyone who believes that freedom 
is a worthy cause and that the struggle for freedom links our contemporary 
aspirations with many struggles of the past," she said.

She connected the history of black lynchings to today's issues of mass 
incarceration and capital punishment.

"The death penalty's roots are sunk deep into the legacy of lynching," she 
said. "... If we fail to take into account the central role of lynching, then 
we will never truly understand the way racism worked its way into the criminal 
justice system."

Davis' speech resonated with sophomore Denica Newson.

"When she said that capital punishment was like the legacy of lynching in 
America's history, I had never considered that before," said the 19-year-old. 
"I just thought that was eye-opening."

(source: Lafayette Journal & Courier)








UTAH:

Is the death penalty really necessary?



Juries are being seated in the cases of suspects of the Boston Marathon Bombing 
and the Aurora, Colorado, theater massacre. In both, it is an arduous process 
because the death penalty is on the table. Potential jurors are questioned at 
length about their views on the death penalty in general, as well as their 
singular willingness to impose the death penalty in the case before them.

In Utah, questions about how--not if--to kill those for whom the death penalty 
is imposed are arising. This is due in large part to the ineffectiveness of the 
only currently sanctioned method, lethal injection. The firing squad was 
previously available to those inmates who opted for it prior to 2004 when it 
was eliminated as a choice for how to die. Three inmates so chose.

On April 29, 2014, the state of Oklahoma attempted to kill convicted felon 
Clayton Lockett using a combination of 3 allegedly lethal drugs. Lockett 
finally died of cardiac arrest 43 minutes after the cocktail was injected into 
his body. His death, authorities say, should have been immediate.

The drugs that have historically been used to kill prisoners are becoming 
increasingly difficult for executioners to obtain, in part because 
manufacturers have refused to supply drugs that may land them in the middle of 
wrongful death lawsuits. Some states, notably Virginia and Ohio, have attempted 
to keep the sources of the lethal cocktail secret, but the outcry by the 
ACLU--and even some of their own state legislators--is making that difficult.

The Daily Press quoted Frank Knaack, the ACLU's public policy director as 
saying that the Virginia legislation "prevents the public and the press from 
knowing anything about the drugs (their source, materials, or components) used 
in an execution ... The awesome power of the government to kill in our name 
must be accompanied by transparency and accountability, both of which would go 
away if this bill becomes law."

In Utah, our legislators are looking toward a different solution. They are 
considering re-instituting the firing squad. The House of Representatives has 
voted to approve the measure, sending it to an uncertain fate in the Senate. 
Leaders in that chamber have thus far declined to say if they'll support it, 
and Utah's Republican Gov. Gary Herbert won't say if he'll sign it.

To be fair, Utah isn't the only state giving this form of death penalty 
execution consideration. Several others are scrambling to find an alternative 
to the botched lethal injection dilemma as well. Our friends to the northeast 
in Wyoming and next door in Nevada are also considering the firing squad if 
lethal injections and use of the gas chamber are found to be unconstitutional.

In our state, however, the proposal places the firing squad not after the gas 
chamber but instead of it.

For the most recent period for which data is available, the United States is 1 
of 56 other countries permitting the death penalty in some form. Some of the 
other countries on that list include Afghanistan, Sudan, Yemen, Iraq and Iran. 
While the fact that these countries use the death penalty may not come as a 
surprise, there are others that I wasn't expecting. Japan and Belize to name 
but 2. However, the majority are countries where authoritarian rule is the case 
and individual rights are nearly non-existent. It is among all these countries 
that the U.S. finds itself.

When we consider the use of the death penalty on the state level, the company 
is a bit less unsettling. Utah is among 32 other states which currently allow 
its use.

18 states and the District of Columbia have abolished the death penalty, 
although a few left it on the books as an option for those criminals who were 
sentenced to death before it was abolished.

Execution by any means is gruesome. I don't think there is an argument about 
that.

Execution absent justice and integrity is heinous. The executions that ISIS 
(the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) is forcing the world to bear witness to 
are senseless and heartless murders, plain and simple. There is no reason, no 
justification, no acceptable excuse. The barbarity is beyond description.

As I ponder the death penalty as we know it in the U.S. and in Utah, I find 
myself wondering if given the chance, could I impose the death penalty on a 
self-proclaimed ISIS fighter? And the answer is, I could not. At least, I don't 
think I could. I suppose one never knows for sure until put in the situation. 
What ISIS does is horrendous and unspeakable, but I choose not be a party to 
causing another human???s death. It feels like I would be rushing to stoop to 
the level of their shameful inhumanity.

I stand now as I stood before ISIS erupted onto the world stage. I cannot 
condone taking the life of another human, even one who commits such atrocities.

Nor could I vote for the application of the death penalty in a criminal case 
where I sat on the jury of the accused's peers. Under pretrial questioning, I 
would be that juror who could not bring herself to allow that I could vote to 
impose the death penalty. Of this, I have no doubt.

A life is a life, no matter to whom it belongs.

And so, I am beyond grateful to live in a country where our system of 
jurisprudence provides the opportunity for people of my persuasion to hold and 
act upon my beliefs. And I am equally grateful that those who are proponents of 
the death penalty are out there.

However, I think that the time has come for both proponents of the death 
penalty and those who oppose it to come together for a sensible dialog about 
what we want our country and our state to stand for. Justice, certainly. What 
about compassion? It is a question that needs to be asked and answered. Is the 
death penalty compassionate?

The time is now to examine our motives and our reasoning. Is an eye for an eye 
the system we want as we move forward?

Is it?

(source: Opinion; Marianne Mansfield, The SU Independent)