[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----S.C., NEB.

[Rick Halperin]

June 19



SOUTH CAROLINA:

Governor Calls for Charleston Shooting Suspect to Face Death Penalty



South Carolina's governor on Friday called for the 21-year-old man who is 
suspected of killing 9 people in 1 of the South's most historic black churches 
to face the death penalty.

"This is a state that is hurt by the fact that 9 people innocently were 
killed," Gov. Nikki R. Haley said, adding that the state "absolutely will want 
him to have the death penalty."

The governor, who spoke on NBC's "Today" show, described Wednesday's shooting 
rampage as "an absolute hate crime."

"This is the worst hate that I've seen - and that the country has seen - in a 
long time,' she said. "We will fight this, and we will fight this as hard as we 
can."

Her comments came hours before the suspect, Dylann Storm Roof, a white man who 
returned to Charleston under heavy guard on Thursday night after his arrest in 
North Carolina, was expected to go before a judge on Friday afternoon for a 
bond hearing, where he will hear the charges against him.

Mr. Roof, who friends said had a recent history of expressing racist opinions, 
is widely expected to be prosecuted for murder, an offense that can carry the 
death penalty in this state. Greg Mullen, the chief of police in Charleston, 
has called the shooting a hate crime, and Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch 
said the Justice Department was investigating that possibility.

At Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church on Calhoun Street, where the 
shooting took place, scores of bouquets rested on the sidewalk, along with 
wreaths and a simple wooden cross. Gold, silver and white balloons were tied to 
the church's ironwork; nearby, nine white ribbons, each bearing the name of a 
victim, were tied to a fence.

Just after 9 p.m. on Thursday, about 24 hours after the gunfire erupted inside 
the church during Bible study, a woman stood across the street and briefly 
played the bagpipes while others in the crowd, a mix of residents and tourists, 
held small candles.

Earlier, 2 prominent South Carolina politicians - Senator Lindsey Graham and 
Representative Mark Sanford, a former governor - paid their respects outside 
the church, which remained cordoned off by yellow police tape.

Mr. Graham said that his niece had been a classmate of Mr. Roof's years ago.

"I don't know if he finished high school, but they went through elementary 
school together, or middle school, and I think part of high school,??? Mr. 
Graham said. "But you know, it's got to blow you away thinking" that a 
classmate is now accused of killing 9 people.

On Thursday, President Obama spoke of the shooting and lamented what he called 
the easy access to guns, an issue he has tried and failed to address with 
legislation.

"At some point, we as a country will have to reckon with the fact that this 
type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries," Mr. Obama 
said. He added: "It is in our power to do something about it. I say that 
recognizing the politics in this town foreclose a lot of the avenues right now. 
But it would be wrong for us not to acknowledge it. And at some point it's 
going to be important for the American people to come to grips with it."

In the interview on Friday, Ms. Haley, a strong proponent of gun rights, 
deflected a question about whether the shooting would change her position on 
the issue.

"Anytime there is traumatic situation, people want something to blame. They 
always want something to go after," she said. "There is 1 person to blame here. 
We are going to focus on that one person," she added, referring to Mr. Roof.

Many outside the church spoke softly and made few mentions of Mr. Roof. 
Instead, they focused on the nine victims, who were identified on Thursday and 
included the pastor, who was also a state senator, a high school track coach 
and a librarian.

Elsewhere in the region, people who helped to organize remembrances said 
recovery would not be easy.

"Many people are struggling with this right now, and so we think it???s the 
time to start the healing process, just a small step," Jimmy Huskey, the 
principal of Goose Creek High School, said on Thursday before a vigil for 
Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, 45, an employee of the school who was killed in the 
attack.

Although both organized and impromptu expressions of grief have played out 
across the city since Wednesday night, a formal prayer vigil was scheduled for 
Friday evening at a Charleston arena.

The service was to take place hours after Mr. Roof???s initial court appearance 
in South Carolina. He waived extradition in North Carolina and was booked into 
a Charleston County jail shortly before 7:30 p.m. Thursday after arriving, in a 
striped uniform, in a convoy of police vehicles.

A handful of onlookers joined a crowd of journalists outside the jail. Hikaym 
Rivers, 15, gripped a sign, its letters handwritten in black ink: "Your evil 
doing did not break our community! You made us stronger!"

"We're supporting our community, and we're taking a stand that no one can just 
take this away from us," he said after Mr. Roof disappeared into the county 
jail. "It's our peace of mind."

But in downtown Charleston, there was already talk of the long-term anxiety the 
shooting might stir.

"The question that I have is, is it going to happen again?" said Jeremy Dye, a 
35-year-old taxi driver and security guard from North Charleston who said he 
knew three people who were killed. "It's always going to be fear. People in 
Charleston are going to have that fear now forever. It's not going to wash 
away. They're going to be worried about, 'O.K., when???s the next church going 
to get hit?'"

(source: New York Times)








NEBRASKA:

Lethal drugs ordered by Nebraska officials to carry out executions have not yet 
shipped from India



On the same day Nebraska expected to get lethal injection drugs from India, a 
state prison official said Thursday that the shipment had not yet been sent.

A new delivery date for the disputed lethal drugs has yet to be determined, 
said James Foster, spokesman for the Nebraska Department of Correctional 
Services.

Meanwhile, the Indian pharmaceutical broker has not cashed more than $50,000 in 
checks Nebraska sent to buy two lethal injection drugs, one of which the U.S. 
Food and Drug Administration continues to say can't be legally imported.

"The department has not canceled their order and has not requested a refund," 
Taylor Gage, spokesman for Gov. Pete Ricketts, said late Thursday in an email.

He said the department would announce when the drugs have arrived.

Ricketts announced May 14 that the state had bought 2 of the 3 drugs needed to 
carry out a lethal injection. The purchase was necessary because the two drugs 
had expired.

Despite the attempt to restore the means to carry out an execution, state 
lawmakers voted May 27 to override the governor's veto of a death penalty 
repeal bill. The governor and Attorney General Doug Peterson have argued that 
the repeal does not apply to the 10 men on death row, and so they remain 
committed to obtaining the lethal drugs.

Prison officials had anticipated that the sodium thiopental would reach Omaha 
on Thursday via Federal Express, but that was before FDA officials alerted 
Corrections Director Scott Frakes that the drugs could not be imported.

In a May 28 letter to Frakes, the FDA's Domenic Veneziano said he had notified 
Nebraska prison officials in 2012 that a federal judge had ordered the FDA to 
block shipments of foreign-manufactured sodium thiopental. The letter to Frakes 
- a former Washington prison executive appointed by Ricketts to run Nebraska's 
prisons earlier this year - included the federal court orders pertaining to 
sodium thiopental.

"Please note, there is no FDA-approved application for sodium thiopental, and 
it is illegal to import an unapproved new drug into the United States," 
Veneziano's letter stated.

On May 29, in response to questions from The World-Herald, the FDA said the 
drug would be refused admission into the U.S. On the same day, Frakes sent an 
email to the Indian broker, asking for a call back to discuss the FDA's stance.

"Will give you a call tomorrow, as I don't have coverage here," replied Chris 
Harris, the drug broker.

Corrections spokesman James Foster said Thursday that Frakes and Harris later 
discussed the FDA matter over the phone, but Foster declined to describe the 
conversation or what resulted from it.

An email message sent to Harris by The World-Herald was not immediately 
returned Thursday.

In the meantime, Nebraska will continue to attempt to get the drugs using an 
importer's license issued by the Drug Enforcement Administration. Foster said 
prison officials have been in talks with the DEA.

A spokeswoman for the DEA has said the agency would not allow a foreign drug to 
come into the country unless it was approved by the FDA.

Nebraska Treasurer Don Stenberg said Thursday that it would be possible to 
cancel payment on the 2 checks sent to the broker.

(source: omaha.com)