[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, KY., ARK., MO.

[Rick Halperin]

March 19


TEXAS:

Interfaith Statement of Opposition to the Death Penalty

see: http://fb.me/30S4YfEUW

(source: tcadp.org)








KENTUCKY:

Prosecutor could seek death penalty in Winchester murder case



Clark County prosecutors say they could pursue the death penalty for the man 
who fired a stray bullet that killed a 19-year-old woman living in an apartment 
beneath him.

A grand jury has indicted four people - Lillian Barnett, Christopher Robinson, 
Aaron Stailey and Lamont Wilkerson - in connection with the Dec. 23 slaying of 
Amber Caudill at a Winchester apartment. Police have said Robinson was involved 
in a robbery upstairs when he fired the fatal shot that went into Caudill's 
apartment.

The 4 defendants were in court Thursday morning for an arraignment. Not guilty 
pleas were entered for all of them.

The prosecutor told the judge they will likely seek the death penalty in the 
case. Kentucky law allows prosecutors to seek the death penalty when there are 
aggravating circumstances when someone is killed, such as an existing emergency 
protective order or it is part of a robbery.

Winchester police Detective Tom Bell has said Wilkerson, Stailey and Robinson 
went looking for marijuana in possession of the man who lived upstairs. There 
was a shoot out, the detective said, and Robinson was shot in the chest. 2 
others were shot inside that apartment and Caudill was hit by a bullet that 
went through the floor.

(source: WKYT news)








ARKANSAS:

Arkansas Supreme Court upholds the state's lethal-injection law



The Arkansas Supreme Court on Thursday said that the state's lethal-injection 
law is constitutional, upholding a state law that was passed after the justices 
struck down an earlier law on the subject.

This ruling, which comes a decade after Arkansas last executed an inmate, could 
potentially allow the state to resume lethal injections.

The state's current death-penalty statute "provides reasonable guidelines" to 
corrections officials who will figure out the precise way to carry out a lethal 
injection, Justice Karen R. Baker wrote in an opinion explaining the court's 
4-to-3 decision.

Because the current state law outlines the method of execution and the overall 
policy, as well as the drugs that will be used, including the order and the 
amount, it stands apart from an earlier death-penalty law that the justices 
struck down 3 years ago, Baker wrote in the order.

"I am hopeful that this decision will allow the convictions of those on death 
row to move forward so that some closure and justice is brought to the families 
of the victims," Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge said in a statement 
Thursday. While she was a candidate last year, Rutledge said she thought 
executions should resume in the state.

The Arkansas Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that the state's death-penalty statute 
was unconstitutional because it left the Department of Corrections in charge of 
the type of drugs that would be used in lethal injections, giving too much 
leeway to the department.

In a dissent Thursday, Justice Robin F. Wynne wrote that the current law still 
has the same problems that led the court to strike down the earlier statute. 
While the new law does direct corrections officials to administer a 
barbiturate, pointing to a particular type of drugs, it is not specific enough 
because of "the wide range of barbiturates" that are available, Wynne wrote.

This court ruling comes as the U.S. Supreme Court is preparing to take up the 
issue of lethal injection next month, which could alter the way executions are 
carried out in the country. The justices will hear a case involving executions 
in Oklahoma, which uses the controversial sedative midazolam in its lethal 
injections. They last considered this subject in 2008, when the court upheld 
the lethal injection formula used by Kentucky and dozens of other states.

However, since that ruling, the lethal injection process across the country has 
fractured. A shortage of the drugs used in lethal injections has prompted 
states to turn to untested alternatives as they strive to continue carrying out 
executions. As a result, the process upheld in 2008 has been largely abandoned 
as states struggled to adopt new methods.

Arkansas has carried out 27 executions since the death penalty was reinstated 
in 1976, the 13th-highest total for any state in that span. The last person 
executed in the state was Eric Nance, who was put to death in 2005 for killing 
18-year-old Julie Heath.

There are 32 inmates on death row in Arkansas, a number that was reached when 
an inmate serving a life sentence was sentenced to death last year for killing 
a corrections officer.

(source: Washington Post)








MISSOURI:

Death penalty is the 'worst of the worst' outcomes



Defenders of the death penalty state that it is reserved for the "worst of the 
worst."

What happened in Missouri on the night of March 17 may fit the statement that 
Missouri's execution was one of the "worst of the worst."

Cecil Clayton was executed for killing a police officer. No question of his 
guilt. What is in question is the ridiculous notion that the governor of 
Missouri stood and watched as they executed a mentally disabled person.

Clayton had suffered a head injury in a sawmill accident and doctors removed a 
portion of his brain. Clayton was never the same. He suffered hallucinations, 
paranoia, depression and violent outbursts.

The U.S. Supreme Court outlawed the execution of mentally disabled individuals 
in Atkins v. Virginia in 2002.

Maybe the governor thinks he is tough on crime by watching another person being 
executed, but when there is an execution in the name of the state, every 
citizen has their hand on the gurney.

Life in prison without the possibility of parole is a better alternative.

Ron Steiner

Salem

(source: Letter to the Editor, Statesman Journal)