[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., ALA., UTAH, CALIF.

[Rick Halperin]

March 25



TEXAS:

Texas Prison Agency Replenishes Execution Drug Supply



Texas prison officials have acquired a small supply of pentobarbital to 
replenish their dwindling inventory of the execution drug so lethal injections 
set for next month can be carried out.

Four condemned inmates are set to die in April. The Texas Department of 
Criminal Justice had enough pentobarbital for only the first one, scheduled for 
April 9.

Spokesman Jason Clark said Wednesday the agency now has a sufficient amount of 
the sedative for the other 3.

Pharmaceutical companies, under pressure from death penalty opponents, have 
stopped selling U.S. prisons drugs for lethal injections. So Texas, the 
nation's most active capital punishment state, and other states have turned to 
compounding pharmacies for made-to-order drugs.

As in the past, prison officials are refusing to identify the provider of the 
new supply.

(source: Associated Press)








PENNSYLVANIA:

Pa. has good reasons to hesitate in using the death penalty



I am a senior high school student writing with concern regarding Pennsylvania's 
use of capital punishment. Having recently become an adult, I support both 
Senator Greenleaf's sponsored bill seeking a study of death penalty efficacy 
and Gov. Wolf's commitment to staying executions pending investigation.

I am concerned about the lack of evidence supporting executions, as well as 
questions of ethical merit, disparity of usage, irrevocability, and degree of 
deterrence. Even if we remove the subjective ethical argument from the 
equation, from an economic standpoint alone, the death penalty is not a 
practical method of punitive recourse in today's society.

Author Dan Brooks of Common Dreams News reports that, due to the added costs 
associated with trials, appeals, and security, death penalty cases are 3 times 
more costly than life-without-parole.

News columnist Gary Alvord of the Economist Online states that, of the 3,082 
condemned prisoners in United States in 2011, only 43 were executed. The 
majority will die of natural causes, yet society supports their incarceration 
at a far greater cost on death row.

Life-without-parole is effective in keeping violent criminals incarcerated, and 
it does so at a lower cost while retaining recourse for those later proven 
innocent. This is particularly pertinent to the 144 death-row prisoners who 
have been exonerated nationwide.

I am pleased to live in a state that reflects collective hesitancy by not 
having executed an inmate since 1999. I strongly urge joining the civilized 
ranks of 139 countries that have deemed capital punishment to be "cruel and 
unusual" and have abolished the costly and ineffective practice.

MEGAN GROSSMAN, Silver Spring Twp.

(source: Letter to the Editor, pennlive.com)

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

In new poll, Pa. residents narrowly support Wolf's death penalty moratorium



Prosecutors, cops and crime victims may not be fans, but a majority of 
respondents to a new poll say they're behind Gov. Tom Wolf's decision to halt 
executions in Pennsylvania while a special commission studies society's 
ultimate sanction.

50 % of respondents to a new Public Policy Poll commissioned by a York College 
criminal justice professor offer full or partial support for the moratorium, 
compared to 44 % who oppose it and the 5 % who say they're unsure.

Hewing to national trends, a clear majority (54 %) say they prefer some version 
of life in prison to the death penalty. Just 42 % of the 632 state voters in 
the poll said the death penalty was their preferred method of punishment.

Pennsylvania currently has more than 180 men and women on death row. But the 
state has not executed a condemned inmate since 1999. Debate over capital 
punishment flared anew earlier this year with the capture and arrest of accused 
cop-killer Eric Frein.

Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams, who, like Wolf, is a Democrat, is 
suing in state court to have the moratorium overturned, arguing that Wolf 
overstepped his authority. Earlier this month, a group of Republican lawmakers 
also introduced a non-binding resolution calling on Wolf to rescind the 
moratorium.

(source: pennlive.com)








ALABAMA:

2 execution methods that don't involve Yellow Mama or lethal injection: Utah 
and Oklahoma options



Alabama's Legislature recently cleared the way for its electric chair known as 
"Yellow Mama" to return if the state can't secure the drugs needed for lethal 
injections. Alabama is not alone - the lack of drugs used in executions has 
promoted delays across the country.

Earlier this month, Alabama agreed to suspend executions until after the U.S. 
Supreme Court issues its ruling on lethal injection procedures and drug 
combinations.

The delays and issues have states looking around for solutions. Here are 2:

Firing squad

Like Alabama, Utah has found itself struggling to secure drugs needed for 
lethal injections. While Alabama has turned to the electric chair, Utah has 
approved the return of firing squads.

"We regret anyone ever commits the heinous crime of aggravated murder to merit 
the death penalty, and we prefer to use our primary method of lethal injection 
when such a sentence is issued," Gov. Gary Herbert spokesperson Marty Carpenter 
said. "However, when a jury makes the decision and a judge signs a death 
warrant, enforcing that lawful decision is the obligation of the executive 
branch."

Proponents of the system said marksmen are trained to execute a kill shot, 
removing some of the uncertainty that comes from lethal injection. Utah stopped 
offering inmates the choice of a firing squad in 2004.

Entirely new method

The Oklahoma State Legislature is considering a bill that would completely 
change the method of execution used in the state.

The method, suggested by a professor of criminal justice at East Central 
University in Ada, Oklahoma, is "nitrogen hypoxia" as a backup to its existing 
methods of lethal injection, electrocution and firing squad.

If lethal injection drugs aren't available, the nitrogen hypoxia method would 
become the primary means of executions, the bill states.

The Oklahoma Senate has already passed the measure and it's now before the 
House.

The method would include an offender breathing a gas mixture of pure nitrogen. 
The death would be painless, proponents contend, with the offender losing 
consciousness about 15 seconds after the nitrogen is turned on. Death would 
take about 3 minutes.

Opponents of the bill are many.

"It's a fool's errand to even engage in this utterly bizarre process of 
searching out new ways to take people's lives against their will," said Ryan 
Kiesel, executive director of Oklahoma's American Civil Liberties Union 
chapter. "We would be experimenting on the condemned using a process that has 
been banned in many states for the euthanasia of animals."

(source: al.com)








UTAH:

US Rights Organization Pushes for Debate on Death Penalty----American Civil 
Liberties Union of Utah Legislative and Policy Counsel Marina Lowe said that 
the US should consider the issue whether the country should have death penalty 
at all.



The United States needs to hold a debate on whether the use of the death 
penalty makes any economic or moral sense instead of finding different ways to 
kill people, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Utah Legislative and 
Policy Counsel Marina Lowe told Sputnik.

"Rather than have this debate over what is an acceptable way to kill someone, 
it's time to ask why we have the death penalty at all," Lowe said on Tuesday. 
"Is it OK for the state to kill in the name of the law?"

Lowe issued the comments amid a controversy in US state of Utah, which 
resurrected execution by firing squads if the authorities run out of lethal 
injection drugs.

"The state could have looked at other questions, and make strides forward in 
the criminal justice system that are constitutionally sound, but instead, we've 
decided to go in another direction," Lowe said.

The ACLU Counsel noted that questions concerning the existence of the death 
penalty arise from the US Constitution, which outlaws cruel and unusual 
punishment, as well as the due process and laws in the United States criminal 
justice system.

"Questions about who lives and who dies depend on the skills of attorneys, race 
and age, and socioeconomic status," she said. "Because of all these factors, 
that makes the death penalty unfair, and it is no way for it to stands as 
constitutional."

Moreover, Utah had already outlawed firing squads as a form of execution in 
2004, Lowe argued, and bringing them seems like the state is going backwards.

"What's so disturbing in Utah is they enacted the smarter on crime legislation 
that looks at reducing penalties and giving additional treatment for crime and 
mental health issues," Lowe said. "It's Disturbing that Utah makes real 
progress on criminal justice reform, but sad not on the same line of thinking 
with the death penalty."

Lowe also pointed out it costs a million dollars more to put someone to death 
than if the person receives prison sentence.

The ACLU Counsel said she remains hopeful that the state of Utah and other US 
states will soon start looking at the death penalty differently.

The ACLU is a non-profit organization whose goal is to defend and preserve 
individual rights and liberties in the United States guaranteed by the US 
Constitution and the country's laws through litigation, lobbying and community 
empowerment.

(source: sputniknews.com)








CALIFORNIA:

Robert Dunson convicted of '07 snowbird murder



An ex-convict who fatally beat and slashed a Canadian businessman during an 
Indio robbery was convicted Tuesday of 1st-degree murder.

A Riverside jury deliberated just over a day before finding 33-year-old Robert 
Lee Dunson guilty of the November 2007 slaying of William George Dobbs of 
Tsawwassen, British Columbia, who owned a vacation home in Indio.

Dobb's wife, Toni, testified at the beginning of Dunson's trial, but returned 
to Canada after finding it too difficult to sit through the rest of the 
proceeding. She was alerted to the verdict through email on Tuesday.

"It was like a car being lifted off my chest," Toni said. "This has been a long 
time coming ... the penalty phase still has to happen, but I feel now like it 
is finally over. And Billy can rest in piece."

Along with the murder count, jurors convicted Dunson of witness intimidation 
and found true special circumstance allegations that he committed the murder 
during a kidnapping and a robbery.

Dunson is facing a possible death sentence. Riverside County Superior Court 
Judge Charles Koosed directed jurors to return on April 8 for opening 
statements in the penalty phase of the trial.

4 co-defendants -- Jackie Lynn Dunson, a sister of Robert Dunson, Fernando 
Antonio Benavidez, Ronald Wesley Handwerk and Rogelio Leon Zuniga -- were 
convicted of murder in 2012 in connection with Dobbs' killing and sentenced to 
life in prison without the possibility of parole.

According to prosecutors, Benavidez met Dobbs at a Coachella casino on the 
night of Nov. 26, 2007, luring him away with the prospect of a sexual encounter 
with Jackie Dunson. Benavidez took the victim to her apartment on Sage Street 
in Indio, where Dobbs expected to pay the woman for sex, according to 
investigators.

Handwerk and Robert Dunson ambushed Dobbs when he arrived at the residence, 
choking, kicking and punching him until he gave them his credit card and PIN 
number, according to trial testimony. The beating broke four of the victim's 
ribs, puncturing internal organs.

According to the prosecution, Dobbs pleaded for mercy, saying, "Oh God, please 
somebody help me, please somebody help me."

Robert Dunson put a plastic trash bag over Dobbs' head and secured it with duct 
tape to keep him quiet, prosecutors allege.

Jackie Dunson and Handwerk then drove Dobbs' Cadillac Escalade to a bank to 
withdraw cash. Zuniga and his girlfriend also later used the card to withdraw 
around $1,200 from several ATMs, according to the prosecution.

Robert Dunson and Handwerk became concerned that Dobbs could identify them, so 
Dunson and Zuniga threw the victim into the back of his Escalade and drove him 
to a dump near Dillon and Landfill roads in a remote area of Indio.

Dobbs' hands were tied and the trash bag was still on his head when the men 
slashed his neck 14 times, almost decapitating him, according to prosecutors.

Dobbs' body was discovered the next day.

According to court records, Robert Dunson has prior felony convictions for 
check fraud and burglary.

(source: Desert Sun)