[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----ARK., NEV., ID., USA

[Rick Halperin]

Dec. 10



ARKANSAS:

Torres files appeal of death sentence


A notice of appeal has been filed on behalf of the Bella Vista father who was 
sentenced to death for killing his 6-year-old son.

Mauricio Alejandro Torres, 45, was found guilty of capital murder and 
1st-degree battery. A jury recommended last month that Torres die by lethal 
injection, and Benton County Circuit Judge Brad Karren sentenced Torres to 
death. Torres is being held on death row at Varner Supermax in Gould.

Maurice Isaiah Torres, 6, died March 30, 2015, at a Bella Vista hospital. A 
medical examiner said the boy's death was caused by a bacterial infection as a 
result of being sodomized with a stick. The medical examiner also said chronic 
child abuse contributed to the child's death.

Mauricio Torres' wife, Cathy, also is charged with capital murder and 
1st-degree battery. Prosecutors have said they plan to seek the death penalty 
against her as well.

Her trial is set for May. She has pleaded innocent to the charges and is being 
held without bail.

(source: NWA Demcrat-Gazette)






NEVADA:

Prosecutors plan to seek death penalty against suspect in 3 homicides


Clark County prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty against a suspect in 
three homicides who escaped from North Las Vegas police custody for several 
days in September.

A notice of intent to seek the death penalty against Alonso Perez was filed 
Friday.

Perez, 25, is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday on charges related to grand 
larceny of an automobile, robbery with a deadly weapon, grand larceny, 
possession of a stolen credit card, conspiracy to committ robbery.

But that's not the only case he's facing.

He is also scheduled to appear in court on multiple dates in January for 
separate cases, including 2 charges of murder with a deadly weapon and 2 
charges of attempted murder.

Perez was first arrested in September in connection with the fatal shooting of 
Mohammed Robinson, 31, just before midnight Aug. 27. While waiting to be 
interviewed at the North Las Vegas police detective bureau Sept. 2, Perez 
managed to escape, snapping his handcuffs in half, standing on a chair, 
shifting a ceiling tile and hoisting himself up.

Once in the ceiling, he dropped to the floor in a police hallway, which 
happened to be empty, then bolted for the door. Outside, about 100 yards away, 
he happened upon an empty work truck, which was running with the keys in the 
ignition and the air conditioning blasting to cool the truck down.

Perez drove away but was recaptured Sept. 6.

Police have said they also believe that about three hours after Robinson was 
killed late Aug. 27, Perez was involved in the Aug. 28 fatal shooting of 
Jeffrey Johnson, 50, according to an arrest report. That shooting occurred on 
the corner of Imperial Avenue and Lamont Street, near Charleston and Nellis 
boulevards.

At least 1 of the casings collected at the scene of Johnson's shooting matched 
casings found in Robinson's shooting, a police report said. The casings also 
were linked to the fatal shooting of Candelario Duran, 37, near Covey Lane and 
Irwin Avenue on Aug. 20 and a separate battery with a deadly weapon case on 
Aug. 15

(source: Las Vegas Review-Journal)






IDAHO:

Judge: Death penalty decision premature


A judge ruled Friday that challenging the use of the death penalty in the case 
of the man accused of murdering Coeur d'Alene Police Sgt. Greg Moore is more 
appropriately done after a successful conviction.

Jonathan Renfro, the 26-year-old Rathdrum resident accused of killing Moore in 
a Coeur d'Alene neighborhood on May 5, 2015, faces the death penalty if found 
guilty. Renfro's attorneys filed a motion asking Kootenai County District Court 
Judge Lansing Haynes to reconsider a previous decision denying the preclusion 
of the death penalty because of ineffective legal representation.

"It's an evolving area of law but one most appropriately dealt with in a 
post-conviction setting," Haynes said of the use of the death penalty.

The motion up for reconsideration was the 7th attempt by public defenders to 
take the death penalty off the table.

Kootenai County Public Defender Linda Paine asked Haynes to consider there are 
3 other active death penalty cases in Idaho now. There is also, Paine added, 
the potential for 2 more death penalty cases in Kootenai County since charges 
of 1st degree murder have been filed.

The Kootenai County Prosecutor's Office has not announced if it intends to seek 
the death penalty in either case.

Paine said the motion was filed to argue that there is a presumption of 
ineffective representation because of the case load and inadequate funding for 
both the Kootenai County Public Defenders Office and public defense offices 
throughout the state.

In a brief reply to Paine's argument, Kootenai County Deputy Prosecutor David 
Robbins told Haynes that, although there are other death penalty cases in Idaho 
and up to 2 more that could be added in Kootenai County, the defense does not 
have the legal standing to challenge yet-to-be charged cases or cases outside 
its jurisdiction.

When issuing his ruling on the motion, Haynes told the defense team he 
appreciated their refocus of presumption of ineffectiveness, rather than the 
assumption of ineffectiveness that was previously argued and also denied. 
Haynes added that he was not only going to not adopt conclusions made in the 
defense's request, he was going to make a specific finding as well.

"The defense has been vigorous, thorough and exhausting in identifying 
potential issues," Haynes said. "This court is finding, so far, that the 
defense has been extremely effective."

A pre-trial conference in the case is scheduled for March 23.

(source: cdapress.com)






USA:

Supreme Court Weighs Lawyers' Actions in 2 Death Row Cases


7 years before Thomas Sims defended Sammie Stokes in a South Carolina 
death-penalty trial, he had prosecuted Stokes for assaulting his ex-wife.

The trial record shows Sims never told the judge in the murder case about that 
earlier prosecution, not even when the ex-wife took the stand against his 
client to recount the assault.

Stokes' case is 1 of 2 the Supreme Court is weighing in which death-row inmates 
are raising questions about the actions of their lawyers. In the other, James 
Tyler of Louisiana pleaded not guilty to the murder charge against him, but his 
lawyer conceded Tyler's guilt and did nothing to poke holes in eyewitness 
accounts that helped convict Tyler. The justices have yet to decide whether to 
hear either case, but word could come Monday.

The high court has taken up many cases that involve the Constitution's 
guarantee of a competent lawyer to a criminal defendant, but these cases pose 
different issues for the justices.

In the one from Louisiana, the question is whether Tyler's rights were violated 
when the lawyer overrode his objections and put up no defense to the charge 
against him, choosing instead to focus on trying to avoid a death sentence. In 
the South Carolina case, the issue is whether Sims had a conflict of interest 
that prevented him from effectively representing his client.

Sims never told the judge in Stokes' murder trial in 1999 of his prior 
involvement in prosecuting Stokes, or that the earlier case relied in large 
part on the testimony of Stokes' ex-wife, Audrey Smith, according to Stokes' 
current lawyers.

When prosecutors called Smith to testify in the sentencing phase of the trial, 
Sims pulled his punches, the lawyers wrote in their Supreme Court filing.

"Faced with the witness whose cause and credibility he previously championed, 
Sims ignored multiple significant exaggerations and inconsistencies in Smith's 
testimony," they wrote.

Keir Weyble, Stokes' lead lawyer, pointed to a high court ruling from June in 
which the court said a Pennsylvania Supreme Court justice should have stepped 
aside from a case in which he had personally approved the prosecution 30 years 
earlier. "The core principle is the same," Weyble said.

Sims, in private practice in Orangeburg, South Carolina, rejected the idea that 
he did anything wrong.

"It's easy to sit 16 years later and say what someone didn't do 16 years 
before. I fought for Sammie and I wanted him to live out his life," Sims said.

Sims said he and Stokes discussed the matter and that Stokes said he wanted 
Sims to remain as his lawyer.

In Tyler's case, there was no genetic evidence implicating Tyler found at the 
scene of the crime or on his clothing. Police never recovered the gun used to 
kill an employee of a Pizza Hut restaurant in Shreveport, Louisiana.

An eyewitness who was shot but survived described the shooter as "real short," 
about 4'10", or nearly a foot shorter than Tyler. The other surviving shooting 
victim failed to pick Tyler out of a series of photos or a subsequent lineup, 
even though he was the only person common to both. A prostitute who testified 
against Tyler had served as a police informant who also had had charges against 
her dropped in exchange for her cooperation.

But defense lawyers did not attempt to discredit the prosecution witnesses 
because they already had conceded Tyler's guilt, over their client's repeated 
objections.

Cathy Kelly, a Louisiana lawyer who worked on Tyler's appeal, said the trial 
team had plenty of material to work with. "They made a decision without 
investigating it," Kelly said. "From the very beginning this was the way they 
were going to go."

Alan Golden, the lead defense lawyer at Tyler's trial, said the case against 
Tyler was strong. Tyler went from his run-down hotel to the Pizza Hut across 
the street with "a gun in one hand and a ski mask in the other," Golden 
recalled. "The problem was, the ski mask wasn't on."

Tyler's lawyers decided the best thing they could do was try to persuade the 
jury to sentence him to life in prison, instead of death, Golden said.

Golden, now in private practice in Shreveport after many years as a public 
defender, said he couldn't recall whether Tyler objected to his trial strategy.

(source: Associated Press)

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

We can no longer mask the barbarity of the death penalty


The United States is bumbling its way toward the bitter end of the death 
penalty. As the numbers of executions fall every year, the state-ordered deaths 
that we do commit become that much more unusual, freakish and unfair 
applications of the law. As states scramble to implement arbitrary new lethal 
injection protocols, the cruelty of the procedure only worsens. The way Alabama 
killed the convicted murderer Ronald B. Smith on Thursday is only the latest 
example.

According to Birmingham News reporter Kent Faulk, Smith moved his lips after 
receiving an injection of midazolam, the 3rd-choice sedative that most death 
penalty states are using in the absence of stronger barbiturate drugs. Besides 
moving his lips, Faulk reported the man was gasping for breath, heaving and 
coughing, for 13 minutes, stating that Smith "clenched his left fist after 
apparently being administered the 1st drug in the 3-drug combination."

Faulk also said Smith's left eye appeared slightly open at times during the 
procedure and said Smith moved his right arm and hand after a prison official 
poked and prodded him a second time to check whether he was still conscious.

After the midazolam, which is the same twilight-inducing benzodiazepine that 
many people experience in lower doses for common procedures like a colonoscopy, 
prison staff next injected Smith with the paralytic pancuronium bromide and 
finally potassium chloride (which causes the lethal cardiac arrest).

The medicalization of capital punishment began in 1982 with the 1st lethal 
injection in Texas, and for most of the time we've relied on this method, 
states first injected the condemned with sodium thiopental, a strong 
barbiturate sedative (in general, barbiturates are stronger than 
benzodiazepines like midazolam).

But death penalty states lost their access to sodium thiopental when the 
pharmaceutical company Hospira stopped making it following European pressure. 
The European Union even specifically blocks the export of drugs that could 
potentially be used in executions to the United States.

Executioners next turned to pentobarbital, another barbiturate that can induce 
a deep medical coma, but its Danish manufacturer Lundbeck then cut off our 
supply of that drug, too. Now, prison officials are relegated to partnering 
with local compounding pharmacies whose skills in drug synthesis aren't ready 
for prime time. Or, they can get creative and use a drug so common its supply 
can't be cut off by the EU or a single manufacturer -- a drug like midazolam.

The only problem with that is that midazolam's a lousy drug for lethal 
injection. Besides the fact that there are stronger sedatives that it makes 
more sense to use, we know it's not very soluble, meaning it can easily become 
a solid in the vial or IV tubing, especially the higher the dose gets. 
Moreover, potassium chloride only makes its solubility worse, precipitating 
more of the drug out of solution, enough that trying to force in the injection 
through the precipitate can break the vein, spilling the drugs out into the arm 
tissue where they're not going to have their intended effects.

We know that consciousness is a continuum, and from the descriptions of Smith's 
execution, he was likely in a semi-conscious state for some of his execution. 
He could have been more fully conscious, but we'd be unaware because the 
paralytic he got would have prevented him from speaking.

We can't run experiments determining what prisoners really experience with any 
of the cocktails. After all, the experimental subject would be dead, one way or 
another, following the procedure. But the evidence we've got -- a number of 
botched executions using midazolam with subjects moving and attempting to speak 
after they're supposed to have been rendered unconscious, makes it clear this 
method is unacceptable.

To compound matters, decent physicians aren't willing to participate. Relevant 
specialties like anesthesiology will kick out a member who facilitates 
executions. The resulting procedure is archaic. Medics are fumbling around in 
the middle of the night trying to place peripheral IV lines right before the 
execution, having difficulty finding veins, when larger central or PICC lines 
could have been placed beforehand with imaging guidance.

We certainly can't trust the neurological examination skills of these 
executioners, so they'd be better off using a more objective EEG monitoring 
protocol to assess the how deeply unconscious their subjects are. But setting 
up one of the commercially available systems would require the help of 
companies and vendors that probably have ethical standards that wouldn't allow 
them to participate in executions.

We've just elected a new president who has embraced torture in the fight 
against terrorism. So perhaps quibbles about how humane lethal injection 
procedures may or may not be as means of exiting condemned murders seem a 
little quaint.

But the Constitution hasn't changed. The Eighth Amendment still prohibits cruel 
and unusual punishment. Yet lethal injection is only becoming more cruel and 
unusual. If we want to efficiently dispatch these murderous criminals into a 
deep coma and then stop their hearts, we've got a lot of work to do devising a 
better protocol.

However, no good medical professionals want to do that work. No modern, 
well-run company that wants any kind of international standing for itself will 
assist. That suggests that it's time for America to take a cue from the rest of 
the world. Our options just ran out. We can no longer mask the barbarity of 
what we are doing.

(source: Ford Vox is a physician specializing in rehabilitation medicine and a 
journalist. He is a medical analyst for NPR station WABE-FM 90.1 in Atlanta. He 
writes frequently for CNN Opinion. The opinions expressed in this commentary 
are his----CNN


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

Debate over death penalty misses the real question


On Tuesday evening, my home state of Georgia carried out its 9th execution of 
the year, putting it two ahead of Texas, 7 ahead of Alabama (which carried out 
its 2nd execution late Thursday) and 8 ahead of Florida and Missouri.

We have now almost doubled the previous state record - set last year - of 5.

It's hard to say what accounts for the recent uptick, but it's clear that a 
lack of meaningful discussion - one that focuses on the issues that actually 
matter - isn't helping things.

To see the problem, consider the question that for many lies at the heart of 
issue: Should murderers be put to death?

Now that's an interesting moral question, one over which thoughtful people can 
find honest disagreement. It is not, however, a question that moves this debate 
forward.

Instead, the question should be: Should people whom we say are murderers be put 
to death?

The advantage of this longer question is that it addresses what for many is the 
real issue - people decide who dies and people make mistakes. Putting someone 
to death involves more than simply injecting serum into an arm. It involves 
numerous judgments, judgments that the first question conveniently glosses 
over.

Think about it this way: Let's suppose that we all give the same answer to the 
1st question; that is, we all agree that murderers should be strung up; they 
deserve it.

Great. Now what?

Well, the next step is to find murderers, and here of course we run into 
problems. Even with a top-notch justice system, we might make a few mistakes. 
Evidence might be tampered with; juries might be biased; eyewitnesses' memories 
may fail.

Still, let's say we get the right person 99 % of the time. If that sounds good, 
then ask yourself whether it would be an acceptable cost of the death penalty 
if the state put to death 1 innocent person for every 99 bona fide murderers.

If not, what number is acceptable? 999? 9,999? A million? In short, when is the 
rate of error morally insignificant?

Unfortunately, the uncertainty does not end there.

Next, the state has to determine whether the convicted person is the sort of 
murderer we want to put to death. After all, he (as is usually the case, 
although Georgia did execute a woman last year) could be a number of things. He 
could be just plain evil - someone in full control of his faculties. 
Alternatively, he could be so delusional or cognitively impaired as to have no 
real grasp of reality. Or he could be somewhere in between, i.e., clearly 
mentally disturbed, but still with the ability to grasp the consequences of his 
actions.

Perhaps experts could come up with a reasonable determination here. What should 
concern us, however, is whether our confidence in that determination would be 
high enough to make us comfortable with a penalty - death - that admits of no 
doubt at all.

If we now return to our two questions, the difference between them should be 
clear. It would certainly be reasonable on the one hand to say "I want 
murderers put to death," while on the other, to worry that the task of 
identifying those murderers poses too many unsettling problems. Indeed, many in 
this country - many who support the death penalty - display a good deal of 
skepticism when it comes to government's ability to do most anything. Where is 
that skepticism on this issue? Suddenly, when human life is threatened, people 
decide to trust government?

It can't run the post office, but it can decide who should live and who should 
die?

And let's be clear about that decision. While we say that murderers are "put to 
death," the truth is not so passive. We - you and I, the citizens of a 
democracy - put murderers to death.

At least we hope they're murderers.

(source: Peter Lindsay is an associate professor of political science and 
philosophy at Georgia State University----thehill.com)

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

Some Lethal Injection Problems in US Executions


Since Texas became the 1st state to use lethal injection as its execution 
method on Dec. 7, 1982, some problems have been reported during the process 
nationwide. Those include delays in finding suitable veins and needles becoming 
clogged or disengaged. Some past examples:

- December 13, 1988. Texas inmate Raymond Landry was pronounced dead 40 minutes 
after being strapped to the execution gurney and 24 minutes after the drugs 
started flowing into his arms. 2 minutes after the drugs were administered, the 
needle came out of Landry's vein, spraying the chemicals toward witnesses. The 
curtain separating witnesses from Landry was pulled, then reopened 14 minutes 
later after the execution team reinserted the needle.

- May 10, 1994. Serial killer John Wayne Gacy's execution in Illinois was 
interrupted as the lethal chemicals unexpectedly solidified, clogging the 
intravenous tube that led into his arm. Prison officials drew blinds to cover 
the witness window and the clogged tube was replaced. 10 minutes later, the 
blinds were opened and the punishment resumed. The problem was blamed on prison 
officials' inexperience.

- July 18, 1996. Indiana inmate Tommie J. Smith's lethal injection took 69 
minutes when prison technicians were unable to locate suitable veins. A 
physician was summoned to give Smith a local anesthetic. The doctor also tried 
unsuccessfully to insert the lethal needle in Smith's neck. A vein in his foot 
finally was successful 49 minutes after the process began. He was pronounced 
dead 20 minutes later.

- April 23, 1998. Texas inmate Joseph Cannon made his final statement and the 
injection process began. When there was no immediate reaction, he had a 
quizzical look on his face, then blurted out: "It's come undone." A vein in 
Cannon's arm had collapsed and the needle popped out. A curtain was pulled to 
block the view of the witnesses. Fifteen minutes later, it was reopened and the 
execution was completed.

- May 2, 2006. In Ohio, Joseph L. Clark's lethal injection was stalled for 22 
minutes before prison technicians located a suitable vein. Shortly after the 
execution began, the vein collapsed and Clark's arm began to swell. He raised 
his head and said: "It don't work. It don't work." Curtains were closed while 
the technicians worked for 30 minutes to find another vein. Clark wasn't 
pronounced dead until nearly 90 minutes after the process started.

- Dec. 13, 2006. When Florida inmate Angel Diaz continued to move, was 
squinting and grimacing after receiving the injection, a second dose of 
chemicals was administered. An autopsy later found his liver undamaged but that 
the needle had gone through Diaz's vein and out the other side, meaning the 
chemicals went into soft tissue and not the vein.

- Sept. 15, 2009. In Ohio, inmate Romell Broom avoided execution after prison 
technicians were unable to find a suitable vein after trying for two hours. 
Broom even had helped to find a good vein. Then-Gov. Ted Strickland ordered the 
halt. Broom remains on Ohio's death row.

- Jan. 16, 2014: Dennis McGuire repeatedly gasped during the record 26 minutes 
it took him to die in Ohio's execution chamber. The Department of 
Rehabilitation and Correction said its review determined McGuire was asleep and 
unconscious a few minutes after the drugs were administered and "he did not 
experience pain, distress or air hunger after the drugs were administered or 
when the bodily movements and sounds occurred."

- April 29, 2014: Clayton Lockett's execution in Oklahoma was halted by the 
state's prison director after Lockett writhed and groaned on the gurney. He 
died 43 minutes after the drugs began to flow. Oklahoma was using a new 
sedative, midazolam, as part of its 3-drug lethal injection procedure. The 
doctor who oversaw the execution said at the time that he died of a heart 
attack, but a state autopsy later determined that the drugs killed him.

- July 23, 2014: Joseph Rudolph Wood gasped and snorted for more than 90 
minutes after his execution began in Arizona, prompting lawyers to file an 
emergency appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court demanding that it be stopped. Wood 
was pronounced dead 1 hour and 57 minutes after the execution started.

- Dec. 9, 2015. In Georgia, inmate Brian Keith Terrell winced, reportedly in 
pain, because it took the nurse assigned to the execution an hour to get the 
IVs inserted into both of the Terrell's arms. Ultimately, she had use Terrell's 
right hand.

- Feb. 3, 2016. In Georgia, it took more than an hour for Brandon Jones to be 
strapped down and have IV lines that would deliver the lethal drug placed on 
his body. A doctor was called in to help the 2-person team place the IV lines. 
One line was put in Jones' right arm and another in the groin area. A media 
witness reported his eyes closed within a minute of the warden leaving the 
execution chamber, but they popped open 6 minutes later.

(source: Associated Press)

***********

What happens to death row prisoners as they're executed as different methods 
used in each US State revealed----All 31 states carrying out capital punishment 
as well as the US military and the US Government use the 3-drug method as their 
primary method


Once strapped to a gurney death row prisoners are first injected with 
midazolam, which is a fast-acting drug that depresses the activity of the 
central nervous system.

This initial shot doesn't serve as a pain killer that numbs nerves but instead 
rapidly puts a person into a state of unconsciousness that's theoretically deep 
enough to make pain undetectable.

If not underdosed and administered correctly unconsciousness can be reached in 
as little as 30 seconds.

A single dose of this anaesthetic is intended to last throughout the next 2 
injections to prevent any pain during the moments leading up to death.

After the initial injection, the intravenous line is quickly flushed with 
saline, a neutral liquid commonly used to push a drug into the bloodstream more 
quickly.

Pancuronium bromide is then administered. It acts as a neuromuscular blocker, 
preventing a nerve messenger from communicating with muscles.

The result is a complete muscle paralysis, which causes respiratory arrest 
since the diaphragm - a muscle imperative to pulling air into the lungs - stops 
working.

Following another saline flush is the final injection, potassium chloride.

This last dosage of chemical floods the heart with charged particles that 
interrupt its electrical signalling, stopping it from beating.

According to a 2002 study in the Journal of Forensic Science, the average 
length of time from the 1st injection to death is 8 minutes, 40 seconds.

Doctors in the US cannot participate in the executions because it violates 
their ethical vows.

This is often problematic because the injections are left to inexperienced 
prison staff.

If a vein is missed or if the needle becomes clogged, inmates experience 
extreme pain such a burning.

But death row inmates in the US face execution by 4 other methods other than 
lethal injection.

All 31 states carrying out capital punishment as well as the US military and 
the US Government use the 3-drug method as their primary method.

Since 1976 when the death penalty was reinstated in America 1,266 inmates have 
been put to death by lethal injections.

But anyone convicted in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, Oklahoma, South 
Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia, can opt to die through the electric chair.

In the last 40 years, 158 men have died through electrocution.

Anyone convicted in Arizona, California, Missouri, Wyoming and Oklahoma can 
choose the gas chamber.

Last year politicians in Oklahoma voted 9 - 0 to introduce the "nitrogen 
hypoxia" bill after concerns were raised over the recent series of botched 
executions using injections.

Lawmakers claim it is a painless way in which to kill those condemned to death.

11 have opted for such a method.

Oklahoma and Utah have also legislated to use a firing squad in the event the 
drugs required for lethal injection are unavailable, or the method along with 
electrocution are later found to be unconstitutional.

Hanging is still on the books Delaware, New Hampshire, Washington although all 
prefer lethal injection.

3 men have gone to the gallows since 1976.

(source: mirror.co.uk)