[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----NEV., ARIZ., CALIF., WASH., USA

[Rick Halperin]

Jan. 29




NEVADA:

Prosecutors likely to seek death penalty in double killing


A Las Vegas prosecutor said Thursday there is "a substantial likelihood" he 
will seek the death penalty against a man charged in the execution-style 
slaying of 2 people.

Authorities said the Nov. 16 deaths of Jamel Colbert and Shelby Robinson were 
prompted by drug and prostitution deals gone awry.

In court Thursday, Marcial Manuel Casarez, 36, pleaded not guilty to murder 
with use of a deadly weapon, 1st-degree kidnapping, robbery with use of a 
deadly weapon and conspiracy to commit robbery in connection to the slayings.

His co-defendant, 24-year-old Sergio Davila, did not enter a plea because he 
had not yet been appointed an attorney. Chief Deputy District Attorney David 
Stanton said it was unlikely that prosecutors would seek the death penalty 
against Davila.

Casarez, who also goes by "Crook," had made drug deals with Colbert, 32, before 
the killings and was going to sell him $200 worth of methamphetamine.

Colbert gave Robinson a black revolver and sent her to Casarez's apartment in 
the 2100 block of Sunrise Avenue, near 21st Street, according to police. 
"'Crook' became upset" when he found the gun in Robinson's purse and thought 
she was going to rob him, police said.

Colbert left his home in the 2100 block of Ballard Drive just before dark and 
arrived at Casarez's apartment shortly after he found the gun. Casarez gave the 
gun to Davila, who took Colbert and Robinson's money, phones and clothes.

Casarez grabbed a rifle, led Colbert and Robinson outside at gunpoint, forced 
them into a car and ordered another man to drive to the alley behind the 
Ballard home.

Casarez shot Robinson "at least 10 times" in the back seat, turned the rifle on 
Colbert in the passenger seat and fire multiple rounds through the window, 
according to police.

(source: Las Vegas Review-Journal)






ARIZONA:

Arizona Enlists Major Law Firm To Import Execution Drugs From India----National 
law firm Alston & Bird is fighting the FDA, asking it to release execution 
drugs that Arizona imported from India. The state has said it will sue if the 
FDA doesn't do so.


The Arizona Department of Corrections has enlisted the help of a national law 
firm in its fight against the federal government to import execution drugs, 
BuzzFeed News has learned.

Alston & Bird, an Atlanta-based law firm with more than 700 lawyers and offices 
across the country, has taken on representation of the department in its fight 
against the Food and Drug Administration, which has detained 1,000 vials of 
sodium thiopental since this past summer that were slated for delivery to the 
department.

Arizona, Texas, and Nebraska purchased the drug from a man in India named Chris 
Harris - a man without a pharmaceutical background. Harris has been the subject 
of ongoing BuzzFeed News coverage.

The FDA warned Arizona and the other states that importing the drug would be 
illegal, as it is an unapproved new drug and has no FDA-approved manufacturer. 
The states ordered the sodium thiopental anyway.

Nebraska's shipment never left India, but Texas and Arizona's shipments did 
cross the ocean - only to be stopped by the FDA at U.S. airports.

Alston & Bird, which identifies itself as "counsel for the Arizona Department 
of Corrections," is arguing on behalf of the department that the FDA should 
release the drugs since they would be used "only for law enforcement."

"The restrictive legend on the label ('For law enforcement purpose only') makes 
that clear," Alston & Bird partner Daniel Jarcho wrote in a letter to the FDA 
dated Oct. 23, 2015. "The purpose of [the statutes] is to provide warnings to 
patients as they take their own drugs."

"Here there will be no lay patient 'users' taking the detained drugs. This is a 
circumstance in which the imported substance is a drug that will not be used 
for medicinal purposes at all," Jarcho, based out of the firm's D.C. office, 
wrote.

Arizona is arguing that, since the drugs are for lethal injection, they are 
exempt from the requirements the FDA cited in detaining the shipment.

In the letter, Jarcho also "demand[ed]" that the FDA and Customs and Border 
Protection redact or omit information about the drug supplier "unless required 
by law to release it," citing Arizona's secrecy law surrounding executions.

BuzzFeed News, however, previously was able to determine that Arizona and Texas 
purchased the drugs from Harris' company, Harris Pharma. Harris registered a 
site with the FDA claiming that it could be used to manufacturer drugs, 
although that site was just a small office space. The location he has provided 
to the DEA is an old apartment building he no longer lives in - and that he 
left while still owing rent.

According to FDA documents, the drugs Harris sold were manufactured by a 
company in India called Health Biotech Limited.

Arizona's letter to the FDA made no mention of a 2012 federal court order that 
the FDA had "a mandatory obligation ... to refuse to admit the misbranded and 
unapproved drug, thiopental, into the United States." The order also directed 
the FDA to stop "permitting the entry of, or releasing any future shipments of, 
foreign manufactured thiopental that appears to be misbranded or [an unapproved 
new drug]." A federal appeals court upheld the order in 2013.

Arizona, like Texas and Nebraska, has also enlisted the help of a former FDA 
employee named Ben England who testified on the other side of the 2012 case. In 
that case, he argued on behalf of death row inmates that the drugs violated 
federal law.

In a statement, an Alston & Bird spokesperson would only say, "[W]e are not at 
liberty to discuss the matter." According to his firm bio, Jarcho previously 
represented the FDA "in federal court civil and criminal litigation" while 
working as a trial attorney at Justice Department.

England, who is cc'ed on the Jarcho letter and identified as "Co-counsel" to 
the Arizona Department of Corrections, has not responded to numerous requests 
for an interview. England, who previously was a longtime investigator for the 
FDA, also has been the subject of ongoing BuzzFeed News coverage.

The FDA is continuing to detain the shipments, the Arizona Department of 
Corrections said. In a recent hearing in a death penalty case, an attorney with 
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich's office said that the state would sue 
if the FDA did not release the drugs.

"There's no further administrative exhaustion needed [if the FDA denies the 
request]?" U.S. District Judge Neil Wake asked.

"No. At that point we would proceed in court to challenge," assistant attorney 
general Jeffrey Sparks said.

The Arizona attorney general's office told BuzzFeed News this week that it was 
not representing the Department of Corrections on the FDA appeal, but it did 
not immediately respond when asked if the office would represent the Department 
of Corrections if they chose to sue.

(source: BuzzFeedNews)






CALIFORNIA:

California faces pivotal juncture as death-row population swells


Stacked in cells 5 stories high and dozens across, the death-row inmates at 
California's San Quentin prison embody a political stalemate that has swollen 
their ranks to more than 700 - 1/4 of all US prisoners awaiting execution.

America's most populous state, which has not carried out an execution in a 
decade, begins 2016 at a pivotal juncture, as legal developments hasten the 
march toward resuming executions, while opponents seek to end the death penalty 
at the ballot box.

One such opponent of the death penalty is the actor and activist Mike Farrell, 
who has been campaigning to end capital punishment for over 30 years.

Farrell, best known for his portrayal of Army Capt. B.J. Hunnicutt in the 
TV-series "M*A*S*H, recently took a leave of absence from his role as president 
of the advocacy group, Death Penalty Focus, in order to launch a ballot 
initiative called The Justice That Works Act of 2016, which aims to end the 
death penalty in California.

"California has almost 750 inmates on death row, that's almost 25 % of the 
entire death row population in the United States. If the people, the popular 
vote, ends the use of the death penalty in California it would be a thunder 
strike across the country to all the states that are considering giving it up, 
all the legislators that are looking at whether or not it makes sense for them 
financially, and to the Supreme Court," explains Farrell.

Southern Californian counties, such a San Bernardino, have been sentencing more 
prisoners to death than most others in the state.

San Bernardino District Attorney Michael Ramos is an ardent supporter of the 
death penalty.

"Capital punishment, and the people believe in that, I think it is the most 
humane. I mean, we've come a long way from the electric chair and people 
burning, and remember the smoke coming out of people's heads'? We have the 
firing range, you know, people being taken out, and some people say, 'hey, 
maybe that's more humane?' It is more humane, again, than what has happened to 
the victims," argues Ramos.

This month, California held a hearing on a proposed new protocol for lethal 
injection that would use one drug, a barbiturate, to put condemned inmates to 
death, rather than a 3-drug cocktail declared unconstitutional by a California 
court 10 years ago because it could possibly cause pain.

The plan to use barbiturates to execute inmates sentenced to die in the most 
populous US state have drawn fire from religious activists, who call capital 
punishment grisly and anti-democratic while Law-and-order advocates urge its 
adoption.

"I think of them as the death lovers, forgive me. They have sued the state to 
require that the state find a way and I don't know if they insisted or CDCR 
(California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation) came up with a 
response, which is a single drug protocol instead of the usual lethal injection 
procedure which is 3 drugs. That is now up for public questions and there are 
many because it is, again, we are talking about the possibility of human 
experimentation using drugs that have never been used before for such a 
procedure," says Farrell, of the proposal to use a barbiturate.

But District Attorney Ramos argues it is important to think of the suffering of 
the victims.

"Imagine a family that ... a parent, before watching their murdered, watching 
their baby murdered, stabbed to death. Ok, and I think people really need to, 
when you compare that to what we're talking about, whether it's a three-drug 
protocol or a single-drug protocol, it doesn't get more humane than that for 
the accused. You know, if you really wanted to do the eye for an eye, some 
people say they should die the way they killed their victims but we don't do 
that in a civilised society, we don't," says Ramos.

With a decade since the last execution, Californians have grown more divided 
over capital punishment, with nearly half the electorate and many top officials 
now opposing the death penalty.

"In order for the death penalty to be considered constitutional they've had to 
impose -- they, the courts -- have had to impose certain safeguards and that 
means that we -- they -- have to go through a process of once convicted going 
through the state process for their appeals and then going through the federal 
process. Here in California, that process now takes 25 years. Now, one being 
sentenced to death and being told that he or she is disposable and then having 
to wait for 25 years for the ax to fall is torture," says Farrell.

Death penalty opponents hope to place an initiative on the November ballot that 
would outlaw capital punishment. On the same ballot, supporters back a 
different initiative to speed up executions.

"Basically we'd like to cut down the time of the appellant process. There are 
so many unwarranted delays and it just continues to victimise the families of 
those who have lost loved ones. If you think about it, the murderers on death 
row, they've murdered over a thousand victims, you know, 43 of those police 
officers in the line of duty, 263 I believe are children that were murdered. 
Close to 300 victims were tortured and raped, kidnapped. These are the worst of 
the worst," says Ramos.

California juries have sentenced nearly 900 people to death since 1978, but 
only 13 have been executed. 68 have died of natural causes, 36 for other 
reasons.

Of more than 750 inmates currently on death row, 7 have been there since the 
1970s.

If the new protocol is adopted by corrections officials and voters do not 
outlaw the death penalty next November, the state could theoretically begin 
executing 18 prisoners who have exhausted their appeals. Legal challenges to 
the lethal injection drug, however, could drag on for years.

The waning support for the death penalty in California reflects the tangled 
political climate in a state where voters have repeatedly endorsed capital 
punishment even as top officials have come to oppose it.

The result is a situation in which execution remains a choice for juries and is 
favoured by many prosecutors, but where there is little political will to 
enforce the sentences.

Last year, US states conducted 28 executions - the fewest since 1991 - and 
imposed the lowest number of death sentences since 1978.

A majority of Americans, about 56 %, still support the death penalty, the 
lowest number in 40 years, a poll conducted last year by the Pew Research 
Center showed.

(source: Reuters)

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

Standing against the death penalty


"Out of the depths, I call to you, Oh God. Hear my voice, may you be attentive 
to my cry for mercy."

So the psalmist prayed, thousands of years ago. Sometimes, when we are in the 
depths and call out, we find true clarity about who we need to be as 
individuals and who we ought to strive to be as a nation. In times of despair, 
the voice of hope can come from afar and, no matter its provenance, if it is 
heard and turns our hearts toward mercy, it can be transformative.

Last year, during the sentencing hearings for the Boston Bomber, those who 
suffered loss and injury felt their wounds torn afresh as they confronted the 
face of the one who brought immeasurable pain to their lives. Some of the 
families, forced to live every day with the pain of the loss of a precious 
loved one - or seeing a child, partner or friend struggle with a disability 
cast upon them by one so clearly guilty of acting out of hatred - called for 
the one thing they believe that would give them comfort: the death of that 
horrific human being.

"Give him the death penalty," they cried, despite the plea to not respond with 
an act of taking life for life, by Sister Helen Prejean, author of "Dead Man 
Walking."

Certainly, if anyone deserves the death penalty, some retorted, he does. And 
his death, they believe, will be a salve for their wounds.

I wonder if that will indeed be the case. Few of us can understand the pain 
these loving families are experiencing. But as Sister Helen has shown in her 
work to end the death penalty, rarely does relief come for the bereaved after 
the death of the murderer.

They remain in the depths, and so does the killer, as both live through 
countless appeals and retrials, often waiting 20 years or more until that final 
injection or shock is delivered by a state system in way that is surely cruel 
and inhumane. And we know too well there are times when we discover the one we 
as a community are about to put to death to satisfy this desire for closure, 
turns out not to have been guilty after all.

Our legal system, as is our society, is fallible. Racism and economic 
inequality still pervade our everyday lives, and the halls of justice are not 
immune. Think of the deep cry of those killed by the state who truly were 
innocent, and the guilt of all of us when the state kills incorrectly in our 
name.

Early in 2015, a voice of hope and salvation came from afar - as the State 
Legislature of Nebraska, dominated by those who are labeled politically 
conservative, took a stand against state executions. They understood what so 
many of us know: that the state should not be in the killing business, a 
conclusion reached by the rabbis of old, as well as so many teachers of diverse 
faiths.

We are too limited as human beings to justly take a life. Let God take the life 
and not us, they concluded, interpreting the words of the Bible - to imply the 
murderer's future is up to God. Until then, let us do what is more economically 
feasible and morally correct and give them life without parole in order to 
prevent state-sponsored murder in the case of the innocent and a society that 
unequally and unfairly exacts a bloody retribution in the case of the guilty.

I, along with clergy of so many faiths, am joining the Clergy Against State 
Executions, which comes together to empower California's diverse faith 
communities to end the death penalty through advocacy, education and prayer. We 
hope the State of California, a thought leader in so many ways, will hearken to 
the voice of hope coming from Nebraska and eliminate capital punishment as 
means of responding to the pain of even the most horrific crimes.

As people of faith, we believe our society can and must do better, standing 
together against violence and reaching out the hand of comfort and support to 
those in pain, where with compassion and pursuit of justice we can help them, 
little by little, to come out of the depths.

(source: Rabbi Jonathan Singer is the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Senior Rabbi at 
Congregation Emanu-El; San Francisco Examiner)






WASHINGTON:

UW Amnesty International hosts panel on the death penalty


66 Caucasians, 7 Blacks, 2 Asians, 2 Hispanics, and 1 Eskimo. Add them all 
together and you get 78. This is the number, and ethnic breakdown, of people 
executed in Washington state since 1904. The death penalty is still legal in 
Washington.

On Thursday night, the UW chapter of Amnesty International hosted a panel on 
the death penalty. UW Amnesty International collaborated with a number of 
on-campus groups to host the event, including the UW Center for Human Rights, 
the department of Law, Societies and Justice (LSJ), and the philosophy 
department.

"We wanted to host this event because even though the death penalty may not 
directly impact UW students, it's still Washington state law and something they 
should be aware of," said Anna Moretti, a member of UW Amnesty International.

The panel was made up of UW professors Katherine Beckett, of the LSJ 
department, William Talbott of the philosophy department, and Seattle-based 
lawyer Michael Iaria.

"The death penalty involves many issues ranging from economics to ethics," 
Moretti said. "We chose the panelists because they each bring an interesting 
perspective to the issue."

Moretti explained that although Amnesty International officially supports the 
abolition of the death penalty, the UW chapter wanted the event to be a place 
where members of the community could openly express their opinions on the 
issue.

Reilly Wynn, an undergraduate LSJ major, attended the event to supplement her 
own knowledge on the subject.M

"I'm familiar with it, but not really with things happening locally," Wynn 
said. "As a student, it's helpful to have guest speakers because it gives me 
the opportunity to find out more."

The event began with a screening of a short video produced by VICE News 
entitled "Should There Be A Death Penalty? - The People Speak." The video was a 
collection of street interviews in which pedestrians in cities all over the 
world were asked their opinions on the death penalty.

After the video was shown, the panelists were asked questions prepared by UW 
Amnesty International.

Talbott spoke briefly about the philosophical arguments for why someone would 
be for or against the death penalty. He explained that most argue the 
individual deserved death or that it helps deter future crimes, neither of 
which allow for the possibility of killing an innocent person.

"Can you justify capital punishment knowing that for every hundred people 
killed, 5 are innocent? That's a tough question and it is what leads me to 
oppose the death penalty," Talbott said.

Iaria agreed with Talbott about the death penalty's effect on deterrence of 
crime.

"The death penalty is not necessary to incapacitate the person who committed 
the crime," Iaria said. "Life without parole is an option for people who commit 
heinous crimes."

Beckett added that if life in prison does not deter someone from committing a 
crime, then the death penalty wouldn't either.

"Certainty of punishment has more effect on deterrence than severity of 
punishment," Beckett said.

Beckett also explained the issue of race and the death penalty. She stated that 
in Washington state, juries are 4 1/2 times more likely to impose the death 
penalty when a defendant is black.

Iaria, a criminal defense attorney, elaborated on the flawed system for 
charging someone with the death penalty, stating that it is inconsistent and 
subjective.

"It's the ultimate form of bullying," Iaria said.

Beckett discussed that there are several misconceptions about the death 
penalty. She explained that many think it's more expensive than incarceration 
and that only "the worst of the worst" get it.

"Several errors still occur. For example, people with mental disabilities are 
still being executed and those instances are well documented," Beckett said.

Iaria spoke from personal experience with defendants facing the death penalty.

"People facing the death penalty are among the most damaged of human beings," 
Iaria said. "So much so that it is beyond that person's ability to do anything 
about it."

The panelists also discussed alternatives to the death penalty such as life 
without parole and restorative justice.

Beckett was quick to point out that many human rights groups have now 
recognized life without parole as a human rights issue.

"If you accept life without parole as an acceptable sentence," Beckett said, 
"then you're also accepting the notion that a person can never change."

(source: The (Univ. Wash.) Daily)






USA:

Date set for Gary Lee Sampson's death penalty sentencing retrial


Gary Lee Sampson's death penalty sentencing retrial date has been set.

The retrial will take place on Sept. 14 in federal court in Boston, the U.S 
Attorney for Massachusetts announced on Thursday.

Earlier this month, the federal judge presiding over the death penalty trial of 
a Massachusetts man announced he is stepping down from the case.

Sampson was condemned by a jury to die after pleading guilty to carjacking and 
killing 2 Massachusetts men in 2001. In 2011, U.S. District Court Judge Mark 
Wolf ordered a new sentencing trial after finding that a juror had lied about 
her background.

The decision by Wolf to step down comes after he refused a request from 
prosecutors to recuse himself over his past association with an inmates' rights 
advocate who may testify for the defense in Sampson's retrial.

In a memorandum, Wolf noted that his status as a senior judge entitles him to 
reduce his caseload, and the Sampson case could require him to devote several 
years.

(source: WHDH news)

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

Judge: Prosecution can seek death penalty for Con-ui


The federal death penalty is indeed constitutional and can be sought against 
drug dealing gang assassin Jessie Con-ui as he faces trial for brutally 
murdering a correctional officer, a federal judge ruled Thursday.

Con-ui, 39, is slated to stand trial in September on charges alleging he kicked 
correctional officer Eric Williams, a Nanticoke native, down a flight of stairs 
before beating and slashing him to death with 2 shanks on Feb. 25, 2013. 
According to prosecutors, Con-ui - who is already serving 25 years to life for 
a 2002 murder - was caught on surveillance video during the attack.

Although Con-ui has expressed interest in pleading guilty if prosecutors drop 
the death penalty, which Williams' family supports, the U.S. Attorney's Office 
has refused to do so.

As a result, his defense had sought to remove aggravating factors that could 
result in Con-ui being sentenced to death stricken, as well as having the death 
penalty ruled unconstitutional in its entirety because they alleged it has been 
implemented in an "arbitrary, capricious, irrational and invidious manner" and 
evolving standards of decency have changed society's take on capital 
punishment.

In his ruling Thursday, U.S. District Judge A. Richard Caputo upheld the 
federal death penalty, noting that its legality has long been debated and 
upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Changing standards of decency have resulted in capital punishment being 
declared unconstitutional for minors and the mentally disabled, but it has been 
upheld in other cases, he said.

"I am bound by the Supreme Court's determination that, but for juveniles and 
the intellectually disabled, the death penalty does not violate the 
Constitution," Caputo wrote. "And, in any event, I do not find that societal 
standards of decency have, in the past several months, evolved to the point 
where the death penalty should be declared unconstitutional in this case."

Williams' father Don expressed satisfaction with Caputo's ruling.

"Our family sat in court for the hearing. We were hoping he would uphold the 
constitutionality of it being a death penalty case," he said. "It's as it 
should be. It's constitutional and I feel the judge ruled correctly."

Caputo did grant defense requests for information about how the government 
plans to establish the death penalty is warranted, but also rule prosecutors 
would be able to use evidence not in the outlines at trial.

Con-ui's trial had been set for July but it was pushed back earlier this month 
to September.

He remains imprisoned at ADX Florence in Arizona, where he is serving 25 years 
to life for a 2002 murder.

(source: Wilkes-Barre (Penn.) Citizzens Voice)

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

Death row executioners discuss life on the other side of the needle


In Missouri, one of a handful of US states where the death penalty still 
applies, executioners are handed an envelope filled with hundred-dollar bills.

On the envelopes are instructions not to open until services have been 
completed. The envelopes vary in weight, depending on the nature of the 
assignment.

The nurse, for example, gets less than the anaesthesiologist. The 
anaesthesiologist gets less than the drug supplier.

Until this week, that information was kept a closely-guarded secret. It was 
revealed when Buzzfeed audited payments and cash withdrawals from Missouri 
Director of Adult Institutions David Dormire.

They found almost $US300,000 had been paid in cash to a small group of 
individuals since November 2013. Those individuals were responsible for ending 
the lives of America???s condemned.

It's easy to understand why the money is paid in cash. It's part of a culture 
of secrecy that helps maintain the executioners' anonymity, but not every 
executioner wants to remain anonymous.

Over the years, those brave enough to pull back the curtain have spoken about a 
job that few people want and even fewer escape without some form of trauma. 
This is the other side of the story on death row.

'DADDY HAS TO WORK LATE TONIGHT' It's not your normal 9-5 job. In fact, nothing 
about it is normal.

Kenneth Dean, 52, described in 2000 his role on the "tie-down team" in the 
busiest death row chamber in Texas. He said his colleagues described him as a 
"teddy bear" and he had been a part of more than 130 executions.

Dean told The New York Times he survived in the job by embracing the routine. 
That routine meant including his family - Dean had a daughter, 7, and a son, 
13, at the time - in the process.

"I told (my kids) 'Daddy has to work late tonight, he has an execution'," he 
said. His daughter followed up by asking him to explain what he did in detail.

"It's hard explaining to a 7-year-old," he said. "She asked me, 'Why do you do 
it?' I told her, 'Sweetie, it's part of my job'."

Jerry Givens executed 62 inmates in Virginia between 1982-1999. Sometimes he 
used lethal injection. At other times he carried out the executions by 
electrocution.

In an interview with The Guardian in 2013, Givens described his role in detail. 
He explained how long he waited in the room as 3000 volts rushed through a 
prisoner's body and what happened on the day of an execution.

"We would test the equipment frequently, whether we had an execution or not. 
But on the day of an execution or during that week, we would have all sorts of 
training. We train for the worst. We train for the man to put up resistance. 
Most would not, but sometimes it would get rough.

"Most of the time, during the actual execution, I'm back behind the partition, 
behind a curtain with my equipment. I'm alone as the executioner, but we had a 
crew that would go and escort the inmate and place him on the gurney or in the 
chair and strap him down and a doctor who would confirm the heart had stopped 
after."

He said he preferred electrocution because it's simpler and "more humane".

"That's more like cutting your lights off and on. It's a button you push once 
and then the machine runs by itself. It relieves you from being attached to it 
in some ways. You can't see the current go through the body. But with 
chemicals, it takes a while because you're dealing with 3 separate chemicals.

"You are on the other end with a needle in your hand. You can see the reaction 
of the body. You can see it going down the clear tube. So you can actually see 
the chemical going down the line and into the arm and see the effects of it. 
You are more attached to it. I know because I have done it. Death by 
electrocution in some ways seems more humane."

Givens said the role affected him in ways he didn't foresee. He "never enjoyed 
it" but after 25 years he said he wished he never started.

'I WOULDN'T WISH THAT ON ANYBODY'

Executioner Fred Allen said he "snapped" several years after leaving his role 
in a Texas prison. In 2000, he told documentary makers his role on the tie-down 
team came back to haunt him.

"I was just working in the shop and all of a sudden something just triggered in 
me and I started shaking ... And tears, uncontrollable tears, were coming out 
of my eyes. And what it was, was something triggered within and it just - 
everybody - all of these executions all of a sudden all sprung forward."

His boss, prison warden Jim Willett, said no person can never prepare 
themselves for their 1st execution.

"The 1st one was very difficult in more than one way. I had never witnessed an 
execution. I wouldn't wish that on anybody. "In the 1st one I had a lot of 
anxiety and worried about me a lot. I got caught up in that on the 1st one. The 
other thing that sticks out in my head is just the matter of dealing with an 
execution, of having somebody who is (healthy) strapped down to a gurney and in 
a few minutes you're going to give a signal to an executioner that's going to 
end this guy's life. I was going to do that and the guy was perfectly healthy."

BOTCHED EXECUTIONS, TIDE TURNING

Executions don't always go to plan. Clayton Lockett's 43-minute-long botched 
execution is a perfect example of that.

Lockett, 38, was convicted of kidnapping, beating, raping, shooting and burying 
alive a 19-year-old woman and sentenced to death. His execution was supposed to 
be simple but turned into a nightmare for the inmate, those administering the 
drugs and the state's politicians.

At 6.23pm on April 29, 2014, Lockett was administered with a sedative. It took 
10 minutes for doctors to declare him unconscious. He wasn't.

Doctors tried to administer 3 lethal drugs but 20 minutes into the execution 
the prisoner was still not dead. Lockett was lifting his head and writhing on 
the bed. The execution was called off before Lockett died at 7.06pm from a 
heart attack. Autopsy results showed Lockett's vein had collapsed and the drugs 
had absorbed into his tissue.

Reporter Bailey Elise McBride witnessed the execution and said Lockett was 
"conscious and blinking, licking his lips even after the process began". She 
said Lockett was unconscious at 6.33pm and "began to nod, mumble, move body" at 
6.34pm.

Sometimes it's the fault of bad drugs. Sometimes it's incompetence, as was the 
case with Dr Alan Doerhoff.

Dr Doerhoff, a Missouri surgeon, was banned by a federal judge in 2008 over the 
execution of Robert Comer and the testimony of fellow doctors.

According to the St Louis Dispatch, a doctor told a Missouri court that Dr 
Doerhoff oversaw more than 54 executions despite being dyslexic and 
"improvising" dosages of deadly drugs.

Experts say they are seeing a trend across America away from the death penalty, 
perhaps in part because of the testimony from those on the front line.

31 states including California, Florida, Oklahoma and Utah use the death 
penalty. Last year Nebraska became the 19th state to abolish the death penalty.

Peter Norden, a member of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty and 
adjunct professor at RMIT University, told news.com.au there's been a "big 
shift" in the way Americans view capital punishment.

"It's happening," he said. "Abolition of the death penalty is happening 
throughout the world quite rapidly. The states are the toughest nut to crack 
but it'll definitely happen. There are signs of it already."

(source: news.com.au)