[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----KAN., OKLA., ARIZ., CALIF., USA

[Rick Halperin]

May 20



KANSAS:

Death penalty not part of state GOP platform


In another indication of the shifting opinion on the death penalty, delegates 
to the GOP state convention in Topeka last weekend voted against adding support 
for the death penalty to the party's official platform. The vote follows last 
year's resolution by the Kansas Federation of College Republicans opposing the 
death penalty. But so far lawmakers in Topeka have shown little interest in 
reconsidering Kansas' death penalty law.

(source: kansas.com)





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

High cost of the death penalty


More than 9 years after 19-year-old Jodi Sanderholm was killed, and 7 years 
after her killer was sentenced to death, he remains alive and behind bars at El 
Dorado Correctional Facility.

Sanderholm's murderer, Justin Eugene Thurber, spends 23 hours per day in an 
individual cell at El Dorado, where he is working through the appeals process.

Thurber is 1 of 10 men who make up Kansas' 'death row,' and our state doesn't 
appear to plan to execute these inmates anytime soon.

In fact, since Kansas reinstated the death penalty 22 years ago, no one has 
been executed in our state.

Our investigation reveals the truth of the death penalty process in Kansas, and 
why some victims' families fear these inmates may never have their sentences 
carried out. Hear from the family of murder victim, Jodi Sanderholm, and the 
tough questions we ask Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt.

KSN Investigates the death penalty in Kansas Monday night at 10:00 only on KSN 
News.

(source: KSN news)






OKLAHOMA:

'Google it': Oklahoma execution ordered to go ahead despite wrong drugs being 
delivered


The governor of Oklahoma's top lawyer is out of a job after insisting that a 
state execution proceed despite prison officials receiving the wrong drug for 
carrying it out, while telling a deputy attorney general alerting him to the 
problem to "Google it."

A grand jury report found that when a deputy attorney general learned that 
potassium acetate would be used in the September 30, 2015 execution of Richard 
Glossip instead of potassium chloride, she contacted the governor's general 
counsel for further instruction.

The deputy attorney general was then assured that "potassium chloride and 
potassium acetate were basically 1 in the same drug, advising deputy attorney 
general to 'Google it,'" the grand jury report said, according to the 
Associated Press.

Fallin's general counsel, Steve Mullins, also told the deputy attorney general 
that she could not request a stay of vacation, because "it would look bad for 
the state of Oklahoma because potassium acetate had already been used in 
(Charles) Warner's execution."

Following Mullins' suggestion, the deputy attorney general actually did Google 
it, and learned that potassium chloride and potassium acetate were, in fact, 
not 1 in the same. As a result, Governor Fallin issued a stay of execution, and 
Glossip remains on death row for the murder of a motel owner in 1997.

Mullins resigned from his position in February and has not commented on the 
grand jury's report.

"It is unacceptable for the governor's general counsel to so flippantly and 
recklessly disregard the written protocol and the rights of Richard Glossip," 
the grand jury said.

After appearing before the grand jury, both Anita Trammell, the penitentiary 
warden, and Robert Patton, the head of the Department of Corrections, resigned 
from their posts, having faced scrutiny for failing to notify anyone when they 
received potassium acetate for the 2nd time.

The report did not view them in a favorable light either, saying "It is 
inexcusable for a senior administrator with 30 years as a department employee 
to testify that 'there are just some things you ask questions about, and 
there's some things you don't.'"

Attorney General Scott Pruitt has said that no executions will be scheduled 
until 5 months after the release of the grand jury's report and his office 
receives official notification that the prison system can resume executions.

(source: rt.com)

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

New calls to end death penalty after grand jury says Dept. of Corrections 
'failed'


A scathing, 106-page report from a multi-county grand jury calls for sweeping 
changes to the state's protocol for executing inmates, but some said the report 
doesn't go far enough. "When we see this kind of drastic, systematic failure, 
we should really take a hard look at what we're doing as a state and why this 
is something we should continue to do," said defense attorney Jacqui Ford. "The 
point is whether the government and the state of Oklahoma should be permitted 
to continue to engage in state-sponsored homicide when they can't follow their 
own rules."

Attorney General Scott Pruitt asked for an investigation after discovering 
corrections workers used the incorrect, unapproved drugs to execute Charles 
Warner in January 2015.

Later that year, the governor stayed Richard Glossip's execution, after it was 
discovered the same incorrect drugs were about to be administered.

Corrections officials discovered they had potassium acetate, instead of the 
approved potassium chloride.

The grand jury did not indict anyone, but its report details a number of 
shortcomings, citing the following people for failing to perform their duties 
with precision and attention to detail:

--DOC Director Robert Patton, who orally modified the execution protocol 
without authority

--The Pharmacist ordered the wrong execution drugs

--The Department's General Counsel failed to inventory the execution drugs as 
mandated by state purchasing requirements

--An agent with the Department's Office of Inspector General failed to inspect 
the execution drugs while transporting them into the Oklahoma State 
Penitentiary

--Warden Anita Trammel failed to notify anyone in the Department that potassium 
acetate had been received

--The H Unit Section Chief failed to observe the Department had received the 
wrong execution drugs

--The IV Team failed to observe the Department had received the wrong execution 
drugs; the Department's Execution Protocol failed to define important teiins, 
and lacked controls to ensure the proper execution drugs were obtained and 
administered

--Governor Fallin's General Counsel Steve Mullins advocated the Department 
proceed with the Glossip execution using potassium acetate

"I would respect that report and try to learn from it," said former prosecutor 
Lou Keel. "These are things the Department of Corrections must get right."

Keel prosecuted the Charles Warner case and said he still stands by the death 
penalty, even after Oklahoma's well-documented problems, which have only added 
to opposition to capital punishment.

"Some murders are so horrendous, so heinous that the only right and just 
punishment is the death penalty," said Keel, who estimates he sent 15 people to 
death row. "Certainly, this is a process, as a society, that we have to get 
right. When you impose the ultimate sanction on people, it's important this be 
done in the most humane way possible."

Keel doesn't dispute the DOC's shortcomings but wonders about how serious the 
drug mix-up was.

Warner died in 18 minutes, and the grand jury concluded "There is no evidence 
the manner of execution caused Warner any needless pain."

NewsChannel 4's Abby Broyles witnessed the execution and reported hearing him 
say his body was on fire.

The grand jury does not appear to be finished with its investigation.

Its report concludes noting its next scheduled meeting is June 13-16, where it 
will summon additional witnesses and gather physical evidence.

(source: KFOR news)

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

Oklahoma voters will be asked to add death penalty to state constitution


Should the death penalty be part of the Oklahoma constitution? Voters will make 
that call this November.

Voters will have a say on if the state should allow alternative forms of 
executions in case the current method is found unconstitutional.

Right now, executions are on hold in the state and a new grand jury report 
detailed issues with the current method in light of the wrong drug being used 
in an execution in 2015 and almost used again in another exeuction last 
September.

FOX23's Shae Rozzi is taking a closer look at what it means to make this change 
and why some say the state is looking at the issue wrong.

(source: Fox News)






ARIZONA:

Judge's execution ruling leaves Arizona at crossroads in death penalty debate


Arizona will not be killing anyone by lethal injection anytime soon.

This comes as a result of 3 things:

1. A recent ruling by U.S. District Judge Neil Wake keeping all executions in 
Arizona on hold for an unspecified amount of time.

2. Pfizer, a pharmaceutical giant, recently announcing it would no longer 
supply prisons with 7 drugs used to impose the death penalty, including 1 used 
by Arizona, midazolam.

3. The fact that Arizona's supply of midazolam is set to expire on May 31.

Arizona's current protocol in executions calls for midazolam. This was used on 
July 23, 2014 when Arizona executed Joseph Wood - Arizona's last execution to 
date - which did not turn out as expected.

As a result of this "botched execution" (as many have termed it), a federal 
lawsuit was filed by 7 death row inmates and the First Amendment Coalition of 
Arizona demanding the state stop using the questionable drug cocktail and more 
transparency in the execution process.

As part of that lawsuit, Wake issued a moratorium on executions until 
investigations into the Wood execution could be completed.

Earlier this year, those investigations were completed and Wake ordered the 
lawsuit go forward.

Shortly after that ruling, Arizona requested Wake allow executions to go 
forward since its supply of midazolam was approaching its expiration date and 
that state has no way to replace that supply since manufacturers don't want 
their products used in executions. Not persuaded, Wake ruled Wednesday that the 
ban on executions will remain in place.

What is next for Arizona? Will the wild, wild west start using the firing 
squad? Not likely.

If Arizona wants to continue executing prisoners, I see a few options:

-- Return to the use of lethal gas (which carries its own difficulties)

-- Create a new protocol with a new drug combination, (which is costly and 
time-consuming)

-- Ask the Legislature and/or voters to approve a different technique to carry 
out executions (costly, time-consuming and not really practical)

The state could also move to get rid of the death penalty, which would be the 
easiest option, but would be costly and time-consuming process.

Regardless of which road Arizona chooses to head down, it will have to dedicate 
a fair amount of money and time to resolve this seemingly never-ending battle 
between those that believe in the death penalty and those that are opposed to 
it.

(source: Monica Lindstrom, KTAR news)






CALIFORNIA:

OC Law Enforcement Makes Push to Revamp Death Penalty----Prosecutors and 
sheriff's officials submitted more than 600,000 signatures for a measure that 
would speed up executions.


Backers of a proposed ballot initiative aimed at revamping California's death 
penalty and expediting executions submitted nearly 600,000 petition signatures 
today in hopes of getting the proposal before voters in November.

Representatives with Californians for Death Penalty Reform and Savings held 
news conferences around the state today to discuss the proposal, which would 
attempt to speed executions by requiring the immediate appointment of an 
appeals attorney for people who are sentenced to death, while also requiring 
death row inmates to work while imprisoned and pay restitution to victims' 
families.

It would also allow death row inmates to double-bunk instead of being held in 
costlier, single cells.

Backers of the measure claim it will "save California taxpayers millions of 
dollars every year, assure due process protections for those sentenced to death 
and promote justice for murder victims and their families."

Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas is among the initiative's 
supporters.

"There are a number of measures to speed up the process, to streamline it a 
little bit," Rackauckas said. "For example, appointment of counsel to defend 
death penalty cases would be done at a much faster pace. Right now it takes 
years and years to get defense counsel to start looking at it."

Some critics of the death penalty process point to a dearth of attorneys who 
specialize in the field, making it difficult for attorneys assigned to death 
row clients to catch up on their case loads, but Rackauckas disputed that.

"There are a lot of attorneys in this state and a lot of attorneys who have 
every bit of ability to handle this kind of case," Rackauckas said. "To suggest 
only a few people can handle death penalty cases across the state is simply not 
accurate."

Opponents, however, claim the initiative would increase the risk of wrongful 
executions. Officials with the Innocence Project noted that since 1973, 156 
people who were on death row were exonerated and freed, including 3 in 
California.

"California's legal process in death penalty cases exists for a reason: to make 
sure that innocent people aren't executed," said Alex Simpson, associate 
director of the California Innocence Project. "This measure guts these 
important protections by applying unrealistic and arbitrary timelines, greatly 
increasing the chance that we send an innocent person to the death chamber and 
allow a guilty person a free pass to victimize again."

Barry Scheck, director of the Innocence Project in New York, said the state 
would be making "a grave and irreversible mistake" by approving the initiative.

"Texas, which this initiative is modeled after, continues to grapple with the 
execution of Cameron Todd Willingham, who was put to death despite powerful 
scientific evidence undermining his guilt and mounting evidence of 
prosecutorial misconduct," Scheck said.

U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney in Santa Ana ruled in July 2014 that the 
state's death penalty system was bogged down with so many procedural delays 
that it violated the due process of death row prisoners. The 9th Circuit Court 
of Appeals, however, reversed that ruling in November.

Since 1978, 900 convicts have been sentenced to death in the state, but 94 of 
them have died of natural causes in prison and 13 have been executed.

The last execution carried out in California was in 2006. Executions have been 
put on hold because of a 9th Circuit ruling requiring a medical professional to 
administer lethal injection drugs.

Tom Dominguez, president of the Association of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs, 
said the issue of reforming the death penalty is a personal one to law 
enforcement personnel.

"There are 43 convicted cop killers on death row, so this is deeply personal to 
us," Dominguez said.

"We hope this initiative will streamline the appeals process so that at least 
within our lifetime justice is done," he said. "The killer has rights, too, but 
this initiative does nothing to erode the constitutional rights afforded all of 
us."

(source: patch.com)

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

Bosenko, Lopey back death penalty reform measure


Sheriffs in 2 North State counties on Thursday threw their support behind a 
measure coming before California voters in November to provide sweeping changes 
to the state's death penalty laws.

"The death penalty system and the court system (are) broken down and this 
reform act will help restore the efficiencies to the process and help bring 
justice and hold those criminals accountable that have done heinous crimes 
throughout California," Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko said.

The measure - the Death Penalty Reform and Savings Act - is 1 of 2 that could 
appear on the November ballot. Another, currently under signature review at the 
California Secretary of State, would abolish capital punishment in California 
altogether.

Thursday's news conference with Bosenko and Siskiyou County Sheriff Jon Lopey 
was one of 10 held statewide in support of the measure as proponents submitted 
some 593,000 signatures to the California Secretary of State.

Death row inmates have murdered more than 1,000 victims, including 226 children 
and 43 police officers, Lopey said. In addition, 294 victims were raped or 
tortured before being killed, he said.

"Again we're talking about the very worst, less than 1 percent of murder 
suspects convicted in court," Lopey said. "The serial killers, the child 
killers, the cop killers and again we're just looking for justice for the 
victims and a better system within which to manage these case."

The measure would speed what is currently a lengthy appeals process by 
expanding the pool of appellate attorneys and appointing lawyers to the death 
cases at the time of sentencing, according to the Associated Press.

Currently there is about a 5-year wait just for condemned inmates to be 
assigned a lawyer. By contrast, the ballot measure would require that the 
entire state appeals process be completed within 5 years except under 
extraordinary circumstances.

To meet that timeline, appeals would have to be filed more quickly and there 
would be limits on how many appeals could be filed in each case.

Appeals currently can take more than 2 decades, according to the nonpartisan 
Legislative Analyst's Office.

Additional provisions would allow condemned inmates to be housed at any prison, 
not just on San Quentin's death row, and they would have to work and pay victim 
restitution while they wait to be executed.

"As a sheriff, and as an advocate for victims, this act is very, very important 
and I think it would be a landmark law that will not only be more merciful for 
victims and will honor victims and is actually more humane for inmates as well 
because then they won't wait 20 or 30 years to receive a disposition on their 
case," Lopey said.

California last executed a death row inmate more than a decade ago, in January 
2006, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. 
Since then 53 of those condemned have died either by suicide or natural causes.

The CDCR lists 747 inmates currently on death row.

Opponents say their measure - the Justice That Works Act - would also save 
money by doing away with the death penalty and keeping currently condemned 
inmates imprisoned for life with no chance of parole. They submitted about 
601,000 signatures on April 28, organizers said.

California meanwhile is currently in the process of accepting public comment on 
proposed changes to its lethal injection rules, which would change the drugs 
used from a 3-drug cocktail to a single drug. The rules are the result of a 
decade-long legal battle of the state's lethal injection rules.

Other states in the U.S. have encountered issues recently as Pfizer, a drug 
company that makes a chemical used in lethal injection, said it will no longer 
provide it.

California, however, isn't using any of those drugs, according to the proposed 
rule changes.

Go to http://bit.ly/1TqsJt8 to read Death Penalty Reform and Savings Act or 
http://bit.ly/1TqszSK to read the Justice That Works Act.

(source: Redding Searchlight)

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

Fresno sheriff, DA back death penalty initiative


Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims and District Attorney Lisa Smittcamp 
Thursday hailed the submission of 593,000 signatures that will likely ensure 
that the Death Penalty Reform and Savings initiative appears on the ballot in 
November.

The measure, which backers said is supported by law enforcement leaders and 
crime victims, promises to eliminate "waste, delays and inefficiencies" in the 
state's death penalty process. Among the ways it says it would do so would be 
by expanding the number of attorneys available to work death penalty cases, 
allow the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to house death row 
inmates in less costly housing with fewer special privileges, and require 
condemned inmates to work and pay restitution to victims.

Mims said the measure would make sure crime victims "are given justice for the 
suffering they've endured." She added that the death penalty is needed to 
protect the state's peace officers, who "are on the front lines in keeping 
Californians safe," and "helps us in the fight against the worst criminals in 
society."

Said Smittcamp: "700 death row inmates have murdered more than 1,000 victims."

The Death Penalty Reform initiative is opposed by the Innocence Project and 
Wrongfully Convicted Individuals, who argue that the initiative "will greatly 
increase the risk that California executes an innocent person." The group 
argues that since 1973, 156 people have been exonerated and freed from the 
nation's death rows, and says 3 of them were in California.

(source: Fresno Bee)






USA:

The Death Penalty in America Today


Last week's news told us everything we need to know about the death penalty in 
America today.

On Thursday, May 12, in Alabama, the scheduled execution of Vernon Madison was 
halted at the last minute because of a split 4-4 vote by the Supreme Court. 
This tie meant that the temporary stay of execution approved by the 11th 
Circuit Court of Appeals remained in-tact. Madison is 65 years old and suffers 
from the effects of several strokes, diabetes, hypertension, and, possibly, 
dementia. He slurs his words, walks with a cane, is legally blind and exhibits 
"significant cognitive decline," according to his lawyers. He can no longer 
remember the offense for which he was condemned to die.

Moreover, Madison's 3 trials for the 1985 murder of a police officer were 
marked by prosecutorial misconduct, racial bias, and the questionable practice 
of judicial over-ride. Twice, courts ordered a new trial for him - the 1st time 
because African Americans were illegally struck from the jury, and the second 
time because of improper expert testimony. While the 3rd trial resulted in a 
guilty verdict, the jury voted to sentence him to life in prison. The elected 
judge, however, over-rode the jury's decision and imposed a death sentence. 
Alabama is 1 of only 2 states that allows for judicial over-ride in death 
sentences, a practice that has been severely criticized and makes the state, in 
the words of Supreme Court Justice Sotomeyer, a "clear outlier."

Despite all of these factors, the state of Alabama was fully prepared to 
proceed with the execution. The fact that Madison is alive today is largely a 
fluke. The Supreme Court split its vote because Justice Antonin Scalia died in 
his sleep several months ago, and the Senate is steadfastly refusing to review 
and vote upon the President's nominee to replace him.

In other words, this entire process has been characterized by dysfunction all 
around.

The next day, on Friday, the pharmaceutical giant, Pfizer, announced it would 
no longer make its products available for lethal injection, writing that to do 
so would not be "consistent with its values." Pfizer's decision means that 
those states that remain determined to proceed with executions must either 
convene a firing squad, bring back the electric chair, or apply a combination 
of untested, unregulated drugs that may or may not work, may or may not torture 
the individual, and that were obtained in a process shrouded in secrecy.

All are grisly options.

This is what capital punishment in this country looks like. Death sentences are 
imposed in a shrinking number of counties with histories of extreme racial 
bias, in wholly arbitrary fashions after trials often marked by prosecutorial 
over-reach and misconduct, against defendants who are almost always poor, and 
suffer from histories of trauma, abuse and mental illness. The executions now 
are fraught with secrecy, fear and uncertainty, the threat of agonizing error 
always looming, and traumatize all who are associated with it.

The only way to fix this is to end this. Hillary Clinton is wrong when she 
suggests that the United States is capable of holding the death penalty 
exclusively "in reserve" for terrorists. If the definition of insanity is doing 
the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, then this 
position is insane. We have tried time and again to "fix" capital punishment. 
But its mere existence on the books triggers a blood-thirstiness in some 
prosecutors, who consider death sentences to be "feathers in their caps," and 
testaments to their trial skills. As long as the statute exists, it will be a 
magnet for racial bias, human error, and a lust for vengeance. It is the 
responsibility of a civilized society to tamp down, not inflame, violent 
impulses among its citizens.

When the history of the end of capital punishment is written from a distance of 
50 years or so, these last, sputtering efforts to maintain it may appear to be 
almost darkly comic, if the results weren't so tragic. The death penalty in 
this country is dying, of that there is no doubt. The question that remains is 
whether we will be able to put it out of its misery relatively quickly, or 
whether it will go out screaming and kicking every step of the way.

(source: Johanna Wald, Director of Strategic Planning for the Charles Hamilton 
Houston Institute for Race and Justice, Harvard Law School ---- Huffington 
Post)