[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----MO., OKLA., NEB., CALIF., USA

[Rick Halperin]

April 21



MISSOURI:

Mother of Hailey Owens asks prosecutor to drop death penalty


The mother of Hailey Owens said this week she does not want to sit through a 
trial.

The News-Leader reported earlier this year that Craig Wood - the man accused of 
kidnapping, raping and murdering 10-year-old Hailey in 2014 - is willing to 
spend the rest of his life in prison if, in exchange, the Greene County 
prosecutor drops his pursuit of the death penalty.

Stacey Barfield, Hailey's mom, told the News-Leader on Tuesday she wants 
prosecutors to take that deal.

"I don't want to go through the trial because I don't want to relive the 
nightmare," Barfield said. "I'm never going to be over it, but just re-seeing 
it is going to make it 10 times worse."

Wood is accused of snatching Hailey off the street in west Springfield on Feb. 
18, 2014. Her body was allegedly found hours later wrapped up in his basement.

Sitting through even the routine pretrial court appearances over the last three 
years has been tough for Barfield.

"It's hard enough to sit there and have to look at him," Barfield said. "He 
doesn't have no emotion. He just sits there with a blank face."

Barfield sent a letter to Greene County Prosecutor Dan Patterson on April 1 
asking him to accept a plea deal.

"I am writing to request your mercy," Barfield wrote. "Mercy for me, for my 
family, and for the memory of my daughter, Hailey Owens."

"You have the power to end my suffering," she continued. "Please accept a plea 
deal for life without the possibility of parole in Craig Wood's case. Then, I 
can focus on rebuilding my life."

Barfield said Tuesday she had not heard back from Patterson on the letter.

Patterson has said ethics rules prohibit him from publicly discussing possible 
plea negotiations.

He told the News-Leader in February he has a number of factors to weigh in 
death penalty cases including input from the victim's family, the facts of the 
case, the defendant and the interests of the community and the state.

Barfield had deferred to her husband Jeff to make public comments for much of 
the last three years, but she is now taking on that role after separating from 
Jeff - who was indicted in February on a federal child porn charge unrelated to 
Hailey's case.

She said the state legislature is close to passing Hailey's Law, which would 
streamline the Amber Alert process, and she expects to reach a settlement soon 
in her civil lawsuit against Wood.

The criminal case, which is set for trial in October, is what gives Stacey 
Barfield the most anxiety at this point.

Barfield said if Wood is sentenced to death, it would likely mean years of 
appeals and more time spent in court, which is something she would rather 
avoid.

"I would be happy just to get justice for Hailey and just say 'OK, it's a done 
deal' and I don't have to sit in court no more and look at him," Barfield said.

Asked what justice would mean, Barfield said: "I want Craig Wood to not be able 
to see sunlight, to not be able to go out into public."

Barfield said she will never be able to forgive Wood, but she wants to focus on 
the joy of Hailey's life instead of her tragic death.

Wood, 48, has been charged with kidnapping, rape and murder in connection with 
Hailey's death on Feb. 18, 2014.

Springfield police say the girl's body was found wrapped in garbage bags in 
Wood's basement, hours after witnesses saw someone matching Wood's description 
grab Hailey off the street near her home.

A march and vigil for slain 10-year-old Hailey Owens drew thousands of people 
in 2014.

4 days after Hailey's death, an estimated 10,000 people marched in a 
candlelight vigil on Commercial Street in Springfield. The Jefferson Avenue 
Footbridge, where the march ended, was illuminated in purple, Hailey's favorite 
color.

Many others in Springfield left their porch lights on in memory of Hailey and 
donated to her memorial fund.

Wood took the stand briefly during a pretrial court appearance last year, and 
during cross-examination, he said he was high on meth during the time frame in 
which he is accused of abducting and killing Hailey.

Much of the recent court proceedings in the case have dealt with mental 
evaluations for Wood, and what rights prosecutors have to see notes from 
psychologists and to have their own psychologist interview Wood.

In Jefferson City, Stacey Barfield has teamed up with Wood's parents, Jim and 
Regina Wood, to advocate for legislation that would speed up Missouri's Amber 
Alerts, which are issued for abducted children.

(source: Springfield News-Leader)






OKLAHOMA:

State may seek death penalty for man accused of killing Logan Co. Deputy


The man accused of shooting and killing Logan County Deputy David Wade made his 
1st court appearance Thursday, April 20, at 1:30 p.m.

According to the Logan County District Attorney Laura Thomas, that state may 
seek the death penalty for Nathan Aaron Leforce.

Leforce, 45, is accused of shooting deputy Wade multiple times around 8:45 a.m. 
on April 18 at a home near CR 66 and Midwest Boulevard while the deputy was 
serving an eviction notice. Leforce then allegedly stole Wade's vehicle and 
fled the scene.

Wade was airlifted to OU Medical Center following the shooting, where he later 
died.

Leforce was taken into custody just after 2 p.m. Tuesday in an outbuilding near 
a residence close to the intersection of CR 76 and Jaxton Road.

Sheriff Devereaux says Leforce is currently being held in the Payne County Jail 
.

Leforce is facing a charge of 1st-degree-murder.

Investigators have yet to find the gun used to kill deputy Wade, according to 
the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation. OSBI agents, Logan County Sheriff's 
deputies, Payne County Sheriff's deputies, Cashion Police officers, ATF agents 
and OHP troopers are scattered about the area of the incident Thursday morning 
searching for the weapon.

(source: okcfox.com)






NEBRASKA:

Nebraska senators debate lethal injection secrecy bill


A proposal that would let Nebraska officials hide the identities of lethal 
injection suppliers drew criticism Wednesday from death penalty opponents but 
support from lawmakers who say the state needs it to resume executions.

It was unclear whether the bill had enough support to overcome a filibuster, 
but the senator who introduced it said he believes he has a decent chance to 
advance it through the Legislature.

Sen. John Kuehn of Heartwell said the bill seeks to protect drug makers who 
would otherwise face public harassment from death penalty opponents. Commonly 
used lethal injection drugs have become scarce because many North American and 
European pharmaceutical companies refuse to sell drugs for use in executions.

"I believe the harm created by this disclosure far outweighs any alleged 
benefit," said Kuehn, a veterinarian who said he has faced drug shortages in 
his practice.

Lawmakers began debate on the bill Wednesday but adjourned for the day without 
voting on it.

Kuehn said concealing the supplier's identity would allow Nebraska officials to 
purchase drugs from a domestic supplier, such as a compounding pharmacy, to 
circumvent the problems associated with importing overseas drugs.

Kuehn said he never wanted to deal with capital punishment when he ran for 
office, but he views the loss of legitimate drugs as too great a problem. He 
said the supplier's identity was irrelevant to the drugs' quality.

"I truly do believe this is an issue of social justice," he said.

Opponents said the state should keep its current transparent process that 
requires the Department of Correctional Services to disclose its suppliers.

Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha, a staunch death penalty opponent, predicted the 
bill would trigger new appeals and that the courts would make "mincemeat" out 
of it. Chambers said death penalty supporters should blame themselves for the 
drug shortage.

"They took something that was wholesome, something designed to promote health, 
and turned it into a killing substance," Chambers said.

Nebraska corrections director Scott Frakes has said he has already started to 
look for drugs to carry out executions, but told a legislative committee in 
February that it would be "very difficult" to acquire them if the department 
was forced to identify its suppliers.

Of the 31 states with the death penalty, 15 have enacted similar shield laws.

Gov. Pete Ricketts approved a new lethal injection protocol in January that 
gives the Department of Correctional Services greater flexibility to choose 
which drugs are used in executions. An early draft of the protocol included a 
secrecy provision, but Frakes said department officials removed it after 
deciding they first needed legislative approval.

Voters signaled their support for the death penalty last year when they 
overturned the Legislature's 2015 decision to abolish capital punishment. The 
issue was placed on the ballot through a referendum partially financed by 
Ricketts, who supports capital punishment.

Death penalty supporters portrayed the vote as a mandate for state officials to 
resume executions. Nebraska hasn't executed an inmate since 1997, using the 
electric chair. The state has 10 men on death row, but has never carried out 
the punishment with lethal injection.

"We do not have the right to obstruct justice, and that is what is happening 
here," said Sen. Mike Groene of North Platte. Defendants sentenced to death 
"are the worst of the worst of the human race. They chose their fate."

Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks of Omaha, a death penalty opponent, said voters never 
specified whether they supported concealing suppliers' identities.

(source: York News-Times)






CALIFORNIA:

California's death row turning into home for seniors


California's death row houses more senior citizens than most of the state's 
nursing homes.

90 California death-row inmates are at least 65 years old, corrections records 
show. The number of seniors on death row has grown by nearly 500 % since early 
2006, when the state housed 16 seniors.

California has not executed a prisoner since 2006, largely due to legal 
challenges to its lethal injection protocol. California voters approved 
Proposition 66 in November, demanding that the state speed up the death penalty 
process. The implementation of Proposition 66 is on hold as the Supreme Court 
rules on its constitutionality.

If California starts executing prisoners again, there is a strong chance that 
it will kill several elderly inmates. Condemned inmates over 65 committed their 
crimes an average of 31 years ago; a large number of their sentences have been 
upheld by the California Supreme Court.

Executing the elderly rarely happens in the United States. Just 19 of the 1,448 
U.S. executions that have taken place during the last 40 years have involved a 
killer over the age of 65, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

California currently has - by a wide margin - the highest number of seniors on 
death row. About 12 % of the state's 749 condemned inmates are at least 65. In 
the 4 other states with the largest death rows - Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania 
and Alabama - about 7 % of condemned inmates are at least 65.

The oldest person executed in the modern era was John Nixon, who was 77 when 
Mississippi killed him in 2005. 5 condemned inmates in California are older 
than Nixon.

(source: sacbee.com)

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

Is California ready for frequent executions?


There's 1 item on my reporting bucket list I never did check off - witnessing 
an execution. I came very close once, even getting a tour of the gas chamber.

The condemned inmate was David Lawson, convicted of shooting Wayne Shinn in the 
back of the head during a home break-in. I talked to Shinn's family and covered 
Lawson's news conference when he blamed depression for driving him to murder 
and urged other mentally ill people to get help. "I desperately want my death 
to have meaning," he said. "I am no monster."

Lawson became a national story because he and TV talk show host Phil Donahue 
wanted his execution to be the 1st one televised in the United States. So at 
first, I was disappointed that another reporter was chosen as a witness.

But after what happened at Central Prison in Raleigh, N.C., in June 1994, I was 
relieved. As the cyanide was pumped in, Lawson yelled, "I'm human, I'm human," 
and screamed for 5 minutes before convulsing, gasping and, finally, going 
still.

I've been thinking about that as I follow the news that Arkansas plans an 
unusual spree of executions. Originally, it was 8 in 11 days, and was to have 
started with 2 on Monday. After a frenzy of court rulings, it's now at least 
four executions by the end of the month, with the 1st set for Thursday night, 
barring more legal action.

Could it be a preview of what's to come in California?

Our state has had no executions since 2006, and only 13 since the death penalty 
was reinstated in 1978. Meanwhile, death row has mushroomed to 749 prisoners, 
twice as many as any other state.

But last November, voters called for speeding up executions. To completely 
empty death row, it would take 1 execution a day, every day, for nearly 2 
years.

Are we really prepared for anything close to that?

Kent Scheidegger, legal director of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, says 
he expects 1 or 2 executions a month, and doesn't expect any drop in public 
support as a result.

I'm not so sure. After executions resumed in 1992, we've had them at least 2 
months apart. And many Californians are ambivalent about the death penalty. The 
message from recent statewide measures seems to be: Keep capital punishment on 
the books, but don't actually execute anyone.

In November, a bare majority of 51 % approved Proposition 66, which is supposed 
to speed executions by streamlining court appeals. (The state Supreme Court put 
the measure on hold for now after death penalty opponents sued.)

Yet also in November, voters rejected Proposition 62 to repeal the death 
penalty by a 53 % to 47 % margin, slightly more than the 52 % who opposed a 
similar measure, Proposition 34, in 2012.

Especially in a few Southern California counties, voters are also electing 
district attorneys who are putting more people on death row. Even as death 
sentences have plummeted in recent years nationally, California has had the 
most, with 14 of 49 death sentences in 2015 and 9 of 32 in 2016.

Public support for the death penalty is persistent despite studies that show it 
is unfair and racially discriminatory. In California, very similar crimes can 
lead to a death sentence in one county but not in another. Not to mention the 
possibility of innocent people being executed; nationwide, more than 150 death 
row inmates have been exonerated since 1973, according to the Death Penalty 
Information Center.

What is happening in Arkansas drew so much attention because it would be so out 
of the ordinary. The number of executions has been declining across America, 
and a state hasn't executed multiple prisoners on the same day for 16 years. 
Until now, Arkansas had executed only 27 inmates since 1976, nowhere near the 
leading state, Texas with 542.

No question, the crimes committed by the condemned inmates in Arkansas are 
horrible, and the families of their victims have been waiting a long time for 
justice. Jack Jones, on death row for 22 years, was convicted of raping and 
killing a bookkeeper and beating her daughter. Marcel Williams, sentenced 20 
years ago, was convicted of kidnapping, raping and killing a 22-year-old mother 
of 2. They???re both scheduled for execution on Monday.

But the reason for the sudden rush is that the state's supply of a lethal 
injection drug expires at the end of the month. That is a strangely mundane 
justification on something this momentous.

The drug in question, midazolam, has been linked to several botched executions. 
The companies that make the others are suing to stop Arkansas from using their 
drugs, and a judge sided with one on Wednesday.

Because of all the problems with lethal drugs, some states have brought back 
the gas chamber, electric chair and even the firing squad. California is 
proposing a new lethal injection protocol that gives the warden at San Quentin 
the power to choose 1 of 4 barbiturates, including 2 that have never been used 
before in the U.S.

States moved to lethal drugs in part because it would be more clinical, but it 
hasn't always turned out that way. The last time a state sought to execute more 
than 1 inmate in a day was in 2014 in Oklahoma. It canceled the 2nd one after 
the 1st writhed in pain during the botched lethal injection and was left to die 
of a heart attack.

In theory, finally carrying out sentences against evil people sounds appealing, 
especially when you see and hear the loved ones of victims.

But in real life, executions can be gruesome. And no matter how common they 
might become, it's killing in our name.

(source: Opinion, Foon Rhee----Sacramento Bee)






USA:

US regulators block Texas, Arizona over import of execution drug----Texas sued 
in January for the drug's release, saying in its lawsuit that it was importing 
the sodium thiopental for legal executions.


A US regulatory agency told Texas and Arizona that more than a thousand vials 
of drugs they ordered for executions in their states from India in 2015, and 
seized by US Customs, will not be released to them, an official said on 
Thursday. The Food and Drug Administration notified the Texas Department of 
Criminal Justice and the Arizona Department of Corrections that their 
confiscated shipments of sodium thiopental have been refused on the basis that 
the detained drugs appear to be unapproved new drugs and misbranded drugs, FDA 
press officer Lyndsay Meyer said.

Officials in Arizona were not immediately available for comment. "It has taken 
almost 2 years for the Food and Drug Administration to reach a decision, which 
we believe is flawed. TDCJ fully complied with the steps necessary to lawfully 
import the shipment," the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said in a 
statement. "We are exploring all options to remedy the unjustified seizure," it 
said. Arizona officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Texas sued in January for the drug's release, saying in its lawsuit that it was 
importing the sodium thiopental for legal executions. Sodium thiopental renders 
a person unconscious and was a staple of lethal injection mixes but has not 
been made in the United States for several years. "Texas appears to be trying 
to carve out an exception for this 1 purpose (using the drug in a lethal 
injection)," said Megan McCracken, an expert on lethal injection drugs and a 
professor at the University of California Berkeley School of Law. About 6 years 
ago, major pharmaceutical companies began imposing bans on sales of their 
products for use in executions, which left death penalty states scrambling to 
come up with new mixes and suppliers.

Many have turned to a less powerful, Valium-like sedative called midazolam to 
render prisoners unconscious. It has been used in troubled executions in 
Oklahoma and Arizona where inmates who were supposed to be insensate were seen 
twisting in pain on death chamber gurneys. Nebraska, South Dakota, Ohio, 
Arizona and Texas tried to import sodium thiopental from India between 2010 and 
2015, according to court records and news media reports, but federal regulators 
blocked the moves. Previous attempts to import the drug have also been blocked 
by federal courts after challenges from death row inmates. The last major case 
was decided in 2013.

(source: Reuters)

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

In a civilized society the death penalty is an abomination


The obscene manner in which Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson is racing towards what 
observers call "conveyor belt executions" - putting 8 murderers to death in 10 
days, 4 of them blacks in a state where African Americans are under 14 % of the 
population - has drawn not just understandable condemnation but also has added 
fuel to the fire of opposition to capital punishment.

Courts including the U.S. Supreme Court, have temporarily halted the 
executions, 2 of which were scheduled for last Monday night, not because of 
concerns for the imposition of the death penalty itself but because of the 
manner in which it is being conducted.

The most common method is by injecting drugs into the veins of the condemned 
person through a drug "cocktail." Arkansas is running out of the drugs to do 
so, hence the haste, and they are partly stymied by lawsuits filed by 
pharmaceutical companies that want their products to save lives, not take them.

Other cases focusing on the death penalty have challenged its constitutionality 
- whether it is cruel and unusual. The U.S. Supreme Court, in fact, issued 
rulings which, in 1972, effectively abolished capital punishment but reinstated 
it in 1976. And while many exonerations have taken place because of racial bias 
in convictions and sentencing, that in itself has not led to any ruling that 
outlaws the death penalty. Of all the arguments against executions, the most 
compelling is racial bias in the criminal justice system, regarded by some as a 
direct legacy of slavery.

The Death Penalty Information Center reported that since 1976, 498 blacks were 
put to death or 34.5 % of the total, although African Americans are only 13 % 
of the population. In the same period, 807 whites were executed, or 55.6 %, 
although whites are more than 70 % of the population.

The number of blacks awaiting execution is more than 1,215 or 41.67 % of the 
total, compared with 1,226 whites or 42.23 %. Florida has the 2nd largest 
number of death row inmates after California: 395, of whom 153 are blacks, 
although blacks are less than 17% of the population.

In addition, the National Registry of Exonerations reported that: * Blacks are 
7 times more likely than whites to be convicted of murder.

* Blacks convicted of murder are roughly 50 % more likely to be innocent than 
others.

This high rate of conviction is linked to the race of the victims: white.

Further, according to a New York Times report on Sept. 7, 1991, whites are 
rarely executed for killing blacks: A white person convicted of killing a black 
man was executed a day earlier - the 1st in at least 1,000 executions in more 
than 50 years.

And the Guardian reported on Jan. 3, 2012, that, in Alabama, 80 % of death 
sentences were handed down against blacks in the case of white victims.

Such statistics alone should be enough to abolish the death penalty Americans 
have persisted in clinging to ever since George Kendall of the Jamestown colony 
in Virginia became the 1st person executed in 1608. Down the years, people were 
put to death even for petty crimes such as "stealing grapes, killing chickens 
and trading with Indians," according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

Imposition of the death penalty has long since become a matter for states and 
it is used mostly in cases of murder; only a small number of offences come 
under federal prosecution.

Nations' killing their subjects dates back to at least the 18th century B.C., 
according to the Death Penalty Information Center, and the practice came to the 
United States with European settlers. Opposition arose not long afterwards.

Public support has been declining over years and today 19 states have abolished 
the death penalty. The number of people sentenced to die and the number 
executed have dropped sharply.

Still, all that has done is dropping the United States from 5th to 7th place in 
the world among nations that execute their citizens - in the company of China, 
Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Pakistan and Egypt, according to Amnesty 
International.

Although 140 countries have abolished capital punishment, the U.S. has refused 
to ratify any international treaty outlawing the death penalty and is the only 
nation in the West and in the Americas to execute people.

Whatever the reasons for the decline, it is absolutely ridiculous for a 
government to tell citizens not to kill and then turn around and kill those who 
do. And it is totally impossible to conceive of a more barbaric spectacle than 
a group of people gathered together to watch that happen.

(source: Opinion, Mohamed Hamaludin, South Florida Times)

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

Will a conservative Supreme Court give new life to the death penalty?


For years now, the death penalty's days have seemed numbered.

Death sentences and executions are in decline. And some current Supreme Court 
justices have been pushing the court to revisit the constitutionality of 
capital punishment.

But with the election of President Donald Trump, the future of the court fell 
into the hands of a man firmly in favor of the death penalty. Indeed, in 1989, 
Trump took out a full-page advertisement in The New York Times demanding blood 
for blood. "Muggers and murderers should be forced to suffer and, when they 
kill, they should be executed for their crimes," it read.

With the recent installation of conservative jurist Neil Gorsuch on the Supreme 
Court and more opportunities for Trump to fill vacancies likely on the horizon, 
the court now seems on the verge of a rightward political turn. It now seems 
unlikely that it will end the death penalty anytime soon.

Has capital punishment in the United States been granted an indefinite stay?

Not necessarily. Even if the court veers right, states legislatures can still 
decide to abandon the death penalty if lawmakers sense a sea change in public 
opinion.

Right now, such a change seems unlikely. Support for the death penalty has 
waned in recent years, but it has not yet reached a tipping point. For example, 
voters in liberal California recently declined to abolish that state's death 
penalty.

But the recent battle over same-sex marriage shows us that longstanding public 
opinion on a contentious issue can swing dramatically in a short period of 
time.

So what might it take for the trickle of skepticism about the death penalty to 
become a deluge?

Consensus against the death penalty might be achieved by making arguments that 
validate, rather than attack, conservative values. In recent years, a new 
strain of anti-death penalty conservatism - previously an oxymoron - has 
emerged in American political life. Groups like Conservatives Concerned about 
the Death Penalty make the case that capital punishment violates conservative 
values by pointing to "the 3 i's" - inefficiency, inequity and inaccuracy.

Some longstanding death penalty opponents have also changed their tune, moving 
from a humanitarian to a more pragmatic, fiscally conservative case against the 
death penalty. When cash-strapped states buckled under the financial pressure 
of the 2008 recession, abolitionists shrewdly began pointing to the enormous 
cost of maintaining the death penalty when other alternatives are cheaper.

But as financial pressures ease, this kind of criticism may lose its edge. 
Another conservative-minded approach may prove more effective in the years to 
come, one that appeals to hearts rather than wallets.

To many supporters of capital punishment, the value of the death penalty lies 
in the therapeutic closure an execution is thought to bring to those devastated 
by the loss of a loved one to murder. The punishment is seen as cathartic. 
Recently, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson cited the need to provide closure to 
grieving family members in defense of his plan to execute eight inmates over 
four days this month.

But since the 1970s, capital punishment has failed to deliver closure to 
families in the vast majority of capital cases, as I write in my book on the 
modern history of the death penalty. More than 8,000 people have been sentenced 
to death since 1973. Of those, 1,448 have been executed. Rather than offering 
the promise of certain justice, a death sentence launches a tortuous, 
decade-long series of appeals. In 1 of the pending Arkansas cases, the daughter 
of the murder victim has traveled to the state's prison on four separate 
occasions to witness the execution of her mother's killer. Each time, the 
promise of closure was stymied by last-minute stays.

Research reveals that victims' kin suffer needlessly as a result of such 
uncertainty. For example, one study compared the experiences of grieving 
families in Minnesota, where the offenders were sentenced to life without 
parole, to those in Texas, where offenders were sentenced to death.

They found that grieving Minnesotans actually fared better than their Texan 
counterparts. The appeals process in Minnesota took 2 years. Their grief 
remained, but the resolution of the case meant that they could turn their 
energies toward healing. Forced to spend years in a legal labyrinth, on the 
other hand, Texans reported feelings of frustration, powerlessness and 
injustice.

In California, which has not had an execution in more than a decade, despite a 
death row population of about 750, a similar feeling has been in the air. 8 
years ago, a bipartisan commission found that the "families of murder victims 
are cruelly deluded into believing that justice will be delivered with finality 
in their lifetimes."

As it becomes apparent that numerous efforts to speed up executions have 
failed, abolishing the death penalty may become a reasonable alternative for 
the loved ones of murder victims seeking peace.

For years, many viewed those opposed to the death penalty as insensitive to the 
needs of victims' family members. The value of life and the value of closure 
became locked in a zero sum game: the longer the condemned remained alive, the 
longer the grieving lived in limbo. As the front lines of the fight to abolish 
the death penalty seem poised to move from the Supreme Court to the court of 
public opinion, the most viable path forward for abolitionists may lie in an 
effort to demonstrate to Americans that the opposite is true.

(source: Daniel LaChance, Emory University; mysanantonio.com)

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

Why are executions stopped? Death penalty questions answered


Expect another long day of legal wrangling Thursday over Arkansas' plan to 
execute inmates in the coming week.

Ledell Lee and Stacey Johnson were to be put to death Thursday night, but 
Johnson's execution was at least temporarily halted and Arkansas' ability to 
use 1 of its execution drugs was called into question. Lawyers for inmates 
filed multiple legal challenges to derail a plan that originally called for 8 
men to be put to death before April 30, when Arkansas' supply of a sedative 
used in lethal injections expires.

On Monday, Don Davis won a reprieve from the state's top court a few hours 
before his scheduled execution, then waited almost until midnight to learn the 
Supreme Court would not allow the execution to proceed. While Davis had spent 
the past quarter century on death row, lawyers filed multiple emergency appeals 
at the 11th hour to try to spare his life.

WHY DO SUCH DELAYS TAKE PLACE?

Inmates can spend years, or even decades, appealing their convictions and death 
sentences in state and federal courts. The average time between sentencing and 
execution for prisoners executed in 2013 topped 15 years, according to the 
federal Bureau of Justice Statistics.

By the time an execution takes place or is stopped, often after the inmate has 
been fed his intended final meal, 4 or more different courts are supposed to 
have examined the trial record, legal issues, newly discovered evidence, 
assertions of innocence and claims of constitutional violations.

And yet inmates plead with varying amounts of success that key elements of 
their case have never been examined by a court. Lawyers for Arkansas inmate Lee 
are working at both the state and federal level to get a court to block Lee's 
execution, scheduled for Thursday. Lee claims blood and hair evidence from his 
1993 trial has never been tested and could help prove his innocence. In federal 
court, Lee said a string of incompetent lawyers failed to make the case that he 
is intellectually disabled and thus ineligible to be executed.

New issues also arise late in the process, including questions about execution 
drugs. On Wednesday, inmates asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take the case 
challenging the use of a sedative used in flawed executions in other states and 
1 of 3 drugs Arkansas plans to use in its executions. In 2015, justices upheld 
Oklahoma's execution protocol that used the same drug.

WHAT'S THE PROCESS?

The Supreme Court has the final say on almost every execution, and the justices 
reject all but a few emergency appeals by inmates.

The justices and their clerks know well in advance when executions are 
scheduled and where. A court official informally known as the death clerk keeps 
everyone up to date and communicates often with lawyers for inmates and the 
states as the date of execution nears.

As lawyers for condemned inmates press the case for delay in state and lower 
federal courts, the Supreme Court receives information about developments and, 
eventually, copies of those decisions.

Most often those lawyers press their arguments at the highest court in the 
country in a final attempt to save their clients' lives. Less often, it's the 
state that seeks permission to proceed after a lower court has blocked an 
execution. That's what happened Monday in Arkansas.

WHAT HAPPENS AT THE HIGH COURT?

When those appeals reach the Supreme Court, they go first to the justice who 
oversees the state in which the execution is scheduled. But death penalty 
appeals almost always are referred to the entire court.

The justices typically do not meet in person to discuss these cases, but confer 
by phone, and sometimes through their law clerks, according to the court's 
guide to emergency applications.

It takes 5 justices, a majority of the court, to issue a stay or lift one that 
has been imposed in another court. The overwhelming number of last-minute 
appeals are denied, and often without comment.

Occasionally, 1 or more justices will dissent from the decision to let the 
execution take place. Even more rarely, a justice will explain why.

(source: Associated Press)