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

[Rick Halperin]

Aug. 1



TENNESSEE----impending execution

Panel Focuses on Death Penalty as New Tennessee Execution Looms


A panel of experts who have had front-row seats to state-sanctioned executions 
will discuss the death penalty here Thursday as the state prepares to carry out 
its 1st execution since 2009.

Last week, a judge ruled the state's lethal injection protocol does not violate 
the Tennessee Constitution nor the United States Constitution. State officials 
adopted the new, 3-drug injection in January to replace another drug, which 
became hard to get as some drug makers refused sell it to anyone hoping to use 
it for executions.

The new injection - made from midazolam, vecuronium bromide, and potassium 
chloride - has never been used in Tennessee. Attorneys for 33 death-row inmates 
have said using it would leave inmates aware and sensate during the execution 
and its effect is like "being burned alive from the inside."

However, Chancellor Ellen Hobbs Lyle of the Davidson County Chancery Court 
ruled last week that, while using the drugs may cause pain, it does not amount 
to torture.

State officials are planning to kill Billy Ray Irrick on August 9th. Irrick got 
the death penalty for the 1986 rape and murder of a seven-year-old Knox County 
girl. Attorneys argue he has a mental illness that has never been fully 
explored in court.

Irrick's attorneys are now working to get a stay on his execution until they 
can get an appeal on the use of the state's new injection.

A Shelby County man, Sedrick Clayton, is scheduled for execution on November 
28th. He was convicted and sentenced to death here in 2014 for murdering the 
mother of his child and her parents.

The state's last execution was in December 2009. Cecil Johnson was killed at 
Nashville's Riverbend Maximum Security Institution for the murder of three, in 
a store in 1980.

This is the stage for Thursday's panel discussion hosted by Tennesseans for 
Alternatives to the Death Penalty (TADP). The panel will focus on how 
executions impact corrections staff.

The panel includes Frank Thompson, former superintendent of Oregon State 
Penitentiary, who oversaw the state's only executions in the modern death 
penalty era, and retired Chaplain Jerry Welborn, who served as Tennessee's 
death row chaplain from 1997-2014.

When: Thursday, August 2, 2018, from 6:00-7:15 p.m.

Where: Evergreen Presbyterian Church, 1567 Overton Park Ave., Memphis, 38112

(source: memphisflyer.com)






ARKANSAS:

Prosecutor to seek death penalty against man charged with grandparents' murders


The state of Arkansas will seek the death penalty for the man charged with 
killing his grandparents.

Nicholaus David Patterson, 25, of Pocahontas appeared in Randolph County 
Circuit Court on Tuesday.

Third Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney Henry Boyce formally charged 
Patterson with 2 counts of capital murder.

Boyce said the state would seek the death penalty in this murder case.

Patterson is accused of killing his grandparents, Ricky and Rita Bozwell, on 
July 10 at their home in Pocahontas.

3 days later, Patterson's mother reported her parents missing to local police. 
On July 14, according to Boyce, their bodies were discovered in their home on 
Sue Lane near Pocahontas.

"The bodies were found in a state of advanced decomposition and were sent to 
the State Crime Lab for an autopsy," a news release from Boyce's office said. 
"The younger Patterson was questioned regarding his knowledge of the murders 
and he confessed to the killings on that same day."

Patterson's attorney, Chris Nebben, entered a plea of not guilty on Patterson's 
behalf during a court appearance on Tuesday.

Judge Harold S. Erwin set Patterson's trial for November 5, 2019.

Patterson remains in the Randolph County Detention Center and his being held 
without bond.

(source: KAIT news)






NEBRASKA----impending execution

Moore asks supporters not be at his execution----"He doesn't want supporters to 
get the other side riled up and screaming"


It's been 39 years since the murder of 2 Omaha cab drivers, Reuel Van Ness and 
Maynard Helgeland.

A judge sentenced their killer, Carey Dean Moore to die a year later.

He has been on death row ever since.

On Aug. 14, the state plans to carry out that sentence but even now, the fight 
to spare his life is far from over.

Death penalty opponents have stepped up their weekly vigils in front of the 
governor's mansion to every weekday.

"No matter what the outcome is, we need to be here saying this is not right," 
said Jean Eden, a longtime death penalty opponent.

One place she and other protesters will not be is at the State Penitentiary 
during the time of Moore is scheduled to be executed at 10 a.m.

"Mr. Moore has asked supporters of his cause not to show up because he's been 
bullied enough to allowing himself to die and he doesn't want supporters to get 
the other side riled up and screaming at him and he doesn't want to that to be 
the last thing he hears," Fran Kaye said.

If the execution is carried out, death penalty opponents will hold a rally at 
the State Capitol later that evening.

Even though Moore quit fighting his execution, Omaha State Sen. Ernie Chambers 
has not.

Last week, he sent a letter to Pfizer pharmaceutical executives calling on them 
to do more than ask Nebraska's Department of Corrections to return any of their 
product that would be used in lethal injection but he wants the company to take 
legal action.

He wrote, "Does Pfizer desire to protect its integrity, good name and public 
image?"

A court blocked an execution in Nevada after another pharmaceutical company 
filed suit to stop one of its drugs from being used in lethal injection.

On Tuesday, a Pfizer spokesperson told KETV Newswatch 7 in a statement:

"Our records do not show any sales of any restricted products to the Nebraska 
Department of Corrections. We are again asking the Nebraska DOC to return any 
Pfizer restricted products."

Nebraska officials maintain they acquired the execution drugs legally, but will 
not say where they got them or how they came up with the four drug protocol. 
That combination of drugs has never been used before in a lethal injection 
execution.

"It's one more level of obscenity on an already obscene process," Kaye said.

Laura Strimple, a Nebraska Dept. of Corrections spokesperson said, in a 
statement: "Carey Dean Moore will be transported to NSP (State Penitentiary) at 
an appropriate time, prior to the scheduled execution. Plans are still being 
made to finalize public and media access to the grounds/facilities."

Strimple said the state will not disclose the source of the substances to be 
used in the execution.

(source: KETV news)

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

Pfizer: No records of drug sales to Nebraska for executions


A spokesman for Pfizer says the pharmaceutical manufacturer has no records 
showing that it sold any potential lethal injection drugs to Nebraska's 
corrections department.

Pfizer spokesman Steven Danehy made the comments Monday to the Lincoln Journal 
Star after state Sen. Ernie Chambers challenged the company to sue the state in 
hopes of blocking the scheduled Aug. 14 execution of inmate Carey Dean Moore.

Pfizer has asked Nebraska's corrections department to return any "restricted 
products" that could be used in an execution and renewed its request just in 
case the state has obtained them.

Corrections officials have repeatedly refused to release records that might 
identify its supplier.

Another drug company, Alvogen, filed a legal objection in Nevada this month to 
keep one of its drugs from being used in an execution.

(source: WOWT news)






NEVADA:

A 2nd Manufacturer Just Told Nevada Not to Use its Drugs for Executions----The 
state's deputy solicitor general called the move "ironic."


Another pharmaceutical company doesn't want Nevada to use its drug to execute 
Scott Dozier. On Monday, a district judge approved a motion filed by Hikma, the 
manufacturer of the powerful opioid fentanyl, to join the lawsuit filed by 
Alvogen, the maker of the controversial sedative midazolam. Midazolam has been 
blamed for several botched executions in the past and was going to be part of a 
3-drug combination used to execute Dozier. His scheduled execution in July was 
put on hold after Alvogen filed suit.

Hikma is arguing that the company specifically told Nevada in 2016 that its 
drugs could not be used for an execution. Alvogen made similar claims in its 
lawsuit, accusing the state of secretly obtaining the drug despite the 
company's warnings that it does not approve of the use of its drugs for lethal 
injections. The 3rd component of Nevada's 3-drug protocol is a muscle paralyzer 
that medical professionals said could mask the inmate's pain during an 
execution. [Alvogen] filed this lawsuit to salvage its image and shift the 
blame to the State for Alvogen's failure to impose the controls that it was 
touting to anti-death penalty advocates."

Dozier has been on death row since 2007 for the 2002 murder of Jeremiah Miller. 
Beginning in 2016, he gave up any effort to appeal his sentence, and maintained 
that he wanted to be put to death. Just hours before Dozier was set to die on 
July 11, a district judge issued a temporary restraining order blocking the 
state from using the midazolam. In response, Nevada filed a petition with the 
Nevada Supreme Court, asking that the decision that halted the execution be 
thrown out and accusing Alvogen of mounting a public relations campaign. 
"[Alvogen] filed this lawsuit to salvage its image and shift the blame to the 
State for Alvogen's failure to impose the controls that it was touting to 
anti-death penalty advocates," the petition says. The state Supreme Court is 
now considering the petition.

Nevada now has to contend with yet another manufacturer and in response leveled 
similarly harsh criticism for Hikma, implying that it was attempting to 
distract attention from a far bigger problem. The deputy solicitor general 
called it "ironic that the maker of fentanyl, which is at the center of the 
nation's opioid crisis and is responsible for illegal overdoses every day is 
going to...claim reputational injury from being associated with a lawful 
execution."

But some states still plan to use these drugs. Carey Moore, who is set to die 
in Nebraska on August 14, will likely now be the 1st person executed with the 
powerful painkiller. The state intends to use the opioid in a 4-drug protocol 
to execute the inmate, who shot and killed Maynard Helgeland and Reuel Van Ness 
5 days apart in 1979. Nebraska has come under fire for refusing to disclose 
where its lethal injection drugs came from despite court orders to do so.

Assuming that the drugs were manufactured by Pfizer, Independent Nebraska state 
Sen. Ernie Chambers, a long time anti-death penalty advocate, urged the company 
to follow in Alvogen's footsteps and sue the state in order to have the drugs 
returned and the execution halted. But the company said it had no records of 
Nebraska obtaining restricted drugs and was not going to file a lawsuit. "So 
where did the governor get his drugs?" Chambers wrote on Facebook after Pfizer 
declined to sue the state. "He's not saying, and he's refusing to obey the 
courts who have ordered him to share the information."

(source: motherjones.com)






USA:

Future of lethal injection in doubt as critics, drug makers rebel against it


Lethal injection, which became the death penalty method of choice after the 
electric chair was deemed too cruel, is now falling out of favor.

Drug companies are rebelling against it. States are fighting to keep it. And 
there is a new wave of controversy - and a slew of lawsuits - alleging that 
lethal injections are almost as inhumane as firing squads.

Now the future of legal injection is uncertain, and states find themselves 
looking for alternatives.

There are 31 states that currently allow the death penalty, with lethal 
injection being the primary method to carry out the practice. In recent years, 
many of those states have faced drug shortages due to manufacturers cutting off 
the supply due to objections over how their drugs are used.

Robert Dunham, director of the Washington, D.C.-based Death Penalty Information 
Center says he's not surprised that drug supplies are being cut off.

"In every state that's attempting to carry out executions, prisoners have been 
challenging the method of execution. And those challenges have either been to 
the entire state's protocol where they are attacking the use of particular 
drugs, or it's been what's called an as-applied challenge when people who have 
particular medical conditions say that the use of any kind of lethal injection 
is inappropriate for them because of the way they're likely to respond."

Several states including Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, 
Nevada, Nebraska, Ohio, Tennessee and Texas have recently faced court 
challenges or inquires over lethal injection protocols, according to the Death 
Penalty Information Center. A judge in Tennessee recently granted the state 
permission to begin using a new cocktail of drugs to carry out executions.

Some states have even gone further to enact secrecy laws to protect the source 
of acquired drugs.

"All of the states that have been carrying out executions have some form of 
secrecy..." Dunham said. "The states initially said that this is necessary for 
them to obtain the drugs because drug manufacturers were being harassed, they 
claimed, by anti-death penalty advocates. Those allegations have all turned out 
to be false. But the states have continued to attempt to expand secrecy and the 
real reason is because the drug manufacturers themselves are opposed to the use 
of their medicines in executions."

Drug manufactures such as Pfizer, Athenex, Akorn, Roche, Janssen and others 
have put out statements opposing the use of their products in executions. In 
2016, Pfizer started imposing controls over its medicines to make sure they 
would not be used for lethal injection.

Drugs like Midazolam and Pentobarbital have been affected by companies 
unwilling to sell their products to states. Midazolam was at the center of 
controversy after a botched attempted execution of an Oklahoma inmate in 2014. 
The drug was also part of an intense execution schedule and method carried out 
by the state of Arkansas last year.

Dunham also discussed a February 2017 attempted execution involving an Alabama 
inmate where the man was stuck about 12 times in order to find a usable vein. 
The prisoner's attorney said the man's bladder may have been punctured during 
the attempt.

In a more recent case, the United States Supreme Court stayed the execution of 
Missouri death row inmate Russell Bucklew. Bucklew has cavernous hemangioma, 
which includes symptoms such as weak blood vessels and blood-filled tumors in 
the throat and nose.

One doctor and professor of medicine says the act of lethal injection is often 
confused for a medical procedure.

"These are the sorts of medications that doctors use and how these medications 
are used for the purposes of execution, that's not really a doctor's job," said 
Dr. Joel Zivot, an associate professor of anesthesiology and surgery at Emory 
University Hospital in Atlanta. "That's the state taking these sorts of 
medications and repurposing them as poison. In my hand, these are used to treat 
diseases and in the state's hand the same compounds are now used to kill."

Zivot strongly stated that he's not an advocate or opponent of the death 
penalty itself but rather a campaigner for the elimination of the field of 
medicine from the entire process of executing criminals. He noted how some 
instances of the practice could violate the Eight Amendment. Zivot is not 
alone, the American Board of Anesthesiology and the American Medical 
Association forbid members from participating in executions.

Some states have sought different executions methods if lethal injection drugs 
are not available. Alabama, Oklahoma and Mississippi all have laws that allow 
the use of death by nitrogen hypoxia, or gas chamber. Tennessee allows the use 
of the electric chair while Utah has passed a law allowing death by firing 
squad if the state is unable to obtain the proper drugs. New Hampshire allows 
inmates to be executed by hanging if it becomes impractical to carry out a 
death sentence by injection.

Criminal defense attorney Ashleigh Merchant said states may have to go as far 
as producing their own drugs to carry out the death penalty. Merchant went even 
further to say that death by lethal injection could come to a stop.

"I do think this issue could go to the Supreme Court, ultimately, but it's a 
very interesting issue that the courts are probably not going to be able to 
resolve because what we've got is independent drug manufacturers who are 
refusing to make the drugs unless the state says they're not going to use them 
for executions," Merchant said. "Now we've got drug companies that say we don't 
believe in the death penalty and they can't be forced to produce drugs that are 
going to be used in executions. So they're really exercising their right to 
free speech and their belief system and that may put an end to this type of 
execution."

Merchant said death penalty procedures like the electric chair and hanging 
became obsolete with societal pressures.

"I think it's more than just the individual inmate's rights. I think it's us as 
a society because the Supreme Court said that we can have the death penalty but 
it has to be judged by an evolving standard of decency," she said. "Yes, we 
want finality in these sentences but is there a way to do that without 
violating the Eighth Amendment and without being cruel and unusual and we just 
haven't been able to find a method that society is OK with."

(source: Willie Inman, Fox News)