[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, NEB., ARIZ.

[Rick Halperin]

August 14



TEXAS:

Drug companies don't want to be involved in executions, so they're suing to 
keep their drugs out


Drug companies have made it clear that they don't want states using their 
products to carry out death sentences. They've imposed strict limits on who can 
buy the drugs used for lethal injections, asked states to return some chemicals 
and, in one case, completely stopped making a drug to keep it out of the 
nation's death chambers.

The strategy has helped cut states off from many of the drugs they have used or 
sought to use for lethal injections, causing authorities to scramble to find 
new drug combinations or different execution methods.

But it hasn't entirely stopped states from getting the drugs they seek, so some 
companies have started testing a new tactic: Filing lawsuits aimed at keeping 
their drugs away from executions.

In 3 lawsuits filed since last year, drug manufacturers and distributors have 
taken aim at states on the verge of carrying out executions, accusing them of 
using deceit to obtain the chemicals and demanding states return them. Experts 
say the drug companies are turning to the courts as a last resort.

"The companies have found that you have to up the ante, because a threat is 
simply not enough," said Deborah Denno, a law professor at Fordham University 
and a death penalty expert.

While the lawsuits have had mixed results, Denno said she expects more could 
follow as companies further try to distance themselves from capital punishment.

"The company's goal is to not have their medicine used to kill prisoners," said 
Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, a 
Washington nonprofit. These firms worry about "the damage to their reputation 
that is caused by having medicines associated with death instead of life," he 
said.

Supporters of capital punishment accuse the drug companies of forcing states to 
use inferior execution options and of using the court battles as a way to stop 
executions - or at least delay them just long enough for the drugs to expire.

The latest of these legal fights has unfolded in Nebraska, where state 
officials have been preparing to execute Carey Dean Moore, 60, who was 
sentenced to death for killing 2 Omaha cabdrivers in 1979. Moore's execution, 
scheduled for Tuesday morning, would be Nebraska's 1st-ever lethal injection as 
well as the country's 1st execution using the powerful opioid fentanyl.

The drug company Fresenius Kabi filed a federal lawsuit last week seeking to 
block Nebraska from using what the company believes are two of its drugs to 
execute Moore. The company said it took no position on the death penalty but 
"opposes the use of its products for this purpose and therefore does not sell 
certain drugs to correctional facilities." In court papers, the firm accused 
Nebraska of obtaining its drugs "through improper or illegal means" because of 
the restrictions it has in place.

Nebraska officials pushed back, arguing they bought their drugs lawfully and 
legitimately. They also argued they had no other way to obtain drugs. Scott R. 
Frakes, director of Nebraska's Department of Correctional Services, wrote in an 
affidavit that he had contacted at least 40 suppliers and a half-dozen other 
states seeking drugs; only one supplier would provide them, and they will not 
sell more to the state, he said.

A federal judge ruled against the drug company on Friday, and a 3-judge panel 
of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit affirmed that ruling on 
Monday. A spokesman for the company said it will not seek further appeals, 
likely clearing the way for Nebraska to carry out the execution. The office of 
Nebraska's attorney general declined to comment on the appellate court's 
decision.

That lawsuit came closely on the heels of another drug company's lawsuit that, 
at least temporarily, blocked Nevada from carrying out an execution using 
fentanyl. The state was hours away from executing Scott Dozier, a convicted 
murder, last month, when a judge halted it because Alvogen, a pharmaceutical 
firm, accused the state of "illegitimately" acquiring its drug, the sedative 
midazolam.

The cases both have echoes of an effort last year by McKesson, the drug 
distributor, which went to court to stop Arkansas from using a drug the company 
said state officials had obtained under false pretenses. A state judge 
initially prohibited officials from using the drug, but Arkansas Attorney 
General Leslie Rutledge (R) successfully appealed to the Arkansas Supreme Court 
to have that order stayed. The state went on to carry out four executions in 
eight days. "Pharmaceutical companies are trying to circumvent the rule of law 
by using 11th-hour litigation tactics to stall these lawful executions," 
Rutledge said in a statement last week. Rutledge and more than a dozen other 
attorneys general have opposed the drug companies' lawsuits in Nebraska and 
Nevada, calling them "frivolous claims" and accusing the firms of "abusing the 
litigation process."

"The Arkansas Supreme Court did not cave to the pressure from 
anti-death-penalty advocates," Rutledge said. "I will continue to fight for 
justice and support my colleagues against these meritless arguments in states 
like Nevada and Nebraska, where drug companies have asked courts to halt lawful 
executions."

In briefs filed in the Nebraska and Nevada cases, the attorneys general said 
"these lawsuits did not come out of nowhere," but are "the most recent battle" 
in what Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. has described as "a guerrilla 
war against the death penalty."

After Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry, a Republican, joined the group of 
attorneys general weighing in on the Nevada case, he issued a statement saying 
the drug company "stood between victims' families and justice" and added: "No 
family should be deprived of their hard-won justice and closure because of the 
hypocritical actions of this drug peddler."

The legal fights come at an uncertain moment for capital punishment in the 
United States, where the practice remains on the books in 31 states but death 
sentences are carried out by far fewer.

Executions and death sentences alike have both plummeted in recent years. 
Lethal injection remains the main execution method nationwide, used in 289 out 
of the 292 executions carried out since 2010, according to records kept by the 
Death Penalty Information Center. (The others were 2 electrocutions in Virginia 
and one execution by firing squad in Utah; both states have lethal injection 
but allowed inmates to choose other options.)

Unable to readily obtain lethal drugs, Oklahoma said this year it would begin 
using nitrogen gas for all executions, which Alabama and Mississippi recently 
approved as backup options. Utah also has approved using a firing squad in more 
cases.

"Lethal substances used in a lethal injection execution are difficult, if 
nearly impossible, to obtain," Frakes said in an affidavit filed in federal 
court. "This problem is not limited solely to Nebraska, but exists in other 
death penalty states.

Officials seeking drugs for executions also have turned to a series of new, 
untested drug combinations. What used to be a largely uniform process 
nationwide - a 3-drug protocol using an anesthetic, a paralytic and then a drug 
to stop the heart - has become something that varies from state to state.

Florida last year became the 1st state to use the anesthetic etomidate in an 
execution. Ohio, Arkansas, Alabama and Tennessee are among the states that have 
recently carried out executions using a combination of 3 drugs that include 
midazolam, which is a common sedative but has become controversial for its use 
in unusually lengthy or bungled executions.

Nevada and Nebraska both announced plans to use fentanyl in lethal injections, 
scheduling the first executions involving the powerful synthetic opioid for 
this summer. Both ran headlong into drug companies asking courts to block the 
states from using their products and to hand them over, albeit with different 
results. Nevada's execution remains on hold and the case is ongoing, while 
Nebraska's court fight appears to be over.

Richard G. Kopf, senior U.S. district judge, issued an order last week 
rejecting the drug company's request in Nebraska. He pointed to the 
particularly tangled recent history of capital punishment in the state, noting 
that lawmakers abolished the death penalty in 2015 and then voters restored it 
the following year after it was added to the statewide ballot.

"The will of the people, as very currently understood, is plain," he wrote.

(source: Houston Chronicle)






FLORIDA:

With inmate's fate unclear, Florida bishops pray to end death penalty


The Catholic bishops of Florida have asked for continued prayers for an end to 
the death penalty following the stay of an inmate's execution. They had 
previously asked Gov. Rick Scott to commute the inmate's death sentence and 
cited Pope Francis' new catechism revisions on the death penalty.

"Please continue to pray for victims of crime, those on death row, and for an 
end to the use of the death penalty," the Florida Conference of Catholic 
Bishops said Friday afternoon. Jose Antonio Jimenez, now 54 years old, was 
convicted of the 1992 murder of Phyllis Minas, a 63-year-old woman. He had been 
scheduled to be executed at 6 p.m. Aug. 14.

On Aug. 10 the Florida Supreme Court unanimously granted a request to grant the 
stay, without stating a reason, the Florida News Service reports.

Jimenez's lawyer Marty McClain had requested the stay, citing several issues. 
These included a pending Supreme Court decision that could affect Florida's 
lethal injection protocol.

McClain also said he had discovered that the North Miami Police Department had 
not previously provided to Jimenez's lawyers the 80 pages of records related to 
the investigation of the murder.

McClain told the Florida News Service that the records include handwritten 
notes by investigators who interviewed Jimenez after his arrest that contradict 
their testimony. He contended that they show the investigators were willing to 
give "false and/or misleading deposition testimony" in order to facilitate 
Jimenez's conviction.

Catholic prayer vigils had been scheduled across the state to pray for the 
victim, the aggressor, their families and society, as well as to pray for the 
end of the death penalty.

After the stay was announced, many of these vigils were set to continue in the 
dioceses of St. Petersburg, Orlando, Pensacola-Tallahassee and Venice.

However, organizers canceled some Catholic prayer vigils that had been 
scheduled in the Archdiocese of Miami and the dioceses of St. Augustine, 
Pensacola-Tallahassee, and Palm Beach.

"We pray for Ms. Minas and for consolation for her loved ones. All of us are 
called to stand with victims in their hurt as they seek healing and justice," 
Michael Sheedy, executive director of the Florida Conference of Catholic 
Bishops, said in an Aug. 9 letter. "We invite people across Florida to join in 
this prayer. Both victims of crime and offenders are children of God and 
members of the same human family."

Sheedy, speaking on behalf of the state's Catholic bishops, said Gov. Scott has 
a "difficult task as governor" but still asked him to commute Jimenez's death 
sentence and all death sentences to life without possibility of parole.

The letter to the governor cited Pope Francis' revision of the Catechism of the 
Catholic Church on the death penalty.

The Florida bishops' conference further commented in an Aug. 10 statement.

"Given the development of doctrine involving the death penalty, the Catechism 
of the Catholic Church's treatment of the topic was revised earlier this 
month," the bishops' conference said.

The relevant section of the Catechism now reads "the death penalty is 
inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the 
person." It calls for the Church "to work with determination for its abolition 
worldwide," the bishops' conference said.

Drawing from the Catechism, Sheedy told the governor that the change "reflects 
the growing awareness that the dignity of the person is not lost even after the 
commission of great crimes and that more effective forms of detention have been 
developed to ensure the due protection of citizens without definitively 
depriving the guilty of the possibility of redemption."

In addition to prayers for Minas, her family and her friends, Sheedy voiced 
prayers for Jimenez and "all those facing execution."

(source: Catholic News Agency)






NEBRASKA----impending execution

Nebraska to carry out state's 1st execution using lethal injection


Nebraska is scheduled to carry out its 1st execution using lethal injection in 
state history on Tuesday.

The state plans to execute Carey Dean Moore in what would be Nebraska's 1st 
execution in 21 years, using 4 drugs. Moore was sentenced to death for the 1979 
killings of 2 taxi drivers in Omaha, Nebraska.

The last time Nebraska executed an inmate was in December 1997, when Robert 
Williams was put to death using the electric chair.

Judge denies effort by German drug maker to block Nebraska execution

Legal efforts by a German drug company Fresenius Kabi, to force Nebraska to 
return 2 of the injectable drugs it plans to use in the execution, were denied. 
Fresenius Kabi had raised questions about how the state obtained them and wrote 
in its lawsuit that the use of its drugs in capital punishment would cause 
"harm to its property interests.

But a judge last week rejected the claim.

The 2 drugs produced by Fresenius Kabi, which the state plans to use in the 
execution are cisatracurium, a muscle relaxer, and potassium chloride, which 
stops the heart. They will be part of a 4-drug combination that also includes 
the sedative diazepam and the powerful painkiller fentanyl, which has helped 
fuel the ongoing opioid epidemic in the US.

Nebraska governor's support for death penalty

Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts is a staunch supporter of the death penalty. He 
told the New York Times earlier this month that he views his stance on the 
death penalty as compatible with his Catholic faith.

His comment came after the Catholic Catechism was revised at Pope Francis' 
direction and now calls the death penalty "inadmissible." The Catholic 
Catechism, the church's book of moral and religious teachings, had previously 
allowed the use of capital punishment in certain cases.

"While I respect the pope's perspective, capital punishment remains the will of 
the people and the law of the state of Nebraska," according to Ricketts's 
statement to the Times. "It is an important tool to protect our corrections 
officers and public safety. The state continues to carry out the sentences 
ordered by the court."

After Nebraska legislators overrode Ricketts' veto to outlaw the death penalty 
in 2015, he responded by personally investing money in a referendum to restore 
the death penalty, which passed the following year.

He has said that capital punishment can be justified.

"The Catholic Church does not preclude the use of the death penalty under 
certain circumstances: That guilt is determined and the crime is heinous. Also, 
protecting society," he said in a 2015 interview. "As I've thought about this 
and meditated on it and prayed on it and researched it, I've determined it's an 
important tool."

(source: CNN)

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

Nebraska set to become 1st US state to use fentanyl in execution----Federal 
appeals court gives go ahead for execution on Tuesday on grounds it is the 
'will of the people'


The 1st execution in the US using the opioid drug fentanyl is expected to take 
place on Tuesday after a federal appeals court rejected a German pharmaceutical 
company's move to block the killing.

The court gave the go ahead on Monday for Nebraska to put to death Carey Dean 
Moore on the grounds it is the "will of the people". Moore has been on death 
row for 4 decades for the 1979 murders of 2 cab drivers in Omaha.

Nebraska has included fentanyl - a synthetic opioid found in more than 20,000 
overdose deaths in 2016 alone - in the cocktail of drugs it intends to use for 
its 1st execution in 21 years after struggling to buy pharmaceuticals in the 
face of opposition from manufacturers and distributors.

Moore, who has said he wishes to die, is among the longest serving prisoners on 
death row in the US.

Moore will be given the sedative Valium alongside fentanyl, a combination 
increasingly found in drug overdose deaths because they both suppress 
breathing.

The legal challenge to the execution by the German drug maker, Fresenius Kabi, 
was brought over the use of 2 other drugs included in the fatal cocktail which 
the company accuses Nebraska of obtaining illegally, potassium chloride to stop 
Moore's heart and a muscle relaxant.

The pharmaceutical company said it took no position on the death penalty but 
that its contracts with drug distributors bar sales for use in capital 
punishment.

Fresenius Kabi said there is a risk of grave harm to its reputation because it 
said Nebraska has not properly stored the drugs and that could lead to a 
botched and painful execution.

The director of the state's prisons, Scott Frakes, has refused to make public 
how Nebraska bought the drugs but said that those made by Fresenius Kabi expire 
within weeks and that, if they are not used now, the state would have to find 
new supplies.

The appeals court on Monday upheld a lower court ruling that said blocking the 
execution would "frustrate the will of the people" because 61% of voters in 
Nebraska voted to reinstate the death penalty 2 years ago after the state 
legislature abolished it.

The appeals court said that Fresenius Kabi was not likely to suffer irreparable 
injury from the use of its product.

The American Civil Liberties Union in Nebraska has accused the state's 
governor, attorney general and prisons department of failing to obey open 
records laws and described secrecy around the execution as "incredibly 
troubling".

"While more states are turning away from the death penalty, Nebraska officials 
are rushing to carry out an execution cloaked in secrecy with an untested 
4-drug scheme that carries immeasurable risks for unnecessary pain and a 
botched execution," said Danielle Conrad, director of the ACLU Nebraska.

The state is not alone in seizing on fentanyl as an option, as the potent drug 
flooded into the US and moved to the heart of the opioid crisis.

A judge in Nevada indefinitely postponed an execution last month after another 
drug company objected to the use of one of its drugs in an execution where 
fentanyl was intended to provide the fatal dose.

In that case, the state was accused of deceiving one of the country???s largest 
pharmaceutical distribution companies into believing the drugs were intended 
for the prison hospital system.

(source: The Guardian)

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

60K sign petition to oppose Nebraska execution


Death penalty opponents say they have gathered more than 60,000 signatures 
calling on Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts to stop the state from carrying out its 
1st execution since 1997.

Organizers submitted the petition to Ricketts on Monday after several 
last-ditch legal efforts failed to halt the execution .

Death-row inmate Carey Dean Moore is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 10 
a.m. Tuesday for the murders of 2 Omaha cab drivers in 1979.

Death penalty opponents say letting the execution proceed runs afoul of the 
Catholic Church's recent statement that capital punishment is unacceptable in 
all cases.

Ricketts has argued he's carrying out the will of voters who chose to reinstate 
capital punishment after the Legislature abolished it in 2015.

(source: Associated Pres)

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

'Just don't forget the victims:' Carey Dean Moore murder victims' sons speak 
ahead of execution----Family members of Maynard Helgeland, one of Carey Dean 
Moore's victims, are ready for it all to end. Most of all, they want their 
father to be remembered.


The ACLU filed a motion Monday to stop the execution of Carey Dean Moore, 
asking the Nebraska Supreme Court to stop the lethal injection until questions 
can be answered as to whether the state has the authority to carry out an 
execution.

Meanwhile, family members of Maynard Helgeland, one of Carey Dean Moore???s 
victims, are ready for it all to end. Most of all, they want their father to be 
remembered.

It's been nearly 39 years with seven failed execution attempts. Steve and Kenny 
Helgeland, the two sons of Maynard Helgeland, said in those years, Moore has 
been at the center of it all. They said Moore's victims, their father and Reuel 
Van Ness, have been only footnotes in the countless stories.

Hangeland and Van Ness were both cab drivers, 47-year-olds and veterans.

"When Mr. Moore is back in the news and it's another stay or another execution 
date, it makes us think about what happened and how it happened and why it 
happened," said Steve Helgeland. "Our father is dead for 1 simple reason and 
that is Mr. Moore wanted to kill somebody."

Kenny Helgeland was 23 when Moore killed his father. He shared a cab with his 
dad and they drove together every weekend. Kenny said he went to the horse 
races the fateful day Moore called his dad's car, Happy Cab No. 63.

"If I was with him that day I wouldn't be here today to see you," Kenny 
Helgeland said.

Steve Helgeland was just 13 at the time of his dads' death. His memories are 
few.

"Unfortunately Mr. Moore cut that a little short and we didn't have the 
opportunity to hear a lot of the stories or get a chance to talk to him or 
share some of those things," Steve Helgeland said.

Yet, Steve and Kenny Helgeland still remember their father and want others to 
do the same as his killer prepares to die.

They said their father was born in the 1930s. His mother was unmarried when she 
gave birth to him, something rarely accepted at the time, but her family 
welcomed him with open arms.

"His grandfather said to his mother, 'There's always room for one more at the 
table,' so that's why family has always been important to us -- still remains 
important to us."

It's why the 2 traveled to Lincoln for the execution.

"We're not here to dance on Mr. Moore's grave or anything like that," Steve 
Helgeland said. "We're here for Mr. Van Ness and my dad. Simple as that."

As far as plans for Moore to be killed by lethal injection, Steve Helgeland 
said that's up to the state.

"I'm a little more confident they'll get it done this time, but if something 
fell through I wouldn't be shocked," Steve Helgeland said.

They said Moore's execution would be justice and, in a sense, closure. It's a 
feeling they've waited patiently for.

"It'll at least close the book and we won't have to hear about Mr. Moore 
anymore, although I think his story will continue to echo in the history books 
as the longest serving inmate on death row," Steve Helgeland said.

While Moore may leave the headlines, what he did will always weigh on Steve and 
Kenny Helgeland's hearts.

"It's always going to ring in my mind, what happened," Kenny said. "It's never 
going to go away, that bell."

The Helgelands traveled from South Dakota for the execution. They will not 
watch Moore die Tuesday, but said they'll be at the prison to reflect and honor 
their father and Van Ness.

They empathize with Moore's family members, but at the same time think about 
the years they've been without their father.

"(Moore's family has) had 39 years to reconcile that," Steve Helgeland said. "I 
didn't get that opportunity." In all these years, the Helgeland brothers said 
they've never heard from Moore and don't need to.

"May God have mercy on his soul," Steve said.

(source: KETV news)






ARIZONA:

Ducey will uphold the death penalty----"At the same time, I took an oath to 
uphold the law in Arizona. And I'm going to continue to uphold the law."


Gov. Doug Ducey said he will obey Arizona law and not Pope Francis who has now 
declared that the death penalty is unacceptable in all cases.

But the governor said that, at least for the moment, he doesn't have to make 
that choice.

The issue arises because the pope, in the strongest statement ever, said 
earlier this month that executions are "an attack" on human dignity. And 
Francis promised to work "with determination" to abolish capital punishment 
wherever it still exists.

"I, of course, am going to listen to what the pope says," Ducey said on Monday 
when asked about it. The governor is a practicing Catholic.

"At the same time, I took an oath to uphold the law in Arizona," he continued. 
"And I'm going to continue to uphold the law."

Anyway, Ducey said, it's not like this is something new.

"This has been the catechism for some time of the church," he said, referring 
to the beliefs, laid on in writing of the Catholic faithful, saying that 
Francis was only "adding a qualifying comment."

But that has not exactly been the case.

In his 1995 Evangelium vitae - the Gospel of Life - Pope John Paul II said that 
execution is only appropriate in cases of absolute necessity, "in other words 
when it would not be possible otherwise to defend society" through non-lethal 
means. That language provided enough of an escape clause of sorts for Catholic 
officials like the governor who must sign death warrants.

What Francis said earlier this month effectively closes any loophole, at least 
as far as Catholic doctrine.

The governor sidestepped questions of whether he is saying that state statutes 
- and his oath to obey them - are superior to God's law, at least as 
interpreted by the pope.

"We can have an interesting discussion about that and about life," Ducey 
responded. And he pointed out that, at least for the time being, he doesn't 
have to make that choice.

"Thankfully, there's nothing on the docket in front of me at the time," he 
said.

The last execution in Arizona was in 2014, under Gov. Jan Brewer. Since that 
time a series of legal actions about the penalty and the drugs used to execute 
inmates have resulted in a virtual moratorium.

There are currently 117 inmates on "death row," including 3 women.

(source: wmicentral.com)