[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., TENN., NEB., NEV., USA

[Rick Halperin]

August 15



TEXAS----new death sentence

Jury delivers death sentence for Jordanian immigrant convicted of 2 
Houston-area 'honor killings'


A Jordanian immigrant was sentenced Tuesday to death for a pair of 2012 "honor 
killings" that were part of an extensive plot to kill 5 people, including his 
daughter, in retribution for her leaving home, converting to Christianity and 
marrying a Christian.

Ali Mahwood-Awad Irsan, 60, slumped slightly when the verdict was read, but did 
not react otherwise.

The twisted saga that emerged during the trial of intolerance and violent 
reprisal by the domineering patriarch of an extended family living in a rural 
Montgomery County compound shocked local residents, and has attracted national 
and international news coverage since it first unfolded with Irsan's arrest in 
2014.

The lengthy trial, and disturbing testimony during the punishment phase about 
rapes, drugging, beatings and a previous homicide, left both jurors and family 
of the victims sniffling and wiping tears.

Meanwhile, the trial judge praised the jury's verdict.

"Don't second guess yourselves," state District Judge Jan Krocker told jurors. 
'You listened attentively to every detail. It was the right verdict."

Jurors sat through 7 weeks of testimony about Irsan's rage and desire to "wash 
his honor in blood," quickly convicting Irsan of the capital murder of his 
daughter's new husband, Coty Beavers, 28, and her best friend, Gelareh 
Bagherzadeh, 30, an Iranian activist and medical researcher who supporter her 
choice.

Families of the victims cried, hugged and took pictures together after Irsan 
was led out of the courtroom in a yellow jail uniform.

"Adios," one family member said from the gallery.

Almost an hour after the verdict was read, 4 women and 3 men from the jury came 
back to the courtroom to hug the surviving family members of Irsan's victims.

In tears, they introduced themselves and spoke quietly. They said it was tough 
decision, but they hope the families can now have peace.

Immediately after Krocker sentenced Irsan to death, he had to sit and listen as 
Beavers' mother gave a victim impact statement, from the witness stand, with 2 
of her sons standing next to her.

"On November 12, 2012, Ali Irsan and his family destroyed life as we knew it 
forever," said Shirley McCormick. "That was the day they ambushed and murdered 
Coty, to restore honor to someone who never had any."

Afterward, Coty Beavers' twin brother said the family would focus on the 
remaining suspects: Irsan's adult son, Nasim, who is charged with capital 
murder, and his adult daughter, Nadia, who is charged with stalking.

"Honor violence typically involves participation of multiple family members," 
said Cory Beavers. "We will continue to pray that everyone culpable in these 
murders are brought to justice."

Bagherzedeh's parents, who attended every day of trial, asked family friend 
Kathy Soltani to speak for them.

"By taking Gelareh away from us, they took away a true human being who would 
have helped anyone in any way that crossed her path throughout her life," 
Soltani said. "They took something good from our society."

Defense attorneys for Irsan said they were disappointed in the verdict and 
noted that it would automatically be appealed.

"We will just leave it in God's hands," said lead attorney, Allan Tanner who 
represented Irsan with Rudy Duarte.

>From the beginning of the trial 2 months ago, prosecutors said Irsan was 
hellbent on punishing his daughter and anyone who supported her break from the 
family.

"He wanted to kill her," prosecutor Jon Stephenson told jurors during his 
opening statements. "But he wanted to kill all those she loved first, so that 
she would suffer that much more before she died."

Stephenson was appointed special prosecutor along with Anna Emmons and Marie 
Primm after Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg recused her office. One of 
her top staffers represented one of the suspects in the multi-defendant case 
before joining the district attorney's office.

It is the 1st death penalty trial that has taken place since Ogg took office on 
January 1, 2017.

During the trial, some of Irsan's family testified they lived in fear of daily 
beatings, including with a length of garden hose and "sticks" like Irsan's cane 
and 2-by-4 boards. 2 of his sons said that was not true.

One of Irsan's daughters also testified that he cheered the 9/11 attacks on 
America and praised Osama bin Laden, and told his children they should 
volunteer to become suicide bombers.

For 8 weeks, prosecutors put on evidence that Irsan had been a violent offender 
with a history of money grubbing schemes since coming to America in 1979.

"He will lie, cheat, steal manipulate, abuse, torture, stalk and kill to get 
what he wants," Emmons said during closing arguments.

She pointed to allegations that he raped his first wife, a blind woman he met 
in Iowa, then manipulated her into marriage. There were also allegations that 
he raped his oldest daughter and tried to kill her because she married a man 
Irsan did not approve of in 1999.

Special prosecutor Marie Primm weaved together more than 20 years of Irsan's 
bad acts to sway jurors against letting Irsan serve life without parole in 
general population in prison.

She reminded the jury that Irsan also killed a different son-in-law in 1999.

Irsan testified that it was in self-defense. Other family members said he 
blasted Amjad Alidam in the chest with a shotgun because he did not approve of 
Alidam's marriage to his oldest daughter, then planted a pistol on the body.

"Ali Irsan gets the be the judge, jury and executioner of anyone who goes 
outside of Ali Irsan's control." she said.

In 2015, Irsan, his wife and another daughter were sentenced to federal prison 
for defrauding the Social Security system, one of several schemes revealed 
during the trial that showed how Irsan financed trips back to Jordan and 
purchases of properties he acquired in Montgomery County.

For example, he apparently often claimed that he lost baggage during flights 
and was able to obtain reimbursements from airlines for laptops, electronics 
and lost time. Those claims, prosecutors said, financed each trip.

He also convinced his mosque that he was renting his home and needed help 
paying rent and for electricity bills. That scam ended when elders at the 
mosque learned that his "landlord" was really his wife, testimony showed.

Prosecutors showed that he also opened dozens of credit card accounts in 
different names, including the names of deceased family members, to pay his 
bills. One such account, opened under his daughter's name, went unpaid without 
her knowledge ruining her credit, testimony showed.

The prosecution was also able to show that he bilked thousands of dollars out 
of large corporations by claiming slip and falls in big department stores, or 
by faking injuries and then threatening lawsuits for product liability.

In addition to those scams, he also got food stamps, Medicaid and took 
advantage of other social safety nets by forcing family members to fake mental 
illness to receive disability payments.

Irsan testified that he has been disabled and unable to work since at least 
1993, despite testimony that he cleared the land on his property and built 
fences by hand.

In 2014, a SWAT team swarmed Irsan's Montgomery County compound and arrested 
him for Social Security fraud. State prosecutors later charged Irsan and his 
son, Nasim Irsan, 24, with capital murder. His trial is scheduled for next 
year.

Despite lengthy testimony over 5 weeks, jurors deliberated for less than an 
hour to convict Irsan of capital murder in July.

The same jury then spent 2 weeks listening to testimony to determine whether 
Irsan should be sentenced to death or life without parole.

To sentence Irsan to die, jurors had to decide he would be a "future danger" to 
society and there were not enough mitigating circumstances to spare his life.

(source: Houston Chronicle)






NORTH CAROLINA:

Prosecutors seek death penalty for NC man accused of beating woman to death


Prosecutors for the state of North Carolina say they are seeking the death 
penalty for a man accused of beating a woman to death in Burke County.

Joshua Nathaniel Beard, 37, was arrested in Myrtle Beach on June 27 in 
connection to the murder of Robin Berry Teague, 63.

Teague was found dead inside her home around 7:30 p.m. Sunday, June 17 along 
2273 Hwy 70 in Connelly Springs. Investigators say she died from blunt force 
trauma to the head.

Days after the homicide investigation was launched, deputies released photos of 
a truck and driver that they believe could be connected to the murder. Beard 
was developed as a suspect, and was tracked down to South Carolina more than a 
month later.

His next court date is set for September 10. The case remains under 
investigation by the Burke County Sheriff's Office and the North Carolina State 
Bureau of Investigation.

(soruce: WJZY news)






TENNESSEE:

Court documents: State seeking death penalty for 3 charged in Chattanooga 
woman's death


The state of Tennessee is seeking the death penalty for 3 men accused of 
murdering a woman before she could testify against a gang member.

In March, District Attorney Neal Pinkston used the Racketeer Influenced and 
Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) to indict 54 people.

Now, 3 of them - Andre Grier, Courtney High, and Charles Shelton - face the 
death penalty, accused of killing Bianca Horton.

Horton was killed before she could testify against Cortez Sims. Horton's 
daughter was paralyzed from the waist down when Sims killed another woman, 
Talitha Bowman.

Courtney High has also been accused of murder in the deaths of Jerica Jackson 
and Marquise Jackson that same year.

(source: WTVC news)






NEBRASKA----execution

Fentanyl Used to Execute Nebraska Inmate, in a First for U.S.


Prison officials in Nebraska used fentanyl, the powerful opioid at the center 
of the nation's overdose epidemic, to help execute a convicted murderer on 
Tuesday. The lethal injection at the Nebraska State Penitentiary was the 1st 
time fentanyl had been used to carry out the death penalty in the United 
States.

The execution, Nebraska's 1st since 1997, represented a stunning political 
turnabout in a state where lawmakers voted only 3 years ago to ban capital 
punishment.

The condemned man, Carey Dean Moore, 60, had been convicted of killing 2 Omaha 
taxi drivers decades ago and did not seek a reprieve in his final months. But 2 
pharmaceutical companies tried to block the execution in federal court, 
claiming their reputations would suffer if the killing proceeded.

The companies could not prove that their products would be used, however, 
because prison officials refused to identify the suppliers of the drugs to be 
administered to Mr. Moore. So the execution was allowed to continue.

Mr. Moore's death, using a previously untested 4-drug cocktail, could open a 
new method for states that have increasingly struggled to find execution drugs 
as suppliers have clamped down on how their products are used. But the 
unprecedented use of fentanyl in an execution chamber raised new ethical 
concerns amid a national opioid crisis that has led to an onslaught of fatal 
overdoses.

Scott R. Frakes, the director of the Nebraska Department of Correctional 
Services, said the 1st of the 4 drugs was administered at 10:24 a.m. local 
time, and Mr. Moore was declared dead at 10:47 a.m.

Before the execution on Tuesday morning, as a steady rain fell in Lincoln, 
local television journalists filmed reports from the parking lot of a fast-food 
restaurant across the street from the prison. Police officers stood along the 
road, and prison guards were on duty in the watch tower. The prison yard, 
alongside a major highway, appeared empty.

"We really don't know how fentanyl is going to play out in an execution, as 
opposed to an opioid overdose," Deborah Denno, a law professor at Fordham 
University who has studied capital punishment, said in an interview on Monday. 
"Simply because people are dying as a result of fentanyl doesn't mean they're 
dying in a way that would be considered acceptable as a form of execution."

A bipartisan mix of Nebraska legislators voted in 2015 to outlaw capital 
punishment, citing a mix of moral and financial reasons, and then overrode Gov. 
Pete Ricketts's veto. But Mr. Ricketts, a Republican, and his wealthy family 
bankrolled a ballot referendum that gave voters a chance to decide the issue. 
Nebraskans voted overwhelmingly in 2016 to reinstate the death penalty.

Mr. Moore, who killed Reuel Van Ness Jr. and Maynard Helgeland in 1979, was 
among the longest-serving death-row inmates in the country. Mr. Moore had seen 
previous execution dates come and go and had expressed frustration with the 
repeated delays. People close to him had said he was ready to die.

In recent weeks, the state's Roman Catholic bishops, citing a new teaching by 
Pope Francis that capital punishment is wrong in all cases, urged church 
members to contact state officials and try to block the execution. Mr. Ricketts 
is Catholic, but he said the pope's decision would not change his stance on Mr. 
Moore's execution.

"While I respect the pope's perspective, capital punishment remains the will of 
the people and the law of the state of Nebraska," Mr. Ricketts said in a 
statement earlier this month. "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."

11 more men remain on Nebraska's death row, and prosecutors are seeking the 
death penalty in some pending cases. Still, it is unclear when and if the state 
will kill another inmate. The state's supply of 1 of the drugs used in the 
cocktail to kill Mr. Moore expires at the end of this month, and another 
expires in October.

Scott Frakes, the Nebraska corrections director, said in a court filing this 
month that execution drugs "are difficult, if nearly impossible, to obtain," 
and that he has no replacement sources.

The 4-drug cocktail contained diazepam, a tranquilizer; fentanyl citrate, a 
powerful synthetic opioid that can block breathing and knock out consciousness; 
cisatracurium besylate, a muscle relaxant; and potassium chloride, which stops 
the heart.

"A temporary restraining order or injunction," Mr. Frakes said in the court 
filing seeking to carry out Mr. Moore's execution, "would more than likely have 
the effect of changing Nebraska's final death sentence into a de facto sentence 
of life in prison for Carey Dean Moore."

(source: New York Times)

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

Nebraska carries out state's 1st lethal injection with controversial 4-drug 
cocktail


Nebraska carried out its 1st-ever lethal injection Tuesday, executing double 
murderer Carey Dean Moore, said Scott Frakes, director of the Nebraska 
Department of Correctional Services.

The execution, which involved a 4-drug cocktail, began at 10:24 a.m. (11:24 
a.m. ET), and Moore was declared dead at 10:47 a.m., Frakes said.

"I am required to carry out the order of the court," Frakes said in a 
statement. "This agency has done so with professionalism, respect for the 
process and with dignity for all involved."

Witnessing the execution were three people and a member of the clergy selected 
by Moore, four journalists and 2 members of the correctional staff, the 
statement said. One of the victims' family members was also present, but the 
statement did not specify which victim.

Grant Schulte of The Associated Press told reporters that, shackled before his 
execution, Moore's final words were: "Just the statement that I hand-delivered 
to you already about my brother (Donald) and the innocent men on death row. 
That's all I have to say."

Moore seemed to repeatedly mouth the words, "I love you," toward the witnesses 
just after the injections began, Schulte said.

Moore's execution is Nebraska's 1st in 21 years. Moore was sentenced to death 
for the 1979 killings of Omaha taxi drivers Maynard Helgeland and Reuel Van 
Ness Jr.

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

Drug company protests

Legal efforts by German drug company Fresenius Kabi to force Nebraska to return 
2 of the drugs it planned to use in the execution were denied. Fresenius Kabi 
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."

A judge last week rejected the claim.

The 2 Fresenius Kabi drugs that the state used are cisatracurium, a muscle 
relaxer, and potassium chloride, which stops the heart. The 4-drug cocktail 
also includes the sedative diazepam, also known as Valium, and the powerful 
painkiller fentanyl, which has helped fuel the ongoing opioid epidemic in the 
US.

Amnesty International, one of many groups decrying the execution, said it was 
the first lethal injection in the United States to include fentanyl. Nevada was 
slated to be the 1st to use a drug combination that included fentanyl, but a 
judge put it on hold last month.

The American Civil Liberties Union said the execution was "shrouded in 
secrecy."

"This execution of Carey Dean Moore does not comport with Nebraska's proud 
tradition of open government," the ACLU statement said. "Today stands as the 
most recent dark chapter in Nebraska's troubled history with the death 
penalty."

Nebraska governor's support for death penalty

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.

What does Pope's death penalty shift mean for Catholic politicians?

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' 
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)

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

Moore's death and future executions


With an expiration date of August 31st on 1 of the protocol drugs needed in 
putting someone to death. With 11 people still on death row, WOWT spoke with 
experts about what happens to them.

"That's the problem they will be sitting there probably like Carey Dean Moore 
for another 21 years till they can get the drugs or legislature to set some 
different means of execution such as firing squad or go back to hanging like in 
England, I don't know" said Bill Gallup

Gallup knows the death penalty first hand. He represented Jeremy Sheets, a 
fellow death row inmate with Moore.

Sheets, accused of kidnapping, rape and killing an Omaha girl - was taken off 
death row in 2001. He became the 1st person released from Nebraska death row in 
88 years.

"That was the case, they didn't have evidence and a man sat in the shadow of an 
election chair for 2 years," said Gallup

Over time the rules changed, Nebraska dropped the electric chair and now uses 
lethal injections.

However, the drugs the state has are set to expire on the 31st of August, and 
obtaining new drugs is difficult Gallup says.

"I thought it was interesting these drug companies were trying to say they 
didn't want their drugs used for executions, the companies that sell these 
products can limit how they are used "

Gallup says he doubts any more executions will be carried out.

"Now they are saying they don't think they can execute anyone else on death row 
because they can't get those drugs."

(source: WOWT news)

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

German pharma company fails to block US execution


A German pharmaceutical company has failed in its bid to block an execution in 
the United States.

Convicted murderer Carey Dean Moore died by lethal injection after receiving a 
cocktail of drugs, including Fentanyl and potassium chloride.

Fresenius Kabi filed a lawsuit to stop the execution - saying the state of 
Nebraska hadn't obtained the potassium chloride legally.

Protesters outside the jail had other concerns.

"Murder is murder," said anti-death penalty protester Diane Reyes. "It doesn't 
matter who does it. And Governor Pete Ricketts, who is pushing this through, as 
well as Attorney General Doug Peterson - they're going to have blood on their 
hands. My understanding is Governor Pete Ricketts is a Catholic and the Bible 
says 'no killing.'"

Frensenius Kabi argued that the use of its drugs for lethal injections could 
bring "great reputational injury" and harm profits.

Moore, who was 60, killed 2 cab drivers in 1979.

(source: euronews.com)

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

Statement from Director Frakes after Moore's execution


Statement from Nebraska Department of Corrections Director Scott Frakes after 
the execution of Carey Dean Moore:

Today at 11:05 a.m., Director Scott R. Frakes made the following statement:

"The execution of Carey Dean Moore (60) #32947, scheduled for 10 a.m. today, 
was carried out pursuant to the order issued by the Nebraska Supreme Court on 
July 12, 2018. The 1st of 4 substances was administered at 10:24 a.m. The 
Lancaster County coroner pronounced Moore's time of death at 10:47 a.m.

"As the director of the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services (NDCS), I 
am required to carry out the order of the court. This agency has done so with 
professionalism, respect for the process and with dignity for all involved. I 
recognize that today's execution impacts many people on many levels, most 
certainly the families of Mr. Van Ness and Mr. Helgeland.

"In accordance with Neb. Rev. Stat. 83-970, Moore designated three people and 
one member of the clergy as witnesses to the execution. One family member was 
present, representing 1 of the victims. The 6 witness slots designated by the 
director were filled by 4 members of the Nebraska news media and 2 NDCS staff 
members

. "Moore's body will be remanded to the custody of the Nebraska State Patrol. 
An autopsy will be conducted."

(source: KLKN TV news)

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

'Do We Deserve to Kill?' The Answer Is 'No' After Nebraska's Latest Execution


"The death penalty is not about whether people deserve to die for the crimes 
they commit," as Bryan Stevenson, executive director of the Equal Justice 
Initiative, frequently explains. "The real question of capital punishment in 
this country is, 'Do we deserve to kill?'" For those of us who are most 
familiar with the legal deficiencies and human cruelties of capital punishment, 
the answer is a resounding no.

Nebraska's execution of Carey Dean Moore this morning proves the point.

As a society, we have determined that a death sentence requires that our 
process for determining who is guilty, for determining whom should be executed, 
and for executing humanely are transparent and above reproach. By any standard, 
Nebraska should not have had the authority to kill Moore today with an 
experimental fentanyl drug protocol.

Moore's case is remarkable for several reasons. First, he has spent 38 years on 
death row, the longest known period between death sentence and execution in 
American history. 2nd, 6 years ago, he gave up all appeals and refused to fight 
for his life.

On the surface, it may appear that Nebraska could execute Mr. Moore without 
judicial oversight or safeguards because Moore agreed to be executed. But 
looking more deeply, we know Moore's decision to stop fighting for his life is 
the result of Nebraska holding him for decades on death row without executing 
him.

As Moore faced the prospect of execution for nearly 40 years, the state 
frittered away the time with unconstitutional delay and bumbles. Years of 
Nebraska's delay took place as it fought to execute Moore and other prisoners 
using the electric chair, which every other state had abandoned, until 2008 
when the Nebraska Supreme Court stepped in and ruled such executions 
unconstitutional. During these delays, Moore was losing the will to live under 
threat of execution. When his will expired and he dropped his defenses, 
Nebraska's Gov. Peter Ricketts rushed to carry out his signature issue - the 
death penalty - no matter the cost.

Our legal system can only work properly when representatives for both sides 
fight as hard as they can, so a judge or jury can see the best of the arguments 
on each side and then decide a just outcome. In this case, that did not happen. 
Moore's appointed attorney asked the court earlier this month to be relieved 
because he could not, consistent with a lawyer's ethics, disobey Moore's 
directive not to fight. Using delay, Nebraska has been able to snuff out all of 
the arguments on the other side.

If a zealous attorney could fight for Moore's life, what would she have said? 
The attorney could have shown the court that this lethal-injection protocol 
featuring fentanyl is unconstitutional, because it constitutes cruel and 
unusual punishment, as a Nevada court has found of a similar protocol. The 
protocol follows the fentanyl with a drug to paralyze the prisoner before 
injecting the final, painful heart-stopping medication. So paralyzed, no one in 
the execution room could see whether the fentanyl had rendered Moore 
unconscious and unable to feel pain before the painful drugs were injected.

Moore's attorney could have argued that Nebraska is operating in secret when 
the state is exercising its most dangerous authority - taking a human life. 
Nebraska has dodged a May 2018 ruling by a state trial court that it has been 
evading Nebraska public-records law by withholding information about the 
execution drugs in its possession. Nebraska has filed an appeal and argued that 
state law allows it to continue withholding the public information until it 
loses the appeal.

Moore's attorney could have joined her client as a plaintiff in a pending 
lawsuit showing that Nebraska broke the law by evading the administrative steps 
required in passing its lethal injection protocol.

Or she could have joined him in the lawsuit filed by the ACLU. The suit argued 
that after the Nebraska Legislature repealed the death penalty in 2015 - and 
made this relief retroactive to prisoners already sentenced to death - the 
state could no longer execute them. Because Moore would not join the lawsuit, 
Nebraska was able to argue the execution should proceed as though the lawsuit 
calling into question the legality of the execution did not exist at all.

Finally, as various justices of the Supreme Court have suggested, a lawyer 
fighting for Moore would have argued that keeping him on death row for 38 
years, longer than any other prisoner, made his execution unconstitutional 
under the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.

People who love justice hate nothing more than a justice system where only one 
side is able to fight. Nebraska accomplished just such a one-sided battle by 
delaying Mr. Moore's execution until he gave up. And then we all sat helplessly 
by as a state, which has shown it did not deserve this irrevocable and horrible 
authority, executed a fellow human being.

(source: Brian Stull, ACLU Capital Punishment Project)






NEVADA:

NV 1 of 11 death penalty states not to use it for a decade or more


"By law, many items purchased for the (execution) chamber had to be very high 
quality such as the medical grade bed which cost approximately $70,000," says 
the Nevada Department of Corrections.

The 15 states that have joined Nevada's suit to let Nevada execute Scott 
Dozier, in what would be the 1st execution in Nevada since 2006, are 
predominantly states that have executed someone much more recently. The 1 
exception - Nebraska - is scheduled to execute someone Tuesday.

9 of the 15 - Arkansas, Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, Oklahoma, 
Tennessee and Texas - have carried out an execution in the last 5 years, 
according to a Pew Research analysis released last week. Only 2 other states 
have also killed someone in the last 5 years, Ohio and Virginia.

Of the other 6 states joining Nevada's suit, 5 of them of them - Idaho, 
Indiana, Louisiana, South Carolina, Utah - executed someone in the last 5 to 10 
years.

The other state joining Nevada's suit, Nebraska, has not carried out an 
execution since since 1997, although that 21-year hiatus is set to come to an 
end Tuesday with the scheduled execution of Carey Dean Moore. In circumstances 
similar to those that halted Nevada's planned execution of Dozier last month, a 
German pharmaceutical company sued Nebraska because it didn't want its drug 
used for lethal injection. Unlike a Nevada judge, however, a judge in Nebraska 
ruled against the company, which is reportedly not appealing the case, and the 
execution is scheduled to go forward.

Meantime, the Pew analysis finds that while there are 31 states that have the 
death penalty on the books, few of them use it regularly - and some not at all. 
New Hampshire, for instance, hasn't executed anyone since 1939. And "one stark 
reflection of the longtime suspension of capital punishment in California is 
that executions now rank behind natural causes and suicide as the 3rd most 
common cause of death for those on death row there," according to the Pew 
analysis.

On the other end of the spectrum, between 2000 and 2017, 346 executions were 
carried out in Texas.

(source: Nevada Current)

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

Drug company files Supreme Court brief in death penalty case


A pharmaceutical company that seeks to prevent the state from using one of its 
drugs in the proposed lethal injection of death row inmate Scott Raymond Dozier 
says it has taken no position on capital punishment.

Alvogen Inc., says in a brief filed with the Nevada Supreme Court on Monday its 
sedative drug Midazolam hasn't been approved by the Federal Drug Administration 
for use in executions. And the company maintains the drug was obtained by the 
state Department of Corrections illegally from a third party firm.

The execution of Las Vegas killer Dozier has been delayed twice due to legal 
challenges.

Clark County District Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez issued a temporary restraining 
order to allow the New Jersey firm a hearing to present its case.

The corrections department appealed the Gonzalez order in an effort to restart 
the death penalty process. It maintains Alvogen has no standing to file suit 
that will prevent or delay the execution. Dozier has maintained he wants to die 
by lethal injection by a 3-drug combination.

15 states have sided with Nevada in its effort to carry out the execution. At 
least 1 other company sided with Alvogen.

The Supreme Court has decided to fast track the case but hasn't set a date for 
legal arguments.

Alvogen's lawyer Todd Bice of Las Vegas says in the brief the state has an 
adequate supply of another sedative drug Cisatracurium to carry out the 
execution. The company just doesn't want the state to use Midazolam.

Bice said there should be a district court hearing first to "show the 
illegitimate acquisition and misuse of Alvogen's product."

And he says the state has other drugs to carry out the execution into 2019. 
Alvogen, which operates in 35 countries, said the corrections department made 3 
purchases "surreptitiously" of Midazolam from Cardinal Health.

"The state knew such acquisitions were illegitimate as evidenced by its efforts 
to conceal its actions even when faced with requests for disclosure," said the 
Alvogen brief.

The corrections department will have a chance to answer the allegations of 
Alvogen in its effort to clear the way to put Dozier to death.

(source: The Nevada Appeal)






USA:

The right age to die? For some, science outpaces the Supreme Court on 
juveniles, death penalty


When 15-year-old Luis Cruz joined the Latin Kings in 1991, he was a child by 
almost any measure: he couldn't legally drive, drop out of school, or buy a 
beer. But was he still a child a few years later when - just months after he 
turned 18 - he murdered 2 people on the orders of gang leaders?

Earlier this year, a federal judge in Connecticut said yes. The judge decided 
that a 2012 Supreme Court ruling that forbade mandatory sentences of life 
without parole for juveniles should apply to 18-year-olds like Cruz, and 
granted his request to be resentenced. It's one of a small but growing number 
of cases in which courts are grappling with what to do with young adults who 
commit the most serious crimes.

The years between 18 and 21 are a sort of societal limbo period when, in most 
states, you can smoke but not drink; make medical decisions for yourself but 
stay on your parents' health insurance policy; and try on a variety of 
identities and life experiences without anyone looking askance.

With this in mind, Connecticut last year opened a dedicated prison unit for 
young adults aged 18 to 25, and Vermont this year began allowing young adults 
up to age 21 to have all but the most serious cases tried in juvenile court.

When it comes to the most extreme punishments, the Supreme Court has ruled so 
far that 18 is a "bright line." If you're under 18 at the time of your crime, 
you can't be executed. You also can't be sentenced to life without parole 
without a hearing to consider your maturity level. But the high court has never 
extended those protections past age 18.

"The qualities that distinguish juveniles from adults do not disappear when an 
individual turns 18," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in Roper v. Simmons, the 
1st of 4 modern cases in which the court has laid out its thinking on these 
issues. "However, a line must be drawn."

The high court has not revisited that line since Roper was decided in 2005. But 
state and lower federal courts have begun to consider whether people between 
the ages of 18 and 21 - the period psychologists now call "late adolescence" - 
should have the same kind of special consideration that younger teenagers get 
before they face sentencing for murder.

The Roper case was decided at a time when researchers had recently begun 
imaging adolescents' brains. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, or 
fMRI - like the technology doctors use to look inside the brain for tumors or 
strokes - researchers were able to observe how young people's brains responded 
to various situations.

Paired with research on kids' choices and behaviors, the brain scans provided a 
scientific basis for what "any parent knows," as Kennedy wrote: juveniles are 
more immature than adults, more susceptible to peer pressure, and less able to 
understand the consequences of their actions. That makes them less culpable for 
their crimes and more amenable to rehabilitation.

But it wasn't until recently that scientists began to research what happens to 
the brain in late adolescence and young adulthood, says Laurence Steinberg, a 
professor of psychology at Temple University. Steinberg, a leading researcher 
into adolescent development, helped write the American Psychological 
Association's briefs before the Supreme Court and has testified in many of the 
more recent lower court cases.

And when they did, they found that those same youthful qualities seem to 
persist until the early- to mid-20s. In one recent study, Steinberg and his 
colleagues gave a series of tests to more than 5,000 children and young adults 
across 11 countries. They found that the impulse to chase thrills and look for 
immediate gratification peaks around age 19 and declines into the 20s. 
Steinberg describes this system of the brain like the gas pedal in a car. The 
"brake" system - the ability to plan ahead and consider consequences - takes 
longer to catch up: it isn't generally fully mature until the 20s.

Steinberg says if he had to draw a new bright line, he would draw it at 21.

"Knowing what we know now, one could've made the very same arguments about 18-, 
19- and 20-year-olds that were made about 16- and 17-year-olds in Roper," he 
testified in a recent Kentucky case.

In that Kentucky case, a judge found the state's death penalty statute 
unconstitutional because it allows people who were under 21 at the time of 
their crime to be executed. "If the science in 2005 mandated the ruling in 
Roper, the science in 2017 mandates this ruling," he wrote.

A Pennsylvania court last year considered an appeal from a woman who was 
sentenced to mandatory life without parole after serving as a lookout, at 18, 
during a botched robbery that ended in murder. The court rejected the appeal on 
technical grounds, but called 18 an "arbitrary legal age of maturity" and said 
an "honest reading" of the Supreme Court's ruling would require courts to 
reconsider it.

In the last several years, Illinois appeals courts held that an 18-year-old and 
a 19-year-old could not be sentenced to mandatory life without parole.

Other courts have not been persuaded.

Judges in New York, Ohio and Arizona have rejected the argument, saying simply 
that the Supreme Court's cutoff was unambiguous.

The Ohio defendant, who was sentenced to death when, at age 19, he raped and 
beat to death his girlfriend's 3-year-old daughter, was executed in 2017.

"It's really hard logically to say, 'People your age are too immature to be 
sentenced to death, unless you do something really, really bad.'" - Laurence 
Steinberg, professor of psychology, Temple University

The defendants in New York, sentenced to mandatory life without parole for a 
series of gang-related murders they committed between the ages of 18 and 22, 
have appealed, and a federal court will hear arguments in their case sometime 
in the next few months. In Connecticut, the judge in Cruz's case has put his 
re-sentencing on hold awaiting the judges' decision in New York.

This month a Florida judge reluctantly denied a re-sentencing hearing to 
Quintin Vicks, who was sentenced to mandatory life without parole for his role, 
at age 18 years and 11 weeks, in an armed robbery that resulted in a man's 
death. "The Court disagrees with the result but feels bound to render it," the 
judge said, saying it wouldn't be right to make a decision "based on how the 
Court thinks the United States Supreme Court will one day rule."

Justice Kennedy, who was often the Supreme Court's swing vote in close cases 
and who voted in favor of all four of the court's major rulings extending these 
protections to juveniles under 18, retired this summer. The court is widely 
expected to tack right when President Donald Trump's pick assumes Kennedy's 
seat. In light of that, opponents of juvenile life without parole are aiming to 
keep these cases in lower courts for now, said Marsha Levick of the Juvenile 
Law Center, which has submitted briefs in support of many of these defendants. 
They're not likely to get a friendly hearing on the question of whether 18-, 
19- and 20-year-olds are less culpable than adults from the newly composed high 
court, Levick said.

In the meantime, Steinberg, the psychologist, says he has been hired by the 
attorneys for Nikolas Cruz, who faces the death penalty as the accused gunman 
in February's Parkland school shooting in Florida. Cruz was 19 when he 
allegedly killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Steinberg 
"struggled about this a lot," he said. But in the end "it's really hard 
logically to say, 'People your age are too immature to be sentenced to death, 
unless you do something really, really bad.'"

(source: The Marshall Project)