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

[Rick Halperin]

January 6



OKLAHOMA:

Galesburg native remains on death row



No execution dates are set for the 1st part of 2018 in Oklahoma, including one 
for Galesburg native Richard Glossip.

"There is nothing happening right now as far as executions are concerned. 
They're still on hold in Oklahoma and will be for the foreseeable future," said 
attorney Don Knight, who represents Glossip.

That has been the case since Glossip received a stay of execution in September 
2015 after an issue was discovered with the drugs that were to be used to put 
him to death. Oklahoma continues to look into a process to begin carrying out 
executions, meaning there has yet to be a new execution date set for Glossip.

According to The Associated Press, executions in Oklahoma will not be set for 
150 days, or 5 months, after the state establishes new protocols for the death 
penalty there.

Knight continues to work on the case, but declined further comment on specifics 
in an interview with The Register-Mail.

Glossip has been on death row in Oklahoma for several years after he was 
convicted of 1st-degree murder for the 1997 murder of Barry Van Treese, who was 
Glossip's boss at a motel in Oklahoma City at the time.

Glossip has maintained his innocence since he was arrested and was found guilty 
in a murder-for-hire scheme. Justin Sneed, who admitted to killing Van Treese, 
received life in prison for testifying against Glossip. That testimony was the 
only evidence suggesting Glossip was involved.

Glossip was born in Galesburg, where relatives still reside. He was born in 
Cottage Hospital in 1963 to Heron and Sally Glossip. By the time he moved out 
at the age of 14, Richard was 1 of 16 siblings in the Glossip home.

2 years later, he married Jackie Hodge and had 2 children in Galesburg. He went 
on to marry Missy King and have 2 more children before leaving Illinois and 
traveling from Iowa to Nebraska and ending up in Oklahoma, according to 
Register-Mail files.

The Galesburg native's case received renewed attention in April 2017 after 
Investigation Discovery ran a 4-part series on the case called, "Killing 
Richard Glossip." That is still available to stream from the channel's website 
at www.investigationdiscovery.com/tv-shows/killing-richard-glossip/.

In fact, SkyNews journalist Ian Woods is releasing a book he has written on the 
case - Glossip invited Woods to attend all 3 of his would-be execution dates 
that have been postponed - that was released this week. It is titled "Surviving 
Execution."

Christina Glossip-Hodge, Glossip's oldest daughter, said she the thought the TV 
series was great and "it might open a lot of people's eyes."

She said she talked to her father the day after Christmas and he sounded really 
good. Richard is also engaged, she said.

As far as the holding pattern with no execution date set, Glossip-Hodge said 
this is "a better spot to be in than counting the days ... at least it's not 30 
days, the last time we had 2 weeks. Good Lord. It was back to back trying to 
kill that man. It feels good right now."

(source: The Register-Mail)








NEBRASKA:

Ricketts, others seek dismissal of ACLU lawsuit challenging death penalty 
referendum



Attorneys for Gov. Pete Ricketts argued Friday in court that he simply 
exercised his rights as a citizen when he participated in a referendum petition 
that restored Nebraska's death penalty in 2016.

Lawyers for the ACLU of Nebraska countered that as the state's top executive, 
the governor doesn't get to make law. But when he led and helped fund the 
referendum petition drive to overturn the Legislature's death penalty repeal, 
the governor made law in violation of the Constitution's separation of powers 
clause.

Lancaster County District Judge John Colborn heard 50 minutes of legal debate 
Friday from 6 different lawyers in a lawsuit that could strike down the 2016 
death-penalty referendum vote.

The judge said he will consider the arguments along with written briefs before 
he issues a ruling. He could dismiss the case, remove some of the defendants or 
allow the lawsuit to proceed unchanged.

Lawyers for Ricketts, Attorney General Doug Peterson, Treasurer Don Stenberg 
and several other defendants argued that the lawsuit should be dismissed now 
before engaging in further litigation.

J.L. Spray, who represents Stenberg and the 3 citizens who sponsored the 
pro-death penalty petition drive, said it would be a "ridiculous conclusion" 
for the judge to say certain citizens could not participate in the process by 
virtue of holding elected office.

"Just because you're a governor or state senator or a judge or an employee of 
the state, you don't lay down your constitutional rights," Spray argued.

Bill Trac, a lawyer for the ACLU, said no one is arguing that elected officials 
or judges can't vote in a ballot issue. But by organizing the petition drive, 
Ricketts sought to defeat the death penalty repeal, something he could not 
accomplish even with the veto power of his office.

"That's really the fundamental argument in this case," Trac said. "Had the 
executive not acted, there might not have even been a referendum on the 
ballot."

The lawsuit by the ACLU of Nebraska also argues that the Legislature's 2015 
repeal took effect long enough to void the death sentences of the 11 men on 
death row.

"Did this law go into effect and change our clients' sentences to life in 
prison? We say yes," said Brian Stull, a lawyer with the ACLU.

Assistant Attorney General Ryan Post disagreed. He said once petition 
organizers turned in sufficient signatures in the summer of 2015 to put the 
question on the ballot, the law was suspended until the election on Nov. 8, 
2016.

The lawsuit was filed in December in response to the state Department of 
Corrections obtaining fresh supplies of lethal injection drugs. The department 
said it intended to use the drugs in the execution of Jose Sandoval, the 
ringleader of a botched bank robbery in 2002 in Norfolk that left 5 people 
dead.

(source: Omaha World-Herald)








ARIZONA:

Man charged in Phoenix serial killings didn't attend hearing



A former city bus driver charged in a string of serial killings in Phoenix has 
once again declined to attend a court hearing in his criminal case.

It was the 5th court hearing that Aaron Juan Saucedo has chosen not to attend.

The hearing Thursday centered on the qualifications of his attorneys.

They swore to a judge that they had the qualifications to defend Saucedo in a 
death penalty case.

Their statements were a necessary formality after prosecutors said last month 
that they intended to seek the death penalty against Saucedo.

Saucedo has pleaded not guilty to charges of 1st-degree murder, attempted 
murder and drive-by shooting in attacks that killed 9 people and wounded 2 
others during a nearly 1-year period that ended in July 2016.

(soruce: Associated Press)








USA:

Capital Punishment in the United States: Explained



In our Explainer series, Fair Punishment Project lawyers help unpackage some of 
the most complicated issues in the criminal justice system. We break down the 
problems behind the headlines - like bail, civil asset forfeiture, or the Brady 
doctrine - so that everyone can understand them. Wherever possible, we try to 
utilize the stories of those affected by the criminal justice system to show 
how these laws and principles should work, and how they often fail. We will 
update our Explainers monthly to keep them current.

To beat the clock on the expiration of its lethal injection drug supply, this 
past April, Arkansas tried to execute 8 men over 1 days. The stories told in 
frantic legal filings and clemency petitions revealed a deeply disturbing 
picture. Ledell Lee may have had an intellectual disability that rendered him 
constitutionally ineligible for the death penalty, but he had a spate of bad 
lawyers who failed to timely present evidence of this claim - 2 of those 
lawyers tried to withdraw from his case, 1 was drunk in court, 1 surrendered 
his law license because of a mental illness. Kenneth Williams, the last man 
executed in Arkansas, also might have had an intellectual disability, but bad 
lawyering meant no one ever considered it. Arkansas also tried to kill Jack 
Greene this November. Greene regularly stuffs his ears and nose with toilet 
paper and thinks his lawyers are conspiring to destroy his "vital functioning 
organs." He has asked the state to sever his head after his execution. Just 2 
days before his scheduled execution, the Arkansas Supreme Court stayed the 
execution so lawyers could litigate his competency.

In July of this year, Ohio executed Ronald Phillips, who was 19 when he 
committed the crime that landed him on death row. According to Ronald's 
attorneys, his father began anally raping when he was just 4 years old, and a 
cousin raped him when he was 7. The family home was covered in dog feces. He 
also was likely intellectually disabled. Again, because of bad trial lawyering, 
no jury ever learned of this evidence.


Hours before Marcellus Williams's scheduled execution on August 22, Missouri 
Governor Eric Greitens stayed his execution, worried Williams might be innocent 
after testing showed that DNA found on a knife didn't match Williams's DNA 
profile. Over the objections of both Saint Louis County Prosecutor Bob 
Mcculloch and the Attorney General, the Governor appointed a board to examine 
the case.

America's use of the death penalty is declining in rapid fashion. But even with 
fewer cases, courts are not getting better at ensuring that only the most 
culpable are sentenced to death, and the system is deeply broken. Below, we 
explore the state of the death penalty in America today.

The Use of the Death Penalty Is Declining.

New death sentences have plummeted. In 2016, juries meted out only 30 new death 
sentences - the lowest number since capital punishment's resurrection in 1972. 
In 1996, there were 315; in 2006, there were 125; and in 2016, there were 31. 
In Virginia, there have been no new death sentences in 5 years. In Texas, there 
were 11 new death sentences in 2014, but only 2 in 2015, and 4 in 2016. In 
Georgia, there have only been 3 new death sentences in the last 5 years.

This trend of overall capital punishment decline has stayed the path in 2017, 
in which there were 39 new death sentences (the 2nd lowest number since 1972). 
The data behind that number is also telling: responsibility for new death 
sentences continued to lie within a handful of outlier jurisdictions, with 31% 
of the sentences coming from 3 counties: Riverside, CA; Clark, NV; and 
Maricopa, AZ. Further, for the 1st time since 1974, there were no death 
sentences in 2017 in Harris County, TX. As 2017 draws to a close, Harris 
County's new head prosecutor, Kim Ogg, appears to have kept her promise to 
pursue the death penalty in only the most extreme cases, emphasizing changing 
attitudes towards the death penalty and the importance of reframing the issues 
to ensure the focus is not on "scalps on the wall." However, she acknowledges 
that she cannot receive all the credit, attributing the record year to, among 
other factors, better educated and more diverse jury pools. Ogg cites as the 
reasons for her new approach, "The life without parole option, the immense cost 
in a time of limited resources and the human toll of waiting decades for final 
imposition of that sentence." As death penalty support drops among the public 
and they in turn elect district attorneys who will focus resources elsewhere, 
the usage of capital punishment will likely continue to slow. In an interview, 
Frank Baumgartner, who has recently co-authored a book analyzing capital 
punishment statistics, acknowledges district attorneys' death penalty choices 
as the "key driver in the system" and points to this as the deciding factor in 
explaining Harris County's past status as the nation's death penalty capital, 
given the lack of other explanations: Houstonians' support for capital 
punishment is actually lower than in the rest of Texas, and the crime rate in 
Harris County is not unusually high.

Juries are rejecting prosecutor's requests to sentence people to death.

Prosecutors had not sought a death sentence in Dallas, a traditional death 
penalty stronghold, since 2015. But this year, they tried and failed twice. 
Jurors in the Justin Smith case indicated they were deadlocked on the penalty 
decision, and Smith reached a plea agreement with the prosecutor sentencing him 
to life in prison without parole. A month later, a jury declined to sentence 
Erbie Bowser to death. A former military veteran and special-education teacher, 
the government accused him of killing his girlfriend, her daughter, his 
estranged wife, and her daughter. The defense argued that he was seriously 
mentally ill and suffered from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE). After 8 
hours of deliberations, the jury signaled it was hopelessly deadlocked and he 
received a life verdict.

In the notorious Aurora-movie shooting case, Colorado prosecutors sought the 
death penalty against James Holmes, accusing him of shooting 12 people during a 
screening of "The Dark Knight Rises." After a 65-day trial, the jury, after 
deliberating for just 7 hours, deadlocked and Holmes received a life sentence. 
The defense had argued Holmes suffered from a severe and debilitating mental 
illness. Following the judge's deadlock and subsequent mandatory life sentence, 
the judge addressed criticism about the waste of time and money involved in a 
capital trial that yielded the same result as if the state had accepted a 
guilty plea.

In Wake County, North Carolina, home of Raleigh, juries have declined to 
sentence a defendant to death in 8 out of 8 cases over the last decade. After 
the last life sentence, the elected prosecutor stated: "At some point, we have 
to step back and say, 'Has the community sent us a message on that?'" North 
Carolina overall is rejecting the death penalty: the state sentenced no one to 
death in 2017, making it the 3rd year since 2012 that the state had no death 
sentences. Only a single person has been sent to the state's death row in the 
past 3 1/2 years, and most of the state's prosecutors are no longer seeking the 
death penalty. The ones that are, are failing: juries failed to impose death 
sentences in all 4 trials where North Carolina prosecutors sought the penalty 
in 2017. In 3 of those trials, juries chose LWOP, and in a 4th, they convicted 
of a lesser crime.

This decline in death sentences is the most revealing metric about society's 
current tolerance for the death penalty. When asked to make real life of death 
decisions about a real person in a real case, prosecutors increasingly don't 
seek and jurors don't return death sentences.

Executions have plummeted. In 1999, the United States executed 98 people- the 
most ever executed in this country. With few exceptions, that number has 
steadily declined, with 35 executions in 2014, 28 in 2015, 20 in 2016, and 23 
in 2017. The 23 executions in 2017 were the second fewest since 1991. Further, 
courts stepped in and granted stays in 58 of the 81 executions scheduled for 
2017 (71.6%), demonstrating continued concern about the integrity of death 
sentences and executions.

31 states, the District of Columbia, the federal government, and the military 
have turned away from executing people. 23 states and D.C. have either 
abolished the death penalty or seen their governors impose moratoriums. 4 more 
jurisdictions (New Hampshire, Kansas, Wyoming and the military) have executed 1 
or fewer people in the last 50 years, and 6 other jurisdictions (the federal 
government, Idaho, Kentucky, Montana, Nebraska, and South Dakota) each executed 
3 people in the past half-century.

Governors are halting it. Governors in Oregon, Pennsylvania, Washington, and 
Colorado have vowed not to allow an execution on their respective watches.

In 2013, Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper granted a temporary reprieve to 
one of Colorado's 3 death row inmates - Nathan Dunlap. Hickenlooper called 
Colorado's system of capital punishment "imperfect and inherently inequitable" 
and called it "highly unlikely" that he would reconsider the death penalty for 
Dunlap. In a published order, he wrote that "[i]t is a legitimate question 
whether we as a state should be taking lives." Hickenlooper also noted that, in 
Dunlap's case, 3 jurors later said they might not have supported the death 
penalty if they knew Dunlap was bipolar.

Oregon Governor Kate Brown announced in 2016 she would continue the death 
penalty moratorium imposed by her predecessor due to "serious concerns" about 
the "constitutionality and workability" of Oregon's death penalty statute.

Prosecutors are declining to use the death penalty. Out of the 3,143 counties 
in the U.S., only 16 sentenced 5 or more people to death between 2010 and 2015. 
2% of counties nationwide now account for the majority of inmates on states' 
death rows. Dissenting from the denial of certiorari in Tucker v. Louisiana, 
Justices Breyer and Ginsburg noted geography as the arbitrary factor likely 
behind the petitioner's Caddo Parish, Louisiana death sentence.

With the November 2017 election of Democrat Larry Krasner as Philadelphia's 
next D.A., the city's criminal justice system will likely experience a sea 
change. Krasner, a civil rights attorney, has promised not to seek the death 
penalty. This is an extraordinary shift? - ?Lynn Abraham, long-time Philly 
D.A., was labeled one of America's deadliest prosecutors. Similarly, in Denver, 
Colorado, District Attorney Beth McCann promised that she will not seek the 
death penalty.

In Harris County, Texas - traditionally the nation's death penalty capital - 
there have been no new death sentences since Kim Ogg took office in January 
2017. Moreover, Ogg has agreed to life-saving plea deals in at least 2 
important cases, Buck v. Davis and now Moore v. Texas. Ogg found Buck's case on 
her desk after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that he did not get a fair trial 
because a defense expert testified that black men like Buck tended to be 
dangerous. Moore's case landed on Ogg's desk after the U.S. Supreme Court found 
the test Texas used for intellectual disability?- ?modeled after Lenny in "Of 
Mice and Men" - was unconstitutional.

In Orlando, Florida, 9th Judicial Circuit State Attorney Aramis Ayala announced 
in March 2017 that her office would no longer seek the death penalty. Governor 
Rick Scott immediately removed all 29 cases from her supervision, placing them 
with 5th Judicial Circuit State Attorney Brad King, "an outspoken proponent of 
the death penalty." After losing a fight in the Florida Supreme Court over the 
dissent of 2 justices, Ayala formed a 7-attorney panel to review murder cases 
for capital charging decisions and announced in October 2017 that it will 
pursue death against a woman accused of committing a murder in April.

Public Support for the Death Penalty Is Declining.

Recent polling has mirrored the decline in the death penalty's use, with 
support among Americans dropping dramatically. It is at its lowest in 45 years, 
with just 55% of Americans voicing support in the latest Gallup poll.

Even among Republican politicians, support for the death penalty has 
significantly decreased over the past 7 years. In 2013, Republican lawmakers 
sponsoring death penalty repeal bills doubled; the figure rose to 40 sponsors 
by 2016.

In California, voters narrowly passed Proposition 66 to speed up the state's 
use of the death penalty, with 51.13% voting in favor of it. But 46.85% voted 
to repeal the death penalty altogether (Proposition 62), suggesting that the 
tide may too be changing in that state. In Los Angeles, the county with the 
largest number of death row inmates, 52.3% voted for the repeal.

In Nebraska, the 2016 referendum in which voters opted to repeal the 
legislature's death penalty abolition bill is a source of controversy. Governor 
Pete Ricketts is being sued by the ACLU of Nebraska, on behalf of the state's 
death row inmates, for overstepping his executive office boundaries by donating 
$425,000 and staff members to the organization Nebraskans for the Death 
Penalty. According to the lawsuit, Ricketts provided the majority of total 
funding for the petition drive to get the referendum on the ballot in its first 
months.

The Death Penalty Is Broken.

Those who are executed are not the worst of the worst. The Supreme Court has 
limited the use of the death penalty to the worst of the worst - those who are 
the most culpable in our society. As the Supreme Court has said: "Because the 
death penalty is the most severe punishment ... [c]apital punishment must be 
limited to those offenders" whose "extreme culpability makes them the most 
deserving of execution."

The Court has established bright line rules for groups that do not fall within 
that category, and therefore cannot be executed. The Insane: In Ford v. 
Wainwright (1986), the Court ruled that execution of the insane is cruel and 
unusual. The Intellectually Disabled: In Atkins v. Virginia (2002), the Court 
declared that the death penalty for intellectually disabled (ID) offenders is 
cruel and unusual. Juveniles: In 2005, the Court said the same about the death 
penalty for juveniles (defined as those under 18) in Roper v. Simmons. Because 
kids have brains that are not fully developed, particularly in the frontal 
lobe, they have impaired judgment that "render[s] suspect any conclusion that a 
juvenile falls among the worst offenders."

And yet numerous cases arise where men may be intellectually disabled or 
insane, but are nevertheless on death row.

Ledell Lee and Kenneth Williams were both executed by the state of Arkansas 
despite unexplored intellectual disability claims.

Arkansas came close to killing Bruce Ward, who suffered from paranoid 
schizophrenia and believed he would "survive the triple lethal injection and 
walk out of the prison to fabulous wealth and public acclaim, then go on to 
found an evangelical ministry that will spread God's love through the power of 
his preaching." The Arkansas Supreme Court stayed the execution over the 
state's objection.

It also nearly succeeded in its attempt to kill Jack Greene, another severely 
mentally ill inmate who regularly stuffs his ears and nose with toilet paper, 
intentionally causes his nose to bleed, eats out of his sink and uses his 
toilet as his desk. The Arkansas Supreme Court granted Greene a stay of 
execution so lawyers could litigate competency.

Other people on death row experience serious impairments that call into 
question their extreme culpability.

Many argue - in court pleadings and in the media - ?that serious mental 
illness, like intellectual disability or age, should also render people 
ineligible for the death sentence. Several states, including Ohio, Indiana, 
South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia, have or are considering 
legislation proposing such a bright line rule. A 2014 poll showed that 
Americans oppose executing the mentally ill by a 2-1 margin.

And yet death row is replete with those suffering from serious mental illness, 
trauma, and other impairments. A study by Frank R. Baumgartner and Betsy Neil 
found that those executed between 2000 and 2015 suffered from serious mental 
illness at a far greater rate than those in the general population. And 39.7 
experienced childhood abuse, compared to 1 in 10 kids in the U.S.

Ohio plans to execute 26 men over the next 3 years. 88% of these men have some 
combination of significant mental impairments, disabilities, and brain 
injuries, trauma resulting from horrific childhood abuse, or potential 
intellectual disabilities.

David Sneed is 1 of the men Ohio plans to execute. He has "severe manic bipolar 
disorder and a schizo-affective disorder involving hallucinations and 
delusions." Doctors initially found him incompetent to stand trial until they 
administered psychotropic drugs, after which he became a model prisoner. He 
also has "borderline intellectual functioning." As a child, he suffered from 
physical abuse and repeated sexual abuse by his foster family, by someone at 
his elementary school, and by his mother's friend.

The Supreme Court has just cleared the way for the execution of Vernon Madison 
in Alabama. Because of a stroke, parts of Madison's brain "have essentially 
died." He is incontinent, has slurred speech, impaired vision, and cannot walk 
without assistance. He has both dementia and amnesia, and does not remember the 
crime for which he is sentenced to die.

The vast majority of those executed in 2017 suffered from some form of 
impairment. 20 of the 23 men had one or more of the following impairments: 
significant evidence of mental illness; evidence of brain injury, developmental 
brain damage, or an IQ in the intellectually disabled range; serious childhood 
trauma, neglect or abuse. All 8 of the men who were under 21 at the time of 
their capital offenses had experienced serious trauma.

Prosecutors keep putting the innocent on death row. As of October 17, 2017, 160 
people have been exonerated from the nation's death rows, and numerous 
executions have taken place despite strong evidence of innocence. According to 
one study, 1 out of every 25 people sentenced to death is innocent.

Prosecutors put Ray Krone on death row in 1992, accusing him of killing a 
waitress. At trial, police used bitemark testimony to convict him. 10 years 
later, DNA evidence exonerated Krone. Bitemark evidence is now a discredited 
field that has caused over 2 dozen convictions, although some prosecutors 
continue defending it, without any scientific support.

In 2017, prosecutors dismissed charges against Rodicrus Crawford, put on death 
row in 2012, accused of killing his 1-year-old son. Autopsy results showed 
bronchopneumonia in the baby's lungs and sepsis in the blood, but led by 
notorious (and now disgraced) then-prosecutor Dale Cox, the government put on 
testimony that Crawford suffocated his baby. Following his conviction, numerous 
experts showed the child died of natural causes. During a subsequent hearing, 
the Louisiana Supreme Court justices expressed disbelief that the state put 
this man on death row: "[H]ow did the state come about that this was a 
1st-degree murder case - on circumstantial evidence with a child that an 
autopsy discovered to have had sepsis -and ask that this man be put to death on 
weak circumstances? There's not even a motive."

Executions continue to take place in the face of grave innocence concerns. 
Texas executed Robert Pruett in October 2017 despite no physical evidence 
connecting him to the crime, and despite the presence of unidentified DNA on 
the murder weapon that matched neither Pruett nor the victim.

Joe Giarratano was sent to Virginia's death row on the basis of his 
inconsistent, conflicting confessions, despite a history of drug abuse and 
mental illness that lawyers later argued had left him incompetent to stand 
trial. His death sentence was commuted in 1991, 2 days before his scheduled 
execution, and in November 2017, he was finally granted parole after 40 years 
incarceration for a crime he has long claimed he did not commit.

Race plays a role in the imposition of the death penalty. In 1983, David Baldus 
found that defendants accused of killing white victims were 4.3 more likely to 
receive a death sentence than those accused of killing a black person. That 
trend remains true: A recent Pennsylvania report found that death sentences are 
more common when the victim is white and less common when the victim is black.

Race of the defendant featured prominently in 2 capital punishment cases that 
made headlines in 2017. The Supreme Court reversed Duane Buck's death sentence 
because an expert testified Buck would be dangerous because he is black. 
Georgia fought hard to execute Keith Tharpe notwithstanding a juror's 
racially-slurred admission that he voted for death because Tharpe is black. The 
Supreme Court granted a last-minute stay of execution in the case.

And It is Largely in Chaos Because of Unconstitutional Laws.

Florida currently has 386 people on its death row, and now it must decide what 
to do with many of those cases after courts upended its sentencing scheme. In 
2016, in Hurst v. Florida, the Supreme Court struck down Florida's death 
penalty statute, which made a jury's decision of life-or-death only a 
recommendation and allowed a judge to override it. In October of the same year, 
the Florida Supreme Court found that the state's revamped law, which did not 
require unanimous jury verdicts, was unconstitutional.

That left prosecutors and courts with the task of deciding what do with about 
285 cases - nearly 75% of the death row population. But whether you get relief 
depends largely on a date - the unanimity jury requirement is retroactive only 
to 2002. As a result, in October of 2017, the state executed Mark Lambrix, even 
though the jury in his 1st trial voted only 8-4 in favor of death, and then in 
the 2nd 10-2.

Will Alabama be next? Alabama does not require unanimous death verdicts, and it 
is possible that soon, the state will be in the same place as Florida. Alabama 
already took major action to bring its capital punishment scheme into 
constitutional compliance, passing a bill eliminating judicial override in 
2017.

In March of 2017, the Supreme Court declared Texas' scheme for evaluating 
intellectual disability unconstitutional in Moore v. Texas. That test, which 
was based on Steinbeck's character Lenny in "Of Mice and Men," lacked any basis 
in science and medical standards. Now, Texas must develop a new standard and 
reconsider any cases where courts used the improper standards. Prosecutors have 
asked the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA), the highest criminal court, 
to give Moore a life sentence, as he is intellectually disabled when evaluated 
according to current medical standards. The case has stoked public opinion 
hopeful that the court will agree. The TCCA has also vacated Carl Petetan's 
death sentence and ordered the trial court to conduct a new sentencing hearing 
to evaluate an intellectual disability claim after Moore.

In August of 2017, Fayette County Circuit Judge Ernesto Scorsone ruled that 
applying the death penalty to a defendant under 21 years of age was 
unconstitutional. If this takes, a huge number of cases could be affected.

Lethal Injection May Be Torturing People.

In execution after execution, people are awake as their lungs shut down.Most 
states use a 3-judge cocktail to execute people. The 1st drug, historically an 
anesthetic, renders you unconscious, the second drug, pancuronium bromide, 
stops breath and acts as a paralytic, and the third drug, potassium chloride, 
stops your heart from beating. But lawyers and experts have argued that this is 
not fail-safe, and, although the Supreme Court has rejected challenges, 
evidence shows they are right.

Most states use midazolam for the anesthetic to put people to sleep. It is 
unclear if midazolam reliably causes unconsciousness; once the 2nd drug is 
administered, "the prisoners will be paralyzed, unable to move a muscle, unable 
to indicate in any way if they are experiencing the suffocating effects of the 
paralytic and the searing pain of the potassium chloride."

Oklahoma infamously botched Clayton Lockett's 2014 execution; he died 43 
minutes after administration of a 3-drug cocktail of midazolam, bromide and 
potassium chloride. He raised and jerked his head, repeatedly tried to speak, 
groaned and writhed. The state then imposed a moratorium on executions and 
convened a commission to investigate; in April 217, the commission recommended 
extending the moratorium until "significant reforms" are instituted.

In December of 2016 in Alabama, Ronald Bert Smith, Jr. struggled for breath, 
heaved, coughed, clenched his fist, raised his head, and opened his left eye 
during his execution. His lips also moved, but he could not speak.

In Arkansas in 2017, Marcel Williams arched his back and breathed heavily 
during his execution. Reporters witnessing Kenneth Williams's execution 
described him "[c]oughing, convulsing, lurching, and jerking." "It was clear 
that he was in trouble." "It was clear that he was striving for breath."

States are also experimenting with new drug-combinations - and they are not 
faring better.

In Ohio, executions had been on hold since Dennis McGuire's botched 2014 
execution, using a 2-drug combination that included midazolam. That has ended, 
and the state is using midazolam, rocuronium bromide and potassium chloride. 
But during Gary Otte's September 2017 execution, according to his lawyer, Otte 
appeared to be in pain after the administration of midazolam and looked like he 
was struggling for air. His lawyer also noted that Otte was crying. Ohio 
encountered further controversy when it had to call off its November 2017 
execution of 69-year-old Alva Campbell after 30 minutes of struggling to find a 
vein. Campbell's lawyers had warned that an exam failed to find veins suitable 
for IV insertion in arguments that Campbell was too ill to execute. Regardless, 
Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine filed a motion in federal court 5 days later 
seeking the dismissal of a suit filed by death-row inmates who contend that the 
way the state conducts executions violates their constitutional protections.

Nevada is trying to use a brand new drug combination: the opioid fentanyl, the 
sedative diazepam (better known as Valium), and a paralytic, cisatracurium, to 
execute Scott Dozier. But while the state had scheduled the execution for 
November 14, 2017, that execution is now stayed after the judge forbid the 
state from using the paralytic. After hearing expert testimony, the judge 
believed that if the other 1 drugs were not administered properly, the 
paralytic could prevent Dozier from showing signs of distress while 
suffocating. The state has said it will appeal. On December 19, the judge 
announced she will not hear further arguments in the case, and will await 
Nevada Supreme Court review of her decision.

A few Justices are troubled by these botched executions - but just a few. In 
dissenting opinions, Supreme Court Justices have strongly condemned the 
torturous effects of lethal injection. Dissenting from the Supreme Court's 
refusal to intervene in Alabama's execution of Thomas Arthur earlier this year, 
Justice Sotomayor, joined by Justice Breyer, called midazolam-centered 
execution protocols "our most cruel experiment yet." She wrote an equally 
powerful dissent in Glossip v. Gross, joined by Justices Ginsburg, Breyer and 
Kagan.

So are companies. Drug companies across the world are trying to keep states 
from using their product in executions; Pfizer is one famous example. Johnson & 
Johnson is another.

Amidst this controversy, states are trying to keep their drugs and suppliers 
secret. In Arkansas in August 2017, the state paid $250 cash for 4 vials of 
midazolam from an unknown source, enough for 2 executions. Controversy also 
brewed after the Arkansas Department of Corrections Director revealed that 1 of 
the drugs used - potassium chloride - was "donated" to her after she drove her 
car to pick it up from an unnamed supplier.

Conditions of Confinement on Death Row Are Cruel and Unusual.

The majority of death row inmates are held in solitary confinement. Of the 
2,802 state prisoners currently condemned to death, 61% are isolated for 20 
hours or more a day. In Texas, death row inmates spend up to 23 hours a day 
alone in an 8 x 12-foot cell with virtually no human contact or exposure to 
natural light. For 14 years in Arkansas, Bruce Ward, suffering from 
schizophrenia, was held every day in a 12 by 7.5 cell with a toilet and shower. 
Guards passed his meals in through a slot. He was permitted 1 hour a day in 
another enclosed "exercise" cell, although for a decade he refused to go there.

These conditions have devastating psychological effect. Inmates have recounted 
the insanity-inducing conditions they are forced to endure. The isolation and 
sensory deprivation leads inmates to lose their minds entirely: they suffer 
from delusions and hallucinations, mutilate themselves, and experience 
psychotic episodes in which they attempt suicide or smear the walls of their 
cells with their blood and excretions. The suicide rate in solitary is 5 to 10 
times higher than it is in the general prison population.

Extended time on death row may amount to cruel and unusual punishment. Known as 
a "Lackey" claim, inmates argue that the extensive confinement in solitary on 
death row amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. Although the Supreme Court 
has rejected this claim, recently Justice Breyer has signaled a commitment to 
it, lodging a number of dissents from denials of certiorari. Of the inordinate 
delay at issue in Foster v. Florida, he wrote: "[27] years awaiting execution 
is unusual by any standard, even that of current practice in the United States, 
where the average executed prisoner spends between 11 and 12 years under 
sentence of death."

The Fallacy of Clemency.

Clemency is almost never granted. Some believe clemency is the "fail-safe" 
method to make sure we do not execute the innocent, the insane, or those who 
have not received a fair trial. The late Supreme Court Chief Justice William 
Rehnquist wrote that it was necessary because "[i]t is an unalterable fact that 
our judicial system, like the human beings who administer it, is fallible." But 
in reality, it is almost never used, and it is sometimes not even controlled by 
an elected official accountable to the people.

In Texas, for example, the politically appointed Texas Board of Pardons and 
Parole must recommend parole before the governor can grant it. The board is not 
required to hold a hearing on the clemency petition, and during the 6 years 
where George W. Bush was governor, not a single one of the 152 people executed 
received one. Since 2001, the state has executed 285 people while the board has 
recommended clemency just 4 times. Idaho, Louisiana, and Nevada operate 
similarly. Georgia keeps its clemency proceedings secret - it's impossible, 
therefore, to know why they make decisions.

In Florida, there has not been a commutation since 1983. The state has put 95 
people to death since 1979, and only 6 were commuted - in 4 of those, juries 
had voted to spare their lives but a judge overrode that decision.

Is It Coming to an End?

In Hidalgo v. Arizona, a petition for certiorari currently before the Supreme 
Court, an Arizona inmate asked the Court to strike down the death penalty in 
both Arizona and across the country. The petitioner argued that under Arizona's 
capital scheme, almost all 1st-degree murderers are eligible for the death 
penalty - 99 %, in fact, showing that it is not reserved for only "the worst of 
the worst," as the Constitution requires.

Attorneys also argued that evolving standards of decency have shown that the 
40-year experiment with death has failed. "The evidence is in. The long 
experiment launched by Gregg - in whether the death penalty can be administered 
within constitutional bounds - has failed. It has failed both in Arizona in 
particular and in the Nation more broadly."

(source: injusticetoday.com)