[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----CALIF., WASH., USA

[Rick Halperin]

Jan. 11



CALIFORNIA:

Drifter ordered to trial in arson death of San Diego homeless man



A drifter charged with stabbing a homeless man last year, bashing in his skull, 
then setting him on fire along the San Diego River could face the death 
penalty, a judge ruled Wednesday.

At the end of a 1-day preliminary hearing, Sergio Padilla Chavez, 26, was 
ordered to stand trial on charges of 1st-degree murder, with a 
special-circumstance allegation that the murder was committed during an arson.

The district attorney will make the decision on whether to seek the death 
penalty at some future time, as Chavez's trial draws closer, Deputy District 
Attorney Kyle Sutterley said.

Jose Hernandez, 63, died more than 6 weeks after the July 4 attack at his camp 
along the river bottom in Grantville, near a Kaiser medical clinic off San 
Diego Mission Road.

Hernandez died of pneumonia on Aug. 19, but the cause of his death was 
determined to be complications from blunt head trauma, a forensic pathologist 
testified Wednesday.

Dr. Vivian Snyder said Hernandez suffered skull fractures, burns over 15 % of 
his body, and a scissors stab wound in his torso that caused him to be 
hospitalized for weeks, leading to the pneumonia.

A San Diego police officer testified that after Chavez was arrested near the 
scene of the fire, he made a statement in Spanish that he had lit the man on 
fire.

A detective testified that Chavez and Hernandez, who camped near each other, 
had been drinking beer and smoking crystal meth for hours before the 9 p.m. 
assault.

Chavez told the detective that he showed his mother's photo to Hernandez, 
saying she had died in a car crash when he was 8 years old. He said Hernandez 
made a crack, saying with a serious face, "Oh, I killed her," followed by other 
uncomplimentary comments.

The comments may have enraged Chavez. Sutterley said Chavez followed Hernandez 
inside his tent, stabbed him, got a rock and hit him on the head, then tossed a 
wooden pallet on top of the older man's tent.

He used a can of aerosol deodorant as a torch, igniting the spray over the 
pallet.

Friends of Hernandez from other homeless encampments saw the flames and ran to 
help, dragging him out of the incinerated tent. The friends testified that they 
yelled for help. One man said he doused most of the flames with a water bottle 
and by urinating on them.

At the end of the day, Superior Court Judge Sharon Majors-Lewis found there was 
sufficient evidence against Chavez for him to stand trial.

(source: San Diego Union-Tribune)








WASHINGTON:

It's time to abolish the death penalty



It's been 15 years since Robert Yates, a 1970 graduate of Oak Harbor High 
School, was sent to death row.

The serial killer confessed to killing 13 people and was convicted of killing 2 
additional women. Most of the murders occurred in Spokane County, but he also 
killed in Skagit, Walla Walla and Pierce counties.

It took more than a decade for Yates to exhaust his appeals, but then his 
execution date was indefinitely postponed after Gov. Jay Inslee placed a 
moratorium on executions. State Attorney General Bob Ferguson recently 
re-introduced a bill that would do away with the death penalty altogether. 
Lawmakers should pass the bill and clear up the uncertainty about the future of 
state executions.

There are many reasons why the death penalty should be abolished.

It's unequally applied. Study after study has shown that people of color are 
more likely to get the death penalty than white defendants.

"Black people make up 13 % of the population, but they make up 42 % of death 
row and 35 % of those executed," the NAACP reports. "In addition, many studies 
have found the race of the victim to affect who receives the death penalty, 
with homicides of white victims more likely to result in the death penalty."

It's justice delayed.

Yates' experience is typical. Death row inmates average about 15 years between 
conviction and execution. That means families of the victims have to wait 
through all those painful years to learn the final resolution of a case.

It's expensive.

The taxpayers foot the bill for the costly death-penalty trials, the 
multi-million dollar appeals process as well as all those years of waiting on 
death row. There's a concern that prosecutors, particularly in smaller 
counties, may make the decision of whether to pursue the death penalty based on 
the budget.

There's a chance an innocent person will be executed.

The Death Penalty Information Center reports that there's no way to know for 
certain how many of the more than 1,450 people executed since 1976 were 
innocent. There's strong evidence that at least 14 executed people were 
innocent, the center reports. 9 of those cases were in Texas.

For these reasons and more, it's time for Washington state to close down death 
row permanently.

(source: Opinion, Jessie Stensland, South Whidbey Record)








USA:

Dealing with medicines misuse in execution by lethal injection



It is time to debunk the myth that lethal injection is a humane procedure, and 
remove medicines from the capital punishment process, says Maya Foa, director 
of Reprieve, an international organisation that defends the human rights of 
people vulnerable to the world's most powerful governments.

The Hague has been the location of many significant international events. A 
small office in the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs just welcomed a new 
milestone. This time it was not a new treaty or convention, or a new precedent 
in international criminal law, but a big step in the pharmaceutical sector's 
efforts to stop the misuse of medicines for lethal injections.

On 27 September 2017, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development 
(OECD) in the Netherlands published its assessment of pharmaceutical giant 
Mylan's work to stop prisons using its drugs in executions[1]. New standards of 
industry best practice have been established for implementing distribution 
controls on drugs that could be used for execution.

The OECD's dialogue with Mylan started in March 2015 after the prominent Dutch 
human rights lawyer Bart Stapert raised concerns that the company, 
headquartered in the Netherlands, was not implementing the same strict controls 
on the sale and distribution of its medicines as its competitors. Mylan 
manufactures the anaesthetics midazolam and etomidate, and the paralytics 
rocuronium bromide and vecuronium bromide, which have all been sought for use 
in capital punishment in the United States (US).

This unique process brings together a wide range of interested parties. The 
discussions, facilitated by the organisation's local office in The Hague, 
involved not only Mylan and Mr Stapert, but also the pharmaceutical company's 
major investors and expert stakeholders.

Things moved quickly. 6 months after the process began, in September 2015, 
Mylan released a statement making clear for the 1st time that it did not 
approve or authorise the use of its products for use in lethal injections[2]. 
Mylan also said it would change its contracts to legally restrict distributors 
from selling its medicines to executing states.

But controls on the distribution of medicines are effective only if they are 
implemented properly, especially while US states look for new drugs as current 
stocks run out.

Recommendations for pharmaceutical companies

State officials will go to great lengths to hide the source of their lethal 
injection, so constant vigilance and a proactive approach is necessary. In its 
evaluation of Mylan's distribution controls, the OECD recommended steps for all 
pharmaceutical companies to follow[1].

Companies should adopt a 'clear and unequivocal position' against secrecy laws 
used by US states to hide the source of their execution drugs

First, companies should be proactive in adding drugs to restricted lists while 
new lethal injection protocols emerge. 2nd, compliance should be monitored 
through the supply chain using sales data with after-sales checks on a monthly 
or bimonthly basis. 3rd, companies should adopt a "clear and unequivocal 
position" against secrecy laws used by US states to hide the source of their 
execution drugs. And 4th, manufacturers should contact officials in executing 
states to inform them of their position.

The pharmaceutical industry is global; most manufacturers and distributors 
operate across borders. The development of an international set of guidelines 
on this issue is a significant step that will benefit manufacturers and 
consumers around the world. The OECD work adds to other efforts by individual 
companies to ensure that their life-saving medicines are not misused by 
executing states.

Restriction of sales

Since 2011 - when the global drug maker Lundbeck became the first company to 
comprehensively restrict the sale of its medicines to death row - more than 30 
pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors have introduced supply chain 
controls to stop their drugs being misused in lethal injection executions. 
Every major manufacturer and supplier of drugs that US states have used in 
executions has publicly stated their opposition.

Executing regions in the US began to have problems getting hold of the drugs to 
be used for executions in 2010 when Hospira stopped producing the barbiturate 
sodium thiopental, used widely as part of the lethal injection process. As 
Departments of Corrections across the US searched for alternative supplies, 
they found a British 1-man operation - Dream Pharma - based in an office at a 
driving school in a west London suburb.

When the British government introduced export controls and shut off this route, 
states sought supplies of sodium thiopental from India with the help of a 
notorious middleman man, Chris Harris, who has no pharmaceutical background. 
The Swiss company Naari - which manufactured sodium thiopental in India - 
became aware that Nebraska had got hold of their drugs in 2012, and demanded 
them back, noting that Harris was supposed to send them to Africa for medical 
use but had instead diverted them to the US.

States switched to other drugs including pentobarbital, manufactured by 
Lundbeck, but opposition across the industry was growing and the decision by 
the multinational pharmaceutical company to restrict sales was just the start 
of the opposition to the misuse of medicines in capital punishment.

By 2013, state officials started to look for alternative drug supplies and 
settled on a range of new 2-or-3-drug cocktails, usually starting with the 
sedative midazolam.

Botched executions

Over the following years, every state that used midazolam had what appeared to 
be at least 1 botched execution. Inmates were not fully unconscious and were 
therefore exposed to pain and suffering. Perhaps the most extreme example of 
this was the execution of Clayton Lockett in Oklahoma in 2014.

It took 43 minutes for Lockett to die and he was described as having groaned, 
writhed and shouted out. There were multiple puncture wounds over his body 
caused by the executioners' desperate attempts to insert more IV lines to give 
him a higher dose of lethal drugs. We may never know the true extent of his 
suffering because the curtain between the execution chamber and the witnesses 
was closed as soon as it became obvious things were going badly wrong. This is 
typical of the secrecy that shrouds the execution process in the US.

State legislatures across the US have introduced laws to hide the ways they 
purchase their lethal injection drugs

As state legislatures across the US have introduced laws to hide the ways they 
purchase their lethal injection drugs, industry efforts have extended beyond 
just restricting sales.

Earlier in 2017, the major American pharmaceutical wholesaler McKesson launched 
unprecedented legal action in the state of Arkansas, demanding the return of a 
batch of the paralytic vecuronium bromide, which the state had purchased for 
upcoming executions[3]. The company states that the Arkansas Department of 
Correction "intentionally sought to circumvent McKesson's policies to procure 
Pfizer's vecuronium bromide under the auspices that it would be used for 
medical purposes". The case is ongoing in the Arkansas courts.

This concerted action reflects unanimous opposition across the pharmaceutical 
industry to the use of medicines by prison officials in capital punishment 
procedures - an application for which they were never designed, and which runs 
fundamentally counter to their life-saving purpose.

Companies know that if their products are misused in executions, they face 
costly litigation

It is no secret that there is a commercial imperative behind the companies' 
opposition: after all, they know that if their products are misused in 
executions, they face costly litigation, negative media coverage and divestment 
by major shareholders.

The pharmaceutical industry makes medicines to save and improve patients' 
lives, so, primarily, the use of these products to end lives is fundamentally 
counter to the industry's objectives.

New combinations of drugs

In recent weeks, Florida has executed people with a combination of drugs that 
has not been used before, replacing midazolam with etomidate. The global 
pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson was quick to condemn the use of a 
medicine it had developed.

On 14 November 2017, Nevada had planned to carry out its 1st execution in 11 
years using an even more experimental cocktail that includes the opioid 
fentanyl, which has become famous around the world for the addiction crisis it 
has caused. However, the accused Scott Dozier made objections about the 
selection of drugs that would end his life. The county court issued a stay, and 
the case could lie in the hands of Nevada's supreme court.

I have worked with and consulted for almost every global pharmaceutical company 
that has been affected by lethal injection issues. Constructive collaboration 
and dialogue is the most effective way to achieve the ends we all seek: this is 
the lesson I take from the OECD process. Mylan's positive engagement, and that 
of its shareholders, in the establishment of these standards for industry best 
practice shows what is possible when we work together.

The number of executions taking place in the US has reduced over time, from a 
peak of 98 in 1999 to just 20 in 2016[4]. The decrease, in no small part, is 
due to the reasoned and authoritative opposition of the pharmaceutical industry 
to the misuse of their medicines in executions.

While officials continue to use underhand tactics to obtain drugs, the industry 
must continue its proactivity in challenging misuse. Executions are not 
legitimate medical procedures, yet the death penalty in the US has been partly 
sustained through a pervasive myth that lethal injection is a humane, 
medicalised procedure. It is time to debunk that myth and remove medicines from 
the process of capital punishment altogether.

eferences:

[1] Ministry of Foreign Affairs. National Contact Point. OECD Guidelines for 
Multinational Enterprises. Evalusation of the final statement of 11 April 2016: 
Bart, attorney vs. Mylan. Available at: 
https://www.oecdguidelines.nl/documents/publication/2017/09/27/evaluation-final-statement-
stapert-vs-mylan (accessed January 2018)

[2] Mylan Newsroom. Mylan statement on its policy against the use of Mylan 
products in capital punishment. 30 September 2015. Available at: 
http://newsroom.mylan.com/press-releases?item=123361 (accessed January 2018)

[3] McKesson. McKesson response to Arkansas Department of Correction's Planned 
Executions. 20 April 2017. Available at: 
http://www.mckesson.com/about-mckesson/newsroom/press-releases/2017/response-to-arkansas-
doc-planned-executions/ (accessed January 2018)

[4] Death Penalty Information Center. Executions by year. Available at: 
https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/executions-year (accessed January 2018)

Citation: The Pharmaceutical Journal, PJ January 2018 online, online | DOI: 
10.1211/PJ.2018.20204051

(source: The Pharmaceutical Journal)