[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----GA., ALA., OHIO, TENN., S.DAK., USA

[Rick Halperin]

October 31




GEORGIA:

New defense lawyer delays Georgia death penalty trial



There will be a delay in a death penalty trial for a man accused of raping and 
killing his stepdaughter.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported a defense attorney representing 
Dafareya Hunter told a Cobb County judge Monday that she could no longer 
represent him because of a family illness.

Jerilyn Bell with the Georgia Public Defender Council told the judge she didn't 
know when a new attorney will be assigned. The new attorney will have to be 
given time to study the case before the trial can begin.

Police found the teen's body in a burned home in Marietta on July 23, 2016.

(source: Associated Press)








ALABAMA:

Sotomayor Calls Out Alabama Judge in Death Penalty Case



Justice Sonia Sotomayor Oct. 29 called out an Alabama trial court's failure to 
preserve critical records in a capital case.

Just a month into the court's new term, Sotomayor has already written 
separately on matters of sentencing, solitary confinement, and capital 
punishment.

Here, Sotomayor agreed that Tawuan Townes' petition for review should be 
denied. But the trial court's "failure to preserve the original recording gives 
cause for deep concern," she wrote.

Townes was convicted of capital murder committed in the course of a burglary 
and sentenced to death. His intent was the only issue for the jury to resolve 
at trial, Sotomayor wrote. That's because he admitted he had planned to rob the 
victim, Christopher Woods, during a burglary. But he "adamantly disclaimed any 
intent to kill Woods, insisting that he shot at Woods only to scare him."

It came down to the jury instructions. The constitutionality of Townes' 
conviction hinges on whether the trial court instructed jurors that they "may" 
infer his intent to kill a victim or that they "must" do so. The former is 
constitutional but the latter isn't, Sotomayor wrote.

But due to 2 court reporters' conflicting transcripts and the fact that the 
trial court no longer has the original recording, there is no way to know for 
sure which instruction the trial court gave.

Still, Sotomayor criticized the trial judge's handling of the matter. The 
initial transcript said the judge instructed the jury that it "must" find 
intent to kill. The Alabama state appeals court reversed the conviction because 
"the trial court's instructions took that pivotal question away from the jury."

But after the reversal, the trial judge filed a "supplemental record" with the 
appeals court "asserting that the certified trial transcript - or rather, a 
single word of that transcript - had been mistranscribed."

The judge had insisted that he properly instructed the jury and that the audio 
recording of Townes's trial confirmed his account. The appeals court then sent 
the case back to the trial court to appoint a new court reporter to listen to 
the recording and do another transcription. The 2nd reporter found just 1 
difference from the original: that the judge said "may" instead of "must."

Based on that, the appeals court changed its ruling and upheld Townes's 
conviction and death sentence.

So Townes appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. But when the justices requested 
the record in the case - including the recording - the trial court said the 
recording no longer exists.

Even though it's impossible based on the record to know what happened, "the 
absence of demonstrable constitutional error makes the doubts raised by the 
trial court's unusual handling of this matter no less troubling," Sotomayor 
said.

"In a matter of life and death, hinging on a single disputed word, all should 
take great care to protect the reviewing courts' opportunity to learn what was 
said to the jury before Townes was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to 
death," she said.

She also noted that it wasn't the 1st time this particular judge - and this 
particular reporter - sought to amend the record while a case was on appeal. 
"The court reporter - the same one who prepared the 2nd transcript in Townes' 
case - stated that she had reviewed her notes and the recording of the 
defendant's trial and concluded that the judge had said 'inference' instead of 
'innocence,' curing an allegedly erroneous instruction that the defendant 
challenged on collateral review," Sotomayor wrote in a footnote, referring to 
another instance.

"By fostering uncertainty about the result here, the trial court's actions in 
this case erode" confidence in what happened in Townes's case, Sotomayor wrote. 
"That gives me - and should give us all - great pause."

The case is Townes v. Alabama, U.S., 17-7894, review denied, statement of 
Sotomayor respecting the denial 10/29/18.

(source: bloomberglaw.com)








OHIO:

Prosecutors seek death penalty for Garfield Heights Homeland Security 
contractor charged in double killing



A grand jury on Tuesday indicted a man accused of fatally shooting his 
girlfriend's children on charges that would make him eligible for the death 
penalty if he is convicted.

Matthew Nicholson, 29, of Garfield Heights, is charged with aggravated murder, 
murder, attempted murder and felonious assault charges in the Sept. 5 killings 
that spurred an hours-long SWAT standoff on Garfield Heights's East 86th 
Street.

The aggravated murder charge carries what's known as a "course-of-conduct 
specification" that accuses Nicholson of carrying out the purposeful killings 
of 2 or more people. A jury would have to find Nicholson guilty of that charge 
at a trial to spur the sentencing phase, where it could recommend that a judge 
sentence Nicholson to life in prison or face execution. The judge would then 
decide whether to impose the death penalty.

Nicholson argued with his girlfriend before he shot her children Giselle Lopez, 
19, and Manuel Lopez Jr., 17, police said. The fight began after Nicholson 
became angry over text messages his girlfriend received from an ex-boyfriend, 
police said.

Nicholson worked as a private security officer contracted by the United States 
Department of Homeland Security at the time of his arrest.

(source: cleveland.com)

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

Former security guard accused of killing two teenagers could face death penalty 
if found guilty



A grand jury has indicted a former security officer, who is charged with 
killing 2 teenagers. The indictment states he would face the death penalty if 
found guilty.

Matthew Nicholson, 29, is charged with two counts of aggravated murder.

Officers from the Garfield Heights police department responded to a home on the 
4800 block of East 86th Street in September to find 17-year-old Manuel Lopez 
Jr. and 19-year-old Giselle Lopez lying in the driveway. Both were transported 
to the hospital, where they succumbed to their injuries.

Police said the 2 victims were the children of the suspect's girlfriend and 
that all 4 of them lived in the home together.

(source: news5cleveland.com)








TENNESSEE----impending execution

Electric chair builder worried Tennessee execution will fail



If Tennessee electrocutes Edmund Zagorski on Thursday, it will be in an 
electric chair built by a self-taught execution expert who is no longer welcome 
in the prison system and who worries that his device will malfunction.

Fred Leuchter had a successful career in the execution business before his 
reputation was tainted by his claim that there were no gas chambers at 
Auschwitz.

Tennessee's chair, which hasn't been used since 2007, is just one of many 
execution devices that Leuchter worked on between 1979 and 1990, according to 
an article by Fordham University professor Deborah Denno in the William and 
Mary Law Review. In addition to electric chairs, Leuchter built, refurbished 
and consulted on gas chambers, lethal injection machines and a gallows for at 
least 27 states.

After his comments about the Holocaust, it came to light that he had neither an 
engineering degree nor a license, even though he promoted himself as an 
engineer. His rise and fall was portrayed in a 2000 documentary.

Nonetheless, Leuchter stands behind the electric chair he rebuilt in 1988, 
relying on skills picked up designing navigational and surveillance equipment 
and a careful study of documents describing early executions. His concern is 
that Tennessee's chair will fail because of changes others made to it after he 
was no longer allowed to service it.

"What I'm worried about now is Tennessee's got an electric chair that's going 
to hurt someone or cause problems. And it's got my name on it," Leuchter said. 
"I don't think it's going to be humane."

Gov. Bill Haslam said he is confident the execution can be carried out without 
problems.

"I have a great deal of confidence in our Department of Correction folks. ... 
We've spoken with them regularly and they've assured us" the chair is ready.

Leuchter said he was familiar with prisons because he accompanied his father to 
his job as superintendent of transportation in the Massachusetts state prison 
in the 1940s and '50s, from about age 4 to age 16.

As a teenager, Leuchter helped his father move the state's old electric chair 
when the prison relocated, and he remembers they had to do it on a Sunday 
because the warden didn't want the news media to know.

"I helped put the chair in the truck. We covered it up with canvas," he said.

Years later, when it looked as though Massachusetts might restart capital 
punishment after a long hiatus, a prison steward who knew Leuchter's father 
asked Leuchter to come in and see whether the old chair was still usable.

>From there, "my name was given to other states," Leuchter said.

He said many of their electric chairs were "decrepit, defunct, didn't work 
properly - if they ever had in the first place."

Denno, a law professor at Fordham who has studied execution methods for more 
than 25 years, said Leuchter filled a void. Often "the most qualified people 
don't want to be involved" in executions, she said.

Even after he was no longer welcome as a prison contractor, Denno said prison 
officials continued to contact Leuchter for help "because they literally had no 
one else to go to."

Tennessee asked Leuchter to refurbish its chair in 1988, when it was facing the 
possibility of its 1st execution in decades.

"It looked like it was made for a midget or something," Leuchter said.

So he built a new chair that incorporated wood from the original, which he was 
told was from the old gallows, and replaced the chair's electrodes. He also 
replaced the old leather straps that tether prisoners to the chair with 
quick-release nylon belts, to aid guards tasked with removing bodies after 
executions.

He trained prison workers and gave them certificates as "electrocution 
technicians."

Leuchter said he sold the original chair. A collector of "murderabilia" listed 
it on eBay in 2000. It now resides in the Alcatraz East Crime Museum in the 
Smoky Mountains.

Denno said electric chairs have "a history of botches that has only gotten 
worse."

In 2 Florida executions in the 1990s, smoke and flames shot from the condemned 
inmates' heads. In 1999, blood spilled from under an inmate's mask.

Shortly afterward, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to decide whether the electric 
chair violates the 8th Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. 
But the case was dropped after Florida switched to lethal injection.

Tennessee has executed only 1 person in Leuchter's electric chair. Daryl Holton 
died that way in 2007.

In preparation, an electrical engineer reduced the voltage from 2,640 to 1,750 
and raised the amperage from 5 to 7. The timing was also changed, from two, 
one-minute jolts with a 10-second pause between, to a 20-second and 15-second 
jolt with a 15-second pause between.

The execution was successful.

The chair was inspected on Oct. 10 of this year and found to meet the criteria 
for an execution, state documents show.

But Leuchter said he feels the chair now is "defective and shouldn't be used."

"It worked the 1st time, but I think they were lucky," he said.

(source: Associated Press)

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

Zagorski appeals electric chair decision to Court of Appeals



2 days before his scheduled execution, Edmund Zagorski is appealing a ruling 
this week from a federal judge.

On Monday, Federal District Judge Aleta Trauger ruled that death by the 
electric chair -- Zagorski's chosen method -- is constitutional, as was the 
choice Zagorski had to make between dying by lethal injection or the electric 
chair.

The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals will now decide what to do with those 2 
decisions, which may then be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court -- a typical 
maneuver in the days leading up to an execution.

Meanwhile, a temporary restraining order still remains over Thursday's 
execution after Trauger ordered that Zagorski's attorney must have access to a 
phone before and during the execution. However, in making the ruling, the judge 
said she didn't expect the execution to be delayed before a phone is installed. 
The Tennessee Department of Correction has said they are reviewing the judge's 
order to determine its next steps.

While the legal battle continues in the courts, TDOC said Zagorski was moved to 
death watch early Tuesday morning. This is the second time Zagorski has been 
moved to the special area of Riverbend Maximum Security Institution adjacent to 
the execution chamber where additional security procedures are in effect in the 
days ahead of an execution. Zagorski was placed in death watch and then removed 
on October 11, after he was given a 10-day execution reprieve from Gov. Bill 
Haslam.

The electric chair has been used only 2 other times in the last 60 years in 
Tennessee to put a condemned inmate to death, 1 in 1960 and the other in 2007.

Zagorski was convicted of the 1983 double murder of John Dale Dotson and Jimmy 
Porter after setting up a bogus drug deal. Zagorski was said to have shot both 
men and slit their throats before robbing them and stealing their truck.

(source: newschannel5.com)

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

Vigil planned in Knoxville protesting execution of death row inmate Edmund 
Zagorski



Statewide vigils, including one in Knoxville, are planned for Nov. 1 
demonstrating opposition to the planned execution of Edmund Zagorski.

The death row inmate was moved to death watch Tuesday morning. Zagorski was 
sentenced in the 1984 killings of John Dotson and Jimmy Porter in Robertson 
County. Prosecutors say he shot the 2 men and slit their throats after robbing 
them.

Leading up to the execution, Tennesseans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty 
have planned vigils in Knoxville, Nashville and Memphis.

"This is simply about we have other sentencing options that don't require the 
state to take this man's life, that can hold him accountable," said Stacy 
Rector, Executive Director of TADP.

Zagorski will be the 2nd execution in Tennessee within 9 years.

"More and more we see states moving away from the death penalty which makes it 
even more unfortunate that Tennessee has resumed executing when we've been a 
state that's historically has simply not executed very many people," said 
Rector.

Zagorski has been on death row for 34 years now, over the next two days he'll 
be under 24-hour observation in a cell adjacent to the execution chamber.

"The jurors in his case, six of whom have asked for clemency and are now going 
to be faced with his execution. The correctional staff who are going to be 
tasked to carry this out with the electric chair, what will that do to them? 
What's the mental health impact," added Rector.

She says at the core, vigils are a way to pray, reflect and support families 
who've endured loss because of a violent crime, "It's a very painful time, I 
know, for a lot of people in this state."

WATE 6 On Your Side reached out to the HOPE For Victims organization, which is 
made up of family members who've lost loved ones to violent crimes.

Joan Berry, who has been active with the organization after her daughter Johnia 
Berry was murdered in Knoxville in 2004, said the majority of HOPE For Victims 
advocates believe in the death penalty and that it's justice.

Berry says their loved ones never get a 2nd chance and there's never closure. 
It's why HOPE For Victims is fighting for truth in sentencing legislation in 
Tennessee.

If you would like to attend the vigil planned by Tennesseans for Alternatives 
to the Death Penalty, it will be held Thursday, Nov. 1 in Market Square at 6:30 
p.m.

The history of capital punishment in Tennessee dates back to 1796, the first 
method of execution was death by hanging. It wasn't until the 1900s when 
electrocution became state law for death penalty cases.

In 2000, Tennessee resumed capital punishment and by then lethal injection was 
the new method of execution which continues to be used today despite moral 
challenges.

(source: WJHL news)








SOUTH DAKOTA:

Death Row Inmate Uses Last Words Before Execution to Tell a Traffic Joke



A South Dakota murderer on death row used his last words before his execution 
by lethal injection to make a joke about traffic.

Rodney Scott Berget, 56, was sentenced to death for killing 63-year-old 
corrections officer Ronald Johnson in 2011. Berget beat Johnson to death with a 
pipe during a failed escape attempt the South Dakota State Penitentiary in 
Sioux Falls with another inmate.

Berget's multiple appeals against the death penalty failed and his sentence was 
carried out at the South Dakota State Penitentiary on Monday evening just hours 
after a final rejection by the U.S. Supreme Court.

"Sorry for the delay, I got caught in traffic," Berget joked with state 
officials as he prepared for the lethal injection, Fox News reported. He also 
thanked people for their support, mentioning 2 by name, and made a peace sign 
with his hand.

Rodney Scott Berget, 56, was sentenced to die for the 2011 slaying of Ronald 
Johnson, 63, a corrections officer at the South Dakota State Penitentiary in 
Sioux Falls. South Dakota Department of Corrections

"The execution of inmate Rodney Berget was carried out this evening in 
accordance to state law," said a statement from South Dakota’s Secretary of 
Corrections Denny Kaemingk.

"South Dakota Codified Law assigns the responsibility for carrying out the 
warrant of death sentence and offenders that are sentenced to death to the 
Department of Corrections. We take that responsibility very seriously.

"Director of Prison Operations and Chief Warden Darin Young and his staff spent 
extensive time preparing to ensure that the warrant of death sentence and 
execution was carried out in a professional, humane and dignified manner and in 
accordance to state law."

Before the murder of Johnson, Berget was already serving life without parole 
after a conviction for attempted murder and kidnapping in 2003.

In 2012, Eric Robert, the other inmate convicted of murdering Johnson, was 
executed. A 3rd inmate involved in the escape attempt, Michael Nordman, was 
sentenced to life in prison for handing the other 2 a plastic wrap and the pipe 
used to kill the officer.

After killing Johnson in an area of the penitentiary where inmates worked on 
manual projects such as upholstery, Robert put on the officer's uniform.

Berget hid in a large box and Robert pushed it toward the prison gate but they 
were caught, according to the Fayette Commonwealth Attorney's Office.

He is only the 4th person to be executed in South Dakota since the state's 
reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976. All 4 executions have taken place 
since 2007.

In 2000, Berget's older brother Roger Berget was executed in Oklahoma after 
spending 13 years on death row for murdering a man, The Argus Leader reported.

(source: Newsweek)








USA:

Lethal Injection Drugs and the Death Penalty, Explained----Botched procedures 
have left many in prolonged agony while dying.

Scott Dozier is one of almost 3,000 incarcerated people awaiting execution in 
the United States. But unlike many others on death row, Dozier, who was 
convicted of murder, actually wants the state of Nevada to execute him. In late 
2016, after an Arizona superior court denied his latest appeal, he gave up his 
attempts at fighting execution and wrote to the Clark County district judge 
asking that the state proceed with the death sentence. Dozier's case was also 
unique for another reason: He was set to be executed using the opioid fentanyl, 
a drug that has been responsible for thousands of overdose deaths across the 
country.

The execution would have used a 3-drug cocktail: fentanyl, midazolam, and 
cisatracurium. It was postponed in July after Alvogen, a pharmaceutical company 
that manufactures the sedative midazolam, sued the state of Nevada. Alvogen 
alleged that the state had obtained the drug through improper means, arguing 
that its products were intended for legitimate medical purposes only, and a 
judge agreed, blocking the use of the drug in the state's planned execution of 
Dozier.

Since a shortage of lethal injection drugs began 7 years ago, controversy has 
been the norm surrounding this procedure. Scratch beneath the surface and 
you'll find pharmaceutical companies using all means available to keep their 
drugs away from these procedures, states using secrecy and deception to ensure 
executions continue, and botched procedures that left many in prolonged agony 
while dying.

In addition to the federal government and the military, 30 states allow for 
capital punishment. Nevada is just 1 of the many states that have changed or 
attempted to change the drugs used in their lethal injection procedure 
following the shortages.

Prior to the use of injections, other methods were used to execute incarcerated 
people: gas chambers, electric chairs, and firing squads. In 1977, Jay Chapman, 
an Oklahoma medical examiner came up with a three-drug cocktail to use during 
executions of incarcerated people - a barbiturate (of which there are many 
types) to initially anesthetize the person; pancuronium bromide to paralyze the 
lungs and stop breathing; and potassium chloride, which causes cardiac arrest. 
The procedure was proposed and ultimately accepted on the grounds that it 
seemed more humane than prior forms of capital punishment. People put to death 
via the electric chair often suffered graphic burns, while those who were put 
into gas chambers visibly choked to death.

On December 7, 1982, the first execution by injection took place in Texas, 
killing Charles Brooks, Jr., who was injected with the drug cocktail. According 
to The New York Times, reporters who witnessed the procedure reported that 
Brooks "appeared to have suffered some pain." The procedure was met with 
opposition from doctors who felt the procedure violated medical ethics.

Sodium thiopental, the barbiturate used in the injection that killed Brooks, 
and pancuronium bromide are typically used in medical settings to anesthetize 
patients - they were not designed for use in lethal injection procedures. 
According to Maya Foa, the director of the legal charity Reprieve, 
pharmaceutical companies have never approved of their drugs being used for the 
purposes of capital punishment.

"Pharmaceutical companies have always opposed the misuse of their medicines in 
lethal injection executions, in a stance which aligns with the longtime 
positions of major health-care bodies, such as the American Medical 
Association, the American Pharmacists' Association, and the Association for 
Accessible Medicines," Foa tells Teen Vogue.

Since Brooks's death in 1982, more than 1,300 executions have been performed by 
lethal injection. The most recent execution took place on Monday, October 29, 
when South Dakota executed Rodney Berget.

In 2001, Abbott Laboratories, the manufacturer of a drug marketed as Pethothal 
(sodium thiopental) and used in executions in 29 states and by the federal 
government, told Mother Jones that it strongly opposed its drug being used for 
this purpose and that it had already requested that officials not use its drugs 
in these procedures. The company conceded that there was nothing more it could 
do because correctional officials were officially purchasing the drugs for use 
as a medical anesthetic. (A separate company, Hospira, was created from Abbott 
in 2004 and took over the manufacturing of sodium thiopental, suspending 
production indefinitely in 2011.)

With the shortage in sodium thiopental, states sought replacements, and some 
pharmaceutical companies responded by placing strict distribution controls on 
their drugs. These controls effectively mean that any distributor that 
contracts with a drug company cannot sell the drug to correctional facilities 
or any other distributor that may sell to them. After Oklahoma started using 
pentobarbital in place of sodium thiopental in late 2010, the Danish 
pharmaceutical firm Lundbeck restricted the sale of pentobarbital for use in 
capital punishment. As a result, states looking to use pentobarbital in their 
procedures had to look elsewhere to buy the drug.

As more states have moved to incorporate their drugs in lethal injection 
procedures, other companies have followed suit. After Arkansas announced in 
2013 that it would be moving to use 1 drug, phenobarbital, instead of 3, the 
British maker of the drug, Hikma, put distribution controls on it. More 
recently, the giant Pfizer announced that it would be putting distribution 
controls on multiple drugs that states were attempting to use in executions. 
These drugs include propofol, midazolam, and hydromorphone - all of which are 
used to sedate - as well as the drugs pancuronium bromide, which is a muscle 
relaxant, and potassium chloride, which stops the heart.

State governments have responded in different ways to the restrictions, with 
some attempting to use other drugs. Delayed by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling and 
running out of previously stockpiled drugs, in 2017 Florida executed Mark Asay 
using a combination of drugs that had never been used for lethal injection 
before, and in August, Nebraska became the 1st state to execute someone using 
fentanyl. Earlier this year, Indiana got the green light from its supreme court 
to use a new drug cocktail consisting of methohexital, pancuronium bromide, and 
potassium chloride; however, due to the shortage, Indiana, which last executed 
someone in 2009, may not be able to obtain the drugs.

Some states have resorted to using compounding pharmacies to obtain their 
drugs. These smaller institutions are less regulated by the FDA and allow a 
pharmacist to mix drugs together to fill prescriptions. A compounding pharmacy 
in Oklahoma that supplied drugs for Missouri's state executions in 2013 and 
2014 was found to have violated several pharmacy regulations. Later, a BuzzFeed 
News investigation discovered that, from 2014 onward, the state obtained drugs 
from a compounding pharmacy in St. Louis, one that has been dogged by 
allegations of misconduct. And in 2016, Virginia paid $66,000 to an unnamed 
compounding pharmacy for the sedative midazolam and the chemical potassium 
chloride.

These transactions can sometimes lack the semblance of official state business, 
too. Last August, for instance, the director of the Department of Corrections 
in Arkansas, Wendy Kelley, paid $250 in cash to a supplier for midazolam 
intended to be used for executions, BuzzFeed News found.

In many states, legislatures have enacted secrecy laws to protect the identity 
of their drug suppliers. According to Vice, 15 states have passed such laws, 
which keep crucial details private, like how and where drugs were obtained, and 
who was involved in the execution. These states' efforts to keep suppliers' 
identities hidden protects the reputation of the companies and makes it 
difficult for suppliers with distribution controls to determine whether their 
drugs are being used for such purposes. According to inmate advocates, secrecy 
laws also make it difficult for inmates to mount legal challenges. In 2017, 
Arkansas faced lawsuits over its plan to kill 8 men in 11 days in which 
attorneys argued that the state's secrecy laws violated inmates' rights to know 
about the procedure in advance. As a result of multiple legal challenges, only 
4 of the 8 people set to be executed were put to death. The state’s supreme 
court has since ruled that the state must partially disclose certain 
information related to the drugs they are using.

In the years since the shortages began, there have been a number of botched 
executions. In early 2017, when Ricky Gray was put to death in Virginia, the 
execution lasted almost 48 minutes (typically procedures are supposed to last 
around ten). In December 2016, Alabama executed Ronald B. Smith, who was 
reported to have "coughed and heaved" for 13 minutes during the procedure. In 
2014, a spate of high-profile botched executions caught the attention of the 
nation: Dennis McGuire in Ohio, Joseph Wood in Arizona, and Clayton Lockett in 
Oklahoma. All of the aforementioned executions used different drug cocktails, 
each containing the sedative midazolam.

Incarcerated people on death row have few options. For some, like Scott Dozier 
and the approximately 140 inmates who have abandoned their appeals in the last 
4 decades, death represents a better option than a life spent stuck behind bars 
hoping for a judge to rule in their favor. Others, who may plead their 
innocence to no avail, are exonerated after the procedure has been carried out; 
this fact has led even the creator of the 3-drug cocktail to reconsider his 
views about the death penalty.

The controversy surrounding lethal injection and capital punishment are part of 
a larger reckoning the United States is having about how justice is delivered 
and what role the state should play in that process. Many are asking if all of 
this - the heartbreak, the legal challenges, the cost in lives and money - is 
necessary at all.

(source: teenvogue.com)

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

Why accused bike path terrorist is unlikely to face death penalty



Here's a real Halloween horror story: The ex-Uber driver accused of killing 8 
people in lower Manhattan last Oct. 31 - saying he "felt good about what he had 
done" for ISIS after the bloodbath - will probably never see death row.

Sayfullo Saipov, 30, is slated to go on trial next October - roughly 2 years 
after he allegedly used a Home Depot rental truck to mow down dozens of New 
Yorkers and tourists in the name of ISIS. The act of terror also injured 12.

The feds say Saipov later requested that an ISIS flag be hung in his hospital 
room, where he was recovering after being shot by a cop. He also "stated that 
he felt good about what he had done," they said.

The Department of Justice is seeking the death penalty for the Patterson, NJ, 
resident, who allegedly chose last Halloween the attack because he believed 
there would be more people out on the street for him to harm.

But even if prosecutors get the judge's OK to pursue capital punishment, it's 
unlikely he will be put to death, according to Robert Dunham, executive 
director of the Death Penalty Information Center.

Since 1963, not a single case in New York, either state or federal, has 
resulted in an execution in part because Empire State jurors often pass on the 
chance to impose the death penalty in favor of life in prison, Dunham said.

It's not for lack of trying. Federal prosecutors in New York have sought the 
death penalty close to 50 times since the federal death penalty was reinstated 
in 1988 - there hasn't been a state death penalty since 1972 - including 16 
times in Manhattan federal court and 30 times in Brooklyn federal court, 
according to the Federal Death Penalty Resource Counsel.

But in that time, there's only been one death verdict and that was for double 
cop-killer Ronell Wilson, who escaped death row in 2016 after a federal judge 
ruled he was too "intellectually disabled" to be executed.

Wilson, who killed undercover cops James Nemorin and Rodney Andrews during a 
gun buy-and-bust undercover operation on Staten Island, infamously stuck out 
his tongue at his victims' families when they applauded his initial death 
verdict in 2007.

Saipov has also been known to behave bizarrely in court, including telling the 
judge at a recent hearing that he's "not worried about this at all" because 
only God can judge him.

"The judgments made here are not important to me because they are judgments of 
living things ... not by Allah, made by weak minds," he told the judge in June.

Saipov's defense lawyers, who did not return a request for an interview, have 
argued against the death penalty, saying that Sessions' decision to seek death 
for Saipov may have been unfairly influenced by President Trump.

They cited Trump's tweets about Saipov calling for Saipov to be put to death - 
"Should move fast. DEATH PENALTY," Trump tweeted after Saipov's arrest - 
combined with the president's attacks on Attorney General Jeff Sessions. They 
said this combination of factors raises questions about whether Sessions wants 
the death penalty for Saipov to make the president happy.

Keeping Saipov alive might also prove to be the wiser choice, according to 
Harvard lawyer Alan Dershowitz.

Sentencing him to death will just "make him a martyr," Dershowitz told The 
Post.

"He will be forgotten if sentenced to life."

(source: newyorkpost.com)