[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----MO., OHIO, WASH.

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 13


MISSOURI:

Missouri Plan for Executions Rejected Again----The revised process for
lethal injections fails to prevent unnecessary pain, a federal judge says.
The state has until Oct. 27 to resubmit it.


A federal judge in Missouri on Tuesday rejected that state's lethal
injection procedure for the 3rd time, saying it was inadequate to ensure
that condemned inmates did not suffer unnecessary pain during executions.

Although Missouri's revised protocol "is an improvement over the previous
procedures . it falls short of providing the critical constitutional
protections required," U.S. District Judge Fernando J. Gaitan Jr. said. He
gave the state until Oct. 27 to submit a new protocol for carrying out
executions.

In June, Gaitan ordered a halt to executions in Missouri until the state
changed its lethal injection procedures. The judge said he was
particularly troubled that the doctor responsible for mixing the 3-drug
cocktail used in Missouri executions was dyslexic and had admitted during
a hearing that he had difficulty reading numbers.

Gaitan said the Missouri Department of Corrections should require a
board-certified anesthesiologist to mix the drugs, institute better
monitoring so adequate anesthesia was administered, and form a contingency
plan in case a problem developed during an execution.

The effects of the Missouri case probably will be felt elsewhere because
similar challenges to lethal injection procedures are pending in several
states, including California; a federal judge in San Jose has scheduled a
Sept. 26 hearing on the issue.

Fordham University Law School professor Deborah Denno, an expert on
methods of punishment, said Tuesday that Gaitan had demonstrated that
"judges have to be legally and medically hands-on with the lethal
injection process to achieve" the goal of an execution that passes
constitutional muster.

Missouri has executed 66 people by lethal injection since the Supreme
Court reinstituted capital punishment in 1976 - the 4th-highest total in
the nation. The 37 states that use lethal injection employ a 3-drug
procedure. The 1st drug is sodium thiopental, a sedative; the 2nd,
pancuronium bromide, paralyzes the prisoner; the 3rd, potassium chloride,
stops the heart.

The suit filed on behalf of Michael Taylor, who was sentenced to death for
the 1989 murder of a 15-year-old girl, asserts that the procedure masks
pain during an execution, rather than preventing it.

Missouri officials submitted a revised procedure in July but said they had
contacted 298 anesthesiologists in Missouri and southern Illinois and none
was willing to participate in executions. Gaitan ruled that the changes
were insufficient to pass constitutional muster. Missouri officials,
arguing the judge overstepped his bounds in requiring a board-certified
anesthesiologist, asked a federal appeals court in St. Louis to overturn
the ruling. The appeals court sent the case back to Gaitan without ruling
on that issue.

On Tuesday, Gaitan said that although he still preferred a board-certified
anesthesiologist, he would permit the state to use "a physician with
training in the application and administration of anesthesia to either mix
the chemicals or oversee the mixing of the chemicals for lethal
injections." Gaitan also said "the state may have to purchase additional
equipment in order to adequately monitor anesthetic depth" to ensure that
inmates are sufficiently anesthetized before the 2nd and 3rd drugs are
administered. He did not provide specifics.

Neither Missouri officials nor Taylor's attorneys had any immediate
comment on the ruling.

(source: Los Angeles Times)






OHIO:

Death Row Scot hopes prison recipe book will cell


DEATH Row Scot Kenny Richey could be set to publish his own cookbook based
on his culinary expertise displayed in prison.

The 42-year-old, who grew up in Edinburgh, is hoping he can cash in on the
collection of dishes he has concocted from limited ingredients available
in jail.

He is in talks with US publisher Excess Q to see if he can have Death Row
Recipes, released worldwide. The firm has admitted that it thinks it could
have "mass appeal".

Among the dishes he says he has created is a fish toastie, made from
salmon and prawns, which is put in a tortilla and cooked on his radiator.

And he says that he makes his own version of alcopops by letting orange
juice sit for two weeks then drinking it.

Richey is reported as saying: "You have to be creative with the food here.
It's not the best.

"I also make my own hooch. I use orange juice and let it sit for a couple
of weeks until it is ready. I enjoy the taste of it - it's the closest
thing to alcohol that you can have in a prison cell."

The US publisher is adamant that the book would be popular with the public
worldwide.

Excess Q's director, Luis Serrano, said: "People are interested in death
row. It could have mass appeal."

Richey was sentenced to death in 1987 for the murder of 2-year-old Cynthia
Collins. The sentence was quashed last year only to be upheld by the US
Supreme Court.

But the court in Cincinnati say the case will be reconsidered in January
2007.

Richey has always protested his innocence.

(source: The Scotsman)






WASHINGTON:

2 Seattle shooting victims oppose death penalty for shooter


The last of 5 women who were wounded in a deadly shooting spree at the
Jewish Federation office is out of the hospital, and she and another
victim say a man charged in the attack should not face the death penalty.

"Killing him would be a shame," Layla Bush, 23, the youngest of the
victims, said Tuesday as she prepared for her release from Harborview
Medical Center. "I think it would be too easy for him."

Bush and Carol Goldman, 35, who was discharged from the hospital Aug. 4,
said Naveed Afzal Haq, 30, should instead face life in prison without
parole if he is convicted of aggravated murder and 8 other charges in the
attack July 28.

They and 3 others survived gunshot wounds but Pamela Waechter, 58, the
federation's director of annual giving, died at the scene.

"I keep thinking death would be too easy for him," Goldman said.

Haq should have to "sit and focus on what he's done in his life," she
said, but added, "I'll be fine with what the prosecutors decide."

King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng has until Nov. 17 to decide whether to
seek the death penalty.

Bush narrowly escaped death when a bullet passed within half an inch of
her heart and damaged her liver, stomach, pancreas and left kidney.

One slug remains in her lower back and probably will remain there because
removing it would likely cause more damage, said Dr. Valerie S. Bodeau, a
rehabilitation specialist at Harborview.

She and Goldman face extensive rehabilitation and need a walker to get
around. Like 2 of the other victims, they are not Jewish but were employed
at the federation and said they looked forward to returning to their jobs.

(source: Associated Press)