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)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----MO., OHIO, WASH.
Rick Halperin Wed, 13 Sep 2006 10:11:08 -0500 (Central Daylight Time)