June 10 ARKANSAS: Arkansas revises lethal injection procedure Executioners administering lethal injections in Arkansas will follow methods used by "medical paraprofessionals" to ensure that condemned inmates are unconscious before delivering the 2 final drugs to carry out the death penalty, a revised state protocol says. The state attorney generals office offered the revised lethal injection procedures as part of an effort to lift federal court stays of execution against inmates challenging the method. The new procedure, dated May 22, also adds mixing the 3 drugs used in Arkansas executions in accordance with the manufacturer's specifications and the "already existing practice that executioners have at least 2 years of medical experience. "The measures remove any substantial foreseeable risk of wanton infliction of pain during executions carried out by the state of Arkansas," the federal filing by Attorney General Dustin McDaniel reads. Under Arkansas' new execution rules, either the state's deputy director of prisons or another staff member will check an inmate for "movement, opened eyes, eyelash reflex and response to verbal commands and physical stimuli." The next 2 drugs will be administered only if the inmate has no response and 3 minutes have passed since the injection of the anesthetic, the protocol states. Gov. Mike Beebe has signed three death warrants since 2007, setting execution dates for inmates Don William Davis, Jack Harold Jones Jr. and Terrick Nooner. But Davis and Jones both joined a lawsuit by Nooner mirroring a complaint that U.S. Supreme Court justices examined from 2 condemned prisoners in Kentucky. The high court issued a 7-2 ruling saying the Kentucky prisoners failed to show the state's refusal to try untested alternatives constituted cruel and unusual punishment. However, the court stays remain in place as the men's attorneys have requested time to refile their objections. After the Supreme Court ruling, Beebe said the state would change its lethal injection procedures before conducting any other executions. Arkansas, like Kentucky, is one of roughly 3 dozen states that use 3 drugs an anesthetic, a muscle paralyzer and a substance to stop the heart to kill death-row inmates. An attorney for Jones had previously derided Arkansas' method for checking an inmate's consciousness as "a tap-and-shot method taught in CPR courses." McDaniel's court filing says Kentucky only requires guards to look over an inmate to ensure they are unconscious. "The protections against unnecessary pain in Arkansas' protocol not only meet but exceed the protections found in the undeniably constitutional Kentucky protocol," McDaniel wrote. 40 men are on death-row at the state's Varner Unit. Arkansas has executed 27 inmates since the Supreme Court allowed states to resume executions in 1976. The state's last execution took place in 2005, when officials executed Eric Nance. Since the Supreme Court decision, McDaniel has already asked Beebe to set an execution date for death-row inmate Frank Williams Jr., 41. William later asked the federal court to add him into the other inmates' challenge to lethal injection. (source: Associated Press) FLORIDA: Death penalty possible in slaying of Bradenton woman----2 men may face death penalty 2 men charged with killing a Bradenton woman last month could be executed if convicted of the crime. A grand jury Monday indicted Marcos Herrera and Otis C. Mack, both 20, on 1st-degree murder and burglary charges in connection with the May 21 suffocation of 74-year-old Janice Fore in her northwest Bradenton home. The 1st-degree murder charges make them eligible for the death penalty, but prosecutor Art Brown said the state attorney's office had not decided whether to seek a death sentence for the suspects. If prosecutors do not seek the death penalty and they are convicted of 1st-degree murder, they would be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Herrera and Mack have been held without bond at the Manatee County jail since their May 24 arrest. Manatee County Sheriff's Office detectives believe that the suspects bound and gagged Fore with duct tape before fleeing her home in her car, according to court documents. Several hours later, when detectives entered Fore's home in the 1200 block of 67th Street Northwest, she was dead. An autopsy showed Fore, who suffered from asthma and emphysema, suffocated, according to sheriff's reports. Under the law, the men can be charged with murder even if they did not intend to kill Fore. The charge is applicable when someone dies during the commission of another crime, like burglary. Deputies found Fore dead when they went to return some items belonging to Fore that had been found behind a nearby apartment complex. Investigators believe Herrera and Mack tossed the items after fleeing from Fore's home in her convertible. Video surveillance caught two men exiting the car at a strip shopping center in the 2400 block of Manatee Avenue East. One of the men matching Mack's description is seen wiping down the passenger side of the vehicle, according to court documents. Herrera had rented a room in a house across the street from Fore. Authorities said both mens' fingerprints were found in Fore's house and in her car. (source: Bradenton Herald) ********************** Jury seated for trial of Coreyon Graham's father Lawyers spent most of the day Monday selecting a 12-person jury for the first-degree murder trial of Richard Crawford, who is accused of beating his 5-year-old son to death in February 2006. The trial was delayed one month because of a missing state witness, who has since reappeared and remains in custody until she testifies. Tanisha Edwards, 25, was a cousin of the victim, Coreyon Graham, who was at Crawford's residence the morning of the incident. Edwards told police she had heard Crawford punishing Coreyon with a belt in another room. Coreyon was a kindergarten student at Evergreen Elementary School at the time of his death. An autopsy later determined that Coreyon, all of just 45 pounds, died from extensive blows that were severe enough to knock his heart out of rhythm. Even though he was in the custody of his grandmother at the time, Coreyon was spending the night at Crawford's home the evening before he was alleged to have been beaten to death. Crawford, 33, disappeared from Ocala shortly after the incident. He was arrested 7 months later, after he was discovered at the home of his half-brother in Newville, Pa. In addition to 1st-degree murder, Crawford is charged with aggravated child abuse, the offense prosecutors allege Crawford was in the act of committing when Coreyon died. Crawford has pleaded not guilty to both counts. If convicted, he could face the death penalty. Assistant State Attorney Robin Arnold questioned potential jurors on their views of the death penalty, their ability to decide a case based on circumstantial evidence versus scientific evidence, and their ability to form a fair opinion after viewing "horrific" autopsy photos. Opening arguments are set to begin Wednesday in Circuit Court, with Senior Judge William T. Swigert presiding. If Crawford is found guilty, the penalty phase of his trial is scheduled to begin June 23. The jury would recommend to the judge whether Crawford should receive the death penalty. (source: Ocala.com) CALIFORNIA: Death penalty will be sought against Temecula man charged with 2005 killing Riverside County District Attorney Rod Pacheco is seeking the death penalty for a Temecula man charged with the slaying of his former girlfriend whose body was found buried off Highway 79 in 2005, according to court records. Gustavo Santiago Valencia-Miranda, 22, a former Chaparral High School student, is now facing death if convicted of murder and the special circumstance of lying in wait in connection with the October 2005 strangulation death of 22-year-old Maria Ines Lopez. His defense attorney, Karen Lockhart, declined to comment. Lopez, who lived with her parents in Long Beach, broke up with Valencia-Miranda in August 2005. She got a black panther tattooed over the word "Gustavo," printed on her lower back, her friend testified in a prior court hearing. On Oct. 11, 2005, Valencia-Miranda led police to Lopez's body, which was buried in a Temecula creek bed off Avenida de Missiones near lower Highway 79. Investigators have said Lopez's hands were tied together and bound behind her back with yellow rope. Valencia-Miranda is being held without bail at the Southwest Detention Center in French Valley. His next court hearing is scheduled for today at the Southwest Justice Center. (source: Press-Enterprise) NEW JERSEY: Mr. Lesniak Changes His Mind Raymond Lesniak tells anyone who asks that he made a big mistake. The admission would not be noteworthy except that Mr. Lesniak is a state senator in New Jersey, and it is unusual for an elected official not only to admit an error but to convert it into something positive. Capital PunishmentIn 1982, when he was a young member of the New Jersey Assembly, Mr. Lesniak voted with the majority to reinstate the states death penalty. He did so, he says, not because he thought it was right, but because he was afraid that if he did not support capital punishment, the voters would punish him. Over time, Mr. Lesniak, a Union County Democrat who rose to the State Senate in 1983, became haunted by his decision, by the immorality of putting people to death, and by the possibility that an innocent person would be executed under the law that he supported. He was not the only legislator to change his mind on the issue, but he has certainly been the most outspoken. Last year, he spearheaded the campaign that made New Jersey the 1st state in decades to abolish the death penalty. This year, he assembled a book of speeches, letters and testimony documenting that effort. But here's the bigger surprise: Mr. Lesniaks constituents were not nearly as angry with him as he had feared. He concluded that elected officials are much freer than they believe to vote their conscience. Mr. Lesniak, 62, has been one of the toughest power-brokers in the state. He says his experience with the death penalty has made him more willing to do what he thinks is right, even if it angers a major interest group. This year, he is pushing a bill to create a system of state grants that closely resemble school vouchers. In doing so, he is defying both his party and the state teachers union. In our view, unlike with the death penalty, he is also taking the wrong position on an important and sensitive issue. Would Mr. Lesniak be willing to take these stands if he did not represent a district where his seat is safe? He says he does not know. What he does know is that taking risks makes his job a lot more satisfying. (source: Editorial, New York Times) USA: Does lethal injection amount to human experimentation? Lethal injection, widely used for carrying out the death penalty in the US, amounts to human experimentation, a group of researchers is claiming. Following a six-month national moratorium on the controversial practice, the US Supreme Court ruled in April that executing prisoners using a deadly but supposedly painless drug cocktail did not constitute cruel and unusual punishment under the constitution. However, the argument is far from settled. Legal challenges to the procedure are holding up executions in several states and new research figures are tangling the legal and ethical debate surrounding state-sanctioned killing even further. Led by Teresa Zimmers of the University of Miami in Florida, US, a team of researchers is arguing that the practice constitutes human experimentation, and should be subject to the same stringent ethical standards currently used in biomedical research on people. Delayed deaths Currently 35 of the 36 states that allow capital punishment carry out the sentence using lethal injection. Typically, each inmate receives a dose of the anaesthetic sodium thiopental, a shot of potassium chloride to induce cardiac arrest, and pancuronium bromide, a potent paralytic to cut off breathing. Each dose is supposed to be administered in large enough quantities to be individually lethal, and inmates ideally should die from 2 to 8 minutes after the procedure starts. But as the researchers pointed out in a paper last year, the drug protocols are far from reliable, and some inmates have survived longer than 30 minutes into the procedure. In a review of legal proceedings and state medical examiners' reports, the team found that states have periodically tweaked their drug protocols. Changing protocols In the case of North Carolina, the protocol initially consisted of only thiopental and pancuronium bromide. Sodium chloride was later added, as were additional shots of thiopental and bromide to bring the total to five injections. Medical examiners also collected post-mortem data on drug levels in executed inmates' bloodstreams. "These protocol changes could be viewed as experimentation," says Zimmers. "The data collection also looks a lot like an experiment." With the exception of Oregon, all state laws state that a person must be alive for experiments to fit the definition of "biomedical research". But the researchers say the definition needs revision. "We believe in essence that this is an experiment that began when the patients were alive and proceeded through their death," says Zimmers. 'Not medical procedures' If so, the researchers argue that states' lethal injection programmes should be subjected to the same stringent ethical review boards currently required for human subject medical research. This would put prisoners in the surreal position of having to consent to take part in the "experiment". State officials, however, say they are following the recommendations laid down by the legal system. "The authors appear to be taking the view that these are medical procedures, but under California state law they are not," says Terry Thornton, spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. "They are sentences handed down by the courts." "The article raises an interesting quandary," says Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, DC. "States chose a medical method when they got into practicing lethal injection, but they did so without the ethical controls of the medical community." "It's like building an electric chair without consulting an electrician," he adds. "Sure you can build something that kills people, but it could be ugly." (source: New Scientist) ******************** Violent Crime Down, FBI Says----Big Cities Lead 1st Drop in 3 Years Violent crime appears to have declined nationwide in 2007 for the 1st time in 3 years, with major cities showing the most significant drops, according to a preliminary FBI report released yesterday. Bureau officials said the number of violent crimes reported -- offenses including homicide, robbery and assault -- dipped by 1.4 percent across the United States last year compared with 2006. While cities with more than 1 million residents showed improvement, smaller urban communities including Baltimore and Atlanta apparently posted a rise in homicides in 2007, the preliminary data showed. Southern cities also experienced modest increases in violent crimes. Property crime was also down, with the number of offenses falling 2.1 %, according to the FBI's Uniform Crime Report. Arsons, which are tracked separately, fell by 7 %. "One preliminary report does not make a trend, but the numbers are going where we want them to go," FBI spokesman Richard Kolko said. The District does not participate in the FBI's data gathering, but the number of homicides here increased by 7 %, to 181, last year. D.C. police last weekend conducted identity checks in the Trinidad neighborhood of Northeast Washington in an effort to crack down on a recent spate of gunplay that this year has produced more than 20 slayings. Authorities in smaller cities increasingly are employing such "hot spot" strategies to target violent crime, including traffic stops and increased contact with gang members, representatives from law enforcement groups said. The FBI report is based on information provided by more than 12,000 police agencies. A group of several thousand more agencies will share additional data by the end of the year, when the report becomes final. Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, said plenty of smaller communities with 100,000 residents or more are struggling with violent crime. Just as many jurisdictions posted increases in homicides last year as reported declines, based on the FBI data, Wexler said. "It's a tale of two cities, if you will," he said. "There is an increased volatility out there we haven't seen for some time." Justice Department spokesman Peter Carr said yesterday that authorities had pledged to provide "targeted assistance" to communities that face "localized violent-crime challenges." (source: Washington Post) ************************************ Guantanamo inmates suffering mental damage: report Over 2/3 of the detainees in the Guantanamo Bay prison are suffering from or at risk of mental problems because they are kept isolated in small cells with little light or fresh air, according to Human Rights Watch. In a report entitled "Locked Up Alone: Detention Conditions and Mental Health at Guantanamo", the group says 185 of the 270 detainees at the U.S. military prison for terrorism suspects are housed in facilities similar to "supermax" prisons. They spend 22 hours alone in cramped cells, have very limited contact with other human beings and are given little more than the Koran to occupy themselves, said the report, which is based interviews with government officials and attorneys. Detainees held in this manner include many that have not been charged with crimes and have already been cleared for release or transfer, according to the report. "Guantanamo detainees who have not even been charged with a crime are being warehoused in conditions that are in many ways harsher than those reserved for the most dangerous, convicted criminals in the United States," said Jennifer Daskal, senior counterterrorism counsel at Human Rights Watch. More than 6 years after the United States began sending terrorism suspects to the naval base in Cuba, not a single case has gone to trial. 19 cases are now pending, including some that have been delayed repeatedly amid challenges to the legality of Guantanamo war crimes court set up by the administration of President George W. Bush. Both U.S. presidential candidates, Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain, have pledged to close the prison, which has been denounced by human rights groups and foreign governments for years. The Bush administration denies that Guantanamo prisoners are treated inhumanely and the president has said he would like to close the detention centre. The Human Rights Watch report says that even the 2 hours of recreation time afforded the prisoners in Guantanamo generally takes place in single-cell cages so that detainees cannot physically interact with one another. Unlike prisoners in most high security prisons in the United States, none of the Guantanamo detainees have been allowed visits by family members and very few have been able to make phone calls home, the report says. Several are reportedly suffering depression and anxiety disorder, and some have reported having visions and hearing voices, Human Rights Watch said. [see: http://hrw.org/reports/2008/us0608/ ] (source: Reuters) *********************** Death isn't fair Mark McCormick and other liberals are going to have to understand that not everything in life is fair or ever will be ("Death penalty too inconsistent to be fair," June 8 Local & State). The rules regarding admissible evidence and other technicalities ensure that some guilty individuals are going to go free. Applying the logic in the column, if we can't convict all who are guilty, then we shouldn't even bother arresting them. In his column, McCormick zipped right by the only good points he brought up. The identity or race of the victim shouldn't matter. The death penalty does not force "society into the ridiculous practice of comparing tragedies and assigning a sliding scale of value to victim's lives," as he said. That practice comes from liberalism and its tenet of finding excuses for criminals rather than holding them individually responsible for their actions. Criminals know the penalties for their crimes. A crime is a crime, and anyone convicted should be penalized according to the law. If we dumb down all the sentencing to the smallest penalty under the law just because we don't think we can sentence "fairly," watch for all crime rates to skyrocket. JOE GIBBENS----Wichita (source: Letter to the Editor, Wichita Eagle)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----ARK., FLA., CALIF., N.J., USA
Rick Halperin Tue, 10 Jun 2008 22:22:07 -0500 (Central Daylight Time)
