[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----FLA., N. MEX.

[Rick Halperin]

June 21



FLORIDA:

Execution teams prepare to kill inmates in Florida


2 newly trained teams of executioners are ready to start killing death row
inmates as soon as Floridas new governor gives the word.

The new teams, which are avowedly committed to the principle of "humane
and dignified death," are ready to go into action, according to Gretl
Plessinger, a public relations officer at the Florida Department of
Corrections.

No one knows yet who will be the 1st to be executed after the lifting of a
4-month moratorium in Florida, where there are currently 380 death row
inmates.

On May 9, Florida officially ended its moratorium on executions declared
in mid-December. On the same day, Floridas new governor Charlie Crist
approved an array of proposals to improve the way the state carries out
its executions by lethal injection.

The moratorium was announced on Dec. 15, 2 days after a Florida
executioner fumbled repeatedly as he tried to find the vein in the left
arm of Angel Diaz, a convicted killer. The execution did eventually
succeed, but took more than half an hourat least twice as long as usual.

Activists opposing the death penalty protested all over the world amid
suggestions that Mr. Diaz might have been conscious and experiencing
excruciating pain during some of that time. This would have been a
violation of the U.S. constitution, which bars cruel punishment.

The scale of the protest led outgoing governor John Ellis "Jeb" Bush, the
man who had originally signed the Diaz death warrant, to declare a
temporary moratorium on executions, while a hastily called 11-member
commission investigated how to prevent a repetition.

9 other U.S. states also introduced moratoriums on their executions by
lethal injection. Florida is the 1st of these to lift its moratorium.

Each of Florida's 2 new execution teams consist of 10 people, Ms.
Plessinger said. They have been trained in "numerous" places, including
Terre Haute in Indiana.

Terre Haute is a high-security prison in the geographical center of the
U.S. Its death chamber, the only federal one in the country, was reopened
after the Supreme Court reversed in 1967 its decision against the death
penalty. It was there that Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh was
executed by lethal injection in June 2001.

Governor Crist, widely-known for supporting capital punishment, has
approved all the 37 recommendations proposed by the commission of
investigation.

The new rules require that a prison warden must be present to confirm that
a condemned inmate is unconscious before the death-producing drugs are
injected, Ms. Plessinger said in an e-mail response to questions submitted
by IPS. This apparently addresses the concern that Mr. Diaz might have
been aware that his executioner was struggling with his needles to
complete the last part of his execution.

In addition, more lighting has been installed in the death chamber, Ms.
Plessinger said.

She sidestepped the question of whether Florida executioners will increase
the dosages of the drugs in its lethal injections, but she confirmed that
there would be no change in the make-up of the chemicals in the 3-part
lethal injection.

The commission had been specifically asked to investigate whether the
drugs used in Floridas executions should be replaced with something else.
"The department explored not only the drugs used in Florida, but other
states and by the federal government," Ms. Plessinger said. "The drugs
utilized by the Florida department of corrections are consistent with the
drugs used in other jurisdictions."

But Ms. Plessinger left open the possibility that changes in the
prescription could be made later. "The department will continue to monitor
developments in pharmacology," she said.

The 3 drugs used in the U.S. lethal injections include sodium pentothal, a
general anesthetic to make the inmate unconscious, pancuronium bromide to
induce paralysis, and a final injection of potassium chloride to stop the
heart.

Ms. Plessinger said she could not give the name of the next death row
inmate to be executed. "The department of corrections does not determine
who is executed. That decision is made by the governor's office," she
said. "At this time, Governor Crist has not signed any death warrants."

In addition to the 37 U.S. states that rely mainly on lethal injections,
China, Guatemala and Thailand also use this method of execution.

(source: Final Call)






NEW MEXICO:

Judge, jury and executioner


This just in: A state district judge in New Mexico has declared the death
penalty unconstitutional.

This will most assuredly be news to the U.S. Supreme Court, which
reinstated capital punishment in Gregg vs. Georgia in 1976, and has upheld
the death penalty numerous times in the past 3 decades.

District Judge Tim Garcia out of Albuquerque recently declared capital
punishment unconstitutional following a murder case. According to Garcia,
during the sentencing phase, juries are "tainted by a premature jury
determination during the evidentiary phase of a trial," so therefore a
separate jury must consider sentencing.

2 state judges have disagreed with similar opinions in the past, including
District Judge Stephen Quinn of Portales.

Speaking of juries, Garcia is already the judge, and now he has made
himself the jury on the constitutionality of capital punishment.

This type of judicial behavior is judicial activism at its best - or
worst.

It is worth asking if Garcia would feel that justice would be compromised
if juries - in whatever phase, evidentiary or sentencing - consisted of
capital punishment opponents rather than those he deems support the death
penalty.

Garcia has cited studies that indicate jurors decide on a penalty
prematurely, but Garcia would probably have no problem if that penalty
were not the death penalty.

This is really the motivation behind the judge's opinion - his opposition
to capital punishment.

However, in a court of law, it shouldn't matter what a judge thinks of a
law, but whether that judge follows the law.

And in this case, capital punishment falls within the law, and that is
according to the highest court in the land.

Evidently, this is not enough.

(source: Editorial, The Amarillo Globe-News)