Nov. 22
OKLAHOMA:
Dec. 5 clemency hearing scheduled for Oklahoma death row inmate set to die for
1994 killing
A Dec. 5 clemency hearing has been set for an inmate who is scheduled to be
executed in January for the 1994 death of a Miami man.
Attorney General Scott Pruitt announced Monday the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole
Board will conduct the hearing for Gary Roland Welch at the Hillside Community
Corrections Center in Oklahoma City.
Attorney General Scott Pruitt announced Monday the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole
Board will conduct the hearing for Gary Roland Welch at the Hillside Community
Corrections Center in Oklahoma City.
Welch was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1994 murder of 35-year-old
Robert Dean Hardcastle, who was beaten and stabbed to death during an
altercation that began at his home in Miami.
The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals set a Jan. 5 execution date for Welch
earlier this month.
Pruitt requested the date after the U.S. Supreme Court denied Welch's final
appeal in October.
(source: Associated Press)
****************
Service slated for prosecutor Bob Macy
A memorial service will be held next week for Bob Macy, who was
Oklahoma County's district attorney for 21 years.
Macy, 81, died Friday night at his home in Newalla.
Macy, known for his cowboy attire and aggressive pursuit of the death penalty
in murder cases, was appointed Oklahoma County district attorney in 1980 by
then-Gov. George Nigh.
He was elected five times before retiring in 2001 for health reasons.
Macy won 54 death sentences during his career, a statistic that he included on
his campaign and personal cards.
But some of those sentences were overturned by appeals courts, which criticized
the prosecutor for making "deceitful" statements to jurors, violating the rules
of closing arguments and withholding evidence.
Macy dismissed such criticism during an interview with The Associated Press in
2001.
"Appellate courts are not always right," he said. "I run an office where I
emphasize to the greatest degree possible the ethical practice of law."
His son, Brett Macy, said his father would want to be known for his integrity.
"He would want to be remembered as a man having the strength to do the right
thing when it wasn't the popular thing and to stand up for those who couldn't
stand up for themselves," he said.
Bob Macy relentlessly sought a state trial for Oklahoma City bombing
conspirator Terry Nichols, who was serving a life sentence after being
convicted in federal court of the deaths of eight federal officers in the 1995
bombing.
Macy wanted him prosecuted in state court for the deaths of the civilians who
died.
Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh had received the death penalty in federal
court.
Even after his retirement, Macy got his way when his successor, Wes Lane, took
the Nichols case to a state trial.
Nichols was convicted of 161 murders, including that of one fetus.
The jury deadlocked on the death penalty, and he received 161 consecutive life
sentences with no possibility of parole.
Macy's memorial service is set for 2 p.m. Nov. 29 at the First Southern Baptist
Church in Oklahoma City.
A separate service for family and friends is set for 2 p.m. Monday at the
Criswell Funeral Home in Ada.
(source: Tulsa World)
IDAHO:
Paul Ezra Rhoades will not be missed
For the 1st time in 17 years, the state of Idaho carried out the sentence of a
death row inmate when Paul Ezra Rhoades was executed Friday. His sentence was,
in my opinion, fair for the kidnapping and murder of two female victims and, by
extension, the male victim he murdered, for which he only received a life
sentence
For weeks, photos of Idaho's new execution chamber, along with sordid details
of how lethal injection is carried out, have circulated on the Web. I've
learned quite a bit about how last-minute appeals are filed, how the first of
three injections renders the condemned unconscious so they don't feel the next
2 fatal shots that stop their breathing and heartbeat. The whole process is
very clinical, very sterile and, providing nothing goes awry, painless for the
condemned.
(source: Opinion, Moscow-Pullman Daily News)
FLORIDA:
Man dies from hospital medication error, receives execution drug instead of
antacid
A family is grieving after a nurse at a South Florida hospital allegedly gave
their loved one the wrong medication, causing his death.
Local10.com reports that North Shore Medical Center in Miami, FL admitted
79-year-old Richard Smith in July 2010 because he was suffering shortness of
breath and complained of an upset stomach.
When Smith’s son later arrived at the hospital, a doctor told him that a nurse
grabbed the wrong package and gave his father a medication that caused
respiratory distress, according to WSVN.com.
The Daily-Mail identified the nurse as Uvo Ologboride.
Florida Department of Health disciplinary records for Uvo Ologboride show that
Smith’s doctor prescribed 20 mg of Famotidine (branded Pepcid, Calmicid, Fluxid
and Mylanta AR), a histamine-2 blocker that reduces stomach acid, intravenously
(IV) twice per day.
However, the nurse administered 20 mg of Pancuronium bromide (Pabulon), a
muscle relaxant used in hospitals during respiratory intubation and as one of a
three-drug cocktail in executions by lethal injection. Pancuronium bromide is a
paralytic that stops breathing and other bodily functions, but is not an
anesthetic that alters consciousness.
30 minutes later hospital staff found Smith unresponsive. They resuscitated him
but he never recovered and died a few weeks later.
An investigation by the state found that Ologboride failed to perform
safeguards in place to prevent medication errors such as failure to read the
medication label, failure to scan the medication and failure to scan Smith’s
patient ID bracelet, reports The Daily-Mail.
Under a settlement agreement with the state in March 2011, Ologboride agreed to
pay $750 in administrative fees and investigative costs in an amount not
exceeding $2,885. The agreement also requires the nurse to take some
educational classes.
Ologvoride still works at North Shore Medical Center.
According to Local10.com, Smith’s family has filed a lawsuit against North
Shore Medical Center.
(source: WBXH News)
_______________________________________________
DeathPenalty mailing list
DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu
http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty
Search the Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/deathpenalty@lists.washlaw.edu/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A free service of WashLaw
http://washlaw.edu
(785)670.1088
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
