May 24
MISSOURI:
Missouri opts for untested drug for executions
The same anesthetic that caused the overdose death of pop star Michael Jackson
is now the drug of choice for executions in Missouri, causing a stir among
critics who question how the state can guarantee a drug untested for lethal
injection won.
Last week the Missouri Department of Corrections announced it was switching
from its longstanding 3-drug method to use of a single drug, propofol. Missouri
would be the 1st state ever to use propofol as an execution drug.
"This is very, very concerning with a drug that we don't know, and seeing the
problems of the 1-drug method," said Kathleen Holmes of Missourians for
Alternatives to the Death Penalty.
Until recently, the 33 states with the death penalty used a virtually identical
3-drug process: Sodium thiopental was administered to put the inmate to sleep,
then two other drugs stopped the heart and lungs. But makers of sodium
thiopental have stopped selling it for use in executions. Supplies mostly ran
out or expired, forcing states to consider alternatives.
Most states have retained the 3-drug method but turned to pentobarbital as a
replacement for sodium thiopental. Pentobarbital, a barbiturate used to treat
anxiety and convulsive disorders such as epilepsy, has been used in roughly 50
executions over the past 2 years, said Richard Dieter, executive director of
the Washington-based Death Penalty Information Center.
But its use may be short-lived as its maker also opposes selling it for use in
executions. The statement announcing the change in Missouri said the decision
was "due to the unavailability of sodium thiopental" but did not elaborate on
why propofol was chosen. The protocol change was administrative and did not
require legislative approval. The Corrections Department declined interview
requests, but spokesman Chris Cline said Wednesday in a 1-sentence statement,
"Working with expert guidance, we are confident that this new 1-drug protocol
will be effective and appropriate."
It wasn't clear when propofol would get its first use in an execution. None are
scheduled in Missouri despite Attorney General Chris Koster's request last week
that the Missouri Supreme Court set execution dates for up to 19 condemned men
whose appeals have run out.
Litigation over Missouri
Between 1989, when executions resumed in Missouri, and 2005, the state put to
death 66 convicted killers. But in the 7 years since, only 2 men have been
executed — Dennis Skillicorn in 2009 and Martin Link last year. Use of the
death penalty has declined sharply in recent years nationwide. The U.S. had 98
executions in 1999 but just 43 last year. Nearly 3,200 people remain on death
row.
Propofol, made by AstraZeneca and marketed as Diprivan, gained notoriety
following Jackson
"Any drug used for a new purpose on human subjects should certainly be tested
very, very carefully," Dieter said. "I can only imagine the things that might
go wrong."
Adding to the concern, some say, is Missouri's written protocol which, like the
one it replaced, does not require a physician to be part of the execution team.
It states that a "physician, nurse, or pharmacist" prepares the chemicals, and
a "physician, nurse or emergency medical technician ... inserts intravenous
lines, monitors the prisoner, and supervises the injection of lethal chemicals
by nonmedical members of the execution team."
Jonathan Groner, an Ohio State University surgeon who has studied lethal
injection extensively, said propofol is typically administered by either an
anesthesiologist, who is a physician, or a nurse anesthetist under the
physician's direct supervision. Improper administration could cause a burning
sensation or pain at the injection site, he said.
Groner said high doses of propofol will kill by causing respiratory arrest. But
the dosage must be accurate and the process must move swiftly because propofol
typically wears off in just a few minutes.
"If they start breathing before the heart stops, they might not die," Groner
said. That would force the process to be restarted.
Critics also question the safety of the single-drug method. Missouri becomes
the 3rd state with a single-drug protocol, along with Arizona and Ohio. 3
others — South Dakota, Idaho and Washington — have options for single- or
multiple-drug executions, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
California and Kentucky are exploring a switch to the 1-drug method.
Concerns were raised after a 1-drug execution last month in Arizona. Thomas
Arnold Kemp, a 63-year-old convicted killer, shook for several seconds upon
receiving a lethal dose of pentobarbital.
The debate over the administration of lethal drugs has angered some capital
punishment advocates who suggest that death row inmates — largely convicted
killers — seem to get more compassion than their victims.
Carol Angelbeck has spent years urging Missouri officials to pick up the pace
on executions. Angelbeck's 24-year-old daughter, Mindy Griffin, was raped and
strangled by Michael Worthington, who broke into her suburban St. Louis condo
in 1995. Worthington is awaiting execution.
"If they can't find a drug they like, go to hanging," Angelbeck said. "Maybe
they should feel some pain and others would think twice about killing someone."
(source: Associated Press)
CALIFORNIA----new death sentence
Jury orders death penalty for killer of Jamiel Shaw II----Pedro Espinoza shot
Shaw, a high school football star whom he mistook for a rival gang member, in
2008.
A 23-year-old gang member who shot and killed a high school football star he
mistook for a rival gangster in 2008 should be put to death, a Los Angeles jury
decided Wednesday.
Jurors reached the verdict after about a week of testimony in the penalty phase
of the trial for Pedro Espinoza, a member of the 18th Street gang. The panel
was asked to decide what punishment Espinoza should receive for the slaying of
17-year-old Jamiel Shaw II.
Prosecutors said Shaw was killed execution-style because he was a young black
male carrying a red Spider-Man backpack, which led Espinoza to believe he was a
Bloods gang member. The same jury earlier this month convicted Espinoza of
1st-degree murder in Shaw's death and found true special allegations that he
acted as part of a gang and personally discharged a firearm, making him subject
to the death penalty.
Espinoza, hair slicked back on his once-shaved head with the tattoo "BK" — for
Blood Killer — still visible behind his left ear, looked up at the ceiling just
before the verdict was read and bit his lips. He showed no reaction at the
verdict.
In the gallery, a smile spread across Shaw's mother's face and his father
nodded his head. Most family members wore red, which they previously said was
in protest of Espinoza.
"I hope he leaves prison the same way my son came into the mortuary — in a
casket," the teen's father, Jamiel Shaw Sr., said outside court.
He quietly told his deceased son during the verdict: "We did it. Your life
wasn't in vain."
The younger Shaw was shot down the street from his Arlington Heights home.
Espinoza jumped out of a car and asked the teen for his gang affiliation and
fired a shot into his stomach. He then walked around Shaw's body and fired a
2nd time into his head, prosecutors said.
During the penalty phase, prosecutors called to the stand jail guards to attest
to Espinoza's continued violent behavior even after he was arrested on murder
charges. He assaulted a fellow inmate with a razor and attacked a sheriff's
deputy, Deputy Dist. Atty. Bobby Grace said.
Jurors also heard testimony from probation officers from Espinoza's days at
juvenile camp. One of them recalled how during an exercise in a counseling
session, Espinoza was asked to choose a color. He chose his gang's color, blue,
and said he would choose it even if it meant being sent to death row, according
to testimony, prosecutors said.
"It shows the defendant had aspired to get where he is today," Deputy Dist.
Atty. Allyson Ostrowski said after Wednesday's verdict.
Espinoza's defense attorney, Csaba Palfi, said his client was a product of a
difficult, underprivileged youth. His mother came to the U.S. illegally when
Espinoza was a baby to escape an abusive partner, only to end up with another
who was just as abusive, Palfi said.
The attorney said that in contrast with Shaw's upbringing, it was clear what
led Espinoza down the criminal path.
Shaw "had a loving family, a supportive family who made sure he made good
choices, made good friends. Pedro didn't have that," Palfi said outside court.
He also painted his client as but a small piece of a larger social problem.
"Killing Mr. Espinoza in however many years ... is not going to fix anything,
it's not going to stop the young men and women from joining gangs," he said.
Espinoza is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 21.
(source: Los Angeles Times)
********************************
Losing Death Penalty May Jeopardize Criminal Investigations
In the case of missing Morgan Hill teen Sierra LaMar, the man facing charges
for kidnapping and murdering her isn't talking. One tactic investigators said
they use in cases like this one, is the death penalty.
For example some investigators offer to pull the death penalty punishment off
the table, in return for information, but a new ballot measure could eliminate
that tactic completely.
"It would certainly remind a suspect during an interview it is a capital case,
a person could possibly face the death penalty which might serve as an
inducement to cooperate with law enforcement," said Dan Payne.
The death penalty is the harshest sentence in the U.S. criminal system. Dan
Payne is a former FBI investigator who used the threat of the death penalty as
a way to get information from a suspect. In his experience it worked. It's the
district attorney who makes the final decision but investigators use it as
leverage. "They're trying to save their own life and they're certainly going to
try to cooperate and be as helpful to law enforcement as they can if they can
avoid being charged with the death penalty," said Payne.
The Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office isn't saying if any sort of deal is
being offered to the man charged with murdering Sierra LaMar to get details out
of him. "Her remains have not been recovered. Now whether he's told
investigators this or not according to the Sheriff, he has not. So it can
certainly be a bargaining ship to say we will not seek the death penalty if you
would disclose the whereabouts of her remains," said Payne.
We reached out to the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and their
affiliates in California. They didn't get back to us today for a comment. Right
now there are a few hundred inmates on death row in California.
(source: kionrightnow.com)
ARIZONA:
Maricopa County sets $4 mil for death penalty appeals
The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors has unanimously agreed to spend up to
$4 million to pay for post-conviction appeals for defendants in local
death-penalty cases.
The board voted Wednesday to dedicate the money from the general fund to the
county Office of Public Defender, which pays for post-conviction relief appeals
of death-penalty cases.
The Arizona Supreme Court’s recent decision to reduce the required number of
attorneys in post-conviction relief appellate cases from two to one allowed
more cases to move through the appeals process, said Cari Gerchick, county
spokeswoman.
In addition, Maricopa County currently has a high number of death-penalty cases
that could result in post-conviction appeals, many from former County Attorney
Andrew Thomas’ term in office from 2005 to April 2010,Gerchick said. The county
attorney has statutory power to seek the death penalty.
“We saw that during the Andrew Thomas years, he charged a number of people and
said he had wanted the death penalty. So, there was an unprecedented spike of
death-penalty cases during his time in office,” Gerchick said.
The county Public Defender’s Office will use the money to pay for
representation of defendants sentenced to death, anticipating more cases will
begin moving through the post-conviction appeals process.
“It takes awhile to work through the trial process, the appeals process and the
post-conviction process,” Gerchick said.
The budget for capital cases is adjusted at the end of each fiscal year. This
change applies to fiscal 2011. There were no adjustments for fiscal 2012.
Supervisor Andy Kunasek said Wednesday’s decision is another step in the
process of working out issues that remain from the Thomas administration.
Thomas resigned as county attorney in April 2010 to run for state attorney
general. Last month, he was disbarred for ethical misconduct. His disbarment,
effective earlier this month, was ordered by a three-member ethics panel of the
Arizona Supreme Court. Thomas opted not to appeal the order.
“Against the advice of his own senior prosecutors, Thomas was going out and
ordering the death penalty,” Kunasek said. “It was another sense of just
disregarding, over and over, the wise counsel of professional prosecutors.”
(source: The Arizona Republic)
LOUISIANA:
Cost of Louisiana's death penalty
There are currently 88 inmates on Louisiana's death row, including 2 women. All
were convicted in a court of law and are going through the appeals process
before their time is up.
In the last 10 years, 3 people have been executed by lethal injection in
Louisiana - a far cry from the 1980s when 18 inmates in the state were
electrocuted for crimes committed. Louisiana is among 33 states where the death
penalty is legal, but as the price goes up all have seen dramatic declines in
capital cases.
"Many years ago the death penalty was used a whole lot more than it is now,"
said Calcasieu Parish District Attorney John DeRosier.
The last capital murder case to be tried in Calcasieu Parish was Jason Reeves
in November 2004 under then District Attorney Rick Bryant. A jury sentenced
Reeves to death for the murder of 4-year-old Mary Jean Thigpen. Reeves has been
serving his time on death row at Angola ever since.
"Taxpayers are paying a tremendous amount of money for death penalty cases,"
said DeRosier.
According to DeRosier when compared to other cases the cost for the death
penalty is often triple. For example the recent Davis/Saltzman case cost
taxpayers an estimated $77,000 to try in court. DeRosier said a death penalty
case will easily come in at $250,000 or more.
The case of Lee Roy Williams, the man convicted of the Labor Day quadruple
murders, was being considered to be tried as a death penalty case.
Though Williams originally denied his involvement in the 4 murders the evidence
was mounting. He eventually confessed to investigators and accepted a plea
deal. 8 1/2 weeks after the murders Williams was indicted, entered a guilty
plea and sentenced all in the same day.
"When Williams was confronted with the physical evidence and confronted with
the possible alternative of the death penalty he opted for 4 life imprisonment
sentences consecutive to each other," said DeRosier.
Aside from the cost it's an uphill battle for prosecutors. Not only do they
have to convince a 12 person jury the defendant is guilty of first degree
murder, but those same 12 jurors must all agree on the death sentence.
"It's not easy to sit on a death penalty jury. When choosing a jury we have to
be sure we choose a jury that can do the job under the law," said DeRosier.
Even though they are found guilty and sentenced to death the process and
dollars are really only starting to add up.
"The appellate process starts at that point and that appellate process will go
through the entire state system and if resulted in death penalty verdict it
will also go through the federal system. It will take a lot of years and a lot
of money," said DeRosier.
According to the Louisiana Department of Corrections it costs a little more
than $60 a day to house and feed a prisoner at Angola. With the appeals process
taking at least a decade if not longer - you can see the money being spent at
the expense of taxpayers.
Though the costs are high DeRosier said, "It's a factor we consider. It's not
necessarily the main factor we consider because we represent the community and
we represent victims and that's our first consideration."
DNA has also been a game changer. Since 1989 seven men have left Louisiana's
death row free men after being exonerated by DNA and other evidence.
Meanwhile without getting into all the details there are some pretty
interesting death penalty cases in Louisiana.
(source: KPLC TV News)
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