April 29
OKLAHOMA----impending executions
Oklahoma is Set to Execute 2 Men Using a Secretive, Untested Drug Cocktail
Tonight Oklahoma will continue the nation's ongoing experiment in executing
people with untested drug combinations as it moves forward to kill death row
inmates Clayton Lockett and Charles Warner using a new, secretly acquired drug
cocktail.
Officials in Oklahoma and other states have resorted to these methods because
they can no longer access sodium thiopental, the anesthetic traditionally used
in lethal injections, and another drug used to paralyze the condemned. The lone
US manufacturer quit producing sodium thiopental in 2011, and international
suppliers - particulalry in the European Union, which opposes the death penalty
on humanitarian grounds - have stopped exporting both drugs to the United
States. This has left states like Oklahoma scrambling to find new
pharmaceuticals for killing death-row inmates. Some have been reduced to
illegally importing the drugs, using untested combinations, or buying from
unregulated compounding pharmacies, some of which have a history of producing
contaminated products.
Death row inmates and their lawyers have protested on the grounds that these
untested protocols could produce a level of suffering that violates the Eighth
Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment, and they've sued for
more information about the source and purity of the drugs. In response, several
states have passed secrecy laws, allowing them to keep the names of their
suppliers, and in some cases the contents of the lethal injection, under wraps.
(Oklahoma is so eager to hide the source of its death drugs that it buys them
with petty cash so there are no transaction records.) Death row inmates, in
turn, have filed suits challenging the constitutionality of these secrecy
statutes.
In February, Lockett and Warner prompted a high-profile showdown between
Oklahoma officials when they sued the state asserting that its execution
protocol could inflict "severe pain" in violation of the Eighth Amendment. A
lower state court found the drug secrecy law patently unconstitutional, and the
state Supreme Court ultimately stayed the 2 men's executions until the issues
were fully litigated. But Republican Gov. Mary Fallin insisted they be executed
regardless of the court's ruling, prompting a political crisis. On April 23,
the Oklahoma Supreme Court, whose justices are now being threatened by the
legislature with impeachment, caved and allowed the executions to move forward.
The public knows very little about the drugs that will be used to kill Lockett
and Warner who stand convicted of murder. ??Lockett shot a teenage girl, then
buried her alive, while Warner raped and killed his girlfriend's 11-month-old
daughter in 1997. Initially, the state said it would deploy a 3-drug cocktail,
including the sedative pentobarbital (normally used to euthanize animals);
vercuronium bromide, which paralyzes the inmate; and potassium chloride, which
stops the heart. The 1st drug is supposed to knock out the inmate so he doesn't
feel pain. The 2nd drug paralyzes him so onlookers can't tell if he's
suffering. But pentobarbital, which states substituted for sodium thiopental
after it went off the market, works more slowly than the old drug, and wasn't
tested in advance to make sure it was an appropriate substitute. Also, lawyers
argue that it doesn't prevent pain during an execution. For that reason,
injecting it into a conscious animal in California is actually a crime.
Due to a shortages of pentobarbital and vercuronium bromide, Oklahoma planned
to buy the drugs from an unnamed compounding pharmacy. This was problematic
because such pharmacies are unregulated, and contaminated pentobarbital can
result in excruciatingly painful deaths. (Experts say it can feel as though the
insides of a person's veins are being scraped with sandpaper.) South Dakota
used a compounded pentobarbital contaminated with a fungus to execute Eric
Robert in 2012. During the execution, he repeatedly opened his eyes - a sign
that the drug wasn't working, some experts said. Oklahoma has had similar
problems. In January, it executed another man, Michael Lee Wilson, using
pentobarbital from an unidentified compounding pharmacy. During the execution
he sputtered, "I feel my whole body burning," another sign that the drug wasn't
doing its job.
In March, Oklahoma backed away from this approach and said it would instead use
1 of 5 possible drug combinations, including a 2-drug cocktail of midazolam (a
sedative) and hydromorphone (a pain killer). When states first proposed using
those drugs in lethal injection mixes last year, defense lawyers and medical
experts warned that inmates receiving them would essentially suffocate to
death. Brushing aside these concerns, in January Ohio used the drugs to execute
Dennis McGuire, who gasped and convulsed horribly for more than 10 minutes
before taking a record 26 minutes to die. His family, who watched in horror, is
now suing over what they allege was cruel and unusual punishment.
Oklahoma has since shifted course again and announced that it would use a
3-drug combo that includes midazolam and pancuronium bromide. According to
Madeline Cohen, an assistant federal public defender representing Charles
Warner, the state claims that both drugs are being purchased from manufacturers
rather than compounding pharmacies but wouldn't provide any other information.
The only known use of this drug combination for executions was in Florida in
2013, but Florida used 5 times the dose of midazolam that Oklahoma plans to
use, meaning Lockett and Warner will essentially be human guinea pigs. "It is
an experiment, and I don't think anybody is absolutely certain what will happen
in Oklahoma," says Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty
Information Center. Dieter adds that we'll never know whether the drugs worked
properly or caused needlessly painful deaths because the people who could tell
us will be dead.
(source: Mother Jones)
**************
Oklahoma's 1st double-execution since 1937 set for Tuesday night; Executions
are planned for 6 and 8 p.m. at the State Penitentiary in McAlester. Inmates
Clayton Derrell Lockett and Charles Frederick Warner are set to be executed.
For the 1st time since 1937, the state is expected to put 2 men to death on the
same day when it executes Clayton Derrell Lockett and Charles Frederick Warner
on Tuesday evening.
Lockett's execution is scheduled for 6 p.m.; Warner's is set for 8 p.m.
Lockett, 38, was sentenced to death for the 1999 murder of Stephanie Neiman,
19, in Perry. Warner, 46, is set to be executed for the 1997 murder of his live
in girlfriend's 11-month-old daughter, Adriana Waller.
The 2 death penalty cases have been subject to much legal wrangling and court
action in the past several weeks.
Lockett was scheduled to be executed April 22, but his execution, along with
Warner's, were stayed by the Oklahoma Supreme Court. The Supreme Court later
dissolved its stay after an executive order from Gov. Mary Fallin called the
ruling an overreach.
The inmates had their executions delayed after a district judge agreed with
their attorneys that a law allowing the state to keep secret its source of
lethal injection drugs was unconstitutional. Lawyers argued drugs made at a
compounding pharmacy used in their lethal injections could prove faulty and
asked to know the source in order to verify their purity. The men were granted
stays until their case was fully adjudicated.
In its ruling dissolving its original stay, the state Supreme Court also
reversed the district court ruling, allowing the executions to go forward.
The state announced this month that after an exhaustive search, it was able to
acquire the drugs to be used - midazolam, vecuronium bromide and potassium
chloride - directly from a manufacturer.
As recently as Friday, the convicted murderers' attorneys appealed to the state
Court of Criminal Appeals for another delay in the executions. The court
rejected that request.
Monday, a group known as Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
announced it would hold a sit-in from 2 to 5 p.m. Tuesday at the governor's
office and a protest and silent vigil in front of the Governor's Mansion at
5:15 p.m.
(source: Associated Press)
******************
2 inmates set to die 2 hours apart; 80 years since 2 inmates executed on same
day
2 Oklahoma inmates will be executed, just 2 hours apart tonight.
Oklahoma plans to use a new lethal injection formula on 2 death row inmates who
are scheduled to die in the state's 1st double execution since 1937.
Clayton Lockett and Charles Warner both are scheduled to be put to death at the
Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.
It is the 1st time in nearly 80 years that 2 men have been executed on the same
day in Oklahoma.
It's also the 1st time Oklahoma is using the sedative midazolam as the 1st in a
3-drug combination.
(source: KRMG news)
***********
Anti-death penalty group to host protest and vigil for 2 death row inmates set
for execution
An Oklahoma anti-death penalty group will host a protest and vigil to show
their objection to the execution of two death-row inmates, the state's 1st
double execution since 1937.
The Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty on Tuesday will host a
sit-in at Gov. Mary Fallin's office, followed by a vigil at the governor's
mansion.
Last week the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled that Clayton Lockett and Charles
Warner aren't entitled to know the source of the drugs that will be used to
kill them.
Lockett was found guilty of the 1999 shooting death of 19-year-old Stephanie
Nieman. Warner was convicted for the 1997 death of his roommate's 11-month-old
daughter.
Both executions were originally scheduled for March, but were moved because the
state didn't have the necessary drugs.
(source: Associated Press)
COLORADO:
Prosecutors in Colorado theater shootings hint they may want to search for
additional evidence
Prosecutors in the Colorado theater shooting case are hinting they might want
to search for additional evidence or look for more documents, although they
aren't publicly saying why.
In a motion filed Friday and released Monday, prosecutors asked the judge to
keep secret any future requests they might make for search warrants or for
court orders to produce records.
The motion didn't say whether prosecutors plan to make any such requests, but
it said "new leads and investigative avenues" could arise.
26-year-old James Holmes pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to multiple
counts of murder and attempted murder in the 2012 attack on a suburban Denver
movie theater, which killed 12 people and injured 70. Prosecutors are seeking
the death penalty.
His trial is scheduled to start in October.
(source: Associated Press)
UTAH:
Megan Huntsman Won't Face Death Penalty in 6 Alleged Baby Murders
A Utah woman was charged Monday with 6 counts of 1st-degree murder in the
killing of her 6 babies over a decade, but she cannot face the death penalty if
convicted, prosecutors said.
Defendant Megan Huntsman, 39, is accused of killing the babies between 1996 and
2006, before Utah law was changed in 2007 to make murder a capital offense if a
victim was younger than 14, Utah County Attorney Jeff Buhman said outside court
after a hearing in the case.
Until the law was passed, killing a child was not considered one of the
aggravating factors that can make someone eligible for the death penalty.
Such factors also include the victim being a police officer, the killing
occurring while another crime, such as rape, was committed, or if the defendant
has already been convicted of another murder. Killing more than one person also
is considered a capital offense but only if they die in the same incident.
Authorities say Huntsman was the mother of the babies and they were awaiting
DNA testing to confirm that along with the sex of the children. Their causes of
death also remain uncertain.
No labs in Utah can analyze the type of DNA that has been taken from the small
corpses, so the FBI has been brought in to help, police said.
The bodies of the infants were found on April 12 in boxes in Huntsman's garage
in Pleasant Grove. A seventh infant found in the garage is believed to have
been stillborn.
During her brief court appearance, Huntsman mostly kept her eyes focused on the
ground as she was informed of the charges. Her wrists were shackled to her
waist, and she was wearing baggy, orange jail pants and a green shirt.
Defense attorney Doug Thompson told reporters after court that he has spoken
with Huntsman but did not want to provide details on her state of mind.
"She seems fine but I don't really want to get into any of that," he said.
Prosecutors filed 6 1st-degree murder charges against Huntsman. Each carries a
possible sentence of 5 years to life. She has not yet entered a plea.
Buhman said a medical examiner has completed autopsies on the babies.
"We basically have an initial report so we have some information but not a lot
yet," Buhman said, declining to provide further information.
Buhman said investigators will have to rely on reports from the medical
examiner and a forensic anthropologist, along with Huntsman's statements to
police, to determine the cause of death.
Huntsman's estranged husband, Darren West, discovered 1 of the infant corpses
in the garage. Police responded and found 7 tiny bodies in cardboard boxes.
Police said Huntsman acknowledged that from 1996 to 2006, she strangled or
suffocated 6 of the babies, put them in plastic bags and packed them inside
boxes in the garage south of Salt Lake City.
Pleasant Grove Police Detective Dan Beckstrom said police were working to
corroborate Huntsman's story.
Investigators believe West is the father of the babies. He lived with Huntsman
during the decade the babies were killed and was in federal prison on drug
charges from 2006 until January.
Buhman said West is not a suspect.
"He's been very cooperative. We've had at-length discussions with Mr. West,"
Buhman said.
Authorities have said they think they know Huntsman's motive but declined to
reveal it.
Huntsman was being held on $6 million bail and is due back in court on May 19,
when her attorneys can decide if they want to request an evidence hearing.
(source: CBS news)
CALIFORNIA:
Suspect in Salon Meritage killing to plead guilty, could still get death
penalty
The man accused of killing 8 people inside the Salon Meritage in Seal Beach -
the worst mass killing in Orange County history - will plead guilty, his
attorney announced in court Monday.
Scott Dekraai is facing a possible death sentence for the Oct. 12, 2011,
massacre. He is expected to enter the plea on Friday.
His attorney, Scott Sanders, said Dekraai decided to enter the plea to spare
the victims' families from enduring a trial. Sanders had said previously that
Dekraai would be willing to plead guilty if prosecutors dropped the death
penalty as a possible sentence.
Dekraai's plea on Friday, however, will not include any deal with prosecutors,
meaning he could still be sent to death row.
Sanders has been at the center of a weekslong hearing challenging the
prosecution's use of jailhouse informants - in Dekraai's case and others.
Prosecutors announced earlier they would not use a recording of Dekraai made by
a jailhouse informant during the trial. Informant Fernando Perez made the
recording in October 2011, about a week following the Oct. 12, 2011, massacre
at the Salon Meritage.
Dekraai's attorneys began seeking information about Perez and how he came to
make the recording in January 2013. Those efforts ultimately led defense
attorneys to file a more than 500-page legal motion in February 2014 alleging a
conspiracy of government misconduct to seek to have the death penalty taken off
the table, prevent jurors from hearing the recording and get the Orange County
District Attorney's Office booted from the case in favor of the state Attorney
General's Office.
Orange County Superior Court Judge Thomas Goethals has been hearing evidence on
the motion since last month.
Dekraai is charged with 8 counts of murder, including the special circumstance
allegation of multiple murders and 1 count of attempted murder involving a
woman who was shot at Salon Meritage but survived.
He is accused of walking into the salon and gunning down his 48-year-old
ex-wife, Michelle Fournier, before opening fire on others inside the business.
Also killed were the salon's owner, Randy Lee Fannin, 62; Victoria Ann Buzzo,
54; Lucia Bernice Kondas, 65; Laura Lee Elody, 46; Michele Daschbach Fast, 47;
Christy Wilson, 47; and David Caouette, 64.
Hattie Stretz, 73, survived her injuries.
(source: Long Beach Press-Telegram)
USA:
Report: Over 4 % of U.S. death row inmates innocent; Prisoners are 10 times as
likely to be exonerated while on death row than on a reduced sentence, report
says
Over 4 % of people sentenced to death are innocent, according to what authors
of a report published Monday say was a "conservative," statistics-based
estimate.
Advocates against the death penalty told Al Jazeera that number is astoundingly
high. But for 1 exonerated death row inmate, the figure seems incredibly low -
and he believes he???s more qualified to estimate the number of innocents on
death row than professors and analysts.
"I feel like the number is much higher, being that I've been there," Reggie
Griffin, who was sentenced to death for allegedly killing another inmate in
1988, told Al Jazeera. For 4 years, he thought he would die at the hands of the
state, but his sentence was eventually reduced.
A Missouri judge ruled on Oct. 25, 2013, that the 2 inmates who had testified
against Griffin had not provided sufficient evidence against him. One of the
inmates had recanted his testimony, saying that he had testified against
Griffin because prison guards said they would protect him from systematic
sexual abuse at Missouri's Moberly prison.
Monday's report, published by the National Academy of Sciences, determined that
4.1 % of inmates sentenced to death row are innocent. It reaches this
conclusion by calculating how many former death row inmates whose sentences
were reduced would be exonerated if they were deemed innocent at the same rate
as inmates still on death row.
Findings show it is exponentially less likely for former death row inmates like
Griffin, who waited for over a decade to be released, to be exonerated in cases
where they are innocent.
Most death row defendants' sentences - likely close to 2/3 - are either
commuted to life imprisonment or somehow overturned. But once inmates are taken
off death row, they are less than 1/10 as likely to be exonerated, according to
the report.
That's because media, civil society and legal groups tend to spend more
resources on death row inmates than people whose sentences have been reduced to
life in prison, lead author on the report and University of Michigan law
professor Samuel R. Gross told Al Jazeera.
"If we were to invest the effort by judges, prosecutors, journalists - if the
entire system were as worried and upset to prevent people from being executed
as they were to prevent people from being in prison for their entire lives,
we'd find many more who are innocent," Gross said.
Richard Dieter, director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said American
society must pay more attention to death row inmates whose sentences are
reduced.
"The much larger class of cases are people who were on death row and spend the
rest of their lives in prison, but they were innocent," Dieter said. He said
the death penalty "distorts" what is otherwise a rational legal process.
"It's more theater and symbol than a rational process that attempts to arrive
at the truth and the best resolution of the case," he said. "The death penalty
means it's high stakes for both sides" - for the prosecution to win or at least
avoid an "embarrassing" exoneration and for the defense to save a life. Death
penalty cases therefore garner much more public attention.
Those whose sentences are reduced to life in prison are often considered
"lucky," Dieter added.
(source: Al Jazeera)
*******************
Officials: Carjackers in Michigan could face federal death penalty
Authorities are warning carjackers in Detroit and Flint that they could face
federal charges - including the death penalty.
U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade and Detroit Police Chief James Craig on Monday
announced the new media campaign that includes billboards and public service
announcements.
Federal law calls for up to 15 years in prison for armed carjackings, 25 years
if a victim is seriously injured and life or the federal death penalty if
someone is murdered during a carjacking. Additional years are tacked on for
using guns.
McQuade says "carjackers create an unacceptable risk of physical harm or death
and instill fear" in the community.
Detroit police say 165 carjackings have been reported so far this year in
Detroit.
(source: Lansing State Journal)
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