June 17
MISSOURI:
Winfield attorneys seek stay from U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice
Attorneys for convicted murderer John Winfield have asked U.S. Supreme Court
Associate Justice Samuel Alito to issue a stay in Winfield's execution,
scheduled for early Wednesday morning at the Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and
Correctional Center at Bonne Terre.
A stay issued last week by a federal judge in St. Louis is still in place.
His attorneys ask Justice Alito to halt the execution until his appeal filed in
a case brought by several condemned Missouri inmates is resolved. That is
pending in the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, which has declined to stay the
execution in light of it.
Justice Alito has issued stays in other recent executions scheduled in
Missouri, including that of inmate Russell Bucklew, which last month was halted
by the full Court after Alito's action.
Winfield's attorneys say a lower court agreed with their arguments that
Winfield faces a risk of being harmed by Missouri's use of pentobarbital that
is unregulated by the Food and Drug Administration, provided by an unknown
maker, of unknown composition, and made through an unknown process, but the
court dismissed his claim because Winfield and the other prisoners did not
point to a comparatively safer method of execution.
They also argue that the state's method of execution could cause Winfield
"serious illness and needless suffering." They point to the halting of the
Bucklew execution as an acknowledgement by the Supreme Court of hazards posed
by Missouri's execution method.
The Attorney General's Office responds to the request for a stay by saying
Winfield's pending appeal does not entitle him to a stay of execution, based on
prior rulings.
It responds to the argument that Winfield might suffer by noting Missouri has
carried out 6 executions using pentobarbital and more than 120 witnesses have
reported nothing to suggest that those were not quick and painless. It says
nothing has changed since the Supreme Court denied stays in those 6 cases
regarding the existence of a more humane form of execution.
Of the Bucklew reference, the Attorney General's Office says the halting of his
execution was based on his health problems, which Winfield does not suffer
from.
U.S. District Judge Catherine D. Perry last week issued a stay of Winfields's
execution based on concerns that Department of Corrections officials interfered
with the clemency process. The Attorney General's Office has asked for that
order to be changed.
Winfield was sentenced to death for the 1996 murders of Arthea Sanders and
Shawnee Murphy, friends of his then-girlfriend, Carmelita Donald, whom he also
shot, rendering her blind.
(source: Missourinet.com)
OKLAHOMA:
Okla. death penalty among 93 House study requests
Alternatives to Oklahoma's lethal injection execution method are among 93
topics House lawmakers hope to explore before the 2015 legislative session
begins in February.
The 101 House members had until last week to submit requests for studies to
House Speaker Jeff Hickman, who will decide by July 11 which ones to approve.
Oklahoma City Republican Rep. Mike Christian says his study into alternatives
to Oklahoma's method of executing death row inmates was prompted by the botched
April 29 lethal injection of Clayton Lockett.
Other topics requested for study include texting and driving, taxes, marriage
and funding for health care and education.
2 members also want to explore the use of certain marijuana extracts for the
treatment of seizure disorders in children.
Online:----House interim studies: http://bit.ly/1qlwS53
(source: Associated Press)
USA----impending executions
Death row inmates face execution in 3 states amid drug controversy
-- Georgia says plan for Marcus Wellons is 'state secret'
-- Execution would be 1st since botched death of Clayton Lockett
-- Florida and Missouri plan executions as legal battles continue
3 prisoners could be executed in the US this week amid heightened scrutiny over
the secretive way states are putting inmates to death in the wake of recent
gruesome botches.
Marcus Wellons, 59, is to be put to death by Georgia at 7pm ET on Tuesday,
using a single massive dose of the barbiturate pentobarbital. His lawyers are
seeking to block the execution by arguing that the state's excessive secrecy
about the source of its drug supplies is violating his constitutional rights.
Last year Georgia introduced a new law that declared the identity of anyone
involved in the execution process - including compounding pharmacies that make
up the drugs to order - a "confidential state secret". The law was upheld by
the Georgia supreme court, but Wellons' attorneys are challenging it in the
federal courts.
The legal complaint makes the point that only state officials "know exactly how
they plan to execute Mr Wellons on Tuesday night ... The simple truth about any
drug is that unless you know how it was made - where, and from what and by whom
- you cannot know what it is. Accordingly, the decision to use compounded
pentobarbital from an undisclosed source poses a substantial threat of undue
pain and suffering to Mr Wellons."
Concern about execution methods increased dramatically with the botched
execution of Clayton Lockett in Oklahoma on 29 April. The prisoner took 43
minutes to die and was seen writhing and groaning on the gurney. No executions
have been carried out in the US since then.
An initial autopsy report released last week by a forensic pathologist found
multiple puncture marks on his arms suggesting that those carrying out the
execution had struggled to find a vein, even though Lockett's veins were in
good condition.
"Following Lockett's execution, the courts and the public are looking much more
closely at the way death penalty states conduct their business. There's more
burden on the states to justify what they are going to do," said Richard Dieter
of the Death Penalty Information Center.
Just a few hours after Wellons is scheduled to be executed, John Henry is set
to be put to death in Florida.
John Winfield also may face execution on Wednesday in Missouri, where state
officials have appealed against last week's decision by a federal judge to
postpone the procedure on grounds that a prison employee had been intimidated
against testifying in favour of the prisoner at his clemency hearing.
The Guardian and 4 other news outlets are challenging in the Missouri courts
the state's insistence on secrecy over its lethal injection supplies. The
lawsuit claims that Missouri is acting against the first amendment right of the
people to have access to essential government procedures.
A 4th execution, of Lewis Jordan, has also been set in Pennsylvania. The
scheduling is required under Pennsylvania law following the exhaustion of
Jordan's appeals in state court, but in practice is purely figurative as he
will now be allowed to appeal his case in the federal system, which could take
many more years.
Wellons was sentenced to die for the rape and murder of a 15-year-old neighbor
girl, Indiana Roberts, in 1993. Henry was convicted of the 1985 stabbing death
of his wife, Suzanne, and her son. Winfield's sentence was for the
double-murder of his sister and a 2nd woman during an attack on his
ex-girlfriend. Jordan was convicted killing a police officer during a robbery
of a Philadelphia area doughnut shop in 2007.
The sudden flurry of execution activity following a recent lull means that both
advocates of the death penalty and opponents will be on high alert this week.
Any missteps on a level with the grim scenes in Oklahoma could have significant
ramifications for the death sentence in America.
"If anything even close to Oklahoma happens again, the death penalty itself
could be at issue," Dieter said.
Georgia has a particularly troubled record in terms of its procurement of
lethal drugs to execute prisoners. When supplies of its previous drug of
choice, sodium thiopental, ran out as a result of a European-lead boycott of US
death penalty states, Georgia began importing the drug from unlawfully from a
fly-by-night pharmaceutical wholesaler, Dream Pharma, that operated out of a
driving school in Acton, west London.
In 2011, the federal drug enforcement administration seized Georgia's entire
supply of the anaesthetic. More recently, the state has turned to loosely
regulated compounding pharmacies to make up pentobarbital for its executions.
Nobody knows the identity of the drug outlet involved, as it is covered by the
new secrecy law.
(source: The Guardian)
************************
Are Americans Turning Against the Death Penalty?
6 reasons why support for capital punishment is evaporating.
For 40 years American politicians have assumed that favoring the death penalty
is a winning political position. Is that era coming to an end? Is support for
capital punishment, like opposition to gay marriage, evaporating?
We can't be sure. But we're seeing the first signs that it could happen.
Death penalty support peaked at 80 % in 1994 in the Gallup poll and the
National Opinion Research Center's General Social Survey. Since then, it has
been sliding. In the most recently published GSS sample, taken in 2012, support
fell to 65 %, the lowest number since the question was introduced in its
current form 4 decades ago. If it falls any further, it'll be in new territory.
The latest Gallup sample, taken last year, found that support was down to 60 %
for the 1st time in 40 years.
In a Pew survey taken a year ago, support for executing murderers dropped to 55
%, 3 points down from Pew's previous low. Last month, in a CBS News survey, the
support level fell to 59 % (4 points down from the previous low) while the
percentage of respondents who opposed the death penalty rose to 33 % (6 points
above the previous high). It's the 1st time in the 26 years CBS News has asked
this question that the support number has fallen into the 50s or the opposition
number has climbed into the 30s.
A Washington Post/ABC News poll released this month points in the same
direction. Given a choice between 2 punishments for murder, only 42 % chose the
death penalty. 52 % preferred life imprisonment without parole. That's an
8-point drop in support for capital punishment since the previous Post/ABC poll
in 2006. It's the 1st time in recent history a majority has chosen life over
death.
Why is enthusiasm for the death penalty declining? Will it keep falling? Let's
look at what has changed.
Crime rates. Academic analyses begin with this correlation. The rise and fall
of death penalty support since 1960 closely tracks the rate of homicide and
other violent crimes. If crime rates continue to fall, capital punishment could
sink with them. But for the same reason, if crime increases, support for the
death penalty could rise with it.
The biggest shift by far was in the percentage of poll respondents who cited
the risk of erroneous conviction.
Deterrence. In Gallup's 1985 and 1986 surveys, respondents agreed by roughly
2-to-1 ratios (61 % to 32 % in 1985, 62 % to 31 % a year later), that capital
punishment "lowers the murder rate." By 1991 the percentages had shifted by
about 10 points. By the 2000s, the 2-to-1 ratio had completely reversed: More
than 60 % rejected the deterrence claim. That's a 30-point swing in 20 years.
Harris polls show a similar trend. From the early 1980s to the 2000s, the
percentage of respondents who believed that executions deterred murder fell
nearly 20 points.
This is an empirical belief, not a moral one. There is an academic debate over
whether executions affect the murder rate. The question is difficult to resolve
in part because the number of executions is too small to provide a clear
answer.
Life without parole. Preference for this punishment, as an alternative to
execution, increased in Gallup polls from 1985 to 2010. In the latest
Washington Post/ABC News survey, even in states that have the death penalty, a
plurality preferred life without parole. But polls show that overall opposition
to the death penalty has been growing as well. In Gallup's trend data, the
change in death penalty support (20 points) exceeds the change in response to
the life-without-parole question (16 points).
In 2007, when the Death Penalty Information Center took a poll to find out why
people were turning against capital punishment, the availability of life
without parole didn't seem to make much difference.
Execution methods. Recent lows in some polls have followed media reports of
botched executions. But botched executions have been reported for decades,
apparently without sustained effects on public opinion. The GSS, Pew, and
Gallup lows took place during a multiyear lull between such reports. When the
Post/ABC poll presented a scenario in which lethal injection was "outlawed or
otherwise unavailable," 10 % of respondents shifted from supporting the death
penalty to saying it should end. But in response to a similar question,
presented in an NBC News poll last month, 61 % of respondents chose an
alternative method - more than the 59 % who originally said they favored
capital punishment.
Moral beliefs about killing. In 1991 and 2003, Gallup asked people why they
opposed the death penalty. Between the 2 polls, opposition to the death penalty
rose from 18 % to 28 %, and the percentage of death penalty opponents who cited
the wrongness of taking life (each respondent could volunteer just one reason)
rose from to 41 % to 46 %. That works out, by multiplication, to an increase of
5 or 6 points in the percentage of respondents overall who opposed capital
punishment and said their principal reason was that killing is wrong -
accounting for about half the increase in death penalty opposition.
I'm skeptical. In these polls, the margin of error is 5 % for the entire sample
and goes up as you work with subsamples. If you take seriously a 5-point
increase in the percentage of death penalty opponents who cited the wrongness
of taking life, what about the 4-point decline in the percentage of death
penalty opponents who cited religion? Isn't that a wash? Maybe people who
thought it was wrong to kill just stopped mentioning God.
In 2001 Gallup added a question that could detect a change in ethics. For
capital punishment and other issues, the question asked: "Regardless of whether
or not you think it should be legal ... please tell me whether you personally
believe that in general it is morally acceptable or morally wrong." In 7 polls
taken from 2001 to 2007, on average, 66 % of respondents said the death penalty
was acceptable; 27 % said it was wrong. In 7 polls taken from 2008 to 2014, the
"acceptable" average fell to 62 %, and the "wrong" average increased to 30 %.
Are people becoming more averse to violence? Over the long term, yes, according
to evidence presented by Steven Pinker. But it's hard to connect that grand arc
with public opinion trends on the death penalty.
Innocence. In Gallup's 1991 and 2003 surveys, when death penalty opponents were
asked for their reasons, the biggest shift by far was in the percentage who
cited the risk of erroneous conviction. That number more than doubled, from 11
% to 25 % of the anti-death-penalty subsample. This finding is backed up by the
Death Penalty Information Center's 2007 survey, which identified people who had
shifted from supporting to opposing capital punishment. When they were asked
which of several factors influenced them most, 62 % cited "evidence that
innocent people are sometimes sentenced to death." In last month's NBC News
poll, the most popular reason to oppose capital punishment - cited by 35 % of
respondents - was that "it carries the risk of killing someone who was wrongly
convicted."
But there's a catch. In the same NBC News poll, the 2nd-most-popular reason
given for supporting the death penalty (and the best reason to support it,
according to respondents who themselves oppose capital punishment) was that
"modern science, like DNA testing, reduces the possibility someone has been
wrongly convicted." Apparently, many people are willing to believe that
science, having exposed the problem of wrongful conviction, can fix it. If so,
those who have turned against the death penalty to avert lethal error could
regain their confidence and reinstate their support.
We got used to high levels of public support for capital punishment in the
1980s and 1990s. But it wasn't always so: The death penalty was far less
favored in the 1950s and 1960s, sometimes lacking majority or even plurality
support. The lows we're seeing today don't guarantee a further slide - this
century's numbers could bounce around as much as last century's. But when you
look at the array of surveys descending into unfamiliar territory, and when you
study the factors behind this descent, it's reasonable to think it could keep
right on going.
(source: Will Saletan, Slate)
***********************
Autopsy finds failure to place IV properly during botched Oklahoma execution
During the botched lethal injection in Oklahoma this year which drew
international criticism and renewed attention to the debate over the death
penalty, the execution team failed to properly place the IV, according to an
independent autopsy conducted last month.
This autopsy was performed by Joseph I. Cohen, a forensic pathologist who was
hired by attorneys for death row inmates in Oklahoma. Cohen released his
preliminary findings in a report last week. The results of the state's autopsy
have not been released.
Clayton Lockett, a convicted murderer, was set to die by lethal injection April
29. He began writhing and grimacing on the gurney, witnesses said, and
eventually the execution was halted. Lockett died 43 minutes after the
execution began.
Oklahoma was using a new lethal injection drug for the first time during
Lockett's execution. But this report, and the problems disclosed by an official
timeline released by the state, point to issues with the IV rather than with
the drugs.
Cohen's findings "indicate extraordinary incompetence on the part of the
execution team that was separate and apart from the drugs used," Deborah W.
Denno, a death penalty expert and a professor at Fordham Law School, said in a
statement.
Lockett's execution began late because the technician had trouble finding a
place to insert the IV, according to Robert Patton, director of the Oklahoma
Department of Corrections. The technician looked at Lockett's arms, legs, feet
and neck before placing the IV in his groin area.
After Lockett was deemed unconscious, he began grimacing, clenching his teeth
and trying to lift his head. A doctor examined the IV and found that "the blood
vein had collapsed," according to the official timeline Patton sent to Oklahoma
Gov. Mary Fallin. (Patton told reporters after the episode that the doctor
"determined the line had blown.")
Cohen's examination, carried out May 14 in Tulsa, Okla., noted "the presence of
vascular injury indicative of failed vascular catheter access." It also found
skin punctures that suggested repeated attempts at placing a needle on
Lockett's extremities and on his groin.
The state's official timeline had noted that "no viable point of entry was
located" on Lockett's arms, legs, feet and neck before the IV was inserted into
Lockett's groin. But Cohen's review noted the "excellent integrity" of
Lockett's veins and said that it was unlikely that dehydration played a role in
the botched injection.
Fallin (R) ordered a review of Lockett's death as well as a review of the
state's execution protocols. The state has not carried out any executions since
the botched episode. Charles Warner, convicted of raping and murdering an
11-month-old, was scheduled to be executed the same night as Lockett, but his
execution was postponed after the botched execution. The Oklahoma attorney
general has agreed to a 6-month delay for Warner's execution.
(source: Washington Post)
*********************************
Shorten the road to death chamber
It's time to speed up the road to the death chamber.
Even for us news junkies who are accustomed to the steady stream of unwelcome
news, the last few weeks have been especially mind-numbing. The tears give way
to shock, horror, and eventually anger/disgust at our perpetual state of
abhorrent behavior in which our nation seems to be locked. The seemingly
constant barrage of shootings and the like leave us shaking our heads, unable
to recall the details of which crime belongs to which state and which
perpetrator.
What many of them share in common is they are premeditated and the perpetrator
intends to steal as much innocent life as possible.
While there seem to be few solutions in sight, the death penalty remains a
humane, inexpensive and viable response to the worst of society's worst -
regardless of the bad press it has recently received.
The recent botched execution in Oklahoma was regrettable, but it was hardly the
"cruel and unusual punishment" some death-penalty opponents have squealed that
it was. The Constitution does grant rights against "cruel and unusual," but
does not suggest there be no pain associated with capital punishment.
According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons as of 2012, the average cost of
keeping a prisoner in maximum security can run around $35,000 per year;
solitary confinement for those who are high risk can soar much higher. State
and local figures can be just as staggering.
With a sped-up appeals process for those whose heinous crimes are not in doubt
(think school shooters caught red-handed, the alleged Hailey Owens perpetrator
and similar worst-case scenarios), a shorter time frame for the death sentence
just makes sense.
A reduced time frame has several benefits. It: A) Saves money (think $35,000
over 10 years or more). B) Can be humane. We can always use other proven
execution methods besides lethal injection. C) Could arguably - it's up for
some debate - be a deterrent for cowards who want to end lives on a mass scale.
Instead of watching television for 20 years or longer in a prison cell, the
worst of the worst would realize there would be relatively quick consequences
for his or her actions. D) Provide more immediate justice for family members
and friends who rightfully deserve resolution and peace.
Capital punishment will never be popular. Those who don't have the stomach for
it will be quick to howl that it is a barbaric measure in an enlightened
society. Nonsense. Let the detractors have at it. Even the forgiveness found in
the New Testament gives a structured society recourse to quickly punish
diabolical monsters (Acts 25:10-11, Romans 13: 1-4).
It's time to take back our civilized society. It's time to speed up the road to
the death chamber.
(source: Opinion; Christopher Dixon, Springfield (Mo.) News-Leader)
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