Nov. 20
OHIO:
Ohio's Ricky Jackson Becomes 5th Person Freed in 2014
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 20, 2014
OHIO EXONERATES FORMER DEATH ROW INMATE 39 YEARS AFTER CONVICTION
Washington D.C. - On November 19, 2014, Ohio Judge Richard McMonagle dismissed
all charges against Ricky Jackson, who had been convicted and sentenced to
death for murder in 1975. District Attorney Terrence McGinty concurred with the
judge, saying, "The state is conceding the obvious." Jackson and 2 other men
had been convicted on the basis of a 12-year-old's testimony that has since
been recanted and discredited. The other 2 defendants are also asking for a
dismissal of charges.
Jackson is the fifth person to be exonerated in 2014 after being sentenced to
death and the 148th person since 1973, according to the Death Penalty
Information Center's (DPIC) innocence list. Ohio has had seven exonerations
from death row.
Richard Dieter, DPIC's Executive Director, said, "If the country needed any
more reminders of the risks inherent in the death penalty, the release this
year of 5 more inmates who had been sentenced to death should be the final
wake-up call. But for unrelated changes in the law and the conscience of one
supposed witness, three innocent men might have been executed just in this most
recent case. Such mistakes can and will continue as long as capital punishment
is in use."
Also exonerated this year were Glenn Ford in Louisiana, Carl Dausch in Florida,
and Leon Brown and Henry McCollum in North Carolina. These inmates were
imprisoned an average of 26 years prior to their release, including years on
death row.
Ohio halted all executions this year after the botched execution of Dennis
McGuire in January. The state is currently considering legislation to make the
sources of its execution drugs a secret and to hide the identity of medical
personnel participating in executions. Ohio has carried out 53 executions since
the death penalty was reinstated in 1976 and has scheduled seven executions for
2015.
In order to be included on DPIC's Exoneration List, defendants must have been
convicted, sentenced to death, and subsequently either (a) acquitted of all
charges related to the crime that placed them on death row, (b) had all charges
related to the crime dismissed by the prosecution, or (c) granted a complete
pardon based on innocence, since 1973.
The Death Penalty Information Center (www.deathpenaltyinfo.org) is a non-profit
organization serving the media and the public with analysis and information on
issues concerning capital punishment. DPIC was founded in 1990 and prepares
in-depth reports, issues press releases, conducts briefings for the media, and
serves as a resource to those working on this issue.
(source: DPIC)
KENTUCKY:
Death row exoneree speaks on importance of DNA testing
"It could happen to anyone," Kirk Bloodsworth, program officer for "The Justice
Project," said as he spoke at the Freed Curd Auditorium Nov. 14.
Bloodsworth became an advocate for DNA testing and abolishing the death penalty
after he spent more than 8 years in jail for a crime he didn't commit.
Bloodsworth's life was just beginning in 1984. He was engaged and moved to
Baltimore, Md. He had lived there less than a month when policemen came
knocking on his door and arrested him for killing and sexually assaulting
9-year-old Dawn Hamilton.
"I had never thought about the death penalty much in my life," Bloodsworth
said. "I was a commercial fisherman on the Eastern Shore. I had never been
arrested in my life. I was an honorably discharged Marine with no record or
criminal history."
He was convicted when a witness drew a photo of Hamilton's killer. The police
ran the photo, plastering it on newspapers and televisions. That was when
Bloodsworth's neighbor believed she recognized him in the photo. She told the
police, and Bloodsworth was arrested and taken to court.
"I told anyone and everyone that I was an innocent man," Bloodsworth said. "I
used to sign letters that way. I would say respectfully submitted, Kirk Noble
Bloodsworth, A.I.M: An Innocent Man."
Bloodsworth said there were a significant number of suspects in the case. This
was because the witnesses, two 8 to 10-year-old boys, saw Dawn's murderer in
the dark. Therefore, it was difficult for them to make out any facial features
or distinct characteristics.
The trial lasted several years. Finally, Bloodsworth was found guilty on all
charges and sentenced to death.
"When the gavel came down on my life, the sentence was death," Bloodsworth
said. "The courtroom erupted in applause. 'Give him the gas and kill his ass,'
is what they said."
After the sentence was announced, he was sent to a penitentiary where he would
serve his time until he would be put to death.
"I was taken to one of the most notorious penitentiaries in the country, the
Maryland Penitentiary, where a guard was recently disemboweled by one of the
inmates."
Bloodsworth said he had to come to terms with the fact that this would be his
new home, and he would have to make the most of it while he could. He made
acquaintances at the prison and strengthened his faith through books.
He worked in the library at the penitentiary where he spent a lot of his day
reading. 1 particular book stuck out to him. It was a book about a murderer who
took a DNA test, which, in the end, proved his innocence.
DNA testing for criminals began in 1984. The phenomenon was only beginning to
surface during the time that Bloodsworth was in prison.
After he read about the test, he immediately requested to call his lawyer to
allow him to take the test. Bloodsworth's lawyer agreed to give him the test,
and his innocence was proven.
"I was the 1st person in the United States to be freed by post-conviction DNA
testing from a capital conviction. That was June 28, 1993," Bloodsworth said.
Since then, Bloodsworth has become a member of Witness to Innocence, an
organization for death row survivors and their families.
The organization strives to make death row survivors leaders by telling their
stories across the U.S. and encourages people to help abolish the death
penalty.
Bloodsworth's story has inspired a book called "Bloodsworth: The True Story of
One Man's Triumph over Injustice" and a documentary called "Bloodsworth - An
Innocent Man" that will be released in the spring.
(source: Murray State news)
TENNESSEE:
Death row inmates sue over who, what is going to kill them
The 1st of 11 death-row inmates with scheduled execution dates in Tennessee did
not meet the executioner as planned on Oct. 7. The Tennessee Supreme Court
ruled Sept. 25 to postpone Billy Ray Irick's execution as he and the other 10
death-row inmates with scheduled execution dates are in the middle of a complex
lawsuit against the state.
In granting Irick's motion to postpone his execution, the Tennessee Supreme
Court laid out strict rules concerning time limits for appeals and motions
going forward in an effort to expedite court proceedings going through the
Davidson County Chancery Court. Irick already once had his execution postponed
in light of the pending lawsuit against the state. He was convicted of raping
and murdering a 7-year-old Knoxville girl he was babysitting in 1985. As of
press time, the court had not yet set another date for Irick.
The inmates scheduled for execution through 2016 are suing the state of
Tennessee over a certain fundamental questions: What are the identities of the
execution team? What method will the state use to execute them? The lawsuit
also seeks to lift a veil of secrecy surrounding the mix of drugs used in
lethal injections. What drugs will be used? Who manufactures them? And, have
they been adequately tested? Attorneys for the inmates also challenge the use
of the state's Plan B: the electric chair. The group of inmates and their
lawyers are calling both methods cruel and unusual. The electric chair, the
plaintiffs maintain, is barbaric. Lethal injections leave too many questions
unanswered. On Aug. 22, attorneys for the inmates changed the scope of the
lawsuit because of the new Tennessee law signed in by Gov. Bill Haslam that
allows the state to use the electric chair as a backup if the necessary drugs
for lethal injection are unavailable. Davidson County Chancellor Claudia
Bonnyman ruled Sept. 17 to allow an amendment to the lawsuit including
objections to the constitutionality of using the electric chair.
Several pharmaceutical companies recently refused to sell their products,
proven successful for use in executions in the past, if they were to be used in
executions. Because of those refusals, Tennessee switched from using sodium
thiopental - a deadly combo of three drugs-to just using pentobarbital. Before
the Tennessee Supreme Court ruled to postpone Irick's execution, the Tennessee
Department of Corrections (TDOC) said it hey had enough pentobarbital on hand
to carry out the execution via lethal injection.
"We are confident that we will have the necessary chemicals when needed," said
Neysa Taylor, a spokesperson for TDOC.
By ushering in the return of the electric chair, Haslam made Tennessee 1 of
only 8 states in favor of using the device. The others are Alabama, Arkansas,
Florida, Kentucky, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Virginia. Of nearly 1,400 death
sentences carried out in the United States since 1976, only 158 have been
conducted by way of the electric chair, according to the Death Penalty
Information Center (DPIC), a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C.,
that tracks death-penalty data. Tennessee has carried out 6 of the 1,400
executions since 1976, according to the DPIC.
"Prior to the new law, an inmate was only subject to the electric chair in
Tennessee if they chose to be," said Kelley Henry, federal public defender in
Nashville. "Once we reviewed all the evidence about the electric chair, we are
sure it's a torture device and violates the Constitution."
Lethal injection is the primary method of execution in the 32 states that still
have capital punishment, but some states allow inmates the option of
electrocution, hanging, firing squad or the gas chamber.
Henry, who has remained involved in the lawsuit since its inception in November
2013, points out that with the change in law Tennessee now "stands alone as the
only jurisdiction in the world to involuntarily impose the electric chair on
its condemned citizens."
"On behalf of our clients who face imminent execution, we have asked the
Chancery Court to allow us to challenge the electric chair as a method of
execution because even when the chair works exactly as it is intended, it is a
torture device," Henry said.
Henry also said that the lawsuit indicates the electric chair definitively fits
the description of "cruel and unusual punishment" under the U.S. Constitution.
Haslam has said the exact opposite of the chair, often noting that the U.S.
Supreme Court found the electric chair not to be "cruel or inhuman punishment"
in 1976.
Botched lethal injections across the country have at times left inmates
conscious throughout the procedure, even sometimes gasping for air for several
minutes after the procedure had been performed. Daryl Holton, who was
electrocuted in Tennessee in 2007 for murdering his three sons and a
stepdaughter in Shelbyville in 1997, showed signs of being conscious well after
the first surge of electricity went through his body. The lawsuit unveiled in
August gives a grim description brought by onlookers of how Holton died:
"A loud bang sounded, Holton's body jerked violently upward and remained there.
The black shroud fluttered and witnesses may have heard Holton sigh. Holton's
hands gripped the electric chair's arms tightly and turned red. After
approximately 20 seconds, Holton's body slumped over," the lawsuit said.
"Approximately 15 seconds later, a loud bang sounded, and Holton's body jerked
higher than it jerked the 1st time. Holton's hands continued to grip the
electric chair, and they turned bright red. After approximately 15 seconds,
Holton's body slumped."
A post-execution autopsy released with the lawsuit also found several burn
marks on Holton's body. Because the method was used prior to this year's law
giving the state the power to choose the execution method, Holton was given the
choice of lethal injection or electrocution and chose the electric chair. The
lawsuit argues that the electric chair doesn't render inmates fully
unconscious, meaning they feel the effects of the electrocution. When Tennessee
passed the law earlier this year to bring back the chair, Richard Dieter,
executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said courts should
anticipate some challenges as inmates got closer to their execution dates.
"There certainly have been some gruesome electrocutions in the past, and that
would weigh on courts' minds," Dieter said.
(source: streetroots.org)
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