Nov. 8
OKLAHOMA:
Time running out for Oklahoma's execution drugs
In just 2 months it will have been 2 years since the state of Oklahoma executed
a condemned prisoner. FOX 25 has learned it may be nearly impossible for the
state to resume lethal injections as it has done in the past.
Lethal injection drugs are in high demand, but short supply and some of
Oklahoma's supply of death penalty drugs is about to expire.
"Midazolam may have a shelf life of 2 years or 3 years depending on the batch
that is manufactured," said Dale Baich, a federal public defender who
represents Oklahoma inmates challenging their executions.
"We're not aware of any state that has carried out executions that have used
expired drugs," Baich said in reaction to a FOX 25 analysis that shows the
clock ticking on the state's execution cocktail.
The Oklahoma Department of Corrections will not tell us the expiration dates of
the drugs they have purchased. However, according to the multi-county grand
jury investigation into the state???s failure to correctly carry out
executions, the state ordered midazolam in November of 2014, and re-ordered in
January of 2015.
Attorney General Scott Pruitt has promised not to seek new execution dates
until 5 months after the DOC creates and adopts new execution protocols.
This means if the state had purchased fresh off the line midazolam in January
2015, the max t3 year shelf life would be up in January 2018. Applying that
same condition to the November 2014 purchase would mean the drugs would expire
in November 2017. However, corrections officials in Arkansas (a state with
similar drug secrecy laws) told FOX 25 it last purchased midazolam shortly
before Oklahoma's 1st purchase and its supply expires in April 2017.
According to the grand jury documents the state's last purchase of rocuronium
bromide, the 2nd of the 3-drug cocktail, was last purchased in November 2014.
This drug also has a 3 year shelf life, which means its shelf life is, at most,
November of 2017.
Added to those soon-to-expire drugs is the issue surrounding the drug that led
to the grand jury investigation, potassium acetate. This drug was used in the
Charles Warner execution and nearly used in Richard Glossip's execution. The
governor's general counsel told the Attorney General's office to "Google it" in
an effort to continue with Glossip's execution even though potassium acetate
was not an approved drug. Testimony before the grand jury revealed acetate was
received because potassium chloride, the approved fatal drug, was unavailable.
Injectable potassium chloride, which the state's current lethal injection
protocol calls for, is part of a nation-wide shortage, even for those seeking
it for medical purposes.
"I think that when it comes to using this drug for executions, the drug should
be used to help people rather than to kill people especially if there is a
shortage," Baich argues.
The Corrections Department told FOX 25 it has not made any effort to secure
potassium chloride since Glossip's last attempted execution.
To help alleviate some of the problems faced by drug purchases and mix-ups the
legislature passed a new law to allow the DOC to store prescription drugs,
including execution drugs on site at prisons. The DOC said the law was also
changed in order to allow prisons easier access to medications needed to
provide life-saving medications to inmates.
The Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics told FOX 25 as of November 1, the DOC has had
the option to file paperwork in order to get this permission. As of the
publishing of this story that paperwork has not been filed.
The DOC told FOX 25 it has not started the preparing protocols for the state's
legally prescribed backup execution method, nitrogen hypoxia. However, the
agency confirmed they received an advertisement from a company promising pain
free and mistake free executions using nitrogen gas.
The company, Pima Air Tech registered in Tucson, Arizona, told FOX 25 it sent a
letter to the Oklahoma DOC advertising its "patent pending" death penalty
alternative, the "Euthypoxia Chamber."
The letter says the company does not advocate for the death penalty, but does
offer options for states that carry out capital punishment. The chamber
promises to be "totally fool-proof and totally fail-safe." It also "Guaranties
the demise of any mammalian life within 4 minutes."
(source: okcfox.com)
NEBRASKA:
Uncertainty looms over death penalty vote
Voters will have an opportunity Tuesday to reverse an action taken by the
Legislature and reinstate Nebraska's death penalty, but moving forward with
executions could take years.
Nebraska's last execution was in 1997, using the electric chair, and the state
has never carried one out using its current three-drug lethal injection
protocol. Even though several executions have been scheduled, legal and
logistical problems have kept the state from using lethal injection before the
necessary drugs expired.
Nebraska lawmakers abolished the death penalty in May 2015 over Republican Gov.
Pete Ricketts' veto. Supporters of the punishment responded with a citizen-led
petition drive partially financed by Ricketts that suspended the Legislature's
decision until voters decide the issue Tuesday.
Voting "retain" will uphold the Legislature's decision and replace the death
penalty with life in prison, while voting "repeal" will reinstate capital
punishment.
Death penalty supporters say Nebraska can overcome the hurdles as other states
have recently done. One example is Ohio, where officials announced last month
they would resume executions in 2017 after changing their three-drug lethal
injection protocol, said Chris Peterson, a spokesman for Nebraskans for the
Death Penalty.
But Ohio, Texas and other states have moved forward only because they shrouded
their processes in secrecy, passing laws that require officials to withhold the
names of drug manufacturers, said Sen. Colby Coash of Lincoln, a leading death
penalty opponent. Nebraska lawmakers have traditionally avoided that approach,
erring on the side of transparency.
"Nebraskans don't want their government hiding things from them," Coash said.
"If pharmaceutical companies want to make drugs that kill people, they ought to
stand behind that."
Without a secrecy law, Coash said he doubts Nebraska will ever carry out an
execution. The death penalty opposition campaign, Retain a Just Nebraska, has
argued that no inmate will be executed even if voters reinstate the punishment.
"It puts it back on the books, but it doesn't mean we get the drugs," Coash
said. "It doesn't mean executions begin on Nov. 10."
Death penalty proponents say strong support by voters will increase pressure on
public officials to find a workable execution method.
"The obstacles are not insurmountable," said Bob Evnen, a Lincoln attorney who
has worked with Nebraskans for the Death Penalty. "Other states are able to
carry out the death penalty. Our state can, too."
Evnen said it's impossible to know when they state might be able to carry out
an execution, but he noted officials came close eight years ago when they were
on the verge of scheduling executions for inmates Carey Dean Moore and Ray
Mata. Their executions were delayed when the Nebraska Supreme Court declared
the electric chair unconstitutional.
The state's corrections department spent $54,400 last year on foreign-made
lethal injection drugs but has not received them because the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration blocked the shipment. State officials agreed to buy the drugs
from Chris Harris, a distributor in India who contacted the corrections
department in April 2015 as lawmakers were debating whether to abolish the
death penalty. Ricketts announced he was suspending the effort to obtain the
drugs until voters decided whether to keep capital punishment.
Harris sold execution drugs to the state in 2010, but the drugs' manufacturer
accused him of misrepresenting how he intended to use them. Legal challenges
prevented the state from using the drugs before they expired.
Both sides of the issue made their final push before the election with radio
and television ads and through social media. Nebraskans for the Death Penalty
sent more than 250,000 mailings to voters urging them to keep the punishment,
Peterson said.
"The other side has thrown everything including the kitchen sink to try to
eliminate the death penalty, but we believe a strong majority of Nebraskans see
a place for the death penalty in our criminal justice system," Peterson said.
Surrogates have played a major role. Vivian Tuttle of Ewing, whose daughter
Evonne was murdered in a 2002 Norfolk bank robbery, has traveled the state
extensively urging voters to overturn the Legislature's decision. So have the
relatives of 57-year-old Shirlee Sherman, who was stabbed to death along with
an 11-year-old boy in 2008. Nebraskans for the Death Penalty has also enlisted
the support of local sheriffs who support the punishment.
Retain a Just Nebraska has turned to church leaders, particularly the Catholic
Church, to present its arguments to voters. Ada Joann Taylor, who was
exonerated in a 1985 murder after serving nearly 20 years in prison, also
joined forces with death penalty opponents.
(source: Associated Press)
CALIFORNIA:
Hercules: Convicted murderer testifies as jury weighs death sentence
Darnell Washington has stayed silent for months during his trial and conviction
in the brutal 2012 murder of retired Hercules kindergarten teacher and mother
of four Susie Ko, who was beaten and stabbed with a knife and the barrel of a
shotgun.
But that changed Monday, when Washington, 28, took the stand during the penalty
phase of his trial. A jury is tasked with deciding whether Washington should be
sentenced to death.
Washington testified about his childhood Monday, not about the home invasion
robbery in which he was convicted of stabbing Ko to death, nor his escape weeks
earlier from San Bernardino County Jail. That limited the questions prosecutor
Molly Manoukian was able to ask Washington during cross-examination.
Still, Manoukian tried to elicit from Washington his feelings about Ko's
murder, asking him point-blank whether his own grandmother had been stabbed to
death repeatedly in the doorway of her home, in the same fashion as Ko.
Washington's attorney, Tim Ahearn, objected to that line of questioning, and
Washington never had to respond.
Speaking rapidly in a soft tone, and keeping his focus on Ahearn, Washington
testified about being bounced around from group home to group home in the
California foster care system. He described himself as a "rebellious" child,
saying he spent time in a juvenile detention facility before middle school.
Washington's parents were split, and he said he saw them sporadically. At one
point during his childhood, after he misbehaved, his father took him to a group
home, pushed him out of the car and sped off, he testified, saying the incident
left him "broken-hearted."
"I was extremely sad - you're supposed to be my father," Washington said. "The
sadness turned to anger, and the anger turned to hopelessness."
At another point, his mother kicked him out of the house, he said. During that
time, he slept on park benches, school playgrounds, anywhere he felt safe. He
continued to have disciplinary problems and eventually ended up in a youth
authority detention facility, facing robbery and carjacking charges.
On his 18th birthday, he was transferred to Chino state prison, where inmates
were "doing all types of things like stabbing people and killing people and
things that weren't happening at (the youth authority facility)." He testified
that he tried to make a life change, studying and staying trouble-free. He was
eventually transferred to an inmate fire crew.
On the fire crew, Washington said he fought fires in Fresno, San Juan Bautista
and other parts of California. He said he tried to be an "example" for other
inmates.
During cross-examination, Manoukian brought up Washington's testimony that his
mother wasn't around.
"But, it was as though she wasn't around because she was murdered?" Manoukian
asked, prompting the judge to sustain a defense objection. Washington remained
silent.
The penalty phase of Washington's trial comes as voters are set to decide
Tuesday whether to abolish California's death penalty.
(source: eastbaytimes.com)
*********************
Death penalty victimizes innocent children
The death penalty victimizes the innocent children and family members of
condemned men and women. These are citizens of this country who have committed
no crime, and yet, because of capital punishment's ignominious existence, they
are punished too. Their state-sanctioned suffering, one that Californians will
be directly responsible for promoting if they vote for Proposition 66, is
severe.
For the children, just think about it: they didn't do a damn thing wrong except
be born. And then, on an especially dark, dreary, and evil day, they're being
brought to prison to see their parent one last time. And they're in some
sterile room, and everyone's watching; the warden, the prison chaplain, the
press, a gaggle of attorneys and guards, all of them are watching to see how
these children of the condemned are going to carry it.
Are they going to cry? How are they holding up knowing the human race has
decided the person they love (and who gave them life) is so damn defective that
they must be cast out into the unfathomable, the ungodly, the unknown? What can
they be thinking, some of them just toddlers? What possible chance for a
happy/normal life can they have after watching society exterminate their father
or mother (or other caregiver) like a parasite, a cancer, a plague?
On its website, the United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner
observes: "There are few studies available which describe the experience of
children whose parents have been sentenced to death or who have had one or both
parents executed. From the available information, however, it is clear that
children who have lost parents because of lengthy prison sentences or
executions suffer deep and lasting grief and trauma."
In remarks to a panel discussion on the human rights of children of parents
sentenced to death or executed, Marta Santos Pais, the Special Representative
of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children, said: "The sentencing of
a parent to the death penalty compromises the enjoyment of a wide spectrum of
children's rights." Associate Professor Sandra Jones of Rowan University
explained to the panel, "[t]hese children feel terribly alone [and] tend to
isolate themselves and suffer from internali[z]ed shame. Often these children
feel they have to defend the parent in prison, and they live in fear waiting to
hear they have been killed. These children typically have to deal with many
psychological issues - depression, anxiety, [behavioral] problems and
aggression. Many of them go on to become offenders."
Of course, the children and family members of those who have been murdered are
victims; that's so obvious, no one needs to study the phenomenon. But, when as
a society we chose to descend to the killer's level by sanctioning the death
penalty, we must acknowledge all of the dirty, nasty consequences, many of
which can hardly be described (or swept under the rug) as "collateral." Ms.
Pais warned the assembled experts at the United Nations: "It is critical that
the situation of children of parents facing the death penalty get the urgent
attention and action required."
In California, on November 8, just like the citizens of Nebraska and Oklahoma,
we have an opportunity to forever put an end to the uncivilized, gruesome,
state-sponsored spectacle of innocent children having to watch a parent be
executed: Vote "No" on Proposition 66 and "Yes" on Proposition 62.
(source: Stephen Cooper is a former D.C. public defender who worked as an
assistant federal public defender in Alabama between 2012 and 2015----Los
Angeles Post Examiner)
OREGON:
Retired Ore. prison boss who executed 2 now opposes death penalty
Fade in to the Oregon State Penitentiary, past the concertina wire fence and
the sliding doors and locks. The state's most dangerous felons are incarcerated
here, including all but 2 of the 34 inmates on death row.
In an office, away from the segregated cells, sits the superintendent, Frank
Thompson. In front of him is a bucket of water, and he has a syringe in hand.
With him is a man advising him how to properly administer a lethal injection.
Thompson draws water into the syringe, then depresses the plunger as the
syringe empties into the bucket. He does this over and over, while the adviser
warns about the importance of the depression rate. The fluid, he is told,
should not flow out faster than gravity.
Dissolve to a downtown coffee shop, a mile and a half from the prison and
bustling with conversation about life in Salem. Thompson describes to me the
scene from 20 years ago.
"I'm practicing delivering a lethal injection," he says, almost as if he
doesn't believe it really happened. "Surreal doesn't begin to explain it."
My gaze is diverted to his right hand, resting on the table between us. Without
realizing it, he's going through the motion as if he is depressing that
syringe.
Thompson plays a lead role in the history of capital punishment in Oregon, as
the man who oversaw the state's last execution. He conducted 2, in fact, while
he was superintendent at Oregon State Penitentiary. Those are the state's only
executions in the past 54 years.
His story is compelling. He supported capital punishment during most of his
30-year career in law enforcement and corrections, but today he is one of its
most outspoken critics.
Our conversation and his appearance at a meeting of Oregonians for Alternatives
to the Death Penalty are sandwiched between an opinion piece published in the
New York Times and a trip to Oklahoma, 1 of 3 states with capital punishment
initiatives on the ballot this week.
"The death penalty doesn't deter," he tells me. "It only satisfies vengeance."
Thompson, whose mother and father were educators, grew up in the segregated
south, in Arkansas. He worked in law enforcement, and both his best friend and
his cousin were killed on the job. The man who murdered his cousin ultimately
was executed for another crime.
"Deep down, I remember feeling justice had been served," Thompson says. "But
emotion does not make good policy."
When he applied for the top prison job in Oregon in 1994, he told an
interviewer that he would be capable of executing an inmate, something which
hadn't happened in more than three decades at the time.
"It was part of the criminal justice system," Thompson says, "but I thought I
wouldn't have to."
Within 18 months of landing the job, two death row inmates waived their appeals
and were scheduled to be executed by lethal injection, one for killing his
half-sister and her former husband, and another for killing 3 homeless men and
a 10-year-old boy.
There was no protocol in Oregon for execution by lethal injection. Oregon
previously used a gas chamber, the last time in 1962.
This would be the 1st execution in 34 years, the 1st by lethal injection, and
the 1st for Thompson and everyone on his staff.
"No one can imagine the amount of pressure with all these firsts," Thompson
said. "I felt like the world was watching."
The glare of the spotlight was one of the reasons he focused on training his
staff, which came naturally for him.
Thompson is an Army veteran. He served in the military police during the
Vietnam War era, and was stationed in Korea. Preparing to administer the death
penalty, to him, was a lot like preparing for combat.
"You're hoping you never have to kill anybody, but you do what you're called
upon to do," he says.
Like a good soldier and commander, Thompson was as concerned for those serving
with him as he was for himself. Each of the employees who participated in the
1st execution, in 1996, volunteered for duty. He met 1-on-1 with each person
and selected those who would carry out the execution orders.
Thompson was aware of the heavy toll it could take on them. While a police
officer and corrections officer in Arkansas, he had friends who were involved
in executions in that state. Some of them suffered from post-traumatic stress
disorder.
To help insulate his staff from the fears of doing the job, and from making a
mistake, training was a top priority for Thompson. They trained for every step
of the process, and for every possible scenario, and they did it over and over
again.
In hindsight, it might have been excessive. But not to Thompson, who says he
spent $80,000 on overtime to prepare staff for the 1st one.
"My biggest fear was to have a botched execution," he says. "We don't need any
other victims."
Fade back to Oregon State Penitentiary, where Thompson is sitting across from
one of the condemned men, describing in detail how the death sentence will be
carried out.
Thompson explains how the condemned man will be placed in restraints on a
gurney and connected to a heart monitor machine. He explains how he will be
hooked up to intravenous catheters for lethal injection of solutions that will
first induce unconsciousness, then stop breathing and finally stop the heart.
The irony of premeditation is not lost on Thompson.
Back at the coffee shop, Thompson reflects on what was another surreal moment
in the evolution of his stance on capital punishment.
"I'm sitting as close as I am to you," Thompson says to me, "and I'm explaining
to this man how I'm going to kill him."
It was around this time, in the middle of intense training, that Thompson's
stance on capital punishment began to sway.
"Everybody knew it," he says. "You register your concerns, but you don't bail
out."
He was lucky to have a caring and understanding support system to go home to,
and still is and does. He and his wife, Deborah, have been married since 1970.
They have a daughter and a granddaughter.
Deborah accompanied him to the recent meeting of Oregonians for Alternatives to
the Death Penalty, during which he talked about the impact executions can have
on corrections officers. Someone later asked if he had experienced PTSD.
"I've had no professional counseling or treatment. You might ask my wife."
She says he has.
"I believe having an opportunity to do what I'm doing tonight is my therapy,"
Thompson goes on to say. "I see it somewhat as a ministry."
Public support for the death penalty fell by 7 % points in the last year, with
fewer than h1/2of Americans (49 %) now saying they support it, according to a
national Pew Research Center poll released Sept. 29. It marked the 1st time in
45 years that support for capital punishment polled below 50 %.
Thompson shares his story any chance he gets with legislators, criminal justice
advocates and community leaders across Oregon - where the death penalty is
legal but currently under moratorium - and across the country. He has met with
elected officials in Colorado and Maryland, and his recent appearances in
Oklahoma were arranged by a senator.
He reels off a list of reasons why he and others believe the death penalty
should be abolished, including how it is not an effective deterrent to murder,
how it is applied disproportionately against the poor and minorities, and how
it diverts resources from effective criminal justice policy.
Thompson stood next to the gurney during one of the executions - he won't say
which one - watching the man take his last breath. For the other, he stood
outside the room and watched for the flat line on the heart monitor.
Although he used the names of the executed in his New York Times piece, he
prefers not to in this column.
"There are victims out there," he says.
Thompson said the team stayed intact for both executions, after which a couple
of staffers quietly went on to other professions because of how much they were
bothered by the experience. He often gets asked why he didn't quit after the
1st one, if he had changed his stance.
"Executing people was 1/1000 of what we did," he said, noting his role in
helping develop the Performance Recognition and Award System (PRAS) that
reinforces pro-social program development and positive behavior in Oregon
prisons.
"I'm proud of that," Thompson says, "but that's not going to be on my
headstone."
Fade in to the execution room at Oregon State Penitentiary, with a condemned
man strapped to the gurney, awaiting the injection of a cocktail of lethal
chemicals. The person who will perform the injection has been trained by
Thompson, based on a lesson with a syringe and a water bucket.
The staff inside the room has been trained to conduct the execution
professionally and with as much dignity as humanly possible. Before the
injection is administered, the man lets them know the straps binding his hands
are hurting him.
Thompson gives instructions to loosen them, and after the adjustments are made,
the man looks his executioner in the eye and says, "Thank you, boss."
(source: KGW news)
USA:
Women death row to execution: see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxG4xo97jWU
*****************
Will voters send death penalty to the gallows?
Voters in 3 states Tuesday will decide the fate of ballot measures on the use
of the death penalty.
In California, which has 741 people on death row, more than any other state,
competing propositions will be on the ballot. Proposition 62 would abolish the
death penalty and replace it with life in prison without the possibility of
parole. Proposition 66 would speed up the process of executions.
In Nebraska, a referendum proposes to reinstate the death penalty, which the
state legislature abolished in 2015. A petition was filed with 167,000
signatures to put the issue on the ballot.
And in Oklahoma, the state with the country's highest per capita execution
rate, a ballot measure would amend the state constitution to prevent the death
penalty from being declared cruel and unusual punishment.
19 states have repealed the death penalty, and polling suggests that at least a
couple of these measures will pass. In California, 1 poll found 48 % of
respondents favor replacing the death penalty with life in prison, with 42 %
opposed.
According to Gallup, support for the death penalty has declined nationally,
from a high of 80 % in 1996 to 60 % in 2013. Opposition has more than doubled
over the same period, from 16% in 1996 to 35 % in 2013. And in September, a Pew
Research report found that support for the death penalty neared a 50-year low
of 49 %.
The death penalty is also being utilized less often by states. Only 28
prisoners were executed nationally last year, the lowest number in more than
two decades. The number of people sentenced to death is also down from previous
years. There are several reasons for this, including high-profile cases in
which people sentenced to die suffered long, agonizing deaths after botched
lethal injections. There have also been questions over the costs of the death
penalty and whether it reduces crime.
Capital trials are very expensive and the slow pace of the appeals process
usually means death row inmates cost taxpayers more than those in the general
prison population. By 1 estimate, Prop 62 may save Californians $150 million
annually starting in a few years.
Most importantly, more death row inmates are being exonerated following
wrongful convictions. Last year there were 149 exonerations, a new record. And
according to the Death Penalty Information Center, 156 people have been
exonerated after being sentenced to death since 1971.
Increasingly, people are viewing the death penalty as a potentially grave
injustice, and they are changing their views accordingly.
(source: Daniel Allott is deputy commentary editor for the Washington Examiner)
*****************
Judge: Mom's alcohol use won't halt man's death penalty case
A federal judge in Vermont says a man can face a second death penalty trial
even though his mother's alcohol use caused him developmental delays.
In a ruling issued Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Geoffrey Crawford refused
to exempt Donald Fell because he has suffered from fetal alcohol spectrum
disorder.
Attorneys for the former Rutland man had argued Fell shouldn't face possible
execution. They say fetal alcohol spectrum disorder is the equivalent of
intellectual disabilities that are recognized death penalty exemptions.
Crawford says the condition is not well enough understood to exempt a sufferer
from the death penalty.
The 36-year-old Fell was convicted in 2005 and sentenced to death for the 2000
killing of Rutland supermarket worker Terry King. His conviction was thrown out
due to juror misconduct.
A retrial is scheduled for next year.
(source: Associated Press)
******************
Jury Selection Postponed In Trial Of Church Shooting Suspect Dylann Roof
Jury selection in the federal trial of Dylann Roof, the 22-year-old suspected
of murdering 9 people last year at the oldest black church in Charleston, S.C.,
was postponed Monday morning by the presiding judge.
In a public statement, Judge Richard Gergel did not say when jury selection
proceedings would resume.
The judge wrote:
"I have received a motion in this case this morning requiring my immediate
attention and the conducting of a hearing involving only the Defendant and
defense counsel. The hearing with be closed to the Government and the public."
"The government" refers to the prosecution in the case. Roof has pleaded not
guilty to 33 federal hate crimes counts; he is accused of entering the
historically black Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown
Charleston and sitting among worshipers at a Wednesday Bible study before
opening fire. The church's senior pastor was among those who died.
The Justice Department is seeking the death penalty. Roof also faces the death
penalty on state murder charges.
The judge did not elaborate on the nature of Monday's last-minute hearing,
saying only that, "The closing of the hearing in necessary to protect the
attorney client privilege and the Defendant's right to a fair and impartial
jury and a fair trial."
(source: npr.org)
_______________________________________________
A service courtesy of Washburn University School of Law www.washburnlaw.edu
DeathPenalty mailing list
DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu
http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty
Unsubscribe: http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/options/deathpenalty
