March 5
ARKANSAS:
Man convicted in deaths of wife, daughter in 2015
A Garland County Circuit Court jury took less than an hour Friday to find a Hot
Springs man guilty of 2 counts of capital murder in the 2015 shootings of his
wife and daughter.
The jury of 7 men and 5 women convicted Eric Allen Reid, 57, in the Oct. 19,
2015, slayings. Jurors will reconvene Tuesday to decide whether Reid will
receive the death penalty or life in prison.
During testimony Friday morning, Reid called the shootings of 57-year-old Laura
Reid and 32-year-old Mary Ann Reid a "horrific accident."
"I pretty much don't remember what happened," he said. "I saw a flash of light
and blanked out."
Reid said he remembers seeing flashes of "Mary Ann in her Giants jersey" and
"red blood spray on the wall," but he doesn't remember what he was doing at
that time.
He said he recalls his younger daughter, Heather Reid, "yelling and screaming
at me -- 'Dad, you have to stop! Dad, put down the gun!' -- and then seeing a
gun in my hand. It was like a fog or tunnel vision, like I was watching this
happen."
Asked by his attorney, Cara Boyd-Conners, if he intended to kill the two women,
Reid replied "absolutely not" and told jurors that he loved his wife and
daughter.
"I didn't plan to kill them," he said. "That's the absolute truth. I have
always been a man of character and truth, love and compassion. If I could take
their places I would."
Heather Reid testified Thursday that in addition to tensions over family
finances, there had been an ongoing dispute between her father and her sister
regarding how Mary Ann was raising her son, including her not making him "eat
his vegetables" and being more of a friend than a parent.
Garland County sheriff's deputies testified that after taking Eric Reid into
custody, the grandson appeared and yelled, "I hope you rot in hell!" and Reid
responded, "You're the reason for all this!"
Asked by Boyd-Conners if he blamed his grandson for what happened, Eric Reid
said he didn't.
"When he said what he did, I felt hurt," Eric Reid said. "It was a knee-jerk
reaction to what he said, and I wish I could take it back. That's a lot to lay
on a teenage boy. I regretted it as soon as I said it."
In a videotaped confession to Sheriff's Sgt. Terry Threadgill, Reid talked
about being "frustrated and angry" with his daughter and wife, and said he felt
they were "ganging up on him" and plotting to "take everything away from him,"
which led him to kill them. He described shooting both women multiple times and
referred to the "use of deadly force" and "letting a woman draw me offside." He
also discussed his military training in the Navy.
Asked about his confession to police, Reid said he had been working since 6
a.m. that day on a backhoe.
"It was long, hot day, and I was exhausted when I got home," he said, noting
that after the "accident," he was put in the back of a hot police car in
"painful" handcuffs and was later questioned in a hot room.
"Everything in my life from day one was flashing in my head. Pieces in my mind
from that night I still don't recall. I just agreed with [Threadgill]," he
said.
Reid said the family members had been "doing family things together and all
getting along" until about 3 weeks before the shootings. During those 3 weeks,
his wife and Mary Reid had been arguing, he said.
He said he and Mary Reid had argued the day of the shootings in the garage, but
it was a normal occurrence between them, and he walked away. He said he
remembered going into the bedroom to get his clothes ready for the next day,
when he overheard his wife and Mary Reid talking, and heard phrases like
"'We're better off without him'" and "'[expletive] him!'" and then he blacked
out.
"I didn't do it knowingly," Reid said.
He also testified that he was taking medications for anxiety, but during
cross-examination deputy prosecutor Kara Petro pointed out that there was
nothing in his medical records about being diagnosed with anxiety.
Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Joe Graham noted that Reid went into the
bedroom, got his .40-caliber semi-automatic handgun from its nylon holster in
his nightstand, pulled the slide back in the rack to make sure it was loaded
and then went after the 2 women.
Graham also pointed out that Reid shot Laura Reid 3 times in the back "like a
coward" and shot Mary Reid as she was running away, chasing her through the
house. Even as Heather Reid screamed at him to stop, he shot Mary Reid at least
four times, possibly 6 times, Graham noted.
"When Eric Reid left the garage to get his gun, he formed the intent to kill,"
Graham said. "The only reason Heather Reid is here today is because she didn't
p*** him off. He is deciding who is living and who is dying at that point, and
he's not in control of his actions?"
(source: nwaonline.com)
NEBRASKA:
Get on with the death penalty
Maybe the state just needs to move on and execute those residents of death row.
That would not only shut down this ridiculous battle by the American Civil
Liberties Union, but also the people could finally quit paying for the upkeep
on them.
Frankly the appeals process should end way sooner. Nebraska is notorious for
sentencing people to death, then rarely following through. Just get on with it.
As for the ACLU - the people voted for the death penalty. Quit pussy-footing
around with these drugs and use a firing squad. Nothing "cruel or unusual"
about a quick bullet.
Jane Wilson, Omaha
(source: Letter to the Editor, Omaha World-Herald)
COLORADO:
Colorado bishops support religious freedom of jailed Mennonite
Colorado bishops have released a statement of solidarity with a Mennonite
investigator who has been imprisoned for failing to testify in a death penalty
case due to her religious beliefs.
"Religious freedom ensures that all people have the freedom to believe and act
according to their faith; it is a fundamental right and constitutionally
protected in the United States. This right encompasses the ability to practice
one's faith openly, without undue interference from the government or others,"
read a Feb. 28 statement from the Colorado Catholic Bishops.
"Ms. Lindecrantz should not be punished for her religious beliefs and
convictions regarding the death penalty and the taking of human life," they
continued.
Greta Lindecrantz, a Mennonite, was a prominent investigator in the defense
counsel for a man named Robert Ray during the 2000s. Ray was ultimately
convicted as an accessory to murder in the death of Gregory Vann, and
additionally for ordering the murders of 2 witnesses. He was later sentenced to
death row.
Years later, a death-sentence appeal case for Ray was opened, prompting
prosecutors to question Lindecrantz and her participation in Ray's case.
Lindecrantz has refused to testify on grounds of her religious objections to
the death penalty, which caused Judge Michelle Amico to hold her in contempt.
Lindecrantz has been imprisoned since Monday and could face upwards of 6 months
in jail, without bail.
"I feel like I was handed a gun and I was told to point it at Mr. Ray, and the
gun might or might not have bullets in it, but I'd have to fire it anyway. I
can't shoot the gun. I can't shoot the gun," Lindecrantz told the judge during
court proceedings, according to the Washington Post.
Mennonites are conscientious objectors to all forms of violence, including the
death penalty. During legal proceedings this week, the local Denver Mennonite
communities filled the courtroom in solidarity with Lindecrantz.
"For the court to imprison her until she is broken, until her will is broken,
and she abandons her faith and her view that she cannot participate in
state-sanctioned killing is an abomination," said Mari Newman, Lindecrantz's
attorney during a news conference.
Colorado bishops urged the court to respect Lindecrantz' religious objections,
stressing that she should not be forced into participating in a proceeding that
is contrary to her beliefs.
"As a country and a state, we have long recognized the social value of
genuinely accommodating deeply held religious convictions and this should hold
true in the case of Greta Lindecrantz," the bishops said.
"It is our hope that Ms. Lindecrantz's right to religious freedom will be
respected and upheld and that she will not continue to be coerced into behaving
in ways that are contrary to her faith or into accepting an ideology that is at
odds with her beliefs."
(source: cruxnow.com)
UTAH:
Arguments for the death penalty are fundamentally flawed
As Utahns move toward repeal of the death penalty, proponents of state
executions continue to offer 2 fundamentally flawed justifications for
maintaining death sentences: that it is the only way to bring justice to
victims and it is necessary to protect the public.
Sadly, prosecutors are at the forefront of trying to persuade grieving families
that the prolonged suffering that follows a decision to pursue a death sentence
is required to bring a just resolution to the case. In truth, there is no
justice in a death sentence, only more death.
Once execution is on the table, the defendant is guaranteed the highest level
of due process. That process will play out for decades due to the
constitutional requirements imposed before a state can take a life. During the
years of appeals, the perpetrator will become a regular feature in news stories
nationwide, while the victim becomes one of many details. Meanwhile, the
family???s understandable resentment and rage will continue to be dredged up as
they wait impotently for "justice to be served."
What prosecutors fail to realize is that no judge or jury can serve justice by
destroying life. No life is disposable, no taking of human life is just. As
heinous as a person's actions may be, the sanctity of their lives remains; a
sanctity the state must protect for all, less life become a bargaining chip,
which it has with death penalty cases.
Prosecutors have testified in the past that they want death sentences as a
tool. Human life should not be a "tool." Prosecutors who rely on hitting a
defendant over the head with a death sentence to get a plea bargain need better
evidence or training, not the "tool" of a threatened execution.
Similarly, the idea that a death sentence is necessary to protect public safety
is a convenient fiction. In the United States, we have highly developed prison
systems that are quite capable of protecting the public without killing the
inmates. (Though private prisons are less effective at this, Utah, thankfully,
has no such prisons.) Violence in prison, corrections officials agree, can be
addressed with proper staffing and training. If legislators are concerned about
inmates committing murder in prison, providing funding for much-needed officers
would be far more effective than keeping the death penalty.
We cannot overcome crime by executing criminals. We cannot restore the lives of
victims by ending the lives of their murderers, though we can cause the
families more damage by dragging out the case, as the death penalty does.
The Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City encourages state lawmakers to promote a
justice system that provides restitution for victims, security for society and
the opportunity for rehabilitation to the convicted. We urge the state to
remember that the death penalty is not a simple cost-benefit analysis, it is a
calculated decision to destroy a human life. The state should not make such
decisions.
We prayerfully, humbly, respectfully, and with great hope that Utah will lead
by example, ask our state legislators to repeal the death penalty.
(source: Commentary; Jean Hill is government liaison for the Catholic Diocese
of Salt Lake City----Salt Lake tribune)
USA:
Too Old to Be Executed? Supreme Court Considers an Aging Death Row
The nation's death rows are starting to look like geriatric wards. Condemned
inmates in many states are more likely to die of natural causes than to be
executed. The rare ones who are put to death often first spend decades behind
bars, waiting.
It turns out that executing old men is not easy. In November, Ohio called off
an attempt to execute Alva Campbell, 69, after the execution team could not
find a suitable vein into which to pump lethal chemicals. The state announced
that it would try again in June 2019, by which time he would have been 71.
But Mr. Campbell suffered from what one judge called an "extraordinary list of
ailments." He used a walker, could barely breathe and relied on a colostomy
bag. He was found lifeless in his cell on Saturday, having died in the usual
way, without government assistance.
In Alabama last month, state officials called off the execution of Doyle Lee
Hamm, 61, also because they could not find a suitable vein. Mr. Hamm has at
least 2 kinds of cancer, cranial and lymphatic, and he may not have long to
live with or without the state's efforts.
Last week, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case of another Alabama inmate,
Vernon Madison, a 67-year-old man who suffers from dementia and cannot remember
the crime that sent him to death row. The court, which has barred the execution
of juvenile offenders and the intellectually disabled, is now turning its
attention to old people.
In 1985, Mr. Madison killed a police officer, Julius Schulte, who had been
trying to keep the peace between Mr. Madison and his ex-girlfriend, Cheryl
Greene, as she sought to eject him from what had been their shared home. Mr.
Madison shot Ms. Greene, too, wounding her.
Mr. Madison remembers none of this. He has suffered at least 2 severe strokes,
and he is blind and incontinent. His speech is slurred, and what he says does
not always make sense.
He has asked that his mother be told of his strokes, but his mother is dead. He
soils himself, saying "no one will let me out to use the bathroom," though
there is a toilet in his cell. He says he plans to move to Florida. He can
recite the alphabet, but only to the letter G.
Mr. Madison also insists that he "never went around killing folks."
A court-appointed psychologist found that Mr. Madison had "significant body and
cognitive decline as a result of strokes." But the psychologist testified that
Mr. Madison understood what he was accused of and how the state planned to
punish him. According to Steve Marshall, Alabama's attorney general, that is
enough.
The Supreme Court's precedents bar the execution of people who lack a "rational
understanding" of the reason they are to be put to death.
Mr. Marshall told the justices that Mr. Madison satisfied that standard. "The
ability to form a rational understanding of an event," he wrote in January in a
brief urging the justices to stay out of the case, "has very limited relation
to whether a person remembers that event."
Mr. Madison's case, which has been bouncing around the court system for more
than 30 years, has taken some unusual turns.
His 1st conviction was reversed because prosecutors violated the Constitution
by excluding all 7 potential jurors who were black. His 2nd conviction was
thrown out after prosecutors committed misconduct by using expert testimony to
tell the jury about evidence never properly introduced.
At Mr. Madison's 3rd trial, the jury voted to sentence him to life in prison.
But Judge Ferrill D. McRae, of Mobile County Circuit Court, overrode that
verdict and sentenced Mr. Madison to death.
I interviewed Judge McRae in 2011, not long before he died. I had sought him
out because he had achieved a rare distinction. He had overridden 6 jury
verdicts calling for life sentences, a state record, while never rejecting a
jury's recommendation of death.
Alabama juries are not notably squeamish about the death penalty, but Judge
McRae said they needed to be corrected when they were seized by an impulse
toward mercy. "If you didn't have something like that," he said of judicial
overrides, "a jury with no experience in other cases would be making the
ultimate decision, based on nothing."
Alabama abolished judicial overrides last year.
In 2016, Mr. Madison came very close to being put to death. A deadlocked
8-member Supreme Court refused to vacate a stay of execution issued by a
federal appeals court, with the court's 4 conservative members saying they
would have let the execution proceed. Justice Antonin Scalia had died a few
months before, leaving the Supreme Court short-handed. Had Justice Scalia
lived, Mr. Madison would almost certainly be dead by now.
The case took some additional procedural twists, and Mr. Madison returned to
the Supreme Court in January after a state court again ruled against him. The
Supreme Court stayed his execution, though the court's 3 most conservative
members - Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Neil M. Gorsuch -
said they would have let it go forward.
The case, Madison v. Alabama, No. 17-7505, will be argued in the fall, and it
will give the court a chance to consider some profound questions.
"Mr. Madison is one among a growing number of aging prisoners who remain on
death row in this country for ever longer periods of time," Justice Stephen G.
Breyer wrote in a concurring opinion when the court considered an earlier
appeal. "Given this trend, we may face ever more instances of state efforts to
execute prisoners suffering the diseases and infirmities of old age."
(source: Adam Liptak, New York Times)
******************
Life and Death Row: How the lethal injection kills----The lethal injection has
been the primary means of executing condemned Americans for decades - but its
use remains controversial
(This article contains material that some readers may find upsetting)
Support for the death penalty is at an all-time low. Britain effectively
abolished it in 1965, despite a Gallup poll at the time finding that more than
2/3 of the population still supported it. In 2015, though, nationwide approval
fell below 50% for the 1st time.
That decline is mirrored in the US. The death penalty is retained by 31
American states, but popular support has fallen to around 50% - its lowest
level since 1972 - with young people in particular less likely to support it.
Hanging was the most common form of capital punishment in the US until the
1890s. Then, the electric chair became the most widespread method. In 1982, the
1st execution by lethal injection was carried out by the state of Texas, after
which it gradually replaced the electric chair across the nation.
Today, other methods are very rarely used. Only Utah occasionally executes
individuals by firing squad - the last time was in 2010.
Perhaps surprisingly, though, there is still no consensus on the exact
combination of drugs and dosages to use for the lethal injection.
The drug midazolam - a sedative used by several states to cause unconsciousness
- has proved so controversial that, in 2017, Alabama inmate Thomas D Arthur
asked to be executed by firing squad. Arthur lodged an appeal with the Supreme
Court to postpone his execution on the basis that midazolam, 1 of the drugs in
Alabama's 3-drug lethal injection combination, could contribute to 'prolonged
torture'. The Supreme Court denied the appeal, and Arthur was executed (by
lethal injection) in May 2017.
The controversy around midazolam became particularly heated at the time of
Arkansas's 'mass executions' in April 2017. The state's plan to execute 8 men
in 11 days ultimately became the subject of the BBC Three documentary series
Life and Death Row: The Mass Execution.
In Arkansas, the lethal injection comprises 3 chemicals: midazolam, to sedate;
vecuronium bromide, to paralyse the muscles; and potassium chloride, to stop
the heart.
Each of these is delivered at a dose that could theoretically kill the inmate;
however, each drug has drawbacks. A cocktail of all 3 is used to mitigate the
other drugs' disadvantages.
At the time of execution, the inmate is strapped to a gurney, and IV tubes are
inserted into both arms.
The Arkansas procedure uses 2 IV sites. This is partly to protect against 'vein
failure'. Vein failure was cited as the reason behind the 'botched' execution
of Clayton Lockett in Oklahoma in 2014, which reportedly took 43 minutes as
Lockett 'thrashed on the gurney, writhing and groaning'.
Midazolam is the 1st of 3 drugs in the Arkansas lethal injection procedure.
It was only later that the department director revealed that the single vein
into which the drugs were being administered had 'blown'.
The 1st drug given to the inmate is midazolam, a sedative, which is
administered to render the inmate unconscious and prevent them from feeling any
suffering.
Midazolam is a benzodiazepine. At low doses it has an anti-anxiety effect. At
around 10mg, it knocks the inmate unconscious. On death row in Arkansas, the
dose is 500mg.
The drug travels up the arm via the bloodstream to the brain. Within seconds,
the inmate starts to black out.
It has been alleged, however, that some inmates who received midazolam have
appeared to regain consciousness mid-execution.
During the 2014 execution of Dennis McGuire in Ohio, which used a combination
of 10mg midazolam and 40mg hydromorphone, McGuire was seen 'gasping' for air
for 10 to 13 minutes of the 24-minute execution. There were reportedly similar
scenes during the execution of Joseph Wood in Arizona.
Following McGuire's execution, Ohio raised its dosage to 50mg of each drug for
executions.
An Associated Press reporter who witnessed the execution of Kenneth Williams in
Arkansas in April 2017 reported that Williams lurched and convulsed 20 times
after the injection of midazolam. According to the reporter, about 3 minutes
into the execution, Williams' body jerked forward "in a series of what seemed
like involuntary movements," lurching violently against the leather restraint
across his chest.
Dr Joel Zivot, an associate professor of anesthesiology and surgery at
Atlanta's Emory University, said: "It was either a seizure that was predictable
based upon Mr Williams' co-existing medical conditions, or partial paralysis in
an execution where the protocol itself was not followed. Or, more to the point,
even if the protocol was followed, the protocol was fundamentally flawed."
100mg of vecuronium bromide is administered to paralyse muscles
Williams' attorneys and the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas called
for an independent investigation. Arkansas's governor, Asa Hutchinson,
dismissed the calls.
"I think it's totally unjustified," he said. "You don't call for an independent
investigation unless there's some reason for it. Last night, one of the goals
was there not be any indications of pain by the inmate, and that's what I
believe is the case."
Separately, in a 2015 legal challenge brought by several death row inmates in
Oklahoma, numerous experts testified that midazolam has no pain-relieving
properties, and does not produce the deep, coma-like state of unconsciousness
necessary to relieve suffering.
Placing the inmate in a state of deep unconsciousness is critical because the
effects of the other drugs used in the lethal injection are believed to be
extremely unpleasant.
Once the inmate is confirmed unconscious, 100mg vecuronium bromide is
administered into their other arm.
Vecuronium bromide is used clinically in anaesthesia to paralyse the muscles -
causing them to relax - so that surgery can be performed.
Unsedated, the inmate would feel the paralysis spread limb by limb. As the lung
muscles are paralysed, the inmate would struggle to breathe. If conscious at
this stage, "you'd feel you were suffocating," Dr Stephen Morley, a forensic
toxicologist at Leicester Royal Infirmary, told BBC Three.
Potassium chloride disrupts the balance of potassium ions in the heart.
At this stage, the inmate should be fully unconscious and no longer breathing.
However, their heart may still be beating as it isn't affected by vecuronium
bromide in the same way.
To stop the heart, potassium chloride is administered directly after the
vecuronium bromide. Without proper sedation, this stage would be extremely
painful. The feeling has been likened to 'liquid fire' entering veins and
snaking towards the heart.
If the inmate is not fully paralysed, their muscles will also spasm
uncontrollably, causing them to buck on the gurney, according to Dr Morley.
This is because potassium sends signals to every muscle in the body to
contract.
When the potassium reaches the inmate's heart, it disrupts the delicate balance
of sodium and potassium ions that keep the heart beating. The inmate's heart
would begin beating irregularly - and then stop.
If the procedure goes according to plan, the inmate should be dead less than 10
minutes after the 1st drug enters their system.
If there is a problem injecting the drugs, such as a blown vein or drugs being
accidentally injected into muscle - or if the inmate regains consciousness -
the procedure is stopped, the curtain for observers is closed, and staff work
to restore the infusion site.
The prevention of unnecessary suffering is a major part of lethal injection
protocol, according to the Arkansas Lethal Injection Procedure document, which
states (in capital letters): "EVERY EFFORT WILL BE EXTENDED TO THE CONDEMNED
INMATE TO ENSURE THAT NO UNNECESSARY PAIN OR SUFFERING IS INFLICTED BY THE IV
PROCEDURE."
(source: BBC News)
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