[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., GA., FLA., MISS., OHIO
Oct. 8 TEXASimpending execution Judge rejects killer's bid to halt execution over drug A Houston federal judge has a rejected a Lubbock killer's bid to stop his pending execution by claiming that the state's planned use of a lethal drug purchased from a Woodlands compounding pharmacy could inflict constitutionally unacceptable pain. U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes turned aside Michael Yowell's claims, noting that, while people of goodwill can debate death as a penalty ... the death penalty is consitutional. Yowell, 43, is scheduled to be put to death Wednesday for the May 1998 murder of his mother, father and grandmother. He had sought an emergency stay to allow examination of whether the use of pentobarbital purchased from Woodlands Compounding Pharmacy would be cruel and unusual. The Associated Press reported the state purchased the drug from the area pharmacy after exhausting its supply with September executions. Prison spokesman Jason Clark Monday confirmed his agency had purchased eight 2.5-gram vials of the drug, which frequently is used to euthanize cats and dogs. Each execution requires 5 grams of the drug, Clark said. Clark did not immediately respond to a question concerning whether the state would return the lethal drug as requested by pharmacy owner Jasper Lovoi, who could not be reached for comment. In a letter to state officials dated Oct. 4, the pharmacy objected that its name had been made public and asked that the pentobarbital be returned. Yowell was joined by condemned killers Thomas Whitaker and Perry Williams in seeking a halt of executions using the newly acquired drug. Yowell was sentenced to die for strangling his mother and fatally shooting his father before setting the family home on fire. His grandmother later died of injuries suffered in the blaze. Whitaker, 33, was sentenced to die for a 2003 Fort Bend County double murder; Williams, 32, for a 2000 abduction and murder. In another setback for Yowell, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected his 11th-hour appeal without comment. (source: Houston Chronicle) *** Texas inmate to die this week loses federal appeal The U.S. Supreme Court refused Monday an appeal from a Texas death row inmate set for execution this week for killing his parents in Lubbock 15 years ago. Michael Yowell, 43, is set for lethal injection Wednesday in Huntsville. Attorneys unsuccessfully argued Yowell had poor legal help during his trial and in early appeals of his conviction and death sentence. Yowell was convicted and condemned for the deaths of his father, John, 55, and mother Carol, 53, whose bodies were found in the rubble of their home after an explosion and fire in May 1998. His mother had been strangled and his father was shot. Yowell's 89-year-old grandmother suffered serious injuries in the blast and fire and died two weeks later. Yowell confessed to the slayings, saying he needed money to support his $200-a-day drug habit. Prosecutors said he killed his parents, opened a natural gas valve and fled the house. It eventually blew up. Attorneys also tried to halt the scheduled lethal injection with a civil lawsuit involving Yowell and two other death row prisoners. A federal district judge in Houston rejected the suit on Saturday and a lawyer in the case said Monday she would appeal to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The prisoners challenged the state's use in executions of pentobarbital obtained from a compounding pharmacy not subjected to usual federal scrutiny, arguing the drug adds an unacceptable risk of pain, suffering and harm. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice has turned to a compounding pharmacy, which custom makes drugs, because its previous supply of the sedative expired last month. Several companies have been refusing to sell their products for use in executions or have bowed to pressure from capital punishment opponents, leading to a drug shortage in death penalty states and forcing states to switch lethal drugs or use compounding pharmacies. Our base line contention is we, the public, have to be concerned about transparency and accountability by a state agency that's carrying out the gravest of all possible duties, an attorney for the inmates, Maurie Levin, said Monday. Texans may not like death row inmates demanding constitutional process ... but if we don't enforce them here, just because we don't like the plaintiff, then what's the next place? Court filings in the lawsuit showed the owner of a suburban Houston compounding pharmacy that's the source of the prison agency's newly purchased pentobarbital supply is asking to have the drugs returned, saying the sale placed him in the middle of a firestorm of the inmates' lawsuit, media inquiries and hate mail and messages. State attorneys said prison officials did nothing improper. Yowell's arguments try to create controversy where none exists, said
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----ILL., NEB., COLO., NMEX., ARIZ., CALIF., USA
Oct. 8 ILLINOIS: Police Union Wants Alvarez To Review Landmark 1982 Double Murder Conviction The Chicago police union has asked the Cook County State's Attorney's office to examine a milestone double murder case, to see if the right man is behind bars. WBBM Newsradio's Steve Miller reports Anthony Porter had been on death row after confessing to a 1982 double murder, and then freed in 1999, when another man confessed to the crime. Porter's case was a key factor in former Gov. George Ryan's decision to enact a moratorium on capital punishment in 2000, and clear out death row 3 years later. That decision ultimately led to Illinois abolishing the death penalty in 2011. The other man who confessed to the murders that put Porter on death row was Alstory Simon, who has since said his own confession - to students and a private investigator with Northwestern University's Innocence Project - was coerced. Witnesses also have since recanted. If this was a wrongful conviction where a police officer was accused of coercing a confession from somebody, it would be opened in a heartbeat, said Chicago Fraternal Order of Police spokesman Pat Camden. Camden said the FOP wants Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez to take a new look into the case. The bottom line becomes - justice needs to be served, Camden said. The FOP sent a letter to Alvarez, saying many police officers... believe (Alstory) Simon is the wrong offender. His case needs to be reexamined, Camden said. They've done it over and over again on cases of alleged brutality and torture. They need to be able to do it in this case as well. (source: CBS news) NEBRASKA: Heineman calls for reforms to Nebraska's 'Good Time' la Governor Dave Heineman is calling for reforms to the state's good time law, and is remaining tough on his stance in favor of the death penalty. Governor Heineman says the state needs a renewed focus on the death penalty, and to not do away with it as some senators are suggesting. Heineman says the death penalty is a just and appropriate in some violent cases, and needs to stay. The Governor is also calling for a reform to Nebraska's good time law-he says violent offenders need to earn their good time, not just have it granted. Right now, if you're a violent offender, the moment you walk into prison, you automatically receive it. You should have to earn it, Heineman said. For non-violent offenders I think we should proceed the way we are, but I think most Nebraskans understand that for a violent criminal they need to earn good time, it should be given to them automatically. Last month, Senator Mello asked the governor to make corrections to the state's correctional department. (source: KOTA Territory News) COLORADO: 6,000 to be called for Aurora theater shooting jury poolSuspect James Holmes' death penalty trial is expected to last three months after weeks of jury selection. Court officials plan to call 6,000 prospective jurors in the monthslong death penalty trial of Aurora movie theater shooting suspect James Holmes. Holmes has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity in the face of 12 murder counts from the summer 2012 shooting, and faces execution if jurors convict him and then decide to apply the death penalty. In a court hearing Monday, Holmes sat stoically in a red jail jumpsuit as the judge, prosecutors and defense attorneys discussed logistics for the upcoming trial. His dark brown hair slicked back on his head, an unshaven Holmes also showed no reaction as officials from the state mental hospital handed over sealed envelopes containing mental health records. Holmes this summer was examined by state psychiatrists, whose reports are being kept secret except from his defense team and prosecutors. Officials also turned over mental-health records from the University of Colorado, from which he was withdrawing when the shootings occurred. Prospective jurors will be quizzed extensively about their perspectives on mental illness and the death penalty. It's no secret that's what this trial is going to be about, Holmes' defense attorney Dan King said during court. Judge Carlos Samour Jr. said the jury that will decide Holmes' fate will be 12 members - the standard number - with 12 alternates, to ensure an adequate number should any jurors be excused during the trial. Prosecutors on Monday said they expect the case to last at least 3 months, and that's only after likely weeks of jury selection. Acknowledging the disruption it will cause, Samour said the unusually large pool is necessary to ensure Holmes gets a fair trial: The last thing we want to do is not have enough prospective jurors. Prosecutor Karen Pearson argued that unusually extensive questioning of prospective jurors is needed to ferret ... out people who want to serve on the jury for personal or publicity reasons. There are people who may want to serve on this
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
Oct. 8 CHINA: Beijing Baby Killer Appeals for Light Sentence A man who killed a 2-year-old girl by throwing her to the ground, lodged an appeal through his attorney on Tuesday after receiving death penalty about 2 weeks ago. Han Lei, 39, grabbed a girl from her pram and hurled her to the ground in Daxing District of Beijing on July 23 after an argument with her mother over a parking space. Han was sentenced to death by Beijing No.1 Intermediate People's Court on September 25, on charges of intentional homicide. Han appealed to have his crime reduced to involuntary homicide on the grounds that he didn't know it was a baby carriage or that he was hurling a baby. According to China's law, involuntary homicide will be sentenced to 3 to 7 years' imprisonment, while intentional homicide will be given the death penalty. (source: CRI English) PAKISTAN: Government scraps plan to reinstate death penalty Pakistan has scrapped plans to reinstate the death penalty, the government said on Thursday, following threats by Taliban militants to step up attacks in retaliation. A 2008 moratorium on capital punishment imposed by Pakistan's previous government expired on June 30 and the country had been due to execute 2 jailed militants in August - a plan described by the Pakistani Taliban as an act of war. Pakistan has decided to continue with the moratorium on capital punishment since the government is aware of its international commitments and is following them, Omar Hamid Khan, an interior ministry spokesman, said. The new government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif originally said it wanted to reinstate the death penalty in a bid to crack down on criminals and Islamist militants in a move strongly criticised by international human rights groups. Up to 8,000 people languish on death row in dozens of Pakistan's overcrowded and violent jails. In August, the government had decided to hang 4 convicts on death row. They, including 2 members of the banned sectarian outfit Lashkari Jhangvi (LJ), were scheduled to be executed at the Sukkur jail and Karachi Central prison on August 20, 21 and 22. (source: Oman Tribune) SOUTH SUDAN: South Sudan Law Society Invites Media Outlets to 'World Day Against the Death Penalty' Celebration South Sudan Law Society Access to Justice for All Juba, South Sudan RE: INVITATION FOR THE MEDIA COVERAGE ON THURSDAY 10TH OF OCT-2013 South Sudan Law Society (SSLS) is cordially inviting Media Fraternity in the Country to join in Celebrating World Day against the Death Penalty; the event will take place on Thursday the 10th of October 2013. Time: 9:30 am to 1:00pm Venue: Dembesh Hotel -opposite Juba Stadium The main objective is to remind the governments to live up to their obligations expressed by vote in favor of the United Nations General Assembly Resolution on the moratorium on the use of death penalty in November 2012 and immediately sign the moratorium on death penalty. All Media Houses both International Media houses and South Sudan Media houses are highly invited. For more Information regarding the celebration, you can contact the Information and Communications office of South Sudan Law Society-SSLS for more directives. Your attendance will be highly appreciated. Thanks, Peter Gai Manyuon Senior Information and Communications-SSLS (source: South Sudan News Agency) INDIA: Delhi gangrape: Lawyers of 2 convicts withdraw from caseFresh production warrants against the 2 have been issued, to appear on Wednesday The Delhi High Court Tuesday issued fresh production warrants against 2 of the 4 men who have been awarded the death penalty in Dec 16, 2012 gang-rape-cum-murder and asked them to appear on Wednesday. A division bench of Justice Reva Khetrapal and Justice Pratibha Rani ordered production of two convicts - Mukesh and Pawan Gupta - after their counsel withdrew from representing them. Tihar Jail authorities were told to produce the convicts before the court Wednesday while hearing the trial court's reference for confirmation of the death penalty awarded by it to the 4 men. A 23-year-old woman was brutally gangraped on a moving bus by 6 people, including a juvenile. The accused then threw her and her male companion out of the vehicle, without clothes, to die by roadside on on the cold December night. The woman died of grave intestinal injuries Dec 29 at Singapore's Mount Elizabeth Hospital where she was airlifted for specialised treatment. 1 of the 6 accused was found dead in a cell in Delhi's Tihar Jail while the juvenile involved in the crime was Aug 31 sent by the Juvenile Justice Board to a reform home for three years, the maximum term under the juvenile law. Mukesh's counsel V.K. Anand told the bench that he can't represent his client as convict's family is interfering with his work. I have prepared the appeal, but I could not file the appeal. I want to withdraw from
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, DEL., S.C., FLA., TENN., OHIO, CALIF.
Oct. 8 TEXAS: Texas shouldn't make shady deals for death penalty drugs Texas executes more people than any other state by a wide margin - more than the next five states on that list put together. On Wednesday, Texas will add another name to the list of inmates executed, that of Michael Yowell, 43, who will be put to death for murdering his parents and grandmother. Yowell's execution is significant because, as The Associated Press reported last week, the drug used to kill him will come from a controversial new supply provided not by a major pharmaceutical company but by a small compounding pharmacy outside of Houston, raising ethical questions about the drug's quality and effectiveness. The drug, a widely-used sedative called pentobarbital, causes fatal respiratory arrest in high doses. Pentobarbital is used by several states in executions, usually as part of a 3-drug cocktail. The shortage that forced Texas to move to a compounding factory supplier has been a long time coming. In 2011, the Danish pharmaceutical company that had supplied Texas with pentobarbital announced that it would no longer sell it to anyone who used it to kill. Then, the same thing happened with sodium thiopental, another part of the 3-drug cocktail, and Texas and several other states abandoned the 3-drug protocol in favor of a straight dose of pentobarbital. But before long Texas had exhausted its supplies of pentobarbital. The last inmate to be executed in Texas with pentobarbital from a known supplier was Robert Garza, on Sept. 19 of this year. Suddenly, Texas no longer had access to its preferred method of execution. Texas, and other American death penalty states, have scrambled to find a solution to the impending shortage. At least 2 states, South Dakota and Georgia, obtained pentobarbital from compounding pharmacies, which custom-manufacture drugs and are not subject to federal regulations, before Texas did. After the news broke that Georgia had done so, that state passed a new law - not to prevent the state from making such purchases, but to ensure that they wouldn't have to disclose it when they did. Georgia's 1st inmate scheduled to be executed with the new pentobarbital supply challenged this law in July, resulting in his execution being put on hold. When, on Oct. 2, the The Associated Press obtained documents from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice showing that Texas, too, had bought additional pentobarbital from a compounding pharmacy, Yowell attempted in vain to delay his execution by requesting an injunction from a federal district judge, on the grounds that the new drugs were not federally regulated and could constitute cruel and unusual punishment. Two other death row inmates have made the same appeal. On Friday, 2 days before Yowell's scheduled execution, the case took an even more startling turn: Jasper Lovoi, the owner of The Woodlands Compounding Pharmacy which supplied the drug, sent a letter to the TDCJ demanding that they return the pentobarbital he had sold them in exchange for a refund after he attracted a firestorm of negative attention when the AP broke the story. Lovoi wrote that he had been assured that the transaction would be kept on the 'down low' and that it was unlikely that it would be discovered that [his] pharmacy provided these drugs. The TDCJ refused to return the pentobarbital, and barring new developments, it will execute Yowell on schedule Wednesday evening. This case shows 2 things to great effect. Firstly, compounding pharmacies must be brought under greater regulation. This isn't just for the benefit of death row prisoners; in 2012, a deadly 20-state meningitis outbreak was traced to a compounding pharmacy in Massachusetts that produced drugs under unsanitary conditions. Fortunately, a bill has been introduced in Congress that would bring compounding pharmacies, and the 4 billion prescriptions they make every year, under the regulation of the Food and Drug Administration. Secondly, greater transparency must be applied to Texas' application of the death penalty. The secrecy with which the TDCJ made this shady back-door deal shows that Texas is willing to go to any length to continue with its schedule executions. It should go without saying that out of all the things the government should never keep on the down low, buying drugs to kill people with should be near the top of the list. Right now, our state is first in the nation in executing prisoners. We'd rather be 1st in the nation in protecting their basic human rights. (source: The (Univ. Texas) Daily Texan) DELAWARE: Dead Man Walking author takes on Delaware death penalty repeal A bill to repeal Delaware's death penalty made major progress in the state legislature earlier this year and supporters believe the momentum will continue again in 2014. Delaware Repeal Project, a coalition made up of more than 20 partners from across the
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
Oct. 8 IRAN: Iran Should Halt Executions as Rate of Hangings Accelerates The Iranian authorities should impose an immediate moratorium on executions in Iran given the alarming rise in the use of the death penalty in recent weeks, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran and the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center said today. As World Day Against the Death Penalty approaches on October 10, the Judiciary should review the sentencing guidelines that allow for the use of capital punishment, and revise them in accordance with international standards, the human rights organizations added. In the 2 weeks between September 11 and September 25, Iranian officials hanged a record 50 individuals, primarily for drug-related offenses. While Rouhani was promoting a softer image of Iran internationally during his visit to New York 2 weeks ago, it was business as usual on the domestic front with scores of prisoners put to death following unfair trials, said Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. Since Rouhani's inauguration, the increasing number of prisoners being sent to the gallows is indefensible, he added. The increase in execution numbers comes at a time when the release of several well-known political prisoners has raised hopes for substantive human rights reform in Iran. Iranian president Hassan Rouhani's visit to the UN General Assembly in New York and his diplomatic overtures aimed at ending tensions related to Iran's nuclear dossier have been widely seen as a new, more conciliatory phase in relations between Iran and the international community. Yet while Rouhani was elected on promises of change and human rights reforms, there have been at least 125 executions since his inauguration on August 4, with dozens of other prisoners sentenced to death or facing imminent execution. Iran carries out more executions per capita annually than any other country in the world. So far in 2013, Iran has executed at least 402 individuals. It also carries out many of these executions in public, with 53 such public executions in 2013. UN experts and other governments have repeatedly voiced concern over Iran's use of the death penalty in drug-related convictions. Under international law, the use of the death penalty is restricted to only the most serious crimes, and the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions has explicitly held that drug-related crimes do not meet this criterion. Yet drug offenders are routinely sentenced to death and executed in Iran. In the past month alone, 25 out of the total 55 individuals executed were convicted of drug-related offenses. United Nations experts have called on Iranian authorities to impose a moratorium on the death penalty. There are also serious concerns about the legal rights afforded to defendants in death penalty cases. Many defendants are denied due process and do not have adequate access to legal counsel. Additionally, evidentiary standards in these trials, especially in cases deemed security crimes by the Iranian Judiciary, fall well below international norms. While the executive branch does not have direct control over executions or the prison system, recent developments - including the release of a few prominent political prisoners in advance of Rouhani's visit to the UN - suggest that Iran's Judiciary supports the new president's diplomatic endeavors, at least in part. Yet the accelerating pace of executions over the past month indicates that Iran's Judiciary has not initiated any broad review of domestic policy since Rouhani's election. In addition to the high numbers of individuals put to death for drug-related offenses, there is an on-going concern that the death penalty continues to be used as a tool to stifle political dissent, especially against ethnic minorities, such as in the case of 6 Kurdish Sunni activists and four Arab-Iranian men whose death sentences were recently upheld by Iran's Supreme Court and who currently face imminent execution. On September 19, 2013, Mowlana Abdulhamid, the Sunni Friday prayer leader, wrote a letter to Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, calling for a halt to the execution of another 26 Sunni Kurdish-Iranian young men on death row at Karaj's Rajaee Shahr prison. The rapid pace of executions over the past month shows that while talk of human rights reforms has intensified with the release of high-profile political prisoners and promises for more pardons, there is still a long way to go in pushing change on the margins of society, said Gissou Nia, executive director of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center. The seeming trend for reform has yet to extend to Iran's liberal application of the death penalty, which disproportionately affects ethnic minorities and the poor. (source: Iran Human Rights) ___
