[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
April 2 SRI LANKA: Sri Lanka Supreme Court upholds death sentence ruling for Angulana double murder convicts Sri Lanka's Supreme Court today upheld the death penalty ruling of a lower court given to the former police officers convicted of killing 2 youths in 2009. A 5-judge bench of the Supreme Court headed by Justice Shiranee Tilakawardane today dismissed the appeal filed by the 4 convicts and reaffirmed the death sentence given by the Colombo High Court. The former Officer-in-Charge of Angulana police station Inspector T.D. Newton, Police Sergeant Indrawansa Kumarasiri, Police Constables Nihal Jayarathna and Janapriya Senarathna were convicted of the murders of Dinesh Tharanga and Dhanushka Udayanga while they were in police custody. The convicted police officers have arrested the two youth over a minor offense on the night of August 12, 2009. Their bullet ridden bodies were found on the rail tracks at Angulana in Moratuwa following day. 3-judge panel of Colombo High Court convicted and passed the death sentence on the four ex-police officers on August 25, 2011. The killing of the 2 youth in Angulana, a town along the Southern coastal line of Sri Lanka resulted in a severe public outrage against the police. While reaffirming the death sentence the Supreme Court bench also ordered a letter to be sent to the Inspector General of Police commending the work of the inquiring officer, ASP Shani Abeysekera. (source: Colombo Page) ___ DeathPenalty mailing list DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty Search the Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/deathpenalty@lists.washlaw.edu/ ~~~ A free service of WashLaw http://washlaw.edu (785)670.1088 ~~~
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----OHIO, OKLA., S. DAK., WYO.
April 2 OHIO: Anti-capital punishment group's report criticizes selectiveness of Ohio death penalty law A report by an anti-death penalty group criticizes the selectiveness of Ohio's capital punishment law, saying death sentences owe as much to an individual prosecutor's philosophy as the nature of the crime. The analysis by Ohioans to Stop Executions says Cuyahoga County, with the most capital indictments in the state, once charged numerous individuals with death penalty counts each year but now charges very few. The report released Wednesday notes a similar trend in Franklin County, while pointing out that Hamilton County indicts few individuals but has a high death-sentence rate because it won't accept plea bargains in capital cases. The report also highlights the role of race, noting that 2 of every 3 Ohio death sentences since 1981 involved the killing of a white victim. (source: Associated Press) OKLAHOMA: Oklahoma to use secretly-sourced, experimental lethal injections in spite of court ruling; Would unprecedented drug cocktail constitute cruel and unusual punishment? Oklahoma revealed plans Tuesday to use an experimental mix of lethal injections from a secret source to execute two men later this month. The state plans to use midazolam, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride in the April 22 and April 29 executions of Clayton Lockett and Charles Warner. Despite a ruling last week that secrecy around Oklahoma's purchases of lethal injections is unconstitutional, the state's attorney general's office still won't identify the source of the drugs it plans to use in the upcoming executions, said Colorado Assistant Federal Public Defender Madeline Cohen, who represents Warner. Warner was convicted of raping and killing an 11-month-old child in 1997. Lockett was convicted of the 1999 murder of a 19-year-old woman, plus other crimes, including rape. Like many states, Oklahoma has been carrying out its executions - at a rate of about 4 to 5 times a year - using a 3-drug "cocktail" consisting of pentobarbital or sodium thiopental, followed by vecuronium bromide and potassium chloride. But some of those drugs have been yanked off the market by drug companies unwilling to have them used for capital punishment. European countries, which abolished the death penalty, have refused to allow exports of drugs for executions, and anti-death penalty groups in the U.S. have campaigned to expose pharmaceutical companies involved in executions. These factors have left states scrambling to find willing suppliers. As Oklahoma searched for lethal injection doses, an investigation by Katie Fretland for The Colorado Independent found that state has killed at least 9 inmates with an overdose of the 1st drug in the "cocktail", pentobarbital - which is intended to induce unconsciousness. Prison officials then injected the remaining 2 drugs into the dead bodies for "disposal purposes," according to documents. As doses for the 3-drug cocktail become increasingly scarce, Oklahoma changed its protocol late last month to allow 5 different methods of lethal injection chosen by the warden of the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, Okla. Warden Anita Trammell can choose from 4 3-drug methods or a large dose of 1 drug - pentobarbital, the anesthetic. No other state is known to have used the menu of execution options that Oklahoma officials announced Tuesday. "The new protocol raises grave concerns about its safety and efficacy," Cohen said. "This creates a serious and substantial risk that the condemned prisoner will not be adequately anaesthetized before he is injected with the paralytic, pancuronium bromide, or with potassium chloride to stop his heart, both of which indisputably will cause excruciating pain and suffering to someone who is sensate upon their administration," Cohen added. "This protocol also carries a substantial risk that the condemned prisoner will suffer a lingering and torturous death from suffocation, due to the effects of both midazolam and pancuronium bromide." Concerned about violations of 8th Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment, lawyers plan to ask for a stay of execution for Lockett and Warner as court cases continue. In March, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals granted a stay for both men, moving their executions from March 20 and 27 to April 22 and 29 because the state did not have the drugs to carry out the executions. Lawyers want to ask for another stay. Last week, an Oklahoma judge ruled that the state law concealing the source of lethal injection drugs is unconstitutional. Exhibits in that proceeding included documents uncovered in The Colorado Independent's investigation. The state is appealing the judge's ruling. It continues refusing to discloses details about where the drugs are from, citing a rule that entitles the state to a stay of the judge's ruling. Okla
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN., FLA., MISS., ARK., TENN.
April 2 TEXASstay of 2 impending executions overturned Appeals court overturns execution delay A convicted serial killer is again scheduled for execution on Thursday after a federal appeals court on Wednesday overturned 1 of 2 rulings by a Houston federal judge's ruling that blocked the executions of 2 condemned killers. Earlier Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore ordered the executions of the condemned men, who argued that the state's failure to disclose details about the drugs that will be used to kill them violated their constitutional rights. Hours later, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Gilmore's decision ordering prison officials to disclose the names of suppliers of the drug used in executions, the powerful sedative pentobarbital, among other details concerning the acquisition and testing of the drugs. The appeals courts agreed with state attorney general's office that Gilmore's order was improper and an appeal from the inmates' lawyers was a delay tactic. The appeals court but back on track the execution on Thursday of Tommy Lynn Sells. The execution of Ramiro Hernandez-Llanas is set for next week. The appeals court said it would take up Hernandez-Llanas' case at a later date.< The case is now headed to the U.S. Supreme Court. (source: Houston Chronicle) * Texas executions stayed by federal judge over state's lethal drug source; State must provide inmates with information about the source of the drugs it will use to put them to death, judge rules A federal judge in Houston has stopped 2 imminent Texas executions because state officials refused to reveal key details about the drugs to be used to put the inmates to death. District judge Vanessa Gilmore issued a temporary injunction on Wednesday ordering Texas to provide the lawyers representing inmates Tommy Sells and Ramiro Hernandez-Llanas with information about the supplier and quality of a new batch of pentobarbital, a barbiturate that is to be used in the lethal injections. Sells was scheduled to die in the Texas state penitentiary on Thursday, and Hernandez-Llanas 6 days later. Texas's previous supply of compounded pentobarbital expired on 1 April, and the state has repeatedly refused to reveal the source of its new drugs, claiming that secrecy is needed in order to protect suppliers from threats of violence and intimidation. Lawyers for the convicted killers argued that Texas's attorney general had previously ruled on several occasions that such information must be made public, and also said that failing to provide details about the origin, purity and efficiency of the drugs harmed the inmates' ability to mount a legal challenge over the possibility that they could experience an excessively painful death in violation of their constitutional right not to suffer a "cruel and unusual" punishment. In her ruling, Gilmore agreed, and instructed Texas not to execute the men until it has disclosed to the lawyers "all information regarding the procurement of the drugs Defendants intend to use to carry out Plaintiffs' executions, including information about the supplier or suppliers, any testing that has been conducted, what kind, by whom, and the unredacted results of such testing." In recent years an EU-led boycott has made it harder for states to source their execution drugs of choice, resulting in some states turning to experimental drugs and procedures to replace the sequence of three substances that was commonly used before the boycott. In its executions, Texas now employs only pentobarbital, which is often used to euthanize animals. Last year, it bought a supply of the drug from a compounding pharmacy in suburban Houston. Death penalty opponents argue that, because compounding pharmacies are not subject to federal oversight, there is a risk of impurities and inconsistencies that could make their products unreliable and cause undue, unconstitutional, of suffering. In a court filing, Texas officials argued that prior executions using pentobarbital have taken place apparently without the inmates enduring obvious pain and cited a report which says that their latest supply has been "tested by an independent laboratory and found to be 108% potent and free from contaminants". Gilmore noted in her ruling that the state withheld this information until the last minute. "Even though the report is dated March 20, 2014, Defendants have delayed the production of the report until just 2 days before the 1st scheduled execution," she wrote. "That copy, however, has been redacted to exclude important information, presumably including the source of the drugs, who performed the testing, and where it was performed." Maurie Levin and Jonathan Ross, attorneys for the two inmates, said in a statement that the order "honours and reflects the crucial importance of transparency in the execution process. We hope that the Texas Dep
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide----EU/EGYPT, KENYA, INDIA, IRAN, TANZAN., INDON., GHANA
April 2 EUROPEAN UNION/EGYPT: EU criticizes Egypt's mass death sentences Egypt's Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy faced criticism against his country for the death sentences issued to 528 people by the Egyptian Court. Fahmy spoke at the European Parliament Foreign Affairs Commission on Tuesday during his visit to Brussels. Mario David, Portuguese member of the European Parliament, asked how a presidential candidate could act as such while hundreds of people have been given a death sentence. Spanish lawmaker Jose Ignacio Salafranca said human rights should be a focus in Egypt's transition to democratic stability. However, Fahmy said the 528 people sentenced to death have not yet received their final verdict adding "the death penalty is part of our law." A parliament has to be formed in order for the law to be amended, according to Fahmy, who said his country is working on creating an open society. (source: Anadolu Agency) KENYA: TI Kenya Opposes Death Penalty Against The Corrupt Transparency International Kenya says it is opposed to plans by Kiharu Mp Irungu Kang'ata to amend the Anti Corruption and Economic Crimes Act to impose death penalty on those found guilty of corruption. TI Kenya Executive Director Samuel Kimeu has instead proposed the strengthening of justice system to ensure there are no gaps that the corrupt can use to escape justice. Kimeu has also urged the MP to drop his plans and engage the institution on how the fight against corruption should be strengthened. Kiharu MP Irungu Kang'ata had earlier on written to National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi seeking to amend section 48 of the Anti Corruption and Economic Crimes Act to have those found guilty of corruption handed the death sentence. Kiharu also indicated that the sentence should be handed to persons who are convicted of corrupt acts where the loss of public funds exceeds Sh1 billion. (source: Citizen News) INDIA: When the courts legislate and execute Our fundamental rights are the conscience of the Constitution. Every legal right stems from our ability to retain the integrity and the structure of our Constitution In 1973, a Bench comprising 13 Supreme Court judges ruled by a majority that Article 368 of the Constitution "does not enable Parliament to alter the basic structure or framework of the Constitution." The Court ruled what has come to be known as "the basic structure" doctrine - a judicial principle that the Indian Constitution has certain "basic features" that cannot be altered or destroyed through amendments by Parliament. Paramount among these are the fundamental rights guarenteed by the Constitution. Only 2 years later, the Allahabad High Court found the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi guilty of electoral malpractices. Justice Jagmohan Lal Sinha invalidated Mrs. Gandhi's win and barred her from holding elected office for 6 years. The decision caused a political crisis in India that led to the imposition of the Emergency by Mrs. Gandhi's government from 1975 to 1977. The best of times During the Emergency, Mrs. Gandhi altered the election law retroactively by the 39th amendment to the Constitution. Article 329A was inserted to void the Allahabad judgment. The retroactive, undemocratic, and politically motivated legislative enactment validated an election. The amendment secured her position and prevented her removal from Indian politics. Later the enactment was successfully challenged in the light of the 1973 ruling and Article 329A was struck down. The Judiciary curtailed autocratic politics - a stitch in time saved 9. Our fundamental rights are the conscience of the Constitution. This right, and every other legal right, stems from our ability to retain the integrity and the structure of our Constitution. There is a hard learnt, intellectual history to this legal inheritance. The principal of the basic structure of the Constitution is enshrined in Article 79 (3) of the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany. The German constitution was drafted between 1948-49, in the immediate shadow of its Nazi past. During the drafting sessions, the Weimar constitution came under immense scrutiny by German jurists and scholars, who investigated the document at great length. The Constitution's broad powers to suspend civil liberties, coupled with an insufficient system of checks and balances, presented a structural opportunity for Adolf Hitler to seize power and preside upon an authoritarian democracy. In the 19th century, there were many who mocked Montesquieu for his fear of political power and for his cautiously articulated theory of separation of powers. The doctrine of separation of powers took a particular view of men and power. It assumed that power corrupts. In the Constitutional Assembly Debates, while discussing the fundamental rights, Dr. Ambedkar expressed similar sentiments. "I myself cannot altogether omit t
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----MO., OKLA., S.DAK., ARIZ., ORE., USA
April 2 MISSOURI: Records Sought on Serial Killer's Execution Courthouse News joined a dozen other media outlets in Larry Flynt's crusade to unseal court records on the November 2013 execution of Joseph Franklin, a serial killer who shot and paralyzed Flynt. Flynt was denied the right to intervene, the court finding that Flynt had only a generalized interest in the litigation. Franklin shot Flynt, the publisher of Hustler magazine, in 1978, leaving him confined to a wheelchair. Franklin was executed by lethal injection on Nov. 20, 2013. Flynt, an opponent of the death penalty, sought to have Franklin's sentence commuted to life in prison. Franklin's execution brought scrutiny to Missouri's execution process. The state recently switched to using pentobarbital from an unidentified compounding pharmacy. Death penalty opponents argued that using improperly stored pentobarbital could create cruel and unusual punishment. Joining as plaintiffs were The Missouri Press Association, Advance Publications, the American Society of News Editors, the Association of Alternative Newsmedia, the First Amendment Coalition, The McClatchy Company, MediaNews Group dba Digital First Media, the National Press Photographers Association, The New York Times Company, the Newspaper Association of America, Politico, The Washington Post and Courthouse News. The American Civil Liberties Union filed amicus briefs on behalf of Flynt and the media and 2 watchdog groups on Monday. "Concerned citizens and the media are watchdogs of our government and often seek access to sealed court documents," said Tony Rothert, legal director of the ACLU of Missouri. "If the district court's decision is allowed to stand, it would be nearly impossible for any member of the media or the general public to challenge a decision to keep court records secret." Despite numerous legal efforts to shed light on the execution protocol, a federal appeals court ruled in January that unless a convicted murderer suggests a more humane execution, the plaintiffs are not entitled to more information. Missouri has carried out 2 more executions, even after an apothecary shop in Tulsa, Okla. stopped providing the drug under legal pressure. Starting with Franklin, Missouri has executed 5 inmates in the past 5 months. (source: Courthouse News) OKLAHOMA: Oklahoma plans to use untested 3-drug combination in 2 executions Oklahoma will use a new and untried combination of compounded drugs in the executions of 2 men, according to an email the state sent to attorneys on Tuesday. Assistant attorney general John Hadden said the state plans to employ a lethal 3-drug combination of midazolam, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride. The combination is believed never to have been tried before in US executions. The disclosure is the latest development in an ongoing series of legal challenges in several states, as lawyers for death row inmates seek to challenge the methods proposed for their executions, and the secrecy surrounding the sources of drugs. States, meanwhile, are battling shortages in the supply of drugs, after an EU-led boycott severely limited their options. In Texas, lawyers for 2 murderers on death row filed a lawsuit in a Houston federal court on Tuesday attempting to stop the inmates' imminent executions on the basis that the state department of criminal justice is refusing to reveal details about the compounded pentobarbital to be used in the 2 lethal injections. In Oklahoma, Hadden declined to reveal the source of the drugs to lawyers. He said the corrections department has purchased the drugs, and an unidentified pharmacy is holding the drugs until within 24 hours of the executions. The midazolam and pancuronium bromide is compounded, he said, and the state has ordered an analysis of the drugs. The results would be provided to the defense and redacted to conceal the identity of participants. The potassium chloride was manufactured, and the state will call for no "special testing" on it, he said. Defense attorneys have raised questions about the efficacy and purity of compounded drugs which lack federal approval. "The drugs to be used are midazolam, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride in the dosages indicated in the protocol," Hadden wrote. "Also, DOC can make additional disclosures on compounded drugs (which in this case are the midazolam and pancuronium bromide) to answer questions regarding purity, strength and competence of the pharmacy/pharmacist." An Oklahoma county district court judge ruled last week that a state law keeping the source of the drugs a secret is unconstitutional and denies the men their right to access the courts to argue against their own executions. Oklahoma plans to execute Clayton Lockett on 22 April and Charles Warner on 29 April. Both have been convicted of rape and murder. Hadden acknowledged in his email to lawyers that he w
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., MISS., LA., TENN.
April 2 TEXASimpending executions Tommy Lynn Sells' attorney tries to push execution date back Convicted killer Tommy Lynn Sells' attorney filed a suit in Houston federal court in a last attempt to block Sells' execution scheduled for Thursday. Jonathan Ross, Sells' attorney, argues that the state has refused to release details of the lethal injection drug, and that violates constitutional rights. Ross also said the information was allowed by a lower Texas court but was blocked by the Texas Supreme Court. The Texas Supreme Court wanted to put the case on the hearing schedule, but that would have been after the scheduled execution date for Sells and Ramiro Hernandez Llanas. A suit was filed on behalf of both men. Ross also asked for time to file a petition on behalf of his client, depending on what the federal judge decides. The federal court is expected to make a decision by Wednesday whether to grant the attempt to push Sells' execution date back. (source: KENS5 news) ** Texas fights disclosure of execution drug supplier's identity 2 days before Texas is set to execute its 1st inmate with a new batch of drugs, the state prison agency remained determined Tuesday to keep its supplier a secret, citing threats of violence to pharmacies that sell drugs used in lethal injections. Since obtaining a new supply of the drug pentobarbital 2 weeks ago, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice had cited unspecified security concerns in refusing to disclose the source and other details about the sedative it plans to use to put inmates to death. But in a brief filed Tuesday with the state attorney general's office, Patricia Fleming, an assistant general counsel for the Texas prison system, argued that a supplier in another state received a specific threat of physical violence. "An individual threatened to blow up a truck full of fertilizer outside a pharmacy supplying substances to be used in executions," Fleming wrote. As such, she argued, an open-records request filed by an attorney for a condemned inmate seeking the drug maker's identity should not be granted. Questions about the source of drugs used by states to carry out lethal injections have arisen in several states in recent months as numerous drug makers -- particularly in Europe, where opposition is strongest to capital punishment -- have refused to sell their products if they will be used to carry out executions. That has led several U.S. prison systems to compounding pharmacies, which are not as heavily regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as more conventional pharmacies. A batch of pentobarbital Texas purchased from such a compounding pharmacy in suburban Houston expired at the end of March. That pharmacy refused to sell the state any more drugs, citing threats it received after its name was made public. That led Texas to its new, undisclosed suppler. An attorney for inmate Ramiro Hernandez-Llanas, set to die later this month, had filed an open-records request with the Department of Criminal Justice March 11 seeking the name of that supplier. The agency had until March 25 to either provide the records, set a specific date to provide them or seek a decision from the attorney general's office that would allow it to withhold the information. In 3 past such opinions, the attorney general's office has directed the agency to release records about its lethal injection drugs. Fleming, in the request filed Tuesday, argued that circumstances have changed since 2012, the last time the attorney general's office said the information should be disclosed. "It is the (prison system's) opinion that release of the information at issue creates a risk of physical harm to pharmacy personnel and customers in and surrounding the pharmacy," she wrote. Lauren Bean, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Greg Abbott, said before receipt of Fleming's request that the office had 45 business days to reply. That timing is an issue for both Hernandez-Llanas and Tommy Lynn Sells, who is scheduled for execution on Thursday. "Even for the fastest court case you could ever imagine under the Public Information Act, it would involve weeks at least, and probably more like months before you ever get to a hearing in it," said Bill Aleshire, an Austin attorney experienced in open government issues. Unwilling to wait, attorneys for both men asked a federal court on Tuesday to either force state prison officials to disclose the drug source or delay the executions while the issue is addressed. The inmates "are entitled to discover how the state plans to put them to death," said attorneys Jonathan Ross and Maurie Levin. Last week, they won an order from a state court that directed prison officials to identify the new provider of pentobarbital, but only to attorneys for the 2 prisoners. The Texas Supreme Court put that order on hold on Friday and set a deadline
