[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, VA., FLA., OHIO
Oct. 24 TEXAS: Texas execution drug shipment seized by federal authorities The U.S. Food and Drug Administration intercepted an international shipment of an unapproved lethal injection drug called sodium thiopental that was ordered by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, a federal official said Friday. The shipment originated in India in July, according to the online news site Buzzfeed, which first reported the seized shipment. "FDA has detained and is holding shipments of sodium thiopental that the state correctional facilities in Arizona and Texas attempted to import into the United States," FDA spokesman Jeff Ventura said. "Courts have concluded that sodium thiopental for the injection in humans is an unapproved drug and may not be imported into the country for this purpose." But Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jason Clark said that state officials had received federal clearance to import the drug. "The Texas Department of Criminal Justice obtained an import license from the Drug Enforcement Administration prior to the importation," Clark said. "In accordance with federal law and prior to shipment of the drug, TDCJ filed notice with the DEA of the anticipated shipment." Clark said the state acquired the license on Jan. 21 and notified the DEA "more than 2 weeks prior to its arrival." He wouldn't say how much the state paid for the shipment or where it came from, citing a new state law that keeps the source of execution drugs secret. Sodium thiopental is an anesthetic that had been used in conjunction with 2 other drugs to perform lethal injections in Texas. Death penalty states have struggled to find new suppliers of execution drugs amid a nationwide shortage. Texas stopped using sodium thiopental in 2011 because it couldn't identify a supplier, and switched to pentobarbital and other drugs. The state has been using pentobarbital alone since 2012. Clark wouldn't say whether Texas was considering using a different execution drug but said there was enough pentobarbital to execute all 253 inmates on death row. In 2013, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., ruled that the FDA could no longer allow the importation of sodium thiopental because the drug lacks FDA approval. The seized shipment highlights a regulatory overlap between the FDA and DEA. The FDA regulates prescription and nonprescription drugs - including sodium thiopental. But the drug is also a Schedule III controlled substance, which falls under DEA jurisdiction. DEA spokeswoman Barbara Carreno said it is possible that Texas could have obtained a permit to import the drug despite the FDA prohibiting the drug. The news of the shipment has worried death penalty opponents, who cite concerns about the secrecy surrounding the state's lethal injection program. "It shouts for the need for transparency," said Maurie Levin, 1 of the lawyers representing complainants in a federal lethal injection case in Houston. "Nobody knew that Texas was attempting to obtain sodium thiopental." A new law that went into effect in September allows state prison officials to keep confidential the names of pharmacies or companies that sell execution drugs to Texas. The Texas House sponsor of the bill, Rep. John Smithee, R-Amarillo, said secrecy was needed to protect pharmacies from retaliation, but Democrats argued that the protection is unnecessary because there have been no proven cases of such threats. Condemned inmates and defense lawyers can still learn when the drug was purchased, when it expires and results of lab tests on the drug's potency and purity. (source: Austin American-Statesman) VIRGINIA: Confounding case: Amid court pleas, execution was kept on schedule His crimes were horrific and there was no hint of innocence or remorse. Alfredo Prieto had been denied clemency and his appeals turned down before his last words Oct. 1 at at 9:08 p.m.: "Get this over with." The commonwealth of Virginia complied and Prieto was pronounced dead at 9:17 p.m. in an execution that is apparently the 1st in modern state history carried out while a request for a stay was pending in the U.S. Supreme Court. Gov. Terry McAuliffe's office was notified at 9:05 p.m. that the stay application was being filed and he could have, as have other governors, delayed proceedings until the Supreme Court ruled - a red telephone receiver held by a prison official inside the execution chamber kept open a direct line to the governor's office. McAuliffe, under no obligation to hold things up, did not. Barry A. Weinstein, a former director of the Virginia Capital Representation Resource Center, conceded Prieto's chances for a stay appeared slim and agreed that without a stay in place the execution could proceed. Nevertheless, he was surprised the governor did not wait. "Let's assume the Supreme Court would have ruled in favor of Prieto's stay and he had been executed -
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----MO., KAN., NEB., NEV., CALIF., USA
Oct. 24 MISSOURIimpending execution Remnants of brain tumor could stop Ernest Johnson execution The remains of a brain tumor may halt the execution of a convicted Columbia killer. Attorneys for Ernest Lee Johnson filed the complaint Thursday in Missouri's federal Western District Court to stop the state's lethal injection scheduled for November 3. A jury convicted Johnson of killing 3 people - Fred Jones, Mary Bratcher and Mable Scruggs - at the old Casey's at the corner of Rice Road and Ballenger Lane in 1994. Johnson's case went back to the penalty phase three times since, with each jury upholding the death penalty. The new complaint, filed by Kansas City attorney Jeremy Weis, cites the risk posed by the remnants of a "parasaggital meningioma brain tumor" during lethal injection. The slow-growing tumor was found in 2008, and doctors removed the meningioma in August of that year. However, they did not remove the whole tumor, and the "significant" portion of the brain removed in surgery could cause seizures during lethal injection. Missouri uses a combination of midazolam and pentobaribital for executions. Weis said the 2 drugs "could trigger violent and uncontrollable seizures during the execution due to the existence of the meningioma, scarring and brain defect. Such violent and uncontrollable seizures will likely result in a severely painful execution." Johnson killed 3 Casey's employees in February 1994. Assistant Attorney General Gregory Goodwin filed the state's response late Friday afternoon. Goodwin leaned on Missouri's 18 "rapid and painless execution" since November 2013, calling Johnson's claim "implausible." Cecil Clayton, put to death for killing a Barry County sheriff's deputy in 1996, also asked the federal court to stop his execution in March based on a missing piece of his brain. The U.S. Supreme Court denied that request. "The execution of Clayton was rapid and painless, like the other 17 executions Missouri has carried out using Pentobarbital," Goodwin wrote. Dr. Joel Zivot, an anesthesiologist from Atlanta's Emory University, reviewed Johnson's medical records in August of this year, the complaint said. Johnson told Dr. Zivot of "recurring throbbing pain" in his head, rating the pain a "7 out of 10." Dr. Zivot also conducted the medical review for Russell Bucklew, whose Missouri execution was halted by the U.S. Supreme Court hours before it was scheduled to happen in May 2014. "Dr. Zivot opines that the administration of Midazolam and Pentobarbital have the real and significant potential of promoting a seizure," Weis' wrote. "According to Dr. Zivot, there is a significant possibility of a drug-induced seizure." (source: KMIZ news) KANSAS: Man freed from death row to speak Monday at ESU Joe D'Ambrosio is 1 of 155 innocent individuals freed from death rows nationwide since 1973. D'Ambrosio was wrongfully convicted of murder and sentenced to death in Ohio, where he spent 20 years on death row before his exoneration in 2012. Since being exonerated, D'Ambrosio has spoken out against the death penalty because of the risk of executing an innocent person. He is a member of Witness to Innocence, which is an organization "dedicated to empowering exonerated death row survivors to be the most powerful and effective voice in the struggle to end the death penalty in the United States." (www.witnesstoinnocence.org) Monday from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m., D'Ambrosio will share his story with students at the United Methodist Campus Ministry of Emporia State University, 1305 Merchant St. His talk will be followed by a Question and Answer session. (source: Emporia Gazette) NEBRASKA: There's a meanness in this world, and the death penalty won't save you from it I bet most of you know who Charlie Starkweather is, yes? For those who don't know, Starkweather murdered 10 people in a rampage that spanned the length of the state of Nebraska on into Wyoming. He was mass-murderer, a child-killer, a rapist (or at least an attempted one), and a coward. He was also the 4th-most recently executed inmate in the State of Nebraska. That was in 1959. No matter what any death penalty proponent tries to tell you, the death penalty has never really played much of a role in law-and-order in Nebraska, at least not by the numbers. I'm sure most of you are aware that nobody has been executed in the state since Robert E. Williams in 1997. You may also be aware than only 3 inmates have been executed in Nebraska since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. But do you appreciate just how infrequently the death penalty has been applied in Nebraska over the course of the lifetime of just about anybody who is reading this? 3 men have been executed in my lifetime (born in 1982). 5 men have been executed in my father's lifetime (born in 1950). And 7 men have been executed in my grandmother's lifetime (born in 1931).
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
Oct. 24 INDIA: Should discuss death penalty,timeframe for execution: Maharashtra CM Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday said with around 300 persons on the death row, we must ponder whether the capital punishment should be retained, and if yes, must determine a timeframe for its execution. Fadnavis, himself a law graduate, was speaking at a discussion on relevance of capital punishment at the State Lawyers Conference organised by the Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa which started on Saturday. Yakub Memon, the sole convict of 1993 Mumbai blasts case to be sentenced to death, was hanged at Nagpur prison in Maharashtra on July 31, 2015. "Even after the Supreme Court upholds the death punishment, it takes so many years to execute it," he said, pointing out that about 300 convicts are on the death row in the country at present. It was time we discussed whether the capital punishment is needed, and if yes, then what should be the timeframe to execute it, he added. Yakub Memon, the sole convict of 1993 Mumbai blasts case to be sentenced to death, was hanged at Nagpur prison in Maharashtra on July 31, 2015. Former Chief Justice of Orissa High court Bilal Nazki opposed the capital punishment. "Are we equipped to know who deserves death and who doesn't," Nazki asked. "When you don't know if you are going to die or not, then it's very painful," he said, adding "what does the victim get if the accused is killed". "We don't have rehabilitation policy regarding the victims of terrorism," Justice Nazki pointed out. Former Supreme Court judge VS Sirpurkar favoured continuance of death penalty. "It is a very effective deterrenceIf you take away the death sentence then the future criminals will turn this country into a jungle," he said. (soure: ibnlive.com) THAILAND: Japanese man arrested for drug, gun possession in Thailand A Japanese man has been arrested in Thailand for possessing more than 2 kilograms of an illegal stimulant drug and an unauthorized automatic gun, while three others were apprehended for trying to bribe the police into releasing him, Thai police said Saturday. Yutaka Itakura, 34, was arrested in Bangkok on Friday with around 2.3 kg of methamphetamine that he tried to sell to an undercover agent working for the police. The police also found money worth more than $30,000 in his room. He is accused of trying to bribe the police into releasing him. 3 other Japanese men were also arrested after they came to offer a bribe in exchange for Itakura's release. Itakura has been charged with possessing illicit drugs with intent to sell, selling illegal drugs, possessing an unregistered gun and trying to bribe police officers. He could face the death penalty if found guilty of the drug-related charges. He is believed to have links with a Japanese gang that runs a drug business in Thailand and is also suspected of using Thai women to transport drugs abroad. The Thai police are coordinating with their Japanese counterparts in an investigation to learn how Itakura came to possess the drugs. The four accused, aged between 34 and 50, were arrested on Friday after a tip-off that one of the group was smuggling drugs out of Thailand. "Our undercover agent bought 2.3 kg of 'ice'" from Itakura in central Bangkok, said a police statement Saturday. The 3 other Japanese nationals offered police around $28,000 to release Itakura, the statement said. Thailand is a known gateway to the lucrative Southeast Asian drugs market. Seizures of "ice," a form of methamphetamine, have quadrupled across the Asia-Pacific region over 5 years, the United Nations said in May. Much of the increase is down to an explosion in production of the usually less pure methamphetamine-laced tablets, known in parts of Asia as "yaba." (source: Japan Times) PAKISTAN: Who are we hanging? The headlines of newspapers scream that we have reached a 'shameful milestone'. We have made people march to the gallows-more than we want to count and believe that we have. Pakistan has executed more than 250 people since the lifting of the moratorium in December 2014. At the time it was a measure to combat terrorism, in wake of ghastly massacre of almost 150 people in a Peshawar school. However, that seems to be long forgotten. Now the death penalty is focusing on clearing out jails- targeting the mentally ill and physical disabled as well. The story of Abdul Basit echoes the abysmal state of Pakistan's criminal justice system and reaffirms that whilst the wealthy and influential escape through the loopholes; the poor, disabled, mentally ill, and the most vulnerable segments of Pakistan's society, is rushed to the gallows - celebrated as an indicator of its success in eradicating terrorism. The state is apathetic to the violations of their human dignity, and it has become evident in Abdul Basit's case, where despite his permanent dis
