[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----NEBRASKA
August 13 NEBRASKAimpending execution Drugmaker: No more appeals in Nebraska execution A German pharmaceutical company says it won’t ask the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene after losing an appeal in a case that threatened to block Nebraska from carrying out its first execution since 1997. Drug company Fresenius Kabi recently filed a lawsuit accusing Nebraska prison officials of improperly obtaining its drugs for lethal injections. The company said it doesn’t want its drugs used in executions and asked a federal judge to prevent the state from doing so Tuesday. The judge refused, and the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that decision Monday. An attorney for Fresenius Kabi said later Monday that the company won’t pursue an additional review with the nation’s highest court. That means Carey Dean Moore is still scheduled to be executed Tuesday for the 1979 shooting deaths of two Omaha cab drivers. (source: Associated Press) ___ 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
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----NEBRASKA
August 13 NEBRASKAimpending execution Appeals court refuses to halt Nebraska execution A federal appeals court has rejected a German pharmaceutical manufacturer's attempt to prevent Nebraska from executing a death-row inmate using drugs that the company says it produced. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday upheld a federal judge's ruling to let the execution of inmate Carey Dean Moore proceed as planned Tuesday. The drug company, Fresenius Kabi, contends in a lawsuit that using the drugs for a lethal injection would harm its reputation. But the appeals court agreed with U.S. District Court Judge Richard Kopf's conclusion that postponing the execution would frustrate the state's interest in carrying out the execution. Kopf said granting the drug company’s request would “frustrate the will of the people,” referring to the 61 percent of Nebraska voters who chose to reinstate capital punishment in 2016 after lawmakers abolished it. Moore, who was convicted of killing two cab drivers five days apart in 1979, has stopped fighting the state’s efforts to execute him. “I will not allow the plaintiff to frustrate the wishes of Mr. Moore and the laws of the state of Nebraska,” Kopf said during the hearing. Attorneys for the drug company, Fresenius Kabi, filed a lawsuit last week arguing that state officials improperly obtained at least one of the company’s drugs. In Nevada, a judge indefinitely postponed an execution last month after drugmaker Alvogen filed a similar lawsuit over one of its products. Moore is scheduled to be executed with a combination of four drugs: the sedative diazepam, commonly known as Valium, to render him unconscious; fentanyl citrate, a powerful synthetic opioid; cisatracurium besylate to induce paralysis and halt his breathing; and potassium chloride to stop his heart. Fresenius Kabi argues that it manufactured the state’s supply of potassium chloride and possibly the cisatracurium. Nebraska state officials have refused to identify the source of their execution drugs, but Fresenius Kabi alleges the state’s supply of potassium chloride is stored in 30 milliliter bottles. Fresenius Kabi said it’s the only company that packages the drug in vials of that size. Fresenius Kabi said Nebraska’s use of its drugs would damage its reputation and business relationships. The company said it takes no position on capital punishment, but strongly opposes the use of its products for use in executions. No other public evidence has surfaced to confirm the supplier’s identity. A state judge in Nebraska ordered prison officials in June to release documents that might reveal the source of the drugs, but the state has appealed that ruling. State attorneys deny Fresenius Kabi’s allegation that prison officials obtained the drugs illicitly. Assistant Attorney General Ryan Post said in court Friday that the state’s interest in carrying out the execution outweighs the company’s desire to protect its reputation. Post noted that the state still has not revealed its supplier, arguing that Fresenius Kabi could have remained anonymous by not filing the lawsuit. “The plaintiff stepped right into the spotlight, and they’re complaining about it,” he said. The state also notes that one of its protocol drugs expires on Aug. 31, which will leave the state with no way to carry out future executions. In an affidavit filed Thursday, Department of Correctional Services Director Scott Frakes said he contacted at least 40 suppliers in six states and found only one that agreed to provide his agency with the necessary drugs. But that supplier is unwilling to sell them any more of its drugs, Frakes said. (source: WOWT news) * Nebraska set for execution after about-face on death penalty 3 years after Nebraska lawmakers voted to abolish capital punishment, the state is preparing to carry out its first execution since 1997 on Tuesday in a bewildering about-face driven largely by the state's Republican governor. Gov. Pete Ricketts, a wealthy former businessman, helped finance a ballot drive to reinstate capital punishment after lawmakers overrode his veto in 2015. His administration then changed Nebraska's lethal injection protocol to overcome challenges in purchasing the necessary drugs and withheld records previously considered public that would identify the state's supplier. "It wouldn't even have made it to the ballot without him," said Matt Maly, an anti-death penalty activist who has joined daily protests outside the governor's residence. "To get something on the ballot takes a lot of money and resources. Nobody else would have cared enough." Ricketts argued last week that he was fulfilling the wishes of voters who opted to overturn the Legislature's decision in the 2016 general election. He said he views capital punishment as a matter of protecting public safety and an important tool for law enforc
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
August 13 IRAN: Iran Arrests 67 People In Drive Against Financial CrimThe decision comes amid a plunging national currency that has lost about 1/2 of its value in past weeks following a decision in May by U.S. President Donald Trump to leave the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and reimpose tough sanctions. Iran's judiciary says the authorities have arrested 67 people in a drive against financial crime as the country faces renewed U.S. sanctions and public outcry against widespread corruption. "67 suspects have been arrested, some of whom were released on bail, and more than 100 people including government employees and officials, as well as private employees and others have been given travel bans," judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei said in remarks carried by state television on August 12. The remarks come as a day after the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, approved a request by the judiciary to set up special courts to deal with financial crimes. Iranian media quoted Khamenei as saying in a brief statement issued on August 11 that punishments for those accused of economic corruption should be "carried out swiftly and justly." New Islamic revolutionary courts will be directed to impose maximum sentences on those "disrupting and corrupting the economy," judiciary head Sadeq Amoli Larijani had proposed in a letter to Khamenei. The request by the judiciary said the courts should be eligible to try all suspects, including "official and military" people. The sentences can include the death penalty. The decision comes amid a plunging national currency that has lost about 1/2 of its value in past weeks following a decision in May by U.S. President Donald Trump to leave the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and reimpose tough sanctions. The Central Bank of Iran and the judiciary have blamed "enemies" for the fall of the currency. The judiciary said last month that 29 people have been detained for "disturbing" the nation's economy and its "money and currency systems." (source: Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty) MALDIVES: Capital punishment talk has deterred murders, pres claims The talk of enforcing the death penalty has put a stop to gruesome and premeditated murders in the Maldives, incumbent president Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom claimed Monday. Since taking office in 2013, president Yameen has been pushing to enforce the death penalty after ending the de facto moratorium that has been in place in the country for over 6 decades. In June 2016, capital punishment regulations were amended to allow for hanging in addition to lethal injections as methods of execution. President Yameen has since been giving several dates to begin capital punishment, last of which was nearly a year ago. Despite failure to implement capital punishment, president Yameen speaking after inaugurating a water network in Thaa Atoll Thimarafushi island on Monday, insisted that premeditated and remorseless murders were unheard of in the country not so long ago. The president alleged that major crimes had spiraled out of control during the government of main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) adding that there had been around 30 recorded murders when he took office in 2013. However, major crimes including murders has since ended after his government announced plans to enforce the death penalty. "I promised to re-introduce capital punishment because my government cannot accept people killing each other. Since we made the announcement it has acted as a deterrent. The time of gruesome murders and assaults are in the past," he added. President Yameen's claims came after renowned local blogger Yameen Rasheed had been hacked to death in the stairwell of his own home in April last year, while another young man was stabbed to death inside a motorbike showroom last July. (source: avas.mv) BANGLADESH: Death penalty for 5 Patuakhali war criminals The International Crimes Tribunal has handed down the death penalty to 5 men from Patuakhali for committing crimes against humanity during the Liberation War in 1971. A 3-member bench of the tribunal headed by Justice Md Shahinur Islam handed down the verdict on Monday, reports UNB. The convicts are: Ishak Shikdar, Solaiman Mridha, Abdus Sattar Peda, Abdul Goni Hawladar, and Awal alias Moulvi Abdul Awal. All of them hail from different villages in sadar upazila. The charges of murder and rape against the 5 war criminals were proved by the tribunal. Earlier on Sunday, the tribunal set Monday to deliver the verdict. On May 30, the tribunal kept the verdict pending after the concluding arguments from both sides of the case. Previously, on November 19, the tribunal took into cognizance the charges against them for their involvement in the crimes against humanity. On September 6, 2015, police arrested 5 accused war criminals, from different parts of sadar upazila i
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, MISS., IND., TENN., NEB., USA
August 13 AUGUST 13, 2018: TEXAS: Closing arguments expected Monday in 'honor killings' death penalty trial Prosecutors Monday are expected to weave together more than 20 years of bad acts to convince a Harris County jury to sentence a Jordanian immigrant to death for killing his son-in-law and orchestrating the slaying of his daughter's close friend in what prosecutors said were "honor killings." Defense lawyers for 60-year-old Ali Mahwood-Awad Irsan likely will try to paint a picture of a devoted and traditional Muslim father caught between the culture of his homeland where patriarchs control their offspring and the modern world. Both sides will have about an hour to give closing arguments Monday capping an 8-week capital murder trial in state District Judge Jan Krocker's court. Defense attorney Allen Tanner opened the trial 2 months ago by saying it was a "chaotic" case and jurors would have a hard time figuring out what happened during 2 slayings in 2012. After 5 weeks of testimony, the jury took less than an hour to convict Irsan of the double homicide of his 28-year-old son-in-law, Coty Beavers, in November 2012, and Gelareh Bagherzadeh, an Iranian activist who was a close friend of Irsan's daughter, 11 months earlier. The same jury then spent 2 weeks listening to testimony to determine whether Irsan should be sentenced to death or life without parole. They heard that Irsan also killed a different son-in-law in 2012. Irsan testified that it was in self-defense. Other family members said he blasted the young man in the chest with a shotgun because he did not approve of the marriage, then planted a pistol on the body. To sentence Irsan to die, jurors will have to decide that he would be a "future danger" to society. (source: Houston Chronicle) MISSISSIPPI: Mississippi man who hid bodies in Russell Co. sentenced after death penalty voided A man whose death sentence was overturned in 2014 has been resentenced to life in prison. State prison records show 44-year-old Roger Gillett was resentenced in July. Gillett and then-girlfriend Lisa Jo Chamberlin were convicted of killing Gillett's cousin and the cousin's girlfriend in 2004 because they wouldn't open a safe. Dismembered bodies of Vernon Hulett and Linda Heintzelman were found stuffed in a freezer on a farm near Russell, Kansas. The Mississippi Supreme Court voided Gillett's death sentence, finding jurors wrongly considered Gillett's attempted escape from a Kansas jail. Forrest County District Attorney Patricia Burchell consulted victim families before deciding against the death penalty. Chamberlin's death sentence was reinstated in March after a federal appeals court dismissed accusations of racial bias in jury selection. (source: Associated Press) INDIANA: Man rapes, kills, eats girlfriend's dead body An Indiana man Joseph Oberhansley accused of raping, killing and eating parts of his ex-girlfriend???s dead body is now mentally competent to stand trial, and is ready to tell the court all he knows about the incident, a state psychiatrist says. Fox News reports that the 35-year-old Oberhansley, of Jeffersonville, U.S., has been committed at the Logansport State Hospital since October 2017, when a judge ruled that he wasn't competent to stand trial for the 2014 killing of girlfriend Tammy Jo Blanton. Prosecutors alleged that Oberhansley broke into the Jeffersonville home of Blanton in September 2014, and raped her, fatally stabbed her and ate parts of her body. "This matter has been going on for 4 years now, and it's high time that the victim's family saw justice done," Clark County Prosecuting Attorney Jeremy Mull told the Courier Journal after the hearing. The letter from the psychiatrist filed with Clark County Circuit Court noted that Oberhansley's competency has been restored since he was committed there last October to undergo competency restoration. In some of his early court appearances after his arrest, Obserhansley had outbursts in court and said his name was Zeus, WAVE3 reported. Oberhansley's attorneys requested in court Thursday to have a month to talk with him and form an opinion on his competency. During the hearing, Oberhansley spoke up, telling the judge he needed to fire his attorneys, according to the Courier Journal. "They're trying to control my thoughts," he said in court; they're trying to control my mind." Judge Vicki Carmichael told him he needed to work with his attorneys, and scheduled another hearing on Sept. 21 to discuss the matter. Prosecutors have previously said they will seek the death penalty for Blanton's killing. Before his arrest in 2015, Oberhansley was free on parole for a previous killing when he was a teenager, according to WAVE3. (source: vanguardngr.com) TENNESSEE: America Has Stopped Being a Civilized NationIn 1985, Billy Ray Irick committed a hideous crime in Tennessee. Last
