July 31
TEXAS:
Testimony ends in death penalty appeal
Testimony has concluded in the latest appeal in the case of Micah Crofford
Brown, convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death by lethal injection.
Testimony has concluded in the latest appeal in the case of Micah Crofford
Brown, convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death by lethal injection
in connection with the 2011 shooting death of his ex-wife Stella Michelle "Doc"
Ray, a Caddo Mills Independent School District teacher.
A final decision in the case is not expected for a few more months, according
to 196th District Court Judge Andrew Bench.
Both sides rested their cases Friday in the hearing after all evidence was
presented related to Brown's latest appeal.
Bench said the attorneys will now await delivery of an official transcript of
the hearing, then they can review the transcript before presenting their "facts
and conclusions of law."
Bench said once those documents are presented to his court, he will schedule a
hearing for both sides to present their final live arguments before he makes a
ruling in the appeal.
Brown was transferred from state prison to the custody of the Hunt County
Detention Center for this latest hearing, and he remained in the jail Monday.
Brown, of Greenville, was convicted in May 2013 and sentenced to death by
lethal injection. He does not yet have an execution date scheduled.
Testimony during the trial indicated Ray was shot and killed in Greenville on
the night of July 20, 2011, as the result of a dispute with Brown concerning
the couple's 2 children.
After the conviction and death sentence were upheld by the Texas Court of
Criminal Appeals, a post-conviction writ was filed on Brown's behalf in 2015 by
the Office of Capital Writs, a state agency charged with representing
death-sentenced persons in state post-conviction habeas corpus and related
proceedings.
The 124-page document listed multiple alleged issues with Brown's conviction
and sentence, including ineffective assistance by the trial and appeals defense
attorneys, improper arguments by prosecutors during the punishment phase, and
failure to present evidence during the punishment phase that Brown suffers from
an autism spectrum disorder, a developmental disorder that affects
communication and behavior, which may have mitigated the jury's decision to
issue the death penalty.
During Brown's capital murder trial, Ray's mother testified her daughter had
worked as a teacher for the Caddo Mills ISD for 2 years, and she had just
earned her doctorate degree and was planning on taking a professorship at a
college in Marshall.
Donna Ray said her daughter was planning to stop by her residence on the night
of the murder, the day before she was to move to Marshall.
During the trial, defense attorney Toby Wilkinson stated that the shooting was
the result of a dispute between Brown and Ray concerning the couple's 2 small
children, who were inside the PT Cruiser that Ray was driving on the night she
was killed.
(source: Herald Banner)
********************
AP reporter who observed 400+ executions in Texas retires
Associated Press journalist Michael Graczyk, who witnessed and chronicled more
than 400 executions as a criminal justice reporter in Texas, will retire
Tuesday after nearly 46 years with the news service.
Graczyk, 68, may have observed more executions than any other person in the
United States since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.
Millions of readers in Texas and beyond relied on his coverage of capital
punishment in America's most active death penalty state.
He built a reputation for accuracy and fairness with death row inmates, their
families, their victims' families and their lawyers, as well as prison
officials and advocates on both sides of capital punishment. He made a point of
visiting and photographing every condemned inmate willing to be interviewed and
talking to relatives of their victims. Over time, he became widely known as an
authority on the death penalty and a witness to history.
Even after retiring, Graczyk will continue covering executions for the AP on a
freelance basis, an arrangement he suggested.
Long ago, Graczyk said, he stopped keeping count of how many executions he
observed. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice's list of media witnesses
includes his name 429 times, though that list is not exhaustive.
"It has given me a greater appreciation for life," he said. "You get a real
sense of life and how fast it can be taken."
Noreen Gillespie, the AP's deputy managing editor for U.S. news, said the
significance of Graczyk's work "can't be underestimated."
"Mike's description of what happens in an execution is how the world and most
of the country knows how that happens," she said.
Graczyk joined the AP in 1972 in Detroit, shortly after graduating from Wayne
State University. He moved to Houston in 1983 with his wife, Mary, and their 2
children.
Executions became his beat by happenstance. In 1982, Texas executed its 1st
inmate since the Supreme Court allowed states to resume capital punishment.
When the state prepared to conduct its 2nd execution in 1986, Graczyk, as the
Houston bureau manager, took the assignment.
Over time, he built a routine. He learned what to watch and listen for, and how
to spot if something was wrong. In most cases, he said, observing an execution
is "essentially watching someone go to sleep and they don't wake up."
The beat could be macabre and occasionally absurd.
In a 2013 piece to mark Texas' 500th execution since resuming capital
punishment, Graczyk recounted how one inmate called his name and said hello
when he walked into the chamber. Another inmate strapped to the gurney spit out
a handcuff key. And a third, for his last words, sang the Christmas carol
"Silent Night."
"Christmas, for me, never has been the same," Graczyk wrote.
Hundreds of media outlets counted on Graczyk to cover each execution without an
agenda.
"A lot of people do a lot of hard things in journalism, but what he's done, the
commitment he's made to see those stories through, is amazing," said Debbie
Hiott, editor of the Austin American-Statesman.
"You never saw a slant one way or the other," said Jason Clark, chief of staff
of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. "People picked up on that."
Graczyk has been asked many times whether he believes the death penalty should
be legal. He said he's a practicing Catholic and respects the church's
teachings against capital punishment, but that he has not made up his own mind.
"I'm not dodging the question," he said. "I don't know."
The job involved being more than an execution writer.
He covered hurricanes, interviewed former President George H.W. Bush several
times and had an eye for feature stories that explained Texas to the world. He
also reported on the 1998 murder of James Byrd Jr., a black man who was chained
to a pickup truck in Jasper, Texas.
In retirement, Graczyk said, he might write a book of fiction inspired by the
characters he's met. And he will keep covering executions, in part to stay
busy, but also because he still enjoys the work.
"I found just the whole idea of covering these things to lend itself to really
good stories, compelling stories," he said.
(source: gazetteextra.com)
LOUISIANA:
Edwards dodges when asked his death penalty stance
With a less-than-firm position on Louisiana's use of the death penalty, Gov.
John Bel Edwards has given his regular sparring partner, Attorney General Jeff
Landry, a foothold to needle the governor in the summer's political doldrums.
Landry, a Republican considered a possible challenger to Edwards next year,
suggests the Democratic governor's lackluster support for Louisiana's use of
capital punishment keeps Edwards from pressing to carry out Louisiana's pending
executions.
And Edwards' lukewarm response to questions about his personal position on
whether the death penalty is an appropriate form of punishment allows Landry to
continue speculating that the governor is deliberately dragging his feet on
enforcing state law.
Louisiana's last execution was in 2010. 71 inmates are on death row in the
state.
The spark for this latest Edwards/Landry feud was a federal court order this
month prohibiting Louisiana from carrying out any death sentences until
mid-2019.
The Edwards administration asked for the extension, citing trouble getting
lethal injection drugs. In response, Landry's office said it was withdrawing
from defending the corrections department against the lawsuit challenging its
lethal injection protocols.
Landry said the biggest obstacle is Edwards' "unwillingness to proceed." He's
slammed the governor on the issue in letters released to news outlets, in
interviews, and on social media.
Though reporters have continually asked, the governor won't say if he
personally supports the death penalty. He dodges when questioned about it.
Asked last week if he favored capital punishment, Edwards told reporters: "The
law of the state of Louisiana allows for the death penalty, and it prescribes a
certain method." Then, he explained: "It is not possible to carry out the death
penalty in the state of Louisiana because the drug cocktail is not available to
use."
Another reporter tried again, asking a similar question. Edwards replied: "I
will do what I am required to do as chief executive officer of the state of
Louisiana who takes an oath to the laws and to the constitution of our state."
Landry claims the governor is using the difficulty obtaining lethal injection
drugs as an excuse. He points to other states that have found ways to access
the drugs and execute prisoners. Landry said continued delays keep victims'
families from "getting justice" for horrific crimes.
Edwards administration officials said the ideas offered by Landry are
unworkable. They said if Landry felt so strongly about restarting executions in
Louisiana, he could have encouraged legislators to rewrite the laws as some
other states have done, to expand available execution methods or shield
information about the drugs they use and how they obtain them.
The governor accused Landry of trying to "score political points" by "using
victims of crime."
"The families of victims are not well-served by politicians who spout off about
this issue without real solutions," Edwards wrote the attorney general.
Landry's office said it tried to work with the Edwards administration behind
the scenes and only started hammering the governor publicly when the latest
court filing showed Edwards wasn't interested in carrying out executions.
If Edwards supported capital punishment, Landry said, he'd say so.
"The governor could put this all to bed. He could answer the question," Landry
said.
To be sure, Edwards faces competing pressure points on the issue. He comes from
a family of law enforcement officials, stretching across several generations.
He's also Catholic, and church leaders oppose the death penalty, with Pope
Francis saying it violates the Gospel.
Landry, too, is Catholic. But he's direct in his support of the death penalty.
He's sent Edwards proposed draft language that lawmakers could use to allow
Louisiana to execute people by nitrogen gas, hanging, firing squads or
electrocution.
Asked if he'd support expanding Louisiana's execution methods, Edwards said:
"I'm not inclined to go back to methods that have been discarded because
popular sentiment turned against them or maybe some methods that were deemed to
be barbaric and so forth."
"We have a law in place, and we will continue to try to search for solutions
around that law, lethal injection. But for example, hangings and firing squads?
No, I am not," the governor said.
(source: Associated Press)
************************
Louisiana's grappling with death penalty is not so much about policy as it is
posturing
Louisiana has a death penalty in principle but not in practice, as a recent
spat between Gov. John Bel Edwards and Louisiana Attorney General John Bel
Edwards has served to remind everyone.
State law authorizes execution by lethal injection, but pharmaceutical
companies refuse to sell the state the drugs needed for executions, fearing
backlash from consumers. Landry, who might challenge Edwards in the upcoming
gubernatorial election, says the governor isn't doing enough to break the
impasse that's delayed executions indefinitely. Landry is touting alternate
methods of putting prisoners to death, such as a return to hangings, firing
squads and the electric chair. That's made for vivid political theater, which
is Landry's stock in trade, but there are other factors driving delays in
executions.
Legal appeals of various sorts by death row inmates have slowed executions to a
crawl. Louisiana last executed a prisoner in 2010, and that inmate had
volunteered to be put the death. Before that 2010 execution, the last person
executed in Louisiana was in 2002.
Americans don't lightly regard the state's power to take a life, which is why
death row inmates are afforded extensive appeals. Instances of wrongfully
convicted death row inmates underscore the importance of due process under the
law.
But as a practical matter, the presence of inmates on death row for decades
after convictions of heinous crimes has made capital punishment a pretty
toothless tool in exacting punishment.
Louisiana legislators can consider changing state law to allow alternatives to
the current protocol of execution drugs, but the fact that lawmakers haven't
done so already is telling. Even in the reliably conservative halls of the
Capitol, leaders don't seem to have much stomach for discussing capital
punishment. The practice is increasingly controversial, as the refusal of Big
Pharma the supply to necessary drugs makes clear. The industry is, if nothing
else, fairly attuned to popular sentiment. Opposition to capital punishment by
mainstream institutions such as the Catholic Church, a significant force in
Louisiana, point to the political complications of the issue.
The result has been growing ambivalence about capital punishment among the
public and the politicians who serve it - a general willingness to accept the
strange prospect of a punishment loudly evoked but seldom implemented. This is
criminal justice that's not so much a policy as a posture.
Little wonder, then, that the latest debate on capital punishment has been such
an exercise in cynicism.
(source: Editorial, The Advocate)
INDIANA:
New Boone County prosecutor inherits 2 high-profile death penalty cases
Prosecutor Todd Meyer stood before a gathering of reporters after a gunman
killed Boone County Deputy Jacob Pickett as Kent Eastwood was in the wings.
Eastwood, then the county's chief deputy prosecutor, was used to standing in
the background while Meyer spoke to the cameras at news conferences like this.
But no more.
On June 25, 2 months after Meyer sought the death penalty against the suspect
in Pickett's slaying, Boone County Republicans tapped Eastwood to replace
Meyer. Meyer, a Republican, stepped down to work for Gov. Eric Holcomb in the
Department of Child Services.
The new prosecutor for suburban Boone County now inherits not just 1 but 2 of
the most high-profile murder cases pending in Central Indiana's justice system.
The choice of Eastwood made sense. He ran unopposed and won in the Boone County
Republican primary.
The general election is a formality because no Democrats have filed to run for
Boone County prosecutor. Eastwood's is the only name that will appear on the
ballot in November.
Eastwood, a 46-year-old husband and father of 3 boys, has been a deputy
prosecutor for almost 20 years.
He earned a law degree from Indiana University and cut his legal teeth in the
late 1990s working for then-Marion County Prosecutor Scott Newman. He quickly
rose from prosecuting misdemeanors and low-level felonies to winning cases
against big-time dope dealers.
Eastwood specialized in drug prosecutions and served as liaison to undercover
narcotics units from several agencies.
It was then that Eastwood said he would get calls in the middle of the night to
meet investigators at crime scenes or help file search warrants.
He enjoyed it.
"Working with law enforcement," Eastwood said, "that's what defined me as a
prosecutor and showed me that this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my
life."
He is still working with law enforcement, but the cases are much bigger now.
Pickett was the 1st Boone County officer killed in the line of duty since 1935.
Thousands attended the memorial service at a Brownsburg church. A 14-mile-long
procession of law enforcement vehicles passed through 3 counties on the day of
the funeral.
Thousands of people also lined the streets. They held signs of gratitude. One
read: "There is no better hero than you Jacob Pickett."
Eastwood now oversees the murder trial of Anthony Baumgardt, the man accused of
killing Deputy Pickett.
Baumgardt, according to court documents, was wanted on a warrant on a theft
charge when he jumped from a stolen car after fleeing police with several other
men in Lebanon on March 2.
Pickett and his K-9 partner Brik were chasing Baumgardt. Court documents say
Baumgardt shot Pickett as the deputy rounded a corner.
If convicted, Baumgardt could face the death penalty.
Another major case could lead to Eastwood asking a jury to send Zachariah B.
Wright to death row for a horrific crime.
Wright was 19 when court records say he stabbed 73-year-old Maxwell Foster to
death and assaulted and tried to set fire to Foster's 68-year-old wife, Sonja,
in Lebanon on June 18, 2017. Wright faces 23 charges, including murder.
Shortly after his arrest, Wright told Fox59 that he was innocent.
"It may have been a person that looked like me. I wasn't in that area at that
time," Wright told Fox59 in an interview from the Boone County Jail.
Investigators, however, found a blood covered pair of jeans in Wright's home.
DNA tests later matched the blood to Maxwell and Sonja Foster, prosecutors
said.
Eastwood declined to comment specifically on either case, but he said he has
been deeply involved in trail preparation for both.
Eastwood has been around long enough to have earned the trust of many defense
attorneys who oppose him in the courtroom, Indianapolis lawyer Mark Inman said.
"He's not going to hide stuff," Inman said. "It's above board, professional and
respectful. I think that goes both ways."
Boone County, population 66,000, is growing fast, and so is its criminal
justice system. U.S. Census data shows the county added nearly 10,000 residents
since 2010.
"There are more places to go," Eastwood said. "At 6 o-clock on a Tuesday night
you can't get near downtown Zionsville."
The prosecutor's office employs about 30 people, 10 of them lawyers. This year,
Eastwood said his office will file about 2,500 criminal cases, more than double
the cases filed in 2015.
Eastwood has been the No. 2 prosecutor in Boone County for about a decade.
Meyer, the former prosecutor, has no doubts in Eastwood's ability.
"I have every confidence that Kent and his administration will be more than
capable of prosecuting those cases (against Baumgardt and Wright) to
convictions," Meyer said.
Meyer said he knew when he stepped down to run for county judge (he lost in the
GOP primary by less than 50 votes), that he was leaving the office in good
hands.
"He served as chief deputy for about 10 years; you can't get much more
on-the-job training than that," Meyer said. "That positioned Kent well to take
the reins upon my departure.
"He was ready."
(source: Indianapolis Star)
TENNESSEE:
Death penalty's toll on state's executioners
The criminal justice system is divided into 3 distinct but equally important
components -- law enforcement, courts and corrections.
There is no textbook that can adequately prepare students for what they will
face if they decide to pursue a career in corrections in Tennessee or any state
with the death penalty.
That's especially the case, if they decide to work with inmates on death row or
with the team that carries out executions.
At LeMoyne-Owen College, it is my job to help prepare students who want to
become law enforcement officers, court personnel professionals, or correctional
staff/officials for the realities of the profession.
While my colleagues and I do our best to provide an accurate account, there are
limits to how much we can prepare a criminal justice professional to be
responsible for taking the life of another, even if it is state-condoned.
The toll that this grave responsibility will take on a person is unpredictable.
We have seen this all too clearly when our soldiers return home from battle
suffering from great emotional distress.
Tennessee plans to execute Billy Ray Irick on Thursday, Aug. 9, 2018, after an
almost nine-year hiatus with no executions. The state is also planning to use a
compounded version of the drug midazolam as part of the lethal injection
cocktail, a drug that has caused problematic executions nationwide.
A number of correctional staff/officials have started speaking out about their
own experiences of carrying out executions, and the impact their involvement
has had on them mentally, emotionally, and physically. Their stories are
disturbing.
On Aug. 2, 2018, at Evergreen Presbyterian Church, Frank Thompson will share
his experiences as superintendent of the Oregon State Penitentiary from
1994-1998. In this capacity, he supervised the only 2 executions that the state
carried out in the modern era of the death penalty.
When Thompson began his career as superintendent of the prison, he was a death
penalty supporter. Today, knowing what the process has done to him and some of
his former staff, he no longer supports the death penalty.
In a 2016 opinion piece in The New York Times, Thompson reflected:
"After each execution, I had staff members who decided they did not want to be
asked to serve in that capacity again. Others quietly sought employment
elsewhere. A few told me they were having trouble sleeping, and I worried they
would develop post-traumatic stress disorder if they had to go through it
another time.
"Together, we had spent many hours planning and carrying out the deaths of 2
people. The state-ordered killing of a person is premeditated and calculated,
and inevitably some of those involved incur collateral damage. I have seen it.
It's hard to avoid giving up some of your empathy and humanity to aid in the
killing of another human being. The effects can lead to all the places you'd
expect: drug use, alcohol abuse, depression and suicide."
I am confident that Tennessee's correctional staff will strive to carry out
executions with the utmost professionalism. Additionally, I believe that asking
state employees to participate in the killing of another human being is too
much of a burden, particularly given the high profile problems with executions
using midazolam in other states and the added trauma that a problematic
execution can cause.
(source: Opinion; Bruce Cole is director of the Accelerated Studies for Adults
and Professionals Criminal Justice Program at LeMoyne-Owen
College----"Unintended Consequences: The Death Penalty's Impact on Corrections
Staff", a town hall-style event, featuring Frank Thompson, will begin at 6 p.m.
Thursday, Aug. 2, at Evergreen Presbyterian Church, 1567 Overton Park----The
Commercial Appeal)
OKLAHOMA:
TV series highlights missteps in Julius Jones' death penalty case
The Last Defense documentary series focuses on death row inmates who seem to be
innocent. In episodes 5 through 7, the series presented a powerful case that
Julius Jones, a former John Marshall High School honors student, did not
receive a fair trial in the horrible 1999 Paul Howell murder case. Jones was
subsequently sentenced to death.
The Howell murder was doubly sickening in that he was an innocent family man,
shot in his Edmond driveway when the family's Suburban was carjacked; his
children were in the backseat at the time. Not surprisingly, the horrific
murder prompted a hurried effort to solve the case.
As ABC reported after the murder, "fear was almost palpable" in Edmond.
Moreover, this was a time when the Oklahoma County District Attorney, the late
Bob Macy, was listed as one of America's top-5 deadliest prosecutors. This
meant that there were not enough experienced death penalty-defense lawyers to
meet the demand. Jones' lead attorney, David McKenzie, told ABC that he lacked
death penalty experience and had an overwhelming case load.
Neither did the jury hear from 2 inmates in the county jail - whose sentences
meant they had little or no motivation for lying - who said that co-defendant
Christopher "Westside" Jordan told them that he, not Jones, killed Howell.
Defense attorney later admits to doing 'terrible job'
ABC reconstructed the key to the prosecution: how the stolen Suburban was found
near the garage of Kermit Lottie, a convicted felon and longtime police
informant. Lottie, Jordan and Ladell King, a notorious trafficker in stolen
vehicles and an informant, claimed that Jones committed the murder.
A video in a nearby store also showed that Jones was in Lottie's neighborhood
around the time that the disposal of the vehicle was discussed. Although he had
an explanation as to why he was near the shop, Jones admits that he was wrong
to be there, hoping to make some money but not yet knowing of the murder. Last,
Jones had 4 witnesses: his parents, brother and sister (the latter 2 were also
my students). They claimed that Jones was visiting them when the murder
occurred.
None of this exculpatory evidence was presented in court by Jones' defense
team. Moreover, his attorney acknowledged to ABC he did a "terrible job" of
cross examining Jordan, who had repeatedly contradicted himself.
Free Julius Jones rally
6:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 31
State Capitol,South Plaza
The documentary also described how Jones' "inexperienced and overwhelmed"
defense team made another error. The victim's sister "said the killer's hair
stuck out an inch from underneath the stocking cap," but Jones' hair was
"closely cut." 2 photos of Jones from that week were not presented to the jury.
ABC reported, "Jordan, meanwhile, wore his hair in cornrows that stuck out at
the sides." The defense's case was based on cross-examinations, and it was a
mistake to just use words instead of presenting the jury with photographic
evidence. As the jury foreman told ABC, he doesn't remember anything about hair
sticking out.
Murder weapon, bandanna constitute most important evidence
In an article from July 19, ABC quoted Amanda Bass, an assistant federal public
defender:
"Both Ladell King and Christopher Jordan were directing the police's attention
to the home of Julius Jones' parents as a place that would have incriminating
items of evidence," Amanda Bass said. "Chris Jordan was in the back of a police
vehicle talking to detectives who were telling people inside the home where to
potentially look."
Inside Jones' parents' home, police found a gun wrapped in a red bandanna
tucked inside an upstairs crawl space. Jones' attorneys said the evidence
police found could have been planted by Jordan the night after the murder.
So, the murder weapon and the killer's bandanna remained hidden in the Jones
house until it was found by the police 2 days after the crime. This was also
after Jones realized that King had named him as the trigger man. If Jones had
committed the homicide, and he knew the murder weapon was in his house, would
he have left it there?
Regardless, no definitive link could be made about the gun and the bandanna
without a DNA test, which the district attorney's office refused to conduct.
(The district attorney's office has subsequently agreed to a DNA test of the
bandanna.)
(source: nodoc.com)
NEBRASKA----impending execution
Pfizer responds to Nebraska senator's challenge of use of drugs in execution
It appears Omaha Sen. Ernie Chambers has 1 less avenue to stop the Nebraska
execution of condemned prisoner Carey Dean Moore in 15 days.
After he challenged Pfizer pharmaceutical company Friday to use the courts to
block the use of any of its restricted-use drugs in the possession of the
Nebraska Department of Correctional Services, the company responded Monday.
???Our records do not show any sales of any restricted products to the Nebraska
Department of Corrections," said Pfizer spokesman Steven Danehy.
But just in case, the drug company asked the department again to return any
Pfizer restricted products.
The department has not responded to open-records requests by the Lincoln
Journal Star, the Omaha World-Herald, other media and ACLU of Nebraska to
reveal the sources of the drugs it plans to use in Moore's execution. Nor has
it complied with a Nebraska district court judge's order to give the 2
newspapers and the ACLU certain records related to lethal injection drug
suppliers.
Another drug company, Alvogen, successfully filed a legal objection in Nevada
this month to stop one of its drugs, the sedative midazolam, from being used in
an execution. That execution did not take place as scheduled.
The Nebraska department has told Moore it plans to use four drugs, never before
used in combination in an execution, in putting him to death. Those drugs are
fentanyl, a powerful opiate painkiller; diazepam, which is the anxiety reliever
Valium; cisatracurium besylate, a muscle relaxer; and potassium chloride, which
stops the heart.
Meanwhile, a 2nd pharmaceutical company has joined a lawsuit to stop Nevada
from using 1 of its drugs in the state's execution of 2-time murderer Scott
Dozier.
According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, a district judge Monday approved the
July 24 motion filed by Hikma Pharmaceuticals, maker of the synthetic opiate
fentanyl, to intervene in a lawsuit previously filled by Alvogen.
Also, a "friend of the court" brief was filed with the U.S. Supreme Court on
July 23 by the Association for Accessible Medicines, which represents generic
drug manufacturers, in connection with a challenge by a death row inmate in
Missouri.
The brief argued that manufacturers overwhelmingly oppose the use of their
products for lethal injections, and that no prescription drug has been tested
or approved by regulators at the high doses typically employed in an execution
protocol. Nor is lethal injection a medically accepted off-label use of the
powerful injectable drugs used as part of execution protocols, the brief said.
(source: Lincoln Journal Star)
NEVADA:
Fentanyl maker joins lawsuit to block Nevada execution plan
A maker of the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl joined a bid Monday to block
the use of its product in what would be the 1st execution in Nevada in more
than 12 years using a 3-drug combination never before tried in any state.
Hikma Pharmaceuticals USA overcame sharp objections from the state to win a
judge's OK to intervene in New Jersey-based Alvogen's lawsuit seeking to stop
the use of an Alvogen sedative for the twice-postponed execution of
twice-convicted killer Scott Raymond Dozier.
"It's ironic that the maker of fentanyl, which is at the center of the nation's
opioid crisis and is responsible for illegal overdoses every day is going to
... claim reputational injury from being associated with a lawful execution,"
Deputy Nevada state Solicitor General Jordan T. Smith protested.
Hikma attorney Kristen Martini cited what she called "the identical legal
issues, the duplicate claims and substantially similar factual background
alleged by Alvogen and Hikma" in gaining entry into the case.
The companies share "common questions of law and fact," Martini argued, in
contentions that they publicly declared they didn't want their products used in
executions and that Nevada improperly obtained their drugs for the planned
lethal injection.
Alvogen attorney Todd Bice did not object to Hikma joining the case.
The lawsuit is on a speedy track toward a possible mid-November execution date,
after the Nevada Supreme Court last week agreed to quickly consider the state's
appeal of Clark County District Court Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez's final-hours
decision to delay the July 11 execution so she could consider Alvogen's case.
Gonzalez is scheduled to begin hearing arguments in September.
Attorney General Adam Laxalt's office said in Supreme Court filings that a high
court ruling is needed by Oct. 19, or useful prison stocks of a needed drug,
the muscle paralyzing agent cisatracurium, will expire.
The maker of that drug, Sandoz Pharmaceuticals, is still deciding whether to
join the Alvogen-Hikma case, said Colby Williams, an attorney representing the
Novartis subsidiary.
Nevada wants to use the Alvogen sedative midazolam to render Dozier
unconscious, then administer a lethal dose of fentanyl to slow his breathing
and follow with cisatracurium to ensure that breathing stops.
The expiration of drugs would set state prison officials back to the beginning
of a planning process that has made Nevada a model of the trouble that many of
the 31 U.S. states with the death penalty have had in recent years obtaining
drugs for lethal injections.
Nevada last conducted a lethal injection in April 2006.
Dozier, 47, has said repeatedly that he wants to die and doesn't care if he
suffers. He is not appealing his convictions for separate killings of drug
trade associates in Phoenix and Las Vegas in 2002. He has been on death row
since 2007.
(source: Associated Press)
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