Jan. 3
OHIO:
Trial set in latest challenge to Ohio death penalty process
Attorneys for death row inmates and lawyers for Ohio's prisons agency are back
in court this week in the latest challenge to the way the state puts condemned
killers to death.
The 4-day trial beginning Tuesday in federal court in Columbus focuses on
Ohio's updated execution process and a new 3-drug method similar to one used
several years ago.
Some of the testimony in the trial overseen by Magistrate Judge Michael Merz
will come from members of the state execution team who will answer questions
anonymously while sitting behind courtroom screens.
The state defends the new process as constitutional. Defense attorneys say
multiple problems remain with the way Ohio prepares and carries out executions.
The state prisons agency plans to execute child killer Ronald Phillips Feb. 1.
(source: Associated Press)
NEBRASKA:
Testifiers say proposed execution protocol violates laws
2 longtime death penalty supporters showed up at a hearing Friday morning to
support a newly proposed execution protocol developed by the Nebraska
Department of Correctional Services.
19 people, most of whom identified themselves as anti-death penalty, pointed
out flaws and what they called potentially unconstitutional content and law
violations.
"I ask ... that this protocol be dumped. And start over," said Lincoln attorney
Alan Peterson. "And don't try to hide this horrible procedure from the public.
And from me. And from the people remaining on death row."
Omaha Sen. Ernie Chambers, former state medical director Gregg Wright and
Nebraska Pharmacist Association Director Joni Cover objected to the many ways
the protocol errs by shrouding the process in mystery.
"I see difficulties (with the protocol) of a constitutional proportion, so the
governor will be out of office before anybody would be executed in this state,"
Chambers said.
But Bob Evnen, co-founder of Nebraskans For the Death Penalty, said the
protocol is sound and should be adopted.
There is much hue and cry from death penalty opponents about the transparency
of the protocol, he said. But there are good policy reasons for protecting the
identity of the execution team appointed by the Corrections Department, Evnen
said.
"Your proposed regulations properly implement that protection, as they should.
As they must by law," he told Corrections attorney Mark Boyer, who presided
over the public hearing.
Death penalty supporter Rick Eberhardt, sheriff of Pierce County, said the
protocol should be workable and asked that the state model its process after
other states that successfully use the death penalty. He also asked that
Nebraska carry out death sentences as quickly and humanely as possible.
The public hearing was necessary to comply with the state's administrative
procedures act, but Corrections Director Scott Frakes can send it on as is for
review of Attorney General Doug Peterson and approval by Gov. Pete Ricketts.
In late November, the Corrections Department released proposed revisions to the
state's execution protocol that would keep secret the drugs and method of
administration until 60 days before request for a death warrant.
Concerned citizen Eleanor Rogan of Omaha said that when the state compromises
its principles for the sake of expediency, messy, corrupt government can creep
in.
Unknown drugs, unknown dosages and unknown providers are a recipe for medical
disaster, she said.
It's clear the protocol was politically motivated, said Chambers. It is not
scholarly, and it is not based on medical or professional consultation or
assistance.
"It is what I would describe as a slap-dash, loosey-goosey affair," he said.
About 494,000 Nebraskans voted to do away with the Legislature's 2015 repeal of
the death penalty, and nearly 321,000 voted to retain the law that would have
replaced it with life in prison.
Chambers said the vote didn't surprise him.
"When the people are allowed to vote, it's not always based on intelligence,
knowledge, information, but usually emotion," he said.
ACLU of Nebraska attorney Spike Eickholt called the protocol a step backward
for the Corrections Department, which seemed to be progressing after scandals
and problems in recent years.
"Even people who support the death penalty don't agree with hiding the process
and the means and the death penalty itself from the public," he said.
Those attending Friday hearing were allowed five minutes each to testify. A
number of them said the protocol conflicts with state law.
Attorney Shawn Renner, representing Media of Nebraska, said authority claimed
by the department to keep confidential the name of any person or company
supplying the lethal injection drugs is directly contrary to the Nebraska
public records law.
"It's illegal and it will not be enforced by courts," he said.
Alan Peterson said that to adopt a protocol that allows a director, who is an
administrative officer in the executive branch, to decide which records are
public and which are an exception is "amazing."
(source: Beatrice Daily Sun)
WASHINGTON----death row inmate dies
Washington death-row inmate dies of cardiac arrest
1 of the 9 people on Washington state's death row has died of cardiac arrest,
while in a medical facility for a chronic illness, according to the state
Department of Corrections.
Dwayne A. Woods, 46, sentenced to death nearly 20 years ago, died Sunday night
at the Kadlec Regional Medical Center in Richland, according to the Department
of Corrections, which noted that he had been under observation for a chronic
illness. The department news release gave no other details about his medical
condition.
An autopsy will be performed, the news release said.
Woods, who was in the state prison in Walla Walla, was convicted in June 1997
on 2 counts of aggravated 1st-degree murder in the killings of Telisha Shaver,
22, and Jade Moore, 18.
Shaver and Moore were raped and beaten on the head with a baseball bat in a
Spokane Valley mobile home in April 1996, according to The Spokesman-Review.
The 2 women knew Woods, then 25, because he had been dating Shaver's sister.
Gov. Jay Inslee in 2014 announced a moratorium on state executions, saying the
way the death penalty is applied is too flawed to let more go forward.
Inslee last week signed a reprieve for Clark Richard Elmore, who had been
convicted of raping and killing his girlfriend's 14-year-old daughter, Kristy
Ohnstad, in Bellingham in 1995. Elmore will remain in prison for life. With his
legal appeals exhausted, Elmore's execution had been scheduled for Jan. 19.
Despite Inslee's moratorium, executions are still part of state law, so any
reprieves require that Inslee exercise his authority as governor.
No execution date had been set for Woods.
(source: Seattle Times)
USA:
The death penalty is vanishing from America
Inch by inch, the barbaric death penalty is vanishing from America. Only 20
U.S. prisoners were executed this year, the lowest number in a quarter-century.
Juries imposed only 30 new death warrants in 2016, a 40 % drop from the year
before and the fewest since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated executions in
1976.
In Florida, the state supreme court wiped out nearly 1/2 of all pending
executions, on a legal technicality.
Executions have become limited to just a few brutal southern states like Texas.
Killing prisoners is a matter of geography.
For the 1st time, polls find that more than 1/2 of Americans oppose putting
people to death. If the alternative of life-without-parole is added, public
support rises higher.
Perhaps people realize that executions are inflicted unfairly on the poor,
blacks, Hispanics and other less-privileged defendants who can't afford
high-cost defenses. It's extremely rare for an affluent white to go to the
death chamber.
Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer openly demands an end to the death penalty
on grounds that it violates the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual
punishments. He wrote that those executed "are not the 'worst of the worst,'
but, rather, are individuals chosen at random, on the basis, perhaps of
geography, perhaps of the views of individual prosecutors, or still worse on
the basis of race.
"Nearly all modern democracies - except America - have ended the medieval
practice of putting people to death. 19 U.S. states also have banned it. We're
proud that West Virginia ceased being pro-death in 1965. Further, governors of
4 other states issued moratoriums halting it.
Moreover, many states where executions are legal simply never carry them out.
As we said, the death penalty is fading into the ugly past.
The tide of history favors liberal-progressive values. Eventually, we hope,
America will join other advanced nations that ended executions.
(source: Editorial, Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette-Mail)
*******************
Convicted killer Dylann Roof is, again, ruled competent for trial in
death-penalty case
Dylann Roof is competent to proceed with the death penalty phase of his federal
hate crime trial over the 2015 murders of nine black churchgoers in Charleston,
South Carolina, a judge ruled Monday.
The opinion came after more than 7 hours of testimony from the court-appointed
psychologist who evaluated Roof over the New Year's holiday weekend.
"After fully considering all of the evidence presented, the Court ruled from
the bench that [Roof] remains competent to stand trial and to self-represent,"
U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel wrote in a the brief opinion issued by the
court.
(source: mic.com)
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