March 26
TEXAS----new execution date
Execution date set for convicted killer Lester Bower
Another execution date has been set for convicted killer Lester Bower.
Grayson County District Attorney Joe Brown says Bower is now scheduled to die
on June 3, 2015.
Monday, the Supreme Court denied an appeal from Bower. He was scheduled to be
executed on February 10 but it was put on hold 5 days earlier.
Bower was convicted in 1984 of murdering 4 men in a Sherman plane hangar.
(source: Associated Press)
**********************************
Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----4
Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982----present-----522
Abbott#--------scheduled execution date-----name------------Tx. #
5------------Apr. 9--------------------Kent Sprouse---------523
6------------Apr. 15-------------------Manual Garza---------524
7-----------Apr. 23-------------------Richard Vasquez------525
8-----------Apr. 28-------------------Robert Pruett--------526
9-----------May 12--------------------Derrick Charles------527
10----------June 3--------------------Les Bower------------528
11-----------June 18-------------------Gregory Russeau------529
(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)
UTAH:
Why people volunteer to take part in firing squads
There's a funny fact about firing squads: People volunteer for them. When it
comes to lethal injection though, it can be difficult to find an expert to with
the right expertise to oversee the procedure. In 2006, Missouri state officials
told a judge that they sent letters to 298 anesthesiologists, asking if they
would help with the state's executions. All refused.
Now, as Utah considers a bill that would allow the state to use firing squads
in the case that it runs out of lethal-injection drugs, we thought we would
take a look at those who participate in both. The mindsets of firing-squad
volunteers and lethal-injection team members are the polar opposite with how
most of those not involved in the process feel. After all, lethal injection is
the first choice among all states that have the death penalty; other methods,
including firing squads, can seem barbaric in comparison. A look at the
psychology may also help inform a small part of the debate about whether
American states should use firing squads at all.
There's not much academic study comparing the psychology of shooting versus
injecting, but participants in both have talked with journalists and social
scientists.
In 2010, when Utah wanted to execute death-row inmate Ronnie Lee Gardner, it
used five anonymous police officers who all volunteered for the job. 2 other
volunteer police officers stood by, in case anyone in the original five wanted
to back out at the last minute. (None of the five officers got cold feet.)
About a week before Gardner's execution, CNN talked with another officer who
had volunteered for the firing squad that executed convicted murderer John
Albert Taylor in 1996. The officer considered the job a rare chance to effect
"100 % justice." "There's just some people we need to kick off the planet," he
said. He described the process as instantaneous, professional, and not unduly
gruesome.
In contrast, getting medical professionals - the equivalent of trained marksmen
for lethal injections - to join death penalty teams can be difficult. Doctors,
after all, take an oath to "first, do no harm." Doctors' groups, including the
American Medical Association and the American Board of Anesthesiology, say
physicians shouldn't participate in capital punishment. "The ABA has not taken
this action because of any position regarding the appropriateness of the death
penalty. Anesthesiologists, like all physicians and all citizens, have
different personal opinions about capital punishment," the American Board of
Anesthesiology's statement reads. Instead, it's about being "members of a
profession dedicated to preserving life when there is hope of doing so."
Although some had hoped that including medical professionals in chemical
executions would reduce the number of botched procedures, "there are simply not
enough doctors or nurses willing to perform the job," ABC News reported in
2007.
The workers who end up on lethal-injection teams may have no medical training
and, perhaps because they're hired to perform executions more than one time,
seem to deal with more negative psychological effects. A 2005 survey of more
than 200 members of execution teams - often states will include many people on
such teams, so no one person feels responsible - found they deal with stress
and cope by distancing themselves from the moral aspects of their work. ABC
News talked with one man who executed 62 people by electrocution and lethal
injection over his career. "To make that transformation from corrections
officer to executioner ... it was hard,'' he said. "You have to get away from
yourself. You have to eliminate yourself."
The psychological effect of being part of an execution team is just one piece
of the debate about firing squads. Opponents to Utah's firing-squad bill
consider it backwards and cruel. Richard Dieter, executive director of the
Death Penalty Information Center, thinks using firing squads would send the
wrong message about the United States' values to other nations. "The world is
watching what we're doing, just as we watch when terrorist groups execute
people," he says. Dieter's center collects data about the death penalty in the
U.S. and opposes capital punishment.
Yet lethal injection has its own problems. In recent years, several cases of
botched executions have come to light. Improperly performed chemical executions
can leave the condemned conscious, yet unable to move or speak, while they die.
In 2013, journalist Vince Beiser argued in Pacific Standard that if the U.S. is
going to use capital punishment, it should in fact just do it by firing squad.
"A bullet to the head is a quick and painless way to die, far quicker and more
certain than lethal injection, or any of our other historically favored
methods," he wrote.
Research may actually back Beiser up. Executioners botch lethal injections
about 7 % of the time, compared to 3 % for other death-penalty methods, Amherst
College political scientist Austin Sarat argues in his book Gruesome
Spectacles. Of course, firing squads can go badly, too, for example, if the
prisoner moves before the squad fires and doesn't get hit in the heart. Then he
must bleed to death over a longer period of time.
"I think eventually we'll get out of this whole business," Dieter adds. "This
controversy might hasten that because it underscores the harshness of the
taking of human life. There's no easy, pretty way of doing so."
(source: The Week)
*****************
Utah bishop decries governor???s decision to sign firing squad measure
By reinstating the use of a firing squad as a method of execution in Utah, "it
seems as if our government leaders have substituted state legislation for the
law of God," said the state's Catholic bishop.
"They argue that, because executions are lawful, they are then moral. This is
not so. No human law can trump God's law," Salt Lake City Bishop John C. Wester
said in a March 24 statement. "Taking a human life is wrong; a slap in the face
of hope and a blasphemous attempt to assume divine attributes that we humble
human beings do not have."
"The real issue here is the death penalty itself," he said.
A day earlier, Republican Gov. Gary Herbert signed into law a bill that
reinstates execution by firing squad for those convicted of capital crimes. It
was passed by the state Senate March 10 and by the state House in February.
Utah's lawmakers argued they needed a backup method of capital punishment if
the drugs used in lethal injection are not available. There is a shortage of
lethal drugs for executions and their use in carrying out the death penalty has
become more controversial after the botched execution of Clayton Lockett in
Oklahoma; he writhed in pain for 40 minutes before dying of apparent heart
failure.
Bishop Wester said he was "very disappointed" that Herbert signed the measure
on firing squads.
The death penalty itself is the issue, because "only God can give and take
life," he said. "By taking a life, in whatever form the death penalty is
carried out, the state is usurping the role of God. Execution does violence to
God's time, eliminating the opportunity for God's redemptive and forgiving
grace to work in the life of a prisoner."
Utah is now the only state that has the firing squad as a method of execution.
"The death penalty in any form is abhorrent," Bishop Wester said in an earlier
statement, but with regard to the firing squad method, he noted that "strapping
a person to a chair with a hood over his head and a bull's eye on his heart
creates a disturbing image of the individual as little more than a target at a
shooting range."
The Associated Press quoted Herbert's spokesman as saying that enforcement of
capital punishment is "the obligation of the executive branch. We regret anyone
ever commits the heinous crime of aggravated murder to merit the death penalty,
and we prefer to use our primary method of lethal injection when such a
sentence is issued," spokesman Marty Carpenter said.
Bishop Wester March 24 noted that the next scheduled execution in Utah will not
take place for several years, so "our legislators and governor might still
repair the damage caused by the death penalty."
He urged Herbert and the Utah Legislature "to place a moratorium on further
death sentences and pass legislation to abolish state-sanctioned destruction of
human life."
(source: Catholi cNews Service)
ARIZONA:
Jodi Arias Trial Update: Mistrial, Pains of a Hung Jury Revolve on Justice
System; Is Death Penalty to Happen?
For a crime that was committed 7 years ago in 2008 and for all the media circus
that it has spawned - not to mention death threats thrown, it seemed rightful
that the Jodi Arias trial reach a well-deserved conclusion a few days back, and
be put to rest. However, 1 female juror decided otherwise and with 1 dissenting
opinion in a vote of 11-1, swept the death sentence out urging the judge to
declare a mistrial and sending the whole process back to square one.
To a large extent, all this has pulled the intense debate and speculation a
notch higher, prompting many to ask the merits of the US justice system in
general. All told, $3,000,000 has been spent by the prosecutor and Arias'
public defense team on the case, according to Associated Press.
The Power of One
Never has the power of 1 dissenting vote been so deafening and heart-wrenching.
As reported on ABC News 1 juror detailed, "Eleven of us strived for justice for
Travis, but to no avail."
Further she added, "We absolutely thought [the punishment] should be death."
Reportedly, the group didn't buy the whole death sentencing for Arias from the
onset. Rather they were split down the middle. But they were able to make up
their minds in the end - all except one.
1 male juror expressed disgust about the holdout saying he felt that "the one
holdout had her mind made up from the beginning."
Further he detailed that "the biggest thing that angered me was that she
alluded that the death penalty would be a form of revenge."
Changing Hands
Jurors who appeared before the media did not bother showing their emotions and
many broke to tears in the middle of the news conference.
Many were vocal about getting justice served for the Alexander family saying
"like they put Travis on trial, [and] focused on that rather than the reason we
were there."
It's understandable what immense pressure - and emotional distress - the jurors
has been undergoing lately.
The trial has dragged on and on with 1 female juror pointing out, "We've had
nightmares," adding "I think every single one of us has had nightmares and I
hope they go away."
For now, the nightmares, may have to stay for a little bit longer than
expected.
Now, the ball is in Judge Sherry Stephens' hands. However, she decides death
sentencing may never be part of the option. All because of 1.
(source: vcpost.com)
USA:
No method of execution is humane enough to be legal
Executions are not, and never will be, humane. Disguising executioners in white
lab coats and allowing them to shoot prisoners with chemicals instead of
bullets does not constitute humanity. Rather, it allows us as a society to
sleep soundly at night, free from the guilt we might feel if the government
killed people using gas chambers or electric chairs.
Yet despite the inherent barbarity of putting someone to death, lawmakers have
historically employed the concept of "humaneness" as justification for the
currently available methods of execution.
Until the late 1800s, nearly every state carried out executions by hanging, a
punishment utilized worldwide for thousands of years. Eventually, however, a
series of botched hangings caused most legislatures to forgo the practice in
favor of electrocution. By 1915, 12 states had adopted electrocution statutes
under the theory that the electric chair was less painful and more humane than
the noose.
When Oklahoma became the first state to legalize lethal injection in 1977,
death penalty proponents hailed the practice as a superior alternative to
electrocution. Many states followed suit, praising death by lethal injection as
quick and painless.
Today, the state of Oklahoma continues to be a pioneer in the field of
execution technology. On March 3, Oklahoma's House of Representatives voted
overwhelmingly in favor of HB 1879, a bill that would allow the state to
conduct executions via nitrogen hypoxia if the proper lethal injection drugs
are unavailable. Republicans Mike Christian and Anthony Sykes, the bill's
sponsors, claim that nitrogen hypoxia might ultimately prove more humane than
lethal injection.
What exactly is nitrogen hypoxia?
It is a type of asphyxiation that is induced by breathing nitrogen instead of
oxygen. Nitrogen, an inert gas, is not actually toxic, and therefore does not
directly affect bodily functions. However, breathing nitrogen in an
oxygen-deficient environment prevents cells from obtaining oxygen and
ultimately leads to death. The procedure has not been thoroughly researched as
a mode of execution.
Ultimately, regardless of whether a prisoner is hung from a tree or deprived of
oxygen, all forms of execution yield the same result: death. And death is a
painful process. Lawmakers who propose new, "better" forms of execution are not
acting out of compassion for the condemned, but out of a desire to mask the
sheer brutality of capital punishment.
Nobody wants to accept responsibility for an execution that sets a man's skin
on fire or breaks his neck; nobody wants to witness the death of a man who
spends his final minutes writhing and screaming in pain. But when death seems
quick and painless, as though it is simply a form of prolonged sleep, it is
easy to pretend that executions are not acts of cruelty.
Despite Oklahoma's push for an improved execution method, most state laws make
it clear that "humaneness" is nothing more than a superficial pretense used to
justify capital punishment. According to the Death Penalty Information Center,
several states allow electrocution, gas chambers or firing squads to be
employed if lethal injection is ever declared unconstitutional. The continued
existence of alternative methods in state statutes reveals stunning hypocrisy;
if lawmakers genuinely cared about treating death row inmates humanely, they
would abolish such methods altogether.
Pretending that executions can be humane effectively prevents us from engaging
in meaningful dialogue about the death penalty. Until we accept the reality
that all forms of execution amount to simple revenge killing, capital
punishment will continue to negatively impact criminal justice in the U.S.
(source: The Daily Wildcat; Elizabeth Hannah is biochemistry sophomore)
_______________________________________________
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
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
