April 14
TENNESSEE:
Tennessee court calls off the rest of the state's scheduled executions
The Tennessee Supreme Court has halted 4 executions originally scheduled to
take place over the next year, effectively suspending capital punishment in the
state for the time being.
In an order filed Friday, the court said it was nullifying the execution dates
for four inmates until a trial court weighs in on the challenges each inmate
has filed against the state's lethal injection protocol. Similarly, the court
had already issued orders in recent months calling off other scheduled
executions to allow for lower courts to act.
These last 4 executions were set to take place between October of this year and
March 2016. By calling off these executions, the court canceled the final
executions remaining on the calendar for Tennessee, according to the Death
Penalty Information Center.
This makes Tennessee just the latest state to delay all of its executions or
halt any capital punishment activity this year, though the precise
circumstances vary from place to place. In Pennsylvania, the governor suspended
the death penalty entirely in February.
Other states are halting executions while they deal with issues involving the
drugs, which have become scarce in recent years. Ohio delayed all of its
executions scheduled for this year while it works out a new lethal injection
protocol. Georgia says it is delaying all executions while it examines lethal
injection drugs that appeared "cloudy" before an execution scheduled for last
month.
This drug shortage has prompted states to adopt new lethal injection protocols
and turn to other methods, which is at the heart of a case the U.S. Supreme
Court will hear later this month. Executions in Oklahoma, Florida and Alabama
are on hold until the justices considers a challenge to Oklahoma's
lethal-injection protocol.
There are 69 people on death row in Tennessee, according to the state
Department of Correction. Tennessee has not executed anyone since 2009, and
over the last 4 decades, it has carried out six total executions, fewer than
most states that still have the death penalty.
However, in recent years Tennessee has shown it wants to resume executions
sooner rather than later. The state Department of Correction said in 2013 it
was changing its official lethal injection method from a 3-drug combination to
a single drug (pentobarbital, a sedative).
That same year, Robert E. Cooper, Jr., the state's attorney general at the
time, said his office asked the state Supreme Court to set execution dates for
11 inmates on death row. One of those inmates - Olen Hutchinson - died in
prison last October. Another death row inmate died the following month, and
state officials said both men died of natural causes.
Last year, Tennessee became the 1st state to react to the ongoing shortage of
lethal injection drugs by formally making another method of execution its
backup. Lethal injection is still the main method of execution in Tennessee, as
it is in every other state with the death penalty, but the electric chair will
now be used if the state can't obtain any drugs or if lethal injection is
deemed unconstitutional by the courts.
Tennessee had already had the electric chair available, but it had been an
option only for inmates convicted of crimes that took place before Jan. 1,
1999. The new law makes the electric chair available to newer inmates.
Tennessee last executed an inmate using the electric chair in 2007.
The electric chair has been used 158 times in the country since the U.S.
Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976, a small fraction of the
more than 1,400 executions that have been carried out nationwide over that
span.
(source: Washington Post)
**************************************
Bristol cop killer seeks new trial
A man sentenced to death in the 2004 killing of a Bristol police officer is
seeking a new trial claiming incompetent attorneys, a racist jury, misconduct
by the prosecution, mental illness and the unconstitutionality of lethal
injection.
Nikolaus Johnson, 36, was found guilty in 2007 for shooting and killing Bristol
police officer Mark Vance during a domestic call on Thanksgiving weekend. Vance
was responding to a call about a man threatening a woman during that fateful
weekend.
Johnson shot Vance in the face with a .357-caliber Magnum handgun after stating
he would kill the 1st person to enter the home. He also stated he would only go
back to prison for murder, according to court testimony.
Now Johnson is petitioning for post-conviction relief. A post-conviction relief
is when a person convicted of a sentence, in this case Johnson, seeks to have
the conviction or sentence overturned on the grounds that the sentence or
denial of appeal violated the state or federal constitution.
In a 155 page petition filed with Sullivan County court, Johnson and his court
appointed attorneys lay out seven areas they feel violated his constitutional
rights.
During his trial and subsequent appeals, Johnson alleges that he received
ineffective assistance from his court appointed attorney. The petition states
his trial counsel failed to properly investigate the shooting and his life
history.
A number of failures are cited including: failure by the previous attorneys to
identify, locate and interview all relevant witnesses; failing to obtain all
relevant records from law enforcement; an investigation into Johnson's social
history; failure to interview witnesses familiar with his social and medical
history; and failure to investigate the law regarding the presentation of
mental defenses, among others.
The petition also claims Johnson suffers from a mental illness and his previous
attorneys failed to present evidence from mental health experts or continue
evaluating his competency to stand trial, even though he was initially found
competent.
Johnson's mental health was deteriorating because of incidents occurring at the
jail including violence against him by jail staff, the need for protective
segregation from white prisoners, Johnson's belief that jail officials were
racist and hate mail, according to the petition.
The 2nd area has to do with structural error and, more specifically, juror
bias.
According to the petition, at least one juror during Johnson's trial was not
impartial due to racial bias, 1 juror was partial because the victim was a law
enforcement officer and respected member of the community.
Various jurors were also accused of being partial due to the District Attorney
requesting the jurors pledge to commit Johnson to death, personal experiences
with emergency dispatch and an alleged confession.
It also states women and African-Americans were excluded from jury selection,
and some jurors depended on scripture from the Bible to justify giving Johnson
the death penalty, which is unconstitutional.
The court is accused of failing to maintain proper records. The state is
accused of improperly contacting jurors in a manner that intimidated them and
restricted their free speech and having a conflict of interest by obtaining
confidential information that was supposed be under seal.
Misconduct by the prosecutor during the case including getting jurors to pledge
a death sentence, presentation of misleading testimony, improper arguments,
intimidation of jurors by telling them not to speak to defense attorneys and
having the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation special agent contact all the
jurors is the 3rd area of grievance presented in the petition.
One of the biggest issues in this area is the obtainment of confidential,
privileged information about Johnson's case. The petition cites a conflict of
interest by District Attorney General Barry Staubus.
The 4th area says Tennessee's lethal injection is unconstitutional. The
Tennessee Supreme Court may agree because on Friday, they halted all executions
while the courts decide whether current protocols of the death sentence are
constitutional.
The 5th area says Johnson did not understand when he waived his right to
present mitigating evidence because of his mental health. Because of Johnson's
alleged mental illnesses, he is arguing exemption from the death penalty, which
is the 6th area of grievance.
"Due to his severe mental illnesses, Mr. Johnson suffers diminished capacities
that are substantially similar to the diminished capacities of intellectually
disabled defendants," the petition stated. "Accordingly, Mr. Johnson should be
categorically exempt from the death penalty."
According to the final area, Johnson's death sentence is disproportionate.
Mental illness and a lack of understanding by Johnson were cited. Racial bias,
a black man killing a white cop, was also cited as a reason the sentence was
disproportionate.
A hearing for the recusal of Staubus from prosecuting the case was set for June
23 during a court appearance Monday.
(source: Kingsport Times-News)
MISSOURI----impending execution
Missouri pressured to halt execution of black man sentenced by all-white jury
---- Andre Cole, 42, set to be executed after he was sentenced to death by an
all-white jury in St Louis County ??? the same jurisdiction that covers
Ferguson
Jay Nixon, the Democratic governor of Missouri, is coming under intense
pressure to stay the imminent execution of an African American man who was
sentenced to death by an all-white jury in St Louis County - the jurisdiction
that covers Ferguson, scene of last summer's dramatic unrest over
state-sanctioned racial discrimination.
Barring last-minute intervention by Nixon or the US supreme court, Andre Cole,
42, will be killed by lethal injection at 6pm local time on Tuesday in a case
that displays disturbing signs of racial animus. All 3 potential black jurors
were removed from the jury pool at the demand of St Louis County prosecutors,
who secured a death sentence from the resulting panel of 12 white men and
women.
Such controversial circumstances have provoked a flurry of 11th-hour protests,
including appeals to Nixon that he use his governor's prerogative to stop the
execution. The complaints are all the more charged coming from the county of
Ferguson which August erupted in prolonged clashes between protesters and
police after the police shooting of unarmed teenager Michael Brown.
"This case highlights the disparate treatment of African Americans in the
criminal justice system. Ferguson exposed unequal treatment by police, and the
pending execution of Andre Cole exposes the same disparity from prosecutors and
the courts," said Elston McCowan of the Missouri branch of the NAACP.
A coalition of civil rights activists, African American organizations and
religious leaders have written to Nixon demanding an official inquiry into what
they claim is rampant and systemic racial bias within St Louis County that has
put a vastly disproportionate number of black men on to death row. The
investigation would ensure, the 60 signatories write, "that racial bias has not
infected the death sentences imposed in St Louis County".
The numbers speak for themselves. 11 death row prisoners were prosecuted in St
Louis County. Of those, 7 or 64% are black, in stark contrast to the general
population of the area which is 24% African American.
Behind those startling figures lie evidence of racial distortions in the way
that juries are configured. Evidence has been presented to court in seven
separate death penalty cases in Missouri in which potential black jurors were
struck off for no apparent reason. Cole was convicted in 2001 for murdering the
boyfriend of his former wife. Of the 3 potential black jurors struck off by St
Louis County prosecutors, one was removed on grounds that he was divorced -
even though a white divorcee was put on the final panel. "Prosecutors were
asked to explain why they had struck off the black jurors, and the reasons they
gave don't hold up very well when you read the record," said Cole's attorney,
Joseph Luby of the Death Penalty Litigation Clinic.
The most egregious example of jury-rigging in St Louis County has been the
so-called "postman gambit" where black people have been routinely prevented
from joining juries in capital cases because they worked for the US postal
service. No justification has ever been presented in court for such exclusions,
though civil rights observers have noted that a high proportion of post office
workers are black.
The "postman gambit" was used in 1992 to remove a black "mail sorter" from the
jury in the case of convicted murderer Herbert Smulls. The resulting all-white
jury duly sentenced Smulls to death, and he was executed last year.
Similar tactics were used in 2001 during the elimination of 6 out of 7
potential black jurors - 1 of whom was a postal worker - in the trial of
Marcellus Williams. He was sentenced to death by a jury of 11 white and 1 black
juror, and is currently awaiting execution.
In a 3rd case, also emanating from St Louis County, Kimber Edwards was put on
death row by an all-white jury after all 3 potential black candidates -
including a postal worker - were struck off the panel. Edwards was scheduled to
be executed by Missouri next month, but the death warrant has been lifted for
technical reasons.
Missouri is not alone in standing accused of manipulating juries along racial
lines. A similar pattern is discernible across the active death penalty states.
A study by the Equal Justice Initiative found that potential black jurors have
routinely been prevented from participating in capital trials, with some
counties striking off up to 80% of all African American candidates.
"We cannot continue on a path that stretches back to before the civil war of
lynch mob justice in which all-white juries sentence African Americans to
death. That has to stop," said Staci Pratt of Missourians for Alternatives to
the Death Penalty.
Reverend Harold Ellis, pastor of Clayton Baptist Church in St Louis, said that
if Cole's execution went ahead it would aggravate the tensions that had come to
the surface during the Ferguson troubles. "If Governor Nixon allows the
execution to go forward he will be creating more problems, not just for
Ferguson."
(source: The Guardian)
*****************
Advocates for inmate ask Missouri governor to halt execution
Advocates for a black inmate facing execution in Missouri said Monday that he
was unfairly sentenced to death when African-Americans were excluded from the
jury at his St. Louis County trial.
Andre Cole, 52, is scheduled to die Tuesday for killing a man in 1998 in a fit
of anger over having to pay child support. He would be the 3rd convicted killer
put to death in Missouri this year.
Members of a coalition that includes Missourians for Alternatives to the Death
Penalty, the NAACP, the American Civil Liberties Union and other organizations
called on Gov. Jay Nixon to halt the execution and appoint a board of inquiry
to examine concerns that there is racial bias in Missouri's jury selection
process.
"This is a national problem," said Jeffrey Mittman, executive director of the
ACLU office in St. Louis. "The criminal justice system in this country is
unfair. It targets persons of color. It treats the African-American community
differently."
A spokesman for Nixon did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
An all-white jury convicted Cole after St. Louis County prosecutors removed 3
black potential jurors from the pool of candidates. Mittman said 1 black man
was removed because he was divorced, but a white juror was not removed even
though he was paying child support - the alleged source of Cole's anger.
One of Cole's advocates, Jamala Rogers, said the racial unrest in the St. Louis
County community of Ferguson after last summer's fatal police shooting of
Michael Brown as well as the scathing Department of Justice report about
Ferguson should send a signal that poor treatment of blacks, including those in
the criminal justice system, will no longer be tolerated.
"All the scabs have been taken off. Ferguson did that," Rogers said. "For us to
keep going with blinders on, it's not going to be healthy for us as a nation."
Cole's supporters don't dispute his guilt, but they don't believe the crime
warranted him getting the death penalty.
Cole and his wife, Terri, divorced in 1995. The couple had 2 children and
fought about visitation. Evidence showed that Andre Cole was upset that his
wages were being garnished to pay $3,000 in unpaid child support.
The 1st deduction appeared on his Aug. 21, 1998, paycheck. Hours later, Cole
forced his way into his ex-wife's home and was confronted by Anthony Curtis,
who was visiting. Andre Cole stabbed Curtis and Terri Cole repeatedly. Curtis
died but Terri Cole survived.
Andre Cole fled the state but surrendered to police 33 days later. He claimed
at trial that he did not bring a weapon into Terri Cole's house and that Curtis
initiated the attack with a knife.
Cole's attorney, Joseph Luby, has filed 3 appeals with the U.S. Supreme Court,
including 1 alleging that Cole suffers from psychosis and is incompetent for
execution.
"He hears voices over the TV, over the prison intercom, everywhere," Luby said.
"He believes that Gov. Nixon, St. Louis County prosecutor Bob McCulloch and
others are giving him messages about his case."
The same point was raised before the Missouri Supreme Court, which ruled last
week that Cole was competent for execution.
A spokesman for McCulloch did not respond to a message seeking comment.
Luby said concerns that blacks are being unfairly removed from St. Louis County
jury pools goes beyond Cole's case.
"There have been quite a number of St. Louis County cases where we see
African-American men sentenced to death by all-white juries, and it's just not
the kind of thing that can be explained by randomness or chance," Luby said.
"There's just been a repeated pattern."
(source: ledger-enquirer.com)
***************
Civil Rights Groups Ask Missouri Governor to Stop Execution----Advocates for
inmate ask Missouri governor to halt execution
Advocates for a black inmate facing execution in Missouri said Monday that he
was unfairly sentenced to death when African-Americans were excluded from the
jury at his St. Louis County trial.
Andre Cole, 52, is scheduled to die Tuesday for killing a man in 1998 in a fit
of anger over having to pay child support. He would be the third convicted
killer put to death in Missouri this year.
Members of a coalition that includes Missourians for Alternatives to the Death
Penalty, the NAACP, the American Civil Liberties Union and other organizations
called on Gov. Jay Nixon to halt the execution and appoint a board of inquiry
to examine concerns that there is racial bias in Missouri's jury selection
process.
"This is a national problem," said Jeffrey Mittman, executive director of the
ACLU office in St. Louis. "The criminal justice system in this country is
unfair. It targets persons of color. It treats the African-American community
differently."
A spokesman for Nixon said that the clemency petition is under review.
An all-white jury convicted Cole after St. Louis County prosecutors removed
three black potential jurors from the pool of candidates. Mittman said 1 black
man was removed because he was divorced, but a white juror was not removed even
though he was paying child support - the alleged source of Cole's anger.
1 of Cole's advocates, Jamala Rogers, said the racial unrest in the St. Louis
County community of Ferguson after last summer's fatal police shooting of
Michael Brown as well as the scathing Department of Justice report about
Ferguson should send a signal that poor treatment of blacks, including those in
the criminal justice system, will no longer be tolerated.
"All the scabs have been taken off. Ferguson did that," Rogers said. "For us to
keep going with blinders on, it's not going to be healthy for us as a nation."
Cole's supporters do not dispute his guilt, but don't believe the crime
warranted him getting the death penalty.
Cole and his wife, Terri, divorced in 1995. The couple had 2 children and
fought about visitation. Evidence showed that Andre Cole was upset that his
wages were being garnished to pay $3,000 in unpaid child support.
The 1st deduction appeared on his Aug. 21, 1998, paycheck. Hours later, Cole
forced his way into his ex-wife's home and was confronted by Anthony Curtis,
who was visiting. Andre Cole stabbed Curtis and Terri Cole repeatedly. Curtis
died, while Terri Cole survived.
Andre Cole fled the state but surrendered to police 33 days later. He claimed
at trial that he did not bring a weapon into Terri Cole's house and that Curtis
initiated the attack with a knife.
Cole's attorney, Joseph Luby, has filed 3 appeals with the U.S. Supreme Court,
including 1 alleging that Cole suffers from psychosis and is incompetent for
execution.
"He hears voices over the TV, over the prison intercom, everywhere," Luby said.
"He believes that Gov. Nixon, St. Louis County prosecutor Bob McCulloch and
others are giving him messages about his case."
The same point was raised before the Missouri Supreme Court, which ruled last
week that Cole was competent for execution.
A spokesman for McCulloch did not respond to a message seeking comment.
Luby said concerns that blacks are being unfairly removed from St. Louis County
jury pools goes beyond Cole's case.
"There have been quite a number of St. Louis County cases where we see
African-American men sentenced to death by all-white juries, and it's just not
the kind of thing that can be explained by randomness or chance," Luby said.
"There's just been a repeated pattern."
(source: Associated Press)
NEBRASKA:
Conservative Leaders To Call For End Of Nebraska's Death Penalty
Nebraska Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty join conservative
leaders from across Nebraska at the State Capitol on Wednesday to call for
support of LB-268, which would repeal the state's death penalty statute and
replace it with life without the possibility of parole.
"Capital punishment is at odds with our core conservative values," said Sen.
Colby Coash of Lincoln, one of the leaders of the group. "As conservatives, we
are committed to fiscal responsibility, limited government, and valuing life,
and the death penalty goes against every one of them."
It explains why so many republicans are co-sponsors of the bill and why the
Nebraska Legislature Judiciary Committee recently voted unanimously in favor of
the repeal legislation.
"The death penalty is a costly government program that we don't use and that
does nothing to make us safer," said Bryan Baumgart, former chairman of the
Douglas County Republican Party. "It's inefficient and ineffective, which is
why many conservatives want it repealed."
According to Matt Maly, state coordinator of Nebraska Conservatives Concerned
about the Death Penalty, "Nebraska's conservative lawmakers are in good company
- across the country conservative values have been a driving force to end the
death penalty."
In addition to Nebraska, GOP lawmakers in Kansas, Kentucky, Wyoming, Montana,
and Missouri sponsored bills in 2015 to repeal the death penalty. The national
coordinator for Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty will be at the
news conference to discuss how Nebraska fits into this national trend of
conservatives rethinking capital punishment.
(source: WOWT news)
CALIFORNIA:
Death Penalty Phase Begins for Deadly Home Invasion Spree----The man is
connected to a series of crimes, including in Beaumont.
The death penalty phase is scheduled to start Monday in the case of a
34-year-old man, convicted on 24 charges stemming from a deadly spree of home
invasion robberies that culminated with the killing of a man in Desert Hot
Springs a decade ago.
Jurors will decide if Miguel Felix should be executed for the crimes that
occurred from the summer of 2004 until the spring of 2005 in Desert Hot
Springs, Thousand Palms, North Palm Springs, Cathedral City, Beaumont and
unincorporated county areas. The jurors also could recommend life in prison
without the possibility of parole.
Prosecutors said Felix was among several people who grabbed victim after victim
at or near their homes, forced them inside at gunpoint, then tied them up with
zip-ties, pistol-whipped and beat them, and ransacked their homes in search of
money or valuables.
In some cases, victims were kidnapped and taken to automatic teller machines or
other locations to obtain money, while their children or other relatives were
held at gunpoint by accomplices, prosecutors said.
In the most serious crime, Felix was convicted of 1st-degree murder with a
special circumstance for fatally shooting Armando Gonzalez at the victim's
Desert Hot Springs home on Aug. 11, 2004, during a robbery attempt.
Deputy District Attorney Lisa DiMaria said Felix and alleged accomplice Javier
Rodriguez Hernandez, who's been at large for more than a decade, went to
Gonzalez's home to rob him and shot him repeatedly when he resisted. Emergency
responders tried to save him, but Gonzalez was pronounced dead a short time
later.
The defense argued that Felix almost exclusively targeted drug dealers and that
the killing of Gonzalez was not a robbery attempt, but rather a personal feud
that boiled over.
Other charges against Felix included robbery, attempted robbery, burglary,
kidnapping and a variety of firearms charges.
Also accused in various parts of the crime spree were Hernandez, Antonio Jose
Cantu and Felix's girlfriend, Luisa Beatriz Lopez. Cantu pleaded guilty and
served 10 years in prison. Lopez fled and is believed to be hiding in Mexico.
(source: patch.com)
**************
Expert: Death penalty gets more support from whites than blacks on juries
White jurors are more likely than blacks to favor the death penalty, according
to testimony Monday in Solano County Superior Court by a university professor
involved with a survey of 496 people in Solano County.
71 % of whites support capital punishment while 48 % of blacks do, University
of California, Irvine professor Mona Lynch testified. The figures are one of
several findings from the survey.
"It's pretty clear," said Lynch, "you've got a different world view and
perspective."
Defense attorneys representing Henry A. Smith, charged with murder in the Nov.
17, 2011, fatal shooting of Vallejo police officer Jim Capoot, called the
professor as part of a pre-trial issue involving jury selection in the case.
The professor referred to the "white male dominance effect" and that with five
or more white men on the jury - in a case with a black defendant and white
victim - chances are extremely high for a death sentence.
"A fairly robust body of attitude research," Lynch added, shows huge gaps
between white and black Americans about whether the criminal justice system is
biased.
Lynch, referring to the racial makeup of juries, said, "Diverse juries are
typically more thoughtful juries."
The professor also said in court that evidence indicates black defendants who
kill white victims are especially likely to be sentenced to death.
Lynch said in court at the start of her testimony that she has an undergraduate
degree in psychology from the University of California, Santa Cruz, a master's
degree in communication from Stanford University where she studied documentary
filmmaking and a Ph.D. in social psychology from UC Santa Cruz.
She spoke about writing extensively about the death penalty, including the 2011
article "Mapping the Racial Bias of the White Male Capital Juror" in
death-penalty cases.
Phone interviews for the survey in Solano County were conducted between Nov. 11
and Dec. 9, 2014, Lynch said, and calls were made from the offices of Renton,
Washington-based Pacific Market Research.
Chief Deputy Public Defender Oscar Bobrow, representing Smith, who is black,
has said Fairfield, where Smith's trial is set to occur, is less likely to have
black jurors than Vallejo.
Solano County Superior Court Judge Peter B. Foor has disputed that, saying in
court that inequities may have existed 20 years ago before the change to
selecting jurors countywide rather than by judicial districts.
(source: Daily Republic)
USA:
Why the execution drug shortage won't go away
In a few weeks, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear Glossip vs. Gross, which
examines the use of the drug midazolam in lethal injection executions. The case
comes on the heels of an infamously gruesome 2014, a year that saw botched
executions in Ohio, Oklahoma and Arizona..
The states' problems stem from their increasing difficulty obtaining effective,
reliable, FDA-approved drugs to use in lethal injections. The reason is simple:
Drug companies don't want their products used to kill people.
But that's not what we're told by state officials. They claim the shortage is
strictly the result of anti-death penalty activists harassing the drug
companies into abandoning the use of their products in executions. Last year in
Ohio, for example, new state laws were drafted to shield the identities of
suppliers of lethal injection drugs. State officials maintain that if they can
just keep information about the drugs secret, they can ensure a steady supply
of approved drugs.
It's true that drug companies have heard from anti-death penalty advocates, but
those same companies - and their shareholders and customers - have long
objected to the use of their products in executions, as a reflection of both
their values and a concern for their bottom line.
The widespread recent issues with obtaining reliable lethal injection drugs
began when the U.S. pharmaceutical company Hospira stopped manufacturing
FDA-regulated thiopental in 2010 because of a production problem at one of its
plants. At the time, thiopental was the anesthetic widely approved by states as
part of their 3-drug protocol for executions.
In March of that year, Hospira had requested that prison officials in multiple
states discontinue the use of thiopental in executions. "Hospira provides these
products because they improve or save lives and markets them solely for use as
indicated on the product labeling," the company wrote. "As such, we do not
support the use of any of our products in capital punishment procedures."
When Hospira discontinued thiopental, some states began to quietly buy
unregulated, non-FDA approved thiopental from a wholesaler in London. In 2010,
Britain responded by implementing an export control on thiopental; this control
was later adopted more generally by the European Union, none of whose members
practice capital punishment. Eventually, a federal appeals court in Washington
shut down importation of unapproved thiopental altogether.
This has caused state officials to change their protocols, experimenting with
whatever anesthetics and sedatives they were able to obtain at a given moment.
(Midazolam, which isn't specified for use as an anesthetic, is one of the
alternates that states have tried, ushering in the Supreme Court case.) At
every turn, as protocols have changed - and even before thiopental became
unavailable - drug companies have tried to figure out how to prevent their
products from being used in American executions.
As early as 2001, pharmaceutical companies such as Abbott Laboratories and
Baxter International publicly condemned the use of their products in capital
punishment. At the time, they were unable to develop distribution controls to
prevent prisons from using the drugs.
In January 2011, the president of the Danish pharmaceutical manufacturer
Lundbeck wrote to the top prison official of Ohio: "We urge you to discontinue
the use of Nembutal [another anesthetic alternative] in the execution of
prisoners in your state because it contradicts everything we are in business to
do - provide therapies that improve peoples lives."
Such statements show that corporate leaders are convinced that using their
medical products to induce death does not comport with the mission or financial
interests of their companies. As the investment firm DJE Kapital stated in 2014
when it divested $70 million from Mylan, which produces the paralytic agent
used in some lethal injection executions, "If clients find out we have shares
in companies that supply that drug, we have problems with our clients."
Shrouding the execution process in secrecy may keep problematic executions out
of the public eye, but it will not increase the availability of drugs for use
in executions. There is no indication that drug companies are looking to get
around the export and import barriers that have been erected. Instead, the
problem facing states is more fundamental: They are seeking to impose the death
penalty despite a global economic context in which much of the rest of the
modern world abhors the practice. As long as that is the case, they are going
to have problems finding pharmaceutical products to carry out executions.
(source: Op-Ed; Ty Alper is a clinical professor of law at UC Berkeley and
author of "The United States Execution Drug Shortage: A Consequence of Our
Values," published in the biannual Brown Journal of World Affairs----Los
Angeles Times)
****************************
Pharmacist Association: Participating in Capital Punishment Violates Core
Values
The American Pharmacists Association's (APhA) House of Delegates adopted a
resolution late last month stating that dispensing lethal drugs used for
capital punishment violates the profession's core values "as providers of
health care".
The resolution was passed during APhA's annual meeting in San Diego on March
30.
It states that "the American Pharmacists Association discourages pharmacist
participation in executions on the basis that such activities are fundamentally
contrary to the role of pharmacists as providers of health care."
"Pharmacists are health care providers and pharmacist participation in
executions conflicts with the profession's role on the patient health care
team," APhA executive vice president Thomas Menighan explained in a statement.
"This new policy aligns APhA with the execution policies of other major health
care associations, including the American Medical Association, the American
Nurses Association and the American Board of Anesthesiology."
Groups that oppose the death penalty - including Amnesty International, the
NAACP, and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) - sent a letter urging
APhA to prohibit its members from compounding the drugs used in lethal
injections because doing so "undermines the position of trust that pharmacists
enjoy in this nation."
Although APhA adopted a policy that "discourages" its members from dispensing
drugs used in executions that cause the death of convicted criminals, it does
not have an identical policy when it comes to dispensing drugs that result in
the death of an unborn child.
In 1998, the APhA House of Delegates approved a "conscience clause" for its
members, which stated that the association "recognized the individual
pharmacist's right to exercise conscientious refusal and supports the
establishment of systems to ensure patients' access to legally prescribed
therapy without compromising the pharmacist's right of conscientious refusal."
In 2000, the Food and Drug Administration gave RU486 its final approval as a
non-surgical option to ending a pregnancy. RU486 (Mifeprex) is an artificial
hormone used in conjunction with prostaglandin to induce a chemical abortion
between the 5th and 7th week of pregnancy by interfering with progesterone, a
hormone that prepares the uterus lining to accept implantation of the
fertilized egg.
In 2003, APhA passed an amended policy stating its support for "the voluntary
involvement of pharmacists, in collaboration with other health care providers,
in emergency contraceptive programs that include patient evaluation, patient
education, and direct provision of emergency contraceptive medications."
However, pharmacists who cited the conscience clause were encouraged to refer
patients seeking chemical abortion drugs to other pharmacists lacking such
moral scruples.
"Pharmacists should not be required to participate in objectionable activities,
but neither should pharmacists obstruct access," according to a 2006 article in
the Journal of the American Pharmacists Association co-authored by APhA CEO
John Gans and staff counsel Susan Winckler.
"Expanding collaborative practice navigates the issue well, providing a
seamless way for women to access emergency contraception without compromising
the pharmacist's ability to opt out," they wrote.
CNSNews.com asked APhA why there was an apparent discrepancy in policy
regarding these 2 life-taking procedures.
"Does APhA also 'discourage pharmacist participation' in dispensing a RU486
regimen?" CNSNews.com asked the association.
Noting that capital punishment is also a controversial but legal procedure,
CNSnews.com asked: "Does APhA consider providing chemical abortion drugs such
as RU486, which result in the death of an unborn child, also 'fundamentally
contrary to the role of pharmacists as providers of health care'?"
"Why is there not a 'conscience clause' in the latest resolution encouraging
pharmacists not to obstruct access to [lethal injections], while encouraging
voluntary involvement without compromising the ability of those who oppose it
on moral and ethical grounds to opt out?" CNSnews.com asked.
"While APhA discourages pharmacist participation in executions, it is up to the
individual practitioner to determine if they will participate in these
activities," Michelle Spinnler, senior manager of external communications at
APhA, replied in an email.
"Policies adopted by the House of Delegates are not regulations or laws. There
is no enforcement jurisdiction related to our adopted policy. Policies instead
express the position of APhA and its members on various health care and
pharmacy issues and are used to guide advocacy, education, and communication
activities.
"Licensure and regulatory issues are determined and enforced by the board of
pharmacy in the pharmacist's state of licensure," she said.
Pro-life pharmacists' right to refuse to dispense abortion-inducing drugs have
been upheld by courts in Illinois and Washington State.
(source: CNS news)
*******************
Death penalty opposition intensifies
Catholics, fellow Christians, Pope Francis and even pharmacists intensified
opposition to the death penalty as Easter approached and the U.S. Supreme Court
moved closer to reviewing the legality of lethal injections in late April.
In a March 31 statement directed at politicians and others in criminal justice
sectors, nearly 400 Catholic and evangelical leaders said the occasion of Holy
Week prompted them to "speak out with renewed urgency against the death
penalty."
"Torture and execution is always a profound evil, made even more abhorrent when
sanctioned by the government in the name of justice when other means of
protecting society are available. ... We urge governors, prosecutors, judges
and anyone entrusted with power to do all that they can to end a practice that
diminishes our humanity and contributes to a culture of violence and
retribution without restoration," the letter said.
Among the document's signers were three retired Catholic bishops, presidents of
8 Catholic universities, the president of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and
the United States, and the heads of numerous social justice organizations.
Others included retired U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See Miguel Diaz, St. Joseph
Sr. Helen Prejean, Social Service Sr. Simone Campbell, and the Rev. Jim Wallis.
Together, the signers asked Christian public officials to join them in prayer
"to meditate on the wounds of injustice that sicken our society."
"In many ways, capital punishment is the rotten fruit of a culture that is sown
with the seeds of poverty, inequality, racism and indifference to life," they
said.
In separate statements, Nebraska's bishops also called for ending capital
punishment and reforming their state's criminal justice system, while a Kansas
prelate joined the state's faith leaders in voicing their opposition.
Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, Kan., and 430 other religious leaders
signed a Feb. 11 letter to Kansas legislators calling for the end of capital
punishment. Their opposition, he told The Topeka Capital-Journal, stemmed not
from failing to appreciate the horror of the crime, "but because we refuse to
imitate violent criminals."
The March 17 joint statement from the Nebraska bishops said that while the
Catholic church allows capital punishment under specific conditions, "we do not
believe that those conditions exist in Nebraska at this time." They said that
the "purposes of a criminal justice system are rehabilitation, deterrence,
public safety and the restoration of justice."
"We must all be careful to temper our natural outrage against violent crime
with a recognition of the dignity of all people, even the guilty," the bishops
said.
In Utah, Salt Lake City Bishop John Wester denounced the state's decision to
reinstate execution by firing squad for those convicted of capital crimes,
saying, "It seems as if our government leaders have substituted state
legislation for the law of God. ... By taking a life, in whatever form the
death penalty is carried out, the state is usurping the role of God."
The law, signed March 23, permits firing squads if the state cannot, 30 days
prior to an execution, obtain the drugs for lethal injections -- increasingly
difficult due to European restrictions and pharmaceutical reluctance.
Other states have also examined alternatives to lethal injection, with Wyoming
working to permit firing squads and Oklahoma considering the use of nitrogen
gas. In California, where capital punishment has been on hold since 2006, Gov.
Jerry Brown has requested $3.2 million to open 100 additional cells on the
nation's largest death row (more than 700 inmates) at San Quentin State Prison,
which nears running out of room.
At its annual meeting held in San Diego, the American Pharmacists Association
voted March 30 to adopt a policy that "discourages pharmacist participation in
executions on the basis that such activities are fundamentally contrary to the
role of pharmacists as providers of health care."
Thomas Menighan, executive vice president and CEO of the association of 62,000
members, said that the new policy aligns pharmacists with other major health
care associations, such as the American Board of Anesthesiology, the American
Nurses Association and the American Medical Association, which has discouraged
doctor participation in executions since 1980. In 1992, the Code of Medical
Ethics forbade such involvement outside of prescribing sedation or signing the
death certificate.
The Supreme Court is expected to hear arguments April 29 in the Glossip v.
Gross case involving Oklahoma lethal injection protocols. The court last heard
a similar case in 2008. The ruling is expected before late June. On March 30,
the court heard oral arguments in the case of Kevan Brumfield of Louisiana, who
is asking it to reconsider his death sentence due to mental disabilities.
In a similar case, the court rejected arguments to spare the life of Cecil
Clayton, Missouri's oldest death row inmate at age 74, because part of his
frontal lobe was removed in a 1972 accident. Clayton, convicted of murdering
sheriff's deputy Chris Castetter in 1996, was executed March 17.
In issuing their statement during Holy Week, the Christian leaders noted they
took their cue from Pope Francis, who was to lead Christians on Good Friday in
reflecting on the connections between Jesus' death on the cross and modern-day
use of the death penalty. As part of the "Way of the Cross" service in the
Colosseum, Francis and other participants were to pause at the 11th station --
Jesus nailed to the cross -- to meditate on how Christ's crucifixion resonates
with today's capital punishment practices.
"We gaze at you, Jesus, as you are nailed to the cross. And our conscience is
troubled," the prepared reflection read. "We anxiously ask: When will the death
penalty, still practiced in many states, be abolished? When will every form of
torture and the violent killing of innocent persons come to an end? Your Gospel
is the surest defense of the human person, of every human being."
In recent months, Francis has ramped up his opposition to the death penalty. 2
weeks before Good Friday, he called the death penalty "unacceptable" in a
letter to representatives of the International Commission Against the Death
Penalty. He reinforced the church's teaching that defends life from conception
to natural death and supports full human dignity.
"Justice is never reached by killing a human being," Francis said.
Capital punishment, he continued, "entails cruel, inhumane and degrading
treatment, as is the anguish before the moment of execution and the terrible
suspense between the issuing of the sentence and the execution of the penalty,
a form of 'torture' which, in the name of correct procedure, tends to last many
years and which oftentimes leads to illness and insanity on death row."
In October, Francis called for ending not just the death penalty but life
imprisonment. The Vatican removed life imprisonment from its penal codes in
September 2013 and has barred capital punishment in its state since 1969.
(source: National Catholic Reporter)
***************************
Why the death penalty in America is sexist
It took only 1 juror to spare Jodi Arias the death penalty for the brutal
murder of her ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander in 2008. She will, however, spend
the rest of her life behind bars, without the possibility of parole.
Considering the United States has executed only 13 women in the last 40 years,
a death sentence would have been highly unusual.
Women committed less than 10% of all murders in America between 2000 and 2010,
a Wall Street Journal analysis of crime data found. Women defendants, however,
only make up 2% of death row, according to a recent report by the NAACP.
Even fewer women actually get executed, Death Penalty Information Center
executive director Richard Dieter told Business Insider.
"There's just less enforcement of the death penalty at almost every stage for
females," he said.
2 major factors contribute to the low number of women who get capital
punishment: the nature of the crime and how juries view women in general. The
death penalty is often used for killers who also commit other felonies like
robbery or rape, law professor Victor Streib has previously told the LA Times.
Many of the murders women commit, on the other hand, involve people they're
related to.
While women commit about 10% of murders, they were responsible for 35% of
murders of intimate partners between 1980 and 2008. Most juries consider these
crimes of passion arising from disputes - 1-time offenses, Dieter said. Because
of the high rate of domestic violence against women, though, juries don't give
men the same benefit of the doubt.
On the other hand, most states consider killing a child an aggravating factor,
or a reason for prosecutors to seek the death penalty. Hiring someone to do the
work could also land a woman on death row. "If a woman hires someone, there's a
coldness, a calculation. It's different than something that arises out of an
argument," Dieter said.
Teresa Lewis, for example, plotted to kill her husband and stepson for the
insurance money. "Instead of pulling a trigger on a gun, she pulled a couple of
young men in to pull the trigger for her," prosecutor David Grimes told a judge
at the time, The Washington Post reported. She was the 1st woman Virginia
sentenced to die in more than 100 years.
But the 2nd factor - the jury's perception of the "fragile" female psyche - can
overpower aggravating factors. "It's just easier to convince a jury that women
suffer emotional distress or other emotional problems more than men," Streib
told the LA Times.
Take Susan Smith. She killed her 2 sons by backing her car into a lake while
they sat in the backseat. But when the jury heard about her abusive childhood,
they took pity on her, Dieter said. She only got a life sentence - with parole.
In TruTV's coverage of her story, the headline reads: Child Murderer Or Victim?
"These 12 people [the jury] are asked to see if this person has any redeeming
qualities. And they often see their own mother or wife or grandmother, not
someone who will continue to be a threat to society," Dieter said. "Jurors just
see women differently than men."
Of course, most women aren't going to argue for gender parity in the death
penalty, Dahlia Lithwick has written in Slate. Only 59% of women favour the
death penalty compared to 67% of men, according to a 2013 Gallup poll.
"For equality's sake, you think that women would want the death penalty pursued
more often," Dieter said. "But of course, they don't."
(source: Business Insider)
******************
The US has only executed 1 terrorist
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the alleged Boston Marathon bomber, stands accused of
terrorism. And terrorism, according to federal law, is a heinous crime worthy
of the death penalty.
But if Tsarnaev is indeed executed, he will be the exception, not the rule. At
least 14 times since 1993, federal prosecutors have sought the death penalty
for an accused terrorist, as they are doing now. In many of those cases, as in
this one, the crime involved was horrific and nationally publicized.
But only once was the defendant actually executed: Timothy McVeigh, the
Oklahoma City bomber, in 2001.
There are a few reasons why this is true. For starters, terrorism cases are
handled at the federal level, where the death penalty is much less common.
Since 1976, only three people have been executed under federal law; at the
state level, the toll is over 1,300.
Until 1994, federal statutes made the death penalty available for a limited
range of crimes - not including terrorism. The 1993 truck bombing of the World
Trade Center helped change that. 6 men were tried and convicted for the attack,
including Ramzi Yousef, who famously proclaimed in open court, "Yes, I am a
terrorist and proud of it..."
Yet the death penalty was not available because the bombing happened a year
before the passage of the Federal Death Penalty Act of 1994, a law that greatly
expanded the number of federal crimes considered "capital." Instead, Judge
Kevin Thomas Duffy sentenced each of the men to 240 years in prison, a number
he arrived at by adding up the life expectancies of those who had died in the
attack.
About 2/3 of federal terrorism cases are resolved through plea bargaining - an
option that may be under consideration in the Tsarnaev case. Often, prosecutors
offer a plea deal to avoid the excessive time and cost of a trial, especially a
high-profile one, and the subsequent appeals. Or they may want to spare the
victims from having to relive the attack and prevent the defendant from
receiving more fame and attention. Or they may not want to rely on a jury's
willingness to hand down a death sentence.
Either way, the result is the same: Though their crimes hold a fearsome place
in the national psyche, defendants like Tsarnaev don't end up getting the death
penalty.
The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, a response to the
World Trade Center bombing and the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, was an attempt
to make an actual execution more likely in federal terrorism cases.
Among other provisions, the law banned "second or successive" habeas corpus
petitions by federal terrorism defendants, ensuring that those sentenced to
death for terrorism wouldn't be able to make endless appeals.
But since the law was passed, only McVeigh has been executed. His accomplice,
Terry Nichols, barely escaped the death penalty, because 2 juries - 1 federal
and 1 state - deadlocked on the question of sentencing.
In 1998, Ted Kaczynski, also known as the Unabomber, faced the very real
possibility of a death sentence. As Attorney General Eric Holder has done in
the Tsarnaev case, then-Attorney General Janet Reno authorized the prosecution
to seek the death penalty. And when Kaczynski's lead defense attorney, Judy
Clarke - who is now representing Tsarnaev - tried to get the death penalty off
the table by entering an insanity plea, the defendant rejected the idea.
Several months into the proceedings, Kaczynski asked to represent himself,
agreeing to undergo a psychiatric evaluation. When the court-appointed
psychiatrist diagnosed him with paranoid schizophrenia, prosecutors were given
political cover to offer a plea deal that would spare his life. They were less
likely to be blamed for not trying to put to death a mentally ill man.
Kaczynski was sentenced to life in prison - on "Bombers' Row" at ADX Florence
in Colorado, the same facility where 5 of the 6 World Trade Center bombers were
being held.
In 2005, Eric Rudolph, who was responsible for the 1996 bombing at the Atlanta
Olympics as well as a series of abortion clinic bombings, also seemed to be
facing the death penalty. Attorney General John Ashcroft had indicated that he
wanted a high-profile terrorism case to end in an execution.
But in the months leading up to the trial, Ashcroft resigned and was replaced
by Alberto Gonzales, who was less gung ho about the death penalty. Gonzales
said he didn't want to make Rudolph a martyr.
After Rudolph was offered a plea, he issued this statement: ???The fact that I
have entered an agreement with the government is purely a tactical choice on my
part."
He, too, was sent off to ADX Florence.
David Coleman Headley, the American behind the 2008 terrorist attacks in
Mumbai, was another candidate for the death penalty. At least 166 people were
killed in that event, including 6 Americans.
But in return for pleading guilty and cooperating with the investigation
(Headley was an on-again off-again DEA and FBI terrorism informant), he was
sentenced to only 35 years.
Meanwhile, some federal terrorism suspects who escape the worst punishment do
so by other means, including by a jury verdict. Many American juries simply
will not endorse the death penalty, no matter the heinousness of the crime --
which is another reason for the speculation that Tsarnaev's prosecutors might
forego trial.
Zacarias Moussaoui, convicted of helping to plot the September 11 attacks,
wasn't offered a plea deal. But, in May 2006, a jury voted 11-1, 10-2, 10-2 in
favor of giving him the death penalty; for him to be put to death, the jury had
to come to a unanimous verdict on 1 of the counts. Moussaoui escaped death row
by a single juror. He was sentenced to 6 consecutive life terms without parole.
And Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the accused terrorist mastermind who has been
confined at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility since 2006, has managed to
avoid being put to death by avoiding being tried altogether.
First, there was a dispute about where his trial would be held: Holder and
President Obama wanted him tried in New York, as a civilian, while Congress
insisted he be tried at Guantanamo, by the military. Now, his trial is delayed
in part because prosecutors are concerned they won't be able to convict him -
because so much of the evidence against him was questionably obtained, through
"enhanced interrogation methods."
(source: themarshallproject.org)
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