Oct. 11
OKLAHOMA:
"It amounts to Torture:-- OK death row inmates to move out of solitary
confinement, death penalty debate continues
47 inmates sit on Oklahoma's death row, and now some of them will get to move
out of solitary confinement.
In a letter from the Department of Corrections to the ACLU, state leaders
agreed to move death row inmates out of solitary confinement within 30 days.
"That's because it amounts to torture," ACLU attorney Megan Lambert said.
Lawyers at the ACLU are also working to reinstate religious services on death
row.
"It did a lot for the morale and the environment down there. They said they
prayed for the facility and noticed a drastic change once those services
ended," Lambert said.
Meanwhile, a new effort to end the death penalty will spread through the halls
of the state capitol this spring.
Representative Jason Dunnington announced Thursday that he'll introduce a
bipartisan bill to end the practice in Oklahoma.
But work continues on a new protocol at the attorney general's office.
Attorney General Mike Hunter told News 4 in March that he was close to getting
a nitrogen gas mask - the new method announced in March 2018.
"Manufacturers are concerned that there's going to be negative reaction,"
Hunter said.
In September 2015, Oklahoma's long history of executions unraveled when the
execution of two inmate made headlines worldwide because officials had the
wrong drugs.
While executions remain on hold to this day, the legal battle will continue
when lawmakers return to 23rd and Lincoln.
"Our constitutional rights were not written for just the best of us," Lambert
said.
Not all death row inmates will qualify to be removed from solitary confinement.
In their letter to the ACLU, officials at the Department of Corrections said
they'd look at other changes to privileges if this plan goes smoothly.
News 4 asked the AG's office Thursday about the progress of the new execution
protocol.
A spokesperson said there's no update.
(source: KFOR news)
NEW MEXICO:
NM man originally sentenced to death will now serve life in prison
A death row inmate had his sentenced reduced Thursday.
Timothy Allen will serve life in prison.
The decision was made following a New Mexico Supreme Court ruling that said the
death sentence was too severe. Allen was originally sentenced to death before
2009 when New Mexico repealed the death penalty.
Allen was convicted of killing, kidnapping and attempting to rape 17-year-old
Sandra Phillips in 1994.
Allen wasn't seen in court Thursday. Instead, he was on the phone from behind
bars during the hearing.
With the life sentence, Allen's lawyer said his client will likely die in
prison. However, appeals are still in the works.
“It seems like it would be difficult for him to be released during his expected
lifetime," Ray Twohig said.
The Phillips family said the continuous hearings are weighing on them.
"My mom has to keep going through this all the time," said Sandra's brother
Dustin O'Brien. "This county has to keep going through this all the time. It’s
(explative).”
(source: KOB-TV news)
CALIFORNIA:
California must take the final step by abolishing the death penalty
I do not believe in coincidence. Too many of the events along my journey from
death row to exoneration were filled with deeper meaning.
In 1985, I was a 24-year-old honorably discharged Marine who was in the wrong
place at the wrong time. I was arrested, convicted, and sentenced to die in
Maryland for a crime I did not commit. Then in 1989, I got “The Blooding” by
Jospeh Wambaugh from the prison library. It was a book about a new forensic
breakthrough called DNA fingerprinting.
I later became the 1st person exonerated from a death sentence through the use
of DNA evidence. In a bizarre twist of fate, I discovered that the true
perpetrator of the crime had lived in a cell right below mine for years.
Today is World Day Against the Death Penalty. It is also California Gov. Gavin
Newsom’s birthday. I believe it is very auspicious that these two events share
a day.
It seems fitting for a man who has used his authority as governor to take the
bold stand that “the intentional killing of another person is wrong,” and
declare that as governor, he “will not oversee the execution of any
individual.”
I am now the executive director of Witness to Innocence, an organization led by
exonerated survivors of death row with similar stories to my own.
There are at least 166 of us, men and women who have been exonerated from death
row in the U.S. since 1973. We are celebrating the 17th World Day Against the
Death Penalty by wishing Gov. Newsom a very happy birthday.
We thank him for remembering our stories when he said “we’ve created a system
that allows for innocent people to be put to death.” We don’t think that. We
know that.”
We, the survivors of death row, also know that the problems with the death
penalty go far beyond the very real risk that we will execute an innocent
person.
As Gov. Newsom said: “It’s a racist system. You cannot deny that. It’s a system
that is perpetuating inequality. It’s a system that I cannot in good conscience
support.”
California’s death row, the largest in the nation by far, is emblematic of
those problems. The majority of people sentenced to death in California are
people of color.
Many suffer from severe mental illness, intellectual disabilities, brain
injury, or long histories of abuse and trauma, and nearly 1/4 were age 21 or
younger at the time of their alleged crimes.
Whether a person will be sentenced to death depends more on which county he or
she is from and who their attorney was than on the facts of the case.
California spends $150 million a year on this problematic system, which is a
vivid illustration of the deep flaws that remain in our criminal justice
system.
Gov. Newsom’s moratorium on executions is a great 1st step, and the journey
toward justice must continue. I hope next year on his birthday and World Day
Against the Death Penalty we have more to thank the governor for, and I look
forward to the day when we count California among the jurisdictions in the U.S
and the vast majority of countries that have come to recognize that death can
never advance justice.
(source: Kirk Bloodsworth is the executive director of Witness to Innocence, a
national organization of death row exonerees in Philadelphia with a mission to
abolish the death penalty, executivedirec...@witnesstoinnocence.org. He wrote
this commentary for CalMatters.)
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