[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----OHIO, CALIF., WASH., USA, US MIL.
March 26 OKLAHOMA: Michael Portillo inspires Oklahoma to consider execution by nitrogenAs US states look for alternatives to lethal injection Oklahoma is on the verge of becoming the 1st to allow for asphyxiating death row inmates Oklahoma is moving forward with plans to become the first US state to allow executions using nitrogen gas after being inspired by a BBC documentary in which Michael Portillo suggested it was the most painless way to implement capital punishment. States where the death penalty is imposed are scrambling for alternative methods as pharmacies that provide drugs for lethal injection increasingly refuse to do so on ethical grounds. Later this week Oklahoma's Senate will vote on allowing death by nitrogen hypoxia. The proposal has already been approved by a large majority in its lower house and it would become the state's first back-up option if lethal injection drugs run out. Mike Christian, the Republican state politician behind the plan, has said his opinion on using nitrogen was solidified after he saw a 2008 BBC Horizon documentary called How to Kill a Human Being in which Michael Portillo, the former British Cabinet minister, searched for the most humane execution option. In the film Mr Portillo, who as an MP voted both for and against the death penalty, said: After some investigation I think I've come up with a perfect killing device, an entirely humane way of killing a prisoner who is under sentence of death. It's nitrogen, which renders him at first euphoric, and then makes him unconscious pretty quickly and he dies entirely without pain. Mr Christian said recently: I believe it's revolutionary. It's probably the best thing we've come up with since the start of executing people by government. You can pick up nitrogen anywhere they use it. Industrially, you can pick it up at a welding supply company. Condemned prisoners would be asphyxiated by putting a mask on them which would be used to replace oxygen with inert nitrogen. Supporters say the person would experience brief euphoria, lose consciousness after about 10 seconds, and their heart would stop beating within 2 minutes. According to Amnesty International no US state has ever used nitrogen gas to execute an inmate and it had no reports of the method being used in other countries. Ryan Kiesel, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Oklahoma, said: We would be experimenting on the condemned using a process that has been banned in many states for the euthanasia of animals. In Oklahoma, where three people were scheduled to die next month, executions are already on hold following a botched lethal injection last year. Clayton Lockett, convicted of murder, took 43 minutes to die. The US Supreme Court is reviewing the state's lethal injection procedures after remaining death row inmates claimed they were inhumane. Earlier this week Utah approved the firing squad as its back-up method if it runs out of lethal injection drugs. (source: The Telegraph) CALIFORNIA: Attorney General Reportedly Moving To Block 'Death Penalty For Gays' Ballot Initiative California Attorney General Kamala Harris is reportedly moving to prevent a ballot proposal criminalizing sodomy and allowing the death penalty for anyone who touches another person of the same gender for purposes of sexual gratification from ever appearing on the California ballot, according to Patrick McGreevy of the Los Angeles Times. Huntington Beach attorney Matt McLaughlin filed papers to begin gathering signatures for the ballot measure, known as the Sodomite Suppression Act, on February 26th. Harris??? move would effectively prevent signature gathering. In California's direct democracy any citizen can follow procedures to propose just about any law. That doesn't mean that any law could pass, and even if passed, it doesn't mean that any law could actually go into effect. Even laws passed by a majority of California voters may been overturned by judicial review, as was the case in the Prop. 8 gay marriage debate. This latest initiative is creating news not because of what it would do if passed but because of the fact that it, so far, stopping it has not been possible. Along with the required $200 fee, McLaughlin's letter asking for certification of his initiative includes the following language: The abominable crime against nature known as buggery, called also sodomy, is a monstrous evil that Almighty God, giver of freedom and liberty, commands us to suppress on pain of our utter destruction even as he overthrew Sodom and Gomorrha. The Sacramento Bee reports that the Legislature's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Caucus has now written a letter to the State Bar calling into question McLaughlin's fitness to practice law. A petition to take away his law license already has over 40,000 signers. (source: CBS news) WASHINGTON: Life or
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----OHIO, CALIF., WASH., USA
Nov. 13 OHIO: Jury urges death for Sandusky man Curtis Clinton, guilty of killing 3 Jurors are recommending the death penalty for a northern Ohio man convicted in the deaths of a woman and her 2 young children just over a year ago. The jury in Sandusky came back with its decision Tuesday, a week after finding 42-year-old Curtis Clinton guilty of aggravated murder and rape. A judge will decide Thursday whether to accept the jury's recommendation. Clinton denied killing 23-year-old Heather Jackson, her 3-year-old daughter and 1-year-old son at a Sandusky home. They were killed in September 2012. Police officers said that they found the children's bodies behind boxes in a utility closet and that the woman's body was under a mattress. (source: Associated Press) CALIFORNIA: Man gets death penalty for torturing, killing 84-year-old widow A 29-year-old man was sentenced to death Tuesday for raping, torturing and fatally stabbing an 84-year-old widow after breaking into her Anaheim home. Authorities said Anthony Darnell Wade drank champagne and smoked a cigar as he left the crime scene. Wade, a Los Angeles resident, broke into the home of Bessie Whyman through a broken window on January 2010 and attacked her. He raped Whyman and bound her hands and feet before punching and kicking her, according to Orange County prosecutors. Prosecutors said Wade tortured the woman and finally killed her by attacking her with a saw and stabbing her repeatedly with a kitchen knife. Before driving toward San Bernardino with her purse and car, Wade covered Whyman's body with a blanket and other household items in the living room. In San Bernardino, he was stopped by grocery store employees after he tried to use Whyman's credit cards at a Food 4 Less, prosecutors said. A grocery store staffer detained him after a fight with an employee and he was arrested by San Bernardino police. Officers with the Anaheim Police Department conducted a welfare check at Whyman's home and discovered her body. One of the hardest things for me to accept is that my daughter will never have memories of her grandma BeBe's smile, watching her dance, hearing her play the piano and sing or feeling the love that BeBe had for her, said Whyman's daughter-in-law, Lori Laucik, during Tuesday's sentencing. On Sept. 6, a jury found Wade guilty of one felony count of special circumstances murder during the commission of rape, robbery, burglary and murder with torture. He was also found guilty of elder abuse, 1st-degree robbery, 1st-degree residential burglary, torture, forcible rape and the unlawful taking of a vehicle. They also agreed with sentencing enhancements for the personal use of a deadly weapon and causing great bodily injury to an elder. The jury had recommended the death penalty on Oct. 7. (source: Los Angeles Times) *** Judge denies motion to dismiss charges for defendant in Modesto triple homicide A judge on Tuesday denied a motion to dismiss charges against 1 of 7 men accused of murder in the shooting of 3 people inside an east Modesto home last year. A criminal grand jury in December indicted Ricky Javier Madrigal, Jose Osegueda Jr., Richard Tyrone Garcia, Armando Osegueda, Joseph Luis Jauriqui, Robert Palomino and Juan Jose Nila. The defendants are charged with murder in the shooting deaths of 16-year-old David Siebels, 19-year-old Alyxandria Tellez and 31-year-old Edward Joseph Reinig. They were killed March 3, 2012, inside a home on McClure Road, across from Creekside Golf Course. Mary Lynn Belsher, Madrigal's defense attorney, was asking the judge to throw out the indictment against her client, because she said the prosecution had presented inadmissible evidence in front of the grand jury. She argued that her client's rights to due process had been violated, since the grand jury transcript contained speculation, hearsay and testimony with inadequate foundation. The grand jury was instituted for finding the truth, not for indicting someone who had nothing to do with anything, Belsher told the judge. The court can't abide by this. Deputy District Attorney Marlisa Ferreira argued that there was sufficient admissible evidence presented to the grand jury to support the indictment. She spent nearly 45 minutes explaining to the judge why testimony the grand jury heard would be admissible at trial. They are material facts of a conspiracy, operative facts of a crime, the prosecutor told the judge. There are numerous exceptions of why this evidence is admissible. After hearing the attorneys' arguments, Stanislaus County Superior Court Judge Thomas Zeff said there was some inadmissible evidence submitted to the grand jury. There was, however, sufficient admissible evidence to support the indictment against Madrigal, he said. In criminal grand jury proceedings, witnesses testify without the defendants or their attorneys
