[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----ARKANSAS
April 27 ARKANSASexecution Convicted murderer executed; state puts 4th inmate to death in 8 days Witnesses describe execution; inmate was 'striving for breath,' AP editor says 3 minutes after his lethal injection began, Arkansas inmate Kenneth Williams began coughing, convulsing and lurching with sound that was audible even with a microphone turned off, media witnesses to his execution said. State news editor Kelly Kissel said that Williams' body lurched forward at 10:55 p.m., 3 minutes after the midazolam was administered. He described the movement as "when you're on a bumpy road and you hit a bump." Williams lurched forward 15 times in a period of 10 to 15 seconds, Kissel said. He then lurched forward more slowly 5 times and began "striving for breath," according to witnesses. The "labored breathing" continued until 10:59 p.m., Kissel said. An attendant performed a consciousness check at 10:57 p.m., checking Williams' pupils. Williams was pronounced dead at 11:05 p.m. Kissel, who has witnessed 10 executions — including 2 in which midazolam has been used — said this is the most he's seen an inmate move. A family member of Cecil Boren, who Williams killed after escaping prison in October 1999, said Williams showed "no change in his facial expression" to show any pain. Jodie Efird added that “Any amount of movement he had was far less than any of his victims.” Williams becomes the 4th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Arkansas and the 31st overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1990. Williams becomes the 10th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1452nd overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977. (sources: Arkansas Online & Rick Halperin) ___ A service courtesy of Washburn University School of Law www.washburnlaw.edu DeathPenalty mailing list DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty Unsubscribe: http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/options/deathpenalty
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----ARKANSAS
April 27 ARKANSAS: Arkansas execution delayed as U.S. Supreme Court hears appeals A plan by Arkansas to execute an inmate was delayed on Thursday as the U.S. Supreme Court heard last-minute appeals from the man convicted of murdering a cheerleader, who then escaped from prison and killed 2 other people before being captured again. The state, which had not held an execution in 12 years until this month, has already put three inmates to death since April 20. It had planned to execute Kenneth Williams, 38, by lethal injection at 7 p.m. CDT ( GMT) at its Cummins Unit prison. Arkansas had initially planned to execute eight inmates in 11 days in April, the most of any state in as short a period since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. Four of those executions were halted by various courts. The unprecedented schedule, set because a drug in the state's execution mix expires at the end of April, prompted criticism that Arkansas was acting recklessly. It also set off legal filings that raised questions about U.S. death chamber protocols, troubled prosecutions and difficulties in obtaining lethal injection drugs. Hours before Thursday's planned execution, however, lawyers for Williams filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court, seeking to halt the proceedings on grounds including that Arkansas failed "to provide Mr. Williams a forum to litigate his claim that he is intellectually disabled." A U.S. District Court and courts in Arkansas have already rejected other motions seeking to halt the execution. Williams, sentenced to life without parole for the 1998 murder of 19-year-old college cheerleader Dominique Hurd, broke out of a maximum-security prison in 1999. He murdered Cecil Boren, 57 at his farmhouse, shooting him multiple times. Williams then stole Boren's pickup truck and fled to Missouri, where he slammed his vehicle into one driven by delivery man Michael Greenwood, 24, killing him. "We've been waiting a long, long time for this," Genie Boren, the widow of Cecil Boren, was quoted as saying by local TV broadcaster Fox 16. But Greenwood's daughter, Kayla Greenwood, sent Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson a letter on Thursday asking him to spare Williams. "His execution will not bring my father back or return to us what has been taken, but it will cause additional suffering," the letter said. In 2005, Williams sent a letter to a local Arkansas paper where he confessed to killing Jerrell Jenkins on the same day as the cheerleader. (source: Reuters) ___ A service courtesy of Washburn University School of Law www.washburnlaw.edu DeathPenalty mailing list DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty Unsubscribe: http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/options/deathpenalty
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
April 27 ZAMBIA: Zambia has 168 men and 2 women on death row Yesterda's He was speaking in Kabwe today when he addressed hundreds of prisoners at Mukobeko maximum security prison The Zambia Correctional Services says it has 170 inmates on death row. The 170 comprises 168 males at Mukobeko Maximum Security Facility in Kabwe. The 2 women are confined to the female section. Zambia Correctional Services Commissioner General Percy Chato said before the courts of law convicted and sentenced the 170 people to death for committing various capital offences, there had been no inmate on death row. The number had accumulated since July 16, 2015. "As at July 16, 2015, there was no one on death row following the presidential clemency of 332 inmates by His Excellency Mr Edgar Chagwa Lungu, the Republican President. The number has risen since honourable courts have continued committing inmates to prison," he said. Mr Chato, however, said in response to a Press query that no inmate on death row had been hanged since 1997. Mr Chato said that the last Head of State to sign the death penalty which eventually led to the execution by hanging of eight inmates at Mukobeko Maximum Security Facility was Frederick Chiluba. Dr Chiluba's successor Levy Mwanawasa refused to sign the death penalty during his reign, the precedent which subsequent presidents in Rupiah Banda, Michael Sata and Mr Lungu have carried on. "There is no legal backing as to whether execution must not be carried out, it is on the Christian tenets since Zambia was declared a Christian Nation," Mr Chato said. (source: Lusaka Times) * Zambian opposition fails to have treason case droppedUnited Party for National Development leader among those charged, Amnesty claims intimidation Opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema failed in his bid to have treason charges against him and other United Party for National Development (UPND) officials dismissed on Wednesday. Hichilema and 5 other defendants have been accused of treason over an incident on April 8 when they allegedly blocked President Edgar Lungu's motorcade as it passed through Mongu, a town 500 kilometers (310 miles) west of the capital Lusaka. Judge Green Malumano agreed with defense lawyers about the lack of detail in the treason allegation -- it contains no information how the accused planned to overthrow the government -- but refused to quash the charge. "Instead, I will allow the prosecutors to amend the charge and ... include covert activities the accused planned to undertake in order to overthrow the Zambian government," he told the court in Lusaka. If the prosecution failed to include such detail, the count would be quashed, Malumano added. The UPND defendants cannot be bailed while awaiting trial for treason, which is punishable by the death penalty or at least 15 years' imprisonment. Outside the court, around 50 opposition supporters were arrested following clashes with police. Amnesty International on Wednesday demanded Hichilema's immediate release and called for the government to drop the treason charges. The group's southern Africa director, Deprose Muchena, said the treason allegation was designed to harass and intimidate the opposition. (source: aa.com.tr) NIGERIA: Death penalty in Nigeria: Constitutional but unconventional Executing persons on the death row is an issue Nigerians don't take lightly. Whenever this issue is raised, the picture of Late Sani Abacha comes alive. He was reckoned to have ordered the execution of over 100 Nigerians during his reign in power. It was contended then that the trials which led to the convictions were not fair and independent (there is a high possibility that many innocent persons were executed). The height of this was reached when Ken Saro-Wiwa was killed. His unjust execution nailed the death penalty debate. Over the years, while the law regarding death penalty remained intact the attitude of presidents and governors has changed. For various reasons they have been reluctant to sign the death warrants rather they commute the death penalty to life imprisonment. This is a good practise. Unfortunately, it seems the attitude of some governors is now changing. In 2013, under the administration of Mr Adams Oshiomhole four people were executed. Last year as well, under the administration of Mr Godwin Obaseki, 3 death row inmates were executed. Lately, Mr Adeniji Kazeem, Attorney General of Lagos, caused a stir when he said the state was considering going ahead with the execution of inmates on death row. Mr Femi Falana (SAN) in a letter to Governor Ambode dated April 19, 2017, informed the Governor that the planned execution of death row inmates which includes the popular Rev. King, General Overseer of Christian Praying Assembly, would violate the judgment delivered by Mufutau Olokooba, justice of the Ikeja High Court, in 2012. The judge
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----MO., OKLA., NEB., COLO., USA
April 27 MISSOURI: Death penalty upheld for man who shot 2 Randolph County Jail deputies A man's death penalty conviction was upheld on Tuesday after an appeal was issued. Michael Tisius was charged in 2000 for shooting and killing 2 deputies at the Randolph County Jail. Tisius shot the deputies to help his cell mate try and escape from the jail. The opinion was issued after the Missouri Supreme Court concluded that no error was made in the judgment of Tisius' case. (source: ABC news) OKLAHOMA: Plenty for Oklahoma to consider in commission's death penalty report On Jan. 16, 2003, three days after Brad Henry was sworn in as Oklahoma's governor, the state executed a man for killing a 13-month-old boy 16 years earlier. It was the 1st of 14 executions carried out in 2003, and one of 40 that would occur during Henry's 2 terms in office. To be sure, Henry, a Democrat, wasn't squishy about signing off on the ultimate punishment as the state's chief executive. His record makes his current views on Oklahoma's death penalty process - that it needs considerable work - all the more compelling and worthy of policymakers' attention. Henry was 1 of 3 co-chairs of a special Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission, a group of 11 Oklahomans who spent a year studying this issue "from arrest to execution," as the report noted. After meeting with victims, prosecutors, defense attorneys and others involved in the process, the panel unanimously recommended that the state extend a moratorium on the death penalty that's been in place since October 2015. "We were all disturbed by the volume and the seriousness of the flaws in Oklahoma's capital punishment system," Henry said at a news conference Tuesday. This report arrives as the Oklahoma Department of Corrections works to finalize its own report on the death penalty. Both efforts follow problems with Oklahoma executions, including the use of a wrong drug in one execution and the near-use of the same drug in another. The commission report noted that "it is undeniable that innocent people have been sentenced to death in Oklahoma" and that "the burden of wrongful convictions alone requires systemic corrections recommended in this report." Indeed, 1 member of the panel was the cousin of an Ada woman killed in 1982. 2 men were convicted, one of whom was sent to death row, before both were exonerated and freed as a result of DNA evidence. The commission produced 46 recommendations, ranging from additional training for judges on forensics and trying capital cases, to recording all interviews with suspects in homicide cases, to using 1 drug to carry out executions (instead of the current 3-drug method), to broadening the scope of those who can serve on the state Pardon and Parole Board. In an especially important section of recommendations, the commission said attorneys and staff at the Oklahoma Indigent Defense System should receive pay comparable to their colleagues who work in district attorneys' office. We have written about the uphill climb facing the OIDS, which handles about 44,000 cases per year in its 75 counties (Oklahoma and Tulsa counties have their own systems). OIDS attorneys can have as many as 30 to 40 open cases at a time, including murder cases. The report referenced Oklahomans' support for the death penalty, as reflected in voters' approval in November of a state question ensuring that it remains an option. Yet Henry said the commission's findings leave the state facing another question: Does it want to get the death penalty right? Commission members said they hope their report will "help foster an informed discussion among all Oklahomans" about the death penalty. It's sure to do that, and should. We thank the members for their work regarding the state's most solemn responsibility. (source: Editorial, The Oklahoman) Keep executions on hold 'until significant reforms are accomplished,' Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission saysSignificant reforms are needed, study group says A bipartisan private commission recommended on Tuesday that a court-ordered stay on executions in Oklahoma remain in effect until "significant reforms" are accomplished, citing concerns about resources available to those facing death sentences and the faulty application of execution procedures. The Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission released its findings and nearly 4 dozen recommendations in a nearly 300-page report on a study of capital cases from initial contact with police to the day defendants are put to death. Former Gov. Brad Henry, who helped lead the effort, announced that the commission unanimously recommended that the moratorium be extended due to what he said were serious flaws in the way Oklahoma handles death-penalty cases. He said the number of death-row exonerees from Oklahoma - 10, according to the Death Penalty Information Center - was among his
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----OHIO, IND., TENN., ARK.
April 27 OHIO: Court agrees to rehear lethal injection case in win for Ohio The state on Tuesday won a round in its efforts to restart executions in Ohio, though in the short term a court???s ruling will likely delay efforts to put a condemned child killer to death. At issue are arguments about Ohio's proposed use in executions of a contested sedative called midazolam and a debate over what a previous U.S. Supreme Court ruling said about the constitutionality of the drug. In January, federal Magistrate Judge Michael Merz said the state's 3-drug protocol, beginning with midazolam, "creates a substantial risk of serious harm." Earlier this month, a 3-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati agreed with the judge and kept his order against the execution process in place. The state appealed, asking the full 6th Circuit to rehear the case in the hopes it would come to a different conclusion. On Tuesday, the court agreed and set arguments for June 14. The court lists 14 full-time judges and several senior judges. Ohio argues that the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the use of midazolam in 2015 in a case out of Oklahoma. The appeals court ruling means at least 2 executions are now uncertain. On May 10, the prisons agency is set to put Ronald Phillips to death for raping and killing the 3-year-old daughter of his girlfriend in Akron in 1993. Phillips' execution has been delayed multiple times over the years. On June 13, the day before the appeals court arguments, Ohio plans to execute Gary Otte for shooting 2 people to death in back-to-back robberies over two days in Parma, in suburban Cleveland, in 1992. Republican Gov. John Kasich's office said it was trying to determine the impact of the ruling on the executions. The Department of Rehabilitation and Correction was also reviewing the decision. The agency "remains committed to carrying out court-ordered executions in a lawful and humane manner," said spokeswoman JoEllen Smith. Lawyers challenging Ohio's execution process said they believe the full appeals court will also be convinced that the state's current method is unconstitutional. Executions have been on hold since January 2014, when inmate Dennis McGuire took 26 minutes to die under a never-before-tried 2-drug method that began with midazolam. The same drug was involved in a problematic execution later that year in Arizona. (source: Associated Press) INDIANA: Indiana Supreme Court denies death penalty statute appeal The Indiana Supreme Court has turned down the request of a Gary man accused of slaying seven women to look at the constitutionality of the state's death penalty statute before he goes to trial. The Post-Tribune reports the court denied 46-year-old Darren Deon Vann's request Thursday, following suit with rulings in previous challenges in other Indiana cases. Vann argued the statute possibly violates the 8th Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. His defense attorneys argued the issue should be addressed before a trial is set to save time and money. The defense says the decision impacts not only Vann but "every other pending death penalty case in Indiana." Vann has a status hearing Friday in Lake County to discuss pending matters in his case. (source: tribstar.com) TENNESSEE: Sixth Circuit denies AG's request to rehear death row case decision The full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has declined to reconsider a decision in favor of Tennessee death row inmate Andrew Thomas in the case of the fatal 1997 shooting of armored truck guard James Day in Memphis. The denial follows a decision by panel of judges in February that the state violated Thomas' due process rights when the prosecution failed to disclose to him that a witness had received $750 from the federal government before the trial. Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery, Solicitor General Andree Blumstein and Associate Solicitor General Jennifer Smith had petitioned for a rehearing of the decision. Thomas' attorney, Robert Hutton, argued neither a rehearing by the panel of judges who issued the decision or review by the full court is warranted. No judge requested a vote on the suggestion to rehear the case before the full en banc court, resulting in a decision last week to deny the attorney general's request, according to court records. Judge Julia Gibbons, wife of former Shelby County District Attorney General Bill Gibbons, recused herself from participating in the court's ruling. With last week's ruling, both a rehearing by the panel of judges and by the full court have now been denied. The victim in the case was a Loomis Fargo armored car courier who was shot at lunchtime on April 21, 1997, at a Walgreens in the 4500 block of Summer. Day survived the shooting but died 2 years later on Oct. 2, 1999. The Safe Streets Task Force, a multiagency group of federal and
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., DEL., S.C., GA., ALA., LA.
April 27 TEXAS: Texas Sues Trump Administration To Recover Execution Drugs It Bought From IndiaTexas and 2 other states bought a massive amount of execution drugs from India. The FDA says the drug is illegal to import, so Texas is taking them to court. On Wednesday, Texas followed through on a promise to sue the federal government in an attempt to obtain lethal injection drugs the Food and Drug Administration maintains are illegal. The Wednesday court filing sets up the unusual scenario of Texas suing the Trump administration for hindering the death penalty - a new complaint in a lawsuit originally brought against the Obama administration. Texas, Arizona and Nebraska each purchased 1,000 vials of execution drugs from a man in India in 2015. Last week, the FDA formally denied the shipments, ruling that it's illegal to import the drug. On Wednesday, the state filed an amended complaint in federal court, alleging that the FDA is harming the state by blocking the drugs. "TDCJ has previously purchased and used thiopental sodium in numerous executions before" the sole FDA-approved supplier stopped making the drug, the state's lawyers wrote. "Through the import at issue in this case, TDCJ is attempting once again to utilize thiopental sodium for purposes of imposing lawful capital sentences." The FDA blocking the shipments "directly harms TDCJ by preventing TDCJ from having the option of using the drugs at issue in lawful executions," the lawyers wrote. "This harm will continue unless and until the Court" forces the FDA to allow the drugs into the country. In addition to state government lawyers from Attorney General Ken Paxtons office, the state has hired outside lawyers from the law firm Alston & Bird to help represent the state. Wednesday's filing was signed by Daniel G. Jarcho, a partner in the firm's DC office who used to represent the FDA when he worked for the Justice Department. Last week, the FDA sent Texas and Arizona a 26-page letter denying the drugs, arguing that they are unapproved, mislabeled, and that the government is legally bound by a 2012 court order issued by the federal district court in DC that prohibits them from allowing thiopental into the country. In Texas' complaint filed Wednesday, the state makes no mention of the 2012 court order, which was upheld by a federal appeals court in DC, although it does note that the FDA's position on thiopental changed that year. Instead, the state focuses on arguing that it is exempt from the FDA's requirements because the drugs would be used for "law enforcement." The state points to a statute that exempts drugs "shipped or sold to . . . persons . . . engaged in law enforcement, . . . and [are] to be used only for such . . . law enforcement.??? "Use of thiopental sodium to administer lawfully-imposed capital sentences through lethal injection is a use of the drug for law enforcement purposes," the state argues. "TDCJ is a state agency that is regularly and lawfully engaged in law enforcement." The FDA declined to comment on the case. But in the letter the agency sent last week, the federal government wrote that the law enforcement exemption does not apply when the drugs are to be used on humans. The FDA also pointed out that the exemption was written before lethal injection was created. "As an initial matter," the FDA noted, "the law enforcement exemption could not have been intended to apply to lethal injection, because FDA issued the regulation adding the exemption ... in 1956, well before any State used lethal injection as a method of execution." Texas is asking the court to force the FDA to allow the drugs in, and to prohibit the FDA from detaining any future shipments of execution drugs it buys. Judge George Hanks set a telephone hearing for Thursday to discuss the status of the case. In its complaint, Texas does not name the supplier of the drugs at issue, referring to it only as a "foreign distributor." In 2015, Texas first planned on buying sodium thiopental from a small company in India, according to documents obtained by BuzzFeed News. That sale, however, fell through when the would-be supplier was raided by India's Narcotics Control Bureau, its employees arrested, its drugs seized, and its facility shut down. Indian law enforcement seized a massive amount of generic versions of Xanax, Ritalin, Ambien, Viagra, and various opioids. When that deal fell through, Texas instead turned to a man in India named Chris Harris. Harris sold 3,000 vials of sodium thiopental to Texas, Arizona, and Nebraska for more than $75,000 - promising that there would be no legal problems with the sale. Before the drugs were shipped, the FDA and DEA warned the states and Harris that the sale would be illegal and that the government would have to stop the shipment. The states bought the drugs anyway. In its court filing Wednesday, Texas lamented that the FDA was
