Jan. 28
MISSISSIPPI:
Firing squads, electrocution; options for Mississippi's death penalty
Attorney General Jim Hood outlined his legislative priorities Wednesday. During
a news conference he outlined his focus on better laws for child victims and
child trafficking. And when it came to the death penalty, he wants options so
he can carry out the will of the court.
In possibly the most controversial initiative, Hood told reporters he wants to
have alternatives to the death penalty if the drugs become unavailable or
lethal injection itself was declared unconstitutional.
"In case somehow there is a lethal injection declaration that it's
unconstitutional or something, we would have alternative means available in law
such as nitrogen hypoxia. These are all alternatives, fallback positions such
as execution by a firing squad," said Hood.
According to deathpenaltyinfo.org, 3 states have recently passed laws allowing
for alternative execution methods if lethal injection drugs are unavailable.
Oklahoma's law, allows for the use of nitrogen gas asphyxiation. Tennessee
allows for the use of the electric chair. Utah allows the firing squad to be
used if the state cannot obtain lethal injection drugs 30 days before an
execution.
Late Wednesday afternoon, ACLU of Mississippi released the following statement
on the Attorney General's Legislative Agenda:
"The ACLU of Mississippi applauds Attorney General Hood's restorative justice
efforts via creation of the re-entry pilot program, which would promote
principles of restorative justice and rehabilitation. Mississippi must continue
to evaluate its prison system to ensure that former offenders have a fair
chance at living a crime-free life beyond bars. This will in turn reduce
recidivism rates and decrease our prison population.
However, we strongly oppose his intent to exempt from the Public Records Act
the identities of the state execution team as well as the lethal injection drug
supplier. Citizens have a right to this public information. Too often, states
have been allowed to conduct executions cloaked in secrecy and free of public
and judicial scrutiny, to rely on drugs from unknown and untested sources, and
to employ personnel of unknown and unverifiable qualifications - with
disastrous results. This pattern should be unacceptable in a civilized society
dedicated to transparency and the rule of law.
We vehemently oppose the articulated alternative barbaric means Attorney
General Hood proposes. The American Civil Liberties Union believes the death
penalty inherently violates the constitutional ban against cruel and unusual
punishment and the guarantees of due process of law and of equal protection
under the law. Furthermore, we believe that the state should not give itself
the right to kill human beings - especially when it kills with premeditation
and ceremony, in the name of the law or in the name of its people, and when it
does so in an arbitrary and discriminatory fashion."
(source: WDAM news)
MISSOURI:
Missouri Likely to See Change After Historic High in Executions
A decline in executions is likely in Missouri after 2 years of unusually high
numbers. In 2014, Missouri tied with Texas for the most executions in the U.S.,
and it was 2nd to Texas in 2015. However, changing attitudes about the death
penalty--similar to national shifts--are evident in Missouri's sentencing
trends: no one was sentenced to death in Missouri in 2014 or 2015, and less
than 1 person per year has been sentenced to death in the past 7 years.
Moreover, a bill with bi-partisan support has been introduced to repeal the
death penalty. It passed the Senate General Laws committee in late January. An
editorial in the Columbia Daily Tribune highlighted the political diversity in
the legislative support for the measure. Among those who voted the bill out of
committee were 2 Democrats and 2 Republicans. Sen. Paul Wieland cited his
pro-life views as a reason for support, while Sen. Rob Schaaf said, as long as
it is "not fairly applied...I'm going to be opposed to the death penalty."
Staci Pratt, state coordinator for Missourians for Alternatives to the Death
Penalty, said the executions over the last two years reflect a bygone era:
"Most were on death row for more than 15 years. We were looking at a snapshot
of history. Today we are beginning to see a shift."
(source: DPIC)
OKLAHOMA:
Ex-Oklahoma prisons director testifies on execution problems
The Oklahoma Department of Corrections' former director has testified again
before a multicounty state grand jury that is investigating problems with the
state's last 2 scheduled executions.
The Oklahoman reports that Robert Patton testified for about 90 minutes on Jan.
21. He first testified on Oct. 21.
The grand jury is investigating, at the request of Attorney General Scott
Pruitt, how the wrong lethal injection drugs were used in the execution of last
January. Authorities say that potassium acetate was used in the execution of
Charles Warner instead of potassium chloride, which is the last drug used in
Oklahoma's 3-step lethal injection process.
The same incorrect drug was delivered to the state prison hours before the
execution of Richard Glossip was to be carried out last September. Glossip's
execution was put on hold when prison officials realized the wrong drugs had
been delivered.
Warner was originally scheduled to be executed in April 2014, the same night as
Clayton Lockett who died 43 minutes after his initial injection after writhing
on the gurney. It was later revealed in an investigation that a faulty
insertion of the intravenous line and lack of training contributed to problems
with Lockett's execution.
Patton resigned in December and accepted a position as a deputy warden at a
private Arizona prison.
The grand jury is expected to issue a report on the case Feb. 18.
The attorney general has said that he will not request any execution dates
until at least 150 days after his investigation is complete, the results are
made public and his office receives notice that the corrections department can
comply with the state's execution protocol.
(source: Associated Press)
COLORADO:
Applying the Colorado death penalty
Re: "Wrong direction on Colorado death penalty," Jan. 26 editorial.
I oppose the death penalty, because I think it is a punishment that man lacks
the moral authority to impose. But your editorial against it is illogical.
Your editorial contends that if a jury cannot agree unanimously to impose the
death penalty, after agreeing unanimously that the defendant is guilty beyond a
reasonable doubt of committing a crime for which the death penalty is
sanctioned, then "the logical response to that fact is to abolish the penalty,
not lower the standard under which it is imposed."
Huh? But there is no "logic" in that at all. The citizens have voted to
preserve the death penalty in rare circumstances, but it never gets imposed
because a few jurors object to it in all circumstances. The "logical response"
is not for those few jurors to thwart the will of the entire state.
Glenn Beaton, Aspen
(source: Letter to the Editor, Denver Post)
ARIZONA:
Rector prosecutors urge judge to keep death penalty on table
The prosecutor in a Bullhead City capital murder case is asking the Superior
Court judge to again reject a defense motion to take the death penalty off the
table.
Justin James Rector, 27, is charged with 1st-degree murder, kidnapping, child
abuse and abandonment of a dead body in the kidnapping and murdering 8-year-old
Isabella Grogan-Cannella Sept. 2, 2014, and leaving her body in a shallow grave
near her Bullhead City home.
Deputy Mohave County Attorney Greg McPhillips argued Monday in his motion that
Superior Court Judge Lee Jantzen has already denied a defense motion on Dec. 9
to preclude the death penalty as punishment if Rector is convicted of
1st-degree murder.
McPhillips argued that Rector has not been tried or convicted yet of murder and
federal courts have ruled that a conviction and death sentence for 1st-degree
murder is required before a defense attorney can challenge the death penalty in
the appeals process.
Rector's attorneys filed their 3rd motion Dec. 15 to dismiss the possibility of
the death penalty because it endangers Rector's Eighth Amendment right to be
free from a medical experiment and from suffering a painful death. The motion
also stated that Arizona has botched several executions including Joseph Woods
in July 2014, which took about 2 hours.
Rector's attorneys also filed motions in August and in September to preclude
the death penalty, citing that lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment
and that it is discriminatory and unconstitutional.
In Arizona, a jury in a death penalty determines if a defendant is guilty or
innocent of 1st-degree murder. If a defendant is convicted of that murder
charge, the jury then determines if the defendant is to be sentenced to death
or to life in prison.
Rector's next status hearing is set for March 4. Rector's 10-week murder trial
is set to begin Oct. 17 with a pre-trial hearing set for Aug. 23.
(source: Mohave Daily News)
CALIFORNIA:
Capital Punishment Activists Battle over California's New Lethal Injection Plan
Advocates and opponents of capital punishment sparred on Friday over
California's proposed new lethal injection protocol, highlighting deep
divisions in a state that houses a quarter of U.S. death row inmates but has
not executed anyone in a decade.
The plan to use barbiturates to execute inmates sentenced to die in the most
populous U.S. state drew fire from religious activists, who called capital
punishment grisly and anti-democratic at a hearing in Sacramento. Law-and-order
advocates urged its adoption.
"As of next month, the state will have been remiss in its duties for a decade,"
said Michele Hanisee, vice president of the Los Angeles Association of Deputy
District Attorneys. "The family members of the victims are dying before the
murderers."
The informational hearing was part of the state's process for adopting a new
protocol for lethal injection that would use one drug, a barbiturate, to put
condemned inmates to death. It would replace a 3-drug cocktail that a
California court declared unconstitutional 10 years ago because it could
possibly cause pain.
Under a court settlement, the state must develop a new procedure for
executions. At the same time, Californians have grown more divided over capital
punishment, with nearly 1/2 the electorate and many top officials now opposing
the death penalty.
Death penalty opponents hope to place an initiative on the November ballot that
would outlaw capital punishment. On the same ballot, supporters back a
different initiative to speed up executions.
"The people on death row, most of them have perpetrated grave crimes," said
Linda Fox, a board member of the group Death Penalty Focus, who spoke against
the protocol. "But they are still human beings."
There was no proof, she argued, that using a barbiturate to carry out a death
sentence would not result in a botched or painful execution.
California juries have sentenced nearly 900 people to death since 1978, but
only 13 have been executed. 68 have died of natural causes, 36 for other
reasons.
Of more than 750 inmates currently on death row, 7 have been there since the
1970s.
If the new protocol is adopted by corrections officials and voters do not
outlaw the death penalty next November, the state could theoretically begin
executing 18 prisoners who have exhausted their appeals. Legal challenges to
the lethal injection drug, however, could drag on for years.
(source: Reuters)
**************
Jury recommends death penalty for man convicted of 15-year-old murder
A Kern County jury has recommended the death penalty for man convicted of
killing a woman in Bakersfield 15 years ago.
Judge Kenneth Twisselman denied our cameras during Wednesday's penalty phase.
Michael Charles Brown was arrested in 2009 in connection with the murder of
Ruby Lee Jackson-Merryweather in 2000.
Police say he was also a serial rapist, picking up prostitutes and sexually
assaulting them.
Brown was convicted of 17 charges in connection with alleged assaults on 4
different women.
He already served time for manslaughter for running over a man on Union Avenue
in 2003.
Brown was linked to the Jackson-Merryweather murder through DNA.
He will be sentenced March 9.
(source: kerngoldenempire.com)
USA:
An Interview With the Unabomber's Brother----A deeply personal encounter with
David Kaczynski and Linda Patrik, family members of the man who was once the
most sought after terrorist in America.
We meet in the middle of nowhere, a vast prairie in the Southwest. David
Kaczynski and his wife Linda Patrik don't want it to be known where exactly
they live, even after all these years. "My brother has a fan club," David says.
Theodore "Ted" Kaczynski, the Unabomber, was once the most sought after
terrorist in the US. Between 1978 and 1995, he mailed 16 bombs, killed three
people, and injured 23. The FBI dubbed him the Unabomber, because he sent his
bombs to universities and airlines. In David Kaczynski's forthcoming book Every
Last Tie: The Story of the Unabomber and His Family (Duke University Press
Books), he tells the story for the first time from his own perspective. Ted
Kaczynski got a life sentence, but in some ways, his family did, too.
Michaela Haas: Why did you spend the last 20 years advocating against the death
penalty?
David Kaczynski: Because the death penalty is a false solution; it just causes
more pain. After the Unabomber crisis, I became a man on a mission, committed
to putting a human face on my mentally ill brother and changing people's minds
about the death penalty. The question is: How do we heal? How do we heal in a
way that actually helps transform society? Over a 15-year period, I travelled
to 39 states and gave more than a thousand public speeches in which I repeated
my painful family story endlessly and outlined the reasons why I thought
capital punishment was a terrible mistake.
Is this why you have reached out to many of your brother's victims?
DK: After Ted was arrested and we were haunted by the media, I got quite
depressed and I went through this "poor-me" phase, because the government had
betrayed us. They had assured us nobody would ever know that it was us who
identified my brother as the Unabomber, but the same day my brother was
arrested in April 1996, that same government turned into a leaky sieve of
information about the Kaczynskis. Linda gave me a tough love talk, reminding me
that others suffered much more, "You've got to think about all the other people
who got hurt, it is not about you." I understood that I was part of a much
bigger picture of suffering. Not long after that I decided to write letters to
the victims and apologize. Most of them didn't respond, but I ended up having a
phone call with one of them, Gary Wright, who became a very good friend. We
need to make the world wider than our ego.
How did you realize that your brother was the Unabomber?
DK: I would never have guessed it. To me, he was my big brother I had always
admired. The brother who had genuine empathy for children, animals, and people
living on the margins of society.. The brother who looked out for me. The last
time I saw him was in 1986, and I did not suspect anything. Then he broke off
all contact. At its peak, 125 FBI agents were searching for the Unabomber
full-time, but in the end it was Linda, a private citizen, who had never even
met him, who cracked the case.
Linda Patrik: I was the one who first thought his brother was the man they were
looking for, and it took me 3 or 4 months to convince David that this was a
real possibility.
It's astonishing to me that you had this intuition though you had never met
him.
LP: He wrote us letters that made it clear to me that he wasn't mentally well.
He told us he had a heart condition and was seeing a woman doctor in Montana,
but in his letters to us he described how he wanted to date this woman (in
1991), and it was very creepy. I convinced David to take these letters to a
psychiatrist, and the psychiatrist agreed that Ted was disturbed, but when we
asked if anything could be done, the psychiatrist said that this was virtually
impossible, because Ted hadn't committed any crimes. David phoned the doctor
and followed up with a letter hoping to have his brother referred for mental
health treatment
In reality, though, he had already committed crimes.
DK: Yes, he started in 1978, but the FBI concealed all the information. They
had the strategy that they didn't want the public to know what they knew. After
my friend Gary was hurt in 1987, the FBI acknowledged for the 1st time that
these different events might be linked.
LP: In August 1995, I couldn't keep my suspicion to myself anymore. We were
actually in Paris, on a trip celebrating our 5th wedding anniversary, when I
asked David: Do you think your brother might be the Unabomber?
DK: I thought this was out of the question. Then we went through the process of
comparing my brother's letters to the Unabomber's manifesto that the New York
Times published in September 1995. When I read the manifesto I was no longer
completely dismissive, but I still thought we would find out he wasn't. So it
was a slow process for me to catch up with Linda's intuition.
Where were you when your brother was arrested in his hut in Montana in April
1996?
DK: We watched it on TV. I have never seen anybody who looked so tattered and
bedraggled. They found a bomb under his bed, ready to be sent. So we had done
the right thing. Immediately, the media hounded us. Reporters somehow gained
access to our bank records. They dug through our garbage. They called our
unlisted numbers. They besieged our friends and relatives with interview
requests. It felt as if we had not a shred of privacy or dignity left.
I'm surprised you speak with the media at all.
DK: The media later became our ally when we fought against the death penalty.
It would have been much easier for me to turn my brother in if I didn't
potentially surrender him to being executed. I thought it would kill my
79-year-old mother too, having to watch the execution of her son, because her
other son turned in his brother.
How did you help spare your brother the death penalty?
LP: Do you know about the Harvard experiments? Ted was highly intelligent and
was admitted to Harvard University when he was only 16. They did a
psychological study about him when he entered college as a freshman, and it
showed indications of schizophrenia. Instead of helping him, or informing the
family, they conducted experiments that some trace back to the CIA. Harvard was
one of the few major universities that had not signed an agreement after World
War II not to conduct experiments with human beings without telling them what
the experiment is about and obtaining "informed consent" from the participants.
They selected the most maladjusted, most alienated freshman. David's brother
was the 2nd worst in terms of maladjustment.
DK: Every week for 3 years, someone met with him to verbally abuse him and
humiliate him. He never told us about the experiments, but we noticed how he
changed. He became harder, more defensive in his interactions with people. If
the case had gone to trial, what happened to Ted as a helpless guinea pig in a
government-funded study would have come out in open court.
Why did you decide to publish the book now?
DK: Our story has been told so many times by other people. Almost always it
came out a little wrong. I wanted to set the record straight and tell it from
my perspective. It is also to memorialize a family, our parents, who were the
best parents they knew how to be. And then I guess, I would like people to take
away some degree of empathy, have greater awareness regarding mental illness
and the struggles many families experience when a family member becomes sick. A
lot of people have stereotypical notions about mental illness. i.e. that a
person is completely disconnected from reality, or that none of Ted's ideas
could be valid if he's "crazy." I think it is much more complicated. What I see
in his diaries is a person drowning in their pain and loneliness and totally
losing perspective on who they are, what the world is and what it means to be
human. This is someone I once loves, and still love. Because I know his
potential, the goodness buried in him somewhere. If there is something I would
like the book to do is for people to think less simplistically about mental
illness, to take it seriously and to understand it as a much more complex
phenomena.
You have worked with at-youth-risk, as the director of New Yorkers Against the
Death Penalty, and as an advocate who met with countless family members of
other terrorists or their victims. Did you find the healing you were seeking?
DK: Yes and no. Yes, because through this work I have met so many incredible
people. It is quite hard to listen to their stories, and yet inspiring, because
they all have this arc of spiritual epiphany of some kind.
And no, because I promised my mother on her deathbed not to give up on my
brother, and yet he denies me any opportunity for reconciliation. I still write
to him in the Supermax prison in Colorado. I never get a response. Maybe one
day the door will open.
(source: Huffington Post)
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