July 24
NEBRASKA:
Nebraska ACLU urges state to surrender supply of lethal injection drug
The Nebraska ACLU is urging the state to surrender its supply of a key lethal
injection drug following a court ruling Tuesday in Washington, D.C.
If that happened, Nebraska would be unable to carry out the death penalty, and
might be forced to join several other states in switching the drugs it uses in
lethal injections.
U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Tuesday ruled
that the Food and Drug Administration was in error in allowing sodium
thiopental to be imported into the country without inspection for use in
executions.
The case was brought by death-row inmates in Arizona, California and Tennessee,
who argued that such foreign-made drugs, without an FDA review, might be
defective.
The court said the ruling applied only to those three states and that Nebraska
can keep its supply.
But Amy Miller of the Nebraska ACLU said the decision makes it "a shoo-in" that
a lawsuit brought by a death-row inmate in Nebraska would be successful.
Miller urged Nebraska officials to avoid the cost of a lawsuit and surrender
its supply of foreign-made sodium thiopental to the FDA.
"They have illegal drugs and they just need to turn them back over," she said.
The Nebraska Attorney General's Office, which handles death penalty cases,
declined to comment. Attorney General Jon Bruning joined other state attorneys
general in urging the FDA to challenge the lower court ruling that had
prohibited the use of sodium thiopental obtained overseas.
The ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court decision,
though it did vacate a judge's order that all states, including Nebraska,
surrender their supplies of the drug.
Sodium thiopental is 1 of 3 drugs used by Nebraska and several other states to
carry out executions. It puts the condemned inmate to sleep. 2 other drugs are
administered to paralyze the prisoner and stop his heart from beating.
States have been scrambling for supplies of sodium thiopental since the lone
American manufacturer quit making it in 2009.
That has forced some states to change drugs or, like Nebraska, look overseas
for new supplies.
Nebraska was forced to abandon its 1st foreign purchase in 2011 after it was
discovered that the state lacked the proper permits to import the drug.
The state obtained a new supply through a broker in India and rejected a recall
request from the Swiss manufacturer of the drug. The shelf life of that supply,
however, is scheduled to expire in December.
Nebraska is one of 32 states with capital punishment. It switched its mode of
execution from the electric chair to lethal injection in 2009 after
electrocution was ruled cruel and unusual punishment.
The state has not carried out an execution since 1997, when convicted
double-murderer Robert Williams was put to death.
This spring, for the 1st time in several years, a majority of state senators
supported repeal of the state's death penalty. But lawmakers lacked the votes
to stop a filibuster by opponents of the repeal measure.
In 1979, lawmakers voted to repeal the death penalty but could not overcome a
veto from then-Gov. Charles Thone.
(source: Amaha.com)
*******************
Another blow to death penalty
The fallibility of the criminal justice system in applying the death penalty
has been demonstrated again this month.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation announced last week its review of old
criminal cases has found as many as 27 death penalty convictions that might
have been based on invalid scientific testimony.
The review was announced a year ago by the FBI after 3 men were exonerated by
DNA testing. Their convictions had been based in part on testimony on hair
analysis from FBI lab experts.
In May, the review led to an 11th-hour stay of execution in a Mississippi
double homicide case.
At issue is trial testimony from FBI experts that the organization now says
"exceeded the limits of science."
Microscopic analysis cannot positively identify whether a hair found at the
scene of a crime came from a suspect.
Yet for years experts testified that hair found at the scene was a "match" with
that from a suspect. Expert witnesses routinely exaggerated the significance of
the analysis and gave the impression that analysis provided a near-certain
identification.
The FBI deservedly is winning praise for its cooperativeness in examining old
cases. In an agreement with the Innocence Project and the National Association
of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the FBI has promised to waive statutes of
limitation and other rules that have limited post-conviction relief.
"When there's a problem, you have to face it, and you have to figure out how to
fix it, move forward and make sure it doesn't happen again," said FBI general
counsel Andrew Weissmann.
Nebraska and other states should follow the lead of Texas, which has ordered
state and local labs to review old cases in which testimony on hair analysis
played a key role.
Support for the death penalty has fallen nationwide as DNA testing -- and now
review of hair analysis testimony -- has shown how fallible the criminal
justice system really is.
The decline in death penalty support also is found among conservatives.
That shouldn't be surprising. After all, a distrust of government and a desire
to limit the power of the state are fundamental to the conservative credo.
It should be natural for conservatives to be reluctant to give the state the
ultimate power to take an inmate's life. When the state mistakenly executes the
wrong person, there's no possibility to reverse the sentence.
The FBI review of hair analysis cases is another demonstration of how prone the
death penalty system is to error. The Legislature should take that into account
the next time it considers whether to add Nebraska to the growing list of
states that have repealed the death penalty.
(source: Editorial, Journal Star)
ARIZONA:
Woman awaiting retrial in son's death seeks bond
Attorneys for an Arizona woman awaiting retrial on charges that she had a part
in the murder of her 4-year-old son asked a judge Monday to release her from
jail while she awaits trial.
Debra Jean Milke's lawyers want her released from jail even though another
judge had ruled more than a week ago that she was to be held without bond.
They filed a motion with Maricopa County Superior Court asking that an
evidentiary hearing be set, adding that Milke also would like to visit her
terminally ill mother who's been battling cancer for more than 3 years.
A Sept. 30 retrial has been set for Milke on charges that she was involved in
the 1989 shooting death of her son Christopher. Prosecutors are again seeking
the death penalty.
Defense attorneys are focusing on a section of the Arizona Constitution that
says people charged death penalty-eligible crimes are automatically denied bail
if the proof against them is evident or the presumption of guilt is great.
They say Milke should be released because the evidence against her is weak.
They cite a federal appeals court ruling in March that threw out Milke's
conviction and death sentence.
The decision said there were no witnesses or evidence linking Milke to the
murder besides a now-retired detective who claimed Milke confessed to the crime
but who also had a history of misconduct, including four other criminal cases
in which the appeals court concluded he lied under oath.
Milke has disputed that she confessed to the crime and has maintained that she
is innocent.
Prosecutors adamantly oppose her release and argue that she isn't entitled to
bail.
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Rosa Mroz has set an Aug. 1 hearing to
consider Milke's bond request.
Authorities say Milke dressed her son in his favorite outfit and told him he
was going to see Santa Claus at a mall in December 1989. He was then taken into
the desert by two men and shot in the back of the head.
Milke's roommate, James Lynn Styers, and his friend Roger Mark Scott are on
death row for carrying out the killing. Authorities say Milke's motive was that
she didn't want the child anymore and didn't want him to live with his father.
Milke's lawyers also are planning to ask the judge in the coming weeks to throw
out Detective Armando Saldate Jr.'s claim that Milke confessed to the killing.
An Aug. 30 hearing has been set to consider the request to suppress the
detective's claim.
It's unknown whether prosecutors will call Saldate as a witness or whether
Styers and Scott will testify after declining to do so at Milke's 1st trial.
(source: Associated Press)
COLORADO:
Deadline approaches for Denver DA on whether to seek death penalty
The last time a Denver jury sentenced someone to death was in 1986, when Ronald
Reagan was in the White House and Federico Pena was in city hall.
By Friday, Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey must decide whether to ask
another jury to consider the death penalty for a 23-year-old man accused of
stabbing 5 people to death at a Denver bar in October. The decision would be
the 1st time since 2001 that Denver prosecutors have even sought the death
penalty.
Death is a rarely sought punishment in Colorado, for a variety of reasons,
including finances. One case alone can cost a county millions of dollars and
continue for decades.
Attorneys say the case against Dexter Lewis includes all of the aggravating
circumstances needed to pursue capital punishment. But they also agree with
experts who warn that prosecutors would face long odds in a city that has been
highly reluctant to impose a death sentence.
Still, prosecutors on Tuesday laid the groundwork for a potential capital
punishment case against Lewis by offering plea agreements to his 2
co-defendants, brothers Lynell and Joseph Hill. Joseph Hill pleaded guilty to 5
counts of 1st-degree murder and his younger brother, Lynell, pleaded guilty to
3 counts including 2nd-degree murder.
According to the plea agreements, both men agreed to testify at any trial or
hearing in the case against Lewis.
Lewis faces 16 counts in the Oct. 17 attack at Fero's Bar and Grill, including
first-degree murder, felony murder, robbery and arson. He is scheduled to
appear in court Thursday afternoon.
"When 5 people are murdered you have to think that the death penalty is a
possible decision," said former Denver chief deputy district attorney Craig
Silverman. "We've already determined that if an adult commits premeditated
murder then
Joseph Hill, 27, pleaded guilty and faces a life sentence without the
possibility of parole. it's life in prison. What if you do that several times
over? Is there no consequence?"
Since taking office in 2005, Morrissey has considered the death penalty in
about a dozen cases, said Lynn Kimbrough, spokeswoman for the Denver District
Attorney's office. Those decisions involved everything from an initial meeting,
to a full staffing to consider factors such as the charges, whether a jury was
likely to convict a defendant and input from victims' families.
Morrissey was unable to consider the death penalty in the case against Raul
Gomez-Garcia, who was convicted of killing police Detective Donald Young.
Prosecutors were forced to pursue a lesser charge of 2nd-degree murder after
Gomez-Garcia fled to Mexico. Mexico refused to extradite him back to the United
States if prosecutors pursued the death penalty.
Silverman said because the case against Lewis involves multiple victims,
alleged heinous and cruel acts and at least 1 charge of 1st-degree murder, it
falls well within the arena of capital punishment.
"There are many aggravating factors that apply in this case," Silverman said.
"It still doesn't mean it is easy to pull the trigger on a death penalty
decision. You want to have a slam dunk case if you are seeking capital
punishment."
Colorado has executed only one person, Gary Davis, since capital punishment was
reinstated in 1979. From January 1980 to January 1999, prosecutors sought the
death penalty 110 times, said Michael Radelet, a sociology professor at the
University of Colorado who has researched the death penalty for decades. A
death sentence was imposed 13 times.
"The data reveals that when it comes to death penalty cases in Colorado, many
are called but few are chosen," Radelet said.
Since 1972, Denver prosecutors have sought the death penalty in 20 cases,
Radelet said. Only 1 resulted in a death sentence.
In 1986 Frank Rodriguez was sentenced to death for the rape and murder of
Lorraine Martelli. Silverman and former chief deputy district attorney Mike
Little, who died last month, prosecuted the case.
Almost 16 years after he was sentenced to death, Rodriguez died on death row
from Hepatitis C complications.
Prosecutors last sought the death penalty in the case of Abraham Hagos. Hagos
was convicted in 2002 of planning the death of James Roberts, who was planning
to testify against him in a drug case. Hagos was ultimately given a sentence of
life in prison after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that only juries - not judges
- can sentence criminals to death.
Since 2000, prosecutors in Colorado have sought the death penalty 16 times. 6
of those cases were in the 18th Judicial District, including the case against
Aurora theater shooting suspect James Holmes, Radelet said.
3 men sit on death row in Colorado, including Nathan Dunlap, who was convicted
of killing 4 people in an Aurora Chuck E. Cheese's restaurant in 1993. Months
before Dunlap was scheduled to be executed, Gov. John Hickenlooper granted an
extraordinary "temporary reprieve" that all but ensures Dunlap will not be
executed while he is governor.
Hickenlooper's decision ignited a fierce debate about the death penalty, which
the governor said is "imperfect and inherently inequitable" in Colorado.
If Morrissey seeks the death penalty against Lewis, jurors may be forced to
consider the fairness of the plea agreement and why only one of the 3
defendants faces death, Silverman said.
"The question law enforcement no doubt wants to answer is who was the most
culpable, most blameworthy and the most responsible for this atrocity. And so
will the jury," Silverman said.
According to a search warrant, all three men ordered the victims on the floor,
set the bar on fire and split $170 in cash.
But, if Morrissey seeks death, potential jurors may also consider the cost of
sentencing Lewis to death, Radelet said.
Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck said he has considered the death penalty
in at least a dozen cases, but never sought the sentence. In addition to
weighing the elements of the case, Buck said he is also forced to weigh the
costs.
In order to pursue a death penalty case, Buck would have to request additional
funds from the county commission, he said. The average cost to pursue a
non-death penalty case in Weld County is about $90,000.
A capital punishment case could cost 10 times that, Buck said.
"It is an incredibly expensive process for a smaller jurisdiction," Buck said.
(source: Denver Post)
UTAH:
Sloop lawyers challenging legality of Shelby's Law
Defense attorneys for Nathan Sloop filed a motion challenging the legality of
Shelby's Law.
Nathan Sloop and his wife, Stephanie Sloop, are charged with aggravated murder,
2nd-degree felony child abuse, 2nd-degree felony obstruction of justice and
3rd-degree felony abuse or desecration of a body.
Officials said Ethan Stacy, son of Stephanie Sloop, died May 8, 2010. His
disfigured body was found near Powder Mountain on May 11, 2010, after the
Sloops called police to report him missing from their apartment.
Prosecutors filed a response to the motion, saying the challenge at the
preliminary hearing level is "premature" and that the judge's role at this
stage of the case is to determine if there is enough evidence to bind the case
over for trial.
Judge Glen Dawson heard testimony from police officers and other expert
witnesses during a 4-day preliminary hearing in March and April. Dawson did not
make a ruling at that time on whether the case should head for a trial.
A hearing for Nathan Sloop is set for Thursday, when prosecutors plan to argue
why the case should be bound over. The defense motion may be addressed at that
hearing.
A hearing for Stephanie Sloop is scheduled for 11 a.m. July 30.
The Davis County Attorney's Office filed in December its intent to seek the
death penalty if Nathan Sloop is convicted on the aggravated murder charge.
According to the 22-page motion filed by defense attorneys Richard Mauro and
Scott Williams, prosecutors should not seek the death penalty "against one who
did not intentionally kill." It also claims that Utah's law, which was amended
by Shelby's Law in 2007, is vague.
If a child dies anytime after an act of abuse, prosecutors could seek the death
penalty the way the law is written, according to the motion.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2008 that the death penalty is not applicable
in non-homicide cases.
According to the documents filed by prosecutors, "the death penalty is not an
element of the office," and if the judge "strike the Notice of Intent," Utah's
law allows prosecutors to refile within 60 days another motion seeking the
death penalty.
"So defendant's challenge to the death penalty is premature and should not be
addressed," according to the court document.
(source: Standard-Examioner)
CALIFORNIA:
California abandons defense of 3-drug executions
California has abandoned the legal defense of its delay-ridden lethal injection
procedures, moving ahead to adopt a single-drug option that has been embraced
by other states trying to enforce their death penalty laws.
The Brown administration has decided against appealing a May ruling that
invalidated the state's 3-drug execution method, which has been mired in years
of state and federal court legal tangles.
Faced with a Wednesday deadline, the state chose not to seek a California
Supreme Court review of the decision striking down the three-drug procedure
because state officials failed to follow administrative rules when adopting
them several years ago.
A prison system spokeswoman said the governor and other state officials will
proceed with working out a method of executing condemned inmates with a single
fatal dose of a sedative, which other states -- such as Ohio, Arizona and
Washington -- have adopted to short-circuit legal challenges to their lethal
injection procedures.
The governor has ordered prison officials to craft the single-drug option to
"ensure that California's laws on capital punishment are upheld," the
Department of Corrections said in a news release.
However, the latest development will not kick-start executions in San Quentin's
death chamber. Approving the single-drug method could take a year or longer,
and then it must be reviewed by the federal courts, adding further delays to
California's death penalty system.
More than 725 inmates live on California's death row, where there has not been
an execution since early 2006 as a result of lethal injection legal challenges.
Death row inmates sued over the 3-drug execution method, arguing that it risked
a cruel and inhumane death.
In response to a federal judge's concerns, former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
and current Gov. Jerry Brown both tried to overhaul the three-drug procedures,
revising training for execution team members, built a new lethal injection
chamber and crafted new rules for carrying out executions. But the state has
botched the effort, twice violating the state's administrative procedures
rules.
In the May ruling, the 1st District Court of Appeal scrapped the regulations,
finding, among other problems, that state officials never publicly explained
why they opted for the three-drug method instead of the single-drug option when
they held hearings in 2010.
California could face other obstacles even if challenges to the single drug
option fail. States across the country, including California, are struggling to
assemble reliable supplies of execution drugs because of resistance from drug
manufacturers and other problems, prompting separate legal challenges in other
courts.
If the state resumes executions, more than a dozen death row inmates now have
exhausted their legal appeals and would be eligible for execution dates in a
relatively short time.
(source: Mercury News)
WASHINGTON:
Michael Boysen 'gives up,' doesn't want to fight the death penalty
Michael Chadd Boysen has told his public defenders he doesn't want them to
fight the death penalty if he's convicted of killing his grandparents.
And he asked a Superior Court judge to dismiss the two counts of aggravated
1st-degree murder against him in the interests of justice.
He also wants Judge Douglass North to "urgently address" his confinement and
treatment in the King County Jail in Seattle, which his lawyers argue have
stripped him of his will to live.
Dan Donohoe, a spokesman for King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg, said
Tuesday prosecutors will respond to the dismissal motion at a hearing on Aug.
2.
Boysen's public defenders, James W. Conroy and Scott Ketterling, filed the
motion last week.
Boysen is charged with killing his grandparents Norma and Robert Taylor at
their Fairwood home March 9 just hours after they picked him up at the state
prison in Monroe.
He was arrested on March 12 in a Lincoln City, Ore., motel after a 10-hour
standoff with police. Police found him with multiple self-inflicted stab
wounds.
Satterberg has until Aug. 30 to decide whether he will seek the death penalty.
Attorneys in the motion detail Boysen's life in the county jail in Seattle
since March.
Boysen has been placed for hours on a restraint board, unable to move and with
no "sensory input," after numerous suicide attempts. "A healthy human brain is
ill-adapted to such conditions, let alone someone with significant mental
health problems," the attorneys write.
Attorneys detail an example on June 9 in which he was restrained for about 10
hours. Boysen told his attorneys he didn't resist because he was weak from loss
of blood caused by his suicide attempt.
For 23 hours a day Boysen is in solitary confinement, when he's not meeting
with his attorneys or occasionally with a non-professional visitor. During the
24th hour, he takes care of hygiene and any recreation. Access to books is
limited, according to his attorneys.
On July 2, after several weeks in isolation and another "incident of self harm"
followed by four hours of confinement on a restraint board, Boysen asked his
attorneys to tell prosecutors "he no longer wanted to present any mitigation to
the state" regarding the death penalty.
"In this case the King County Jail by its deliberate and willful actions
succeeded in breaking Mr. Boysen's will to live, pursue mitigation and assist
his counsel in attempting to save his life," his attorneys write.
They likened his "sensory deprivation" and confinement to "torture" in the
motion and a violation of his constitutional rights.
Boysen wants the court to dismiss the case against him.
And he asks for the immediate action of the county's Department of Adult and
Juvenile Detention to:
- Discontinue the seclusion and restraint policy
- Maintain a constant watch over him so he doesn't engage in self-harm
- Provide books, radio or a TV to provide sensory input
- Enjoin the detention department and staff from retaliating against him.
(source: Renton Reporter)
USA:
U.S. imports of death-penalty drug ruled illegal
A drug used in some U.S. executions, sodium thiopental, can???t be imported
into the country because it hasn't been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington ruled in a lawsuit
filed by death row inmates.
The ruling upheld a lower-court decision that "permanently enjoined the FDA
from allowing the importation of apparently misbranded or unapproved
thiopental," according to an opinion by Circuit Judge Douglas Ginsburg, writing
for a 3-judge panel.
The decision also blocked a second part of the lower-court ruling that required
the FDA "to notify state correctional departments that the use of imported
thiopental is unlawful and that existing stocks must be sent the FDA."
The court can't require states to turn in the drug to the FDA because they
weren't a party to the suit, Ginsburg wrote.
6 states - Arizona, Arkansas, California, Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee
- received shipments of sodium thiopental at issue in the complaint.
The case is is Cook v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 12-05176, U.S. Court
of Appeals, District of Columbia (Washington).
(source: Financial Post)
*****************
Federal jury sentences cop killer to death in New York
A jury in New York on Wednesday sentenced Ronell Wilson to death for killing 2
undercover police officers in 2003, setting up what would be the 1st federal
execution of a New York defendant in 6 decades.
The jury's verdict in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn is the second capital
sentence for Wilson, 31, who originally was sentenced to death in 2007 for
murdering 2 officers posing as gun buyers during an attempted sting operation
in Staten Island.
That sentence was thrown out by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2010
due to prosecutorial errors, although Wilson's conviction was upheld.
On Wednesday, jurors deliberated for only a few hours following a month-long
trial focused on whether to impose the death penalty. If the jury had decided
not to sentence Wilson to death, he would have automatically received a life
sentence in prison without parole.
The case has seen a number of dramatic twists since Wilson was granted a new
sentencing proceeding. Last year, after a hearing that lasted several weeks,
U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis ruled that Wilson was not mentally
retarded and was therefore eligible for the death penalty.
In February, federal authorities arrested a female corrections officer from the
Brooklyn detention center where Wilson was being held and charged her with
having sex with him. She gave birth to their son in March and pleaded guilty
earlier this month.
Wilson's attorney did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
New York's highest state court ruled the death penalty unconstitutional in
2004. Despite the state ban on capital punishment, federal prosecutors are
still permitted to seek executions for federal cases.
The last time a federal defendant was executed in New York state was in 1954.
The United States has executed 3 federal prisoners since the death penalty was
reinstated in 1988, including Timothy McVeigh, the man responsible for the 1995
bombing of an Oklahoma City federal building that killed 168 people.
Wilson will be the 60th inmate on federal death row, according to data from the
Death Penalty Information Center.
(source: Reuters)
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