Jan. 21
OHIO:
Death Row misfire casts Kasich as 'Avenger,' ACLU says stop executions
The fallout from an execution last week by Ohio prison officials that didn't go
well, when a new concoction of lethal drugs prolonged the life of the Death Row
inmate Dennis McGuire, is focusing attention on state officials, especially
Gov. John R. Kasich, who the Ohio American Civil Liberties [ACLU] called on to
use his executive powers to stop future scheduled executions while also
admonishing him and prison officials to stop trying to figure out new ways to
kill people.
"Unfortunately, Ohio continues to lead the way in finding new ways to put
people to death," said ACLU of Ohio Director of Communications and Public
Policy Mike Brickner. "With each new execution, we continue to run from the
fact that this is a fundamentally broken system."
The group said Ohio "continues to march in the wrong direction" by
experimenting with an untested two-drug method developed after supplies of
Ohio's former execution drug expired after the manufacturer of the previous
drug used for lethal injections decided to prohibit its use in executions.
Dennis McGuire was convicted in 1994 of the aggravated murder of Joy Stewart in
Preble County. He became the first inmate in history to be executed using the
untested cocktail of the sedative midazolam and the painkiller hydromorphone
for capital punishment.
Prior to his execution, McGuire's attorneys made several appeals for clemency,
arguing that the untested procedure was likely to cause him "agony and terror."
Ohio officials replied by declaring that McGuire was not entitled to a
"pain-free" execution.
On December 20 of last year the Ohio Parole Board unanimously recommended
against clemency for McGuire. Gov. Kasich subsequently denied McGuire's request
for clemency 38 days later on Jan. 7. The execution took place on January 16 in
Lucasville at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility.
McGuire's execution marked the third time in recent years Ohio has used
untested execution drugs. Frequent changes in Ohio's execution protocols have
been the result of 3 botched executions spanning from 2006-2009 and federal
court orders declaring the state's protocols unconstitutional, the ACLU
reported.
Witnesses to the execution described McGuire's ordeal as 20 minutes of gasping
for air with clenched fists. The length of the execution was 25 minutes, a time
significantly longer than any other execution by the state since the death
penalty was reinstated in Ohio in 1999.
The Times Reporter offered its opinion on an execution one observer called
"horrific." A humane death is enough to satisfy the demands of justice, it
said, adding "anything more takes the state out of the arena of justice and
casts it in the role of avenger." It wrote of that difference, "the 1st seeks a
better society, the second only the infliction of harm."
The work "torture" is now being used by McGuire's children, who are suing the
state, to describe what their father endured. State prison officials are being
challenged to not use this combination of drugs again without justifying such
an accusation.
In its letter to Gov. Kasich, the ACLU said evidence now suggests that death
sentences have "less to do with the actual offense committed, and more to do
with factors such as race, socioeconomic class, and the location of the crime."
Another important voice in the issue who has turned against the system for this
very reason is Ohio Supreme Court Justice Paul Pfeiffer. Carving out a career
as a sometimes Maverick justice, Pfeiffer called capital punishment a "death
lottery." His superior, Chief Justice Maureen O???Connor, has formed a death
penalty taskforce, which has identified troubling issues such as large racial
and geographic disparities in capital convictions and the use of the death
penalty on severely mentally ill people.
Bricker worries that the system is broken and risks putting an innocent person
to death. "Since the return of the death penalty, 6 of the nation's 143 death
row exonerations have come from Ohio," he said, adding that responsible
parties, like Gov. Kasich and his prison system director Gary Moher, should be
reassessing the machinery of death, "not speeding it up."
Ohio ACLU called on Ohio officials "to stop executions once and for all" while
criticizing their efforts to "find new ways to kill people and instead focus
their efforts on reforming the already overburdened criminal justice system."
There are 5 more executions scheduled for 2014 in Ohio, all of which could
involve the use of the same drug combination that was tested out on McGuire.
(source: The Examiner)
******************
Botched execution should give pause
In 1906, the state of Minnesota held its last execution of a murderer. William
Williams was hanged in the Ramsey County Courthouse basement, in the middle of
the night. It was a botched job - the sheriff overestimated the amount of rope
needed, Williams hit the floor without breaking his neck, and he had to be
hauled up into the air by 3 deputies. It took him 14 slow, agonizing minutes to
strangle to death. A reporter had sneaked into what was supposed to be a
private execution, and his report created such a furor that Minnesota outlawed
the death penalty for good in 1911.
Last Thursday the state of Ohio tried to execute a convicted murderer, Dennis
McGuire, with a lethal injection, using a drug mixture that hadn't been used
before. It took McGuire 26 minutes to die. The sounds and motions he made
during his death throes indicated he was suffering terribly as he died.
The U.S. Constitution prohibits "cruel and unusual punishments." Cruel and
unusual certainly sounds like words that would apply in this case.
Clearly, the state of Ohio needs to place a moratorium on executions until it
can figure out a more reliable and humane method of execution.
Or, it could follow the lead of Minnesota and the rest of the 18 states that
have banned the death penalty.
(source: The Journal)
MISSOURI:
Legislators want answers on Missouri's death penalty
As Missouri prepares for its 3rd execution in 3 months, state legislators are
taking an interest in claims that the Department of Corrections used an
unlicensed pharmacy to make its lethal injection drugs and executed a prisoner
before his appeals ran out.
The issue is so pressing that a state legislative committee scheduled a hearing
on executions for today, but canceled the hearing late Monday after learning
that the director of the department would not appear.
Rep. Jay Barnes, R-Jefferson City, chairman of the House Committee on
Government Oversight and Accountability, said last week that the charges were
serious enough that "somebody ought to be asking questions in an official
capacity at a public hearing."
On Monday, Barnes said: "It's disappointing the director would not testify at
this time."
He said Lombardi's promise to testify at a later date was sufficient and said
"that's how this committee works."
Herbert L. Smulls, of St. Louis, is scheduled to die by injection Jan. 29 for
the 1991 murder of Chesterfield jeweler Stephen Honickman. Smulls' attorneys
said last week that the Department of Corrections should postpone the execution
to give legislators more time to investigate. The department did not respond to
requests for comment. (Gov. Jay Nixon appointed Lombardi, a 35-year veteran of
the Missouri Department of Corrections, to head the corrections department in
December 2008, and the appointment was confirmed in January 2009.)
Also last week, Rep. John Rizzo, D-Kansas City, the House minority whip, filed
a bill with bipartisan support that would create an 11-member commission
composed of experts in law, science and medicine to study the state's death
penalty procedure.
Before learning that the legislative oversight hearing was canceled, Rizzo
said, "It's possible we'll find out Tuesday what we've done wrong, and my
legislation would be a way to move forward."
INJECTION QUESTIONS
The death penalty in Missouri and elsewhere is facing renewed questions because
of states' reliance on a medical procedure. Taking a human life is anathema to
medical professionals, and drug manufacturers have chafed at having their
products used to kill. For years, Missouri has tried to keep details of its
execution protocol confidential - and has repeatedly been embarrassed when
details came to light.
In 2005, a federal judge temporarily halted the state's death penalty after the
surgeon in charge of a 3-drug protocol testified that he was dyslexic,
sometimes confused numbers and did not follow written procedures. A
Post-Dispatch investigation revealed that he had also had faced disciplinary
issues and multiple malpractice lawsuits, and made false statements in court.
The Legislature responded by making it unlawful to reveal the identities of the
execution team.
More recently, pharmaceutical makers stopped selling drugs for lethal
injections. In October, the state had to return shipments of the common
hospital anesthetic propofol after the European Union threatened to cut off
supplies of the drug if it were used in an execution. Days later, the
Department of Corrections announced it was using a compounding pharmacy to
produce lethal injections of pentobarbital, a drug commonly used to euthanize
pets.
The state used the drug to execute white supremacist serial killer Joseph
Franklin on Nov. 20 and murderer Allen Nicklasson on Dec. 11. But an
investigation by St. Louis Public Radio revealed that a compounding pharmacy in
Oklahoma hired by the Department of Corrections to produce the state execution
drug is not licensed by the state of Missouri, raising questions about how the
drug could legally be prescribed and used in the state. Attorneys for Smulls
and other condemned inmates have sued the state to disclose more about the
company.
Attorneys for Smulls filed a complaint Friday with the Oklahoma State Board of
Pharmacy, asking the board to recall the "unsafe" pentobarbital, alleging that
the pharmacy gave erroneous instructions to corrections staff to store the drug
at room temperature.
Questions about Missouri's executions go beyond the method. On Dec. 20, federal
appeals judge Kermit E. Bye criticized the state for executing Nicklasson
before his appeals could be heard by the full 8th Circuit U.S. Court of
Appeals.
"Missouri's past history of scheduling executions before a death row inmate has
exhausted his constitutional rights of review, using unwritten execution
protocols, misrepresenting dosage levels for drugs used in lethal injections,
and providing unfettered discretion to a dyslexic physician to mix the drugs
and oversee its executions, has earned from this federal judge more than just a
healthy judicial skepticism regarding Missouri's implementation of the death
penalty," Bye wrote.
JEWELER MURDERED
Smulls, the next prisoner scheduled for execution, and 15-year-old Norman Brown
posed as customers and went to F&M Crown Jewels, at 361 Chesterfield Center, on
July 27, 1991, after making a appointment to look at diamonds. Smulls had just
completed an 11-year sentence for robbery.
He had purchased jewelry from Stephen and Florence Honickman before, using the
name Jeffrey Taylor. That night, Smulls pulled a pistol on the Honickmans.
Stephen Honickman pleaded with the robbers not to shoot but to take whatever
they wanted from the store. Florence Honickman told police she heard a shot,
tried to run to the back of the store and was shot twice. She played dead as
jewelry was snatched from her body.
A Town and Country police officer stopped a 1974 blue Ford on Interstate 270.
As the officer wrote a speeding ticket, he heard the assailants' description on
his police radio. Smulls and Brown were arrested, and the jewelry was recovered
from the car. Stephen Honickman, 51, died the next day.
Norman Brown was convicted of murder and is serving a life sentence. Florence
Honickman, who lives in Florida, declined to comment until after the execution.
CRUEL AND UNUSUAL?
2 recent executions have fueled death penalty opponents' arguments that lethal
injections carry the risk of being cruel and unusual punishment, in violation
of the 8th Amendment.
In Oklahoma on Jan. 9, Michael Lee Wilson cried out "I feel my whole body
burning" as he was given an injection that included pentobarbital. And in Ohio
on Jan. 16, Dennis McGuire appeared to struggle and gasp as he was put to death
by an untested mix of drugs that did not include pentobarbital.
"We are seeing renewed controversy," said Deborah W. Denno, a professor at
Fordham Law School and a death penalty expert. "States are running out of
options. They could try new drugs, but every time they do that, they run into
problems."
But death penalty supporters say opponents are creating false controversies not
to make executions more humane but to delay capital punishment.
If there was any question about the purity of pentobarbital created by
Missouri's compounding pharmacy, the drug could be tested in advance, said Kent
Scheidegger, legal director of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation in
Sacramento, Calif.
"The other side is making hay out of something that shouldn???t be
controversial," he said.
Last week, Missouri Rep. Rick Brattin, R-Harrisonville, sponsored a bill that
would add the option of firing squads for executions.
Since 1976, more than 1,300 executions have been carried out in the U.S., but
only 3 - in Oklahoma and Utah - were by firing squad, according to the Death
Penalty Information Center.
Firing squads have "a better record of being quick and predictable," said
Denno, the law professor. "It's the only method that we have experts for ...
police officers who are literally trained to kill. We've never seen that with
hanging or lethal injection."
(source: St. Louis Today)
KANSAS:
Senate bill seeks tighter death sentence appeals----Opponents argue finality of
execution warrants deliberate, exhaustive review
State and county prosecutors prepared to testify Tuesday on behalf of a bill
crafted to force the Kansas Supreme Court to more quickly process appeals of
capital punishment defendants.
2 men exonerated after spending years on death row rejected the premise
life-and-death decisions in Kansas courts should be fast-tracked.
Legislation before the Senate Judiciary Committee was endorsed by Attorney
General Derek Schmidt as a justified effort to reduce unreasonable delays in
the death penalty appeals process. The Kansas County and District Attorneys
Association concurred with Schmidt.
Committee chairman Jeff King, R-Independence, said the objective of Senate Bill
257 was to funnel these appellate cases through the state's highest court in
about 3 years.
The Kansas Supreme Court in December heard argument in the initial appeal of 2
brothers awaiting execution in Kansas. More than a decade passed since they
were sentenced to death in 2002 for murdering 5 people in Wichita. Justices
have been weighing a separate appeal in a Barton County capital case since oral
argument in October 2012.
Kristafer Ailslieger, deputy solicitor general in Schmidt's office, said the
majority of the bill codified existing Supreme Court rules that, in practice,
weren't faithfully enforced.
"These rules have not necessarily been viewed as binding by the Kansas Supreme
Court in the past, which has led to long delays and a current backlog of death
penalty appeals waiting argument or decision," Ailslieger said.
Former death row inmates Curtis McCarty and Kirk Bloodsworth contend proposed
reform in Kansas would increase likelihood of a person being executed for a
crime he or she didn't commit.
"Often it takes years or even decades until mistakes are discovered, if they
are uncovered at all," said McCarty, who was released from prison in Oklahoma
after 2 decades on death row. "In my case, a police chemist, Joyce Gilchrist,
lied about evidence at the crime scene."
In the year 2000, 14 years after McCarty was sentenced to death in the 1982
murder of an Oklahoma City woman, Gilchrist came under investigation for
misconduct in other cases. Evidence showed Gilchrist covertly altered notes to
implicate McCarty. Intervention by the Innocence Project and the Federal Bureau
of Investigation eventually led to DNA testing that proved his innocence.
"Unfortunately, my case is not unique," he said. "There have been 143 people
sentenced to death in the United States since 1973 and later exonerated."
Bloodsworth, advocacy director for Witness to Innocence in Philadelphia was the
1st death-row inmate exonerated by DNA in the United States. In Maryland, he
spent 2 years on death row and 9 years in prison on convictions for murder of a
girl in 1984. The real killer was found 10 years after his release from prison.
"I know all too well how the criminal justice system can get it wrong," he
said. "If this legislation is passed, the Kansas Legislature won't be able to
turn back the clock and undo an execution of an innocent person."
Kansas authorized use of capital punishment in 1994. No one has been executed
under boundaries of the law despite sentencing of 13 men to death in the past 2
decades. 8 appeals are pending in Kansas. 5 death sentences were overturned by
the state Supreme Court.
Under the Senate bill, the number of extensions granted lawyers to file briefs
in capital punishment cases would be limited to 2 in an attempt to complete the
process within 270 days. The Supreme Court could grant exceptions under
"extraordinary circumstances."
Length of the main legal briefs submitted to the justices would be restricted
to 100 pages. The Supreme Court would be required to issue a decision on a
death penalty appeal with 6 months of oral argument.
"The goal of this legislation is not to make it easier to impose death verdicts
or grease the skids to short change a capital defendant's constitutional
rights," said Marc Bennett, district attorney in Sedgwick County and a
representative of the state's association of prosecutors.
"The bill represents an effort to ensure that whatever issues are raised on
appeal, a capital defendant's opportunity to seek appellate redress carries
with it the assurance that it will be timely," he said.
(source: Capital-Journal)
SOUTH DAKOTA:
South Dakota man leads organization opposed to death penalty
A South Dakota man is leading a group in favor of a proposal to repeal the
state's death penalty law.
Denny Davis is a Catholic deacon from Burbank who is the director of South
Dakotans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.
Republican Rep. Steve Hickey plans to introduce the bill during the state
legislative session. It seeks to have 1st-degree murder reduced to life in
prison without parole.
Davis says that he believes the repeal is not only the right thing to do, but
will help save the state thousands of dollars.
The death penalty was reinstated in South Dakota in 1979. Neighboring states
like Iowa, North Dakota and Minnesota do not have it.
(source: Bismarck Tribune)
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