Jan. 22 TEXAS----execution Mexican man executed for officer's death Edgar Tamayo, a Mexican national whose case gained international attention, was executed here Wednesday for the 1994 murder of a Houston policeman. He was put to death at 9:32 p.m., 3 hours after his scheduled execution and after the U.S. Supreme Court heard his final appeals. Tamayo's execution was the 1st of 2014, and the 1st of 4 convicted Harris County killers scheduled to be put to death in the next 4 months. The lethal dose of pentobarbital was administered after Tamayo's final court appeals ended in defeat. Earlier Wednesday, lawyers from the Mexican consulate in Houston traveled to Huntsville to meet with the killer's family. Tamayo was condemned for the murder of Officer Guy Gaddis, who was shot in the head in January 1994 as he prepared to take Tamayo and another man, both handcuffed in the squad car's back seat, to jail. Tamayo, trial testimony revealed, extricated a pistol hidden in his clothing and fired the fatal shots. The case garnered international attention because authorities failed to tell Tamayo at the time of his arrest that he could confer with the Mexican consulate. That right is provided by the United Nation's Vienna Convention on Consular Affairs. In 2004, an international court held that Tamayo's case should receive judicial review to determine if that violation affected the outcome of his trial. The killer's lawyers argued that early notification of the consulate could have expedited the location of witnesses in Mexico, whose testimony could have allowed Tamayo to escape the death penalty. 2 other Mexican nationals with Vienna Convention violations have been executed in Texas. Jose Medellin, condemned for the 1993 rape-murder of 2 Houston teenagers was executed in 2008; Humberto Garcia, convicted of killing a San Antonio teen, in 2011. Tamayo becomes the 1st condemned inmate to be put to death in Texas this year and the 509th overall since the state resumed executions on December 7, 1982. Tamayo becomes the 270th condemned inmate to be put to death in Texas since Rick Perry became governor in 2001. Tamayo becomes the 4th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1363rd overall since the nation resumed executions on Janaury 17, 1977. (sources: Houston Chronicle & Rick Halperin) ******************** Executions under Rick Perry, 2001-present-----270 Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982-present----509 Perry #--------scheduled execution date-----name---------Tx. # 271------------Feb. 5---------------------Suzanne Basso-------510 272------------Mar. 19-------------------Ray Jasper-----------511 273------------Mar. 27-------------------Anthony Doyle-------512 274------------Apr. 3--------------------Tommy Lynn Sells-----513 275------------Apr. 16-------------------Jose Villegas--------514 276------------May 13--------------------Robert Campbell------515 277------------May 29--------------------Edgardo Cubas--------516 (sources for both: TDCJ & Rick Halperin) ****************** Which to Execute: A Prisoner or a Treaty? Edgar Tamayo, a Mexican, faces imminent execution in Texas for a murder he committed in Houston. But he has allies of a sort in the Netherlands and Austria. Several years ago, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which sits in The Hague, directed the United States to take another look at the convictions and death sentences of dozens of foreigners, including Tamayo, in light of American authorities' violation of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. The governor of Texas, however, was unimpressed. Not only has Rick Perry ignored the ICJ's order, but he has rebuffed an exhortation from the Secretary of State. As a result, his state is unilaterally putting the nation in default of an obligation under international law. And according to the Supreme Court, because Congress has not "executed" a treaty, Texas may go ahead and execute the prisoner. Under the Vienna Convention, authorities arresting a foreigner "shall inform" that person of the right to request contact with his or her consulate. Tamayo was not so informed. After his conviction and death sentence, Mexico brought a case to the ICJ claiming that the United States had denied Tamayo and other Mexican citizens (including fourteen other death-row inmates in Texas) their rights under the treaty. The forum was proper because when the United States ratified the treaty, it consented to the jurisdiction of the ICJ to resolve any disputes. Finding the United States in violation of the treaty, the Court ordered it "to provide . . . review and reconsideration of the convictions and sentences." At first, Governor Perry's predecessor, President George W. Bush -- hardly a cheerleader for international law himself -- had denounced Mexico's suit as an "unacceptable intrusion" into American affairs. But by the time of the judgment, he had come around. Presumably mindful of diplomatic repercussions, he issued a memorandum stating that "the United States will discharge its international obligations under the decision of the International Court of Justice . . . by having State courts give effect to the decision . . . ." Texas, however, didn't "get" the memo. Its courts had already ruled that whatever right its prisoners might have under the treaty, they had raised it too late for judicial consideration, no matter what the ICJ might think. The entreaty by the state's favorite son in the White House had no effect on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals: "We hold that the president has exceeded his constitutional authority by intruding into the independent powers of the judiciary." Was Washington an intruder? Was Mexico? Those questions came to the U.S. Supreme Court in the 2008 case of Medell???n v. Texas. The Bush administration supported the prisoners, but the Court, by a 6-3 vote, held that states need not obey the President's memo. Moreover, according to the justices, domestic courts were free to flout the ICJ's ruling. That decision rested on the premise that treaties qualify as binding internal law only if Congress so legislates, unless they are deemed, through a murky analysis of whether their aims are judicial or merely political, to be "self-executing." According to that doctrine, even once a non-self-executing treaty has been duly ratified and, as constitutionally required, approved by 2/3 of the Senate, it operates only in the international arena, without creating law enforceable in state or federal courts. The Medellin majority acknowledged that the Vienna Convention might be self-executing. Even so, the justices argued, the provision in a separate treaty -- the United Nations Charter -- under which each nation "undertakes to comply" with ICJ decisions is not. In other words, even if the Vienna Convention itself counts as domestic law, that is not true of ICJ applications of the treaty. Absent congressional legislation adopting them, the import of those judgments is only as international law. "International law," the Supreme Court proclaimed more than 100 years ago, "is part of our law." Despite reaffirming that position earlier this century, the Court did not mention it in Medell???n. But the doctrine of non-self-execution, despite its own long history, is hard to square with the Constitution's Supremacy Clause, which gives treaties the same status as federal law: "all Treaties made . . . under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding." The Framers might have added that if a "thing" notwithstanding is Rick Perry, a treaty stands little chance. In one of his books, Perry ridiculed the Medellin dissenters for having the temerity to imply that "international law should trump the laws of Texas." Apparently, when famously musing that Texas might secede, he chafed at the restraints of not only the United States but also the world community. In any event, as the law stands, either Congress executes a treaty or Texas executes Tamayo. That is, of course, unless Perry decides to commute the sentence. Based on his comments, it seems more likely that the chief executive of Texas will choose the role of executioner. (source: Alex Glashausser, Professor of Law, Washburn University----Huffington Post) ******************* AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PRESS RELEASE 22 January 2014 Texas governor must stop execution of Mexican national The Governor of Texas must stop the execution of Edgar Arias Tamayo, a Mexican national scheduled to be put to death this evening in violation of international law and despite a new finding that he was denied a fair trial, Amnesty International said. "Under Texas law, the state governor can stop this execution right up until the last minute, even though the clemency board has voted against mercy," said Rob Freer, US researcher for Amnesty International. "Governor Rick Perry should promptly announce that he is calling off this execution and that he will ensure Texas meets its obligations under international law." Edgar Arias Tamayo was sentenced to death for the murder of a Houston police officer in January 1994. He was not informed of his right to seek consular advice after his arrest. This assistance could have provided pivotal evidence in the case. Edgar Tamayo's claim that he was prejudiced by this violation of international law has to this day never been reviewed by any court. In 2004, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered the USA to ensure that Tamayo and other Mexican nationals denied their consular rights receive such judicial review. Yesterday, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles told Tamayo's lawyers that they had voted against recommending that Governor Perry commute the death sentence or grant Tamayo a 150-day reprieve. The Texas governor cannot, under state law, commute a death sentence without the Board's recommendation, but he can issue a stay of execution. Last week, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) called on the USA to stop the execution. The IACHR has reviewed the case and determined that the USA had deprived Edgar Tamayo of his fair trial rights under international law and that his execution would violate US obligations. Tamayo's lawyers are continuing to seek a stay of execution from the courts, with the US Supreme Court being the final arbiter. "We hope that the Supreme Court will grant a stay of execution. It must be clear by now to each Justice on the Court that leaving this matter up to Texas in the absence of action by Congress to implement the ICJ order has been like leaving a fox in charge of the henhouse," said Rob Freer. Under international law, a country's international legal obligations are binding on all branches and levels of government. Members of the executive, legislature and judiciary, must do what they can to ensure these obligations are met. "It is an invalid excuse now, and it will be an invalid excuse if Edgar Tamayo is executed this evening, for the USA to blame provisions of domestic law for its failure to meet its international legal obligations. It would not accept such an excuse from other countries; it should not do so for itself," said Rob Freer. (source: Amnesty International) VIRGINIA: Bill to allow increased use of electric chair passes Virginia House Virginia lawmakers, facing a shortage of the drugs used to perform lethal injections, are moving toward re-embracing use of the electric chair. The House of Delegates overwhelmingly passed a bill Wednesday that would make electrocution the default method of death for condemned prisoners if lethal injection is not available. Currently, electrocution is used only at the request of the inmate sentenced to die. Virginia, like other states that allow capital punishment, is struggling with a shortage of the drugs used to execute prisoners. European manufacturers will not sell chemicals for use in executions, and a major U.S. supplier halted production in 2011. Only 6 states - Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia - still authorize use of the electric chair, according to research compiled by the Death Penalty Information Center. And Kentucky and Tennessee permit electrocution only for crimes committed before 1998. All of the 6 states will electrocute only those inmates who specifically request it. A Senate version of the bill is in committee. At a recent hearing, Sen. Kenneth D. Alexander (D-Norfolk), a funeral home director, questioned the use of the electric chair, saying it left the deceased "disfigured." "It's a barbaric way for the state to execute people," Del. Scott A. Surovell (D-Fairfax) said after Wednesday's vote. "It's disappointing to me that my colleagues want to take a step backwards." The electric chair was last used in Virginia in January 2013, when Robert Gleason Jr., 43, chose to die by electrocution. He was the first prisoner since 2010 to do so; there were no complications. (source: Washington Post) ************ Foes agree: Death penalty could be in jeopardy in Va. An uncomfortable debate is unfolding in the General Assembly over how Virginia will execute its condemned prisoners in the future. One thing both sides in the debate agree on is that a legislative measure intended to keep the machinery of death humming along could have the ironic effect of putting it in legal jeopardy. Legislation was approved Wednesday in the House of Delegates that could make electrocution - a century-old method of capital punishment that has been seldom used in recent years - the only option for the inmates now on death row and those who will come after them. If passed by the state Senate and signed by the governor, the measure would make Virginia the only state where the electric chair is the default method of administering the death penalty. A companion bill in the Senate is moving more slowly after a Norfolk senator, speaking from first-hand experience, raised concerns about the gruesome outcomes of electrocution. The Republican-controlled House passed Del. Jackson Miller's bill, HB1052, on a largely party-line 64-32 vote. The measure says if the director of the Department of Corrections certifies that lethal injection is not available as a method of execution, electrocution will be used instead. His bill isn't about the death penalty; it's about process, Jackson, R-Manassas, said during the House debate. The means of execution most often used in Virginia - and, most on both sides of the debate agree, a more humane method than electrocution - is lethal injection. Under current law, condemned prisoners can choose between those 2 options. If they don't choose, lethal injection has been the default method used. The problem, Jackson said, is that the drugs necessary to carry out lethal injection are no longer available. The state's current supply expired Nov. 30 and the state has no access to a new supply, he said. The shortage is a result of decisions by the drug manufacturers to stop allowing their products to be used to kill people. Opponents of Miller's bill said the answer is not to revert to the electric chair. "This bill heads in the wrong direction," Del. Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax County, said. "Instead of debating ways to make it easier to use an antiquated, 19th century method of executing inmates, we ought to be talking about ways to make our system more humane." Only 3 other states - Alabama, Florida and South Carolina - still use electrocution, he said. In fact, Surovell said, forcing prisoners to the electric chair could jeopardize capital punishment in Virginia because it could invite a potentially successful legal challenge. He noted that 2 state supreme courts, in Georgia and Nebraska, have ruled that electrocution is cruel and unusual punishment. Miller agreed that such a result is possible if his bill becomes law. Meanwhile, the companion Senate bill, SB607, introduced by Sen. Charles Carrico, R-Grayson County, has been on hold since Sen. Kenny Alexander, D-Norfolk, raised concerns about the effects of electrocution. The measure is scheduled to be considered again Friday by the Senate Rehabilitation and Social Services Committee. Alexander, a funeral director, said in an interview Wednesday that he supports capital punishment for the most horrific crimes, but he thinks a decision to give up on lethal injection is premature. Alexander said he has handled the remains of people who were electrocuted. The bodies are often bright red, with 3rd-degree burns, he said. Sometimes the person has drooled or vomited blood, and occasionally the eyes have popped out of their sockets. "Should we default back to that? Is that the kind of society we are?" Alexander said. "Let's think this thing through. This is a major policy change. There's been no study. No doctor has come before the committee and said there's no other way." (source: The Virginian-Pilot) ALABAMA: AG Applauds Committee Approvals in Senate and House for Death Penalty Bills Attorney General Luther Strange announced that the 2 bills in the Fair Justice Act package Wednesday were approved by the Judiciary Committees of both the Alabama Senate and House of Representatives. He applauded the committees' positive action and urged members of the Legislature to move forward in enacting these important measures. The Attorney General advocates this legislation to make death penalty appeals more efficient, while preserving and strengthening safeguards for fairness. He also wants to extend certain circumstances in which the death penalty can be applied, such as shootings at a school. "Death penalty appeals seem endless, with excessive delays that serve only to prolong pain and postpone justice for the victims of these heinous crimes," said Attorney General Strange. "We are proposing fair and sensible changes to make the system work better for everyone. We also want to send a clear message that we will not tolerate attacks on children at schools, with changes in the law that specify it is a capital crime to murder them and others who are particularly vulnerable." The Fair Justice Act was developed in coordination with the Alabama District Attorneys Association. There are 2 separate bills to amend different parts of the death penalty law, both of which are sponsored by Rep. Lynn Greer and Sen. Bill Holtzclaw. The 1st bill, HB 216 and SB 194, addresses the cumbersome and inefficient appeals process. Following a capital conviction, there is a period of "direct appeals" and only after these are fully completed - sometimes more than several years later - does the defendant begin the next round of appeals, which is a "Rule 32" petition for post-conviction relief. The Fair Justice Act requires capital defendants to file Rule 32 petitions within 180 days of filing their 1st direct appeal. Capital defendants would receive better representation by having their claims considered earlier in the process, and indigent defendants would be appointed counsel for the Rule 32 petition within 30 days of being sentenced. Finally, the Fair Justice Act calls for a final decision by the circuit court on the Rule 32 petition within 180 days after the direct appeal is completed. This act will make the appellate process more efficient while maintaining the same opportunities for court review and enhancing representation currently provided to death row defendants. The 2nd bill, HB 218 and SB 193, provides important protections for schoolchildren and certain others who are particularly vulnerable by expanding classifications for killings that may be prosecuted as capital offenses. These offenses would now include the murder of any person on a school campus, any person in a day care or child care facility, anyone who is covered by a "protection from abuse" order when the murder was committed for intimidation or retaliation for the order, and any family member of law enforcement or a public official when the murder was intended for intimidation or retaliation against the officer or official. The Fair Justice Act also makes it an aggravating circumstance - a factor to be considered in determining whether to impose the death penalty - to murder a law enforcement officer when the officer is acting in the line of duty. "I am pleased that these bills are moving quickly through the Legislature and that both the Senate and House Judiciary Committees have taken our recommendations to make Alabama's death penalty laws stronger, more efficient, and more just," said Attorney General Strange. "I especially want to thank our sponsors, Sen. Bill Holtzclaw and Rep. Lynn Greer, for their outstanding leadership in moving this important legislation forward. I urge the Legislature to swiftly vote on and give final approval to these reforms." (source: WTVY news) OHIO: I witnessed Ohio's execution of Dennis McGuire. What I saw was inhumane----I don't know how any objective observer could come up with any conclusion other than that injection was an evil way to go The last time I celebrated mass with Dennis McGuire, who was executed by the state of Ohio last week using an experimental 2-drug concoction, it was the feast of the epiphany that marks the bringing of gifts to the newborn Jesus by the magi. McGuire was one of just over a dozen Catholics among Ohio's 147 death row inmates who come to mass weekly in Chillicothe Correctional Institution. As part of the sacrament of anointing, I asked the others to pass by and lay hands on McGuire as a way of giving our brother back to the Lord as a symbolic gift. When I turned round to face them with the oils, I found the other 12 standing around him, surrounding him as though they were offering him back to the Lord. Tears were streaming down McGuire's face. That was the first time I'd ever seen him show physical signs of emotion. I first began to visit Mcguire in November. He told me about the evil act he had committed, the murder in 1989 of a young woman Joy Stewart who was pregnant and whose unborn child also died. He confessed his sin to me, and expressed sorrow for what he had done. I said he should pray for forgiveness from the woman he had killed, and from that unborn child, and over the course of the final eight weeks, I know that he did. After that, I had to deal with him as I do anyone else who repents: as a forgiven sinner. It can be very difficult for people not in the religion to accept that with regard to a murderer, but the faith is clear: once forgiven, you are forgiven, no matter how heinous the sin. On the day of his execution, last Thursday, I gave him his last sacraments at Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, which lodges the "death house". Shortly before the execution was due to start, his son, daughter and daughter-in-law, who were with him at the time, asked me to come with them as witness. McGuire also said he wanted me there as his spiritual adviser. I felt nauseous before I entered the room, as I had never seen an execution before. As the execution got underway, the nausea passed and was replaced by an intense feeling that I wanted to get out of that room, away from the horrendous act that was playing out before me. I've seen people die many times before: in nursing homes, families I've known, my own mother. In most settings I've found death to be a very peaceful experience. But this was something else. By my count it took 26 minutes for McGuire to be pronounced dead. We sat down in the death house - McGuire's children and daughter-in-law in the front row and me in the row behind them. At about 10.15am he was brought in and strapped to the gurney. With his arms spread and, not to put too fine a point on it, I whispered to his daughter that he looked as though he were on the cross. He made his final statement. He said thank you to Joy Stewart's family who had offered him some words of comfort in a letter they had written to him, and he told his children that he loved them and would see them in heaven. They began to put lines into him. That was unsettling, as from what I could observe they seemed to find it hard to get insert the IV and there seemed to be blood coming from his right arm. At 10.27am, the syringe containing the untested concoction of midazolam and hydromorphone was injected into him. At 10.30am, three minutes into the execution, he lifted his head off the gurney, and said to the family who he could see through the window: "I love you, I love you." Then he lay back down. At about 10.31am, his stomach swelled up in an unusual way, as though he had a hernia or something like that. Between 10.33am and 10.44am - I could see a clock on the wall of the death house - he struggled and gasped audibly for air. I was aghast. Over those 11 minutes or more he was fighting for breath, and I could see both of his fists were clenched the entire time. His gasps could be heard through the glass wall that separated us. Towards the end, the gasping faded into small puffs of his mouth. It was much like a fish lying along the shore puffing for that one gasp of air that would allow it to breathe. Time dragged on and I was helpless to do anything, sitting helplessly by as he struggled for breath. I desperately wanted out of that room. For the next 4 minutes or so a medical tech listened for a heart beat on both sides of his chest. That seemed to drag on too, like some final cruel ritual, preventing us from leaving. Then, at 10.53am, the warden called the time of death, they closed the curtains, and that was it. I came out of that room feeling that I had witnessed something ghastly. I was relieved to be out in the fresh air. There is no question in my mind that Dennis McGuire suffered greatly over many minutes. I'd been told that a "normal" execution lasted 5 minutes - this experimental 2-drug concoction had taken 26 minutes. I consider that inhumane. His family had been exposed to something horrendous. They cried and sobbed, held each other, held onto my hand, and at times turned away to hug each other so they didn't have to watch. And then there's the family of Joy Stewart, who I think were sitting next to us on the other side of a wall. I pray for them because I know they too have been through hell and back. My heart goes out to them, but I don't see how his death will bring them peace. All it means is that they witnessed somebody else die. I have opposed the death penalty since I studied philosophy in college 40 years ago. My objection is based on a simple principle: all human beings are created with the ability to change, from what is not yet to what is, and that's as true in the womb as it is heading for the tomb. There can always be repentance. To interrupt that process is to deny people the chance to repent of what they have done. Capital punishment is simply a way of society avoiding the possibility of changing lives. I'm not advocating the release of any of Ohio's death row inmates into society - they have all committed heinous acts, and society must be protected from them. But by incarcerating them, they pose no more threat. Everybody wants to play God instead of believing in him. That applies to the murderer as much as to all of us. In my opinion, the death penalty is nothing more than an exercise in vengeance that rightly should be reserved to the lord. Putting my opposition to the death penalty to one side, there remains what I saw with my own eyes last Thursday. I don't know how any objective observer could come up with any conclusion other than that was an evil act. Now that almost a week has passed, and I've had time to reflect, I ask that the governor of Ohio or the legislature end the death penalty in this state. It serves no purpose. People must seize this culture of death and stop it. On Monday, I came to the prison for my usual weekly mass. I asked the remaining Catholic inmates whether they wanted to know what had happened to their brother. Most said they did, so I told them straight out, sparing them few details. Some of them came up to me after the mass to talk. Ironically, they began to console me, saying that they were sorry that I had been forced to go through such a terrible experience. I found myself oddly comforted by that. I know they were being genuine - I've been with them long enough to sense when I am being played. For me, that underlines a vital truth: that even among men who have done such brutal things, redemption can be found. (source: Lawrence Hummer, The Guardian) ****************** Botched Ohio execution raises death penalty dilemma Columbus Dispatch reporter Alan Johnson has witnessed 19 executions, but the killing of the murderer and rapist Dennis McGuire in Ohio last Thursday, he says, was different. "After 3 to 4 minutes, Dennis McGuire began gasping for breath, his stomach and chest were compressing deeply, he was making a snorting sound, almost a choking sound at times," wrote Johnson. "And I didn't notice it at first, but his left hand - which had been waving at his kids - had clenched into a fist." McGuire's execution was carried out with a previously unused cocktail of drugs, the sedative midazolam and the painkiller hydromorphone, and took 25 minutes, during which time, his defence team says, he would have suffered the sensation of starving for air. Allen Bohnert, one of McGuire's federal public defenders, called the execution a "failed, agonising experiment by the state of Ohio". McGuire's family has now announced it will take legal action against the state, claiming he suffered cruel and unusual punishment. Whatever the outcome of any legal action, McGuire's execution has highlighted a growing problem facing the 32 American states now using lethal injection - a critical shortage of the drugs they use to kill. The problem is not new. As early as 2011 the European and American manufacturers of many of the drugs used in the death penalty began banning sales to the various arms of the US penal system on legal and ethical grounds. The US-based global pharmaceutical company Hospira announced in 2011 that it would stop producing one of the most popular drugs used in lethal cocktails, the anaesthetic sodium thiopental. It had earlier moved production of the drug from North Carolina to Italy. Since the Italian government bans capital punishment, it warned Hospira that it would have to monitor its entire supply chain to ensure the drug did not end up in the hands of death penalty states. Hospira chose to end production rather than expose employees to liability. "Hospira makes its products to enhance and save the lives of the patients we serve, and, therefore, we have always publicly objected to the use of any of our products in capital punishment," the company says on its website. Hospira's decision led directly to delays of at least two executions that year, and since then US states have had to investigate the use of other drugs. Missouri turned to another anaesthetic, propofol, but the 1st execution to use it was halted after the European Union threatened to limit the drug's export to the US if it was used in an execution. This has led some states to turn to anonymous so-called "compounding pharmacies" to mix batches of drugs. This might replenish stocks, but it opens the states up to further appeals. Fordham University law professor and lethal injection expert Deborah Denno says the McGuire case has added to an ongoing trend of questioning lethal injection and the death penalty more broadly. She notes that lethal injections are carried out in prison settings not properly set up to undertake such a procedure and often undertaken by people not properly trained to administer drugs. In 2009, executioners in Ohio spent 2 hours trying to get a secure intravenous line into a condemned man called Romell Broom before giving up. He remains on death row. According to Professor Denno, 3 states are now considering returning to the firing squad for executions. "A firing squad would be quick and something we could do at a moment's notice," one of the sponsors of the bill, Representative Rick Brattin, told the St Louis Today website last week. "My opinion is they would suffer less than with lethal injection." (On this, Professor Denno agrees.) Other states are abandoning the practice entirely as DNA evidence proves many innocent people have been sentenced to death. In total 18 states have abandoned capital punishment, 6 in the past 5 years. Others, such as California and North Carolina, have unofficial moratoriums in place. In a statement after McGuire's execution, his daughter Amber said: "It was the most awful moment in my life to witness my dad's execution. I can't think of any other way to describe it than torture." The family of the pregnant woman he raped and murdered, Joy Stewart, said McGuire was "treated far more humanely than he treated her". (source: The Age) ***************** Ohio lawmakers move forward with bill to end death penalty Opponents of capital punishment on Wednesday asked Gov. John Kasich to impose a moratorium on executions and they pushed legislation that would eliminate the death penalty in Ohio. In a letter to Kasich, state Reps. Nickie Antonio, D-Lakewood, and Dan Ramos, D-Lorain, said, "...we implore you to use your executive power to grant a full moratorium until we can ensure that humane and constitutional policies are in place." The push comes a week after it took roughly 25 minutes to execute Preble County killer Dennis McGuire using an untested two-drug combo and media witnesses described how the inmate spent at least 10 minutes snorting and gasping. In 1989 McGuire raped and killed Joy Stewart, a West Alexandria woman who was nearly eight months pregnant. Antonio and Ramos are sponsoring House Bill 385, which would eliminate capital punishment for any future aggravated murder cases and replace it with 3 sentencing options: life in prison without parole or life in prison with parole after 20 or 30 years. Antonio said capital punishment is expensive, unjust, inhumane and even erroneous. She noted that 6 people have been freed from Ohio's death row. "It is not possible to be humane and execute a human. It is the ultimate oxymoron," Antonio told the House Judiciary Committee. John Murphy of the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association said his group opposes the bill. Kasich press secretary Rob Nichols said, "The governor supports the death penalty and the procedure is under review just as it is reviewed after every execution." Following McGuire's execution, Kasich's office received about 100 calls and emails - about 1/2 against capital punishment and 1/2 supporting it, he said. The Antonio-Ramos bill, introduced Dec. 10, has 12 co-sponsors, including the sole Republican, Terry Blair, R-Washington Twp. It mirrors a bill introduced by Antonio in 2011 that died in committee. Ohio has 5 more executions scheduled for 2014 with the next coming March 19. Ohio has executed 53 inmates since resuming them in 1999. While there may not be much appetite among the GOP-controlled General Assembly for eliminating capital punishment, some reforms may be embraced later this year when a high-profile task force is expected to recommend the largest overhaul of Ohio's death penalty statutes since 1981 when the most recent law put into effect. The Ohio Supreme Court and Ohio State Bar Association's death penalty task force is expected to recommend more safeguards to ensure that defendants in capital cases receive fair trials and effective legal counsel. The task force did not debate whether abolishing or putting a temporary hold on capital punishment. Last year, Maryland became the 18th state to eliminate the death penalty. 32 states have capital punishment laws on the books. (source: Dayton Daily News) **************** Dem vying for Ohio governor supports death penalty Democratic gubernatorial contender Ed FitzGerald says he supports the death penalty and believes there are times when it is called for. FitzGerald was asked by reporters Wednesday about the death penalty following one of the longest executions since Ohio resumed capital punishment in 1999. Death row inmate Dennis McGuire gasped and snorted last week as an untested drug combination was used to put him to death. FitzGerald says the procedure should be reviewed. He says his experience as a former prosecutor and FBI agent have shaped his views on the death penalty. Republican Gov. John Kasich's spokesman has said the governor supports the death penalty and the procedure is being reviewed. McGuire's attorney, an anti-death penalty group and several Democratic state lawmakers are urging a moratorium on executions. (source: Associated Press) LOUISIANA: Louisiana must produce more info on lethal injection process ahead of Feb. 5 execution, judge rules Exactly 2 weeks before Louisiana is scheduled to perform its 1st execution in more than 4 years, a federal magistrate judge has sided with 2 Angola death row inmates, ordering correctional officials to release more information regarding the state's lethal injection protocol. The debate comes as multiple other states question the safety of new and untested lethal injection drugs following last week's botched execution in Ohio. On Jan. 13, U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephen Riedlinger ruled Louisiana officials had to release additional information regarding the planned Feb. 5 execution of convicted killer Christopher Sepulvado. The deadline for the state to release this information, including the type and origin of what drug will be used in the lethal injection, was set for Friday (Jan. 24). A similar case is also pending in a Missouri court, just 1 week before that state is set to execute Herbert Smulls. Information regarding Louisiana's execution protocol was unavailable to the public and convicted criminals before June 2013, when Riedlinger ordered state officials to make the process more transparent. The nearly 60-page protocol, released on June 17, was first publicly posted by NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune on June 28. But lawyers for Sepulvado and fellow death row inmate Jessie Hoffman called the protocol "woefully inadequate." The document confirmed the state planned to shift from a 3-drug cocktail to a single dose of the barbiturate pentobarbital, but it lacked details about how the drug would be stored, overseen and administered and by whom. Additional questions were raised this month after Ohio correctional officials administered an untested, 3-drug cocktail during the execution of convicted killer Dennis McGuire. According to The Associated Press, McGuire took an unusually long time to die, nearly 25 minutes, repeatedly gasping in an unsuccessful attempt to fill his lungs with air. A week before that, convicted killer Michael Lee Wilson was reported to have said, "I feel my whole body burning," after he was administered a drug cocktail that included pentobarbital during his Jan. 9 execution. This drug is the same one Louisiana officials have said they are planning to use in Sepulvado's execution next month. Nembutal, the brand name pentobarbital originally manufactured Lundbeck, has been in short supply in the U.S. after the Denmark-based pharmaceutical company blocked its sale for use in executions. This agreement continued when Lundbeck divested the product to the Illinois-based Akorn in December 2011. State correctional officials have since turned to alternative drug cocktails often procured from compounding pharmacies, which produce generic and custom versions of drugs for doctors offices, hospitals and other specialty cases, according to a lengthy look at the trend by The Lens. The specialty drugs produced by pharmacies have raised concerns after a deadly meningitis outbreak in several states including Texas was tied to a compounding pharmacy in Farmington, Massachusetts. According to another report in The Lens, Louisiana Board of Pharmacy Executive Director Malcolm Broussard said the state's entire supply of pentobarbital was disposed of after it became clear the drug had outlived its 3-year shelf-life. This was confirmed in a Jan. 16 email from state counsel Jeffrey Cody to Kathy Kelly, Sepulvado's lawyer, stating the Department of Corrections was "in the process of implementing the lethal injection protocol, including procuring the pentobarbital." This has plaintiffs' counsel worried because it is unclear what drug will be used in Louisiana executions going forward, and where it will be acquired. Platinffs' counsel said they have "received reports" that the state is procuring the drug from a compounding pharmacy in Oklahoma that might not be properly permitted in the state of Louisiana. The specifics of these tips were not released, and could not be independently verified. The state execution protocol also mandates the state have the lethal injection drug in its possession 30 days prior to the execution date. If Louisiana plans to use pentobarbital to execute Sepulvado, they would have already passed deadline by more than a week when Cody confirmed the state was "in the process" of getting the drug on Jan. 16. On Wednesday, James Hilburn, another member of the state's legal team, and Cody both refused comment on the Jan. 16 email. Cody said "they email says what it says," while Hilburn stated they would provide all of the information mandates by the court by the Friday deadline. Neither confirmed whether pentobarbital or another drug or combination of drugs would be used. Neither commented on where the state was procuring the drug, and whether that location of origin was permitted in the state of Louisiana. Jen Moreno, a staff attorney at U.C. Berkeley School of Law's Death Penalty Clinic familiar with the case, said she was concerned the state keep the information slated to be released Friday from the public eye by releasing it under lock-and-key. The state could release the information only to plaintiffs and their counsel, she said, under a state statute meant to protect those directly involved with executions in Louisiana. But counsel for the 2 death row inmates disagreed, saying counsel for the state had not requested a protective order for the information. Sepulvado was convicted of the 1992 murder of his 6-year-old stepson Wesley Allen Mercer in Mansfield. Court records show he beat the boy and stabbed him with a screwdriver, before dunking him in a scalding hot bath. Hoffman was sentenced to death for the 1996 kidnapping, rape and killing of Mary "Molly" Elliott, an advertising executive in St. Tammany Parish. (source: New Orleans Times-Picayune) ARKANSAS: Past time to put death penalty down It has been 43 years since Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller commuted the death sentences of all 15 men on Arkansas's death row and expressed the naive hope that other governors would follow his example and remove the stain on the national character that he thought executions to be. 33 years would pass before another governor and another Republican, George Ryan Sr. of Illinois, embraced Rockefeller's cause. Ryan commuted the sentences of 167 men. That was the sum of Rockefeller's legacy, although other governors found ways to avoid carrying out executions. But Arkansas, which has put 27 men to death since Rockefeller's great act of conscience, may not see another execution, and the rest of the nation, at least outside Texas and Oklahoma, may not see many. The nation's legal system has inched slowly but inevitably toward Rockefeller's conviction that state executions violate the U.S. Constitution's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. Popular attitudes about the death penalty have evolved but, even now, it is hard to escape the politics of capital punishment and abolition. Rockefeller and Ryan demonstrated their fearlessness only as they were leaving office. Rockefeller had been defeated 6 weeks earlier, would leave office in another three weeks and would soon be overtaken by cancer and death. Ryan and scores of his associates headed for the federal penitentiary after a federal investigation turned up corruption on a colossal scale. Ryan perhaps wanted to show that he owned at least one moral imperative - the biblical injunction against killing. In Rockefeller's case, the mass commutations were neither sudden nor surprising, although a couple of Republicans condemned him for it. He had warned before he ran for office the first time, in 1964, that he opposed the death penalty and would never carry out a single execution if people elected him. None of his opponents ever made it an issue although polls regularly showed that 80 % of Arkansans supported executions. The man who defeated and succeeded him, Dale Bumpers, said he owed Rockefeller many things but none greater than emptying the death cells, which meant that he never had to set an execution date or act on a clemency petition. Rockefeller's statement on the morning of Dec. 19, 1970, announcing the commutations for the men who had been sentenced to death on his watch was eloquent in its simplicity: "What earthly mortal has the omnipotence to say who among us shall live and who shall die? I do not. Moreover, in that the law grants me the authority to set aside the death penalty, I cannot and will not turn my back on lifelong Christian teachings and beliefs, merely to let history run its course on a fallible and failing theory of punitive justice." As Rockefeller predicted, history has about run its course on the "fallible and failing theory" of justice. Eighteen states have abolished the death penalty and another 25 have not executed anyone in the past 5 years, evidence of both the growing opposition to it and the increasing difficulty of finding ways to kill people that courts may conclude are "humane." Moreover, 142 innocent people have been freed from death rows, owing largely to the improving science for evaluating evidence. Like other states, the Arkansas legislature has cast about for a killing drug that won't make the condemned suffer too much. Attorney General Dustin McDaniel, who prosecutes the death penalty, told legislators last year that it looked pretty hopeless. Governor Beebe, who has expressed no personal qualms about executing murderers, said that if the legislature passed a bill abolishing capital punishment and requiring life sentences he would sign it. Neither this legislature nor the one that succeeds it next year is apt to be the one that abolishes the death penalty. A higher power, perhaps the U.S. Supreme Court, will do that, although the Arkansas Supreme Court has shown growing reluctance to go along with capital prosecutions or legislative remedies for cruel punishment. Thirteen months ago, it declared the Arkansas execution scheme unconstitutional and told the legislature the state could kill no one else until the lawmakers had prescribed both the specific drugs and the dosage that would kill people humanely, which is an oxymoron everywhere but in the rarified quarters of the judicial system. Arkansas and other states have used for a few years a three-drug protocol; the 1st 2 drugs, which were supposed to put the condemned man in an ethereal state so that he didn't feel great pain, can no longer be obtained because the makers and the nations that ship them will not permit the drugs to be used if they are to kill instead of to heal. Like the judicial history of civil rights, the judicial history of capital punishment is almost make-believe. After a century or more, the courts eventually get around to a literal reading of the Constitution, and they are nearing that point with the 8th amendment, the prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. In 1890, the U.S. Supreme Court said an execution that involved "torture or a lingering death" was cruel. Whether it was by hanging, firing squad or the electric chair it had to be quick and certain or else the state had violated the law in killing a man. 6 years ago, the court rejected a blanket appeal of lethal injections because, in the amazing words of the Chief Justice John Roberts, killing a man that way did not involve "substantial risk of serious harm." Oklahoma and Ohio experimented the last two weeks with new untested drugs to kill a couple of murderers. Both executions turned into extraordinary ordeals with one of the men screaming that he was burning and the other writhing in agony for 25 minutes. The debate over whether the men really suffered very much continued. The men actually died peacefully, one defender said, explaining that the contortions were manifestations only of the body and not of the mind. The argument illustrates the historical absurdity of the debate. It is not the pain that is the punishment but the ending of life. Given a choice, most everyone would endure terrible pain in exchange for life. The courts will soon, finally, recognize the distinction. Also, consider that the murder rate remains unusually high only in states that regularly use the death penalty, and the number of executions each year is slumping so low that the penalty is not only cruel but has become unusual as well. (source: Arkansas Times) USA: Date set for Johnson death penalty retrial The death penalty retrial of a former Klemme woman charged in 5 1993 drug-related North Iowa slayings is tentatively set for September. Angela Johnson's penalty retrial is to begin Sept. 2 or as soon thereafter as a jury is selected, according to an order filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa. Jury selection is tentatively scheduled to begin on Aug. 11, with a break for Labor Day. The penalty retrial had been scheduled to begin June 3, 2013, in Sioux City. But U.S. District Judge Mark Bennett suspended it indefinitely in April after federal prosecutors said they would appeal 2 rulings that could make it more difficult for them to persuade jurors Johnson should be executed. A ruling on that appeal is still pending from the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. Johnson becmae the 1st woman sent to federal death row in decades after a jury gave her 4 death sentences following a 2005 trial for her role in the execution-style killings of 3 adults and 2 children in North Iowa. But Bennett overturned the sentences in 2012 after finding Johnson's defense was inadequate and failed to present evidence about her mental state that could have convinced jurors to spare her life. Bennett did not overturn her convictions, saying she was clearly guilty. In January 2012, Bennett ruled the sentencing retrial would be limited to a "penalty phase" in which jurors will decide only whether Johnson should be punished with death. Johnson and her then-boyfriend, methamphetamine kingpin Dustin Honken, were convicted in 2005 of killing 2 former drug dealers who were cooperating with a federal investigation, one of the dealer's girlfriends and her 2 kids. Greg Nicholson, 34, and Terry DeGeus, 32, were set to testify against Honken in a federal court case when they disappeared. A friend of Nicholson, Lori Duncan, 31, and her 2 girls, Kandi, 10, and Amber, 6, also disappeared. The victims' bodies were not found until 2000, when Johnson, in custody on suspicious of the murders, drew a map for a jailhouse informant that led authorities to their shallow graves near Mason City. Iowa doesn't have the death penalty but federal prosecutors sought capital punishment because the case involved the killing of federal witnesses and children. Jurors sentenced Honken and Johnson to death after separate trials. Honken remains on death row at a prison in Terre Haute, Ind. Johnson, an inmate at a medical center in Fort Worth, Texas, is convicted of five counts of aiding and abetting the murders as part of a continuing criminal enterprise. For each count, jurors in the sentencing retrial will answer whether Johnson should be sentenced to death. (source: Globe Gazette) _______________________________________________ DeathPenalty mailing list DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty Search the Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/deathpenalty@lists.washlaw.edu/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A free service of WashLaw http://washlaw.edu (785)670.1088 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
