Jan. 31
FLORIDA:
'Red-truck' killer Jermaine 'Bugsy' LeBron loses death-penalty appeal ----He
was convicted in the 1995 shooting of 22-year-old Larry Neal Oliver Jr.
The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday denied an appeal from killer Jermaine
LeBron, who was convicted in the 1995 shotgun killing of Larry Neal Oliver Jr.
that became known as the "red-truck murder."
LeBron, 39, also known by the nickname Bugsy, had argued that his attorneys
were ineffective during his trial. The 7 justices disagreed.
One of LeBron's attorneys testified that he had tried more than 70 murder cases
and about 25 penalty-phase trials, the justices wrote. He conducted interviews
and thoroughly reviewed evidence that might have spared LeBron's life. He also
hired a respected mental-health expert to evaluate LeBron and a second expert
when the first did not provide helpful information, according to the court
opinion.
LeBron was convicted in the November 1995 robbery and shotgun murder of Oliver,
22, of Belle Isle, who was known as Neal. Orange-Osceola Chief Circuit Judge
Belvin Perry sentenced LeBron to death for the 3rd time on Dec. 27, 2005 after
4 penalty-phase proceedings, including one that ended in a mistrial.
Oliver was killed at a house on Gardenia Road in Osceola County's Buenaventura
Lakes where LeBron was staying. His body was dumped in southwest Orange County.
LeBron lured Oliver on the pretext of selling him spinning rims for his 1993
customized red Chevrolet pickup, which he worked 2 jobs to maintain.
LeBron's friends helped him burn Oliver's personal papers, clean up his blood
and pawn his truck-stereo speakers. One tried to burn the inside of the truck
to destroy evidence.
Afterward, LeBron and several of his friends charged dinner at Hooters to
Oliver's credit card.
6 young people, including a woman who played Pluto at Walt Disney World's Magic
Kingdom and a stripper, served prison time or probation as accessories. A 7th
man was convicted of arson.
(source: Orlando Sentinel)
***************
Prosecutor John Tanner's religious remarks get killer new death penalty
hearing----Federal court grants Taco Bell killer new penalty phase citing
religious remarks of prosecutor
A federal appeals court in Atlanta, citing former state attorney John Tanner's
biblical references during sentencing, has thrown out the death sentence
against a man convicted in the killing of a teenage worker during a robbery at
a Taco Bell in Daytona Beach in 1992.
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta has ordered a new sentencing for
Anthony Farina, 40, who was convicted in the slaying of 17-year-old Michelle
Van Ness during the robbery on May 9, 1992, at the Taco Bell on Beville Road.
Also convicted in the killing was Farina's brother Jeffrey Farina, the
triggerman.
The brothers forced 4 workers into a freezer and then Jeffrey Farina shot 3 of
them before the gun misfired. That's when Anthony Farina handed his brother a
knife and Jeffrey Farina stabbed a fourth employee. All survived except for Van
Ness.
Tanner, who lost his bid for re-election in 2008 against R.J. Larizza, could
not be reached Thursday.
The state plans to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Both brothers received the death sentence but the Florida Supreme Court reduced
Jeffrey Farina's to life because he as 16 at the time he killed Van Ness.
The appeals court said Tanner went too far when questioning the Rev. James
Davis, a prison pastor who had been called by defense attorney William Hathaway
to testify about counseling Anthony Farina at prison.
Tanner drew heavily from the Bible during his questioning of Davis, "urging the
implementation of God's law," the 11th Circuit ruling states.
"While elevating his own station as divinely-ordained authority, the prosecutor
made clear that the death penalty was the sole acceptable punishment under
divine law, noting how Christ himself refused to grant a felon forgiveness from
the death penalty."
Rather than focusing on Anthony Farina, Tanner tackled theology, the appeals
court said.
"Indeed, the majority of the prosecutor's questions to Rev. Davis on cross
examination and re-cross examination did not concern Mr. Farina personally, but
rather, focused on improper, theological matters such as the prosecutor's role
as a vehicle of divine retribution and the propriety of the death penalty,"
according to the opinion.
The appeals court also found that Tanner essentially told prospective jurors
during jury selection that "it is 'perfectly legitimate' as a seated juror, to
use religious beliefs as a basis to reject the law."
Tanner's biblical references occurred during Anthony Farina's 2nd sentencing.
The Florida Supreme Court had ordered a new sentencing for him because it ruled
that a qualified juror had been improperly excluded from the trial jury.
At Anthony Farina's 2nd sentencing jurors voted 12-0 for death and Circuit
Judge McFerrin Smith followed the recommendation. The recommendation had been
7-5 by jurors at the initial trial.
Tanner also told jurors during the re-sentencing the following: "Jurors are
obligated and expected, if they serve on a jury to follow (the judge's
instruction on the law) even if they don't agree with the instructions. But
you're not required, or expected, to abandon deeply held religious, moral, and
conscientious, or other beliefs.
"In other words, if the conflict is so great that you say, I would like to
follow the Judge's instructions, I want to be respectful, but on this issue I
couldn't follow that instruction. I couldn't do this. That's perfectly
legitimate. There's nothing wrong with it. That doesn't mean you're doing
anything improper or disrespecting the Court."
The federal court's decision overturning the death sentence was praised by
Anthony Farina's attorney, Marie-Louise Samuels Parmer, an assistant capital
collateral counsel for the middle region.
"I'm very grateful that the 11th Circuit reversed the death sentence," she said
in a phone interview. "I'm confident that their decision will be upheld and
hopeful that Mr. Farina, who did not kill anybody, has the opportunity to get a
life sentence."
But the Florida Attorney General's office is asking for an extension of the
speedy trial rule to give them time to appeal the 11th Circuit Court of
Appeal's decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, according to a motion filed by
Charmaine Millsaps, an assistant attorney general.
The state intends to file its appeal in the U.S. Supreme Court before March 6.
(source: Daytona News-Journal)
OHIO:
Gov. Kasich, lawmakers rehash their support of death penalty
Gov. John Kasich and legislative leaders reiterated their support Thursday for
the death penalty, indicating they would not support a moratorium on lethal
injections following the prolonged execution of a Preble County murderer
earlier this month.
Kasich, Republican House Speaker Bill Batchelder, Republican Senate President
Keith Faber and Senate Minority Leader Joe Schiavoni (D-Boardman) appeared to
be on the same page on the issue during a daylong forum sponsored by the Ohio
Associated Press that gave reporters from around the state an opportunity to
question elected officials on different issues.
All were asked about the status of capital punishment in the state, following
the execution of Dennis McGuire.
"I think that we need to keep the death penalty on the table ... at the same
time making sure that we find the most humane ways possible to deal with this
issue." Schiavoni said. "I think that, although there may not be evidence to
show that it's a deterrent ... this is something that we need to keep in our
justice system for the family of the victims."
"I look at this very, very carefully, but I am a supporter of the death penalty
because I think that when somebody's life is taken, made in the image of God,
the death penalty is an appropriate response," Kasich added during a later
session.
Only House Minority Leader Tracy Heard (D-Columbus) voiced support Thursday for
ceasing executions for the moment while issues involved are debated.
"I think there's a lot to consider, most importantly the fact that we have not
yet found any evidence to indicate that this is a deterrent," she said. "...
Why are we continuing to go down a road that is not providing any other
satisfaction for the families and in fact protracting their engagement with
this and delaying their opportunity to heal?"
McGuire, sentenced to death for the rape and murder of a pregnant woman 25
years ago, was the 1st inmate executed using a new 2-drug combination. The
process took about 25 minutes, and witnesses described him gasping for breath.
McGuire's family has filed suit, and another inmate has filed a legal challenge
hoping to block his execution, scheduled to take place in March. Some state
lawmakers and groups also have called on Gov. John Kasich to institute a
moratorium on lethal injections.
State prison officials and Attorney General Mike DeWine are not commenting on
McGuire's execution, saying only that a standard review is under way, as is
done for each death sentence that is carried out.
The Department of Rehabilitation and Correction this week did release three
incident reports that quoted prison staff who overheard McGuire saying he was
told by attorneys to put on a show during his execution. Federal public
defenders deny those allegations.
Kasich said Thursday he is waiting for DRC's review of McGuire's execution.
"I want to hear what they have to say upon completion of that," he said. "I do
not believe they're going to come back and recommend that we don't do this
anymore. They're looking at what the impact was, what happened in there, and if
there's adjustments to be made, they will come and recommend them."
He added, "But this does not take away from the fact that I think the death
penalty is appropriate."
Faber said the victims are getting lost in the debate about McGuire's
execution.
"I used to represent Preble County where this gentleman committed his crime,"
he said. "And I can tell you that crime is one that is horrendous, and let's
remember the victims when we have this discussion."
He added, "I don't think my caucus supports a moratorium at this time. ... I
think we need to make sure that we have an ultimate sanction and we do it in a
balanced approach."
(source: The Daily Record)
KENTUCKY:
Prosecutor to seek death penalty for minister charged in Danville pawn shop
killings
In a document filed Thursday, a prosecutor has given notice that he intends to
seek the death penalty for a minister accused of killing 3 people in a Danville
pawn shop.
Richie Bottoms, commonwealth's attorney for Boyle County, filed notice that he
will seek "a sentence of death" in the case of Kenneth Allen Keith.
Keith, 48, of Burnside in Pulaski County is charged with 3 counts of murder and
1 count of 1st-degree wanton endangerment in the September deaths of Michael
Hockensmith, 35, and his wife, Angela Hockensmith, 38, both of Stanford, and
gold broker Daniel Smith, 60, of Richmond. The 3 were shot and killed in a pawn
shop co-owned by the Hockensmiths.
The notice filed Thursday said the commonwealth "may offer proof the defendant
committed murders for monetary gain for himself or another person."
"Additionally, or in the alternative, the commonwealth may offer proof the acts
of killing were intentional and resulted in multiple deaths," the notice says.
"Additionally, or in the alternative, the commonwealth may offer proof the
murders were committed while the defendant was engaged in the acts of robbery
in the 1st degree and/or burglary in the 1st degree."
Under state law, those "aggravating circumstances" open the door for
prosecutors to pursue the death penalty.
Keith was pastor of Main Street Baptist Church in Burnside in Pulaski County at
the time of the fatal shootings. He has been in the Boyle County jail in
Danville without bond since he was charged Oct. 9.
The Hockensmiths' 9-year-old son, Andrew, was in the Danville store at the time
of the shootings Sept. 20 and called 911 to report the slayings.
The notice also says the commonwealth will seek the testimony of affected
family members to provide the court with victims' impact statements prior to
any final sentencing in the Keith case.
A status conference in the case is set for Tuesday in Danville.
(source: kentucky.com)
*******************
Prosecutor will seek death penalty in pawn shop murders
A central Kentucky prosecutor says he will seek the death penalty for a pastor
accused of murdering 3 people at a Danville pawn shop in September.
Boyle County Commonwealth's Attorney Richie Bottoms filed notice Thursday that
he will seek a death sentence against 48-year-old Kenneth Allen Keith of
Burnside in Pulaski County. Keith has been in the Boyle County jail in Danville
without bond since being charged Oct. 9.
Keith is charged with 3 counts of murder and one count of 1st-degree wanton
endangerment in the deaths of 35-year-old Michael Hockensmith and his wife,
38-year-old Angela Hockensmith, of Stanford, and 60-year-old gold broker Daniel
Smith of Richmond. The fatal shootings happened in a pawn shop co-owned by the
Hockensmiths.
Keith was pastor of Main Street Baptist Church in Burnside at the time of the
shootings.
(source: Associated Press)
MISSOURI:
Lawyers: Missouri moving too quickly on executions
By the time the U.S. Supreme Court refused a last-minute request to stay the
execution of Herbert Smulls, the Missouri death-row inmate was already dead.
His attorneys said Thursday that it was the 3rd straight case in which Missouri
has moved ahead with an execution while the case was still in court.
While Missouri says it's perfectly legal to carry out executions before all
appeals are exhausted, legal experts say the practice is rare. And the concerns
from defense attorneys come as the death penalty in general is getting
increased scrutiny amid separate questions about the drugs states are using to
execute inmates.
Smulls, 56, was put to death late Wednesday after a protracted legal battle
that lasted more than two decades, a legal fight that extended to his final day
of life. Smulls was scheduled to die at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, but various
appeals pushed the case deep into the evening.
Attorneys for Smulls made 1 final push just before 10 p.m. for a stay from the
U.S. Supreme Court, which had already ruled on other appeals that the execution
could proceed. Timing was becoming a factor because the death warrant expired
at 11:59 p.m. A new execution date would be required if Smulls was still alive
at midnight.
He wasn't. The execution began at 10:11 p.m., and Smulls was pronounced dead at
10:20 p.m.
Joseph Luby, an attorney for Smulls, said he received an email at 10:30 p.m.
from the Supreme Court, saying the stay application was denied at 10:24 p.m. 4
minutes after Smulls was pronounced dead.
"It's just troubling and fundamentally lawless," Luby said.
Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster, in an emailed statement, said the state
did nothing wrong.
"The United States Supreme Court has ruled that pending litigation is not
sufficient to stop an execution," Koster wrote. "The legal mechanism for a
federal court to stop an execution is a court-ordered stay."
Koster wrote that the state "directly asked the United States Supreme Court if
the execution of Herbert Smulls should be stayed; for the third time that day,
the Court said no. No stay of execution was in effect at the time of
execution."
Missouri has executed 3 convicted killers in the past 3 months. Luby said that
in all 3 cases, appeals were still pending.
1 of the people executed was Allen Nicklasson. A 3-judge panel of the 8th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals had refused to grant a stay, but the full appeals
court had not yet heard the case, 8th Circuit Judge Kermit Bye wrote in a
dissenting opinion days after that execution.
"In my near 14 years on the bench, this is the 1st time I can recall this
happening," the judge wrote.
Columbia Law School professor Jim Liebman said it is unusual, but not unheard
of, for an execution to proceed with an appeal still pending. He agreed that
corrections officials could reach the point of believing that enough is enough.
"You wouldn't be surprised if the state felt that way, maybe with
justification, but the procedure is to have a court say that, not for the state
to say that," Liebman said.
Texas, America's most active death penalty state, generally waits until all
appeals are exhausted before carrying out executions.
Attorneys for Smulls filed several appeals in the weeks and days leading up to
the execution, and on the final day.
Many centered on concerns about the way Missouri obtains its execution drug
from an unnamed compounding pharmacy. At least 2 recent executions have raised
concerns about the effectiveness of drugs used in executions, putting increased
scrutiny on how states carry out the death penalty. 2 weeks ago, Ohio inmate
Dennis McGuire took 26 minutes to die by injection, gasping repeatedly as he
lay on a gurney with his mouth opening and closing. And on Jan. 9, Oklahoma
inmate Michael Lee Wilson's final words were, "I feel my whole body burning."
Some of the other appeals centered on that fact that Smulls, who was black, was
convicted by an all-white jury.
Florence Honickman called all the appeals a "travesty." She has permanent
injuries after being shot by Smulls in the 1991 jewelry store robbery in
suburban St. Louis that killed her husband, Stephen.
Honickman and her 2 adult children spent most of Tuesday and Wednesday at the
prison in Bonne Terre, Missouri, waiting through the late appeals until finally
witnessing Smulls' death.
"I believe it is cruel and unacceptable both to the criminal about to be
executed and to the victims' family that after endless appeals, 20-plus years
on death row and after the execution date has been set, the criminal is given
hope of a stay based on absurd technical and procedural matters," Florence
Honickman said.
(source: Associated Press)
COLORADO:
James Holmes in court for expert witness hearing
Colorado theater shooting suspect James Holmes is returning to court Friday for
a hearing on whether crime scene reconstruction experts should be allowed to
testify at his trial.
Friday's hearing will be open to the public and media. A hearing earlier this
week was closed because the topic was whether Holmes should undergo another
psychiatric evaluation, and the judge ruled the testimony would taint the jury
pool.
The judge hasn't said if he'll allow another evaluation.
Holmes has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to charges of killing 12
people and injuring 70 at a Denver-area movie theater in July 2012. Prosecutors
are seeking the death penalty.
Holmes' lawyers want the judge to bar evidence about crime scene
reconstruction, saying it's unreliable.
Prosecutors' response to the defense request hasn't been made public.
(source: Associated Press)
********************
Media to make bid to unseal Sir Mario Owens death-penalty case
The Colorado Supreme Court on Thursday lifted a stay in the Sir Mario Owens
death-penalty case, which could clear the way to unseal files, including
courtroom transcripts, that have been under wraps for more than 6 years.
Attorney Steve Zansberg, who represents a consortium of media organizations
including The Denver Post, will file a motion in Arapahoe County District Court
on Friday asking that the case be unsealed.
In that motion, Zansberg will point to the Aurora theater shooting case, in
which Judge Carlos Samour denied defendant James Holmes' request that courtroom
transcripts be kept secret, ruling that to do so "would defy logic and common
sense."
"There is no support for it in the law," Zansberg said Thursday.
Owens was sentenced to death in 2008 for the killing of Vivian Wolfe and Javad
Marshall-Fields. Marshall-Fields was set to testify against Owens' friend,
Robert Ray, in another murder case when Marshall-Fields and Wolfe were gunned
down in Aurora in June 2005 on the eve of that trial.
Ray is also on death row for the same murders. Ray and Owens are appealing
their cases.
Jeffrey Roberts - executive director of the Colorado Freedom of Information
Coalition, also a party to the motion to unseal - said even Colorado court
databases make little or no mention of the Owens case.
"Most, if not all, of this information has already been out there in the public
domain," Roberts said. "What is the reason now for keeping it under wraps and
making it seem that this case almost doesn't exist?"
Arapahoe County District Court Judge Gerald Rafferty, who oversaw the trials of
Owens and Ray, will decide whether to unseal the case. It's not clear how long
that will take.
(source: The Denver Post)
USA:
Boston Bombing Trial: Prosecutors Seek Death Penalty For Dzhokhar Tsarnaev
The surviving Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev may face the
death sentence after federal prosecutors announced they will seek the maximum
penalty on Thursday in Massachusetts, according to the Associated Press.
Prosecutors accused the 20-year-old of 30 federal charges including using a
weapon of mass destruction with intent to kill as many people as possible, the
AP reported. Seventeen of the 30 charges carry the sentencing of the death
penalty.
"Dzhokhar Tsarnaev received asylum from the United States; obtained citizenship
and enjoyed the freedoms of a United States citizen; and then betrayed his
allegiance to the United States by killing and maiming people in the United
States," the notice filed by U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz said, the AP reported.
"The nature of the conduct at issue and the resultant harm compel this
decision," U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement, according to
the AP.
Though prosecutors seek the death penalty for Tsarnaev, the state of
Massachusetts abolished the state death penalty in 1984, though a federal death
penalty is still in place, the AP reported. Attempts to reinstate the death
penalty have failed.
The 2 pressure-cooker bombs placed at the finish line of the Boston Marathon
killed three people and wounded 260 with about 16 people who lost limbs due to
the blast, the AP reported.
A date for the trial has not been set, but Tsarnaev has pleaded not guilty to
all charges, the AP reported. According to legal experts who have reviewed the
case filings, Tsarnaev's attorney is likely to argue he was influenced by his
older brother. Tsarnaev's lawyer has made no comment on the prosecutor's
filings.
The filings also states prosecutors believe Tsarnaev demonstrated a "lack of
remorse" and allege he shot and killed and MIT security officer, as well as a
"particularly vulnerable" 8-year-old boy, the AP reported.
The prosecutors also stated in the court filings that Tsarnaev had "substantial
planning and premeditation" in regards to the attack along with his older
brother, and both men chose the marathon because it is "an iconic event that
draws large crowds of men, women and children to its final stretch, making it
especially susceptible to the act and effects of terrorism," according to the
AP.
Prosecutors also claim the attack was carried out to seek revenge against the
U.S. for their military actions in Muslim countries, the AP reported.
The court filings also stated authorities found phrases like "The US Government
is killing our innocent civilians" and "We Muslims are one body, you hurt one
you hurt us all," written inside the boat where Tsarnaev hid before being
detained by authorities.
Carol Rose, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of
Massachusetts, said the group opposes the death penalty and is planning to
object Holder's decision.
"After the horrible marathon attack, this community rallied around the slogan
'Boston Strong,'" Rose said, according to the AP. "Even - and especially in a
case like this - that means not letting terrorists or anyone else shake us from
staying true to our values."
(source: Headlines & Global News)
********************
Here's How Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Could Dodge the Death Penalty
The news: When the bombs went off near the finish line of the Boston Marathon
on April 15, 3 people died and 260 were injured. The pressure-cooker bombs,
filled with shrapnel and ball bearings, took limbs, lives, and Americans'
fragile sense of security.
The perpetrators then murdered an MIT police officer, carjacked a civilian, and
attempted to bomb, shoot, and kill police officers pursuing them, before 1 was
killed and the other cornered in a boat where he justified his crime in a
screed written on its wall.
Almost no one disputes that then-19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his deceased
older brother Tamerlan were behind the bombings, and the prosecution is looking
at an extraordinarily strong case and 30 federal indictments. On the strength
of that evidence, which prosecutors will argue implicates beyond the shadow of
a doubt the surviving Tsarnaev in murder, premeditated planning, and betrayal
of the United States, the Department of Justice and U.S. Attorney General Eric
Holder have now announced that they will seek the death penalty for the bomber.
Tsarnaev's lawyers, however, are "damn good." On Dec. 16, they petitioned a
federal judge for more time (until the end of February) to seek a change of
venue, no doubt seeking to have him tried where he will be less likely to be
sentenced to death. But prosecutors are determined, and the resulting court
battle will be ugly.
The bomber "enjoyed the freedoms of a United States citizen [then] betrayed his
allegiance to the United States by killing and maiming people in the United
States," prosecutors said, and he has subsequently "demonstrated a lack of
remorse."
What are his odds? One way or the other, Tsarnaev is going to die in federal
prison. The only question is whether it will be in jail or on a lethal
injection table. According to a Boston Globe poll, 57% of Massachusetts
residents prefer the former option, while just 33% want him to be executed.
Many of his victims have avoided comment, saying they would prefer to move on
with their lives. His mother says she feels "nothing."
Since 1988, when the federal government's ability to seek the death penalty was
reinstated, juries have been able to choose the sentence for 282 defendants.
They have chosen death only 73 times, or 34% of cases. Just three have been
executed, including Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.
Tsarnaev stands a good choice of being one of the 34%. Depending on the choice
of trial location, his jurors might not unanimously agree to sentence him to
death based on various mitigating factors - including a defense that is sure to
argue that his older brother, who dominated him ideologically and physically,
coerced him into committing the crime. And there's still the slim possibility
of a plea bargain that would let the state avoid the cost and media circus of a
trial, with life in prison rather than death the only possible offer.
Furthermore, executive director Richard Dieter of the Death Penalty Information
Center says that the attorney general's decision "by no means guarantees that
[the Boston case] will go to trial with the death penalty still a possibility."
But former prosecutor Walter Prince says "If not this case, when? I don't think
there's going to be a change whatsoever."
The bottom line: Tsarnaev will almost certainly be found guilty, and he will
die in prison for his crimes. But it's very likely that it won't be at the
hands of the state.
(source: policymic.com)
*******************
The death penalty, and a passion for pain----Giving full satisfaction to
popular sadism always risked undercutting public support, but now politicians
feel comfortable calling for a return to harsher methods
States that kill tell us, in their scientific-technical language, that the
death penalty is an unfortunate but strictly necessary activity, always used as
a last resort and always restrained by mercy. The precise method of killing is
itself a matter of pained, moral exactitude. The question is always how to
deter as much brutality as possible, with as little brutality as possible.
So, a question: if you wrap a ligature around someone's throat and tighten it
until it breaks their neck or they choke to death, what is the deterrent effect
of this compared with, say, tying them by the neck to a crane and then jerking
them violently upward? How many fewer murderers and rapists would there be if
we injected convicts with poison, as opposed to gassing or electrocuting them?
For if you take states at their word, the sheer variation in both the use and
method of the death penalty over time and place necessarily gives rise to such
mind-boggling calculations.
For a few decades, this controversy has been moot in the United States. Those
states in the union that operated the death penalty had abandoned the
traditionally harsher methods of killing, such as electrocution or gassing. The
long, agonising deaths associated with these methods had been replaced by
superficially serene ones, effected by the seemingly precise method of
poisonous injections. Now, as the availability and effectiveness of these drugs
is in question, 6 states are attempting to bypass controversy by bringing back
the firing squad, the gas chamber or the electric chair.
There are certain ironies here. Electrocution was itself once considered the
gentle, civilised method of killing in the US. After centuries of hanging
people in public squares, the American state was centralising and consolidating
its power. Its ability to contain violent disobedience was expanding
dramatically. By and large, it was less threatened by criminal disobedience
than by the potential for unruliness among witnesses to such spectacles. It
began to use the death penalty less, and in more confined settings, with fewer
witnesses.
This did not mean that the element of sadism, which is essential to the social
meaning of the death penalty, had been expunged. As a ritual, it effectively
harnesses the desire to see satisfaction in pain and humiliation, and as such
legitimises the state's ultimate authority. That is why witness must be made,
especially by the grieving relatives of a murder victim, for whom the killing
of the convict is apparently the only route to "closure".
The death penalty is linked to a wider array of sadistic punishment practices -
"life-trashing" sentences, and "shame" penalties - which in the US are part of
the management of a racial order, in which black people are seen as the
potential nemesis of civilisation itself. The merest hint of a breach of their
symbolic status has often been sufficient to produce an outburst of repressive
violence. In this respect, it is notable that public killings mainly - although
far from exclusively - persisted in the southern states, where political
authority was weaker and more decentralised, and where racial terror was the
dominant means of political control. Yet, while the US started to shift toward
less spectacular forms of execution, they were not less public, not less
symbolic, and certainly not less racially charged, as a result - until an
effective moratorium on the penalty which lasted from 1960 to 1976.
It is telling, perhaps, that the basis of the current recourse to more
traditionally brutal forms is an "economic" rationale - what can be done at
least cost to the state, avoiding expensive legal challenges. The prosecution
of offenders and the pursuit of the death penalty is always a costly and
time-consuming process. This is one reason why, as Sister Helen Prejean wrote,
African Americans and Hispanics not only do not expect the district attorney's
office to pursue the death penalty when a loved one is killed, but rarely
expect even a prosecution.
However, the death penalty today is precisely grounded in an "economic"
rationality. The end of the supreme court's ban on it in 1976 corresponded to
the beginnings of a political shift in the direction of neoliberalism. The
neoliberals, despite their anti-statist rhetoric, were in fact advocates of a
strong, authoritarian state, particularly in order to protect property rights
and curb "market bypassing". Of course, in its application it continued to be
"selective" in favour of killing African American suspects. However, the
legitimacy of state killing for some was at least partially secured by the
introduction of the lethal injection in 1982, which was vaunted as a humane
means of death. Subsequently, Clinton's Antiterrorism and Effective Death
Penalty Act enabled a drastic escalation in the use of the death penalty.
Yet, while American states - above all, Texas - are killing more people at a
faster rate, supporters of the death penalty remain unhappy. It is precisely
this "civilising" process - the slow, premeditated legal planning that must go
into killing - that outrages them. The government is fighting evil, with one
hand tied behind its back: let the forces of order do their work without
hindrance and put an end to the chaos. Once the discussion is cast in terms of
such moral absolutes, the evidence is that any potential wider costs of the
death penalty are as superfluous as "collateral damage" in a war. Unfortunate,
but of no real interest. The libidinal energies invested in killing overwhelm
any such objections.
This is the bind that the American state has always been in over the death
penalty. The regular application of lethal force serves a vital political
purpose; but giving full satisfaction to popular sadism has always risked
undercutting broad public support for it. If American politicians are now
unembarrassed to call for a return to harsher methods of killing, this signals
that the bind is loosening and that politics is tilting in favour of a renewed
authoritarian statism - inevitably mandated by racism.
"Deterrence" in this sense is entirely symbolic; what is deterred by the
binding of popular sadism to state bureaucratic processes is any questioning of
the state's claim to the final say over life and death.
(source: The Guardian)
*******************
Holder's political cowardice in seeking the death penalty
You would think - at least, I thought - that the Obama administration, liberal
to the point of being accused of socialism, would not impose the death penalty.
It is the sine qua non of lack of thought, a medieval tick of the political
right, a murder in the name of murder that does absolutely no good, unless it
is to validate the killers' belief in killing. Yet Attorney General Eric Holder
has announced that the government will seek the death penalty in the case of
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the 20-year-old accused of the Boston Marathon bombing. This
was a horrible crime which will now be compounded by yet another one.
It is, of course, required that I now state that Tsarnaev is evil. I suppose he
is - evil being the word we use when we cannot comprehend the crime. He killed
and he maimed, taking lives and ruining others for many years to come. There is
no way he can ever make amends, and the truth is if he dies, he will not be
missed - not by me, at any rate.
But his death, as one of his victims has already said, is not going to change
anything. "It's not going to change what happened," said Lee Ann Yanni, 32, one
of those wounded that day. "I really don't think there is a right or wrong in
this situation. It's not going to bring anybody back." It is, however, going to
perpetuate the death penalty, which is on its way out in much of the world and
even the United States. We don't even know anymore how to execute someone -
witness the prolonged and allegedly agonizing death of Dennis McGuire, who
recently took over 20 minutes to die.
Amazingly enough, the decision by Holder was announced a week or so after he
reiterated his personal opposition to the death penalty. How he's reconciled
his personal views with his public policies I cannot know - and, I bet, neither
can he.
Was he following orders from the boss? That would only be President Obama,
because that's the only one he reports to.
Was he reluctant to overrule his subordinates, especially the U.S. attorney in
Boston? They might have pushed for the death penalty. If so, he ought to
reconsider why he is the AG and not them. He's where the buck stops.
Or was he reluctant to stand up against charges that he is soft on terrorism?
Undoubtedly, some in the Republican Party would say that - some Democrats, too,
I suppose - but this is just an updated version of "soft on communism" - an
opportunity for some politicians to take a cheap shot and others to show that
political cowardice never goes out of style.
(source: Richard Cohen, Washington Post)
***************
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/new-resources-information-about-death-sentences-2013
(source: DPIC)
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