August 18
NEBRASKA:
Transparency concerns surface after Nebraska's 1st lethal injection execution
Nebraska state senators criticized prison officials this week for shielding key
parts of the state's 1st-ever lethal injection from the view of news media
witnesses.
Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks of Lincoln said she will push for a new law requiring
future Nebraska executions to be visible from start to finish after curtains
were closed on portions of Tuesday's execution of Carey Dean Moore.
"If we're going to as a state kill people, you don't get to do any part of it
in private," said the senator, who opposes the death penalty. "This is
something where the state has the highest duty to be transparent."
A corrections official responded by saying reporters were allowed to watch as
all 4 lethal drugs were given to Moore. Curtains were lowered to protect the
identities of members of the execution team, as the law requires, added
Dawn-Renee Smith, chief of staff for the state Department of Correctional
Services.
Curtains also were closed during portions of executions conducted in the 1990s,
when the state used the electric chair, Smith said in an email.
"Every effort was made to ensure transparency while protecting the identities
of the execution team members," she said.
Corrections officials allowed 4 news media representatives to watch as 4 lethal
substances were injected into Moore's veins. Curtains covered the observation
windows while the IV lines were set and later, during a 14-minute span when
Moore was declared dead.
Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha said Friday that he will demand that corrections
director Scott Frakes account for what happened behind the curtains.
Frakes, who was in the execution chamber throughout Tuesday's lethal injection,
has declined requests for interviews this week.
The intense scrutiny stems from accounts of botched lethal injections in other
states in recent years, including inmates who appeared to be inadequately
sedated, took more than 90 minutes to die or were stuck by needles repeatedly
in failed efforts to find veins for IV lines. The Eighth Amendment prohibits
the infliction of cruel and unusual punishment on prisoners.
State officials say Moore's execution took 23 minutes, from the time the 1st
drug was given until death was declared.
The media witnesses in Nebraska reported that Moore's eyes shut and remained
closed shortly after he received the 1st sedative drug in the lethal sequence.
They also reported that Moore underwent a period of labored breathing and he
coughed several times. In addition, they said his face and hands started
turning purple about 7 minutes after the 1st drug was given.
The witnesses did not report seeing writhing, facial grimaces or other signs of
obvious pain that have surfaced in reports of botched executions. 2 family
members who witnessed the Moore execution said afterward that they did not
believe he suffered.
But Deborah Denno, a law professor at Fordham University in New York who has
studied lethal injection for more than 25 years, said the "lack of
transparency" in Tuesday's execution was "disturbing." Problems with botched
executions have surfaced at the beginning when the IV lines are set and again
after the final drug is administered, times when the inmate is most likely to
experience pain.
"The parts of the execution that would be most problematic would be the
portions you didn't see," said Denno, who said she doesn't oppose the death
penalty in theory, but opposes it in the manner it currently exists.
Some death penalty states allow witnesses to observe the setting of IV lines;
others do not. Showing such preparations to an execution is not essential, said
Kent Scheidegger, legal director at the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, an
organization in Sacramento, California, that supports capital punishment.
But states should allow witnesses to see the entire execution itself, he said.
The Nebraska Supreme Court ordered Moore to be executed at 10 a.m. Tuesday.
The curtains in the observation room connected to the execution chamber were
raised at 10:24 a.m. By then, Moore had been strapped to the table and 2 IV
lines had been established.
When asked about the IV lines, Smith said Friday they both were inserted "on
the 1st attempt, without issue."
The execution protocol called for the state to inject Moore with a combination
of f4 drugs never before used in an execution. It was unclear to the witnesses
during Tuesday's procedure when each drug was given.
But corrections officials later released records that showed the times and
dosages of drugs given to Moore:
10:24 a.m.: 37 cc of diazepam, a sedative.
10:30 a.m.: 46 cc of fentanyl, an opioid painkiller.
10:32 a.m.: 15 cc of cisatracurium, a paralyzing agent.
10:33 a.m.: 120 cc of potassium chloride, which causes massive heart failure in
large doses.
A 50 cc saline flush followed each drug.
Prison officials closed the curtains at 10:39 a.m., which Smith said was after
the final saline flush was completed. Moore was declared dead by the coroner 8
minutes later, at 10:47 a.m.
That would mean the witnesses were able to observe Moore for about 6 minutes
after the potassium chloride was given to him. The drug can cause intense
burning pain, so being able to see if the inmate reacts to it is important.
The media witnesses on Tuesday reported seeing very little movement by Moore
after about 10:31 a.m., when he showed signs of labored breathing.
But doctors with training in anesthesia have testified in court that an inmate
under the effect of paralyzing drugs such as the one Moore was given would not
be able to move, even if they were in pain, said Eric Berger, a professor at
the University of Nebraska College of Law who also has studied lethal
injection.
"It was not, as far as I can tell, gruesomely and visibly botched," Berger
said. "But I don't think we know enough to say either way whether Moore felt
excruciating pain."
(source: Omaha World-Herald)
COLORADO:
Father accused of killing family could face death penalty
It's only been 24 hours since Christopher Watts allegedly confessed to killing
his wife and 2 young children, but prosecutors are building a case against him.
Many will be closely watching to see if the Weld County district attorney will
seek the death penalty.
"It's both a political decision in terms of the ramifications of the voters,"
criminal defense attorney Chris Decker said. "It's a huge decision financially
because it cost an extraordinary amount of money."
Decker said the case for the death penalty is strong. In Colorado, prosecutors
must be able to establish at least 1 of 17 aggravating factors.
This case meets at least 3, he said. Watts is accused of killing more than 1
person. His victims are 2 young children. And 1 of the victims was pregnant.
"There may be other mitigating circumstances, however, that also apply," Decker
said. "Cooperating with police is 1 of those mitigating factors. If Watts led
police to his wife and children's bodies, it could potentially save his life.
"I wouldn't go as far as to say it's being offered up or negotiated, but
certainly law enforcement will be advising him that his participation would at
least be some form of mitigation under the circumstances."
At the very least, Watts will spend the rest of his life behind bars without
parole if he's convicted.
Watts isn't being charged with 4 counts of murder because his wife was
pregnant. Colorado is 1 of 12 states without a fetal homicide law recognizing a
fetus as a human being.
State lawmakers voted down such a measure in 2013 over fears it would interfere
with abortion rights and voters rejected a similar ballot measure in 2014.
(source: KDVR news)
ARIZONA:
Tucson man on death row for murder of girl, 4, could go free after judge's
ruling----Barry Lee Jones was found guilty of murdering 4-year-old Rachel Gray
at a trailer park on Tucson's south side in 1994.
A Tucson man could be freed from death row after a federal judge overturned his
1995 conviction for the murder of a 4-year-old girl.
State prosecutors have until mid-September to refile charges against Barry Lee
Jones or he will be released from prison, according to a July 31 order from
U.S. District Judge Timothy Burgess that cited poor performance by Jones???
attorneys and a rush to judgment by investigators.
The Arizona Attorney General's Office filed notice Wednesday that it plans to
appeal the order.
State prosecutors also asked Burgess to extend the time they have to retry
Jones to 90 days so they can pursue "ongoing discussions regarding potential
resolutions to the case," according to U.S. District Court records.
Jones was convicted in the May 2, 1994, killing of Rachel Gray, 4, at the
Desert Vista Trailer Park on East Benson Highway near South Alvernon Way.
Rachel died after being struck in the abdomen, which caused a fatal small-bowel
laceration. Doctors also found evidence Rachel was beaten and sexually
assaulted at some point before her mother, Angela Gray, and Jones took her to a
hospital, where she was pronounced dead upon arrival.
Jones was arrested the same day and accused of sexual abuse, beating Rachel,
placing her life in danger and felony murder. Jones, then 36, was convicted in
April 1995 of 1st-degree murder and several charges related to sexual abuse and
child abuse by a jury in Pima County Superior Court. He was sentenced to death,
but the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sent his case back to federal court
in Tucson after finding reason to believe his attorneys failed to adequately
represent him.
Burgess said there was a "reasonable probability" the outcome of Jones' trial
would have been different if his court-appointed lawyers had done a better job
during and after his trial.
Jones' attorneys at trial were Sean Bruner, who had handled 1 death-penalty
case before being assigned to represent Jones, and Bruner's partner, Leslie
Bowman, who had been admitted to the state Bar Association less than a year
before, Burgess wrote. The Arizona Supreme Court appointed attorney James Hazel
to represent Jones in 1999.
While representing Jones, "the central focus of the defense should have been an
investigation into when Rachel suffered her injuries," according to the 91-page
order from Burgess, a judge from Alaska who was appointed to handle the appeal
after all federal judges in Arizona were recused.
Bowman is now a magistrate judge in federal court in Tucson.
The prosecution said the fatal injury was inflicted on the afternoon of May 1
when Rachel was alone with Jones, Burgess wrote. Jones' lawyers should have
presented the jury with evidence, such as a neighbor's testimony and pretrial
statements from a doctor that indicated Rachel's injuries could have occurred
days earlier.
Burgess also said evidence "demonstrated that the police investigation was
colored by a rush to judgment and lack of due diligence and thorough
professional investigation."
Evidence was available that indicated the need for further investigation, such
as reports that the girl and her siblings had been struck by their mother,
Burgess wrote.
The children also may have been sexually molested by their brother or their
mother's previous boyfriend. And Rachel complained that a neighborhood boy hit
her with a metal bar.
Jones' attorneys failed to provide tissue samples to an independent pathologist
who needed them to determine the timeline of Rachel's injuries, Burgess wrote.
They also should have pointed out inconsistencies in the testimony of the
state's medical expert in Jones' trial and in the earlier trial of Rachel's
mother, who was convicted of reckless child abuse and sentenced to 8 years in
prison.
(source: tucson.com)
NEVADA:
Nevada Supreme Court schedules arguments over Scott Dozier execution
The Nevada Supreme Court scheduled oral arguments Thursday on the stalled
execution of a death-row inmate whose lethal injection is being challenged by
pharmaceutical companies that don't want their drugs used.
3 justices added drug company Sandoz Inc. as a "friend of the court"
participant ahead of the Sept. 12 hearing in Las Vegas and lifted a temporary
hold on legal proceedings in state court about the twice-postponed execution of
Scott Raymond Dozier.
It was not immediately clear if lower court hearings would be scheduled before
the Supreme Court hearing involving drug firms Alvogen, Hikma Pharmaceuticals
and Sandoz and attorneys for the state.
Attorney Colby Williams, representing Sandoz, said he wanted to talk with his
client before commenting.
Alvogen makes the sedative midazolam. Hikma is a producer of the powerful
opioid fentanyl, which is blamed for illegal-use drug overdose deaths
nationwide. Sandoz makes the muscle paralytic cisatracurium.
Nevada wants to use those 3 drugs, but the companies accuse the state of
improperly obtaining their products for a use that the companies don't allow.
State attorneys counter that Nevada prison officials lawfully obtained the
drugs from a 3rd-party supplier. The state characterizes the companies' claims
as "sellers' remorse."
The state Supreme Court order came a day after prison officials filed documents
saying that witnesses reported no complications during an execution in Nebraska
on Tuesday of Carey Dean Moore. That execution used - for the 1st time in any
state - some of the same drugs that Nevada wants to use.
Nebraska officials also administered a heart-stopping drug, potassium chloride,
which is not part of Nevada's planned 3-drug protocol.
Media witnesses "reported no complications, only some coughing before Moore
stopped moving," Nevada state attorneys said in a Wednesday court filing. Moore
had been sentenced to death for killing 2 cab drivers in Omaha in 1979.
The witnesses including The Associated Press saw Moore take short, gasping
breaths that became deeper and more labored. He gradually turned red and then
purple as the drugs were administered, and his chest heaved several times
before it went still. His eyelids briefly cracked open.
Dozier, 47, is not challenging his convictions or sentences for drug-related
killings in Phoenix and Las Vegas in 2002. He said he wants to die and doesn't
care if it's painful.
Robert Dunham at the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C.,
called it too soon to know if Moore's execution in Nebraska was trouble-free.
"Witnesses did not see the death itself," Dunham said, noting that the
60-year-old Moore was pronounced dead several minutes after a death chamber
blind was lowered.
"I think we have to wait to see what the autopsy results show," Dunham said.
Media witnesses including The Associated Press saw Moore take short, gasping
breaths that became deeper and more labored. He gradually turned red and then
purple as the drugs were administered, and his chest heaved several times
before it went still. His eyelids briefly cracked open.
Dozier, 47, is not challenging his convictions or sentences for drug-related
killings in Phoenix and Las Vegas in 2002. He said he wants to die and doesn't
care if it's painful.
Nevada state law requires executions to be by lethal injection. Dozier's
execution was called off in November and July amid legal arguments over the
drugs the state decided to use after having trouble obtaining them for the
state's 1st execution in 12 years.
(source: Associated Press)
CALIFORNIA:
Capital punishment in California
While some were surprised by Pope Francis' August 2 revision of the Catechism
of the Catholic Church, longtime advocates against capital punishment such as
Los Angeles priest Father Chris Ponnet weren't.
"What the pope has done is close the last loophole that the death penalty was
permissible if there was no other way to protect society from a criminal,"
explained Father Ponnet, who sits on the board of the anti-capital punishment
organization, Death Penalty Focus.
California has the largest death row population not only in the U.S., but in
the entire Western Hemisphere: More than 700 current prisoners have been
condemned to death in the state. Most of their cases are tied up in appeals
courts, and many inmates see their death sentences reversed or held under court
review before they ultimately die in prison.
In 2016, a bid to repeal the death penalty in California failed by a 53 to 47 %
margin at the ballot box.
In light of this newest development in Catholic teaching, Father Ponnet
believes reaching the hearts and minds of civil servants is key.
"The new challenge for any of us at local dioceses and parishes is to really
interact with attorney generals, with district attorneys, with state supreme
court justices," said Father Ponnet. "I think this is a new day for all of us
who have been active in the movement against the death penalty to continue our
efforts."
"Our various groups - Death Penalty Focus, Catholics Against the Death Penalty,
Pax Christi - really need to be strategically asking, 'How do we help people
get educated in the context of this new developed teaching in our Catholic
Church?'"
(source: Angelus News)
********************
Judge Advances Lawsuit Over Access to Executions
California cannot dodge a lawsuit claiming it enacted unconstitutional rules to
hide the most gruesome parts of inmate executions from the public, a federal
judge ruled Friday.
U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg denied the state???s motion to dismiss a
lawsuit challenging rules that bar the public from viewing the preparation and
injection of lethal drugs - as well as the aftermath of botched executions.
Quoting from the 2002 Ninth Circuit ruling California First Amendment Coalition
v. Woodford - which ruled in favor of executions remaining open to the public -
Seeborg agreed the public has a First Amendment right to "view executions from
the moment the condemned is escorted to the execution chamber, including those
'initial procedures' that are inextricably intertwined with the process."
Representing media outlets that sued the state, attorney Christopher Sun with
Keker Van Nest in San Francisco hailed the judge's ruling as on point, adding
that public access to executions is "critical to informing our national
dialogue about the death penalty."
The Los Angeles Times, KQED and San Francisco Progressive Media Center, which
publishes 48hills.com, sued the state in April after it approved new lethal
injection policies at San Quentin State Prison, the only state facility that
puts inmates to death.
Under rules finalized March 1, lethal drugs must be prepared outside of public
view in an "infusion control room" while the inmate is strapped down in a
separate "lethal injection room," which the public can see. The rules also
require curtains be closed on the viewing room if an inmate has not died after
receiving a 3rd dose of lethal drugs.
The plaintiffs claim shielding parts of the execution process from public view
harms the integrity of the process and prevents independent observers from
scrutinizing "whether executions are fairly and humanely administered."
California contends that preparing lethal injection drugs and providing medical
assistance are not part of the execution process, and that the public has no
right to view those events.
Although no court has extended the right of access to before an inmate enters
the execution chamber, Seeborg found that doesn't prevent the plaintiffs from
asserting that such a right exists.
"Preparing the chemicals, as pleaded, could be an initial procedure
'inextricably intertwined with the process of putting the condemned inmate to
death,'" Seeborg wrote in his 12-page ruling, again quoting from California
First Amendment Coalition v. Woodford.
The judge also found the state could be violating the First Amendment by
closing curtains on the execution chamber when an inmate fails to die after a
third dose of lethal drugs.
Similarly, in 2016 a federal judge in Arizona ruled that the public has a First
Amendment right to view executions in their totality.
Seeborg said the state can't hide part of the execution from the public unless
it does so for a "legitimate penological purpose," such as future crime
deterrence, quarantine or internal security.
The state cited a prisoner's medical privacy interest as justification for
hiding parts of the execution process. But Seeborg noted the Ninth Circuit
rejected that reasoning in a 2012 ruling, Associated Press v. Otter, finding
that the state's concern for privacy and dignity appeared absurd when it
"already offends the dignity of condemned inmates and the sensibilities of
their families and fellow inmates by allowing strangers to watch as they are
put to death."
"The burden remains with the State to propose a legitimate penological interest
if one exists," Seeborg wrote.
Last year, the California Supreme Court upheld a voter-backed measure to speed
up executions in the state, but also ruled that a 5-year limit to decide death
penalty appeals is not mandatory.
Only 13 men have been put to death in California since the state restored
capital punishment in 1978. The last execution took place in January 2006.
Currently, 744 inmates await execution in California - 721 men and 23 women.
A California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokeswoman said the
department is reviewing the judge's order and declined further comment.
(source: Courthouse News)
USA:
Fentanyl, Gas, Firing Squad: Why Execution Methods Are Changing----As states
struggle to obtain traditional lethal injection drugs, some are turning to new
methods of execution, or reviving old ones, as a backup.
Death penalty opponents were horrified on Tuesday when Nebraska became the 1st
state in the union to carry out an execution using the painkiller fentanyl,
which has been a driving force of the deadly opioid epidemic.
Some critics objected to the use of "a drug that's currently ravaging our
communities and killing thousands of Americans a year," as Democratic New York
City Council Speaker Corey Johnson put it on Twitter. Others, like American
Civil Liberties Union attorney Brian Stull, argued that the lethal protocol for
Carey Dean Moore's death was "cruel and unusual punishment" since the state
paralyzed him before injecting the fentanyl, making it harder to know if Moore
felt pain.
Nebraska's unprecedented move is part of a broader pattern of states turning to
new methods of execution, or reviving old ones, as a backup. This is happening
because more and more of the companies producing and supplying traditional
lethal injection drugs want to keep their products from being used for capital
punishment.
"The Nebraska development reflects the trend among states that want the death
penalty to be carried out at any cost," says Robert Dunham, executive director
of the Death Penalty Information Center. "As states have become increasingly
desperate to carry out executions, they've been going to whatever drugs they
can get their hands on."
All 31 death penalty states have lethal injection as their default method of
execution, but some have recently legalized backup methods. In March, Alabama
approved nitrogen gas, which was already allowed in Oklahoma and Mississippi
for cases where lethal injection is unconstitutional or unavailable. In 2015,
Utah brought back the firing squad, which is also permitted in Oklahoma and
Mississippi as a last resort after lethal injection, nitrogen and
electrocution.
A decade ago, executions almost uniformly involved the anesthetic sodium
thiopental. But then the drug???s sole manufacturer, Hospira, discontinued the
product so it couldn???t be used on death-row inmates. Many states turned to
pentobarbital -- until the company supplying that drug, Lundbeck, stopped
shipping it to prisons.
"They don't want the drugs they've developed to help people to kill people,"
Dunham says of these companies. "The marketers want the drugs to be known for
healing and saving lives."
Some companies are waging legal battles, arguing that states have obtained
their products improperly or illegally. Nevada, for instance, would have been
the 1st state to administer a death sentence with fentanyl, but a judge halted
the execution following the objections of a drug company earlier this summer.
Echoing the drug companies' concerns, Dunham says there is "a dangerous,
anti-democratic trend" in which states are "making the process less
transparent, preventing the public and drug companies from learning how they're
obtaining the drugs."
Nebraska officials haven???t explained how they arrived at using fentanyl, but
they have stressed how hard it is to buy execution drugs, reports The
Washington Post.
"Lethal substances used in a lethal injection execution are difficult, if
nearly impossible, to obtain," Nebraska Department of Correctional Services
Director Scott R. Frakes said in an affidavit filed in federal court, according
to the Post.
Many conservatives are frustrated by the drug companies' crusade against
capital punishment. In 2015, conservative Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito
asked whether it was "appropriate for the judiciary to countenance what amounts
to a guerrilla war against the death penalty, which consists of efforts to make
it impossible for the states to obtain drugs that could be used to carry out
capital punishment with little, if any, pain?"
Indeed, part of the appeal of lethal injections is that they're supposed to be
humane. But many of the procedures have been botched in recent years, putting
condemned prisoners through excruciating pain in their last moments.
Alternatives, like gassing, present their own problems, says Dunham.
"Whatever gas chamber you use will always invoke the spectre of the Nazis," he
says, "which is why that method is so unpalatable to much of the public."
(States that have legalized nitrogen gas as an execution method have yet to set
their protocols for administering it, including whether to use sealed chambers
or death masks.)
This week's fentanyl execution came as nationwide support for the death penalty
is on the rise -- though still lower than it's been for most of the past 2
decades. In June, the Pew Research Center found that 54 % of Americans favor
the death penalty for people convicted of murder. That number was 49 % in 2016,
the lowest level of support in four decades.
6 states have outlawed the practice since 2007. Despite that, the Trump
administration has responded to the opioid crisis in part by directing federal
prosecutors to seek the death penalty for some drug dealers. If they live in
Nebraska, what lands them on death row could be what is used to kill them.
(source: governing.com)
******************
When the death penalty can be bad for business
Nebraska's execution of convicted double-murderer Carey Dean Moore Tuesday
morning came despite opposition from an unusual source: a pharmaceutical
company, Fresenius Kabi, that believed it manufactured 2 of the drugs Nebraska
uses in its 3-drug lethal injection protocol.
Federal courts rejected the company's legal challenge, which accused Nebraska
of using surreptitious means to obtain the drugs despite Fresenius Kabi's
efforts to block their use in executions. But the challenge - and others like
it - raise important questions about the ability of a company to circumscribe
the use of its products long after the goods have left the warehouses. And they
spotlight the growing lengths drug companies are going to distance themselves
from executions, and by states to find ways to obtain drugs.
There have been similar challenges in at least 2 other planned executions since
last year in Nevada and Arkansas, with mixed results (the Nevada execution is
on hold; the Arkansas executions eventually took place). According to the
pharmaceutical companies, states encouraged drug distributors to breach
contracts that bar the sale of drugs for executions.
The drugmakers' basic argument is that they create and market their products to
alleviate suffering and heal the sick. Using them to kill runs counter to their
intent, stigmatizes the drugs as lethal, and links the companies - against
their will - with the intentional killing of human beings. The drug companies
should be lauded for taking what is, in many instances, a moral stance in
trying to keep their products out of execution chambers - yet another front in
the multipronged effort to end capital punishment.
Meanwhile, states facing shortages of drugs have turned to nefarious measures
to obtain them. Federal agents have seized execution drugs ordered from
overseas by Georgia, Texas and Arizona after determining they had been
illegally imported or intentionally mislabeled. (European nations, which long
ago banned the death penalty, do not allow the export of drugs used in lethal
injections to the United States.)
The court fights with drugmakers and the dubious means that states are using to
mix their toxic cocktails add a practical dimension to the case against capital
punishment, in addition to the moral and legal arguments. Given the ease with
which police and prosecutors can game prosecutions, the errors and lies told by
witnesses, and the disproportionate impact on the poor and people of color,
this is a system that cannot be fixed, yet states insist on relying on it to
determine whether someone should die.
California is wrangling over its new lethal injection protocol that relies on
either thiopental or pentobarbital. Thiopental is unavailable in the United
States and manufacturers ban the use of pentobarbital in executions, which
means California will have to make like Nebraska and either skirt the law or
violate contract terms to use either drug. The more elegant solution: End the
death penalty.
(source: Editorial, Los Angeles Times)
****************************
Dylann Roof prosecutor gets seat as federal Appeals Court judge
The lead prosecutor in the trial of the accused Emanuel AME Church shooter was
confirmed for a seat on the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals by the U.S. Senate on
Thursday.
Julius "Jay" Richardson, deputy criminal chief of the U.S. Attorney's Office in
Columbia, earned plaudits as the lead prosecutor in the Dylann Roof trial,
where he successfully argued that Roof should receive the death penalty for
murdering 9 worshipers at Charleston's Emanuel AME Church in 2015.
Another South Carolinian was also confirmed to the same court Thursday, federal
Judge Marvin Quattlebaum of Greenville.
A Barnwell native, Richardson clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice
William H. Rehnquist and 7th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Richard A. Posner.
His nomination received support from both Republicans and Democrats in South
Carolina, with state Sen. Gerald Malloy, D-Hartsville, describing him as "an
excellent choice."
Jay Richardson, the lead prosecutor in the Dylann Roof death penalty trial, was
confirmed Thursday as a federal judge on the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.
In a Senate floor speech Thursday before the confirmation votes, Senate
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., called both of the South Carolinians
"well-qualified" and "impressive" nominees.
McConnell cited a letter the Judiciary Committee received from Jennifer
Pinckney, widow of the late state Sen. Clementa Pinckney, who was killed in the
Emanuel AME shooting, supporting Richardson's nomination and saying he "will
make a fine jurist."
Quattlebaum has swiftly risen through the judicial ranks during the Trump
administration. He earned a spot on the U.S. District Court of South Carolina
just a few months ago.
That confirmation came despite opposition from Senate Minority Leader Chuck
Schumer, D-N.Y., who argued that a white man should not replace
African-American nominees put forward during Barack Obama's administration - a
contention that drew scathing rebukes from South Carolina Republicans.
(source: The Post and Courier)
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