April 6
FLORIDA:
Murderer's parents take the stand as he fights to avoid death penalty
On Friday, the parents of an accused killer took the witness stand trying to
save his life.
The resentencing trial for Michael Bargo will continue into next week.
Bargo's mother took the stand on Friday. She told the jury about her son's
life, that, at times, he lived with his father and that he was suspended from
school. He went to an alternative school and got in trouble there for allegedly
taking drugs and skipping school.
Bargo's mother told the jury how she felt her son's paternal grandmother
spoiled him.
"He was close to her, too close in the sense that whatever Michael wanted, he
got, which was not the best thing for Michael," his mother said.
It was an effort to lay out a young man's life and problems, to paint him as a
human, and not as a monster.
In 2011, Bargo was found guilty of killing Seath Jackson, a murder considered
to be one of the most depraved in Marion County.
Bargo, along with 4 of his friends, shot the 15-year-old, beat him, burned his
body and shoveled his ashes in paint buckets before dumping them in water.
In his 1st trial years ago, Bargo was sentenced to die, but now he is back in
court because of a Florida Supreme Court decision that says a vote for the
death sentence must be unanimous. In Bargo's case, the vote was 10 to 2.
In Friday's resentencing hearing, Bargo's father took the stand and told the
jury he did not see what was coming.
"Now that I now know more, I probably could have seen more things," his father
said.
Bargo's 4 co-defendants will spend life in prison.
(source WESH news)
**********************
How Did Ted Bundy Die? It’s, Uh, Pretty Gory…
You've been warned.
On January 24, 1989, infamous serial killer Ted Bundy died. And tbh, it wasn't
a moment too soon. The 42-year-old "lady killer" (cringing at the name alone)
had been sentenced to capital punishment—a.k.a. the death penalty—in Florida
after confessing to the murders of more than 30 women. (And it wasn't even the
1st time: Bundy had been sentenced to death 3 times before he was finally
executed.)
"Ted Bundy jerked back, appearing startled, when he first saw the electric
chair inside the execution chamber at the Florida State Prison," Tim Swarens, a
reporter who witnessed the execution, wrote in The Daily Beast 30 years later.
"I watched, along with 41 other witnesses, as one of America’s most notorious
serial killers was strapped into the wooden chair, known by the macabre
nickname of 'Old Sparky.'"
The famed electric chair would be the last thing Bundy touched during his life,
but—for better or worse—it wouldn't be the last the world would hear from him.
On the 30th anniversary of Ted Bundy's death, Netflix released its docuseries,
Conversations With A Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes, sparking a posthumous pop
culture phenomenon.
And it doesn't seem like that's going to be ending any time soon, since Netflix
also just announced the official release date of another piece of Ted Bundy
entertainment: Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile. The film, starring
Zac Efron as Ted Bundy and Lily Collins as his girlfriend Liz Kendall, is a
dramatized take on the real-life events that left the country shook in the '70s
and '80s. Told from Liz's perspective, the film will premiere on Netflix and in
select theaters on May 3.
In the meantime, people want to know nearly everything about Ted Bundy,
including how he died. The full story is pretty disturbing, so buckle up for
this next part.
According to Swarens, as the electric chair was being prepared for Bundy, he
"peered through a Plexiglas window at the witnesses who faced him" and said,
"It’s all right." Then, at 7:05 a.m., Bundy was asked if he had any last words.
Looking at his attorney, Jim Coleman, and a Methodist pastor, Fred Lawrence, he
said, "Jim and Fred, I’d like you to give my love to my family and friends."
In a book by crime writer Ann Rule, The Stranger Beside Me: The True Crime
Story of Ted Bundy, Dr. Clark Hoshall, who was also present during Bundy’s
death, recalled: "Bundy was uneasy and failed to keep eye contact. A leather
strap extended from below the right side of the lower jaw diagonally across his
face and was secured tightly above the left ear. The head strap compressed the
nose laterally and squeezed Bundy’s left eyelids together. His right eye was
open and looking straight forward."
In Swaren's description, a metal cap was also placed on Bundy's head, and his
face was covered with a black, leather veil. No one then could see Bundy's face
when the prison superintendent Tom Barton spoke briefly on the phone with Gov.
Bob Martinez. After the phone call, Swaren recalled, "Barton then nodded to a
black-hooded executioner standing behind a partition."
The anonymous executioner pushed a button. "Bundy’s head jerked as 2,000 volts
hit him. His body stiffened and pressed against the chair back," Swaren wrote.
After less than 2 minutes, the executioner turned off the electric current. All
that was left of Ted Bundy was a "body slumped against the leather straps." He
was dead.
Some, including Swaren, don't believe that someone like Ted Bundy, who could
commit such heinous crimes, deserves to be remembered. Others, however, think
you can always learn something valuable from the darkest moments in history.
In response to this criticism, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile's
director Joe Berlinger said in a previous statement to Buzzfeed News that the
film "is a serious portrait of how Bundy deceived the people closest to him and
his manipulation of the American media allowed him to flourish and evade
detection and capture for so long." He also made clear that "our film in no way
glorifies Bundy or his atrocious acts."
It remains to be seen how exactly Ted Bundy's execution will be portrayed on
the big screen, if at all. But, if Joe Berlinger lives up to his word, viewers
can hope that it will be handled responsibly and respectfully toward Bundy's
victims and families.
(source: Women's Health Magazine)
ALABAMA----impending execution
Stay of execution denied for Alabama death row inmate set to die next week
A state inmate set to be put to death next week was denied a stay of execution
Friday by a Mobile federal judge.
Christopher Price, 46, was sentenced to death by a jury for the 1991 robbery
and killing of Bill Lynn in Fayette County. He has been held in the Holman
Correctional Facility since 1993.
Price sought a stay of execution, claiming the state’s lethal injection
cocktail violates his constitutional rights against cruel and unusual
punishment.
The death row inmate had instead wanted to die by nitrogen hypoxia – a method
approved by the state last year – and that denying him that method of death
violates his 14th Amendment rights of equal protection.
But U.S. District Court Judge Kristi K. DuBose noted that Price did not elect
to choose nitrogen hypoxia by June 30, 2018 – the date required by state
Legislation for death row inmates convicted before June 1, 2018.
DuBose said Price would have difficulty proving that nitrogen gas is readily
available since the state was yet to implement protocols for administering the
gas as of the date of her ruling.
“The court has little evidence as to how nitrogen gas would be administered or
how the State might ensure the safety of the execution team and witnesses,”
DuBose wrote in her opinion. “Accordingly, the court cannot find, based on the
current record, that execution by nitrogen hypoxia may be readily implemented
by the state.”
State Attorney General Steve Marshall argued that Price’s motion for a stay of
execution was a “meritless delay tactic.”
Price has pushed back against his execution before. In 2014, he sued the state
to postpone his execution date, claiming lethal injection causes “prolonged,
excruciating and needless pain.”
Barring a successful appeal, Price is set to die 6 p.m. Thursday.
(source: al.com)
OHIO:
Makers of Ohio death drugs oppose their use in executions
At least 2 companies that manufacture drugs used in the Ohio death penalty are
adamantly opposed to the use of their products in executions, raising more
questions about whether the state has been obtaining them through subterfuge.
Asked if it tells suppliers that their products are to be used in executions, a
spokeswoman for the agency that buys the drugs said officials there don’t know
their end use. However, a pharmacist with the agency testified in 2014 that she
purchases the drugs and drives drives them to the death house.
And as Ohio devises a new death-penalty protocol, Gov. Mike DeWine won’t commit
to telling drug makers and distributors when the state buys their products that
they’re intended for use in the death chamber.
In response to a request for records relating to execution drugs, the Ohio
Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services provided The Dispatch this
week with purchase orders and invoices for midazolam, the 1st drug used in
Ohio’s current protocol as a sedative, and potassium chloride, the third drug,
which is intended to stop the condemned person’s heart.
In an earlier response, the agency provided invoices for the same drugs that
the mental health department sent to the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility
near Lucasville, where the death chamber is housed.
DeWine this year paused upcoming executions after a federal judge sitting in
Dayton determined that midazolam didn’t have the pain-killing properties that
supporters claimed. The judge also ruled that without such analgesic
properties, injection of potassium chloride “would feel as though fire was
being poured” into a prisoner’s veins.
But as prison officials grapple with how to devise a new method to carry out
executions, they must contend with how to get lethal drugs. A growing number of
drug makers and distributors have publicly declared they won’t allow their
products to be used in executions. They generally don’t take a position on the
death penalty, but say they make their products for medical purposes and
executions don’t qualify.
Such companies include New Jersey-based Hikma, whose Columbus plant employs
1,100. A wholesaler in January supplied the Department of Mental Health and
Addiction Services with $800 worth of midazolam made by Hikma under its former
name, West Ward Pharmaceuticals.
“We object in the strongest possible terms to the use of any of our products
for the purpose of capital punishment,” Hikma says on its website, which
specifically lists midazolam 5MG/ML vials, the type supplied to Ohio, as one
such drug.
“Not only is it contrary to the intended label use(s) for the products, but it
is also inconsistent with our values and mission of improving lives by
providing quality, affordable health care to patients.”
A company spokesman declined to comment for this story, but Hikma last year
sued Nevada to stop it from using fentanyl it made in a planned execution
there, and it notified Nebraska to keep its products out of that state’s
execution chamber as well.
The documents from Mental Health and Addiction Services show that Chicago-based
wholesaler AmerisourceBergen supplied Ohio with the Hikma-made midazolam and
potassium chloride from an unknown manufacturer.
“We buy pharmaceuticals directly from manufacturers, and we adhere to their
restrictions on the distribution of their products, including those that
prohibit the sale of certain products to correctional facilities,” company
spokesman Gabe Weissman said in an email. “AmerisourceBergen does not receive
patient or clinical information from the licensed and registered pharmacies who
are our wholesale distribution customers.
“Resultingly, we have limited ability to track if a product was administered to
a patient or if it was resold to another pharmacy or transferred between state
agencies. If we do conclude that a pharmacy violated a contract with
AmerisourceBergen we’ll look into appropriate actions to address that issue.”
Another distributor, Gulf Coast Pharmaceuticals Plus, of Ocean Springs,
Mississippi, in Nov. 2017 shipped the mental health department potassium
chloride made by Pfizer, according to the Ohio department’s records. Last
September it shipped the same chemical made by Pfizer subsidiary Hospira.
Gulf Coast Pharmaceuticals couldn’t be reached for this story. But Pfizer is
adamantly opposed to its drugs being used in executions.
“Pfizer makes its products to enhance and save the lives of the patients we
serve,” spokesman Steven Danehy said in an email. “We strongly object to the
use of any of our products in the lethal injection process for capital
punishment.
“Since 2016, we have informed the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and
Correction on multiple occasions that Pfizer strongly objects to the use of its
products as lethal injections for capital punishment. We asked them to return
any Hospira or Pfizer manufactured Restricted Product in their possession and
provided them with procedures to follow to return for a full refund.”
Robert Dunham of the Death Penalty Information Center has said that the
Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services runs the risk of losing
suppliers if they think their drugs might be bound for the death chamber. But
the department, which bills the department of rehabilitation and correction as
a separate entity, says it doesn’t know for what some of the drugs its pharmacy
buys are used.
“OhioMHAS is not provided with information on the intended use of the drugs we
order on behalf of customers,” agency spokeswoman Jamie Carmichael said in an
email.
The agency says it doesn’t know that some of the drugs it buys are intended for
use in executions, but testimony in a 2014 federal court hearing about Ohio’s
death penalty protocol indicates otherwise. Mary Denise Dean, a pharmacist for
the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, testified that she
ordered the drugs. She said she had them delivered to the agency’s Columbus
headquarters and then drove them to the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility
near Lucasville, where the state’s death house is located.
In a phone interview Thursday, DeWine, who until January was Ohio attorney
general, also said he didn’t know whether the state has been informing
distributors and manufacturers whether their products would be used in
executions.
“I don’t know about your specific question about what suppliers know,” he said,
adding that it would be premature to decide whether to provide that information
until the new protocol is formulated.
As manufacturers and distributors have became reluctant to supply death drugs,
Ohio passed a law that in 2015 allowed state officials to withhold the names of
companies involved. It expired on March 23, 2017. Since then — and since the
drugs in the invoices released by the state were obtained — Ohio has executed 2
men and attempted to execute another.
DeWine said he didn’t know when the correction department would complete its
new lethal-injection protocol. Asked if he thought Ohio has seen its last
execution, he declined to answer.
(source: Columbus Dispatch)
ARKANSAS:
Arkansas lawmakers vote to expand execution drug secrecy
Arkansas lawmakers sent the governor legislation Wednesday to expand the
secrecy surrounding the source of the state’s lethal injection drugs, over the
objections of media organizations, pharmaceutical companies and death penalty
opponents.
The House voted 71-16 to approve a bill prohibiting the release of any
information that directly or indirectly would identify the maker or supplier of
Arkansas’ execution drugs. The Senate-backed measure now heads to Republican
Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who plans to sign it into law. The bill makes recklessly
disclosing the information a felony punishable by up to s6 years in prison and
up to a $10,000 fine.
Arkansas doesn’t have any executions scheduled, and the state’s supply of the
three lethal injection drugs it uses has expired. Prison officials have said
they won’t search for any replacements until the secrecy law is expanded to
include the drug’s manufacturers.
“The passage of this bill is the only way we’re ever going to be able to
institute the death penalty and carry out the sentence that was handed down by
juries,” Republican Rep John Maddox said on the floor before the vote.
Arkansas and a dozen other states have enacted laws since 2011 preventing the
release of information about the source of their execution drugs, while several
other states have invoked existing laws or regulations to keep that information
secret. Robert Dunham, the executive director of the Death Penalty Information
Center, says Arkansas’ proposal would be the most extreme in the country.
“It’s a combination of withholding all the information and making it a felony
to even unintentionally but recklessly disclose it,” said Dunham, whose group
has criticized the way states carry out executions. “What also stands out is
the level of conscious disregard for the facts and conscious disregard of the
potential effects.”
Jeff Rosenzweig, an attorney for death row inmates challenging Arkansas’
execution protocol, this week called the measure “blatantly unconstitutional.”
Rosenzweig said that under the measure companies could face criminal penalties
if they filed lawsuits challenging how Arkansas obtained the drugs.
The measure is a response to state Supreme Court rulings that the state’s
current execution secrecy law only keeps the supplier and not the manufacturer
under wraps. Hutchinson and Republican Attorney General Leslie Rutledge had
both backed the measure.
“The will of the people, the judicial system in Arkansas, will be stymied if
you don’t have the capacity to acquire those drugs and confidentiality is an
important part of that,” Hutchinson told reporters before the vote. “It’s just
a necessary step.”
The Arkansas Press Association has opposed the measure, saying it would grant
sweeping power to the state to withhold information about executions. It also
has drawn objections from 2 pharmaceutical companies — Hikma Pharmaceuticals
and Fresenius Kabi USA — who have said it would hamper their ability to prevent
their products from being used in executions. Fresenius said the measure could
lead to unintended consequences, including drug shortages because of European
Union regulations aimed at preventing the export of drugs used in executions.
Arkansas hasn’t carried out an execution since 2017, when it planned to put 8
inmates to death over an 11-day period. The state ultimately put 4 men to death
over 8 days after half the executions were halted by the courts. The state
scheduled the executions before its supply of midazolam, a sedative used in its
lethal injection process, expired.
Hutchinson said the bill and another measure he signed addressing a state
Supreme Court ruling over how death row inmates are found competent to be
executed set the stage for Arkansas to resume executions, but said it’s unclear
how quickly the state will be able to do so.
(source: Times Record)
**********************
Governor now has bill that would keep lethal injection records secret
The Correction Department will keep secret any records about lethal injection
and carrying out the death penalty, under a bill that exempts those records
from the state Freedom of Information Act.
The department is responsible for executing inmates who have been convicted of
capital crimes and sentenced to death. In recent years, prison officials have
had difficulty purchasing the drugs used for lethal injection, and one reason
is that pharmaceutical companies don't want death penalty protesters to know of
their involvement.
At this time, the department does not have a supply of the three drugs used in
lethal injection.
Both the Senate and the House or Representatives have passed Senate Bill 464,
the measure that keeps confidential the records concerning lethal injection
drugs. The governor is expected to sign it.
There are 30 inmates on death row. Arkansas last carried out the death penalty
in 2017.
SB 464 also makes it a felony to publicly reveal information about lethal
injection in Arkansas.
(source: Texarkana Gazette)
UTAH:
Utah Supreme Court Grants Death-Row Prisoner Hearing on “Damning Revelations”
of Police Misconduct
Citing “damning revelations” that police and prosecutors have used bribes and
threats to secure testimony in a 3-decades-old capital case, the Utah Supreme
Court has ordered a Utah County court to conduct a hearing to determine whether
death-row prisoner Douglas Stewart Carter should receive a new trial. Carter
has spent 33 years on Utah’s death row. Although police found fingerprints and
blood at the crime scene, no physical evidence tied Carter to the crime.
Carter, who is African American, was convicted of the murder of a white woman,
Eva Olesen, based upon the testimony of 2 witnesses, Epifanio and Lucia Tovar,
who told the jury that he had bragged to them about killing Oleson during a
home invasion, that he also said he had intended to rape her, and that he had
laughed about her death. Prosecutors also presented a statement Carter had made
to police confessing to the murder, but Carter has long claimed that statement
had been coerced. Shortly after the trial, the court said, the Tovars
“vanished.” After Carter overturned his death sentence on appeal, prosecutors
told the court in 1992 that they could not locate the Tovars to testify at
Carter’s resentencing. At the resentencing, the trial court permitted the
prosecution to read the jury the Tovars’ testimony from Carter’s 1st trial, and
he was again sentenced to death. Through what the appeals court described as “a
coincidence,” Carter’s defense team was able to find the Tovars in 2011. When
his lawyers spoke with them, the Tovars—who were in the country illegally—
confessed that Provo police had threatened them with deportation, the removal
of their son, and prison if they did not implicate Carter, pressured them to
make false statements, and then gave them gifts and paid for their rent and
groceries once they agreed to cooperate. In a sworn statement, the Tovars also
said that police had explicitly instructed them to lie under oath about the
payments.
Despite this evidence, the trial court had denied Carter’s petition for a new
trial without a hearing. The appeals court reversed. In its decision, the court
wrote that, in the absence of physical evidence implicating Carter, the Tovars’
testimony was “crucial” to the prosecution’s case. Writing for the court,
Justice Deno Himonas said: “Carter has a colorable claim that the Tovars’
testimony evolved over time to become more damaging to Carter in an attempt to
please the people who had provided them with rent money and threatened them
with deportation and separation if they did not cooperate.” The court said that
the Tovars’ sworn statements created “a genuine dispute of material fact as to
whether the outcome of the trial would have been different but for the absence
of the evidence,” and ordered the trial court to grant Carter a hearing at
which he may attempt to prove his claim.
(source: Death Penalty Information Center)
ARIZONA:
Jury sentences Missouri man to death for 2 Arizona murders
A Missouri man convicted in the 2012 murders of his sister-in-law and her
boyfriend in Arizona has been sentenced to death.
Yavapai County Superior Court officials say a jury reached its verdict
Wednesday and lawyers for 35-year-old Kenneth Wayne Thompson have already filed
an appeal.
Jurors began deliberating March 30 whether Thompson should get life in prison
or the death penalty.
He has been convicted Feb. 20 on 2 counts of 1st-degree murder.
Prosecutors say Thompson used a hatchet and knife to kill Penelope Edwards and
Troy Dunn in March 2012 and then poured acid on the bodies and then set his
sister-in-law's Prescott Valley home on fire.
Jurors rejected arguments by Thompson's attorneys that his motive for the
slayings was rooted in his upbringing as a Scientologist.
(source: Associated Press)
CALIFORNIA:
Jurors seated in case against John Hernandez Felix, accused Palm Springs cop
killer
After nearly a month, a jury was seated Friday in the trial of an ex-con
accused of gunning down 2 Palm Springs police officers and trying to kill
others when they approached his mother's home to investigate a domestic
disturbance.
John Hernandez Felix, 28, is charged with 2 counts of murder and 6 counts of
attempted murder, with special circumstance allegations of killing police
officers and committing multiple murders, making him eligible for the death
penalty if convicted.
For nearly a month, around 800 prospective jurors were screened at the
courthouse regarding their qualifications and availability, with a full week
dedicated to whittling down batches of 200 prospective jurors per day into
smaller groups. The prospective jurors then participated in 1-on-1 interviews
at the courthouse with attorneys.
Around 10:30 a.m. Friday, the selected jurors were sworn in, according to court
records. A hearing on pretrial motions is scheduled for Tuesday, with opening
statements scheduled for April 17.
Felix, a convicted felon, is accused of gunning down veteran training Officer
Jose Gilbert Vega, 63, and rookie Officer Lesley Zerebny, 27, on Oct. 8, 2016,
after they responded to a family disturbance call stemming from a spat between
the defendant and his sister over a television remote control.
Felix opened fire on Vega, Zerebny and a third officer through the metal screen
door of his mother's property after the victims stepped onto the porch,
prosecutors said. He's also accused of firing on five of their colleagues who
responded to the shooting. None were struck by the gunfire.
Felix was taken into custody following a 12-hour standoff.
District Attorney Mike Hestrin said the defendant wanted to kill cops, donning
body armor and firing armor-piercing rounds from an AR-15 rifle during the
attack.
The trial comes after a string of delays connected to defense motions regarding
Felix's mental fitness, including an argument alleging he has intellectual
disabilities that should preclude him from execution if jurors recommend the
death penalty.
Criminal proceedings were previously suspended for six months in 2017 when
Felix's attorneys, John Dolan and Jacob Devane, sought to have him declared
mentally incompetent to stand trial.
They argued that he suffers from "traumatic amnesia" and has no memory of the
shooting, preventing him from contributing to an adequate defense, but Judge
Anthony Villalobos ruled in late 2017 that Felix was sufficiently competent.
Following a bench trial with testimony from mental health experts, Villalobos
ruled that prosecutors could proceed with their capital murder case against
Felix, leading to an appeal of the judge's decision and another two-month
delay. An appellate court denied the defense's appeal seeking to bar the death
penalty from being included as an option upon conviction.
Vega and Zerebny were the first Palm Springs police officers to be killed in
the line of duty since Jan. 1, 1962, when Officer Lyle Wayne Larrabee died
during a vehicle pursuit. The only other death in the department was that of
Officer Gale Gene Eldridge, fatally shot on Jan. 18, 1961, while investigating
an armed robbery.
Vega had been with the department 35 years — 5 years past his retirement
eligibility — and had planned to retire in 2018. He had 8 children, 11
grandchildren and 5 great-grandchildren.
Zerebny had been with the department for 18 months and had just returned to
duty following maternity leave, having given birth to a daughter, Cora, 4
months before her death.
Felix, who is being held without bail at the Robert Presley Jail in Riverside,
has a prior conviction for assault with a deadly weapon, for which he served
time in state prison. At the time of the shooting he was prohibited from having
a firearm in his possession.
(source: desertsun.com)
WASHINGTON:
Washington state is ready to put an end to the death penalty
Last October, our state Supreme Court ruled that the historical record of cases
in which juries had imposed the death penalty reflected an arbitrariness and
racial bias that violated Washington’s constitution. This was the fourth time
in the past half-century our high court found the state’s death penalty law too
flawed to trust. The good governance reasons for Olympia lawmakers to finally
strike from our books a law that consistently produces unfair results are
straightforward. When it comes to putting people to death, as state employees
and taxpayers, none of us can feel comfortable that our system is getting it
right. Our record falls terribly short.
That said, my reasons for wanting to see state legislators repeal the death
penalty once and for all are more personal. I have worked as a corrections
professional for 35 years, 11 as the secretary and deputy secretary of
Washington’s Department of Corrections. I’ve been in the execution chamber as a
prisoner was put to death when I was the deputy and I have given the order to
proceed with the execution when I was the secretary. I’ve discussed these
experiences with the four other secretaries who either gave the order or were
in the execution chamber during the 5 executions carried out in Washington in
modern times — Chase Riveland, Joe Lehman, Dick Morgan, and Dan Pacholke.
Each of us speaks from firsthand experience, from giving the order to proceed
with the execution, to being present in the death chamber when the noose was
placed around a prisoner’s neck or when he was strapped to the table for lethal
injection. We have witnessed the process and supervised the staff tasked with
carrying it out. All of us agree it is past time to put an end to this
practice, which has led to the execution of 78 men in Washington since 1904.
The most recent execution was in 2010.
Dozens of people are involved in carrying out an execution: line officers and
their sergeants and lieutenants; administrative staff who have to arrange and
confirm the details; clergy, cooks, and counsel. All of them feel the impact of
playing a role in taking another human’s life, and so, too, do their families.
I’ve witnessed visibly shaken staff as they carried out their assigned duties.
I have participated in post execution debriefings and seen the outpouring of
emotion from those state employees involved in taking a human life. As much as
my fellow former secretaries and I tried to take care of them before and after
each execution, we know it comes with a personal cost that will never be
erased.
I have been asked whether we should retain the death penalty for cases in which
our law enforcement and corrections officers are intentionally targeted and
killed, as happened to Seattle Police Officer Tim Brenton and Monroe
Corrections Officer Jayme Biendl. To be clear, no one suggests the lives of
those who enter these lines of work have greater value than others’ and that
their taking therefore merits harsher punishment. Rather, the question has been
whether keeping the death penalty for these cases would deter acts of violence
against those whose job responsibilities inherently pose greater risk of harm
at the hands of others.
After more than 3 decades of working with people incarcerated for every kind of
crime, who’ve exhibited a wide range of mental and emotional makeups, I have
never encountered an individual for whom the possibility of being sentenced to
death figured into the decision of whether or not to carry out an act of
violence. Simply put, people who commit violence don’t think about the
consequences. Threatening execution has not kept, and will not keep, our law
enforcement and corrections officers safe. Instead, we must constantly evaluate
the risks they face, improve the environments in which they work, and equip
them with the best and most current training and tools available.
This session, in February, the state Senate passed SB 5339 — a bill to remove
the death penalty from state statutes. The bill is now advancing in the House.
Ultimately, taking another human life is simply wrong, for people who murder
and for state employees. I urge the Washington legislature to repeal the death
penalty and finally bring an end to executions.
(source: OPpinion; Eldon Vail is former secretary of Washington’s Department of
Corrections----Seattle Times)
USA:
Gay presidential hopeful wants to abolish the death penalty---'Capital
punishment as seen in America has always been a discriminatory practice’ Pete
Buttigieg said.
The 1st openly-LGBTI candidate in the 2020 presidential race, Pete Buttigieg,
has called for the US to abolish the death penalty.
He said capital punishment in America has ‘always been a discriminatory
practice’.
‘We would be a fairer and safer country when we join the ranks of modern
nations who have abolished the death penalty’ he said at the 2019 National
Action Network Convention in New York.
The mayor of South Bend also pledged to work towards ending solitary
confinement.
He labeled it a ‘form of torture’.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez this week also called solitary confinement
torture. She called for the release of transgender whistleblower and activist
Chelsea Manning.
Several other 2020 candidates, including Kamala Harris, have called for the end
of the death penalty in the US.
According to the NAACP, the death penalty disproportionately affects people of
color.
Buttigieg officially entered the presidential race last month.
He is the only LGBTI Democratic candidate running so far and will be the 1st
openly gay presidential candidate to participate in the DNC Primary debates.
Earlier this week, he told CNN viewers how he met his husband on Hinge. He also
said the US needed to show ‘moral authority’ on LGBTI and other human rights
issues.
Buttigieg is already impressing the American public.
A Rhodes scholar and veteran of the war in Afghanistan, the Mayor of South Bend
can also speak 8 languages.
His primary work as mayor has focused on redevelopment. At 37, he is the
youngest presidential candidate in the race.
A poll of Democratic candidates in the state of Iowa last month placed
Buttigieg 3rd.
He earned double digits and surpassed more nationally known contenders like
Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren.
(source: gaystarnews.com)
*****************
Abolish the death penalty
Gavin Newsom has recently declared a moratorium on the death penalty in
California.
The death penalty, which has for a long time been a controversial topic in
American political discourse, has once again become the subject of debate due
to Gov. Newsom’s recent moratorium (temporary prohibition) of California’s
death penalty. I agree with Gov. Newsom’s decision, as I think that the death
penalty is not only expensive and inefficient, but it is morally wrong.
Putting someone to death in this country is surprisingly inefficient. It is not
uncommon for people to remain on death row for decades, as the U.S. system is
so backlogged. In the state of Florida, it would take 175 years to go through
the current list of death row inmates. And get this: according to Forbes, "It
is 10 times more expensive" to put someone to death than it is to keep them in
prison for life. In California, for example, the "annual cost of the death
penalty is $137 million, while the cost of lifetime incarceration is $11.5
million."
This is mostly due to the appeals process that people on death row are allowed
to go through. Our country’s death row inmates are practically spending their
lives in prison anyway, but since they have been sentenced to death, us
taxpayers are now paying more for their incarceration.
Many have argued in the past that the death penalty is a deterrent to crime and
one could point to falling crime rates within this country as evidence. The
only problem with this theory is that 88 % of criminologists do not believe
that the death penalty deters crime, and that the use of the death penalty is
not linked to our country’s decrease in crime.
Just think about it on a common-sense level. Imagine a criminal is about to
commit a violent and irrational crime that would warrant the death penalty. Do
you really think the criminal weighs the pros and cons of a life sentence
versus being put to death before committing the crime? It’s hard to imagine
someone thinking to themselves, “I’m not okay with murdering this person if
that means I’ll be sentenced to death, but I am okay with it if I just go to
jail for life." That’s not how violent and irrational criminals think.
There are also moral reasons for why we should abolish the death penalty in the
U.S. According to Fr. Allan Deck, a distinguished scholar in pastoral theology
and Chicana/o and Latina/o studies at LMU, “A Catholic understanding of
morality considers the death penalty as a grave infringement of the right to
life ... the exercise of the death penalty today is wrong for some of the same
reasons that abortion is wrong.” From a Christian perspective, this seems like
a no-brainer. After all, Jesus Christ was a victim of the death penalty.
The death penalty is also another expression of racism in our criminal justice
system. We now know that people of color are much more likely to be sentenced
to death than their white counterparts who commit the same crime, especially if
the victim is white and not a person of color.
Fr. Deck believed that, “There is no rational basis for defending the
disproportionate number of African Americans and Latinos in U.S. prisons and on
death row … Rather, it is a symptom of a deep and persistent racism.” This
violates the basic fairness that our criminal justice system tries to achieve,
and the thought of enacting our most irreversible punishment through this
flawed system is utterly terrifying.
This plays into my biggest fear regarding capital punishment, and my strongest
argument for why we should eliminate it: the possibility of executing an
innocent person. It is terrible to acknowledge, but since 1975, over 150
prisoners have been set free while on death row. This is indefensible, and a
true canary in the coal mine for a flawed punishment that is enacted through a
flawed system. One innocent person put to death is unacceptable and enough of a
justification for a complete elimination of the death penalty.
The arguments against the death penalty are so overwhelmingly clear and
abundant, it is bewildering that our leaders still support this outdated
system. I can only be grateful that Gov. Newsom was able to to make the right
decision and hopefully set an example for the future.
(source: Opinion; Steven Nassif, a junior entrepreneurship major from Santa
Clarita, California----The (Loyola Marymount University) Los Angeles Loyolan)
_______________________________________________
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