[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----ALABAMA
April 1 ALABAMA: Cruel and unusual?: Death row inmate challenges state execution procedure A death row inmate who had his execution blocked by a federal court that cited Alabama’s “secrecy” concerning its execution procedure says that procedure could leave him conscious while drugs that stop his breathing and his heart flow through his body. Attorneys for Thomas Arthur, who was convicted in a 1982 murder-for-hire scheme, argue that the use of pentobarbital to anesthetize a prisoner during an execution violates Arthur’s Eighth Amendment protections. Suhana Han, Arthur’s attorney, claims the drug does not work fast enough to prevent the inmate from feeling the potentially painful effects of the 2 drugs that follow, and that the state’s secrecy surrounding its execution protocols makes it impossible to determine whether its use constitutes cruel and unusual punishment, or even if the state follows its own procedures during executions. Documents filed by Arthur’s attorneys cite the execution of inmate Eddie Powell last year, in which officials apparently did not pinch Powell, the final step of a consciousness test before the fatal drugs are administered. “What we’re asking the court to do is allow us the opportunity to prove our claim,” Han said. “Alabama has never had its lethal injection process challenged at trial on the merits.” Arthur was scheduled to be executed March 29, but the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals on March 21 overturned a lower court’s dismissal of Arthur’s appeal on the use of pentobarbital, finding there was no evidence that Alabama was conducting executions in a constitutional manner. The situation, the court wrote, was “exacerbated by Alabama’s policy maintaining secrecy surrounding every aspect of its 3-drug execution method. “It is certainly not speculative and indeed plausible that Alabama will disparately treat Arthur because the protocol is not certain and could be unexpectedly changed for his execution,” the court wrote. Brian Corbett, a spokesman for the Alabama Department of Corrections, declined comment last week, saying he was not at liberty to discuss the state’s execution procedures. The Alabama Attorney General’s office also declined comment on the case. Arthur was convicted of murder in the 1982 death of Muscle Shoals businessman Troy Wicker Jr. Wicker’s murder occurred while Arthur was in a work release program after being convicted of murdering the sister of his common-law wife in 1977. Arthur has maintained that he is innocent of Wicker’s murder. The state Department of Corrections does not release information on its execution procedures, but the protocols have come out in litigation over capital punishment. The condemned are first administered pentobarbital, rendering the condemned unconscious. After the pentobarbital, the inmate is given pancuronium bromide, which paralyzes the inmate’s muscles and stops breathing. Finally, the condemned receives a dosage of potassium chloride, which stops the heart. Alabama, like other states with the death penalty, had used sodium thiopental until 2011, when Hospira, the manufacturer of the drug, stopped making it in the United States. Pentobarbital, which had been used by veterinarians and in physician-assisted suicide in some countries, was adopted as a replacement by most states. The Death Penalty Information Center said the drug was used in 35 executions in the United States last year, including 5 in Alabama. According to court filings, sodium thiapentol takes about 60 seconds to render an inmate unconscious. But Arthur’s attorneys, citing affidavits from two experts, argue that pentobarbital can take between 15 to 60 minutes to reach “maximum effect, which, in the context of a lethal injection, is an inmate’s anesthetization,” a brief filed by Arthur’s attorneys said. With executions usually taking place within a half-hour attorneys for Arthur argue, that an inmate could feel the effects of the other two drugs before the pentobarbital takes hold. “The Supreme Court recognizes that if an inmate is not unconscious, that will cause excruciating pain,” Han said. “If an inmate is not unconscious, (pancuronium bromide) is comparable to feeling like you’re being buried alive. The 3rd drug, we’re told, is comparable to your veins and your heart being on fire.” In filings with the court, the Attorney General’s office has cited experts who say that a longer-acting anesthetic like pentobarbital would be preferable to sodium thiopental, quoting one of Arthur’s experts in a prior affidavit as saying sodium thiopental “has a quick onset and a short duration.” The state further argued that the time it took for the drugs to take effect was irrelevant, as corrections officials would not allow an execution to move forward if the inmate was found to be conscious. “Contrary to Arthur’s argument, the amount of time it takes for pentobarbital to reach
[Deathpenalty] [POSSIBLE SPAM] death penalty news----TEXAS, VA., UTAH, FLA.
March 31 TEXASfemale faces death sentence Jury finds former Lufkin nurse guilty of capital murder An Angelina County jury has found a former Lufkin nurse guilty of capital murder in connection to the deaths of 5 patients. She now faces no better than life in prison for the crime and could be put to death. Kimberly Clark Saenz, 38, of Pollok, was charged with capital murder and 5 counts of aggravated assault. She was found guilty of injecting bleach into the bloodstream of kidney dialysis patients. The jury also found her guilty of 3 counts of aggravated assault and not guilty on 2 other counts of aggravated assault. Sentencing testimony for Saenz will begin at 9 a.m. Monday. She faces the death penalty for the crime and no less than life in prison without parole. The jury found Saenz not guilty of counts 2 and 4, which were aggravated assault charges involving Carolyn Risinger and Graciela Castenada. She was found guilty of counts 1, 3 and 5, which involved Marva Rhone, Debra Oates and Marie Bradley. Count 6 was the capital murder charge, meaning the jury believed Saenz was guilty of killing at least 2 of the following: Clara Strange, Thelma Metcalf, Garlin Kelley, Cora Bryant and Opal Few. Starting around 4:50 p.m., officers at the courthouse began searching everyone going into the courtroom individually, before a verdict was read. The jury began deliberating the charges around 1 p.m. Thursday until 7 p.m. Jurors picked back up where they left off at 9 a.m. Friday. Jurors did not take a break for lunch. Saenz's defense team argued she was being used as a scapegoat for DaVita Dialysis Clinic to excuse the unusually high number of deaths in April 2008. Kim Saenz's guilty verdict is justice served for Jamina Agnew's family. You can't bring my grandma back no matter what, said Agnew. Her grandmother, Cora Bryant, was 1 of the 5 dialysis patients who died from bleach injections at the Lufkin DaVita Clinic in April 2008. I heard her 1st video testimony in court. The 1st week, I knew then that she was guilty, said Agnew. Thursday, jurors began deliberation, reflecting on 4 weeks of intense testimony. 14 hours later, a verdict reached as it appeared the sun would set on another day. When the 1st verdict was read, there was kind of a gasp that went through the courtroom. And, she dropped her head the 1st guilty. The 1st one they read was a guilty verdict, said Lufkin author, John FoxJohn. FoxJohn is penning a novel about the trial. He says the verdict answers many unsolved questions. 5 people lost their lives. From the beginning, I've said that somebody's guilty for these 5 people. I didn't know who, and I've told people all along that the 12 jurors was going to have to decide who was guilty. And, they did. And, we have to respect that, said FoxJohn. Saenz is now in the Angelina County Jail, waiting to learn her fate at sentencing. Agnew hopes Saenz will meet the same end as her grandmother. Because she killed my grandma, so I felt somebody need to do the same to her, said Agnew. The victims of this is who I really feel sorry for. I mean it was a lot of victims involved, said FoxJohn. Tears and sobs from victim's families filled the courtroom as the guilty verdict was announced. Only Kimberly Saenz can explain her tears as she was escorted into a sheriff's car. My heart goes out to Kimberly Saenz's family. I feel sorry for her, but we have relief now. We can go on and put this behind us, said Dezmond Scott, the grandson of victim Cora Bryant. (source: KTRE News) * Jury finds US nurse guilty of bleach murders A former Texas nurse accused of killing 5 of her patients and injuring 5 others by injecting bleach into their kidney dialysis tubing was found guilty on Friday of capital murder. Kimberly Clark Saenz, 38, was fired in April 2008 after a rash of illnesses and deaths at a Lufkin dialysis clinic run by health care giant DaVita Inc. She was charged a year later. Her trial began on March 5. Defence lawyers argued that Saenz was being targeted by the clinic's owner for faulty procedures at the facility, including improper water purification. They also suggested that officials at the clinic, about 200 kilometres northeast of Houston, fabricated evidence against her. Prosecutors described claims Saenz was being set up by her employer as absolutely ridiculous. The mother of 2 now faces life in prison or a death sentence. Prosecutors had said they would seek the death penalty if Saenz was convicted. Prosecutors had described Saenz as a depressed and disgruntled employee who complained about specific patients, including some of those who died or were injured. Her lawyers said she had no motive to kill any patients. 2 patients who were at the clinic on April 28, 2008 testified that they saw Saenz use syringes to draw bleach from a cleaning bucket and then inject it into the IV lines of 2 patients
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----OHIO, CONN., ORE., PENN.
March 31 OHIO: Ohio's execution process, death row inmates face uncertain future With Ohio’s execution process tied up in court, 153 inmates on death row face an uncertain future. The 2011 Capital Crimes report, issued today by Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, summarizes the status of the death-penalty process, including the 12 inmates with scheduled execution dates and 46 inmates lethally injected since 1999. The report, required annually by state law, goes to the governor, state lawmakers and the courts. What DeWine’s report does not say is when, or if, executions will resume. Reginald Brooks, a Cuyahoga County man who murdered his three sons in their beds, was the last person executed, on Nov. 15 last year. Since then, the state has been tied up in federal court on a legal challenge to the lethal injection process. U.S. District Judge Gregory L. Frost has been highly critical of the state’s lethal-injection protocol and stopped an execution; Gov. John Kasich postponed others, anticipating federal court entanglements. In general, the appeals process in capital punishment cases takes so long that 22 Death Row inmates died before their execution, DeWine said. That number increased by one this week with the death by natural causes of Billy Sowell, 75, of Hamilton County. DeWine’s report covered the calendar year through Dec. 31, 2011. DeWine reported there are 14 convicted killers with scheduled death dates, although the number is now 12 with two having been postponed. The death dates run through Jan. 16, 2014. The 46 men who have been executed were responsible for killing 76 people, 17 of them children. (source: Columbus Dispatch) CONNECTICUT: Some Deserve Death Penalty Once again the politicians think they know better than the people, preparing to abolish capital punishment in the teeth of popular support for the death of those who most deserve it. Ask the people about Joshua Komisarjevsky and Steven Hayes — at least 3/4 of Connecticut knows that these depraved and sadistic monsters deserve to die for raping then burning alive the Petit family in 2007. But the majority of Connecticut's General Assembly and governor would abolish the death penalty, call it justice and call it a day. If the legislature abolishes the death penalty, it will be a great day in Connecticut for the worst of the worst. Condemned killers on death row, no less than experts on both sides, all understand prospective only abolition as a fraud. The state will never execute anybody for a crime that could no longer get death. The death penalty and death row will be left to wither. Russell Peeler, who had an 8-year-old and his mother killed to eliminate the child as a witness; Todd Rizzo, who used a sledgehammer to beat to death a 13-year-old boy to know what it felt like — all the condemned can look forward to their release into general population where their crimes will be forgotten and consciously ignored by officers and prisoners alike, eager to make the best of their lives, day-by-day. Historians will record it. In 2012, the death penalty in Connecticut had this feel: Unable to withstand well orchestrated and relentless attacks, weighed down by disuse and expense, its time seemed to have passed. The whole institution felt like a burdensome vestige of an irrational obsession with the past. EvenDr. William PetitJr. appears more prepared than ever to move on, with his announced marriage and absence from the latest hearings before a judiciary committee preset to recommend abolition. Grieving survivors should never be made to feel guilty in giving up the hate and getting on with their lives. But Dr. Petit was not murdered, raped and burnt alive. His family was. We, the political family of the victim, although one step removed, in our righteous indignation, our need for justice — we, strangers but fellow citizens, fellow survivors, equally vulnerable to viciousness and terror, feel, yes feel, continually connected to the slain. Compared to the survivors' grief, immediate and intense, enduring sometimes crippling — our righteous indignation, our rage at the callous or sadistic murderer may seem mere commentary. Their healing takes priority. Many immediate survivors could better come to terms with their loss, but for this nagging feeling that moving beyond their anger means letting down their loved one. Only by keeping the wound fresh, they fear, can they keep the memory alive. They may feel guilty in healing, as if looking forward turns their backs on their beloved and buries them a 2nd time. Although brutal murderers may enjoy long lives in prison while the memory of their suffering victim decays, many abolitionists, especially devout Christians, maintain their moral equilibrium through faith that justice will be done in the hereafter. This belief consoles them. The need for justice may especially incline victims' survivors to those
[Deathpenalty] [SPAM] death penalty news----worldwide
March 31 UGANDA: President Museveni Pardons Sharma Kooky Sharma Kooky was released under the prerogative of mercy privilege. (Photo Courtesy New Vision) After spending 12 years behind bars at Luzira Maximum Security Prisons for murdering his wife, Sharma Kooky is now a free man. President Yoweri Museveni pardoned him on humanitarian grounds. Now basking in freedom, Kooky reportedly tortured his wife to death by electrocuting her at their family residence in Old Kampala Martin road a dozen years ago. In 2000, the High Court sentenced to death Kooky and his younger brother Davinder Kumar after they were found guilty of torturing and killing Renu Joshi. Kumar was released after an appeal to the Supreme Court in 2002 while the same court maintained his elder brother's punishment. Excitement engulfed the Luzira complex when Kooky took his last steps out of prison in the face of freedom. Ironically, hundreds of inmates ululated and clapped as Kooky, clad in a white Indian suit and sandals was led by prison authorities from Boma to the office of the in-charge of the prisons, William Magomu. It was an affair of emotions as prisoners saw off their Indian colleague with cheers as if it were a hue of hope that one day they too would be set free. With his personal belongings stacked in white sacks, a visibly emotional Kooky was led towards a waiting Pajero driven by one of his brothers and whisked off at around 4.00pm. However, New Vision online could not establish their destination after leaving the prison. Sharma Kooky and Davinder Kumar hide from the camera on February 12th, 1999. They were at the High Court accused of murdering Joshi Renu, Kooky's wife. Kooky's struggle for freedom was put to Museveni's attention when the then Attorney General May 5, 2006 recommended that the city businessman 's case be considered by the Advisory Committee on the prerogative of mercy. The committee later advised that the President grants the Indian prisoner pardon on humanitarian grounds. The Commissioner of Prisons received a copy of Museveni's March 22, 2012 pardon order on Monday. Uganda Prisons Service is mandated to compile a list of prisoners from various detention centres who qualify for presidential pardon and then submit the names to the Attorney General's office for approval annually. The prison's publicist Frank Baine says the department submitted 'a long list' of prisoners for presidential pardon. The list included the elderly above 54 years, pregnant women, the terminally sick prisoners, petty offenders, capital offenders remaining with only six months of their sentence and convicts on death row. We expect more feedback on the other names submitted, says Baine. The prerogative of mercy committee is an executive process that comes after the judiciary has concluded its duties. It is a system that mandates the President to exercise his powers through the prerogative of mercy to release prisoners. According to the law, the president has no powers to intervene in criminal prosecution. However under article 121 of the 1995 constitution, through the advisory committee of prerogative of mercy, the president is mandated to exercise his rights to release prisoners. President Museveni made his last presidential pardons in 2009 when he released Obote's former Internal Affairs Minister Chris Rwakasisi and the former Governor of the Central Province during Amin regime Abdullah Nassur who were on death row in Luzira's Upper Prison. (source: All Africa News) INDIA: Abolish death penalty: SAD, BJP in RS Amidst the continuing debate around clemency demands for Balwant Singh Rajoana, the Rajya Sabha on Friday saw members of the Shiromani Akali Dal and BJP advocating the abolition of the death penalty. Naresh Gujral of the SAD raised the issue during the Zero Hour, saying the death penalty was “the ultimate denial of human rights”. “It is a premeditated cold blooded killing of a human being by the State in the name of justice. It violates the right to life, as proclaimed in the universal declaration of human rights India is the country of Buddha and Gandhi, whose ideals we all cherish. The Guru Granth Sahib, the Buddhist tenets, the new testament, all believe that the power to give and take life lies only with God. I would urge the government to take immediate steps to bring forward a legislation for abolishing the capital punishment from our statute,” Gujral said. He found support from BJP’s S S Ahluwalia. (source: Indian Express) *** Human RightsInterview: Christof Heyns discusses India's human rights recordUN Special Rapporteur Christof Heyns's visit to India is the 1st fact-finding mission mandated by the UN Human Rights Council. He talks to DW about his observations and the country's human rights record. UN Special Rapporteur Christof Heyns's visit to India is the 1st fact-finding mission
