Death Penalty

The Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice will be holding a national conference called, “From Lynch Mobs to the Killing State: A National Conference on Race and the Death Penalty,” on Friday May 5th and Saturday May 6th. The conference will be at Harvard Law School.
 
From the CHHI press release:

This national conference will examine new research, legal defense approaches, and advocacy activities surrounding the death penalty.  Panelists will include noted experts from the academic, advocacy, and legal communities, including Barry Scheck, Peter Neufeld, Charles Ogletree, Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, George Kendall, Steve Bright, Andrea Lyon and Hugo Bedau.  Additionally, we plan to debut excerpts from a recent documentary on the death penalty. 

The conference has been scheduled to coincide with the publication of a new book, entitled From the Lynch Mobs to the Killing State, co-edited by Charles Ogletree and Austin Sarat.  Copies of the book will be distributed to registered attendees at the conference.  Sessions will explore the deep connections between America’s racial politics and the practice of capital punishment, and the ways in which the nation’s focus on terrorism may be further eroding protections for the accused.  By bringing together a distinguished and accomplished mix of attorneys, advocates and scholars, we hope to generate a robust and dynamic exchange of ideas and viewpoints, and to forge stronger links between the academy and the new abolition movement.

It promises to be an interesting event. For more information or to register visit the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute

The Supreme Court is set to re-vote on the constitutionality of a Kansas sentencing law that mandates the death penalty if jurors determine that the mitigating and aggravating factors are equal.  In other words, if jurors believe that the factors for and against the death penalty are equal, then they must impose the death penalty.  In a special session of afternoon arguments on the case, Justices Souter and Scalia descended into their own mini-argument on the case, demonstrating the deep divide on the court over the death penalty.  The decision is expected to be announced this July.

The Court voted previously on this case after the retirement of Sandra Day O'Connor, resulting in a 4-4 tie.  For more information see "Alito ready to break tie in death penalty case."

The Supreme Court will hear arguments today in the case of Hill v. Crosby.  Clarence Hill was strapped to a gurney in Florida awaiting his lethal injection when the courts decided to delay the execution.  The High Court will not decide today whether lethal injection is "cruel and unusual punishment" as Hill's attorney's claimed on his behalf.  Instead, they will decide whether death row inmates who have exhausted all of their federal habeas appeals are able to raise civil rights appeals.  If allowed, these civil rights claims could force the courts to decide whether lethal injection is in fact "cruel and unusual punishment" and thereby in violation of the eighth amendment.

The Talk Left Blog has a great posting on this case.  Check it out for more information!

A Human Rights Watch report released today details the history of lethal injection in America and calls on all states to halt its use.  According to the report entitled So Long as they Die: Lethal Injections in the United States, the lethal injection procedure was implemented nearly thirty years ago by a medical examiner who was not trained in pharmacology or anesthesiology and based it on no prior scientific research.  The procedure has been consistent since its inception, although new protocols are likely forthcoming in California, Florida and have already been implemented in North Carolina.

Recent debates over lethal injection have been focused on claims that the three drug cocktail amounts to "cruel and unusual punishment."  The third drug administered, the potassium chloride used to cause cardiac arrest, will cause a burning pain throughout the body if a patient is not adequately sedated.  A recent study published in the medical journal Lancet suggests that prisoners have not been thoroughly sedated prior to the adminstration of the third drug.   From Reuters:

"The U.S. Takes more care killing dogs than people," said Jaime Fellner, U.S. program director at Human Rights Watch and co-author of the report.  "Just because a prisoner may have killed without care or conscience does not mean that the state should follow suit....

"If a state is going to execute someone, it must do its homework, consult with experts, and select a method designed to inflict the least possible pain and suffering."

Click here for the full report from Human Rights Watch.

A report by Amnesty International of the state of capital punishment worldwide in 2005 shows that the number of executions were down and the general trend is still in the direction of abolition.  The United States ranked number 4 in the execution tally, only trailing behind China, Iran, and Saudi Arabia.  These four countries accounted for approximately 94% of executions worldwide last year.

The numbers published were only minimums, as many countries, including China and Saudi Arabia, do not fully disclose the number of executions taking place.  For more information on these statistics or to read the full report, click here.

Willie Brown was pronounced dead shortly after 2 A.M. this morning after a lethal injection in North Carolina.  A number of appeals had been filed on Mr. Brown's behalf and denied, including one concerning jury instructions given at his first trial which were later determined to be unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court. 

This execution was the first to use a brain wave monitor meant to ensure that the inmate was fully sedated throughout the execution.  A doctor and nurse were present in the chamber in case he came out of sedation, at which time they would order more sedative.  The American Medical Association, among other physician's organizations, have come out vehemently against any medical professionals participating in state executions.

An assembly bill has made it out of committee which may affect the execution of Michael Morales, which was halted after two anesthesiologists refused to participate.  California State Assemby Bill 1954 seeks to bar doctors from participating in executions, even if they are willing.  This bill includes monitoring vital signs, pronouncing death, or prescribing, administering, or supervising the injection of the lethal cocktail.  One of the bill's authors, Assemblyman Dr. Alan Nakanishi, claims that the bill is not about the death penalty per se but it is "totally about the medical profession."

However, there are significant challenges to this bill, even from the Democrats.  From the Sacremento Bee:

Assemblyman Joe Canciamilla, D-Pittsburg, called AB 1954 a "slippery slope" that could be precedent-setting in future debates over issues ranging from abortion to the dispensing of emergency contraceptives by pharmacists who object to them.

Canciamilla argued that current state law does not compel any physician to participate in executing a prison inmate.

"Why the need for a state law?"  Canciamilla said.  "Why not simply say, as a matter of state policy, we're not going to (force doctors to) participate in any way, shape or form?"

The California Medical Association is co-sponsoring the bill.

Steven Kenneth Staley has a long history of mental illness. He is a schizophrenic who has refused to take his medication because he believes that doctors are trying to poison him. Despite recent findings that Staley does not understand why he is to be executed, making him ineligible for the death penalty, he may soon face execution. District Judge Wayne Salvant has issued an order to forcibly medicate Staley so that he is sane enough to execute.

From the San-Antonio Express News:

Both the American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association have rules against their members participating in such treatment.

"We cannot treat a person like that for the purpose of restoring competence so they can be executed," said Dr. Priscilla Ray, chairman of the AMA's council on ethical and judicial affairs.

Strickland [Staley’s Attorney], who is not a death penalty opponent, said evolving standards of public thinking about who could be executed suggest profoundly mentally ill people deserve special protection.

"We've gotten to the point where we realize it's not a good idea to execute mentally retarded people or 17-year-olds," he said.

During his 17 years in state custody, Staley has shown he has a chronic, untreatable mental illness requiring repeated hospitalizations, Strickland said. Justice would be served by making certain Staley is never free again, he said.

"I see little purpose in executing Mr. Staley. It would seem to me that hospitalization or imprisonment for life, where they would be free to medicate him without the threat of him being killed, would be appropriate," he said.

Similar cases have been decided both against and in favor of mentally ill inmates, but no case has gone to the US Supreme Court so there is no reliable interpretation to suggest what the result of Staley’s appeals might be.

For more see: “Forced into sanity before death”

Judge Malcolm Howard ruled today that the precautions proposed by the state of North Carolina will be sufficient to ensure Willie Brown feels no pain during his execution on April 21st.  The state has pledged that there will be a doctor and nurse in the execution chamber monitoring both heart and brain waves, and will be able to order further drugs if necessary.  The defense team said that only an anesthesiologist would be able to monitor the execution well, but the judge disagreed.

As quoted by the Associated Press, Howard wrote in his decision:

"Wherever the medical professionals are located, they will be able to verify that plaintiff is unconscious after administration of sodium pentothal or, if he remains conscious at that time, they will be able to bring about the injection of additional sodium pentothal until plaintiff is rendered fully unconscious," Howard said.

The judge also rejected a defense request for specific information about the medical team, saying there was a "strong need to maintain the confidentiality of the identities of medical personnel who participate in executions to prevent them from being subjected to scorn or intimidation."

The American Medical Association's code of ethics specifically denounces doctor's participation in executions.  However, this code is not legally binding.

Good new out of the Phillipines!  Over the Easter weekend President Arroyo announced her decision to commute all death sentences in the country to life in prison and pledged to do so in future cases.  There are currently about 1,200 individuals on death row, including a number of people linked to Al-Qaeda activity.  Human rights activist are still pushing for legislative action to abolish the death penalty because this declaration is not legally binding.

The Phillipines is a predominately Roman Catholic country.  Arroyo has been accused by death penalty supporters of making this decision based on the need of support from the Catholic church in her upcoming election.

Harvard Law School will be holding a conference on Friday and Saturday, May 5 and 6, 2006 entitled, "From Lynch Mobs to the Killing State: Race and the Death Penalty in America."  The conference will focus on race, but explore other issues including wrongful convictions, DNA evidence, and the progress of state moratoriums.  Participating panelists and speakers include Stephen Bright from the Southern Center for Human Rights, Dr. Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, and a number of law professors and exonerated prisoners.  Registration is $50 to be paid at the conference.  The event will be held on the Harvard Law School campus, Ames Courtroom, Austin Hall.  For more information click here.

US District Court Judge Malcolm Howard ruled last Friday that medical personnel must be in the execution chamber to ensure Willie Brown does not awaken and feel pain during the lethal injection process.  The state has until noon today to locate medical professionals willing to assist, otherwise the execution scheduled for April 21 will be stayed.  This will be a difficult task, as ethical codes for medical practitioners expressly forbid their participation in executions.

From The New York Times:

"In veterinary euthanasia and in assisted suicides in Oregon, a single lethal dose of a long-acting barbiturate is typically used. But corrections officials and their medical experts say using that method in executions would take too long and would subject witnesses to discomfort...

Lawyers for Mr. Brown said in a court filing that all he was asking for was that state officials adopt "a protocol for anesthesia that affords him the same assurance of dying without conscious suffering of excruciating pain that is given to household pets."

J. Donald Cowan Jr., a lawyer for Mr. Brown, said that the state's reluctance to adopt a simpler protocol was "a little puzzling."  That was especially so, he added, given that Mr. Brown's legal position amounted to saying, "State, this is how you can execute people properly."

In his decision, Judge Howard cited the ruling by Judge Fogel in California in the case of Michael Morales, whose execution was stayed after anesthesiologists refused to participate to the extent of administering any drugs which would contribute to the inmate's death.  Willie Brown was convicted for the 1983 killing of Vallerie Ann Roberson Dixon, a convenience store employee.  For more see Judges Set Hurdles for Lethal Injection.

Nurpashi Kulayev was the only Chechnyan terrorist to survive the September 2004 take-over of a Beslan school in southern Russia, in which 330 people including over a hundred children were killed.  The prosecuting attorneys have asked the judge for a death sentence for Kulayev.  His punishment is now the center of a debate between factions of the victim's parents. 

The parents' organization called The Voice of Beslan is firmly against the death penalty, while another group called Mothers of Beslan want him sentenced to death.  Other groups have also joined in the debate.

From the Inter Press Service: 

"We do not want to become barbarians in response to barbarity.  We do not support deputy prosecutor general Nikolai Shepel...in his call for...the death penalty," says a statement signed by [Voice of Beslan] head Ella Kesayeva.

..."Reintroduction of the death sentence as the severest form of punishment in Russian society, even for the most terrible criminals, would not conform to modern democratic ideas," Alexander Petrov, deputy director of Human Rights Watch in Russia added.  "We believe instead that authorities should take measures to provide adequate security and be able to prevent terrorist attacks in the future."

The Russian government declared a moratorium 10 years ago in order to join the Council of Europe.  Member counties are not permitted to execute criminals and must actively move towards abolition.

Participate in our Online Action to speak out against the execution of Willie Brown who is scheduled to be executed in North Carolina on April 21st for the 1983 murder of Vallerie Roberson Dixon.  He has a history of significant mental illness, had inadequate legal counsel, and the jury in his case was given instructions later found to be unconstitutional. For more information on the case and to participate in the action, click here!

Are you going to be in Raleigh, North Carolina on Thursday, April 20th?  There will be a vigil for Willie Brown starting at 9 P.M. and going until he is either executed (scheduled for 2 A.M. April 21st)  or stayed.  The vigil will be held outside Central Prison, 1300 Western Boulevard in Raleigh.

The Council of Europe responded to yesterday's decision to consider Zacarias Moussaoui, the so-called '20th hijacker' from 9/11, for the death penalty.  Moussaoui was in custody at the time of the hijackings.  The Secretary General of the Council of Europe had the following things to say:

"The obsession with the death penalty as the only way to give justice to the victims of terrorism is as sad as it is wrong," said Terry Davis in reaction to the federal jury decision on Moussaoui's eligibility for the capital punishment.

"You do not honour the memory of the victims by spilling more blood.  Moreover, in the context of the fight against terrorism, the death penalty is not only wrong, it is counterproductive.  A trial which offers a platform to the ramblings of a delusional extremist and ends by gratifying him with the instant status of martyrdom in the eyes of his fellow fanatics is missing an opportunity - and missing the point," concluded the Secretary General.

The Council of Europe's purpose since its creation in 1949 is to promote human rights, democracy, and law in Europe.

Willie Brown, aged 61, is scheduled to be executed on April 21st.  He was sentenced for the 1983 fatal shooting of Vallerie Ann Roberson Dixon during a robbery.  Brown reportedly has a documented history of mental illness, about which the jurors who sentenced him were unaware.

Brown's current attorneys have described how he received poor legal prepresentation at trial from attorneys who had never worked on a death penalty case before, who failed to present important mitigating evidence to the jury, or to contact family members and friends who were willing to testify on his behalf.  This included Brown's documented history of serious mental illness, and the fact that he had been beaten by his father as a child.  State records reportedly reveal that before the crime Brown had been diagnosed several times with mental illness including paranoid and delusional disorders, for which he never received any treatment.

The jury at Brown's trial was instructed that they had to agree unanimously on any mitigating circumstances they were to find.  Presented with several mitigating circumstances, though not the information concerning his record of mental illenss or that he had been beaten as a child by his father, they found non.  In 1988, The US Supreme Court reversed a death sentence in Maryland on the grounds that the sentencing jury had been bound by a similar instruction; in 1990 it rules, in another death penalty case, that North Carolina's jury unanimity requirement was unconstitutional.  Following these rulings, Brown tried to raise the issue in appeals in his case, but was unsuccessful.  Since then, other prisoners on death row in North Carolina have reportedly had their death sentences reversed after appeals based on these Supreme Court rulings.  According to his present attorneys, Brown is the only prisoner under sentence of death in North Carolina to face execution despite the fact that his jury received instructions that were later found unconstitutional.

Please send appeals to Governor Mike Easley, expressing your sympathy for the victim but respectfully asking him to commute Willie Brown's sentence for the above reasons.  Mail, fax, or email appeals to

Governor Michael F. Easley

Office of the Governor

20301 Mail Service Center

Raleigh, NC 27699-0301

Fax: 1 919 733 2120

Email through his website: http://www.governor.state.nc.us/email.asp?to=1

 

Amnesty International believes that three Sri Lankans "could be executed at any time" in Saudi Arabia.  The three men, E.J Victor Corea, D.D. Ranjith Silva and Sanath Pushpakumara, were found guilty of armed robbery, a crime which can carry the death penalty in Saudi Arabia.  They can be executed once the King ratifies the sentences, a move that is expected any day.

Amnesty International has expressed concern on numerous occasions about Saudi Arabia's execution record, which includes the execution of juveniles and poor legal representation in court. 

California Assembly members Paul Koretz and Sally Lieber  have introduced a moratoium bill which would halt executions until 2008.  Unlike the bill earlier this year that died in the Appropriations Committee, this new legislation will call for a referendum, allowing the voters the final word on the moratorium.  Koretz hopes that this will allow for Democrats in the assembly to vote in favor of the bill without risking their re-election bids.  

From the Mercury News:

Lieber says the bill's supporters have a "moral responsibility" to try, saying that six inmates who were on death row were later exonerated.

"I don't think there's a question that an innocent person could be put to death in California," she said. "I think we have a moral responsibility to take a brief timeout and look at these questions."

If voters approved the moratorium, it would remain in place until the Legislature had considered the recommendations of the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice and passed legislation restoring executions.

The bill will go before the Assembly Public Safety Committee on Tuesday.  California currently has 648 people on death row, but executions have been on hold since February awaiting a ruling on whether lethal injection constitutes "cruel and unusual punishment."  For more see Death penalty moratorium supports again try to block executions.