Death Penalty

from the diaries of the tennessee dude...

as a follow-up to our post regarding maryland's laissaz faire approach to state killing the court's have ruled...

a circuit court judge refused tuesday to strike the state's notice of intent to seek the death penalty for a state prison inmate charged with murdering a correctional officer...howard county circuit judge dennis sweeney ruled that the de facto moratorium on executions established by a december maryland court of appeals decision doesn't preclude prosecutors from pursuing the death penalty...

Jury selection is set to begin today for the trial of inmate brandon morris faces the possibility of the death penalty if he's convicted of first-degree murder in the slaying of jeffery wroten...amnesty international's entire membership of nearly 2 million people worldwide express their deepest sympathy for the tragic loss experienced by wroten's family, friends, and peers...

morris' lawyers tried to get the judge to strike the state's notice of intent to seek the death penalty because maryland has no defined procedure for executions...but that request was denied.

morris is accused of shooting wroten with the officer's gun in january 2006 while wroten was guarding morris' room at washington county hospital...morris' trial was moved from washington county to howard county...

with no execution protocol in place perhaps morris if convicted and sentenced to die may face drawing and quartering, beheading, or simply be shipped to an animal slaughterhouse...after all, that's what the death penalty is all about - dehumanizing a subset of people, degrading them, and determining that they can be exterminated like vermin...or a quarter pounder with cheese...

peace out <3

from the diaries of the tennessee dude...

i've a busy day learning more about dismantling racism at the systemic level today so i'm asking you to leave your thoughts and comments on the following op-ed piece posted originally at the university of pittsburgh school of law web site...former director sessions joins the call of members of the constitution project in calling for substantive reform of how America tries and sentences suspects in capital cases...

yesterday i posted about how we encourage thoughtful policy discussion on this site and i think that sessions' piece falls under that rubric but more importantly what do you think???

peace out <3

New York Governor Eliot Spitzer recently made headlines by announcing a plan to expand New York's DNA database to include genetic samples from those convicted of all felonies and most misdemeanors. The Governor's proposal - which would immediately increase the size of New York's database by at least twenty percent - would also require that samples be taken from all New Yorkers in prison, on probation or parole, or registered as sex offenders. A significant provision of the proposal would greatly expand the ability of inmates to obtain DNA testing that might prove their innocence. The Ohio Supreme Court addressed a similar issue this April when it struck down part of a state law that gave prosecutors control over which inmates were given DNA tests.

Governor Spitzer's proposal and the Ohio Supreme Court's decision should both be welcomed as necessary and overdue efforts to protect public safety while pursuing meaningful justice.

When I became Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1987, few in the criminal justice system knew much about DNA, and nobody fully understood how it would revolutionize our work. Shortly after I became Director the FBI established a DNA laboratory we hoped could be used to verify that a suspect had indeed committed a crime. During my years as a U.S. Attorney and federal judge in Texas I had seen rapists and murderers walk free for lack of biological evidence; these were the cases I had in mind when we established the laboratory in Washington, D.C.

One such case, half a country away from my Texas office, haunted even the most hardened prosecutors. In the summer of 1973 Kathleen Ham was brutally raped at knifepoint in her Manhattan apartment. When a jury failed to convict her alleged attacker, her life was put on hold and her sense of justice forever diluted. At the FBI we hoped that DNA matching technology would allow us to solve cases like Ms. Ham's and bring some justice to victims whose attackers were tried but never convicted.

By October 1988 the FBI's DNA lab had completed an analysis of biological evidence in 100 active cases. My colleagues and I anticipated that this federal initiative would enable local prosecutors to address questions that had previously been left unanswered. We were right, but not entirely in the manner we expected.

The results of those first 100 tests astonished me. In thirty percent of cases the DNA gathered during the investigation did not match the DNA of the suspect. In three out of ten cases not only did we have the wrong person, but the guilty person was still at large. In capital cases the stakes were unnervingly high: the prospect of executing an innocent person was only slightly more appalling than the prospect of murderers and rapists walking free, unidentified and dangerous.

The statistics today are roughly the same as they were 19 years ago. In approximately 25 percent of cases the genetic evidence recovered during an investigation does not match the DNA of the suspect. Oftentimes this discrepancy is discovered before irreparable harm is done to either the investigation or the suspect; however, too often we learn of our mistake only after time, money, and sometimes lives have been wasted on empty pursuits.

DNA evidence has supported more than 30,000 prosecutions and has led to more than 200 exonerations, including those of fifteen death row inmates. This last group, Americans sentenced to die for crimes they did not commit, stands to gain the most from greater access to DNA evidence. Though most prosecutors are dedicated to the pursuit of justice, for years too many have hidden existing DNA evidence or denied reasonable requests for genetic testing. Granting death row inmates access to DNA testing should be only one of many steps taken to confirm the guilt of suspects of capital crimes; the finality of the death penalty demands that our dedication to honest justice be absolute.

Governor Spitzer's plan and the Ohio Supreme Court's decision, both of which will allow more suspects and prisoners to obtain these genetic comparisons, should be welcomed by supporters and opponents of the death penalty alike. When more juries are able to consider genetic evidence that a suspect committed a crime, our neighborhoods will be safer places to live. When the wrongfully convicted are given every opportunity to exonerate themselves, our neighborhoods will be better and safer places to live.

Some have objected to Governor Spitzer's plan and ones like it on the grounds that the storage and management of sensitive genetic information is too cumbersome a task to ensure the protection of an individual's personal information. Others have rightly taken issue with Governor Spitzer's proposed one-year limitation on challenges to convictions, except those based on newly-discovered evidence such as DNA.

These concerns should not be used to arrest real progress. They should, however, be addressed as states continue to improve public safety and allow the wrongly convicted to exonerate themselves. To enable the pursuit of justice, we must work to craft legislation that will protect sensitive genetic information and give all prisoners' the right to challenge their convictions.

I applaud both the New York proposal and the Ohio Supreme Court decision regarding DNA testing. However, much remains to be done to improve our country's criminal justice system, especially in capital cases. Reviews of state capital punishment systems have been ordered from the bench and governors' mansions around the country, and with good reason. I encourage state legislators considering systemic reforms to consider the recommendations of the Constitution Project's Death Penalty Committee, a bipartisan coalition of policy experts, legal scholars, and former government officials. The Committee includes opponents and supporters of capital punishment, and I have joined them in calling for substantive reform of how America tries and sentences suspects in capital cases. The delivery of justice also requires competent, well-trained, well-resourced lawyers for defendants in death penalty cases while simultaneously reserving capital punishment for only the most heinous of crimes.

It took more than thirty years for justice to be done in Kathleen Ham's case. The same man the jury had failed to convict in 1973 was identified - in 2005 - by a persistent New York prosecutor who matched genetic material gathered during the original investigation to a sample in the FBI's national database. But for every story like Kathleen Ham's there is a story like Clarence Elkins'. Last year, Elkins, who served six years in an Ohio prison, was exonerated after DNA analysis - testing he was denied in 2002 - revealed another man had committed the murder for which he was convicted.

These stories and other like them should serve as potent reminders that justice and safety are mutually reinforcing. Only by pursuing justice to all ends will justice ultimately be served.

William S. Sessions is a partner at the Washington law firm of Holland & Knight LLP and a member of the Constitution Project's Death Penalty Committee. Sessions previously served as the United States Attorney for the Western District of Texas and as Chief Judge of the United States District Court for that district. He later served as Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation under Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Bill Clinton.

from the diaries of the tennessee dude...

okay, so from time to time we get comments from people so venomous that a taipan or black mamba would fear for its life and if i see the comment i'll delete it because this site is dedicated to reasonable discourse not the venting of uncontrolled prepubescent, pusillanimous sophistry...

nonetheless i've found that in the process of informing i can give something to our pitiable brothers and sisters who find it difficult to communicate in something other than a cadence of cacophonous clatter...while they might nod and throw a wild celebration with this news i think most of us will shake our heads in disbelief...

the associated press reports that indonesia's supreme court sentenced nine men, including chinese, french and dutch nationals, to death tuesday for producing millions of pills of the illegal recreational drug ecstacy (methylenedioxymethamphetamine)...that should be enough to drive a wedge between conservative libertarians and their right-wing, neocon, nut-job brethren...

get this - indonesian supreme court spokesperson djoko sarwoko told the associated press:

"If we let them be, they would be able to produce in another place, or teach others their skills. This is a threat to the next generation."

while ecstasy is considered to be a recreational drug in most western countries there appears to be no such concept in this predominantly muslim and socially conservative nation of more than 234 million people...capital punishment is common for serious drug offenders in indonesia...at the end of 2006, there were 37 foreigners on death row, most of them on drug charges, including six australians convicted of heroin smuggling - perhaps they would have been better off getting caught smuggling taipans into indonesia...

you can read the ap story here and learn more about human rights violations in indonesia here...

peace out <3

Legislators listen to polls, so make your voice heard!  There are currently two death penalty polls posted online, so take a stand and vote!

The Atlantic City Press has posted a poll asking whether New Jersey's death penalty should be abolished (located on the right side of the screen, towards the bottom).  Keep in mind that the Senate Judiciary Committee in New Jersey just approved legislation to abolish the state's death penalty and replace it with life in prison without the possibility of parole.  The legislation must now be passed by the full senate, so please weigh in on this one!

A second poll asks readers if the law should allow child rapists to be executed even if the child survives.  You can click here to vote.  This poll comes at an important time, as the Louisiana Supreme Court on May 22nd ruled that a man may be executed for raping an 8-year-old girl.  Similarly, in Texas, legislation awaiting the governor's approval will allow for the death penalty for second offense child rape cases.  As terrible as rape is, especially when committed against a child, do we really want to expand the death penalty to include those who have committed no murder?  The U.S. Supreme Court may be weighing in on this question soon, but it is important that we make our voices heard as well.

- From the PADP in D.C.

from the diaries of the tennessee dude...

in california, a federal judge ruled last year that the state's lethal injection protocol violated the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment..

florida suspended executions late last year after it took 34 minutes for an inmate to die, and ohio re-examined its procedures after it took 90 minutes to put an inmate to death last may (only to have that time period exceeded this month during its latest botched execution)...

in tennessee a lawsuit showed the written protocols as a hodgepodge of confusing instructions that governor bredesen described as "a cut and paste job,"...tennessee then narrowly reviewed the step-by-step instructions for carrying out death sentences before executing philip workman three weeks ago...

tennessee and most of the 36 other states that use lethal injection have a 3-drug regimen that has been criticized and led to de facto moratoriums in about a third of those states as the issue of protocols is reviewed in various ways...

now here comes maryland, a state that came within a vote of moving death penalty abolition legislation forward this year, seeking the death penalty in the trial of brandon morris, charged in the death of a state correctional officer last year...but a judge is currently weighing whether it is unconstitutional for prosecutors to pursue the death penalty given that maryland does not have an approved execution procedure in place...

let's repeat that - maryland does not have an approved execution procedure in place...the issue at hand according to morris's attorney???

"It's unconstitutional to have someone proceed to a death penalty hearing when there's no way to carry it out...It's one of the elemental properties of due process that the defendant has the right to know what's the worst that can happen."

it seems to me that you have to be pretty blood thirsty to seek to kill someone in some unknown way in the future especially in a state that appears so close to ending the practice altogether anyway...what kind of hoser would waste taxpayer $$$ in that way???

i'm just sayin'...

peace out <3

from the diaries of the tennessee dude...

i love the name tommy turnquest - it's so b-grade hollywood don't you think???

but i do not like one whit what mr. turnquest approves of - a return to the use of hangings....

it was just march a year ago that amnesty international hailed the decision by the judicial committee of the privy council (jcpc) to abolish the mandatory death sentence for those convicted of murder in the bahamas...and it was just yesterday that amnesty international representative in the bahamas, r.e. barnes, expressed disappointment that minister of national security and immigration tommy turnquest has publicly intimated that hangings could resume in the country...

turnquest told the bahama journal that he is a supporter of capital punishment and that the government was concerned about the high murder rate and a deterrent to crime will have to be enforced...

ahhhhhhhhhhh, the deterrence scam - let me express the reality once again - no credible study has ever demonstrated that capital punishment has any greater deterrent effect than other available sentences which hold violent offenders accountable for their actions and protect society from future acts of harm until such time, if ever, that the individual no longer poses a threat to society...or as r.e. barnes told the bahama journal,

"We will be disappointed if hangings resume because we do not see that as a progressive step. We firmly believe that the death penalty is not an efficient means of deterring crime. It has been proven time and time scientifically."

amnesty international also raised concerns about prosecutors pushing for criminals to be flogged...mr. barnes said any type of flogging - whether by the cat-o-nine-tail or a switch - is still excessive punishment...

"Flogging is torture and torture is cruel and unusual punishment in any form, whether it is by a rod or cat-o-nine tail. What people need to understand is that when you are sending someone to jail for a crime that's the punishment; their freedom is taken away; that is massive punishment to be locked in a cell for 20 plus years."

i think i'd like to meet this mr. barnes some day - he seems quite the responsible and well versed individual, oh so much more than this tommy turnquest chap...he went on to talk about human rights issues in the bahamas as covered by the new amnesty international annual report...for a printable version of the report click here...

kudos to mr. barnes...

peace out <3

from the diaries of the tennessee dude...courtesy of the boston globe...

the death penalty continues to be a bone of contention, especially between the united states and europe...while it has been abolished in most of the world's advanced democracies, the united states is near the top of the list in terms of executions worldwide...how many executions were carried out in the united states in 2006?

a. 1,010 b. 177 c. 82 d. 53

d. 53 is correct.

the united states carried out 53 executions in 2006 the sixth-highest number worldwide, just ahead of saudi arabia's 39...the executions were carried out in 12 u.s. states...

the other democracies in the world that still impose the death penalty are japan, india, south korea, and taiwan...while japan carried out four executions in 2006, the other three carried out none that year...in 129 countries, the death penalty has been abolished or not carried out in the last 10 years...

in 2006, 1,010 executions took place in china, according to estimates from amnesty international, but the figure may be higher because of state secrecy...

just thought you should know...

peace out <3

from the diaries of the tennessee dude...

libyan authorities decided today to delay the execution of 10 egyptians convicted of murder pending the results of negotiations with the families of the victims, newspapers report...libyan law allows the lifting of a death sentence only if the family of the victim accepts compensation or pardons the murder convict...according to sources from both the egyptian embassy in tripoli and the egyptian foreign mnistry, this is what the egyptians are trying to secure...

the families of most of the victims have repeatedly refused to forgive the killers or accept compensation, in some cases because the bodies were mutilated...

senior consular official gamal al-dairouti told the middle east news agency that the embassy is making efforts to convince the families of the victims to accept monetary restitution...the decision to postpone the verdict came after egyptian foreign affairs minister ahmed abul-gheit sent a message to his libyan counterpart asking for a deferment of the executions, which were scheduled to be carried out today...the sentences date from 1994 to 2003...

peace out <3

from the diaries of the tennessee dude...

louisiana's supreme court has ruled that a man may be executed for raping an 8-year-old girl...lawyers say his case may become the test for whether the u.s.'s highest court upholds the death penalty for someone who rapes a child...both prosecutors and defense attorneys say the sentence for patrick kennedy could expand a 1977 u.s. supreme court ruling that held the death penalty for rape violated the eighth amendment protection against cruel and unusual punishment...louisiana's high court said then that its ruling applied only to adult victims...

jelpi picou, director of the new orleans-based capital appeals project, said he would ask the louisiana supreme court for a rehearing, and if rejected, would go to the u.s. supreme court...picou acknowledged both the gravity of the crime but the inappropriateness of expanding capital punishment which has proven to be a notoriously inaccurate sentence...

"As horrid as [rape] is and as harshly as we believe it should be condemned, death is inappropriate in this case,...He's the only person in the United States on death row for non-homicide rape,"...

in fact the death sentence is the first in the united states for any crime other than murder since 1977, when the united states supreme court held in Coker v. Georgia, 433 U.S. 584 (1977), that death is an excessive punishment for rape...no person has been executed in America for a non-homicide offense since 1964...

between 1908 and 1962, all those executed for rape were black, although only 55 percent of those imprisoned for rape were black..between 1930 and 1972, 455 men were executed for rape in united states, all but two in the south...of them, 405, or 90 percent, were black...louisiana has never executed a white man for rape...

patrick kennedy is african-american...

kennedy was convicted in 2003 of raping a relative as she sorted girl scout biscuits in the garage of her home in suburban new orleans...being an idiot as well as a child rapist kennedy bragged to one man that the girl "became a lady today", according to deputies...his defense attorney at the time argued that blood testing was inconclusive and that the victim - who didn't report that kennedy was her rapist until 21 months later - was pressured to change her story...

however, kennedy and louisiana may not be alone for long...the governors of south carolina and oklahoma signed laws last year allowing the death penalty for people who repeatedly rape children...while there can be few non-murder crimes as heinous as raping a child any expansion of he death penalty would be a step backwards...this is an appeal to follow to be sure...

peace out <3

from the diaries of the tennessee dude...

sin city actress jaime king will star as the only woman to be executed by the electric chair in louisiana...

the 28-year-old star plays toni jo henry in the independent drama the pardon, which is based on true events...henry was executed at the age of 26 in 1942 for the murder of joseph calloway on valentine's day in 1940...king stars alongside sex and the city actor jason lewis, who plays henry's husband claude 'cowboy' henry...the movie has already started shooting in shreveport, louisiana...

king has recently wrapped filming on two more projects set for 2008...she will first be seen in fanboys, a film which centers on the journey of four friends to honor their pal's dying wish to watch star wars: episode I - the phantom menace at george lucas' skywalker ranch...she also appears in horror film the wait, which sees a couple return to the u.s. for a family funeral while their son remains in china and is possessed by an evil spirit...she is also set to reprise her role as goldie in sin city 2...

peace and hollywood out <3
 

from the diaries of the tennessee dude...

oddly it's not the specific case or the court's outcome that evokes such cantankerous consternation among people who want to believe in this ephemeral thing we identify as "justice"...no, it's the way these dadgum decisions emerge...yes - i can only be talking about the 6th circuit court of appeals that handles cases from michigan, ohio, kentucky, and tennessee...

on thursday they ruled that police may question a suspect who previously declined to talk without a lawyer if investigators learn through a third party that the suspect is willing...in this case robert van hook was being questioned by police about the murder of a man he met in a bar (van hook never denied killing the man) when he invoked his right to an attorney...at which point all interrogation is supposed to stop until the defendant speaks with counsel...but van hook's mother intervened in the interim and got him to talk again - this time offering a graphic confession...

now i'm inclined to believe that the right to an attorney is sacrosanct but i'm not on the 6th circuit so it matters little in this case...the 6th circuit however voted, as is becoming their tradition in death penalty appeal, 8-7 along party lines to reinstate his conviction earlier thrown out by a 3 judge panel of - the 6th circuit court of appeals...

"along party lines" you ask??? - this is not a legislative body and politics does not matter in the judiciary you opine...but you'd be wrong and in a death penalty case someone may be dead wrong...if the judges assigned to a case were appointed by democratic presidents, odds are good they will overturn a death sentence because of new evidence or mistakes made during the trial...if the judges were appointed by republicans, the chances are slim...just ask paul gregory house if evidence of innocence, including dna, matters under these circumstances...

as to the 6th circuit consider these facts:

judges appointed by republican presidents voted to deny inmate appeals 85 percent of the time

judges appointed by democrats voted to grant at least some portion of those appeals 75 percent of the time

republican appointees dissented from majority opinions 25 times, always arguing against the inmate...democratic appointees dissented 29 times, all but once arguing for the inmate...

according to dick dieter of the death penalty information center,

"That is very stark...It makes blind justice look like part of the political system."

damn right...and it's a crying shame that right here in the heart of middle america we have one more example of the arbitrary nature of the death penalty and how we view life and death as just one more gaming table at a vegas style casino...only i shouldn't have to describe a federal circuit court of appeals that way...

for a great story on the 6th circuit click here...but don't eat a full southern style breakfast before you read it - you're likely to have a huge mess to clean up while you're looking for something to settle your stomach...

peace out <3

from the diaries of the tennessee dude...

it is not without significance that the north carolina house of representatives passed the nc racial justice act and the proportionality review bill yesterday...north carolina came very close to passing moratorium and study legislation three years ago (it passed in one body and was narrowly defeated in the other)...nc has been the model for disciplined organizing against the death penalty here in the death belt of the former confederate states and it is a really positive step to see that effort has sustained itself and now passed substantive legislation in its house...

the racial justice act would permit defendants right to argue before trial that race was a significant factor in other prosecutorial decisions to seek the death penalty...post-trial defendants could present evidence that race influenced decisions to exercise peremptory challenges during jury selection...the latter tactic reveals the unethical (read: slimy) nature of some prosecutors who tap into (and therefore perpetuate) socio-institutional racism for what in the end can only be seen as their own personal benefit...this tactic has been instrumental in building juries more likely to hand out death sentences...just review the history of prosecutions in dallas texas for the state of the art example of bigoted prosecutors utilizing racist institutional rules to make a a mockery of the land of the free and the home of the brave...the most significant component of the legislation is that it would be applied retroactively if it becomes law...the winston-salem journal has a solid article that lays out the dynamics behind the legislation...

meanwhile the death penalty is supposed to be reserved for the most culpable defendants who commit the worst crimes...former north carolina supreme court chief justice burley b. mitchell, jr., a supporter of the death penalty, said that being sentenced to death is "like being picked in a lottery...it's totally arbitrary,"...in an attempt to limit that arbitrariness, under existing law, after a person has been sentenced to death, the north carolina supreme court must consider whether "the sentence of death is excessive or disproportionate to the penalty imposed in similar cases,"...

however, the way the north carolina supreme court actually conducts this review eliminates the majority of "similar cases" from consideration. ..the court ignores the 97% of homicide cases that do not result in death sentences. ..by looking at such a narrow slice of the picture, the court's perception of how one case relates to another is skewed...the court relies on the same cases again and again, including some cases in which the death penalty has been overturned...in the past 28 years, over 400 death sentences have come before the supreme court. ..only eight were found to be disproportionate. ..since 2002, the court hasn't overturned a single death sentence based on its proportionality review...

the proportionality review law passed by the nc house would require the north carolina supreme court to consider both cases that resulted in death sentences and death-eligible cases that resulted in life sentences...this bill would help to make certain that capital punishment is administered fairly...

i can't close this blog with giving a shout out to representative larry womble (d - winston-salem) sponsor of the racial justice act and rick glazier (d - fayetteville) sponsor of the proportionality review act...S-A-L-U-T-E!!!

peace out <3 

from the diaries of the tennessee dude...

iran focus is a non-profit news service provider that focuses on events in iran, iraq and the middle east...they have a network of specialists and analysts of the region and correspondents and reporters in several countries and are therefore able to provide fast and reliable news and analysis on the political, social and economic situation in the region...

yesterday iran focus cited amnesty international's 2007 annual report in a piece entitled amnesty says stonings, execution of minors continue in iran...here's the piece they posted...

peace out <3

Two people were stoned to death in Iran and sentences of flogging, amputation and eye-gouging continued to be passed, the human rights group Amnesty International said on Wednesday.

In Iran "the human rights situation deteriorated, with civil society facing increasing restrictions on fundamental freedoms of expression and association", Amnesty International said in its 2007 annual report.

"Two people were reportedly stoned to death. Sentences of flogging, amputation and eye-gouging continued to be passed", the report said.

"At least 177 people were executed, at least four of whom were under 18 at the time of the alleged offence, including one who was under 18 at the time of execution. ... The true numbers of those executed or subjected to corporal punishment were probably considerably higher than those reported.

"Scores of political prisoners, including prisoners of conscience, continued to serve prison sentences imposed following unfair trials in previous years. Thousands more arrests were made in 2006, mostly during or following demonstrations. Human rights defenders, including journalists, students and lawyers, were among those detained arbitrarily without access to family or legal representation.

"Torture, especially during periods of pre-trial detention, remained commonplace", the report added.

from the diaries of the tennessee dude...

ohio prison staffers had trouble executing a killer because they can't find a vein...christopher newton was scheduled to die at ten o'clock this morning but medical staff took 20 minutes to insert a shunt in the left arm, and another half-hour on the right...this took place with newton in a holding cell and not the execution chamber...he was finally pronounced dead at 11:53 am, nearly 2 hours after the beginning of the process...

prison medical staff struggled to find veins on each newton's rather beefy arm...the execution team stuck him at least 10 times with needles to get in place the shunts where the needles are injected...the next-longest delay of an ohio execution was last may when joseph clark died 90 minutes after his scheduled execution time...that time prison staff had problems tapping a vein in the longtime-intravenous drug user's arm...execution by lethal injection typically takes about 20 minutes...

several ohio inmates are suing over the state's injection method, claiming it is unconstitutionally cruel...problems with injections have caused delays
in other states, including one in florida in december when an inmate needed a second dose of deadly chemicals, which prompted than gov. jeb bush to suspend all executions in the state as a commission examines its lethal injection process...bush has since left office and presumably can cash a paycheck that didn't require him to kill anyone in order to receive...

according to richard dieter director of the death penalty information center newton's delay was exceptionally long and raises new questions about lethal
injection,

"This adds to the concern that lethal injections are too risky and unpredictable, at least under the present protocols...It's not the swift and sort of painless death lethal injection was advertised to be."

clearly aclu staff attorney carrie davis was traumatized by what happened to newton...in a statement issued in the aftermath of the macabre and bizarrely executed sentence davis said,

"What is clear from today's botched execution is that the State doesn't know how to execute people without torturing them to death...Clearly our execution procedures, even though revised after last year's botched execution of Joseph Clark, still do not guarantee an execution is humane...There continue to be serious problems with Ohio's death penalty procedures that demand an immediate halt to executions so that a thorough study of the death penalty system may be conducted."

the image i have in my mind after reading about newton's botched execution is one of newton as a piñata while blindfolded correctional children desperately swing a baseball bat with a needle nailed through it at his swinging body...understand, its just a horrible image, but even before they took nearly an hour just to get shunts in both of his arms the attorney general and the governor had to be aware that at least one study concludes that "potentially aware inmates could suffer chemical asphyxiation"...

peace out on that ya'll <3

from the diaries of the tennessee dude...

thomas d. arthur filed a federal lawsuit in mobile challenging alabama's lethal injection procedures...there's nothing unusual in this given the past year of challenges that has seen a dozen states halt executions while their execution protocols are reviewed...alabama changed its execution method from the electric chair to lethal injection in 2002...,the suit filed last week alleges that lethal injection violates the constitution's ban on "cruel and unusual" punishment...

i for one have noticed something troubling emerging from the collective attorney's general responses to these lawsuits - a disdain for the constitution of the united states...one of arthur's lawyers, suhana han, narrowly put it this way:

"I don't understand why the state of Alabama would criticize us for ensuring that the method (of execution) Alabama chooses is constitutional,"

i agree but i think this attitude, particularly noticeable here in the deep south, goes well beyond this issue...it strikes me that a part of the language of the radical right is to dismiss the protections afforded people in this country by the constitution generally and the bill of rights specifically...however, refocusing on this issue i see the comments of people time and time again that they don't care if a condemned person suffers when they're executed, and in fact, it is often stated that they should suffer horribly and that still isn't enough to satisfy them...the constitution clearly prohibits cruel and unusual punishment and those americans who would intentionally inflict pain on people who are executed are sadists who are no different than a saddam hussein or an interrogator trained at the school of the americas...

but i digress - the second issue in arthur's court challenge is that his prosecution was flawed...according to the alabama press register:

The victim's wife, Judy Wicker, originally was convicted of the murder. Later, she changed her story, agreeing to testify against Arthur. She won parole after testifying that she paid Arthur to kill her husband. The prosecutor, Gary Alverson, previously had represented her before the parole board.

arthur's lawsuit contends physical evidence did not support -- and in some cases contradicted -- the allegations...and that arthur's previous lawyer failed to conduct minimal investigation on his client's behalf and failed to locate two alibi witnesses....and that dna testing never has been conducted in the case...

but here's the kicker - appeals courts have rejected arthur's previous claims on grounds that he waited too long to file them...

this is just what i wrote about in form trumps content in death penalty cases...in which i stated,

the courts may well be faced with deciding, for themselves, whether or not they should hold an evidentiary hearing, or any other motion brought before them but they are generally only obligated to consider the "fairness" of the proceedings, not whether or not something exculpatory, something significant in the way of evidence was missing from the trial and could have changed the outcome of either the trial or the sentencing hearing...and the safety net for this process has generally been habeas (federal) appeals...that has, i feel certain, shifted in the other direction since the passage of the anti-terrorism  and effective death penalty act (aedpa) of 1996...and there are strong efforts afoot, most potently by a small group of prosecutors, to further erode habeas rights already damaged by the usa patriot act...

you see, arthur has sought dna tests for years and that he did not file claims earlier because he never received notice of the certificate of judgment triggering the limitations period...

i am concerned about the intentional inflicted pain that someone may receive in the process of having multiple sets of poisons sent coursing through their arteries but in all fairness that battle lives in the domain of lawyers, you know, the lawyers about whom jokes do not apply...however, as an organizer (and even as an activist) i am more deeply concerned about the issue of justice, especially with a human beings life on the line, being trumped by an artificial timeline that particularly discriminates against those who are poor and can not afford a talented and resource backed trial attorney...

so please, as you consider the legal challenge put forth by thomas d. arthur in alabama let's place our focus on the latter issue...our educational efforts aimed as they are towards thoughtful and moderate individuals (not to those on the radical right) can be persuasive in linking the issue of form trumping substance, especially insofar as it paves the way for the system to execute innocent persons...

peace out <3

from the diaries of the tennessee dude...

it appears to have been staved off - again...of all places wcax tv in vermont reports that senate republican efforts to reinstate the death penalty in new york, albeit narrowly for those who kill law enforcement officers, has failed...on monday quoting the associated press they report:

"Legislative leaders found potential compromises on gun bills today, but no life for a death penalty."

it seems that legislators from both sides of the aisle have engaged in public negotiations over gun control legislation but the death penalty bill supported by senate leader bruno, a republican, is dead...the assembly's democratic majority, citing the irreversibility of errors and the deterrence of life without parole, apparently will continue to keep the death penalty from even getting a floor vote...

interestingly house leader silver has reshaped his position on the issue due to pressure from rank and file democratic assemblypersons...silver did not oppose the death penalty when the original strategy to stave off reinstatement emerged but was forced to accede to the majority opinion within the democratic caucus...and now the pragmatic mr. silver publicly challenges his senate counterpart:

"After 12 years on the books, (and) spending hundreds of millions of dollars in order to keep it on the books, I have found there has been no execution under it for the 12 years and I think it's time to focus someplace else,"...

new york offers some wonderful lessons for the movement to end this pathetic but emotionally comprehensible public policy response to murder...for risk averse politicians to beat back the flamboyant rhetoric of pro-death penalty politicians tells this dude that something strategically sound has been built in the empire state...

peace out <3

from the diaries of the tennessee dude...

prosecutors - and i do not know any personally - must have an interestingly ambiguous existence at the edge of the ethical universe...those who seek the death penalty in murder cases with "aggravating" circumstances - personally and at a minimum i find all murders aggravating - must at some point in their own lives seek and ask for mercy...

i think of this as i am reading adam liptak's piece in the international herald tribune...he conveys a scene in the sentencing phase of juan luna's trial...luna was convicted of the brutal and terrifying killings of seven people at a fast-food restaurant in 1993...regarding the closing argument of one of luna's defense lawyers he writes,

In his closing argument Thursday, one of Luna's lawyers, Clarence Burch, was yelling and stamping his feet. "This is serious," he shouted. "I'm pleading with you to consider mercy. Sometimes we can temper justice with mercy."

now every religion with which i have at least a passing familiarity speaks at some point to the value of mercy and while i strongly believe in the separation of "church" and state i also believe that jurors take on their civic responsibility while deeply embedded within their cultural lives which includes their religious background...so i don't think that clarence bunch's plea to the jury lacked either relevance or context...

and according to liptak there was more to this argument than a plea for mercy...but not much more...there was for example a request to consider the balance of luna's relatively unblemished life - "That was 40 minutes of his life," burch said of the massacre at brown's chicken restaurant in palatine, illinois. "He's been living for 33 years."...

but this appeal,according to liptak, angered prosecutor richard devine who told the jury,

"You don't get one bad day to do anything you want,"...

and personally i despise this argument because it is highly disingenuous and therefore in my mind extremely unethical...it implies that either we give someone - in this instance luna - a death sentence or we're going to let them walk free, not hold them accountable for their extreme violation of the "social contract", send them to disneyworld on a free pass...but nothing could be further from the truth...

when luna was sentenced to life without parole (lwop) he received a very harsh punishment...and more and more u.s. citizens are agreeing with that assessment...consistently in current polling support for lwop is no edging out support for the death penalty in head to head match-ups...liptak concisely describes this shift,

A significant majority of Americans support the death penalty in the abstract, as an idea. But checking a box in a public opinion survey is not the same as voting to send a particular man to his death. In the polls that count, the ones that follow testimony and tears, jurors are increasingly rejecting the death penalty.

and as we saw in the recent may 10th hearing before the new jersey senate judiciary committee hearing murder victim's family members are increasingly ambivalent regarding the death penalty...members of the victims' families were divided over what was fit punishment for luna...while some said only an execution would do, others said nothing worthwhile would come from another death...

the murder of any human being is a tragic event of profound proportions...as a society we have a duty to hold that perpetrator accountable for his or her destructive action and to protect ourselves from future acts of violence from those who have demonstrated their capacity to kill their fellow human beings...but also and perhaps prosecutors like devine could shake off the ethical dilemma that surrounds them like a dark shroud and act in a manner that most experts agree allows for the earliest possible healing of murder victim's family members...yes, act in a manner more divine...it is time for these prosecutors to demonstrate a little mercy and take action that can bring us back together as a community, help heal our rift while demonstrating our collective resolve in the wake of the shocking and anti-social act of murder...

the numbers don't lie, death sentences are down, and jurors are increasingly rejecting the death penalty...it's time for more prosecutors to join them...

peace out <3

from the diaries of the tennessee dude...

but does timing reveal something as ephemeral as good karma???

a few days before the monumental senate judiciary committee hearing on the bill that would replace the death penalty with life without parole it was revealed that a potential attack (referred to as an act of terror in the media) in new jersey had been scuttled with the arrest of several people...pro-death penalty legislators attempted to use this event as a way to frame death penalty abolitionists - including their legislative colleagues - as soft on serious crime...

this was not considered good timing at all by those who have worked so hard and so long in new jersey to get to this point in time...however, less than a week after a hearing dominated by death penalty opponents including several dozen murder victim's family members who oppose executions as a response to their deep loss came the news of bryan halsey walking free from a union county courthouse after dna evidence suggested it was not halsey but a plainfield neighbor who brutally killed two children...

halsey, who has been in prison since 1985, and would have been executed except that two jurors balked at sentencing him to death...in addition, even if the jury did sentence him to death, new jersey has not executed anyone since 1963, even though the death penalty is on the books...

halsey's release should be the nail in the coffin for capital punishment in new jersey...as for the timing, it's probably just a matter of random good fortune...hmmmmmmmm, or is it???

peace out <3