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Fort Lauderdale shooter faces death penalty but actual execution is unlikely

Fort Lauderdale shooter faces death penalty but actual execution is unlikely

Esteban Santiago Federal death penalty cases are exceedingly rare, but prosecutors are already exploring the possibility of seeking executio...

2:00 AM

Virginia: Federal judge declines to delay execution over drug controversy

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy4msNTBH5ch86442X1hdULbc8riaS_Wvputth-3rruWx3FCMQQ9-es0sF6Q2bK6pqrIfrrZh3M9t7c3jzJLNIsQOZCMQ7YbMrWfIQDjyY0-aFd7tbOl1OOtPrN2-QxfpDpr9N9YB_Wv8/s1600/Death+Penalty+News.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy4msNTBH5ch86442X1hdULbc8riaS_Wvputth-3rruWx3FCMQQ9-es0sF6Q2bK6pqrIfrrZh3M9t7c3jzJLNIsQOZCMQ7YbMrWfIQDjyY0-aFd7tbOl1OOtPrN2-QxfpDpr9N9YB_Wv8/s400/Death+Penalty+News.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A judge for the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on Tuesday declined to delay the execution of convicted killer Ricky Gray, which is scheduled to take place January 18. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Gray's attorneys argued in December that the drugs to be used during the execution were untested and potentially torturous. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Judge Henry Hudson concluded that "any discomfort experienced by Gray in the execution process is unlikely to cause serious pain or suffering." He also concluded that the possibility of pain was outweighed by the harm done if the execution was delayed. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Gray's attorney, Lisa Fried, stated that "it is unconstitutional ... to carry out an execution that risk chemically torturing a prisoner to death." No other state has used the mixture of drugs to be used at Gray's execution. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">His attorneys plan to appeal.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Capital punishment remains a controversial issue in the US and worldwide. Last Wednesday the Florida Supreme Court issued a 1-paragraph order informing judges and prosecutors that the state's death penalty procedure is unconstitutional, marking the 2nd such order in 3 months. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In October the US Supreme Court vacated the death sentence of an Oklahoma man convicted of killing his girlfriend and her 2 children in a case where the trial judge permitted family members to recommend the sentence to the jury. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In May a Miami judge ruled that Florida's revamped death penalty law is unconstitutional because it does not require a unanimous agreement among jurors to approve executions. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In April Virginia's General Assembly voted to keep secret the identities of suppliers of lethal injection drugs. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 2002 the Supreme Court held in Atkins v. Virginia that the Eighth Amendment's proscription on cruel and unusual punishment makes the execution of individuals with intellectual disability unconstitutional, which was considered in the Moore v. Texas case. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In November, Oklahoma became the 1st state to have the death penalty explicitly added to their state constitution as legal. According to a report by the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), only 5 out of 31 states that have the death penalty held executions in 2016.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: jurist.org, January 12, 2017</div><br /><div style="text-align: center;">⚑ | Report an error, an omission; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: <a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com">deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a>.</div><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="4" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px solid rgb(255, 204, 0); color: black; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr>   <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL4sspwgGptzvuHVklum5TwxKppRN-lIC5TN8RLZFq_B4ZOtBrX1ssXPNKQ6XpSyQFRJRtVQN45HMkpt3VX0JtOW0TovwxZAurG-AV6gh98IAXo7Ip6QlpkZr9WrM3_m943Mwy-gGxBAY/s1600/Find+us+Facebook.jpg" /></a></div></td>   <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiULIPEaT_P6oIauxAZd17XRRxljesDLS7iIjdQXT7Xct99uHeohx4IYmiAB6S044gTjMDGSy50sL2vDzOyPZ-3vJj9zwcYQ2rgzJh9v1-QDiunKAQtLLLqJ83s38qN3HABxGIC8GsIOD0/s1600/Find+us+twitter.jpg" /></a><span id="goog_1427852018"></span><span id="goog_1427852019"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a></div></td>  </tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><b>Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! <a href="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=JBVXEBZLP3WKW" target="_blank">DONATE!</a></b></div><form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post" target="_blank"><div style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/fr_FR/i/scr/pixel.gif" width="1" /></div></form><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div>

Virginia: Federal judge declines to delay execution over drug controversy

A judge for the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on Tuesday declined to delay the execution of convicted killer Ricky ...

3:04 AM

Orlando senator files bill to bring back death penalty

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidiqAIhF-SpqDKygL7KuCvlLKMfbmKl8mtpwRJbjgECCLr7I4pAM18jzub6nwXBwK2keiIkLFlwou9T3vw7kx6tHsfw0dQlIUT61Lb9OCF5eb-qD7MSsRQ5QXOLVfbj-fRR7m0g1ZkHFk/s1600/Death+Penalty+News+deathpenaltynews.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidiqAIhF-SpqDKygL7KuCvlLKMfbmKl8mtpwRJbjgECCLr7I4pAM18jzub6nwXBwK2keiIkLFlwou9T3vw7kx6tHsfw0dQlIUT61Lb9OCF5eb-qD7MSsRQ5QXOLVfbj-fRR7m0g1ZkHFk/s400/Death+Penalty+News+deathpenaltynews.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Hoping to reinstate the death penalty in Florida, a Democratic state senator from Orlando filed a bill Friday that would require juries to be unanimous in condemning a killer.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">If approved, the measure (SB 280) by Sen. Randolph Bracy could end delayed trials and confusion over a Florida Supreme Court ruling in October that struck down the state's capital punishment law.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Lawmakers last year tried to fix the death penalty law by requiring a 10-2 jury vote for death sentences, but the court's ruling said a 12-0 vote was needed. The Senate preferred a unanimous jury, but the House and state prosecutors wanted more leeway.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The Supreme Court has kind of set the direction that we need to go in, so I think there'll be more buy-in from the House," said Bracy, chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">No bill has been filed in the House yet, but House Judiciary Committee chairman Rep. Chris Sprowls, R-Palm Harbor, said his panel will hold hearings on the issue next week. He wants to look at the entire death penalty statute for possible changes, not just the unanimous jury provision.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"There's a pronged analysis that goes into every death penalty case," said Sprowls, a former prosecutor who has tried capital murder cases. "We're going to view each one of those independently and collaboratively and figure out the best scheme to serve Floridians."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Lawmakers say the issue is among their top priorities and that delays of murder trials are plaguing the courts. Senate President Joe Negron, R-Stuart, said about 200 cases are affected by the death penalty's status in limbo.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I think its paramount for the victims' families for cases to be fairly adjudicated without delay," Negron said. He added that he hopes for a Senate vote soon after the legislative session that begins March 7.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The issue stretches back to January 2016, when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Florida's death penalty law because it allowed a judge to issue a death sentence after taking into account a jury's recommendation. Under the old law, a 7-5 majority recommendation was enough to recommend death.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Except for Alabama and Florida, all of the 32 states with capital punishment require a unanimous vote for death. Florida was one of five states that executed a prisoner in 2016.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Legislature responded by passing the 10-2 jury vote law. That was then declared unconstitutional as well by the Florida Supreme Court's October ruling.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But even if lawmakers pass a new law this year, courts could be grappling with the fallout in the future. The court's October ruling didn't specify what should happen to ongoing capital murder cases or whether those on death row who weren't sentenced by a unanimous jury have grounds for an appeal of their sentence.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Bracy said he believes the Legislature should declare the unanimous jury provision to apply retroactively, but he hasn't included it in his bill. That would give every prisoner on death row sentenced to death by a split jury the grounds to appeal for a life sentence.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The state's highest court compounded the confusion this week when it issued an order telling prosecutors they couldn't seek the death penalty in ongoing murder trials, only to vacate the order hours later. A court spokesman later said the order was "prematurely issued."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The episode came a day after a judge for Brevard and Seminole counties empaneled a jury for the sentencing phase of a murder trial, thinking he could move forward by telling the jury a death sentence had to be unanimous.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Sprowls said the ambiguity of the law is causing "paralysis" in the trial courts. Judges are typically allowed to issue alternate jury instructions to comply with a court order that updates existing laws, he said, but it doesn't seem like the Florida Supreme Court will allow that to happen in this case.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I think that you have a court that is clearly demonstrating a systematic hostility towards the death penalty in general," Sprowls said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Gov. Rick Scott, who signed the death warrants and oversaw the executions of 23 prisoners since he took office in 2011 - the most of any governor since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, isn't pressing lawmakers for an answer to the situation.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A spokeswoman for Scott said his office is still reviewing the Florida Supreme Court ruling, but wouldn't say if he has a preference for how the law should be fixed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Meanwhile, the families of murder victims, the 384 prisoners on death row, prosecutors, defense attorneys and judges are waiting on a resolution. Groups that oppose the death penalty are also awaiting the outcome, but are pleased the courts are moving toward making it harder to get the death penalty.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It's also put a de facto moratorium on executions, as Scott hasn't signed a death warrant since the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling last year.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ingrid Delgado of the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops noted that Saturday marks one year since the last prisoner, Oscar Ray Bolin Jr., was executed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"This is another reminder that executions are not needed to keep society safe," Delgado said.</div><br />Source: Orlando Sentinel, January 7, 2017<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">⚑ | Report an error, an omission; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: <a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com">deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a>.</div><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="4" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px solid rgb(255, 204, 0); color: black; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr>   <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL4sspwgGptzvuHVklum5TwxKppRN-lIC5TN8RLZFq_B4ZOtBrX1ssXPNKQ6XpSyQFRJRtVQN45HMkpt3VX0JtOW0TovwxZAurG-AV6gh98IAXo7Ip6QlpkZr9WrM3_m943Mwy-gGxBAY/s1600/Find+us+Facebook.jpg" /></a></div></td>   <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiULIPEaT_P6oIauxAZd17XRRxljesDLS7iIjdQXT7Xct99uHeohx4IYmiAB6S044gTjMDGSy50sL2vDzOyPZ-3vJj9zwcYQ2rgzJh9v1-QDiunKAQtLLLqJ83s38qN3HABxGIC8GsIOD0/s1600/Find+us+twitter.jpg" /></a><span id="goog_1427852018"></span><span id="goog_1427852019"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a></div></td>  </tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><b>Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! <a href="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=JBVXEBZLP3WKW" target="_blank">DONATE!</a></b></div><form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post" target="_blank"><div style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/fr_FR/i/scr/pixel.gif" width="1" /></div></form><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div>

Orlando senator files bill to bring back death penalty

Hoping to reinstate the death penalty in Florida, a Democratic state senator from Orlando filed a bill Friday that would require juries to b...

3:47 AM

Florida airport shooting suspect will face charges that could bring the death penalty

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIBbSnJE-yVBbX_IvAuBwVFfxjNZnhmPjOQjOq0ainJiAP8tZPNOz32mW-fSag5y08BeEK-20nAmZZ6-twEvXT8gLtk4svT_HonXBDLpgXtuOI-Q_fScfbbXqvIdRsXzf6pp6v6i6zVBA/s1600/Esteban+Ruiz+Santiago+FA_USA.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Esteban Ruiz Santiago" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIBbSnJE-yVBbX_IvAuBwVFfxjNZnhmPjOQjOq0ainJiAP8tZPNOz32mW-fSag5y08BeEK-20nAmZZ6-twEvXT8gLtk4svT_HonXBDLpgXtuOI-Q_fScfbbXqvIdRsXzf6pp6v6i6zVBA/s320/Esteban+Ruiz+Santiago+FA_USA.jpg" title="Esteban Ruiz Santiago" width="265" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Esteban Ruiz Santiago</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">Investigators say Florida airport shooting suspect Esteban Santiago told them he planned the carnage and purchased a one-way ticket to Fort Lauderdale to carry it out.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But it is still unclear why South Florida was targeted.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Federal prosecutors filed court documents Saturday detailing airport violence, gun and murder allegations against Santiago. If convicted, he could face the death penalty or life in federal prison, they said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Santiago fired approximately 10 to 15 rounds of ammunition from his firearm, aiming at his victims' heads. He was described as walking while shooting in a methodical manner," FBI Agent Michael Ferlazzo wrote in court records.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Five people died and six more suffered gunshot injuries.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"At one point, he exited the Terminal 2 baggage area [and went] onto the sidewalk and then re-entered, still carrying the handgun," agents wrote.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Moments later, a Broward County sheriff's deputy approached Santiago, who "dropped the handgun on the ground, in lock-back [mode], meaning that all the ammunition had been fired, and [he] dropped to the floor," investigators wrote.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">They say Santiago told them he checked baggage that contained a Walther 9mm semiautomatic handgun and two magazines of ammunition. After claiming his baggage, he said he took it into a stall in the men's restroom, removed the gun, loaded it and put it in his waistband, authorities said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"He then left the men's restroom and shot the first people he encountered," agents wrote. "Santiago emptied his first magazine, then reloaded and shot until the second magazine, too, was out of bullets. He believes he shot approximately 15 rounds before his arrest."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The shootings were apparently recorded by security video, which agents said corroborated Santiago's confession and witnesses' statements.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Santiago, 26, of Anchorage, is due to make his first appearance at 11 a.m. Monday in federal court in Fort Lauderdale.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He traveled nearly 5,000 miles from Alaska to Fort Lauderdale. But after interviewing Santiago for hours, investigators said they had no clear answer to the question: Why did he come to Fort Lauderdale?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The early indication is that there was no specific reason why he chose Fort Lauderdale International Airport," said George L. Piro, the special agent in charge of the FBI in South Florida.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Indications are he came here to carry out this horrific attack. We have not identified any triggers that would have caused this attack, but again it's very early in the investigation," Piro said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It could be several days, or weeks, before formal charges are filed. Prosecutors will most likely seek an indictment by presenting their evidence to a federal grand jury in Fort Lauderdale.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">At the initial hearing Monday in federal court, U.S. Magistrate Judge Alicia Valle will explain the allegations to Santiago. She will probably also appoint the Federal Public Defender's Office to represent Santiago, if he does not hire a private attorney.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Though state prosecutors in Florida frequently seek the death penalty, it is uncommon for federal prosecutors to pursue it.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Federal judges and jurors in Florida have only sentenced two men to federal death row since Congress reinstated the death penalty in 1988.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">State prosecutors in Broward County could seek to file murder charges against Santiago separately because the shooting deaths occurred there.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Broward State Attorney's Office is cooperating with federal prosecutors, and no decision on that has yet been made, a spokesman said Saturday.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Federal authorities say they are still investigating the motive for the attack and have not yet ruled out terrorism. They say Santiago was acting alone.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">An Iraqi war veteran, Santiago sought out the FBI in Anchorage in November and was hospitalized for mental health treatment after what agents said was “erratic behavior," authorities said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Anchorage police and the FBI confirmed Saturday that Santiago went to the FBI office in Anchorage seeking help Nov. 7. He was hospitalized for a mental health evaluation and a firearm he had left in his vehicle outside the office was temporarily taken from him.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The gun, which investigators said may or may not be the one used in the mass shooting at the airport in Fort Lauderdale, was returned to him by law enforcement on Dec. 8.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Despite reportedly being disturbed and delusional and having had incidents of reported domestic violence, Santiago was not on the government list of people prohibited from flying that was set up after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"During our initial investigation we found no ties to terrorism," said Marlin Ritzman, the agent in charge of the FBI's office in Anchorage. "He broke no laws when he came into our office making comments about mind control."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The FBI contacted the Anchorage Police Department, which transported Santiago to a mental health facility. The department took his weapon and "logged it into evidence for safekeeping," Police Chief Christopher Tolley said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Mr. Santiago had arrived at the FBI building asking for help," Tolley said. "Santiago was having terroristic thoughts and believed he was being influenced by ISIS,” an acronym for the Islamic State extremist group in the Middle East.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The FBI closed its assessment of Santiago after conducting database reviews and interagency checks.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"He was a walk-in complaint," Ritzman said. "This is something that happens at FBI offices around the country every day."　</div><br /><b><a href="http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-florida-airport-shooting-20170107-story.html" target="_blank">Click here to read the full article</a></b><br /><br />Source: Los Angeles Times, Paula McMahon, Megan O'Matz, Deborah Ramirez, January 8, 2017<br /><br /><br /><h2>Florida airport gunman charged, US seeks death penalty</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAst1MqCI2r6TLhRuerCF8PoT90t8hM3U5_DGXXYCFD3O3UXQ2_NvvZBuQTWJy3YH4XLI9G1J4OPztUpbhb-GcWmB3NxVyi4qJ7yvX2ot8qz_XrWA60IuqPgoGfg5CdubQk3MV5mQSdkE/s1600/another+day.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAst1MqCI2r6TLhRuerCF8PoT90t8hM3U5_DGXXYCFD3O3UXQ2_NvvZBuQTWJy3YH4XLI9G1J4OPztUpbhb-GcWmB3NxVyi4qJ7yvX2ot8qz_XrWA60IuqPgoGfg5CdubQk3MV5mQSdkE/s400/another+day.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>The Iraq war veteran accused of killing five travelers and wounding six others at a busy international airport in Florida was charged Saturday and could face the death penalty if convicted.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Esteban Santiago, 26, told investigators that he planned the attack, buying a one-way ticket to the Fort Lauderdale airport, a federal complaint said. Authorities don't know why he chose his target and have not ruled out terrorism.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Santiago was charged with an act of violence at an international airport resulting in death — which carries a maximum punishment of execution — and weapons charges.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Today's charges represent the gravity of the situation and reflect the commitment of federal, state and local law enforcement personnel to continually protect the community and prosecute those who target our residents and visitors," US Attorney Wifredo Ferrer said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Authorities said during a news conference that they had interviewed roughly 175 people, including a lengthy interrogation with the cooperative suspect, a former National Guard soldier from Alaska. Flights had resumed at the Fort Lauderdale airport after the bloodshed, though the terminal where the shooting happened remained closed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Santiago spoke to investigators for several hours after he opened fire with a Walther 9mm semi-automatic handgun that he appears to have legally checked on a flight from Alaska. He had two magazines with him and emptied both of them, firing about 15 rounds, before he was arrested, the complaint said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"We have not identified any triggers that would have caused this attack. We're pursuing all angles on what prompted him to carry out this horrific attack," FBI Agent George Piro said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Investigators are combing through social media and other information to determine Santiago's motive, and it's too early to say whether terrorism played a role, Piro said. In November, Santiago had walked into an FBI field office in Alaska saying the US government was controlling his mind and forcing him to watch Islamic State group videos, authorities said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"He was a walk-in complaint. This is something that happens at FBI offices around the country every day," FBI agent Marlin Ritzman said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On that day, Santiago had a loaded magazine on him, but had left a gun in his vehicle, along with his newborn child, authorities said. Officers seized the weapon and local officers took him to get a mental health evaluation. His girlfriend picked up the child.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On Dec. 8, the gun was returned to Santiago. Authorities wouldn't say if it was the same gun used in the airport attack.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Santiago had not been placed on the US no-fly list and appears to have acted alone, authorities said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The attack sent panicked witnesses running out of the terminal and spilling onto the tarmac, baggage in hand. Others hid in bathroom stalls or crouched behind cars or anything else they could find as police and paramedics rushed in to help the wounded and establish whether there were any other gunmen.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Over the course of about 45 seconds, the shooter reloaded twice, he said. When he was out of bullets, he walked away, dropped the gun and lay face down, spread eagle on the floor, Lea said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">By that time, a deputy had arrived and grabbed the shooter. Lea put his foot on the gun to secure it.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Santiago had been discharged from the National Guard last year after being demoted for unsatisfactory performance. Bryan Santiago said Saturday that his brother had requested psychological help but received little assistance. Esteban Santiago said in August that he was hearing voices.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"How is it possible that the federal government knows, they hospitalize him for only four days, and then give him his weapon back?" Bryan Santiago said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">His mother declined to comment as she stood inside the screen door of the family home in Puerto Rico, wiping tears from her eyes. The only thing she said was that Esteban Santiago had been tremendously affected by seeing a bomb explode next to two of his friends when he was around 18 years old while serving in Iraq.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Santiago will make his first court appearance Monday.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It is legal for airline passengers to travel with guns and ammunition as long as the firearms are put in a checked bag — not a carry-on — and are unloaded and locked in a hard-sided container. Guns must be declared to the airline at check-in.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Despite his mental evaluation, US Attorney Karen Loeffler said Santiago would have been able to legally possess a gun because he had not been judged mentally ill, which is a high standard.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Santiago arrived in Fort Lauderdale after taking off from Anchorage aboard a Delta flight Thursday night, checking only one piece of luggage — his gun.</div><br />Source: The Associated Press, January 8, 2017<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">⚑ | Report an error, an omission; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: <a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com">deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a>.</div><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="4" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px solid rgb(255, 204, 0); color: black; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr>   <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL4sspwgGptzvuHVklum5TwxKppRN-lIC5TN8RLZFq_B4ZOtBrX1ssXPNKQ6XpSyQFRJRtVQN45HMkpt3VX0JtOW0TovwxZAurG-AV6gh98IAXo7Ip6QlpkZr9WrM3_m943Mwy-gGxBAY/s1600/Find+us+Facebook.jpg" /></a></div></td>   <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiULIPEaT_P6oIauxAZd17XRRxljesDLS7iIjdQXT7Xct99uHeohx4IYmiAB6S044gTjMDGSy50sL2vDzOyPZ-3vJj9zwcYQ2rgzJh9v1-QDiunKAQtLLLqJ83s38qN3HABxGIC8GsIOD0/s1600/Find+us+twitter.jpg" /></a><span id="goog_1427852018"></span><span id="goog_1427852019"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a></div></td>  </tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><b>Opposed to Capital Punishment? 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Florida airport shooting suspect will face charges that could bring the death penalty

Esteban Ruiz Santiago Investigators say Florida airport shooting suspect Esteban Santiago told them he planned the carnage and purchased a o...

3:15 AM

Florida changes lethal injection drugs

Florida changes lethal injection drugs

'The new triple-drug cocktail is the only one of its kind.' TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - In the midst of a major upheaval involving Florida...

5:04 AM

Typo upends Florida Supreme Court's death penalty ruling

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmfPilg7L1RnSdwhqg91YIolRZnrK1rfVxPeCRTPsERWK4hLriM8mCgl-sYgqUD1gLdkPcsMo2SCZJ9CIrWA3QFT38v39-o2FiCVJdIhxgUnZC5s_1xrLFV3kpEK_X5toHxx66iOIdHo4/s1600/jury-box.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Jury box" border="0" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmfPilg7L1RnSdwhqg91YIolRZnrK1rfVxPeCRTPsERWK4hLriM8mCgl-sYgqUD1gLdkPcsMo2SCZJ9CIrWA3QFT38v39-o2FiCVJdIhxgUnZC5s_1xrLFV3kpEK_X5toHxx66iOIdHo4/s400/jury-box.jpg" title="Jury box" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Just hours after declaring prosecutors could not seek death sentences under existing state law, the Florida Supreme Court on Wednesday rescinded the order, an uncommon move that casts fresh uncertainty on the state's death penalty.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The reason: A typo.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In a 5-2 ruling Wednesday morning, the court rejected Attorney General Pam Bondi's request to let prosecutors seek the death penalty as long as juries voted unanimously. The court threw out the state's revamped death sentencing law in October because it required only a 10-2 super majority of the jury to put someone to death.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Then at 1 p.m., the Supreme Court rescinded the order, saying it was "prematurely issued," and deleted it from the court's website.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Wednesday morning ruling was vacated because of a "clerical error," said Craig Waters, a spokesman for the court.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Instead of writing that death penalty laws in section 921.141 of Florida Statutes were unconstitutional, the court identified section 941.141 - a statute which does not exist.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"It may have simply been a scrivener's error and they wanted to rescind the order to correct the scrivener's error," said Rex Dimmig, the public defender in Polk, Highlands and Hardee counties. "It could be that simple; it could be something more complicated."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Waters did not say if or when the court planned to re-issue the ruling, which provided brief clarity for a death penalty system that was in limbo.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">After the court ruled in October that juries had to be unanimous to sentence someone to death, Bondi and prosecutors said capital trials ought to continue but that jurors should be instructed that the rules had changed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Defense attorneys saw things differently: If the death penalty law was unconstitutional, then no one could be sentenced to death, they argued.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">That's what the justices decided early Wednesday, writing that the whole statute was unconstitutional and "cannot be applied to pending prosecutions."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">How the court will act now is uncertain, but it is likely the Legislature will rewrite the state's death penalty statutes when they come into session March 7. Next week, the House Judiciary Committee will start deliberating on the issue.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Last month, the committee's chairman, Rep. Chris Sprowls, R-Palm Harbor, told the Times/Herald that rewriting death penalty laws is a priority.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"We have to act," said Sprowls, a former prosecutor. "By the time we conclude our business, we have to have a death penalty statute that can be relied upon and that's legal, so that victims have access to justice."</div><br />Source: miamiherald.com, January 4, 2017<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">⚑ | Report an error, an omission; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: <a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com">deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a>.</div><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="4" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px solid rgb(255, 204, 0); color: black; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr>   <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL4sspwgGptzvuHVklum5TwxKppRN-lIC5TN8RLZFq_B4ZOtBrX1ssXPNKQ6XpSyQFRJRtVQN45HMkpt3VX0JtOW0TovwxZAurG-AV6gh98IAXo7Ip6QlpkZr9WrM3_m943Mwy-gGxBAY/s1600/Find+us+Facebook.jpg" /></a></div></td>   <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiULIPEaT_P6oIauxAZd17XRRxljesDLS7iIjdQXT7Xct99uHeohx4IYmiAB6S044gTjMDGSy50sL2vDzOyPZ-3vJj9zwcYQ2rgzJh9v1-QDiunKAQtLLLqJ83s38qN3HABxGIC8GsIOD0/s1600/Find+us+twitter.jpg" /></a><span id="goog_1427852018"></span><span id="goog_1427852019"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a></div></td>  </tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><b>Opposed to Capital Punishment? 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Typo upends Florida Supreme Court's death penalty ruling

Just hours after declaring prosecutors could not seek death sentences under existing state law, the Florida Supreme Court on Wednesday resci...

1:56 AM

Florida's death penalty system will face renewed stress in 2017

Florida's death penalty system will face renewed stress in 2017

Florida's death chamber TALLAHASSEE — Florida's death penalty system, under sustained legal assault for the past year, faces renewed...

6:21 AM

U.S.: The Continuing Collapse of the Death Penalty

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXw7H4WU4CaLY3ClKnIGDkZPeAejcd3woNC1kiZBwV8I9xau5i5dC_8VvHiaRXF9nlNOhSgxRd-Dfzn-fB8jcpGBubLKbq3brF_hDD18XJ6wK95vkoI8ZoDxHYzp4lbJchlMWDPiFPE94/s1600/Oklahoma+death+chamber.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Oklahoma's death chamber" border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXw7H4WU4CaLY3ClKnIGDkZPeAejcd3woNC1kiZBwV8I9xau5i5dC_8VvHiaRXF9nlNOhSgxRd-Dfzn-fB8jcpGBubLKbq3brF_hDD18XJ6wK95vkoI8ZoDxHYzp4lbJchlMWDPiFPE94/s400/Oklahoma+death+chamber.jpg" title="Oklahoma's death chamber" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Piece by piece, the death penalty continues to fall apart. Last week, the Florida Supreme Court <a href="http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/breaking-news/os-florida-death-penalty-asay-20161222-story.html" target="_blank">invalidated</a> between 150 and 200 death sentences — nearly half of all those in the state — because they were imposed under a law the United States Supreme Court <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/13/opinion/floridas-death-machine-loses-again.html" target="_blank">struck down as unconstitutional</a> in January. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The law, which required judges and not juries to make the factual findings necessary to sentence someone to die, violated the Sixth Amendment’s guarantee of a jury trial. “A jury’s mere recommendation is not enough,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote for an 8-to-1 majority.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Florida <a href="http://www.floridasupremecourt.org/decisions/2016/sc14-436.pdf" target="_blank">decision</a> is the most recent sign, in a year full of them, that the morally abhorrent practice of capital punishment is <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/21/us/death-penalty-capital-punishment.html?_r=0" target="_blank">sliding into the dustbin</a> of American history — where it should have been long ago.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Juries around the country imposed 30 death sentences in 2016, a 40 percent drop from last year and fewer than at any time since the Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976, according to a <a href="http://deathpenaltyinfo.org/documents/2016YrEnd.pdf" target="_blank">report</a> by the Death Penalty Information Center, a research group that opposes capital punishment. Twenty people were executed this year, the lowest number in a quarter-century.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The practice is not only increasingly rare, it is concentrated in an extremely narrow slice of the country. Only five states carried out executions in 2016, the report found, and only five imposed more than one death sentence. California sentenced nine people to die, the most of any state, but no one has been put to death there since 2006.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Public support for the death penalty keeps dropping, too — <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/09/29/support-for-death-penalty-lowest-in-more-than-four-decades/" target="_blank">falling below 50 percent</a> for the first time in more than four decades, according to a Pew Research survey. Support falls even further when respondents are given the alternative of a long prison term like life without parole. Though voters in California, Nebraska and Oklahoma last month <a href="https://www.themarshallproject.org/2016/11/09/the-death-penalty-is-alive-and-well?ref=hp-4-121#.GEv5BuAM2" target="_blank">preserved</a> the death penalty, the overall trend is toward growing discomfort with state-sanctioned killing.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The total abolition of capital punishment, however, will depend on the Supreme Court’s reading of the Eighth Amendment’s ban on <a href="https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/amendments/amendment-viii" target="_blank">cruel and unusual punishments</a>. So far, only one current member of the court, Justice Stephen Breyer, a <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2015/06/supreme-court-justice-stephen-breyer-death-penalty-may-be-unconstitutional-119547" target="_blank">regular critic</a> of the death penalty, has expressed openness to examining this question. This month Justice Breyer <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/12/us/politics/justice-stephen-breyer-death-penalty-supreme-court.html" target="_blank">took aim</a> at the practice again, in a <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/16pdf/16-5247_q713.pdf" target="_blank">dissent</a> from the court’s decision not to hear an appeal from a death-row inmate in Florida.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Pointing to the facts of several recent cases that had come before the court, Justice Breyer asked whether the death penalty itself — plagued by arbitrariness, racism, decades-long delays and faulty execution-drug protocols — violates the Eighth Amendment. The people who end up being executed, he wrote, “are not the ‘worst of the worst,’ but, rather, are individuals chosen at random, on the basis, perhaps of geography, perhaps of the views of individual prosecutors, or still worse on the basis of race.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Meanwhile the court is making matters worse with its <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/12/us/politics/the-lethal-gaps-in-how-the-supreme-court-handles-the-death-penalty.html">erratic </a><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/12/us/politics/the-lethal-gaps-in-how-the-supreme-court-handles-the-death-penalty.html" target="_blank">decisions</a> in recent last-minute death-penalty appeals. Who lives and who dies is arbitrary.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Justice Breyer is asking the right questions. It is up to a majority of his colleagues to listen closely and bring the only just result: the permanent abolition of capital punishment in America.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/26/opinion/the-continuing-collapse-of-the-death-penalty.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a>, The Editorial Board, December 26, 2016</div><br /><div style="text-align: center;">⚑ | Report an error, an omission; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: <a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com">deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a>.</div><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="4" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px solid rgb(255, 204, 0); color: black; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr>   <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL4sspwgGptzvuHVklum5TwxKppRN-lIC5TN8RLZFq_B4ZOtBrX1ssXPNKQ6XpSyQFRJRtVQN45HMkpt3VX0JtOW0TovwxZAurG-AV6gh98IAXo7Ip6QlpkZr9WrM3_m943Mwy-gGxBAY/s1600/Find+us+Facebook.jpg" /></a></div></td>   <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiULIPEaT_P6oIauxAZd17XRRxljesDLS7iIjdQXT7Xct99uHeohx4IYmiAB6S044gTjMDGSy50sL2vDzOyPZ-3vJj9zwcYQ2rgzJh9v1-QDiunKAQtLLLqJ83s38qN3HABxGIC8GsIOD0/s1600/Find+us+twitter.jpg" /></a><span id="goog_1427852018"></span><span id="goog_1427852019"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a></div></td>  </tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><b>Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! <a href="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=JBVXEBZLP3WKW" target="_blank">DONATE!</a></b></div><form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post" target="_blank"><div style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/fr_FR/i/scr/pixel.gif" width="1" /></div></form><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div>

U.S.: The Continuing Collapse of the Death Penalty

Piece by piece, the death penalty continues to fall apart. Last week, the Florida Supreme Court invalidated between 150 and 200 death sente...

2:18 AM

Florida Supreme Court: More than 200 death row inmates were given unconstitutional death sentences

Florida Supreme Court: More than 200 death row inmates were given unconstitutional death sentences

Florida's death chamber The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that more than half the people on Florida's death row are entitl...

11:49 AM

US capital punishment fall to 40-year low in 2016

<div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkBu3-pmv1QknN8Gd_H9VQIr3726mikiS-OEZcOvhZm_oOxE16L-gYbwRdNrWCL8u_CyeolNlwykgiiV9BVyeaiUDvDPQf0WlY6baTOgppYaxivgX5cSlESRPWGBTDhHnTkNAE1U398a8-/s1600/21st+century.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="326" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkBu3-pmv1QknN8Gd_H9VQIr3726mikiS-OEZcOvhZm_oOxE16L-gYbwRdNrWCL8u_CyeolNlwykgiiV9BVyeaiUDvDPQf0WlY6baTOgppYaxivgX5cSlESRPWGBTDhHnTkNAE1U398a8-/s400/21st+century.gif" width="400" /></a></div><b>Fewer death sentences were handed down in the US this year than at any time in the last four decades, a study finds.</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Only 30 such penalties were imposed in 2016, the lowest since the US Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976 after a four-year hiatus.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Five states, Georgia, Texas, Alabama, Florida and Missouri, carried out 20 executions.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It continues a 20-year downward trend in US capital punishment, says the Death Penalty Information Center.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The new <a href="http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/" target="_blank">DPIC report</a> showed that not only have executions slowed or even halted in the vast majority of states, but juries and judges are sentencing fewer people to death.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"This year, death sentences will be lower than at any other time in the modern history of the American death penalty," says Robert Dunham, executive director of the DPIC and lead author of the study. "That, I think, is a big story."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">After the US death penalty was reinstated 40 years ago, the number of death sentences and executions began steadily rising.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 1977, 137 death sentences were handed down.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The trend peaked in the 1990s, with 98 executions in 1999 and 315 new death sentences in 1996.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Then the downward trend began.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 2016, only 30 new death sentences were handed down, and 20 executions took place.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">That was the fewest number of executions since 1991.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Of the five states that put inmates to death in 2016, Georgia led the way with nine executions, followed by Texas with seven, Alabama with two, and both Florida and Missouri executed one person.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">New death sentences are down 37% from 2015, according to the report, and fewer death sentences were imposed in 2016 "than in any other year since the Supreme Court declared US death penalty statutes unconstitutional in... 1972".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mr Dunham points out that the low number of new death sentences was notable as well.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Georgia, for example, sentenced no-one to death in 2016.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Texas had four new death sentences, which is very low for the state," he said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Dallas and Harris counties, which is where Houston and Dallas are, imposed no new death sentences for only the second time since the 1980s."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The halt of executions in some states can be explained by the difficulty procuring legally acceptable <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-36292193" target="_blank">drugs needed for lethal injections in the US</a>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Many pharmaceutical companies refuse to provide them, and the European Union banned the export of the drugs to the US in 2011.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Some states have resorted to clandestine deals with compounding pharmacies or different drug cocktails, and a series of <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-27215508" target="_blank">botched executions</a> in recent years has raised legal and ethical concerns about these practices.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0FjVeBIOCT0IeRv_uebT-eiYv2P42FwBBXWfUeMy8YSLHLDLtBOUhkvPcYTzYfr0Q5ahR_lMvra7hNAhbOPm07AeUS2T6PRe2daWyfcH-CncI6zEWwATiHc7_ZsHeTBeizEplZ9fOpbLS/s1600/break.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0FjVeBIOCT0IeRv_uebT-eiYv2P42FwBBXWfUeMy8YSLHLDLtBOUhkvPcYTzYfr0Q5ahR_lMvra7hNAhbOPm07AeUS2T6PRe2daWyfcH-CncI6zEWwATiHc7_ZsHeTBeizEplZ9fOpbLS/s400/break.gif" width="400" /></a></div>Legal challenges that can take decades to resolve and exonerations around the country have also slowed executions.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">So far there have been 156 men and women exonerated from death row in the US.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Lawyers cost an awful lot more than prison guards, and there is just enough ambivalence for state killing as a criminal punishment to make the due process standard higher than for other kinds of punishment," says Frank Zimring, a death penalty expert and professor at the University of California-Berkeley School of Law.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The combination of high expense and low assurance has sort of taken the enthusiasm out."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">According to various polls, American opinions are roughly split when it comes to the death penalty.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/09/29/support-for-death-penalty-lowest-in-more-than-four-decades/" target="_blank">Pew Research Center poll</a> shows approval for the death penalty has declined from a high of 80% in the 1990s to only 49% in favour now.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">However, Robert Blecker, a death penalty supporter and professor at New York Law School, says that the majority of Americans still favour the use of capital punishment.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"[Approval may be] down from an all-time high of 80%, but it's also up from the 1968 low," he says.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"California supported it, Oklahoma put it in its constitution, and Nebraska reversed its own legislature.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"How much clearer evidence could you possibly want as to where American public opinion is?"</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">During this year's election season, three US states had items related to capital punishment on their ballots, and in all three states, death penalty proponents won big on election night.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Nebraskans voted to bring their death penalty back after legislators <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-32910693" target="_blank">banned the practice</a> in 2015.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Californians voted to speed up their executions rather than abolish them.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In Oklahoma, voters approved new constitutional language to protect the use of capital punishment.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mr Zimring concedes that the general public may not necessarily approve of the precipitous decline in the use of capital punishment.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But he points out that when other nations abolished their death penalty it took some time for the general public to concur.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"When you study the western European decline of the death penalty, it turns out that public support for hanging people persists for almost 20 years after moral leadership abolishes the death penalty," he says.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"It takes a long time for public passions to catch up with the moral leadership of elites."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Although this year's figures continue to bolster the narrative that the American criminal justice system is increasingly turning away from the death penalty, the end of capital punishment may still be a long way off.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The end game is going to be long and expensive and in a deep way, unnecessary," says Mr Zimring.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"That's billions of dollars and many too many executions in the American future."</div><br />Source: <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38371479" target="_blank">BBC News</a>, Jessica Lussenhop, December 21, 2016<br /><br /><br /><h2>The Strange Case of the American Death Penalty</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKwTmZcrR1QcpiLUbkxn6Jp_cHISVJuD2c8si4LKlVMC2Q_LQ79SVx2JJsdWv3QutacI-AciHorJQrt7FeW5EhT8Zw4CPG8Sq0_FEcBQLCQNXsUK_9gvhjg3aZSXbE7Kr7XXeaijeJF4dK/s1600/k5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="283" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKwTmZcrR1QcpiLUbkxn6Jp_cHISVJuD2c8si4LKlVMC2Q_LQ79SVx2JJsdWv3QutacI-AciHorJQrt7FeW5EhT8Zw4CPG8Sq0_FEcBQLCQNXsUK_9gvhjg3aZSXbE7Kr7XXeaijeJF4dK/s400/k5.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>It’s a paradoxical moment in the history of the death penalty in the United States. The number of executions has dwindled to just a few, but the voters, even in the most liberal states, seem to want the punishment to remain on the books. That’s the message of the <a href="http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/" target="_blank">annual report</a> from the Death Penalty Information Center, which produces the most comprehensive analysis of the subject each year.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The headline on the report—“Another Record Decline in Death Penalty Use”—notes that the remarkable fall in the number of executions and death sentences is part of a longer trend, one that continued this year. The numbers were the lowest in the modern era of the American death penalty, after a period, between 1972 and 1976, when the Supreme Court put a stop to executions. There were just twenty executions in the United States in 2016, down from a peak of ninety-eight, in 1999. Even more remarkable, just thirty people were sentenced to death this year, compared with three hundred and fifteen in 1996. Indeed, as the report further notes, “Fewer new death sentences were imposed in the past decade than in the decade preceding the Supreme Court’s invalidation of capital punishment in 1972.” The reduction in death sentences means that the decline in executions is likely to continue as well, because the pipeline of new cases is not as full.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Despite these numbers, death-penalty abolitionists also received a host of bad news this year. In 2015, after a long political struggle, the Nebraska state legislature (which is unicameral) repealed the death penalty. But supporters of capital punishment put the issue on the ballot in the 2016 election, and more than sixty per cent of the voters supported its restoration. Voters in California were asked to address two contradictory initiatives concerning the death penalty. One would have ended executions in the state once and for all; the other sought to remove some of the legal barriers that have prevented executions from proceeding quickly, or really at all, in the state. The abolition initiative failed, with fifty-three per cent of the voters opposed, and the law for expediting the death penalty passed, with slightly more than fifty-one per cent of the vote. (It’s not clear what, if any, practical difference passage of the initiative will mean. The legal standoffs in California are likely to continue. There are <a href="http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/state_by_state" target="_blank">seven hundred and forty-one</a> people on death row in the state, but there hasn’t been an execution there since 2006.)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The debate over the death penalty seems to have taken on some of the characteristics of the Presidential race this year, as a contest between populists and élitists. Judges play the part of the élites in this particular debate, and the judiciary, as a whole, has shown ever-greater hostility toward approving executions. This year, the Supreme Court ruled for prisoners in several high-profile death-penalty decisions, holding that racial bias infected jury selection, in Foster v. Chatman, a case from Georgia, and rejecting Florida’s system of allowing judges to impose the death penalty even when jurors support life in prison, in Hurst v. Florida. (The Florida legislature sought to correct the defects identified by the Supreme Court in the Hurst case, only to have the Florida Supreme Court overrule the new law as well.) Delaware’s Supreme Court also nullified its state’s death-penalty law this year.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqOe-7Oh76c4SgqTgbQPvj9WuZvXdUNsVzT21T8yBzDqmoborj19YG7Orkhyphenhyphen0OskknQx8gVCBIh7VhTeBimD1pCwnaIPnruBRS4-MtZ-ySFncOH6CFrCpLMuzLVQgxXEINFTxNf9eu3Fg/s1600/right+trick.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="321" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqOe-7Oh76c4SgqTgbQPvj9WuZvXdUNsVzT21T8yBzDqmoborj19YG7Orkhyphenhyphen0OskknQx8gVCBIh7VhTeBimD1pCwnaIPnruBRS4-MtZ-ySFncOH6CFrCpLMuzLVQgxXEINFTxNf9eu3Fg/s400/right+trick.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>But, as the election results in California and Nebraska illustrate, the voters—the populists—continue to back the death penalty, as does the President-elect. (Donald Trump notoriously called for the execution of the <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/news/amy-davidson/donald-trump-and-the-central-park-five" target="_blank">Central Park Five</a>, fourteen-, fifteen-, and sixteen-year-olds who were charged with a high-profile rape and beating, in 1989. Even though the five were later exonerated, Trump, during this year’s campaign, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/18/opinion/why-trump-doubled-down-on-the-central-park-five.html" target="_blank">reiterated his belief in their guilt</a>.) The Death Penalty Information Center report notes that public-opinion polls show some decline in support for the death penalty, but the opposition has never achieved close to a majority. And, notwithstanding ambiguous poll numbers, politicians from Trump to Barack Obama understand that support for the death penalty, at least in some form, is less politically risky than opposition to it. (Obama, for example, has supported executions for “extraordinarily heinous crimes.”) Trump’s victory, and those of other Republicans, can only reinforce that view.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Many factors have led to the decline in the death penalty in recent years: less crime over all, with less fear among the public as a result; DNA exonerations leading jurors to pause before imposing death; the reluctance of pharmaceutical companies to provide lethal-injection drugs and the resulting search (still under way) for a drug protocol that passes constitutional muster; the length and expense of the appeals mandated by the Supreme Court. All those reasons for the decline remain, but so, too, does the United States remain a country that has had the death penalty in effect for virtually all of its history. That’s not likely to change, either. The death penalty may keep shrinking, but it will probably never entirely go away.</div><br />Source: <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-strange-case-of-the-american-death-penalty" target="_blank">The New Yorker</a>, Jeffrey Toobin, December 21, 2016<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">⚑ | Report an error, an omission; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: <a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com">deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a>.</div><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="4" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px solid rgb(255, 204, 0); color: black; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr>   <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL4sspwgGptzvuHVklum5TwxKppRN-lIC5TN8RLZFq_B4ZOtBrX1ssXPNKQ6XpSyQFRJRtVQN45HMkpt3VX0JtOW0TovwxZAurG-AV6gh98IAXo7Ip6QlpkZr9WrM3_m943Mwy-gGxBAY/s1600/Find+us+Facebook.jpg" /></a></div></td>   <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiULIPEaT_P6oIauxAZd17XRRxljesDLS7iIjdQXT7Xct99uHeohx4IYmiAB6S044gTjMDGSy50sL2vDzOyPZ-3vJj9zwcYQ2rgzJh9v1-QDiunKAQtLLLqJ83s38qN3HABxGIC8GsIOD0/s1600/Find+us+twitter.jpg" /></a><span id="goog_1427852018"></span><span id="goog_1427852019"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a></div></td>  </tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><b>Opposed to Capital Punishment? 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US capital punishment fall to 40-year low in 2016

Fewer death sentences were handed down in the US this year than at any time in the last four decades, a study finds. Only 30 such penalties ...

1:51 PM

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