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 ...

Read more »

Ohio obtains hundreds of vials of lethal drugs

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSkkpFCGqjmIPN4lj4W02kAS1qMbe05Z8CooL7Z1mVBrEpBR78cXBUsHkXQ7aDpHQPvJ893H4uep8vgv3XP_9lIs6Z8pIRiEm0B33Io2r8Nq4PE6f0SEIh_k_HGt0HT6LxcUYVL4M2Yi0/s1600/Midazolam.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSkkpFCGqjmIPN4lj4W02kAS1qMbe05Z8CooL7Z1mVBrEpBR78cXBUsHkXQ7aDpHQPvJ893H4uep8vgv3XP_9lIs6Z8pIRiEm0B33Io2r8Nq4PE6f0SEIh_k_HGt0HT6LxcUYVL4M2Yi0/s400/Midazolam.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio has obtained hundreds of vials of lethal injection drugs, allowing it to put a condemned child killer to death next month and conduct multiple executions after it, records show.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Inventory logs obtained by The Associated Press through a public records request show the state received supplies three times in September and October for the first drug used in the process, a sedative called midazolam that’s been at the center of several lawsuits over lethal injection.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The records show the state obtained supplies twice in September and October for the second drug used in the process and three times in September for the third drug.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The state has said the drugs it plans to use on the first three executions this year are standard drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration, though it won’t say where they came from. Attorneys for death row inmates have raised concerns the state may have to resort to drugs from compounding pharmacies, which produce specialty batches and aren’t subject to the same type of federal regulation as FDA-approved drugs.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Attorneys have been unable to identify the suppliers or producers because of the 2015 law and because recent federal court rulings bar them from obtaining the information through usual evidence channels.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The logs show the state could conceivably carry out dozens of executions with these supplies. What’s unclear is the drugs’ expiration dates — information not provided on the logs — which could control whether they’re available for future executions.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">JoEllen Smith, a spokeswoman for the Ohio prisons agency, declined to comment.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The state plans to execute Ronald Phillips on Feb. 15 for the 1993 rape and murder of his girlfriend’s 3-year-old daughter in Akron. Seven other executions are also scheduled this year.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The logs obtained by the AP show:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">— The Department of Rehabilitation and Correction received 750 vials of midazolam on Sept. 9; 750 vials again on Oct. 3; and 100 vials on Oct. 27. That could be enough for as many as 40 executions.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">— The state received 150 vials of rocuronium bromide, a paralytic drug and the second drug administered, on Sept. 9; and 80 vials of the drug on Sept. 30. Ten of those vials would be enough for one execution.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">— The state received 12 vials of potassium chloride, a drug that stops the heart and the last drug administered, on Sept. 9; 12 vials on Sept. 23; and 150 vials on Sept. 30. That could be enough for dozens of executions.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ohio and other states have struggled to find legal supplies of execution drugs.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Drugmakers have by and large put their drugs off-limits for executions. Last year, Pfizer put seven drugs off-limits, including the three drugs to be used by Ohio. But drugs like midazolam are widespread, found everywhere from dental offices to veterinary clinics, making it difficult to trace the origin.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Executions have been on hold in Ohio since January 2014, when Dennis McGuire gasped and snorted during the 26 minutes it took him to die, the longest execution since the state resumed putting prisoners to death in 1999.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The state used a two-drug method with McGuire, starting with midazolam, its first use for executions in the country.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Attorneys challenging Ohio’s new three-drug method say midazolam is unlikely to relieve an inmate’s pain. The drug, which is meant to sedate inmates, was also used in a problematic 2014 execution in Arizona. But last year, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the use of midazolam in a case out of Oklahoma.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The state says the method is similar to Ohio’s past execution process, which survived court challenges. State attorneys also say the Supreme Court ruling last year makes clear that the use of midazolam is allowable.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A trial challenging the state’s execution method was wrapping up Monday in federal court in Dayton. Testifying for the state last week, a member of the execution team that put McGuire to death said he was puzzled by McGuire’s reaction and “was wondering what was going on.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Another execution team member testified he didn’t believe McGuire suffered.</div><br />Source: The Associated Press, January 9, 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>

Ohio obtains hundreds of vials of lethal drugs

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio has obtained hundreds of vials of lethal injection drugs, allowing it to put a condemned child killer to death next mo...

Read more »

Florida changes lethal injection drugs

<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/AVvXsEgdqWramXsOQ3sGhuXO2KPBzbbct9GtHpLNsqgCSs0xh7eQbDTeymcTaZeIf4Q931FS4W5TDCmfhUMLXJj6I8XKB4SLL-ZLltJ7t3kcxULPERdaXjQjejf5VSTwp9IMo7CekO2KzsTdYcQ/s1600/lethal+injection+lab.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="273" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdqWramXsOQ3sGhuXO2KPBzbbct9GtHpLNsqgCSs0xh7eQbDTeymcTaZeIf4Q931FS4W5TDCmfhUMLXJj6I8XKB4SLL-ZLltJ7t3kcxULPERdaXjQjejf5VSTwp9IMo7CekO2KzsTdYcQ/s400/lethal+injection+lab.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">'The new triple-drug cocktail is the only one of its kind.'</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - In the midst of a major upheaval involving Florida's death-penalty laws, state corrections officials have adopted a new lethal-injection procedure that includes a drug never before used for executions and another used only by accident.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The move is almost certain to spur more litigation over the state's already-embattled death penalty, in limbo for nearly a year in the aftermath of a U.S. Supreme Court decision last January that struck down as unconstitutional Florida's capital sentencing system because it gave too much power to judges, instead of juries.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Department of Corrections posted the revised three-drug lethal injection protocol on its website Thursday, a day after Secretary Julie Jones signed the new procedure.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The new triple-drug cocktail is the only one of its kind among the states that rely on similar procedures and incorporates a sedative never before used in executions, along with a killing agent used only once --- when Oklahoma executioners used it by accident.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"It's certainly troubling that the state of Florida is continuing to use experimental protocols in lethal injection," said Maria DeLiberato, a lawyer who represents Death Row prisoners, including inmate Dane Abdool.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Abdool is one of five Death Row inmates who are plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit challenging Florida's lethal-injection protocol.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"We'll have to review the protocol, discuss with appropriate experts and make a determination regarding any litigation," DeLiberato said in a telephone interview Thursday.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The News Service of Florida first reported in December that the corrections agency may be considering a new drug protocol, based on records related to a lawsuit filed by Arizona Death Row inmates. The records revealed that Florida has run out of the sedative midazolam hydrochloride, will soon run out of potassium chloride --- the final drug in the triple-drug lethal injection cocktail --- and spent $12,000 last year stockpiling three new drugs.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Department of Corrections spokeswoman Michelle Glady said in an interview Thursday the agency did not know whether the protocol has ever been used elsewhere.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">States have been scrambling to obtain lethal injection drugs after manufacturers have refused to sell the substances to corrections agencies for execution purposes.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In its new protocol, Florida is substituting etomidate for midazolam as the critical first drug, used to sedate prisoners before injecting them with a paralytic and then a drug used to stop prisoners' hearts.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Midazolam, still in use by some states, is the focus of the Arizona lawsuit, filed after convicted killer Joseph Wood took two hours to die in 2014. Arizona corrections officials have tried to get the lawsuit dismissed as moot because they contend they have run out of the drug and it is no longer available. At least four other states claim they have supplies of midazolam.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Concerns about midazolam also prompted the Florida Supreme Court last year to halt the execution of Jerry William Correll, pending the outcome of a lawsuit filed by Oklahoma prisoners over the drug's use. In June 2015, a sharply divided U.S. Supreme Court rejected the challenge in the landmark case, known as Glossip v. Gross.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Etomidate, also known by its brand name "Amidate," has never been used before as part of the three-drug execution procedure in the U.S., according to Megan McCracken, a lawyer with the Death Penalty Clinic at the University of California, Berkeley Law School.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The constitutionality of any state's three-drug execution procedure hinges on the first of the drugs used in the process, McCracken said in a telephone interview. Ensuring that prisoners are properly sedated is critical to guaranteeing that the lethal-injection procedure does not violate Eighth Amendment prohibitions on cruel and unusual punishments, she said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The new protocol also replaces potassium chloride, the drug used to make prisoners' hearts stop beating, with potassium acetate. According to records obtained by the News Service, the state has a small supply of potassium chloride that will expire next month and began purchasing potassium acetate in March.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtqp4wmluH0IvF8sYN-ll0zl2yrwEo-z3uNQvBXr0cUr4aa6-09LXuG7h1QzRalYtLF3G9fJT9Qzm5FakgjCe8XOp4J6m6heq-OH310RKQ5gYJC-iLKqOl4AG64NkM7B5Lez6sP9Lszcw/s1600/Potassium+Chloride+Potassium+Acetate.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Potassium acetate" border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtqp4wmluH0IvF8sYN-ll0zl2yrwEo-z3uNQvBXr0cUr4aa6-09LXuG7h1QzRalYtLF3G9fJT9Qzm5FakgjCe8XOp4J6m6heq-OH310RKQ5gYJC-iLKqOl4AG64NkM7B5Lez6sP9Lszcw/s400/Potassium+Chloride+Potassium+Acetate.jpg" title="Potassium acetate" width="400" /></a>Potassium acetate has only been used once before, according to death penalty experts.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Last year, Oklahoma corrections officials admitted they mistakenly used potassium acetate in the execution of Charles Warner, although the state's protocol requires the use of potassium chloride.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In her letter to Gov. Rick Scott in which she certifies the new protocol, Jones wrote that the new procedure "will not involve unnecessary lingering or wanton infliction of pain and suffering."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But McCracken said it is unknown what studies or data --- if any --- the state is relying on to support its new protocol.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"What we see now is a mistake and an accident from an execution in Oklahoma codified as the new execution procedure in Florida," McCracken said. "The novel aspect of the drug formula and the experimental nature of the protocol is extraordinarily concerning."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The state's death penalty has been in flux since the January 2016 U.S. Supreme Court decision, in a case known as Hurst v. Florida, and a series of subsequent court rulings on the issue.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Shortly after the January ruling, the Florida Supreme Court put on hold two executions ordered by Gov. Rick Scott.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The court late last month, however, lifted a stay of execution in the case of Mark James Asay.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But the court's ruling in Asay's case may not mean that lethal injections will again be underway anytime soon, especially given the new protocol.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Corrections officials expect litigation in response to the new drugs, Glady said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"That's very typical," she said.</div><br />Source: News Service of Florida, Dara Kam, January 5, 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>

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...

Read more »

Challenge to Ohio's Newest Execution Method Goes to Trial

<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/AVvXsEj4prr7Lix0XC23ycAmNCJuJkzYXJYXiePE4smMSGe5vosalehmnwtc9Jo8oYWmyQnAaciin4Qdm6ty2ck4n5dUlIZ4s1R4DB4n-tHCt2qQCabrWmjm77ni1DdkNEASCOlkVnn1sSHJ0xw/s1600/Ohio+Death+Chamber.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Ohio's death chamber" border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4prr7Lix0XC23ycAmNCJuJkzYXJYXiePE4smMSGe5vosalehmnwtc9Jo8oYWmyQnAaciin4Qdm6ty2ck4n5dUlIZ4s1R4DB4n-tHCt2qQCabrWmjm77ni1DdkNEASCOlkVnn1sSHJ0xw/s400/Ohio+Death+Chamber.jpg" title="Ohio's death chamber" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ohio's death chamber</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">Ohio's newest execution method is either a legal approach to putting condemned killers to death or a process akin to burning inmates at the stake, according to arguments in the latest challenge to capital punishment in the state.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A 4-day trial that began Tuesday in federal court in Dayton focuses on Ohio's updated execution system and a new 3-drug method similar to one used several years ago.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Executions have been on hold in Ohio since January 2014, when death row inmate Dennis McGuire gasped and snorted during the 26 minutes it took him to die.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The state plans to execute Ronald Phillips on Feb. 15 for the rape and death of his girlfriend's 3-year-old daughter in Akron in 1993.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Witnesses before Magistrate Judge Michael Merz will include members of the state execution team, who will not be named and will answer questions while sitting behind courtroom screens.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Lawyers for death row inmates say a 3-drug method, announced last year, is worse than a similar procedure used years ago. They say multiple problems remain with the way the state prepares and carries out executions.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In a court filing, the attorneys say the 1st drug in the process - midazolam - is unlikely to relieve an inmate's pain. The drug, which is meant to sedate inmates, was used in executions in Arizona and Ohio in 2014 that turned out to be problematic. But last year, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the use of midazolam in a case out of Oklahoma.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">According to the filing, because <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midazolam" target="_blank">midazolam is not a barbiturate and cannot relieve pain</a>, inmates are likely to experience "severe physical pain," mental suffering and anguish. As a result, "such an execution would be inhuman and barbarous, akin in its level of pain and suffering to being buried alive, burning at the stake, and other primitive methods long since abandoned by civilized society," the filing last fall said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The state used a 2-drug method with McGuire, beginning with midazolam, but then discontinued it. Afterward, Ohio struggled to find new supplies of drugs since they were placed off limits for executions by drugmakers.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The prisons agency now says it will use midazolam; rocuronium bromide, which causes paralysis; and potassium chloride, which stops the heart. But the state hasn't said where it got the drugs.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The state says the method is similar to Ohio's past execution process, which all survived court challenges. State attorneys also say the U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year makes clear that the use of midazolam is allowable.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The Eighth Amendment does not prevent Ohio from adopting a new method of execution, or returning to a previously used one, particularly when changes in the availability of drugs necessitate such a change," state attorneys said in a filing last fall.</div><br />Source: Associated Press, 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? 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>

Challenge to Ohio's Newest Execution Method Goes to Trial

Ohio's death chamber Ohio's newest execution method is either a legal approach to putting condemned killers to death or a process ak...

Read more »

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...

Read more »

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? 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>

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 ...

Read more »