Fort Lauderdale shooter faces death penalty but actual execution is unlikely

<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/AVvXsEiS6F_L9jLkMsXye1SkW2BMJfQHa0dNAvr7VTJxBnCh1zi2Gui2rkWm_vHdlfdBhIf4Wskzo-V07o9DQy6pxoUEikEy13s_CJ9yhtOvmvhJoUDoZhWlZ8MTPIVc_fjcuXlvKVTzjzaWMJ0/s1600/Esteban+Santiago+FLORIDA.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Esteban Santiago" border="0" height="273" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS6F_L9jLkMsXye1SkW2BMJfQHa0dNAvr7VTJxBnCh1zi2Gui2rkWm_vHdlfdBhIf4Wskzo-V07o9DQy6pxoUEikEy13s_CJ9yhtOvmvhJoUDoZhWlZ8MTPIVc_fjcuXlvKVTzjzaWMJ0/s400/Esteban+Santiago+FLORIDA.jpg" title="Esteban Santiago" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Esteban Santiago</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">Federal death penalty cases are exceedingly rare, but prosecutors are already exploring the possibility of seeking execution for a military veteran who flew from Alaska to Fort Lauderdale to gun down nearly a dozen airport travelers.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">For federal prosecutors, the contemplated capital case against 26-year-old Esteban Santiago won’t be so much a whodunit — after all, he surrendered immediately after the deadly attack at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Rather, they will have to prove the former Army reservist premeditated the violent assault — and disprove the defendant’s likely insanity defense that he didn’t know right from wrong when he opened fire in a baggage claim area last Friday.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The decision to pursue the death penalty against Santiago, accused of killing five people and injuring six others, carries such gravity that it must be made by the U.S. Attorney General, with significant input from the U.S. Attorney’s Office as well as the defendant’s lawyers in South Florida.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Prosecutors will be weighing the pros and cons, deciding whether to put a federal grand jury on notice of their plans to pursue the death penalty when it considers an indictment before Santiago’s arraignment on Jan. 23.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“There just aren’t that many murder cases that lend themselves to the federal system and so almost all of them go to the state,” said Miami defense lawyer Allan Kaiser, who worked as a federal prosecutor in South Florida for 16 years. “And as rare as these cases are, you can’t just jump at the prospect of seeking a death penalty.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: justify;">Federal executions rare</h3><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Even if Santiago were convicted and sentenced to die, an execution could be unlikely.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The U.S. government, using lethal injection, has only executed three inmates since the federal death penalty was brought back in 1988.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The last execution came in 2003, when Gulf War veteran Louis Jones was put to death for raping and murdering a teenage Army recruit in Texas. The feds earlier executed Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, and Juan Raul Garza, a drug trafficker who murdered three rivals in Texas.</div><br /><b><a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article126066479.html" target="_blank">Click here to read the full article</a></b><br /><br />Source: Miami Herald, David Ovalle, Jay Weaver, January 12, 2017<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">⚑ | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; 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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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...

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California inmate Brandon Wilson commits suicide on death row

<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/AVvXsEi_NChRHTC3szcodC0x0Mej6xeDa4uvrYaYGKnxByVNolyZpCS9hTw9Sf1i_PrDbAxOHg0gqQFHB5A4SYzEW1kS4hyphenhyphenIqiMNVcr0OzIWRcZxM6sj1SuHynUXWQyTENHl7PmNwBIpaUDhHRw/s1600/California+Death+Row_+A+guard+stands+watch+over+the+condemned+prisoners+housed+in+East+Block+during+a+media+tour+of+death+row+a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="San Quentin's death row, California" border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_NChRHTC3szcodC0x0Mej6xeDa4uvrYaYGKnxByVNolyZpCS9hTw9Sf1i_PrDbAxOHg0gqQFHB5A4SYzEW1kS4hyphenhyphenIqiMNVcr0OzIWRcZxM6sj1SuHynUXWQyTENHl7PmNwBIpaUDhHRw/s400/California+Death+Row_+A+guard+stands+watch+over+the+condemned+prisoners+housed+in+East+Block+during+a+media+tour+of+death+row+a.jpg" title="San Quentin's death row, California" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">San Quentin's death row, California</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">SAN QUENTIN, Calif. (AP) - Authorities say a California death row inmate who killed a 9-year-old Oceanside boy has hanged himself in his cell.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">State corrections officials tell the San Diego Union-Tribune (<a href="http://bit.ly/2jggvtH" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/2jggvtH</a>) that Brandon Wilson was found dead Thursday at San Quentin State Prison.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The 33-year-old was convicted of slitting the throat of Matthew Cecchi in an Oceanside Harbor restaurant in 1998.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Oroville boy was in town for a family reunion.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Wilson, a drifter from Wisconsin, said he'd taken LSD and believed God had told him to kill people.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He was captured two days later after stabbing a woman during a robbery in Hollywood. She survived.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">At his murder trial, Wilson told jurors he had no remorse and told them to recommend the death penalty or he would kill again.</div><br />Source: The Associated Press, January 14, 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>

California inmate Brandon Wilson commits suicide on death row

San Quentin's death row, California SAN QUENTIN, Calif. (AP) - Authorities say a California death row inmate who killed a 9-year-old Oce...

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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? 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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 ...

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Art on death row: ‘it’s good, evil, vanilla ... all things in what we humans call life’

<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/AVvXsEiYE30F1HaBFr83el0iruVXlxlRY6K41qm3GGNeT4TAaqAxnojX9NBYG1xXHHlhojEUC6zTZ4BJQCIvRSJSwLRKyOZdCgsZO7zZMR02noDNSRqF9W0dy3X6kiwe8BiSQmP2cqyWEuPe4vE/s1600/Another+Day+in+Paradise+Myuran+Sukumaran+Exhivition+JAN_2017.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="'Another Day in Paradise' - Myuran Sukumaran's exhibition opens in Sydney" border="0" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYE30F1HaBFr83el0iruVXlxlRY6K41qm3GGNeT4TAaqAxnojX9NBYG1xXHHlhojEUC6zTZ4BJQCIvRSJSwLRKyOZdCgsZO7zZMR02noDNSRqF9W0dy3X6kiwe8BiSQmP2cqyWEuPe4vE/s400/Another+Day+in+Paradise+Myuran+Sukumaran+Exhivition+JAN_2017.jpg" title="'Another Day in Paradise' - Myuran Sukumaran's exhibition opens in Sydney" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">'Another Day in Paradise' - Myuran Sukumaran's exhibition opens in Sydney</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>For those fighting the death penalty, art isn’t just about self-expression – it’s also a weapon in the battle for hearts and minds</b><br /><br />Close to 3,000 inmates are currently on death row while controversy rages following a series of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/13/pfizer-blocks-drugs-lethal-injections" target="_blank">recent botched lethal injection executions</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/feb/03/record-number-people-exonerated-of-crimes-last-year" target="_blank">DNA-based exonerations of death row inmates</a> and growing concern over <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/aug/27/racial-bias-texas-death-penalty-cases-harvard-study" target="_blank">racial discrimination in the criminal justice system</a>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Through art, a coalition of artists, educators and activists hope to humanise the plight of prisoners and sway public opinion. Organisations include <a href="https://reachcoalition.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">R .E.A.C.H.</a> which provides workshops to Tennessee death row inmates, <a href="http://minutesbeforesix.blogspot.com.au/" target="_blank">Minutes Before Six (MB6)</a>, a blog by death row inmates dedicated to using arts and literature as a form of rehabilitation, and <a href="http://www.artforjustice.org/" target="_blank">Art For Justice</a>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In some cases, the human body itself has become a political tool in this debate. In a macabre twist, Texas death row inmate Travis Runnels has given his consent for his body post-execution to be donated to Danish activist Martin Martensen-Larsen to <a href="http://glasstire.com/2013/05/28/danish-man-to-exhibit-the-gilded-body-of-executed-texas-inmate/" target="_blank">be painted gold and preserved as part of an installation</a>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 2012, the ashes of another executed convicted murderer from Texas, Karl Eugene Chamberlain, <a href="http://bigthink.com/Picture-This/should-a-death-row-inmates-corpse-become-art%20%20http://bigthink.com/Picture-This/should-a-death-row-inmates-corpse-become-art%20%20http://bigthink.com/Picture-This/should-a-death-row-inmates-corpse-become-art" target="_blank">were exhibited as part of an installation by Martensen-Larsen</a> in a Danish church.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://www.windowsondeathrow.com/" target="_blank">Windows on Death Row</a>, a travelling exhibition of over 60 works from death row inmates and some of America’s most famous political cartoonists, is currently on show at Ohio State University, while London-based artist Nicola White, founder of ArtReach: Reaching out with Art from Death Row – a project featuring <a href="http://www.artofsanquentin.com/" target="_blank">a website of art by San Quentin inmates</a> for sale, with proceeds used for victims of violent crimes, and to buy art supplies – plans four new shows of prisoners’ work this year in London. Her Twitter feed <a href="https://twitter.com/deathrowartists" target="_blank">@DeathRowArtists</a> provides a lively commentary on the art of San Quentin prisoners.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">And in Sydney, a show of over 100 paintings by executed Bali Nine member Myuran Sukumaran, <a href="http://www.sydneyfestival.org.au/2017/myuran" target="_blank">Another Day in Paradise</a>, has just opened at Campbelltown Arts Centre, organised by artist and co-curator Ben Quilty, who was Sukumaran’s mentor and teacher until Sukumaran was executed in 2015.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Why have these artists and educators become involved? For Williams, formerly a death penalty supporter, it is to provide a voice for the voiceless. He adds: “If we’re going to kill these men, then we should be willing to listen to what they have to say.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">For White, who has worked with more than 25 San Quentin inmates since 2015, art and self-expression is a basic human right that provides dignity to the condemned. These men are human – often showing “extraordinary talent” – not monsters, she says. Art can act as a powerful political weapon by putting a face and story to these lives.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">White quoted Sister Helen Prejean, a Louisiana-based campaigner for death row prisoners and the families of murder victims, and an advocate for the abolition of the death penalty. “When she met a death row prisoner she had been writing to for the first time, [she] said, ‘When I saw his face, it was so human, it blew me away. I got a realisation then, no matter what he had done … he is worth more than the worst thing he ever did’.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">For many, art has provided a form of personal rehabilitation. Quilty points to Sukumaran, and his journey from drug-runner to sensitive and self-knowing artist. White cites former Crips gang member Steve Champion, who has been on death row since 1982, age 18; he is now a self-educated author.</div><br /><b><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/jan/12/art-on-death-row-its-good-evil-vanilla-all-things-in-what-we-humans-call-life" target="_blank">Click here to read the full article (+ artwork, links)</a></b><br /><br />Source: The Guardian, Sharon Verghis, January 12, 2017<br /><div><br /></div><div><b>➤ Related content:</b></div><ul><li><a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.fr/2017/01/bali-nine-member-myuran-sukumarans-gut.html" target="_blank">Bali Nine Member Myuran Sukumaran's Gut-Wrenching Exhibition Opens</a>, Ben Neuze, January 11, 2017</li><li><a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.fr/2017/01/racism-death-penalty-and-myuran.html" target="_blank">Racism, the death penalty and Myuran Sukumaran</a>, Ben Quilty, December 24, 2016</li><li><a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.fr/2017/01/mother-of-bali-nine-member-myuran.html" target="_blank">Mother of Bali Nine member Myuran Sukumaran wants people to remember him through art</a>, Louise Milligan, January 6, 2017</li></ul><br /><div><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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Art on death row: ‘it’s good, evil, vanilla ... all things in what we humans call life’

'Another Day in Paradise' - Myuran Sukumaran's exhibition opens in Sydney For those fighting the death penalty, art isn’t just a...

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Texas executes Christopher Wilkins

<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/AVvXsEhIdpZyb_m-U-ocEV16hLf1DcEPUgd0ZuRf9rZrk_XHRWP2jKklzlIE9uKhE-Sst4ztSAwKbm_K5JZ9EnkviDOofAh_DrnmhZJaRi3wyxA8ofUNeIFNAu2b4VJbGBXAa1fYN-pRLjtEWpA/s1600/Christopher+Wilkins+TX.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Christopher Wilkins" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIdpZyb_m-U-ocEV16hLf1DcEPUgd0ZuRf9rZrk_XHRWP2jKklzlIE9uKhE-Sst4ztSAwKbm_K5JZ9EnkviDOofAh_DrnmhZJaRi3wyxA8ofUNeIFNAu2b4VJbGBXAa1fYN-pRLjtEWpA/s320/Christopher+Wilkins+TX.jpg" title="Christopher Wilkins" width="256" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Christopher Wilkins</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">A Fort Worth jury sent Christopher Wilkins to death row for killing 2 men he admitted shooting over a $20 phony drug deal after Wilkins said he didn't care whether he was sentenced to death.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Look, it is no big deal," Wilkins calmly said from the witness stand at his 2008 trial.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On Wednesday, more than 11 years after the killings, the 48-year-old Wilkins was put to death by lethal injection at The Walls Unit, in Huntsville, Texas.<br /><br />Christopher Wilkins was pronounced dead at 6:29 p.m.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The U.S. Supreme Court declined to block the execution. The court's ruling on appeals for Wilkins came about three hours before his scheduled lethal injection.<br /><br />Wilkins' attorneys had argued to the Supreme Court that he had poor legal help at his trial and during earlier appeals. State attorneys argued courts had rejected similar appeals and that defense lawyers were simply employing delaying tactics.<br /><br />Wilkins' execution is the nation's first this year.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 2005, after serving time in prison for gun possession, Wilkins drove a stolen truck to Fort Worth, where police tied him to several aggravated assaults and burglaries. There he befriended 2 men, 40-year-old Willie Freeman and 33-year-old Mike Silva, who duped him into paying $20 for a piece of gravel he thought was a rock of crack cocaine.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">According to court records, Wilkins said he shot Freeman on Oct. 28, 2005, for laughing about the scam, then he shot Silva because he was there.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Their bodies were found in a ditch. Wilkins' fingerprints were found in Silva's wrecked SUV, and a pentagram matching one of Wilkins' numerous tattoos had been carved into the hood.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"When I get wound up, I have a fuse that is short," Wilkins testified. "I don't think about what I am doing."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He also admitted that a day earlier he had shot and killed another man, Gilbert Vallejo, 47, outside a Fort Worth bar in a dispute over a pay phone, and about a week later he used a stolen car to try to run down 2 people because he believed 1 of them had taken his sunglasses.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I know they are bad decisions," Wilkins said of his actions. "I make them anyway."<br /><br />"I think subconsciously, I've been trying to kill myself or get myself killed since I was probably 12 or 13 years old," he added. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Kevin Rousseau, a Tarrant County assistant district attorney, described Wilkins as "a professional criminal. Very violent. He used violence as a means of achieve his means on a routine basis."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Wilkins' attorneys had asked the U.S. Supreme Court to halt the execution, saying he had poor legal help at trial and during other appeals, and that the courts should have authorized money to his current lawyer to support other appeals and a clemency petition.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"He has never had a meaningful opportunity at any stage to develop that claim, to have any court address it on the merits, or even to have it considered as part of a petition for executive clemency," attorney Seth Waxman, told the justices in his appeal.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Stephen Hoffman, an assistant Texas attorney general, said investigation of those arguments "would either be redundant or fruitless," and called the appeals a delaying tactic.<br /><br />In his appeals, Wilkins had argued that his attorney ignored his wish to plead guilty and did not put on a vigorous defense and that an appellate lawyer had a huge conflict of interest, having already accepted a job with the prosecutor's office. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">30 convicted killers were executed in the U.S. last year, the lowest number since the early 1980s. 7 were carried out last year in Texas, the fewest since 1996.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">9 Texas inmates have already been scheduled to die in the early months of 2017.<br /><br />Wilkins becomes the 1st condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Texas  and the 539th overall since the state resumed capital punishment on December 7, 1982. <br /><br />Wilkins becomes the 1st condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1443rd overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977. </div><br />Sources: Dallas Morning News, Associated Press, Twitter live feed, Rick Halperin, January 11, 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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Texas executes Christopher Wilkins

Christopher Wilkins A Fort Worth jury sent Christopher Wilkins to death row for killing 2 men he admitted shooting over a $20 phony drug dea...

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What's next for Dylann Roof?

<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/AVvXsEjA17MM5WZ0DDLfvyk-4KHxVH7atKNdN_eWf_l9gDIcK9fpE7B2rI3rNHQrykU_b3IDRgPFdUNxNirprXqtOP8anBmvKm-ocTsAEr-k-ClKp6vZQogJTVdAv1FQUDNKZjKKoxPWqCBbHdw/s1600/Dylann+Roof+SC.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Dylann Roof" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA17MM5WZ0DDLfvyk-4KHxVH7atKNdN_eWf_l9gDIcK9fpE7B2rI3rNHQrykU_b3IDRgPFdUNxNirprXqtOP8anBmvKm-ocTsAEr-k-ClKp6vZQogJTVdAv1FQUDNKZjKKoxPWqCBbHdw/s400/Dylann+Roof+SC.jpg" title="Dylann Roof" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dylann Roof</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">Charleston, South Carolina (CNN) -- Dylann Roof will be formally sentenced Wednesday <a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.fr/2017/01/dylann-roof-is-sentenced-to-death-in.html" target="_blank">after jurors recommended the death penalty</a> for killing nine people in a 2015 massacre at a historically black church in Charleston.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Roof will become the first federal hate crime defendant to be sentenced to death, a Justice Department spokesman said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">US District Judge Richard M. Gergel, who has presided over the trial, will hold the formal sentencing Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. ET.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Roof, who <a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.fr/2016/11/charleston-shooting-dylann-roof-to.html" target="_blank">had chosen to represent himself during the penalty phase</a>, has told the judge he wants to file a motion for new lawyers. Gergel said Roof can argue that on Wednesday but the judge is not inclined to let that happen.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The avowed white supremacist was <a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.fr/2016/12/dylann-roof-found-guilty-in-charleston.html" target="_blank">convicted last month of federal murder and hate crimes charges</a>. During the penalty phase, he cast his defense attorneys aside, telling jurors that he chose to represent himself to "prevent my lawyers from misrepresentation."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On Tuesday, he expressed <a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.fr/2017/01/dylann-roof-calls-no-witness-offers-no.html" target="_blank">no remorse during his closing argument</a>. Roof reiterated that he had no choice but to kill nine people at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in June 2015.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I felt like I had to do it, and I still do feel like I had to do it," he said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">His statement followed the prosecutor's impassioned, two-hour argument. Assistant US Attorney Jay Richardson reminded jurors that Roof sat with the church members for 40 minutes before opening fire. He pulled the trigger "more than 75 times ... reloading seven times" as he stood over his victims, shooting them repeatedly, Richardson said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Jurors had the option to recommend life in prison without the possibility of parole, but the 10 women and two men delivered a unanimous vote for the death penalty.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Yet, the jury's recommendation and the sentencing phase may not mean the end for the case.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: justify;">Case could go on for 'very long time'</h3><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Death penalty cases are notorious for their complexity, often spending years in appeals and processes.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A group of defense attorneys and others who worked on Roof's behalf issued a statement, saying the death penalty decision means the case will not be over for a "very long time."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A former prosecutor in South Carolina, Holman Gossett said it's possible for Roof could ask for a new trial.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"He didn't have any attorneys helping him in the penalty phase so he may make that motion after reflecting on it," Gossett told CNN affiliate WSPA. "Then it would go through the process of automatic hearings with appellate courts to see if there's any reason under the law that it should not stand legal grounds."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: justify;">Federal executions rare</h3><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Since the federal death penalty was reinstated in 1988 after a 16-year moratorium, three federal inmates have been executed in the United States. There are 63 federal prisoners awaiting execution.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">And Roof's court appearances may be far from over.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He is also set to be tried on state murder charges, and prosecutors have said they'll also seek the death penalty in that case.</div><br />Source: <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2017/01/11/us/dylann-roof-sentencing/" target="_blank">CNN</a>, January 11, 2017<br /><br /><br /><h2>Charleston bishop opposes death sentence for man convicted of killing churchgoers</h2><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4NZCSq4lXb_NYaBYjvpVhEha5CToypPJ1XbaLTbpmjEIUxuf5xKX3CXYWQAak5f82IkJdeSRwCoWJtQGM49QXbEtdx29NIOwQ4E3aOkQsH1FLyydBCKt02VQkmkHzMC-QIJjtgfEhNwE/s1600/Police+tape+surrounds+the+parking+lot+behind+the+AME+Emanuel+Church.+Dylann+Roof+SOUTH+CAROLINA.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4NZCSq4lXb_NYaBYjvpVhEha5CToypPJ1XbaLTbpmjEIUxuf5xKX3CXYWQAak5f82IkJdeSRwCoWJtQGM49QXbEtdx29NIOwQ4E3aOkQsH1FLyydBCKt02VQkmkHzMC-QIJjtgfEhNwE/s400/Police+tape+surrounds+the+parking+lot+behind+the+AME+Emanuel+Church.+Dylann+Roof+SOUTH+CAROLINA.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Jurors unanimously agreed to sentence Dylann Roof to death for killing 9 black churchgoers.</i></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Bishop Robert E. Guglielmone said in a statement that the Catholic Church opposes capital punishment and reminded people that all life is sacred. "We are all sinners, but through the father's loving mercy and Jesus' redeeming sacrifice upon the cross, we have been offered the gift of eternal life. The Catholic opposition to the death penalty, therefore, is rooted in God's mercy. The church believes the right to life is paramount to every other right as it affords the opportunity for conversion, even of the hardened sinner," Bishop Guglielmone said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Sentencing Dylann Roof to death conflicts with the church's teaching that all human life is sacred, even for those who have committed the most heinous of crimes. Instead of pursuing death, we should be extending compassion and forgiveness to Mr. Roof, just as some of the victims' families did at his bond hearing in June 2015," the bishop added.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The jury had to reach a unanimous decision to sentence Roof to death. Had they disagreed, he would have been automatically sentenced to life in prison. He was convicted of 33 federal charges last month, including hate crimes. Roof acted as his own attorney and did not question any witnesses. In his FBI confession, he said he hoped the massacre would bring back segregation or start a race war, the Associated Press reported.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Bishop Guglielmone offered prayers of support for those who were killed and their families.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Our Catholic faith sustains our solidarity with and support for the victims of the Emanuel AME Church massacre and their relatives. We commit ourselves to walk with these family members as well as the survivors as they continue to heal from the trial and this tragedy," he said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The bishop asked people to continue to pray for the victims, survivors and families connected with the shooting. He also encouraged people to pray for Roof and his family.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"May he acknowledge his sins, convert to the Lord and experience his loving mercy," Bishop Guglielmone said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Rev. Clementa Pinckney, pastor of Emanuel AME Church, Tywanza Sanders, the Rev. Sharonda Singleton, the Rev. DePayne Middleton-Doctor, the Rev. Daniel Simmons Sr., the Rev. Cynthia Hurd, Myra Thompson, Ethel Lance, and Susie Jackson were killed in the shooting.</div><br />Source: catholicregister.org, January 11, 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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What's next for Dylann Roof?

Dylann Roof Charleston, South Carolina (CNN) -- Dylann Roof will be formally sentenced Wednesday after jurors recommended the death penalty ...

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Dylann Roof Is Sentenced to Death in Charleston Church Massacre

<div style="text-align: justify;"><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/AVvXsEgh3psWBGxf_X3jCVwYgHygOppsW40fkXziegQ3NdryI-vZNTlsWaX1y79Nc_CBuKGABtVuz367DjTLAZqSqVcQORAkcPulfaw89a9i7ijdu6ZnZDT-4T6BN1gFyQ-2qmwIDOlm1BLxSpw/s1600/Dylann+Roof+SC.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Dylann Roof" border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh3psWBGxf_X3jCVwYgHygOppsW40fkXziegQ3NdryI-vZNTlsWaX1y79Nc_CBuKGABtVuz367DjTLAZqSqVcQORAkcPulfaw89a9i7ijdu6ZnZDT-4T6BN1gFyQ-2qmwIDOlm1BLxSpw/s400/Dylann+Roof+SC.jpg" title="Dylann Roof" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dylann Roof</td></tr></tbody></table>CHARLESTON, S.C. — Dylann S. Roof, the impenitent and inscrutable white supremacist who killed nine African-American churchgoers in a brazenly racial assault almost 19 months ago, shocking the world over the persistence of extremist hatred in dark corners of the American South, was condemned to death by a federal jury on Tuesday.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The jury of nine whites and three blacks, who last month <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/15/us/dylann-roof-trial.html" target="_blank">found Mr. Roof</a> guilty of 33 counts for the attack at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Charleston, S.C., returned their unanimous verdict after about three hours of deliberations in the penalty phase of a heart-rending and often legally confounding trial.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The guilt of Mr. Roof, who <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/09/us/dylann-roof-shooting-charleston-south-carolina-church-video.html" target="_blank">coolly confessed</a> to the killings and then <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/05/us/no-regrets-from-dylann-roof-in-jailhouse-manifesto.html" target="_blank">justified them without remorse</a> in a jailhouse manifesto, was never in serious doubt during the first phase of the proceedings in Federal District Court in December. By the time the jurors began their deliberations on his sentence, it seemed inevitable that they would lean toward death, not only because of the heinous nature of the crimes but because Mr. Roof, 22, insisted on denying any psychological incapacity, called no witnesses, presented no evidence in his defense and mostly sidelined his court-appointed lawyers.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mr. Roof, who showed no emotion as the verdict was read, will be formally sentenced on Wednesday. The decision effectively capped Mr. Roof’s first trial for the killings on June 17, 2015, the Wednesday when, after six scouting visits to Charleston, he showed up in Emanuel’s fellowship hall and was offered a seat for Bible study by <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/26/us/clementa-pinckney-felt-called-to-spiritual-and-political-service.html" target="_blank">the Rev. Clementa C. Pinckney</a>. Mr. Roof sat quietly, his head hung low, for about 45 minutes while the group considered the meaning of the Gospel of Mark’s account of the Parable of the Sower.</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Then, with the parishioners’ eyes clenched for a benediction, Mr. Roof brandished the .45 caliber semiautomatic handgun he had smuggled into the church in a waist pouch. First taking aim at Mr. Pinckney, who was a state senator and the youngest African-American ever elected to South Carolina’s Legislature, he began to fire seven magazines of hollow-point rounds.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The reverberation of gunfire and clinking of skittering shell casings subsided only after more than 70 shots. Each victim was hit repeatedly, with the eldest, Susie Jackson, an 87-year-old grandmother and church matriarch, struck at least 10 times.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">During the brief siege, the youngest victim, Tywanza Sanders, 26, pleaded with Mr. Roof not to kill. “You blacks are killing white people on the streets everyday and raping white women everyday,” Mr. Roof said during the rampage, according to a jailhouse manifesto he wrote after his arrest.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Before leaving shortly after 9 p.m., Mr. Roof <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/14/us/dylann-roof-trial-charleston.html" target="_blank">told one of three survivors</a>, Polly Sheppard, that he was sparing her so she could “tell the story.” He stepped over one minister’s bleeding body on his way out the side door, Glock pistol at his side. The killer expected to find officers waiting for him, and had saved ammunition to take his own life, Mr. Roof said in his confession to two F.B.I. agents.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But the police, alerted by 911 calls from Ms. Sheppard and Mr. Pinckney’s wife, Jennifer, who was hiding with their 6-year-old daughter under a desk in the pastor’s study, had not yet arrived. Mr. Roof got into his black Hyundai Elantra and drove north through the night on country roads.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Officers in Shelby, N.C., detained Mr. Roof the next morning after a florist on her way to work spotted his car, which had been depicted in nationally broadcast alerts based on images from the church’s security cameras. Mr. Roof offered no resistance, admitted that he had been involved in the shootings and directed the officers to the murder weapon under a pillow on the back seat.</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">In addition to Ms. Jackson, Mr. Pinckney and Mr. Sanders, six other people were killed: Cynthia Hurd, Ethel Lee Lance, the Rev. DePayne Middleton Doctor, the Rev. Daniel L. Simmons Sr., the Rev. Sharonda Coleman-Singleton and Myra Thompson.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">They were familiar, frequent presences at the church known as Mother Emanuel, the oldest A.M.E. congregation in the Deep South and one with <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/19/us/charleston-killings-evoke-history-of-violence-against-black-churches.html" target="_blank">a storied history</a> of resistance to slavery and civil rights advocacy over nearly 200 years. In 10 days of testimony, their names and photographs appeared again and again. Family members filled the reserved seats on the right side of the courtroom each day, and 23 relatives and friends delivered emotional testimonials to their character and the impact of their loss.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ms. Hurd, a librarian, had adopted a simple motto for her life: “Be kinder than necessary.” Ms. Lance was a perfume aficionado with a gentle smile that unified her family. Ms. Middleton Doctor’s first sermon had been titled “The Virtuous Woman.” Mr. Simmons, a veteran of the Vietnam War, had been among the first blacks in South Carolina hired to drive a Greyhound bus. Ms. Coleman-Singleton was a beaming mother whose ebullient preaching made her a popular figure in Charleston’s churches. Ms. Thompson was a workhorse of Emanuel who had chaired its trustee board. Mr. Sanders, whose parents found hundreds of poems in his bedroom, aspired to become an entertainment lawyer.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“That night, they were getting basic instructions before leaving earth,” Felicia Sanders, Mr. Sanders’s mother and a survivor of the attack, testified.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The jury found Mr. Roof guilty in December of hate crimes resulting in death, obstruction of religion and use of a firearm to commit murder during a crime of violence. Eighteen of the 33 counts carried a potential death sentence.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Although Mr. Roof declined to testify or present any evidence, his trial was unusual for the jury’s ability to hear from an accused mass murderer in his own unapologetic words. They watched video of his two-hour confession to the F.B.I., and heard readings of his online manifesto, a journal found in his car, suicide letters to his parents, and a jailhouse essay written within seven weeks after his arrest.</div><br />The trial became a duel of competing narratives on the slightly-built, ninth-grade dropout from the Columbia area. In the prosecution’s depiction, Mr. Roof was the personification of evil, a racist ideologue, radicalized on the internet, who plotted an intensely premeditated assault over more than six months, waiting only until he was 21 and old enough to buy a weapon.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">He downloaded a history of the Ku Klux Klan 10 months before the attack, used the online handle LilAryan to communicate with like-minded white nationalists, created the website <a href="http://www.lastrhodesian.com/" target="_blank">www.lastrhodesian.com</a> to post a deliberative screed against blacks, Hispanics and Jews, and audaciously adorned his canvas prison shoes with supremacist symbols, even wearing them to court. He proudly embraced his mission to incite a race war, and admired himself in his writings for having the courage to carry out actions that less-committed racists only prophesied.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Sometimes sitting in my cell,” Mr. Roof wrote while in jail, “I think about how nice it would be to watch a movie or eat some good food or drive my car somewhere, but then I remember how I felt when I did these things, and how I knew I had to do something. And then I realize it was worth it.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But in the portrayal suggested by defense lawyers, Mr. Roof was a deeply disturbed delusionist who most demonstrated his incapacity by denying it. Indeed, Mr. Roof <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/01/us/dylann-roof-execution-defense-charleston-church-shooting.html" target="_blank">insisted on representing himself</a> during the sentencing phase for the purpose of preventing his experienced capital defender, David I. Bruck, from introducing potentially mitigating evidence about his family, educational background or mental health. Mr. Roof sat impassively at the defense table, almost every minute of every day, showing no interest or expression even when his own words were read aloud.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The results of at least two psychiatric evaluations have been <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/02/us/dylann-roof-charleston-church-killer-is-deemed-competent-for-sentencing.html" target="_blank">kept under seal</a> by Judge Richard M. Gergel, who ruled Mr. Roof competent to stand trial and to represent himself. Jurors heard little of Mr. Roof’s family, which arrived in Lexington County from Germany in the first half of the 18th century and included Lutheran ministers, Confederate soldiers, slaveholders and two county sheriffs, according to a family genealogy.</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">His paternal grandfather is a well-regarded lawyer and his father a construction contractor. Mr. Roof was born in 1994 to parents who had already divorced but had briefly reconciled. Mr. Roof began his online treatise by absolving them of any responsibility for his beliefs: “I was not raised in a racist home or environment.” Experts on white supremacists said Mr. Roof was younger than most who resort to violence, and stands apart for his lack of contact with organized groups.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Carol S. Steiker, a Harvard law professor who has written extensively about the death penalty, said that the two narratives about Mr. Roof were not necessarily inconsistent, and that a concealed psychological defect could have left Mr. Roof susceptible to a disconnected worldview. “It’s pretty hard to tell the difference between bad and mad, between evil and crazy,” she said, “and that’s why we need the investigation needed to present a mitigating case.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mr. Roof’s rampage staggered this area, which was already reeling from the April 2015 <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/08/us/south-carolina-officer-is-charged-with-murder-in-black-mans-death.html" target="_blank">shooting death</a> of an unarmed black man, Walter L. Scott, by Michael T. Slager, a white police officer in North Charleston.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But two days after the church shootings, with Mr. Roof standing expressionless in the Charleston County jail, five relatives of the victims publicly <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/20/us/charleston-shooting-dylann-storm-roof.html" target="_blank">offered him forgiveness</a> during an extraordinary bond hearing. The following week, President Obama argued in <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/27/us/thousands-gather-for-funeral-of-clementa-pinckney-in-charleston.html" target="_blank">a soaring eulogy for Mr. Pinckney</a>, which culminated in an a cappella rendition of “Amazing Grace,” that the attack’s lessons offered a way forward for race relations.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Later, South Carolina lawmakers <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/11/us/south-carolina-confederate-flag.html">voted to remove</a> the Confederate battle flag from the grounds of the Statehouse in Columbia, where it had flown for more than a half-century and enjoyed decades of political protection.</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The Justice Department <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/25/us/dylann-roof-will-face-federal-death-penalty-in-charleston-church-killings.html" target="_blank">announced last May</a> that its prosecutors would seek the death penalty for Mr. Roof, in part because of what officials described as his “substantial planning and premeditation” and his “hatred and contempt” toward black people. Although federal capital prosecutions are complex and expensive, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/26/us/death-penalty-dylann-roof-charleston.html" target="_blank">the government rejected</a> Mr. Roof’s offer to plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence.</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Federal law classifies the jury’s decision as a binding “recommendation,” and Mr. Roof will be sentenced formally at a later hearing, when survivors of the attack and relatives of the victims may testify without constraints in the trial intended to preserve his due process rights.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Yet the verdict confers no certainty about whether Mr. Roof will ever be put to death at a federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind. His case could spur years of appeals — the courts could well consider his mental competency and even the tearful tenor of the sentencing phase — and the scarcity of lethal injection drugs could hinder his execution.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The federal government has not killed one of its prisoners since 2003. Mr. Roof also faces a separate capital prosecution for murder in South Carolina, where no inmate has been put to death in more than five years. The state trial, initially set for Jan. 17, has been indefinitely postponed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">That it at times seemed more important to Mr. Roof to not be depicted as mentally ill than to avoid execution prompted some in the courtroom to question whether he simply preferred to die than to serve a long life in prison. His writings and confession offered evidence on both sides of that question, wavering between glimmers of hope — even that he might someday be pardoned — and an attraction to the prospects of martyrdom. But his commitment to his cause — the restoration of white power through violent subjugation — never publicly flagged.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“I have shed a tear of self pity for myself,” he wrote in 2015. “I feel pity that I had to do what I did in the first place. I feel pity that I had to give up my life because of a situation that should never have existed.”</div><br />Source: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/10/us/dylann-roof-trial-charleston.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a>, Alan Blinder, Kevin Sack, January 10, 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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Dylann Roof Is Sentenced to Death in Charleston Church Massacre

Dylann Roof CHARLESTON, S.C. — Dylann S. Roof, the impenitent and inscrutable white supremacist who killed nine African-American churchgoers...

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Colorado: New DA McCann says Denver is done with 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/AVvXsEgM3J5JrAJ9GWwgcIwahIpZkQTjp5ewwVML2aqTJObNSvFbOeaVf96aICx_6uJqqVBdXCSsfG5_HPCechJ4NQHUAymu0FGMnbyBxEau1Y0wKT-BCB34vqO0TVnvCHXo2xcuwT2Lz1TBeJU/s1600/Beth+McCann+Denver+DA+Colorado.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="DA Beth McCann" border="0" height="330" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM3J5JrAJ9GWwgcIwahIpZkQTjp5ewwVML2aqTJObNSvFbOeaVf96aICx_6uJqqVBdXCSsfG5_HPCechJ4NQHUAymu0FGMnbyBxEau1Y0wKT-BCB34vqO0TVnvCHXo2xcuwT2Lz1TBeJU/s400/Beth+McCann+Denver+DA+Colorado.jpg" title="DA Beth McCann" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">DA Beth McCann, Denver, Colorado</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">Denver is done with the death penalty. It dies as District Attorney Mitch Morrissey leaves office on Tuesday.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">His successor, Democrat Beth McCann, sat down with Next, and said she'll make good on her campaign promise to remove Denver from the list of the few remaining judicial districts in the state to seek capital punishment.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"We are (done) under my administration," she said. "I don't think that the state should be in the business of killing people."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">McCann believes life in prison gets the point of a punishment across, and "the millions and millions of dollars" the state spends on capital punishment cases can be saved to prosecute others.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Morrisey sought the death penalty once. It was for Dexter Lewis, who was found guilty of stabbing five people to death in a Fero's Bar.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Lee_Davis" target="_blank">Gary Davis</a> is the only person put to death in Colorado since the Supreme Court reinstated it in 1976. Davis was put to death in 1997.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">McCann is not looking to lead a statewide repeal of the death penalty, and she says she'd support a voter referendum on the issue, or repeal in the legislature.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Tuesday, 9NEWS will talk to McCann about how she plans to handle prosecution of police officers accused of breaking the law, and how her work as a gun control advocate will impact how she prosecutes gun crimes in Denver. </div><br />Source: <a href="http://www.9news.com/news/local/next/new-da-mccann-says-denver-is-done-with-the-death-penalty/384633301" target="_blank">9NEWS</a>, Kyle Clark, Jan 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? 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Colorado: New DA McCann says Denver is done with the death penalty

DA Beth McCann, Denver, Colorado Denver is done with the death penalty. It dies as District Attorney Mitch Morrissey leaves office on Tuesda...

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New Mexico: GOP to revive death penalty proposal during session

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM4VhB6bJnpsknngby5-KEVLHYw2smb0fqQjGNmEkcsS5uIeCmhxrpHGfvV43Uzi73qWukVm7VSf0VlQ-WCOWmwm6M6J1uMkIY1jhB53MMeQf4GbUR5rQso1ERGIv2VAv4vwLHOPPX7V0/s1600/New+Mexico.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM4VhB6bJnpsknngby5-KEVLHYw2smb0fqQjGNmEkcsS5uIeCmhxrpHGfvV43Uzi73qWukVm7VSf0VlQ-WCOWmwm6M6J1uMkIY1jhB53MMeQf4GbUR5rQso1ERGIv2VAv4vwLHOPPX7V0/s400/New+Mexico.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The death penalty will again be an issue in the state Legislature when it reconvenes next week.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A capital punishment bill, sponsored by Rep. Monica Youngblood, R-Albuquerque, is identical to what was perhaps the most divisive piece of legislation in last fall’s special session of the Legislature.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But unlike last year, Republicans — who lost control of the House in the November election — will have a much harder time getting a capital punishment bill to the House floor.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“It’s my hope that people don’t see it as a full reinstatement of the death penalty,” Youngblood said Monday.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The state abolished the death penalty in 2009.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Youngblood said her bill, House Bill 72, targets “only the most heinous criminals, the ones that prey upon our children and our police officers.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Like last year’s bill, which she co-sponsored, Youngblood’s new bill would make murdering a law enforcement officer, corrections personnel or a child the only crimes that would be eligible for a death sentence.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Youngblood said polls show most New Mexicans favor capital punishment for certain crimes.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But Rep. Matthew McQueen, D-Galisteo, said Monday the death penalty is riddled with problems.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“There have been numerous examples around the country as well as in New Mexico of people who were sentenced to death later being exonerated,” McQueen said. “And it’s tremendously expensive. I believe it’s a waste of resources. I’m hopeful this year we’ll make short work of it.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Bringing back capital punishment would bring additional costs to a judicial system already strapped by the state’s budget crunch.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Sen. Pete Campos, D-Las Vegas, in an opinion piece submitted to various news organizations, wrote, “New Mexico’s courts face a funding crisis that threatens to undermine the judiciary’s ability to protect our rights by delivering timely justice. … The prosecution of criminal cases is being impaired. Some courts confront the possibility of dismissing cases because the state’s public defender office lacks the staff and budget it needs to handle more cases.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A fiscal analysis by the Legislative Finance Committee of last year’s death penalty bill said reinstating executions could cost the state up to $7.2 million a year over a three-year period.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“The cost to the judicial system to process one individual through the death penalty process, which historically has taken an average of 11 years, is about $105,000 per year,” the report says. “The cost to incarcerate one individual on death row is $51,100 a year.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheS9oAXTjvL6YAs1IMaXgtDn35NxqQzNMN8nUuB2lhsOiL4rx5S8PiR8L9I9EsRuQvvvBWSjm2Vd8OnbKk2AJbJRhhk_nBTEdic_jQjh79oC5UhmFhPprOLnJMspAagZQYPAxIiJrK3Gk/s1600/dollars.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheS9oAXTjvL6YAs1IMaXgtDn35NxqQzNMN8nUuB2lhsOiL4rx5S8PiR8L9I9EsRuQvvvBWSjm2Vd8OnbKk2AJbJRhhk_nBTEdic_jQjh79oC5UhmFhPprOLnJMspAagZQYPAxIiJrK3Gk/s400/dollars.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In the analysis, the Administrative Office of the Courts estimated that a death penalty jury trial would cost $12,000 to $17,000 more than a nondeath penalty case. More jury costs would be incurred because after finding someone guilty in a death penalty case, a jury would have to determine whether to impose capital punishment.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The report also said that in cases stemming from the 2007 Santa Rosa prison riot — in which prosecutors initially sought the death penalty for three inmates in the killing of a corrections officer — the state Public Defender’s Office spent $474,600 on contract defense attorneys, $1 million on expert witnesses and $76,800 on other costs before trial. The total expense to the department was $1.6 million.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In that case, the state Supreme Court ruled that unless the Legislature appropriated funds in addition to the $1.1 million previously allocated for the case, the death penalty could not be imposed. The Legislature didn’t approve those funds, so prosecutors dropped the death penalty from the case.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">HB 72 includes a number of mitigating circumstances — such as the defendant’s age, mental capacity and prior criminal record — that could be weighed by a jury in considering imposing the death penalty. Executions would not be allowed if the defendant suffers “intellectual disabilities.” And if a condemned inmate is pregnant, the execution would be held until the baby is born.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">At the end of October’s special session, the House voted 36-30 along party lines to reinstate the death penalty, with Republicans in the majority. This followed a debate that started after midnight and ended just before 6 a.m. Many critics, including state religious leaders, blasted House leaders for holding the debate during the wee hours without any public notice. Hours later, the Senate voted to adjourn without considering the bill.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Last year was the first time that capital-punishment supporters made a serious effort to bring back the death penalty. The push came following several cases of police killings and child murders, including the rape and dismemberment of 10-year-old Victoria Martens.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Democrats criticized the idea of considering the capital punishment bill during the special session, which originally was meant to deal with the state’s budget crisis. Some said it was nothing but a political ploy for Republicans to use during the general election.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">If so, that plan backfired. Republicans lost control of the House after two years of being the majority. Though Republican Gov. Susana Martinez’s political team was successful in bringing down Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez, D-Belen — who opposed the death penalty bill — the GOP suffered a net loss in the Senate.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Between 1979 and 2007, when the death penalty was an option to prosecutors, there were more than 200 death penalty cases filed, but only 15 men sentenced to death and only one execution.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Though the death penalty was repealed in 2009, two inmates who previously were convicted for murders remain on death row. They are Timothy Allen, convicted in 1995, and Robert Fry, convicted for a murder in 2000.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>Source: <a href="http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/gop-to-revive-death-penalty-proposal-during-session/article_66a64a09-d3b9-5467-87c0-2f7d46f1682b.html" target="_blank">The New Mexican</a>, Steve Terrell, January 9-10, 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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New Mexico: GOP to revive death penalty proposal during session

The death penalty will again be an issue in the state Legislature when it reconvenes next week. A capital punishment bill, sponsored by Rep....

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Dylann Roof Calls No Witness, Offers No Evidence in Death Penalty Hearings

<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/AVvXsEj9azbJLd60yG4hgq7cswRtx3-HBMxdlX1PR6-Ka83XQT27seFSkJf6xEw6ipIciI6PSoArV5L0Ln5aEEi0W1vUNtKmhDdMkMW7noaAKGM5hrQ-yDnV7VYOMtsBuXQ04WIvzyOAOLfeHtU/s1600/Dylann+Roof+SC.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Dylann Roof" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9azbJLd60yG4hgq7cswRtx3-HBMxdlX1PR6-Ka83XQT27seFSkJf6xEw6ipIciI6PSoArV5L0Ln5aEEi0W1vUNtKmhDdMkMW7noaAKGM5hrQ-yDnV7VYOMtsBuXQ04WIvzyOAOLfeHtU/s400/Dylann+Roof+SC.jpg" title="Dylann Roof" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dylann Roof</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">Federal prosecutors rested their case on Monday that convicted killer and self-proclaimed white supremacist Dylann Roof should be executed for gunning down nine worshipers at a South Carolina church in 2015.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">So did Roof, who is representing himself during the penalty phase of his federal trial.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Over four days of testimony, Roof, 22, didn't make much of an argument that he should be spared. He didn't challenge any of the government's witnesses — some 38 victims of the attack on Emanuel AME Church were expected to testify — nor did he call any of his own witnesses.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Roof did, however, seek to limit how many victims government prosecutors could present. (In a motion, he described their testimony as "excessive".) And in his opening statement last Wednesday — his first public statement since the June 17 attack — he explained the highly unusual choice to act as his own lawyer.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I chose to represent myself to prevent my lawyers from presenting [my] mental health evaluation," Roof said, adding: "There is nothing wrong with me psychologically."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Meanwhile, the government called witness after witness to offer a window into the emotionally raw aftermath of the June 17 attack.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Denise Quarles, for instance, described in blunt terms how it felt to hear that her mother, Myra Thompson, had been killed at a place that her family had considered a sanctuary.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On Monday, Roof filed a motion that seeks to prevent government lawyers from using "unfair and constitutional" words and references in its closing argument on Tuesday. Among them are "evil," "hate" and a reference to Hitler from his personal writings.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Roof is also expected to deliver a closing argument, though it is unclear what he will say.</div><br />Source: <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/charleston-church-shooting/dylann-roof-calls-no-witness-offers-no-evidence-death-penalty-n704961" target="_blank">NBC News</a>, 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? 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Dylann Roof Calls No Witness, Offers No Evidence in Death Penalty Hearings

Dylann Roof Federal prosecutors rested their case on Monday that convicted killer and self-proclaimed white supremacist Dylann Roof should b...

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120-day Delay Requested in Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Death Penalty Appeal

<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/AVvXsEhW_HsT9EnbN4j6lU6C76GCa2Ii621kL_YXbHz0fmlAIBC05nLi4Gv6Ow47YPbsYKE68j72wBBRf6oqsGB59ugjdtlLWv5YLPVeNLhRQ_QvuAcAjsi8XAczolJqNrsH0qXtUdkiLUIEXs4/s1600/D+Tsarnaev.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="D. Tsarnaev" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW_HsT9EnbN4j6lU6C76GCa2Ii621kL_YXbHz0fmlAIBC05nLi4Gv6Ow47YPbsYKE68j72wBBRf6oqsGB59ugjdtlLWv5YLPVeNLhRQ_QvuAcAjsi8XAczolJqNrsH0qXtUdkiLUIEXs4/s320/D+Tsarnaev.jpg" title="D. Tsarnaev" width="277" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">D. Tsarnaev</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">As a second man <a href="http://patch.com/massachusetts/boston/gary-lee-sampson-verdict-return-death-row" target="_blank">rejoins</a> Massachusetts' short list of convicts sentenced to death, lawyers are reportedly seeking another delay in the appeals process that would spare the life of convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dhzokar Tsarnaev.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Boston Herald's Laurel Sweet <a href="https://twitter.com/Laurel_Sweet/status/818562379864821760">reports</a> Monday that the team appealing Tsarnaev's sentence is requesting another two-month delay to build their case.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Those arguments were initially due last October, but the team received a 120-day delay at that time. They requested another today, according to Sweet.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Tsarnaev was <a href="http://patch.com/massachusetts/newton/jury-reaches-death-penalty-verdict-boston-marathon-bomber-0" target="_blank">sentenced to the death penalty</a> in summer of 2015 for his role in the 2013 bombings that killed three people and injured 250 more. He also killed a police officer in the ensuing manhunt. The jury's unanimous decision followed 14 hours of deliberation.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Also on Monday, convicted killer Gary Lee Sampson <a href="http://patch.com/massachusetts/boston/gary-lee-sampson-verdict-return-death-row" target="_blank">lost his second bid to avoid death row</a>. A jury added him back to a short list of federal convicts on death row and an even shorter list of people from Massachusetts receiving the sentence. The death penalty is illegal in Massachusetts, but both Sampson and Tsarnaev's cases are federal, and therefore an exception.</div><br />Source: <a href="http://patch.com/massachusetts/boston/another-delay-requested-dzhokhar-tsarnaev-death-penalty-appeal-report" target="_blank">Boston Patch</a>, Alison Bauter, 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>

120-day Delay Requested in Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Death Penalty Appeal

D. Tsarnaev As a second man rejoins Massachusetts' short list of convicts sentenced to death, lawyers are reportedly seeking another de...

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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? 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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...

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