Arkansas judge criticizes secrecy in U.S. executions

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKrWGKnCqVqhI-KEAdf9q_SwmSBsVt0AdJwFaQVBgjcM78MeX08DVRDH3cAA3xpqknQPtdDxCMzLWyJ8fqBBwKqZqxAocd1EQDIwGxB3mgjGdhMU3UVX4aFzTOypxloIwPnDmJHAshyIQ/s1600/Lethal+injections.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKrWGKnCqVqhI-KEAdf9q_SwmSBsVt0AdJwFaQVBgjcM78MeX08DVRDH3cAA3xpqknQPtdDxCMzLWyJ8fqBBwKqZqxAocd1EQDIwGxB3mgjGdhMU3UVX4aFzTOypxloIwPnDmJHAshyIQ/s320/Lethal+injections.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">An Arkansas judge who last year declared unconstitutional a law that allows the state to keep confidential the source of drugs used for execution by lethal injection has lamented a 5-4 decision by the Arkansas Supreme Court reversing his ruling.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In a breakout session on the death penalty at the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship General Assembly June 24, Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen said that since the Supreme Court upheld the use of capital punishment for certain crimes, the death penalty debate has shifted to whether specific execution procedures satisfy the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"How it's being done now is we'll make sure it's nice by making sure it's secret so you don't know how barbaric it is," said Griffen, who also serves as pastor of CBF-affiliated New Millennium Church in Little Rock, Ark. Griffen said legal action surrounding capital punishment now focuses on "seeking to discover the chemicals that are being used to put people to death and discover where they are coming from."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The day before the Arkansas Supreme Court upheld a state law that allows for the type, manufacturers and sellers of drugs used for lethal injections to be kept confidential. The law is designed to ensure the state can find a place to buy the drugs in a market where pharmaceutical companies are rapidly withdrawing from the lethal injection trade.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Not only are inmates on death row not entitled to know who is selling the drugs, Griffen said, they also cannot find out the qualifications of the individuals who will administer them.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"If you want to euthanize your dog, you know that under your state only the people who have certain credentials can put your dog down," Griffen said at the CBF workshop. "If you want to euthanize your neighbor - if you want to kill your neighbor in the name of the state - I 10-time double-dog dare you to find out the qualifications of the person who is doing it."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"As a matter of fact, there is no requirement that the state tell you, and they have an affirmative obligation to not disclose that," the judge continued. "It is amazing. One would call it irony, but it's too nice a word."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Pfizer, the world's 2nd-largest drug company adopted distribution controls in March to prevent its drugs from reaching execution chambers across the United States.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Pfizer makes its products to enhance and save the lives of the patients we serve," the company said in a statement. "Consistent with these values, Pfizer strongly objects to the use of its products as lethal injections for capital punishment."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Reprieve, a New York-based human rights organization, said in May that all 25 FDA-approved manufacturers of potential execution drugs now have blocked their sale for use in capital punishment.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The ruling by the Arkansas high court clears the way for the execution of 8 people on death row whose lives were extended by Griffen's temporary restraining order last Oct. 9. One of the state's execution drugs expires before the Supreme Court decision goes in effect, however, and the supplier has told officials it would not supply any more.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: baptistnews.com, June 27, 2016</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">- Report an error, an omission:<a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com" target="_blank"> deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span> <span style="font-size: small;"> - Follow us on <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> </b>and <b><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b></span></div></div>

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Arkansas death penalty drug expiring before use

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2O1EOnM_Xk5Lgh8Bvmeh4sOPdyeBt1m5Fv6ibpGBTlZ4Y_V5L1M0Q14jnXvPpkVNozrbNC6A2KZ2ZZxzaW3Q2IjZfpDBqHO6AjscZhlKSBYR2Hf0z_drJMiVgv9PbNC5ZILNkeN__Vbc/s1600/Lethal+injections.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2O1EOnM_Xk5Lgh8Bvmeh4sOPdyeBt1m5Fv6ibpGBTlZ4Y_V5L1M0Q14jnXvPpkVNozrbNC6A2KZ2ZZxzaW3Q2IjZfpDBqHO6AjscZhlKSBYR2Hf0z_drJMiVgv9PbNC5ZILNkeN__Vbc/s320/Lethal+injections.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Court OKs execution but requires wait; AG won't ask for a rush</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">1 of Arkansas' execution drugs will expire before a court decision upholding the state's execution law goes into effect, and might be impossible to replace.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A spokesman for Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge said Friday that she will not ask the state's Supreme Court to expedite finalizing its Thursday ruling that upheld Arkansas' execution secrecy law and drug protocol. The executions of 8 people are waiting for that ruling.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Generally, rulings are final 18 days after opinions are issued. Without the attorney general's request, the ruling takes effect July 11 - days after the state's supply of vecuronium bromide, a paralytic the state uses in executions, expires.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"After careful consideration and analysis, the attorney general has decided not to seek an expedited mandate from the court. But once the court issues the mandate, the attorney general is fully prepared to ask the governor to set execution dates to see that justice is served," said Rutledge spokesman Judd Deere.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">After the mandate is issued, the stays on the 8 executions would be lifted. But with 1 of the 3 drugs expiring June 30 and the supplier telling the state it would not provide more, it was unclear when the state could resume executions.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Solomon Graves, spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Correction, said he would not speculate about what will happen after the supply of the paralytic expires. Deere said Thursday that the attorney general's office would not advise the Department of Correction to use expired drugs.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The inmates' attorney, Jeff Rosenzweig, said he did not have a comment on the attorney general's decision. He said he still plans to file a petition with the court asking for a rehearing before the mandate is issued.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The court ruled Thursday in a 4-3 decision that the state's 3-drug protocol and the law that allows Arkansas to keep its source of drugs confidential are constitutional. The inmates had argued that Arkansas' execution secrecy law could lead to cruel and unusual punishment and that the state reneged on a pledge to share information.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But the high court said that a lower court "erred in ruling that public access to the identity of the supplier of the 3 drugs (the Arkansas Department of Correction) has obtained would positively enhance the functioning of executions in Arkansas. As has been well documented, disclosing the information is actually detrimental to the process."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The inmates argued that without disclosure of the source and other information they had no way to determine whether the midazolam, vecuronium bromide or potassium chloride would lead to cruel and unusual punishment.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The inmates also argued that the secrecy law violates a settlement in an earlier lawsuit that guaranteed inmates would be given the information. The court agreed with the state that the agreement is not a binding contract.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Attorneys for the state said at least 5 other courts have ruled that the three drugs used in Arkansas' protocol are acceptable, including the sedative midazolam. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld Oklahoma's use of midazolam last year.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: Associated Press, June 24, 2016</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">- Report an error, an omission:<a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com" target="_blank"> deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span> <span style="font-size: small;"> - Follow us on <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> </b>and <b><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b></span></div></div>

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Death penalty case latest test for Arkansas court

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ3YOdSNkkeO3FBKj6SMt38gpwl17Rk9eZU6XKW4BMaXegob0UevpSzjG_R3Q-RxFLSWs-wawCJxH02sA_6F7kNvuqwyFf02UnLELQnCtTYD3RJViUJzJINM94isFQYS_W7CbIoZsdizw/s1600/Lethal+injections.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ3YOdSNkkeO3FBKj6SMt38gpwl17Rk9eZU6XKW4BMaXegob0UevpSzjG_R3Q-RxFLSWs-wawCJxH02sA_6F7kNvuqwyFf02UnLELQnCtTYD3RJViUJzJINM94isFQYS_W7CbIoZsdizw/s320/Lethal+injections.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A looming Arkansas Supreme Court decision over whether information about execution drugs should be kept secret could reveal whether the state's death penalty system is truly "broken," as Arkansas' last top attorney once claimed. It's the 1st major test for a court whose sharp divisions last year over another divisive issue - gay marriage - resulted in justices punting rather than deciding.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Unlike the gay marriage case, the state's highest court can't rely on the U.S. Supreme Court to step in and decide the issue. But the clock is still ticking, with days to go until part of Arkansas' execution drug supply expires.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Roughly a month has passed since justices heard oral arguments from lawyers for the state and the inmates. A lower court struck down the secrecy law, which lets the prison system withhold information about the manufacturer, seller and other information about the lethal drugs, even from the inmates themselves. 8 death-row inmates sued to overturn the law.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Arkansas has 34 inmates on death row, but hasn't executed an inmate since 2005, when Mike Huckabee, a Republican, was governor.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Former Gov. Mike Beebe, a Democrat, signed death warrants while in office but completed 8 years in office without one taking place, because of legal challenges. He also said he would have abolished the death penalty if lawmakers sent him legislation doing so.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Beebe's successor, Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson, is a death penalty supporter but has gone through the first year and a half of his term without an execution.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Hutchinson set dates last year for the first executions since 2005, but the court granted stays until the inmates' challenge was heard. At the time, he cast it as another step in the legal process.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Had it not been set, then we would be sitting here 2 years, 3 years from now waiting for the next court challenge," Hutchinson told reporters. "Nothing moves if the governor does not set the date."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The window is closing for any of the executions to move forward, even if the state wins the case. Arkansas has until June 30 to execute the inmates with drugs it currently has on-hand. 15 doses of the paralytic vecuronium bromide expire at the end of next month, and the state's supplier has said it will not provide anymore. Sending the case back to Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen, who struck down the law, could narrow that window even further.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Complicating that timeline further is the fact that Supreme Court decisions typically take effect 18 days after they're issued - though justices can stray from that practice.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">If justices were to allow executions to move forward, Hutchinson and state officials will be faced with the question of how - and if - the state should put 8 men to death in a matter of days. If justices agree with Griffen and strike down the execution law, it puts the state in a familiar position of trying to revive a death penalty process that's been in limbo for more than a decade due to court challenges and drug shortages.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It would also come nearly three years after former Attorney General Dustin McDaniel bemoaned the state of the death penalty system, saying he didn't see executions resuming anytime soon.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I continue to support the death penalty, but it's time to be frank. Our death penalty system as it currently exists is completely broken," McDaniel said 3 years ago.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The uncertainty surrounding the case is similar to last year, when the state weighed whether to uphold a judge's decision striking down Arkansas' ban on gay marriage. That case was sidelined for months over an unusually public dispute over which justices could hear it. Justices ultimately dismissed the case hours after the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This case may not provide clarity on the future of executions in Arkansas. But it could indicate whether the state's highest court is willing to, at least this time, give a definitive answer on a controversial matter.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: Associated Press, June 19, 2016</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">- Report an error, an omission:<a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com" target="_blank"> deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span> <span style="font-size: small;"> - Follow us on <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> </b>and <b><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b></span></div></div>

Abolition Arkansas lethal injections USA Death penalty case latest test for Arkansas court

A looming Arkansas Supreme Court decision over whether information about execution drugs should be kept secret could reveal whether the stat...

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