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>

Arkansas lethal injections Pfizer Pharmacies USA Arkansas judge criticizes secrecy in U.S. executions

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Arizona abandons use of sedative as a lethal-injection drug

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoFigrYakdS66rpfaFLQlxyWrD9DfAV4UzI6OSGga-WV4iPE5bEZJhmrV3-j7TRYHVaSQ8M66WmHyc14Q8kCaan26PyPKL0f3NMCC_BrmT4R2mOKbnxtGCqeUymvO3uzmtedR_gmAIejQ/s1600/Midazolam.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Midazolam" border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoFigrYakdS66rpfaFLQlxyWrD9DfAV4UzI6OSGga-WV4iPE5bEZJhmrV3-j7TRYHVaSQ8M66WmHyc14Q8kCaan26PyPKL0f3NMCC_BrmT4R2mOKbnxtGCqeUymvO3uzmtedR_gmAIejQ/s400/Midazolam.jpeg" title="Midazolam" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The state of Arizona has eliminated its use of the sedative midazolam as one of the drugs it relies on in carrying out executions.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Lawyers for the state said in a court filing Friday that its current supply of midazolam expired on May 31 and that Arizona's sources of the drug have dried up because of pressure from opponents of the death penalty.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">That leaves Arizona with other lethal-drug combinations, but the state's lawyers said they can't currently carry out executions because it has no access to supplies of pentobarbital and sodium thiopental.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The status of the state's lethal-injection drug supplies were revealed Friday in a court filing in a lawsuit that challenges the way Arizona carries out the death penalty.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Executions in Arizona were put on hold after the July 2014 death of convicted killer Joseph Rudolph Wood, who was given 15 doses of midazolam and a painkiller and who took nearly 2 hours to die. His attorney says the execution was botched.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Executions in Arizona remain on hold until the lawsuit is resolved.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A ruling last month by U.S. District Judge Neil Wake dismissed parts of the lawsuit, but other elements of the case remain alive.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The state argued in its filing Friday that the lawsuit is moot now that midazolam is off the table.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Dale Baich, one of the attorneys representing death row prisoners, said that even if the lawsuit's claims involving lethal-injection drugs are dismissed, his clients still have claims that Arizona Department of Corrections Director Charles Ryan has abused his discretion in the methods and amounts of the drugs used in past executions.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"It's our belief that the unlimited discretion that the director has during the execution process violates the Eighth Amendment," which forbids cruel and unusual punishment, Baich said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Similar challenges to the death penalty are playing out in other parts of the country that seek more transparency about where states get their execution drugs.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">States are struggling to obtain execution drugs because European pharmaceutical companies began blocking the use of their products for lethal injections. Death penalty states refuse to disclose the sources of their drugs, though the sources are widely believed to be compounding pharmacies - organizations that make drugs tailored to the needs of a specific client. Those pharmacies do not face the same approval process or testing standards of larger pharmaceutical companies.</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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The state of Arizona has eliminated its use of the sedative midazolam as one of the drugs it relies on in carrying out executions. Lawyers f...

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7th Oklahoma death row inmate now eligible for execution date

<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/AVvXsEh_Ft0ztXGrsuu5sUplIO9Xf1Ueo6opr-mKL_OgKIUpEkx9UlltAQ6Yx2XMmA8FoUxFaBIz7olFyoAUnYMFhPyXtSDux2EJlg83yFhwj_8HHpsgyExAleuSDMkLa4fO7YX5imJeJcUq_Bc/s1600/The+Oklahoma+State+Penitentiary+in+McAlester.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Oklahoma State Penitentiary" border="0" height="252" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_Ft0ztXGrsuu5sUplIO9Xf1Ueo6opr-mKL_OgKIUpEkx9UlltAQ6Yx2XMmA8FoUxFaBIz7olFyoAUnYMFhPyXtSDux2EJlg83yFhwj_8HHpsgyExAleuSDMkLa4fO7YX5imJeJcUq_Bc/s400/The+Oklahoma+State+Penitentiary+in+McAlester.jpg" title="Oklahoma State Penitentiary" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Oklahoma State Penitentiary</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">The U.S. Supreme Court rejected the final appeal on Monday of Oklahoma death row inmate Scott Eizember, whose 2003 crime spree resulted in the deaths of an elderly couple.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Since Eizember has exhausted his appeals, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt would normally ask the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals to set an execution date.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">However, Pruitt has asked that all executions be delayed until the Oklahoma Department of Corrections finishes a report on the state's lethal injection process. Pruitt told the state appeals court in January that it would be inappropriate to move forward with executions while the protocol is being investigated.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Pruitt said he would not request an execution date until at least 150 days after the corrections department has issued its report.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The state has not executed an inmate since January 2015.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">There are now 7 Oklahoma death row inmates who have exhausted their appeals.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The investigation of the state's lethal injection protocol was prompted by the discovery that a pharmacy had delivered the wrong drugs for the Sept. 30 execution of Richard Glossip.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Before that, the constitutionality of the state's lethal injection protocol had gone all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and was narrowly upheld. The challenge stemmed from the trouble-plagued execution in 2013 of Clayton Lockett.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Eizember, who is now 55, was given the death penalty for killing A.J. Cantrell in the Creek County town of Depew.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Eizember had taken Cantrell and his wife, Patsy, hostage in their home; A.J. Cantrell grabbed his shotgun and shot at Eizember, but his shot killed his own wife. Eizember then beat Cantrell to death with the gun.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Eizember was convicted of 2nd-degree felony murder for Patsy Cantrell's death.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">After killing Cantrell, he shot a man and beat a woman who were related to his ex-girlfriend and lived across the street from the Cantrells. After days in hiding, he forced a couple to drive him to Texas, then beat the husband and tried to shoot the wife before he was captured.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected his arguments last year that 2 jurors in his trial should have been excused because they were improperly biased in favor of the death penalty.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined without comment to review the appeals court decision.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: The Oklahoman, June 14, 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/Death-Penalty-News-206848499362906/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> </b>and <b><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b></span></div></div>

lethal injections Oklahoma Pharmacies USA 7th Oklahoma death row inmate now eligible for execution date

Oklahoma State Penitentiary The U.S. Supreme Court rejected the final appeal on Monday of Oklahoma death row inmate Scott Eizember, whose 20...

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