Al-Qaeda leader threatens "gravest consequences" if Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is executed

<table align="center" 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/AVvXsEh5xaAGR0K-f5LE0sHfK4MykgAAvuOkGoj3xfMgXazJp46Qy6ifAJ-TAFu0kmmDHvDqMrqlj_GqS_Bh4oGQCGLdpse_dJCXdK34bWBcq3uay0hxtBcmxCFjZIrDh-sPsw2rem2pLk6U-H4/s1600/Al+Qaeda+leader+Ayman+al-Zawahri+.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Al-Zawahri:"gravest consequences if Boston marathon bomber is executed."" border="0" height="221" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5xaAGR0K-f5LE0sHfK4MykgAAvuOkGoj3xfMgXazJp46Qy6ifAJ-TAFu0kmmDHvDqMrqlj_GqS_Bh4oGQCGLdpse_dJCXdK34bWBcq3uay0hxtBcmxCFjZIrDh-sPsw2rem2pLk6U-H4/s400/Al+Qaeda+leader+Ayman+al-Zawahri+.jpg" title="Al-Zawahri:"gravest consequences if Boston marathon bomber is executed."" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Al-Zawahri:"gravest consequences if Boston marathon bomber is executed." </td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri has warned the United States of the "gravest consequences" if Boston marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev or any other Muslim prisoner is executed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Tsarnaev, named in a new online <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-boston-qaeda-idUSKCN0ZH4TM" target="_blank">video message from Zawahri</a>, was sentenced last year to death by lethal injection for the 2013 bomb attack, which killed three people and injured more than 260.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“If the U.S. administration kills our brother the hero Dzhokhar Tsarnaev or any Muslim, it ... will bring America’s nationals the gravest consequences,” Zawahri said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Zawahri, who became al Qaeda's leader after U.S. forces killed Osama bin Laden in 2011, urged Muslims to take captive as many Westerners as possible, especially those whose countries had joined the "Crusaders' Campaign led by the United States".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The veteran Egyptian-born Islamist, shown wearing white robes and sitting in front of green velvet drapes, said the Western captives could then be exchanged for Muslim prisoners.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Western powers "are criminals and they only understand the language of force", he added.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The nearly hour-long video, which included images of Tsarnaev, gave no indication of the location of Zawahri, believed to be based close to the Afghan-Pakistan border.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Tsarnaev carried out the Boston bombings along with his older brother Tamerlan, who was killed in a confrontation with police soon after. No organization claimed responsibility.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Tsarnaev is being held at the "Supermax" high-security prison in Florence, Colorado, while his attorneys appeal his death sentence.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Legal wrangling over Tsarnaev's fate could play out for years or even decades. Just three of the 74 people sentenced to death in the United States for federal crimes since 1998 have been executed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: Reuters, July 1, 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>

Al-Qaida D. Tsarnaev Islamism Terrorism USA Al-Qaeda leader threatens "gravest consequences" if Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is executed

Al-Zawahri:"gravest consequences if Boston marathon bomber is executed." Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri has warned the United St...

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Pablo Ibar seeks release on bond before retrial

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: justify;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPjpL8peHBtSbIio6l6NvpdaoiRgbAHyMnIq-SWzNgiwkqSDWaauTFCDBM6G4LWX3SP2dXmM3JcQ9Ro9L49Bw3d3N1yGvMxk_CxDRq7J5dlkqf7B-D8EtVLBQtq7jaPrfH4Tw_gJYO5as/s1600/Pablo+Ibar%252C+left%252C+and+defense+lawyer+Fred+Haddad.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Pablo Ibar, left, and defense lawyer Fred Haddad" border="0" height="278" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPjpL8peHBtSbIio6l6NvpdaoiRgbAHyMnIq-SWzNgiwkqSDWaauTFCDBM6G4LWX3SP2dXmM3JcQ9Ro9L49Bw3d3N1yGvMxk_CxDRq7J5dlkqf7B-D8EtVLBQtq7jaPrfH4Tw_gJYO5as/s400/Pablo+Ibar%252C+left%252C+and+defense+lawyer+Fred+Haddad.jpg" title="Pablo Ibar, left, and defense lawyer Fred Haddad" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pablo Ibar, left, and defense lawyer Fred Haddad.</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">A man who spent 16 years on Death Row for three murders he insists he did not commit went before a Broward judge Friday to ask for a bond so he can leave jail as he and his lawyers prepare for a retrial.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Broward Circuit Judge Raag Singhal said he will need time to review volumes of material provided by both sides and will make a decision July 14 on whether Pablo Ibar, 44, should go free while he awaits trial.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ibar was sentenced to death in 2000 for the murders of Casimir "Butch Casey" Sucharski, the flashy former owner of the Casey's Nickelodeon nightclub, and Sharon Anderson and Marie Rogers, two women he brought home with him early on June 26, 1994, the same morning two men chose to rob Sucharski's Miramar house.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The case has proved one of the most expensive and time consuming in Broward history, with prosecutors going after two co-defendants spanning four trials so far, taking up more than 20 months in front of the juries.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ibar and former co-defendant Seth Penalver first went on trial together in 1997, with the jury deadlocking after eight months of testimony. Penalver's second trial ended in a conviction in 1999 after six months, and Ibar was convicted after a six-week trial the following year.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But Penalver was granted a retrial, which ended with his acquittal in 2012.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Penalver was among more than two dozens supporters and family members who attended Friday's bond hearing before Singhal.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ibar was granted a retrial earlier this year, with the Florida Supreme Court ruling that Ibar's defense lawyer at trial, Kayo Morgan, failed to retain a facial recognition expert to challenge the prosecution's evidence that Ibar was at the scene of the crime. The brutal beating of Sucharski and all three murders were captured on home surveillance video, and the man believed to be Ibar left his face uncovered for part of the video.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ibar is legally entitled to bail unless prosecutors can demonstrate that the evidence against him is stronger than what a jury would require for conviction.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Defense lawyers, led by Benjamin Waxman and Fred Haddad, told Singhal Friday that the Supreme Court's decision granting the retrial contained language showing prosecutors cannot meet that burden. In one place, the ruling described the evidence against Ibar as "scant."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But prosecutor William Sinclair said the case remains strong enough to keep Ibar in custody.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Both sides are pushing for the trial to get underway by this fall, and attorneys told Singhal they expect it to last four months.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: <a href="http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/fl-ibar-bond-hearing-20160701-story.html" target="_blank">Sun Sentinel</a>, Rafael Olmeda, July 1, 2016</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Juez evalúa la petición de libertad condicional para español Pablo Ibar</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">MIAMI -- El juez Raaj Singhal evalúa hoy la petición de libertad condicional presentada por la defensa del español Pablo Ibar, cuya pena de muerte fue anulada en febrero pasado por el Tribunal Supremo de Florida.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">En una audiencia celebrada en un tribunal del condado de Broward, la defensa de Ibar pidió la libertad condicional al considerar que no “se atiene” a la Constitución que el español siga preso.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Sin embargo, la Fiscalía, que ya notificó su intención de solicitar de nuevo la pena capital en la repetición del juicio contra Ibar por el triple asesinato en 1994 por el que fue condenado, rechazó esta moción de la defensa.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Para reforzar su negativa a esta libertad condicional, la Fiscalía presentó ante el juez cuatro cajas con documentos y transcripciones de testimonios.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Tras recibir este material, el juez pidió un receso para analizar el índice del contenido de las cajas.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mientras tanto, la defensa, encabezada por el letrado Benjamin Waxman, calificó esta maniobra como táctica dilatoria por parte de la Fiscalía.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Pablo Ibar, con uniforme de preso común, en color gris con rayas gris oscuro, se mostró durante la vista muy comunicativo y relajado.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">El reo estuvo acompañado por una docena de familiares, entre ellos su esposa, Tanya, su hermano Michael y su padre, Cándido, así como el cónsul español en Miami, Cándido Creis.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ibar, de 45 años y origen vasco, fue condenado en 2000 por el asesinato en 1994 del dueño de un local nocturno y dos bailarinas, y lleva encarcelado casi 22 años, 15 de ellos en el corredor de la muerte, del que fue trasladado a una cárcel común a principios de mes.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Fuente: <a href="http://www.elnuevoherald.com/noticias/sur-de-la-florida/article87123787.html" target="_blank">elnuevoherald.com</a>, Julio 1, 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>

Español Facial recognition Florida Innocence Pablo Ibar Spain USA Pablo Ibar seeks release on bond before retrial

Pablo Ibar, left, and defense lawyer Fred Haddad. A man who spent 16 years on Death Row for three murders he insists he did not commit went ...

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USA: In party platform, Democrats call for end to 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/AVvXsEjoiPKhqWAmQ6xbK5yKOfE9zgVW4p4tiI9HXRNpnBZG1fqw8ImsIPAgKcHzz9fc3XG8aNb-A0sqAQGAMBx50kJwc24d4cPmsg7A-i-gUNTuhnVkkKgUCajVZQ781T63x-E-KVGgRVsl0vc/s1600/Hillary+Clinton.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Hillary Clinton" border="0" height="282" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoiPKhqWAmQ6xbK5yKOfE9zgVW4p4tiI9HXRNpnBZG1fqw8ImsIPAgKcHzz9fc3XG8aNb-A0sqAQGAMBx50kJwc24d4cPmsg7A-i-gUNTuhnVkkKgUCajVZQ781T63x-E-KVGgRVsl0vc/s400/Hillary+Clinton.jpg" title="Hillary Clinton" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hillary Clinton</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">Washington (CNN) -- Democrats are calling for an end to capital punishment.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The<a href="https://demconvention.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/2016-DEMOCRATIC-PARTY-PLATFORM-DRAFT-7.1.16.pdf" target="_blank"> latest draft of the party's platform</a>, released Friday, says the death penalty "has proven to be a cruel and unusual form of punishment" that "has no place in the United States of America."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The inclusion of the provision represents a victory of sorts for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders -- a longtime opponent of the punishment who has said he is remaining in the presidential race in order to fight for progressive causes.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Sanders offered mild praise for the platform Friday evening, tweeting, "The Democratic Platform includes some accomplishments that will begin to move this country in the right direction."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton has supported the death penalty in the past, albeit on a limited basis, suggesting that there could be cases for "very limited use" of the punishment in "horrific" terrorist crimes.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">She was confronted over the issue during a <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/13/politics/clinton-sanders-democratic-town-hall/" target="_blank">CNN-TV One town hall event</a> in May by an exonerated former death row inmate who spent 39 years in jail for a murder he did not commit.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Where I end up is this, and maybe it's a distinction that is hard to support, but at this point, given the choices we face from terrorist activities primarily in our country that end up under federal jurisdiction, for very limited purposes, I think it can still be held in reserve for those," Clinton said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/13/politics/clinton-sanders-democratic-town-hall-duplicate-2/" target="_blank">OPINION: Exonerated death row inmate: Clinton wrong on death penalty</a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">For Sanders supporters, the inclusion of the death penalty provision could be viewed as the latest example of the ways in which the populist candidate has pushed the Democratic Party to the left.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Other provisions in the platform include support for workers earning at least $15 an hour -- though the platform doesn't call for a $15 federal minimum wage, one of Sanders' signature issues -- adopting a tougher tax policy against corporations, expanding Social Security and supporting states that choose to decriminalize marijuana.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Clinton adviser Maya Harris praised the plaform last week, calling it "the most ambitious and progressive platform" the party has seen.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Although Sanders told <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/26/politics/bernie-sanders-democratic-platform/" target="_blank">CNN's Jake Tapper</a> last week that he claimed some "very, very important victories" in the initial draft of the Democratic platform, he also said his camp had "lost some very important fights" on some issues, including trade, a carbon tax and health insurance.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He vowed to "take that fight to Orlando" -- where the committee will meet next week to approve the final draft of the platform -- and said if he doesn't succeed there, he will "certainly take it to the floor of the Democratic convention."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2016/07/01/politics/democrats-death-penalty/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a>, Rachel Chason, July 2, 2016</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><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>

2016 US Presidential election Bernie Sanders Hillary Clinton Terrorism USA USA: In party platform, Democrats call for end to death penalty

Hillary Clinton Washington (CNN) -- Democrats are calling for an end to capital punishment. The latest draft of the party's platform , ...

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Waiting for Florida Supreme Court decision that could spare 390 death row inmates

<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/AVvXsEgcV1ApdWbxfmGwf8Gj-QqEC62uhjkH_-BDv2oMJw0Bt7Q-0yOZ1ruAfTkOo7mZvnm_FmCLT1_1WYooJx4DpsX9dNN0k4h-x3SdmlqLg-lZ2pKax819151X5cvj4S8XIV1vt8I0Dkr9EAE/s1600/Florida+death+chamber.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Florida's death chamber" border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcV1ApdWbxfmGwf8Gj-QqEC62uhjkH_-BDv2oMJw0Bt7Q-0yOZ1ruAfTkOo7mZvnm_FmCLT1_1WYooJx4DpsX9dNN0k4h-x3SdmlqLg-lZ2pKax819151X5cvj4S8XIV1vt8I0Dkr9EAE/s400/Florida+death+chamber.jpg" title="Florida's death chamber" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Florida's death chamber</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">With one week left before the Florida Supreme Court goes on its summer recess, the justices have yet to rule on one of the most anticipated and politically charged questions facing them this year: Whether to commute the sentences of 390 death row inmates after the state’s death penalty laws were struck down and rewritten this spring.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In January, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a case called <i>Hurst vs. Florida</i> that the process used to sentence people to death in the state was unconstitutional.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Without a valid death penalty law on the books, the Florida Legislature passed new laws for death sentences that will leave the decision to the jury, which has to find one aggravating circumstance and agree to the death penalty on a 10-2 vote.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">What remains unclear is how the <i>Hurst </i>decision will impact those who have already been sentenced to death.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Defense attorneys for death-row inmates have argued their clients’ sentences should be commuted to life in prison. But the state has stood by the original death sentences.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“If the (Hurst) case were to be remanded (back to a trial court), it would have to be under the new statute,” Assistant Attorney General Carine Mitz said in the Supreme Court in May. “I still don't think we have a problem.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The seven justices don’t have to make up their minds before the summer recess — and given the complexity and controversy of the issue, they may not. But until they do, there’s deep uncertainty on the issue, not just for those convicted and sentenced to death but also within the political and legal worlds.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Gov. Rick Scott has not signed a death warrant since the Florida Supreme Court halted the executions of Michael Lambrix and Mark Asay in February and March.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Some death row lawyers and Supreme Court Justice Barbara Pariente have questioned whether the new law is constitutional because, they say, the requirement that the jury find just one aggravating factor could increase the number of convicted murderers eligible for the death penalty.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On Thursday, the court issued one death-row opinion that briefly addressed <i>Hurst</i>. Charles Brant, who pled guilty to the 2004 murder of 21-year-old Sara Radfar in Tampa.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Because Brant waived his right to a jury in the penalty phase of his murder trial, the justices wrote that <i>Hurst </i>cannot be applied to his case. They issued a similar decision in a death penalty case earlier this month, writing that a death-row inmate “cannot subvert the right to jury fact finding by waiving that right and then suggesting that a subsequent development in the law has fundamentally undermined his sentence.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The final opinions before the court goes on recess are expected at 11 a.m. July 7.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: <a href="http://www.bradenton.com/news/local/article86892057.html" target="_blank">bradenton.com</a>, Michael Auslen, June 30, 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>

Commutation Florida Hurst v. Florida USA Waiting for Florida Supreme Court decision that could spare 390 death row inmates

Florida's death chamber With one week left before the Florida Supreme Court goes on its summer recess, the justices have yet to rule on ...

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America's deadliest prosecutors: five lawyers, 440 death sentences

<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/AVvXsEjK_Bjrlq_Ew3eBzYQ2XTj0DyYoqz59uXvZ51JrTM0ChWlfTeN5dFYPJZW45Ws7P6vY9e5yGyjOAIo5scV8GvuyYva7U7TcKbobSpD5OypLItONlkdhfe_L_B2elFeAlo3S7W6XRQSD_5k/s1600/Bob+Macy+of+Oklahoma+County.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Bob Macy of Oklahoma County" border="0" height="291" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK_Bjrlq_Ew3eBzYQ2XTj0DyYoqz59uXvZ51JrTM0ChWlfTeN5dFYPJZW45Ws7P6vY9e5yGyjOAIo5scV8GvuyYva7U7TcKbobSpD5OypLItONlkdhfe_L_B2elFeAlo3S7W6XRQSD_5k/s400/Bob+Macy+of+Oklahoma+County.jpg" title="Bob Macy of Oklahoma County" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bob Macy of Oklahoma County</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Harvard report highlights the lion-sized role in modern death penalty of just four men and a woman, and how capital punishment is a ‘personality-driven system’</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As head prosecutors in their counties, just five individuals have been responsible for putting no fewer than 440 prisoners onto death row. If you compare that number to the 2,943 who are currently awaiting execution in the US, it is equivalent to one out of every seven.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Or express the figure another way: of the 8,038 death sentences handed down since the death penalty was restarted in the modern era 40 years ago this week, some one in 20 of them have been the responsibility of those five district attorneys alone.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The five are profiled in a new report from Harvard Law School’s Fair Punishment Project. Titled America’s Top Five Deadliest Prosecutors, the report highlights the lion-sized role in the modern death penalty of just four men and one woman. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">They are: Joe Freeman Britt of Robeson County, North Carolina; Donnie Myers of Lexington, South Carolina; Bob Macy of Oklahoma County; Lynne Abraham of Philadelphia County; and Johnny Holmes of Harris County, Texas.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Just how extraordinary this elite club of lawyers is can be seen in the biography of Bob Macy. Until his death in 2011, he was known as Cowboy Bob because of his traditional frontier dress sense: he always wore cowboy boots, a large cowboy hat, a black string tie, a black suit and a white shirt.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Over the course of 21 years as the top prosecutor in Oklahoma County, Macy put 54 people on death row. That gave him the distinction of sending more people to their potential deaths than any other district attorney in the nation.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">And many did actually go to their deaths. According to records compiled by the Fair Punishment Project, 30 of those prisoners were executed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">That might have presented an ethical burden to some, but not to Macy. As he sat beneath his Tombstone poster, he ruminated on the “patriotic duty” of prosecutors to aggressively pursue death sentences. He was proud of having sent a 16-year-old, Sean Sellers, to the death chamber before the US supreme court banned the execution of juveniles in 2005.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jun/29/us-deadliest-prosecutors-death-penalty-five-attorneys-justice-system" target="_blank">Click here to read the full article</a></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: The Guardian, Ed Pilkington, June 30, 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>

H. McCollum L. Brown North Carolina Oklahoma Pennsylvania Prosecution misconduct Texas USA America's deadliest prosecutors: five lawyers, 440 death sentences

Bob Macy of Oklahoma County Harvard report highlights the lion-sized role in modern death penalty of just four men and a woman, and how capi...

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‘El Chapo’ extradition to US halted by Mexico judge over death penalty fears

<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/AVvXsEjm5fBuJoAH_swDnljbi3kqpts8tgqO1HDGSa65uxj2LxcW2vbSmBNPeaDPtIjBRr1HHus0ykYYOLrhjXoQl3WQpaArsglM5P0YA0OK1s2VG_0k-9Wi3ebSfrf4m5vkXAo3IoMsweTLGWw/s1600/Joaquin+El+Chapo+Guzman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt=" Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman" border="0" height="308" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm5fBuJoAH_swDnljbi3kqpts8tgqO1HDGSa65uxj2LxcW2vbSmBNPeaDPtIjBRr1HHus0ykYYOLrhjXoQl3WQpaArsglM5P0YA0OK1s2VG_0k-9Wi3ebSfrf4m5vkXAo3IoMsweTLGWw/s400/Joaquin+El+Chapo+Guzman.jpg" title=" Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">A judge in Mexico temporarily blocked the extradition of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman to the US after his lawyers appealed the move over fears that the infamous drug cartel leader might face the death penalty.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Guzman’s extradition request was suspended Tuesday after two injunctions were filed by his lawyers. He is set to face murder and drug smuggling charges in the US.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The judge granted a stay on the drug kingpin’s extradition until appeals can be heard. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">For now, “El Chapo” will be held in a maximum security jail near the US border.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Jose Refugio Rodriguez, one of Guzman’s lawyers, told the Associated Press that the appeals are based on the statute of limitations on some of the charges as well as their contention that some of the accusations against Guzman are based on hearsay rather than direct evidence.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Mexican Foreign Ministry approved Guzman’s extradition when the US guaranteed that Guzman would not face the death penalty. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mexico has abolished capital punishment and will not extradite its citizens if they could face execution.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Guzman was arrested in January following 13 years of evading law enforcement after escaping prison.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: AP, June 29, 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>

Drug trafficking Extradition Mexico USA ‘El Chapo’ extradition to US halted by Mexico judge over death penalty fears

Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman A judge in Mexico temporarily blocked the extradition of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman to the US after his l...

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Guarding Solitary Confinement

<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/AVvXsEiXedosnEnVevuCSuR7FGA0a05RqQxdGHO51jX3RE4m572xRFlpLP4tCHfgfA0m-mgdcd_wMOMu2NdmdHZwSrXhzy8KFzy3OceZ9n1muRQd0gcon4RrwgMqhvjYsk_0AwvVGWeG7BaY780/s1600/Solitary+Confinement.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Solitary confinement cell: Entombed alive" border="0" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXedosnEnVevuCSuR7FGA0a05RqQxdGHO51jX3RE4m572xRFlpLP4tCHfgfA0m-mgdcd_wMOMu2NdmdHZwSrXhzy8KFzy3OceZ9n1muRQd0gcon4RrwgMqhvjYsk_0AwvVGWeG7BaY780/s400/Solitary+Confinement.jpg" title="Solitary confinement cell: Entombed alive" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Solitary confinement cell: Entombed alive</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Interview with a Former Corrections Officer Who Worked in Prison Isolation Units</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Recently, <i>Solitary Watch</i> had the opportunity to sit down with “X,” a former corrections officer who spent almost two years working on a segregation unit in Pennsylvania. (The guard requested complete anonymity in exchange for the interview). </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">X, now 48, worked for the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections between 2006 and 2009, and in the Special Housing Units (SHU) from 2008-2009. He spoke candidly with journalist Aviva Stahl about what drew him to work “in the hole,” what he saw while he was there, and what he thinks about the growing movement to reform the use of solitary. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This interview has been edited for length and clarity</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">AS: Did you start working in the SHU or did you work in general population first?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">X: It’s always general population first. Always. You don’t work in solitary confinement until you’ve established yourself as a CO. They want to see how you react. How you handle yourself. How you are with the other CO’s, how you interact with inmates. And they take that all… and you get to know your lieutenants, your captains, your majors, and your other staff members, your peers, your other CO’s. Whether or not they can trust you and you can trust them before you’re ever considered for down there, the hole. We used to call it the hole. People want to see what you’re made of.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">AS: Do you remember the kind of people who were there for disciplinary or punishment, do you remember the range of stuff they had done to warrant being put in the hole?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">X: Mm-hm. It could be an offense towards an officer. It could be, any inmates if they got in any kind of a fight or something both of them automatically go down. Normally a couple days, you have a trial, find out what’s going on, bring the officers in that seen it. “Yeah I seen this, the inmate so and so you know initiated it.” So normally the one that didn’t, they’d get released back to general population. They could be down there for, I mean, stealing, whether it had been in the chow hall, from one of the workshops trying to bring things in, offenses that they committed during visiting when they were visiting family and friends during visiting hour. There would be state offenses against officers like spitting, hitting. Anything.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">AS: Did you ever see people go crazy in the SHU?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">X: Oh yeah. Yeah it was, we had one inmate, he was in his 70’s… We had another inmate being transferred from another institution and he said yeah, he would take a cellie. Well, ended up, both celled together. It was the second night together and the younger inmate who was like 24, raped the 77 year old inmate. And I remember when [the 77-year-old] came out of there, the Lieutenant comes out and we had him on a stretcher and I mean this man, we thought he was going to have a heart attack, a stroke or…he was just horrified that this had happened.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">AS: I think you told me you walked in on someone who had hanged himself, right?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">X: We had one inmate, he was dead when we got him. He snapped his neck from hanging himself. Had some that the genitalia, tried to cut it off with a plastic spoon.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">AS: And the people who tried to commit suicide in solitary or who cut themselves, do you think it was because they were in solitary? Do you think it was the solitary that was driving them crazy?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">X: No, I think it was just incarceration. And situations that happen while they were in there, if they had a loved one that died or their spouse or their child or someone you’re going to know what happens when it happens. The inmates don’t take time to tell you. They’ll tell you what happened. But they can’t go on anymore and they’ll tell you they don’t want to live anymore. They’ll write Dear John letters. It’s the same as what happens out here. They start giving away everything, they write a note, they start, they lose all affect for anything. You don’t want to be involved anymore and they withdraw. It’s a norm. [In fact, 50 percent of all prison suicides take place among the approximately 5 percent of prisoners held in solitary.]</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">AS: The other thing I was curious about that we talked about when we met was forced cell extractions. I don’t know if you want to talk about that, what it was like to participate in those or kind of what it looked like.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">X: Basically, where we would be doing, whether it would be a fence, they would grab ahold of one of the nurses, when it was pill-passing time. They would mix up stuff, they would defecate all over their cells, they would paint the windows, so you have to be able to see, no matter what, you have to be able to see to do your count, make sure for the safety of the inmates. You have to be able to see in that cell. And they would cover the windows with feces, it was bad. And man, it stunk. But you don’t know if they were dead or what was going to go on there. If they had something they had made shanks out of. We had one inmate he took towels and kind of strapped his shanks to his hands and he was like “come and get me.” And so you have to go in, that’s just it. So a team assembles and you give them several chances to come to the grill to be cuffed and he comes down there, he’s the one giving the order, and no matter what happens before the cellie’s direction or any sort of pepper spray or anything there’s always a lieutenant there. He’s the one giving the order. I’m ordering you to inmate so and so, I’m giving you a lawful order and you need to come to the pie hole to be handcuffed. “No. Come on and get me.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">If they didn’t want to come out then be cuffed up, you have no other choice but to go in. Or you have to hit them with pepper spray. We had our teams for them with our batons and our pepper spray and everybody has a set of cuffs on them. You used to have to overpower them and take them down. I mean you came out with some bangs and bruises on you but, you got done what had to be done.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">AS: How often would that happen?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">X: Sometimes you may not have a cell extraction for a week or two. But normally it was probably 2 or 3 times a week. Yeah, it happened quite frequently. If you believe somebody had something in their cell, a weapon, and they wouldn’t come out, you’d have to go in and get it.</div><br /><b><a href="http://solitarywatch.com/2016/06/28/guarding-solitary-confinement/" target="_blank">Click here to read the full article</a></b><br /><br />Source: Solitary Watch, Aviva Stahl, June 28, 2016<br /><br /><div><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>

Mental Illness Pennsylvania Solitary confinement Suicide USA Guarding Solitary Confinement

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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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Penn State researchers analyze death penalty findings

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrkVn_fXp9K-yZSjfNh-qqaojqXfUUSVsnbbvsIaTYDxGoSLc-zpJbrOwfU8LPBe13S2-M3olivI5URk25X5MWdt6WNzptAAvdXnCfKR6DA76BhFOJvayB0t5u-2JQntdH1O4l7AT6jCw/s1600/archives-and-records.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Archives and records" border="0" height="293" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrkVn_fXp9K-yZSjfNh-qqaojqXfUUSVsnbbvsIaTYDxGoSLc-zpJbrOwfU8LPBe13S2-M3olivI5URk25X5MWdt6WNzptAAvdXnCfKR6DA76BhFOJvayB0t5u-2JQntdH1O4l7AT6jCw/s400/archives-and-records.jpg" title="Archives and records" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Penn State researchers studying whether racial bias affects the imposition of the death penalty have begun crunching the data, a move signaling the end of a 4-year saga of waiting on a state report that has officially halted executions in the state.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Penn State findings might be made public before year's end.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">While the analysis is in the early stages, the professor leading the research said he expects similar findings to what the Reading Eagle reported last week on the distribution of death sentences in Pennsylvania.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I think it'll be a good complement to what you've done, with some details that will flesh out the issues that you've raised," said John Kramer, a retired Penn State criminology professor. "I don't suspect that it will erase the (Eagle's) findings."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In an investigation spanning 5 months, the Eagle found Pennsylvania has sentenced 408 defendants to death since 1978, at a rate of 1.6 death sentences for every 100 homicides. The rate for counties varied from zero to more than 7, indicating wide prosecutorial discretion.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Following the U.S. Supreme Court's 1972 decision in <i>Furman v. Georgia</i> that found capital punishment unconstitutional, states created statutes that were intended to make its application less arbitrary, particularly for black defendants.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Going back to the Furman decision, the question is: Have we controlled that kind of discretion adequately?" Kramer said. "I'm sure we will cite your article when we're reviewing our data."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The meticulous gathering of data on more than 900 first-degree murder cases from 2000 to 2010 in 18 counties has been tedious and painstakingly slow, pushing a state report that was expected 3 years ago back several times.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Kramer's team has been out in the field since 2012 poring over court files in counties stretching from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh to identify charging and sentencing patterns in 1st-degree murder cases. The death penalty is reserved almost exclusively for the crime of murder.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Researchers hope to learn whether race is a factor in who is charged capitally and ultimately sentenced to death in Pennsylvania.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This investigation will be folded into the study state lawmakers called for in 2011. That report, by the Joint State Government Commission, isn't expected until six months after Penn State concludes its study for the Interbranch Commission for Gender, Racial and Ethnic Fairness.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As directed by lawmakers, the state report will examine 17 issues around the death penalty, including its cost, deterrence and quality of counsel.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The commission's reports often are completed within a year and include recommendations.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Recommendations in the long awaited report, however, will likely relate to data collection, which is sorely lacking. The Joint State Government Commission will not be recommending whether to continue to support or abolish the death penalty, said Glenn Pasewicz, executive director of the Joint State Government Commission.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"From the beginning, it was not the intent that the report would come up with some firm recommendations about what capital punishment should be in Pennsylvania," Pasewicz said. "We're going to leave the big questions to the Legislature itself. We'll provide them with as much information as we can, and they can sort it all out."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">For years, Pennsylvania's death penalty system has been a source of consternation among those on both sides of the issue. Having sentenced hundreds in the modern era and executed only 3, it is widely perceived as dysfunctional.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Another round</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It has been studied before.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 1999, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court directed a study on whether racial or gender bias influences the judicial system, including the death penalty. In the committee's 550-page report in 2003, it made more than 170 recommendations, including issuing a moratorium on executions. Gov. Tom Wolf issued one last year, saying executions would not resume until the state report is completed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Based on existing data and studies, the committee concluded that there are strong indications that Pennsylvania's capital justice system does not operate in an evenhanded manner," the group's report said, noting the responsibility of ensuring equal justice under the law cannot fall to a single branch of government.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The committee also took aim at the quality of capital representation, which the Eagle explored last fall, finding nearly 1 in5 inmates sentenced to death in Pennsylvania the past decade were represented by attorneys disciplined for professional misconduct at some point in their careers.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The committee's report said of capital representation, "Unless the poor, among whom minority communities are overrepresented, are provided adequate legal representation, including ample funds for experts and investigators, there cannot be a lasting solution to the issue of racial and ethnic bias in the capital system."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The group also recommended original research to study the issue further.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"It's critical that we do our own studies," said Lisette McCormick, executive director of the Pittsburgh-based Interbranch Commission for Gender, Racial and Ethnic Fairness, which conducted the review at the Supreme Court's direction.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>'There are gaps'</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Established in 2005 by Pennsylvania's three branches of government, the Interbranch Commission for Gender, Racial and Ethnic Fairness is tasked with addressing inequities in the court system.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">McCormick added, noting there is no systematic data collection on Pennsylvania's death penalty: "There are gaps. You cannot conduct a valid study with gaps."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Penn State report - Kramer said an internal draft would be completed next month - was commissioned in part to address this gap. McCormick's group is funding the report at a cost of about $325,000.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Eagle's cost and sentence-distribution findings, McCormick said, were consistent with other studies she's reviewed for the current state study.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The shortage of original research on Pennsylvania's death penalty system, Kramer and McCormick said, is directly related to the difficulty of winnowing out information buried, oftentimes in storage, in hundreds of case boxes across the commonwealth.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Kramer's data collectors could examine, at their quickest pace, a maximum of 5 cases a day and averaged only 3 or 4. And some days, they would sift through case boxes and collect no pertinent data.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"There's just not any data that you can put together to do this study without investing a tremendous amount of time," Kramer said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: Reading Eagle, June 16, 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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Penn State researchers studying whether racial bias affects the imposition of the death penalty have begun crunching the data, a move signal...

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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>

Arizona lethal injections Midazolam Pharmacies USA Arizona abandons use of sedative as a lethal-injection drug

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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