Prosecuting Innocence: Condemned Debra Milke finally free!

 This woman has been punished long enough, I think, for something she quite possibly didn't even do. Arizona's prosecutors should stuff their politics for once, and let the woman be. This is one really good reason why we shouldn't be so quick to believe the cops' version of things and execute people willy nilly.

The following clip is for those of you still eager to see a woman get executed, though, since so many Arizonan's are disappointed now. The movie is Dancer in the Dark. Enjoy.
 

For those of you who find executing human beings offensive, on the other hand, please come to a legislative summit on the death penalty in Arizona, which is second only to Texas in the number of prisoners we executed last year. 

Here is the flyer

Legislative Summit
 Death Penalty Alternatives for Arizona
AZ Senate Building , Hearing Room 1  
(1700 W, Washington St. Phoenix)
September 13th at 9am 

------------------------------

Debra Milke, Arizona woman who had murder conviction tossed, freed

By Greg Botelho, CNN

updated 6:18 PM EDT, Fri September 6, 2013

 

(CNN) -- For the first time in well over (two decades) -- and in the months since a federal judge overturned her murder conviction -- Debra Milke is free.

A short time after the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office indicated she'd be leaving, video showed someone who appeared to be Milke being driven away Friday from the Lower Buckeye Jail in Phoenix. Sheriff's office spokesman Brandon Jones subsequently confirmed that Milke had been released.

Even though she's no longer behind bars -- leaving the jail without addressing reporters -- Milke's legal ordeal may not be over.

Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne said in March that his office would appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court the judge's decision to toss her conviction and the death sentence that went with it.

9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' Chief Judge Alex Kozinski ruled this spring that Milke did not receive a fair trial.

Milke still faces charges and was released on bond pending the possibility of a retrial.

Arizona woman's murder conviction, death sentence overturned

Milke's legal team will at some point address the media about their client's release, though it's not known when, said one of the lawyers, Lori Voepel.

A jury convicted Milke of murder, conspiracy to commit murder, child abuse and kidnapping on October 12, 1990, less than a year after her 4-year-old son was found dead. She was sentenced to death a few months later.

A day after seeing Santa Claus at a mall, young Christopher Milke asked his mother if he could go again. 

That was the plan, she said, when the boy got into the car with Milke's roommate, James Styers.

Styers picked up a friend, "but instead of heading to the mall, the two men drove the boy out of town to a secluded ravine, where Styers shot Christopher three times in the head," according to Kozinski's summary of the case. Styers was convicted of first-degree murder in the boy's killing and sentenced to death.

During her trial, "no ... witnesses or direct evidence (linked) Milke to the crime" other than Phoenix police Detective Armando Saldate Jr., according to Kozinski.

The detective questioned Milke -- an interrogation that wasn't recorded or seen by anyone else -- and later claimed she'd confessed to her role in the murder conspiracy, saying it was a "bad judgment call."

But Milke offered a vastly different view of the interrogation and denied that she had admitted to any role in a murder plot.

"The judge and jury believed Saldate," Kozinski wrote in his March ruling overturning Milke's murder conviciton. "But they didn't know about Saldate's long history of lying under oath and other misconduct."

The judge explained that he'd made his decision because prosecutors did not disclose the "history of misconduct" of its key witness.

Unbeknown to the defense or to the jury, previous judges had tossed out four confessions or indictments because Saldate had lied under oath, among other issues.

Horne, the Arizona attorney general, has argued the woman should remain on death row, given his understanding of what happened.

"After dressing him up and telling him he was going to the mall to see Santa Claus, Milke was convicted of sending her young son off to be shot, execution style, in a desert wash," he said.

AZ Death Row Deaths In Custody: Dale Hausner, 40.

UPDATED JULY 17, 2013:

The state might as well have just executed Dale Hausner when he asked them to...which I guess the DOC did oblige him on, in the end. He was suicidal and being treated with an anti-depressant, which they conveniently gave him in large enough quantities to overdose on...this isn't the first death row prisoner this year to go this way, either. Seems the CORIZON mental health team assigned to death row has been falling down on the job since day 1.

this is one piece on why some death row prisoners prefer suicide...

 


UPDATED July1, 2013 10:44am:

Most of the time, when a prisoner dies, my condolences go to his or her family.  But my thoughts are with the victims and survivors of this man's crimes, as well - even if his death is celebrated by some, such events can bring up painful memories. I still object to the death penalty, but not because I don't find violence like this to be contemptible. Still, there's some suggestion in his remarks thathe felt remorse and hoped his death would help survivors heal...that's really interesting.  


When I talk about abolishing prisons and what that future might look like, just how communities would deal with the kind of harm this man perpetrated is the sort of thing that still stumps me. That doesn't mean the project of abolition should be abandoned, though - the prison industrial complex is destroying us. I believe in holding people more accountable than I think the criminal justice system often does, anyway - not less. Letting people run amok hurting others isn't what prison abolition is about.

Here's a good lead-in to what abolition IS about, though. It makes a lot of sense...

 AZ Prison Watch - Coy McKinney: An Anarchist Theory of Criminal Justice

I don't know how this man died yet - he looks pretty sickly in his DOC mug shot - but if he killed himself, he'd be the second guy on death row in just over a month to have done so. Interestingly, he recently asked the Arizona Supreme Court to hasten his execution. The article regarding that is below.

That said, I'm investigating the homicides and suicides in Arizona's state prisons - which have doubled under the current administration - and would appreciate any information anyone out there has about how Hausner died. Please contact me (Peggy Plews) at arizonaprisonwatch@gmail.com  or 480-580-6807.

Ariz. serial killer wants media kept from hearing

by Paul Davenport, Associated Press

azfamily.com

Posted on February 1, 2013 at 3:57 PM

Updated Monday, Feb 4 at 6:28 PM

Related:

• Psychiatrist to examine Arizona serial killer Dale Hausner
• Hausner says going to court too stressful
• Hearing ordered on Hausner request to skip appeals
• Convicted killer asks Ariz. court to set execution

PHOENIX (AP) -- An Arizona serial killer on death row wants the media barred from a hearing on whether he is mentally competent to waive further appeals so he can be executed as soon as possible, his lawyer said Friday.

Court-appointed attorney Julie Hall made the disclosure during a hearing without explaining why Dale Shawn Hausner wants reporters and cameras kept from the April proceedings in Maricopa County Superior Court.

Judge Roland Steinle will hear from Hausner and mental health experts at the hearing.

The judge intends to hold a separate hearing for media organizations to object.

Hausner was convicted of six murders and numerous other crimes in a series of random shootings in the Phoenix area in 2005 and 2006. Victims included pedestrians, bicyclists and animals.

During an automatic appeal for Hausner in July, the Arizona Supreme Court upheld the death sentence and all but out one of his 80 convictions.

Hausner then asked the justices to set his execution date. He said he wanted to forego further appeals -which could take years to resolve - and to represent himself in any court proceedings. The state high court ordered the Superior Court to determine Hausner's competency to waive appeals.

Hausner didn't acknowledge guilt during his trial but told the jury before sentencing that he should be sentenced to death "to help the victims heal."

He was allowed to not present evidence for leniency in sentencing after Steinle ruled he was competent to make that decision.

Hausner, Hall and a state prosecutor participated by phone in Friday's hearing. Hall did not immediately respond to messages later in the day.

A Phoenix crime author who wrote a book about Hausner's case said Hausner "loves the media" because of the attention it provides him. But he successfully fought to keep secret the psychological evaluation report prepared for the previous competency ruling, author Camille Kimball said.

"He did not want his childhood explored and any psychological records revealed at that time," Kimball said. "He does not want people to know what his childhood was like."

A lawyer for a group that advocates for open government said there were no compelling reasons to bar the media from the upcoming hearing.

"There's no jury to influence, or anyone, for that matter," said attorney Daniel Barr of the First Amendment Coalition. "The public's interest in Dale Hausner's fate is extremely high."

The attorney general's office said it will have no position on Hausner's request until his lawyer files a written motion.

The office's general position is that all such proceedings should be open to the public, but there could be extraordinary circumstance allowing a court to privately consider information, spokeswoman Amy Rezzonico said.

Also during Friday's hearing, Hall reiterated Hausner's desire to keep his in-person court appearances at a minimum. Hausner has expressed concern about his safety in Maricopa County jails, where he was previously assaulted.

In a letter submitted to the court, he also expressed concern about a court-appointed expert's ability to provide the judge with an honest and professional report.

Hausner said the expert needs to put aside her expressed opposition to the death penalty. Hausner also said the expert told him that his body language indicated that he's depressed, which Hausner disputed.

Steinle told Hausner that he was confident that questioning of the expert in court would detect any bias and that Hausner himself would be heard.

"I will have a colloquy with you," Steinle told Hausner.

Appeals court: Debra Milke sent to death row by police & prosecutorial misconduct.

Believe it or not, all sorts of innocent people end up in prison and on death row - especially in this state, it seems.  I heard from Arizona prisoner Eddie Sanders not long ago; he's doing life for the rape and murder of an elderly woman in Tucson at a time when there was a rash of such assaults, and can't seem to get anyone to listen to his defense, which he has tried to wage himself - check out his heartbreaking plea below. 

I don't know how to begin to help this guy - the AZ Justice Project apparently hasn't decided to pick up his case - at least, not yet. If you have any ideas or wish to spend some time helping Eddie get a reasonably fair shake, please drop Peggy Plews a note at arizonaprisonwatch@gmail.com...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 ------------------------------------------

Now for the good news about Debra Milke...

Debra and son Christopher

HERE'S THE ACTUAL RULING

 from CNN.com:

Arizona woman's murder conviction, death sentence overturned

By Greg Botelho, CNN

updated 7:27 PM EDT, Thu March 14, 2013

(CNN) -- After 22 years on death row, Debra Milke is close to freedom.

A jury convicted the Arizona woman, now 49, of murder, conspiracy to commit murder, child abuse and kidnapping on October 12, 1990, less than a year after her 4-year-old son was found dead.

A judge sentenced her to death a few months later.

But those convictions and the related sentence were tossed out Thursday by a federal appeals court judge. In explaining his decision, Chief Judge Alex Kozinski of the federal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals chided the prosecution for remaining "unconstitutionally silent" on the "history of misconduct" of its key witness, a Phoenix police detective.

"The Constitution requires a fair trial," Kozinski wrote. "This never happened in Milke's case."

A day after seeing Santa Claus at a mall, young Christopher Milke asked his mother if he could go again. That was the plan, she said, when the boy got into the car with Milke's roommate, James Styers.

Styers picked up a friend, "but instead of heading to the mall, the two men drove the boy out of town to a secluded ravine, where Styers shot Christoper three times in the head," according to Kozinski's summary of the case. Styers was convicted of first-degree murder in the boy's killing and sentenced to death.

The detective, Armando Saldate, said the friend told him that Debra Milke was involved in a plot to kill her son. But neither the friend nor Styers testified to that assertion in court.

In fact, "no other witnesses or direct evidence (linked) Milke to the crime" other than Saldate's testimony.

"The trial was, essentially, a swearing contest between Milke and ... Saldate," said Kozinski.

The detective testified he "didn't buy" Milke's reaction after he informed her that her son was dead. After that, Saldate said he placed Milke under arrest. In a subsequent interrogation, she confessed that her role in the murder conspiracy was a "bad judgment call," the detective said.

But Milke offered a vastly different view of the interrogation and denied that she had confessed to any role in a murder plot.

There was no recording of the interrogation, no one else was in the room or watching from a two-way mirror, and Saldate said he threw away his notes shortly after completing his report.

"The judge and jury believed Saldate," said Kozinski of the verdict and sentence. "But they didn't know about Saldate's long history of lying under oath and other misconduct."

Specifically, the judge noted that the detective had been suspended five days for taking "liberties" with a female motorist and lying about it to his supervisors; that judges had tossed out four confessions or indictments because Saldate had lied under oath; and that judges suppressed or vacated four confessions because Saldate had violated a person's constitutional rights.

"The state knew of the evidence in the personnel file and had an obligation to produce the documents," Kozinski said. "... There can be no doubt that the state failed in its constitutional obligation."

The judge ordered "the state" to turn over Saldate's personnel records to Milke's lawyers, after which "a police official" must state under oath that everything has been disclosed and nothing has been "omitted, lost or destroyed."

Once this is done, a district court must order Milke's release unless prosecutors tell the court within 30 days that they plan to retry her soon.

"In the balance hangs the life of Milke," Kozinski said, explaining the importance of his decision to overturn her convictions.

Thiopental controversy: Shame on the FDA; Tough luck to the dead.

Good for the AZ Republic for staying on top of this..

----------------------

Judge: FDA allowed state to illegally gain execution drug

   Michael Kiefer

Mar. 27, 2012 10:48 PM

The Arizona Republic

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration violated the law by allowing Arizona and other states to bypass regulations and import unapproved drugs to carry out executions, a U.S. District Court judge ruled Tuesday.

The ruling came in a lawsuit filed on behalf of three Arizona death-row inmates -- two of whom have already been executed -- and inmates in Tennessee and California.

E-mails detail FDA's efforts to avoid responsibility regarding execution drug
Arizona Supreme Court puts off date for execution
State Supreme Court weighs killer's execution as FDA exits dispute over drug
 
Judge Richard Leon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ordered the FDA to notify state corrections departments, including Arizona's, that they must surrender the drug, sodium thiopental, to the FDA. He also barred any future shipments from entering the country.

Leon called the FDA's decision to allow such shipments "contrary to law, arbitrary, capricious and an abuse of discretion."

However, his ruling established no penalties for the FDA's conduct and will not affect Arizona's execution schedule or procedures.

His ruling comes 18 months after The Arizona Republic disclosed that the Arizona Department of Corrections had obtained the drug from a supplier in Great Britain.

That discovery set off an international furor in which Britain and Italy shut down exports of thiopental.

The Corrections Department fought to conceal how it obtained the drug, but the FDA ultimately was identified as the agency that allowed -- even assisted -- the illegal importation.

Eventually, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration confiscated the drug from several states and informed Arizona that it could not be used in subsequent executions.

The state has since altered its execution protocol to include a different drug.

In his ruling, Leon wrote, "In the final analysis, the FDA appears to be simply wrapping itself in the flag of law-enforcement discretion to justify its authority and masquerade an otherwise seemingly callous indifference to the health consequences of those imminently facing the executioner's needle. How utterly disappointing!"

Neither the FDA nor the Arizona Attorney General's Office responded to requests for comment Tuesday.

Dale Baich of the Federal Public Defender's Office in Phoenix, one of the principal attorneys on the case, said he was not surprised by the ruling.

"The law is quite clear that unapproved drugs cannot be imported. The FDA went above the law in allowing these drugs into the country," Baich said. "We brought the illegal-importation issue to the attention of the Arizona Department of Corrections and the FDA almost two years ago, but we were ignored."

Corrections officials said Tuesday that they are no longer in possession of the thiopental, which is still listed as an option in its execution protocol.

Thiopental is a short-acting barbiturate that was used as part of a three-drug, lethal-injection cocktail. It served as anesthesia before a paralyzing drug and a heart-stopping drug were administered. But the sole U.S. supplier of thiopental stopped producing it in 2009 because it had largely been replaced in hospitals by more modern drugs.

The thiopental shortage became apparent in May 2010, when Ohio had to scramble to obtain enough to carry out an execution. That September, the Arizona Department of Corrections, following the lead of other states, obtained the drug from a supplier in London that was not authorized to export it to the U.S.

The Republic first reported the questionable import in October 2010, the day before it was used to execute Jeffrey Landrigan. That information caused the British and Italian governments to stop exports of thiopental to the U.S. for use in executions. It is illegal for anyone in the European Economic Community to assist in capital punishment in other countries.

The FDA initially told The Republic that there was no legal mechanism to import the drug. The state Corrections Department repeatedly denied that it had gone outside legal channels to obtain it. Then, in December 2010, an FDA spokeswoman told The Republic that it would exercise "enforcement discretion" on the matter.

But e-mails obtained by The Republic under the federal Freedom of Information Act showed that FDA officials had allowed the shipments. Many of the e-mails had been redacted, but the encryption had failed, revealing that the FDA, with the approval of unnamed people at the White House, shifted responsibility for allowing the drug's import to U.S. customs officials.

That was done to avoid legal liability and to shield the FDA from any appearance of involvement with the death penalty. The FDA asked The Republic to return the unredacted e-mails. The newspaper declined.
One high-placed FDA official wrote in November 2010 that even if the agency issued a statement that it had not reviewed the drugs for "safety, efficacy or quality ... it will insert FDA into the death-penalty cases because attorneys will try to use the statement as a means to open proceedings on the safety of the imported drugs."

In a separate court proceeding in U.S. District Court in Phoenix last December, a former state Corrections official testified that a local FDA employee counseled him on how to lessen scrutiny of the foreign shipments and ease them past U.S. customs officials. In a videotaped deposition, the FDA official denied giving such advice. But his assistance in obtaining the drugs was interpreted as FDA "approval."

In April 2011, the drug was seized from some states by the DEA, and in June 2011, Arizona was told it could not use its supply. That came one day before the execution of Donald Beaty, the lead defendant in the lawsuit against the FDA.

Beaty was executed using a different drug, pentobarbital, which most states have adopted. Arizona's two most recent executions were carried out using only pentobarbital because the state Corrections Department had inadvertently let one of the other drugs in its three-drug protocol pass its expiration date.

In his ruling Tuesday, Judge Leon noted that the imported thiopental was a "misbranded and unapproved new drug," which by law cannot be distributed in the U.S. without FDA approval.

"No one is above the law -- not the Arizona Department of Corrections, not the FDA," Baich said. "The federal court, relying on the judgment of Congress, has sent a clear message that it is illegal to import drugs that have not been approved by the FDA. The states that have imported non-FDA approved drugs are now on notice that those drugs are illegal."

The Associated Press contributed to this article

Bjork: The next to last song

For all those of you wishing to  witness an execution, skip Moorman and Towery: here's one worth a few minutes of your time...

 

----------------from the AZ Republic--------------------- 

3 Arizona inmates sue over execution protocol

Michael Kiefer 

Feb. 6, 2012

Arizona Republic

With two executions scheduled in the next month, the Federal Public Defender's Office in Phoenix has again filed a lawsuit against the Arizona Department of Corrections over its procedure for carrying out lethal injections.

The lawsuit, filed Monday on behalf of three Arizona death row inmates by Assistant Federal Public Defender Dale Baich, claims that a new execution protocol put in place last month gives too much discretion to the state's corrections director. It suggests that the slackening of requirements in the new protocol may not pass muster with a U.S. Supreme Court decision regulating executions by lethal injection.

And the office again questions whether execution drugs purchased secretly in Britain are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

A spokesman said the department had not yet examined the suit and could not comment on it.

In 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Kentucky's protocol for lethal injection and invited other states to challenge their own. The Kentucky protocol, in effect, became the baseline for lethal injection, and in 2009, a U.S. District Court judge in Phoenix ruled that Arizona's measured up. That ruling was upheld in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

But last December, the same federal judge in Phoenix acknowledged that the DOC had frequently varied from the 2009 court-approved protocol. However, he ruled that the variances were excusable or justifiable and did not violate the rights of death-row prisoners.

Issues in the December court case were that the department consistently used a surgically implanted catheter in the groin instead of less-invasive catheters in an arm or leg to inject the chemicals; that the department had not performed adequate background checks on the executioners; and that some of the chemicals used in executions were not lawfully obtained.

In January, the DOC issued a new protocol, this time giving full discretion to director Charles Ryan on how and where the drugs are injected. It also loosens the experience needed by those people who carry out the execution and gives total authority to Ryan for their selection.

The new lawsuit claims that this may put the state out of compliance with the 2007 Supreme Court decision.
Ryan also gets to choose whether to use a barbiturate called pentobarbital or an older drug, thiopental, which is no longer available in the United States.

The federal Drug Enforcement Administration has determined that thiopental imported to Arizona for executions in 2010 and 2011 was not lawfully obtained.

Chuck Ryan testifies on execution drugs.

I believe this is being held in the Sandra Day O'Connor Federal Courthouse on W. Washington, for those interested in following it.

---------as reported on KTAR.com---------

Lawyers say Arizona not following execution rules

by Associated Press (December 5th, 2011 @ 9:09pm)

PHOENIX - Lawyers for Arizona death-row prisoners said Monday the state is using unvetted personnel to administer lethal injections under a sheet, away from witnesses' view, despite promises to a judge that those practices would stop.

U.S. District Judge Neil Wake, who signed off on the constitutionality of the state's step-by-step execution protocol two years ago, is now being asked to impose restrictions because of how the state is actually implementing key provisions.

Wake ruled in 2009 that lawyers in a different case hadn't shown that inmates' constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment were substantially jeopardized by execution processes that the attorneys argued might cause pain or other suffering.

During opening statements in the new trial that began Monday, inmate attorney Cary Sandman told Wake that previous assurances by Corrections Director Charles Ryan that the state would follow its protocol have proved unreliable.

With promises made and not kept, ``you've misled this court, the parties and the public,'' said Sandman, a federal public defender.

Ryan, who was the first witness to testify, acknowledged that his department failed to conduct required criminal background checks of execution team personnel. The failure, he said, was not intentional.

But Ryan said it's hard to recruit qualified injection-team personnel so he used his discretion to select a member, a department sergeant who was a military medical corpsman years ago but who doesn't have current experience in starting intravenous feeds.

The protocol requires that injection-team members have that experience as a primary part of their current job responsibilities.

Similarly, Ryan also testified that he used his discretion to let a physician who has been the injection team's leader for the past five executions to decide to use groin-area injections instead of injections in a limb such as an arm, as called for in the protocol.

Arizona, like many other execution states, previously used injections in inmates' arms, but the doctor said groin-area injections are more reliable, Ryan said.

And it's enough that the warden in the injection room could see the injections and alert the injection team to any problems, while a sheet draped over most of the inmate's body blocked it from the view of witnesses in an adjacent room, Ryan said.

Ryan said he didn't intentionally mislead Wake in a 2009 affidavit in which Ryan said the state would comply with the written protocol's terms.

The corrections director said the protocol itself authorized him to alter implementation. ``So I don't see that as requiring a need to advise the court that discretion may in fact be used,'' he said.

Wake did not comment during the beginning of the trial on the argument by the attorneys for the inmates that he'd been misled when he considered the protocol in 2009.

Initial testimony also focused on the state's acquisition of a formerly widely used but federally unapproved execution drug from a seller in Great Britain.

Inmate attorney Dale Baich said the state's willingness to skirt accepted procedures in getting the drug ``does not give confidence that executions will be carried out in a humane and safe manner.''

Assistant Attorney General Jeff Zick said in his opening statement that all the allegations hadn't resulted in any proof that inmates were actually subjected to substantial risks, whether from drugs or procedures used.

``Some deviations were intentional, some known and some were simply done by oversight,'' the government lawyer said.

During cross-examination by Zick, Ryan testified that no inmates complained of pain or discomfort before the past five executions conducted since Wake's 2009 ruling.

In fact, the director said, the inmates appeared comforted by the injection team's leader explanations of what he was doing. ``I believe he instilled confidence in the inmates who were to be executed,'' Ryan said.

The identity of the injection team leader and others participating in executions are confidential under state law.

Sandman asked Wake to order the state to either follow the protocol or provide details on deviations before an execution is conducted. He also said the court should appoint a monitor to ensure compliance and that the state should be barred from acquiring unapproved execution drugs.

The trial is expected to continue Wednesday and Thursday, and Wake said he try to rule in the next week or two.

A million hearts just shattered: the execution of Troy Davis.

Solidarity Vigil for Troy
Arizona State University Hayden Lawn
September 21. 2011

Troy Davis was murdered tonight by the state of Georgia and the US Supreme Court,

and a million hearts were shattered.

Blessings to his family, who lost the most. We will not give up this fight.

------------------

The Death of Troy Davis

Atlanta Journal Constitution

September 21, 2011

By Andrew Cohen

The Georgia execution, carried out amid so many reasonable doubts, marks a watershed in America's grim experiment with capital punishment

In a perfect world, the execution of Troy Davis Wednesday tonight in Georgia would herald a new era in America's grim history with the death penalty. It would shake the criminal justice system out of its self-satisfied torpor and force government and the governed both to face the ugly truth about capital punishment in the United States in the twenty-first century. It would propel this question to the forefront both of the nation's political debate and the Supreme Court's docket: How many exceptions to the rule must we allow or tolerate, how many legitimate questions must linger beyond the death chamber, before we either fix the system or end the experiment?

When the state kills those whose guilt is in serious doubt, or when the state kills those to whom it has not given fair justice, it doesn't just perform an injustice upon the individual, the rule of law, and the Constitution. It also undermines the very legitimacy of the death penalty itself, for its continuing use as a sentencing option derives its civic and moral strength mostly from the fiction that it can be, and is, credibly and reliably imposed. Once our confidence in that credibility is shattered, as it should be now that Davis is gone, all that's left of the death penalty is state-sponsored retribution and the hangman's noose.

In a perfect world, the haunting execution of Troy Davis would spawn vital reforms to the clemency and parole process in states like Georgia and Texas, where such proceedings routinely make a mockery of the idea of reasoned justice. It would light a fire under local prosecutors to ensure that witnesses in capital cases are not coerced by law enforcement officials. It would cause jurors to think twice about rushing to judgments. It would force a supine Congress to reevaluate its so-called "effective death penalty" statute, which neuters legitimate post-conviction appeals. And it would at long last shame state court judges to cast off the yoke of their campaign contributors, who push them to be "tough on crime" at the expense of fealty to the Bill of Rights.

Georgia says that it has given Davis more due process than any single man would have a right to expect. Up the state appellate ladder and down again. Up to the Supreme Court and back. Hearing upon hearing. Brief upon brief. At some point, Georgia says, there has to be finality in capital cases. At some point, the justice system has to accept the work of judges and juries and impose the sentence that was initially given. There is truth to all of this. And there is both rhyme and reason to many of the rules which govern appellate law and practice in capital cases. But those rules almost always place the state's interest in finality ahead of the condemned's interest in accuracy. "Enough is enough" is a great campaign slogan -- but it's hardly a worthy motto for a civilized nation's death penalty scheme.

Here's what Davis was up against, to cite just one example. Last summer, at the request of the United States Supreme Court, U.S. District Judge William Moore held an evidentiary hearing to examine the new claims, and new evidence, presented by Davis and his attorneys. Under federal law, Judge Moore reminded the litigants and the world, Davis had the nearly insurmountable post-conviction burden of establishing by "clear and convincing evidence'' that no reasonable juror would have convicted him based upon the new evidence. Applying that standard, which flips on its head the standard applied at trial, Judge Moore unsurprisingly held that Davis had failed to meet his burden.

In a perfect world, Davis would have had his new evidence evaluated under a legal standard more tuned to ensuring the reliability and accuracy of his conviction rather than upon the timing of his execution. His case wouldn't have been shoved like so many of the rest down a sterile and formalistic legal hole forced upon the federal courts by the Clinton-era Congress. And, even if it somehow were, even if the justice system failed, Davis would have had a parole board willing to acknowledge what seems so self-evident; that an uncertain death sentence harms more than just the executed.

Last week, in an op-ed which appeared in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, William Sessions, the former federal judge and FBI director, and a man not known for willy-nilly considerations, once again called upon Georgia to halt Davis' execution. His view of the 2010 hearing is the most accurate view I've read yet and is quite chilling. Judge Sessions wrote:

What the hearing demonstrated most conclusively was that the evidence in this case -- consisting almost entirely of conflicting stories, testimonies and statements -- is inadequate to the task of convincingly establishing either Davis' guilt or his innocence. Without DNA or other forms of physical or scientific evidence that can be objectively measured and tested, it is possible that doubts about guilt in this case will never be resolved.

Alas, the world, and the world of capital punishment in America, are far from perfect. When Georgia executed Troy Davis, despite the grave doubts cast upon his capital conviction, it wasn't just thumbing its nose at the new evidence which tends to exonerate him. It wasn't just ignoring the considered judgments of experts in criminal justice and capital cases. It wasn't just winking and nodding at the protections of the "cruel and unusual" clause of the Eighth Amendment. It was instead declaring war on all of that. It was proudly proclaiming its infidelity to a fundamental premise of American law -- that the courts, and the state, will always try their best to get things right no matter how long it takes.

Now that's he gone from the face of the earth, and whether he was guilty or not, Troy Davis will leave one of two legacies. Either his story will fade with time, as have the stories of so many other men executed under a cloud of questions about their guilt, or his story will propel meaningful change in this area of the law. His many supporters, in and out of public life, hold in their hands the ability to determine that legacy. What they could not accomplish during his lifetime they may still try to accomplish in his death; a renewed appreciation for the notion that no man, neither the high nor the low, neither the rich nor the poor, neither white nor black, deserves the lamentable injustice done this day.

This article available online at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/09/the-death-of-troy-davis/245446/

Troy Davis: Stay of Execution?

UPDATE (9/21/2011 9:35pm):

Troy's stay was denied and he was executed tonight.

Rest in Freedom, Brother Troy.

The key word is "considers", though - this isn't over yet. Show them we're ready to abolish the death penalty in America...Maybe we have finally evolved.

-------------------------

Troy Davis execution delayed while US supreme court considers stay

Execution of death row inmate delayed temporarily as US supreme court intervenes to consider whether to issue a stay

• Ed Pilkington tweets from outside the prison in Jackson

• Ten reasons why Troy Davis should not be executed

Ed Pilkington in Jackson, Georgia and agencies
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 21 September 2011 19.24 EDT


The execution of Troy Davis was delayed temporarily on Wednesday night as the US supreme court considered a last-minute appeal just as he was due to be put to death by lethal injection.

As the first news came in at the Jackson prison that houses death row, a huge cheer erupted from a crowd of more than 500 protesters that had amassed on the other side of the road.

Davis's supporters kissed each other and threw placards which read "Not in my name" into the air.

But the jubilation was short-lived. Talk of a reprieve from the US supreme court quickly gave way to rumours of a stay, and finally the realisation that the court had only ordered a temporary delay as it considered the matter. The mood then grew more sombre as the waiting game that has now been going on for years with Davis resumed.

Until the delay it seemed almost certain that Davis would be executed. Earlier on Wednesday, Georgia's supreme court had rejected a last-ditch appeal by Davis's lawyers over the 1989 murder of off-duty policeman Mark MacPhail, for which Davis had been convicted despite overwhelming evidence that the conviction is unreliable.

A Butts County superior court judge had also declined to stop the execution.

Davis's attorneys had filed an appeal challenging ballistics evidence linking Davis to the crime, and eyewitness testimony identifying Davis as the killer.

The White House declined to comment on the case, saying: "It is not appropriate for the president of the United States to weigh in on specific cases."

At the maximum security prison in Jackson where the execution was scheduled to take place, busloads of Troy Davis supporters from his home town of Savannah came in to register their anger and despair at what they all agree is the planned judicial killing of an innocent man.

Edward DuBose, a leader of the Georgia branch of the NAACP, said it was not an execution, but a "murder".

The protest heard from Martina Correia, Davis's eldest sister, who delivered a statement from about 20 family members gathered around her. She was heavily critical of what she described as the defiance of the state of Georgia and its inability to admit that it had made a mistake.

She pointed out that the state's parole board had vowed in 2007 that no execution would take place if there was any doubt. "Every year there is more and more doubt yet still the state pushes for an execution," she said.

Correia, who has cancer, struggled to her feet in honour of her brother, just a few hours from his probable death. But she exhorted people not to give up.

"if you can get millions of people to stand up against this you can end the death penalty. We shouldn't have to live in a state that executes people when there's doubt."

DuBose gave an account of a 30-minute conversation he had with Davis on death row on Tuesday night. "Troy wanted me to let you know – keep the faith. The fight is bigger than him."

DuBose said that whether the execution went ahead or not, the fight would continue. He said Davis wants his case to set an example "that the death penalty in this country needs to end. They call it execution; we call it murder."

Hundreds of people gathered outside the prison, many wearing T-shirts that said: "I am Troy Davis". The activist Al Sharpton said: "What is facing execution tonight is not just the body of Troy Davis, but the spirit of due justice in the state of Georgia."

Larry Coz, the executive director of Amnesty in the US, which has led the international campaign for clemency, said demonstrations were happening outside US embassies in France, Mali, Hong Kong, Peru, Germany and the UK.

"We will not stop fighting until we live in a world where no state thinks it can kill innocent people."

After winning three delays since 2007, Davis lost an appeal for clemency this week when the Georgia pardons board denied his request, despite serious doubts about his guilt.

Some witnesses who testified against Davis at trial later recanted, and others who did not testify came forward to say another man did it. But a federal judge dismissed those accounts as "largely smoke and mirrors" after a hearing Davis was granted last year to argue for a new trial, which he did not win.

Davis refused a last meal. He planned to spend his final hours meeting with friends, family and supporters.

Davis has received support from hundreds of thousands of people, including a former FBI director, former president Jimmy Carter and Pope Benedict XVI.

Parliamentarians and government ministers from the Council of Europe, the EU's human rights watchdog, had earlier called for Davis's sentence to be commuted.

Renate Wohlwend of the council's parliamentary assembly said: "To carry out this irrevocable act now would be a terrible mistake, which could lead to a tragic injustice"...

America the executioner: lynching, racism and the death penalty.

UPDATE (9/21/2011): SUPREME COURT GRANTS LAST-MINUTE STAY.

UPDATE (9/21/2011 9:35pm):

Troy's stay was denied
and he was executed tonight.

Rest in Freedom, Brother Troy.

This seemed an appropriate article, since an African American prisoner's bid for clemency in Georgia was denied today, and he's scheduled to be executed tomorrow in front of a world of witnesses who begged for his pardon. Hit this page to learn more about Troy Davis and to advocate for true justice for both him and the white police officer he was charged with killing. His conviction was based solely on recanted testimony from witnesses who report they had been coerced and the testimony of the man others identified as the real killer (who they couldn't even get an indictment against now if they tried, after all the doubt Troy's wrongful conviction would give him - boy is he laughing at all the cops now). I guess to some folks and most states in this country, one more black man dead is as good as another - they're all interchangeable when it comes to lynchings and executions. It still teaches the rest of us the same thing: Resistance is futile (which I assert that it is not).

The small question of reasonable doubt and innocence are irrelevant, though, when those with power and privilege stand to lose a bit of one or both if our minorities get too uppity, it seems. Besides, we all know that black men (and mothers of color, for that matter) are all guilty of something anyway, they just haven't all been booked yet - right? We need to go slow and throw in a few whites for the masses to choke it all down and call it a just democracy - I think that's largely how we ended up with a black man as president (the whites and Republicans also didn't want to take the blame for the mess Bush left behind).

We're still working on keeping folks down, without a doubt, so don't worry, dear privileged few. Arizona's so scared of people of color here becoming a voting majority that we're anxiously building 5000 more for-profit prison beds to accommodate the laws ALEC is crafting in order to disenfranchise and disempower the black and brown and Indigenous among us.

On top of that, for his part, Obama seems to be as bad as George Bush - if not worse - when it comes to exploiting our instruments of justice, turning them into even more devastating tools of oppression than ever before. All this madness, of course, is in the service of our capitalist, racist, brutal economy, which clearly still needs live sacrifices to feed on, and raw fear to keep us bound without chains. Fortunately, we each possess our own keys to freedom - so long as we can evolve. We'll know we've finally made real progress when we finally retire the executioners once and for all.

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DEATH SENTENCES LINKED TO HISTORY OF LYNCHING IN STATES

Ohio State University Research News

COLUMBUS , Ohio - States that sentence the most criminals to death also tend to be the states that had the most lynchings in the past, a new study suggests.

Researchers found that the number of death sentences for all criminals, Black and white, were higher in states with a history of lynchings. But the link was even stronger when only Black death sentences were analyzed.

The results may be shocking to many people, but they aren't surprising to sociologists who study the racial aspects of the death penalty, said David Jacobs, co-author of the study and professor of sociology at Ohio State University .

Our results suggest that the death penalty has become a sort of legal replacement for the lynchings in the past, Jacobs said. This hasn't been done overtly, and probably no one has consciously made such a decision. But the results show a clear connection.

Another study finding reinforces this idea. Results showed that the number of death sentences in states with the most lynchings increased as the state's population of African Americans grew larger, at least to a certain point. The researchers believe that is because, as their numbers increase, Blacks are seen by the white majority as a growing threat.

Jacobs conducted the study with Jason Carmichael, a graduate student at Ohio State, and Stephanie Kent, assistant professor of sociology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Their results were published in the most recent issue of the American Sociological Review.

The findings showed a clear link between the number of lynchings, the proportions of African Americans in the states, and the number of death sentences. We found that violent acts in the distant past still seemed to be linked to current legal decisions about who will live and who will die.

For the study, the researchers examined the number of death sentences handed down in each of the mainland 48 states in 1971-72, 1981-82 and 1991-92. They computed lynching rates with data on state lynchings from 1889 to 1931 provided by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

In their analysis, the researchers used a widely accepted statistical technique that allowed them to take into account the fact that the death penalty is not legal in all states and, even where it is legal, it is not always used.

They also took into account a wide variety of factors that also affect the number of death sentences given in a state, such as the overall crime and murder rates, unemployment rates, and fundamentalist church memberships.

To confirm their findings, the researchers repeated their analyses using a separate, and perhaps more reliable, data set on the number of lynchings that occurred in 10 Southern states.

In both cases, the findings showed a clear link between the number of lynchings, the proportions of African Americans in the states, and the number of death sentences.

* We found that violent acts in the distant past still seemed to be linked to current legal decisions about who will live and who will die, Jacobs said.

Why do the number of death sentences increase for white criminals as well as Blacks in states with a history of lynching?

* If there was clear discrimination against Blacks in death penalty sentencing, then the Supreme Court might again rule that the death penalty is unconstitutional, Jacobs said. So there may be an effort to not discriminate when imposing the death penalty. While the connection between lynchings and death sentences is strongest when only Black death sentences are considered, the connection between lynchings in the past and contemporary death sentences is present for both Blacks and whites.

* The findings also showed that the number of death sentences increases in states after a growth in the population of Blacks. But the number of death sentences begins to go down once the population of African Americans reaches a threshold of about 20 to 22 percent.

* Probably at that point, Blacks have enough votes and political influence within states to reduce the number of death sentences, Jacobs said.

The results of the study suggest that the United States is still a product of its past, Jacobs said.

Historical events continue to influence the current behavior of important social institutions. But the main point is that our findings do not support claims that the death penalty is administered in a color-blind fashion.

#

Contact: Jeff Grabmeier, (614) 292-8457; Grabmeier.1@osu.edu

Capitalist Punishment at ASU: Pros and Cons of the death penalty

AZ State Legislature
March 28, 2011

---------------ASU News, Arizona State University---------------

Capital punishment forum kicks off ASU's Humanities Lecture Series

August 18, 2011

Guest lecturers will discuss, debate and analyze the issue of capital punishment in a forum-style setting at ASU’s Downtown Phoenix campus.

“The Pros and Cons of Capital Punishment” will commence the fall 2011 Humanities Lecture Series, which is now in its fourth year. The forum, hosted by ASU’s School of Letters and Sciences and the Canon Leadership Program, starts at 6:30 p.m., Aug. 25, at the Nursing and Health Innovation Building Two, 550 N. Third St., Phoenix, Innovation Auditorium, room 110.

The lecture series is open to the general public and is free.

“The Humanities Lecture Series provides us with opportunities to analyze, discuss and interpret current events. We look forward to public discussions that help us understand and appreciate various points of view on political, social and cultural issues,” says Frederick C. Corey, director of ASU’s School of Letters and Sciences and dean of University College.

The School of Letters and Sciences provides students across ASU with the knowledge and skills to comprehend and effectively engage the changing world of the 21st century at local, national and global levels. Theory, creativity and applied learning are integrated as students build entrepreneurial opportunities both inside the university and in their communities.

Andrew Clemency, a public defender for the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office and adjunct associate in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, says capital punishment does not make economic or moral sense. He also said it’s a major burden on taxpayers.

“It costs vastly more money to execute criminals rather than to warehouse them at a state prison for the rest of their lives,” Clemency said. “Death penalty cases cost almost an average of $1 million and take about 10 to 20 years to appeal in state and federal systems. It’s really not a deterrent to crime, so why are we doing it? We’re doing it because our most base human impulse is revenge. Capital murder is the only punishment we extract in kind.”

Kent E. Cattani, chief counsel of the Criminal Appeals/Capital Litigation Section at the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, will represent the case for capital punishment. Cattani said while Arizona’s system is not perfect, his office has applied the state’s death penalty statute in a fair and just manner.

“Since 1993, Arizona has required the appointment of two highly qualified trial attorneys in every case in which the State notices its intent to seek the death penalty. We also provide experienced counsel to represent death-sentenced inmates in state appellate and post-conviction proceedings,” Cattani said. “We remain open to suggestions on how to improve the process, and as long as capital punishment remains the law in Arizona, we will continue to carry out the law as fairly as possible.”

Arizona has been carrying out death-penalty sentences since 1910 and suspended all cases from April 1962 to April 1992. The United States Supreme Court in 1972 held that the death penalty as it was administered violated the United States Constitution Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment and often was not guided in its discretion and was meted out in “arbitrary and capricious ways.”

The Arizona Legislature revised Arizona’s Death Penalty Statute and sentences became effective once again on May 1, 1979.

In 1992, the state executed its first death-row inmate in 29 years, Donald Harding, who was found guilty of murdering two men in a Tucson hotel. Harding died in Arizona’s gas chamber, an event that took 11 minutes and ultimately led to the state’s switch to lethal injection.

Since 1992 Arizona has carried out 28 executions, including four in 2011.

For directions, visit http://nursingandhealth.asu.edu/contact/directionsdt.htm. For parking information, visit http://nursingandhealth.asu.edu/contact/parking.htm. For more information, call Mirna Lattouf, series lecture organizer, at (602) 496-0638.

Marshall Terrill, Marshall.Terrill@asu.edu

(602) 496-1005

ASU Office of Public Affairs

FDA facilitating executions...

------------------------from the AZ Republic-------------------

E-mails detail FDA's efforts to avoid responsibility regarding execution drug

by Michael Kiefer
Aug. 20, 2011 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic


In late September 2010, the Arizona Department of Corrections obtained the drug sodium thiopental from a small pharmaceutical supply house in London to carry out an execution by lethal injection in October.

The supply house was not registered with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to export the drug, nor was the drug approved by FDA, but FDA officials in Phoenix nonetheless allowed the drug into the country.

Though the Corrections Department fought hard in court to keep the source of the drug secret, days before the October execution was carried out, The Arizona Republic learned that it had been imported from England.

From documents obtained this week from the FDA under the Freedom of Information Act, The Republic has learned that the revelation touched off inquiries into how the drug made it to Arizona and other states that had already been importing it from England and elsewhere.

Then, the FDA, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol all consulted with the White House to address questions about the legality of the imports and to justify bending the rules to get it to prisons for executions.

The documents released by the FDA offer an insider's view of an agency struggling to keep itself from being dragged into the national legal debate over drugs used in state executions. Some of the released documents were supposed to be redacted to conceal certain details, but encryption failed.

Those e-mails show, among other things, that the FDA, with the approval of unnamed persons at the White House, shifted responsibility for allowing the drug's import to Customs. That was done to avoid legal liability and to shield the FDA from any appearance of involvement with the death penalty.

One high-placed FDA official wrote on Nov. 2 that even if the agency issued a statement that it had not reviewed the drugs for "safety, efficacy or quality . . . it will insert FDA into the death-penalty cases because attorneys will try to use the statement as a means to open proceedings on the safety of the imported drugs."

By the end of 2010, the FDA officially stated it would "continue to defer to law enforcement on all matters involving lethal injection," and the e-mails show that it had deferred approval of the drug imports to Customs.

When asked for comment, Shelly Burgess, an FDA spokeswoman, said in an e-mail response, "This involves a matter in litigation and the agency does not comment on matters of litigation."

Dale Baich of the Federal Public Defender's Office in Phoenix, one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit seeking to force the FDA to police the drug imports, also received the FDA documents whose redactions were visible. He said he declined to review them because of attorney ethical considerations.

"It is hard for me to say because I have not seen the documents," Baich said. "But it appears that the FDA was concerned, as were we, about how Arizona obtained the drugs. We have alleged the drugs were illegally imported and the FDA fell short in its duty under the law. This information seems to support our claims."

The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California is also suing the FDA for information about thiopental imports, and this week's FOIA release was partly spurred by the ACLU's requests.

The FDA meanwhile, asked the federal public defender, the ACLU and The Republic to return the unredacted materials. The Republic declined.

By May 2010, sodium thiopental was scarce in the United States, and by late September of that year, as Arizona was preparing to execute its first prisoner in two years, the drug was virtually unavailable domestically because the only U.S. manufacturer had ceased production. Arizona, like other states, scrambled to find it overseas.

The first Arizona thiopental shipment cleared FDA approval on Sept. 28. In a timeline prepared months later, the FDA representative in Phoenix told his superiors that he "assumed entry would be legal."

But then the FDA representative found that Dream Pharma, the British supply house, was not authorized to export it to the U.S. Subsequent e-mails confirmed what Baich and others have said from the beginning: The drug was not approved for use in the United States.

The flurry of intra-agency e-mails of concern began Oct. 27, the day after Arizona executed death-row inmate Jeffrey Landrigan with British thiopental, and two days after The Republic revealed the drug's country of origin. FDA officials began tracking shipments to other states that had been allowed into the country.

By Nov. 5, e-mails were referring to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg's request to investigate how to "extricate FDA from the process." On Nov. 9, the e-mails said the White House wanted the FDA to set up a conference to discuss the matter, even while FDA officials were still trying to figure out how to temporarily defuse the situation with Charles Flanagan, deputy director of the Arizona Department of Corrections. Flanagan was reportedly "very upset" and insisting that FDA personnel return his phone calls about further thiopental shipments that had been detained.

By Nov. 16, the e-mails asked whether the problem could be deferred to the DEA, and then by Nov. 22, the decision seemed made to "defer entirely to Customs." Into mid-December, the White House was asking for a detailed description of the FDA's plan to exercise enforcement discretion and not police thiopental shipments to prisons.

Then the federal government was forced to curtail the imports for another reason. According to one e-mail, the Georgia Department of Corrections asked the DEA to check if that agency had been authorized to import thiopental. It was not, and the DEA was forced to seize its supply of the drug in March. The e-mail goes on to say that the drug might not have been seized had Georgia not asked the question in the first place.

In late June, DEA officials told the Arizona Department of Corrections not to use thiopental in its execution of inmate Donald Beaty. A different drug was used instead and has been used since. It had almost been foretold in a March 16 memo from an FDA attorney.

"I am trying to test a hunch and that hunch is that between bad publicity, lawsuits, and product seizures, there will be less of a desire to bring this product in," he wrote.

Republic reporters JJ Hensley and Yvonne Wingett Sanchez contributed to this article.

AZ executes mentally disabled man: Why haven't we evolved yet?

Thanks to "Anchor Baby" Jorge Mendez, Carlos Galindo, and the whole "thuggish mob" occupying the Capitol for coming to my rescue when the cops questioned me about chalking the Senate sidewalk last night.

AZ State Senate:
Vigil against the death penalty.
Phoenix: March 28, 2011.

"Clerical error" my ass, Horne. Of course they requested the drug for use on an "animal" - they don't care if it's defective. They would have executed him for the first crime if they could have - that was pretty horrific: we could line up thousands of guys if we did that, though, for money that could be used saving lives instead. Besides, the AZ Department of Corrections does a better job assuring that their dogs don't suffer the discomfort of summer than they do preventing wretched deaths from befalling the people in their custody - including the ones not sentenced to be executed.


I bet the director of the ADC has a good sleep tonight, defending the public by assuring this man's death. The Arizona Justice Project didn't pick up Eric King's case for some reason, but not necessarily because he isn't innocent - they go with what they think they can win, and can't afford to pin their name on someone who hasn't been cleared. I wonder if it ever bothers Chuck Ryan that so many people have been exonerated. How utterly unnecessary - and unjust, considering how casual this state is about neglect and abuse befalling the people in its custody.


Our condolences to King's kid. I don't think he was asking too much.


This page has links to death penalty resources.

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Arizona executes Eric John King Tuesday, March 29, 2011 Associated Press

FLORENCE, Ariz. — A man convicted of killing two people in a 1989 Phoenix convenience store robbery was executed Tuesday despite last-minute arguments by his attorneys who raised questions over one of the lethal injection drugs and said they had raised “substantial doubt” about his guilt.

Eric John King’s death at the state prison in Florence was the first execution in the state since October and one of the last expected to use a three-drug lethal injection cocktail.

The 47-year-old had maintained his innocence since his arrest and his lawyers fought until the last minute to get his sentence reversed or delayed.

Defense attorney Mike Burke said before the execution that he visited with King on Tuesday morning.

“Although he’s very calm, he continues to maintain his innocence,” Burke told The Associated Press. “He’s done what he can do. All he has left to do is maintain his dignity.”

The Arizona Supreme Court declined to stay King’s execution Monday after Burke argued that the state should wait until it enacts its new lethal injection protocol. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to intervene.

Corrections Director Charles Ryan announced Friday that Arizona will switch to using just one drug in an effort to allay any “perceived concerns” that sodium thiopental is ineffective, but only after the scheduled executions of King and Daniel Wayne Cook on April 5.

Defense attorney Michael Burke had argued that the Department of Corrections may have engaged in fraud when it imported the sedative from Great Britain by listing it on forms as being for “animals (food processing),” not humans.

Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne said the mislabeling resulted from a clerical error.

Arizona obtained the drug legally, and that’s why it has been able to avoid problems other states have had, Assistant Attorney General Kent Cattani has said. Georgia’s supply of sodium thiopental was seized by federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents on March 15 over questions about how it was obtained.

The drug is part of the three-drug lethal injection cocktail used by nearly all 34 death penalty states, but it became scarce last year after the sole U.S. manufacturer stopped making it.

Some states started obtaining sodium thiopental overseas, and lawyers have argued that potentially adulterated, counterfeit or ineffective doses could subject prisoners to extreme pain.

Texas and Oklahoma recently announced they are switching from sodium thiopental to pentobarbital in their three-drug protocol. Ohio has switched to using only pentobarbital for its executions, and Ryan said that’s the drug Arizona might start using.

Burke also was unable to successfully argue that King be granted clemency at a hearing Thursday. Burke had argued that the two key witnesses who testified against King at his trial have changed their stories, that no physical evidence exists and surveillance video used at trial was of extremely poor quality.

Vince Imbordino, a prosecutor with the Maricopa County attorney’s office, argued that the photographic evidence was clear and that if jurors didn’t believe King was guilty, they wouldn’t have convicted him.

King was convicted of fatally shooting security guard Richard Butts and clerk Ron Barman at a Phoenix convenience store two days after Christmas in 1989. Butts and Barman both were married fathers whose families have testified that their deaths in a robbery that netted $72 devastated them.

Shortly before the killings, King had been released from a seven-year prison term on kidnapping and sexual assault charges. Police say King, who was 18 at the time, and another man kidnapped a woman and took her to an abandoned house, where both repeatedly and brutally sexually assaulted her over six hours.

Before he was sentenced in that crime, deputy adult probation officer Lee Brinkmoeller wrote that King had plans to reform himself.

“The defendant’s plans for the future are to become a machinist and to have his own car, house, family, and start being able to do things for his mother for all the things she has done for him,” Brinkmoeller wrote. “He states that he wants to have his mother be proud of him before she dies and he wants to be somebody.”

Court documents show King had a troubled childhood. Born in a taxi on the way to the hospital in Phoenix, King was one of 12 siblings whose alcoholic, abusive and mentally disturbed father died of a heart attack when King was 11, according to court records.

Records also say King’s mother struggled to provide for the children, who were so hungry at times that they tried to catch crawdads in irrigation canals and frequently were without electricity.

King reported to a prison psychiatrist that he had heard voices on and off his entire life, and suffered from anxiety and insomnia.

His son, 20-year-old Eric Harrison, saw King for the first time Thursday at the clemency hearing and asked the board to spare his father.

“This is the first time I’ve ever seen my dad, ever in life, and I know I love him,” Harrison said. “That’s my dad. He gave me life. Just don’t take him.”

King is the 23rd death row inmates Arizona has executed with the three-drug method since it began using lethal injection in 1993.

The state had previously executed 38 inmates with lethal gas since it started using that method in 1934. Another 28 inmates were executed by hanging between 1910 and 1931.

Source: AP, March 29, 2011

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AZ State Senate Lawn:
Vigil against the death penalty March 28, 2011.