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Thread: Arkansas Capital Punishment News

  1. #71
    Senior Member Member Dillydust's Avatar
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    I've been reading alot of the Iran execution thread. Maybe the states should go back to hanging like the Iranians.

  2. #72
    sondav2
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    I wish Arkansas gets on with it. I am pro dp. Nothing but scum that deserve the ultimate punishment. I live not 15 miles away from Cummins. All these lawsuits by dr are frivolous. Miss the days when Arkansas done 2, 3 executions in a day .
    Last edited by sondav2; 10-10-2013 at 12:34 PM. Reason: mistyped last sentence. again

  3. #73
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    Arkansas lawmakers to discuss execution options

    The House and Senate Judiciary Committees are to take up the matter when they meet jointly in Little Rock on Tuesday.

    LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - Lawmakers are scheduled to discuss alternative methods of carrying out the death penalty in Arkansas.

    The House and Senate Judiciary Committees are to take up the matter when they meet jointly in Little Rock on Tuesday.

    Arkansas hasn't executed a death row inmate since 2005, and that isn't expected to change anytime soon.

    Some of the state's more than 35 death row inmates are challenging the state's new execution law in court. And the state prison system has said it plans to rewrite its lethal injection protocol to include a different drug or drugs.


    http://www.stuttgartdailyleader.com/...#ixzz2l7qOSokS

  4. #74
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    November 19, 2013

    At Judiciary meeting, talk of two more possible issues for the 2014 fiscal session: arming teachers and revisiting the death penalty


    [Edit]


    The first item on today’s agenda was a discussion of “alternative methods of implementing the Arkansas death penalty”, but officials from the Attorney General’s office were unable to attend because of the Pulaski County desegregation hearing this afternoon. Arkansas, like many other states that still employ capital punishment, is now unable to carry out the executions of death row inmates because it lacks the drugs normally used for lethal injections. For various reasons, the supply of those chemicals has been vastly restricted, but the use of alternative lethal substances is problematic because they would likely be challenged under the Eighth Amendment. Nonetheless, states are now experimenting with other drugs. Amy Ford of the AG’s office read the committee a brief statement regarding Florida’s announcement that it would use a sedative called midazolam hydrochloride for lethal injections in place of the barbiturate normally used, pentobarbital; in October, Florida executed death row inmate William Happ using midazolam as part of its cocktail.

    But, said Ford, the drug can’t be used under existing Arkansas statute, even though that law was just rewritten in the 2013 session to provide more latitude in the types of chemicals allowed. The new death penalty statute still requires the use of a barbiturate. Ford also noted that Happ had elected to stop filing appeals to stay his execution, and had decided to consent to death; court challenges to Florida’s midazolam alternative will be forthcoming in other death row cases. Other states trying other drugs are sure to face court challenges of their own. So what’s to be done? Repealing the death penalty altogether is one option, but it seems unlikely the political will exists. Although the route forward is unclear, Hutchinson indicated he would like to attempt to address the issue in 2014.

    http://www.arlegislativedigest.com/b...death-penalty/

  5. #75
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    Judge to hear arguments in Ark. execution lawsuit

    LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - A judge will hear oral arguments next month in a lawsuit challenging Arkansas' new lethal injection law.

    Court records show that arguments are scheduled for Jan. 17 in Little Rock.

    Nine death row inmates are suing the state over an execution law that legislators enacted this year. That new law came about after the state Supreme Court struck down the previous one in 2012, saying legislators had ceded too much control over execution procedures to correction officials.

    The inmates say the new law still gives too much power to the state's Department of Correction.

    The state wants a judge to uphold the law.

    Arkansas had 37 inmates on death row, but one was recently granted a new trial. No executions are scheduled.

    http://www.knoe.com/story/24172244/j...cution-lawsuit

  6. #76
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    Death row inmates to argue on Ark. execution drug

    Nine inmates on Arkansas' death row are to argue in a circuit court hearing that the state's execution law is so flawed that a judge should block further lethal injections.

    The hearing in Pulaski County on Friday is over arguments by the condemned inmates that the Legislature gave too much power to the Correction Department in an execution law passed last year.

    A new law was needed because the Arkansas Supreme Court tossed out a previous law, saying legislators gave too much control to corrections officials. The inmates further argue that the execution drug the state wants to use is untested and could result in an agonizing death.

    The inmates also argue that the law is invalid because it was not in force at the time they committed their crimes.

    http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/ne...ug-5234332.php
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  7. #77
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    Judge strikes down state's new effort to make execution method legal

    David Goins of Fox 16 Tweets the breaking news that a Pulaski circuit judge has struck down the state's new lethal injection law because it gives too much to discretion to the Correction Department in application.

    Here's the background of the lawsuit.

    Plaintiffs argued, and Judge Wendell Griffen agreed, that the legislature hadn't given the department sufficient guidance in how to choose and use barbiturates in lethal injections. The lack of availability of drugs previously used in a lethal "cocktail" had shut down lethal injections nationwide.

    The state likely will appeal the decision as will plaintiffs, who lost an effort to protest retroactive application of the new law to them. But Attorney General Dustin McDaniel continues to look correct in his assessment that the means of Arkansas or any state finding a permanent, court-upheld method of execution is slim. At some point, the state must decide whether to keep trying or to save a great deal of money, without any demonstrated impact on crime, and go to a system of life in prison for the worst offenders.

    http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog...n-method-legal
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  8. #78
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    Ark. AG hopeful calls for return of electric chair

    By ANDREW DeMILLO
    The Associated Press

    LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - The four candidates running for Arkansas attorney general agree they want to resume executions that have been halted for nearly a decade by court challenges and shortages of the drugs used for lethal injections. One of them says the state should resort to a method that hasn’t been used in 24 years: the electric chair.

    David Sterling, one of three Republicans running to be the state’s top lawyer, said he thinks the state should look to electrocution to carry out the death penalty while the state’s lethal injection law remains in limbo. Sterling is running against Leslie Rutledge and Patricia Nation for the GOP nomination. State Rep. Nate Steel is the only Democrat running for the post.

    “The electric chair is still authorized to be used in executions in the state of Arkansas. The electric chair has withstood constitutional scrutiny throughout the country for many, many decades. And so with it being available as a method of execution, I’m not sure why we’re not employing it,” Sterling told The Associated Press last week.

    Sterling raised the electric chair as a possibility while he talked about how to restart the state’s executions. Arkansas has 33 inmates on death row, but hasn’t executed anyone since 2005. A Pulaski County judge in February granted a motion by nine death row inmates to halt executions, ruling that the state Legislature last year gave too much authority to the Correction Department when it designated the agency director as the person who picks the drug for lethal injections. The state is appealing.

    The judge’s ruling was the latest hurdle in Arkansas for the death penalty, a process that Democratic Attorney General Dustin McDaniel called “broken” last year because of ongoing court challenges and drug shortages. Gov. Mike Beebe, a Democrat, has said he would sign into law legislation abolishing the death penalty if it reached his desk.

    Lawmakers in other states facing obstacles similar to Arkansas’ have floated the idea of resorting to old execution methods such as firing squads and gas chambers. Arkansas hasn’t used electrocution to execute anyone since 1990, and the state’s electric chair now sits in a museum.

    Sterling has also said he’ll propose changing the state law to call for using pentobarbital as the drug in lethal injections, and says the names of businesses that manufacture and deliver the drug should be exempt from Arkansas’ Freedom of Information laws. Sterling said exempting those records would prevent death penalty opponents from targeting manufacturers and pharmacies that provide the drug.

    Sterling’s rivals in the May 20 primary and the sole Democrat running agree they want to resume executions, but say resorting to the electric chair is going too far.

    “I think the more humane way is the cocktail,” Rutledge said, referring to the combination of drugs used in lethal injections.

    Nation questioned whether the electric chair would violate the U.S. Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

    “With the progress that we’ve made in this area, there’s no reason to go back to the electric chair,” she said. “We have come way far in our country.”

    Steel, who sponsored the lethal injection law that was struck down, said he’s committed to resuming executions in the state but said he doesn’t believe electrocution isn’t something courts would allow.

    “If the court is going to equivocate on what kind of barbiturates we’re going to use, I’m certain they would take issue with and strike down more antiquated methods like electric chairs and public hangings,” he said.

    The idea also isn’t publicly embraced by any of the candidates for governor, who would have to sign an execution warrant. Former U.S. Rep. Asa Hutchinson and Little Rock businessman Curtis Coleman, who are both seeking the GOP gubernatorial nomination, said they support the death penalty but wouldn’t advocate Arkansas using the electric chair again.

    “I believe the most humane means has proven to be lethal injection and while we’re having problems right now in having access to the right chemicals, I hope we can resolve that just as other states have,” Hutchinson said.

    Coleman agreed: “I’m not sure killing someone is humane, but if we have to do it and I think there’s instances where it’s required, let’s do it in a way that doesn’t offend the civility of Arkansans and their sense of compassion even in those instances. I wouldn’t support using the electric chair again.”

    Former U.S. Rep. Mike Ross said he supports the death penalty, but stopped short of endorsing or opposing specific ways to carry it out - including the electric chair.

    “I support the death penalty and I would work with the Legislature and attorneys to carry out the death penalty in a way that’s constitutional,” Ross said.

    Lynette Bryant, a substitute teacher who’s also seeking the Democratic nomination, declined to say whether she supports the death penalty or using the electric chair.

    http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...ource=RSS_Feed

  9. #79
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    Ark. public defender wants death penalty deadline

    The executive director of the Arkansas Public Defender Commission is proposing legislation to require prosecutors to decide whether to waive the death penalty in capital murder cases within 120 days of a person's arrest.

    Greg Parrish said a bill requiring prosecutors to make a decision early in a murder case's timeline would save the office "a lot of money."

    The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports (http://bit.ly/1kUNn56 ) the commission asked Parrish to research whether any other states have similar measures and to report back to it.

    Parrish says his office, in some cases, has been forced to spend tens of thousands of dollars on experts before the prosecutor decides to waive the death penalty. He says prosecutors sometimes make the decision as late as a month before a trial is set to begin.

    http://www.sfgate.com/news/crime/art...ne-5552725.php
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  10. #80
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    Arkansas AG's office argues for death penalty

    An assistant Arkansas attorney general has asked the state Supreme Court to overturn a lower court ruling that the state's death penalty law is unconstitutional.

    Assistant Attorney General Jennifer Merritt said in a brief filed Friday that Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen was incorrect in his February ruling that the law violates the separation of powers. Griffen ruled that the Legislature gave too much authority to the Correction Department when it designated the agency director as the person who picks the drug for lethal injections.

    Attorney Jeff Rosenzweig - who represented the death row inmates who challenged the law - told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that he had not read the brief but said "an appropriate response will be filed."

    No one has been executed in Arkansas since 2005.

    http://www.kspr.com/news/local/arkan...51620_27162972
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

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