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Thread: Arkansas Capital Punishment News

  1. #271
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    In filing, AG cites 3-drug decision; state urges look in execution case

    By Linda Satter
    The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

    The same three-drug protocol that is used to execute Arkansas death-row inmates was given the go-ahead earlier this month by a federal appeals court in Cincinnati, attorneys for the state told a federal judge last week in Little Rock.

    Attorney General Leslie Rutledge's office filed a notice about the Sept. 11 ruling of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a case pending before U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker, urging her to consider it in deciding whether Arkansas' protocol is unconstitutional, as some Arkansas death-row inmates have alleged.

    But an attorney for the inmates responded that the 6th Circuit's decision "relies on dubious legal interpretations and cannot account for the specific proof in this case." He urged Baker not to let the Ohio ruling alter her analysis of the Arkansas case, saying the Arkansas prisoners' case "remains as strong as ever."

    The Arkansas case centers on midazolam, the first of three drugs injected under Arkansas' lethal-injection protocol. Attorneys for 18 death-row inmates say the state's reliance on the sedative to render unconsciousness before the injections of the other two drugs is unconstitutional, in that it doesn't guarantee the inmates won't experience excruciating pain during the final injections.

    The second drug, vecuronium bromide, is a paralytic that causes difficulty breathing and masks the effect of the third drug, potassium chloride, which causes intense burning as it stops the heart. The Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibits cruel and unusual punishment.

    In late April and early May, Baker presided over a nine-day nonjury trial on the inmates' lawsuit. She didn't rule from the bench, instead taking the matter under advisement. A decision wasn't considered urgent since there are currently no executions set in Arkansas.

    In 2017, when a smaller group of inmates first sued over the protocol, Baker granted a preliminary injunction forbidding the state from using the protocol until the matter could be more closely examined at trial. The state appealed, and the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis dissolved the injunction.

    Four executions were carried out in April 2017, just before the state's supply of midazolam expired. The state had sought to carry out eight executions that month, drawing national attention to the state.

    There are currently 30 inmates on Arkansas' death row.

    In post-trial briefs filed in late June and July, attorneys for the state said they had shown through expert witnesses that Arkansas chose the three-drug protocol only after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld its constitutionality in a 2015 case, Glossip v. Gross. They said the protocol "includes numerous procedural safeguards to ensure the prisoners are unconscious before the state administers the lethal drugs."

    The state also argued that the prisoners' cruelty claim isn't based on any direct evidence of pain or suffering, or a well-established scientific consensus showing that the use of midazolam with the other two drugs "is sure or very likely to cause severe pain."

    "Instead," the attorneys wrote, "the prisoners' claim rests on speculative theories that are unsupported by any scientific studies in humans" and that conflicts with clinical uses and experiences of midazolam, as testified to by expert witnesses.

    In a response written on the prisoners' behalf, Assistant Federal Public Defender John C. Williams cited "compelling proof" presented at the trial through other expert witnesses "that midazolam is an ineffective sedative and that less painful alternative execution methods are readily available." He asked the judge to enter an order prohibiting the use of midazolam in future executions.

    In a Tuesday filing, Arkansas Solicitor General Nicholas Bronni and Senior Assistant Attorney General Jennifer Merritt argued that "every appellate court in the United States to consider this argument has rejected it."

    They attached a copy of the 6th Circuit's Sept. 11 ruling in a case called Henness v. DeWine, in which a three-judge panel of the appeals court affirmed the district judge's refusal to grant a stay of execution for death-row inmate Warren Keith Henness, but disagreed with the district court's analysis of the part of the Glossip case concerning needless pain and suffering.

    Bronni and Merritt said the 6th Circuit's ruling "framed the relevant question" as whether a method of execution has been shown to cause serious pain that the inmate is "sure or very likely to be conscious enough to experience."

    The lower court, in Columbus, concluded that "because midazolam has no analgesic properties," it isn't able to suppress an inmate's consciousness deeply enough to prevent him from experiencing serious pain.

    But the appellate court disagreed, saying it wasn't proved that the type of pain the inmate might suffer would be serious enough to be prohibited by the Eighth Amendment.

    The state asked Baker to consider the 6th Circuit ruling "as highly persuasive authority in deciding the same issues in this case."

    Williams, in contrast, called Henness v. DeWine "an unpersuasive opinion, particularly within the context of this litigation."

    He argued that the ruling didn't change the Supreme Court's determination that "constitutionally problematic" pain is "severe pain" that involves "needless suffering," which the Arkansas case has shown can occur with its three-drug protocol.

    https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/...decision-2019/
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  2. #272
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Federal judge rejects execution-drug challenge; state’s use doesn’t violate 8th Amendment

    By Linda Satter
    The Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

    The three-drug protocol that Arkansas used to execute four death-row inmates in 2017 doesn’t violate the 8th Amendment, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment, a federal judge said Monday in a 106-page ruling following a non-jury trial last year.

    U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker sided with the state in finding that the state’s method of execution is constitutional. It begins with the use of the sedative Midazolam, is followed by an injection of vercuronium bromide, a paralytic, and ends with an injection of potassium chloride, which stops the heart.

    Attorneys for death-row inmates challenged the use of Midazolam, in particular, presenting testimony that it doesn’t always sedate someone deeply enough to prevent experiencing pain from the use of the other two drugs.

    The use of Midazolam has been upheld in other states as well.

    https://www.nwaonline.com/news/2020/...rug-challenge/
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  3. #273
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    Judge Baker was appointed by President Obama.

  4. #274
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Neil's Avatar
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    I have to say the Obama judges are more favorable to Capital Punishment then the Clinton Judges.

  5. #275
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    State officials ‘working closely’ on execution dates

    While no time estimate was provided on when executions may continue in Arkansas, the office of Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge said they are working with Gov. Asa Hutchinson and the Arkansas Department of Corrections (ADC) to “ensure justice.”

    U.S. District Court Judge Kristine Baker with the Eastern District of Arkansas ruled June 1 that Arkansas could continue with a three-drug protocol – midazolam, vercuronium bromide, and potassium chloride – to administer a death sentence by lethal injection. The ruling allows state officials to set, and reset in some cases, execution dates for death row inmates.

    “As the Attorney General, I enforce the laws in the State and bring justice for families who have long been devastated at the hands of these murderers. Today’s final judgment reaffirms the constitutionality of Arkansas’s execution protocol.” Rutledge said following the June 1 ruling.

    The AG’s office told Talk Business & Politics that death row inmates Don Davis, Jack Greene, Stacey Johnson, Timothy Kemp and Bruce Ward “have exhausted the legal process and are eligible for execution.” Ward, 63, was sentenced Oct. 18, 1990. Davis, 57, was sentenced March 6, 1992. Greene, 65, was sentenced July 1, 1999. Johnson, 50, was sentenced Sept. 23, 1994. Kemp, 59, was sentenced Dec. 2, 1994.

    The AG’s office would not provide details on execution date discussions or provide a time frame for when executions might begin.

    “The Attorney General is working closely with the Governor and the Arkansas Department of Correction to ensure justice for the victims and their families,” noted a statement from AG Communications Director Amanda Priest.

    Greene was set to be executed in November 2017, but received a last minute reprieve from the Arkansas Supreme Court based on a need to assess his mental competency. Greene was convicted for the 1991 murder of 69-year old Sidney Burnett, a preacher living in Knoxville in Johnson County.

    Gov. Hutchinson in 2017 set execution dates two at a time over an 11-day period starting April 17 and ending April 27. However, stays of executions were granted for Davis, Ward, and Johnson. Eventually executed that year were Ledelle Lee (April 20), Marcel Williams and Jack Jones (April 24) and Kenneth Williams (April 27).

    According to the ADC, there are 30 people on death row. Of those, 15 are white, 14 are black and one is Hispanic.

    https://talkbusiness.net/2020/06/sta...ecution-dates/
    Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next products.

    "They will hurt you. They will hurt your grandma, these people. The root cause of this is there's no discipline in the homes, they don't go to school, you know, they live off the government, no personal accountability, and they just beat people up for no reason, and it's disgusting." - Former Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters

  6. #276
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    I'm still wondering why they dropped Nooner. Why keep him if you aren't going to try?
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  7. #277
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    He's probably "retarded."
    Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next products.

    "They will hurt you. They will hurt your grandma, these people. The root cause of this is there's no discipline in the homes, they don't go to school, you know, they live off the government, no personal accountability, and they just beat people up for no reason, and it's disgusting." - Former Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters

  8. #278
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Neil's Avatar
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    I have to say the Republicans do have very aggressive attorney generals right now fighting for executions. Almost all the current attorney generals on the Republican side have been fighting to execute and get drugs into their state.

    Part of me wonders how Daniel Cameron would fight if Kentucky ever got going again?
    Last edited by Neil; 06-04-2020 at 06:31 PM.

  9. #279
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    Rutledge, Marshall, and Ravnsborg are probably the best.
    Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next products.

    "They will hurt you. They will hurt your grandma, these people. The root cause of this is there's no discipline in the homes, they don't go to school, you know, they live off the government, no personal accountability, and they just beat people up for no reason, and it's disgusting." - Former Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters

  10. #280
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Neil's Avatar
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    Moody and Slaterey are pretty good too. Moody is working very hard to increase Florida’s death row again. Slaterey is very aggressive in seeking dates. He had the guts to challenge that decision that dropped Raham’s death sentence.

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