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Thread: Arkansas Capital Punishment News

  1. #11
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    Judge: Part of Ark. execution law unconstitutional

    LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — An Arkansas judge has ruled that part of the state's law on executions is unconstitutional.

    Pulaski County Circuit Judge Tim Fox on Monday said the phrase that allows "any other chemical or chemicals" to be used in lethal injections is not constitutional.

    The judge also said the state has to follow the law when it obtains the drug sodium thiopental — which is used in the lethal injection process.

    Fox's ruling comes after the Arkansas Department of Correction surrendered its supply of the drug amid legal questions over how it obtained it from a British company.

    Attorneys for both death row inmates and the state said they plan to appeal at least parts of the case. It's expected to end up before the Arkansas Supreme Court.

    http://www.greenwichtime.com/news/ar...#ixzz1V7aCAzcS

  2. #12
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    October 7, 2011

    Marcel Williams v. Ray Hobbs

    U.S. Court of Appeals Case No. 10-1573 and No. 10-2899

    U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas - Pine Bluff [PUBLISHED] [Murphy, Author with Loken and Beam, Circuit Judges]

    Dismissal of challenge to Arkansas's Method of Execution Act as violating the ex post facto clause and due process right to access the court is affirmed. There is not an ex post facto claus violation because the possibility that the director could eliminate anesthesia does not create a significant risk of increased punishment, because there should not be an increased mental anxiety because information is available under FOIA (including the quantity, method, and order of administration), and because it is speculative that the protocol would have been more humane had the Act been subject to the APA. The due process claims fails because inability to discover potential claims is not a due process violation and no actual injury has been shown. District court did not abuse its discretion in declining to exercise supplemental jurisdiction in Williams's case. District court's classification of habeas claim as second or successive was harmless error. District court's denial of Rule 59(e) motion was not an abuse of discretion because the new evidence does not add anything concrete.

    http://www.ca8.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/new/today2.pl

  3. #13
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    Supreme Court speeds consideration of death-penalty challenge

    By John Lyon
    The Arkansas News Bureau

    LITTLE ROCK — The Arkansas Supreme Court said today it will give expedited consideration to the state’s appeal of a circuit judge’s ruling that struck down a portion of the state’s lethal injection law.

    The court granted the state’s motion to speed up the appeal of Pulaski County Circuit Judge Tim Fox’s August ruling that part of the law is unconstitutional.

    Fox made the ruling in a lawsuit filed by Jack Harold Jones and several other death-row inmates challenging the way the state puts condemned prisoners to death. Fox said the law gave the director of the state Department of Correction too much discretion in deciding what drugs to use in executions.

    The law lists three types of chemicals that may be used in executions and says the director may also use “any other chemical or chemicals.” The inmates allege that the law violates the separation-of-powers clause of the state constitution by taking too much authority over execution policies away from the Legislature and giving it to the Department of Correction.

    The lawsuit also alleges that the use of drugs not approved by the federal government, such as sodium thiopental which the Department of Correction obtained from a British company, could expose inmates to unnecessary pain and suffering during executions.

    The Department of Correction handed over its supply of sodium thiopental to the federal Drug Enforcement Administration in July, after questions were raised about how the drug was imported.

    Arkansas has not executed an inmate since 2005. Because of stays imposed by the state Supreme Court, no executions are pending in the state.

    http://arkansasnews.com/2011/12/01/s...lty-challenge/

  4. #14
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    Beebe appoints special justice to hear case on execution procedures

    Gov. Mike Beebe today appointed a Little Rock lawyer as a special associate justice to the Arkansas Supreme Court to hear a lawsuit challenging the state’s execution procedures.

    Byron Freeland will replace Justice Donald L. Corbin, who has disqualified himself from the case.

    The state Department of Correction asked the high court last year to quickly review the lawsuit, filed by condemned killer Jack Harold Jones Jr. and nine other other death-row inmates. Six of the 10, including Jones, have had their executions stayed as the result of the pending litigation. The state has not executed anyone since 2009.

    The lawsuit challenged a 2009 state law that changed the state’s execution procedures.

    The case is 11-1128, Ray Hobbs, Director, Arkansas Department of Correction et al. v. Jack Harold Jones et al.

    http://arkansasnews.com/2012/04/25/b...on-procedures/
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  5. #15
    Does anyone know if a life sentence is a viable option in a Capital Murder case in Arkansas.. or does the state have 2 options, one being the Death Penalty and the 2nd being Life w/o Parole? If Arkansas has just the Life w/o parole alternative to the death penalty (if thats the case), what year did they do away with Life sentences?

  6. #16
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    Arkansas introduced life without parole (the US equivalent of what the UK refers to as a 'whole life tariff') in 1976, and yes, life without parole is definitely a viable option in a capital murder case in Arkansas. I am sure in the capital murder cases that occur within that state (for a Southern US state,they do not appear all that often),that the state can only choose between a death sentence and a life without parole sentence. Look at the Death Penalty Information Center for more information.

    www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/state_by_state

    www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/life-without-parole

  7. #17
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    Quote Originally Posted by iMxth3xbossx5000 View Post
    Does anyone know if a life sentence is a viable option in a Capital Murder case in Arkansas.. or does the state have 2 options, one being the Death Penalty and the 2nd being Life w/o Parole? If Arkansas has just the Life w/o parole alternative to the death penalty (if thats the case), what year did they do away with Life sentences?

    I receive Arkansas Supreme Court opinions via email and they do have life sentences for capital murder convictions.
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  8. #18
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    Ark. Supreme Court to Hear Lethal Injection Arguments

    The Arkansas Supreme Court this week is hearing arguments on the state's lethal injection procedures.

    Attorneys on both sides were preparing their statements Tuesday, ready to argue whether our capital punishment laws should be declared unconstitutional.

    The state hasn't had an execution since 2005.

    But the question here isn't whether the state should execute the 10 death row inmates named in this suit: it's how.

    Last year, a judge struck down a portion of the law that allows the director of the department of correction to use any chemical in the lethal injection cocktail saying it was unconstitutional.

    Attorneys for the inmates argue certain drug combinations could make the process too painful: meaning it would be cruel or unusual punishment as defined under the US Constitution

    The state argues the law should stand as is.

    The man who signs the death warrants, Governor Mike Beebe says he still agrees with capital punishment, but says it must be done with care.

    "If it's going to be done, it needs to be done in the least painful one that doesn't violate cruel and unusual way," said Governor Beebe.

    The governor says he and many others await the court's decision.

    While arguments are Thursday, a decision may be weeks or months away.

    http://ozarksfirst.com/fulltext?nxd_id=658782
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  9. #19
    Senior Member Member RobertH's Avatar
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    Arkansas Supreme Court tosses execution law

    LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- The Arkansas Supreme Court struck down the state's execution law Friday, calling it unconstitutional.

    In a split decision, the high court sided with 10 death row inmates who argued that, under Arkansas' constitution, only the Legislature can set execution policy. Legislators in 2009 voted to give that authority to the Department of Correction.

    The 2009 law says a death sentence is to be carried out by lethal injection of one or more chemicals that the director of the Department of Correction chooses.

    Death row inmate Jack Harold Jones Jr. sued the head of the correction department in 2010, challenging the constitutionality of the law. Nine other inmates have since joined the suit, asking that the law be struck down.

    The state, meanwhile, asked the court to free up several executions it halted because of this lawsuit.

    It wasn't immediately clear what the court's ruling will mean for the 40 men on death row in Arkansas. There aren't any pending executions, and the state hasn't put anyone to death since 2005, in part because of legal challenges like this one.

    Josh Lee, an attorney for the death row inmates who challenged the law, declined to comment Friday.

    During oral arguments last week, Lee said the state would have two options if the court found the law unconstitutional.

    "The Legislature could either choose to stick with the 1983 statute, which everybody concedes is constitutional, or the Legislature could decide we want to amend it." Lee said last week.

    The state adopted lethal injection as its method of capital punishment in 1983. There have been legal challenges to the way the state kills its condemned prisoners since then. In 2009, in the midst of a legal battle over lethal injection, the state Legislature passed the law that the court struck down Friday.

    Joseph Cordi, an attorney for the state, told the Supreme Court last week that he thought the state would be left with the earlier law if the court struck down the entire statute.

    Part of the 2009 law also says that in the event it's found unconstitutional, death sentences will be carried out by electrocution.

    "That would be up for the lawyers to untangle and figure out what it means, but that's a possibility," prisons spokeswoman Dina Tyler said.

    http://www.azcentral.com/news/articl...#ixzz1yXAcp4jW

  10. #20
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    Yesterday's opinion

    Hobbs v Jones

    Opinion Date: June 22, 2012

    Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

    Ten death-row inmates filed amended complaints against Appellants, the Arkansas Department of Correction (ADC) and its director, asserting several causes of action. Relevant to this appeal, the prisoners (1) asserted that the Method of Execution Act (MEA) was unconstitutional on the basis of separation of powers; (2) claimed that the use of non-FDA approved chemicals purchased from a foreign driving school violated the prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment and the prisoners' due process rights; and (3) asked for injunctive relief to enjoin the ADC from executing prisoners with the non-FDA approved chemicals. The circuit court concluded (1) the MEA was unconstitutional; and (2) prisoners' additional claims were moot because ADC had disposed of all and was unable to obtain any additional lethal chemicals from the overseas supplier. The court then enjoined ADC from using any sodium thiopental obtained in violation of any state or federal law. The Supreme Court (1) affirmed the circuit court's order to the extent it declared the MEA unconstitutional and found the additional claims were moot; but (2) reversed the circuit court's order striking language from the statute, as the entire statute was unconstitutional, and granting injunctive relief.
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

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