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Thread: Georgia Capital Punishment News

  1. #11
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    Lawyers: Brunswick circuit judge presided through fear

    Williams is portrayed as angry and dictatorial; her term ends Monday.


    Amanda Williams could still face criminal charges.


    DEATH-PENALTY CASES PENDING

    Chief Superior Court Judge Amanda Williams’ resignation leaves three high-profile death-penalty cases in limbo. Williams typically assigned the most legally complex cases to herself. When she leaves the bench Jan. 2, the Brunswick circuit’s four remaining Superior Court judges will divvy up her docket, which also includes cases awaiting sentencing and those on appeal.

    Here are the three pending death-penalty cases:

    Guy Heinze Jr.: Charged with murdering his father and seven others Aug. 29, 2009, at their home in New Hope Plantation Mobile Home Park north of Brunswick. Heinze is expected to stand trial sometime in 2012, but no date has been set.

    "I don't see any huge impact on his case with her leaving. I expect the other judges will act fairly quickly to align all of her cases," said Gerald Word, head of the Georgia Public Defender's Office, which represents Heinze.

    Amos Southall: Charged with the rape and murder of 21-year-old Michelle Hainley of Yulee on Feb. 26, 2008, at a Kingsland motel.

    John David Clay: Charged with stabbing Janice Gayle Swain, 47, of Brunswick, to death in the bathtub of a Brunswick motel on March 4, 2007.

    BRUNSWICK - For more than two decades, lawyers say, Chief Superior Court Judge Amanda Williams reigned over her courtroom as a dictator — equally quick to reward some with favors and to berate those who challenged her.

    Williams, who also presided over the largest drug court in Georgia, could be compassionate, but over the years she became confrontational, arrogant and openly political, say some Brunswick Judicial Circuit lawyers.

    “She’d say, ‘You’re a scumbag’ to defendants, and tell lawyers to ‘shut up and sit down,’ ” said Doug Alexander, a St. Simons Island lawyer.

    But all that ends Monday, when Williams steps down in the face of 14 counts of judicial misconduct with the threat of criminal charges on the horizon. Williams keeps her state pension and law license but is banned from being a judge under her deal with the Judicial Qualification Commission, the state agency that disciplines judges.

    Williams, 65, didn’t return telephone messages left at her St. Simons Island home and her chambers in the Glynn County Courthouse in Brunswick. Her lawyers previously declined comment.

    Lawyers say they tolerated Williams’ belligerence because they feared retaliation against their clients.

    “I didn’t have any problem or have to worry about retribution from her because I could avoid her court,” Alexander said. “But I can appreciate a young lawyer starting out or someone new to practicing in the circuit not wanting to rock the boat and bring down her wrath on their clients.”

    Alexander was one of Williams’ early supporters and campaigned for her during her first run at the bench. That changed in 2010, when Alexander accused Williams of misusing her position by lobbying for expanding the Glynn County jail downtown. At that time, Alexander and Mary Helen Moses, a lawyer and law professor, represented downtown expansion opponents in a federal lawsuit.

    In retaliation for a letter Alexander wrote to local lawyers characterizing Williams as unfit to be a judge, Williams complained to state authorities.

    “She called and complained about me and that is what started this whole thing,” Alexander said. “The commission called me and asked about the letter and then came down and interviewed me about her, which led to its investigation of her.”

    Commission charges

    Critics say her downfall was long overdue. Others, including some who regularly challenged her rulings, defend her as having good intentions but bad people skills.

    “She’s not a tyrant,” said Brunswick lawyer Kevin Gough, a former assistant district attorney now in private practice, who’s had “some pretty strong disagreements” with Williams over the years.

    “She cared very deeply about doing the right thing and doing justice between the parties,” said Gough, attributing much of what appears wrong in Williams’ conduct on the bench as simply a judge “taking shortcuts” to achieve the same outcome. She might not have always been precise in how she handled some cases, but her goal was to be just, Gough said.

    “A lot of things in there look bad,” he said of the judicial commission’s charges, “but it’s a lack of precision.”

    Williams leaves the bench just nine days before the deadline to answer the commission charges, which include nepotism, favoritism and possible civil rights violations. Williams in her one-sentence resignation letter, described her tenure as “21 years of dedicated service” as a Superior Court judge in the five-county Brunswick circuit.

    After a yearlong investigation, the commission paints a different picture. It charges Williams with “willful misconduct in office” and exhibiting “a tyrannical partiality.”

    It also says Williams violated her oath of office and repeatedly lied to the commission during its investigation. Both are felonies. The commission also charged that Williams might have violated the rights of some drug court defendants by ordering them jailed indefinitely or held in solitary confinement indefinitely, barring them from contact with their lawyers, family or friends.

    In addition, the commission said Williams allowed her husband, daughter and son, all of whom are lawyers, to argue cases in her court, allowed family and friends to influence her judicial decisions and used “rude, abusive and insulting language” in court.

    The commission is forwarding its evidence to state Attorney General Sam Olens, who could appoint a special prosecutor to pursue criminal charges against Williams.

    Some of Williams’ opponents feel vindicated.

    “Up until a week ago, she was still saying we were lying,’’ Moses, who ran against Williams in 2010, said a couple of days after Williams submitted her resignation.

    Some of Williams' foes helped get Ira Glass and his "This American Life" public radio show into town to do a segment about Williams' treatment of drug court defendants. Becoming Moses supporters, they sent out releases laying out what they considered to be Williams' misconduct.

    Moses said she always believed the commission would eventually act.

    “This wasn’t about me getting a job. This was about righting a wrong,’’ she said.

    Alexander, Moses and Gough are among the few lawyers willing to talk publicly about Williams. Most still refuse. As a former prosecutor who angered Williams years ago by filing a motion that asked for her to recuse herself from a case said last week, “I don’t know which way the wind will blow on all this.”

    Judicial meltdown

    More than a few lawyers have raised Williams’ ire at one time or another during her 21 years on the bench.

    Williams earned a reputation early on as a stickler for courtroom decorum with little patience for ill-prepared lawyers or those who kept arguing after she’d ruled.

    In recent years, however, Williams’ temper got shorter and her outbursts from the bench became more vitriolic. She would rant and berate some lawyers as well as defendants she perceived as disrespectful.

    Camden County lawyer J. Robert Morgan was among those who bore the brunt of Williams’ wrath. In a July 2010 complaint against Williams, he detailed incidents in which Williams yelled and cursed at him.

    Morgan said in one instance, Williams threatened to hold a hearing to revoke his clients’ probation, repeatedly yelling, “Is that what you want, Robbie?”

    He also complained about Williams merging two civil cases with a criminal case against his client after meeting with his client’s ex-wife and her lawyer without his knowledge.

    “I about had a stroke I was so mad,” he said of later learning about the private meeting.

    Morgan said when he subsequently asked Williams to recuse herself, she blew up at him, triggering a loud confrontation. Williams then “improperly reassigned” the case to another judge, the commission charged.

    To her defense

    In an unrelated case last year, Williams went off on a female juvenile probationer who chuckled while observing a Camden County drug court session in which Williams was explaining the dangers of drug abuse, the commission said.

    Williams began screaming at the girl and order bailiffs to remove the girl, by then crying, from the courtroom in handcuffs. Williams had the girl brought back and admonished her about proper courtroom behavior. She sent the girl to see the public defender before finally releasing her, according to the commission.

    Noting Williams could be unorthodox, Gough acknowledged she sometimes imposed indefinite jail terms on drug court defendants who failed drug tests or missed mandatory meetings without taking all the proper steps.

    “She always tried to save people in that program. That’s why people got fifth, sixth and seventh chances when everyone else would have kicked them out,” Gough said.

    Gough said the commission’s charges should be examined more closely.

    “There’s been a lot of whining from some fairly sorry lawyers about her,” Gough said. “You don’t need a motion to see a client in jail. You don’t need a judge’s permission to file a motion for bond. Assistant district attorneys are not house plants in the courtroom, and there is a thing called the Court of Appeals if you really think a judge has done your client wrong.”

    Williams, however, would have been better off had she been more taciturn in her rulings, but she always felt the need to explain herself, Gough said. For her, it was about doing what she believed was the right thing, he said.

    “If you were on what she thought was the wrong side of a case, she could be very tough on you.”

    Echoing the commission findings, Alexander said Williams has undermined public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary.

    “We have to have confidence we will be treated fairly and that the justice system works and is not corrupt,” Alexander said. “I really think this has shaken our confidence in the integrity of our courts, and it’s going to take a while to get that back.”

    http://jacksonville.com/news/crime/2...#ixzz1hyYoP4ZO

  2. #12
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    Georgia budget cuts could leave some death row inmates without attorneys

    ATLANTA — Some Georgia death row inmates could lose their attorneys amid budget cuts that could potentially halt their appeals hearings and even delay executions.

    The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports (http://bit.ly/rvQHVY) that the Georgia Appellate Practice and Educational Resource Center will ask for more money this legislative session to keep it from having to lay off attorneys and investigators.

    The group represents or assists with the representation of about 90 percent of the inmates on Georgia's death row.

    The funding has been tied to interest-bearing trust accounts set up by lawyers to handle real estate transactions and other deals, but the rough housing market has taken a toll.

    That source of income has dropped from $750,000 to about $185,000 within the last three years. Lawmakers have also cut funding by more than $200,000.

    http://www.therepublic.com/view/stor...Death-Penalty/

  3. #13
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    Judiciary could see more funds

    The state’s improving financial outlook could mean a modest funding increase for Georgia’s judiciary after years of bruising budget battles that turned the judicial branch into a favorite target of lawmakers seeking to slash spending.

    The judicial branch’s budget situation was so dire in 2009 that Georgia’s top judges considered whether to take emergency legal action to stop the state from cutting their funding.

    Rising tax revenue and support from Gov. Nathan Deal, an attorney whose son is a north Georgia judge, has helped buoy the judiciary’s hopes for the upcoming year.

    “I’m very much encouraged,” said Cordele Super*ior Court Judge John Pridgen, the head of the Council of Superior Court Judges. “We’re not going to recover all that was lost in the short run, but the mood is much better. And there’s some hope on our part that we can at least regain some of the things we’ve lost in the hard budgetary times.”

    DEAL HAS LITTLE say in the judicial proposals included in his budget, which was released Wednesday. The state’s separation of powers requires the governor to submit the spending plan the judiciary sends him. But one item he made sure to add to the request is one of his pet projects: A $10 million grant to fund a system of accountability courts for alternative treatment of some low-level offenders.

    “While these reforms require an initial investment, they will increase public safety and ultimately save money by creating a more effective corrections system that rehabilitates people, closing the revolving door,” Deal told lawmakers.

    The rest of the request includes funding increases that would allow the hiring of more clerks, additional attorneys and new equipment to help the courts reverse a backlog of court cases.

    It gives prosecutors a nearly $3 million boost that would partly go to hire victim advocates and new assistant district attorneys, and proposes a new infusion of cash for the public defender system to meet rising costs. It would grant $145,000 in extra spending to the Georgia Supreme Court to fund a pay increase for staff attorneys and create a dedicated clerk for death penalty cases.

    The Judicial Quali*fica*tions Commission would get $106,000 to hire another investigator – a move that delights Director Jeff Davis, who has long argued that more staff are needed to meet the growing number of misconduct complaints.

    The Georgia Resource Center, which handles death penalty appeals, would get enough money this year to keep doors open after losing most of its funding amid the economic troubles.

    THE PROPOSAL IS just part of a long process, and lawmakers will now spend the next few months wrangling over the details. But judicial branch officials say they’re confident they are far removed from the more tumultuous times in recent years when stiff cuts threatened to spark a legal battle between the governor’s office and the judicial branch.

    The tension reached a head in 2009 when plummeting tax collections forced Gov. Sonny Perdue to order all state agencies – the judiciary included – to cut their budgets by 25 percent for June. Georgia’s leading attorneys went on the offensive, arguing that Perdue lacked the legal authority to slash the judiciary’s funding. The governor warned them not to pursue “futile and unwise litigation,” and the fight seemed headed for a courtroom until the two branches struck a compromise that allowed both sides to save face.

    A year later, Chief Justice Carol Hunstein warned that the courts were in peril of failing to fulfill their constitutional mandates because of another round of deep cuts that forced offices to fire staff and furlough workers. The Georgia Supreme Court, for instance, banned travel, closed its modest law library, furloughed the justices and fired staff.

    http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/20...see-more-funds

  4. #14
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    Georgia Supreme Court chief urges lawmakers to fund new clerk for death penalty cases

    The Georgia Supreme Court is asking state lawmakers to fund a new clerk who would only work capital cases.

    Chief Justice Carol Hunstein on Wednesday urged lawmakers to approve the request for about $80,000 to hire a new capital case docket clerk for those cases.

    Chief Justice Carol Hunstein on Wednesday urged lawmakers to approve the request for about $80,000 to hire a new capital case docket clerk for those cases.

    She said "I don't think anyone outside the judiciary understands how complicated and complex these cases are."

    Georgia executed four people in 2011, including Troy Davis, whose claims of innocence attracted international attention.

    Corrections officials this week set an execution date for Nicholas Cody Tate for the 2001 murders of a woman and her 3-year-old daughter. He is set to die by lethal injection at the end of the month.

    http://www.therepublic.com/view/stor...Death-Penalty/

  5. #15
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    Looking at the Death Penalty from Both Sides

    Defense attorney Franklin Hogue and prosecutor Gregory Bushway sat down with Lorra Lynch Jones to discuss and debate the death penalty.

    Watch the video.

    (The cases they refer to are Damonn Jolly and Brandon Rhode)

    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

  6. #16
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    Georgia To Use One Drug For Executions

    Corrections Commissioner Brian Owens announced Tuesday that the state will use a single drug for court-ordered executions instead of the three-drug combination it has been using. Effective immediately, the state will use only the sedative pentobarbital.

    http://www.independentmail.com/news/...nmate-delayed/
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

  7. #17
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    Death penalty no longer on the table for any Houston County Superior Court case

    The death penalty is no longer on the table for any Houston County Superior Court case.

    All but two of the death penalty cases that were pending in late January in Superior Court have since been resolved. In the remaining two cases that are pending trial, the death penalty is off the table.

    District Attorney George Hartwig inherited all but one of the former death penalty cases when he took office in December 2010.

    He said he feels good about the disposition of the cases, noting most have been convictions.

    Also, in the sole case in which he initiated seeking the death penalty but later withdrew it, Hartwig said that person will be incarcerated for the rest of his life. The co-conspirators in that murder also went to prison, including one who also received a life sentence without the possibility of parole, Hartwig said.

    “You have to look at and reserve the death penalty for the most heinous cases,” he said. “You have to be selective and not throw it around.”

    But in the single case that was dismissed, family members believe justice was not served.

    In another older case in which the death penalty is no longer being sought, the victim’s sister believes the accused still deserves death. The suspect’s attorneys are seeking to have that case thrown out of court.

    Hartwig said a lot factors came into play when reviewing the cases he inherited. He said he’s obligated to review each case, consider the facts and then make the decision that he believes is best for each.

    “Ultimately, it’s my decision to make,” Hartwig said. “I’m the one who has to live with it.”

    Here’s a look at the cases that once involved the death penalty.

    Murder-for-hire

    The sole case in which Hartwig himself filed notice to seek the death penalty was that involving 30-year-old Richard Sybert of Warner Robins.

    Sybert, the convicted shooter, pleaded guilty Aug. 29 to the murder-for-hire of 47-year-old Joni Clements in her Warner Robins home in February 2011. His life sentence without the possibility of parole was the result of a plea agreement. The agreement called for withdrawal of the death penalty in exchange for his testimony against the victim’s husband and subsequent guilty plea.

    Co-conspirator Eddy Clements, 56, the husband, was convicted of arranging the murder of his wife after a jury trial and received life without the possibility of parole. Robert Sybert, 54, the getaway driver, the shooter’s father and Clements’ friend, was sentenced to 30 years for a reduced charge of attempted murder and other related convictions. Although not facing the death penalty, he also reached a plea agreement in exchange for testimony against Clements and subsequent guilty plea.

    Joni Clements’ sister, Tomi Roeske, of Norfolk, Va., said the plea agreement was a win-win. It secured Richard Sybert’s testimony against Clements, guaranteed Sybert would go to prison for the rest of his life and removed the uncertainty of another trial for the Clements’ two adult children, she said.

    Clements, who maintains his innocence, has filed a motion for a new trial.

    Killed for a car

    One of the two cases still pending is that of Stewart Brannon, 23, of Eatonton. He’s accused of malice and felony murder in the 2008 shooting of 25-year-old school maintenance worker Mario Smith for his red 1987 Chevrolet Monte Carlo.

    Co-defendant Joshua Dupree Rounsoville, 24, also of Eatonton, the convicted shooter, is now serving a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole in Smith’s death. Brannon is the accused lookout.

    Both Brannon and Rounsoville had faced the death penalty in the slaying. Rounsoville struck a deal for his sentence and pleaded guilty in March. In May, Brannon also made a deal with prosecutors for the death penalty to come off the table.

    The agreement calls for the judge to consider two possible sentences for Brannon should he be convicted of Smith’s murder when the case goes to trial. The sentences are life in prison without the possibility of parole and life in prison with the possibility of parole.

    A 28-year-old case

    The other pending case is that of 50-year-old Timothy Johnson of Warner Robins. He remains jailed in Houston County after the Georgia Supreme Court vacated his decades-old murder conviction in 2006, and he was reindicted for the slaying of convenience store clerk Taressa Stanley during an armed robbery in 1984.

    Johnson pleaded guilty to murder and armed robbery in Houston County Superior Court in 1984. But the Georgia Supreme Court ruled Johnson didn’t understand his right not to incriminate himself and to question witnesses when he entered his guilty plea.

    Since murder has no statute of limitations, Johnson was reindicted June 6, 2006, by a Houston County grand jury. A notice to seek the death penalty was filed the same month but was withdrawn April 18.

    Stacey F. Morris and Ricky W. Morris, McDonough attorneys who are representing Johnson, are seeking to have the new case against Johnson dismissed, arguing his constitutional rights to a speedy trial have been violated. Johnson now says he’s innocent.

    Johnson recently rejected a plea offer, the details of which were not disclosed publicly. A notice of appeal has been filed with the Georgia Supreme Court.

    Prosecutors are reviewing the case to determine what evidence still exits and whether key witnesses are still alive and able to testify, Hartwig said. What that review reveals is expected to determine what happens to the case, he said.

    In spite of those developments, Deborah Pratt, of Warner Robins, said Johnson should pay with his life for her sister’s death. At the very least, she said, he should remain incarcerated for the rest of his life.

    “He shot my sister, and she’ll never come back,” Pratt said. “I don’t think he should ever go home to his family.”

    A case dismissed

    Erik Mize once faced the death penalty after he was charged with murder in the stabbing death of Felicia L. Hardman, a 29-year-old mother of two who was killed inside her Vernon Drive home Aug. 1, 2006.

    A notice to seek the death penalty for the 37-year-old Mize in Hardman’s murder was withdrawn July 11, after an agreement was reached between the prosecution and the defense. The agreement called for the death penalty to come off the table in exchange for a sentence of life in prison with or without the possibility of parole if convicted at trial. On Sept. 28, the charges of murder, aggravated assault, aggravated battery and possession of a knife during a crime against Mize in connection with Hardman’s slaying were dismissed in Houston County Superior Court.

    Mize is currently serving a life sentence for an unrelated sexual assault.

    “There is insufficient evidence at this time to prove (Mize’s) guilt beyond a reasonable doubt,” the dismissal notice states.

    Robert Yerby, of Warner Robins, and Hardman had been together for nearly a dozen years at her 2006 death and had a son together. Yerby said he’s disappointed about the dismissal and doesn’t believe justice has been served. But he doesn’t blame Hartwig and isn’t pointing fingers.

    Hardman’s daughter, 18-year-old Angel Young, doesn’t believe the death penalty should have ever come off the table -- much less a dismissal of all charges.

    “I want him to suffer like he made my mom to suffer,” said Young, who was 12 when her mother was killed.

    Hartwig said he was not ready to take the case to trial with court hearings pending. Rather than waste the court’s time and still not be ready for trial, Hartwig said he chose to dismiss the case knowing he can always reindict the case in the future.

    “We will see,” Hartwig said when asked whether the case realistically would ever be reindicted.

    Videographer’s death

    In July, 29-year-old Eugene “Cash” Leslie, 29, received a life sentence after jurors found him guilty of the murder of 32-year-old Jason Wade.

    Wade, a former WMAZ videographer, was shot to death in a Warner Robins apartment in August 2008 after he kicked out Leslie and his girlfriend.

    The case was pending trial in January, but the death penalty had previously come off the table Sept. 7, 2011.

    Child starvation

    In January, a mother and father accused of starving their 2-year-old son, D’Shawn Davis, to death were facing trial. Hartwig already had decided not to seek the death penalty by then. The previous district attorney had indicted both parents with the appropriate legal language within the indictment to allow for the filing of a death penalty notice -- with that decision to fall to whomever won the then-pending election for district attorney.

    William Thomas Davis III, 27, the father, was found guilty at trial May 17 of involuntary manslaughter and reckless conduct in the child’s death. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison, with credit for two years served while awaiting trial.

    All other charges of malice murder, felony murder, cruelty to children and aggravated battery were dismissed.

    Sade Shamon King, 24, the mother, was previously sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after pleading guilty to felony murder and cruelty to children May 3. She will be eligible for parole after 30 years.

    King testified during Davis’ trial that he never saw the boy and did not know about his condition in the nearly five weeks leading up to his death. She testified Davis worked long hours at a paint and body shop in Warner Robins -- leaving early in the morning and coming home late without seeing the boy.

    http://www.macon.com/2012/10/08/2205...#storylink=cpy
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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  8. #18
    Moderator MRBAM's Avatar
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    Where is the LI issue case that's holding up GA X's? Has the case been heard by the GA SC or where else is it stuck?

  9. #19
    Moderator Dave from Florida's Avatar
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    It was heard a couple of months ago and as of today, no opinion yet. They post on Monday what cases are to be handed down on Tuesdays.

  10. #20
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    Ga. execution drug supply to expire next month

    Georgia's supply of the single drug it uses to perform executions is set to expire next month, and state officials haven't said whether they've found a way to get more of the powerful sedative that is in relatively short supply.

    The state has 17 vials of pentobarbital, which is enough for six lethal injections, corrections officials said. Georgia Department of Corrections spokeswoman Gwendolyn Hogan did not respond to questions about what the state might be doing to obtain more pentobarbital, but she said the state doesn't intend to change its execution method.

    Georgia changed its execution protocol from a three-drug combination to a single-drug method using pentobarbital in July. It had been using pentobarbital to sedate inmates before injecting pancuronium bromide to paralyze them and then potassium chloride to stop their hearts.

    The state has two executions scheduled this week. Warren Lee Hill is set to be executed Tuesday evening and Andrew Allen Cook is set to be put to death Thursday evening. The state doesn't currently have any executions set, and it's unlikely any others will be scheduled before the state's pentobarbital expires March 1, Hogan said.

    A number of states have grappled with difficulties securing drugs for executions in recent years as manufacturers of the drugs, which generally have other medical purposes, said they didn't want their drugs used for executions.

    Georgia began using pentobarbital as part of its three-drug combination in 2011 after another drug, sodium thiopental, became unavailable when its European supplier bowed to pressure from death penalty opponents and stopped making it. But now pentobarbital appears to be in relatively short supply as well.

    Denmark-based Lundbeck Inc., the only U.S.-licensed maker of pentobarbital, sold the product to another firm in 2011. Lundbeck said a distribution system meant to keep the drug out of the hands of prisons would remain in place after Lake Forest, Ill.-based Akorn Inc. acquired the drug.

    "It's a problem for states," said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. "They keep having to switch drugs when the supply gets difficult, so they keep having to write different protocols and get them approved."

    But it's very difficult to tell exactly how much pentobarbital is out there and available to states for executions or what other options states are considering because corrections officials aren't always forthcoming with details about their execution method plans, Dieter said.

    There has been some indication that some states may turn to compounding pharmacies to get pentobarbital. Such pharmacies custom-mix solutions, creams and other medications in doses or forms that generally aren't commercially available.

    But that could have additional challenges. Ohio, which also uses a single dose of pentobarbital, has enough pentobarbital to execute four inmates, but has nine executions scheduled after that. The state's prisons agency indicated last week that it wants a law to protect compounding pharmacies that might mix execution drugs. Currently, Ohio state law doesn't allow compounding pharmacies to mix drugs if they're commercially available.

    Repeated changes of execution drugs or methods also opens states to legal challenges that can delay executions, as lawyers for death row inmates use various arguments to question whether the new methods or drugs are humane or whether their use is legal.

    Lawyers for Hill, for example, have now filed at least two challenges to Georgia's new one-drug method.

    Hill was originally set to be executed in July. The state delayed his execution for about a week when it changed its execution protocol. The state Supreme Court then stepped in and temporarily delayed it again when Hill's lawyers filed a challenge saying corrections officials violated administrative procedure when they made the change. The high court earlier this month denied that challenge, and Hill's execution was reset for Tuesday.

    But on Friday lawyers for Hill, Cook and another Georgia death row inmate whose execution date has yet to be set asked a federal judge in Washington to issue an order to prevent the state from using pentobarbital to execute them without a doctor's prescription.

    The three inmates are asking the federal judge to direct the Drug Enforcement Administration to prevent the use of pentobarbital in lethal injections. They argue that the Georgia Department of Corrections' use of the drug without a doctor's prescription violates the federal Controlled Substances Act. A judge yet to take any action on that complaint.

    http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/G...#ixzz2LIPeDTIL
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

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