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Thread: Missouri Capital Punishment News

  1. #31
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by TheKindExecutioner View Post
    So is Missouri using a one drug protocol of Propofol now?
    Here's the article.

    Missouri finds a drug option for executions: propofol

    The state of Missouri is back in the execution business with a drug that's never been used to put prisoners to death in the United States.

    Stymied by a chemical shortage affecting every death-penalty state, the Missouri Department of Corrections said this week that it now will carry out death sentences with propofol, a widely used surgical anesthetic that also played a factor in singer Michael Jackson's death.

    Attorneys representing some of the state's death row inmates learned of the plan Thursday, after corrections officials met with some inmates and informed them of the new protocol.

    Defense attorneys said it's too early to say what, if any, legal challenges might be mounted in regard to the new one-drug execution protocol that replaces Missouri's previous three-drug cocktail.

    "It's something we will have to look at very carefully," said Joseph Luby, an attorney with the Death Penalty Litigation Clinic in Kansas City. "Propofol has no track record in executions."

    Missouri is the first state to formally adopt the use of propofol, also known by the brand name Diprivan, for use in lethal injections, said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C.

    "No one has used it yet," Dieter said. "Other states may have considered it."

    Deborah Denno, a law professor at Fordham University in New York and nationally known expert on lethal injection issues, called it a "pretty extraordinary development" that raises many questions.

    "I would anticipate legal challenges," she said.

    Missouri's last execution took place in February 2011. Since shortly after that, the state has been unable to obtain the anesthetic that put inmates to sleep before they are injected with two other chemicals that stop the lungs and heart. Officials also had been unable to obtain an alternative drug that some states had adopted to take its place.

    With news that the corrections department had obtained a different drug, Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster on Thursday asked the state Supreme Court to set execution dates for 19 inmates. They include Michael Taylor, one of the killers of Ann Harrison, a Kansas City teenager kidnapped in 1989 while waiting for the school bus in front of her house, and Allen Nicklasson, convicted of kidnapping and killing Excelsior Springs businessman Richard Drummond in 1994 after Drummond stopped to help Nicklasson and a co-defendant when their car broke down.

    Koster said in his motion that there are no legal impediments or stays now in place to stop the executions.

    "Unless this court sets an execution date after a capital murder defendant's legal process is exhausted, the people of Missouri are without legal remedy," Koster said in his motion.

    According to Supreme Court procedures, lawyers for the inmates must be given the opportunity to file responses before the Supreme Court sets execution dates.

    "There is no timetable as far as when the court would rule (on dates)," said spokeswoman Beth Riggert. "The court rules when it deems it appropriate."

    Missouri and every other state using lethal injection once used the same three-drug mixture that employed sodium thiopental to anesthetize prisoners. The drug has been employed in all 68 executions Missouri has carried out since 1989.

    Inmates in Missouri and across the country had filed numerous legal challenges to the method, alleging that it created the risk of inflicting cruel and unusual punishment if not administered properly. However, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2008 that the method was not unconstitutional.

    In early 2010, shortages of sodium thiopental began cropping up, and in early 2011 the only domestic supplier announced it would no longer manufacture the drug.

    States also had difficulty obtaining it from foreign sources, and on March 27, a federal court in Washington, D.C., banned any importation of sodium thiopental and ordered the Food and Drug Administration to contact every state that it believed had any foreign-manufactured thiopental and instruct them to surrender it to the FDA. It also permanently prohibited importation of the drug.

    With thiopental in short supply, some states began to substitute another anesthetic, pentobarbital, for use in the three-drug method.

    In February 2011, Ohio began using pentobarbital by itself to execute prisoners. Earlier this year, Arizona became the second state to switch to one-drug executions using pentobarbital.

    Dieter, with the death penalty information center, said pentobarbital has been used, either by itself or in combination with other drugs, in the last 45 executions in the United States.

    But last July, its Danish manufacturer announced that it was imposing restrictions on how pentobarbital was distributed to prevent its use in executions.

    Since its on-hand supply of thiopental expired in March 2011, Missouri had been unsuccessful in finding it or pentobarbital.

    In announcing its new protocol this week, Missouri Department of Corrections officials did not comment on when they obtained the new drug or where it was obtained.

    According to Missouri's new written protocol, inmates will be injected with 2 grams of propofol. A Kansas City anesthesiologist said that amount is 10 times the dosage that would be used in a surgical setting for a 220-pound patient.

    According to Missouri's new protocol, the chemical will be prepared by a doctor, nurse or pharmacist. An intravenous line will be inserted and monitored by a doctor, nurse or emergency medical technician. Department employees will inject the chemicals.

    Doctors say the drug is used widely in medical settings and does not have some of the side effects, like post-operative nausea and vomiting, of previously used anesthetics. It was developed in England in the late 1970s.

    Currently, only one execution date is pending in Missouri. Michael Tisius, convicted of killing two jailers in Randolph County, is scheduled to be put to death Aug. 3.

    An attorney representing Tisius could not be reached for comment Friday.

    http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2012...#storylink=cpy
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  2. #32
    Banned TheKindExecutioner's Avatar
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    Thanks Heidi.

    The best option is still nitrogen asphixyation since our air is already 78% nitrogen. It's just like going to sleep!

    But the problem is you have to build a new execution chamber and put up with frivolous challenges!

  3. #33
    MidwestExecutionHawk
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    Yeah, they will always challenge a new way of doing things. The burden of proof is on the condemned appellant to say that it causes no more pain that is necessary for the mere extinguishment of a life. My better half is a nurse. She told me that propofol is quite powerful. And since they could not come up with pentobarbital, I guess this is what they will use.

    As for the Supreme Court Spokeswoman, ruling when they feel like it is not the way to do things. The process needs to have certainty and consistency. Otherwise, you have a punishment that looks like it is being applied arbitrarily and inconsistently.

    What you have now is a de facto moratorium on executions without any input from those policymakers who need to be part of that process/discussion. It's a dangerous precedent for the Supreme Court to do next to nothing. It is a dangerous precedent to set only one execution date for one man who has plenty of appeals left having not set execution dates for those who have been on the CP list for a while that have exhausted all their appeals. That looks pretty inconsistent/messed up to me. My issue is not Tisius' execution date. He richly deserves what is coming to him. But so are the others who have waited longer than he has. Those victims and their families deserve justice, as do the people of Missouri.

    I hope Missouri has judicial retention votes like Iowa does. That way, you guys can kick these jokers out of office if they fail to do their jobs with regard to upholding the laws of Missouri. It happened with another issue in Iowa. The fallout from Varnum v Brien.

  4. #34
    Banned TheKindExecutioner's Avatar
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    How long does the state supreme court have to set the execution dates AG Koster asked for?

    I mean they can't fool around forever or can't they use another method to set the dates?

  5. #35
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    There appears to be no time limit for the Missouri Supreme Court to set execution dates. However, I suppose if they do carry on dithering, then the legislature could, theoretically, pass a law shifting responsibility for setting execution dates to another body.

  6. #36
    demor
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    All the talk about law suits challenging using propofol is very worrisome to me. For those who don't know me I am Amanda Morton's mother. She was murdered by David Zink, who is on this list Koster just requested execution dates for. We were feeling pretty good when the AG's office called last week to give us the news but now all the news stations and papers can talk about are how the manufacturer of the drug doesn't want it used for executions and it is untested and might cause pain and suffering and blah, blah, blah. How about the pain and suffering my daughter had? What a roller coaster this process is for the families. I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy.

  7. #37
    Banned TheKindExecutioner's Avatar
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    Did you express your frustration with the AG's office with the State supreme court? I don't think they've set any execution dates in almost 2 years despite inmates having exhausted all appeals!

    You are a victim so you have more influence! Ask the AG if they can go around the state SC and get the dates set another way! They've been delaying things for too long! It's ridiculous!!

  8. #38
    demor
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    We were told very early in this process that there was nothing we could say or do that would make the SC move any faster or do anything different. I've written letters in the past when some senator or representative wanted to abolish the DP but that has been years ago. Who would you suggest we write to?

  9. #39
    Banned TheKindExecutioner's Avatar
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    You should write to the senators that have some influence on it. I'm not sure exactly who but just tell them we want JUSTICE so you must keep the DP in the Show Me State!

  10. #40
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Death Penalty Procedure Questioned

    As the Missouri Supreme Court decides whether to set execution dates for six condemned killers, attorneys for death row inmates are citing concerns over the state's new one-drug lethal injection method as among the reasons why the executions should not proceed.

    Missouri Attorney General Chris Jouster last month asked the Missouri Supreme Court to set execution dates for up to 19 condemned men. Court records released Thursday to The Associated Press show that the court has advised attorneys for six of the inmates that they have until June 29 to show why an execution date should not be set.

    In separate filings, attorneys for inmates David Barnett and Herbert Smalls raise concerns about Missouri's execution protocol change that will use the anesthetic proposal instead of the previous three-drug method.

    http://www.ktts.com/news/157894115.html
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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