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Thread: Missouri Capital Punishment News

  1. #41
    Moderator MRBAM's Avatar
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    LOL I think the article meant to say "the anesthetic PROPOFOL" not "proposal" . Looks like the spell checker was a little too trigger happy on that one.

  2. #42
    Senior Member CnCP Legend JLR's Avatar
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    Anyone have a clue who those 6 inmates are?

  3. #43
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Six of the following ten. I don't know who they are referring to in the article.

    Jeffrey Ferguson
    John Middleton
    William Rousan
    Michael Taylor
    John Winfield
    Russell Bucklew
    Earl Ringo
    Mark Christeson
    Joseph Franklin
    Allen Nicklasson
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  4. #44
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    Defense lawyers concerned about Missouri execution drug

    BY JIM SALTER
    The Associated Press

    ST. LOUIS — As the Missouri Supreme Court decides whether to set execution dates for six condemned killers, attorneys for death row inmates are raising concerns about the state's new one-drug lethal injection method.

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

    Attorneys for the inmates are citing a variety of concerns, but high on their lists is the new execution method.

    Modern executions around the U.S. have used a nearly identical three-drug method — until recently. One drug, sodium thiopental, is no longer available because its maker won't sell it for use in executions.

    States have scrambled to find substitutes. Missouri announced in May the switch to a single execution drug, an anesthetic called propofol that has never been used in an execution in the U.S. It is the same drug that caused the overdose of pop star Michael Jackson in 2009.

    Cheryl Pilate, the attorney for inmate Herbert Smulls, wrote in a filing to the Supreme Court that propofol has been known to cause extreme pain in some patients, even in normal doses. She wrote that the Missouri plan calls for a dose 15 times greater than normal, potentially increasing the risk of pain and suffering.

    "It's an untested protocol," Pilate said in an interview. "It has not been used anywhere else. No one has ever done this."

    Pilate said different people react differently to propofol and there is no guarantee how it would work as an execution drug.

    "We don't know anything about the training they (executioners) receive," she said. "We don't know anything about the scientific research the state has done. We see nothing but the bare protocol itself."

    St. Louis attorney Richard Sindel made a similar argument on behalf of inmate David Barnett. Sindel did not return messages seeking comment.

    Koster was unavailable for comment Thursday, spokeswoman Nanci Gonder said. He wrote in court filings that the state is prepared and ready to proceed with executions.

    But Missouri Supreme Court Chief Justice Richard Teitelman noted that though news reports indicated the state had changed to a one-drug method, "neither the attorney general nor the (corrections) department has notified the Court of its adoption of a new protocol or the basis for such adoption."

    All six inmates facing potential execution dates were convicted of first-degree murder. In addition to Smulls and Barnett, they are Jeffrey Ferguson, Allen Nicklasson, Joseph Franklin and William Rousan.

    Propofol, marketed as Diprivan, is made by AstraZeneca. Spokespeople for AstraZeneca and its U.S. marketer, APP, have declined comment on its use in executions.

    Missouri is one of three states with a single-drug execution protocol. The others are Arizona and Ohio, but they are using a different drug.

    Three other states — South Dakota, Idaho and Washington — have options for single- or multiple-drug executions, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. California and Kentucky are exploring a switch to a one-drug method.

    http://www.columbiamissourian.com/st...xecution-drug/

  5. #45
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    19 Missouri Death Row Inmates Awaiting High Court Ruling

    Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster is prodding the state supreme court to set some execution dates for 19 individuals.

    Koster said it’s been more than a year since Missouri carried out an execution, largely due to concerns over whether the old three drug system was cruel and unusual punishment.

    “We have a law in the state of Missouri, the death penalty law is very clear and our filing was a recognition that the Supreme Court can not simply be silent on this issue.”

    “It needs to answer these questions one way or another, and so the single drug protocol that has been developed by the department of corrections, will probably come under scrutiny over the enxt several months but it is time to move this process forward and silence on this issue is really not an option.”

    Last month, Missouri became the first state in the nation to adopt, Propofol, a surgical anesthetic as its execution drug. After Koster asked the high court to set execution dates, it filed orders in six cases, asking inmates to “show cause” why they shouldn’t be executed. They have until June 29 to respond.

    Propofol, is the same anesthetic that caused the overdose death of pop star Michael Jackson. Critics question how the state can guarantee a drug untested for lethal injection won’t cause pain and suffering for the condemned.

    Propofol, made by AstraZeneca and marketed as Diprivan, gained notoriety following Jackson’s death in 2009. Spokespeople for AstraZeneca and its U.S. marketer, APP, declined comment on its use in executions. But Dieter questioned if enough research has been done.

    “Any drug used for a new purpose on human subjects should certainly be tested very, very carefully,” Dieter said. “I can only imagine the things that might go wrong.”

    Adding to the concern, some say, is Missouri’s written protocol which, like the one it replaced, does not require a physician to be part of the execution team. It states that a “physician, nurse, or pharmacist” prepares the chemicals, and a “physician, nurse or emergency medical technician … inserts intravenous lines, monitors the prisoner, and supervises the injection of lethal chemicals by nonmedical members of the execution team.”

    Jonathan Groner, an Ohio State University surgeon who has studied lethal injection extensively, said propofol is typically administered by either an anesthesiologist, who is a physician, or a nurse anesthetist under the physician’s direct supervision. Improper administration could cause a burning sensation or pain at the injection site, he said.

    Groner said high doses of propofol will kill by causing respiratory arrest. But the dosage must be accurate and the process must move swiftly because propofol typically wears off in just a few minutes.

    “If they start breathing before the heart stops, they might not die,” Groner said. That would force the process to be restarted.

    Critics also question the safety of the single-drug method. Missouri becomes the third state with a single-drug protocol, along with Arizona and Ohio. Three others — South Dakota, Idaho and Washington — have options for single- or multiple-drug executions, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. California and Kentucky are exploring a switch to the one-drug method.

    http://stlouis.cbslocal.com/2012/06/...-court-ruling/
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  6. #46
    Moderator MRBAM's Avatar
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    Any news or updates to setting new execution dates? I think today was a deadline in court etc on all the inmates who have no more appeals left. Long overdue!

  7. #47
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    Mo. prosecutors stay quiet on death penalty study

    When the American Bar Association sought to review Missouri's death penalty laws as part of a nationwide study of capital punishment, it turned to a collection of the state's most esteemed lawyers, judges and law professors for help.

    The two-year ABA study, released earlier this year, relied on detailed responses from law enforcement agencies, medical examiners, crime labs and others involved in handing down the state's ultimate legal sanction. But one group was largely and notably absent from the discussion: the prosecutors who decide whether to seek the death penalty in the first place.

    Several members of the panel that worked on the study said the prosecutors' lack of cooperation hindered efforts to fully evaluate the death penalty system in a state that executed 68 people since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976, trailing only Texas, Virginia, Oklahoma and Florida.

    ABA surveys sent to prosecutors in Kansas City, Springfield, Columbia, Cape Girardeau and St. Charles went unanswered, while the state Attorney General's Office provided limited information. Daniel White, prosecutor in Clay County in suburban Kansas City, was the only survey recipient to write back with his own thoughts but declined to participate, saying he did not want to "embolden enemies of justice."

    White, who has sought the death penalty just twice in nearly 20 years, said sharing his insights would "generate a public document subsequently available to others who may not have justice as their primary mission."

    "I can't quantify the soul searching, legal research, fact finding and energy expended in first, arriving at the decision to see the death penalty and second, actually going forward," White wrote. "It's not an easy decision; nor should it be."

    The ABA sought details on the training and qualifications of assistant prosecutors who handle capital cases, including their caseloads. The association also asked about office budgets and salaries, number of previous and active death penalty cases, procedures for sharing discovery evidence with defense lawyers, interactions with families of victims, and policies on plea bargains.

    The study panel had members from Missouri including U.S. District Court judges Nanette Laughrey and Stephen Limbaugh Jr. and Harold Lowenstein, a former state representative who spent 28 years as a judge for the Missouri Court of Appeals and is now in private practice in Kansas City. The panel also included two University of Missouri law professors and another from St. Louis University.

    A 436-page report that came from the study includes recommendations that mostly would require legislative action. They include improved procedures for preserving biological evidence and a call for limits on the 17 aggravating circumstances under which prosecutors can seek death against murder suspects.

    "I didn't anticipate a total lack of sharing information," said study panel member Doug Copeland, a St. Louis attorney and former Missouri Bar president. "They suggested some problems they had with going into their thought processes. I can understand that. But there's so much more information that doesn't tip their hands on anything."

    St. Louis County prosecutor Bob McCulloch and former Callaway County prosecutor Bob Sterner, now an associate circuit judge, did not respond to the 40-question survey in writing but answered verbally, although it's not clear if they did so over the phone or in person.

    St. Louis Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce's one-paragraph response to the survey referred to a collective response by the Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys written by Taney County prosecutor Jeffrey Merrell, who merely cited Missouri laws on death penalty cases.

    Merrell said prosecutors were concerned the ABA study was an effort to endorse a moratorium on the death penalty, which was the conclusion in seven of the previous nine ABA reviews.

    "It seemed that every jurisdiction the ABA had studied, they recommended a moratorium," he said. "Our initial feeling was this was a superficial effort to do a study and then recommend a moratorium.

    "There were several questions that really did not appear to be designed to be answered in a way that was a fair representation of how decisions are made in the state of Missouri."

    Panel member Paul Litton, a University of Missouri law professor, said some of the prosecutors' concerns are reasonable, especially considering that the ABA office in charge of the review is called the Death Penalty Moratorium Project.

    "We did not set out and say, 'Let's go find reasons to implement a moratorium,'" Litton said. "We went into it with an open mind about everything. We didn't go into this with some sort of anti-death penalty agenda."

    ABA attorney Sarah Turberville, director of the death penalty project, said Missouri prosecutors weren't alone in their reluctance. The Kentucky review team, which released its work late last year, was also rebuffed by prosecutors in that state, who decided as a group to not respond for fear their answers could jeopardize ongoing cases.

    For Litton, the lack of response from Missouri prosecutors means the state is missing a chance to weigh in on ways it can further improve its death penalty system.

    "There's a lot of common ground," he said. "No one wants to see the innocent punished. No one wants to see the guilty go unpunished. We all have a concern for fairness, whether you're anti-death penalty or pro-death penalty."

    http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/M...dy-3703062.php
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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  8. #48
    Moderator MRBAM's Avatar
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    Mo. Supreme Court declines to set execution dates

    ST. LOUIS (AP) — The Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to set execution dates for six condemned killers, saying doing so is "premature" until the courts decide if Missouri's new execution method is constitutional.

    Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster asked the court to set the execution dates May, the same month the Missouri Department of Corrections adopted a new execution protocol that uses a single drug, propofol.

    "Until the parties promptly resolve the issue of the use of propofol as contemplated by the department of corrections' protocol, ruling on the motion to set execution date is premature," the court ruling stated Tuesday. A spokeswoman for the Supreme Court declined to elaborate.

    Koster called it disappointing.

    "The Court had the option of setting execution dates, which would have effectively imposed deadlines on lower court challenges to the execution protocol," Koster said in a statement. "The Attorney General's Office will continue to do all we can to expedite the protocol-challenge cases."

    Propofol, perhaps best known as the drug that killed pop star Michael Jackson in 2009, has never been used as an execution drug. A lawsuit filed by death row inmate David Zink claims its use could violate the constitutional guarantee against cruel and unusual punishment.

    Zink was not among the six inmates whose execution date was sought by Koster. Those inmates included David Barnett, Jeffrey Ferguson, Joseph Franklin, Allen Nicklasson, William Rousan and Herbert Smulls. All six were convicted of first-degree murder.

    Modern U.S. executions have used a nearly identical three-drug method until recently. One drug, sodium thiopental, is no longer available because its maker won't sell it for use in executions.

    States have scrambled to find substitutes. Other states have gone to single-drug methods, but Missouri is the first to turn to propofol, an anesthetic.

    Cheryl Pilate, an attorney for Smulls, wrote in a filing to the Supreme Court this spring that propofol has been known to cause extreme pain in some patients, even in normal doses. She wrote that the Missouri plan calls for a dose 15 times greater than normal, potentially increasing the risk of pain and suffering. St. Louis attorney Richard Sindel made a similar argument on behalf of Barnett.

    Missouri executed 66 men between 1989 and 2005, but has executed just two since, as courts have weighed constitutional challenges to the death penalty. There are 46 men on death row.

  9. #49
    Banned TheKindExecutioner's Avatar
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    How long you guys think this will take?

    Propofol is very safe. Michael Jackson was out like a light and never woke up! It's not like he was complaining of any pain or anything!

  10. #50
    Admiral CnCP Legend JT's Avatar
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    There are some risks to propofol use, such as the requirement to use it in a scrupulously clean environment as most bacteria can reproduce very aggressively in propofol solution, but these sorts of risks are entirely academic in the context of an execution.

    A risk of pain and suffering? No chance.

    (Though, personally, I think Ohio is onto a winner with its backup method of midazolam and hydromorphone. Get high before you die...)

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