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Thread: Virginia Capital Punishment News

  1. #131
    Senior Member CnCP Legend FFM's Avatar
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    When the new administration enters in January, the pentobarbital supply problem will likely ease soon after. Don't forget to e-mail the White House after Obama leaves; the more they hear from us, the more likely they will do something about it. They are ELECTED officials after all. If they don't do or believe what we like, then we vote them out as always.

  2. #132
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    Virginia death row conditions lawsuit to be argued in appeals court Wednesday

    A federal appeals court will hear arguments this morning that a suit challenging conditions on Virginia’s death row should not have been dismissed last year.

    Lawyers for the — originally — four inmates will ask a three-judge panel of the Richmond-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema’s dismissal of the suit so their claim of cruel and unusual punishment can be decided.

    In court papers, the Virginia Attorney General’s Office says that Brinkema properly dismissed the suit after the Virginia Department of Corrections completed some $2.2 million in facility improvements as well as made other changes — under consideration before the suit was filed — that satisfied the inmates’ concerns.

    The attorney general argues, “Where there is no wrong left to remedy, federal courts should stay their hand. And that is precisely what happened here.”

    The state says the inmates concede conditions on death row are now constitutional — but they want a ruling that the prior conditions of confinement were unconstitutional so they cannot be reinstated by Harold W. Clarke, director of the department, and other corrections officials.

    “Director Clarke is not standing by, fingers crossed behind his back, waiting for this litigation to end so that he can revert to pre-litigation conditions,” the state argues.

    The inmates complain that the Department of Corrections can re-institute the prior conditions and that the department continues to defend the prior conditions as constitutional and necessary for security. The inmates allege the changes were made by the corrections department only to avoid further litigation.

    In 2014, when the suit was filed, Virginia inmates under death sentence were confined to their 71-square-foot cells 23 hours a day on the state’s 44-cell death row at Sussex I State Prison in Waverly.

    The suit complained, among other things, that death row inmates ate meals alone in their cells and were denied any chance to congregate or attend religious or behavioral programs.

    The five hours of outdoor recreation they were permitted each week was limited to cages roughly the size of their cells and they were denied contact visits with family. Experts testified the long-term solitary confinement caused severe psychological harm.

    The state says that among other things there is a new outdoor recreation unit; contact visits with approved visitors are now allowed; inmates in compliance with standards can have 1½ hours of outside recreation five days a week and one hour of indoor recreation per day; and they are allowed to congregate in small groups.

    Last July 8, Brinkema issued an opinion holding that the matter was moot because of the prison changes and tossed the suit out.

    The inmates argue that was an error. The judge should have answered the question of whether alleged “dehumanizing” and “undeniably severe” conditions were in place on death row at the time the suit was filed, in violation of the inmates’ constitutional rights.

    They contend the judge should have notified the parties she was considering “mootness grounds” so they would have a chance to respond.

    A judge can dismiss a suit on mootness grounds only when it is “absolutely clear that the allegedly wrongful behavior could not reasonably be expected to recur” without court intervention, the inmates argue.

    “Without a ruling that the prior conditions were unconstitutional, nothing stops (the Department of Corrections) from reinstating them,” the inmates argue.

    The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia and the Rutherford Institute filed a friend-of-the-court brief supporting the inmates’ appeal.

    There are now six inmates on Virginia’s death row. Ricky Javon Gray, one of the four plaintiffs, was executed last week. Gray murdered seven people — two of them children — in Richmond in 2006.

    http://www.richmond.com/news/article...70e558255.html
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  3. #133
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    After delay in Ricky Gray execution, Department of Corrections changes execution protocol

    Execution witnesses in Virginia now will see less of the proceedings, no longer viewing inmates as they are led into the execution chamber and strapped onto the gurney or into the electric chair.

    Recent changes in the Virginia Department of Corrections execution manual alter decades-old practices and appear, in part, to have been made in response to issues that arose during the Jan. 18 injection execution of Ricky Javon Gray, which drew more attention than usual because of a new chemical cocktail.

    The new protocol calls for a curtain in the execution chamber to be drawn prior to the inmate being escorted inside by the execution team, blocking the view from an enclosed citizen and media witnesses area.

    Executions are carried out in “L-Building” at the Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt. Inmates have a choice between execution by injection or electrocution, with injection the default means if they refuse to choose.

    In prior executions, the curtain was open as the inmate entered and was secured to the chair or gurney, allowing a clear view of what was happening and the inmate’s demeanor. The curtain was closed only while intravenous lines and the electrodes for the cardiac monitor were placed.

    Under the revised procedures for lethal injections, the curtain will not be opened until the IV lines are in place and the execution is ready to be carried out. A microphone inside the chamber then will be turned on so witnesses can hear the execution order read and any last statement from the inmate.

    A redacted copy of the 18-page document signed Feb. 7 by Harold Clarke, director of the Department of Corrections, was made available to the Richmond Times-Dispatch by the Department of Corrections following a request earlier this week.

    Asked why the changes were made, Lisa Kinney, a corrections spokeswoman, said Wednesday that “the department periodically updates its internal policies and procedures to ensure adherence to best practices, with the safety and security of staff and offenders remaining at all times paramount.”

    “Waiting to open the curtain until after IV line placement reduces stress on the staff placing the lines, which in turn makes the process likely to go more quickly for the offender. Line placement will be finished by the time set for execution, when the curtain will be opened for witnesses. This change brings Virginia’s practice into line with that of other states which carry out executions,” she said.

    The Death Penalty Information Center, which tracks executions across the country, agrees and disagrees. The center said a number of other states follow procedures similar to Virginia’s new ones.

    But Robin Konrad, director of research and special projects for the center, contends, “They’re doing this in response to a question of why it took longer than normal to insert the IV lines. Their answer is now, ‘Well, we’re not just going to let you know when we start that process.’”

    The center’s executive director, Robert Dunham, said, “All of that is why the secrecy provisions are so problematic. There is no legitimate state interest in shielding what goes wrong from public scrutiny.”

    Bill Farrar, with the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, said, “It’s outrageous, it’s shameful, it’s unacceptable that under these circumstances in particular — less than three weeks after there were problems with the Gray execution — that they would enact new protocols that are more restrictive and more closed and more secretive.”

    If the April 25 execution of Ivan Teleguz is carried out, the curtain will not be opened until he is ready for the death warrant to be read and given a chance to make a last statement. Teleguz was sentenced to death in Rockingham County in a murder-for-hire case.

    Inmates wear a mask during electrocutions. During lethal injections, the inmate’s feet are closest to the viewing area and the head and face the farthest.

    Other changes in the new policy include explicitly permitting a physician, at his or her discretion, to use a stethoscope in addition to the heart monitor to determine when death has occurred during lethal injections.

    The former policy called for the physician to observe the heart monitor. However, at Gray’s Jan. 18 execution, a physician appeared from behind the curtain and used a stethoscope.

    The Death Penalty Information Center said courts in different parts of the country have ruled differently on the issue of how much witnesses can and cannot see. In some states even the placing of the IVs can be seen.

    Dunham said that, “given the nature of the changes, it seems clearly related to a state desire to prevent the public from seeing what might go wrong as opposed to any legitimate penological purpose.”

    He said a change targeted to prevent the public from learning about misconduct or a mistake “invites legal challenge.”

    Farrar, with the ACLU, said he spotted as many as 30 changes in the new manual — although some typographical and inconsequential — from the one in effect when Gray was executed.

    “We don’t know if there’s more than the 30 because there are 39 places where the document has been redacted,” he said.

    Farrar said the ACLU wrote a letter to Gov. Terry McAuliffe on Jan. 24 expressing concerns about problems in the Gray execution and asked, among other things, that all executions be halted until the state’s execution protocol can be reviewed.

    He said the American Bar Association’s Execution Transparency Resolution of 2015 calls for the entire process to be open to full public view.

    “Otherwise, what’s the point of having witnesses?” he asked.

    The first two things called for in the ABA’s resolution are that authorities “promulgate execution protocols in an open and transparent manner and allow public comment prior to final adoption; and ... require disclosure to the public, to condemned prisoners facing execution and to courts all relevant information regarding execution procedures.”

    Virginia law calls for six citizens to serve as official witnesses and department policy allows up to four media pool witnesses. Others, such as prosecutors or police officers involved in a case, may also attend and view from the same enclosed area. Members of the victim’s immediate family may also witness but do so from a separate viewing area and cannot be seen by the other witnesses.

    Farrar said the ACLU is also concerned that information about the drugs used and their manufacturer remains secret. He said the ABA resolution calls for an independent investigation any time an execution is prolonged unusually or the inmate appears to suffer.

    He said the ACLU also asked the governor for an independent investigation into Gray’s execution but McAuliffe did not respond to the Jan. 24 letter, written two weeks before the Department of Corrections’ new protocol went into effect.

    Kinney, with the Department of Corrections, said the new policy also calls for the death warrant to be read to the inmate in front of the assembled witnesses. Previously, the warrant was read in a cell adjacent to the death chamber before the inmate was led into the execution chamber.

    The U.S. Supreme Court allowed the death penalty to resume in 1976. Virginia has executed 111 people since 1982. It was unclear Wednesday when citizen and media witnesses began viewing the executions, but the media did witness the seventh one in 1990.

    http://www.richmond.com/news/after-d...38de382cb.html
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

  4. #134
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    ::SIGH::

    Court revives challenge of Virginia's death row conditions

    A federal appeals court has revived a lawsuit challenging conditions on Virginia's death row.

    A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday that the lower court improperly dismissed a case brought by five condemned inmates.

    The lower court said the case was resolved because prison officials had eased restrictions and granted death row inmates more privileges, including more recreation time. But the condemned inmates' lawyers fear the changes won't stick — they want the courts to forbid the state from reinstating what they consider to be "dehumanizing conditions."

    The 4th Circuit reversed the lower court ruling, saying prison officials have not guaranteed they won't re-impose these conditions on men awaiting execution.

    http://www.sfchronicle.com/news/us/a...w-11025399.php
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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  5. #135
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    Does the mean anything for teleguz.

  6. #136
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    I doubt it. When Alfred Prieto was executed in VA in 2015, he had an ongoing appeal about this in his name pending in court. It didn't save him. Shouldn't save Teleguz.
    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

  7. #137
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    There are only 4 inmates on death row in Virginia, down from at least 57 in 1995

    BY FRANK GREEN
    The Richmond Times-Dispatch

    Half of Virginia's death row inmates will have their cases argued before the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals this month, but that should not tax the Richmond-based court - there are only two of them.

    Virginia's death row population peaked in 1995 at 57 or 58 inmates. Today there are just four, the fewest since July 1979, not long after Virginia law was changed enabling resumption of the death penalty after it was halted across the country by a 1972 U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

    Now, after 113 executions, a handful of commutations, court actions, deaths while awaiting execution, a steep drop in homicides, the advent of true life sentences and other factors, Virginia's death row is the smallest it has been in almost four decades.

    Since the U.S. Supreme Court allowed capital punishment to resume in 1976 under re-written state laws, only Texas, with 543, has carried out more executions than Virginia. Of 31 states with a death penalty, as of April, only six had smaller death rows. California has the country's largest, with 744 inmates.

    While executions continue to be carried out in Virginia - there were two this year, Ricky Gray and William Morva - there have been no new faces on Virginia's death row in more than five years.

    Thomas A. Porter, 41, and Anthony Juniper, 45, both sentenced to death in Norfolk, are set to argue their appeals on Sept. 12 and 15th respectively. Also on death row are Mark Lawlor, 52, sentenced to death in Fairfax County, and William Burns, 51, sentenced to death in Shenandoah County, but held to be incompetent since 2011.

    State Del. Robert B. Bell, R-Albemarle, the chairman of the Virginia State Crime Commission, said another reason there are fewer death sentences today is because they have become more difficult to obtain.

    "The groups opposed to the death penalty have made it such an arduous endeavor for prosecutors . . from a resource perspective, to give a case all the time and energy that it would require to see through to a successful capital case prosecution," said Bell.

    Bell said in many smaller localities, "You have prosecutors' offices that have three of four people and . . . you'd have to pull off of everything else that happens." He said, "I think that's part of the scenario, it's part of what drives it."

    Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death penalty Information Center and a critic of the way the death penalty has been carried out, agrees it is now more difficult to win a death sentence in Virginia but for good reason. Among other things, he said, Virginia now has regional capital defenders, "which means defendants get much better representation than they used to get at trial. That has made a big difference."

    And Virginia juries are now told that a life sentence means life without parole, something that had not been done before September, 1999. That has also had an effect, he said. People convicted of capital murder in Virginia can be sentenced to death or life in prison.

    Also, said Dunham, "Murder rates are near historic lows, so you don’t have the level of fear and political pandering on crime that you had in 1980s and 1990s."

    Dunham said public support for the death penalty has dropped. A national Gallup poll last year found that while 60 percent of respondents said they support the death penalty and 37 percent said the opposed it, the support level was the lowest since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the death penalty in November 1972.

    While no new death sentence has been imposed in Virginia for the last five years, in the preceding five years, from 2007 to 2011, six death sentences were imposed; from 2002 to 2006, 14 death sentences; and from 1997 to 2001, 32 death sentences, he said.

    Dunham contends, "There has been a complete sea change in attitudes and practices during that time."

    He said legislators and prosecutors are more committed to upholding existing death sentences and carrying out executions of those already sentenced to death than they are to committing decades of new resources to obtaining and carrying out new death sentences.

    "When you add a dwindling death row to the equation, you begin to have a political environment in which abolition of capital punishment no longer seems like a farfetched notion," said Dunham.

    The Virginia Department of Corrections could not confirm that the state's death row population peaked at 58 in 1995, as has been reported by the Richmond Times-Dispatch. The NAACP's Legal Defense Fund, which had figures at certain points each year back to 1981, says Virginia had 57 on death row as of Oct. 31, 1995, the highest number it recorded in Virginia at any one time.

    The Department of Corrections said the last time Virginia had four inmates on death row was in early July 1979. A fifth was added shortly after.

    http://www.richmond.com/news/local/c...401fd29f6.html

  8. #138
    Senior Member CnCP Addict johncocacola's Avatar
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    Well it looks like Ralph Northam has won the governor's race and Herring will stay in the AG's office. Wonder if that'll mean anything for the future of the DP in Virginia.

  9. #139
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    Shouldn't be a big deal. AG Herring has been rock solid requesting x dates and Democrat McAuliffe denied clemency in 3 out of 4 cases. VA should be fine with the few cases that remain on DR.
    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. #140
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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