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Thread: Utah Capital Punishment News

  1. #11
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    Utah lawmakers aim to limit death-row inmate appeals

    SALT LAKE CITY — Death-row inmates would have fewer chances to delay their executions under a proposed law approved in a House committee Thursday.

    Rep. Kay McIff, R-Richfield, wants to limit the number of court petitions murderers like Ronnie Lee Gardner, who died by firing squad last June, could file after being convicted. Gardner was on death row for nearly 25 years.

    HB202 would allow only one post-conviction petition. Death-row killers would have raise all possible legal issue that could stay the execution in the first petition and not keep any in reserve should initial arguments prove unsuccessful.

    "If you held it in your pocket like a piece of jerky when you got hungry, you can't do that," he said.

    There would be room to bring up newly discovered evidence or other potentially meritorious claims that couldn't be reasonably dealt with before the execution date.

    McIff said the idea is to bring closure to cases more quickly to keep victims' families from suffering.

    "We never ever would want to execute someone who did not merit imposition of the death penalty," he said. At the same time, "justice delayed often becomes justice denied."

    Assistant attorney general Tom Brunker, who handles capital cases for the state, couldn't estimate the cost of numerous appeals, but said he put three months' work into the two months before Gardner's execution.

    "It is very time consuming," he said.

    Brunker said it's not uncommon for death-row inmates like Gardner to file three or four post-conviction petitions.

    The bill also addresses when condemned killers may be appointed state-funded attorneys beyond the first petition. The state would not have to pay for legal counsel unless issues are raised that couldn't have been brought up the first time.

    Utah currently has nine men on death row.

    Douglas Stewart Carter, who fatally stabbed and shot a Provo woman in 1985, is furthest along in the legal process, but is at least three years from an execution date, Brunker said. Carter has appeals pending in both state and federal court.

    http://www.deseretnews.com/article/7...e-appeals.html

  2. #12
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    Utah House votes to speed up execution appeals

    The Utah House passed legislation Tuesday that seeks to streamline the process for appealing death sentences.

    Pointing to the execution of Ronnie Lee Gardner last year, Rep. Kay McIff, R-Richfield, argued that it shouldn’t take so long to carry out a death sentence and said his bill tries to expedite the process and ensure innocent people are not executed.

    “[HB202 is] designed to recognize that 25 years is too long. That’s the time that was taken in the Gardner case,” said McIff, a retired judge. “There were four post-conviction appeals filed in the Gardner case, each one determined not to have merit, but each one adding additional years and hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions, of dollars in additional expense.”

    Under McIff’s bill, after a conviction, a condemned individual could get one post-conviction appeal in which the inmate would have to raise all arguments for having the sentence overturned. It also would be the only appeal with state-paid attorneys.

    After that, the only way the condemned inmate could get another appeal would be if new evidence came to light that a judge believed could alter the outcome of the case.

    “I don’t think that we should consider this bill without recognizing exactly what we’re doing,” said Rep. Brian King, D-Salt Lake City, an attorney. “What we’re doing is accelerating the process of killing people who have killed people, and we’re doing it in the name of the state.”

    King said he doesn’t like the death penalty, but believes McIff’s bill is a good effort to find a balance. King was one of five Democrats who voted against the bill, which passed 67-5.

    McIff said he negotiated the bill over several months. The Judicial Conference and the Constitutional Revision Commission unanimously endorsed it.

    The measure now goes to the Senate.

    http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home/51...ction.html.csp

  3. #13
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    Bill to shorten death penalty appeals passes committee

    A bill that aims to curb decades-long delays caused by death penalty appeals was unanimously passed from the Senate Judiciary, Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Standing Committee on Wednesday.

    HB202 now heads for the Senate floor. The bill had already passed the House with a vote of 67-5.

    Sponsored by former 6th District Judge Kay McIff, R-Richfield, the bill would generally bar a court from issuing a temporary stay of execution following a defendant’s first post-conviction petition. The bill also would limit public funding of defense counsel after that first post-conviction petition has been rejected.

    McIff said his bill is designed to discourage frivolous or untimely appeals while still allowing for claims based on new evidence, ineffective assistance of counsel or other issues with potential merit.

    http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home/51...ction.html.csp

  4. #14
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    Proposed H.B. 202 Death Penalty Procedures Amendments can be found here At the link you can follow the bill's progress through the legislature.

  5. #15
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    Edited:

    Bills move forward in Utah Legislature

    In other legislation, Sen. Kay McIff’s death penalty amendment passed through the Senate Thursday by a 27-0 vote. It now awaits Herbert's signature into law. This bill would limit death row convicts to one appeal, greatly reducing the cost of administering the death penalty.

    “By way of introduction, House bill 202 is the final chapter of a two year cooperative effort… to reduce the time and reduce the delays … [of] a death penalty once it has been imposed,” McIff said. “This provides an orderly way, a fair way, to bring it to a conclusion.”

    http://www.cncpunishment.com/forums/...2749#post12749

  6. #16
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    No Execution Changes Coming in 2012

    Utah lawmakers will likely not deal with a change in Utah’s murderer execution method during the 2012 Legislature.

    “The issue has been discussed,” said Ric Cantrell, chief of staff of the Utah Senate.

    “But there is no bill file for it, there is no sponsor, there is no immediate need,” said Cantrell.

    The bill filing deadline has passed for the 45-day general session, which ends March 8. A death penalty bill could be filed, but only with a majority vote of either the House or Senate.

    Cantrell and Sen. Lyle Hillyard, R-Logan, an attorney who often carries bills desired by state court personnel and prosecutors, told UtahPolicy that the governor’s Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice has recently discussed Utah’s death penalty problems.

    Like other states, Utah law says that murderers sentenced to death should be killed with an injection of a combination of lethal drugs. However, one of those drugs is no longer manufactured in the U.S.

    That means states must get that drug from outside of the country, if they no longer have stocks of it here.

    Accordingly, Utah officials say, CCJJ officials have talked to leading legislators about whether state law should be changed to have a firing squad execution as a fall back procedure if the lethal drugs can’t be obtained.

    The issue comes up at the same time as a Utah judge has decided to honor the request of death row inmate Michael Archuleta who has chosen the firing squad. Archuleta is sentenced to die April 5 for a 1988 murder.

    When Archuleta was originally sentenced, Utah had the option of a firing squad – and indeed a Utah inmate was shot to death in 2010 under the same grandfathered in fire squad clause.

    Reinstating the firing squad may be dealt with in a future legislative session, said Cantrell. “But we don’t see the need to do so now.”

    http://utahpulse.com/bookmark/175064...Coming-in-2012

  7. #17
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    Utah could join states allowing prisoners to donate organs; Bill would give option to prisoners, including those on death row

    A Utah lawmaker wants to make it possible for inmates to do a final good act if they happen to die while serving time.

    Rep. Steve Eliason, R-Sandy, is again proposing a bill that would allow inmates to voluntarily agree to posthumously donate their organs. In the 2012 session, his bill passed the House but time ran out before it could be considered by the Utah Senate. The criminal justice interim committee approved the inmate medical donation act on Wednesday.

    The Utah Department of Corrections last year decided to allow inmates to voluntarily fill out organ donor cards - something a Utah lawmaker wants to require by statute - as part of their paperwork upon arrival at the prison. It also allows medically needy inmates to receive transplants. In 2011, 2 inmates received bone marrow transplants as part of cancer treatment, for example, as a cost of $500,000 per inmate.

    "In some respects, it's a way for someone who is trying to pay their dues to society to get one last shot on their way out," he said in an interview.

    Over the past 4 years, an average of 15 inmates have died each year while incarcerated, according to the Utah Department of Corrections. The department began including organ-donor consent forms in the paperwork given to inmates during orientation at the end of 2011 after speaking with Eliason about his proposal.

    "They liked the idea so much they implemented it anyway even though it did not become law," Eliason said.

    Mike Haddon, Corrections deputy director, told the interim committee that inmates are being given donor forms as they go through medical and dental screenings upon arrival at the prison. He said that in the past, organ donation "was a consideration" for some inmates as they passed away.

    But Eliason still wants it enshrined in statute so the policy isn't subject to the whims of changing administrations. He said he also plans to include jails in this year's draft legislation.

    Laws governing organ donation by either living or deceased prison inmates - a population that numbers about 2 million - vary from state to state. Federal law prohibits compensating donors for organs, and that bars prisoners, like others, from benefiting in any way.

    Nationwide, there are 116,000 people on the waiting list for organs; about 80 % are waiting for a kidney, according to data from the United Network for Organ Sharing. There have been about 16,586 transplants so far this year, most using organs from deceased donors. In Utah, 705 people are on waiting lists for organs, according to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network.

    A single healthy donor can provide up to 24 different organs and tissues - from kidneys to skin to corneas - that can help others, Eliason said.

    "It is just akin to what we're doing with people's driver's licenses," he said.

    Eliason said he took up the idea after hearing about a death-row inmate, whom he declined to identify, who wanted to be an organ donor but wasn't allowed to do so.

    An Oregon death-row inmate launched a national debate in 2011 about the issue after he wrote an opinion column published by The New York Times about his wish to be an organ donor, something prohibited in all state prisons. Christian M. Longo, who was sentenced to death in 2003 for killing his wife and 3 children, also wrote a footnoted scholarly article and set up a website dedicated to organ donation by the "willful executed prisoner."

    "My only wish was that I would be able to effect some good with my death that would be of benefit to someone besides me," Longo wrote in his paper. His fight became moot in November when Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber placed a moratorium on executions.

    It's a moot issue for death-row inmates in most states that allow the death penalty since the methods of execution preclude being an organ donor - something that could change as more of those states adopt a 1-drug lethal injection.

    In Utah, Corrections' policy bars death-row inmates from being organ donors, according to spokesman Steve Gehrke, but Eliason would like to change that. Utah currently uses a 3-drug protocol to carry out executions by lethal injection; it allows execution by firing squad for inmates sentenced to death prior to 2004 - the method chosen by 3 of the 8 men now on death row.

    According to an Associated Press story, at his request some of Gary Gilmore's organs - including his kidneys, liver and eyes - were harvested for possible transplant or study after his execution by firing squad on Jan. 17, 1977. It quoted a brief statement about the donations issued by the University of Utah medical center.

    Ethicists, death-penalty opponents and both organ network organizations have objected to efforts to allow inmates, particularly those on death row, to become organ donors. Their arguments range from concerns about health risks given communicable diseases prevalent among prison populations, to inequities in the application of death sentences, and the potential for juries to impose more death sentences to increase the supply of organs.

    Approximately 40 of the state's 6,909 inmates are known to be HIV positive, Gehrke said. Information on other communicable diseases was not available.

    But Eliason said any organs taken from deceased inmates would be put through the same screening process as all donor organs. Donations are barred from any one who is HIV positive, has active cancer or has a systemic infection, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

    Gehrke said organ donation would generally apply to offenders who are already at a hospital receiving care and where death is foreseeable.

    "In those cases, the hospital follows its normal processes and works in conjunction with the offender's family members regarding whether the organs should be donated," he said. "The form can help in case the family had not had those discussions with the offender - or in cases where there are no surviving family members present."

    (Source: The Salt Lake Tribune)
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  8. #18
    Administrator Michael's Avatar
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    Utah’s death penalty costs $1.6M more per inmate

    Craig Watson said he didn’t know if "closure" was the proper word.

    But as he witnessed the 2010 execution of Ronnie Lee Gardner, who killed Watson’s cousin Melvyn J. Otterstrom at a bar in 1984, a feeling of peace came over him: It was, finally, over.

    As Utah lawmakers weigh the cost of executing men like Gardner versus keeping them in prison for life, Watson asked them on Wednesday to remember there are some things that no amount of money can touch — a message also shared by Barbara Noriega, whose mother and sister were killed by another man now on Utah’s death row.

    "With the death sentence, there are no recurring offenders and we can go on with our lives," Watson said, his voice breaking at times as he addressed the Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Interim Committee.

    Rep. Steve Handy, R-Layton, asked for the analysis, the first study to examine what the capital punishment option costs the state and local governments. Handy has not proposed any legislation and said Wednesday he is "under no illusion that people in Utah want to change the present law." But Handy said the comparative costs of life without parole and the death penalty — which a legislative fiscal analyst pegged "unofficially" at an added $1.6 million per inmate from trial to execution — should be understood.

    "Which direction citizens of Utah choose to go remains to be seen," Handy told the committee.

    It is a topic of discussion in other states as well. New Jersey, New Mexico, Illinois and Connecticut all did away with the option in recent years. A year ago, Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber put a moratorium on executions and ordered a review of that state’s capital punishment law. On Nov. 6, voters in California, where more than 700 inmates sit on death row, rejected a proposition that would have repealed the state’s death penalty; proponents argued for doing away with the option based on its costs.

    Lawmakers may get some insight into Utahns’ views of capital punishment from a survey being conducted by students at Utah Valley University under the direction of Sandy McGunigall-Smith, an associate professor of legal studies. The survey will be sent to 6,000 people randomly selected in Ogden, West Valley City, Kamas, Saratoga Springs, Alpine and Taylorsville.

    Thomas Brunker, an assistant Utah attorney general, said the state has two policy interests in supporting capital punishment: deterrence and retribution. Gardner’s case illustrated a "special" interest in assuring a condemned person could not kill again, he said, while the heinous nature of the crimes committed by other Utah death row inmates highlighted society’s "right" to exact retribution.

    Ralph Dellapiana, a defense attorney and death penalty project director for Utahns for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, said the cost estimates fall short of capturing the full expense of the dozen or so aggravated murder cases filed each year in which the death penalty is an option. Such cases require thousands of hours of extensive, multi-generational social histories of the offender, for example, costs that would not be incurred if the penalty were replaced with a life without parole alternative. The cost analysis also doesn’t include expenses incurred in cases that are prosecuted as capital offenses but that end up in plea deals or acquittals, as occurred recently with Curtis Allgier, who shot and killed corrections officer Stephen Anderson during a 2007 escape attempt.

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    No murder can be so cruel that there are not still useful imbeciles who do gloss over the murderer and apologize.

  9. #19
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    Utah lawmaker: Bring back firing squad executions

    In the wake of a botched lethal injection in Oklahoma last month, a Utah lawmaker says he believes a firing squad is a more humane form of execution. And he plans to bring back that option for criminals sentenced to death in his state.

    Rep. Paul Ray, a Republican from the northern Utah city of Clearfield, plans to introduce his proposal during Utah's next legislative session in January. Lawmakers in Wyoming and Missouri floated similar ideas this year, but both efforts stalled. Ray, however, may succeed. Utah already has a tradition of execution by firing squad, with five police officers using .30-caliber Winchester rifles to execute Ronnie Lee Gardner in 2010, the last execution by rifle to be held in the state.

    Ray argues the controversial method may seem more palatable now, especially as states struggle to maneuver lawsuits and drug shortages that have complicated lethal injections.

    "It sounds like the Wild West, but it's probably the most humane way to kill somebody," Ray said.

    Utah eliminated execution by firing squad in 2004, citing the excessive media attention it gave inmates. But those sentenced to death before that date still had the option of choosing it, which is how Gardner ended up standing in front of five armed Utah police officers. Gardner was sentenced to death for fatally shooting a Salt Lake City attorney in 1985 while trying to escape from a courthouse.

    He was third person to die by firing squad after the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. A couple other death row inmates have opted to die by gunfire instead of lethal injection in Utah, but they are all several years away from exhausting the appeals of their death sentences, Assistant Utah Attorney General Thomas Brunker said. Ray's proposal would give all inmates the option.

    Lethal injection, the default method of execution in the U.S., has received heightened scrutiny after secrecy and drug shortages in recent years and the April incident in Oklahoma, when inmate Clayton Lockett's vein collapsed and he died of a heart attack more than 40 minutes later.

    Ray and lawmakers in other states have suggested firing squads might be the cheapest and most humane method.

    "The prisoner dies instantly," Ray said. "It sounds draconian. It sounds really bad, but the minute the bullet hits your heart, you're dead. There's no suffering."

    Opponents of the proposal say firing squads are not necessarily a fool-proof answer.

    It's possible an inmate could move or shooters could miss, causing the inmate a slow and painful death, said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Washington, D.C.,-based Death Penalty Information Center, which opposes capital punishment.

    "The idea is that it would be very quick and accurate but just a little movement by the person could change that," he said. "Things can go wrong with any method of execution."

    He cited a case from Utah's territorial days in 1897, when a firing squad missed Wallace Wilkerson's heart and it took him 27 minutes to die, according to newspaper accounts of the execution.

    Dieter said that if Utah brought back firing squads as a default option rather than leaving it up to inmates to choose, as was the practice before 2004, it could be challenged in court.

    The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the use of the firing squad in 1879, but as tastes have changed in the country since then, Dieter said it's possible a modern court could rule the practice violates an inmate's protection from cruel and unusual punishment.

    Beyond the legal challenges, Dieter said it will probably bring back the kind of "voyeuristic attention" the state wanted to avoid.

    For Ray, the option makes sense to avoid a situation like Oklahoma or legal fights over the blend of drugs used in lethal injections.

    "There's no easy way to put somebody to death, but you need to be efficient and effective about it," Ray said. "This is certainly one way to do that."

    http://www.lewistownsentinel.com/pag...sap=1&nav=5016
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

  10. #20
    Senior Member Member OperaGhost84's Avatar
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    I have my own my own problems with Firing Squads but anything that gets us off this Lethal Injection fiasco is good news to me. I'm just glad the media isn't even pretending that the DPIC is "moderate" or "Neutral" any more.
    I am vehemently against Murder. That's why I support the Death Penalty.

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