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Thread: Christopher Sepulvado - Louisiana Death Row

  1. #21
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Execution can go forward, Louisiana Supreme Court decides

    The Louisiana Supreme Court has denied condemned inmate Christopher Sepulvado's bid to stay his scheduled Feb. 13 execution. The decision leaves Sepulvado, 69, with dwindling chances to avoid lethal execution, although he continues to press for a federal reprieve and clemency from Gov. Bobby Jindal.

    Sepulvado, a Shreveport-area man, would be the first person executed in Louisiana since 2010 and the first non-voluntary execution in the state in more than a decade.

    His lawyers have argued that he should be allowed to challenge the drug combination that the state would use to kill him. They claim a worldwide shortage of sodium pentathol, the first drug in the traditional three-drug mix for lethal injection, has thrown the execution procedure in Louisiana into a constitutional haze.

    Just what the current state protocol is for lethal injection is unclear. Pam Laborde, spokeswoman for the state Department of Public Safety and Corrections, has said she can't comment on the procedure, citing pending federal litigation.

    Sepulvado has remained on death row at the Lousiana State Penitentiary in Angola for nearly two decades, convicted in DeSoto Parish for beating and fatally scalding his stepson, 6-year-old Wesley Allen Mercer, at home in Mansfield in 1992. According to court records, the boy's scalp had separated from his skull from the hemorrhaging and bruising.

    Sepulvado admitted stabbing the boy with a screwdriver but claimed the scalding was a bathtub accident.

    In most states, the traditional lethal injection procedure has included sodium pentathol, which is intended to render the subject unconscious; pancurium bromide, which is meant to cause paralysis; and potassium chloride, a drug akin to road salt that causes cardiac arrest.

    Condemned inmates in numerous states have challenged the combo on various grounds -- among them, that in certain cases the condemned were left conscious, paralyzed and in excruciating pain.

    Sepulvado's attorneys have repeatedly claimed that his due process rights are being violated, either because the state has no execution protocol or because it won't reveal it.

    The state denied Sepulvado's request for information on the procedure, citing security concerns, according to his legal filing. Sepulvado's attorneys continue to press for information on the protocol under state public records law.

    District Court Judge Robert Burgess on Dec. 21 denied a stay of execution for Sepulvado. In its ruling, the state Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of Burgess' decision.

    An appeals court panel in Baton Rouge has rejected a different death row inmate's claim that the state needed to adopt lethal injection guidelines under the Louisiana Administrative Procedure Act.

    Louisiana switched from electrocution to lethal injection in 1990. There are now a little more than 80 inmates on death row at Angola.

    http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/...ard_state.html
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  2. #22
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Jindal rejects call from bishops to stop Ash Wednesday execution

    Gov. Bobby Jindal won't halt a state execution planned for next week on Ash Wednesday of a DeSoto Parish man who murdered his 6-year-old stepson two decades ago.

    Jindal spokesman Sean Lansing said Tuesday that the governor sees no reason to intervene in the case.

    Christopher Sepulvado is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Feb. 13 for the beating and scalding death of Wesley Mercer.

    The Louisiana Conference of Catholic Bishops asked Jindal, a Catholic, to stop the execution, which is planned for the Christian holy day of Ash Wednesday.

    The bishops group, which represents the seven Catholic dioceses of Louisiana, says the execution at the start of the somber Christian season of Lent "would be inconsistent with the Lenten call for reconciliation and redemption and an unnecessary tragic irony."

    Sepulvado's lawyers have asked a judge to stop the execution, claiming lack of information about what drug combination the state will use.

    http://www.wdsu.com/news/local-news/...#ixzz2K4BwP7Dg
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  3. #23
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    State tells federal judge of change in lethal injection formula

    State corrections officials announced through their attorneys in Baton Rouge federal court Tuesday that they have replaced a three-chemical lethal injection formula with a single dose of pentobarbital.

    U.S. District Judge James J. Brady had called a hearing on the three-chemical formula because of concerns over the possibility of agonizing deaths that were raised by attorneys for two death row inmates. One of those inmates is scheduled for execution Feb. 13.

    In a related development, a spokesman for Gov. Bobby Jindal said his boss will not grant a request by the Louisiana Conference of Catholic Bishops to postpone that execution until after Ash Wednesday. The bishops also suggested Monday that convicted murderers could be sentenced to non-lethal punishment, such as imprisonment for life.

    Scheduled for execution next week is Christopher Sepulvado, 69, of DeSoto Parish. Sepulvado received his death sentence after a jury trial for the 1992 beating and scalding murder of his six-year-old stepson, Wesley Allen Mercer.

    “The trial was handled appropriately,” Sean Lansing, Jindal’s press secretary, said in an email Tuesday. “The punishment decided on by a jury of Mr. Sepulvado’s peers is proportional to the crime he committed. The governor sees no reason to intervene in this case.”

    Gary Clements, director of the Capital Post-Conviction Project of Louisiana, and attorney for Sepulvado, expressed surprise over prison officials’ announcement of the change in their lethal-injection formula.

    Clements filed suit against the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections last month in 19th Judicial District Court in Baton Rouge in an effort to force release of state records related to the three-chemical lethal-injection formula. State District Judge William Morvant has scheduled a hearing in that case for Friday at 1:30 p.m., court records show.

    Pentobarbital was not one of the three drugs used to execute Louisiana inmate Gerald Bordelon in 2010 for the strangulation of his 12-year-old stepdaughter. Sodium thiopental put Bordelon to sleep before pancuronium bromide paralyzed him, and potassium chloride stopped his heart.

    But supplies of sodium thiopental dried up in this country in 2011, and corrections officials chose pentobarbital as its replacement in the lethal injection formula. No inmates have been executed in Louisiana since Bordelon, however.

    Pentobarbital is used to kill badly injured or otherwise sick animals.

    Clements told Brady that a two-page Wikipedia definition of pentobarbital, brought to court Tuesday by state attorneys, is not sufficient information to determine whether a single dose can kill inmates painlessly.

    Clements said after the hearing: “We need to know if they (state officials) have pentobarbital. If they have it, where did they get it? Did they get it from China? From India?”

    Added Clements: “I think they’re flying by the seat of their pants.”

    Wade Shows, attorney for the Department of Public Safety and Corrections, said after the hearing, “Our people have done their due diligence” on pentobarbital.

    Shows said several other states use pentobarbital in single-chemical lethal injections. He added that courts in those states have ruled that pentobarbital does not cause a “cruel and unusual” death.

    Texas has executed nine death row inmates with single doses of pentobarbital since July, Jason Clark, public information officer for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, said in a telephone interview Tuesday.

    “I believe other states used pentobarbital in a single dose before Texas,” Clark said. He said those states include Arizona and Ohio.

    Like Shows, Clark said pertinent court decisions thus far have indicated that pentobarbital is not a “cruel and unusual” chemical for execution of death row inmates.

    “We acquire our pentobarbital from U.S. vendors,” Clark added. He also said the drug is used in this country as an anesthetic during surgeries. “A person loses consciousness in 15 to 20 seconds,” Clark said.

    In Baton Rouge, Brady said he wants both sides of the lethal-injection dispute to report to him Friday after Morvant concludes his hearing in state District Court. If necessary, Brady added, he will hold another hearing on Sepulvado’s case Monday in federal District Court.

    Mercedes Montagnes and Cecelia Trenticosta Kappel, attorneys for death row inmate Jessie Hoffman, told Brady they need additional time to research the possibility that pentobarbital subjects humans to a painful death. The judge, however, noted that Hoffman is not yet scheduled for his execution.

    Hoffman, 34, faces a death sentence for the 1996 kidnap, robbery, rape and murder of Mary “Molly” Elliot, a 28-year-old advertising executive, whose New Orleans’ office was near the parking garage where Hoffman worked.

    In Sepulvado’s case Tuesday, the Louisiana Board of Pardons decided not to grant Sepulvado a hearing on his petition for clemency.

    Sophie Cull, director of the Louisiana Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, expressed disappointment over the decision, adding in a written statement: “If Chris is executed … he will be the first non-volunteer put to death by the State of Louisiana in over a decade.”

    Cull’s remark referred to the fact that Bordelon chose not to pursue appeals of his murder conviction and asked to be executed in 2010.

    http://theadvocate.com/home/5108684-...deral-judge-of
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  4. #24
    Senior Member Member nmiller855's Avatar
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    "If Chris is executed … he will be the first non-volunteer put to death by the State of Louisiana in over a decade.”
    I don't think any of the victims volunteered to die either. I really don't mind if there is a little suffering during the execution. I believe most victims suffered at the hands of these people.

  5. #25
    Senior Member CnCP Legend FFM's Avatar
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    What is the scheduled time of execution in Louisiana? I can't find any information on it.

  6. #26
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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  7. #27
    Admiral CnCP Legend JT's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Heidi View Post
    Clements told Brady that a two-page Wikipedia definition of pentobarbital, brought to court Tuesday by state attorneys, is not sufficient information to determine whether a single dose can kill inmates painlessly.


    You've got to be kidding me...

    Quote Originally Posted by nmiller855 View Post
    "If Chris is executed … he will be the first non-volunteer put to death by the State of Louisiana in over a decade.”
    I don't think any of the victims volunteered to die either. I really don't mind if there is a little suffering during the execution. I believe most victims suffered at the hands of these people.
    Plus the fact that he is not a volunteer is hardly relevant. He was sentenced to death, not to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole (euthanasia available on request).

  8. #28
    bem17356
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    I take your points and agree with them wholeheartedly, but there typical of the kind of froth and spittal balloon juice statements, assertions and representations made by opponents of The DP all the time.

  9. #29
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Sepulvado execution stayed

    Baton Rouge - Judge James Brady, federal judge for the Middle District of Louisiana, imposed a stay of execution today in the case of Christopher “Chris” Sepulvado.

    Attorney Michael Rubenstein of New Orleans, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of Louisiana death row inmate Jessie Hoffman which was later joined by Chris Sepulvado, released the following statement:

    “At today’s hearing, Judge James Brady imposed a stay in the case of Christopher Sepulvado until further notice. Judge Brady has halted Mr. Sepulvado’s execution until the details of Louisiana’s lethal injection protocol are disclosed and scrutinized for their constitutionality under the Eighth Amendment.

    The Court specifically noted that its ruling was required by the State’s “intransigence.” The Louisiana Department of Corrections (DOC) has continued to withhold the lethal injection protocol it intended to use to execute Christopher Sepulvado and other Louisiana citizen on death row. The DOC says it intends to use a single-drug method involving pentobarbital, but refuses to disclose where it obtained the drug, how much it intends to use, whether any medical authorities were consulted regarding its incorporation, or the training of personnel who will implement the new procedure for the first time.

    Before any execution can go forward, the Louisiana DOC must be transparent about the drug it plans to use, so that the courts can evaluate the legality of the new execution protocol. We are glad to see our government being held accountable in a matter as serious as this.”

    http://www.shreveporttimes.com/artic...cution-stayed-
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  10. #30
    Administrator Michael's Avatar
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    It´s a shame... I´m so tired of these L.I.-protocols stays.
    No murder can be so cruel that there are not still useful imbeciles who do gloss over the murderer and apologize.

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