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Thread: South Dakota Capital Punishment News

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    South Dakota Capital Punishment News

    A state Senate committee has approved a measure that would clarify South Dakota laws dealing with the death penalty.

    Laurie Feiler, deputy secretary of the state Corrections Department, said the bill establishes new procedures that circuit judges would use to determine whether an execution should be stopped because a death-row inmate is mentally incompetent.

    SB53 also clarifies that people who take part in good faith in an execution are generally immune from civil lawsuits or criminal prosecution.

    South Dakota held its first execution in six decades last year when Elijah Page was killed by lethal injection for the 2000 murder of Chester Allan Poage, 19, near Spearfish. Page stopped his appeals and asked to be executed.

    Current law provides that when a death-row inmate appears to be mentally incompetent, the prison warden must notify the governor, who then appoints a panel of physicians to determine whether the inmate is mentally competent to be executed.

    The bill would shift the proceedings to circuit court, where the circuit judge could order psychiatric examinations and hold hearings to determine whether an inmate is competent to be executed. If an inmate was found to be incompetent to stand trial, a periodic review would be done and an execution could be rescheduled once the inmate became mentally competent.

    DOC lawyer Max Gors said an inmate is mentally competent to be executed if the inmate knows he is going to be executed and why. A person can be mentally competent when convicted, but become "pretty flaked out" by the time an execution is scheduled after years of appeals, he said.

    The bill also clarifies the procedures to be followed if a female death-row inmate is pregnant. The execution is suspended until after the child is born.

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    Changes in state laws dealing with death-row inmates were approved unanimously Monday by the South Dakota House.

    SB53, which awaits a final vote in the state Senate, outlines new procedures a judge must use to decide if someone is mentally incompetent and an execution should be stopped.

    Noting that South Dakota had its first execution in six decades last year, Rep. Garry Moore, D-Yankton, said the bill was drafted by the Corrections Department to make sure that all death sentences are properly carried out.

    "They want to do this right and with dignity and all the professionalism that they can," Moore said.

    The execution of Elijah Page last year went off without a hitch. Page was killed by lethal injection for the 2000 murder of Chester Allan Poage, 19, near Spearfish. Page stopped his appeals and asked to be executed.

    Current law provides that when a death-row inmate appears to be mentally incompetent, the prison warden must notify the governor, who then appoints a panel of physicians to determine whether the inmate is mentally competent to be executed.

    The bill would shift the proceedings to circuit court, where a judge could order psychiatric examinations and hold hearings to determine if an inmate is competent to be executed. If an inmate is found incompetent, a periodic review would be done and an execution could be rescheduled if the inmate became mentally competent.

    "A defendant is mentally competent to be executed if the defendant is aware of the impending execution and the reason for it," the legislation states.

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    A statute approved by this year's South Dakota Legislature outlines new procedures judges must use in deciding if someone is mentally incompetent and should not be executed by the state.

    When a death-row inmate appears to be mentally incompetent, previous law has required the warden to notify the governor so a panel of doctors can be appointed to determine if the inmate is competent to be executed.

    The new law will shift those proceedings to circuit court, where judges can order psychiatric evaluations and hold hearings to
    determine if inmates are fit to be executed. If an inmate is found mentally incompetent, periodic reviews will be done to determine if they later are determined competent to be put to death by lethal injection.

    Three inmates already on death-row in South Dakota will not be affected by the changes because state laws generally cannot be
    applied retroactively. The state's first execution in six decades was done last year when Elijah Page of Athens, Texas, volunteered to be put to death.

    Page and two other men killed Chester Allan Poage of Spearfish in 2000 after kidnapping and torturing him.

    http://www.ksfy.com/news/local/22702634.html

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    House Committee to Vote on Bill to Repeal South Dakota Death Penalty

    A bill that would repeal the death penalty in South Dakota will be heard in the House State Affairs Committee Wednesday.

    HB 1245 would mandate life in prison without parole for people convicted of Class A felonies.

    The Association of Christian Churches of South Dakota supports the bill.

    http://www.ksfy.com/news/local/84021777.html

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    Bill Would Repeal South Dakota's Death Penalty

    Thursday morning, state lawmakers will discuss a bill to eliminate the death penalty in South Dakota. Capital punishment was re-introduced to South Dakota by Governor Bill Janklow in 1979.

    In the three decades since Governor Janklow signed that bill to re-introduce the death penalty, just one person has been executed in South Dakota. Elijah Page was executed in 2007. Three inmates at the prison in Sioux Falls are currently on death row.

    The basics of House Bill 1245 will be debated in Pierre starting Thursday morning. It calls for repealing the death penalty and replacing it with life in prison. Those who are currently on death row for a class A felony would have their sentence changed to life in prison.

    The bill's sponsor, democratic Representative Gerald Lange says he wants to do away with the death penalty.

    "To keep somebody on death row most states are finding its very expensive," said Lange.

    Meanwhile, state Attorney General Marty Jackley wants to keep capital punishment.

    "The death penalty does serve as both a deterrent and as an alternative sentencing option in very limited cases," said Jackley.

    South Dakota is the only state in our area that still has the death penalty. Minnesota banned the death penalty in 1911; Iowa's ban started in 1965.

    http://www.ksfy.com/news/local/84687617.html

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    Bill to Repeal the Death Penalty Fails

    Also in Pierre today a move to repeal the death penalty in South Dakota was shot down by a house committee. A house committee voted 8 to 5 to kill the bill that would have repealed the death penalty and changed the sentence for all death row inmates to life in prison without parole.

    http://www.ksfy.com/news/local/84754817.html

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    South Dakota defends lethal injection process

    The state wants a judge to set aside a convicted killer's challenge to South Dakota's lethal injection process because it says new safeguards will keep a condemned inmate from feeling any pain when the death-inducing chemicals are delivered.

    The Department of Corrections adopted a revised protocol this summer that exceeds the Kentucky death penalty standards upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2008 and will result in "a rapid, painless and humane death," according to the state's court filing.

    Donald Moeller, 58, was sentenced to death for convictions of raping and killing 9-year-old Becky O'Connell in 1990.

    The state asks U.S. District Judge Lawrence Piersol to grant a summary judgment in its favor because Moeller has failed to show that the execution process violates constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment.

    It explains in court documents the process in preparing an inmate for the intravenous infusion of sodium thiopental, which causes unconsciousness, and then a monitoring period before two other drugs that cause paralysis and cardiac arrest are administered.

    "The abundant dose of thiopental, combined with the built-in procedures/checks to ensure that the IV is properly placed and working, renders any risk of pain to the condemned inmate far too remote to be constitutionally significant," according to the state.

    Moeller's court-appointed attorney, Deborah Anne Czuba of the Federal Public Defender's Office in Little Rock, Ark., said in an e-mail that she can't comment on pending cases.

    But in court papers filed Nov. 5, Czuba said the state can't argue that Moeller has failed to show how the new protocol would violate his rights when the details weren't available until recently and the judge had suspended the fact-finding process, called discovery.

    "The respondent's (state) suggestion that Mr. Moeller even had the opportunity to make a showing, and neglected to do so is simply disingenuous," she said in asking Piersol to strike the state's request for summary judgment or put it on hold and allow discovery to resume.

    Moeller was convicted in 1992 and sentenced to death. Then the South Dakota Supreme Court overturned the conviction and he was tried a second time in 1997, convicted and sentenced again by a jury to death.

    Moeller argues separately to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that there were constitutional violations at his trial involving ineffective counsel and failure to inform the jury during the trial's penalty phase that a life prison sentence offered no parole opportunity.

    http://www.mitchellrepublic.com/even.../id/D9JDCJJG0/

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    After Page, three others remain on death row in S.D.

    After Elijah Page, three inmates remain on death row in South Dakota: Donald Moeller, Charles Rhines and Briley Piper.

    The average death-row inmate nationally waits about 11 years before he or she is executed. That’s because the appeals process can take decades to exhaust.

    All death sentence cases in South Dakota are automatically reviewed by the state’s supreme court. After that, the cases’ paths become less predictable.

    None of South Dakota’s death-row inmates have exhausted their possible appeals, and it’s anybody’s guess whose time might run out first, legal experts say.

    “I think that’s very difficult to predict,” said Roberto Lange, a Sioux Falls lawyer who represents Rhines in federal court.

    http://www.argusleader.com/article/2...yssey=nav|head

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    State buys lethal injection drug

    Attorney General Marty Jackley said the state has purchased one of the drugs used in the state's lethal injection process in response to reported national shortages of the drug, called sodium thiopental.

    He said the state purchased enough to carry out the sentences of the two inmates currently on death row in the state's prison system.

    No execution date has been set for either Donald Moeller or Charles Russell Rhines because both have appeals pending.

    http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/news...cc4c03286.html

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    DEA: SD can't use key ingredient in executions

    SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) - The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has informed the South Dakota Department of Corrections that its supply of a key lethal injunction drug purchased from India cannot be used.

    South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley says that the DEA voiced concerns about its importation of the drug sodium thiopental from a Mumbai company. The drug is used as part of a three-drug cocktail in executions in South Dakota.

    The DEA has confiscated the drug from corrections departments in several other states. It has not been confiscated in South Dakota.

    Jackley says the concerns are misplaced and that the drug supply was properly cleared by federal authorities through customs and has been tested for safety and efficacy.

    A South Dakota death row inmate has questioned the quality of the drug.

    http://www.kcautv.com/story/15667651...-in-executions

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