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Thread: Ronald Bert Smith, Jr. - Alabama Execution - December 8, 2016

  1. #11
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    Not really suprising the alabama SC ruled that tbh. Much more interesting will be if the US SC agrees with that ruling. In my ( very simpleton ) eyes their system is at the very least not in the spirit of the Hurst ruling.
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  2. #12
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    SCOTUS didn’t intervene on behalf of dr inmates in Florida while hurst was being considered. They may take up Alabama’s sentencing eventually, but they will not intervene on the behalf of people like Smith in the meantime
    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

  3. #13
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    Lawyers question whether Alabama inmate felt burning pain during lethal injection

    Alabama death row inmate Christopher Brooks may have been burned alive by the state's new lethal drug cocktail during his January execution, a former federal public defender from Alabama wrote in a column published Thursday on the political website The Hill.

    Bob Horton, spokesman for the Alabama Department of Corrections, denied the allegation. "The claim is unsubstantiated. There is no evidence to lead to a conclusion that the inmate suffered," he stated in an email to AL.com on Friday morning.

    Stephen Cooper, in his post, points to an April 15 complaint filed by a federal public defender representing death row inmate Ronald Bert Smith, who is now scheduled to be executed Dec. 8.

    Smith and several other death row inmates, including Tommy Arthur who is set for execution Nov. 3, have been challenging Alabama's new three-drug lethal injection protocol as violating the 8th Amendment provision against cruel and unusual punishment.

    The state had halted executions for more than two years as they looked for a new source of the lethal injection drugs and dealt with the lawsuits.

    The new three-drug combination was first used in Brooks' execution on Jan. 21. Brooks, 43, was convicted in the December 1992 brutal rape and murder of Jo Deann Campbell inside her Homewood apartment.

    The first drug, 500mg dose of Midazolam, was administered to Brooks as an anesthesia. A prison captain pinched Brooks' upper left arm and pulled open his eyelid to check for consciousness before the final two drugs were administered.

    The second drug, rocuronium bromide, a neuromuscular blocker, was then administered followed by the third drug, potassium chloride.

    According to the complaint, potassium chloride disrupts the normal electrical activity of the heart and induces cardiac arrest by stopping the heart from pumping blood.

    "Potassium chloride traveling in the bloodstream from the site of injection towards the heart causes an extreme burning sensation as it moves through the body destroying the internal organs," the complaint states. "In the event of incomplete anesthetic depth, the injection of potassium chloride will cause excruciating pain."

    The complaint by Smith's attorneys cites a written statement by Terri Deep, an investigator with the public defenders' office for the Middle District who was a witness at Brooks' execution.

    "Ms. Deep saw Mr. Brooks' left eye open during the execution, after the consciousness test was performed. No official from the ADOC took action when Mr. Brooks' eye opened," the complaint states. "If the paralytic was injected properly and performed its function, Mr. Brooks would not have been able to open his eye."

    That indicated Brooks was not insensate at the time he was injected with rocuronium bromide and potassium chloride, Smith's complaint argues.

    In light of what happened with Brooks' execution, Smith's attorneys argued, "there is an objectively intolerable risk that plaintiff (Smith) will not be adequately anesthetized before the second and third drugs have been administered, causing him to experience intolerable pain and suffering."

    While comments from Deep's statement were included in the complaint, her entire statement was sealed from public view.

    Reporters who witnessed the execution did not note any signs of distress by Brooks during his execution and Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner Jeff Dunn said afterward that it had gone as planned.

    Smith's and Brooks' attorneys, who are all with the federal public defender's office in Montgomery, had not responded to an email from Al.com Thursday night seeking comment about the claims prior to publication of this story.

    Online federal court records do not show any response to that complaint by the Alabama Attorney General's Office on behalf of the prison system. Smith's complaint was folded into the other litigation by death row inmates.

    http://www.al.com/news/birmingham/in...her_execu.html
    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

  4. #14
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Federal judge may allow Alabama to execute inmate using new one-drug method

    By Kent Faulk
    AL.com

    A federal judge may allow Alabama to change its lethal injection method for the Dec. 8 execution of Alabama Death Row inmate Ronald Bert Smith.

    U.S. District Court Judge Keith Watkins, in an order issued Wednesday, tells Smith's attorneys to submit in writing, on or before noon on Nov. 16 why he should not order Alabama to execute Smith using "a large initial dose of midazolam, followed by continuous infusion" of that drug.

    Smith is among a group of Alabama death row inmates who have been challenging Alabama's three-drug lethal injection protocol for executions. Alabama, along with other states, have developed different drug combinations after drug manufacturers started refusing to supply execution drugs the states had been using.

    When death row inmates file lawsuits challenging a state's method of execution as cruel and unusual punishment, they must offer suggestions to the court of alternate methods of execution. Among the suggestions by Alabama inmates have been firing squad and hanging – both options Watkins dismissed because they are not set out in Alabama law. One lawmaker, however, last week said he will introduce a bill to make firing squads an option.

    Efforts to reach Smith's attorney were unsuccessful prior to publication of this story. A spokeswoman for the Alabama Attorney General's office said that office would not comment.

    Earlier in the litigation Alabama offered death row inmate Christopher Brooks the opportunity to be executed by a one large dose of midazolam, Watkins noted in his order. That drug – a sedative - is the first drug administered in the state's three-drug protocol.

    Brooks refused and on Jan. 21 became the first inmate executed in more than two years, using the state's new three-drug lethal injection method.

    After his execution, a witness in the viewing room testified one of Brooks' eyes opened after the consciousness assessment and remained open until the curtain was closed in the viewing room, according to the judge's order.

    "The eye episode has become a central component of the Eighth Amendment (cruel and unusual punishment) claim in the current complaint of Mr. Smith, in the motion to dismiss, and in the response to it—particularly in Mr. Smith's objection to midazolam as a sedative in the three-drug protocol," the judge states. "Mr. Smith argues that midazolam will inadequately anesthetize him, thereby causing severe pain upon the infusion of the second and third drugs in the protocol, rocuronium bromide and potassium chloride, respectively."

    "It is undisputed that potassium chloride causes severe pain to a conscious person," Watkins states.

    While they feared midazolam wouldn't sedate them enough for the next two drugs, the inmates argued that one large dose of midazolam would be enough to kill them anyway.

    Watkins writes that he ultimately dismissed the notion of a one-drug protocol in Brooks' case as "fraught with peril" arising out of a number of unanswered concerns.

    Use of a single dose of midazolam to execute an inmate has apparently never been tried elsewhere. But legal arguments in the inmates' lawsuits have cited expert testimony that a single large and continuous dose of midazolam could be used to cause death.

    But it's time to reconsider it, according to Watkins. "Changes in the posture of the case dictate that the court explore the midazolam option pled and urged by Mr. Smith and presently offered by defendants (Alabama Attorney General's Office)," Watkins states.

    Watkins writes that: Alabama's "offer" for one mega dose of midazolam is not contingent on Smith executing a consent as was the case with Brooks; "a year of reflection on the issue brings it to the forefront"; and that a one-drug midazolam protocol exists.

    "Because Mr. Smith has pled it and offered the option as viable, readily implemented and available, defendants (Alabama) have accepted the offer," Watkins writes in his order.

    All the parties agree that midazolam is available, it is feasible, it is readily implementable, and it is not risky with regard to unnecessary pain and suffering, Watkins writes in his order.

    Watkins also ordered the Alabama Attorney General's Office on or before Monday to submit to him its plan for administering one large dose of midazolam, along with a copy of its three-drug protocol for comparison.

    Smith, who has been on death row since Oct. 6, 1995, was convicted in Madison County in the November 1994 slaying of Circle C convenience store clerk Casey Wilson during a robbery. A judge overrode a jury recommendation for life without parole and imposed the death penalty.

    http://www.al.com/news/birmingham/in...ow_alabam.html
    "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

  5. #15
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Alabama death row inmate agrees to one-drug lethal injection

    A federal judge should order Alabama to execute a death row inmate with an untried one-dose lethal injection method, attorneys for the inmate said today.

    But first, the judge should rule that the state's current three-drug method is invalid and can't be used in future executions, according to a court document filed by attorneys for death row inmate Ronald Bert Smith. The Alabama Department of Corrections also hasn't yet submitted an acceptable method for administering the one-drug method, the attorneys say.

    Smith is set to be executed Dec. 8.

    U.S. District Court Judge Keith Watkins, in an order issued last week gave Smith's attorneys until today to submit in writing why he should not order Alabama to execute Smith using "a large initial dose of midazolam, followed by continuous infusion" of that drug.

    The Alabama Attorney General's Office has until Friday to respond to Smith's attorneys response.

    http://www.al.com/news/birmingham/in...ate_agree.html
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  6. #16
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Federal judge tosses death row inmate lawsuit; won't consider one-drug execution

    A federal judge on Friday dismissed a lawsuit challenging Alabama's method of lethal injection by death row inmate Ronald Bert Smith, who is set to be executed Dec. 8.

    The judge on Friday also ended "negotiations" over whether Smith should be executed using a single dose of the drug midazolam, rather than the state's three-drug protocol.

    Smith's lawyers immediately filed notice of appeal of the judge's dismissal of the lawsuit to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.

    Smith, and other inmates, argued in their consolidated lawsuits that the first drug in the combination – midazolam - wouldn't anesthetize the inmate enough to prevent the pain that would be caused by the other two drugs.

    Smith had argued that death row inmate Christopher Brooks may have died a painful death at his Jan. 21 execution because a witness saw one of Brooks' eyes open during the procedure and may not have been properly sedated.

    Smith also argued that one large and continuous dose of midazolam would be enough to execute him – an untried method.

    U.S. District Court Judge Keith Watkins on Friday dismissed Smith's lawsuit as being brought too late under statute of limitations, but he let the other death row inmates lawsuits stand.

    Watkins also halted negotiations over whether Smith should be executed using the single dose of midazolam.

    "Plaintiff Ronald Bert Smith was directed to show cause why the court should not order defendants (Alabama Department of Correction) to execute him using the method pled in his complaint, 'a large initial dose of midazolam, followed by continuous infusion' until his sentence is carried out," Watkins stated.

    Smith responded that the court couldn't enter such an order without first finding the current three-drug protocol unconstitutional, invalidating it, and enjoining its future use, Watkins stated. Smith's complaint also had an error when referencing 500 mg of midazolam; it should have been 2500 mg, the judge stated.

    http://www.al.com/news/birmingham/in...death_row.html
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  7. #17
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mike View Post

    A federal judge on Friday dismissed a lawsuit challenging Alabama's method of lethal injection by death row inmate Ronald Bert Smith, who is set to be executed Dec. 8.
    Hi . i thought a Monday execution date is a bit unusual . should this one not be 8 Dec ?

  8. #18
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Good catch Zibbie. You are correct it is the 8th not the 5th. Thanks
    "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

  9. #19
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    Cool No problem . Going to be a busy week that . 3 nights

  10. #20
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Death row inmate asks for clemency, citing jury override

    MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama inmate scheduled to be executed next week is asking the governor to stop his execution because a judge imposed a death sentence over the jury's 7-5 recommendation of life imprisonment.

    Attorneys for Ronald Bert Smith wrote in a letter to Gov. Robert Bentley that the judge overrode the jury's will.

    Smith will be executed Dec. 8 for the 1994 slaying of Huntsville convenience store clerk Casey Wilson.

    The Alabama Supreme Court last week ruled the execution should proceed. Smith plans to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. His attorneys argue the sentence is unconstitutional under a Supreme Court decision that said Florida gave too much power to judges in deciding death sentences.

    Smith's attorney said Alabama is the only state that allows judicial override.

    http://www.sfchronicle.com/news/arti...y-10647606.php
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

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