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Thread: Thomas Douglas Arthur - Alabama Execution - May 26, 2017

  1. #141
    Moderator Dave from Florida's Avatar
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    This case has been dragging along and hit another snag when Judge Mark Fuller was removed and replaced by this new judge.

  2. #142
    ganeshn2
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    In any case, let's hope, this issue gets sorted out in the 11th. If he doesn't come to the District Court, he cannot do much about it.

  3. #143
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Federal appeals court paves way for Tommy Arthur execution Feb. 19

    A federal appeals court Thursday paved the way for the execution of Alabama Death Row inmate Tommy Arthur next week for the contract killing of a Muscle Shoals man in 1982.

    But the court also said Arthur might still have other legal moves available to stave off - for a sixth time - his execution.

    "Nothing herein precludes Mr. Arthur from seeking an injunction or restraining order as to the February 19, 2015, execution, but such motion should be filed and considered by the district court in the first instance pursuant to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure," according to today's ruling by the 11th Circuit. "Thereafter, and if necessary, the parties may move for relief in this Court pursuant to the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure."

    Last year Alabama changed its lethal injection protocol, switching from the use of pentobarbital to midazolam as the first drug in the three-drug protocol that also included pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride.

    After the state changed the drug protocol, it asked for another execution date, which the Alabama Supreme Court granted and set for Feb. 19.

    However, on Jan. 5, U.S. District Judge W. Keith Watkins in Montgomery ruled that the 11th Circuit's stay that had postponed Arthur's March 2012 execution, due to his challenge of the drug protocol, was still in effect. That federal judge also allowed Arthur to amend his lawsuit to claim midazolam is also a constitution violation.

    On Thursday the 11th Circuit ruled that its stay of the March 2012 execution was not a general stay that was to continue past that time. To clarify any confusion, however, the 11th Circuit withdrew that stay.

    Arthur was first convicted of capital murder in 1983 in the death of Troy Wicker of Muscle Shoals. That conviction and a second conviction were overturned. He was convicted a third time in 1991 and that conviction was upheld.

    http://www.al.com/news/birmingham/in...l#incart_river
    "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

  4. #144
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Inmate files motion to stay execution scheduled for Thursday

    A death row inmate scheduled to die next week filed a new appeal Friday for a stay of execution.

    Thomas Arthur is set to die by lethal injection Thursday for the murder, more than 30 years ago, of Muscle Shoals resident Troy Wicker. Arthur has been scheduled for execution before, but for the past few years has been challenging the constitutionality of the state’s lethal injection protocol in federal court.

    Arthur argues that the drugs used by the state for the execution could leave him in pain during the procedure, violating the ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Alabama has changed its drug combination for lethal injection at least twice in the last three years due to drug shortages.

    Arthur’s case is scheduled for a hearing in May. On Thursday, a federal appeals court lifted a stay of execution for Arthur, saying the stay applied to an earlier execution date set in 2012. The court said Arthur could file a new motion in a lower court to stay his scheduled Feb. 19 execution.

    http://www.annistonstar.com/news/art...966f56f55.html
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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  5. #145
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    Alabama death row inmate wins stay of execution

    By Brian Lyman
    The Montgomery Advertiser

    A federal judge Tuesday morning granted a stay of execution to Thomas Arthur, who was scheduled to die on Thursday.

    In a 14-page opinion, Chief U.S. District Judge Keith Watkins wrote that Arthur, convicted in 1982 in a murder-for-hire scheme, had a substantial likelihood of success on a claim that the methods used by the state to execute individuals violated his 14th Amendment equal protection rights.

    Arthur challenged the state's use of lethal injection in 2011, arguing that both the drugs and the methods used would constitute cruel and unusual punishment. Watkins wrote that there was significant conflicting testimony in Arthur's case as to whether corrections officials consistently administer a consciousness test before injecting a condemned inmate with lethal drugs.

    "Because this evidence shows wide-ranging differences among witnesses as to whether the State has even performed the required consciousness assessment in past executions, and will therefore perform it on Arthur, and as to whether, if such an assessment is performed, the State will perform it adequately, Arthur has established a substantial likelihood of success on the merits of his Fourteenth Amendment equal protection claim," Watkins wrote.

    A message left with Suhana Han, an attorney representing Arthur, was not immediately returned Tuesday morning. Mike Lewis, a spokesman for Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange, had no comment on the ruling.

    Arthur has also challenged the state's use of drugs in the execution, arguing that the sedatives employed will take too long to render him unconscious before drugs that paralyze the muscles and stop the heart are administered. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to take up a challenge to the constitutionality of midazolam, the sedative used in Alabama's executions, in an Oklahoma case later this year.

    The state has used lethal injection as its primary means of execution since 2002, but the process by which the state carries out executions has come under fire in recent years. Drug manufacturer Hospira announced in 2011 that it would no longer manufacture sodium thiopentol, used by Alabama and other states as the first drug in its three-drug execution procedure. Alabama, like other states, replaced sodium thiopentol with pentobarbital; Arthur's initial suit addressed pentobarbital, saying it would not render him unconscious before the other drugs were administered.

    State officials announced at the beginning of 2014 that the Department of Corrections' supply of pentobarbital had run out. In court filings last September, the attorney general's office said that it had developed a new protocol using midazolam as the sedative. The attorney general's office noted that the drug had been used in executions in Florida, apparently without incident; however, the drug was present in botched executions last year in Ohio, Oklahoma and Arizona.

    Arthur and his attorneys have amended their complaint to challenge the use of midazolam. A trial on Arthur's claims is scheduled to begin in early May.

    Due to the shortages and legal challenges, Alabama has not carried out an execution in over 18 months.

    The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals last week vacated a stay on Arthur's execution that had been in place since 2012. The three-judge panel wrote that the 2012 stay was geared toward a particular issue in Arthur's case and no longer relevant. However, the court also noted that there was nothing to prevent Arthur from seeking a second stay.

    The Advertiser, The Anniston Star and The Associated Press last year filed separate Freedom of Information Act requests seeking the state's death penalty protocol and information about the source and availability of the drugs used in the procedure. The Department of Corrections denied the requests, citing a gag order in the ongoing Arthur litigation.

    http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/...tion/23550169/

  6. #146
    Senior Member Member OperaGhost84's Avatar
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    If you want unconsciousness then you have to got o the Electric Chair which knocks them out in so fast the nearest whole number is 1 second (since I can't round down to Zero now can I?) but they made some fictional Hollywood movies where it looked really bad so they don't do that anymore. Now let's look at the 14th Amendment shall we?

    "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."

    Does it say anything about complete unconsciousness before a lethal injection? I know he's had more than enough Due Process over the last 31 years. This is why people hate Lawyers. They can't read a single English sentence without interpreting it in a way that's an exact inversion of what it actually says.
    I am vehemently against Murder. That's why I support the Death Penalty.

  7. #147
    Senior Member CnCP Addict Richard86's Avatar
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    Only basis for this argument I can see is that if some people are tested for unconsciousness and some people aren't then that's not consistent, which would therefore not be equal protection, or something like that.

    Standardise it so that they either do or don't perform the test, and do that everytime, don't give lawyers anything they can possibly argue with and they won't file petitions.

  8. #148
    Senior Member Member OperaGhost84's Avatar
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    Not Possible. Lawyers know how to ask the same question a thousand different ways. They'll argue about the periods at the end of the sentence or the staple on the paper if they have to. But I get your point. This court ruling clearly demonstrates that. How hard is it to test for unconsciousness? They really are splitting hairs here.
    I am vehemently against Murder. That's why I support the Death Penalty.

  9. #149
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    State’s appeal on Arthur stay of execution dismissed

    The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals today dismissed an appeal from the Alabama attorney general’s office to overturn a stay in Tommy Arthur’s execution.

    Arthur was granted a stay on Tuesday by a federal district judge that halted the state's plan to execute him by lethal injection on Thursday.

    “Given the extensive evidence in the record, the State of Alabama's revised protocols, and the disputed material facts as to the particular issues here, this particular case has become a fact-intensive inquiry which requires an evidentiary hearing and thorough fact-findings by the district court,” the 11th Circuit said today.

    Arthur is challenging the state's three-drug lethal injection formula as possibly constituting cruel and unusual punishment. At the center of the debate is the first drug administered, midazolam hydrochloride, and whether it sufficiently renders an inmate unconscious before the other drugs are administered.

    Tuesday’s order from Judge Keith Watkins said Arthur has met his burden and is entitled to a stay.

    "Arthur's February 19, 2015, execution date is stayed pending a trial and final decision on the merits of his claims," the order states.

    A trial will be held in U.S. District Court May 5.

    Alabama in September adopted a new drug combination that uses midazolam hydrochloride as the sedative to render a prisoner unconscious at the start of an execution.

    Arthur's lawyers have argued the new drugs should not be used until a court has time to review them.

    Arthur was sentenced to die for the 1982 murder-for-hire of a Muscle Shoals man.

    On the day of the murder, Arthur is said to have walked away from a work release program in Decatur and driven to Muscle Shoals.

    http://www.timesdaily.com/news/top_n...ec7f47afc.html
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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  10. #150
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Action in Tommy Arthur case put on hold

    A federal court decision this week has put on hold any action in death-row inmate Tommy Arthur's case, including a May court hearing, until the U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments about the effectiveness of the lethal injection drug midazolam.

    The order last Wednesday from U.S. District Chief Judge Keith Watkins cites other delays in death row cases in Alabama.

    Watkins' ruling said, "... the state has conceded that the best course of action is to stay decisions on the lethal injection cases across the board until Glossip is decided."

    The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in late April. A decision is expected by the end of June.

    Arthur was set for execution in February, his 6th execution date in more than 30 years on death row. It was stayed last month, and Watkins said Arthur was entitled to a trial on his objection to the state's lethal injection formula and to a final decision on the merits of his claims. That trial was to be held in U.S. District Court on May 5.

    Arthur is challenging the state's 3-drug lethal injection formula as possibly constituting cruel and unusual punishment. Specifically the challenge involves midazolam hydrochloride and whether it sufficiently renders an inmate unconscious before the other 2 execution drugs are administered.

    (Source: The Times Daily)
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

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