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the DON JONES
INDEX… |
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GAINS
POSTED in GREEN LOSSES
POSTED in RED 2/5/24... 15,026.02 1/29/24... 15,025.18 |
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6/27/13… 15,000.00 |
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(THE DOW JONES INDEX:
2/5/24... 38,654.42 ; 1/29/24... 38,109.43; 6/27/13… 15,000.00) |
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LESSON for FEBRUARY FIFTH, 2024 –
“CRIMERICA #1: – EXECUTING EXECUTIONS!”
With
the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primaries done, Don Jones can wave “bye!” in
the rear view and go back to the daily dailyness (or to sleep) for the rest of
the month. Former South Carolina
Governor and U.N, Ambassador Nikki Haley is hoping to rally in her home state,
but the prognosis is grim... she polls less than half the support of former
President Donald Trump and so we are looking down the barrel of the “rematch
from Hell” (as conservative Trump traitor George Will terms it) when The
Djonald squares off against President Joe for all of the marbles (and all of
the accidents the next POTUS will have to deal with when people start slipping
on those marbles).
In
last week’s extensive (and exhaustive) Lesson, we ventured from the primary to
general contests and reported on how then-candidates Biden, Trump, Haley and...
until he ran back to Florida after finishing second in Iora, Ron DeSantis... viewed issues of importance to the
Joneses as will have to be addressed by the Republican (sorry, Nikki) and
Democratic (sorry, Dean and Marianne) nominees.
There is no shortage of problems as will confront the winner but...
among the economy, evil foreigners and the border and climate... one of the
most pressing, if not the most argumentative, will be crime. Crime also impacts domestic policies, it holds
back the economy thorugh its costs in prevention (police and the such),
resolutions (courts and prisons and insane asylums) and a lessening of quality
of life that leaves some localities virtual ghost towns and discourages
investments in job-creating ventures.
Many Americans blame it on migrants from Mexico, Latin America, Africa
and Asia and some in Washington contend that those slipping under the
not-so-great wall include traffickers in guns, drugs and people and even
terrorists from the MidEast, Chinese spies and fifth columnists from five of
the seven continents (there are only a few from Down Under, even less from
Antarctica). And many also believe that
they breed like rats or roaches and, so, wield their leaf blowers and drive
their smoky old jalopies and poison the air, as well as the blood.
So,
until South Carolina, we’re going to address the issue from sources left, right
and shrinking center, from domestic and foreign media and from spokesthings of
all cultures, races, beliefs or incomes.
And we will be descending from... in terms of social and media impact...
from the uttermost to the guttermost, top to bottom, robberies, rapes and
murders all the way down to jaywalking and littering (as well as behaviors and
occupations that should be illegal, but aren’t... like telemarketing). And categorizations... victimist or
victimless, in blood or in paper, in age or in youth. And also penalties... ranging from warnings
and fines and “community service” to hard time to a practice back in the news,
of late, executions.
Assorted
directories have treated the death penalty with either sympathy, revulsion or
impartiality so we’ll begin with a (much condensed) timeline from the
ubiquitous Wikipedia, which begins...
“Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide,[1][2] is the state-sanctioned practice of killing a
person as a punishment for a crime, usually following an authorised,
rule-governed process to conclude that the person is responsible for violating
norms that warrant said punishment.[3] The sentence ordering that an offender be
punished in such a manner is known as a death sentence, and the act of carrying out the sentence is known as
an execution. A
prisoner who has been sentenced to death and awaits execution is condemned and
is commonly referred to as being "on death row". Etymologically,
the term capital (lit. 'of the head', derived via the Latin capitalis from caput, "head") refers to execution
by beheading,[4] but executions are carried out by many
methods, including hanging, shooting, lethal
injection, stoning, electrocution, and gassing.” (Much, much more including charts, graphs,
notes and references as Attachment “A”.)
It
was with a modified version of that last practice named... with the gas
employed being nitrogen as opposed to cyanide, mustard or tear gas or Zyklon... that the State Prison in Atmore,
Alabama finally dispatched hit man Kenneth Smith after decades of maneuvering,
a botched execution in 2022 and a 6 to 3 decision at the Supreme Court. Although some states possess and use the
death penalty, Smith’s dispatch reaped an inordinate measure of publicity
because of the nature of the means and the long history of the condemned man.
The
New York Times’ coverage of the execution called the “nitrogen hypoxia”
inflicted on the killer a “new frontier” in death penalty administration. (Jan. 25, Attachment One) The atmosphere is about 75 percent nitrogen,
but breathing pure nitrogen with no oxygen in the mix is toxic and eventually
leads to death.
The
Associated Press sent reporter Kim Chancler to Atmore to cover the snuff (Jan.
27, Attachment Two) and Chandler reported that: “As witnesses including five news
reporters watched through a window, Kenneth Eugene Smith, who was convicted and
sentenced to die in the 1988 murder-for hire slaying of Elizabeth
Sennett, convulsed on a
gurney as Alabama carried out the
nation’s first execution
using nitrogen gas.”
The family of his victim, Sennett,
attended the execution.
“Critics who had worried the new
execution method would be cruel and experimental said Smith’s final moments
Thursday night proved they were right,” Chandler editorialized, but did add
that Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, however, characterized it on
Friday as a “textbook” execution.”
The protocols of this “new
frontier”... once Smith was strapped to a gurney and wheeled into the death
chamber at 7:53 PM and the curtains of the viewing room opened included...
MASK CHECK
A blue-rimmed respirator mask
covered his face from forehead to chin. It had a clear face shield and plastic
tubing that appeared to connect through an opening to the adjoining control
room.
“Tonight Alabama causes humanity
to take a step backwards,” Smith scolded the government’s executioners as the
Sennett family watched from a viewing room “that was separate from the one
where members of the media and Smith’s attorney were seated.”
THE EXECUTION IS GREENLIGHTED
Marshall, the attorney general,
gave prison officials the OK to begin the execution at 7:56 p.m. The Rev. Jeff
Hood, Smith’s spiritual advisor took a few steps toward Smith, touched him on
the leg “and they appeared to pray.”
THRASHING AND GASPING BREATHS
Smith began to shake and writhe
violently, in thrashing spasms and seizure-like movements, at about 7:58 p.m...
(t)he shaking going on for at least two minutes.
Then he began to take “a series of
deep gasping breaths, his chest rising noticeably. His breathing was no longer
visible at about 8:08 p.m.”
THE EXECUTION ENDS
The curtains were closed to the
viewing room at about 8:15 p.m.
Alabama Corrections Commissioner
John Q. Hamm told reporters afterward that the nitrogen gas flowed for approximately 15 minutes. The
state attorney general’s office declined Friday to discuss at what time it
began flowing, “or at what time a monitor connected to Smith during the
execution showed that his heart had stopped beating.
“State officials said Smith was
pronounced dead at 8:25 p.m.”
Inasmuch
as unusual publicity had attached to the execution, foreign media sourcs also
covered Mr. Smith’s life and death, interviewing principals in the saga – with
the Independent U.K. even publishing a timeline covering seven pages, from the
masking and the gassing to pronouncement of death,
Smith,
according to the Brits as well as American journals and tabloids, was a man “struggling for their
life” for a “staggering” 22 minutes according to Hood.
Smith was convicted in Sennett’s
1988 death in Colbert County, Ala. Sennett was found beaten with a fireplace
implement and stabbed in her home, which was staged to look like a robbery.
Investigators later found that Sennett’s husband, the Rev. Charles Sennett, who
was having an affair and was deeply in debt, had hired a hit man to kill her so
he could collect on her life insurance policy to cover his debts.
John Forrest Parker and Smith were
paid $1,000 each by a middleman on Sennett’s behalf to carry out the murder.
Charles Sennett killed himself when police learned of his role in the plot,
while Billy Gray Williams, the middleman, was sentenced to life in prison.
Parker was executed in 2010.
A jury voted 11-1 in favor of life
in prison at Smith’s second trial before a judge overrode its verdict and
sentenced Smith to death. The practice, known as judicial override, has since
been eliminated in all 50 states; Alabama was the last state to do so, in 2017.
Late Thursday, the nation’s top
court rejected Smith’s final request for intervention. The court’s three
liberal justices — Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson — noted
their dissent in the court’s order, which did not explain the majority’s
reasoning. Sotomayor called Alabama’s method “untested” and said “the world is
watching.”
“Having failed to kill Smith on
its first attempt, Alabama has selected him as its ‘guinea pig’ to test a
method of execution never attempted before,” she wrote. Kagan and Jackson filed separate
dissents. (Washington Post, Jan. 25,
Attachment Three)
Alabama Attorney General Steve
Marshall (R) had defended the state’s protocol, previously calling nitrogen
hypoxia “the most painless and humane method of execution known to man.”
Alabama
officials had, according to the Independent,
“previously tried and failed to execute Smith by lethal injection in 2022.
“Prison staffers failed to find a vein to set Smith’s IV line, which, coupled
with last-minute appeals, made it untenable to complete the lethal injection
before Smith’s execution warrant expired at midnight.” Smith’s was the third
botched lethal injection in a row, prompting Alabama Governor Kay Ivey to temporarily pause
executions for review.
“States
that still use the death penalty have struggled to obtain lethal injection
drugs, with lawmakers and prison officials adopting alternative methods as
backup options. Alabama, Mississippi and Oklahoma have approved nitrogen
hypoxia, while other states have brought back the long-disused firing
squad.” (WashPost, above)
DPIC (the Death
Penalty Information Center) has reported that “(...an)
estimated that 3% of U.S. executions in the period from 1890 to 2010 were
botched.” (Attachment Four)
In the 2014 book, Gruesome Spectacles:
Botched Executions and America’s Death Penalty, Austin Sarat, a professor of
jurisprudence and political science at Amherst College, describes the history
of flawed executions in the U.S. during that period. Sarat reports that over
those 120 years, 8,776 people were executed and 276 of those executions (3.15%)
went wrong in some way. Lethal injection had the highest rate of botched
executions. In his book, he defines a botched execution as follows:
“Botched
executions occur when there is a breakdown in, or departure from, the
“protocol” for a particular method of execution. The protocol can be
established by the norms, expectations, and advertised virtues of each method
or by the government’s officially adopted execution guidelines. Botched
executions are “those involving unanticipated problems or delays that caused,
at least arguably, unnecessary agony for the prisoner or that reflect gross
incompetence of the executioner.” Examples of such problems include, among other
things, inmates catching fire while being electrocuted, being strangled during
hangings (instead of having their necks broken), and being administered the
wrong dosages of specific drugs for lethal injections.
Sarat
also published a chart detailing the prevalence of botched executions in the
United States among the 8,876 death penalty cases as of the publication of his book,
ten years ago.
In
December, 2022, University of Colorado Professor Michael L. Radelet updated
Sarat’s work citing and detailing some of the more publicized botched killings
in a paper excerpted in Peter
Hodgkinson and William Schabas (eds.), Capital Punishment: Strategies for
Abolition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (2004)... updating its
now-sixty stories of judicial murder by adding Smith as its final case. The executions studied included famous
capital punishment cases such as John Wayne Gacy, and instances of botched
electrocutions, lethal injections and asphyxiations by other-than-nitrogen
gases such as cyanide. (See attachment
with notes and references)
A 1983 execution by gas-induced
asphyxiation depicted by two experienced professionals... the convict’s attorney
Dennis Balske and “noted death penalty defense attorney” David Bruck stated
that “Jimmy Lee Gray died banging his head against a steel pole in the gas
chamber while the reporters counted his moans (eleven, according to the
Associated Press).”[3] Later it was revealed that the executioner, Barry Bruce,
was drunk.[4]
Shortly
before dawn on Thursday morning, the Washington Post (Attachment Five, Jan. 25
at 5:00AM, updated later that day at 3:37 PM) reporter Kim Bellware wrote that
he was entering a place that “is at once familiar and entirely unknown,”
depicting the novel process of nitrogen hypoxia... the first “new frontier” to
be tested in over forty years.
Predictably, this has drawn
accusations (below) from death penalty opponents that Smith was being used as a
“guinea pig” while also “...encapsulat(ing) how proponents of capital
punishment in America have been unrelenting in their fight to keep the practice
alive. Twenty-one states still have the death penalty, and it remains legal but
unused in six others because of suspension or moratorium” although the DPIC
(above) said that only five states... “the lowest number of states in 20
years”... conducted executions.
New execution methods tend to
emerge when people become uncomfortable with old ones, said Robin Maher, the
executive director of the DPIC. The electric chair was created in the late 19th
century and billed as more humane than hangings, but the gruesome spectacle of
condemned men sizzling and sometimes catching fire in their wired chairs
eventually fell out of favor, too.
“Executions moved indoors, into
chambers, sometimes in the middle of the night,” Maher said. “They were made
more clinical, more quiet, less bloody.”
Lethal injection fit that
narrative, until drug manufacturers, starting with suppliers in the European
Union, where capital punishment is banned, pulled their drugs from being used
in executions. As states scrambled to find alternative drugs, they also
increasingly enacted new statutes and constitutional amendments that shrouded
their execution process in secrecy.
States such as Oklahoma and Texas
argued it was to prevent harassment of suppliers and interference with carrying
out a legal punishment. Critics have
stated that the obsession with secrecy can be ascribed political or even
liability issues in that citizens who might give a “thumbs up” to governments
giving a “thumbs down” to condemned prisoners might redact their support if too
many of Sarat’s “gruesome spectacles” entered the public domain – even in
states and localities where pandering to the mob on the death penalty for
security, cultural or even racial causes has been supported.
Anesthesiologist Joel Zivot, who
teaches at Emory University and has performed numerous autopsies on executed
prisoners, said states such as Alabama have a poor track record of carrying out
constitutional executions. He notably performed the autopsy of Joe Nathan James
Jr., where the state took about 3½ hours to complete his execution. Zivot was
skeptical that a new method by the same state would fare any better than the
three previous botched injections — including Smith’s in 2022 — that prompted
Gov. Kay Ivey (R) to briefly suspend
executions.
Over
the years, proponants and foes of the death penalti have waged a heated, but mostly
clandestine war on the issue except when some novel twerk (such as the use of
nitrogen gas) arises.
Where
emergent, the issue has divided Americans by race, political leanings or
religious beliefs and has even split families.
The victim’s son, Charles Sennett
Jr, earlier told WAAY-TV that Smith “has to pay for what he’s done”.
“And some of these people out
there say, ‘Well, he doesn’t need to suffer like that.’ Well, he didn’t ask
Mama how to suffer?” he said.
“They just did it. They stabbed her
— multiple times.”
Mike Sennett also told
WAAY that he plans to attend Smith’s
execution and that the family has waited more years than the time they d with their mother to see Smith executed, but
seemed less enthusiastic about what would happen to the killer than his
brother. “He’s got a debt to pay and it
don’t matter to us how it happens,” he said.
Several others of Sennett’s
relatives attended the execution and told reporters they had forgiven Sennett’s
killers. “Nothing that happened here today is going to bring Mom back,” Mike
Sennett said. “It’s a bittersweet day, we’re not going to be jumping around,
hooping and hollering, hooraying and all that, that’s not us. We’re glad this
day is over.”
As the meme of “closure”
increasingly takes precedence over simple justice, families of murder victims
willing to pimp their grief to the TV and tabloids are far more likely to
obtain a favorable (i.e. lethal) outcome than those who maintain their privacy
and that of their dear departed.
In Lakeland, Florida, the family
of the Hendersons – a husband and wife were stabbed more than
twenty times in what police called a botched home invasion. Family members addressed jurors in court,
reciting sad stories and recalling happier times in the emotional pleas.
A Polk County jury duly found
Marcelle Waldon guilty on all counts, including two counts of first
degree murder. While Waldon denied killing the couple, prosecutors (and the
family’s poignant appeals) convinced jurors beyond a reasonable doubt that he
committed the murders.
The
state called one witness to testify, Dr. Vera Volnikh, the forensic pathologist
who performed both autopsies.
Prosecutors
asked Dr. Volnikh to describe the stab wounds and how they caused pain and
death.
“Did
they bleed to death?” asked prosecutor Michael Nutter.
“Yes,”
Dr. Volnikh responded.
“And
is that a slow death?” asked Nutter.
“Yes
it’s a slow death,” replied Dr. Volnikh.
A
number of non-profit organizations, more nonsupportive state officials and,
according too some polls and pollsters, a majority of Americans oppose
execution of even the more vile criminals as, as Smith said “taking a step
backwards.”
The
White House condemned the execution on Friday. “It is very troubling to us as
an administration. It is very troubling to us here at the White House,” press
secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told the Independent U.K. Joe Biden has “deep
concerns about the death penalty and whether it’s consistent with our values”.
IUK also published a statement by
former Alabama governor Don Siegelman
(Attachment Two, above)
Siegelman was among those who noted
that Smith would not have faced execution if he were tried under modern
standards.
“So here we are in Alabama about
to execute Kenneth Eugene Smith, who was sentenced to death — not by a jury, as
required by the U.S. Constitution — but by a judge, a practice banned in
Alabama,” Siegelman said in a statement.
Alabama’s method “alarmed” Philip
Nitschke, an Austrian doctor and euthanasia advocate who is familiar with using
nitrogen gas in lethal situations through his work directing the pro-euthanasia
group, Exit International.
Nitschke traveled to Alabama in
December to look at the state’s setup for the nitrogen gas execution at the
request of Smith’s lawyers. Seeing it in person did nothing to allay his
anxiety, he told The Washington Post (above),
“This could be some grim and
horrible, macabre death,” Nitschke said of Smith’s execution. He assessed that
Alabama’s setup had the potential for significant error, including leaks in the
mask, which could prolong the execution process.
Another
overseas observer… the ever-liberal Guardian U.K., sent a reporter, Ed
Pilkington, to the colonies to report on Smith’s demise, and alleged torture.
Alabama
claimed that the new nitrogen gas method was “perhaps the most humane method of
execution ever devised”. But eyewitness statements from reporters present in
the death chamber suggested that Smith’s death was anything but humane.
Marty
Roney of the Montgomery Advertiser reported that between 7.57pm
local time and 8.01pm, “Smith writhed and convulsed on the gurney. He took deep
breaths, his body shaking violently with his eyes rolling in the back of his
head.”
Roney’s
report continued: “Smith clenched his fists, his legs shook … He seemed to be
gasping for air. The gurney shook several times.”
Hood,
the spiritual adviser said prison officials in the room “were visibly surprised
at how bad this thing went”.
“What
we saw was minutes of someone struggling for their life,” Hood said while
denouncing “manufactured rage” ina guest opinion to Amnesty International
“It
appeared that Smith was holding his breath as long as he could,” the Alabama
corrections commissioner, John Hamm, later told a press conference.
Days
before he was executed, Smith told the Guardian in a phone call from his prison
cell that he was not ready to die. He had been diagnosed with PTSD caused by
his first failed execution attempt, and was suffering from sleeplessness and
anxiety.
He
said he was terrified by the prospect of vomiting in the mask leading to death
by drowning on the contents of his own stomach, a gruesome possibility that was
raised by his lawyers in court.
In
his Guardian interview, Smith also appealed to the American people to show
mercy for those like him facing judicial killings. “You know, brother, I’d say,
‘Leave room for mercy’. That just doesn’t exist in Alabama. Mercy really
doesn’t exist in this country when it comes to difficult situations like mine,”
he said.
In
the run-up to the execution, Alabama had come under a raft of domestic and
international criticism. Hundreds of Jewish clergy and community leaders across
the US signed a letter organised by L’chaim! Jews Against the Death Penalty,
calling for a halt.
“Just the idea of using gas for
executions is an affront to our community,” Mike Zoosman, the co-founder of
L’chaim, was also quoted by The Guardian as saying.
“The Nazi legacy of experimentation
to find the most expeditious way to rid our community of undesirable prisoners
is an undercurrent for anyone who is aware of that history that should not be
repeated in Alabama, or anywhere.”
As
befits its name, Amnesty International (Attachment Seven) opposes the death
penalty under any circumstances –
murder, rape, robbery, even acts of terror.
Propounding
a wealth of statistics, case studies and public and private testimony, AI
published Zoosman’s diatribe and a Q&A on execution facts, figures, fiction
and fantasies from the United States and overseas. (See topical URLs at the Attachment)
Among
their selections was an explanation of the the “Second Optional Protocol to
the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition
of the death penalty,” Protocol No. 6 to the European Convention on Human
Rights, concerning the abolition of the death penalty, Protocol No. 13 to the
European Convention on Human Rights, and the Protocol to the American
Convention on Human Rights to Abolish the Death Penalty.
Also
up for discussion were juvenile executions, “at least 163 executions of people who were
below the age of 18, in 10 countries” with China as Number One and the U.S. as
Number Nine (fifth in 2022), methods of execution, its use as a deterrant to
crime (considered negligible) and its utilization as a discriminatory or
political tool... publishing reports, documents and fomenting demonstrations
against the practice. Case studies from
Yemen and Guinea have also been included.
ProCon.org, as its name implies,
is a website which takes on the arguments for and against issues of the day.
Its history and explication of the
death penalty notes that the United States as
just one of 55 countries globally with a legal death penalty for ordinary
crimes as of May 2023. Another nine countries reserve the death penalty for
“exceptional crimes such as crimes under military law or crimes committed in
exceptional circumstances,” according to Amnesty International.
The producers have select three
arguments in favor of and three opposed to the practice. (Attachment Eight) Briefly stated, they are...
Another
organization with a plain as porkshops name and background is ProCon.org, which
takes a more balanced view of the death penalty – positing three reason for it
to be abolished and three more reasons why for it to be maintained, and perhaps
escalated. (Attachment Eight “A”)
Pro 1
The
death penalty is the only moral and just punishment for the worst crimes.
Talion law (lex talionis in
Latin), or retributive law, is perhaps best known as the Biblical imperative:
“Anyone who inflicts a permanent injury on his or her neighbor shall receive
the same in return: fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. The
same injury that one gives another shall be inflicted in return.”
This
sounds more than a little Trumpian – but further sources upon the issue are a
little... well... fishy?
“Retribution is an expression of society’s right to
make a moral judgment by imposing a punishment on a wrongdoer befitting the
crime he has committed,” says Charles Stimson of the Heritage Foundation.
Thus, “retributionists who support
the death penalty typically do not wish to expand the list of offenses for
which it may be imposed...” (Jon’a F. Meyer, professor at Rutgers University)
and retribution is not simply “revenge”.
Revenge may be “limitless and
misdirected at the undeserving, as with collective punishment,” (Robert
Blecker, professor emeritus at New York Law School) but retribution, on the other hand, “can help
restore a moral balance (by demanding) that punishment must be limited and
proportional.”
No firing squad for Gen. Milley,
no rope for Pence? MAGA bummer!
Con 1
The
death penalty is steeped in poor legal assistance and racial bias.
The Equal Justice Initiative
explains that the “death penalty system treats you better if you’re rich and guilty
than if you’re poor and innocent,” and that “people of color are more likely to
be prosecuted for capital murder, sentenced to death, and executed, especially
if the victim in the case is white.”
The American Bar Association
citers inept or inexperienced capital case lawyers, erroneous eyewitness
identifications, false and coerced confessions, false or
misleading forensic evidence, misconduct by
police, prosecutors, or other officials, and incentivized witnesses
taint death row cases.
This inequality should not be
surprising considering the roots of the death penalty. Bryan Stevenson, capital
defense attorney and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, refers to the
death penalty as the “stepchild of lynching”
which satiates the public’s appetite for violence against Black people, “but under
the auspices of the law, which at the time allowed for explicit
racial segregation in all areas of life,” contends journalist Josh
Marcus.
Pro 2
The
death penalty prevents additional crime.
If
not a deterrent to would-be murderers, at the very least, when carried out, the
death penalty prevents convicted murderers from repeating their crimes.
“Perhaps the most straightforward
argument for the death penalty is that it saves innocent lives by preventing
convicted murderers from killing again.”
Paul Cassell, former U.S. District Judge, cites victims of serial
killers released for prior criminal ventures like Kenneth Allen McDuff...
convicted and sentenced to death in 1966 for the murders of three teenagers and
the rape of one but released on parole in 1989. An estimated three days later,
he began a crime spree: torturing, raping, and murdering at least six women in
Texas before being arrested again on May 4, 1992, and sentenced to death a
second time.
Con 2
Not
only is the death penalty not a deterrent
to crime, it is very expensive.
Advocates for capital punishment
long argued that it deters crime, other criminal acts, but according to the ACLU,
“There is no credible evidence that the death penalty deters crime more
effectively than long terms of imprisonment. States that have death penalty
laws do not have lower crime rates or murder rates than states without such
laws. And states that have abolished capital punishment show no significant
changes in either crime or murder rates.
“People commit murders largely in
the heat of passion, under the influence of alcohol or drugs, or because they
are mentally ill, giving little or no thought to the possible consequences of
their acts,” the ACLU continues.
As for costs, Con 2’s researches
find the death penalty to be “significantly more expensive than
life-without-parole, the oft-shunned alternative penalty. The death penalty
system costs California $137 million per year while a system with lifelong
imprisonment as the maximum penalty would cost $11.5 million, an almost 92%
decrease in expense. The
statistics are lower but comparable across other states.
Pro 3
The
death penalty provides the justice and closure families and victims deserve.
Many
relatives of murder victims believe the death penalty is just and necessary for
their lives to move forward.
The “Pros” at ProCon cite Jason
Johnson, whose father was sentenced to death for killing his mother and seeking
“closure”. “He (was) an evil human
being. He can talk Christianity and all that... (but) if he found redemption,
that doesn’t matter, that’s between him and God. His forgiveness is to come
from the Lord and his redemption is to come from the Lord, not the government.
The Bible also says, ‘An eye for an eye.’”
While some argue that there is no
“closure” to be had in such tragedies and via the death penalty, “victim
families think differently,” the Pros maintain.
“The family knows that the execution of the murderer cannot bring their
loved one back. They suspect it will not bring them ‘closure’ or ‘finality’ or
‘peace,’ but there is justice and perhaps an end to the ongoing wounding by
‘the murderer and then the system.’”
(Oklahoma Attorney General John O’Connor)
Con
3
The
death penalty is immoral and amounts to torture.
Con
3 references Rabbi
and former Assistant Ohio Public Defender Benjamin Zober who, in turn,
references the Bible (Deuteronomy 16:20 (but not 20:17!), the Fifth Commandment and the Mishnah Sanhedrin 4:5)
and Robert Schentrup, brother of 16-year-old Carmen who died in the Marjory
Stoneman Douglas High School mass shooting in Parkland, Florida who
said that: “... pundits on TV will invoke the name of my sister to support the
murder of another human being... try to convince me that vengeance should make
me feel better and that it will bring me ‘closure’ so that ‘I can continue to
heal. But I do not … care, because my sister is dead, and killing someone else
will not bring
her back.”
Law professor John Bessler points
to “international law” —calling the death penalty an “aggravated form of cruel,
inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment,” adding that, ind in the United
States, “cruel punishment is explicitly banned by the Constitution’s Eighth Amendment.”
Pros and Cons of capital
punishment are also propounded by ProCon’s Peanut Gallery (Attachment
Eight “B”) which is also divided – although many contributors lean towards the
more or less simple philosophy of: “Kill the bastards!”
Pro
Peanuts cited prison escapees like Ted Bundy, and invited readers to weigh the
8th Amendment implications of capital punishment. “Death penalty is not unusual. It is a bit cruel;
but an unusual punishment is cutting someone’s hand off for shop lifting.
(sic)”
Cons
asked readers to consider the “emotional trauma those inmates go through in
the years leading up to their death,” to compel the guilty to “be involved in
public works or other hard but useful activity.”
And
a connoisseur of cruelty expressed the conviction that bad people “...should just have to suffer life in
prison. Killing them would let them off too easy.”
Whereas
liberals, liberal foundations, many religious orders... including the Catholic
Church, which views abortion as a death penalty inflicted on the helpless
foetus... some state and local governments in the United States and many more
overseas are expanding the scope and number of offenses for which malefactors
can be put to death.
And while falling
short of the Draconian policies of Uganda (“kill the gays”), Singapore (“kill
the pot smokers”), Salem, Massachusetts (“birm the witches) or China (“kill
anybody who speaks out against the Party – see below), the Idaho Legislature’s
House Judiciary, Rules and Administration Committee has, for one, voted
Wednesday, Jan. 31st, to hold what the squeamign media called a
“potentially unconstitutional bill” that would have allowed the state to seek
the death penalty for convictions of lewd conduct with a child under 12. (Attachment Nine)
“House
Bill 405 would have added lewd conduct with a
child under 12 as an additional crime to carry the death penalty.
“Committee members voted
unanimously to hold the bill in committee subject to the call of Chairman Bruce
Skaug, R-Nampa, who co-sponsored the bill. That blocked the bill from moving
forward to the floor of the Idaho House of Representatives for a vote.
Skaug said he is comfortable with
the harsh punishments in the bill.
But Rep. Dan Garner, R-Clifton and
other committee members had concerns.
“I’m going to support the substitute
motion (to hold the bill) because of line 35 and 36 where it says the ‘jury or
the court, if the jury is waived, does not find a statutory aggravating
circumstance beyond a reasonable doubt’ that they have to do a life sentence
for a minimum of 10 years,” Garner said during Wednesday’s hearing. “It seems
extreme to me if they can’t prove beyond a reasonable doubt.”
After Wednesday’s vote, Skaug said
he would work on changes to the bill to address concerns legislators expressed
Wednesday.
Now,
as legislators in South Carolina are pushing a bill that could make abortion punishable
by death (which would put the religious right, left and Pope Frank, too, in a
real quandry. Maybe Alabama could show them the path to the New Frontier, as
wrote three peanuts posting to the L.A. Times (Jan. 25th, Attachment
Eleven – excerpted, see Attachment for entire text). These so-fuckin’-suave Californs
may have been pulling America’s junk but these... especially the last... have
some verity to recommend them...
1) Alabama's new method of
execution — suffocating the condemned with nitrogen — should be interesting to the nearby state
of South Carolina, where “more than 20 members of its state Legislature are
making efforts to classify abortion as murder, a crime punishable by
death. The method of causing death,
however, is a problem. Should they use the electric chair, hanging, the gas
chamber or a firing squad? This suffocation via forced nitrogen gas inhalation
seems like a humane alternative.
Alabama could offer its services
to other states. It could be the first mass execution of women in North America
since the Salem witch trials of the 1600s.
Those women were hanged. This nitrogen gas suffocation sounds better.
The two periods are very similar — then, religious zealots were murdered in the
name of God, and it could happen again today.
MM
2) Capital punishment, the
legal extermination of a human life, is still practiced in some of our states,
such as Alabama.
According to Amnesty
International, of the 193 member states of the United Nations, 54 still
maintain the death penalty, and the most known executions that took place in
the last two years happened in China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United
States, in that order.
3) The past several years The
Times has reported problems with obtaining the drugs for lethal injection,
difficulty in their administration and allegations of cruelty.
The Times has also reported on the
national problem with fentanyl overdose deaths. Fentanyl is available,
inexpensive and easily administered. It is also more humane than these other
execution methods. Someone should alert
the various bureaus of prisons and state governments about the existence of
this drug.
SJ
Uhhh...
if the administrative, judicial, legislative, corrections, law enforcement and
other institutions of higher higherness in La La Land don’t know about fentanyl, they’ve been out in the rain too
long. Jack Parnell, our Independent
candidate for President does, not necessarily as a user... although it has been
useful during a few surgical procedures over the last decade... and will close
out our lesson with his take: but first, back to Idaho and China.
Previously,
also from Corrections One via the Associated Press (and also in Idaho, last
year), Governor Brad Little signed a bill allowing execution by firing
squad, making Idaho the latest state to turn to older methods of capital
punishment amid a nationwide shortage of lethal-injection drugs.
The Legislature passed the
measure March 20 with a veto-proof majority. Under it, firing
squads will be used only if the state cannot obtain the drugs needed for lethal
injections. (Attachment Twelve) The shortage has prompted other
states in recent years to revive other, older methods of execution – including electric chairs,
hanging, nitrogen (only experimental, at the time) and other deadly drugs
including pentobarbital.
Some lawyers for federal inmates
who were eventually put to death argued in court that firing squads actually
would be quicker and less painful than pentobarbital, which they said causes a
sensation akin to drowning.
However, in a 2019 filing, U.S.
lawyers cited an expert as saying someone shot by firing squad can remain
conscious for 10 seconds and that it would be “severely painful, especially related
to shattering of bone and damage to the spinal cord.”
Idaho Sen. Doug Ricks, a
Republican who co-sponsored that state’s firing squad bill with Skang (again!),
told his fellow senators that he believes death by firing squad is “humane,”
and that the bill would help ensure the rule of law is carried out.
But Sen. Dan Foreman, also a
Republican, called firing-squad executions “beneath the dignity of the state of
Idaho.” They would traumatize the executioners, the witnesses and the people
who clean up afterward, he said.
The
Idaho Department of Correction estimates it will cost around $750,000 to build
or retrofit a death chamber for firing squad executions. Budget conscious Famous Potatoes might well
reply: Find a good, sturdy wall and they can bring their own guns!
.
Now
China... presumably the world’s most prolific executioner (in volume if not per
capita... Iran might have the lead there)... is going global, the way that
Russia does with Paul Whelen and did with Britney Griner, but enhancedly.
The
celestials have ruled that an Australian citizen of Chinese descent foolish
enough to return to his nativity can be chopped up for chop suey. Yang Hengjun was found guilty of espionage and
sentenced to death – but at least with a two-year reprieve while Xi’s butchers
raise their fingers and see which way the wind is blowing. (Fox News, February 5, 2024, Attachment
Thirteen)
Yang, a former Chinese diplomat
and state security agent who became an Australian citizen in 2012, toiling in
political commentary and writing spy novels, was detained in 2019, tried behind
closed doors in May 2021 and condemned to die after what he claims has been
four years of torture.
The
good news, such as it is, is that death sentences with a two-year
reprieve, a common practice in China, often result in commutation to a life sentence. The bad news is that life sentences in
Chinese prisons tend not to last very long.
This morning, a Washington Post
editorial by Robert Gebelhoff opined that “...(s)o successful was Smith’s
convulsing death that several Republicans in Ohio quickly introduced a bill to begin the practice in their own state.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall was happy to offer his assistance: “Alabama has done
it, and now so can you.”
The nitrogen hypoxia method was
necessary, Gebelhoff stated, “because it has become increasingly difficult for
jurisdictions to acquire the deadly cocktails of sedatives and heart-stopping
toxins needed for lethal injections. For some reason, the drug manufacturers
needed to produce the chemicals have been more interested in marketing
themselves as promoters of health than as merchants of death. (Attachment
Fourteen “A”)
With the shortage of these
chemicals becoming ever more acute, criminal justice officials have been
devising what the Postie calls “creative methods to dispose of human beings on
death row.” These include electric
chairs (Tennessee) and firing squads (Idaho) and, in Utah, “inmates have the
luxury of being able to elect this as their means of
expiration.”
And, reported Reuters, the Justice
Department under President Donald Trump contemplated using fentanyl, the powerful opioid fueling the
country’s overdose epidemic
The number of public executions in
the United States — after falling precipitously in the past few decades —
has started ticking upward in the past
two years. President Joe, like Trump,
supports it. “The death penalty, it
seems, is just too embedded in America’s DNA to go away.”
More recently, the WashPost
contends, after Smith, “the bulk of rhetoric in favor has relied on vapid emotional appeals.” (Take that,
Sennetts and Hendersons!) When then-Attorney General William P.
Barr lifted the federal moratorium on executions in 2019, he argued, “We owe it to the victims and their families
to carry forward the sentence imposed by our justice system.” Alabama’s
Marshall celebrated the suffocation of Smith as a way for his
victim’s family and friends to “find long-awaited peace and closure.”
As if, Gebelhoff supplicates, “the
only way to bring peace to victims and their loved ones is through more
violence and death.”
The editorial, unsurprisingly,
brought a firehose of more Pros and Con to the Post Peanut Gallery
One
“vapid, emotional” contribution described the Post poster’s first girlfriend in
high school - murdered by her ex-boyfriend “who hacked her to death with a
brush ax in her bedroom in her parents' home,” and a first cousin, murdered
“simply because he was gay. The perps pled guilty to some charge and each
received 25 years in prison. Again, probably out by now.”
Another
peanut of mixed Pro/Con germinativeness contends that Scott Peterson, now
seeking a new trial and release back into society on a technical
jurisprudential glitch “should
have been fitted with a pair of concrete shoes long ago and dumped over the
side of a state owned boat, much like he did to his wife and unborn
child.” But he also defends Ethan
Crumbly on account of his age (15) as well as many killings were committed by
people with neurological damage, psychiatric problems, cognitive impairment,
and/or drug or alcohol problems: NONE of those people were in a rational
clear-headed state to ponder a death penalty deterrent when they were killing.
The poster also observes that many
were not even killers—“they were part of a group in which somebody was a
killer.”
Count
on the Con team social justice pacifists in DC who blame America, which is
“primitive... (v)ampire capitalism killing the middle classes, no health
care... higher education costs... more guns than people... huge incarceration
rates fueled by private prisons...” So
sure the death penalty is “well loved by the rattier states openly - Alabama
now Ohio? Maybe executions should be livestreamed and competitive like beauty
pageants.”
To which a Pro replies: “there are some folks who do not
DESERVE to breathe the same air as everyone else... while living the life of
luxury. What IS . . . UNCIVILIZED . . .is to LET THEM BREATHE AT ALL.”
One
vote for nitrogen. And from the Cons...
one spoonful of deutronium for Star Trek (“Errand of Mercy”, 1967)
And a few dozen more, which takes us
back to fentanyl, which has only to the knowledge of mass media, been used once
in the United States... the execution of Carey Dean Moore, convicted of
killing two Omaha taxi drivers by injecting the opioid in 2018. (New York Times, Attachment Fifteen)
Like
all other means and methods, fentanyl has had its critics, “Simply because people are dying as a result
of fentanyl doesn’t mean they’re dying in a way that would be considered
acceptable as a form of execution,” Deborah Denno, a law professor at Fordham
University who has studied capital punishment, said in an interview before Mr.
Moore’s death.
Which
takes us to candidate Parnell and his take on executing executions. “There should be much, much more of them...
they should be swifter, but the Federal government should have an open,
standardized court of last resort to ensure that as few innocents are put to death
as is humanly (if not only humanely) possible and that strict requirements as
to age, culpability and the balance of aggravating and mitigating circumstances
be maintained.
“And
while fentanyl may be an improvement over other means, the condemned should be
given the choice of passing away by heroin. Victims’ families may complain that there
justice is not “retributive” or vengeful enough, but an enormous amount of time
and money will be saved by eliminating the circus of futile and expensive
appeals. And the deceased shall descend
into Hell (or in the rare case of misrepresentation, Paradise) with a smile on
their face and a song in their hearts.”
The
DJI, too will descend from the uttermost (in complexity and significance) to the
guttermost... in a criminal justice system far too overburdened with special
interest and negligible offenses that enact a retribution of their own far out
of proportion to their severity and statistical impact... and how partisan
scammers of politics, race, economics, culture, religion and other divisive
tendencies are using them to assail Don Jones.
|
Our
Lesson: January Twenty Ninth through February Fourth, 2024 |
|
|
|
Monday, January 29, 2024 Dow:
38,001.81 |
Mixed, but grim messages from the MidEast. Islamic brokers (Egypt and Qatar, sometimes
the Saudis) report progress on a cease fire for hostages deal, but Iranian
sponsored terrorists open up a new front in Jordan, firing rockets that kill
three American soldiers and injure dozens.
President Biden promises to retaliate against Iraqi and Syrian
surrogates, but not Teheran itself for fear of a “wider war”. (A clue, Joe... Iran has already declared war against us, so
stop denying the obvious!)
Former President Trump takes leave of Iowa and New Hampshire to take
on E. Jean Carroll, who is awarded an enormous $83 million with more to come
because he said bad things about her.
We all should be so lucky!
Naturally, he blames Biden and liberal New York judges and orders
Congressional negotiations on the border, economy and foreign policy to be
cancelled until after the election so he can run on a platform of President
Joe’s weakness and incompetence.
Instead, the House pursues its impeachments of Biden and DHS Sec.
Mayorkas, with little or no evidence.
Elon Musk (temporarily) washes his hands of ex-Twutter X and its
exigencies and invents a NeuraLink chip that can be inserted into brains to
help the lame walk, the paralyzed to move computers with their minds (or, as
cynics and paranoids fear, reduce all Americans to slaves of the Master
Programmer. A Canadian!
Speaking of the Empire, King Charles (prostrate) and Princess Kate
(stomach) both leave the hospital.
Prince Andrew remains in the doghouse with the corgis. |
|
|
Tuesday, January 30, 2024 Dow:
37,905.49 |
Investigations begin on Jordanian attack as
authorities search for reasons why... because there are terrorists over
there!... as Iranian ministers go on American TV and deny while Israel sends
three secret agents dressed as doctors into a Gaza hospital to find and kill
a crippled terrorist.
Boeing Max seeks exemption from compliance with laws against smoking
engines, but authorites ask if they are joking.
Nikki goes on TV and says that, if elected, she will “take out the
leadership” of Hamas, Hezbollah, etc. without killing civilians. The
CDC reports that zombie measles have returned from extiniction and also that
rates of syphilis are the highest since 1950. |
|
|
Wednesday, January 31, 2024 Dow: 38,150.30 |
It’s national Hot Chocolate day and glaucoma
awareness day, and cold eyes are seeing the first of the Super Bowl
commercials rolling out. Budweiser is
bringing back the Clydesdales. Christmas
is over, so UPS is firing 12,000 workers and says that they are replacing
them with machines that will force other to work harder... or else! The good news is that Chipotle is hiring
16,000 taco tenders, and WalMart will be opening new stores after a long
hiatus.
Economists, experts and interested parties wonder whether the Fed will
raise or lower interest rates, but they decide to let them ride for another
quarter. Down goes the Dow. Congress takes up the dangers of social
media for kids, five Big Tech bigshots are brought into the Dome and
questioned about whether their apps aid and abet online sexual predators and
cause fragile youngsters to kill
themselves. |
|
|
Thursday, February 1, 2024 Dow:
38.519/84 |
President Joe says that America is still
“planning” retaliatory strikes on the attacks on Tower 22 in Jordan, as well
as more action against Houthi rebels in Yemen. But he also says he does not want a wider
war – specifically with Iran, leaving both the hawks and doves muttering
“birdbrain!” His consolatory calls to
weeping mother of one of the dead soldiers is plastered over the airwaves by
the ghoulish media. Israel and
Ukraine, meanwhile, fight on although they are running out of arms,
ammunition and money as House Republicans hold aid hostage to their
unspecified border “demands”. FBI
director Wray blames China for a wave of cybercrime and says that more will
be on the way, eventually striking public
utilities and causing massive economic disruption and loss of
life. But that doesn’t merit military
strikes against China, either.
Congress continues grilling the five hi-tech Goliaths with Sen.
Lindsey Graham accusing: “You have blood on your hands!” and META’s Mark
Zuckerberg apologizing to the families of the suicided children. Next Trump target for killing legislation
to help his own campaign... child tax credits/
Larry David (“Curb Your Enthusiasm”) enthusiastically assaults and berates Elmo the Muppet. Porch pirate possum accused of stealing and
eating cookies. |
|
|
Friday, February 2, 2024 Dow:
38,654.42 |
Mixed messages mark the MidEast war(s). Negotiations between Israel and Hamas over
a cease-fire for hostages swap being brokered by Egypt and Qatar but Iran
says it will keep supporting terrorists all across the region and Congress
holds up funding at the behest of Djonald UnChained.
With Gov. DeSantis back on the job and looking for better publicity,
Florida vows it will crack down on Spring Breakers, arresting everybody for
trivial offenses and closing beaches.
Businesses sigh/ But the Fed
said that job growth was over 350,000, double the expected (although
unemployment remains stuck at 3.7% and inflation goes up and down, up and
down.
Trump’s Georgia electoral tampering trial takes another hit as Prosecutors
Fani and Wade admit their affair and using money for the trial for personal
expenses. The former President is not
off the hook yet, but it looks like this case, at least, won’t be tried until
after the election (where a jury will have to decide whether they want a
President running the country from a prison cell). Next up: the second civil trial, where NY
Prosecutor Letitia James wants 380M from the once-and-future Thing (less than
half of what E. Jean took home last week). |
|
|
Saturday, February 3, 2024 Dow:
Closed |
American retribution attacks for Tower 22
begin with 85 drone attacks on terrorist cells in Iraq and Syria, killing
sixteen and wounding 25. Iran cries
foul – says the terror attacks are just payback for Israel’s attacks against
Palestinian civilians.
That other Palestine is back in the news on the one year anniversary
of a toxic train derailment. The
railroad CEO says everything’s fine now, residents say the fumes are giving
them cancer. Biden will visit the region
next week to see for himelf.
Serial Pacific storms flood the coastline, cover the California
mountains with snow. Flooded streets
in and around LA menace tomorrow’s Grammy celebrations. The East warms up and men in Minnesota go
about in shorts and shirtsleeves.
Nikki (“I’m still here...”) Haley says that Trump diverted $50M of
campaign funds to his personal accounts.
His advisers and lawyers say people gave him money, he can do what he
wants with it. So the candidate
wanders off onto Saturday Night Live to joke (and maybe smoke?) along with
the Democrats. |
|
|
Sunday, February 4, 2024 Dow: Closed |
President Joe wins the first Democratic
primary of 2024 in Nikki’s home state, garnering only 96% of the vote against
Dean, Marianne and Vermin. 96%? Dude’s in trouble! Doing day job, he strikes back at Yemen...
into Yemen... and launches more drones against Iranian-backed terrorists in
Iraq and Syria, killing 45 in the both.
They say we killed civilians.
We say we killed Hamas, Hezbollah and the Islamic Jihad. The
war efforts in the MidEast, Ukraine and... as the White House contends...
Taiwan remains stalled due to obstruction by Republican Congressthings who
openly boast that they are are courting a second Fascist takeover in Europe
and Holocaust in Israel in order to deny Biden a win and aid Trump’s return
to power. ‘Nuff said.
Round and about the talkshows, Rep. Jeffries (D-NY) tells Don Jones
what he needs is more common sense, less conflict and chaos. He also says he says what he means and he
means what he says... he’s Hakeem the Congress Man. Promoting fairness and balance, J. D. Vance
(R-Oh) tries to behave Veeply and defends the impeachment of Sec. Mayorkas
(but without hauling in Hunter as most of his ilk will do). Other
people with access to TV and podcasts float the theory that Team Biden is
actually under the thumb of Taylor Swift – and, just to prove it, she wins a
Grammy for Best Album “See?” exclaims
MAGA. |
|
|
Virtually dead even Don resulted from a
stronger economic report, particularly on jobs, wages and a higher Dow. But the improving circumstances are
impelling and compelling consumers to cosume more stuff... and more and more
of that comes from overseas, downgrading our balance of payments. |
|
|
|
CHART of CATEGORIES
w/VALUE ADDED to EQUAL BASELINE of 15,000 (REFLECTING…
approximately… DOW JONES INDEX of June 27, 2013) Negative/harmful indices
in RED.
See a further explanation of categories here… ECONOMIC INDICES (60%)
|
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SOCIAL INDICES (40%) |
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|
ACTS of MAN |
12% |
|
|
|||||||||||||
|
World Affairs |
3% |
450 |
1/29/24 |
-0.4% |
2/12/24 |
458.81 |
456.97 |
Deadly
wildfires ravage large swaths of Chile (where it’s summer) between Valparaiso
and Vina del Mar. Death toll 57 and
rising. Riots in nextdoor Argentina
over economic reforms. China, as
above, sentences Australian journalist to death. |
||||||||
|
War and
terrorism |
2% |
300 |
1/29/24 |
+0.2% |
2/12/24 |
295.75 |
296.34 |
American
retaliatory strikes in Iraq, Syria and Jorden get their Official Name: “Operation
Prospect Guardian).Israeli Defense Force conducts a James Bond style raid on
Gaza hospital to kill a wounded terror chief and Ukrainian shelling kills 28
in a Russian bakery. Houthi missiles
strike near USS Gravely battleship.
Some say that the ongoing Chinese cyberattacks constitute war. FBI Director Wray calls it “the defining
threat of our lifetime.” |
||||||||
|
Politics |
3% |
450 |
1/29/24 |
-0.1% |
2/12/24 |
480.91 |
480.43 |
IRS
officially announces the beginning of Tax Season. Mayorkas impeachment is first of a Cabinet
Sec in 150 years. Partisan blocking of
legislation to help Trump in November snares more victims... the child tax
credit. Trump wins in Georgia as
electoral fraud trial delayed due to Evil Fani’s fling with subordinate but
loss in New York where Evil Leticia wants $39-M in civil trial #2. President Joe wins South Carolina primary,
crows; “I’m baaack!” |
||||||||
|
Economics |
3% |
450 |
1/29/24 |
+0.2% |
2/12/24 |
445.02 |
445.91 |
Elon Musk has
a busy week, testifying against online porn on behalf of X and then inventing
Neuralink, a computer chip that can be put in the brains of peope who are
paralyzed (or troublesome). See below. Christmas is over so UPS and PayPal fire
workers. Federal Reserve appreciates
BLS doubling of jobs predictions steady but holds interest rates steady too. |
||||||||
|
Crime |
1% |
150 |
1/29/24 |
-0.1% |
2/12/24 |
242.34 |
242.10 |
Rep. Cori Bush
(D-Mo) joins Prosecutor Fani in accusations of steering gumment money to
significant others. Road rager in Tampa shoots at car, kills 4 year old. Prison riots in California. Grinches in Wash. DC zero in on the real
threat to life and safety (if not liberty)... humourous road signs. School shootings in Atlanta averted due to
“panic buttens” administrators gave teahers. |
||||||||
|
ACTS of GOD |
(6%) |
|
|
|||||||||||||
|
Environment/Weather |
3% |
450 |
1/29/24 |
-0.2% |
2/12/24 |
390.30 |
389.52 |
On
Wednesday it’s 72° in Saskatchewan, 69° in Key West. But multiple storms are training over the
Pacific Coast raising 35 foot waves for daring surfers and fears of Grammy
washout. Didn’t happen. |
||||||||
|
Disasters |
3% |
450 |
1/29/24 |
-0.2% |
2/12/24 |
422.53 |
421.68 |
Hanger
collapse at Boise airport kills eight.
Officials call it “fairly catastrophic:”. Fiery plane crash into Florida senior
trailer park. More are missing in
both. Boeing Max 7 denied exemption
from rules against overheating engines.
Four die when tourist boat sinks off Cancun. On First Anniversaity of toxic train
derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, residents developing cancers while NTSB
says they’re just faking it. “Jersey
Shore” star Mike Sorrentino saves a situation by Heimliching his son from
chocking on gnocchi. |
||||||||
|
LIFESTYLE/JUSTICE
INDEX |
(15%) |
|
||||||||||||||
|
Science, Tech, Educ. |
4% |
600 |
1/29/24 |
-0.1% |
2/12/24 |
632.76 |
632.13 |
TV doctors
say social media is destroying our children’s minds, so Congress calls
hi-tech boss on the carpet for addicting America’s youth. META’s Zuckerberg apologizes, proises to do
better. Feuding TIK Tok and Uiversal
result in silent music videos like 100 year old movies. |
||||||||
|
Equality (econ/social) |
4% |
600 |
1/29/24 |
+0.1% |
2/12/24 |
639.36 |
640.00 |
State
legislatures agitated over student bathrooms... some want to demand gender fidelity
for boys and girls with special rooms for trannies (ie janitor’s closets with
a metal bucket on the floor). Low
income student debtors forgiven up to #12 K if they have been paying for ten
years or more (but red tape complicates the project). |
||||||||
|
Health |
4% |
600 |
1/29/24 |
-0.2% |
2/12/24 |
468.22 |
467.28 |
Elon Musk
invents a NeuraLink chip to allow paralytics (and spies) to move things
around with their minds, just like... who was that? King Charles and Princess Kate released from
the hospital. Zombie Measles are back
from extinction and syphilis rates are
soaring. In the lineup for Bad
Consumables we have Toyota (50K vehicles with exploding airbags, Phillips sleep apnea devices), copycat
counterfieit eyedrops gone bacterial.
Cirrhosis, say TV Docs, causes Alzheimers. |
||||||||
|
Freedom and Justice |
3% |
450 |
1/29/24 |
-0.1% |
2/12/24 |
469.15 |
468.68 |
Hope
springs eternal for killers on trial seeking technicalities... Scott
Peterson, Murdaugh, Alec Baldwin. “Rust”
armorer re-accused by authirites to cite her drinking and doping whilc
preparing guns and Mommy Crumbly said her son’s indicative stories and
journals prior to school shooting were “just jokes.” |
||||||||
|
MISCELLANEOUS and
TRANSIENT INDEX |
(6%) |
|
|
|
||||||||||||
|
Cultural incidents |
3% |
450 |
1/29/24 |
-0.1% |
2/12/24 |
517.94 |
517.42 |
Gamblers
fret over whether Taylor Swift can make it back from Saturday’s concert in
Tokyo to the Superbowl in Vegas where KC and SF battle in the brawl for it
all. So she goes out and snatches her
fourth Best Album Grammy and the price of Sunday’s tickets goes up to $6,000
for the cheap seats and the NFL tells players to cocoon in their hotels and
not party. Bummer! “Beekeeper” is #1 at box office. “Beeteljuice” sequel announced. RIP: Hage Geingob, President of Namibia,
Adele Springsteen, known for dancing )in dark or light onstage) with her son
Bruce well into her 90’s. MC5’s Wayne
(“Kick out the jams, motherfuckers”) Kramer.
Actor Carl (Apollo Creed) Weathers. Walnut, the lonelycrane whofell in
love with his keeper. |
||||||||
|
Misc. Incidents |
3% |
450 |
1/29/24 |
+0.1% |
2/12/24 |
504.46 |
504.96 |
Oceanographer
claims to have found what might be Amerlia Earhart’s lost plane. Florida declares war on Spring Break
(above). Rare ancient tree discovered
in Canada. |
||||||||
The Don Jones Index for the week of January 29th through 4th, 2024 was UP 0.84 points
The Don Jones Index is sponsored by the Coalition
for a New Consensus: retired Congressman and Independent Presidential candidate
Jack “Catfish” Parnell, Chairman; Brian Doohan, Administrator. The CNC denies, emphatically, allegations that
the organization, as well as any of its officers (including former Congressman
Parnell, environmentalist/America-Firster Austin Tillerman and cosmetics CEO
Rayna Finch) and references to Parnell’s works, “Entropy and Renaissance” and
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THE NEW YORK TIMES
ALABAMA SET TO CARRY OUT FIRST U.S. EXECUTION BY
NITROGEN
The state plans to execute Kenneth Smith on Thursday using the untested method of nitrogen hypoxia. Mr. Smith was served his last meal, as his lawyers pleaded with the Supreme Court to intervene.
By Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs Jan. 25, 2024 Updated 3:24 p.m. ET
Alabama
is set to carry out the first American execution using nitrogen gas on Thursday
evening, potentially opening a new frontier in how states execute death row
prisoners despite concerns from death penalty opponents about the untested
method.
Several
courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, have allowed the execution to move
forward, though lawyers for the condemned prisoner, Kenneth Smith, have made
one more last-minute request for the nation’s top court to intervene.
As
it stands, prison officials plan to begin the execution around 6 p.m. Central
time. Mr. Smith, 58, is one of three men convicted in the 1988 murder of a
woman whose husband, a pastor, had recruited them to kill her.
Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs reports on national stories
across the United States with a focus on criminal justice. He is from upstate
New York. More about Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs
THE ASSOCIATED
PRESS
WHAT HAPPENED AT THE NATION’S FIRST NITROGEN GAS
EXECUTION: AN AP EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT
BY KIM CHANDLER Updated 2:28 PM EST, January 27, 2024
ATMORE, Ala. (AP) — As witnesses including
five news reporters watched through a window, Kenneth Eugene Smith, who was
convicted and sentenced to die in the 1988 murder-for hire slaying of Elizabeth
Sennett, convulsed on a gurney as Alabama carried out the
nation’s first execution using nitrogen gas.
Critics who had worried the new
execution method would be cruel and experimental said Smith’s final moments
Thursday night proved they were right. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall,
however, characterized it on Friday as a “textbook” execution.
Here is an eyewitness account of
how it unfolded. Times, unless otherwise noted, are according to a clock on the
execution chamber wall at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility.
MASK CHECK
The curtains between the viewing
room and the execution chamber opened at 7:53 p.m. Smith, wearing a tan prison
uniform, was already strapped to the gurney and draped in a white sheet.
A blue-rimmed respirator mask
covered his face from forehead to chin. It had a clear face shield and plastic tubing
that appeared to connect through an opening to the adjoining control room.
FINAL WORDS
The prison warden entered the
chamber, read the death warrant setting his execution date and held a
microphone for Smith to speak any final words.
“Tonight Alabama causes humanity
to take a step backwards,” Smith began. He moved his fingers to form an “I love
you” sign to family members who were also present. “I’m leaving with love,
peace and light. ... Love all of you.”
The Sennett family watched from a
viewing room that was separate from the one where members of the media and
Smith’s attorney were seated.
THE EXECUTION IS GREENLIGHTED
Marshall, the attorney general,
gave prison officials the OK to begin the execution at 7:56 p.m. That was the
final confirmation from his office that there were no court orders preventing
it from going forward.
A corrections officer in the
chamber approached Smith and checked the side of the mask.
The Rev. Jeff Hood, Smith’s
spiritual advisor took a few steps toward Smith, touched him on the leg and
they appeared to pray.
The Department of Corrections had
required Hood to sign a waiver agreeing to stay 3 feet (0.9 meters) away from
Smith’s gas mask in case the hose supplying the nitrogen came loose.
Will other states replicate Alabama’s
nitrogen execution?
EU, UN Human Rights Office express
regret over execution of a man using nitrogen gas in Alabama
Alabama man shook violently on gurney
during first-ever nitrogen gas execution
THRASHING AND GASPING BREATHS
Smith began to shake and writhe
violently, in thrashing spasms and seizure-like movements, at about 7:58 p.m.
The force of his movements caused the gurney to visibly move at least once.
Smith’s arms pulled against the straps holding him to the gurney. He lifted his
head off the gurney and then fell back.
The shaking went on for at least
two minutes. Hood repeatedly made the sign of the cross toward Smith. Smith’s
wife, who was watching, cried out.
Smith began to take a series of
deep gasping breaths, his chest rising noticeably. His breathing was no longer
visible at about 8:08 p.m. The corrections officer who had checked the mask
before walked over to Smith and looked at him.
THE EXECUTION ENDS
The curtains were closed to the
viewing room at about 8:15 p.m.
Alabama Corrections Commissioner
John Q. Hamm told reporters afterward that the nitrogen gas flowed for
approximately 15 minutes. The state attorney general’s office declined Friday
to discuss at what time the nitrogen gas began flowing, or at what
time a monitor connected to Smith during the execution showed that his heart
had stopped beating.
State officials said Smith was
pronounced dead at 8:25 p.m.
___
Chandler was one of five media
witnesses for Smith’s execution by nitrogen hypoxia. She has covered
approximately 15 executions in Alabama over the last two decades, including the
state’s first lethal injection.
INDEPENDENT U.K.
Page
One of Seven Browse All
KENNETH SMITH’S NITROGEN EXECUTION WAS ‘TEXTBOOK’ AND
WILL BE USED AGAIN, ALABAMA AG SAYS: UPDATES
Attorney
General Steve Marshall said that after Thursday night, ‘nitrogen hypoxia as a
means of execution is no longer an untested method. It is a proven one’
By Alisha Rahaman Sarkar, Rachel
Sharp, Michelle Del Rey, ,Mike Bedigan
United Nations Says Alabama
Execution With Nitrogen Could Be Torture
Alabama death row inmate Kenneth
Eugene Smith has been executed by nitrogen gas – making him the
first person in US history to be put to death through the controversial method.
Smith, 58, was pronounced dead at
8.25pm CT on Thursday (1/25)at the William C Holman Correctional Facility in
Atmore, Alabama, almost three decades after he was convicted in the
1988 murder-for-hire plot of Elizabeth Sennett.
His religious adviser Reverend Jeff Hood, who witnessed the execution,
told reporters what he saw was a man “struggling for their life” for a
staggering 22 minutes.
The White House condemned the
execution on Friday. “It is very troubling to us as an administration. It is
very troubling to us here at the White House,” press secretary Karine
Jean-Pierre said.
Alabama authorities insist the
execution went to plan, despite predicting the untested method would lead to unconsciousness
within seconds and death in minutes.
But, witnesses said Smith appeared
conscious for several minutes, shaking and writhing on the gurney.
“We didn’t see somebody go
unconscious in 30 seconds,” said Rev Hood. “What we saw was minutes of
someone struggling for their life.”
Smith’s death came after the US
Supreme Court denied a final, 11th-hour bid to stay of execution. The ruling received
dissent from Justice Sonia Sotomayor who wrote that the state had selected
Smith as a “guinea pig” by using the untested method.
Speaking at a news conference on
Friday, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said that 43 more death row
inmates have elected to die by nitrogen hypoxia. People incarcerated on death
row are able to chose their preferred method from electrocution, lethal
injection or nitrogen hypoxia.
“What occurred last night was
textbook,” AG Marshall said. “As of last night, nitrogen hypoxia as a means of
execution is no longer an untested method. It is a proven one.”
·
Alabama execution:
Kenneth Smith killed by nitrogen gas in first death row case of its kind
·
Execution
of Alabama inmate with nitrogen gas condemned by advocacy groups
·
Alabama
execution using nitrogen gas, the first ever, again puts US at front of death
penalty debate
·
Why Kenneth
Smith is being denied food ahead of nitrogen execution
·
Why do we
treat our pets more humanely than a death row inmate?
KEY
POINTS
·
Kenneth Smith put to death using
nitrogen gas in first-of-its-kind US execution
·
Pastor reveals Smith ‘struggled
for life’ for 22 minutes in nitrogen gas execution
·
Kenneth Smith’s last statement
before nitrogen execution
·
Alabama AG says 43 other death
row inmates have elected to use nitrogen hypoxia
TIMELINE:
Supreme
Court denies Kenneth Smith stay of execution request
On Thursday evening the request
for a stay of execution by Kenneth Smith’s lawyers was once again denied.
The ruling received dissent from
Justice Sonia Sotomayor who wrote that the state of Alabama had selected Smith
as a “guinea pig” by using the untested method of execution – suffocation by
nitrogen gas.
“The world is watching. This court
yet again allows Alabama to ‘experiment... with human life’,” Justice Sotomayor
wrote.
Mike Bedigan26
January 2024 01:03
Supreme
Court justices dissent to denial of Smith’s application to stay execution
Justice
Elena Kagan and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson also dissented to the Supreme
COurt’s denial of the application for a stay of execution for Kenneth Smith.
In
the court ruling the pair, like Justice Sonia Sotomayor expressed concern at
the “novel” method of execution – suffocation with nitrogen gas. “The State's protocol
was developed only recently, and is even now under revision to prevent Smith
from choking on his own vomit,” the wrote.
“The
State has declined to provide Smith with all the discovery respecting its
protocol which he has requested. And Smith has a well-documented medical
condition posing special risks from the State's newly chosen method of
execution.”
26 January 2024 01:44
Kenneth Smith put to death using nitrogen gas
in first-of-its-kind US execution
Alabama
Death Row inmate Kenneth Eugene Smith has been executed with nitrogen
gas.
It
marks the first time the US has used the method to put an individual to death,
and has brought the debate over capital punishment in the US back into the
spotlight.
Alabama
state officials said the method would be humane, but critics called it cruel
and experimental.
Officials
said Smith, 58, was pronounced dead at 8:25 p.m. at an Alabama prison after
breathing pure nitrogen gas through a face mask to cause oxygen deprivation,
according to The Associated Press.
It
marked the first time that a new execution method has been used in the United
States since lethal injection, now the most commonly used method, was
introduced in 1982.
Mike Bedigan26
January 2024 02:37
Alabama Governor says Smith case ‘can finally
be put to rest'
In
a statement following Kenneth Smith’s execution, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey said
the case could “finally be put to rest”.
“On
March 18, 1988, 45-year-old Elizabeth Sennett’s life was brutally taken from
her by Kenneth Eugene Smith,” Governor Ivey said.
“After
more than 30 years and attempt after attempt to game the system, Mr. Smith has
answered for his horrendous crimes.
“The
execution was lawfully carried out by nitrogen hypoxia, the method previously
requested by Mr Smith as an alternative to lethal injection. At long last, Mr.
Smith got what he asked for, and this case can finally be put to rest.
“I
pray that Elizabeth Sennett’s family can receive closure after all these years
dealing with that great loss.”
26
January 2024 02:41
Death row inmate’s statement before nitrogen
execution
Alabama
death row inmate Kenneth Eugene Smith in his final statement said humanity took
a step backwards in Alabama.
“Tonight
Alabama causes humanity to take a step backwards. ... I’m leaving with love,
peace and light,” he said.
He
made the “I love you sign” with his hands toward family members who were
witnesses. “Thank you for supporting me. Love, love all of you,” Smith said.
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar26
January 2024 03:12
Kenneth Smith was ‘terrified’ at the possible
torture
Rev
Jeff Hood, who was with Kenneth Simth during his last hours, said the inmate
was terrified before the execution.
“He’s
terrified at the torture that could come. But he’s also at peace. One of the
things he told me is he is finally getting out,” Mr Hood told the Associated
Press.
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar26
January 2024 03:28
Who was Elizabeth Dorlene Sennett?
Alabama
death row inmate Kenneth Eugene Smith was executed on Thursday, almost three
decades after he was convicted in the 1988 murder-for-hire plot of Elizabeth
Dorlene Sennett.
Sennett
was found dead in her home on 18 March 1988 with eight stab wounds in the chest
and one on each side of her neck. Smith was one of two men convicted in the
killing. The other, John Forrest Parker, was executed in 2010.
Prosecutors
said they were each paid $1,000 (£786) to kill Sennett on behalf of her pastor
husband, who was deeply in debt and wanted to collect on insurance. The
husband, Charles Sennett Sr, killed himself when the investigation focused on
him as a suspect, according to court documents.
Smith’s
1989 conviction was overturned, but he was convicted again in 1996. The jury
recommended a life sentence by 11-1, but a judge overrode that and sentenced
him to death.
The
victim’s son, Charles Sennett Jr, earlier told WAAY-TV that Smith “has to pay
for what he’s done”.
“And
some of these people out there say, ‘Well, he doesn’t need to suffer like
that.’ Well, he didn’t ask Mama how to suffer?” he said.
“They
just did it. They stabbed her — multiple times.”
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar 26 January
2024 03:50
Smith feared nitrogen gas method would be
used by more states
In
an interview days before his execution, the death row inmate in Alabama warned
Americans that if his nitrogen execution were successful that process could be
adopted by other states.
Kenneth
Eugene Smith on Thursday became the first person in US history to be executed
with nitrogen gas.
Smith
told The Guardian in
a phone call from his prison cell that he was not ready to die and had been
diagnosed with PTSD caused by his first failed execution attempt. He said he
suffered from sleeplessness and anxiety.
Smith
said he was terrified by the prospect of vomiting in the mask leading and had
appealed to people to show mercy for inmates facing judicial killings.
“You
know, brother, I’d say, ‘Leave room for mercy’. That just doesn’t exist in
Alabama. Mercy really doesn’t exist in this country when it comes to difficult
situations like mine,” he told the newspaper.
“I
fear that it will be successful, and you will have a nitrogen system coming to
your state very soon,” he added.
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar26
January 2024 04:40
Concern over the use of nitrogen gas in
inmate executions
Alabama
death row inmate Kenneth Eugene Smith became the first person in American
history to be executed with nitrogen gas.
UN
human rights experts and lawyers for Smith had sought to prevent it, saying the
method was risky, experimental and could lead to a torturous death or non-fatal
injury.
The
state has called its new protocol “the most painless and humane method of
execution known to man.”Ravina Shamdasani, a spokeswoman for the UN Human
Rights office, said: “This could amount to torture or other cruel or degrading
treatment or punishment under international human rights law.”
“Nitrogen
gas has never been used in the United States to execute human beings.”
Lawmakers
in Oklahoma and Mississippi have also approved similar nitrogen-asphyxiation
execution protocols in recent years, but have yet to put them into practice.
“There
are so many unanswered questions about this protocol and I think there are real
concerns that Smith will suffer a cruel and painful death, while possibly
endangering others in the execution chamber,” Robin Maher, executive director
of the Death Penalty Information Center, said in a statement.
In
an appeal filed in November, Smith’s attorneys argued that the method “can
cause severe and permanent injuries short of death, including a persistent
vegetative state, stroke, or the painful sensation of suffocation”.
“Just
the idea of using gas for executions is an affront to our community,” Mike
Zoosman, the co-founder of L’chaim, was quoted by The Guardian as saying.
“The
Nazi legacy of experimentation to find the most expeditious way to rid our
community of undesirable prisoners is an undercurrent for anyone who is aware
of that history that should not be repeated in Alabama, or anywhere.”
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar26
January 2024 05:20
Kenneth Smith’s wife breaks down during
presser (press conference)
Reverend
Dr Jeff Hood (L), the spiritual advisor for convicted killer Kenneth Eugene
Smith, comforted Smith’s wife Deanna Smith as she described the execution of
her husband by nitrogen gas.
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar 26
January 2024 05:50
Older 1 / 7 Newer
(and
tweak URL to add pages)
ALABAMA
PUTS KENNETH SMITH TO DEATH IN FIRST EXECUTION WITH NITROGEN GAS
Kenneth Eugene Smith became the
first prisoner known to be executed using a controversial method known as
nitrogen hypoxia
By Kim
Bellware and Ann E. Marimow
Updated January 25, 2024 at 10:38 p.m. EST|Published January
25, 2024 at 9:36 p.m. EST
Alabama carries out first known
nitrogen gas execution
Alabama executed Kenneth Smith on
Jan. 25 using a controversial method of nitrogen hypoxia. The family of his
victim, Elizabeth Sennett, attended the execution.
ATMORE, Ala. — Alabama carried out
the world’s first known execution by nitrogen hypoxia Thursday. The
unprecedented method was administered to Kenneth Eugene Smith, a prisoner on
death row for his role in a contract killing more than three decades ago.
Smith’s execution was preceded by
months of legal battles over whether it was constitutional to use nitrogen
hypoxia in capital punishment, as the method was not known to have ever been
used before in a prison setting. Alabama prison officials kept many of the
details about how they would carry out the new method a secret from the public.
Smith, 58, was pronounced dead at
8:25 p.m. at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore.
Media witnesses arrived to the
death chamber and saw Smith strapped to a gurney and fitted with a mask that
covered his entire face.
“Tonight, Alabama caused humanity
to take a step backward,” Smith said in a lengthy final statement transcribed
by media witnesses. “I’m leaving with love, peace and light. Thank you for
supporting me. Love all of you.”
Using sign language, Smith said,
“I love you,” directing the sign toward the window of the viewing room where
his family sat.
Smith appeared conscious for at
least two minutes while the gas flowed to his mask, according to media
witnesses. He shook and writhed for at least two minutes on the gurney, and
this was followed by two minutes of deep breaths and then a period of time
during which media witnesses were unable to determine if he was breathing.
The curtain closed at 8:15 p.m.,
10 minutes before the state pronounced him dead.
Speaking to reporters after the
execution, Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner John Q. Hamm called
Smith’s shaking and writhing “involuntary” and said a 45-minute delay in the
execution was due to “a hiccup on the EKG line” that was preventing a good reading.
Alabama officials had previously
tried and failed to execute Smith by lethal injection in 2022. States that
still use the death penalty have struggled to obtain lethal injection drugs,
with lawmakers and prison officials adopting alternative methods as backup
options. Alabama, Mississippi and Oklahoma have approved nitrogen hypoxia,
while other states have brought back the
long-disused firing squad.
Despite the historic
nature of Smith’s execution, only five independent
witnesses from the news media, including the Associated Press, were able to
observe the process. Smith’s family, as well as the family of his victim,
Elizabeth Sennett, attended Thursday’s execution.
Medical professionals and human
rights advocates had argued for months that Alabama’s efforts to use an
untested execution method on Smith amounted to human experimentation, claims
Smith’s lawyers took all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Late Thursday, the nation’s top
court rejected Smith’s final request for intervention. The court’s three
liberal justices — Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson —
noted their dissent in the court’s order, which did not explain the majority’s
reasoning. Sotomayor called Alabama’s method “untested” and said “the world is
watching.”
“Having failed to kill Smith on
its first attempt, Alabama has selected him as its ‘guinea pig’ to test a
method of execution never attempted before,” she wrote.
Kagan, joined by Jackson, wrote
separately to say that she would have put the execution on hold to give Smith
and his lawyers more information about the state’s new protocol to allow him to
fully challenge the execution method.
Alabama Attorney General Steve
Marshall (R) had defended the state’s protocol, previously calling nitrogen
hypoxia “the most painless and humane method of execution known to man.” The
state argued that the district court heard from at least a hundred experts and
was not convinced the method was likely to lead to an unacceptable level of
pain before death.
Former Alabama governor Don
Siegelman (D) had also called on Gov. Kay Ivey (R) to stop Smith’s execution.
Siegelman was among those who noted that Smith would not have faced execution
if he were tried under modern standards.
“So here we are in Alabama about
to execute Kenneth Eugene Smith, who was sentenced to death — not by a jury, as
required by the U.S. Constitution — but by a judge, a practice banned in
Alabama,” Siegelman said in a statement.
A jury voted 11-1 in favor of life
in prison at Smith’s second trial before a judge overrode its verdict and
sentenced Smith to death. The practice, known as judicial override, has since
been eliminated in all 50 states; Alabama was the last state to do so, in 2017.
Philip Nitschke, a leading figure
in the controversial right-to-die movement, told The Washington Post that
while nitrogen hypoxia is an effective method for willing euthanasia patients,
Alabama’s execution protocol dramatically differs from legal assisted-suicide
methods in Europe in both technique and spirit.
Nitschke said the right-to-die
movement long ago moved away from using masks such as the one in Alabama,
instead favoring methods such as hoods, specially designed bags and pods.
Another key difference, he stressed, is that people are calm and cooperative in
their assisted suicide, while a prisoner is anxiously awaiting an execution
against his will.
In previous court filings, Smith’s
attorneys said there was a real risk that Smith would vomit and choke to death
during his execution. Marshall, Alabama’s attorney general, said that was
unlikely, noting that Smith would have taken his last meal more than eight
hours before the execution. Should Smith vomit, the state said, officials would
remove and clean the mask and clear Smith’s airway before continuing.
The state last attempted to
execute Smith in November 2022. Prison staffers failed to find a
vein to set Smith’s IV line, which, coupled with last-minute appeals, made it
untenable to complete the lethal injection before Smith’s execution warrant
expired at midnight. Smith’s was the third botched lethal injection in a row,
prompting Ivey to temporarily pause
executions for review.
The Alabama Department of
Corrections rejected calls for a third-party review and conducted a review of
its execution process internally. A public report was not released following
Alabama’s four-month review; Hamm instead sent a two-page
letter to Ivey in February 2023 noting four changes to
the procedures, including obtaining new equipment and hiring more medical
staffers.
In two key changes to Alabama’s
execution procedure, the Alabama Supreme Court in 2023 extended the typical
24-hour timeline for execution warrants to let the governor set the timeline
and eliminated the process of automatically reviewing death penalty cases for
“plain errors” during the trial phase.
Smith was convicted in Sennett’s
1988 death in Colbert County, Ala. Sennett was found beaten and stabbed in her
home, which was staged to look like a robbery. Investigators later found that
Sennett’s husband, the Rev. Charles Sennett, had hired a hit man to kill her so
he could collect on her life insurance policy to cover his debts.
John Forrest Parker and Smith were
paid $1,000 each by a middleman on Sennett’s behalf to carry out the murder.
Charles Sennett killed himself when police learned of his role in the plot,
while Billy Gray Williams, the middleman, was sentenced to life in prison.
Parker was executed in 2010.
DPIC (the DEATH PENALTY INFORMATION CENTER)
EXECUTIONS
“With each development in the technology
of execution, the same promises have been made, that each new technology
was safe, reliable, effective and humane. Those claims have not generally
been fulfilled.” ‑Austin Sarat
It is estimated that 3% of U.S.
executions in the period from 1890 to 2010 were botched. In the 2014 book,
Gruesome Spectacles: Botched Executions and America’s Death Penalty, Austin
Sarat, a professor of jurisprudence and political science at Amherst College,
describes the history of flawed executions in the U.S. during that period.
Sarat reports that over those 120 years, 8,776 people were executed and 276 of
those executions (3.15%) went wrong in some way. Lethal injection had the
highest rate of botched executions. In his book, he defines a botched execution
as follows:
Botched executions occur when
there is a breakdown in, or departure from, the “protocol” for a particular
method of execution. The protocol can be established by the norms,
expectations, and advertised virtues of each method or by the government’s
officially adopted execution guidelines. Botched executions are “those
involving unanticipated problems or delays that caused, at least arguably,
unnecessary agony for the prisoner or that reflect gross incompetence of the
executioner.” Examples of such problems include, among other things, inmates
catching fire while being electrocuted, being strangled during hangings
(instead of having their necks broken), and being administered the wrong
dosages of specific drugs for lethal injections.
|
Method |
Total Executions |
Botched Executions |
Botched Execution Rate |
|
Hanging |
2,721 |
85 |
3.12% |
|
Electrocution |
4,374 |
84 |
1.92% |
|
Lethal
Gas |
593 |
32 |
5.4% |
|
Lethal
Injection |
1,054 |
75 |
7.12% |
|
Firing
Squad |
34 |
0 |
0% |
|
All
Methods |
8,776 |
276 |
3.15% |
Source: Austin Sarat, “Gruesome Spectacles: Botched Executions and America’s Death Penalty” (Stanford Univ. Press 2014).
A report in the Salt Lake City
Tribune takes a different view of the suggestion that there have been no
botched executions by firing squad since 1890. The paper reports that in
September 1951, a Utah firing squad shot Eliseo J. Mares in the hip and abdomen
and that it was “several minutes” before he was declared dead. Utah’s May 16,
1879 firing-squad execution of Wallace Wilkerson also was botched. See Botched Executions in American History.
By
Prof. Michael L. Radelet
University of Colorado
Radelet@Colorado.edu
Last update: December 6, 2022
NOTE: The below is not intended to
be a comprehensive catalogue of botched executions, but simply a listing of examples
that are well-known. There are 59 executions or attempted executions listed: 2
by asphyxiation, 10 by electrocution, and 47 by lethal injection, including
four failed executions that were halted when execution personnel were unable to
set an IV line. For information on how we define “botch” and other
methodological decisions, see Marian J. Borg and Michael L. Radelet, On Botched
Executions, pp. 143-68 in Peter Hodgkinson and William
Schabas (eds.), Capital Punishment: Strategies for Abolition. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press (2004).
1.
August 10, 1982. Virginia. Frank J. Coppola. Electrocution. Although no media
representatives witnessed the execution and no details were ever released by
the Virginia Department of Corrections, an attorney who was present later
stated that it took two 55-second jolts of electricity to kill Coppola. The
second jolt produced the odor and sizzling sound of burning flesh, and
Coppola’s head and leg caught on fire. Smoke filled the death chamber from
floor to ceiling with a smoky haze.[1]
2. April
22, 1983. Alabama. John Evans. Electrocution. After the first jolt of
electricity, sparks and flames erupted from the electrode attached to Evans’s
leg. The electrode burst from the strap holding it in place and caught on fire.
Smoke and sparks also came out from under the hood in the vicinity of Evans’s
left temple. Two physicians entered the chamber and found a heartbeat. The
electrode was reattached to his leg, and another jolt of electricity was
applied. This resulted in more smoke and burning flesh. Again the doctors found
a heartbeat. Ignoring the pleas of Evans’s lawyer, a third jolt of electricity
was applied. The execution took 14 minutes and left Evans’s body charred and
smoldering.[2]
3.
September 2, 1983. Mississippi. Jimmy Lee Gray. Asphyxiation. Officials had to clear the
room eight minutes after the gas was released when Gray’s desperate gasps for
air repulsed witnesses. His attorney, Dennis Balske of Montgomery, Alabama,
criticized state officials for clearing the room when the inmate was still
alive. Said noted death penalty defense attorney David Bruck, “Jimmy Lee Gray
died banging his head against a steel pole in the gas chamber while the
reporters counted his moans (eleven, according to the Associated Press).”[3]
Later it was revealed that the executioner, Barry Bruce, was drunk.[4]
4.
December 12, 1984. Georgia. Alpha Otis Stephens. Electrocution. “The first charge of
electricity … failed to kill him, and he struggled to breathe for eight minutes
before a second charge carried out his death sentence.”[5] After the first
two-minute power surge, there was a six-minute pause so his body could cool
before physicians could examine him (and declare that another jolt was needed).
During that six-minute interval, Stephens took 23 breaths. A Georgia prison
official said, “Stephens was just not a conductor” of electricity.[6]
5. March
13, 1985. Texas. Stephen Peter Morin. Lethal Injection. The Associated Press
reported that, because of Morin’s history of drug abuse, the execution
technicians were forced to probe both of Morin’s arms and one of his legs with
needles for nearly 45 minutes before they found a suitable vein.[7]
6.
October 16, 1985. Indiana. William E. Vandiver. Electrocution. After the first
administration of 2,300 volts, Vandiver was still breathing. The execution
eventually took 17 minutes and five jolts of electricity.[8] Vandiver’s
attorney, Herbert Shaps, witnessed the execution and observed smoke and the
smell of burning. He called the execution “outrageous.” The Department of
Corrections admitted the execution “did not go according to plan.”[9]
7.
August 20, 1986. Texas. Randy Woolls. Lethal Injection. A drug addict, Woolls helped
the execution technicians find a useable vein for the execution.[10]
8. June
24, 1987. Texas. Elliot Rod Johnson. Lethal Injection. Because of collapsed veins,
it took nearly an hour to complete the execution.[11]
9. December
13, 1988. Texas. Raymond Landry. Lethal Injection. Pronounced dead 40 minutes
after being strapped to the execution gurney and 24 minutes after the drugs
first started flowing into his arms.[12] Two minutes after the drugs were
administered, the syringe came out of Landry’s vein, spraying the deadly
chemicals across the room toward witnesses. The curtain separating the
witnesses from the inmate was then pulled, and not reopened for fourteen
minutes while the execution team reinserted the catheter into the vein.
Witnesses reported “at least one groan.” A spokesman for the Texas Department
of Correction, Charles Brown (sic), said, “There was something of a delay in
the execution because of what officials called a ‘blowout.’ The syringe came
out of the vein, and the warden ordered the (execution) team to reinsert the
catheter into the vein.”[13]
10. May
24, 1989. Texas. Stephen McCoy. Lethal Injection. He had such a violent
physical reaction to the drugs (heaving chest, gasping, choking, back arching
off the gurney, etc.) that one of the witnesses (male) fainted, crashing into
and knocking over another witness. Houston attorney Karen Zellars, who
represented McCoy and witnessed the execution, thought the fainting would
catalyze a chain reaction. The Texas Attorney General admitted the inmate
“seemed to have had a somewhat stronger reaction,” adding, “The drugs might
have been administered in a heavier dose or more rapidly.”[14]
11. July
14, 1989. Alabama. Horace Franklin Dunkins, Jr. Electrocution. It took two jolts of
electricity, nine minutes apart, to complete the execution. After the first
jolt failed to kill the prisoner (who was mildly retarded), the captain of the
prison guard opened the door to the witness room and stated “I believe we’ve
got the jacks on wrong.”[15] Because the cables had been connected improperly,
it was impossible to dispense sufficient current to cause death. The cables
were reconnected before a second jolt was administered. Death was pronounced 19
minutes after the first electric charge. At a post-execution news conference,
Alabama Prison Commissioner Morris Thigpen said, “I regret very very much what
happened. [The cause] was human error.”[16]
12. May
4, 1990. Florida. Jesse Joseph Tafero. Electrocution. During the execution, six-inch
flames erupted from Tafero’s head, and three jolts of power were required to
stop his breathing. State officials claimed that the botched execution was
caused by “inadvertent human error” — the inappropriate substitution of a
synthetic sponge for a natural sponge that had been used in previous
executions.[17] They attempted to support this theory by sticking a part of a
synthetic sponge into a “common household toaster” and observing that it
smoldered and caught fire.[18]
13.
September 12, 1990. Illinois. Charles Walker. Lethal Injection. Because of equipment failure
and human error, Walker suffered excruciating pain during his execution.
According to Gary Sutterfield, an engineer from the Missouri State Prison who
was retained by the State of Illinois to assist with Walker’s execution, a kink
in the plastic tubing going into Walker’s arm stopped the deadly chemicals from
reaching Walker. In addition, the intravenous needle was inserted pointing at
Walker’s fingers instead of his heart, prolonging the execution.[19]
14.
October 17, 1990. Virginia. Wilbert Lee Evans. Electrocution. When Evans was hit with the
first burst of electricity, blood spewed from the right side of the mask on
Evans’s face, drenching Evans’s shirt with blood and causing a sizzling sound
as blood dripped from his lips. Evans continued to moan before a second jolt of
electricity was applied. The autopsy concluded that Evans suffered a bloody
nose after the voltage surge elevated his high blood pressure.[20]
15.
August 22, 1991. Virginia. Derick Lynn Peterson. Electrocution. After the first cycle of
electricity was applied, and again four minutes later, prison physician David
Barnes inspected Peterson’s neck and checked him with a stethoscope, announcing
each time “He has not expired.” Seven and one-half minutes after the first
attempt to kill the inmate, a second cycle of electricity was applied. Prison
officials later announced that in the future they would routinely administer
two cycles before checking for a heartbeat.[21]
16. January
24, 1992. Arkansas. Rickey Ray Rector. Lethal Injection. It took medical staff more
than 50 minutes to find a suitable vein in Rector’s arm. Witnesses were kept
behind a drawn curtain and not permitted to view this scene, but reported
hearing Rector’s eight loud moans throughout the process. During the ordeal
Rector (who suffered from serious brain damage) helped the medical personnel
find a vein. The administrator of State’s Department of Corrections medical
programs said (paraphrased by a newspaper reporter) “the moans did come as a
team of two medical people that had grown to five worked on both sides of his
body to find a vein.” The administrator said “That may have contributed to his
occasional outbursts.” The difficulty in finding a suitable vein was later
attributed to Rector’s bulk and his regular use of antipsychotic
medication.[22]
17.
April 6, 1992. Arizona. Donald Eugene Harding. Asphyxiation. Death was not pronounced
until 10 1/2 minutes after the cyanide tablets were dropped.[23] During the
execution, Harding thrashed and struggled violently against the restraining
straps. A television journalist who witnessed the execution, Cameron Harper,
said that Harding’s spasms and jerks lasted 6 minutes and 37 seconds.
“Obviously, this man was suffering. This was a violent death … an ugly event.
We put animals to death more humanely.”[24] Another witness, newspaper reporter
Carla McClain, said, “Harding’s death was extremely violent. He was in great
pain. I heard him gasp and moan. I saw his body turn from red to purple.”[25]
One reporter who witnessed the execution suffered from insomnia and assorted
illnesses for several weeks; two others were “walking vegetables” for several
days.[26]
18.
March 10, 1992. Oklahoma. Robyn Lee Parks. Lethal Injection. Parks had a violent reaction
to the drugs used in the lethal injection. Two minutes after the drugs were
dispensed, the muscles in his jaw, neck, and abdomen began to react
spasmodically for approximately 45 seconds. Parks continued to gasp and
violently gag until death came, some eleven minutes after the drugs were first
administered. Tulsa World reporter Wayne Greene wrote that the execution looked
“painful,” “scary and ugly.” “It was overwhelming, stunning, disturbing — an
intrusion into a moment so personal that reporters, taught for years that
intrusion is their business, had trouble looking each other in the eyes after
it was over.”[27]
19.
April 23, 1992. Texas. Billy Wayne White. Lethal Injection. White was pronounced dead
some 47 minutes after being strapped to the execution gurney. The delay was
caused by difficulty finding a vein; White had a long history of heroin abuse.
During the execution, White attempted to assist the authorities in finding a
suitable vein.[28]
20. May
7, 1992. Texas. Justin Lee May. Lethal Injection. May had an unusually violent
reaction to the lethal drugs. According to one reporter who witnessed the
execution, May “gasped, coughed and reared against his heavy leather
restraints, coughing once again before his body froze.”[29] Associated Press
reporter Michael Graczyk wrote, “Compared to other recent executions in Texas,
May’s reaction to the drugs was more violent. He went into a coughing spasm,
groaned and gasped, lifted his head from the death chamber gurney and would
have arched his back if he had not been belted down. After he stopped
breathing, his eyes and mouth remained open.”[30]
21. May
10, 1994. Illinois. John Wayne Gacy. Lethal Injection. After the execution began, the
lethal chemicals unexpectedly solidified, clogging the IV tube that led into
Gacy’s arm, and prohibiting any further passage. Blinds covering the window
through which witnesses observed the execution were drawn, and the execution
team replaced the clogged tube with a new one. Ten minutes later, the blinds
were then reopened and the execution process resumed. It took 18 minutes to
complete.[31] Anesthesiologists blamed the problem on the inexperience of
prison officials who were conducting the execution, saying that proper
procedures taught in “IV 101” would have prevented the error.[32]
22. May
3, 1995. Missouri. Emmitt Foster. Lethal Injection. Seven minutes after the
lethal chemicals began to flow into Foster’s arm, the execution was halted when
the chemicals stopped circulating. With Foster gasping and convulsing, the
blinds were drawn so the witnesses could not view the scene. Death was
pronounced thirty minutes after the execution began, and three minutes later
the blinds were reopened so the witnesses could view the corpse.[33] According
to William “Mal” Gum, the Washington County Coroner who pronounced death, the
problem was caused by the tightness of the leather straps that bound Foster to
the execution gurney; it was so tight that the flow of chemicals into the veins
was restricted. Foster did not die until several minutes after a prison worker
finally loosened the straps. The coroner entered the death chamber twenty
minutes after the execution began, diagnosed the problem, and told the
officials to loosen the strap so the execution could proceed.[34] In an
editorial, the St. Louis
Post-Dispatch called the execution “a particularly sordid chapter
in Missouri’s capital punishment experience.”[35]
23.
January 23, 1996. Virginia. Richard Townes, Jr. Lethal Injection. This execution was delayed
for 22 minutes while medical personnel struggled to find a vein large enough
for the needle. After unsuccessful attempts to insert the needle through the
arms, the needle was finally inserted through the top of Mr. Townes’s right
foot.[36]
24. July
18, 1996. Indiana. Tommie J. Smith. Lethal Injection. Because of unusually small
veins, it took one hour and nine minutes for Smith to be pronounced dead after
the execution team began sticking needles into his body. For sixteen minutes,
the execution team failed to find adequate veins, and then a physician was
called.[37] Smith was given a local anesthetic and the physician twice
attempted to insert the tube in Smith’s neck. When that failed, an
angio-catheter was inserted in Smith’s foot. Only then were witnesses permitted
to view the process. The lethal drugs were finally injected into Smith 49
minutes after the first attempts, and it took another 20 minutes before death
was pronounced.[38]
25.
March 25, 1997. Florida. Pedro Medina. Electrocution. A crown of foot-high flames
shot from the headpiece during the execution, filling the execution chamber
with a stench of thick smoke and gagging the two dozen official witnesses. An
official then threw a switch to manually cut off the power and prematurely end
the two-minute cycle of 2,000 volts. Medina’s chest continued to heave until
the flames stopped and death came.[39] After the execution, prison officials
blamed the fire on a corroded copper screen in the headpiece of the electric
chair, but two experts hired by the governor later concluded that the fire was
caused by the improper application of a sponge (designed to conduct
electricity) to Medina’s head.
26. May
8, 1997. Oklahoma. Scott Dawn Carpenter. Lethal Injection. Carpenter was pronounced
dead some 11 minutes after the lethal injection was administered. As the drugs
took effect, Carpenter began to gasp and shake. “This was followed by a
guttural sound, multiple spasms and gasping for air” until his body stopped
moving, three minutes later.[40]
27. June
13, 1997. South Carolina. Michael Eugene Elkins. Lethal Injection. Because Elkins’s body had
become swollen from liver and spleen problems, it took nearly an hour to find a
suitable vein for the insertion of the catheter. Elkins tried to assist the
executioners, asking “Should I lean my head down a little bit?” as they probed
for a vein. After numerous failures, a usable vein was finally found in
Elkins’s neck.[41]
28.
April 23, 1998. Texas. Joseph Cannon. Lethal Injection. It took two attempts to
complete the execution. After making his final statement, the execution process
began. A vein in Cannon’s arm collapsed and the needle popped out. Seeing this,
Cannon lay back, closed his eyes, and exclaimed to the witnesses, “It’s come
undone.” Officials then pulled a curtain to block the view of the witnesses,
reopening it fifteen minutes later when a weeping Cannon made a second final
statement and the execution process resumed.[42]
29.
August 26, 1998. Texas. Genaro Ruiz Camacho. Lethal Injection. The execution was delayed
approximately two hours due, in part, to problems finding suitable veins in
Camacho’s arms.[43]
30.
October 5, 1998. Nevada. Roderick Abeyta. Lethal Injection. It took 25 minutes for the
execution team to find a vein suitable for the lethal injection.[44]
31. July
8, 1999. Florida. Allen Lee Davis. Electrocution. “Before he was pronounced
dead … the blood from his mouth had poured onto the collar of his white shirt,
and the blood on his chest had spread to about the size of a dinner plate, even
oozing through the buckle holes on the leather chest strap holding him to the
chair.”[45] His execution was the first in Florida’s new electric chair, built
especially so it could accommodate a man Davis’s size (approximately 350
pounds). Later, when another Florida death row inmate challenged the
constitutionality of the electric chair, Florida Supreme Court Justice Leander
Shaw commented that “the color photos of Davis depict a man who — for all
appearances — was brutally tortured to death by the citizens of Florida.”[46]
Justice Shaw also described the botched executions of Jesse Tafero and Pedro
Medina (q.v.), calling the three executions “barbaric spectacles” and “acts
more befitting a violent murderer than a civilized state.”[47] Justice Shaw
included pictures of Davis’s dead body in his opinion.[48] The execution was
witnessed by a Florida State Senator, Ginny Brown-Waite, who at first was
“shocked” to see the blood, until she realized that the blood was forming the shape
of a cross and that it was a message from God saying he supported the
execution.[49] (See Photos taken after execution—graphic images).
32. May
3, 2000. Arkansas. Christina Marie Riggs. Lethal Injection. Riggs dropped her appeals
and asked to be executed. However, the execution was delayed for 18 minutes
when prison staff couldn’t find a suitable vein in her elbows. Finally, Riggs
agreed to the executioners’ requests to have the needles in her wrists.[50]
33. June
8, 2000. Florida. Bennie Demps. Lethal Injection. It took execution
technicians 33 minutes to find suitable veins for the execution. “They
butchered me back there,” said Demps in his final statement. “I was in a lot of
pain. They cut me in the groin; they cut me in the leg. I was bleeding profusely.
This is not an execution, it is murder.” The executioners had no unusual
problems finding one vein, but because Florida protocol requires a second
alternate intravenous drip, they continued to work to insert another needle,
finally abandoning the effort after their prolonged failures.[51]
34.
December 7, 2000. Texas. Claude Jones. Lethal Injection. Jones was a former
intravenous drug abuser. His execution was delayed 30 minutes while the
execution team struggled to insert an IV into a vein. One member of the
execution team commented, “They had to stick him about five times. They finally
put it in his leg.” Jim Willett, the warden of the Walls Unit and the man
responsible for conducting the execution, wrote: “The medical team could not
find a vein. Now I was really beginning to worry. If you can’t stick a vein
then a cut-down has to be performed. I have never seen one and would just as
soon go through the rest of my career the same way. Just when I was really
getting worried, one of the medical people hit a vein in the left leg. Inside
calf to be exact. The executioner had warned me not to panic as it was going to
take a while to get the fluids in the body of the inmate tonight because he was
going to push the drugs through very slowly. Finally, the drug took effect and
Jones took his last breath.”[52]
35. June
28, 2000. Missouri. Bert Leroy Hunter. Lethal Injection. Hunter had an unusual
reaction to the lethal drugs, repeatedly coughing and gasping for air before he
lapsed into unconsciousness.[53] An attorney who witnessed the execution
reported that Hunter had “violent convulsions. His head and chest jerked
rapidly upward as far as the gurney restraints would allow, and then he fell
quickly down upon the gurney. His body convulsed back and forth like this
repeatedly. … He suffered a violent and agonizing death.”[54] However, three
reporters who witnessed the execution did not substantiate these observations,
with two reporting that Hunter simply coughed several times and the third
stating that he saw no violent reaction to the drugs. [55]
36.
November 7, 2001. Georgia. Jose High. Lethal Injection. High was pronounced dead
some one hour and nine minutes after the execution began. After attempting to
find a useable vein for “15 to 20 minutes,” the emergency medical technicians
under contract to do the execution abandoned their efforts. Eventually, one
needle was stuck in High’s hand, and a physician was called in to insert a
second needle between his shoulder and neck.[56]
37. May
2, 2006. Ohio. Joseph L. Clark. Lethal Injection. It took 22 minutes for the
execution technicians to find a vein suitable for insertion of the catheter.
But three or four minutes thereafter, as the vein collapsed and Clark’s arm
began to swell, he raised his head off the gurney and said five times, “It
don’t work. It don’t work.” The curtains surrounding the gurney were then
closed while the technicians worked for 30 minutes to find another vein. Media
witnesses later reported that they heard “moaning, crying out and guttural
noises.”[57] Finally, death was pronounced almost 90 minutes after the
execution began. A spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Corrections told
reporters that the execution team included paramedics, but not a physician or a
nurse.[58]
38.
December 13, 2006. Florida. Angel Diaz. Lethal Injection. After the first injection
was administered, Mr. Diaz continued to move, and was squinting and grimacing
as he tried to mouth words. A second dose was then administered, and 34 minutes
passed before Mr. Diaz was declared dead. At first a spokesperson for the
Florida Department of Corrections claimed that this was because Mr. Diaz had
some sort of liver disease.[59] After performing an autopsy, the Medical
Examiner, Dr. William Hamilton, stated that Mr. Diaz’s liver was undamaged, but
that the IV catheters (which had been inserted in both arms) had gone through
Mr. Diaz’s veins and out the other side, so the deadly chemicals were injected
into soft tissue, rather than the vein. Two days after the execution, Governor
Jeb Bush temporarily suspended all executions in the state and appointed a
commission “to consider the humanity and constitutionality of lethal
injections.”[60] In 2014, pictures from the autopsy of Mr. Diaz’s body, along with
a long article describing his painful death, were published in The New Republic.[61]
39. May
24, 2007. Ohio. Christopher Newton. Lethal Injection. According to the Associated
Press, “prison medical staff” at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility struggled
to find veins on each of Newton’s arms during the execution. Newton, who
weighted 265 pounds, was declared dead almost two hours after the execution
process began. The execution “team” stuck Newton at least ten times with
needles before getting the shunts in place were the needles are injected.[62]
40. June
26, 2007. Georgia. John Hightower. Lethal Injection. It took approximately 40
minutes for the nurses to find a suitable vein to administer the lethal
chemicals, and death was not pronounced until 7:59, 59 minutes after the
execution process began.[63]
41. June
4, 2008. Georgia. Curtis Osborne. Lethal Injection. After a 55-minute delay
while the U.S. Supreme Court reviewed his final appeal, prison medical staff
began the execution by trying to find suitable veins in which to insert the IV.
The executioners struggled for 35 minutes to find a vein, and it took 14
minutes after the fatal drugs were administered before death was pronounced by
two physicians who were inside the death chamber.[64]
42.
September 15, 2009. Ohio. Romell Broom (pictured, after execution
attempt). Lethal Injection (failed). Efforts to find a suitable
vein and to execute Mr. Broom were terminated after more than two hours when
the executioners were unable to find a useable vein in Mr. Broom’s arms or
legs. During the failed efforts, Mr. Broom winced and grimaced with pain. After
the first hour’s lack of success, on several occasions Broom tried to help the
executioners find a good vein. “At one point, he covered his face with both hands
and appeared to be sobbing, his stomach heaving.[65] Finally, Ohio Governor Ted
Strickland ordered the execution to stop, and announced plans to attempt the
execution anew after a one-week delay so that physicians could be consulted for
advice on how the man could be killed more efficiently.[66] The executioners
blamed the problems on Mr. Broom’s history of intravenous drug use. Mr. Broom
died in December 2020 of COVID-19 contracted on Ohio’s death row.
43. September
27, 2010. Georgia. Brandon Joseph Rhode. Lethal Injection. After the Supreme Court
rejected his appeals, “Medics then tried for about 30 minutes to find a vein to
inject the three-drug concoction.” It then took 14 minutes for the lethal drugs
to kill him. The execution had been delayed six days because a prison guard had
given Rhode a razor blade, which Rhode used to attempt suicide.[67]
44.
January 16, 2014. Ohio. Dennis McGuire. Lethal Injection. McGuire gasped for air for
some 25 minutes while the drugs used in the execution, hydromorphone and
midazolam, slowly took effect. Witnesses reported that after the drugs were
injected, McGuire was struggling, with his stomach heaving and fist clenched,
making “horrible” snorting and choking sounds.[68] In a lawsuit filed after the
execution, Mr. McGuire’s family alleged that the inmate experienced “repeated
cycles of snorting, gurgling and arching his back, appearing to writhe in
pain,” the lawsuit said. “It looked and sounded as though he was suffocating.”[69]
45.
April 29, 2014. Oklahoma. Clayton D. Lockett. Lethal Injection. Despite prolonged litigation
and numerous warnings from defense attorneys about the dangers of using an
experimental drug protocol with the drug midazolam, Oklahoma went ahead and scheduled
the executions of Clayton Lockett and Charles Warner. Plans for the execution
and the drugs used were cloaked in secrecy, with the state refusing to release
information about the source and efficacy of the lethal drugs, making it
impossible to accurately predict the effects of the combination of drugs.
Nonetheless, Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallon pressured the Courts to allow the
execution, a bill was introduced in the Oklahoma House of Representatives to
impeach the Justices who had voted to stay the execution, and the state Supreme
Court allowed the executions to go forward.
Mr. Lockett was the first who was
scheduled to die. An hour before the execution began, the governor was notified
that the executioner (a “phlebotomist”) was having problems finding a usable
vein, but she did not intervene. After an hour, a vein was finally found in Mr.
Lockett’s “groin area,” and the execution went forward. Ten minutes after the
administration of the first drug, a sedative, the physician supervising the
process (whose very presence violated ethical standards of several medical
organizations) announced that the inmate was unconscious, and therefore ready
to receive the other two drugs that would actually kill him. Those two drugs
were known to cause excruciating pain if the recipient was conscious. However,
Mr. Lockett was not unconscious. Three minutes after the latter two drugs were
injected, “he began breathing heavily, writhing on the gurney, clenching his
teeth and straining to lift his head off the pillow.”[70] Officials then
lowered the blinds to prohibit witnesses from seeing what was going on, and 15
minutes later the witnesses were ordered to leave the room.
Twenty minutes after the first
drugs were administered, the Director the Oklahoma Department of Corrections
halted the execution and issued a two-week stay (later extended by extensive
litigation) for the execution of Mr. Warner. Mr. Lockett died 43 minutes after
the execution began, of a heart attack, while still in the execution
chamber.[71]
46. July
23, 2014. Arizona. Joseph R. Wood. Lethal Injection. After the chemicals
(midazolam and hydromorphone) were injected, Mr. Wood repeatedly gasped for one
hour and 40 minutes before death was pronounced. During the ordeal, Mr. Wood’s
attorneys filed an emergency appeal to a Federal District Court and placed a
phone call to Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy in a failed effort to halt
the botched execution. Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Arizona Attorney
General’s office claimed that Mr. Wood was asleep and was simply snoring. In
the days before the execution, defense attorneys won a stay from the U.S. Court
of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on their motion to compel the state to reveal
the source of the drugs and the training of the executioners. However, this
stay was later overturned by the Supreme Court.[72] A reporter for the Arizona Republic who witnessed
the execution, Michael Kiefer, said that he counted 640 gasps from Wood before
he finally died.[73]
47.
December 9, 2015. Georgia. Brian Keith Terrell. Lethal Injection. “[I]t took an hour for the
nurse assigned to the execution to get IVs inserted into both of the condemned
man’s arms. She eventually had to put one into Terrell’s right hand. Terrell
winced several times, apparently in pain.”[74]
48.
February 3, 2016. Georgia. Brandon Jones. Lethal Injection. After spending 24 minutes
unsuccessfully trying to insert an IV into Jones’ left arm, the executioners
spent 8 minutes trying to insert it in his right arm and, when that failed,
they again attempted to insert it in his left arm. They then asked a physician
to violate several codes of medical ethics for assistance, and he or she spent
13 minutes inserting and stitching the IV near Jones’ groin. Six minutes later,
Jones’ eyes popped open. He was 72 years old at the time of his execution.[75]
49.
December 8, 2016. Alabama. Ronald Bert Smith, Jr. Lethal Injection. Smith (a former Eagle Scout
and Army reservist) was convicted of a 1994 murder of a convenience store
clerk, and his jury at trial (after anti-death penalty citizens were removed)
voted 7-5 to recommend a punishment of life imprisonment without parole.
Alabama, however, requires neither unanimity nor a majority jury vote before
the trial judge can sentence a defendant to death. Smith heaved, gasped and
coughed while struggling for breath for 13 minutes after the lethal drugs were
administered, and death was pronounced 34 minutes after the execution began. He
also “clenched his fists and raised his head during the early part of the
procedure.” Alabama used the controversial sedative midazolam (a “valium-like
drug”) in the execution.[76]
50.
October 19, 2017. Alabama. Torrey McNabb. Lethal Injection. It took 35 minutes for the
lethal injection (midazolam) to end Mr. McNabb’s life.[77] ”McNabb’s attorney
said Friday that his movements during the middle of the execution, that
included moving his arm and rolling his head back and forth after a
consciousness check, showed problems with the sedative used by the state. …
McNabb’s family members and attorneys who witnessed the execution expressed
concerns to each other that he was still conscious during the lethal injection.
“He’s going to wake up,” one of his relatives whispered.”
51.
November 15, 2017. Ohio. Alva Campbell. Lethal Injection (failed). “The execution team first
worked on both of Alva Campbell’s arms for about 30 minutes Wednesday while he
was on a gurney in the state’s death chamber and then tried to find a vein in
his right leg below the knee. … About 80 minutes after the execution was scheduled
to begin, the 69-year-old Campbell shook hands with two guards after it
appeared the insertion was successful. About two minutes later, media witnesses
were told to leave without being told what was happening. … Gary Mohr, head of
the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, … [then] called off the
execution after talking with the medical team [saying] ‘It was my decision that
it was not likely that we’re going to access veins.’ … Prison officials brought
Campbell into the death chamber in a wheelchair and provided him a wedge pillow
on the gurney, which was meant to help him breathe. Campbell has suffered from
breathing problems related to a longtime smoking habit. His attorneys said he
has required a walker, relied on a colostomy bag and needed breathing
treatments four times a day.” [78] Less than four months later, on March 3,
2018, Campbell died on death row of his terminal medical conditions.
52.
February 22, 2018. Alabama. Doyle Lee Hamm. Lethal Injection (failed). Despite several warnings
from defense counsel that it would be impossible to find a vein in which to
insert the catheter (Hamm suffered from advanced lymphatic cancer and
carcinoma), the State went forward with the execution. For 2.5 hours, the
executioners tried to find a vein, leaving Hamm with a ten-twelve puncture
marks, including six in his groin and others that punctured his bladder and
penetrated his femoral artery. Finally, approaching a midnight deadline that
prohibited further attempts, the execution was called off. Alabama Corrections
Commissioner Jeff Dunn later told reporters, “I wouldn’t necessarily
characterize what we had tonight as a problem.”[79] [NOTE: On March 5, 2018,
attorneys for Doyle Hamm submitted a preliminary report from an anesthesiologist who
evaluated Hamm on February 25. WARNING: Report contains graphic images and
descriptions.] On November 28, 2021, Mr. Hamm, still in prison, died from his
lymphoma and cranial cancer.[80]
53.
October 28, 2021. Oklahoma. John Marion Grant. Lethal Injection. After the first drug was
administered (midazolam), Mr. Grant convulsed and vomited for several minutes,
leading members of the execution team to wipe the vomit from his face and neck.
Associated Press media witness Sean Murphy said that “Grant’s body shook and
jerked nearly two dozen times before vomit spurted from his mouth and spilled
down his neck.”[81] In addition, the autopsy report (on file with DPIC) found
pulmonary edema and intramuscular hemorrhaging of the tongue (p. 2). Prior to
the execution, Mr. Grant’s legal team (along with attorneys for some two-dozen
other Oklahoma death row inmates) had argued that the state’s three-drug lethal
injection protocol would cause unnecessary and excruciating pain. Said Robert
Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, “Oklahoma
knew full well that this was well within the realm of possible outcomes in a
midazolam execution. It didn’t care … and the Supreme Court apparently didn’t
either.”[82]
54. May
11, 2022. Arizona. Clarence Dixon. Lethal Injection. “Troy Hayden, a media witness from
Fox News, said the execution team had trouble getting IVs into Dixon, who
grimaced and appeared to be in pain while this was happening. … Hayden said
execution team members took 25 minutes to insert IVs into Dixon’s body,
eventually resorting to making an incision and inserting an IV into Dixon’s
groin. Dixon was grimacing and appeared to be in pain while the execution team
attempted to insert the IVs.”[83]
55. June 8,
2022. Arizona. Frank Atwood. Lethal Injection. Mr. Atwood had to assist his
executions in finding a suitable vein for his execution. Arizona Republic reporter Jimmy Jenkins, who
witnessed the execution, called it “surreal.” “I have witnessed
life. And I have witnessed death. But nothing could have prepared me for the
surreal spectacle I witnessed during the execution of Frank Atwood.” Atwood,
age 65, had a degenerative spinal condition and had to be wheeled to the gurney
in a wheelchair. ““After a few minutes and what appeared to be several attempts
[to insert the needle], the execution team inserted an IV and catheter into
Atwood‘s left arm. … The execution team tried and failed to get the IV into his
right arm several times.” Atwood then suggested to the executioners that they
try to insert the needle in his hand. That did the job. The total execution
took approximately 30 minutes.[84]
56. July
28, 2022. Alabama. Joe Nathan James, Jr. Lethal Injection. Rejecting pleas from the two
daughters and the brother of the homicide victim, Faith Hall, Governor Kay Ivey
ordered the execution to proceed. The execution was scheduled for 6:00 p.m.
Central time, but for reasons that the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC)
failed to directly address, the execution was delayed for three hours. Prison
officials asserted that the delay was a result of attempting to comply with the
execution protocol without initiating a cut-down procedure and that “nothing
out of the ordinary” had occurred during the delay. A private autopsy later
demonstrated that ADOC’s representation was false.
The autopsy findings, described by
reporter Elizabeth Bruenig in an August 15, 2022 exposé in The Atlantic, documented multiple
failed attempts by the ADOC execution team to set an intravenous execution
line, puncture wounds in Mr. James arm muscles that appeared to be unrelated to
efforts to insert the IV, multiple unexplained incisions, and bleeding and
bruising around Mr. James’ wrists where he was strapped to the gurney. Bruenig
called the execution “lengthy and painful,” and a doctor who attended the
autopsy said the execution team that carried it out “was unqualified for the
task in a most dramatic way.”[85]
The estimated 3 to 3½ hours
between the initiation of efforts to set the execution IV to the time of James’
death was the longest botched lethal-injection execution since the method came
into use in the U.S. in 1982. The human rights group Reprieve, which funded the
private autopsy, said it had reviewed information on 275 botched U.S.
executions since 1890 and found that the interval between the start of James’
execution and his death was the longest on record involving any method of
execution.[86]
While the unexplained delay was
taking place, prison officials subjected two female reporters to clothing
examinations, deeming the skirt one witness had worn when covering prior
executions “too short” to gain admission to the prison. After the reporter
found other clothing to wear, prison officials further delayed media entry into
the facility by then telling her that she could not wear open-toed shoes. The
same prison officials subjected a second veteran female reporter to a clothing
inspection.
Reporters were subsequently left
in the prison transport van for nearly 2½ hours, without any explanation for
this additional delay. The media witnesses were ultimately seated in the
execution viewing room at 8:57 p.m. and the curtain to the execution chamber
was raised at 9:02 p.m. Multiple reporters noted that James’ eyes were closed
and he lay motionless on the gurney. He was non-responsive when an execution
team member read him his death warrant at 9:03 and asked him if he had any
final words. At 9:04 officials began administering the execution drugs through
an IV that was already in place in James’ left arm when the curtain was raised.
Reporters indicated that “James blinked and his eyes fluttered briefly” after
the drugs were injected. He was pronounced dead at 9:27 p.m.
The next day, ADOC’s public
information officer, Kelly Betts, indicated via email that the delay had
resulted from difficulties in establishing the execution IV line. Prison
authorities provided no explanation for James’ non-responsiveness. On the night
of the execution, Commission Hamm specifically denied that the execution team
had sedated James, a representation Betts repeated to the media the next day.
Asked if James had been fully conscious when the execution curtain opened,
Betts stated, “I cannot confirm that.”[87]
The private autopsy found puncture
wounds and bruising around James’ knuckles and wrists, which doctors said
suggested that execution team members had tried and failed to insert IV lines
in those locations. The autopsy also documented puncture wounds in James’
musculature that, Emory University anesthesiologist Joel Zivot said, were “not
in the anatomical vicinity of a known vein.”
“It is possible that this just
represents gross incompetence, or some, or one, or more of these punctures were
actually intramuscular injections,” Zivot explained. “An intramuscular
injection in this setting would only be used to deliver a sedating medication,”
Zivot said.
On the inside of James’s left arm,
the autopsy examiners found a jagged incision, which Zivot concluded was likely
from a “cutdown” — a deep cut in the skin made to expose a vein. “I can’t tell
if local anesthetic was first infused into the skin, as slicing deep into the
skin with a sharp surgical blade in an awake person without local anesthesia
would be extremely painful,” Zivot explained.
“In a medical setting, ultrasound
has virtually eliminated the need for a cutdown,” Zivot said, “and the fact
that a cutdown was utilized here is further evidence that the IV team was unqualified
for the task in a most dramatic way.”[88]
57.
September 22, 2022. Alabama. Alan Eugene Miller. Lethal Injection (failed). Mr. Miller alleged that he had
designated nitrogen hypoxia, which Alabama had authorized in 2018 as an
alternative to lethal injection, as the method of his execution but that
Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) personnel had lost his designation
form. During his challenge to the state’s decision to use lethal injection,
state prosecutors suggested that ADOC could execute him by lethal gas. But when
the federal district court gave them a firm deadline to declare if they were
ready to proceed by nitrogen hypoxia, ADOC indicated that it could not do so.
On September 19, 2022, the district court issued a preliminary injunction
enjoining Alabama from executing Miller “by any method other than nitrogen
hypoxia.” On the afternoon his scheduled execution, a divided panel of the U.S.
Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit denied the state’s motion to set
aside the injunction. At about 9:15 p.m. Central time, the U.S. Supreme Court
issued a 5-4 ruling that vacated the injunction, leaving Alabama approximately
2½ hours to carry out the execution before the warrant expired.[89]
The execution then began, but
after failing to properly insert the catheter for at least 90 minutes (while
puncturing Mr. Miller with a needle approximately 18 times), ADOC Commissioner
John Hamm ordered the executioners to stop. Thereafter, Mr. Miller asked the
federal courts to prohibit Alabama from trying again to put him to death.[90]
On November 28, 2022, the State agreed that it would no longer attempt to
execute Mr. Miller by lethal injection and that any future attempt to put him
to death would be by means of nitrogen hypoxia.[91]
58.
November 16, 2022. Stephen Barbee. Texas. Lethal Injection. Mr. Barbee’s disabled arms
were unable to be straightened out so the needle with the deadly drugs could be
properly inserted. Earlier Mr. Barbee’s attorney had filed motions to stop the
execution because these problems were foreseeable. His death was finally
pronounced approximately 90 minutes after he was strapped in the gurney.[92]
59. November
16, 2022. Arizona. Murray Hooper. Lethal Injection. “For the third time since
resuming the death penalty this year, the Arizona Department of Corrections
struggled to insert the intravenous needles that deliver lethal drugs during an
execution. … Witnesses … reported seeing execution team members attempt and
fail to insert IVs into both of Hooper’s arms before finally resorting to
inserting a catheter into Hooper’s femoral vein near his groin.” [93]
60.
November 17, 2022. Kenneth Eugene Smith. Alabama. Lethal Injection
(failed). The
execution began just after 10:00 pm, but was called off at 11:21 when prison
officials determined that they did not have enough time to set a second IV line
before the death warrant expired at midnight. Mr. Smith’s attorneys reported
that he had been strapped to the gurney at 8:00 and was not removed until four
hours later. They claimed that after two hours, “an IV team entered the
execution chamber and began repeatedly jabbing Mr. Smith’s arms and hands with
needles, well past the point at which the executioners should have known that
it was not reasonably possible to access a vein.”[94] The Alabama Prisons
Commissioner said “the people attempting to carry out the execution had tried
to insert a line into ‘several locations’ without success.” Earlier on the day
of the execution, an appeals court halted so his attorneys could argue that
Alabama’s execution procedures could lead Mr. Smith to suffer an illegally
“cruel” death. Nonetheless, the U.S. Supreme Court (with three dissenting
votes) overturned that decision and ordered the execution to go forward. At
trial, Mr. Smith’s jury voted 11-1 in favor of a life sentence rather than the
death penalty, but the trial judge rejected this recommendation and instead
imposed a death sentence.[95]
Five days after the botched
(attempted) execution, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey halted all executions in the
state and ordered a “top-to-bottom review” of the state’s execution procedures,
although the investigation appears to be far from an objective review conducted
by neutral parties. Said the governor, “I don’t buy for a second the narrative
being pushed by activists that these issues are the fault of the folks at
Corrections or anyone in law enforcement, for that matter. I believe that legal
tactics and criminals hijacking the system are at play here.”[96]
SOURCES
ENDNOTES
[1]. Deborah W. Denno, Is Electrocution
an Unconstitutional Method of Execution? The Engineering of Death over the
Century, 35 WILLIAM & MARY L. REV. 551, 664 – 665 (1994).
[2]. For a description of
the execution by Evans’s defense attorney, see Russell F. Canan, “Burning
at the Wire: The Execution of John Evans” in FACING THE DEATH PENALTY: ESSAYS ON A CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENT 60 (Michael
L. Radelet ed. 1989); see also Glass v.
Louisiana, 471 U.S. 1080, 1091 – 92 (1985).
[3]. David Bruck, Decisions
of Death, THE NEW REPUBLIC, Dec. 12, 1984, at 24 – 25.
[4]. Ivan Solotaroff, The
Last Face You’ll Ever
See, 124 ESQUIRE 90, 95 (Aug. 1995).
[5]. Two Charges Needed to
Electrocute Georgia Murderer, N.Y. TIMES, Dec. 13, 1984,
at 12.
[6]. Editorial, N.Y. TIMES,
Dec. 17, 1984, at 22.
[7]. Murderer of Three Women
is Executed in Texas, N.Y. TIMES, March 14, 1985, at 9.
[8]. Killer’s Electrocution
Takes 17 Minutes in Indiana Chair, WASH. POST,
Oct. 17, 1985, at A16.
[9]. Indiana Executes Inmate
Who Slew Father-In-Law, N.Y. TIMES, Oct. 17, 1985, at 22.
[10]. Killer Lends
A Hand to Find A Vein for Execution, L.A. TIMES,
Aug. 20, 1986, at 2.
[11]. Addict Is Executed in
Texas For Slaying of 2 in Robbery, N.Y. TIMES,
June 25, 1987, at A24.
[12]. Drawn-out Execution
Dismays Texas Inmates, DALLAS MORNING NEWS,
Dec. 15, 1988, at 29A.
[13]. Landry Executed
for ’82 Robbery-Slaying, DALLAS MORNING NEWS,
Dec. 13, 1988, at 29A.
[14]. Witness to an
Execution, HOUS. CHRON., May 27, 1989, at 11.
[15]. John Archibald, On
Second Try, Dunkins Executed for Murder, BIRMINGHAM NEWS,
July 14, 1989, at 1.
[16]. Peter
Applebome, 2 Jolts in Alabama Execution, N.Y. TIMES,
July 15, 1989, at 6.
[17]. Cynthia Barnett, Tafero
Meets Grisly Fate in Chair, GAINESVILLE SUN, May 5, 1990,
at 1; Cynthia Barnett, A Sterile Scene Turns
Grotesque, GAINESVILLE SUN, May 5, 1990, at 1; Bruce
Ritchie, Flames, Smoke Mar Execution of
Murderer, FLORIDA TIMES-UNION (Jacksonville),
May 5, 1990, at 1; Bruce Ritchie, Report on Flawed
Execution Cites Human Error, FLORIDA TIMES-UNION (Jacksonville),
May 9, 1990, at B1.
[18]. Bill Moss, Chair
Concerns Put Deaths on Hold, ST. PETERSBURG TIMES,
July 18, 1990, at 1B.
[19]. Niles Group Questions
Execution Procedure, UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL,
Nov. 8, 1992 (LEXIS/NEXUS file).
[20]. Mike Allen, Groups Seek
Probe of Electrocution’s Unusual Events, RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH,
Oct. 19, 1990, at B1; Mike Allen, Minister Says Execution
Was Unusual, RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH, Oct. 20, 1990,
at B1; DeNeen L. Brown, Execution Probe Sought, WASH. POST,
Oct. 21, 1990, at D1.
[21]. Karen Haywood, Two
Jolts Needed to Complete
Execution, THE FREE-LANCE STAR (Fredericksburg, Vir.),
Aug. 23, 1991, at 1; Death Penalty Opponents Angry About
Latest Execution, RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH, Aug. 24, 1991,
at 1; Virginia Alters its Procedure for Executions in Electric
Chair, WASH. POST, Aug. 24, 1991, at B3.
[22]. Joe
Farmer, Rector, 40, Executed for Officer’s
Slaying, ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE, Jan. 25, 1992,
at 1; Joe Farmer, Rector’s Time Came, Painfully
Late, ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT GAZETTE, Jan. 26, 1992,
at 1B; Sonja Clinesmith, Moans Pierced Silence During
Wait, ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT GAZETTE, Jan. 26, 1992,
at 1B; Marshall Frady, Death in Arkansas, THE NEW YORKER,
Feb. 22, 1993, at 105.
[23]. Gruesome Death in Gas
Chamber Pushes Arizona Toward Injections, N.Y. TIMES,
Apr. 25, 1992, at 9.
[24]. Charles L.
Howe, Arizona Killer Dies in Gas Chamber, S.F. CHRON.,
Apr. 7, 1992, at A2.
[25]. Id.
[26]. Abraham
Kwok, Injection: The No-Fuss Executioner, ARIZONA REPUBLIC,
Feb. 28, 1993, at 1.
[27]. Wayne Greene, 11-Minute
Execution Seemingly Took Forever, TULSA WORLD,
Mar. 11, 1992, at A13.
[28]. Another U.S. Execution
Amid Criticism Abroad, N.Y. TIMES, Apr. 24, 1992, at B7.
[29]. Robert
Wernsman, Convicted Killer May Dies, ITEM (Huntsville, Tex.),
May 7, 1992, at 1.
[30]. Michael
Graczyk, Convicted Killer Gets Lethal
Injection, HERALD (Denison, Tex.), May 8, 1992.
[31]. Scott Fornek and Alex
Rodriguez, Gacy Lawyers Blast Method: Lethal Injections Under Fire After
Equipment Malfunction, CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, May 11, 1994,
at 5; Rich Chapman, Witnesses Describe Killer’s ‘Macabre’
Final Few Minutes, CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, May 11, 1994,
at 5.
[32]. Rob
Karwath & Susan Kuczka, Gacy Execution Delay Blamed on
Clogged IV Tube, CHICAGO TRIB., May 11, 1994,
at 1 (Metro Lake Section).
[33]. Because they could not
observe the entire execution procedure through the closed blinds, two witnesses
later refused to sign the standard affidavit that stated they had witnessed
the execution. Witnesses to a Botched
Execution, ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, May 8, 1995,
at 6B.
[34]. Tim O’Neil, Too-Tight
Strap Hampered Execution, ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH,
May 5, 1995, at B1; Jim Slater, Execution Procedure
Questioned, KANSAS CITY STAR, May 4, 1995, at C8.
[35]. Witnesses to
a Botched Execution, ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH,
May 8, 1995, at 6B.
[36]. Store Clerk’s Killer
Executed in Virginia, N.Y. TIMES, Jan. 25, 1996, at A19.
[37]. The involvement of this
anonymous physician violated rules of both the American Medical Association
and the Indiana State Medical Association. Sherri
Edwards & Suzanne McBride, Doctor’s Aid in Injection
Violated Ethics Rule: Physician Helped Insert the Lethal Tube in a Breach
of AMA’s Policy Forbidding Active Role in Execution, INDIANAPOLIS STAR,
July 19, 1996, at A1.
[38]. Id.; Suzanne
McBride, Problem With Vein Delays Execution, INDIANAPOLIS NEWS,
July 18, 1996, at 1.
[39]. Doug Martin, Flames
Erupt from Killer’s Headpiece, GAINESVILLE SUN,
March 26, 1997, at 1. Medina was executed despite
a life-long history of mental illness, and the Florida Supreme Court
split 4 – 3 on
whether to grant an evidentiary hearing because of serious questions about
his guilt. This puts to rest any conceivable argument that Medina could have
been guilty “beyond a reasonable
doubt.” Medina v. State, 690 So.2d 1241 (1997).
The family of the victim had joined in a plea for executive clemency,
in part because they believed Medina was innocent. Id., at 1252,
n. 6. Even the Pope appealed for clemency. Martin, op. cit.
[40]. Michael
Overall & Michael Smith, 22-Year-Old Killer Gets Early
Execution, TULSA WORLD, May 8, 1997, at A1.
[41]. Killer Helps Officials
Find A Vein At His Execution, CHATTANOOGA FREE PRESS,
June 13, 1997, at A7.
[42]. Cannon was executed for
a crime committed when he was 17 years old. 1st Try
Fails to Execute Texas Death Row Inmate, ORLANDO SENT.,
Apr. 23, 1998, at A16; Michael Graczyk, Texas Executes Man
Who Killed San Antonio Attorney at
Age 17, AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN, Apr. 23, 1998,
at B5.
[43]. Michael
Graczyk, Reputed Marijuana Smuggler Executed for 1988 Dallas
Slaying, ASSOCIATED PRESS, August 27, 1998.
[44]. Sean Whaley, Nevada
Executes Killer, LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL,
Oct. 5, 1998, at 1A.
[45]. Davis Execution
Gruesome, GAINESVILLE SUN, July 8, 1999, at 1A.
[46]. Provenzano v.
State, 744 So.2d 413, 440 (Fla. 1999).
[47]. Id.
[48]. Id. at 442 – 44.
[49]. Mary Jo
Melone, A Switch is Thrown, and God
Speaks, ST. PETERSBURG TIMES, July 13, 1999,
p. 1B.
[50] Ron Moore, At Last
I can be with my Babies, SCOTTISH DAILY RECORD,
May 4, 2000, at 24.
[51]. Rick Bragg, Florida
Inmate Claims Abuse in Execution, N.Y. TIMES, June 9, 2000,
at A14; Phil Long & Steve Brousquet, Execution of
Slayer Goes Wrong; Delay, Bitter Tirade Precede His
Death, MIAMI HERALD, June 8, 2000.
[52] Sarah Rimer, Working
Death Row, N.Y. TIMES, Dec. 17, 2000, at 1.
[53]. David Scott, Convicted
Killer Who Once Asked to Die is Executed, ASSOCIATED PRESS,
June 28, 2000.
[54]. Letter from attorney Cheryl
Rafert to Missouri Governor Mel Carnahan, June 30, 2000.
[55] Tim O’Neil, Lawyer Says
Client Convulsed Violently During Execution; But Three Reporters Say It Did Not
happen, St. Louis Post Dispatch, July 6, 2000.
[56] Rhonda Cook, Gang Leader
Executed by Injection; Death Comes 25 Years After Boy, 11,
Slain, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, November 7, 2001,
at 1B (MetroSection).
[57] Alan Johnson, ‘It
Don’t Work,’ Inmate Says During Botched Execution, Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch,
May 3, 2006.
[57] Adam Liptak, Trouble
Finding Inmate’s Vein Slows Lethal Injection in Ohio, New York Times,
May 3, 2006; John Mangels, Condemned Killer Complains Lethal
Injection ‘Isn’t Working,’ Plain Dealer
(Cleveland), May 3, 2006.
[58] Terry Aguayo, Florida
Death Row Inmate Dies Only After Second Chemical Dose, New York Times,
Dec. 15, 2006.
[59] Adam
Liptak & Terry Aguayo, After Problem Execution, Governor
Bush Suspends the Death Penalty in Florida, New York Times,
Dec. 16, 2006.
[60] Ben Crair, Photos from
a Botched Lethal Injection, The New Republic, May 29, 2014,
available at
[61] Associated Press,
May 24, 2007.
[62] Lateef Mungin, Triple
Murderer Executed After 40-minute Search for Vein, Atlanta
Journal-Constitution, June 27, 2007.
[63] Rhonda
Cook, Executioners had Trouble Putting Murderer to Death:
For 35 Minutes, They couldn’t find good Vein for Lethal Injection,
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, June 4, 2008.
[65] Alan Johnson, Effort to
Kill Inmate Halted — 2 Hours
of Needle Sticks Fail; Strickland Steps In, Columbus Dispatch,
Sept. 16, 2009.
[66] Bob Driehaus, Ohio Plans to Try Again as
Execution Goes Wrong, New York Times, Sept. 17, 2009;
Stephen Majors, Governor delays execution
after problems with convict’s veins, CantonRep.com/The
Repository, Sept. 16, 2009.
[67] Greg Bluestein, Georgia Executes Inmate Who
Had Attempted Suicide, Associated Press, Sept. 27, 2010.
[68] Erica Goode, After a Prolonged
Execution in Ohio, Questions over ‘Cruel and Unusual’, New York Times,
Jan. 17, 2014.
[69] Family Sues in Protracted Ohio
Execution, Associated Press/New
York Times, Jan 25, 2014.
[70] Bailey Elise
McBride & Sean Murphy, Oklahoma Inmate Dies after
Execution is Botched, Associated Press, Apr. 29, 2014.
[71] Eric Eckholm, One Execution Botched,
Oklahoma Delays the Next, New York Times, Apr. 29, 2014.
[72] Erik Eckholm, Arizona Takes
Nearly 2 Hours to Execute Inmate, New York Times,
Jul. 23, 2014.
[73] Bob Ortega, Michael
Kiefer, & Mariana Dale, Execution of Arizona Murderer
Takes Nearly 2 Hours, The Republic,
July 23, 2014.
[74] Rhonda Cook, Georgia Executes Brian Keith
Terrell after Struggling to Find Vein, Atlanta Journal-Constitution,
Dec. 9, 2015.
[75] Chris McDaniel, Georgia Executioners Struggled
To Set IVs In Recent Lethal Injections: Executioners took nearly an hour set
the IVs in two recent lethal injections, according to timelines obtained by
BuzzFeed News through public records requests and eyewitness accounts, BuzzFeed News,
Feb. 16, 2016.
[76] Kent Faulk, Alabama Death Row Inmate
Ronald Bert Smith Heaved, Coughed for 13 Minutes During execution, AL.com,
Dec. 8, 2016.
[77] Torrey McNabb’s Final Words
for Alabama Before Execution: ‘I Hate You,’ Montgomery
Advertiser, Oct. 20, 2007, https://www.montgomeryadvertis…; Kim Chandler, Alabama
Inmate Defiant Before Execution for Killing Officer, Associated Press,
Oct 20, 2017;
https://www.usnews.com/news/be…;Witness – Alabama Prisoner Still
Moving 20 Minutes into Execution with Controversial Drug, Death
Penalty Information Center, Oct. 20, 2017, https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/n….
[78] Andrew Welsh-Huggins, Ohio Calls Off Execution after
Failing to Find Inmate’s Vein, Associated Press,
Nov. 15, 2017.
[79] Tracy Connor, Lawyer Describes Aborted
Execution Attempt for Doyle Lee Hamm as ‘Torture’, NBC News,
Feb. 25, 2018; Roger Cohen, Death Penalty Madness in
Alabama, New York Times, Feb. 27, 2018.
[80] Sam Roberts, Doyle Hamm, Who Survived
a Bungled Execution, Dies in Prison at 64, New York Times,
Nov. 30, 2021.
[81] Jaclyn Peiser and Christine
Armario, Oklahoma Death Row Inmate
Convulsed, Vomited During Lethal Injection, Witness Says, As State Resumes
Executions, Washington Post, Oct. 29, 2021.
[82] Id., see also Adam
Liptak, After Supreme Court Lifts
Stay, Oklahoma Executes Inmate, New York Times,
Oct. 28, 2021.
[83] Jimmy Jenkins Chelsea
Curtis, Arizona Executes Clarence
Dixon for 1978 Murder of Deana Bowdin, AZ Central, May 12, 2002.
[84] Death Penalty Information
Center, In ‘Surreal’ Event, Possibly Innocent
Death-Row Prisoner Helped Arizona Executioners Find a Vein After They
Failed to Set IV Line, June 15, 2022.
[85] Elizabeth Bruenig, Dead to Rights, The Atlantic,
August 14, 2022; Amy Yurkanin, Joe Nathan James‘suffered a long death’ in
botched Alabama execution, magazine alleges, AL.com,
August 14, 2022.
[86] Ramon Antonio Vargas, Alabama subjected prisoner
to‘three hours of pain’ during
execution – report, The Guardian, August 15, 2022.
[87] See Death Penalty
Information Center, Alabama Execution of Joe
Nathan James Marred by Failures to Set IV Line, Embarrassing
Dress-Code Controversy, and Disrespect of Victim’s Family, July 29, 2022; Evan
Mealins, ADOC ‘cannot confirm’ if Joe Nathan
James Jr. was fully conscious before his execution, Montgomery Advertiser,
August 2, 2022.
[88] Elizabeth Bruenig, Dead to Rights, The Atlantic,
August 14, 2022.
[89] Death Penalty Information
Center, Federal Court Orders Alabama
to Preserve Evidence of Botched Attempted Execution of Alan Miller, September 26, 2022;
Ivana Hrynkiw, Alabama not ready to use nitrogen
hypoxia for Sept. 22 execution, AL.com,
September 15, 2022; Kim Chandler, Alabama says its [sic] not
ready to execute by nitrogen hypoxia, Associated Press, September 15, 2022.
[90] Kim
Bellware & Derek Hawkins, Execution Halted at Last
Minute when Ala. Prison Staff Can’t Find Vein, Washington Post,
September 23, 2022; Death Penalty Information Center, Alan Miller Asks Federal Court
to Bar Alabama from Second Attempt to Execute Him by Lethal Injection, October 19, 2022.
[91] See Joint Stipulation
and Agreement, Miller v. Hamm, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of
Alabama, Civil Action 2:33-cv-00506-RAH (Nov 28, 2022).
[92] Jolie McCullough, Texas’ Execution of Stephen
Barbee was Prolonged while Officials Searched for a Vein, The Texas Tribune,
November 16, 2022.
[93] Jimmy Jenkins, Miguel
Torres, & Angela Cordoba Perez, In Murray Hopper Execution,
Arizona Struggles with Lethal Injection for 3rd Time,
Arizona Republic, November 16, 2022.
[94] Ivana Hrynkiw, Alabama Inmate Describes
Failed Execution Attempt: Unknown Injections, Repeated Attempts to
Start IV, November 28, 2022.
[95] Nicholas
Bogl-Burroughs, Alabama Again Cancels an
Execution Over Delays Inserting IV Lines, N.Y. Times,
November 17, 2022.
[96] Death Penalty Information
Center, Alabama Governor Halts
Executions After Latest in Series of Execution Failures, November 23, 2022.
ALABAMA
PLANS FIRST NITROGEN GAS EXECUTION AFTER FAILED LETHAL INJECTION
By Kim Bellware Updated January 25, 2024 at 3:37 p.m.
EST|Published January 25, 2024 at 5:00 a.m. EST
When Kenneth Eugene Smith enters the death
chamber at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Ala., on Thursday
night, he will be in a place that is at once familiar and entirely unknown.
Smith, 58, is expected to be placed
on the same gurney that was used 14 months earlier, when he survived a
botched lethal injection that was eventually called off because
his death warrant was expiring and prison workers failed to set his IV line.
But instead of being administered lethal drugs, prison workers will place a
mask over his face and start the process of making Smith the first person
executed by an untested method that uses nitrogen gas to force death by oxygen
deprivation, a process known as nitrogen hypoxia.
If the execution moves forward, it
will be the first time in more than 40 years that the United States has used a
new execution method. The quest to use nitrogen hypoxia in executions came as
drug companies refused to sell the chemical cocktails needed for lethal
injections. It also encapsulates how proponents of capital punishment in
America have been unrelenting in their fight to keep the practice alive.
Twenty-one states still have the death penalty, and it remains legal but unused
in six others because of suspension or moratorium.
Critics have decried nitrogen
hypoxia, which is not known to be used for executions anywhere in the world, as
human experimentation and akin to torture. The U.N. human rights office
argued that the method could cause pain and suffering because Alabama does not intend
to sedate Smith before execution. Alabama has argued it is a workable,
effective method that will allow closure to the family of Smith’s victim from a
1988 murder-for-hire plot.
Smith is one of two living
prisoners to survive an execution attempt. The trauma of his nearly four-hour
failed lethal injection in November 2022 is part of the basis for his
attorney’s legal arguments that subjecting Smith to execution again is cruel
and unusual, and a violation of his rights.
Smith, in an interview with NPR in December, said after
receiving his current execution date that his anxiety surged far past what he
felt the last time.
“Everybody is telling me that I’m
going to suffer,” he told NPR. “Well, I’m absolutely terrified.”
The use of the death penalty in
the United States has been on the decline for a decade. Changing attitudes
toward capital punishment, difficulty in legally sourcing lethal injection
drugs and wariness in the wake of botched executions have accelerated its
disuse. Last year, just five states carried out executions, a figure the Death
Penalty Information Center (DPIC), a nonprofit research organization, said is
the lowest number of states in 20 years.
While some states have turned away
from their death penalty process, others have sought to evolve theirs:
switching the types of lethal injection drugs used, reviving once-abandoned
methods such as the firing squad or developing new methods
entirely.
New execution methods tend to
emerge when people become uncomfortable with old ones, said Robin Maher, the
executive director of the DPIC. The electric chair was created in the late 19th
century and billed as more humane than hangings, but the gruesome spectacle of
condemned men sizzling and sometimes catching fire in their wired chairs
eventually fell out of favor, too.
“Executions moved indoors, into
chambers, sometimes in the middle of the night,” Maher said. “They were made
more clinical, more quiet, less bloody.”
Lethal injection fit that
narrative, until drug manufacturers, starting with suppliers in the European
Union, where capital punishment is banned, pulled their drugs from being used
in executions. As states scrambled to find alternative drugs, they also
increasingly enacted new statutes and constitutional amendments that shrouded
their execution process in secrecy. States such as Oklahoma and Texas argued it
was to prevent harassment of suppliers and interference with carrying out a
legal punishment.
“Alabama has refused to tell the
public critical information about its protocol,” Maher said.
Supreme Court refuses to stop
Alabama nitrogen-gas execution
What is known about Alabama’s
approach to Smith’s execution is drawn from a heavily redacted protocol
released in court filings. Smith will be fitted with a mask, and pure nitrogen
will flow into it until Smith no longer has oxygen left to breathe. The
atmosphere is about 75 percent nitrogen, but breathing pure nitrogen with no
oxygen in the mix is toxic and eventually leads to death.
Prison workers planned to meet
several times before the execution to practice, and oxygen monitors will
measure the air in the chamber. Unlike previous executions using cyanide gas, Smith will be on a gurney with
nitrogen coming through his mask and not in an enclosed chamber.
Alabama’s method “alarmed” Philip
Nitschke, an Austrian doctor and euthanasia advocate who is familiar with using
nitrogen gas in lethal situations through his work directing the pro-euthanasia
group, Exit International.
Nitschke traveled to Alabama in
December to look at the state’s setup for the nitrogen gas execution at the
request of Smith’s lawyers. Seeing it in person did nothing to allay his
anxiety, he told The Washington Post.
“This could be some grim and
horrible, macabre death,” Nitschke said of Smith’s execution. He assessed that
Alabama’s setup had the potential for significant error, including leaks in the
mask, which could prolong the execution process.
Nitschke supports nitrogen hypoxia
for assisted suicide but has rebuked Alabama’s approach. A key concern is the
use of a face mask to deliver nitrogen gas, a method he said the “right to die”
movement abandoned more than a decade ago in favor of pods, plastic bags or
hoods that fully envelop the head.
Execution by gas has a brutal
100-year history. Now it’s back.
Nitrogen gas can yield a reliable,
peaceful death, but there are glaring differences between the method used by
people willfully wanting to kill themselves and what Alabama is attempting,
Nitschke said. Patients who use nitrogen for assisted suicide are cooperative,
calm and can practice entering a pod, or wearing a hood; Smith is being
executed against his will.
Smith expressed fear in court filings
that his mask could become dislodged if he prays out loud or hyperventilates.
Nitschke inspected the mask Alabama plans to use and said it would be
relatively easy to break the seal. At that point, the wearer could
involuntarily gasp for enough oxygen to slow the process.
Anesthesiologist Joel Zivot, who
teaches at Emory University and has performed numerous autopsies on executed
prisoners, said states such as Alabama have a poor track record of carrying out
constitutional executions. He notably performed the autopsy of Joe Nathan James
Jr., where the state took about 3½ hours to complete his execution. Zivot was
skeptical that a new method by the same state would fare any better than the
three previous botched injections — including Smith’s in 2022 — that prompted
Gov. Kay Ivey (R) to briefly suspend executions.
Alabama sets first nitrogen gas
execution
1:27
Alabama is scheduled to execute
Kenneth Eugene Smith on Jan. 25 with nitrogen gas, an untested method which the
inmate’s lawyers describe as experimental. (Video: Joy Yi, Kim Bellware/The Washington
Post)
Jeff Hood, Smith’s spiritual
adviser, had to sign a waiver acknowledging he could be exposed to the gas and
had to agree to stand at least three feet from Smith, NPR reported.
“The most damming part of this to
me is the idea of asking Jeff Hood to sign a waiver and saying ‘look, you could
be at risk, too,’” Zivot said. “It’s such an obvious area of incompetence that
they can’t even protect the witnesses.”
Hood told ABC affiliate WAAY in December that he feared
for his safety.
“If a nitrogen leak were to happen
in the execution chamber, who will be there?” said Hood. “What is the emergency
procedure if I collapse?”
Alabama officials have steadfastly
stood behind their procedure. In a filing to a federal appeals court last week,
Attorney General Steve Marshall’s office called nitrogen hypoxia “the most
painless and humane method of execution known to man.”
Marshall said carrying out Smith’s
execution is important for holding Smith accountable for the 1988
murder-for-hire death of Elizabeth Sennett.
Sennett, a 45-year-old mother and
pastor’s wife, was stabbed and beaten with a fireplace implement in what was
staged to look like a home invasion and burglary at the Colbert County, Ala.,
house she d with her husband, according
to court records.
Investigators determined her
husband, a preacher named Charles Sennett, who was having an affair and deeply
in debt, had taken out an insurance policy on his wife and paid John Forrest
Parker and Smith $1,000 each to kill his wife. Sennett killed himself a week
after his wife’s murder when investigators identified him as a suspect. Parker
was executed by lethal
injection in 2010.
Mike Sennett, one of Elizabeth’s
two sons, told WAAY that he plans to attend
Smith’s execution with his brother, and that they have waited more years than
the time they d with their mother to see
Smith executed.
“He’s got a debt to pay and it
don’t matter to us how it happens,” he said.
Smith’s lawyers on Thursday made a
second last-ditch plea to the Supreme Court to stop the execution,
characterizing Alabama’s methods as unconstitutionally cruel and unusual
punishment because the state will expose Smith to a “substantial risk of being left
in a persistent vegetative state, experiencing a stroke, and/or asphyxiation.”
His legal team told the justices
that Smith is at real risk of vomiting and choking to death during his
execution because of the planned deprivation of oxygen. As a result of the
first failed execution, his lawyers said, Smith has already experienced nausea
and vomiting in the lead up to his new execution date.
Because prison officials will “not
intervene at all if he vomits once the nitrogen is flowing and has inadequate
procedures to address vomiting if it occurs while breathing air is flowing, Mr.
Smith is “sure or very likely” to asphyxiate on his vomit as he lays reclined
on a gurney with a mask against his face,” Smith’s lawyers said in a court
filing.
Marshall, Alabama’s AG, blasted
Smith’s petition and request for a stay in a response filed Thursday. The
state’s response said Smith’s claims had little chance of success and that he
is unlikely to vomit and choke during his execution, noting that he will have
taken his last meal more than eight hours before. Should Smith vomit, the state
said they would remove and clean the mask and clear Smith’s airways before
continuing.
The Supreme Court already rejected a separate
request Wednesday to block his execution in a brief order
with no noted dissents.
ALABAMA INMATE EXECUTED WITH NITROGEN GAS WAS ‘SHAKING
VIOLENTLY’ FOR 22 MINUTES, WITNESSES SAY
White
House calls death of Kenneth Smith, executed via untested method lawyers say
was cruel and unusual, ‘very troubling’
By Ed
Pilkington Fri 26 Jan 2024 14.32 EST
Alabama
has carried out the first execution of a death row prisoner in the US using
nitrogen gas, an untested procedure which the prisoner’s lawyers had argued
amounted to a form of cruel and unusual punishment banned under the US
constitution.
‘I’m not ready, brother’: US man to be put to death months after botched
execution attempt
Kenneth
Smith, 58, was pronounced dead at 8.25pm on Thursday evening at an Alabama
prison after breathing pure nitrogen gas through a face mask to cause oxygen
deprivation. The execution took about 22 minutes.
Alabama
claimed that the new nitrogen gas method was “perhaps the most humane method of
execution ever devised”. But eyewitness statements from reporters present in
the death chamber suggested that Smith’s death was anything but humane.
Marty
Roney of the Montgomery Advertiser reported that between 7.57pm
local time and 8.01pm, “Smith writhed and convulsed on the gurney. He took deep
breaths, his body shaking violently with his eyes rolling in the back of his
head.”
Roney’s
report continued: “Smith clenched his fists, his legs shook … He seemed to be
gasping for air. The gurney shook several times.”
The
Rev Jeff Hood, Smith’s spiritual adviser, was at Smith’s side for the
execution, and said prison officials in the room “were visibly surprised at how
bad this thing went”.
“What
we saw was minutes of someone struggling for their life,” Hood said.
“It
appeared that Smith was holding his breath as long as he could,” the Alabama
corrections commissioner, John Hamm, later told a press conference.
The
White House declared the execution “very troubling”, with press secretary
Karine Jean-Pierre saying on Friday afternoon that Joe Biden has “deep concerns
about the death penalty and whether it’s consistent with our values”.
The
execution had been scheduled to begin at 6pm local time at the Holman
correctional facility in Atmore, Alabama, but it was delayed as the US supreme
court weighed his final appeal. Shortly before 8pm, the court denied that
appeal, allowing the execution to proceed.
Justice
Sonia Sotomayor, who along with two other liberal justices dissented, wrote:
“Having failed to kill Smith on its first attempt, Alabama has selected him as
its ‘guinea pig’ to test a method of execution never attempted before. The
world is watching.”
Smith’s
lawyers had argued that to go ahead with executing him under these untried
conditions would violate constitutional protections against cruelty.
They
also unsuccessfully argued that Smith was being dealt with doubly unlawfully by
dint of him having been subjected to an execution procedure once before. In
November 2022, the state strapped him for four hours to a gurney and punctured
his arms and legs in a failed attempt to find a vein through which to kill him
using lethal drugs.
That
placed Smith in a highly rare class of an inmate who could describe what it was
like to survive an execution.
The
new death protocol adopted by Alabama and used to kill Smith involved placing
an industrial-style respirator mask over the prisoner’s head and then forcing
him to breathe pure nitrogen. The technique, known as “nitrogen hypoxia”, leads
to fatal oxygen deprivation.
Days
before he was executed, Smith told the Guardian in a phone call from his prison
cell that he was not ready to die. He had been diagnosed with PTSD caused by
his first failed execution attempt, and was suffering from sleeplessness and
anxiety.
He
said he was terrified by the prospect of vomiting in the mask leading to death
by drowning on the contents of his own stomach, a gruesome possibility that was
raised by his lawyers in court.
In
his Guardian interview, Smith also appealed to the American people to show
mercy for those like him facing judicial killings. “You know, brother, I’d say,
‘Leave room for mercy’. That just doesn’t exist in Alabama. Mercy really
doesn’t exist in this country when it comes to difficult situations like mine,”
he said.
The
execution took about 22 minutes. Smith appeared to remain conscious for several
of those minutes, at times appearing to shake and writhe on the gurney and pull
against his restraints. This was followed by several minutes of heavy
breathing, until his breathing was no longer perceptible.
In
a final statement, Smith said: “Tonight Alabama causes humanity to take a step
backwards … I’m leaving with love, peace and light.”
He
made the “I love you sign” with his hands toward family members who were
witnesses.
“Thank
you for supporting me. Love, love all of you,” Smith said.
Smith
was convicted of the 1988 murder for hire of a pastor’s wife, Elizabeth
Sennett. He and another man were each allegedly paid $1,000 to kill her by
Charles Sennett, a minister in the Church of Christ who went on to take his own
life after suspicion fell on him.
Several
of Sennett’s relatives attended the execution and told reporters they had
forgiven Sennett’s killers. “Nothing that happened here today is going to bring
Mom back,” Mike Sennett said. “It’s a bittersweet day, we’re not going to be
jumping around, hooping and hollering, hooraying and all that, that’s not us.
We’re glad this day is over.”
In
the run-up to the execution, Alabama had come under a raft of domestic and
international criticism. Hundreds of Jewish clergy and community leaders across
the US signed a letter organised by L’chaim! Jews Against the Death Penalty,
calling for a halt.
“Just
the idea of using gas for executions is an affront to our community,” the
co-founder of L’chaim, Mike Zoosman, said. “The Nazi legacy of experimentation
to find the most expeditious way to rid our community of undesirable prisoners
is an undercurrent for anyone who is aware of that history that should not be
repeated in Alabama, or anywhere.”
Smith’s
pending death was also denounced by UN experts on arbitrary executions and
torture who fiercely opposed what they decried as a human experiment. In his Guardian interview, Smith said he
feared that if Alabama carried out his execution it would put the new killing
method of nitrogen hypoxia on the map. He had a warning for his fellow
Americans.
“I
fear that it will be successful, and you will have a nitrogen system coming to
your state very soon,” he said.
AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL
WE KNOW THAT, TOGETHER, WE CAN END
THE DEATH PENALTY EVERYWHERE.
Every day, people are executed and
sentenced to death by the state as punishment for a variety of crimes –
sometimes for acts that should not be criminalized. In some countries, it can
be for drug-related offences, in others it is reserved for terrorism-related
acts and murder.
Some countries execute people who
were under the age of 18 when the crime for which
they have been convicted was committed, others use the death penalty against people
with mental and intellectual disabilities and several others apply the death
penalty after unfair trials – in clear violation of international law and
standards. People can spend years on death row, not knowing when their time is
up, or whether they will see their families one last time.
The death penalty is the ultimate
cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. Amnesty International opposes the
death penalty in all cases without exception – regardless of who is accused,
the nature or circumstances of the crime, guilt or innocence or method of
execution.
About the death penalty
Amnesty International holds that
the death penalty breaches human rights, in particular the right to life and
the right to live free from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or
punishment. Both rights are protected under the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, adopted by the UN in 1948.
Over time, the international
community has adopted several instruments that ban the use of the death
penalty, including the following:
·The Second Optional Protocol to the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition
of the death penalty.
·Protocol No. 6 to the European Convention on
Human Rights, concerning the abolition of the death penalty, and Protocol No.
13 to the European Convention on Human Rights, concerning the abolition of the
death penalty in all circumstances.
·The Protocol to the American Convention on
Human Rights to Abolish the Death Penalty.
Although international law says
that the use of the death penalty must be restricted to the most serious
crimes, meaning intentional killing, Amnesty International believes that the
death penalty is never the answer.
Amnesty International has never
felt more hopeful that this abhorrent punishment can and will be relegated to
the annals of history
Agnès Callamard, Secretary
General, Amnesty International
Juvenile Executions
The use of the death penalty for
crimes committed by people younger than 18 is prohibited under international
human rights law, yet some countries still resort to the death penalty in these
situations. Such executions are few compared to the total number of executions
recorded by Amnesty International each year.
However, their significance goes
beyond their number and calls into question the commitment of the executing
states to respect international law.
Since 1990 Amnesty International
has documented at least 163 executions of people who were below the age of 18,
in 10 countries: China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iran, Nigeria,
Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, South Sudan, Sudan, the USA and Yemen.
Several of these countries have
changed their laws to exclude the practice. Iran has executed more than twice
as many people who were below the age of 18 at the time of the crime as the
other nine countries combined. At the time of writing Iran has executed at
least 113 of them since 1990.
Execution Methods used in 2022
·Beheading
·Hanging
·Lethal injection
·Shooting
112 countries had abolished the death
penalty in law by the end of 2022
883 the number of executions Amnesty
International recorded in 2022 – up 53% from 2021
1,000S of people were likely executed in
China but the numbers remain classified
Where do most executions take
place?
In 2022, most known executions
took place in China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the USA – in that order.
China
remained the world’s leading executioner – but the true extent of its
use of the death penalty is unknown as this data is classified as a state
secret; the global figure of at least 883 excludes the thousands of
executions believed to have been carried out there.
Excluding China, 90% of all reported
executions took place in just three countries – Iran, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
The global view: death sentences
and executions 2008-2022
*This map (see website) indicates
the general locations of boundaries and jurisdictions and should not be interpreted
as Amnesty International’s view on disputed territories.
**Country names listed reflect
nomenclature in May 2023
How many death sentences and
executions take place each year?
Death sentences
2,016
Amnesty International recorded at least
2,016 death sentences in 52 countries in 2022, a slight decrease from the total
of 2,052 reported in 2021. At least 28,282 people were known to be under
sentence of death globally at the end of 2022.
Executions
883
Amnesty International recorded at
least 883 executions in 20 countries in 2022, up by 53% from 2021 (at least 579
executions).
Reasons to abolish the death
penalty
It is irreversible and mistakes
happen
Execution is the ultimate,
irrevocable punishment: the risk of executing an innocent person can never be
eliminated. Since 1973, for example, more than 191 prisoners sent to death row
in the USA have later been exonerated or released from death row on grounds of
innocence. Others have been executed despite serious doubts about their guilt.
It does not deter crime
Countries who execute commonly
cite the death penalty as a way to deter people from committing crime. This
claim has been repeatedly discredited, and there is no evidence that the death
penalty is any more effective in reducing crime than life imprisonment.
It is often used within skewed
justice systems
In many cases recorded by Amnesty
International, people were executed after being convicted in grossly unfair
trials, on the basis of torture-tainted evidence and with inadequate legal representation.
In some countries death sentences are imposed as the mandatory punishment for
certain offences, meaning that judges are not able to consider the
circumstances of the crime or of the defendant before sentencing.
It is discriminatory
The weight of the death penalty is
disproportionally carried by those with less advantaged socio-economic
backgrounds or belonging to a racial, ethnic or religious minority. This
includes having limited access to legal representation, for example, or being
at greater disadvantage in their experience of the criminal justice system.
It is used as a political tool
The authorities in some countries,
for example Iran and Sudan, use the death penalty to punish political
opponents.
What is Amnesty International
doing to abolish the death penalty?
For over 45 years, Amnesty
International has been campaigning to abolish the death penalty around the
world.
Amnesty International monitors its
use by all states to expose and hold to account governments that continue to
use the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. We publish a report annually,
reporting figures and analysing trends for each country. Amnesty International’s latest
report, Death Sentences and Executions
2022, was released in May 2023.
The organization’s work to oppose
the death penalty takes many forms, including targeted, advocacy and campaign
based projects in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia-Pacific, Americas and Europe and
Central Asia , and Middle East and North Africa regions; strengthening national
and international standards against its use, including by supporting the
successful adoption of resolutions by the UN General Assembly on a moratorium
on the use of the death penalty; and applying pressure on cases that face
imminent execution. We also support actions and work by the abolitionist
movement, at national, regional and global level.
When Amnesty International started
its work in 1977, only 16 countries had totally abolished the death
penalty. Today, that number has risen to 112 – more than half the world’s
countries. More than two-thirds are abolitionist in law or practice.
Case Studies
Saved from death row: Hafez
Ibrahim
Thanks to Amnesty’s campaigning
efforts, the execution of Hafez Ibrahim, from Yemen, was stopped not once,
but twice. Hafez, who was accused of a crime he insists he didn’t commit, first
faced a firing squad in 2005. He was taken to a small yard in a Yemeni prison
and brought before a row of officers with rifles in hand. He thought that
moment would be his last.
Just before he was about to be
shot, he was taken back to his cell, with no explanation. “I was lost, I did
not understand what was happening. I later learned that Amnesty International
had called on the Yemeni President to stop my execution and the message was
heard,” Hafez said.
In 2007, Hafez was about to be
executed again when he sent a mobile text message to Amnesty International.
“They are about to execute us.” Hafez said.
It was a message that saved his
life. The message sparked an international campaign, persuading the President
to stop the execution for a second time.
Now Hafez is a lawyer helping
juveniles who languish on death row corridors across Yemen.
Seventeen-year-old Hafez Ibrahim
was sentenced to death for a murder which he allegedly committed when he was
aged 16. The Yemeni penal code expressly prohibits the execution of anyone
under 18 years old. The Minister of Human Rights in Yemen told Amnesty
International that Hafez Ibrahim’s age was disputed. However, lawyers
representing him maintain that he is under 18.
Activists on a mission: Souleymane
Sow
Amnesty International’s work to
abolish the death penalty is also bolstered by its incredible activists, who
take it upon themselves to campaign against this abhorrent practice.
Souleymane Sow, has been volunteering with Amnesty
International since he was a student in France. Inspired to make a difference,
he returned to Guinea, set up a local group of Amnesty International volunteers
and got to work. Their aim? To promote the importance of human rights, educate
people on these issues and abolish the death penalty in Guinea. Along with 34
NGOs, they finally achieved their goal in 2017.
“My colleagues and I lobbied
against the death penalty every day for five months. In 2016, Guinea’s National
Assembly voted in favour of a new criminal code which removed the death
sentence from the list of applicable penalties. Last year [2017], they
did the same in the military court, too,” said Souleymane.
“It was the first time so many
NGOs had come together to campaign on an issue. People said they were happy
with our work and they could see that change is possible. Most of all, it
inspired us to continue campaigning.”
It was such an incredible
achievement – and it showed the importance of people power.
Souleymane Sow
Further Reading
·
The Death Penalty: Your
Questions Answered
·
Death Penalty and Executions
Reports from Previous Years
·
The Death Penalty V. Human
Rights: Why Abolish the Death Penalty?
·
International Standards on the
Death Penalty
·
The exclusion of child offenders
from the death penalty under general international law
·
Death Penalty 2022: Facts and
Figures
·
Abolitionist and retentionist
countries as of December 2022
·
Death
penalty: Ratification of international treaties
·
Executions of persons who were
children at the time of the offence 1990 – 2022
PROCON.ORG
HISTORY OF THE DEATH PENALTY
Practiced for much, if not all, of
human history, the death penalty (also called capital punishment) is the “execution
of an offender sentenced to death after conviction by a court of law of a
criminal offense,” according to Roger Hood, professor at the Centre for
Criminological Research at the University of Oxford.
Amnesty International lists the
United States as just one of 55 countries globally with a legal death penalty
for ordinary crimes as of May 2023. Another nine countries reserve the death
penalty for “exceptional crimes such as crimes under military law or crimes
committed in exceptional circumstances,” according to Amnesty International.
Meanwhile, 112 countries have abolished the death penalty legally and 23 have
abolished the punishment in practice. Read more history…
Pro & Con Arguments on the
Death Penalty
Pro
1
The
death penalty is the only moral and just punishment for the worst crimes.
Talion law (lex talionis in Latin), or retributive law, is perhaps best
known as the Biblical imperative: “Anyone who inflicts a permanent injury on
his or her neighbor shall receive the same in return: fracture for fracture,
eye for eye, tooth for tooth. The same injury that one gives another shall be
inflicted in return.” [8] [9]
The
word “retribution” comes from the Latin re + tribuo, or “I pay back.” In order for those who commit the worst
crimes to pay their debts to society, the death penalty must be employed as
punishment, or the debt has not been paid. [10]
“Retribution is an expression of society’s right to
make a moral judgment by imposing a punishment on a wrongdoer befitting the
crime he has committed,” says Charles Stimson of the Heritage Foundation.
Therefore, “the death penalty should be available for the worst of the worst,”
regardless of the race or gender of the victim or perpetrator. [11]
Thus,
“retributionists who support the death penalty typically do not wish to expand
the list of offenses for which it may be imposed. Their support for the death
penalty is only for crimes defined as particularly heinous, because only such
criminals deserve to be put to death. Under lex talionis it is impermissible to execute those whose
crimes do not warrant the ultimate sanction,” explains Jon’a F. Meyer,
professor at Rutgers University. “The uniform application of retributive
punishment is central to the philosophy.” [12]
As
Robert Blecker, professor emeritus at New York Law School, further clarifies,
“retribution is not simply revenge. Revenge may be limitless and
misdirected at the undeserving, as with collective punishment. Retribution, on
the other hand, can help restore a moral balance. It demands that punishment
must be limited and proportional. Retributivists like myself just as strongly
oppose excessive punishment as we urge adequate punishment: as much, but no
more than what’s deserved. Thus I endorse capital punishment only for the worst
of the worst criminals.” [13]
“Sometimes,
justice is dismissing a charge, granting a plea bargain, expunging a past
conviction, seeking a prison sentence, or — in a very few cases, for the worst
of the worst murderers — sometimes, justice is death…A drug cartel member who
murders a rival cartel member faces life in prison without parole. What if he
murders two, three, or 12 people? Or the victim is a child or multiple
children? What if the murder was preceded by torture or rape? How about a
serial killer? Or a terrorist who kills dozens, hundreds or thousands?” asks
George Brauchler, District Attorney of the 18th Judicial District in Colorado.
The nature of the crime, and the depth of its depravity, should matter. [14]
Pro
2
The
death penalty prevents additional crime.
If
not a deterrent to would-be murderers, at the very least, when carried out, the
death penalty prevents convicted murderers from repeating their crimes.
“Perhaps
the most straightforward argument for the death penalty is that it saves
innocent lives by preventing convicted murderers from killing again. If the
abolitionists had not succeeded in obtaining a temporary moratorium on death
penalties from 1972 to 1976, [Kenneth Allen] McDuff would have been executed,
and Colleen Reed and at least eight other young women would be alive today,”
explains Paul Cassell, former U.S. District Judge. [15]
Kenneth
Allen McDuff was convicted and sentenced to death in 1966 for the murders of
three teenagers and the rape of one. However, the U.S. Supreme Court
invalidated the death penalty nationwide in 1972 (Furman v. Georgia), leading to a reduced sentence
and McDuff being released on parole in 1989. An estimated three days later, he
began a crime spree: torturing, raping, and murdering at least six women in
Texas before being arrested again on May 4, 1992, and sentenced to death a
second time. Had McDuff been executed as justice demanded for the first three
murders, at least six murders would have been prevented. [15] [16]
Considering recidivism rates, how many more murders
and associated crimes of kidnaping, rape, and torture, among others could have
been deterred had the death penalty been imposed on any number of murderers?
Pro
3
The
death penalty provides the justice and closure families and victims deserve.
Many
relatives of murder victims believe the death penalty is just and necessary for
their lives to move forward.
Jason
Johnson, whose father was sentenced to death for killing his mother, states:
“[I will go to see him executed] not to see him die [but] just to see my family
actually have some closure… He’s an evil human being. He can talk Christianity
and all that. That is all my father is. That’s all he’s ever been, is a con
man… If he found redemption, that doesn’t matter, that’s between him and God.
His forgiveness is to come from the Lord and his redemption is to come from the
Lord, not the government. The Bible also says, ‘An eye for an eye.’” [17]
Phyllis
Loya, mother of police officer Larry Lasater who was killed in the line of
duty, states, “I will live to see the execution of my son’s murderer. People
[need] closure, and I think it means different things to different people. What
it would mean for me is that my fight for justice for my son would be complete
when his sentence, which was [handed down] by a Contra Costa County jury and by
a Contra Costa County judge, would be carried out as it should be.” [18]
While
some argue that there is no “closure” to be had in such tragedies and via the
death penalty, victim families think differently. Often the families of victims
have to endure for years detailed accounts in the press and social media of
their loved one’s gory murder while the murderer sits out a life sentence or endlessly
appeals their conviction. A just execution puts an end to that cycle.
As
Oklahoma Attorney General John O’Connor explains, “The family of each murder
victim suffers unspeakable pain when their loved one is murdered. Those wounds
are torn open many times during the following decades, as the investigations,
trials, appeals, and pardon and parole board hearings occur. Each stage brings
torment and yet a desire for justice for the heinous treatment of their family
member. The family feels that the suffering and loss of life of the victim and
their own pain are forgotten when the murderer is portrayed in the media as a
sympathetic character. The family knows that the execution of the murderer
cannot bring their loved one back. They suspect it will not bring them
‘closure’ or ‘finality’ or ‘peace,’ but there is justice and perhaps an end to
the ongoing wounding by ‘the murderer and then the system.’” [19]
Con
1
The
death penalty is steeped in poor legal assistance and racial bias.
The Equal Justice Initiative
explains that the “death penalty system treats you better if you’re rich and
guilty than if you’re poor and innocent,” resulting in the punishment being
”mostly imposed on poor people who cannot afford to hire an effective lawyer”
while “people of color are more likely to be prosecuted for capital murder,
sentenced to death, and executed, especially if the victim in the case is
white.” [20]
The American Bar Association sets
minimum qualifications for capital case lawyers, yet most death penalty states
do not require lawyers to meet even those requirements, leaving defendants without
the means to hire a private lawyer to face the court with inadequate
counsel. [20]
Further, erroneous eyewitness
identifications, false and coerced confessions, false or
misleading forensic evidence, misconduct by police,
prosecutors, or other officials, and incentivized witnesses taint death row
cases. [21]
For every eight people on death row,
one of them has later been found innocent. [20]
The death penalty is
inconsistently applied and most often applied to Black men who have killed a
white person. While Black people made up only 13% of the American population in
2018, 41% of people on death row and 34% of those executed were Black. [20]
This inequality should not be
surprising considering the roots of the death penalty. Bryan Stevenson, capital
defense attorney and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, refers to the
death penalty as the “stepchild of lynching.” [22]
As journalist Josh Marcus
explains, “Following the end of the Reconstruction period, which saw federal troops occupy
the former Confederate states and enforce new legal and constitutional
protections for Black people, lynching surged in the late 1800s, until it
became all but a daily occurrence across America. Lynchings sometimes involved
government officials like local law enforcement, and government officials began
arguing for capital punishment as an alternative. It would still satiate the public’s appetite for
violence against Black people, but under the auspices of the law, which at the
time allowed for explicit racial segregation in all areas of life.” [22]
A survey of executions found that
80% of executions occur in former Confederate states and mirror historic
lynching sites. [22] [23]
“We should be beyond the point of
killing people for killing people. It’s so archaic,” concludes Rachel Sutphin,
whose father Eric, a Deputy Sheriff in Virginia, was killed by an escaped
prisoner who was, in turn, executed by lethal injection. [23]
Con
2
Not
only is the death penalty not a deterrent to crime, it is very expensive.
Advocates for capital punishment
long argued that it deters crime, other criminal acts, but according to the
ACLU, “There is no credible evidence that the death penalty deters crime more
effectively than long terms of imprisonment. States that have death penalty
laws do not have lower crime rates or murder rates than states without such
laws. And states that have abolished capital punishment show no significant
changes in either crime or murder rates.” [24]
“People commit murders largely in
the heat of passion, under the influence of alcohol or drugs, or because they
are mentally ill, giving little or no thought to the possible consequences of
their acts,” the ACLU continues. “The few murderers who plan their crimes
beforehand… intend and expect to avoid punishment altogether by not getting
caught. Some self-destructive individuals may even hope they will be caught and
executed.” [24]
Further, the death penalty is
significantly more expensive than life-without-parole, the oft-shunned
alternative penalty. The death penalty system costs California $137 million per
year while a system with lifelong imprisonment as the maximum penalty would
cost $11.5 million, an almost 92% decrease in expense. The statistics are lower
but comparable across other states including Kansas, Tennessee, and
Maryland. [25]
And this money has to come from
somewhere, most often at the expense of taxpayers. In Texas, executions are
funded “by raising property tax rates and by reducing public safety
expenditure. Property crime rises as a consequence of the latter,” explains
Jeffrey Miron of the Cato Institute. [26]
Con
3
The
death penalty is immoral and amounts to torture.
Many religions, from Catholicism to Judaism, not
only oppose the death penalty but also call for its worldwide abolition.
“Murder is calculated, unjustified
and intentional taking of life. When we, under the supposed color of law,
deliberate, decide, and plan the purposeful extinguishing of human life, we
commit murder. The death penalty is murder,” explains Rabbi and former
Assistant Ohio Public Defender Benjamin Zober. “We are commanded, ‘justice, justice,
shall you pursue.’ (Deut. 16:20) We cannot do this by taking lives, acting in
anger, or vengeance, or by creating more bloodshed, trauma, and pain…. Every
life is sacred and deserves dignity. When one life is devalued, all are
devalued. There is a world in every person, every life — perhaps the world of
someone who committed a crime, but nonetheless the world of a father or a son,
a mother or daughter, sister or brother, or friend. ‘Anyone who destroys a life
is considered by Scripture to have destroyed an entire world; and anyone who
saves a life is as if he saved an entire world.’ (Mishnah Sanhedrin
4:5).” [27]
Robert Schentrup, brother of
16-year-old Carmen who died in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, in
2018 says, “This is the part where pundits on TV will invoke the name of my
sister to support the murder of another human being. This is the part where
people try to convince me that vengeance should make me feel better and that it
will bring me ‘closure’ so that ‘I can continue to heal. But I do not … care,
because my sister is dead, and killing someone else will not bring her
back.” [28]
Further, while the death penalty
ultimately takes a life, the condemned person is subjected to what is otherwise
considered physical and psychological torture before death. As law professor
John Bessler explains “The death penalty, in fact, always and inevitably
inflicts severe pain and suffering rising to the level of torture. That’s
because capital charges and death sentences systematically threaten individuals
with death (and, when death warrants against individuals are carried out,
kill), with torture—prohibited by various domestic laws in addition to the bar
in international law—considered to be the aggravated form of cruel, inhuman, or
degrading treatment or punishment.” And in the United States, cruel punishment
is explicitly banned by the Constitution’s Eighth Amendment. [29]
24 September, 2021
People can create the argument
that it isn't a punishment, but it sets a clear example to similar offenders or
soon-to-be offenders that this is an appropriate penalty for their crimes,
which may be the only motivating factor for them not to do it. Many people
think that they can do what they want ...See more
JW: 5 May, 2022
You mentioned "It should only
be made with absolute evidence, and/or confession". What you failed to
mention is that a lot of confessions made by criminals are coerced. Anyhow, the
resources you mentioned that could be put into the environment to which the
criminals are in in is quite ironic. The de...See more
WE
3 February, 2023
Punishment to me is when you have
to do something to the point where you learn your lesson. You can't learn your
lesson if you're dead. Yes, I do think that this is a good way to get rid of
bad people who kill innocent people. But, this is just another way to kill
innocent people.
27 January, 2022
The death penalty should not be
displayed as a punishment that is "an eye for an eye." If a criminal
commits one murder, one must first look at the factors surrounding the crime.
From there, you will be able to know if they will offend again, or if the murder
was circumstantial in nature. For examp...See more
SC
27 January, 2022
Think about it this way. A man
stands in a church. The judge KNOWS this man has a machine gun and intends to
slaughter innocent people. Now, the judge has a gun, which is the death
penalty. He knows beyond reasonable doubt this man will kill many people if the
judge does not take action. Do you all...See more
GM
23 March, 2021
It depends what they do. If it's homicide
that they committed it should be a death penalty. If you don't kill them it
could be like in 2015 New York. In 2015 two convicted killers escaped prison
and this could happen again if we don't give them a death penalty. Like imagine
if you didn't give the n...See more
PC
15 March, 2023
Exactly. That same thing happened
with Ted Bundy twice. Bundy was able to escape and went on multiple killing
sprees before they finally were able to catch him for good. The death penalty
is a very hard topic to talk about, but we have to think about the innocent
lives that were lost because of thi...
Anon
19 May, 2021
What i think is that if someone was
hurt or injured but not killed in a shooting or some kind of incident, then the
suspect should be treated with the same carelessness or injuries that the
victim has or had. But anything extreme like rape or murder should the suspect
be sentenced to life in prison.
D
28 April, 2022
I think while the death penalty
should be legal, they should also up the qualifications? or measurements? of
the punishment and restrict the sentencing more. Like really reserve it for the
people that deserve it ( like mass murders, serial killers, rapist, pedophiles
) they should be 100% sure that...See more
B
21 April, 2020
Death penalty is actually not a punishment
at all. In my understanding, ending someone's life makes the wrong doer simply
disappear (form of escapism), punishment however is about making sure criminals
pay their communal damage back - so either forced labour for those that
committed serious crimes ...See more
NM
Well the inmates usually sit on
death row for many years before that and you could only imagine the emotional
trauma those inmates go through in the years leading up to their death, as
their stay in prison is significantly worse than others.
M
October, 2020
I agree.People who get death
penalty obviously did something bad enough to get the death sentence , so they
should just have to suffer life in prison. Killing them would let them off too
easy.
FI
23 May, 2021
I'm not sure if the death penalty
is right - we want to fight for kindness, but with the tools of evil? 🤔 There are a lot of opinions, I have no right
to judge - just what about me, I think those criminals could be involved in
public works or other hard but useful activity. It'd increase social pr...See more
GA
5 November, 2020
I have always taken a measured
approach to the death penalty, but am curious to hear what others think...
BC
5 January, 2021
We cannot teach that killing is
wrong by killing-
LS
22 September, 2021
They should get much worse tbh,
they took someones life they should just stare at a wall all day and that
should be their punishment.
J
20 October, 2021
Yes, In my opinion, the death
penalty is just revenge, not justice
HW
30 January, 2020
the death penalty should not be
used anywhere. The eighth amendment proves that "cruel and unusual
punishments" cannot, in any circumstances, be used. Execution is probably
them most cruel and unusual punishment of all time.
D17 November, 2020
Death penalty is not unusual. It
is a bit cruel; but an unusual punishment is cutting someone’s hand off for
shop lifting.
CC14 February, 2020
so if someone kills another they
do not deserve death themselves? The death penalty is only used in rare and
extreme!! cases, not for smaller crime such as theft, the death penalty is not
a unusual punishment them inject them with a dose of drugs which is the least
and most un-creul way to silence...See more
HOUSE
COMMITTEE HOLDS BILL TO ALLOW DEATH PENALTY FOR LEWD CONDUCT WITH A CHILD UNDER
12 IN IDAHO
STATE
REP. BRUCE SKAUG SAYS HE WILL WORK ON CHANGES TO THE LEGISLATION AFTER
CONSTITUTIONALITY ISSUES CAME UP
BY: CLARK CORBIN - JANUARY 31, 2024 4:41
PM
The Idaho Legislature’s House
Judiciary, Rules and Administration Committee voted Wednesday to hold a potentially
unconstitutional bill that would have allowed the state to seek the death
penalty for convictions of lewd conduct with a child under 12.
Under current Idaho law, only
first-degree murder is punishable by the death penalty. House Bill 405 would have added lewd
conduct with a child under 12 as an additional crime to carry the death
penalty.
Committee members voted
unanimously to hold the bill in committee subject to the call of Chairman Bruce
Skaug, R-Nampa, who co-sponsored the bill. That blocked the bill from moving
forward to the floor of the Idaho House of Representatives for a vote.
After Wednesday’s vote, Skaug said
he would work on changes to the bill to address concerns legislators expressed
Wednesday.
SCOTUS
ruling found death penalty is unconstitutional punishment for most crimes other
than acts such as homicide, terrorism
Skaug said he co-sponsored the
bill because he wanted to protect the state’s youngest and most vulnerable
children from the most heinous and severe sex crimes and rape.
But committee members expressed
several concerns with language in the bill.
Several legislators, including
Skaug, cited or alluded to the 2008 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the case
of Kennedy v. Louisiana, which found that the death penalty is an
unconstitutional punishment for crimes other than homicide or crimes against
the state, such as terrorism.
Skaug told legislators Wednesday
that he believes the current U.S. Supreme Court would overturn its 2008 ruling
and declare his bill constitutional.
However, Rep. John Gannon,
D-Boise, argued that it would be an extremely time consuming and expensive
process to go through all the legal challenges that House Bill 405 would face
in hopes that Idaho’s bill would stand up to lawsuits.
Other
aspects of lewd conduct with a minor bill concern representatives
On top of that, Rep. Dan Garner,
R-Clifton, said he had concerns about a section of the bill that calls for the
court to impose a fixed life sentence for lewd conduct with a child under 12,
even in cases where prosecutors don’t seek the death penalty and even when
there are not aggravating circumstances beyond a reasonable doubt.
Skaug said he is comfortable with
the harsh punishments in the bill.
But Garner and other committee
members had concerns.
“I’m going to support the
substitute motion (to hold the bill) because of line 35 and 36 where it says
the ‘jury or the court, if the jury is waived, does not find a statutory
aggravating circumstance beyond a reasonable doubt’ that they have to do a life
sentence for a minimum of 10 years,” Garner said during Wednesday’s hearing.
“It seems extreme to me if they can’t prove beyond a reasonable doubt.”
There are eight people convicted
of murder serving on death row in Idaho. Rep. Chris Mathias, D-Boise, told the
House Judiciary, Rules and Administration Committee there were 328 charges for
lewd and lascivious conduct with a minor in Idaho in 2022 alone.
Nobody testified for or against
the bill during a public hearing Wednesday at the Idaho State Capitol in
Boise.
Skaug
and his co-sponsor, Rep. Josh Tanner, R-Eagle, can make changes and bring forward
a new version of the bill for introduction
L.A. TIMES
LETTERS TO
THE EDITOR: COULD ALABAMA EXPORT ITS NEW EXECUTION METHOD?
Los
Angeles Times Opinions
January
25, 2024·
12:38
p.m. Jan. 25, 2024: In
a previous version of Jan. 25’s letters to the editor, the final sentence of
Murray Margolis’ letter was mistranscribed as, “The two periods are very
similar — then, religious zealots were murdered in the name of God, and it
could happen again today.” It should have read, “The two periods are very
similar — then, religious zealots murdered women in the name of God, and it
could happen again today.”
To the
editor: Alabama's
new method of execution — suffocating the condemned with nitrogen — should be
interesting to the nearby state of South Carolina. ("Alabama plans to carry
out first nitrogen gas execution. How will it work and what are the risks?" Jan. 21)
More than 20 members of its state
Legislature are making efforts to classify abortion as murder, a crime
punishable by death.
The method of causing death,
however, is a problem. Should they use the electric chair, hanging, the gas
chamber or a firing squad? This suffocation via forced nitrogen gas inhalation
seems like a humane alternative.
Alabama could offer its services to
other states. It could be the first mass execution of women in North America
since the Salem witch trials of the 1600s.
Those women were hanged. This
nitrogen gas suffocation sounds better. The two periods are very similar —
then, religious zealots were murdered in the name of God, and it could happen
again today.
Murray Margolis, Dana Point
..
To the
editor: Alabama's
nitrogen gas execution is an unnecessary and possibly cruel experiment.
This nation has used hanging, firing
squads, cyanide gas, electric chairs and lethal injection for executions. The
past several years The Times has reported problems with obtaining the drugs for
lethal injection, difficulty in their administration and allegations of
cruelty.
The Times has also reported on the
national problem with fentanyl overdose deaths. Fentanyl is available,
inexpensive and easily administered. It is also more humane than these other
execution methods.
Someone should alert the various
bureaus of prisons and state governments about the existence of this drug.
Jeffrey Schneider, Glendale
..
To the
editor: Capital
punishment, the legal extermination of a human life, is still practiced in some
of our states, such as Alabama.
That said, many people have not
lost hope that our Supreme Court will finally put an end to this obscene and
barbaric anachronism, which makes our country appear unenlightened and
unforgiving.
According to Amnesty
International, of the 193 member states of the United Nations, 54 still
maintain the death penalty, and the most known executions that took place in
the last two years happened in China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United
States, in that order.
So, perhaps in 2024, we can aspire
to join the countries that no longer murder its miscreants —the countries that
no longer abdicate hope and instead hope for redemption.
Fengar Gael, Irvine
CORRECTIONS
ONE
IDAHO GOV. SIGNS FIRING SQUAD EXECUTION BILL AMID
LETHAL INJECTION DRUG SHORTAGE
State
joins Mississippi, Utah, Oklahoma and South Carolina allowing firing squads if
other execution methods are unavailable
By the Associated Press March 28, 2023 03:34 PM
BOISE, Idaho — Republican Gov.
Brad Little signed a bill allowing execution by firing squad, making Idaho the
latest state to turn to older methods of capital punishment amid a nationwide
shortage of lethal-injection drugs.
The Legislature passed the measure March 20 with a veto-proof
majority. Under it, firing squads will be used only if the state cannot obtain
the drugs needed for lethal injections.
Pharmaceutical companies increasingly
have barred executioners from using their drugs, saying they were meant to save
lives. One Idaho death row inmate has already had his execution postponed
repeatedly because of drug scarcity.
The shortage has prompted other states in recent years to revive
older methods of execution. Only Mississippi, Utah, Oklahoma and South Carolina
have laws allowing firing squads if other execution methods are unavailable,
according to the Death Penalty Information Center. South Carolina’s law is on
hold pending the outcome of a legal challenge.
Some states began refurbishing
electric chairs as standbys for when lethal drugs are unavailable. Others have
considered — and, at times, used — largely untested execution methods. In 2018,
Nevada executed Carey Dean Moore with a never-before-tried drug combination
that included the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl .
Alabama has built a system for executing people using nitrogen gas to induce
hypoxia, but it has not yet been used.
“While I am signing this bill, it
is important to point out that fulfilling justice can and must be done by
minimizing stress on corrections personnel,” Little wrote in a transmittal letter after signing the bill. “For
the people on death row, a jury convicted them of their crimes, and they were
lawfully sentenced to death. It is the responsibility of the state of Idaho to
follow the law and ensure that lawful criminal sentences are carried out.”
During a historic round of 13
executions in the final months of Donald Trump’s presidency, the federal
government opted for the sedative pentobarbital as a replacement for lethal
drugs used in the 2000s. It issued a protocol allowing firing squads for
federal executions if necessary, but that method was not used.
Some lawyers for federal inmates
who were eventually put to death argued in court that firing squads actually
would be quicker and less painful than pentobarbital, which they said causes a
sensation akin to drowning.
However, in a 2019 filing, U.S.
lawyers cited an expert as saying someone shot by firing squad can remain
conscious for 10 seconds and that it would be “severely painful, especially
related to shattering of bone and damage to the spinal cord.”
President Joe Biden’s attorney
general, Merrick Garland, ordered a temporary pause on federal executions in
2021 while the Justice Department reviewed protocols. Garland did not say how
long the moratorium will last.
Idaho Sen. Doug Ricks, a
Republican who co-sponsored that state’s firing squad bill, told his fellow
senators Monday (3/20) that the state’s difficulty in finding lethal injection
drugs could continue “indefinitely,” that he believes death by firing squad is
“humane,” and that the bill would help ensure the rule of law is carried out.
But Sen. Dan Foreman, also a
Republican, called firing-squad executions “beneath the dignity of the state of
Idaho.” They would traumatize the executioners, the witnesses and the people
who clean up afterward, he said.
The bill originated with
Republican Rep. Bruce Skaug, prompted in part by the state’s inability to
execute Gerald Pizzuto Jr. late last year. Pizzuto, who now has terminal cancer
and other debilitating illnesses, has spent more than three decades on death
row for his role in the 1985 slayings of two gold prospectors.
The
Idaho Department of Correction estimates it will cost around $750,000 to build
or retrofit a death chamber for firing squad executions Find a good wall and they can bring their own
guns!
Agency Director Jeff Tewalt has said
he would be reluctant to ask his staffers to participate in a firing squad.
Both Tewalt and his former
co-worker Kevin Kempf played a key role in obtaining the drugs used in the 2012
execution of Richard Albert Leavitt, flying to Tacoma, Washington, with more
than $15,000 in cash to buy them from a pharmacist. The trip was kept secret by
the department but revealed in court documents after University of Idaho
professor Aliza Cover sued for the information under a public records act.
Biden pledged during his campaign
to work at ending the death penalty nationwide, but he has remained silent on
the issue as president. Critics say his hands-off approach risked sending a
message that he’s OK with states adopting alternative execution methods.
CHINA SENTENCES AUSTRALIAN DEMOCRACY BLOGGER TO
SUSPENDED DEATH PENALTY
Yang,
a former Chinese diplomat turned political commentator, was detained in January
2019
Published February 5, 2024
11:22am EST
·
Yang Hengjun, a China-born Australian
democracy blogger, received a suspended death sentence from a Chinese court on
Monday.
·
The Australian government,
which has consistently advocated for Yang, expressed shock at the verdict.
·
Yang was convicted of espionage
and given a death sentence with a two-year reprieve, a common practice in China
that often results in a life sentence.
A Chinese court gave a suspended death sentence
to a China-born Australian democracy blogger on Monday. The Australian
government, which has repeatedly raised his case over the years, said it was
appalled.
Yang
Hengjun was found guilty of espionage and sentenced to death with a two-year
reprieve, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said. Such
sentences are often commuted to life in prison after two years.
"The Australian Government is appalled,"
Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said in a statement. "This is
harrowing news for Dr. Yang, his family and all who have supported him."
CHINA
REJECTS TORTURE CLAIM IN TRIAL OF AUSTRALIAN WRITER
Yang,
a former Chinese diplomat and state security agent who became a political
commentator and writer of spy novels in Australia, was detained on Jan. 19,
2019, when he arrived in the southern China city of Guangzhou from New York
with his wife and teenage stepdaughter.
He
was tried behind closed doors in May 2021. The details of his case have not been
disclosed. Yang, who became an Australian citizen in 2002, has denied working
as a spy for Australia or the United States.
In
a letter to his sons in August last year, Yang said he hadn’t experienced
direct sunlight in more than four years. He told his family he feared he would
die in detention after being diagnosed with a kidney cyst, prompting supporters
to demand his release for medical treatment.
Australia
"will be communicating our response in the strongest terms" and will
continue to press for his interests and well-being, including appropriate medical care, the Australian foreign minister
said in her statement.
Wang,
the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, said the court had protected Yang’s
procedural rights and arranged for the Australian side to attend Monday’s
sentencing, likely referring to a diplomat or diplomats from the Australian
Embassy.
In
October last year, Australian journalist Cheng Lei was freed after more than
three years in detention in China for breaking an embargo with a television
broadcast on a state-run TV network.
The
plights of Yang and Cheng had frequently been on the agendas of high-level
meetings between the countries in recent years.
WASHPOST
OPINION: THE DEATH PENALTY: AN AMERICAN SICKNESS
THAT JUST WON’T DIE
By Robert Gebelhoff Assistant editor and Opinions contributor
February 5, 2024 at 6:30 a.m. EST
Anyone anxious about America’s languishing
innovative spirit can take comfort in its execution chambers. For in these
spaces, the country has no shortage of ideas to extend its practice of killing
inmates.
Last month in Alabama, Kenneth
Eugene Smith became the first person in the
nation ever executed with nitrogen gas.
Witnesses say that Smith, convicted
of the murder of Elizabeth Sennett in 1988, “shook and writhed on a
gurney” for two minutes, after which he gasped for
breath for several minutes as he suffocated to death. Alabama Department of
Corrections Commissioner John Hamm assured people at a news conference
afterward that the execution had gone exactly as planned, and that nothing
about Smith’s death was “out of the ordinary.”
Nothing — if you find the state
killing of citizens ordinary.
So successful was Smith’s
convulsing death that several Republicans in Ohio quickly introduced a
bill to begin the practice in their own
state. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall was happy to offer his
assistance: “Alabama has done it, and now so can you.”
The nitrogen gas method was
necessary because it has become increasingly difficult for jurisdictions to
acquire the deadly cocktails of sedatives and heart-stopping toxins needed for
lethal injections. For some reason, the drug manufacturers needed to produce
the chemicals have been more interested in marketing themselves as promoters of
health than as merchants of death.
With the shortage of these
chemicals becoming ever more acute, criminal justice officials have been
devising creative methods to dispose of human beings on death row. The Justice
Department under President Donald Trump contemplated using fentanyl, the powerful opioid fueling the
country’s overdose epidemic. Tennessee reinstated the electric
chair as its default method if lethal
injection is unavailable. Some Republicans have even sought to bring back firing squads. (In Utah, inmates have the
luxury of being able to elect this
as their means of expiration.)
The number of public executions in
the United States — after falling precipitously in the past few decades —
has started ticking upward
in the past two years. The death penalty, it seems, is just too
embedded in America’s DNA to go away.
Support for the practice has been
on the downtrend, but most Americans still approve of it. This is largely
thanks to Republicans, who, despite momentarily wavering on
government-sanctioned death during the Obama years, have regained their
confidence in it. In Gallup’s most recent survey, 81 percent of Republicans said
they favor the death penalty.
Even the Biden administration is
reacting to the issue with a shrug. President Biden campaigned on eliminating the death
penalty, saying he would “incentivize” states to follow his lead. But his
Justice Department believes that his promise has room for exceptions. Last
month, it announced it is seeking the death
penalty for the white supremacist who in 2022
killed 10 people at a grocery store in Buffalo.
Moral consistency, it seems, is
overrated.
Keep in mind that the United
States resides in a lonely space among Western democracies. Almost all its
peers abandoned use of capital punishment decades ago, owing to its barbaric
nature.
The case against the death penalty
centers on a simple fact: It is cruel and therefore should be barred by the
Constitution. It is inconsistently applied and often carried out poorly, such
that people endure torturous deaths. The Death Penalty Information Center
reports that lethal injections are botched 7 percent of the time. This is made
worse by the abhorrent rate of wrongful convictions in the United States (one
2014 study put it at about 4 percent for death-sentenced
defendants).
Supporters have long trotted out
dubious rationales for the practice, such as its importance in discouraging
crime. (The United States’ sky-high homicide rate compared with countries
without capital punishment contradicts this notion.) Some have expressed
anxieties about the costs of incarcerating individuals for a lifetime — better
to kill people than spend too much on them! (Turns out, executing people is more expensive.) Embedded in all this is the
contention that it is possible to kill people humanely (an oxymoron).
More recently, however, the bulk
of rhetoric in favor has relied on vapid emotional appeals. When then-Attorney
General William P. Barr lifted the federal
moratorium on executions in 2019, he argued, “We owe it to the
victims and their families to carry forward the sentence imposed by our justice
system.” Alabama’s Marshall celebrated the
suffocation of Smith as a way for his victim’s family and
friends to “find long-awaited peace and closure.”
As if the only way to bring peace
to victims and their loved ones is through more violence and death.
This is an oversimplified view of
justice — one most of the developed world has soundly rejected. That the United
States seems to be doubling down on it, in the year 2024, is a sign of a deeper
sickness that makes a mockery of the principle that all life is sacred.
WASHPOST
PEANUT GALLERY
I'm
in favor of the death penalty and here's why. My first girlfriend in high
school was murdered by her ex-boyfriend who hacked her to death with a brush ax
in her bedroom in her parents' home. Her parents came in while he was at it. I
went to the funeral, which was unforgettable and terribly emotional. Her
parents were a wreck. No death penalty and the perp has probably been released
by now.
I
also had a first cousin murdered in rural Pennsylvania where he was working as
a waiter in a resort simply because he was gay. The perps pled guilty to some
charge and each received 25 years in prison. Again, probably out by now.
The
3 perps should be dead. There was no question about their guilt. If there is any
doubt about someone's guilt, then no death penalty. But if there is no doubt,
I'm in favor of the death penalty.
(Edited)
I
would think killing innocent people (at least 8 people) would make states
rethink the death penalty, but no let's keep killing. Some states stopping the
death penalty has made little progress over the years. Thou shall not kill
unless you have a lot of power. Then it's okay. Even if they didn't do
anything. At all. And I know people (including family) who've been violently
murdered. No desire for their murderer to die. I would like the victims to come
back. That's the only thing I want.
(Edited)
It
doesn’t require being a Republican to support capital punishment. I have no
issues with criminals getting what they have coming to them.
Especially
in instances where there is no question of guilt, like Scott Petersen, who
should have been fitted with a pair of concrete shoes long ago and dumped over
the side of a state owned boat, much like he did to his wife and unborn child.
But
you cannot kill those who have no question of guilt, without also allowing the
government to kill innocent people it wrongfully convicts. So how many innocent
people are you willing to kill in order to kill the ones that "get what is
coming to them"?
How
many innocent folks are convicted of crimes they didn’t commit and spend
decades in prison? So we should just get rid of the entire justice system and
let criminals do what they want because one person may be falsely convicted?
Actually,
yes, given that our penal system has never actually stemmed violent crime. It’s
far past time to put our efforts into a) rehabilitation and b) making sure
criminals, upon release, have the tools they need to succeed. Yes, there will
always be sociopathic killers/rapists who cannot be rehabilitated, and that’s
what life in prison should be for, not the majority who could turn their lives
around given the proper tools.
In
cmost states, "retribution" is a recognized element of criminal
sentencing. It's a polite word for "vengeance." And it's quite
appropriate that an element of vengeance be included in sentences, though the
weight given it should and does vary considerably.
It's
unrealistic to think that victims, the police or the community in general can
or will take a completely rationalistic view of criminal punishment, i.e., that
it should aim to achieve only deterrence and rehabilitation. A criminal harms
an innocent person (or society); that's the definition of crime. Outrage is an
appropriate reaction to violation of innocence. In most cases, outrage is minor
if present at all, because by then the case has wound on so long there are few
emotions left to anybody except depression. But some cases are different.
Timothy McVeigh, for example. There is no other way to express the community's
outrage at such an individual than executing him.
But
outrage distorts some sentences. An example is Ethan Crumbley, who was recently
sentence to four life sentences without possibility of parole, plus 24 years: for
crimes committed when he was 15 years old, and probably in an abnormal state of
mind. Yes, his crime was outrageous, but his age and circumstances mean that
rehabilitation should not have been disregarded as a sentencing goal. Heaping
on sentences that are functionally meaningless is sort of pointless outrage,
indulged in out of fear of community reaction.
In
cmost states, "retribution" is a recognized element of criminal
sentencing. It's a polite word for "vengeance." And it's quite
appropriate that an element of vengeance be included in sentences, though the
weight given it should and does vary considerably.
In
what state is there any mention of "Retribution" written into their
laws masquerading as justice? Vengeance has no place in any system of justice.
It's
unrealistic to think that victims, the police or the community in general can
or will take a completely rationalistic view of criminal punishment
Which
is exactly why the definition of "Justice" includes the word
"impartial", because if we let the victims of crime punish the
criminals, it would not be justice.
It's
because Republicans are pro-life...
Thank
you, very well-put. I worked on a death penalty research project in which I
read hundreds of prosecution case files. Only one of them was really
cold-blooded pre-meditated murder. All the others were committed by people with
neurological damage, psychiatric problems, cognitive impairment, and/or drug or
alcohol problems: NONE of those people were in a rational clear-headed state to
ponder a death penalty deterrent when they were killing. (And many were not
even killers--they were part of a group in which somebody was a killer.) The
pre-meditated killers are not deterred because they plan on not getting caught.
As for "peace and closure" for victim families, we never see those
families interviewed five or ten years later to ask how they feel about the
execution or whether they are now at peace. Plus you've turned a state employee
(or more than one) into a killer, and they have to live with that the rest of
THEIR lives.
The
USA is primitive. Vampire capitalism killing the middle classes, no health care
delivery system that works even for decently insured, extreme higher education
costs - yes great higher ed is free in developed countries, more guns than
people, huge incarceration rates fueled by private prisons . an insane concept.
So sure the death penalty is well loved by the rattier states openly - Alabama
now Ohio? Maybe executions should be livestreamed and competitive like beauty
pageants.
The
year 1981 for Germany was actually the GDR, a communist state. For Western
Germany, the last execution was in 1949.
Thank
you: extremely important detail!
Why
should the "death penalty" die????? . . .there are some folks who do
not DESERVE to breathe the same air as everyone else . . .while living the life
of luxury. What IS . . . UNCIVILIZED . . .is to LET THEM BREATHE AT ALL.
While
that may be true, if you allow the government to kill those citizens, it will
not stop with them. Innocent people will be wrongfully convicted and put to
death. How many innocent people are you willing to murder in order to murder
the "folks" that deserve it? What if one of those innocent people is
you? Still in favor?
If
we are going to argue that executions prevent others from committing the most
serious of crimes, then we are doing it all wrong.
1)
We need to cut out the appeals process. Vengeance--I mean "justice"--
has to be swift. You can't swat your dog for peeing on the rug yesterday (for
the record: I've never swatted my dog, and she's never peed on the rug, and I
wouldn't swat her if she did. That would be my fault for not letting her out.)
2)
It's got to be ugly and violent. Bring back hanging, or firing squad.
3)How
do we "teach a lesson" if we do it behind curtains? "Guilty",
then take them immediately to the town square. Get it done as soon as the TV
stations are there.
Sure.
Even with the current process, we've executed some innocent people, but I'll
bet they were all guilty of SOMETHING.
This
will work. I know because the times of the old west (when everyone was armed)
was when America was the safest, right?
Public
head lopping was always popular. The guillotine was invented as an easier and
softer way after all, the old executioner had to make a few tries and it got
nasty. FOX News might want to carry the slayings live, have to make some format
that is easy to bet on for the sportsbetting in Las Vegas, some point spreads.
KIRK:
We have the right….
AYELBORNE:
To wage war, Captain? To kill millions of innocent people? To destroy life on a
planetary scale? Is that what you're defending?
(“Errand
of Mercy”, 1967)
Be
it on a very small scale or planetary scale, claiming to have THE RIGHT to kill
people (innocent or not) is never righteous.
There
are limited circumstances that justify taking human life. If I must kill
someone to prevent him killing a child, I think that would be killing with a
righteous purpose.
Interstellar
alien: explain why you kill your own people. Humanoid: Well. You see, the thing
is…
Humans:
It’s our RIGHT! We have the RIGHT to do whatever we want!!
Your
column is the most comprehensive explanation of why the death penalty makes no
sense. In summary, there are a dozen reasons why we need to end the death
penalty, and only reason to retain it, which is revenge in the name of
"justice". And if revenge is the motivator, I subscribe to the
opinion that a life in prison without parole is a harsher penalty than life
ended.
I
have argued with some Catholics who tell me no pro-choice Catholic should ever
be able to receive Communion. I tell them the Catholic faith also forbids the
death penalty, and that maybe they shouldn’t receive Communion either (though I
don’t really believe any Catholic should ever be denied Communion). They scoff
at that, saying most people are for the death penalty so there is no
equivalence. Majority rules, even over Rome? I guess the only serious breaches
of the Church for them are the ones they agree with.
Most
Catholic women are for abortion rights. As are all sane people. If anybody
takes a look a few gens back they will likely locate young women family
ancestors who bled to death mysteriously, or died unexpectedly in their
histories. It was in 1945 in my aunt's case, or up to 1974 in the case of many.
Back street abortions were and are nasty and of course will return. No humanist
would consider giving birth to a person they cannot support, and a first
trimester abortion is a huge relief to any girl, boy, woman, man faced with an
unwanted pregnancy.
Capital
punishment is of course a huge sin against humanity, even disregarding the
grotesque inequities of the US justice system. I am an atheist who believes in
the devil and sin - the definitions are similar in all cultures and times.
The
Roman Catholic church, prior to the Vatican II council, upheld the authority of
civil magistrates to impose the death penalty pursuant to just laws. The Second
Vatican Council and subsequent publications have disapproved it. Yet the
Catholic church claims over and over that its teachings never change.
I
used to support the death penalty. I bought into all of the explanations.
But
here's the issue with the "pro" argument; if it was a deterrent, then
why aren't states with a high execution rate safer than those that have banned
it? And why are the majority of those executed poor?
There
is no such thing as "justice". If killing the killer brought back the
victim? Great. But the only true "justice" would be to prevent the
violence from happening in the first place, and the U.S. has very little
interest in doing that.
Agreed.
When people intentionally kill, they don’t care about the consequences. They
don’t think about getting life in prison or execution. There are no deterrents.
They just act.
'There
is no such thing as "justice".'
Not
if you define it has divine justice. But human beings have to do the best they
can with their fallible natures and institutions. If someone close to you was
murdered, or worse, you would probably discover a use for human so-called
justice. And even if not, communities generally feel they must do something to
prevent aggression and other crimes.
Well,
the Post certainly wants no more executions. They keep running these articles
which I have stopped reading. Are we ever going to get equal time for the victims
of these murderers? In this latest execution, which brought out all the
commenters who sympathized with a murderer who had to endure a glitch in the
procedure. And this prisoner had gotten 30 extra years of life before his
execution. That is the crime. Punishment should be prompt so people don't lose
sight of the victims. Some criminals do not deserve to continue to live after
the enormity of their crimes. The idea keeps coming up that is doesn't deter
murders. It is a punishment. That is the point.
Innocent
people are executed. Does that not bother you?
Cold-blooded,
pre-meditated murder on the part of the state will not bring victims back from
the dead.
Revenge
is no basis for a justice system and exists only in the most backward countries
in the world.
Do
some research. Once I delved deeply into this issue, I knew the death penalty
should never, ever be part of the legal system.
Is
death a punishment if there is no hell? Do you absolutely know unequivocally without
a doubt with scientific evidence that someone who takes a life will burn for
eternity? What about salvation? Could they not go to heaven and be rewarded? Oh
no! So, if it isn't a deterent, life in prison is definitely a guaranteed
punishment, and that prevents an innocent person from being executed, the ONLY
reason for it is REVENGE. That, my friend, is murder.
Lou
sorry but you are the victim of no murderer, unless you are writing from some
afterlife.
Yuppers,
the "death penalty" is alive and doing very well on the streets in
America thanks to the gun lobby paying off our legislators.
It's
something we ALL have to think about on a daily basis.
Listen
to Quality of Mercy by Paul the Resonator on YouTube. The Richard Glossip case,
currently being reviewed by the Supremes
22%
extra nitrogen…. and everyone loses their minds!
(Edited)
Demonstrating
for all that you’re no mathematician and that you don’t take state sanctioned
murder seriously. Well done.
(Edited)
The
4% wrongful conviction rate in death penalty cases tracks closely with the
reported 5% wrongful conviction rate in all criminal trials. Our criminal
justice system is full of errors just like every other system that is run by
humans.
I'm
weird, but I am just as horrified at the 5% wrongful convictions that cause
people to spend 30-40 years in prison. That's a death sentence for most of
them, and that death sentence is slow torture. It would be better for them and
their families to execute them quickly and get the suffering out of the way. Imagine
spending 30 years in prison knowing that you are innocent. For me, I'd go mad.
I
have relatives in prison. It goes with the territory when you come from a poor
background like I do. I've visited them in prison. They suffer a lot. They
suffer a lot more than the murderer in Alabama who suffered for 2 minutes.
Given
that a person lives about 60 years as an adult, a 30 year prison sentence is
the taking of half a life. Two 30 year prison sentences is the taking of 1
life. There are an estimated 50,000-100,000 innocent people currently serving
time in prison. That's a lot lives being wrongfully stolen. We should be more
concerned about that than the few wrongfully convicted people on death row.
It's an obscenity to say that you can correct the wrongful conviction after 20
years. You can't. It only happens on paper. The damage is permanent.
(I
should note that of the innocent people in prison, at least half pled guilty to
crimes that they did not commit. That's because the poor know that the system
doesn't work. Better to plead guilty to a crime that you did not commit and
serve 2 years than go to trial and be found guilty and get 10-20 years.)
(I
should note that of the innocent people in prison, at least half pled guilty to
crimes that they did not commit. That's because the poor know that the system
doesn't work. Better to plead guilty to a crime that you did not commit and
serve 2 years than go to trial and be found guilty and get 10-20 years.)
This
is especially relevant, because one of the most effective uses of the death
penalty is as a way to blackmail innocent people into confessing to murder.
Plea deals for murder in death penalty states are often made as a way to avoid
the death penalty, by pleading guilty for lesser sentencing rather than taking your
chance and being convicted and killed before you can prove your innocence.
Yes
Clandes7ine. Disgusting. Anyone researching this gets outraged if they are
human.
https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/facts-and-research/dpic-reports/dpic-special-reports/dpic-analysis-2019-exoneration-report-implicates-use-or-threat-of-death-penalty-in-19-wrongful-convictions
And
coercive interrogations:
http://tinyurl.com/mv9bs742
https://www.criminaldefenselawyer.com/resources/criminal-defense/defendants-rights/tactics-police-use-get-a-confession
(Edited)
I
so agree & sympathize with your take jeffy2345. The US justice system, as
with its many systems, is simply not working. Anyone who is or has friends
poor, nonwhite, without power has seen too many abuses for it not to be
considered ingrained and systemic. I think much of what remains wrong even when
identified by people who study and experience these issues has to do with the decades
long pro USA propoganda so carefully and successfully deployed within the USA.
Uncanny to me when people who are everyday victims of abusive systems will say
stuff like "Well this is the best system that exists". It is so NOT
the best country or system. Was good for maybe 35 years post WWII ironically
cuz everybody else was flattened.
But
USA now is a terrible and worsening system. I urge all young people at least,
responsible citizens of all ages, to personally follow a law enforcement through
legal system case of someone with low resources in their community. My mother
was a private duty nurse and her case was a wheelchair-bound paranoid
schizophrenic 75 year old woman - my mom rescued her from a NJ county jail
where she was locked up in her own waste for being incoherent, when she
happened to evade her assisted living carers. Took 5 days to get the woman out
of jail. Pure abuse - yes it was a white woman formerly with money. USA is a
terrible country to live in. I am a politically active citizen who migrated out
of US 20 years ago.
Yes
it is better in many countries not only W. Europe but also Latin America and
Asia, Australia and NZ. And no you do not get a true picture about other
countries in US media, try adding to your media mix www.dw.com,
www.aljazeera.com, bbc.com, www.lemonde.fr/en/, www.scmp.com etc. Takes a small
effort to get a diverse perspective.
FENTANYL USED TO EXECUTE NEBRASKA INMATE, IN A FIRST
FOR U.S.
By Mitch
Smith Aug. 14, 2018
LINCOLN,
Neb. — Prison officials in Nebraska used the powerful opioid fentanyl to help
execute a convicted murderer on Tuesday, the first such use of the drug in the
United States and the first execution in the state since voters overturned a
death penalty ban in 2016.
The
use of fentanyl, an opioid at the heart of the nation’s overdose crisis, as
part of a previously untested four-drug cocktail drew concern from death penalty
experts who questioned how the execution unfolded. And here in Nebraska, a
state that last killed a prisoner in 1997, the lethal injection represented a
stark political turnabout from when legislators outlawed capital punishment
three years ago.
The
condemned man, Carey Dean Moore, 60, had been convicted of killing two Omaha
taxi drivers decades ago and did not seek a reprieve in his final months. He was
pronounced dead at 10:47 a.m. at the Nebraska State Penitentiary, officials
said, 23 minutes after the first drug was administered. Mr. Moore breathed
heavily at one point and coughed, said four Nebraska journalists whom the state
selected to watch the execution. Mr. Moore’s face turned red, then purple.
The
four-drug cocktail contained diazepam, a tranquilizer; fentanyl citrate, a
powerful synthetic opioid that can block breathing and knock out consciousness;
cisatracurium besylate, a muscle relaxant; and potassium chloride, which stops
the heart.
This
method could open a new avenue for states that have increasingly struggled to
find execution drugs as suppliers have clamped down on how their products are
used. But the unprecedented use of fentanyl in an execution chamber raised new
questions, with death penalty observers warning that any untested method
brought risks.
“Simply
because people are dying as a result of fentanyl doesn’t mean they’re dying in
a way that would be considered acceptable as a form of execution,” Deborah
Denno, a law professor at Fordham University who has studied capital
punishment, said in an interview before Mr. Moore’s death.
Robert
Dunham, the executive director of the nonprofit Death Penalty Information
Center, said the journalists’ accounts of the Nebraska execution left open the
possibility that something went wrong.
“I
can’t tell from the description whether it’s an indication of an execution gone
bad or there are just question marks,” said Mr. Dunham, who added that the
execution took longer than the 15 or so minutes that he had anticipated. He
said the descriptions of Mr. Moore coughing and his face reddening were
concerning.
Scott
Frakes, the state corrections director, who in the months before the execution
refused to disclose the source of the drugs, spoke to reporters for roughly a
minute after Mr. Moore died and did not answer questions.
“I
am required to carry out the order of the court,” Mr. Frakes said. “This agency
has done so with professionalism, respect for the process and dignity for all
involved.”
Nebraska
has a particularly complicated history with capital punishment. Before Tuesday,
the state had not carried out an execution since 1997 and had never killed someone
by lethal injection. (The state most recently had used an electric chair.)
A
bipartisan mix of Nebraska legislators voted in 2015 to outlaw capital punishment, citing a mix of moral and
financial reasons, and then overrode Gov. Pete Ricketts’s veto. But Mr.
Ricketts, a Republican, and his wealthy family bankrolled a ballot referendum
that gave voters a chance to decide the issue. Nebraskans voted overwhelmingly in 2016 to reinstate the
death penalty.
In
recent weeks, the state’s Roman Catholic bishops, citing a new teaching by Pope Francis that capital punishment is wrong in all cases, urged church
members to contact state officials and try to block the execution. Mr. Ricketts
is Catholic, but he said the pope’s decision would not change his stance on Mr.
Moore’s execution.
“While
I respect the pope’s perspective, capital punishment remains the will of the
people and the law of the state of Nebraska,” Mr. Ricketts said in a statement
earlier this month. “It is an important tool to protect our corrections
officers and public safety. The state continues to carry out the sentences
ordered by the court.”
Mr.
Ricketts’s spokesman did not respond to requests for comment on Tuesday.
[Read more about Gov. Ricketts’s push
to restore the death penalty here.]
The
Nebraska journalists who witnessed Mr. Moore’s execution said it appeared to go
as planned, though some parts of the process were conducted out of their view. Mr.
Moore mouthed the words “I love you” to the witnesses he selected, the
journalists said, and turned his head at various points in the execution
process.
Mr.
Moore, who robbed and killed Reuel Van Ness Jr. and Maynard Helgeland in a
five-day crime spree in 1979, was among the longest-serving death row inmates
in the country. Mr. Moore had seen previous execution dates come and go and had
expressed frustration with the repeated delays. People close to him had said he
was ready to die.
Still,
his execution remained in question until his final hours. Two
pharmaceutical companies tried to block the execution in federal court, claiming
their reputations would suffer if the killing proceeded. And prison officials
said Tuesday morning that they were consulting with the state attorney general
to make sure no court issued a stay.
Outside
the prison, a steady rain fell all morning as a small group of death penalty
protesters gathered on the lawn. Several police officers and state troopers
were posted in the area, but there were no obvious problems. The prison yard,
alongside a major highway, appeared empty.
Eleven
more men remain on Nebraska’s death row, and prosecutors are seeking the death
penalty in some pending cases. Still, it is unclear when and if the state will
kill another inmate. The state’s supply of one of the drugs used in the
cocktail to kill Mr. Moore expires at the end of this month, and another
expires in October.
Mr.
Frakes, the Nebraska corrections director, said in a court filing this month
that execution drugs “are difficult, if nearly impossible, to obtain,” and that
he has no replacement sources.
“A
temporary restraining order or injunction,” Mr. Frakes said in the court filing
seeking to carry out Mr. Moore’s execution, “would more than likely have the
effect of changing Nebraska’s final death sentence into a de facto sentence of
life in prison for Carey Dean Moore.”
Mr.
Moore said little on Tuesday before the execution, according to the four
reporters the state selected to witness the process. But he did write a
page-long, handwritten letter acknowledging guilt and reiterating that he did
not wish to fight the execution in court.
Mr.
Moore wrote that he hoped lawyers would help his brother, who is on parole, and
Nebraska death row inmates who claim they are innocent.
He
signed the letter “Carey Dean Moore, ex-Death Row Inmate.”
From Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia
Not to be confused with Corporal punishment.
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide,[1][2] is the state-sanctioned practice of killing a
person as a punishment for a crime, usually following an authorised, rule-governed
process to conclude that the person is responsible for violating norms that
warrant said punishment.[3] The sentence ordering that an offender be
punished in such a manner is known as a death sentence, and the act of carrying out the sentence is known as
an execution. A
prisoner who has been sentenced to death and awaits execution is condemned and is commonly
referred to as being "on death row". Etymologically, the
term capital (lit. 'of the
head', derived via the Latin capitalis from caput, "head") refers to execution
by beheading,[4] but executions are carried out by many methods, including hanging, shooting, lethal
injection, stoning, electrocution, and gassing.
Crimes that are punishable by death are known as capital crimes, capital offences, or capital felonies, and vary depending
on the jurisdiction, but commonly include serious crimes against a person, such
as assassination, mass murder, child murder, aggravated rape, terrorism, aircraft
hijacking, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide,
along with crimes against the state such as attempting to overthrow
government, treason, espionage, sedition, and piracy. Also,
in some cases, acts of recidivism, aggravated robbery,
and kidnapping, in addition to drug trafficking, drug dealing, and drug
possession, are capital crimes or enhancements. However, states have also
imposed punitive executions, for an expansive range of conduct, for political
or religious beliefs and practices, for a status beyond one's control, or
without employing any significant due process procedures.[3] Judicial murder is the intentional and premeditated killing of
an innocent person by means of capital punishment.[5] For example, the executions following the show trials in
the Soviet Union during the Great Purge of 1936–1938 were
an instrument of political repression.
As of late 2022, 54 countries retain capital punishment, 111 countries
have completely abolished it de
jure for all crimes, seven have abolished it for ordinary crimes
(while maintaining it for special circumstances such as war crimes), and 24 are
abolitionist in practice.[6][7] Although the majority of nations have abolished capital punishment,
over 60% of the world's population live in countries where the death penalty is
retained, such as China, India, the United States, Singapore, Indonesia,
Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Japan, and Taiwan.[8][9][10][11][12]
Capital punishment is controversial, with many people, organisations, and
religious groups holding differing views on whether it is ethically
permissible. Amnesty International declares that the death penalty
breaches human rights, specifically "the right to life and the right to
live free from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or
punishment."[13] These rights are protected under the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations in 1948.[13] In the European Union (EU), Article 2 of the Charter
of Fundamental Rights of the European Union prohibits the use of capital
punishment.[14] The Council of Europe, which has 46 member states, has sought to
abolish the use of the death penalty by its members absolutely,
through Protocol 13 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
However, this only affects those member states which have signed and ratified
it, and they do not include Armenia and Azerbaijan.
The United Nations General Assembly has adopted, throughout the years
from 2007 to 2020,[15] eight non-binding resolutions calling for a global moratorium on
executions, with a view to eventual abolition.[16]
History
Execution of criminals
and dissidents has been used by nearly all societies since
the beginning of civilisations on Earth.[17] Until the nineteenth century, without developed prison systems, there
was frequently no workable alternative to ensure deterrence and
incapacitation of criminals.[18] In pre-modern times the executions themselves often
involved torture with painful methods, such as the breaking
wheel, keelhauling, sawing, hanging, drawing and
quartering, burning at the stake, crucifixion, flaying, slow
slicing, boiling alive, impalement, mazzatello, blowing from a gun, schwedentrunk, and scaphism. Other methods which appear only in legend include the blood eagle and brazen bull.
The use of formal
execution extends to the beginning of recorded history. Most historical records
and various primitive tribal practices indicate that the death penalty was a
part of their justice system. Communal punishments for wrongdoing generally
included blood money compensation by the wrongdoer, corporal
punishment, shunning, banishment and execution. In tribal societies,
compensation and shunning were often considered enough as a form of justice.[19] The response to crimes committed by neighbouring tribes, clans or
communities included a formal apology, compensation, blood feuds,
and tribal warfare.
A blood feud or
vendetta occurs when arbitration between families or tribes fails, or an
arbitration system is non-existent. This form of justice was common before the
emergence of an arbitration system based on state or organized religion. It may
result from crime, land disputes or a code of honour. "Acts of retaliation
underscore the ability of the social collective to defend itself and
demonstrate to enemies (as well as potential allies) that injury to property,
rights, or the person will not go unpunished."[20]
In most countries that
practice capital punishment, it is now reserved for murder, terrorism, war
crimes, espionage, treason, or as part of military justice. In some
countries, sexual crimes, such as
rape, fornication, adultery, incest, sodomy,
and bestiality carry the death penalty, as do religious crimes such
as Hudud, Zina, and Qisas crimes, such as apostasy (formal renunciation of
the state religion), blasphemy, moharebeh, hirabah, Fasad, Mofsed-e-filarz and witchcraft. In many countries that use the death penalty,
drug trafficking and often drug possession is also a capital offence. In China,
human trafficking and serious cases of corruption and financial
crimes are punished by the death penalty. In militaries around the
world, courts-martial have imposed death sentences for offences such
as cowardice, desertion, insubordination, and mutiny.[21]
Ancient history
Elaborations of tribal
arbitration of feuds included peace settlements often done in a
religious context and compensation system. Compensation was based on the
principle of substitution which
might include material (for example, cattle, slaves, land) compensation,
exchange of brides or grooms, or payment of the blood debt. Settlement rules
could allow for animal blood to replace human blood, or transfers of property
or blood money or in some case an offer of a person for execution.
The person offered for execution did not have to be an original perpetrator of
the crime because the social system was based on tribes and clans, not
individuals. Blood feuds could be regulated at meetings, such as
the Norsemen things.[22] Systems deriving from blood feuds may survive alongside more advanced
legal systems or be given recognition by courts (for example, trial by
combat or blood money). One of the more modern refinements of the blood
feud is the duel.
In certain parts of the
world, nations in the form of ancient republics, monarchies or tribal
oligarchies emerged. These nations were often united by common linguistic,
religious or family ties. Moreover, expansion of these nations often occurred
by conquest of neighbouring tribes or nations. Consequently, various classes of
royalty, nobility, various commoners and slaves emerged. Accordingly, the
systems of tribal arbitration were submerged into a more unified system of
justice which formalized the relation between the different "social
classes" rather than "tribes". The earliest and most famous
example is Code of Hammurabi which set the different punishment and
compensation, according to the different class or group of victims and
perpetrators. The Torah/Old Testament lays down the death penalty for
murder,[23] kidnapping, practicing magic, violation of the Sabbath,
blasphemy, and a wide range of sexual crimes, although evidence[specify] suggests that
actual executions were exceedingly rare, if they occurred at all.[24][page needed]
A further example comes
from Ancient Greece, where the Athenian legal system
replacing customary oral law was first written down
by Draco in about 621 BC: the death penalty was applied for a
particularly wide range of crimes, though Solon later repealed
Draco's code and published new laws, retaining capital punishment only for
intentional homicide, and only with victim's family permission.[25] The word draconian derives from Draco's laws. The Romans also used the death
penalty for a wide range of offences.[26]
Ancient Greece
Protagoras (whose thought is reported by Plato)
criticised the principle of revenge, because once the damage is done it cannot
be cancelled by any action. So, if the death penalty is to be imposed by
society, it is only to protect the latter against the criminal or for a
dissuasive purpose.[27] "The only right that Protagoras knows is
therefore human right, which, established and sanctioned by a sovereign
collectivity, identifies itself with positive or the law in force of the city.
In fact, it finds its guarantee in the death penalty which threatens all those
who do not respect it."[28][29]
Plato saw the death
penalty as a means of purification, because crimes are a
"defilement". Thus, in the Laws, he considered necessary the execution of the animal or the destruction of
the object which caused the death of a man by accident. For the murderers, he
considered that the act of homicide is not natural and is not fully consented
by the criminal. Homicide is thus a disease of the soul, which must be
reeducated as much as possible, and, as a last resort, sentence to death if no
rehabilitation is possible.[30]
According to Aristotle, for whom free will is proper to man, a person is responsible for their
actions. If there was a crime, a judge must define the penalty allowing the
crime to be annulled by compensating it. This is how pecuniary compensation
appeared for criminals the least recalcitrant and whose rehabilitation is
deemed possible. However, for others, he argued, the death penalty is
necessary.[31]
This philosophy aims on
the one hand to protect society and on the other hand to compensate to cancel
the consequences of the crime committed. It inspired Western criminal law until
the 17th century, a time when the first reflections on the abolition of the
death penalty appeared.[32]
Ancient Rome
The Twelve Tables, which was the foundational law of Rome, prescribes the death penalty for
a variety of crimes including libel, arson and theft.[33] During the Late Republic, there was consensus among the public and legislators to reduce the
incidence of capital punishment. This opinion led to voluntary
exile being prescribed in place of the death penalty, whereby a convict
could either choose to leave in exile or face execution.[34]
A historic debate,
followed by a vote, took place in the Roman Senate to decide the fate
of Catiline's allies when he attempted to seize power in December, 63 BC. Cicero,
then Roman consul, argued in support of the killing of conspirators
without judgment by decision of the Senate (Senatus consultum ultimum) and was supported by the majority of senators; among the minority voices
opposed to the execution, the most notable was Julius Caesar.[35] The custom was different for foreigners, as they were considered
inferior to Roman citizens, and especially for slaves, who were transferrable
property.
An excruciating slow
death by crucifixion was widely practiced by the Romans. Intended to
be a punishment, a humiliation, and a deterrent, the condemned could take up to
a few days to die. Corpses of the crucified were typically left on the crosses
to decompose and to be eaten by animals.[36]
China
There was a
time in the Tang dynasty (618–907) when the death penalty was abolished.[37] This was in the year 747, enacted by Emperor Xuanzong of Tang (r. 712–756). When abolishing the death penalty,
Xuanzong ordered his officials to refer to the nearest regulation by analogy
when sentencing those found guilty of crimes for which the prescribed
punishment was execution. Thus, depending on the severity of the crime a
punishment of severe scourging with the thick rod or of exile to the remote
Lingnan region might take the place of capital punishment. However, the death
penalty was restored only 12 years later in 759 in response to the An Lushan Rebellion.[38] At this time in the Tang dynasty only the emperor
had the authority to sentence criminals to execution. Under Xuanzong capital
punishment was relatively infrequent, with only 24 executions in the year 730
and 58 executions in the year 736.[37]
The two most common forms
of execution in the Tang dynasty were strangulation and decapitation, which
were the prescribed methods of execution for 144 and 89 offences respectively.
Strangulation was the prescribed sentence for lodging an accusation against
one's parents or grandparents with a magistrate, scheming to kidnap a person
and sell them into slavery and opening a coffin while desecrating a tomb.
Decapitation was the method of execution prescribed for more serious crimes
such as treason and sedition. Despite the great discomfort involved, most of
the Tang Chinese preferred strangulation to decapitation, as a result of the
traditional Tang Chinese belief that the body is a gift from the parents and
that it is, therefore, disrespectful to one's ancestors to die without
returning one's body to the grave intact.
Some further forms of capital punishment were practiced in the Tang
dynasty, of which the first two that follow at least were extralegal.[clarification needed] The first of these was
scourging to death with the thick rod[clarification needed] which was common
throughout the Tang dynasty especially in cases of gross corruption. The second
was truncation, in which the convicted person was cut in two at the waist with
a fodder knife and then left to bleed to death.[39] A further form of execution called Ling Chi (slow slicing), or death by/of a thousand cuts, was used from the close of the Tang
dynasty (around 900) to its abolition in 1905.
When a minister of the fifth grade or above received a death sentence the
emperor might grant him a special dispensation allowing him to commit suicide
in lieu of execution. Even when this privilege was not granted, the law
required that the condemned minister be provided with food and ale by his
keepers and transported to the execution ground in a cart rather than having to
walk there.
Nearly all executions under the Tang dynasty took place in public as a
warning to the population. The heads of the executed were displayed on poles or
spears. When local authorities decapitated a convicted criminal, the head was
boxed and sent to the capital as proof of identity and that the execution had
taken place.[39]
Middle Ages
The breaking wheel was used during the Middle Ages and was still in
use into the 19th century.
In medieval and early modern Europe, before the development of modern prison
systems, the death penalty was also used as a generalised form of punishment
for even minor offences.[40]
In early modern Europe, a mass panic regarding witchcraft
swept across Europe and later the European colonies in North America. During this period, there were widespread claims that
malevolent Satanic witches were operating as an organised threat to Christendom. As a result, tens of thousands of women were prosecuted
for witchcraft and executed through the witch trials of the early modern period (between the 15th and 18th centuries).
The burning of Jakob Rohrbach, a leader of the peasants
during the German Peasants' War
The death penalty also targeted sexual offences such as sodomy. In the early history of Islam (7th–11th centuries), there is a number of
"purported (but mutually inconsistent) reports" (athar) regarding the punishments of
sodomy ordered by some of the early caliphs.[41][42] Abu Bakr, the first caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate, apparently recommended toppling a wall on the culprit, or else burning him
alive,[42] while Ali ibn Abi
Talib is said
to have ordered death by stoning for one sodomite and had another thrown head-first from the top of the
highest building in the town; according to Ibn Abbas, the latter punishment must be followed by stoning.[42][43] Other medieval Muslim leaders, such as the Abbasid caliphs in Baghdad (most notably al-Mu'tadid), were often cruel in their punishments.[44][page needed] In early modern
England, the Buggery Act 1533 stipulated hanging as punishment for "buggery". James Pratt and John Smith were the last two Englishmen to be executed for sodomy in 1835.[45] In 1636 the laws of Puritan governed Plymouth Colony included a sentence of death for sodomy and buggery.[46] The Massachusetts Bay Colony followed in 1641. Throughout the 19th century, U.S. states repealed
death sentences from their sodomy laws, with South Carolina being the last to
do so in 1873.[47]
Historians recognise that during the Early Middle
Ages, the Christian populations living in the lands invaded by the Arab Muslim armies between the 7th and 10th centuries suffered religious discrimination, religious persecution, religious violence, and martyrdom multiple times at the hands of Arab Muslim
officials and rulers.[48][49] As People of the Book, Christians under Muslim rule were subjected to dhimmi status (along with Jews, Samaritans, Gnostics, Mandeans, and Zoroastrians), which was inferior to the status of
Muslims.[49][50] Christians and other religious minorities thus
faced religious discrimination and religious persecution in that they were banned from proselytising (for Christians, it was forbidden to evangelise or
spread Christianity) in the lands invaded by the Arab Muslims on pain of death, they were
banned from bearing arms, undertaking certain professions, and were obligated
to dress differently in order to distinguish themselves from Arabs.[50] Under sharia, Non-Muslims were obligated to pay jizya and kharaj taxes,[49][50] together with periodic heavy ransom levied upon Christian communities by Muslim rulers
in order to fund military campaigns, all of which contributed a significant proportion
of income to the Islamic states while conversely reducing many Christians to
poverty, and these financial and social hardships forced many Christians to
convert to Islam.[50] Christians unable to pay these taxes were forced to
surrender their children to the Muslim rulers as payment who would sell them as slaves to Muslim households where they were forced to convert to Islam.[50] Many Christian martyrs were executed under the Islamic death penalty for defending their Christian faith through
dramatic acts of resistance such as refusing to convert to Islam, repudiation of
the Islamic religion and subsequent reconversion to Christianity, and blasphemy towards Muslim beliefs.[48]
Despite the wide use of the death penalty, calls for reform were not
unknown. The 12th-century Jewish legal scholar Moses Maimonides wrote: "It is better and more satisfactory to acquit a thousand
guilty persons than to put a single innocent man to death." He argued that
executing an accused criminal on anything less than absolute certainty would
lead to a slippery slope of decreasing burdens of proof, until we would be convicting merely "according to the judge's
caprice". Maimonides's concern was maintaining popular respect for law,
and he saw errors of commission as much more threatening than errors of
omission.[51]
Enlightenment philosophy
While during the Middle Ages the expiatory aspect of the death penalty was
taken into account, this is no longer the case under the Lumières. These define the place of man within society no longer according to a
divine rule, but as a contract established at birth between the citizen and the
society, it is the social contract. From that moment on, capital punishment should be seen as useful to
society through its dissuasive effect, but also as a means of protection of the
latter vis-à-vis criminals.[52]
Modern era
Antiporta of Dei
delitti e delle pene (On
Crimes and Punishments), 1766 ed.
In the last several centuries, with the emergence of modern nation states, justice came to be increasingly associated with the concept of natural and legal rights. The period saw an increase in standing police forces and permanent
penitential institutions. Rational choice theory, a utilitarian approach to criminology which justifies punishment as a form of deterrence as opposed to
retribution, can be traced back to Cesare Beccaria, whose influential treatise On
Crimes and Punishments (1764) was the first detailed analysis of
capital punishment to demand the abolition of the death penalty.[53] In England, Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832), the founder of modern utilitarianism, called for the
abolition of the death penalty.[54] Beccaria, and later Charles Dickens and Karl Marx noted the incidence of increased violent criminality at the times and
places of executions. Official recognition of this phenomenon led to executions
being carried out inside prisons, away from public view.
In England in the 18th century, when there was no police force, Parliament
drastically increased the number of capital offences to more than 200. These
were mainly property offences, for example cutting down a cherry tree in an
orchard.[55] In 1820, there were 160, including crimes such as shoplifting, petty
theft or stealing cattle.[56] The severity of the so-called Bloody Code was often tempered by juries who refused to convict, or judges, in
the case of petty theft, who arbitrarily set the value stolen at below the
statutory level for a capital crime.[57]
20th century
Mexican execution by firing squad, 1916
In Nazi Germany, there were three types of capital punishment; hanging,
decapitation, and death by shooting.[58] Also, modern military organisations employed capital
punishment as a means of maintaining military discipline. In the past, cowardice, absence without leave, desertion, insubordination, shirking under enemy fire and disobeying orders were
often crimes punishable by death (see decimation and running the gauntlet). One method of execution, since firearms came into
common use, has also been firing squad, although some countries use execution
with a single shot to the head or neck.
50 Poles tried and sentenced to death by a Standgericht in retaliation for the assassination of 1 German
policeman in Nazi-occupied Poland, 1944
Various authoritarian states employed the death penalty
as a potent means of political oppression.[59] According to Robert Conquest, the leading expert on Joseph Stalin's
purges, more than one million Soviet citizens were executed during the Great Purge of 1936 to 1938, almost all by a bullet to the back
of the head.[60][61] Mao Zedong publicly stated that "800,000" people had
been executed in China during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976). Partly as a response to such excesses,
civil rights organisations started to place increasing emphasis on the concept
of human rights and an abolition of the death penalty.[citation needed]
Contemporary era
By continent, all European states but one have abolished
capital punishment;[note 1] many Oceanian states have abolished it;[note 2] most states in the Americas have abolished its use,[note 3] while a few actively retain it;[note 4] less than half of countries in Africa retain it;[note 5] and the majority of countries in Asia retain it,
for example, China, Japan and India.[62]
Abolition was often adopted due to political change, as when countries
shifted from authoritarianism to democracy, or when it became an entry
condition for the EU. The United States is a notable exception: some states
have had bans on capital punishment for decades, the earliest being Michigan, where it was abolished in 1846, while other states still actively use it today.
The death penalty in the United States remains a contentious issue which
is hotly debated.
In retentionist countries, the debate is sometimes revived when a
miscarriage of justice has occurred though this tends to cause legislative
efforts to improve the judicial process rather than to abolish the death
penalty. In abolitionist countries, the debate is sometimes revived by
particularly brutal murders, though few countries have brought it back after
abolishing it. However, a spike in serious, violent crimes, such as murders or
terrorist attacks, has prompted some countries to effectively end the
moratorium on the death penalty. One notable example is Pakistan which in December 2014 lifted a six-year moratorium on executions
after the Peshawar school massacre during which 132 students and 9 members of staff of the Army Public
School and Degree College Peshawar were killed by Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan terrorists, a group distinct from the Afghan Taliban, who condemned the attack.[63] Since then, Pakistan has executed over 400 convicts.[64]
In 2017, two major countries, Turkey and the Philippines, saw their executives making moves to reinstate the
death penalty.[65] In the same year, passage of the law in the Philippines
failed to obtain the Senate's approval.[66]
On 29 December 2021, after a 20-year moratorium, the Kazakhstan government
enacted the 'On Amendments and Additions to Certain Legislative Acts of the
Republic of Kazakhstan on the Abolition of the Death Penalty' signed by
President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev as part of series of Omnibus reformations of the Kazak legal system
'Listening State' initiative.[67]
History of aboliton
Emperor
Shōmu banned the death penalty in Japan in 724.
In 724 AD in Japan, the death penalty was banned during
the reign of Emperor
Shōmu but the abolition only lasted a few years.[68] In 818, Emperor Saga abolished the death penalty under the influence
of Shinto and it lasted until 1156.[69][70] In China, the death penalty was banned by Emperor Xuanzong of Tang in 747, replacing it with exile or scourging. However, the ban only lasted 12 years.[68] Following his conversion to Christianity in
988, Vladimir the Great abolished the death penalty in Kievan Rus', along with torture and mutilation; corporal punishment
was also seldom used.[71]
In England, a public statement of opposition was included
in The Twelve Conclusions of the Lollards, written in 1395. Sir Thomas More's Utopia, published in 1516, debated the benefits of the death
penalty in dialogue form, coming to no firm conclusion. More was himself executed
for treason in 1535.
Leopold I, Grand Duke of Tuscany (later Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor), abolished the death penalty throughout his realm in 1786, making it the first country in modern
history to do so.
More recent opposition to the death penalty stemmed from
the book of the Italian Cesare Beccaria Dei
Delitti e Delle Pene ("On Crimes and Punishments"), published in 1764. In this book, Beccaria aimed
to demonstrate not only the injustice, but even the futility from the point of
view of social welfare, of torture and the death penalty. Influenced by the
book, Grand Duke Leopold II of Habsburg, the future Emperor of Austria,
abolished the death penalty in the then-independent Grand Duchy of Tuscany, the first permanent abolition in modern times. On 30
November 1786, after having de
facto blocked executions (the last was in 1769), Leopold
promulgated the reform of the penal code that abolished the death penalty and ordered the
destruction of all the instruments for capital execution in his land. In 2000,
Tuscany's regional authorities instituted an annual holiday on 30 November to
commemorate the event. The event is commemorated on this day by 300 cities
around the world celebrating Cities for Life Day. In the United Kingdom, it was abolished for murder
(leaving only treason, piracy with violence, arson in royal dockyards and a number of wartime military offences as
capital crimes) for a five-year experiment in 1965 and permanently in 1969, the
last execution having taken place in 1964. It was abolished for all offences in
1998.[72] Protocol 13 to the European Convention on Human
Rights, first entering into force in 2003, prohibits the death penalty in all
circumstances for those states that are party to it, including the United
Kingdom from 2004.
In the post-classical Republic of Poljica, life was ensured as a basic right in its Poljica Statute of 1440. The short-lived revolutionary Roman Republic banned capital punishment in 1849. Venezuela followed suit and abolished the death penalty in
1863[73][74] and San Marino did so in 1865. The last execution in San Marino
had taken place in 1468. In Portugal, after legislative proposals in 1852 and
1863, the death penalty was abolished in 1867. The last execution in Brazil was
1876; from then on all the condemnations were commuted by the Emperor Pedro II until its abolition for civil offences and military
offences in peacetime in 1891. The penalty for crimes committed in peacetime
was then reinstated and abolished again twice (1938–1953 and 1969–1978), but on
those occasions it was restricted to acts of terrorism or subversion considered
"internal warfare" and all sentences were commuted and not carried
out.
Abolition occurred in Canada in 1976 (except for some military offences, with complete
abolition in 1998); in France in 1981; and in Australia in 1973 (although the state of Western Australia retained the penalty until 1984). In South
Australia, under the premiership of then-Premier Dunstan, the Criminal Law Consolidation Act 1935 (SA)
was modified so that the death sentence was changed to life imprisonment in
1976.
In 1977, the United Nations General Assembly affirmed in a formal
resolution that throughout the world, it is desirable to "progressively
restrict the number of offences for which the death penalty might be imposed,
with a view to the desirability of abolishing this punishment".[75]
In the United States, Michigan was the first state to ban the death
penalty, on 18 May 1846.[76] The death penalty was declared unconstitutional between 1972 and 1976
based on the Furman v. Georgia case, but the 1976 Gregg v. Georgia case once again permitted the death penalty under certain
circumstances. Further limitations were placed on the death penalty in Atkins v. Virginia (2002; death penalty unconstitutional for people with an intellectual disability) and Roper v. Simmons (2005; death penalty unconstitutional if defendant was under age 18 at
the time the crime was committed). In the United States, 23 of the 50 states
and Washington, D.C. ban capital punishment.
Many countries have abolished capital punishment either in law or in
practice. Since World War II, there has been a trend toward abolishing capital punishment. Capital
punishment has been completely abolished by 108 countries, a further seven have
done so for all offences except under special circumstances and 26 more have
abolished it in practice because they have not used it for at least 10 years
and are believed to have a policy or established practice against carrying out executions.[77]
Contemporary use
Abolitionist countries: 111
Abolitionist-in-law
countries for all crimes except those committed under exceptional circumstances
(such as crimes committed in wartime): 7
Abolitionist-in-practice
countries (have not executed anyone during the past 10 years or more and are
believed to have a policy or established practice of not carrying out
executions): 24
Retentionist
countries: 53
By country
Main article: Capital punishment by country
Most nations, including almost all developed
countries, have
abolished capital punishment either in law or in practice; notable exceptions
are the United States, Japan, Taiwan, and Singapore. Additionally, capital punishment is also carried out in China, India, and most Islamic states.[78][79][80][81][82][83]
A map showing U.S. states where the death penalty is
authorized for certain crimes, even if not recently used. The death penalty is
also authorized for certain federal and military crimes.
States with a valid
death penalty statute
States without the death penalty
Since World War II, there has been a trend toward abolishing the death penalty. 54 countries
retain the death penalty in active use, 112 countries have abolished capital
punishment altogether, 7 have done so for all offences except under special
circumstances, and 22 more have abolished it in practice because they have not
used it for at least 10 years and are believed to have a policy or established
practice against carrying out executions.[6]
Number of abolitionist and retentionist countries by year
Number of
retentionist countries
Number of
abolitionist countries
According to Amnesty International, 20 countries are known to have performed executions in 2022.[84] There are countries which do not publish information on the use of capital punishment, most significantly China and North Korea. According to Amnesty International, around 1,000 prisoners were executed in 2017.[85] Amnesty reported in 2004 and 2009 that Singapore and Iraq respectively had the world's highest per capita execution rate.[86][87] According to Al Jazeera and UN Special Rapporteur Ahmed Shaheed, Iran has had the world's highest per capita execution rate.[88][89] A 2012 EU report from the Directorate-General for External Relations' policy department pointed to Gaza as having the highest per capita execution rate in the MENA region.[90]
|
Country |
Total
executed (2022) |
|
|
Capital |
Amnesty |
|
|
Unknown |
>1,000 |
|
|
>596 |
>576 |
|
|
146 |
196 |
|
|
13 |
24 |
|
|
19 |
>6 |
|
|
18 |
18 |
|
|
11 |
11 |
|
|
4 |
>11 |
|
|
7 |
7 |
|
|
5 |
5 |
|
|
2 |
>5 |
|
|
4 |
4 |
|
|
4 |
4 |
|
|
1 |
>4 |
|
|
0 |
3 |
|
|
1 |
1 |
|
|
1 |
Unknown |
|
|
1 |
0 |
|
|
0 |
Unknown |
|
|
Unknown |
Unknown |
|
|
Unknown |
Unknown |
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The use of the death penalty is becoming increasingly restrained
in some retentionist countries including Taiwan and Singapore.[92][better source needed] Indonesia carried out no executions between November 2008 and March
2013.[93] Singapore, Japan and the United States are the only
developed countries that are classified by Amnesty International as
'retentionist' (South Korea is classified as 'abolitionist in practice').[94][95] Nearly all retentionist countries are situated in
Asia, Africa and the Caribbean.[94] The only retentionist country in Europe is Belarus.
During the 1980s, the democratisation of Latin America swelled the ranks of
abolitionist countries.[96]
This was soon followed by the fall of communism in Europe. Many of the countries which restored democracy aspired to
enter the EU. The EU and the Council of
Europe both
strictly require member states not to practice the death penalty (see Capital punishment in Europe). Public support for the death penalty in the EU varies.[97] The last execution in a member state of the present-day Council of
Europe took place in 1997 in Ukraine.[98][99] In contrast, the rapid industrialisation in Asia has seen an increase
in the number of developed countries which are also retentionist. In these
countries, the death penalty retains strong public support, and the matter
receives little attention from the government or the media; in China there is a
small but significant and growing movement to abolish the death penalty
altogether.[100] This trend has been followed by some African and Middle Eastern
countries where support for the death penalty remains high.
Some countries have resumed practising the death penalty after having
previously suspended the practice for long periods. The United States suspended
executions in 1972 but resumed them in 1976; there was no execution in India
between 1995 and 2004; and Sri Lanka declared an end to its moratorium on the death penalty on 20 November 2004,[101] although it has not yet performed any further executions. The Philippines re-introduced the death penalty in 1993 after abolishing it in 1987,
but again abolished it in 2006.[102]
The United States and Japan are the only developed countries to have
recently carried out executions. The U.S. federal government, the U.S.
military, and 27 states have a valid death penalty statute, and over 1,400
executions have been carried in the United States since it reinstated the death
penalty in 1976. Japan has 107 inmates with finalized death sentences as of
August 24, 2023, after Toshihiko Iwama, who was convicted of hiring
assassin to murder two Japanese businessmen in Manila, Philippines in 2014 and 2015, died of diabetic
symptoms at Tokyo Detention House.[103]
The most recent country to abolish the death penalty
was Kazakhstan on 2 January 2021 after a moratorium dating back 2
decades.[104][105]
According to an Amnesty International report released in April 2020, Egypt ranked regionally third and globally fifth among the countries that
carried out most executions in 2019. The country increasingly ignored
international human rights concerns and criticism. In March 2021, Egypt
executed 11 prisoners in a jail, who were convicted in cases of "murder, theft,
and shooting".[106]
According to Amnesty International's 2021 report, at least 483 people were
executed in 2020 despite the COVID-19 pandemic. The figure excluded the
countries that classify death penalty data as state secret. The top five
executioners for 2020 were China, Iran, Egypt, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.[107]
Modern-day public opinion
The public opinion on the death penalty varies considerably by country and
by the crime in question. Countries where a majority of people are against
execution include Norway, where only 25% support it.[108] Most French, Finns, and Italians also oppose the death penalty.[109] In 2020, 55% of Americans supported the death penalty for an individual
convicted of murder, down from 60% in 2016, 64% in 2010, 65% in 2006, and 68%
in 2001.[110][111][112][113] In 2020, 43% of Italians expressed support for the death penalty.[114][115][116]
In Taiwan, polls and research have consistently shown strong support for
the death penalty at 80%. This includes a survey conducted by the National Development Council of Taiwan in 2016, showing that 88% of Taiwanese people disagree with
abolishing the death penalty.[117][118][119] Its continuation of the practice drew criticism from local rights
groups.[120]
The support and sentencing of capital punishment has been growing in India
in the 2010s[121] due to anger over several recent brutal cases of rape, even though
actual executions are comparatively rare.[121] While support for the death penalty for murder is still high in
China, executions have dropped precipitously, with 3,000 executed in 2012
versus 12,000 in 2002.[122] A poll in South Africa, where capital punishment is abolished, found
that 76% of millennial South Africans support re-introduction of the death
penalty due to increasing incidents of rape and murder.[123][124] A 2017 poll found younger Mexicans are more likely to support capital
punishment than older ones.[125] 57% of Brazilians support the death penalty. The age group that shows
the greatest support for execution of those condemned is the 25 to 34-year-old
category, in which 61% say they support it.[126]
A 2023 poll by Research Co. found that 54 percent of Canadians support
reinstating the death penalty for murder in their country.[127] In April 2021 a poll found that 54% of Britons said they would
support reinstating the death penalty for those convicted of terrorism in the
UK. About a quarter (23%) of respondents said they would be opposed.[128] In 2020, an Ipsos/Sopra Steria survey showed that 55% of the French
people support re-introduction of the death penalty; this was an increase from
44% in 2019.[129]
Juvenile offenders
See also: Category:Executed juvenile
offenders
The death penalty for juvenile offenders (criminals aged under 18 years at
the time of their crime although the legal or accepted definition of juvenile offender may vary from
one jurisdiction to another) has become increasingly rare. Considering the age
of majority is not 18 in some countries or has not been clearly defined in law,
since 1990 ten countries have executed offenders who were considered juveniles
at the time of their crimes: The People's Republic of China (PRC), Bangladesh, Democratic Republic of Congo, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, the United States, and Yemen.[130] China, Pakistan, the United States, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen have
since raised the minimum age to 18.[131] Amnesty International has recorded 61 verified executions since then,
in several countries, of both juveniles and adults who had been convicted of
committing their offences as juveniles.[132] The PRC does not allow for the execution of those under 18, but child
executions have reportedly taken place.[133]
Mother Catherine Cauchés (center) and her two daughters
Guillemine Gilbert (left) and Perotine Massey (right) with her infant son burning
for heresy (See website for picture)
One of the youngest children ever to be executed was the infant son of
Perotine Massey on or around 18 July 1556. His mother was one of the Guernsey Martyrs who was executed for heresy, and his father had previously fled the
island. At less than one day old, he was ordered to be burned by Bailiff
Hellier Gosselin, with the advice of priests nearby who said the boy should
burn due to having inherited moral stain from his mother, who had given birth
during her execution.[134]
Starting from 1642 in Colonial America until the present day in the United States, an
estimated 365[135] juvenile offenders were executed by various colonial authorities and (after the American Revolution) the federal government.[136] The U.S. Supreme Court abolished capital punishment
for offenders under the age of 16 in Thompson v. Oklahoma (1988), and for all juveniles in Roper v. Simmons (2005).
In Prussia, children under the age of 14 were exempted from the death
penalty in 1794.[137] Capital punishment was cancelled by the Electorate of Bavaria in 1751 for children under the age of 11[138] and by the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1813 for children and youth under 16 years.[139] In Prussia, the exemption was extended to youth
under the age of 16 in 1851.[140] For the first time, all juveniles were excluded for
the death penalty by the North German Confederation in 1871,[141] which was continued by the German Empire in 1872.[142] In Nazi Germany, capital punishment was reinstated for juveniles between
16 and 17 years in 1939.[143] This was broadened to children and youth from age
12 to 17 in 1943.[144] The death penalty for juveniles was abolished
by West Germany, also generally, in 1949 and by East Germany in 1952.
In the Hereditary Lands, Austrian Silesia, Bohemia and Moravia within the Habsburg
monarchy, capital punishment for children under the age of 11 was no longer
foreseen by 1770.[145] The death penalty was, also for juveniles, nearly
abolished in 1787 except for emergency or military law, which is unclear in
regard of those. It was reintroduced for juveniles above 14 years by 1803,[146] and was raised by general criminal law to 20 years
in 1852[147] and this exemption[148] and the alike one of military law in 1855,[149] which may have been up to 14 years in wartime,[150] were also introduced into all of the Austrian Empire.
In the Helvetic
Republic, the death penalty for children and youth under the age of 16 was
abolished in 1799[151] yet the country was already dissolved in 1803
whereas the law could remain in force if it was not replaced on cantonal level.
In the canton of Bern, all juveniles were exempted from the death penalty at
least in 1866.[152] In Fribourg, capital punishment was generally, including for
juveniles, abolished by 1849. In Ticino, it was abolished for youth and young adults under the
age of 20 in 1816.[153] In Zurich, the exclusion from the death penalty was extended for
juveniles and young adults up to 19 years of age by 1835.[154] In 1942, the death penalty was almost deleted in
criminal law, as well for juveniles, but since 1928 persisted in military law
during wartime for youth above 14 years.[155] If no earlier change was made in the given subject,
by 1979 juveniles could no longer be subject to the death penalty in military
law during wartime.[156]
Between 2005 and May 2008, Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen
were reported to have executed child offenders, the largest number occurring in
Iran.[157]
During Hassan Rouhani's tenure as president of Iran from 2013 until 2021, at least 3,602 death
sentences have been carried out. This includes the executions of 34 juvenile
offenders.[158][159]
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which forbids capital punishment for juveniles under
article 37(a), has been signed by all countries and subsequently ratified by all signatories with the exception of the United
States (despite the US Supreme Court decisions abolishing the practice).[160] The UN Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of
Human Rights maintains that the death penalty for juveniles has become contrary to
a jus cogens of customary international law. A majority of countries are also party to the
U.N. International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (whose Article 6.5 also states that "Sentence
of death shall not be imposed for crimes committed by persons below eighteen
years of age...").
Iran, despite its ratification of the Convention on the
Rights of the Child and International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, was the world's largest executioner of juvenile
offenders, for which it has been the subject of broad international
condemnation; the country's record is the focus of the Stop Child Executions Campaign. But on 10 February 2012, Iran's parliament changed
controversial laws relating to the execution of juveniles. In the new
legislation the age of 18 (solar year) would be applied to accused of both
genders and juvenile offenders must be sentenced pursuant to a separate law
specifically dealing with juveniles.[161][162] Based on the Islamic law which now seems to have
been revised, girls at the age of 9 and boys at 15 of lunar year (11 days
shorter than a solar year) are deemed fully responsible for their crimes.[161] Iran accounted for two-thirds of the global total
of such executions, and currently[needs
update] has
approximately 140 people considered as juveniles awaiting execution for crimes
committed (up from 71 in 2007).[163][164] The past executions of Mahmoud Asgari, Ayaz Marhoni and Makwan Moloudzadeh became the focus of Iran's
child capital punishment policy and the judicial system that hands down such sentences.[165][166] In 2023 Iran executed a minor who had knifed a guy
that fought him for following a girl in the street.[167]
Saudi Arabia also executes criminals who were minors at
the time of the offence.[168][169] In 2013, Saudi Arabia was the center of an
international controversy after it executed Rizana Nafeek, a Sri Lankan domestic worker, who was believed to have
been 17 years old at the time of the crime.[170] Saudi Arabia banned execution for minors, except
for terrorism cases, in April 2020.[171]
Japan has not executed juvenile criminals after August
1997, when they executed Norio Nagayama, a spree killer who had been convicted of shooting four people dead
in the late 1960s. Nagayama's case created the eponymously named Nagayama standards, which take into account factors such as the number of victims,
brutality and social impact of the crimes. The standards have been used in
determining whether to apply the death sentence in murder cases. Teruhiko Seki,
convicted of murdering four family members including a 4-year-old daughter and
raping a 15-year-old daughter of a family in 1992, became the second inmate to
be hanged for a crime committed as a minor in the first such execution in 20
years after Nagayama on 19 December 2017.[172] Takayuki Otsuki, who was convicted of raping and strangling a
23-year-old woman and subsequently strangling her 11-month-old daughter to
death on 14 April 1999, when he was 18, is another inmate sentenced to death,
and his request for retrial has been rejected by the Supreme Court of Japan.[173]
There is evidence that child executions are taking place in the parts of
Somalia controlled by the Islamic Courts Union (ICU). In October 2008, a girl, Aisha Ibrahim Dhuhulow was buried up to her neck at a football stadium, then stoned to death
in front of more than 1,000 people. Somalia's established Transitional Federal Government announced in November 2009 (reiterated in 2013)[174] that it plans to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
This move was lauded by UNICEF as a welcome attempt to secure children's rights in the country.[175]
Methods
Main article: List of methods of capital
punishment
The following methods of execution have been used by
various countries:[176][177][178][179][180]
·
Hanging (Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Nigeria, Sudan, Pakistan, Palestinian National Authority, Israel, Yemen, Egypt, India, Myanmar, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Syria, the UAE, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Liberia)
·
Shooting
(the People's
Republic of China, Republic of China, Vietnam, Belarus, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Somalia, North Korea, Indonesia, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Yemen, and in the US states of Oklahoma and Utah).
·
Lethal
injection (United States, Guatemala, Thailand, the People's Republic of China, Vietnam)
·
Beheading (Saudi Arabia)
·
Stoning (Nigeria, Sudan)
·
Electrocution and gas
inhalation (some U.S. states, but only if the prisoner requests it or if lethal
injection is unavailable)
·
Inert gas asphyxiation
(Some U.S. states, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Alabama)
Public execution
Main article: Public execution
A public execution is a form of capital punishment which "members of
the general public may voluntarily attend". This definition excludes the
presence of a small number of witnesses randomly selected to assure executive
accountability.[181] While today the great majority of the world considers public
executions to be distasteful and most countries have outlawed the practice,
throughout much of history executions were performed publicly as a means for
the state to demonstrate "its power before those who fell under its
jurisdiction be they criminals, enemies, or political opponents".
Additionally, it afforded the public a chance to witness "what was
considered a great spectacle".[182]
Social historians note that beginning in the 20th century in the U.S. and
western Europe, death in general became increasingly shielded from public view,
occurring more and more behind the closed doors of the hospital.[183] Executions were likewise moved behind the walls of the penitentiary.[183] The last formal public executions occurred in 1868 in Britain, in
1936 in the U.S. and in 1939 in France.[183]
According to Amnesty International, in 2012, "public executions were
known to have been carried out in Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia and
Somalia".[184] There have been reports of public executions carried out by state and
non-state actors in Hamas-controlled Gaza, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Yemen.[185][186][187] Executions which can be classified as public were also carried out in
the U.S. states of Florida and Utah as of 1992.[181]
Capital Crime
Crimes against humanity
Crimes against humanity such as genocide are usually punishable by death in countries
retaining capital punishment.[188] Death sentences for such crimes were handed down
and carried out during the Nuremberg Trials in 1946 and the Tokyo Trials in 1948, but the current International Criminal Court does not use capital punishment. The maximum
penalty available to the International Criminal Court is life imprisonment.[189]
Murder
Intentional homicide is punishable by death in most countries retaining
capital punishment, but generally provided it involves an aggravating factor required
by statute or judicial precedents.[citation needed]
Some countries, including Singapore and Malaysia, made the death penalty mandatory for murder, though
Singapore later changed its laws since 2013 to reserve the mandatory death sentence for
intentional murder while providing an alternative sentence of life imprisonment
with/without caning for murder with no intention to cause death, which
allowed some convicted murderers on death row in Singapore (including Kho Jabing) to apply for the reduction of their death sentences after
the courts in Singapore confirmed that they committed murder without the
intention to kill and thus eligible for re-sentencing under the new death
penalty laws in Singapore.[190][191] In October 2018 the Malaysian Government imposed a moratorium on all executions until the passage of a new law
that would abolish the death penalty.[192][193][194] In April 2023, legislation abolishing the mandatory
death penalty was passed in Malaysia. The death penalty would be retained, but
courts have the discretion to replace it with other punishments,
including whipping and imprisonment of 30–40 years.[195]
Drug trafficking
Main article: Capital punishment for drug
trafficking
Sign at the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport warning that drug trafficking is a capital crime in
the Republic of China (2005)
In 2018, at least 35 countries retained the death penalty for drug
trafficking, drug dealing, drug possession and related offences. People had
been regularly sentenced to death and executed for drug-related offences in
China, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Vietnam. Other
countries may retain the death penalty for symbolic purposes.[196]
The death penalty was mandated for drug trafficking in Singapore and
Malaysia. Since 2013, Singapore ruled that those who were certified to have
diminished responsibility (e.g. Major depressive disorder) or acting as drug couriers and had assisted the authorities in tackling
drug-related activities, would be sentenced to life imprisonment instead of
death, with the offender liable to at least 15 strokes of the cane if he was
not sentenced to death and was simultaneously sentenced to caning as well.[190][191] Drug courier Yong Vui Kong's death sentence was replaced with a life sentence and 15 strokes of the
cane in November 2013.[197] In April 2023, legislation abolishing the mandatory death penalty was
passed in Malaysia.[195]
Other offences
See also: Capital
punishment for non-violent offenses and Capital punishment by country
Other crimes that are punishable by death in some countries include:
·
Terrorism
·
Treason (a capital crime
in most countries that retain capital punishment)
·
Espionage
·
Crimes against the state,
such as attempting to overthrow government (most countries with the death
penalty)
·
Political
protests (Saudi Arabia)[198]
·
Rape (China, India,
Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Brunei, etc.)
·
Economic crimes (China,
Iran)
·
Human trafficking (China)
·
Corruption (China, Iran)
·
Kidnapping
(China, Bangladesh, the US states of Georgia[199] and Idaho,[200] etc.)
·
Separatism (China)
·
Unlawful sexual behaviour (Saudi Arabia, Iran, UAE, Qatar, Brunei, Nigeria,
etc.)
·
Religious Hudud offences such as apostasy (Saudi Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan etc.)
·
Blasphemy (Saudi Arabia,
Iran, Pakistan, certain states in Nigeria)
·
Moharebeh (Iran)
·
Drinking alcohol (Iran)
·
Witchcraft and sorcery (Saudi Arabia)[201][202]
·
Arson (Algeria,
Tunisia, Mali, Mauritania, etc.)
·
Hirabah; brigandage; armed or aggravated robbery (Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Iran,
Kenya, Zambia, Ethiopia, the US state of Georgia[203] etc.)[204]
Controversy and debate
See also: Capital
punishment debate in the United States
Death penalty opponents regard the death penalty as
inhumane[205] and criticize it for its irreversibility.[206] They argue also that capital punishment lacks
deterrent effect,[207][208][209] or has a brutalization effect,[210][211] discriminates against minorities and the poor, and
that it encourages a "culture of violence".[212] There are many organizations worldwide, such as
Amnesty International,[213] and country-specific, such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), that have abolition of the death penalty as
its main purpose.[214][215]
Advocates of the death penalty argue that it deters
crime,[216][217] is a good tool for police and prosecutors in plea bargaining,[218] makes sure that convicted criminals do not offend
again, and that it ensures justice for crimes such as homicide, where other
penalties will not inflict the desired retribution demanded by the crime
itself. Capital punishment for non-lethal crimes is usually considerably more
controversial, and abolished in many of the countries that retain it.[219][220]
Retribution
See also: Revenge § Revenge dynamics
Execution of a war criminal in Germany in 1946
Supporters of the death penalty argued that death penalty is morally
justified when applied in murder especially with aggravating elements such as
for murder of police officers, child murder, torture murder, multiple homicide and mass killing such as terrorism, massacre and genocide. This argument is strongly defended by New York Law School's Professor Robert Blecker,[221] who says that the punishment must be painful in proportion to the
crime. Eighteenth-century philosopher Immanuel Kant defended a more extreme position, according to which every murderer
deserves to die on the grounds that loss of life is incomparable to any penalty
that allows them to remain alive, including life imprisonment.[222]
Some abolitionists argue that retribution is simply revenge and cannot be condoned.
Others while accepting retribution as an element of criminal justice
nonetheless argue that life without parole is a sufficient substitute. It is also argued that the punishing of a
killing with another death is a relatively unusual punishment for a violent
act, because in general violent crimes are not punished by subjecting the
perpetrator to a similar act (e.g. rapists are, typically, not punished by corporal punishment, although it may be inflicted in Singapore, for example).[223]
Human rights
Abolitionists believe capital punishment is the worst violation of human
rights, because the right to life is the most important, and capital punishment violates it without
necessity and inflicts to the condemned a psychological torture. Human rights activists oppose the death penalty, calling it "cruel,
inhuman and degrading punishment". Amnesty International considers it to
be "the ultimate irreversible denial of Human Rights".[224] Albert Camus wrote in a 1956 book called Reflections on the Guillotine, Resistance, Rebellion & Death:
An execution is not simply death. It is just as different from the privation
of life as a concentration camp is from prison. [...] For there to be an
equivalency, the death penalty would have to punish a criminal who had warned
his victim of the date at which he would inflict a horrible death on him and
who, from that moment onward, had confined him at his mercy for months. Such a
monster is not encountered in private life.[225]
In the classic doctrine of natural rights as expounded by
for instance Locke and Blackstone, on the other hand, it is an important idea that the
right to life can be forfeited, as most other rights can be given due process is observed, such as the right to
property and the right to freedom, including provisionally, in anticipation of an actual verdict.[226] As John Stuart Mill explained in a speech given in Parliament against
an amendment to abolish capital punishment for murder in 1868:
And we may imagine somebody asking how we can teach people not to inflict
suffering by ourselves inflicting it? But to this I should answer – all of us
would answer – that to deter by suffering from inflicting suffering is not only
possible, but the very purpose of penal justice. Does fining a criminal show
want of respect for property, or imprisoning him, for personal freedom? Just as
unreasonable is it to think that to take the life of a man who has taken that
of another is to show want of regard for human life. We show, on the contrary,
most emphatically our regard for it, by the adoption of a rule that he who
violates that right in another forfeits it for himself, and that while no other
crime that he can commit deprives him of his right to live, this shall.[227]
In one of the most recent cases relating to the death penalty in Singapore, activists like Jolovan Wham, Kirsten Han and Kokila Annamalai and even the international
groups like the United Nations and European Union argued for Malaysian drug trafficker Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam, who has been on death row at Singapore's Changi Prison since 2010, should not be executed due to an
alleged intellectual disability, as they argued that Nagaenthran has low IQ of
69 and a psychiatrist has assessed him to be mentally impaired to an extent
that he should not be held liable to his crime and execution. They also cited
international law where a country should be prohibiting the execution of
mentally and intellectually impaired people in order to push for Singapore to
commute Nagaenthran's death penalty to life
imprisonment based on protection of human rights. However, the Singapore government and both Singapore's High Court and Court of Appeal maintained their firm stance that despite his
certified low IQ, it is confirmed that Nagaenthran is not mentally or
intellectually disabled based on the joint opinion of three government
psychiatrists as he is able to fully understand the magnitude of his actions
and has no problem in his daily functioning of life.[228][229][230] Despite the international outcry, Nagaenthran was
executed on 27 April 2022.[231]
Non-painful execution
Further information: Cruel and unusual punishment
A gurney at San Quentin State Prison in California formerly used for executions by lethal injection
Trends in most of the world have long been to move to private and less
painful executions. France developed the guillotine for this reason in the
final years of the 18th century, while Britain banned hanging, drawing, and
quartering in the early 19th century. Hanging by turning the victim off a
ladder or by kicking a stool or a bucket, which causes death by strangulation,
was replaced by long drop
"hanging" where
the subject is dropped a longer distance to dislocate the neck and sever the
spinal cord. Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar, Shah of Persia (1896–1907) introduced throat-cutting and blowing from a gun (close-range cannon fire) as quick and relatively painless
alternatives to more torturous methods of executions used at that time.[232] In the United States, electrocution and gas inhalation were
introduced as more humane alternatives to hanging, but have been almost
entirely superseded by lethal injection. A small number of countries, for
example Iran and Saudi Arabia, still employ slow hanging methods, decapitation,
and stoning.
A study of executions carried out in the United States between 1977 and
2001 indicated that at least 34 of the 749 executions, or 4.5%, involved
"unanticipated problems or delays that caused, at least arguably,
unnecessary agony for the prisoner or that reflect gross incompetence of the
executioner". The rate of these "botched executions" remained steady over the period of the study.[233] A separate study published in The Lancet in 2005 found that in 43% of cases of lethal injection, the blood
level of hypnotics was insufficient to guarantee unconsciousness.[234] However, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2008 (Baze v. Rees) and again in 2015 (Glossip v. Gross) that lethal injection does not constitute cruel and unusual punishment.[235] In Bucklew v. Precythe, the majority verdict – written by Judge Neil Gorsuch – further affirmed this principle, stating that while the ban on
cruel and unusual punishment affirmatively bans penalties that deliberately inflict pain and
degradation, it does in no sense limit the possible infliction of pain in the
execution of a capital verdict.[236]
Wrongful execution
Main article: Wrongful execution
See also: List of wrongful convictions in the United States
Capital punishment was abolished in the United Kingdom in
part because of the case of Timothy Evans, who was executed in 1950 after being wrongfully
convicted of two murders that had in fact been committed by his landlord, John Christie. The case was considered vital in bolstering opposition,
which limited the scope of the penalty in 1957 and abolished it completely for
murder in 1965.
It is frequently argued that capital punishment leads
to miscarriage of justice through the wrongful execution of innocent persons.[237] Many people have been proclaimed innocent victims
of the death penalty.[238][239][240]
Some have claimed that as many as 39 executions have been carried out in
the face of compelling evidence of innocence or serious doubt about guilt in
the US from 1992 through 2004. Newly available DNA evidence prevented the pending execution of more than 15 death row inmates
during the same period in the US,[241] but DNA evidence is only available in a fraction of capital cases.[242] As of 2017, 159 prisoners on death row have been exonerated by DNA or
other evidence, which is seen as an indication that innocent prisoners have
almost certainly been executed.[243][244] The National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty claims that
between 1976 and 2015, 1,414 prisoners in the United States have been executed
while 156 sentenced to death have had their death sentences vacated.[245] It is impossible to assess how many have been wrongly executed, since
courts do not generally investigate the innocence of a dead defendant, and
defense attorneys tend to concentrate their efforts on clients whose lives can
still be saved; however, there is strong evidence of innocence in many cases.[246]
Improper procedure may also result in unfair executions. For example,
Amnesty International argues that in Singapore "the Misuse of Drugs Act contains a series of presumptions which shift the burden of proof
from the prosecution to the accused. This conflicts with the universally
guaranteed right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty".[247] Singapore's Misuse of Drugs Act presumes one is guilty of possession
of drugs if, as examples, one is found to be present or escaping from a
location "proved or presumed to be used for the purpose of smoking or
administering a controlled drug", if one is in possession of a key to a
premises where drugs are present, if one is in the company of another person
found to be in possession of illegal drugs, or if one tests positive after
being given a mandatory urine drug
screening. Urine drug
screenings can be given at the discretion of police, without requiring a search
warrant. The onus is on the accused in all of the above situations to prove
that they were not in possession of or consumed illegal drugs.[248]
Volunteers
Main article: Volunteer (capital punishment)
Some prisoners have volunteered or attempted to expedite capital punishment,
often by waiving all appeals. Prisoners have made requests or committed further
crimes in prison as well. In the United States, execution volunteers constitute
approximately 11% of prisoners on death row. Volunteers often bypass legal
procedures which are designed to designate the death penalty for the
"worst of the worst" offenders. Opponents of execution volunteering
cited the prevalence of mental illness among volunteers comparing it to
suicide. Execution volunteers have received considerably less attention and
effort at legal reform than those who were exonerated after execution.[249]
Racial, ethnic and social
class bias
Opponents of the death penalty argue that this punishment is being used
more often against perpetrators from racial and ethnic minorities and from
lower socioeconomic backgrounds, than against those criminals who come from a
privileged background; and that the background of the victim also influences
the outcome.[250][251][252] Researchers have shown that white Americans are more likely to
support the death penalty when told that it is mostly applied to black
Americans,[253] and that more stereotypically black-looking or dark-skinned
defendants are more likely to be sentenced to death if the case involves a
white victim.[254] However, a study published in 2018 failed to replicate the findings
of earlier studies that had concluded that white Americans are more likely to
support the death penalty if informed that it is largely applied to black
Americans; according to the authors, their findings "may result from
changes since 2001 in the effects of racial stimuli on white attitudes about
the death penalty or their willingness to express those attitudes in a survey
context."[255]
In Alabama in 2019, a death row inmate named Domineque Ray was denied his imam in the room during his execution, instead only
offered a Christian chaplain.[256] After filing a complaint, a federal court of appeals ruled 5–4
against Ray's request. The majority cited the "last-minute" nature of
the request, and the dissent stated that the treatment went against the core
principle of denominational neutrality.[256]
In July 2019, two Shiite men, Ali Hakim al-Arab, 25, and Ahmad al-Malali, 24, were executed in
Bahrain, despite the protests from the United Nations and rights group. Amnesty
International stated that the executions were being carried out on confessions
of "terrorism crimes" that were obtained through torture.[257]
On 30 March 2022, despite the appeals by the United
Nations and rights activists, 68-year-old Malay
Singaporean Abdul Kahar Othman was hanged at Singapore's Changi Prison for illegally trafficking diamorphine, which marked the first execution in Singapore since
2019 as a result of an informal moratorium caused by the COVID-19
pandemic. Earlier, there were appeals made to advocate for Abdul Kahar's death
penalty be commuted to life imprisonment on humanitarian grounds, as Abdul
Kahar came from a poor family and has struggled with drug addiction. He was
also revealed to have been spending most of his life going in and out of
prison, including a ten-year sentence of preventive detention from 1995 to 2005, and has not been given much time
for rehabilitation, which made the activists and groups arguing that Abdul
Kahar should be given a chance for rehabilitation instead of subjecting him to
execution.[258][259][260] Both the European Union (EU) and Amnesty International criticised Singapore for finalizing and carrying
out Abdul Kahar's execution, and about 400 Singaporeans protested against the
government's use of the death penalty merely days after Abdul Kahar's death
sentence was authorised.[261][262][263][229] Still, over 80% of the public supported the use of
the death penalty in Singapore.[264]
International views
Same-sex intercourse illegal:
Death penalty for homosexuality
Death penalty in
legislation, but not applied
The United Nations introduced a resolution during the General
Assembly's 62nd sessions in 2007 calling for a universal ban.[265][266] The approval of a draft resolution by the
Assembly's third committee, which deals with human rights issues, voted 99 to
52, with 33 abstentions, in support of the resolution on 15 November 2007 and
was put to a vote in the Assembly on 18 December.[267][268][269]
Again in 2008, a large majority of states from all regions adopted, on 20
November in the UN General Assembly (Third Committee), a second resolution
calling for a moratorium on the use of the death penalty; 105 countries voted
in support of the draft resolution, 48 voted against and 31 abstained.
The moratorium resolution has been presented for a vote each year since
2007. On December 15, 2022, 125 countries voted in support of the moratorium,
with 37 countries opposing, and 22 abstentions. The countries voting against
the moratorium included the United States, People's Republic of China, North
Korea, and Iran.[270]
A range of amendments proposed by a small minority of pro-death penalty
countries were overwhelmingly defeated. It had in 2007 passed a non-binding
resolution (by 104 to 54, with 29 abstentions) by asking its member states for
"a moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death
penalty".[271]
Article 2 of the Charter of Fundamental
Rights of the European Union affirms the prohibition on capital punishment in
the EU.
A number of regional conventions prohibit the death penalty, most notably,
the Protocol 6 (abolition in time of peace) and Protocol 13 (abolition in all
circumstances) to the European Convention on Human Rights. The same is also
stated under Protocol 2 in the American Convention on Human Rights, which, however, has not been ratified by all countries in the Americas,
most notably Canada[272] and the United States. Most relevant operative international treaties
do not require its prohibition for cases of serious crime, most notably,
the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. This instead has, in common with several other treaties, an optional
protocol prohibiting capital punishment and promoting its wider abolition.[273]
Several international organizations have made abolition of the death
penalty (during time of peace, or in all circumstances) a requirement of
membership, most notably the EU and the Council of
Europe. The Council
of Europe are willing to accept a moratorium as an interim measure. Thus, while Russia was a member of the Council of Europe, and the death penalty remains
codified in its law, it has not made use of it since becoming a member of the
council – Russia has not executed anyone since 1996. With the exception of
Russia (abolitionist in practice) and Belarus (retentionist), all European
countries are classified as abolitionist.[94]
Latvia abolished de jure the death penalty for war crimes in 2012, becoming
the last EU member to do so.[274]
Protocol 13 to the European Convention on Human Rights calls for the
abolition of the death penalty in all circumstances (including for war crimes).
The majority of European countries have signed and ratified it. Some European
countries have not done this, but all of them except Belarus have now abolished
the death penalty in all circumstances (de jure, and Russia de
facto). Poland is the most
recent country to ratify the protocol, on 28 August 2013.[275]
Protocol 6, which prohibits the death penalty during peacetime, has been
ratified by all members of the Council of Europe. It had been signed but not
ratified by Russia at the time of its expulsion in 2022.
Signatories to the Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR:
parties in dark green, signatories in light green, non-members in grey
There are also other international abolitionist
instruments, such as the Second Optional
Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which has 90 parties;[276] and the Protocol to the American Convention on
Human Rights to Abolish the Death Penalty (for the Americas; ratified by 13
states).[277]
In Turkey, over 500 people were sentenced to death after the 1980 Turkish coup d'état. About 50 of them were executed, the last one 25 October
1984. Then there was a de facto moratorium
on the death penalty in Turkey. As a move towards EU membership, Turkey made some legal changes. The death penalty was
removed from peacetime law by the National Assembly in August 2002, and in May 2004 Turkey
amended its constitution to remove capital punishment in all circumstances.
It ratified Protocol 13 to the European Convention on Human Rights in February
2006.[citation needed] As a result, Europe is a continent free of the death penalty in
practice, all states, having ratified Protocol 6 to the European Convention on
Human Rights, with the exceptions of Russia (which has entered a moratorium)
and Belarus, which are not members of the Council of Europe.[citation needed] The Parliamentary Assembly of the
Council of Europe has been lobbying for Council of Europe observer states who practice
the death penalty, the U.S. and Japan, to abolish it or lose their observer
status. In addition to banning capital punishment for EU member states, the EU
has also banned detainee transfers in cases where the receiving party may seek
the death penalty.[citation needed]
Sub-Saharan African countries that have recently abolished the death
penalty include Burundi, which abolished the death penalty for all crimes in
2009,[278] and Gabon which did the same in 2010.[279] On 5 July 2012, Benin became part of the Second Optional Protocol to the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which prohibits
the use of the death penalty.[280]
The newly created South Sudan is among the 111 UN member states that supported the resolution
passed by the United Nations General Assembly that called for the removal of
the death penalty, therefore affirming its opposition to the practice. South
Sudan, however, has not yet abolished the death penalty and stated that it must
first amend its Constitution, and until that happens it will continue to use
the death penalty.[281]
Among non-governmental organizations (NGOs), Amnesty International
and Human Rights Watch are noted for their opposition to capital punishment.[282][283] A number of such NGOs, as well as trade unions, local councils, and
bar associations, formed a World Coalition Against the Death
Penalty in
2002.[284]
An open letter led by Danish Member of the European Parliament, Karen Melchior was sent to the European Commission ahead of the 26
January 2021 meeting of the Bahraini Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani with the members of the European Union for the signing of a Cooperation Agreement. A total of 16 MEPs
undersigned the letter expressing their grave concern towards the extended
abuse of human rights in Bahrain following the arbitrary arrest and detention of activists and critics
of the government. The attendees of the meeting were requested to demand from
their Bahraini counterparts to take into consideration the concerns raised by
the MEPs, particularly for the release of Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja and Sheikh
Mohammed Habib Al-Muqdad, the two European-Bahraini dual citizens on death row.[285][286]
Religious views
Main article: Religion and capital
punishment
The world's major faiths have differing views depending
on the religion, denomination, sect and the individual adherent.[287][288] The Catholic Church considers the death penalty as
"inadmissible" in any circumstance and denounces it as an
"attack" on the "inviolability and dignity of the person."[289][290] Both the Baháʼí and Islamic faiths support capital punishment.[291][292]
See also
·
Capital punishment for homosexuality
·
Judicial dissolution, sometimes referred to as the "corporate death
penalty"
·
The Death Penalty: Opposing
Viewpoints (book)
·
Capital punishment in Judaism
·
List of prisoners with whole life
orders
Notes and references
Notes
Explanatory notes
2. ^ including Australia and New Zealand.
3. ^ Most Latin American states and Canada have completely abolished capital punishment, while
a few such as Brazil and Guatemala allow for it only in exceptional situations (such
as treason committed during wartime).
4. ^ The United States and some Caribbean countries.
5. ^ For example South Africa abolished the death penalty in 1995, while Botswana and Zambia retain it.
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Bibliography
·
Jean-Marie
Carbasse (2002). La peine de mort. Que sais-je ? (in French).
Paris: Presses universitaires de
France. ISBN 2-13-051660-2.
·
Kronenwetter, Michael (2001). Capital Punishment: A Reference Handbook (2 ed.).
ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-57607-432-9.
·
Marian J. Borg and
Michael L. Radelet. (2004). On botched executions. In: Peter Hodgkinson and
William A. Schabas (eds.) Capital Punishment. pp. 143–68. [Online].
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Available from: Cambridge Books
Online doi:10.1017/CBO9780511489273.006.
·
Gail A. Van Norman.
(2010). Physician participation in executions. In: Gail A. Van Norman et al.
(eds.) Clinical Ethics in Anesthesiology. pp. 285–91. [Online]. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press. Available from: Cambridge Books Online doi:10.1017/CBO9780511841361.051.
Wikinews has news related to:
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Death
penalty.
Wikiquote has quotations related to Capital
punishment.
Further reading
·
Bellarmine, Robert (1902). "Seventh Sunday: Capital Punishment" . Sermons from the Latins.
Benziger Brothers.
·
Bohm, Robert M. (2016). Death Quest. doi:10.4324/9781315673998. ISBN 9781315673998.
·
Curry, Tim.
"Cutting the
Hangman's Noose: African Initiatives to Abolish the Death Penalty Archived 20 July 2012 at the Wayback Machine." () American University Washington College of Law.
·
Davis, David Brion.
"The movement to abolish capital punishment in America,
1787–1861." American
Historical Review 63.1 (1957): 23–46. online
·
Gaie,
Joseph B. R (2004). The ethics of medical involvement in capital
punishment : a philosophical discussion. Kluwer Academic. ISBN 978-1-4020-1764-3.
·
Hammel, A. Ending
the Death Penalty: The European Experience in Global Perspective (2014).
·
Hood, Roger (2001). "Capital Punishment". Punishment
& Society. 3 (3): 331–354. doi:10.1177/1462474501003003001. S2CID 143875533.
·
Johnson,
David T.; Zimring, Franklin E. (2009). The
Next Frontier: National Development, Political Change, and the Death Penalty in
Asia. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-533740-2.
·
McCafferty, James A (2010). Capital Punishment. AldineTransaction. ISBN 978-0-202-36328-8.
·
Mandery, Evan J (2005). Capital punishment: a balanced examination. Jones and Bartlett
Publishers. ISBN 978-0-7637-3308-7.
·
Marzilli, Alan (2008). Capital Punishment – Point-counterpoint (2nd ed.). Chelsea
House. ISBN 978-0-7910-9796-0.
·
O'Brien, Doireann.
"Investigating the Origin of Europe and America's Diverging Positions on
the Issue of Capital Punishment." Social and Political Review (2018): 98+. online Archived 21 December 2019 at the Wayback Machine
·
Rakoff, Jed S., "The Last of His Kind" (review of John Paul
Stevens, The Making of a Justice:
Reflections on My First 94 Years, Little, Brown, 549 pp.), The New York Review of Books, vol. LXVI, no. 14 (26 September 2019), pp. 20, 22,
24. John Paul
Stevens, "a throwback to the postwar liberal Republican [U.S. Supreme Court]
appointees", questioned the validity of "the doctrine of sovereign immunity, which holds that you cannot sue any state or federal
government agency, or any of its officers or employees, for any wrong they may
have committed against you, unless the state or federal government consents to
being sued" (p. 20); the propriety of "the increasing resistance
of the U.S. Supreme Court to most meaningful forms of gun control" (p. 22); and "the constitutionality of
the death penalty... because of incontrovertible evidence that innocent people
have been sentenced to death." (pp. 22, 24.)
·
Sarat, Austin and Juergen
Martschukat, eds. Is the Death Penalty Dying?: European and American
Perspectives (2011)
·
Woolf, Alex (2004). World issues – Capital Punishment. Chrysalis Education. ISBN 978-1-59389-155-8. for middle school students
·
Simon, Rita
(2007). A comparative analysis of capital punishment :
statutes, policies, frequencies, and public attitudes the world over. Lexington Books. ISBN 978-0-7391-2091-0.
·
Slater
S.J., Thomas (1925). "Book 6: On Capital Punishment" . A manual of moral theology for English-speaking
countries. Burns Oates & Washbourne Ltd.
·
Steiker,
Carol S. "Capital punishment and American exceptionalism." Oregon Law Review. 81 (2002):
97+ online
·
Willis, John Wiley (1911). "Capital Punishment" . In Herbermann, Charles
(ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 12. New York:
Robert Appleton Company.
External links
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·
About.com's Pros
& Cons of the Death Penalty and Capital Punishment Archived 18 January 2006 at the Wayback Machine
·
Capital Punishment article in the Internet Encyclopedia of
Philosophy.
·
1000+ Death
Penalty links all in one place
·
Updates on the
death penalty generally and capital punishment law specifically
·
Texas Department
of Criminal Justice: list of executed offenders and their last statements
·
Death Penalty Worldwide: Archived 13 November 2013 at the Wayback Machine Academic research database on the laws, practice,
and statistics of capital punishment for every death penalty country in the
world.
·
Answers.com entry on capital
punishment
·
"How to
Kill a Human Being", BBC Horizon TV programme documentary, 2008
·
U.S. and 50
State death penalty/capital punishment law and other relevant links Megalaw
·
Two audio
documentaries covering execution in the United States: Witness to an
Execution The Execution
Tapes
Supporting
·
Studies showing
the death penalty saves lives
·
Criminal Justice
Legal Foundation
·
Keep life
without parole and death penalty intact Archived 16 December 2011 at the Wayback Machine
·
Why the death
penalty is needed
·
Pro Death Penalty Resource Page
·
The Death Penalty is Constitutional
·
The Paradoxes of
a Death Penalty Stance by Charles Lane in The Washington Post
·
Clark County,
Indiana, Prosecutor's Page on capital punishment
·
In Favor of
Capital Punishment – Famous Quotes supporting Capital Punishment
·
Studies spur new death penalty debate
Opposing
·
World Coalition Against the Death Penalty
·
Death Watch
International International anti-death penalty campaign group
·
Campaign to End the Death Penalty
·
Anti-Death Penalty Information: includes a monthly watchlist of upcoming executions and
death penalty statistics for the United States.
·
The Death Penalty Information Center: Statistical information and studies
·
Amnesty International – Abolish the death penalty
Campaign: Human Rights organisation
·
European Union: Information on anti-death penalty policies
·
IPS Inter Press
Service International news on capital punishment
·
Death Penalty Focus: American group dedicated to abolishing the death
penalty
·
Reprieve.org: United States-based volunteer program for foreign
lawyers, students, and others to work at death penalty defense offices
·
American Civil
Liberties Union: Demanding a Moratorium on the Death Penalty
·
National
Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
·
NSW Council for
Civil Liberties Archived 15 October 2015 at the Wayback Machine: an Australian organisation opposed to the Death Penalty
in the Asian region
·
Winning a war on
terror: eliminating the death penalty
·
Electric Chair
at Sing Sing, a 1900 photograph by William M. Vander Weyde, accompanied by a poem
by Jared Carter.
·
Lead prosecutor
apologizes for role in sending man to death row Shreveport Times, 2015
·
James Haughton (1850). "On death punishments: a paper
read before the Dublin Statistical Society". Journal of the
Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland. Dublin: Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland. hdl:2262/7759. ISSN 0081-4776. Wikidata Q28925851.
Religious views
·
Message
supporting the moratorium on the death penalty The Dalai Lama
·
Buddhism &
Capital Punishment from The Engaged Zen Society
·
Lists several Catholic links Priests for Life
·
The Death
Penalty: Why the Church Speaks a Countercultural Message by Kenneth R. Overberg, S.J., from AmericanCatholic.org
·
Wrestling with
the Death Penalty by Andy Prince, from Youth
Update on AmericanCatholic.org
·
Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Capital Punishment" . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton
Company.
·
Catholics
Against Capital Punishment: offers a Catholic perspective and provides resources and links
·
Kashif Shahzada
2010: Why The Death Penalty Is un-Islamic?