Salon.com > Death row

Florida law would speed up executions

Wed, 15 May 2013 20:39:00 +0000

A bill that has passed both the Florida House and Senate -- and looks likely to be signed into law by Gov. Rick Scott in the coming days -- would speed up the process that sees death row inmates executed in the state. It is, as the New York Times editorial board commented, "grotesque," especially in a state that has seen 24 death row exonerations (leading the country in this regard) and should thus be weary of speedy executions.

The ill-named Timely Justice Act would require the governor to sign a death warrant within 30 days of a review of a capital conviction by the State Supreme Court. The state would then be required to execute the defendant within 180 days of the warrant. So if signed intolaw, 13 of Florida's 405 death row inmates will be immediately issued death warrants. The legislation aims to save money and time but, as Rania Khalek pointed out, at the possible expense of innocent lives:

Georgia rushes executions before lethal drugs expire

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 15:15:00 +0000

The state of Georgia has been swift in trying to overturn a stay of execution ruling in the case of intellectually disabled death row inmate Warren Hill. As Salon noted, Hill was granted a stay of execution earlier this week just 30 minutes before he was scheduled to receive the lethal injection.

According to the Guardian Friday, the state's speedy attempt to see the ruling overturned is no accident -- it is part of "a legal scramble to carry out capital sentences before its supply of lethal injection drugs reaches its expiry date of 1 March." Via the Guardian:

Georgia confirmed to the Guardian that its entire supply of pentobarbital expires on 1 March. The expiration date leaves the state in a quandary: it still has 93 men and one woman on death row, including Hill, but with no obvious means by which to execute them.

Anti-death penalty campaigners are scathing about the unseemly haste with which Georgia appears to rushing to beat the deadline. "This highlights the nastiness of the process that the AG should be racing to kill prisoners ahead of an expiration date," said Sara Totonchi, director of the Southern Center for Human Rights.

Judge commutes three death sentences, citing racial bias

Fri, 14 Dec 2012 22:26:00 +0000

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — A North Carolina judge on Thursday commuted the death sentences of three convicted killers, including two who killed law enforcement officers, to life in prison without the possibility of parole after ruling that race played an unjust role in jury selection at their trials.

Cumberland County Superior Court Judge Gregory A. Weeks based his ruling on evidence presented over four weeks of hearings that he says showed prosecutors in each case made a concerted effort to reduce the number of black jurors.

The three who had their sentences commuted were among the most notorious killers on North Carolina's death row.

Family members of the victims and more than 60 uniformed police officers packed the courtroom. Before Weeks could finish issuing his ruling, the brother of a murdered state trooper stood up and yelled an expletive at the judge.

The Republican-controlled legislature recently scaled back the state's Racial Justice Act, on which Thursday's ruling was based. Weeks said his ruling applies under both the old and new laws.

He cited evidence that included handwritten notes of prosecutors indicating they worked to get blacks eliminated from the pool of jurors, resulting in panels that were overwhelmingly white.

Is Mississippi about to execute an innocent man?

Sat, 01 Dec 2012 16:00:00 +0000

We’ve had too many reminders over the years that the death penalty system is deeply flawed. Now we have one more, with the case of Jeffrey Havard, a man who is scheduled for execution in Mississippi, despite serious questions about his guilt.

Writing at theHuffington Post , Radley Balko describes how Havard was convicted in 2002 of murdering his girlfriend’s six-month-old daughter. Havard says he dropped the baby after giving her a bath – a terrible accident – but he was convicted after a private medical examiner claimed his autopsy found evidence of Shaken Baby Syndrome and sexual abuse.

But there are now questions surrounding those autopsy results. As Balko writes, “experts have begun to question the validity of the [SBS] diagnosis and how it's used in court, pointing out, for example, that a number of other factors could cause the symptoms that experts have been telling juries could be caused only by shaking.”

Ohio convict claims to be too fat for lethal injection

Fri, 09 Nov 2012 19:39:00 +0000

A 400-lb. man who was convicted of murder in Ohio and is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection in January could be ruled "too fat" to die at the state's hands. Ronald Post, 53, who was sentenced to death for shooting a woman dead during a 1983 robbery "wants a federal judge to stop his execution on the grounds his weight could cause him to suffer severe pain during the procedure," the Daily Mail reported.

In a court affidavit filed Thursday, Ohio State medical center anesthesiologist Sergio Bergese said that, owing to Post's obesity, it would be very unlikely that an IV could be placed in his veins to deliver the lethal dose without causing extreme pain.

“Given his unique physical and medical condition, there is a substantial risk that any attempt to execute him will result in serious physical and psychological pain to him, as well as an execution involving a torturous and lingering death,” the filing said.