We have news today from Arizona, Delaware, Georgia, and an editorial on Ohio's latest moratorium. Let's begin there.
"Executing the law," is the editorial in today's Toledo Blade.
Few public duties carry the gravitas of administering capital punishment. Yet in Ohio, which has a history of botched or failed executions — including one that former Gov. Ted Strickland stopped after a two-hour attempt — the precise protocols required to carry out the death sentence are applied inconsistently. That is unacceptable.
Following a federal court ruling that delayed today’s scheduled execution of condemned Ohio killer Kenneth Smith on the grounds that the state enforces some of its execution policies haphazardly, the state has properly put all executions on hold. Four inmates in addition to Smith are scheduled to be executed in Ohio this year.
And:
Even the state’s one-drug protocol had to be adjusted in March, when the state switched to a massive overdose of pentobarbital after its prior drug, sodium thiopental, became unavailable. But modifying the state execution process cannot be done on the fly.
Administration of the ultimate punishment in Ohio must be done in strict adherence to the law.
Arizona is preparing to carry out the nation's 27th execution this morning. The AP report, "Arizona man to be executed for 1987 beating," is via KTAR.
An Arizona death-row inmate was set to be executed Tuesday for beating another man to death in 1987, despite a flurry of last-minute appeals over a sedative used in a previous execution and a challenge over who oversees the state's death penalty, among other issues.
And:
The Arizona Supreme Court on Monday refused to consider a challenge of the state's lethal-injection law on behalf of four death-row inmates, including West, and the court denied an accompanying motion asking to delay West's execution.
The challenge argued that the law is unconstitutional because the Legislature gave unfettered discretion to the Corrections Department on how to conduct executions, violating the separation of branches of government.
Arizona Department of Corrections director Charles Ryan writes, "State got execution drugs legally," at the Arizona Republic.
Two recent Arizona Republic articles alleged that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration informed the department that the chemicals it purchased "had not been legally obtained" and that the DEA "informed the department that it had illegally obtained the sedative thiopental from England."
During the importation of the chemicals used by the department in two executions, there was a missing one-page document known as "Form 236," the Controlled Substances Import/Export Declaration. This oversight on the part of U.S. Customs and the Department of Corrections' Customs broker led the DEA to institute a moratorium on the use of the remaining batches of sodium thiopental in the department's possession. The state of Arizona has complied with this request.
The department took all reasonable measures in coordinating with the agencies involved in the shipment of these chemicals. An error in paperwork does not equate by any means to illegal activity, and the department has acted lawfully in its acquisition of these chemicals.
In Delaware, the Wilmington News Journal reports, "State seeks end to execution delay." It's written by Sean O'Sullivan.
The Delaware Attorney General's Office on Monday appealed a ruling by a federal judge in Delaware in an effort to get the execution of ax murderer Robert W. Jackson III back on track.
Jackson, who was convicted of killing Elizabeth Girardi with an ax in 1992 during a robbery in Hockessin, had been set to die by lethal injection on July 29.
That execution, however, was put on hold last week by U.S. District Judge Sue L. Robinson after attorneys for Jackson claimed that the state had violated the terms of Robinson's March 2009 ruling -- that dismissed an earlier challenge to the state's use of lethal injection -- because Delaware has changed one of the drugs that it uses in lethal injections.
And:
Robinson has set a hearing date of July 27 to hear from all sides on the issue, but also filed an amended order making clear she did not want the state moving ahead with Jackson's execution on July 29. She wrote that the stay would be in place at least until July 29 because she does not expect to make any decision before that date.Delaware recently changed one of the drugs in the three-drug combination it uses for lethal injections because the sole U.S. manufacturer of one of the drugs, sodium thiopental, stopped making it.
From Georgia, the AP reports, "Lawyers ask to delay Ga. execution, say drug caused suffering for previous inmate put to death." It's via the Washington Post.
Lawyers for a Georgia man scheduled to be executed this week have filed a lawsuit seeking to stop it, saying the drug authorities plan to use caused “needless suffering” when it was administered to another death row inmate.
Andrew DeYoung is scheduled to die Wednesday after being convicted of the 1993 slayings of his parents and 14-year-old sister. He was convicted in 1995 after prosecutors argued that he wanted to inherit his parents’ estate and start a business.
The Georgia Board of Pardons and Parole denied DeYoung’s clemency bid Monday. A federal court hearing on his appeal was scheduled for Tuesday.
Critics contend that last month's execution of Roy Blankenship was botched.
AP reporter Greg Bluestein, who witnessed the execution, reported that Blankenship appeared to “grimace and jerk” when the drug was administered.
According to Bluestein’s account, Blankenship jerked his head several times throughout the procedure and muttered after the pentobarbital was injected into his veins. The 55-year-old’s breathing and movements slowed within minutes, and he was pronounced dead at 8:37 p.m.
Earlier coverage from Arizona, Delaware, Georgia, and Ohio begins at the links. Related posts are in the lethal injection index.
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