"Idaho executes inmate for woman's killing in 1984," is Rebecca Boone's report for AP. It's via the Idaho Statesman.
Prison officials executed a convicted killer Tuesday for brutally stabbing a woman nearly three decades ago as witnesses watched the whole process of lethal injection for the first time in Idaho.
The execution of Richard Leavitt was unprecedented in the state due to the expanded access granted to media and other state witnesses. The Associated Press and 16 other news groups sued last month, arguing that Idaho Department of Correction policy barring witnesses from viewing a lethal injection last November in its entirety violated the First Amendment and the public's right to know.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed, ordering Idaho prison officials to open the curtain immediately after Leavitt entered the execution chamber, enabling witnesses to oversee as executioners insert IV catheters into Leavitt's body.
Leavitt, 53, was pronounced dead at 10:25 a.m. at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution.
Afterward, all four media witnesses said it was critical to see the process from start to finish, to give the public a better understanding of the process or any difficulties that could emerge. Media witnesses watched, for the first time during an Idaho lethal injection, as Leavitt was escorted into the execution chamber, transferred to a gurney and had catheters inserted into his arms.
Witnesses said the execution was uneventful. Leavitt declined to make a final statement.
"I am happy with how this turned out today," said Brent Reinke, the state's prisons chief. "I am grateful that we have four media witnesses here to tell you what they saw. Our goal was to make this as professional as possible with dignity and respect, and I believe we met that mark."
The insertion of IV catheters, used to deliver lethal doses of sedatives and other chemicals, has come under fire in recent years. Death row inmates in Idaho and other states have challenged the procedure on grounds the insertion of the catheters can cause delays, excruciating pain or other complications.
It was the 20th execution of 2012; the 1,297th post-Furman execution since 1977. Earlier coverage of the Idaho open government litigation begins at the link.
Comments