Arizona Roundup

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit rulings in Schad v. Brewer and Schad v. Ryan are available in Adobe .pdf format.

"US court denies appeals by Ariz. death row inmate," is the AP report, via the San Francisco Chronicle.

A federal appeals court and a federal court in Phoenix both rejected motions and appeals Monday by an Arizona death row inmate scheduled to be executed Wednesday.

A majority of active judges of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco declined to rehear an appeal on behalf of Edward Schad and also denied a request for a stay of execution pending a new clemency hearing.

On Monday evening, U.S. District Judge Roslyn Silver in Phoenix ruled that there was "insufficient reason" to grant Schad injunctive relief over questions concerning the drug used in Arizona's executions.

Documents filed in federal court Saturday show the pentobarbital to be used expires next month. It comes from Denmark-based Lundbeck, Inc., which stopped selling it for executions in July 2011.

Shad's lawyers were worried that the state may have expired, non-FDA approved drugs.

"Court: No basis to delay Arizona execution," by Howard Fischer of Capitol Media Services, via the Arizona Daily Star.

Saying he doesn't have a legal claim, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals this afternoon rejected the bid by Edward Schad to delay his execution.

In an unsigned opinion, the judges rejected Schad's contention he should be able to pursue his claim that Gov. Jan Brewer, through her aides, had unfairly and illegally tainted the Board of Executive Clemency. The result, according to his lawyers, is that current board members are unlikely to recommend clemency.

But the appellate court said there's no basis for them to consider the issue.

"The Supreme Court has never recognized a case in which clemency proceedings conducted pursuant to a state's executive powers have implicated due process,'' the judges wrote.

At best, they said, an inmate might have claim if the clemency proceeding's outcome is "wholly arbitrary, as would be the case if clemency were determined by a coin toss.''

The Sierra Vista Herald reports, "Vigil against the death penalty set," by Derek Jordan

A local grassroots organization is hoping its vigil in Old Bisbee on Wednesday, scheduled to coincide with the state execution of a man convicted of killing a Bisbee resident, will inspire people to ruminate on Arizona’s use of capital punishment.

“What we’re just trying to do, we want to provoke questions. We think that’s what grassroots is all about,” said Mimi Ferraro, a member of The Seven Generations Peace Alliance.

On that day, Edward Schad is scheduled to be executed for the killing of 74-year-old Lorimer “Leroy” Grove, a former Bisbee resident, in August ,1978.

And:

“I think we need to ask questions about why we’re doing this. As a western nation, we’re one of the few that still do,” she said.

In 2011, Arizona tied for the second most executions of any state with four, along with Ohio and Alabama, according to the newspaper The Guardian’s study of data from Amnesty International and the Death Penalty Information Center.

Earlier coverage from Arizona begins at the link.