"Missouri looks at other states' death penalty methods," is the AP report by Alan Scher Zagier. It's via the Springfield News-Leader.
In deciding to not be the first in the nation to use the anesthetic propofol for capital punishment, Gov. Jay Nixon left Missouri with dwindling options as it seeks to execute two convicted murderers in the coming months.Gov. Jay Nixon halted Allen Nicklasson’s Oct. 23 execution following doctor protests along with threats from the anti-death penalty European Union to limit the drug’s export. Nixon ordered the state corrections department to come up with a different lethal injection protocol and instructed Attorney General Chris Koster to ask the state Supreme Court to set a new execution date for Nicklasson.
Other states, including Ohio and Texas, have turned to private compounding pharmacies to prepare new batches of the sedative pentobarbital after large drug manufacturers balked, a move Missouri could follow. It could also seek to administer a different FDA-approved sedative such as midazolam, also an untested execution drug which the state of Florida plans to provide Tuesday night as part of a three-drug mix for William Happ, a house painter convicted in a Fort Lauderdale rape and strangulation.
Another possible scenario for Missouri: months if not years of continued legal challenges. Nicklasson’s lawyer has asked the state Supreme Court to not rule on the request for a date until officials select a new death penalty drug.
“You can’t set an execution date now,” said attorney Jennifer Herndon. “There’s not even a protocol …The state’s request for a new execution date is premature.”
Columbia Missourian columnist David Rosman writes, "Missouri's death penalty is a costly mistake."
I have a few reasons for opposing the death penalty. The first is the legal costs of execution versus the cost of life imprisonment.
Over years of teaching, I have had many a student give the cost of execution versus life without parole (LWOP) speech, and even those who are for a sentence of death, even in limited cases, are taken aback at the cost of the legal process, most of which is borne by our tax dollars.
And:
Gov. Jay Nixon has long been an advocate of the death penalty and is now examining new “protocols” of delivering lethal injections or possibly the return to the gas chamber.
I urge Gov. Nixon to rethink his position on the death penalty, that in this time of budget difficulties and inadequate funding for public defenders, with an ever increasing number of men and women exonerated, with a moratorium on propofol by its major manufacturer, and stay orders of execution and convert them to LWOP.
Earlier coverage from Missouri begins at the link.
Comments