The StandDown Texas Project

Double Jeopardy

That's the title of an article in the November 17 issue of the New Yorker, written by Paige Williams.  It's subtitled, "In Alabama, a judge can override a jury that spares a murderer from the death penalty."  Here's a brief excerpt from this must-read:

Most states with the death penalty require a unanimous vote of twelve in order to impose capital punishment. Alabama requires ten. In this case, the jury unanimously rejected the state’s request to send Jackson to the electric chair. The jurors were reluctant to condemn a teen-ager to death, especially in a case with such conflicting evidence. “I had concerns about whether Shonelle Jackson was the shooter,” a juror named Jan Burkes later said, in a sworn deposition, adding, “Other jurors also had concerns about whether Mr. Jackson was responsible.”

Judge Gordon thanked the jurors and sent them home.

In Alabama, though, a capital case doesn’t necessarily end there. The state’s judges can exercise an unusual power: they can “override” a jury’s collective judgment and impose the death penalty unilaterally.

Earlier coverage of Alabama's practice of judicial override begins at the link.

U.S. Execution, European Abolition

That's the title of a New York Times OpEd by Sylvie Kauffmann.  It will appear in tomorrow's print edition.  Kauffmann is the editorial director Le Monde.  Here's the beginning:

When Felix G. Rohatyn went to Paris as the American ambassador in 1997, he expected the most controversial subject he’d face to be the famous French mistrust of “American hegemony.” To his surprise, the No. 1 issue turned out to be the death penalty.

The “enormous revulsion of the French” over the issue, he told me in 2001 after his return to New York, was eye-opening, as was his friendship with Robert Badinter, the French minister of justice who, under President François Mitterrand, led the fight for the abolition of capital punishment in 1981.

“All those demonstrations, in front of the embassy and the consulates, showed how really passionate people were,” Mr. Rohatyn said. “And in the end, I thought they were probably right.”

Two recent magazine articles — one French, the other American — demonstrate that while the issue has not gone away in Paris, it has taken a new turn in the United States. There has been a big change in American attitudes toward capital punishment during the last decade, and Europe has played a part in it.

The American magazine article is Pamela Colloff's Texas Monthly article on former TDCJ spokeswoman Michelle Lyons.

Related posts are in the international and silent actor trauma category indexes.

Journalists Sue in Arizona

The Arizona Republic reports, "Republic sues state to reveal info on lethal injections," by  Michael Kiefer.

The Arizona Republic and several other local and international media outlets have filed suit in federal court against the director of the Arizona Department of Corrections and Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne asking that the department reveal the procedures and the sources of drugs it uses to carry out executions by lethal injection.

The lawsuit alleges that executions have always been public events and that withholding the information violates the First and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

The suit comes in the wake of a July 23 execution in Arizona in which Joseph Wood was injected with 15 supposedly lethal doses of a controversial drug cocktail that took almost two hours to kill him.

"Arizona challenged to abandon secrecy on death penalty drugs," is by Ed Pilkington for the Guardian.

The secrecy imposed by Arizona on the source and quality of the lethal injection drugs it uses to kill death row inmates has been challenged in a new lawsuit brought by the Guardian and other media organizations.

In the lawsuit, filed with a federal court in Phoenix, the Guardian together with the Associated Press and four of Arizona’s largest news outlets argue that the state’s refusal to disclose any information about its lethal injection drugs is a breach of the public’s first amendment right to know about how the death penalty is being carried out in its name. It follows a groundbreaking first amendment case brought by the Guardian and others in Missouri in May.

In tune with many other death penalty states, Arizona has gone to great lengths to hide the provenance and nature of the medical drugs it uses to execute prisoners. Supplies of the medicines have run low in the wake of a worldwide boycott of US executions, and as a result the department of corrections has had to resort to increasingly imaginative sources which it has shrouded in secrecy in an effort to keep supply lines open.

"Media outlets jointly sue Arizona for information on lethal injection practices," is AP coverage, via the Greenfield Daily Reporter.

The standard drug used in executions in Arizona since the 1970s became unavailable in 2010. The Republic reported that the Arizona Department of Corrections used a law guaranteeing confidentiality of executioners' identities to conceal it was illegally getting the drug from Great Britain. As a result, the U.S. Justice Department prohibited the use of imported drugs for executions in the U.S. Since then, Arizona has switched to a two-drug combination already used in Ohio.

The execution brought new attention to the death penalty debate in the U.S. as opponents said it was proof that lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment.

Earlier coverage from Arizona begins at the link.  You can also jump to news of Arizona lethal injection issues.

Oklahoma Again Tries to Dismiss 1st Amendment Suit by Journalists

Today's Tulsa World reports, "DOC files another motion to dismiss First Amendment suit challenging execution access," by Cary Aspinwall.

Oklahoma corrections officials have reduced the number of media witnesses allowed at executions and imposed greater restrictions on reporters’ access, but they argued in federal court filings this week that they are not seeking “to exclude media from executions.”

Attorneys for the state of Oklahoma filed another motion this week to dismiss a federal lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union that seeks to block the state from further restricting reporters’ First Amendment right to witness executions.

The state’s motion argues that “the First Amendment does not grant the public a right to view executions” and that “the fact that individuals are allowed to attend executions does not make it open to the public.”

The ACLU of Oklahoma filed the lawsuit in August on behalf of two media outlets in the wake of April’s execution of Clayton Lockett, when officials closed a blind as the lethal injection went awry, preventing witnesses from seeing what happened.

You can view the state's motion, in Adobe .pdf format.

Courthouse News Service posts, "First Amendment? Not at Executions, Oklahoma Says, by David Lee.

The First Amendment did not give the public or news media "guaranteed access" to the botched execution of Clayton Lockett, Oklahoma prison officials said Tuesday.

The Oklahoma Observer, Guardian U.S. and two reporters sued Oklahoma Department of Corrections Director Robert Patton and Oklahoma State Penitentiary Warden Anita Trammell in Federal Court in August.

They claim that while Lockett writhed in agony in the death chamber, the media were deprived of the right to observe his execution when prison officials drew a shade .

"The press was unable to observe Lockett's final moments or eventual death," the complaint stated. "As a result, the public was deprived of objective accounts as to whether, at the time of his death, the state was still attempting to execute Lockett, or in the alternative, attempting to provide medical care after calling off his execution."

Earlier coverage from Oklahoma begins at the link.  You can also jump to news of the lawsuit.

Journalists Shown New Oklahoma Execution Chamber

"Oklahoma prison officials unveil new death chamber," is by Sean Murphy of the Associated Press.  All of the news articles linked below include photographs of the new execution chamber.

Prison officials unveiled the renovated execution chamber inside the Oklahoma State Penitentiary on Thursday and expressed confidence that the agency would be ready for the state's next scheduled execution in November.

The $71,000 reconstruction of the death chamber and adjacent witness rooms gives executioners more space in which to operate. Department of Corrections also spent about $34,000 on new medical equipment, including $12,500 for a surgical table and $6,000 for an ultrasound machine to help locate veins.

New protocols require more training for the execution team and backup procedures in case a lethal injection goes awry.

Prison workers will begin training on the new protocols this week, and the agency will be prepared for the Nov. 13 execution of Charles Warner, who was convicted of raping and killing his roommate's 11-month-old daughter in Oklahoma City in 1997, said prisons spokeswoman Terri Watkins.

"We will be ready," Watkins said.

And:

Twenty-one death row inmates are suing Oklahoma seeking to block their executions, arguing that by tinkering with lethal injection chemicals, the state is experimenting on them and violating the U.S. Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment. The federal judge in that case expressed serious concerns earlier this month that the state would be ready to carry out three executions this fall.

The Guardian posts, "The 21st century death chamber: $100,000 for a civilised execution," by Ed Pilkington.  The Guardian also has posted video.

This week Oklahoma opened the doors of its maximum-security state penitentiary in McAlester to show off its spanking-new redesigned execution suite. It was a display of conspicuous transparency put on for the benefit of the media, which was paradoxical in the circumstances, as one of the main changes made under the renovation is to slash the number of media witnesses at all future executions by more than half.

As part of the media tour, the prison authorities handed reporters an itemised balance sheet that listed all the expenses that had gone into the upgrade. The 144 entries ranged from the mundane – $516.92 spent on new carpeting, $358.42 for paint stripper, $55.24 on “nuts and bolts” – to the more resonant.

Almost $2,000 were spent on restraints – four brown leather straps, one for each of the offender’s hands and one for each ankle. There was an order for 34 needles, as well as a set of new syringes for administering the lethal drugs.

And then there was the listing for a “surgical table”, commonly known as a gurney, costing a substantial $12,500. In case Oklahoma taxpayers are tempted to complain about such lavish expense, it should be pointed out that the new gurney is likely to see plenty of use: the last one was purchased by the state in the 1950s and was the centrepiece of at least 111 judicial killings.

Scott Crow, the department of corrections administrator of field operations who conducted the tour, waxed lyrical about the capabilities of the new death bed. “This is an electric bed which has the ability to raise or lower to accommodate the needs not only of witnesses in the viewing areas but any needs as far as the offender is concerned,” he said.

The Tulsa World reports, "DOC shows off revamped execution chamber," by Dylan Goforth.

About two dozen media members were given a tour of the renovated death chamber Thursday, about a month ahead of the first scheduled execution since Lockett was put to death. Charles Warner, who was scheduled to die the same night as Lockett but saw his execution halted while officials determined what went wrong in Lockett’s death, is set to die Nov. 13.

And:

The most dramatic changes were made to the operations room and the death chamber itself. In those two rooms, the mandate seemed to be focused on updating surprisingly old equipment and methods. The most expensive purchase of the remodel, a new surgical table that cost $12,500, replaced one from the 1950s, Scott said.

For years, communication between technicians in the chamber and those in the viewing room had to be done by an antiquated coded system of pushing colored pens through the wall. That system was replaced by a two-way intercom system that cost only $59.99.

In the death chamber, which shrank by 3½ feet during the remodel, two new cameras feed to two TVs in the operations room. Only one person will be in the room with the offender during the execution, Scott said. Everyone else – up to eight people, including a recorder monitoring a timeline of events, and Patton — will be in the operations room.

Who the person in the room with the offender during the execution will be remains a mystery. DOC spokeswoman Terri Watkins said ongoing litigation means state officials do not yet know who will fill that role during Warner’s upcoming execution.

The operations room was grew about 3½ feet during the remodel, Scott said, all of which was taken from the death chamber. A new bench runs across the back of the room with a storage locker below the seating. That, Scott said, was not there before and allows staffers to keep drugs and supplies on board that were not available before.

"Oklahoma corrections official allow media to tour new death chamber," is by Graham Lee Brewer for the Oklahoman.

Charles Fredrick Warner is scheduled to die Nov. 13, and Richard Eugene Glossip is scheduled to be executed by the state one week later, on Nov. 20. In September, a federal judge expressed doubts the state Corrections Department could implement changes to its protocol in time for the executions. That protocol was unveiled Oct. 1.

Reporters were restricted from asking questions that were not directly related to the new execution chamber, however, Corrections Department spokeswoman Terri Watkins did acknowledge the November executions would remain on schedule.

The most significant change to the chamber was the enlargement of the “chemical room,” where the executioners administer the lethal drugs.

The execution room, where the condemned inmate is strapped to a gurney, was shortened slightly to make room for the changes.

As a result of the smaller execution chamber, seating was shortened in the witness area, and media seats for executions have been reduced, as well.

"Death chamber renovations done," is by Glenn Puit and Parker Perry of CNHI News Service, via the Muskogee Daily Phoenix.

The new equipment at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester includes cameras, television and microphone equipment, allowing for direct communication between the execution room and an adjacent operations room where Director of Corrections Robert Patton will observe all executions. New phone lines on a single phone bank also will allow Patton to reach the governor and also the state attorney general immediately if necessary.

“One of the things that was required...was that we improve or enhance our communications within this area,” said Scott Crow, administrator for field operations for the DOC.

Some of the new technology replaces a system in which corrections employees held up colored pencils to communicate between the execution and operations rooms during executions.

"Oklahoma unveils renovated execution chamber after botched execution," is Reuters coverage by Heide Brandes.

Approximately $34,000 of the $106,000 spent on the project went to new medical equipment, including an ultrasound machine to help locate veins on the condemned, state prison officials said.

The "improvements ... will improve overall efficiency,” said Scott Crow, administrator of field operations at the Oklahoma Department of Corrections.

The execution chamber was also outfitted with an electronically controlled bed, restraint and intercom systems and an ECG machine, prison officials said.

New communications equipment and cameras were also added to the execution chamber, the adjacent operations room and the two witness areas, officials said.

Earlier coverage from Oklahoma begins at the link.

Oklahoma Roundup

The Oklahoman reports, "American Civil Liberties Union, media file response in federal execution lawsuit," by Graham Lee Brewer.

Media witnesses to executions should be allowed to view the entire process, including the insertion of the IV and any complications, members of the media said in a Tuesday court filing.

Members of the media, along with the national and state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, brought a lawsuit against the state in August, asking a federal judge to prohibit the state from conducting any future executions in the same manner used to kill Clayton Lockett in April.

And:

In a motion filed Tuesday in federal court in Oklahoma City, the ACLU and media members asked for a ruling on the case by the end of the month. The motion comes just days after the state Corrections Department unveiled its new execution protocol, which reduces the number of media witnesses to executions from 12 to five and states members of the press will be briefed before the procedure to explain there may be portions of the process they are not allowed to witness.

Lee Rowland, ACLU staff attorney, said the updated protocol only exacerbates the constitutional concerns raised by Lockett’s problematic execution. Rowland said there is still time for the state to implement the ACLU’s requested changes to protocol in time for two executions scheduled for mid-November.

"News Organizations Seek Halt To Oklahoma Execution Plans," is the AP report, via KWTV-TV.

Attorneys for two news organizations suing Oklahoma prison officials for preventing reporters from viewing portions of an execution that went awry in the spring are asking a federal judge to stop new state execution protocols from going into effect.

Attorneys with the American Civil Liberties Union filed a motion Tuesday in federal court asking a judge to order prison officials to give the media more access to witness an execution.

The plaintiffs in the case include The Oklahoma Observer and Guardian US newspapers.

"Oklahoma Prison Officials Unveil New Death Chamber," is also from Associated Press, via KOTV-TV.

Oklahoma prison officials are letting the public get its first look at the newly renovated death chamber inside the Oklahoma State Penitentiary.

The Department of Corrections is allowing members of the media inside the prison's maximum-security H-unit on Thursday to see the new room.

Prison officials have completely rebuilt the death chamber and adjacent viewing rooms to give executioners more room. They've also ordered backup medical equipment and developed new protocols for carrying out executions since a lethal injection went awry in the spring.

"U.S. Supreme Court rejects final appeal of Oklahoma death row inmate," is by Chris Casteel of the Washington Bureau of the Oklahoman.

The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected the final appeal of Oklahoma death row inmate Benjamin Cole, who was convicted of killing his infant daughter in 2002.

Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt will now request that the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals set an execution date for Cole, a spokesman for Pruitt said.

Earlier coverage from Oklahoma begins at the link.

Additional Coverage of Oklahoma's Revised Execution Protocol

Oklahoma's news Execution Protocol and Lethal Injection Drug Policy are available in Adobe ,pdf format.

Time posts, "Oklahoma Changes Lethal Injection Protocol, But Keeps Controversial Drug," by Josh Sanburn.

Late Tuesday, Oklahoma announced new lethal injection procedures requiring more training for executioners and contingency plans if any problems arise. The new protocol also reduces the number of media witnesses from 12 to five. On top of that, it provides the state with four different lethal injection drug combination options, two of which still involve midazolam in a dosage that is five times larger than what was used in Lockett’s execution.

The Oklahoma Department of Corrections released the new guidelines this week without comment. But the move appears to be a way for the state to continue executions while opening the door for more desirable and, possibly, effective drugs that have become difficult to obtain.

“I think this represents a tension between the drugs they would prefer to use and what’s available,” says Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, an anti-capital punishment organization.

"New Oklahoma execution protocols include bigger drug doses," is by Heide Brandes of Reuters, via the Colubus Dispatch.

Oklahoma set up new procedures on executions that include increasing by five times the dose of a sedative that was among the drugs used in a botched execution in April that prompted the state to suspend lethal injections.

The new procedures allow the corrections department director to choose from four lethal-injection options, two of which increase the dose of Midazolam from 100 milligrams to 500 milligrams.

Midazolam was used in the April execution of convicted killer Clayton Lockett, who writhed and moaned for 43 minutes before the lethal injection killed him.

Earlier coverage of the Oklahoma execution protocol changes begins at the link.

Oklahoma Issues New Execution Protocol & LI Drug Policy

The Oklahoma execution protocol is available in Adobe .pdf format, as is the Department of Corrections' Lethal Injection Drug Policy.

Dale Baich, an attorney representing Oklahoma death row inmates issued a statement, "In Response to Today’s Release of Oklahoma Execution Protocol:

“The protocol released by the state today does not remedy the problems that happened in Clayton Lockett’s execution. The protocol gives the Director of the DOC sole discretion to choose from four options, two of which are experimental. The prisoner will be given only ten days’ notice of the selected method of execution and this is insufficient time for the court to review the procedures to ensure that the protocol is constitutional. The protocol calls for less, not more transparency in executions, by limiting the number of media eyewitnesses and keeping information about the source and efficacy of the drugs from the prisoner. The only way to ensure that what happened to Mr. Lockett does not happen again is through discovery and fact-finding in the federal courts.”

"Oklahoma unveils new procedures after botched execution of Clayton Lockett," is AP coverage, via the Guardian.

Oklahoma prison officials have unveiled new execution procedures to replace those used in April when an inmate writhed and moaned before being declared dead 43 minutes after his lethal injection began.

The new guidelines allow the state to keep using midazolam, a sedative used in flawed executions earlier this year in Ohio, Oklahoma and Arizona, although it calls for increasing by five times the dose it gave Clayton Lockett in April. His botched execution renewed debate over what constitutes cruel and unusual punishment

Other changes include more training requirements for prison staff and members of the execution teams, and having contingency plans in case of problems with execution equipment or an inmate’s medical condition. The new protocols reduce the number of media witnesses from 12 to five.

The Tulsa World reports, "State releases new execution protocol," by Ziva Branstetter and Cary Aspinwall.

The policy includes four possible drug combinations, including the three-part cocktail used on Lockett. Two of Oklahoma’s options under the updated policy use the sedative midazolam, controversial for its role in lengthy executions in other states.

However, Oklahoma’s new policy increases the amount of midazolam to be used from 100 milligrams to 500 milligrams.

Attorney General Scott Pruitt’s office had claimed in previous court filings that the lower amount used on Lockett was sufficient to render an inmate unconscious. Some experts interviewed by the Tulsa World have said the drug is not a true anesthetic.

Only one of the new drug combinations contains potassium chloride, a drug used to stop the heart. In a key ruling upholding lethal injection, the Supreme Court said states take an “unacceptable risk” of cruel and unusual punishment if an inmate receives potassium chloride while conscious.

The DOC’s previous policy included potassium chloride in four out of five drug combinations.

DOC Director Robert Patton will be in charge of choosing the drug combination used by the state, notifying the condemned inmate of his decision 10 days in advance of an execution. The previous policy placed the warden of the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in charge of choosing drugs and other aspects of the process.

"Oklahoma Department of Corrections releases new execution protocol," is by Graham Lee Brewer in the Oklahoman.

A staff member also will be responsible for watching the insertion point during the procedure to ensure no problems occur. The lethal drugs used to kill Lockett collected in his tissue near the insertion point due to a poorly placed femoral IV, the state investigation found, and the large, swollen area went unnoticed for several minutes due to a sheet covering Lockett’s groin.

The protocol also places a one hour time limit on the placement of the IV, after which the director will be required to contact the governor’s office and advise on the possibility of a stay.

The state Corrections Department released the protocol late Tuesday without statement or comment. Director Robert Patton has declined to comment on the protocol, as recently as last week’s Board of Corrections meeting, due to pending litigation.

The McAleseter News-Capital reports, "Oklahoma revises execution policy," by Glenn Puit and Parker Perry.

The new protocols include upping the dosage of midazolam five-fold during executions, increasing training for participants, including a physician and paramedic responsible for inserting the IV line into the condemned, and making the IV line more visible to corrections staffers. The Department of Corrections will also utilize a "non-invasive" device to locate a vein in the condemned.

The protocols also call for reducing the number of media witnesses to 5. No explanation was given by the Department of Corrections for any of the changes.

And:

The office of Gov. Mary Fallin told the McAlester News-Capital the governor was still reviewing the new protocols.

"The governor's office received the new procedures today," said Fallin's spokesman Alex Weintz. "I wouldn't say the governor didn't have any input, but the procedures were released by the Department of Corrections."

Earlier coverage of Oklahoma's botched execution begins at the link.

Tennessee Supreme Court Roundup

Today's Tennessean reports, "TN Supreme Court delays Oct. 7 execution of Irick," by Brian Haas.

The Tennessee Supreme Court on Thursday postponed the Oct. 7 execution of Billy Ray Irick.

The court accepted Irick’s appeal to delay his execution in light of an ongoing lawsuit filed by 11 death row inmates challenging the secrecy of the state’s lethal injection procedures and the constitutionality of its backup plan, the electric chair.

And:

Part of the holdup is that attorneys are awaiting a decision from the Tennessee Court of Appeals over whether the state must turn over the identities of its execution team.

The Supreme Court on Thursday sided with Irick, saying that the state must await the appeals court ruling before proceeding. But the court said that once the ruling is in, “this matter should be expedited to eliminate any further unnecessary delays.” The court also put time limits on any further appeals in the case and ordered an “expedited schedule for resolution” of the ongoing lawsuit, which is being heard in Davidson County Chancery Court.

"Tennessee Supreme Court postpones execution over lethal injection challenge," is the AP report by Travis Loller, via the Columbia Missourian.

A death row inmate has been granted a reprieve from an Oct. 7 execution date.

On Thursday, the Tennessee Supreme Court ruled that Billy Ray Irick's execution should be put on hold while a challenge to the state's lethal injection and electrocution procedures works its way through the courts.

The lawsuit claims that the state has no way to ensure the purity and potency of the lethal injection drug pentobarbital. It also claims that use of the electric chair amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.

Tennessee changed the law earlier this year to allow the state to execute a prisoner by electrocution in the event that prison officials are unable to obtain pentobarbital. It is the only state that allows use of the electric chair against an inmate's will.

Also from Tennesse, "Supreme Court Orders New Trial In Bartlett Double Murder Case," is the opinion summary from the state's high court.  It's also available from the Chattanoogan.

The Tennessee Supreme Court has ordered a new trial for Henry Lee Jones, who was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder in Shelby County and sentenced to death. Because the trial court committed prejudicial error by admitting evidence that Jones had committed a separate murder in Florida, the Court reversed the convictions but ruled that the state may again seek the death penalty in the new trial.

In May 2009, Jones was tried for the murders of Clarence and Lillian James. Jones’s accomplice, Tevarus Young, who was charged with facilitation of the murders and was called as a witness for the state, testified that he was present during the murders on August 22, 2003 and provided details of the crimes. The trial court, however, erroneously allowed the State to present evidence of the subsequent murder of Carlos Perez in a motel room in Melbourne, Fla.

While acknowledging the rule that evidence of other crimes by a defendant is not generally admissible in a trial, a majority of the Court of Criminal Appeals had earlier held that the Perez murder qualified as a “signature crime,” a narrow exception to the general rule. Judge Camille McMullen dissented from the Court of Criminal Appeals decision, observing that the Perez murder did not meet the strict requirements for the exception to apply. 

In a unanimous opinion, the Supreme Court pointed out the significant differences between the James murders in Tennessee and the murder in Florida, held that the evidence should not have been admitted, and concluded that a new trial was necessary.

The Tennessee Supreme Court ruling in Tennessee v. Jones is available in Adobe .pdf format.

One other media note from Tennessee: Nashville Scene reports, "Brian Haas Is Leaving The Tennessean."  The alt-weekly notes that the reporter will become the Nashville Fire Department's Public Information Officer.  I've greatly appreciated his professional, reliable reporting over the years. 

Earlier coverage from Tennessee begins at the link.

Continuing Commentary and News From Oklahoma

The Sunday Oklahoman published the editorial, "Death penalty treated seriously in Oklahoma interim study."

Why has no other state adopted this method of execution if it’s superior? In 1977, Oklahoma became the first state to adopt lethal injection as a means of execution, although Texas was ultimately the first state to employ the procedure. But that was a different era. Being the first state to authorize a new execution method today would undoubtedly prompt numerous legal challenges, increasing taxpayer costs and slowing executions once again.

This is a debate with no easy answers, no cure-all for logistical challenges, and no permanent consensus achievable regarding the ultimate morality of the death penalty and its practical application. But state lawmakers, Christian in particular, deserve credit for taking a serious, thoughtful approach to this ultimate application of government power.

"Oklahoma AG backs press presence at executions," is by Randy Krehbiel for the Tulsa World.

A legal filing last week by two of his assistants is not a prelude to barring reporters from executions, Attorney General Scott Pruitt said.

“Generally speaking,” said Pruitt, “the press plays a very valuable role in attending the executions. Obviously, and I believe, that should continue to make sure the public has access, that there is transparency, and to know what’s going on.”

Last Tuesday, in pleadings asking for the dismissal of a federal lawsuit, two assistant attorneys general argued the press has no First Amendment right to witness executions.

Earlier coverage from Oklahoma begins at the link.

Arizona Journalists Join Civil Lawsuit

"Media coalition joins lawsuit over botched Arizona execution," is by Michael Kiefer in the Arizona Republic.

In the wake of a botched execution, a coalition of Arizona TV, print and radio outlets has joined a lawsuit to compel the Arizona Department of Corrections to fully disclose information about how it executes death row prisoners and to allow the media to witness all stages of the execution.

Attorneys from the Federal Public Defender's office initially filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Phoenix on behalf of Joseph Wood and other death row inmates before Wood's July 23 execution. The execution was stayed in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, but the stay was lifted by the U.S. Supreme Court and Wood was put to death.

The attorneys had requested information about the drugs to be used in that execution and about the qualifications of the medical team that would carry out the execution. The corrections department carried out the execution using a drug that had already resulted in prolonged deaths during executions in Oklahoma and Ohio.

Wood's execution was the most controversial of the three.

The Arizona Capitol Times reports, "Journalists’ group joins lawsuit in controversial execution case," by Gary Grado.

An out-of-state law firm is representing an Arizona First Amendment advocacy group that hopes to convince a federal judge that the state’s execution procedures are unconstitutional and the state should be required to provide information on the prolonged execution of an Arizona inmate.

Attorneys with Sidley Austin filed documents Sept. 18 in U.S. District Court in Phoenix to join a lawsuit that was filed prior to the July 23 execution of Joseph Wood.

The law firm, which works pro bono for death-row inmates in Alabama, is representing the Arizona First Amendment Coalition, a group that advocates on behalf of the media and the public for more transparency in government.

"Group joins legal fight for records in state execution," by Patrick McNamara for the Arizona Daily Star.

The Arizona First Amendment Coalition has joined the case seeking more information from the state Corrections Department about the nearly two-hour execution of Joseph Rudolph Wood in July.

“We believe that this process should be open to media observation and scrutiny from the beginning to the end,” coalition President Morgan Loew said.

Loew is also a reporter with Phoenix’s CBS affiliate.

And:

Loew said his organization wants witnesses to see when a condemned inmate enters the death chamber and is strapped to the gurney.

Currently, execution witnesses watch on television monitors as IV lines are set on the prisoner who’s already strapped to the table. The observation window curtains are drawn once lines are set and the execution process begins.

“It’s still about transparency,” said Dale Baich, Wood’s attorney with the federal Public Defender’s Office.

Earlier coverage from Arizona begins at the link.

Federal Court Hearing Today in Oklahoma LI Challenge

Today's Tulsa World reports, "Federal judge hears testimony in death row inmates' suit," by Ziva Branstetter.

A federal judge will hear a motion Thursday by the state to halt proceedings in a lawsuit by 21 death row inmates challenging Oklahoma's execution process.

The hearing will be held before U.S. District Judge Stephen Friot in the Western District of federal court in Oklahoma City. The plaintiffs who filed the suit include three inmates with upcoming execution dates.

In the lawsuit, filed June 25, the inmates ask for an injunction preventing the state from executing them "using the drugs and procedures employed in the attempt to execute Clayton Lockett, or similarly untried, untested and unsound drugs and procedures."

The lawsuit was prompted by Lockett's botched execution on April 29. The execution took 43 minutes and was performed by a doctor and paramedic who said they lacked the proper medical equipment and backup drugs.

"Hearing set in US lawsuit filed by Oklahoma death row inmates seeking to halt their executions," is AP coverage, via the Daily Journal.

A federal judge is set to hear arguments filed by 21 Oklahoma death row inmates seeking to block their executions.

A hearing is scheduled before U.S. District Judge Stephen Friot Thursday in the lawsuit that alleges the state's lethal injection guidelines present a risk of severe pain and suffering.

The Guardian posts, "Oklahoma asks court to dismiss lawsuit brought in wake of botched execution," by Amanda Holpuc.

Oklahoma has asked a federal court to dismiss a first amendment lawsuit filed after the botched execution of Clayton Lockett on the grounds that having members of the public witness an execution “does not play any particularly positive role”.

Oklahoma assistant attorney general M Daniel Weitman filed a motion for dismissal of the lawsuit, which was brought in the US district court for the western district of Oklahoma in August by the ACLU, The Guardian, The Oklahoma Observer and journalist Katie Fretland, who reported on the execution for the Guardian. The plaintiffs claim that bearing witness to executions is a first amendment right, and contested the state’s decision to draw a curtain midway through the execution, prohibiting witnesses from seeing what was happening in the death chamber.

And:

Plaintiffs have asked for legal injunctions that would block Oklahoma from filtering information about its lethal injection process before the next scheduled execution set for 13 November.

The ninth circuit court of criminal appeals in 2002 found that there is a first amendment right to view an execution, allowing media witnesses to view the insertion of the IV during executions in the states covered by the court, which are California, Hawaii, Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Nevada and Arizona.

Earlier coverage from Oklahoma begins at the link.  Also available, news of the 9th Circuit ruling on media witnesses of executions. 

For those without their scorecards, there are two different civil lawsuits playing out in Oklahoma; one filed by journalists for media access at executions, the other by inmates challenging the state's execution protocol.

 

Oklahoma Responds to Media Access Lawsuit

Oklahoma's response to the media lawsuit is available at the link.

"State Says Media Is Not Entitled To See Executions," is the AP report, via KGOU-FM.

Attorneys for the state of Oklahoma argue the media is not entitled to witness executions and that a lawsuit seeking more access to the procedure should be dismissed.

In a motion to dismiss filed Tuesday in federal court, assistant Attorney General Daniel Weitman wrote that having media witnesses at an execution does not play a "positive role in the actual functioning of the process."

The Oklahoma Observer and Guardian US newspapers filed a lawsuit last month asking a federal judge to declare the media be allowed to view an execution in its entirety, including the insertion of intravenous lines used to deliver the lethal injection.

"Prison officials ask court to dismiss ACLU execution lawsuit," is by Cary Aspinwall of the Tulsa World.

“Plaintiffs seek to expose employees of the Department of Corrections to intense scrutiny during the stressful and delicate stages of executions,” the court filing states.

The ACLU lawsuit, filed in federal court in the Western District of Oklahoma, comes in response to the April 29 botched execution of Clayton Lockett. The organization seeks to stop Oklahoma prison officials from hiding any portions of an execution from media witnesses, on behalf of The Guardian US and The Oklahoma Observer.

“Contrary to Plaintiffs’ claims that their reporting serves as the bulwark to preserve the integrity of the Eighth Amendment, case law reveals that courts view such eyewitness testimony as speculative, equivocal, and generally unhelpful with regards to whether an inmate suffers from the execution. The general lack of utility of the salacious details of an execution shows that press presence does not play a particularly positive role worthy of a First Amendment right of special access,” wrote Assistant Attorney General M. Daniel Weitman in the state’s response. Lockett’s execution took 43 minutes while he strained, mumbled and writhed on the gurney after executioners injected him with a mix of drugs never before used in an Oklahoma lethal injection.

"Oklahoma attorney general's office argues media has no right to view executions," is by Graham Lee Brewer for the Oklahoman.

Media witnesses to executions do not play an important or positive role worthy of certain First Amendment protections, according to a state response to a federal lawsuit.

In a response filed Tuesday to a lawsuit attempting to bar the state from closing the blinds on an execution, Assistant Attorney General M. Daniel Weitman argued the media has no right to view executions from beginning to end and reporting doesn’t adequately address whether or not they are cruel or unusual punishment.

Earlier coverage form Oklahoma begins with the preceding post.  You can jump to earlier news of the media access lawsuit.  Journalists have also sued the state of Pennsylvania over secrecy surrounding lethal injection drugs.

More Attention for Pamela Colloff's 'The Witness'

Pacific Standard posts, "The psychological trauma of witnessing an execution," by Lauren Kirchne.  It's via the Week.  The article also contains several links to scholarship.

Lyons was and is still a supporter of capital punishment, but individual cases gave her reason to feel conflicted. "There is a difference between supporting the death penalty as a concept and being the person who actually watches its application," as she puts it. Her former boss in the communications department, who also witnessed hundreds of executions, more readily acknowledges the toll it's taken on him. He says he has nightmares, and is haunted by the memories of the people he watched die on the gurney, and by those whose names he can no longer recall.

It's not surprising that executions, even for people who support capital punishment, and even when the criminals being put to death evoke little personal sympathy because of the nature of their crimes, take a toll on witnesses. (And even executions that go smoothly, and that are not horribly botched.) It's surprising when there are people who don't seem affected by the experience in any way.

A few years ago, The New York Times profiled Houston-based reporter Michael Graczyk, who witnessed over 300 executions while reporting on court cases for The Associated Press in Texas. He has a "low-key, matter-of-fact lack of sentiment," according to The Times. Graczyk says he prefers to watch executions from the viewing room with the victim's family members in it, simply because that way he "can get out faster and file the story faster."

Perhaps Graczyk's remarkable ability to stay cool and unaffected by the process is precisely why he was kept on that beat for so long. As Cynthia Barnett has recounted in the American Journalism Review, for most reporters, covering a state-sponsored murder is not like another day at the office.

Colloff's latest Texas Monthly article is noted at the link.

Additional News Coverage of the Oklahoma Lawsuit

Scott Martelle writes, "Secrecy surrounding Oklahoma execution is unacceptable," at the Los Angeles Times Opinion LA blog.

The plaintiffs argue, rightfully, that by selectively opening and closing the shutters covering windows into the death chamber, prison officials denied the public’s right to know about a significant governmental action. After the fact, corrections officials released incomplete statements about what occurred, but the public’s eyes and ears — the media — were unable to offer independent corroboration or to refute the facts as the prison officials provided them.

Such secrecy is unacceptable. Oklahoma has scheduled another execution for Nov. 13, though that could get delayed (it was to have taken place shortly after Lockett’s execution but was postponed). The courts should side with the plaintiffs. Secretive executions should not be part of an open government, or society.

The Tulsa World reports, "Publications, ACLU sue corrections department for right to watch executions," by Cary Aspinwall.

Journalists have a right to view Oklahoma's executions without obstruction by prison officials, argues a lawsuit filed Monday by the American Civil Liberties Union and two publications.

The lawsuit, filed by ACLU's national and Oklahoma chapters on behalf of Guardian US and The Oklahoma Observer, seeks to stop Oklahoma prison officials from hiding portions of an execution from media witnesses.

"Journalists, ACLU file federal lawsuit over botched Oklahoma execution," is by Graham Lee Brewer in the Oklahoman.

A spokesman for the state Corrections Department declined to comment Monday.

The journalists involved in the lawsuit are seeking an injunction, asking that lethal injection be a more transparent procedure. They are attempting to put in place a restriction on closing the blinds during an execution and to require corrections departments to allow the press to witness the placement of the inmate’s IV.

“The more immediate goal of the case is really more about the curtain, so to speak,” said Brady Henderson, legal counsel for the Oklahoma chapter of the ACLU. “It’s about lifting it. It’s about making sure that press witnesses have the full access that they should. But, I think of course the larger goal is transparency as a whole. And, that transparency of course applies, whether or not things are going as planned, or whether they’re going awry, like they were in Lockett’s case.”

"Lawsuit Seeks Uncensored Access To Executions," is by Arnold Hamilton for the Oklahoma Observer.

The Oklahoma Observer, the Guardian US and the American Civil Liberties Union today filed suit in federal court, seeking to prevent Oklahoma prison officials from arbitrarily filtering what journalists can witness during executions.

The lawsuit follows April’s botched execution of Clayton Lockett at the state penitentiary in McAlester. When the procedure did not go as planned, prison officials closed the curtain in the death chamber, blocking the view of independent witnesses.

“Oklahoma taxpayers have an absolute right to know what their government is doing in their name – especially when it comes to imposing the court’s ultimate punishment,” said Observer Editor Arnold Hamilton, a plaintiff in the case.

"Media and ACLU sue Oklahoma over right to watch executions," is the LA Times news coverage written by Matt Pearce.

Monday's lawsuit was not the first time that the Guardian -- a British publication that has recently expanded its coverage of the United States with Guardian U.S. -- has sued American public officials over 1st Amendment rights.

In May, the Guardian, the Associated Press and Missouri's three-largest newspapers sued state officials over the state's execution secrecy laws, which have helped conceal the source of the state's lethal injection drugs and the identities of execution personnel. Schulz helped design the Missouri lawsuit.)

"News organizations sue Oklahoma prisons director over blocked view of botched execution," is AP coverage by Tim Talley.  It's via the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune.

Monday's lawsuit alleges prison officials used the viewing shade inside the execution chamber to block witnesses' view of the procedure both before and after it was under way.

"The assembled press was denied the opportunity to observe Clayton Lockett entering the execution chamber and his intravenous lines being prepared and inserted," it states. The viewing shade was lifted as Lockett's execution began but prison officials lowered it again in the middle of the procedure, "prematurely terminating press access," according to the lawsuit.

Associated Press writer Sean Murphy, who witnessed the execution, described Lockett writhing against the straps that held him on the gurney and gritting his teeth and moaning. Curtains in the execution chamber were closed about 16 minutes after the injection began. The director of the state's prison system, Robert Patton, later called off the execution, but Lockett died about 10 minutes later.

Additional coverage includes:

"Activists, newspapers sue over blocked access to Oklahoma executions," by Heide Brandes of Reuters, via GlobalPost.

UPI posts, "Oklahoma sued over botched execution," by Gabrielle Levy.

"Does press have First Amendment right to view entire execution? ACLU sues over closed blinds," by Debra Cassens Weiss for ABA Journal.

"Oklahoma sued over botched execution," by Susan Greene for the Colorado Independent.

"Oklahoma sued over secrecy of botched execution," by Peter Moskowitz for Al Jazeera America.

Oklahoma Observer v. Patton is available in Adobe .pdf format.

Earlier coverage of the Oklahoma lawsuit begins at the link.

ACLU, Journalists Sue Oklahoma - Updated

You can view the Oklahoma Observer v. Patton lawsuit and an ACLU news release at the link.

The Guardian posts, "ACLU challenges Oklahoma over first amendment violation in execution," by Ed Pilkington.

The secrecy imposed by the state of Oklahoma over the botched execution of Clayton Lockett is being challenged in a federal court as a violation of first amendment press freedoms.

In a lawsuit lodged with the US district court for the western district of Oklahoma on Monday, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) argues the state acted unconstitutionally by drawing a screen between the death chamber and the observation room before he was declared dead.

The ACLU is joined as plaintiffs in the lawsuit by the Guardian, the Oklahoma Observer and journalist Katie Fretland, who was one of the reporters in the observation room for the Lockett execution and filed for both outlets. The lawsuit calls on the court to ban Oklahoma from denying reporters “meaningful, uninterrupted and unedited access to the entire execution procedure”.

“The state of Oklahoma violated the first amendment, which guarantees the right of the press to witness executions so the public can be informed about the government’s actions and hold it accountable. The death penalty represents the most powerful exercise of government authority – the need for public oversight is as critical at the execution stage as it is during trial,” said the ACLU’s staff attorney Lee Rowland.

"The Guardian, ACLU sue for greater media access to executions," is by Mark Berman for the Washington Post.

Two news organizations filed a lawsuit Monday asking for greater media access to executions in Oklahoma following a highly publicized botched execution that was largely hidden from the view of the reporters selected to bear witness.

Journalists are often among the only people who witness executions, which are carried out far from the public eye. Relatives of victims, attorneys, state officials and other people who volunteer may attend executions, but media witnesses are the ones who watch so they can relate to the world how the state has executed one of its citizens.

And:

“At an execution, the press serves as the public’s eyes and ears,” Katie Fretland, who reported on the execution for the Guardian and is listed as a plaintiff in the lawsuit, said in a statement. “The government shouldn’t be allowed to effectively blindfold us when things go wrong.”

Fretland was one of the dozen reporters who attended Lockett’s execution, selected through a lottery system because more than 12 journalists wanted to witness it. Like the other people who filed into that small room on the grounds of the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, she arrived expecting to watch and document the end of Lockett’s life. Instead, she reported on the botch and on Lockett’s death, which occurred away from the gathered witnesses.

“The public has a right to the whole story, not a version edited by government officials,” she said.

"ACLU Sues Over Closed Blinds in Botched Clayton Lockett Execution," by Tracy Connor at NBC News.

The ACLU and two news organizations filed a federal lawsuit Monday to force Oklahoma prison officials to let witnesses watch executions from beginning to end. The litigation is a response to the botched April 29 lethal injection of Clayton Lockett, in which the execution team closed the blinds when the inmate began appeared to regain consciousness and struggle 20 minutes after the drugs were administered. The suit asks the court to order that all witnesses, including the media, be able to view the proceedings from the moment the prisoner enters the execution chamber until he or she is taken out.

At the ACLU Blog of Rights, Lee Rowland posts, "An Execution, Censored."  Rowland is a staff attorney with the ACLU Speech, Privacy & Technology Project.

Both death penalty supporters and opponents should be able to agree that the most extreme use of state power should absolutely not occur in the shadows. As the Supreme Court has said, "The protection given speech and press was fashioned to assure unfettered interchange of ideas for the bringing about of political and social changes desired by the people."

As citizens, we can't complete that duty if the government only offers us selective information, editing out all the ugly parts. That why we brought a lawsuit today asking the court to stop the state of Oklahoma from using the execution shade like a Photoshop tool.

It isn't transparency when the government shines a light only on the things it wants us to see.

Tony Mauro writes, "Press Seeks Greater Access to Oklahoma Executions," for the National Law Journal.

News organizations on Monday sued the state of Oklahoma for greater access to executions following the botched lethal injection of Clayton Lockett in April.

In a complaint filed with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma, the Oklahoma Observer, the Guardian and a freelance reporter invoked a First Amendment "affirmative right of access" to execution procedures.

"The ability of the press to witness the particular facts and circumstances of each execution, and to report on the same, promotes the proper functioning of the State’s death penalty system and increases public confidence in the integrity of the justice system," according to the complaint, which also seeks an injunction guaranteeing "meaningful, uninterrupted and unedited access to the entire execution procedure " for the news media.

"Oklahoma Illegally Drew Blinds During Execution, New Lawsuit Says," is by Ashby Jones for the Wall Street Journal Law blog.

The lawsuit comes in the midst of a particularly controversial time for the death penalty in the U.S., especially in light of a string of problematic lethal injections.

The plaintiffs also allege that state officials, by obscuring reporters’ views, violated Oklahoma law itself, and the state’s own procedures.

The plaintiffs ask for, among other things, the court to ban the state from “curtailing, censoring, limiting, or hindering the ability of lawful witnesses and media representatives to witness the entire execution process . . . . ”

The Atlantic posts, "Who Watches America's Executions?"  It's by Matt Ford.

After Joseph Wood's botched execution in July, journalists and other observers gave us grisly details about the convicted murderer's final moments. One of the reporters even counted the number of Wood's gasps—around 660 in total—as he lay on the gurney before finally dying after nearly two hours. The New York Times printed the number on its front page the next morning. During its next opportunity to rule on a lethal-injection-drug case earlier this month, all four of the Supreme Court's liberal justicesvoted to hear it—just one vote short of success. Now only the whims of Justice Anthony Kennedy, who has written both to save and to constrain the death penalty during his tenure, stand between the states and a review of the country's universally preferred, and increasingly troubled, execution method.

But in the botched lethal injection of Clayton Lockett in Oklahoma earlier in April, valuable observations like those in Arizona weren't independently available because of state interference. The ACLU filed a lawsuit Monday morning on behalf of the Oklahoma Observer, its editor and co-owner Arnold Hamilton, The Guardian, and freelance reporter Katie Fretland, who covered the April execution for them. When Lockett began showing clear signs of discomfort midway through the procedure, Oklahoma officials closed the blinds to the chamber and left witnesses unable to see his final moments.

Earlier coverage of Oklahoma's botched execution begins at the link.  Related posts are in the botch and journalism category indexes.

The Witness

That's the title of Pamela Colloff's latest article at Texas Monthly.  "For more than a decade, it was Michelle Lyons’s job to observe the final moments of death row inmates—but watching 278 executions did not come without a cost," is he subtitle.  Here's a brief excerpt from this must-read:

Early one morning in April, Michelle Lyons pulled up outside her daughter’s elementary school in Huntsville, seventy miles north of Houston. Set deep in the Piney Woods, Huntsville—which is home to no fewer than five prisons—is a company town whose primary industry is confinement. Many parents who were dropping their children off at school that day worked for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Huntsville’s largest employer. Michelle, who sat behind the wheel of her blue Chevy sedan nursing a travel mug of coffee, had worked for TDCJ herself for more than a decade. She had been the public face of the agency, a disarmingly friendly, upbeat spokesperson for the biggest prison system in the nation. Though she had left the position two years earlier, she was still well-known around town, and several mothers waved as her car idled in the drop-off line. “Have a beautiful day,” she murmured when her nine-year-old leaned in to kiss her goodbye. 

When Michelle first went to work for TDCJ, in 2001, she had begun each weekday morning by driving into town, past the picturesque courthouse square and toward the Walls Unit, the 165-year-old penitentiary that is Huntsville’s most iconic landmark. The prison, whose ramparts measure more than thirty feet high, is a colossal, foreboding structure crowned by razor wire—a two-block-long, red-brick fortress that houses the most active death chamber in the country. Michelle’s office occupied a corner of an administrative building directly across the street from the Walls, and one of the requirements of her job as a public information officer had been to attend every execution the state carried out. She had also attended executions for her previous job, as a reporter covering prisons for the hometown newspaper, the Huntsville Item. Michelle spent many evenings—hundreds, in fact—standing shoulder-to-shoulder with witnesses in a cramped room that afforded a view of the death chamber, where she watched as men, and two women, were injected with a three-drug cocktail that stopped their hearts. All told, she had seen 278 inmates put to death.

Related posts are in the TDCJ category index.

The State v. Darryl Hunt

That's the title of a retrospective look at a notorious North Carolina case in the Winston-Salem Journal.  It's written by Michael Hewitt, and is subtitled, "30 years after the murder of Deborah Sykes and 10 years after the exoneration of Darryl Hunt, the case still haunts those it touched."  There are infographics at the link.

Here's the beginning:

Darryl Hunt has been a free man for a little more than 10 years now, but he remains guarded.

He still pauses sometimes before unlocking the door to his house because part of him expects the door to open automatically, like the doors to his cell when he was imprisoned for nearly 19 years for a crime he didn’t commit — the murder of Deborah Sykes, a 25-year-old copy editor at The Sentinel, an afternoon newspaper in Winston-Salem that closed in 1985.

And after he leaves the house and before he returns, Hunt drives to an ATM. It’s not that he needs money in his pocket. He’s focused on getting a receipt and he takes comfort in knowing that his picture is taken.

Those two things — a receipt and his picture — serve as his alibi just in case Winston-Salem police officers pick him up and throw him in jail. He knows the last time that happened — on Sept. 11, 1984, when he was initially arrested. He was charged Sept. 14, 1984 with Sykes’ murder and ended up spending a good portion of his life behind bars.

Earlier coverage from North Carolina begins at the link. Darryl Hunt's exoneration was the subject of an HBO documentary.

An Oklahoma Update From the Tulsa World

"DOC has yet to release logs from botched April execution; state waiting on autopsy," is by Cary Aspinwall and Ziva Branstetter of the Tulsa World.

Logs from the final hours before Clayton Lockett’s botched execution still haven’t been released by the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, more than three months after initially requested by the Tulsa World.

Officials at DOC have declined to say when the logs or other records requested by the World will be released. The agency keeps detailed logs during every execution, documenting the timeline of what occurred during the days leading up to the execution and on the day of the execution.

Oklahoma’s execution protocol states that beginning seven days before an execution, a log will be maintained to “provide a detailed chronological history of every aspect of the execution proceedings.”

The World requested the logs and other records following Lockett’s April 29 execution, which took 43 minutes and was halted shortly before he died. Key events surrounding the execution were omitted from an earlier timeline released by DOC on May 1, including the medical qualifications of personnel who inserted the inmate’s IV and what happened between the time when the execution was halted and Lockett died.

Earlier coverage of Oklahoma's botch execution of Clayton Lockett begins at the link.  Related posts are in the botch category index.

From Kentucky

"Records show Kentucky prison videotaped moments before 2 inmates' executions, but not deaths," is Brett Barrqouquere's report for Associated Press, via the Tribune.  Here's an extended excerpt from the beginning:

Kentucky prison cameras captured on videotape condemned inmates heading for the death chamber in two of the state's executions as part of a little-known archive that now could come under wider scrutiny from a legal challenge over how lethal injections are carried out, according to records obtained by The Associated Press.

The surveillance camera videotapes have never been made public and their existence was known only to corrections officials. The AP uncovered references to the videos in a personnel file of a former prison employee and when the Department of Corrections rejected a records request from the AP for the videos.

The videos — made before an electric chair death in 1997 and a lethal injection execution in 1999 — apparently do not show the execution, but the transfer of the inmates to the execution chamber. The AP has not been granted permission to view the tapes.

Now, their presence could become drawn into disputes over access to the execution chamber by defense attorneys seeking to take photographs and shoot video inside the chamber at the maximum-security Kentucky State Penitentiary in Eddyville. The effort is part of ongoing litigation over how the state conducts lethal injections. Attorneys for inmates want experts to review photos and videos of the chamber to look for any potential problem that might cause an execution to go awry as part of a challenge to the constitutionality of Kentucky's execution methods. None of Kentucky's executions had apparent glitches. Prosecutors are fighting the efforts.

It also could raise Kentucky's profile amid the widening disputes around the country over the deadly mixture of drugs used in executions.

Earlier coverage from Kentucky begins at the link.

Louisiana LI Drugs

The Lens of NOLA posts, "In rush to find lethal injection drug, prison officials turned to a hospital," by Della Haselle.  Here's the beginning:

In January, as the date of Christopher Sepulvado’s execution approached, the Louisiana Department of Corrections did not have the drugs it needed to carry out his death sentence.

So the state turned to a supplier that uses hydromorphone to relieve patients’ suffering, not to kill them: Lake Charles Memorial Hospital.

“We assumed the drug was for one of their patients, so we sent it. We did not realize what the focus was,” said Ulysses Gene Thibodeaux, a board member for the private, nonprofit hospital and chief judge of the Third Circuit Court of Appeal.

“Had we known of the real use,” he said, “we never would have done it.”

The Department of Corrections bought 20 vials of the drug on Jan. 28, a week before Sepulvado’s scheduled execution, according to a document provided by the state in a lawsuit challenging its lethal-injection practice.

Until now, the source of those vials has not been publicly known.

Earlier coverage of Louisiana lethal injection issues begins at the link.

Reactions to New Todd Willingham Reporting

Maurice Possley's latest reporting on Todd Willingham's case is at the Marshall Project website.  The Appendices to the complaint against John Jackson, is via Scribd.

Today's Dallas Morning News publishes the editorial, "Allegations against prosecutor in arson case must be examined."  Here's the beginning of this must-read:

Outrageous allegations of unethical or illegal gamesmanship in the prosecution of Cameron Todd Willingham, who was executed in 2004, need a thorough and transparent examination by the State Bar of Texas.

We applaud the Innocence Project for filing a grievance with the bar against the former prosecutor in the case, so the public may get a clearer picture of how the state secured and upheld this death sentence. The Willingham matter has become a symbol of Texas justice, with its many faults and excesses. Previous efforts to unmask the full truth have fallen short. It’s vital that the bar not allow questions to linger about the execution of this man in the deaths of his three young daughters.

In documents filed with the state bar last month, the Innocence Project alleges that former Navarro County District Attorney John Jackson cut — and has since denied — a secret deal with a drug-addled snitch witness to get him to testify that Willingham admitted setting the fire. The grievance also alleges that Jackson fudged records and interceded with state prison officials to get the witness favorable treatment after he was sent to the penitentiary on a robbery conviction.

"Prosecutor under fire in contested execution of Todd Willingham," is AP coverage by Nomaan Merchant, via the Austin American-Statesman.  It's also available from the Guardian.

A nonprofit group on Monday accused the prosecutor in the case of a Texas man executed for the fire deaths of his three daughters of trying to cover up a jailhouse informant’s recantation.

The New York-based Innocence Project, which investigates potential wrongful convictions, said it had filed a state bar grievance against John H. Jackson, a former prosecutor and judge who oversaw the case against Cameron Todd Willingham.

Willingham was executed in 2004 for killing his three daughters in a house fire in Corsicana. The project has long pursued Willingham’s case for evidence suggesting that Texas wrongfully executed him. State officials have maintained that they still believe he was guilty of murder.

Newsweek posts, "Texas May Have Executed an Innocent Man," by Taylor Wofford.

Texas executes more inmates than any other state. In 2004, the state put 23 people to death. Records obtained by The Marshall Project suggest one of them may well have been innocent.

"New Report Raises Questions About Guilt of Executed Texas Man," is by Priyanka Boghani for PBS FrontLine.  You can watch the FrontLine documentary Death by Fire at the link.

Cameron Todd Willingham was executed on Feb. 17, 2004 after he was found guilty of setting a fire that killed his three young children in December 1991.

Now, nearly 22 years after his trial and 10 years after his death, a new report raises questions about a major piece of evidence against Willingham: his alleged confession to a fellow inmate that he had set the fire.

"We almost certainly execute innocent people with cruelty. This isn't justice," is by Scott Lemieux for the Guardian's Comment is Free.

The case of Cameron Todd Willingham is a particularly striking example of the cavalier way in which the state of Texas – which has executed more than 500 people since the death penalty was reauthorized by the US supreme court in 1976 – administers the death penalty. Not only does the state to this day have essentially no evidence that Willingham committed the crime for which he was accused, it has no real evidence that a crime was committed at all.

"Did Texas execute an innocent man?" is Jonathan H. Adler's post at Volokh Conspiracy via the Washington Post.

Whether or not the death penalty is just, as an abstract matter, there are serious problems with the way it is administered in much of the country.

The Innocence Project has issued a news release, highlighting the Marshall Project's reporting.

Earlier coverage of the newest revelations in Todd Willingham's tragic case begins at the link.

Maurice Possley and Steve Mills first reported on the Willingham case in a 2004 Chicago Tribune series on junk science.  The December 9, 2004 report was titled,"Man executed on disproved forensics."

All related coverage is in the Todd Willingham category index.

The Innocence Project has a Todd Willingham resource page which provides a concise overview of the Willingham case with links to all relevant documents.

David Grann's September 2009 New Yorker article is noted here.

New Reporting Bolsters Todd Willingham's Innocence

"Fresh doubts over a Texas execution," is by Maurice Possley of the Marshall Project, via the Washington Post.  It's also available from the Dallas Morning News. 

At the Marshall Project website, it's titled, "The Prosecutor and the Snitch."

Here's the beginning of this must-read:

For more than 20 years, the prosecutor who convicted Cameron Todd Willingham of murdering his three young daughters has insisted that the authorities made no deals to secure the testimony of the jailhouse informer who told jurors that Willingham confessed the crime to him.

Since Willingham was executed in 2004, officials have continued to defend the account of the informer, Johnny E. Webb, even as a series of scientific experts have discredited the forensic evidence that Willingham might have deliberately set the house fire in which his toddlers were killed.

But now new evidence has revived questions about Willingham’s guilt: In taped interviews, Webb, who has previously both recanted and affirmed his testimony, gives his first detailed account of how he lied on the witness stand in return for efforts by the former prosecutor, John H. Jackson, to reduce Webb’s prison sentence for robbery and to arrange thousands of dollars in support from a wealthy Corsicana rancher. Newly uncovered letters and court files show that Jackson worked diligently to intercede for Webb after his testimony and to coordinate with the rancher, Charles S. Pearce Jr., to keep the mercurial informer in line.

Earlier coverage of Todd Willingham's case begins at the link.

While he was a reporter at the Chicago Tribune, Possley and Steve Mills first reported on the Willingham case in a 2004 Chicago Tribune series on junk science.  The December 9, 2004 report was titled,"Man executed on disproved forensics."

All related coverage is in the Todd Willingham category index.

The Innocence Project has a Todd Willingham resource page which provides a concise overview of the Willingham case with links to all relevant documents.

David Grann's September 2009 New Yorker article is noted here.

Eric Holder on Lethal Injection Problems & Secrecy

Video of the PBS NewsHour interview with U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is at the link.

"Eric Holder 'greatly troubled' by spate of botched executions," is by Lauren Gambino for the Guardian.

Speaking out for the first time since a botched execution in Oklahoma led to a Justice Department investigation, the US attorney general, Eric Holder, said on Thursday that death-row inmates should have the right to know what drugs the state is using to put them to death.

Holder told Gwen Ifill on PBS NewsHour that he is “greatly troubled” by the series of prolonged executions carried out in the US states of Ohio, Oklahoma and most recently Arizona.

"For the state to exercise that greatest of all powers, to end a human life, it seems to me, just on a personal level, that transparency would be a good thing, and to share the information about what chemicals are being used, what drugs are being used,” Holder said during the interview.

NBC News reports, "Attorney General Holder: Condemned Should Know Lethal Drugs," by Pete Williams.

Attorney General Eric Holder said Thursday that condemned prisoners have a right to know the composition and sources of the drugs to be administered in carrying out the death penalty.

His comments, during an interview with Gwen Ifill on the PBS NewsHour, come as the Justice Department is working to complete a study, ordered by President Obama in May, on the growing controversy over lethal injection.

And:

Attempts to use new combinations and dosages have resulted in botched executions in Ohio, Oklahoma, and Arizona.

State and federal courts have divided on whether those subject to the death penalty are entitled to know which drugs a state intends to use and where they came from.

"Eric Holder calls for more transparency in lethal injections," is by Alex Seitz-Wald for MSNBC.

“For the state to exercise that greatest of all powers – to end a human life – it seems to me, just on a personal level, that transparency would be a good thing and to share the information about what chemicals are being used, what drugs are being used,” he said.

The controversy over lethal injection comes in the aftermath of several botched executions, including a recent high-profile case in Arizona, in which the condemned man stayed alive for almost two hours after the injection.

“There might not be a legal requirement for transparency and just talking about or describing the drugs that are used. But we sometimes have to go beyond that which is legally required to do something that is right,” Holder told Ifill.

Earlier coverage of Arizona's botched execution begins at the link.

LA Times Interview with Judge Alex Kozinski

"Judge Alex Kozinski on bringing back firing squads: No, I wasn't kidding," is by Los Angeles Times columnist Patt Morrison.  Here's the first question of this must-read:

Were you being hyperbolic about firing squads to get our attention?

No, I was quite serious. We've had a lot of litigation about problems with [lethal] drugs. Meanwhile we are spending an immense amount of money and resources, and giving false hopes to the victims' families, and we don't really have a death penalty at all in California.

I never thought using drugs was a good idea. People who make the equipment, the drugs, the catheters — they're involved in lifesaving, not killing. Lethal injection in particular, it's all hands-on; they have to strap the body down, they have to put the catheter in, take the vital signs. It's a hard position for a doctor. If there's still a pulse or heartbeat, maybe they'll give more drugs to finish the job, so the doctor is put in a position of essentially helping them.

With a firing squad, you strap him down and leave him and somebody else does the shooting. The people doing the shooting don't have to see him up close; in fact, you don't even need people to pull the trigger anymore. You can have it triggered remotely.

Of course it does raise the question of whether we are really comfortable with having a death penalty that literally sheds blood. The thing about the drugs is that it's a mask — you're not really shedding blood. [But] it's just as violent, just as brutal.

Earlier coverage of Arizona's botched execution begins at the link.  You can also jump to news of Judge Kozinski's dissent, with a link to the dissent itself.

Extensive News Coverage of Arizona's Botched Execution

"Arizona Takes Nearly 2 Hours to Execute Inmate," is the New York Times report by Erik Eckholm.

In another unexpectedly prolonged execution using disputed lethal injection drugs, a condemned Arizona prisoner on Wednesday repeatedly gasped for one hour and 40 minutes, according to witnesses, before dying at an Arizona state prison.

At 1:52 p.m. Wednesday, one day after the United States Supreme Court overturned a stay of execution granted by a federal appeals court last Saturday, the execution of Joseph R. Wood III commenced.

But what would normally be a 10- to 15-minute procedure dragged on for nearly two hours, as Mr. Wood appeared repeatedly to gasp, according to witnesses including reporters and one of his federal defenders, Dale Baich.

"Arizona execution takes nearly 2 hours," is the updated Associated Press filing.

It is the third prolonged execution this year in the U.S., including one in Ohio in which an inmate gasped in similar fashion for nearly a half-hour. An Oklahoma inmate died of a heart attack in April, minutes after prison officials halted his execution because the drugs weren't being administered properly.

Gov. Jan Brewer said later that she's ordering a full review of the state's execution process, saying she's concerned by how long it took for the administered drug protocol to kill Wood.

Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne's office said Wood was pronounced dead at 3:49 p.m., one hour and 57 minutes after the execution started.

"Two-hour Arizona execution sparks calls for rethink on death penalty," by David Schwartz for Reuters, via Yahoo News.

Lawyers for a double-murderer whose lethal injection in Arizona dragged on for two hours called for an outside review of the "horrifically botched execution" and prompted new calls on Thursday for the United States to abandon the death penalty.

The ordeal in putting Joseph Wood to death on Wednesday at a prison facility southeast of Phoenix followed lethal injections that went awry this year in Ohio and Oklahoma, renewing the U.S. debate over capital punishment.

Corrections officials said Wood was never in pain but Rob Freer, a U.S. researcher with human-rights group Amnesty International, asked, "How many more times do officials need to be reminded of the myth of the 'humane execution' before they give up on their experiment with judicial killing?"

The Los Angeles Times reports, "Arizona killer takes 2 hours to die, fueling lethal-injection debate," by Matt Pearce, Cindy Carcamo, and Maya Srikrishnan.

Joseph Rudolph Wood III's execution almost certainly will reinvigorate the national debate over the death penalty. He received an injection at 1:52 p.m. at the Arizona State Prison Complex in Florence. The execution became so prolonged that reporters witnessing the execution counted several hundred of his wheezes before he was finally declared dead at 3:49 p.m. — nearly two hours after the procedure began.

The incident comes in a year in which lethal injections had already triggered controversy over botched procedures and secrecy.

Wood had fought without success to get more information about the drugs and the expertise of his executioners. His request, which was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court, prompted one prominent appellate judge to call for the return of the firing squad.

"Arizona Says Inmate Who Died After Nearly Two-Hour Execution Did Not Suffer," is by Dustin Volz at National Journal.

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer announced Wednesday evening that she had asked her state's Department of Corrections to "conduct a full review" of its execution process. While noting concern for the length of time it took for Wood's death to be called, Brewer struck a largely defensive tone.

"Wood died in a lawful manner and by eyewitness and medical accounts he did not suffer," Brewer, a Republican, said in a statement. "This is in stark comparison to the gruesome, vicious suffering that he inflicted on his two victims—and the lifetime of suffering he has caused their family."

Other state officials in the attorney general's office said they believed Wood had not suffered. Michael Kiefer, an eyewitness reporter for The Arizona Republic, said he counted 660 gasps taken by Wood before he slipped into unconsciousness.

"We will renew our efforts to get information about the manufacturer of drugs as well as how Arizona came up with the experimental formula of drugs it used today," Wood's attorney, Dale Baich, said in a statement. "Arizona appears to have joined several other states who have been responsible for an entirely preventable horror—a bungled execution. The public should hold its officials responsible and demand to make this process more transparent."

The Guardian posts, "Joseph Wood: Arizona murderer dies almost two hours after execution begins,"
by Ed Pilkington

Baich said the state's investigation would be insufficiently independent. “Because the governor and the highest law enforcement official in Arizona have already expressed their view that Mr Wood did not suffer, and because the state of Arizona fought tooth and nail to protect the extreme secrecy surrounding its lethal injection drugs and execution personnel, the only way to begin to remedy this is with open government and transparency,” he said.

In a later interview with Rachel Maddow on MSNBC, Baich said that he had witnessed 11 executions but never any that took so long. He accused Arizona of carrying out an experiment on his client even though state officials had been fully aware of a previous botched execution that had taken place in Ohio using the same drug combination. He pledged to continue the effort to find out who made the drugs used in the execution of his client.

The chief judge of the ninth circuit federal appeals court, Alex Kozinski, told the Guardian that he was not surprised by what had happened. “I have seen this coming for a long time. It's hard to watch these executions and not realise that these blunders are bound to happen,” he said.

In his dissenting opinion to the stay of execution issued by the appeals court this week, Kozinski argued that the use in executions of drugs designed to help sick people was an “enterprise doomed to failure”. On Wednesday, he told the Guardian that he had thought about the problems with lethal injections for a long time, and that though his criticisms were not geared specifically to the Wood case in particular, he had decided it was time to speak out.

"Arizona execution lasts nearly two hours; lawyer says Joseph Wood was ‘gasping and struggling to breathe’," by Mark Berman at the Washington Post.

Wood was the third inmate executed in Arizona since last October and the first put to death using a combination of the drugs midazolam and hydromorphone.

Attorneys for Wood had argued that more information was needed regarding the drugs that would be used in the execution. Arizona planned to use a two-drug combination that had been used only once before in an execution. (That episode, a lethal injection in Ohio, lasted for nearly 25 minutes. Witnesses said the inmate was snorting and gasping during the process.)

Additional coverage includes:

"Condemned man's US execution takes nearly two hours," by AFP, via Global Post.

"Executed Arizona inmate 'gasping' for more than hour," by Danielle Haynes for UPI.

"Another botched execution? Inmate gasps during two-hour execution," by Dana Ford, Amanda Watts and Jason Hanna at CNN.

ABC News posts, "Inmate Dies 2 Hours After Execution Began in Arizona," by Bill McGuire and Danielle Genet.

NBC News posts, "Arizona Execution of Joseph Wood Took Nearly Two Hours," by Tracy Connor and M. Alex Johnson.

"Investigation launched over 2-hour ‘bungled’ Arizona execution," at Al Jazeera America.

Video and audio links are also available.  Phoenix station KSAZ-TV has video of a post-execution news conference, held at the prison.

NPR  Morning Edition aired, "Complications During Ariz. Inmate's Execution Reignite Controversy," by Jude Joffe-Block of Phoeniz public radio station KJZZ-FM.

Last night's Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC carried, "Update: Arizona execution takes nearly two hours."

Earlier coverage of Arizona's botched execution begins with the preceding post.

 

Journalists' Accounts of the Execution

Here are brief excerpts from each of the media accounts.

The Arizona Republic prints,"Reporter describes gruesome scene of Arizona execution," by Michael Kiefer.

Wood's attorneys filed motions in state and federal courts expressing concerns over the drugs and the Arizona Department of Corrections' refusal to provide information about the specific batches of the drugs that it had obtained.

The execution was stayed twice. The first stay was lifted Tuesday by the U.S. Supreme Court. A second stay was imposed Wednesday morning, which pushed the execution back from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. The Arizona Supreme Court lifted it before noon Wednesday.

At the start of Wood's execution, none of those concerns seemed warranted.

Then at 2:05, Wood's mouth opened. Three minutes later it opened again, and his chest moved as if he had burped. Then two minutes again, and again, the mouth open wider and wider. Then it didn't stop.

He gulped like a fish on land. The movement was like a piston: The mouth opened, the chest rose, the stomach convulsed. And when the doctor came in to check on his consciousness and turned on the microphone to announce that Wood was still sedated, we could hear the sound he was making: a snoring, sucking, similar to when a swimming-pool filter starts taking in air, a louder noise than I can imitate, though I have tried.

It was death by apnea. And it went on for an hour and a half. I made a pencil stroke on a pad of paper, each time his mouth opened, and ticked off more than 640, which was not all of them, because the doctor came in at least four times and blocked my view.

"AP reporter's account of Arizona execution," is by Astrid Galvan, of Associated Press.

Officials administered the lethal drugs at 1:52 p.m. Wood's eyes closed.

About 10 minutes later, the gasping began.

Wood's jaw dropped, his chest expanded, and he let out a gasp. The gasps repeated every five to 12 seconds. They went on and on, hundreds of times. An administrator checked on him a half-dozen times. He could be heard snoring loudly when an administrator turned on a microphone to inform the gallery that Wood was still sedated, despite the audible sounds.

As the episode dragged on, Wood's lawyers frantically drew up an emergency legal appeal, asking federal and state courts to step in and stop the execution.

"He has been gasping for more than an hour," the lawyers pleaded in their filings. "He is still alive."

"Witness to a 2-hour Arizona execution: Joseph Wood's final 117 minutes," is by Mauricio Marin for the Guardian's Comment is free.

I saw a man who was supposed to be dead, coughing – or choking, possibly even gasping for air. I knew this because Wood's stomach moved at the same time, just like it would if you were lying down and trying to breathe. Then another of those gulps – those gasps for air, movements just from the throat area and sometimes from the stomach, too.

I started looking at the priest's watch to keep track of time. Five, 10, 20 minutes ... an hour had passed. I started to wonder: Will this get called off? Will this ever stop?

I continued to scribble on my state-issued notepad, counting the gulps and gasps of the man on the gurney. I counted 660. This went on for over an hour and a half.

During that time, medical staff checked Wood six times in total, looking at his eyes, feeling for a pulse on his neck, informing us over the loud speaker that he was still sedated. His eyes were still closed.

Earlier coverage of Arizona's botched execution begins with the preceding post. Additional coverage, in the next posts.

Another Botched Execution

"ARIZONA INMATE DIES 2 HOURS AFTER EXECUTION BEGAN," is the Associated Press from Arizona.

A condemned Arizona inmate gasped and snorted for more than an hour and a half during his execution Wednesday before he died in an episode sure to add to the scrutiny surrounding the death penalty in the U.S.

Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne's office said Joseph Rudolph Wood was pronounced dead at 3:49 p.m., one hour and 57 minutes after the execution started.

Wood's lawyers had filed an emergency appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court while the execution was underway, demanding that it be stopped. The appeal said Wood was "gasping and snorting for more than an hour."

Gov. Jan Brewer said later that she's ordering a full review of the state's execution process, saying she's concerned by how long it took for the administered drug protocol to kill Wood.

An Associated Press reporter who witnessed the execution saw Wood start gasping shortly after a sedative and a pain killer were injected into his veins. He gasped more than 600 times over the next hour and 40 minutes.

"Execution of Arizona murderer takes nearly 2 hours," is the Arizona Republic report by Michael Kiefer and Mariana Dale. Kiefer was a media witness to the execution.  There is video at the link.

The Wednesday afternoon execution of convicted murderer Joseph Rudolph Wood III took nearly two hours, confirming concerns that had been raised by his attorneys about a controversial drug used by the state of Arizona.

Wood remained alive at Arizona's state prison in Florence long enough for his public defenders to file an emergency motion for a stay of execution with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, after the process began at 1:53 p.m. The motion noted that Wood "has been gasping and snorting for more than an hour" after being injected with a lethal cocktail of drugs.

According to Arizona Republic reporter Michael Kiefer, who witnessed the execution, lines were run into each of Wood's arms. After Wood said his last words, he was unconscious by 1:57 p.m. At about 2:05, he started gasping, Kiefer said.

"I counted about 660 times he gasped," Kiefer said. "That petered out by 3:33. The death was called at 3:49."

"I just know it was not efficient. It took a long time," Kiefer said.

Another reporter who witnessed the execution, Troy Hayden, said it was "very disturbing to watch ... like a fish on shore gulping for air."

Typically, executions by lethal injection take about 10 minutes. Dale Baich of the Federal Public Defender's Office in Phoenix said "the experiment failed."

CNN posts, "Attorneys: Inmate gasped, snorted during two-hour execution," filed by Dana Ford, Amanda Watts and Jason Hanna.  Again, there is video at the link.

Joseph Wood died nearly two hours after the start of his execution Wednesday, his attorney said, saying the Arizona inmate struggled to breathe for much of that time.

"It took Joseph Wood two hours to die, and he gasped and struggled to breath for about an hour and 40 minutes. We will renew our efforts to get information about the manufacturer of drugs as well as how Arizona came up with the experimental formula of drugs it used today.

"Arizona appears to have joined several other states who have been responsible for an entirely preventable horror -- a bungled execution," attorney Dale Baich said in a statement.

And:

Troy Hayden, a media witness from KSAZ, told reporters the execution was difficult to watch. He likened Wood's breathing to a "fish gulping for air."

"It was tough for everybody in that room," he said.

Wood's attorneys had filed an emergency motion for a stay after his execution began, saying then that Wood had been "gasping and snorting for more than an hour."

"The Arizona Department of Corrections began the execution of Joseph Rudolph Wood III at 1:52 p.m. (4:52 p.m. ET). At 1:57 p.m ADC reported that Mr. Wood was sedated, but at 2:02 he began to breathe. At 2:03 his mouth moved. Mr. Wood has continued to breathe since that time. He has been gasping and snorting for more than an hour," the motion read.

It continued: "He is still alive. This execution has violated Mr. Wood's Eighth Amendment right to be executed in the absence of cruel and unusual punishment. We respectfully request that this Court stop the execution and require that the Department of Corrections use the lifesaving provisions required in its protocol."

AP has distributed, "Some lethal injection problems in US executions."  It's via KTAR.

Since Texas became the first state to use lethal injection as its execution method on Dec. 7, 1982, some problems have been reported during the process nationwide. Those include delays in finding suitable veins, needles becoming clogged or disengaged, and reactions from inmates who appeared to be under stress. Some examples:

 Earlier coverage from Arizona begins at the link.

Wyoming Column Calls for Repeal

WyoFile columnist Kerry Drake writes, "Can we join the civilized world and end the death penalty?"  Here's the beginning:

In January 1992, the last time the state of Wyoming executed a man, I was at the Capitol Building in Cheyenne before the scheduled midnight lethal injection in Rawlins, interviewing people who opposed killing Mark Hopkinson.

I agreed with them. As a newspaper editorial writer at the time for The Wyoming Eagle, I had implored Gov. Mike Sullivan to commute the sentence to life imprisonment. So did many others, including Amnesty International. I saw the light still on in the governor’s office, and though we all knew he wasn’t going to stop Hopkinson’s imminent demise, he was at work, doing his duty, just in case something happened to stall things.

Snow was falling lightly, and there was only a small band of protesters. Even if the weather had been nicer, I doubt it would have attracted much more of a crowd. Few people in Wyoming were sympathetic toward Hopkinson, an Evanston businessman who had ordered the murders of an attorney and his family as well as a former associate, Jeffrey Green, who turned him in to authorities. Most residents believed he was getting what he deserved. I understand that feeling.

It isn’t necessarily the person being executed that makes me oppose capital punishment; I just don’t feel the state has the right to take a life in the name of its citizens. Killing Hopkinson wasn’t going to bring back his victims. Given that more than 140 nations feel the same way and have abolished the death penalty, I’m in agreement with the vast majority of people in the world.

Earlier coverage from Wyoming begins at the link.

Texas Tribune Examines Texas LI Drugs

The Texas Tribune posts, "Timeline: A History of Lethal Drug Use in Texas," by Terri Langford, Alex Duner and Jessica Hamel.  There are infographics and a video at the link.

For nearly 30 years, Texas used the same three-drug lethal injection cocktail to execute death row inmates: sodium thiopental, an anesthetic, followed by pancuronium bromide, a muscle relaxant, and then potassium chloride, which brings about cardiac arrest. 

Drug manufacturers in the U.S. and abroad began cutting off supplies in 2011, refusing to allow their use in executions. The dwindling supply set in motion a national scramble among death penalty states, including Texas, to find drugs that could be used to administer the ultimate punishment. 

Relying on news stories and TDCJ documents provided to death row inmates' attorneys, The Texas Tribune compiled a timeline of TDCJ’s drug purchases and its use of execution drugs since 2011.

Earlier coverage of Texas lethal injection issues begins at the link.

Missouri Execution Date Setting

MissouriNet reports, "Supreme Court limits setting execution dates," by Bob Priddy.

The Missouri Supreme Court has decided it will not order more than one execution per month. A court source has told the Missourinet the policy has been enacted at the request of the Department of Corrections, which conducts executions at its prison in Bonne Terre.

The Department of Corrections has refused to explain why it asked the court to establish that practice or to make available any department officials to discuss the issue. A spokesman for Attorney General Chris Koster says he is aware of the policy but will not comment on it. About a year ago, Koster said that delays in setting execution dates threaten the state’s ability to administer capital punishment. He asked the court two years ago to set execution dates for nine inmates. One of them, Herbert Smulls, was executed in January. Another, Michael Worthington, is scheduled to die on August 6.

Executions have been held monthly since last November, except for May, when questions about Russell Bucklew’s physical fitness to be executed produced a court-ordered stay. The next execution scheduled is that of John Middleton next week. Another is set for August 6th.

"Nixon and Obama share dubious legacy: secrecy," is the St. Louis Post-Dispatch editorial.  Here's an extended excerpt from the beginning:

There’s a kind of poetry in the last sentence of a news release giving Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon a dubious national distinction that cements a legacy he never wanted.

Last week, the Investigative Reporters and Editors named Mr. Nixon the winner of the “Golden Padlock” award recognizing the most secretive government agency in the country in 2014. Mr. Nixon shared his award with Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin. She is a Republican. He is a Democrat. Both refuse to honor numerous requests from the press and other organizations asking for details about the drugs the states use to kill men and women on death row.

Here’s the last sentence of that news release dishonoring the two governors:

“IRE invited a representative from the winning agencies to attend and receive the honor. No response was received.”

Of course not. Unresponsiveness has been a touchstone of the administration of of a governor who once fought his predecessor over the failure to release public documents.

“No response was received.”

Missourians have come to expect secrecy from this governor, not just in big things like the death penalty, but in small things as well.

Earlier coverage from Missouri begins at the link.

Clemency a Reality in Ohio

Today's Cleveland Plain Dealer reports, "Gov. John Kasich has been a nationwide leader in death-row clemencies."  It's by Jeremy Pelzer.  There is a chart at the link.

While Gov. John Kasich has been much more sparing than his predecessor overall in granting clemencies to criminals, it's a different story when it comes to inmates facing execution.

Since he was sworn into office on January 10, 2011, Kasich, a Republican, has granted five of the nine death-row clemencies issued nationwide in death-penalty states.

It's also the same number of times Kasich's predecessor, Democrat Ted Strickland, has shown mercy to a death-row inmate.

In each of the five cases, Kasich commuted a murderer’s death sentence to life in prison. 

When granting clemency, Kasich has offered a number of reasons for sparing their lives. For Shawn Hawkins and Arthur Tyler, they had questions raised about their guilt. Joseph Murphy had been abused as a child, while John Eley had a limited mental capacity. Ronald Post’s attorneys made sloppy mistakes and dubious decisions during his trial.

"How often does Gov. John Kasich grant clemency to criminals? We break down the numbers," is also in the Plain Dealer, and also written by Pelzer.  There is an infographic at the link.

During his 3 ½ years in office, Kasich has pardoned or commuted the sentence of 54 people, the majority of whom were convicted of low-level crimes such as theft or drugs, according to administration records. He also temporarily postponed the executions of five death-row inmates.

Kasich, however, has rejected 1,184 clemency requests through June of 2014, including 86 cases in which the Ohio Parole Record recommended leniency, according to state data. Twelve people have been executed under his watch.

None of the clemencies granted by Kasich have resulted in an inmate being immediately freed, according to gubernatorial spokesman Rob Nichols.

Kasich declined to be interviewed for this story. Nichols said the governor, in considering whether to grant a clemency, weighs the interests of the applicant, those affected by the criminals' actions, and the general public.

Earlier coverage from Ohio begins at the link.  You can also jump to news coverage of Gov. Kasich's latest capital commutation.

Related posts are in the clemency category index.

In 2005, Texas Appleseed and the Texas Innocence Network published, "The Role of Mercy: Safeguarding Texas Justice Through Clemency Reform," which examined best practices in executive clemency.  The Appendix contains comparative state information.

Continued Reporting From the Tulsa World

Today's Tulsa World reports, "State fails to autopsy most inmates," by Ziva Branstetter and Cary Aspinwall.  Here's the beginning:

The state has conducted autopsies on less than half of the inmates executed in Oklahoma since 1990 and, in many cases, does not perform tests that could show whether inmates were awake and paralyzed as painful drugs flowed into their veins, a Tulsa World investigation has found.

Because state records are inconsistent and blood is sometimes drawn long after inmates die, it is difficult to say how many inmates were conscious when they received potassium chloride, the third drug in Oklahoma’s lethal injection process. Medical experts, judges and attorneys for the state agree that potassium chloride is excruciatingly painful if given to a conscious person.

The botched execution of Clayton Lockett on April 29 has sparked a nationwide discussion about the death penalty and new scrutiny in how Oklahoma and other states put people to death.

The World created a database using 109 medical examiner’s reports from Oklahoma inmates executed since 1990, including the levels of anesthetic in their blood following death where available. Experts in anesthesiology and clinical pharmacology reviewed the data to spot issues and problem cases.

The World also reports, "State's execution secrecy law passed quietly."  It's also by Branstetter and Aspinwall. 

A law that cloaks executions in secrecy and sparked a constitutional crisis in Oklahoma sailed through the state Legislature with scant debate.

When he introduced House Bill 1991 in 2011, then-Rep. Dan Sullivan described his legislation this way: “It changes the provisions as it relates to carrying out the death penalty. This is a request bill from the Department of Corrections and the Attorney General’s Office.”

“It doesn’t change who can witness the deal, does it?” one lawmaker asked.

Sullivan, R-Tulsa, replied that the bill “doesn’t really change that.”

Without further debate, House lawmakers passed the bill 94-0. In the Senate, where debates are not videotaped, the measure received three no votes.

The bill did change procedures for carrying out the death penalty, deleting specific language about the type of drugs that would be administered in lethal injections. However, the bill would have a far more sweeping impact because it also provided complete anonymity to execution participants and suppliers.

Ziva Branstetter and Cary Aspinwall talked about their reporting on Oklahoma's botched lethal injection, last night, on MSNBC's Rachel Maddow show.  There is video at the link.

Rachel Maddow highlights reporting by the Tulsa World newspaper examining the extent of the dysfunction in the state’s death penalty system, including a crude means of communication with the executioners, poking colored pencils through a hole in the wall.

Earlier coverage from Oklahoma begins at the link.

Austin American-Statesman Editorial

"Abbott does an about-face on open records," is the editorial published in the Saturday Austin American-Statesman.

Attorney General Greg Abbott’s recent ruling that Texas prison officials do not have to disclose the source of the state’s execution drug was a defeat for open government and brings into question Abbott’s commitment to government transparency.

The decision, issued May 29, represents a change of mind for Abbott, the Republican candidate for governor. Three times since 2010, the attorney general had stood with the Texas Public Information Act and rejected attempts by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to keep secret the source of the drug it uses in lethal injections. His office, citing lack of proof provided by the department, rejected arguments that disclosing the information would endanger the drug suppliers.

This time, however, Abbott agreed that revealing the supplier’s name would put it at “substantial threat of physical harm.” Abbott’s office relied on a “threat assessment” from Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw for allowing the open-records exception. McCraw’s letter referred to threats made against The Woodlands Compounding Pharmacy, a Houston-area pharmacy that previously supplied the state with pentobarbital, the barbiturate it uses in lethal injections, but didn’t specify what the threats were or what was being done about them.

And:

We have never before had occasion to question Abbott’s commitment to open government. Unfortunately, with his about-face on this important issue, that’s no longer the case.

Earlier coverage of the Texas Attorney General's Open Records Decision begins at the link.

No Deadly Secrets

That's the title of an editorial published in today's Houston Chronicle.  It's subtitled, "We should know where our state is spending tax dollars used to buy death-row drugs."  Here's the beginning:

Attorney General Greg Abbott may be a partisan figure, but he boasts two habits that earn him respect across the board: sticking to his word and supporting transparency in government. So Texans of all stripes should be particularly distressed by his office's recent rejection of an open records request concerning the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

With an increasing number of pharmacies unwilling to provide the drugs necessary for lethal injections, states have had to look elsewhere for the darkly ironic combination of something that is both deadly and safe. Executions cannot be cruel nor unusual - a difficult standard to meet.

Yet recent open records requests for information on the deadly cocktails that Texas plans to use on death row have hit a brick wall at Abbott's office. With this decision to shut the doors to open government, Abbott flip-flops on his proud record of rejecting government secrecy.

"TDCJ Viewing Policy Reduces Witnesses to Executions," is by Terri Langford for the Texas Tribune.

At a time when a botched lethal injection in Oklahoma and secrecy about how Texas prisons obtain lethal injection drugs have increased public scrutiny of the procedure, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice is allowing fewer media outlets to attend executions. 

There are only five media seats available in one of two tiny viewing rooms adjacent to the Texas execution chamber in Huntsville. While some of those seats have long been reserved for specific media outlets, the TDCJ has in the past allowed other reporters to fill empty chairs when those journalists couldn't attend. Now, those seats remain empty, reducing the number of witnesses in the nation's busiest death chamber.

About two to three years ago, TDCJ public affairs officials began more strictly apportioning media seats, said Jason Clark, who became the agency's chief spokesman in 2013. The media seats in the viewing room are the only way members of the public who aren't related to the murder victim or the condemned inmate can obtain independent observations of the controversial procedure.

And:

Just before a last-minute stay halted TDCJ’s execution of Robert James Campbell last month — the nation’s first execution scheduled after the mishandled April 29 execution in Oklahoma of Clayton Lockett — eight media members had requested a seat in the witness room. TDCJ approved seats for reporters from the Associated Press, The Huntsville Item and Houston Chronicle, and from two Houston-area TV stations. Requests from reporters for ABC News, The New York Times and The Texas Tribune were denied, and they would not have been allowed to attend even if the other reporters were unable to. 

Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1982, TDCJ has usually reserved two of the five media seats in the execution viewing room, one for the Associated Press and one for The Huntsville Item.

Decades ago, the other three seats could be taken by others who asked, with preference to journalists who were based in the region where the crime occurred.

Earlier coverage begins at the link.

From Arizona

The Arizona Republic publishes commentary from Stuart Warner, "Why does The Republic care about lethal injections?"

Florida, Ohio, Oklahoma and now Arizona are among those experimenting with midazolam. The drug primarily is used to treat insomnia, but it's also used in surgeries to prevent the patient from remembering the unpleasantness of the procedure. I doubt you would remember your execution, but who can say for sure?

Anyway, the results so far haven't been pretty. A midazolam-spiked execution last October in Florida left the accused lingering uncomfortably in death. The press got worse after Ohio and Oklahoma. Oklahoma has already delayed its next execution while it considers the merits of midazolam. The Supreme Court delayed indefinitely an execution in Missouri, which is secretive about its methods but has acknowledged possessing a backup supply of midazolam, according to St. Louis Public Radio.

Lastweek, Arizona gave the go-ahead for Wood's execution. It's the state's job to kill him, but until it does, it's our job to make sure his death is done right.

Earlier coverage from Arizona begins at the link.  Also available, more on midazolam.

The New York Times Revisits a Tennessee Electrocution

"A Specter of Past Executions Resurfaces in Tennessee," is Dan Barry's latest This Land column in the New York Times.  Here's the beginning of this must-read:

A man who had shot to death his four young children, for reasons known only to him, sat in the wooden chair reserved for him at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. His body was strapped tight and his head was freshly shaved, to enhance the conductivity.

I could see him, but he could not see me. We sat perhaps 30 feet apart, on opposite sides of a one-way glass partition that separated those who would walk away that September night in 2007 from one man who would not.

The electric chair had not been used in Tennessee since 1960, a reflection of a nation’s discomfort with a procedure that had come to be seen as gruesome, if not cruel. But the condemned man, Daryl Holton, 45, had been given a choice between lethal injection and electrocution. To the dismay of prison officials, he had chosen the latter — again, for reasons known only to him.

Earlier coverage of the new Tennessee law begins at the link.  Also available, reflections on the Holton execution. Related posts are in the electric chair category index.

Capital Punishment and the Supreme Court

"Rare execution stay shows Supreme Court concern on death penalty," is by Michael Doyle of the McClatchy Washington Bureau.  It's also available from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.  Here's the beginning of this excellent analysis:

The Supreme Court seemed to share some other people’s second thoughts when it stopped the planned execution this week of a Missouri death row inmate.

By granting a last-ditch plea Wednesday night, justices at a minimum provided Russell Bucklew with another opportunity to argue against lethal injection. His case may be a peculiar one unique to his medical condition.

More broadly, though, the high court’s unusual decision marked one of the few times that justices have stayed an execution, and it hinted at the possibility that the court is joining others in intensifying scrutiny of the death penalty.

“We want the states to get it right,” Richard C. Dieter, the executive director of the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center, said Thursday, “and now the states have a bit more of a burden to show they’re getting it right, given what’s happened in some cases.”

Earlier coverage from Missouri begins at the link.

Mississippi Forensics Questioned

"New case again demonstrates duplicity of embattled Mississippi medical examiner," is Radley Balko's post at the Washington Post.  It's a must-read.  Here's the beginning:

In February, I wrote about a Fifth Circuit decision rejecting the claims of a defendant who was convicted based on improbable testimony from the controversial medical examiner Steven Hayne. Over the course of about two decades, Hayne nearly monopolized Mississippi’s criminal autopsy referrals, performing 1,500-1,800 autopsies per year all by himself. Most of these were done for the state’s prosecutors. Hayne’s testimony was responsible for several convictions that later resulted in acquittals after a new trial, dismissed charges, or DNA exonorations.

I’ve been covering this scandal for the better part of a decade now. Hayne has been found to have given testimony completely unsupported by science, regularly worked with known charlatans like the discredited “bite mark expert” Michael West, and has been sharply criticized by colleagues for his improbable workload, sloppy practices, and dubious testimony. He has also been shown to have perjured himself about his qualifications. Despite all of this, and despite the fact that there are literally thousands of people in prison due in part or mostly to Hayne’s autopsies and testimony, neither state nor federal courts have shown any interest in determining just how much damage Hayne may have done to the criminal justice system of Mississippi (and to a lesser extent Louisiana). The Mississippi legislature hasn’t shown much interest. And state attorney general Jim Hood continues to defend Hayne. (Hood often used Hayne during his time as a district attorney.)

Related posts are in the forensics category index.

News Coverage of the Missouri Sunshine Lawsuits

The lawsuit filed by the five news organizations is available in Adobe .pdf format, as is the other lawsuit, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press & McDaniel v. Missouri Department of Correction.

Today's New York Times reports, "News Groups Sue for Data on Missouri’s Executions," by Julie Bosman.

The lawsuit contends that the disclosure of drug sources “promotes the functioning of the process itself and is essential for democracy to function.” It added, “The public cannot meaningfully debate the propriety of lethal injection executions if it is denied access to this essential information about how individuals are being put to death by the state.”

The Guardian spearheaded the lawsuit, but after Mr. Lockett’s execution, it was joined by The Associated Press, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The Kansas City Star and The Springfield News-Leader. The news organizations said the Department of Corrections had routinely provided information on the drugs, but “unilaterally changed course” in October 2013 and began to deny access. Since then, six Missouri inmates have been executed, without the state’s “revealing the source or quality of the drugs used to inflict death.”

The Department of Corrections has responded to requests for information by invoking the state’s so-called Black Hood Law, which protects the identities of people who provide direct support to executions, the lawsuit said. The department did not return a phone call on Thursday.

"Journalists launch legal assault on Missouri execution secrecy laws," is by Matt Pearce for the Los Angeles Times.

Thursday's lawsuit in Missouri had been in the works for months -- and was filed the same day as a similar lawsuit by a St. Louis Public Radio reporter, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri.

Reporters involved in the lawsuits who spoke with the Los Angeles Times said they hadn't known about each other's lawsuits.

“Over a span of late October till now, [the Missouri Department of Corrections has] gradually been getting worse and worse about responding to open-records requests," said Chris McDaniel, a St. Louis Public Radio reporter who has been covering capital punishment in Missouri.

In December, after Missouri prison officials began to dole out redacted records, McDaniel published an investigation revealing that the state's execution drug supplier was an Oklahoma compounding pharmacy that wasn't licensed in Missouri.

"Media organizations filed a lawsuit to force Missouri to reveal the source of its lethal injection drugs," is by Mark Berman for the Washington Post.

This lawsuit, which comes less than a week before the next scheduled execution in the state, arrives as executions in the United States are facing heightened scrutiny after a widely publicized botched lethal injection in Oklahoma. But it also comes after years of states struggling to obtain the drugs needed for executions, which has caused officials to use unproven drug cocktails, secretly hand drugs across state lines and, in some states, conceal the sources of the drugs.

In the lawsuit, which was filed in the Circuit Court of Cole County, Mo., the news organizations say that they repeatedly tried to locate information about the drugs for the lethal injection under the state’s Sunshine Law, but the state declined.

The public has a right to learn “the composition, concentration, quality, and source of drugs used in lethal injection executions,” according to the suit.

"Media file lawsuit challenging secrecy of Missouri execution drug," is at CBS News.

Missouri is among the many U.S. states that refuse to disclose where they purchase execution drugs, their makeup and how they are tested.

The sourcing of execution drugs has become an issue countrywide since major drugmakers, many based in Europe, began to refuse selling their products if they were to be used in an execution.

Many states have turned to compounding pharmacies, which are not as heavily regulated as traditional pharmaceutical companies but are able to make the required drugs. Several have refused to name their supplier, sometimes citing security concerns and threats to the pharmacies.

"Associated Press and The Guardian join media push for details on lethal injection mix," is by AFP, via Raw Story.

Time posts, "Newspapers Sue Missouri Over Execution-Drug Secrecy," by Denver Nicks and Josh Sanburn.

"Media organizations launch lawsuit over Missouri lethal injection secrecy," is by Justin Scuiletti for PBS NewsHour.

Mother Jones posts, "News Organizations Sue Missouri to Reveal the Contents of Its Execution Drugs," by Mariah Blake.

"The AP and the Guardian Are Suing Missouri Over Its Death Penalty Secrecy," by Abby Ohlheiser at the Wire.

"News Organizations Sue Missouri Department Of Corrections Over Drug Executions," by Dan Margolies at KCUR-FM.

"Prison System Faces Lawsuit Alleging Lethal Injection Secrecy," at KOLR-TV.

The Guardian publishes commentary, "Why the US constitution gives you the right to know lethal injection's secrets," by Jane E. Kirkley.

In their lawsuit, the news organizations are not only arguing that the DOC is violating its own state law. They contend that the new policy also violates the First Amendment. They cite the unbroken line of supreme court decisions recognizing that public access to the criminal justice process is essential to preserve the integrity of the system and to promote public confidence in it. This constitutional right not only protects reporting information about what the government is up to; it protects the right to obtain the information in the first place.

Although the high court has not yet ruled explicitly that these rights extend to executions, history and experience support the argument. The death penalty – the ultimate expression of the state's power over human life and death – has always been subject to public oversight, and for good reason. The government executes prisoners in the name of the public. To have confidence in that process, the public must have as much information as possible about it. We should know how officials treat those who are paying the ultimate penalty. We cannot call ourselves a democracy if we cede this kind of activity to a secretive government in blind faith and without question.

That the DOC formerly made this information public but now chooses to suppress it – well, that is even more damning. In the words of retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, dissenting in the 1978 decision in another prison access case, Houchins v KQED, "concealing such knowledge from the public by arbitrarily cutting off the flow of information at its source" abridges both the freedoms of speech and the press.

Earlier coverage of the media lawsuits against the Missouri Department of Corrections begins at the link.

Media Outlets Sue Missouri Over LI Secrecy

This morning, the Yale Law School’s Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic brought a lawsuit against the Missouri Department of Corrections, on behalf of a coalition of international, national and local media organizations, including The Associated Press, The Guardian US, The Kansas City Star, the Springfield (Missouri) News-Leader, and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.  The lawsuit seeks the names of the compounding pharmacy(ies) from whom Missouri purchases lethal injection drugs for use in carrying out executions, and asserts claims under both the Missouri Sunshine Law and the First Amendment.

St. Louis Public Radio posts, "Suits Challenge Missouri Over Secrecy About Execution Procedures," by Margaret Wolf Freivogel, with material from AP.

Two suits were filed Thursday in Jefferson City challenging Missouri officials for failing to disclose information about the drugs the state uses in lethal injections.

In the first, The Associated Press and four other news organizations argue that the state's actions prohibit public oversight of the death penalty. The second suit, under the state sunshine law, was filed by Chris McDaniel, a reporter for St. Louis Public Radio, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri. It challenges the state's refusal to disclose information and documents relating to executions.

McDaniel, along with Veronique LaCapra, has reported extensively on Missouri's lethal injection process and disclosed the previous supplier of the drug to the state. He has numerous Sunshine Law requests pending to gain more information.

"Media file lawsuit to challenge execution secrecy," is the full AP report filed by Jim Salter.  It's also available from the Springfield News-Leader.

The Associated Press and four other news organizations filed a lawsuit Thursday challenging the secret way in which Missouri obtains the drugs it uses in lethal injections, arguing the state's actions prohibit public oversight of the death penalty.

The lawsuit asks a state court judge to order the Missouri Department of Corrections to disclose where it purchases drugs used to carry out executions along with details about the composition and quality of those drugs.

"We assert that there is a constitutional right for the public to know the drugs that are used when a state puts someone to death," said Dave Schulz, an attorney for the news organizations and co-director of the Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic at Yale Law School.

And:

The sourcing of execution drugs has become an issue nationwide since major drugmakers, many based in Europe, began to refuse selling their products if they were to be used in an execution.

Many states have turned to compounding pharmacies, which are not as heavily regulated as traditional pharmaceutical companies but are able to make the required drugs. Several have refused to name their supplier, sometimes citing security concerns and threats to the pharmacies.

Asked about these threats, law enforcement officials in several states have told the AP they do not know about them, are not actively investigating them or do not consider them to be serious.

"KC Star, others sue Missouri over execution drug secrecy," is by Tony Rizzo of the Kansas City Star.

The suit, filed in Cole County Circuit Court in Jefferson City, alleges that the corrections department is violating the Missouri Sunshine Law by denying repeated requests for information about the “composition, concentration, source and quality of drugs used to execute inmates in Missouri.”

By withholding access to information that historically has been publicly available, the department also is violating the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution, according to the suit.

In separate court actions, attorneys for men facing execution in Missouri have unsuccessfully attempted to obtain information about the drugs.

They have argued that the information is needed to determine if executions are being carried out in a constitutional manner. If the drugs are not properly manufactured and administered, a prisoner could suffer pain and suffering that would violate the constitutional protection against cruel and unusual punishment, they have contended.

Thursday’s suit makes a similar argument that public disclosure of the information “reduces the risk that improper, ineffective or defectively prepared drugs are used.”

“The constitution thus compels access to historically available information about the type and source of drugs used in lethal injection executions because disclosure promotes the functioning of the process itself and is essential for democracy to function,” according to the suit.

The Guardian posts, "Guardian challenges lethal injection secrecy in landmark Missouri lawsuit," by Ed Pilkington and Jon Swaine.

The growing secrecy adopted by death penalty states to hide the source of their lethal injection drugs used in executions is being challenged in a new lawsuit in Missouri, which argues that the American people have a right to know how the ultimate punishment is being carried out in their name.

The legal challenge, brought by the Guardian, Associated Press and the three largest Missouri newspapers, calls on state judges to intervene to put a stop to the creeping secrecy that has taken hold in the state in common with many other death penalty jurisdictions. The lawsuit argues that under the first amendment of the US constitution the public has a right of access to know “the type, quality and source of drugs used by a state to execute an individual in the name of the people”.

It is believed to be the first time that the first amendment right of access has been used to challenge secrecy in the application of the death penalty.

Deborah Denno, an expert in execution methods at Fordham University law school in New York, said that more and more states were turning to secrecy as a way of hiding basic flaws in their procedures. “If states were doing things properly they wouldn’t have a problem releasing information – they are imposing a veil of secrecy to hide incompetence.”

"Secret America: how states hide the source of their lethal injection drugs," is an interactive feature at the Guardian.

Earlier coverage from Missouri begins at the link.  Related posts are in the journalism and lethal injection category index.

Additional News Links to Oklahoma Coverage

StandDown is posting major articles we deem to be of significant interest.  There is an extremely heavy volume of coverage.  Below are links to items not already sent (or in the queue) for those following the developments in Oklahoma.

Thanks to all who have been forwarding links and coverage.

WashPost
Everything you need to know about executions in the United States;

WashPost
Why were the two inmates in Oklahoma on death row in the first place?

Democracy Now
Lawyer for Next Oklahoma Prisoner Set for Death Calls for Independent Probe of Botched Execution

Los Angeles Times
Q&A: Details on botched execution in Oklahoma and what happens next

Los Angeles Times
Oklahoma: Witness recounts horror of botched execution

CBS News
Botched Okla. execution prompts review of protocols

Vanity Fair
Clayton Lockett’s Botched Execution Should Spell an End to the Death Penalty

NPR - Here and Now
Oklahoma Execution Prompts Investigation

NPR - Two-Way
Botched Oklahoma Execution Prompts Questions About Lethal Injection

NPR - All Things Considered
Botched Oklahoma Execution Mobilizes Death Penalty Opponents

NPR - Two Way
Botched Oklahoma Execution Mobilizes Death Penalty Opponents

NPR
Oklahoma Governor Calls For Independent Review Of Botched Execution

CBS News
Botched Okla. execution prompts review of protocols

Think Progress
The Cruel And Unusual History That Led To Oklahoma’s Cruel And Unusual Execution

Atlanta Black Star
Oklahoma Botches Execution of Lockett; He Writhes in Pain Before Dying of Heart Attack

Raw Story
Rachel Maddow blasts Oklahoma’s ‘rushed and politically forced’ botched execution

Al Jazeera America
U.S.WHITE HOUSE: BOTCHED OKLAHOMA EXECUTION ‘FELL SHORT’ OF HUMANE STANDARDS

Al Jazeera America
U.S.OKLA. BOTCHES EXECUTION: INMATE WRITHES IN ‘VIOLENT STRUGGLE’ BEFORE DYING

The American Prospect
Daily Meme: An Execution Gone Horribly Wrong

Reason
Oklahoma’s Horrific Botched Execution Could Have Been Prevented

The Verge
White House says Oklahoma execution was inhumane

BuzzFeed
After Botched Execution, Oklahoma Governor Calls For Review Of Procedures

Daily Beast
The Supreme Court Will Never Kill the Death Penalty, Even With Botched Executions

Daily Beast
Okla. Governor Orders Execution Review

Daily Kos
Oklahoma's insufficiently lethal injection

Salon
GOP governor’s ugly bloodlust: Why Mary Fallin should account for state-sanctioned torture

Jurist
Oklahoma death row inmate dies after botched adminstering of lethal injection

Think Progress
The Cruel And Unusual History That Led To Oklahoma’s Cruel And Unusual Execution

Inquisitr
Botched Execution: Oklahoma Inmate Tortured To Death

Time
Oklahoma Halts Executions After Botched Lethal Injection

Time
Oklahoma Governor Suspends Execution Until Independent Review Completed

Yahoo News
Botched Oklahoma execution shakes even death penalty supporters

Newsweek
States Go to Great Lengths to Find Lethal Injection Drugs,

Forbes
Considering The Death Penalty: Your Tax Dollars At Work

New Republic
How Oklahoma Botched an Execution
 
The Week
The conservative case for capital punishment

Esquire
Barbarians in Oklahoma

Mother Jones
Lethal Injection Is a Terrible Way To Kill People

Latin Post
Death Penalty Pros and Cons: Capital Punishment Opponents Speak Out After Oklahoma Inmate Was Tortured During Botched Execution

AP via Newser
Autopsy underway on body of Oklahoma inmate who convulsed violently during lethal injection

The Nation
After Oklahoma Inmate Dies of Heart Attack During Botched Execution, Officials Delay Another
By Steven Hseih

Slate
Oklahoma Botches Lethal Injection, Inmate Writhing on Gurney Dies of Heart Attack

Daily Beast
Botched Execution Halts Another in Okla

Democracy Now
Botched Oklahoma Lethal Injection Causes Fatal Heart Attack; Gov. Delays 2nd Execution

The Wire
Tuesday Was the Worst Day for Death Penalty Advocates Since 1972

International Business Times
Oklahoma Death Row Inmate Clayton Lockett Dies After Botched Execution Halted; Governor Mary Fallin Orders Probe Amid Questions About Death Penalty Practice

NPR
UPDATED: After One Botched Execution, Oklahoma Stays A Second

UPI
Oklahoma inmate suffers fatal heart attack in botched execution

Gawker
Oklahoma Inmate Dies After Botched Execution

OK Observer
Did the Supreme Court Blink?


April 29, 2014 | The Wire
Oklahoma Botched Its Double Execution

Jezebel
Oklahoma Botched Its Planned Double Execution


Oklahoma Coverage

Tulsa World
Lockett's mother sorry for victim, wants answers for son

Tulsa World
Throwback Tulsa: Kidnapper's hanging became an ordeal

Tulsa World
Eyewitness account: The execution of Clayton Lockett

Tulsa World
Governor expected to meet media today about Clayton Lockett's execution

The Oklahoman
U.S. Supreme Court has allowed 'some risk of pain' in executions

The Oklahoman
Execution failure in Oklahoma: Clayton Lockett dies of heart attack after vein explodes

The Oklahoman
Live Chat

The Oklahoman
Fallin: No executions will be held until investigation is complete

McAlester News Capital
Execution debacle spurs local conversation
  
McAlester News Capital
Local lawmaker not upset by convict’s delayed death

KFOR-TV
UPDATE: Gov. Fallin orders independent review of botched execution, refuses to answer questions


Television News - Cable News

CBS News
Botched Okla. execution prompts review of protocols,

NBC New- Nightly News with Brian Williams
Segment

NBC News
Oklahoma Governor Says Execution Probe Will Be 'Independent'

NBC News
Oklahoma Execution: What Went Wrong and What Happens Now?;

PBS News Hour
Botched execution in Oklahoma raises questions about lethal injection process

MSNBC - Rachel Maddow Show
Segment

MSNBC
Is this the end for the death penalty?

MSNBC
White House weighs on on botched Oklahoma execution

MSNBC - Rachel Maddow Show

MSNBC - The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell
Segment 

CNN - Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield
What Went Wrong in Botched Execution?

Foreign Press

BBC News
An execution that was 'immoral and unconscionable'

The Week (UK edition)
Botched execution: why US has turned to untried drugs

The Globe and Mail (Canada)
Failed execution points to U.S. prisons’ scramble for new deadly drugs,

Buenos Aires Herald
Oklahoma inmate 'tortured to death' in botched execution

 Agence France Presse
Botched execution highlights US death penalty dilemma

AFP via The Austrailian
US inmate Clayton Lockett ‘tortured’ in botched lethal injection execution

The Independent
Death row inmate Clayton Lockett died after writhing in agony for 40 minutes in botched execution that lawyer described as 'torture'

The Telegraph
Botched Oklahoma execution: 'America is missing the point over death penalty'

Daily Mail
Killer dies of heart attack after twenty minutes of agony when Oklahoma experimental drug execution goes wrong. Second lethal injection postponed

The Standard
Convict writhed in pain and tried to talk during botched prison execution

Friday's Column & Commentaries on the Oklahoma Botch

"A Bad Death in Oklahoma," is by Hendrik Hertzberg for the New Yorker.  Here's the beginning of this must-read:

The most telling moment in Oklahoma’s botched execution of Clayton Lockett came six minutes after the purportedly lethal drugs had begun to enter the condemned man’s body through an intravenous tube. It was a moment that pointed up the contradictions, incoherence, and bad faith of the death penalty as it is practiced in the United States, the only advanced democracy on earth that retains it.

Washington Post syndicated columnist Eugene Robinson writes, "There’s no humane way to carry out the death penalty."

When I read about the crimes Lockett committed, I wish I could support capital punishment. When I read about what Warner did, I want to strangle him with my own hands. But revenge is not the same thing as justice, and karmic retribution is not a power I trust government to exercise. The death penalty has no place in a civilized society.

"The Investigation of the Horrific Oklahoma Execution Will Not Be ‘Independent’," is by David Firestone at the New York Times Taking Note blog.

Did anyone really believe that Gov. Mary Fallin of Oklahoma would allow a truly independent review of the “execution” —  death by torture is more like it — that shocked the conscience of the nation and the world on Tuesday night?

It was Governor Fallin’s insistent demand for speed in killing Clayton Lockett that forced the state to use an untested mixture of toxic chemicals in the execution, during which Mr. Lockett sat up, moaned and writhed in pain. (He eventually died of a heart attack.) The state Supreme Court tried to stop the procedure, a lower court judge said it was clearly unconstitutional and lawyers warned for months that the state didn’t know what it was doing. But she overruled the court and pushed ahead with the execution, eager to show that no liberal judges would stop her from dispensing her state’s brand of justice.

Any serious investigation of the fiasco would have to closely examine the governor’s conduct leading up to it.

"Why conservatives should oppose the death penalty," is by Radley Balko at the Washington Post's the Watch blog.

People who subscribe to different belief systems sometimes have irreconcilable views on public policy issues with a strong moral component. The death penalty is one of those issues. But conservatives are supposed to be skeptical of government. That is a fundamental part of their belief system. And, except perhaps war, there’s no issue for which the consequences of government error or abuse of power are more absolute, irreversible and profound. Even if they support the idea of capital punishment in principle, it ought to be one of the last issues for which conservatives would be willing to abandon that skepticism. Yet it seems to be one of the issues for which their skepticism is most negotiable.

Also at the Post,"What it was like watching the botched Oklahoma execution," by Mark Berman.

On Tuesday, once the witnesses were brought in and seated, they waited. ”You just sort of sit there, maybe talking very quietly to the person next to you, until the blinds rise,” Branstetter told The Post the day after the execution. Branstetter, the enterprise editor at the Tulsa World, spends part of her time reporting and part of her time managing a team. She has witnessed three executions in the past, most recently the January execution of Michael Wilson.

Her experience attending other executions is part of the reason she went to this one; Oklahoma was using a new lethal injection drug for the first time, and the secrecy surrounding the drugs had caused a protracted argument that extended to the state’s courts and lawmakers. Branstetter had been there in January when Michael Wilson was killed with a three-drug mix that had been obtained from a compounding pharmacy. Wilson’s final words, spoken after the injections: “I feel my whole body burning.” So she wanted to go to see what was different this time.

The Atlantic posts, "Bring the Guillotine Back to Death Row," by Conor Friedersdor.

This punishment isn't worth the costs it imposes on us.

So let's bring back the guillotine—and once it forces us to confront the barbarity of needlessly killing people who pose no threat to us, let's abolish the death penalty. Countries without the death penalty get along just fine, and I don't think Americans will be able to stomach it once they look it squarely in the face.

"Every US execution is just as shameful as Oklahoma's botched killing," is by Jesse Berney at the Guardian's Comment is free section.

The recently botched state-sanctioned deaths – at least six in the last four-and-a-half-years – are terrible. But they're also distraction from the truth that we refuse to confront as a nation: every execution is just as brutal, just as shameful, and just as much a blow to justice as what happened to that man on Tuesday night.

Also in the Guardian, "It's time for the US supreme court to declare a death penalty moratorium," by Randall T Coyne.

As the world is now well aware, my state's effort to execute two prisoners in the same day for the first time since 1937 turned into a horrible miscarriage. We should have seen it coming, of course, as the secrecy and the scarcity of the drug cocktail in the execution mixed with the bickering and the borderline constitutional crisis in the halls of Oklahoma government, where all hell was breaking loose. Until, that is, hell came to the death chamber.

"Justice system shouldn't leave blood on our hands," is by Arizona Republic editor Jennifer Dokes.

Should a system that is not fail-proof have a penalty as certain as death?

And now, as horrifically demonstrated this week in Oklahoma, we're not even certain how to kill people. The Innocence Project lists 18 people who were sentenced to die and later exonerated. We were going to kill them.

Today, we aren't even killing well. End the death penalty.

I'll be adding additional links, later.

Earlier coverage of Oklahoma's botched execution begins at the link.

Today's News Coverage of the Oklahoma Botch

Because of the volume of news coverage, I will mostly be linking to coverage.  In this post I will link to current developments; commentary in the next post.

Today's New York Times reports, "Oklahoma Vows Review of Botched Execution," by Erik Eckholm and John Schwartz.

As Clayton D. Lockett writhed and groaned on the gurney on Tuesday night after a large dose of sedatives had apparently not been fully delivered, the Oklahoma chief of corrections rushed to call the governor and the attorney general. Something had gone disastrously wrong with the lethal injection, he told them, and the execution of a second man must be delayed. Gov. Mary Fallin instantly agreed.

On Wednesday, the state faced an outcry and the White House condemned the execution as inhumane. Ms. Fallin defended the death penalty but ordered a thorough review of the state’s procedures for lethal injections. She promised an independent autopsy of Mr. Lockett, who had been sentenced for shooting a woman and burying her alive, and who died 43 minutes after the initiation of a procedure that was supposed to be quick and painless.

"Outrage Across Ideological Spectrum in Europe Over Flawed Lethal Injection in U.S.," is by Steven Erlanger, also in the Times.

Europeans largely consider the death penalty a particularly brutal American anachronism, but the prolonged death of Clayton D. Lockett in Oklahoma, after a botched execution by lethal injection, produced more than the usual horror on Wednesday.

The death penalty is banned in the European Union, which has also moved to ban the export of sedatives like sodium thiopental for use in lethal injections. The drug’s producer has stopped making it, and other European companies have sought to prevent their drugs from being used for executions, fearing European Union sanctions. As a result, the authorities in Oklahoma, and officials in other states, have been improvising new mixtures of drugs.

According to the International Commission Against the Death Penalty, based in Switzerland, Belarus is the only European country that still carries out legal executions, usually by a gunshot to the head. But for some Europeans on Wednesday, even that method of killing seemed humane compared with what Mr. Lockett suffered until his heart stopped, about 43 minutes after the process began. Many here agreed with Madeline Cohen, a lawyer who witnessed the execution, who said that Mr. Lockett had been “tortured to death.”

The Guardian posts, "Oklahoma execution misstep sets up legal assault against US drug secrecy," by Ed Pilkington.

The next inmate to face the gurney is Robert Campbell, 42, in Texas on 13 May. Lawyers in that state are preparing new litigation challenging the state’s refusal to provide any public information about where and how it is obtaining its lethal injection drugs. Like many other death penalty states, Texas has opted for secrecy in an attempt to keep supplies of the drugs open in the face of a European-lead boycott designed to prevent medicines designed to heal people being used in executions.

Texas’s current death protocol lists pentobarbital as its lethal drug of choice, and it is believed that the department of corrections has obtained supplies of the barbiturate from domestic compounding pharmacies that are not subject to federal regulations. The state is also known to have supplies of midazolam, the sedative used as the first of three drugs in Tuesday night’s grim proceedings in Oklahoma.

Maurie Levin, one of a team of lawyers working on the new Texas litigation, said that “if nothing else, Mr Lockett’s execution in Oklahoma makes clear that you can’t simply take the word of the executioner that everything will be OK. Access to information is necessary to be able to determine whether we are at risk of an execution like what happened last night.”

"Experts say botched execution in Oklahoma is unlikely to bring big death-penalty changes," by Jerry Markon and Mark Berman in the Washington Post.

“I’m skeptical that the courts would ever invalidate lethal injection as a general matter,’’ said Richard Garnett, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame who served as a clerk to William H. Rehnquist when he was chief justice of the United States. “I don’t think they’re going to intervene in such an aggressive way. They’ve been trying to intervene around the edges.’’

Richard Dieter, executive director of the Washington-based Death Penalty Information Center, said the events in Oklahoma’s execution chamber were “revolting” but that “this is somewhat of a fixable problem.’’ He said opponents of capital punishment are more likely to focus their future arguments on other perceived problems with the death penalty, such as wrongful convictions and racial inequities on death row.

 The Los Angeles Times reports, "Botched Oklahoma execution stirs outrage, may bring changes," by Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Matt Pearce, and David Savage.

Clayton Lockett's unwieldy execution has triggered an already controversial internal investigation and prompted calls for a lethal-injection moratorium across the U.S., with experts predicting the Supreme Court will face greater pressure to rule on whether states can refuse to tell inmates the makeup of the drugs that are being used to end their lives.

"The public has a right to know how we are carrying out this very grave responsibility of the state," said Oklahoma state Sen. Connie Johnson, one of several state lawmakers calling Wednesday for a yearlong moratorium on executions in the state. "This is the worst thing that the government does. This ought to be the most transparent."

"Oklahoma's botched lethal injection marks new front in battle over executions," is by Josh Levs, Ed Payne, and Greg Botelho at CNN.

A botched lethal injection in Oklahoma has catapulted the issue of U.S. capital punishment back into the international spotlight, raising new questions about the drugs being used and the constitutional protection against cruel and unusual punishment.

The Christian Science Monitor posts, "Botched Oklahoma execution fueling the larger debate on lethal injection," by Elizabeth Barber.

The bungled execution added an unusual turn to a fraught legal war over the two men’s fates – carried out in court after court – that has also become a prominent stage for a broader and deeper meditation over the ethics of lethal injections in Oklahoma and elsewhere.

"Botched Oklahoma execution comes as alternatives emerge from shadows," is by Jon Herskovitz for Reuters, via GlobalPost.

Firing squads, electric chairs and other methods of execution seen as cruel or antiquated could be getting a fresh look after Oklahoma botched a lethal injection, leaving the condemned inmate withering in apparent pain on its death chamber gurney.

The New Yorker posts, "Witnesses to a Botched Execution,"by Paige Williams.

On Tuesday night, just after 8 P.M., a series of chilling tweets from an Associated Press reporter in Oklahoma City, Bailey Elise McBride, began to circulate widely. Before joining the AP, McBride was a high-school teacher. She writes a blog called PBR & Pearls, on which she logs inspirations and interests; most recently, a “mild obsession” with the band Tiny Ruins. At work, her subject matter tends to be darker. In addition to covering a mysterious case of dead birds dropping from the sky and the financial complications prompted by a bridge closure, McBride was one of the reporters following Oklahoma’s plans to execute two death-row inmates, on the same night, by lethal injection.

Both executions, of Clayton Lockett and Charles Warner, were to be carried out by midnight, and, as the Fordham law professor and death-penalty expert Deborah Denno told the Los Angeles Times, “The world was watching.”

"The Lockett Effect; ‘Nobody wants to be the next Oklahoma. They’ve managed to lower the bar even lower on the death penalty,’" is by Susan Greene at the Colorado Independent.

BY many accounts, Oklahoma’s execution of Clayton Lockett on Tuesday was a medical, legal and moral fiasco.

But one thing went as planned: Lockett’s family, at his insistence, wasn’t there to see it.

“He refused that they come because he didn’t want it to be their last vision of him,” said Colorado Assistant Federal Public Defender Dean Sanderford, one of Lockett’s lawyers.

“And thank god. Because it was the most awful thing I’ve ever seen. It was horrific, just horrific to watch.”

Earlier coverage of Oklahoma's botched execution begins at the link.  In the next posts, editorials, columns, and other commentary.

Is This What It Will Take for Lethal Injection Questions to Be Taken Seriously

"OKLAHOMA INMATE DIES AFTER EXECUTION IS BOTCHED," is the breaking news report from AP, filed by Bailey Elise McBride and Sean Murphy.

An Oklahoma inmate whose execution was halted Tuesday because the delivery of a new drug combination was botched died of a heart attack, the head of the state Department of Corrections said.

Director Robert Patton said inmate Clayton Lockett died Tuesday after all three drugs were administered.

Patton halted Lockett's execution about 20 minutes after the first drug was administered. He said there had been vein failure.

At this point, the most detailed account available is from the New York Times, "Oklahoma Postpones Execution After First Is Botched," by Erik Eckholm.

What was supposed to be the first of two executions here Tuesday night was halted when the prisoner, Clayton D. Lockett, began to twitch and gasp after he had already been declared unconscious and called out “man” and “something’s wrong,” according to witnesses.

The administering doctor intervened and discovered that “the line had blown,” said the director of corrections, Robert Patton, meaning that drugs were no longer flowing into his vein.

At 7:06 p.m., Mr. Patton said, Mr. Lockett died of a heart attack.

Mr. Patton said he had requested a stay of 14 days in the second execution scheduled for Tuesday night, of Charles F. Warner.

It was a chaotic and disastrous step in Oklahoma’s long effort to execute the two men, overcoming their objections that the state would not disclose the source of the drugs being used in a newly tried combination.

It did not appear that any of the drugs themselves failed, but rather the method of administration, but it resulted in what witnesses called an agonizing scene.

The Guardian posts, "Oklahoma botches execution as inmate writhes in agony on gurney," by Katie Fretland.

The state of Oklahoma botched the execution of one inmate and was forced to call off another on Tuesday night after what a corrections official described as a "vein failure".

The execution of convicted murderer Clayton Lockett was halted nearly 20 minutes after it began, but he later died of a heart attack inside the execution chamber at the Oklahoma state penitentiary.

For three minutes after the first drugs were delivered, he struggled violently, groaned and writhed, lifting his shoulders and head from the gurney before the blinds to the room were lowered 16 minutes after the execution began.

The execution of Charles Warner, scheduled for 8pm local time, was subsequently postponed. Both executions were to be carried out with a drug cocktail using dosages never before tried in American executions.

And:

The Guardian watched as Lockett was covered in a white sheet when the execution began at 6.23pm. He said "no" when asked for final words. At 6.30pm, he was found to be still conscious.

He was pronounced unconscious at 6.33pm, and his violent struggle began three minutes later. He tried to speak, and was heard to say "man" at 6:39pm. Then the blinds were lowered. At 7:06 pm Lockett had a heart attack and died, according to corrections director Robert Patton.

"Execution botched before inmate dies of heart attack; second execution postponed," is by Ziva Branstetter of the Tulsa World.

The execution of convicted killer Clayton Lockett was botched tonight at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary before he died of a massive heart attack. The event prompted officials to postpone a second execution scheduled for two hours later.

Lockett was given execution drugs and reacted violently, kicking and grimacing while lifting his head off the gurney to which he was strapped. He was pronounced dead at 7:06 p.m. -- 43 minutes after the process began -- Department of Corrections Director Robert Patton said.

In a media conference, Patton said Lockett's veins "exploded" during the execution, which began at 6:23 p.m. Patton said the inmate died from what Patton called a "massive heart attack."

Convicted killer Charles Warner was scheduled to be executed at 8 p.m. Patton said he notified the governor's office and the attorney general's office about the events and asked for a 14-day delay of Warner's execution, which was scheduled for 8 p.m.

The executions were to be the first in Oklahoma using a new three-drug cocktail of vecuronium bromide, midazolam and potassium chloride.

The Oklahoman posts, "Inmate dies after botched execution; second execution stayed," by Graham Lee Brewer.

The execution officially began at 6:23 p.m. Patton said all three drugs had been administered, but they did not have the desired effect. Patton said Lockett died in the execution room.

Officials closed the curtains in the execution room 16 minutes into the procedure, after Lockett convulsed several times, his chest and head rising off the gurney at multiple points.

After about 20 minutes after the blinds were closed, Patton informed witnessing press the execution was being halted.

“It’s come to my attention, I’m stopping the execution,” Patton told press gathered in the execution chamber. “We’ve had a vein failure, in which the chemicals did not make it into the offender.”

Lockett grimaced and tensed his body several times over a three-minute period before the execution was shielded from the press. After being declared unconscious 10 minutes into the process, Lockett spoke at three separate moments. The first two were inaudible, however the third time he spoke, Lockett said the word “man.”

Earlier coverage from Oklahoma begins at the link.

News Coverage of the Pending Oklahoma Executions

Madeline Cohen, attorney for Charles Warner, issued the following statement regarding tonight's scheduled executions:

“Tonight, in a climate of secrecy and political posturing, Oklahoma intends to kill two death row prisoners using an experimental new drug protocol, including a paralytic, making it impossible to know whether the executions will comport with the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual suffering.  Because the issue of secrecy in lethal injection has not been substantively addressed by the courts, Clayton Lockett and Charles Warner will be executed without basic information about the experimental combination of drugs used in their deaths. Despite repeated requests by counsel, the state has refused, again, and again, to provide information about the source, purity, testing and efficacy of the drugs to be used. It’s not even known whether the drugs were purchased legally.

‘In addition to the secrecy surrounding these executions, intense and inappropriate political pressure on Oklahoma’s judiciary from the Oklahoma Governor and Legislature has put a permanent stain on this entire process. Following an unconscionable 48-hour period of political intimidation, including the Governor attempting to override the Court’s stay of execution, and the introduction in the Oklahoma House of Representatives of articles of impeachment against the Justices who voted for the stay, the state’s highest court rescinded the stays. In a more appropriate political climate, Oklahoma’s Supreme Court could have taken a thorough look at this secrecy and ensured that all laws were carefully followed. Instead, we will never know.”

"Oklahoma prepares for execution of 2 inmates," is the updated AP report filed by Bailey Elise McBride, via the San Francisco Chronicle.

Two Oklahoma death row inmates whose executions were delayed while they challenged the secrecy behind the state's lethal injection protocol are scheduled to die Tuesday in the state's first double execution in nearly 80 years.

Clayton Lockett and Charles Warner will receive a new lethal injection formula that includes the sedative midazolam as the first in a three-drug combination.

Madeline Cohen, Warner's attorney, said the inmates have exhausted all of their appeals.

"We are really out of legal options, because the challenges that were brought to the execution were brought under state law, and they were decided as a matter of state law," Cohen said.

It is the first time since 1937 that two men have been executed on the same day in Oklahoma, although it has happened in other states since the death penalty was reinstated in the U.S. in 1976. The last double execution was in Texas in 2000.

The Tulsa World reports, "Oklahoma's rare double execution drawing global media interest," by Ziva Branstetter.

Oklahoma's rare dual execution Tuesday is drawing international attention, with reporters from Japan, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands requesting to serve as media witnesses, prison officials say.

Barring any last-minute court rulings in their favor, inmates Clayton Lockett and Charles Warner will be executed Tuesday at 6 p.m. and 8 p.m., respectively, at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.

Jerry Massie, a spokesman for the state Department of Corrections, said 17 news organizations, including 12 from Oklahoma, have requested media credentials to cover the executions.

Media outlets from outside the state requesting to witness the executions are The New York Times, The Guardian, Esquire Magazine UK, Kyoto (Japan) News and NRC, a newspaper based in the Netherlands.

The Department of Corrections allows up to 12 media witnesses, with preference given to The Associated Press and to Oklahoma media outlets, including the Tulsa World, The Oklahoman and local newspapers where the crimes occurred. Because more than that have requested credentials, the DOC likely will hold a lottery to select the media witnesses for each execution, Massie said.

"Oklahoma's first double-execution since 1937 set for Tuesday night," is by Graham Lee Brewer for the Oklahoman.

The state announced this month that after an exhaustive search, it was able to acquire the drugs to be used — midazolam, vecuronium bromide and potassium chloride — directly from a manufacturer.

As recently as Friday, the convicted murderers’ attorneys appealed to the state Court of Criminal Appeals for another delay in the executions. The court rejected that request.

National Journal posts, "Oklahoma Is About to Perform the First ‘Double Execution’ In 14 Years," by Dustin Volz.

The executions of Clayton Lockett and Charles Warner, which will go forward barring any extraordinary legal intervention, will also put an end—for now—to a "constitutional crisis" in Oklahoma that found the Republican governor and state Supreme Court locked in an unprecedented legal showdown concerning the secrecy of its supply of lethal-injection drugs.

The carousel of heated back-and-forth litigation culminated last week with dueling orders from Gov. Mary Fallin and the Oklahoma Supreme Court. A day after the court ruled to stay the executions indefinitely, Fallin issued a temporary, seven-day stay on Lockett's execution, which had been scheduled for April 22. Fallin's order, which was a de facto override of the court's decision, drew scrutiny from legal experts, prompting some to declare the state was mired in a constitutional crisis.

But the court quickly balked, choosing instead to nullify its own stay and reverse a lower-court ruling that found a law allowing the state to keep secret the source of its lethal drugs unconstitutional. Death-penalty opponents have accused state officials of succumbing to political pressure.

Oklahoma's morass reflects a growing challenge states are facing nationally to carry out their death sentences because of lethal-drug shortages. As European manufacturers make it increasingly difficult for states to procure chemicals intended for lethal injections, states are being forced to look elsewhere to procure the necessary ingredients. In Oklahoma, as well as other states such as Texas and Missouri, states have turned to secret compounding pharmacies to produce the lethal cocktails.

"Oklahoma former prison warden: death penalty does not help families," is by Katie Fretland for the Guardian.

As Oklahoma prepares for its first double-execution since 1937 after an unprecedented dispute between two courts, the governor and the legislature, the former warden of the state prison says he has come to see the death penalty as a very expensive punishment that fails to deter crime or bring closure to most victims’ families.

Randy Workman saw intimate details of the death penalty that are kept from the public eye in the United States. As the warden of the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester he handpicked secret executioners, walked people to their deaths and saw the process of obtaining lethal injection drugs. He participated in 32 executions during various jobs in more than two decades working for the corrections department before retiring in 2012.

And:

“The only thing I can tell you for certain whenever people say do you believe that the death penalty will stop crime, I can guarantee you that person will never commit a crime again, and that is as far as I’m going to say,” Workman said. “Do we need to have the death penalty? Yeah I’m an advocate for it. I think we do. Is it cost effective? Gosh no. We spend millions of dollars on these cases and going through the process and the end result is the family, do they feel vindicated? I’d say 90% of the time the people I’ve seen don’t.”

Reuters posts, "Oklahoma to execute two convicts after ending court case on drugs," by Heide Brandes.

Lockett and Warner had been scheduled to be executed in March but had their death sentences put on hold after lower courts ruled that the state needed to provide more information on the drugs that would be used to execute them and the supplier of the pharmaceuticals.

The crimes for which they were convicted were not related, but their executions became linked in a lawsuit about the lethal injection drugs.

Oklahoma had set up a new lethal injection procedure and cocktail of chemicals earlier this year after it was no longer able to obtain the drugs it had once used for executions.

"Anti-Death Penalty Group To Host Protest, Vigil In OKC," is by the Associated Press, via KOTV-TV.

An Oklahoma anti-death penalty group will host a protest and vigil to show their objection to the execution of two death-row inmates, the state's first double execution since 1937.

The Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty on Tuesday will host a sit-in at Gov. Mary Fallin's office, followed by a vigil at the governor's mansion.

Earlier coverage from Oklahoma begins with the preceding post.

Enterprise Reporting From the Texas Observer

The current issue of the Texas Observer posts, "To Kill? Or Not to Kill?  As executions decline in Texas, a small-town prosecutor decides whether to seek the death penalty."  It's by Maurice Chammah.  Here's a brief excerpt from this must-read:

But whether to seek the death penalty, whether it was even on the table, was Steven Reis’ decision alone.

The death penalty is declining all over the United States, and especially in Texas, the state most famous for capital punishment. The statistics are startling: Texas sent nine men to death row in 2013, down from 48 in 1999. The lengthy appeals process in capital cases—offenders spend on average about a decade on death row before execution—means it takes a long time for the number of new death sentences to influence the number of executions. Still, executions are declining too. Between 2010 and 2013 there were 61 executions in Texas. Between 2000 and 2003, there were 114.

Explanations for the death penalty’s decline run from culture to policy and back again. Violent crime overall has decreased in recent years.

Related posts are in the journalism category index.

Mother Jones Focuses Attention on a Controversial Georgia Case

Marc Bookman takes an in-depth look a the Georgia case of Robert Holsey in, "This Man Is About to Die Because an Alcoholic Lawyer Botched His Case," at Mother Jones.  The second part of the article is, "The Georgia Supreme Court opinion never mentions Prince's alcoholism."  Here's the beginning of this must-read:

When people recount their alcohol consumption after a night on the town, or even a serious bender, they usually think about it in terms of drinks. Very rarely do they calibrate their intake in quarts. So most of us don't have a good sense of just how much a quart of vodka is — a bit more than 21 shots, as it turns out. That's the amount of alcohol lawyer Andy Prince consumed every night during the death penalty trial of his client, Robert Wayne Holsey, a low-functioning man with a tortured past who now stands on the brink of execution in Georgia.

Earlier coverage of the case is at the link.  Related posts are in the ineffective assistance of counsel category index.

Revisiting the Tangled Case of Jerry Hartfield

Andrew Cohen writes, "Texas has been holding this man hostage for 12,600 days," of the Week.  Here's the beginning of this must-read:

Last week, in a decision that contorted both law and fact, a state judge ruled against an illiterate, intellectually disabled black man named Jerry Hartfield.

Hartfield has been imprisoned for more than 33 years — without a valid conviction or sentence authorizing his confinement. In the latest decision, the judge ruled that even though state and local officials clearly were negligent in letting Hartfield slip through the cracks all these decades, there is nothing in the Constitution that provides him with any protection from being retried. Not the Sixth Amendment's guarantee of a speedy trial. Not the undisputed fact that key evidence in that long-ago trial — like the alleged murder weapon, for example — has disappeared. Not the fact that there is no proof that Hartfied, with an IQ testing far below standards for mental retardation, strategized to keep himself in prison for 30 years as a way of avoiding a retrial.

It's not just the third of a century of unlawful confinement that is egregious here. It's the fact that 10 months have passed since the state courts in Texas (after many years of prodding) first acknowledged the terrible mistake that was made in this case. Even this lesser period of delay is unconscionable. Jerry Hartfield, who first would have been eligible for parole in 2003 had Texas followed the law, should be free.

Earlier coverage of Jerry Hartfield's case begins at the link.  You can also jump to Andrew Cohen's earlier commentary on the case.

What It Means if the Death Penalty Is Dying

That's the title of a new New York Times feature, Room for Debate.

Last week, lawmakers in New Hampshire heard testimony on a bill outlawing the death penalty. If passed, the law would make New Hampshire the 19th state to abolish capital punishment. The United States, the only country in the Americas to practice the death penalty last year, executed 39 people, four fewer than the year before, and Texas accounted for 41 percent of them, according to Amnesty International.

As executions become concentrated in fewer and fewer states and racial disparities continue, does the application of capital punishment make it unconstitutionally cruel and unusual?

It features short essays from six individuals.

• "Rare and Decreasing," by Richard C. Dieter, Death Penalty Information Center
• "Punishment Needs to Be Punishment," by Robert Blecker, author of The Death of Punishment
• "No Justice for Victims of Color," by Khalilah L. Brown-Dean, a political scientist
• "Of Course, It’s Cruel and Unusual," by Kirk Noble Bloodsworth of Witness to Innocence
• "Claims of Racial Disparity Are Misleading," by John McAdams, a political scientist
• "The Most ‘Unusual’ It’s Ever Been," by Paul Butler, Law professor and former prosecutor

More on the New Hampshire repeal legislation and the Amnesty International report at the links.