SCOTUS OK's Lethal Injections

Final Decisions Day At SCOTUS

Via the Associated Press:

The Supreme Court is meeting for the final time until the fall to decide three remaining cases and add some new ones for the term that starts in October. The court decided its two blockbuster cases last week by declaring the right of same-sex couples to marry in all 50 states and upholding a critical part of the health care overhaul. The three remaining cases that are expected to be decided Monday raise important questions about a controversial drug that was implicated in botched executions, state efforts to reduce partisan influence in congressional redistricting and costly Environmental Protection Agency limits on the emission of mercury and other toxic pollutants from power plants. The justices also could add important cases for next term on abortion, affirmative action and the power of unions that represent government workers.

SCOTUSblog begins its live-blog at 9:15AM.

NEBRASKA: Legislature Overrides Pete Ricketts' Veto Of Death Penalty Repeal

Headline Of The Day

Via Raw Story:

The wife of an Arizona pastor who predicted an “AIDS-free Christmas” if all gays were killed has condemned the Duggar family – as “worldly” liberals who promote a “false gospel.” Zsuzsanna Anderson said she had never met the stars of TLC’s “19 Kids and Counting,” but the mother of eight children has streamed every one of their regular episodes and specials because she likes “seeing and learning from the daily workings of a large family.” The wife of Pastor Steven Anderson, who bars homosexuals and demands silence from women at his Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe, said in a blog post she disapproved of the “deceptive” way the Duggars practiced their faith. Anderson said she had no doubt that Josh Duggar, who admitted to police as a teen that he had molested his sisters and other girls as they slept, had been sexually abused himself – but she was unforgiving toward the 27-year-old married father if had become a “reprobate pedophile.” “I believe that all pedophiles are reprobates, that they are unregenerate and in fact can never change, and that they, like all sexual deviants, should be executed as the Bible demands, lest they spread their abusive ways and corrupt more innocent lives,” Anderson said.

See her blog post here. (Tipped by JMG readers Lynda and DM)

FLASHBACK: That Time Jim Bob Duggar Said Incest Should Bring Death Penalty

Via Gawker:

In a brief statement to People, Jim Bob and Michelle said last week that “that dark and difficult time caused us to seek God like never before.” Maybe that’s because Jim Bob publicly stated during his 2002 campaign for U.S. Senate that he thinks incest should be punishable by death. Jim Bob’s platform on his campaign website—preserved via web cache—states that he believes “rape and incest represent heinous crimes and as such should be treated as capital crimes.” Jim Bob offered this belief to explain his position on abortion (only acceptable if both the mother and the baby were going to die anyway, of course). Jim Bob lost the Republican nomination for Senate to Arkansas’ incumbent Senator Tim Hutchinson. His son Josh remained very much alive and went on to molest several underage girls including some of his sisters from 2002-2003.

During his single term in the Arkansas House, then state Rep. Jim Bob Duggar sat on the Corrections, Criminal Law, and Judiciary committees. Ahem.

Nebraska To Repeal Death Penalty

Death Sentence For Boston Bomber

Editorial Of The Day

From the editorial board of the Boston Globe:

As the trial now moves into its sentencing phase — the jury must unanimously vote to execute Tsarnaev, or else he will receive a life sentence — the defense team may also raise legal mitigating factors. Tsarnaev was 19 at the time of the bombing; he was apparently a heavy drug user; he had no prior criminal record. By themselves, none of these would seem like a particularly good reason to spare him, but taken as a whole, and alongside evidence of his brother’s dominant role, they should plant seeds of doubt. In sorting through such life-and-death considerations, jurors face an unenviable task — and mixed precedent. The Oklahoma City bomber, Timothy McVeigh, was put to death. The Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, wasn’t. Tsarnaev obviously should spend the rest of his life in prison. His defense has already made a good case that he does not meet the exceptionally high standards for a federal execution.

Boston Marathon Bomber Found Guilty

Via the Boston Globe:

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was convicted Wednesday of carrying out the April 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, which devastated a festive crowd near the world-renowned race’s finish line, killing three people and wounding more than 260 others. Tsarnaev, 21, who prosecutors said was a self-radicalized Muslim bent on striking a blow against America, now faces a second phase of his trial in which a jury will decide whether to sentence him to death. The second phase could begin within days. Tsarnaev and his late older brother, Tamerlan, planted twin bombs at the race on the afternoon of April 15, 2013. Prosecutors have said that Tsarnaev carried out the crimes in a “heinous, cruel and depraved manner” and that he deserves the death penalty. He was charged with 30 crimes, including 17 that carried the possibility of a death sentence. The jury of seven women and five men deliberated for just over 11 hours before rendering its verdict, after hearing the lawyers’ closing arguments early Monday.

Many death penalty opponents find themselves questioning their position in cases like this. Myself included.

Arizona Execution Takes Two Hours

Supreme Court Imposes IQ Cutoff Point For Death Penalty In 5-4 Ruling

In a 5-4 ruling, Supreme Court today imposed an IQ cutoff point for the 32 states that still perform executions.

The Supreme Court made it more difficult Tuesday for states to impose the death penalty on prisoners who claim an intellectual disability, marking the first time it has fine-tuned a landmark 2002 decision barring executions of the mentally retarded. The court ruled that Florida must apply a margin of error to IQ tests administered to Freddie Lee Hall, 68, who killed a 21-year-old pregnant woman and a deputy sheriff in 1978. The state had argued that any test score above 70 made prisoners eligible for a death sentence, despite medical guidelines that permit scores to reach 75. The case marked a return for the court to Atkins v. Virginia, its 2002 decision that executing people with intellectual disabilities violates their 8th Amendment rights against cruel and unusual punishment. The key dispute ever since then has been who gets to define mental retardation, now referred to as intellectual disability -- states or medical professionals. The Supreme Court set a three-prong test that includes intellectual functioning, adaptive behavior and age of onset. But Florida doesn't consider the latter two prongs if the IQ score is above 70.

Justice Anthony Kennedy provided the swing vote. Several hundred death row inmates are contesting their sentences on the basis of mental disability.

UN Demands US Stop All Executions

From the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights:

The suffering of Clayton Lockett during his execution in Oklahoma on Tuesday 29th April, may amount to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment according to international human rights law. It also appears to run counter to the 8 th Amendment of the United States Constitution, which states that “…nor cruel and unusual punishment [shall be] inflicted.” We note that the execution of a second man in Oklahoma, scheduled later on Tuesday, was stayed by the Governor, who has ordered a review of execution procedures and protocols.

The prolonged death of Clayton Lockett is the second case of apparent extreme suffering caused by malfunctioning lethal injections reported in 2014 in the United States. The other case was that of Dennis McGuire, executed by the State of Ohio on 16 January 2014 with an allegedly untested combination of drugs.

The UN Human Rights Committee and the Committee against Torture have both previously called on the United States to review its execution methods in order to prevent severe pain and suffering. Most recently, in March 2014, the Human Rights Committee recommended the US ensure that lethal drugs used for executions originate from legal, regulated sources, and are approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The apparent cruelty involved in these recent executions simply reinforces the argument that authorities across the United States should impose an immediate moratorium on the use of the death penalty and work for abolition of this cruel and inhuman practice. Thirty-two out of 50 states in the US still have the death penalty in their laws (in addition to the US government and the US military). Eighteen states in the US have abolished the death penalty, most recently Maryland in 2013 and Connecticut in 2012.

The UN opposes the use of the death penalty in all circumstances.

Bolding is mine.

Tea Party Head: Use Heroin For Executions

"If the left insists that we use drugs to execute people, why not just a massive overdose of opiates? Every big city cop who has worked for any length of time tells stories of finding heroin addicts who shoot up pure heroin, OD and are found with the needle still in their arm. According to some press reports, when actor Phillip Seymore Hoffman overdosed, death was so fast, the needle was still in his arm. Why don’t we simply use very pure heroin to execute inmates? The left is screaming about the execution of Lockett, but who really cares if he suffered a little? If the left doesn’t like lethal injection, there are lots of other ways to kill condemned inmates. Hanging works pretty well. So do the firing squad, the gas chamber and the electric chair." - Tea Party Nation founder Judson Phillips, reacting to the outcry over Oklahoma's botched execution.

God Approves Of Firing Squads

Oklahoma Botches Execution

The New York Times reports:

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.

Lockett was convicted in the 1999 shooting of a 19 year-old girl, who was then buried alive by his accomplices. Gov. Mary Fallin has postponed the second execution pending an investigation.

Where Atheism Is Punishable By Death

Source.

UN Condemns Gay Death Penalty

Yesterday the United Nations approved a resolution that condemns the killing of LGBT persons either by governments or via "extrajudicial" means such as hate crimes. Via press release from the International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission:

An international coalition of organizations dedicated to human rights celebrated yesterday’s historic vote in the Third Committee of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to pass resolution condemning extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions. The vote reversed the events of 2010 when the same body voted to strip the resolution of reference to "sexual orientation." The UNGA also expanded upon its commitment to the universality of human rights by including "gender identity" for the first time in the resolution’s history. The resolution, which is introduced biennially in the Third Committee, urges States to protect the right to life of all people, including by calling upon States to investigate killings based on discriminatory grounds. It was introduced by the Government of Sweden and co-sponsored by 34 states from around the world.

IGLHRC notes that the United Arab Emirates attempted to strip "sexual orientation" from the resolution on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, just as they did two years ago. (See the photo above for the vote tally on that amendment.) They add: "Another failed effort, led by the Holy See, would have stripped all specific references to groups at high risk for execution; however it was never formally introduced."

The governments of the United States, Brazil, and many others spoke in favor of the resolution. IGLHRC reports that Egypt "spoke frequently" in opposition. Japan broke its long silence on the issue with this declaration: "We cannot tolerate any killings of persons because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Our delegation voted against the proposed amendment to this paragraph because we think it is meaningful to mention such killings from the perspective of protecting the rights of LGBT people."

Read the full resolution here.

Connecticut Repeals Death Penalty

The Death Penalty In America

Texas is responsible for one-third of all executions since 1976.

Ruth Buzzi, Texan