LOVED ONES WHO DIED IN PRISON

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Fla serial killer executed for girl's 1983 death

FILE - In this undated photo made available by the Florida Department of Corrections shows death row inmate David Alan Gore. Gov. Rick Scott ordered the execution of Gore, a central Florida serial killer who raped and dismembered five women and a teenager. He is scheduled to be executed April 12, 2012. Florida Department of Corrections, File / AP Photo

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Arizona executes man for killing, dismembering mom

FILE - This undated photo provided by the Arizona Department of Corrections shows death-row inmate Robert Henry Moormann. Arizona executed Moormann Wednesday Feb. 29, 2012 for killing and dismembering his adoptive mother while he was out of prison on furlough for another crime, despite a spate of last-minute appeals over his mental disabilities and how the state has changed and violated its own execution protocol. (AP Photo/Arizona Department of Corrections, File)

Posted: Wednesday, February 29, 2012 1:24 pm | Updated: 3:00 pm, Wed Feb 29, 2012.

Associated Press | 0 comments

Arizona executed an inmate Wednesday for killing and dismembering his adoptive mother while he was out of prison on furlough for another crime, despite a spate of last-minute appeals over his mental disabilities and how the state has changed and violated its own execution protocol.

Just before he was put to death, Robert Henry Moormann used his last words to apologize to his family and to the family of an 8-year-old girl he kidnapped and molested in 1972.

"I hope this brings closure and they can start healing now," he said. "I just hope that they will forgive me in time."

Moormann is the first Arizona inmate to be executed with one lethal drug, as opposed to the state's long-standing three-drug protocol.

The switch was made after corrections officials realized Monday that one of the three drugs had expired. In doing so, they violated their own new written execution protocol by giving Moormann only two days' notice of how he would be put to death instead of seven days' notice, as stipulated in the protocol.

Moormann appeared to move more than other inmates executed with the three-drug protocol. Unlike the other inmates, who appeared to fall asleep immediately, Moormann kept his eyes open during the entire execution.

Arizona joins Ohio, Texas and several other states that last year made the switch to pentobarbital after the only U.S. manufacturer of execution drug sodium thiopental said it would discontinue production.

In July, the only U.S.-licensed manufacturer of pentobarbital announced that it would put the drug off-limits for executions. And a company that bought the pentobarbital line in December is required to also keep it from use by prisons for executions.

Once states use up their current supplies of pentobarbital, executions could be delayed across the country as officials look for yet another alternative.

Hours after the U.S. Supreme Court turned down a request for a stay, the two-member execution team gave the lethal injection to Moormann at 10:23 a.m. The 63-year-old was pronounced dead at 10:33 a.m.

The execution happened just a minute's drive away from the Blue Mist Motel, where on Jan. 13, 1984, he beat, stabbed and suffocated his adoptive mother, Roberta Moormann, 74, who sexually abused him into adulthood, according to defense lawyers.

He cut off her head, legs and arms, halved her torso, and flushed all her fingers down the toilet. He then went to various businesses asking if he could dispose of spoiled meat and animal guts before he threw most of her remains in trash bins and sewers throughout the dusty town, about 60 miles southeast of Phoenix.

Moormann was captured after he asked a corrections employee to dispose of what he said were dog bones.

He killed the woman while on a three-day "compassionate furlough" from the prison in Florence, where he was serving nine years to life for kidnapping and molesting an 8-year-old girl in 1972.

The killing prompted the state to stop its policy of allowing such leaves, and they're still not allowed.

Tom Rankin, who was Florence's police chief at the time of the killing and interviewed Moormann just afterward, said he attended the execution to get some closure in the case, which was the only one of Rankin's that resulted in the death penalty.

"It's over," the former chief said outside the prison. "It was a horrible crime."

Rankin, who retired from the police department in 1994, rejected arguments from defense attorneys about Moormann being too mentally disabled for the state to legally execute.

"Those are excuses attorneys try to dig up to save someone's life. It just costs the taxpayers more money," he said. "The man knew what he was doing. There was no doubt in my mind."

Moormann lost a recent flurry of appeals over a number of issues, including two on Tuesday at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

Although a three-judge panel declined to delay Moormann's execution, it issued a strong warning to Arizona officials who have continuously changed and violated their own execution policy, saying the state has forced the court "to engage in serious constitutional questions and complicated factual issues in the waning hours before executions."

"This approach cannot continue," the panel wrote. "We are mindful of the admonition requiring us to refrain from micromanaging each individual execution, but the admonition has a breaking point."

Unless Arizona officials make permanent changes, the judges wrote that the court might have to start monitoring each individual execution in the state to make sure the law is followed.

Dale Baich, one of the attorneys who filed an appeal in the 9th Circuit on behalf of Moormann, was at the execution and said that the process appeared to be more transparent than in the past because the injection site was visible.

"It's a step in the right direction," he said, but added that he will continue to challenge the new execution protocol because it gives corrections Director Charles Ryan too much discretion.

A different 9th Circuit three-judge panel turned down a separate filing from Moormann that sought a delay in his execution over arguments about his mental disabilities.

Moormann's attorneys have argued in courts at every level that the Flagstaff man should not be executed because multiple psychologists have diagnosed him as mentally disabled.

State law prohibits executing the mentally disabled or those who have IQs lower than 70.

Prosecutors argue that Moormann's mental capacity at the time of the killing was just above the legal requirement for mental impairment.

Moormann's attorneys also were unsuccessful in arguing to courts and a clemency board that because Roberta Moormann sexually abused her adoptive son throughout childhood and into adulthood, it would be "unconscionable" to execute him.

Moormann was born to a 15-year-old prostitute who died when she was 17. He bounced around six foster homes before being adopted by the Moormanns in Flagstaff when he was 5.

At his clemency hearing in Florence on Friday, Moormann said he accepted responsibility for killing his mother but that he didn't remember much about it.

"It was me playing with her breasts, and that is the only part I remember," Robert Moormann said. "I carried her in the bathtub and I knew something was wrong, so I put her in bed. I do not remember cutting her up. Sorry."

He told the board that he wasn't sure why he can't remember the details of the killing but wondered aloud if it might be because of a stroke he had in prison in 2007.

"I accept responsibility for what happened that night," he said. "The only two people in that room were her and me. I know I'm guilty of the crime. I wish I could go back and undo it, but I can't."

At the time of the killing, Moormann also told authorities conflicting stories about the death, saying that he accidentally suffocated her during sex and later that she had begun sexually abusing him again, prompting him to kill her in a fit of rage.

Medical examiners found no evidence of sexual contact between the two the night of her killing. They also found that she had been alive when she received cuts and bruises covering her body and that "the dismemberment showed no rage, but rather a methodical, meticulous activity," court records say.

A jury convicted Moormann of first-degree murder after two hours of deliberations, rejecting his plea of not guilty by reason of insanity.

Although the trial judge did find that Moormann had an impaired ability to understand right from wrong, the judge cited several reasons why Moormann deserved the death penalty, including that the murder was especially heinous and cruel.

Of the 129 inmates left on Arizona's death row, just six have been there longer than Moormann.

Robert Charles Towery is scheduled to be executed March 8. Towery, who has a clemency hearing set for March 2, was convicted of killing a man while robbing his home in 1991.

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HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — The leader of the fugitive gang known as the "Texas 7" was executed Wednesday for killing a suburban Dallas police officer during a robbery 11 years ago after organizing and pulling off Texas' biggest prison break.

George Rivas, 41, from El Paso, received lethal injection for gunning down Aubrey Hawkins, a 29-year-old Irving police officer who interrupted the gang's holdup of a sporting goods store on Christmas Eve in 2000. The seven inmates had fled a South Texas prison about two weeks earlier.

The gang was caught in Colorado about a month after the officer's death. One committed suicide rather than be arrested. Rivas and five others with lengthy sentences who bolted with him were returned to Texas where they separately were convicted of capital murder and sentenced to die.

Rivas became the second of the group executed.

"I do apologize for everything that happened. Not because I'm here, but for closure in your hearts," Rivas said Wednesday evening in a statement intended for Hawkins' family. "I really do believe you deserve that."

The slain officer's relatives were absent, but four officers who worked with him and the district attorney who prosecuted the case attended on his family's behalf. They stood in the death chamber watching through a window just a few feet from Rivas.

The inmate thanked his friends who were watching through another window and said he loved them. A Canadian woman whom Rivas recently married by proxy, also looked on.

"I am grateful for everything in my life," Rivas said. "To my wife, I will be waiting for you."

Ten minutes later, at 6:22 p.m. CST, he was pronounced dead.

More than two dozen police officers in uniforms stood quietly in a line outside the Huntsville prison during the execution, then walked in unison to stand behind the state criminal justice spokesman as he announced Rivas' death.

Texas' parole board voted 7-0 this week to reject a clemency petition for Rivas. No 11th-hour appeals were made to try to head off the execution, the second this year in the nation's most active death penalty state.

Rivas and accomplices he handpicked for the escape broke out of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Connally Unit, about an hour south of San Antonio, on Dec. 13, 2000. They overpowered workers, stole their clothes, broke into the prison armory for weapons and drove off in a prison truck.

They left behind an ominous note: "You haven't heard the last of us yet."

While out of prison, they supported themselves by committing robberies.

Hawkins was shot 11 times and run over with a stolen SUV driven by Rivas as the gang held up a sporting goods store closing on the holiday eve. They drove off with loot that included $70,000 in cash, 44 firearms and ammunition for the guns.

They were arrested a month later in Colorado, ending a six-week nationwide manhunt. One of the fugitives, Larry Harper, committed suicide as officers closed in.

In 2008, accomplice Michael Rodriguez, 45, who at the time of the breakout had a life term for arranging the slaying of his wife, ordered his appeals dropped and was executed. The four others remain on death row awaiting the outcome of court appeals.

"Today is not about George Rivas," said Toby Shook, the former Dallas County assistant district attorney who prosecuted Rivas and the others for Hawkins' death. "Today is about justice for Aubrey Hawkins and Aubrey's fellow police officers."

Rivas planned the escape while serving 17 life sentences for aggravated kidnapping and aggravated robbery and another life sentence for burglary.

One of his trial lawyers, Wayne Huff, has said Rivas picked accomplices for the breakout "who probably were more dangerous than he was" and failed to consider they might get caught doing robberies.

"When that cop pulled up, no one knew what to do," Huff said, calling the officer's slaying "just a tragic situation."

Rivas and two other members of the fugitive gang were arrested at a convenience store near a trailer park in Woodland Park, Colo. Two others were in a motor home at the trailer park, where Harper shot himself to death. The last two were apprehended at a motel in Colorado Springs, Colo.

The men had told the people who ran the RV park they were Christian missionaries from Texas, but a neighbor recognized them as the case was profiled on the "America's Most Wanted" TV show and called police.

The four "Texas 7" members still awaiting execution are Patrick Murphy Jr. 49; Joseph Garcia, 40; Randy Halprin, 34; and Donald Newbury, 49. Newbury was set for injection in early February but was spared, at least temporarily, by a U.S. Supreme Court order.

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Texas executes convicted killer in '94 rape, death

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Texas Execution

This photo provided by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice shows Rodrigo Hernandez. Hernandez, 38, is scheduled for lethal injection Thursday, for murder. His DNA linked him to the abduction, rape and strangling of 38-year-old Susan Verstegen. (AP Photo/Texas Department of Criminal Justice)

Posted: Thursday, January 26, 2012 7:07 pm | Updated: 7:15 pm, Thu Jan 26, 2012.

Associated Press | 8 comments

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) - Convicted murderer Rodrigo Hernandez was executed Thursday night for the abduction, rape and strangulation of a 38-year-old woman in San Antonio 18 years ago.

The lethal injection was carried out about 2 ½ hours after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal to block the punishment.

Hernandez, 38, told a chaplain as witnesses filed into the death chamber: "I'm ready. They better hurry up."

Moments later, when asked by the warden if he had a statement, Hernandez said: "I want to tell everybody, I love everybody. Keep your heads up. We are all family, people of God almighty. We're all good. I'm ready."

As the lethal drugs began taking effect, he said, "I'm gonna go to sleep. See you later. This stuff stinks, man." He then blurted out "almighty" before slipping into unconsciousness. He was pronounced dead 10 minutes later at 6:19 p.m. CST.

Hernandez was condemned for the slaying of Susan Verstegen, an employee of snack maker Frito-Lay. She was attacked at a storage area behind a supermarket and her body was found dumped in a garbage barrel behind a San Antonio church.

The February 1994 slaying went unsolved for eight years until Hernandez, as a requirement for parole from a Michigan prison, had to submit a DNA sample that went into a national database. The DNA linked him to her death.

Advances in DNA technology more recently also tied Hernandez to the 1991 slaying of a 77-year-old homeless woman in Michigan.

Hernandez insisted he was innocent of both slayings, telling The San Antonio Express-News in a recent interview that his grandmother who raised him taught him to respect women.

"I'll take that to the grave," he said.

However, he told a San Antonio police detective, George Saidler, who questioned him after the DNA match was discovered in 2002 that he was high on marijuana and alcohol and that he grabbed Verstegen, wrapped his hands around her neck when she struggled, drove off in her car and threw her body in the trash can when he realized she was not breathing.

"I never meant to kill her," Hernandez said, according to Saidler, who obtained the confession.

"He was trying to convince me he was sorry for what he had done," Saidler, now an investigator for the Bexar County district attorney, said.

Verstegen's son, Charles Monney, who watched through a death chamber window a few feet from where Hernandez was belted to a gurney, said while he supported the death penalty he found no joy.

"Today's execution doesn't change the fact that my kids will never hear the sweet laugh or feel the tender embrace of their grandmother, who would have been crazy for them," Monney said afterward.

He was 15 when his mother was killed.

"Every holiday or family get together will forever be missing something," he said, his voice cracking. "My mom was a wonderful woman, and she will forever be missed."

In his Supreme Court appeal, Hernandez's lawyers argued he had deficient attorneys early in his appeals who failed to address claims he had equally ineffective legal help at his trial when claims Hernandez was mentally impaired weren't pursued. The high court has ruled mentally impaired people aren't eligible for the death penalty. The arguments cited an Arizona case the high court now is reviewing where a condemned prisoner contends shoddy legal help in his initial appeals is a constitutional violation.

State attorneys told the justices the legal help early in Hernandez's appeals was not deficient because mental impairment issues were addressed with testimony from a mitigation specialist and a mental health expert at Hernandez's capital murder trial.

Hernandez had a long criminal record. The DNA sample that linked him to Verstegen's slaying was submitted as he served a sentence in Michigan for using a bottle to severely beat a man. Two years ago, DNA evidence linked him to the 1991 murder of Muriel Stoepker in Grand Rapids, Mich. He was not tried for her death.

When Michigan authorities went to Texas death row to question him about her slaying and showed him a letter indicating he would not be prosecuted, he refused to discuss the killing, Saidler said.

In a 2010 interview with a psychologist arranged by his appeals lawyers, Hernandez said he moved from South Texas to Grand Rapids around age 12. At 17, he said he was shot in the head and in the back while he was drunk. Also at 17, he was arrested for breaking and entering, returned to Texas as part of a deferred adjudication and then bounced in and out of jail back in Grand Rapids for parole violations.

He said he met Verstegen while working at a San Antonio supermarket in 1993 and 1994 and that they had a consensual sexual relationship. Saidler said there was no evidence of such a friendship.

The execution was the first this year in Texas, which carries out the death penalty more than any other state. At least five other Texas inmates have execution dates scheduled in the coming weeks.

Okla. inmate put to death for fatal stabbing during 1994 fight; 1st US execution this year

By Associated Press, Published: January 5

McALESTER, Okla. — An Oklahoma inmate who recently attempted suicide was put to death Thursday evening for killing a man during a knife fight nearly two decades ago, marking the nation’s first execution this year.

Gary Roland Welch, 49, was given a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in McAlester for fatally stabbing 35-year-old Robert Hardcastle in Miami, Okla. He was pronounced dead at 6:10 p.m.

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Minutes before the drugs were administered, other death row inmates could be heard banging on their cell walls, and Welch paid tribute to them during his final statement.

“I was just going to ask everybody if they could hear my brothers out there,” he said. “I know it’s kind of quiet now, but I want to acknowledge that my brothers are here with me to send me off on my journey. They are here on my behalf. They’ve already given me my little send off. So let’s get it on because that’s what we’re here for.”

Before he died, Welch chanted apparent references to Norse mythology, which he had studied behind bars. On his fourth chant, Welch passed out as the drugs began to kick in.

Earlier in the day, he was given fish filets from Long John Silver’s for his last meal, prison officials said.

At his request, nobody attended the execution on his behalf, and Hardcastle’s family members declined comment afterward.

Welch’s execution came nearly three weeks after he tried to kill himself by slitting his throat with a smuggled shaving razor. Prison officials and Welch’s own court-appointed attorney insisted he was sane and understood his fate.

Welch maintained that he only killed Hardcastle in self-defense.

He remained defiant at a hearing last month before the state Pardon and Parole Board, telling the board he wasn’t “here today crying, begging or sniveling for my life.”

“I did what I had to do,” Welch told the panel. “I didn’t intend to kill him, but I certainly didn’t intend for him to kill me, either.” The board voted 3-2 to deny clemency.

After Welch’s suicide attempt on Dec. 16, prison guards rushed him to a hospital where he was treated before being returned to death row. He was evaluated by a psychiatric unit based at the prison and deemed competent to be executed because he was aware of what was going to happen to him and why — the standard required for death row inmates in Oklahoma.

Nothing in Welch’s court record indicated that the issue of his sanity or mental capacity was ever raised, and prosecutors presented evidence at the pardon and parole hearing suggesting that Welch was a bully in prison who enjoyed watching violent movies, pushed around other inmates and was once caught with a homemade knife in his cell.

The question of Welch’s mental state was addressed this week by his court-appointed attorney, Robert Wyatt, who insisted his client knew what he was doing and added that the suicide attempt could have been influenced by Welch’s belief that he “never got a fair shake” because he was given the death penalty for murder instead of a lesser charge, such as manslaughter.

“He always felt the system was against him, and as a result of that, that influences how a person reacts,” Wyatt said this week. “(Welch) said openly at the pardon and parole hearing, that during his stay at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary, he’s always been treated fairly.”

According to court records, several witnesses testified they saw Welch and a co-defendant, Claudie Conover, beating and stabbing Hardcastle outside of Hardcastle’s Miami home on Aug. 25, 1994. Conover also was sentenced to death, but his sentence was later reduced to life without parole. He died in prison from natural causes in 2001.

Ben Loring, the lead prosecutor in the case, recalled Welch’s self-defense argument as flimsy.

“The problem was, nothing matched up,” Loring told The Associated Press this week. “None of the physical evidence matched up to what he was saying.”

Loring said Welch had “ample opportunity” to stop the assault but continued with the beating. At one point, Loring recalled, Conover ended up with the knife and was walking to the car with it. That’s when Welch got a broken beer bottle and continued slashing Hardcastle, he said.

“It just went way too far,’ Loring said. “I’m not a big proponent of the death penalty, but if anybody deserved it, I felt the case (for a death sentence) should have been presented to a jury.”

On Thursday, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt issued a statement detailing Welch’s “15-year history of violent crimes that included multiple assaults on women and police officers, burglary, stabbings and carrying concealed weapons before his conviction of murder.”

“The punishment of death as chosen by a jury of Welch’s peers is reserved for the most heinous crimes,” he said. “My thoughts are with Robert Hardcastle’s family and what they have endured for the past 17 years.”

Welch’s suicide attempt marked the second time in nearly 20 years that an Oklahoma death row inmate tried to kill himself rather than face a state execution.

Hours before condemned killer Robert Brecheen’s execution in 1995, he attempted to overdose on sedatives and anti-anxiety pills he had hoarded in his cell. He was rushed to a hospital, had his stomach pumped and was returned to the death chamber, where he was executed hours later.

____

Associated Press Writer Sean Murphy contributed to this story from Oklahoma City.

When They Execute a Friend, We All Hurt

Karl Chamberlain, Executed by the State of Texas

Dee, Yahoo! Contributor Network
Jun 12, 2008 "Share your voice on Yahoo! websites. Start Here."

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It was about 6:45 EST when thoughts of Karl Chamberlain's scheduled execution raced through my mind. I wasn't at home and had no internet access. Hoping they would grant him a stay of execution as they did to Derrick Sonnier the inmate scheduled last week. Something about the protacol, the lethal injection issue. I was confident he would get a stay, despite his appeal being turned down by the high court. I suppose it was wishful thinking on my part. I had even sent him out another letter knowing it would not arrive until after the June 11th date he had. Mail is so very slow from Massachusetts to Texas.

I decided to call a friend and death penalty opponet, Annette Blankenship. She lives in Virginia, to see if she had heard anything. She hadn't , but assured me she would let me know as soon as anything came through. She immediatly accessed the internet with her husband Donald, and began to text me whatever information they could find.

Nothing definite, just news articles about Karl's appeal, and about him being the first from Texas after a 7 month halt on executions. The clock was ticking away, and it was beginning to look bad. "If he had got a stay it would be in the news," I thought. But nothing, so it was looking like "no news is bad news." Executions in Texas take place at 6:00PM, Texas time.

I phoned another friend, Andre, AKA Capital-"X," I call him X for short, looking for Ray Hill's phone number, another number I should have saved on my cell phone. He's from Houston Texas, and the number one prison activist in my eyes. Surely he would know something. But X didn't have that number handy either. But X was standing right outside the unit where they carry out executions. "Did they go through with it I asked?" I could hear the sadness in his voice, "Yes." My heart sank. I couldn't believe it, but then again, what's not to believe. After all, this is Texas, and they lead the nation in executions.

I asked about Karl's mother, if she was there. X said they had just driven her off to the funeral home. I can't even imagine, watching as they put your son to sleep, the way they do. I can't imagine the hurt. Karl had invited me to Texas to be with his family and friends the days before his scheduled execution. I couldn't make it, but now I feel like maybe I should have.

I tried desperately to help Karl. I wrote an article about the mitigating evidence in his case that was never heard. His mother "spilled her guts out" in an attempt to show the life he had when growing up. She shared her family secrets, and told what other people would try to hide. She is a strong women, a fair and compassionate person. Some people commented that it was no excuse. And I suppose I agree. But I still have to say it contributes to it. It reminds me of the children's verse, "Children learn what they live."

As I tried to get a grip on what had happened, and tried to rationalize it, if that is at all posable, I received another call from Christy. She lives in New Mexico where Karl's Mom lives, and she knew Karl. Her voice breaking up in sadness and grief. Christy also is a real trooper when it comes to the death penalty. She and X and Annette also have all "Walked 4 Life. X is still walking, and I don't think he will ever stop. Nothing I could really say to her to help her feel any better. Been there done that, and doing it again. This is not the first for me, but the first does hurt the worse I think. But it something you never get used to.

The article I was originally going to write, I decided not to when I read about Karl's execution. Karl was very remorseful. He was extremely remorseful in the letters he sent to me, and was very remorseful on that gurney. According to Associated Press and KWES news Karl's last statement was, "I want you all to know I love you with all my heart. I want to thank you for being here," he said. "We are here to honor the life of Felicia Prechtl, a woman I didn't even know, and celebrate my death. I am so terribly sorry. I wish I could die more than once."

I can only hope that Karl's execution has brought some closure to the family and friends of the victim. Karl, rest in peace my friend, you will never be forgotten.

Source :
http://www.newswest9.com/Global/story.asp?S=8466992&nav=menu505_2

Texas Executes Man For Murder Even Though A Different Convict Confessed To The Crime

Filed under: Legal Matters > Sad Sad

Steven Michael Woods

Tuesday night at 6:22pm, Steven Michael Woods was executed for a murder he did not commit.

Bethena Brosz and Ronald Whitehead were shot and stabbed to death by Marcus Rhodes.

Unfortunately for Woods, Texan law allows the execution of those involved with the murder scene despite the degree of participation.

While Woods admitted to hanging out with the couple and witnessing the murder, he insisted he never had any part of it. Instead, it was act he claimed to be solely that of Rhodes.

And Rhodes confessed! Not only that, but DNA testing supported the confession. Still, Woods was convicted for his "involvement" (wherever the truth may lie in that).

Right before his death, Woods had some final words:

You're not about to witness an execution. You are about to witness a murder. I am strapped down for something Marcus Rhodes did. I never killed nobody, ever. Justice has let me down. Somebody completely screwed this up. Well, Warden, if you're going to murder someone, go ahead and do it. Pull that trigger.

Wow…

We did some more research and while it doesn't seem like Woods was by any means squeaky clean (he was involved with drug dealings as a teenager, around the same time of the crime committed), it still doesn't seem justifiable to execute a man, especially for a specific act if there's no blood on his hands.

When attempting to justify the law, Houston Victims-Rights Advocate Dudley Sharp compared it to winning the Nobel Peace Prize:

We hold people responsible for being conspirators or assisting even in good acts. We are not treating murderers any different than we would by giving a Nobel Prize to someone who began research 40 years ago even though they didn't make the breakthrough.

Umm, sorry, but we don't think anyone supporting an eye for an eye can talk about Nobel Peace Prizes…

updated 11/18/2011 12:38:17 PM ET

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SALMON, Idaho — A man convicted of abducting and murdering two Idaho women in 1987 was put to death on Friday by lethal injection in the state's first execution in 17 years.

Paul Ezra Rhoades, 54, was executed at 9.15 a.m. local time at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Boise, the state capital, said Teresa Jones, administrative support manager with Idaho Department of Correction.

The death sentence was carried out after the U.S. Supreme Court denied an 11th-hour bid for a stay that Rhoades' lawyers sought while challenging execution procedures they claimed might breach constitutional prohibitions on cruel and unusual punishment.

A jury found Rhoades guilty in 1988 of first-degree murder, kidnapping and rape in the 1987 shooting death of Susan Michelbacher, a 34-year-old teacher abducted from a supermarket parking lot in Idaho Falls.

Also in 1988, a separate jury convicted Rhoades of first-degree murder and kidnapping in the death of Stacy Baldwin, 21, a convenience store clerk in Blackfoot. Rhoades drove Baldwin to a secluded area and shot her when she resisted his attack and tried to flee, legal records show.

Idaho judges sentenced Rhoades to death in both cases. He also was sentenced to life in prison for the slaying in 1987 of an Idaho man, Nolan Haddon.

Rhoades was "anxious and lucid" in the days leading up to his execution, prison officials said in a statement. He was served a last meal that included hot dogs, baked beans and strawberry ice cream.

A state parole panel last week denied Rhoades' request for a clemency hearing. In Idaho, condemned prisoners can be granted clemency by the governor if recommended by the panel.

In a statement sent after the panel's decision, Governor C.L. "Butch" Otter said Rhoades had taken "full and unfettered advantage of his right to due process for more than two decades" and that the law required he be held accountable for his actions.

Rhoades became the first person executed in Idaho since 1994, when condemned killer Keith Eugene Wells was put to death by lethal injection. The last execution prior to that occurred in 1957, and was carried out by hanging.

The state Department of Correction says Rhoades is the 28th person executed in Idaho since 1864, the year after it became a U.S. territory. Idaho was granted statehood in 1890.

Rhoades' body will be cremated and the remains given to his attorney, Oliver Loewy of the Federal Defender Services of Idaho, according to the Department of Correction.

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Reginald Brooks executed for 1982 slayings

Published: Nov. 15, 2011 at 2:56 PM

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Triple murderer Oba Chandler dies of lethal injection

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1993, PHIL SHEFFIELD/STAFF

Oba Chandler had been on death row since 1994.

By ROB SHAW | The Tampa Tribune
Published: November 15, 2011
Updated: November 15, 2011 - 5:49 PM

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STARKE --

More than two decades after tossing an Ohio mother and her two daughters overboard from his boat to their horrific deaths, Oba Chandler finally paid the ultimate price.

The 65-year-old convicted triple murderer was put to death by lethal injection late this afternoon at Florida State Prison in Starke.

He died as he has spent the last 17 years in prison -- alone. Chandler had never had a visitor during his time on death row. And that didn't change today.

Hal Rogers, husband and father of the victims, sat in the front row of the small viewing room outside the death chamber. On either side of him sat relatives and prosecutors who tried the case and sent Chandler to death row. Of the 32 witnesses, only his attorney in the death-appeals process, Baya Harrison, was there to support him.

A couple of feet in front of Rogers, Chandler lay on a gurney, his arms strapped down and a sheet covering nearly his entire body. Only his face and massive arms were uncovered.

"Inmate Chandler, do you have any last statement you'd like to make," the team warden in the room asked him.

Without opening his eyes or looking at anyone, Chandler said simply, "No."

The drugs to end his life began flowing at 4:08. He was pronounced dead 17 minutes later.

Though Chandler had nothing to say to witnesses before he was executed, he did leave a written statement behind.

"Oba Chandler last statement. You are killing a innocent man today."

It is not known how long before the execution that the note was penned.

Earlier in the day, between 10 and 11 a.m., Chandler, the smooth-talking con man who lured three tourists onto his boat and then killed them more than two decades ago, ate his final meal.

Chandler could have requested a final meal valued at $40, but instead requested two salami sandwiches and one peanut butter sandwich -- all on white bread, and ate both of his salami sandwiches but only half of his peanut butter sandwich. He asked for grape jelly on the sandwich.

Chandler did not drink the unsweetened iced tea he requested, but opted for coffee instead.

He took a shower and dressed in suit pants and a white shirt for the execution.

Gretl Plessinger, spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections, said that Chandler was "compliant" and was "doing what he's told."

Chandler, a former aluminum contractor who lived in Tampa at the time of the crimes, had been on death row since 1994 for the slayings of Joan Rogers and her teenage daughters, Michelle and Christe. The bodies of the three Ohio residents were found in the waters of Tampa Bay on June 4, 1989.

They were naked from the waist down. Their hands had been tied behind their backs and their ankles were bound. Duct tape was placed across their mouths, and another piece of rope attached to a concrete block hung from their necks.

They were thrown into the water alive, one by one, after prosecutors believe they were raped.

"One victim was first; two watched," Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Court Judge Susan Schaeffer said at Chandler's sentencing hearing on Nov. 4, 1994. "Imagine the fear.

"One victim was second; one watched. Imagine the horror," Schaeffer continued. "Finally, the last victim, who had seen the other two disappear over the side, was lifted up and thrown overboard. Imagine the terror."

But Valerie Troxell, Chandler's daughter who lives in Ohio, said in a telephone interview after the execution that "they executed an innocent man and I don't think anybody cares."

Jo Ann Steffey, a former neighbor of Chandler's who helped tip police to a handwriting sample that aided his conviction, however, was relieved.

"I'm glad it's over. I'm glad he's gone," she said by phone. "He was just so evil. He needed to be gone."

Evelyn Calloway served on the jury from Orange County in 1994 that convicted Chandler and then recommended he die for his crimes.

She said by telephone from her Orlando home she was feeling numb.

"I had a part in a verdict where a man's life was taken," she said. "But it wasn't right what he did and he had to pay the price. We did what we had to do."

Hal Rogers did not speak to the media after the execution, but a niece of Joan's did.

"The journey has been difficult for all of us involved," said Mandi Scarlett. "Now is the time for peace."

Chandler became the 267th person to be executed by the state of Florida since 1924. He was the 71st person since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976; no executions were carried out between 1964 and 1976.

He was the second man to die this year.

Death Penalty

Troy Davis Executed Despite Protests -- And Probable Innocence

In the final hours on Wednesday evening of a years-long fight to save the life of Troy Davis, human rights activists intensified efforts to prevent the execution of a most likely innocent man. Georgia authorities and the U.S. Supreme Court disregarded their pleas, however, and Davis was executed by lethal injection shortly after 11 p.m.

The execution marks a severe blow to death penalty opponents -- including Amnesty International -- and the community that has mobilized around Davis for years. READ MOR

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Texas executes Steven Woods

Steven Woods

Former drifter and drug dealer Steven Michael Woods was executed Tuesday evening for a double murder more than a decade ago north of Dallas.

Woods, 31, acknowledged he was present in May 2001 when Ronald Whitehead, 21, and Bethena Brosz, 19, were fatally shot and had their throats slashed near a golf course in Denton County but insisted he was not involved and blamed murders on another man, his friend Marcus Rhodes.

Woods was tried first for the slayings, was convicted and sentenced to die. Rhodes then pleaded guilty and accepted a life prison term, avoiding a possible death sentence.

"You're not about to witness an execution, you're about to witness a murder ... I've never killed anybody, never," Woods said. "This whole thing is wrong ... Warden, if you're going to murder someone, go ahead and do it. Pull that trigger."

Woods was pronounced dead at 6:22 p.m., 10 minutes after the lethal drugs began flowing into his arms.

About eight hours earlier, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal from his attorneys, clearing the way for the 10th execution in Texas this year. Another lethal injection is scheduled for Thursday and two more were set for next week.

Woods had argued before the high court his legal help early in the appeals process was deficient and kept him from raising a claim of jury bias from his trial. The justices, without comment, turned him down.

In an interview last week outside death row, Woods told The Associated Press he was terrified of execution, was optimistic it wouldn't happen but was "fairly realistic as well."

"I've seen a lot of my friends walk to the gurney," he said.

Source: MICHAEL GRACZYK, Associated Press, Sept. 13, 2011

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Gang member executed in Texas for double slaying

By MICHAEL GRACZYK, Associated Press – 1 hour ago

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — Texas prison officials have executed convicted killer Martin Robles (ROE'-bless) for gunning down two young men who belonged to a rival street gang in Corpus Christi almost nine years ago.

The 33-year-old Robles had exhausted his appeals and no late court actions to spare him were made as his Wednesday evening lethal injection neared. He was pronounced dead at 6:21 p.m.

Robles became the ninth Texas prisoner put to death this year. He had a lengthy juvenile record and already had served six years for a murder committed when he was 17 when he was arrested for the double slaying in November 2002. The two 19-year-old victims were shot while they were sleeping and belonged to a drug-dealing gang that had been feuding with Robles' gang.

Andrew DeYoung Execution: Georgia Inmate Dies In Video-Recorded Lethal Injection

Posted: 7/21/11 11:59 PM ET

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JACKSON, Ga. (Associated Press) — A Georgia man convicted of killing his parents and sister was executed Thursday after the courts allowed what experts say is the nation's first video-recorded execution in almost two decades.

Andrew DeYoung, 37, received a lethal injection Thursday night at the state prison in Jackson after courts turned down his appeals.

A videographer with a camera on a tripod stood about 5 feet away from the gurney inside the execution chamber.

When asked to make a final statement, DeYoung said he was "sorry to everyone I hurt."

"I love you Dawn. Remember to smile," DeYoung said. His lawyer said Dawn was an old friend.

He declined the offer of a final prayer. Department of Corrections officials said he took a sedative pill offered to him beforehand.

When the three-drug injection began, DeYoung blinked his eyes and swallowed for about two minutes, then his eyes closed and he became still. He was pronounced dead at 8:04 p.m.

The execution was set for Wednesday but was pushed back a day as the state tried to block the video recording.

Lawyers for death row inmate Gregory Walker argued that recording DeYoung's execution would provide critical evidence in his appeal about the effects of pentobarbital, which is the sedative now being used as the first step in Georgia's injection procedure.

Walker's attorneys want to show that pentobarbital does not adequately sedate the inmate and could cause pain and suffering.

In court filings, state prosecutors argued that having a videographer in the execution chamber would jeopardize the state's carefully scripted security. They also said creating a video came with the risk of it being distributed.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Bensonetta Tipton Lane allowed the recording to take place, and that decision was upheld by the Georgia Supreme Court on Thursday. The video will be kept under seal by the court.

Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal said it was up to the courts to decide the matter, though he told reporters following a news conference Thursday he had "grave reservations" about videotaping executions.

Defense lawyers countered in a motion filed Thursday that the state corrections department has long allowed cameras to film parts of the prison, although they acknowledged the state has never before allowed an execution to be recorded.

"It is simply disingenuous to assert that video recording of Mr. DeYoung's execution constitutes a fundamental threat to the security of the institution," attorneys wrote in the filing.

The use of pentobarbital became an issue in Georgia after Roy Blankenship's June 23 execution.

Blankenship was the first Georgia prisoner put to death using the sedative pentobarbital as the lead-off drug in the state's lethal three-drug combination.

An Associated Press reporter witnessed Blankenship jerking his head several times during the procedure, looking at the injection sites in his arms and muttering after the pentobarbital was injected into his veins.

Death penalty critics said Blankenship's unusual movements were proof that Georgia shouldn't have used pentobarbital to sedate him before injecting pancuronium bromide to paralyze him and then potassium chloride to stop his heart.

In seeking a stay, DeYoung's attorneys argued that using pentobarbital could cause DeYoung to suffer. But those arguments were rejected by the courts.

State prosecutors have raised questions about the timeline cited in the AP's account and argued Blankenship's movements occurred before the sedative took hold.

The state attorney general's office has said adequate safeguards are in place to prevent needless suffering, including a consciousness check before the second and third drugs are administered. The consciousness check was used for the first time in Blankenship's execution.

It was performed again on DeYoung Thursday night. A nurse in the chamber throughout the procedure touched his eyes and his arm. DeYoung showed no signs of movement and the execution continued.

States have been turning to pentobarbital to carry out executions since the manufacturer of another sedative announced it would not resume production in the U.S. Pentobarbital has been used this year to put at least 18 inmates to death in eight states.

DeYoung was convicted of killing his mother, father and 14-year-old sister, Sarah, when DeYoung was a student at Kennesaw State University. Prosecutors say he wanted to use his inheritance to start a business.

Authorities said DeYoung cut the telephone wires of his family's home in the middle of the night. He then stabbed his mother repeatedly while she was sleeping upstairs, and then stabbed his father and sister, prosecutors said. A brother sleeping downstairs escaped after hearing the commotion and ran to a neighbor's house for help.

DeYoung had his requested last meal before his planned execution on Wednesday. He asked for pizza, grape juice, vanilla ice cream and all-fruit strawberry preserves.

On Thursday night he was provided with prison fare: chicken and rice, dried peas, seasoned turnip greens, cornbread, a brownie and tea.

He was visited Thursday by an aunt, two friends, his legal counsel and a member of the clergy. They departed the prison by 3 p.m.

His brother was not among the witnesses who attended his execution on Thursday.

'Let's do this damn thing': Last words of white supremacist executed for 9/11 revenge shooting spree that killed two

Last-minute appeal from lone survivor failed
Final meal of steak, ham and cheese omelette, bacon and pint of ice cream
Asked for God's grace and said hate in world must end before lethal injection
Claimed sister had been killed in Twin Towers - but there's no evidence she ever existed

By Daily Mail Reporter

Last updated at 3:16 PM on 21st July 2011

A white supremacist was executed last night for a double murder spree launched in retaliation for the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Mark Stroman, 41, went on a shooting spree after the Al Qaeda outrage, killing two and injuring a third as he targeted people he thought were Muslims. All three victims were from South Asia.

But in a defiant last speech, the murderer commanded his executioner: 'Let's do this thing'.

Stroman's lethal injection was halted for two hours after a desperate final appeal by one of his victims who said he forgave the gunman for his crimes.

He was pronounced dead at 8.53pm at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Huntsville Unit.

Call from death row: Mark Anthony Stroman was executed on Wednesday for his 'revenge' post-9/11 killing spree

Before the execution Stroman enjoyed a calorific last meal of battered chicken, fried steak with gravy, 12 crispy pieces of bacon, a ham and cheese omelette, fried potatoes, squash, okra and a a pint of vanilla Blue Bell Ice Cream.

The whole lot was washed down with three large Dr. Pepper’s.

Days after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Stroman went on a 'mission of revenge' in the Dallas area.

He killed two South Asian immigrants and shot another - Rais Bhuiyan - in the face at close range, blinding him in one eye.

It was the death of 49-year-old Vasudev Patel that put Stroman on death row.

Lone survivor Mr Bhuiyan unsuccessfully sued to stop the execution, saying his Muslim beliefs told him to forgive Stroman.

The 26-year old was a recent immigrant when he encountered Stroman and it took him years to recover from the gun shot - with bits of metal still embedded in his face.

The devout Muslim previously said he learned to forgive Stroman years ago, adding 'I'm trying to do my best not to allow the loss of another human life. I'll knock on every door possible'.

The native of Bangladesh and a former convenience store worker lost the sight in one of his eyes when Stroman shot him in the face.

He also said he wanted to spend time with the convict to learn more about why the shootings occurred.

But despite a well publicised petition and website called 'World Without Hate', a federal district judge in Austin rejected the suit and Mr Bhuiyan's request for an injunction on Wednesday afternoon.

Pleading for forgiveness: Rais Bhuiyan, center, tells reporters why he hopes his attacker, Mark Stroman, will be spared the death penalty. He is flanked by Dr. Rick Halperin, left, and Hadi Jawad, fellow peace activists

Strong regrets: 'I was an uneducated idiot back then and now I'm a more understanding human being,' Mr Stroman said.

His lawyers appealed the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, where Justice Antonin Scalia turned it down.

Stroman's lawyer, in a separate appeal to the Supreme Court, pointed to Bhuiyan's 'significant surprise' and argued that attorneys during Stroman's trial and in earlier stages of his appeals were deficient for not illustrating 'the path that led him to this violent frenzy.'

From the death chamber, Stroman asked for God's grace and said hate in the world had to stop.

'Even though I lay on this gurney, seconds away from my death, I am at total peace,' he said.

He later called himself 'still a proud American, Texas loud, Texas proud.'

'God bless America. God bless everyone,' he added, then turned to the warden and said: 'Let's do this damn thing.'

Revenge act: Mr Stroman committed his crime 'to exact some measure of equality and fairness for the thousands of victims of September 11th'

Stroman's execution was the eighth this year in Texas.

At least eight other inmates in the nation's busiest death penalty state have execution dates in the coming weeks.

Stroman was free on bond for a gun possession arrest when his shooting spree started.

He had previous convictions for burglary, robbery, theft and credit card abuse, served at least two prison terms and was paroled twice.

His juvenile record showed an armed robbery at age 12.

When police arrested him the day Patel was killed, they found the .44-caliber handgun used in the shooting.

Stroman confessed, and court documents show he told authorities he belonged to the Aryan Brotherhood, a white supremacist prison gang.

Magnanimous: Rais Bhuiyan forgave Mr Stroman for shooting him and is calling for his life to be spared

Prosecutors also say he told another jail inmate about the shootings and how automatic weapons police found in his car were intended for a planned attack at a Dallas-area shopping mall.

Stroman more recently denied the white supremacist description. He also had avoided trouble in prison in recent years, said Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokeswoman Michelle Lyons.

Stroman blamed the shootings on the loss of a sister in the collapse of one of the World Trade Center towers - although prosecutors said in court documents there's no firm evidence she ever existed.

'I wanted those Arabs to feel the same sense of vulnerability and uncertainty on American soil much like the mindset of chaos and bedlam that they were already accustomed to in their home country,' he said on a website devoted to his case.

He described his victims as 'perched behind the counter here in the Land of Milk and Honey ... this foreigner who's own people had now sought to bring the exact same chaos and bewilderment upon our people and society as they lived in themselves at home and abroad.'

But he added he had made a 'terrible mistake out of love, grief and anger' and had destroyed his victims' families 'out of pure anger and stupidity.'

'I'm not the monster the media portrays me,' he said last week from death row.

Besides Patel's slaying, Stroman was charged but not tried in the shooting death of Waqar Hasan, 46, a Pakistani immigrant who moved to Dallas in 2001 to open a convenience store.

Hasan was killed four days after the terrorists struck. The attack on Bhuiyan came a week later.

Humberto Leal Garcia executed in Texas despite White House appeal

State governor Rick Perry rejects call from Barack Obama to spare Mexican's life to protect US interests abroad

Chris McGreal in Washington
The Guardian,Friday 8 July 2011
Article history

Mexican-born man executed in Texas despite calls from Barack Obama for clemency Link to this video

Texas has executed a Mexican-born man after the US supreme court and the state's governor, Rick Perry, spurned appeals from Barack Obama to spare the convicted murderer's life in order to protect US interests abroad.

Humberto Leal Garcia was executed by lethal injection for the rape and murder of a 16-year-old girl despite appeals of senior diplomats, military officials and prominent politicians who said the execution could jeopardise the lives of Americans.

Shortly before Leal was led into the death chamber in Huntsville the supreme court rejected by 5-4 an appeal from the White House to block the execution on the grounds it was in breach of an international convention governing the treatment of foreigners who are arrested and would therefore do "irreparable harm" to America's interests.

Perry also declined to exercise his power to delay the execution by 30 days. His office argued that Leal was guilty of a heinous crime and deserved to die.

The Texas governor is a vigorous advocate of the death penalty. He has overseen the execution of more than 200 men and is on the brink of entering the US presidential race with strong support of conservatives who back capital punishment.

Perry's decision followed a rejection by the Texas board of pardons and paroles of Leal's request for a reprieve or commutation of his sentence.

Leal, a 38-year-old former mechanic, was convicted in 1994 of the rape and killing of Adria Sauceda, whose battered naked body was found hours after the pair left a street party together.

After his arrest, the Texas police failed to tell Leal, who was born in Mexico but has lived in the US since the age of two, that under the Vienna convention he was entitled to contact the Mexican consulate.

Leal's lawyers have argued that that had a material effect on whether he received the death penalty because he did not have swift access to legal representation which Mexican diplomats would have offered.

"There can be little doubt that if the government of Mexico had been allowed access to Mr Leal in a timely manner, he would not now be facing execution for a capital murder he did not commit," Leal's lawyers said in their appeal to the pardons board.

That position was backed by an international court of justice ruling which said that Leal and about 50 other Mexicans on death row in the US were not given their full legal rights.

US diplomats, top judges, senior military officers, the United Nations and former president George W Bush also appealed for Leal's execution to be halted on the grounds it could jeopardise American citizens arrested abroad as well as US diplomatic interests.

The White House asked the supreme court to put the execution on hold while Congress passed a law that would prevent Leal from being put to death along with dozens of other foreign nationals who were denied proper access to diplomatic representation before trials for capital crimes.

In a 30-page brief to the court, the administration said that carrying out the execution "would place the United States in irreparable breach of its international law obligation" under the convention.

"That breach would have serious repercussions for United States foreign relations, law-enforcement and other co-operation with Mexico, and the ability of American citizens travelling abroad to have the benefits of consular assistance in the event of detention," it said.

But Stephen Hoffman, an assistant attorney general for Texas, said in a brief to the supreme court: "Leal's argument is nothing but a transparent attempt to evade his impending punishment."

Sauceda's mother, Rachel Terry, told a San Antonio television station that Leal's life should not be spared.

"A technicality doesn't give anyone a right to come to this country and rape, torture and murder anyone," she said.

Critics of any delay to the execution also say that Leal, after living all his adult life in the US, is not the usual type of foreign national confronting an unfamiliar judicial system or language that the Vienna convention is designed to protect.

Leal's lawyer, Sandra Babcock, criticised the supreme court's refusal to block the execution.

"This case was not just about one Mexican national on death row in Texas. The execution of Mr Leal violates the United States' treaty commitments, threatens the nation's foreign policy interests, and undermines the safety of all Americans abroad. That is why the US solicitor general, former diplomats, military leaders, and Americans detained overseas were among those who joined together to call for a stay of execution," she said.

"It is now imperative that Congress promptly act to ensure passage of legislation that will bring the US into compliance with its international legal commitments and provide judicial review to the forty Mexican nationals who remain on death row in violation of their consular rights."

'He suffered greatly': Medical expert describes how prisoner thrashed desperately during ‘botched’ execution with new drug

By Rachel Quigley

Last updated at 3:36 PM on 30th June 2011

Untested: The execution of Roy Willard Blankenship will be at the centre of a push to stop lethal injections using a new sedative

A death-row prisoner who was executed using a new lethal ionjection drug 'suffered greatly' during the process, a leading U.S. anaesthesiologist has testified.

Roy Willard Blankenship, who was executed on June 23 using pentobarbital - also known as nembutal - was said to be conscious for approximately the first three minutes of the execution and 'suffered greatly'.

Dr David Waisel, an Associate Professor of Anaesthesia at Harvard Medical School, also said in the sworn affidavit that 'his eyes were open throughout', according to eyewitness accounts.

He said: 'I can say with certainty that Mr Blankenship was inadequately anaesthetized and was conscious for approximately the first three minutes of the execution.

'Mr Blankenship should not have been conscious or exhibiting these movements, nor should his eyes have been open, after the injection of pentobarbital.'

Georgia was using the drug in an execution for the first time.

More...

A sandwich, soda and corn chips from the vending machine: Is this the saddest last meal ever?

There were some reports in the media that Blankenship could have been 'faking it', but Dr Waisel pointed out that 'one cannot fake eyes-wide-open at death'.

PENTOBARBITAL

Pentobarbital has been approved for use in executions in the U.S. states of Oklahoma, Arizona, Georgia, Alabama and Texas.

On December 16, 2010, John David Duty of Oklahoma became the first American to be executed by pentobarbital among other drugs.

Pentobarbital is in a group of drugs called barbiturates (bar-BIT-chur-ates). Pentobarbital slows the activity of your brain and nervous system.

It is used short-term to treat insomnia. Pentobarbital is also used as an emergency treatment for seizures, and to cause you to fall asleep for surgery.

It is one of the most common injectable general anaesthetic agents used in rodents.

SODIUM THIOPENTAL

Sodium thiopental is used in 34 states in the U.S. to execute prisoners by lethal injection.

A very large dose is given to ensure rapid loss of consciousness. Although death usually occurs within ten minutes of the beginning of the injection process, some have been known to take longer.The use of sodium thiopental in execution protocols was challenged in court after a study in the medical journal The Lancet reported autopsies of executed inmates showed the level of thiopental in their bloodstream was insufficient to cause unconsciousness.

Thiopental is still used in some places as a truth serum to weaken the resolve of the subject and make them more compliant to pressure.

Blankenship was ordered to be put to death after the 1978 murder of Sarah Mims Bowen

Dead: Eddie Duval Powell was executed using the same drug in Alabama on June 16

Earlier this year, the convicted murderer tried to stay his execution claiming the drugs that the state of Georgia were using on him - sodium thiOpental - were past their sell-by date and would cause him to die in excruciating pain.

Following the halt of domestic production, the drugs have become scarce, causing the delay of many executions and many states switching to pentobarbital, though concerns have since been raised about its safety.

Accounts are starting to emerge of apparently botched executions resulting from the use of the new and untested drug.

Reports from the Alabama execution of Eddie Duval Powell on June 16, the second in the state using the drug, show that his behaviour during the process was similar to that of Blankenship, including the jerking of the head and expressions of apparent surprise and discomfort.

Powell was executed for raping, sodomising and murdering of 70-year-old Mattie Wesson in Tuscaloosa County in 1995.

10:14 p.m. Thursday, June 23, 2011

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Georgia man put to death for 1978 murder

By Associated Press

For the AJC

JACKSON — A prisoner who was executed Thursday for killing an elderly Savannah woman more than three decades ago appeared to grimace and jerk as he became the first person put to death in Georgia with a drug that the state had not used before.

More Atlanta area news »

Roy Willard Blankenship jerked his head several times throughout the procedure and muttered after the pentobarbital was injected into his veins. The 55-year-old's breathing and movements slowed within minutes, and he was pronounced dead at 8:37 p.m.

He was executed for the 1978 murder of Sarah Mims Bowen, who died of heart failure after she was sexually assaulted in her Savannah apartment. Before the procedure began, Blankenship stammered and then told the warden, "I hope to see you again."

Blankenship's attorneys claimed in court filings that pentobarbital was unsafe and unreliable, and his attorney Brian Kammer warned that using the drug as the first part of a three-drug combination would risk needless pain and suffering for the condemned man.

State attorneys countered that the claims were unfounded, and said the drug had been used in more than a dozen executions by other states that switched from sodium thiopental amid a nationwide supply shortage. The Georgia Supreme Court and U.S. Supreme Court agreed Thursday, rejecting Blankenship's last-ditch appeals.

Blankenship's supporters also asked the state medical board to revoke the license of Dr. Carlo Musso, who participated in the execution Thursday.

The complaint claimed Musso ran afoul of the law by importing sodium thiopental from overseas manufacturers without first registering with state regulators and that he later sold the drugs to officials in Tennessee and Kentucky.

Musso said in a statement released to The Associated Press late Thursday that he is being singled out for "political purposes" and urged critics of the death penalty not to specifically target him. The statement did not directly address the allegations.

"When they fail to make progress with policymakers, groups opposed to capital punishment continue to attack physician licensure as a method to end lethal injection as form of execution," he said.

Blankenship's execution was under close scrutiny by state attorneys, death penalty defense lawyers and other observers. He was laughing and chatting with a prison chaplain in the moments before his execution, at one point trying to converse with the observers sitting behind a glass window.

As the injection began, he jerked his head toward his left arm and made a startled face while blinking rapidly. He soon lurched to his right arm, lunging with his mouth agape twice. He then held his head up, and his chin smacked as he mouthed words that were inaudible to observers.

Within three minutes, his movements slowed. About six minutes after the injection began, a nurse checked his vital signs to ensure he was unconscious before the execution could continue. He was pronounced dead nine minutes later. His eyes never closed.

Death penalty critics said Blankenship's movements were proof that Georgia shouldn't have used pentobarbital to sedate him before injecting pancuronium bromide to paralyze him and then potassium chloride to stop his heart.

"It is unconscionable that Georgia would experiment with untested and potentially harmful drugs on a human being," said Kathryn Hamoudah of Georgians For Alternatives to the Death Penalty, which opposes capital punishment.

Prosecutors had sought Blankenship's execution for more than 30 years. He was sentenced to death three times in Bowen's killing.

Her bloody, nude body was discovered by friends and neighbors after the attack, and police were able to trace footsteps to the area where Blankenship lived across the street. They also matched blood scrapings and seminal fluid to Bowen.

At his 1980 trial, Blankenship told jurors that he broke into Bowen's house and tried to rape her but then bolted when she appeared to wake. He said she was still clothed when he left, and she hadn't been beaten up.

The jury didn't buy his account and he was sentenced to die, but the Georgia Supreme Court reversed the sentence a year later. He was re-sentenced to death in 1982, but that sentence was also reversed when the court ruled that Blankenship's attorneys were restricted from presenting key evidence.

He was again sentenced to die in 1986, but this time state and federal courts upheld the capital sentence.

After his execution was scheduled earlier this year, the Georgia pardons board granted him a temporary reprieve in February to allow for more DNA testing. But it rejected his appeal in June after the tests returned inconclusive.

Georgia joins a growing number of states that have begun using pentobarbital in executions. Many of the nation's 34 death penalty states switched to pentobarbital or began considering a switch after Hospira Inc., the sole manufacturer of sodium thiopental in the U.S., said in January it would no longer make the drug.

But Georgia has been under particular scrutiny after Drug Enforcement Administration regulators seized the state's stockpile of sodium thiopental amid questions about how it had obtained the supply.

Court records show the state bought the drug from Dream Pharma, a London company. Inmates' attorneys have called it a fly-by-night supplier that operates from the back of a driving school.

Milton Mathis executed for Houston double slaying

By MICHAEL GRACZYK Associated Press © 2011 The Associated Press

June 21, 2011, 9:12PM

HUNTSVILLE, Texas — Convicted killer Milton Mathis was executed Tuesday evening for fatally shooting two people inside a Houston crack house in 1998, becoming the sixth death row inmate executed in Texas this year.

The lethal injection was carried out shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected appeals from his defense attorneys, who argued that Mathis was mentally impaired and therefore ineligible for execution.

Mathis, 32, was condemned for a shooting spree that killed Travis Brown III, 24, and Daniel Hibbard, 31, less than two weeks before Christmas in 1998. A 15-year-old girl, Melony Almaguer, also was shot and left paralyzed.

Almaguer, seated in a wheelchair and accompanied by her husband, was among a small group of people who watched Mathis die from behind a window at the Huntsville Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

"I never meant to hurt you," Mathis, strapped to a gurney with tubing taped to his arms, told Almaguer. "You were just at the wrong place at the wrong time."

Her husband stood with his hand on her shoulder and at one point brushed her face with his hand. They declined to speak with reporters after leaving the prison.

Mathis thanked his friends and relatives, and asked for mercy for himself and "these people carrying out this mass slaughter."

"The system has failed me," he said. "This is what you call a miscarriage of justice. Life is not supposed to end this way ... I just ask the Lord, when I knock at the gates, you just let me in."

He yawned and gasped, then began snoring as the lethal drugs began taking effect. Nine minutes later, at 6:53 p.m. CDT, he was pronounced dead.

An unsuccessful late appeal to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals briefly delayed the punishment.

In their appeal filed Monday with the Supreme Court, his attorneys also argued that Mathis' claims of mental impairment hadn't been reviewed by any federal court because of a "procedural quagmire" and "freakish coincidence" of state and federal legal issues involving the timing of his appeals. Attorney Lee Kovarsky also argued that if Mathis was executed, he likely would have the lowest IQ of any Texas inmate put to death since the Supreme Court nine years ago barred execution of the mentally impaired.

One test cited in Mathis' appeals put his IQ as low as 62, below the threshold of 70 considered by the courts to be the level for deciding mental impairment. Other tests showed Mathis' IQ considerably higher.

State attorneys cited a federal appeals court ruling declaring it was a "mystery how Mathis could have scored 10-20 points higher on his IQ test before trial as compared to after his conviction." State attorneys said the low test results could have been the result of his heavy drug use, including PCP and "Fry," a marijuana cigarette soaked in embalming fluid laced with PCP, alcohol and codeine cough syrup.

State lawyers who opposed the reprieve argued Mathis was not mentally impaired and that his claims were thoroughly litigated in a state court proceeding which included an evidentiary hearing with expert defense witnesses and legal assistance for Mathis.

"Mathis has already been afforded the requested relief in state court — review of his mental retardation claim — he fails to demonstrate that his right to further review is clear and indisputable," Laura Grant Turbin, an assistant Texas attorney general, told the Supreme Court.

Mathis testified at his 1999 trial that he wasn't at the scene of the shooting, even though his lawyers had told jurors he was there. After meeting with his attorneys, he changed his testimony to acknowledge he was present, explaining he was afraid when he didn't initially tell the truth.

He said he shot Brown in self-defense because Brown had threatened to shoot him. And he said he panicked and opened fire on Hibbard and Almaguer. Testimony from the girl's mother showed that he also tried to shoot her but his gun was out of bullets.

Before he fled, Mathis set fire to Brown's room and then stole Brown's Cadillac, according to evidence. At the time of the shooting, Mathis was on probation for aggravated robbery.

Mathis also was set for execution in 2005, but it was halted a day before his scheduled execution date by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which wanted to review his claims.

Mathis refused to speak with reporters in the weeks leading up to his execution. One of his trial attorneys, Pheobe Smith, described him as cooperative and respectful but acknowledged that the facts of the case didn't help the defense team.

"I look at this case as a failure on our part," she said. "I don't think Milton Mathis should be on death row."

Fred Felcman, the Fort Bend County assistant district attorney who prosecuted Mathis, called him a violent individual and "a little thug."

"He'd already been assaulting people and killing people's dogs and holding them for ransom," Felcman said. "People were almost more upset by the dogs than by killing people. ... He's got a low IQ but he's very street savvy and very street smart."

PARCHMAN— The state of Mississippi executed death row inmate Benny Joe Stevens, 52, at 6:22 p.m. today.

Stevens was convicted in 1999 of killing his ex-wife, Glenda Reid; her husband, Wesley Lee Reid; her 11-year-old son, Dylan Lee; and Lee's 10-year-old friend Heath Pounds.

He used his final moments to ask his victims’ family members for forgiveness.

“What I’ve taken from God and you, I can’t replace,” he said. “I’m sorry.”

Prior to his execution, Mississippi Department of Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps said Stevens expressed remorse over the crime, particularly the deaths of the two children.

“He said, ‘None of them deserved what I did,’” Epps recalled.

The U.S. Supreme Court and Gov. Haley Barbour denied Stevens’ last-ditch pleas for clemency.

Still, Epps said he remained talkative throughout the day. Stevens, who had no infractions during his time behind bars, showered and took a sedative — Valium — before being led to the execution room.

For his last meal, Stevens had fried catfish, hushpuppies, French fries, coleslaw, barbeque beef ribs, peach cobbler with vanilla ice cream, two 20-ounce Cokes and a sliced, whole red tomato.

Staff writer Bill Campbell contributed to this report.

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William Glen Boyd was the 27th Alabama Death Row inmate to die from lethal injection since 2002. (AP/Alabama Department of Corrections)

Alabama death row inmate William Glen Boyd, convicted in the 1986 murders of a wealthy Anniston couple, died at 6:23 p.m. by lethal injection this evening at Holman Prison in Atmore.

Boyd's execution was carried out at 6 p.m. after he failed to get a stay from the U.S. Supreme Court or clemency from Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley.

As the execution began, Holman Correctional Facility Warden Tony Patterson came into the execution room and read the execution warrant from the Alabama Supreme Court.

After that, Patterson asked Boyd if he wanted to make a statement. Boyd weakly answered "no."

A few minutes later, as Boyd was administered a sedative, Chris Summers, the Holman chaplain, came over and said some words to Boyd, then knelt and held Boyd's left hand and appeared to be praying. Boyd's lips were moving as the chaplain prayed. Boyd stared at the florescent lights on the ceiling much of the time, looking over once at the three witnesses -- a lawyer and two ministers -- who were there on his behalf.

Nine people, including family of the victims, were in another witness box.

After Boyd closed his eyes, a correctional officer came over to him and said, "Boyd, Boyd," pinched his arm, and brushed his left eye brow to check to make sure Boyd was unconscious before the lethal injection started. The large bald man's breathing slowed and eventually was undetectable.

A group of 14 protesters appeared about a quarter-mile from the prison entrance just before the execution began.

Boyd had been on death row since his 1987 capital murder conviction in the 1986 deaths of a wealthy Anniston couple, Fred Blackmon, 76, and his 41-year-old wife, Evelyn.

The Blackmons were kidnapped, robbed, beaten, then shot before their bodies were dumped into the Coosa River.

A jury had recommended Boyd receive a sentence of life without parole, but the Calhoun County Circuit Court judge in the case sentenced him to death.

Boyd, 45, had been on Death Row 23 years, 11 months and 22 days. He was the 27th Alabama Death Row inmate to die from lethal injection since 2002, the last time the electric chair was used. He was the 204th person to be executed in Alabama since 1927.

Boyd's attorneys had appealed Wednesday to the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the execution, saying the judge had not followed Alabama Supreme Court and U.S. Supreme Court rules in overriding the jury's recommendation for a life sentence. The attorneys also claimed Boyd had ineffective assistance from his attorneys at the time of his sentencing.

The Supreme Court denied that appeal. Boyd's execution is the first one since Bentley took office.

Another man, Robert Denton Milstead, pleaded guilty in the case under an agreement with prosecutors and was sentenced to life without parole.

Boyd was among 203 inmates on Alabama's death row before his execution.

Boyd visited with his lawyer, and nine other friends and family today as the time neared for his execution this evening at Holman Prison in Atmore.

Brian Corbett, spokesman for the Alabama Department of Corrections said that since Boyd was moved to the death holding cell near the execution room on Tuesday, he's had 12 visitors. Those include one brother, sister-in-law, two nephews, his sister Cynthia Pierce, brother-in-law, two friends, one spiritual adviser, two other ministers and his attorney Ruth Friedman.

All but two of those visitors, Pierce and his brother in-law Charles Pierce, had seen him today, beginning this morning, Corbett said. Visitation was to end at 4:15 p.m. today.

Three people were witnesses for Boyd at tonight's execution, his attorney and two ministers, Corbett said.

Boyd requested chicken, French fries, apple sauce, tomatoes and an orange drink for his last meal, Corbett said. Earlier today Boyd ate a meatball sub, a Philly cheese steak sandwich, V-8 Splash and coffee, all from a vending machine in visitation yard, which is indoors, he said

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Arizona executes man for 1989 double-murder using controversial lethal injection drug

By Amanda Lee Myers, The Associated Press – 1 hour ago

FLORENCE, Ariz. — A man convicted of killing two people in a 1989 Phoenix convenience store robbery was executed Tuesday despite last-minute arguments by his attorneys who raised questions over one of the lethal injection drugs and said they had raised "substantial doubt" about his guilt.

Eric John King's death at the state prison in Florence was the first execution in the state since October and one of the last expected to use a three-drug lethal injection cocktail.

As the death chamber's curtains opened, King smiled broadly at someone he knew and waved with a hand covered by a sheet. When asked if he had any last words, the 47-year-old calmly and firmly said, "No." He then looked around at the estimated 30 witnesses in the room, at times smiling.

As he was sedated, King breathed heavily for several seconds then appeared to go to sleep.

Corrections Director Charles Ryan announced that King was declared dead at 10:22 a.m., 13 minutes after a medical staff member walked into the death chamber and declared that King had been sedated.

King had maintained his innocence since his arrest, and his lawyers fought until the last minute to get his sentence reversed or delayed.

The Arizona Supreme Court declined to stay King's execution Monday after Defence Attorney Mike Burke argued that the state should wait until it enacts its new lethal injection protocol. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to intervene.

Ryan announced Friday that Arizona will switch to using just one drug in an effort to allay any "perceived concerns" that sodium thiopental is ineffective, but only after the scheduled executions of King and Daniel Wayne Cook on April 5.

The drug is part of the three-drug lethal injection cocktail used by nearly all 34 death penalty states, but it became scarce last year after the sole U.S. manufacturer stopped making it.

Some states started obtaining sodium thiopental overseas, and lawyers have argued that potentially adulterated, counterfeit or ineffective doses could subject prisoners to extreme pain.

Burke said after the execution that there is no way to know whether King experienced pain.

"You'd have no way of knowing if he was in pain or not," Burke said. "As an observer, he closed his eyes and took some breaths, and I didn't see him move after. It doesn't really give me any solace."

Texas and Oklahoma recently announced they are switching from sodium thiopental to pentobarbital in their three-drug protocol. Ohio has switched to using only pentobarbital for its executions, and Ryan said that's the drug Arizona might start using.

Burke also was unable to successfully argue that King be granted clemency at a hearing Thursday. Burke had argued that the two key witnesses who testified against King at his trial have changed their stories, that no physical evidence exists and surveillance video used at trial was of extremely poor quality.

Vince Imbordino, a prosecutor with the Maricopa County attorney's office, argued that the photographic evidence was clear and that if jurors didn't believe King was guilty, they wouldn't have convicted him.(That isn't even funny!)

King was convicted of fatally shooting security guard Richard Butts and clerk Ron Barman at a Phoenix convenience store two days after Christmas in 1989. Butts and Barman both were married fathers whose families have testified that their deaths in a robbery that netted $72 devastated them.

Shortly before the killings, King had been released from a seven-year prison term on kidnapping and sexual assault charges. Police say King, who was 18 at the time, and another man kidnapped a woman and took her to an abandoned house, where both repeatedly and brutally sexually assaulted her over six hours.

Before he was sentenced in that crime, deputy adult probation officer Lee Brinkmoeller wrote that King had plans to reform himself.

Court documents show King had a troubled childhood. Born in a taxi on the way to the hospital in Phoenix, King was one of 12 siblings whose alcoholic, abusive and mentally disturbed father died of a heart attack when King was 11, according to court records.

Records also say King's mother struggled to provide for the children, who were so hungry at times that they tried to catch crawdads in irrigation canals and frequently were without electricity.

King reported to a prison psychiatrist that he had heard voices on and off his entire life, and suffered from anxiety and insomnia.

His son, 20-year-old Eric Harrison, saw King for the first time Thursday at the clemency hearing and asked the board to spare his father.

"This is the first time I've ever seen my dad, ever in life, and I know I love him," Harrison said. "That's my dad. He gave me life. Just don't take him."

King is the 23rd death row inmates Arizona has executed with the three-drug method since it began using lethal injection in 1993.

The state had previously executed 38 inmates with lethal gas since it started using that method in 1934. Another 28 inmates were executed by hanging between 1910 and 1931.

DATE	NUMBER SINCE 1976	STATE	NAME	AGE	RACE	VICTIM RACE	METHOD
1/6/11	1235	OK	Billy Don Alverson	39	B	1 White	Lethal Injection
1/11/11	1236	OK	Jeffrey Matthews	38	W	1 White	Lethal Injection
1/13/11	1237	AL	Leroy White	52	B	1 Black	Lethal Injection
1/25/11	1238	GA	Emmanuel Hammond	45	B	1 White	Lethal Injection
2/9/11	1239	MO	Martin Link	47	B	1 White	Lethal Injection

Innocent Man Is Pardoned 72 Years After His Execution

Jan 10, 2011 – 11:35 PM

David Lohr Contributor

Outgoing Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter has granted a posthumous pardon to Joe Arridy, a mentally disabled man who was executed for murder more than 70 years ago, despite evidence suggesting his innocence.

"The tragic conviction of Mr. Arridy and his subsequent execution ... merit such relief based on the great likelihood that Mr. Arridy was, in fact, innocent of the crime for which he was executed and his severe mental disability at the time of his trial and execution," Ritter said.

In 1936, someone entered the Pueblo home of 15-year-old Dorothy Drain and her 12-year-old sister, Barbara, while their parents were at a dance. Both girls were attacked with a hatchet. Dorothy's injuries proved to be fatal, but her sister somehow survived the attack, according to the 1995 book "Deadly Innocence?"

Museum of Colorado Prisons / friendsofjoearridy.com

Joe Arridy, shown in a police mug shot, had an IQ of 46.

In the days that followed, investigators arrested 35-year-old Frank Aguilar, a Mexican native who had recently been fired by the girls' father, Riley Drain, who was a supervisor for the Works Progress Administration. Aguilar had reportedly been acting suspiciously, and when authorities searched his home, they found a hatchet with several large nicks, which was consistent with the girls' injuries.

Authorities had means, motive and opportunity, but they were lacking a confession.

During this time, investigators in Cheyenne, Wyo., were questioning Arridy. The 20-year-old, who had an IQ of 46 and behaved more like a child than a man, had been picked up by railroad detectives in East Cheyenne for wandering around a rail yard.

While Arridy was in custody, Laramie County Sheriff George J. Carroll learned that he was a recent escapee from the Colorado State Home and Training School for Mental Defectives at Grand Junction. Carroll was also aware of the recent homicide in Colorado.

"Carroll claimed Joe confessed to beating Dorothy with a club," Robert Perske, a former Colorado minister and "Deadly Innocence?" author, told AOL News. "He said Joe admitted to killing and raping the girl, so the sheriff called the news people and then called the chief of police in Pueblo."

According to Perske, authorities in Pueblo were shocked by the news. After all, they already had a suspect in custody. Nonetheless, they went back to Aguilar, who eventually offered his own confession, which included Arridy's alleged involvement.

"Carroll felt [Arridy] was not worth anything," Perske said. "He wanted a claim to fame, and this was his chance."

Museum of Colorado Prisons

Arridy meets with Warden Roy Best in Canon City, Colo. Best took a liking to Arridy, and the inmate was invited to the warden's house for Christmas Eve.

Ritter also said there was an overwhelming body of evidence that indicates Arridy was innocent.

"[This would include] false and coerced confessions, the likelihood that Arridy was not in Pueblo at the time of the killing, and an admission of guilt by someone else," the governor said.

Aguilar's trial began in December 1936. His confession was entered into evidence, as was the testimony of Barbara Drain. While the jury was out, Aguilar finally admitted his actual role in the case and told his attorney that he was guilty and that Arridy had nothing to do with it. The attorney asked the judge for permission to change his client's plea to not guilty by reason of insanity, but the judge said no, Perske said.

The jury later came back with a guilty verdict, and Aguilar was sentenced to death. According to Perske, who has read all the trial transcripts, Barbara was never asked by the defense or prosecution whether Aguilar had an accomplice.

Aguilar was later implicated in the August 1936 attack on Sally Crumpley, 72, and her niece, R.O. McMurtree, 58. The women had been attacked by a man with a hammer inside their Grand Junction home. McMurtree survived the attack, but Crumpley died of skull fractures. McMurtree identified Aguilar as the women's attacker, but, according to Perske, charges were never brought because he was already sentenced to death.

Arridy's trial began in April 1937. Prosecutors used his alleged confession against him and relied heavily on testimony from Sheriff Carroll, who recounted his conversations with him. Barbara Drain was not called as a witness by either side.

The jury ultimately found Arridy guilty and sentenced him to death.

"[Arridy] took no notice of the pronouncement of the death verdict as delivered by the jury foreman," The Chieftain newspaper reported.

On Aug. 13, 1937, Frank Aguilar was executed. Arridy was to follow him two months later, but Colorado State Prison Warden Roy Best took a liking to him, Perske said.

"The warden came to love him very much," he said. "He let him have magazines and scissors in his cell. On Christmas Eve he was invited up to the warden's house, and he and his wife gave Joe a toy train. He would play with that train in the cell and send it out between the bars scooting down the halls. He also got a little wind-up car. Often, at night, he'd scoot the little car out, and they'd hear him yell 'Car wreck! Car wreck!' And they'd all laugh. All of the inmates came to like him."

Whenever reporters would interview Arridy behind bars, he would always tell them he was happy and never wanted to leave, Perske said.

Arridy got nine stays of execution before he was sent to the gas chamber.

On Jan. 5, 1939, the day before he was put to death, the 23-year-old asked for and received ice cream for his final three meals. Best also brought him a box of homemade candy, which he shared with the other inmates. He was reportedly happy that night, and his mood changed little the following morning.

"The chaplain had to give him the last rights of a child," Perske said. "They recited the Lord's prayer two words at a time, all the way through. Afterward, as they were walking up Woodpecker Hill, where the chamber was, Joe was talking to the warden about how he was going to be playing a harp now. He was smiling all the way up. It was kind of like he was going on a hike or something.

The tombstone of Joe Arridy is seen at the Colorado State Prison in 2007.

Antonio Sanchez / Courtesy friendsofjoearridy.com

None of Arridy's living relatives has been located, and he remains buried in the prison cemetery.

"When they put him in the chair, he was still smiling," Perske said. "When they started to put the black hood over Joe's face, he stopped smiling, so the warden patted him on the arm a couple times. The priest stayed with him for a bit and then walked out with the warden. Both had tears in their eyes. Then the door was closed, and he was executed."

It was not until 1961 that Perske, an advocate for people with intellectual disabilities, learned of Arridy's life and eventual fate. He spent more than 30 years looking into the story, and a couple years ago he approached Colorado attorney David A. Martinez and asked for help.

"He said, 'I think Joe is innocent, and I really think he deserves a pardon,'" Martinez told AOL News. "As I found out more about it, Joe became more compelling to me, and I felt Joe was innocent. I found out that he had been classified an imbecile and that his mental capacity was that of a 4-year-old. It was a case of frontier justice. The passion and prejudices of the community made them want to hang up the varmints, if you will."

Martinez assembled a 500-page petition regarding the case and put together a synopsis of it that Perske has since described as the "most convincing rendition" he has ever read. Gov. Ritter agreed and on Friday granted Joe Arridy's posthumous pardon.

"Pardoning Mr. Arridy cannot undo this tragic event in Colorado history," Ritter said. "It is in the interests of justice and simple decency, however, to restore his good name."

Neither Martinez nor Perske has been able to locate any of Arridy's living relatives. He remains buried in the prison cemetery. Perske said he would like to have made for him a tombstone that says, "Here lies an innocent man."

"I'm still not sure what to say about the pardon," Perske said. "I've been trying to answer questions as best as I can, but it kind of comes back to an old saying I hang on to. That is, 'If you face a tough situation and give up too quickly, you may miss out on a fantastic conclusion.' That is how I feel."

Martinez said he is "absolutely surprised" by the pardon.

"There had never been a posthumous pardon issued by a governor of Colorado before, so that is a precedent in some ways. I think it is also monumental in that it brings hope to the future, particularly for the intellectually disabled community. It shows there is progress being made in society, and they are entitled to as much respect as any individual."

Martinez added, "It was an honor and a privilege to do what I could do, and I was really fueled by the passion of Bob Perske."

Rescheduled and Outsourced Execution in Georgia: Take Action!

If you look at the Alerts! section at the top right side of NCADP's web page, you will notice that Brandon Rhode is listed three times. No, this is not a mistake. Rhode was scheduled to be executed in Georgia on September 21 for his part in the brutal murders of Steven Moss, 37, his 11-year-old son Bryan and 15-year-old daughter Kristin during a burglary of their Jones County home in central Georgia in 2000.

In a sign of his desperation and affected mental state, Rhode used a razor given to him to shave, which was not re-collected by guards as protocol demands, and slashed his wrists and his neck under his blanket. Only when guards noticed the blood did they intervene, rushing him to the hospital to be sewn back up so that the state could kill him properly.

Rhode was re-scheduled for his lethal injection for September 23, which quickly changed to the morning of September 24, then that evening, and finally for the evening of September 27. Everyone involved was tortured by the wait. Brandon was executed at 10:16 p.m. EDT last Monday.

The ins and outs of setting the date and time for the execution almost obscured something significant, exposed by NCADP's Georgia Affiliate, Georgians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. As GFADP raised the various concerns in Rhode's case, it continues to expose a unique aspect of Georgia's capital punishment system: the state outsources its execution duties to a medical specialty firm.

GFADP asks all of us to write to Rainbow Medical Associates to urge them not to participate in executions. Please take action today by sending them a note in the postal mail:

Dr. Carlo Musso, President, and Employees
CorrectHealth
9020 Peridot Parkway
Stockbridge, GA 30281

Also, and this is not a footnote or a PS - NCADP extends the deepest gratitude to the Georgia Appellate Resource Center for their heroic efforts representing Rhode and to the Southern Center for Human Rights for assisting with the civil litigation in the wake of his suicide attempt.

Below is a message from Andrea Bible, of the National Clearinghouse for the Defense of Battered Women. Her email appeared in our mailboxes today, and with her permission, we're sharing it with you. It's long, but incredibly important. We thank her, the National Clearinghouse, and all of you for what you do.

Dear ones:

Today I am grieving.

I am grieving because last night, just after 9pm Eastern time, people in the State of Virginia killed Teresa Lewis.

I am grieving because the people who were given the power to decide whether or not to kill Teresa Lewis were unswayed by new evidence showing she was not the mastermind behind the crimes, as the judge who sentenced her to death believed her to be.

I am grieving because we live in a country where politicians and the courts believe it is ok to use the state's resources to kill someone.

I am grieving because we live in a country where politicians and the courts believe it is ok to use the state's resources to kill someone who functions at the level of a 13-year-old.

I am grieving because my colleagues and I, Teresa's attorneys, and many other advocates and supporters around the country who worked to prevent her senseless and unnecessary death were not powerful enough to stop it.

I am grieving because the alternative that I was fighting for -- that Teresa's life be spared -- would have meant that she would have spent the rest of her life prison in conditions of isolation and deprivation.

I am grieving because I keep hearing the voice of my friend Susan, who at age 19 plead to 25-to-life to avoid the death penalty for killing the man who held her hostage and abused her, saying, "It was exactly like my abuser. The state said that they were going to kill me, just like he used to tell me."

I am grieving because there are women whom I respect, admire, and am inspired by -- like Tracee, Ellen, Susan, Sara, and countless others -- who also faced the death penalty and now are serving Life Without Parole sentences.

I am grieving because I am remembering Deborah Peagler, who died earlier this year of lung cancer after being released from CA prison after serving more than 26 years; Debbie plead guilty in 1983 to avoid the death penalty, only to have her attorneys discover documents in 2005 showing that the prosecutor knew at the time that they did not have sufficient evidence against her to pursue the death penalty.

I am grieving because I know that the men who Teresa Lewis and her co-defendants killed didn't deserve to be killed either.

I am grieving because today, the state of Georgia is preparing to kill Brandon Rhode, whose execution was postponed earlier this week after he tried to commit suicide.

I am grieving because 35 states still have the death penalty, and there are 14 executions scheduled between now and the end of the year, and another six already scheduled in 2011.

I am grieving because our prisons are full of black and brown people, poor people, queer, transgender and gender non-conforming people, people with mental health issues, people with disabilities, people who have been subjected to horrors, people who have been neglected, people who are incredibly talented artists, people who are loving parents, people with incredible gifts, people who deserve the opportunity to express their full potential, people who deserve to live free of fear and deprivation, and people who, despite all they have endured, manage to sustain more moments of dignity and resistance and humor and humanity than I ever would have imagined possible.

I am grieving because sometimes it feels like too much; too much suffering and oppression and trauma and violence to stop.

I am grieving and I am outraged.

And I am hopeful.

I am hopeful because I know that I am a part of a powerful movement for justice, for healing, and for collective liberation.

I am hopeful because even in my grief, I feel profoundly connected to all of you who share this commitment to building another world, one where all people have access to the material, educational, emotional, and spiritual resources necessary to be safe in thrive in our communities.

I am hopeful because I am privileged to work with amazing women who join me everyday in the struggle for justice.

I am hopeful because I know that people all over the world expressed opposition to the killing of Teresa Lewis.

I am hopeful because I have witnessed, and been a part of, countless acts of resistance to the forces of violence and oppression.

I am hopeful because many of those acts of resistance have resulted in powerful, meaningful, liberatory changes.

I am hopeful because I don't have to look all that hard to see evidence that we are doing it, we are building the world we want and deserve.

I am hopeful because I have to be. There is no alternative.

And I am grateful.

I am grateful to each of you for being a part of the struggle alongside me, in your own ways.

I am grateful for the ways that each of you sustain me and my spirits, even from afar.

I am grateful for the many expressions of support and solidarity that people sent to Teresa, her attorneys, my colleagues, and me this week.

I am grateful to Teresa's attorney and to the countless other volunteer attorneys throughout the country who dedicate themselves to fighting for justice.

I am grateful that Gaile Owens, who was set to be executed by the State of Tennessee next Tuesday, had her sentenced commuted in July to life with the possibility for parole by Governor Bredesen.

I am grateful for the countless organizations and affinity groups and collectives and individuals who work so determinedly to create the change we want to see and to build the world in which we all deserve to live.

I am grateful for the opportunity to confront the dissociation and fatigue that comes from absorbing too much suffering and trauma, to tap into my grief and outrage, to express myself, and to move, once again, toward action.

And I am grateful for this life and the chance to be my best self. I hope to do right by it.

Onward,
Andrea

PS: Today I am going to make a donation to the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty in Teresa Lewis' honor. If you want to join me in doing so, you can donate online at http://ncadp.org/

I also am feeling especially proud of the work of the National Clearinghouse for the Defense of Battered Women this week; if any of you want to send them some love this week, too, you can go to http://www.ncdbw.org/more.htm

And I also am always grateful for the work and leadership of Critical Resistance and their vision of creating genuinely safe and healthy communities that respond to harm without relying on prisons and punishment. To support their work, go to: http://criticalresist.live.radicaldesigns.org/article.php?id=55

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Mentally ill inmate dies; questions remain

His skull was smashed in '08 after fire in cell. Cause is still a mystery.

By Michael Biesecker
michael.biesecker@newsobserver.com

Posted: Monday, Sep. 06, 2010

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Timothy Helms had been bedridden and unable to walk since an August 2008 fire in his prison cell. NEWS & OBSERVER FILE PHOTO
Helms

RALEIGH Timothy Helms, a mentally ill inmate from Concord whose skull was smashed following an August 2008 fire in his prison cell, died at a Greensboro hospital Sunday morning.

He was 49.

The blunt-force trauma Helms suffered while in custody at a state prison in Taylorsville caused extensive bleeding in his brain, leaving him bedridden and unable to walk. Though he showed some signs of improvement in the last two years, he could barely speak or perform mundane tasks such as feeding himself.

An SBI investigation failed to determine how Helms received his injuries. Alvin Keller Jr., secretary of the N.C. Department of Correction, suggested the prisoner may have fallen and hit his head.

Helms told his doctors and The (Raleigh) News & Observer that he was beaten by corrections officers wielding billy clubs.

His lawyer, Lynne Holtkamp of Chapel Hill, visited Helms last month and said he appeared to be doing somewhat better.

"We're shocked," Holtkamp said Monday. "There was no indication he was ill beyond his normal condition or that death was imminent."

Prisons spokesman Keith Acree said Helms had lived for the last year at Kindred Hospital in Greensboro, a long-term, acute care facility that treats state inmates. Helms stopped breathing shortly after 4:30 a.m. Sunday, and the hospital staff was unable to revive him, Acree said.

Acree declined to comment further, pending an autopsy.

Helms had an IQ of 79 and had attended special-education classes until he dropped out of high school at 16. Diagnosed with multiple psychiatric disorders, he was frequently admitted to state mental health facilities, including Dorothea Dix Hospital in Raleigh.

He was sentenced to three life terms on three counts of second-degree murder following a 1994 drunken-driving collision. Helms, who did not have a driver's license, claimed a drinking buddy who died in the accident was driving.

Helms' disabilities made him a difficult inmate for the prison system. In 14 years behind bars, he racked up 125 rules infractions, ranging from threatening to harm staff and possessing a razor to using profanity and hoarding 84 postage stamps.

As punishment, he had spent at least 1,459 days in disciplinary or administrative segregation - terms used in North Carolina to describe solitary confinement. He was let out of his maximum security cell at Alexander Correctional Institution only a few hours each week to shower or go to an outdoor recreation cage.

Correction Department policy is that no inmate should be housed in isolation for more than 60 days in a stretch, a period prisoners commonly refer to as being in "The Hole." But Helms' prison records show he was kept in isolation 571 consecutive days.

Helms also spent time in the system's inpatient mental health ward at Central Prison. His psychiatric evaluations say he was diagnosed with at least six mental disorders, including conditions that cause explosive anger and antisocial behavior.

In the year leading up to the fire, a staff psychologist visited Helms monthly, talking to him through a small slot in the steel door of his cell. Even though he was locked in, Helms was typically handcuffed and shackled.

Helms' prison and medical records say he had used a razor to repeatedly cut himself and was banging his head against the wall. In several interviews with the psychologist, Helms alleged he was being abused by guards and pleaded to be let out of isolation.

Prison officials say that on Aug. 3, 2008, Helms used two batteries and a scrap of metal to set his bedding ablaze, a tactic sometimes used by prisoners in solitary confinement to commit suicide or force guards to take them out of their cells.

Security camera footage shows officers dragging Helms from his smoke-filed cell and out of view into a nearby shower. He was later carried to at least two other cells.

The following day, Helms arrived at the emergency room at Catawba Valley Medical Center in Hickory in the back of a squad car, escorted by correctional officers. X-rays showed blood hemorrhaging inside his brain stem, along with a broken nose and fractured skull.

A doctor wrote in Helms' medical records that he had bruises and welts on his body "consistent with multiple blows from a Billy club" from the prior day.

Helms' family was never told of his injuries until they were contacted by The News & Observer six months later.

When his brother e-mailed the prison system seeking information, a spokesman replied: "He is at Central Prison, where there have been no problems and no use of force."

Corrections officials have strenuously denied that Helms was beaten at Alexander or that the correctional officers there carried clubs. However, the video footage later released from the night he was injured showed officers with black batons hanging from their belts.

Keller, the corrections secretary, said last year that the SBI probe found no evidence or wrongdoing, though he has refused to release a copy of the investigative report.

Inmate Death investigation

Released on Fri, Aug 06, 2010 - 1:41 pm under

Correction

WARTBURG - The Department of Correction is investigating the death of an inmate at the Morgan County Correctional Complex. Cecil Smith, 37, was found dead inside his cell at approximately 6:47 a.m. on Friday morning. Smith's death appears to have been the result of a suicide. An autopsy will be performed by the state medical examiner.

Smith was serving a 25-year sentence for five counts of Rape of a Child out of Blount County. He was sentenced to the TDOC on November 21, 2001. Smith's sentence would have expired in 2025.

17 - Texas
7:00 PM EDT
Peter Cantu is scheduled to be killed by the people of Texas for the murders of Elizabeth Pena and Jennifer Ertman.

This State Sanctioned Murder was carried out by the people of Texas as scheduled.

News from the innocence movement around the United States

Seeking a Pardon for Tim Cole

The Innocence Project of Texas has filed a pardon application on behalf of Timothy Cole, who died in prison in 1999 while serving a 25-year sentence for a rape DNA has since proven he didn’t commit.

The Innocence Project served as co-counsel in an unusual hearing that led to Cole’s posthumous exoneration last year.

Read more.

Death Penalty and Execution News

JANUARY 12, 2010:

TEXAS----execution

Former worker who shot 2 at Texas ranch executed

Convicted killer Gary Johnson has been executed in Texas for fatally shooting a ranch foreman and another man during a ranch burglary almost 24 years ago.

The 59-year-old Johnson's lethal injection Tuesday evening came about 2½ hours after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to halt the punishment.

Johnson was condemned for the April 1986 slayings of 28-year-old James Hazelton and Hazelton's 23-year-old brother-in-law, Peter Sparagana.

The 2 were killed while investigating a call from a neighbor who reported intruders had driven through a chained gate at a ranch outside Huntsville in southeastern Texas.

Johnson becomes the 2nd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Texas and the 449th overall since the state resumed capital punishment on December 7, 1982. Johnson becomes the 210th condemned inmate to be put to death in Texas since Rick Perry became governor in 2001. Johnson becomes the 4th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1192nd overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.

(sources: Associated Press & Rick Halperin)

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