[CUADPUpdate] The Executioner Speaks

[Abraham J. Bonowitz]

Sent to CUADPUpdate
Feel Free to Forward

CONTENTS
The Executioner Speaks in Florida (AUDIO)
Executions on Hold in Some States
Take Action - New Mexico
France Takes Final Step to Abolish the Death Penalty
Abolition Day is Upon Us....

**************
https://www.compar.com/donation/donateform.html

**************

THE EXECUTIONER SPEAKS IN FLORIDA

Mark Elliott, the new Director of Floridians for 
Alternatives to the Death Penalty, writes:

>Friends,
>
>The Florida Governor's Commission on the 
>Administration of Lethal Injection met again 
>Monday, Feb. 19, 2007.  The Commission was 
>ordered by former Governor Bush to investigate 
>the botched execution of Angel Diaz on Dec. 13, 
>2006 and to recommend changes to Florida's 
>lethal injection method of putting prisoners to death.
>The following audio link is a 6 minute WMNF 
>radio news report on Monday's meeting.  It 
>contains testimony from a secret Execution 
>Medical Team member.  Give a listen.  The 
>Commissioners and audience were visibly rattled 
>by his menacing testimony.  He has been involved 
>in 84 executions for 5 states and the Federal 
>Government.  Who does this guy sound like - the 
>voice of evil incarnate?  Sauron?  Darth Vader?  You decide.
>
>http://www.fadp.org/news/wmnf_070219_180001_6newsm_224.mp3
>
>  THIS IS THE TRUE NATURE OF THE DEATH CHAMBER.
>EXECUTIONS ARE NOT SOLEMN, MEDICAL OR HUMANE.
>
>This audio and more info is available at www.FADP.org.
>
>It is not about what they did...it's about what we do.
>
>Mark Elliott
>Director, Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
>mark at fadp.org
>
>Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."
>"Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal."
>"The time is always right to do what is right."
>Martin Luther King

***********************



EXECUTIONS ON HOLD IN SOME STATES

Executions on Hold in Some 
States
NEW YORK TIMES By THE ASSOCIATED 
PRESS
February 20, 2007

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- A legal and ethical bind 
has brought executions to a halt in North 
Carolina: A federal judge ruled that a doctor 
must monitor the condemned for signs of pain. But 
the state's medical board has threatened to 
punish any doctor who takes part in an execution.

The result: Gov. Mike Easley says no more 
executions until the state can ''untangle this Gordian knot.''

Challenges to lethal injection -- namely, whether 
it violates the Constitution's ban on cruel and 
unusual punishment -- have effectively placed 
executions on hold in 11 states. The question of 
doctor participation has figured in some of those disputes.
''It's an inherent flaw of lethal injection, that 
in order to be reliably humane, it requires the 
participation of a group of people who are under 
ethical constraints and considerations,'' said 
Dr. Mark Heath, an anesthesiologist at Columbia 
University Medical Center, who has studied lethal 
injection cases across the nation.

Death penalty foes and others worry that if the 
three-drug combination is administered 
improperly, the condemned could suffer 
excruciating pain while immobilized and unable to 
cry out. Some suspect that is what happened 
during a botched execution in Florida in December.

Doctors or other medical specialists play some 
role in a majority of the 38 states with a death 
penalty, according to Deborah Denno, a Fordham 
University law professor. But the procedures in 
many states are vague or even secret, and Denno 
said she is not aware of any state where a doctor 
actually administers lethal injections.

Instead, physicians are generally on hand to 
observe the execution, and in some cases ensure 
the injections are administered properly and pronounce the inmate dead.
In North Carolina, state law requires only that a 
doctor be present, and that rule has apparently 
been observed over the years. But last April, a 
federal judge went further and said executions 
can proceed only if a doctor monitors the inmate to prevent pain.
The American Medical Association has said for 
more than 20 years that physicians who take part 
in executions violate medical ethics, but the 
organization has no power to punish. That job 
falls to the state medical boards that license doctors.

In January -- in light of the apparent conflict 
between the judge's ruling and the Hippocratic 
oath to ''first, do no harm'' -- the North 
Carolina Medical Board declared that doctors who 
do anything ''that facilitates the execution'' can face disciplinary action.
That dispute, in part, led a state judge to put three executions on hold.

''They seem to have drawn a line in the sand that 
other medical boards have not done at this 
point,'' said Dr. Jonathan Groner, an associate 
professor of surgery at Ohio State University who 
opposes the death penalty. ''I think a lot of us 
have tried to say, `Hey, medical boards, you need 
to do something about this,' but the boards are 
doctors who have a hard time punishing fellow doctors.''

Drew Carlson, a spokesman for the national 
Federation of State Medical Boards, said the 
organization is not aware of a medical board 
reprimanding a doctor for involvement in an execution.

But that possibility was enough to help halt 
executions in North Carolina, a state where death 
penalty opponents have tried for years to 
persuade lawmakers to suspend capital punishment.

''I wish we had gone to them years earlier,'' 
said Stephen Dear of People of Faith Against the 
Death Penalty in Carrboro. ''We should have.''

Elsewhere around the country, a federal judge in 
Missouri last year ordered reforms to the state's 
lethal injection procedures, including the use of 
a doctor specializing in anesthesia. The state 
has appealed, arguing it will not be able to find anyone willing to take part.

In California, a federal judge ordered that 
anesthesiologists or some other licensed medical 
professional certify a condemned inmate was 
unconscious. No medical professional was willing to participate.

In Florida, then-Gov. Jeb Bush suspended 
executions late last year after executioners 
apparently inserted the needles clear through the 
veins and into the flesh of convicted killer 
Angel Nieves Diaz. He required a second dose of 
lethal chemicals. Some witnesses said he appeared 
to be in pain. An autopsy found chemical burns on his arms.
A medical professional monitored the Diaz 
execution, but his name and qualifications have 
not been disclosed because state law protects his anonymity.

In some states, including Arkansas, the medical 
board specifically allows medical personnel to 
take part in executions. In others, including 
Texas, which leads the country with nearly 400 
executions since capital punishment was 
reinstated in 1976, the board has no policy. In 
Texas, a doctor arrives after the lethal drugs 
are administered and pronounces the inmate dead.
^------
Associated Press writer Mike Baker contributed to this report from Raleigh.
^------
On the Net:
N.C. State Medical Board: <http://www.ncmedboard.org/>http://www.ncmedboard.org
Federation of State Medical Boards: <http://www.fsmb.org/>http://www.fsmb.org

***************



TAKE ACTION - NEW MEXICO

From: "Judi E. Caruso" <judi at hotspare.com>
To: "'Abraham J. Bonowitz'" <abe at cuadp.org>
Subject: New Mexico: Jurist article and contacting Governor Richardson

National communications with Governor Richardson 
are important because he is running for 
Democratic presidential nomination. In this 
regard, communications from folks in New 
Hampshire, Iowa and Nevada could be particularly 
helpful.  International communications with 
Governor Richardson are important because he has 
publicly voiced a concern about U.S.'s declining 
stature among the international community and one 
of his platforms is to improve the stature of the 
U.S. abroad. Time is short, so folks interested 
in contacting him should do so as soon as possible.

Tel: 505-476-2200
Email: 
<http://www.governor.state.nm.us>www.governor.state.nm.us 
and click on "contact Governor"
Mailing Address: Office of the Governor, 490 Old 
Santa Fe Trail, Room 400, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501.

Thursday, February 15, 2007
[]

jurist.law.pitt.edu/hotline/2007/02/new-mexico-death-penalty-repeal-bill.php
[]

New Mexico death penalty repeal bill should become law
2:23 PM ET

<http://legis.state.nm.us/LCS/legdetails.asp?Name=181>Rep. 
Gail Chasey [New Mexico House of 
Representatives]: "I am delighted and encouraged, 
although not surprised, that the New Mexico House 
of Representatives 
<http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2007/02/new-mexico-house-passes-death-penalty.php>passed 
a bill to repeal the death penalty by 41-28 votes 
on Monday, February 12. This is now the second 
time in four years that the House has voted to 
repeal the death penalty in New Mexico. Although 
I am cautious, I feel an increasing sense of 
optimism that the bill will pass the Senate and 
that Governor Richardson will sign the bill into 
law. This will not be easy and perhaps the 
greatest hurdle will be convincing Governor 
Richardson: (1) that the death penalty is a 
public policy failure; and (2) that leading the 
country on this issue will distinguish him and 
will garner profound respect and support both nationally and internationally.

Passage of 
<http://legis.state.nm.us/LCS/_session.asp?chamber=H&type=++&number=190&year=07>House 
bill 190 reflects a growing awareness of the 
problems which plague the death penalty, not just 
in New Mexico but throughout the United States. 
Thirty-five Democrats, joined by six Republicans 
cast their votes on Monday against an exorbitant, 
ineffective, and error-prone system which is 
imposed unfairly on the basis of race and 
socio-economic status and perhaps most 
importantly of all, risks executing the innocent. 
Other compelling arguments voiced by legislators 
during the floor debate included that the death 
penalty fails murder victims’ families, fails law 
enforcement and severely undermines the 
credibility and stature of the United States 
among its international allies, many of whom 
consider the death penalty a violation of 
fundamental human rights, entirely incompatible 
with basic principles of fairness and democracy.

A unique aspect of the repeal bill is that it was 
not introduced in isolation. It is part of a 
legislative package. The repeal bill is 
accompanied by several bills which provide for 
meaningful and expanded support and services for 
murder victims’ families. This legislation 
provides that some of the funds that the state of 
New Mexico would save by abolishing the death 
penalty shall be redirected towards the families of murder victims.

Murder victims’ family members have been a vital 
and compelling force within the New Mexico 
abolition movement. Their courageous and 
heart-wrenching testimonies, together with their 
articulate and passionate explanations of their 
opposition to the death penalty have undermined 
the traditional reason so often invoked by 
prosecutors and law enforcement representatives, 
namely that we need the death penalty for the 
victims’ families. Although murder victims’ 
families are drastically and understandably split 
on the issue of the death penalty, there is 
common ground between all of the families. It is 
the purpose of our legislation to find that 
common ground and provide victims families with 
meaningful assistance in their time of grief. By 
abolishing the death penalty we further hope to 
free up resources which can be redirected towards 
proven crime prevention measures­measures which 
will reduce violence and will save innocent 
lives­possibly the single most important concern 
of all murder victims families."

*********************



FRANCE TAKES FINAL STEP TO ABOLISH THE DEATH PENALTY

France inscribes banning of death penalty in constitution

The Associated Press
Monday, February 19, 2007

VERSAILLES, France: Senators and lower house 
lawmakers inscribed the banning of the death 
penalty in the French Constitution on Monday, one 
of three measures put to a solemn vote in a 
constitutional revision and the one gaining the broadest consensus.

The two houses of parliament gathered for the 
special session at the Palace of Versailles passed the measure 828-26.

However, a text guaranteeing immunity to a 
sitting head of state -- but introducing the 
possibility of impeachment -- stumbled through 
the solemn vote to pass 449-203 -- just above the 
392 votes that make up the needed three-fifths majority [sic].

President Jacques Chirac, who has been targeted 
in probes of illegal party financing, had 
promised such a law when he was campaigning for 
re-election in 2002. The measure makes it 
possible to open impeachment proceedings for 
"breach of duty manifestly incompatible with the 
exercising of (the president's) mandate."

A third text easily passed, 724-90, freezing the 
electoral corps in New Caledonia, seen as a means 
of guaranteeing civil peace in the overseas 
department which has experienced episodes of political unrest.

The constitutional revision was seen as a final 
act for Chirac before the parliamentary session 
is suspended Friday ahead of the April-May presidential elections.

However, some lawmakers viewed the session at 
Versailles -- where constitutional revisions are 
voted -- as a waste of time and money. Some 
deputies, notably Segolene Royal and Francois 
Bayrou -- who are both seeking the presidency -- did not show up.

Still, emotions were high as the gathering voted 
to inscribe the banning of the death penalty in 
the constitution. The death penalty has been 
outlawed in France since 1981, but not inscribed in the constitution.

"We are accomplishing the wish of Victor Hugo in 
1848, the pure, simple, irreversible abolition" 
of the death penalty, former Justice Minister 
Robert Badinter told lawmakers. Badinter was the 
artisan of the banning of the death penalty in 
1981, one of the first acts of the 14-year 
presidency of Socialist Francois Mitterrand.

  Copyright © 2007 The International Herald Tribune | www.iht.com

*********************



ABOLITION DAY IS UPON US....

MARCH 1ST IS INTERNATIONAL DEATH PENALTY ABOLITION DAY

INTERNATIONAL DEATH PENALTY ABOLITION DAY IS JUST DAYS AWAY....

Citizens United for Alternatives to the Death 
Penalty (CUADP) reminds you that March 1st, 
International Death Penalty Abolition Day, is 
just days away....  This year marks the 160th 
anniversary of the date in 1847 that the state of 
Michigan became the first English-Speaking 
territory in the world to Abolish the Death 
Penalty. Visit 
<http://www.cuadp.org/abolitionday.html>http://www.cuadp.org/abolitionday.html 
for details.

**************

Yours in the Struggle,

--abe