[CUADPUpdate] ALABAMA

[Abraham J. Bonowitz]

Greetings All,

Good news and bad news this week, perhaps all wrapped up in one 
package with the decision by the US Supreme Court to have a look at 
Lethal Injection.  It remains to be seen how many executions will be 
put on hold pending arguments in January and a decision likely in 
late May or by the end of June.  Nevertheless, it all boils down to 
*how* we kill our prisoners, not IF we can.  See the opinion piece below.

Perhaps more urgently is the killing scheduled for this evening, 
which has not yet been put on hold - either for the lethal injection 
issue, or for the issue of possible innocence....

Again, Ramadan Greetings to our Muslim brothers and sisters, and to 
Jews on this first day of Succot, Chag Sameach!

(Please help CUADP cover some basic costs at 
https://www.compar.com/donation/donateform.html )

MANY THANKS FOR TAKING ACTION TODAY!

--abe
****************


Innocence Project Raises Questions About Imminent Execution - Take Action!

Curiously, few in the abolition movement are talking about the 
Alabama execution scheduled for tomorrow (9/27/07), despite the fact 
that the <http://www.innocenceproject.org/Content/898.php>Innocence 
Project thinks DNA testing could exonerate Thomas Arthur.

It's not too late to <http://www.phadp.org/blog/?page_id=58>take action....

More on this case is 
<http://www.thomasarthurfightforlife.com/>here.  and below.

--abe




Time running out for Arthur
By <mailto:bernie.delinski at timesdaily.com>Bernie Delinski & 
<mailto:tom.smith at timesdaily.com>Tom Smith
Of the TimesDaily

----------
  He is scheduled for execution at 6 p.m. Thursday.

<http://www.timesdaily.com/article/20070926/NEWS/709260322/1011>http://www.timesdaily.com/article/20070926/NEWS/709260322/1011

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  Riley fails test, again

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

THE ISSUE: Once again, Gov. Bob Riley has refused to order DNA 
testing that could shed light on a death-penalty case. This is a 
pattern that needs to be broken.

<http://www.al.com/opinion/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/opinion/119070875087910.xml&coll=2>http://www.al.com/opinion/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/opinion/119070875087910.xml&coll=2 


----------


Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Story last updated at 6:45 p.m. on Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Alabama changing lethal injection procedure

By PHILLIP RAWLS
Associated Press Writer

MONTGOMERY, Ala. - Attorneys for Alabama death row inmate Tommy
Arthur sought a stay of his execution based on Gov. Bob Riley's
decision Wednesday to change the state's lethal injection procedures.

Riley decided to change the procedure to provide additional
safeguards to make sure inmates are unconscious before administered
drugs to stop the lungs and heart, said Jeff Emerson, Riley's
communications director.

Arthur is scheduled to die at Holman prison near Atmore at 6 p.m.
Thursday, and the change can't be accomplished in time for it,
Emerson said.

The change came one week before a federal court trial challenging
whether Alabama's lethal injection procedures allow inmates to remain
partially conscious and suffer unconstitutionally cruel pain during
their deaths.

Arthur's attorney sought to delay the execution based on Alabama's
planned change and on the U.S. Supreme Court agreeing Tuesday to
review Kentucky's lethal injection procedures.

In papers filed with the Alabama Supreme Court, Arthur's pro bono
attorney, Suhana Han of New York, argued that the planned change in
Alabama's procedures should prompt the postponement of Arthur's
execution.

"At this point, we are hopeful the fact that the state of Alabama is
essentially conceding deficiencies in its protocol will help Mr.
Arthur gain a stay," she said.

Emerson and Assistant Attorney General Clay Crenshaw said the state
is not conceding any deficiencies.

"This is being done even though we believe the current protocol is
constitutional," Emerson said.

Crenshaw, who opposes a stay, characterized the change as very minor
and said it was not in response to Arthur or other inmates
challenging Alabama's procedures. "It's just another way to ensure
the inmate is unconscious before drugs two and three go into the
bloodstream," he said.

The details of the change are still being worked out, but Emerson
said it could include more anesthetic and an additional check for
unconsciousness.

Court papers filed by the state attorney general's office late
Wednesday afternoon said that in addition to having the warden watch
the inmate for any signs of consciousness, someone else would be in
the execution chamber with the condemned "to assess consciousness."
The court papers did not identify the person's profession or training.

Arthur, 65, was sentenced to death for the 1982 murder-for-hire
killing of 35-year-old Troy Wicker of Muscle Shoals.

Emerson said the governor's legal adviser began to review Alabama's
procedures after a federal judge ruled last week that Tennessee's
procedures are unconstitutionally cruel.

"Their protocol is very similar to what Alabama does," Emerson said.

Arthur's attorneys also asked the Alabama Supreme Court and U.S.
Supreme Court for a stay of his execution based on the U.S. Supreme
Court's decision Tuesday to review lethal injection as a form of
execution in Kentucky.

Alabama's attorney general urged the justices not to step in, arguing
that Arthur is merely trying to delay his execution and that his case
is significantly different from the one in Kentucky.

The U.S. Supreme Court's decision to review Kentucky's lethal
injection policies didn't prevent an execution Tuesday night in Texas.

<http://www.jacksonville.com/apnews/stories/092607/D8RTDOVO0.shtml>http://www.jacksonville.com/apnews/stories/092607/D8RTDOVO0.shtml

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


AND ON THE LETHAL INJECTION ISSUE....

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2007/09/25/couricandco/entry3296147.shtml?source=search_story

September 25, 2007, 2:55 PM

Lethal Injections And The Supreme Court
Posted by Andrew Cohen

(CBS)
Lawyer Andrew Cohen analyzes legal affairs for CBS News and CBSNews.com.


  I make predictions about Supreme Court decisions about as often as 
the Justices agree unanimously on contentious issues, which is say, 
almost never. But I am prepared to go out on the legal limb in the 
lethal injection case out of Kentucky which the High Court yesterday 
agreed to consider and decide during the looming term.

By a 5-4 vote, I predict, with Justice Anthony Kennedy writing the 
majority opinion, the Court next spring will declare invalid the 
lethal injection procedures Kentucky and certain other states employ 
when they execute capital defendants. The decision will then force 
all "lethal injection" states to do what some already are doing, 
which is to revamp their execution protocols to ensure that the 
condemned are given the proper amount of the proper medications in 
the proper order so they don't endure "cruel and unusual punishment" 
before they die.

The Court's most conservative quartet*Chief Justice John Roberts and 
Associate Justices Scalia, Thomas and Alito*will offer a stinging 
dissent that focuses upon the rights of states to determine for 
themselves their own execution protocols. And if Justice Scalia gets 
to write that dissent I'm fairly confident that we'll see a line or 
two about what he considers the "absurdity" of spending so much time 
and effort ensuring that a death row inmate about to be killed in the 
name of the people is treated like a patient in the finest hospital 
in the world.

Okay, I'm done with my predictions. The case is titled Baze v. Rees 
and here is the Kentucky court ruling which now goes up on appeal. No 
one who follows the Court should be surprised that the Justices have 
agreed to resolve this issue. The Justices in recent years have been 
consistently willing to limit the contours of capital punishment in 
America*they abolished, for example, a state's right to execute 
mentally retarded murders and also those who killed when they were 
younger than 18 years old. The trend, then, favors the condemned.

Moreover, literally from sea to sea, from California to Florida and 
many points in between, lower-court judges and state officials with 
increasing frequency have themselves stopped executions over concerns 
about lethal injections. Florida Governor Jeb Bush, for example, 
suspended all executions in the Sunshine State late last year after 
prison officials botched the execution of a man named Angel Diaz. 
Lethal injections also have been halted by decree or court order in 
Maryland, New Jersey, Delaware, and Tennessee. Other states, like 
Oklahoma, already have tried to change their injection protocols.

No matter which side of the capital punishment debate you find 
yourself on it's clear that prison officials and state legislators 
could use some guidance and certainty in this tussled area of the 
law. A uniform rule that increases the effectiveness of injection 
procedures*more drugs, more often, administered by people with more 
professional experience*would go a long way in making this so. You 
heard it here first.


**********

sent by: abe at cuadp.org