[FADPUpdate] Florida Executions on Hold

[melliott3@aol.com]

Friends,
 
Great news Monday from the U.S. Supreme Court!
 
Seize the moment!  Now is the time to follow-up with letters to the editor of your local newpapers.  The storm took up a lot of the media's attention, but it will pass and the Death Penalty will still be here.  
 
Let the public and our elected leaders know your opinion of this decision.  (i.e., The only sure way to end this madness is to end executions.  Justice should be swift and sure and only the alternative sentences to the Death Penalty are carried out immediately and allow for the release of the innocent when inevitiable mistakes are made.  There have been 26 exonerations if Florida.  "From this day forward, I shall not tinker with the machines of Death" - Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun, etc).
 
If you are planning events in your area June 29 - July 2 around the 30 anniversary of the Gregg decision, please contact us so we can list your event.  I will be in D.C. for the Fast & Vigil.  There are organizing materials available.  info at www.abolition.org and www.amnestyusa.org/abolish.
 
Mark Elliott, Spokesman
FADP
mark at fadp.org
 
The following are some press and media actions by FADP:
 
PRESS RELEASE FROM
FLORIDIANS FOR ALTERNATIVES TO THE DEATH PENALTY (FADP.org)

June 12, 2006

FADP CONTACTS:
Mark Elliott:  727-215-9646

FLORIDA EXECUTIONS ON HOLD PENDING FURTHER LEGAL ACTION

In a unanimous ruling today in the Florida case "Hill v. McDonough 
(05-8794)," the U.S. Supreme Court allowed death row inmates seeking 
to challenge the lethal injection method of execution to pursue the 
issue as a civil rights claim.  The court accepted Hill's appeal as 
he lay on the gurney with needles inserted and ready for the 
execution to proceed.

"Now Mr. Hill can proceed with his claim that lethal injection is a 
civil rights violation," said Mark Elliott, spokesman for Floridians 
for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.  "It's not clear how long it 
will last, but once again Florida is under a de-facto moratorium on 
executions, and that can only be seen as a good thing."

 ---------------------------------------------------------------- 
 

Monday 06-12-06 FADP/AIUSA interview with Andrew Stelzer of WMNF FM 88.5 on WMNF Evening News 6pm. (6 minute interview begins approx 20 minutes into 1 hr broadcast).
 
Newscast is available @ www.wmnf.org/playlist/archives.php
 
WNMF_060612_180001_6newsm_224
 
Podcast:  feeds.feedburner.com/wmnfeveningnews
 
-----------------------------------------------------------------
 
--------------------
Florida Death Row inmate wins right to challenge lethal injection 
--------------------

By Sean Gardiner
South Florida Sun-Sentinel

June 13, 2006

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday a Death Row inmate convicted of killing a 
police officer can challenge Florida's method of execution by lethal injection.

Attorney Todd Doss, who formerly practiced in Fort Lauderdale, argued before the 
high court in April that Clarence Hill should be allowed to contest lethal 
injection as a civil rights violation because the pain inflicted during the 
procedure was a "cruel and unusual punishment."

Hill, convicted of killing a Pensacola police officer, was 20 minutes shy of his 
execution on Jan. 24, a needle already in his arm, when Doss won a postponement.

Gov. Jeb Bush has declared that he wouldn't sign another prisoner death warrant 
until this case was resolved. There are currently 371 Death Row prisoners in 
Florida, including 28 from Broward County and eight from Palm Beach County.

Central to Hill's case was a study by doctors at the University of Miami School 
of Medicine. They studied autopsy results of the executed and found 43 of the 49 
dead prisoners had anesthesia levels lower than that required for surgery. 
Twenty-one of those had concentrations consistent with awareness, the study 
stated.

In some cases, the lethal injection drug protocols didn't even meet veterinary 
standards, said Teresa Zimmers, one of the doctors who worked on the study. She 
said those accidentally injected with potassium chloride, the lethal drug used 
in executions, described it as "feeling on fire."

"If these inmates are inadequately anesthetized, they are suffering an extremely 
painful death," Zimmers said.

In January 2000, the state offered condemned inmates the option of lethal 
injections following a challenge to the constitutionality of the state's 
electric chair. Like most of the other 38 states with the death penalty, Florida 
uses a three-drug protocol of sodium thiopental, an anesthetic, pancuronium 
bromide, a paralyzing agent, and potassium chloride.

Carolyn Snurkowski, a supervisor with the state Attorney General's Office who 
argued against Doss in the Supreme Court, said there have been no problems with 
the lethal injection procedures so far and sees no reason for changing it.

"We've had 16 executions (since then) without any real mishaps," Snurkowski 
said.

On Oct. 18, 1982, Hill killed Police Officer Stephen Taylor, 26, during a bank 
robbery. He was sentenced to death in May 1983.

Challenges to a sentence of death are usually filed as petitions for habeas 
corpus, which are attempts to have a conviction overturned. Hill did that and 
lost. On Nov. 29, 2005, Hill's death warrant was signed and his execution 
scheduled. Doss then filed the civil rights claim, saying the manner in which 
Hill would be put to death was unconstitutional. A federal district court denied 
the claim, and the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta upheld that 
decision.

In its ruling Monday, the Supreme Court said Hill should have had the chance to 
challenge the state's lethal injections under civil rights law. It recommended 
sending the case back to the federal appeal court for review. From there, it 
most likely will go back to the federal district court in Tallahassee for a 
trial on its constitutionality, Doss said.

The Supreme Court's ruling makes it clear it could literally be a short-lived 
victory for Hill.

"Hills' action if successful would not necessarily prevent the State from 
executing him by lethal injection," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote. "He does not 
challenge his sentence as a general matter but seeks only to enjoin respondents 
from executing him in a manner that allegedly causes a foreseeable risk of 
gratuitous and unnecessary pain."

Doss said he likes his chances should it come down to the state trying to defend 
its lethal injection procedure in court. He said like many other states, Florida 
adopted its lethal injection plan from Oklahoma and "there isn't any type of 
scientific basis for it."

Some anti-death penalty advocates were heartened by the temporary victory.

Robert Gershman, a Palm Beach lawyer and former prosecutor, said, "Anything is 
positive. Complete abolition would be better."

Mark Elliott, president of the Floridians for Alternatives for the Death 
Penalty, agreed. "We're happy with anything that's a timeout on these killings 
that will give people a chance to think about what we're doing and why we're 
doing it."

It's his hope that time will allow people to view lethal injections in the same 
negative way as past state methods of death.

"It's like burning witches at the stake," he said. "Once you move away from it, 
it's hard to go back to it."

Copyright (c) 2006, South Florida Sun-Sentinel 
________________________________________________________________________
Check out AOL.com today. Breaking news, video search, pictures, email and IM. All on demand. Always Free.