Ohio executions back on with 1-drug method

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohio's death chamber is set to resume executions next month using a single drug that has been used in the U.S. to euthanize pets but never to put condemned prisoners to death.

Barring legal challenges, condemned inmate Kenneth Biros is scheduled Dec. 8 to be the first prisoner in the nation to be executed using a single dose of the drug thiopental sodium instead of the combination of three drugs that the state had been using.

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Clearly the current three-drug cocktail has led to several botched executions. Changing to a procedure that is more reliable is a way to minimize the suffering of the condemned. While executions are becoming increasingly rare, if we are going to conduct them, they should be swift, painless, and sure.

LA Times Editorial 
NY Times Analysis

The Myth of Closure via Execution

Of all the arguments in support of capital punishment, perhaps the most emotionally compelling is that it provides "closure" for the loved ones of murder victims. Prosecuting attorneys, politicians and journalists commonly refer to how executions allow family members to "move on" from their pain, providing a sense of relief at knowing that "justice" was finally served.

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Muhammad died silently Tuesday night in a Virginia prison death chamber filled with lawyers, lawmen and his victims' survivors.
After the execution, Steven Moore said he thought about Muhammad's accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, who received a life sentence for their crimes.

"Well, myself, I wish Malvo was right there beside Muhammad," said Moore, whose sister, FBI analyst Linda Franklin, was gunned down in Virginia. "They both committed the same crimes. No, I don't feel any closure. I mean, it's ... it ... nothing changes."

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The nationally publicized execution of Mr. Muhammad has once again brought controversy surrounding the administration of capital punishment to the forefront. Among these controversies is the impact of capital punishment on the victim's family and friends. Many believe that every family member wants to see the offender executed, which is simply not accurate.

There is also the perception that executions bring closure. Again, that is simply not the case. Many victims' family and friends have come to realize that a death sentence ensures prolonging the matter, thus delaying or denying the ability to begin the recovery process.

Several family members of Mr. Muhammad's victims attended the execution. While I hope that they do reach some kind of closure, the research on this subject does not provide for much hope.

I surveyed one of my classes on this subject. A majority support capital punishment for murderers, but a significant number would not attend the execution of someone who had been convicted of murdering one of the family members. While interesting, we need to better understand why people do and do not want to witness an execution. Such information may be invaluable to policy makers and may lead to improvements in the recovery process for all crime victims and their families.

Do some family and friends feel the only way to show how much they loved the victims is to demand a sentence of death and to view the eventual execution? What emotions do family and friends go through during the process? And what about the family and friends of the offender? Margaret Vandiver has already begun to answer some of these questions, but we need more research.

But we already know that some family and friends of murder victims do not support the death penalty or want to see the offender's execution. Arguing that death sentences and executions provide closure for everyone is a myth.

The Permanent Underclass

If you think it's tough getting a job during a recession, imagine what it's like for an ex-convict.

Gregory Headley, 29, knows exactly what it's like. The Harlem resident was released from prison in July after serving two years and eight months for the criminal sale of a firearm. Now that he's out, he said, the conviction is dogging his attempts to land a full-time job.

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20 years ago, the U.S. had approximately 700,000 inmates in prison. This year, that number will be released. As the article points out, getting and keeping a job has become increasing difficult. The lack of educational opportunities, in and out of prison, continues to be problematic. It is a a virtual certainty that the recidivism rate will climb as prisons reduce programs and continue warehousing inmates.

Our crime control policies, buffeted by the effects of the recession, are creating a permanent underclass of people who cannot compete for good jobs in any economy. More needs to be done in the area of prisoner reentry in order to intervene in the revolving door of prison.

Many states have begun to reduce the effects of policies such as technical violations of probation and parole, drug-related crimes, and mandatory minimum sentences. We need other efforts, such as job training and education, tax credits for employers who hire convicted felons, and programs that work to promote successful transition into the free world instead of setting released inmates up for failure.

The cost of the permanent underclass that our current polices have created will have a significant and lasting impact on other parts of state and local budgets. Helping inmates stay out of jail and prison is the smart thing to do.

Needle Exchange Programs

PROGRAMS THAT allow drug addicts to swap their dirty needles for sterile syringes are effective in reducing the transmission of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. A 2008 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes that an 80 percent reduction in the incidence of HIV in intravenous drug users over the past 20 years can be attributed in part to such programs funded by private organizations and localities. But Congress appears intent on gumming up the works.

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Needle exchange programs work. There is no evidence that such programs encourage intravenous drug use. But they do slow down the rate of diseases spread by sharing dirty needles. They are also very cost effective. Compare the cost of syringes and administrative costs to a life-time of treatment for AIDS/HIV.

Thanks a lot  Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga). Your lack of rationality in the face of this epidemic is appalling. 

The Cost of Killing in Idaho

BOISE - Thomas Creech sits and waits on Idaho’s death row.

Creech was already serving a life sentence for a double murder in 1981, when he was convicted of bludgeoning a fellow inmate to death using a sock filled with batteries. He was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death in Ada County. But almost three decades later, Creech still doesn't have an execution date.

And your tax money is keeping him alive.

Through a string of appeals over the decades, many of them mandatory in capital cases, Creech waits. And the relatives of his victims wait. And Idaho taxpayers spend.

For that reason alone, Democratic State Senator Elliot Werk of Boise says it's time to toss out the death penalty in Idaho.

"It's just a huge waste of government money and money that could go to other really beneficial uses," says Werk.

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The most amazing quote was provided by Senator Darrington (R- Declo). He states "...the death penalty shouldn't come down to dollars and cents, and feels Idaho would be making a big mistake getting rid of it."

“We do not impose criminal sentences, be it prison sentences or the death penalty, with economics in mind," says Darrington.

Now we know why Idaho has gone from 1 out of 128 adults under some type of correctional supervision in 1982 to out of 18 in 2007. Idaho is second in the nation in terms of this rate. We also know that Senator Darrington will never permit any bill to revise the death penalty through his committee, regardless of the cost or efficacy.

Shouldn't the death penalty and prisons be held to the same standard as any other state policy? Some would say we should not put a price on "justice." But don't we ration other items that are necessary for life, such as health care, education, housing, food, clothing, etc? And does the criminal justice system have unlimited dollars to pursue any policy? Is not the essence of good government setting priorities, tying the budget to intended outcomes, and evaluating whether or not policies are working as intended?

I invite Senator Darrington to reevaluate his stance on capital punishment in Idaho. 11 states considered abolition this year; New Mexico succeeded. One execution in 52 years hardly seems fair to the crime victims' family and friends, to offenders who languish for decades waiting for a sentence that will most likely never be carried out, and to the people of Idaho who have to shoulder the burden of this failed policy.

No Constitutional Protection Against Being Framed

"THERE IS NO Freestanding Constitutional 'Right Not To Be Framed.' " So states a brief filed by Iowa prosecutors hoping to persuade the Supreme Court to dismiss a lawsuit against them for allegedly fabricating evidence that led to the 25-year incarceration of two innocent men. It's a breathtaking proposition that the justices should roundly reject when they hear the case Wednesday.

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"The United States Attorney is the representative not of an ordinary party to a controversy, but of a sovereignty whose obligation to govern impartially is as compelling as its obligation to govern at all; and whose interest, therefore, in a criminal prosecution is not that it shall win a case, but that justice shall be done. As such, he is in a peculiar and very definite sense the servant of the law, the twofold aim of which is that guilt shall not escape or innocence suffer. He may prosecute with earnestness and vigor-indeed, he should do so. But, while he may strike hard blows, he is not at liberty to strike foul ones. It is as much his duty to refrain from improper methods calculated to produce a wrongful conviction as it is to use every legitimate means to bring about a just one." Burger v. United States (1935)

It is clear that police and prosecutors can use deception, to a degree, in order to obtain confessions and convictions. However, knowingly allowing the use of perjured testimony goes beyond the use of trickery. There is no defense against unscrupulous prosecutors who will do anything in order to win.

The defendants maintain that prosecutors have absolute immunity for actions during the trial. They maintain that this immunity extends to the pretrial phases. They also argued that modifying absolute immunity would result in a flood of litigation, which would then result in prosecutors "flinching" - they would be reluctant to perform their duties.

Odd that no mention seems to be made of the fact that police officers have a qualified immunity, which does not hamper them from performing their duties. Police can be hed accountable for their actions when they engage in illegal behavior. No one is disputing the facts of this case (Pottawattamie County v. McGhee.). The prosecutors fabricated evidence, coerced perjured testimony, withheld exculpatory evidence, and covered up evidence that led to the real suspect.

Our criminal justice system has enough problems without the U.S. Supreme Court adding another one. The decision in this case should be clear, but it is not clear that members of the Court have the moral courage to arrive at what should be a clear cut outcome. No one, including prosecutors, is above the law.

Here is another report from National Public Radio.

Justices will scrutinize life sentences for youths

It did not take long for the judge to determine that the convicted rapist in front of him was irredeemable.

"He is beyond help," Judge Nicholas Geeker said of Joe Harris Sullivan. "I'm going to try to send him away for as long as I can."

And then Geeker sentenced Sullivan to life in prison without the possibility of parole. At the time, Sullivan was 13 years old.

Now, 20 years after that sentencing in a courtroom in Pensacola, Fla., the Supreme Court will consider whether Sullivan's prison term -- and what his supporters say is an only-in-America phenomenon of extreme sentences for juveniles -- violates the Constitution's prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment.

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The U.S. has more juveniles serving life without parole than any place on the planet. We also treat juveniles as adults in an ever-widening net that has yet to produce little in the way of crime control, but has actually made matters worse. Juveniles in adult court and serving adult sentences tend not to receive the necessary treatment, are at higher risk of assault from inmates and staff, and have higher rates of recidivism.

It is time to end this failed public policy and reform the laws on juvenile waivers. Missouri has made good progress on this front. The U.S. Supreme Court should also rule that life without parole is cruel and unusual for all juveniles.

Like Giving Car Keys to A Drunken Teenager

State officials will soon seek bids from private companies for 9 of the state’s 10 prison complexes that house roughly 40,000 inmates, including the 127 here on death row. It is the first effort by a state to put its entire prison system under private control.

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Turning over the prison system to a for-profit company is akin to giving car keys to a drunken teenager - totally irresponsible.

Aside from the malfeasance that continues to surround the for-profit prison industry, there is the issue of the morality of making a profit from other people's misery. The state may think that it is saving money, but the evidence doesn't support this conclusion. Shifting death row into private hands also seems rather macabre. The state is abdicating its role the dispenser of punishment and handing it over to a group with profit as its motive. It would not occur to elected officials to reduce the prison population by reforming sentencing and investing in programs that minimize the likelihood of offenders returning to prison. Very irresponsible.

For a humorous take on this pending tragedy, take a look at this Colbert Report.

The Death Penalty in Texas Looks Bad?

Questions about whether Gov. Rick Perry allowed the execution of a man some arson experts say may have been innocent, and then hindered an investigation into the evidence, continue to reverberate across Texas, where issues surrounding capital punishment have rarely stirred such controversy.

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The criticism of Gov. Perry continues.

But I love the quote from the other Republican candidate for Texas governor, Senator Kay Baily Hutchison - “The only thing Rick Perry’s actions have accomplished is giving liberals an argument to discredit the death penalty,” she said in a statement. “We should never do anything to create a cloud of controversy over it with actions that look like a cover-up.”

Sleeping lawyers, a prosecutor and a judge romantically involved before and during a trial, 10 exonerations from death row, sentence and conviction reversals, botched executions, wrong convictions and executions, but Senator Hutchison would not want to do anything to create a cloud of controversy over the death penalty. Other than this misstep by Perry, there is nothing else with which to discredit the death penalty.

In the words of Rep. Barney Frank, what planet do you live on Senator Hutchison?

An Example of Prosecutorial Misconduct

After spending three years investigating the conviction of a Harvey man accused of killing a security guard with a shotgun blast in 1978, journalism students at Northwestern University say they have uncovered new evidence that proves his innocence.

Their efforts helped win a new day in court for Anthony McKinney, who has spent 31 years in prison for the slaying. But as they prepare for that crucial hearing, prosecutors seem to have focused on the students and teacher who led the investigation for the school's internationally acclaimed Medill Innocence Project.

The Cook County state's attorney subpoenaed the students' grades, notes and recordings of witness interviews, the class syllabus and even e-mails they sent to each other and to professor David Protess of the university's Medill School of Journalism.

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Let's assume that the prosecutors are right - that the professor in the class told students to dig up information or receive a poor grade. Does that change the fact than an innocent person may have spent 31 years in prison for a crime he did not commit?

Clearly the prosecutor is trying to harass and intimidate the professor, his students, and anyone else who is involved with the Innocence Project.

Just as clearly, the argument that the students and the professor are not journalists and are not covered by legal protections is another stab at undermining the effort to exonerate the wrongly convicted.

Misconduct by prosecutors must be challenged at every level. At a minimum, I hope this outrageous act results in a complaint and investigation from the Illinois Bar Association. Politically, I hope the Cook County attorney is driven from office for wrongful prosecutions and immoral acts like this case.

Governor Perry Did What?

DALLAS, Texas (CNN) -- Texas Gov. Rick Perry on Wednesday shook up the ranks of a state commission that is probing whether a man executed in 2004 belonged on death row, forcing the commission to delay a scheduled hearing on the case.

Read more... Dallas Morning News

I have witnessed some pretty outrageous conduct by elected officials, but this action by Governor Perry is way over the top. Meddling with the commission just days before a public hearing on the execution of an innocent person (based on the evidence presented thus far) is reminiscent of the infamous "Saturday Night Massacre" during the Nixon Administration.

What is Governor Perry trying to hide? If he has an ounce of integrity left, he should resign as governor. If he does not, I hope the Texas legislature takes action against him.

Decriminalizing Drugs in Mexico

Reporting from Tijuana and Mexico City - Mired in a bloody battle with major drug traffickers, Mexico is quietly eliminating jail time for possession of small amounts of marijuana, cocaine, heroin and other drugs.

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This policy change is a great first step in shifting the issue of drug use away from the failed prohibition policies. Portugal has had great success since it took a similar approach in 2001. The problem for Mexico is providing the second step - access to treatment.

The U.S. has the ability to provide more mental health treatment, but has been reluctant to do so as it appears to many to be a sign of weakness. Instead policy makers continue the reckless path of prohibition, which enriches the drug cartels and creates new classes of deviant and criminal behavior.

When will we learn that prohibition does not work?

Priority Test: Health Care or Prisons?

At a time when we Americans may abandon health care reform because it supposedly is “too expensive,” how is it that we can afford to imprison people like Curtis Wilkerson?

Mr. Wilkerson is serving a life sentence in California — for stealing a $2.50 pair of socks. As The Economist noted recently, he already had two offenses on his record (both for abetting robbery at age 19), and so the “three strikes” law resulted in a life sentence.

This is unjust, of course. But considering that California spends almost $49,000 annually per prison inmate, it’s also an extraordinary waste of money.

Astonishingly, many politicians seem to think that we should lead the world in prisons, not in health care or education. The United States is anomalous among industrialized countries in the high proportion of people we incarcerate; likewise, we stand out in the high proportion of people who have no medical care — and partly as a result, our health care outcomes such as life expectancy and infant mortality are unusually poor.

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We waste an incredible amount of money in the criminal justice system if the goal is crime control. As the editorial by Kristof points out, we are the world leader when it comes to incarceration. But we do not need these current levels in order to maintain safe communities. Nationally, crime rates have been dropping since the 1990s. This drop is attributable to a number of factors, least of which is incarceration.

Many of our current policies, such as drug prohibition laws, actually make matters worse. The bottom line is that we can save money, which can be redirected to other needs, while continuing to improve public safety. The question is do we have the political will to invest in people and break the current cycle of ineffective crime control policies?