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Tag: lethal injection

  • Missouri Executes Man for Murdering 3

    Missouri Executes Man for Murdering 3

    Former small time methamphetamine dealer John Middleton, 54, was executed by lethal injection Wednesday for killing three people in rural northern Missouri in 1995, due to fear his victims would report his drug activities to authorities.

    Middleton died after being injected with pentobarbital, marking the sixth execution in Missouri so far this year. The execution was initially scheduled for Wednesday at 12:01 a.m., but a federal judge granted a stay of execution late Tuesday, to allow time to assess if Middleton was mentally competent. The stay was overturned by a federal appeals court, and the U.S. Supreme Court and the Missouri Supreme Court wouldn’t halt the injection. Middleton’s claim that he is innocent and his request for clemency from Governor Jay Nixon were also denied.

    After several drug suspects were arrested on June 10, 1995 in rural northern Missouri, Middleton allegedly told a friend, “The snitches around here are going to start going down.” He was eventually convicted of killing Randy “Happy” Hamilton and Stacey Hodge, and then Alfred Pinegar several days later.

    Middleton and his girlfriend met Hamilton and Hodge on a gravel road, where Middleton shot and killed the two and placed their bodies in the trunk of Hamilton’s car. Fellow meth dealer Pinegar was shot in the face on June 23, 1995. Middleton left his body in a field near Bethany. Middleton then told acquaintances that he shot the three, and eyewitnesses saw him buying ammunition just hours before Pinegar’s death.

    Middleton was convicted of triple homicide in 1997, and his girlfriend and accomplice, Maggie Hodges, is serving life in prison after pleading guilty to second-degree murder in all three deaths.

    An anonymous criminal informant had said in February that Middleton accused him of being a snitch, and drove him out to see Pinegar’s corpse, and told him, “there’s already been three people killed. You want to be number four?” The witness signed an affidavit stating that he was then beaten unconscious with a baseball bat and his girlfriend was raped.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • First US Execution Since Lethal Injection Botch

    A man on death row was executed in Georgia on Tuesday.

    The execution is the first one since a botched execution in Oklahoma nearly two months ago.

    There were several other death row inmates who were scheduled for execution the same day.

    In April, Clayton Lockett was scheduled to be executed by lethal injection, but the execution was stopped when it was found that the medicine was not being injected into his veins properly.

    Although the executioners stopped giving Lockett the injection, he still died from a heart attack a few minutes later.

    The medicine used in the injections was blamed for the accident, and several death row inmates hired their attorneys to take advantage of the accident and delay their executions.

    The attorneys are challenging the process used by some states to get the lethal injection drugs from unregulated suppliers.

    “I think after Clayton Lockett’s execution everyone is going to be watching very closely,” Fordham University School of Law professor Deborah Denno, a death penalty expert, said of this week’s executions. “The scrutiny is going to be even closer.”

    The man who was executed on Tuesday, was 59-year-old Marcus Wellons of Georgia. Wellons was convicted in the 1989 rape and murder of a 15-year-old girl.

    At least nine lethal injection executions have been postponed since April. Wellons’s execution went smoothly and he reportedly breathed a few heavy breaths before he passed without incident. Wellons was pronounced dead at 11:56 p.m. EDT Tuesday.

    Before his execution, Wellons said he hoped his death would bring peace to the family of India Roberts, a teen neighbor whom he raped and murdered in suburban Atlanta in 1989.

    “I’d like to apologize to the Roberts family for my crimes and ask for forgiveness,” he said.

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    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Ohio Executions Temporarily Halted By Judge

    There will be no executions carried out in the state of Ohio until after August 15th.

    This two and a half month window of time was granted by a federal judge so that arguments over the state’s new lethal injection methods could continue.

    The legal fight is being waged over the decision of Ohio to increase the dosage of the lethal injection drugs among other adjustments.

    The state uses two different drugs, injected simultaneously, during lethal injection procedures.

    The changes follow the highly controversial execution of Dennis McGuire, who took twenty six minutes to die during his January 16th execution.

    Ohio has responded by upping the amount of sedatives and painkillers given to prisoners being executed.

    Though the state stands by its method of executing McGuire (he gasped multiple times during his final minutes), it announced in April that the changes were meant “to allay any remaining concerns” about inhuman execution methods.

    The continued existence of a death penalty in the United States is coming under increasing scrutiny from abroad and domestically. In truth, it has long been a controversial and divisive subject:

    The state of Washington moved to halt the method indefinitely and others are considering it.

    Much of the controversy stems from the beliefs that it’s wrong for the state to take a life and that the methods used are cruel and painful.

    According to the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, despite his unusual execution, McGuire “did not experience pain, distress or air hunger after the drugs were administered.” He was reportedly unconscious minutes after being given the fatal injection.

    From his court in Columbus, Ohio, federal judge Gregory Frost on Tuesday allowed for executions to be temporarily halted as filings are being made.

    Executions scheduled for July and early August will be pushed back to later dates.

    Ronald Phillips will see his execution date pushed back for the second time.

    Phillips was set to die July 2nd after being sentenced for the 1993 murder and rape of Sheila Marie Evans, his then girlfriend’s 3-year-old daughter.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Oklahoma Governor Holds After Botched Execution

    “If we are to have executions at all, they must not be conducted like hastily thrown together human science experiments.”

    On Tuesday evening, two executions were scheduled to take place in McAlester, Oklahoma: Clayton D. Lockett, who was convicted in 1999 of shooting a teenage girl and watching as two accomplices buried her alive, and Charles F. Warner, who was convicted in 1997 of raping and murdering a toddler.

    During the first procedure, the administrating doctor announced that “the line has blown” and the drugs were no longer flowing into Lockett’s vein. This came after Lockett violently convulsed and tried to lift his head, although the doctor declared him unconscious just 14 minutes earlier.

    Prison officials immediately halted the execution, but Lockett continued to convulse and twitch until he died from a heart attack 30 minutes later.

    Witnesses, who were quickly shielded from the scene when officials pulled a curtain after the mistake, described it as chaotic and unsettling.

    “This was botched, and it was difficult to watch,” said David Autry, one of Mr. Lockett’s lawyers.

    Dean Sanderford, another lawyer for Mr. Lockett, said, “It looked like torture.”

    Warner, the second inmate, was granted a 14-day stay of execution while governor Mary Fallin calls for a “full review” of the state’s execution procedures.

    “Last night’s botched execution was nothing less than state-sanctioned torture,” said Antonio Ginatta, U.S. advocacy director at Human Rights Watch.

    Governor Fallin still stands by her state’s decision.

    “I believe the death penalty is an appropriate response and punishment to those who commit heinous crimes against their fellow men and women,” she said. “However, I also believe the state needs to be certain of its protocols and its procedures for executions and that they work.”

    But questions still remain concerning the 3-drug cocktail used in Oklahoma’s lethal injection procedure. Lawyers for both Lockett and Warner have previously contended that the serum goes against the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

    Recently, after running out of its usual lethal injection drug, Oklahoma had a new batch sourced from a pharmacy, declining to give its name. This isn’t he first time an execution was botched with this new combination, either. At the first of the year in Ohio, the first inmate injected with this particular serum appeared to suffocate to death.

    Although the U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear any cases from states regarding the legality of lethal injection drugs from secret sources, the New York Times states that Tuesday’s Oklahoma case could indeed help get the controversial issue before the court.

    Governor Fallin has announced that she will extend Warner’s 14-day stay of execution if the independent review into the case is not completed by that time.

    Image via Youtube

  • Oklahoma Botches Execution, Postpones Another

    An Oklahoma death row prisoner died of a heart attack roughly 20 minutes after waking up during his execution mid-injection, due to faulty equipment. The scheduled execution of a second inmate for the evening was subsequently postponed.

    Corrections Director Robert Patton stopped the delivery of the three drug combination used in Oklahoma, after realizing inmate Clayton Lockett had regained consciousness after being sedated at the start of his execution. Patton attributed the botched procedure to a vein failure which prevented all three chemicals from efficiently entering Lockett’s system.

    An eyewitness described the scene – Lockett grimaced and tensed his body several times over a three minute period before the execution was shielded from the press. After being declared unconscious ten minutes into the process, Lockett spoke at three separate moments. The first two were inaudible, however the third time he spoke, Lockett said the word “man.”

    Those against the death penalty took to Twitter:

    Lockett, 38, convicted of shooting 19-year-old Stephanie Neiman and having her buried alive in 1999, died of cardiac arrest 43 minutes after the first drug was administered. The press was shielded from the event after Lockett woke up and began speaking, 16 minutes after the execution began. Lockett died roughly 20 minutes later. “It was extremely difficult to watch,” Lockett’s attorney, David Autry, said afterward.

    A second death row inmate, Charles Warner, was scheduled to be executed at 8 p.m. Tuesday evening, which will be rescheduled due to the equipment error. Warner, 46, was convicted of raping and killing an 11-month-old in 1997.

    There has been some controversy in Oklahoma regarding a policy to not reveal the source of the drugs used for lethal injections.

    Both Lockett and Warner had sued the state for failing to disclose details regarding the source of the execution drugs, which resulted in the Supreme Court issuing a stay of execution for Lockett. This stay was eventually revoked, then replaced by another extension issued by Governor Mary Fallin, which is the reason why Lockett and Warner ended up being scheduled to die on the same day.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Florida Execution Leaves ‘Old Sparky’ Unemployed

    Florida executed a man on Wednesday who was convicted of murdering two relatives in 1990, marking the 85th instance of capital punishment for the state, and the fourth so far this year.

    Robert Hendrix, 47, was pronounced dead at 6:21 p.m. at Florida State Prison in Starke, shortly after a lethal injection procedure began. He remained silent, offering no final words.

    Hendrix was convicted of killing his cousin Elmer Scott and his wife Michelle, to prevent them from testifying against him the following day during a burglary trial. Scott had been an accomplice of Hendrix, but reached a plea deal in exchange for his testimony. Hendrix shot, beat and stabbed his cousin, and then cut the throat of Scott’s wife, before shooting her.

    Florida was the first state to reintroduce the death penalty after the Supreme Court of the United States struck down all capital punishment statutes nationwide in the 1972 Furman v. Georgia decision. All Floridian executions are carried out at Florida State Prison, which houses the sole remaining death chamber statewide. At present, 396 inmates are awaiting execution in Florida, and sixteen inmates have been administered lethal injections since Governor Rick Scott took office in 2011.

    While lethal injection has been the preferred method of execution in Florida since 2000, inmates can still request the use of “Old Sparky,” the nickname of the electric chair in the states of Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, New York, South Carolina, Texas, West Virginia and Virginia. Hendrix opted to stay clear of Old Sparky, as botched execution attempts in this manner are not unheard of, and have a chance of becoming an extremely gruesome form of cruel and unusual punishment.

    Last June Governor Rick Scott signed the Timely Justice Act of 2013. The statute is designed to accelerate the capital punishment process. The law forces death row inmates to be quicker about making appeals and post-conviction motions.

    Image via WIkimedia Commons

  • Missouri Execution of Child Killer Inhumane?

    Time ran out for Michael Taylor.

    The state of Missouri executed him a few hours ago. He was announced dead at 12:01 Wednesday morning.

    With Taylor entering his final hours of life, his defense attorney tried desperately to get a stay of execution on the grounds of “violations of equal protection and due process”. But federal courts and the governor would not hear his final appeal.

    The 47-year-old was sentenced to die in 1989 after being convicted for the abduction, rape, and murder of an adolescent girl.

    Roughly twenty-four years have passed since then.

    With no outlets willing to listen to Taylor’s appeal, there were no remaining obstacles to keep the state of Missouri from putting the inmate to death.

    A source of Taylor’s concerns, and to a great extent that of many onlookers, is that the chemicals used by death penalty states make the process of dying extremely painful. A painful death could therefore make the use of lethal injection inhumane.

    In fact, those arguing against these new execution chemicals fear that death row inmates are being used as virtual guinea pigs.

    States where the death penalty is an option are having a great deal of difficulty getting their hands on “old reliable” versions of injection fluids (sodium thiopental and potassium chloride) used to kill those on death row.

    An Oklahoma compounding pharmacy flat out refused to provide the state of Missouri with the mix of drugs needed to kill Taylor.

    Death penalty states turned to compounding pharmacies to mix the lethal injection chemicals after Hospira, a company solely responsible for making sodium thiopental, stopped producing it.

    Another blow came when companies in Europe, who manufacture chemicals needed for lethal injections, refused to export them. These anti-death penalty institutions balked at the idea of their products being used to end human life.

    Missouri insisted that even without drugs from those sources, the state would still find a way to put Taylor to death. It is not currently known which source came through for the state at the last minute as the state is refusing to name the provider of the lethal injection chemicals used to put Taylor to death.

    The Associated Press is reporting that Taylor showed no signs of distress during his execution.

    Image via YouTube

  • Ohio Governor Execution: Child Murderer’s Execution Delayed Because of Organ Donation Request

    Sometimes, there are terrible people in this world who go on to do equally terrible things. Ronald Phillips is one of those people. This man raped and murdered his girlfriend’s 3-year-old daughter in 1993. He was caught, arrested, and sentenced to death. He was scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection on Thursday. His execution was to be the first time the US executed a criminal with a new dual injection method. His punishment has been delayed, however, by the Ohio state governor, because of Phillips’ last minute request to donate his organs.

    Phillips made the request on Monday to have his organs donated to his mother and sister, after he had plead mercy and “exhausted” all of his other legal options. The man claims that it wasn’t a delay tactic, but an attempt to do good. How, exactly, donating his organs to his family members will quite make up for taking another human life is not very clear.

    The request was unexpected and unprecedented, causing a bit of a stir among the prison staff. The staff claimed that the request would be hard, if not impossible, to accommodate, especially since transporting Phillips from the hospital to the prison would be incredibly difficult and pose too many risks, since the transportation would happen to close in time to his scheduled death. In response to the request, the Ohio governor decided to reschedule Phillips’ death day for June 2 of next year.

    The governor, a republican representative named John Kasich, said that the added time frame would allow officials to determine whether or not Phillips’ request is actually a possibility or not. The governor went on to say, “Ronald Phillips committed a heinous crime for which he will face the death penalty. I realize this is a bit of uncharted territory for Ohio, but if another life can be saved by his willingness to donate his organs and tissues then we should allow for that to happen.”

    [Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.]

  • Harry Mitts Jr. Executed in Ohio

    With a denial of clemency and a depletion of legal appeals, Harry D. Mitts was forced to face the inevitable on Wednesday, September 25.

    After almost 18 years incarcerated, Mitts was executed. He was pronounced dead at exactly 10:39am by lethal injection of penobarbital at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville. OH.

    Mitts previously met with Ohio governor, John Kamish, in conjunction with the Ohio State Parole Board in an attempt to make one last plea for mercy. However, neither the Parole Board or Governor Kamish showed any remorse for Mitts’ crime.

    According to the Huffington Post, on August 14, 1994, Mitts fatally shot 28-year-old John Bryant, and 44-year-old Sergeant Dennis Glivar. He also attempted to murder two other officers – 38-year-old Lt. Thomas Kaiser, and 38-year-old Officer John Mackey. The incident took place at Mitts’ apartment complex in a Cleveland, OH suburb. Mitts was involved in what initially began as a verbal altercation with Bryant, who was the black boyfriend of Mitts’ neighbor at the time. Mitts, yelled a number of racial slurs before fatally shooting Bryant and Glivar.

    Ohio prosecutors made great strides to contend that Mitts’ actions were among ‘the worst Ohio has ever seen,’ as his rampage resulted in two deaths, multiple shootings, and several near-death threats that endangered the lives of more than 20 other bystanders. Mitts’ rampage placed everyone in the entire apartment complex in the way of danger. In the end, the prosecution prevailed as Mitts was convicted of aggravated murder as well as attempted murder. Mitts’ received the death penalty as a result of his conviction.

    While Mitts’ lethal injection was administered in the form of pentobarbital, the state of Ohio has reached the expiration with the drug as the last dose was used in Mitts’ execution. While the drug is considered one of the most common and human methods of execution, Mitts’ death will force the state of Ohio to impose a new method to carry out the process in the future. The state’s new method of execution will be announced at a later date.

     

    Image via Cleveland.com