Nebraska moving to conduct its first execution since 1997

The US state of Nebraska is moving to conduct its first execution since 1997. An execution date of 14 June has been set for Carey Dean Moore, who has been on death row for three decades.

Carey Dean Moore was re-sentenced to death in 1995 after his original 1980 sentence was overturned on appeal. He was one of more than 300 people sentenced to death in 1995. Indeed, in 1994, 1995 and 1996, over 300 people were sentenced to death each year in the USA, the most recorded in any years since executions resumed in 1977. In the past decade one of the signs that the USA is beginning to turn against the death penalty is that the number of death sentences passed each year has substantially declined. Since 2006 just over 100 people have been sentenced to death each year. The annual number of executions peaked at 98 in 1999, and has since fallen to around half that number each year. The last execution in Nebraska was in December 1997.

In the past four years, three states – New Jersey, New Mexico and Illinois – have legislated to abolish the death penalty. Signing these bills into law, the three state governors pointed to the death penalty’s flaws, such as the risk of irrevocable error and unfairness, its discriminatory application, its costs and diversion of resources from crime prevention and victim assistance, the lack of any proven special deterrent effect, and its potentially brutalizing effect on society. In 2008, the then most senior member of the US Supreme Court, Justice John Paul Stevens, revealed that his 33 years on the Court had persuaded him that the “imposition of the death penalty represents the pointless and needless extinction of life”. In the 14 years since Nebraska last carried out an execution, some three dozen more countries have abolished the death penalty, and today 139 countries are abolitionist in law or practice. The UN General Assembly has called on all retentionist countries to impose a moratorium on executions. During scrutiny of the USA’s human rights record under the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review Process in late 2010, numerous countries called on the USA to end its use of the death penalty.

Carey Dean Moore, who was 21 years old at the time of the crime and is now 53, is not currently seeking executive clemency. While there is therefore no clemency petition before these authorities, Amnesty International nevertheless is urging them to act to prevent Nebraska from taking the backward step of carrying out its first execution in 14 years. Carey Dean Moore is allowing his lawyers to seek a stay of execution in the courts in the context of issues relating to lethal injection, including the state’s recent purchase of drugs from a company in India.

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PLEASE WRITE IMMEDIATELY in English or your own language, in your own words:

Expressing concern that the State of Nebraska is looking to conduct its first execution in 14 years;

Welcoming the growing recognition in the USA of the inherent flaws of the death penalty;

Welcoming the recent abolition of the death penalty in Illinois, New Mexico and New Jersey;

Noting the growing isolation of the USA on the death penalty, and the international calls for a worldwide moratorium on executions;

Urging the authorities to do all they can to prevent any executions in Nebraska, including of Carey Dean Moore.

Please note that as Carey Dean Moore is not currently seeking executive clemency, we are not calling for commutation of his death sentence, as there is no clemency petition before the state executive authorities. However, given our abolitionist policy and the backward step that we consider an execution in Nebraska would constitute, we should still urge these authorities to do all they can to prevent any executions in Nebraska, including that of Carey Dean Moore.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS AS SOON AS POSSIBLE, AND BEFORE 14 JUNE 2011.

Appeals to

Secretary of State John A. Gale,

PO Box 94608,

Lincoln,

NE 68509-4608,

USA.

Fax: +1 402 471-3237 // 471-3237

Email: sos.info@nebraska.gov // sos.intlrel@nebraska.gov

Salutation: Dear Secretary of State

Attorney General Jon Bruning,

Office of the Attorney General,

2115 State Capitol,

Lincoln,

NE 68509,

USA.

Fax: +1 402 471-3297

Salutation: Dear Attorney General

Copies to

Governor Dave Heineman,

Office of the Governor,

PO Box 94848,

Lincoln,

NE 68509-4848,

USA.

Fax: +1 402-471-6031

Salutation: Dear Governor

Ambassade des Etats-Unis d'Amérique,

Sulgeneckstrasse 19,

Case postale,

3007 Berne.

Fax : 031 357 73 44 // 031 357 73 98

Internet: http://bern.usembassy.gov/

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As IRS Crusades against Americans Hiding Money Offshore, Latin American Tax Cheats Flock to U.S. Banks

iWATCH NEWS: IRS event today on plan to force banks to report foreign nationals' accounts

Teams of private bankers working for powerful banks court wealthy people from distant shores with this sales pitch: Move your cash to our country. We will keep it safe and secret.

That was the modus operandi of UBS, the Swiss banking giant that was forced to admit holding billions of dollars in covert accounts for Americans trying to avoid U.S. taxes.

It is also a tactic used by big American banks to solicit deposits from wealthy citizens in Third World countries, according to tax-evasion experts.

Even as the U.S. Internal Revenue Service crusades against Americans using offshore banks to hide money, these tax experts say, the United States itself serves as a massive haven for international tax cheats.

“We’re the biggest tax haven in the world,” says Robert Goulder, editor-in-chief of U.S.-based Tax Notes International. “People joke about the Cayman Islands. The biggest haven is an island, all right. It’s either Manhattan or Great Britain.” » | Michael Hudson | Wednesday, May 18, 2011

US Top Secret Chopper

US Top Secret Chopper Artist’s impression

Davis' Kin: Death Row Families Suffer Most

Martina Correia

Having a loved one on death row would be stressful enough for most people. The trial, sentencing, appeals and the wait to see if there is any possibility that the worst you can imagine may not come to pass can take its toll on anyone’s physical, emotional and mental health.

Martina Correia understands that better than most. The sister of Death Row inmate Troy Davis has been going through that emotional roller coaster for years and wrestling with a number of health issues, including her own battle with Stage IV breast cancer.

Davis, who is black, was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1989 murder of white Savannah policeman Mark MacPhail.

No physical evidence has linked Davis to the killing, and seven of the nine witnesses who implicated Davis at trial have since recanted, saying that they were pressured into naming him. Last year, the presiding judge of an evidentiary hearing in the case ruled that Davis failed to establish his innocence, clearing the way to set a new execution date.

In late March, the U.S. Supreme Court did not address Davis' appeal of the judge's ruling. Barring any other legal remedies, the remaining option would be getting the state of Georgia's Board of Pardons and Paroles to grant him clemency.

The pressure definitely took a toll on Davis’ family. His father died six months after he was convicted; an aunt died 16 months ago, and his mother died in April.

Correia told BlackAmericaWeb.com that within 30 minutes of telling Davis that his mother had died, prison officials also told him he could not have his monthly contact visit with his family. Authorities contended, Correia said, that there was concern about how Davis would react with relatives present so shortly after hearing the news about his mother.

So, beyond just working to see that her brother receives justice in the courts, Correia is also monitoring his treatment in prison while undergoing treatment for breast cancer, raising her teenaged son and caring for her husband, who recently began intensive dialysis treatments.

“I just have a strong faith in God,” Correia said when asked how she manages. “Whenever I have something happening, and it’s too much of a burden for me to carry, I just give it over to God."

She said lawyers for Davis continue to seek legal avenues to have his case heard.

In not hearing Davis’ case in March, Correia said, “They didn’t deny Troy’s case; they didn’t select Troy’s case. There’s a difference,” which may leave an opening for further appeal.

Correia said a new warden was assigned a year ago to the prison where Davis is incarcerated and has taken a hard line on the treatment of death row inmates, including limiting or eliminating contact with families, severely restricting inmates’ physical movement and increasing fines for minor infractions.

“For 20 years, there was no problem until the new warden came in,” she said. “They talk real nice to the family on the phone, and then go antagonize the inmates” to provoke them into committing infractions for which they can be punished.

“They put dog cages on the yard so they can’t go out for recreation. They have to go into these cages that are 5-by-9 or 6-by-9 and just stand. My brother said he hasn’t been outside for a year,” Correia said.

At one time, inmates were allowed to have books in their cells, some minimal art programs, “just things to keep them sane,” but all of those things have been eliminated or severely curtailed.

“The morale is so low that they’ve had suicide attempts and one suicide success. We get outsiders to talk (to officials on Davis’ behalf) because it minimizes the punishment,” Correia said, noting the Georgia state NAACP and the Southern Center for Civil Rights have been helpful go-betweens.

Through it all, she said, her brother has shown resilience. “He asks God if it’s his will to use him to make a bigger statement about innocence, then that’s God’s will."

Beyond getting her brother off death row and getting evidence that could prove his innocence heard, Correia said there is a push to change death penalty law in general. The law, as it is written, doesn’t require a confirmation of guilt, just a guilty verdict.

“The lawyers have told us it is not illegal to execute innocent people in this country if the courts feel they got a fair trial."

In the meantime, Davis’ family and supporters are urging people to go to www.JusticeforTroy.org, and sign the petition calling for his release, link the site to their Facebook pages and get friends to sign the petition too.

“Get Troy’s address from the site, and send him words of encouragement,” Correia said. “Not letters of ‘Woe is me’ and ‘the Department of Corrections sucks’ - which we already know."

Once the execution day is set, a Global Day of Solidarity will be scheduled five to 10 days before the date, with events held in various locations around the world and in Georgia, where Davis is imprisoned.

Correia said she wants people to remember that “both (MacPhail’s and Davis’) families are victims; Death Row families especially because they keep dealing with the uncertainty over the appeals."

“I just think my mother died of a broken heart, but she made sure we were strong enough to deal with this," Correia said. "It’s not just the inmate who is on death row. That whole family is on death row."

Source: blackamericaweb.com, May 19, 2011

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Alabama executes Jason Oric Williams

Jason Oric Williams

ATMORE, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama man was executed Thursday for the deaths of four people in a 1992 shooting spree.

Corrections officials said 42-year-old Jason Oric Williams died at 6:19 p.m. CDT following a lethal injection administered at Holman Prison in Atmore.

Williams became the first person to die in Alabama's death chamber since the state switched to pentobarbital instead of sodium thiopental in its execution cocktail. The state switched drugs because of a nationwide shortage of sodium thiopental.

Williams was convicted in the Feb. 15, 1992, deaths of Gerald Paravicini and his neighbors. Freddie Barber and Barber's wife, Linda, and their grown son Bryant. Court records show Williams claimed he was high on marijuana, LSD, crack cocaine and alcohol at the time.

Source: AP, May 19, 2011

Jason Oric Williams executed for 1992 murders

ATMORE, Ala. -- Jason Oric Williams smiled at his weeping mother and asked forgiveness for killing four people before he died by lethal injection at 6:19 p.m. today.

Williams, who turned 43 one day earlier, was the first inmate in Alabama to be executed using pentobarbital in the state's three-drug lethal injection. The state was forced to change the drug after a shortage of sodium thiopental across the U.S.

"I hope that the families of the victims forgive me for what I've done," Williams said as he lay strapped to a bed.

Williams killed four people and injured three others during a shooting rampage in south Mobile County in the early morning hours of Feb. 15, 1992.

Gerald Paravicini, 46, Freddie Barber, 50, Linda Barber, 45, and Bryan Barber, 22, were shot and killed in their homes off Padgett Switch Road about 6 a.m.

Ten family members of the victims -- including one man who survived being shot -- witnessed the execution at Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, a spokesman said.

In another viewing room, Williams' mother and aunt looked on after a day of visiting him in prison. A minister who works with death row inmates also sat with Williams' family.

He was pronounced dead at 6:19 p.m.

Williams made no special request for a final meal from the prison. He ate chicken wings and sandwiches that his family bought from vending machines in a prison visitation area, a corrections department spokesman said.

Drug use challenged

Lundbeck: 'Our drug kills, so what?'

Defense lawyers for Williams challenged the use of pentobarbital, arguing that it hasn't been proven to cease consciousness or otherwise stop the ability to lose pain. His lawyers that that violated the constitutional ban against cruel and unusual punishment.

Williams, then 23, claimed he was high on crack cocaine and LSD and had been drinking alcohol when he returned to the Paravicini's trailer home, where he had been temporarily living.

After talking to his estranged wife on the phone, Williams grabbed a .22-caliber rifle and began firing at Paravicini. He then beat Paravicini's wife with the gun and shot her 16-year-old son in the face, according to Press-Register archives. The mother and son survived and later testified in court.

Williams then walked to the Barber family's brick house about 200 yards away. He fired at Linda Barber, who was getting ready for work at the U.S. Postal Service, and Freddie Barber, who was drinking coffee in the kitchen, according to archives.

He walked into a bedroom and shot the couple's 22-year-old as he slept. A younger brother, 16-year-old Brad Barber, was shot in the hand before he ran away.

Williams, a ninth-grade dropout, drove away in the family's vehicle and turned up a day later when he called his wife from a pay phone in Mississippi, where he agreed to wait for police and surrender.

After the execution, Williams' family members did not make any statements to news reporters.

During a 1992 sentencing hearing, Williams' mother, Patricia Neal, asked a jury not to recommend the death penalty.

"I just blame me because I was not a mother to my son like I should have been," she said. "Please don't kill my son."

Williams becomes the 3rd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Alabama and the 52nd overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1983.

Williams becomes the 18th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1252nd overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977. There are 2 more executions set for next week, in Mississippi and in Arizona; there are 8 executions set nationwide in June.

Source: al.com, Rick Halperin, May 19, 2011


Related article: "Alabama to carry out first execution using Lundbeck drugs", Reprieve, May 19, 2011
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Judge orders execution of Oregon death row inmate

A Marion County judge has authorized the Aug. 16 execution of Oregon death row inmate Gary Haugen, clearing the way for the first execution in this state in 14 years.

Haugen, 49, essentially volunteered to die by lethal injection, waiving all further appeals of his death sentence.

Barring a change of heart, he will be the first Oregon inmate put to death since double-killer Harry Moore of Salem was executed in 1997.

After 30 years in prison, Haugen said he doesn’t want to languish on death row or “rub elbows” with certain other condemned killers he despises.

“The bottom line is, I feel like a dinosaur in a world that is evolving around me,” he said.

Judge Joseph Guimond issued Haugen’s death warrant after a sometimes-contentious court hearing on Wednesday in which Haugen dumped his 2 attorneys and blasted their attempts to delay his execution.

Haugen, 49, described his decision to drop all his appeals as a self-sacrifice, intended to rivet attention on “the farce” of taxpayer dollars spent on death row and to protest the “hypocricy” of the justice system.

While more than 30 killers await execution on death row at the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem, Haugen complained that there are serial killers — “mutants,” he called them — serving life sentences within the general inmate population at the same prison.

“I am willing to sacrifice myself, fall on my sword, if you will” to protest such inequities, he said.

Haugen and another inmate, Jason Brumwell, landed on death row in 2007, when both were convicted of killing a third inmate at the state penitentiary in Salem.

At a joint trial in Marion County Circuit Court, Haugen and Brumwell were convicted by a jury for the 2003 slaying of inmate David Polin.

Polin suffered a crushed skull and 84 stab wounds.

Prosecutors maintained that Haugen and Brumwell killed Polin because they mistakenly believed he snitched to prison officials about their use of drugs.

At the time of Polin’s murder, Haugen was in prison for the 1981 murder of his ex-girlfriend’s mother in Portland.

During sometimes-testy court proceedings on Wednesday, Haugen fired his court-appointed attorneys, Andy Simrin and Keith Goody. He complained that they had been acting against his wishes by filing legal motions and taking other steps to delay his execution.

“This is my time to choose,” Haugen said. He added: “They’re trying to take that away from me, your honor, and it’s damaging my spirit."

At Haugen’s behest, Simrin and Goody were formally removed as his attorneys. Haugen now represents himself in all legal matters.

In another unusual development, Haugen came to the defense of the judge who signed his death warrant.

Haugen heaped praise on Guimond after Simrin and Goody filed a motion on Tuesday seeking to recuse, or remove, the judge from the death warrant case. The motion was denied by Judge Thomas Hart, and Guimond then entered the courtroom to preside over the death warrant hearing.

Source: Statesman Journal, May 18, 2011

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Clarence Brandley: Ex-Death Row Inmate Still Fighting for Restitution

Clarence Brandley, who spent nearly 10 years on death row for a murder he did not commit, will be back in the news today.

He and supporters are holding a press conference this afternoon to push for restitution from the state for being wrongly imprisoned. Like Anthony Graves, another Texan who spent time in prison for a murder he did not commit, Brandley is being denied compensation because the court order freeing him does not include language declaring him innocent.

"This is a righteous cause to bring justice and have it work the way it is supposed to work," said his brother, Ozell Brandley. "We will hold those public officials accountable for their actions of refusing compensation for those who were wrongfully imprisoned. Their careers should be over if they cannot dispense justice. My brother Clarence and the families of the wrongfully convicted as well as the victims' families deserve more. Clarence and my family have paid a high price for their injustice."

Brandley was convicted for the 1980 rape and murder of a 16-year-old student at the Conroe school where he worked as a janitor. He was freed in 1990.

The judge who heard his plea for exoneration famously said, ""In the thirty years that this court has presided over matters in the judicial system, no case has presented a more shocking scenario of the effects of racial prejudice, perjured testimony, witness intimidation (and) an investigation the outcome of which has been predetermined."

The case became the subject of a made-for-cable movie.

Brandley has faced issues with child support since his release, and has lost a huge lawsuit he filed against various state agencies.

At today's press conference, organizers say, "Representatives of civil rights and community organizations, including Witness to Innocence, the National Black United Front, the Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement, and others will be present Wednesday in support of Brandley's claim for compensation."

Source: Houston Press, May 18, 2011

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Alabama to carry out first execution using Lundbeck drugs

Lundbeck: "Yes, our drug kills!"

Alabama is today set to execute its first prisoner using drugs produced by Danish pharmaceutical company Lundbeck.

Jason Williams will be killed using the barbiturate pentobarbital, after US shortages of previously-used drugs led Alabama to switch. Copenhagen-headquartered firm Lundbeck is the sole supplier of this drug – also known as Nembutal – to death rows in America.

Alabama is the latest in an increasingly long line of states to start using pentobarbital for executions as a result of shortages of the anaesthetic sodium thiopental. Williams will be the 11th person in the US executed with Lundbeck drugs.

Legal action charity Reprieve has asked Lundbeck to take action to prevent its drugs from being used in this way. While Lundbeck claims to be strongly opposed to the use of its products in executions, the firm has yet to explain adequately why it cannot do more to put a stop to it. In Williams’ case, Lundbeck refused to submit an ‘amicus curiae’ brief to the court specifically stating its opposition to the use of pentobarbital in his execution, and raising concerns over the use of the product for purposes for which it was not intended.

Reprieve Investigator Maya Foa said:

“Lundbeck are fast becoming better known for ending lives than for improving them.

“Aside from moral concerns, this is damaging their reputation as a business – one investor recently sold their shares and others are asking questions.

“Lundbeck should exit the execution drug market immediately if they want to salvage their reputation.”

1. For further information please contact Donald Campbell in Reprieve's press office on +44 (0)20 7427 1082 / (0)7791 755 415

2. Reprieve previously asked Lundbeck to submit an amicus curiae (‘friend of the court) brief, providing a suggested draft, but the firm declined. http://www.reprieve.org.uk/2011_05_12_Lundbeck_refuses_amicus

3. Reprieve has suggested a range of possible courses of action to Lundbeck to put a stop to the use of its drugs in executions – a briefing on the issue can be found here: http://www.reprieve.org.uk/static/downloads/2011_05_12_PUB_NEMBUTAL_DISTRIBUTION_BRIEFING.pdf

4. Alabama will become the sixth US state to have carried out executions using Lundbeck’s pentobarbital. The other states and the names of those executed so far are as follows:

Mississippi: Benny Stevens, Rodney Gray

Oklahoma: John David Duty, Billy Don Alverson, Jeffrey Matthews

Ohio: Johnnie Baston, Clarence Carter, Daniel Bedford

South Carolina: Jeffrey Motts

Texas: Cary Kerr

5. Danish pension fund Unipension recently sold their shares in Lundbeck, citing concerns over their use in executions and the company’s unwillingness to engage with investors on the issue. Unipension told the Associated Press: "It has not been possible for Unipension to get a detailed report regarding Lundbeck's efforts to ensure that its products are not used in an unwanted manner […] It has been our impression that Lundbeck did not want to engage in a genuine dialogue with us as an investor."

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2011/05/13/general-eu-denmark-execution-drug_8465488.html

Reprieve, a legal action charity, uses the law to enforce the human rights of prisoners, from death row to Guantánamo Bay. Reprieve investigates, litigates and educates, working on the frontline, to provide legal support to prisoners unable to pay for it themselves. Reprieve promotes the rule of law around the world, securing each person’s right to a fair trial and saving lives. Clive Stafford Smith is the founder of Reprieve and has spent 27 years working on behalf of people facing the death penalty in the USA.

Reprieve

PO Box 52742

London EC4P 4WS

Tel: 020 7353 4640

Fax: 020 7353 4641

Email: info@reprieve.org.uk

Website: www.reprieve.org.uk


Related article: "Pentobarbital: The Irreversible Cure", The Pentobarbital Experiment, May 19, 2011

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Death row lawyers question competence of lethal injection drug supplier

Lawyers for a US death row prisoner have called for his execution not to go ahead due to serious questions over how the drugs set to be used were imported, and the competence and credibility of their supplier.

A motion filed by Carey Dean Moore’s lawyers in Nebraska asserts that the state’s Department of Correctional Services (DCS) did not obtain the execution drug sodium thiopental from a manufacturer approved by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

It also questions whether the drug supplier's personnel “have the level of competence, professionalism and credibility to be DCS’ source of one of the essential lethal drugs”, in the light of abusive emails between the firm’s director and other staff following an internal dispute.

The Director of India-based Kayem Pharma, which supplied the sodium thiopental, has described his former US colleagues who were in direct contact with Nebraska’s DCS as “drug peddlers” in emails to Moore’s lawyers. Kayem’s former US personnel have sent the Director emails referring to him as a “piece of shit thief”.

Reprieve Investigator Sophie Walker said:

“It is hard to see how Nebraska’s department of corrections can defend the use of these drugs in executions.

“Not only were they improperly imported – but they were bought by Nebraska from people described as ‘drug peddlers’ by one of their own colleagues.

“The revelation of chaotic and abusive relations between Kayem Pharma’s US and Indian personnel casts serious doubt over their competence.

“If Nebraska now pushes ahead with executions using these drugs, it risks irreparably damaging its credibility.”

Source: Reprieve, May 18, 2011

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Mississippi executes Rodney Gray

Rodney Gray

PARCHMAN, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi man convicted of the shotgun slaying of an elderly woman whose body was left near a rural bridge has been executed.

Corrections officials said 38-year-old Rodney Gray was pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. CDT Tuesday at the state penitentiary at Parchman.

Gray was sentenced to death in 1996 for killing 79-year-old Grace Blackwell of Louin, whose body was found Aug. 15, 1994, at the end of a Newton County bridge. Blackwell died from a shotgun wound to the head.

Blackwell was last seen after cashing a $1,200 check at the woman's bank and her car was later found behind a service station. In court records, prosecutors said Blackwell's blood was found on Gray's clothing.

Gray was visited by his mother Tuesday. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected his last appeal.

Source: AP, May 17, 2011

MDOC: Gray resigned to die but says he's innocent

PARCHMAN — As his execution draws nearer this afternoon, death row inmate Rodney Gray is still proclaiming his innocence.

Mississippi Department of Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps told the media at a 4:45 p.m. briefing that Gray is maintaining he is not guilty of any of the crimes that led to his death sentence.

But the lead prosecutor in the case has said the evidence against Gray in the 1994 kidnapping, rape, robbery and murder of 79-year-old Grace Blackwell in Newton County left no doubt about his guilt.

Resigned to his fate, Gray, 38, has remained talkative and had made at least two phone calls today, one to a friend and one to his spiritual adviser, Epps said. His mother visited him from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Two of his attorneys also have visited him.

MDOC Chaplain Willie Bays was visiting with the condemned man late today.

Gray doesn't want any family member to view his execution. He has asked Bays to witness his execution after his own spiritual adviser didn't make the trip.

For his last meal, Gray made no special request and was given the same food as other inmates, but Epps said Gray ate only one bite of the chicken fried steak.

“He said he has made peace with the Lord,” Epps said of conversations he had with Gray today. “He has been reading the Bible.”

Source: ClarionLedger.com, May 17, 2011
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Ohio executes Daniel Lee Bedford

Daniel Lee Bedford

LUCASVILLE, Ohio (AP) — The state on Tuesday executed a man who said he didn't remember fatally shooting his ex-girlfriend and her boyfriend at the woman's Cincinnati apartment in 1984.

Daniel Lee Bedford, 63, became the third inmate in Ohio and the nation to be put to death using the surgical sedative pentobarbital as a stand-alone execution drug. He was pronounced dead at 11:18 a.m.

Bedford's attorneys pushed to block the lethal injection in a last-minute legal battle. They argued Bedford had dementia and a mild mental disability and wasn't competent enough to understand why he was being executed. They also said he was denied legal proceedings to which he was entitled.

Prosecutors challenged the idea that Bedford wasn't competent and successfully appealed a stay of execution issued Monday by a federal judge.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday refused the defense's request to block the execution.

Bedford is the fourth Ohio inmate put to death this year.

He was sentenced to death after confessing to authorities that he shot Gwen Toepfert, 25, and John Smith, 27, at Toepfert's Cincinnati apartment, apparently because he was jealous after finding the couple there several days before the slayings.

Bedford learned from Toepfert's roommate that the couple were home and waited at the apartment where, armed with a revolver and a shotgun, he killed Smith and shot Toepfert multiple times before returning to her body and firing a shotgun blast into her groin to be sure she was dead, prosecutors said.

Bedford told the state parole board in March he didn't remember the slayings but that his attorneys had told him details and he was "sorry it happened."

Relatives of Toepfert and Smith expressed support for the execution, saying they believe the killings were merciless and Bedford knew what he was doing.

Gov. John Kasich denied clemency, and the Ohio Supreme Court also refused to block the execution, rejecting the defense's arguments about Bedford's competency.

Bedford becomes the 4th condemned inmate in Ohio to be put to death this year and the 45th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1999.

Bedford becomes the 16th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1250th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977. There are 4 more executions scheduled in the US this month and 7 more in June.

Source: AP, Rick Halperin, May 17, 2011

Related article: "Brain-damaged man to be executed using Lundbeck’s neurological treatment drugs", Reprieve, May 16, 2011
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Brain-damaged man to be executed using Lundbeck’s neurological treatment drugs

A man with grave neurological disorders is scheduled to be executed tomorrow [Tuesday] with drugs that should be used to treat him.

Ohio is set to execute 63 year-old Danny Lee Bedford - who suffers from seizures, strokes and brain trauma - using a massive overdose of a drug made by Danish firm Lundbeck and originally developed for the treatment of seizures.

The range of disorders afflicting Danny severely impairs his neurological functioning. Unable to carry out simple tasks or comprehend and retain information, he has no memory of the crime for which he has been condemned and is incapable of understanding the punishment.

Legal action charity Reprieve is asking Lundbeck’s CEO to write urgently to Ohio’s Governor in support of a petition filed by Danny’s lawyers which states that his neurological condition renders him incompetent to be executed. Reprieve is also asking that CEO Ulf Wiinberg uses Lundbeck’s expertise to confirm Bedford’s neurological deficiencies and detail the treatment he should be receiving for them. As leaders in the field of neurology and psychiatry, Lundbeck are well placed to diagnose and prescribe treatment for Danny; and as manufacturers of the drug that Ohio DOC intend to use to kill him, their contribution to his legal case will be crucial.

Reprieve’s Director, Clive Stafford Smith said: “Lundbeck's mission is ‘to improve the quality of life for those suffering from psychiatric and neurological disorders’, but they are quickly gaining a reputation for ending lives rather than improving them. Lundbeck should exit the execution drug market immediately lest all of their noble claims be revealed to be meaningless.”

1. For further information please contact Donald Campbell in Reprieve's press office on +44 (0)20 7427 1082 / (0)7791 755 415

2. Danny Lee Bedford has been on death row for nearly three decades. He is borderline mentally retarded and suffers from dementia. Last week, his lawyers filed a Ford petition claiming that his vast array of neurological disorders render him incompetent to be executed. Reprieve has asked Lundbeck CEO, Ulf Wiinberg, to send a letter supporting the Ford petition to Ohio’s Governor Kasich, outlining Danny’s neurological deficiencies and detailing the treatment he should be given.

3. Reprieve wrote to Ulf Wiinberg asking Lundbeck to provide an urgent mental health assessment of Danny Lee Bedford on 13th May - the letter can be found here: http://www.reprieve.org.uk/static/downloads/2011_05_13_PUB_CSS_to_Lundbeck.pdf

Reprieve also wrote today to ask Lundbeck to supply drugs which would improve his quality of life, rather than end it - the letter can be found here: http://www.reprieve.org.uk/static/downloads/2011_05_16_PUB_CSS_to_Lundbeck.pdf

4. Daniel Bedford will be the 9th person to be executed using Lundbeck's pentobarbital. Ohio was the one of the first states to change their lethal injection protocol to Lundbeck's drug, and the only one so far to have opted to use it alone rather than in the three-drug cocktail. To date, over two-thirds of states with active death chambers have now switched their lethal injection protocol to Lundbeck's pentobarbital.

Reprieve, a legal action charity, uses the law to enforce the human rights of prisoners, from death row to Guantánamo Bay. Reprieve investigates, litigates and educates, working on the frontline, to provide legal support to prisoners unable to pay for it themselves. Reprieve promotes the rule of law around the world, securing each person’s right to a fair trial and saving lives. Clive Stafford Smith is the founder of Reprieve and has spent 27 years working on behalf of people facing the death penalty in the USA.

Reprieve

PO Box 52742

London EC4P 4WS

Tel: 020 7353 4640

Fax: 020 7353 4641

Email: info@reprieve.org.uk

Website: www.reprieve.org.uk

Source: Reprieve, May 16, 2011

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US Desperate To Get The Wreckage Of Stealth Helicopter Back

With Pakistan's Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani scheduled to travel
to China on 17 May for a high-profile four-day visit, Western defence
officials will be searching for some indication of what Pakistan is
likely to do with the stealth helicopter wreckage it retrieved following
the US raid on Osama bin Laden's compound.

A senior Pakistani
government official described speculation that China is seeking access
to the aircraft as "mere nonsense", though he did confirm that the
wreckage was still in Pakistani hands.

Two senior NATO defence
officials based in Islamabad said the US is seeking the return of the
wreckage to prevent it being passed onto third parties such as China.
"The US is desperate to get the wreckage back," one of the officials
said.

What ultimately happens to the stealth helicopter wreckage
left behind by US special forces during the 1 May raid may depend
largely on how the parties concerned answer a single question: 'How much
is it worth?'

Some former and current US government officials
have cautioned that Pakistan would have little to lose by sharing the
technology with China, and that the consequences for the US would be
grave if it could not immediately recover the wreckage.

Amnesty slams US on detentions, executions

The US human rights record has been marred by indefinite detentions at Guantanamo Bay and in Afghanistan and by a flawed capital punishment system, Amnesty International said Friday.

In its annual global human rights report, the London-based organisation said US authorities executed 46 people over the past year, despite doubts in several case about the defendants' guilt and questions in others over legal representation or mental impairment.

At the Guantanamo Bay detention center on a US naval base in Cuba, 174 men were still being held at the end of the year, "including 3 who had been convicted under a military commission system which failed to meet international fair trial standards," the report said.

"Scores of men remained in indefinite military detention in Guantanamo as President (Barack) Obama's one-year deadline for closure of the facility there came and went," it said.

"Military commission proceedings were conducted in a handful of cases, and the only Guantanamo detainee so far transferred to the US mainland for prosecution in a federal court was tried and convicted."

Additionally, the report said "hundreds" were being held at the US airbase in Bagram, Afghanistan, without due process and some were "subjected to torture or other ill-treatment, including prolonged isolation, sleep deprivation and exposure to extreme temperatures."

Amnesty said US authorities also "blocked efforts to secure accountability and remedy for crimes under international law committed against detainees previously subjected to the USA's secret detention and rendition programme."

It said there were questions about "crimes under international law of torture and enforced disappearance," under the CIA program where detainees were transferred from one state to another "by means that bypass judicial and administrative due process."

It also noted that former president George W. Bush acknowledged in his memoirs that "he had personally authorised 'enhanced interrogation techniques' for use by the CIA against detainees held in secret custody."

In other criticisms of the United States, Amnesty said "excessive force" by US law enforcement was a concern, with 45 people killed during the past year after being struck by police Tasers -- 450 deaths since 2001.

"Most of the deceased were unarmed and did not appear to present a serious threat when they were shocked," it said.

Amnesty also expressed concern about an immigration law passed in Arizona which could allow police to demand proof of legal status, fearing it would increase "racial profiling."

It also said "hundreds of women continued to die from preventable pregnancy-related complications" because of a lack of health care coverage.

Source: Agence France-Presse, May 13, 2011

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Europe fights the death penalty—with drugs

Danish company manufactures U.S. executioners' anesthetic of choice for lethal injections

BRUSSELS, Belgium — The Danish pharmaceutical company Lundbeck has an ethical dilemma.

It prides itself on making products that improve peoples’ lives. But one is helping put people to death.

Convicted killer Benny Joe Stevens was executed Tuesday in Mississippi’s Parchman State Penitentiary with a lethal injection of the anesthetic pentobarbital made by Lundbeck.

Denmark, like the rest of the European Union, is officially opposed to the death penalty. Lundbeck spokesman Anders Schroll said the company holds that position in the Danish headquarters as well as in its American office.

“This is a misuse of our product,” Schroll said. “We are in an ethical dilemma where we are opposed to the use of our medication for capital punishment while at the same time we want to make sure that patients who benefit from our medication get access to it.”

Pentobarbital also is used in the treatment of seizures in humans and in anesthesia and euthanasia of animals. Only Lundbeck still manufactures the drug for purchase in the United States. Schroll provided letters from doctors urging the company not to withdraw the 50 million doses of the drug sold each year.

For its part, Schroll said Lundbeck has sent letters to prisons in 11 states in recent months demanding they cease using pentobarbital as part of the lethal injection “cocktail” because “this is just not what we stand for” he said. The Danish foreign ministry has pursued the matter through its contacts. No prison has responded. In fact, more and more states are intending to use the drug, with Virginia, the secondmost-active death-penalty state, announcing a switch just this week, following the lead execution state, Texas, earlier this month.

A conundrum

The mid-sized Danish company is left in this “conundrum,” as Schroll put it, because other businesses have put an end to their products’ use in executions. Sodium thiopental was used as the requisite sedative in the lethal mix by all but one of the 36 death-penalty states until very recently. The only U.S. maker of sodium thiopental, Hospira, started running short in summer 2010 and stopped making it altogether in January when it moved its manufacturing facility to Italy, which forbade using it for executions.

The difficulty in obtaining sodium thiopental led to a mad scramble by institutions to obtain it, an effort that in some cases involved the Food and Drug Administration, which had to bypass certain regulations so it could be imported from Britain, where a company called Dream Pharma operated out of a driving school. The desperation of prison authorities and dodgy practices came to light in documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California and the London-based human rights group Reprieve.

The British government late last year put an emergency export ban on sodium thiopental, after being sued by Reprieve. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency has now seized stockpiles of sodium thiopental due to concerns raised about the legality of its import.

But there are also concerns about whether the drug made by Dream Pharma actually worked. The mother of executed Georgia inmate Brandon Rhode came to Europe recently to share the story of what she believes was the agonizing death of her son last year due to defective sodium thiopental. A lethal-injection expert said Brandon’s eyes remained open during his execution, indicating the sedative didn’t work properly. Patches Rohde pleaded with the British government to extend the emergency ban on the drug, saying U.S. authorities had “not only killed Brandon but tortured him … . I beg [you] to keep this torture from happening to anyone else.”

Last month Britain added pentobarbital along with two other lethal-injection drugs to the emergency export ban.

“We oppose the death penalty in all circumstances,” said U.K. Business Secretary Vince Cable, “and are clear that British drugs should not be used to carry out lethal injections.”

Patches Rohde is gratified. Speaking from her home in Mississippi this week, she said, “There’s just no words than can get across how it feels. The fact that Europeans are going to work harder to help people in prison in the U.S. than the people in the U.S. are is just”—she paused cautiously—“it’s shameful for the Americans … but it’s great. It really is.”

Source: TucsonSentinel.com, May 13, 2011

Related article: "Danish pharmaceutical company Lundbeck votes to continue supplying pentobarbital for lethal injections", Reprieve, March 25, 2011

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Clemency recommended for Ohio death row inmate Shawn Hawkins

The Ohio Parole Board today recommended that death row inmate Shawn Hawkins of Cincinnati be spared execution and spend the rest of his life in prison.

The clemency report by the parole board recommends that Ohio Gov. John Kasich commute the death sentence and order Hawkins, 42, to be in prison for life without parole.

Hawkins was convicted and sentenced to death out of Hamilton County for the June 1989 deaths of Terrance Richard and Diamond Marteen. Hawkins is scheduled for execution on June 14, 2011.

According to the report: "The Board is not confident in the death sentence in this case, but is also not convinced that Shawn Hawkins is innocent.''

Because of that uncertainty, the 7-member board recommended unanimously that Kasich commute the death sentence.

Anthony G. Covatta Jr., Hawkins' Cincinnati attorney, who has argued that Hawkins deserves a new trial, said the death penalty is a "fate that Shawn does not deserve."

Covatta said the parole board had evidence that the jury in the original case did not see or hear.

"We are confident that Governor Kasich will use his clemency power to affirm the Parole Board's unanimous recommendation,'' he said.

Covatta has filed a motion for a new trial. Arguments from defense lawyers and Hamilton County prosecutors are scheduled Tuesday in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court.

The mother of victim Terrance Richard was outraged at the recommendation for clemency.

"My son's death was in vain," said Barbara Richard, 60, of North College Hill. "They make me feel like they're rewarding him (Shawn Hawkins) for killing my son because of the detectives of Mount Healthy weren't doing their job."

She said the governor has the last word, "so hopefully he will do what is right."

Richard's cousin, Shirley Miller, 70, of Forest Park, urged Kasich to reject the recommendation for clemency.

"The governor needs to send a message to all of the young folks out there with guns that when you kill somebody you're going to have to give up your own life," she said.

Source: cincinnati.com, May 12, 2011

Inmate asks to be spared death

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — An inmate scheduled to die next month for killing two men in 1989 is asking the Ohio Parole Board for mercy, saying new evidence exonerates him of the crime.

A new forensic analysis casts doubt on the prosecution's argument that one of the victims was killed in a car by death row inmate Shawn Hawkins in Mount Healthy, according to a motion for a new trial filed by attorneys for Hawkins.

The motion also argues that three witnesses now provide alibis for Hawkins at the time of the slayings of 18-year-old Terrance Richard and 19-year-old Diamond Marteen, and that a partial fingerprint of Hawkins found in the car was handled improperly and is flawed evidence.

The motion also questions inconsistent testimony from the sole eyewitness to the slayings.

"It beggars the imagination of the undersigned as to how a conviction was ever obtained on such evidence," attorney Anthony Covatta said in the filing Monday.

On Wednesday, Covatta argued before the Ohio Parole Board that Hawkins' life should be spared.

Click here to read the full article.

Source: cincinnati.com, May 4, 2011

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US & China To Boost Military Ties

US military will lay out the red carpet next week for China's military
chief as Washington renews its effort to forge a defence dialogue with
Beijing despite tensions and mutual distrust.


People's Liberation Army (PLA) Chief of General Staff Chen Bingde starts
a week-long visit Sunday to the United States, the first trip to
America by the country's top-ranking officer in seven years, officials
said.


Chen will tour four military bases, deliver a speech to American
officers and hold talks with his US counterpart, Admiral Mike Mullen,
Defence Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a
senior defence official said Friday.


"We've pulled out all the stops" for the visit, the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told reporters.


Military relations between the two economic powers have been strained
and lagged behind diplomatic and trade ties, with Beijing objecting to
US arms sales to Taiwan while Washington has voiced concern about
China's military buildup.


Gates and other US officials have appealed to China to agree to a more
reliable dialogue that could help defuse tensions and avoid potential
misunderstandings, similar to ties that were built up between the
Americans and the Soviets during the Cold War.


"What we're really looking for is a relationship that there's some
mutual transparency and trust developed between us. So that if there is
some incident or some disagreement, it's a relationship that we can
depend on," the official said.


The Pentagon did not expect a breakthrough during Chen's visit but the
official said Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, hoped to
persuade Chen to agree to more regularly scheduled discussions.


"We will discuss options for more contact, with some established rhythm,
periodic phone conversations, something like that," he said.


The last US visit by a senior leader from the PLA was in 2009, when
General Xu Caihou came to Washington and toured military bases.


When the US defence secretary paid a high-profile visit to Beijing in
January, the Chinese military upstaged Gates with an inaugural test
flight of the country's J-20 stealth fighter.


Chen was expected to offer his view of military relations at a speech on
Wednesday at National Defence University after holding talks on Tuesday
with Mullen and senior military staff in "the tank" meeting room at the
Pentagon.


Over the course of the week, the Chinese general is due to get a
first-hand look at US naval warships in Norfolk, Virginia, a "live fire"
exercise at Fort Stewart army base in Georgia, fighter aircraft at
Nellis Air Force in Nevada and the military's National Training Centre
in California.


Chen also plans to attend a concert Monday at Washington's Kennedy
Centre with bands from the US Army and the PLA performing. US officials
said it will mark the first time a PLA band has ever played in the
United States.


Chen's visit comes after the United States said Wednesday it wanted to
set guidelines with Beijing on the use of space, voicing worries that
the Asian power is increasingly able to destroy or jam satellites.

Lundbeck refuses to ask US court to prevent the use of its drugs in executions

Pharmaceutical company Lundbeck has refused to submit testimony to a US court opposing the use of its drugs in executions.

On behalf of capital defence lawyers in Alabama, legal action charity Reprieve had asked the company to submit an ‘amicus curiae’ brief to Alabama’s Supreme Court, voicing opposition to the use of Lundbeck-produced pentobarbital in the impending execution of Jason Williams and confirming that such use of the product was untested and not recommended.

However, Lundbeck has so far refused to take this simple action, even though it could help to stave off the increasing use of their products in US execution chambers – something to which they have claimed to be ‘adamantly opposed’ and to be doing 'all they can' to prevent.

Reprieve Investigator Maya Foa said:

“It is hard to see why Lundbeck would not take this straightforward opportunity which could help to save a life. With increasing numbers of US states using Lundbeck’s drugs to kill people, surely this is the very least they could do.

“There is still time for Lundbeck to change their mind and take this simple step. If they continue to refuse, their company ‘code of ethics’ will not be worth the paper it’s printed on.”

  

For further information please contact Donald Campbell in Reprieve’s press office on +44 (0)20 7427 1082 / (0)7791 755 415

1. Reprieve submitted a suggested draft of an amicus curiae (‘friend of the court’) brief to Lundbeck, which set out their opposition to the use of their drug Nembutal (another name for the barbiturate pentobarbital) in the execution of prisoners (a position Lundbeck has previously voiced publicly); voiced concerns over the use of the product for purposes for which it was not intended and potential safety implications; and stressed that such a use went against the company’s ethical position. However, Lundbeck claimed regulatory issues prevented them from doing so – it is unclear what these issues are. Copies of the suggested draft amicus curiae brief and relevant correspondence with Lundbeck are available on request.

2. Jason Williams is scheduled to be executed in Alabama on Thursday 19 May 2011, using a three-drug cocktail which includes Lundbeck's Nembutal (pentobarbital).  Williams' lawyers were only recently notified of Alabama's decision to switch from sodium thiopental to pentobarbital and the prison has released very limited information about their new lethal injection protocol. Veterinarians commonly use pentobarbital to put down animals, but they specifically rule out its use as part of a three drug cocktail in this manner due to safety concerns.

3. Increasing numbers of US states have started using pentobarbital in executions as domestic supplies of the (until recently) widely used anaesthetic sodium thiopental have dried up. Lundbeck is the sole supplier of pentobarbital in the US.

4. Seven prisoners have now been executed in the US using Lundbeck’s drugs, most recently Jeffrey Motts in South Carolina.

5. The increasing number of states using Lundbeck’s pentobarbital in executions includes those with the busiest (Texas) and second-busiest (Virginia) death chambers in the country. Virginia’s switch was reported earlier this week (9 May 2011). http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/virginia-to-use-new-drug-in-executions-amid-shortage-seizures-of-commonly-used-sedative/2011/05/09/AFq3STaG_story.html

Reprieve, a legal action charity, uses the law to enforce the human rights of prisoners, from death row to Guantánamo Bay. Reprieve investigates, litigates and educates, working on the frontline, to provide legal support to prisoners unable to pay for it themselves. Reprieve promotes the rule of law around the world, securing each person’s right to a fair trial and saving lives. Clive Stafford Smith is the founder of Reprieve and has spent 27 years working on behalf of people facing the death penalty in the USA.

Reprieve

PO Box 52742

London EC4P 4WS

Tel: 020 7353 4640

Fax: 020 7353 4641

Email: info@reprieve.org.uk

Website: www.reprieve.org.uk

Related article: "Danish pharmaceutical company Lundbeck votes to continue supplying pentobarbital for lethal injections", Reprieve, March 25, 2011

Contact Lundbeck,  send an email (contact@lundbeck.com)

Source: Reprieve, May 12, 2011

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