DEATH ROW--death penalty in America

[HairOfTheDog]

Busy week on The Row


^ Robert Hendrix, double murderer. Executed by the state of Florida.

Hendrix was a burglar and his cousin was his partner.

In 1990, they were busted and the cousin made a deal to testify against Hendrix.

So, Hendrix killed his cousin and his cousin's wife. He was convicted and sentenced to death for the double murder. His execution was carried out almost 25 years later.


^ William Rousan, double murderer. Executed by the state of Missouri.

Rousan was executed only a few miles from the farm where prosecutors say he orchestrated the 1993 killing of a couple whose cows he wanted to steal.

Rousan's last words were, "My trials and transgressions have been many. But thanks be to my Lord and savior, Jesus Christ, I have a new home in his heavenly kingdom."


^ Clayton Lockett, murderer. Execution halted/stayed by the state of Oklahoma.

Lockett killed a 19-year-old girl in 1999. His execution was stayed amidst a political and procedural clusterfuck.

The Oklahoma Department of Criminal Appeals denied the appeal of Lockett and his fellow death row inmate Charles Warner (who raped and killed an 11-month-old in 1997). The appeal claims it's unconstitutional for the state to withhold the source and testing methods for its new death drug combo.

But, the Oklahoma Supreme Court - which typically only decides civil matters - intervened. The judges battled amongst themselves and reached a 5 - 4 decision to stay today's scheduled execution of Lockett and the execution of Warner (which is scheduled for next month).

Governor Mary Fallin said today that the Oklahoma Supreme Court exceeded its authority in staying the executions and directed Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to seek guidance from the Court of Criminal Appeals on what to do next.

[HairOfTheDog]

^ Oklahoma...to the left....to the right.

So, The Oklahoma Supreme Court dissolved the stays of execution it had issued earlier in the week in a sharply divided and much criticized 5-4 decision. Because the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals has exclusive jurisdiction over criminal matters, Governor Fallin and others had accused the state's high court of initially overstepping its bounds. Now, the state has announced it will carry out the first double execution in over 75 years next week.

"This ruling (reversing the stay) shows that our legal system works," Fallin said of the high court's latest decision.


The state of Oklahoma is going to execute both ^ Warner and Lockett on April 29^th. The Oklahoma Department of Corrections is working on specifics and logistics of how the executions will be carried out, Fallin said. The state has not executed two inmates on the same day since convicted murderers Charlie Sands and Leon Siler were electrocuted on June 11, 1937.

"The defendants had their day in court. The court has made a decision. Two men that do not contest their guilt in heinous murders will now face justice, and the families and friends of their victims will now have closure." -- Governor Mary Fallin

On the other side, Seth Day, an attorney for Lockett and Warner, said that without knowing the source of the drugs, the public has no way of knowing whether the execution will be carried out in a "constitutional and humane manner."

[Duchess]

How do people defend the rights of savages when it comes to what is humane. People like that are not deserving of any courtesy and it annoys me when I see consideration given to their rights.

[Duchess]

It's being reported that the execution was botched. He's dead but apparently it wasn't pretty, not that any death is.

A botched execution that used a new drug combination left an Oklahoma inmate writhing and clenching his teeth on the gurney Tuesday, leading prison officials to halt the proceedings before the inmate's eventual death from a heart attack.

Story

[ramseycat]

Poor guy. (Sarcasm). I bet the girl he buried alive died a more painful death than he did.

[HairOfTheDog]

It's being reported that the execution was botched. He's dead but apparently it wasn't pretty, not that any death is.

A botched execution that used a new drug combination left an Oklahoma inmate writhing and clenching his teeth on the gurney Tuesday, leading prison officials to halt the proceedings before the inmate's eventual death from a heart attack.

Story

This whole deal has been a clusterfuck. First, the executions of Lockett and Warner were stayed by the OK Supreme Court when the OK Department of Corrections kicked the case to them due to the inmates' suit complaining against "untested and unrevealed death drugs". Then, the Dept of Corrections took the ball back and the stays were overruled, and they announced the first double execution in 75 years.

Now this. Maybe the drugs really didn't perform as intended after all? Maybe Lockett was coached on how to adversely react to the injection (as it's been alleged that Dennis McGuire did)? IDK.

As a result, Warner's execution has been stayed again for at least 2 weeks. Death penalty opponents are getting a lot of mileage out of the uncertainty surrounding the new death drug combos. Really wish the states could collaborate on one solution and a single source. Not sure why that's so hard.

[Duchess]

Hot D said clusterfuck. I can't explain why I find your cussing so amusing but I do & I'm always so taken aback when seeing it.

Maybe they should consider using whatever it was that Jack Kevorkian used.

[ramseycat]

I read his vein exploded. Maybe he had some pre-existing condition. Prior drug use? Weird that the drug would make the vein explode. But he's dead which was the goal. Why do we worry about being humane? These dudes were not humane. I'm not saying we should deliberately be cruel. By shit happens.

[Cheyne]

Lockett was unconscious while he was "writhing and clenching his teeth", so it's doubtful he felt anything. I hope he was in agony the entire 45 minutes. Stephanie Neiman, the young woman he murdered wasn't unconscious when she was shot twice and buried alive.

Stephanie's story

The son of a bitch got what he deserved IMO.

[justme]

Don't feel sorry for him at all! Maybe that was karma biting him in the ass!

[Maggot]

Today in history:
In 2001, Timothy McVeigh, 33, was executed by injection at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people.

As of today not a single terrorist has been executed for any involvement in ⁹⁄₁₁

[SIXFOOTERsez]

Well, not many "Executions" but there are a fuck of a lot less assholes than there were when we went over there
I am ok with that.
Now, if they could just start clearing Death Row as fast as they did with McVeigh, That would be a fine thing

[Maggot]

Well, not many "Executions" but there are a fuck of a lot less assholes than there were when we went over there
I am ok with that.
Now, if they could just start clearing Death Row as fast as they did with McVeigh, That would be a fine thing

That was Bush'es fault.

[ramseycat]

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/ap/oklahoma/ga...een/ngMXk/

This dude has been in death row for 25 years for killing his 15 year old neighbor. He set to be executed at 7pm today. 5 minutes from now.

[ramseycat]

He's dead. They went through with the execution. I don't know how I feel about that. I go back and forth. I'm just glad I don't have to make that decision.

[BlueTiki]

This dude has been in death row for 25 years for killing his 15 year old neighbor.

He's dead. They went through with the execution. I don't know how I feel about that.

You left out that he raped her, cut her, strangled her and left her naked body out in the open.

And the fact he admitted his crime.

I feel he lived 10 years more than the age of his victim.

He got off easy.

[ramseycat]

He was a scumbag no doubt about it. And not like I don't think he deserved what he got. I am usually in favor of the death penalty but it's just weird for me thinking about an execution happening in my state. IDK. It just bothered me for some reason.

[Duchess]

My state had gallows up until 1996. The last man put to death by hanging had a choice between that and lethal injection. He choose hanging.

[HairOfTheDog]

He got off easy.

I feel that way about this piece of shit who was executed yesterday.



Eddie Wayne Davis ^ was executed at Florida State Prison by injection at 6:43 p.m.

In 1994, Davis broke into his ex-girlfriend's trailer in the central Florida community of Lakeland seeking beer money, according to court documents. Prosecutors say he found the ex sleeping, and that he woke her 11-year-old Kimberly Waters (pictured, right) and raped her.

After the rape, Davis took the little girl to a nearby Moose Lodge, where he beat her and suffocated her with a piece of plastic before dumping her body in a trash can.

Davis made a last-ditch appeal to have his execution delayed, arguing to the U.S. Supreme Court that he had a health condition that made injection of the drugs incredibly painful, which violated the Eight Amendment's prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment.

Full story: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/florida-exec...g-of-girl/

[HairOfTheDog]

CALIFORNIA JUDGE RULES DEATH PENALTY UNCONSTITUTIONAL

Earlier this month, in a sweeping ruling on July 16, U.S. District Court Judge Cormac Carney held that California's death penalty is so dysfunctional as to amount to cruel and unusual punishment.

Vacating the death sentence of Ernest Jones, who has been on death row for almost 20 years, Judge Carney said the punishment cannot serve the purposes of deterrence or retribution when it is administered to a tiny select few, decades after their sentencing:

"Inordinate and unpredictable delay has resulted in a death penalty system in which very few of the hundreds of individuals sentenced to death have been, or even will be, executed by the State. It has resulted in a system in which arbitrary factors, rather than legitimate ones like the nature of the crime or the date of the death sentence, determine whether an individual will actually be executed. And it has resulted in a system that serves no penological purpose. Such a system is unconstitutional."

Carney's decision will be appealed, no doubt. Proposition 34, which would have repealed the death penalty in California, was rejected by voters in 2012.