Recently in Death Penalty Category
Regrettably, an essential issue in the case was barely mentioned. The attorney for McKinney said, "This Court's decisions in Ring and Hurst require a jury sentencing." That is wrong, yet the attorney for Arizona completely failed to challenge it. The consequences could be catastrophic.
On Friday, the murderers on federal death row won what may have been a Pyrrhic victory. The high court declined to stay or vacate the injunction against their execution. See prior posts here and here. However, the Court signaled its expectation that "the Court of Appeals will render its decision with appropriate dispatch." There is also an opinion "respecting the denial of stay or vacatur" by Justice Alito joined, significantly, by the two junior Justices. Today it is clear that the D.C. Circuit is paying attention.
"Today is a big day, a day marked with sadness and grief but also relief and justice," she said. "But above all today is a day we talk about Donnivan, the boy who loved his family, fiancee and friends, the guy who drove that old red pickup ... He is missed, and he is loved, and he will never be forgotten.Sheila Jackson, Donnivan's former fiancee, said Donnivan was a supporter of the death penalty and that he "really believed in an 'eye for an eye.'" Both Jackson and Peggy Schaeffer agreed justice had been served.
A line of curtains swung open in a dark room of state witnesses. Bucklew was in a room next door positioned on a gurney with a sheet over all but his head. He did not appear to say anything as the drug began working its way through his system. A few wiggles of the toes and a couple turns of the head was it, no choking or other sounds were heard or seen.* * *
West was sentenced to death for the 1986 stabbing deaths of Wanda Romines, 51, and her 15-year-old daughter, Sheila Romines, in their East Tennessee home. He also was convicted of raping Sheila.Investigators say the women had been tortured in front of one another before they died.
This Administration will not tolerate violence against police, and we will do all we can to protect the safety of law enforcement officers. I will share with you one proposal that we will be advancing after Labor Day. We will be proposing legislation providing that in cases of mass murder, or in cases of murder of a law enforcement officer, there will be a timetable for judicial proceedings that will allow imposition of any death sentence without undue delay. Punishment must be swift and certain.
I am elated that speeding up the needlessly and grotesquely protracted proceedings in capital cases is getting the personal attention of the Attorney General. However, the chances of getting death penalty fast track legislation through Nancy Pelosi's House of Representatives are essentially nil, so why don't we see what we can do with existing law?
Attorney General William Barr should be applauded for announcing Thursday that the federal government will resume executing convicted murderers on death row for the first time since 2003, beginning with five vicious killers in December and January.* * *While the legislation Barr refers to permits a punishment of death, it doesn't compel it. We rely on the Justice Department to seek the death penalty only for the worst of the worst murderers - those who most clearly deserve to die. And we rely on juries in each individual murder case to act as the moral filter and conscience of the community to decide if the death penalty is warranted.Reviewing the despicable crimes of the five men scheduled to be executed, we can safely say that the Justice Department has exercised its prerogative wisely.
Attorney General William P. Barr has directed the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to adopt a proposed Addendum to the Federal Execution Protocol--clearing the way for the federal government to resume capital punishment after a nearly two decade lapse, and bringing justice to victims of the most horrific crimes. The Attorney General has further directed the Acting Director of the BOP, Hugh Hurwitz, to schedule the executions of five death-row inmates convicted of murdering, and in some cases torturing and raping, the most vulnerable in our society--children and the elderly.* * *The Federal Execution Protocol Addendum, which closely mirrors protocols utilized by several states, including currently Georgia, Missouri, and Texas, replaces the three-drug procedure previously used in federal executions with a single drug--pentobarbital. Since 2010, 14 states have used pentobarbital in over 200 executions, and federal courts, including the Supreme Court, have repeatedly upheld the use of pentobarbital in executions as consistent with the Eighth Amendment.
Confirming that we never should have taken this case, the Court almost entirely ignores--and certainly does not refute--the race-neutral reasons given by the State for striking Wright and four other black prospective jurors. Two of these prospective jurors knew Flowers' family and had been sued by Tardy Furniture-- the family business of one of the victims and also of one of the trial witnesses. One refused to consider the death penalty and apparently lied about working side-by-side with Flowers' sister. One was related to Flowers and lied about her opinion of the death penalty to try to get out of jury duty. And one said that because she worked with two of Flowers' family members, she might favor him and would not consider only the evidence presented.
Those seem like good reasons. Perhaps I will change my mind as I read all of the opinions more closely.