Public defender builds injection case

NF Reporter · 01-02-2008, 05:02 AM

AP - One of the biggest capital punishment cases to come before the U.S. Supreme Court in a generation was put together largely by a young, fresh-out-of-law-school member of Kentucky's overworked and underpaid corps of public defenders.

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waltky · 01-06-2008, 06:43 PM

Killer has no remorse...

Convicted killer unapologetic for actions
Jan. 6, 2008 -- Ralph Baze, convicted of killing two Kentucky lawmen in 1992, says he is done apologizing for the slayings and will keep trying to avoid the death penalty.

Quote:

In a recent interview from a Kentucky prison, Baze said he would no longer be apologizing for killing Powell County Sheriff Steve Bennett and Deputy Arthur Briscoe, nor would he stop attempting to avoid death by lethal injection, The (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal reported Sunday. "I've done all the apologizing I'm going to do," Baze said. "They either believe me or they don't."

"I'm not going to throw my hands up and not try to even save my life." After being convicted of killing Bennett and Briscoe when the officers attempted to arrest him Jan. 30, 1992, Baze was sentenced to death. Baze and another convicted killer appealed their death sentences to the Kentucky Supreme Court.

The newspaper said their stance that lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment was rejected by the state court but this week the pair will take their case before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Source

waltky · 04-16-2008, 08:00 PM

Lethal injection upheld...

Lethal injection ruled legal in US
Wednesday 16th April, 2008 - The United States Supreme Court has rejected a challenge by two Kentucky death row inmates who argued the current lethal injection method violated the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

Quote:

The men put it to the court that the lethal three-drug cocktail, which has been used in most of the country's executions during the past 30 years, caused needless pain and suffering.

Death penalty opponents argued the condemned prisoner could suffer excruciating pain if given the wrong dosage of the anesthetic. In recent years there have been failed lethal injection executions in Florida and California, in which inmates took up to 30 minutes to die.

Executions in the US were halted when the court agreed in late September to decide the case. The Supreme Court ruling clears the way for executions to begin again.

Lethal injection ruled legal in US

See also:

US state hurries to execute prisoners
Wednesday 16th April, 2008 - The state of Georgia in the US has moved to execute two condemned killers following a US Supreme Court decision on the constitutionality of lethal injections.

Quote:

Just hours after the Supreme Court decision, Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker asked that stays be lifted to allow the executions of Jack Alderman and Curtis Osborne. Their executions were put on hold in October due to the lethal-injection challenge. Alderman awaits execution for killing his wife in 1974 while Osborne is on death row for a 1990 double murder.

On Wednesday, the United States Supreme Court, in a 7-2 decision, rejected a challenge by two Kentucky death row inmates who argued the current lethal injection method violated the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment. The men put it to the court that the lethal three-drug cocktail, which has been used in most of the country's executions during the past 30 years, caused needless pain and suffering.

Death penalty opponents argued the condemned prisoner could suffer excruciating pain if given the wrong dosage of the anaesthetic. In recent years there have been failed lethal injection executions in Florida and California, in which inmates took up to 30 minutes to die. Executions in the US were halted when the court agreed in late September to decide the case.

US state hurries to execute prisoners

itsallrelative · 05-29-2008, 11:35 AM

There's a documentary showing on the Independent Film Channel tonight at nine about a Texas prison chaplain who gave the last rites to 95 death row prisoners before their executions, and became an anti-death penalty activist, after seeing botched executions using lethal injection and what he thought were wrongful executions. Seems like an interesting perspective on the whole capital punishment system...

It's called At the Death House Door

At the Death House Door

waltky · 05-29-2008, 12:31 PM

Sounds like a good title for a blues song.

Oh, Lawdy - ain't gonna live no mo'

`Cause dey got me sittin'...

At de death house door.