As U.S. executions wane, Tennessee moves to put more inmates to death
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Tennessee has been waiting more than three decades to kill Donnie Edward Johnson, Stephen Michael West, Charles Walton Wright and Leroy Hall.
This year, all four may die.
They are next in line in a jump-started execution schedule that has suddenly put Tennessee among states with the most active death chambers. After going nine years without putting anyone to death, Tennessee executed three people last year, second only to Texas. In addition to the four this year, it has scheduled two more in 2020.
This relative surge is unusual in America, where new death sentences and executions have dropped to historic lows and public opinion is turning against capital punishment . There were 42 death sentences and 25 executions nationwide last year.
Much of the decline has to do with questions over the use of lethal injection drugs, the primary execution method in the 30 states that still allow the death penalty. Opponents say it is inhumane, and drug companies have resisted states’ attempts to use their products — often obtained secretly — to end someone’s life. The developments have made it increasingly difficult for states to carry out death sentences, with only the most persistent finding ways to continue.
“The death penalty seems to be retreating from most of the country, but there are pockets in which it is disproportionally used,” said Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit that studies the use of capital punishment.
That includes Tennessee, where objections to the state’s lethal injection protocols — first involving a single drug, then, after it became too hard to find, a different three-drug mix — halted executions from 2009 to 2018. The hiatus ended when the state Supreme Court swept those objections aside last year .
The first of the new wave of Tennessee executions was on Aug. 9, when Billy Ray Irick was put to death for the 1985 rape and murder of a 7-year-old girl. On the eve of his death, his appeals reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to intervene. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, in a dissenting opinion, called the process a “rush to execute.”
In the end, Irick was killed with a three-drug combination that was later described as torturous by a doctor hired by inmates’ lawyers — and prompted the next two men on the execution list, Edmund Zagorski and David Miller, to instead choose to die in an electric chair, a method all but abandoned for its barbarity.
“The significance of prisoners choosing a method known to be painful over something that is less known and could take longer, is extraordinarily significant and brutal,” said Megan McCracken, a lawyer at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law’s Death Penalty Clinic. “Prisoners are choosing it over the mix when they hear or see reports of other prisoners remaining alive , breathing , struggling , exhibiting signs of pain and suffering.”
Much of the opposition to the three-drug cocktail is based on the use of midazolam, a sedative that is supposed to render inmates unconscious before the administration of the remaining drugs — one that paralyzes them and one that stops their heart. Legal challenges have included evidence that the midazolam doesn’t prevent the inmate from feeling pain, and could cause pulmonary edema, which can make people feel as if they’re drowning in their own fluids.
“The basic argument is that this is torture and because this is torture it should be considered unconstitutional,” said Brad McLean, who represents a man scheduled for execution in Tennessee in April 2020.
Two men with looming execution dates in Tennessee, Stephen Michael West (Aug. 15, 2019) and Nicholas Todd Sutton (Feb. 20, 2020) have filed a lawsuit seeking to be killed by firing squad, an unlikely possibility that could only happen if the state can no longer obtain lethal injection drugs and the electric chair is found to be unconstitutional. Only Mississippi, Oklahoma and Utah currently allow death by firing squads , although Utah is the only one to use it ─ three times ─ since 1977.
Tennessee death row inmates have challenged the state’s three-drug protocol in a series of lawsuits and court filings. The case reached the state Supreme Court, which in an October hearing focused on requirements set by a 2005 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that inmates prove that a less painful method is available. The Tennessee inmates argued that the state could use a single drug, pentobarbital, which it had accepted in the past. But the state’s lawyers said it could no longer obtain the drug. The state Supreme Court ruled against the inmates , saying there was no clear alternative to the three drugs Tennessee is currently using.
The move to execute more people in Tennessee stands in contrast to Ohio, where a federal judge found in January that a similar three-drug method caused “severe pain and needless suffering.” In response, Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, postponed an inmate’s execution and ordered the state to seek alternative drugs.
Later this year, another important ruling on lethal injections is expected, this time from the U.S. Supreme Court. It is considering a Missouri inmate’s claim that lethal injection would lead to a “gruesome” death because he suffers from a rare condition that would make it difficult for executioners to find a vein to administer the drugs, and would cause him to choke on his own blood. Lawyers say the ruling could affect other cases involving elderly or infirm death-row inmates.
Tennessee’s execution schedule represents the culmination of cases that began decades ago, when the use of capital punishment was at its height in America. While the state has 58 people on death row, only two of them were sentenced since 2013 .
“It is ironic that in a time where the number of executions has decreased significantly, Tennessee has experienced a sudden rush to execute so many men in such a short period of time,” said Kelley Henry, a federal public defender who represents three of the men on Tennessee’s execution list.
Tennessee’s execution schedule:
May 16, 2019: Donnie Edward Johnson, 68, sentenced to death for murder in 1984
Aug. 15, 2019: Stephen Michael West, 66, sentenced to death for murder in 1987
Oct. 10, 2019: Charles Walton Wright, 63, sentenced to death for murder in 1984
Dec. 5, 2019: Leroy Hall, 52, sentenced to death for murder in 1991
Feb. 20, 2020: Nicholas Todd Sutton, 57, sentenced to death for murder in 1986
April 9, 2020: Abu Ali Abdur’Rahman, 68, sentenced to death for murder in 1987
Tags
Who is online
90 visitors
Interesting article..so many topics. Is the death penalty ethical? Is it ethical if it is cruel? Why do they kill people differently than they euthanize animals? I'm sure I am missing some thoughts.... carry on..
Canada abolished the death penalty decades ago. I believe there was a case where DNA was used after a person was convicted of a capital offence and it proved that he was NOT the perpetrator. I have always believed in the adage that it is better that 10 guilty persons go free than for one innocent person to be executed. Mistakes have been made, and I don't mean just technical legal arguments that prevent a conviction, I mean real mistakes or overenthusiastic policing or perjury being used to convict. And as for guilty persons going free, they could rely on the members of a jury being hesitent to convict a person who WAS guilty of a capital crime when they know that they are a party to their being put to death.
If I look to the movies, I consider Hurricane Carter lucky because the evidence against him was so faulty, and of course Andy Dufresne was wrongly convicted in Shawshank Redemption - he was NOT the one who shot his wife and her lover.
In my opinion there often exists revengeful blood-lust by a victim's family that influences those who carry out the procedure of conviction - but I'm sure that nobody can disagree that innocent persons have been put to death.
I think that in China capital punishment is carried out by means of a bullet in the back of one's head - which I guess is pretty lethal. If the government is seeking a foolproof instant method to execute, the guillotine was pretty foolproof.
An interesting topic, but if it is wrong for an individual to commit murder, why is it right for the State to do so - it has NOT proven to be a deterrent.
But people want their executions to be clean. I've been advocating for the guillotine to people who want to execute all criminals.
If we go back to the guillotine, I want someone to see how long they can blink their eyes after they're beheaded. There is a rumor that someone tried this during the French Revolution but there's apparently no proof that it really happened.
It actually really does happen. They even try to speak. Here's why.
When the head is chopped off, it is very sudden. There is still oxgenated blood in it, so the head knows it's been decapitated for about a minute or so. Actual brain death will not happen till about 5 minutes later.
It is brutal. Do what the Russians do. Take them into a tiled room and give them a bullet in the back of the head, if that is what you are into. Me, I don't believe in killing people. If you kill one innocent man, the system is flawed.
Why not just knock them out first, then give them a lethal injection as we do for our pets?
There are some cases where there is absolutely no doubt of guilt, and I'm OK with the death penalty in those cases. But those are few and far between - such as the school shooters caught in the act, or certain serial killers. But I agree, one innocent person is too many.
Believe me, I didn't cry when Jeffrey Dahmer was killed in prison or when they gave Timothy McVeigh the needle. We knew for sure they were guilty. But the number of people who have been proved innocent of their crimes on death row is just astounding to me. What a living nightmare.
name one person in the last 40 years that was innocent of the crime they were convicted of and put to death
I am against the death penalty in almost all cases, but there are some cases where there is irrefutable evidence that a person has committed the most heinous crimes against humanity or children and they should be put to a swift, clean, merciful death. I'm really not sure why that can't be achieved by lethal injection, we have people dying by the truck loads on the streets due to the fentanyl and opioid epidemic, how are the prisons not able to get substances that put the condemned into a euphoric state like heroin can and then drifting off into an endless fentanyl sleep they never wake up from. No other poison that makes the prisoners convulse and foam at the mouth necessary.
At the moment, there are too many people on death row, they stay on death row far too long before exhausting all their appeals, but with the track record of hundreds of death row inmates being exonerated by DNA evidence makes me question the process that's been used to determine their guilt for the last several decades.
If I could just wave a wand to reform the current justice system I would release all non-violent drug offenders, take everyone off death row that wasn't convicted with DNA evidence and change their sentence to life in prison without parole until they're able to either be exonerated with new DNA testing of the evidence in their individual case. And for all but the most hardened criminals and gang members, I would convert the current for profit prisons into private run rehabilitation centers where they are paid based on the number if rehabilitated inmates who have successfully reintegrated into society. That would incentivize them to actually reform prisoners and work to keep them out instead of doing just the opposite with the incentive being turning them into career criminals who keep their for profit prisons full which is what we have now. That would also require eliminating the moronic concept of "mandatory minimums" which simply tie judges hands and preventing them from doing their job and making a recommendation based on their judgement.
I don't think I got my point across very well. I'm only for the DP in extreme cases like child rape/murder or serial killers.
Since I live in the Bible Belt, people here are pretty bloodthirsty. They want people executed for just about everything AND they want it to be done in public. They go on and on about public hangings and such but never once have I ever heard anyone advocate for the guillotine.
Why not bring back the guillotine or drawing and quartering you bloodthirsty assholes, I say. You want public executions well, by God, let's get on with it but none of these sterile, clean executions. Let's get bloody.
Ya know...even the French Revolutionists got tired of lopping off heads. Seems they lost their taste for it after a while
There are people around here that would want impaling to be used.
Don't know, because once the person is dead, they don't look into it any further. But 144 people on death row were exonerated before they were put to death, so one would assume that at least some innocent people have been put to death. That's why I think there can be absolutely no doubt before the death penalty is used (i.e. Tim McVeigh, the Maryland sniper).
With all the appeals and the amount of others that look into DP cases I am confident that it is the guilty being executed . The 144 you cited are proof that there are plenty of checks being done.
Carlos DeLuna was executed in Texas in December 1989. Subsequent investigations cast strong doubt upon DeLuna's guilt for the murder of which he had been convicted. [25] [26] Carlos Deluna was executed in 1989 for stabbing a gas station clerk to death. His execution came about six years after the crime was committed. The trial ended up attracting local attention, but it was never suggested that an innocent man was about to be punished while the actual killer went free. Deluna was found blocks away from the crime scene with $149 in his pocket. From that point on, it went downhill for the young Carlos Deluna. A wrongful eyewitness testimony is what formed the case against him. Unfortunately, Deluna’s previous criminal record was very much used against him. [27] The real killer, Carlos Hernandez, was a repeat violent offender who actually had a history of slashing women with his unique buck knife, not to mention he looked very similar to Carlos Deluna. Hernandez did not keep quiet about his murder, apparently he went around bragging about the killing of Lopez. In 1999, Hernandez was imprisoned for attacking his neighbor with a knife. [28]
Jesse Tafero was convicted of murder and executed via electric chair in May 1990 in the state of Florida for the murders of two Florida Highway Patrol officers. The conviction of a co-defendant was overturned in 1992 after a recreation of the crime scene indicated a third person had committed the murders. [29] Not only was Tafero wrongly accused, his electric chair malfunctioned as well – three times. As a result, Tafero’s head caught on fire. After this encounter, a debate was focused around humane methods of execution. Lethal injections became more common in the states rather than the electric chair. [30]
Johnny Garrett of Texas was executed in February 1992 for allegedly raping and murdering a nun. In March 2004 cold-case DNA testing identified Leoncio Rueda as the rapist and murderer of another elderly victim killed four months earlier. [31] Immediately following the nun's murder, prosecutors and police were certain the two cases were committed by the same assailant. [32] The flawed case is explored in a 2008 documentary entitled The Last Word .
In 2015, the Justice Department and the FBI formally acknowledged that nearly every examiner in an FBI forensic squad overstated forensic hair matches for two decades before the year 2000. [33] [34] Of the 28 forensic examiners testifying to hair matches in a total of 268 trials reviewed, 26 overstated the evidence of forensic hair matches and 95% of the overstatements favored the prosecution. Defendants were sentenced to death in 32 of those 268 cases.
but wait there's more:
Ruben Cantu : Texas — Conviction: 1985, Executed: 1993
Larry Griffin : Missouri — Conviction: 1981, Executed: 1995
Joseph O'Dell : Virginia — Conviction: 1986, Executed: 1997
David Spence : Texas — Conviction: 1984, Executed: 1997
Leo Jones : Florida — Conviction: 1981, Executed: 1998
Gary Graham : Texas — Conviction: 1981, Executed: 2000
Claude Jones : Texas — Conviction: 1989, Executed: 2000
Cameron Willingham : Texas — Conviction: 1992, Executed: 2004
Actually, there have been apologies earlier on but not recently. Once they are dead they don't go any further. Also, it opens the state up to wrongful imprisonment.
That happens even with wrongful imprisonment and often years later after many appeals it is found that a person has been in jail for doing nothing.
So how can that be and you can be 100% sure that people are not being wrongfully killed. No system is perfect.
A lot of Texas in that list.
Only those for whom there is indisputable evidence of their guilt should be executed. Totally indisputable.
Then , all those who are to be executed have their sentence carried out in the same way and in same place, although not necessarily at the same time, obviously.
You make a huge pit out in the middle of nowhere somewhere. The execution is carried out by a small plane flying over the area of the pit at about 5000 ft. . At the appointed time the convicted is stood up and pushed out the door of the plane. No chute naturally. Bye bye.
They are our killingist most state.
Actually there was a study done by Cass Sunstien and the university of Chicago that concluded that as many as 17 murders are deterred by execution
And how about all those other murders that go on daily and still happen?
The murder rate in non-Death Penalty states has remained consistently lower than the rate in States with the Death Penalty.
Absolutely agree and it's absolutely irrelevant, IMO the DP is solely the states punishment (vengeance if you will) for being found guilty of a severe enough crime and that's enough for me.
I guess you and arkpdx would be right if in jury selection the potential juror is asked by the prosecution if the accused is found guilty of the crime would they have any compunction about voting for the death penalty, but if the juror is not asked that question, and he/she would feel they are taking part in the murder of a human being if the death penalty were to be applied, then it is possible that they could cause a hung jury. (I just realized - perhaps hanging a jury is like hanging a perpetrator. LOL)
Would you feel the same way if the person was not guilty.. or if the person was you?
Perrie if I ever heard of it I'd probably feel some passing sympathy for his family's loss
I wouldn't feel anything if it was me, I'd be dead
what is the point of keeping them if can't be released and are not fixable?
Just get rid of "Jails".
Put them in solitary with no human contact, no books, radios, or TV's, with a window that shows only the sky. Meals are passed through a slot in the door.
So it's just them and their own thoughts...for the rest of their lives.
I am not opposed.
That's actually crueler than just killing them. I'd rather be killed than serve life in prison.
It has been shown that many people would say that. Solitary is literally maddening.
As a current resident of TN, witnessing the pro-life hypocrisy relating to the death penalty is mind boggling.
My views have matured regarding the death penalty when I was old enough to know we incarcerate innocent people! Life in prison is more tortuous for the guilty and hope of release for the unjustly incarcerated.
5 year max sentence followed by strict probation, if that won't fix them or it is not safe to release them it is no point in keeping them around