Arizona plans to execute Jeffrey Landrigan next week, but his lawyers are arguing that one of the drugs that the state intends to use to end his life may not be good enough.
The planned execution of Mr. Landrigan, convicted of murder in 1990, coincides with a shortage of the anesthetic used in the state’s execution protocol, sodium thiopental. The thiopental shortage has already caused delays in executions around the country.
Arizona officials have the drug, but defense lawyers for Mr. Landrigan are asking to stay the execution until the state reveals where it got its supply.
If Arizona obtained the drug from an overseas supplier, they argue, it may be substandard and violate Food and Drug Administration rules for importation.
Kent Scheidegger, legal director for the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, a group that supports the death penalty, said that arguing over the safety of a drug for executions is "absurd."
"As long as it's a real drug manufacturer and not mixed up in somebody's garage, it doesn't matter where it came from," Mr. Scheidegger said. While the Food and Drug Administration is supposed to determine whether drugs are safe and effective, he said, "in this case, safe and effective are opposites."
Shelly Burgess, a spokeswoman for the F.D.A., said that imported drugs must go through an approval process before being used in the United States, but added that executions are "clearly not under our purview or authority."
Megan McCracken, an adviser on lethal injection issues to the death penalty clinic at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, argued that the origin of the drug used was nonetheless important under the law.
She cited the Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment, and a 2008 decision by the Supreme Court. In that case, Baze v. Rees, the court left room for challenges to execution methods that involve a demonstrated risk of severe pain compared with available alternatives.
To Ms. McCracken, the lack of information about the drug opens Arizona to a challenge under the Baze decision. "Its provenance matters," she said.
"I don't think you can say that thiopental is thiopental is thiopental."
Judge Roslyn O. Silver of United States District Court on Thursday asked the state to voluntarily reveal where the drug had come from. She set the matter for oral argument on Monday.
The state, in a brief filed Friday, declined to identify the source of the drug, citing state confidentiality laws intended to shield those involved in executions from harassment by death penalty opponents. It denied that the drug to be used was substandard, and suggested that the criticism of the drug was an "improper delay tactic."
The state, the brief said, "takes its responsibility to carry out an execution seriously and has attempted to construct a protocol to carry out executions as humanely as possible."
Kent E. Cattani, an Arizona assistant attorney general, said that the supply of the drug obtained by the state was effective, and noted that the protocol in place involved several methods for determining that the inmate was unconscious before administering the final drug. While an important concern with the administration of powerful anesthetics is that the patient might receive too much, Mr. Cattani explained, "it's obviously not a consideration here."
In fact, the amount that is given to inmates is more than 10 times the recommended dose for surgical procedures. "There's little or no chance that he would regain consciousness," he said.
If the judge insists on knowing the origins of the drug, he said, "we would ask that it be disclosed under seal."
To Ms. McCracken, the state's response was inadequate, akin to saying, "Just trust us," she said.
Source: New York Times, October 21, 2010
Board Denies Leniency For Death Row Inmate
Landrigan Execution Scheduled For Tuesday
The Arizona Board of Executive Clemency denied death row inmate Jeffrey Landrigan's appeals for leniency during a hearing Friday morning.
The board rejected by a 2-2 vote a request that Gov. Jan Brewer commute Landrigan's death sentence. A majority vote was needed to grant clemency.
Landrigan's defense attorneys said they will seek a reprieve or delay of the execution that is scheduled for Tuesday.
Landrigan had asked the board to recommend that Gov. Jan Brewer commute his death sentence to life in prison.
The board then began considering a request that it recommend the governor give Landrigan a reprieve, a temporary delay of his execution.
Neither issue goes to the governor without a positive recommendation from the board.
A Maricopa County prosecutor had urged the board disregard the appeals for leniency.
Deputy County Attorney Juan Martinez said the appeals amount to asking the board to ignore 20 years of legal proceedings in his case, starting with his trial and going all the way up a U.S. Supreme Court decision.
The former judge who sentenced Landrigan to death earlier told the board that Landrigan should have been sentenced to life in prison.
Former Judge Cheryl Hendrix said life in prison is what Landrigan deserves based on what she's learned about his family background, troubled childhood and other circumstances.
Landrigan's adoptive sister, Shannon Sumter, also appeared before the board in support of Landrigan.
Source: KPHO News, October 22, 2010
Arizona must stop execution of man failed by his defence lawyer
Amnesty International has urged authorities in the US state of Arizona to commute the death sentence of a man who has been denied a hearing into his claims that he was failed by his court-appointed lawyer at his 1990 trial.
Jeffrey Landrigan, a 50-year-old Native American, is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection at Arizona State Prison at 10am on Tuesday 26 October, for the murder of Chester Dyer in Phoenix in December 1989.
Since 2005, 13 federal judges have argued that there should be a hearing into Jeffrey Landrigan's claim that he received inadequate legal representation.
"Too poor to afford his own lawyer, Jeffrey Landrigan was given one who was clearly not up to the job," said Rob Freer, USA researcher for Amnesty International.
"Justice demands that the Governor of Arizona grants clemency and commutes the death sentence in a case where the courts have failed to do the right thing."
The defence lawyer failed to prepare any expert testimony on Jeffrey Landrigan's background to present as mitigating evidence at the sentencing phase of the trial.
8 years after the trial, a neuropsychologist concluded that a combination of inherited factors; exposure to drugs and alcohol while in the womb, early parental rejection and troubled relationships with his adoptive family had "severely impaired" Jeffrey Landrigan's ability to function in society.
In 2007, the trial judge Cheryl Hendrix, who retired in 2001, said in a sworn statement provided to Jeffrey Landrigan's appeal lawyers that she would not have sentenced him to death if she had heard such mitigating evidence. She said that if she had been presented with the type of expert findings made by the neuropsychologist in 1998, it would have left her "no choice" but to pass a life sentence.
As the execution approaches, serious questions have been raised about the lethal injection process. On Wednesday, the Arizona authorities admitted in court that they did not obtain sodium thiopental, one of the drugs it intends to use in Jeffrey Landrigan's lethal injection, from Hospira, the sole manufacturer of the drug in the USA.
This suggests that the sodium thiopental was obtained from a source outside the country and that it is not approved by the Federal Food and Drug Administration for use on humans.
Despite this, in a ruling issued on Wednesday, the Arizona Supreme Court denied the motion for a stay of execution filed by Jeffrey Landrigan’s lawyers and allowed Arizona to keep secret where it obtained the sodium thiopental.
Like most other US death penalty states, Arizona uses three drugs for executions by lethal injection – sodium thiopental (an anaesthetic), pancuronium bromide (a paralytic agent) and potassium chloride (a heart-attack inducing agent).
There is currently a nationwide shortage of sodium thiopental, which has so far resulted in delays in executions in at least two states, Kentucky and Oklahoma.
Hospira, has said that it will not be able to supply more of the drug until March 2011.
Chester Dyer was found dead in his flat in Phoenix on 15 December 1989. Jeffrey Landrigan was arrested a few days later.
Jeffrey Landrigan could not afford a lawyer to represent him at trial, so the court appointed him one. That lawyer had never worked on a death penalty case before.
Having rejected the prosecution's offer of a 20-year prison term in return for pleading guilty to 2nd-degree murder, Jeffrey Landrigan was convicted of 1st-degree murder in June 1990.
The lawyer only prepared 2 witnesses for the sentencing hearing. One was Landrigan's biological mother who abandoned him when he was 6 months old. The other was his ex-wife. Landrigan refused to allow either to testify.
Judge Hendrix sentenced Jeffery Landrigan to death although she found that he had not acted with premeditation.
"This is one in a long line of cases over the past 3 decades that puncture any notion that the US death penalty is fair and humane,” said Rob Freer.
"The reality is that this is an inescapably cruel punishment which in the USA is marked by arbitrariness, discrimination and error."
The USA has carried out 1,231 executions since it resumed judicial killing in 1977, 43 of them this year.
Source: Amnesty International, October 22, 2010
Arizona Department of Corrections "Think" Their Execution Drugs Are Legally Obtained
Death row inmate Jeffrey Landrigan is scheduled to be executed by the State of Arizona on Tuesday, the state's 1st execution since Robert Comer was executed in May of 2007.
While it appears the last-minute appeal process will unlikely lead to a stay of execution for Landrigan, an interesting discussion broke out over where the drugs that will be used will actually come from.
Sodium thiopental, a barbiturate used as part of the lethal injection drug combination, hasn't been produced in the United States since 2009, which has led to delays in executions nationwide as a source for the drug hasn't been secured.
When the warrant for Landrigan's execution was scheduled, the question arose of where the sodium thiopental had been obtained.
Landrigan's attorneys attempted to force the state to disclose where they had purchased the drugs, questioning whether they could be purchased without violating FDA regulations, while the state's representative cited a state law which protects the identity of executioners as reason not to provide the source of the necessary drugs, with Assistant Arizona Attorney General Kent Cattani telling the Arizona Republic, "We think the department has lawfully obtained the drug."
Yesterday, the Arizona Supreme Court sided with the state, with Judge Andrew Hurwitz seemingly dismissing the concerns by noting that the drugs are, in the end, intended to kill someone.
Source: Tucson Weekly, October 22, 2010
Judge asks Arizona for execution-drug source
A federal judge has asked the Arizona Department of Corrections to voluntarily disclose where a drug was obtained that is needed for Tuesday's scheduled execution of convicted killer Jeffrey Landrigan.
Attorneys for Landrigan, who is sentenced to die by lethal injection, have asked U.S. District Judge Roslyn O. Silver to stay Landrigan's execution until arguments can be heard on the source of sodium thiopental to be used in the execution.
The drug is 1 of 3 used in Arizona's lethal injection process.
The defense has questioned how corrections officials obtained the drug amid a nationwide shortage. Its sole U.S. manufacturer has said it is not currently producing any.
Landrigan's motion in federal court argues that the Arizona supply of thiopental may have been manufactured by a foreign source not approved by the Food and Drug Administration, creating a risk of cruel and unusual punishment if the drug does not act as it should.
Silver late Thursday ordered state officials to respond by noon today and asked them to "voluntarily provide detailed information concerning the sodium thiopental it intends to use in plaintiff's execution, including the manufacturer and expiration date."
"If defendants choose not to provide such information, their response to plaintiff's motion shall include an explanation why they will not or cannot provide this information and/or why such information is not relevant to disposition of plaintiff's motion," Silver wrote.
On Wednesday, the Arizona Supreme Court refused to stay the execution. Assistant Attorney General Kent Cattani cited a state law concealing the identity of executioners or people who play any role in the execution as grounds for not revealing the information. Cattani said the state's supply of the drug was not produced by its sole U.S. manufacturer.
Evidence suggests it may have been obtained by a Phoenix import broker. Cattani told the court the drug was obtained lawfully.
The FDA on Thursday said that any company supplying thiopental, a barbiturate that is classified as a controlled substance, must 1st gain the agency's approval.
The FDA has no authority over whether the drug is used for executions, FDA spokeswoman Shelly Burgess said, but does have control over its manufacture and distribution in the U.S.
"However, FDA is not aware of any firm currently able to supply thiopental to the U.S.," she said in an e-mail Thursday. "A company would need to submit an application to FDA in order to be considered for approval including approval for overseas manufacturers of a drug for U.S. markets."
When asked for comment, Cattani reiterated, "I'm comfortable that it (the thiopental) was lawfully obtained."
Thiopental is the first of three drugs used in lethal injection, rendering the condemned person unconscious before the other 2 drugs are injected. Baich and his associates in the Federal Public Defender's Office have argued that if the thiopental were substandard, it might wear off too soon and subject the person to intense pain and suffocation from the other drugs, constituting cruel and unusual punishment.
On Thursday, the Arizona Supreme Court also denied a motion for stay based on uncompleted DNA tests, the same day those test results became available.
Landrigan was convicted for the 1989 murder of Chester Dean Dyer in Phoenix. Prosecutors believed that Landrigan had sex with Dyer and then killed him. But DNA testing of the blue jeans Dyer was wearing when he was murdered showed the blood and semen of a 3rd, as-yet unidentified, person.
Cattani said that because Landrigan placed himself at the murder scene and was involved in the murder, the new evidence does not exonerate him.
Source: Arizona Republic, October 21, 2010
No comments:
Post a Comment