Some federal judges considering death penalty cases say their colleagues should take notice of the suffering of crime victims, not just the possibility that an inmate being executed may feel pain.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday refused to block an Arizona execution, rejecting a challenge that injection methods could cause unconstitutional pain and suffering for inmates.
Several 9th Circuit judges’ dissents in the case of Samuel Lopez cited the possibility of pain during injections, but 3 other judges said Friday in an amended order that such concerns are groundless and misdirected.
While there’s always going to a risk of some pain in an execution because it can be difficult to find veins, the “incomparable suffering the victim endured during the last desperate minutes of her life” must not be ignored, Chief Judge Alex Kozinski wrote for himself and 2 other judges.
Kozinski quoted from a state court ruling that said there was evidence of a “bloody struggle” throughout 59-year-old Estefana Holmes’ apartment. Holmes was gagged, blindfolded, sexually assaulted and stabbed at least 26 times.
“The panel delicately omits these facts, as did our previous opinion, which merely referred to the crime as ‘brutal,’ but common decency surely calls on us to acknowledge that Lopez is not the victim here, and whatever pain he may suffer incident to his execution pales in comparison to the agony and terror he inflicted on a defenseless woman whose body he used to sate his lust,” Kozinski wrote.
Lopez had been scheduled for execution Wednesday, but after the 9th Circuit ruled on the execution methods issue and on a separate claim of inadequate legal representation, the Arizona Supreme Court on Tuesday rescheduled the lethal injection for late June.
That ruling was based on a claim that Lopez was denied a fair clemency proceeding.
Source: Associated Press, May 20, 2012
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