Secrecy Upheld in the Execution Process, Despite Mistakes

In a July 30 article, "After Flawed Executions, States Resort to Secrecy,"* New York Times legal columnist Adam Liptak examines the shift toward protecting the identity of those involved in the execution process in several states. Ironically, this comes at a time when botched executions are increasingly reported. Amidst growing awareness of the incompetence of those performing lethal injection procedures, citizens are left with no one to hold accountable when the identity of involved officials is withheld.

Liptak writes:
"In the wake of several botched executions around the nation, often performed by poorly trained workers, you might think that we would want to know more, not less, about the government employees charged with delivering death on behalf of the state.

But corrections officials say that executioners will face harassment or worse if their identities are revealed, and that it is getting hard to attract medically trained people to administer lethal injections, in part because codes of medical ethics prohibit participation in executions."

In Missouri, for example, a doctor who "had supervised more than 50 executions by lethal injection testified last year that he sometimes gave condemned inmates smaller doses of a sedative than the state’s protocol called for, explaining that he is dyslexic."

The doctor had his right to practice revoked by two hospitals following numerous malpractice suits. In September of last year, a federal judge barred him from participating “in any manner, at any level, in the State of Missouri’s lethal injection process.”

However, the Louisiana state legislature has acted to nullify this ruling. Liptak explains:
"A new law, signed this month by Gov. Matt Blunt, makes it unlawful to reveal 'the identity of a current or former member of an execution team,' and it allows executioners to sue anyone who names them.
The governor explained that the law 'will protect those Missourians who assist in fulfilling the state’s execution process.' "

The new Missouri law even bars medical licensing boards from taking disciplinary actions against doctors or nurses who participate in executions (contrary to the stance of prominent medical organizations, including the American Medical Association).

Liptak also points to recent developments regarding flawed lethal injections procedures in Florida, where a judge ruled a week ago that procedures issued by Florida’s corrections department in May (that there is only one job requirement to be an executioner: you must be “a person 18 years or older who is selected by the warden to initiate the flow of lethal chemicals into the inmate") is inacceptable. The judge halted a pending execution, declaring that the system must include experienced and competent people before it can be allowed to carry out death sentences.

Liptak asserts:
"It would be good to know more about who is performing executions in Florida. But that state’s law, like Missouri’s, forbids the disclosure of 'information which identifies an executioner.' Quite a few states have similar laws, and a new Virginia law shielding executioners came into effect this month.

This is a serious issue to examine and monitor as lethal injection procedures continue to be analyzed across the country. Does the public have right to know who is carrying out executions and if these officials have the medical competence to do so? Or does the protection of the executioner outweigh concerns about cruel and unusual punishment, and the effective torture that can be the result of a botched dosage or otherwise flawed injection.
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*Article accessible to Times Select members only.

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Bowser Commission Formed, Members Announced

The Indiana General Assembly recently announced the members of the Bowser Commission, a group of Indiana legislators assigned to examine mental illness and death penalty sentencing in Indiana--carrying out the good work and fulfilling the moral vision of the late Indiana Senator, Anita Bowser.

On February 28, the Indiana Senate passed a resolution urging the Legislative Council to create the Bowser Commission - at a time when Senator Bowser's cancer battle was growing in seriousness. She passed away just days later. Before her illness, she had attempted to pass legislation barring execution of the mentally ill.

ND ASK applauds this step toward the work Senator Bowser hoped to see completed, in the naming members of the Commission, which will be active through November 1. We await the findings of their work, trusting that the injustice of sentencing the mentally ill to death will surface and influence future Indiana law.

See previous posts regarding Senator Bowser and the creation of the Bowser Commission by clicking the label, "Bowser," below.

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The Panetti Ruling and Timberlake's Case

In January, Indiana inmate Norman Timberlake received a stay of execution after it was found that executing him before the Supreme Court heard the Scott Panetti case would be unjust and, dependent on the Court's decision, potentially unconstitutional. The June ruling of the Court re-asserts a 1986 decision, stating that in order to be executed, a convicted murderer must be able to recognize the relation between their crime and their pending death. According to this ruling, Timberlake's death sentence should be overturned, as his execution would prove a violation of our nation's principles.

Objections to the execution of Panetti, whose mental insanity includes a delusion that he is being killed to keep him from preaching the gospel, were considered parallel to those surrounding Timberlake--a paranoid schizophrenic who thinks that he is being tortured daily by a machine that will kill him to keep him silent.

The Indiana Supreme Court, in ruling that it could not allow Timberlake to be executed until Panetti was decided on
and various questions about mental illness and qualifications for the death penalty answered, provided an opportunity for justice that no lower court in the state's system afforded Timberlake.

ND ASK will monitor and report on any future hearings in Timberlake's case. It is crucial that his death sentence be overturned in light of the Panetti ruling, and we must work to ensure that the Supreme Court's recent decision takes effect in Indiana.

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Supreme Court blocks execution of Texas Inmate Scott Panetti

On June 28, the Supreme Court issued a decision overturning the death sentence of Texas death row inmate Scott Panetti. The justices ruled that Panetti, who has insisted during various stages of his capital trial and imprisonment that he is being punished for preaching the Gospel, had not been shown to have sufficient understanding of what he was being put to death for.

Since the 1986 Supreme Court case of Ford v. Wainright, the execution of the mentally insane has been constitutionally barred. But the standard for determining competency has not been laid out beyond the assertion that the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment requires that a defendant who is to be executed must be able to recognize the relationship between his crime and his sentence.

Panetti killed his wife’s parents in 1992. Now 49 years old, he remains on death row in Texas. A schizophrenic who served as his own lawyer in court, often amounting to an incoherent and outrageous defense, Panetti claims that his body has been taken over by an alter-ego and that demons are bent on killing him for his Christian beliefs.

Medical records demonstrate that during the decade preceding his crime, Panetti had been hospitalized 14 times for schizophrenia, manic depression, hallucinations and delusions. He nailed shut the curtains of his house, buried his furniture and threatened his family—claiming to have seen visions of the devil. In 1995, after winning approval from a Texas trial judge to represent himself in court, Panetti repeatedly tried to subpoena Jesus and donned an array of costume-like attire (including purple western shirts and cowboy hats) in the courtroom. It was the jury of this trial that convicted Panetti in 90 minutes and sentenced him to death.

Panetti’s long and turbulent history in the capital process, a 15-year proceeding, has fueled criticisms of the courts and trial system in Texas, where it is now clear that at least one insane man has represented himself. The ruling overturning his death sentence is, as executive director of Amnesty International Larry Cox commented last week, “a much-needed step toward a more humane America.”

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Update from ND ASK Director

Dear ND ASK members and readers,

In the past six weeks, we’ve been silent on this blog, due to the end of the school year at ND. The months of May and June brought transitions out of South Bend and travel to homes and jobs across the country and world for many of ND ASK’s members.

ND ASK co-founder and co-director, Will McAuliffe, graduated with the class of 2007. While he has left Notre Dame, his work on the death penalty in Indiana is just beginning. He will continue his contributions to this blog, and to our organization’s objectives and actions.

I will continue to run ND ASK on campus and across Indiana, putting together a central committee of students to lead the campaign and expand our efforts state-wide.

The past six weeks, both in Indiana and abroad, have included many events to note—some are hopeful to those who share our goals, while others must be viewed as further motivation to continue working against the death penalty.

On June 8, the parliament of Rwanda voted to abolish the death penalty.
One week later, on June 15, the state of Indiana executed Michael Lambert.

The contrast between these two events—the commutation of death sentences of hundreds of prisoners indicted in the Rwanda genocide and the failure of the Indiana justice system to grant life without parole, a sentence with a possibility of rehabilitation, to the second inmate killed in our state this year—indicates the need for a different dialogue on violence and the dignity of persons in Indiana.

With this post, ND ASK will again provide frequent coverage of capital punishment-related developments in Indiana and elsewhere. We will share campaign updates throughout the summer as we build our calendar and plan of action for the coming academic year. We will continue to address both sides of violence in our work for a moratorium on executions in the state of Indiana, working towards the prevention of violence before it occurs and an entrenched attitude of rehabilitation following tragedy.

Thank you for your continued support,
Andrea Laidman
Director, ND ASK
alaidman@nd.edu

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Iraq's Death Penalty

Found this article about Iraq's death penalty and unfair trial system to be interesting, particularly as their execution rate has risen dramatically since the new government was formed.

From CNN:

Sitting on Iraq's death row is a 25-year-old woman convicted in the slayings of three relatives. She says her husband carried out the killings and fled. She confessed to being an accomplice, she says, only after being tortured in police custody...

She was tried and convicted in a single day, August 15, 2005...

The U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority abolished capital punishment in Iraq after Saddam Hussein was toppled in 2003. But shortly after the government was handed over to Iraqis, the death penalty was reinstated in August 2004.

Since that time, more than 270 people have been sentenced to death, and at least 100 people -- including Hussein -- have been executed, according to Amnesty. Four women are currently on death row. Two of the women have their young children, ages 1 and 3, with them on death row, Amnesty says.

You can read an April 20th press release from Amnesty about Iraqi trials and confessions in regards to the death penalty here.

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David Woods' Final Statement

Below is a copy of David Leon Woods' final written statement before his execution. Click on the image to enlarge it in order to read it. This post will likely be updated later with a text transcription of the statement included.

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Vigil Pictures and Article

You can read more about the vigil in this article published on May 4th in the Michigan City News Dispatch. Additionally, ND ASK Co-Director Andrea Laidman was interviewed by Fort Wayne's WANE TV. A transcript and video of the coverage can be found here.

Pictures below:

Members of ND ASK pause for a picture with Father Doyle, Chairman of the Duneland Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty

Joe Baker from the University of Illinois drove several hours to the vigil with three other U of I students.

Marty Pizzini, Education Coordinator for the Dunaland Coalition, lead a drum litany about the death penalty.

We thought we would be the youngest people at the vigil but 20-month old Gerald Hayes quickly proved us wrong.

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Impending Tennessee execution of Workman

This documentary on YouTube raises some serious doubts about Philip Workman's guilt. Watch it for yourself and see what you think.



If you think this case merits clemency for Workman and/or investigation by Governor Bredesen, please send him an e-mail.

Workman's execution has been put on hold by a federal judge due to potential issues with the state's revised execution protocols. Hopefully this temporary hold will give the Governor enough time to review the case and realize that there's not much holding it together, let alone enough to be certain of Workman's guilt.

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Execution Vigil

Getting off our bus at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, our collection of students from Notre Dame, St. Mary's, and Holy Cross were greeted with the tail end of a beautifully sung "Ave Maria." The smiles and warm greetings from the veterans of execution vigils that we met there briefly veiled the reason why we had all gathered together outside of the prison on a chilly night. We were there because a man was about to be killed.

It was an eclectic mix of ages and backgrounds. Former inmates stood alongside former prison employees and priests. Soon-to-be octogenarian Father Doyle mingled with students 60 years younger than he. It was a truly wonderful cross-section of Indiana. The thing that we all held in common was our belief that the execution that was about to occur was unjust and would not solve anything. As the other death row inmates put it in their letter to the Governor and the parole board, David's execution "diminishes us all."

A variety of testimonials and readings were given, ranging from religious to personal stories about David and other experiences with the prison system. People marched around with a variety of signs in opposition to the death penalty while guards paced with their dogs just inside the gates.


As the midnight hour of execution neared, we all gathered together directly in front of the gates and tried our best to light candles despite the harsh gusts of wind. We said some prayers and began our silent vigil while the final steps of the system of capital punishment were taken inside the prison in front of us. We waited for what seemed like an eternity in silence. Each time a guard passed by the entrance of the prison, I held my breath, anticipating that we were about to be hit with the tragic report of execution. However, no answer came.

At about 30 minutes past midnight, a hearse pulled around the side of the prison. Everyone's eyes followed it as it disappeared from sight. Several minutes later, we heard a door slam shut. An unspoken truth settled over our group. After 50 minutes of silence and no sign of movement from the prison, Michael Griffin from Holy Cross led us in offering prayers and petitions for the Placencia family, David Woods and his family, and the prison employees.

At about 1 am, we could see members of the Placencia family filed into a white van and were whisked away while Wanda Callahan, David’s spiritual advisor of 23 years, slowly made her way out the front and into her car. The lack of information compounded the chill of the wind and the exhaustion of the group. Wanda was the first to reach us, driving through the gate and getting out of her car to deliver her account of the execution and talk about her friend David.

David went peacefully, she said, smiling and nodding as the lethal drugs were delivered into his body. He was at peace with God, she said, and knew that he was going to a better place. She mentioned how sad it was that the first time he felt safe in his entire life was when he was sent to death row. Everyone was gathered around, listening to her shaky voice deliver such powerful words. After she had finished her account of the situation, she hugged several of us, thanking us for our prayers and thoughts. She told us that she could certainly feel our presence during the execution.

Officials from the prison approached next and told us that David Leon Woods had been executed at 12:35 am.

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