Carol S. Steiker and Jordan M. Steiker, Courting Death

At Amazon, Carol S. Steiker and Jordan M. Steiker, Courting Death: The Supreme Court and Capital Punishment.

Death Penalty Isn't Going Away in California

Apparently, the battle over the death penalty in California isn't going away, despite the failure of the recent voter initiative to ban it.

At LAT, "In California, death penalty abolitionists pledge to keep fighting":

As executions have declined and public opinion of the death penalty has hit a record low nationwide, many looked to California as a test of whether the public — not courts or governments — was ready to overturn the practice.

But California voters on Tuesday defeated a measure to repeal capital punishment and, as of Thursday, were on course to narrowly approve a dueling proposition that aims to amend and expedite it.

Death penalty supporters lauded the outcome, saying it reflected what they have been pointing to all along: Most Americans want the system fixed, not ended. But abolitionists argued that campaigns in favor of capital punishment benefited from the so-called “Trump effect,” a wave of mostly white, male voters from rural areas energized by the Republican presidential campaign of Donald Trump.

Proposition 62, which would have replaced capital punishment for murder with life in prison without parole, was defeated, with nearly 54% of voters in opposition.

Awaiting approval is Proposition 66, which intends to speed up executions by designating trial courts to hear petitions challenging death row convictions, limiting successive petitions and expanding the pool of lawyers who could take on death penalty appeals.

It has won the approval of 50.9% of voters. California elections officials have been sifting through ballots cast by mail, which account for more than half of the state's voter registration, and may not have a full handle on how many are left to count until Monday...

Actually, Prop 66 passed. See the San Jose Mercury News, "California’s death penalty: What to know after Proposition 66."

Look, Hillary won 60 percent of the vote in California. It wasn't just the "Trump effect." People still support capital punishment in this country, despite the vile coddling of murderers by radical leftists.

Efforts to End Death Row in California

I've got to bone up on this. We've got two competing voter initiatives on the November ballot.

At LAT, "On death row, the effort to end the state's death penalty stirs both anxiety and apathy."

16 Death Row Inmates Have Exhausted Appeals, Could Be Executed, Under New California Single-Drug Method for Capital Punishment

It's not likely these dudes would get the hot needle anytime soon. The new protocol is itself subject to appeal.

Frankly, we should just go back to the firing squad. It's more humane.

At the Los Angeles Times, "California proposes new single-drug method for executions."

Kelly Gissendaner Executed, Georgia's First Woman Put to Death Since 1945

At the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, "Gissendaner executed":

Before the drugs that were to kill her were administered, Kelly Gissendaner asked her lawyer to be sure her children knew that she left this world singing "Amazing Grace."

She cried and sang with joy until the powerful sedative took over and she closed her eyes.

Then she drifted off and minutes later died, punishment for her part in the murder of her husband, Douglas Gissendaner, in 1997.

For the next few minutes, the only sounds were sobs from one of her attorneys.

Two doctors checked her for signs of life and nodded to the warden that she was dead.

And it was then that warden Bruce Chatman announced to witnesses that it was done.

“The court-ordered execution of Kelly Rene Gissendaner was carried out,” he said before the curtains on the window to the death chamber were drawn.

More, "Gissendaner executed early Wednesday morning."

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Gets Death Penalty — #BostonBombing

On Twitter right now, and I'm glad.

BREAKING NEWS: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev will be sentenced to death for the Marathon bombing http://t.co/Ico3dl5rQd

— The Boston Globe (@BostonGlobe) May 15, 2015

TSARNAEV GETS DEATH! #Justice #BostonBomber #Tsarnaev pic.twitter.com/t1MNpD33Kt

— Linda Suhler, Ph.D. (@LindaSuhler) May 15, 2015

Drudge. http://t.co/AUhk9FF8Dv pic.twitter.com/xAooxEEJLb

— J. Freedom du Lac (@jfdulac) May 15, 2015

Supreme Court Will Review Use of Lethal Injections

At USA Today:

WASHINGTON -- In a case that could have broad implications for hundreds of death row inmates, the Supreme Court will consider whether a drug protocol used in recent lethal injections violates the Constitution's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.

The justices agreed Friday to consider a case originally brought by four death-row inmates in Oklahoma -- one of whom was put to death last week, after the court refused to block his execution with a combination of three drugs that has caused some prisoners to writhe in pain.

Because the court's four liberal justices dissented from the decision to let that execution go forward, it presumably was their votes in private conference Friday that will give the issue a full hearing in open court. Only four votes are needed from the nine-member court to accept a case. It will be heard in late April and decided by late June.

Lawyers for Charles Warner and three other convicts set for execution in Oklahoma over the next six weeks sought the Supreme Court's intervention after two lower federal courts refused their pleas. While the court's conservatives refused to stop Warner's execution, the request for a full court hearing had been held for further consideration.

The lawyers claim that the sedative midazolam, the first drug used in the three-drug protocol, is not approved by the Food and Drug Administration as a general anesthetic and is being used in state executions virtually on an experimental basis. They say Inmates may not be rendered unconscious and could suffer painfully as the other drugs in the protocol are administered.

That, they claim, was a factor in Oklahoma's botched execution last April of Clayton Lockett, who struggled, groaned and writhed in pain for 43 minutes before dying. A state investigation later blamed Lockett's ordeal on a failure by prison staff to realize that drugs had not been administered directly into his veins. The state has since changed its procedures and increased the dose of midazolam used.

"The time is right for the court to take a careful look at this important issue, particularly given the bungled executions that have occurred since states started using these novel and experimental drugs protocols," said Dale Baich, one of the lawyers representing the death-row inmates...

This could be the case that abolishes the death penalty, or at least that's what the progs will be looking for.

More.

Charles Warner, Black Mofo Dead-Man-Walking, to Be Executed Today for Rape and Murder of 11-Month-Old Baby

Hopefully, it'll be a botched execution and the motherfucker will go down in excruciatingly caustic pain from the burning, death-bringing pharmaceuticals coursing through his evil system.

At NBC News, "Oklahoma Execution: Baby's Mom Says Killer Charles Warner Should Live":

Death-row prisoner Charles Warner is set to be executed in Oklahoma on Thursday for the rape and murder of an 11-month-old baby, but one person who doesn't want to see him killed is the infant's mother.

Shonda Waller told defense lawyers in a videotaped statement that a lethal injection for Warner — the first in the state since a bungled procedure nine months ago — would be a "dishonor" to her daughter Adrianna's name and against her religious beliefs.

"I don't see any justice in just sentencing someone to die," Waller said. "To me, the justice is in someone living with what they have done to you, your family, and having to live with that for the rest of their life knowing they will never walk out those bars."

The statement made last January was played for Oklahoma's parole board in March when Warner was up for clemency. The panel voted not to give him a reprieve and he was scheduled to die April 29. He was waiting to be escorted to the death chamber when an earlier execution that same night was so badly botched it sparked global outrage.

That inmate, Clayton Lockett, was supposed to die within minutes after a doctor ran three drugs through an IV in a vein his groin, but he regained consciousness and appeared to writhe in pain midway through the procedure. He said, "Oh man," and tried to rise from the gurney.

The warden tried to halt the execution, but Lockett died anyway, after 43 minutes of suffering.

The disturbing scene made headlines around the world, prompted President Obama to order a Justice Department review of lethal injection protocols nationwide — and bought extra time for Warner, whose execution was called off while the debacle was investigated.

Among the questions asked: Did Oklahoma's use of midazolam contribute to the debacle? The sedative was the first of three drugs administered and critics say it carries the danger of not rendering an inmate fully unconscious before the other two chemicals, a paralyzing agent and a heart-stopper, hit the bloodstream with potentially excruciating results.

The Oklahoma probe ultimately determined the midazolam itself was not the culprit and a poorly placed IV that leaked the drug into the surrounding tissues instead of a central vein was to blame.

The corrections department promised to increase the dose of midazolam for future injections, improve training for the execution team and revamp procedures to make it easier to stop an execution gone awry.

A new date with death was set for Warner, whose latest appeal is sitting with the U.S. Supreme Court after a federal appeals panel this week rejected his claims that midazolam would cause too-painful an end, in violation of the constitutional protection against cruel and unusual punishment.

There could be no debate about the cruelty of the crime.

It happened Aug. 22, 1997, in the home that Warner and his two children shared with Waller, who is variously described as an ex-girlfriend or former roommate in court papers. Waller went out to run errands and when she returned, the child was unconscious. Resuscitation efforts failed and the baby was pronounced dead at the hospital...

The death penalty is available for society's most heinous crimes. You don't get much more heinous than this. Fry the fucker.

More at Politico, "Oklahoma prepares to use controversial execution drug."

Europe Hasn't Abolished Capital Punishment: Frank Van Den Bleeken, Murderer and Rapist, to Be 'Euthanized' in Humanitarian Gesture

See, for Europe's progressive left, state sponsored murder is just fine. Fine and dandy. As long as it's justified not in terms of "brutal" law and order punishment, but "compassionate" treatment of society's disadvantaged.

At Telegraph UK, "Belgian rapist and murderer to be put to death by lethal injection":

Frank Van Den Bleeken won right to euthanasia after claiming he could not face rest of life in jail.

A rapist and murderer is to be put to death in Belgium this week, despite Europe’s ban on the death penalty, after a court granted him the right to euthanasia.

Frank Van Den Bleeken, 52, is not physically ill but claims his “psychological suffering” is unbearable and that he would prefer to die than spend more of his life behind bars.

He says he has no prospect of ever being released from prison as he cannot overcome his uncontrollable sexual impulses, and that he does not wish another two or three decades in jail.

His application to die was accepted by Belgium’s Federal Euthanasia Commission in September, and over the weekend, official gave approval for him to be taken to a specialist clinic on Sunday, where he will be killed by lethal injection.

Belgium legalised euthanasia in 2002, and is one of only three countries to allow the practice, the others being the Netherlands and Luxembourg. More countries, including Switzerland and some states of America, allow doctors to assist suicide in certain circumstances.

But Belgium has seen a fast growth in the number of cases of euthanasia, and has expanded the practice beyond terminally ill adults. It can now be used in cases of intense pain and psychological distress, while last February the right to euthanasia was extended to terminally ill children, as long as their parents gave consent.

One previous inmate has been euthanased, but he was suffering a terminal illness.

Van Den Bleeken raped Christiane Remacle, a 19-year-old girl, as she came home from a New Year’s Eve party on January 1 1989, and then strangled her with one of her own stockings.

He was deemed insane and not criminally responsible. After seven years on a prison psychiatric ward, he was released, attacking three more victims, aged 11, 17, and 29, within weeks.

He was then ordered to be detained indefinitely, and has seen “the outside” only once since, for his mother’s funeral...

F-king murderous bastard. Why not just label him for what he is: a criminal sociopath who deserves the damned burning needle in his arm?

Frankly, it's just more lies. Belgian leftists are no better than the Nazis. They just turn everything inside out, discombobulating reality, but end up killing just as efficiently as the totalitarian regimes of the 1930s. They make me sick.

More at the link. Ms. Remacle's survivors are not pleased. They want this monster to rot in prison for the rest of his leftist loser life.

Capital Punishment's Decline

Well, thanks to the "evolving standards of decency."

At LAT, "Capital punishment in U.S. continues its decline":

The death penalty continued its slow and steady two-decade decline this year, as fewer convicted murderers were sentenced to die and most executions were limited to just three states, according to a report to be released Thursday.

The number of new death sentences plummeted from 315 in 1996 to 72 as of Wednesday, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

The number of executions carried out has fallen sharply as well. This year, 35 convicts were put to death, compared with 98 in 1999. And whereas 20 states were carrying out executions in the 1990s, only seven did so this year.

"The relevancy of the death penalty in our criminal justice system is seriously in question when 43 out of the 50 states do not apply the ultimate sanction," said Richard Dieter, the center's executive director.

Most of the executions took place in Texas (10), Missouri (10) and Florida (8). The other states to carry out executions were Oklahoma (3), Georgia (2), Arizona (1) and Ohio (1).

Even in Texas, the number of new death sentences has fallen sharply, from 48 per year in the late 1990s to fewer than a dozen per year recently.

Experts say the trend reflects a steep drop in violent crime, a growing use of "life without parole" sentences for convicted killers and a skepticism over the death penalty itself...

Well, we'll be just like the rest of the "civilized world" in no time!

More.

Arizona 2-Hour Execution Rekindles Debate on Death Penalty

A federal judge argued this week to bring back the firing squad, and that's where the debate should be going --- toward functionally more humane executions.

And here's the Wall Street Journal, "Lengthy Arizona Execution Heightens Lethal-Injection Questions: Condemned Man Dies Two Hours After Drugs Were Administered."

And video at KNXV-TV ABC15 Phoenix , "Arizona inmate dies 2 hours after execution began," and "Reaction from latest Arizona execution."

Connecticut Teenager Stabbed to Death Over High School Prom Rejection

Now this is senseless. At NYT, "Connecticut Teenager Is Fatally Stabbed by Fellow Student, Police Say."

A 16-year-old student was stabbed to death by another student in the hallway of a Connecticut high school on Friday morning, the authorities said.

The victim, identified as Maren Sanchez, was attacked by a 16-year-old boy at about 7:15 a.m. on the first floor of the Jonathan Law High School in Milford, Chief Keith Mello of the Milford Police Department said at a news conference midmorning. Both Ms. Sanchez and the attacker, who was not identified because he is a minor, were students at the school.

School staff members tried to resuscitate Ms. Sanchez after the attack, Chief Mello said. She was pronounced dead at 7:43 a.m. at Bridgeport Hospital. The attacker was subdued by staff members and taken into police custody, Chief Mello said.

Chief Mello gave no indication of a possible motive, but said investigators were looking into reports that a dispute over the junior class prom, scheduled for Friday evening, could have prompted the attack. School officials canceled classes for the rest of the day and later announced that the prom was canceled as well.

“This is a very raw, a very fresh investigation,” Chief Mello said...

The New York Post isn't being so circumspect about the killer's motive, "Teen girl stabbed to death at school after rejecting prom invitation."

So, a beautiful young life cut short, and a family shattered, and you know the progressive "criminal justice" authorities will do everything possible to keep the killer from doing hard time. And don't even think about the death penalty. Not only are minors exempt, but Connecticut banned capital punishment in 2012.

How long will until another beautiful young life cut down? There's simply no deterrent, and victims' families get no justice. But we'll see. We'll see.

Ohio Killer Executed with New Drug Cocktail, Dude Gasps While Dying, Leftists Freak Out

You know, you might gasp when your veins are flooded with poison like that. And it took longer than expected? Okay, the f-ker's dead, alright.

Maybe if they just lined the guy up before a firing-squad that would be it. But no, it's gotta be all humane and sh*t.

At the Columbia Dispatch, "Killer struggles, gasps repeatedly under new 2-drug combination" (via Memeorandum).

And at NPR, "Ohio Killer's Execution Takes Almost 25 Minutes."

But Brooke Baldwin's report says the dude died within 10 minutes. I'm sure that 15 minute discrepancy is just a editing error (har, har).

But see the ever reliable (and leftist) New York Times, "Ohio Execution Using Untested Drug Cocktail Renews the Debate Over Lethal Injections":

Dennis McGuire took 15 minutes to die by lethal injection Thursday morning at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville for the 1994 rape and murder of a 22-year-old pregnant woman named Joy Stewart.

Eyewitness accounts differ slightly on how much Mr. McGuire, 53, struggled and gasped in those final minutes. But because the execution took unusually long and because Ohio was using a new, untested cocktail of drugs in the procedure, the episode has reignited debate over lethal injection.

States have been scrambling in recent years to come up with a new formula for executions after their stockpiles were depleted or expired when European manufacturers of such previously used drugs as pentobarbital and sodium thiopental stopped selling them for use in executions. No consensus has formed on what available drugs should be used.

Mr. McGuire was given midazolam, a sedative, and hydromorphone, a powerful analgesic derived from morphine, just before 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, the first time that any state has used that combination. The drugs were selected by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction after the state’s supply of pentobarbital expired in 2009, said JoEllen Smith, the department’s spokeswoman. A federal court had approved their use, she said.

A reporter for The Columbus Dispatch, one of the witnesses at the execution, described Mr. McGuire as struggling, gasping loudly, snorting and making choking noises for nearly 10 minutes before falling silent and being declared dead a few minutes later. An Associated Press report described him as snorting loudly and making snoring noises, but did not say he struggled or made choking sounds.

“Whether there were choking sounds or it was just snorting, the execution didn’t go the way it was supposed to go,” said Deborah Denno, a professor at Fordham Law School and an expert in lethal injection cases. “Usually, lethal injection takes about four or five minutes, if done properly.”

Death penalty opponents had been watching the case closely, both because of the new drug cocktail and because some anesthesiologists said there was a danger they would produce a condition called air hunger, in which the gasping victim is unable to absorb oxygen.

“A different procedure was used in the last four executions, depending on which state they were in,” Ms. Denno said. “It certainly increases the likelihood or the risk that there will be some sort of problem.”

But death penalty proponents said the episode was being sensationalized.

“Some of the witnesses say he was heard to make snoring noises,” said Kent Scheidegger, legal director for the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation. “O.K., I’ve made snoring noises. What’s not disputed is he got a large dose of sedative. We’ve gotten namby-pamby to the point that we give murderers sedatives before we kill them.”

Yeah, namby-pamby is the left's calling card.

And 10, 15, or 25 minutes? Hey, real accurate reporting you media hot shots. Sheesh.

More at Newsy, "Ohio Murderer Executed With New 2-Drug Cocktail."

Voters Reject Death Penalty Repeal in California

The defeat of Proposition 34 was one bright spot in an otherwise deathly blue election in California on Tuesday.

At the Los Angeles Times, "California death penalty repeal, Proposition 34, rejected."

And see, "Californians say they oppose death penalty, then vote for it":

The Field Poll has been querying Californians on the death penalty for more than 50 years, and in 2011 there was a notable shift. Although 68% of respondents said they were in favor of keeping capital punishment, a percentage that had fluctuated only slightly since 2002, the answers grew more interesting when the question was phrased a different way. Asked whether they would rather sentence killers to life without parole or the death penalty, a significant majority of Californians in 2011 said they preferred the former -- 48% favored life imprisonment vs. 40% for state-sponsored execution. Since the poll started asking this question in 2000, death had always trumped a life-in-prison sentence.

Proposition 34 would have done precisely what voters in 2011 said they wanted, resentencing the 726 death row inmates to life without the possibility of parole and eliminating capital punishment as an option in future cases. Yet the initiative lost, 52.8% to 47.2%. What happened?

It's possible the 2011 poll just wasn't all that accurate. Or maybe voters changed their minds when the possibility of ending the death penalty wasn't just theoretical but real. Or perhaps some version of the Bradley effect was at play: Under this theory, white voters are sometimes inclined to tell pollsters they intend to vote for a black candidate even though they don't intend to do so. Similarly, a voter whose brain tells him the death penalty is a seldom-carried-out waste of taxpayer money that risks the execution of an innocent person -- but whose gut tells him that an eye for an eye is the true definition of justice -- might be inclined to tell pollsters that his brain is in charge. Once in the voting booth, the bile takes over.

Wrong. It wasn't that. The freak progressives always blame it on RAAAAACISM!!

No, it was an aggressive blitz by No on 34 forces that powerfully exposed the moral bankruptcy of the initiative. Heinous murderers were about to have their death sentences commuted. The voters woke up when confronted with the brutal truth about progressive "compassion." There is hope toward stemming the tide against the bloody brutal wave of progressive decadence and decay. Conservatives can't sit around and pout. They've got to redouble the fight, even in the bluest of (black and) blue states like California.

More at the San Jose Mercury News, "Death penalty proposition: Statement from No on Prop 34."

Carol Chambers, Arapahoe County District Attorney: Decision on James Holmes Death Penalty 'Months Away'

At Telegraph UK, "Colorado shooting: 'death penalty decision is months down the line'." And CNN, "Death penalty decision months away, DA says."

RELATED: At CBS 4 Denver, "District Attorney Carol Chambers Put 2 of 3 Inmates On Death Row."

'The important thing is to ensure the neck snaps and there’s a quick death...'

Well, that's an Althouse-style title for the post, but that's who first came to mind when reading this piece at Los Angeles Times, "India has no shortage of aspiring hangmen." The quote on the "neck snaps" was highlighted at the essay in the hard-copy version, and it still kind of sticks out as so matter-of-fact:

Pawan Kumar is looking for a job. Not just any job; he wants to be India's newest hangman.

Kumar, 50, an apparel salesman from a family of executioners, says it's in his DNA, demonstrating with well-callused hands how to slide a hood over a condemned person's head, grease the noose and wrench the lever so the floor parts like a wave.

He acknowledges that he's never performed a hanging, India's preferred execution method, but says he's witnessed several and practiced using sandbags.

"The important thing is to ensure the neck snaps and there's a quick death," he says.

RTWT.

VIDEO: Man Beheaded in Saudi Arabia for 'Sorcery'

At London's Daily Mail, "The moment man was publicly beheaded in a Saudi Arabian car park for being a 'sorcerer'."

Via Pat Dollard, "Footage Surfaces of Saudi Arabian “Sorcerer” Being Publicly Beheaded – With Graphic Video."

Georgia Executes Cop Killer Troy Davis: Progressive Heads Explode

I went to bed last night upon hearing the news that the Supreme Court was granting an 11th hour review. I didn't hear anything more until I was in my office this morning reading the Los Angeles Times, "Georgia puts convict to death despite protest." And then also at New York Times, "In Death-Penalty Debate, Execution Offers Little Closure."

And see the very even-handed piece from Associated Press, which notes that all the second thoughts on witness testimony were presented to jurors at the time of the trial, "Counting down, Ga. inmate nears execution in policeman’s killing despite pleas in US, Europe."

But the best piece on this is from Ann Coulter, "COP-KILLER IS MEDIA'S LATEST BABY SEAL":

It's nearly impossible to receive a death sentence these days -- unless you do something completely crazy like shoot a cop in full view of dozens of witnesses in a Burger King parking lot, only a few hours after shooting at a passing car while exiting a party.

That's what Troy Davis did in August 1989. Davis is the media's current baby seal of death row.

After a two-week trial with 34 witnesses for the state and six witnesses for the defense, the jury of seven blacks and five whites took less than two hours to convict Davis of Officer Mark MacPhail's murder, as well as various other crimes. Two days later, the jury sentenced Davis to death.

Now, a brisk 22 years after Davis murdered Officer MacPhail, his sentence will finally be administered this week -- barring any more of the legal shenanigans that have kept taxpayers on the hook for Davis' room and board for the past two decades.

(The average time on death row is 14 years. Then liberals turn around and triumphantly claim the death penalty doesn't have any noticeable deterrent effect. As the kids say: Duh.)

It has been claimed -- in The New York Times and Time magazine, for example -- that there was no "physical evidence" connecting Davis to the crimes that night.

Davis pulled out a gun and shot two strangers in public. What "physical evidence" were they expecting? No houses were broken into, no cars stolen, no rapes or fistfights accompanied the shootings. Where exactly would you look for DNA? And to prove what?

I suppose it would be nice if the shell casings from both shootings that night matched. Oh wait -- they did. That's "physical evidence."

It's true that the bulk of the evidence against Davis was eyewitness testimony. That tends to happen when you shoot someone in a busy Burger King parking lot.

Eyewitness testimony, like all evidence tending to show guilt, has gotten a bad name recently, but the "eyewitness" testimony in this case did not consist simply of strangers trying to distinguish one tall black man from another. For one thing, several of the eyewitnesses knew Davis personally.

The bulk of the eyewitness testimony established the following...

Continue.

Of course, the progressive left latched onto this case as a way to bring an end to capital punishment in the United States. It's just routine leftist conformity to be against the death penalty, even when the inmate's the classic poster boy for it. Progressives are stupid that way.

RELATED: At The Other McCain, "The Death of a Cop-Killer." And the reactions at Memeorandum.