Pa. joins other states in adopting risk assessment in sentencing
Pennsylvania Law Weekly
November 15, 2010
Last month, Gov. Edward G. Rendell signed into law a prison reform bill. In part, Act 95 of 2010, formerly known as Senate Bill 1161, directs the Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing to develop a risk assessment instrument for use by judges in sentencing criminal offenders. The law was sponsored by state Sen. Stewart J. Greenleaf, R-Montgomery, and was recently touted by the GOP House Caucus as being able to identify criminals who are "at a lower risk to reoffend and who may be recommended for alternative sentencing programs instead of additional prison time, such as county and state intermediate punishment programs."
The specific language of Act 95 provides:
(a) General Rule — The commission shall adopt a sentence risk assessment instrument for the sentencing court to use to help determine the appropriate sentence within the limits established by law for defendants who plead guilty or nolo contendere to, or who were found guilty of, felonies and misdemeanors. The risk assessment instrument may be used as an aide in evaluating the relative risk that an offender will reoffend and be a threat to public safety.
(b) Sentencing Guidelines — The risk assessment instrument may be incorporated into the sentencing guidelines under section 2154 (relating to adoption of guidelines for sentencing).
The National Conference of State Legislatures reported that at least five states in 2009 adopted some form of risk assessment procedure with regard to sentencing. Florida is utilizing a risk assessment instrument for purposes of prison diversion programs. Illinois has authorized the development of risk assessment for purposes of sentencing. Tennessee is including a risk assessment tool in its pre-sentence reports. Washington is using risk assessment for purposes of placement in residential drug treatment. North Carolina is considering risk assessment when imposing community-based punishment.
State appellate courts have upheld the use of risk assessment tools at sentencing. This summer, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled in Malenchik v. Indiana , that "offender assessment instruments are appropriate supplemental tools for judicial consideration at sentencing" and "legitimate offender assessment instruments do not replace but may inform a trial court's sentencing determinations ... the trial court's consideration of the defendant's assessment model scores was only supplemental to other sentencing evidence that independently supported the sentence imposed."
Virginia has been utilizing risk assessment information at sentencing since 1994. In fact, for many years Virginia was the only state using risk information at the time of sentencing.
Former Virginia Gov. George Allen was elected in 1994. Soon after taking office he and the legislature created the Virginia Criminal Sentencing Commission and charged the commission with increasing prison stays for violent offenders and placing 25 percent of otherwise incarceration-bound nonviolent offenders in alternative forms of sanctioning.
Virginia's sentencing scheme was not just about diverting nonviolent low risk offenders. It was also about "incapacitating" high-risk offenders. In the process of creating new sentence guidelines the sentencing commission studied thousands of prison terms and determined the actual time served for specific offenses and then set sentence ranges based on those findings. Dr. Richard Kern, director of the Virginia Criminal Sentencing Commission, suggested the next step was to weed out those offenders "who we are afraid of" from those "we were just ticked-off at." For those feared, longer prison sentences. For those that merely annoyed, diversion to alternative punishment.
The higher the assessment score, the less likely the offender will be diverted from prison. First, all violent offenders and anyone convicted of distributing more than one ounce of a controlled substance were eliminated from consideration for diversion. The remaining offenders were administered an assessment prior to sentencing.
The risk assessment, because of its heavy reliance on age, gender and juvenile criminal records, had the effect of increasing the assessment score for young, male offenders. Older, nonviolent career criminals tend to score lower on the assessment. The result is consistent with research that indicates that the most violent segment of the population is 16 to 24 year-olds.
The Virginia sentence guidelines are utilized to control prison growth while incapacitating violent and criminally active young offenders. The recidivism rate for those diverted from prison is 12 percent as compared to those sent to prison who recidivate at a rate of 38 percent.
The guidelines also provide for increasing the length of sentences for violent sex offenders. A specific risk assessment was devised for sex offenders. After studying prior sex offenders and their recidivism rates, the commission recommended sentence guidelines for sex offenders. The sentencing judge could use the risk assessment score to determine a moderate, high risk or very high risk sex offender and increase the upper end of the guideline range by 25, 50 or 100 percent. In effect, the guidelines enabled the sentencing judge to incapacitate the offenders who pose the greatest risk to society.
Virginia's sentencing scheme has saved millions of dollars and enhanced public safety. Virginia's success is evident no matter what is used as a barometer. First, a look at a Vera Institute report, The Continuing Fiscal Crisis in Corrections , is instructive. While Pennsylvania's correction costs increased by 4.49 percent in 2009, Virginia's decreased by 1.3 percent. Only two states, West Virginia and Wyoming, had a greater percentage increase in correction costs than did Pennsylvania.
Second, a Pew Center on the States' report, 2010 Prison Count, found that Pennsylvania's prison population increased by 4.3 percent in 2009, while Virginia's decreased by 1.3 percent.
Most importantly, Virginia's violent crime rate in 2009 was 226 violent crimes per 100,000 people, the state's lowest number since the mid-1960s. In 2009, Pennsylvania had 380 violent crimes per 100,000 people.
Virginia's innovative sentencing scheme appears to have addressed two lofty goals, reduce prison population and incapacitate the worst of the worst. Virginia's focus on empirical risk assessments at the front end of the punishment process is a smart approach to fiscal responsibility, public safety and offender accountability.
Now, Pennsylvania has an opportunity to make an impact on public safety as well. It is imperative that policy-makers remember that risk assessment tools can be relied on to divert low risk offenders to places other than prison, as well as have a role in incapacitating the worst of the high risk offenders.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
‘Stand Your Ground’ Bill on Governor Rendell’s Desk
Governor will review the bill before deciding whether to sign or veto it.
Last night the Pennsylvania House of Representatives sent to Governor Ed Rendell a bill that expands the use of self-defense in Pennsylvania, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. The legislation known as "stand your ground" enables people to use lethal force to defend themselves without retreat outside their homes. Currently the law allows those protections only within one's home.
The bill was approved by a 161-35 vote. Gun groups, many of them from Western Pennsylvania, pushed for the bill's passage over the past five years, reported the Tribune-Review.
The Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association opposed the bill. Association president, Dauphin County District Attorney Ed Marsico, has been an outspoken opponent of the legislation.
Two years ago Ohio passed a version of the Castle Doctrine. Prosecutors had concerns about the law when it was passed and that concern has not abated.
"It was not made to protect drug dealers from drug dealers, but that's how it's being used," Pike County Prosecutor Rob Junk told the Columbus Dispatch.
In rural Pike County, a man who ripped off a drug dealer's wares shot the dealer through the heart after he broke a window in an attempt to enter the defendant's car. Defense attorneys contended that the man acted lawfully. A jury convicted him of reckless homicide rather than murder, reported the Dispatch.
In Franklin County, a man fatally stabbed an acquaintance that pushed his way into the defendant's home during an argument. His attorneys said the law granted him an absolute right to defend himself with deadly force. According to the Dispatch, the prosecution countered that the law "is not a license to commit murder."
The use of the castle-doctrine defense has not succeeded in heading off homicide convictions, but appeals of trial-court verdicts are promised that could produce rulings interpreting the law.
"I am surprised it took this long to become an issue," Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O'Brien told the Dispatch. He fears that the law is being used to "confuse jurors to think there was self-defense under the law when there wasn't."
To read more: http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/breaking/s_709483.html
http://www.dispatchpolitics.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/11/14/copy/castle-doctrine-coming-under-fire.html?adsec=politics&sid=101
Last night the Pennsylvania House of Representatives sent to Governor Ed Rendell a bill that expands the use of self-defense in Pennsylvania, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. The legislation known as "stand your ground" enables people to use lethal force to defend themselves without retreat outside their homes. Currently the law allows those protections only within one's home.
The bill was approved by a 161-35 vote. Gun groups, many of them from Western Pennsylvania, pushed for the bill's passage over the past five years, reported the Tribune-Review.
The Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association opposed the bill. Association president, Dauphin County District Attorney Ed Marsico, has been an outspoken opponent of the legislation.
Two years ago Ohio passed a version of the Castle Doctrine. Prosecutors had concerns about the law when it was passed and that concern has not abated.
"It was not made to protect drug dealers from drug dealers, but that's how it's being used," Pike County Prosecutor Rob Junk told the Columbus Dispatch.
In rural Pike County, a man who ripped off a drug dealer's wares shot the dealer through the heart after he broke a window in an attempt to enter the defendant's car. Defense attorneys contended that the man acted lawfully. A jury convicted him of reckless homicide rather than murder, reported the Dispatch.
In Franklin County, a man fatally stabbed an acquaintance that pushed his way into the defendant's home during an argument. His attorneys said the law granted him an absolute right to defend himself with deadly force. According to the Dispatch, the prosecution countered that the law "is not a license to commit murder."
The use of the castle-doctrine defense has not succeeded in heading off homicide convictions, but appeals of trial-court verdicts are promised that could produce rulings interpreting the law.
"I am surprised it took this long to become an issue," Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O'Brien told the Dispatch. He fears that the law is being used to "confuse jurors to think there was self-defense under the law when there wasn't."
To read more: http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/breaking/s_709483.html
http://www.dispatchpolitics.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/11/14/copy/castle-doctrine-coming-under-fire.html?adsec=politics&sid=101
Monday, November 15, 2010
Ohio Governor Commutes Death Sentence
Execution Would Have Been the Last Under Governor Strickland
Ohio Governor Ted Strickland has spared the life of Sidney Cornwell, a killer scheduled to be executed tomorrow. Cornwell's sentence will be commuted to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
According to the Associated Press, the Ohio Parole Board had recommended against mercy for Cornwell, but Strickland said jurors might have chosen a different sentence if they had known of the condition, called Klinefelter Syndrome. The condition caused Cornwell to develop motor and language skills late and gave him large breasts as a boy, which led to repeated teasing.
Cornwell, of Youngstown, was scheduled to die by lethal injection for the killing of Jessica Ballew. The girl was on her porch in Youngstown in 1996 as Cornwell and other Crips gang members were hunting for a member of the Bloods a rival gang. He opened fire on people who apparently knew his intended victim, killing the girl, reported the Associated Press.
Mahoning County Prosecutor Paul Gains said he did not believe Cornwell deserved mercy. "Although I disagree with the governor's decision, I respect his right to make that decision," Gains told the Associated Press.
Seventeen men have been put to death since Governor Strickland took office in 2007. The eight men executed this year is the most in a single year since Ohio re-instituted the death penalty in 1999.
Cornwell is the third death row inmate this year to be spared by the governor. Cornwell is the last inmate to face the death penalty with Strickland as governor. Governor Strickland was defeated in his bid for re-election earlier this month.
To read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ic8rg35Zlm9cqHvMhxNU9xbzR3HA?docId=0102977eeca14d11a3073beafe64232c
Ohio Governor Ted Strickland has spared the life of Sidney Cornwell, a killer scheduled to be executed tomorrow. Cornwell's sentence will be commuted to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
According to the Associated Press, the Ohio Parole Board had recommended against mercy for Cornwell, but Strickland said jurors might have chosen a different sentence if they had known of the condition, called Klinefelter Syndrome. The condition caused Cornwell to develop motor and language skills late and gave him large breasts as a boy, which led to repeated teasing.
Cornwell, of Youngstown, was scheduled to die by lethal injection for the killing of Jessica Ballew. The girl was on her porch in Youngstown in 1996 as Cornwell and other Crips gang members were hunting for a member of the Bloods a rival gang. He opened fire on people who apparently knew his intended victim, killing the girl, reported the Associated Press.
Mahoning County Prosecutor Paul Gains said he did not believe Cornwell deserved mercy. "Although I disagree with the governor's decision, I respect his right to make that decision," Gains told the Associated Press.
Seventeen men have been put to death since Governor Strickland took office in 2007. The eight men executed this year is the most in a single year since Ohio re-instituted the death penalty in 1999.
Cornwell is the third death row inmate this year to be spared by the governor. Cornwell is the last inmate to face the death penalty with Strickland as governor. Governor Strickland was defeated in his bid for re-election earlier this month.
To read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ic8rg35Zlm9cqHvMhxNU9xbzR3HA?docId=0102977eeca14d11a3073beafe64232c
Congress Ignores I.R.S. Regulation Denying Information to Missing Children Investigators
The government has data that could be helpful in tracking down thousands of missing children across the country. However, existing federal tax laws prohibit the disclosure of the information.
The Internal Revenue Service says that taxpayer privacy laws severely restrict the release of information from tax returns. According to the New York Times, privacy laws enacted a generation ago to prevent Watergate-era abuses of confidential taxpayer information brought about the restrictions.
The Congress has enacted specific exceptions allowing the I.R.S. to turn over information in child support cases and to help federal agencies determine whether an applicant qualifies for income-based federal benefits. However, Congress has refused to act on missing children. Information that would be helpful in tracking down child abductors is apparently off-limits.
The I.R.S. would be of little help in finding a child abducted by strangers. Stranger abductions are exceedingly rare. The I.R.S. can be helpful in the case of family abductions. According to the Times, about 200,000 family abductions are reported each year in the United States, most of which stem from custody disputes between estranged spouses. About 12,000 last longer than six months, according to Justice Department statistics reported by the Times, and involve parental abductors who assume false identities and travel the country to escape detection.
As unlikely as it may seem, a significant number of adults responsible for family abductions file federal tax returns. The Times reported that a 2007 Treasury Department study examined the Social Security numbers of 1,700 missing children and the relatives suspected of abducting them, and found that more than a third had been used in tax returns filed after the abductions took place.
Those addresses could be used by investigators to rescue abducted children. Yet, the I.R.S. will not provide the confidential taxpayer information. A federal judge in Virginia agreed with the I.R.S. and refused to issue an order authorizing the I.R.S. to turn over the addresses to law enforcement authorities.
It is beyond comprehension that the Congress cannot carve out an exception to the tax code to enable the I.R.S. to assist law enforcement agencies locate missing and abducted children. Missing children’s advocates see the I.R.S. data as a potentially powerful resource. “There are hundreds of cases this could help solve,” Cindy Rudometkin of the Polly Klaas Foundation told the Times, “And even if it helped solve one case — imagine if that child returned home was yours.”
To read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/13/business/13missing.html?_r=2&hp
The Internal Revenue Service says that taxpayer privacy laws severely restrict the release of information from tax returns. According to the New York Times, privacy laws enacted a generation ago to prevent Watergate-era abuses of confidential taxpayer information brought about the restrictions.
The Congress has enacted specific exceptions allowing the I.R.S. to turn over information in child support cases and to help federal agencies determine whether an applicant qualifies for income-based federal benefits. However, Congress has refused to act on missing children. Information that would be helpful in tracking down child abductors is apparently off-limits.
The I.R.S. would be of little help in finding a child abducted by strangers. Stranger abductions are exceedingly rare. The I.R.S. can be helpful in the case of family abductions. According to the Times, about 200,000 family abductions are reported each year in the United States, most of which stem from custody disputes between estranged spouses. About 12,000 last longer than six months, according to Justice Department statistics reported by the Times, and involve parental abductors who assume false identities and travel the country to escape detection.
As unlikely as it may seem, a significant number of adults responsible for family abductions file federal tax returns. The Times reported that a 2007 Treasury Department study examined the Social Security numbers of 1,700 missing children and the relatives suspected of abducting them, and found that more than a third had been used in tax returns filed after the abductions took place.
Those addresses could be used by investigators to rescue abducted children. Yet, the I.R.S. will not provide the confidential taxpayer information. A federal judge in Virginia agreed with the I.R.S. and refused to issue an order authorizing the I.R.S. to turn over the addresses to law enforcement authorities.
It is beyond comprehension that the Congress cannot carve out an exception to the tax code to enable the I.R.S. to assist law enforcement agencies locate missing and abducted children. Missing children’s advocates see the I.R.S. data as a potentially powerful resource. “There are hundreds of cases this could help solve,” Cindy Rudometkin of the Polly Klaas Foundation told the Times, “And even if it helped solve one case — imagine if that child returned home was yours.”
To read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/13/business/13missing.html?_r=2&hp
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Ohio Schedules Record Ninth Execution for Tuesday
Sidney Cornwell is set for execution at 10 a.m. on November 16, 2010 in Ohio's Death House at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville. He was convicted of the 1996 Youngstown area gang-related killing of Jessica Ballew.
According to the Warren Tribune Chronicle, prosecutors say Cornwell, a member of the Crips street gang, was looking for Richard ''Boom'' Miles, a member of rival gang, the Bloods, who had shot and wounded a member of the Crips a day earlier. Miles' girlfriend lived in the Oak Park Lane home on the North Side where Jessica was staying.
Three-year-old Jessica had walked on the front porch about 2:15 a.m. to ask for a glass of water when a car with three men inside rolled by and someone inside started firing, reported the Tribune Chronicle. Ballew was killed, and three others on the porch were wounded.
The state parole board has recommended against clemency. Governor Ted Strickland has not decided to grant clemency or allow the execution to proceed. If the execution proceeds as scheduled it will be the ninth execution of 2010. Ohio has already executed more inmates this year than in any other year since the death penalty was reimposed in 1999.
To read more: http://www.tribtoday.com/page/content.detail/id/549574/Cop-recalls-killer-s-case.html?nav=5021
According to the Warren Tribune Chronicle, prosecutors say Cornwell, a member of the Crips street gang, was looking for Richard ''Boom'' Miles, a member of rival gang, the Bloods, who had shot and wounded a member of the Crips a day earlier. Miles' girlfriend lived in the Oak Park Lane home on the North Side where Jessica was staying.
Three-year-old Jessica had walked on the front porch about 2:15 a.m. to ask for a glass of water when a car with three men inside rolled by and someone inside started firing, reported the Tribune Chronicle. Ballew was killed, and three others on the porch were wounded.
The state parole board has recommended against clemency. Governor Ted Strickland has not decided to grant clemency or allow the execution to proceed. If the execution proceeds as scheduled it will be the ninth execution of 2010. Ohio has already executed more inmates this year than in any other year since the death penalty was reimposed in 1999.
To read more: http://www.tribtoday.com/page/content.detail/id/549574/Cop-recalls-killer-s-case.html?nav=5021
DNA and the Execution of Claude Jones
Test Results Do Not Prove Innocence of Texas Man Executed
A DNA test on a single hair has stirred some controversy regarding Claude Jones who was condemned to die for the 1989 killing of liquor store owner Allen Hilzendager, who was shot three times outside the town of Point Blank, Texas.
The hair had been the only piece of physical evidence linking Jones to the crime scene. But the recently completed DNA analysis found it did not belong to Jones and instead may have come from the murder victim, reported the Associated Press.
According to Time Magazine, that single 1-inch strand of hair was the key to Jones' original conviction. A truck carrying Jones and Danny Dixon did pull up in front of Hilzendager's liquor store that night. One man got out, went inside and gunned Hilzendager down, according to two eyewitnesses across the highway (neither could see the murderer's face). Both Jones and Dixon were certainly capable of the crime — both were on parole after serving time for murder. But there was little other firm evidence of which one had done it. Dixon accused Jones, and Jones accused Dixon.
The fact that the hair was actually Hilzendager's doesn't mean that Jones was necessarily innocent, but it does mean that the jury convicted him, in part, on possibly inaccurate evidence. DNA testing may have address the issue with the hair sample. As the execution drew near, Jones petitioned Governor George W. Bush for a stay of execution and the right to DNA testing. Apparently, the briefing papers given to Bush by his staff did not include the request for the DNA testing, and Bush denied a stay of execution, according to Time.
Jones' had a brutal past. While serving a 21-year prison sentence in Kansas, he poured a flammable liquid on his cellmate and set him on fire, killing him. Authorities also said his getaway driver, Danny Dixon, was previously convicted of shooting a girl between the eyes and burying her in a cemetery, reported Associated Press.
This DNA test is not an exoneration of Jones. This is not a case where the DNA test indicated that Jones is factually innocent. Could DNA testing prior to his execution been enough to stay his execution or even grant him a new trial? We can speculate that he might have received some relief from the court.
What we do know is that two convicted killers pulled up in front of a liquor store and the store owner was brutally murdered. A witness said said Jones confessed to the killing.
To read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iR9jEuLMk-vBBvGHm6XmfYL0qzEw?docId=1efabe1138424c3087e40841c4a4f149
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2031034,00.html
A DNA test on a single hair has stirred some controversy regarding Claude Jones who was condemned to die for the 1989 killing of liquor store owner Allen Hilzendager, who was shot three times outside the town of Point Blank, Texas.
The hair had been the only piece of physical evidence linking Jones to the crime scene. But the recently completed DNA analysis found it did not belong to Jones and instead may have come from the murder victim, reported the Associated Press.
According to Time Magazine, that single 1-inch strand of hair was the key to Jones' original conviction. A truck carrying Jones and Danny Dixon did pull up in front of Hilzendager's liquor store that night. One man got out, went inside and gunned Hilzendager down, according to two eyewitnesses across the highway (neither could see the murderer's face). Both Jones and Dixon were certainly capable of the crime — both were on parole after serving time for murder. But there was little other firm evidence of which one had done it. Dixon accused Jones, and Jones accused Dixon.
The fact that the hair was actually Hilzendager's doesn't mean that Jones was necessarily innocent, but it does mean that the jury convicted him, in part, on possibly inaccurate evidence. DNA testing may have address the issue with the hair sample. As the execution drew near, Jones petitioned Governor George W. Bush for a stay of execution and the right to DNA testing. Apparently, the briefing papers given to Bush by his staff did not include the request for the DNA testing, and Bush denied a stay of execution, according to Time.
Jones' had a brutal past. While serving a 21-year prison sentence in Kansas, he poured a flammable liquid on his cellmate and set him on fire, killing him. Authorities also said his getaway driver, Danny Dixon, was previously convicted of shooting a girl between the eyes and burying her in a cemetery, reported Associated Press.
This DNA test is not an exoneration of Jones. This is not a case where the DNA test indicated that Jones is factually innocent. Could DNA testing prior to his execution been enough to stay his execution or even grant him a new trial? We can speculate that he might have received some relief from the court.
What we do know is that two convicted killers pulled up in front of a liquor store and the store owner was brutally murdered. A witness said said Jones confessed to the killing.
To read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iR9jEuLMk-vBBvGHm6XmfYL0qzEw?docId=1efabe1138424c3087e40841c4a4f149
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2031034,00.html
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Oklahoma Turns to Animal Euthanizing Drug for Executions
Oklahoma federal judge Stephen Friot will soon hear arguments on whether Oklahoma can execute John David Duty with pentobarbital a drug used for euthanizing animals. The drug would be substituted for sodium thiopental the powerful anesthetic that is widely used for lethal injection and is in short supply.
According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), Hospira Inc., the sole U.S. maker of thiopental, announced this summer that it had ceased production of the drug until 2011, citing a shortage in one of thiopental's raw ingredients.
Oklahoma authorities have suggested that veterinarians regard pentobarbital, which it is proposing as a substitute anesthetic for death row inmates, "as an ideal anesthetic agent for humane euthanasia in animals," that is "substantially" similar to thiopental, reported the WSJ.
Many states, including Arizona, California, Kentucky and Tennessee, have combed domestic or overseas suppliers in search of thiopental, in some cases successfully. Other states, such as Texas, have a sufficient stockpile on hand to cover near-term executions, but they could run into delays next year if Hospira doesn't make a new supply, reported the WSJ.
Arkansas hasn’t executed anyone since Nov. 28, 2005, but the state supplied a drug used for an execution in Oklahoma. A shortage of sodium thiopental has sent states across the country scrambling to acquire doses before their next scheduled executions. Some have turned to Arkansas.
After the Arkansas Supreme Court issued a stay on two executions scheduled earlier this year because of objections raised over the state’s recently changed lethal-injection law, the state was left with extra supplies of the drug that will expire in 2011.
Efforts to obtain thiopental from foreign sources have created controversy and legal battles. Arizona used a dose of sodium thiopental obtained overseas to execute Jeffey Landrigan earlier this month, http://mattmangino.blogspot.com/2010/10/condemned-mans-final-words-boomer.html. A lawsuit filed last week in London alleges that Tennessee ordered a supply of thiopental from Britain to carry out the scheduled January execution of Edmund Zagorski.
To read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704146904575602784093885378.html?mod=WSJ_hp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsThird
According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), Hospira Inc., the sole U.S. maker of thiopental, announced this summer that it had ceased production of the drug until 2011, citing a shortage in one of thiopental's raw ingredients.
Oklahoma authorities have suggested that veterinarians regard pentobarbital, which it is proposing as a substitute anesthetic for death row inmates, "as an ideal anesthetic agent for humane euthanasia in animals," that is "substantially" similar to thiopental, reported the WSJ.
Many states, including Arizona, California, Kentucky and Tennessee, have combed domestic or overseas suppliers in search of thiopental, in some cases successfully. Other states, such as Texas, have a sufficient stockpile on hand to cover near-term executions, but they could run into delays next year if Hospira doesn't make a new supply, reported the WSJ.
Arkansas hasn’t executed anyone since Nov. 28, 2005, but the state supplied a drug used for an execution in Oklahoma. A shortage of sodium thiopental has sent states across the country scrambling to acquire doses before their next scheduled executions. Some have turned to Arkansas.
After the Arkansas Supreme Court issued a stay on two executions scheduled earlier this year because of objections raised over the state’s recently changed lethal-injection law, the state was left with extra supplies of the drug that will expire in 2011.
Efforts to obtain thiopental from foreign sources have created controversy and legal battles. Arizona used a dose of sodium thiopental obtained overseas to execute Jeffey Landrigan earlier this month, http://mattmangino.blogspot.com/2010/10/condemned-mans-final-words-boomer.html. A lawsuit filed last week in London alleges that Tennessee ordered a supply of thiopental from Britain to carry out the scheduled January execution of Edmund Zagorski.
To read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704146904575602784093885378.html?mod=WSJ_hp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsThird
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