Execution drug shortage makes some think of firing squads
9 years, 5 months ago

Execution drug shortage makes some think of firing squads

Associated Press  

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio’s decision to delay executions another full year while it hunts for lethal injection drugs highlights an ongoing dilemma faced by the remaining death penalty states. “It really underscores the public’s growing distrust and dissatisfaction with state corrections departments being able to administer the death penalty,” Kevin Werner, who leads Ohioans to Stop Executions, said Tuesday. “It is preposterous that well-deserved and already excessively delayed sentences are further delayed due to a completely artificial shortage of lethal injection drugs,” Scheidegger said. But that’s just as flawed as lethal injection because it confuses medicine with punishment, said Robert Blecker, a New York Law School professor who favors capital punishment for the worst offenders.

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History of this topic

An Arizona prisoner whose execution is coming up isn’t asking for a reprieve
2 weeks, 2 days ago

An Arizona prisoner whose execution is coming up isn’t asking for a reprieve

Associated Press  

PHOENIX — A prisoner scheduled to be executed next week in what would be Arizona’s first use of the death penalty in over two years will not ask for a reprieve from his death sentence. The Arizona Supreme Court issued a death warrant for Gunches nearly two years ago, but the sentence wasn’t carried out because the state’s Democratic attorney …

Lethal injection, electrocution and now firing squads. A look at US execution methods
3 weeks, 2 days ago

Lethal injection, electrocution and now firing squads. A look at US execution methods

Hindustan Times  

HOUSTON — South Carolina is preparing this week to execute a man by firing squad, a capital punishment method that hasn’t been used in the U.S. in nearly 15 years. A look at US execution methods Since the Supreme Court lifted its ban on capital punishment in 1976, states have used five different execution methods: lethal injection, electrocution, lethal gas, …

Lethal injection, electrocution and now firing squads. A look at US execution methods
3 weeks, 2 days ago

Lethal injection, electrocution and now firing squads. A look at US execution methods

Associated Press  

HOUSTON — South Carolina is preparing this week to execute a man by firing squad, a capital punishment method that hasn’t been used in the U.S. in nearly 15 years. Since the Supreme Court lifted its ban on capital punishment in 1976, states have used five different execution methods: lethal injection, electrocution, lethal gas, firing squad and hanging. Here’s a …

Idaho considers archaic execution practice as 'primary method' of killing prisoners after lethal injection fails
2 months ago

Idaho considers archaic execution practice as 'primary method' of killing prisoners after lethal injection fails

Daily Mail  

Republican lawmakers in Idaho are considering going back to the firing squad after the execution of a convicted serial killer via lethal injection completely failed last year. State Representative Bruce Skaug introduced a bill Tuesday that would make Idaho the only US state that makes a firing squad its primary mode of carrying out the death penalty, the Idaho Statesman …

South Carolina Supreme Court rules state death penalty including firing squad is legal
7 months, 3 weeks ago

South Carolina Supreme Court rules state death penalty including firing squad is legal

CNN  

COLUMBIA, S.C. AP — The South Carolina Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the state’s death penalty, which now includes a firing squad as well as lethal injection and the electric chair, is legal. The Supreme Court allowed the inmates to add arguments that the shield law was too secret by not releasing the potency, purity and stabilization of lethal injection …

South Carolina wants to restart executions with firing squad, electric chair and lethal injection
1 year, 1 month ago

South Carolina wants to restart executions with firing squad, electric chair and lethal injection

Associated Press  

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Lawyers for four death row inmates who have run out of appeals argued to the South Carolina Supreme Court on Tuesday that the state’s old electric chair and new firing squad are cruel and unusual punishments. And they got a lawyer for the inmates to say if the Supreme Court bans electrocution and the firing squad and …

Will other states replicate Alabama’s nitrogen execution?
1 year, 1 month ago

Will other states replicate Alabama’s nitrogen execution?

Associated Press  

ATMORE, Ala. — Alabama’s first-ever use of nitrogen gas for an execution could gain traction among other states and change how the death penalty is carried out in the United States, much like lethal injection did more than 40 years ago, according to experts on capital punishment. “I think the nation, as far as correctional entities, is watching this to …

Nebraska bill would add asphyxiation by nitrogen gas as form of execution for death row inmates
1 year, 2 months ago

Nebraska bill would add asphyxiation by nitrogen gas as form of execution for death row inmates

Associated Press  

— A Nebraska lawmaker has introduced a bill to add asphyxiation by nitrogen to the state’s method of carrying out the death penalty, even as Alabama officials await a judge’s ruling on a request to block its plans to become the nation’s first state to carry out an execution by nitrogen gas. The bill introduced Thursday would add the nitrogen …

South Carolina has lethal injection drug but justices want more info before restarting executions
1 year, 4 months ago

South Carolina has lethal injection drug but justices want more info before restarting executions

Associated Press  

COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina’s highest court apparently is not ready to allow the state to restart executions after more than 12 years until they hear more arguments about newly obtained lethal injection drugs as well as a recently added firing squad and the old electric chair. South Carolina has not carried out an execution since 2011 after the state’s …

South Carolina inmates want executions paused while new lethal injection method is studied
1 year, 5 months ago

South Carolina inmates want executions paused while new lethal injection method is studied

Associated Press  

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Lawyers for six death row inmates out of appeals in South Carolina are asking the state Supreme Court to give full consideration to the state’s new lethal injection rules as well as the electric chair and firing squad before restarting executions after an unintended 12-year pause. The inmates said judges should decide now if the state’s new …

S. Carolina bill shielding death penalty drugmakers advances
2 years, 1 month ago

S. Carolina bill shielding death penalty drugmakers advances

Associated Press  

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Republicans’ quest to resume executions in South Carolina overcame another hurdle Thursday. The state Senate Corrections and Penology Committee approved a bill that would shield the identities of the companies that dispense the drug cocktail used to execute people on death row. Recent sessions have seen futile attempts to begin executing the state’s death row prisoners — …

Oklahoma appeals court agrees to slow pace of executions
2 years, 2 months ago

Oklahoma appeals court agrees to slow pace of executions

Associated Press  

OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma’s Court of Criminal Appeals on Tuesday agreed to slow the pace of the state’s upcoming executions at the request of the new attorney general, spacing them at least 60 days apart. The court issued an order setting execution dates for the next seven death row inmates scheduled to die by lethal injection, beginning with Richard Glossip …

Tennessee execution pause through 2022 could last longer
2 years, 9 months ago

Tennessee execution pause through 2022 could last longer

Associated Press  

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — After Tennessee Gov. Many of the problems surfaced as part of challenges of Tennessee’s execution process by two death row inmates in federal court. Those cases are on hold until the investigation ordered by Lee concludes — but in the meantime, the state attorney general’s office acknowledged in a May 6 court filing that there may be …

Inmate asks judges to halt firing squad or electrocution
2 years, 11 months ago

Inmate asks judges to halt firing squad or electrocution

Associated Press  

COLUMBIA, S.C. — A South Carolina inmate set to die either by a firing squad or in the electric chair later this month is asking the state Supreme Court to halt his execution until judges can determine if either method is cruel and unusual punishment. Moore’s lawyers said judges need to review South Carolina’s new firing squad rules to see …

2 SC death row inmates ask court not to schedule executions
3 years ago

2 SC death row inmates ask court not to schedule executions

Associated Press  

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Lawyers for two men on South Carolina’s death row have asked the state’s Supreme Court to hold off on setting execution dates while they challenge a new law allowing executions by firing squad. Prisons officials began preparing for a firing squad after legislators altered the state’s capital punishment law in an effort to work around a decade-long …

South Carolina Now Ready To Carry Out Executions By Firing Squad
3 years ago

South Carolina Now Ready To Carry Out Executions By Firing Squad

Huff Post  

South Carolina is now prepared to carry out executions by firing squad, the Department of Corrections said in a chilling statement Friday. After a law was passed last year allowing firing squads, the state spent $53,000 to renovate the capital punishment facility at Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia “to include the capacity to perform an execution by firing squad,” …

2 South Carolina executions halted until firing squad formed
3 years, 9 months ago

2 South Carolina executions halted until firing squad formed

Associated Press  

COLUMBIA, S.C. — The South Carolina Supreme Court on Wednesday blocked the planned executions of two inmates by electrocution, saying they cannot be put to death until they truly have the choice of a firing squad option set out in the state’s newly revised capital punishment law. The state’s plans, the court wrote in an unanimous order, are on hold …

With Lethal Injections Harder To Come By, Some States Are Turning To Firing Squads
3 years, 10 months ago

With Lethal Injections Harder To Come By, Some States Are Turning To Firing Squads

NPR  

With Lethal Injections Harder To Come By, Some States Are Turning To Firing Squads Enlarge this image toggle caption Kinard Lisbon/South Carolina Department of Corrections via AP Kinard Lisbon/South Carolina Department of Corrections via AP South Carolina's Republican governor signed a bill into law last week that sounds like it's from a different century: Death row inmates must choose whether …

South Carolina’s macabre new law won’t make execution any more humane
3 years, 10 months ago

South Carolina’s macabre new law won’t make execution any more humane

The Independent  

The best of Voices delivered to your inbox every week - from controversial columns to expert analysis Sign up for our free weekly Voices newsletter for expert opinion and columns Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. If lethal injection drugs are unavailable, …

Nebraska death sentences continue despite no execution drugs
3 years, 10 months ago

Nebraska death sentences continue despite no execution drugs

Associated Press  

— Three times in the past four years, Nebraska prosecutors have sought death sentences, and each time they have been successful. We say Nebraska has a death penalty when, functionally, we don’t.” Twenty seven states allow capital punishment, but many have struggled in recent years to obtain the drugs used to execute inmates because most manufacturers now refuse to openly …

Ohio governor: Lethal injection no longer execution option
4 years, 3 months ago

Ohio governor: Lethal injection no longer execution option

Associated Press  

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Lethal injection is no longer an option for Ohio executions, and lawmakers must choose a different method of capital punishment before any inmates can be put to death in the future, Republican Gov. Former Republican House Speaker Larry Householder, now under federal indictment for his alleged role in a $60 million bribery scheme, questioned last year whether …

Trump’s Approval of Hanging and Firing Squads Is a National Embarrassment
55 years, 2 months ago

Trump’s Approval of Hanging and Firing Squads Is a National Embarrassment

Slate  

The Trump administration on Friday dramatically expanded the federal government’s ability to carry out the death penalty and use archaic methods of execution that would prove to be a national embarrassment if used in Trump’s waning days as president. The Trump administration is cruelly taking advantage of the fact that this country’s 22 remaining death penalty states, because they have …

SC delays execution, citing lack of lethal injection drugs
4 years, 3 months ago

SC delays execution, citing lack of lethal injection drugs

Associated Press  

COLUMBIA, S.C. — The South Carolina Supreme Court on Monday stayed the execution of a death row prisoner after corrections officials said they couldn’t obtain the necessary lethal injection drugs in time. An attorney for the state Department of Corrections wrote in a letter to the South Carolina Supreme Court last week that the agency cannot carry out the execution …

Poison gas, firing squads: US approves more execution methods
4 years, 3 months ago

Poison gas, firing squads: US approves more execution methods

Al Jazeera  

Outgoing Trump administration paves way for additional methods of executing prisoners sentenced to death. The Justice Department is quietly amending its execution protocols, no longer requiring federal death sentences to be carried out by lethal injection and clearing the way to use other methods like firing squads and poison gas. It remains unclear whether the Justice Department will seek to …

South Carolina schedules execution but doesn't have drugs
4 years, 4 months ago

South Carolina schedules execution but doesn't have drugs

The Independent  

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy The state of South Carolina …

U.S. carries out the first federal execution in nearly two decades
4 years, 8 months ago

U.S. carries out the first federal execution in nearly two decades

LA Times  

The U.S. government on Tuesday carried out the first federal execution in almost two decades, putting to death a man who killed an Arkansas family in a 1990s plot to build a whites-only nation in the Pacific Northwest. “I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life, but I’m not a murderer.. You’re killing an innocent man.” The decision to …

US judge delays federal executions, the first in 17 years
4 years, 8 months ago

US judge delays federal executions, the first in 17 years

Al Jazeera  

Three men convicted of murder were scheduled to die by lethal injection this week at an Indiana prison beginning Monday. The execution, the first of a federal death row inmate since 2003, comes after a federal appeals court lifted an injunction on Sunday that had been put in place last week after the victims’ family argued they would be put …

Nebraska court orders disclosure of execution drug records
4 years, 10 months ago

Nebraska court orders disclosure of execution drug records

Associated Press  

— Nebraska prison officials cannot withhold public records that reveal where they purchased their supply of lethal injection drugs, the state’s highest court said Friday in a ruling that could threaten Nebraska’s ability to carry out executions for the dozen men on its death row. Media outlets including The Associated Press, The Omaha World-Herald and The Lincoln Journal Star filed …

Speaker: Ohio House GOP discussing repeal of death penalty
5 years, 3 months ago

Speaker: Ohio House GOP discussing repeal of death penalty

Associated Press  

COLUMBUS, Ohio — House Republicans in Ohio are discussing a repeal of the death penalty, as executions remain on hold amid the state’s struggles to obtain lethal injection drugs. “We may have a law in place that allows for a death penalty that we can’t carry out.” Ohio becomes the latest state to consider ending capital punishment as executions continue …

Lethal Injection Drugs' Efficacy And Availability For Federal Executions
5 years, 8 months ago

Lethal Injection Drugs' Efficacy And Availability For Federal Executions

NPR  

Lethal Injection Drugs' Efficacy And Availability For Federal Executions Enlarge this image toggle caption Yuri Gripas/Reuters Yuri Gripas/Reuters The Justice Department's announcement that the federal government will resume its use of capital punishment has raised questions about the drugs it plans to use. In the announcement, Attorney General William Barr said, instead of the usual combination of three drugs, federal …

Death penalty to resume in U.S., says Justice Department
5 years, 8 months ago

Death penalty to resume in U.S., says Justice Department

The Hindu  

The U.S. Justice Department announced on Thursday it was reinstating a two-decades long dormant policy to resume the federal government’s use of capital punishment and immediately scheduled the executions for five death row federal inmates. “Congress has expressly authorised the death penalty through legislation adopted by the peoples representatives in both houses of Congress and signed by the President,” Attorney …

Governor says ‘no executions’ without court-backed drugs
6 years, 1 month ago

Governor says ‘no executions’ without court-backed drugs

Associated Press  

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Recent statements and actions by Gov. Last month, the Republican governor ordered the prison system to come up with a new lethal drug protocol after a federal judge’s scathing critique of the first drug in Ohio’s method. Last week, DeWine said Ohio “certainly could have no executions” during that search and the court challenges that would follow …

Nebraska executes inmate using powerful opioid fentanyl
6 years, 7 months ago

Nebraska executes inmate using powerful opioid fentanyl

Associated Press  

— Nebraska carried out its first execution in more than two decades on Tuesday with a drug combination never tried before, including the first use of the powerful opioid fentanyl in a lethal injection. At one point while on the gurney, Moore turned his head and mouthed several words to his family, including “I love you.” No members of the …

Nebraska Carries Out 1st Execution Using Fentanyl In U.S.
6 years, 7 months ago

Nebraska Carries Out 1st Execution Using Fentanyl In U.S.

NPR  

Nebraska Carries Out 1st Execution Using Fentanyl In U.S. Enlarge this image toggle caption Nebraska Department of Correctional Services via AP Nebraska Department of Correctional Services via AP Updated at 1:20 p.m. "This execution of Carey Dean Moore does not comport with Nebraska's proud tradition of open government," Executive Director Danielle Conrad said in a statement. The primary legal challenge …

Nebraska prisons head: State can’t buy execution drugs again
6 years, 7 months ago

Nebraska prisons head: State can’t buy execution drugs again

Associated Press  

— Delaying the execution of a longtime death-row inmate would likely prevent the state from ever carrying out the sentence because officials can’t purchase any more of the necessary lethal injection drugs, Nebraska’s prisons director acknowledged Thursday. Corrections Director Scott Frakes said in a sworn statement that the pharmacy that supplied Nebraska’s current batch of drugs is unwilling to sell …

Drugmaker seeks to block Nebraska from using execution drugs
6 years, 7 months ago

Drugmaker seeks to block Nebraska from using execution drugs

Associated Press  

— A German pharmaceutical company has filed a lawsuit to prevent Nebraska from using lethal injection drugs next week in what would be the state’s first execution in more than two decades. The company, Fresenius Kabi, opposes the use of its drugs in executions and alleges that the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services’ supply of potassium chloride was made by …

States Study Use of Fentanyl as Execution Drug
7 years, 2 months ago

States Study Use of Fentanyl as Execution Drug

Huff Post  

By Christopher Zoukis Faced with pharmaceutical supplier refusals, states are having serious difficulty obtaining the lethal drugs used for current execution protocols, so they are increasingly examining alternatives — including fentanyl, the synthetic drug that is in large part responsible for the nation’s deadly opioid epidemic. The difficulty obtaining chemicals needed for current execution protocols has also led some of …

Nebraska senators debate lethal injection secrecy bill
7 years, 11 months ago

Nebraska senators debate lethal injection secrecy bill

Associated Press  

— A proposal that would let Nebraska officials hide the identities of lethal injection suppliers drew criticism Wednesday from death penalty opponents but support from lawmakers who say the state needs it to resume executions. Sen. John Kuehn of Heartwell said the bill seeks to protect drug makers who would otherwise face public harassment from death penalty opponents. Sen. Ernie …

Company: Nebraska shouldn’t have gotten death penalty drug
7 years, 11 months ago

Company: Nebraska shouldn’t have gotten death penalty drug

Associated Press  

— A German pharmaceutical manufacturer whose drugs ended up in Nebraska’s lethal injection supply never intended for state officials to obtain them and tried unsuccessfully to get the corrections department to return them, a company spokesman said Thursday. Nebraska’s corrections department was only able to buy potassium chloride in 2015 because one of its U.S. distributors made a mistake, said …

States Find Other Execution Methods After Difficulties With Lethal Injection
7 years, 11 months ago

States Find Other Execution Methods After Difficulties With Lethal Injection

NPR  

States Find Other Execution Methods After Difficulties With Lethal Injection Enlarge this image toggle caption Nevada Department of Corrections via AP Nevada Department of Corrections via AP Death penalty laws are on the books in 31 states, but only five carried out executions last year. Sponsor Message "I'll admit, it's more and more difficult to carry out the sentence of …

Nebraska resumes search for lethal injection drug suppliers
8 years, 1 month ago

Nebraska resumes search for lethal injection drug suppliers

Associated Press  

— Nebraska officials have started a new search for lethal injection drugs and are backing a proposal that would allow them to conceal a supplier’s identity after voters reinstated capital punishment last year. His comments came outside of a Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee hearing on a proposed shield law that would keep secret the identity of any lethal …

Ohio Postpones 8 Executions Amidst Legal Challenge To Lethal Injection Procedure
8 years, 1 month ago

Ohio Postpones 8 Executions Amidst Legal Challenge To Lethal Injection Procedure

NPR  

Ohio Postpones 8 Executions Amidst Legal Challenge To Lethal Injection Procedure Enlarge this image toggle caption Andrew Welsh-Huggins/AP Andrew Welsh-Huggins/AP Gov. John Kasich has put Ohio executions on hold until May, citing a legal challenge to the state's three-drug lethal injection protocol. After five days of hearings, U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Michael Merz blocked three upcoming executions in a …

Mississippi considers firing squad as method of execution
8 years, 1 month ago

Mississippi considers firing squad as method of execution

Associated Press  

— Mississippi lawmakers are advancing a proposal to add firing squad, electrocution and gas chamber as execution methods in case a court blocks the use of lethal injection drugs. He asked Gipson several questions about “the time of suffering” an inmate would experience before dying by electrocution, gas chamber or firing squad. Craig would not respond to Gipson’s comment about …

With death penalty back, Nebraska looks ahead to executions
8 years, 4 months ago

With death penalty back, Nebraska looks ahead to executions

Associated Press  

— Now that Nebraska voters have restored the death penalty, Gov. Death penalty supporters responded with a statewide ballot campaign partially funded by Ricketts that prevented the law from going into effect until voters decided whether to overturn the Legislature’s decision. “Obviously, that’s a different view than what the Legislature took.” Meanwhile, death penalty opponents said they would continue fighting …

Oklahoma puts executions on hold after botched attempts
8 years, 6 months ago

Oklahoma puts executions on hold after botched attempts

Al Jazeera  

After years of controversy over lethal injection failures, US state now plans to execute inmates with nitrogen gas. Oklahoma, a US state with one of the busiest death chambers in the country over the past three decades, will have at least a two-year delay in lethal injections after officials declined to consider new execution procedures. After a botched execution in …

Nevada runs out of lethal injection drug
8 years, 7 months ago

Nevada runs out of lethal injection drug

Al Jazeera  

Nevada’s Department of Corrections says it is asking several companies for supplies of the drug needed for executions. Most states use either a one-drug or three-drug protocol for lethal injections, and it’s unclear which of the two drugs Nevada has run out of. Last year, the state’s Department of Corrections asked for funding for a new execution chamber as the …

Pfizer says it’s blocking use of drugs for lethal injections
8 years, 10 months ago

Pfizer says it’s blocking use of drugs for lethal injections

Associated Press  

Pharmaceutical company Pfizer said Friday it was blocking use of its drugs in lethal injections, which means all federally approved drugmakers whose medications could be used for executions have now put them off limits. However, as recently as last year, records showed that labels of Arkansas execution drugs appeared to indicate that the state’s potassium chloride, which stops the heart, …

Death penalty has been surrounded by new uncertainty in 2015
9 years, 3 months ago

Death penalty has been surrounded by new uncertainty in 2015

LA Times  

If you want to see what’s happened to the death penalty in the United States, you might look toward Oklahoma, where Richard Glossip was hours from execution twice in one month — and survived. Breyer called the death penalty “unfair, cruel and unusual” in dissent to the court’s 5-4 ruling in June that approved the chemicals Oklahoma used in its …

Nebraska bans death penalty
9 years, 9 months ago

Nebraska bans death penalty

The Hindu  

Nebraska became the first “red state” since 1973 to abolish the death penalty this week, and did so in dramatic fashion after state legislators there banded together to overrule a veto by Governor Pete Ricketts. This week, however, the staunchly Republican state overcame resistance from Governor Rickett’s office to pass by a margin of 30 to 19 votes, a bill …

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