Day: February 1, 2014

LOUSIANA – Upcoming execution Christopher Sepulvado-February 5,2014 STAYED

UPDATE FEBRUARY 3. 2014  from Helen Prejean
We’ve just received the news that Christopher Sepulvado’s execution will not proceed on Wednesday. Instead, a trial on the constitutionality of Louisiana’s hastily change execution protocol will take place on April 7. The vigil scheduled for tomorrow has also been cancelled. This is good news, at least for the moment, and more great work by the lawyers.
SUPREME COURT OF LOUISIANA

NO. 93-KA-2692
FACTS
On Thursday, March 5, 1992, defendant married the victim’s mother, Yvonne. The next day,Friday, the victim came home from school, having defecated in his pants. Yvonne spanked him and refused to give him supper. Defendant returned home from work at approximately 9:00 p.m. That night, the victim was not allowed to change his clothes and was made to sleep on a trunk at the foot of his bed. On Saturday, the victim was not allowed to eat and was again made to sleep on the trunk in his soiled clothes.
At around 10:00 a.m. on Sunday, defendant and the victim were in the bathroom, preparing to attend church services. Defendant instructed the victim to wash out his soiled underwear in the toilet and then take a bath. When the victim hesitated to do so,defendant hit him over the head with the handle of a screwdriver several times with enough force to render him unconscious.
There after, the victim was immersed in the bathtub which was filled with scalding hot water.
Approximately three hours later, at around 1:50 p.m.,defendant and his wife brought the victim to the emergency room at the hospital. At that time the victim was not breathing, had no pulse, and probably had been dead for approximately thirty to sixty minutes. All attempts to revive the victim were futile. The cause of death was attributed to the scald burns covering 60% of the victim’s body, primarily on his backside. There were third degree burns over 58% of the body and second degree burns on the remaining 2%.
The scalding was so severe that the victim’s skin had been burned away. In addition to the burns, medical examination revealed that the victim had been severely beaten. The victim’s
scalp had separated from his skull due to hemorrhaging and bruising. Also, there were deep bruises on the victim’s buttocks.
full opinion click here

Supply of lethal injection drugs expires, Virginia electrocutions could return

feb.01.2014 (nbc12)

RICHMOND, VA (WWBT) 

While states across the country are running low on lethal injection drugs, Virginia’s stockpile has expired, and electrocutions could return.

 

A proposal is now headed to the Virginia Senate, a bill that would make electrocutions the default method of capital punishment if lethal injections are not available.

 

The Commonwealth’s supply of lethal injection drugs expired Nov. 30, 2013, and eight people are currently on Virginia’s death row. There are no executions scheduled, largely because of the lengthy appeal process.

 

But in an interview Friday, Virginia ACLU Executive Director Claire Guthrie Gastañaga said the debate now unfolding in Richmond could worsen problems already inherent with capital punishment.

 

“We have people in Virginia still in jeopardy of being executed for being innocent,” Gastañaga said. “And they’re up there debating how we should kill people, not whether we should kill people.”

 

A companion bill has already passed the Virginia House of Delegates in a 64-32 vote, with more than half of delegates from the Richmond area supporting the proposal.

 

In an email from the Virginia Department of Corrections, Director of Communications Lisa E. Kinney said the Department is now exploring options to purchase new lethal injection drugs. Other parts of the country are currently facing a shortage, partly because European companies hesitant to have their drugs used for executions.

 

“[Virginia’] drugs have come from a domestic company,” Kinney said. “The Department has no position on the pending bills.”

 

Questions on whether forced electrocutions are humane will continue take center stage if the proposed legislation heads to Governor Terry McAuliffe’s desk. But in a phone interview Friday, the patron of the Senate bill, Sen. Bill Carrico (R-Grayson) said gruesome tales of electrocution are often exaggerated.

 

“We see nothing to the extent of the horror stories of the Green Mile, the movies people watch,” Carrico said.

 

Proponents of the electric chair also point to the 25 minutes an Ohio man took to die, with a new combination of lethal injection drugs.

 

“When people start seeing that these drugs are not becoming exactly effective, it is a more inhumane way to do it than electrocution,” Carrico said. “And what about the victims’ families? Many of them could never see their loved ones again because of these heinous crimes. We need to think about them.”

Carrico’s proposal, Senate Bill 607, is expected to receive a full Senate vote next week