Drug, legal complications feed death penalty debate

High-profile cases in Ohio, Texas and Colorado renew capital punishment challenges

Published: February 20, 2014

By Patricia Zapor
Catholic News Service

CNS / Lisa Johnston, St. Louis Review

Deacon John Flanigan holds a sign during a vigil outside St. Louis University College Church Jan. 28 ahead of the execution of Missouri death-row inmate Herbert Smulls of St. Louis.

CNS / Lisa Johnston, St. Louis Review

Deacon John Flanigan holds a sign during a vigil outside St. Louis University College Church Jan. 28 ahead of the execution of Missouri death-row inmate Herbert Smulls of St. Louis.

In Arkansas, death row dwindling

Executions have been temporarily blocked in Arkansas after a judge determined Feb. 14 that the state Legislature gave too much authority to the Department of Correction to pick the drugs used for lethal injections.

In 2013 the state passed a law saying barbiturates should be used in executions, but it did not specify which one.

According to the Associated Press, Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen ruled from the bench after an hour-long hearing, saying no executions can take place in the state for now. Nine death row inmates had filed the lawsuit in Pulaski County Circuit Court.

Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel said in a statement, “I have aggressively battled to uphold death penalty sentences, and I will appeal the decision. This is yet another example of the practical and legal hurdles complicating our state’s execution process.”

The Associated Press reported that Josh Lee, one of the inmates’ attorneys, said there is no assurance in the 2013 law that an execution would be “swift and humane.” Lee said there are several barbiturates and picking the wrong one could cause a “lingering death.”

Sam Kooistra, executive director of the Arkansas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, said there are several other encouraging developments in the use of the death penalty in the state.

No executions have been held since 2005.

Since December, Kooistra said four men have been removed from state’s death row at the Varner Supermax Unit.

“Last month, Jason Taylor and Kingrale Collins both struck deals with prosecutors, changing their sentences to 50 years and life without parole, respectively. Neither will face the death penalty going forward,” Kooistra said.

Two other men on death row have been granted new trials, he said.

“Last month, the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled that Rickey Newman was entitled to a new trial after it found that he was not competent to stand trial when originally convicted. And in December, a judge in Little River County granted Tim Howard a new trial after determining that evidence wrongly withheld by prosecutors prevented him from mounting an effective defense.”

Kooistra said these four cases are a “great victory” for the state. Today there are 33 men housed on death row.

“Arkansas already had one of the smallest death rows in the South. With these developments, it’s now even smaller,” he said.

Tom Navin, the diocese’s prison ministry director, said, “People coming off death row whether they are freed or just serving another sentence, this is going to be a coming trend. Partially because of DNA and partially because of aggressive attorneys trying to overturn them.”

WASHINGTON — International law, the risk of using inhumane methods of execution and opposition to capital punishment by the survivors of murder victims are among issues that are bringing fresh energy to debate about the death penalty.

In mid-January, Father Lawrence Hummer, of St. Mary Church in Chillicothe, Ohio, witnessed the execution of Dennis McGuire for the 1989 rape and murder of 22-year-old Joy Stewart, who was 30 weeks pregnant.

A week later, publications around the world were printing the priest’s account of watching what he called an inhumane procedure in which the convicted murderer struggled for 26 minutes while a previously untested mixture of drugs was used to execute McGuire.

At about the same time, the execution of a Mexican citizen drew international attention and warnings from the U.S. State Department that the refusal of the State of Texas to review the man’s conviction in light of an international court ruling might put U.S. citizens at risk while traveling abroad.

Meanwhile, in Colorado, the parents of a prison guard who was beaten to death by an inmate in 2002 are battling the county prosecutor for the right to be heard at the retrial of the man who previously confessed to killing their son.

While Robert Autobee supported the death penalty for Edward Montour at his first trial, he’s since had a change of heart. After meeting with Montour in prison, Autobee, also a former corrections officer, decided to forgive the repentant Montour and began working to save his life.

Montour’s original sentence was set aside after the Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that a judge cannot impose a death sentence without a jury having a role.

But, as described in a lawsuit filed Jan. 24 by Autobee and his wife, Lola, Arapahoe County District Attorney George Brauchler is trying to block the Autobees from participating in the sentencing phase for Montour because their position conflicts with his objectives.

In January, Texas came under fire internationally and by the U.S. State Department for the Jan. 22 execution of Edgar Tamayo Arias, a Mexican citizen.

Tamayo was convicted in the 1994 murder of a Houston police officer. As a statement from the State Department pointed out, Tamayo was entitled under international law to be notified about his rights to assistance from the Mexican consulate.

The Mexican government and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry had pleaded with the State of Texas to review Tamayo’s conviction and sentencing as required under a 2004 ruling by the International Court of Justice. That ruling found the U.S. failed to provide consular access and notification to 51 Mexican citizens as required under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, to which the United States is a party.

“We have obligations under the Vienna Convention ... for folks that are arrested in our country,” said Marie Harf, deputy spokesperson at the State Department in a Jan. 21 press briefing. “If we don’t uphold those obligations, it will make it much harder for us to ask other countries to do so.”

As to developments on execution methods, writing for the British publication, The Guardian, Father Hummer described meeting McGuire in November, hearing his confession and his prayers for forgiveness and agreeing to the inmate’s request that he witness the execution, along with McGuire’s family and Stewart’s family.

The drugs used to kill McGuire are a replacement for a three-drug combination used for years. But the European manufacturers of propofol, an anesthetic commonly used in U.S. hospitals, threatened to limit its export if it was used in executions.