News USA

May 4th

TEXAS: DEATH ROW INMATES SUE

Thomas Whitaker, an inmate on Texas death row, has filed a class action lawsuit against Texas Governor Rick Perry, Senator John Whitmire, and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice for the inhumane and unconstitutional conditions under which the men on death row must live.
Allegations include taking away wheelchairs from those who cannot walk, denying mental and physical health care, being held in solitary confinement for over ten years without any legal justification based on their conduct, dangerously unsafe living conditions, inadequate nutrition, inadequate exercise, denial of adequate access to telephones, destruction and loss of necessary legal documents, denial of religious freedom, denial of fair administrative process, failure to timely deliver mail including legal correspondence, and other abuses.
In the case of Ruiz v. Estelle, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District held that conditions for the Texas prison system were unconstitutional but also held that the inmates of death row would need to bring a separate lawsuit to address their unique situation. That is the action now being taken by Whitaker.
(source: Minutes Before Six)

ARIZONA: Death sentence tossed out for the 3rd time

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has again vacated the death of David Detrich.
David Detrich and Alan Charlton picked up hitchhiker Elizabeth Souter in November 1989 and bought $75 worth of cocaine, according to court documents.
Charlton entered a plea agreement and was sentenced to 10 1/2 years in prison. Detrich was sentenced to death in 1990.
(source: Arizona Daily Star)

May 3rd

TEXAS: Top Criminal Court to Hear Hank Skinner's DNA Plea

Death row inmate Hank Skinner’s decade-long fight for DNA testing, which he hopes will prove his innocence, will take center stage in the state’s highest criminal court.
Skinner, now 50, was convicted in 1995 of the strangulation and beating death of his girlfriend Twila Busby and the stabbing deaths of her two adult sons on New Year’s Eve 1993.
Lawyers for Skinner will argue to the court that legal impediments to the testing that previously existed are gone. DNA testing, they say in court documents, could reveal not only that the death row inmate is innocent, but it could point to the real perpetrator.
A decision from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals could take weeks or months.
(source: Texas Tribune)

May 2nd

OKLAHOMA: Oklahoma says running out of death penalty drug

Oklahoma, which executes more prisoners per capita than any other state, said on it has only 1 remaining dose of pentobarbital, a key drug used to kill condemned prisoners.
One reason the state is running out is because of a ban on the sale of drugs for such purposes by the European Union, which opposes the death penalty.
(source: Reuters)

TEXAS: Stay of execution

Anthony Bartee, 55, convicted of stabbing his friend in the back before killing him with a gunshot to the head escaped his execution for the second time. A civil rights lawsuit was filed by his Houston-based attorney David Dow against the Bexar County District Attorney's Office.
The appeals dealt with DNA testing that had not been completed. It was the same issue that won Bartee his first stay just days before his original execution date of Feb. 28.
(source: San Antonio express-News)