[Vision2020] Court sides with AP, news groups over execution

Sun Jun 10 14:41:43 PDT 2012

I think that there is a constitutional right for the public and the press to view executions, but I don't know why anyone would want to.
Roger
-----Original message-----
From: "Saundra Lund" v2020 at ssl1.fastmail.fm
Date: Sat, 09 Jun 2012 12:10:53 -0700
To: "'Rosemary Huskey'" donaldrose at cpcinternet.com,  vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Court sides with AP, news groups over execution

> Well, without witnesses like the press, how do you think news of botched
> executions would be exposed?  I certainly don't expect that the pro capital
> punishment crowd, including the corrections systems, would tell, do you?
> 
> Since I'm staunchly in the anti-death penalty crowd, I think it's obscene
> that viewing executions isn't mandatory.  While I have no doubt that there
> are some miscreants who would watch with glee, I think abolition of the
> death penalty would happen much more quickly if executions didn't take place
> in secret.  If we support state-sanctioned murder, then we ALL should be
> forced to witness it and deal with the reality of obscenity of what the
> death penalty really is rather than just thinking about it -- if at all --
> in the abstract.
> 
> 
> 
> Saundra
> Moscow, ID
> 
> Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
> ~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Rosemary Huskey [mailto:donaldrose at cpcinternet.com] 
> Sent: Saturday, June 09, 2012 12:04 PM
> To: 'Saundra Lund'; vision2020 at moscow.com
> Subject: RE: [Vision2020] Court sides with AP, news groups over execution
> 
> It is beyond repulsive that the blood-hungry, vengeful, jackasses who
> support the death penalty now apparently include members of the media. What
> kind of ghoul is interested in reading morbidly pornographic reporting?
> What's next - reverting to the splendid picnic event of a hundred years ago
> which included the spectacle of a public hanging? Somewhere between the
> fried chicken and chocolate cake we too could watching the final twitches of
> a condemned man.  
> Rose Huskey
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com [mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com]
> On Behalf Of Saundra Lund
> Sent: Saturday, June 09, 2012 10:00 AM
> To: vision2020 at moscow.com
> Subject: [Vision2020] Court sides with AP, news groups over execution
> 
> http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hE_CUx_QE0ERRypM8poMP9LFy4
> dg?docId=217666e5c30b4e7c89ec4559e7fbf34a
> OR
> http://tinyurl.com/85thmfe
> 
> Court sides with AP, news groups over execution By JESSIE L. BONNER,
> Associated Press - 8 hours ago  
> 
> BOISE, Idaho (AP) - Prison officials say they'll work to carry out an
> execution next week as scheduled, after an appeals court sided with The
> Associated Press and other news organizations in ruling that witnesses
> should have full viewing access to a convicted killer's lethal injection.
> 
> The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued the decision Friday, a day
> after hearing arguments in a lawsuit from the 17 news organizations seeking
> to change Idaho's protocol, saying it's unconstitutionally restrictive.
> 
> The case aimed to strike down a portion of Idaho's regulations that prevent
> witnesses - including reporters acting as representatives of the public -
> from watching executions until after catheters have been inserted into the
> veins of death row inmates.
> 
> "Nearly a decade ago, we held in the clearest possible terms that 'the
> public enjoys a First Amendment right to view executions from the moment the
> condemned is escorted into the execution chamber," the judges said in their
> ruling Friday. "The State of Idaho has had ample opportunity for the past
> decade to adopt an execution procedure that reflects this settled law."
> 
> It's unclear how the ruling will affect the scheduled execution next week of
> Idaho death row inmate Richard Leavitt, who was convicted of the 1984 murder
> of a Blackfoot woman.
> 
> "We, of course, respect the court's decision. We will take the necessary
> measures to assure that the execution continues as scheduled," said Idaho
> Department of Correction spokesman Jeff Ray.
> 
> The lawsuit comes as lethal injections have drawn greater scrutiny, from
> whether the drugs are effective to whether the execution personnel are
> properly trained.
> 
> The news groups launched their appeal after a federal judge Tuesday denied
> their request seeking to prevent Leavitt's execution without the changes.
> 
> The appellate judges, during arguments Thursday, noted that the 9th Circuit
> had already ruled in a 2002 California case that every aspect of an
> execution should be open to witnesses, from the moment the condemned enters
> the death chamber to the final heartbeat.
> 
> The decade-old decision established what was expected of the nine Western
> states within the court's jurisdiction. A decade later, four of the states
> have kept part of each execution away from public view, according to death
> penalty experts.
> 
> Idaho, Arizona, Washington and Montana have conducted 14 lethal injections
> since the 9th Circuit ruling in 2002, and half of each procedure has been
> behind closed doors.
> 
> Chuck Brown, an attorney for the news organizations, predicted that the 9th
> Circuit ruling over Idaho's execution process will prompt those remaining
> states to change their policies to allow for a full viewing of the execution
> process.
> 
> "That's exactly what will happen," said Brown, who added that the ruling
> clears up any uncertainty about the intent of the 9th Circuit's 2002
> decision. "It clears up any doubt."
> 
> While U.S. District Judge Edward J. Lodge took issue with the timing of the
> May 24 request from the news groups, saying it was too close to Leavitt's
> execution, the 9th Circuit disagreed, saying the state was at fault. The
> appellate judges noted that media representatives had asked prison officials
> to alter the execution procedure before November 2011 execution of Paul
> Rhoades.
> 
> The news organizations filed their case after talks were unsuccessful with
> prison officials, who took the position that the 2002 ruling was based on
> facts unique to California, Brown said, citing letters from Idaho correction
> director Brent Reinke.
> 
> "We fault the State, not the media plaintiffs, for our need to consider this
> question several days before an execution: the State has missed opportunity
> after opportunity to bring its execution procedures into compliance with the
> clear law of this Circuit," the ruling also said.
> 
> During arguments on Thursday, Judge Marsha Berzon questioned why Idaho
> should be an exception when other states have decided that entire executions
> can be seen by the public.
> 
> "California has been doing it. Ohio has been doing it. Arizona just
> announced they are going to do it," Berzon said. "You haven't put anything
> in the record that Idaho is different in this regard. That you haven't
> done."
> 
> 
> 
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