EXECUTIONS WELL DESERVED
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The
first federal execution in the United States for more than 17 years was set to
go ahead in Indiana on last Monday following a ruling by an appeal court. The US murderer Daniel Lewis Lee had been put to death, hours after the Supreme
Court allowed the first execution of the federal inmate to proceed.
Several other
executions were initially delayed when a judge ruled on Monday Luly 13th
that there were still unresolved legal challenges.
The condemned
prisoners had argued that lethal injections constitute "cruel and unusual
punishments"
In
the United States, there are four kinds of executions. They are hangings,
shootings, gassings, electrocutions and by lethal injections. Gassings were slow and in death by lethal
injections in the past if the condemned was still conscious when the other
drugs did their thing. That doesn’t
happen anymore since only one drug is used. It puts the condemned into a deep
sleep and while or she is in that state, the drug stops the heart from beating.
Last year, the Trump administration said it would
resume federal executions.
Lee was executed by lethal injection in Terre Haute,
Indiana, early on Monday morning.(July 13th 2020.
Daniel Lewis Lee and his accomplice
were convicted of killing three members of the same family in Kansas in 1996
and threw their bodies into a nearby
lake.
Earlene
Peterson, 81, whose daughter, granddaughter and son-in-law were killed by Lee,
said that she wanted the 47-year-old accomplice who was be given life in jail, to
get the same sentence as Lee got. It is possible that he was offered the
opportunity t0 testify against Lee in
order to have his life saved from the death penalty.
The judge said, "The court finds that the likely harm that
plaintiffs would suffer if the court does not grant injunctive relief far
outweighs any potential harm to the defendants.”
Her ruling was
consequently overruled by the Supreme Court, which said: "The plaintiff in
this case has not made the showing required to justify last-minute intervention
by a Federal Court." But the ruling means the
execution by lethal injection could then
proceed.
Under the US
justice system, crimes can be tried either in federal courts at a national
level or in state courts, at a regional level.
Some of the victims'
relatives oppose his execution and sought to have it delayed, saying attending
it could expose them to coronavirus. That
is utter nonsense. They can wear masks and be seated apart.
The appeal court overturned
a decision by a lower court that put the execution of 47-year-old Lee on hold,
saying no federal statute or regulation gave the victims the right to attend
the execution.
In its ruling, the 7th
Circuit Court of Appeals said the family's claim "lacks any arguable legal
basis and is therefore frivolous".
The relatives are going to
appeal to the Supreme Court. It will have to act before four in the afternoon, Monday local time (20:00 GMT) to stop the
execution, the New York Times reports.
Lee, who tortured and
killed a family of three before dumping their bodies in a lake, had originally
been scheduled for execution in last December. His case was delayed after the
courts blocked the death sentence from being carried out.
While he lay on the death
gurney, hc cried out, “You are executing an innocent man.”
Earlene Peterson, 81, whose
daughter, granddaughter and son-in-law were killed by Lee, has opposed the
execution.
She instead says she wants
Lee to be given life in jail, the same sentence as Lee's accomplice.
“She said,” , Daniel Lee
damaged my life, but I can’t believe taking his life is going to change any of
that.”
Lee's planned execution is
one of four that had been scheduled for July and August. All four men were convicted
of killing children. Killing children is a sure way to be executed in the
United States,
The Trump administration
said it would resume federal executions after a long hiatus last year.
In a statement at the time,
Attorney General William Barr said: "Under administrations of both
parties, the Department of Justice has sought the death penalty against the
worst criminals.
"The Justice
Department upholds the rule of law - and we owe it to the victims and their
families to carry forward the sentence imposed by our justice system."
The move has been
criticised as a political decision, with campaigners also expressing concern
about cases being rushed.
The last inmate executed by
the federal death penalty was Louis Jones Jr, a 53-year-old Gulf War veteran
who murdered 19-year-old soldier Tracie Joy McBride.
Under the US justice
system, crimes can be tried either in federal courts - at a national level - or
state courts, at a regional level.
Certain crimes, such as
counterfeiting currency or mail theft, are automatically tried at a federal
level, as are cases in which the United States is a party or those which
involve constitutional violations. Others can be tried in federal courts based
on the severity of the crimes.
In the past, I addressed
the United Nations while speaking on the
subject of the death penalty and I spoke on a national television show and prepared a report on executions for
the Canadian parliament. I have stated
that there are times when murderers should be executed. I said that terrorists, mass and
serial killers and criminals who torture their victims to death and those who
kill children should be executed. I haven’t changed my mind.
In Canada, capital
punishment is abolished because of the fear that innocent persons may be
executed. Many people who were convicted
of murder in Canada were later declared innocent. It would have been a shame on
Canada if these innocent persons were executed
Texas
remains the strictest applicant of the US death penalty but its increasing
reluctance to put criminals to death reflects a national trend.
Kent Whitaker supported the death
penalty until his son, who arranged for a gunman to kill Mr. Whitaker and the
rest of his family resulted that his son
landed on death row in Texas.
Now Mr. Whitaker, the sole survivor
of the attack, is desperately seeking clemency for his son, Thomas Whitaker
before his execution that is scheduled for 22 February of next year.
"The petition is based on a
legal overstep that shouldn't have happened," says Mr. Whitaker. "The
district attorney chose to pursue the death penalty considering that every one
of the victims of the killings such as Whitaker, and the relatives of his wife who was begging the killer not to kill her.
It is beyond me as to why he wants
to spare his son the death penalty considering that it was his son who arranged
for the killer to kill his own mother and the other victims.
President Trump
has been a staunch supporter of capital punishment and has proposed several
extreme uses of it, including for selling drugs and for all murders involving
state and local police officers. It was not a surprise that he would seek to
have executions carried out. I think the biggest surprise is that it took as
long as it did.
Selling drugs on the street doesn’t
deserve the death penalty but illegal
manufacturing and shipping illicit drugs to the United States certainly does deserve
the death penalty.
Democratic
presidential candidate Kamala Harris described the death penalty as
"immoral and deeply flawed", while Bernie Sanders said he would
abolish it if he is elected.
Another
candidate for the Democratic nomination, Pete Buttigieg, said "race and
geography" were factors in determining who was sentenced to death. If that
is so, then I am also concerned.
They are Daniel Lewis Lee, a white supremacist who was convicted in
Arkansas of murdering a family of three; Lezmond Mitchell, a Native American
who was convicted in Arizona of murdering a grandmother and her granddaughter;
Wesley Ira Purkey, who raped and murdered a teenage girl; Alfred Bourgeois, who
sexually molested and killed his young daughter; and Dustin Lee Honken, who
shot five people dead.
Can anyone in his or her mind justify saving
these horrible killer’s lives? Please don’t give me that religious crap that it
is up to God to punish them. Where was
God when the victim’s were being killed
Mr. Barr will allow the prison authorities to
use the single drug Pentobarbital in place of a three-drug procedure previously
used in federal executions. The drug is a potent sedative that slows down the
body, including the nervous system, to the point of death.
Under the US justice system,
crimes can be tried either in federal courts or state courts, at a regional
level. Certain crimes that apply nationally, such as counterfeiting currency or
mail theft, are automatically tried at a federal level. If an offence is
committed against a federal entity or at a federal building or other property,
then it will be tried at federal level.
Four years later, a Supreme Court decision
reinstated the death penalty to a number of states and in 1988 the government
passed legislation that made the death penalty available again at a federal
level.
According to data collected by the Death
Penalty Information Center, 78 people were sentenced to death in federal cases
between 1988 and 2018 but only three have since been executed, the last one in
2003.
There
are 62 inmates currently on federal death row.
Four years later, a Supreme Court decision
reinstated the death penalty to a number of states and in 1988 the government
passed legislation that made the death penalty available again at a federal
level.
According to data collected by the Death
Penalty Information Center, 78 people were sentenced to death in federal cases
between 1988 and 2018 but only three have since been executed, the last one in
2003.
There are 62 inmates currently on federal death
row.
The five executions to be scheduled would take
place at the US Penitentiary at Terre Haute, Indiana, and additional executions
would take place at a later date, the justice department said.
For more than a decade and a half, the federal death penalty was mostly
an afterthought. Although there was no formal moratorium on the procedure, as
there was in some states where opposition to executions has been growing, a
combination of administrative inertia, protracted appeals processes, practical
obstacles and the relatively few number of federal death-row inmates combined
to bring about executions to a de-facto
halt.
The Trump administration now wants to change
that, even if a shortage of the drugs used in lethal injections remains a
significant obstacle.
The president has expressed a harsh attitude
toward convicted criminals in the past, claiming that they are treated too
gently and given too many opportunities to appeal against their sentences.
While a majority of Americans say they still
favour the death penalty in certain instances, opinion surveys indicate that
the American public is turning against capital punishment, with a particular
eye toward allegations that it is frequently unjustly imposed.
of course that suggests that while the Trump
administration's announcement will draw some sharp criticism from activists, it
is unlikely to cause significant political waves. The
Americans will just have to wait and
see. Of course the next election may
bring about a different decision.
