ARKANSAS IS PREPARING TO EXECUTE SEVEN DEATH ROW INMATES IN 11 DAYS THIS MONTH BEFORE THE STATE'S DRUGS EXPIRE, A REPORTEDLY UNPRECEDENTED NUMBER OF LETHAL INJECTIONS IN SUCH A NARROW WINDOW; ALLEGED NEWS. [1]
The scheduled executions have prompted unease from the State's Governor, lawsuits from the condemned inmates, concerns about the schedule and criticism from former corrections officials nationwide; Alleged News. [1]
Drug shortage
Arkansas officials reportedly relate the April execution schedule on the drug shortage, which has states seeking replacement chemicals and, in some cases, caused them to contemplate other execution methods; Alleged News. [1]
Governor Asa Hutchinson
Governor Asa Hutchinson, who set the dates, reportedly admitted to feeling uneasy about being caught between needing to schedule the lethal injections and the looming expiration of the state's stock of midazolam, a sedative that will be one of three drugs used in the lethal injections; Alleged News. [1]
"It's not my choice", Hutchinson said at a news conference, "I would love to have those extended over a period of multiple months and years, but that's not the circumstances that I find myself in," Alleged News. [1]
Expiry end of April 2017
The state's midazolam supply is set to expire at the end of April, according to officials; Alleged News. [1]
There is no clear answer about whether the state will be able to obtain a new set of drugs, Alleged News. [1]
Bungled execution
Arkansas acquired its midazolam in 2015, according to documents provided by the state, Alleged News. [1]
The drug caused controvery after it was used in a bungled execution in Oklahoma, Alleged News. [1]
After the failure of a 20-minute attempt to execute him, Clayton Lockett was left to die of a heart attack in the execution chamber at the Oklahoma state penitentiary in McAlester; Alleged News. [2]
For three minutes after the first drugs were delivered, Lockett struggled violently, groaned and writhed, lifting his shoulders and head from the gurney; Alleged News. [2]
Some 16 minutes after the execution began, and without Lockett being declared dead, the blinds separating the chamber from the viewing room were closed; Alleged News. [2]
The process was called off shortly afterwards, Alleged News. [2]
Locket died 43 minutes after the first executions drugs were administered; Alleged News. [2]
Psychological impact on execution teams
It has been more than twenty years since Dr Allen Ault stood in a chamber and gave the order for an execution to go ahead; Alleged News. [3]
Despite the passage of so many years, he feels troubled to this day by what he did; Alleged News. [3]
"I had a lot of guilt, my conscience totally bothered me," he said, "When the switch was thrown that first time, and I realized I had just killed a man, that was pretty traumatic. Then to have to do it again and again and again, it got so that I absolutely could not go through with it," Alleged News. [3]
As commissioner of the department of corrections in Georgia, Ault gave the order for five executions by electric chair in 1994 and 1995; Alleged News. [3]
After the fifth life was taken, the cumulative distress reached breaking point, and he resigned from the post and moved to a job in the US justice department that had nothing to do with the death penalty; Alleged News. [3]
Since then, he has found himself haunted by the memory of the five men whose lives he ended, Alleged News. [3]
"I don't remember their names, but I still see them in my nightmares," he reportedly said, Alleged News. [3]
Letter to Governor Hutchinson
In March 2017, 23 former correction officials from 16 different states, sent a joint letter to Gov Hutchinson urging him to reconsider; Alleged News. [3]
They warned, several on the basis of personal experience, that participating in executions can exact a 'severe toll on corrections officers' wellbeing' and that by carrying out so many so quickly Arkansas was 'needlessly exacerbating the strain and stress placed on these officers', Alleged News. [3]
One of Ault's prime concerns relates not to the prisoners awaiting execution, but to the men and women of the execution team who are being asked - as he was - to kill in the name of justice; Alleged News. [3]
"To ask corrections officials in Arkansas to kill eight people, two a day - as someone who went through this, I can't tell you how deeply concerned I am for their mental health," he reportedly said; Alleged News. [3]
Capital Punishment
Maximum security prisons are readily available fo detaining criminals; Alleged News. [4]
In recent decades the global trend has been to abolish the death penalty; Alleged News. [4]
A basic definition of punishment is that it involves the deliberate infliction of suffering on a supposed or actual offender for an offense such as a moral or legal transgression; Alleged News. [4]
Italian political philosopher Cesare Beccaria [1738-1794] wrote, "The intent of punishments is not to torment a sentient being, nor to undo a crime already committed . . . Instead of being influenced by passion, such institutions should be the cool moderator of the passions of individuals. Can the groans of a tortured wretch bring back the time past, or reverse the crime he has committed? The end of punishment, therefore, is no other than to prevent the criminal from doing further injury to society, and to prevent others from committing the same offense. Such punishments, therefore, and such a manner of inflicting them ought to be chosen in a way that will make the strongest and most lasting impressions on the minds of others, with the least torment to the body of the criminal." [On Crimes and Punishments, 12]. [4]
Aims of Punishment
All punishment has some aim which serves to justify the suffering that is inflicted on the offender. The main aims are retribution, incapacitation, rehabilitation, and deterrence.
With retribution, punishment is a matter of what is deserved in return for a wrongful act. The punishment is proportionate punishment to the crime, and imposed on the offender for its own sake rather than to bring about a larger social benefit.
With incapacitation, punishment keeps offenders from repeating similar crimes, typically by physically restraining them.
With rehabilitiation, punishment aims to change the offender's predisposition towards criminal behavior, and thus keeps the offender from becoming a threat to others when released into the community.
With deterrence, punishment is a means of discouraging others from committing similar offences. [4]
Innocence executed
Documented evidence exists that some who have undergone execution were, in fact, innocent; Alleged News. [5]
Death Penalty Information Center gives details on Executed but possibly Innocent, Alleged News. [5]
Posthumous Pardons
Posthumous Pardons of Executed prisoners who were, in fact innocent, exist; Alleged News. [5]
One tragic case was that of a 23 year old with an IQ of 46 - thus, with intellectual disability; Alleged News. [6]
On January 7 2011, Colorado Governor Bill Ritter granted a full and unconditional posthumous pardon to Joe Arridy, who had been convicted and executed as an accomplice to a murder that occurred in 1936; Alleged News. [6]
The governor said, 'Granting a posthumous pardon is an extraordinary remedy. But the tragic conviction of Mr Arridy and his subsequent execution on Jan 6, 1939, merit such relief based on the great likelihood that Mr Arridy was, in fact, innocent of the crime for which he was executed, and his severe mental disability at the time of his trial and execution. Pardoning Mr Arridy cannot undo this tragic event in Colorado history. It is in the interests of justice and simple decency, however, to restore his good name," Alleged News. [6] and [7]
In the final analysis
Many years ago my dad used to discuss philosophy with me. Every night he would sit and we'd discuss weighty world issues.
I was eleven years of age when the issue of the death penalty came up.
The whole concept was somewhat outside my grasp, and I questioned him about it.
He looked quietly at me from under his bushy eyebrows, and said very seriously,
'With the death penalty, there is always the possibility that you become the very thing you are trying to destroy.'
Taking another's life because they took another's life can put the taker on par with the taken.
WHY NOT SIGN THE PETITION?
[1] Seven people to be executed in 11 days because lethal injection drugs are about to expire; Alleged News
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/arkansas-executed-executions-lethal-injection-seven-11-drugs-expire-death-row-a7673571.html
[2] Oklahoma execution: Clayton Lockett writhes on gurney in botched procedure; Alleged News
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/30/oklahoma-execution-botched-clayton-lockett
[3] Eight executions in 11 Days; Arkansas order may endanger staff's mental health; Alleged News
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/29/arkansas-executioners-mental-health-allen-ault
[4] Fieser, James. 2008. Capital Punishment, from Moral Issues that Divide Us
https://www.utm.edu/staff/jfieser/class/160/7-cap-pun.htm
[5] Executed but Possibly Innocent; Alleged News
https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/executed-possibly-innocent
[6] Death Penalty Information Center, Alleged News
https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/executed-possibly-innocent#also
[7] Gov Ritter grants posthumous pardon in case dating back to 1930s, Alleged News
https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/documents/ArridyPardon.pdf
With thanks to independent.co.uk, theguardian.com, utm.edu, deathpenaltyinfo.org and change.org
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