Latest news with #CapitalHabeasUnit
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Yahoo
Tennessee death row inmates accuse state of obtaining lethal injection drug from ‘gray market'
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — With Tennessee's first execution in years set to take place in a little over one week, some death row inmates are pushing the state to reveal its supplier of the lethal injection drug, pentobarbital. The state will use the single drug, pentobarbital, in its new death penalty protocol that was completed in December 2024. Federal public defenders for some Tennessee death row inmates have called the new protocol unconstitutional and 'too obviously untenable to stand,' the suit said. TN death row inmates want firing squad over lethal injection ahead of state's first execution in years In their latest filing, death row inmates have asked a judge not to allow the state to keep its supplier of pentobarbital a secret. They accused the state of purchasing the drug from an unauthorized source off the 'gray market,' since every manufacturer of the drug has protections in place to ensure it is not used in executions. 'Every manufacturer of pentobarbital has put in place strict distribution controls to prevent its drugs from being sold to departments of correction for use in executions,' the court filing reads. 'This means that the pentobarbital Tennessee has acquired was obtained on the gray market. Gray market drugs are inherently risky.' 'There has already been fraud and misrepresentation in the acquiring of the drug, and that is of grave concern to our clients, because once we're buying drugs from people who are not authorized to sell it, that introduces the possibility of so many ways things can go wrong,' said Amy Harwell, assistant chief of the Capital Habeas Unit for the Federal Public Defender's Office. The state has argued it has a right to keep its source a secret, claiming it is protecting the drug manufacturers' First Amendment rights. However, the inmates believe they have a right to know the state's supplier to ensure the drug, which the U.S. Dept of Justice recently abandoned over concerns it could cause unnecessary pain and suffering, hasn't been compromised. 'When a drug has come from the gray market, when we don't know what the drug dealers have done to that drug, how they've cut it, how they might have diluted it, and those are the protections that have been erased from the protocol, the checking of the drugs,' Harwell said. The inmates and their attorneys have asked Gov. Bill Lee to pause executions until the case can go to trial, which is scheduled for January 2026. Two inmates are set to be executed between now and then. Gov. Lee has previously said he has no intention of pausing executions and is confident in the TN Dept. of Correction's new protocol. ⏩ News 2 reached out to TDOC for a statement on the lawsuit, but had not heard back by the time this article was published. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Tennessee death row inmates want firing squad over lethal injection ahead of state's first execution in years
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — As Tennessee is set to carry out its first execution under the state's new death penalty protocol this month, some death row inmates say the firing squad would be more humane. Currently, the state's main method of execution is lethal injection, but death row inmates whose crimes were committed before Jan. 1, 1999, also have the option of the electric chair. Kelley Henry, the chief of the Capital Habeas Unit at the Federal Public Defender's Office, questions the constitutionality of the two options because they can both cause severe pain. 📧 Have breaking news come to you: → 'When that chemical enters your system, that poison, it's going to eat away the lining of your lungs, cause fluid to rush into your lungs, and then you will essentially drown in your own fluid,' Henry said. 'Or there's this other opportunity where you can be electrocuted and your internal organs will all be cooked, and it feels like you're being set on fire.' In addition, the lethal injection drug, pentobarbital, has strict procurement, storage, transportation, and administration guidelines, which a 2022 independent report revealed the state wasn't following under its old death penalty protocol. Henry told News 2 that, due to those issues and the potential for severe pain, many inmates would prefer the firing squad as an execution method. 'What our clients have proposed is the firing squad because that doesn't require sophisticated training. It's still brutal, it's still incredibly violent, but what we know now from science and the Department of Justice report that came out in Jan. of this year, where the United States Dept. of Justice said we are no longer going to use pentobarbital because of the ways in which it causes super added pain and suffering…' Henry said. 'With the firing squad, you're going to see a brutal death, but it will be much quicker.' Tennessee Republicans tried to add the firing squad as an execution option in 2023, but the bill never made it out of committee. 'Why would we want correctional officers to sit there and point guns at individuals as a form of killing? It's almost legalizing first-degree murder. That is not cool,' Sen. London Lamar (D-Memphis) said in 2023. 'Some people have survived an initial volley of bullets in a firing squad execution, leading to a second volley of bullets,' Rep. G.A. Hardaway (D-Memphis) read from a lawsuit out of South Carolina during a 2023 committee hearing on the bill. 'If some of this information is accurate, we're probably going to end up in court on constitutional issues.' A similar bill was brought this past legislative session, but it never made it to committee. Henry and other groups will continue to push for what they call a 'constitutional execution' method. 'Even if they're going to be executed, if that's going to be the case, they're still entitled to a constitutional method of execution, and not only are they entitled to it, the citizens of Tennessee want to see a constitutional method,' Henry said. ⏩ It's unclear if lawmakers plan to bring legislation to legalize the firing squad in executions next session. The state plans to execute death row inmate Oscar Smith, by lethal injection, on May 22. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
29-03-2025
- Yahoo
I saw South Carolina use a firing squad to execute a man. I am sick with rage.
Just after 6 p.m. on March 7, the curtain hiding South Carolina's execution chamber jerks open. From my front-row seat, the room reveals itself in phases. First, two wardens. Next, the lethal injection gurney and ancient electric chair. Finally, its newest method of execution: a slanted chair in the far corner, facing a short black curtain in the right wall. The man tied to the chair is my client, Brad Sigmon. The cruelest aspect of executions is the restraints. I saw three men in Georgia tied down with arms outstretched and feet together, crucifixion-style. Brad is strapped across his ankles, lap and waist. His right arm has been wrenched straight back and tied to the chair. A white square with a red 'bullseye' is attached to his chest, where it rises and falls with his breathing. Brad is wearing a new black T-shirt and sweatpants. At our final visit that afternoon. Brad, who is 67, said they were the most comfortable clothes he'd worn in 23 years on death row. 'And it's true what they say,' he laughed. 'Black is slimming.' The purpose of the color occurred to me later: to hide his blood. Brad looked scared until he saw me and his spiritual advisor, who sits on my left. Now he smiles. He tries to face us, which is difficult because of the last restraint: a light-colored strap, like an Ace bandage, that secures his chin and jaw to the chair. He keeps mouthing words until we understand him. 'I'm okay. I love you. I'm okay.' Focused on Brad, I miss the wardens' cue. I have to read Brad's last words. I stand and cross to a microphone mounted on the wall. 'I want my closing statement to be one of love and a calling to my fellow Christians to help us end the death penalty,' I begin. Brad wrote this knowing it would be spoken only if his death was certain. He pleads now for his 28 friends still on death row. I recite the scriptures Brad selected and his closing prayer: 'We are now under God's grace and mercy.' Opinion alerts: Get columns from your favorite columnists + expert analysis on top issues, delivered straight to your device through the USA TODAY app. Don't have the app? Download it for free from your app store. When I sit back down, Brad is still smiling. I am sick with rage. South Carolina is my home. Before last fall, we'd had no executions for 13 years. Brad will be the fourth man killed in less than six months. The three before lingered on the gurney for 20 minutes. Brad was sentenced to death for the 2001 beating deaths of his ex-girlfriend's parents, David and Gladys Larke. Brad always acknowledged that he did it. We argued, unsuccessfully, that he deserved a reprieve because of his severe mental illness. To avoid the electric chair, Brad had to choose between lethal injection and the firing squad, which no state has used since 2010. I know because I am chief of the Capital Habeas Unit for the appellate jurisdiction of the Fourth Circuit, which includes South Carolina. I previously worked at the capital habeas unit in Georgia. I agreed to witness so that Brad would not be alone. But I cannot believe what we are about to see. I make myself smile. I hold Brad's eyes, my hand over my heart, until someone – I do not see who – pulls a black hood over his head. Ours are the last faces he sees. Opinion 'Oh thank you, God': Texas lawmakers halting Melissa Lucio's execution was the right call When I entered the witness room, I was given a plastic sauce cup that held two orange earplugs. As the black curtain opposite Brad rises – exposing three square ports – I jam them in my ears. I peer inside the ports. I cannot see even the tips of the rifles. I look back to Brad. His breathing has slowed. He is trying to still himself. The wait is agony. I do not want this to happen. But I do not want Brad enduring endless seconds in darkness and fear. A wound opens on his chest before the sound reaches us. The target is gone. Maybe the bullets vaporized it. Maybe they pushed it into the fist-sized hole streaming blood over Brad's stomach and into his lap. Blood flows from Brad's dying heart steadily, with occasional spills. Like someone tipped a glass behind his broken ribs, sloshing onto his black shirt, which conceals red very well. When the sound arrives, it is a chorus of explosions. Each of the three bullets makes its own noise, with its own echo, and cuts through the foam to ring in my ears. For a second, they stop my heart. Brad's body shudders. His arm launches forward, pulling on the restraints with all of his strength. For a second, I think he will break free and press his hands over the hole, holding and pushing himself back together. He heaves twice, his stomach rising. The blood still flows as his arm, trembling with the strain, starts to slacken and twitch. I have shifted forward in my seat, preparing to jump to my feet. Today, I memorized telephone numbers for the first time in decades; I could use the prison's phone if anything went wrong. Watching Brad's struggling arm, I know that everything has gone wrong. But no call can fix it. Opinion: I witnessed Alabama execute a man using nitrogen gas. It was horrific and cruel. A man enters the chamber with a stethoscope. I stare at the hole's tattered edges and the glistening, saturated front of Brad's shirt. His chest still moves as the doctor nears. The doctor leans in, the stethoscope poised. Then he straightens and steps back. He stands at ease but ready, a posture I recognize. He has to wait. But not for long. After a moment, when Brad seems still, he leans in again, darting the stethoscope from place to place. When he steps back again, he turns away and nods. The wardens return. The curtain races back across the window, hiding Brad's slumped and stained body. A voice tells us to leave. I am supposed to stand. I don't remember how. Bo King is chief of the Capital Habeas Unit for the Fourth Circuit, which is part of the Federal Public Defender's Office for the Western District of North Carolina. You can read diverse opinions from our USA TODAY columnists and other writers on the Opinion front page, on X, formerly Twitter, @usatodayopinion and in our Opinion newsletter. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: I saw South Carolina shoot to death man convicted of murder | Opinion
CBS News
28-03-2025
- CBS News
Another South Carolina death row inmate chooses to die by firing squad 40 days after first execution
A South Carolina death row inmate on Friday chose execution by firing squad, just five weeks after the state carried out its first death by bullets. His attorney confirmed to CBS News that Mikal Mahdi, 41, chose to die by firing squad. The other two methods were either lethal injection or the electric chair. Mahdi, who pleaded guilty to murder for killing a police officer in 2004, is scheduled to be executed April 11. The execution is scheduled 40 days after Brad Sigmon's execution by firing squad on March 7, his attorneys said. "Faced with barbaric and inhumane choices, Mikal Mahdi has chosen the lesser of three evils. Mikal chose the firing squad instead of being burned and mutilated in the electric chair, or suffering a lingering death on the lethal injection gurney," said one of his lawyers, David Weiss, an assistant federal public defender with the Capital Habeas Unit for the Fourth Circuit. Mahdi ambushed Orangeburg public safety officer James Myers at the officer's shed in Calhoun County in July 2004. Myers had just returned from an out-of-town birthday celebration for his wife, sister and daughter, prosecutors said. Myers' wife found his burned body, shot at least eight times, including twice in the head, in the shed that had been the backdrop for their wedding less than 15 months earlier, authorities said. Mahdi will be strapped to a chair 15 feet from three prison employees who volunteered to be on the firing squad. A target will be placed on his chest. Their rifles will all be loaded with a live round that shatters when it hits his rib cage. He will be the first inmate to be executed in the state since Sigmon chose to be shot to death. A doctor pronounced Sigmon dead less than three minutes after three bullets tore into his heart. Aside from Sigmon, only three other U.S. inmates — all in Utah — have been killed by a firing squad in the past 50 years. Sigmon was the first inmate killed by bullets in the U.S. since 2010. Mahdi's lawyers have filed a final appeal with the state's highest court, saying Mahdi's case for a life sentence at his original trial took only 30 minutes and that his lawyers failed to call anyone who could testify on his behalf. It "didn't even span the length of a Law & Order episode, and was just as superficial," they said. Several defense lawyer organizations have filed briefs saying no one should be executed after such little effort to defend them. Mahdi's lawyers said that as a juvenile, he spent months in isolation in prison and that this altered his developing brain and affected his judgment. They said he spent thousands of hours in solitary confinement and their client was "particularly vulnerable, given the extraordinary abuse and trauma he had already endured." His attorneys also alleged the judge who sentenced Mahdi did not know the abuse he had gone through. After Mahdi pleaded guilty to murder, Judge Clifton Newman said he sentenced the young man to death because a sense of humanity he tried to find in every defendant seemed not to exist in Mahdi. Prosecutors responded to the claim of a poor defense by saying Mahdi was able to present much more evidence during a 2011 appeal that had to be heard inside a prison because Mahdi had stabbed a death row guard during an escape attempt. A judge rejected the appeal. "In Mahdi's vernacular, if his mitigation presentation before Judge Newman 'didn't even span the length of a Law & Order episode,' the review of any potential error is in its 24th season," the state Attorney General's Office wrote in court papers. Prosecutors said a lot of the new evidence would help Mahdi's case, including a string of attacks and threats on prison employees; his guilty plea to killing a convenience store clerk in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, before the South Carolina killing; and two other deaths that authorities in Virginia think he may be connected to. "The nature of the man is violence," prosecutors wrote. Mahdi has one more opportunity to live. He can ask Republican Gov. Henry McMaster to reduce his sentence to life in prison without parole just minutes before his scheduled execution at 6 p.m. on April 11 at the Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia. But no South Carolina governor has offered clemency in the 47 executions in the state since the death penalty resumed in the U.S. in 1976. In the past seven months, South Carolina has executed Freddie Owens on Sept. 20; Richard Moore on Nov. 1; Marion Bowman Jr. on Jan. 31; and Sigmon.
