Latest news with #CapitalPunishmentProject
Yahoo
18-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Death row inmates sue to stop Trump from sending them to prison that housed Timothy McVeigh and the Unabomber
Former death row inmates who had their sentences commuted by former President Joe Biden are suing the Trump administration over its plans to send them to a supermax prison. President Donald Trump has slammed Biden's decision to commute 37 federal death sentences to life in prison without parole on numerous occasions. A commutation allowed the death row inmates to avoid execution but they are instead serving life sentences. Trump ordered earlier this year that the prisoners be held 'in conditions consistent with the monstrosity of their crimes and the threats they pose.' Twenty-one of the prisoners said in Wednesday's court filings that following Trump's order, they were heading to the ADX prison in Florence, Colorado, where they would face 'the most oppressive conditions in the entire federal prison system,' according to The Washington Post. According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, ADX is 'a unique facility designed to house inmates who pose the greatest risks to staff, other inmates, and the public.' The inmates argued that they're being sent to the remote, isolating prison because of Biden's actions. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and argued that the prisoners are concerned that they may be moved from an Indiana federal facility next week. If the plan continues, the death row inmates would move to Colorado at the famed prison that was home to Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, 'Unabomber' Theodore Kaczynski and 'shoe bomber' Richard Reid. On Thursday night, the Department of Justice said in a filing that they had made 'no final decision' regarding any of the inmates, adding that no one would be moved until at least May 16. 'They feel devastated,' Brian Stull, a lawyer for the inmates, told The Post. 'Nobody's looking at how well they did in prison, or their rehabilitation,' Stull added. He's the deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Capital Punishment Project. 'They're just assuming they are the worst of the worst by virtue of their death sentences,' the attorney argued. Stull said the death sentences were linked to a number of issues, such as whether the inmate had faced aggressive prosecutors or if they had inadequate legal representation. He noted that the crimes were similar to many of those that resulted in life sentences, such as those reached via plea agreements or because prosecutors chose not to seek the death penalty. 'We have some very medically fragile clients,' said Stull. 'We do not know if all of our clients can survive this transfer.' Trump has vociferously backed the use of the death penalty, and his administration has committed to seeking more death sentences. During Trump's first stint in the White House, the Department of Justice conducted 13 federal executions. Even as Biden campaigned against the death penalty and his administration halted federal executions, they also defended existing death sentences and sought additional ones. In December, Biden commuted the death sentences of all but three inmates on federal death row. Those whose death sentences remained in place include the surviving Boston Marathon bomber and the gunmen who perpetrated shootings at a church in Charleston, South Carolina, and a synagogue in Pittsburgh. They were all sentenced when Biden was either president or vice president. The use of the death penalty has significantly decreased in the last few decades, with both new death sentences and executions declining. The Post found last year that many of the 2,000 inmates on death row are likely to die without being executed. Most death row inmates are held at the state level, not by the federal government. The Department of Justice has recently begun discussing taking action to seek new federal death sentences, with Attorney General Pam Bondi announcing that she was directing New York prosecutors to seek the death penalty for Luigi Mangione, who stands accused of having killed a health insurance executive last year. The inmates' lawsuit accused Bondi and the Associate Deputy Attorney General, Emil Bove, of not following regular processes to have them transferred. The legal filing alleged that 'sham' hearings were held to find that the prisoners must be sent to the supermax prison, arguing that the actions were 'vindictive.'
The Independent
18-04-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Death row inmates sue to stop Trump from sending them to prison that housed Timothy McVeigh and the Unabomber
Former death row inmates who had their sentences commuted by former President Joe Biden are suing the Trump administration over its plans to send them to a supermax prison. President Donald Trump has slammed Biden's decision to commute 37 federal death sentences to life in prison without parole on numerous occasions. A commutation allowed the death row inmates to avoid execution but they are instead serving life sentences. Trump ordered earlier this year that the prisoners be held 'in conditions consistent with the monstrosity of their crimes and the threats they pose.' Twenty-one of the prisoners said in Wednesday's court filings that following Trump's order, they were heading to the ADX prison in Florence, Colorado, where they would face 'the most oppressive conditions in the entire federal prison system,' according to The Washington Post. According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, ADX is 'a unique facility designed to house inmates who pose the greatest risks to staff, other inmates, and the public.' The inmates argued that they're being sent to the remote, isolating prison because of Biden's actions. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and argued that the prisoners are concerned that they may be moved from an Indiana federal facility next week. If the plan continues, the death row inmates would move to Colorado at the famed prison that was home to Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, 'Unabomber' Theodore Kaczynski and 'shoe bomber' Richard Reid. On Thursday night, the Department of Justice said in a filing that they had made 'no final decision' regarding any of the inmates, adding that no one would be moved until at least May 16. 'They feel devastated,' Brian Stull, a lawyer for the inmates, told The Post. 'Nobody's looking at how well they did in prison, or their rehabilitation,' Stull added. He's the deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union 's Capital Punishment Project. 'They're just assuming they are the worst of the worst by virtue of their death sentences,' the attorney argued. Stull said the death sentences were linked to a number of issues, such as whether the inmate had faced aggressive prosecutors or if they had inadequate legal representation. He noted that the crimes were similar to many of those that resulted in life sentences, such as those reached via plea agreements or because prosecutors chose not to seek the death penalty. 'We have some very medically fragile clients,' said Stull. 'We do not know if all of our clients can survive this transfer.' Trump has vociferously backed the use of the death penalty, and his administration has committed to seeking more death sentences. During Trump's first stint in the White House, the Department of Justice conducted 13 federal executions. Even as Biden campaigned against the death penalty and his administration halted federal executions, they also defended existing death sentences and sought additional ones. In December, Biden commuted the death sentences of all but three inmates on federal death row. Those whose death sentences remained in place include the surviving Boston Marathon bomber and the gunmen who perpetrated shootings at a church in Charleston, South Carolina, and a synagogue in Pittsburgh. They were all sentenced when Biden was either president or vice president. The use of the death penalty has significantly decreased in the last few decades, with both new death sentences and executions declining. The Post found last year that many of the 2,000 inmates on death row are likely to die without being executed. Most death row inmates are held at the state level, not by the federal government. The Department of Justice has recently begun discussing taking action to seek new federal death sentences, with Attorney General Pam Bondi announcing that she was directing New York prosecutors to seek the death penalty for Luigi Mangione, who stands accused of having killed a health insurance executive last year. The inmates' lawsuit accused Bondi and the Associate Deputy Attorney General, Emil Bove, of not following regular processes to have them transferred. The legal filing alleged that 'sham' hearings were held to find that the prisoners must be sent to the supermax prison, arguing that the actions were 'vindictive.'
Yahoo
17-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Wyandotte County judge dismisses death penalty challenge on procedural grounds
The American Civil Liberties Union's latest challenge to constitutionality of the Kansas death penalty is derailed when two murder defendants make deals to avoid the potential of execution, but Cassandra Stubbs, director of the ACLU's Capital Punishment Project, says the cases expose "uncomfortable truths to state prosecutors, the courts and the public about the deep flaws and injustices embedded in the death penalty system." (Allison Kite/Kansas Reflector) TOPEKA — A Wyandotte County District Court judge pointed to flaws in Kansas' capital punishment law in an opinion that didn't lead to findings relative to a constitutional challenge because the death penalty was taken off the table in both cases creating legal standing for the case. Judge Bill Klapper's opinion delved into economic, fairness and psychological elements of capital punishment and examined claims the death penalty statute was biased against defendants of color, fostered trauma among families of victims who dealt with years of proceedings and promoted expenditure of millions of dollars by prosecutors pursuing a sentence the state hadn't enforced in 60 years. The constitutional challenge brought by the American Civil Liberties Union and other organizations came to an end once their clients accused of capital crimes no longer faced the ultimate punishment. 'The impossibility of either defendant being subjected to the death penalty causes them to lose their legal standing to challenge the constitutionality of the Kansas death penalty as applied to them,' Klapper's order said. The ACLU, ACLU of Kansas, the Kansas Death Penalty Defense Unit, Democracy Forward and lawyers from Washington, D.C., law firms filed motions challenging the death penalty on behalf of Antoine Fielder, who was accused of shooting to death Wyandotte County Deputies Theresa King and Patrick Rohrer in June 2018 while being escorted to a court hearing. In exchange for prosecutors withdrawing a request for the death penalty, Fielder entered in December a plea of guilty to two counts of capital murder. He was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole. The second participant in the constitutional challenge was Hugo Villaneuva-Morales, who was accused of killing four people in October 2019 at a bar in Kansas City, Kansas. In February, prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty against Villaneuva-Morales in exchange for his waiver of the right to a jury trial. He was found guilty of murder on Wednesday. Because both men no longer faced the potential of execution, the district court judge didn't rule on broad constitutional claims relative to the case. With addition of Fielder and Villaneuva-Morales, the ACLU has represented four clients in legal challenges to the state's death penalty. 'The evidentiary hearings have consistently exposed uncomfortable truths to state prosecutors, the courts and the public about the deep flaws and injustices embedded in the death penalty system,' said Cassandra Stubbs, director of the ACLU's Capital Punishment Project. On Thursday, Stubbs said judicial issues brought to light in the series of legal challenges should be recognized by lawmakers in Kansas. 'We remain committed to challenging the death penalty on behalf of people facing capital charges in Kansas with the hope that state legislators will end the death penalty and make future legal challenges unnecessary,' she said. In Wyandotte County District Court, testimony portrayed capital punishment as unconstitutional in terms of the right to be free of cruel and unusual punishment and a violation of equal protection rights associated with race and gender. The legal coalition challenging Kansas' death penalty law additionally asserted jury selection in capital cases, in which all jurors must be willing to impose a death sentence, was unconstitutional. Witnesses called on behalf of Fielder and Villaneuva-Morales argued the automatic striking of prospective jurors who didn't believe execution to be a valid form of punishment was discriminatory against Black people, women and individuals with firmly held religious beliefs. Klapper's 15-page opinion summarized evidence offered by half the 13 expert witnesses called by attorneys for the two men accused of murder. The state cross-examined most of those witnesses, but didn't present testimony. The judge said evidence presented on behalf of the two defendants 'was decidedly persuasive and well-reasoned.' He portrayed race and gender as key elements in how prosecutors decided to pursue the death penalty and how those cases were handled by juries. In Kansas, none of 15 men sentenced to death killed a Black person despite Black males making up more than 30% of homicide victims. White females comprised 20% of homicide victims in Kansas, but cases with white female victims were most likely to lead to a death sentence. 'The factors which distinguish death sentence cases from non-death sentence cases are the race and gender of the victim, and the race and gender of the defendant,' the judge's opinion said. Klapper drew from an expert witness for the two men who argued the legal framework for selecting jurors was 'so flawed that it does not protect racial biases in jury selection and must be reformed, a fact known to Kansans for years.' The judge wrote that testimony indicated the 'scientific community has found no reliable evidence of the death penalty being a deterrent to homicides.' Hearings in the case, which began in October, showed Kansas prosecutors had filed 129 capital murder cases in response to more than 4,000 homicides committed in the state since the state restored the death penalty in 1994. Prosecutors took the next step to provide formal notice the death penalty would be sought in 76 of those cases. Of 15 men sentenced to death in Kansas, nine remained under sentences of death. Four of them were resentenced to long prison terms, while two died in prison. 'Much more difficult to measure, but most concerning is the impact continual court hearings have on the victims' families,' Klapper wrote. 'The verdict in a capital case resulting in a death sentence is not the end but only the beginning of the appellate process. Most of the Kansas death penalty cases have been pending for more than 15 years and no (inmate) has exhausted their appellate rights. 'How will families of the victims ever begin to heal and attempt the process of recovery, if that is even possible, when the legal system continues to reopen those painful wounds with each new motion?'
USA Today
18-03-2025
- USA Today
Is nitrogen execution too 'gruesome' and 'cruel?' Louisiana is about to find out
Is nitrogen execution too 'gruesome' and 'cruel?' Louisiana is about to find out A court in Louisiana ruled Jessie Hoffman can be put to death Tuesday using nitrogen hypoxia - deprivation of oxygen causing suffocation. Show Caption Hide Caption Nitrogen hypoxia: What to know about the problematic execution method Alabama plans to execute inmate Kenneth Smith by nitrogen hypoxia. Here's what we know about the execution method. Jessie Hoffman, 46, is condemned to die Tuesday for the kidnapping, rape and murder of 28-year-old accounting executive Molly Elliott in 1996. While some states have passed or are considering legislation to allow nitrogen gas executions, it is uncertain how widely the method will be used. Public support for the death penalty is declining, and several states with capital punishment have not carried out executions in years. After Alabama carried out the country's first known execution by nitrogen gas last year, the state's attorney general delivered a message to other states: "Alabama has done it, and now so can you." So far, that hasn't happened. But Louisiana is set to perform its first execution by nitrogen gas Tuesday, after a volley of court decisions blocked and then paved the way for the execution, arguing by turns the method was cruel or humane. A federal judge said the method could violate the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment, citing witness accounts of the Alabama executions. But the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday ruled it could go forward. Condemned to die Tuesday is Jessie Hoffman, 46, for the kidnapping, rape and murder of 28-year-old accounting executive Molly Elliott in 1996. Hoffman's attorney has pledged to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall has described nitrogen hypoxia − oxygen deprivation causing suffocation − as "textbook," "humane and effective." Alabama has executed four prisoners using this controversial method and lawmakers in several other states have proposed legislation that would add nitrogen gas to their roster of ways to kill their inmates as official struggle to obtain drugs used for the country's primary method of execution, lethal injection. Capital punishment experts say that while a handful of the 27 states that have the death penalty may actually adopt this method, it's unlikely to be widely used and the outcome of the Louisiana case might inform how other states may handle future legal challenges. "I think the decision of these few states to introduce new methods of execution, including nitrogen gas, are out of line with what we've seen as a general trend to the country," said Megan Byrne, senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union's Capital Punishment Project. Texas, Louisiana both halted executions: What's going on? Nitrogen hypoxia faces multiple legal challenges The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which rescinded Hoffman's temporary reprieve, is arguably the most conservative appeals court in the nation and has become a testing ground for key causes. The U.S. Supreme Court has previously tried to rein in the News Orlean-based court but also allowed Alabama and other states to use the nitrogen method. Alabama inmate David Phillip Wilson filed a lawsuit similar to Hoffman's last month claiming the state's plan to execute him using nitrogen gas violates the Constitution's prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment, citing the "torturous" execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith in January 2024. Witness accounts from his and other Alabama executions "describe suffering, including conscious terror for several minutes, shaking, gasping, and other evidence of distress." Chief District Judge Shelly Dick cited those accounts when delaying Hoffman's execution by nitrogen in Louisiana. Wilson's case is pending. Smith's lawyers did not have the benefit of such evidence when opposing the then-untested method, Byrne said. Mounting evidence gathered from nitrogen gas executions could give challengers more firepower. The Supreme Court's three liberal justices previously criticized the majority's decision to allow Smith's execution, arguing he should have had more time to pursue legal challenges and more needed to be known about the execution method. The Constitution does not guarantee inmates a painless death. But Deborah Denno, a law professor at Fordham University, pointed out judges have deemed certain execution methods cruel and unusual punishment in the past. The high courts in Georgia and Nebraska banned electrocution, and a circuit judge in South Carolina found both the firing squad and electric chair unconstitutional in 2022. But that decision was overturned, and the state carried out its first firing squad execution in modern history earlier this month. The litigation over nitrogen gas might make other states hesitant to use it, Denno said. But she said death penalty states have remained "desperate" to execute their prisoners despite legal challenges and botched executions using many of the country's other methods. "That desperation may outweigh this litigation that's going on here," she said. Pushes for nitrogen gas executions stall Nitrogen hypoxia is already an authorized method of execution in Mississippi and Oklahoma, although it has not been used. Steven Harpe, director of Oklahoma's prison system, visited Alabama to study its nitrogen gas protocol and told the Associated Press he would "absolutely" want to use the method if possible, but the governor later told the outlet he had no plans to change the state's process. A bill approving the use of the method is currently awaiting Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signature. When asked if Sanders plans to sign the bill, spokesperson Sam Dubke told USA TODAY the governor "reviews legislation as it is introduced." Lawmakers in Ohio and Nebraska have reintroduced similar bills this year while another bill sponsored by Kansas' attorney general died in committee last year. It's possible some of these bills may become law, particularly in Arkansas, but just because a state has an execution method on the books doesn't mean officials will use it, said Austin Sarat, a professor of jurisprudence and political science at Amherst College. "The thing that we need to remember is that nitrogen hypoxia is authorized, but it's not the only method of execution available," he said. Nitrogen executions could face long term issues States like Louisiana turned to nitrogen hypoxia or other alternative methods like the firing squad after struggling to procure drugs for lethal injection, but if those drugs were readily available, prison officials may not need to use nitrogen gas. President Donald Trump issued an executive order in January directing the attorney general to help states secure the lethal drugs. Experts said it's not clear what the federal government could do because the primary issue is that pharmaceutical companies do not want to publicly provide drugs for lethal injections. Though it does not yet appear to be an issue, states could eventually run into the same problem securing gas for executions. Multiple manufacturers of medical-grade nitrogen gas told The Guardian last year they would not allow their product to be used in capital punishment. "Nitrogen gas is easier to get than lethal injection drugs, but that's only right now," Denno said. Public support for the death penalty lags Even as Trump has pledged to revive the death penalty, experts said the country is generally moving away from support for capital punishment. Several states that have the death penalty have not executed anyone in years, and a 2024 Gallup poll found support for the death penalty in the U.S. has fallen to 53%, a level not seen since the early 1970s. Several experts and human rights organizations including the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and Amnesty International criticized Smith's execution as particularly inhumane. Hoffman's execution has drawn protests from Jews Against Gassing Coalition, which says the method bears painful similarities to the gas chambers used during the Holocaust, CNN reported. Sarat said nitrogen gas isn't likely to become the "safe, reliable and humane" execution method the country has long been searching for. "Is it likely now to fix the problems of executions? I don't think so," he said. "So the story of a broken system, I think, is likely to continue to include methods of execution that will prove to be unreliable or will prove to be more gruesome than Americans can stomach." Contributing: Maureen Groppe and Amanda Lee Myers, USA TODAY
