death penalty

Bog bodies, alleged abuse and the science of "The Scream" + this day in history w/Brandon Lee and our song of the day by David Bowie on your Morning Monarchy for April 27, 2017.

Earlier this month, Governor Asa Hutchinson issued execution dates for eight men on death row, all to be carried out over the course of 10 days. He didn’t care that there’s a chance at least two of them may be innocent, or that several others suffer mental disabilities that cross the line into the realm of handicaps. The mindset behind these rapid fire executions should scare all Americans. But perhaps one of the scariest parts, for me, is knowing I could have been the ninth man on the state’s death list.

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By: Jay Dyer

Leg tie downs on the gurney in the execution room at the Oregon State Penitentiary, in Salem, Ore. (AP/Rick Bowmer)
(REPORT) — Texas on Tuesday sued the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for what it says is an “unreasonable delay” in deciding whether to allow the delivery of execution drugs from India. The lawsuit comes more than 17 months after the FDA seized 1,000 vials of sodium thiopental at a Houston airport.

Death Penalty Information Center [Click to enlarge]"The Death Penalty Information Center report notes that public-opinion polls show some decline in support for the death penalty, but the opposition has never achieved close to a majority.

The execution chamber at the Washington State Penitentiary is shown with the witness gallery behind glass at right, in Walla Walla, Wash.
ATLANTA  — Georgia led the nation this year in the number of inmates put to death, an anomaly that’s due at least in part to executions in Texas dipping into single digits for the first time in 20 years.

Liliana Sergura at The Intercept has posted a must-read article on two death-penalty propositions Californians will vote on next Tuesday: Prop 62 takes the death penalty off the table entirely; Prop 66 puts post-sentencing proceedings in death penalty cases on a fast track.

California voters will get a chance to abolish the state’s expensive and flawed death-penalty system, a step that could reduce America’s death-row population by almost a quarter, writes Marjorie Cohn. By Marjorie Cohn On Election Day, California voters will make…Read more →

“Why are you crying, Little Timmy?”
“I had to do it. I’m upset”
“Now, now, Little Timmy. You know you didn’t have to execute those eleven defenseless prisoners. You really can’t say you were forced to do it.”
“But if I didn’t kill them, the people of Virginia would think I was weak and might not like me anymore.”
“Timmy, you spared one prisoner scheduled for execution, so everybody knows you had the power to stop them all.”
“Now you’re making me upset all over again.”

Two years ago, on June 23, 2014, Dallas resident Charles Robert Moore drove to his hometown of Grand Saline, Texas and parked his car in a Dollar General parking lot on East Garland Street. He lingered there momentarily and then placed a foam mat on the ground. He knelt down on the mat, poured gasoline over his head and lit a match. He immediately burst into flames.
As Moore stood up and began to scream, two men rushed over and extinguished the blaze. He was transported to Parkland Hospital, but succumbed to his burns later that day.