The execution of Steven Staley: Forcible medication on death row in Texas. Steven Stanley Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Can the state force a person to take drugs in order to execute him? That is the grisly question raised by the case of Steven Staley , a convicted murderer who believes polygraph machines are controlling and torturing him. Even though he’s psychotic, Staley is scheduled to be executed next week, based on a judge’s order requiring him to take medication he has refused. If Texas actually goes ahead with this deeply disturbing plan, it will be the first state, as far as I can tell, to drug someone in order to carry out a death sentence. Here are the facts of Staley’s crime: In September 1989, he escaped from a Denver jail and went on an armed robbery spree, hitting up nine businesses in four states. And here are the facts of Staley’s mental illness: He has a long history of paranoid schizophrenia and depression.
Staley was found competent to stand trial back in 1991. OK, deep breath. What is behind Judge Salvant’s chilling decision? Utah has interesting history of executions. SALT LAKE CITY — Ronnie Lee Gardner is scheduled to be put to death by firing squad just after midnight.
He will become only the seventh person executed in Utah since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976 and the third in the state, and the country, to die by firing squad. While the method of execution is garnering as much publicity as the death row inmate himself, there was a time in Utah when a firing squad execution wasn't uncommon at all. In fact, there have been occasions where two people were executed at the same time by firing squads, sitting side by side. Utah's history is filled with stories of execution folklore, many of which sound appropriately reminiscent of the Old West from which they came. Not including Gardner, there have been 50 people executed in Utah since 1847 — 41 by firing squad, six by hanging and four by lethal injection.
On May 11, 1956, Melvin Braasch and LeRoy Sullivan were executed while sitting side-by-side. Executions in Utah weren't always private. No more final meals for Texas death row inmates - Crimesider. 2003 file photo shows an unidentified death row inmate in his cell in the North Condemned Unit at Pontiac Correctional Institution in Pontiac, Ill.
Associated Press (CBS/AP) HOUSTON - Prison inmates on death row are granted one small luxury before executed - a last meal of their choice. Well, not in Texas anymore. Officials who oversee the country's busiest death chamber stopped the practice on Thursday after a prominent state senator complained about a hefty request from Lawrence Russell Brewer, executed for his role in a notorious dragging death. Now, inmates get to eat only what the kitchen serves. U.S. Executions Since 1976. Home Page | Disclaimer | Office Overview | Clark County IndianaClark County Courts | Adult Protective Services | Child SupportDomestic Violence | Controlled Substances | Juvenile CrimeThe Death Penalty | For Police Officers | Victim/ Witness ServicesLaw Links | Contact Us | Search Our Site.
Death-Row Inmate Seeks Organ Transplant. NEW VOICES: "Death Penalty - Costly for Families of Victims Too" Karil Klingbeil, whose sister was murdered 30 years ago in Washington, recently wrote an op-ed in the Seattle Times regarding the emotional and psychological impact that seeking the death penalty can have on victims’ family members and friends.
Klingbeil, a former director of social work at Harborview Medical Center, was initially in favor of the death penalty for her sister’s killer, Mitchell Rupe. Over the years, however, she came to oppose it in favor of life in prison without parole. She wrote, “Victims' families, like our family, relive the horror of their loved one's murder with every court proceeding. Our system cannot seek this ultimate punishment without a great deal of procedure to avoid and correct errors, and still errors are made. The more hearings and trials there are, the more emotional trauma there is for the surviving family members.” Sept. 17 marks the 30th anniversary of my sister Candy Hemmig's murder. Candy left a husband and 3 children, ages 7, 13 and 16. (K. King County's death-penalty dilemma: Soaring cost worth it? Originally published August 14, 2011 at 10:01 PM | Page modified August 15, 2011 at 12:17 PM The cost of prosecuting two men and a woman accused of two of the most heinous crimes in King County in recent years is $656,564 and counting.
The cost of defending them is even higher: $4.3 million, and also climbing. Like other counties in the state, King County is struggling with the rising cost of criminal justice, which has forced Prosecutor Dan Satterberg to eliminate the jobs of 36 prosecutors since 2008. But while budget constraints have forced some counties to all but abandon death-penalty cases, King County currently has two active capital cases.
A third, last year's prosecution of Conner Schierman for killing a Kirkland family of four in 2006, has thus far cost the county $2.4 million.