Brutal Execution by Pakistani Army in Swat

Summary execution by
Pakistani soldiers

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — An Internet video  (see below) showing men in Pakistani military uniforms executing six young men in civilian clothes has heightened concerns about unlawful killings by Pakistani soldiers supported by the United States, American officials said.

The authenticity of the five-and-a-half-minute video, which shows the killing of the six men — some of whom appear to be teenagers, blindfolded, with their hands bound behind their backs — has not been formally verified by the American government. The Pakistani military said it was faked by militants.

But American officials, who did not want to be identified because of the explosive nature of the video, said it appeared to be credible, as did retired American military officers and intelligence analysts who have viewed it.

After viewing the graphic video on Wednesday, an administration official said: “There are things you can fake, and things you can’t fake. You can’t fake this.”

The video adds to reports under review at the State Department and the Pentagon that Pakistani Army units have summarily executed prisoners and civilians in areas where they have opened offensives against the Taliban, administration officials said.

The video appears to have been taken in the Swat Valley, where the Pakistani military opened a campaign last year to push back Taliban insurgents. The effort was widely praised by American officials and financed in large part by the United States.

The reports could have serious implications for relations between the militaries. American law requires that the United States cut off financing to units of foreign militaries that are found to have committed gross violations of human rights.

But never has that law been applied to so strategic a partner as Pakistan, whose military has received more than $10 billion in American support since 2001 for its cooperation in fighting militants from the Taliban and Al Qaeda based inside the country.

The Pakistani military came under strong pressure from the United States to make the drive into the Swat region. Having since expanded operations to South Waziristan, the military has found itself in a counterinsurgency campaign in which it has struggled to maintain local support and weed out insurgents and their sympathizers from the population.

Click here to read the full article.

Source: The New York Times, September 30, 2010

Video of the execution (Warning: Graphic Content)


Summary execution of Pashtuns by Pakistani soldiers
envoyé par am1rhu55ain. - L'info internationale vidéo.

Iran: Stop the Executions of Zeynab Jalalian and Hossein Khezri

Zeynab Jalalian and Hossein Khezri are awaiting execution in Iran. Their crime? "Enmity against God."

They are both members of the minority Party for Free Life of Kurdistan, and the Iranian government is using this catch-all phrase to persecute political dissenters under the guise of a religious charge.

Help stop the executions of Jalalian and Khezri!

Their sentencing is unjust, their treatment while imprisoned atrocious: Jalalian was granted only a few minutes of access to her lawyer and was told to "shut up" when she asked to say goodbye to her mother.

The EU "is profoundly concerned by the repeated sentencing to death in Iran of people belonging to minorities, as well as of those involved in the post-election protests." Five people were hanged for similar "offenses" on May 9.

These prisoners, and the Iranian people, deserve a fair government, fair trials, and the right to express basic human rights without punishment.

Tell Iranian authorities not to execute Jalalian and Khezri, and to retry them with a fair trial according to international law.

More information here: Amnesty International Urgent Appeal for Zeynab Jalalian and Hossein Khezri at imminent risk of execution in Iran

California Catholic Conference Statement on Ending the Use of the Death Penalty in California

Most Reverend Gerald Wilkerson, Auxiliary Bishop for the San Fernando Pastoral Region of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and President of the California Catholic Conference, released the following statement today expressing strong support for an end to the use of the death penalty in California and asking for clemency for any individual scheduled for execution.

The California Catholic Conference strongly supports an end to use of the death penalty and affirms the 2005 statement from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, A Culture of Life and the Penalty of Death, which launched the U.S. Bishops Catholic Campaign to End the Use of the Death Penalty.

In light of the fact that California has scheduled the September 29, 2010 execution of Albert Greenwood Brown for the rape and murder of a 15-year-old girl, Susan Jordan, in 1980, we implore all Californians to ask themselves what good comes of state-sanctioned killing. We recognize the profound pain of those who lost a loved one to violence and offer them our prayers and our consolation. However, nothing can undo what was done — even taking the life of the convicted killer. The infliction of the death penalty does not make for a more just society.

As Catholic bishops, we teach and preach the Gospel vision of a "culture of life." We believe that each human person is created in God’s image. We are compelled to teach a consistent ethic of life and to speak publicly that the use of the death penalty does not protect human life, does not promote human dignity, and does not reduce violence in our society.

We recognize that human beings can and do commit grievous crimes, but we reject the use of the death penalty — especially when we can protect society with an alternate penalty of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. In addition, of particular concern to us is the fact that the application of the death penalty is deeply flawed — with those who are poor or from racial minorities most often its subjects.

At this moment in time, we entreat Californians to ponder carefully whether the use of the death penalty makes our society safer. A moratorium is needed to evaluate whether the death penalty serves the common good and safeguards the dignity of human life. We are convinced that it does not.

Source: California Catholic Conference, September 29, 2010

No drug-shortage delay expected in Texas executions

Texas officials said Monday that they have no plans to delay any executions because of a nationwide shortage of 1 of the lethal drugs used.

"We have 3 executions scheduled through the end of this year, and we have an ample supply to carry those out," said Michelle Lyons, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in Huntsville. "At the present, we are unaffected by the shortage."

For security reasons, Texas prison officials refused to say Monday how much sodium thiopental they have on hand.

Lyons said that if the supply does not resume, Texas might have to consider alternatives.

In Texas, 3 grams of sodium pentothal is administered in an intravenous solution to render the convict unconscious, followed by 100 milligrams of pancuronium bromide to paralyze muscles and 140 milliequivalents of potassium chloride to stop the heart. The drugs are generally administered over a 5-minute period.

Source: Austin American-Statesman, September 28, 2010

India: Kasab challenges death penalty in High Court

In a fresh development in the 26/11 terror attack case, Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab today filed an appeal in Bombay High Court challenging death penalty awarded to him for killing 166 persons on November 26, 2008.

"We have filed an appeal today," his lawyer Amin Solkar told PTI.

Kasab has challenged death penalty saying it was a harsh punishment imposed a on him and pleaded that there were lapses in evidence produced by police in the trial court.

The appeal has challenged identification of Kasab in the court saying the eye witnesses had easily identified him because his photograph had appeared prominently in newspapers and television on the day of attack.

The appeal also challenged trial court's ruling which upheld Kasab's confession as "true and voluntary", Kasab's lawyer said.

Source: Press Trust of India News, September 28, 2010

Three prison escapees executed in north China

Three men who broke out of prison and killed a policeman in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in October last year, were executed Tuesday.

Qiao Haiqiang, Dong Jiaji and Li Hongbin were put to death by lethal injection in the regional capital of Hohhot.

Li had appealed the sentence, claiming he was an accessory, but the appeal was rejected by the Intermediate People's Court in Hohhot City. The court upheld his death penalty in August.

4 prisoners broke out of the prison in Hohhot. All were serving life terms.

Police launched a 3-day manhunt for the escapees involving 12,300 officers.

The 4th prisoner was shot dead while on the run.

Source: Xinhua, September 29, 2010

Outcry fails to prevent Belarus executions

Activists are demanding perssure on Belarus to ditch the death penalty.

Belarus is to go ahead with the execution of two men currently on death row, despite international pressure on the country to abandon the practice.

President Alexander Lukashenko has made tentative attempts to improve relations with Western Europe, but the death penalty remains an obstacle.

The convicted men - Oleg Grishkovtsov and Andrei Burdyko, from Grodno in western Belarus - could be executed at any time, after the country's Supreme Court turned down appeals from the pair.

Their relatives will only find out that the executions have taken place by an official letter confirming their deaths, and will not be told where the bodies are buried.

The 2 men were found guilty of killing three people during an armed robbery in a flat in Grodno last year.

They were also found guilty of taking a child hostage in the course of the robbery and setting the flat on fire, before forcing a taxi driver to help them to flee the crime scene.

Belarus is the only country in Europe which continues to execute convicted criminals, and it sparked widespread condemnation when it executed two convicted murderers in March 2010.

And as recently as 14 September another death sentence was handed out.

Human rights organisation Amnesty International has long criticised the country's continued use of capital punishment.

In March, Amnesty called on President Alexander Lukashenko to establish an immediate moratorium on the use of the death penalty.

The death penalty can only be struck off the constitution by Mr Lukashenko or the parliament in Minsk.

'Public support'

However, the government insists there is public support for the death penalty, which is usually carried out by a single gunman delivering a point-blank shot to the head.

In a referendum in 1996 more than 80% of voters backed capital punishment.

Analysts say that the authorities have since used this vote to stifle public discussion of the issue.

Opinion polls suggest that at least 2/3 of Belarusians believe that the sort of criminals who are sentenced to death cannot be rehabilitated.

Human rights activists have had little success in garnering support, and 1 online petition against the death penalty was signed by just 318 Belarusians in an entire year.

The country's population is more than 9 million.

Price for dialogue

The government has been engaged in a very gradual discussion with the Council of Europe about "possible steps towards a moratorium and removal of the death penalty" in Belarus.

The matter is also being raised at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, with delegates from Belarus defending executions.

They believe the creation of a working group in parliament and their readiness to discuss a moratorium with the Council of Europe should work in their favour.

Abolishing the death penalty is one of the mandatory conditions the EU is demanding from Belarus in order for it to start official political dialogue with the country.

However, human rights activist Valentin Stefanovich says that Europe should not hold its breath: "Recent signals from inside the government have made it clear that we should not be expecting a moratorium on capital punishment anytime soon."

The UN Human Rights Council has also been sounding the alarm for more than 10 years about how the Belarusian authorities treat the relatives of those executed.

Families are not given the opportunity to say goodbye or pick up their loved-ones' belongings. They are also not told where the executed are buried, and authorities do not release the bodies for private funerals.

Source: BBC News, September 28, 2010

California: Judges Cancels Albert Brown's Execution

SAN FRANCISCO — Facing sharp questions from a federal appellate panel and concerns about a drug used in lethal injections, a federal judge in California has canceled what would have been California’s first execution in more than four years.

Albert G. Brown Jr., 56, was convicted in 1982 of raping and strangling a 15-year-old girl in Riverside, Calif., two years before and had been scheduled to die by lethal injection Thursday night.

But late Tuesday, Judge Jeremy D. Fogel of Federal District Court in San Jose issued a stay after a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ordered him to again consider the case.

The stay came a day after California officials announced that the state’s supply of sodium thiopental, a barbiturate used in executions, was good only until Friday, a revelation that seemed to shock the appellate panel. “It is incredible to think that the deliberative process might be driven by the expiration date of the execution drug,” the panel wrote.

In his stay, Judge Fogel seemed to agree, and indicated that he had been blindsided by the state’s admission about the drug’s expiration, calling it a “fact that the defendants did not disclose to this court.”

Mr. Brown’s execution would have been the first in California since 2006, when Judge Fogel effectively halted executions in the state after finding various deficiencies in the state’s methods. Since then, the state says it has addressed those problems by revamping regulations surrounding executions and building a new death chamber at San Quentin State Prison.

Judge Fogel ruled last week that Mr. Brown was ineligible for a stay, but legal questions and challenges continued to percolate. On Monday night, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger gave Mr. Brown a brief reprieve, pushing the execution to Thursday from Wednesday. The appellate panel weighed in later that night, raising questions about the constitutionality of the state’s new protocol for lethal injection using a three-drug cocktail.

Source: The New York Times, September 29, 2010


California: Judges block Brown's execution

San Quentin's new
death chamber and gurney

(CNN) -- A federal court judge blocked the execution of a murderer in California, two days before he was to receive a lethal injection.

A federal judge in San Jose ruled Tuesday, following furious legal maneuvering to keep Albert Greenwood Brown alive.

Brown's execution would've been California's first since 2006, when legal challenges prompted the state to revise its lethal injection procedure.

He was sentenced to death in 1982 for raping and murdering a high school student.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel reversed a decision that he had made earlier, which paved the way toward the execution.

Fogel's earlier decision was overruled by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday night.

The federal appeals court said Fogel mistakenly ruled that the execution could proceed if Brown chose between a one-drug or a three-drug option for his lethal injection.

"The district court's decision to provide Brown the choice of a one-drug option is not consistent with California state law and procedures," the appeals court ruling said. "California law does not provide the condemned a choice between a three-drug protocol or a one-drug option."

The appeals court told Fogel to rethink that decision and review whether California's new lethal injection procedures protect an inmate from a cruel and inhumane death.

Fogel said it would be impossible to complete that review before Brown's execution date.

Brown raped and murdered 15-year-old Susan Jordan, who was walking to Arlington High School in Riverside when Brown pulled her into an orange grove, according to court documents.

He raped her, strangled her with her own shoelace, and took her school identification cards and books.

Later that evening, Brown looked up her family in the phone book and called their home, court documents say.

"Hello, Mrs. Jordan, Susie isn't home from school yet, is she?" court documents quoted him as saying. "You will never see your daughter again. You can find her body on the corner of Victoria and Gibson."

He also called police and directed them to her body. During the investigation, three witnesses placed Brown near the scene of the crime. Police found Susan Jordan's school books and newspaper articles about her death in Brown's home, and clothing with semen stains in Brown's work locker.

During the penalty phase of Brown's trial, his lawyer said his client was remorseful. He also presented psychiatric evidence suggesting that Brown had emotional problems, including sexual maladjustment and dysfunction.

The jury deliberated for three hours before returning a death-penalty verdict, according to court documents.

California's last execution was on January 17, 2006, when Clarence Ray Allen was put to death for three counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances. From behind bars, he had helped orchestrate a deadly armed robbery at a convenience store.

Source: CNN.com, September 29, 2010

California's first execution in five years delayed by legal issues

San Quentin's new death chamber
Press viewing room

A federal appeals court in San Francisco late Monday ordered a trial judge to reconsider a ruling that allowed for a convicted murderer and rapist to be executed this week at San Quentin State Prison.

Albert Greenwood Brown was scheduled to die at 9 p.m. Thursday for the 1980 killing of a 15-year-old Riverside girl.

But the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel erred by offering Brown a choice of a one-drug lethal injection or a three-drug cocktail.

"The district court's decision to provide Brown the choice of a one-drug option is not consistent with California state law and procedures. California law does not provide the condemned a choice between a three-drug protocol or a one-drug option," the ruling said.

The appeals court ordered the judge to schedule a new hearing.

The court's order came hours after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered a one-day delay in Brown's execution, citing a procedural complication in the state's attempt to carry out its first death sentence in nearly five years.

The governor's reprieve coincided with an announcement by the attorney general's office that further lethal-injection sentences in California would have to wait until at least next year due to a nationwide shortage of the key drug used to render condemned prisoners unconscious.

Click here to read the full article.

Source: Los Angeles Times, September 28, 2010

Saudi Arabia: Man beheaded for fatal shooting

Saudi Arabia beheaded a murderer by the sword in Medina, the interior ministry announced.

Abdulkarim bin Khalif al-Anzi was executed for shooting dead Atallah bin Mohammed al-Anzi after a dispute, the ministry said in a statement carried by the official SPA news agency.

No details were given of the date or location of the crime. The ministry said the execution was implemented after a review of the sentence by higher courts, and due to the determination of the victim's family to see that the murderer was put to death.

The beheading took to 19 the number of executions reported in the Gulf kingdom this year, according to an AFP count.

Source: Agence France-Presse, Sept. 27, 2010

Governor Postpones Execution in California

Control room in San Quentin's new death
chamber. Lethal drugs are kept in
the safe below the table.

SAN FRANCISCO — With the clock ticking and uncertainties — both legal and pharmaceutical — hovering, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered a temporary last-minute reprieve on Monday in what would be California’s first execution in more than four years.

Mr. Schwarzenegger, a Republican in the final weeks of his administration, announced late Monday that he would postpone the execution of Albert G. Brown Jr. — who had been scheduled to die by lethal injection at 12:01 a.m. on Wednesday — until Thursday to allow time for legal appeals to be exhausted. The state Department of Corrections has rescheduled the execution for Thursday evening, the governor’s office said.

Mr. Brown, 56, was convicted in 1982 of raping and strangling a 15-year-old girl in Riverside, Calif.

The postponement came after a whirlwind day in which Mr. Brown’s fortunes seemed to rise and fall with each passing hour. Earlier Monday, Mr. Brown had been denied a stay from a state judge, Verna A. Adams, in Marin County, where San Quentin State Prison is located.

Shortly after that denial state officials also made a surprise announcement that the execution would be the last in the state until the one of the drugs proposed for his execution — sodium thiopental, a barbiturate — could be restocked by the state’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Moreover, Terry Thornton, a spokeswoman for the department, said its supply of sodium thiopental was good only until Friday. That expiration date is now just hours after Mr. Brown’s planned execution on Thursday.

Ms. Thornton said her department was continuing with preparations for Mr. Brown’s execution and had enough sodium thiopental to stop Mr. Brown’s heart. She added that the state was “actively seeking supplies of the drug for future executions.”

How exactly sodium thiopental became scarce is unclear. The Food and Drug Administration reported shortages in March, citing production issues with Hospira, an Illinois-based company that is the sole American manufacturer.

A company spokesman, Dan Rosenberg, said that the drug was unavailable because of a lack of supply of an active pharmaceutical ingredient and that Hospira was working to get the drug back on the market by early next year. But Mr. Rosenberg also expressed displeasure that the drug — meant to be used as an anesthetic — had found its way into death chambers.

“Hospira manufactures this product because it improves or saves lives, and the company markets it solely for use as indicated on the product labeling,” Mr. Rosenberg said in a statement. “The drug is not indicated for capital punishment, and Hospira does not support its use in this procedure.”

He added that the company had made that opinion clear to corrections departments nationwide.

Mr. Brown’s execution was cleared on Friday by a federal district judge, Jeremy D. Fogel, who had effectively halted executions in the state in 2006 after expressing concern about a three-drug cocktail commonly used in lethal injection procedures and various deficiencies in the state’s methods, including the training of execution teams, antiquated facilities and the preparation of execution drugs.

Since then, however, California has drafted detailed new regulations — approved earlier this year — to guide executions and built a new death chamber at San Quentin, north of San Francisco.

Those developments had apparently quelled Judge Fogel’s worries enough to allow Mr. Brown’s execution to proceed.

Mr. Brown is still seeking a stay from the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. His lawyer, John R. Grele, said Judge Fogel’s decision was “neither a legal nor rational response” to his client’s efforts to avoid execution or undue pain.

Source: The New York Times, September 28, 2010

Georgia executes Brandon Rhode

Brandon Rhode

Brandon Joseph Rhode was put to death Monday night by lethal injection at the state prison at Jackson. The 31-year-old man was pronounced dead at 10:16 p.m. by prison officials.

Rhode declined to speak any last words or have a final prayer.

Rhode's execution had been set for 7 p.m. but was pushed back several hours as corrections officials waited for the U.S. Supreme Court to decide on his plea for a stay of execution. The court rejected appeals later that night.

Medics then tried for about 30 minutes to find a vein to inject the three-drug concoction.

The prisoner's eyes darted around the room before the lethal mixture began coursing through his veins. Within minutes he was staring blankly at the ceiling of the death chamber. Moments before Rhode was pronounced dead he turned his head, exposing a bandage over the part of his neck he slashed.

It took 14 minutes for the lethal dose to kill him.

The U.S. Supreme Court had earlier denied an appeal claiming that Rhode was subjected to inhumane treatment and was not mentally competent to be executed. The nation's high court on Monday rejected pleas for a stay.

He was convicted in 2000 of the killings of Steven Moss, 37, his 11-year-old son Bryan and 15-year-old daughter Kristin during a burglary of their Jones County home. His coconspirator, Daniel Lucas, was also sentenced to death in a separate trial and he remains on death row.

His execution was pushed back several times after his Sept. 21 suicide attempt.

Rhode becomes the 2nd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Georgia and the 48th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1983.

Rhode becomes the 40th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1228th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.

Source: AP, Rick Halperin, September 27, 2010

Lawyers file last minute appeals to stop 7 p.m. execution of Brandon Rhode

JACKSON, Ga. — As Georgia authorities prepared today to put to death an inmate whose execution was postponed after he attempted suicide last week, the prisoner’s attorney contended his client is “no longer competent” and shouldn’t be executed.

Brandon Joseph Rhode is set to die by lethal injection at 7 p.m. amid heightened security after he slashed his arms and throat on Sept. 21 with a disposable razor blade he hid from guards. After the attempted suicide, Rhode’s execution was first rescheduled for Friday and then pushed back until today.

Rhode was convicted in 2000 of killing Steven Moss, 37, his 11-year-old son Bryan and 15-year-old daughter Kristin during the burglary of their Jones County home. His coconspirator, Daniel Lucas, was also sentenced to death in a separate trial and remains on death row.

Rhode’s attorney, Brian Kammer, urged the Georgia Supreme Court and the state pardons board to push back the execution again so experts can evaluate whether the 31-year-old has the mental competence to be executed, or understands why he is being punished. He said Rhode lost half his blood Tuesday when he cut himself and could have suffered brain damage.

“He has been subjected to the surreal and incomprehensible: Heroic measures taken to stabilize his life by the prison staff that would then execute him,” he said in one filing. “While they may have been successful in keeping some measure of his physical being intact, it is not clear that they were able to do the same for his mental state.”

The Georgia Supreme Court denied Rhode’s emergency request for a stay this afternoon, as did the state pardons board. His attorneys planned to also appeal to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Rhode was stabilized at a local hospital after his suicide attempt and placed in a restraining chair to prevent him from pulling out the sutures on his neck or doing any other harm to himself, state attorneys said. Kammer countered that Rhode, who is mentally ill, was put in a “torture chair” and subjected to cruel and unusual punishment.

Source: jacksonville.com, September 27, 2010

Georgia preparing to execute suicidal inmate

Brandon Rhode's self-inflicted
neck wound

JACKSON — As Georgia authorities prepared Monday to put to death an inmate whose execution was postponed after he attempted suicide last week, the prisoner's attorney contended his client is "no longer competent" and shouldn't be executed.

The U.S. Supreme Court turned down the request for a stay of execution around 8 p.m.

Rhode's attorney, Brian Kammer, urged the Georgia Supreme Court and the state pardons board to push back the execution again so experts can evaluate whether the 31-year-old has the mental competence to be executed, or understands why he is being punished. He said Rhode lost half his blood Tuesday when he cut himself and could have suffered brain damage.

"He has been subjected to the surreal and incomprehensible: Heroic measures taken to stabilize his life by the prison staff that would then execute him," he said in one filing. "While they may have been successful in keeping some measure of his physical being intact, it is not clear that they were able to do the same for his mental state."

The Georgia Supreme Court denied Rhode's emergency request for a stay Monday afternoon, as did the state pardons board. His attorneys applied Monday afternoon to the U.S. Supreme Court for a stay of execution. The court turned down the request.

Rhode was stabilized at a local hospital after his suicide attempt and placed in a restraining chair to prevent him from pulling out the sutures on his neck or doing any other harm to himself, state attorneys said. Kammer countered that Rhode, who is mentally ill, was put in a "torture chair" and subjected to cruel and unusual punishment.

The inmate's legs are shackled and his hands are handcuffed and tied in a bag that is closed with a zip tie to prevent him from tearing out his sutures, Kammer said. The lights of Rhode's prison cell are kept on at all times and he's watched day and night by two prison guards posted on either end of his bunk, he said.

"This week of torturous treatment, both in prison and the court, along with a life without parole sentence, would serve as sufficient punishment," he said in a plea to commute his sentence.

Source: AP, September 7, 2010

Texas Judge orders court of inquiry into Willingham's conviction, execution

Todd Willingham on
Texas' Death Row

A Travis County judge today ordered a court of inquiry to determine if Cameron Todd Willingham was wrongfully convicted and executed in the deaths of his three daughters, who perished in a Corsicana house fire in 1991.

Judge Charlie Baird, who also conducted a court of inquiry that led to the exoneration of wrongfully convicted inmate Tim Cole of Fort Worth, told the Star-Telegram that he has decided to move forward with the court of inquiry into the Willingham case after reviewing a petition filed Friday by lawyers representing Willingham's relatives.

"I have decided that the petition warrants a hearing," Baird said in a telephone interview. The inquiry will be held in his courtroom on Oct. 6-7, but Baird said it could be extended if necessary.

Willingham was found guilty of deliberating setting the fire that killed his daughters -- 2-year-old Amber and 1-year-old twins Karmon and Kameron. The unemployed Corsicana mechanic went to his death in 2004 insisting that he was innocent.

The case became the center of national attention after several fire experts concluded that the arson investigation against Willingham was flawed and based on outmoded techniques. It has also been the focus of a controversial review by the Texas Forensic Science Commission, which opened an inquiry into the arson investigation in 2006.

Baird said he made his decision early this morning after staying up until midnight Sunday reviewing the 55-page petition.

"Obviously the most troubling aspect of this -- and it just dwarfs everything else“ is whether or not to believe that an innocent person has been executed by the State of Texas," he said.

The inquiry could lead to Willingham's posthumous exoneration if the findings warranted, said Baird. He said he has no preconceived view on Willingham's guilt or innocence but felt that questions raised by Willingham's case justified further examination.

"I agree with them that they're entitled to a hearing but I wouldn't say at any level that he's innocent," Baird said. "A lot of this stuff has either been done piecemeal or in secret and this will bring it all to light."

Baird said he has ordered a subpoena to demand the appearance of the jail trusty who testified that Willingham admitted the crime while he was in jail awaiting trial. He also sent invitations to Gov. Rick Perry's chief counsel, the Texas Fire Marshal, the Navarro County district attorney and the state prosecuting attorney, but said their appearance wasn't necessary.

Perry has defended the execution, describing Willingham as a "monster" whose appeals were repeatedly rejected by state and federal courts. Willingham supporters have accused Perry of interfering with the commission's inquiry by ordering a shakeup of the membership during a crucial phase of the inquiry, but the governor has dismissed those assertions.

Baird said he could make a ruling within 2 weeks after the court of inquiry concludes it review.

Source: Fort Worth Star-Telegram, September 25, 2010

California state court judge refuses to block execution

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — A California state court judge refused a death row inmate's request Monday to block his scheduled execution this week.

It's the second significant legal setback for Albert Greenwood Brown in his effort to stop the execution scheduled for 12:01 a.m. Wednesday.

A federal judge on Friday also refused to block the execution.

On Monday, Brown asked Marin County Superior Court Judge Verna Adams to halt his execution until a lawsuit filed by Brown and another death row inmate is resolved. The suit challenges the state's new lethal injection regulations, saying the procedures were improperly adopted.

Corrections officials revised the procedures after a federal judge halted the death penalty in California amid concern the state's method of lethal injection amounted to cruel and unusual punishment.

California deputy attorney general Jay Goldman told the judge the regulations were adopted legally after a lengthy process that included public input.

Judge Adams said after an hour-long hearing Monday that she would not halt Brown's execution while the lawsuit is pending.

"Mr. Brown can not prove that he will suffer pain if he is executed under the current regulations," Adams said.

The new regulations adopted on Aug. 29 call for prison officials to inject Brown with a lethal dose of sodium thiopental, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride.

Lawyers for the two inmates challenging the new regulations said they would appeal immediately to the 1st District Court of Appeal.

Brown's attorneys also asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to block the execution.

Source: The Associated Press, September 27, 2010

California DR Inmate Albert Brown Asks Court to Halt His Execution

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A death row inmate asked a federal appeals court on Sunday to halt his execution as he declined to choose a method for the lethal injection.

Lawyers for the inmate, Albert G. Brown, filed court papers to appeal a federal judge’s refusal to block the execution, which is set for Wednesday. Mr. Brown also let pass a noon deadline set by the judge to choose between a one-drug lethal injection or execution by a three-drug cocktail.

Mr. Brown’s refusal to choose means a three-drug cocktail will be used if the appeals court does not block his execution, which would be California’s first in nearly five years. He was sentenced to die for abducting, raping and killing a 15-year-old, Susan Jordan of Riverside County, in 1980.

Judge Jeremy Fogel of United States District Court in San Jose denied Mr. Brown’s two requests on Saturday to change his mind about going forward with the execution.

The judge initially delayed the execution in 2006 after finding that poorly trained officials carried out executions in a death chamber too cramped and dingy to protect the inmate from suffering “cruel and unusual” punishment while receiving a lethal injection. The state has since constructed a new death chamber and overhauled the selection and training of its execution team.

Mr. Brown’s latest appeal will be heard by a panel of three judges from the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Source: The New York Times, September 27, 2010

Bali Nine: Prosecutors dismiss Scott Rush's call for clemency

Bali Nine Scott Rush

An Indonesian prosecutor has insisted on the death penalty for Australian Bali Nine drug courier Scott Rush.

Prosecutor Argitha Chandra told a panel of judges hearing Rush's appeal against the death penalty that he should be severely punished for committing a serious crime.

He dismissed testimony from former Australian Federal Police commissioner Mick Keelty, who said 24-year-old Rush's role in the foiled 2005 plot to smuggle more than eight kilograms of heroin out of Bali was minor.

Mr Keelty said Rush was just a courier and knew little about the smuggling ring.

"We don't differentiate the roles," the prosecutor said, adding that "drug smuggling is a serious threat to the image of Bali" as a tourist destination.

"Narcotics are a big danger and a transnational crime and the accused should be severely punished," he said.

The case has been adjourned until October 4, when the judges will deliver their final recommendations to the Supreme Court in Jakarta.

It could be several months before the Supreme Court rules on the case.

Source: ABC/AFP, September 27, 2010

Death penalty 'appropriate' for Bali Nine smuggler

The Indonesian people want Australian Scott Rush to be executed for his role in the Bali Nine drug smuggling plot, a court has been told.

Indonesian prosecutors today told the Denpasar District Court that death by firing squad was the proper punishment for the 24-year-old Brisbane man's crimes.

"We believe that the Indonesian people would consider the death penalty appropriate in this case," prosecutor Purwanti Murtiasih said.

Murtiasih called on Indonesia's Supreme Court to reject Rush's final appeal, known as a judicial review, which seeks to have his sentence reduced to 15 years' jail.

Rush was one of nine Australians arrested over a foiled 2005 plot to smuggle more than eight kilograms of heroin out of Bali.

Arrested at Denpasar airport with more than a kilo of heroin strapped to his body, Rush was originally sentenced to life in prison.

The supreme court unexpectedly increased it to death in 2006 but will now be called on the reconsider that verdict.

Ringleaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran are also on death row but Rush is the only courier facing the firing squad.

Rush's lawyers argue his sentence is out of step with his fellow Bali Nine couriers, who are facing between 20 years and life in prison.

But Murtiasih said the Indonesian legal system did not distinguish between organisers and couriers.

"We don't differentiate these roles," he said.

"His participation supported the overall activity of this very secretive network."

Former Australian Federal Police (AFP) commissioner Mick Keelty and current Deputy Commissioner Michael Phelan this month testified for Rush, telling the court he played only a minor role in the plot.

Mr Keelty told the court that given mitigating factors, including his young age at the time of his arrest, Rush would have only faced about 10 years' jail if arrested in Australia.

But Murtiasih said the AFP testimony did not constitute new evidence, as argued by Rush's legal team, and required under Indonesian law for the appeal to be successful.

If Rush's appeal fails, his last hope of survival will be to seek clemency from Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Chan and Sukumaran also have final appeals in train.

Five other members of the syndicate - Matthew Norman, Martin Stephens, Michael Czugaj, Si Yi Chen and Tan Duc Than Nguyen - are serving life in prison.

Courier Renae Lawrence is serving 20 years.

Source: stuff.co.nz, September 27, 2010

Vui Kong's story now in theatre

PETALING JAYA: The story of condemned drug mule Yong Vui Kong will be made into a stage play. Entitled “Banduan Akhir di Sel Akhir” (The Last Prisoner in the Last Cell), the 50-minute production will be based on Yong's life story.

Directed by Shahili Abdan (popularly known as Nam Ron), Banduan will star local actor Xavier Fong as Yong, and feature the likes of Tuan “Tapai” Faisal and Dira Abu Zahar.

Commissioned by Amnesty International Malaysia (AIM), the play will be in Bahasa Malaysia, but will have English subtitles.

"This is a chance for us to show something serious in a creative way, and bring a big impact to society," said Moizzis R Cong, Banduan's scriptwriter.

A firm opponent against the death penalty, Cong believes that capital punishment does not deter crime but makes it worse.

"We had planned to do a play about the death penalty for a long time," he added.

When asked why Yong's story was chosen as the basis for the play, Nora Murat, AIM's executive director, said that they were looking for a story where everyone could relate to.

The play's executive producer, Faisal Mustaffa, agreed. "(Vui Kong's) story is not only a story, but also a drama," he said.

"It's (also a story) about poverty, how it affects people and how the system responds to them," Mustaffa added.

Easy money

A product of a broken home, Yong's parents separated when he was a toddler, leaving him to be raised by his mother. Dropping out of school, he soon started a short life in crime by selling pirated VCDs.

Spurred on by his mother's worsening health, he volunteered to become a drug mule after being told that it would bring him easy money.

On June 13, 2007, the Sabahan was caught with 47gm of heroin by the Singaporean authorities. He was subsequently sentenced to death for drug trafficking in the island state.

He was only 18 at the time.

Converting to Buddhism during his stay in prison, Yong has since appealed to Singapore President SR Nathan for clemency.

Originally scheduled for a clemency hearing on Aug 26, this year, his appeal has been extended to Jan 17, 2011.

A petition drive calling for Yong to be spared the death penalty is currently ongoing, and has since collected over 130,000 signatures. It also saw support from Perkasa president Ibrahim Ali and DAP strongman Karpal Singh.

Banduan will open for five nights from Oct 10 at the Black Box Theatre in Solaris, Mont Kiara. It will also be shown in a Penang location on Dec 10 this year.

Tickets can be obtained with a minimum RM10 donation to AIM. For more information, visit the website at rumahanakteater.blogspot.com , or contact Aisling or Davina at 03-7955268 (or email at amenstydptheatre@gmail.com This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ).

Youtube link on the play: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkqUUXhE-XE

Source: Free Malaysia Today, September 25, 2010

Juvenile offender Vatan-e-Emrouz Mohammad executed in Iran

Mohammad

Iran Human Rights, September 25: According to the reports from Iran a minor offender identified as Mohammad was hanged in the Marvdasht prison of Shiraz. According to these reports Mohammad, who was convicted of a murder when he was 17 years old, was hanged without his family being informed on July 10th this year.

According to the Iranian daily newspaper Vatan-e-Emrouz Mohammad (17), Reza (15), Sadegh (12), Hassan (17) and Siamak (17) were arrested in connection with rape and murder of two young boys Hamed Shiri and Karim Tajik in 2007. 

Mohammad and Reza were sentenced to death, 100 lashes and 8 years in prison for murder and rape, Siamak and Hassan were sentenced to 15 years in prison for complicity in murder and 100 lashes for sexual abuse, and Sadegh was acquitted by the court since he was ony a witness to the crimes. The sentences were approved by the Supreme court

Reza’s death sentence was later removed after paying the blood money, and he was instead sentenced to 10 years in prison, making his prison term 18 years all together.

Mohammad was hanged in the Marvdasht prison on July 10th 2010.

Iran has ratified the UN’s convention for rights of the child, that bans death penalty or life time in prison for offences committed at under 18 years of age. However, Iran is at the top of the list of the few countries executing minor offenders.

Source: Iran Human Rights, September 26, 2010

Budgeting Life and Death

San Quentin's brand new
execution chamber and gurney

We have no budget, no money for child care centers and college students, and no hope that these problems will be solved anytime soon. But take heart California, what we do have is a state-of-the-art death chamber. And soon we will have the best and brightest death row housing facility. Can anyone in Sacramento say “priorities”?

On September 22, “Day 83 Without a Budget,” the Governor revealed a brand new execution chamber. This was his latest leap into the budgetary black hole that is the death penalty.

While state employees have been furloughed, the inmates at San Quentin have been hard at work building the new facility to replace the rigged-up gas chamber they had been using. After a judge ruled it was too small and poorly lit to put people to death without risk of serious error, the new one boasts such improvements as a room with lights.

Its price-tag? A mere $853,000.

A few weeks earlier, back on “Day 41 Without a Budget,” the Governor “borrowed” $64 million from the state’s general fund, to be paid out of our still non-existent state budget. That money will be used to begin construction of the new death row housing facility, which in the end will cost $400 million to build. That breaks down to about a half a million dollars per cell. The facility is being designed to hold 1,400 inmates—twice the number of people currently on death row. That’s because the government knows that almost everyone sentenced to death in California will not actually die in the shiny new execution chamber. In fact, almost all will die of natural causes, just like they do now.

The Attorney General’s office claims we will use San Quentin’s brand new, well-lit execution facility next week, on “Day 91 Without a Budget,” to execute Albert Brown. But with three on-going legal challenges to the lethal injection procedures, legal experts doubt the execution will actually take place.

Mr. Brown has been on death row for 28 years. Based on averages of the costs of death penalty trials, state-level appeals, and housing in San Quentin, the ACLU estimates his case has cost California $4,788,750 over and above the cost that would have been incurred if Mr. Brown was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

Many people hear that and reason we could reduce the cost by decreasing the time spent on death row – after all, if he wasn’t on death row for 28 years, he couldn’t have racked up that $4 million dollar bill, right? Unfortunately not. In fact the reverse is true: speeding up the system would only cost more money. The California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice concluded we would need to pay at least $95 million more per year to speed up the death penalty and increase its efficiency. That finding was agreed upon unanimously, by death penalty advocates and opponents alike.

Why? Because the bottle-neck in death penalty cases isn’t too many appeals or sympathy for death row inmates, it’s the same thing that bottle-necks every other bureaucratic enterprise on earth: money. Currently, a person sentenced to death waits an average of five years before an attorney is even appointed for appeal and 10 years before the first appeal is actually heard in court. Faster appointments and hearings can only be accomplished by hiring more attorneys and court staff. In short, by spending more money.

While state employees prepare for an execution in between their furlough days, millions of dollars are sucked into California’s machinery of death. Every state program is facing drastic budget cuts, from education to health care to law enforcement, but we can still scrape together more than $800,000 for a state-of-the-art, well-lit killing chamber and remain on track to spend $1 billion on the death penalty in the next five years.

A safe and cost-effective alternative exists that can still salvage California from these absurd priorities. By cutting the death penalty and converting the sentences of more than 700 death row inmates to life without parole with work and restitution to the victims, we can save $1 billion in five years without releasing a single prisoner. Permanent imprisonment is swift and certain justice that keeps the public safe without sucking the budget dry.

By James Clark, California Progress Report, September 24, 2010. James Clark is the Death Penalty Field Organizer for the ACLU of Southern California.

Texas: Willingham Lawyers Ask for Exoneration Hearing in Travis County

Todd Willingham
with daughter

Lawyers for relatives of Cameron Todd Willingham, executed for the 1991 arson murder of his 3 young daughters in Corsicana, on Friday petitioned a judge in Travis County to hear evidence and determine whether Willingham was wrongly convicted.

The lawsuit was filed with state District Judge Charlie Baird, who last year issued the state's first posthumous DNA exoneration in a rape case originally tried in Lubbock. Any hearing in the Willingham case would be equally extraordinary. Baird is a trial judge who previously had nothing to do with the Cole or Willingham cases.

Willingham’s execution has caught national attention for the specter that Texas may have killed an innocent man. Several arson experts in recent years have rejected the science that the investigators who testified at Willingham’s trial used to determine that the fire that killed his daughters was intentionally set.

The Texas Forensic Science Commission began reviewing the Willingham case in 2006 but has not reached any conclusions. Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley, the chairman of that commission since last year, said that Baird does not have the legal authority to consider the Willingham case.

"I would say the political end for this one is to abolish the death penalty," Bradley said.

Baird agreed to hear the Lubbock case, centered on the wrongful conviction of Timothy Cole, under a provision of the Texas Constitution that states that "All courts shall be open, and every person for an injury done him in his … reputation shall have remedy by due course of law."

The Willingham lawsuit was filed in part under a similar legal claim. Also, the suit asks that Baird open a court of inquiry in the case to determine whether probable cause exists to charge unnamed Texas officials with official oppression. The suit claims that those officials committed that crime by failing to consider prior to Willingham’s execution the fact that he was convicted on discredited arson science.

"We are not looking or asking for anything other than a fair and impartial review of the facts and the law in this case,” said San Antonio lawyer Gerald Goldstein, who represents Willingham's relatives along with former Texas Governor Mark White and Barry Scheck, co-founder of the Innocence Project.

Baird said he would review the filing and if he deemed it worthy he would hold an evidentiary hearing next month.

Willingham was convicted of murder in 1992 in the deaths of his children —1-year-old twins Karmon and Kameron and 2-year-old Amber — who died of smoke inhalation after a fire at the family's house in Corsicana, about 55 miles northeast of Waco. He maintained his innocence until his 2004 execution.

Willingham's lawyers have claimed that local and state fire investigators relied on faulty scientific methods in concluding that the fire at Willingham's house had been intentionally set.

They say those claims were first presented to officials in the office of Texas Gov. Rick Perry in the days before Willingham's execution.

Since 2006, they have pursued their case with the Texas Forensic Science Commission, whose hired expert last year issued a report identifying numerous scientific shortcomings in the Willingham fire investigation.

At a meeting this month, members of the commission wrestled with the scope of their investigation into the case. Commission Chairman John Bradley, district attorney of Williamson County, had supported a draft report that said investigators of the Corsicana fire could not be held accountable for relying on arson indicators now known to be unreliable or misleading because they were following the best available practices of the time.

But some of the commission’s scientists said they wanted to look at other issues, including whether the state fire marshal's office, which investigates fires statewide, had a duty to reopen cases once it realizes that earlier investigative practices had been "debunked" by scientific advancements.

The commission has agreed to convene a panel of fire experts at a November meeting.

The Willingham family lawyers wrote in the petition they filed with Baird on Friday that they want a clear determination of whether Willingham was wrongfully convicted and whether there is probable cause to believe that Texas laws have been violated by state officials in handling his case.

The lawsuit is 62-pages long, was filed with hundreds of pages of exhibits and indicates that copies have been delivered to Perry’s office, the State Fire Marshal’s Office, the Navarro County District Attorney's office and the Office of the State Prosecuting Attorney, which represents the state in cases at the Court of Criminal Appeals.

It is unclear if officials in those offices would be made to participate in the inquiry or what a hearing in Baird's court on the Willingham case would otherwise look. They could not be immediately reached for comment.

Goldstein declined to say whether he planned to seek to subpoena any officials if Baird agrees to hold a hearing.

The February 2009 hearing on the Cole case lasted two days and included testimony from Michele Mallin, the woman who Cole was convicted of raping. Baird also heard testimony from Jerry Johnson, a prison inmate serving a life term who said he was the one who raped Mallin and who was implicated in a later DNA test.

In addition, Baird heard from an expert on potential bias in the commission of photographic lineups, which he later blamed in part for the wrongful conviction.

Lawyers for the Innocence Project of Texas questioned the witnesses. No one cross-examined them. The Innocence Project represented Cole and Mallin, who supported Cole's petition.

In the Willingham case, Corsicana officials stand by their investigation and conclusions and say they continue to believe he was guilty. Willingham's trial defense lawyer also has said he believes his former client was guilty.

If Baird holds a hearing in October, it would come before the Texas gubernatorial election pitting Perry, a Republican, against Democratic challenger Bill White. Election Day is Nov. 2.

Willingham was executed during Perry's tenure and Perry was accused of playing politics with the case last year when he replaced three members of the nine-member Texas Commission on Forensic Science, including the chairman, Austin defense lawyer Sam Bassett. The members, whose terms had expired, were replaced just days before the commission had been scheduled to hear the findings of the expert they had hired to evaluate the case. That presentation was postponed indefinitely.

Baird, who did not seek re-election to his 299th District Court bench, is a Democrat whose term expires at the end of the year.

Source: Austin American-Statesman, September 24, 2010

California: Judge clears way for first execution since 2006

San Quentin's new execution chamber
Interior of holding cell

A federal judge cleared the way Friday for California's 1st execution in nearly five years, citing the state's efforts to revise its lethal injection procedure and a Supreme Court ruling making it more difficult for condemned inmates to delay their death.

Barring successful appeals to other courts, convicted murderer and rapist Albert Greenwood Brown is scheduled to die on Wednesday, after U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel refused to block the execution.

Brown failed to show "a demonstrated risk of severe pain" as required by a 2008 U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding Kentucky's lethal injection process, the judge said in his ruling.

Brown's execution would be the 1st in the state since Fogel placed a de facto moratorium on capital punishment in California and ordered prison officials to overhaul the process in 2006.

The attorney general's office told Fogel this week the state has complied with his order by building a new death chamber at San Quentin State Prison, revising its training regimen and adopting new lethal injection regulations.

Fogel gave Brown the option of choosing a 1-drug injection of sodium thiopental instead of a 3-drug cocktail used by the state to put condemned inmates to death.

The judge said it appeared the 1-drug lethal injection was less risky than the 3-drug cocktail when it came to causing pain.

"The fact that 9 single-drug executions have been carried out in Ohio and Washington without any apparent difficulty is undisputed and significant," Fogel wrote.

Brown can still pursue at least two legal avenues to stop his execution. He can ask the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn Fogel's decision. His attorneys already plan to ask a Marin County Superior Court judge to halt the execution while a lawsuit challenging the new lethal injection regulations is pending.

"We have been given an awfully short time to make such a critical decision," said John Grele, one of Brown's attorneys.

Fogel ordered the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to overhaul its lethal injection process in response to a lawsuit filed by death row inmate Michael Morales, who came within 2 hours of a lethal injection in February 2006 before prison officials canceled his execution and conceded they couldn't immediately comply with the judge's orders.

Since then, the state spent more than $800,000 constructing a new death chamber at San Quentin prison and revised how its execution team is selected and trained.

Brown's lawyers argued that the judge should personally inspect the new death chamber and extensively review the new training procedures before allowing executions to resume. They also questioned how Brown came to be picked as the next inmate scheduled for execution when Morales was atop the list 5 years ago.

"It is highly unfair to single out Mr. Brown when all of these questions are still unresolved," Grele said.

Brown is among several death row inmates who have gone completely through their state and federal appeals. Lawyers with the attorney general's office said execution dates for at least four other inmates, including Morales, are expected to be scheduled soon.

Attorney general spokeswoman Christine Gasparac said her office notifies county prosecutors when a death row inmate has exhausted all of his appeals.

The office also informs county prosecutors of the prison department's schedule and available execution dates. From there, the district attorneys obtain an execution date from their local court, which is what happened in Albert Brown's case in Riverside County.

Brown was sentenced to death for the rape and murder of 15-year-old Susan Jordan several weeks after his release from prison, where he had served time for another rape.

Investigators said Brown called Jordan's mother several times on the day of her disappearance, taunting her with messages that she will never again see her daughter alive.

Source: Associated Press, September 25, 2010

With Conditions, Judge Clears Way for a California Execution

SAN FRANCISCO — A murderer and rapist has been cleared by a federal judge for execution in California next week in what would be the state’s first execution in more than four years. But the judge set specific conditions, including giving the condemned man the option of a single drug to be used in a lethal injection, an issue that has bogged down executions in the state before.

The condemned man, Albert Greenwood Brown Jr., was convicted in 1982 of raping and strangling a 15-year-old girl with a shoelace in an orange grove in Riverside, Calif. He is scheduled to be executed at San Quentin prison on Wednesday morning.

Bank of phones in
San Quentin's new execution chamber

This month, Mr. Brown sought to join a federal lawsuit filed in 2006 by Michael A. Morales, a murderer and rapist who argued that the state’s method of lethal injection, using three drugs, violated the constitutional prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment because of the pain inflicted on the condemned.

At the time, Judge Jeremy Fogel of United States District Court in San Jose ordered changes in the execution procedure and stipulated that Mr. Morales be put to death using a single barbiturate.

But the state balked, and Mr. Morales’ execution was stayed. And after a period of collecting evidence, the court also found deficiencies in the state’s execution process, including lack of training of the execution team, improper mixing of drugs, and poorly designed facilities. Judge Fogel asked the state to review and revise its protocols, which the state agreed to do, effectively halting executions while new regulations were developed.

In 2009, California’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation submitted new and detailed regulations on the lethal injection methods, outlining a three-drug protocol. The new regulations were later approved by the state’s Office of Administrative Law, which reviews all rules proposed by California state agencies. The state also built a new execution chamber at San Quentin.

But in his ruling Friday, Judge Fogel said that if Mr. Brown opted to use only one drug — sodium thiopental, a barbiturate — and the state refused, his execution would be stayed. If he opts for the three-drug protocol outlined in the new regulations, the order reads, the execution would proceed. The judge set a 6 p.m. Saturday deadline for Mr. Brown to make his decision.

George Kostyrko, a spokesman for the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, said that his agency was “operationally still proceeding” toward the planned execution, but that agency lawyers were still reading orders from Judge Fogel and consulting with the office of the state attorney general, Jerry Brown.

But in a brief filed before Judge Fogel on Wednesday, lawyers for the attorney general said that a single-drug execution would be possible by increasing the dosage of sodium thiopental to 5 grams, from the 3 grams used in the three-drug method.

John R. Grele, a lawyer for Albert Brown, said that he was mulling “appropriate response to the court’s order,” including an appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco. A state court in Marin County — where San Quentin is located — is also expected to hear a separate legal challenge to the new regulations on Monday.

California, whose last execution was in January 2006, has the nation’s largest backlog of condemned prisoners with some 700 inmates on death row.

Source: The New York Times, September 25, 2010