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After acquittal of ex-death row inmate, debate needed on Japan's death penalty

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Japan should be ensuring the safety of its citizens, but instead it is taking people's lives. Is it acceptable to maintain the ultimate penalty under such circumstances? This is a serious question for society. The acquittal of 88-year-old Iwao Hakamada, who had been handed the death penalty, has been finalized after prosecutors decided not to appeal the verdict issued by the Shizuoka District Court during his retrial.

Indiana turning to new lethal injection drug for executions

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Indiana Death Chamber
from witness room
The next time Indiana conducts an execution at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, a new drug will be part of its lethal injection protocol.

The nationwide shortage of thiopental sodium, known by its trademark name Pentathol, forced states that conducted executions by lethal injection to search for other alternatives.

Indiana Department of Correction spokesman Douglas S. Garrison said the state will use Brevital, a barbiturate anesthetic in the same class as thiopental sodium. Garrison said Indiana has a sufficient supply of drugs to carry out an execution.

The three-drug protocol Indiana uses starts with Brevital, followed by pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride.

There are 13 inmates on the state’s death row in Michigan City, but none has a set execution date.

Michael Overstreet, convicted in the 1997 strangulation of Kelly Eckart, 18, a Franklin College student, is next in line, Garrison said.

“It could be this year,” he said.

Overstreet’s appeals are nearly exhausted, and a ruling is expected soon on his latest challenge that he’s mentally incompetent.

Click here to read the full article

Source: Post-Tribune, Carole Carlson, May 18, 2014
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