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California | San Quentin begins prison reform - but not for those on death row

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California is transferring everyone on death row at San Quentin prison to other places, as it tries to reinvent the state's most notorious facility as a rehabilitation centre. Many in this group will now have new freedoms. But they are also asking why they've been excluded from the reform - and whether they'll be safe in new prisons. Keith Doolin still remembers the day in 2019 when workers came to dismantle one of the United States' most infamous death chambers.

Execution stayed for Alabama man convicted of killing cop

Alabama death row
A federal court granted a stay of execution for Alabama death row inmate Torrey Twane McNabb, who was scheduled to die by lethal injection on Thursday.

The order was issued on Monday by Chief U.S. District Judge W. Keith Watkins of the Middle District of Alabama Northern Division.

The state has appealed the stay.

The execution was scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday at the Hollman Correctional Facility in Atmore.

McNabb has spent the last 18 years on death row, after being convicted of fatally shooting Montgomery police officer Anderson Gordon in September 1997. 

McNabb was convicted on two capital murder counts-- one for killing Gordon while he was on duty, and one for killing him as Gordon sat in his patrol car. 

McNabb also was found guilty of two additional counts of attempted murder.

McNabb's attorney John Anthony Palombi, an assistant federal defender, filed an emergency motion for stay of execution on Oct. 11. 

The defense claims the "challenged method of execution presents a substantial risk of serious harm" and that there's an alternative that can reduce the risk of severe pain. 

A federal court of appeals stayed the execution of Jeffery Lynn Borden on Oct. 2 on similar grounds. 

"Borden, in almost identical circumstances, received a stay of execution," Monday's order stated. 

"Defendants did not appeal, admittedly in part because of the late litigation hour. The court, in equity and good conscience, cannot treat McNabb differently than Borden when the stakes are this high. There is no evidentiary justification for disparate treatment of McNabb."

Source: al.com, Erin Edgemon, October 16, 2017


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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde

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