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U.S. | 'I comfort death row inmates in their final moments - the execution room is like a house of horrors'

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Reverend Jeff Hood, 40, wants to help condemned inmates 'feel human again' and vows to continue his efforts to befriend murderers in spite of death threats against his family A reverend who has made it his mission to comfort death row inmates in their final days has revealed the '"moral torture" his endeavor entails. Reverend Dr. Jeff Hood, 40, lives with his wife and five children in Little Rock, Arkansas. But away from his normal home life, he can suddenly find himself holding the shoulder of a murderer inside an execution chamber, moments away from the end of their life. 

Pennsylvania Court Allows Forced Medication of Mentally Incompetent Death Row Inmates, Moving Them Closer to Execution

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The Pennsylvania Supreme Court recently ruled that the state can force two death row inmates to take anti-psychotic medication so they are mentally competent enough to proceed with their appeals and be executed. The two inmates were sentenced to death but were found incompetent to participate in the appeals filed on their behalf. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that mentally incompetent inmates may not be executed. The Pennsylvania court overturned lower court decisions and directed them “to order that appellee be administered, involuntarily if necessary, anti-psychotic medication to render him competent.”

Justice Max Baer dissented, saying, “[T]he governmental interest in carrying out the sentences of death fails to outweigh the violation of [defendants'] Sam’s and Watson’s liberty interests in not having psychiatric medication forced upon them.” In response to the opinion that the forced medication was in the defendants’ best interests so appeals could proceed, he argued that each defendant, “has as much of an interest in avoiding an unwanted and forced drugging as he has in pursuing collateral relief.”

(E. Lounsberry, “Pa. High court Oks forced drugging of mentally ill death row inmates,” Philadelphia Examiner, July 22, 2008).

Source: Death Penalty Information Center
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