California: State opens bids for start of new death row project

State officials opened bids this week for the 1st construction phase of a $356 million death row complex at San Quentin State Prison, despite a Marin County lawsuit also filed this week seeking to block the project.

"We're moving forward with the process," said George Kostyrko, a spokesman for the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

The county's lawsuit filed Tuesday requests a temporary restraining order to prevent the state from "encumbering or expending any funds for the San Quentin Condemned Inmate Complex until this litigation is resolved."

Deputy County Counsel David Zaltsman said he had sent messages to the corrections department and the other defendants in the suit, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state Controller John Chiang, to see if they would voluntary agree to halt progress on the project until the suit is resolved. Zaltsman said he would seek a hearing to enforce a restraining order if he gets no cooperation by the end of the week.

The corrections department on Tuesday opened the nine bids it received ranging from $126 million to $145 million on the part of the project that involves demolition, site grading, utilities, housing units and towers. The low bid of $126 million was submitted by McCarthy Construction of St. Louis, Mo. A high bid of $145 million was submitted by Amoroso Construction of Redwood City.

The procedure calls for execution of a contract within 60 days of the bid opening. Kostyrko said all bids submitted were significantly lower than the department's $165 million estimate.

The county of Marin's lawsuit asserts that Schwarzenegger last year improperly used a line-item veto to ignore budget control language on conditions for financing the project.

Assemblyman Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, and Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, added the language that Schwarzenegger vetoed to one of the more than 30 bills that legislators approved in 2009 as part of a deal to erase the state's $26 billion deficit.

The language prohibited issuance of bonds until the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation determined it could lawfully double-cell condemned inmates; resolution of federal court litigation on prison overcrowding; and corrections department completion of environmental analyses for modifications to the project.

H.D. Palmer, an aide to Schwarzenegger, has said the governor had the power to veto the language because it was in a budget bill.

But in its suit, Marin County states, "Although no one disputes the Governor's authority to reduce a true item of appropriation, that authority does not extend to eliminating substantive restrictions or controls that the legislature places on appropriations."

The 541,000-square-foot complex would contain 768 cells with 1,152 beds.

Bids are scheduled to be opened Aug. 30, 2011, on the second phase of the construction project, which will consist of secure support buildings, a medical treatment center, non-secure buildings and the security and communications systems. A contract award for phase two is scheduled for Sept. 22, 2011.

The corrections department anticipates all construction will be finished by September 2013.

Also this week, the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation broke ground on a 1,722-bed inmate medical facility southeast of Stockton, slated to cost more than $900 million.

Source: Marin Independent Journal, November 11, 2010

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Florida | Jury recommends death sentence for Jeffrey Crum in killing of 12-year-old girl

BROOKSVILLE, Fla. — A Hernando County jury has recommended the death penalty for a 65-year-old man who was found guilty last week of raping and killing 12-year-old Jennifer Odom. Sentencing for Jeffrey Crum was held this week. Crum abducted Odom in 1993 after she stepped off her school bus in Pasco County. Her body was found in a Hernando County orange grove six days later.

Hanging of Osaka Arsonist is Japan’s First Execution Under Takaichi Government

As a majority of the international community has abolished capital punishment. Japan and the U.S. are the only two countries in the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations that put people to death. The execution of Takami Sunao—an arsonist whose 2009 attack in Osaka killed five—on August 21, 2026, was Japan’s first use of capital punishment in just over a year. Over a Decade from Sentencing to Execution Takami Sunao was executed on August 21, 2026 , for a 2009 arson attack at an Osaka pachinko parlor that killed five people. In July 2009, Takami poured gasoline on the floor of a pachinko parlor in Osaka and set it alight, killing 5 customers and staff members and injuring 10 more. While the defense argued that he was in a state of diminished capacity, the Supreme Court finalized his death sentence in February 2016. The execution took place 17 years after the initial crime and 10 and a half years after the death sentence was finalized.

Cartoons about Capital Punishment

More cartoons about capital punishment HERE

Spared execution eight times, oldest inmate in US dies at 101 after 76 years behind bars

Francis Clifford Smith was given his last meal eight times. But after being spared execution each time, he went on to be regarded as the longest-serving prisoner in the US before dying in June at 101 years old. Convicted of murder in 1950 when he was 25, he always maintained his innocence, those who knew him told the BBC. Andrius Banevicius, the public information officer for Connecticut's Department of Correction, recounted how Smith used to feed the birds while in Osborn Prison, earning him the nickname The Birdman of Osborn.

Israel builds execution chamber for Palestinians convicted of murder

In March, the Knesset approved legislation that calls for the execution of Palestinians convicted by a military court of killing Israelis Israeli authorities are preparing a prison wing—replete with an execution chamber—designated specifically for Palestinian prisoners convicted of murder, Israel’s i24NEWS channel reported Tuesday. The move comes after the Knesset (Israel’s parliament) approved legislation in March that calls for the execution of Palestinian prisoners convicted by a military court of murdering Israelis.

Japan executes man convicted of killing five in 2009 Osaka pachinko parlor arson

Japan on Friday announced the execution of a man convicted of killing five people after setting fire to an Osaka pachinko parlor in 2009, the first execution by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi 's government as the country faces growing calls for more transparency and the abolition of capital punishment. The Justice Ministry said Sunao Takami, 58, was hanged to death earlier Friday. Takami in 2009 set fire to the crowded pachinko parlor in Osaka by spreading gasoline and throwing a lit match, engulfing the building, killing five and injuring 10 others, Justice Minister Hiroshi Hiraguchi said.

Florida executes William Frances Silvia

Florida executed its 13th death row prisoner of the year Tuesday evening amid the state’s aggressive use of the death penalty championed by Governor Ron DeSantis. William Frances Silvia, 61, who was convicted of fatally shooting his estranged wife and injuring his mother-in-law in 2006, was pronounced dead at 6:11 p.m. after receiving the lethal three-drug injection at Florida State Prison. At 6 p.m. Tuesday, Silvia was already strapped to a gurney with an IV in his arm when the curtain to the death chamber went up. He remained relatively motionless with his eyes and mouth open throughout most of the execution while a priest sat at his feet and prayed.

Oklahoma executes Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez

Oklahoma has carried out 1 of 3 executions set for the same day in the United States in another sign of the resurgence of the death penalty in the country. Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez was pronounced dead at 10:13 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 13, at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. He was put to death by lethal injection for the murder of his common-law wife in 2003 at their Oklahoma City home. He admitted to police he shot her twice during an argument. Cuesta-Rodriguez, 70, did not fight for his life, stunning his attorneys in July when he told the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board that he didn't want clemency. "It's time for me to pay for what I did," he said.

Alabama is trying a death penalty bait-and-switch

For a decade, Alabama death row inmate Jeffrey Lee has been clear that he does not want to be executed by lethal injection . But that is what awaits him on September 17 . He faces that prospect because the state has been enjoined from using nitrogen hypoxia , the alternative execution method he preferred, to put him to death. Having failed to show that its nitrogen hypoxia protocol is constitutionally acceptable, Alabama wants a do-over to force Lee to die by lethal injection as a result of its own failure. It should not get one. Alabama should only be able to put Lee to death if it can fix nitrogen hypoxia’s constitutional defects.

Texas | A Dangerous Man. At 18, Billy Joe Wardlow took a man’s life. Nearly 30 years later, the state still wants his.

Like any place humans gather, death row has a culture. Billy Wardlow says it's different in many ways from general population. One is in how new inmates are treated. "In [general population], the guys around you would try to find some way to exploit you," Wardlow said. "Death row, with a few exceptions, will often extend a hand of friendship to the 'new boot' so they can get on their feet ... Most of us get together and let each other know what we can send to the new guy." One of the cherished myths of those who support the death penalty is that it is reserved for the “worst of the worst,” those beyond redemption. Wardlow typically sends writing materials, food, clothes, and hygiene products. Recently, after receiving some of these items, a new inmate asked Wardlow what he owed him. "I told him to remember how guys helped him when he saw someone else new," Wardlow said. "Pay it forward, as the saying goes." Sending gift...

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