Arkansas Death Row Inmate Wants Brain Examined If Executed

An Arkansas death row inmate scheduled to be executed next week wants his head to be removed after his death and his brain to be examined by a doctor, his attorneys said.

Jack Greene's last will and testament includes a request that his head be "surgically removed from my body and transported out of state to an independent medical examiner, such as Dr. Jan Garavaglia," a former medical examiner in Florida who had a reality television show.

Garavaglia, reached by phone Friday, declined to comment on the request.

Greene, 62, is scheduled to be executed on Thursday. He was sentenced to death for the 1991 murder of retired pastor Sidney Burnett — who had accused him of arson — days after he killed his own brother.

Greene's attorneys say he suffers from severe mental illness and delusions. Greene claims in the will that the Arkansas Department of Corrections has caused him brain injuries and severe dementia, a connection he believes a medical examiner could prove.

"This is something he really insisted that he dictate to me and to write down," Greene's lawyer, John Williams, an assistant federal public defender, said in a phone interview Friday. "He wants to prove all the injuries that he believes have been committed against him."

An Arkansas circuit judge on Friday dismissed a lawsuit seeking to halt the execution. Williams said they have appealed to the state Supreme Court.

Greene tried to bring up the last will and testament in court Friday, but was silenced by a judge, Williams said. "I think it's important for people to understand what his mind is working like as he approaches his execution," Williams said.

It is unclear whether Greene's last will and testament could be fulfilled.

Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson says he had reviewed "all documents, transcripts, and comments from interested mental health professionals," but he said Greene’s testimony at his parole board made it clear to him that the death row inmate understood his punishment and his decision to kill Burnett.

"Numerous courts have reviewed the case and I am satisfied that the Supreme Court's standards have been met and that he is competent to be executed," Hutchinson said in a statement. "As normal, I will continue to review any additional relevant facts as November 9 approaches."

The governor's office said they had not had a chance to review Greene's will as of Friday evening. Hutchinson is traveling in China and Japan on a trade mission and will return on Nov. 7 — two days prior to Greene's scheduled execution date.

Two dozen Arkansas mental health professionals and the American Bar Association urged Hutchinson to "show mercy" because they believe Greene to be mentally ill.

"While the ABA does not take a position for or against the death penalty per se, nor is Mr. Greene's guilt in the tragic murder of Sidney Burnett in dispute, the ABA has significant concerns about whether the death penalty is the appropriate punishment in his case in light of his severe mental illness," Hilarie Bass, the president of the American Bar Association, wrote in a letter.

Arkansas put four death row inmates to death in April — its first executions in nearly a dozen years. It had originally scheduled eight before the end of the month because the state's supply of the lethal injection drug midazolam was set to expire. Four of those executions were blocked by the courts.

Greene’s execution was scheduled after prison officials obtained a new batch of midazolam, but on Thursday the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled that the state had to identify the drug’s manufacturer. But the court also ruled that the state was not required to identify sellers and suppliers.

Arkansas officials have argued that the identities of manufacturers, sellers and suppliers should be hidden by the secrecy statutes surrounding Arkansas’s execution laws. Otherwise, pharmaceutical companies would attempt to prevent the use of their drugs in executions, as two companies attempted during the April spate of executions.

"The Arkansas Supreme Court has correctly concluded that the lot, batch and control numbers on lethal injection drug labels should remain confidential under state law,” Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge’s office said in a statement. “While the Attorney General does not agree with other aspects of the Court’s ruling, she is pleased that the Court agreed with her arguments on this point."

Source: NBC NEWS, Phil McCausland, November 3, 2017

⚑ | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com.

Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE!

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

Comments

Florida executes Daniel Owen Conahan Jr.

In Florida’s 15th execution this year, man put to death for killing linked to ‘Hog Trail Murders’ A Florida man convicted in one of a series of suspected killings that became known as the “Hog Trail Murders” in the 1990s was put to death Thursday, becoming the state’s 15th person executed this year. Daniel Owen Conahan Jr., 72, was pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. after receiving a 3-drug lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke. He had been sentenced to die for the 1996 kidnapping and strangling of Richard Allen Montgomery, whose mutilated body was found in a wooded southwest Florida area where authorities found the remains of at least 6 people over a 3-year span.

Florida to execute William Thompson after nearly 48 years on death row

On Sept. 11, Gov. Ron DeSantis issued a death warrant for William Thompson, convicted of the 1976 kidnapping, rape, and murder of 23-year-old Sally Ivester. Thompson, now 74, and another man were staying in a Miami Beach hotel room with Ivester and another woman, according to court records. After Ivester was unable to get money from her mother, the men beat and tortured her, prosecutors said. She died from internal bleeding and multiple injuries. Thompson was convicted in 1978 of kidnapping, rape, and first-degree murder.

Singapore | Ministry of Home Affairs refutes claims that death penalty was discussed during visit by Israel's security ministry

The Ministry of Home Affairs says discussions with the Israeli government involved the sharing of best practices in emergency response, crime prevention, and forensics. Issues relating to the death penalty “were never part of the meeting and were not discussed." SINGAPORE: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Friday (Sep 11) refuted claims by an Israeli media outlet that the death penalty was discussed during a visit by an Israeli delegation in May. The Haaretz newspaper reported on Sep 7 that a delegation comprising representatives from the Israel Prison Service and National Security Ministry made a “secret visit” to Singapore that month.

Afghanistan | Signs that horrific brutality is set to return

Kneeling next to a ditch, deep in the rugged mountains of Afghanistan, a 22-year-old woman draws her last breath in a 'desert court' before she is shot in the back with an AK-47. Her executioner? Likely her hardline militant husband, in what the Taliban consider an 'honour killing'. It took less than an hour to decide Najiba had been adulterous – although it has been suggested this accusation was fabricated to protect her husband's reputation. Adultery is a crime that deserves capital punishment under the Taliban's strict interpretation of Sharia law. Fourteen years on from her death, little is known about her story, like many women slowly being erased from the fabric of Afghan society.

California | He spent 19 years on death row. His conversion to Judaism helped him endure

Johnny Morales struggled to find sleep. He dozed off for a few moments, but officers came to his death row cell and woke him a little after midnight. They needed to inventory and box up his belongings. He was leaving San Quentin. Hands cuffed behind his back, he walked across the empty upper yard in the dim gray hours before daylight. An officer walked alongside him step for step, black latex-gloved fingers holding onto Morales’s arm. For almost 20 years, Morales could only experience the world outside his 4-by-11 foot cell in the condemned housing unit like this—chained and escorted by officers. Security protocols required all death row residents be handcuffed or shackled any time they were out in open space with staff.

California | Becerra vows to extend moratorium despite past support for capital punishment

SACRAMENTO—Democrat Xavier Becerra defended the death penalty while serving as California’s attorney general, a punishment his office actively sought in the case of a gunman convicted of an Orange County mass shooting, but as the front-running candidate for governor, he has vowed to block executions if elected in November. Becerra said he will extend the blanket reprieve for all death row inmates that Gov. Gavin Newsom enacted by executive order in 2019, saying he supported “moving our state away from a costly, flawed system that disproportionately impacts Black and brown communities and too often gets it wrong.”

Iran | Afghan Citizen Executed in Wheelchair Due to Severe Mobility Disability

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – Iranian authorities have reportedly executed an Afghan citizen, identified as Valijan Nourzay, at the central prison in Rafsanjan, according to the human rights organization Hengaw. Hengaw said in a statement on Sunday, September 6, that Nourzay was executed early Wednesday last week at Rafsanjan Central Prison. According to the organization, Nourzay had a severe mobility disability and was executed while in a wheelchair. Hengaw, citing informed sources, reported that Nourzay had been pursued by Iranian authorities three years ago over an alleged murder. He was reportedly seriously wounded after Iranian security forces opened fire on him in Rafsanjan before being arrested and later sentenced to death.

Alabama | Lethal injection for double murderer set for Thursday after court blocked nitrogen hypoxia execution in June

Alabama plans to execute Jeffery Lee on Thursday via lethal injection after a down-to-the-wire decision by the federal courts halted his death by nitrogen hypoxia in June. In response, Gov. Kay Ivey set the 30-hour window for the execution to be carried out by lethal injection beginning at 12 a.m. on Thursday, September 17, and expiring at 6 a.m. on Friday, September 18. Barring any further court action, the execution will take place at Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore.

He Spent 27 Years on Death Row as a Wrongfully Convicted Man. What Comes Next?

23-hour solitary confinement. 115-degree heat. Jimmie Duncan is haunted by the decades he spent in Louisiana’s Angola Prison—and how, even after being released, he still isn’t truly free. Jimmie “Chris” Duncan wiped the sweat off his forehead as he assessed his temporary home from the parking lot of a rundown motel in central Louisiana. Sure, there’s drug dealing and prostitution, he said on a recent summer afternoon. And he suspected his neighbors were cooking meth on a floor below the room he paid $350 a week to rent.

Egypt TV presenter and 11 others sentenced to death in major drugs case

Egyptian television presenter Sarah Khalifa and 11 others have been sentenced to death by hanging after being convicted of drug trafficking and rape, while nine defendants received life sentences and seven were acquitted. Egyptian television presenter Sarah Khalifa, 39, has been sentenced to death by hanging along with 11 other defendants after being found guilty in a drugs case involving a criminal gang accused of importing ingredients used to manufacture narcotics for sale.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog