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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.

Florida executes Jose Jimenez

Jose Jimenez
Florida executes Miami murderer Jose Jimenez after last-ditch appeal denied by U.S. Supreme Court

A man convicted of fatally beating and stabbing a South Florida woman 26 years ago during a burglary has been executed.

Authorities say 55-year-old Jose Antonio Jimenez was pronounced dead at 9:48 p.m. Thursday after a lethal injection at Florida State Prison in Starke.

Jimenez was convicted of the October 1992 killing of 63-year-old Phyllis Minas in her North Miami apartment.

Authorities say Jimenez was burglarizing Minas' apartment when she came home and surprised him. Investigators said Minas, a longtime employee of the Miami-Dade Court Clerk's office, was stabbed 8 times.

Authorities say Jimenez is the 28th inmate executed in Florida since Gov. Rick Scott took office in 2011. That's the most of any Florida governor since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.

Jimenez also was convicted of a prior burglary and 2nd-degree murder in the 1990 death of another woman in Miami Beach.

Over the years, the inmate has filed various appeals. In an appeal filed with the U.S. Supreme Court this week, Jimenez and his attorneys said detectives who investigated the case gave "false or, at best, misleading testimony," and that several key police reports were lost.

Florida State Prison in Starke
Additionally, his attorneys asked the court to stay the execution and consider whether Florida's lethal injection protocol constitutes cruel and unusual punishment that violates the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The lawyers point to the February execution of Eric Branch using the same drugs in which experts later concluded he felt significant pain, including screaming out the word "murderers!" several times as he thrashed about on the gurney.

Gov. Rick Scott signed the death warrant for Jimenez last summer and scheduled the execution for August. The Supreme Court stayed that, but lifted the stay in October.

Jimenez becomes the 2nd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Florida and the 97th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1979.

Only Texas (558), Virginia (113), and Oklahoma (112) have executed more inmated than Florida since the death penalty was re-legalized in the USA on July 2, 1976.

Jimenez becomes the 25th and final condemned person to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1,490th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977. There were 23 executions carried out in the USA in 2017.

Source: Orlando Sentinel & Rick Halperin, December 13, 2018


Death-row prisoner’s odd last meal request before lethal injection


Florida's death chamber
Jose Antonio Jimenez ate a Cuban sandwich, eggs, French fries and ice cream before his lethal injection on Thursday night.

The classic pork and cheese sandwich originated in cafes catering to workers in Florida’s early immigrant communities and was later brought to Miami.

Jimenez, 55, was described by prison officials as calm and in good spirits hours before he was scheduled to be put to death.

He was visited on Thursday by a spiritual adviser before his execution at 6pm for the fatal beating and stabbing of Phyllis Minas, 63, in her North Miami apartment in 1992.

Jimenez was pronounced dead at 9.48pm at Florida State Prison in Starke. His execution took about 15 minutes and he had no last words. As the three-drug protocol* was performed, Jimenez appeared to take numerous rapid, deep breaths and occasionally moved his head.

The US Supreme Court rejected his last-minute appeal earlier in the day.

Ms Minas’s nephew, Alan Pattee, said in a written statement that his family believed justice had been done.

“Mr Jimenez has shown no remorse or repentance for his crime. My aunt was innocent and loving, and a faithful sister to my father,” the statement said. “His execution will allow closure to a painful memory of the vicious murder Mr Jimenez was responsible for.”

Court records show that on October 2, 1992, Ms Minas found Jimenez in her second-floor apartment.

During his trial, neighbours said they heard her screaming and tried to enter, but someone inside had locked the door.

Prosecutors at the trial said a fingerprint found on the inside of the door matched Jimenez’s print and the building manager said he saw the man jump from a balcony of the apartment.

The defence argued that Jimenez didn’t stab or kill Ms Minas, and that all of the evidence against him was circumstantial.

Authorities said Jimenez was a cocaine addict who was burgling Ms Minas’s apartment when she came home and surprised him. Investigators said Ms Minas, a longtime employee of the Miami-Dade Court Clerk’s office, was stabbed eight times.

After a weeklong trial, Jimenez was found guilty and he was later sentenced to death.

He was also convicted of a prior burglary and second-degree murder in the 1990 death of another woman in Miami Beach.

Over the years, he filed various appeals but they were denied and Florida Governor Rick Scott signed Jimenez’s death warrant in July, scheduling the execution for August.

The Florida Supreme Court issued a stay to consider a number of Jimenez’s claims, including that he was denied access to public records, that the state’s lethal injection protocol is cruel and unusual punishment and that it was cruel for him to be executed after 23 years on death row.

They pointed to the February execution of Eric Branch using the same drugs, in which experts later concluded he felt significant pain, after he screamed “murderers!” several times as he thrashed about on the gurney.

His lawyers filed a motion asking the court to consider whether it violated the Eighth Amendment to the US Constitution. In October, the court denied all those claims and lifted the stay.

Jimenez and his lawyers this week told the US Supreme Court detectives who investigated the case gave “false or, at best, misleading testimony.” They said several key police reports had been lost.

Judges denied his request for a stay of execution on Thursday night.

* Eight states have used a single-drug method for executions--a lethal dose of an anesthetic (Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Missouri, Ohio, South Dakota, Texas, and Washington). Six other states have at one point or another announced plans to use a one-drug protocol, but have not carried out such an execution (Arkansas, California, Kentucky, Louisiana, North Carolina, and Tennessee).

Source: The Associated Press, December 14, 2018


Florida executes Jose Antonio Jimenez, who brutally murdered Miami court clerk in 1992


Florida's death chamber
Florida executed Miami’s Jose Antonio Jimenez by lethal injection on Thursday night, 26 years after he viciously stabbed a woman to death during a burglary.

Jimenez was pronounced dead at 9:48 p.m. The execution, originally set for 6 p.m., was delayed by a last-minute request to the U.S. Supreme Court to stay the execution. The court declined.

The 55-year-old condemned killer declined to make any last statements. The nephew of victim Phyliss Minas watched from the front row of a viewing area, separated from Jimenez by a large, thick glass window.

“Mr. Jimenez has shown no remorse or repentance for his crime,” nephew Alan Partee said in a written statement released by the Florida Department of Corrections after the execution. “His execution will allow closure to a painful memory of the vicious murder ... My family hopes he has made peace with himself and to whatever power he may or may not believe in. We pray for his soul and feel justice has been rightfully served.”

Jimenez was convicted of the 1992 murder of 63-year-old Minas, a clerk at the Miami-Dade criminal courthouse who was home alone when he broke in. He stabbed her 8 times, including 2 fatal thrusts to the heart.

At his 1994 trial, a neighbor testified he saw Jimenez, who lived in the building, climbing down from Minas’ apartment. His fingerprint was also found on the interior of her front door.

His defense attorneys have long insisted that Jimenez was not the killer, and the circumstantial case did not prove he was to blame. A jury, nevertheless, voted 12-0 to sentence him to death.

Jimenez was the 5th killer executed since Florida changed how it administers lethal injections, a process that critics say may be cruel and unusual punishment. In 2017, the state added a drug called etomidate — intended to induce unconsciousness — to the lethal cocktail administered to inmates during execution.

In arguing against the drug, Jimenez’s lawyers cited the last execution of a Florida inmate: Eric Branch, who was put to death in February for the 1993 murder of a college student. According to defense lawyers, Branch screamed and his head, body and legs shook as the drug was administered.

The Florida Supreme Court, however, rejected the claim, saying it had already “fully considered and approved” the current method of execution.

Gov. Rick Scott originally scheduled Jimenez’s execution for July 18, but the Florida Supreme Court issued a stay as his defense lawyers claimed that North Miami hadn’t turned over key police records. The high court rejected the appeal in October, paving the way for Thursday’s execution.

Jimenez, a former house painter with a history of crack-cocaine addiction, was also convicted of the 1990 murder of a woman on Miami Beach. He was sentenced to 17 years in prison for that killing.

Jimenez woke up Thursday about 7:30 a.m., and later met with a Catholic spiritual adviser. “His mood was calm. His mood was in good spirits,” Florida corrections spokeswoman Michelle Glady said at an afternoon press briefing.

After the three-hour-plus delay, media witnesses were ushered in to the viewing chamber just past 9 p.m. The seats were filled with prison authorities. When the curtain was raised, Jimenez was already strapped into a gurney, tubes protruding from his left arm.

When he declined to speak, the lethal injection began at 9:33 p.m. Jimenez shifted his head around a bit, then began to draw deeper and deeper breaths, his chest heaving up and down underneath a white sheet. His lips seemed to quiver, his eyes blinked.

By 9:37 p.m., his breaths seemed to have slowed. A prison official shook his shoulders, with no response. One minute later, he took another deep breath, his final visible one. The color seeped out of his face over the next few minutes.

At 9:47 p.m., a bearded doctor in a white coat entered the room. He used a small light to check Jimenez’s eyes, and a stethoscope to listen for a heartbeat. One minute later, he was pronounced dead.

“The execution took place without incident,” said Glady, the spokeswoman.

Jimenez becomes the 2nd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Florida and the 97th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1979.

Only Texas (558), Virginia (113), and Oklahoma (112) have executed more inmated than Florida since the death penalty was re-legalized in the USA on July 2, 1976.

Jimenez becomes the 25th and final condemned person to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1,490th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977. There were 23 executions carried out in the USA in 2017.

Source: Miami Herald, December 13, 2018


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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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