Former Texas death-row prisoner Clinton Young has been released from custody nearly twenty years after being sentenced to death for a double murder he has consistently said he did not commit. Young walked out of the Midland County Detention Center January 21, 2022, after the foundation posted bond to secure his freedom while prosecutors from neighboring Dawson County decide whether to retry Young on the charges. The foundation crowdfunded contributions to cover 15% of the $150,000 cash bail to gain Young’s release. RELATED | Texas | Former death row inmate Clinton Young released on bond The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) granted Young a new trial in September 2021 following revelations that his prosecutor from the Midland County District Attorney’s office had also secretly served as a paid clerk to county judges who presided over Young’s trial and post-conviction appeals. In a video posted on the foundation’s Facebook page, Young removed his left sneaker and sock and stepped
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➤ Clemency
2019. USA. Director: Chinonye Chukwu. Writer: Chinonye Chukwu. Cast: Alfre Woodard, Richard Schiff, Aldis Hodge. Running time: 1h52
Synopsis: Bernadine Williams, a Death Row prison warden whose job has taken a psychological toll on her, must confront her demons when she has to execute another inmate. (Imdb)
"There’s little room to breathe in writer-director Chinonye Chukwu’s constricting, devastating drama Clemency, an intentionally airless film processing a tough subject through an unusual viewpoint. It was the deserved big winner at Sundance this year, making Chukwu the first black woman to win the Grand Jury prize. Our protagonist is prison warden Bernadine (Alfre Woodard), first seen as she prepares for an execution, methodically going through her mental checklist with calm professionalism while keeping emotions at bay. It might be her 12th but experience only seems to make the process that much harder, a growing awareness that the system she’s a part of might not be something she truly believes in. Any back-burner doubt she might have had soon turns into something far less avoidable after she bears witness to a horrifyingly botched lethal injection. Bernadine is sent into an inner tailspin as she confronts her guilt while also prepping for the next execution, this time for an inmate who insists he’s innocent." (The Guardian, Benjamin Lee)
➤ The Current War
2017. USA. Director: Alfonso Gomez-Rejon. Writer: Michael Mitnick. Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Oliver Powell, Katherine Waterston. Running time: 1h42
Synopsis: The dramatic story of the cutthroat race between electricity titans Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse to determine whose electrical system would power the modern world.
This race incidentally led to the invention and the use of the electric chair as a "humane" way to execute death-row inmates. The first execution took about eight minutes. George Westinghouse later commented that, "They would have done better using an axe."
As Edison expanded his direct current (DC) power delivery system, he received stiff competition from companies installing alternating current (AC) systems. From the early 1880s, AC arc lighting systems for streets and large spaces had been an expanding business in the US. With the development of transformers in Europe and by Westinghouse Electric in the US in 1885–1886, it became possible to transmit AC long distances over thinner and cheaper wires, and "step down" the voltage at the destination for distribution to users. This allowed AC to be used in street lighting and in lighting for small business and domestic customers, the market Edison's patented low voltage DC incandescent lamp system was designed to supply. Edison's DC empire suffered from one of its chief drawbacks. Edison's DC plants could not deliver electricity to customers more than one mile from the plant, and left a patchwork of unsupplied customers between plants. Small cities and rural areas could not afford an Edison style system at all, leaving a large part of the market without electrical service.
AC companies expanded into this gap. Edison expressed views that AC was unworkable and the high voltages used were dangerous. As George Westinghouse installed his first AC systems in 1886, Thomas Edison struck out personally against his chief rival stating, "Just as certain as death, Westinghouse will kill a customer within six months after he puts in a system of any size."
Edison took advantage of the public perception of AC as dangerous, and joined with self-styled New York anti-AC crusader Harold P. Brown in a propaganda campaign, aiding Brown in the public electrocution of animals with AC, and supported legislation to control and severely limit AC installations and voltages (to the point of making it an ineffective power delivery system) in what was now being referred to as a "battle of currents".
The development of the electric chair was used in an attempt to portray AC as having a greater lethal potential than DC and smear Westinghouse at the same time via Edison colluding with Brown and Westinghouse's chief AC rival, the Thomson-Houston Electric Company, to make sure the first electric chair was powered by a Westinghouse AC generator.
The first person in line to die under New York's new electrocution law was William Kemmler, convicted of murdering his wife with a hatchet. Kemmler was executed in New York's Auburn Prison on August 6, 1890; the "state electrician" was Edwin F. Davis. The first 17-second passage of 1,000 volts AC of current through Kemmler caused unconsciousness, but failed to stop his heart and breathing. The attending physicians, Edward Charles Spitzka and Carlos F. MacDonald, came forward to examine Kemmler. After confirming Kemmler was still alive, Spitzka reportedly called out, "Have the current turned on again, quick, no delay." The generator needed time to re-charge, however. In the second attempt, Kemmler received a 2,000 volt AC shock. Blood vessels under the skin ruptured and bled, and the areas around the electrodes singed. The entire execution took about eight minutes. George Westinghouse later commented that, "They would have done better using an axe", and a witnessing reporter claimed that it was "an awful spectacle, far worse than hanging". (Wikipedia)
➤ Just Mercy
2019. USA. Director: Destin Daniel Cretton. Writer: Destin Daniel Cretton, Andrew Lanham. Cast: Jamie Foxx, Charlie Pye Jr., Michael Harding. Running time: 2h17
Synopsis: "Just Mercy" tells the true story of Walter McMillian, who, with the help of young defense attorney Bryan Stevenson, appealed his murder conviction. The film is based on the memoir of the same name, written by Stevenson.
In 1989, idealistic young Harvard law graduate Bryan Stevenson travels to Alabama hoping to help fight for poor people who cannot afford proper legal representation. He meets with Eva Ansley and founds the Equal Justice Initiative, then travels to a prison to meet its death row inmates. He meets Walter "Johnny D." McMillian, an African-American man who was convicted of the 1986 murder of Ronda Morrison, a white woman.
Stevenson looks over the evidence in the case and discovers it hinges entirely on the testimony of convicted felon Ralph Myers, who provided highly self-contradictory testimony in exchange for a lighter sentence in his own pending trial.
Stevenson approaches Myers, who eventually admits that his testimony was coerced after police played to his fear of being burned and threatened to have him executed by electric chair. Stevenson appeals to the local court to grant McMillan a retrial and successfully convinces Myers to recant his testimony on the stand, but the judge nevertheless refuses to grant a retrial. Distraught, Stevenson vents his frustrations about the case to Ansley. He appears on 60 Minutes to rally public support in favor of McMillan, then appeals to the Supreme Court of Alabama. The Supreme Court overturns the circuit court's decision, and grants McMillan his retrial. (Wikipedia)
Former death row inmate Clinton Lee Young has been released on bond, after almost 20 years on death row. Young was released Thursday on a $150,000 bond after being transported in early November back to Midland County to await his new trial. The Clinton Young Foundation posted a video on its Facebook page with the caption "It’s not a win until my feet touch grass. After 20 years on death row, Clinton was finally released on bond today." The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Sept. 22 tossed a capital murder conviction and granted a new trial for Young, the death row inmate who was convicted by a Midland County jury in 2003, according to a previous Reporter-Telegram article. Young was sentenced to death for killing Doyle Douglas, 41, and Samuel Petrey, 52, for the use of their vehicles during a 48-hour crime spree. Petrey was kidnapped in his hometown of Eastland and killed in an oilfield near Midland. The appeals court overturned Young’s conviction because of a revelation th
The State of Alabama believes it will finalize its protocol for executing death row inmates by nitrogen suffocation “within months.” In a federal court hearing held Friday afternoon, Richard Anderson, a lawyer representing the state attorney general’s office, said that while the state could not provide a “date certain,” officials believe an execution protocol using nitrogen suffocation will be completed “within months.” “It may be as late as the end of April or the beginning of May,” Anderson told a panel of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. An execution using the method, which involves replacing oxygen needed to breathe with nitrogen gas, has never been carried out in the United States. The use of nitrogen suffocation was approved by the Alabama Legislature in 2018, with those on death row able to “opt into” an execution using the method. Oklahoma and Mississippi are the only other states to allow the practice. The revelation regarding the timing of nitrogen suffocation execution
The Kansas Supreme Court on Friday affirmed the death sentences of Reginald and Jonathan Carr, brothers from Wichita who were sentenced for a series of crimes in December 2000. The Carr brothers murdered 5 people and robbed and kidnapped another in a series of 3 crimes, culminating in a quadruple murder of 4 people in east Wichita. One person who was shot in that incident survived. Each brother was found guilty of multiple offenses, including multiple counts of capital murder. After a separate sentencing proceeding, the jury sentenced the brothers to death. The Carr brothers appealed to the Kansas Supreme Court, which issued its opinion affirming one capital murder conviction for each brother, among other lesser convictions. The Court, however, vacated the death sentence in each case, concluding that the Carrs’ Eighth Amendment rights to individualized sentencing were violated in Sedgwick County District Court. The State sought and was granted a writ of certiorari by the United State
OKLAHOMA CITY — A federal appeals court rejected a request from two Oklahoma death row inmates to temporarily halt their upcoming lethal injections. A three-judge panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver denied the inmates’ motion in a ruling on Monday. The decision paves the way for the state to carry out the executions of Donald Grant, 46, on Thursday and Gilbert Postelle, 35, on Feb. 17. The two have argued that the state’s current three-drug lethal injection protocol that uses midazolam as the first drug will expose them to a constitutionally unacceptable risk of severe pain. But after a daylong hearing on that issue earlier this month, a federal judge in Oklahoma City determined the inmates were unlikely to succeed on the merits of their case and denied their request for a temporary stay of execution. The judge also determined that Grant and Postelle selected an alternative method of execution, firing squad, too late to be included in a separate lawsuit challeng
Singapore, Jan 24 (PTI) -- Indian-origin drug trafficker Nagaenthran K Dharmalingam’s appeal against his execution sentence, which was scheduled to be heard on Monday, has been adjourned indefinitely , according to a media report. Nagaenthran’s new lawyer Violet Netto had applied for the adjournment, The Straits Times newspaper reported on Monday. Nagaenthran, 33, of Indian-origin and Malaysian citizenship, is appealing against a High Court decision denying him permission to start judicial review proceedings to challenge the death sentence. No new hearing date has been fixed, according to The Straits Times report. The hearing was slated to be heard by a five-judge panel comprising Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon and Justices Andrew Phang, Judith Prakash, Belinda Ang and Chao Hick Tin. Nagaenthran has also asked the court to exercise its power to have him assessed by psychiatrists for mental fitness. Nagaenthran was arrested in 2009 with heroin strapped to his thigh. He was convicted of
Melissa Lucio , whose execution could take place this year, claims her innocence. In 2007, paramedics arrived at a tiny apartment that Melissa Lucio shared with her live-in partner, Robert, and nine of her 14 children in the Rio Grande Valley. They found two-year-old Mariah sprawled on her back in the middle of the floor. The girl wasn’t breathing. The family was in the process of changing apartments, and Lucio said Mariah, her youngest, had gotten hurt after she fell down a set of rickety stairs. Mariah was declared dead on arrival at a Harlingen hospital, where a physician found she had an untreated broken arm, bruises, and signs of a serious head injury. The Texas Rangers—the investigative arm of the Texas Department of Public Safety—launched a homicide probe that same night. They focused on the parents. After their probe ended, Mariah’s father, Robert Alvarez, who claimed ignorance of the girl’s injuries, was sentenced to four years for reckless injury to a child for failing to se
Former Texas death-row prisoner Clinton Young has been released from custody nearly twenty years after being sentenced to death for a double murder he has consistently said he did not commit. Young walked out of the Midland County Detention Center January 21, 2022, after the foundation posted bond to secure his freedom while prosecutors from neighboring Dawson County decide whether to retry Young on the charges. The foundation crowdfunded contributions to cover 15% of the $150,000 cash bail to gain Young’s release. RELATED | Texas | Former death row inmate Clinton Young released on bond The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) granted Young a new trial in September 2021 following revelations that his prosecutor from the Midland County District Attorney’s office had also secretly served as a paid clerk to county judges who presided over Young’s trial and post-conviction appeals. In a video posted on the foundation’s Facebook page, Young removed his left sneaker and sock and stepped
A man who blocked a motor vehicle using his motorcycle and robbed the occupants of mobile phones, cash and personal effects in Nairobi has been sentenced to hang. Michael Odhiambo was handed the death penalty by senior principal magistrate Philip Mutua of Kibera law courts after he was convicted for three counts of robbery with violence contrary to section 295 as read with section 296 (2) of the penal code. The convict had sought a lenient sentence claiming he is a family man with dependants but Mutua said the law provides for only one penalty – death sentence for the offence. Odhiambo had robbed Peter Kenyatta of Sh5000 and a mobile phone worth Sh14,000 on December 30, 2015. He also robbed John Karani and Peter Gichuhi of different amounts of money and mobile phones. He blocked their car claiming they had knocked down a bodaboda rider in a hit-and-run accident before terrorizing them while robbing them in broad daylight. He was joined by others including Stanley Amos Misiko who was ch
The man who murdered Masaharu Harada’s younger brother was executed years ago, yet it left a void in the older sibling’s life. “The issue (of capital punishment) is merely someone else’s problem for those who have no connection to such terrible crimes,” Harada says. “No one helps us, and my younger brother will never return. I was only filled with a sense of emptiness after the execution was carried out.” Since then, Harada, 74, has pushed relentlessly for the abolition of capital punishment in Japan. He also campaigns for “dialogue” between victims and inmates on death row in the belief it is the only way to trigger public debate on the pros and cons of capital punishment. Harada, a resident of Oita Prefecture, decried the latest round of hangings in Japan carried out on Dec. 21. The executions of the three men were the first under the Kishida administration and also the 1st in Japan in 2 years. RELATED | Japan hangs 3 death-row inmates; 1st executions in 2 years Death penalty advoca
“It is inhumane, and by its design it is driving men insane. Solitary confinement makes the criminal justice system the criminal.” These words were testimony presented to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing on solitary confinement June 19, 2012, by death row exoneree #138, Anthony C. Graves. (tinyurl.com/5cs4s59y) Graves spent 18.5 years wrongfully incarcerated in Texas, most of them on death row. Like all those on death row in Texas, Graves was housed in solitary confinement. “Death-sentenced prisoners in 12 states are automatically placed in indefinite solitary confinement, based solely on their death sentence. These prisoners spend between 21 and 24 [hours] per day in their cells, with very limited meaningful human contact. There is no possibility in any of these states for death-sentenced prisoners to have their placement reviewed, to be placed in a less restrictive custody level.” (Merel Pointier, “Cruel but not unusual: The automatic use of indefinite solitary confineme
