Death Penalty News

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — It was the hottest September in more than a century in parts of South Florida, and Dwayne Wilson could hear his 81-year-old fellow inmate gasping for breath and crying out for help at the Dade Correctional Institution, 45 miles southwest of Miami on the edge of the Florida Everglades. The elderly man was confined to a wheelchair and for weeks had been complaining of severe chest pain and difficulty breathing in the unventilated dorm where he was serving his sentence, according to a federal class action lawsuit filed this week on behalf of Wilson and two other inmates at the prison.

Record temperatures in much of the U.S. threatening more people in prisons. Sweltering doesn’t even describe it. This week, more than a third of the U.S. population was under excessive heat warnings and heat advisories . Dozens of major cities and states have set new temperature records in recent weeks , including Baton Rouge, Louisiana, which logged its hottest June ever . Less than an hour from the city is Louisiana State Penitentiary, better known as Angola prison, where the state set up a temporary youth jail last fall , in a building that once housed adults awaiting execution.

Tiny cells, lacking medical treatment and sweltering conditions cited by judge who blocked extradition. Late last year, a Scottish court quietly refused what seemed like a routine extradition. It wasn’t that of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, whose drawn-out efforts to avoid the American prison system have grabbed international headlines for years. Instead, it was that of a relatively unknown Scottish man, Daniel Magee, who’d allegedly shot a security guard in Austin, Texas, in 2016 before fleeing to his native country. The refusal to send a prisoner back is not unprecedented — but what has raised eyebrows in the legal community is the reason: An Edinburgh judge decided that poor conditions in Texas prisons might constitute an international human rights violation. “This is the first case I know of where this specific argument about prison conditions has succeeded — normally, the courts are very sympathetic to deporting people,” said University of Nottingham criminologist Dirk van Zyl...

A 6-year-old lawsuit that claims high heat indexes on Louisiana's death row subjects 3 ailing condemned killers to cruel and unusual punishment, and leaves them at risk of serious illness or even death, has been conditionally dismissed by a federal judge in Baton Rouge. U.S. District Judge Brian Jackson's final dismissal of the suit is conditioned upon the state remaining in "substantial compliance" for one year with a settlement agreement signed last November by attorneys for the three prisoners and the state Department of Corrections. Jackson, who last month granted a joint request to conditionally dismiss the 2013 civil rights lawsuit, could make that dismissal final this November. The settlement agreement calls for daily showers for the three Angola inmates of at least 15 minutes; individual ice containers that are timely replenished by prison staff; individual fans; water faucets in their cells; "IcyBreeze" units or so-called "Cajun ...

Three ailing Louisiana death row inmates will still have to be protected from excessive heat during the sweltering summer months, but a federal appeals court has given state corrections officials more latitude to decide how to keep them cool. A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans said the state does not have to prevent heat indexes at the Angola prison from topping 88 degrees [31°C] as a Baton Rouge federal judge previously ordered. The appellate court ruled that Chief U.S. District Judge Brian Jackson erred by setting the 88-degree threshold and sent the civil rights case, filed by the three prisoners in 2013, back to him for further review. The panel left open the possibility that Jackson may require what it called "temperature triggers" that would initiate the use of specific heat-relief measures. But where Jackson "went astray," the appellate court judges said, was when he effectively required a "temperat...

Prisoners on Louisiana's death row are now allowed to socialize face-to-face for the first time in decades -- some state corrections officials think it might be the first time ever. Plus, the amount of time they spend outside of their cell without restraints has been quadrupled through a pilot program at the state penitentiary in Angola. As Louisiana shifts its treatment of low-level, nonviolent offenders accused of drug possession and theft, it has also quietly been making changes to the way it deals with its prisoners convicted of the most violent crimes. The state prison system is experimenting with a less restrictive way to house its inmates who are facing execution.  The changes took effect May 15, less than two months after three inmates sued the state over isolating conditions on death row. The Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections says the lawsuit was not the impetus for loosening  restrictions. Angola had been working for several months befor...

Inmates on Louisiana's death are confined in inhumane isolation for 23 hours a day in windowless cells "the size of an average home bathroom," according to a lawsuit challenging the practice. Attorneys for three death row prisoners at Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola filed a class action Wednesday against prison officials, claiming the solitary confinement conditions violate the inmates' constitutional rights. The federal lawsuit claims the conditions on death row are inhumane and jeopardize prisoners' physical and mental health. The suit asks the court to order prison officials to alleviate the conditions for all prisoners on death row at Angola. The suit says inmates can leave their cells — one at a time, for one hour each day — to shower, use a phone and walk on their death row tier. They can go outside three times a week, but they're isolated in a "small outdoor cage resembling a dog pen," the suit adds. "Physical hu...

The Wallace Pack Unit, Texas A group of inmates in Texas is suing the state prison system, the nation's largest, arguing that extreme heat is killing older and infirm convicts. The inmates allege it constitutes "cruel and unusual punishment" and they're asking the courts for relief. The six plaintiffs are doing time in the Wallace Pack Unit, located in the humid pasturelands between Austin and Houston. Daily measurements taken by the National Weather Service show that since the beginning of this summer, the peak heat index has averaged 104 degrees [40°C]. That's outside where you might catch a breeze. Inside, inmates say the poorly ventilated, steel and concrete cellblocks are like ovens. "A lot of times it gets so hot in our dorms that we have to strip down to our boxers, and we'll just lay on the floor because it's a little bit cooler on the floor than it is trying to sit up in our bunks," says plaintiff Keith Cole, 62, who is serv...

Louisiana death row BATON ROUGE (AP) — The state of Louisiana has spent more than three years and over $1 million in taxpayer money to fight a lawsuit that claims three death row inmates are exposed to dangerous heat levels in their cells. A possible low-tech solution costs less than $2,000 and would avoid the need to install a more expensive air conditioning system inside Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, according to court testimony Monday for the long-running litigation. A court-appointed special master told U.S. District Judge Brian Jackson that the three inmates have been moved to new cells where cool air is piped in through a vent from a guard station. Prison officials also recently installed a plastic curtain to trap the cool air and equipped each inmate’s cell with “Cajun cooler” systems, described in a court filing as an ice chest, a fan and a duct that emits cool air. The special master, Paul Hebert, said temperatures in the inmates’ new cells are now “...

Louisiana death row With south Louisiana's summer heat and humidity kicking into high gear, the legal battle rages on over how to best protect 3 ailing condemned killers from extreme heat indexes on Angola's death row. In the most recent federal court filings in the 3-year-old case, attorneys for Elzie Ball, Nathaniel Code and James Magee insist air conditioning is the only way to shield them from the substantial risk of heat-related illness or worse. "Public health agencies as well as the medical community agree that exposure to air-conditioning is the only method of preventing heat-related illness and death in extreme heat," the inmates' attorneys, including lead lawyer Mercedes Montagnes with The Promise of Justice Initiative in New Orleans, argue in documents filed July 11 at Baton Rouge federal court. Attorneys for state corrections officials, however, claim their second heat remediation plan - which calls for a daily cool shower and addition...

Louisiana death row NEW ORLEANS—U.S. District Judge Brian Jackson questions why the state has spent more than $1 million fighting to prevent air conditioning from being installed at Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. In 2013, three death row inmates with medical problems filed a lawsuit against the state to get relief from the extreme heat and humidity at the prison. Currently, heat remediation measures consist of one cold shower each day, ice chests in cells and fans outside of cells. Previously, Jackson ruled that the prison must keep the heat index at or below 88 degrees (31°C), stating it is unconstitutional to keep inmates in a building where the heat exceeds 88 degrees. On June 15, Jackson heard testimony about the effectiveness of the measures implemented by the prison to keep prisoners cool. In April 2014, the state spent $29,000 hiring a private firm to monitor heat levels on death row, according to a report by the Associated Press. The total amount spent...

Louisiana Death Row The state has done "little if anything" to keep the sweltering heat on Louisiana's death row below 88°F (31,1°C) degrees , a Baton Rouge federal judge said Wednesday while warning he won't shy away from making a "tough and unpopular" decision to protect the health and safety of 3 ailing condemned killers. It's been 2 1/2 years since Chief U.S. District Judge Brian Jackson ruled the state is violating the 3 Louisiana State Penitentiary inmates' constitutional right against cruel and unusual punishment and ordered state corrections officials to maintain heat indexes on death row at or below 88 degrees. At a hearing he called Wednesday to determine whether the state's 2nd heat remediation plan adequately protects the prisoners from Louisiana's searing summer heat and humidity, Jackson said the plan's measures - once-daily cold showers, chests filled with ice, an extra ice machine and additional fans - have fa...