Many elderly and frail prisoners who meet the new California parole criteria are ready for release.
“The program’s details were released publicly for the first time at a meeting of the Board of Parole Hearings. They were ordered by a panel of federal judges earlier this year, as part of required steps the state must take to reduce prison crowding to acceptable levels,” Paige St. John of The LA Times recently wrote.
Inmates age 60 years or older, who have spent at least 25 years in prison, are eligible for release if they are not sentenced to death or serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. “Those hearings are to begin in October,” according to a board executive.
Additionally, inmates with health conditions requiring skilled nursing care are eligible for removal to various health care or nursing facilities. “If they recover, they face a return trip to prison,” St. John reported
One board attorney told St. John, “Hearings under the new rules, which reflect an expansion of existing medical parole, are to begin by July 1.”
The state’s expanded health program will place approximately 100 inmates into health care facilities, the Finance Department estimated. Eighty-five prisoners who met the state’s elderly criteria are estimated to be released this year, St. John reported.
“In both cases, parole officials stressed that commissioners are to consider public safety risks before agreeing to release a prisoner,” St. John said.
The Life Support Alliance, a group that supports parole for inmates serving life sentences, was delighted by the recent publication. Supporter Gail Brown said “older inmates age out of violent behavior.”
Archives for August 2014
S.Q. Avon Walk Raises Funds for Breast Cancer
Dozens of Bay Area people came into San Quentin on July 18 and 19 to walk laps in support of the annual Avon Walk for Breast Cancer.
The two-day event drew about 150 inmates and 50 free people each day. The first lap was walked in silence as inmates mingled with local volunteers, representatives from Avon and prison staffers.
Six years ago, the inmate organizers created San Quentin CARES to show that inmates doing time still have the capacity to raise money for organizations in need.
“We are honored to be able to help with this cause,” said inmate Troy Williams. “It makes the men in blue feel like they’re still a part of the community.”
According to Chief Medical Officer Elaine Tootell, the event raised about $5,300 from people outside and nearly $2,000 from the inmates. “I know that $2,000 is a lot of money for inmates. I was impressed that you gave so much, when you have so little,” Tootell told the walkers.
“To put on an event like this, you have to have a lot of patience in order to get through the obstacles,” inmate Stephen Pascascio said. “We couldn’t have done it without the administration helping us. Also the men in blue worked hard doing all the leg work. Inmates Michael Nelson, Sam Johnson, Billy Allen, Clinton Martin and the guys put in a lot of time to this worthy cause. A lot of the guys here are walking for their mothers, daughters, sisters and loved ones who’ve been affected by breast cancer. It’s amazing to me, seeing the guys work together.”
Jill Friedman has been volunteering inside San Quentin for 15 years. She said about six and a half years ago she started volunteering with the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer.
“I was honored that I was asked to help with the Avon walk,” Friedman said. “I want more people on the outside to know what’s happening in here. One of the things about us as human beings is that all of us have more in common than what we have different.”
Inmate organizer Clinton Martin, 41, said this was his fourth walk. “I think for me what stands out is that this year was more organized. It went off without a hitch. This is the first one with no [security] alarms. It was good to see the level of respect from the San Quentin community.
Martin added, “I lost my grandmother, great-aunt and aunt to breast cancer. That was my driving force for wanting to belong to this committee. It is an honor to cherish their lives by walking and by organizing this event. Today is about giving back to my community and trying with every fiber in my being to make amends to the harm that I’ve caused. I firmly believe that I’ll be putting pennies in the jar for the rest of my life.”
Volunteer Rachel Bailey said that her grandmother passed away from cancer three years ago. “My grandmother came in for a San Quentin walk. For the last three months of her life, she just talked about how much you guys affected her,” Bailey said.
While the event was underway, a basketball game was being played between an outside Christian team and one of the inmate teams. All the players joined the walkers.
“For halftime, we decided to walk one lap for breast cancer awareness,” said inmate Derek Loud. “Then we’ll finish the game.”
Why Inmates Say They Donate and Walk:
Julio “Huggie” Davis, 49: I’m doing this for my mother. She passed from breast cancer in 2008. When I first caught this life sentence, I told my mother about it. The last time I saw her was before I left the county jail. Then I was transferred to High Desert State Prison where we stayed on lockdown. I was able to make it to San Quentin in 2006. But my mother had cancer and was too sick to come see me. I always had these dreams about my mother. I would try to get home to her through my dreams. Every night I’d have these dreams, but I couldn’t actually get there. But the day I got the call that my mother passed, I finally got home in my dream. I got there to hug my mother.
Ricky “Malik” Harris, 42: I’d like to recognize a very close family friend, Alex Perkins, who succumbed to cancer, and my father who is battling lung cancer. I just wanted to honor them.
Johnny Willis, 42: I donated because my mother, Wanda Willis, died of cancer, and my wife, Maynette Willis, is a cancer survivor.
Anthony Thomas, 40: I’m on my 13th lap. Before the end of the walk, I want to put in 200. I’m walking to show faith and to give others insight to why we need to cure breast cancer.
Nicola Bucci, 41: My grandmother survived cancer in 1952. She was born 1910 and died 2008.
Inmate Berry, 34: I’m walking for my fiancée, Felie.
Martin Walters, 46: I’m walking for my sister, Michelle, who survived breast cancer, and my mom, who is a survivor of cancer also.
Robert Morales, 44: My mother passed away from lung cancer. So, in remembrance of my mother and people who suffer from it, I support them.
Alberto Mendez, 59: I have a mom and I have daughters. Plus, I consider the most amazing human being is the woman. I support the cause. One day we will find a cure for this horrible disease.
Frankie Smith, 58, said that he was diagnosed twice with cancer in 2006 and 2011. “I support the Avon walk so that people become aware that screening is important. Cancer is not a death sentence. I’m a living witness to the fact it can be beaten.”
Danny Chaviarria, 58: I have a wife, daughters and granddaughters out there. I support them. It’s the right thing to do.
James Parker, 52: I’m walking for my mother, my aunt, my mother-in-law and my ex-wife. My mom, aunt, mother-in-law have passed from cancer, and my ex-wife is currently undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer.
Sam Johnson, 57: Dad died of cancer in 1986. I never saw my father sick. My dad went for 264 pounds to 74 pounds. That’s why I do what I do, to bring awareness to cancer.
James Metters, 43: In 2013 I lost my aunt to liver cancer. I was very close to her. This year, I lost my uncle to liver cancer as well. I feel bad that it took me losing people in my family in order to understand that the Avon walk for a cure of breast cancer needed my support. I will continue supporting the cancer walk every year and even after I am released from prison.
Law Firm Opposes Restrictions on Reading Choices
A law firm is opposing newly proposed regulations by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) that have the potential to censor inmate reading material.
Leila Knox, an attorney with the law firm Bryan Cave, LLP, sent an e-mail to the CDCR’s Regulation and Policy Management Branch “On behalf of the San Francisco Bay View National Black Newspaper.”
Knox wrote in response to a CDCR proposal to change regulations to ban what it considers “obscene material.”
“The Proposed Regulations include ostensibly minor revisions that could be used to work a fundamental change that would severely burden the First Amendment rights of both inmates in CDCR facilities and innocent third parties who wish to communicate with them,” Knox wrote.
Knox argued that the proposed regulations “reach far beyond and threaten to ban political speech and/or speech that is critical of the California prison system.”
In its Initial Statement of Reasons for the proposed regulations, the CDCR said it is attempting to prohibit publications that “indicate an association with groups that are oppositional to authority and society.”
According to the regulations, the CDCR will create a “Centralized List of Disapproved Publications” in the prison system. An example of a banned publication would be anything the CDCR deems “recruitment material for a Security Threat Group (STG).” Under these regulations, banned reading material would be considered contraband.
Current regulations prevent the CDCR from disallowing inmates’ incoming mail if the Department “disagree[s] with the sender’s or receiver’s morals, values, attitudes, veracity or choice of words.”
In a 1999 case, Crofton v. Roe, the U.S Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit struck down a regulation that disallowed an inmate from receiving a gift book.
Citing the fact that courts have relied on the First and 14th Amendment rights of publishers “to communicate with inmates” on numerous occasions, Knox pointed to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1974 ruling in Procunier v. Martinez which states in part:
“Whatever the status of a prisoner’s claim to uncensored correspondence with an outsider, it is plain that the latter’s interest is grounded in the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of speech.”
Knox said the regulations are likely to fail because “they are both vague and overbroad” as an indicator of an inmate’s association with members or associates of STGs.
According to Knox’s research, “a law is unconstitutionally vague if it prohibits protected conduct … or if it allows for punishment of speech that is merely unpopular.”
The e-mail concluded with Knox’s assessment of the CDCR’s previously validating inmates as STG members due to their choice of reading material that included possession of anything written by prisoner and political activist George Jackson.
“Prison walls do not form a barrier separating prison inmates from the protections of the Constitution,” Knox wrote, citing other U.S. Supreme Court case precedents.
Knox said Bay View newspaper “provides thought-provoking stories and commentary, with a focus on the black community.”
The Bay View was founded in 1976. According to its website, it is “the second most visited black newspaper on the web.” It has won two awards for Excellence in Journalism and Freedom of Information from the Society of Professional Journalists, three Best of the Bay awards from the Bay Guardian, one National Black Newspaper of the Year from the National Black Chamber of Commerce, and a Best Community Newspaper from the Media Alliance.
Alliance for CHANGE Helps 16 Graduates Transform Their Lives
Sixteen San Quentin inmates have earned Certificates of Accomplishment from the Alliance for CHANGE social justice program. They were presented in front of co-leaders, facilitators, mentors, outside volunteers and guests.
It was the seventh class to complete the 16-week grueling and intense social justice program facilitated by professors from the University of San Francisco and San Francisco State University.
During the July 9 ceremonies held in the Arc Building, Dr. Kim Richman and Dr. Karen Lovaas sat in the audience as they watched another group of San Quentin inmates walk to the podium, receive their certificates and share a personal comment about other class participants. For Dr. Lovaas, “It’s a labor of love.”
It was from these personal comments that the audience came to appreciate the hard work and personal development of these individuals. They undertook and completed a very challenging social justice curriculum taught by the Alliance for Change’s Education Department.
Their personal relationships were shared by short stories on how men of different ethnicities and backgrounds experienced something special in the class together. Charlie Spence, co-education leader, said, “Diversification is the platform of the Alliance for Change.”
“Our emphasis is to empower the participant to engage with others and his community. We believe a diverse background bonds relationships,” the co-leader said.
Another co-education leader spoke about one participant who was having difficulty with the study materials. He told the audience, “I am proud of them because they were the first group of guys who worked together outside of the class. This attitude resonated throughout this class,” Chris Deragon said.
To show appreciation for their commitment, dedication and hard work, the Alliance for Change leadership selected four individuals for special awards. They were:
Special Award recipients – Sonny Nguyen and Jose Vieyra
High Honor Award recipient – Cedrick Walter
Accommodation High Excellent recipient – Michael Lane
In her closing remarks to the class, Richman told them to, “Go into the world and do well.”
Washington Aids Oakland School Programs
David Johns, executive director of the President’s Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans, recently visited Oakland High School to talk with teachers and students and learn lessons from the programs the city has implemented to help black and Hispanic young people.
Earlier this year President Obama began a $200 million initiative, which includes a task force to identify how the federal government can support and promote programs designed to improve educational outcomes for young black and Hispanic men.
The Oakland High and Oakland School District’s programs grabbed the attention of the president’s national initiative, My Brother’s Keeper. Johns came to Oakland to identify some of the programs that have been effective and shown a record of success, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
According to the Obama administration, black and Hispanic men are six times more likely to be murdered than white men. By the fourth grade, most African-American and Hispanic boys are reading below standard proficiency levels. The San Francisco Chronicle pointed out that over the last decade in Oakland, the number of young black men prepared to attend college after high school was nearly the same as the number killed.
Four years ago, in an effort to address the problems of young black men failing in high school, getting caught up in the criminal justice system and failing to continue their education on to college, Oakland opened the African-American Male Achievement Office in the school district.
In 2011, Manhood Development classes, designed for and by black males, enrolled their first students. Other programs were started throughout the city to address issues most significant to the success or failure of young men of color — including community violence, mental health services, role model and mentorship programs, plus personal and academic support. The aim was to help these young men continue on to college.
Julian Taylor, who participated in the meeting with Johns, was one of the first students enrolled in the Manhood Development class. He is now a junior and taking Advanced Placement courses.
“I’ve grown as a person since being in it. It gives me a lot of support,” Taylor said of the program.
Out of 22 students who began the program with Taylor, only eight remain. The others have either moved out of the district or left school. One student landed in the juvenile justice system.
Oakland High Principal Matin Abdel-qawi told Chronicle reporter Jill Tucker that there are no easy answers.
“For a lot of reasons [black males] don’t do well in these four walls,” Abdel-qawi said. He pointed out that the lives of his students are complicated, with very specific needs, and it can be hard to resist the lure of the streets. Abdel-qawi said he would like to see an academy with a range of courses for African-American young men.
“We can cater a program solely for African-American males with them in mind,” he said. “They could become assets to the community rather than leeches on it or someone who takes away from our society.”
Rochelle Edwards Transitions Out of VOEG’s Leadership
For a decade Rochelle Edwards has counseled San Quentin inmates through her program Victim Offender Education Group (VOEG). Now preparing to move on, Edwards shared with us what she has learned about healing, redemption, insight and forgiveness.
Edwards started VOEG in 2004 with one group and has since established 28 groups across the state.
“Over the years working with prisoners who’ve been through the program and survivors, together we’ve continued to improve on the VOEG curriculum, to make it what it is today,” said Edwards.
“Forgiveness is important for everyone, regardless of the degree of the transgression. And it’s most important for the forgiver, the person doing the forgiving.”
She thinks that in a healthy society we need to figure out how to integrate members who have caused harm and been harmed, instead of furthering alienation between them. She says this is what continues the cycle of offense and alienation.
“Over and over again I’ve had the experience of people sharing events or stories from their lives that they’ve never talked about before,” she said. “Oftentimes, these stories or events were very traumatic and as a young child they didn’t have the tools or right meaning to process them.
“These men knew they wouldn’t have the chance to meet their victim, so I created the VOEG curriculum for people who wanted to do accountability work and connect the dots of their lives — to have them begin to question how they ended up in prison, and give them the opportunity to meet with survivors of similar crimes.
“I feel like this work chose me, and I’ve had some great experiences, but now my life is ready for a new transition,” said Edwards.
Her transition includes leaving VOEG in the capable hands of Sonya Shah.
Sonya Shah
In 2009, Shah began volunteering for the Insight Prison Project (IPP), which acts as an umbrella organization for several rehabilitative programs.
“Jamie Karroll [of IPP] had asked me to be on the survivor panel for a pilot VOEG program in Alameda County’s Juvenile Hall,” said Shah. “I noticed that it was a very healing experience to both talk with the youth about my past traumas and have them share theirs.”
Shah, who is the Justice Program Director for IPP, completed her VOEG training in 2010 and has been coming into San Quentin ever since.
“I was immediately drawn to the VOEG process, specifically how our past experiences, our childhood, our socio-cultural influences shape who we are, and how trauma so easily manifests into harming behavior, both harming to oneself and to others,” Shah said.
“We have groups that are in Spanish for youth and for women. So our curriculum has to adapt to the unique needs of each community.”
Shah said the work that Edwards has created with the men of San Quentin is nothing short of phenomenal.
“You can see the work the men have done on themselves through how they actively listen, like every word is important. And they respond in a manner that demonstrates you are being heard. That’s progress on a large scale,” said Shah.
Edwards considers VOEG one of the best ways to explore personal trauma and the ensuing release of such trauma through behavior that is not positive for society. It is a way to explore the relationships we have, the one with ourselves and the one with people around us and our community.
“There has to be a way for people in prison to be connected and stay connected to the community, and the best way to do that is to have people come into the prison and build both professional relationships and skilled development through those interactions and offerings,” Edwards said.
“The VOEG process is quite mutual,” she continued. “We’re all learning from each other, the men I have worked with are my teachers, my children are my biggest teachers. And all my relationships are opportunities to learn.”
She thinks that her sense of wanting to be of service to incarcerated people comes from working on a farm as a youngster.
“A lot of the people I cleaned stalls with on the farm were individuals who had been to prison. I didn’t know it as a kid, but that was a form of restoration; so helping the incarcerated just feels right,” said Edwards. “Restorative justice restores our moral compass, our morality, our sense of self, who we were intended to be before our lives were interrupted.”
Edwards said the VOEG groups emphasize creating a safe container, a safe place for small groups of men and women to come together and begin to unpack their past, to take off their masks.
“They are witnessed in their truth and learn new tools that were missing at the time of their crime,” Edwards said. “We, as facilitators, enter into a conscious relationship with the members of our group, recognizing that our interactions have the potential to be reparative.”
Edwards said her transition should allow her more time to focus her efforts toward developing The Victim Offender Dialogue Program throughout California.
She will continue running a VOEG group. “I’m just scaling back and developing other interests,” said Edwards.
Through her years with the program, Edwards says she has learned one important thing:
“Through VOEG I’ve learned that men and women in prison are more than the worst day of their lives — and they can heal and take their rightful place in society.”
‘Is the Era of the Death Penalty Ending?’
Is the era of the death penalty ending? “We’re seeing the first signs that it could happen,” William Saletan of Slate reports.
In a 1994 Gallup poll and a National Opinion Research Center Social Survey, 80 percent of those polled supported the death penalty.
A GSS sample taken in 2012 shows “support fell to 65 percent, the lowest number since the question was introduced in its current form four decades ago.” The following year, another Gallup Poll found support dropped to 60 percent for the first time in 40 years.
One Pew survey discloses that support for executing murderers dropped to 55 percent, down three points from its previous low in 2013.
Saletan cited a CBS News survey that found “the support level fell to 59 percent (four points down from the previous low).”
“The percentage of respondents who opposed the death penalty rose to 33 percent (six points about the previous high),” according to Saletan.
CBS News also reported that for the first time in 26 years, support fell into the 50s or the opposition number has climbed into the 30s.
In a Washington Post/ABC News poll released in May 2014, given a choice between two punishments for murder, only 42 percent chose the death penalty compared to 52 percent who preferred life imprisonment without parole. “That’s an eight-point drop in support for capital punishment since the previous Post/ABC poll in 2006,” Saletan said.
Since 1960, homicide and other violent crimes have caused the rise and fall of the death penalty. Saletan thinks when the crime rates fall, “capital punishment could sink with them. If crime increases, support for the death penalty could rise with it.”
In a two-year Gallup survey (1985-1986), Respondents agreed by roughly two-to-one ratios (61 percent to 32 percent) that the death penalty lowers the murder rate. These percentages moved 10 points by 1991.
This two-to-one margin was completely reversed by the 2000s. “Morethan 60 percent rejected the deterrence claim. That’s a 30-point swing in 20 years,” Saletan said. From the early 1980s to the 2000s, the percentage of respondents who believed that executions deterred murder fell nearly 20 points.
Saletan said, “This is an empirical belief, not a moral one. There is an academic debate over whether executions affect the murder rate. The question is difficult to resolve in part because the number of executions is too small to provide a clear answer.”
“If crime increases, support for the death penalty could rise with it”
Preference for life without the possibility of parole increased among Gallup poll respondents between 1985 and 2010. Even those states that have the death penalty legislation preferred this punishment. Nevertheless, “In Gallup’s trend data, the change in death penalty support (20 points) exceeds the change in response to the life-without-parole question (16) points,” said Saletan.
“When the (Washington) Post/ABC poll presented a scenario in which lethal injection was outlawed or otherwise unavailable, 10 percent of respondents shifted from supporting death penalty to saying it should end,” he adds.
In an NBC News poll conducted in April 2014, 61 percent of those polled chose an alternative method of execution — more than the 59 percent who originally said they favored capital punishment.
“In seven polls taken from 2001 to 2007, on average, 66 percent of respondents said the death penalty was acceptable; 27 percent said it was wrong,” Saletan reported.
In another set of polls taken from 2008 to 2014, “the acceptable average fell to 62 percent.” Those who thought the death penalty was wrong increased to 30 percent.
Over a period of time, people become more averse to violence, according to evidence presented in Saletan’s report. “But it’s hard to connect that grand arc with public opinion trends on the death penalty,” said Saletan.
One reason for the biggest shift in the percentage of those respondents opposed to the death penalty came in surveys conducted in 1991 and 2003. They “cited the risk of erroneous convictions,” Saletan wrote.
Those “numbers more than doubled from 11 percent to 25 percent of the anti-death penalty subsample. This finding is backed by the Death Penalty Information Center’s 2007 survey, which identified people who had shifted from supporting to opposing capital punishment,” he added.
Of the several factors that influenced their decision to oppose the death penalty, “62 percent cited evidence that innocent people are sometimes sentenced to death,” Saletan said.
NBC News’ 2014 poll found 35 percent of respondents said that the reason to oppose the death penalty is that it “carries the risk of killing someone who was wrongly convicted.”
“The second most popular reason given for supporting the death penalty (and the best reason to support it, according to respondents who themselves oppose capital punishment) was that modern science, like DNA testing, reduces the possibility someone has been wrongly convicted,” according to that same NBC News 2014 poll.
Studies Show Declining Executions Since 2011
‘This represents the 12th consecutive year in which the number of inmates under sentence of death decreased’
Executions in the United States are on a decline. At the end of 2012, 35 states and the Federal Bureau of Prisons held 3,033 inmates on death row, down by 32 from the previous year.
“This represents the 12th consecutive year in which the number of inmates under sentence of death decreased,” according to a 2014 report by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).
Report Confirms
The report confirms only 56 inmates under federal jurisdiction were held with death sentences at year end 2012.
The state of Florida sentenced 20, followed by California with 13, Texas had nine and Pennsylvania received only six on death row. These four states accounted for 61 percent of those sentenced to death in 2012.
“California, Florida, Texas and Pennsylvania held more than half of all inmates on death row on Dec. 31, 2012,” the DOJ reported.
In 2012, the Federal Bureau of Prison and 19 states reported that 79 inmates were received under sentence of death, a 5 percent decrease from the 83 in 2011. “The number of inmates received in 2012 was the smallest number of admissions to death row since 1973, when 44 persons were admitted,” reported the DOJ.
In the report, 13 jurisdictions had fewer inmates, and 18 states had the same number. Florida showed the largest increase (up 10 inmates). “Oklahoma and Texas (down eight each), followed by Mississippi (down seven), North Carolina (down six) and Arizona (down five) had the largest decreases.”
“Twenty states and the Federal Bureau of Prisons removed 111 inmates from under sentence of death: 43 were executed, 17 died by means other than execution and 51 were removed because of commutations of courts overturning sentences or convictions,” the report said. In 2012, a quarter of all prisoners taken off death row came from Texas (17) and Florida (10).
In 2012, 43 executions were carried out in nine states. Those prisoners executed had been on death row an average of 15 years and 10 months; this was eight months less than those executed in 2011.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, capital murder cases steadily increased until the number peaked at 3,601 in 2000. Since the court approved capital punishment, “35 states and the federal government [have] executed 1,320 inmates,” according to the DOJ report.
Between 1977 and 2012, 8,032 inmates were sentenced to death. Despite these sentences, the report shows, “16 percent had been executed, 6 percent died by causes other than execution and 40 percent received other dispositions.” From 1930 through the end of 2012, 5,179 inmates were executed under civil authority.
As of Dec. 31, 2012, 36 states and the federal government authorized the death penalty; however, one state repealed its death penalty statute, while another state had a portion of its statute declared unconstitutional and a third state revised its capital punishment law.
“Ninety-eight percent of inmates under sentence of death were male, and 2 percent were female”
Even though “New Mexico repealed its death penalty in 2009, the repeal was not retroactive, and offenders charged with a capital offense committed prior to the repeal may be eligible for a death sentence,” reported the DOJ. At the end of 2012, the state held two men under previously imposed death sentences, while it sought the death penalty for one person.
“In 2012, the Connecticut legislature repealed the death penalty effective for only those capital offenses committed on or after April 25, 2012. Since the repeal was prospective, 10 men remained under sentence of death as of Dec. 31, 2012,” reported the DOJ.
On Dec. 31, 2012, lethal injections were authorized as the method of execution in all 36 states that had capital punishment. Fifteen jurisdictions sanctioned an alternative method of execution, eight states authorized electrocution, three states authorized gas, three states authorized hanging and two states authorized the use of a firing squad.
“Delaware authorized hangings, Oklahoma authorized electrocution or firing squad, Utah authorized firing squad and Wyoming authorized lethal gas” as alternative methods, if lethal injection is ruled out, according to the report.
In a state that authorizes multiple methods of execution, the condemned prisoner generally selects the method of execution. The DOJ reports, “Five of the 15 states (Arizona, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee and Utah) stipulated which method must be used depending on either the date of the offense or sentencing” and in New Hampshire hanging is authorized only if the lethal injection cannot be used.
In a landmark case, the Arkansas Supreme Court’s decision in Hobbs v. Jones (2012 Ark.293) compelled the court to reevaluate its Method of Execution Act of 2009 (Ark. Code Ann. Sections 5-4-617 (Supp, 2011).
In the Jones decision, the court ruled that these procedures violated the separation of powers doctrine in Article 4 of the Arkansas Constitution because the legislature “granted the executive branch sole discretion in selecting the method of administering the drugs for lethal injections,” the report said.
Revised Statutory
In 2012, Delaware revised statutory provisions relating to capital punishment. According to the DOJ report, “The legislature added home invasion as a class B felony offense to its penal codes. Effective on June 1, the state amended the aggravating factors for which death penalty may be imposed to include murder committed in the course of a home invasion.”
Lethal injections are the only method used to execute federal prisoners. For offenses prosecuted under the federal violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, the method used is that of the state in which the conviction took place.
At the end of 2012, of all the inmates sentenced to death, 56 percent were white and 42 percent were black. Hispanics, which numbered 384, accounted for 14 percent of the prisoners with known ethnicity. “Ninety-eight percent of inmates under sentence of death were male, and 2 percent were female. The race and sex of inmates under sentence of death has remained relatively unchanged since 2000,” the report concluded.
Federal Court Refuses to Order Disclosure of Lethal Drug Source
A federal appeals court has refused to order Missouri to reveal the source of drugs to be used in lethal injections.
In a 7-3 decision, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis said Death Row inmates’ lawyers neglected to show more humane executions are available.
The Post Dispatch reported that the majority decision said, “If the inmates’ lawyers can’t point to a more humane execution than lethal injection, such as hanging or firing squad, they are not entitled to discover more about the pharmacy hired by Missouri to make the drugs for the injections.”
Missouri’s Department of Correction argued naming the source would make carrying out executions more difficult.
The Dispatch reported, “Lawyers for a group of inmates have argued that Missouri’s reliance on compounding pharmacies in Oklahoma to produce pentobarbital for lethal injections could violate their rights to be free from cruel and unusual punishment.”
“A three-member panel of the 8th Circuit had previously upheld a lower court’s decision to provide inmates’ lawyers with the identification of the Oklahoma compounding pharmacy,” the Dispatch reported. The full 8th Circuit reversed that decision.
The three judges who opposed the decision said, “Requiring condemned inmates to suggest alternative ways to die would be absurd.”
Deborah Denno, a Fordham law professor and death penalty expert, said the ruling put the lawyers for condemned Missouri inmates in a Catch-22.
More Data Needed to Assess Realignment Impacts
On the eve of realignment’s third anniversary, the law (AB 109) has no requirement to support local officials with the collection of data or an assessment of what correctional methods are most effective.
A report on realignment published by Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) said that a data-driven approach for corrections officials that would demonstrate what works have been overlooked.
“A central principle of AB 109 is that counties should have a strong hand in designing their own approach to managing offenders who are now under their purview,” PPIC said.
But AB 109 legislation did not dedicate funds for counties to evaluate the rising effects of realignment after its implementation. In addition, there is no designation of funding for counties to “assess the success rates of their local correctional strategies.”
“…The long-term stability and sustainability of California’s criminal justice system depends not on the success of a few counties, but on the broad statewide adoption of successful correctional strategies that promote public safety and reduce reliance on California’s overextended prison system,” PPIC said.
“A large and increasing portion of the felony population will never reach state prison”
“Based on our work with the 11 counties, we establish data collection priorities that will enable counties to implement evidence-based practices,” PPIC noted.
PPIC illustrated how collecting and using data can assist counties to “identify effective and efficient programs” and how to “hold service providers more accountable,” among other benefits.
According to PPIC, a limited number of strategies have been researched and their application in California’s jail populations “remains untested.”
PPIC said, “If the state as a whole is going to move in this direction, then each county must not only be technologically capable of carrying out its own data-driven strategies but must also be able to contribute to the state’s understanding of what works.”
PPIC reported that some problems pre-date the reforms under realignment, and the lack of funding has made “the shortcomings of existing data collection efforts even more pronounced.”
“We envision a system with a level of standardization that allows the state to capitalize on the experiences of various counties,” PPIC said.
Among the relevant data that needs to be gathered are offender “risks and needs assessments” on each individual. This information, the report said, will help local corrections officials “gauge whether an individual will reoffend.”
“A large and increasing portion of the felony population will never reach state prison. Those populations are ‘off the radar’ of state tracking systems and their information is not available to be shared for either law enforcement or research purposes,” PPIC reported.
PPIC’s report concluded by making several recommendations for improving the quality of data used, and to make it available while ensuring the data captured is pertinent, connected across various systems and uses a standard to define key measures. It also recommends upgrading the technological systems now in use to make it easier to extract, collect and share data.
PPIC cited a Huffington Post article that characterized AB 109 as “the biggest penal experiment in modern history.”
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