Post by CCADP on Aug 25, 2005 9:54:35 GMT -5
MISSOURI----impending execution
Man awaiting lethal injection says it's unlawful
A man who faces execution Wednesday for murdering his wife will get a
hearing Friday on his claim that Missouri's method of lethal injection
threatens him with an unlawfully painful death.
The case of Timothy Johnston, 44, of St. Louis, is to go before U.S.
District Judge Charles A. Shaw downtown. Johnston wants Shaw to delay the
execution and order a hearing on the argument that lethal injection, as
practiced by the state, violates the U.S. Constitution's bar to cruel and
unusual punishment.
Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon wants the court to let the execution
proceed.
Johnston's is one of several challenges to the practice of lethal
injection that recently have been raised nationwide. Trial courts
generally have rejected them, but the issue is on appeal in Kentucky,
Tennessee and North Carolina.
On May 17, the U.S. Supreme Court briefly delayed the execution of Vernon
Brown of St. Louis, who had strangled a 9-year-old girl, and then voted
5-4 against hearing his last-minute echo of Johnston's suit.
Johnston killed his wife, Nancy Johnston, 27, on June 30, 1989, by beating
her with his fists, a lawn chair and a rifle butt and by kicking and
stomping her with steel-tipped boots. The beating began in her car and
ended several blocks later at their home in the 4700 block of Minnesota
Avenue.
Johnston admitted killing her in a rage over alleged infidelities.
"I'd like his death to be very painful," said Mary Federhofer, a
sister-in-law of Nancy Johnston. "I don't think it will be. They'll just
put him to sleep. ... He has a lot of nerve to try this after what he put
her through."
Michael J. Gorla, one of Johnston's lawyers, said, "I understand that
people would say, 'Look at what he did to that woman. Why should we be
concerned about him having pain?' The answer is that the Constitution
prevents cruel and unusual punishment. That's why we have laws and courts:
to take the emotion out of it."
If the executioners don't adequately sedate the condemned, he said, "These
guys are going to suffer barbaric deaths."
Missouri is one of 27 states that execute by administering intravenously a
series of three drugs over a period of less than a minute: sodium
pentathol to sedate, pancuronium bromide to stop breathing and potassium
chloride to stop the heart. All told, 37 states have the death penalty on
their books.
Missouri has executed 64 men with the 3-drug series. Strapped to a gurney,
the condemned usually coughs once or twice with administration of the 1st
drug, then lies motionless. Death usually is announced within 4 minutes.
Johnston's suit was filed a year ago. It alleges that Missouri's method of
execution does not adequately prescribe the correct amounts of drugs,
employs inadequately trained executioners and uses a painful and tricky IV
entry into a leg.
If the state doesn't administer the correct amounts of sedative or killing
drugs, the lawsuit says, a condemned person would suffer "a painful and
protracted death."
In response, Nixon says Missouri's system is medically proper. State court
filings say a doctor and nurse ensure that enough sedative is given, Nixon
says, and Johnston's chance of suffering unconstitutional pain is
"non-existent."
In an interview Monday, Nixon said he believed the Supreme Court
eventually would reject the gathering arguments against lethal injection.
"This is a long way from arguing over guilt or innocence," Nixon said.
"This method is quick, efficient ... and, I think, a relatively painless
method of accomplishing this sobering governmental task."
He added: "Timothy Johnston did not show the same level of interest in a
painless exit for his wife."
Deborah Denno, a professor of law at Fordham University in New York, said
states had done little medical examination of the procedure since it was
proposed in Oklahoma in 1977. Denno, who has written on the issue for law
journals and testified in court, acknowledged that states might counter
lawsuits by changing their methods.
"But these cases expose the system and how slipshod it is," Denno said.
"Exposing these weaknesses adds another rock to the pile that shows the
death-penalty process in this country is conducted in a very inhumane
way."
(source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
Man awaiting lethal injection says it's unlawful
A man who faces execution Wednesday for murdering his wife will get a
hearing Friday on his claim that Missouri's method of lethal injection
threatens him with an unlawfully painful death.
The case of Timothy Johnston, 44, of St. Louis, is to go before U.S.
District Judge Charles A. Shaw downtown. Johnston wants Shaw to delay the
execution and order a hearing on the argument that lethal injection, as
practiced by the state, violates the U.S. Constitution's bar to cruel and
unusual punishment.
Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon wants the court to let the execution
proceed.
Johnston's is one of several challenges to the practice of lethal
injection that recently have been raised nationwide. Trial courts
generally have rejected them, but the issue is on appeal in Kentucky,
Tennessee and North Carolina.
On May 17, the U.S. Supreme Court briefly delayed the execution of Vernon
Brown of St. Louis, who had strangled a 9-year-old girl, and then voted
5-4 against hearing his last-minute echo of Johnston's suit.
Johnston killed his wife, Nancy Johnston, 27, on June 30, 1989, by beating
her with his fists, a lawn chair and a rifle butt and by kicking and
stomping her with steel-tipped boots. The beating began in her car and
ended several blocks later at their home in the 4700 block of Minnesota
Avenue.
Johnston admitted killing her in a rage over alleged infidelities.
"I'd like his death to be very painful," said Mary Federhofer, a
sister-in-law of Nancy Johnston. "I don't think it will be. They'll just
put him to sleep. ... He has a lot of nerve to try this after what he put
her through."
Michael J. Gorla, one of Johnston's lawyers, said, "I understand that
people would say, 'Look at what he did to that woman. Why should we be
concerned about him having pain?' The answer is that the Constitution
prevents cruel and unusual punishment. That's why we have laws and courts:
to take the emotion out of it."
If the executioners don't adequately sedate the condemned, he said, "These
guys are going to suffer barbaric deaths."
Missouri is one of 27 states that execute by administering intravenously a
series of three drugs over a period of less than a minute: sodium
pentathol to sedate, pancuronium bromide to stop breathing and potassium
chloride to stop the heart. All told, 37 states have the death penalty on
their books.
Missouri has executed 64 men with the 3-drug series. Strapped to a gurney,
the condemned usually coughs once or twice with administration of the 1st
drug, then lies motionless. Death usually is announced within 4 minutes.
Johnston's suit was filed a year ago. It alleges that Missouri's method of
execution does not adequately prescribe the correct amounts of drugs,
employs inadequately trained executioners and uses a painful and tricky IV
entry into a leg.
If the state doesn't administer the correct amounts of sedative or killing
drugs, the lawsuit says, a condemned person would suffer "a painful and
protracted death."
In response, Nixon says Missouri's system is medically proper. State court
filings say a doctor and nurse ensure that enough sedative is given, Nixon
says, and Johnston's chance of suffering unconstitutional pain is
"non-existent."
In an interview Monday, Nixon said he believed the Supreme Court
eventually would reject the gathering arguments against lethal injection.
"This is a long way from arguing over guilt or innocence," Nixon said.
"This method is quick, efficient ... and, I think, a relatively painless
method of accomplishing this sobering governmental task."
He added: "Timothy Johnston did not show the same level of interest in a
painless exit for his wife."
Deborah Denno, a professor of law at Fordham University in New York, said
states had done little medical examination of the procedure since it was
proposed in Oklahoma in 1977. Denno, who has written on the issue for law
journals and testified in court, acknowledged that states might counter
lawsuits by changing their methods.
"But these cases expose the system and how slipshod it is," Denno said.
"Exposing these weaknesses adds another rock to the pile that shows the
death-penalty process in this country is conducted in a very inhumane
way."
(source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch)