Update

Rodney Reed was days away from execution, 5 days in fact, until he was finally given a glimmer of hope. On November 15th, the Court of Criminal Appeals in Texas granted Mr. Reed a stay of execution. What this means is that Rodney will not be executed. Rodney is now 51 years-old and has been on death row since 1998. That's 21 years.

The Court's ruling came just hours after the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles had also supported halting the execution. Granting the indefinite stay and sending the case back to a trial court is a big win for Rodney and his team. His lawyer said "I have tears streaming down my cheeks" after he learned of the court's ruling.

Although this ruling did not free Rodney from prison, there was still a positive side. Not only is he now safe from execution, but he has been awarded a new trial where he can present his new evidence and bring in his witnesses. Reed's lawyer stated "It is extremely rewarding that we can finally have a chance to fully present his case in court, so it can be determined that he did not commit this crime."

If Reed had not been rescued, and had his execution gone as scheduled, I fully believe that a major protest would of ensued from the event. This case has gained major traction with the media, and many more people who hear about the case believe in his innocence. Had they executed a clearly innocent man, many people would lose what little faith they had left in the justice system. Not to mention the PR nightmare that would be facing the Trump administration and his attorney general.

 I am happy Rodney will finally get his day in court to show his innocence, my only hope is that it is a fair trial free of bias and prejudice.

If you want to know more, please visit www.nytimes.com.

Donald Trump

Our current President, Donald Trump, is in favor of the death penalty. He makes this opinion very known through speeches and tweets. Most recently, he has been calling for the execution of the whistleblower who brought up parts of the President's call with Ukraine. For Trump, capital punishment is more than a form of justice. It's a way to get votes. At many of his rallies, he talks about how he has always supported the death penalty and doesn't understand why others don't. During a campaign rally, Trump talked about Bowe Bergdahl, a U.S. soldier who deserted his post and was taken hostage by the Taliban. Trump says he should be executed by firing squad for deserting his post.

While in office, Trump has looked for reasons to expand the use of the death penalty. Trump has talked about a deal he struck with Xi to expand China’s death penalty to manufacturers of fentanyl. On multiple occasions, Trump has endorsed other countries’ use of the death penalty for some drug crimes. During Trump's remarks in March of 2018 about the opioid crisis, he suggested that the U.S. implement the death penalty or drug related crimes. Trump’s Department of Justice recently asked the Federal Bureau of Prisons to revive the federal death penalty, which has been dormant since 2003.

Trump's love for the death penalty was around long before he became President. Four black males and one Latino male, aged 14 to 16, were on trial in 1989 for the assault and rape of a white female who had been jogging in Central Park. Donald Trump spent $85,000 to run a full-page advertisement in four New York City newspapers, calling for their executions via the reinstatement of the death penalty. The ad read “BRING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY. BRING BACK OUR POLICE!” in bold capital letters. The five men were later exonerated by DNA evidence, but Donald Trump has never retracted or apologized for his demand to have them put to death.

Trump is not pleased with "how easy" some people get it when they are put to death. He has talked in disgust about lethal injections. He disagrees with the use of the midazolam, the drug used so there is no pain. Trump feels as though the inmates do not deserve this drug. He wants them to feel the pain, because they put others in pain with their criminal acts.

Trump very much has an "eye for an eye" approach. When a woman in Oklahoma was beheaded, he suggested that the guilty party be sentenced to death, and should be executed by being beheaded.

Celebrity Influence

This week many celebrities, including Kim Kardashian, Dr. Phil, The EU, and Rihanna, are calling for the freedom of Texas death row inmate Rodney Reed. Many feel that there is overwhelming evidence proving Reed's innocence, and hope to to stop his execution which is scheduled for November 20th of this year.

Reed is convicted of the murder of Stacey Stites. Police say Reed assaulted, raped, and strangled Stites. He was arrested after his sperm was found on Stites, but Reed maintain's his innocence. He claims to have had a mutual sexual affair with Stites, explaining the sperm.

Throughout the years many things have come to light about this case, destroying the prosecution's original case against Reed. One thing that is majorly important is the fact that the states forensic experts have admitted to errors in their testimony, saying their original estimated time of death was incorrect. They originally estimated Stites time of death between 3 and 5 am, helping convict Reed of the murder. However, in a sworn affidavit they now say the time of death was around midnight. This is important because it makes it impossible for Reed to have commited the murder according to the timeline. At this time Stites was with her fiancé Jimmy Fennell.

Another things to note is that Reed was not a suspect in the case for a long time. The original person of interest was actually Fennell. The main reason for this was because of Stites relationship with Reed. Fennell was aware of the affair. Many witnesses have come forward to support the idea that Fennell is actually the killer. An insurance salesperson says that in November of 1995, they remember hearing Fennell saying to Stites "If I ever catch you messing around on me, I will kill you and no one will ever know it was me that killed you." Another witness, a former Lee County Sheriff's deputy, says that at Stites funeral Fennell looked at the body and said "You got what you deserved."

Perhaps the most incriminating evidence against Fennell, despite the fact that he was with her at the time of the murder, is what his friend from jail says he has heard from Fennell. Arthur Snow, the leader of the prison's white supremacist gang, says he recall's  "Jimmy said confidently, 'I had to kill my n----r-loving fiancée.'" It is also important to note that Fennell was in prison for a 10-year sentence for a sex crime and kidnapping. He also has a record of patterned violence against women. 

For an interview conducted by Dr. Phil with Rodney Reed, visit www.innocenceproject.org.

James Dailey

James Dailey is an inmate on death row in Florida, and has been for three decades. He was sentenced to death in 1985 for the murder of a 14-year-old Shelly Boggio. However, to this day he maintains his innocence. His legal team is sure that the case against he was nothing but circumstantial evidence and false testimony from jailhouse informants.

On October 23rd, Dailey was granted a temporary 90-day stay of execution. He was scheduled to be executed on November 7th of this year. He will now get to a chance, with his newly appointed federal counsel, to present his claims of innocence. Part of the reason for his conviction was his co-defendant, Jack Pearcy, implementing him in the crime. However, Pearcy later changed his testimony to exclude Dailey, even signing an affidavit stating that "he, and he alone, was responsible for the death of Boggio." There were also the two jailhouse informants who claimed that Dailey confessed to them, but it was later revealed that a detective tried to get 15 other inmates to implement Dailey. The two that testified agreed to do so in order to receive consideration in their own cases. Without these two pieces of clearly falsified evidence, the prosecution's case falls apart. There were no eyewitnesses, no DNA or any other physical evidence connecting Dailey to the crime.

Many people who hear this case are outraged at the injustice, and truly believe that Dailey is innocent and should be sent free. These people include the Witness to Innocence, Florida's Catholic bishops, and other death row exonerees. Many letters have been sent in support of Dailey, asking for him to receive the justice he deserves. His lawyers are hopeful about the new trial, and they think that justice will finally be on their side. After all, he is an U.S. Air Force veteran who honorably served in Vietnam, shouldn't he have justice on his side?

With Dailey's exoneration, this would be Florida's 30th since 1976. If things do not go Dailey's way, his execution will mark Florida's 100th execution since 1976. Florida has overturned the most death sentences than any other state in America. Sometimes juries get it wrong, and sometimes prosecutors are so sure they have the person that they neglect to look at anything that would prove their innocence. 

Hopefully Dailey gets the justice he deserves, and hopefully we stop sending people to their death's before seriously considering every single fact multiple times.

Current Events

Timothy Hennis is a master sergeant on death row in the Army facility in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He has gone through three trials and is currently appealing the court's most recent ruling that sentenced him to death. He has been charged with three counts of premeditated murder. 

In May, 1985, Tim had responded to an add in the newspaper that was looking for a new home for a dog. The ad was placed by Katie Eastburn. Her husband, Gary Eastburn, was a captain in the Air Force and just found out that he was being relocated to England. The family couldn't take the dog, Dixie, with them so they tried to find Dixie a new home. 

At the time of the exchange and the murder, Gary was in a training assignment in Alabama. Tim arrived to the house to pick up Dixie. The people in the house are Katie and their three kids; 5-year-old Kara, 3-year-old Erin, and 22-month old Janna. Two days after Tim picked up the dog, he was seen making an unexpected visit to the Eastburn household. Four days later, a concerned neighbor called the cops because there was no movement in the house and the newspapers were piling up. When the cops arrived, they looked through the window and say Janna crying. When no one answered, the police broke in and were met with a terrifying stench of death.Kara was found curled up in a star wars blanket, and had been stabbed ten times. Erin was found bludgeoned, almost decapitated in her bed. Katie was also found in her bed, with evidence of rape. She had been stabbed 15 times. Janna appeared unharmed, but distressed and hungry. 

This murder rocked the military community with fear, but they found relief knowing that an arrest happened quickly. Before her murder, Katie wrote to her husband about the "nice man" who adopted Dixie, and after finding this the cops knew they needed to talk to whoever this was. The cops made a public plea to find whoever adopted Dixie, and Tim's wife hears it and makes both of them go to the police and tell them they were the ones who adopted Dixie. When Tim was interviewed, he could not provide an alibi for the night in question. He denied any involvement in the murders. 

When Tim's neighbors were interviewed, they had mentioned that they saw him burning something in a barrel in the early hours of the morning after the murders. Tim was arrested, and endoured a lengthy trial in which gruesome photos of the murder were shown. Tim was convicted of rape and three counts of murder. Tim appealed the case on the grounds that the crime scene photos had inflamed the jury. He was acquitted in 1989 of all charges and released. He returned to the Army, served in the first Gulf War, and had a son. In 2004 he retired in Washington and lived a quiet life. 

In 2006, when DNA testing had significantly improved, and investigators decided to have the State Bureau of Investigations to test the evidence from the crime. A blood sample belonging to Tim matched semen found at the crime scene. Since Tim was already tried and acquitted for the crime, he couldn't be tried again in the state court again. However, he could be tried in military court. So in October of 2006, authorities reenlisted him the Army so that another trial could take place. The Army was able to try him twice for the same trial because of the dual sovereignty doctrine. They dropped the charges of rape due to statute of limitations, but were still attempting the three murders. In 2010, after weeks of testimony and less than three hours deliberation, the jury found Tim Hennis guilty on three counts of premeditated murder. He was sentenced to death. 

Hennis’ lawyers currently argue that constitutional double jeopardy prohibitions should have precluded him from being tried again after his acquittal. A Supreme Court decision in June ruled that state and federal courts, which include military courts, can try the same crimes. However, the defense claims that the Army is acting as a front for the state court.

Ron Keine

On October 16th, 2019, UPJ had a very interesting speaker. A man named Ron Keine, who was wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death. His conviction was overturned and he was exonerated nine days before his execution date. He was brought to our campus and shared his story with the students. got out in 76

In the 70s, Ron belonged to a motorcycle gang. He was stabbed and shot before he was 16, so he joined the gang for protection. His childhood was violent, and not much changed as he grew up. He decided he wanted more in life, so himself and a friend in his motorcycle gang decided they were going to leave and see the country. They ended up in California, and joined "the baddest motorcycle gang." After some time, they decided to go back to Detroit to visit. They got a van, loaded it with bear and went back on the road, and picked up two hitchhikers in Arizona. The hitchhikers started stealing from them, so Ron and his buddies roughed them up and let them back out on the road. Unknown to Ron and his friends, the hitchhiker's got picked up again by another car and they called the police.

Ron and his friends got pulled over in Oklahoma by the cops. They had guns pointed at them, screaming at them to get out of the van. They got arrested for armed robbery. The hitchhikers told the cops that Ron and his buddies beat them up and robbed them. However, they dropped the charges. Somehow, there was another armed robbery that they were being charged with. They received a court appointed attorney. They were charged with armed robbery at a gas station, however that gas station had burned down two years before. Instead of being set free, they were then being held for a murder charge in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The four men were extradited back to new mexico. In jail, they got a court appointed attorney named Hank. Hank informs the guys that he is four months out of law school and this was his highest profile case. They were sure everything was okay, because they knew they didn't kill anyone. At arraignment, they all pled not guilty. The judge accepted their plea, then sent them immediately to death row. Without a trial, without being questioned. Weeks went by, then months. Eventually, they went to trial. The trial lasted two weeks. The prosecution brought in a forensic science/autopsy person who said the victim was shot, stabbed, and had his genitals removed and put in his mouth. The prosecution brought in another star witness named Judith who is a hotel maid. She testified to the murder, calling out Ron and his buddies by their nicknames. The men were confused cause they had never seen her before. The prosecution towed the car, ripped it apart, but couldn't find anything. Not a drop of blood in the van or on their clothes. The prosecution then brought up two prison snitches who claimed Ron admitted to them that they did the murder. Their story, however, did not match up with the maid's. Ron wanted to know where the two snitches lived. This was important because the men were living in death row, and the snitches were not. There was no way Ron could leave his cell in death row to find these guys in protective custody in order to confess to the murder.

A few people from the club in California testified that Ron and them were in California at the time of the murder, and there was even a traffic ticket for one of the defendants from California at the time of the murder. Defendants wanted to subpoena the cop that gave out that ticket, but the judge denied the motion they needed to pay the cop to go to the trial.

As the trial is ending, the prosecutor brought up two surprise witnesses. These witnesses said they saw Ron and one of the guys in the bar in Albuquerque that night. Despite all of this, the men were still not worried. They knew they didn't do it, and they figured innocent people don't go to jail. The jury found them guilty, and they were sentenced to death. The men didn't talk to each other for three days. The justice system failed them. No one believed them when they said they didn't do it. Despite that, they still had hope that the real murderer would of been found.

Ron was preparing to die. Nine days before his execution date, a man walked into a church and confessed to the murder. The priest took him to the police, where he wrote his confession out in detail. He brought in his girlfriend as a witness, who helped him move the body. The man was working as an undercover cop, and said it was a drug bust gone wrong. Hearing this, the men's attorney's got a stay of execution and eventually a new hearing. This is when the prosecutor's argument fell apart. The star witness for the original case, Judith, admitted she lied. She testified that the cops and prosecutor told her everything to say. The forensic scientist from the first trial got up and admitted he lied, and that he never actually saw the body. The two last minute witnesses turned out to be related to the original prosecutor, and not actual witnesses to the crime. It turns out that the whole reason the four men were being charged with the crime was to help cover the undercover cop who actually committed the crime. They spent so much time and money destroying these four innocent men's lives all to save the real murderer from punishment.

After 22 months of being on death row, the four men were finally set free. Ron's record was expunged, but the damage had already been done. He went everywhere trying to get a job, but he couldn't because of the case being so publicized. Even though he was free, he ended up with a life sentence that followed him wherever he went. It didn't matter that he never committed the crime. He couldn't find a job, and even his kids were getting bullied and harassed because they were his kids. Of the four men, he is the only one still alive to tell the tale. His best friend commited suicide not long after they were free, and the other two were murdered by gang violence. Ron now works with www.witnesstoinnocence.org, traveling and telling his story. This man was almost executed for a crime he didn't commit because of a corrupt justice system that would rather put innocent people away than punish the person responsible for the crime, regardless of their job.

Activism

One very prominent activist group in death row cases is the National Coalition to Abolish The Death Penalty.  Their mission is to not only abolish the death plenty in the United States, but to call for the abolishment of this punishment worldwide. The name of their organization is actually an acronym for their vision of the world.

• Neighborhoods that are safe because we identify and address the root causes of crime and violence.
• Compassionate care for all victims of crime.
• Accountability for offenders that is just and acknowledges the possibility of self-transformation, grace and redemption.
• Dignity of all touched by the criminal justice system including those working in our judicial and prison systems.
• Policies that are rational, based on empirical evidence and government accountability.

The NCADP is the nation's oldest organization who's sole focus is the abolishment of the death penalty. They have many different people employed with them, including families of murder victims, as well as past and present law enforcement. Their common goal is to repeal the death penalty, state by state. 

On their website, there is a tab that says about the death penalty, explaining why they feel it should be abolished. There are articles for things such as racial bias, innocence, cost, and harm to prison workers. Their website also has an interactive map, which gives you statistics on death row based on state. For Pennsylvania, there have been 3 executions since 1976. There have been 6 innocent people in PA who have been freed from death row. There are currently 169 inmates in PA waiting for death. The data for PA is current as of September 8th, 2017. If you click read more, they will also tell you where the inmates who are on death row in your state are being held. 

On the front of their home page is a list of upcoming scheduled executions. When you click the take action link, they provide with a number to call. The number is usually a state representative, and all they ask you to do is call and ask them to stop the execution of whoever you are calling about. This really is effective, as some executions have been stayed due to the amount of calls. Stayed means that a court order has been released to temporarily suspend the execution of a court judgment or other court order. The NCADP website shows you which scheduled executions have been given Stayed status. 

This website provides many other options to get involved. It could be as simple as signing a petition, all the way to becoming affiliated with NCADP and their cause. If you are even slightly interested in becoming an activist for the abolishment of the death penalty, www.ncadp.org is a great place to start. 

The Evidence

In today's society, there is a great deal of weight put on forensic findings as hard evidence. Unfortunately, forensic evidence isn't as concrete as you may want to believe. In recent years, the FBI has even admitted to flawed forensic evidence that has been involved in death penalty cases. According to the FBI, their forensic lab that handles hair follicles as provided flawed testimony by matching hair evidence to hair to the defendants charged with the crime.

The FBI reports that of the 268 trials that have been reevaluated so far, the forensics experts have systematically overstated the certainty of the match between the evidence and the defendants hair. The flawed testimony given by the forensics experts ended up favoring the prosecutors 95% of the time. Of the inaccurate testimony, 32 of them were death penalty cases leading to conviction favoring death. Five of these cases come from Pennsylvania, the most from Florida with ten. Unfortunately, of the 32 flawed cases, 9 of the the convicted have already been executed. The FBI believes that this improper testimony of hair comparison may have already contributed to at least one wrongful execution. The report of flawed FBI testimony is likely to only cover a fraction of affected cases seeing as more cases are still under review. Unfortunately, it may be too late for some people.

This issue of flawed forensic evidence is more common than people think, but unfortunately the evidence is still seen as rock solid in courts. According to the National Registry of Exonerations, false or misleading forensic evidence was a contributing factor in 24% of all wrongful convictions nationally. In the United States incorrect forensic evidence, such as DNA, results in 45% of wrongful convictions. When people try to fight this forensic evidence, it could take a long time due to high evidentiary standards. Even worse, some state courts do not recognize discredited scientific evidence as new evidence of a wrongful conviction.

In order to fix this, we need to have a mechanism in place that allows convicted people to prove their innocence if the forensic evidence used to convict them was incorrect. They shouldn't be punished because someone in the lab made a mistake. Currently, there are only five states that have enacted laws allowing convicted people to go back to court based on discredited forensic evidence; California, Connecticut, Michigan, Nevada, and Texas. The rest of America needs to implement laws like these five states in order to ensure a fair trial with correct evidence. We also need to understand as a society the forensic evidence is not as solid as we think.

For more information on this topic, please visit www.innocenceproject.org

The Cost

The Death Row system is a government program, and as such is a very expensive system to upkeep. It is a far more expensive program compared to life-without-parole. Some of the high costs are related to longer trials, the need for more lawyers and experts on both sides of the case, and how rare executions actually are. A Susquehanna University report found that on average, a death row inmate costs $1.2 million more than a general population inmate. In July of 2018 there were 2,738 inmates on death row. Per the Susquehanna report, that is an extra $3 Billion dollars we are spending on death row. An easy way to save that money is to convert those sentenced to life-without-parole. 

In North Carolina alone, the death penalty costs $2.6 million per execution more than just sentencing the murderer to life imprisonment. Part of this cost is due to the legal battle everyone goes through when the prosecutor seeks the death penalty. The constitution requires a long and extensive trial for death penalty cases since it is a capital offence. If convicted, the process of appeals could take decades to complete. The cost to convict and sentence someone is between $200,000 to $300,000. Since 1978, California has spent more than $4 billion administering the death penalty. That is approximately $308 million per person for each of the 13 people who have been executed in California since the death penalty was reinstated.

If we sentence these inmates to life-without-parole, we are saving a ton of money. The death penalty does not make us any safer that those who get life-without-parole (LWOP). In fact, LWOP and the death penalty have the same deterrent effect: criminals remain off the streets for the rest of their lives. The death penalty does not deter crime any more that LWOP does. If it did, the states that currently use the death penalty would be more safe than the states that don't. However, that is not the case.

People are scared that if we get rid of the death penalty that will mean criminals would not pay for the crimes they commit. However, what people don't understand is that LWOP is basically a death sentence in itself. Those convicted of LWOP will die in prison. They will not be released, and they will spend their last days in a prison cell, still in the system. Yes, it's not a big show like the death penalty is, but doing it this way is much more cost effective. And with the money we save by cutting the death penalty, we can use that money to improve the criminal justice system by increasing public safety or providing resources to help prevent wrongful convictions.

If you would like to know more about this topic, please visit https://deathpenaltyinfo.org.

Innocent Until Proven Guilty

When someone is sentenced to death, it is because they are found guilty in a court of law. However, just because they are found guilty doesn't mean they truly are guilty. In a report released in 2014 by the National Academy of Sciences, at estimate 4.1% of people sentenced to death are actually innocent. The percentage does not include the 138 inmates who were extenuated from the death sentence after being proven innocent. Innocent people end up on death row due to multiple factors, including poor representation, biased judging and racial profiling.

A man by the name of Kenneth Foster Jr. was on death row because of a Texas law called "Law of Parties." This law made Kenneth's presence a co-conspirator to murder, and just as responsible as the man who pulled the trigger. What's even more outrageous about Kenneth's conviction is that it was in relation to a murder that the courts never claimed he committed. They never once implicated him in the actual crime, but because he was there he became open to the same punishment as the actual murderer.

Kenneth was 19 at the time of the crime, and was driving him and his buddies around the town. His buddies had him pull over to commit a few robbery's along the streets of Texas. Eventually, they decided to call it a night and Kenneth began to drive his three friends and himself home. At some point, they got lost and ended up in front of a house. Kenneth's friend, Mauriceo Brown, got out of the car and got into an altercation with the victim named Michael LaHood. Michael was shot by Mauriceo, which lead to his death. Kenneth was still in his car, 80 feet away, when the crime occurred. According to Kenneth, Mauriceo had never talked about murder in the car, and had no intent on shooting let alone killing someone that night.

Because of the the Texas "Law of Parties," Both Kenneth and Mauriceo were sentenced to death for this crime. Mauriceo was executed in 2006, and Kenneth was set to be executed not long after him. August 30th, 2007, Kenneth's execution date. Once his execution date was announced, many activities and grass-root movements came to his aid and shared the injustice he was facing. He was wrongfully being executed for a crime even the courts said he did not commit. On August 30th, just one hour before his execution, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted 6-1 for clemency. The governor commuted Kenneth's sentence from death to life imprisonment.

It was a close call for Kenneth, but just one hour before his execution he was saved. He was one hour away from being killed for a crime he didn't commit. Although life is prison isn't better, considering his actions compared to his charges, but he is still thankful for all the support that helped shed light on the injustice that was happening. He admits to the burglaries earlier that night, but things he has now served too much time for the crime. He still has a long battle ahead of him, but he notes that he is one of the "lucky" ones.

Not many truly innocent people escape the death penalty. We are sending people who are innocent to death, sometimes because the court has already made up their minds before hearing the case. We need to call for change in the death row and justice system, because one innocent inmate death at the hands of the government is too many.

If you would like to learn more about Kenneth's story, you can watch it on episode two of Netflix's documentary series I am a Killer. You can also help support Kenneth's continued battle by visiting
www.freekenneth.com.

For more information on innocent prisoners and wrongful conviction, you can visit
www.innocenceproject.org.

Lethal Injection

As mentioned in my last post, James Robertson prefers to be put to death by lethal injection. This method seems simple and painless, but there have been complications in the past with previous inmates. Sometimes the procedure is not done right and the inmates experience an imminence amount of pain, and even survive the experience. According to a study done in 2014 by Austin Sarat, there have been 75 botched executions by lethal injection from 1890 to 2010. This study done by Austin brings into light the reality that although it seems simple, it does not always work. 

Lethal injection was sold to the government as a sort of medical procedure where a doctor would help an inmate "go to sleep" without waking up. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. First and foremost, doctors do not actually perform these procedures because it violates ethical codes. That means the person who is actually performing the procedure is not properly trained on how to perform the execution. It should also be noted that neither medical professionals or scientists came up with the "design" of the execution process. The process was actually created by a medical examiner in Oklahoma.

While the procedure of lethal injection varies from state to state, most follow a three step process; first is an anesthetic, then a paralytic, and finally a third drug to initiate cardiac arrest. The main issues in the procedure arrive at step two or three. If the inmate is not completely knocked out from step one, and they receive the second drug that paralyzes them, then they are put in an awful situation where you are awake, but you cannot move or breath. This essentially causes the sensation of suffocation, but the inmate can not tell anyone because their muscles are paralyzed. When step three is done, it feels as though fire is being put into your veins. Again very painful, but the inmate is unable to tell anyone. The point of step one was to knock you out so you don't feel steps two or three, but because untrained people are doing the procedures, step one can sometimes go wrong. 

The drug most commonly used to use for step one was called sodium thiopental, but it was no longer being made in America during 2011 and, and is no longer approved by the FDA for import into the country. Some states started buying the drugs illegally, including Arizona and Texas. Most states have given up on sodium thiopental and have turned to a drug called midazolam. This drug, however, is a sedative not a general anesthetic. This new drugs purpose is used to relax someone. This problem has been brought up in court, and the states use the testimony of Dr. Roswell Lee Evans to justify the use of midazolam over another anesthetic even though he has not done any studies with the drug in question.

In 2014, Inmate Clayton Lockett was one of the first prisoners in Oklahoma to use midazolam for his execution. This execution took 43 minutes. A phlebotomist tried to insert the needle in Lockett's arms, neck, groan, and foot. A few minutes after the execution began Lockett's attorney, who was there as a witness, said he began to notice Lockett trying to sit up. He noted that after Lockett's attempts to sit up, Lockett said "somethings wrong." The problem was that the initial drugs did not enter his veins, it instead entered the tissue. This means that he felt both the sensation of suffocation from the second drug, and fire in your veins from the third drug. This single case alone sheds light on how lethal injection can go terribly wrong, causing tremendous amounts of unnecessary pain.

Lethal injection was supposed to be an humane alternative to other executions procedures such as electrocution. The government and the public were sold on this idea that lethal injection was like putting someone to sleep, but if done improperly it is actually a gruesomely painful way to die. According to Austin's study mentioned earlier, lethal injection has the highest botch rate at 7.12%. Part of the problem is that doctors can't and won't participate in the execution procedures, so untrained people are trying to administer the drugs. Sometimes these untrained people fail, and the inmate is left with a gruesome death, or in some case a survivor of the experience with a really traumatic memory now stuck in their head. Another issue is that the original drug used as an anaesthetic can no longer be used, and the drug that is currently in place is not actually an anaesthetic.

Just because someone ends up on death row, just because they committed a heinous crime, does not mean that they should experience phenomenal amounts of pain when they are being put to death. Lethal injection is not a humane way to kill inmates, and it should not be used to do so. We were sold a lie so that we would be okay with killing a human being, taking away a life, because we thought it was not causing them harm. Now that we know it does, we need to bring this to Washington's attention and demand change. Better yet, we need to demand an end to the use of lethal injection forever.

If you want to know more about this subject, John Oliver has a really good youtube video on lethal injection that is worth watching. 

Death Row by Choice

James Robertson, a 53 year old inmate in Florida, is currently awaiting death by lethal injection or electrocution. James was originally incarcerated for a minor theft charge in 1980, but his sentence kept getting extended due to multiple assault charges while being incarcerated. Eventually, he was facing a 100 year total sentence due to all of his fights. Between a long sentence and constantly being put in solitary confinement, he decided that death row was his best option for him. 

In Netflix's new documentary I am a Killer, James says that he was unfairly targeted by the prison officers. He claims that they "just put somebody in the cell and would use any excuse to keep them in there." While in solitary, James spent 23 hours a day locked up, and this is where he decided enough was enough. He couldn't handle the little freedoms he had being taken away from him, and he didn't like all the rules that were given to him. He had heard of the "glamorous" life on death row, which included a TV, better meals, and less rules. James decided that he was going to go ahead and kill somebody in order to change his conditions. 

In December of 2008, James killed his elder roommate Fran Hart while the guards were doing their rounds. After the guards passed their cell for the first inspection, James knew he had 25 minutes to put his plan into action, before the next guard came by. James strangled Frank with a makeshift weapon in a matter of minutes. When James was evaluated, the doctors found that James committed the act willfully. That fact is never disputed because James will willingly tell you he planned on doing it. When being interviewed for the documentary, James said " It was premeditated all the way. I don't feel bad about it."

James knew that if he murdered someone, he would end up on death row and would receive all the "benefits" that came along with it. He murdered his cellmate just too achieve his goal, and abused the system to fit his personal needs. Death row is not a place for inmates who get tired of their life in jail. Yes solitary confinement is hard to live in, but had he followed the rules given to him and gotten in less fights, he wouldn't of ended up there as often as he had. Although Hart was in prison for his own reasons, that doesn't mean he deserved to serve as a pawn for James to get in a cushy living environment. James abused the system to escape solitary and all the rules that came along with it.

James is currently waiting to be executed, but until they he enjoys privileges such as TV. He is not nervous to be executed. In the Netflix documentary he says, "I'd much rather have a needle stuck in me than be electrocuted but I could go either way. You read how it's 'inhumane' but that's a load of bulls**t. You don't feel anything." If you want to know more about his story, you can hear it in the first episode of I am a Killer currently on Netflix. 

Welcome to Death Row

Hello, I am inmate Madison Neill. I am a senior in college studying Political Science with a minor in Writing. One thing I enjoy doing is listening to my favorite podcast, Crime Junkie. This podcast talks about not common criminal cases, usually cold cases, and sometimes cases of injustice. Occasionally they will discuss how a person was put on trial for a crime they didn't commit, and the fight the person went through to clear their name. That got me thinking, how many people are currently sitting on death row because of an injustice of the judicial system. That thinking further spiraled into who is on death row that simply shouldn't be there, and how many innocent people have been executed because of a bias prosecutor or judge.

Sorry to disappoint you, but I am not actually an inmate in prison. However, I will be shedding some light on inmates who are in prison and are on death row. In this blog, I will discuss the issues surrounding death row and why I think it should no longer be used as a solution in the justice system. Not only are there humanitarian issues, such as the question of if the practice is human and how things such as lethal injection can do more harm than good, but there are also injustices in the system. There are people who are innocent that are being sent to death, people who may have committed a crime, but not a crime that warrants death, and even inmates that abuse the system.

I know what you're thinking, how could inmates possibly abuse the death row system? Why would they even want to? Later in the blog I will be discussing a man named James Robertson, who murdered in order to achieve better conditions in prison. I am not saying there are many inmates who do abuse the system, but it does happen. They decide that the conditions they are currently facing are not good, and think that death row can offer them a better life until their death.

Hopefully after reading this blog you will understand the desire to do away with, or at least severely limit, the death row option in our justice system. I am not looking to change your mind, and I am aware there are bad people in the world that may deserve this punishment, but I am asking you to open your mind to the possibility that the death row system needs major reform. So grab your orange jumpsuit, find your bunk, and join me on the mission to reform not only death row, but the American justice system.