Up in Washington, there isn’t going to be any executions for awhile because the current governor, Governor Jay Inslee, has announced that he’s against the death penalty and he’s going to use his power to issue reprieves to stop executions in that state.
This means that defendants can still face the death penalty in trials
Image: Terence Lenamon in foreground, with client Andrew Castor and Terry’s co-defense counsel, LenamonLaw’s Melissa Ortiz, during trial. Photo by Marisa Kendall / The News-Press
____________________
Pictured above is Terry Lenamon at work during the recent trial of Andrew Castor over in Cape Coral, Florida. The death penalty was taken off the table early
The Death Penalty Information Center has issued its annual report on capital punishment in the United States – and finds that the number of executions fell below 40 for only the 2nd time in almost 20 years (1994).
The Florida Supreme Court issued its ruling in the use of midazolam hydrochloride as part of lethal injection executions this week.
Read the opinion in its entirety here. From their decision:
We acknowledge that, as we explained in Lightbourne, if the inmate is not fully unconscious when the second and third drugs, vecuronium bromide and
Documentary film maker Andrea (Andy) Scott has a new documentary coming out that may be interesting to those following death penalty issues …. It’s a film covering a local community in Arizona that has an economy revolving around 9 different incarceration spots, be they prisons, jails or immigration detention centers.
The town is Florence
Here’s the status of the pending challenge to the Timely Justice Act as passed by the Florida Legislature and signed into law by Florida Governor Rick Scott, as of July 25:
From the Florida Supreme Court’s online docket:
1. On July 16, 2013, the Florida Supreme Court granted the Motion for Leave to File Amicus
Last week, the Governor of the State of Maryland signed a bill presented to him by the Maryland legislature and with his signature, the death penalty was abolished in Maryland.
In doing so, Gov. Martin O’Malley brought Maryland into the history books as the sixth state in as many years to do away with