Post by Anja Nieser on Sept 19, 2006 16:44:15 GMT -5
Court to hear detailed account of executions----Death row inmate's lawyers
argue cruelty of injection
Lawyers for death row inmate Vernon L. Evans Jr. expect to bring into
federal court this week the men and women who have participated in
Maryland's previous executions to ask them what they did and how they were
trained and to inquire about any past problems with the lethal injection
procedures that the convicted killer is challenging.
The attorneys argue that Maryland's execution protocol violates the
constitutional ban against cruel and unusual punishment, and that decades
of intravenous drug use by Evans - including as recently as 4 years ago
when he was incarcerated in a federal prison in Atlanta - have so ravaged
his veins that he is at a particular risk of excruciating pain.
By calling medical and veterinary experts to testify - and even a witness
to a botched execution in Ohio during which the condemned man lifted his
head and declared, "It don't work" - Evans' lawyers are hoping to persuade
U.S. District Judge Benson E. Legg to direct Maryland officials to change
the state's execution procedures and to require that trained medical
personnel be involved.
"This court will be following well-traveled ground in granting relief to
Vernon Evans," attorney A. Stephen Hut Jr. told the judge during
yesterday's opening statements in the case. He noted that courts in
California, Missouri and North Carolina have required corrections
officials to modify lethal injection procedures and that judges in Ohio
and Arkansas have halted scheduled executions because of pending legal
challenges.
But an attorney for the state countered yesterday in her opening statement
that an execution is not a medical procedure and should not be held to the
standards for the practice of medicine.
"It is the antithesis of medical treatment. It is not undertaken to cure,
heal or ameliorate any illness or deformity," said Laura Mullally, an
assistant attorney general for the Department of Public Safety and
Correctional Services.
"The plaintiffs will attempt to present evidence that ... what has
happened in other states is a true foreshadowing of what is inevitable in
Maryland," Mullally said. "But other states' errors, if there are any, are
other states' errors."
Evans, 56, was sentenced to death 14 years ago for the 1983 contract
killings of David Scott Piechowicz and his sister-in-law Susan Kennedy at
a Pikesville motel where they worked. Piechowicz and his wife, Cheryl, who
was also a motel employee, were scheduled to testify in federal court
against drug kingpin Anthony Grandison.
Grandison, also sentenced to death for the fatal shootings, remains on
Maryland's death row.
With Evans scheduled to be put to death in February, the inmate's defense
team initially asked for an emergency injunction to challenge Maryland's
lethal injection procedures. Legg declined.
But when Maryland's highest court postponed Evans' execution - scheduled
for the week of Feb. 6 - to hear four legal challenges, Evans won time to
pursue the federal lawsuit. A decision from the Court of Appeals is
pending.
Deborah Denno, a Fordham Law School professor and national lethal
injection expert, said the legal landscape for death row inmates has
changed significantly in recent months.
Lending "particular momentum" to inmates' lethal injection lawsuits, she
said, was a California judge's Feb. 14 order in the Michael Morales case.
U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel directed state prison officials there to
either use only a fatal dose of anesthetic to execute Morales or else have
an anesthesiologist on hand to ensure he was unconscious before the
delivery of paralyzing and heart-stopping chemicals.
That combination of anesthetic, paralytic and heart-stopping drugs is used
by most of the 37 states, including Maryland, with lethal injection
statutes.
The Morales case is scheduled for a four-day evidentiary hearing next
week. Fogel has also visited California's execution chamber.
Legg, the judge overseeing Evans' case, similarly examined Maryland's
execution chamber in person over the summer, lawyers involved in the case
said. He is scheduled to hear seven days of testimony in Evans' case.
"With all these hearings, departments of correction are really being
pressed to the wall to describe in explicit detail what they do," Denno
added.
Hut, one of Evans' attorneys, told the judge that testimony from members
of Maryland's execution team will highlight not only their actions during
past executions but also what he characterized as the cursory screening
process for their selection.
A correctional officer responsible for mixing the chemicals has "an
extensive record" of disciplinary problems, including mistreating an
inmate and falsifying a report to cover his actions, Hut said.
A former state trooper responsible for injecting the fatal mixture into
the IV line was forced to retire after failing to cooperate with an
internal affairs investigation after he was charged with assaulting a
teenager, Hut said.
Testimony is scheduled to begin today and continue through the week.
Attorneys for the state are scheduled to present their case over 3 days in
October.
(source: The Baltimore Sun)
argue cruelty of injection
Lawyers for death row inmate Vernon L. Evans Jr. expect to bring into
federal court this week the men and women who have participated in
Maryland's previous executions to ask them what they did and how they were
trained and to inquire about any past problems with the lethal injection
procedures that the convicted killer is challenging.
The attorneys argue that Maryland's execution protocol violates the
constitutional ban against cruel and unusual punishment, and that decades
of intravenous drug use by Evans - including as recently as 4 years ago
when he was incarcerated in a federal prison in Atlanta - have so ravaged
his veins that he is at a particular risk of excruciating pain.
By calling medical and veterinary experts to testify - and even a witness
to a botched execution in Ohio during which the condemned man lifted his
head and declared, "It don't work" - Evans' lawyers are hoping to persuade
U.S. District Judge Benson E. Legg to direct Maryland officials to change
the state's execution procedures and to require that trained medical
personnel be involved.
"This court will be following well-traveled ground in granting relief to
Vernon Evans," attorney A. Stephen Hut Jr. told the judge during
yesterday's opening statements in the case. He noted that courts in
California, Missouri and North Carolina have required corrections
officials to modify lethal injection procedures and that judges in Ohio
and Arkansas have halted scheduled executions because of pending legal
challenges.
But an attorney for the state countered yesterday in her opening statement
that an execution is not a medical procedure and should not be held to the
standards for the practice of medicine.
"It is the antithesis of medical treatment. It is not undertaken to cure,
heal or ameliorate any illness or deformity," said Laura Mullally, an
assistant attorney general for the Department of Public Safety and
Correctional Services.
"The plaintiffs will attempt to present evidence that ... what has
happened in other states is a true foreshadowing of what is inevitable in
Maryland," Mullally said. "But other states' errors, if there are any, are
other states' errors."
Evans, 56, was sentenced to death 14 years ago for the 1983 contract
killings of David Scott Piechowicz and his sister-in-law Susan Kennedy at
a Pikesville motel where they worked. Piechowicz and his wife, Cheryl, who
was also a motel employee, were scheduled to testify in federal court
against drug kingpin Anthony Grandison.
Grandison, also sentenced to death for the fatal shootings, remains on
Maryland's death row.
With Evans scheduled to be put to death in February, the inmate's defense
team initially asked for an emergency injunction to challenge Maryland's
lethal injection procedures. Legg declined.
But when Maryland's highest court postponed Evans' execution - scheduled
for the week of Feb. 6 - to hear four legal challenges, Evans won time to
pursue the federal lawsuit. A decision from the Court of Appeals is
pending.
Deborah Denno, a Fordham Law School professor and national lethal
injection expert, said the legal landscape for death row inmates has
changed significantly in recent months.
Lending "particular momentum" to inmates' lethal injection lawsuits, she
said, was a California judge's Feb. 14 order in the Michael Morales case.
U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel directed state prison officials there to
either use only a fatal dose of anesthetic to execute Morales or else have
an anesthesiologist on hand to ensure he was unconscious before the
delivery of paralyzing and heart-stopping chemicals.
That combination of anesthetic, paralytic and heart-stopping drugs is used
by most of the 37 states, including Maryland, with lethal injection
statutes.
The Morales case is scheduled for a four-day evidentiary hearing next
week. Fogel has also visited California's execution chamber.
Legg, the judge overseeing Evans' case, similarly examined Maryland's
execution chamber in person over the summer, lawyers involved in the case
said. He is scheduled to hear seven days of testimony in Evans' case.
"With all these hearings, departments of correction are really being
pressed to the wall to describe in explicit detail what they do," Denno
added.
Hut, one of Evans' attorneys, told the judge that testimony from members
of Maryland's execution team will highlight not only their actions during
past executions but also what he characterized as the cursory screening
process for their selection.
A correctional officer responsible for mixing the chemicals has "an
extensive record" of disciplinary problems, including mistreating an
inmate and falsifying a report to cover his actions, Hut said.
A former state trooper responsible for injecting the fatal mixture into
the IV line was forced to retire after failing to cooperate with an
internal affairs investigation after he was charged with assaulting a
teenager, Hut said.
Testimony is scheduled to begin today and continue through the week.
Attorneys for the state are scheduled to present their case over 3 days in
October.
(source: The Baltimore Sun)