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The Afro-American, September 12, 2015 - September 12, 2015
September 12, 2015 - September 18, 2015, The Afro-American
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Arkansas Governor Sets Execution Dates After 10-year Gap By The Associated Press Arkansas will resume lethal injections after a 10-year gap starting next month with a double execution, Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Sept. 9 as he announced execution dates for eight death-row inmates. Arkansas hasn’t executed an inmate since 2005, largely because of court challenges to the state’s lethal injection law and a nationwide shortage of drugs that Arkansas has used during executions. But last week, Attorney General Leslie Rutledge sent letters to the governor requesting that execution dates be set. Rutledge said the inmates’ appeals had been exhausted, and the state Department of Correction said it had enough doses of its lethalinjection drugs to perform the executions. Hutchinson set four dates through January, meaning two men are scheduled to be executed on each date. But he acknowledged that challenges are likely. “Quite frankly I would expect continued litigation in it, but it’s my understanding that all of the appeals have been exhausted and that there is a finality in the judgment and that is the reason the Attorney General has asked for those dates to be set,” Hutchinson said. One pending lawsuit challenges a new state law that allows the Correction Department not to disclose how it obtains its execution drugs. Attorney Jeff Rosenzweig, who is representing
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The sedative midazolam is used, with two other drugs, in Arkansas’ new execution protocol. the eight inmates in the lawsuit, said he and other lawyers are working on filing motions to delay the executions. “We think the lethal injection lawsuit presents serious issues that need to be resolved first before any executions can take place,” he said. Federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, have
rejected similar arguments used by inmates in Missouri, Texas and other states that also allow prisons to keep their drug suppliers’ names secret. The first two executions are scheduled for Oct. 21 for deathrow inmates Bruce Earl Ward and Don William Davis. Ward, a former perfume salesman, was convicted in the 1989 killing of 18-year-old Rebecca Doss, whose body was found in the men’s bathroom of the convenience store where she worked. Davis, who had an execution date set in 2006 that was later stayed, was sentenced to death for the 1990 killing of Jane Daniels in northwest Arkansas. The other execution dates are set for Nov. 3, Dec. 14 and Jan. 14. Arkansas has executed 27 people since the U.S. Supreme Court reauthorized the death penalty in 1976, though none since Eric Nance was put to death in 2005 for the killing of 18-year-old Julie Heath of Malvern. Arkansas’s execution protocol calls for a three-drug process. The Department of Correction said that as of July 1, it had enough of the drugs, including midazolam, to perform the executions. Midazolam was implicated after executions last year in Arizona, Ohio and Oklahoma went longer than expected, with inmates gasping and groaning as they died. The U.S. Supreme Court approved continued use of the drug in June, rejecting a challenge from three Oklahoma death-row inmates.
Presidential Candidates Duel on Iran; House GOP in Turmoil
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At a conservative rally against President Obama’s nuclear accord with Iran, protesters waved ugly signs. By The Associated Press
60-day deadline clock on remained uncertain. In the the congressional review Senate debate did begin on period can’t really start until the resolution, with some lawmakers get information describing the vote as among on separate agreements the most consequential in their negotiated with Iran by the lifetimes. Underscoring the International Atomic Energy occasion, McConnell urged Agency. all senators to be present, Yet the maneuvering though most Democrats and appeared to be moving some Republicans ignored the forward without the blessing request. of the powerful pro-Israel Congress has until Sept. lobby AIPAC, which has led 17 to pass a disapproval opposition to the accord. An resolution of the Iran deal, official with the group said its under legislation passed preference was for a straight earlier this year giving vote on the disapproval lawmakers the right to resolution — something review it. Republican leaders Senate Democrats are trying did not sound receptive to block with a filibuster. to conservative attempts The fate of that effort T:7.5738”to change the terms of the
debate. “Right now we’ve got strong bipartisan opposition to this deal. It’s my opinion that we’re far better off focusing on the substance” rather than the timing of a vote, said GOP Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. The White House and Democratic lawmakers were dismissive of the conservative moves. “Sounds like a plan hatched up at Tortilla Coast on a Tuesday night,” said White House spokesman Eric Schultz, naming a restaurant near the Capitol where congressional conservatives meet.
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Debate on the Iran nuclear deal morphed into full-blown political spectacle on Sept. 9 as Donald Trump and Ted Cruz held a rally to denounce it, Hillary Rodham Clinton gave a speech to praise it and congressional Republicans turned on each other angrily as they grasped for a last-ditch play to stop it. The maneuvering and speechifying did little to change the reality: Barring unlikely success of an eleventh-hour gambit by the House, the international accord aimed at curbing Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for relief from economic sanctions will move ahead. Even if Congress succeeds in passing legislation aimed at undermining it by next week’s deadline, President Barack Obama would veto such a measure and minority Democrats command enough votes to sustain him. But that seemed only to inflame GOP opponents as Congress convened for its first full day back after a five-week summer recess that hardened partisan divisions around the accord. Republicans turned up the rhetoric against the deal at a rally outside the Capitol, while inside, House conservatives searched for a legislative way to undermine it. Across town, Clinton praised the accord. “Diplomacy is not the pursuit of perfection. It is the balancing of risk,” she said in a speech at the Brookings Institution. Either the deal moves forward, she said, or “we turn down a more dangerous path leading to a far less certain and riskier future.” The message was far different at the Capitol rally headlined by GOP presidential candidates Trump and Cruz denouncing the Iran accord, which Republicans contend
will not stop the Iranians from developing a nuclear bomb. The gathering featured conservative favorites, including former vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, in front of several thousand people who waved flags and banners denouncing Obama. One placard showed a smiling president alongside a billowing mushroom cloud over New York City. “Never ever, ever in my life have I seen a deal so incompetently negotiated as our deal with Iran,” Trump told the crowd. “We are led by very, very stupid people. We cannot let it continue.” The congressional resolution, on its own, wouldn’t reverse a multicountry agreement already blessed by the United Nations. A vote of disapproval, however, could signal Congress’ readiness to introduce new sanctions at the risk of causing Tehran — and other governments — to abandon the accord and blame the U.S. for the failure. Along with the criticism of Obama, the crowd outside the Capitol booed lustily as speakers mentioned Republican House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. Conservatives long dissatisfied with their leadership demanded that McConnell and Boehner come up with a way to stop the deal. No such solution seemed likely given strong Democratic unity and Obama’s veto pen. But the conservative resistance was enough to force House GOP leaders to cancel the start of debate on a disapproval resolution and call an emergency meeting on how to move forward. Leaders hastily developed a Plan B involving votes on several related measures: one to specify that the Obama
administration had not properly submitted the accord to Congress; a second, boundto-fail vote to approve the deal and a third to prevent Obama from lifting congressionally mandated sanctions on Iran. Debate and votes were to begin on Sept. 9. “We need to pull every tool out of the toolbox to stop this bad deal,” said Rep. Bill Flores, R-Texas. The rebels were egged on by Sen. Cruz, who has repeatedly allied himself with House conservatives to thwart the plans of GOP leaders. He and others argued that the disapproval vote should be delayed, contending the
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