Saturday, January 27, 2018
Sunday, January 7, 2018
AZ in the news
https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/node/6960
Several months after Arizona settled a lawsuit over the conditions of confinement on the state's death row, the state has ended the practice of automatically housing condemned prisoners in solitary confinement, and prisoners and prison officials alike are praising the changes. Carson McWilliams (pictured), Division Director for Offender Operations in the Arizona Department of Corrections (ADC), told the Arizona Republic that the new incarceration conditions provide an "atmosphere where [prisoners] can socialize," resulting in "reduce[d] anxiety" that, in turn, "adds to safety control" of the prison. And, prison officials say, it has reduced institutional costs. Prior to the lawsuit, death row had meant 23-hour-per-day confinement in a concrete cell the size of a parking space, shuttered by a steel door with a perforated slot through which the prisoners would receive their meals, and with a bench bed and a sink attached to an uncovered toilet. Prisoners had no contact visits with families or lawyers, were handcuffed behind the back and subjected to body-cavity searches whenever they left their cells, and were restricted to showering or exercising three times a week. They also were denied prison jobs and educational opportunities. About the solitary conditions, McWilliams remarked, "The more you're restricted inside a cell, the more likely you are to have depression, to have anxiety, to have other types of mental problems that could lead to some type of problem inside the system, whether its self harm, or suicide, or aggression towards a staff member or towards another inmate." One death-row prisoner who was interviewed by the paper said, "It’s hard to explain the deprivation. . . . It weighs on your mind." McWilliams said it now requires fewer officers to manage death row because officers no longer have to deliver individual meals or individually escort each of the 120 prisoners. Kevin Curran, who has been a prison warden at various facilities run by the ADC, said that he "feels safer among the death-row men than among the career criminals and gangsters in the general population." Under the new conditions, prisoners are able to socialize with each other in activities such as playing basketball, volleyball, or board games, and can eat meals together. One ADC corrections officer told the Arizona Republic that he was "apprehensive" at first about the changes, but the transition has been "very good" with only a "few minor incidents," which were "a lot less" than he expected.
(M. Kiefer, Arizona death row comes out of solitary, giving convicts more human contact, socialization, Arizona Republic, Dec. 19, 2017.) See Death Row.
Several months after Arizona settled a lawsuit over the conditions of confinement on the state's death row, the state has ended the practice of automatically housing condemned prisoners in solitary confinement, and prisoners and prison officials alike are praising the changes. Carson McWilliams (pictured), Division Director for Offender Operations in the Arizona Department of Corrections (ADC), told the Arizona Republic that the new incarceration conditions provide an "atmosphere where [prisoners] can socialize," resulting in "reduce[d] anxiety" that, in turn, "adds to safety control" of the prison. And, prison officials say, it has reduced institutional costs. Prior to the lawsuit, death row had meant 23-hour-per-day confinement in a concrete cell the size of a parking space, shuttered by a steel door with a perforated slot through which the prisoners would receive their meals, and with a bench bed and a sink attached to an uncovered toilet. Prisoners had no contact visits with families or lawyers, were handcuffed behind the back and subjected to body-cavity searches whenever they left their cells, and were restricted to showering or exercising three times a week. They also were denied prison jobs and educational opportunities. About the solitary conditions, McWilliams remarked, "The more you're restricted inside a cell, the more likely you are to have depression, to have anxiety, to have other types of mental problems that could lead to some type of problem inside the system, whether its self harm, or suicide, or aggression towards a staff member or towards another inmate." One death-row prisoner who was interviewed by the paper said, "It’s hard to explain the deprivation. . . . It weighs on your mind." McWilliams said it now requires fewer officers to manage death row because officers no longer have to deliver individual meals or individually escort each of the 120 prisoners. Kevin Curran, who has been a prison warden at various facilities run by the ADC, said that he "feels safer among the death-row men than among the career criminals and gangsters in the general population." Under the new conditions, prisoners are able to socialize with each other in activities such as playing basketball, volleyball, or board games, and can eat meals together. One ADC corrections officer told the Arizona Republic that he was "apprehensive" at first about the changes, but the transition has been "very good" with only a "few minor incidents," which were "a lot less" than he expected.
(M. Kiefer, Arizona death row comes out of solitary, giving convicts more human contact, socialization, Arizona Republic, Dec. 19, 2017.) See Death Row.
Wednesday, December 13, 2017
Monday, December 11, 2017
Wednesday, November 29, 2017
Arizona Statelines from The Wing
Warm greetings to everyone on both sides of the
pond – I hope this finds you all in good spirits and that your friendships,
both new and old, are going well. Thank you to everyone for your letters and
emails; it is always good to hear from you.
I
am sorry to say we lost one of our friends on the row – Albert Carreon died of
an illness on 8th September aged 55. He had been on the row for 14 years. May
he rest in peace now. My thoughts are with his penfriend at this difficult
time.
Now an update on the
legal case originally brought by a coalition of news organisations in 2014,
which has received its final ruling: Arizona does not have to reveal who provides its
execution drugs or divulge the qualifications of people who carry out executions.
U.S. District Judge Snow ruled the media outlets didn't show they had a First
Amendment right to know the suppliers of lethal injection drugs and showed
concern that some drug suppliers would decline to do business with the state if
their identities were not kept secret. However the media coalition has filed
notice that it will appeal the ruling. (Sources: Associated Press & Arizona
Republic)
I’m
glad to say that hope has sprung up in another quarter though. A group of 20
former Arizona judges, prosecutors and legal experts are urging the U.S.
Supreme Court to hear an interesting new case brought by one of the guys on the
row. If it decides to hear the case they will have to decide whether the
state’s death penalty law is constitutional, but also whether the death penalty
as a whole is. The lead lawyer on the case is former Obama administration
acting solicitor general Neal Katyal, also known as the lead lawyer for
Hawaii's challenge to President Trump's travel ban.
The
primary argument of the case is that Arizona’s law doesn't do enough to narrow
who is eligible for the death penalty. After the Supreme Court found the US
death penalty unconstitutional in 1972, it brought it back 4 years later only as
a result of new state laws that imposed new constraints. For example, Arizona’s
new law required the finding of "aggravating" circumstances, which
the court concluded would "direct and limit" who was eligible for
execution "so as to minimize the risk of wholly arbitrary and capricious
action." At that point there were just 6 aggravating factors that could
make someone eligible for the death penalty. However 40 years later the law now
lists 14 factors so that, far from the state limiting the application of the
death penalty, it has instead expanded it. Indeed, so much so that in an 11
year period 99% of murder cases in Arizona were classed eligible for the death
penalty. If the suit was successful Dale Baich, the assistant federal public
defender, advises it could result in some death sentences being vacated.
The
secondary aim is that the court should rule the death penalty unconstitutional nationwide
under the Eighth Amendment's guarantee against cruel and unusual punishment. It
makes three other key arguments in support of this larger aim: states can't give
guidance that ensures only "the worst offenders" are sentenced to
death; states can't enforce the death penalty without "ensnaring and
putting to death the innocent" and decades spent on death row with
"the remote but very real possibility of execution" is in itself a
constitutional violation. First and foremost though - fingers crossed the
Supreme Court accepts the case onto their docket. (Sources: BuzzFeed News, KJZZ
Radio & Washington Examiner)
Finally,
as indicated in my last Statelines, sadly executions are now legally possible
again, but the state has still not filed with the Arizona Supreme Court for any
execution warrants, in part because it has had difficulty obtaining drugs to
perform the executions. The Arizona Department of Corrections has pledged to
carry out further executions using the anaesthetic sodium thiopental or the
barbiturate pentobarbital without adding paralytic drugs that could mask pain
and suffering, however neither drug is available to prisons from U.S.
pharmaceutical firms. The state has indicated it will continue looking for them
overseas or have them made to order by compounding pharmacies. Hopefully their
search will be a long one. (Source: Arizona Republic)
I wish you
all good health and strength of spirit in the coming months.
LIndesay Mace
Sunday, November 5, 2017
A personal note from Shawna, a real must read!
This moved me very much this morning. So much so, I felt tears prickling the backs of my eyes. We must always remember the potential for growth within all humans and strive to help them achieve it. Kudos Anthony. Shawna, you have made me so proud girl.
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