Post by SoulTrainOz on Jun 20, 2006 6:38:39 GMT -5
in more cost, paperwork.
Attorney General Jim Hood says a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that opens the door to more constitutional challenges to the death penalty will result in more costs and paperwork in Mississippi, but will do little to further slow the process from conviction to execution.
The Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision June 12, allowed those condemned to die to make last-minute claims that the chemicals used in executions are too painful - and therefore amount to cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Constitution's Eighth Amendment.
The decision came in a case brought by Florida death row inmate Clarence Hill, who was moments away from being administered a lethal dose when the Supreme Court in January intervened and blocked the execution.
Hill, convicted of killing a police officer, had run out of regular
appeals so he went to court using a civil rights law claiming that his constitutional rights would be violated by Florida's lethal injection drug protocol.
Mississippi was 1 of 25 states that supported Florida in the case.
Hood predicts some of Mississippi's 70 death row inmates will file actions based on the Supreme Court decision.
"Yeah, they're going to file them and it's going to cost us more trouble and more time," Hood said.
"What the U.S. Supreme Court just ruled has already been the law for the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. That was pretty much the law we've been dealing with. We're not all that greatly concerned about this decision."
Already, an inmate can spend years on death row as his or her case meanders its way through the appeal process.
Last week, U.S. District Judge Henry T. Wingate allowed convicted killer Bobby Glen Wilcher to abandon the rest of his appeals. Hood's office immediately filed a petition with the Mississippi Supreme Court to reschedule Wilcher's execution date for July 14 or earlier.
Hood said one ruling that has taxed his office and delayed some cases was the 2002 U.S. Supreme Court decision that barred executions of the mentally retarded on grounds it violated the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
In October 2005, justices said that death row inmates do not automatically have a right to a jury trial to determine whether they are mentally retarded, and therefore ineligible for execution.
Hood said 10 inmates have undergone mental evaluations since the Supreme Court made its ruling. Several others have filed petitions that were denied.
"That slowed it down. State doctors have to go back and evaluate them. What you end up with is delaying other cases that were set to go to trial to work these guys in," said Hood.
Hood said the additional mental evaluations cost the state "a lot of money," but he couldn't give a figure.
At least 2 inmates - David Blue and Mack C. Wells - have had death sentences changed to life in prison based on mental evaluations.
Nsombi Lambright, executive director of the Mississippi American Civil Liberties Union, stopped short of calling the latest Supreme Court ruling a victory for death penalty opponents. She said the ACLU wants a moratorium on capital punishment.
"It disproportionately impacts communities of color," Lambright said. "Poor people who can't afford adequate legal assistance get the death penalty and wealthy people who commit the same crimes do not."
(source: Commercial Dispatch)
Attorney General Jim Hood says a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that opens the door to more constitutional challenges to the death penalty will result in more costs and paperwork in Mississippi, but will do little to further slow the process from conviction to execution.
The Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision June 12, allowed those condemned to die to make last-minute claims that the chemicals used in executions are too painful - and therefore amount to cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Constitution's Eighth Amendment.
The decision came in a case brought by Florida death row inmate Clarence Hill, who was moments away from being administered a lethal dose when the Supreme Court in January intervened and blocked the execution.
Hill, convicted of killing a police officer, had run out of regular
appeals so he went to court using a civil rights law claiming that his constitutional rights would be violated by Florida's lethal injection drug protocol.
Mississippi was 1 of 25 states that supported Florida in the case.
Hood predicts some of Mississippi's 70 death row inmates will file actions based on the Supreme Court decision.
"Yeah, they're going to file them and it's going to cost us more trouble and more time," Hood said.
"What the U.S. Supreme Court just ruled has already been the law for the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. That was pretty much the law we've been dealing with. We're not all that greatly concerned about this decision."
Already, an inmate can spend years on death row as his or her case meanders its way through the appeal process.
Last week, U.S. District Judge Henry T. Wingate allowed convicted killer Bobby Glen Wilcher to abandon the rest of his appeals. Hood's office immediately filed a petition with the Mississippi Supreme Court to reschedule Wilcher's execution date for July 14 or earlier.
Hood said one ruling that has taxed his office and delayed some cases was the 2002 U.S. Supreme Court decision that barred executions of the mentally retarded on grounds it violated the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
In October 2005, justices said that death row inmates do not automatically have a right to a jury trial to determine whether they are mentally retarded, and therefore ineligible for execution.
Hood said 10 inmates have undergone mental evaluations since the Supreme Court made its ruling. Several others have filed petitions that were denied.
"That slowed it down. State doctors have to go back and evaluate them. What you end up with is delaying other cases that were set to go to trial to work these guys in," said Hood.
Hood said the additional mental evaluations cost the state "a lot of money," but he couldn't give a figure.
At least 2 inmates - David Blue and Mack C. Wells - have had death sentences changed to life in prison based on mental evaluations.
Nsombi Lambright, executive director of the Mississippi American Civil Liberties Union, stopped short of calling the latest Supreme Court ruling a victory for death penalty opponents. She said the ACLU wants a moratorium on capital punishment.
"It disproportionately impacts communities of color," Lambright said. "Poor people who can't afford adequate legal assistance get the death penalty and wealthy people who commit the same crimes do not."
(source: Commercial Dispatch)