USLegal Reporter

The state of Georgia Tuesday became the first state to peform an execution by lethal injection after the US Supreme Court held in Baze v. Rees that certain lethal injection procedures are not unconstitutional.

William Earl Lynd was executed for kidnapping and murder shortly after the US Supreme Court rejected his request for a stay on his execution on the basis that the murder was not premeditated.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080507/ap_on_re_us/georgia_execution;_ylt=ApdbQ.aT4Pq38pkmWsohK_BI2ocA

A US District Court in Georgia ruled Wednesday that the state’s lethal injection procedures were not unconstitutional. The court compared the execution methods to those of Kentucky and upheld by the US Supreme Court recently in Baze v. Rees. The court held that a higher risk of pain than that allowed in Kentucky was not associated with the Georgia protocol.

Jack Alderman, an inmate convicted of murder whose execution was stayed pending the US Supreme Court’s decision, argued that Georgia did not have in place the safeguards used in Kentucky, such as training of officials to perform the executions and confirmation by such officials that an inmate is unconscious prior to administering additional drugs. The state, however, contended that Georgia uses trained officials to carry out executions, experienced licensed nurses who monitor the consciousness of inmates and standby physicians.

Georgia may conduct the first execution since the Baze case of William Earl Lynd on May 6, 2008.

Source: http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2008/05/federal-judge-rejects-challenge-to.php

Since 1999, the number of executions under the death penalty have dropped 57%, according to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC). The number of executions in 2007 was 42, compared to 98 in 1999. 37 states currently have a death penalty, although executions were carried out in only ten states last year. 86 percent of the executions in 2007 were carried out in southern states, mainly in Texas, with 62% of the total executions nationwide. Executions outside the South were conducted in Arizona, South Dakota, Indiana, and Ohio.

The U.S. Supreme Court issued a moratorium on executions in September 2007, in order to decide whether lethal injections constitute uncontitutional cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment. This month the Court decided that the method doesn’t violate the Eighth Amendment, and stays imposed on executions pending the court’s ruling have been lifted. Therefore, this month’s decision may lead to an increase in executions in 2008.

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/12/18/death.penalty.decline/index.html

The U.S. Supreme Court, after ruling last Wednesday that the lethal injection procedure used in Kentucky does not violate the Constitution’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment, denied appeals today from inmates in Alabama, Mississippi and Texas. The Supreme Court previously stayed the executions of Thomas Arthur from Alabama, Earl Wesley Berry from Mississippi and Carlton Turner from Texas while it considered the issue in Baze v. Rees.

Executions in other states across the country that were halted pending the Supreme Court’s decision are also likely to resume.

Source: http://news.findlaw.com/ap/a/w/1154//04-21-2008/20080421072002_16.html

The United State Supreme Court ruled today that a three-drug lethal injection procedure can be used as a form of capital punishment in Kentucky. This clears the way for 36 states including Kentucky to resume the practice to execute convicted felons who have been given the death sentence.

At issue what whether or not execution by the three drug method amounted to “cruel and unusual punishment” as prohibited by the 8th Amendment. Petitioners, who were death row inmates in Kentucky, filed suit to stop the practice in Kentucky arguing that if drugs were not properly administered according to protocol, they could result in significant unnecessary pain.

Writing for the Court, Chief Justice John Roberts said that “petitioners have not carried their burden of showing that the risk of pain from maladministration of a concededly humane lethal injection protocol, and the failure to adopt untried and untested alternatives, constitute cruel and unusual punishment.” 

The decision was 7-2. The case is Baze et al. v. Rees, Commissioner, Kentucky Department Corrections, et al.

Source: http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/07pdf/07-5439.pdf

Virginia’s governor, Timothy M. Kaine, Tuesday stayed the execution of Edward N. Bell, set for April 8 for murder and stayed all future executions pending the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Baze v. Rees. On January 7, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case where Kentucky death row inmates claim lethal injection violates the Eighth Amendment to the constitution.

The Supreme Court and other courts and governors across the nation have stayed executions by lethal injection until the Supreme Court issues an opinion in the case.

Source: http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2008/04/virginia-governor-stays-all-state.php

The Nebraska Legislature Tuesday rejected legislation to ban the state’s death penalty and replace it with life imprisonment without parole. The Nebraska Supreme Court ruled in February that the use of the electric chair constituted cruel and unusual punishment under the state’s constitution. Nebraska’s only method of execution is the electric chair.

Jon Brunning, the state attorney general, filed a motion for rehearing asking the court to reconsider its ruling against the electric chair and may appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Meanwhile, Nebraska’s governor, Dave Heineman, is urging the legislature to establish a new method of execution that does not violate the constitution.

Source: http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2008/03/nebraska-legislature-rejects-death.php 

The Nebraska Supreme Court held Friday that the use of the electric chair constitutes cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the state’s constitution. The court found that prisoners may retain enough consciousness to suffer from the high voltage electric current during the electrocution process.

The case before the court involved an appeal by Raymond Mata, Jr. of his death sentence for a 1999 murder. The court stayed Mata’s execution as it had earlier the execution of Carey Dean Moore following a request by a state senator to review the constitutionality of electrocution by electric chair.

Nebraska was the only state that allowed execution by electric chair as its only method of execution.

Source: http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2008/02/nebraska-supreme-court-rules-electric.php

The U.S. Supreme Court Thursday stayed the execution of James Harvey Callahan, an Alabama man sentenced to death for murder who challenged lethal injection procedures.

The stay follows the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit’s decision to lift an earlier stay of Callahan’s execution that was put in place by a district judge in light of the Supreme Court’s upcoming decision in Baze v. Rees. The Eleventh Circuit had held that Callahan did not timely file his constitutional objection to lethal injection. If Callahan’s petition for writ of certiorari is denied, the stay on his execution will terminate.

Source: http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2008/01/us-supreme-court-stays-execution-of.php

A Circuit Court judge in Virginia commuted the sentence of death row inmate, Daryl Atkins, to life in prison Thursday based on the withholding of evidence by the prosecution from Atkins’ attorneys during his 1998 murder trial. Atkins was convicted of robbery and murder that occurred when he was 18 years old. His case went to the U.S. Supreme Court after defense attorneys argued he should not receive the death penalty because of his mental retardation. The Supreme Court held in 2002 that executions of mentally retarded persons are unconstitutional. Virginia law defines mental retardation as an IQ of 70 or below before the age of 18 and an inability to function well in society. After he was charged with robbery and murder, Atkins’ IQ was found to be between 59 and 76 on four different IQ tests.

In 2003, a new jury upheld Atkins’ original death sentence claiming he was not retarded, but the verdict was overturned due to trial errors. Atkins was waiting for a new trial this year when allegations of the withheld evidence in the 1998 trial were raised.

Source: http://www.lexisone.com/news/ap/ap011808f.html