Idaho governor signs legislation allowing firing squad executions



Idaho's Governor Brad Little (R) signed legislation Friday allowing execution by firing squad beginning July 1.

"The families of the victims deserve justice for their loved ones and the death penalty is a way to bring them peace," said Gov. Little in a transmittal letter to Idaho's Speaker of the House, Rep. Mike Moyle (R).

"Fulfilling justice can and must be done while minimizing stress on corrections personnel ... For the people on death row, a jury convicted them of their crimes, and they were lawfully sentenced to death."

Idaho's House Bill 186 calls for the director of the Idaho Department of Corrections to determine within five days of a death warrant being issued whether lethal injection is available. available. If lethal injection is available, lethal injection will be used as the method of execution. If the director does not so certify, fails to file the certification, or determines lethal injection is not available, the method of execution shall be firing squad.

In addition, the bill says if a court finds lethal injection to be unconstitutional, the method of execution shall be firing squad.

The legislation applies to all executions carried out on or after July 1.

Pharmaceuticals used to carry out executions by lethal injection have become more challenging to acquire due in part to pharmaceutical companies barring the use of their drugs for that purpose, the Associated Press reported.

The Idaho Department of Corrections estimates the cost to retrofit a death chamber for firing squad executions at about $750,000, CBS News reported.

Idaho became the fifth state to permit execution by firing squad when Gov. Little signed HB 186. Other states allowing the method include Mississippi, Utah, Oklahoma, and South Carolina. South Carolina's law, however, is currently being challenged in court, AP also reported.

Ronnie Gardner, the most recent person to be executed by firing squad in June 2010, chose the method himself, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

How are executions via firing squad carried out?

TheBlaze cautions readers that the following section contains graphic descriptions of death via firing squad.

The death row inmate sentenced to execution by firing squad is typically first bound to a chair with leather straps across his or her waist and head, DPIC explains. Sandbags surrounding the chair are meant to absorb the blood. The chair is positioned in front of a canvas wall.

A black cloth is pulled over the prisoner's head. A doctor pins a cloth over the target, the prisoner's heart.

A number of shooters either 3 or 5, depending on the state, stand in an enclosure about 20 feet away. Each shooter has a .30 caliber rifle with single rounds. One of the shooters is given blank rounds. In South Carolina, each shooter's rounds are live.

Each shooter aims his or her rifle through a slot in the canvas wall and fires. If the shooter(s) miss the prisoner's heart, the prisoner slowly bleeds to death.

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Notorious death row inmate who gouged out his eyeballs and cut out hearts of his children seeks clemency



A notorious death row inmate in Texas with a past plagued by unimaginable violence and mental illness is seeking clemency. There are also nearly 200 faith leaders and mental health leaders calling on Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to stop the state execution of Andre Thomas.

Thomas is on death row for the grisly murder of his estranged wife and two children in March 2004 in Sherman, Texas. Thomas – who was 21 at the time – fatally stabbed his estranged wife, Laura Boren; their 4-year-old son, Andre; and his 13-month-old step-daughter, Leyha Hughes.

The Texas Tribune reported, "He ripped out the children's hearts and in a failed attempt to remove their mother's heart, removed part of her lung. After failing to also kill himself, Thomas put the organs in his pocket and walked home."

After a short stint at a state mental hospital, Thomas was deemed competent to stand trial.

The outlet added, "While awaiting trial in jail — days after surgeons repaired his bleeding heart — Thomas gouged out his right eye with his bare hand, spurred by Scripture: 'If the right eye offends thee, pluck it out.'"

Thomas was convicted of murder and sentenced to the death penalty after jurors rejected his insanity defense.

While in prison, Thomas attempted to slit his wrists and cut his own throat. In December 2008, Thomas enucleated his left eye. After gouging out his second eyeball, Thomas ate it in his prison cell. Thomas reportedly ate his own eyeball to prevent the government from seeing his thoughts.

Thomas is scheduled to be executed by the state on April 5.

The attorneys for Thomas argue that he suffers from severe mental illness and is not competent for execution. The attorneys say that Thomas first started hearing voices when he was 9 years old, first attempted suicide with he was 10, and was diagnosed schizophrenic at a "very young age."

Attorney Maurie Levin. said, "Gov. Abbott has the power to stop the spectacle of prison guards leading a blind, mentally incompetent, delusional man to the death chamber."

According to the Dallas Morning News, "The U.S. Supreme Court has made it unequivocally clear that the Eighth Amendment prohibits the execution of a person who is not competent — someone who doesn’t have enough of a connection to reality to understand why he is being put to death."

Over 100 faith leaders and 77 mental health professionals called on Abbott to give Thomas clemency.

"As a Texan and a Christian, I cannot imagine what good it does for us to kill a man who is so clearly mentally ill," said Stephen Reeves – executive director of Fellowship Southwest. "To kill him now would surely be cruel and unusual punishment. He is no threat to others behind bars, but his execution will only perpetuate violence and compound the injustice."

Rev. Jaime Kowlessar, a pastor from Dallas, said, "We pray that Gov. Abbott will choose the path of healing and grace by sparing Mr. Thomas’ life."

"It would be very troubling to execute Mr. Thomas at the exact time that the (Texas) House is once again considering exempting people like him from being executed," said Greg Hansch – executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness-Texas.

J. Kerye Ashmore of the Grayson County District Attorney’s Office stated, "A jury has spoken about what justice should be in this case. We are not going to ignore that."

Since taking office in 2015, Abbott has only granted clemency to one death row inmate.

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Death row inmate cuts off penis, smears feces on wall during 'psychiatric' meltdown over food package



A death row inmate in Tennessee engaged in significant self-harm, including castrating himself and slitting his wrists, during a major meltdown he recently had over a special food package that had been denied him.

Some time earlier this month, Henry Eugene Hodges, 56, became outraged when his request for a special food package at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville had been refused. According to institutional rules, inmates with a clean record for six months may request such a food package, but Hodges made his request a month early, after only five months of good behavior, and was therefore denied.

The denial supposedly sent Hodges into a rage, and he began smearing feces on his cell wall in protest. Guards then decided to deny him food altogether, likely to minimize the feces he could produce and then spread.

Hodges responded by slitting his wrists with a razor he had hidden. He also asked to be put on suicide watch and was transferred to an infirmary. His attorney, Kelley Henry, claimed that during his stay in the infirmary, a "high ranking correctional officer" told the person or persons treating Hodges that Hodges was manipulating them and that Hodges should be kept under suicide watch in his cell.

After he was returned to his cell, Hodges found a glass shard from a broken window and used the shard to cut off his penis during a two-hour standoff with prison guards. Hodges was eventually restrained and taken to Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where medical teams were able to surgically reattach his penis. Whether full function has been restored is unclear.

Ms. Henry has railed against prison officials, suggesting that they had neglected her client's mental health.

"He needs competent mental health care" and "is enduring ongoing psychiatric harm as a result of these conditions," she said.

She also claimed that Hodges had been placed in 6-point restraints after 4-point restraints failed to prevent him from removing his catheter. Once he agreed to take medication, he was placed back in 4-point restraints but was still left naked on a thin mattress for reportedly as long as a week.

"Surely the prison can find a place to put him where he is not a danger to himself or others and does not have to be tied down like an animal," Henry asserted. She said she intends to file a complaint with the state, claiming that the prison had violated Hodges' constitutional rights.

In 1992, Hodges was convicted of the 1990 robbery and murder of Ronald Bassett, a phone repairman, and sentenced to death. He is also serving a life sentence for murdering Michael Whisnant, a chemical engineer from North Carolina, in an Atlanta hotel room and another life sentence for stabbing to death Barry McDonald, an Inglewood nurse, in 1989.

During the late 80s, Hodges participated in homosexual prostitution, though he denies that he is homosexual. He also claimed that he had suffered sexual abuse as an adolescent and that he feared telling his father about the abuse because of his father's homophobia. There are multiple reports that he engaged in homosexual relationships.

Ms. Henry claimed that Hodges has been diagnosed as bipolar and is susceptible to psychotic episodes.

Supreme Court supports convicted murderer's right to receive prayer and touch during execution



The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Texas must allow a death row inmate to have a pastor "pray over" him and lay hands on him as he receives a lethal injection for his crimes.

The court's 8-1 decision held that Texas' objections to the request, citing potential disruption to the execution process, were insufficient to overcome the religious liberties the inmate claimed under the 2000 Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act.

In September, the Supreme Court granted a stay request made by Texas inmate John Ramirez, who was sentenced to death for the 2004 murder of a 46-year-old Corpus Christi convenience store clerk, Pablo Castro.

Lower courts had held that permitting Ramirez's pastor to stand near the inmate and pray silently during the execution was sufficient to accommodate Ramirez's request. But the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a broader interpretation of the government's duty to meet the religious requests of convicts.

“There is a rich history of clerical prayer at the time of a prisoner’s execution, dating back well before the founding of our Nation,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority. “By passing RLUIPA, Congress determined that prisoners like Ramirez have a strong interest in avoiding substantial burdens on their religious exercise, even while confined. ... Because it is possible to accommodate Ramirez’s sincere religious beliefs without delaying or impeding his execution, we conclude that the balance of equities and the public interest favor his requested relief.”

Texas had raised concerns that permitting Ramirez's pastor to pray out loud during the execution would create an opportunity that "could be exploited to make a statement to the witnesses or officials, rather than the inmate." The state argued there was a compelling government interest in preventing those kinds of disruptions, which might traumatize the witnesses or victims. Texas also claimed that silence was necessary to ensure that the lethal injection process was carried out correctly, but the Supreme Court disagreed.

Justice Clarence Thomas was the lone voice of dissent. He argued that Ramirez was manipulating the judicial process to delay his execution and that his requests should be denied on procedural grounds.

"Ramirez's current RLUIPA suit is but the latest iteration in an 18-year pattern of evasion," Thomas wrote.

"In the end, none of Ramirez's federal habeas claims merited even a single certificate of appealability, let alone relief. Yet, through ceaseless litigation, strategic delay, and a 'last-minute' blitz on the District Court ... Ramirez parlayed his federal habeas petition into a 7-year deferral of his lawfully imposed sentence. We should interpret Ramirez's actions in the instant litigation in light of that history, recognize that his shifting in-chambers-touching claim is just another chapter in that history, and reject his most recent attempt to delay his execution."

SC bill would make death row inmates choose: Firing squad or electric chair



In an attempt to restart executions in the state after a nearly 10-year pause, South Carolina state senators approved a measure on Tuesday that would make electrocution the state's default execution method and add another option — death by firing squad.

Though the death penalty is legal in South Carolina, the state has not carried out an execution in almost a decade due to its inability to purchase the lethal injection drugs required, CBS News reported. Death by lethal injection is currently the default method of execution in the state, so under current law, if lethal injection drugs are unavailable, inmates can temporarily be spared.

But the new measure, approved by state senators in a 32-11 vote, allows the state Department of Corrections to bypass lethal injection in carrying out executions.

According to state records, 37 inmates are currently being housed on death row, awaiting their punishment. Should the bill be signed into law, those inmates would be forced to choose between death by firing squad or electric chair if lethal injection drugs remain unavailable.

The bill must now go through another routine procedural vote in the Senate before heading to the House for consideration. South Carolina Republican Gov. Henry McMaster told CBS News in a statement that should the legislation pass in both chambers of Congress, he would "proudly" sign it into law.

The state reportedly ran out of its supply of lethal injection drugs in 2013 and has been trying to purchase more ever since, but to no avail. Pharmaceutical companies often refuse to sell the drugs when they find out what they will be used for, especially in absence of a shield law, which the state does not currently have.

"We've been trying this since 2014," South Carolina Department of Corrections director Bryan Stirling told WSPA-TV. "After a year or so I went to the legislature and told them we could not obtain the drugs to carry out an execution."

The Republican lawmakers who introduced the bill initially only intended to change the default method of execution to electrocution, but then Democratic state Sen. Dick Harpootlian added firing squad as an option in an amendment. It may seem strange, but some see death by firing squad as a more humane approach than the electric chair.

Here's more on the story:

SC Senate passes bill that would make electrocution primary way of execution, add firing squad youtu.be