On Guard

Manuel Valle was executed in Florida on September 28th, 2011

Manuel Valle, 61, was executed Wednesday night, despite a last-minute appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States. Valle was pronounced dead by the doctor nearly 20 minutes after the start of the procedure. Asked if he had last words. “No, I don't,” Valle said.

Benetta Standly, director of the Northeast Florida region of the American Civil Liberties Union, said

“We oppose the death penalty, because we believe it's a violation of the Eighth Amendment of cruel and unusual punishment,” she said. “I'm here to stand with Floridians and say it's not the state's right to take a person's life.”  May he rest in peace.

Derrick O'Neal Mason was executed in Alabama on Sept. 22nd, 2011

Derrick O'Neal Mason, 37, was pronounced dead at 6:49 p.m. local time at Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore. Mason had spent 16 years on death row. He was the fifth inmate executed in Alabama this year, and the 36th in the United States in 2011. Mason apologized to the victim's family and thanked his own before the lethal drugs were administered. In a September 8 letter, Judge Loyd Little Jr., the judge who sentenced Mason to death, wrote that if he had tried the case as a more experienced jurist, he would have sentenced Mason to life without the possibility of parole. Neither Little nor the defense team had any experience in capital murder cases before the Mason trial, the judge said. Little said that compared to other cases he presided over later, this one was not as "heinous, atrocious, or cruel." May he rest in peace.

Troy Davis was executed in Georgia on Sept. 21st 2011

Troy Davis maintained his innocence until the very end, saying he did not kill an off-duty officer in 1989.

Moments before he was put to death, Troy lifted his head from the gurney to which he was strapped and looked the family of Mark MacPhail, the police officer for whose murder he was convicted, directly in the eyes.

"I want to talk to the MacPhail family," he said. "I was not responsible for what happened that night. I did not have a gun. I was not the one who took the life of your father, son, brother."

He then appealed to his own family and friends to "keep the faith", said to the medical personnel who were about to kill him "may God have mercy on your souls", and laid his head down again.

He was administered with a triple lethal injection of pentobarbital, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride, and at 11.08pm he was pronounced dead.

The decision to press ahead with the death sentence despite serious doubts over Davis's guilt draws accusations that this was the system at its most grotesque. The final delay was dragged out, for more than four hours, to what must have been tortuous effect for the prisoner and his family.

The US judiciary, and those men who sit on the Georgia Board of Pardons & Paroles, have betrayed an innocent man, and the ethic of JUSTICE that must be at the heart of all legal system.

May Troy Davis Rest In Peace. May his lasting legacy be the earliest abolition of the death penalty in the US.

Lawrence Russell Brewer was executed in Texas Sept. 21st, 2011

Lawrence Russell Brewer, 49, was executed tonight without further legal appeals. May he rest in peace.

Texas executions: the most controversial cases

Rick Perry has presided over 234 executions as governor of Texas, with Duane Buck to be put to death on Thursday. We look at some of the individuals who have died on Perry's watch. When Republican voters at a televised presidential nomination debate last week heard that Rick Perry, the governor of Texas, had presided over 234 executions – the highest number for any governor in modern times – they cheered. They might not have been so enthusiastic had they known the details of some of the individuals who have died on Perry's watch.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/15/texas-executions-controversial-cases

 

 

Steven Michael Woods Jr. was executed in Texas on September 13th, 2011

Steven Michael Woods Jr., 31, was pronounced dead at 6:22 p.m., 10 minutes after the lethal injection dose began. It was the 10th execution carried out in Texas this year. Steven was convicted under a controversial Texas law that allows a defendant to be put to death for a murder someone else committed. "You're not about to witness an execution. You are about to witness a murder," Woods said before he was injected. "I am strapped down for something Marcus Rhodes did. I never killed nobody, ever," he said. "Justice has let me down. Somebody completely screwed this up. Well, Warden, if you're going to murder someone, go ahead and do it. Pull that trigger." Earlier Tuesday, the state's high court rejected a stay of execution. May he rest in peace.

State's oldest death row inmate dies of natural causes

The North Carolina Department of Correction said Tuesday that the state's oldest death row inmate, eighty-three year old John H. Fleming, has died of natural causes. May he rest in peace.

Jerry Jackson was executed in Virginia on August 18th, 2011

Jerry Jackson, 30, was the 31st prisoner put to death in the US this year. Asked if he had any last words, Jackson shook his head and said "no". At about 4 p.m. Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court turned down his petition for a stay of execution, with two justices on the nine-member court — Ruth Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor — the only members voting for the stay. May he rest in peace.

Martin Robles was executed in Texas on August 10th, 2011

Martin Robles, 33, was executed by lethal injection on 10 August 2011 in Huntsville, Texas.

Robles declined requests to be interviewed and did not request a last meal. No one attended his execution on his behalf, or for his victims. The only people present at his death were prison staff and reporters. Robles' last words were reported as either "I love you, Israel," or "I love Israel." He was pronounced dead at 6:21 p.m. May he rest in peace.

Robert Jackson III was executed in Delaware on July 29th, 2011

Robert Jackson III was put to death by lethal injection at the James T. Vaughn Correctional Center in Smyrna early Friday. Gov. Markell denied Jackson's request for a reprieve late Thursday. In last words, Robert said: 'Are the Girardis in there? Christopher and Claudia, if you are in there, I've never faulted you for your anger. I would have been mad myself.' He denied to them that he had killed their mother and suggested, in his last moments, that his accomplice in the burglary Anthony Lachette was the murderer. 'Tony's laughing his ass off right now because you're about to watch an innocent man die. This isn't justice,' he said, before putting his head back down and closing his eyes. May he rest in peace.