By Lyndsey Kelly
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

WASHINGTON D.C., United States of America – Following numerous botched executions, some states have decided to halt the use of the popular two-drug lethal injection combination of the sedative midazolam and painkiller hydromorphone. Ohio has made the decision to halt the use of this combination after the protracted death of an inmate a year ago, and has since postponed the execution of a prisoner scheduled for February. U.S. District Judge Gregory Frost ordered a halt in executions in Ohio to give attorneys time to prepare challenges to the state’s new plans for lethal injections, last may. Ohio must change any execution procedures at least 30 days before a scheduled execution.

Last January, Ohio was the first state to use the combination of the drugs during the execution of Dennis McGuire for the rape and murder of a pregnant woman in 1993. The execution took 25 minutes and many witnesses said that the inmate gasped and seized for 15 of those minutes. His children have since filed a federal court.

Many states that employ the death penalty are seeking new execution drug formations after pharmaceutical companies refused to supply the drugs, because they no longer want to be associated with capital punishment. In December, Ohio passed a law that would provide confidentiality to pharmacies that chose to prepare lethal formulations. The law is designed to make it easier to obtain compounded pentobarbital, the state’s first choice for executions but which it hasn’t been able to find. However, inmates have challenged this new law, claiming that it violates their right to due process.

Additionally, Arizona has stopped the use of the same two-drug lethal injection cocktail that was used in Ohio after the July execution of an inmate, which took nearly two hours and 15 doses. Arizona’s Department of Corrections Director, Charles Ryan, has publicly announced that the agency will no longer use the drug combination. However, Ryan is adamant that the procedures were “done appropriately and with the utmost professionalism.” The state of Arizona has since put all executions on hold, pending the outcome of a lawsuit stemming from the botched execution.

For more information, please see the following:

AL JAZEERA – Arizona to Change Lethal Injection Drugs After Prolonged Execution – 23 Dec. 2014.

BOSTON HERALD – Arizona to Change Drugs It Uses In Executions – 22 Dec. 2014.

REUTERS – Ohio to Change Execution Drugs After Inmate’s Prolonged death – 8 Jan 2015.

YORKTON THIS WEEK– Ohio Lethal Drug Supply Expires April 1, Limiting Executions Without New Drugs – 8 Jan. 2015.

By Lyndsey Kelly
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

 MEXICO CITY, Mexico – Mexico has seen a recent surge in violence that the Mexican government has been unable to quell. On 26 September, several students were abducted by corrupt police officers that were in concert with a drug gang located in Iguala, the biggest city in Guerrero. The Mexican government is still investigating the occurrence. However, Attorney General Jesus Murillo has gone on record to state that the evidence strongly suggests that police officers handed the students over to the cartel members who later incinerated them. The remains of only one of the missing 43 students has been identified.

The tragic occurrence, which took the lived of so many students, has sparked major protests throughout Mexico. In protest, citizens have began to seize city hall and occupy various other government buildings. Mexican President, Enrique Pena Nieto, has faced harsh criticisms from the public in failing to solve the case and ultimately end the violence in the country, the majority of which stems from drug gangs.

A more recent occurrence of violence had Mexican police finding 10 decapitated corpses and 11 heads in a southwestern state. The headless corpses were found in graves about 31 miles east of the Guerrero state capital Chilpancingo. The bodies showed signs of torture as their hands had been tied, according to local security officials. On the same day as the violence, President Pena Nieto was meeting with the President of the United States, Barack Obama, in Washington.

During his meeting with Pena Nieto at the White House, President Barack Obama said that he was committed to helping Mexico eradicate the drug cartels that are plaguing the country with violence. However, Obama made sure to inform President Pena Nieto that it was ultimately the responsibility of the Mexican government to resolve the problems created by the cartel. President Obama did however state that the United States was committed to being a “friend and supporter of Mexico in its efforts to eliminate the scourge of violence and the drug cartels that are responsible for so much tragedy inside of Mexico.”

For more information, please see the following:

REUTERS – Ten Bodies And 11 Heads Found In Violent Mexican State – 7 Jan. 2015.

STAR TRIBUNE – Mexico: 10 Bodies, 11 heads Found In Clandestein Graves In Violence- Plagued Guerrero State – 7 Jan. 2015.

THE GUARDIAN – 10 Decapitated Bodies Found In Troubled Mexican State Of Gurrero – 7 Jan. 2015.

WASHINGTON POST – Who’s In Charge In Michoacan? Mexican Government And Militias Struggle For Control – 7 Jan. 2015.

By Lyndsey Kelly
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

WASHINGTON D.C., United States of America – Recently Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley commuted the death sentences of the last four inmates remaining on death row in the state. Such action will effectively end capital punishment in the state of Maryland, after lawmakers voted in 2013 to abolish the death sentence for future offenders. O’Mally, a potential 2016 White House candidate, said that leaving the last four prisoners to await the death penalty “does not serve the public good.”

All four inmates were convicted of murder. One inmate, Heath Burch was convicted of the 1995 murders of Robert and Cleo Davis. The victims’ family has repeatedly asked the governor not to remove Burch from death row. However, O’Mally has commuted the four prisoners’ sentences, including Burch’s, to life without the possibility of parole. All four men are currently housed at the maximum-security North Branch Correctional institution near Cumberland, however the inmates will now be eligible for transfer to a medium-security prison.

There are currently 3,054 inmates on death row in the United States, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, which compiles statistics published by the Bureau of Justice. Maryland was one of six states to ban the death penalty between 2007 and 2013. In recent years, Connecticut and New Mexico have also abolished the death penalty, but those laws were not made retroactive. In 2014, the United States executed 35 inmates, the fewest in two decades, and sentenced only 72 to death.

The abolishment of the death penalty was one of O’Mally’s progressive accomplishments during his time in office, others included the legalization of same-sex marriage, and sweeping gun-control measures. O’Mally has lobbied lawmakers since 2007, his first term, to abolish capital punishment. He claims that the executions are not cost-effective, do not have any deterrent effect, and are at odds with “our values as a people.” However, A Washington Post – ABC News poll in June found that 60 percent of Americans favor the availability of the death penalty.

For more information, please see:

BALTIMORE SUN – 4 Former MD. Death Row Inmates Could Get Medium Security – 6 Jan. 2015.

REUTERS – Maryland Governor Commutes Sentences For Remaining Death Row Inmates – 31 Dec. 2015.

US NEWS – Maryland Governor Commutes Sentences For Remaining Death Row Inmates – 31 Dec. 2015.

WASHINGTON POST – Gov. O’Mally to Commute Sentences of Maryland’s Remaining Death-Row Inmates – 31. Dec. 2015.

By Lyndsey Kelly
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

WASHINGTON D.C., United States of America – In a 5-1 decision the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that the requirement that all sex offenders who were juveniles at the time of their crime must remain on the Megan’s Las Registry for life is unconstitutional. The decision stemmed from a list of juvenile cases in York County. The York County case involved seven males who had committed crimes as teens that ranged from aggravated indecent assault to involuntary deviant sexual intercourse.

The court declared that the law is unconstitutional because it fails to allow for an appeal and assumed that all juvenile sex offenders posed a risk of reoffending as adults, despite the fact that studies show that just one percent of juvenile offenders commit new crimes as adults.

The Pennsylvania law had required registration for teens 14 years and older found guilty of sex crimes. The law required offenders to report quarterly to state police and report changes of address, job or personal appearance within three days of such action. Additionally, the placement of the registry comes with much public stigma. Only after being on the registry for 25 years, could an offender petition to be removed from the registry, and only if the offender had not committed any other sex crime.

Justice Max Baer wrote in the majority opinion, “[SORNA will] improperly brand all juvenile offenders’ reputations with an indelible mark of a dangerous recidivist. SORNA is the state’s Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act. Justice Baer also stated that the law may have remained in affect if the legislature would have required due-process hearings to examine the potential for rehabilitation before a juvenile was placed on Megan’s list.

The Philadelphia-based Juvenile Law Center, which served as co-counsel on the case, argued that the registry was an added punishment for juvenile offenders, which did little to protect the community.

For more information, please see the following:

JAMESTOWN SUN – Pennsylvania High Court Strikes Down Law On Juvenile Sex Offenders – 2 Jan. 2015.

JURIST – Pennsylvania Top Court Strikes Down Law on Juvenile Sex Offenders – 3 Jan. 2015.

PHILLY TRIBUNE – PA. Supreme Court Strikes Down Juvenile Sex Offender Registration– 2 Jan. 2015.

REUTERS – Pennsylvania High Court Strikes Down Law on Juvenile Sex Offender – 2 Jan. 2015.