Death Row Inmate Seeks Reprieve Over Drug Method

[alp227]

Source: The New York Times

A former Army recruiter convicted of killing a woman he met in a Fort Worth bar nine years ago is scheduled to be executed Tuesday, though his lawyers were seeking a last-minute reprieve on Monday as part of a challenge to one of the drugs that is to be used to kill him.

The recruiter, Cleve Foster, 47, a veteran of the Persian Gulf war, was convicted in 2004 of killing Nyanuer Pal, 28, a Sudanese immigrant who was known as Mary. Mr. Foster’s roommate, who was also convicted in the murder, died in prison last year.

For Texas, which executes more prisoners than any other state, Mr. Foster’s case has been complicated by a nationwide shortage of sodium thiopental, one of three drugs that have typically been used in executions.

The shortage, which has vexed prison authorities in states that permit the death penalty, led Texas to decide to substitute pentobarbital for sodium thiopental. Pentobarbital is a sedative that is often used to euthanize animals and to treat seizures in humans.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/05/us/05lethal.html

---

Don't you think it's about time that the death penalty be abolished? It leads to wasteful appeals like this that clog up the courts.

[udbcrzy2]

1. Justice delayed is justice denied

You may not know this, but they murdered and raped another female 2-months before Mary Pal. I guess you can call him a serial killer.
I'd rather see them reform the appeals process rather than get rid of the death penalty.

*******************************************************

More than nine years ago, on Valentine's Day, construction workers found the naked body of Nyanuer "Mary" Pal in a creek bed near Lake Worth.
She had been raped and shot in the head.

Two months earlier, almost to the day, Rachel Urnosky, 22, was found dead in her southwest Fort Worth apartment. She had also been shot in the head.

The two women didn't know each other and had little in common -- except that they had crossed paths with Cleve Foster and Sheldon Ward, both of whom ended up on Death Row for collaborating on the murders.

http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/04/02/2970197/execution-of-womans-killer-still.html


*******************************************************

Edit to add appeal, so you can see the facts in the crime
ftp://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/byDate/Mar2010/Mar16/09-70001.0.wpd.pdf

[BlueIris]

10. That's an appropriate quote for today. nt

[provis99]

2. I wonder...

What do death penalty opponents think should be done about Gadaffi? What is their opinion on World War 2? Assassinating Hitler? Dealing with prisoners who continue to commit atrocious crimes while IN prison?

[IamK]

3. just hit him with a bat or whatever and get it over with....

[Alexander]

4. Life without parole, possibly coupled with solitary confinement is punishment enough.

Just so you know, I'm completely and 100% anti-death penalty. I think it's barbaric, and it's shocking to me that on a supposed progressive forum such as this, so many people feel the need for revenge-based killing and try to justify it with black-and-white thinking.

I generally don't support assassinations of foreign officials. Ideally, I'd like to see Gadaffi in the UN war crimes tribunal detention center of The Hague, like Milosevic, who died in prison.

Bringing up World War II and Hitler is such an unnecessary use of Godwin's Law - but if you must bring it up, I will again bring up The Hague, which seems an appropriate place for war criminals to spend the remainder of their lives.

As for prisoners who commit atrocious crimes while in prison, well, that's what solitary confinement should be for - not for people like Bradley Manning.

Now, since you are implying that you are pro-death penalty, I have some questions for you.

1) How do you propose to resolve situations where an innocent person has been executed? Trials and evidence are not flawless, and as long as the death penalty remains, there is always the possibility of an innocent person being executed.

2) What crimes, in your opinion, deserve the death penalty? Murder? If so, to what degree? Other crimes like rape and drug trafficking are punishable by death in some countries, should that be the case?

3) Do you feel that it's hypocritical when a society resorts to killing criminals for the crime of killing?

4) What methods, in your opinion, are "humane" ways to execute someone? Lethal injection? Electric chair? Hanging? Firing squad?

5) Do you find it alarming that the United States is one of the few countries in the world which still has the death penalty, along with countries like China, North Korea, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Belarus?

6) Where do you draw the line when it comes to minors? Should 18 be the cut-off point? How about someone who is mentally retarded or mentally ill?

[udbcrzy2]

5. In Texas it's the law and I respect the law - he didn't.

[Alexander]

7. In Texas, it's also the law that one must acknowledge a supreme being to hold public office.

Do you respect that law? Because I find it offensive, and so do a lot of DUers, I imagine.

Just because something is the law doesn't mean that it's the right thing to do.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

11. Do you have the same respect for the law of states without the DP?

Your profile says "Midwest", so I don't know if you live in one or not.

[BuddhaGirl]

6. +1

"5) Do you find it alarming that the United States is one of the few countries in the world which still has the death penalty, along with countries like China, North Korea, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Belarus?"

Exactly.

The U.S. should not be in the same league as those countries.

The DP is archaic and barbaric.

[Botany]

8. I am against the death penalty because it costs too ...

.... much and takes too long but if we have it on the books please don't sugar
coat the D.P. .. it is about killing people.

2 32 caliber soft nosed slugs at the base of the brain and it is over.

[XemaSab]

9. I'm anti-death penalty

but 1) the drugs are not supposed to be fun, but that being said 2) why not give 'em a giant syringe of smack when they land on death row and let 'em go out on their own terms? :shrug: