In California, a new report from the U.S. Department of Justice describes how the Orange County District Attorney’s Office and the Orange County Sheriff’s Department “systematically violated criminal defendants’ Sixth Amendment right to counsel and Fourteenth Amendment right to due process of law” in its longtime use of a secret jailhouse informant program. “The failure to protect these basic constitutional guarantees not only deprives individual defendants of their rights, it undermines the public’s confidence in the fundamental fairness of criminal justice systems across the county,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke wrote. The report was the result of a six-year investigation and acknowledged that the illegal practices stopped in 2016. Nevertheless, DOJ has specified “additional remedial measures that the department believes are necessary to fully address its findings.”
In Texas, John Henry Ramirez was killed on October 5, despite the efforts of Nueces County DA Mark Gonzalez, who had tried to withdraw his request for a death warrant because of his “firm belief that the death penalty is unethical.” Ramirez’s spiritual advisor was with him. In March, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 8-1 that Texas could not execute Ramirez unless it allowed his spiritual advisor to touch and pray with him in the execution chamber.
Missouri plans to execute Kevin Johnson on November 29 for the killing of Kirkwood police officer Sgt. William McEntee in 2005 despite the St. Louis Prosecuting Attorney’s Office’s request for a special prosecutor to investigate whether his trial and death sentence were tainted by racism. Johnson, who has admitted his guilt and expressed remorse, has a large and devoted group of supporters. His father was incarcerated, and his mother was addicted to crack. The day he shot McEntee, he was a 19-year-old grieving the death of his 12-year-old brother, who had died that day.
In Alabama, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit by Kenneth Smith challenging the state’s lethal injection protocol, clearing the way for Smith to be killed on November 17, AL.com reports. Smith cited July’s botched execution of Joe Nathan James, Jr., as proof that the state’s method constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. The paper notes that Judge R. Austin Huffaker, Jr., “warned Alabama’s prison commissioner to strictly follow established protocols” when the state attempts to kill him next month.
In New York, the trial of Sayfullo Saipov, the Uzbek man accused of using a truck to kill eight people on a bike path in Manhattan in 2017, began earlier this month with in-person jury selection, Courthouse News reports. Last month, the Department of Justice announced that it would seek the death penalty against Sayfullo Saipov, a surprising decision in light of U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland’s 2021 announcement that he was imposing a moratorium on federal executions while his department reviewed its death penalty policy. Saipov, who has declared his support for the Islamic State, has admitted to renting the truck and driving it down the West Side bike and pedestrian path. He had offered to plead guilty in exchange for a life in prison sentence.
At the United Nations, two UN-appointed independent human rights experts called for worldwide abolition of the death penalty, saying it was the “only viable path” for all death penalty countries. UN News reports that Special Rapporteur on Torture Jill Edwards and UN expert investigating extrajudicial and arbitrary executions Morris Tidball-Binz marked the 20th World Day Against the Death Penalty on October 10 by stating that, “The reality remains that in practice it is almost impossible for States to impose capital punishment while meeting their obligations to respect the human rights of those convicted.” (Here, you can view DPF’s webinar on the Death Penalty and Torture, held on World Day.)
