Saturday, April 26, 2014

Change: Oklahoma House seeks to impeach 5 of 9 state Supreme Court Justices

Two men convicted of heinous crimes against children had the executions stayed by activist judges. The inmates claim lethal injection will cause them physical discomfort. I hope they are right.   
Background 
The issue started out simply enough. Two men, condemned to death, were challenging their executions based on the drug combination used to execute them. One of them had shotgunned a teenage girl and buried her alive, the other had raped and murdered a young child, and they were concerned that the drugs used during the lethal injection process would cause them discomfort. As an aside, because of the political pressure placed on pharmaceutical companies, states using lethal injection are finding it difficult to obtain supplies of the necessary drugs. This has led states to start keeping the names of suppliers confidential and attorneys to start attacking the death penalty based on the drugs being ineffective or insufficiently pain-free.
The House is moving to impeach the five justices who ordered the stay.
I mentioned yesterday that the recent order by the Oklahoma Supreme Court staying an execution had riled members of the legislature and the state’s governor who refused to acknowledge the order. According to media reports that stay has now been lifted however there is an effort underway to impeach the 5 justice majority that ordered the stay (h/t Gavel Grab for the pointer).
HR 1059 has now been introduced and is replicated below. Read more here...

No comments: