(MONTGOMERY) – Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall welcomed a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court clearing the way for the execution of Vernon Madison. Madison has been on Alabama’s death row for 32 years for the 1985 murder of Mobile police officer Julius Schulte.

“Today’s unanimous decision of the Supreme [...]]]>

Alabama’s Death Chamber

(MONTGOMERY) – Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall welcomed a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court clearing the way for the execution of Vernon Madison. Madison has been on Alabama’s death row for 32 years for the 1985 murder of Mobile police officer Julius Schulte.

“Today’s unanimous decision of the Supreme Court confirms the State’s argument that Vernon Madison is competent to be executed for the murder he committed more than 30 years ago,” said Attorney General Marshall. “The Supreme Court correctly overturned the federal appeals court ruling blocking Madison’s execution on the grounds he did not remember the crime he committed due to health reasons. Accordingly, the State will pursue a new execution date as soon as possible.”

On Monday, the Supreme Court agreed with the State court’s decision that Madison was competent to be executed. “The state court did not unreasonably apply Panetti and Ford when it determined that Madison is competent to be executed because – notwithstanding his memory loss – he recognizes that he will be put to death as punishment for the murder he was found to have committed,” the Justices wrote.

On April 18, 1985, Vernon Madison shot and killed Cpl. Julius Schulte of the Mobile Police Department while the officer sat in his unmarked patrol car. Schulte was shot twice in the back of the head at close range. Madison was subsequently found guilty of capital murder and has been on death row since 1985.

“This is but the latest example of the U.S. Supreme Court overturning an 11th Circuit Court ruling blocking an Alabama execution,” added Attorney General Marshall. “Hopefully, the Supreme Court’s wisdom will continue to prevail and allow Alabama executions to go forward.”

Attorney General Marshall commended Solicitor General Andrew Brasher and former Deputy Solicitor General Brett Talley for their exemplary work in bringing this case to a successful conclusion.

MONTGOMERY–Before Ronald Bert Smith’s corpse grew cold – following his patently botched execution by lethal injection on December 8, 2016 – authorities in Alabama launched a campaign of obfuscation and misinformation about what happened to him.

It began when Prison Commissioner Jeff Dunn, himself a witness to Smith’s execution, protested: “Early in the execution, [...]]]>

MONTGOMERY–Before Ronald Bert Smith’s corpse grew cold – following his patently botched execution by lethal injection on December 8, 2016 – authorities in Alabama launched a campaign of obfuscation and misinformation about what happened to him.

It began when Prison Commissioner Jeff Dunn, himself a witness to Smith’s execution, protested: “Early in the execution, Smith, with eyes closed, did cough but at no time during the execution was there observational evidence that he suffered.”

Dunn not only doth protest too much, Dunn lied.

Because if you credit the macabre and unambiguous accounts of the unbiased media witnesses in attendance – not only is there a great deal of “observational evidence” Smith suffered – the publicly available information suggests he suffered a painfully slow, torturous death.

Kent Faulk, a reporter for Alabama’s largest media outlet (al.com) and a witness to previous state executions, appeared eerily pale and shaken as he questioned Dunn on camera immediately following Smith’s death. The next day, Faulk posted a piece titled, “Alabama Death Row inmate Ronald Bert Smith heaved, coughed for 13 minutes during execution”; it includes several chilling hallmarks of an execution gone wrong:

During 13 minutes of the execution, from about 10:34 to 10:47, Smith appeared to be struggling for breath and heaved and coughed and clenched his left fist after apparently being administered the first drug in the three-drug combination. At times his left eye also appeared to be slightly open. A Department of Corrections captain performed two consciousness checks before they proceeded with administering the next two drugs to stop his breathing and heart. The consciousness tests consist of the corrections officer calling out Smith’s name, brushing his eyebrows back, and pinching him under his left arm. Smith continued to heave, gasp, and cough after the first test was performed at 10:37 p.m. and again at 10:47 p.m. After the second one, Smith’s right arm and hand moved.

In “Witnessing death: AP reporters describe problem executions,” Kim Chandler, also a witness to Smith’s execution, described observing the exact same “observational evidence” as Faulk. Indeed, Chandler’s description of Smith’s execution only amplifies the constitutional concern it violated the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment; Chandler observed that while Smith’s chest was heaving, “he had regular loud coughing,” strong evidence he was not unconscious (and not insensate) when the excruciatingly painful lethal injection drugs were administered.

In a sharply worded op-ed for the Washington Post on May 11, David Waisel, an associate professor of anesthesia at Harvard Medical School wrote, “[t]he drugs we use for executions can cause immense pain and suffering.” Specifically, Waisel opined that “[m]ounting evidence suggests that midazolam does not anesthetize inmates during executions, as shown by movement and difficulty breathing (each a sign that someone isn’t anesthetized) long after injection[.]”

While Waisel’s column focused on Arkansas’ assembly line executions in April – in particular, the problematic execution of Kenneth Williams – his opinion is just as trenchant and ultimately damning for the future of constitutionally kosher executions in Alabama.

Waisel concluded: (1) “When midazolam is used, executions predictably go awry;” (2) “[V]iolent and painful executions will continue as long as we attempt to use midazolam as an aesthetic; and (3) perhaps of greatest salience as Alabama charts its next course on capital punishment: “The state’s self-serving statements that [an] execution was flawless and proceeded according to plan do not make it so, especially when numerous eyewitnesses contradict the version of events the state is promoting.”

At the end of October of last year, I wrote that Alabama’s Department of Corrections (ADOC) and Commissioner Dunn had duped me into believing that Alabama’s second-to-last execution – the lethal injection of Christopher Brooks on January 21, 2016 – had also gone “smoothly” and according to plan. (See “Alabama’s last execution may have burned a man alive”.) Using court filings by Brooks’ federal defenders that were buttressed by affidavits from expert medical witnesses, I accused Alabama, through the false representations of Commissioner Dunn, of “painting Mr. Brooks’ execution as a peaceful passing – like he just curled up in a comfy hammock and dozed off – never to wake again.”

Outrageously, despite mountainous waves of “observational evidence” indicating Ronald Bert Smith’s execution was botched just as Brooks’ may have been, ADOC and Commissioner Dunn are in denial-and-hide-the-ball-mode again.

As we careen closer to the nation’s and Alabama’s next execution – that of Tommy Arthur scheduled on May 25 – Dunn and ADOC are still pigheadedly denying the objective evidence observed by the seasoned, unbiased reporters that saw Smith die — “observational evidence” Professor Waisel has since given undeniable and absolutely odious meaning to.

Alabama courts are complicit in the cover-up. As reported by the Associated Press on May 16, Montgomery, Alabama Circuit Judge J.R. Gaines has ruled: “Alabama can keep secret its records from recent lethal injections, including documents about [the executions of Ronald Bert Smith and Christopher Brooks].” Arthur’s lawyers had argued for the release of ADOC logs and other records indicating Smith and Brooks may have been tortured noting, “[t]he people of Alabama have a right to know what their government is doing in their name, especially when it involves taking a life.”

Rejecting this commonsense plea for knowledge and for decency, Judge Gaines wrote: “Any release of the execution logs would be detrimental to the best interests of the public.”

Recently I urged “conscientious, justice-loving Alabamians” to demand that Alabama’s newly appointed Attorney General Steven Marshall “investigate and publicly address the circumstances of both [Ronald Bert] Smith and [Christopher] Brooks’ deaths.” I’m making that same plea again. But this time, instead of only Alabamians, I’m inviting all conscientious, justice-loving Americans and citizens of the world to join too.

Demand that authorities in Alabama be honest and transparent about executions. Demand that death row inmates receive effective counsel and that they be treated fairly and humanely. Demand that torture be prohibited. And, until that can be assured, if it can ever be assured, demand that Governor Kay Ivey issue a moratorium on all executions going forward. Demand that Alabama comply with the state and federal constitutions.

Don’t ask for these things. Demand them.

(Stephen Cooper is a former D.C. public defender who worked as an assistant federal public defender in Alabama between 2012 and 2015. He has contributed to numerous magazines and newspapers in the United States and overseas … including ShoalsInsider.com. He writes full-time and lives in Woodland Hills. Follow him on Twitter @SteveCooperEsq.)

The Shoals Insider posts this column to offer differing opinions on national political issues for our Shoals Area readers.

ATMORE-Officials at Holman Prison are again attempting to execute Tommy Arthur.

Lawyers for Arthur, who is reportedly the third longest serving person on death row, filed this week with the US Supreme Court for a stay.

The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta refused to halt the execution, as [...]]]>

Tommy Arthur (ALDOC)

ATMORE-Officials at Holman Prison are again attempting to execute Tommy Arthur.

Lawyers for Arthur, who is reportedly the third longest serving person on death row, filed this week with the US Supreme Court for a stay.

The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta refused to halt the execution, as did the Alabama Supreme Court.

The options are now very limited for Arthur’s attorney, but earlier this week another death row inmate received a last minute reprieve as his sentence was changed to life in prison.

Arthur, now 74-years-old, was sentenced to death for the 1982 murder of Troy Wicker of Muscle Shoals.

According to state officials, the execution will proceed at 6:00pm today unless the courts intervene.

Shoals Insider

Only law enforcement officials, prosecutors, and members of the media can have phones, paper, pens or pencils handy when Alabama executes one of its prisoners.

Guess who can’t have any of these items during an Alabama execution? The people who need them the most: Capital defense lawyers charged with the [...]]]>

Alabama’s Death Chamber

Only law enforcement officials, prosecutors, and members of the media can have phones, paper, pens or pencils handy when Alabama executes one of its prisoners.

Guess who can’t have any of these items during an Alabama execution? The people who need them the most: Capital defense lawyers charged with the macabre – but honorable-beyond-belief duty – of having to document their clients’ last moments (clients they’ve represented for years, and in some instances, decades) while zealously protecting their constitutional right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment.

It’s not for lack of asking. Federal defenders in Alabama who, like all lawyers, bear the designation of being “officers of the court,” have repeatedly, and very nicely, asked state prosecutors, the federal courts, and Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) officials for the right to bring into the witness room one cell phone, paper, and some writing utensils.

Repeatedly, obstinately, pigheadedly, the answer they’ve been given is “no.”

Instead, contravening common sense and the Constitution, Alabama remains steadfast in denying a meaningful right to counsel and access to the courts during the most critical moments any death row inmate has – as the state’s executioners tinker, and in some instances, fumble around with, their machinery of death.

In the case of Christopher Brooks, who was executed at Holman Prison, in Atmore, Alabama, on January 21st of this year, federal defenders specifically requested access to a cell phone or landline during the execution in case something went wrong and they had to quickly call the judge because of a botch. As detailed in “Courts denied phone to attorneys of man condemned to death” (February 9, 2016), in their court filings, Brooks’ lawyers argued that without access to a phone during the execution, “Brooks will be without meaningful access to the courts during his execution, as his only witnesses, including designated members of his legal team, will be unable to contact the courts and seek intervention if something arises during his execution that warrants seeking a stay or other appropriate relief.”

Mr. Brooks’ lawyers pointed out the obvious: that, as respected members of the bar and highly-skilled and trustworthy federal employees, they should be trusted to bring paper products and one cell phone into the witness room adjoining the execution chamber. They noted that such phone access has been granted to death penalty counsel as a matter of either protocol and/or professional courtesy, citing examples in Tennessee, Arizona, and Ohio. They even proposed a plan to ADOC officials where they would buy a disposable cell phone for use only to witness Brooks’ execution; at the execution’s end, ADOC would then take possession of the phone. This reasonable request was denied.

Now, it turns out, that that phone access which Mr. Brooks’ lawyers pleaded for before his execution could have been extremely useful in vindicating Brooks’ constitutional right not to be exposed to cruel and unusual punishment.

As reported in “Alabama’s last execution may have burned a man alive,” a federal investigator witnessing Brooks’ execution saw Brooks’ eye open after he was administered midazolam, a controversial drug that is supposed to anesthetize the prisoner. Brooks’ lawyers have alleged – with supporting affidavits and the opinion of a medical expert – that Brooks’ eye could not have opened as it did at that point in the execution unless Brooks was experiencing excruciating pain.

Instead of being able to immediately call the court the minute Mr. Brooks’ eye popped open to request a stay of execution, his lawyers were forced to sit and watch, completely powerless to act or even scribble notes on a notepad, as their client’s internal organs burned from the inside out.

This was exactly the kind of hellacious scenario that federal district judge Aleta A. Trauger sought to avoid during the 2000 execution of Robert Glenn Coe by lethal injection in Tennessee. Trauger ordered that Coe’s counsel be permitted access to a phone as he witnessed Coe’s execution because Coe, like Christopher Brooks and all citizens of this country, has “an Eighth Amendment right not to be subjected to cruel and unusual punishment, and substantial caselaw supports the contention that this right attaches until his successful execution.” Coe v. Bell, 89 F.Supp.2d 962, 967 (M.D. Tenn. 2000).

Unfortunately for Mr. Brooks (and other death row prisoners in Alabama, who are mostly housed at Holman prison, also known as “Hell on Earth”) while they’ll give you one last crappy meal, last rites, and a free pauper’s burial, the one thing Alabama won’t give its condemned: the meaningful right to counsel and a lawyer when they need it most.

About the Author: Stephen Cooper is a former D.C. public defender who worked as an assistant federal public defender in Alabama, in the same office that represented Christopher Brooks, between 2012 and 2015. He has contributed to numerous magazines and newspapers in the United States and overseas. He writes full-time and lives in Woodland Hills, California.