skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Friday, March 29, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Botched OK Execution Injects a Problem into Restarting Death Penalty in NC

play audio
Play

Friday, May 2, 2014   

RALEIGH, N.C. – Details are still emerging about what's being called a botched lethal injection in Oklahoma earlier this week.

While North Carolina is thousands of miles away, people on both sides of the death penalty debate are keeping a close eye on developments, since several lawmakers in this state have declared their intention to restart executions, after an eight-year standstill.

Duke University law professor Jim Coleman points out their intentions don't match the will of the people.

"I think North Carolina has been fine in the eight years that we've not had executions and I don't think trying to resume them, particularly in light of what happened in Oklahoma, is anything that the public wants any part of," he stresses.

Death sentences have been on the decline in North Carolina in recent years, and questions about evidence collected in the state crime lab as well as racial issues surrounding sentencing have prompted some to question whether the punishment should continue.

If North Carolina resumed lethal injections, the Department of Corrections would be limited in what drugs would be available to it since many drug companies have demanded their products not be used in executions.

Coleman and others allege using off-label drugs could have led to the problem this week.

"They're, in effect, now going on the black market to find drugs so that they can carry out these executions,” he says. “And I don't think there's any cause for the kind of hasty action that they're taking."

The Oklahoma inmate involved in the execution this week – Clayton Lockett – lived for 43 minutes after the first lethal injection was administered.

Earlier this year, an Ohio death-row inmate gasped and convulsed for 10 minutes before dying from his drug cocktail.

Last week the Oklahoma Supreme Court tried to stop the execution, concerned about drugs to be used in the lethal injection.

But the state's governor – Mary Fallin – ordered the execution to continue and several lawmakers threatened the justices with their jobs.

"When they were threatened with impeachment and then the governor intervened in a clearly illegal fashion, claiming that she could overturn the court's stay,” Coleman says, “I think it made a mockery of the judicial system."





get more stories like this via email

more stories
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this week about the popular abortion pill Mifepristone and will weigh in on whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was correct in how it can be dosed and prescribed. (Ascannio/Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Missouri residents are worried about future access to birth control. The latest survey from The Right Time, an initiative based in Missouri…


Social Issues

play sound

Wisconsin children from low-income families are now on track to get nutritious foods over the summer. Federal officials have approved the Badger …

Social Issues

play sound

Almost 2,900 people are unsheltered on any given night in the Beehive State. Gov. Spencer Cox is celebrating signing nine bills he says are geared …


The U.S. teaching workforce remains primarily white while the percentage of Black teachers has declined. However, the percentage of Asian and Latinx teachers is rising.(WavebreakMediaMicro/Adobestock)

Social Issues

play sound

Education advocates are calling on lawmakers to increase funding for programs to combat the teacher shortage. Around 37% of schools nationwide …

Environment

play sound

New York's Legislature is considering a bill to get clean-energy projects connected to the grid faster. It's called the RAPID Act, for "Renewable …

Social Issues

play sound

Earlier this month, a new Arizona Public Service rate hike went into effect and one senior advocacy group said those on a fixed income may struggle …

Social Issues

play sound

Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021