Egypt issues nearly 20 million digital treatment approvals as health insurance digitalisation accelerates    Pakistan FM warns against fake news, details Iran-Israel de-escalation role    Russia seeks mediator role in Mideast, balancing Iran and Israel ties    LTRA, Rehla Rides forge public–private partnership for smart transport    Egyptian government reviews ICON's development plan for 7 state-owned hotels    Divisions on show as G7 tackles Israel-Iran, Russia-Ukraine wars    Egyptian government, Elsewedy discuss expanding cooperation in petroleum, mining sectors    Electricity Minister discusses enhanced energy cooperation with EIB, EU delegations    Egyptian pound rebounds at June 16 close – CBE    China's fixed asset investment surges in Jan–May    EHA, Konecta explore strategic partnership in digital transformation, smart healthcare    Sisi launches new support initiative for families of war, terrorism victims    Egypt to offer 1st airport for private management by end of '25 – PM    Egypt's GAH, Spain's Konecta discuss digital health partnership    Egypt nuclear authority: No radiation rise amid regional unrest    Grand Egyptian Museum opening delayed to Q4    Egypt delays Grand Museum opening to Q4 amid regional tensions    Egypt slams Israeli strike on Iran, warns of regional chaos    Egypt expands e-ticketing to 110 heritage sites, adds self-service kiosks at Saqqara    Egypt's EDA joins high-level Africa-Europe medicines regulatory talks    US Senate clears over $3b in arms sales to Qatar, UAE    Egypt discusses urgent population, development plan with WB    Egypt's Irrigation Minister urges scientific cooperation to tackle water scarcity    Egypt, Serbia explore cultural cooperation in heritage, tourism    Egypt discovers three New Kingdom tombs in Luxor's Dra' Abu El-Naga    Egypt launches "Memory of the City" app to document urban history    Palm Hills Squash Open debuts with 48 international stars, $250,000 prize pool    Egypt's Democratic Generation Party Evaluates 84 Candidates Ahead of Parliamentary Vote    On Sport to broadcast Pan Arab Golf Championship for Juniors and Ladies in Egypt    Golf Festival in Cairo to mark Arab Golf Federation's 50th anniversary    Germany among EU's priciest labour markets – official data    Cabinet approves establishment of national medical tourism council to boost healthcare sector    Egypt's PM follows up on Julius Nyerere dam project in Tanzania    Egypt's FM inspects Julius Nyerere Dam project in Tanzania    Paris Olympic gold '24 medals hit record value    A minute of silence for Egyptian sports    Russia says it's in sync with US, China, Pakistan on Taliban    It's a bit frustrating to draw at home: Real Madrid keeper after Villarreal game    Shoukry reviews with Guterres Egypt's efforts to achieve SDGs, promote human rights    Sudan says countries must cooperate on vaccines    Johnson & Johnson: Second shot boosts antibodies and protection against COVID-19    Egypt to tax bloggers, YouTubers    Egypt's FM asserts importance of stability in Libya, holding elections as scheduled    We mustn't lose touch: Muller after Bayern win in Bundesliga    Egypt records 36 new deaths from Covid-19, highest since mid June    Egypt sells $3 bln US-dollar dominated eurobonds    Gamal Hanafy's ceramic exhibition at Gezira Arts Centre is a must go    Italian Institute Director Davide Scalmani presents activities of the Cairo Institute for ITALIANA.IT platform    







Thank you for reporting!
This image will be automatically disabled when it gets reported by several people.



Arizona must stop execution of man failed by his defense lawyer
Published in Bikya Masr on 26 - 10 - 2010

Amnesty International has urged authorities in the US state of Arizona to commute the death sentence of a man who has been denied a hearing into his claims that he was failed by his court-appointed lawyer at his 1990 trial.
Jeffrey Landrigan, a 50-year-old Native American, is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection at Arizona State Prison at 10am on Tuesday 26 October, for the murder of Chester Dyer in Phoenix in December 1989.
Since 2005, 13 federal judges have argued that there should be a hearing into Jeffrey Landrigan's claim that he received inadequate legal representation.
“Too poor to afford his own lawyer, Jeffrey Landrigan was given one who was clearly not up to the job,” said Rob Freer, USA researcher for Amnesty International.
“Justice demands that the Governor of Arizona grants clemency and commutes the death sentence in a case where the courts have failed to do the right thing.”
The defense lawyer failed to prepare any expert testimony on Jeffrey Landrigan's background to present as mitigating evidence at the sentencing phase of the trial.
Eight years after the trial, a neuropsychologist concluded that a combination of inherited factors; exposure to drugs and alcohol while in the womb, early parental rejection and troubled relationships with his adoptive family had “severely impaired” Jeffrey Landrigan's ability to function in society.
In 2007, the trial judge Cheryl Hendrix, who retired in 2001, said in a sworn statement provided to Jeffrey Landrigan's appeal lawyers that she would not have sentenced him to death if she had heard such mitigating evidence. She said that if she had been presented with the type of expert findings made by the neuropsychologist in 1998, it would have left her “no choice” but to pass a life sentence.
As the execution approaches, serious questions have been raised about the lethal injection process. On Wednesday, the Arizona authorities admitted in court that they did not obtain sodium thiopental, one of the drugs it intends to use in Jeffrey Landrigan's lethal injection, from Hospira, the sole manufacturer of the drug in the USA.
This suggests that the sodium thiopental was obtained from a source outside the country and that it is not approved by the Federal Food and Drug Administration for use on humans.
Despite this, in a ruling issued on Wednesday, the Arizona Supreme Court denied the motion for a stay of execution filed by Jeffrey Landrigan's lawyers and allowed Arizona to keep secret where it obtained the sodium thiopental.
Like most other US death penalty states, Arizona uses three drugs for executions by lethal injection – sodium thiopental (an anaesthetic), pancuronium bromide (a paralytic agent) and potassium chloride (a heart-attack inducing agent).
There is currently a nationwide shortage of sodium thiopental, which has so far resulted in delays in executions in at least two states, Kentucky and Oklahoma.
Hospira, has said that it will not be able to supply more of the drug until March 2011.
Chester Dyer was found dead in his flat in Phoenix on 15 December 1989. Jeffrey Landrigan was arrested a few days later.
Jeffrey Landrigan could not afford a lawyer to represent him at trial, so the court appointed him one. That lawyer had never worked on a death penalty case before.
Having rejected the prosecution's offer of a 20-year prison term in return for pleading guilty to second-degree murder, Jeffrey Landrigan was convicted of first-degree murder in June 1990.
The lawyer only prepared two witnesses for the sentencing hearing. One was Landrigan's biological mother who abandoned him when he was six months old. The other was his ex-wife. Landrigan refused to allow either to testify.
Judge Hendrix sentenced Jeffery Landrigan to death although she found that he had not acted with premeditation.
“This is one in a long line of cases over the past three decades that puncture any notion that the US death penalty is fair and humane,” said Rob Freer.
“The reality is that this is an inescapably cruel punishment which in the USA is marked by arbitrariness, discrimination and error.”
The USA has carried out 1,231 executions since it resumed judicial killing in 1977, 43 of them this year.
Amnesty


Clic here to read the story from its source.