Jimmy Jenkins reports on the Arizona Attorney General’s request to modify the briefing schedule on its requests to obtain execution warrants for Clarence Dixon and Frank Atwood. The request comes because the AG’s office previously stated that, once compounded, the pentobarbital it intends to use to carry out lethal injections has a shelf-life of 90 days. The AG now concedes that the shelf-life is only 45 days. Read the article and see related documents and pleadings here.
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Attorney Jim Belanger has published an op-ed in the Arizona Republic regarding his experience witnessing his client’s execution by lethal gas. Read the opinion piece here.
The New York Times and others, including Al Jazeera and CBS News report on Arizona’s plan to use hydrogen cyanide to execute death row inmates. The reports note that Arizona’s lethal gas protocol does not allow for the use of hydrogen cyanide, a gas used by the Nazis to kill more than a million prisoners at Auschwitz, including 865,000 Jewish prisoners.
The Jerusalem Post reports on Arizona’s plan to use hydrogen cyanide, known as Zyklon B during the holocaust, to execute inmates. Read more here.
The Guardian reports that Arizona has refurbished its gas chamber and is prepared to execute inmates with hydrogen cyanide – the same gas used at Auschwitz. Read the article here.
From Newsweek:
Arizona Supreme Court Sets Deadline For Warrant Seeking Frank Atwood’s Execution
(May 25, 2021) Despite the many unanswered questions that leave grave doubt about whether Frank Atwood is responsible for the crime for which he faces execution, the Arizona Supreme Court has granted the state Attorney General’s motion to begin the process of setting an execution date for him this fall. The court’s ruling allows the Attorney General to formally request, in July, an execution warrant for Mr. Atwood, setting the stage for an execution date by as soon as late September.
Jimmy Jenkins reports on Frank Atwood’s motion for evidentiary development regarding the shelf-life of compounded pentobarbital.
https://apnews.com/article/arizona-executions-08d613610165a023a5cd4db2be85a8f6
Prisoner disputes shelf life of Arizona’s execution drug
In a filing this week, attorneys for Atwood asked the state Supreme Court to deny the AG’s request, saying their client has an active appeal.
