Arizona has spent $1.5 million on pentobarbital, but will not answer questions about the source of the drugs. Reporting from Capitol Media Services available at Tucson.com.
Archive for April, 2021
Documents obtained by the Guardian show three states paying astronomical amounts to skirt – almost certainly illegally – a ban on pharmaceuticals for lethal injections. “The most jaw-dropping outlay has been made by Arizona.”
Read more here: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/09/revealed-republican-led-states-secretly-spending-huge-sums-on-execution-drugs
(Phoenix, Arizona, April 7, 2021) As the Arizona Attorney General seeks execution dates for the first time since the botched execution of Joseph Wood in 2014, corrections professionals, religious leaders, and a murder victim’s sister are calling on the state not to restart executions. These stakeholders’ opposition to executions stems from a range of perspectives, including concerns about the trauma inflicted on correctional staff by proximity to executions, the senselessness of killing a prisoner who can be safely housed, ending any potential for redemption or reform, the harm to victims’ family members who wait years or decades for an elusive closure, and the intolerable risk of executing an innocent person.
These concerns are particularly significant given doubts about the reliability of Frank Atwood’s conviction (https://tinyurl.com/7j4792ub) and the fact that Clarence Dixon is a person with severe mental illness (https://tinyurl.com/4yvkr35k), the two prisoners for whom the Attorney General now seeks to obtain execution dates.
In a letter made public today, 21 retired correctional officials, many of whom have first-hand experience overseeing executions, called on Arizona Governor Doug Ducey asking him to stop the state from resuming executions after a seven-year hiatus. The letter states: “The psychological toll of carrying out a death sentence is well-documented. . . . Post-traumatic stress disorder, substance abuse, and even suicide increase among corrections staff following proximity to an execution, even among those who did not participate directly.” These experienced correctional leaders urged Governor Ducey not to put Arizona’s correctional staff at risk by allowing executions to resume.
The letter from 21 former corrections officials is available here: https://tinyurl.com/jw58pd77
A similar concern was voiced by four spiritual advisors who ministered to federal prisoners before and during their executions in 2020 and 2021. They also recently wrote to Governor Ducey asking him to prevent Arizona from restarting executions. “We recognize the deep pain the families of murder victims have suffered, and we wish them peace and healing,” their letter says. “At the same time, we have seen that carrying out executions does not provide that solace, it only perpetuates a cycle of violence and harm.” The spiritual advisors described “the lasting horror of standing in a small chamber while officials methodically prepare to end the life of a human being,” and stressed that this act “ignores the human capacity for remorse and redemption.”
The letter from spiritual advisors to executed federal prisoners is available here: https://tinyurl.com/y5n8uhk6
In a recent Arizona Republic op-ed, Arlis Keller, whose brother was murdered in Arizona in 2009, explained why she asked prosecutors to drop the death penalty from the case against his killer. As the legal case unfolded, Ms. Keller “began researching what happened during and after trials where the death penalty was sought.” She learned “that ‘closure’ is a myth,” and that “for many families, a long-awaited execution does not bring any sense of peace, leaving survivors adrift after years of living in limbo.” And she learned about “the appalling frequency with which innocent people have been convicted and sentenced to death for crimes that they didn’t commit.” She was relieved when the prosecution honored her request to drop the death penalty, leading to a plea agreement with her brother’s murderer.
Ms. Keller’s op-ed is available here: https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/2021/03/31/death-penalty-stands-way-true-justice-arizona-needs-abolish-executions/7054342002/
In addition to these writers’ concerns, Arizona’s death penalty system is marred by racial bias, geographical disparity, inadequate defense representation, an overbroad capital sentencing statute, prosecutors’ use of junk science, and other problems that render the system arbitrary, unfair, and unreliable. Ten innocent people have been exonerated from Arizona’s death row, making the prospect of a wrongful execution only too real. And despite the fact that its last execution went horribly wrong, Arizona continues to hide its execution procedures behind a shroud of secrecy.
For more information or to speak with an attorney, contact Laura Burstein, moc.bperiuqsnull@nietsruB.aruaL, (202) 669-3411, @LauraBurstein1
The Arizona Attorney General has filed a motion requesting a briefing schedule on its intent to seek a warrant for the execution of Frank Atwood. A statement from Mr. Atwood’s lawyer is below:
ATTORNEY STATEMENT AND CASE BACKGROUND RE: ATTORNEY GENERAL SEEKS EXECUTION DATE FOR FRANK ATWOOD DESPITE GRAVE DOUBTS ABOUT HIS CONVICTION
(April 6, 2021) Today, the Arizona Attorney General took steps to request execution dates from the Arizona Supreme Court, including for Frank Atwood. The State is attempting to begin the execution process for Mr. Atwood, despite open legal issues—including whether he is innocent—that need resolution to ensure any measure of reliability in this conviction and death sentence. Mr. Atwood was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1984 murder of eight-year-old Vicki Lynne Hoskinson. Eyewitnesses reported seeing the child alive hours after the only time Mr. Atwood could have crossed paths with her. Yet the authorities zeroed in on Mr. Atwood, carrying out an investigation riddled with flaws and lacking in concrete evidence connecting him to the victim’s disappearance, let alone her death.
Below is a statement from Joseph Perkovich, an attorney for Mr. Atwood:
“Frank Atwood’s litigation since early 2020 has been frustrated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The State is now attempting to sweep aside the most profound issues that can arise in our legal system, including whether the convicted is actually guilty of the crime and whether death is a morally or legally tenable punishment in the individual’s case. Mr. Atwood needs the opportunity to present these issues before the Arizona Supreme Court entertains setting an execution date.”
– Joseph Perkovich, Attorney for Frank Atwood
– April 6, 2021
BACKGROUND ON FRANK ATWOOD’S CASE
In September 1984, Frank Atwood and a fellow-traveler were passing through Tucson when an eight-year-old girl, Vicki Lynne Hoskinson, disappeared while riding her bicycle.
Hours later, long after Mr. Atwood supposedly committed this crime, multiple witnesses spotted the girl at the Tucson Mall. But a tip put Mr. Atwood in the same neighborhood that afternoon. As soon as police learned of his California convictions for child sex-related offenses, they dropped all other investigations, and he was soon arrested. He answered officers’ questions and consented to a search of his car. No evidence of the victim was found.
Seven months later, some of the girl’s bones were found off the side of Ina Road, an arterial avenue. Long after Mr. Atwood’s trial, it emerged that these remains had been buried before they appeared on the desert floor.
The prosecution’s evidence showed there was nowhere near enough time for Mr. Atwood to have abducted, killed, and buried the victim.
Evidence later emerged that the State manufactured its only physical evidence connecting Mr. Atwood to the child – supposed contact between his car and her bicycle — but the courts have yet to get to the truth of that matter. That evidence has never been subjected to modern scientific testing.
Mr. Atwood, the son of a Holocaust survivor, is now wheelchair-bound and suffering from severe spinal deterioration among other medical problems that would make the process of executing him excruciatingly painful.
For more information, contact Joseph Perkovich, gro.kcalbspillihpnull@hcivokrep.j.
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