The Supreme Court has granted a stay of execution for Daniel Wayne Cook, scheduled to be executed tomorrow. The stay was granted to allow consideration of Mr. Cook’s pending cert petition on the issue of whether a defendant has the right to effective assistance of post-conviction counsel under the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
News
Three shipments of drugs imported by the Arizona Department of Corrections were represented to U.S. Customs and FDA officials as being for use on animals despite being intended for use in inmate executions. Read more here:
Execution dates have now been set 1 week apart for Daniel Wayne Cook and Eric King. Mr. King is scheduled to be executed on March 29th, while Mr. Cook is scheduled to be executed on April 5th.
This morning the Arizona Supreme Court granted the State’s motions for warrants of execution in two cases. Warrants will issue shortly for Daniel Wayne Cook and Eric King. Both men are plaintiffs in the recently-filed lawsuit against the FDA regarding the importation of sodium thiopental.
A joint effort between the Arizona Justice Project and the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, offering postconviction DNA testing to inmates convicted of rape and murder, has led to its first exoneration. John Watkins was wrongly convicted of rape in 2003. He spent more than 7 years in prison before DNA testing proved his innocence.
Read more about the case at the Justice Project.
The venerable Arizona litigator and Project board member shares his insights on public perception of the judiciary in the death penalty context.
http://maricopabar.org/associations/8668/files/DECEMBER%202010%20ML-FINAL.pdf (at page 3)
