Weekly Report from the Board Meeting at Holman Prison 1.17.24
The State of Alabama has set 1.25.24 as the execution date for Kenneth Smith. “U.S. District Judge R. Austin Huffaker rejected Alabama inmate Kenneth Eugene Smith’s request for an injunction to stop his scheduled Jan. 25 execution by nitrogen hypoxia. Smith’s attorneys have said the state is trying to make him the “test subject” for an untried execution method. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments by phone Friday January 19th.
The Talking Points are at https://www.phadp.org/execution-alert-kenneth-eugene-smith/ on our website. Please: Take action to spare Kenneth’s life at bit.ly/KennethSmithAL or at athttps://actionnetwork.org/petitions/stop-the-execution-of-kenneth-smith and write to the Governor as well! We hope to see you on the 23rd on the steps of the Capitol at 11:00 a.m. for a press conference after which we will deliver the petitions to the Governor. This will give us the ability to garner maximum exposure and government pressure for both Kenny and against Nitrogen Hypoxia.
We are grateful to Cantor Mike Zoosman for reaching out to State Rep. Phillip Ensler, the only Jewish member of the Alabama House of Representatives, District 74, and Executive Director of the Jewish Federation of Central Alabama who released a Statement on Alabama’s Criminal Justice System in which he opposes execution with nitrogen hypoxia and points to serious flaws in Alabama’s death penalty system. We look forward to meeting him at the rally on the 23rd as well as Rep. Chris England and Rep. Jeremy Gray. Our thanks to Alabama Arise who sent out a letter in support to Religious Leaders as well as to its members.
The national and international airways are flooded with articles about “Alabama’s “grotesque and unnecessary human experimentation plan that offends any just society’s sense of decency and humane punishment.” Does Alabama care about the “credibility and integrity of it’s legal system” or for that matter about a sense of decency? Yesterday the U.N. human rights commissioner said the office now has "serious concerns" that Smith's planned execution could breach two international human rights treaties that the U.S. has agreed to abide by — the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
The Board wrote to the Chairwoman of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians asking for help. Holman Correctional Facility sits on tribal land and the hope is that barbaric executions carried out on their land “should deeply offend the tribal sovereignty of your Nation.”
We thank the Rev. Jeff Hood for his tireless work in getting the word out with his writings. “Walk Away: On Moral Embarrassment. Alabama & Kenny Smith” “Parable of the Rock from Death Row;” “A Vision”; “Wineskins Bust”and “Dr. Joseph Antognini : A Campaign Against Dr. Death” a very important contribution!
We thank all who are working so hard and diligently to stop all killing in Alabama! And as always in closing, we thank all our generous donors who either gave by going to our website and using the “donate” button or who gave directly. Thank you also to all who took the time to read our notes, commented, liked and shared them on Facebook.. Stay safe and be kind to each other!
Esther
