Weekly Report from the Board Meeting at Holman Prison 7.14.21

Great news from Arizona where  “The Arizona Supreme Court on Monday denied Attorney General Mark Brnovich's request to shorten the briefing schedules for the execution of death row inmates Clarence Dixon and Frank Atwood.

The ruling comes more than two weeks after Brnovich asked the court to expedite the execution schedules of Dixon and Atwood after the state acknowledged that lethal injection drugs expire after just 45 days, half the shelf-life previously claimed by the state.” So would it be fair to say that previously the state had lied?

We spent some time discussing a new report from the Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). Its annual death penalty review found that the death row population in 2019 had slightly decreased due in part to exonerations, commutations, executions and other deaths. It also reported on the ageing of death row and the time spent leading up to executions. There was no surprise for us in its statistics on vulnerability although it only addressed the educational level. Our informal poll of that done some years ago addressed that as well. There appeared to be no particulars on psychiatric or developmentally delayed issues nor of the fundamental issue of poverty. For us the following sentence sums up our situation: “Twenty-two prisoners were executed and 20 more died on death row of other causes. The executions reflected the continuing geographic isolation of the death penalty, with 20 of the 22 executions carried out in the South.”

We were honored to have our Weekly Report of 6.16.21 published in the Revealer Newsletter Vol 10, issue 7. This monthly on line newsletter is published in Tuskeegee by Chief Leon E. Frazier. It is always informative and provides insight into current as well as historic events. Thank you, Chief, also for years ago being the first law enforcement officer to sign on to the moratorium on executions!

 In closing and as always, we continue to 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. You encourage us and make all the difference. Stay safe!         

                                                                                                           Esther