Weekly Report from the Board Meeting at Holman Prison 9.20.23 We were pleased to share the horrific story in the UK Sunday Times by its Washington Correspondent Alistair Dawber about his exclusive, lengthy interview with Kenneth Smith: “I survived one execution. Now Alabama wants to kill me with nitrogen.” Alistair Dawber asked to be kept updated because he would like to continue to write about “Kenny and his case.”
The State has also asked for an execution date for Casey McWhorter. We are reaching out to Casey. We will keep you posted.
Alabama’s style of justice is definitely making news in the U.K. In a Daily Mail exclusive: “Alabama’s death row inmate set for “appalling” execution” : ”At least 14 former judges, prosecutors and officials – including the man who secured his conviction – have called for it to be overturned with Johnson and at least 10 witnesses claiming he was in a club on the other side of Birmingham, Alabama at the time of the shooting.”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12510149/Alabama-death-row-inmate-Toforest-Johnson-execution-Jefferson-County-deputy.html?Stephen Cooper stated in his article Alabama’s Plan to Execute Prisoners with Nitrogen Gas is Immoral : If a nitrogen gassing execution ever takes place in this country, and worse, should nitrogen gassing executions become routine, the direction of our American spirit, our very morality, will be worse than sullied; it will be irretrievably lost.” We also discussed an Opinion piece in the Crimson and White: The brutal executions in Alabama prisons must end.” Might we suggest that all executions are brutal and that they all should end?
We were very interested to read and discuss the article in the Intercept : “Medical equipment manufacturers are blocking their equipment for lethal injections” by our friend Lauren Gill and Dan Moritz-Rabson “The four companies that have raised objections are Baxter International Inc., B. Braun Medical Inc., Fresenius Kabi, and Johnson & Johnson. In addition to manufacturing drugs, they make IV catheters, syringes, medical tubing, and IV bags, products states rely on to administer lethal injection. In statements to The Intercept, the companies said that the use of their equipment in executions contradicts their values.” This issue has been of interest to us for a long time and how we might engage companies in our fight to abolish the death penalty.
From Beth Shelburne: “I’m excited to launch the podcast series I’ve been working on for 3 years about Toforest Johnson’s death row conviction. It’s called Earwitness and you can listen now.!” Thank you, Beth Shelburne!
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/earwitness/id1707026865
We discussed the notes from the Alabama People of death penalty coalition meeting which focused on narrative and narrative shifting. Very interesting!
Unless there is a stay of execution in Oklahoma tomorrow the men at Holman will hold a vigil for their brother Anthony Sanchez. They have been in touch!
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. And if you would like to order our book “Ghosts Over the Boiler” you can do so at Amazon.com. Stay well and be kind to each other, Esther
