Weekly Report from the Board Meeting at Holman Prison 9.27.23
The State has also asked for an execution date for Casey McWhorter. We are reaching out to Casey. We will keep you posted.
This Saturday is a very important day. It is the day when Alabama Arise members vote on the priorities for 2024. Friends and our 6 delegates please don’t forget to vote for Death Penalty Reform. It is past time for this reform in Alabama!
Dr. Joel Zivot, physician in anesthesiology and intensive care medicine, and we are proud to say, member of our Advisory Board, wrote an opinion piece for Aljazeera “Killing convicts with nitrogen is even worse than the lethal injection.” Nitrogen hypoxia is the gaseous canister version of a knee in the neck. US states that plan to use it must be stopped!”
We read the article in The Week Why some critics are so horrified by Alabama's new execution method – “ Despite arguments from proponents that "nitrogen gas inhalation would cause a death that would be peaceful and not cruel,” Emory University anesthesiology professor Joel Zivot added, "there’s no evidence for any of that.” In fact, the dangers Harcourt described were referenced by Justice Brett Kavanaugh when the Supreme Court "denied a Missouri inmate's request to be executed by the method in 2019," according to NPR.”
Pulitzer Prize winner John Archibald in his article “Alabama’s ghoulish run of botched executions can’t be an accident” quotes law Professor Bernard Harcourt's essay in the New York Times: “We do not even reserve this fate for dogs or cats,” he wrote. “Nitrogen gas asphyxiation was previously used to euthanize pets. However, the American Veterinary Medical Association no longer recommends nitrogen asphyxiation for nonavian animals, citing data that indicates those animals may experience panic, pain and severe physical distress before dying. The group states in its 2020 guidelines that nitrogen gas “is unacceptable” for animals other than chickens and turkeys."
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 www.phadp.org
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