38 replies to this topic

[Austin]

Governor Rick Scott is so hated in Florida that even people who are normally pro-death penalty are bashing him over his recent signing of a death warrant on Manuel Valle and accusing Scott of playing politics by killing someone in order to try to raise his poll numbers in Florida!! He signed the warrant on June 30th and the execution is set to take place on August 2nd.

Scott is a scumbag who is destroying Florida!! His approval numbers are so low obviously he decided that executing someone might be a good way to up his numbers with the extreme far right-wingers out there.

Previously Scott had indicated he wouldn't be signing any death warrants until the conflict over the drug protocol used to execute these people had been resolved. It has NOT been resolved at this point. The drug makers (in Europe) of drugs previously used in executions have either stopped making the particular drugs or have refused to sell drugs to people in the US for the use of executions. Most European countries stopped executing people long ago and do not have a death penalty. So, the drugs we in the US have used in the past are not available to us now. There is a controversy over the procedure with different drugs being cruel and unusual.

Also, a Federal Court Judge (Martinez) in South Florida ruled that Florida's Death Penalty law is unconstitutional because of the procedure used during the penalty phase of a murder trial. This ruling came down on June 20th. Scott signed the death warrant on June 30th.

When I heard about his signing a death warrant my first thought was, OMG, it's political, he's trying to raise his poll numbers!

Again, Scott is a CROOK and a scumbag whom most Floridians now realize was a HUGE mistake........compliments of the fucking Tea Party!


[PDF] IN THE SUPREME COURT OF FLORIDA NO. SCll - 1326 MOTION FOR LEAVE ... www.floridasupremecourt.org/.../Filed_07-07-2011_Motion_for_Leave.pd...File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - Quick View
Jul 7, 2011 – On July 5, 2011, Mr. Valle filed an Emergency Petition for ...

[Austin]

I didn't even know about this death penalty controversy over Rick Scott but I already didn't like him. Any chance he'll get recalled? I hear conservatives calling for him to run for president.

there is no recall option in Florida! So we're STUCK with him. Last I heard his approval rating in Florida is 27%!! Lowest ever.

God help us all if someone like Rick Scott were ever elected President! The man is seriously a crook and he is destroying this state. Also he is one of the Koch brothers' "boys".......he slipped off recently for a weekend to meet with Koch brothers out West. Scott has his calendar posted on Internet down here. Suddenly there was a weekend which was blank and the media jumped on it. Turned out that that was the weekend he went out for private meeting with Koch and a couple other of the new "Tea Party" governors.

What a real scumbag!

[TAP]

Moved this thread to the Politics forum. Please don't hate me for abusing my power.

[Austin]

Moved this thread to the Politics forum. Please don't hate me for abusing my power.

No problem. Didn't realize there was a "politics" forum. Thanks.

[Timothy]

So what did the person he signed the Death Warrant on due???

[Austin]

So what did the person he signed the Death Warrant on due???

He was convicted of killing somebody 33 years ago. However, he is still entitled to due process, according to our Constitution. He was sentenced under Florida's death penalty which has now been ruled unconstitutional by Federal Court Judge Martinez on June 20th, 2011. It's my understanding that since the Martinez ruling on June 20th, two death row inmates in Florida have had their sentences changed from death to life without parole. Seems "off" to me that the governor (if of course he has any respect for the law and the Constitution) would sign a death warrant with such big issues regarding the legality of Florida's DP laws still in question and being litigated.

Additionally, there is a challenge going on regarding the drug protocol used for executions in Florida.

These issues need to be settled before anyone is executed because it means that those people will not get due process (as guaranteed to all of us under the Constitution). Once they kill you, they can't "take it back."

I think that Rick Scott doesn't really care about the death penalty as an issue at all. It's just one of those things the governor is required to do. I think he saw an opportunity to use the D.P. with an execution to help his poll numbers in Florida, so he just signed a warrant. Law enforcement in Florida did not support Rick Scott in his campaign; in fact, they came out publicly against him. There are about 40 death row inmates in Florida, out of close to a total of 400, who are what is known as "warrant eligible." Warrant eligible means that all your appeals have been exhausted after the final appeal to the United States Supreme Court. IMO, Rick Scott is just using whatever he can to try to get his poll numbers a little bit out of the DITCH they are in in Florida, which of course means he's willing to kill someone in order to "up" his poll numbers.

Valle is 61 years old. He has spent over half his life on death row. He was sent there when he was 27 or 28 years old. It has been over three decades. He's too old to be a threat to anybody. He certainly seems to me to be a good option for life without parole ever. He isn't going to live too very many more years, so he wouldn't been the same cost for incarceration as a younger inmate having his/her sentenced changed from death to life without parole ever. He was convicted of shooting and killing a law enforcement officer, which is another component to the political "advantage" for Scott. Actually, Valle shot at the officer, the bullet hit him in the neck, and then he bled to death later in the hospital. I think the bullet hit him in the side of his neck. The officer had a police dog in the car with him and that dog made it impossible for EMS to get him out of the car quickly so there was I think about a 45 minute delay getting him to the hospital.

There are many, many more cases on Florida's death row with horrific facts, but Scott chose the law enforcement case to please that component of the population in Florida.

[cousin it]

So what did the person he signed the Death Warrant on due???

On April 2, 1978, Officer Louis Pena pulled over Manuel Valle and his codefendant, Felix Ruiz, for a traffic violation.

Upon arriving at the scene, Officer Spell observed Valle sitting in the patrol car with Officer Pena. When Officer Pena initiated a registration check on the stolen car that Valle was driving, Valle exited the patrol car and walked back over to his own vehicle.

Valle retrieved a gun from his car, returned to the patrol car, and fired one shot at Officer Pena, killing him.

Valle then turned and fired two shots at Officer Spell before fleeing the scene.

Valle was apprehended two days later in Deerfield Beach.


Fuck him! He is a cop killer.

[Austin]

So what did the person he signed the Death Warrant on due???

On April 2, 1978, Officer Louis Pena pulled over Manuel Valle and his codefendant, Felix Ruiz, for a traffic violation.

Upon arriving at the scene, Officer Spell observed Valle sitting in the patrol car with Officer Pena. When Officer Pena initiated a registration check on the stolen car that Valle was driving, Valle exited the patrol car and walked back over to his own vehicle.

Valle retrieved a gun from his car, returned to the patrol car, and fired one shot at Officer Pena, killing him.

Valle then turned and fired two shots at Officer Spell before fleeing the scene.

Valle was apprehended two days later in Deerfield Beach.


Fuck him! He is a cop killer.

Well, okie dokie. Clearly you support the death penalty.

However, that does not change the fact that Rick Scott signed this death warrant for strictly political reasons. There are two huge issues in Florida right now regarding the d.p. One is the drug protocol used to execute people and the fact that Florida is using a new drug as one of the drugs for execution because the drugs which were previously used were manufactured by companies in Europe and those companies stopped selling the drug to people in the U.S. for executions. Most of the civilized world does not use a death penalty anymore. Second issue is that a Federal Judge in Florida just ruled that the penalty phase of Florida's death penalty is unconstitutional.....as in U.S. Constitution. You're a smart guy. I'm sure you understand the need for following the law and observing Constitutional Rights for everyone.

I was the investigator on Valle's case for 6 years, and the chief investigator for the state agency which represents death row people at the collateral appeal level. The summary you found online was written by the State......there is much more information on this case. However, I certainly respect your right to support the death penalty and to hate "cop killers."

I've always found it odd that many liberals support the death penalty, but I attribute that to the fact that unless you work in that area of the law, one would have no reason or occasion to find out how political the death penalty is nor how many times the cops actually "cheat" when the cases are being investigated in order to get a "conviction." That's probably why there have been I think 21 or 23 people exonerated and released from death row in florida because they were ultimately proven to be innocent and had been wrongly convicted.

It takes two sides to protect YOUR rights, the state (prosecutor) and the defense.
http://www.deathpena...d-death-penalty

[artcinco]

I think the whole "stop executions by stopping production of the 'approved' drug cocktails" thing is weak. Should the state switch back to the electric chair, firing squad or hangman's noose?

[TAP]

The drugs are made in Europe, why is it 'weak' for companies in countries with no death penalty to not make the drug for US executions.

[artcinco]

The argument that only a certain kind of lethal drug combination only made in Europe can be used to execute people is weak. Seems someone could find some chemicals that would knock someone out and then kill them here in 'merica. Perhaps some entrepreneurial tea partiers can step up and do a job that Americans don't want to do and manufacture the "approved" death cocktail here.

[TAP]

The argument that only a certain kind of lethal drug combination only made in Europe can be used to execute people is weak.

Seems someone could find some chemicals that would knock someone out and then kill them here in 'merica. Perhaps some entrepreneurial tea partiers can step up and do a job that Americans don't want to do and manufacture the "approved" death cocktail here.

Yet they haven't? Executing someone yet staying constitutional (8th Amendment) is tricky. It's not like there is a significant popular or political movement against the death penalty here.

[Austin]

I think the whole "stop executions by stopping production of the 'approved' drug cocktails" thing is weak. Should the state switch back to the electric chair, firing squad or hangman's noose?

The whole drug protocol goes to the issue of cruel and unusual punishment.

Florida's death penalty was almost overturned as a result of using the electric chair. The state now offers a CHOICE of lethal injection or electric chair. We had many problems here with the electric chair. For example, flames bursting out of the inmate's head two to three feet high during executions. Profuse bleeding from the head during executions. I believe it took something like 20 to 30 minutes to kill one person with lethal injection. Pretty gruesome.

Back to the drug protocol. Are you aware that the people who administer the drugs are NOT doctors or nurses or other medical professionals? They train certain prison guards to administer the drugs. That has created enormous problems, such as the inability of the person administering the drugs to find a vein when the execution was started.

There have been studies done regarding the drugs used in lethal injections and their effectiveness. One study was done by the University of Miami. This all goes back to the issue of CRUEL & UNUSUAL PUNISHMENT. We still don't openly torture people in this country, even when executing them. Some experts contend that some of these drug protocols being used now are extremely painful, and that's not the way we want to do things in the U.S. We have a requirement to find the most humane way possible to execute people, that is if we still support our Constitution. My position, of course, would be that putting someone to death, whether state sanctioned murder, or the murder of an individual by another individual citizen is certainly cruel and unusual punishment. That's just my OPINION. Clearly, I have a bit of a bias regarding this subject, but that bias is the result of working in the criminal justice system for over 20 years in various positions. It took a very long time, and many botched executions, before the electric chair was basically taken off the table. Needless to say, no one has chosen to be executed in the electric chair since that was made an option, not a requirement. Actually, the sentencing orders by the judges in Florida specified that the person would die in the electric chair prior to Jeb Bush's administration changing the procedure and providing the choice of lethal injection or electric chair.

Here are some links to articles about the problems at this point with the drug protocols being used in various states. The first link discusses the unavailability of a key drug which was previously used which is now unavailable in the U.S. and why.

http://abcnews.go.co...ory?id=13148874

Richard Dieter, the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said the shortage of the drug is causing a "period of flux" with a lack of any kind of national review.

Some states are using a three-drug protocol and others have changed to a one drug.

"We have some states using one drug, others sticking to three drugs," he said. "It's kind of a form of human experimentation as opposed to a more deliberative process with medical experts about what would be the most humane process."

http://www.deathpena...jection-process

On July 8 U.S. District Court Judge Gregory Frost stayed the upcoming July 19 execution of Ohio inmate Kenneth Smith because of the state's inconsistent application of its lethal injection process. Judge Frost called the state's practice "haphazard," and said, "Ohio pays lip service to standards it then often ignores without valid reasons, sometimes with no physical ramifications and sometimes with what have been described as messy if not botched executions." Smith's attorneys argued that Ohio does not follow its own execution procedures, straying from the required number of execution team members and failing to document the mixing of drugs. According to the warden of the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, executions in January and May involved only one medical team member, rather than the required two. Frost did not rule on the constitutionality of Ohio's death penalty statute, but held that Smith would likely prevail on a claim of unequal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment. He concluded, "The perplexing if not often shocking departures from the core components of the execution process that are set forth in the written protocol not only offend the Constitution based on irrationality but also disturb fundamental rights that the law bestows on every individual under the Constitution, regardless of the depraved nature of his or her crimes."

http://en.wikipedia....ethal_injection

After sodium thiopental began being used in executions, the only American company that made the drug stopped manufacturing it due to its use in executions.[20] The subsequent nationwide shortage of sodium thiopental led states to seek for other drugs. Pentobarbital, a drug often used for animal euthanasia,[21] was used as part of a three drug cocktail for the first time on December 16, 2010, when John David Duty was executed in Oklahoma.[22] It was then used as the drug in a single drug execution for the first time on March 10, 2011, when Johnnie Baston was executed in Ohio.[23]

In 2006, the Supreme Court ruled in Hill v. McDonough that death-row inmates in the United States could challenge the constitutionality of states' lethal injection procedures through a federal civil rights lawsuit. Since then, numerous death-row inmates have brought such challenges in the lower courts, claiming that lethal injection as currently practiced violates the ban on "cruel and unusual punishment" found in the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution.[25] Lower courts evaluating these challenges have reached opposing conclusions. For example, courts have found that lethal injection as practiced in California,[26] Florida,[27] and Tennessee[28] is unconstitutional.

[Austin]

The argument that only a certain kind of lethal drug combination only made in Europe can be used to execute people is weak.

Seems someone could find some chemicals that would knock someone out and then kill them here in 'merica. Perhaps some entrepreneurial tea partiers can step up and do a job that Americans don't want to do and manufacture the "approved" death cocktail here.

Yet they haven't? Executing someone yet staying constitutional (8th Amendment) is tricky. It's not like there is a significant popular or political movement against the death penalty here.

There has been a slow decline in support of the death penalty over recent years. People seem to prefer the sentence of life without parole ever to the death sentence.

http://www.deathpena...lls-and-studies

Now, there is also the costs associated with the death penalty. Apparently in Florida we spend about $50 million a year to have our death penalty. At the same time Scott cut our education budget to the bone, along with other worthwhile budget items. And of course, he gave lots of money to businesses in the form of tax cuts. $50 million a year for vengeance seems like a very expensive luxury to me. It is far more expensive to kill someone than it is to house them for life.