Mitsunobu Akano, age 65, of Japan was caught with 1.5 kilos of meth in China. He was executed yesterday. Under Chinese law, offenses involving more than 50 grams of heroin or meth carry the death penalty.

When caught, Akano was attempting to bring the drugs from China to Japan. China plans to execute three more Japanese citizens this week:

Beijing told Japan last week that it plans to execute three more Japanese drug smugglers this week - Teruo Takeda, 67, from Nagoya city; Hironori Ukai, 48, from Gifu prefecture; and Katsuo Mori, 67, of Fukushima prefecture.

Why are the Japanese going to China to get meth? One has to assume Chinese law enforcement forced the Japanese to give up their sources before killing them. Did China track down the meth producers and kill them too? Probably. (Unless they caught the producers first, who then ratted out their Japanese purchasers.) There's really no way to know. [More...]

Original Post 3/23: Controversial Texecution Weds: 30 Day Delay Sought For DNA Testing

Gov. Rick Perry, what's your hurry? Test the DNA before killing Hank Skinner. So says the Dallas Morning News, Houston Chronicle and Austin American Statesman.[More...]

In 2008, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals stayed the execution of Charles Hood. Curiously, they didn't do so because it came to light that the prosecutor and judge were having an affair. It was because of a jury instruction.

In September, the Texas Court of Appeals ruled Hood had waited to long to raise the issue of the affair. The Texecution again loomed.

Today, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals threw out the death sentence, ordering a new sentencing hearing (but not a new trial.) Once again, no mention of the affair.

[More...]

Akmal Shaikh, a Briton, is 54 and bi-polar. He was convicted of smuggling 4 kilos of heroin into China, for which China plans to execute him Tuesday morning. [10:30am on Tuesday morning, Urumqi time (2:30am GMT).]

Shaikh was arrested on arrival in Urumqi from Tajikistan. Campaigners say he was duped into carrying the drugs for a gang. Reprieve says that Shaikh was lured to China by two men who promised to help him to launch a career in pop music by recording a single that would prove a hit and usher in world peace.

His cousins are in China, trying to stop the execution. He will be the first European national executed in China in 50 years.

The authorities have given no indications that they would be ready to set aside the death penalty in the case. Several appeals from Gordon Brown to China’s leaders to exercise clemency have fallen on deaf ears.

Reprieve, an organization working to enforce prisoners' human rights, has also been trying to convince China to change the sentence. Because of the publicity the case has received, China is likely to use lethal injection rather than the firing squad to kill Shaikh.

The Death Penalty Information Center has just released its annual "Year in Death Report" for 2009.

The two biggest highlights: 2009 had fewer executions since 1976 when the death penalty was reinstated. And as a measure to fight expanding costs of the death penalty in these uncertain economic crimes, 11 states considered abolishing the death penalty.

Even More good news: The drops were largest in TX and VA, two states that execute the largest number of inmates.

The cases remain prominent because: [More]

Ohio announced today it will switch from the three drug cocktail for lethal injections to administering a single drug, thiopental sodium.

Thiopental sodium, an anesthetic, is used to euthanize animals. "Ohio will be the first state in the U.S. to use the one-drug procedure," which was recommended by Dr. Mark Dershwitz, a professor of anesthesiology at the U. Mass Medical Center. In 205, Dr. Dershwitz recommended a single dose of pentobarbital. The problem, he said, was that it could take up to a half-hour for the heart to stop. [More...]

The LA Times reports that death row inmates in California have better living conditions and more privileges that those doing life in the state's maximum security prisons. Law Prof. Doug Berman of Sentencing Law and Policy provides his take. Mine is somewhat different.

The problem with the LA Times article is that it focuses on why inmates prefer death row, one reason being the better conditions and another being the extraordinary time they will spend there awaiting execution, without reporting on the principal reason for California's excessive delay in carrying out executions. It's not the number of appeals the prisoners get. It's that the inmates are indigent and require appointed counsel, and there aren't enough qualified lawyers willing to take the cases, which means they spend years on death row before even beginning their appeals. [More...]

Update: John Muhammad died at 9:11 p.m. He said no final words.

Bump and Update: Larry King Live will provide live coverage of Virginia's execution of John Allen Muhammad.

Larry King will broadcast the DC Sniper execution live at the prison with eye-witness accounts from the victims' families. The broadcast will be on Larry King's show at 9pm ET on CNN.

I hope he also covers the protesters.

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VA. Gov. Kaine Denies Clemency to D.C. Sniper John Muhammad

Virginia Governor Tim Kaine has denied clemency to D.C. sniper John Muhammad. He is scheduled to die today. More from the New York Times. From his statement: [More...]

"D.C. Sniper" John Muhammad will be executed in Virginia tomorrow unless Gov. Tim Kaine intervenes. The Supreme Court today refused to block the execution.

Justices Stevens, Ginsburg and Sotomayor issued this statement (pdf), expressing frustration with Virginia for rushing the process: [More...]

DC sniper John Allen Muhammad is scheduled to be executed Nov. 10. His lawyers are asking the Supreme Court to halt the execution, because he is delusional.

In May, 2008, Muhammad wrote a rambling letter to his lawyers in which he proclaimed his innocence.

No one should be executed, but if Muhammed is mentally ill, clearly he should not be put to death. Will the Supreme Court agree?

"Small Box", an opera about the death penalty, will play for one night only on Nov. 7th in Indianapolis.

The opera has a cast of eight -- six men and two women. Two of the men are prison officers assigned to the death row visiting room. The officer in charge is an older man, whose assistant is a new officer, still learning the ropes after two weeks on the job.

One inmate is a multiple murderer who, because of a judge's error, had his death sentence reduced to life in prison. He works as the unit's janitor.

[More...]

The Death Penalty Information Center released a new study today (pdf) showing that states could save millions by ending the death penalty. A poll of police chiefs across the country was released with the report, Smart on Crime: Reconsidering the Death Penalty in a Time of Economic Crisis (pdf).

[The poll] found that they ranked the death penalty last among their priorities for crime-fighting, do not believe the death penalty deters murder, and rate it as the least efficient use of limited taxpayer dollars.

From DPIC:

“With many states spending millions to retain the death penalty, while seldom or never carrying out an execution, the death penalty is turning into a very expensive form of life without parole. At a time of budget shortfalls, the death penalty cannot be exempt from reevaluation alongside other wasteful government programs that no longer make sense,” said Richard C. Dieter, Executive Director of the Death Penalty Information Center and the report’s author.

[More...]