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April 18, 2020
As Ohio and Tennessee delay more executions, might "incremental reopening" in Texas lead to resumption of lethal injections?
The question in title of this post is prompted by news from three states this week:
From Ohio: "Gov. Mike DeWine delays 3 more Ohio executions amid drug shortage"
From Tennessee: "Tennessee Supreme Court delays upcoming execution, citing COVID-19"
From Texas: "Is Texas the first state to roll out a timeline to begin reopening?"
Here is an excerpt from the last of these pieces:
In Texas, Govt. Abbott directed retail stores to begin reopening April 24 and instead deliver products to customers’ cars and homes. He also ordered state parks to reopen by Monday, directing residents to wear face coverings, keep a distance and stay in groups of five people or less. And, beginning April 22 restrictions on elective medical procedures will be loosened. Abbott said the process of reopening the state will happen gradually and will be guided by medical experts.
Instead of kicking off a full restart, the Texas governor announced that a group of medical and economic experts will guide him through a series of incremental steps aimed at slowly reopening the state’s economy.
This AP piece notes that the four executions which Texas had scheduled for March and April were delayed because of coronavirus concerns. But this DPIC page indicates that Texas has four other executions scheduled for May through July, and the delayed executions were mostly put on hold for 60 days. If the incremental steps to reopen Texas include restarting its death chamber, the state could have as many as eight executions before the end of the summer (and, if they did, Texas would waste to my speculation that the US could end up in 2020 with its lowest number of executions in nearly four decades).
For various reasons, I somewhat doubt that Texas will be able to get its machinery of death up and running fully in the coming months. But when there is a will to execute, Texas often finds a way. So the uncertain reopening of Lone Star lethal injection plans provides another unfolding story at the intersection of COVID and criminal justice.
Some prior related capital COVID posts:
- "Appeals Court Delays Texas Execution Due To Coronavirus Outbreak"
- Texas Court of Appeals stays a second execution for 60 days due to COVID-19
- "How Coronavirus is Disrupting the Death Penalty"
- Might COVID-19 ultimately bring an end to the death penalty in the United States?
- Yet another Texas execution postponed due to coronavirus
April 18, 2020 at 03:14 PM | Permalink
Comments
The time is ripe for the US Supreme Justices to declare an indefinite moratorium, for at least the minimal reasons that justice cannot be served when defense teams are hampered by an inability to conduct certain types of investigation on behalf of their clients, others have been hit by coronavirus either directly or indirectly, and indeed, some attorneys are not even in the country let alone able to communicate adequately with their clients. Do I trust Abbott in Texas to give weight to these considerations? Sadly no. If the Justices retain any sense of humanity alongside their devotion to "the Constitution", they will act, not in deference to a political ideology but in the interests of true justice.
Posted by: peter | Apr 19, 2020 5:05:00 AM