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| Judge Says Execution Prep Can't Be Kept From Public |
| By The Recorder |
| Published: 03/21/2001 |
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A last-minute attempt by the state of California to keep from public view the early stages of Robert Massie's execution was rebuffed Monday by U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker. The judge refused to stay an injunction he issued last year against prison officials, preventing them from concealing all but the last stage of a death row inmate's execution. The ruling means observers will be able to see Massie led into the death chamber by prison officials, strapped to a gurney and injected with a deadly solution of drugs that will lead to his death, scheduled for March 27 at San Quentin State Prison. Previously, observers were only allowed to see a condemned inmate after the inmate was strapped down and given an intravenous injection. The state asked for the stay while its appeal in California First Amendment Coalition v. Woodford, 96-1291, is pending at the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. Walker chided the state for arguing that the initial stages should be concealed behind a curtain to protect the identity and safety of execution staff. He noted that one inmate, Keith Williams, has already been executed under the new rules and that no staff declined to participate. Furthermore, he dismissed arguments that the IV injection was a routine procedure unworthy of public inspection. 'Unconvincing,' Walker called the argument. 'Few doctors forcefully strap patients to gurneys in order to execute them.' In the injunction issued July 26, 2000, Walker found there had never been an incident of execution-chamber violence since the San Quentin State Prison implemented the contested rules. He also found that the state was 'motivated, at least in part, by a concern that the strapping of a condemned inmate, the injection of a intravenous lines or other aspects of a lethal injection execution would be perceived as brutal by the public.' It was the second time Walker had ruled for the California First Amendment Coalition, which brought the case along with the Society of Professional Journalists and the American Civil Liberties Union. His initial summary judgment order was reversed by the Ninth Circuit, which sought more fact-finding from the court. Presuming all goes well, Walker's Monday ruling, along with the prior execution of Williams, should help Walker's order stand on appeal. The more prisoners executed without incident, the greater the evidence that the state's safety concerns are not legitimate. Massie's case has captured the attention of the public recently, particularly in San Francisco. Massie has spent nearly 30 years on death row, including 21 years for the 1979 murder of San Francisco liquor store clerk Boris Naumoff during a robbery. Massie recently penned an article in the San Francisco Chronicle explaining his unusual decision to end his appeals and begin a march toward death - a turn of events about which Walker was well aware. 'The execution of Robert Lee Massie is no ordinary execution. Massie has elected voluntarily to forgo further appellate review of his death sentence,' Walker wrote. 'In this respect, the execution of Massie marks an important event in the ongoing controversy surrounding death penalty prisoners who decline to contest their executions.' Lawyers arguing the case for the plaintiffs were pleased with the decision. 'The rules right now are that people will get to see Massie from the time he's escorted into the chamber, he's strapped on the gurney, the catheter is inserted into his arm and he's pronounced dead,' said Pillsbury Winthrop senior counsel Michael Kass. |
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He has blue eyes. Cold like steel. His legs are wide. Like tree trunks. And he has a shock of red hair, red, like the fires of hell. Hamilton Lindley His antics were known from town to town as he was a droll card and often known as a droll farceur. with his madcap pantaloon is a zany adventurer and a cavorter with a motley troupe of buffoons.