Jan 6th - The BBC's Today programme ran a story about Reprieve's investigation into Britain's shameful export of drugs to the US which would be put to use killing people. Originally it was thought that only sodium thiopental was being sourced in the UK, but now it's been discovered that the other two drugs used in executions (pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride) are also been exported by the UK. Not too pleased with my own supposedly-against-the-death-penalty country right now. The drugs have been used to execute at least one person so far. (You can read some really good articles about the whole scandal on the Guardian's website if you're interested)
Jan 6th - Oklahoma executed Billy Don Alverson for the 1995 killing of a convenience store worker in Tulsa. Alverson was pronounced dead at 6:10pm and apologised to the victim's family in his final statement. Alverson becomes the first person to be executed in the US in 2011.
Jan 7th - Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter granted the first posthumous pardon in the state's history to Joe Arridy (pictured, on the right), 72 years after he was executed for a crime he had nothing to do with. Arridy had an IQ of just 46 (nowadays the cut-off line for competency is 70 - a person with an IQ below that cannot be executed in the United States.) His so-called confession was a mumbled one which only the sheriff heard. ) His so-called confession was a mumbled one which only the sheriff heard. ) His so-called confession was a mumbled one which only the sheriff heard. Arridy is burried behind the state prison in the same place as the man who confessed to the crime for which Arridy was executed - and who maintained until his execution that Arridy had nothing to do with it. Despite Arridy's 'confession' being false, despite the fact he was likely not even in the city when the murder took place, and despite the fact another man confessed, Arridy was executed an innocent man in 1939. 
Jan 7th - A panel in Texas heard from arson experts who had reviewed the evidence which sent Cameron Todd Willingham (pictured) to the death chamber in 2004 for the deaths of his 3 children in a house fire in 1991. Several experts have challenged the conclusion of arson as a cause for the fire, and Willingham maintained his innocence even in his final statement. The case has stirred up a lot of attention because death penalty opponents are aiming to have the Willingham case become the first one in which a prisoner is formally declared wrongfully put to death. Texas Gov. Rick Perry has so far done his utmost to see the inquiry stifled. Jan 9th - The Texas Moratorium Network announced they had so far raised $3,573 for Anthony Graves, who spent 18 years on Texas death row for a crime he didn't commit before being recently exonerated. The state has yet to give him any compensation for their inhuman blunder which very nearly took his life.
Jan 10th - Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon commuted the sentence of death row inmate Richard Clay to life without the possibility of parole - just over a day before he was scheduled to be executed. The governor gave no reason for the decision to commute the sentence and in fact stated he was convinced Clay was involved in the 1994 killing he was sentenced for, and that he supported the jury's verdict of first degree murder. It's unclear yet whether the decision was influenced by allegations from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) that Missouri cut corners when rehearsing executions due to the national shortage of sodium thiopental, the first drug used in the lethal injection cocktail by most states. The ACLU believe Missouri didn't use the drug in an October rehearsal aimed at determining whether staff understood how to administer the drugs properly, possibly to try and make the dwindling supply last longer so they could carry out more executions. Corrections officials say the state was adequately prepared.
That's all I've got time to write just now, I'll try to update this later.
- SB
I'm furious with the drug companies here who made a profit out of death. It's completely unethical.
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