Jackson Free Press

Update: Today, the U.S. Supreme Court denied the appeal of doomed prisoner Earl Berry. His attorney, Jim Craig, released the following statement:

"We are very disappointed that the Mississippi Supreme Court has denied Earl Berry's latest appeal -- especially since, under the Court's rules, we had at least until this coming Thursday to file a rebuttal brief. The State did not dispute, in their papers, the proof we submitted that Earl Berry is mentally retarded and therefore cannot be executed. So the Court is willing to allow a mentally retarded man to be executed because his lawyer -- who that same Court appointed as the prior head of the State Capital Post-Conviction Office -- failed to follow the Court's procedures. The same lawyer failed in numerous other cases, on mental retardation issues and other kinds of issues, which are discussed in Justice Diaz's dissent. It is shocking that the Court would turn a blind eye to this injustice.

"Just as disappointing, the Court has denied Mr. Berry the opportunity to prove the serious flaws in the State's lethal injection procedures. Just because the US Supreme Court said that Kentucky's procedures were adequate safeguards against suffocation and intervenous chemical burning, does not mean that Mississippi's procedures are sufficient. Mississippi uses less anesthetic in the first dose than Kentucky -- and unlike Kentucky, does not have trained personnel in the execution room to monitor the procedure. Instead, Mississippi allows two paramedics to stand outside the room, accompanied by the notorious pathologist Dr. Hayne, most famous for giving expert testimony to convict two innocent men of murder.

"It doesn't matter how many years the appeals process has run. That doesn't give the State of Mississippi the right to kill mentally retarded prisoners. And it doesn't give the State the right to torture them to death. With all due respect, the Mississippi Supreme Court has acted hastily and made a grievous mistake. We will decide in the coming days what should be filed next, to address this erroneous ruling."

Attorneys for convicted murderer Earl Berry, whom the state hopes to kill May 21, last week filed a motion with the Mississippi Supreme Court to try to stop Berry's execution. This petition raised two claims: (1) that Berry is mentally retarded, and therefore cannot be executed under the US Supreme Court's opinion in Atkins v. Virginia (Berry's prior attorneys failed to follow procedural rules in raising this previously) and (2) that the Mississippi protocol for lethal injections deviates significantly from the safeguards the U.S. Supreme Court approved in the Baze v. Rees case decided on April 16, in which it affirmed the use of lethal injection under certain conditions.

Berry Response [507kb]
Berry Successive Petition, Part 1 [7.4mb]
Berry Successive Petition, Part 2 [6.9mb]
Berry Successive Petition, Part 3 [4.5mb]

Previous Comments

ID

119781

Comment

Nice Press Release.

Author

Ironghost

Date

2008-05-06T11:48:33-06:00

ID

119785

Comment

Good discussion of this issue going on at this link, by the way.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2008-05-06T12:43:52-06:00