Sherry Chandler » 2008 » January » 07
Profile of the lawyers involved from the Lexington, Kentucky Herald-Leader:
Monday could mark one of the most important days in the legal careers of David Barron and Jeff Middendorf.
The two Kentucky lawyers will be in Washington for the legal equivalent of a New Year’s Day bowl game — playing key roles in a closely watched case in front of the U.S. Supreme Court that carries nationwide implications for the administration of the death penalty.
To get to this momentous moment in their professional lives, Barron and Middendorf both chose to travel on the cheap.
Barron, 29, a public defender who has argued that the state’s method of execution amounts to cruel and unusual punishment, drove to Washington in an aging Toyota Corolla with temperamental tires and an odometer pushing past 233,000 miles. He will likely be the only lawyer in the Supreme Court chambers Monday — perhaps ever — who has been homeless.
Middendorf, 35, who represents the Kentucky Department of Corrections in defending the state’s method of execution, flew to Washington late last week, flew back to Kentucky this weekend — he’s the father of three children under age six — and then flew back Sunday because it was cheaper than staying five days in Washington.
This post was written by sherry
Today’s NYTimes editorial:
The Supreme Court hears arguments on Monday in a case about whether Kentucky’s use of a “cocktail” of injected poisons to carry out the death penalty is unconstitutional. We believe that the death penalty, no matter how it is administered, is unconstitutional and wrong. If a state does execute anyone, it must do so in a way that is humane and does not impose needless suffering. Kentucky’s method does not meet that standard.
Popular support for capital punishment is, thankfully, declining in this country. The growing number of exonerations of innocent people on death row has shown that the system cannot be trusted to make such an irrevocable decision. There is considerable evidence of racial discrimination in the application of the death penalty. After years of botched electrocutions and other horrors, it is clear that the methods of taking life are barbaric.
In Kentucky, and nearly all of the states that have capital punishment, executions are carried out by injection of a three-drug “cocktail.” This is supposedly more humane than the electric chair. The more one learns about lethal injection, the less humane it appears.
There is considerable evidence that inmates do not go peacefully or easily. Instead they are reported to feel suffocation, paralysis and excruciating pain. This is particularly true when poorly trained, unskilled workers are administering the drugs, which is all too often the case.
If you think lethal injection is humane, I’d ask you to imagine yourself strapped to a gurney while some technician approaches you with the needle.
It makes me cold in the pit of my stomach.
This post was written by sherry
