Valle execution back on

by John Kennedy | September 13th, 2011

Gov. Rick Scott scheduled Sept. 28 as the date for the execution of convicted Miami-Dade cop killer Manuel Valle.
Valle’s execution has been put off twice this summer, first by the Florida Supreme Court and later by federal judges in Atlanta. Those stays, however, have been lifted as courts have effectively endorsed the state’s use of the compound pentobarbital for the lethal injection needed, a change forced by a manufacturer’s discontinuing the three-drug round of chemicals formerly used.
Valle’s execution has been set for 4 p.m. that day, a Wednesday. Valle is the first death warrant signed by Florida’s new governor.
Since his conviction for the 1978 killing of Coral Gables police officer Louis Pena, Valle has been sentenced to death and re-sentenced three times in legal wrangling that eventually reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which overturned his death penalty in 1987. Courts later reaffirmed his death penalty conviction.

Palm Beach Post.com

Perry Draws applause with his defense of the Death Penalty

Dale Recinella to speak

In his recently published book, “Now I Walk on Death Row,” Recinella writes about the spiritual journey that led him from a lucrative job as a finance lawyer to his ministry with death row inmates. On Sunday, he’ll discuss the highlights of his book at 2 p.m. at the Co-Cathedral of St. Thomas More. His talk is sponsored by Pax Christi, the Florida Catholic Conference and Tallahassee Citizens Against the Death Penalty.

Good and Bad news …. 5 items

Dear Friends,

On behalf of the board of Tallahassee Citizens Against the Death Penalty, I have some bad news and some good announcements – all for early September – 6, 7, and 11.

The Governor has set a new date for the killing of Manuel Valle. It is now scheduled for Tuesday, September 6 at 6 p.m.

Please attend the Vigil in front of the Governor’s mansion on September 6th at 6 p.m. This will be the first in the Scott administration.

On the following day, Wednesday, September 7th, we will gather at the Capitol Rotunda at 12 noon for a Memorial Service for Mr. Valle and for victim, Louis Pena.
Read More

Florida’s Catholic bishops repeated their plea for Gov. Rick Scott ….

Travis Pillow writes in the Florida Independent that Florida’s Catholic bishops repeated their plea for Gov. Rick Scott to call off the execution of Manuel Valle, the subject of Scott’s first death warrant.

Valle was convicted of the 1978 killing of a Coral Gables police officer, and first sentenced in 1981. He then waged a decades-long series of appeals, including most recently a challenge to Florida’s lethal injection drug mixture and procedures, which allowed him to delay his scheduled execution.

The Florida Supreme Court issued a ruling Thursday allowing the execution to proceed. It is scheduled for Sept. 1. Read More

18 August 2011 Virginia executes Jerry Jackson amid death-drug row

From BBC

Jerry Jackson was the 31st prisoner put to death in the US this year

The US state of Virginia has executed a convicted murderer and rapist by lethal injection, despite objections from the drug manufacturer. Read More

Links to officials to express your thoughts on the death penalty

Governor Rick Scott – Rick.Scott@myflorida.com

Lt. Governor Jennifer Carroll – Jennifer.Carroll@myflorida.com

Secretary of Dept. of Corrections Edwin Buss – Buss.Edwin@mail.dc.state.fl.us

Inspector General, Dept. of Corrections – Edmonson.Terrance@mail.dc.state.fl.us

The saga of Manuel Valle

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi has asked U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to lift a stay of execution ordered by the state’s highest court.
Bondi filed the request after the Florida Supreme Court on Monday ordered a month-long stay for Manuel Valle.
He was had been scheduled for execution Aug. 2 for killing a Coral Gables police officer 33 years ago.
The state justices, in a 4-3 ruling, ordered the stay so a trial judge can hold a fact-finding hearing on whether Valle would feel pain from a new drug Florida plans to use for lethal injection.
Bondi’s filing says that issue already has been decided in cases from other states.
Thomas can lift the stay, but death row cases usually are referred to the full court.

Death Penalty, Still Racist and Arbitrary

Op-Ed Contributor, New York Times

By DAVID R. DOW
Published: July 8, 2011, Houston
LAST week was the 35th anniversary of the return of the American death penalty. It remains as racist and as random as ever.
Several years after the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, a University of Iowa law professor, David C. Baldus (who died last month), along with two colleagues, published a study examining more than 2,000 homicides that took place in Georgia beginning in 1972. They found that black defendants were 1.7 times more likely to receive the death penalty than white defendants and that murderers of white victims were 4.3 times more likely to be sentenced to death than those who killed blacks. Read More

Florida Supreme Court overturned death sentences Thursday

By Brent Kallestad
The Associated Press

The Florida Supreme Court overturned death sentences Thursday for convicted killers from Jacksonville and Zephyrhills. Read More