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"Executions Debated as Missouri Plans One"

By Douglas A. Berman

The title of this post is the headline of this article from today's New York Times, which provides an effective primer on the state of death penalty debate in Missouri as the state gears up to execute convicted murderer Dennis Skillicorn early Wednesday morning.  Here are a few excerpts: Officials in this state are preparing to execute a prisoner for the first time since 2005, when criticisms about the state?s lethal injection method emerged and one doctor who carried out executions acknowledged being dyslexic and sometimes ?improvising? when it came to the amounts of chemicals he administered.   That doctor will no longer take part, and a United States Supreme Court ruling last year upheld a lethal injection procedure similar to the one Missouri will use, but some lawmakers, including some prominent Republicans, say they have lingering questions about the state?s system of capital punishment...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on May 19, 2009 (boomark / email).