Will nitrogen enter the death arena?

So once again, death penalty demonstrators are gathering outside a USA prison. This time though, things are a bit different: the execution agent is gaseous, and the condemned man is a repeat attender…

Who and why?

Kenneth Smith is one of two assassins-for-hire who in 1988 killed Elizabeth Sennett, the wife of a pastor who hoped her life insurance could ease his financial troubles. Shortly after the killing though, the pastor killed himself - rather than face earthly justice.

A long 22 years later, in 2010, Kenneth’s partner-in-crime received the stiffest penalty meted out by the US Justice System - execution. And Kenneth himself is sentenced to the same punishment, yet he’s still on death row - at least until later today, 25th January 2024, when he is scheduled to become the first person in the USA to be executed through nitrogen asphyxiation.

Why gas and why now?

But why are the authorities using nitrogen gas rather than lethal injection, and why have they waited until now - almost 36 years after the murder - to execute him? Well the answers to these two questions are linked…

The USA’s capital punishment appeal system is notoriously slow and convoluted. It’s common for condemned people to spend around 20 years on death row. Some argue that this long wait for almost certain death is itself a form of psychological torture. And it’s not uncommon for death row prisoners to die of illness rather than by the executioner’s hand.

In Kenneth’s case, it was 33 years between conviction and the authorities first taking him to the death chamber in November 2022. But things didn’t go to plan…

As is common to many botched executions, his would-be executioners lacked sufficient skill in venous access to get the necessary needles into him. After several hours of trying, his death warrant expired and so they had to abandon the execution and return him to death row, his home for the previous three decades.

And in the aftermath of that debacle the authorities promised not to try to use lethal injection on him in the future.

So that is why Kenneth has been rescheduled to die - at another time and in another way.

Why worry?

Right now, more than the usual amount of last minute legal appeals are going on. And this is due to at least two key factors…

Firstly, no-one can reasonably deny that surviving a botched execution is a traumatising experience. And Kenneth’s legal team is arguing that it’s cruel to do this to him all over again.

And crucially, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights is alarmed at the prospect. Quoting an extract of their full statement:-

We have serious concerns that Smith’s execution in these circumstances could breach the prohibition on torture or other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment, as well as his right to effective remedies. These are rights set out in two International Human Rights treaties where the United States is bound by – the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment [CAT].

So, will the execution go ahead and - if so - will it go as ‘smoothly’ as the authorities hope? All eyes - and many hearts and prayers - are fixed on that death chamber right now. We’ll be updating you soon.

Dr Rachael Pickering is our Chief Medical Officer
Her views do not necessarily represent those of Integritas Healthcare

If not now, then when?

Following his inauguration last week, President Biden has not wasted time in signing a number of executive orders. Two days ago, this included ordering the Department for Justice to end contracts with private prisons.

This order could be seen as a step forward to ensure more humane settings of detention. It may also be a move towards racial equity. But others see this as a purely political statement that does not solve the myriad underlying problems within American’s criminal justice system. For example, it does not benefit immigration detention centres; there is no news as to when action might be taken to improve their conditions.

We continue to hope that the new administration will act on capital punishment. As of yet though, no post-inauguration mention has been made of ending the execution of prisoners who may have committed their crimes whilst seriously mentally unwell. Mr President, we urge you to consider the mental, emotional and lethal consequences of putting off this decision.

For media enquiries, please phone our Medical Director or email our European office.

Integritas calls for new POTUS to act on capital punishment

Today the world has its eyes on Washington DC. We wait to see what might happen during and after President-elect Biden's inauguration. And we wonder which executive orders the new POTUS (President Of The United States) will sign as he eases himself into his Oval Office chair.

Particular things that Integritas Healthcare, the medical non-government organisation with a heart for detainees, wants to know are...

Will President Biden act decisively to end his nation's record of executing prisoners who may have committed their crimes whilst seriously mentally unwell? And will he move to end the decades of solitary confinement, which could be said to amount to psychological and environmental torture, endured habitually by many death row prisoners?

We wait with expectation. But regardless of whether President Biden acts on this matter soon, within the next few months or never, the international appetite for change grows ever stronger.

Please Mr President, such actions would be the start of a much needed improvement in the treatment of detainees on your country's soil. We hope for the day when leaders of smaller nations set on improving their human rights records are able to look up to the United States of America and pledge to emulate your statesmanship in this matter.

For media enquiries, please phone our Medical Director or email our European office.

Integritas responds to the execution of Lisa Montgomery

Further to our recent campaigning, we were saddened though not surprised to hear that Lisa Montgomery was executed this morning after her last-minute stay of execution was overturned by the United States of America’s Supreme Court. Our thoughts and prayers are with her victim’s family, with Lisa’s own family, and with all those who have been involved professionally in her case.

Whether or not you agree with the death penalty, Lisa’s execution is a sobering, sentinel moment. It will be remembered for arguments hinged around the fate of those who commit a serious crime whilst severely mentally unwell. Could better social services & healthcare during her formative years have prevented her crime? And could more or better forensic psychiatric assessment whilst on remand have prevented her being given a capital sentence?

Those who commit heinous crimes are often themselves victims of horrendous abuse and substandard care. It is for this reason that a gold standard forensic psychiatry system needs to exist alongside an effective criminal justice system. And so we must continue to advocate for certain detainees within the criminal justice system who, because of mental illness, are especially vulnerable.

This case has been highly emotive. Therefore we will be pausing to reflect before releasing further commentary in due course.

For media enquiries, please phone our Medical Director or email our European office.

Death to the Inequality of Justice Part 1: Letter to POTUS

On 12th January 2021 the US government plans to kill Lisa Montgomery by lethal injection; she will be the first woman since 1953 to receive the federal death penalty in the USA. She was arrested in 2004 after she strangled a pregnant woman, cut her unborn baby from her abdomen, and then kidnapped the child to pass it off as her own.

TRAUMATIC CHILDHOOD AND MENTAL HEALTH

However abhorrent her crime might be, it must be placed into the context of her tragic and traumatic life. Lisa’s parents were alcoholics and she was raised in a deprived and violent household. Reported to have suffered brain damage as a child, she was a victim of sex trafficking and physical abuse, has a genetic predisposition to mental health problems, and has since been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, complex post-traumatic stress disorder and dissociative personality disorder. Yet all this mental strain went unrecognised and her mental health un-investigated - until after she was arrested and detained.

Lisa has taken full responsibility for her crime. Since being in prison she has been able to receive the help she needed in the first place, to begin to stabilise her mental health. Yet psychological reports, which stated that she was psychotic when she committed the murder and that her childhood trauma could explain her behaviour as an adult, were ridiculed in court. Her legal team’s attempts to have these arguments weighed in her sentencing were dismissed as ‘abuse excuse’. Instead her poor personal hygiene and unkempt home were used to degrade her character - as a person and as a mother.

As for the ‘abuse excuse’ accusation: examining a suspect’s mental health history and unfortunate background is the very opposite of looking for an ‘excuse’. No, it is a search for a partial ‘explanation’ at least.

Capital punishment is a divisive subject. Lisa’s crime was abhorrent. But regardless of what one believes about capital punishment, surely it isn’t right to execute someone who committed their crime whilst seriously mentally ill?

With less than 24 hours to go until Lisa is executed, we appeal to President Trump:-

Mr President

Sir, your administration has permitted Lisa Montgomery - a woman who committed a heinous crime whilst chronically mentally ill after a lifetime of severe social injustice - to be put forward for execution during the closing, supposedly ‘lame duck days’ of your presidency.

We would suggest that the death penalty is unnecessarily politicised in the USA and we feel that this scheduling is suggestive of political manoeuvring. Yet, reaching far beyond mere suggestion, the last few days have demonstrated solidly that passions boil over, people over-reach themselves, and allegiances switch - in politics and in personal lives.

Compassion is not the weakened motions of a lame duck - rather it is the decisive stroke of a strong man. Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour in who you profess faith, commanded us so: ‘Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you’ (Luke 1:37-38).

For the next few hours Lisa is still alive and for the next few days you are still the most powerful man on Earth. When we stand up in God’s court room, we will all need forgiveness. I will. Lisa will. You will too.

So Sir, please do the strong thing.

Yours respectfully

Dr Rachael Pickering (Prison doctor) & her colleagues at Integritas Healthcare