I don't know. Don't underestimate the power of these celebrity endorsements. I hear that will.i.am wanted to get him in the song/video, but there were scheduling conflicts.

Virginia executes man who challenged methods
Story Highlights
Christopher Emmett executed for beating a co-worker to death with a lamp

He argued that state's execution methods were unconstitutional

"Tell the governor he just lost my vote," Emmett said before his death

JARRATT, Virginia (AP) -- A killer who argued that Virginia's procedures for lethal injection were unconstitutional was executed Thursday after a federal appeals court upheld the primary method of capital punishment in the country's second-busiest death chamber.

Christopher Scott Emmett, 36, was pronounced dead at 9:07 p.m. ET. He was convicted of beating a co-worker to death with a brass lamp in 2001 so he could steal the man's money to buy crack cocaine.

Emmett's appeal was the first to require a federal appeals court to interpret a U.S. Supreme Court decision in April that upheld Kentucky's three-drug method of lethal injection and apply it to another state's procedures.

Gov. Tim Kaine declined to intervene with the sentence being carried out.

"Tell my family and friends I love them; tell the governor he just lost my vote," Emmett said in the chamber before he died. "Y'all hurry this along. I'm dying to get out of here."

The rest of the story.

I think Virginia bars all felons from voting, so the governor lost that particular vote a while ago.

Well, he was right about the other part.

What other techniques could inmates adopt in their attemtps to avoid responsibility?

COLUMBUS, Ohio - A death row inmate scheduled for execution says he's too fat to be put to death, claiming executioners would have trouble finding his veins and that his weight could diminish the effectiveness of one of the lethal injection drugs.

Lawyers for Richard Cooey argue in a federal lawsuit that Cooey � 5-feet-7 and 267 pounds � had poor veins when he faced execution five years ago and the problem has been worsened by weight gain.

http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/wfaa/latestnews/stories/wfaa080804_mo_execution.167fe00a.html

JAS

"God, forgive them, receive my spirit," Heliberto Chi said in English.


Rest of story.

Them? He actually said forgive them?

He knows he was on the 911 tape trying to coax the assistant manager to the front of the store (presumably to kill her), right?

"I would honestly say Leon might be the meanest man I prosecuted for the death penalty, which is a pretty strong group to shine out of," said Mr. Shook, who now works as a Dallas defense attorney.


Details.

Did you notice the caption under the first photo? It refers to the guy in still photo from the store video as "the gunman." Not Dorsey, but "the gunman."

WTF? The guy confesses to the cops, then he confesses to reporters from this very newspaper, then he gets a full trial and is convicted by a jury, then that conviction is upheld, and the DMN still wants to hedge its bets? I wonder what a defendant would have to do to actually be called "guilty" by the paper ...

Maybe they are just shy now that DNA has overturned several Dallas cases.

From the linked story:
"Leon David Dorsey IV committed 95 infractions during more than eight years on death row"

Oh, I know.

The question is, how far does it go? The next time they show a photo of Jack Ruby shooting Oswald, are they going to refer to Ruby as "the shooter"?

"I love all y'all, I forgive all y'all," Leon Dorsey IV said from his death bed, a white sheet pulled up to his chest. "See you when you get there."

"Do what you gonna do," Mr. Dorsey said to Huntsville Unit senior warden Charles O'Reilly.


Details.

"Judge, I have changed immensely since coming to death row," Mr. Rodriguez wrote in 2006, "and realize my punishment is just and I wish to be accountable."


Details.

"My punishment is nothing compared to the pain and sorrow I've brought you," Rodriguez said. "I'm not strong enough to ask for forgiveness because I don't know if I am worthy..."

"I ask the Lord to please forgive me. I've done horrible things that brought sorrow and pain to these wonderful people," he said, looking directly at the widow of the slain police officer and Rodriguez's former sister-in-law.

"I'm sorry, so sorry," he said repeatedly.
As the drugs took effect, Rodriguez, 45, was praying in a whisper. "I'm ready to go, Lord," he said.


Details.

His victim, Officer Aubrey Hawkins:




Officer Aubrey Hawkins' friends:

Death row inmate�s lawyers want depositions from judge, prosecutor

By Steven Kreytak | Tuesday, August 19, 2008, 11:30 AM
Lawyers for Texas death row inmate Charles Dean Hood, scheduled for execution Sept. 10 despite allegations that the trial judge and prosecutor at his 1990 trial were involved in a secret intimate relationship, hope to secure direct evidence of the affair in a civil rights lawsuit.

[How can the defendant claim he needs such last-minute relief if that type of hearing was available for the last decade?]


Details.

So on the day of Woods' execution a San Antonio federal judge is entertaining the issue of competence. I suppose Woods' attorneys just discovered this issue?

JAS

Actually, they haven't even gotten that far. They are looking for an expert who can "discover" the issue.

[This message was edited by JB on 08-22-08 at .]

"Yes, I did do this," Murray said of the murder. "I'm not trying to blame this on somebody else. I want people to know I'm sorry for the crime. I pray to the Lord to forgive me and I'm asking them to forgive me. That's all I can do."


Details.

"I'm sorry for what I did," he told two nephews of his victim who watched him through a window in the death chamber. "I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me. The Lord has forgiven me."


Details.

Ohio inmate's too-fat-to-execute argument fails

(AP) -- The Ohio Supreme Court has rejected arguments that a death row inmate is too fat to die by lethal injection.

[... snip ...]

Cooey's attorneys had argued that prison food and limited opportunities to exercise contributed to a weight problem that would make it difficult for the execution team to find a viable vein for lethal injection.

Cooey is 5 feet, 7 inches tall and weighs 267 pounds.

[... snip ...]

Link to full story: http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/10/09/toofat.execution.appeal.ap/index.html