The multiple injustices of Manuel Valle's death penalty

[marmar]

The multiple injustices of Manuel Valle's death penalty
Florida's determination to execute a man with an untried lethal drug, after botched trials, is a tragic mockery of legal process

Sophie Walker
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 28 September 2011


The three decades Manuel Valle has spent on death row in Florida are set to dwindle to their final minutes this afternoon. At around 4pm local time (9pm GMT) – barring any last minute stays -–"the primary executioner will adminster the lethal chemicals" into Mr Valle's bloodstream, as set out in the state's execution protocol.

While there has been a range of international opposition to the execution of Manuel Valle – including the Catholic Church, the European Union, the Spanish government, British members of parliament and the Washington-DC based Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, to name a few – we haven't heard as much about Manuel Valle as we did about Troy Davis in recent weeks, but this should not be taken as meaning either that the former is undeserving of such attention or that the latter was overhyped. Both cases provide glaring examples of the inadequacies and inhumanities of the US death penalty system, and both highlight the sad fact that public attention – and outrage – often comes too late to change the outcome.

Manuel Valle has been unlucky enough to unite in one case a great number of the failures of the US capital system. Subjected to repeated miscarriages of justice resulting in multiple retrials, then held under the Damoclean sword of the death penalty for an unimaginable 33 years, he was finally picked earlier this year, in an apparently arbitrary manner, by Florida's governor, Rick Scott, to be the first execution of his term of office.

In many countries around the world, such treatment would be considered cruel, inhuman, even torture. For example, Floridians might be shocked to learn that Uganda takes a more enlightened attitude on this issue than their state, commuting sentences to life imprisonment after the prisoner has been held for three years under the threat of imminent execution. Sadly for Mr Valle, arguments that the torture of three decades spent in the shadow of death is punishment enough have not been heeded. ........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/sep/28/manuel-valle-execution-florida

[monmouth]

1. He's gone....

STARKE, Fla. — A Florida man convicted of killing a police officer during a traffic stop 33 years ago has been executed at the Florida State Prison.

Manuel Valle, 61, was administered a lethal injection and pronounced dead at 7:14 p.m. Wednesday, the governor's office reported.

The process began at 6:56 p.m. when a curtain opened, allowing family members of the police officer and others in a witness room to see Valle with a white sheet placed over him. His arms and face were exposed. He appeared calm and relaxed, witnesses said.

When the first drug was administered, Valle raised his feet, turned his head toward the team warden and said something that could not be heard in the witness room. He then yawned, placed his head back down, closed his eyes and made movements with his mouth as if he was snoring.


www.pbpost.com

[Swede]

2. Republicans are racing to prove how tough they are to the teaparty.

[Mnemosyne]

3. Picked in an arbitrary manner! No fucking words...well, except CRUEL, UNUSUAL AND TORTURE. K&R...

Rest in Peace, Mr. Valle. Your torture is over at long last.

[Puregonzo1188]

4. Capital punishment is disgusting, barbaric, and inexcusable even under the best of circumstances.

And our arbitrary, classist, racist, biased-favor of prosecution justice system is by no stretch of the imagination the "best of circumstances."