Posted on 10/24/2007 8:48:43 PM PDT by SmithL
MOBILE, Ala.—A federal appeals court Wednesday granted a stay of execution for a terminally ill convicted killer who claimed his cancer medication would counteract with lethal injection drugs and inflict unnecessary pain.
Daniel Lee Siebert, 53, was facing the death penalty Thursday for strangling two women and two young boys in 1986. He has been on Alabama's death row for more than 20 years and has terminal pancreatic cancer.
In granting the stay, a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta reversed an order by U.S. District Judge Mark Fuller in Montgomery.
The panel noted that Alabama has made a minor change to its execution protocol and that Siebert would be the first to experience that change. The panel said it halted the execution until the U.S. Supreme Court hears a lethal injection challenge from Kentucky.
After the Kentucky case is decided, the district court in Montgomery must reconsider its decision based on any guidance from the high court, the 11th Circuit ruled.
The state's attorney, Clay Crenshaw, said he will ask the full 11th Circuit to rehear the stay request. Siebert's attorney did not immediately return a phone message.
Siebert was condemned for the Feb. 19, 1986, strangulation of Sherri Weathers, 24, and her two sons, 5-year-old Chad and 4-year-old Joey. He was also convicted separately and sentenced to death for slaying her neighbor, Linda Jarman, the same night.
Crenshaw, the state's capital punishment chief, told the 11th Circuit in a filing Wednesday that Siebert's claim about his cancer medication possibly counteracting with a three-drug cocktail used in the execution was never supported by evidence.
Siebert's attorney submitted a letter from an oncologist, Dr. Jimmie Harvey of Birmingham, that says "complications could arise" from the drug combinations. Harvey speculates that Siebert could regurgitate his stomach contents during an execution and that he might have compromised veins.
Meanwhile, a U.S. District judge in Jackson, Miss., on Wednesday rejected a plea for a delay from a Mississippi death row inmate. Earl Wesley Berry is scheduled to die by lethal injection next Tuesday for killing Mary Bounds in 1987.
Judge W. Allen Pepper said the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to hear the Kentucky case has nothing to do with Berry. Berry's attorney said he would appeal to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.
“It only hurts for a little while...that’s what they tell me...that’s what they say....”
I wonder how his medication would react to a .308 round to the forehead? Now thats lethal injection.
There is no...none....nada pain with lethal injection. It is exactly like general anesthesia which thousands have every day except they are allowed to wake up.
Sounds good to me. Why shouldn’t he die by lethal injection if it might make him feel pain...After all he just killed 2 little kids and 2 women. He deserves to feel more then pain IMO. Hanging would work too. I am so sick of this bs. Do it & get it over with. Shaking my head again.~P~
Is this particular cancer a miserable, painful way to die? I'd consider letting him suffer it...
The firing squad would be quick and painless; it would solve this problem.
How would you feel about paying for cancer treatment to keep this thing alive?
Gee I guess he hasn’t been told of what goes along with dieing slow,
This is great hope he enjoys it!
Pancreatic cancer means a lot of pain. I don’t think you could give enough pain meds without a serious risk of killing the guy. And of course that would be wrong (wink, wink). So I say let the sob die of cancer it is actually more just than a quick injection.
I wish for a Federal amendment that would require convicted murderers meet death in the same precise fashion as their victims.
He murdered someone with a hatchet; he dies by hatchet.
She murdered someone with poison; she dies by poison.
Literally, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Seems only fair to me.
Um, why not just forego any medication for a week prior to the execution?
Onelifetogive hasn’t offered any treatment, if you carefully reread his/her comment :-)
I agree. Although I am staunchly pro death penalty, I don’t believe the death should be a grudge match. We go as far as we possibly can to make this as humane as possible, but let’s face it. Death results from an injury and there is going to be some pain on some level, even if it is only sticking the needle into his arm. If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime.
“..convicted killer who claimed his cancer medication would counteract with lethal injection drugs and inflict unnecessary pain.”
How does he know? Has he ever gone through the procedure?
You are correct but the libs will force the state of Alabama to pay for it. I think that we should give him a merciful way to die with the needle.
These arguments are really starting to piss me off.
The constitution prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. It never promised a painless passing.
Well said & it ought to be said more. I don't think that he should have been on death row so long either. If there is 100% proof that you have killed and not a doubt then why not just stop letting these people sit years in jail at the taxpayers expense? Just end their lives & if it hurts for a few minutes , I am sorry but I have no remorse for that. After all the victims most likely suffered far longer then he will. I am sick of paying for killers to sit in jail & I don't think its fair to treat them for cancer etc at our expense if they are going to die anyway.
Why are they spending MY FREAKIN’ TAX DOLLARS on this?
I have been doing a lot of research on this for a paper I am writing for my PoliSci class I am taking. I think SCOTUS is going to find the current method of lethal injections to be "cruel and unusual". The main reason is going to be from the AVMA (American Veterinary Medical Association) that found the same method was too cruel to use to euthanize pets. Since the study was never intended to be used in regard to the death penalty it is pretty likely that the SC is going to find it credible and definitive.
The good news is that means that the State will just change to the same drugs used by Vets to euthanize animals and the Left is going to have to find some other way to fight the death penalty. So far, this has been the only credible argument that they have been able to raise so all they have done is played there best hand and lost anyway.
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