Page 15 - Flathead Beacon // 10.14.15

NEWS
COURT BEAT
community
banking partner
IDAHO STREET BANK
233 E Idaho St. Kalispell, MT 59901 755-4271
MERIDIAN ROAD BANK
552 N Meridian Rd. Kalispell, MT 59901 755-5432
www.ThreeRiversBankMontana.com
A Locally Owned, Independent Community Bank Since 1974
community
your
Judge Prohibits State from Using Execution Drug Injunction on execution says Montana’s lethal injection methods do not meet standards
set by state lawmakers
banking...
BY TRISTAN SCOTT OF THE BEACON
A Helena district judge on Oct. 6 ruled that Montana’s method of lethal injec- tion does not comply with state law, effec- tively staying all executions in the state indefinitely.
District Court Judge Jeffrey Sherlock wrote that the state’s current protocol for executing inmates by lethal injection relies on a drug that is not an “ultra-fast- acting barbiturate,” as required by state law.
The legal challenge to Montana’s exe- cution methods went to trial last month, when attorneys for prisoners Ronald Allen Smith and William Gollehon – Montana’s only two death row inmates – argued that the drug, pentobarbital, does not adhere to a state law requiring that an “ultra-fast acting” barbiturate must be used during execution.
Montana’s lethal injection law calls for use of an ultra-fast acting barbiturate as well as a paralytic agent. The state’s two- drug execution protocol lists sodium pentothal as the barbiturate, with
BRIEFS
Bullock to Decide Flathead County District Judge Among 3 Finalists
Gov. Steve Bullock will select the next Flathead County District Judge among three finalists.
A nomination commission submitted three candidates to Bullock on Tuesday to be considered for appointment to the seat being vacated by Ted O. Lympus. The nominations were Richard Patrick DeJana, Amy Poehling Eddy and Daniel Richard Wilson.
The three finalists emerged from six Flathead Valley attorneys who applied last month. The nomination commis- sion interviewed DeJana, Eddy, Wilson and Kay Lynn Lee and accepted public comments for 30 days.
Bullock must fill the position within 30 days. The appointee is subject to elec- tion at the primary and general elections in 2016. The candidate elected in 2016 will serve until January 2019. There are three district judges in Flathead County.
The Judicial Nomination Commis- sion consisted of District Judge Richard Simonton of Glendive; Mona Charles of Kalispell, Elizabeth Halverson of Bill- ings; Hal Harper of Helena; Lane Larson of Billings; Ryan Rusche of Columbia Falls; and Nancy Zadick of Great Falls.
Lympus, 72, stepped down from the bench on Aug. 31 and had served since 1992. Until a new judge is appointed, two retired judges, Katherine Curtis and
pentobarbital as a substitute; however, sodium pentothal is no longer available for use in executions in the United States, and its importation is illegal because it is not approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
The state’s revised protocol indicates it will use pentobarbital as a substitute barbiturate, despite the fact that pento- barbital is an intermediate-acting bar- biturate, which isn’t allowed under the state’s lethal injection protocol. In his order, Sherlock wrote that by using the term “ultra” in its statute, the Legisla- ture limited the state to using only drugs in the fastest category of barbiturates.
In Montana, lethal injection has been the state’s sole method of execution since March 1997.
Sherlock ruled that “while pentobar- bital may operate in a fast nature, it is not ultra-fast as is required to comply with Montana’s execution protocol.”
The ruling continues: “The state of Montana is not allowed to use the ‘fast- est acting barbiturate available’ or a ‘rel- atively fast acting barbiturate,’ only an
Stewart Stadler, have been presiding over Lympus’ court.
Barry Beach Files New Clemency Request After Changes in Law
A man convicted of killing a high- school classmate in 1979 filed a new clemency request now that the law has changed to give the final decision to the governor instead of the Montana Board of Pardons and Parole.
Barry Beach was sentenced to 100 years in prison after being convicted in 1984 of deliberate homicide in the beat- ing death of 17-year-old Kim Nees in Poplar. He has steadfastly denied killing Nees, and his cause has been taken up by a large and vocal group of supporters, among them current and former Mon- tana politicians.
The board denied Barry Beach’s last request — his fourth — last year even though Gov. Steve Bullock said he wanted to consider the application. Previously, the board had the final say if it decided to deny an inmate’s clemency application.
The law that went into effect Oct. 1 allows the governor to grant clemency even if the board recommends against it. The board now must take re-submit- ted applications that were previously denied, decide whether further investiga- tion or a hearing is needed, then forward the application and a recommendation to the governor’s office within 10 days of
‘ultra-fast acting barbiturate.’”
Sherlock wrote that the only remedy is to ask the Legislature to modify the stat- ute to allow the use of pentobarbital or
other slower-acting drugs.
“The State of Montana has modified
the execution protocol several times during this litigation and has had many opportunities to return to the legislature to modify the language which limits the State of Montana to ‘ultra-fast-acting barbiturates,’ but has chosen not to,” according to the order.
A spokeswoman at the Montana Department of Justice, Anastasia Bur- ton, said attorneys were still studying the decision and did not have an imme- diate comment.
The Attorney General’s Office may appeal the decision to the Montana Supreme Court. The state has 60 days to decide on an appeal.
An inmate has not been executed in Montana since Aug. 11, 2006, when tri- ple-murderer David T. Dawson was exe- cuted at the State Prison in Deer Lodge.
[email protected]
completing its assessment.
The change in the law was driven in
part by Beach’s case. His attorney sub- mitted the new clemency application to the pardons and parole board last week.
“He has now served over 32 years in prison for a crime that occurred when he was 17 years old,” the application says of Beach. “He is now 53 years old. Over the past three decades he has concretely demonstrated that he is able and willing to fulfill the obligations of a law-abiding citizen.”
The board will set a date to consider the application after an analyst com- pletes a preliminary report, executive director Timothy Allred said.
In April 2014, Bullock asked the parole board in a letter to consider whether Beach had served enough prison time, though he stopped short saying he sup- ported Beach’s request. The governor cited Beach’s being a juvenile at the time of the crime and his good behavior when he was freed for 18 months starting in 2011 while awaiting a new trial.
The Montana Supreme Court sent Beach back to prison after overturning a district judge’s order for a new trial based on witness testimony that Nees died in a fight among a gang of girls.
Bullock spokesman Mike Wessler said
that the governor will withhold any state-
ment on the clemency request until he
www.ThreeRiversBankMontana.com
receives and reviews the application.
[email protected]
OCTOBER 14, 2015 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM
15