Yesterday, the Arizona Supreme Court followed up on a pair of death row inmates, after delaying any scheduled execution without any public comment at the end of November. I suppose they were just waiting for the holidays to pass before approving of their executions.
As before, I don't expect much more to be said about it, as the state quietly and remotely executes more of its people, taking pains to keep it away from any prying eyes, lest anyone make a fuss about this unnecessary practice.
It is possible that the state Supreme Court was waiting out a federal lawsuit hearing, although it's tempting to think they would prefer not to execute anyone for Christmas.
At the time, a federal judge was considering a lawsuit filed by defense attorneys arguing that Arizona's execution practices violate constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment.
The lawsuit claimed that the state had deviated from a court-approved execution protocol by using unvetted personnel to administer lethal injections under a sheet, away from witnesses' view.
Judge Neil Wake ended up dismissing the lawsuit on Dec. 21. The defense attorneys are appealing his decision to the 9th U.S. District Court of Appeals in San Francisco.
So, now the two inmates are scheduled to be killed at the end of February and early March. I already spent some time researching the lives and crimes of these men back in November. These do not have the appearance of innocent men. There is no compelling doubt about what they did. Consequently, not much of a protest is made, especially not here in Arizona. Today's article from the Daily Star has of course picked up a few callous comments about the process being too slow, the 'old west' string 'em up or shoot 'em type solutions, just like I saw last year.
Now that dates have been set, perhaps I can look into where they will take place, if I can make the drive and show up with a protest sign. Probably get beat up for my trouble by a bunch of upstanding citizens who got lost, somewhere between 'eye for an eye' and 'turn the other cheek'.