Capital punishment notes [Idaho}

Idaho is set to execute a killer on June 12 -- a grisly case which has gone through many appeals since 1985.  This will be the third execution in the state since the USSC, in 1976, allowed states to pursue the death penalty.  In the first instance, 1994, the person waived appeals.  In the second, it was a long court battle which ended in November 2011. Currently, there are 14 people on death row at the state prison at Boise, including one woman.  So far, according to the Idaho State Journal and other sources -- and this appears to be accurate info -- 28 people have been executed in Idaho since 1864. (This doesn't include what may have been a few vigilante actions during the territorial period.)

Idaho, both Dakotas, and Wyoming all became states in the 1889-90 period. North Dakota abandoned the death penalty more than a century ago.  The others, and Montana, have hardly used it in recent times. In Utah, executions have been more prevalent -- though far less than Arizona.

Lethal injection is now the Idaho method, replacing hanging and the firing squad.  The latter was hardly ever used in recent times and is now formally history as of 2009, unless the injection process fails to work.

The death penalty is not all that popular in Idaho.  It obviously makes people very uneasy.  In the case which saw execution last November, there was a great deal of media discussion about the pros and cons.  On the other hand, there is a general reluctance to speak publicly against it.  About ten years ago, the NYT published a national petition against the death penalty structured on a state by state basis.  There were nine of us from Idaho who signed it -- plus a Benedictine order.

Certainly glad William D. Haywood and his two associates had the services of Clarence Darrow and some other fine lawyers in that colossal murder frame-up which culminated in the Boise trials in 1907.  The metal mining companies and the Pinkertons were shaping nooses with great zeal.  http://www.hunterbear.org/haywoodtrial.htm

H.

HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis 
Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk 
Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ 
and Ohkwari' 
Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO
www.hunterbear.org 
(much social justice material)

I have always lived and worked in Borderlands.

See the Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]:
http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm
(expanded May 2012)

For the new, just out (11/2011) and expanded/updated
edition of my "Organizer's Book," JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- 
with a new and substantial Introduction by me.  We are close upon
the 50th anniversary of the massive Jackson Movement of1962-63:
http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm

Personal Background Narrative (with many links):
http://hunterbear.org/narrative.htm