Patti's Blog - Advocate for Elders, People with Disabilities and Their Families

A Death Penalty Fight Comes Home

Excerpt from: New York Times (click for full article)

 

The movement to end the death penalty has garnered more support from politicians and the public as it has shifted from moral condemnation of capital punishment to a more practical argument: that mistakes by witnesses and the police inevitably mean that innocent people will be executed. While DNA gets the limelight, of 142 prisoners sentenced to death and then exonerated in the last 40 years, just 18 were freed over DNA evidence, according to the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington.

Use of the death penalty has been steadily declining, and 17 states no longer have it on the books, with 5 of them abolishing it since 2007, said Richard C. Dieter, the center’s executive director. Executions dropped to 43 last year from 98 in 1999.

“These innocence cases are the biggest single factor, because it has spread doubt throughout the system,” Mr. Dieter said.

SNF that kept prison inmates constituted 'immediate jeopardy' for residents, state says

Excerpt from: McKnight's (click for full article)

 

An Oklahoma nursing home was slapped with $168,000 in fines after taking in jailed inmates following a prison riot.

 

The state Health Department said the arrangement was “bizarre and reckless,” The Oklahoman reported last week. The department said the residents at Buena Vista Care and Rehabilitation Center were in “immediate jeopardy” during the month the inmates were at the center. Immediate jeopardy interpretations can vary by state or an inspector, prompting industry groups to ask for clarification.

 

The North Fork Correctional Facility inmates were under guard and shackled to their beds, a spokesman for the prison operator, Corrections Corporation of America, told the paper. They had sustained severe injuries during the October 2011 riot and it was recommended by medical professionals that they go to a skilled nursing facility, he said. 

 

Buena Vista received a total of $347,450 in fines following a March inspection, and is appealing the case.