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Uncle Sam pays the executioner $18,000 for each body killed?
Court filing details pay of Arizona executioner by Michael Kiefer - Nov. 12, 2011 12:00 AM The Arizona Republic What's the going rate for putting someone to death in Arizona? The most recent executioner was paid $18,000 in cash for each of five executions between October 2010 and July 2011 and $12,000 for a sixth execution that was stayed at the last minute by the U.S. Supreme Court in April. In all, the doctor retained to perform the executions earned at least $102,000 during that period. The information was revealed late Thursday in court documents filed by the Federal Public Defender's Office in Phoenix, asking that the Arizona Supreme Court not issue a death warrant to permit the execution of Robert Charles Towery, who murdered a Paradise Valley man while robbing his house in 1991. The Public Defender's motion claims that the Arizona Department of Corrections has consistently failed to adhere to its federal-court-approved protocol for executions by lethal injection. Alleged lapses include failing to check the backgrounds of the medical team conducting the execution and injecting the drugs through IV lines inserted into the groin instead of an arm. Furthermore, the motion reiterates recent discoveries that the department did not legally obtain the drugs for the execution, but instead had them shipped from England in such a way as to minimize scrutiny by U.S. customs officials and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. The allegations are similar to those in a motion filed this week in another federal case involving death-row inmates. That motion includes extensive depositions that the Public Defender's Office conducted with Corrections staff and the doctor who carried out the executions. That doctor's name is kept secret by state law, but the motion said that the doctor has since quit as executioner. |