Michael Tarm

Independent journalist and recent AP reporter writing a book on the #deathpenalty, #DonaldTrump, #JoeBiden, Todd and Stacie #Bagley, and #BrandonBernard.

[Michael Tarm @mtarm]

https://t.co/6bwo9RYadi

[Michael Tarm @mtarm]

The badly botched, attempted execution of #ChristaPike in #Tennessee yesterday rings a bell. I witnessed 10 federal executions by the same lethal drug, #pentobarbital, as a then-AP reporter during #DonaldTrump's first term, and I’m currently finishing a book about #Trump and the #deathpenalty.
In half the executions I saw, inmates’ stomachs shook, shuddered and rolled after the pentobarbital injections _ possible signs of #PulmonaryEdema, a condition akin to drowning or waterboarding when fluids rush into airways.
The drug was also supposed to kill in under 10 minutes. In practice, it often took at least twice as long.
Inmates wouldn't suffer, Trump officials also said. But I saw at least one condemned prisoner, Cory Johnson, grimace and complain of an intense burning sensation immediately after he received his injection. Whether the dramatic rolling of prisoners' midsections caused them pain wasn't clear. Critics of its use, though, say pentobarbital can paralyze the body while condemned inmates are still conscious, making it impossible for them to convey that they are in pain.
Pentobarbital, commonly used in euthanizing pets was, and still is considered experimental in #executions. But the U.S. government and many states reverted to it after pharmaceutical companies started barring the use of their drugs in executions, saying their products were designed to save lives, not to take them. Pike’s survival after two ostensibly #lethalinjections of pentobarbital once again demonstrates that killing fellow humans in a controlled environment, whether it’s by hanging or by electric chair or by pentobarbital is, at best, an inexact science.
Secrecy, too, was a hallmark of the Trump executions, including about where the administration secured its pentobarbital or whether doses were beyond their expiration dates. That meant there was never a full public accounting of snafus behind closed doors in the pre-execution prep.
Worse, executioners and their supervisors consistently misled courts about how the Trump executions were going. In statements to judges, they consistently omitted the disturbing jerking motions of inmates' stomachs that I and other media witnesses saw with our own eyes. (One government expert went on the record to say we didn't see what we saw.) As far as I can tell, the Trump executioners never conceded a single, notable error or oversight. (See attached article I wrote for the #AP at the time about the apparent deception by Trump executioners.)
The current Trump administration is expected to try to execute the last few men still facing federal death sentences, including Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar #Tsarnaev. Despite the documented problems with pentobarbital, that's expected to be the drug of choice for a Round 2 of Trump executions.

https://t.co/WaVpDU2s8z

[Michael Tarm @mtarm]

"No one could seriously question that this is violent criminal conduct. And yet..."

_The judge in her ruling (link here) barring the #deathpenalty for #LuigiMangione, conceding the "absurdity" of finding crimes charged don't fit violence requirements.

https://t.co/bZNRVijhbL

[Michael Tarm @mtarm]

Judge says US can't seek #deathpenalty for #LuigiMangione. As written, she said the charges don't fit US legal criteria for seeking death. It wasn't clear if prosecutors would appeal or try to rejigger the charges to make them fit. @mikesisak @Lneumeister
https://t.co/hXpoa7aQdv

[Michael Tarm @mtarm]

Judge says US can't seek #deathpenalty for #LuigiMangione. As written, she said the charges don't fit US legal criteria for seeking death. It wasn't clear if prosecutors would appeal or try to rejigger the charges to make them fit. @mikesisak @Lneumeister
https://t.co/hXpoa7aQdv

[Michael Tarm @mtarm]

Biden Discusses Death Row Decisions

#JoeBiden tells The #NYT he declined to commute three US death sentences before he left office on grounds their #terrorism and #hatecrimes had "national implications." He issued commutations for 37 others on US #deathrow. Biden also said he explained his reasoning to #PopeFrancis.

Biden's full answer to The New York Times on his justification for not commuting the sentences of Boston bomber #DzhokharTsarnaev, white supremacist #DylannRoof and Pittsburg Synagogue shooter #RobertBowers:

"Those three, because they became — they were involved in what were major, major issues relating to terrorism and crimes that were — had national implications. One — for example, I was deeply involved in the one having to do with the church and I was down there.

It just seemed to me that it was going to be — it was just a bridge too far. And so that’s why I didn’t pardon those three, because they had a national implication that stood for things beyond the crime they committed. It was a reflection of what they did to the entire nation and the community.

And so, that’s what I withheld them. I spoke to the pope about this, by the way. I was — I had a discussion about — he called me to congratulate me on keeping my word about not supporting the death penalty.

But I told him I couldn’t do the last three. And, that’s, that, that’s the reason because it’s sort of like, you know, the guy who, — you know, I’m making this up — assassinates Abraham Lincoln. You don’t, you, you know, you can’t pardon him because there’s such a, such a gigantic implication for things that go well beyond that individual murder. That was my decision, anyway. Some thought I should have, but I decided not to do those three."

https://t.co/x7B2t9KFPJ

[Michael Tarm @mtarm]

Florida looks to be following #Trump's recommendation for states to retry US death row inmates who received commutations from Joe #Biden. Florida officials recently said they'll seek to restore the #deathsentences at a state trial for #DanielTroya and Ricardo Sanchez for the 2006 drug-related killings of Jose Escobedo, his wife and their two small kids. It'll be a complicated process and could face double jeopardy challenges _ even though state and federal justice systems are separate. This article by @georgehale . ... https://t.co/ViuiAQIqe5

[Michael Tarm @mtarm]

The AP article by @mikesisak and @aedurkinricher says #LuigiMangione's case is the first for which the DOJ has sought the death penalty since #Trump's return to the White House.

[Michael Tarm @mtarm]

This decision to seek the #deathpenalty for #LuigiMangione aligns with a Jan. 20 #Trump order for the DOJ to always err on the side of seeking death sentences. That's a major policy change. It could result in dozens of new federal capital trials a year compared to one or two a year, at most, under #Biden.

[Michael Tarm @mtarm]

This decision to seek the #deathpenalty for #LuigiMangione aligns with a Jan. 20 #Trump order for the DOJ to always err on the side of seeking death sentences. That's a major policy change. It could result in dozens of new federal capital trials a year compared to one or two a year, at most, under #Biden.

[Michael Tarm @mtarm]

Breaking: Prosecutors directed to seek #deathpenalty against UnitedHealthcare killing suspect #LuigiMangione https://t.co/PLQixp1B6d

[Michael Tarm @mtarm]

Breaking: Prosecutors directed to seek #deathpenalty against UnitedHealthcare killing suspect #LuigiMangione https://t.co/PLQixp1B6d

[Michael Tarm @mtarm]

Texas Walmart Gunman who Killed 23 to Avoid Death Penalty

‘(County District Attorney) Montoya said he supports the death penalty and believes #PatrickCrusius deserves it. But he said he met with the families of the victims and there was an overriding desire to conclude the process, though some relatives were willing to wait as long as it took for a death sentence.’

https://t.co/edv9uI6zie

[Michael Tarm @mtarm]

Violent and sudden. What a firing squad execution looked like through my eyes. @ap

https://t.co/k0hLU0EBTm

[Michael Tarm @mtarm]

The US is killing someone by firing squad for the 1st time in 15 years. By AP’s Gene Johnson. #DeathPenalty https://t.co/raHJAmvD3B

[Michael Tarm @mtarm]

#Trump's Day One executive order calling for wider use of the #deathpenalty across the U.S. appears to be emboldening states. The message they seem to have received: Neither the executive branch nor the #SupremeCourt will obstruct their #execution plans, whatever they may be.

[Maurice Chammah🍹🎻 @MauriceChammah]

South Carolina set its 1st firing squad execution for March 7.

Idaho is voting on whether to replace lethal injection with guns. Arizona may put the method to a public vote.

And Trump has been talking it up too.

The firing squad era is coming.

https://t.co/oSJ0Pn6EJV

[Michael Tarm @mtarm]

#SupremeCourt throws out Oklahoma inmate Richard #Glossip's murder conviction and death sentence. #DeathPenalty

https://t.co/9fEQhfOUp3

[Michael Tarm @mtarm]

Men Whose Death Sentences Biden Commuted Told They're Bound For Supermax Where 'El Chapo' Is Held

Inmates still housed on U.S. death row and whose death sentences President #Biden commuted to life in his last days in office, tell me they've been told the plan under #Trump is to send all 37 of them from death row in Terre Haute, Indiana, to a #supermax prison 100 miles south of Denver. The Florence, Colorado, prison, often called ADX, is more restrictive than death row, and best known for holding convicted terrorists and drug lords, like #ElChapo Guzman.

Some inmates expressed alarm about any transfer to ADX, many having assumed they'd join other lifers in other, less restrictive prisons nationwide. They fear they'll be subject to far more extreme isolation as lifers at ADX than they were ever subject to as prisoners facing execution at Terre Haute. It's unclear when the transfers might happen. Some inmates said they understand they'd proceed only after #PamBondi is settled in office as Trump's new attorney general.

Inmates' lawyers are expected to fight the purported transfers, possibly on grounds that these men, if sent to ADX, would face disparate and therefore unconstitutional treatment compared to similar prisoners with life sentences.

The Trump administration hasn't confirmed specific details of their plans.

#DeathPenalty

[Michael Tarm @mtarm]

Donald #Trump, as expected, wasted no time seeking to restart federal executions _ following a historic run of 13 during his first term.

Back in office, he's now signed the executive order below to lift a #Biden freeze on the government's #deathpenalty program, and vowing to expand its use.

https://t.co/cHsMszYQMn

[Michael Tarm @mtarm]

MORE: Below, links to a new #DOJ report on the use of #pentobarbital in executions and the Garland letter about concerns it cause pulmonary edema:

Report:
https://t.co/puzCiTYrNJ

Letter:
https://t.co/C6yVO11dbP

[Michael Tarm @mtarm]

Breaking on the #DeathPenalty///: Outgoing AG Garland says drug used in Trump executions may cause condemned inmates notable pain; says its use should be discontinued

Outgoing U.S. Attorney General #MerrickGarland says the drug used to execute 13 federal inmates at the end of #DonaldTrump's first term, #pentobarbital, may well cause flash pulmonary edema, a painful condition akin to drowning or waterboarding, and that a government protocol allowing for its use should therefore be withdrawn.

The finding after the DOJ spent years studying the issue addresses reports by media witnesses at the Trump executions, including me, that the midsections of some dying inmates dramatically jerked, shuddered and rolled shortly after the lethal injections. Inmates' lawyers said those reports indicated #pulmonaryedema. Trump officials disputed that, saying at the time that reporters had simply misperceived what they saw inside the death chamber.

Because of the risks of significant pain to condemned inmates, the protocol allowing for pentobarbital "should be rescinded, and not reinstated unless and until that uncertainty is resolved,” Garland said in a just-released, Jan. 15 letter to the director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

While the finding and the withdrawal of the protocol will be welcomed by opponents of the death penalty, it could be, in effect, a formality. The incoming Trump administration can and likely will reinstate the protocol and push ahead with plans to restart the U.S. government's death penalty program, which Garland suspended in 2021.

Here's my 2021 story from when I worked for the AP on what I saw inside the death chamber and concerns about the use of pentobarbital: https://t.co/AbViLEE4Yf