Arizona death row prisoner's lawyers say clemency board stacked against him
Clarence Dixon was convicted and sentenced to death in 2002 for the 1978 rape and murder of 21-year-old Deana Bowdoin, an Arizona State University student.
File Photo courtesy of the Arizona attorney general's office
April 12 (UPI) -- Attorneys for an Arizona death row prisoner have filed a challenge to the state's clemency board, which they say won't give their client a fair consideration because it includes too many former law enforcement officers.
Clarence Dixon, 66, is scheduled to be executed May 11 for the 1978 rape and murder of 21-year-old Deana Bowdoin, an Arizona State University student.
Dixon's attorneys said Monday that the makeup of the Arizona Board of Executive Clemency is stacked against him because three of the five members previously served as law enforcement officers. State law, however, requires that "no more than two members from the same professional discipline shall be members of the board at the same time."
According to the board's website, Sal Freni served with the Phoenix Police Department for 30 years, Louis Quinonez was a federal law enforcement officer for 27 years and Michael Johnson worked on the PPD for 21 years.
There is currently one vacancy and the other two members -- Mina Mendez and Frank Riggs -- are a former lawyer, and former businessman and U.S. congressman, respectively.
"Mr. Dixon is entitled to a fair clemency hearing before an impartial clemency board," Joshua Spears, Dixon's attorney, said in a statement emailed to UPI.
"If the board proceeds with three of its four members being law enforcement officers, it will violate Mr. Dixon's right to a fair hearing that complies with due process and the plain requirements of Arizona law."
Dixon's lawyers also filed a motion in court last week saying their client wasn't mentally competent enough to be executed. They said his execution would violate the 8th Amendment, which protects against cruel and unusual punishment, because he has a "well-documented history" of paranoid schizophrenia.
They said two court-appointed psychiatrists found Dixon to be incompetent as part of an unrelated assault case. Then-Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Sandra Day O'Connor found Dixon not guilty by reason of insanity in that case.
They said delusions caused by the mental illness keep him from having a rational understanding of his punishment.
April 12 (UPI) -- Attorneys for an Arizona death row prisoner have filed a challenge to the state's clemency board, which they say won't give their client a fair consideration because it includes too many former law enforcement officers.
Clarence Dixon, 66, is scheduled to be executed May 11 for the 1978 rape and murder of 21-year-old Deana Bowdoin, an Arizona State University student.
Dixon's attorneys said Monday that the makeup of the Arizona Board of Executive Clemency is stacked against him because three of the five members previously served as law enforcement officers. State law, however, requires that "no more than two members from the same professional discipline shall be members of the board at the same time."
According to the board's website, Sal Freni served with the Phoenix Police Department for 30 years, Louis Quinonez was a federal law enforcement officer for 27 years and Michael Johnson worked on the PPD for 21 years.
There is currently one vacancy and the other two members -- Mina Mendez and Frank Riggs -- are a former lawyer, and former businessman and U.S. congressman, respectively.
"Mr. Dixon is entitled to a fair clemency hearing before an impartial clemency board," Joshua Spears, Dixon's attorney, said in a statement emailed to UPI.
"If the board proceeds with three of its four members being law enforcement officers, it will violate Mr. Dixon's right to a fair hearing that complies with due process and the plain requirements of Arizona law."
Dixon's lawyers also filed a motion in court last week saying their client wasn't mentally competent enough to be executed. They said his execution would violate the 8th Amendment, which protects against cruel and unusual punishment, because he has a "well-documented history" of paranoid schizophrenia.
They said two court-appointed psychiatrists found Dixon to be incompetent as part of an unrelated assault case. Then-Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Sandra Day O'Connor found Dixon not guilty by reason of insanity in that case.
They said delusions caused by the mental illness keep him from having a rational understanding of his punishment.
The motion filed Friday challenges Arizona's competency statute, which Dixon's attorneys say is in conflict with the federal constitutional standard.
Arizona officials announced plans to set Dixon's execution date in April 2021. At the time, his lawyer, Dale Baich, said his client experienced "chronic neglect" as a child and has had mental illness for decades. He said the murder case rested "almost entirely" on DNA evidence and that other evidence was inconclusive or excluded Dixon.
Arizona last carried out an execution on July, 23, 2014, that of Joseph Wood. It took 15 doses of a new combination of drugs -- midazolam and hydromorphone -- and 2 hours for Wood to die.
He was the second inmate to be given the two-drug cocktail after Arizona lost its European supplier of pentobarbital. The European Union voted in 2011 to prohibit the sale of the drug to the United States because of its use in executions.
After Wood's death, the state decided to no longer use the midazolam and hydromorphone combination of drugs, effectively implementing a moratorium on executions until an alternate drug cocktail could be legally secured.
No comments:
Post a Comment