Council of State Loves that Death Penalty

From the NewsObserver:

The Council of State, a panel of top elected officials, refused today to reconsider its approval of the state's execution protocol, saying that an administrative law judge did not have jurisdiction to order the reconsideration.

Since when does the Council of State know all about administrative law? Was the fix in on this? Only Jim Long voted against it so you know it's probably a good idea. Remember? He was the only one that supported NCDP chair Jerry Meek who is bringing us out of the dark ages of good ol' boy backroom politics. Well, at least trying to.

From an email from the People of Faith Against the Death Penalty:

At least one member of the Council also complained about receiving hundreds of emails from concerned citizens telling Council members that they have been relying on misleading and false information from the NC Attorney General’s Office and NC Department of Correction.

Following an agenda clearly orchestrated and prearranged by Governor and former attorney general Mike Easley, the Council of State had virtually no discussion of a motion to reject the judge’s findings.

The governor began the meeting by calling on Special Deputy Attorney General Lars Nance to explain that the Council had to act on Administrative Law Judge Fred Morrison’s ruling or the Council would be accepting his findings by default.

No one else was allowed to address the Council of State, which is composed of top officials from the executive branch of state government.

At the governor’s request for a motion, NC Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler then read a motion that had been prepared for him in advance of the proceedings presumably by the NC Attorney General’s Office. Secretary of Labor Cherie Berry seconded the motion.

NC Secretary of State: Citizens' Emails "Inappropriate"

Apparently forgetting the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of speech and the right “to petition the government for a redress of grievances,” NC Secretary of State Elaine Marshall commented that she had received “in excess of 200 emails” from concerned citizens and called them “inappropriate.” She said she opened two of them “by mistake” and did not read them.

Secretary Marshall’s admission reflects the confusion and ignorance that surrounds the Council of State’s actions on this issue so far.

(Secretary Marshall’s email address is emarshal@sosnc.com. (There is only one “l” in the email address.))

NC Labor Commissioner Jim Long, the only Council member to vote against the motion, noted that the Council could probably feel the meeting table shaking from his cell phone as he received more emails from concerned citizens during the meeting.

He added that because the US Supreme Court was considering Kentucky’s lethal injection protocol, which is the same as North Carolina’s, “We are probably just spinning or wheels.”

“I don’t know why we are dealing with it right now,” he said. “Just let the Attorney General deal with it.”

Secretary of Education June Atkinson said her staff was replying to each email, thanking people for their comments.

The only other comment was by Secretary Atkinson who asked the governor if the vote they were making was not about the execution protocol or in favor of or opposed to the death penalty.

The governor replied that the Council was “not voting for or against the death penalty or the protocol” but only that Judge Morrison did not possess the jurisdiction to tell the Council of State that its February decision was erroneous.

One wonders what qualifies the Secretary of Agriculture to determine which courts have jurisdiction on the death penalty.

Judge Morrison ruled in August that the Council of State acted in error in February by not hearing from representatives of death row prisoners. Instead, it relied on information provided by the NC Attorney General’s Office and NC Department of Correction that was misleading and false. The Council of State discussed relatively few details about the substance of the proposed execution protocol.

In February representatives of the NC Attorney General’s Office did not disclose to the Council pertinent information that it needed to make a complete and informed decision. The NC Department of Correction violated Senior US District Judge Malcolm Howard’s order during two executions in 2006 and did not disclose to the Council that it did so. Instead, it represented to the Council that the proposed protocol was consistent with Judge Howard’s order.

The Council of State is comprised of the governor, lieutenant governor and eight other statewide elected officials.

Five death row prisoners have challenged the state's use of lethal injection as a violation of constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment.They can appeal the Council of State’s ruling in state court.

Twenty-seven people have been executed since Mike Easley became governor in 2001, the most executions under a single NC governor since the 1940s.