UNBIASED - Bonus Episode: November Executions in the United States

Episode Date: December 3, 2022

During the month of November, five death row inmates were executed in the United States. This episode will cover four of them. To hear about the story behind the one execution not covered in this episode, listen to Jordan's previous episode titled "Week in Review: November 14-20, 2022".1. Execution of Murray Hooper (2:04)2. Execution of Stephen Barbee (10:00)3. Execution of Richard Fairchild (16:23)4. Execution of Kevin Johnson (19:21)All sources can be found on www.jordanismylawyer.com.Follow Jordan on TikTok and Instagram @jordanismylawyer.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Please gamble responsibly. Gambling problem? For free assistance, call the Connex Ontario helpline at 1-866-531-2600. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. You are listening to the Jordan is My Law podcast. This is your host Jordan and I give

you the legal analysis you've been waiting for. Here's the deal. I don't care about your political views, but I do ask that you listen to the facts, have an open mind and think for yourselves. Deal? Oh, and one last thing. I'm not actually a lawyer. executions in the United States. The reason being November, for whatever reason, was a pretty jam-packed month with executions. There were five in total. This episode, I'm only going to go over four. And the reason for that is because in my last episode, no, my November 21st episode, I covered the first execution of the month. So if you guys are interested in hearing about that, go listen to the November 21st episode. But for today, we're going to cover four other executions that happened in the month of November. So before we get into that, just a quick reminder that Monday's episode will not be released on Monday. It'll be released on hopefully Tuesday at the latest on Wednesday,

but it'll still be a week in review of, you know, this past week's current events and the law in an unbiased manner per usual, but I will be flying on Monday. So I won't be able to record and get it uploaded. So either Tuesday or Wednesday, Wednesday is the absolute latest. So I kind of wanted it. That's another reason I kind of wanted to give you guys this episode now is just because it'll kind of hold you over for the next few days. So with that being said, let's get into November's executions. On the morning of November 16th, a man named Murray Hooper was executed by way of the lethal injection in Arizona. Now the lethal injection currently in Arizona is one drug. It is a lethal dose of pentobarbital, which is the same in Texas and a few other states. But you guys have heard me

talk about this before. Depending on the state, the lethal injection protocol really varies. So, you know, it could be three drugs. It could be one drug. It could be four. I believe Nebraska has four drugs. So it, it really does vary by the state, but Arizona is one drug lethal dose of pentobarbital. And that is of May of this year. So it's a pretty recent switch. So let's briefly go over Arizona's injection drug history. Cause I know you guys are interested in that. From 1993 to 2011, they had a three-drug cocktail, and it started with sodium theopentyl. And by the way, disclaimer, guys, I am not in the medical field.

I am in the field of law, and therefore, my medical terminology is not going to be what a doctor's would. So when I say these medications, I'm saying it the best I know how. So just bear with me on that. Anyway, from 1993 to 2011, Arizona had a three drug cocktail started with sodium theopentyl, which is a rapid onset, short acting general anesthetic. It's in the same family as pentobarbital. So they slowly evolved towards just pentobarbital. But in the beginning, it was three drugs beginning with sodium theopentyl, which is related to pentobarbital. Then for one year in 2011, Arizona switched the three drug cocktail up slightly.

And instead they started with pentobarbital instead of that sodium theopentyl. So it was a slight change, but it still was a three drug cocktail. And they conducted three executions this way. And that was only for the year 2011. And then from 2012 to 2013, they went down to just one drug, which was just pentobarbital, which is what they're doing now. But they didn't stick with just pentobarbital because in 2014, they did one execution where they did two drugs. So they used midazolam, which is a sedative,

and hydromorphone. And they eventually went back to just pentobarbital because in 2014, that one execution where they did the two drug protocol was actually a botched execution. It did not go according to plan. They used the wrong drug. It was like a whole thing. And therefore they went on an eight year hiatus. So there was actually no executions from 2014 until this year, May of 2022. And that's when they went back to just the one drug, just a lethal dose of pentobarbital. So that's how Murray Hooper was executed. Now Murray Hooper was on death row for almost 40 years. That is a very long time to be on death row. We do know that people spend on average 20 to 25 years on death row. So 40 years is Pat Redmond and Pat's mother-in-law. He basically was hired by a man named Robert Cruz. Robert Cruz had connections to the mafia and Robert Cruz wanted Pat Redmond to sell his printing business. And the reason Robert Cruz wanted the printing business

is because he wanted to launder money out of it for Vegas casinos. When Pat Redmond refused to sell the printing business, Robert Cruz was not happy and hired Murray Hooper and two other men to go and kill Pat Redmond and his family. So on the night of New Year's Eve in 1980, Murray Hooper and these two other men, they belonged to a gang in Chicago. They broke into the Redmond residence. They tied up Pat, his wife and his mother-in-law. So his wife's mom, they robbed them and they shot them all in the head. Somehow by some miracle, Pat's wife, Marilyn actually survived the gunshot wound to the head. And she was available to testify against them at their trials. She identified them in, you know, an in-person lineup. So she was definitely a huge help to the case. I have no idea how she survived a gunshot wound to

the head, but very happy for her for that. But interestingly enough, the man that hired Marie Hooper and these two other men, he was acquitted of his murder charges in 1985. So he didn't spend any time in jail and he was essentially free to go. So the other two men that killed Pat and his mother-in-law died while they were on death row. So they obviously didn't make it to their execution date, which meant Murray Hooper was the only one of the three defendants to actually be put to death. According to execution witnesses, the execution was as quick and peaceful as it could have been. It lasted 12 minutes. They said that Murray Hooper didn't seem scared and actually laughed at times and like made faces when his death warrant was read. His final words were, it's been said, let it be done. I'd like to thank all of my lawyers and loved ones. Don't be sad

for me. Don't cry. Don't say goodbye, but say, see you later. Let's go. He had no family there. His children wrote him letters, but there was no one from his family actually present at the execution. He was executed one week before his 77th birthday. And actually, another execution I'm going to talk about, it happened on his birthday. He was put to death on his birthday, which is a terrible day to go. But I guess if you're on death row, you're not really celebrating too much anyway. So let's talk about kind of the legal hurdles that he tried to jump through before his execution, because we know that, you know, there's always these last ditch efforts, these 11th hour appeals,

you know, all that kind of stuff. So Murray Hooper's lawyers attempted to postpone his execution and order fingerprint and DNA testing on evidence from the murders. His lawyers say he is innocent. There's no physical ties that connected him to the killing and that testing could lead to identifying the people actually responsible for the killing. They argued that Hooper was convicted before computerized fingerprint systems and DNA testing were available in criminal cases. And they also asked the Supreme Court to review a claim made by Hooper that authorities withheld the fact that Marilyn, Pat's wife, the lone survivor, failed to identify Murray Hooper in a photo lineup.

Now, this argument stems from something that we call Brady rights. Brady rights were established in a Supreme court case called Brady versus Maryland. And basically the holding was that prosecutors have to disclose any evidence they have that's favorable to the defendant. So if there's any evidence that can help a defendant's case, they cannot hold that within. They have to share it with the defendant and the defendant's attorneys. So what Murray Hooper argued is that the prosecutor's failure to disclose the fact that Pat's wife wasn't able to identify him in a photo lineup violated his Brady rights. But the authorities say that that claim is based on a

mistake made by a prosecutor. So they say that a prosecutor had sent a letter previously to the state's clemency board where the letter said there was a photo lineup, but authorities say that there was actually no such lineup. It was a mistake made by the prosecutor and that there's no basis for the argument because there was never a photo lineup done, if that makes sense. It is important to note that Pat's wife did identify Murray Hooper in an in-person lineup and testified against him at trial. So she did identify him. But, you know, that argument was just kind of a last ditch effort, basically. Like, let's try to do whatever we can to postpone this execution. Now, Murray Hooper's last meal was

Kentucky fried chicken, white meat, extra crispy, mac and cheese, barbecue sauce, a dinner roll, cheesecake, two pints of Neapolitan ice cream, and a large orange Fanta. So that is Murray Hooper's execution in a nutshell. Now let's move on to the second execution, which happened on the same day. So November 16th, a man named Steven Barbie was executed in Texas, and he was convicted of killing his pregnant ex-girlfriend, her unborn child, and her seven-year-old son in 2006. His ex-girlfriend's name was Lisa Underwood. Her son's name was Jaden, and he killed both of them by suffocating them at their home in Fort Worth, Texas.

He then took their bodies to a wooded area in Denton County, where he buried them in their own shallow graves. Lisa and Jaden were reported missing when she didn't show up to her own baby shower, and Stephen confessed to the police that he killed both Lisa and Jaden, but later recanted his confession, said the confession was coerced, and ever since he's maintained his innocence, saying that he was framed by his business partner. Prosecutors argued that Stephen killed Lisa and Jaden because he didn't want his wife to know that Lisa was seven months pregnant, presumably by him.

So Stephen was in fact married. He was having an affair with Lisa. Lisa got pregnant. He didn't want his wife to find out. So he killed both Lisa and her son. But DNA evidence later revealed that Stephen wasn't the father of Lisa's child. So he killed her for no reason. Essentially his trial, including sentencing took less than three days. It was very quick, but as always, there are those last ditch efforts. So the Monday before his execution, the Texas board of pardon and parole is unanimously declined to commute his death sentence to a lesser sentence or grant a four month reprieve. So those were his requests. And in the request for clemency,

he basically argued that his prior attorneys failed to take any reasonable steps to establish his innocence or to present any compelling mitigating evidence to the jury, particularly regarding the crucial special issue of future dangerousness. So a Texas jury is required to consider future dangerousness when deciding whether or not to impose a death sentence. And Barbie's argument was that he didn't have a criminal record prior to his arrest in 2005 for these murders and that that should have been considered by the jury when they were evaluating his future dangerousness. And it wasn't because his attorneys did not present that basically as mitigating evidence. But on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt denied Barbie's attorney's request for an execution stay.

So that was on Monday. And then on Tuesday, Barbie's attorneys requested a stay of execution over claims that his right to cruel and unusual punishment was being violated. That was also denied. That argument was based on the fact that he had severe joint deterioration and it made him unable to extend his arms. So he couldn't stretch out his arms, which obviously when you go in the gurney to be executed, your arms have to be straightened out. The IV goes into your arm. So their argument was that, you know, if he had to extend his arms for the execution, he would experience intolerable pain and suffering.

And, you know, he, it would violate his eighth amendment right, which protects against cruel and unusual punishment. But the Texas attorney general's office assured the judge that prison officials would do everything they could to accommodate him. They would allow his arms to remain bent. If needed, they would find another insertion point for the IV lines, which they eventually did. And we'll talk about that in a minute. But because the attorney general's office kind of reassured the judge that everything would be fine, the judge did deny that request for a stay. So then as a final attempt on the day of his execution, his attorneys asked the Supreme Court to stay the execution, arguing that his religious rights were being violated because the state prison system had not yet created a written policy on the recent Supreme Court

ruling regarding spiritual advisors being present for the execution. So in March, the Supreme Court said that states have to accommodate the requests of death row inmates who want to have their spiritual advisors present and pray and touch them during the executions. But Barbie's attorneys are saying that because Texas hadn't formally updated their policy, their execution protocol, that, you know, Barbie's rights are being violated. Now, this is all despite Barbie being allowed to have his advisor present and touch him and pray. So, you know, the warden and the facility had already said he can have his advisor present. His advisor can be there and he can touch him and pray over him as the lethal injection is administered. But because it wasn't

formally in writing, his attorneys tried to say that this was, you know, a violation of his religious rights. The Supreme Court obviously denied this because, you know, he actually wasn't being denied anything. So come time for the execution, it ended up taking longer than expected because they did have to take extra time to ensure that the IV lines could be inserted safely and without pain because of his disability. So the IV lines were ultimately inserted into the side of his neck and his right hand because he

couldn't fully extend his arms. He was even provided extra padding to support his arms during the execution so that his arms could stay bent and close to his body. So they did do what they told the judge that they would do, and they took extra precautions to make sure his punishment was not cruel and unusual as per the Eighth Amendment. He did not have a final meal because Texas does not give their inmates a final meal. I've told this story to you guys before, but just as a very brief summary, years and years ago, an inmate ordered a very, very, very large meal. And when it was delivered to him, he turned it down, said he didn't want it. And he was clearly kind of just saying F you

to the facility. And as a result, they implemented a law in which no inmate is ever allowed to have a final meal. And if I didn't already say this in the beginning, Texas is also one drug, which is pentobarbital. So Hooper and Stephen Barbary were executed, Oklahoma executed Richard Fairchild by way of lethal injection. So in Oklahoma, the lethal injection protocol is a three-drug cocktail. The first drug is midazolam, which is a sedative. The second drug is pancuronium bromide. And the third drug is potassium acetate. Richard Fairchild was executed on his 63rd birthday. So what did Richard Fairchild do? Well, he murdered his girlfriend's three-year-old son, Adam Broomhall, at their home in Dell City,

Oklahoma in 1993. According to court records on the day of the murder, Fairchild was drinking all day with his girlfriend, Adam's mom. Later that night, Adam woke up crying because he had wet his bed, and Richard Fairchild beat him, burned both sides of his body by pressing him up against a furnace, and threw him into a dining table, which rendered him unconscious, and Adam never woke up. The autopsy showed that Adam died from blunt force trauma to the head, but he suffered 26 individual blows to the body. Prior to Richard's execution, he requested clemency from the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board. His argument was basically that he had suffered a lifetime of traumatic brain injuries, and those injuries combined with his drug and alcohol use led him to the actions that ultimately killed Adam.

His attorney even described him as a good father, saying that this was just a one-off incident. His request for clemency was denied four to one. And then as a last-ditch effort, his attorneys raised questions to the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals about his mental competency, saying that he was completely out of touch with reality. And if you are deemed to be mentally incompetent, then you cannot be executed per law. And the judges voted 5-0 to reject that argument. So his execution was not stayed. He was, in in fact executed. And then following that five to zero decision, the U.S. Supreme Court also refused to stay the execution. Richard Fairchild's last meal was two quarter pounders with cheese, french fries, a Coke, a's family, specifically Adam's mom and grandmother, and alluded to the guilt that he feels, saying, quote, I've lived with this for years.

He also thanked the people that have helped him throughout his life, including his lawyers, the Department of Corrections staff, his fellow death row inmates, and professed his faith in God. Adam, the little boy's aunt and uncle were present for the execution and they said that they were surprised by Richard Fairchild's last words and they actually do believe that he was sincere in his apology. Richard Fairchild's execution lasted for 16 minutes and he was pronounced dead at 10 24 a.m. And the last execution we have to cover is Kevin Johnson. He was executed in Missouri on November 29th via the lethal injection. Like Texas and Arizona, Missouri's lethal injection protocol is just one lethal dose of pentobarbital. And Kevin Johnson was on death row for killing a

police officer. So when you kill a police officer, that is considered capital murder, and you can be sentenced to death in states that have the death penalty. So on July 5th, 2005, Kevin Johnson shot and killed Sergeant William McKenty, who was a police officer for the Kirkwood Police Department. On July 5th, 2005, Sergeant McKenty and some other officers were serving an arrest warrant on Johnson, who was 19 at the time, for violating his probation. He was on probation at the time for assaulting his girlfriend. And while they were serving the warrant, Johnson's 12-year-old brother, who suffered from a congenital heart defect, actually began to have seizures, and he ultimately died. Now, Johnson blamed the police,

including Sergeant McKenty, for his brother's death because he said the police wouldn't let his mom into the house to help his brother while his brother was seizing. So that's actually not when Kevin Johnson killed Sergeant McKenty. Later that night, McKenty was responding to a call in Johnson's neighborhood after reports of fireworks were called in. And when Johnson saw McKenty pulling into the neighborhood, he approached his patrol car, accused him of killing his brother and shot

him multiple times. Years later, during a radio interview with Riverfront Times, Johnson said that he no longer blamed McKenty saying in part, quote, I think as humans, we tend to shift the blame. I don't think McKenty did anything that was wrong that day that I can even blame him for, end quote. So it's safe to say that, you know, as time went on, he realized that Sergeant McKinty was actually not the one responsible for his brother's death. And at the time, I'm sure it was a very emotionally driven reaction. It is never, ever, ever okay, obviously, to kill anyone. But, you know, it's clear that he had just basically witnessed his brother die, and it was just, it was very emotionally driven. So the day before his execution, the Missouri Supreme Court denied his request for a stay

after his attorneys argued that racial discrimination played a role in his prosecution. The United States Supreme Court also denied the request for a stay. So there are actually two requests for stays. One was Johnson's, and the other was from a special prosecutor who was appointed at the request of St. Louis County's prosecuting attorney's office. And the special prosecutor had previously actually filed a motion to vacate Johnson's conviction, which basically means throw it out. But that was denied by the St. Louis County Circuit Court because according to the court, there wasn't enough time to hold a hearing on that motion to vacate before Johnson's scheduled execution. Now, the requests for stay were entered so that claims of racial prejudice could be heard by the

St. Louis County Circuit Court, and they were also denied. But just to give you guys a little bit of information as to, you know, what the request for stay said, basically the request from Johnson appointed to quote, longstanding pervasive racial bias in St. Louis County prosecutors handling of Johnson's case and other death eligible prosecutions, including the office's decision of which offense to charge, which penalty to seek, and which jurors to strike, end quote. According to Johnson and his attorneys, the prosecuting attorney sought the death penalty against four of five defendants tried for killing a police officer while in office, and all four defendants were black. The only defendant where

prosecutors did not seek the death penalty was white. In the white defendant's case, the prosecutor allegedly invited defense attorneys to submit mitigating evidence that might persuade the prosecutor's office not to seek the death penalty, which was allegedly an opportunity not afforded to the black defendants, according to Johnson's attorneys. So that was Johnson's request for a stay. And then the request from the special prosecutor for a stay, basically the special prosecutor kind of just explained that he determined that racist prosecution techniques infected Johnson's conviction and death sentence, and that he found quote, clear and convincing

evidence of racial bias by the trial prosecutor, end quote. Missouri's attorney general office argued against a stay, saying that the claims were without merit and that the special prosecutor's claims do not amount to a concession of wrongdoing by the state. So in ruling against the stay, the Missouri Supreme Court wrote, quote, there simply is nothing here that Johnson has not raised and that this court has not rejected before. And even if there were, Johnson offers no basis for raising any new or repackaged versions of these oft-rejected claims at this late stage, end quote. After this, Johnson's attorneys asked the Supreme Court to review the case, but the Supreme Court declined to intervene.

Now, this is where Kevin Johnson's story is a little bit different from all the other executions that I talked about today. So in the days leading up to the execution, Kevin Johnson's daughter asked to attend the execution. And the reason she needed to ask was because there is a Missouri law that bars anyone under the age of 21 from witnessing an execution. Kevin Johnson's daughter is currently 19. Now all the other states that have the death penalty, you can watch, or you have to be at least 18. Missouri is the only state that requires you to be 21 or older. So when Kevin Johnson's daughter asked to attend the execution, the ACLU filed an emergency motion on her behalf, and they basically argued that barring anyone under the age of 21 from witnessing an execution served no safety purpose and it violated Johnson's daughter's constitutional rights. But a U.S. district judge ruled that

her constitutional rights would not be violated by Missouri's law. And following that decision, Johnson's daughter said in a statement, quote, I'm heartbroken that I won't be able to be with my dad in his last moments. My dad is the most important person in my life. He has been there for me my whole life, even though he's been incarcerated, end quote. Now, Kevin Johnson did not have any last words and he declined his last meal and he was pronounced dead 11 minutes after the lethal injection was administered. I'd really like to get your guys' thoughts on this age restriction in Missouri. So you guys know on my website, jordanismylawyer.com, I have a comment section available for you guys to kind of leave your thoughts on any of the topics that I discuss at any time. And I'm really curious to hear what you guys think, because obviously we know in the United

States, there are certain laws that, you know, you have to be 21 to do certain things like drink alcohol. And then there's a lot of other activities that you only have to be 18. You know, 18 is kind of that age where that it's that cutoff age. So what do you think about executions? Like, do you think the child of the person being executed should be able to witness execution at any age because that's their parent? Do you think it should be 18? Do you think 21 is good because maybe they're slightly more mature? I'm really curious to hear what you guys think about that because when I read that, I honestly had no clue that in Missouri you had to be 21 to witness an execution. So I was very surprised when I saw that. I just assumed it was 18. But let me know your thoughts on that. That comment section is available at the very bottom of the page for this week's episode, which again is on my website, jordanismylawyer.com. The next execution is scheduled for December 14th. There were two executions scheduled before that in December, but both of those inmates were granted reprieve. So basically

means that their execution will be delayed until a later date. So we'll see what happens with that December 14th execution. There's still enough time for anything to happen for the execution to be delayed or, you know, something, something to happen with that. So that is it for today's execution episode. Stay tuned for this coming week's episode, which like I said, will be on Tuesday or Wednesday. It'll be an unbiased recap of the news for this past week. And with that, I hope you guys are enjoying your weekend or if you're listening to this later and we've had a great weekend and I will talk to you in a few days.