Lets consider a person on death row who has been sentenced to death 10, 15, 20 years ago or more. He has exhausted every appeal there is on the books. He is finally scheduled to die at midnight. Somehow, taking advantage of a glitch in security, he manages to overpower a prison guard and breaks his neck. The prison guard dies.
What would happen next in this situation? The execution cannot possibly go ahead as scheduled. Will there be a new murder trial? Would this be a way for the condemned to buy a number of years of extra life time? After all, he has nothing to lose.
I’m curious about why you think the execution couldn’t go on as scheduled. There’s a signed, legal execution order. What do you think the hold-up would be?
Well, in general, are executions delayed so that the condemned can stand trial in person for any other crimes he has committed?
I can see the argument that victim families would get more closure from seeing the guy found guilty of their crime, and not killed for something else he did. But that’s probably not much gain for the costs of a new trial.
I can understand the position that a execution order has to be followed come hell or high water, but wouldn’t it seem reasonable that the crime (and security blunder) which just occurred at least has to be investigated?
As far as I know, no legal punishments are delayed for other crimes and potential trials. Many people serving prison terms are awaiting trial for additional crimes. Ted Bundy was executed without standing trial for a number of the murders he committed.
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I can understand the position that a execution order has to be followed come hell or high water, but wouldn’t it seem reasonable that the crime (and security blunder) which just occurred at least has to be investigated?
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Certainly it would be investigated. I’m pretty sure that the order would still be carried out unless someone with the authority to stay it (judge or governor) intervened. The prison administration couldn’t just say “Execution’s off. We need to interrogate the condemned prisoner for a few days.”
Actually, I’m poretty sure that would not happen. This would be a separate crime and require the inmate be separated, and possible tried and convicted first. The original sentance would still stand.
Probably. However, it’s hard to say. There appears to be only one documented case of a killing committed by somebody who was already on death row. It was in New Jersey, where nobody actually gets executed, so there was plenty of time for them to try him for the second death (he was exonerated).
Murders are very likely to be prosecuted, but it is at the prosecutor’s discretion. The maximum security prison at which I volunteer had an inmate/inmate murder a few years ago. The police were called to the prison, an arrest was made, and I’m sure the prosecutor will prosecute the inmate, if he’s still alive when the time comes. Until then, the guy is serving his existing prison term.
I’d probably think that the State would frown upon giving Death Row inmates a “Get Out of Sparky Free” card, based on their ability to murder corrections officers (or other inmates).
I’d say the best chance of staying alive is to have some sort of valuable testimony to give that would help convict a different murderer. Even then, the prosecution would have to weigh the value of your testimony in relation to postponing your punishment. What value is the inmate in prosecuting his own crime?
That’s an interesting question. My opinion is that he would be returned to his cell and the crime investigated. He would be charged and a trial date would be set, but his death sentence would be carried out in the interim. I wouldn’t expect his death to be delayed by more than a month.
As noted upthread, inmates are killed while further charges against them are being sought, such as crimes tangential to their murders or crimes admitted while incarcerated. I guess that last item would be the most relevant to this question - what would happen if, as an inmate was walking towards the gallows, he started admitting to numerous other crimes that he could have plausibly committed? I think they would be ignored and he would be executed.
That specific one happens all the time. There was a CSI or Criminal Minds or somesuch episode based on that premise. They get ignored unless the guy is a suspect in ongoing investigations.
Suppose the governor had been in the process of calling in to give the prisoner a temporary reprieve at the same time he kills the guard. The prisoner ends up getting a new trial at which he is found not guilty. Could the killing of the guard be considered self defense?
Without question there would be delay. There would have to be a full investigation of the crime, not just who was the person who committed it. Was there a weapon? How was the weapon obtained? Was there another person who helped? Other people at fault in some way?
Killing the person at the center of a crime reduces the options of performing a full investigation. Keep in mind that there is no absolute proof that the condemned won’t cooperate in the investigation. Since he or she might help, then they must be kept alive until the investigation is complete and longer if there are trials.
That is a good what-if. There are two competing rules of law here. The first (which admittedly varies somewhat from state to state) is that a person cannot resist even an unlawful arrest by a peace officer* using deadly force. Mullis v. State, 196 Ga. 569, 577, 27 S.E.2d 91, 98 (1943).
The second is that a person may use deadly force to resist an unlawful arrest by a peace officer if the person actually faces imminent danger of death or serious harm (though this rule varies even more widely by state). State v. Bradley, 141 Wash. 2d 731, 737, 10 P.3d 358, 361 (2000).
The key here is that the person must anticipate that the imminent harm will be done by the person he is battering in self-defense. So you can’t kill the prison guard, because that’s not the person who is going to harm you. I suppose you could theoretically kill your executioner, assuming you knew you had been pardoned and knew your impending execution was unlawful.
There have been murders committed by death row inmates while on death row in Texas, although none of staff close to the time of execution. Inmates are isolated immediately prior to execution, and staff are extremely prepared and very, very careful in dealing with them. They’re fully expecting deadly assaults and deal with the inmates accordingly.
A death row inmate named Jermarr Andrews murdered a fellow death row inmate in 1995 by stabbing him in the temple with a sharpened 10 inch bolt, so forcefully it almost protruded from the other side, and afterwards danced around his body. A coworker of mine formerly worked on the death row unit Andrews was on and compared him to Michael Clarke Duncan in the Green Mile - some online sources list Andrews at 6’1" and 250, but my coworker says it was more like 6’5" and 350. The prison prosecution unit initially declined to put him on trial for murder, although he asked them too. They later decided to indict him in case anything ever happened to his original case on appeal, but didn’t press forward with a trial due to the expense and apparent pointlessness. Andrews died with the second murder still technically pending. He had vowed to take somebody with him on the way to the chamber, but told the extraction team (decked out in full riot gear) he had changed his mind and went along peacefully. Others have made similar promises to take somebody with them in the past, but so far nobody ever has.
There have been a few other homicides on death row. James Demouchette received a 15 year manslaughter conviction for murdering another death row inmate in 1983 by stabbing him 16 times, he was exectued before the 15 years were served. David Gibbs got 20 years for manslaughter after killing another death row inmate (who coincidentally had survived another murder attempt on death row when another inmate tried to set him on fire) by choking him with a jump rope in 1990, and was also executed before he finished serving that sentence. Anthony Pierce got a manslaughter conviction for stabbing another death row inmate in 1979. His death sentence was commuted to life in prison earlier this year and he is now eligible for parole under the law at it was the time of his original sentencing.
So if a death row inmate killed somebody in the weeks or days immediately preceding his execution date, chances are pretty good that prosecutors will simply choose not to go forward with new charges and let him get executed as scheduled. If he kills somebody on the way to the chamber, that’s a little more dicey. In Texas the death chamber is only 20-30 feet from the cell, so if he somehow managed to kill somebody from the team there to extract him from his cell and strap him down in the chamber, the remaining team may not realize somebody’s been killed in the scuffle before they get him strapped down.