I hope the stay remains in place, of course the State is fighting it and his death warrent expires at midnight on Friday.

softie

June 16



MARYLAND:

Appeals court upholds stay of Oken's execution -- 3-member panel lets
judge's decision from yesterday stand; State lawyers preparing appeal to
Supreme Court; Death warrant expires at midnight Friday


A federal appeals court this morning upheld a lower court's delay of the
scheduled execution of convicted killer Steven Oken.

In a one-paragraph order without elaboration, the 3-judge panel from the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit in Richmond, Va., let stand a
federal judge's ruling that imposed an indefinite stay of execution.

That judge, U.S. District Judge Peter J. Messitte, also ordered the state
to turn over documents about its lethal injection procedures and set a
hearing in his court for July 19.

A spokesman for the Maryland attorney general's office said state lawyers
were preparing an appeal to the Supreme Court, in one last effort to act
on this week's death warrant for Oken, which expires at midnight Friday.

If the Supreme Court declines to intervene, Oken's death warrant will
expire, and the state would have to seek a new one after Oken's latest
legal issues have been litigated. Death warrants must be signed at least 4
weeks before a scheduled execution can take place.

Oken's lead attorney, Fred Warren Bennett, has called a 12:30 p.m. press
conference at his Greenbelt law office.

Bennett had called yesterday's ruling by Messitte a "big-time win."

"Mr. Oken is very relieved that the court ... signed the order," Bennett
said. "He has read it ... and he hopes to continue to be able to live."

The family of one of Oken's victims continued to call for his execution,
holding a vigil outside the state penitentiary complex in Baltimore, where
Oken is being held."It's time to end the injustice," said Fred A. Romano,
the brother of Oken's first victim, Dawn Marie Garvin, after learning of
the federal judge's decision yesterday. "It's time to go with what a jury
of his peers decided would be his fate."

A dramatic day of legal developments began yesterday at 10 a.m., when
Messitte's decision was posted on the court's Web site. He called for the
July 19 hearing to determine whether Maryland's execution procedures
violate the Constitution's ban on "cruel and unusual punishment."

Monday, Oken's attorneys had argued before Messitte in his Greenbelt
courtroom that there had been a leak in the intravenous line that
delivered the anesthetic and deadly chemicals during the execution of
Tyrone X. Gilliam in 1998, meaning he may have suffered before death.

Lawyers for the state did not deny that a leak had occurred, but asserted
that the procedure did not constitute a violation of the Eighth
Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. The Department of
Public Safety and Correctional Services issued a statement yesterday,
saying that the Gilliam execution was "performed humanely and painlessly."

Oken asked the state last month for its execution protocol, according to
his attorneys. Messitte wrote that he found it "troubling" that the state
did not quickly provide a complete copy of its procedures, which had been
recently amended.

"Fundamental fairness, if not due process, requires that the execution
protocol that will regulate an inmate's death be forwarded to him in
prompt and timely fashion," the judge wrote.

Messitte wrote that he is "deeply solicitous of the family and friends of
Dawn Marie Garvin and acknowledges their desire, after so many years, to
see closure in this case.

"Nevertheless it is the court's duty ... to see that the guarantees of the
U.S. Constitution are respected, even in the case of someone who may be
despised by the entire polity."

By early yesterday afternoon, the Maryland attorney general's office had
sent its written argument to the Richmond court via fax.

Oken's team quickly filed its response.

At day's end, the Virginia judges had the documents before them.

Both sides had already prepared appeals to the Supreme Court in response
to the 4th Circuit's decision today.

3 inmates have been put to death by lethal injection since the state
resumed executions a decade ago.

Oken was sentenced to death in 1991 for the 1987 rape and murder of
Garvin, a White Marsh newlywed. He also was convicted of sexually
assaulting and murdering two other women: Patricia Antoinette Hirt, his
wife's older sister, and Lori Elizabeth Ward, a motel clerk in Maine.

Death penalty opponents who gathered near the Supermax prison last night
said they were pleased with the federal judge's ruling.

"What's the problem with waiting until July 19?" asked Max Obuszewski, a
peace activist who lives in Charles Village. "What's the rush to kill the
guy?"

Earlier yesterday at East Madison Street and Greenmount Avenue, Garvin's
friends and relatives gathered with signs that urged the state to "kill
the beast" and noted that the women Oken murdered "weren't given any
appeals."

Garvin's brother said yesterday his family has grown accustomed to the
delays and appeals that have accompanied Oken's capital-murder conviction.

"If the criminal justice system was there for justice, Steven Oken would
have been dead 17 years ago," said Fred A. Romano, wearing a sign with
photographs of his sister and the two other women Oken killed.

Romano said he hopes the state legislature will pass a law limiting the
number of appeals death row inmates can file. And he said he and his
family remain optimistic that Oken will be put to death.

"I'm only sorry he will fall asleep peacefully," he said. "Call it
vengeance. Call it revenge. Call it what you will. I call it justice."

(source: Baltimore Sun)

I know!! I know!!!

I just read this and was rushing over here to post it!!! You beat me to it!!!

I find myself jumping up and down in excitment over the stay!!

JJT

I am speechless I don't know what to say, I am just sick.

softie

Supreme Court lifts stay of Oken's execution
Decision clears way for convicted murderer to be put to death by lethal
injection this week
By Julie Bykowicz; Baltimore Sun Staff
June 16, 2004, 9:05 PM EDT

The Supreme Court has lifted a stay of execution for Steven Oken,
apparently clearing the way for the convicted killer to be put to death by
lethal injection this week.

At 7:35 p.m., the full court granted the state's application to lift the
stay, which had been granted yesterday by a federal court and upheld
earlier today by a federal appeals court.

The court's orders carried a notation that justices John Paul Stevens, Ruth
Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer would vote to deny the application to
vacate the stay.

The high court also denied a petition in which Oken claimed that the way
Maryland performs lethal injection executions is unconstitutional.

Defense lawyers have questioned whether a barbiturate that was to be the
first of three drugs administered to Oken would keep him from feeling pain,
inflicting cruel and unusual punishment.

"We're obviously disappointed," Fred Warren Bennett, one of Oken's lawyers,
said tonight. "We'll communicate with our client and see what has to be
done. There will be no further action taken today. We'll review the matter
and take what action we deem appropriate tomorrow."

Bennett said he had previously filed a petition for clemency with Gov.
Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. "We will seek action from the governor, we will seek
a partial commutation. We will seek that he spare the life of our client."

Spokesmen for the governor's office did not immediately return calls for
comment tonight. A spokesman for the attorney general's office declined to
comment.

Oken was sentenced to death in 1991 for the 1987 rape and murder of Dawn
Marie Garvin, a White Marsh newlywed. He also was convicted of sexually
assaulting and murdering two other women: Patricia Antoinette Hirt, his
wife's older sister, and Lori Elizabeth Ward, a motel clerk in Maine.

Outside the prison where Oken would be executed, Fred J. Romano, Garvin's
father, marched with about a dozen death penalty supporters. He received
word about 7:55 p.m. that the high court had vacated the stay.

"I was elated," Romano said, adding that cheers broke out among the crowd
as he shouted out the news. "This is a win for us. This is a good win.

"Today was stressful. We just kept waiting and waiting. We were in a really
down mood today."

Oken's fate has been uncertain amid the flurry of appeals this week.

This morning, a three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
4th Circuit in Richmond, Va., let stand a federal judge's ruling that
imposed an indefinite stay of execution.

That judge, U.S. District Judge Peter J. Messitte, also ordered the state
to turn over documents about its lethal injection procedures and set a
hearing in his court for July 19.

Messitte called for the July 19 hearing to determine whether Maryland's
execution procedures violate the Constitution's ban on "cruel and unusual
punishment."

Monday, Oken's attorneys had argued before Messitte in his Greenbelt
courtroom that there had been a leak in the intravenous line that delivered
the anesthetic and deadly chemicals during the execution of Tyrone X.
Gilliam in 1998, meaning he may have suffered before death.

Lawyers for the state did not deny that a leak had occurred, but asserted
that the procedure did not constitute a violation of the Eighth Amendment's
prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. The Department of Public
Safety and Correctional Services issued a statement yesterday, saying that
the Gilliam execution was "performed humanely and painlessly."

Oken asked the state last month for its execution protocol, according to
his attorneys. Messitte wrote that he found it "troubling" that the state
did not quickly provide a complete copy of its procedures, which had been
recently amended.

"Fundamental fairness, if not due process, requires that the execution
protocol that will regulate an inmate's death be forwarded to him in prompt
and timely fashion," the judge wrote.

Messitte wrote that he is "deeply solicitous of the family and friends of
Dawn Marie Garvin and acknowledges their desire, after so many years, to
see closure in this case.

"Nevertheless it is the court's duty ... to see that the guarantees of the
U.S. Constitution are respected, even in the case of someone who may be
despised by the entire polity."

By early yesterday afternoon, the Maryland attorney general's office had
sent its written argument to the Richmond court via fax.

Oken's team quickly filed its response.

At day's end, the Virginia judges had the documents before them.

Both sides had already prepared appeals to the Supreme Court in response to
the 4th Circuit's decision today.

Three inmates have been put to death by lethal injection since the state
resumed executions a decade ago.

Death penalty opponents who gathered near the Supermax prison last night
said they were pleased with the federal judge's ruling.

"What's the problem with waiting until July 19?" asked Max Obuszewski, a
peace activist who lives in Charles Village. "What's the rush to kill the guy?"

Earlier yesterday at East Madison Street and Greenmount Avenue, Garvin's
friends and relatives gathered with signs that urged the state to "kill the
beast" and noted that the women Oken murdered "weren't given any appeals."

Garvin's brother said yesterday his family has grown accustomed to the
delays and appeals that have accompanied Oken's capital-murder conviction.

"If the criminal justice system was there for justice, Steven Oken would
have been dead 17 years ago," said Fred A. Romano, wearing a sign with
photographs of his sister and the two other women Oken killed.

Romano said he hopes the state legislature will pass a law limiting the
number of appeals death row inmates can file. And he said he and his family
remain optimistic that Oken will be put to death.

"I'm only sorry he will fall asleep peacefully," he said. "Call it
vengeance. Call it revenge. Call it what you will. I call it justice."

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. no no no no no. **foot stomp** NO.

A human beings life is not a ......... oh! This is so.....

I have never had my own opinion regarding the DP. I never knew what it was. Conviently hiding behind the guise of "gathering information" or "being open to others opinions." Fighting the years of pro-DP my parents installed in me.

No more. Softheart... I am with you honey. 100%.

JJT

I also read this afternoon that the Supreme Court lifted the stay. It is very disheartening. I have read that his attorneys are now appealing on the fact that Mr. Oken may require a "cut down" proceedure for the insertion of the I.V. this is I believe his last chance as the Governor is highly unlikely to intervene (he is the Governor after all that lifted Maryland's moritorium).

I am as always disturbed by the display of vengence (not justice) that is being displayed throughout this ordeal............I sincerely hope the families of the victims find the peace they indeed deserve but killing another person won't bring the victim back and rarely brings the closure they are hoping to find by executing the "murderer". To paraphrase Sr. Helen Prejean it often it takes away the person they can focus their unresolved anger on and leaves them with still more pent up anger and no where to direct it.

It is very sad to me that society can only think of murder as a solution to crime, grief, frustration, loss, sadness.

I pray that there is indeed a further stay for Mr. Oken. I pray that the victims families find the peace they are stiving for and I pray for the day when we no longer have the death penalty.
Thank you,
Bill