By the Numbers; Blocking Texas's Abortion Law; and "Botched Executions"

 I. Drone Strikes

14K - Number of confirmed US drone strikes in Somalia, Yemen, Pakistan, and Afghanistan since 2004.

90% - Approximate percentage of the more than 200 people killed in Afghanistan by strikes during one five-month period of a Special Operations campaign, who were not the intended targets.

45 - Number of months ex-NSA analyst Daniel Hale could spend in prison for leaking information about US drone attacks, including the previous fact.

17 - Minimum number of documents Hale leaked to reporters.

8 - Number of people prosecuted by the US  government for leaking to journalists since 2017. Source: Jarod Facundo, The Nation).

II. Sexual Misconduct

$300k - Amount Congress paid in sexual harassment and sexual discrimination settlements from 2003 to 2018.

52 - Number of senators wo voted to confirm Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in 1991 after Anita Hill accused him of sexual harassment. 

11 - Number of women that New York Governor Andrew Cuomo harassed, according to the state attorney general's investigation.

26 - Number of women who have accused Donald Trump of sexual misconduct. (Source: Gloria Oladipo, The Nation ).

III. Blocking Texas Abortion Law

In early October, U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman blocked a controversial Texas law banning abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy, saying that "a person's right under the Constitution to choose to obtain an abortion prior to fetal viability is well established." His ruling added that "depriving citizens of this right" would be "flagrantly unconstitutional."

The order came in response to the Biden administration's emergency request to prevent Texas from enforcing the law as the court considers a Justice Department lawsuit challenging its constitutionality. The Supreme Court narrowly allowed it to take effect about a month ago.

The order from Pitman noted that Texas requested that the state be allowed to appeal the injunction before it takes effect. 

"The State has forfeited the right to any accommodation by pursuing an unprecedented and aggressive scheme to deprive its citizens of a significant and well-established constitutional right," Pitman wrote.

"The other courts may find a way to avoid this conclusion is theirs to decide," he added. "This Court will not sanction one more day of this offensive deprivation of such an important right."

The law has prohibited most abortions in Texas since September. Specifically, it banned abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected, which typically takes place around six weeks -- and before some women know they are pregnant. 

Whole Woman's Health, a network of abortion clinics that operates in Texas, said it would resume abortions after up to 18 weeks of pregnancy "as soon as possible," according to '19th News.'

Prior to Pitman's order, some speculated that abortions may still not resume, as providers fear legal repercussions in the absence of a more long-term ruling, according to 'The Associated Press.'

IV. The Inexact Science of Legally Killing People

(This blog was originally posted  on May 29, 2014, under buckupdems. It has relevance today.) "Since the restoration of capital punishment in 1976, the Death Penalty Information Center has recorded at least forty-five 'botched executions': 73 percent of which were by lethal injection." [1]

Due in part to the unwillingness of countries without the death penalty to supply drugs that will be used in U.S. executions, states are taking "increasingly secretive and extralegal steps," to procure the drugs used in lethal injections, "including using discontinued and illegally obtained drugs and drugs purchased at unregulated 'compounding pharmacies'." [2] These pharmacies are basically experimenting with drug combinations that might work in executions.

There are a couple of great ironies brought to light by the botched execution of Clayton Lockett in Oklahoma. Lockett injured his arm on the day of the execution, and he was very uncooperative during other medical procedures performed that day. Richard Kim observes that Lockett probably received more government healthcare on the day of his execution than most Oklahomans do in a year.

The other irony is that 22 states other than Oklahoma have also refused to expand Medicaid and 19 of them practice the death penalty, leading Kim to ask the question: "Why are some states so willing to spend a great deal of time and effort to maintain the machinery of death for so few, and so unwilling to make the same kind of investment in improving the health and lives of so many?" 

V. Arbitrary IQ Tests a No Go as Execution Standard

By a 5-4 decision, the U.S, Supreme Court ruled that state laws that draw a bright line on IQ test results as an execution standard are unconstitutional. Florida has a law stating that an inmate who scores above 70 on an IQ test cannot be considered to be intellectually disabled, thus, he/she is execution material.

The case -- Hall v. Florida -- broke down into a frequently seen 4 to 4 liberal/conservative split, with the frequent swing vote, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, writing the majority opinion. Kennedy said: "Persons facing this severe sanction must have a fair opportunity to show that the constitution prohibits their execution." The majority opinion also alluded to the IQ test score being imprecise and that other states are using a range of scores, a few points above or below 70, or rely on other factors to make the execution decision.

Justice Samuel A. Alito wrote the minority opinion, and he contented that voiding Florida's clear standard was conceptually unsound and would cause confusion; also, he argued that the decision to define mental retardation had initially been left up to the states.

The effect of the decision in the Hall v. Florida case makes it a little more difficult to execute a person who is near the line of being declared intellectually disabled or not.

Footnotes

[1] Richard Kim, "The Oklahoma Way of Death,' The Nation, May 26, 2014; [2] Ibid.; [3] Ibid.