INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Bible, a serial rapist and child molester, was sentenced to die in 2003 for raping and murdering
(AFP)Attorneys for the man dubbed the "ice-pick killer," who's scheduled to be put to death in Texas on Wednesday evening, are arguing that
lethal injection would very likely result in a botched execution given the 66-year-old's plethora of medical problems.Danny Bible's
attorneys are proposing one of two alternatives that they say would be more humane: death by firing squad or nitrogen hypoxia - execution
methods that are not legal in Texas, but have been allowed in a handful of states.Bible, a serial rapist and child molester, was sentenced
to die in 2003 for raping and murdering a young wife and mother in Houston more than two decades earlier.Bible is suffering from heart
failure, coronary artery disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, Parkinson's, diabetes and several other illnesses
Scars from several surgeries have made it difficult, if not impossible, to access a vein during lethal injection
And even if the execution team manages to insert the needle, Bible's veins would likely explode once doses of saline and pentobarbital begin
to flow, his attorneys argued in a complaint filed this month in a federal court in Houston.Once Bible, who's confined to a wheelchair, is
strapped to a gurney lying down, he will gasp for air and choke, attorneys said.The attorneys were unsuccessful in convincing a federal
Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit to halt Bible's execution until state officials are able to establish new protocols for one of the
Hours before Bible is supposed to be put to death, at 6 p.m
Central Time, his attorneys asked the Supreme Court to step in.In a petition to the Supreme Court filed Wednesday morning, Bible's attorneys
said delaying the execution would benefit the state
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice, they argue, "will avoid inflicting unnecessary, avoidable pain and suffering" on Bible - "and will
avoid botching the execution.""The risk that Mr
Bible will be subjected to an unconstitutional procedure outweighs [the state's] interest in carrying out his execution on the currently
scheduled date," the attorneys wrote.The Texas Attorney General's Office, which represents state prison officials, called Bible's request
for delay "dilatory and substantively meritless" and said that although Bible's attorneys cited problematic and botched executions in other
states, no such mishaps have happened in Texas
The Supreme Court, the state attorneys office argued, also should not overlook the fact that Bible has evaded justice for two decades."He
should not be rewarded with a stay of execution simply because his evasion of authorities resulted in him reaching an older and more infirm
age by the time of his execution," the state argued.In his ruling denying Bible's request, federal district Judge Kenneth Hoyt wrote that
Texas allows only one method of execution, and that's lethal injection
Switching to one of the proposed options would require a new law and new protocol."Bible's proposed alternatives are neither feasible nor
readily implemented," Hoyt wrote.Bible was sentenced to death for the killing of Inez Deaton, a 29-year-old wife and mother of a toddler, in
Bible raped her, stabbed her 11 times with an ice pick and dragged her body to a bayou, court records say
The case was unsolved for two decades, during which time Bible committed a litany of violent crimes, including killing his sister-in-law,
her baby and her roommate, and raping his five young nieces.In 1998, Bible confessed that he had killed Deaton while in custody for another
rape in Louisiana, court records say.Death by firing squad is allowed only in Utah, Oklahoma and Mississippi
Utah had avoided the method for several years, but the state reversed its policy in 2015 by making death by firing squad a backup execution
Utah carried out the country's most recent execution by firing squad in 2010, when the state put convicted murderer Ronnie Lee Gardner to
That was also the last execution that Utah has carried out.In Oklahoma, death by firing squad is a last resort if other methods were deemed
Mississippi joined the two states last year.A handful of states, including Oklahoma, Mississippi and Alabama, allow execution by nitrogen
hypoxia, which involves placing a condemned person in a gas chamber and depriving them of oxygen
In March, Oklahoma made an unprecedented decision to use nitrogen gas to execute death row inmates after state officials had been unable to
obtain lethal injection drugs.If executed Wednesday, Bible would be the 12th man to be executed in the country this year.(Except for the
headline, this story has not been edited by TheIndianSubcontinent staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
