An Ohio man convicted of raping and murdering a six-month-old baby was executed by lethal injection on Wednesday after a last-ditch plea for mercy was dismissed. Steven Smith, 46, was declared dead at 10:29 am (1429 GMT), prison authorities in Lucasville, southern Ohio, confirmed after the…
HIV treatment dead end: US vaccine failures prompt end to trials
The trials, carried out by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), began in August 2009 and mark the latest in a series of failed attempts at tackling the Human Immunodeficiency Virus. Exactly 2,504 volunteers across 19 US cities – all gay men or transgendered people who had sex with men – participated in the massive federally backed study, which hoped to determine whether a vaccine program could prevent HIV infections or reduce the ‘viral load’: The amount of virus in the blood of infected patients. The HVTN 505 vaccine was given to 1,250 participants, with 1,244 receiving a placebo. The volunteers were initially administered a series of three immunizations over the course of eight weeks. These DNA-based vaccines, designed to alert the immune system, were then followed up with a single ‘booster’ injection in the 24th week. Results were analyzed on Monday, prompting a supervisory panel to swiftly halt the program. Forty-one infections were detected among those who had received the real vaccine, versus 30 in the placebo group. Vaccines also failed to reduce infection levels in the blood. “The DSMB found that the vaccine failed to reduce viral load among volunteers who acquired HIV infection at least 28 weeks after entering the study,” the NIAID said in a statement released on Thursday. Additionally, an increase in HIV acquisition was noted among volunteers in the ‘investigational’ vaccine group, as opposed to the placebo group. However, the NIAID said that this increase was “non-statistically significant.” The institute went on to say that the results of the study are being scrutinized to determine both why the vaccine did not work and why there was an increase in HIV acquisition. The search for an HIV cure has plagued scientists since the disease was first identified in the early 1980s. Some 34 million people are infected with the virus worldwide, including 3.4 million children. In March, a baby girl born with HIV became the first person to be ‘functionally cured’ using conventional drugs, leading to speculation that the virus might be treatable in children.“This trial has provided a clear, swift answer about a specific vaccine strategy. It’s not the answer we hoped for, but the search doesn’t end here,” Mitchell Warren, executive director of AVAC: Global Advocacy for HIV Prevention, said in a statement. … Read More
Stay of execution for mentally ill Georgia man lifted
In February we noted how Warren Hill, a 53-year-old man with severe learning disabilities, was just 30 minutes away from receiving a lethal injection from the state of Georgia Tuesday evening when he learned of the stay of execution from the federal appeals court. As of this week, however, a decision by the 11th circuit court has lifted the stay on Hill’s execution. This, despite the fact that all medical specialists who have examined Hill — a death row inmate of 16 years — have now concluded that he is unfit to face the death penalty.As the Atlantic’s Andrew Cohen wrote on the decision to once again see the inmate put to death at the hands of the state of Georgia:Continue Reading… … Read More
Texas executes man for 1990 murder and rape conviction
A 50-year-old Texas burglar convicted of murdering a man and raping his wife during a 1990 break-in was executed by lethal injection on Tuesday, state justice officials said. Rickey Lewis, 50, was executed at 6:32pm local time (2332 GMT), a statement from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice…
Texas temporarily delays execution of black woman
The execution of a 51-year-old black woman in Texas has been temporarily stayed to allow lawmakers time to debate legislation on how juries are selected in the US state, officials said. Kimberly McCarthy had been scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection on Wednesday following her conviction…
TEPCO reports power failure at Fukushima, stops cooling system
Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) reported the blackout Mondaynight did not affect the ongoing water injection at reactors No.1and 3, which suffered core meltdowns in the early days of the March2011 nuclear crisis, triggered by the earthquake andtsunami.TEPCO assured the cause of the incident has been found and workto fix the system has been started. So far the temperature in poolshas remained around 25 degrees Celsius, which is considered notdangerous. If the cooling system cannot be fixed, temperatureswould likely rise in the fuel pools, becoming unsafe at 65degrees. While it is unclear how long repairs might take, theoperator said fuel stored in the pools would remain safe for atleast four days without fresh cooling water.Meanwhile, no abnormality has been detected in radiation levelsin areas surrounding the plant in Fukushima Prefecture.However, the day before TEPCO issued a worrying report saying ithad discovered a record 740,000 Becquerels per kilogram ofradioactive caesium in fish caught in the waters near the crippled Fukushimaplant, two years after the nuclear disaster.The operator installed a net on the seafloor of the port exitnear the plant to prevent the fish from escaping.The March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami devastated theFukushima Dai-ichi plant’s power and cooling systems, causing threereactor cores to melt and fuel storage pools to overheat. Thenatural disaster claimed around 19,000 lives and hundreds ofthousands evacuated. Some 160,000 are still not allowed back totheir houses in the vicinity of the power plant. Scientists say itcould take up to 40 years to make some parts of the area safeagain, while others warn it may never be habitable. … Read More
Maryland abolishing death penalty
ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Maryland lawmakers approved a measure abolishing the death penalty on Friday, and the bill is expected to be signed by the Democratic governor who has long pushed for banning capital punishment in the state. If the measure is signed by Gov. Martin O’Malley, it will make Maryland the 18th state in the nation to do away with the death penalty. A repeal bill won final passage from the House of Delegates on Friday. It already had been approved by the Senate. The House advanced the legislation this week after delegates rejected nearly 20 amendments, mostly from Republicans, aimed at keeping capital punishment for the most heinous crimes. If passed, life without the possibility of parole would be the most severe sentence in the state. Supporters of repeal argue that the death penalty is costly, error-prone, racially biased and a poor deterrent of crime. But opponents say it is a necessary tool to punish lawbreakers who commit the most egregious crimes. Maryland has five men on death row. The measure would not apply to them retroactively, but the legislation makes clear that the governor can commute their sentences to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The state’s last execution took place in 2005, during the administration of Republican Gov. Robert Ehrlich. He resumed executions after a moratorium had been in place pending a 2003 University of Maryland study, which found significant racial and geographic disparity in how the death penalty was carried out. Capital punishment was put on hold in Maryland after a December 2006 ruling by Maryland’s highest court that the state’s lethal injection protocols weren’t properly approved by a legislative committee. The committee, whose co-chairs oppose capital punishment, has yet to sign off on protocols. O’Malley, a Catholic, expressed support for repeal legislation in 2007, but it stalled in a Senate committee. Maryland has a large Catholic population, and the church opposes the death penalty. In 2008, lawmakers created a commission to study capital punishment after repeal efforts failed again. The panel recommended a ban later that year, citing racial and jurisdictional disparities in how the death penalty is applied. In 2009, lawmakers tightened the law to reduce the chances of an innocent person being sent to death row by restricting capital punishment to murder cases with biological evidence such as DNA, videotaped evidence of a murder or a videotaped confession. According to the Maryland Department of Public Safety & Correctional Services website, Maryland has executed only five inmates since 1976. There were three in the 1990s, and two when Ehrlich was governor. In contrast, neighboring Virginia has executed 110 inmates since the U.S. Supreme Court restored capital punishment in 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. However, Virginia’s death row population has dwindled to eight from a peak of 57 in 1995, in part because fewer death sentences are being handed down in the state amid an increased acceptance of life without parole as a reasonable alternative. The center said death sentences have declined by 75 percent and executions by 60 percent nationally since the 1990s. Connecticut abolished the death penalty last year. Illinois, New Jersey, New Mexico and New York also have outlawed it in recent years. Continue Reading… … Read More
