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Lawyers Cite Botched Arizona Execution While Defending Gitmo Prisoner

Lawyers Cite Botched Arizona Execution While Defending Gitmo Prisoner
Reuters

By Lacey Johnson

FORT MEADE, Md. (Reuters) - Defense lawyers for the Guantanamo Bay prisoner charged with masterminding the 2000 USS Cole warship bombing in Yemen sought on Tuesday to find out how their client could be executed in the death penalty case, citing a troubled Arizona execution.

The request was among several pre-trial motions involving al-Rahim al-Nashiri, 49, a Saudi citizen of Yemeni descent. The attack on the Cole in a Yemeni port killed 17 U.S. sailors and wounded 42.

"An individual juror may conclude, as a matter of mercy, that he or she may not vote for death," and the method of execution is an important factor, said defense attorney Richard Kammen.

"It took two hours to kill a guy in Arizona," said Kammen, referring to a botched execution at an Arizona prison in July.

"No offense to folks, but things don't really work very smoothly" at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, he said.

The protocols for al-Nashiri's potential execution, which are issued by the U.S. secretary of defense, have not been released.

The military judge overseeing the trial, Air Force Colonel Vance Spath, is considering whether to order the government to provide the method of execution to the defense team.

Prosecutor Justin Sher opposed the request, saying the issue "isn't ripe."

Spath said on Tuesday he would rule on any outstanding motions that were presented before Army Colonel Judge James Pohl, the regular chief judge in the military commissions, who removed himself from al-Nashiri's trial in July.

Pohl ordered prosecutors in April to share with defense lawyers details about what happened to al-Nashiri in secret CIA prisons, where he was held for nearly four years following his arrest in 2002.

The defense said on Monday that it had received only 1,000 pages of summaries. Kammen said the summaries were only a small part of the material defense lawyers wanted to see.

"What we have is, frankly, junk," he said.

Brigadier General Mark Martins, the chief prosecutor, said his team intended to deliver all the available evidence, so long as it did not threaten national security.

Al-Nashiri's trial is tentatively set to begin in February. The hearing at Guantanamo Bay was monitored by closed-circuit television at a news media room at Fort Meade, Maryland, outside Washington. (Editing by Ian Simpson and Doina Chiacu)

Before You Go

Lethal Injection
AP
Until 2010, most states used a three-drug combination: an anesthetic (pentobarbital or sodium thiopental), a paralytic agent (pancuronium bromide) to paralyze the muscle system, and a drug to stop the heart (potassium chloride). Recently, European pharmaceutical companies have refused to sell drugs to the U.S. for use in lethal injections, requiring states to find new, untested alternatives.
Gas Chamber
AP
Gas chambers, like this one pictured at the former Missouri State Penitentiary in Jefferson City, Mo., were first used in the U.S. in 1924. In the procedure, an inmate is sealed inside an airtight chamber which is then filled with toxic hydrogen cyanide gas. Oxygen starvation ultimately leads to death, but the inmate does not immediately lose consciousness.
Electric Chair
AP
The first electric chair was used in 1890. Electrodes attached to an inmate's body deliver a current of electricity. Sometimes more than one jolt is required.
Hanging
AP
Hanging was used as the primary method of execution in the U.S. until the electric chair's invention in 1890. Death is typically caused by dislocation of the vertebrae or asphyxiation, but in cases when the rope is too long, the inmate can sometimes be decapitated. If too short, the inmate can take up to 45 minutes to die.
Firing Squad
AP
This Old West-style execution method dates back to the invention of firearms. In a typical scenario in the U.S., the inmate is strapped to a chair. Five anonymous marksmen stand 20 feet away, aim rifles at the convict's heart, and shoot. One rifle is loaded with blanks.
Beheading
Wikimedia Commons
Decapitation has been used in capital punishment for thousands of years. Above is the chopping block used for beheadings at the Tower of London.
Guillotine
Kauko via Wikimedia Commons
Invented in France in the late 18th century during the French Revolution, the guillotine was designed to be an egalitarian means of execution. It severed the head more quickly and efficiently than beheading by sword.
Hanging, Drawing and Quartering
Wikimedia Commons
A punishment for men convicted of high treason, "hanging, drawing and quartering" was used in England between the 13th and 19th centuries. Men were dragged behind a horse, then hanged, disemboweled, beheaded, and chopped or torn into four pieces.
Slow Slicing
Carter Cutlery/Wikimedia Commons
Also called "death by a thousand cuts," this execution method was used in China from roughly A.D. 900 until it was banned in 1905. The slicing took place for up to three days. It was used as punishment for treason and killing one's parents.
Boiling Alive
Wikimedia Commons
Death by boiling goes back to the first century A.D., and was legal in the 16th century in England as punishment for treason. This method of execution involved placing the person into a large cauldron containing a boiling liquid such as oil or water.
Crucifixion
Wikimedia Commons
Crucifixion goes back to around the 6th century B.C.used today in Sudan. For this method of execution, a person is tied or nailed to a cross and left to hang. Death is slow and painful, ranging from hours to days.
Burning Alive
Pat Canova via Getty Images
Records show societies burning criminals alive as far back as the 18 century B.C. under Hammurabi's Code of Laws in Babylonia. It has been used as punishment for sexual deviancy, witchcraft, treason and heresy.
Live Burial
Antoine Wiertz/Wikimedia Commons
Execution by burial goes back to 260 B.C. in ancient China, when 400,000 were reportedly buried alive by the Qin dynasty. Depending on the size of the coffin (assuming there is one), it can take anywhere from 10 minutes to several hours for a person to run out of oxygen.
Stoning
Wikimedia Commons
This ancient method of execution continues to be used as punishment for adultery today.
Crushing By Elephant
Wikimedia Commons
This method was commonly used for many centuries in South and Southeast Asia, in which an elephant would crush and dismember convicts as a punishment for treason.
Flaying
Michelangelo/Wikimedia Commons
Records show flaying, the removal of skin from the body, was used as far back as the 9th century B.C.
Impalement
Wikimedia Commons
Records show this execution practice used as far back as the 18th century B.C., where a person is penetrated through the center of their body with a stake or pole.
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