issued a letter addressed to Alabama Governor Kay Ivey<\/a> expressing \u201cserious concern\u201d with Alabama\u2019s planned execution of Doyle Lee Hamm, scheduled for February 22, 2018.\u00a0 The strongly worded letter, signed by ICDP President Judge Navi Pillay, Vice President Ruth Dreifuss, and Governor Bill Richardson, cite Doyle Hamm\u2019s \u201cserious medical conditions.\u201d<\/p>\nThe ICDP letter mentions the decision of federal district judge Karon O. Bowdre, chief judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, who granted a stay of execution on February 15, 2018, after finding that there was a high likelihood that intravenous lethal injection could cause Hamm to suffer needlessly. The Eleventh Circuit vacated the stay, but, in addition to continuing litigation, Professor Harcourt has asked Alabama Governor Kay Ivey for clemency.<\/p>\n
In support of Hamm\u2019s clemency efforts, the ICDP letter calls on Governor Ivey to halt Hamm\u2019s execution and permit him to serve the rest of his life in prison. \u201cWe believe that carrying out Mr. Hamm\u2019s execution,\u201d the letter reads, \u201cgiven his serious medical condition, is unconscionable and represents a serious erosion of [Alabama\u2019s] proud tradition of compassion and of respecting and protecting human dignity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Governor Bill Richardson, a Commissioner of ICDP, expressed particular concern with Hamm\u2019s execution, drawing from his own experience with death penalty cases as governor of New Mexico. When Governor Richardson took office, the death penalty was still in force in his state and he often faced the \u201cdifficult process\u201d that Governor Ivey now confronts of \u201csigning an execution order.\u201d Governor Richardson struggled with the ethics of capital punishment and, through a \u201cprocess of introspection,\u201d changed his position on the death penalty, ultimately signing a bill abolishing the punishment in March 2009. Signing the bill was the \u201cmost difficult decision of his life,\u201d the letter states, but \u201cGovernor Richardson did so and now the respect and protection of the right to life and thereby of human dignity in his state is his long-lasting legacy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe call on you,\u201d the ICDP members conclude, speaking directly to Governor Ivey, \u201cnoting his long imprisonment facing the death penalty and his extremely frail condition following his cancer, to allow Mr. Hamm to serve the rest of his life in prison.\u201d<\/p>\n