Shiites select Al-Jaafari as prime minister

Nancy A. Youssef, Knight Ridder Newspapers… Shiites select Al-Jaafari as prime minister

Nancy A. Youssef, Knight Ridder Newspapers

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Shiite lawmakers Sunday named interim Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a devout Iranian-backed politician, to be their new prime minister.

The move solidifies Iraq’s transition to a religiously based democratic government, although Sunnis, Kurds and sectarian Iraqis all faulted the choice. Many feel al-Jaafari did too little to quell Iraq’s growing sectarianism and violence and failed to rebuild the country’s crumbling infrastructure during his nearly one-year interim tenure.

Many Sunnis and Kurds preferred al-Jaafari’s more moderate and progressive Shiite opponent, interim vice president Adil Abdel Mahdi. But Mahdi lost by one vote, 64-63, among Shiite electors. Although still only their nominee, al-Jaafari will likely win support from the full parliament because his slate holds 128 of the governing body’s 275 seats.

U.S. officials hope that al-Jaafari can assemble a coalition government that draws in enough Sunni support to drain backing for the Sunni-led insurgency that threatens to ignite a civil war. Were the insurgency to fade, American and allied troops could leave.

That hope seemed distant Sunday as leaders of the Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party said they did not rule out walking away from an al-Jaafari-led government.

The mild-mannered al-Jaafari, 59, is a physician and his Dawa Party is one of Iraq’s oldest and most aggressive opponents to Saddam Hussein’s regime. For many, the party represents the most oppressed and tortured during the dictatorship.

Painless or cruel, unusual? Cases challenge lethal injection

Tony Rizzo, Knight Ridder Newspapers

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The gruesome sights, sounds and smells of death by electrocution prompted Bill Wiseman to seek a better way.

He thought he had found it in 1977 when, as a member of the Oklahoma Legislature, he helped write the country’s first lethal injection statute.

Pumping a cocktail of powerful chemicals into a condemned person was quickly copied nationwide and embraced as a humane way to carry out society’s ultimate punishment.

Until now.

Lawyers throughout the country are seizing on an article published last year in The Lancet, a British medical journal, which raised questions about the three-drug sequence most commonly used in the United States today.

Courts recently stopped two executions in Florida and one in Missouri so defense lawyers could argue that the method of execution employed in 37 of the 38 states with capital punishment is not always the painless panacea long touted by death penalty advocates.

Some doctors and lawyers say that there is a “significant risk” that an inmate can suffer minutes of excruciating, burning pain while paralyzed and unable to communicate his agony – violating the Constitution’s protection against cruel and unusual punishment.

Others say that though technically possible, such a scenario is infinitesimally remote if the execution is competently carried out.

“It’s not rocket science, but you’ve got to know what you’re doing,” said Wiseman, now an Episcopal priest and capital punishment opponent.

Cheney shoots, injures man during hunting trip in Texas

William Douglas, Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON D.C. – Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot and wounded a companion during a weekend quail hunting in Texas.

Harry Whittington, 78, a wealthy Austin attorney, was listed in stable condition Sunday night at Christus Spohn Memorial Hospital in Corpus Christi, a hospital spokeswoman said.

The shooting occurred about 5:30 p.m. Saturday at the Armstrong Ranch, a 50,000-acre spread in southeast Texas that Cheney visits frequently.

Katherine Armstrong, the owner of the ranch, told The Corpus Christi Caller-Times that Cheney turned to shoot at some quail that had just been flushed but instead accidentally peppered one side of Whittington’s body with birdshot.

“Nobody wants this to happen, but it does,” Armstrong told the paper.

She said Cheney’s Secret Service detail tended to Whittington until paramedics arrived. At the request of Whittington’s family, hospital officials would not disclose details of his injuries.

A deputy from the Kenedy County Sheriff’s Office said Sunday night that she had no specifics on the shooting.

Though the incident happened Saturday afternoon, the White House officials did not release information about it until Sunday afternoon.

Lea Anne McBride, Cheney’s spokeswoman, said the vice president met with Whittington and his wife at the hospital Sunday. She said Cheney “was pleased to see that he’s doing fine and in good spirits.”