October 22, 2025, 7:48 am CST
To: Phoenix New Times
bcc: retired federal Magistrate Judge David Duncan
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes
Gov. Katie Hobbs
Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell
Arizona Criminal Justice Commission
Board of Executive Clemency
Prosecuting Attorney's Advisory Council (and staff)
Dept. of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry
media witness Hector Lagunas of Univision
media witness Briana Whitney of Arizona’s Family
media witness John Hook of Fox 10
Department of Corrections deputy director John Barcello
Arizona Media Association
Subject: Phoenix New Times: Another Anti-death Penalty Disaster
RE: Arizona kills Djerf in second execution of Hobbs administration The state killed Richard Djerf, who murdered four members of a family in 1993. By Morgan Fischer, Phoenix New Times, October 17, 2025
From: Dudley Sharp, independent researcher, death penalty expert, former opponent,
832-439-2113, CV at bottom
Preface
Can journalists fail to fact check and vet, accidently? Of course not.
The anti-death penalty movement is, fully, FEMS (Fraud, errors and/or mis-directions (1,2) ), as has been well known for decades, by those who fact check and vet. Sadly, on that topic, FEMS has infected both media and academia (1), as with the referenced.
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Method: I quote New Times/Fischer and rebut as Sharp.
1) New Times/Fischer: "But death penalty experts warned before Djerf's execution that it could be far more painful than it appears. Both retired magistrate judge David Duncan— whom Hobbs fired before he could issue is final report on Arizona’s execution practices — and lethal injection expert Corinna Barrett Lain noted that prisoners who die by lethal injection with pentobarbital often suffer pulmonary edema while not fully anesthetized, meaning they painfully die as their lungs fill up with fluid."
Sharp: Ludicrous. Had New Times fact checked, vetted and used critical thinking, there would be no doubt why Duncan was fired nor any doubt as to Lain's nonsense (3).
2) New Times/Fischer: "Notably, a draft version of Duncan’s report suggested there was no humane and practical way to kill prisoners by lethal injection."
Sharp: Ludicrous (3). Of course he was fired. `
3) New Times/Fischer: "After Wood's brutal death, . . . ".
Sharp: Ludicrous.
a) “(Joseph Woods' execution - Az) doesn’t actually sound like a botched execution. This actually sounds like a typical scenario if you used that drug combination (the sedative midazolam and painkiller hydromorphone),” said Karen Sibert, an anesthesiologist and associate professor at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Sibert was speaking on behalf of the California Society of Anesthesiologists." (No "Botched" Execution - Arizona (or Ohio),
b) "No one who witnessed the execution has said Wood ever woke up. It simply took a long time for him to die." (The Execution of Joseph Rudolph Wood was NOT botched, EJ Montini, columnist, azcentral.com, 7/24/2014)
c) "In 1989, (Wood) hunted down and shot to death his former girlfriend, Debra Dietz, and her father, Eugene Dietz." "Debra Dietz's sister, Jeanne Brown, who was at the execution, said, 'Everybody here said (the execution) was excruciating. You don't know what excruciating is. Seeing your dad lying there in a pool of blood, seeing your sister lying there in a pool of blood, that's excruciating.' " (the Execution of Joseph Rudolph Wood was NOT botched, EJ Montini, columnist, azcentral.com, 7/24/2014).
How do articles like the referenced happen? Much compassion and concern for vicious murderers and little to none for their innocent victims, as detailed (4).
In Closing
Necessary edit (IN CAPS) of the news editor:
News Editor Zach Buchanan:
"If you value journalism THAT IS FACT CHECKED AND VETTED, please consider making a contribution to support our continued coverage of essential stories and to investigate issues, BOTH OF WHICH REQUIRE RESEARCH, FACT CHECKING, VETTING AND CRITICAL THINKING, WHICH WE WILL RESPONSIBLY APPLY AND DELIVER."
It would be a major improvement. Therefore it won't happen.
Nearly 70% of those polled trust media little or not at all. I am surprised it is so low.
FN
1) Research, w/sources, w/fact checking/vetting & critical thinking, as required of everyone in a public policy debate and which rebut all anti-death penalty claims.
The media/academic norm is to use anti-death penalty material, refuse to fact check or vet it and avoid all pro-death penalty research and experts, or act as if that is the case. How will you know that is true? You haven't seen this material, prior.
a) The Death Penalty: Justice & Saving More Innocents
b) Students, Academics & Journalists: Death Penalty Research
7 pro-death penalty experts included
c) 600+ pro death penalty quotes from murder victim's families &
2) Partial CV
3) Read (and fact check, vet and use critical thinking) in order:
a) The Untold Secrets of Prof. Corinna Lain
b) Rebuttal of Lethal Injection "Expert", Corinna Lain
c) Rebuttal: Secrets of the Killing State: The Untold Story of Lethal Injection
d) Media & Prof. Lain, Dr. Zivot, Disaster:
Nitrogen Hypoxia & Scientific American
4) 30 Examples:
How Death Penalty Abolitionists Value Murderers More Than Their Innocent Victims
AKA - Full Rebuttal of Sir Richard Branson & His Death Penalty Comments
and
Anti-Victim: Anti-Death Penalty Movement
http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2014/04/anti-victim-anti-death-penalty-movement.html
http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2014/04/anti-victim-anti-death-penalty-movement.html
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