Arizona
Self-help author regrets 3 deaths at sweat-lodge
PHOENIX (AP) — A self-help author who spent nearly two years in prison for the deaths of three people following a northern Arizona sweat lodge ceremony said he’s still shocked and remorseful about what happened.
“There’s no greater pain than attempting to help people and they get hurt. It’s horrible,” James Arthur Ray told CNN on Monday night in what the station touted as his first interview since being released from prison.
“I’m very sorry and remorseful about what happened. I wish I could change that,” Ray added. “It’s not easy to live with. That anguish has continued every single day.”
Kirby Brown of Westtown, N.Y.; James Shore of Milwaukee; and Liz Neuman of Prior Lake, Minn., died following the October 2009 ceremony Ray led near Sedona. Eighteen other people were injured.
Ray was convicted in 2011 on three counts of negligent homicide and served 20 months in prison. He also was required to spend time in Arizona on community supervision, which ended on Oct. 12.
Ray appealed the verdicts but later dropped the challenge, saying he wanted to avoid the possibility of a retrial and resentencing.
Sweat lodges are commonly used by American Indian tribes to cleanse the body and prepare for hunts, ceremonies and other events. They typically hold no more than a dozen people, compared with the more than 50 people inside Ray’s ceremony in Arizona.
The ceremony involves stones heated up outside the lodge, brought inside and placed in a pit. The door is closed, and water is poured on the stones, producing heat aimed at releasing toxins in the body. In traditional ceremonies, the person who pours the water is said to have an innate sense about the conditions of others inside the sweat lodge, many times recognizing problems before they physically are presented.
Prosecutors and families of the victims said Ray ratcheted up the heat in the Arizona sweat lodge to dangerous levels, ignored pleas for help and watched as participants were dragged out of the tent-like facility.
“I didn’t know that anyone was in a life-or-death situation. I was totally shocked,” Ray told CNN. “It was my event. I designed it.
“I’ve done this for a number of years, and we’ve never had anything close to this. I had systems in place and the system broke down. ... I’m responsible.”
Ray said he has lost “everything” because of the tragedy and he has “no intention of ever doing another sweat lodge.”
Oregon
Complaint filed against McAfee alleges stalking
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Anti-virus software entrepreneur John McAfee has been evicted from his Portland apartment and hit with a civil stalking complaint.
McAfee, 68, arrived in the Pacific Northwest last winter after fleeing the Central American nation of Belize, where authorities sought to question him in the fatal shooting of a U.S. expatriate who lived near McAfee’s home. He has denied any involvement.
McAfee moved into a high-end apartment building in southeast Portland. The stalking complaint was filed by Connor Hyde, a property manager with the Riverstone Residential Group.
Hyde no longer works at the location, said Crystal Pierce, senior property manager at The 20 on Hawthorne. She said the company does not comment on legal matters.
Hyde’s court filing, obtained by The Oregonian, says McAfee sent threatening emails and has access to weapons and armed associates from a motorcycle club.
The British native said in a phone interview Monday that he moved to Montreal two months ago and just learned of his eviction. He said he had issues with building management over “willful lapses of security” but was not forced to leave.
McAfee said he had a “severe problem” with Hyde but never threatened him with anything except lawsuits.
“He gave keys out to all of his friends, and friends of friends,” he said. “People were partying in vacant condos. It’s turned into a nightmare ever since the new owners purchased the building four months ago.”
Multnomah County Judge Steven Evans granted a temporary protective order against McAfee and scheduled a Jan. 3 hearing.
Florida
Judge upholds use of different execution drug
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A Florida judge on Monday signed off on the use of a new drug the state is using in its executions.
Circuit Judge Phyllis Rosier from Bradford County ruled that the sedative midazolam hydrochloride does prevent pain when it is administered to condemned inmates during the lethal injection process.
Rosier made the ruling after holding a two-day evidentiary hearing that had been ordered by the Florida Supreme Court. In a contentious 5-2 decision, the high court delayed an execution to consider questions about the new drug.
Askari Abdullah Muhammad, formerly known as Thomas Knight, was scheduled to be executed Dec. 3 for the killing of a prison guard while on death row.
The court delayed the execution until at least Dec. 27 after Knight’s lawyers challenged the use of the new drug as an anesthetic and the entire mix of drugs used for lethal injections. The challenge contended the mix of drugs violated prohibitions on cruel and unusual punishment.
Florida has used midazolam in two executions: that of William Happ on Oct. 15 and that of Darius Kimbrough on Nov. 12. The state previously used pentobarbital to render prisoners unconscious before drugs that induce paralysis and cardiac arrest were administered.
In questioning the drug, Knight’s lawyers had noted there were reports that Happ was seen moving his head from side to side after the first drug had been administered.
Rosier in her ruling stated that “no credible evidence” was presented during the two-day hearing to show that the new drug would cause any suffering or serious harm if administered in proper amounts. She wrote that even if Happ did move, there was nothing presented to her that showed his movement “equated to actual pain or suffering.”
Knight, 62, has been on death row for nearly 40 years. He was convicted of fatally stabbing Corrections Officer Richard Burke with the sharpened end of a spoon in 1980.
Knight was originally condemned for the 1974 murders of Sidney and Lillian Gans of Miami Beach. He received two death sentences for their slayings. The death warrant Gov. Rick Scott signed last month was for Burke’s murder.
The Supreme Court said use of the drug will be the only issue to be addressed in lower court hearings. The high court will then examine the findings and has scheduled arguments in the case for Dec. 18.
