Rick Halperin
Mon, 1 Sep 2008 19:48:03 -0500 (Central Daylight Time)
Aug. 31 CHINA: Death penalty for man accused of killing 6 China's official Xinhua News Agency says a Shanghai court has ordered the death penalty for a man convicted of killing 6 policemen in a knife attack at a police station. Xinhua said the Shanghai No. 2 People's Intermediate Court ordered Yang Jia sentenced to death Monday after finding him guilty of premeditated murder. Court officials would not comment. Yang, 28, was said to be unemployed. State media reports say he told police he was seeking revenge after officers at the station questioned him for allegedly stealing bicycles. 4 others were injured in the attack. (source: Associated Press) ************ Death penalty for murderer of six Shanghai policemen: state media A Chinese court on Monday sentenced a 28-year-old man to death for killing six policemen at their station in Shanghai, state media reported. Yang Jia was convicted of premeditated murder, the Xinhua news agency quoted the Shanghai No. 2 People's Intermediate Court as saying. No other details were immediately available. Yang's trial began on August 26 and was closed to the media. Prosecutors said last month that Yang confessed to attacking the district police headquarters on July 1 because he wanted revenge after he was detained in October on suspicion of stealing a bicycle. He attacked 10 people as he rampaged through the police station, prosecutors were quoted as saying in the state press previously. He reportedly climbed to the 21st floor before being overpowered and arrested. 6 policemen were killed in the attack. 3 other officers and a security guard were seriously injured, according to the earlier media reports. (source: Agence France Presse) PHILLIPPINES: Pastor-solon seeks death penalty revival A string of heinous crimes in the past months, including the execution of 10 people by bank robbers in Laguna, has prompted a Manila lawmaker to seek the return of the death penalty. Representative Bienvenido Abante, a pastor of the Metropolitan Bible Baptist Church, filed House Bill 4882 seeking to repeal the law that repealed the death penalty. "If the accused and convicts have human rights, innocent victims have rights too, if not ought to have more rights," Abante said in a statement on the House of Representatives website. Abante's bill revives Republic Act No. 8177, which imposes death by lethal injection on those found guilty of heinous crimes. In pushing for the death penalty's return, Abante said there has been a rise in the commission of capital offenses after the death penalty was abolished in 2006. He particularly cited the shooting of 10 bank employees inside their office in Laguna last May. Other crimes have seen the perpetrators' manner of execution growing "more cruel and deliberate" and the perpetrators have become bolder "even in broad daylight and without respect for the age or gender of victims." Abante contested pro-life groups who have argued the death penalty is inhuman, that only God can take away life and that it is not a deterrent to the commission of crimes. "God instituted this kind of penalty. The argument that it is inhuman and it is contrary to the Scriptures is utterly without basis," said Abante. He also lamented the chorus of objections voiced against the death penalty, attendant with the execution of a felon, makes it appear that the convict is the victim. Abante said the restoration of the death penalty would deter criminals and criminally inclined elements of society from committing capital offenses. "This is clearly a deterrent if only it is carried out promptly and without any political influence or intervention, and with full media coverage," Abante said. (source: GMA TV News)