July 11
TRINIDAD & TOBAGO:
Archbishop: Do all to end death penalty
While this country still has the death penalty on its statute books, the head
of TT's RC flock, the Archbishop of Port of Spain, Jason Gordon, says more must
be done to ensure it is scrapped as the ultimate form of punishment by the
State.
Gordon made this call in his dual role of Apostolic Administrator of the
Diocese of Bridgetown, Barbados, after the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ)
recently declared the mandatory death sentence for murder in Barbados
unconstitutional and a violation of the right to life.
The CCJ ruled on the unconstitutionality of the mandatory death sentence late
last year, in a pair of unrelated death penalty cases from Barbados, filed by
lawyers for Jabari Sensimania Nervais and Dwayne Omar Severin.
The Trinidad-based CCJ held that Section 11 of the Barbados Constitution, which
gives the right to protection of the law, was enforceable, and that the
mandatory death penalty breached that right, as it deprived a court of the
opportunity to exercise the quintessential judicial function of tailoring the
punishment to fit the crime.
"The CCJ's decision is a step in the right direction but does not remove the
death penalty from the laws in Barbados, so there is still some work to be
done," Gordon said in a statement of support for the CCJ decision.
"Every life is a precious gift from God. We are all created in the image and
likeness of God and thus have inherent dignity. The taking of 1 life does not
therefore justify the taking of another."
In 2016, Gordon and the other bishops of the Antilles Episcopal Conference
(AEC) appealed to "politicians and citizens in our region to abolish capital
punishment or the death penalty and embrace a restorative justice approach to
crime and violence.
"A restorative justice approach focuses on holding the offender accountable in
a more meaningful way and helping to achieve a sense of healing for both
victims and the community. It embraces socialization, rehabilitation and
reconciliation, rather than retribution and vengeance."
In that 2016 statement, the bishops underscored that, "to reject capital
punishment is not to make light of the loss of loved ones and the violation of
human dignity and rights experienced by victims of crime. The pastoral care of
the Church is directed first towards the comfort and assistance of these
victims."
(source: newday.co.tt)
FRANCE:
Sale of guillotine divides France
A 150-year-old guillotine with "a few dents on the blade" will go under the
hammer in Paris today.
The 10-foot (3-metre) tall instrument of execution which was used to dispatch
criminals in France until 1977 is in working order. But the Drouot auction
house insisted that the model was built as a replica and has never been used to
behead anyone.
The sale of guillotines has been highly controversial in France where the death
penalty was only abolished in 1981, with the French auction watchdog already
objecting to the auction.
"They should not be selling this guillotine," a spokesman told the Parisien
newspaper. "Objects like the clothes of people who were deported to the (Nazi
death) camps and instruments of torture are sensitive."
That did not, however, stop another going for 220,000 euros (USD 234,000) in
the same saleroom in 2011 when US pop star Lady Gaga was reportedly among the
bidders. Nor does the watchdog have the power to stop the proceedings because
the guillotine is part of a bankruptcy sale.
With a reserve price of between 5,000 and 8,000 euros, auctioneers expect
plenty of interest. However, a similar apparatus valued at 40,000 euros failed
to sell in the western city of Nantes 4 years ago. And in 2012 the French
culture ministry stepped in to stop the sale of 812 objects belonging to the
last French executioner in Algiers.
Fernand Meyssonnier had executed 200 people there when it was part of France,
most of them fighters for Algerian independence.
Guillotines, sometimes known as "The National Razor" (Le Rasoir National) or
"The Patriotic Shortener" (La Raccourcisseuse Patriotique) in French, were
first adapted as a "humane" alternative to hanging, when many of the condemned
had long, lingering deaths on the scaffold.
They became notorious in the Terror that followed the French revolution when
more than 16,000 people were beheaded between the summers of 1793 and 1794.
The last person to die on the guillotine in France was Tunisian Hamida
Djandoubi, who was executed in a Marseille prison in September 1977 after being
convicted of the torture and murder of a young woman.
(source: Agence France-Presse)
SAUDI ARABIA:
2 Saudis Sentenced to Death for Targeting Police
The Riyadh Specialized Criminal Court passed a preliminary ruling on serving
capital punishment to 2 Saudi nationals after being found guilty of partaking
in the formation of a terror cell, killing security men, and promoting
disorder.
A 3rd Saudi national was given a 23-year prison sentence for involvement in
illicit arms sales.
According to a statement, the court confirmed the defendant's 1st conviction of
participating in the formation of a cell belonging to a secret armed
organization aiming to create security, killing security men, attacking and
destroying public property, promoting chaos and disrupting public order.
The court also convicted the 1st defendant of firing at security patrols,
checkpoints, Al-Awamiyah police station and security men during a raid on a
wanted person.
Defendants were also condemned for spurring riots, carrying out sabotage in the
Qatif province, and raising anti-state slogans.
The court pointed out that the 2nd defendant was also convicted of
participating in the formation of a terrorist cell seeking to rattle Saudi
internal security and to cause public strife and division.
More so, a court statement pointed out that the second defendant was trained
and could operate high-level weapons with the desire to fire on security men
and patrols. The accused was found guilty of firing multiple times at security
patrols and checkpoints and on the general prison located in Qatif.
They were also convicted of throwing Molotov cocktails at security vehicles.
As for the 3rd defendant, the court found them guilty of selling and buying
arms without a license, collaborating with Qatif-based rabble-rousers who were
involved in disrupting security by running an arms sales business in the
eastern region.
It was learned that the weapons would later be used by rioters in Qatif
province.
(source: aawsat.com)
INDIA:
Cannot Abolish Death Penalty Just Because Other Countries Have Done It, Says
Supreme Court
The Supreme Court while upholding death penalty of Nirbhaya rape convicts
observed that death penalty cannot be abolished in India only on the ground
that other countries have done it, Live Law has reported.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra made this observation while
dismissing the review plea. Advocate A P Singh said that the law was passed in
a colonial era and that it was abolished in England and other Latin American
countries.
Senior Advocate Siddharth Luthra, who represented the state responded by saying
that it was for the parliament to amend the law and it has already been
established in the case Bachan Singh vs State of Punjab.
Justice Ashok Bhushan who authored the judgement said, "The submission of Mr.
Singh that death penalty has been abolished by the Parliament of UK in the year
1966 and several Latin American countries and Australian States have also
abolished death penalty is no ground to efface the death penalty from the
statute book of our country. So far the death penalty remains in the Penal Code
the courts cannot be held to commit any illegality in awarding death penalty in
appropriate cases."
(source: swarajyamag.com)
**************************
Executioners hunt begins in MP
With around 30 prisoners in jails across Madhya Pradesh been awarded death
penalty in different cases, the state is on a hunt for executioners as
currently there are no people at the post.
In December last year, Madhya Pradesh became the 1st Indian state to make rape
of girls under the age of 12 a crime punishable by death.
However, to execute death penalties to prisoners, the state apparently doesn't
have executioners. Such is the situation that executioners might be called in
from different states.
"I believe there will be a big decline in the number of women harassment cases
because of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's law for awarding death
sentence to those guilty of raping girls aged 12 or below in the state. It's
true that there are no executioners in the state right now, however, we will
abide by the orders and will bring executioners from different places to hang
prisoners. We will also recruit new executioners from Madhya Pradesh itself,"
jail minister Antar Singh Arya told ANI.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Rahul Kothari said: "In such cases, the
Madhya Pradesh people will themselves serve as the executioners in such cases.
The people in the state are against all such crimes."
However, the Opposition doubts the state government's stand.
"When we talk about death penalty, how will they do it without executioners?
How will they give punishment to those accused of rape?" questioned Congress
leader Manak Agarwal.
(sourcve: webindia123.com)
********************
In India, death row cases dealt extremely slowly
The 2012 barbaric Delhi rape case has come close to its end, with the Supreme
Court dismissing the review petitions of the accused. Even though the case went
through a fast track court, accelerated by the mood of the nation, it took 6
years to reach its closing stage.
There are at least 477 prisoners awaiting death sentence in the country.
India's rate of executing the death penalty is low; in the last decade (2007-
July 4, 2018) only 3 executions (hangings) were carried out.
Some 132 death sentences were handed down each year by the courts, but the
Supreme Court confirms barely 3 or 4 death sentences each year, according to
the National Crime Records Bureau. Since the accused are allowed a cycle of
appeals and approvals are also pending with the President's office, the number
of cases on death row tend to pile up.
According to a report titled 'The Death Penalty Database- India', by Cornell
Law School in the US, as of 2016-17 there are at least 477 individuals under
sentence of death.
Speaking to Deccan Chronicle Navkiran Singh, human rights lawyer practising in
the Haryana & Punjab High Court, explained, "The accused always gets an
opportunity to seek pardon before the President of India, who has the right to
forgive. Most Presidents try not to decide on the pardon petition for various
reasons including opposition to the death sentence by many people, especially
human rights activists who believe that the death sentence does not act as a
deterrent. The system also gives the opportunity to the accused to approach the
highest court of law to get the death sentence converted to life imprisonment."
Lawyer Arvind Bhardwaj points out that several cases are delayed and pending
because there is no legal aid during the trial.
"This apart, if cases are linked to any kind of political motivation, they
proceed at a faster rate. Many times the pardon petition is pending with the
President's office due to the delay caused by the council of ministers that is
supposed to assist the President in decision making," he said.
Rape has lowest conviction rate in India among others
Among all cognizable crimes in India, rape has the lowest conviction rate. The
overall rate of conviction of rape cases in India stands at 25.5 per cent as on
December 2016.
If the death sentence is carried out on those convicted in the 2012 Delhi rape
case, it will be the 1st time the death penalty has been executed in a case of
rape. This was made possible by the ordinance and later act under which rape is
punishable by death.
Aparna Reddy, a criminal lawyer, says poor conviction rates are due to shoddy
investigations by the police. "With a weak chargesheet, victims are not able to
get legal representation during a trial. Thus either there is a delay in the
case or the accused gets acquitted. Also, declining conviction rate in rape
cases ordinarily means fewer registered cases could be proved in court."
"Stringent implementation of laws and strict policing may help in reducing rape
incidents, but the real change will come when abusers and rapists are
consistently convicted for their crimes," says Sathvika Rao, member of a city
based women and child welfare organisation.
Some 2,78,886 rape cases have been reported in India over the last 10 years
under Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code. The conviction rate for rape, at
25.5 %, remains low compared to all cognisable crimes.
Also, so far no convicted rapist has been hanged. In 2013, then President
Pranab Mukherjee passed an ordinance approving the death penalty if a rape
leads to death or if it leaves the victim in a persistent vegetative state.
Repeat perpetrators of aggravated rape also face capital punishment under this
ordinance.
The ordinance became law in April 2013 as the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act,
2013. The 3 convicted in the rape, mutilation and death of a young woman in
Delhi 5 years ago could be the 1st to be executed for this crime.
(source: Deccan Chronicle)
*******************
Death penalty can't prevent crimes against women: Amnesty----"Instead, the
government must allocate adequate resources for the effective implementation of
laws, improve conviction rates and ensure certainty of justice in all cases."
After the Supreme Court decided to reaffirm its verdict of upholding the death
sentence to 4 convicts who gang-raped and murdered Nirbhaya, Indian chapter of
the global rights group, Amnesty International, said on Monday that executions
will not help in eradicating violence against women.
"Unfortunately, executions do not eradicate violence against women. There is no
evidence to show that the death penalty acts as a deterrent for sexual violence
or any other crime," Asmita Basu, Amnesty International India's Programmes
Director, said in a statement.
"Instead, the government must allocate adequate resources for the effective
implementation of laws, improve conviction rates and ensure certainty of
justice in all cases.
"Even the Justice (J.S.) Verma Committee, whose recommendations were relied
upon to reform laws on sexual assault and rape, had opposed imposing the death
penalty in cases of rape," she said.
Noting that in April this year, the Central government approved an ordinance
introducing death penalty for those convicted of raping girls aged 12 or
younger, Basu said: "All too often lawmakers in India hold up capital
punishment as a symbol of their resolve to tackle crime, and choose to ignore
more difficult and effective solutions like improving investigations,
prosecutions and support for victims' families.
(source: greaterkashmir.com)
CHINA:
Chinese court sentences man to death over school stabbings
A Chinese court sentenced a man to death Tuesday for a knife attack that killed
9 children and wounded another 11 as they returned home from school in northern
China.
Zhao Zewei, 28, was arrested in April following the killings that he said were
in response to a long-held grudge against the school.
The attack was "premeditated murder," the Yulin Intermediate Court said in a
statement, adding that the circumstances warranted the death penalty.
"The goal of the crime was clear, the murderer's methods were despicable, and
the consequences were extremely grave," it said on a statement on its website.
After his arrest, Zhao said he had been bullied when he attended the school,
"hated" his classmates and decided to use a "dagger" to kill people, the court
said in its verdict.
In preparation for the crime, he purchased 5 knives online. He carried 3 of
them to the school, where he waited outside the gate for classes to finish
before "rushing headlong into the stream of students and ... stabbing wildly,"
the court said.
9 students died, another 4 were seriously wounded and 7 others received light
injuries from the assault, it said.
Zhao was subdued by teachers, security guards and students and then handed over
to the police.
Photos from the trial show an emaciated Zhao being held by 2 police officers in
the dock as he received his sentence.
Knife attacks are not uncommon in the country.
2 boys were stabbed to death outside a Shanghai elementary school in June.
In February, a knife-wielding man with a personal grudge killed a woman and
injured 12 others in a busy Beijing shopping mall - a rare act of violence in
the heavily policed capital.
In the southern city of Shenzhen, a man armed with a kitchen knife killed 2
people and wounded 9 others in a supermarket last July.
(source: Agence France-Presse)
TAIWAN:
New Taipei court sentences man to death for murder of 4 year old in his
care----The man's mother was sentenced to life imprisonment for abetting and
contributing to the abuse leading to the death of the 4 year old girl
The Taiwanese courts have just handed down a death sentence to a man found
guilty of the murder of a 4 year old child, whose care was entrusted to the man
and his mother.
A court in New Taipei City on July 10 sentenced Zhuang Chia-yi to death for the
murder of a 4 year old girl who was the daughter of a woman that had been
cohabitating with Zhuang and his mother. The mother received a sentence of life
imprisonment.
The girl's mother, surnamed Qiu, was involved in drug use and sent to jail in
October 2017. She entrusted Zhuang, with whom she was cohabitating, and his
family with the care of her young daughter.
However, shortly after Qiu was incarcerated, Zhuang began to mistreat the girl
who he claimed was disobedient, reportedly beating the girl with metal bars,
which caused serious damage to the bones in her legs.
The girl was also malnourished while under the supervision of the man and his
mother. Social services made several attempts to check on the girl's condition
during the time she was with them, but the mother consistently gave excuses,
and lied about the girl's whereabouts to avoid meeting with the social workers.
On Nov. 22 of last year both Zhuang and his mother were away from the house,
and had left the girl with a 10 year old nephew, charged with feeding her.
It was later determined that the girl was already dying before the adults had
left her in the care of the young boy. She was dead by the time the adults
returned to the house, and after alerting a local hospital, the adults were
arrested on suspicion of negligence and mistreatment leading to the girl's
death.
The nephew later testified in court, and said that the entire afternoon, the
girl had eaten only four small mouthfuls of food throughout the day. The boy
was quoted as saying "it was too late for little sister".
Despite several broken bones in her legs and right hand, and her bruised and
battered body, it is suspected that the girl may have actually died from septic
shock. She was purportedly so malnourished and dehydrated that she was unable
to properly chew her food for several days, leading to bacteria in her mouth
and throat from unswallowed food particles which may have precipitated a septic
condition.
The mother, surnamed Liu, has been given life imprisonment on the charges of
lying to social services, obstructing investigations into the child's
condition, and abuse contributing to the death of a the child.
A spokesman for the Children's Rights Association of Taiwan quoted by Liberty
Times said that they agreed with the decision of the court to hand down the
death penalty to Zhuang and a life sentence for the mother. Their reasoning was
based on the condition of the young girl's body which evidenced severe beatings
and a complete disregard for the health and well-being of the child.
The Association also organized held a farewell ceremony and funeral for the
young girl last year.
(source: Taiwan News)
SRI LANKA:
Sri Lanka to implement death penalty on drug traffickers
Minister of Buddhasasana Gamini Jayawickrama Perera said today the cabinet of
Ministers had decided to Implement the death sentence for drug traffickers
including those who were already being sentenced to death in prisons.
Speaking to the Media at the Ministry of Buddhasasana, he said the decision of
implementing the death sentence could have been carried out during the past 15
years.
The cabinet of ministers had taken this collective decision considering the
recent deaths and a large amount of drug imports planned by the drug
traffickers who were already in the prison custody and sentenced to death.
With the cheers of the cabinet ministers, President Maithripala Sirisena had
instructed Justice and Prison Reforms Minister Thalatha Atukorale to prepare
the draft bill to implement the death sentence.
"As the Ministry of Buddhasasana, I never take decisions on my own. My Chief
advisers are Mahanayakas, Anunayakas and Lekakadhikari Theras including the
Maha Sangha," he said.
All the Maha Sangas had agreed to the decision taken by the Cabinet Ministers.
(source: Daily Mirror)
******************
Sri Lanka approves death penalty for drug crimes
The Sri Lankan cabinet has unanimously approved a move to bring back capital
punishment for drug-related crimes, the Press Trust of India reports, citing a
senior minister.
Gamini Jayawickrema Perera, minister of the Buddhist order, said President
Maithripala Sirisena had recently stated that he was under pressure to
reintroduce capital punishment as a deterrent to serious crimes.
"The Cabinet in unison agreed to it. We cannot allow inmates in prison to
destroy the country by directing crimes," Perera said, adding inmates carry out
drug trade while still in prison.
As most of the people approve President Sirisena???s move to reactivate capital
punishment, civil society and anti-drug addiction groups say death penalty
alone is insufficient to deter crimes or curb the smuggling of drugs into the
country.
While many argued that punitive punishment would act as a caution to would-be
offenders, others said it would only net small-scale drug dealers while major
dealers would escape with the help of powerful politicians.
Alcohol and Drug Information Centre Executive Director Pubudu Sumanasekera said
there was no scientifically-based evidence that capital punishment acted as a
deterrent to crime. "This is not an option. We believe in prevention, treatment
and rehabilitation," he said.
Although capital punishment is in the statute, Sri Lanka had stopped hangings
since 1976. Death row prisoners spend life terms in jail.
Executions have not been carried out as successive presidents in office since
1978 have refused to issue death warrants.
(source: bdnews24.com)
*********************
The death penalty is a cruel and irreversible punishment
Sri Lanka must pull back from any plans to implement the death penalty and
preserve its longstanding positive record on shunning this cruel and
irreversible punishment, Amnesty International said today.
The Sri Lankan President, Maithripala Srisena, is reportedly pressing ahead
with plans to execute 19 death row prisoners convicted of drug-related
offences.
"By resuming executions after more than 40 years, Sri Lanka will do immense
damage to its reputation. The government must immediately halt plans to carry
out any executions, commute all death sentences, and establish an official
moratorium on the implementation of the death penalty as a 1st step towards its
full abolition," said Dinushika Dissanayake, Deputy Director for South Asia at
Amnesty International.
"Sri Lanka has been a leader in the region, with an enviable record of shunning
this cruel and irreversible punishment at a time when many other countries
persisted with it. Now, when most of the world has turned its back on the death
penalty, it risks heading in the wrong direction and joining a shrinking
minority of states that persist with this horrific practice."
Amnesty International is absolutely opposed to the death penalty in all
circumstances, regardless of the crime or the method of execution.
Executing people for drug-related crimes is a violation of international law -
which says the death penalty can only be imposed in countries that are yet to
abolish it for the ???most serious crimes???, meaning intentional killing - and
would brazenly defy Sri Lanka's international commitments, including its
repeated votes in favour of a moratorium on the implementation of the death
penalty at the UN General Assembly, including most recently in 2016.
There is no evidence that the death penalty has a unique deterrent effect
against crime. Executions are never the solution and, for drug-related
offences, constitute a violation of international law. Sri Lanka should choose
a more humane and just path----Dinushika Dissanayake
Sri Lanka carried out its last execution in 1976.
"There is no evidence that the death penalty has a unique deterrent effect
against crime. Executions are never the solution and, for drug-related
offences, constitute a violation of international law. Sri Lanka should choose
a more humane and just path," said Dinushika Dissanayake.
Background
As of today, 142 countries have abolished the death penalty in law or practice.
In the Asia-Pacific region, 19 countries have abolished the death penalty for
all crimes and a further seven are abolitionist in practice.
In 2017, as recorded by Amnesty International, executions were carried out in
an isolated minority of countries (23), and only 11 of these ??? or 6% of the
world's total - carried out executions every year in the past 5 years.
(source: Amnesty International)
JAPAN:
Death penalty sought for Japanese man charged with killing Chinese 'suitcase
sisters'----Tatsuya Iwasaki accused of strangling Chen Baolan, 25, and her
sister Chen Baozhen, 22, at their flat and dumping their bodies in the
mountains
Prosecutors on Wednesday demanded the death penalty for a 40-year-old man
accused of killing 2 Chinese sisters and leaving their bodies stuffed in travel
bags in woods southwest of Tokyo last summer.
Tatsuya Iwasaki strangled Chen Baolan, 25, and her sister Chen Baozhen, 22, at
their flat in Yokohama on July 6, 2017, and abandoned their remains in the
mountains in Hadano, Kanagawa Prefecture the next day after packing their
bodies into travel bags, according to the indictment.
"It was a planned act of extremely atrocious cruelty," the prosecutors told a
hearing at the Yokohama District Court, adding that Iwasaki killed the
"blameless sisters in a consecutive manner, thinking lightly of human lives."
Iwasaki had been romantically interested in the elder sister but killed her
after coming to believe that she wished to use him to contract a fake marriage,
according to the prosecutors. He then murdered the younger sister to try to
cover up the crime, they said.
His defence counsel said Iwasaki was not involved in the killings and claimed
that he only cooperated in a plan to make it look like the 2 women had
disappeared as the elder sister's right to legal residence was about to expire.
The District Court is expected to hand down a ruling on July 20.
(source: South China Morning Post)
AUSTRALIA:
Resisting the death penalty: An event with advocate Richard Bourke
Richard Bourke, an Australian lawyer and tireless advocate working in the
United States on death penalty cases, will be speaking in Brisbane. Stephen
Keim SC and Arron Hartnett share details of this rare opportunity.
Richard Bourke is the director of the Louisiana Capital Assistance Center
(LCAC), a non-profit law office based in New Orleans that provides legal
assistance to poor people charged with capital offences in Louisiana (as well
as Mississippi and Texas).
Mr Bourke had a thriving career practising at the Victorian Bar, but always had
a deep passion for anti-death penalty advocacy. In 1998, he spent some months
as an intern volunteering in New Orleans, offering assistance to clients who
were facing the death penalty in Louisiana. In 2001, along with Melbourne
criminal barrister, Nick Harrington, Mr Bourke founded Reprieve Australia, an
organisation that sends Australian volunteers to work on death penalty cases in
the southern U.S. States. Mr Bourke permanently relocated to the U.S. in 2002
and has been with the LCAC since then.
Mr Bourke's decision to speak in his native Australia could not be more timely.
Last month, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) released
'Australia's Strategy for the Abolition of the Death Penalty', a
whole-of-government strategy expressing Australia's commitment to ending the
death penalty worldwide. The statement of intent in the policy expresses that
???Australia opposes the death penalty in all circumstances for all people'.
All Australian jurisdictions in Australia had abolished the death penalty by
1985. (Queensland did so in 1922.) The Federal Government has enacted
legislation preventing any State or Territory from reintroducing the death
penalty.
By contrast, the U.S. is the world's 8th most active executioner, putting to
death 23 people in 2017. (Somalia narrowly beat the U.S., executing 24 people
that same year.)
The United States' approach to executing its own people varies widely between
states and, indeed, between counties. In a 2016 feature for the New York Times
Magazine, Emily Bazelon pointed out that, in 2015, only 14 of the 26 States
which permit the use of the death penalty actually handed out death sentences
to convicted offenders.
Justice Stephen Breyer, penning his 2015 dissent in Glossip v Gross, noted a
disturbing trend that, of more than 3,000 counties in the U.S., 15 are
responsible for routinely imposing the death penalty on their residents. Each
of these 15 counties handed out 5 or more sentences between 2010 and 2015.
According to Ms Bazelon, 2 % of all counties in the U.S. now account for the
majority of people awaiting execution. Caddo Parish, nestled in the northwest
corner of Mr Bourke's adopted home of Louisiana, is one place in the U.S. where
the death penalty still lives. Boasting a population of just 225,000 people, it
imposed 5 death sentences between 2010 and 2015.
Mr Bourke is all too familiar with Louisiana???s track record for executing its
people. On 4 August 2011, just next door to Caddo Parish, in Bossier Parish, a
Louisiana District Court convicted Robert McCoy of 3 counts of 1st-degree
murder. Mr Bourke and the LCAC represented Mr McCoy all the way to America's
highest court in a bid to quash his conviction. On 6 March 2017, following a
failed appeal to the Louisiana Supreme Court, which unanimously affirmed Mr
McCoy's convictions and his 3 death penalty sentences, Mr McCoy appealed to the
U.S. Supreme Court. The Supreme Court agreed to take the case on 26 September
2017.
Mr McCoy was charged with 3 counts of 1st-degree murder for the killing of 3
members of his estranged wife's family. At his trial, Mr McCoy had instructed
his lawyer not to admit to the jury that he was guilty of the 3 murders.
Instead, Mr McCoy said that he wanted to protest his innocence and give
evidence of an alibi defence. His lawyer, deciding that Mr McCoy had no chance
of avoiding a conviction with this strategy, admitted before the jury that Mr
McCoy "committed [the] 3 murders".
'Sometimes, it feels as if one could reach out and touch abolition. At other
times, abolition feels much too far away.'
The lawyer concluded that Mr McCoy would have a greater chance of avoiding
conviction simply by stating that Mr McCoy didn't have the mental state
required for a first-degree murder conviction (which is required for the death
penalty to be imposed in Louisiana). The jury convicted Mr McCoy of 1st-degree
murder on all 3 counts. In a separate penalty hearing before the jury, Mr
McCoy's lawyer conceded Mr McCoy's guilt again but asked for the jury's mercy
because Mr McCoy had mental and emotional issues. Juries decide whether to
impose the death penalty in Louisiana. The jury returned three death verdicts.
The Supreme Court heard argument on 17 January 2018 and rendered its opinion on
14 May 2018. Justice Ruth Bader-Ginsburg, writing for a 6-justice majority,
said that the Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees an accused
the right to choose the objective of their defence and insist that a lawyer
refrains from admitting their guilt. This is so, Justice Ginsburg wrote, even
where the lawyer's opinion is that confessing to the offence would place the
accused in a better position to avoid the death penalty.
Justice Samuel Alito, authoring a 3-justice dissent, concluded that Mr McCoy's
lawyer had not admitted to the offences of first-degree murder. Instead, the
lawyer had admitted only 1 element of the offence: the killing itself. Justice
Alito concluded that there was no such right for an accused to insist that the
accused's attorney contest guilt on all charged offences. Further, Justice
Alito said, Mr McCoy's appeal did not meet the Supreme Court???s criteria for
judicial review and the court should not have considered it. Ultimately, the
U.S. Supreme Court quashed Mr McCoy's conviction. The case will likely go back
to the Louisiana District Court, where Mr McCoy will again be tried.
Mr Bourke said that, while rare in most of the country,
" ... what happened to Mr McCoy was a part of Louisiana's broken criminal
justice system that fails to respect individual human dignity."
For Mr Bourke, Mr McCoy???s case is a tale of deeper, structural problems that
attend prosecutions in Louisiana for capital offences.
Mr Bourke said:
"Mr McCoy's was 1 of 10 death sentences imposed in Louisiana since 2000 that
have been tainted with the same flaw."
He has suggested that the practice of criminal defence lawyers in Louisiana
admitting guilt in capital offences had become common. Part of this might be
because juries in Louisiana have authority to impose the death penalty, meaning
that there is a separate post-conviction penalty hearing before the jury about
whether to impose the death penalty. Avoiding the death penalty becomes the
primary focus of the defence lawyer's energy.
McCoy's case is one of many death penalty cases which continue to reignite the
debate over capital punishment in the U.S. and abroad. In September 2016, the
Washington Post reported the findings of a Pew Research Survey which showed
that less than 1/2 the U.S. supported the death penalty - the lowest level of
support in 40 years. The Supreme Court itself has had a history of division
over the issue.
At one point, the Supreme Court appeared poised to abolish executions
altogether. In 1972, the Supreme Court gave its opinion in Furman v Georgia. A
5-4 majority of the court issued a country-wide moratorium on all legal regimes
which permitted imposition of the death penalty. This moratorium stopped short
of complete abolition. In a carefully crafted opinion, the Supreme Court
allowed legislatures latitude to design a death penalty scheme that was not
arbitrarily or inconsistently imposed (and, therefore, not violating the Eighth
Amendment of the U.S. Constitution's prohibition on cruel and unusual
punishment).
The death penalty was effectively reinstated just 4 years later, following the
Supreme Court???s 1976 decision in Gregg v Georgia. Because of the dedicated
work of lawyers like Richard Bourke, the numbers of people being executed in
the United States have declined considerably since the beginning of this
century. Sometimes, it feels as if one could reach out and touch abolition. At
other times, abolition feels much too far away.
While the death penalty remains in place in the United States, the force of the
moral case for abolition in countries such as Iraq, Iran, Pakistan and,
especially, China, which carry out more and more frequent executions than the
United States, is depleted. Australians have learned that the death penalty can
strike Australians overseas. Capital punishment is wrong everywhere and at any
time. But winning the battle in the U.S. has the potential to create momentum
for abolition elsewhere.
Meanwhile, the battle must go on, case by case and life by life. It takes a
rare character to abandon a burgeoning practice at the Victorian Bar to fight
for the dignity of, and justice for, people whom the state seeks to execute. A
strange truth emerges about Richard Bourke, and other leading advocates against
the death penalty in the United States and elsewhere. Despite the traumas of
always carrying the stress that one might be unsuccessful for this client,
these advocates seem to gain more from their clients and their work than even
the tremendous contributions they make. There is dignity in the people with and
for whom they work. There is a dignity in the work they do. And there is the
strength of knowing that one's life is never without meaning.
For this reason, the opportunity to meet and hear Richard Bourke is a rare
opportunity. We can learn from him lessons that are important in our lives. We
can show him that his work for a cause that we hold important is appreciated by
us. We can find a new understanding of that truth that his clients teach him,
every day - that every person is much more than the worst thing they have ever
done. And there is the opportunity to be mesmerised by his retelling the
stories through which he has lived of offenders finding redemption, and of
victims and victims' families finding a way to reach out, to forgive and to
love again.
An opportunity not to be missed.
Tickets to attend the Richard Bourke event can be purchased by emailing
aacpbook...@gmail.com or visiting the University of Queensland website.
(source: Stephen Keim is a barrister and president of Australian Lawyers for
Human Rights----Arron Hartnett is a barrister and a teacher of constitutional
law at the Queensland University of Technology; independentaustralia.net)
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