[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
Sept. 30 INDONESIA: Death sentences a warning for drug offenders in West Jakarta Indonesian President Joko Widodo's tough on drugs stance and his resolve to push ahead with the execution of convicted drug smugglers is filtering down to the courts. The West Jakarta District Court is leading the charge. This week alone it sentenced 5 foreigners to death after the prosecutors demanded the highest penalty. They include Li Fuzhang and Li Hezhang from China, who were convicted of smuggling 20 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine into Indonesia. Toor Eng Tart, Ooi Swee Liew and Phang Hoon Ching from Malaysia received the same sentence this week for smuggling 51 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine and 140,000 ecstasy pills. Reda Mantovani was appointed to the chief prosecutor position in West Jakarta in 2015. He said he demanded the death sentence for 25 defendants found guilty of drug crimes during his 1st year in the job. "When I got this job, I saw the number of drug related crimes kept increasing in West Jakarta," Mr Mantovani said. "The criminal law enables me to demand the highest penalty, which is death, and that is what I am doing." In the past 12 months the West Jakarta District Court has dealt with 1,320 drug cases. "Do not mess around with drugs in West Jakarta, you will get the death sentence," Mr Mantovani said. The last round of executions of convicted drug smugglers took place in July this year, when 4 prisoners faced the firing squad at Nusakambangan prison. 10 prisoners - who had been due to be executed - where spared at the last minute, although the Indonesian Government never provided an explanation for why. According to the Jakarta based Institute of Criminal Justice Reform, 17 prisoners had already been sentenced to death up until June this year. "I am sure there are some people who do not like the fact that the death sentence has been handed down, especially human rights groups," Mr Mantovani said. "But I am merely implementing the law and the way I see it there are more people that support me than are against me." 37 defendants were sentenced to death in 2015. (source: abc.net.au) INDIA: Man gets death for killing parents and daughter A court in Visnagar town of Mehsana district sentenced to death a 33-year-old man, who had brutally hacked to death his parents and 3 year-old daughter in April last year. Additional district judge PS Kala awarded the death penalty to the convict Nagjiji Thakor, terming the crime as 'rarest of rare' case. . The ghastly murders had rocked Malarpura village, some six km from Kheralu town on April 15 last year. Public prosecutor PK Dave said Thakor had resorted to the savage assault as he suspected an illicit relationship between his wife Daksha and father Babuji Thakor (55). He first attacked his father with an axe and then hacked his mother Mancha (55) who tried to stop him. Thakor then attacked his wife Daksha and daughter Dhatri. While his parents and Dhatri died on the spot, Daksha fell unconscious. Thakor thought she had died and locked himself in another room taking his son along. When Daksha regained consciousness in the morning, she stealthily went out of the house and informed police and other villagers. However, when police reached his house Thakor again went berserk and furiously started wielding the blood-soaked axe. He also started throwing stones at police, which left one cop injured. 3 other villagers were also injured when he hit them with stones. Villagers and policemen had a tough time controlling him. Ultimately, he received some blows of sticks and fell unconscious. Thakor was rushed to Mehsana Civil Hospital and arrested later. In his 116-page order, judge Kala also ordered him to pay Rs 500 as penalty (source: The Times of India) MALAYSIA: Tertiary student among 2 nabbed in Kuching with 1.5kg of ganja Police have arrested 2 suspects, 1 of them a tertiary student, and seized 1.5kg of ganja worth over RM26,000 in an operation here. Acting on a tip-off, police picked up the 19-year-old female student who had 1,019.48gm of ganja at a car park in Jalan Song, here, shortly after midnight Thursday. Kuching OCPD Asst Comm Abang Ahmad Abang Julai said police also arrested a 26-year-old man who had 11gm of ganja on him. "The suspects led us to a house in Jalan Cenderawasih where we found 475.31gm of ganja, weighing scales and a knife. This was where they processed the ganja into 10gm packs to be sold at RM150 each," he told a press conference Friday. He said both suspects had been remanded for 4 days and were being investigated under Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act, which carries the mandatory death penalty upon conviction. "What worries us is that a student was involved in this case. If our students get involved in drugs, what will happen to our country? "We all need to work together in the fight against drugs,"
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----OHIO, CALIF.
Sept. 30 OHIO: Cuyhoga County's 2nd death penalty trial this year opens Friday: a look back at the Warrensville Heights massacre Opening statements are scheduled to begin Friday for a 21-year-old man charged with aggravated murder who faces the death penalty in the 2015 massacre at a barbershop in Warrensville Heights. Douglas Shine Jr. is accused of gunning down 3 people inside the Chalk Linez barbershop on Feb. 5, 2015, by order of a heroin kingpin. It is the 2nd time this year someone in Cuyahoga County will face the death penalty. Brandon White and Walter Barfield, members of the Loyal Always gang, were shot to to death, barbershop owner William Gonzalez and several others were injured Feb. 5, 2015 in a shooting that prosecutors say was part of an ongoing beef between the gang and Tevaughn "Big Baby" Darling's drug operation. According to prosecutors, Shine's criminal history began when he was a juvenile. He was convicted of 2 robberies, an assault, 2 criminal damaging incidents, 4 burglaries and an attempted burglary by the time he was 15 years old. Over the next year he committed another robbery, 2 felonious assaults, another burglary and unlawful carrying of a concealed weapon, and pleaded guilty to a series of offenses in 5 separate criminal cases. He served 4 years in prison and was released on Dec. 22, 2014. The barbershop massacre spawned a series of revenge killings and arrests. Here's a look back at the Warrensville Heights killings and the events that led to the shootings and the trail of death that followed. April 24, 2014 -- Loyal Always gang members Stefon "Ching" Robinson robbed Tevaughn "Big Baby" Darling during a dice game. He later told police, that he knew Darling would seek retribution. Jan. 12, 2015 -- Another Loyal Always member, Deandre "Prada" Gordon, robbed Darling at his home in Bedford Heights with a .45 caliber hand gun, the Cuyahoga County prosecutor's office said. Gordon shot Darling in the foot, stole money and drove away in Darling's rental car. Jan. 20 -- Robinson was part of a 5-man card game inside his grandmother's home on Angelus Avenue. He phone rang and he walked outside. Shine jumped from a minivan and shot Robinson 13 times with a .9mm handgun, the Cuyahoga County prosecutor's office said. Robinson survived. Jan. 22 -- Police respond to a call of shots fired at the intersection of Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive and and Corlett Avenue. Witnesses tell police they saw a man fire 7 to 10 shots. The man jumped out of a GMC Acadia and got into a white Toyota Avalon. Police later learned that the GMC was being driven by Lashawn Roby, a known associate of Shine, and determined that Walter Barfield fired shots at Shine, reports say. Jan. 24 -- A man later identified as Shine opened fire on a car driven by Brandon White, police said. The shooter missed White's Ford Taurus, but hit another car on East 149th Street three times. Feb. 5 -- A man dressed in all black walked into the Chalk Linez Barbershop in Warrensville Heights about 8:30 p.m. Shine walked up to Barfield, smiled and fired 2 shots at close range, prosecutors say. Armed with a gun in each hand, Shine turned and opened fire on the remainder of the barbershop, prosecutors say. William Gonzalez and Brandon White are also killed and 3 others were injured. It is the deadliest shooting in the suburban city's history. Feb. 13 -- Shine is arrested after police surround the Clement Avenue home where he was hiding, police said. Officers tracked him down by following the owner of the GMC Acadia from the Jan. 22, 2015 shooting on Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue. Lashawn Roby rented a Volkswagen Passat after the barbershop shooting, and was seen visiting to the Clement Avenue home, according to court filings. Roby later pleaded guilty to attempted obstruction and was sentenced to 180 days in jail. Feb. 19 -- Aaron Ladson, the brother of barbershop shooting victim Brandon White, told investigators that he saw Shine walk in and out of the barbershop during the shooting. He was taken to county jail "for his own protection," according to motions filed by Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy J. McGinty. His attorney on several outstanding drug cases, Ralph DeFranco, successfully filed a motion in court to have Ladson released. DeFranco also represented Shine's cousin, Darling. March 16 -- DeFranco's motion was granted, and Ladson was released from county jail. He would stay under GPS monitoring at his grandmother's house on Harvard Avenue. April 28 -- Prosecutors file new charges against Shine, this time including underlying felony specifications that level the death penalty as the maximum sentence if Shine is convicted at trial. June 4 -- Ladson, who needed to attend a pretrial hearing for his pending drug cases, walked to his car in the driveway of his grandmothers home. A hitman in a black SUV driven by Lawrence Kennedy fatally shot
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
Sept. 30 GHANA: Rationalising Lucas Agboyie's libido propelled act? "Therefore, if any man is dangerous to the community and is subverting it by some sin, the treatment to be commended is his execution in order to preserve the common good ... therefore, to kill a man who retains his natural worthiness is intrinsically evil, although it may be justifiable to kill a sinner just as it is to kill a beast, for, as Aristotle points out, an evil man is worse than a beast and more harmful". TEARS HAVE WELLED IN MY EYES as I write this piece. The story is weird, incredible and obscene; the act is unconscionable, vicious, outrageous, impious and sinister. Some of us cannot stand the sight of Lucas Agboyie's ogre-like picture in the Daily Graphic of Friday, 23rd September, 2016. It is abominable, reading: "I killed girl, 7... and had sex with body; Man, 22, confesses." He was like Grendel in 'Beowulf', like the Beast in 'Beauty and the Beast', like Polyphemus, like the Cyclops in 'Homer's Odyssey', like the Cyclops in 'Sinbad the Sailor', and like the Giant Despair in John Bunyan's 'Pilgrim's Progress'. I may be pardoned for not writing as a sociologist or for not writing as a criminologist or for not writing as a lawyer ... but writing as a parent, as grand - parent of that little girl whose mother had sent her on an errand only to be lured by Agboyie who asked her to bring his towel hanging behind his house. What were there on the girl to attract Agboyie - her face, her legs, her boobs? And Agboyie confesses: "On her return I told her I wanted to sleep with her but she refused. I held her hand and she began struggling with me. She begged and told me to let her go and started screaming. So I strangled her. I then took her to my room and slept with the body. Afterwards, I took the GHc20 she had in her possession and used it to buy ganja." Haba - apologies to I.K. Gyasi. The incident which occurred on April 19, 2015 with the accused arraigned before the court on April 23, 2015, had the docket sent to the Attorney General's Department for advice in June 2015. Naturally, the judge at the Accra Central District Magistrate's Court, Worlanyo Kotoku, Esq. could only be alarmed, and he expressed this in very few words: "I don't know why the case is still delaying. The accused person's story has been consistent since the first day he was brought to court. These are committal proceedings and not the actual trial." Kudos to the lawyer who volunteered to follow up to the Attorney-General's Department - in the absence of the Prosecutor. Some of us lawyers are, likewise, going to follow the case which we hear has been adjourned to October 4, 2016. At the trial, we are likely to be told that Section 46 of the Criminal Offences Act spells out: "A person who commits murder is liable to suffer death???, and Section 47 says: "A person who intentionally causes the death of another person by an unlawful harm commits murder ..." Section 304(1) of the Criminal Procedure Code states: "Every sentence of death shall direct that the person condemned shall suffer death in accordance with the provisions of this section ... Section 304 (3). The execution may be either by hanging or shooting by firing squad. During the full trial the accused person may have to be represented by a lawyer who could plead insanity, intoxication, ignorance of fact or the law. No argument here, for the accused has the right to be represented. Even where he declares that he has no money to engage a lawyer, the State will have to obtain one for him, my friends at 'Legal Aid' may have to prepare themselves for a good battle of wits. Already, Sociologists and Psychologists have jumped into the fray. When Sigmund Freud propounded his theory of the 'Id', 'Ego' and 'Superego', he explained that the 'id' contains a person's 'libido' - which is the primary source of instinctual force that is unresponsive to the demands of reality. The 'id' "...knows no judgments of value: no good, no evil, no morality" it is compelled by the 'Oedipus Complex' or dictatorial: "Thou Shalt...". Libido, is colloquially known as 'sex - drive' the overall sexual desire for sexual activity. Did the 'ganja' the accused smoked drive him into hyper - sexuality? Should we allow lust, sadism or masochism to disturb the social order? Social order refers to the way in which a society is organized along with certain sets of social structures, practices and institutions that maintain and set methods for relating and behaving. Bruce Fein thinks communities would be plunged into anarchy, if people were allowed to go scot - free after committing crimes. The Good Book tells us in Exodus 22:18, thus: "Wrongdoers you shall not suffer to live" and the question is how many people are we to allow to be murdered while we wait for the wrongdoer to repent of his sins? The accused confesses to smoking 'ganja'. Perhaps he is talking
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----OHIO, TENN., NEB., N.MEX., ARIZ., USA
Sept. 30 OHIO: Ohio man could be linked to slayings of 5 women A homeless Ohio man who was charged with 2 murders last week could now be linked to the slayings of up to 5 different women. Shawn M. Grate, 41, was captured earlier this month after a woman he allegedly kidnapped called 911 while he was sleeping. After he was taken into custody, police searched the abandoned house he was occupying and found the bodies of Stacey Stanley, 43, and Elizabeth Griffith, 29. "These are some of the most horrific crimes I've seen in my 15 years as a criminal prosecutor," Ashland County Prosecutor Christopher R. Tunnell said in a press release. Stanley, from Greenwich, Ohio, had been missing since September 8. Griffith was killed between August 16 and September 13, according to court documents. Grate has been charged with 23 crimes, including 2 murders, multiple counts of rape, kidnapping, and gross abuse of 2 corpses. He pleaded not guilty through his attorney at an arraignment Thursday morning. Grate faces 2 death penalty charges. 'There wasn't anything left of her' However, new information gathered from the investigation could link Grate to three other killings in surrounding areas of north-central Ohio. After Grate was initially arrested, he led police to a third body found near the rubble of a burned home in Richland County, which neighbors Ashland County. Richland County Chief Investigator Bob Ball said the body had been in the woods since June 6. "It'll come down to bone marrow," Ball said. "There wasn't anything left of her." DNA testing is underway to confirm the body's identity, but that process could take up to 2 weeks, according to Richland County Major Joe Masi. The case of another woman's death has been reopened since Grate's arrest, according to the Mansfield Police Department. Rebekah Leicy's body was found in a wooded area in Ashland County on March 16, 2015. Officials previously believed that Leicy died from a drug overdose, according to the Mansfield Police Department. The original autopsy, which found that Leicy was a heroin user, ruled her cause of death intoxication by the combined effects of morphine, cocaine and buprenorphine. But it also noted a series of abrasions on her face, arms and right leg. His 1st victim? Grate could also be linked to the slaying of an unidentified woman whose body was found in 2007 in Marion, Ohio. He told investigators she was the 1st woman he killed. He described her as "tall, thin, early 20's, and with good teeth," according to Marion Police Department Lieutenant Christy Utley. Officials believe the unidentified woman sold magazine subscriptions in Marion, which is about 60 miles from Ashland County. Grate told investigators that he lured the woman into his car by pretending to purchase magazines from her, Utley said. He said he then stabbed her and hid her body in the basement of his Marion residence at the time, according to Utley. Grate told investigators he killed the woman after his mother was upset she hadn't received her magazines. Grate is being held in the Ashland County Jail on $1 million bond. His lawyer did not wish to comment on the ongoing investigation. (source: CNN) * Cincinnati mom accused of murder: 'The world want the death penalty, give it to them?' A woman accused of killing her daughter was in court Thursday, a day after her husband was sentenced to death for the same crime. Andrea Bradley is charged with murder, facing the possibility of being sent to death row if convicted of killing Glenara Bates. Bradley was previously offered a plea deal that would have spared her, by sending her to prison for life, but she rejected that plan. Her defense attorneys have pursued a different strategy, arguing instead that her mental capacity would disqualify her from being put to death. Courts have ruled someone who suffers from intellectual disabilities cannot be executed. Her attorneys say her IQ falls below the threshold. They asked the judge for more time for experts to finish up reports they say would confirm it. In court, Bradley seemed uninterested in the effort to spare her life. "It don't matter what I want, give the world what they want. The world want the death penalty, give it to them. I don't care," she said. Her husband, Glen Bates, was found guilty this week in Glenara's death and was sentenced to death on Wednesday. Another hearing for Bradley is scheduled for early October. (source: WLWT news) TENNESSEE: DA to seek death penalty in double-murder case Tenth District Attorney General Steve Crump filed notice Wednesday he would seek the death penalty for Ross Hamilton Anderson, who was charged in the 1st-degree murders of a Cleveland woman and her young son. The murders occurred at a residence located at 239 Hillview Drive N.W. The filing in Bradley County Criminal Court reads: "At the sentencing
