[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
June 26 SRI LANKA: Sri Lanka reinstates death penalty for drug crimes ahead of polls Sri Lanka's president on Wednesday signed death sentences for 4 people convicted of drug-related offences in a decision analysts said is aimed at boosting his chances of re-election later this year. Maithripala Sirisena was elected as a reformist in January 2015, but has struggled to fulfill pledges including addressing human rights abuses, eliminating corruption and ensuring good governance. He has been under increasing pressure since a political crisis last year, and more recently faced criticism for his handling of Easter Sunday bomb attacks that killed more than 250 people. "I have already signed the death penalty for four (convicts). It will be implemented soon and we have already decided the date as well," Sirisena told reporters in Colombo, without giving details. He said the four could appeal their convictions on charges of trading and trafficking in drugs. Many Sri Lankans, including several influential religious leaders, are in favor of reinstating the death penalty to curb rising crime, though rights groups have warned that such a measure would be ineffective. "The death penalty does not deter crimes any more effectively than other punishments," said Kumi Naidoo, secretary general of rights group Amnesty International. "Executions are never the solution," he added. The last execution in Sri Lanka was 43 years ago. The country's last hangman quit in 2014 without having to execute anyone, but he cited stress after seeing the gallows for the first time. Another hangman hired last year never turned up for work. The president's hardline policy is in part inspired by the Philippines' so-called "war on drugs," where thousands have died in encounters with police. "He is trying to project himself like the Philippines president ... but I doubt whether it is enough. It won't give him much political mileage now," political columnist Kusal Perera told Reuters. Sirisena declined to comment on whether he will stand as the presidential candidate for his center-left Sri Lanka Freedom Party, which has recommended him as the candidate for the election expected in the last 2 months of 2019. (source: Dhaka Tribune) *** Sri Lanka president signs death warrants to end moratoriumExecutions by hanging would be the first carried out in Sri Lanka since 1976 when a moratorium was implemented. Sri Lanka's president signed death warrants on Wednesday for 4 drug offenders who will "very soon" become the first people executed in decades on the island. Maithripala Sirisena said he completed formalities to end a 42-year-old moratorium on the death penalty, which he said was needed to clamp down on a rampant narcotics trade. "I have signed the death warrants of four. They have not been told yet. We don't want to announce the names yet because that could lead to unrest in prisons," Sirisena told reporters at his official residence. He did not say when the executions would be carried out, only that it would be "very soon". An official in Sirisena's office said the president wanted the hangings to be a powerful message to the illegal drugs trade. Sirisena said there were 200,000 drug addicts in the country and 60 percent of the 24,000 prison population were drug offenders. His remarks came a day after Amnesty International said it was "alarmed" over media reports of preparations to resume executions. "Sri Lanka's President Maithripala Sirisena must immediately halt his plans to resume executions," Amnesty said in a statement. Sri Lanka is a party to the international convention on civil and political rights, which sets the abolition of the death penalty as a goal to be achieved by countries, it added. No executioner Sirisena in February announced the country would carry out the first executions in decades, saying he had been inspired by President Rodrigo Duterte's deadly anti-drug campaign in the Philippines. The president has also appealed to human rights organisations not to pressure him. Criminals in Sri Lanka are regularly given death sentences for murder, rape, and drug-related crimes. But since 1976 their punishments have been commuted to life imprisonment. The country currently has no executioner. The justice ministry said more than a dozen people had been shortlisted to fill the position, but no formal appointment has been made. While Sri Lanka's last execution was more than four decades ago, an executioner was in the post until his retirement in 2014. 3 replacements since have quit after short stints at the unused gallows. (source: aljazeera.com) ** ‘Sri Lanka gearing up to hang drug offenders’Prisons authorities say they have not received any official communication Following up on his earlier pledge to hang drug offenders, Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----KAN., S.DAK., COLO., ARIZ., CALIF., USA
June 26 KANSAS: Kansas abortion ruling prompts new attack on death penalty A recent Kansas Supreme Court ruling declaring that the state constitution protects access to abortion opened the door to a new legal attack on the death penalty. Attorneys for five of the 10 men on death row in Kansas argue that the abortion decision means the state's courts can enforce the broad guarantees of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" in the Bill of Rights in the Kansas Constitution. The lawyers contend the convicted killers cannot be executed because capital punishment violates their "inalienable" right to life. They include Frazier Glenn Miller Jr., a white supremacist convicted of killing three people at two Jewish sites in the Kansas City area in 2014, and Jonathan and Reginald Carr, 2 brothers who, authorities said, forced 5 people to remove money from ATMs and have sex with one another before killing 4 of them in Wichita in 2000. Defense attorneys launched the new legal attack on capital punishment in filings with the state Supreme Court in May, less than 2 weeks after the abortion decision. The justices took the claims seriously enough to order defense attorneys and prosecutors to file additional written arguments, with the last ones due in mid-November. "It hasn't been argued under the Kansas Constitution, at least, not in the way we are presenting it in these cases," Meryl Carver-Allmond, an attorney for two of the men. "This is a new argument." The Kansas Supreme Court's abortion ruling in April was the latest in a long list of decisions that have angered conservative Republicans in the GOP-controlled Legislature. It said the state's Bill of Rights grants a right to "personal autonomy" that includes access to abortion. 4 of the 7 justices were appointed by Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and 2 by moderate Republican Gov. Bill Graves. The 7th, the only dissenter in the abortion case, was appointed by conservative GOP Gov. Sam Brownback. Past decisions in capital murder cases also have sparked anger. Kansas' last legal executions were in 1965, by hanging, and the state enacted its current death penalty law in 1994. The court has yet to rule in Miller's case. In 2014, the court overturned death sentences for the Carr brothers in two separate rulings. Those decisions helped fuel unsuccessful election campaigns in 2014 and 2016 to oust all but Brownback's appointee. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned the rulings, sending the Carrs' cases back to the Kansas Supreme Court. The cases are pending. Republican Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt told The Associated Press this week that the abortion decision "opened the door for a wide range of new litigation." "There is a certain irony that a case regarding abortion is now being urged by some as a reason to upend the death penalty in Kansas," Schmidt said. "I think that's just the start, because this holding was so sweeping. I think it's not just going to be abortion." In 2001, in its 1st ruling under the state's current death penalty law, the Kansas Supreme Court rejected an argument that the state constitution grants a right to life barring executions for crimes. Defense attorneys now argue that the abortion decision provides grounds for reconsidering that conclusion. David Lowden, an assistant district attorney, argued in filings this month in the Carr brothers' cases that it remains a "vast legal reach" to argue that capital punishment violates the state constitution. Jeffrey Jackson, a Washburn University of Topeka law professor, said the right to life has never been interpreted to include freedom from being executed for a capital crime. "When you're trying your client from being executed, you find all the stuff. Your requirement is that you make all the arguments that you can credibly make," Jackson said. "I just think that this one's — it would not withstand scrutiny." Richard Levy, a University of Kansas law professor, said the abortion ruling suggests the Kansas court might recognize rights for the state's residents that aren't recognized nationally. Levy said he has doubts that the Kansas Supreme Court would declare capital punishment violates the state constitution but added, "I don't think the argument is frivolous." "I think it's more likely that the end result would be the death penalty is still constitutional but more safeguards have to be applied in Kansas than at the national level," Levy said. (source: Associated Press) SOUTH DAKOTAnew execution date Judge grants execution warrant in 1992 Rapid City murder case Charles Rhines learned Tuesday, June 25, that he is scheduled to be executed in early November, 27 years after he stabbed a former co-worker to death while burglarizing a Rapid City doughnut shop. "This step was one big one for justice for Donnivan," Peggy Schaeffer, mother of murder victim Donnivan Schaeffer, said
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., FLA., ARK., MO.
June 26 TEXAS: State Won't Compensate Wrongly Convicted Ex-Death Row InmateThe Texas state comptroller has denied compensation to a man who served 12 years on death row for a murder prosecutors and a judge have said he didn't commit. The Texas state comptroller has denied compensation to a man who served 12 years on death row for a murder prosecutors and a judge have said he didn't commit. A judge had ruled Alfred Dewayne Brown, at the request of Harris County prosecutors , innocent last month of the 2003 slaying of a Houston police officer. Brown had been convicted and condemned in 2005 for Officer Charles Clark death during a robbery of a check-cashing store. Officials had said Brown is entitled to almost $2 million under state law. However, the Houston Chronicle reports the state comptroller's office offers little insight to the reason for its denial of compensation. Brown's attorney, Neal Manne, says he'll ask the comptroller to reconsider. If nothing results, he can appeal to the Texas Supreme Court. (source: Associated Press) NORTH CAROLINA: What does it take to bring a death penalty case to trial in NC? Just 43 people have been sentenced to death in North Carolina since 1984. Even more are waiting in prison for their execution dates. "There are many cases where it is fully justified and very appropriate,” Henderson County district attorney Greg Newman said. He said, when considering the death penalty, prosecutors need to consider multiple factors, including the strength of the case. "In other words, do you have strong facts that support a charge of murder?” Newman said. Newman said prosecutors also need to consider the defendant's criminal history. The majority of people currently on death row in North Carolina face multiple charges in addition to 1st-degree murder. "The 3rd thing that I consider is who is our victim?" Newman said. "Is this person a very active and productive and valued member of our community." Newman said another consideration is the people sentencing the suspect to death. "What is the likelihood that a jury will feel strongly enough about the case to return a death verdict?" Newman said. Even once a jury returns a death penalty verdict, it's likely the case will go through decades of appeals, exhausting the court system and placing a burden on the victim’s family. "Any time that we decide to embark upon this road, it is a major undertaking in terms of our time, in terms of what families are going to experience, in terms of what we are asking witnesses.” Newman said. (source: WLOS news) FLORIDA: 'Judicial activism' raised in key death penalty case Reversing the state’s retroactive consideration of certain death-penalty cases would amount to “the most egregious judicial activism in the history of Florida,” a lawyer for a Death Row inmate argued in a brief filed Monday with the Florida Supreme Court. The filing, in the case of convicted murderer Duane Eugene Owen, comes as a revamped Supreme Court is exploring whether to reverse course on decisions that allowed dozens of convicted murderers to have their death sentences reconsidered. Justices are looking at the issue after Gov. Ron DeSantis reshaped the Supreme Court early this year, turning what had been widely viewed as a liberal-leaning majority into a court dominated by conservative justices. The issue stems, in large part, from rulings in 2016 by the U.S. Supreme Court and the Florida Supreme Court about the state’s death-penalty sentencing system. In a case known as Hurst v. Florida, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the state’s death-penalty sentencing system was unconstitutional because it gave too much power to judges, instead of juries, in deciding whether defendants should be sent to death row. That ruling, premised on a 2002 decision in a case known as Ring v. Arizona, led to sentencing changes, including requiring that juries be unanimous in finding necessary facts and in recommending imposition of the death penalty. In a pair of decisions in December 2016, the Florida Supreme Court decided that the sentencing changes would apply retroactively to cases that became final after the 2002 Ring ruling. Re-sentencing should only be an option for cases in which jury recommendations for death were not unanimous, the court also decided. But the revamped Florida court in April ordered Owen’s lawyer and the state to address the retroactivity issue. That prompted Attorney General Ashley Moody’s office to urge justices to make a relatively rare move of receding from the previous retroactivity rulings in what are known as the Mosley and Asay cases. Moody’s office said the Supreme Court should rule that the death-penalty sentencing changes should apply only to new cases, not retroactively to older cases. Moody’s office also contended that “stare decisis,” the concept of relying on court precedent,
