[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
August 29 THAILAND: Myanmar workers facing death penalty for British tourist murders to seek Thai pardon 2 migrant workers from Myanmar will seek a royal pardon from Thailand’s king after its Supreme Court on Thursday upheld their death sentences for the murder of 2 British backpackers that drew world attention to the tourist island of Koh Tao. The defense lawyer said he would seek a royal pardon in the Sept. 2014 case, which sparked outrage among rights groups who say the men were scapegoated and coerced into confessing by police seeking a quick arrest. “We will petition for royal pardon within 60 days so they would not be executed,” Nakhon Chompuchart told reporters. Thai law allows 60 days for those sentenced to death to seek a pardon, but if the request is dismissed an execution can go ahead. The workers, Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Htun, were sentenced to death for the murder of David Miller, 24, and the murder and rape of Hannah Witheridge, 23, whose bodies were discovered on a beach in the diving haven of Koh Tao. Police said Witheridge had been raped and bludgeoned to death and Miller had suffered blows to his head. Tourism accounts for about 1/10 of the Thai economy. Earlier, a panel of 2 Supreme Court judges upheld decisions by lower courts, saying the men had been found guilty of murder and rape on the basis of evidence and forensic results. The men displayed no emotion as they listened intently to a translator while the verdict was read at a court in the province of Nonthaburi, just north of Bangkok, the capital. “Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Htun said afterwards that they are sad and worried by the verdict, because they said they did not commit the crime,” the court translator, Aye Mar Cho, told Reuters. The men were convicted and sentenced to death in 2015, a verdict upheld by an appeal court in 2017. A pro-bono legal team defending the men has said evidence collected by police was substandard. The lawyers have also said they were tortured and coerced into making confessions they later retracted. “DNA and forensics evidence ... was in my opinion fundamentally flawed and should always have been considered unreliable, when considered against international standards,” said labour activist Andy Hall. The Supreme Court rejected accusations of torture and ruled that DNA evidence linked the workers to the crime. All death sentences in Thailand had been commuted by royal pardon for the 9 years before a murder convict was executed in June last year by lethal injection. (source: Reuters) PHILIPPINES: Thelma Chiong: Chiong 7, who were on death row, should not be eligible for GCTA “What has happened to our justice system?” This was the question of Thelma Chiong who was reacting to the possibility that the Good Conduct Time Allowance (GCTA), which provides for the early release for prisoners based on their attitude inside penitentiaries, might also aid in the freeing of the seven men convicted of abducting, raping and the killing of her two daughters in July 1997. Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra earlier confirmed that the seven persons convicted in the abduction, rape-slay of sisters Marijoy and Jacqueline Chiong might benefit from the increased GCTA. “We feel so much injustice right now. It is as if my daughters died again. It has been 22 years, but how can we move on when the accused in their death may be freed soon?” Chiong said. Chiong granted an interview on Thursday, August 29, in front of Marijoy’s tomb at the columbary of the Alliance of Two Hearts Parish in Barangay Guadalupe, Cebu City. The body believed to be that of Marijoy’s was found dumped at a cliff in Carcar City days after they went missing on July 16, 1997. Jaqueline’s body was never found. Convicted in the abduction and alleged rape-slay of the sisters were Francisco Juan “Paco” Larrañaga, Jozman Aznar, Rowen Wesley Adlawan, Alberto Allan “Pahak” Caño, Ariel Balansag, James Andrew “MM” Uy and James Anthony Uy, collectively known as the Chiong 7. The Chiong 7 was earlier sentenced to death through lethal injection by the Supreme Court in 2004 but were saved when the death penalty was abolished in 2006 upon the signing of Republic Act 9346. Mrs. Chiong told CDN Digital that the Chiong 7 should not benefit from the GCTA as assured in the provision of the law abolishing capital punishment. “(A) Person convicted of offenses punished with Reclusion Perpetua, or whose sentences will be reduced to Reclusion Perpetua, by reason of this Act, shall not be eligible for parole under Act No. 4180, otherwise known as the Indeterminate Sentence Law, as amended,” reads Section 3 of RA 9346 or An Act Prohibiting the Imposition of Death Penalty in the Philippines. “That was made clear that they (Chiong 7) should not be given parole. Only a presidential pardon can release them,” Mrs. Chiong said. Mrs. Chiong said she would be willing to write or
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----ARK., COLO., CALIF., ORE.
August 29 ARKANSASfemale faces death penalty Death penalty sought for couple in killing of 11-year-old Arkansas boy by Dale Ellis A Star City couple accused of capital murder in the death of their 11-year-old son will face the death penalty if convicted, according to a notice filed by the prosecuting attorney for Jefferson and Lincoln counties. In the notice, prosecutor Kyle Hunter said the death penalty is justified in the case because the "murder was committed in an especially cruel or depraved manner" and "was committed against a person whom the defendant knew was especially vulnerable," referring to the victim's age at the time of the killing. "In our opinion, we just believe that, based on the nature of this crime, that [the death] penalty is justified," Hunter told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. David Black, 38, and Mary Black, 30, the boy's stepfather and mother, were charged in the death of Joseph Carsello, whose body was found by Star City police on June 16 inside a residence at 212 Spring St., according to a probable cause affidavit filed in Lincoln County District Court in July. Star City is about 25 miles southeast of Pine Bluff. The affidavit said Mary Black told police that she and David Black had whipped Joseph with belts on June 15 as punishment for trying to run away. As the whipping was happening, Joseph began talking back to his mother, the affidavit said, and the Blacks responded by striking him in the face with their hands. The boy's mother told police that Joseph pulled away from them and kicked his stepfather in the mouth, causing David Black's lip to bleed, before falling down some stairs and striking his head on a toolbox, according to the affidavit. David Black told police that he "spanked the s*** out of Joseph" on the evening of June 15, the affidavit said. He told police that while he was spanking Joseph, the boy rolled over and kicked him in the mouth, busting his lip, it said. Black told police, "That's why his butt looked the way it did," according to the affidavit. The next day, according to Mary Black, Joseph picked up a hammer and swung it at David Black, the affidavit said. Mary Black said she and her husband then "went a little crazy on him to teach him not to swing a hammer," according to the affidavit. The Blacks began whipping Joseph with their hands, belts and a paddle and told him to go stand in the corner, according to the affidavit. Mary Black told police that they noticed Joseph lying on the floor a short time later, and the couple began pouring water on him to try to wake him up, the affidavit said. An autopsy revealed that Joseph died from multiple blunt-force injuries. The boy had multiple scalp contusions; multiple impact sites on his head and torso; bruising of his arms, legs, thighs, and buttocks; abdominal hemorrhaging; hemorrhaging of the pancreas; and a lacerated liver. David Black is being held in the Lincoln County jail without bail. He is being defended by Little Rock-based attorneys George Morledge IV and Robby Golden. Mary Black is being held without bail in neighboring Arkansas County because Lincoln County lacks any facilities to hold female detainees. It is not known whether she is represented by an attorney yet. If Mary Black were convicted and a death sentence were carried out, she would be only the second woman to be put to death in Arkansas in modern times, said Dina Tyler, spokeswoman for Arkansas Department of Correction. Christina Marie Riggs was executed on May 2, 2000, after being convicted of murdering her two children, Justin Thomas and Shelby Riggs, at the family's Sherwood home in November 1997. Tyler said that if the pair were convicted and sentenced to death, then David Black would be housed on death row at Varner Supermax Unit, located 28 miles south of Pine Bluff along U.S. 65, and Mary Black would be housed in an isolation unit at the McPherson Unit, located at Newport. According to court records, both David and Mary Black are scheduled to appear in Lincoln County Circuit Court on Oct. 7 for an omnibus hearing and on Nov. 14 for jury trial. Circuit Judge Alex Guynn is scheduled to preside over the case. (source: nwaonline.com) COLORADO: Colorado Taxpayers Paid DA’s Office $1.6 Million for Unsuccessfully Pursuing Death Penalty Against Wishes of Victim’s Family A more than $1.6 million price tag for prosecuting a Colorado death-penalty case that the victim’s family opposed and that resulted in a life sentence has caused some Coloradans to question whether capital prosecutions are worth the cost. On August 14, 2019, Miguel Contreras-Perez was sentenced to life in prison after he pleaded guilty to the murder of a correctional officer and the attempted murder of another officer. The sentence came 7 years after the murder and after Colorado reimbursed local prosecutors for legal costs in excess of $1.6 million accumulated
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN., N.C., TENN.
August 29 TEXASimpending execution Death Watch: Crutsinger Seeks Last-Ditch SCOTUS AppealFollowing the Aug. 21 execution of Larry Swearingen, Crutsinger could be the fifth Texan killed this year By all prior accounts, Billy Crutsinger confessed to the double homicide of Pearl Magouirk and her daughter Pat Syren shortly after he was arrested in Galveston. Though he consented to the DNA testing used to convict him at his 2003 trial, Crutsinger has continued to fight his death sentence, even as his options dwindle and his Sept. 4 execution date nears. On Aug. 26, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Crutsinger's requests for both an appeal and a stay of execution, with Circuit Judge James E. Graves dissenting in each case. Days earlier, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals also denied Crutsinger a stay as well as his request to "adequately address what it means for a lawyer to be competent when representing a death row inmate," according to his attorney Lydia Brandt, who told the Chronicle that her client "never had a competent lawyer" throughout his initial state appeals. Brandt, who first took Crutsinger's case in 2008, said his prior appellate counsel Richard Alley, who died in 2017, was "great as a word processor, who cut-and-pasted claims from one client's pleading into the next client's pleading and into the next, and the next, and the next." The question now before the U.S. Supreme Court, in a petition filed Aug. 27 (in response to the CCA ruling), is whether his appointment by the trial court violated Crutsinger's 14th Amendment rights. Brandt asserts that Alley had a "substantial history in the state and federal courts of a lack of professionalism, unethical behavior, and an inability to competently represent" death row clients, based on her review of numerous cases of Alley's from 1999 to 2007. (The SCOTUS filing features several pages of charts outlining issues that had been "reproduced by Alley verbatim ... or were substantially similar" to the arguments made in Crutsinger's appeals.) Under Texas law, those seeking relief from the death penalty are entitled to representation by "competent counsel," which Brandt now argues Crutsinger was denied in 2003, when Alley was appointed to his case; his rights are now further infringed because he has "no avenue to present documented evidence" of Alley's incompetence. Graves agreed in his dissent: "Crutsinger must prove his claim of ineffective assistance of counsel to ... establish that 'investigative, expert, or other services are reasonably necessary' to then be able to prove his claim of ineffective assistance of counsel. Such a circular application is illogical." On Aug. 27, Brandt confirmed that she's working on an additional request for relief from SCOTUS to be filed in response to the 5CA's "adverse decision" Monday night. Without such relief, Crutsinger will be the 5th man executed by the state this year, following the Aug. 21 death of Larry Swearingen, whose final motion, filed with SCOTUS that morning, claimed the Texas Department of Public Safety had "recanted and revised" "critical evidence" used to convict him. According to his co-counsel at the Innocence Project, DPS "provided inaccurate testimony" and has "conceded that its trace analyst should not have testified that the 2 pieces of pantyhose entered into evidence" – one the murder weapon used to strangle 19-year-old Melissa Trotter in December 1998; the other allegedly found in Swearingen's residence – were a "'unique' match or a match 'to the exclusion of all other pantyhose.'" SCOTUS denied the motion that evening. Earlier this month, however, the 5CA granted Dexter Johnson a last-minute stay based on new arguments that he is mentally unfit to be executed. It's the second stay Johnson's received this year; in April, a federal judge barred his execution to give his new counsel more time to review the case. Johnson was found guilty of capital murder in 2007 for the robbery, rape, and double homicide of Maria Aparece and Huy Ngo. But Huntsville isn't seeing a lull any time soon; Mark Soliz is scheduled to die Sept. 10, with another 9 men set for lethal injection before the year ends. A note to readers: Bold and uncensored, The Austin Chronicle has been Austin’s independent news source for almost 40 years, expressing the community’s political and environmental concerns and supporting its active cultural scene. Now more than ever, we need your support to continue supplying Austin with independent, free press. If real news is important to you, please consider making a donation of $5, $10 or whatever you can afford, to help keep our journalism on stands. (source: Austin Chronicle) *** Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present44 Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982present-562 Abbott#scheduled execution date-nameTx. #
