[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
Sept. 3 SOUTH AFRICA: South Africans are calling for the death penalty to be reinstated – here’s what government says Over 300,000 South Africans have signed a petition calling for the death penalty to be reinstated, in the wake of several high profile murders and acts of violence against women in the country. The petition was established after the public learned that missing UCT student, Uyinene Mrwetyana, was raped and murdered at a Post Office in Claremont, Cape Town. Citing Mrewtyana’s murder, as well as the murders of Aneen Booysen, Karabo Mokoena, Reeva Steenkamp and “many, many more”, the petitioner said that “we as a movement must find our voice to bring back the death sentence for crimes against women and children in the hope of saving this great country”. Despite evidence that capital punishment does not deter crime, calls for the death penalty are regularly revived, particularly following a spike in violent crimes. Crime statistics showed that there were 20,336 murders in South Africa between April 2017 and March 2018, a 7% increase from the previous year. This puts the country’s murder rate at close to 36 people murdered per 100,000 population – and 57 murders each day. What government says Earlier in 2019, president Cyril Ramaphosa answered voters’ questions ahead of the National Elections, one of which questioned the plausibility of the death penalty being reinstated to combat high levels of crime in South Africa. The president said quite plainly that it is not the state’s place to take life. “Our constitution has enshrined the right to life. This means that the state should not be the one to terminate a life. The surge in criminality should be addressed in other ways rather than ending people’s lives,” Ramaphosa said. This sentiment has been expressed by many Constitutional law experts, who say that the state acts on behalf of the people, and by perpetrating brutal acts such as capital punishment, the entire country is implicated in that. “To endorse the death penalty is to endorse state violence and the brutality that necessarily forms part of premeditating killing,” said Constitutional law expert, Pierre De Vos. “The death penalty thus brutalises the whole of society and implicates us all in the kind of violence that we wish perpetrators to be punished for.” However, not all political leaders are opposed to the death penalty. In its 2019 election manifesto, the IFP said that it wants harsher punishment for criminals, which includes prison terms with hard labour, as well as re-opening the debate on bringing back the death penalty in South Africa. History of the death penalty in South Africa The abolishment of the death penalty in South Africa is not simply a government decision – it is rooted in law, and follows a dark past of using the punishment in the country. At one stage, South Africa had one of the highest execution rates globally. Between 1959 and 1989, South Africa executed almost 3,000 people by hanging, with over 1,200 in the 1980s alone. Solomon Ngobeni was the last person to be officially executed in South Africa in November 1989. Following a 5 year moratorium on the death penalty between 1990 – 1995, the issue was finally dealt with in the constitutional case of S vs Makwanyane. The judgement was unanimous with all 10 judges giving different reasons as to why the death penalty should be abolished. These included issues such as possible mistakes made during the investigation process, as well as the right to life under the Constitution. Notably, the judgement also recognised that while the death penalty may be popular among members of the public, it was counter to the country’s Constitution. The president of the Constitutional Court at the time, Arthur Chaskalson, said that it was disputed whether public opinion, properly informed of the different considerations, would in fact favour the death penalty. He said that, even though the majority of South Africans might believe that the proper sentence for murder should be death, it is not a question of public will, but whether the Constitution allows such a sentence. And it does not. Death penalty around the world According to Amnesty International, to reinstate the death penalty would be going against the global trends, where cases of the death penalty being used as punishment for crimes are decreasing. In its latest report on the death penalty, looking at available data for 2018, the group said that figures show that the death penalty is firmly in decline, and that effective steps are being taken across the world to end the use of this cruel and inhuman punishment. It recorded at least 690 executions in 20 countries in 2018, a decrease of 31% compared to 2017 (at least 993). This figure excludes executions in China, which are believed to number in the thousands. During the United Nations General Assembly in December, 121
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, TENN., ORE., USA
Sept. 3 TEXASimpending execcution Fort Worth man who stabbed 2 elderly women set to be executed A 64-year-old Fort Worth man could be days from facing death. Billy Jack Crutsinger, who stabbed an elderly mother and daughter after he entered their home on the pretense of doing repairs is scheduled to be executed Wednesday at the Huntsville “Walls” Unit. That is if the U.S. Supreme Court doesn’t step in. Crutsinger, who has been on Texas’ death row since his conviction in 2003, is asking the Supreme Court to halt his execution, arguing that his 14th Amendment rights were violated. He alleges that his former legal counsel “failed to adequately represent him” and 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. Crutsinger was convicted of killing Patricia Syren and her mother Pearl “RD” Magouirka. After entering the house, Crutsinger stabbed both women to death and stole several items from the home, including credit cards and Patricia’s Cadillac. The decomposing bodies of Pearl "R.D." Magouirk, 89, and her 71-year-old daughter, Patricia "Pat" Syren, were found inside their home April 8, 2 days later. The blood-stained Cadillac was found outside a Fort Worth bar. The bloody clothes that Crutsinger wore during the killings were later recovered in trash bin near another bar. Crutsinger was arrested at a Galveston bar the day after the car and bodies were discovered, when authorities began tracking purchases made on Syren's credit card. During the trial, defense attorneys argued that Crutsinger was illegally arrested in Galveston and that a search warrant issued in Fort Worth to obtain another DNA sample from Crutsinger also was illegal. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied Crutsinger’s request for a stay last week. “The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals failed to expressly and unambiguously state that it had based its denial on an adequate and independent state law ground, and instead answered the federal question in the negative,” Crutsinger’s attorney Lydia M.V. Brandt said. (source: itemonline.com) DPIC Analysis: 13 Texas Death Warrants Raise Troubling Questions About U.S. Execution Practices In a year in which few states have carried out any executions, the aggressive execution practices of a single state — Texas — stand in sharp contrast. The Lone Star State has scheduled thirteen executions for the last five months of 2019, more than the rest of the country combined. And a DPIC review of the circumstances in which the warrants were issued raises troubling questions as to whether the state is executing the most morally culpable individuals for the worst of the worst crimes or the most vulnerable prisoners and prisoners who were provided the worst legal process. The cases of the 13 men scheduled for execution include 2 with strong claims of innocence, 2 whom authorities admit did not kill anyone but were sentenced to death under Texas’ controversial “law of parties,” and 7 who exhibited significant mental or emotional vulnerabilities as a result of intellectual impairments/brain damage, serious mental illness, or chronic trauma. 3 prisoners were age 21 or younger at the time of their crime. 4 prisoners scheduled for execution had raised claims that their attorneys did not provide them with constitutionally adequate representation, and six received other forms of deficient legal process — including false testimony at their trials, trial before a racially or religiously biased judge, or execution dates that interfered with ongoing judicial review. Texas’ aggressive execution schedule also illustrates its status as an outlier in its use of the death penalty and the stark differences in approach between the decisionmakers empowered to end prisoners’ lives and those evaluating whether new defendants should be sent to death row. Nationally, executions have remained near historic lows for the past 5 years, but Texas has carried out more than any other state. In 2018, Texas executed more prisoners than the rest of the United States combined and, if most of the scheduled executions go through, could do so again in 2019. Prisoners sentenced to death in Texas are executed at a rate triple the national average. The process of rubberstamping — in which state court judges adopt as fact the pleadings submitted by prosecutors — is commonplace, and the Texas federal courts routinely defer to this state court “factfinding.” The Texas state and federal courts are also outliers in denying resources to defense counsel and in resisting enforcement of constitutional rights, even in the face of clear directives from the U.S. Supreme Court. The state’s disproportionate pace of executions continues even as prosecutors are seeking and capital juries are imposing significantly fewer new
