[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
Sept. 6 IRAN: Juvenile Offender Mehdi Khazaeian in Imminent Danger of ExecutionBased on his identity documents, Mehdi was born on November 20, 1999. The alleged murder took place when he was 16 years old, in Gorgan on March 13, 2016. Unofficial sources have informed Mehdi Khazaeian’s family that his execution will be carried out soon. Mehdi Khazaeian is a juvenile offender whose death sentence has been upheld by the Supreme Court and can be implemented at any time. According to close sources, Mehdi Khazaeian’s family have been informed that he will be executed soon. Mehdi Khazaeian is charged for a murder allegedly committed at the age of 16. He is currently being held at the Correction and Rehabilitation Center of Gorgan. Based on his identity documents, Mehdi was born on November 20, 1999. The alleged murder took place when he was 16 years old, in Gorgan on March 13, 2016. The relatives of the juvenile offender stated that he was in a gang fight leading to the murder of Amir Hossein B., 19, and it is not clear who delivered the fatal blow. The verdict, a copy of which was received by IHR, mentions, “The forensic report indicates that “currently there’s no sign of mental disorder in the defendant and considering his statements about the incident and his total awareness of the situation, it seems that he was in a good mental health and wasn’t under the influence of alcohol and was mentally mature as of March 14, 2016 “ Eventually, Mehdi Khazaeian was sentenced to 80 lashes for the drinking of alcohol, 3 years in prison for participation in a gang fight, and qisas (retribution) death penalty for murder. The sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court. Based on Article 91 of the new Islamic Penal Code, approved in 2013, judges can potentially deny issuing a death sentence for juveniles who do not understand the nature of their crime. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Iran has ratified, clearly bans execution and life imprisonment of juveniles. It’s worth mentioning that currently a sum of money is being collected in order to win the consent of the plaintiffs. Since the juvenile offender couldn’t choose a lawyer during his arrest and the proceeding of his case, Iran Human Rights invites human rights lawyers who are willing to voluntarily handle the cases of juvenile offenders to help this death-row prisoner. Since the beginning of 2019, at least 2 juvenile offenders have been executed in Iran. (source: Iran Human Rights) ENGLAND: To Gene, on death row For almost 20 years, the charity Human Writes has fostered connection between American death row inmates and British pen pals. One of the most vivid memories from my childhood is a small, slightly time-worn and sun-faded polaroid of a a mixed-raced man in his mid-20s, handsome and healthy, with the first signs of five o’clock shadow and a cautious smile that hints at an imperceptible private amusement. It sat on a bookcase in the living room of the flat where I was raised by my aunt and grandmother, and would hardly catch your eye unless you were looking for it. I've never met the man. Neither has anyone in my family. His name is Gene* and he was on Death Row in Texas, having been convicted before his 18th birthday, sometime in the late 1990s. He was part of our life many thousands of miles away in both London, then Scotland, because my aunt wrote to him for years, even after his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment following a Supreme Court ruling. She, like many others, was a volunteer writer for Human Writes, a UK-based charity that links American Death Row prisoners with correspondents — or “writers” in the charity’s parlance — from across the pond. For almost 20 years, the charity has have worked towards the same, unwavering goal: an offer of friendship to those living within a particularly inhuman method of incarceration. Human Writes is not unique, nor is it the first British organization of its kind. The civil-rights charity LifeLines formed in 1988 after its founder, Jan Arriens, found himself intensely moved by the BBC Documentary 14 Days In May, which charts the aftermath of one young man’s execution in Mississippi. In 2000, controversy erupted when Sue Fenwick, a senior member of LifeLines, married her pen pal, Bobby “Tenessee” Lusk, which caused a schism in the small world of prison writing. Fenwick joined Human Writes soon after and remains a key figure in its work to this day. The charity is entirely self-funded, with membership fees covering its essential operating costs, while all of the key office holders are volunteers, including the “state coordinators” who act as the liaison between Human Writes and each U.S. state with the death penalty. They are also the main point of contact for writers in the UK, there to provide support to both sides of the pen-pal relationship. My aunt had seen Human Writes advertised
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., FLA., MO., ARK., UTAH, CALIF.
Sept. 6 TEXASimpending execution Jews call to halt death row inmate's execution, citing antisemitism Mr. Halprin was referred to as a “fn’ Jew” and a “G*n k**e,” Halprin’s attorney, Tivon Schardl, said in a statement. A number of Jewish groups and lawyers are urging the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to stay the scheduled execution of a Jewish inmate who said his judge was antisemitic. In July, Dallas County Judge Lela Mays approved an Oct. 10 execution date for Randy Halprin, who was part of the “Texas 7” group of prisoners who escaped from a prison in the state in 2000. They were convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of a police officer who responded to a robbery they committed. 4 of them already have been executed. But Halprin, 41, said in an appeal in May that the judge who sentenced him in 2003, Vickers Cunningham, referred to him using antisemitic language. He wants a new trial. “Mr. Halprin’s trial judge, who presided over the death-penalty trial, made critical decisions about what evidence the jury would hear, and sentenced Mr. Halprin to die, was biased against Mr. Halprin, referring to him as a “fn’ Jew” and a “G*n k**e,” Halprin’s attorney, Tivon Schardl, said in a statement. Last year, The Dallas Morning News reported that Cunningham set up a trust in 2010 to give his children money if they marry a white Christian of the opposite sex. On Thursday, the American Jewish Committee, Central Conference of American Rabbis, Men of Reform Judaism and Union for Reform Judaism filed an amicus brief in support of his appeal. More than 100 Jewish Texas lawyers signed on to the brief. The brief said the issue at stake was not whether Halprin was guilty or not. “[T]hose issues are irrelevant, because questions of guilt and punishment follow a fair trial; they do not precede it,” it reads. “And if Judge Cunningham is the bigot described in the application, a fair trial has not yet happened.” The groups call for the court to “stay the applicant’s scheduled execution, and remand this case to the trial court for findings of fact and conclusions of law.” In June, the Anti-Defamation League filed an amicus brief in support of Halprin’s petition. (source: The Jerusalem Post) * If Harris County is death penalty capital, how do Houston’s surrounding counties stack up? Fort Bend County: Spencer Goodman, 31, was executed on Jan. 18, 2000. Goodman was convicted of the 1991 kidnapping and killing 38-year-old Cecile Ham. He was later tracked down in central Texas after using Ham’s stolen credit cards. There's no doubt that Harris County is the capital of capital punishment in Texas. But how do the counties surrounding Harris fare? Of the seven contiguous counties (Montgomery, Galveston, Fort Bend, Brazoria, Liberty, Chambers and Waller), Montgomery County takes the cake with 16 executions since 1982. That's compared to the 130 inmates out of Harris County who have been executed since that same year. Galveston has 6 inmates who have been executed, while Fort Bend has 5 inmates, Brazoria has 4 and Liberty has executed 3. Chambers has 1 inmate who has been executed, while Waller has never sent anyone to death row. (source: Houston Chronicle) * Webb County District Attorney in pursuit of justiceAn alleged killing spree that shook the Laredo community is still being felt a year later. The Webb County District Attorney Isidro Alaniz says he has decided to seek the death penalty against former Border Patrol agent Juan David Ortiz who is accused of killing 4 people. Alaniz says the death penalty is reserved for the most heinous crimes; the type of crimes that are hard to fathom. It’s also a case that garnered national attention and like all cases, his goal is to seek the truth and justice for the victims of these horrific crimes. The journey to seek the truth can take longer from case to case which takes a lot of resources from the DA’s office to carry out a capital murder trial. Alaniz says a case like this will have a team of 5 attorneys that are designated to the trial who are in charge of organizing the evidence and everything that is needed to present the case in court. Because things can always change, Alaniz is in constant communication with the victim’s families and other law enforcement agencies on how the case will be developed. The district attorney feels the decision to seek the death penalty falls heavily on his shoulders. Alaniz says he takes the family members feelings, and opinions into consideration, but ultimately his responsibility is to the community at large. This is not the first time that Alaniz has decided to seek the death penalty but he says it never gets easier. The District Attorney’s Office is hoping to begin the jury selection process by the end of 2020 or early 2021. In the meantime, Ortiz’s next hearing is set for
