[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
Sept. 12 SCOTLAND: Over 41 % of Scots would like return of death penalty A poll for the Times has found that 1.8 million Scots would support the reintroduction of death penalties for murderers. According to a YouGov poll for The Times questioning 1,059 Scots, 41 % of the population, or 1.8 million people, would support the death penalty for murderers being reintroduced. A marginally higher percentage of the population, 44 % of Scots, would continue to oppose the death penalty, whilst 15 % of voters were unsure. The poll indicated that those who were more likely to back state execution were people who voted Leave in the 2016 EU referendum and older people, by 65 % and 54 % respectively. A previous poll by YouGov from 2017 showed that 53 % of Leave voters UK-wide wanted to revive the death penalty, which is 12 % less than Leave voters in Scotland this year. Scottish citizens who backed Yes in the 2014 Independence referendum and Unionist were slightly less supportive, with the former polling at 44 % and the latter voting 42 %. Although Scotland tops European rates of imprisonment, several reforms have been put in place to support reintegration and rehabilitation, including the vote against ineffective short prison sentences of 12 months or less which MSPs voted on in June this year, which aims to increase more effective methods of both addressing offending and rehabilitation, like Community Payback Orders (CPOs). The last man hanged in Scotland was Henry John Burnett, who was sentenced to death by the high court in Aberdeen for the murder of merchant seaman Thomas Guyanat and was executed in 1963 at HM Prison in Aberdeen, aged 21. (source: The Scotsman) MALAYSIA: Malaysian man escapes gallows over death of teenage girl A 29-year-old man has escaped the gallows over the death of a teenage girl after his murder charge was reduced by the Malaysian Court of Appeal on Thursday (Sep 12). Poon Wai Hong was sentenced to death by a High Court in April last year for causing the death of 15-year-old Ms Ng Yuk Tim, a cosplay enthusiast. The Court of Appeal ruled on Thursday that Poon should instead be sentenced to 22 years' jail after his murder charge was reduced to one of culpable homicide not amounting to murder. His jail term will start from the date of his arrest on Oct 22, 2013, the court added. Justice Kamardin Hashim, chairing a three-member bench, said the court found merits in Poon's appeal and set aside the death sentence. He was convicted of causing Ms Ng's death at a house at Kampung Cempaka in Kelana Jaya between 3pm and 4pm on Oct 21, 2013. Poon’s lawyer Rajpal Singh told the High Court in April last year that Ms Ng had gone to the house to get help with some cosplay costumes. He said that Poon had intended to have sex with Ms Ng but a friend had interrupted the duo, causing him to leave the house. When Poon returned, Ms Ng did not want to have sex anymore, which sparked a fight. Mr Singh said that Poon had tried to stop Ms Ng from shouting during the altercation. After she bit his hand, Poon pushed her away to prevent her from attacking him with a stun gun, the lawyer claimed. Poon said that after retrieving his spectacles that had fallen to the ground, he saw Ms Ng lying motionless on the floor after falling and hitting her head on a dumbbell. Mr Singh said Poon panicked and stuffed Ms Ng's body in a luggage bag instead of calling the authorities. DNA evidence showed that Ms Ng’s blood was found on the ring of the dumbbell but the handle of the dumbbell did not have Poon's DNA, Mr Singh added. During mitigation for a lower jail sentence, the lawyer told the court that his client was remorseful and had apologised to Ms Ng’s family. Deputy public prosecutor Nurshafini Mustafha argued that there was overwhelming circumstantial evidence that Poon had murdered Ms Ng. She said the deceased was 15 years old at the time, and she urged the court to consider that there was a loss of life as well as the way her body was disposed of. Ms Nurshafini told reporters that the prosecution would be appealing to the Federal Court. (source: channelnewsasia.com) * Bill to abolish mandatory death penalty tabled at next meeting The bill to abolish the mandatory death penalty will tentatively be tabled at the next parliamentary meeting, which begins on October 7 and runs until December 5, said Liew Vui Keong. The de facto law minister said it is in line with Pakatan Harapan’s election promise to do away with mandatory death penalty. (source: themalaysianinsight.com) INDIA: Gadkari cites death penalty for rape to defend new traffic rules, says fines aimed to save lives A day after a BJP-ruled state -- Gujarat -- itself slashed the traffic fines under the amended Motor Vehicles (MV) Act, Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday said that states
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----NEB., WYO., NEV., ARIZ., CALIF.
Sept. 12 NEBRASKA: Nebraska county OKs sales tax to pay wrongfully convicted A Nebraska county that owes more than $30 million to 6 people wrongfully convicted of murder approved a new half-cent sales tax Wednesday to help pay the legal judgment, but the former prisoners still will have to wait at least 6 years to collect the full amount they’re owed. The Gage County Board of Supervisors voted 7-0 to impose the sales tax, which will generate an additional $1.3 million annually to cover the county’s debt. Known as the Beatrice 6, the ex-inmates spent more than 70 years in prison collectively for a 1985 rape and killing in Beatrice, Nebraska, about 40 miles (64 kilometres) south of Lincoln. DNA evidence exonerated them in 2008. They sued Gage County the following year, alleging that the county ran a reckless investigation. A federal jury awarded them $28.1 million in 2016, plus interest and attorney fees that raise the total to more than $30 million. The county wasn’t properly insured when the six were convicted, and its appeals were all rejected. That left officials with no choice but to pay the judgment. Now that the county has to pay it, “we’re trying to find ways to fund this as best as possible and take some of the burden off the landowner,” said County Board Chairman Erich Tiemann, according to the Beatrice Daily Sun. Gage County has already raised its property tax as high as legally allowed and has started making $3.8 million a year in payments, but county officials say relying on property taxes alone isn’t fair to farmers whose land requires them to pay much more than homeowners and renters. The new tax is intended to ease that burden and possibly allow the county to pay the judgment in 6 years instead of 8. Starting Jan. 1, anyone who buys $100 worth of taxable goods or services in Gage County will pay an extra 50 cents to help with the judgment. Even with the extra funding, the surviving members of the Beatrice 6 will likely have to wait years to receive everything they’re owed. One of the six was killed in a 2011 factory accident in Alabama, and several others are aging and have health problems. Attorneys for the 6 weren’t immediately available for comment. The board’s vote followed a newly enacted state law tailored to Gage County’s situation that allows counties to impose a sales tax to pay off a legal judgment without putting the issue on the ballot, as is normally required. Lawmakers approved the measure over the veto of Gov. Pete Ricketts, who argued that voter approval should have been required. “It’s something that should definitely help the property owners in Gage County,” said state Sen. Myron Dorn, a former Gage County supervisor who sponsored the law. It’s unlikely that voters would approve a sales tax increase because many didn’t live in the county when authorities were investigating the killing, and some residents still believe the 6 were involved even though state officials have declared them innocent. Some of the 6 have been diagnosed with mental health problems and were coerced into confessing with threats of capital punishment. Both the sales and property taxes will expire once the judgment is paid in full. (source: Associated Press) WYOMING: Dale Wayne Eaton considering U.S. Supreme Court appeal, lawyer tells Natrona County judge A Wyoming man convicted of the kidnapping, rape and murder of a teenage woman more than 30 years ago may still appeal his case to the U.S. Supreme Court, his lawyer told a Natrona County judge on Tuesday afternoon. Sean O’Brien, the Kansas City, Missouri, lawyer and law professor who has led Dale Wayne Eaton’s recent post-conviction appeals, made the statement by phone to Judge Daniel Forgey during a mid-afternoon scheduling conference in Natrona County District Court that spanned about 10 minutes. The conference marked the first hearing in the state court since a regional federal appeals court issued an opinion this summer that declined to prevent prosecutors from seeking Eaton’s death. Eaton, now 74, has asked the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in Denver, to reconsider its opinion. The Wyoming attorney general’s office has until the end of the week to reply to the request. If the case returns to the state court, Eaton may again defend himself against the death penalty. On Aug. 5, about two weeks after the 10th Circuit’s decision, Natrona County District Attorney Dan Itzen filed paperwork indicating he would seek Eaton’s capital punishment. The same day, he filed request for the status conference. Neither Itzen nor Eaton appeared in court Tuesday. In the prosecutor’s stead were assistant district attorneys Mike Schafer and Kevin Taheri, who spoke only briefly. O’Brien appeared by phone with Lindsay Runnels, also of Kansas City, and Terry Harris, who practices in Cheyenne. O’Brien told Forgey a federal district court stay on proceedings in
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., N.C., FLA., ALA., OHIO
Sept. 12 TEXAS: Family and nun fight for retrial as man convicted by all-white jury faces death Supporters of Rodney Reed, scheduled for execution in November, point to racial bias and questionable evidence “He never had a chance.” That’s what Sandra Reed said at the start of a rally in front of the Texas governor’s mansion calling for a retrial for her son, Rodney Reed. Reed, 51, has been on death row in Texas since 1998 and is scheduled to be executed on 20 November for murder. But an array of supporters even beyond his own family, ranging from some relatives of the woman he was convicted of killing to a world-famous nun, argue that Reed is innocent and is a casualty of a criminal justice system beset by errors and racial bias. In 1998, Reed, who is African American, was convicted – by an all-white jury – of the 1996 murder of 19-year-old Stacey Stites. His family has spent years trying to get his case overturned and he is represented by the Innocence Project, the not-for-profit group that focuses on DNA testing to exonerate wrongly convicted people and campaigns to reform the system. Reed’s lawyers filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Texas last month, after repeatedly being thwarted in their demands for DNA testing of the murder weapon, a leather belt used to strangle Stites. His lead attorney, Bryce Benjet of the Innocence Project, said continued refusal to perform the test violates Reed’s constitutional rights. And Reed’s case has caught the attention of the Texas state representative Vikki Goodwin. “I don’t think anyone can say he is guilty without a shadow of a doubt,” Goodwin said. “I don’t believe we should carry out the death penalty when there’s doubt about the truth of the case.” During the original trial, DNA from the Stites case matched Reed, but he said he was having a secret affair with her to avoid scandal in a small Texas town, especially because Reed is black and Stites white. Reed’s legal team believes new evidence presented at a retrial would prove that Jimmy Fennell, Stites’s fiancé at the time of her death, was the murderer. Fennell was a police officer for Georgetown, near Austin, at the time, and was later sentenced to 10 years in prison for a different crime stemming from allegations that he kidnapped and raped a woman while on duty. The lawsuit is the latest in a series of actions to get Reed a retrial. Three weeks before he was scheduled to die by lethal injection, on 5 March 2015 in the Texas state penitentiary, his lawyers filed an appeal to the criminal appeals court, citing multiple problems with his conviction and urging a stay of execution and a retrial. That same month, the US supreme court declined to review Reed’s case. In the August 2019 lawsuit, the Innocence Project lawyers claim there are “multiple additional items of evidence” collected during the murder investigation in a “condition suitable for DNA testing”. The suit also argues that that Fennell couldn’t keep his testimony straight and failed his polygraph tests and that he acted “suspiciously” following Stites’ death, including closing his bank account and disposing of his truck. Fennell’s “inconsistent statements” about his whereabouts on the night of 22 April 1996 are significant because the condition in which Stites’s body was found on 23 April indicates she was “murdered several hours before” her body was found, the suit claims. “Prominent forensic pathologists have reached the un-rebutted conclusion that Fennell’s testimony that Ms. Stites was abducted and murdered while on her way to work around 3:30AM is medically and scientifically impossible,” the lawsuit claims. Several complaints were filed against Fennell alleging “racial bias and use of excessive force at the Giddings Police Department where he worked”, and he was overheard several times saying that if Stites cheated on him, “he would kill her” and “he specifically stated he would strangle her with a belt”, the suit said. Fennell was initially a suspect but investigators focused on Reed after his DNA was discovered inside Stites’s body, and a jury concluded that Reed raped and strangled Stites after intercepting her on the way to work, a timeline his lawyers argue has been discredited. Supporters think there are other issues at play. “Race was a big factor in this case. A ‘Jim Crow trial’, an all-white jury, none of his peers,” Sandra Reed told the Guardian. Benjet said there was data showing racial disparity in “most if not every” aspect of the US criminal justice system. Sister Helen Prejean, an anti-death penalty activist and author of the book Dead Man Walking, visited with Reed’s family in 2015 as his previous execution date neared. Her book about the death penalty and the subsequent film changed many people’s perspectives in the US on capital punishment. She tweeted about Reed’s case in 2015. She has followed the case
