[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
Sept. 13 UGANDA: Museveni orders death penalty for convicted murderers in Uganda after brutal killing of nephew President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda wants the death penalty activated in cases of crime following the killing of his nephew There is a proposition from the Ugandan president, Yoweri Museveni, for the courts of the land to mete out equal measures of punishments to persons who have perpetrated crimes, especially convicted murderers. In a statement made on his official Twitter page, the president laid the blame at the feet of the country’s law enforcement agencies for what he described as their unprofessionalism at tackling crimes in the country. The president made the statement in reference to the recent rise in violent crimes in the country, one of which claimed the life of his nephew, Joshua Rushegyera, reports Reuters. In 2015, while attending a Judges’ Conference in the capital, Entebbe, the president called on the judges implement the death penalty instead of the unnecessarily lenient judgments they pass on murderers. It, therefore, comes as no surprise that today, he is calling for the same punishments to be handed out to people who kill others. The Reuters reports that crimes have soared, from killings to violent robberies and kidnappings for ransom, and these have stoked widespread public anger. The most recent cases have prompted the president to rehash his call for the death penalty to be activated in cases of crimes. In Uganda, death is the maximum penalty for a range of crimes, including murder, treason and defilement, however, executions have been rare. Last week, the nephew of the president was found lying on his back on the tarmac on an expressway near the capital, dead from gunshot wounds. His body was found near his parked vehicle where a woman, also dead from gunshot wounds, was in the back seat. In the other recent case, the bodies of a woman working for a local non-governmental organization and her driver were found dumped in a swamp just east of the capital, Kampala. Their bodies were found two days after they were kidnapped in their own vehicle outside the gate of the woman’s home. On that particular case, President Museveni laid the blame at the feet of police officers, accusing them of negligence and for not acting swiftly in using a recently installed CCTV system to trace and save them. He has accordingly directed the arrest and trial of the officers on that case who were found to be negligent, pending their dismissal if found guilty. “You may commit a crime, carelessly taking away the lives of others; however, you will also lose your own life,” Museveni said in a statement. “It must be an eye for eye”, reports Bloomberg. According to the president, the country will introduce measures such as digital registration of all vehicles and motorcycles so that their movements are electronically tracked. “We need to work on the courts,” Museveni said in his statement. President Museveni attended the 2015 Judges’ Conference in Kampala where he also advocated for the death penalty to be implemented The Ugandan police, who have also denied corruption claims levelled against them by the public, have said that murders in the country have mainly been conducted by people riding motorcycles. “Those people who willfully kill others should be sentenced to death and hanged under the law,” President Museveni stated in 2015 while speaking with judges in the country. (source: face2faceafrica.com) THAILAND: Thai man convicted of murdering family, sentenced to die A Thai provincial court yesterday convicted and sentenced a 37-year-old man for murdering 5 family members – including his pregnant wife. An Uttaradit court on Wednesday condemned Weerapol Pin-amorn to die for murdering his wife, father-in-law, mother-in-law and cousins. He can appeal his case to the Supreme Court. Weerapol was arrested in January while attempting to flee the country following the brutal incident. Upon his capture, police said he confessed to the five murders. Prior to the murders, the gunman said he had been fighting with Kanyarat Kingkaew, his pregnant wife, and her family over possessions after they’d broken up that day. Chilling CCTV footage emerged to show the moment Weerapol shot his wife and father-in-law. The 2 victims, lying on the ground, could be seen crawling towards one another before dying in each other’s arms. Last year Thailand carried out its 1st execution since 2009, prompting criticism by rights groups who had hoped the country was moving toward abolishing the practice. Debates around capital punishment started again last month when two Myanmar migrant workers sentenced to death for the brutal murder of a pair of British backpackers in Thailand lost their final appeal. (source: coconuts.co) MALAYSIA: 2013 cosplay killer has death sentence reversed on appeal Poon Wai Hong
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., FLA., OHIO, TENN., OKLA., USA
Sept. 13 TEXAS: El Paso shooting: Prosecutor plans to pursue death penalty after capital murder indictment The man accused of opening fire in an El Paso, Texas, Walmart, killing 22 people and wounding several others, has been indicted on a capital murder charge, the El Paso County District Attorney's Office said following the grand jury's Thursday decision. District Attorney Jaime Esparza intends to seek the death penalty in the August 3 massacre, according to a statement. "The District Attorney's Office will continue to work hard to ensure that justice is done and is committed to assisting the victims through the judicial process," the statement said. Capital murder is the highest charge in Texas, Esparza's office said, and is punishable by death or life in prison without parole. In the days after the deadly rampage, suspected gunman Patrick Crusius of Allen, Texas, was placed on suicide watch based on the recommendation of medical staff, El Paso County Sheriff's spokeswoman Leslie Antunez told CNN on Tuesday. The 21-year-old is being held at the El Paso County Detention Facility without bond. He is accused of opening fire on unsuspecting shoppers at the Cielo Vista Walmart in the west Texas city near the Mexican border. He surrendered and identified himself as the shooter following the massacre, police said. He told police that he was targeting Mexicans, according to an arrest affidavit. While in custody, the suspect has been "cold" in his interactions with police, authorities told CNN last month. Days after his arrest, Police Chief Greg Allen told reporters that the suspect had been cooperative, though he's shown no remorse and "appears to be in a state of shock and confusion." The suspected shooter is believed by investigators to have authored a racist, anti-immigrant document that stated his disdain for Hispanic immigrants whom he said were overtaking America. The 4-page document, titled "The Inconvenient Truth," was published on the online message board 8chan about 20 minutes before the shooting, authorities said. The writing is filled with white supremacist language and racist hatred aimed at immigrants and Latinos, and the author says he opposes "race mixing" and encourages immigrants to return to their home countries. (source: CNN) PENNSYLVANIA: Pennsylvania Supreme Court Hears Argument on Constitutionality of Death Penalty The Pennsylvania Supreme Court heard oral argument on September 11, 2019 on whether to exercise its extraordinary “King’s Bench” powers to determine whether the death penalty, as currently applied in the Commonwealth, violates the Pennsylvania constitution. If the court agrees to reach the constitutional issue, it has the power to strike down the death penalty, uphold its constitutionality, or issue directives or standards regarding its future use. Assistant federal defender Timothy Kane of the Federal Community Defender Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania argued on behalf of death-row prisoners Jermont Cox and Kevin Marinelli, who challenged the state’s death penalty after a June 2018 report by the Pennsylvania Task Force and Advisory Committee on Capital Punishment raised numerous concerns about the way the death penalty is administered in Pennsylvania. Before a packed courtroom in Philadelphia, with an overflow audience listening in an adjacent room, Kane described what he called a broken and arbitrary death-penalty system skewed by an overly broad statute and plagued with racial and geographic disparities. Kane asked the court to declare the Commonwealth’s death penalty unconstitutional and to reduce the sentences of the state’s 137 death-row prisoners to life in prison without parole. Kane’s argument emphasized the unreliability of Pennsylvania death-penalty verdicts, noting that courts have overturned more than half of the 441 death sentences imposed since the Commonwealth reinstated the death penalty in 1974. “The reliability of the system as a whole is cruel and the systemic problems affect every case,” Kane argued. “If the system is cruel, it’s incumbent for this court to say so.” The Philadelphia District Attorney’s office joined with the defenders in calling for the end of the Commonwealth’s death penalty. Supervisory Assistant District Attorney Paul George, of the D.A.’s appeals division, told the court that the systemic provision of deficient representation to indigent capital defendants has produced a constitutionally indefensible death penalty. Paul cited a study by the Philadelphia District Attorney’s office of 155 death sentences imposed in Philadelphia from 1978-2017. In that forty-year period, he said, 72% of the death verdicts had been overturned, most as a result of ineffective defense representation. “When you’re talking about having a 72% error rate, you’re not talking about a reliable system,” George said. Ronald Eisenberg, a
