[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
Oct. 13 EGYPT: Egypt sentences 6 to death over attack on Haram hotel The Giza Criminal Court on Saturday sentenced 6 out of 26 defendants to the death penalty over a 2016 terrorist attack on a hotel in Giza. The court also sentenced 8 defendants to 25 years in prison, while 12 others received 10 years in prison each. The defendants, 3 of which were tried in absentia, are charged with attacking the Three Pyramids Hotel in Haram street in Giza in 2016, which was receiving a bus transporting around 40 Arab Israeli tourists. The attack left no casualties. The Interior Ministry said that the gunmen fired birdshot and fireworks at security personnel guarding the scene, and at a tourist bus present in front of the hotel at the time of the attack. The Islamic State-affiliated “Sinai Province” claimed responsibility for the attack, while also claiming the attack resulted in deaths and injuries among the security personnel. The Public Prosecutor’s Office accused the defendants of leading a group established against the law, arming themselves with firearms, vandalism, attacking the Three Pyramids Hotel, and using force against the police. The presiding judge Mohamed Nagy Shehata said that the defendants were sentenced after reviewing the opinion of the Grand Mufti, the articles of the law, and hearing the prosecution and defense. He added that the defendants terrorized the people, sought to spread terror and targeted visitors to the country, harming Egypt’s safe image and thereby damaging tourism and the economy. “The court ruled penalties commensurate with the age of some of the defendants, and the role of each of them in the attack, to punish each accused by the crime,” Shehata said. (source: Egypt Independent) SRI LANKA: Sajith not against death penalty for drug lords Presidential candidate of New Democratic Front led by the United National Party Minister Sajith Premadasa says he is not against the death penalty for drug kingpins, who continue to conduct their businesses even from prison cells. Speaking during an event in Colombo, the Presidential candidate said the proliferation of drug usage is one of the main challenges the society face and prison sentences do not make the drug traffickers to stop their trade. "What I have observed is when the major culprits are brought to book and given prison sentences, what happens is that the businesses conducted outdoors keep on flourishing indoors inside the 4 walls of the prisons. So What I am trying to elaborate is the drug trade and the drug business does not stop, it keeps getting multiplied." He stressed that women and children in the society have to be given protection and if the present system of justice is incapable of preventing the drug lords from conducting their businesses, there has to be a change in the administration of justice. "In other words, I would not hesitate to activate the death penalty against major drug business persons," Minister Premadasa stressed adding that it should be the last course of action.. "Having said that, I for one do not believe in taking life. I think the lives are sacred and we have to protect lives, so when I say that as a last resort, if all other avenues and measures are exhausted in trying to address this problem and do not achieve its particular task, I wouldn't have any hesitation in giving death penalty." However, the Minister said it has to be ensured that the judicial processes that are in place for administration of justice have to be transparent, fair, and free from any interference. Premadasa pointed out that because of personal enmities or other manipulations an innocent person can be sent to the gallows if the judicial system is not fair or transparent. "Procedure through which you administer justice has to be transparent, fair and free from interferences. Under those conditions, I have to say I agree with the death penalty as the last course of action." "We have to eradicate the drug menace, in order to protect the children, especially, the school-going children and the mothers in our society. We shall take the maximum possible steps in order to eradicate this humongous problem that our society faces," the presidential candidate pledged. (source: colombopage.com) RUSSIA: Return of Death Penalty in Russia Not on Agenda - Kremlin Spokesman on Saratov Incident The possibility of capital punishment to be restored in Russia is not currently being discussed in any way, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Sputnik on Saturday amid Russia-wide tumultuous public debate on appropriate punishment for child homicide. "This issue is not being discussed in any way at the moment," Peskov said. The issue of reinstating the death sentence in Russia has surfaced after the murder of a nine-year-old girl in the southern Russian city of Saratov. She left home for school on Wednesday morning but never got
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., OHIO
Oct. 13 TEXAS: Gov. Abbott, delay this execution Gov. Greg Abbott, A man’s life now lies in your hands. Spare him. On Nov. 20, Rodney Reed is to be executed by the state of Texas for a crime we can no longer be confident he committed. Twenty one years ago, he was convicted in the 1996 rape and murder of 19-year old Giddings resident Stacey Stites. Ever since, evidence has mounted that Reed neither raped nor killed her. Now, his defense claims it has new witnesses pointing to the man who did. Reed, 51, is scheduled to die. Of this, there is no doubt. Nor of this: Stites was strangled and killed on April 23, 1996, her body found on a country road in neighboring Bastrop County. Reed became a suspect a year later when another woman accused him of sexual assault; the prosecution showed semen found on both women belonged to Reed. Reed maintained that was because he and Stites, engaged to Giddings police officer Jimmy Fennell, Jr., had been having an affair, but the jury convicted him anyway. Over time, facts have emerged that were never part of Reed’s trial and as a result, the prosecution’s case has fallen apart. The medical examiner who claimed that Reed raped Stites has recanted. DNA evidence that pointed to Stites’ fiance was never shared with Reed’s defense. Other physical evidence, including the murder weapon — her belt — was never subjected to genetic testing. Now, Reed’s defense at the Innocence Project claims it has new evidence, including two signed affadavits from individuals who knew Fennell. One says he threatened to kill Stites if he ever caught her with another man, and another says he heard Fennell tell her corpse at the viewing that she had deserved to die. On Oct. 4, lawyers for the Innocence Project filed a motion in state court to have the execution date withdrawn, citing the new evidence that they say was not available at trial. All along, the state courts have denied Reed’s one repeated request: that evidence collected where Stites’ body was found be genetically tested. Just 2 years ago, Fennell’s old boss, Giddings’ former chief of police, told CNN that Fennell had confessed to being out later than he’d said at trial and that he’d been drinking the night before his fiance’s body was discovered, too. The Criminal Court of Appeals has twice rejected Reed’s appeal, saying the untested evidence probably would not have acquitted Reed nor would the testimony of Fennell’s old boss have been enough to convict Fennell, who has never been charged in connection to Stites’ death. Fennell just finished 10 years in prison for raping a woman in his custody. Of course, Fennell’s guilt is not the urgent question right now. It’s Reed’s life that hangs in the balance. His guilt is not remotely beyond a reasonable doubt. A man should not die as long as a believable question of innocence hangs over him. Which brings us to you, governor. The case of Rodney Reed is not a case against the death penalty, which still has the support of many in this law-and-order state. It is a case against a potentially wrongful execution. Your predecessor, Rick Perry, stood by during the frequent executions of his tenure. On Perry’s watch, 279 inmates were put to death — nearly 1/2 of the state’s total since Texas resumed executions in 1982. While on your watch, Governor Abbott, 46 people have been executed, you have also already done something Perry rarely did: You’ve exercised discretion to stop an execution. Minutes before Thomas Whitaker was set to die, at 6 p.m. on Feb. 22, 2018, you granted him clemency. He will spend life in prison for the murder of his mother and brother in Fort Bend County over an inheritance. There was no question of Whitaker’s guilt, just whether it was fair to put him to death when the triggerman got a lighter sentence. How much more compelling, then, is Reed’s case: Whitaker, who is white, was unquestionably guilty; Reed, who is black, may well be innocent. Study after study, including work by University of Michigan researchers, has found that black and Latino convicts are far more likely to wind up on death row, wrongfully, than white convicts. Now the case rests before the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and it may soon send you a recommendation in Reed’s case. But you can signal your own preference now. You aren’t bound by arcane rules of the appellate courts. Both you and the board have the documented flaws in the case. You have the Bastrop County prosecutor steadfastly refusing DNA testing on an old murder. You have the fact that Reed has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court. And even if the board doesn’t recommend you commute his sentence, you have the authority to spare his life for 30 days as he pursues his remedy at the Supreme Court. You should use that authority and give the courts time to fully evaluate the new evidence. As you mull your options, remember our history: Texas has a tarnished
