[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
April 24 MALAWI: Consensus on death penalty continuation against prisoners' wish A consensus by Malawians to uphold death penalty was in sharp contrast to wishes by some murder convicts who fought at the Constitutional Court to have it abolished. A Special Law Commission at the just ended national constitutional review in Lilongwe last week retained the death penalty, saying majority of Malawians consulted wanted it retained. However, the Constitutional Court in Blantyre that heard the prisoners case late last year, is yet to make a ruling on the matter to determine whether to uphold or abolish the capital punishment. Delegates at the conference differed on the issue, with others saying upholding the death penalty would stop people from committing murder while others said retaining it was against the same Constitution that guarantees a right to life. The murder convicts that took the case to the Constitutional Court for judicial review had advanced the same argument that the death penalty was unlawful because the Constitution guaranteed them a right to life. Noel Chalamanda, one of the lawyers that represented the convicts that could hang if the President appends his signature, said in an interview Monday that the views from Malawians the Special Law Commission consulted had no legal backing. We made our arguments in court, backed by the law. Those views had no legal basis. I can't comment much because the court judgement is due anytime from now, Chalamanda said. The Constitutional Court in the matter heard both sides, government and the prisoners. During the national constitutional review, delegates said it was better to retain death sentence for murder convicts and remove it for convicts in treason and rape. The delegates said rape and treason convicts should be committed to life imprisonment. (source: The Daily Times)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----USA, PENN.
April 24 USA: Bad Drugs: Lethal Injection Does Not Work as Designed A new study shows that failure to inject proper dosages potentially leads to slow, painful deaths from chemical asphyxiation Lethal injection was invented in 1977 by Oklahoma state medical examiner Jay Chapman, who, based on his own experiences under anesthesia, concocted the drug cocktail from an ultrashort-acting barbiturate and a chemical paralytic. He added a heart-stopping drug to the mix to provide a painless, quick death with built-in redundancy. If one drug didn't kill the death row inmate, one of the other 2 would. But dosage is critical to the efficacy of lethal injection according to a new study, which found that if any of the doses are off the recipient not only feels pain, but he or she also must suffer a slow death by the asphyxiation following total paralysis. Molecular biologist Teresa Zimmers of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and colleagues, including a surgeon, an anesthesiologist and a lawyer, analyzed the sparse public records of executions. Only 2 states provide such records: North Carolina and California, the latter of which was forced to do so by court order. In each of these states, varying dosages of sodium thiopental (a barbiturate to induce anesthesia), pancuronium bromide (a muscle relaxant that paralyzes all the muscles of the body) and potassium chloride (a salt that speeds the heart until it stops) are injected in doses designed to kill condemned inmates. Though the dosages vary by state, they do not vary by inmateeach is given the same amount of the drug whether short or tall, fat or thin. As a result, death by lethal injection is not necessarily quick or painless, according to the study published in PLoS Medicine. In North Carolina inmates took an average of nine minutes to die (and much longer before flawed drug protocols were changed), and in California cessation of the heartbeat took from 2 to 8 minutes after the last injection of the heart-stopping potassium chloride. When potassium chloride was added, it didn't seem to change the time of death, Zimmers notes. This suggests that potassium chloride may not be the agent of death. In addition, researchers found that the amounts of thiopental used may not be sufficient to render the procedure painless, based on comparisons with veterinary data. In the veterinary realm, government and professional oversight has led to the development of strict dosage guidelines for the appropriate painless killing of animals. The dosages used in human executions are, in some cases, lower by body weight than the dosages that would kill only 50 % of mice and from which monkeys have been able to successfully recover. The way that thiopental is administered, it would be an unacceptably low dose if the inmate was a pig scheduled for euthanasia, Zimmers says. And, although the dosages of potassium chloride would be considered adequate to kill animals, they do not appear to have the intended effect in humans, failing to hasten the time of death. We are doing it successfully in animals and we're doing it successfully because they've taken a hard look at it, notes Jon Sheldon, a study co-author and criminal defense attorney in Virginia. When you do it with animals, there is no pain. It's likely there is with people. That pain takes the form of slow asphyxiation due to an inability to use the diaphragm muscle to breathe as a result of the pancuronium bromide. In such case death by suffocation would occur in a paralyzed inmate fully aware of the progressive suffocation and potassium-induced sensation of burning, the researchers write. The scientists analyzed only 41 of the 891 lethal injections that have taken place in the U.S. to date (and considerably more worldwide). But many of the remaining states' drug protocols and details of their executions remain secret. Nevertheless, researchers say the small sample indicates that the cocktail is not working as intended. This idea that this is a painless procedure is completely wrong, Zimmers says. It's just invisible because the person is paralyzed. The legal standard is you can't have unnecessary or gratuitous pain, under the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, Sheldon adds. It seems quite likely that a number of people are suffering pain. If a change to the protocol would be fairly simple to do, then the pain you are inflicting is clearly unnecessary. (source: Scientific American) ** Does Execution By Lethal Injection Involve Conscious Asphyxiation? Execution by lethal injection may cause death by asphyxiation, and prisoners being executed may be conscious and may experience pain, claim the authors of a new study published this week in PLoS Medicine. Leonidas Koniaris and colleagues from the University of Miami assessed data from 2 US states that release information on executions together with previously published work on the drugs used in the protocols for lethal
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
April 24 AUSTRALIA: 'Justice Must Not Kill' The death penalty is nothing more than institutionalised sadism and must be opposed under all circumstances a Brisbane Forum on the abolition of capital punishment heard last week. Speaking as a guest of forum organisers, Australians Against Capital Punishment (AACP), former Federal ALP Minister, Barry Jones, said abolishing capital punishment was a matter of principal and there must be no exceptions. No one should have the power to extinguish a life, he said. The AACP lobby group has been formed in part by Lee and Christine Rush, whose son Scott was one of the Bali Nine caught smuggling drugs in Indonesia in 2005. Mr and Mrs Rush have been collecting signatures for a petition to convince the Australian Government to lobby Indonesia for clemency for Scott and the 5 other young Australians who received the death penalty as a result of their drug smuggling activities . Our son has committed a crime and we do not condone what he and others have done, Mr Rush told the forum, illicit drugs are a cancer in our society However, capital punishment is not the answer, he said We need a new strategy, the use of illegal drugs is a social problem. Dr Jones, who has been a passionate campaigner for the abolition of the death penalty for over 60 years, said capital punishment along with torture and wrongful imprisonment constituted the Black Flower of Civilisation and was a metaphor for State control. America, which retains the death penalty mostly in its Southern States, sets a particularly bad example. The USA is the only practising democracy that still executes its citizens, he told the forum. Dr Jones said Australia, which is opposed to the death penalty, should show leadership against capital punishment but was instead sending mixed signals on the issue. We say we're against the death penalty domestically and against it for our citizens in other countries, but in cases where there have been Australian victims we are not opposed, he said. My objection to the death penalty is based on principles, he said, capital punishment has to be opposed under all circumstances. Tim Goodman, Amnesty International's Anti-Death Penalty Coordinator, said that in 2005, 94 % of all known executions took place in China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the USA. According to Mr Goodwin's blog on capital punishment, Asia Death Penalty, Iran executed 94 people in 2005, Saudia Arabia at least 86 and the USA 60. China however executes more than all the other countries put together with Amnesty International citing public records which put the number at 1770 but estimating around 8000 being a more accurate figure. Mr Goodwin told the forum that capital punishment was a human rights issue and a cruel and inhuman way of treating people. It can't be done in an humane way, he said. While defenders of the death penalty say it is necessary to deter people from committing crimes, Mr Goodwin said there is no scientific evidence to support their claims. It is an illusion, he said the death penalty does not stop crime. Other speakers at the forum, which was titled Justice Must Not Kill, were constitutional lawyer, Patrick Keyser, and Reverend David Pitman, Moderator or the Uniting Church Queensland. Mr Keyser raised concerns that the death penalty, in the present political climate, could be introduced in Australia, despite the country being a signatory to international human rights covenants. The Commonwealth has the power to enter into treaties, he said, but no obligation to comply unless it is in legislation. Reverend Pitman gave a Christian perspective saying it saddened him to concede that members of the Christian faith were not united in opposing the death penalty. There is evidence that the death penalty was used in Hebrew society he said citing the often quoted eye for eye and a tooth for a tooth from the Book of Exodus. However Reverend Pitman said Jesus had specifically rejected that belief, urging instead forgiveness I believe in the unique worth and dignity of the individual, he told the forum, Life is sacred. No one has the right to take the life of another. (source: The Epoch Times)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., USA
April 24 TEXAS: Texas lawmakers push possible death penalty for repeat sex offenders The Texas Senate on Tuesday passed a bill targeting sexual predators that includes a possible death penalty for those who are twice convicted of raping children under 14. I can think of no more solemn duty than the protection of our most innocent and vulnerable citizens, said state Senator Bob Deuell, who sponsored the measure. Texas already has the most active death row in the United States. If the bill becomes law, Texas would be the sixth state to allow some child sex offenders to be sentenced to death. The others are Florida, Montana, Louisiana, Oklahoma and South Carolina. To become law, lawmakers from the state Senate and House must agree on a version of the bill, and Governor Rick Perry must approve it. Perry has called the passage of a child sex offender bill a legislative emergency. The House has approved a diferent version of the bill. The bill creates new categories of sexually violent offenses against children under 14, including categories for crimes committed involving kidnapping, date-rape drugs and deadly weapons. Such crimes, or any aggravated sexual assault on a child under 6, automatically carry a minimum sentence of 25 years in prison. A second offense of those crimes could carry the death penalty. Critics have asked whether the death penalty in cases where the victim does not die would be unconstitutional. In 1977, the U.S. Supreme Court threw out the death penalty in a Georgia rape case. Louisiana has one inmate on death row in a child sex crime, but the case is still subject to appeals in state and federal courts. We want to deter people. We don't want victims. But if a crime happens, we want to give our prosecutors the tools to make convictions, Deuell said. (source: Associated Press) NORTH CAROLINA: Poll: Death penalty support wanes in N.C. More than 1/3 of North Carolina adults now believe life in prison is the most appropriate punishment for 1st-degree murder as support for the death penalty wanes, according to a poll released Tuesday. The poll found that 58 % of adults support the death penalty, but only 48 % said it's always the most appropriate punishment for those convicted of 1st-degree murder, according to researchers at Elon University. Another 10 % said the sentence depends on the circumstances. About 38 % of respondents said they believe life in prison is the most appropriate sentence for murderers. Those numbers indicated a significant shift from a November 2005 Elon poll that showed nearly 2/3 of adults supported the death penalty, and 61 % said it was always the most appropriate punishment for 1st-degree murder. Just 27 % preferred life in prison. Poll director Hunter Bacot said North Carolinians are reviewing their positions on the death penalty in light of several exonerations and the botched case against three Duke University lacrosse players, in which a zealous prosecutor charged the men with rape despite flimsy evidence. Attorney General Roy Cooper declared the players innocent earlier this month - a year after they were charged. There's always been the sentiment that the system is fair for the most part, Bacot said. But people are now looking back and wondering if people are truly getting a fair shake in the courts. Mark Kleinschmidt, executive director of the Durham-based Fair Trial Initiative, said the poll is another measure of the public's growing distaste for the death penalty. I find it remarkable, Kleinschmidt said. Those are some of the lowest numbers I've seen in the long time. I was actually surprised that the numbers dropped that much. But Lee Peacock, whose grandmother was killed in Trinity in 1991, said victims' families need to start rallying together to tell their stories. Over the last several years, it's the victims and the families of the victims who are not getting heard, Peacock said. We need to speak out more about our daily suffering. In 1993, James Williams was convicted of murder in the death of Peacock's grandmother, Elvie Rhodes. He's still on death row. The poll, which surveyed 476 adults from households in North Carolina last week, has a margin of error of 4.6 percent. It comes as North Carolina's top officials try to figure out how to break a legal stalemate that has placed an effective moratorium on the death penalty. The North Carolina Medical Board declared in January that any doctor who participates in an execution violates medical ethics and could face sanction. The decision triggered a series of legal actions, and a state judge has placed five executions on hold. No other executions have been scheduled. Elon pollsters also questioned respondents about their support for corporal punishment in schools, which is also getting a new review in the General Assembly. A House committee approved a ban earlier this month. But nearly 55 % of adults said in the poll they support corporal punishment in schools, and
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
April 25 UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: 2 men facing death penalty win retrial The Abu Dhabi criminal court charged the 2 men, identified as B.K. and I.N., with premeditated murder after they killed a man, identified as I.K.. According to the prosecution, the 2 men came into I.K.'s shop when he was alone. While B.K. tied him from the back, I.N. stabbed him with a knife in the neck, chest and stomach. The 2 men then stole money, clothes and tissues from I.K.'s shop and fled, according to the prosecution. The court sentenced the 2 men to death, ordering the execution to be done in front of the family of I.K. Appeal I.N. appealed against the sentence. He claimed that the translator involved in the investigation was not an authorised one. (source: Gulf News) JAPAN: Robbery-murder gets death penalty The Morioka District Court sentenced a 30-year-old man to death Tuesday for killing 2 women in a robbery-murder case last July in the town of Hirono, Iwate Prefecture. Presiding Judge Shinji Sugiyama said Kazuyuki Wakabayashi, a house painter from the town of Gonohe, Aomori Prefecture, deserved capital punishment as he brutally killed 2 people who were not at all at fault. Wakabayashi had pleaded guilty. His defense had argued for a life sentence, saying the murders were not premeditated: He had killed them because the victims saw his face. He was convicted of breaking into the home of Noriko Ueno, a 52-year-old office worker, last July 19, killing her and her 24-year-old daughter Yuki, stealing about 20,000 yen in cash and about 80 items worth 45,000 yen, and abandoning their bodies in the mountains nearby. (source: Japan Times)
