[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
April 18 TRINIDAD: The crucifixion and resurrection of Trinidad Trinidad and Tobago is in a state of crisis due to the increased intensity of crime with little hope of a solution by those in authority who have been appointed to protect us. In the face of rising crime they tend to shift the blame on our attitude - a response that if not incorrect is insensitive to the victims of crime as well as their friends and family, co-workers and neighbours. The loss of law and order continues to erode our faith in the government as they continue to fail to convince us that they understand our fears and frustrations. We as a nation are appealing for a positive programme for the restoration of a society of decency and order. The Government must assume a major role in the fight against violence and senseless killings. The Prime Minister must exert moral leadership, reinforcing the importance of respect for law and contempt towards those who continue to violate it by practising murder and other violent and heinous crimes. Harsher penalties must be imposed on convicted murderers and rapists. The primary duty of any government is the safety and security of its citizenry and loss of law and order due to gang warfare is the most visible sign that the Government has failed. Those in authority and even citizens continue to make statements about the crime situation that make them appear to be siding with the supposed villains rather than their victims. Who or what do we turn to in the face of this crisis? During this Easter season the resurrection of Christ provides a semblance of hope. We are now called to be a resurrection nation; we will rise above kidnappings and murders. The tomb is empty and this directly means that our nation should also be emptied of all the murderers and criminals that create a barrier between us and peace. This will be achieved by enforcing the death penalty on convicted murderers and rapists and that will send a strong message to the nation that these crimes will not go unpunished. The negative influences may never be completely destroyed because of the attitude of those in authority, but we as individuals can continue to dream and do all in our power to rise above all obstacles and live a life of success. Having recently been the victim of an arson attack against my home in Chaguanas I have decided to rise above the violence, pettiness, immaturity, senselessness and cowardice of my enemies and have decided to travel the world sharing the message to millions with speaking engagements and my very own motivational CD that we can positively impact the world by daring to dream and rising above the evil influences that are designed to destroy us and prevent us from living our dreams. Simon Wright Chaguanas (source: letter to the Editor Trinidad Express) IRAN: Halt imminent execution of 2 men arrested as teenagers The Iranian authorities must urgently stop the imminent execution of two long-time death row prisoners who were children at the time of their arrest, Amnesty International said today. One of the men, Mehdi Bahlouli, is due to be executed tomorrow morning in Karaj's Raja'i Shahr Prison, after more than 15 years on death row. He was sentenced to death by a criminal court in Tehran in November 2001 for fatally stabbing a man during a fight. He was 17 at the time of the crime. The execution of the second man, Peyman Barandah, is scheduled to take place just three weeks later, on 10 May, in Shiraz Central Prison, Fars Province. He was arrested at the age of 16 and spent nearly 5 years on death row, after being convicted in August 2012, also for stabbing a teenager to death during a fight. "Carrying out the executions of these 2 young men would be an outrageous breach of international human rights law that would cement Iran's position as one of the world's top executors of juvenile offenders," said Philip Luther, Amnesty International's Research and Advocacy Director for the Middle East and North Africa. "Mehdi Bahlouli has spent his entire young adult life on death row. His shocking ordeal epitomizes the cruelty of Iran's juvenile justice system which regularly sentences juvenile offenders to death in violation of international human rights law and then subjects them to prolonged periods on death row. The anguish and torment of living their lives in the shadow of the gallows also amounts to cruel and inhuman treatment." Mehdi Bahlouli's family told Amnesty International that they received a call from the prison on Saturday informing them to attend for their last visit. He was transferred to solitary confinement on Sunday in preparation for his execution. Iran's recently amended 2013 Islamic Penal Code gives judges the option to replace the death penalty with an alternative punishment if they determine that the juvenile offender did not understand the nature of the crime or its consequences, or his or
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----ARK., NEB., COLO., USA
April 18 ARKANSASstay of executions U.S. Supreme Court won't allow Arkansas execution The Arkansas Supreme Court halted the executions of 2 men originally scheduled to be put to death Monday night. The Supreme Court late Monday blocked the 1st of at least 6 executions planned in Arkansas over the next 2 weeks after a dizzying day of state and federal court disputes about lethal injection drugs, mental health claims and the right to legal representation. The justices' action represented a setback, but not a final blow, for Arkansas officials as they race the clock to execute convicted murderers before the state's supply of a controversial sedative used for executions passes its expiration date. If that happens, all the executions will be put on hold. Justices turned down Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge's request to vacate a stay for Don Davis, 54, who was set to die Monday night by lethal injection. It's the 2nd time in 7 years that Davis, who was convicted in a 1992 murder, has come within hours of execution before courts intervened. Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson released a statement saying he was disappointed in the delay. "While this has been an exhausting day for all involved, tomorrow we will continue to fight back on last minute appeals and efforts to block justice for the victims' families," the statement read. The order does not affect executions still planned for Thursday and next week, among 8 originally scheduled with unprecedented haste over an 11-day period because of the looming deadline. A federal district court had blocked all the executions Saturday, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit reversed that decision. Other courts blocked 2 of the executions over separate issues of competency and clemency. While the last-minute appeals raised technical issues involving the defendants' legal rights and courts' jurisdiction, the state's effort to execute its first prisoners since 2005 focused largely on the drugs to be used. One of them, the sedative midazolam, has been associated with botched executions in Alabama, Arizona, Ohio and Oklahoma. Another, vecuronium bromide, was said by its manufacturer to have been obtained by the state under false pretenses. The planned executions have renewed the debate over lethal injection in particular and capital punishment in general, which has been in decline for nearly 2 decades. No state has executed so many prisoners in such a short time span. Twice in 1997, Texas executed 8 prisoners in a single month, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. The Supreme Court refused to hear the prisoners' appeal in February, along with another case from Alabama. At the time, Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Stephen Breyer dissented. Sotomayor has been the court's leading critic of midazolam; Breyer has questioned the constitutionality of capital punishment. The high court has tossed out 2 Texas death sentences this year - 1 because of racially discriminatory testimony, the other because of an outdated definition of intellectual disability. It is scheduled to hear 2 more death penalty cases on April 24, the date 2 more Arkansas prisoners are slated for execution. (source: USA Today) *** Arkansas Vows To Keep Pushing For Executions Despite Setback Arkansas officials vowed to carry out a double execution later this week after the U.S. Supreme Court delivered a setback to the state's plan to resume capital punishment for the 1st time in nearly 12 years with a ruling sparing an inmate just minutes before his death warrant was set to expire. The court's decision was the second time Don Davis had been granted a reprieve shortly before execution - he was within hours of death in 2010. It capped a chaotic day of legal wrangling in state and federal courts Monday as Arkansas tried to clear obstacles to carrying out its first executions since 2005. Davis had already been served a last meal, and witnesses were being moved toward the execution chamber when the Supreme Court ruled just minutes before Davis' death warrant expired at midnight. Davis was sentenced to death for the 1990 death of Jane Daniel in Rogers, Arkansas. The woman was killed in her home after Davis broke in and shot her with a .44-caliber revolver he found there. Gov. Asa Hutchinson had set an aggressive schedule of as many as eight executions by the end of April, when the state's supply of a key lethal injection drug expires. Davis and Bruce Ward were supposed to be the 1st 2 of those Monday but Ward received a stay of execution and the state did not appeal the decision. The state did challenge a stay granted to Davis but the last-minute U.S. Supreme Court ruling ensured that he would not enter the death chamber Monday. Despite the setbacks, Attorney General Leslie Rutledge said Arkansas would press ahead with other planned executions, including 2 set for
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., VA., FLA., LA., TENN.
April 18 TEXAS: 5 death penalty reform bills heard in Texas House committee5 death penalty bills were heard in a seven-hour-long meeting at the Capitol Monday night. The death penalty was a hot topic at the Texas Capitol Monday night. Testimony on 5 capital punishment bills was heard by the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee in a 7-hour-long meeting that lasted until close to midnight. The bills included 2 that would stop the practice of sentencing accomplices to death in certain cases and 2 which would abolish the death penalty altogether. House Bills 147 and 316, by Democrats Harold Dutton and Terry Canales, respectively, would change how a person could be sentenced to death under Texas' "law of parties," which holds that those involved in a crime resulting in death are equally responsible even if they weren't the actual killer. "At the end of the day, the logic should be, 'Did you intend to participate in that murder? Were you a part of it?'" Canales exclaimed while laying out his bill near the end of the long meeting. "Let's cut the nonsense out." The most prominent case of a current Texas death row inmate sentenced under the law of parties is Jeff Wood. Wood was convicted in the 1996 murder of Kriss Keeran, who was fatally shot by Wood's friend in a Kerrville convenience store while he sat outside in a truck. Last year, Wood's case garnered national attention as his execution neared. Texas lawmakers from both parties spoke out against the execution, which was halted days before the scheduled date. Republican Rep. Jeff Leach has been one of the most adamant supporters of reforming the law of parties. He has taken an interest in Wood's case, going so far as to visiting him on death row in February. "I promised Jeff that I and Chairman Dutton and Rep. Canales would do everything that we can this session to ensure that another case like Jeff Wood's case would never happen again in the state of Texas," Leach said at a news conference earlier Monday on the bills. There are 2 ways to find someone guilty under Texas' law of parties. The 1st puts responsibility on those who help commit or solicit a crime, even if they weren't directly involved. The second states that all parties are responsible for 1 felony that stems from another if the 2nd "should have been anticipated." For Wood, the state argued he was willfully participating in a robbery and knew his accomplice would resort to killing if Keeran did not comply, so Wood should have anticipated the robbery would lead to a murder. Wood has maintained he didnt know his friend had a gun on him. The reform bills focus mainly on the "anticipation" clause, removing the possibility of a death sentence if someone is found guilty under the 2nd part of the law of parties and automatically granting them a sentence of life without parole. Currently, after being convicted, a jury still must agree the convict intended to kill or anticipated death to issue a death sentence. Travis County Assistant District Attorney Justin Wood was the lone testifier against the bills, with eight others testifying in support of the bills that were laid out close to 11 p.m. He said the law of parties has been a "useful tool" for prosecutors, adding that "there are a lot of monsters who never get their hands dirty." But Dutton argued that those people would still be punished, just not to death. Chairman Joe Moody, D-El Paso, said Wood's testimony resonated with him as he has long struggled to "strike a balance" with the law of parties and the death penalty. In 2009, a similar bill filed in the House made it to the Senate, but died there. Terri Been, Jeff Wood's sister, said she has been lobbying against the law of parties for 20 years and pleaded through tears for the Legislature to move it forward this year. "My cries have fallen on mostly deaf ears. I'm begging you to be leaders and to lead your constituents in the right direction," she said before wiping her eyes. It is not common for a jury to sentence someone to death under the law of parties, but it happens. In 2007, prison inmates Jerry Martin and John Ray Falk, Jr., attempted escape. In the escape, Martin hit and killed prison guard Susan Canfield with a van. This March, Falk was sentenced to death as a party to the murder. And Texas has executed at least 5 people under the statute, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Only 5 other states have executed anyone under similar laws. Aside from the law of parties, two identical bills to get rid of the death penalty in Texas completely were also heard Monday evening. Dutton and Rep. Jessica Farrar filed House Bills 64 and 1537. Both lawmakers have repeatedly filed abolition bills in past legislative sessions, and they acknowledged their main goal was to keep up a discussion on the death penalty. In a Republican-led legislature, it is almost certain that the bills will not
