[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
May 5 GERMANY: Germany rules out Turkish death penalty referendum The German government says it won't allow Turks living in Germany to vote in a possible referendum on reviving the death penalty in Turkey. President Erdogan is contemplating reviving capital punishment. Government spokesman Steffen Seibert told reporters in Berlin on Friday that letting such a referendum go ahead in Germany was "politically inconceivable" because it "so clearly contradicts our basic law and European values." Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan floated plans to bring back the death penalty following his narrow victory in last month's referendum to expand his powers. Under Turkish law, Turkish nationals living abroad are eligible to vote in referendums and elections in Turkey. But Germany's Foreign Ministry has pointed out that all sovereign actions by other countries on its territory, such as referendums, first need to be approved by the federal government. Erdogan has called for the death penalty to be reinstated Germany allowed polling stations for Turkish nationals to vote in the April referendum on the presidential executive. No application for a referendum on the death penalty has yet been made by Ankara. If such a request were to be made, Seibert said the government would likely use its legal resources to prohibit a vote. His comments echoed earlier remarks from the leading Social Democrat candidate in this year's federal elections, Martin Schulz. He told news magazine "Der Spiegel" that "we cannot allow voting in Germany on an instrument that contradicts our values and our constitution." (source: Deutsche Welle) SAUDI ARABIA: Stop Execution of Young Man for Atheism in Saudi Arabia! (see: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/471/732/427/save-man-from-death-in-saudi-arabia-for-quotatheism-and-blasphemyquot/) Saudi Arabia has condemned a man to death for being an atheist. Ahmad Al Shamri is a young man in his 20s who did what many of us do - he used social media to share his views on life, religion, and the world. But when he shared that he was an atheist, the authorities took notice and immediately came after him. A Saudi Arabian court first sentenced Mr. Shamri to death in February 2015, but he appealed the verdict and has spent years in prison while waiting for the court to overturn the punishment. Now, the Supreme Court of Saudi Arabia has issued its final verdict. And it has ruled against Mr. Shamri, confirming that he will be killed for his beliefs. We don't know when or how Mr. Shamri will be executed. We don't know how much time he has left. But we do know that no one should be murdered for their personal beliefs - whether those beliefs are about religion, politics, society, or any other topic on the face of the earth. Murder is murder, even when it is carried out by a government. We are urging the Supreme Court of Saudi Arabia to rethink its decision and to spare Mr. Shamri's life! We must all band together and speak out strongly and loudly. Only a chorus of voices from the international community can save Mr. Shamri now. (source: thepetitionsite.com) IRAN: Hangings Continue Unabated in Iran, Despite International Pressure Over the past 5 years, there have been repeated calls by the international community for Iran to institute a moratorium on all executions within the country. Convictions were called into question based on faulty trials, lack of legal representation, and confessions obtained under duress or outright torture. Individuals who are convicted of drug offenses are also at risk of receiving the death penalty, despite the fact that these offenses do not meet international standards for the death penalty. "Iranian officials should end all executions and outlaw the use of the death penalty for drug offenders, which does not meet international legal standards," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch in January 2017. "Packing prisons with drug offenders and rushing to send them to death row without due process in highly flawed trials will just worsen Iran's justice problem while doing nothing to solve Iran???s drug problem." Iran executed hundreds of people in 2016, with a majority of them for drug offenses. Their drug law mandates the death penalty for the trafficking, possession, or trade of as little as 30 grams of synthetic drugs or their chemical derivatives. "The death penalty is a cruel, inhuman, and degrading punishment that violates the right to life. Its use is abhorrent in any circumstances, but carrying out these executions would be particularly tragic, given ongoing discussions in the Iranian parliament that could lead to the abolition of the death penalty for non-violent drug offenses," said Phillip Luther, Research and Advocacy Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International. This is just one example of the individuals receiving
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----MICH., ILL., ARK., IDAHO
May 5 MICHIGAN: May 4, 1846: Michigan becomes 1st state to abolish death penalty Michigan became the 1st state to abolish the death penalty on this day in 1846. Furthermore, when Michigan abolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes on May 4, 1846 it wasn't just the 1st state to do so, "it became the 1st English-speaking jurisdiction in the world to abolish the death penalty," according to a University of Pennsylvania law article. Here's an excerpt from "Capital Punishment Abolished -- Advent of the Telegraph," which describes how lawmakers in the relatively young state of Michigan -- it joined the union less than 10 years earlier in 1837 -- came to this decision 171 years ago: Abolition of the death penalty (in Michigan) came about by indirection. Michigan had adopted many laws of other states, most of them based upon the Common Law of England. They had passed other laws which modified these. Some of the statutes were contradictory because the conflicting laws had not been repealed. The laws were published in the order of their passage, without systematic arrangement, so a lawyer had to comb the entire code and often he was still left in doubt and dependent upon the offhand ruling of a judge. Chief Justice Fletcher revised the Michigan statutes in 1838, but his work was so hastily done that it brought little improvement. In 1845 Sanford M. Green, a very able lawyer of Oakland County, was a member of the state senate and he was commissioned to make a thorough revision of the laws of Michigan and to make recommendations to the legislature. When his report was made the legislature made a few changes and adopted the report as a single act, May 18, 1846. In this revised code the penalty for murder was limited to imprisonment at hard labor for life. Immediately there was an outburst of opposition to this reform and it was led by about 50 of the leading citizens of Detroit. They fulminated against it in the press and enlisted the pulpit in their cause. At the request of 41 citizens who signed a formal petition, the Rev. George Duffield of the First Presbyterian Church preached a powerful sermon against abolition of the death penalty as contrary to the laws of God and civilized men. That sermon was printed and circulated all over the state, but it brought no demand for restoration of the death penalty. 7 executions in Michigan while under US jurisdiction Before Michigan got rid of the death penalty, 7 people were executed in the state while it was under U.S. jurisdiction, beginning in 1819. The final execution in Michigan was the hanging of Anthony Chebatoris in July 8, 1838. Chebatoris' crime was murder. He was the only person to be executed during Michigan's statehood. The other 6 were executed between 1819 and 1836, when Michigan was still a U.S. territory. 4 of those people were Native Americans. Other states follow Michigan The state of Michigan's move to abolish capital punishment was soon followed by Rhode Island in 1852 and Wisconsin in 1853. Fast-forward to 2017 and there are now 18 states, and the District of Columbia, without an enforceable death penalty statute: Brief death penalty hiatus in US The U.S. Supreme Court suspended capital punishment across the country from 1972 through 1976 due to the court's decision in U.S. 238 Furman V. Georgia. However, capital punishment resumed in the U.S. in 1977. From Project Gutenberg: Executions resumed on January 17, 1977, when Gary Gilmore went before a firing squad in Utah. But the pace was quite slow due to the use of litigation tactics which involved filing repeated writs of habeas corpus, which succeeded for many in delaying their actual execution for many years. Although hundreds of individuals were sentenced to death in the United States during the 1970s and early 1980s, only ten people besides Gilmore (who had waived all of his appeal rights) were actually executed prior to 1984. Recently, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson scheduled 8 executions in 11 days, the most in the shortest amount of time since capital punishment returned to the United States in the 1970s. The Supreme Court has taken issue with this. (source: clickondetroit.com) ILLINOIS: Death row inmate freed with NU students' help misses deposition in suit arguing he was real killer Anthony Porter, a former death row inmate at the center of one of the most controversial wrongful conviction cases in Illinois history, failed to show at his scheduled deposition this week in a lawsuit alleging he was the real killer all along, according to a court filing Thursday. Porter was ordered to give sworn testimony Monday in the bombshell case brought by Alstory Simon, who has accused Northwestern University, its former star professor David Protess and others of conspiring to free Porter and convict Simon for an infamous 1982 double murder But Porter, who was served with a subpoena in April, was a no-show
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, DEL., S.C., FLA., ALA.
May 5 TEXAS: College football stars could face death penalty after grand jury indicts them on capital murder charges over the fatal shooting of a man, 29, during a botched marijuana robbery 2 college football stars are facing a murder trial over the fatal shooting of a 29-year-old man. Dontrell Dock, 20 and Brodrick Ross, 18, were indicted by a grand jury in Tarrant County over the January 11 murder of Chris-Dion Russell in Fort Worth, Texas. Prosecutors claim Dock and Ross broke into Russell's apartment to steal marijuana and shot him in the chest. Russell was rushed to hospital but died within an hour. According to the Star Telegram, the grand jury decided against recommending charges against a 3rd player, Ryan McBeth, who had also been arrested in connection with the investigation. Both Dock and Ross were playing with the McMurry University football team. Police investigating the shooting saw on CCTV covering the area a Chrysler 300 leave the scene. The car is understood to belong to Ross' brother. Dock is due to appear in court in Fort Worth this morning at 9am. *** Man on death row gets life sentence instead A man on death row for abducting a sheriff's deputy, keeping him handcuffed inside a patrol car trunk while demanding money from a bank officer will serve life in prison instead after Texas' highest criinal court reduced his sentence Wednesday. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals said executing 55-year-old Pedro Solis Sosa for the 1983 slaying could carry "an uncacceptable risk" that his punishment would be unconstitutionally cruel because of his intellectual disabilities. A life sentence for a 1983 capital murder means that the defendant is eligible for parole after 20 years. Sosa has been in prison more than 30 years. It will be up to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to decide whether Sosa ever is paroled. The appeals court in its decision Wednesday cited a March ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court in another Texas death row mental disability case. (source: Dallas Morning News) ** Deputy's son 'dejected' after his father's killer gets off death row Roger Childress, whose father Ollie "Sammy" Childress Jr. a Wilson County deputy sheriff was murdered in 1983 by Pedro Sosa, speaks about his father on Thursday, May 4, 2017. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals reduced Sosa's death penalty sentence on Wednesday to life in prison, making Sosa eligible for parole. On November 4, 1983, Roger Childress was working in San Antonio when he got a call from his uncle telling him that his father - Ollie "Sammy" Childress Jr., a Wilson County sheriff's deputy - had been kidnapped and killed in the line of duty. Over the past 33 years, Childress has waited for his father's convicted killer, Pedro Solis Sosa, to be executed. Twice the younger Childress prepared to make the drive to Huntsville to witness the execution, only to get a call hours before telling him there was a last-minute stay. A 3rd time, Sosa's execution was delayed 3 days before his scheduled death. "You feel dejected every time," Childress, now 63, said Thursday. "The time never came." On Wednesday, Childress got a similar call from his niece, who tearfully told him that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals had reduced Sosa's sentence to life in prison. The court ruled that executing Sosa, 55, would carry "an unacceptable risk" that his punishment would be unconstitutionally cruel because of his intellectual disabilities. Sosa, who grew up in San Antonio, has been in prison for more than 30 years, making him eligible for parole now. "I wish they would execute him, but since they won't, I'd like him to be in prison the rest of his life," Childress said in an interview in Stockdale. Sammy Childress was off duty when he was flagged down by 2 men, Sosa and his nephew Leroy Sosa. The men handcuffed the deputy and placed him in the trunk of his patrol car before driving to La Vernia State Bank. Pedro Sosa wore Childress' shirt and badge into the bank and told tellers, "I'm the damn sheriff now. I've got the sheriff in the trunk of my car." The 2 robbed the bank of $51,038. After the robbery, Sosa shot Childress once in the neck with the deputy's .44-caliber service revolver. The 2 men left the scene but returned so Pedro Sosa could wipe his fingerprints off the car. They realized Childress was still alive and shot him once more in the neck, killing him. Leroy Sosa, who was 17 at the time of the robbery, told police his uncle was the one who shot Childress. The younger Sosa got life in prison in exchange for his testimony. Pedro Sosa also confessed but later retracted his statement. He said law enforcement officials forced a confession by threatening him and his wife. Since then, Sosa has maintained that he is innocent. His attorneys also say he suffers from a mental illness that alters his sense
