[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
June 11 EGYPT: Cancel Military Court Death SentencesConvicted Civilians Alleged Torture, Forcible Disappearances The case of 8 men who could face imminent execution following a military trial shows why Egyptian authorities should place a moratorium on the death penalty, Human Rights Watch said today. The 8 civilians, 6 of whom are in custody, were sentenced to death on May 29, 2016, after a trial on terrorism charges that denied them basic due process rights and relied on confessions that the defendants said were obtained under torture. If the Supreme Military Court for Appeals denies the defendants' appeal, the 6 men in custody could be executed as soon as Defense Minister Sedky Sobhi and President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ratify their death sentences. "Egyptian authorities have been using military trials to dodge the already threadbare due process protections in regular courts, and we fear these trials may become rubber stamps for the death penalty," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "Military courts should never be used against civilians, and they should certainly not be allowed to condemn civilians to death." Sobhi should cancel the death sentences and order military prosecutors to drop the case, and if there is evidence against the men or their co-defendants, Egypt's prosecutor general should charge them in a regular court, Human Rights Watch said. Since 2013, military courts have sentenced at least 60 defendants to death in at least 10 cases. 6 of these sentences have been approved and carried out. While military courts have handed down far fewer death sentences than the hundreds issued by regular courts since 2013, they do not provide even the limited due process protections available in those courts. Egyptian authorities have tried more than 7,400 civilians in military courts since al-Sisi decreed a law in October 2014 that vastly expanded military court jurisdiction. The 8 men were among 28 tried together on terrorism charges. Only 1 of the 28 was a member of the military. The court sentenced 12 to life in prison, 6 to 15 years, and acquitted 2. Military prosecutors alleged that the men had supported or belonged to a group tied to the Muslim Brotherhood that obtained explosives and weapons and plotted to carry out surveillance and attacks on government and security officials. Human Rights Watch reviewed the military prosecution's 20-page indictment, a 149-page defense memo, and the 37-page military court verdict. Human Rights Watch also interviewed two defense lawyers, one defendant who was sentenced to death but lives outside Egypt, and relatives of 5 other defendants. The relatives said that the authorities arrested the 5 men between May 28 and June 2, 2015, and did not provide information about their whereabouts for weeks. The families inquired in local police stations and sent telegrams to various government offices but received no response. Some learned of their relatives' whereabouts weeks later, when they received calls from people who saw the men in detention. The authorities did not officially acknowledge that the men were being accused of crimes until July 10, 2015, when some of the men appeared in a video released by the Defense Ministry that accused them of belonging to "the biggest terrorist cell threatening national security." 5 of the men told their relatives that interrogators had tortured them, including with beatings, electric shocks, and hanging in painful stress positions. 3 said they were then forced to read confessions written for them. 2 told their relatives that the Defense Ministry's Military Intelligence and Reconnaissance Department had held them in Cairo's Nasr City neighborhood, in a facility that Human Rights Watch independently confirmed belonged to military intelligence. None of the men were allowed access to lawyers during their detention, interrogation, or initial questioning by military prosecutors. The men's trial, known as Case 174 of 2015, began on September 17, 2015. Military prosecutors charged the defendants with manufacturing explosives, acquiring defense secrets, possessing firearms, and violating article 86 of the penal code - Egypt's primary anti-terrorism statute. The law provides for life imprisonment or the death penalty for anyone who helps lead a group that uses terrorism to "disrupt the provisions of the constitution or laws, prevent state institutions or public authorities from carrying out their work, assault citizens' personal freedoms or general rights, or harm national unity or social peace." Under article 86, anyone who supplies such a group with money, weapons, or explosives can also receive the death penalty. The indictment Human Rights Watch reviewed relied entirely on the testimony of Major Hani Soltan, an officer with military intelligence Group 77. Soltan testified that on May 24, 2015, during a routine inspection
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., FLA., OHIO, MO., ARK., N.DAK.
June 11 TEXAS: Don't execute people with intellectual disabilities The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has the opportunity in the case of Bobby James Moore, a death row inmate with severe intellectual disability, to bring the state's capital punishment standards in line with those established by the U.S. Supreme Court, which kicked Moore's case back to the appeals court. The Gospel compels Christians to speak for those without a voice and to advocate for society's most vulnerable members, including those with intellectual disability. For this reason, I feel compelled to speak out on behalf of Bobby James Moore, an individual with documented lifelong intellectual disability who has spent the past 37 years on Texas' death row. While Christians have varying views on the death penalty, hopefully we can all agree no person with intellectual disability should be executed. As the U.S. Supreme Court recognized more than 15 years ago, "no legitimate penological purpose is served by executing a person with intellectual disability" because such persons "do not act with the level of moral culpability that characterizes the most serious adult criminal conduct." While the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has been reticent to heed this message, it has both the legal and moral duty to do so now. And it should take an important 1st step here by reforming Moore's death sentence to life imprisonment. As a 13-year-old, Moore lacked a basic understanding of the days of the week, the months of the year, telling time and the concept that subtraction is the reverse of addition. He failed the 1st grade twice and every grade after that before dropping out of school in the 9th grade. At age 14, his father - after subjecting Moore to years of severe mental and physical abuse - threw him out of the house because Moore still did not know how to read. Moore lived on the streets, eating out of garbage cans and sleeping in a pool hall. He survived largely due to the kindness of strangers. Then, at age 20, Moore was involved in a bungled grocery store robbery, in which he shot and killed a grocery store clerk. He has spent nearly 40 years on death row for that crime, which we all condemn. In 2014, a Harris County district court judge held a two-day hearing. After carefully listening to experts and witnesses, Judge Susan Brown applied current medical standards and determined that Moore is intellectually disabled and therefore exempt from the death penalty. She noted that Moore has an average IQ score of 70.66, which is well within the range of intellectual disability. And she found in her lengthy fact-finding that Moore's serious mental and social difficulties were very clear from early childhood. The judge's determination that Moore is intellectually disabled and exempt from the death penalty should have been the end of the matter. Instead, in 2015, the Court of Criminal Appeals said that the lower court erred in applying current medical standards in making its determination that Moore was intellectually disabled. Applying nonclinical and outdated medical standards, it decided that Moore was not intellectually disabled and could be executed. In March, in Moore vs. Texas, the U.S. Supreme Court emphatically reversed the appeals court's decision. The U.S. Supreme Court carefully reviewed the record. It emphasized that Moore's IQ score is clearly within the range of intellectually disabled and that the evidence just as clearly supported that he had significant mental and social difficulties from an early age. The U.S. Supreme Court also strongly endorsed Brown's application of current medical standards in concluding that Moore is intellectually disabled. Moore's case is back before the Court of Criminal Appeals. This case presents not only a legal issue but also a moral one. In Moore's case, the U.S. Supreme Court questioned why Texas applies current medical standards for diagnosing intellectual disability in other contexts, "yet clings to superseded standards when an individual's life is at stake." The appeals court now has the opportunity to chart a new course for how Texas handles intellectual disability claims and ensure that no person with intellectually disability is executed. Moore is not the worst of the worst, but due to his significant intellectual deficits, he is certainly among the most vulnerable. He is worthy of God's love and our fair and humane treatment. There is a path forward that affirms Moore's innate dignity as a human being, while still ensuring that justice is done. The Court of Criminal Appeals should follow this path and reform Moore's death sentence to life imprisonment. (source: Commentary; Steve Wells is pastor of South Main Baptist Church in HoustonSan Antonio Express-News) PENNSYLVANIA: Judge tosses death sentence in double murder, orders new hearing A Pennsylvania judge has thrown out the death sentence imposed
