[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
June 12 TANZANIA: Ethics - Abolish Capital Punishment Disregarding or snubbing this echo of death penalty in the house is not the best alternative. Instead of closing our eyes to, or taking no notice of , MP Ally Mohamed Keissy (Nkasi North - CCM) called for the application of the death penalty to all fellow citizens who contributed to the suffering and death of Tanzanians, due to lack of resources, following gross misconduct in signing extractive industry contracts, we should seek to reflect on the matter. While there is a worldwide firm trend towards abolishing the death penalty, with progress in some countries in Africa as well as other regions of the world, death penalty has rebounded in the ongoing parliamentary sitting in Dodoma. Disregarding or snubbing this echo of death penalty in the house is not the best alternative. Instead of closing our eyes to, or taking no notice of , MP Ally Mohamed Keissy (Nkasi North -- CCM) called for the application of the death penalty to all fellow citizens who contributed to the suffering and death of Tanzanians, due to lack of resources, following gross misconduct in signing extractive industry contracts, we should seek to reflect on the matter. The lawmaker has a reason to recommend that these people should be identified and get hanged to death even though the use of death penalty appears to be confined to an ever-narrowing minority not only Tanzanians but also countries in the world. Obviously, Keissy is in distress. He is quite clearly in agony as he sees unfairness as a result of allowing these people to live freely while they have cause suffering to fellow humans and for a long time. In other words, he knows and would like the Tanzanian laws which stipulate that death penalty is a mandatory sentence for cases of murder and treason under the Penal Code sections 39 and 197 to be extended to and applied to the people who he is concerned about. This we say because, when examined closely, the practice of the death penalty in Tanzania, is not clustered in a few jurisdiction. It may sound that a few would advocate it, but the challenge is that, like Hon Keissy, the public and especially those who have tested the pain inflicted on them would go for the same option. From what I know, our country has always been well represented by a variety of legal systems, our traditions, cultures and religious backgrounds and the current public tone suggest that all of these have taken a position in favour of abolition of the death penalty. But why is the lawmaker calling his colleagues not to move away from the death penalty? Or put this question this way; is the death penalty reverberating in the House while the right to life is clearly provided for under Article 14 of the Constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania 1977? Is it because the protection of this right is not absolute, as this right under article 14 can be subjected to other laws? (source: Opinion; Alfred Sebaheneallafrica.com) LEBANON: Don't Resume ExecutionsResumption of Executions Would be a Step in the Wrong Direction Once again, political pressure is growing for Lebanon to resume executions. Most recently, Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk called last Friday for the application of the death penalty. Lebanon has an unofficial moratorium on the death penalty and has not carried out an execution since 2004, although courts continue to hand down death sentences. Any move to resume executions should be resisted. Lebanon's moratorium is a bright spot on its human rights record and is in line with a global trend to abolish the death penalty. Just 23 countries are known to have carried out executions in 2016. A resumption of executions would constitute a troubling setback for Lebanon, without making the country safer or deterring crime. Studies have consistently found there is no clear evidence that the death penalty deters crime. Lebanon in 2010 resisted similar calls from politicians to resume executions. A resumption of executions would be particularly troubling given concerns about a lack of due process guarantees in Lebanese courts. Human Rights Watch found in 2017 that military courts, which have broad jurisdiction over civilians and retain the death penalty, do not guarantee due process rights. Those who have stood trial in military court describe the use of confessions extracted under torture, decisions issued without an explanation, seemingly arbitrary sentences, and a limited ability to appeal. On October 10, 2008, Justice Minister Ibrahim Najjar submitted to the Council of Ministers a draft law abolishing the death penalty and replacing it with life imprisonment with hard labor. Human Rights Watch opposes capital punishment in all countries and under all circumstances. Capital punishment is unique in its cruelty and finality, and is plagued with arbitrariness, prejudice, and error. Most countries ha
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, USA
June 12 TEXAS: Rodney Reed's mother hopes finding of false testimony leads to 'justice' The mother of death row inmate Rodney Reed said Saturday she is guardedly optimistic about her son's chances for freedom after the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled prosecutors presented "false and misleading" testimony in his 1998 capital murder conviction. "I'm hoping for justice," Sandra Reed told the American-Statesman. "But we have presented so many other pieces of evidence before this that should have at least opened up a new trial. How can you bring a case to justice without the truth?" She and other family members held a news conference late Saturday at the Bastrop County Courthouse. "We want to keep it in the air that there is an innocent man on death row and that he's suffered enough," she said. "We're ready for him to come home." Reed was convicted of the 1996 murder of Stacy Stites, a 19-year-old Giddings resident with whom he claimed he was having a secret affair. Prosecutors argued Reed abducted, raped and strangled Stiles on her way to work. But defense attorneys have argued that Stites was was killed by her fiance, Jimmy Fennell, a former Georgetown police officer who is now serving a 10-year sentence for the kidnapping and sexual assault of a woman in his custody in 2007. Reed's attorney Bryce Benjet has said that the state's key expert witness at the trial, then-Travis County Medical Examiner Roberto Bayardo, has since disavowed his testimony implicating Reed, saying that the sperm found in Stites' body was likely deposited more than 24 hours before her death. Benjet said a new analysis of medical and forensic evidence by a pair of forensic pathologists shows that Stites was likely killed hours before she was supposed to have left for work and that her body was moved to a rural Bastrop County road after her death. The court of appeals last month rejected the defense claim that the new evidence established Reed's innocence, but sent the case back to a Bastrop County court to consider the claims of false testimony during the original trial. Bastrop District Attorney Bryan Goertz said at the time: "It's just another legal hurdle that needs to be dealt with." Reed was 10 days from his execution date in February 2015, when the court ordered a closer look at his request for modern DNA testing of items linked to the murder. But in April the appeals court denied Reed's request for additional DNA testing, citing the possibility of "cross-contamination" of evidence that had mingled in boxes after repeated handling by court employees. Sandra Reed said though she's hopeful the finding of false testimony will lead to a new trial and her son's exoneration, she remains somewhat skeptical. "You're sending him back to the same county that convicted him in the first place," she said. "We will keep fighting and demanding justice for as long as it takes." (source: Austin American-Statesman) USA: Why America still executes peopleThe legal reasoning behind the continued use of the death penalty America is 1 of only a few countries in the Western world that still puts criminals to death. Even there, executions are on the wane: just 20 were carried out in 2016, down from a peak of 98 in 1999. Popular support is declining, too. Just 60% of Americans approve of the death penalty for murder, down from 80% in the 1990s. Only 8 states have carried out an execution since 2015, and around 2/3 either have abolished capital punishment or have a moratorium on its use. But it has not disappeared altogether: during an eight-day stretch in April, Arkansas executed 4 people, so as not to waste its expiring supply of a lethal-injection drug. And last month in Alabama, a man who spent 35 years on death row - and eluded 7 execution dates - was finally put to death. Why does America continue to execute people? Following the Supreme Court's 1972 ruling in Furman v Georgia, capital punishment was put on hold. The penalty was applied in an arbitrary and capricious manner, violating the Eighth Amendment bar on "cruel and unusual punishments", the justices held. If any factor explains why some criminals get death sentences while most do not, Justice Potter Stewart wrote, "it is the constitutionally impermissible basis of race". 4 years later the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in Gregg v Georgia by a 7-2 majority, finding that states had mended their death-penalty laws to address the concerns in Furman. One way to understand why America still executes people is to look at the Fifth Amendment, which provides that nobody will "be deprived of life...without due process of law". How could the framers of the constitution have banned capital punishment in the Eighth Amendment when, in the Fifth, they specifically contemplated its existence? In Gregg, the court cited 2 justifications for the death penalty: retributive justice and dete
