[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
August 19 MALAYSIA: Malaysia postpones execution of Filipino on death row The scheduled execution of a Filipino convicted of murder in Malaysia was postponed after the governor of Sabah heeded appeals from the Philippine government, the Department of Foreign Affairs said Saturday. Ejah Bin Jaafar was supposed to be hanged on Friday. "We would like to thank the governor of Sabah for responding to the repeated appeals of the Philippine government on behalf of the family of Mr. Jaafar," Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said in the statement. "The execution of Ejah Bin Jaafar was ordered postponed by Sabah Governor Tun Datuk Seri Panglima Haji Juhar Haji Mahiruddin following a last-minute appeal from the Philippine Embassy in Kuala Lumpur," the DFA said in a statement. Jaafar's punishment may be reduced to life imprisonment instead of the death penalty, depending on the outcome of a case review. "The Sabah Pardons Board will meet in December to review his case... The decision of the board will be final and executory without any further possibility of appeal," the DFA said. The Sandakan High Court sentenced Jaafar with capital punishment in 2009 after it found the Filipino guilty of murder in September 2006. The DFA has yet to give details on Jaafar's case including who he killed and why he committed the crime. Foreign affairs spokesperson Robespierre Bolivar told Agence France-Presse that Jaafar and his family have lived in Sabah "for a long time," but gave no other details. Officials from the Philippine Embassy in Malaysia have been "making appeals since 2015 for Malaysian authorities to spare the life of Mr. Jaafar and commute his sentence," the DFA said. The Philippines has also appealed to Malaysia to commute the death sentences of nine of its nationals who were convicted of taking part in a 2013 attack on the Sabah district of Lahad Datu, which left scores of people dead. Hundreds of thousands of Filipinos live in the Malaysian state of Sabah on Borneo island, many having been displaced by war and violence in the nearby southern Philippine region of Mindanao -- home to long-running Muslim rebellions. (source: ABS-CBN News) INDONESIA: New fears for death row gran Lindsay Sandiford as drug smugglers executed in IndonesiaShe was sentenced to death after being caught in Bali Airport with 4.8kg of cocaine Death row gran Lindsay Sandiford is still awaiting her fate on in Indonesia. Fresh calls to change the execution system have been made, 4 1/2 years after she was found trying to smuggle 1.6m pounds worth of cocaine. She was sentenced to death after being caught in Bali Airport with 4.8kg of cocaine, and has since desperately tried to appeal the execution. Ms Sandiford, now 61, from Cheltenham, maintains she was carrying the drugs to protect her son, who was being threatened. No date has been set for her execution but it is believed that the Indonesian authorities are preparing for more executions as president, Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, steps up the country's war on drugs. This is despite an official watchdog finding this week that Indonesia executed a Nigerian man last year while his case was unresolved. Humphrey Jefferson was executed by firing squad along with 3 other, despite there still being a chance of pardon in his case, leading to renewed calls to halt executions in the Asian country. Charity Human Rights Watch said in a statement: "Indonesia should restore the unofficial moratorium on the death penalty and ensure the rights of criminal suspects, including those implicated in drug crimes, are respected rather than steamrolled." Sandiford recently celebrated her 61st birthday behind bars at Kerobakan Prison with a special cake, according to Gazette Live . In a message posted on the Justice and Fairness for Lindsay Sandiford Facebook page, the grandmother thanked her supporters. The message reads: "Dear Friends and supporters. "Thank you to everyone for your kind wishes for my 61st birthday last weekend. I had a thoroughly enjoyable day with visits from some dear friends, a delicious cake, and messages from my family and supporters from around the world. "I was immensely touched by all your warm thoughts, and I would like to add a heartfelt thank-you to the wonderful governor at the women's prison here, for making the small celebration possible. "I would like you all to know that I am keeping well and continuing to work and teach other women on various handicrafts. "In the meantime, keep me in your thoughts and thank you all again for your friendship and support. "Warm regards, Lindsay." (source: gloucesterlive.co.uk) ' PAKISTAN: Botched-up investigation: 2 death row convicts set free after 12 years The Supreme Court on Friday acquitted 2 death row convicts languishing in prison for around 12 years for murdering a man in the name of honour, ARY News reported.
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----TEXAS, FLA., ARK., NEV., CALIF.
August 19 TEXAS: As lethal injection lawsuit continues, Texas replenishes execution drug supplies Even with a lawsuit over lethal injection drugs winding its way through court, Texas has managed to replenish its supply. The last doses of the state's execution drugs, pentobarbital, were set to expire in January, just days before a scheduled execution. A new record indicates that the supply won't expire until July 2018, well past all scheduled executions. It's unclear whether the state purchased more of the drug or just established a new expiration date, and Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jason Clark declined to clarify. Robert Dunham, director of the Death Penalty Information Center, wasn't surprised to learn of the state's renewed stock. "While Texas has from time to time stated that it's having difficulty obtaining pentobarbital, it has always been able to obtain the drugs to carry out executions," he said. "When it's needed the drugs, Texas has always found them." Since 2012, the state has used a single-drug protocol, administering a lethal dose of the barbiturate pentobarbital. On Thursday, the US Food and Drug Administration told Texas and Arizona that over a thousand vials of drugs they ordered for executions in their states would not be released to them. the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and the Arizona Department of Corrections ordered sodium thiopental from India in 2015. The drugs were and seized by U.S. Customs. The confiscated shipments have been refused because they seem to contain unapproved new drugs and misbranded drugs. Texas came close to exhausting its supplies with executions still on the calendar in spring 2015. Ultimately, TDCJ managed to get more of the lethal drug, but Clark declined to offer details except to say that no executions in the Lone Star State have been delayed due a lack of execution drugs. A records request last month showed that eight pentobarbital doses were set to expire in July 2017 and another 10 in January. 1 of those doses was used in the July 27 execution of Taichin Preyor, leaving 9 that expire just after the new year. And now, instead of 8 doses expiring on July 20, 2017, state logs list eight doses received that day as "return from supplier" and set to expire on July 20, 2018. "Given the documents supplied by TDCJ designating that these vials were returned to the supplier and then the reemergence of vials with a brand new expiration date exactly one year out, an educated guess is that they're using the same drugs that they previously stated already expired," said Maurie Levin, a Texas death penalty lawyer with experience in lethal injection litigation. "But because they insist on keeping this information secret, we don't know what they're doing." Currently, the state is embroiled in a lawsuit over an intercepted order of another lethal injection drug, sodium thiopental. The powerful drug was part of the execution process until 2011 when dwindling supplies forced the state to replace it with pentobarbital as part of a 3-drug cocktail. The following year, the state switched from a 3-drug mix to a single dose of pentobarbital. But when pentobarbital suppliers started drying up, Texas started searching for other lethal injection drugs. That search landed Texas in hot water when authorities at Bush Intercontinental Airport seized 1,000 vials of sodium thiopental en route to Hunstville from India-based supplier Harris Pharma. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration later said the drugs were improperly labeled and not approved for injection in humans, but TDCJ this year filed a lawsuit demanding the return of what state officials deemed an "unjustified seizure." Although the detained drugs appear to have expired in May, Texas has continued its legal action, which also seeks to lift the FDA's ban on importation of sodium thiopental for law-enforcement use. (source: Houston Chronicle) *** Execution set for man who killed cousin A Mexican national on death row for the rape-slaying of his 16-year-old cousin in the Rio Grnde Valley more than 20 years ago has received anexecution date. Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jason Clark said the agency has received court documents setting the lethal injection of 47-year-old Tuben Ramirez Cardenas for Nov. 8. Cardenas was convicted of the February 1997 slaying of Mayra Laguna. Her body was found dumped in a a canal near Edinburg, about 10 miles northeast of McAllen, after she was abducted from her home. Evidence showed he slipped in through a window, bound her with duct tape and drove her away. Evidence showed whe was raped, beaten and strangled. Prison records list Cardenas as originally from Guanajuato in central Mexico. (source: Dallas Morning News) FLORIDAimpending execution Sister hopeful brother's looming execution will be blockedMan who killed 2
