[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
Feb. 2 CHINA: Child trafficker kingpin gets death penalty The head of a criminal gang that abducted and trafficked children was sentenced to death with a 2-year reprieve in Guangdong's southwestern coastal city of Maoming. The verdict on the gang leader, surnamed Zhang, was handed down by the Maoming Intermediate People's Court at the end of last month. Meanwhile, the court confiscated all of Zhang's illegally gains, the verdict said. In addition, 25 members of Zhang's gang received sentences ranging from a year and 3 months to life in prison and fined from 50,000 yuan ($8,000) to more than 200,000 yuan, according to the verdict. A woman surnamed Dong who used to be a key member of Zhang's gang was sentenced to life behind bars. Dong used to be responsible for contacting buyers, trading, negotiating prices and collecting money for the gang. "The crimes of Zhang and his gang were serious and have done great harm to society," the verdict said. Zhang and his gang had abducted children since 2014 from rural Funing county in Southwest China's Yunnan province and brought them to Guangdong to earn big profits, the verdict said. A child was typically sold for between 73,000 and 98,000 yuan, said the verdict. But the verdict did not reveal how many children Zhang and his gang abducted and sold. "Abducting children is a serious crime and usually causes serious damage to society," said Ye Guiming, a lawyer from Guangdong Keyun Law Firm. "The sentence for Zhang with a two-year reprieve is suitable if he did not cause death and injury during his crimes," Ye told China Daily on Thursday. He urged relevant departments to take effective and concrete measures to fight such crimes, including targeting child traffickers and buyers. Zhang and his gang members were detained when police uncovered a major child abduction and trafficking case the previous year. The case, which elicited a great deal of outrage from the public, was supervised by the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the Ministry of Public Security. A police officer from Guangdong Provincial Department of Public Security said police across the province will continue to redouble their efforts in fighting crimes involving abducting children and women. "The police have zero tolerance for such crimes," said the officer, who did not want to be named. Guangdong, one of the country's economic powerhouses, is usually one of the major destinations for abducted children. (source: ecns.cn) INDONESIA: Widodo under pressure to free dying death row convictIndonesian church, rights groups back plea for condemned Pakistani drugs prisoner Zulfiqar Ali to spend last days at home The Catholic Church in Indonesia has thrown its weight behind an appeal to President Joko Widodo, by a terminally ill Pakistani national on death row, to be repatriated to his home country. Zulfiqar Ali, 54, was arrested in 2004 for being in possession of 300 grams of heroin. An Indonesian court sentenced him to death a year later. He escaped execution in 2016 following an appeal lodged by former president B.J. Habibie amid claims he received an unfair trial. Speaking to the Pakistani newspaper Dawn last week Ali said that doctors had diagnosed him with advanced liver cancer, giving him only about three months to live. He was transferred from Batu Prison on the notorious Nusakambangan Island to a hospital in Jakarta following the diagnosis. A senior Catholic official said Widodo has no reason to reject Ali's appeal. "He must be allowed to return home for the sake of humanity," Azas Tigor Nainggolan, coordinator of the human rights desk of the Indonesian bishops' Commission for Justice, Peace and Pastoral for Migrant-Itinerant People, said. He said the commission had written to the president in this regard and also asked for a review of all death penalty cases in light of the church's opposition to capital punishment. Pakistan's President Mamnoon Hussain and Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi also appealed to Widodo during a recent meeting in Islamabad to let Ali spend his last days at home. Rights groups have also backed the call, saying repatriation is the humane thing to do. They also questioned the trial that saw him sentenced to death in the first place. According to the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network, Ali was subjected to abuse, denied access to proper legal counsel during irregular court proceedings. After his arrest, he was also denied the right to contact the Pakistani embassy and forced to sign a confession, the rights group said. Ali's lawyer, Saut Edward Rajagukguk also urged the president to seriously review Ali's case. "It does not make sense to me that someone was sentenced to death for the possession of only 300 grams [of heroin]," he said. The government is currently deliberating the appeal, according to a senior official. "President Widodo will surely
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----IND., IOWA, NEB., S.DAK., COLO., WYO., CALIF.
Feb. 2 INDIANA: Death Row 2018 with Trevor McDonald review - clear-eyed detachment from the veteran journalistAfter his award-winning 2013 documentary, McDonald vowed never to make another prison series. He changed his mind, and the result is deeply affecting In 2013, Trevor McDonald presented Inside Death Row, a harrowing, award-winning documentary in which he interviewed men locked up in Indiana's state prison, particularly men who were waiting for their "date and time", as they put it - the date and time they would be executed for their crimes. He found the experience of making it so difficult to shake that he told the Radio Times he would "never, ever do another prison series". But something changed his mind, and Death Row 2018 with Trevor McDonald (ITV) brings him back to the same place, and many of the men, 5 years later. The timing is crucial. A number of death-penalty states are engaged in an ongoing and emotionally charged debate about lifelong incarceration and the death sentence itself. McDonald tours a brand new execution chamber, shiny white and fresh, with features his host describes blithely as "nice" - separate viewing rooms for family of the victims and family of the prisoner. But many companies will no longer sell their drugs to Indiana for the purposes of execution; they do not consider it to be a "medical practice". Nobody has been put to death in 8 years. There are plenty of men still waiting in line, however. McDonald meets 2 of his former subjects and there's ample footage from the original documentary to offer side-by-side comparison of what 5 years of waiting to die looks like. Ben Ritchie, who shot and killed a police officer, has a dry sense of humour about it. Fredrick Baer, who killed a mother and her 4-year-old daughter after breaking into their house, will be isolated for as long as he lives, owing to near constant attacks from inmates. There is, it seems, a scale of murder, even among murderers. McDonald's interview with Baer is particularly grim - he admits that, even though he personally opposes the death penalty, Baer's crime makes him understand why people call for it. Also haunting is an extraordinary conversation with William Gibson, a convicted serial killer who has never given an interview about his crimes. Gibson has been sentenced to death for the murder of 3 women, but admits that the authorities probably only know about a tenth of what he's done. "I don't believe I got any of that," he shrugs, when McDonald questions his humanity. He giggles when he recalls what he did. It is utterly chilling. As distressing, though in a cooler light, is an interview with Paul McManus, who murdered his wife and 2 children on the night she asked him for a divorce. His death sentence was commuted, but he wishes it had not been. He seems to be saying that he felt at peace with the finality of the judgment he was given in the first place. Life without the possibility of parole is worse, he says. Whether that brings comfort or more pain to the families of those he killed is another matter. You know what you're getting with a Trevor McDonald documentary. He offers clear-eyed detachment, and, though his own views simmer underneath the surface, he rarely lets them into the narrative. While Louis Theroux, who covers similar ground, is warm and relatable, McDonald is precise and earns trust through his authority; it's a more old-fashioned journalistic approach. But that's not to say it lacks emotion. His time with 72-year-old barber Rick, a one-time armed robber who has lost all hope of ever being released, is deeply affecting, as is the conversation he has with Ronald L Sanford's mother, Pamela. Sanford was given a 170-year sentence at the age of 15 for a horrific double murder he committed when he was 13; McDonald digs into their relationship for the only real sliver of redemption here. This is a delicately balanced documentary. In McDonald's interpretation, there is deep respect for the victims of these terrible crimes, and also a lingering question about the point of vengeance without any prospect of rehabilitation, about punishments that can seem arbitrary, and dependent on time, place and circumstance. In his closing voiceover, McDonald talks of remembering "wasted lives and grievous deeds". He says that, once again, the people he has met here will remain with him. Perhaps this is the last time he'll ever do a prison series. But perhaps there will be more. (source: The Guardian) IOWA: Iowa lawmaker: House death penalty bill can't advance A key Iowa lawmaker says there's not enough support to advance a House measure that seeks to reinstate the death penalty in Iowa. The Des Moines Register reports that Public Safety Committee Chairman Rep. Clel Baudler, R-Greenfield, says there aren't enough votes in the committee to advance the bill. The proposal would allow those convicted of
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, S.C., FLA., ALA., LA., OHIO
Feb. 2 TEXASexecution Killer John Battaglia Asked 'Am I Dead?' And Taunted Ex-Wife During Execution For Murder of 2 Young Daughters Without remorse or humility until the end, killer John Battaglia, who murdered his 2 young daughters in his Texas home in 2001, laughed and taunted his ex-wife as he was executed Thursday. Battaglia saved his last words for his ex-wife Mary Jean Pearle, the Dallas Morning News reported. "Well, hi, Mary Jean. I'll see y'all later. Bye," he said to Pearle, who had come to watch him die. As he drew his last breaths, 17 years after Battaglia had killed her 2 children, Pearle was heard to say "I've seen enough of him" as she walked away from his motionless body, separated by a glass window. Battaglia's demeanor was described as "jovial" as he prepared to meet his end by lethal injection at Texas's Huntsville Unit. Strapped to the gurney, Battaglia looked around as witnesses entered. "How many people are there? Oh, that's a lot," he said. Shortly after being administered with the injection, the 62-year-old continued to speak. Looking to the chaplain standing at his feet Battaglia asked: "Am I still alive?" He smiled and grinned before finally saying "Oh, here, I feel it." Battaglia was the 3rd man executed in Texas since the start of 2018 and the 2nd killer from Dallas put to death since the start of the week. In May 2001 he shot his 6 and 9-year-old daughters Liberty and Faith in his Deep Ellum home while his wife listened to the ordeal over the phone. Battaglia forced Faith to confront her mother in the call, moments before he took her life. "Mommy, why do you want Daddy to have to got to jail?" she asked before she was heard begging for her life. "No, Daddy. Don't do it," she said. The execution concludes a series of court battles over Battaglia's mental competency. The courts twice granted a stay of execution so that he could be evaluated. Final efforts by his attorneys to delay the execution were ultimately unsuccessful. According to the Guardian there had been fears Battaglia's execution would be botched amid a spate alarming scenes in Texas executions. The use of old and poorly regulated sedatives, also used in this most recent execution, amounted to almost unsuccessful procedures in the case of Anthony Shore on January 18 and William Rayford on January 30. In Battaglia's case it took 22 minutes for the inmate to be pronounced dead following the lethal injection. (source: CNN) Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present30 Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982present-548 Abbott#scheduled execution date-nameTx. # 31--Feb. 22Thomas Whitaker549 32--Mar. 27Rosendo Rodriguez III--550 33--Apr. 25Erick Davila---551 (sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin) Texas' Death Row: Still alive and well in 2018 On Tuesday night, a Texas death row inmate named William Rayford was executed for the 1999 killing of his ex-girlfriend, Carol Lynn Thomas Hall. On Thursday, John David Battaglia was executed by the state of Texas. In 2001, he killed his 2 daughters, aged 6 and 9. Thomas Whitaker will be executed merely weeks after Battaglia, if all goes according to plan. Whitaker co-conspired to murder his mother, father, and brother in 2003 - only his father survived. There's no denying that Rayford, Battaglia, and Whitaker are all abominable people who committed horrific crimes. But 2 executions in 1 week, with another scheduled only 3 weeks later, begs the question: Should the state of Texas be executing its people at all? Are we perhaps too prolific in our executions? In 2017, Texas carried out 7 executions, leading the pack as the state that puts the most people to death. Arkansas carried out 4, with Florida and Alabama each coming in at 3. Many states have taken the death penalty largely out of use, but it remains in vogue here. Texas' use of the death penalty isn't just bad from a moral or comparative lens. Part of the reason why the death penalty is so fraught with problems is because the justice system is fraught with problems - lack of adequate resources, lack of quality indigent defense, and prosecutorial misconduct all come into play. As a result, tons of state resources are spent retrying death row inmates and appealing court decisions. For example, Rayford's legal team filed an appeal, and his lawyers asked to stay the execution. They claimed that in 2000, Rayford's sentencing trial was affected by racial prejudice, as the trial lawyer inappropriately implied that race was a factor in prison violence. The case was even filed with the U.S. Supreme Court. Rayford's lawyers also appealed to a federal court in Dallas, claiming that he was "improperly denied money for appeals," per Houston Chronicle's report, and that Rayford may
