[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
June 20 RUSSIA: Almost 80% of Russians want death penalty to fight corruption, Twitter poll shows Some 79 % of Russians want their country to use Chinese means to fight corruption, with the death penalty for large-scale bribery, according to a Twitter poll conducted by the head of the Defense Ministry's public council. Earlier this week renowned Russian journalist and military expert Yuri Korotchenko asked his Twitter following to answer the question: "Does the Russian Federation need death penalty as punishment for corruption and bribery among high-placed officials, military and security officers and civil servants?" When Korotchenko decided to wrap up the research he had 1775 answers with almost 80 % of respondents positive about the idea. "In other words, my followers want our country to use the same anti-corruption measures that are being used in China," the journalist concluded. 9 % of Korotchenko's Twitter followers replied that such harsh measures were not necessary, 8 % chose the answer "this is not going to help" and 4 % could not choose the answer from presented options. Chinese laws currently allow for the death penalty for "extremely serious" cases of graft and bribery, usually determined by the amount of money embezzled - it should be over 3 million Yuan or just short of half a million US dollars. The exact number of executed people is classified but Amnesty International estimated the overall number of executions in China in 2017 at "thousands" in its latest report on capital punishment released in April this year. Russia currently has a moratorium on the death penalty, introduced in 1996, as the country aspired to join the Council of Europe. The last execution in the Russian Federation took place on September 2, 1996. In a public opinion poll conducted in early 2017 by the independent research center Levada, just over 40 % of respondents claimed that they wanted the moratorium on death penalty lifted. An equal share of respondents have said that they wanted it to remain in place. Of those who wanted the death penalty brought back, 32 % said that in their opinion it should be used under the same rules that existed in the 1990s, before the moratorium. Some 12 % said that they wanted the use of the death penalty expanded. Among those who opposed the state-sanctioned killing of convicts, 25 % wanted Russia to maintain the moratorium and 16 % think that the authorities should go a step further and abolish it from the legislation. Many Russian politicians and officials have raised the issue of lifting the moratorium, especially after terrorist attacks or other brutal crimes which attract public attention. However, the country's top authorities have so far refused to introduce any changes, claiming that the question was too complex. (source: rt.com) INDIA: Man In Madhya Pradesh Sentenced To Death For Rape, Murder Of 9-Year-Old GirlThe Madhya Pradesh Assembly had last December unanimously passed a Bill awarding death penalty to those found guilty of raping girls below 12 years of age. A court in Sagar Madhya Pradesh on Tueday sentenced a 21-year-old man to death for raping and killing a 9-year-old girl last year. Additional Sessions Judge Suman Shrivastava awarded death penalty to the Sunil Adivasi after holding him guilty of the child's rape and murder, said Additional Public Prosecutor Balbir Singh Thakur. The Madhya Pradesh Assembly had last December unanimously passed a Bill awarding death penalty to those found guilty of raping girls below 12 years of age. The incident took place on April 13, 2017 when the girl had gone to a forest near her village Ujnet under Bandri police station to collect mahua seeds, Mr Thakur said. He said Sunil Adivasi took the girl to his hut where he raped and killed her. (source: ndtv.com) THAILAND: Thailand uses lethal injection to execute 1st prisoner in nearly a decadeAmnesty International condemns action as 'deplorable' Thailand has carried out its 1st execution in nine years in a move human rights campaigners condemned as "deplorable". Theerasak Longji, 26, was executed by lethal injection on Monday, six years after being convicted of aggravated murder for stabbing a 17-year-old 24 times in order to steal his mobile phone. The brutal killing drew widespread anger in Thai society, and his conviction was upheld in the appeal and supreme courts. ?Theerasak's execution comes as Thailand's army chief-turned-premier Prayut Chan-ocha prepares to travel to the UK and France on a highly-anticipated official visit. The last executions to take place in Thailand were of 2 drug traffickers. They were put to death in August 2009, after a period of no executions since 2003, according to Amnesty International. Theerasak was the 7th convict to be executed by injection since Thailand switched methods in 2003 from a firing squad. Thailand has executed
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., ALA., LA., TENN., S.DAK., CALIF., USA
June 20 TEXASimpending execution Texas assures court it can carry out aging death row inmate's execution The Lone Star State is confident it can kill Danny Bible. Earlier this month, the aging Houston serial killer filed a last-minute lawsuit arguing that his veins are so bad and his health problems so severe that he can't be put to death - or it'll turn into a painfully botched procedure. But the state of Texas begged to differ, touting its long history of successful executions. "Texas is the most prolific death-penalty state in the nation," the state wrote in a Friday afternoon court filing. "Bible provides no example of a Texas execution, performed under the current protocol, gone horribly awry because of vein failure." Officials say that a Florida killer's screams of "murderers!" during his execution were not caused by the drugs used for the lethal injection. The 66-year-old 4-time killer, who is set for execution on June 27, pointed to bloody botched procedures in other states. In February, a lethal injection team in Alabama spent hours poking Doyle Hamm before calling off his execution. The year before that, Ohio found itself in a similar place with condemned killer Alva Campbell. But that hasn't happened here, the state pointed out in its response. "Texas is not Ohio or Alabama, and the court should give little consideration to isolated examples of problematic executions in other states when it has numerous uneventful Texas executions upon which to base its opinions," state attorneys wrote. "Bible has not managed to present even a single instance of defendants failing to successfully access a vein during an execution." The state raised a number of other points, alleging that the condemned killer should have raised the issue sooner and pointing out that prison medical staffers have managed to draw blood for medical testing over the past year. But Bible's lawyers fired back in a Monday court filing, calling out the state's "inflammatory rhetoric" they deemed "devoid of any viable argument." "Defendants' response is most notable for the things absent from it," attorneys Jeremy Schepers, Nadia Wood and Margaret Schmucker wrote, noting that the state doesn't dispute Bible's host of medical conditions ranging from edema to obesity to Parkinson's disease. The state also "attempts to obfuscate" the "real issue" as to whether its execution procedures represent a substantial risk of harm to a man in Bible's medical condition. That particular claim, defense lawyers argue, the state didn't really refute. This isn't the first time a Texas death row prisoner has fought his sentence by questioning the lethal injection process. But other recent cases focused on the possibility that the drugs themselves would cause suffering, a claim that could more generally apply to any death row prisoner. Bible's argument focuses more narrowly on the possibility that he, specifically, is unfit to execute. Instead, his lawyers have suggested alternative methods such as a firing squad or nitrogen gas in order to decrease the risk of suffering. Bible was initially sent to death row in 2003, more than 2 decades after the crime that landed him there. A former drifter, Bible's lengthy string of violence dates back to at least 1979. That May, a passerby found the bloodied, half-naked body of Inez Deaton along the slope of a Houston bayou. She'd been stabbed 11 times with an ice pick before her killer posed her corpse by the water. For nearly 2 decades, Deaton's slaying went unsolved - but Bible's violent streak continued. In the years that followed, Bible terrorized women in the Midwest, once setting his girlfriend's car on fire because he didn't like her haircut. After he returned to Texas and settled west of Fort Worth, he murdered his sister-in-law Tracy Powers and her infant son Justin. Then, he killed Powers' roommate, Pam Hudgins, and left her body hanging from a roadside fence. Following those killings, he fled to Montana, where he kidnapped a woman and raped an 11-year-old girl, according to court records. Eventually, he was caught and in 1984 he pleaded guilty to Hudgins' murder. He was sentenced to 25 years for the killing and 20 years for a Harris County robbery. He was released on parole 8 years later, under a since-repealed mandatory supervision law. While still on parole, he raped and molested multiple young relatives, including a 5-year-old. Then in 1998, he raped Tera Robinson in a Louisiana motel room before stuffing her into a duffel bag when he became enraged that he couldn't maintain an erection. The woman broke free and called for help. Bible was eventually caught in Florida, and freely admitted to his crimes under questioning. Weeks after he was sentenced, Bible narrowly escaped death during a head-on-collision on the way to death row. The officer behind the wheel of the prison transport vehicle, 40-year-old
