[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
July 11 PAKISTAN: Children on death row: Why Pakistan must stop hanging juvenile offendersDespite the prohibition, cases of juvenile offenders' executions are far from the exception. The following is an excerpt from Justice Project Pakistan’s (JPP) book, The Death Penalty in Pakistan: A Critical Review, to be launched on July 11, 2019 in Islamabad. A culmination of 10 years of JPP’s work, the book documents the many ways in which Pakistan's application of the death penalty intersects with legal, social and political realities. It focuses on how capital punishment impacts some of the most vulnerable populations: juveniles, the mentally ill, persons with physical disabilities, low-wage migrant workers imprisoned in foreign jails and the working class. Relying on public records for multiple JPP clients sentenced to death, nearly a decade of experience in the field, as well as extensive experience with legislation and advocacy, this book tracks the many junctures at which violations occur, from arrest to sentencing to execution. Aftab Bahadur was arrested at the age of 15 for the murder of a woman and her two children. Aftab protested his innocence to the very end. The only eyewitness who testified against Aftab recanted his statement by claiming that he had been coerced by the police to provide his damning testimony. In fact, he admitted, that Aftab had not even been present at the scene of the crime. The Supreme Court of Pakistan, however, refused to consider the exculpatory evidence stating that a fresh appeal was untimely. Aftab Bahadur therefore, marched to the gallows at the age of 38 after having spent over 22 years on Pakistan’s death row. He was executed on 10 June 2015. Like 160 countries in the world, Pakistan has enacted legislation prohibiting the sentencing and imposition of the death penalty against juvenile offenders — persons who commit crimes before turning 18 years old. The Government of Pakistan is, additionally, a party to both the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) which categorically prohibits capital punishment for juvenile offenders. However, despite the explicit bar, cases of juvenile offenders such as Aftab Bahadur are far from the exception. As a result of a criminal justice system that violates international human rights standards at each stage of the judicial system, arrest, investigation, trial, sentencing, and punishment, the death penalty is disproportionately applied to the most vulnerable of Pakistan’s population — the mentally ill, physically disabled, and juvenile offenders. Since the moratorium was lifted, at least 6 juvenile offenders have been executed despite credible evidence in support of their juvenility. Pakistan’s failure to protect juvenile offenders from the death penalty since the resumption of executions drew sharp criticism from international actors. In June 2015, 4United Nations experts, whilst urging the Government of Pakistan to halt the execution of juvenile offenders, condemned the existence of 'several hundred' juvenile offenders on death row as a violation of its international law obligations. Similarly, in June 2016, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child urged the Government of Pakistan to stay the executions of all juvenile offenders and reopen all cases where there was even the slightest indication of the minority of the accused at the time of the commission of the alleged offence. Pakistan enacted the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance (JJSO) in 2000 in order to bring its criminal justice system in conformity with its obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. In 2018, the JJSO was repealed and replaced by Juvenile Justice System Act (JJSA). The law prohibits executions of juveniles and makes provisions regarding separate courts, trials, and detention centres from judges and lawyers. However, in the 18 years that had passed since the JJSO came into force, it remained virtually ignored in practice. Firstly, the law was enacted without retrospective force – thereby denying its protection to juvenile offenders sentenced to death prior to its enactment in 2000. A Presidential Notification granted a 'special remission' for all juvenile offenders whose death sentences were confirmed prior to the JJSO on the basis of an inquiry into their juvenility. However, such inquiries were seldom conducted and when they were the investigation was replete with incompetence, inefficiency, and violations of human rights standards. Pakistan has also consistently failed to set up juvenile courts, borstal institutions and provisions for effective legal aid for juveniles as provided under, first the JJSO and now JJSA. In a context marred with low birth registration and a lack of sensitisation of law enforcement and judiciary to juvenile delinquency,
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., N.C., FLA., OHIO, TENN., NEB., N.MEX., UTAH, ARIZ., USA
July 11 TEXAS: San Antonio man facing death row in killing of 2 teens in 2015 takes plea A San Antonio man facing death in the killings of two teenagers in 2015 entered a guilty plea Wednesday and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. It was about a year ago that proceedings in Brian Flores’ capital murder case ended in a mistrial because one of his lawyers was injured in a fall. The incident called into question whether the lawyer would be able to finish selecting a jury, which in death cases can take up to a month to seat. Flores was 33 and already in jail on 2 other charges when he was arrested and charged with capital murder-multiple persons in the deaths of Joshua Rodriguez, 18, and Victoria Dennis, 17. The homicides occurred at the Churchill Park complex in the 1200 block of Patricia Drive on the North Side on Sept. 29, 2015. (source: mysanantonio.com) PENNSYLVANIA: DA to seek death penalty in child stabbing Lawrence County's district attorney said he intends to pursue the death penalty against Keith L. Burley Jr., who was arrested in Monday night's stabbing death of an 8-year-old boy in Union Township. Burley was apprehended Tuesday morning in Youngstown following the fatal stabbing of Mark Edward Mason. The homicide took place in the presence of three other boys who were inside the house on High Street where the attack occurred. The other boys witnessed the stabbing but escaped the house. "I can't get into specific details," Josh Lamancusa said Wednesday, "but I can share that this little boy died a hero, saving his brother and the other children in the house." Lawrence County Deputy Coroner Rich Johnson, who attended the autopsy at Heritage Valley Health System in Beaver County, determined that Mark Mason died of multiple stab wounds to the neck, and that the manner of death was homicide. Johnson would not say how many times the child had been stabbed, only that the information would be released at later court proceedings once Burley is brought to Lawrence County to face the charges. An angry Lamancusa said that he has contacted the governor's office, demanding to know why Burley was released from state prison a couple of months ago after serving only the minimum sentence of a previous homicide conviction, when he also has a trail of convictions of other violent crimes, some involving guns. Burley also has a conviction for having stabbed an inmate in the neck in the Lawrence County jail in 2002. Burley had been released on parole from the March 19,1999, robbery shooting death of 36-year-old Randall Stewart in the Halco Drive area. According to a 1999 police report provided by New Castle police chief Bobby Salem, Burley initially faced 90 different charges in the Stewart shooting, including homicide and robbery, but he entered a guilty plea to 1 count each of 3rd-degree murder and having a gun without a license. He was sentenced to 20 to 40 years in a state correctional institution as a result. "The (state) parole board released a guy who is a repeat violent and dangerous offender," Lamancusa said. "That is ridiculous. I can't imagine what the parole board was considering when they released him at the minimum. I find it hard to believe anyone could have looked at his past record and determined that he's not a threat or danger to the community. "Now we have the confirmation of the depth of his depravity, sadly." "I will be pursuing the death penalty," Lamancusa declared of the Monday stabbing. "It's a horrific case. To do so, he will have to sign a notice of aggravated circumstances and file it in the courts. The notice will set forth the reasons, including the aggravated circumstances, to justify it. "I think Burley meets several of the requirements," Lamancusa said. Burley remains in the Mahoning County jail, awaiting an extradition hearing that is scheduled for Thursday. It was unknown Wednesday when he would be returned to Lawrence County to face his charges. According to a criminal complaint and reports from authorities, Burley had gotten into an argument that turned physical with his alleged girlfriend in the parking lot of the New Castle Fire Department on Monday night. He allegedly assaulted and injured the woman, and she was taken to the hospital for treatment. In the course of their argument, he is accused of getting into her vehicle where her 2 sons — Mark Mason and his 7-year-old brother — were waiting, and driving off with them to the house at 60 High St., which was the home of another acquaintance. 2 other boys, ages 15 and 8, were upstairs playing video games when they heard someone entering downstairs, the complaint states, about half an hour after the dispute at the fire station. The boys went downstairs to see who was there and Burley was there with the two boys and was holding a gun, according to the account they gave the state police.
