[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
July 17 ZAMBIA: Lusaka woman gets death sentence for poisoning her 2 sons The Lusaka High Court has sentenced to death by hanging a 29-year-old woman of Lusaka for killing her children by administering Doom, a pesticide, to them. This is in a matter where Miriam Mulenga on January 24, 2017 murdered her 5-year old and 1-year-old children, Mwiche and Dawson. Mulenga had administered the pesticide to 3 of her children and attempted to commit suicide due following allegations that her husband was having an affair with another woman as a result of which she was traumatised owing to certain characteristics of their marriage. Fortunately, one of the children and Mulenga survived as the pesticide did not have a big impact on them due to their age. The police had discovered a bottle of Doom insecticide in Mulenga’s room. Mulenga and her firstborn child were admitted to the University Teaching Hospital (UTH). When Mulenga gained consciousness, she began to act strangely after seeing the lifeless bodies of her children in the mortuary. During trial, the convict’s niece, a grade ten pupil at Matero Girls Secondary School told High Court judge Getrude Chawatama that on the material day, after a power outage in the evening, Mirriam asked her children to follow her to the bedroom. The juvenile had testified that she proceeded to the kitchen to wash dishes and whilst in the kitchen, two women visited Mirriam and asked her to accompany them to a funeral within the neighbourhood but Mirriam refused, claiming that she had a headache. The juvenile said that after some time, she heard one of her cousins calling for help. She narrated that her cousin’s crying was unusual and she rushed to the bedroom. The 17-year-old told court that when she entered the bedroom, she found Mirriam and her 3 children crying. She said upon asking Mirriam what transpired, she responded that she administered doom to her children and that she equally consumed the pesticide. The juvenile testified that Mirriam asked her to call her friend Sabina but unfortunately Sabina was not home. She added that she decided to go to Sabina’s sister’s house and told her about the incident. The girl said that when she rushed back home, she noticed that one of her cousin was bleeding from the nose and she rushed the child who was bleeding to a near by shop and bought him some milk but the efforts to save her cousin proved futile as he was bleeding excessively. The juvenile further told court that Mirriam’s surviving child disclosed that the mother had administered poison to them. Delivering judgment yesterday, justice Chawatama found that the convict had the knowledge that administering Doom to her children would result to their death. Justice Chatwama refused the suggestion by a medical specialist that the convict’s sanity be ascertained as she was normal when she committed the offense. She said that although Mulenga showed remorse or was emotional for killing her children, she blamed her husband for being the cause of her actions. The court found that the evidence of the prosecution was not challenged by Mulenga as she opted to remain silent in her defence. Judge Chawatama also found that Mulenga had a chance to confide in her friend that she had marital disputes but she only decided to do so after she had administered the poisonous substance to her 3 children. “There is no doubt that the accused not only endangered the life of Mwiche Nakazwe and Dawson Sikazwe but also caused their death. I find that the accused did not suffer from insanity at the time. I find the accused guilty of the offence of murder and I sentence her to death by hanging,” she said. And Mulenga’s husband, Coaster Sikazwe, said that Mulenga deserved the death penalty. “She deserves the judgment, though I have forgiven her. The matter is in the hands of state but the judgment will not bring back my children, she deserves the judgment,” said Sikazwe (source: themastonline.com) SRI LANKA: “If you hang 100 guilty but 1 innocent, the system is a failure”: Ex-Prisons Chief A retired senior Prisons Department official who has witnessed 7 judicial executions says he is against the capital punishment as no judicial system in the world is infallible and there is a chance that a wrong person can be sent to the gallows. “You can hang 100 guilty men but if you hang 1 innocent man, the system is a failure,” said H.G. Dharmadasa, a former Commissioner of Prisons, who officiated at seven judicial hangings including the controversial one of D.J. Siripala better known as Maru Sira in 1975. Judges and juries, he says, can make mistakes and the manner in which crimes are sensationalised in the media which often blur the line between fact and fiction can influence judgments. “World over there have been several instances of the wrong person being hanged which is why I am opposed to the death
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., ALA., TENN., MO., CALIF., USA
July 17 TEXAS: Execution Alert -- Call to Action for Larry Swearingen Larry Swearingen is scheduled to be murdered by the State of Texas on August 21st, 2019. Larry Swearingen was sentenced to death although no biological material recovered from the scene contained any conclusive link. Always protesting innocence, Larry Swearingen is now facing his 6th execution date. Actions: * Texas residents, please send a letter to Governor Greg Abbott telling him to STOP this execution via the 'Speak Out' page on the NCADP website * Contact Texas Governor Greg Abbott by phone at: 512-463-2000, by email via this link, or by tweet @GregAbbott_TX If you prefer to send a letter, here is the mailing address: Office of the Governor, State Insurance Building, 1100 San Jacinto, Austin, TX 78701 * If you live in Texas, write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper. * Please share this information with your friends, especially those in Texas, and ask them to help STOP the execution of Mr. Swearingen by taking one of the actions listed above. In addition, here is a link to some general talking points to help you in your advocacy efforts, as well as a recent news article that talks about the decline in support the death penalty is receiving. Lastly, take a listen to 'Power Corrupts' the new podcast from political scientist and Washington Post columnist Brian Klaas. The episode 'An Eye for an Eye' explores Nick Yarris, who spent 22 years on death row, but right before scheduled execution DNA evidence set him free. NCADP's Gregory Joseph joins this episode to explore questions of whether a just society can execute people, racial bias and the arbitrary nature of death sentences. Please check the NCADP website in the days to come to stay informed of any new developments in this case. National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty www.ncadp.org NCADP 80 M St, SE, c/o WeWork, Washington, DC 20036 www.ncadp.org (source: NCADP) * Former statewide judge leaves GOP, citing Trump’s racism Citing what she called President Donald Trump’s racist ideology, Elsa Alcala, a retired Republican judge on the state’s highest criminal court, announced on Facebook that she can no longer support the GOP and has left the party. “It has taken me years to say this publicly but here I go. President Trump is the worst president in the history of this country,” Alcala wrote Monday. “Even accepting that Trump has had some successes — and I believe these are few — at his core, his ideology is racism. To me, nothing positive about him could absolve him of his rotten core.” Appointed to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals by Gov. Rick Perry in 2011, Alcala spent 20 years as a GOP judge, also serving in a trial court and intermediate appeals court. She was one of two Latinas to serve in recent years on the state’s two highest courts, the other being Justice Eva Guzman, currently on the Texas Supreme Court. Alcala left the criminal court at the end of 2018. Alcala said Trump’s behavior, including a recent tweet suggesting that four Democratic congresswomen of color should “go back” to the countries they came from, combined with state and national Republican Party support for the president, weighed on her conscience. “Every day with the Republican Party seemed worse than the day before. Trump speaks about brown people like me as lesser beings,” Alcala told the American-Statesman on Tuesday. “It’s cliche to say, but the Republican Party left me.” Trump, Alcala said, seeks to exclude “people who look like me.” “I thought that maybe Texas state politics at the Legislature might be better than the national Republican politics, but it was more of the same,” she said. James Dickey, chairman of the Republican Party of Texas, issued a statement thanking Alcala for her service. “We are sorry that she has chosen to no longer support the party that supported her, her colleagues and her successors,” Dickey said, adding that the booming Texas and national economies prove that Republican policies work. “Democrats are promoting extremist schemes with the inevitable tragic consequences that have destroyed every socialist economy ever put into place. We encourage every Texan to ensure a bright future and greater opportunity for all by continuing to vote for Republican leadership,” Dickey said. During her time on the Court of Criminal Appeals, Alcala made news with a 2016 opinion that said it was time for a closer look at the constitutional issues behind the death penalty. Although she expressed no opinion on whether the death penalty was constitutional, Alcala said that several death row inmates have raised compelling arguments that the court should address, including whether confinement in a 60-square-foot cell was cruel or whether the death penalty is unconstitutional because it disproportionately affects minorities. On Facebook, Alcala said she
