[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
July 29 PAKISTAN: SC forms larger bench to determine the span of life imprisonment sentence The Supreme Court on Monday ordered the formation of a larger bench to determine the exact length for a life sentence. A 3-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, took notice of the issue while hearing a petition to reduce a convict's life sentence into half. Haroonul Rashid was sentenced to life imprisonment 12 times in 12 different cases of murder. He has been in jail since 1997 and has served a 22-year sentence, Rashid's lawyer told the court while adding that the court had allowed for the 12 sentences to be served concurrently. "Is it not a misconception that a life sentence spans over 25 years?" the chief justice asked. "When we don't know how long a person is going to live, how can we halve a life sentence," he added. "I had been waiting for a long time for a case where we could determine the span of a life sentence. In a jail sentence, days and nights are both counted. In this manner, a convict comes out within 5 years. "It is time that we clear up these major misconceptions and figure out the span of a life sentence. It is a matter of public interest." The court issued notices to the attorney general, provincial advocate generals and prosecutor general. The court also ordered for the registrar office to fix the matter for hearing in the 1st week of October. Last month, the chief justice had showed his intent reexamining the life imprisonment law "at an appropriate time". This is not the 1st time that the judiciary has made such observations. In 2004, a 5-member bench heard as many as 62 appeals that urged the apex court to reinstate death penalty for convicts whose capital punishments were commuted into life imprisonment leading to their release on the basis of remission in their imprisonment periods. Section 57 of the Pakistan Penal Code, Fractions of terms of punishment, says: "In calculating fractions of terms of punishment, imprisonment for life shall be reckoned as equivalent to imprisonment for 25 years." The Supreme Court, however, had observed in 2004 that the provisions of the aforementioned section, which reckon 25-year imprisonment as transportation for life, only stipulate the calculation of the punishment term which is necessary because certain offences are a fraction of the term of imprisonment prescribed for other offences. (source: dawn.com) INDIA: Pune BPO employee rape and murder case: Bombay HC commutes death penalty of 2 convicts to life imprisonment The Bombay High Court on Monday commuted the death penalty of 2 convicts in the 2007 Pune BPO gang-rape and murder case to life imprisonment on the ground that there had been an inordinate delay in executing them. The convicts, Purushottam Borate and Pradeep Kokade, were to be executed on 24 June, but the high court had said on 21 June that the execution should not take place as scheduled until further orders. A division bench of Justices B P Dharmadhikari and Swapna Joshi allowed the petitions filed by the convicts seeking a stay on the execution of their death warrant. "Their sentences are commuted," the court said. The lawyer for the convicts, Yug Chaudhary, told reporters the court had said in the judgement that the duo should be in prison for a period of 35 years after taking into account the time already spent and remission. The 2 were convicted and awarded the death penalty by a trial court in 2012 for kidnapping, raping and murdering a BPO employee in Pune in 2007. In the petitions filed in May, the duo sought a stay on the ground that there had been an inordinate delay in deciding their mercy petitions by the Maharashtra governor and the President, and also in the issuance of the warrants for the execution of the death penalty. They also sought the death penalty to be commuted to life imprisonment. (source: firstpost.com) INDONESIA: 2 Ways Corruption Convicts Can be Sentenced to Death: KPK Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) Deputy Basaria Panjaitan recalled the 2 reasons a corruption convict could be charged with the 2 most severe punishment regulated under the Corruption Law; life sentence and death penalty. According to him, corruptors are eligible to be handed the punishments for corruption in a time of a natural disaster or committing repeated acts of corruption. “In the situation of a natural disaster for instance, and then when the act was committed repeatedly,” said Basaria in South Jakarta on Sunday. A recent case considered eligible is a case of corruption KPK is currently handling, which involves a repeated act of corruption by Kudus Regent M. Tamzil. Back in 2004, the regent was also involved in a graft on an education fund for the district and was found guilty in February 2015 punished to 22 months in prison. Tamzil was named a suspect once again by the KPK for a graft case
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----PENN., OHIO, USA
July 29 PENNSYLVANIA: $80K cost of Northampton County death penalty case ignites debate on capital punishment’s expense Northampton County’s latest death penalty trial cost taxpayers nearly $80,000 at a time when executions have ceased in Pennsylvania. While hefty, that price tag makes Dekota J. Baptiste’s the cheapest capital murder trial in recent years at the Easton courthouse, where defense bills alone in other such cases have routinely exceeded 6 figures. In May, Baptiste was convicted of 1st-degree murder for a Palmer Township shooting in which he emptied his revolver into a car outside an auto parts store off Route 22. A jury deadlocked on whether the 28-year-old Easton man deserved to be sentenced to die, and he is serving life in prison without parole. Death penalty cases are routinely the priciest, given what is at stake. Experts for the prosecution billed $25,226, which covered a psychiatrist, Dr. John O’Brien II, who testified at Baptiste’s sentencing ($20,226); and a forensic pathologist, Dr. Zhongxue Hua, who conducted the victim’s autopsy ($5,000). Defense costs reached $50,280 and were also borne by taxpayers because Baptiste is indigent. They paid for two court-appointed lawyers, a psychologist, a private investigator, a ballistics analyst and mitigation specialist Cynthia Hallock, according to figures provided by the court administrator’s office. Those numbers could rise even further. Hallock, who highlighted Baptiste’s hard-luck upbringing to jurors, is seeking court approval for an additional $4,659 on top of the $16,300 that Judge Samuel Murray already approved. An accident reconstructionist who testified for the defense also has yet to submit his bill, the administrator’s office said. Convicted killer Dekota Baptiste avoids death penalty after jury deadlocks But the defense expenses represent a fraction of those incurred in previous high-profile capital trials, including the 2017 prosecution of Easton killer Jeffrey Knoble Jr., for which taxpayers footed more than $143,000, the highest in recent memory. Like Baptiste, Knoble was ultimately sentenced to life in prison. Knoble’s costs sparked a billing dispute been the court and one of his experts, Louise Luck, a mitigation specialist who received $76,000 and submitted further invoices that the county refused to pay. Luck defended her bills, saying her work with Knoble was difficult and time-consuming, but court administrators and the county controller questioned whether they were excessive. On Thursday, court Administrator Jermaine Greene said Baptiste’s lower figures come as the court has tried to tamp down costs. Bills are scrutinized and defense attorneys and their experts are held to court-ordered caps on their compensation unless they can justify it to the judge, Greene said. “We want to make sure that they’re not getting a blank check, but they are providing the services that they are contracted to provide," Greene said. The largest expense in Baptiste’s defense was for his lawyers, Brian Monahan and Tyree Blair, who received $22,500, the court-ordered ceiling on their pay. They were followed by Hallock, private investigator Barry Golazeski ($6,025), psychologist Frank Dattilio ($4,375) and ballistics expert Carl Leisinger III ($1,080). On Thursday, Monahan defended the expenses, noting that in seeking to put someone to death, the state has vastly superior resources, considering district attorneys’ offices and police departments are taxpayer funded. “It’s clear that the prosecution resources are unlimited compared to the minimal court-appointed defense budgets that are paid for by the county,” Monahan said. Lehigh, Northampton differ in putting a price on justice On Feb. 23, 2017, Baptiste repeatedly shot 37-year-old Terrance R. Ferguson of Bangor after following him to the AutoZone on 25th Street in Palmer. Authorities said Baptiste was jealous over his ex-girlfriend, Thressa Duarte, a passenger of Ferguson’s who escaped injury by ducking to the floor as bullets sprayed over her. In seeking a death sentence, prosecutors said that not only did Baptiste murder Ferguson, he put others in grave risk. In arguing for a life sentence, the defense said Baptiste lived a turbulent life in which he was surrounded by violence and poverty. Capital punishment in Pennsylvania has long been embattled. A March analysis by The Morning Call of 4,184 murder convictions across the state from 2004 to 2017 showed that prosecutors are increasingly reluctant to pursue it, given the high financial cost and the lengthy legal battles it guarantees. There hasn’t been an execution in 2 decades, even before Gov. Tom Wolf imposed a moratorium on them in 2015. The courts have aggressively scrutinized death sentences, throwing out scores at appeal. Marc Bookman, an anti-capital-punishment lawyer in Philadelphia, said it is impossible to have a viable death
