[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
August 1 UNITED KINGDOM: Families of IS suspects fear death penalty risk from evidence given to US Mother of captured Islamic State member calls for son and accomplice to be tried in UK jurisdiction A human rights group has warned the UK against providing evidence to the US in the case of two British Islamic State (IS) suspects without receiving assurances that the men would not receive the death penalty. In evidence given on the second day of a hearing at the Supreme Court on Wednesday, the human rights organisation Reprieve warned that failing to receive assurances on the death penalty would set a dangerous precedent. Elsheikh and Kotey, accused of belonging to a 4-strong IS cell responsible for killing western captives in Syria, are currently being held in the north of the country by the Syrian Democratic Force (SDF). They have been accused of involvement in the deaths of journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning. “By abandoning its abolitionist stance, the UK government is undermining its own efforts to prevent the use of the death penalty across the world," said Reprieve director Maya Foa. "Left as it is, this decision will have devastating impacts for people - including British people - facing execution around the world. Principles can’t be jettisoned when they become politically inconvenient.” Lawyers for Maha Elgizouli, the mother of one of the men, El Shafee Elsheikh, told the UK Supreme Court on Tuesday that they had been informed by prosecution chiefs that - contrary to what they previously thought - there was enough evidence for Elsheikh and another detained British IS member, Alexander Kotey, to be tried in Britain. Their arrest last year provoked controversy about whether the 2 should be tried in the UK or abroad - a controversy further compounded when it was revealed that then Home Secretary Sajid Javid said he would share evidence with US authorities without receiving reassurance that the men would not receive the death penalty. A letter leaked to UK media in July 2018 revealed that Javid told US Attorney General Jeff Sessions that Britain had "strong reasons for not requiring a death penalty assurance in this specific case". Speaking in court yesterday, a lawyer for Elgizouli argued that the decision by Javid - which they were challenging - would undermine the UK's previously stated policy of opposing the death penalty. “Mrs Elgizouli is solely concerned to protect her son from the death penalty," said Edward Fitzgerald QC. "She recognises the enormity of the crimes alleged against her son.” The High Court ruled in January that the British government had not acted unlawfully by providing evidence to US authorities in Elsheikh's case. "There is no general, common law duty on Her Majesty's Government to take positive steps to protect an individual's life from the actions of a 3rd party and that includes requiring particular undertakings before complying with the [mutual legal assistance request]," said Lord Chief Justice Ian Burnett at the time. It also dismissed claims that Javid had acted unlawfully by providing information which might facilitate the death penalty or substantially contribute to the risk of its imposition. (source: middleeasteye.net) INDIA: Death penalty sought for Unnao rape accused Members of the local women’s wing of the Congress staged a protest at Samrala Chowk, demanding death sentence for Unnao rape case accused BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar. City Congress wing president Leena Tapariya demanded that the hearing in the case should be held in Delhi under the supervision of Supreme Court rather than Lucknow. She blamed the UP Government for creating “Jungle Raj” and poor law and order situation in the state. The car crash in Uttar Pradesh had left the rape survivor critically wounded and 2 of her relatives dead. Leena Tapariya said Prime Minister Narendra Modi should come forward to support the victim so that death sentence be awarded to the accused. (source: tribuneindia.com) PAKISTAN: Pakistan to grant consular access to Jadhav on Friday Pakistan has decided to grant consular access to Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav in accordance with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling, according to the Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson. Jadhav will be granted consular access on Friday, Dunya News quoted the spokesperson as saying. Pakistan has informed the Indian High Commission and is awaiting a formal response, it said. The ICJ in its ruling in July put on continued stay the death sentence to Jadhav by a Pakistani military court for alleged espionage. The court had asked Pakistan to inform Jadhav of his rights under Article 36 of the Vienna Convention and grant India consular access. The ICJ in its ruling asked Pakistan to ensure "effective review and reconsideration of his
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----USA
August 1 USA: Boston Marathon Bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Death Penalty Appeal Set A judge said this week oral arguments in Boston Marathon bomber's Dzhokhar Tsarnaev appeal will be on Dec. 12. More than 4 years after he was sentenced to death for his part in the Boston Marathon bombings, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's case is set to return to court. A federal judge this week said oral arguments in the Boston Marathon bomber's death sentence appeal will happen Dec. 12. Tsarnaev's attorney will also be allowed to review the last sealed FBI interview of Ibragim Todashev before an FBI agent killed him, according to federal court records made public this week. The defense team requested and will get the recordings of Ibragim Todashev's final interview with law enforcement, before he was killed. The FBI said Todashev implicated himself and Tamerlan in the 2011 murder of 3 Waltham men. Tsarnaev's lawyers said it was impossible for an impartial jury to be selected in Boston. They also said the trial judge committed a "grave error" by not permitting the defense to tell jurors that Tamerlan was connected to the 2011 Waltham triple-murder ahead of the bombings. "This proof went to the heart of his defense: that Tamerlan was a killer, an angry and violent man; that he conceived and led this conspiracy," Tsarnaev's lawyers wrote in December court documents. "The exclusion of this mitigating evidence violated the Eighth Amendment and yielded a verdict unworthy of confidence." Only 2 specific defense lawyers will be permitted to review the tapes and cannot share those with anyone, including Tsarnaev. According to court documents, any motions filed as a result of the tapes (like a motion to suppress) and the state's response, must be under seal. Tsarnaev was sentenced to death in 2015 for orchestrating — alongside his brother — the April 15, 2013, bombings that killed three people and injured more than 250 others. The pair also shot at a police officer who was killed in the ensuing manhunt. Tsarnaev's brother, Tamerlan, was also killed in the manhunt. High-ranking law enforcement officials said he deserved the death penalty and knew what he was getting into. Tsarnaev's lawyers claimed he was under the influence of his older brother, Tamerlan. Tsarnaev was 19 years old at the time of the bombings. Tsarnaev is being held at a prison in Colorado, and isn't expected to show. (source: patch.com) ** Correctional staff are the hidden victims of the death penalty If the Trump administration moves forward with its plan to carry out 5 executions in barely a 1-month span, it will leave behind a fresh trail of victims, largely hidden from public view. These are the correctional staff harmed by the execution process. I know from my own firsthand experiences, supervising executions as a state director of corrections, that the damage executions inflict on correctional staff is deep and far-ranging. Carrying out an execution can take a severe toll on the well-being of those involved. A 2016 documentary, “There Will Be No Stay,” effectively portrays the trauma experienced by correctional staff tasked with carrying out executions in Texas, South Carolina and Georgia. Execution team members experienced acute post-traumatic stress disorder. One described how his symptoms included seeing “faces of the people he executed in reoccurring nightmares.” Others suffered from similar nightmares, insomnia and addiction. Some were so severely traumatized that they are still not functional enough for employment or to maintain marital relationships. Psychologists have described the impact of executions on correctional staff as similar to that suffered by battlefield veterans. But in my military experience, there was one major difference: The enemy was an anonymous, armed combatant who was threatening my life. In an execution, the condemned prisoner is a known human being who is totally defenseless when brought into the death chamber. Staff members know that he has been secured safely for many years before his execution and poses no threat to them personally. It is not just the members of the execution team who experience feelings of guilt, shame and mental torment. The trauma extends through the many correctional staff who interact every day with death row prisoners, often forming meaningful bonds over the course of many years and, in many cases, witnessing their changed mind-sets and profound remorse. In my experience, the damage spills over into the larger prison community, causing depression, anxiety and other mental and physical impacts even among correctional workers who do not work directly with those on death row. All these devastating effects are made much worse when executions are carried out in rapid succession, as the Trump administration plans to do. This compressed schedule, with executions just a few days apart, causes an extended
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----ARK., UTAH, ARIZ., NEV.
August 1 ARKANSAS: Death penalty sought in killing of former state senator Prosecutors say they plan to seek the death penalty against a woman charged with killing a former Arkansas lawmaker. Former State Senator Linda Collins was found dead outside her own home last month, June 4. On Tuesday, Prosecutor Henry Boyce told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette his office would formally announce the death penalty request. In a court arraignment, Rebecca Lynn O’Donnell said she understood the charges and her attorney entered a not guilty plea to capital murder on her behalf. Collins was found dead June 4 outside her home in Pocahontas, which is about 130 miles northeast of Little Rock. Authorities have released few details about Collins’ killing and have not said how she died, but later in the day documents were released that indicated Collins was stabbed. The judge has ordered O’Donnell be held on no bond. (source: Associated Press) UTAH: State to seek death penalty for Utahn accused of killing, dumping young couple in mine shaft Prosecutors in Utah County will seek the death penalty for the man charged with killing a young couple and dumping their bodies in an abandoned mine shaft in 2017. Utah County Attorney David Leavitt announced the decision at a Wednesday news conference in Provo, where he said a jury will ultimately decide the fate of Jerrod William Baum. "My decision is to allow the death penalty to be considered in this case," Leavitt said as family members of the slain Riley Powell, 18, and Brelynne "Breezy" Otteson, 17, listened. "It is my role to give the people the option." The teens' family members have called for the death penalty if Baum is convicted. Baum, 42, faces 2 counts of aggravated murder, a 1st-degree felony, in the deaths of the teens. "if pulling a trigger or injecting a needle would bring Breezy and Riley back, I would do so personally," Leavitt said. His decision is based not just on pursuing justice for the teens but also protecting the public, he told reporters and others. Leavitt said he did not make the announcement in order to secure a plea deal that would send Baum to prison for life with no possibility of parole, and called such a tack "morally repugnant" and a misuse of plea bargains. When pressed to say whether he would no longer pursue the death penalty if Baum were to admit to the charges, Leavitt declined to give a definitive answer. "I'm not going to engage in plea negotiations in the middle of a press conference," he said. "I will say that I am not charging the death penalty in order to get him to plead guilty." During his press conference, Leavitt also touched on reforms his office is pursuing, saying the criminal justice system is "completely out of balance" and most cases are resolved in plea deals instead of trials, a trend he believes grants prosecutors too much power. (source: KSL news) ARIZONA: Mexican immigrant accused of murder tries to keep death penalty off table Lawyers for a Mexican immigrant charged with murder in the 2015 shooting death of a convenience store clerk are urging the Arizona Court of Appeals to reject an effort by prosecutors to seek the death penalty against their client. Earlier this month, authorities appealed a lower-court decision that said prosecutors could no longer seek the death penalty against Apolinar Altamirano, 34, in the shooting death of 21-year-old clerk Grant Ronnebeck because Altamirano is intellectually disabled. Prosecutors argued the judge failed to make an overall assessment of Altamirano’s ability to meet society’s expectations of him and adapt to the requirements of daily life as an adult. But Altamirano’s lawyers said in court records filed a week ago that the judge already had considered evidence of their client’s weaknesses and strengths in such “adaptive behavior,” including his work ethic, relationships with loved ones and ability to hold down a job and support his family. Altamirano’s lawyers said the state isn’t saying the judge “committed legal error or abused his discretion, but instead merely takes issue with the way in which he weighed and assessed the credibility of the evidence.” The case against Altamirano has been cited by President Donald Trump, who has railed against crimes committed against American citizens by immigrants who are the United States illegally. Trump, who has created a new office to serve victims of immigration crimes and their relatives, has invoked such crimes at rallies, pointing to cases in which people were killed by immigrant assailants who slipped through the cracks. Altamirano, whose hometown is Damian Carmona in central Mexico, has lived in the United States without authorization for about 20 years. He was deported after a marijuana possession arrest and returned to the United States. He is accused of fatally shooting Ronnebeck at a store in Mesa after
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, S.C., OHIO, TENN., MO.
August 1 TEXAS: US prosecutor seeking death penalty for suspected Kenyan serial killer A United States prosecutor has revealed intentions to seek the death penalty for a Kenyan immigrant facing charges of murdering 12 elderly women in the Texas counties of Dallas and Collin. The Kenyan national, Billy Kipkorir Chemirmir, is being held by the authorities in the United States on suspicion of being a serial killer. Chemirmir, an immigrant and a resident of Dallas, Texas, is accused of smothering or suffocating elderly women in senior living complexes in order to steal their jewelry to sell them online. In court documents filed this week, Dallas County prosecutors said they will seek the death penalty if Chemirmir is convicted of capital murder. DEATH PENALTY In Texas, capital murder carries either automatic life imprisonment without parole or the death penalty. Prosecutors reserve the death penalty for offenses considered heinous. Chemirmir, a healthcare worker, is being accused by family members who claim their kin did not die of natural causes. Police arrested Chemirmir last year and announced investigators would review hundreds of unattended death cases for additional potential victims. The suspect has a long criminal record, including having been charged in separate incidents in March and June 2016 with criminal trespassing and false identification at a Dallas retirement community. According to local news outlets, Chemirmir has declined personal interviews but his attorney said his client maintains he is innocent. The court is yet to set a trial date for the case. (source: Nairobi News) SOUTH CAROLINA: SC taxpayers paid $487,000 for the death penalty trial of Tim Jones. That number could go up. Figures recently released by Lexington County reveal South Carolina taxpayers paid more than $487,000 for the 6-week death penalty trial of Tim Jones Jr. Jones was convicted of the murders of his five children and sentenced to death by a jury in June. The total costs thus far for the trial is $487,845. A Lexington County spokesperson said the numbers are preliminary and there is a possibility another $85,000 could be added onto the total, as Jones’ defense has not finished submitting expenses. The county said the 11th Circuit Solicitor’s Office spent $34,180 on the prosecution of Jones, while the Clerk of Court expensed $39,612. Jones’ public defenders spent the most money, according to the data, spending $414,053 on his insanity defense. A breakdown of the numbers was not immediately available from the county. Expenses such as jury pay, jury meals, and transportation are also factored into the grand total. Lexington County taxpayers pay for the expenses of the Clerk of Court and the Solicitor’s Office, according to the county. That total is $73,792. However, all South Carolina taxpayers fund the states Public Defenders Office. (source: WIS news) OHIO: DeWine again delays execution in OhioGovernor says state can’t get drugs for lethal injections. Ohio officials are going to have to consider execution methods other than lethal injection, although they won’t discuss which ones. Gov. Mike DeWine said Wednesday morning state prison officials are finding it impossible to line up any company willing to supply drugs for a new lethal-injection method to replace a protocol essentially declared cruel and unusual punishment. Then Wednesday evening, DeWine said he again was delaying the execution of Warren Keith Henness, a Columbus man convicted of the 1992 slaying of a man from Circleville. Henness had been slated to die Sept. 12. His new date is May 14, 2020. DeWine said he would talk to General Assembly leaders about whether legislation allowing a different execution method should be pursued. Some Ohio death row inmates have been asking to be executed by firing squad — used in Utah in 2010 — while 2 Tennessee inmates last year opted to be executed in the electric chair. Ohio’s “Old Sparky” has been in storage for years. DeWine delayed 4 executions early this year after a federal judge in Dayton said Ohio’s current intravenous protocol would “almost certainly subject (a person) to severe pain and needless suffering.” Makers of drugs used in executions have said in recent years they don’t want their products used in executions. Ohio had been buying the drugs through its Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services and driving them to the death house at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility near Lucasville without telling drugmakers how the substances would be used. DeWine said the drugmakers have told the state that if they suspect any of their products would be used in executions, they would stop selling to the state altogether, potentially depriving Ohioans of important medicine. Those Ohioans include people who get drugs through the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction,
