March 28
JAPAN:
Gangster gets death sentence for killing 4 in Maebashi bar shooting
The Maebashi District Court handed down the death sentence Monday against
a gangster for killing 4 in a shooting at a bar in Maebashi, Gunma
Prefecture, in 2003.
According to the ruling, Masato Kohinata, 35, a senior member of the Yano
Mutsumi-kai syndicate, went on a shooting spree at the bar in Maebashi,
killing three customers and seriously wounding their target and another
person. The bodyguard was shot dead outside the bar.
(source: Kyodo News)
SOUTH KOREA:
Human Rights Panel to Advise Repeal of Death Penalty
Members of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) reached a general
consensus that the South Korean government should abrogate capital
punishment, according to sources Monday.
The government panel convened a session of all members to discuss the
matter after a group of lawmakers recently presented a bill aimed at
introducing a life imprisonment system without parole instead of
abolishing the death penalty to the National Assembly.
Although they differed on complementary measures, all 10 members of the
advisory body virtually agreed that capital punishment should be
eliminated, a commission member said.
"Life imprisonment without parole could be harsher than the death
penalty," said Lee Hae-hak, one of the members.
However, the NHRC will likely make a formal decision on the issue in a
week or 2 when the panel's top position, currently vacant, is filled by a
new president.
(source: The Korea Times)
INDIA:
People's Union for Democratic Rights
5, Miranda House Teachers' Flats, Chhatra Marg, Delhi University, Delhi
110007
PRESS RELEASE - 9 March 2005
End secrecy and silence on death penalty and executions
The People's Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) called upon the Government
today to end the silence and secrecy on the execution of death sentences
and make public all information on people executed since independence.
While the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) has provided information of
executions post 1995, no such information has been made available before
this period. In August 2004, Dhananjoy Chatterjee was widely reported in
the media as the 55th person to be hanged in India. No source was
attributed to this number, nor was any contrary information revealed by
any government agency. The general belief that India uses the death
sentence rarely and only few people have been executed was thus
strengthened.
Information recently unearthed by PUDR however clearly shows that at least
1422 executions were carried out in a single decade (1953 - 1963) in
various states in India. This information provided in Appendix XXXIV of
the 35th Report of the Law Commission of India, 1967 sheds new light on
the subject of the death penalty and raises important questions as to why
the Government maintained its silence. "The continued suppression of
information by the various agencies of the State is a deliberate attempt
at misinformation and raises concerns", said a PUDR spokesperson.
Previously various journalists have reported that the Government does not
maintain information on executions. Refuting this argument, the PUDR
spokesperson pointed out that given the depth of statistical detail on
crime otherwise provided; it was not plausible that the silence on death
penalty and executions was for lack for information. Reiterating the need
for transparency within the criminal justice system, PUDR observed that
there was no space in a democratic nation for executions to be carried out
in secrecy and silence. "Now that we know of 1422 executions already
carried out, we fear the total number since Independence would be high in
the thousands", concluded the spokesperson.
PUDR opposes the imposition of the death penalty in all cases. It further
believes that an informed public debate on the death penalty cannot take
place in the absence of information on executions that the State is
withholding.
Deepika Tandon, (Secretary, PUDR)
Number of people executed in various states from 1953 - 1963
1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 Total
Andamans 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 2 2
Andhra Pradesh 20 3 15 12 13 8 20 16 9 3 119
Bihar 6 3 7 3 5 2 4 4 2 0 36
Gujarat 2 1 2 1 0 3 4 1 2 5 21
Himachal Pradesh 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1
Kerala 11 9 2 0 5 10 16 9 7 15 84
Madhya Pradesh 6 10 7 5 7 1 3 0 39
Madras State 44 53 56 50 59 71 45 51 33 23 485
Maharashtra 4 4 5 4 4 6 8 10 7 4 56
Manipur 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1
Mysore State 1 1 4 1 2 1 3 3 0 0 16
Orissa 2 3 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 3 10
Punjab 10 11 16 11 12 12 20 21 11 4 140
Tripura 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
UP 24 46 41 54 41 47 47 44 36 17 397
West Bengal 1 1 2 4 1 1 2 0 3 0 15
TOTAL (yearly) 21 108 150 151 153 144 181 174 150 107 73 1422
(source: PUDR)
