Dec. 15
JAPAN:
Dog trainer handed death penalty for killing 5 people with muscle
relaxants
A man convicted of killing five people in 1992 and 1993 using muscle
relaxants is set to be executed after the Supreme Court rejected his
appeal on Thursday.
The man, Yoshinori Ueda, 51, a self-proclaimed dog trainer was sentenced
to death after being convicted of murder and abandoning the bodies of the
5 victims.
"They were cold-blooded and inhumane crimes, and the result was extremely
serious," Justice Kazuko Yokoo said in handing down the ruling, which
supported the death penalty decisions handed down in earlier district and
high court decisions.
Ueda admitted to the killings during the investigation stage of the case,
but denied responsibility for the murders during his trials, saying he was
assaulted by police and forced to confess. However, the district and high
courts handling the case ruled that the testimony was credible.
During the high court trial, Ueda was subjected to a psychiatric
evaluation, which found that he could be held criminally responsible for
his actions.
Lawyers for Uehara claimed it would have been impossible to kill 5 people
using the method outlined in his confession. They added that the defendant
had no motive for carrying out the crime, and asked the Supreme Court to
scrap the death penalty. The first petty bench of the court, however, said
the tendency to easily commit murder could be seen in the defendant.
According to the district and high court rulings, in a car parked on land
he had leased in Nagano Prefecture, Ueda murdered three men aged between
20 and 33 in June 1992 and July that year by injecting them with muscle
relaxants normally used to put animals to death.
He committed the murders over financial trouble relating to the launch of
a pet shop and breeding business, the rulings said.
In October and November the following year, he killed 2 47-year-old women
in Osaka Prefecture by injecting them with muscle relaxants, and dumped
their bodies in a field in Nagano Prefecture, according to the rulings.
The case, which the Metropolitan Police Department had referred to as
"Case No. 120," gained attention because some of the victims were
dog-lovers.
(source: Mainichi Daily News)
SOUTH AFRICA:
South Africans Debate Death Penalty Ban 10 Years Later
South Africa abolished the death penalty 10 years ago, but the debate over
whether that was a good idea, continues. The publicity over the execution
of Stanley "Tookie" Williams in California is prompting new discussion of
the issue.
At a local mall in a suburb of Johannesburg it seemed that most people
knew about the Stanley "Tookie" Williams execution. One man said it is an
issue that is followed very closely by most South Africans given their
country's violent past.
Johanne, 46, is torn over whether the death penalty in his country should
be reinstated, after executions were abolished 10-years ago.
"It is difficult to say, having been a soldier in the army myself," he
said. "Death has never been something that can pay for the wrongs of
someone else."
But when asked how he would feel about the death penalty if a member of
his family were a victim of a violent crime, Johanne hesitated before
answering.
"One can only make a proper judgment or proper assessment if you are
caught in that situation," he noted.
After South Africa's landmark election in 1994, the Constitutional Court
abolished the death penalty.
While most believed that a move from an authoritarian repressive regime to
a human rights based system was a step in the right direction, South
Africans still faced burgeoning violent crime. Organized crime found
fertile ground and violent crime flourished in the first few years of the
new democracy.
But as Amanda Dissel of the Center for the Study of Violence and
Reconciliation notes, violent crimes have decreased in the past 10 years.
"The most of the serious offenses have gone down," she said. "Crimes like
murder have been reduced from about 25,000 to 19,000 this year."
Despite the decrease, some South Africans still live with fear.
Rudy, 21, is a student in Johannesburg. He says the level of rape and
murder is too high in South Africa and he lives in fear on a daily basis,
and therefore, the death penalty needs to be reinstated to deter these
violent crimes.
"It worked in the past. I think it will work again," said Mr. Rudy.
But, Malusi, 34, disagrees. He called the death penalty very barbaric and
cruel.
"I will not say criminals must not be punished, there must be harsh
punishments," he said. "There are so many things that they can do, the
government, to get people to pay back for their deeds, and they can
rehabilitate them."
There have been no recent surveys indicating how many South Africans favor
the death penalty, the Center for the Study of Violence and
Reconciliations Amanda Dissel says that people in South Africa tend to
demand severe forms of justice.
But, she points out, a recent survey by the Institute for Security Studies
found that if respondents were given the details of a particular crime,
they were more likely to be more lenient on the offender.
"So they were more likely to take into account the various factors of the
crime, the nature of the circumstances of the criminal and the extent of
harm etc, when they made those decisions," she added.
(source: Voice of America News, Dec. 13)
GLOBAL:
Blair condemns death penalty
British Prime Minister Tony Blair said he "strongly" opposed the death
penalty but warned it was wrong to equate the human rights situtation in
the US with that in countries such as China simply on the grounds of the
number of executions carried out.
Answering a weekly session of questions in parliament a day after the
controversial execution in California of former gang leader Stanley
"Tookie" Williams, Blair said: "There is a difference between Europe and
America on this issue.
"There always has been and always will be as long as the death penalty
remains in the USA," he said when asked whether he was aware that 97 % of
the world's executions took place in China, Vietnam, Iran and the United
States.
"I would just say... when he (his questioner) puts the USA alongside China
and Iran and so on, that it's just worth pointing out that the rule of law
applies in the USA," he said.
"Although I strongly disagree with the death penalty, I think if we're
looking for human rights abuses it is sometimes right to look elsewhere at
severe human rights abuses that happen around the rest of the world,
particularly in countries like North Korea, where we actually never hear
any protests at all."
Williams' execution prompted widespread protests both in and outside the
US, which early this month marked the 1,000th prisoner execution since the
death penalty was reintroduced in 1977.
Britain, which currently holds the rotating EU presidency, said in October
that the 25-member bloc opposed the death penalty "under all
circumstances" and called on countries where it still applied to work
towards its abolition.
(source: AFP)
JORDAN:
Miscarriage of Justice New Reason to Abolish Death Penalty
New information in a murder case that led to the execution of a suspect in
2000 provides a compelling new reason for Jordan to abolish the death
penalty, Human Rights Watch said today. The Jordanian justice system has
failed dramatically in the murder case against Bilal Musa, executing him
for murder based on a confession that was likely obtained as a result of
torture, but exonerating another man who voluntarily confessed to
committing the same crime.
"These 2 cases exemplify the Jordanian judiciary's failure to conduct even
the most basic inquiry into the facts, even in the most serious cases,"
said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.
"Jordan should urgently follow King Abdullah's call to abolish the death
penalty to prevent tragic cases like this in the future."
On April 27, 2000, the Serious Crimes Court in Amman ordered the execution
of Bilal Musa for the 1995 murder of Najih Khayyat, despite his claim to
have been tortured into confessing and the lack of any apparent connection
to the victim. But on September 26, 2005, the same court cleared Zuhair
Khatib, who insisted that he was the real killer.
The judges also convicted Musa of murdering 9 other people over a period
of 4 years, based entirely on his contested confessions. The prosecution
failed to present any evidence linking Musa to the death of Khayyat or to
the other murders. The court relied solely on a confession that was
obtained as a result of torture, according to the court testimony of a
witness who testified he had heard Musa screaming from beatings he
received while being interrogated.
Musa never disputed an 11th case, in which he claimed he killed a friend
who was sexually assaulting Musas wife, Susan Ibrahim. She was a
co-defendant in the cases against Musa. The court failed to investigate
Musas and Ibrahim's allegations of torture.
On December 7, 2000, Musa was executed by hanging at Swaqa Prison, just
south of Amman. The court also convicted his wife, Susan Ibrahim, of
murder but reduced her sentence to life in prison with hard labor. Ibrahim
died in prison several months after her husband's execution.
On May 15, 2005, 5 years after this high profile case had been closed, 2
of the same judges at the Serious Crimes Court convicted Khatib for the
murder of Khayyat and two others. According to court papers, Khatib had
voluntarily and spontaneously confessed to the murder of Khayyat, although
the police sought him only in connection to 2 unrelated murders, to which
he also confessed. The court accepted his confession and convicted him of
all 3 killings
"The Khayyat case points to the dangers of relying on disputed confessions
without further evidence to establish the truth," Whitson said. "Rigorous
scrutiny of evidence and the courts desire to establish the truth are
sadly absent in these cases."
When the court realized that it had already sentenced Musa to death for
the same murder, the case went to the Court of Cassation, which sent it
back to the lower court for review.
On September 26, the Serious Crimes Court reversed its decision to convict
Khatib for the murder of Khayyat, arguing that Musas confession
corresponded more closely with the facts of the murder, notwithstanding
Musa's claim that police had dictated his confession.
The courts dismissal of Khatib's voluntary confession to the murder of
Khayyat was apparently based only on their realization that they had
already executed a man for the crime.
3 times this court has issued a verdict on who murdered Najih Khayyat. 2
of the 3 judges on the bench ruled in both cases. Confronted with exactly
the same facts, the judges once found Khatib "guilty" and once found him
"not guilty." Despite a lack of corroborating evidence and allegations of
a confession obtained as a result of torture, they found Musa guilty and
had him executed.
"The same judges who initially relied on Musa's and Khatib's confessions
without significant testing of the evidence should not be called on to
review the verdicts," Whitson said. "There needs to be an independent
inquiry."
Human Rights Watch today published a letter to the Jordanian prime
minister urging him to support abolishing the death penalty, to start an
independent investigation into these two cases and to overhaul the
investigation techniques of Jordanian courts. King Abdullah said this
month that he wanted Jordan to be the 1st country in the region to abolish
the death penalty.
"These 2 cases are a stunning example of the Jordanian judiciarys failure
to conduct even the most basic inquiry into the facts surrounding the most
serious crimes with the most serious penalty," said Whitson. "The police,
prosecutors and judges appear to have had little interest in establishing
the truth, and every interest in rushing through murder verdicts based on
confessions likely extracted under torture."
Human Rights Watch Press release
HREA - www.hrea.org Human Rights Education Associates (HREA) is an
international non-governmental organisation that supports human rights
learning; the training of activists and professionals; the development of
educational materials and programming; and community-building through
on-line technologies.
(source: Human Rights Watch)
