[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Jan. 20



SAUDI ARABIA----executions

Saudi Arabia beheads two men for drug smuggling


Saudi Arabia on Sunday beheaded by the sword 2 men convicted of drug
smuggling, the interior ministry announced.

Abdul Rahman Rashid and Qashaan al-Sabiee were executed in the
ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom's Eastern Province for "trafficking
large amounts of drugs", it said in a statement carried by the state SPA
news agency.

Their beheadings brought to 9 the number of executions announced in Saudi
Arabia this year, after a record 153 people were put to death in 2007.

Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking can all carry
the death penalty in the Gulf country, where executions are usually
carried out in public.

(source: Agence France Presse)






TRINIDAD:

Hanging not discouraging killers


HANGING condemned men has not deterred would-be killers in this country
from committing murders, at least according to homicides figures in the
last decade.

The State last executed a convicted killer in July 1999 when Anthony
Briggs was sent to the gallows.

1 month before Briggs, Dole Chadee and his gang of 8 were hanged for the
infamous 1994 Williamsville murders.

The issue of the death penalty has again come up after Prime Minister
Patrick Manning said that his Government was seeking to re-implement the
death penalty to help curb crime.

Speaking at a Chamber of Industry and Commerce luncheon at the Hyatt
Regency Hotel in Port of Spain two weeks ago, Manning said that State
executions was "a very important intervention in curtailing the level of
murders in Trinidad and Tobago."

In an earlier interview Attorney General Bridgid Annisette-George reminded
that the death penalty was still law and the punishment for convicted
killers.

Homicide Bureau figures show that murders had been on the decline up to
1999 when the 10 killers were executed and has since then been steadily
increasing.

There are at present 84 condemned prisoners on death row, 78 men and 6
women.

The number of convicts on death row has increased by 21 since the State's
last execution in 1999. The State resumed hangings on July 14, 1994, after
almost 15 years without an execution.

Glen Ashby, who had been convicted of murdering BWIA pilot Khemraj Singh,
was the convict chosen by the hangman.

The hanging remains controversial, as at the time of his execution the
Privy Council was in the process of hearing Ashby's appeal.

At the Chamber luncheon Manning said that State was looking at ways to
putting into law the conditions under which someone can be hanged.

"What we are talking about is enshrining in law the conditions under which
the death penalty can be carried out and therefore it is not left to the
judgment of others. There have been a number of Privy Council decisions
that have acted as constraints to the carrying out of the death penalty.
And we are trying to streamline our legislation in order to remove this
constraint."

Prior to the hanging of Ashby, Bobby Gransaul and Stanley Abbott were sent
to the gallows in 1979 and 1978 respectively.

In 1994, the year Ashby was hanged, 143 murders were committed, according
to Homicide Bureau records, the highest for that decade.

5 years later Chadee, his gang of 8 and Briggs, were hanged.

Chadee and his gang were hanged for the murders of the 4 members of the
Baboolal family in Williamsville in 1994, ironically the same year Ashby
was executed.

Briggs was sent to the gallows after he was convicted for the murder of a
taxi driver.

Briggs and Wenceslaus James, 36, were sentenced to hang on June 21, 1996
for murdering 23-year-old Shammi Ramkissoon on August 8, 1992.

Murders had been on the decline until Chadee and his gang were sent to the
gallows, Homicide Bureau figures show.

In 1999 there were 93 murders, and a total of 520 homicides between the
1994 and 1999 State executions.

In the 5 years following the Chadee and Briggs hangings, 929 homicides
were committed and up to end of last year 2,074.

In 1999, up to the time Chadee was hanged on June 4, 46 people were
murdered.

Following Chadee's death, 47 murders were committed, one more than before
the hanging.

This despite the execution of nine other men, Chadee's gang and Briggs on
July 28.

One year later in 2000, 118 murders were committed and the homicide rate
has gone up every year since then on average by 20 %.

In the 1st month after the Chadee executions 8 murders were committed and
in the case of Briggs, 6.

At the time of the Briggs execution there were 63 convicts on death row,
13 of them eligible for the hangman's noose, having exhausted all of their
appeals and with no constitutional or human rights motions pending.

6 years after Briggs was hanged the death warrant was read to Lester
Pitman in 2005, whom the court later granted a stay of execution.

Within hours of the news of the death warrant being read, a school teacher
in San Juan was shot dead on his way to the wake of a murder victim.

In 2005, 146 murders were committed before the death warrant was read to
Pitman and 240 afterwards, Homicide Bureau figures show.

(source: Trinidad Express)

********************

Torture, then hang 'em high


NOW that Prime Minister Patrick Manning has declared his latest plan to
curb crime-hang 'em high-I must advise him of a sinister measure he can
add for special effect. The PM knows I am among those who oppose capital
punishment, although, shamefully, I must admit to having looked in the
other direction as Dole Chadee and his gang were strung up under hangman
Ramesh Maharaj's watch. Now I urge the PM to torture the SoBs before
putting the noose around their necks.

Here's how it will work. After death warrants are read to these low-lives
and non-humans, give them each a cordless phone (that's to ensure they
don't hang themselves before the State does!). Tell them to dial the
Ministry of National Security's several listed phone lines. If they get an
answer in less than in five days, they get a reprieve. Mr Manning, you
have them by the balloons!

I personally attest to the soundness of this torture. Working on a story
last week, I had to reach several ministries in the hope of getting data
and comments. At National Security, the one occasion when an operator
responded, I thought I had reached a rumshop, not the ministry. Me:
"Hello?" The other end: "Yeah?" "Is this National Security?" "No dis is de
head office." Rechecking the numbers I had noted, I told Ms Crude I was
trying to reach the corporate communications department of the Ministry of
National Security. "Hold on!" I wait for a few minutes while another phone
rang before it was answered.

I made my request. I was told the person who could talk with me was not in
office that day. I left my name and phone number. The person vowed to have
the official return my call. When that did not happen, I tried a million
times the following day to get an answer. The phone just rang.

That was no fluke. I tried to reach the Ministry of Labour on Thursday,
around 3.45 p.m. The minister must be in office now, I told myself.
Instead of the minister I got a recording telling me that the ministry's
hours of business were 8 a.m. to 4.15 p.m. At 3.45 p.m. I was late! Can
you believe this? And it holds true for every public office. If the PM
doubts me, he should try reaching his ministers via their PBXs, not their
direct lines.

Now, that is torture. Legit, I need add. No International Criminal Court
in The Hague for our PM. The devilish Death Row inmates will wear out
their fingers fighting for reprieves. None will come. The last thing
they'd think of as the hangman pulls the lever to send them to Hell is:
damn those telephone operators!

But back on the crime scene. Is the resumption of hangings the best Mr
Manning can come up with? Those who argue you must first catch the
criminals, then secure convictions, are correct. If the arrest rate is
close to zero, of what use is capital punishment?

When I began this series, I remarked that Martin Joseph's many plans have
come to nought. Among Friday's on-line Express headlines, 10 of the top 12
related to crimes. Three dealt with murders, one spoke of seven people
being shot at a wake close to a police post, another of a family closing
its business because of robberies. Ramesh and Jack Warner walking around
Macaulay with four burly security guards must have made people laugh. But
we can expect other, similar pantomimes, as people remain helpless in a
crime wave that the Government seems incapable of containing.

If a report that the PM has opted for private security over the nation's
policemen and soldiers is true, then Mr. Manning and his new AG have no
moral authority to condemn Ramesh and Jack. This is total madness! The PM
has no confidence in our law enforcement agencies but he expects citizens
to rely on them for protection. What he needs to do is let loose the dogs
of war; allow every man woman and child the privilege of arming
themselves. Let bullets fly every which way, and those who remain standing
at the end of the mayhem would rule the country.

Now, let me tell Mr. Manning and blood-thirsty Trinis why effecting
capital punishment won't help. A few weeks ago a young gangster was gunned
down by his brother-in-crime. Mere days before, he told several people
around him: "Dey out to get mih." But he did nothing to show he valued his
own life. During the latter part of his 23 years on earth, he used to
dress in school uniform (so young and small was he), move with a concealed
gun, and shoot his victims. The latter must have registered surprise in
their dying moments-killed by a "schoolboy"!

In other words, life and death mean nothing to today's criminals. So would
they be brought to heel by a criminal justice system that has collapsed,
from arrests to convictions? I should think not. I rest my case.

(source: Opinion, Raffique Shah, Trinidad Express)






GUYANA:

Govt disregards UK group's call to 'bin' death penalty


Government on Thursday last brushed aside calls by a United Kingdom group
for the abolition of the death penalty, stating that the law should be
enforced as long as criminals are around.

Death Watch International earlier last week urged its supporters to write
to Guyana and implore the authorities to get rid of the death penalty but
Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon, said capital
punishment is in the country's laws and the state is obligated to
administer it. "The administration does not see as an imperative to have
any national discourse on capital punishment," Luncheon told the media at
his post cabinet press briefing.

"Some states will hang and they will respond and some states will not hang
and they will make comments," Luncheon, who is also head of the country's
security intelligence committee, said. He said too that he is not totally
convinced that crime will disappear in his lifetime and as such it will be
necessary that capital punishment remains law.

While there are around 30 people on death row, Guyana has not enforced the
death penalty since 1997. However, Luncheon reiterated that government is
committed to carrying out capital punishment and has to find ways around
the constitutional and other hurdles that have dogged the application of
the law for almost a decade. He said the administration had to work
aggressively to address the problems preventing those on death row being
administered the death penalty.

Meanwhile, the group said, via its website, that it has its eyes on Guyana
with a view to urging the government to abolish the death penalty.

The organisation, through its "Bin it!" campaign aims to add to
international pressure on countries that retain the death penalty to
consign it to the dustbin of history. "Every month we target a different
country, our current focus is on Guyana in South America," the website
said. It also said Guyana is the only South American country that retains
the death penalty.

(source: Stabroek News)