Jan. 21
INDIA:
Behind death row judgment, prisoners in limbo between life and death----Found
guilty for terrible crimes, convicts spent years waiting for determination on
mercy petitions
Early one evening in June 2010, Maganlal Barela shouted out to his daughters to
come from the fields into their one-room home. He closed the door behind them,
court records show, then sliced through their necks with an axe, their blood
splashing over his clothes. The oldest, Phool Kanwar, was 6; Savita was 5,
Aarta 4, Leela 3, Jamuna just 1.
Barela's 3 sons, he allowed to live. The police said he acted because his 2
wives had stopped him from selling land, saying it was needed to secure the
girls' future.
The stories of the men, and 1 woman, the Supreme Court granted life to on
Tuesday received little media attention - except those of bandit Koose
Muniswamy Veerappan's aides, convicted of killing 22 police officers. Each
involved terrible crimes - but also years of delays over mercy petitions.
In those years, lives have moved on. Radheyshyam Meena, a witness in Barela's
case, told The Hindu that he was not even certain "who killed the children. No
one saw him kill them."
'Terah qatliya,' Nazir Singh's home in Pipariya Majra village of Uttar Pradesh
is called; 'the house of 13 murders. In August 1986, Gurmeet Singh, helped by
his friend Lakha Singh, attacked members of his own family. With swords, they
killed 13 people, including eight children. Elders in the family had, it would
be established during the trial, alleged Lakha Singh had a sexual relationship
with Gurmeet Singh's newly wed wife Biri. Their taunting provoked Gurmeet.
In 2012, Paramjit Singh, then 13, and 1 of just 3 survivors, told The Hindu:
"We were told many, many years ago that the court had pronounced him guilty and
ordered him to be hanged." "The government should have hastened the process."
That didn't happen. Gurmeet Singh's death penalty was upheld by the Supreme
Court in 2005, with judges saying he did not deserve "a grain of mercy." His
mercy petition was submitted to the President in February 2007 - 21 years after
his crime. He spent 6 years on death row before it was finally rejected, in
March 2013, a length of time the Supreme Court held was unconscionable.
Long delays
Long delays also characterised the other cases the Supreme Court addressed.
Sonia Choudhary and her husband, Sanjiv Choudhary, murdered her entire family
on their farmhouse in Litani Mor, Hisar, in August 2001 - the consequence of a
long-running feud over land. Ms. Choudhary's victims included her father,
former Haryana legislator Relu Ram Punia, mother Krishna, sister Priyanka,
step-brother Sunil, his wife Shakuntala and their children Lokesh, 4, Shivani,
2, and Preeti, 45 days old.
In 2005, the Punjab and Haryana High Court recommended commuting the sentence,
saying she was repentant. In 2007, the Supreme Court upheld the death penalty -
describing the crime as "grotesque and revolting." But it took from October of
that year to June last year for her mercy petition to be finally addressed.
Ms. Choudhary's son, now living with his grandparents, meanwhile visited his
mother often in prison. Prison warders told The Hindu that they developed a
loving relationship in the years that passed. She has, however, written
letters, asking for her sentence to be executed without delay.
Jafar Ali of Etawah, Uttar Pradesh, his wife and 5 daughters and was sentenced
to death in 2002. The Allahabad High Court confirmed the sentence on January
27, 2004. It was upheld by the Supreme Court in April that year. Mr. Ali's
mercy petition, though, had remained pending from 2006.
Not all the death-row prisoners the Supreme Court heard from had committed
crimes of this scale. Shivu and Jadeswamy, residents of Badrenahalli,
Karnataka, who the Supreme Court earlier described as "sexually obsessed young
people," raped and murdered a teenage woman in 2001. Their mercy petition was
submitted in August 2007. It was only disposed of in July, 2013.
(source: The Hindu)
***************
Death penalty in India inching closer towards abolition
The Supreme Court has once again restricted the scope of death penalty in the
country. This time by commuting the capital punishment of 15 murder convicts on
the ground of inordinate delay in deciding their mercy pleas. In fact, it has
moved a step closer towards abolition of capital punishment in India.
Statutes prescribe death penalty for several crimes such as murder, gang
robbery with murder, abetting the suicide of a child or insane person, waging
war against the government, and abetting mutiny by a member of the armed
forces.
However, section 354(3) of the Criminal Procedure Code, which was added to the
Code in 1973, required a judge to give "special reasons" for awarding death
sentences.
The SC in 1980 propounded the "rarest of rare" doctrine in the Bachan Singh
case. Since then, life sentence has been the rule and death sentence the
exception.
Notwithstanding the "rarest of rare" doctrine, a large number of convicts are
routinely awarded death penalty but actual executions are rare.
Indian courts awarded death penalty to 1,455 convicts during 2001-11, an
average of 132.27 convicts per year. But most of these death sentences were
later commuted to life imprisonment. During this period, the only convict
executed in India was Dhananjoy Chatterjee who was hanged in August 2004 for
the rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl in Kolkata. In the last few years,
the SC refused to award death penalty to convicts in Graham Staines, Jessica
Lall and Priyadarshini Mattoo murder cases on the ground that these did not
fall within the category of "rarest of rare" cases. But even the executive does
not appear to be enthusiastic about death penalty. Before demitting office in
July 2012, President Pratibha Patil commuted the death sentence of 35 death row
convicts to life imprisonment.
The only category of cases the judiciary and the executive agreed on awarding
death penalty was terrorism. That's how 26/11 convict Ajmal Kasab and
Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru were executed in 2012 and 2013,
respectively. According to Amnesty International, 98 countries have abolished
death penalty for all crimes while 58 nations retain it. "This (verdict) makes
India move towards being an abolitionist state. It must consider abolition of
death penalty once and for all," said Asian Centre for Human Rights Director
Suhas Chakma.
(source: Hindustan Times)
IRAN----execution
A prisoner hanged in Tabas prison
A prisoner was hanged in prison of Tabas on charge of drug trafficking on
January 16, 2014.
According to HRANA reporters, the news organization of human rights activists
in Iran, a prisoner named "Hassan Sanij" 43-years old, from Tabas arrested on
charge of carrying drugs in 2009 was executed on January 16th.
The appeal court asked to reduce his sentence since he was very young, but the
prosecutor apposed this request and the sentence of Tabas revolutionary court
was confirmed.
*********************
4 Sunni prisoners ended the hunger strike after 75 days
Hamed Ahmadi, Kamal Moulayi, Jamsid Dehghani and Jahangir Dehghani, ended their
hunger strike after 75 days.
According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), these 4
Sunni prisoners of Ghezelhesar, had started their hunger strike in protest to
their death sentences and violation of their rights as prisoners, on November
4, 2013.
They have written a letter of statement at the end of the strike which you are
about to see the complete text:
In the name of God of kindness and justice
We, the Sunni political-conscientious prisoners of Ghezelhesar, started our
hunger strike in protest to our death sentences and our transfer to
Ghezelhesar, which is devoted to drug smuggling and murder criminals, 75 days
ago, on November 4, with the hope to inform authorities from our condition.
In this regard, Sunni religious figures, Iranian human rights activists and
international organizations such as Amnesty International reporter our
conditions, and due to high risk of our health condition, asked for ending the
strike and consideration of authorities. We appreciate all of them.
Recent days, the chief of Ghezelhesar prison, Mr. Seyed Ali Hosseini met with
us and promised for consideration of our retrial, execution cancellation and
out transfer to Rajaei Shahr prison, and ask to end our hunger strike.
Following the repetitive requests from great Sunni scholars, and the emphatic
promise of chief of prison for endeavor for execution cancellation and our
transfer to Rajaei Shar prison, we announce that we end our hunger strike after
75 days, on Saturday, January 19. Besides, we ask from our kind dears' fathers
and mothers, who accompanied in solidarity with us, for 21 days, to end their
strike.
We hope, this time the authorities heard our voices and do something quick for
our transfer and execution cancellation.
Bless you all - the Sunni political prisoners of conscientious-Ghezelhesar
prison
Hamed Ahmadi, Kamal Moulayi, Jamshid Dehghani, Jahangir Dehghani
(source for both: Human Rights Activists News Agency)
_______________________________________________
DeathPenalty mailing list
DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu
http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty
Search the Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/deathpenalty@lists.washlaw.edu/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A free service of WashLaw
http://washlaw.edu
(785)670.1088
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
