Feb. 1
NIGERIA:
Order killing of death row inmates now, Judge tells Nigerian governors
A judge has urged state governors to sign the death warrant of over 1,600
inmates on death sentence in order to decongest the prisons.
The Chief Judge of Delta State, Marshal Umukoro, spoke on Wednesday in Ibadan
during the 2017 Aquinas' Day colloquium of Dominican Institute.
At the lecture titled "The Judiciary and Criminal Justice System: Odds and
Ends," Mr. Umukoro said that recent statistics from the National Human Rights
Commission, NHRC, indicated that no fewer than 1,612 inmates are on death
sentence in Nigeria prisons.
The chief judge said that signing the death warrant would reduce prison
congestion, and served as deterrent to others.
Local and international organisations such have Amnesty international have
repeatedly called for the abolition of the death penalty. Death penalty is
however still legal in Nigeria where it can used to punish people convicted of
crimes like murder and armed robbery.
Last week, a court in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, sentenced a man to
death for stealing a motorcycle, phone, and some money from a victim who he
also inflected serious body injuries on.
Before executions can be carried out, however, the death sentence but be
approved by the state governor where the judgement was issued. Some state
governors, however, use their prerogative to commute the death sentences to
prison terms.
On Wednesday, the Delta State chief judge also called for synergy between the
police, prisons and the courts in order to boost justice administration.
"Some criminal cases have been hanging without progress for over a year in some
courts due to transfer of Investigative Police Officer (IPO) or as a result of
IPO going on short course.
"Some courts too do not cooperate with the police and the prison to
expeditiously dispose of criminal cases.
"This does not only lead to unnecessary waste of time, but also greatly affects
the disposition of the accused person and the witnesses who look forward to
seeing the end of the case," the chief judge said.
Mr. Umukoro said that more fora should be organised from time to time with the
aim of sensitising various relevant stakeholders in the criminal justice sector
on the need for mutual co-operation.
(source: premiumtimesng.com)
PHILIPPINES:
No death penalty debate with 3 'narco-congressmen' in House - Atienza
Buhay Rep. Lito Atienza on Wednesday said he would block the plenary debates on
the death penalty while the three alleged narcopoliticians are still in
Congress.
In a press conference by the minority bloc in the House of Representatives, the
pro-life lawmaker said he would not be willing to debate on the floor with
these three congressmen still in the halls of Congress.
"You are entrusting [the] faith of [the] nation in Congress where 3 congressmen
are suspected drug [lords]- I cannot, I will not," Atienza said.
The proposed reimposition of capital punishment is set to be sponsored and
debated on the floor Wednesday afternoon during session.
House leaders Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez and majority leader Rudy Farinas had
revealed that 3 congressmen - 2 from Luzon, and 1 from Mindanao - are part of
President Rodrigo Duterte's "narco-list" of suspected drug personalities.
But the House leaders have refused to identify the narco-solons to give them an
opportunity to clear their names.
"Unless we clarify this issue, I believe we should not discuss the death
penalty ... It would be the height of irresponsibility if we debate with three
suspected drug lords," Atienza said.
In a separate press conference, Speaker Alvarez said there is no relation
between the narcolist and the moves to restore death penalty in Congress.
"We're still validating the veracity of the list to be fair to the persons
involved ... The narcolist has nothing to do with the death penalty bill,"
Alvarez said.
The legislation restoring death penalty is seen to be a priority legislation in
the House of Representatives.
The bill seeks to impose death penalty on more than 20 heinous offenses, such
as rape with homicide, kidnapping for ransom, and arson with death.
Speaker Alvarez, Duterte's staunch ally in Congress, was among those who filed
the bill seeking to reimpose the death penalty after former President and now
Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo abolished capital punishment in 2006 for
its failure to deter crime.
Alvarez filed the bill pursuant to President Duterte's campaign promise of
returning capital punishment against heinous criminals.
Alvarez's bill sought to reimpose the death penalty for heinous crimes listed
under Republic Act 7659, including murder, plunder, rape, kidnapping and
serious illegal detention, sale, use and possession of illegal drugs,
carnapping with homicide, among others.
In the bill he co-authored, Alvarez said there is a need to reimpose the death
penalty because "the national crime rate has grown to such alarming proportions
requiring an all-out offensive against all forms of felonious acts."
"Philippine society is left with no option but to deal with certain grievous
offenders in a manner commensurate to the gravity, perversity, atrociousness
and repugnance of their crimes," according to the bill.
Duterte won the elections on a campaign promise to restore the death penalty by
hanging, even making a snide remark that the convict's head should be severed
by hanging. Alvarez said Congress would look into the cheapest way for the
death penalty, either by firing squad, lethal injection or by hanging.
(source: newsinfo.inquirer.net)
INDONESIA:
Indonesia reaffirms use of death penalty despite criticism
Attorney General M. Prasetyo said on Wednesday that Indonesia would continue to
impose the death penalty on those guilty of extraordinary crimes, including
drug trafficking.
"We never claimed to have stopped executions," Prasetyo told lawmakers from the
House of Representatives' legal affairs and human rights commission during a
hearing on Wednesday.
Prasetyo explained that executions had been put on hold while Indonesia lobbied
for international support to become a non-permanent member of the United
Nations Security Council.
"We are still implementing the death penalty, but are focusing on the greater
interest for the time being. The government is trying to become a non-permanent
member of the UN Security Council," he emphasized.
(source: Jakarta Post)
AUSTRALIA:
Vigil to mark Australia's last execution
Silence will mark the moment Ronald Ryan became the last person to be executed
in Australia 50 years ago.
Former Pentridge Prison chaplain Peter Norden says Friday's silent vigil at the
Melbourne site will contrast with the noisy protests that surrounded the
hanging on February 3, 1967.
Speeches would detract from the solemnity of the occasion, the capital
punishment opponent said.
"I think the powerful statement of having those people standing in silence is a
strong communication tool and it stands in contrast to the angry, noisy mob
that gathered on the night before and at the time of the execution 50 years
ago," Mr Norden told AAP.
Mr Norden was 17 when Ryan was hanged for the murder of prison officer George
Hodson during his escape, with another prisoner Peter John Walker, from
Pentridge in December 1965.
The former Jesuit priest, the 1985-1992 Pentridge chaplain, conducted a service
outside the old prison site a decade ago on the 40th anniversary of the
execution.
Ryan's remains were exhumed in 2007 from an unmarked grave at Pentridge, which
closed a decade earlier, and laid to rest beside his former wife at Portland
cemetery in Victoria's south west.
Mr Norden conducted a private funeral service to provide finality for Ryan's 3
daughters, who want privacy for the 50th anniversary.
Author Dr Mike Richards, who will speak after a Victorian Supreme Court
re-enactment of the Ryan trial on Friday, said he could understand the family's
wishes.
"The approach of a 50th anniversary observance of the execution brings it all
back for them in a way that is obviously a time of anguish and it's very
unwelcome for them," he said.
He said it was also a tough time for Mr Hodson's only child.
"She's opposed to capital punishment but her principal concern through all of
this is that it's acknowledged and understood and not disputed that Ryan was
guilty," Dr Richards said.
Mr Norden, an adjunct professor at RMIT University and member of the World
Coalition Against the Death Penalty and the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network,
said Ryan's execution divided the community at the time.
Despite widespread protests, then Victorian premier Sir Henry Bolte refused to
commute Ryan's mandatory death sentence for murder.
The death penalty no longer exists in Australia but Mr Norden said Australia
still has a responsibility to continue to contribute to the movement for its
abolition throughout the world.
Friday events: Silent vigil 7.30am-8.15am at Old Pentridge Prison site, Champ
Street, Coburg; Victorian Supreme Court re-enactment of parts of Ryan's trial
from 4.30pm.
****************************
Ronald Ryan execution had lasting impact
The prison governor who stood on the scaffold beside Ronald Ryan lit a candle
and said a prayer for the hanged man every day until his own death 2 decades
later.
The judge who sentenced Ryan to the mandatory death penalty was inconsolable on
the day of Australia's last execution 50 years ago.
Barrister Brian Bourke, Ryan's junior defence counsel, will never forget 8am on
February 3, 1967.
"It was awful."
Bourke, who does not enjoy talking about his most famous client in the 56 years
he has continuously practised as a barrister, did not attend the execution.
He broke down during his last visit with the condemned man at Melbourne's
Pentridge Prison.
"It's pretty hard to talk to a bloke who you think's going to die a couple of
days later," the 87-year-old told ABC radio this week.
"This bloke's holding my arm and saying 'you did all you could - I will go to
the gallows and I will not be in any way concerned with the fact that those
people who represented me didn't do all they possibly could," Mr Bourke
recalled, becoming upset.
Pentridge chaplain Fr John Brosnan led Ryan to the gallows that morning.
"Fr Brosnan told me on many occasions that he was the toughest fellow he ever
met," Bourke said.
"You get an attachment to a fellow and then you know he's going ... But oh God
he was tough."
Ryan's execution deeply affected everyone involved, from Pentridge governor Ian
Grindlay to the journalists there as witnesses, author Dr Mike Richards says.
Victorian Supreme Court judge Sir John Starke opposed capital punishment but
had to impose the mandatory death sentence for murder.
"The judge's associate told me on the day of the execution, Starke was
inconsolable in his chambers because basically he had to pronounce the death
sentence on Ryan," Richards told AAP.
Richards, who led university students' protests against the hanging, says his
own anger about the case is one reason it took him so long to write his 2002
book.
"I was so angry. It took 30 years to get that anger under control in a way that
my prose could be sober and I could be thoughtful about it rather than just
furious that this had happened."
For 'The Hanged Man: The Life and Death of Ronald Ryan', Richards wanted to
find out about the man who found himself at the end of a noose for shooting
warder George Hodson during his jail escape in December 1965.
"I took the view we the people, we the state, killed this guy.
"We couldn't do anything about his shooting of prison officer Hodson during the
course of the escape but ours was a much more deliberate act."
Widespread opposition failed to convince then Victorian premier Sir Henry Bolte
to commute the death sentence, after an earlier execution was stopped at the
11th hour.
"It was obvious that he wanted to execute somebody and Ronnie was the boy,"
Bourke said.
Bourke got to know his client well.
"I found him to be very engaging."
Richards said Ryan, who started as a petty thief, was not without redeeming
features.
"He certainly had a capacity for rehabilitation and reform."
Richards recalls Mr Grindlay talking glowingly about Ryan as somebody who was
very focused and dedicated to his education while at Bendigo prison, before
both were at Pentridge.
"I said to Grindlay 'the way you're talking about him he sounds like he was a
model prisoner'. Grindlay looked at me and he said 'no, in 30 years of my time
in the prison service he wasn't a model prisoner, he was the model prisoner'."
Ryan's crimes escalated to more serious burglaries.
"In the end I think he was a very ambitious figure in criminal terms," Richards
said.
"He wanted to be Australia's leading criminal."
Doubts have been raised over the past 50 years about whether it was Ryan who
shot Hodson.
His senior barrister Dr Philip Opas QC, who became a leading campaigner against
the death penalty, had a hard time living with the fact he could not save Ryan
from the gallows.
"It's indelibly ingrained in my memory bank ... my one great failure," he said
in 2007, a year before his death.
"What a brutal, barbaric way it is of exterminating a life.
"Until my last breath I'll be convinced he didn't do it."
But Richards has no doubt Ryan was guilty.
"Some people want to believe that he's innocent and they disregard all of the
confessions and they disregard the 11 witnesses who saw him raise the gun and
fire the shot and saw Hodson fall.
"There are people who convince themselves that he was innocent, that he didn't
fire the shot, but it doesn't stack up."
A letter Ryan wrote to his family the night before his execution was smuggled
out of prison and published in the Truth newspaper.
"He never claims that he was innocent," Dr Richards said.
"He only says that he has a clear conscience because he was innocent of intent
but he never says that he didn't fire the shot."
Ryan's 3 daughters won't publicly commemorate the 50th anniversary.
They achieved some closure a decade ago, when Ryan's remains were exhumed from
an unmarked grave at the closed Pentridge site and laid to rest beside his
former wife at Portland cemetery in Victoria's south west.
(source for both: 9news.com.au)
BANGLADESH:
Son to die for killing father
A Mymensingh court awarded death penalty to a man in case filed over the murder
of his father 4 years ago.
The court of Additional First District and Sessions Judge Shahrier Kabir
delivered the verdict on Tuesday against the convict, Anwar Hossain, who was on
the docks, reports bdnews24.com.
On January 4, 2013, Iman Ali, 75, died after being stabbed by his son at a
village in Phulpur Upazila.
The incident was an outcome of a property dispute.
The convict's elder brother Joban Ali started a murder case 2 days later.
Defence lawyer Nazrul Islam said the court delivered the verdict after hearing
11 witnesses.
"High Court might acquit him considering the discrepancies present in the case
details," he said.
(source: financialexpress-bd.com)
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