[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
May 20 VIETNAM: 5 Heroin Dealers Executed in Vietnam 5 people convicted of heroin dealing were executed by firing squad in Vietnam, state-controlled media reported Saturday. The five, including two women, were put to death Friday in southern Ho Chi Minh City, the Thanh Nien (Young People) newspaper said. They were among 21 people convicted of selling 6 pounds of heroin to drug users on Saigon river. 4 other defendants in the case were sentenced to life in prison while 12 were given jail terms ranging from 3 years to 20 years, the paper said. Vietnam has some of the world's toughest drug laws. About 100 people were executed in Vietnam each year for drug-related offenses. (source: Associated Press)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----CALIF., WIS., N.C., FLA.
May 20 CALIFORNIA: California's sex predators deserve death penalty Why can't California have the death penalty for sexual predators? Every one of them found guilty should be executed within one year. That is time enough for them to ask God for forgiveness. Why worry about where child molesters are allowed to live? That is a waste of time and children's lives. I used to work in a state prison in Hawaii and got to talk to this kind of human trash up close. Just make sure the execution needle is painless. They can't stand pain. DANIEL GOODWINSan Jacinto (source: Letter to the Editor, The Valley Chronicle) WISCONSIN: Failth Perspectives: Choose power of life over the death penalty Easter was 5 weeks ago. That means that many of us have moved on from bonnets and lilies, eggs and bunnies, crowded churches and family feasts. Yet, for the church, it is still Easter. For Christians, Easter is not just a day. It is our reality. For the Christian faith, every day is Easter. So let me take you back to the story that gives us Easter: A piece of the drama from Good Friday, as it's told in Mark's gospel: "Now at the festival (Pilate) used to release a prisoner for them, anyone for whom they asked. Now a man called Barabbas was in prison with the rebels who had committed murder during the insurrection. So the crowd came and began to ask Pilate to do for them according to his custom. Then he answered them, 'Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?' For he realized that it was out of jealousy that the chief priests had handed him over. But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him release Barabbas for them instead. Pilate spoke to them again, 'Then what do you wish me to do with the man you call the King of the Jews?' They shouted back, 'Crucify him!' Pilate asked them, 'Why, what evil has he done?' But they shouted all the more, 'Crucify him!' So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released Barabbas for them; and after flogging Jesus, he handed him over to be crucified." (Mark 15:6-15) This passage sealed Jesus' fate. But this passage is not as much about Jesus as it is about the Roman government and Pilate, Israel's governor. Pilate's brand of leadership was not courageous or visionary. It was expedient. As Mark says it, Pilate "wished to satisfy the crowd." So he asked them for their opinion. And they gave it to him. It wasn't the opinion he wanted. But, unwilling to stand for his convictions, he had no choice. He had to condemn Jesus to the cross. Last week, our State Legislature decided to ask us for our opinion. As Pilate did so long ago, our legislators have placed an advisory referendum on the Nov. 7 ballot. That referendum asks Wisconsin citizens if they think the death penalty should be an option for persons convicted of 1st degree intentional homicide, with supporting DNA evidence. Come Nov. 7, I urge you to express your convictions concerning the death penalty at the polls. Though the referendum will be nonbinding, our legislators will most certainly take it seriously. I also urge you to examine your hearts and listen to the witness of the Christian Gospel. We can argue about the purposes of the death penalty: protection, punishment, deterrence, expedience, retribution, revenge. I ask you to do 2 things. First, remember that Jesus was himself a victim of the death penalty. Not only did Jesus oppose capital punishment, he reinterpreted - even contradicted - Hebrew scripture that authorized it: "You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' (Exodus 21) But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile." (Matthew 5:39-41) Jesus was a persistent advocate of the transforming possibilities of forgiveness, mercy, compassion and love. I believe that we misunderstand and misrepresent Jesus if we claim that the Christian faith authorizes and/or supports the death penalty. Second, consider what the death penalty does to those who sanction it. How do we diminish our own humanity if we employ execution to order our society? No matter what its form, death steals life. And, because life is God's gift, it is not ours to manipulate or destroy. When we kill, we take from God that which rightly belongs to God. Wisconsin banned capital punishment 153 years ago. That ban in Wisconsin has stood longer than any similar bans have stood in other states. This November, we have an opportunity to express our convictions and reaffirm that ban. My prayer is that we will all listen intently to the voice of God's love in Jesus Christ when we cast our ballots. Remember, we are Easter people. And Easter people always stand for trust and build their hope on the power of life. (source: Green Bay Press Gazette; The Rev. Charles Mize is pastor of Union Congreg
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, ALA., USA, OHIO
May 20 TEXAS2 new execution dates set Richard Hinojosa has been given an execution date for August 17, and Farley Matchett has been given one for September 12; both dates should be considered serious. Texas now has 16 confirmed execution dates between May 24-October 25. The state is easily on pace to surpass its 2005 total of 19 executions. Texas has carried out 9 of the nation's 19 executions thus far this year, and 364 of the nation's 1023 executions (35.5%) since executions resumed in the USA on January 17, 1977. (sources: TDCJ and Rick Halperin) * Truck driver gets new trial dateBut challenges by his attorney could delay case of 19 immigrants who perished After a yearlong delay because of a dispute between a judge and prosecutors, the first person to face a possible death sentence under a 1994 federal smuggling law has received a date for a new trial. Jury selection is scheduled for Oct. 3 in the second trial of Tyrone Williams, who is accused in the deaths of 19 illegal immigrants who were packed into his truck trailer during a failed smuggling attempt in 2003. 2 challenges planned by defense attorney Craig Washington could still head off that trial, however. Washington told U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal on Friday that he will challenge the constitutionality of the law carrying the death penalty and its constitutionality as it applies to Williams. "If the statute is unconstitutional, Mr. Williams should not be subjected to another trial to have the decision made," Washington said after Rosenthal set the date. He contends that the law is unconstitutional because the death penalty could be imposed if an immigrant died during a smuggling attempt even if there was no intent to do harm. Prosecutors say Williams ignored the suffering of more than 74 illegal immigrants who screamed and pounded on the walls of his trailer in sweltering temperatures and dwindling air. Washington told Rosenthal he expects her to reject his challenges and that he hopes to exhaust the appeal process before the trial. He said he also will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court in response to last week's decision by a panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to remove U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore from the case. The panel wrote that it was removing Gilmore because of her busy schedule and because of the "extraordinary history of this case," a reference to Gilmore's strained relations with prosecutors and the 5th Circuit Court. In recusing herself from the case, Gilmore denied that her schedule was too crowded and accused the appeals court of attacking her credibility. The appeals court sided with prosecutors on four appeals from Gilmore's rulings in the cases of Williams and a co-defendant, even after prosecutors defied Gilmore's order that they disclose why they sought the death penalty against the only black person among 14 people indicted in the case. Panel found for Gilmore Washington noted that prosecutors did not ask the panel to remove Gilmore and that, in an earlier appeal, a different three-judge panel rejected the prosecution's request for her removal. That panel found Gilmore to be fair and impartial. As Friday's hearing began, Williams hugged Washington before being led to the defense table. The Jamaican immigrant from Schenectady, N.Y., has waited about a year for a trial date because of a disagreement between Gilmore and prosecutors over how many of the original 58 counts could be brought against him again. A jury in March 2005 could not decide on 20 counts but found Williams guilty on 38 others, including nine that carry a possible death sentence. But jurors failed to answer questions about whether he was a principal in the case or an aider and abettor. Double jeopardy question Gilmore ruled that Williams could be retried on only the 20 counts in which no decision was reached. Prosecutors sought to retry him on all 58 counts and appealed to the 5th Circuit Court, which ruled in their favor and removed Gilmore. Washington said he will ask the 5th Circuit Court for an en banc hearing of all 19 judges to reconsider whether Williams would be put in double jeopardy by a retrial on the 38 counts in which he was found guilty. Williams and 13 others were indicted after Victoria County deputies discovered 17 bodies in and near his abandoned trailer at a truck stop May 14, 2003. 2 more riders died at a hospital. Of the others indicted, five have been convicted, 5 have pleaded guilty, 1 was acquitted, 1 remains a fugitive and charges against another were dropped. (source: Houston Chronicle) ALABAMA: The Town That Wept They didn't know the baby before the broken ribs and wrists, the bruised arms and legs, the fractured skull. It didn't matter. To the residents of Dothan, Ala., Phoenix "Cody" Parrish was as precious in death as he should have been in life. He was 4 months old when his mother slammed his head against a bedpost to hush his cries. His bo
