[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----worldwide
July 7 TANZANIA: Govt rejects capital punishment plea The government has turned down a suggestion by a Member of Parliament for introduction of capital punishment for rapists. The Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs Dr Mary Nagu said instead the government may review punishment stipulated in the Sexual Offences (Special Provisions) Act and bring a bill to that effect in Parliament. She was answering a supplementary question by Esther Nyawazwa (Special Seats -CCM), who suggested capital punishment for convicted rapists saying maximum 30 year punishment provided so far has failed to curb the crime. It is my opinion that the jail sentence is not enough and therefore there is a need for review of the Sexual Offences Ordinance but certainly not to provide for capital punishment, Dr Nagu said. While answering main question by Dora Mushi (Special Seats CCM), the Deputy Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs Mr Mathias Chikawe said by December last year 6,682 people were serving various terms in prisons after being convicted of various sexual offences. He also said that there were 2,687 people in remand prisons facing various sexual offences charges. Responding to another question by Zaynab Vullu (Special Seats-CCM) Mr Chikawe said the number of court cases related to sexual offences has been going on since 1998 when Parliament enacted the Sexual Offences Ordinance. For example, between July and December 1998 there were 1,203 such cases, in 1999 there were 2,430 and in 2004 the number reached 4,795, Mr Chikawe said. The question attracted many supplementary questions with Lediana Mungongo (Special Seats CCM) proposing that convicts be subjected to testing if they have been infected with HIV/AIDS thus if they could have infected their victims. Mr Chikawe answered her by saying that it is unlawful to force a person to undergo HIV/AIDS testing. Mr Ponsiano Nyami (Nkasi CCM) wanted to know if the government has plans to clarify on the age at which a female may get married since the current laws allow girl as young as 15 to enter matrimonial life while the Sexual Offences Ordinance prohibits sex with girls at that age. The Minister for Community Development, Gender and Children Ms Sophia Simba said the government was drafting a White Paper on the definition of a child in Tanzanian context. (source: Daily News)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----worldwide
July 6 SIERRA LEONE: LAWCLA to Take On Death Penalty Lawyer's Center for Legal Assistance (LAWCLA) in collaboration with the Center for Capital Punishment Studies (CCPS) at the University of Westminster, United Kingdom, will Wednesday launch its handbook titled: "Death Penalty in Sierra Leone: Time for Change." The launch is at the Miatta Conference Hall, Brookfields Freetown. The book examines the present application of the death penalty in Sierra Leone and postulates compelling reasons for its abolition and especially highlights domestic legal provisions ripe for reform; relevant international human rights recommendations made by the truth and reconciliation commission; and advocating for the abolition of the death penalty in Sierra Leone. His Excellency Mr. David Dunne, The British High Commissioner to Sierra Leone will grace the occasion. (source: Concord Times)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----TEXAS, MISS., PENN.
July 6 TEXAS: Death penalty opponents call for creation of innocence commission Opponents of the death penalty in Texas, joined by the sister of a Corpus Christi man who may have been executed for a murder he did not commit, called on Texas officials Thursday to establish a commission to investigate claims that innocent prisoners have been put to death in the nation's most aggressive death penalty state. "Texas officials never want to admit that they made a mistake," said David Atwood, founder of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. "It's a horrible thing that we killed an innocent person." Atwood was responding to a Chicago Tribune series last month that uncovered evidence strongly suggesting that Carlos De Luna was put to death in 1989 for a murder committed by another man who later bragged that he was the killer. The Tribune series found that De Luna's case was compromised by unreliable eyewitnesses, sloppy police work and a failure by prosecutors to pursue evidence pointing to the other man, who died in prison while serving time for another crime. "My brother was killed by the state of Texas on Dec. 7, 1989," Rose Rhoton, De Luna's sister, told a press conference. "He insisted time after time that he did not commit this crime. But nobody ever took the time to investigate." Atwood said his group had evidence that at least 10 other prisoners executed by the state of Texas may have been innocent. The state has carried out 368 executions since 1976, far more than any other state. "Most people do not like the concept of executing innocent people," Atwood said. "You have to ask yourself, What is it with the state of Texas that causes all these executions?" Earlier this year, four top arson experts concluded that Texas executed Cameron Todd Willingham in 2004 based on scientifically invalid evidence and called for an official re-investigation of the case by the Texas Forensic Science Commission. The commission was created in 2005 to examine allegations of professional negligence or misconduct affecting forensic analysis in all cases, not just death penalty prosecutions. The experts' independent review of the evidence followed a separate investigation by the Tribune that showed Willingham had been found guilty on arson theories that have been repudiated by scientific advances. Many of the theories were simply lore passed on by generations of arson investigators. Atwood, joined by Nicole Casarez, a journalism professor at the University of St. Thomas in Houston who has researched suspected cases of wrongful executions, urged Texas legislators to establish a special court of inquiry to review cases like De Luna's as they come to light. There is no mechanism under Texas law to investigate such cases or pay compensation to the family of an inmate wrongfully executed, Casarez said. The Texas legislature has shown little interest in the idea in the past. Democratic State Sen. Rodney Ellis has twice introduced bills to create an innocence commission to study old death penalty cases "to find out what went wrong in the system," said Ellis' chief of staff, Kenneth Besserman. Neither bill made it out of committee. "There is strong opposition in the legislature to creating a commission to go back to open up these cases," Besserman said. (source: Chicago Tribune) MISSISSIPPI: Death penalty hearing A July 21 motion hearing has been set in DeSoto County Circuit Court for Ricky Scruggs, 35, who is accused of murdering an elderly Olive Branch woman on Dec. 30, 2003 during a home burglary. Scruggs was charged with the killing along with Tony Earl Carradine, 33, and Mario Dockery, 27. The state alleges that the three used duct tape to bind Anna Maxine Andrews upper body, mouth and nose during a burglary of the 83-year-old womans home in Olive Branch. She suffocated as a result. District Attorney John Champion said after the arrests that he would seek the death penalty for each man. Carradine pleaded guilty to the crime in January and was sentenced to life in prison. Carradine was found to be mentally retarded by doctors at the state mental hospital in Whitfield and under a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2002, mentally retarded persons cannot be executed. Scruggs trial date is Aug. 28 (source: DeSoto Times) PENNSYLVANIA: Judge stays execution of Philadelphia murderer In Harrisburg, a judge has stayed the execution scheduled for next month of a Philadelphia man convicted of killing 2 men in a dispute over drugs and money. Lester Fletcher, 38, was convicted in the February 2001 shooting deaths of David Otto and Kenneth Schofield at the victims' home in Philadelphia. Fletcher also wounded a 3rd man in the attack. A Philadelphia judge on June 29 issued the order stopping Fletcher's execution as he pursues further appeals. The Department of Corrections said there were 223 people on the state's death row as of July 1. (source: Associated Press)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
July 6 SOMALIA: GLOBAL JIHADDeath sentence for not praying Islamic regime spells out law for Muslims in Somali capital; Somali Muslims protest U.S. Muslims who fail to pray 5 times daily will be sentenced to death under the rule of Islamic clerics who have taken over the Somali capital Mogadishu. "He who does not perform prayers will be considered as infidel, and Sharia law orders that that person be killed," said Sheikh Abdalla Ali, a founder and high-ranking official in the Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia, reported Agence France-Presse. The edict was issued by a leading cleric speaking at the opening of an Islamic court in the capital last night, who added it was the duty of every Somali to implement the provisions of Sharia, or Islamic law. The Quran requires Muslims to pray 5 times daily. Mogadishu was taken over in June by militia now called the Conservative Council of Islamic Courts that routed a U.S.-backed alliance of warlords after 4 months of fighting. The U.S. wanted to stem what officials call "creeping Talibanization" of Somalia by the courts and harboring of terrorists, including al-Qaida members. Late Tuesday, militia members broke up a protest against a ban on watching television, shooting dead 2 people among a crowd viewing a World Cup game at a local cinema. The accused killers, however, face prosecution under Sharia law for shooting unarmed civilians and could be sentenced to death. In recent months, according to AFP, Muslim militiamen have presided over several public executions ordered by Islamic courts. Somalia is regarded as a predominantly moderate Muslim country, but the Islamists have vowed to impose Sharia law nationwide, challenging a mostly powerless transitional government. Last month, the Islamic courts signed a mutual recognition pact with the government, but are at odds with the regime over a number of issues. The Islamists oppose a proposal to deploy foreign peacekeepers to help establish central authority. The African nation has been in turmoil, with no effective government, for the past 16 years. The leader of the Islamic militia, Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys, is listed by the U.S. State Department as a suspected al-Qaida collaborator. Bush administration officials say Aweys was an associate of Osama bin Laden in the early 1990s. (source: World Net Daily) INDIA: 4-yr-olds murder: Residents demand death sentence for accused HUNDREDS of Ropar residents today took out a march and demanded death sentence for Rohit Kumar, who allegedly sodomised and killed four-year-old Billu of Dasmesh Nagar. The residents, including mother, maternal grandmother and maternal uncle of Billu, carrying placards, marched towards the District Courts Complex to hold a demonstration there. They submitted a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner, seeking an inquiry into the alleged lies told by parents of the accused about his age, which misled the police. Meanwhile, the certificates of the accused showed that he was over 18 years of age. Notably, the police had produced him before the Juvenile Justice Board in Ludhiana, which had remanded him to police custody till today. He was produced before the board today along with his age proof. The board directed the police to produce him before the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Ropar, tomorrow. (source: Express India) IRAN: Iran sentences man to 10 times execution A court in southern Iran has sentenced a man to 10 times execution, the official news agency reported. Ali Mohammad-Afsaneh, from the town of Jahrom, was handed the sentence after he was convicted of multiple murders, IRNA reported on Tuesday. Mohammad-Afsaneh was also sentenced to 148 lashes, 10 years of jail time, and an 8,000,000 Rial ($800) fine. Jahrom is situated in the southern Iranian province of Fars. (source: Iran Focus) PHILIPPINES: Leo Echegaray Part II: Postscript to the l999 Execution By the time this issue of Tribune goes to the press, President Arroyo has already signed the law abolishing the death penalty in our statutes. This is the 2nd time in almost 2 decades that the country has scratched off capital punishment in our books, a move that restores our civility as a nation and reaffirm ourselves to a humane society. And when President GMA goes to Rome for her visit, we shall also have already fortified our position of eminence in the Catholic world. There has been no conclusive showing that death penalty is one major deterrent to crime. Statistics would rather show that crime commonly goes with the marginal conditions of our people, widespread poverty, inequalities and injustices suffered in life and to some degree, due to lapses in civil governance. Heinous crimes deserving capital punishment however are mostly caused not by these community insufficiencies, but by individual aberrations in willful disregard of severe counter actions by the state. In this country, the death penalty runs an erratic course. Its seriousness
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----OHIO, TENN., ARK.
July 6 OHIO: Ohio's prison population increase could mean more beds at MANCI Ohio's prison population increased 6 percent in the past year, adding to concerns among some public officials about overcrowded conditions and tensions between inmates and guards. In June, there were 46,356 inmates in 32 prisons that were built to house 35,730, according to state records. The Lorain Correctional Institution in northeast Ohio was the most overcrowded prison with 1,983 inmates. It was designed to hold 756. The extra prisoners at the Lorain facility are forced to sleep in bunk beds placed in commons areas. The Mansfield Correctional Institution, despite losing death row last year, has 2,232 inmates. It is designed to hold 1,418, meaning it is operating at 157.4 % of capacity. "This is a recipe for disaster," said state Sen. Robert Hagan, a Youngstown Democrat and member of the Correctional Institution Inspection Committee, which issued a new report on the Lorain facility. "When you have more and more people crowded into an area, you have more fights and more discussions on how to hurt other people and less talk about rehabilitation." It's unclear if the prison population increase is a random spike or a long-term trend. A team of researchers is studying the issue, and a report could be ready within a week, said Andrea Dean, spokeswoman with the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. Ohio prisons Director Terry Collins said the increase may be linked to a 4 % increase in felony cases -- 77,042 -- filed in courts across the state in 2005. He said sentencing alternatives, such as community-based corrections programs that judges have used for years are filled, leaving prison as the sole option in many cases. To alleviate crowding, Collins said he is looking to add nearly 1,300 more beds in 6 prisons -- Pickaway, Ross, Warren, Toledo, Mansfield and Marion -- by reopening cellblocks that were closed several years ago. MANCI will have 118 beds added. Cost of reopening the units hasn't been determined, Collins said. The state may be able to bring in staff from other prisons, which would help save money, he said. "But any time you shuffle staff like that, we have to make sure we're not hurting one prison to help another," said Collins, who oversees an annual budget of about $1.6 billion. (source: Mansfield News Journal) TENNESSEE: "Former Corrections Officer To Be Sentenced" Middle Tennessee knows him as Walter Kuntz, but his family called him Steve. In January 2003, Kuntz was booked into Wilson County Jail, charged with drunk driving. 8 hours later he was dead, beaten to death by guards. Patrick Marlowe was supervisor at the jail when Kuntz was killed. Thursday morning, the former corrections officer will find out how long his own prison sentence will be. For the Kuntz family, Marlowe's sentencing will be the final chapter after 3 1/2 years of pain and tears. Marlowe does not face the death penalty, but the former guard could spend the rest of his life in jail. Marlowe's sentencing hearing is set for 9 a.m. Thursday, July 6. A judge already sentenced 2 other former jailers to substantial prison terms. Former jailer Gary Hale will spend 9 years behind bars. A judge slapped Tommy Conatser with a 5 year and 10 month sentence. (source: WKRN News) ARKANSAS: 'Dear Governor Huckabee' -- Letters from around the world support convicted killers. In mid-April, I helped cook up a scheme with a convicted killer. My co-conspirator was Jason Baldwin, one of the 3 young men who became known as the "West Memphis Three" after their convictions in 1994 for murdering three 8-year-old boys in that city. In 2002 I wrote a book, "Devil's Knot," about the case. It ended, as had the trials, with Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley Jr., at ages 16 and 17, being sentenced to life in prison, and Damien Echols, 18, being sentenced to death. 12 years later, appeals for all 3 continue. I wrote my book as a journalist. But researching it convinced me that the trials were unfair. Many others share that view and have worked for years to see justice in this case. It represents a mounting disgrace to this state. In the 12 years since the trials, thousands of letters have been sent to Arkansas public officials, only to disappear into the black hole of bureaucracy. So here was the conspiracy: I rented a post office box, and Jason Baldwin wrote a letter, which I forwarded to the Worldwide Web. In his letter, Baldwin appealed to supporters to write letters to Gov. Mike Huckabee explaining their concerns. This time, though, Baldwin asked that the letters be sent to Huckabee in care of the post office box I'd rented. In just over 2 months, more than 450 people, from as near as Little Rock and far away as Paddington, Australia, took the time to write to Arkansas's governor. And, per Baldwin's request, many of them noted on the outside of their envelopes some of the key points they raised within, to publicize what d
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, MISS., IDAHO, USA
July 6 TEXAS: Problems in crime lab undermining justice The majority of criminal cases adjudicated in Bexar County each year result in probated sentences. It also happens throughout the state and country. There are not enough jails and prisons to house all those who confess or are convicted of criminal wrongdoing. Keeping probationers on a short leash is crucial to the criminal justice system, with drug testing, community service hours and counseling often mandated to keep probationers in line. The disclosure last week that the lack of refrigerators and sufficient personnel at the urinalysis lab operated by the Bexar County Adult Probation Department has compromised 15,000 urine samples taken by probationers is cause for alarm. The problems surfaced after criminal courts officials gave Probation Deputy Chief Paul Kosierowski permission to destroy 15,000 urine samples taken from probationers for drug testing. Some samples had been sitting, at room temperature, since January waiting to be tested, staff writer Tom Bower reported. Kosierowski, said the samples are not good after 10 days. Probation officials said they began having problems with the workload last fall, and the request for urinalysis exceeded the lab's capacity by January. If that is so, why did it take six months to address the issue and why doesn't the lab have adequate refrigeration space to store samples? The criminal court judges and county commissioners need to address these issues immediately. Doing otherwise could undermine the entire criminal justice system in the county and create a series of legal challenges to findings made by the county's urinalysis lab. (source: Editorial, San Antonio Express-News) MISSISSIPPIimpending execution Officials: Wilcher Is Threat To Society 24 years ago Forest police officer Henry Williams Jr. pulled over a speeding Datsun on Oak Street, driven by a 19-year old Bobby Glen Wilcher who was trying to beat a train to a crossing. Approaching Wilcher and observing him wearing blood-soaked clothes, Williams knew this was more than a routine traffic stop. "It was on my mind that something bad had happened," Williams, now a Jackson businessman, said last week. "A light went off in my mind that something was not right." Williams proved to be the first law enforcement official that encountered Wilcher on March 6, 1982, just a few hours after he stabbed Velma Odell Noblin and Katie Belle Moore to death. Convicted of both murders and twice sentenced to death, Wilcher is scheduled to be executed Tuesday after dropping his few remaining appeals, the end of a legal process that kept him alive on death row since the murders. Williams, who left Forest in October 1982 and worked for the Jackson Police Department until his retirement from law enforcement in 1990, said he is relieved that the case is close to a conclusion. "It's been a long time. Two people died and I feel bad. My heart goes out to the families," Williams said. Referring to Wilcher dropping his appeals, Williams said, "Maybe he just knows it's time." Williams said he knew Wilcher back then as a regular troublemaker and the night of the murders was his fourth encounter with Wilcher. After the murders, Williams said he has remained convinced of Wilcher's character. "He's a threat to society," Williams said. "He's a threat to anybody he's around." Recalling that night, Williams said he felt his own life was in danger, even before knowing the reason why Wilcher was covered in blood. After stopping Wilcher for speeding moments after Wilcher was nearly struck trying to beat a train to a crossing, Williams said he kept his eyes on Wilcher at all times. He had also observed the victims' purses and a bra in the car Wilcher was driving, hours before the victims' bodies were found. "He had a knife in his hands, telling me how he had cut his thumb while cleaning a possum," Wilcher said. "It was his demeanor. He never closed the knife." Williams said other officers might have turned their back to returned to their patrol car, but "I kept facing him at all times. I felt that I was in danger. If I had turned away, I might have been the 3rd victim that night." "I told them we need to hold on to this guy," Williams said. However, he was told to allow Wilcher to leave. Williams said Wilcher only allowed hospital personnel to place a bandage on his wound and left the hospital while Williams was on the phone with his supervising officer. "I didn't sleep at all that night," Williams said of the time spent thinking of Wilcher after his shift ended that night. After then-Sheriff Glenn Warren arrested Wilcher for petty larceny and the victims had been found, Williams said he saw Wilcher being escorted in police custody. "I told them, 'you got your man on those murders,'" Williams said. However, after giving a statement on his encounter with Wilcher, Williams said he was not allowed further contact with the case. Called as a witness thr
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----OHIO, S.C., MISS.
July 6 URGENT ACTION APPEALOHIO -- 06 July 2006 UA 191/06 Death penalty / Legal concern USA (Ohio) Rocky Barton (m), white, aged 49 Rocky Barton is scheduled to be executed in Ohio on 12 July 2006. He was sentenced to death for the murder of his wife, Kimbirli Barton. He has given up his appeals against his conviction and sentence. Rocky Barton shot and killed Kimbirli Barton on 16 January 2003. He then shot himself in the head with his shotgun, but survived. At his trial for the murder, his defense was that the killing had not been premeditated. A jury rejected this and the trial went into its sentencing phase. Rocky Barton refused to have any mitigating evidence presented to the jury. Instead, he made the following statement to the jury: ''At this time my attorneys have advised me to beg for my life. I can't do that. I strongly believe in the death penalty. And for the ruthless, cold-blooded act that I committed, if I was sitting over there, I'd hold out for the death penaltyLife in prison would be a burden to all the citizens of Ohio. It would be at their cost. I wouldn't have nothing to worry about. I'd get fed every day, have a roof over my head, free medical, you people pay for it, I'd have a stress-free life. That's not much of a punishment. Punishment would be to wake up every day and have a date with death. That's the only punishment for this crime. That's all I've got to say''. In its 2006 affirmation of the death sentence on mandatory appeal, the Ohio Supreme Court rejected the argument that the trial judge should have inquired whether Rocky Barton was mentally competent to waive his right to present any mitigating evidence. It reached this conclusion by deciding that Barton's statement to the jury asking for the death penalty was mitigating evidence. Two of the Justices dissented. Justice Pfeifer wrote: ''Our country's most creative writers of fiction would be hard-pressed to spin Barton's statement as evidence offered in mitigation. Yet a majority of this court unquestioningly accepts that it was.'' He also wrote: ''I do not believe that the facts of this case justify imposing a sentence of death. The murder that Barton committed was heinous, and his guilt is undeniable, but Barton's crime is not deathworthy-- This case involves a hot-blooded domestic killing''. Chief Justice Moyer wrote: ''It is difficult to imagine more compelling indicia of incompetence'' than a defendant asking to be executed, and accused the majority of applying ''inverse logic'' to interpret the statement as mitigating. He added: ''I do not know whether Barton was competent to waive the presentation of mitigation evidence during the penalty phase of the trial. I do not know whether he understood the ramifications of his statements to the jury suggesting that he deserved the death penalty. On the record before us, no one can be certain of Barton's competence when he urged the jury to sentence him to death''. In a recent interview, in contrast to his assertion to the jury that it was a ''ruthless, cold-blooded'' murder, Rocky Barton recalled that the shooting was done on the ''spur of the moment'', and ''was not planned, calculated, designed''. He said that he had planned to kill himself in front of Kimbirli, but had then turned the gun on her: ''I don't know why I did. Can't tell you what was going through my mind at the time''. Rocky Barton is reported to have been diagnosed on death row as suffering from a major depressive illness and schizo-affective disorder, for which he has received medication. On 5 July 2006, a judge found him competent to waive his appeals, despite refusing to allow a psychiatric evaluation to determine competence. BACKGROUND INFORMATION In 1972, the US Supreme Court overturned the USA's capital laws after finding that the death penalty was being applied in an arbitrary manner (Furman v. Georgia). Four years later, in Gregg v. Georgia, the Court approved new laws passed by state legislatures. Executions resumed in January 1977 after almost a decade without them. There have been some 500,000 murders in the USA since 1977. In the same period about 7,000 people have been sentenced to death, just over 1,000 of whom have been executed and about 3,300 of whom remain on death row. The capital justice system, which attempts to select the ''worst of the worst'' crimes and offenders for execution, is marked by arbitrariness, discrimination and error. As the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions concluded in 1998, ''race, ethnic origin and economic status appear to be key determinants of who will, and who will not, receive a sentence of death'' in the USA. In 2000, the findings of a long-term study were released which concluded that US death sentences are ''persistently and systematically fraught with error'' that had required judicial remedy from the appeal courts. About one in 10 of the people executed since 1977 have
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----MALAYSIA, S. AFRICA
July 6 MALAYSIA: Death penalty debate needs to go beyond emotions I refer to your report It's the gallows for abolish death penalty call. The death penalty has always been a controversial subject. There are many arguments used by both the proponents and opponents of the death penalty. The usual arguments that you would receive from the proponents would be is one, the death penalty is a preventive measure and two, our judicial system is well equipped to deal with this issue. In Malaysia, the death penalty is reserved for what is deemed the most heinous of crimes' which include murder, treason, trafficking of drugs and being in possession of firearms. And the most famous of all arguments, 'If someone you loved was brutally raped and murdered, wouldn't you want the murderer to die?' Make the victim a child, and you have a winning argument to sway almost anyone into in saying we need the death penalty. So then, why are there people who keep saying the death penalty is a form of cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment? That the death penalty goes against one of the holiest tenets of all religions, which is the sanctity of life? Why do these people persist in saying that there is no concrete evidence to say that the death penalty works as a preventive measure? Let us take a look at the Malaysian scenario and all the necessary actors in the death penalty drama. We will start with the police. How many of us are of the firm belief that the Royal Malaysian Police Force is one of the best in the world? Are corruption and abuse of power not rampant within the police force? No, you say, our police are decent and incorruptible. How about the cases where people died in police custody and the reports made about police abuse by countless Malaysians? Hearsay, hearsay! Now let us look at our judiciary. Have there been any allegations of corruption and judicial misconduct? No, never. Our 'house of Denmark' smells of roses! Our judges have always exemplified the highest standards of professionalism, even when they go on holidays with lawyers that they have cases with. All right then, so we have the best judiciary in the world. All appeal cases are heard in record time since there is no backlog in our courts. Let us not forget, that the poor and marginalised (who seem to constitute a large number of those on death row) always get the best defence lawyers pro-bono. We have a state-run institution that provides for the best lawyers to defend someones life right? I am sure we do. Just check with the Legal Aid Centres on the numbers of lawyers lining up to do their part in ensuring everyone gets the best defence possible even if they cannot afford it. And we have an excellent track record of the Pardons Board, who meets up on a frequent basis to discuss any clemency appeals by those who have exhausted all avenues with the courts. I mean the reports in the papers about them meeting up only in 10-15 years was just a lie, wasn't it? Well, since everything is in place that guarantees that only those who are guilty beyond a doubt get the death penalty, I guess the death penalty serves its purpose in getting rid of the scum of society. Therefore, Malaysians have nothing to fear. We live in a perfect society. Only the bad get punished. But wait a minute... if the death penalty works and we have punished all those people who have committed heinous crimes by taking their lives, why is there an increase in the crime rate? Why are the crimes becoming more heinous by the day? Why isn't the death penalty preventing all those who continue to commit heinous crimes? Why do people who have been on death row for decades still maintain their innocence, when we know for a fact that our perfect system of justice found them guilty? In conclusion, the death penalty will always be a contentious issue simply because people delude themselves in thinking that the eye for an eye argument make sense and it will provide them with security from the barbarians out there. No amount of data and facts will make them think otherwise. It is my sincere hope that people educate themselves about the death penalty and evaluate the circumstances in which a person is killed, even if it is state-sanctioned. The death penalty deserves more than just an emotional response to the heinousness of a crime. It needs to go beyond emotions to justify going against the fundamental right of all people the right to life. (source: Letter to the Editor, Malaysia Kini) SOUTH AFRICA: Death penalty will 'stop killing of our kids' "Bring back the death penalty". This is the heartfelt plea to the authorities from Sylvia Farmer, whose 14-year-old daughter Valencia was gang-raped and murdered by gangsters 7 years ago. Farmer says this is the only thing that will satisfy her and convince her that law enforcement authorities take crime against young children seriously. Thursday also marks the third anniversary of schoolgirl Sasha-Leigh Crook's death. Her little bod
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----N.C., US MIL., CALIF., N.J., ARK.
July 6 NORTH CAROLINA: Peterson attorney to take over anti-death penalty center A lawyer best known for defending a Durham novelist convicted of killing his wife will become director of the Center for Death Penalty Litigation later this month. Thomas Maher, who helped defend Michael Peterson and prepared Peterson's appeal, will take over as the center's director July 17. Maher, now in private practice in Chapel Hill, replaces Ken Rose, who will remain on staff. Maher confirmed the new job Wednesday but declined further comment until later. "Ken has done an incredible job," staff member Gerda Stein said Wednesday. "We're happy that Tom Maher is coming to lead us, and we're also happy that Ken is staying with us." The center, formed in 1995, describes itself as a nonprofit law firm with a staff of 12 attorneys and four other staffers. It provides legal services to convicted murderers on North Carolina's death row, and it also consults with lawyers before and during the trials of death penalty-cases. Durham lawyer Alex Charns, who went to law school with Maher, described him Wednesday as "a whiz and a great person. Everyone is sorry to see Ken Rose leave, but they couldn't have picked a better replacement." Maher and lawyer David Rudolf represented Peterson in a 2003 1st-degree murder trial that ended with Peterson's conviction and a life sentence. He was convicted of fatally beating his wife, Nortel Networks executive Kathleen Peterson. Maher and Rudolf tried to convince jurors that Kathleen Peterson died in an accidental fall from the stairway in the couple's home. (source: Associated Press) US MILITARY: Ex-soldier could receive death penalty; was in high-stress area Steven D. Green, 21, charged with rape and murder in a crime that has strained the U.S. military's relations with the Iraqi people, could get the death penalty if convicted. Green grew up in Midland, Texas, where he dropped out after 10th grade. He later got a high school equivalency diploma and enlisted in the Army in early 2005. Green, who went to Iraq in September 2005 as an infantry soldier, was sent to patrol an area southwest of Baghdad known for its frequent roadside bombings. Military officials say more than 40% of the nearly 1,000 soldiers in the region have been treated for mental or emotional anxiety. He was discharged May 16 for what military officials in Iraq told the Associated Press was an "anti-social personality disorder." The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case. Under Army regulations, a soldier can be discharged only if a personality disorder "is so severe that the soldier's ability to function effectively in the military environment is significantly impaired." The diagnosis must be made by a psychiatrist or doctoral-level clinical psychologist who is authorized to conduct mental health evaluations for the military. Loren Thompson, a military analyst at the Washington-based Lexington Institute, said it's standard practice to discharge soldiers whose profiles suggest they're incapable of maintaining military discipline. "Despite all the stories about the military having trouble recruiting, it is considered anathema to retain somebody like that," said Thompson. (source: Associated Press) CALIFORNIA: Lathrop men could face death penalty2 charged with murder of woman; court date set Aug. 7 In Stockton, the 2 men charged in the April shooting death of a Lathrop woman could face the death penalty. Jeremy Nick Delphin, 19, and Fernando Valdez, 20, both of Lathrop, pleaded innocent Wednesday in San Joaquin County Superior Court. Both have been charged in the homicide of Angelique Hewitt, 43, by means of lying in wait. Valdez also has been charged with street terrorism. The defendants will return to court Aug. 7 Delphin to set a trial date and Valdez for a preliminary hearing by which time Supervising Deputy District Attorney Charles Schultz will decide if the death penalty will be sought. Schultz said only that he has a strong case against the 2 men. However, John Schick, Delphins defense attorney, said, I dont think theyll seek the death penalty. (Delphins) far too young. Schick added that Delphin had no previous criminal record. The men may not be tried together. Valdezs lawyer, Elvira Lua, is a San Joaquin County public defender. To avoid a conflict of interest, Delphin is being represented by a private attorney retained by the county. However, Valdez's brother, who may appear as a witness, is being represented by the public defenders office in another case. Valdez also may need to be appointed to an outside attorney, said Peter Fox, a public defender standing in for Lua, said. Delphin, dressed in orange jail garb, and Valdez, clad in red jail clothes, were led into court separately, sat two seats apart in the jury section and did not speak to each other. Delphin had several supporters in the courtroom, including his mother, who decl
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS/N.C., USA, N.Y., ILL.
July 6 TEXAS/NORTH CAROLINA: Though no longer here in the capital of capital punishment, Scott Langley still combats the death penalty daily. Stumph chats with Peggy Kandies, who cradles a baby doll in memory of her son on death row. 5 years ago outside the Walls Unit in Huntsville, on the night the State of Texas prepared to execute Lois Robison's son, young photographer Scott Langley watched as she screamed and cried on the sidewalk. 18 years earlier, Robisons son Larry, a diagnosed schizophrenic, had killed and mutilated his roommate and four neighbors in Fort Worth, the town where Langley was born and grew up. Outside Texas' death-row unit, Langley, just out of SMU, was supposed to be taking pictures of the execution-night vigil. But for once hed forgotten and left his camera in the car and he couldnt bear to go back and get it. Instead of capturing the moment on film, the 22-year-old instead found himself captured by what he saw and heard that night. It changed him forever. A year earlier, in the spring of his senior year, Langley had taken a course with SMU history professor and Amnesty International USA Chairman Rick Halperin. The class, called "Human Rights and the American Dilemma," included the requirement that students create a piece of art illuminating a human rights issue. "It could be anything we wanted except for dance, he said, because he doesnt know how to grade dance," Langley said. The Eastern Hills High School graduate had been on the photography staff of the SMU Daily Campus for 3 years and was photo editor in 1998 when the newspaper was named the best college paper in Texas. So, naturally, Langley chose a photography project. It's a little more complex tracing back the reasons for the subject he picked: the effects of Texas' active death chamber. Count his upbringing as the son of a Methodist minister for part of that and probably also the night he got a personal introduction to the legal systems capacity for injustice and violence. For the project, he photographed his first death-house vigil in March 1999, and even then the project was changing him. In an impromptu speech on the day of his graduation from SMU a couple of months later, Langley had said he wanted to change the world through photography. But the following January, he had left his camera in his car and couldn't capture the image of Lois Robisons suffering outside the prison where her son was being killed. "I just couldnt bring myself to go get it and take the picture," he said. "I just felt like it wasn't appropriate. Even though I balked at that moment and didn't take the picture, I think it was at that moment that I was like, 'I can't let this moment pass again.'" And he hasn't. A lot of things have changed for Langley since he stood on that Huntsville sidewalk with Lois Robison. He's changed jobs, gotten married, moved away from Fort Worth and the Southwest. The lifelong Methodist has joined a Catholic commune, and in a few months hell become a father. But psychologically, Langley has stayed at Lois Robisons side. His death-penalty photo project continues to this day. In fact, that moment outside the prison in Huntsville has taken him to a full-time calling that goes way beyond photography. He's trying to change the world through a radical, ascetic lifestyle in service to the families of the condemned. With the help of some of those families and with additional leadership from another Texan, Duke University theologian Stanley Hauerwas, Langley has become one of the most visible faces of the anti-death-penalty movement, in a state with one of the busiest death chambers in the country. Not the one in Huntsville, though. This ones on a busy thoroughfare in Raleigh, North Carolina. Since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, only five states, including Texas, have put more people to death than North Carolinas 42. Recent polls show that, while a majority of North Carolina citizens still favor capital punishment, recent exonerations of innocent death-row inmates have raised questions in enough peoples minds. An even stronger majority favors putting executions on hold long enough to conduct an in-depth study of the states capital trial system. Nearly 1,100 North Carolina businesses, local governments, and community organizations have signed resolutions in favor of a death-penalty moratorium there, far more than in any other state. (By comparison, groups in Texas account for about 275 of these resolutions.) The North Carolina Senate approved a moratorium in April 2003, but the House opted instead to create a special committee to study flaws in the trial and sentencing system. Twenty inmates have been executed since then. "North Carolina is probably the best- organized state for activity against the death penalty," said Amnestys Halperin. Since December, Langley and other protesters have been trespassing in the driveway of North Carolinas Central Prison in Raleigh, the place that hous
