[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----worldwide
Dec. 1 JAMAICA: Re Mandela and the death penalty The Editor, Sir: In Human rights in paradise (11/28/08) Peter Espeut writes: If the fear of being shot down in the streets by the police is not deterring murderers, I cannot see how the fear of being ... hung is going to deter anyone All, even Mr Espeut I suspect, would admit crime would be far worse without the police, meaning that, of course, the police deter some criminals, including murderers, just as the prospects of harsher punishments do. No one has any illusions about the magnitude of the problem and that many different tactics must be implemented and be successful to get things under control. The death penalty is only one small piece of the larger social and criminal justice solutions. The conscience vote on the death penalty was a moral statement that some crimes are so horrendous that the criminal should not be allowed to live. In addition, by both enhanced deterrence and incapacitation of executions, more innocent lives will also be saved. That is enough. Mr Espeut's invoking that Nelson Mandela abolished the death penalty in South Africa will have none rethinking their vote in Jamaica, unless they voted against capital punishment. Mandela's strategies, however, did nothing to curb the incredible violence still plaguing that country. I am, etc., DUDLEY SHARP Via Go-Jamaica (source: Letter to the Editor, Jamaica Gleaner) *** More executions will not reduce crime Jamaica's crime epidemic must be solved with reforms to the police and the justice system, not with more death, said Amnesty International after the Jamaican House of Representatives voted a motion to retain the death penalty. Americas Deputy Director at Amnesty International, Kerrie Howard, said: 'Supporting the death penalty to tackle Jamaica's spiralling violence and crime is like trying to put out a fire with petrol. In order to put that fire out, its root causes need to be tackled.' Amnesty International called on the Jamaican government to prioritise policy changes to reduce crime and convert these changes into effective action. These include implementing recommendations from the strategic review of the Jamaica Constabulary Force and the Justice Sector Reform Review and expediting the passage of legislation to establish an independent commission to investigate police abuses and an Office of Coroner to examine alleged police killings. Kerrie Howard said: We all agree that crime is an issue that must urgently be addressed. However, executions offer only an illusion of effective action being taken and do nothing to lessen suffering in Jamaican society. (source: Amnesty International) AFRICA: Africa's human rights body takes a stance against the death penalty The African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR) calls for a moratorium on executions and the ratification of the UN Protocol for the abolition of the death penalty. The ACHPR, the African Union body responsible for defending human rights, adopted a resolution urging State Parties to observe a moratorium on the death penalty, during its Session held in Abuja, Nigeria in November 2008. The text notes that 27 State Parties to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights have already in law or de facto abolished the death penalty, but that only 6 among them have ratified the UN Second Optional Protocol aiming at the abolition of the death penalty. The ACHPR states that it is preoccupied by some death sentences handed down in conditions not respectful of the right to a fair trial in several African countries. The resolution, which applies to State Parties to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, thus exhorts them to urgently guarantee irreproachable judicial procedures for all persons accused of crimes punishable by death. The text then goes further, inviting the 53 African countries to observe a moratorium on the execution of death sentences with a view to abolishing the death penalty, with reference to previous ACHPR and UN resolutions on the subject. It also calls on them to ratify the UN Second Optional Protocol, the only international treaty establishing the abolition of the death penalty, without the possibility of reintroduction at a later stage. Finally, the resolution calls on States to include information on the steps they are taking to move towards the abolition of the death penalty in the periodic reports they must submit to the ACHPR. The reporting process should be detailed in a document presented in the next Commission's session. Working group on the Death Penalty finally active The resolution results from the activation of the ACHPR working group on the death penalty established almost 4 years ago, which brings together 4 experts around Rwandan Commissioner Sylvie Zainabo Kayitesi. The Word Coalition has observer status. This working group had never worked as there was no budget, explains Guillaume Colin of
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----WASHINGTON
Dec. 1 WASHINGTON: Clemency board hears Stenson petition Death penalty opponents argued Monday before the state Clemency and Pardons Board that more DNA testing should be performed in the case of death row inmate Darold Ray Stenson, scheduled to die Wednesday. Death penalty opponents argued Monday before the state Clemency and Pardons Board that more DNA testing should be performed in the case of death row inmate Darold Ray Stenson, scheduled to die Wednesday. Stenson, 56, was convicted of 2 counts of aggravated murder for the 1993 slaying of his wife, Denise, and a business partner, Frank Hoerner, at his Clallam County exotic bird farm. Although his execution has been scheduled for Wednesday, judges in 2 separate courts have imposed stays. The Washington Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty filed a clemency petition on Stenson's behalf before clemency board against Stenson's wishes, because he has always maintained that he is innocent of the murders. Coalition President Jeff Ellis asked the board Monday to table the matter until the two stays are resolved in the courts. However, he also argued that additional DNA testing could implicate others in the crime. Last week, the state asked the U.S. Supreme Court to consider lifting a federal stay to the execution. In that case, U.S. District Judge Lonny Suko in Yakima approved request by Stenson attorneys, who argued that the state recently revised its procedure for administering lethal injections without previously announcing any changes or going through a rule-making process. Clallam County Superior Court Judge Kenneth Williams issued the 2nd stay on Nov. 25 after learning a former inmate had come forward as a possible witness. Williams initially had declined to issue a stay so requested DNA testing could be conducted, but reversed his decision after hearing details of the possible new evidence. According to a court transcript, the new witness, Robert Shinn, claimed a second man had told him that Stenson was not guilty and had been framed. Shinn said both he and the 2nd man were high on drugs at the time of the conversation, about 8 years ago, the transcript says. Clallam County Prosecuting Attorney Deb Kelly on Wednesday filed a request that the state Supreme Court review Williams' decision. (source: Associated Press)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
Dec. 1 CANADA: Primate joins City for Life in call for abolition of death penalty More than 100 people, including Archbishop Fred Hiltz, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, braved a cold, rainy night in Toronto to make the city a City for Life, one of eight in Canada and more than 900 worldwide. On Nov. 30 each year, people in cities around the world speak out against and call for the abolition of the death penalty during events organized by the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, which Amnesty International helped found. Torontos event began at city hall, where protestors with placards and banners gathered. They marched through downtown streets chanting calls for an end to the executions. Then they were welcomed into St. James Cathedral by rector, Rev.Douglas Stoute, to listen to speakers, including Alex Neve, secretary-general of the Canadian chapter of Amnesty International. He brought a message from Louise Arbour, the former UN high commissioner on human rights, who said that those working to end the death penalty should be encouraged by the fact that about 2/3 of countries in the world have stopped the practice. She described the Cities for Life event as a gesture of hope. But Mr. Neve reminded the crowd of the reasons to increase their efforts when he spoke of Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow, a 13-year old girl, who was stoned to death in October in Somalia by a group of 50 men with a crowd of 1,000 looking on. She was accused of adultery after she reported that she had been raped. Mr. Neve also noted that, although Canada has been a leader in the work to abolish the death penalty, the government has stepped back from that leadership role in the last year. When Resolution 62/149, calling for a worldwide moratorium on executions, was put before the United Nations late last year, Canada voted for it but refused to co-sponsor it. The final vote on the resolution will be in mid-December, and Mr. Neve urged the crowd to push the government to join the 89 countries that have co-sponsored it. Inside the cathedral, Archbishop Hiltz asked the audience to reflect on Jesuss words in the Gospel of Matthew: I was in prison and you visited me. Archbishop Hiltz said that God takes no pleasure in the deaths of the innocent, but neither does he take pleasure in the deaths of those who have committed wicked acts. We gather here tonight to affirm the sacredness of human life, he said. And he added that any justice based on vengeance sets society on a dangerous course. Iranian human rights activist Furugh Arghavan spoke briefly of her own torture when she was imprisoned by the Iranian regime as a young woman 25 years ago, but she said she is now primarily motivated to be a voice for the voiceless; those who don't survive. Capital punishment, she said, is often used as a weapon to terrorize and stifle political opposition. Bringing the subject closer to home, James Lockyer, director of the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted, said that over the past 50 years, Canadians have had 10 prime ministers; all but the current prime minister have opposed capital punishment. Mr. Lockyer has described the Harper government's decision to reverse a long-standing policy of seeking clemency for Canadians sentenced to death in other democracies, such as the U.S., as showing an extraordinary indifference to life. Speaking as someone who has seen many instances when court verdicts were wrong and destroyed lives, Mr. Lockyer said, We must all fight the death penalty to the death. Aubrey Harris, co-ordinator of the Amnesty International Canada's campaign to abolish the death penalty, described the plight of 2 young Canadians, Mohamed Kohail and his brother Sultan Kohail of Montreal, who are in imminent danger of being executed in Saudi Arabia. He said there is an urgent need for Canadians to write letters to the Saudi government, asking it to show mercy. Linden MacIntyre of CBC's The Fifth Estate, who talked passionately of stories he has covered about people who have been wrongfully convicted and others who have faced the death penalty, hosted the event, which was also graced by two performances by mezzo soprano Joanne Chapin, singing Pie Jesu from Requiem by Gabriel Faur, and jazz singer Sophia Perlman singing a moving and unaccompanied rendition of Abel Meeropol's classic and tragic song Strange Fruit, about blacks who suffered lynching in the American South. Cities for Life day is often observed by illuminating a prominent building or monument and, in Toronto, St. James Cathedral was lit against the rainy, night sky while the Bells of Old York rang out. Other Cities for Life in Canada this year were St. John's Nfld.; Montreal and St. Jerome in Quebec; Ottawa, Niagara Falls, and Clarington in Ontario; and Grande Prairie, Alta. (source: Anglican Journal)
[Deathpenalty] [SPAM] death penalty news----TEXAS, ARK., WASH., NEB.
Dec. 1 TEXAS: El Pasoan scheduled to be executed next month El Pasoan Ricardo Ortiz, convicted in 1999 of capital murder, is scheduled to be executed Jan. 29, 2009, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's Web site. Ortiz was convicted in June 1999 in the heroin overdose death of Gerardo Garcia while they were cellmates in the El Paso county jail in Aug. 1997. Ortiz's defense lawyer, Jaime Gandara, said in a 1999 El Paso Times article that Ortiz had been an altar boy at Our Lady of Guadalupe church and had attended St. Charles Seminary for six weeks. Then something happened, Gandara said. It's not something he talks about, but all of a sudden he was on a different path. The jury did not hear any evidence on Ortiz's past other than his long criminal history. Gandara said Ortiz didn't want his family cross-examined if called as character witnesses. Ortiz was first imprisoned on aggravated robbery charges. According to prison records, he stabbed another inmate with a homemade spear. When paroled, he allegedly shot and killed a fellow member of the Texas Syndicate prison gang. Prosecutors maintained that he injected Garcia with a fatal drug dose to prevent him from telling the FBI about bank robberies they committed. There are 10 El Pasoans on death row in Texas, but Ortiz is the only one who's name currently appears on the scheduled execution list. (source: El Paso Times) ARKANSAS: Parents of slain Arkansas anchorwoman say she was sexually assaulted The parents of a television anchorwoman beaten to death at her home said Monday their daughter was sexually assaulted during the attack, and an arrest warrant released by police says DNA evidence linked an eastern Arkansas man to the crime with all scientific certainty. In a television interview, Guy and Patti Cannady said Anne Pressly, 26, was beaten so severely that a portion of her jaw bone was broken away. The couple said their daughter also broke her left hand while trying to defend herself. Speaking with NBC Today show host Matt Lauer, the Cannadys answered yes when asked if their daughter had been sexual assaulted during the Oct. 20 attack at her home. This monster stole my daughter's innocence, Patti Cannady said. He took her life. He took her identity. He took our lives. Police have declined to discuss whether Pressly was sexually assaulted. Little Rock police Lt. Terry Hastings did not dispute the Cannadys' comments, but declined to offer any specifics about the attack. A lot of those details, we want the jury to hear those first, Hastings said Monday. Officers last Wednesday arrested Curtis Lavelle Vance, 28, of Marianna, at a Little Rock home, acting on a tip received within minutes of a late-night news conference at which they disclosed Vance's name and photos of him and his car. Television station KATV, where Pressly worked, established a reward fund that had raised $50,000. Meanwhile, the prosecutor overseeing the case acknowledged the slaying warranted a capital murder charge meaning Vance could face the death penalty if convicted. Prosecutor Larry Jegley did not say whether he would seek Vance's execution or a life sentence. Patti Cannady found her daughter bloody and beaten in bed Oct. 20 after she didn't answer a wake-up call. Cannady said her daughter fought for her life against her attacker and suffered a broken left hand. Every bone in her face had been broken during the attack, she said. Her jaw pulverized so badly that the bone had come out of it, Cannady said. I actually thought that her throat, it possibly been cut, but that was possibly the first knockout punch. Her entire skull had numerous fractures from which she suffered a massive stroke. Pressly, 26, died Oct. 25 without regaining consciousness. Police worked for weeks without a named suspect until DNA collected at Pressly's home matched a sample from an unsolved April rape in Marianna, about 90 miles east of Little Rock. A Marianna detective suggested officers investigate Vance, 28, a suspect in several burglaries. An arrest affidavit filed Monday morning in Little Rock District Court says Vance denied being in Little Rock the day of the attack on Pressly and allowed detectives to swab a DNA sample from his saliva. It was confirmed with all scientific certainty that Mr. Vance is the DNA contributor of the suspect in Ms. Pressly's murder, the affidavit reads. The affidavit suggests police believe robbery was the motive for the attack, as several items belonging to Ms. Pressly were taken from her residence. Marianna police Detective Sgt. Carl McCree has said Vance became a suspect in the burglaries after his girlfriend sold reportedly stolen items to a Helena-West Helena pawn shop. Hastings said detectives received consent to look through Vance's home during initial questioning last week, but have yet to recover the missing items. The items sold by Vance's girlfriend did not include anything from Pressly's home, the lieutenant
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----W. VA., ALA., US MIL., CALIF., DEL. N.H.
Dec. 1 WEST VIRGINIA: Pro-deathRevenge mentality; Gradually, most of the civilized world has abolished the death penalty. Conscientious people everywhere now realize that killing prisoners is a medieval barbarism suited for dictatorships, but not for modern democracies. Gradually, most of the civilized world has abolished the death penalty. Conscientious people everywhere now realize that killing prisoners is a medieval barbarism suited for dictatorships, but not for modern democracies. Of course, some murderers don't deserve to live, but that's not the point. Educated, enlightened governments shouldn't stoop to the murderers' level by killing them. Of course, most people have a natural thirst for revenge after a heinous crime - but society shouldn't be rooted in such primal instincts. It's a shame that America is almost the last pro-death democracy, ranking alongside brutal dictatorships such as China, Saudi Arabia, Iran and the like. America was tainted, for example, when former Texas Gov. George W. Bush set an all-time record of putting people to death - and mocked one woman about to be killed. We're proud that West Virginia rose above this status long ago by ending state executions. We're always pleased when another state takes the same step. New Jersey did so last year. Now it seems likely that Maryland will follow. The Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment voted strongly to eliminate executions. The commission's findings, to be given to legislators Dec. 15, reportedly conclude: --Prosecutors are more likely to seek death when victims are white. They show less concern when a black is killed. --Executions do not deter murders. --Capital cases cost taxpayers much more and take substantially longer than non-capital murder cases. --Rather than providing closure for a victim's family, the drawn-out appeal process adds to the family's stress. --Risk of executing an innocent person is strong, because many death row convictions have been found faulty.The ultimate punishment is spotty by geography. Prosecutors in Baltimore County are 13 times more likely to seek execution than are those in the city of Baltimore. Much of the world regards America as a brutal place where people are put to death. We hope that Maryland and other states join West Virginia in rising above that level. (source: Editorial, The Charleston Gazette) ALABAMA: Federal bench short on diversity Other actions that presidents take may get more attention in the short term, but few have more long-term implications than appointments to the federal courts. These are lifetime appointments, and as such can continue to exercise influence decades after a president has left office. Although appointments to the U.S. Supreme Court prompt lots of discussion, and rightly so, presidents also leave a huge impression on the judiciary with their appointments to the federal district and circuit courts. A president will make scores of these appointments. President Bush, for example, has named 322 district and circuit judges. President Clinton named 371. In Alabama, there is a lamentable lack of racial diversity in the appointments made to the federal district bench in the past quarter-century. We hope to see that change under the Obama administration, which will have one immediate vacancy to fill upon taking office in January. Judge U.W. Clemon, who serves in the Northern District, is leaving the bench. Clemon and Judge Myron Thompson of the Middle District were the 1st 2 black federal judges in the state. Both were appointed by President Carter in 1980. That was 28 years and four presidents ago. No black Alabamian has been named to the federal bench here since. President Clinton did nominate a well regarded Birmingham attorney, Ken Simon, in the last months of his administration in 2000, but that nomination was opposed by Republican Sen. Richard Shelby, who contended that the incoming president should make the appointment. There is some gender diversity on the federal bench here, although none in the Middle District of the state. Here, the district judges-- Thompson, Mark Fuller, Keith Watkins and Senior Judges Truman Hobbs, Harold Albritton and Ira DeMent -- are all male. In the Northern District, four of the 12 judges are female. The 4 judges on senior status are all male. Senior judges continue to hear cases on a limited basis. In the Southern District, 2 of the 4 judges are female. The one senior judge is male. Race is in itself neither a qualification nor a disqualification for a federal judgeship. However, federal courts that do not to at least some reasonable degree reflect the populations whose cases they hear can lose the confidence of the people. Minorities who aspire to the federal judiciary have to wonder about how realistic their goals are. I don't believe in setting quotas for judgeships, but at the same time there has not been a black person appointed to the bench since 1980, U.S. Rep. Artur
