[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., GA., FLA., MISS., OHIO, KY., USA
July 4 TEXAS: Mass murderer who was spared death penalty gets erased by time A tragic, little-remembered anniversary in Dallas history passed nearly unnoticed last weekend. 3 decades ago last Sunday, on June 29, 1984, Abdelkrim Belachheb murdered 6 people in a restaurant-club called Ianni's near the intersection of LBJ Freeway and Midway Road. It remains Dallas' worst mass murder. The motive for the murders was his injured sense of personal importance: A woman at the bar had allegedly called him a monkey and shoved him away on the dance floor. Belachheb got a 9-mm handgun out of his car, returned to the bar and started shooting. He killed 4 women and 2 men: Marcell Ford, Janice Smith, Linda Lowe, Ligia Koslowski, Frank Parker and Joe Minasi. Another man was shot but survived. Police traced the gunman to a friend's house less than 2 hours later. Belachheb was a Moroccan citizen who for years had drifted from one low-rent job to the next. He was also a narcissistic sociopath and an all-around failure in life who blamed his problems on everybody but himself. The profile fits other criminals who have committed similar atrocities. His case was a landmark, but not because of the body count. Sadly, homicidal lunatics with a lot more firepower have since done much more damage. Belachheb's rampage was eclipsed 3 weeks later when a gun nut in San Ysidro, Calif., killed 21 people at a McDonald's. Belachheb's case did, however, inspire a change in Texas' death-penalty law - because Belachheb wasn't eligible for the death penalty. Texas author Gary Lavergne wrote a book about the case and its aftermath in 2002. He explains that at the time of the Ianni's murders, Texas law was specific in limiting a capital charge to murders that took place with certain circumstances, such as during the commission of another felony or killing a police officer. Those circumstances did not include multiple victims. If the Ianni's murderer had killed 1 person and stolen a dime from her purse, he could have been sentenced to death, Lavergne wrote. If he had walked off with an ashtray or a stolen fork off a table, he could have been sentenced to death. Instead, Belachheb was soon tried and sentenced to life in prison. During the following legislative session, state lawmakers added a multiple victims provision to the death-penalty statute. In his book, Lavergne doesn't make any sweeping generalizations about capital punishment. But his title, Worse Than Death, sums up the author's conclusion that life in prison - for the egomaniacal, self-important Belaccheb, at least - really was the worst punishment possible. Lavergne writes: In cell 108 of Pod F, at the High Security Section of Ad Seg [administrative segregation] of the Clements Unit in Amarillo, sits a man who wallows in self-pity and finds something to complain about nearly every moment of his life. He believes everyone is out to pick on him, he hates the food, and believes he is being harassed and even tortured. Every day he awakens in the same miserable surroundings knowing why he is there. Today, 12 years since that was written, prison records show that Belachheb still lives on the same unit. He'll turn 70 in November, a forgotten old man whose life is ticking away in a prison cell. The state didn't execute him, but it did, as the saying goes, throw away the key. His victims and their families cannot forget, of course. But for everyone else, time has moved on. Abdelkrim Belachheb is a distant name from a largely forgotten past. He is nobody. (source: Dallas Morning News) PENNSYLVANIA: Man no longer facing execution in 1982 Pa. slaying A judge has removed the death sentence imposed on a man convicted in the murder of a south-central Pennsylvania woman more than 3 decades ago. Lebanon County President Judge John Tylwalk instead sentenced Freeman May on Wednesday to life in prison without possibility of parole. May, 56, was convicted of the 1982 stabbing death of Kathy Lynn Fair, 22, whose remains were found 6 years later in woods in Lebanon County. The judge ruled in April that May was incapacitated and incompetent to proceed after a forensic psychologist testified that he suffered from a delusional disorder. District Attorney David Arnold said the life term was the only appropriate solution since the law is crystal clear that you cannot execute a mentally incompetent defendant, the Lebanon Daily News reported. So while it's frustrating that Freeman May was not executed after his initial death sentence, we have no choice but to respect the fact that he cannot be executed now or in the future under Pennsylvania law, he said after the hearing. May was convicted of killing Fair, a young mother, and sentenced to death in 1991. The sentence was reversed but reinstated after a second penalty phase hearing in 1995. An appeals court again lifted the death sentence but it was
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., GA., FLA., MISS., TENN.
July 3 TEXAS: Retired pastor saw 'destiny' in self-immolation A retired United Methodist pastor fatally set himself on fire in a shopping center parking lot in his hometown of Grand Saline, Texas, on June 23. His death was a final act of protest against social injustice, according to family members and the notes the pastor left behind. The Rev. Charles R. Moore, 79, lived in Allen, Texas, near Dallas, but apparently drove himself to Grand Saline, in east Texas, on June 23. At about 5:30 p.m., he parked his car and walked to the parking lot, where he doused himself with gasoline and started the blaze, said Chief Larry Compton of the Grand Saline police. Initially, Moore survived, thanks to bystanders who retrieved a store fire extinguisher and put out the blaze. He was taken by helicopter to Parkland Hospital in Dallas, and died there late that night, Compton said. Moore was a longtime elder in the Southwest Texas Annual (regional) Conference, where in addition to serving churches he advocated for the abolition of the death penalty and for gay rights within The United Methodist Church. No indication toward suicide Family members said he clearly remained deeply concerned about those issues and others, including race relations, but gave no indication that he was contemplating suicide in any form. Church Teachings on Suicide The Book of Discipline, the denomination's law book, says the following about suicide. We believe that suicide is not the way a human life should end. Often suicide is the result of untreated depression, or untreated pain and suffering. The church has an obligation to see that all persons have access to needed pastoral and medical care and therapy in those circumstances that lead to loss of self-worth, suicidal despair, and/or the desire to seek physician-assisted suicide. We encourage the church to provide education to address the biblical, theological, social, and ethical issues related to death and dying, including suicide. United Methodist theological seminary courses should also focus on issues of death and dying, including suicide. A Christian perspective on suicide begins with an affirmation of faith that nothing, including suicide, separates us from the love of God (Romans 8:38-39). Therefore, we deplore the condemnation of people who complete suicide, and we consider unjust the stigma that so often falls on surviving family and friends. We encourage pastors and faith communities to address this issue through preaching and teaching. We urge pastors and faith communities to provide pastoral care to those at risk, survivors, and their families, and to those families who have lost loved ones to suicide, seeking always to remove the oppressive stigma around suicide. The Church opposes assisted suicide and euthanasia. It was a complete shock, said the Rev. Bill Renfro, also a retired United Methodist pastor and a relative of Moore's by marriage. The Tyler (Tex.) Morning Telegraph obtained from the Grand Saline police a copy of a note Moore left on his car. In it, Moore laments past racism in Grand Saline and beyond. He calls on the community to repent and says he's giving my body to be burned, with love in my heart for lynching victims, for those who lynched and for Grand Saline citizens, in hopes they will address current racial issues. Renfro provided United Methodist News Service with copies of other explanatory statements Moore left, apparently written in the weeks before his suicide. Family members found the notes in the study of the Allen home Moore shared with his wife, Barbara, Renfro said. The typed notes relay Moore's frustration over The United Methodist Church's positions on homosexuality, over the death penalty, and over Southern Methodist University's successful bid to be home to the George W. Bush Presidential Center. In one note, hand dated June 16, 2014, Moore wrote: This decision to sacrifice myself was not impulsive: I have struggled all my life (especially the last several years) with what it means to take Dietrich Bonhoeffer's insistence that Christ calls a person to come and die seriously. He was not advocating self-immolation, but others have found this to be the necessary deed, as I have myself for some time now: it has been a long Gethsemane, and excruciating to keep my plans from my wife and other members of our family. In another note, Moore said his mental and physical health was good, that he was enjoying life and adored his wife, but that he also felt he was a paralyzed soul, unable to bring to fruition the social change he felt was urgent. He declared it his destiny to give his life for a cause. One note makes clear that Moore, who had degrees from SMU and SMU's Perkins School of Theology, planned to do the self-immolation on the SMU campus, on Juneteenth - the annual June 19 commemoration of the 1865 announcement to slaves within Texas that they had been
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
July 4 MAURITANIA: Mauritania transfers terror prisoners Several convicted terrorists were moved from Salah Eddine prison to the Mauritanian capital on Wednesday (July 2nd), Sahara Media reported. The group includes Mohamed Ould Sidna and Mohamed Ould Chebarnou, who received the death penalty for the 2007 Aleg slaughter of a French tourist family, and Mohamed Abdallahi Ould Ahmednah, who was sentenced to death for the 2009 al-Qaeda killing of American teacher Christopher Leggett in Nouakchott. The prisoners were transferred to Nouakchott following requests by their families, as well as from human rights groups, for greater access. (source: magharebia.com) VIETNAM: Vietnam court spares Cambodian drug mule from execution Vietnam's top court on Thursday commuted the death sentence of a Cambodian woman convicted for trafficking more than 5 kilograms of methamphetamine to life in prison. Hom Kosal, 37, was sentenced to death by a court in Ho Chi Minh City last September. She appealed the sentence, producing documents to prove that she has a child under 3 years of age. In Vietnam, a death sentence pronounced on a woman with a child under the age of 3 will be commuted to a life sentence. On Thursday, Kosal told judges of the Supreme People's Court, Vietnam's highest court, that she did not mention her child in the trial court because she was unaware of Vietnamese laws. Kosal was arrested at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in HCMC on April 21, 2013 after police found white some powder in her checked-in suitcase and tests established that it was 5.2 kilograms of methamphetamine. She told the court she got to know an African man during the time she worked as a waitress at a restaurant in Phnom Penh in 2011. The man invited her to Benin, a country in West Africa, 3 times. Before the 3rd trip, he gave her US$1,300. In Benin, she met another African man named Tony. Tony asked her to bring the suitcase from Benin to Vietnam by air and then to Cambodia by road, and promised to pay her $2,000. Vietnam has some of the world's toughest drug laws. Those convicted of smuggling more than 600 grams of heroin or more than 2.5 kilograms of methamphetamine face the death penalty. The production or sale of 100 grams of heroin or 300 grams of other illegal narcotics is also punishable by death. Vietnam officially switched from the firing squad to lethal injection in November 2011. But it was not until last August that the country executed its 1st prisoner with the new method due to a shortage of the fatal serum required to carry it out. (source: Thanh Nien News) UNITED KINGDOM/ETHIOPIA: UK stands accused over extradition of Ethiopian opposition leaderAndargachew Tsige, a British national, may face death penalty after extradition from Yemen The Foreign Office has been accused of failing to act to prevent the extradition to Ethiopia of an opposition leader facing the death penalty. Andargachew Tsige, a British national, is secretary general of an exiled Ethiopian opposition movement, Ginbot 7. He was arrested at Sana'a airport on 23 June by the Yemeni security services while in transit between the United Arab Emirates and Eritrea. The British knew he was being held in Yemen for almost a week but they did nothing, said Ephrem Madebo, a spokesman for Ginbot 7. We are extremely worried about Mr Andargachew, because the Ethiopians kill at will. The Foreign Office, which called in the Yemeni ambassador earlier this week, said it was urgently seeking confirmation that Andargachew was in Ethiopia. If confirmed this would be deeply concerning given our consistent requests for information from the Yemeni authorities, the lack of any notification of his detention in contravention of the Vienna convention and our concerns about the death penalty that Mr Tsige could face in Ethiopia, the Foreign Office said in a statement. It added: The UK opposes the death penalty in all circumstances as a matter of principle ... We continue to call on all countries around the world that retain the death penalty to cease its use. Ginbot 7 is among the largest of Ethiopia's exiled opposition movements. The party was founded by Berhanu Nega, who was elected mayor of Addis Ababa in 2005. Refusing to accept the result, the prime minister, Meles Zenawi, declared a state of emergency, which was followed by days of protest and clashes on the streets of the capital. Berhanu Nega was jailed, and founded Ginbot 7 on his release. Accused of attempting to overthrow the Ethiopian government, he and Andargachew Tsige were sentenced to death in absentia. Ginbot 7 was declared a terrorist organisation. The party says it stands for the peaceful end to what it describes as the Ethiopian dictatorship. Andargachew was travelling to Eritrea, which has clashed with Ethiopia since a border war between the 2 countries ended in June 2000. The Eritrean
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
July 3 IRAN: Executions Iranian Style Which of the following is true about executions in Iran?: 1. You can be executed if the main or only evidence against you is a confession extracted under torture; 2. You can be executed if the crime you are accused of occurred when you were a juvenile; 3. You can be executed if the alleged crime occurred while you were already sitting in prison; 4. Your family may not be informed of your execution beforehand, and may not be able to bury and mourn you. The answer is all of the above. Iran continues to be the number 2 executioner in the world after China, a distinction it has held now for many years running. Last year was a very bad year. Amnesty International believes that at least 704 people were executed in 2013. But as of the middle of June of this year, at least 354 people have been executed in Iran. At this rate, 2014 will exceed 2013 in numbers of people executed. Most people executed in Iran have been accused of drug-related offenses. A couple of current cases in particular illustrate the horrible cruelty and unfairness of Iran's execution system involving 2 classes of individuals: juvenile offenders and those accused of politically-motivated offenses. Razieh Ebrahimi has been sentenced to death for murdering her husband when she was just 17 years old. She had endured 3 years of his physical and psychological abuse after being married off at the age of only 14. Iran is one of the tiny handful of countries that still execute juvenile offenders. Amnesty International believes at least 11 of those executed in 2013 could have been juveniles at the time of their alleged crimes. Even though changes under a new penal code would mean that juveniles can no longer be executed for crimes such as involvement in drugs, they can still be executed for murder. According to Iranian law, Razieh Ebrahimi was sentenced to Qesas or retribution. Iranian authorities claim that the sentence is mandated by Islam and that only the family of the person who was murdered can prevent the execution by accepting a Diyeh (payment of financial compensation). In fact, Iranian authorities are fully responsible for executions carried out under Qesas. They carry out the arrest, detention, interrogation, and trial of the defendants and also carry out the subsequent executions. In another case, 4 Iranian Kurdish men - Hamed Ahmadi, Jahangir Dehghani, Jamshid Dehghani and Kamal Molaee - are at great risk of being executed at any time. They were sentenced to death after grossly unfair judicial proceedings for killing a Sunni cleric who had ties to the Iranian government. This despite the fact that the four had been arrested in early summer 2009 and were detained in prison at the time the killing occurred in September 2009. Although they were later acquitted of that charge, they were still sentenced to death for moharebeh (enmity against God) for acting against national security by supporting illegal Kurdish political parties. The 4 men, as well as 29 other Sunnis sentenced to death for politically motivated offenses, claim they were not involved in violence at all, and were targeted because of their participation in peaceful religious activities, such as taking part in religious seminars and distributing religious materials. They have reportedly been subjected to mock executions. Ethnic and religious minorities in Iran are particularly liable to be sentenced to death for politically motivated offenses after manifestly unfair trials in Revolutionary Courts, in the absence of evidence proving their involvement in any crimes, and where confessions extracted under duress are routinely accepted. Just recently 2 ethnic Arab men, Ali Chabishat and Khaled Mousavi, were executed in secret for supposedly blowing up an oil pipeline, even though the explosion had been declared an accident. They had been tortured in detention and forced to make confessions which were broadcast on Iranian television. Their families were informed of the executions after the fact on June 12, 2014. They were not told when the executions had taken place and were forbidden to carry out the usual mourning ceremonies. The Iranian authorities are racing ahead against the global trend that has seen an overall decrease of countries that carry out executions. The U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran has criticized the use of the death penalty in Iran and specifically urged the Iranian government to end the practice of juvenile executions. (source: Elise Auerbach, Amnesty International USA, blog) SRI LANKA: 6 sentenced to death from Tangalle and Kaluthara. The Kalutara and Tangalle High courts passed death penalties on 6 individuals today who were found guilty for 2 murder cases. 2 individuals were given death penalties by the Tangalle high court while giving the verdict of a case where a
