[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----GEORGIA
Sept. 25 GEORGIAimpending female execution Georgia Set to Execute First Woman in 70 Years The state of Georgia is set to execute Kelly Gissendaner next week, on Tuesday September 29. In some ways this case is unusual, even exceptional; in other ways, it's business as usual - especially in a state like Georgia. What makes Kelly Gissendaner's case different? For one thing, she's a woman. Gissendaner is the only woman on Georgia's death row. If she's executed, she'll be the 1st woman put to death by the State of Georgia in 70 years. Another aspect of Kelly Gissendaner's case that is drawing attention is the life she's led since entering death row. She completed a theological degree program while living behind bars in Georgia through Atlanta's prestigious Emory University. She became a minister to other women living in prison with her, and has profoundly impacted the lives of many of them. You can watch the powerful testimony of some of those women here explain how Kelly changed their lives. What's somewhat less unusual - but still noteworthy - is the fact that 2 defendants accused of the same crime received starkly different sentences. One of them is now facing imminent execution while the other may one day walk free. Both Kelly Gissendaner and her co-defendant, Gregory Owen, were offered a sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for 25 years if they pled guilty to the murder of Kelly's husband Douglas Gissendaner. Owen took the deal, but Kelly Gissendaner did not. She went to trial before a jury, which convicted her and sentenced her to death. The thing is, while Kelly Gissendaner has taken full responsibility for her role in the murder of her husband, it was not actually she who stabbed him to death. That was done by Gregory Owen, even if it was Kelly Gissendaner who had initiated the idea. It is not that Gregory Owen should have recieved the death penalty - no one should, regardless of the crime or their culpability, as scores of countries have recognized. But the situation brings to mind what Justice Stephen Breyer wrote in May in his dissent in the recent lethal injection opinion of the US Supreme Court, Glossip v. Gross. Suggesting that the time is now right for the Supreme Court to consider the constitutionality of the death penalty, Justice Breyer recalled how "after considering thousands of death penalty cases and last-minute petitions over the course of more than 20 years. I see discrepancies for which I can find no rational explanations. Why does one defendant who committed a single-victim murder receive the death penalty, while another defendant does not?" When prosecutors and state officials defend the death penalty, they often use the refrain that it's reserved for the "worst of the worst." That's supposed to mean that only the most serious crimes and the most culpable of offenders receive the death penalty and that the system is fair and reliable in this selection process. In reality, a host of other factors can determine who gets sentenced to death: race, class, geography, quality of legal representation, even the political aspirations of official decision-makers can play a role in who is sentenced to live or die in the United States. No one should have their human rights stripped away by the state. Cases like Kelly Gissendaner's illustrate why every person is more than the sum total of their worst actions. Although she participated in a violent crime with very serious consequences, she has gone on to improve the lives of many other women in prison. This has been recognized by many correctional staff who have come into contact with her over the years. Governments are expected to prioritize rehabilitation in their prisons. Here, a prisoner's rehabilitation is about to be met by her eradication. Surely Georgia can do better than that. (source: Amnesty International USA) ___ A service courtesy of Washburn University School of Law www.washburnlaw.edu DeathPenalty mailing list DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty Unsubscribe: http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/options/deathpenalty
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
Sept. 25 NIGERIA: Guilty Boko Haram Members Deserve Death Penalty - Ekhomu InterviewBy Ifeoma Ononye Chairman of Trans-World Security Systems Limited, Dr Ona Ekhomu, is an international security expert. In this interview with Ifeoma Ononye, he explains the advantages and disadvantages of President Buhari's 3 months deadline to the military to end Boko Haram attacks. President Buhari has already clocked 100 days in office. What is your opinion about his ongoing fight against terrorism so far? I think the President's 100 days in office has been very eventful in terms of the war on terror. The President has gone round the world building coalitions. This visits started with the visit to the G7 and then to the United States, Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Benin Republic. In fact, those where his immediate priorities; which was visiting the local neighbours. This way, the President has forged a coalition that perhaps was not there before. Before now, the relationship was more adversarial with these immediate neighbours and those neighbours are very important because they have been traditionally giving sanctuary to Boko Haram fighters. And because of the new rapprochement, Boko Haram fighters are being denied that sanctuary which has been giving them safe haven; after they attack Nigeria they run across the border because the borders are very porous. That has been a very good strategy. That has been a master stroke, but my problem with that has been that BoKo Haram has taken roots in those countries too. When Chad sentenced 10 BoKo Haram fighters to death, nine of them were from Chad, only one was from Nigeria. That shows that the sect has taken roots in those countries. When we say Boko Haram, it is an ideology. It's a group and it's no longer a Nigerian thing anymore. Even as far back as December 2003, when Muhammed Ali converted Mohammed Yusuf (the leader of Boko Haram) to radical Islam. Back then, Yusuf used to be a regular Muslim cleric. But when he was converted to Taliban style conservatism, they adopted the name Boko Haram. They do not want anything to do with Western education because it is sinful and also because westernisation did not lead to wholesale conversion to Islam. Not just Islam but their own brand of Islam, i.e, the fanatical Islam. What I am saying is that even as far back as when Muhammed Ali did his Hijra, i.e, a spiritual movement from a bad place to a good place which is little Afghanistan. Little Afghanistan is a town called Kanama in Yunusari Local Government Area of Yobe State. It is called little Afghanistan because they saw themselves as offspring of the Taliban in Afghanistan. Then they were called Nigerian Talibans or Yobe Talibans. They separated from Boko Haram back then, because Yusuf said that he was not going o fight. Muhammed Ali's Group went and became the Nigerian Talibans and started fighting with the police. The then Governor of Yobe State, Alhaji Bukar Abba Ibrahim, now Senator Abba Ibrahim called out the military and police and fought them, and eventually they were subdued. I was about asking why they were not crushed right from the beginning if this started as far back as 2003? Remember, I said that Yusuf's group which was the Boko Haram group separated from Ali's group that became the Nigerian Talibans then. Boko Haram group stayed back in Maiduguri at the railway quarters and was growing as an organisation. They had their branches and emirs in Niger, Chad and in Cameroon. And they had emirs in almost every state in Nigeria including some places in the south. That is the point I am trying to make. The lesson here is that the seed of fundamentalism has been sown deep a long time ago. Why I am saying all these is that if we are expecting that because President Buhari have stayed 100 days in office and so should solve all the problems of Boko Haram, we are expecting too much. But he has started by building that coalition with neighbouring countries where BoKo Haram has members who are nationals in those countries. My prediction is that this problem is going to continue for a while. In terms of the battle on ground, the new government has sustained the fight that was started by former President Jonathan and the new government has intensified and also changed the fight. The military is getting back some territories that have been taken over by the sect since handover to President Buhari. The shooting war is still ongoing. Why do you think we are still having these pure terror attacks? It is because Boko Haram has gone back to its original method of attacking, which is sneak attack. The reason we are still witnessing these attacks is because we still need to develop a robust programme for counter terrorism. We are still fighting the conventional way which is frontline. We are still fighting the conventional battle whereas we have an asymmetric conflict. We need to look at the nature of this
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., GA., FLA., OHIO, MO., OKLA., NEB.
Sept. 25 TEXAS: Texas Is Making Its Own Execution Drugs, Oklahoma Inmate Alleges Many death penalty states have struggled to obtain a lethal injection drug that Texas has consistently been able to procure. In a filing Thursday in Oklahoma, lawyers provided evidence that Texas sold pentobarbital to Virginia in August. The state of Texas is making its own execution drugs and has sold them to at least 1 other death penalty state, an inmate facing execution in Oklahoma alleges in a court filing Thursday. His attorneys point to documents that show the Texas Department of Criminal Justice sold pentobarbital to Virginia in late August. Pentobarbital is a sedative that many death penalty states, including Oklahoma, have claimed is impossible for them to get their hands on. As a result, some states have turned to midazolam, a drug that critics argue is significantly less effective. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the use of midazolam in executions this June. The records submitted as part of the new filing show that Virginia received 150 milligrams of the drug. Under the heading "Name of Supplier," the Texas Department of Criminal Justice is listed. The labels do not identify the pharmacy that prepared the drug. However, the lawyers for the Oklahoma inmate state that the labels were created by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, which they also allege "is compounding or producing pentobarbital within its department for use in executions." On Friday, Texas confirmed to BuzzFeed News that it sent the execution drugs to Virginia. A spokesman said it was to repay Virginia for having given Texas drugs in the past. "In 2013, the Virginia Department of Corrections gave the Texas Department of Criminal Justice pentobarbital to use as a back up drug in an execution," spokesman Jason Clark said. "Virginia's drugs were not used." "The agency earlier this year was approached by officials in Virginia and we gave them 3 vials of pentobarbital that [were] legally purchased from a pharmacy. The agency has not provided compounded drugs to any other state. Texas law prohibits the TDCJ from disclosing the identity of the supplier of lethal injection drugs." In a statement, the Virginia Department of Corrections said it intended to use the pentobarbital next week. "The Department did recently obtain pentobarbital from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice," spokesperson Lisa Kinney said. "That pentobarbital is scheduled to be used in the Oct. 1 execution of Alfredo Prieto. There was no payment involved." Kinney added that questions about who made the drug would have to be directed to Texas. The lawyers raise these issues to make the argument that Oklahoma could avoid the use of the controversial midazolam drug in its executions. It could do so, they argue, by purchasing pentobarbital from Texas, like Virginia, or by "compounding or producing pentobarbital in the same manner as does TDCJ." States have struggled to obtain execution drugs for years after makers enacted more stringent guidelines to keep them away from states that would use them for executions. The idea of a state-run lab making its own death penalty drugs is something Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster raised last year, although many wondered how it could be done. Missouri, like Texas, has had no trouble obtaining pentobarbital. (source:BuzzFeedNews.com) * Texas shared its execution drugs with Virginia Texas prison officials acknowledged on Friday that they have supplied at least 1 other state with execution drugs - but the original source of those drugs remains shrouded in secrecy. The disclosure came the day after a death-row inmate claimed in court papers that Texas is now making its own lethal injection drugs and had shared vials of them with Virginia. In a statement, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice confirmed it gave three vials of pentobarbital to the Virginia Department of Corrections. "The drugs have been tested for purity and will expire in April 2016," the statement said. "State law prohibits the agency from disclosing the identity of the supplier of lethal injection drugs," it said. Several death penalty states have passed laws to keep the source of their execution chemicals confidential to protect pharmacies that mix them from negative publicity and protests. Defense lawyers say the secrecy rules also prevent inmates from investigating whether the drugs that will be used to kill them are unadulterated. States across the nation have struggled to obtain execution drugs because pharmaceutical companies have been pressured to stop selling them to prisons for lethal injections. Virginia has not executed anyone since the 2013 electrocution of Robert Gleason. Texas, on the other hand, has put to death 10 prisoners this year. The details of its shipment to Virginia were first revealed in a court filing by Richard Glossip, who is
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, VA., TENN., ARK., MO., OKLA., USA
Sept. 25 TEXAS: Execution of mentally ill man serves no greater good Any reasonable debate over the value and efficacy of the death penalty must eventually return to the greater good. Those who support the continued application of capital punishment believe a greater good is served by putting to death the worst of the worst, those whose criminal acts forever brand them as evil beyond redemption. And while recognizing that moral argument, this newspaper disagrees that any greater good can result from a penalty of such irrevocable finality so inconsistently applied. When the life in question is a schizophrenic who demanded to represent himself at trial dressed as a TV cowboy and sought to subpoena the pope, John F. Kennedy and Jesus Christ, where is the point of contention? Scott Panetti has struggled with mental illness for 4 decades. In the 6 years before he shot his estranged wife's parents, Joe and Amanda Alvarado, in Fredericksburg, he was hospitalized more than a dozen times, diagnosed with schizophrenia, delusions and hallucinations. On 1 occasion, he became convinced the devil had possessed his home and buried his furniture in the back yard. Today he believes that prison guards have implanted a listening device in one of his teeth. If the state of Texas puts him to death, as a jury ruled in 1995, he will take his last breath believing it was the end of a plot to silence his allegations of prison corruption and attempts to preach the gospel. Panetti is caught in a fatal Catch-22: He has no money to hire an expert to evaluate his condition, yet the state argues that courts already have rejected his claims and that he's not entitled to funding because he cannot show that he's too mentally ill to face execution. He hasn't been evaluated by a mental health professional in nearly 7 years. A neuropsychologist who reviewed his records pro bono at his lawyers' request concluded that his condition was worsening, exacerbated by age and the stress of living under a death sentence. In what could be his last hope, a panel of 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals justices heard testimony this week and will decide whether to grant his lawyers access to funding that could prove his incompetence. So we're back to that fundamental question: What greater good is served by putting Scott Panetti to death? This newspaper finds common ground with Richard A. Viguerie, speaking for a group of national conservative thought leaders, and Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Tom Price, who dissented from his Republican colleagues on allowing Panetti's execution to go forward. Because no matter where you come down on capital punishment, the evidence in this case is clear: Carrying out this sentence, especially in the absence of a complete and timely mental health evaluation, serves neither deterrence nor retribution. It only diminishes us as a state, as a nation and as a people. There's no greater good in this. No good at all. (source: Editorial, Dallas Morning News) VIRGINIAimpending execution Group asks Virginia Gov. McAuliffe to delay man's execution A group that advocates for people with intellectual disabilities wants Gov. Terry McAuliffe to delay the execution of a man convicted of killing a young couple in Virginia. Alfredo Prieto's attorneys have asked McAuliffe to grant a temporary reprieve of his Oct. 1 execution so he can be transferred to California and assessed on whether he's intellectually disabled. Jamie Liban, executive director of The Arc of Virginia, said in a letter supporting Prieto's request that the group has serious concerns about the upcoming execution. Liban says allowing it to go forward would be "unjustified scientifically." Prieto was already on California's death row for raping and killing a 15-year-old girl when he was sentenced to death in 2010 for the shooting deaths of Rachael Raver and Warren Fulton III. (source: Associated Press) TENNESSEE: Tennessee Supreme Court Sets October Oral Arguments The Tennessee Supreme Court will hear 2 civil cases, 2 Board of Professional Responsibility cases and 1 death penalty case when it sits for oral arguments in Nashville Oct. 1. State v. Howard Hawk Willis - This death penalty case comes to the Supreme Court on a direct appeal. The Supreme Court is required by law to review all death penalty cases. Mr. Willis was convicted of the 2003 murders of a teenage husband and wife near Johnson City and sentenced to death. The defendant, who represented himself at trial after changing lawyers multiple times, has raised 20 issues on appeal for the Court to consider regarding his conviction and sentence. Oral arguments, which are open to the public, begin at 9 a.m. CDT at the Supreme Court building, 401 7th Ave, N., Nashville. (source: The Chattanoogan) *** TN Supreme Court to review Howard Hawk Willis' death penalty case Oct. 1 The
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
Sept. 25 SAUDI ARABIA: Parents of Saudi Juvenile Set for 'Crucifixion' Plead for Mercy, Amid UK and US Silence The family of a juvenile sentenced to 'crucifixion' in Saudi Arabia have appealed to the Saudi authorities to spare him, as pressure mounts on the US and the UK to intervene. Speaking to AFP, Mohamed al-Nimr said he hoped the King would save his son, student Ali al-Nimr, who was 17 when he was arrested in 2012 in the wake of protests in the Eastern Province. Ali was tortured into signing a false 'confession', which was then used to convict him, and it emerged last week that the unusually harsh sentence had recently been upheld without Ali's knowledge. With legal avenues now exhausted, Ali could be executed at any moment, with no prior notification of his family. Mr al-Nimr said "we hope that the king will not sign" the execution order for his son. The appeal comes as the UK and the US - strong allies of the Saudi government - faced questions on their failure to speak out about the case. Questioned yesterday by AP, US State Department spokesman Mark C Toner refused to say he'd welcome a commutation of the sentence, saying that he was "not aware of the case." The UK government has so far limited itself to a brief statement last week that "We continue to raise our human rights concerns with the Saudi authorities, including their use of the death penalty." The Ministry of Justice has also faced criticism after it indicated that it would continue with an ongoing bid to provide prison services to the Saudi government. In contrast, the French government yesterday joined UN experts in calling for the death sentence to be commuted, because Ali was a juvenile at the time of his arrest. The French Foreign Ministry said it was "concerned by the situation of Ali Mohammed al-Nimr, who was sentenced to death even though he was a minor at the time of the events [...] We call for the execution to be called off." The group of independent United Nations human rights experts on Tuesday asked the Saudi authorities "to immediately halt the scheduled execution", and to ensure a "fair retrial" of Ali. Commenting, Maya Foa, director of Reprieve's death penalty team, said: "Saudi Arabia's plans to behead and crucify Ali al-Nimr, a juvenile, for attending a protest are an outrage - the French government and UN experts are right to be calling for it to be cancelled. It's deeply troubling that the UK and the US - both close allies of the Saudi government - are staying silent. The international community must stand firm against this utterly unjustified sentence, and call on the Saudi authorities to change course." (source: commondreams.org) ** US expresses 'deep concern' over Saudi death row youth The United States expressed alarm on Thursday over the case of a Saudi Arabian who was sentenced to death for his alleged role in anti-government protests as a teenager. Saudi Arabia is a close ally of the United States, but State Department spokesman John Kirby said Washington was "deeply concerned" about the case of Ali Mohammed al-Nimr. The United States, where the death penalty is used in several states, did not condemn the sentence itself, but echoed the growing international outcry over the young man's trial and failed appeal. "We are deeply concerned by the case of al-Nimr, who was sentenced to death although he was a minor at the time or his arrest, and by allegations that his sentence was based on a confession made under duress," Kirby said. "We call on the government of Saudi Arabia to respect universal human rights and its international obligations to ensure fair and transparent judicial proceedings that afford requisite fair trial and safeguards in this and on all cases." Ali al-Nimr, a manner of Saudi Arabia's Shiite minority, was a 17-year-old schoolboy in 2012 when he joined an Arab Spring-style pro-reform protest in Qatif in the eastern part of the kingdom. He was sentenced to death for allegedly belonging to an illegal organization and his last appeal failed recently, leaving him facing execution, probably by decapitation. Earlier this week, a panel of United Nations legal experts complained that his appeal was been handled "with a complete disregard for international standards." "Any judgment imposing the death penalty upon persons who were children at the time of the offense, and their execution, are incompatible with Saudi Arabia's international obligations," the UN experts said. The UN panel said 134 people have already been executed in the kingdom this year, 44 more than in the whole of last year. In August, Amnesty international reported that at least 2,208 people were executed between January 1985 and June 2015 in Saudi Arabia, nearly half of them foreigners. Ali al-Nimr's father Mohammed al-Nimr has called on Saudi Arabia's King Salman, who was received with great pomp this month at the White
