[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
June 23 IRAN: Iranian stars campaign to save lives of convicts on death row Celebrities in Iran have joined a campaign to save the lives of convicts on death row, encouraging forgiveness in a country that has one of the world's highest records of executions. Public figures including Shahab Hosseini, who won the best actor award at this year's Cannes film festival, have thrown their weight behind efforts to persuade families of victims to choose forgiveness over retribution. Reports from inside Iran show that an increasing number of Iranians held on murder charges are being spared the gallows as the nationwide campaign gains traction. According to the Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR), which documents Iran's use of the death penalty, the number of people whose lives were saved last year after being pardoned outnumbered those who were known to have been put to death for murder. Iran's Islamic penal code allows the victim's heir - walli-ye-dam - to personally execute the condemned under qisas (retribution) laws, in some cases even by pushing away the chair the convict is standing on. The same law also allows families to pardon the convict, often in exchange for a financial compensation known as diyah. A recent event at Tehran's Koroush cinema, which was aimed at raising money for the families who are trying to secure a pardon, attracted big numbers with the likes of Hosseini attending. Also among the crowd were actor Mahtab Keramanti and the country's vice-president for women's affairs, Shahindokht Molaverdi. Nearly 60,000 pounds was raised and at least 1 attendee donated her earrings. Although the convicts in such cases are facing death because of murder or complicity in the crime, activists say people are showing sympathy because they favour forgiveness. Some, but not all, of such prisoners are women who have killed their husbands but activists say they were themselves victims of domestic violence. Others include juvenile offenders who have committed crimes under the age of 18, usually in a street brawl. Maryam Osoli and Sahar Mehabadi are both out of prison after being pardoned in recent months, according to activists. "This is a welcomed phenomenon," Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, an activist from the IHR, told the Guardian on the sidelines of 6th World Congress Against the Death Penalty in Oslo. "People, where they have the possibility, choose forgiveness instead of death penalty." He added: "Traditionally families of murder victims are encouraged to choose retribution, but here they say no to retribution and refuse to take the responsibility of taking another life. You can see an increasing trend where more people choose forgiveness than retribution." Some Islamic scholars have highlighted that while Qur'an allows qisas, it also encourages forgiveness. In 1 prison, at least the lives of 6 women have been spared in the past 6 months because activists have been successful in persuading families to accept the diyah. But countrywide numbers are believed to be much higher. Under the Iranian law, the woman's blood money is only half that of a man, but earlier this year Iran approved a law making the blood money equal for both men and women in cases involving car accidents. The usual diyah is around 1.9bn rials (38,000 pounds) for unintentional killings but some families ask for much higher in other cases. In 2015, at least 262 people on death row for murder were forgiven in Iran compared to 207 convicts executed for such crimes, according to the IHR. Although the history of people showing forgiveness is not new, many activists say a recent incident was a turning point in significantly increasing such pardons last year: in April 2014, an Iranian mother spared the life of a young man who had killed his son at last minute in an extraordinary episode that drew the world's attention and also appeared on the front page of this newspaper. Despite this, Iran is still among the world's top countries with the most executions because despite pardons in cases involving murder, drug-related executions have continued to surge. In most cases in Iran people put to death for drug offences. Madyar Samienejad, an Oslo-based human rights defender, appreciated efforts to save the convicts from the gallows but struck a cautious tone, saying that the ultimate change should come from a change in the law. "In some cases, families are demanding very unreasonable amounts of money for financial compensation in order to pardon the convict and this is not a culture that should become the norm. Only a change in the legislation can guarantee that we would ultimately see a country without death penalty." Last year, Iran executed nearly 1,000 people, which was more than any other country apart from China. Executions in Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia accounted for 89% of the total known executions worldwide in 2015. In first 6 months of this year,
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----CALIF.
June 23 CALIFORNIA: Public defender demands DA's recusal The man accused of killing an Exeter toddler has been behind bars for the last 5 years. In August, a jury will decide if that's where Christopher Cheary will stay. A jury trial has been set for Aug. 22 in Department 5 of Tulare County Superior Court. Cheary is charged with the gruesome death of a 3-year-old child, Sophia Acosta. There are also special allegations that he committed forcible lewd acts on the child, which contributed to her death. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. Cheary was in court on Tuesday where his public defender argued against a motion, filed by prosecutors, to reveal the names of additional subpoenaed witnesses. "At this point we have disclosed all the witnesses we intend to call." Supervising Attorney Angela Krueger said. "We don't think we need to call those witnesses." The defense will release witness names in a timely manner if they are subpoenaed, she said. "This completely undermines the whole concept of a fair trial for the people," Assistant District Attorney David Alavezos said. "If they intend to call a witness they have to disclose that witness." Judge Joseph A. Kalashian denied the motion by the district attorney. "I'm relying on your representation of good faith," Kalashian told the defense. At a hearing today, the defense will argue that due to the district attorney's office involvement at a bench dedication made in Sophia's honor, the DA's office should recuse itself from the case. Additionally, they are requesting the judge toss the possible death penalty sentence, if convicted, and change the venue of the trial to a different county. "The District Attorney's continued participation in this trial is compromised by its participation in the Farmersville rally," court documents stated. In April, the Tulare County Child Abuse Prevention Council held a bench dedication in Farmersville in memory of Sophia and all children of abuse. The Council invited a number of public officials including District Attorney Tim Ward, who spoke during the dedication. "Because of constitutional violations in this case, the court should preclude the death penalty," the motion filed by the public defender stated. However, the prosecution is arguing there is no evidence of misconduct in this case. "District Attorney Tim Ward attended the event in support of Child Abuse Awareness Month," court documents stated. "He did not mention Sophia." --Officers arrived at an Exeter apartment complex in the 800 block of west Visalia Road on May 7, 2011. There they found 3 people - Sophia's mother Erica Smith, Cheary and a neighbor. --Sophia dies at Children's Hospital Central California, May 11 from internal brain hemorrhage and other injuries. --An autopsy showed that the child died from blunt force trauma to the head. Reports also showed the child was sexually assaulted prior to her head being hit. --Formal charges were filed by the district attorney's office against Cheary on June 1, 2011. If convicted, Cheary is facing the death penalty. (source: Visalia Times Delta) ___ 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----PENNSYLVANIA
Hello everyone, I recently came across a very good article in the George Washington Law Review about the case of Williams v. Pennsylvania. On June 9 the U. S. Supreme Court ruled that a death row prisoner’s due process rights were violated when Ronald Castille, the Chief Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, refused to recuse himself from an appeal in the case. Castille had been Philadelphia District Attorney at the time of the defendant’s trial, and had approved the decision to seek the death penalty. There were also issues of prosecutorial misconduct and ineffective defense counsel in the case. The article is a little long, but well worth reading. I have made some minor edits and removed all but one footnote. It follows below. All the best, Tom Benner Indiana Abolition Coalition (IAC) Board Member and Treasurer *** George Washington Law Review (Commentary) Williams v. Pennsylvania: Justice Doesn’t Just Happen By Robin Maher, June 13, 2016 The extraordinary facts in Williams v. Pennsylvania read like a Hollywood movie script. On one side was the prosecutor-turned-judge who sat in judgment of a defendant whose death sentence he had personally authorized years earlier. On the other side was a poor African-American kid from Philadelphia, sentenced to death at age eighteen for killing the pedophile who had been abusing him since he was thirteen. It would have been a lopsided mismatch, but for the defense lawyers in Williams’ corner. Their diligent efforts found evidence of prosecutorial misconduct so serious that it halted his execution just hours before he was scheduled to die. That is, until the prosecutor-turned-judge voted to reinstate the death sentence he had sought thirty years earlier. It would be hard to believe if it weren’t all true. Williams’s story began in a poor neighborhood of Philadelphia, where violence and abuse were the norm. His mother was an alcoholic who frequently targeted Williams for horrific beatings and public humiliation. His stepfather was an angry drunk who often beat Williams and his mother. Williams’s traumatic childhood made him an easy target for sexual predators; he was first raped when he was just six years old, the first of many sexual assaults by older men. In 1984, after suffering years of abuse, 18-year-old Williams killed Amos Norwood, a 56-year-old man who had been raping him since the age of 13. Williams was charged with capital murder. As Philadelphia District Attorney, Ronald Castille had ultimate responsibility for any capital prosecution decision. When his subordinates sought his authorization to seek the death penalty, he approved their request with a handwritten note. At trial, prosecutors told the jury that Williams had killed Norwood simply because Norwood had offered him a ride home. Williams’ defense lawyers, whom he first met the night before the trial began, did no investigation and offered little by way of a defense. Williams was sentenced to death. The jury never learned of his abuse by Norwood nor of his tragic upbringing. Castille eventually set his sights on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. He stood for election on the backs of the 45 men he had “sent to death row” while district attorney. “Voters,” he explained in a 1993 campaign interview, “care most about crime.” Asked what his position on the death penalty would be if elected judge, Castille pointed to the number of defendants sentenced to death under his leadership as District Attorney. One can imagine Castille giving a broad wink as he assured the reporter that voters will “sort of get the hint.” Twenty-eight years after being sentenced to death, Williams was only days from an execution date when his new lawyers discovered evidence that the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania had kept hidden for decades: prosecutors had secretly rewarded the false testimony of the key witness who testified against Williams at trial. (see footnote) They also found notes in the prosecution’s file that proved that the prosecution knew the victim had sexually abused young boys, but had deliberately kept that information from the jury. Almost unnoticed among the boxes of documents was Castille’s handwritten note authorizing death for Williams. Presented with this newly discovered evidence, a Philadelphia trial court issued a stinging indictment of the prosecution’s conduct and vacated Williams’s death sentence. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania quickly appealed the decision to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, where prosecutors had reason to feel optimistic: Ronald Castille was now Chief Justice. Williams’s defenders asked Castille to recuse himself from considering the appeal because of his previous involvement in the case. But Castille summarily dismissed the request, refusing even to refer the recusal motion to the full court. When Castille and the rest of Pennsylvania Supreme Court
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
June 23 INDIA: Prez rejects mercy plea of 2 convicts of Jharkhand massacre The mercy plea of 2 convicts, who killed 8 members of a family including a physically disabled youth in Jharkhand nearly 9 years ago, has been rejected by President Pranab Mukherjee. The President has rejected the plea of the convicts-- Mofil Khan and Mobarak Khan, officials said today. The duo had in June 2007 killed Haneef Khan with sharp-edged weapons when he was offering prayers at a mosque in Makandu village under Lohardaga district in the state. After killing him, they murdered his wife and his 6 sons which included the disabled youth. A case was registered by the local police against Mofil and Mobarak and 2 other assailants. Following the probe, a local court there had given death sentence to all the accused. However, the Jharkhand High Court had upheld death penalty to Mofil and Mubarak and modified the sentence to life term for the 2 others. The Supreme Court in its final judgement in October 2014 also upheld the death penalty given to the convicts. A mercy petition was then filed before the President through the Home Ministry. The plea, which was received in December last year at the Presidents secretariat, seeking mercy has been rejected by Mukherjee, they said. After taking over as the President in July 2012, Mukherjee has rejected 26 mercy pleas so far including those of 26/11 terror case convict Ajmal Kasab and 1993 blast case convict Yakub Memon. The death sentence in 2 cases has been commuted to life by the President. 2 mercy petitions of Jeetendra Gehlaut alias Jeetu, convicted for killing 5 women and 2 children during a robbery in Maharashtra, and Shabnam, who was convicted for killing 7 members of her family at Amroha in Uttar Pradesh, are pending with the President. (source: India Today) JAPAN: Death penalty sought for man over deaths of 2 women Prosecutors sought the death penalty Wednesday at the Nagoya District Court for a man charged with murdering a woman in 2011, and causing his girlfriend's death in 2009. The death penalty was sought for Keiji Hayashi, 43, in a lay judge trial over the murder of restaurant worker Madoka Morioka, 27, in Aichi Prefecture in central Japan in November 2011, and causing his girlfriend Eri Asano, 26, to kill herself in July 2009. "The crimes are extremely atrocious as he used the victims to gratify his desire and did not treat (each of) them as a person," the prosecutors said. Hayashi is charged with murder, injury resulting in death and other charges. The court is slated to hand down its ruling on July 15. According to the indictment, Hayashi allegedly murdered Morioka by strangling her to death with his hands because he believed she was obstructing him from becoming intimate with another female worker at the restaurant where Morioka worked. He then abandoned Morioka's body in Lake Kuzuryu in Fukui Prefecture, also in central Japan. Hayashi is also charged with compelling Asano to strangle herself with a chain at his home in Gifu Prefecture. Asano died of suffocation, the indictment said. The defense counsel has accepted almost all the charges in the indictment, but said Asano strangled herself "of her own will." The prosecutors said Hayashi treated his girlfriend "like a slave," and because he had such strong control over her, he did not leave her with any option other than strangling herself. Defense lawyers have also argued that the defendant and his accomplice, Tomoyuki Watanabe, 38, who is serving a 14-year prison sentence for murdering Morioka, had planned the murder of Morioka together. But Watanabe has testified that Hayashi alone planned the murder and he could not refuse to participate because he thought Hayashi would kill him. (source: Japan Today) CHINA: port: China still harvesting organs from prisoners at a massive scale A new report claims that China is still engaged in the widespread and systematic harvesting of organs from prisoners, and says that people whose views conflict with the ruling Chinese Communist Party are being murdered for their organs. The report -- by former Canadian lawmaker David Kilgour, human rights lawyer David Matas, and journalist Ethan Gutmann -- collates publicly reported figures from hospitals across China to show what they claim is a massive discrepancy between official figures for the number of transplants carried out throughout the country. They blame the Chinese government, the Communist Party, the health system, doctors and hospitals for being complicit. "The (Communist Party) says the total number of legal transplants is about 10,000 per year. But we can easily surpass the official Chinese figure just by looking at the two or three biggest hospitals," Matas said in a statement. The report estimates that 60,000 to 100,000 organs are transplanted each year in Chinese hospitals. According to the report, that gap is
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
June 23 CANADA: Marking the 40th anniversary of the end of the death penalty Wednesday marks the 40th anniversary of the House of Commons vote to abolish the death penalty in Canada. The final execution in Halifax took place in 1935. Daniel Sampson was arrested and charged with the murder of 2 young brothers who had been beaten to death near what's now the Armdale Rotary. Sampson's execution followed a lengthy legal battle, including a new trial. He was visited by his mother the day before the execution, and reportedly signed a confession on his way to the gallows, admitting that he killed the 2 brothers. But he said it was because they were tormenting him. Some believe that torment continues to this day. "As I understand it, when janitors and other staff walk through there, they just get a very odd, creepy feeling - particularly in the attic area," said Halifax ghost tour operator Andy Smith. The Nova Scotia Archives has a few pictures of the actual gallows, which stood in what's now the back parking lot. For decades, rumours have persisted about what happened next. "After the hangings ended, they took the gallows down and some of the wood that was used was placed in the courthouse building," said Smith. Old court records are stored in the attic of the Nova Scotia Courthouse, but no sign of the gallows. "We've had many people ask that same question," said court administrator Tanya Pellow. "We have looked for it, and never found any wood." But perhaps for a place so steeped in history, such a tale is entirely appropriate - adding another layer of mystique in an impressive and imposing place. (source: ctvnews.ca) BANGLADESH: 5 get death for killing lawyer in Gazipur A Gazipur Court sentenced 5 people to death penalty for killing lawyer Firozuzzaman Sohel in 2008. Judge M Fazle Elahi Bhuiyan of Gazipur Additional and Session Judge Court handed down the verdict on Thursday noon. The court also fined Tk 10,000 each. The death-row convicts are one Abudur Rauf's wife Amena Begum, 53, a tenant of Rafiqul Islam`s house of Madha Chhayabithi area of the district, and his 3 sons- Sajal, 28, Tithi 31, and Bappi, 33, and Badal, son of Kafil Uddin Master of Fulbaria village of Kapasia upazila. Abdur Rauf hailed from Madhya Madanpura of Baufal upazila of Potuakhali. Assistant Public Prosecutor (APP) of Gazipur Court Ataur Rahman said the convicts killed apprentice lawyer Firozuzzaman Shohel over previous enmity. After the incident, deceased's father Sohrab Uddin Vandari filed a murder case with Joydevpur Police Station, he added. (source: businessnews24bd.com) IRAQ: KRG to execute 7 prepetrators of 2014 Erbil bomb attack A court in Erbil sentenced s7 members of Islamic State (ISIS) to death and sentenced 5 others to life in prison for their role in the car bomb attack against the Erbil Governorate building in November 2014, the Kurdistan Security Council announced on Wednesday. "The criminals were directly involved in planning and carrying out the attack and were members of Daesh (ISIS) and also carried out several other attacks in the city of Kirkuk, the statement said. The car bomb attack carried out at noon on November 19th 2014 killed 4 people and wounded at least 29 others. Bomb attacks in the Kurdish capital of Erbil are rare, but occur almost on a daily basis in Baghdad, primarily in Shiite-majority areas, such as Sadr City. (source: rudaw.net) IRAN: Call to halt execution of 2 prisoners in western Iran On Wednesday, June 22, coinciding with a visit by the Iranian regime's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif to France and the Netherlands, and simultaneous with the global conference against the death penalty with the participation of more than 90 countries in Oslo, officials of the mullahs' regime in Iran have sent 2 prisoners by the names of Farzad Bizhani and Farhad Souri in Sanandaj Prison (western Iran) to solitary confinement in preparation for their executions. On this very day the criminal public prosecutor in the city of Mashhad (northeastern Iran) requested hand amputation verdicts for 3 prisoners accused of robbery (state Tabnak website - June 22). Continuous executions, torture and floggings even during the holy month of Ramadan, considered amongst Muslims in Iran and all Islamic countries as a month of tolerance, kindness and benevolence, brings an end to the myth of moderation within the religious, fascist regime ruling Iran that cannot even temporary halt these crimes for a few days to merely save face. The Iranian Resistance calls for measures to save the lives of the 2 prisoners on the brink of execution and to prevent a verdict and implementation of hand amputation for the three inmates in Mashhad Prison. The Iranian Resistance also calls on all international humanitarian organizations to condemn these inhumane crimes. Furthermore, the international community is urged
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN., PENN. FLA., ALA., LA.
June 23 TEXAS: Death Watch: New Rodney Reed FilingDeath row inmate's lawyers seek retrial Attorneys for death row inmate Rodney Reed have filed a supplement to the Feb. 2015 brief seeking a retrial on his death penalty case, arguing that new evidence has come their way that further indicates that Reed is not responsible for the April 1996 murder of Stacey Stites. The brief, filed June 7 to the Court of Criminal Appeals and Reed's trial court in Bastrop, points to a conflicting detail in the timeline of former Giddings Police Officer Jimmy Fennell, Stites' fiance and the man Reed defenders believe is actually responsible for killing Stites. Since Fennell first gave his official statement to police 2 days after Stites' body was found, the understanding was that he spent the night of April 22 at home with his fiancee - beginning at 8pm or 8:30 - and that he slept through her early morning departure for work at H-E-B. (Fennell testified in court to this chronology, as well.) But according to a recent interview with Curtis L. Davis - a Bastrop County Sheriff's deputy who at the time was one of Fennell's best friends - Fennell told Davis that he spent the night of April 22 drinking beer with fellow police officers by his truck after Little League baseball practice. Davis said Fennell told him the next morning that he didn't return home to Stites until 10 or 11 o'clock that night. Reed's lead counsel, Innocence Project attorney Bryce Benjet, explained in the 19-page brief that Davis revealed this conflicting detail during an April interview with CNN. The network is currently producing a special for its show Death Row Stories about Reed's case and the efforts to save his life. (Indeed, the Chronicle was in Living???ston, where death row inmates are housed, when CNN's crew interviewed Reed.) Benjet wrote that he had not been aware of the interview until one of CNN's producers asked Benjet to comment "about certain statements made by Officer Davis." He said that a producer of the show allowed him and an assistant to view "portions of the interview with Officer Davis and to briefly review a transcript of the entire interview." CNN declined to release a copy of the interview or the transcript for use with the filing. Benjet expects the "relevant portions" of the recording to be part of the special when it airs. A representative for CNN told the Chronicle that there is currently no airdate for the episode. Benjet argues that Fennell's conflicting chronologies concerning how he spent the evening before Stites' murder further represents evidence of Fennell's consciousness of guilt, and that the notion of his drinking well into the night on April 22 would put him out of his and Stites' apartment at a time that 3 forensic pathologists have concluded was the actual time that Stites was killed. The state's theory holds that Stites was abducted by Reed and killed on her way to work on April 23, around 3am. Reed's Feb. 2015 petition for a retrial was rooted in the scientific conclusion that Stites actually died before midnight, on April 22, and that her body was moved from one location to another after she had been killed. The 2015 filing also notes that Davis accompanied Fennell through much of what the state accepts to be his discovery process of his red pickup truck after the murder, and notes how Davis signed out of a 12-hour work shift on April 22 after only 1 hour because of what he described as a "broken tooth." Davis then spent the next 3 days away from work on leave for a "personal death." The filing further notes how there is no documentation of any attempt by the police to interview Davis or otherwise establish whether he could have driven Jimmy Fennell home after dispensing of Stites and the truck. The idea that Fennell was providing conflicting statements in the aftermath of Stites' murder aligns with six other instances listed by Benjet in the initial 2015 application for a rehearing. Benjet also implies that Fennell provided false testimony during trial, and that the state's failure to provide this information on trial constitutes a violation of due process under Brady v. Maryland. (Fennell is currently serving a 10-year prison sentence that began in 2008 after he accepted a plea deal on charges that he raped a woman while on duty as a police officer in nearby Georgetown.) "In this case, the State failed to disclose Fennell's inconsistent statement as to his whereabouts on the night of April 22, 1996," Benjet wrote. "Even though the trial prosecutors may not have been aware of what Officer Davis learned from Fennell, Officer Davis was a Bastrop County Sheriff's Officer. And the [BCSO] was the lead agency investigating Stacey's murder. Accordingly, Officer Davis' knowledge of what Fennell told him is imputed to the State." Reed most recently faced an execution date of March 5, 2015, but saw his execution stayed 2 weeks
