[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
Oct. 4 IRAN: Iran, Which Executed Nearly 1,000 Last Year, Considers Cutting Back Iran, which puts more people to death every year than any other country in the world but China, is debating a measure that could significantly cut the number of executions, local news outlets reported on Tuesday. But the bill seems certain to face considerable opposition from hard-liners in the judiciary. A newly installed Parliament, thought to be more liberal than its predecessor but, until now, unwilling to take any unorthodox steps, is considering a bill that would abolish the death penalty for drug smugglers, who account for a large majority of those executed. While the government does not release figures on capital punishment, the local news media said that 950 people had been hanged in 2015. Human rights groups say the total could have been as high as 1,500, and the United Nations put the number at nearly 1,000. Possession of as little as 30 grams of heroin is enough under Iranian law to face execution by hanging. Nevertheless, drug addiction and smuggling are rampant, officials acknowledge. "We want to eliminate the death penalty for those criminals who act out of desperation," Yahya Kamalpour, a reformist lawmaker, told the semiofficial ISNA news agency. "We need a scientific and not an emotional approach to this problem." In a sign of changing attitudes toward capital punishment, public hangings have become rare, and those that do take place are usually sparsely attended. Representatives of the conservative judiciary have signaled that they will resist any effort to change Iran's penal code, which they believe reflects Islamic values and culture. They emphasize that these values supersede even universal human rights and cannot be changed. Anticipating the bill's introduction, the head of the judiciary, Sadegh Larijani, called criticism of capital punishment "inappropriate." Speaking with the semiofficial Fars news agency last week, he said, "If the judiciary had not taken a tough stance, the situation would have been very bad, and drugs would have been available even at traditional medicine stores." Even if it were to win approval from the Parliament, the bill would still need to be confirmed by the Guardian Council, which is dominated by hard-liners. The position of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the last word on such changes, is unclear. Conservatives said they doubted that the measure could survive the determined opposition of the judiciary. "Be sure they won't accept such a bill when the judiciary opposes it," said Hamidreza Taraghi, an analyst with strong ties to the hard-line faction. "The only wish of the parliamentarians is to please the West." The proposal is one of the first provocative plans to emerge from the new Parliament, which was installed in August after elections in May. Although no political faction holds a majority, the consensus was that the influence of hard-liners on the assembly was not as strong as it had been. (source: New York Times) MALAYSIA: Let us pause to focus on how to end crime, not lives I became opposed to the death penalty when I realised that many desperately poor people are being sentenced to death for drugs, that these were not crimes of malicious intent, but rather crimes of desperation, and that this penalty does not address the problem which it originally intended to address: problematic drug use and societal instability. Currently we have 1,064people on death row for drug-related offences. They are on death row even though there is a growing recognition that their execution will not reduce the amount of drugs on the street. We know that because many executions have taken place already in the region. None have resulted in a fall off in drug use. On the contrary, data from the Indonesian Drug User Network (known by its Indonesian acronym PKNI) shows that after the 1st and 2nd wave of executions due to drug trafficking, drug use actually spiked. The fact is, overwhelmingly, those sentenced to death for drug related offences are not running the drug business, and in the larger scheme of things, their execution has no impact on reducing the drug problems we face. We know their socio-economic status because as part of my work with Harm Reduction International four or five years ago, I collected data on the names, ages and employment status of the people sentenced to death for drugs in Malaysia. They sell vegetables at wet markets; they are car mechanics, food hawkers, or unemployed persons. You don't see the sons or daughters of millionaires being arrested for drug trafficking, nor persons gainfully employed as doctors, lawyers, academics. That's not because people such people do not use or sell drugs, but because arresting them would result in more complications than arresting low-level street suppliers and drug mules. Like law enforcement agents, the
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----N.MEX., UTAH, ARIZ., CALIF., ORE., USA
Oct. 4 NEW MEXICO: After few revisions, death penalty bill heads to full House Republican lawmakers took another step Monday night towards reinstating the death penalty in New Mexico. Members of the House Finance and Appropriations Committee voted 8-6 along party lines to send the capital punishment legislation to a vote of the full 70-member House of Representatives. House Bill 7 would allow the death penalty in cases involving the murder of a child, a police officer or a corrections officer. The bill largely mirrors a capital punishment statute that legislators repealed in 2009. As lawmakers wrangled with the bill and its potential costs, some committee members questioned the legislation's clarity and whether it could withstand court challenges. "It doesn't feel like it was well thought out to me," said Rep. Doreen Gallegos, D-Las Cruces. The co-sponsor, Rep. Monica Youngblood, R-Albuquerque, offered a dozen changes Monday night in response to criticism that the bill contained outdated language and other provisions that might be unconstitutional. For example, the amendment replaced the term "mentally retarded," with "intellectual disability." But advocates for people with disabilities said Monday the legislation still might not stand up in court. Youngblood's bill originally said inmates would be considered "retarded" if they have an IQ below 70. But in 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court prohibited using a specific IQ number to determine whether an inmate can be executed and required an individualized evaluation instead. "The courts have made clear you have to dig a bit deeper," said Jim Jackson, chief executive officer of Disability Rights New Mexico. His organization does not have a position on the death penalty but has raised concerns about how the proposed bill would be applied to people with disabilities. The group has argued, for example, that the bill does not have an adequate process to determine whether an inmate has a mental illness that might prohibit execution. Youngblood's amendment also allowed the state to change the drugs it uses in executions. Rather than specifying the state would use an "ultra-short-acting barbiturate in combination with a chemical paralytic agent,' the amendment would only require a "substance" in "a quantity sufficient to cause death." The change would allow the state to carry out an execution if the previously used drugs are no longer available. New Mexico Corrections Department procedures for execution include sodium pentothal, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride - widely used among states with the death penalty. But some of those states have had difficulty obtaining those drugs in recent years as opponents of the death penalty have pressured manufacturers to stop selling them for use in executions. Youngblood also proposed changing the bill to keep the identities of executioners confidential. And in another change, Youngblood eliminated part of the process for determining whether a woman sentenced to death is pregnant. The bill Youngblood initially proposed with Rep. Andy Nu???ez, R-Hatch, called for doctors accompanied by a judge to examine the woman in a court. "It's like we woke up in the 1950s," said Steven Allen, director of public policy for the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico. Allen and many Democrats in the state House have argued the Legislature should not try to craft and pass death penalty legislation during a short special session but wait to take up the issue during the regular 60-day session starting in January. "We are discussing a bill of life or death," Rep. Jeff Steinborn, D-Las Cruces, said during Monday's committee hearing. "This warrants extreme, intelligent, thorough deliberation." But Youngblood and others supporting the bill have argued that much of the measure's language was tried and tested before the death penalty was repealed in 2009. "This is a statute that worked in New Mexico previously," said Dianna Luce, district attorney of Lea, Chaves and Eddy counties. Luce said designing a totally new law would create "unknowns" in future appeals. Typically concerned with the costs of legislation, the House Appropriations and Finance Committee spent much of its hearing grappling with differing calculations of the cost of reinstating capital punishment for a limited number of cases. Attorneys from the Law Offices of the Public Defender said death penalty cases would strain defense lawyers and prosecutors alike while sapping even more resources from the state's courts. But prosecutors argued murder cases are already labor and resource intensive, suggesting the additional costs of death penalty cases would be insubstantial. Legislative staffers wrote in a financial analysis that the bill would cost at least $2 million a year within the next 3 years. But Youngblood said the analysis inflated the costs based on a miscalculation
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
Oct. 4 INDONESIA: Death row prisoners in limbo in Indonesia after unexplained stay of execution A condemned Pakistani man has spoken of his suffering as his life remains in limbo more than 2 months after he was mysteriously spared from an Indonesian firing squad. Garment trader Zulfiqar Ali was among 14 convicted drug offenders slated to be executed on April 29 as part of Indonesia's so-called "war on drugs". But 10 prisoners, including Mr Ali, were given a last-minute stay of execution for reasons never explained by the Indonesian government. "I am in darkness until now," Mr Ali told Fairfax Media via his lawyer. "I am suffering for a long time and still this is a time of suffering for me." Mr Ali was arrested on drug trafficking charges in 2004 after an Indian acquaintance, Gurdip Singh, named him as the owner of 300 grams of heroin. An internal probe into Mr Ali's case, ordered by the Indonesian government, found he was a victim of conspiracy and likely to be innocent. The investigation by then director-general of human rights Hafid Abbas, which found evidence of human rights violations and abuse of power at all levels, was ignored by former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. "I have sent a very strong letter to President Jokowi 3 days ago and strongly advised the president to immediately provide clemency to Zulfiqar Ali," Dr Hafid, who is now a commissioner with the National Commission for Human Rights told Fairfax Media. However a spokesman for the Attorney-General, Muhammad Rum, said the executions would still be carried out. "The plan is still on, it was only postponed," he told Fairfax Media. "We haven't decided on the time." Since his death was mysteriously postponed, Mr Ali, who has cirrhosis, has been ferried between hospital and a jail on Nusakambangan, the island where Indonesia carries out its executions. He and another of the condemned prisoners, Indonesian Merri Utami, have repeatedly asked to be transferred back to the jails where they were incarcerated prior to July's executions. Ms Utami, whom supporters say was a victim of human trafficking, has been kept in an isolation cell at a jail in Cilacap, the closest town to Nusakambangan. "She is in isolation 24/7 except for 2 hours of church time each week," her lawyer, Afif Abdul Oyim told Fairfax Media. "Her daughter spoke to her and told us her health has been impacted by the isolation. Emotionally, she is still traumatised by the execution day. Sometimes she will hear her cell doors opening, like the one she heard during execution night. She has no activities all day in isolation. It adds to the stress." But Mr Rum said the 9 male prisoners would remain on Nusakambangan and Ms Utami would stay at the women's jail in Cilacap. "They are already there, so they stay there," he said. Mr Ali's wife, Siti Rohani, is worried this means her husband will be taken away from her again soon. "We are hearing there is going to be another round of executions by the end of the year," she said. Mr Ali said he was forced to confess to the heroin after being tortured by police: "They beat me like an animal. They showed me we will shoot you with a gun. Many things they did to me. They didn't allow me to talk to my embassy and talk to my lawyer." He was sentenced to death in June 2005 even though the prosecution had only demanded life imprisonment. Dr Hafid said the sentencing was shortly after the arrest of the Bali 9 on drug smuggling charges. "There was emotion in Indonesian society at that time that narcotics cases should be punished much more." He said he had provided four main reasons why Indonesian president Joko Widodo should grant clemency. These included that Gurdip Singh had recanted his allegations of Mr Ali's involvement, Mr Ali had been in hospital the day the prosecution alleged he had bought the heroin, prosecutors had only requested a jail sentence and another accomplice had received a much lighter sentence. Former president Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie also wrote to Mr Joko asking that he save Mr Ali's life. But the couple have been told nothing officially of Mr Ali's fate since the night of the July 29 executions when he was asked what he wanted done with his remains. "They asked me in front of my wife, in front of my children, where do you want to be buried?," Mr Ali said. "[They said] better you are buried in Indonesia. [They] do not want to allow me to go back to Pakistan." Ms Siti wept as her husband recounted telling his family "it was better to let him go" in the lead up to the executions. "I am tired because of this system, these people, this everything," he told her. "Better ok, if you want to kill me, shoot me, finish this problem." On July 29, executioners took from his cell "one black guy in front of me", a Nigerian, who was later shot. Mr Ali, waiting in his isolation cell on Nusakambangan, told himself "This is my
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., ALA., OHIO, KAN., NEB.
Oct. 4 TEXAS: Supreme Court rejects Texas death row inmate's plea for DNA testing in murder case The Supreme Court will not allow additional DNA testing of evidence a death row inmate in Texas says could show he didn???t kill a suburban Houston college student. The justices on Monday rejected an appeal from Larry Swearingen, who was convicted of abducting, raping and killing 19-year-old Melissa Trotter in 1998. Swearingen has sought to test fingernail scrapings from Trotter, items of her clothing and cigarette butts found near her body. The trial court in his case has twice ordered the testing, but was reversed by the state Court of Criminal Appeals on both occasions. (source: KFOR news) NORTH CAROLINA: DA wants death penalty in Asheville mom-child shooting case Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against a man accused of killing a woman police say was his girlfriend and of shooting her 3-year-old child in the head. Nathaniel Elijia Dixon, 24, is charged with 1st-degree murder and 1st-degree attempted murder and child abuse while inflicting serious injury. He is also charged with 1st-degree murder of an unborn child. That is because Candace Elaine Pickens, 22, was pregnant May 12 when she was shot twice in the head in Jones Park in North Asheville. She was in her 1st trimester of pregnancy. "We believe the evidence will show at least one aggravating circumstance," Buncombe County Assistant District Attorney Frank "Pat" Patton told Superior Court Judge Alan Z. Thornburg at Monday's brief afternoon hearing, where prosecutors announced they would seek the death penalty. District Attorney Todd Williams was also present and spoke with Pickens' family members. This is the 3rd time Williams has sought the death penalty since he took office in January 2015. Dixon appeared in a brown jump suit and shackles with long hair and a ponytail and beard. He did not speak during the proceeding but at one point made an obscene gesture at a photographer taking his picture. Dixon's attorney Jack Stewart said he would be working with attorney Stephen Cash as co-council and said they would be ready to proceed. Dixon's next court date is set for March 6. Stewart did not return a call to his office Monday after the hearing. Pickens' father and stepmother, Richard and Charlene Pickens, were at the hearing and afterward said they don't want Dixon executed if he is found guilty. "For me, because of my faith, I don't believe in the death penalty," said Richard Pickens, who said he attends the First Church of the Nazarene in Hendersonville. "But justice has to do what it has to do." Charlene Pickens said the death penalty "is too easy." "He should sit there for the rest of his life and suffer for what he's done to our daughter and our grandson," she said. Her stepmother said she helped raise Candace Pickens. She said she asked her whether she was pregnant and said she knew her stepdaughter was even though she denied it. The couple said Candace never introduced them to Dixon, though the 2 dated for 5 or 6 months, according to police reports. But Charlene Pickens said her stepdaughter did send her a cell phone photo of Dixon at her request. The couple said they have not missed a court hearing. Richard Pickens said he has decided not to despair and considers the time he spent with his daughter a blessing. "I know she was a gift the Lord gave me," he said. An early-morning jogger found Pickens dead in the park with her son Zachaeus. Zachaeus underwent 2 surgeries to repair the damage to his eye and head. He remained in the hospital and rehab for about 2 months before returning home. Family members said the boy made a full recovery. He is now with his father Daquan Waters, a Fletcher native who has gotten help from community members and even famous entertainers such as rapper The Game. When news of Pickens' death first broke, some attention around her killing focused on whether she was threatened because of her pregnancy. Friend Vanessa Peterson said Pickens came to her house to get away from Dixon after an argument. Pickens told her Dixon said he would kill her if she didn't have an abortion, Peterson said. But Peterson said the 2 women didn't take it seriously. Police said Dixon and Pickens had been at Chuck E. Cheese in Asheville before the shooting, but they had an argument and Dixon left. Court documents say after Pickens and Zachaeus had been shot, Dixon ditched Pickens' car in Weaverville, about 10 miles from Jones Park. He then called a friend for a ride, according to search warrants. Later, cellphone records placed Dixon in his mobile home where he had been living with Pickens since the beginning of April. Dixon and a West Asheville woman left for Columbus, Ohio, about 10 the next morning. Columbus police arrested Dixon later that day, and he was extradited to Asheville. Dixon had three appearances in Buncombe
