[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
Oct. 6 VIETMAN: 3 Vietnamese face death for trafficking meth Vietnam's tough laws have not managed to stop drug trafficking crimes from getting rampant. Photo by Vietnam Plus The ring mailed 5 kilos from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City using an express courier in April 2015. A court in Hanoi sentenced 3 Vietnamese to death for mailing 5 kilograms of methamphetamine from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City, last year. Dam Trong Thang, 53, Hoang Bich Ngoc, 31, and Nguyen Huy Thong, 34, received the death penalty for drug trafficking. Ta Chung Thanh, 25, received a life sentence for the same crime; another woman received 18-months imprisonment for failing to report the criminal activity. Investigators say Thang and Thong first met in March 2015. Roughly a month later, Thang gave Ngoc VND670 million (approximately $30,000) and told him to use it to buy methamphetamine from Thong and Thanh in Hanoi. Once in the capital, Ngoc parcelled the drugs out and express mailed them to Ho Chi Minh City. Thong and Ngoc were stopped with thousands of ecstasy pills at Noi Bai Airport in late April 2015. Investigators say Thang has ties to another drug ring currently being investigated in HCMC. Vietnam has some of the world'-s toughest drug laws. Those convicted of possessing or 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. (source: e.vnexpress.net) TAIWAN: UK group seeks to sway opinions on death penalty A group of UK human rights experts yesterday said that it requires strong political leadership to steer a nation toward completely doing away with capital punishment. Leading a delegation of 3 people on a 3-day visit to Taiwan, British Member of Parliament Keir Starmer told a news conference in Taipei that strong public disapproval is an issue that confronts every nation that moves away from the use of the death penalty. "It certainly confronted the UK when we abolished the death penalty," Starmer said. "At that time public opinion was in favor of death penalty." "Almost every country made the argument that there is something special about their cultural traditions which require it to keep the death penalty," said Starmer, cofounder of a London-based law firm that specializes in civil liberties and human rights. With President Tsai Ing-wen's administration pledging to be a government guided by public opinion, Starmer said that there were 3 things that helped prompt changes in the UK 5 decades ago to restrict the use of capital punishment. "The first was strong political leadership, which said: 'This sentence is wrong in principle and we will have nothing more to do with it,'" he said. As most people only talk about the death penalty in the abstract, he said the 2nd motivator was to offer the public a glimpse into how capital punishment was actually carried out. When people saw how it worked in practice, they were very uncomfortable with the death penalty, he added. Starmer said the third element was that capital punishment has become an indicator of whether a country is progressive, forward-looking and wanting to join the family of countries that have gotten rid of the death penalty. "Or, whether it wants to be seen by others as being stuck in the past with countries that are unwilling to change," Starmer said, adding that courageous political leadership combined with a better understanding of the death penalty could cause public opinions to change. Starmer declined to reveal details of his meeting with Vice President Chen Chien-jen and Minister of Justice Chiu Tai-san on Wednesday, saying only that the discussions were "constructive." As one of three democracies worldwide that still carry out death sentences, Taiwan has executed 33 death-row inmates since 2010, with the last one being Taipei MRT killer Cheng Chieh in May last year. There are 41 people on death row. Death Penalty Project co-executive director Saul Lehrfreund, who is a member of the delegation, said research he has done with academics, universities and criminologists show that public perceptions of capital punishment are not black-and-white. "For example, if you ask the public an abstract question: 'Do you support the death penalty?' It is very probable that the vast majority of people would support the death penalty," Lehrfreund said. "However, if you ask people how strongly they support the death penalty, you will find the majority of people do not come back and say they support the death penalty strongly," Lehrfreund said. "They may support it, but not so much that they would not accept changes." (source: Taipei Times) DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC of CONGO:: Ugandan rebels face death for crimes against humanity 10 rebels get death sentence for killing innocent civilians in
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, TENN., NEB., N.MEX., UTAH., CALIF., USA
Oct. 6 TEXAS: Texas judge confronts 'serious deficiencies' in death penalty cases The state broke its longest streak without an execution. But the highest criminal court has issued multiple late stays - and the legal process may be changing At the time, in the state that executes more people than any other, it was hardly surprising that Barney Fuller was sentenced to die. On 1 January 2001, Fuller phoned Annette Copeland, a neighbour in the tiny Texas town of Lovelady, a hundred miles north of Houston. "Happy New Year," he told her. "I'm going to kill you." 2 years later, he did. A dispute that stemmed from Fuller's habit of annoying his neighbours by firing weapons at his home escalated into a murderous rampage that took the life of Annette and her husband, Nathan. In the 911 call that Annette Copeland made at about 1.30am that May night, the operator heard a man saying: "Party's over, bitch." Then a popping sound; presumably 1 of the 3 pistol shots that Fuller fired into her head. Fuller was executed by lethal injection on Wednesday night; there are another 253 inmates on Texas's death row and 2 more men are scheduled to die on the gurney at the state penitentiary later this year. But the 58-year-old's death broke a remarkable streak: it was the 1st Texas execution in 6 months. That was the longest run without a judicial killing since 2007-08, when executions stopped nationwide while the US supreme court considered whether the lethal injection method violated the constitution. When Texas resumed in June 2008, 18 inmates died in the space of 5 months. Less than a decade later, with a Pew survey suggesting public support for capital punishment is the lowest it has been in more than 40 years, both giving death sentences and completing them are on the decline in Texas, like elsewhere in the country. In 2015, Texas executed 13 prisoners; Fuller's death brings this year's total to 7 so far. Only 5 new inmates have been added to death row in 2016 and 2015, compared with 20 in the 2 years prior. And though traditionally unmoved by the pleas of those on death row, the state's highest criminal court, the Texas court of criminal appeals, has issued multiple late stays of execution - 3 in August alone. Meanwhile one of the court's judges, Elsa Alcala, has drawn attention for writing opinions questioning the state's process, including 1 in June that said it has "serious deficiencies" that have "caused me great concern". Like 8 of the 9 judges, Alcala is a Republican. She was appointed in 2011 by former governor Rick Perry - dubbed the "killingest" governor in modern history for presiding over 279 executions in 14 years. Despite her misgivings, Alcala has not advocated for or against the death penalty overall. She worries that inmates have been convicted and died as a result of the poor quality of their lawyers at trial and during appeals, and because bad evidence was taken seriously. "These things are coming to light - but I wonder about how many cases have not come to light," she said last month during a panel discussion at the Texas Tribune Festival. There, Alcala floated "legislative fixes that wouldn't cost a dime", such as forbidding the execution of the severely mentally ill, disallowing the testimony of co-conspirators who cut deals with prosecutors, and no longer asking juries to decide whether a defendant is a continuing danger "to society" given that Texas now allows an alternative sentence of life without parole. Last year the Texas legislature passed a law requiring a defendant's most recent attorney to be notified when an execution date is set. It was a progressive move according to Kathryn Kase, executive director of the Texas Defender Service, a not-for-profit group that helps clients facing the death penalty. Kase represents Scott Panetti, a mentally ill man who represented himself at trial dressed as a cowboy and tried to subpoena Jesus Christ, John F Kennedy and the pope. In fall 2014, Kase discovered that Panetti was scheduled to die in a little over a month when she read about it in a local newspaper. That sent her scrambling to argue that his lethal injection should be put on hold. It was, on the day he was due to die - but by a federal appeals court, after the Texas court of criminal appeals voted 6-3 to reject a stay. That prompted one of its members, the now-retired Tom Price, to write a dissent calling for the abolition of the death penalty. 40 years on since the supreme court reinstated capital punishment in the US, Kase believes the system is "as imperfect as ever". But, she said, "all the players have become sensitized to all the reasons that executions might be unjust," and when restored to its full nine members, the court might before long be ready to take up the issue of whether capital punishment violates the constitution. "These are clues that the body politic is changing its mind,"
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
Oct. 6 INDONESIA: Pakistani convict Zulfiqar Ali is innocent, must be released soon: Komnas HAM The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) is calling for President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo to pardon Pakistani death row inmate Zulfiqar Ali, saying he is innocent and should be released after already having been imprisoned on a drug conviction for a decade without any concrete evidence. "We ask the President to pardon Zulfiqar Ali for the sake of justice and humanity and release him from all punishment as soon as possible," Komnas HAM commissioner Hafid Abbas said in a statement on Wednesday. Komnas HAM had also conveyed a set of recommendations to Jokowi on Sept. 27, one that had also been given to then president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono more than 2 years ago. Ali escaped the 3rd round of executions of drug convicts on the Nusakambangan prison island in Cilacap, Central Java, on July 29. Hafid noted that the judges had succumbed to public pressure and went beyond the demands of prosecutors, who had sought a life sentence, for the mere sake of their public image, since public opinion deemed corruption, terrorism and drug-related offenses to be extraordinary crimes. "That also influenced the atmosphere of the trial, so the judges imposed a more severe punishment than the prosecution demand for the death penalty," he said. Police arrested Ali based on a statement from Gurdip Singh, an Indian national arrested on allegations of heroin possession at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport on Aug. 24, 2004. Gurdip retracted his statement against Ali. However, the court went on to sentence him to death in June 2005. (source: The Jakarta Post) SINGAPORE: Greater support for death penalty among higher educated: Poll About 80 % of people in Singapore believe that the death penalty should be retained, according to a survey conducted by the Government. The survey also found out that there was greater support for the death penalty among the higher educated, with 68 % of residents with university or postgraduate education saying that they support the death penalty. Reach - the Singapore Government's citizen-engagement agency - said in a statement today (Oct 6) that a computer-assisted telephone interview poll was conducted between June 13 and 17 this year. A total of 1,160 randomly selected Singapore residents aged 15 or above were polled. Only 10 % of respondents felt that the death penalty should be abolished. The other 10 % of respondents either did not give a definite answer, or refused to answer, Reach said. Reach said that "82 % of respondents agreed that the death penalty was an important deterrent that helped keep Singapore safe from serious crimes". Among those who supported the death penalty, there was higher support for it as the maximum sentence for violent crimes (as high as 81 % for murder). Only 67 % of respondents think it should be the maximum sentence for drug trafficking. Close to 2/3 of respondents believed that there were enough safeguards in Singapore to ensure that no person was wrongly sentenced to death, Reach said. Reach said in the statement "where the sample was not demographically representative of the national population by gender, race, or age, it was weighted accordingly to ensure representativeness". (source: asiaone.com) INDIA: Suspense Over Death Sentence Of VS Dupare As SC Hears His Review Petition In Open Court The Supreme Court bench comprising Justices Dipak Misra, Rohinton Fali Nariman and Uday Umesh Lalit today heard the review petition of the death-row convict, Vasanta Sampat Dupare, currently lodged in Nagpur Central Jail, in the open court. As hearing of the review petitions of death-row convicts by a three-Judge bench is mandatory after the SC judgment in Mohd. Arif case, Dupare's senior counsel, Anup Bhambhani got the opportunity to make his submissions before the bench. Background: Dupare's death sentence was confirmed by the Supreme Court's 3 judge bench on November 26, 2014. Dupare was convicted and sentenced to death for the offence of rape and murder of a minor girl in 2008. In 2010, the trial court found him guilty and sentenced him to death under section 302, life imprisonment under section 376(2)(f), and rigorous imprisonment of 7 years under sections 363 and 367 and rigorous imprisonment of 3 years under section 201 of the IPC, along with fines and imprisonment in default. On March 24, 2011, the Nagpur bench of the Bombay high court, at the confirmation stage, held that Dupare had not received a fair trial as the legal aid lawyer appointed on his behalf was absent when 4 important witnesses were to be cross-examined, and Dupare himself had been asked to cross-examine those witnesses. The high court, therefore, set aside his conviction and sentence, and remanded the case back to the trial court. On remand, the trial court again convicted and sentenced
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----NEB., N.MEX., CALIF., USA
Oct. 6 NEBRASKA: Death Penalty should not exist in Nebraska Mention the 2016 election and you'll likely get a negative, perhaps even dismissive reaction from most people. Looking at the Presidential race, this is understandable. However, Nebraskans have a unique chance to do something worthwhile come November 8, thanks to Governor Pete Ricketts. That's because he has given us the opportunity to confirm what our state legislature decided last year. In May 2015, the Legislature voted 32-15 to repeal the death penalty in our state. Governor Ricketts promptly vetoed the measure. However, the Legislature then voted to override the Governor's veto, making the repeal law. The group "Nebraskans for the Death Penalty" promptly started an ultimately successful petition drive to put the issue to a referendum vote, supported significantly by Governor Ricketts. This has presented the people of Nebraska with an extremely important task. For financial and moral reasons, we must retain the repeal of the death penalty. The raw numbers do not lie. Executing criminals is far more costly than simply sentencing them to life in prison without parole. Trials involving the death penalty require extra experts in areas such as genetic testing, lawyers who are certified in such cases, and the genetic testing itself. Furthermore, death penalty cases involve many layers of appeals which add to the overall costs of the trial. All in all, it is estimated to be ten times cheaper to sentence criminals to life in prison rather than death. If we simply sentenced people to life in prison, many of these costs could be foregone. In addition, we must consider the methods of execution. Long gone are the days when criminals were served justice with a length of rope and gallows, or a mere blade. New, more "humane" ways of killing have developed. The primary method of execution in every state is lethal injection. Nebraska is currently out of the drugs required for lethal injection, so inmates on death row are essentially serving a life sentence anyway. These drugs are also terribly expensive. The state spent $54,400 on obtaining them just days before the vote to repeal the death penalty. There is also the slight hitch that importing these drugs is illegal. Since the advent of in the United States, 17 people who were on death row have been exonerated due to genetic testing. That's 17 lives that would have been taken if the system had run its course before genetic testing found them innocent. One can only imagine how many innocent people have lost their lives because they were sentenced to die for a crime they did not commit. One common argument for the death penalty is that we must obtain justice for the victims. This hearkens back to the days of the first legal frameworks of an eye for an eye from Hammurabi's Code. This is an outdated approach that does not have a place in our modern society. Life without parole is an incredibly harsh punishment that fits the crime. The person who commits the crime is left to reflect for the rest of their life on what they did and how it has ruined lives, including their own. This also possibly gives them a chance to find some remorse for their actions. This goes hand in hand with defeating the argument that the death penalty somehow makes society safer. Whether you kill someone or lock them up forever, they are removed from society and cannot be a danger. The American prison is much more secure than other countries, and the chance of a prisoner escaping is extremely low. The escape of 2 murderers from a New York prison was so newsworthy because it is so incredibly rare. Another favorite argument of death penalty advocates is the argument of deterrence. The logic of deterrence goes like this: if potential criminals know they can be executed for their potential crimes, they will be less likely to commit them. This sounds great until you find out it's not actually accurate. Due to factors ranging from people committing crimes of passion, in which they do not weigh potential consequences of their actions, to criminals being more preoccupied with not getting caught than their punishment, a multitude of studies have found the presence of the death penalty does not deter crime whatsoever. No one disputes that violent criminals ought to be punished. However, how we do it should matter to everyone. We have come far enough as a society that we can safely incarcerate criminals, even exceptionally violent ones, and it even makes economic sense to do so. No matter how you feel about the Presidential or Congressional candidates, there is an issue that really matters on the ballot this November. Get to your polling place and vote to retain LB 268. Confirm that all human life, no matter what it has done, is sacred. It could possibly be the most meaningful civic duty you undertake for years. (source: Greg Tracey is a freshman global
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, GA., FLA., MISS., OHIO, TENN.
Oct. 6 TEXAS: Texas inmate Duane Buck argues he received death sentence due to his race The Supreme Court left little doubt Wednesday that it will side with a black Texas prison inmate who argues improper testimony about his race tainted his death sentence. The justices often are divided on death penalty cases, but conservatives and liberals alike agreed that inmate Duane Buck is entitled to a new court hearing. The only issue in arguments at the high court appeared to be whether to throw out Buck's sentence altogether and order a new punishment hearing. The court also could merely instruct lower courts to decide whether the death sentence can stand. Buck has been trying for years to get federal courts to look at his claim that his rights were violated when jurors were told by a defense expert witness that Buck was more likely to be dangerous in the future because he is black. In Texas death penalty trials, one of the "special issues" jurors must consider when deciding punishment is whether the defendant they've convicted would be a future danger. "What occurred at the penalty phase is indefensible," Justice Samuel Alito said in a comment that was widely shared by the 6 other justices who asked questions Wednesday. Justice Clarence Thomas asked no questions, as is his custom. The high court appeal is not a broad challenge to the death penalty in Texas, the nation's leader by far in carrying out 537 executions since the Supreme Court in 1976 allowed capital punishment to resume. Rather, it shows the justices' heightened attention to the process in capital cases, from sentencing to execution. This is especially true in older cases, like Buck's, in which the quality of defense lawyers is at issue. The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused attempts by Buck's attorneys to reopen the case, blocking them from moving forward with an appeal contending Buck's constitutional right to a competent lawyer was violated. Buck's case was among 6 in 2000 that then-Texas Attorney General John Cornyn in a news release said needed to be reopened because statements by the expert witness, Dr. Walter Quijano, were racially charged. In the other 5 cases, new punishment hearings were held and each convict again was sentenced to death. Cornyn, a Republican, is now the state's senior U.S. senator. Buck's lawyers contended the attorney general, by then Cornyn's successor Greg Abbott, broke a promise by contesting his case, although the 5th Circuit said while that circumstance was "odd and factually unusual," they could find nothing in the case record to indicate the state made an error or promised not to oppose any move to reopen the case. Abbott now is the state's governor. Texas Solicitor General Scott Keller defended the appellate ruling Wednesday because he said there is ample evidence to support a death sentence. Buck, now 53, does not dispute that he shot and killed his ex-girlfriend, Debra Gardner, 32, about a week after breaking up with her, and another man in 1995. He also shot his stepsister, who survived. Buck at the time was on parole after serving about a year of a 10-year prison term for delivery of cocaine. He also had a previous conviction for unlawfully carrying a weapon. Still, no justice appeared to endorse Keller???s argument that the appellate ruling should be upheld. Christina Swarns, Buck's lawyer at the Supreme Court, sought at one point to place Buck's case in the broader context of issues of race in the criminal justice system, telling the justices that the need to eradicate racial prejudice "is as urgent today as at any time in our nation's history." The debate at the court was mostly over how the justices might rule in Buck's favor. The justices could decide there was a "constitutional violation in this case and the court of appeals was wrong to say there wasn't," Chief Justice John Roberts said. Such a ruling would result in a new sentencing hearing for Buck. Justice Elena Kagan said a decision instead could focus on the appeals court's approach to inmates who wish to reopen their cases in unusual circumstances, which would leave the decision on the death sentence to a lower court. Such a ruling might affect other inmates in the 3 states covered by the 5th Circuit - Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Kagan cited figures produced by Buck's lawyers that prisoners in the 5th Circuit are far less likely to be allowed to pursue their appeals than prisoners in other Southern states. (source: CBS news) ** Texas cases put spotlight on death penalty The U.S. Supreme Court heard several key cases from Texas during its last session, and this term it is reviewing 2 with life-or-death consequences. There's no way to predict whether the Texas cases will bring favorable decisions for two condemned prisoners, much less lead to a sweeping reevaluation of the death penalty. But
