[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
Oct. 15 NIGERIA: Freed from hangman's noose after 13 years, 2 ex-prisoners start afresh As a teenager, his dream was to play professional football. Williams Owodo, then 16, knew he had the skills and therefore needed to maintain his training routine daily to acutalise his passion. Little did he know that fate had a different plan for him. On February 1, 1995, in one of his usual evening trainings in Ajegunle area of Lagos, a fight broke out around the neighbourhood where the football field he trains is located. And someone died in the fracas and the Police apprehended him on his way home from football training. That was the beginning of his travails that culminated in a death sentence. He waited 18 years of harrowing experience for the hangman before he was freed through the providential intervention of the Legal Defence Assistance Project (LEDAP). Accused of murder, Owodo was tortured, tried, convicted and sentenced to death by hanging. But LEDAP launched an appeal against his conviction, which exonerated the condemned 'criminal' and validated his innocence. He reminisced: "I spent 9 years in Ikoyi Prison and was later transferred to Kirikiri Maximum-Security Prison, where I spent another n9 years. In total, I spent 18 years in prison for an offence I didn't commit. "Before the incident happened, my daily routine was to play football every evening in the field with my friends. While playing, a fight occurred and someone got killed. The Police arrested me and asked me to come and make statement at their station. "I got there and made a statement, but the Police tore it and forced me to sign an already written confessional statement that I conspired to murder the man. "When the torture became unbearable, without even reading the content of the statement, I signed it." It was on account of that statement that the Judge convicted him. Following the nullification of his conviction, Owodo was finally discharged from prison on November 13, 2013 after wasting 18 years of his youthful and productive life in wrongful incarceration. Owodo is not alone. Ganiyu Wahab, 53, then a businessman, was 40 when he had similar experience. He told The Guardian that he spent 13 years in condemned prisoners cell for an offence of murder he did not commit. He said: "I sell drinks, like beer and others, in cartons. Every year, I organised a party as a carnival for the people that patronised my business in that area. I had done that for about 5 or 6 years before then. "In that particular year, a musician came to perform. Area boys and girls, as well as my customers also came to enjoy themselves, because it held every December. "There was this girl in my area that had an issue with her boyfriends. Suddenly, 2 guys began to fight over her and I was inside my shop when someone informed me that people were fighting outside. "Before I got outside, 1 of the girl's boyfriends had stabbed the another one with a small knife. I wasn't even at the scene. "When the injured guy was shouting for help, I decided to take him to the hospital for treatment. I just helped him. I don't know him because he was not from my neighbourhood. "After I took him to the hospital, some hours, they treated him and the next day, the guy died. So, the doctor said I was the one who brought the boy to the hospital and took me to the Police station." Wahab said he was offered bail, but because he could not afford the amount of money demanded from him, he was later tortured and made to sign a confessional statement upon which the court convicted and condemned him to death. He said regarding the day he was condemned to death: "I ran mad! For about 2 to 3 months, I wasn't myself. My children will come to the prison to plead and preach to me, so I could get myself back. "We didn't have influential people. Assuming I came from a wealthy family, it would not have been like that. The law of this country deals with poor people." The issue of the poor being victims of Nigeria's death penalty laws formed the fulcrum of the statement issued by the National Coordinator of LEDAP, Mr. Chinonye Obiagwu, as the world marked the World Day Against the use of the Death Penalty, with the theme, 'Poverty and the death penalty.' LEDAP used the opportunity to reaffirm its position that the abolition of death penalty in law and practice should be the firm desire of the Nigerian government, describing death penalty as cruel and inhumane treatment, which has no place in modern society. "The application of death penalty is discriminatory in Nigeria, as it has become a punishment exclusive to the poor in society," Obiagwu stated, adding that LEDAP was continually in legal battles with the federal and state governments in its quest to ensure that fundamental rights of citizens are safe-guarded and death penalty is abolished. He stated further: "Currently, LEDAP has at least 3 actions in court ch
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, LA., OHIO
Oct. 15 TEXAS: Sherman hotel clerk murder suspect caught in N.Y. The final suspect in the August murder of a Sherman hotel clerk has been apprehended and is now in police custody. Family members of the victim in the case, 32-year-old Brandon Hubert of Denison, confirm that Reginald Vernard Campbell Jr., 24, has been taken into custody in New York. Campbell was added to the Texas 10 Most Wanted Fugitives list earlier this week. Their webpage shows he was captured Friday in Mt. Vernon, a suburb of New York City. "The arrest was the result of tip information received through Texas Crime Stoppers and a reward will be paid," the posting said. At an afternoon press conference, Sherman Police Chief Zachary Flores said Campbell was arrested without incident, and he will be extradited back to Grayson County "within the next couple of weeks." Flores also noted, "The best feeling we can have is for the family, being able to see some closure for them." Campbell, according to Flores, will face capital murder and unlawful flight to avoid prosecution charges. Police said a tip led them to the home in Mount Vernon where Campbell was arrested, and the tipster will get $5,000. "I know it's going to be a long road, but still I am able to have a smile on my face now," Brandon Hubert's twin brother Brent Hubert said. On Aug. 11, Campbell was allegedly involved in a robbery at the Quality Suites hotel in Sherman that resulted in the front desk clerk, Hubert, being fatally shot. An investigation led authorities to arrest two female accomplices and identify Campbell as the masked suspect in the robbery and murder. On Aug. 23, law enforcement authorities encountered Campbell near Columbia, South Carolina. However, Campbell assaulted the officers and escaped. Sherman Police obtained a capital murder warrant for Campbell for his part in the murder of Brandon Hubert at the Quality Inn and Suites on Aug. 11. Karalyn Marie Cross, 19, and Nikeya Grant, 24, were arrested days earlier on capital murder warrants. Court documents show on Aug. 10, Karalyn Cross was out with her boyfriend, Reginald Campbell, and her roommate Nikeya Grant. The trio went to Oklahoma to a local strip club, then to a casino, where they left before sunrise. Records state the trio came up with the idea to rob a hotel, so they tried the Super 8 off U.S. Highway 75 in Sherman, but the clerk was in a protected area, so they went to the Quality Suites, where Hubert was working at the front desk. A security camera captured the trio pulling into the parking lot. Documents state Campbell put on a mask, walked in the lobby, and after a brief struggle, shot Hubert in the head. A coworker found Hubert laying in a pool of blood hours later, and called 911. During a police interview, Cross and Grant admitted to driving Campbell to Dallas after the murder so he could leave the area. If convicted, all 3 face life in prison without parole or the death penalty. Hubert was working as a hotel clerk while attending Southeastern Oklahoma State University in Durant. His family has set up a scholarship fund in his name at the university. The capturing agencies were listed as U.S. Marshals New York/New Jersey Regional Fugitive Task Force, U.S. Marshals Joint East Texas Fugitive Task Force. (source: KXII news) * As man on death row awaits decision about new trial, group protests for his releaseA group of 20 people gathered outside the Court of Criminal Appeals to represent the 20 years Rodney Reed has sat in prison. 1 day after the hearing for Rodney Reed wrapped up, a group of University of Texas students and advocates gathered at the Court of Criminal Appeals to show their support for the man on death row for the 1996 murder of Stacey Stites. For 4 days this week, Reed's defense argued new evidence shows he did not murder Stites. Reed was sentenced to death in 1998. Many believe evidence points to Jimmy Fennell as the suspect in her murder. Fennell was Stites' fiance and a law enforcement officer when she was found on the side of a Bastrop County Road. After the 4-day hearing wrapped up, Judge Doug Shafer said he may need up to 2 months to give his recommendations to the Court of Criminal Appeals. About 20 UT students and members of the "Free Rodney Reed Campaign" were at the event Saturday, rallying for a new trial for Reed. 20 people gathered to represent the 20 years that Reed has been in prison. Throughout the event, they read facts about the case and spoke out against the death penalty. (source: KVUE news) ** Man condemned in family murder plot loses high court appeal The U.S. Supreme Court refused Tuesday to consider an appeal from a suburban Houston man on Texas death row who arranged the killings of his mother and brother in 2003 so he could collect a $1 million inheritance. Attorneys for 37-year-old Th
