[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

January 1, 2018



JAPAN:

No. of death row inmates in Japan stands at 123



The number of death row inmates in Japan stood at 123 as of Dec 31, continuing 
to surpass the threshold of 100 since 2007, Justice Ministry officials said.


In 2017, 4 convicts on death row were executed and 4 others died of illness, 
while 2 people were newly added to the list of such inmates after death 
sentences against them were finalized.


Of the 4 who were executed, 3 were still waiting to hear about their requests 
for retrials. Of the 3, 1 was aged 19 at the time of the crime.


The hangings of inmates seeking retrials were the 1st since December 1999, 
while that of an inmate who committed a crime as a minor was the 1st since 
August 1997, both drawing flak from the Japan Federation of Bar Associations 
and groups opposed to the death penalty.


Japan's capital punishment has drawn international criticism, while the 
federation has called for its abolition by 2020, demanding the introduction of 
lifetime imprisonment instead.


However, a majority of the Japanese public supports the death penalty. A 2014 
government survey showed that 80.3 % of Japanese people aged 20 or older 
favored capital punishment, down from a record 85.6 % in the previous survey in 
2009.


(source: japantoday.com)








PAKISTAN:

Rapist of 6-yr, girl to be hanged



A trial court in Srinagar on Saturday awarded death penalty to convict Farooq 
Ahmed Pinzoo for raping and murdering a 6-year-old girl in 2005.


"Convict is awarded capital punishment. He shall be hanged till death," the 
court said, referring to various Supreme Court Judgments to term the crime as 
rarest of rare.


Second Additional Principal District and Sessions Judge Srinagar, Tahir 
Khurshid Raina, awarded the death penalty to Farooq Ahmad Pinzoo of Mehjoor 
Nagar, Srinagar, after public prosecutor Mujeeb Andrabi pleaded before the 
court that the accused be given the severest punishment as he had raped and 
killed the little minor gruesomely. "The accused be hanged to death so that 
others may take a note of these gruesome incidents," the lawyer said.


The judge said it was unpardonable "that a little doll of just 6 years of age, 
who was yet to bloom and add to the beauty of the world, was crushed to death 
in the most horrendous and barbaric manner in the year 2005 by the 
accused/convict."


He added that after committing this highly detestable act of extreme depravity, 
the accused wrapped the girl's dead body in a sack and threw it in a trench to 
conceal it from the eyes of people around.


"When all members of the said locality were searching for the girl, he was a 
mute spectator ... This incident sent a shockwave in the entire area and 
everyone came out to search for her and pray for her safe recovery. Finally, on 
5th day since she went missing, she was recovered from the trench in a sack," 
the judge said.


The judge added that thousands of people assembled on the spot and when they 
saw the girl's body, there was condemnation all around and an outcry to nab the 
culprit.


"Public discontentment was so huge that police had to install a special camp 
there and after a month's time they succeeded in nabbing the culprit, who was 
none else but the resident of the same locality whom the deceased of tender age 
would have treated with respect and as a custodian of her life," the judge 
said.


(source: Pakistan Observer)

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[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., USA

[Rick Halperin]

January 1, 2018




TEXAS:

Report: Bexar County juries don't like the death penalty



Juries are becoming more and more reluctant to hand out death sentences 
throughout Texas, but especially in Bexar County, according to a new report by 
the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.


In 2017, juries in Texas sentenced 4 people to death - the lowest level since 
the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the state's revised capital punishment statute in 
1976.


Bexar County juries sentenced no one to death last year, the report states, and 
have sentenced only 1 person to death in the past 8 years: Mark Anthony 
Gonzalez, who was convicted in the 2011 murder of a Bexar County sheriff's 
sergeant.


Harris County, meanwhile, has sentenced 10 people to death in the past 8 years.

"Texas continues to move away from the death penalty, even in the counties that 
have used it the most," Kristin Houle, executive director of the Texas 
Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, said in a news release.


"Prosecutors, juries, judges, and the public are subjecting our state's death 
penalty practices to unprecedented scrutiny," she added. "In an increasing 
number of cases, they are accepting alternatives to this flawed and 
irreversible punishment."


6 counties - out of 254 counties in Texas - account for more than 1/2 of all 
new death sentences imposed in the past 5 years, the report found. Bexar County 
is not one of them.


The Texas Coalition Against the Death Penalty, an advocacy organization based 
in Austin, said the decline can be credited to improvements in the quality of 
legal counsel and the exorbitant cost of death penalty trials.


Other reasons cited: Prosecutorial discretion, concerns about wrongful 
convictions and the availability of life in prison without the possibility of 
parole - which became a sentencing option in Texas in 2005.


Historically, Bexar County has been one of the counties to hand out the most 
death penalties. Since 1974, prosecutors in Bexar County have secured 76 death 
sentences, the 3rd-most sentences statewide.


But in recent years, that trend has declined. Between 2009 and 2012, 4 juries 
that could have used capital punishment rejected the sentence. The defendants 
were sentenced to life in prison without parole instead.


The report also shows the application of the death penalty remains near 
historic lows.


Last year, Texas put 7 people to death, matching 2016 for the lowest number of 
executions in 2 decades. Still, Texas accounted for 30 % of all U.S. executions 
last year.


2 people from Bexar County were executed in 2017: Rolando Ruiz, a hit man who 
killed a woman on behalf of her husband and brother-in-law, and TaiChin Preyor, 
who killed a 24-year-old woman in a drug-related attack.


Bexar County matched Tarrant County for the most executions in the state. 
Harris County, in comparison, had zero executions - the 1st time that's 
happened since 1985 - and Dallas County accounted for 1 execution.


However, the report noted that application of the death penalty remains 
racially biased. Over the past 5 years, 70 % of death sentences have been 
imposed on people of color. More than 1/2 of those death sentences were handed 
to African-American defendants - even though African-Americans make up only 13 
% of the population.


5 executions already are scheduled for the 1st quarter of 2018, though none of 
them are from Bexar County.


On Nov. 28, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals stayed the execution of Juan 
Castillo to review claims of false testimony. His execution has not yet been 
rescheduled.


(source: San Antonio Express-News)








FLORIDA:

2nd suspect in Super Bowl Sunday triple murder to face death penalty



The state of Florida is seeking the death penalty against a man accused of 
killing 3 people at a Super Bowl party in February.


Marcus Steward, 25, was arrested last month in Riviera Beach as the 2nd suspect 
in the Feb. 5 attacks on Mohawk Street, according to the incident report. 
Police DNA evidence linked Steward to the murders. There was DNA found on a 
glove, a hoodie, and part of a rifle. The evidence was found in the back of 
Sean Henry's stolen Honda Accord and in culvert along I-95 where police found 
Henry's stolen car abandoned.


Steward is charged with 3 counts of 1st degree murder with a firearm, 1 county 
of attempted 1st degree murder with a firearm and 1 count of grand theft of a 
motor vehicle.


Christopher Vasata, 24, is also facing the death penalty for the triple murder. 
He was arrested in late March for his alleged role in the killings and is in a 
wheelchair due to injuries sustained during the shooting.


Steward is due back in court Jan. 12 at 8:30 a.m.

(source: CBS News)








USA:

Abolish the death penalty



I strongly believe that the death penalty should have been abolished long ago.

The death penalty is not moral. It goes against our natural rights. I would not 
want to be killed. Would you? Prison is