[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
Jan. 22 UGANDA: Museveni's Death Row Vow Misguided - Rights Body Amnesty International, an international human rights body, has warned that President Museveni's vow to hung condemned prisoners is a threat to Uganda's "decades of progress". While officiating at the pass out ceremony for prison warders and wardresses at Luzira prison on Thursday, President Museveni said he would decide on executing some of the prisoners on death sentence as a deterrent to rampant criminal tendencies. "I think being too lenient is also becoming a problem because the criminals think they have a right to kill people and then just keep their own heads. So, I think I am going to revise a bit and hung a few," Mr Museveni said. According to Prisons authorities, there are 278 convicts on death row. 78 of them have exhausted the court process after their sentences were confirmed by the Supreme Court, hence awaiting execution unless they benefit from presidential pardon under prerogative of mercy. However, the Amnesty International's Death Penalty Advisor, Mr Oluwatosin Popola, has said if President Museveni signs death warrants for condemned prisoners, the decision would be "misguided". "President Museveni's threat to resume executions to 'prevent crime' is misguided since there is no credible evidence that the death penalty is a deterrent to crime. Rather, it is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment and a violation of the right to life,"Mr Popola said. In a press release issued by Amnesty International on Friday, Mr Popola advised that instead Uganda should expedite trying criminal cases that are backlogged in the courts, adding that killing those already found guilty cannot fix criminality. Mr Popola said because President Museveni has in the past refused to execute prisoners, Uganda is supposed to be joining the global crusade to abolish the death penalty. "While the backlog of criminal cases in Uganda is something that needs to be addressed and expedited, resorting to the death penalty as some kind of 'quick-fix' is not the answer. But resuming (executions) them now would destroy more than a decade of progress, not to mention the global trend towards abolition. The President must instead lead Uganda to fully abolishing the death penalty, just as 19 other African countries have done," he said. Uganda last carried out an execution of prisoners on death row in 1999 when Musa Sebirumbi and 27 others were hanged in Luzira Prison. Sebirumbi was Uganda People's Congress chairman in Luweero during the Obote II government and was hanged for the murder of Edidian Luttamaguzi, a collaborator of Museveni's National Resistance Army rebels during the 1981-86 bush war. DEATH PENALTY Currently, a large majority of countries have either abolished or discontinued the practice. The US is the most developed country to use the death penalty. As of November 2017, of the 195 independent states that are United Nations members, 55 retain it in both law and practice; 29 have abolished it de facto as they have not executed anyone during the last decade or more. And 103 have abolished it for all crimes, most recently: Madagascar (2015), Fiji (2015), Republic of the Congo (2015), Suriname (2015). (source: allafrica.com) JAPAN: Focus shifts to executions in Japan's 1995 sarin gas attack More than 2 decades after poison gas attacks in Tokyo's subways killed 13, the stage has shifted to the execution of 13 people convicted in the crime. When they will be sent to the gallows, though, remains a mystery in Japan's highly secretive death penalty system. The Supreme Court rejected an appeal in the final case last week, so the condemned are no longer needed as potential trial witnesses. The court upheld a life sentence for Katsuya Takahashi, a driver in the attack who was convicted of murder in 2015. He was a follower of the Aum Shinrikyo cult that carried out the attack. "The end of the trials, which took so long, is a fresh reminder of the horror of all the crimes committed by Aum," Shizue Takahashi, the wife of a subway stationmaster who died in the attack, told reporters Friday. "Now the focus for the families of the victims and other people will shift to the executions." Shoko Asahara, the guru of Aum Shinrikyo, and 12 others have been sentenced to death. Whether any will be hanged this year is unknown. Japan generally announces executions only after they have happened. Cult members released sarin nerve gas in subway cars during the morning rush hour in March 1995, sending people fleeing to the streets and sickening more than 6,000. First-aid stations were set up in tents, and military troops in gas masks and hazmat suits were sent in. The scenes shocked a country where the crime rate is relatively low and people usually take their personal safety for granted. "We should remember that it was not a crime by a group of weird young people,
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----PENN., N.C., OHIO, TENN., WASH.
Jan. 22 PENNSYLVANIA: Accused family killer's death-penalty trial is Fulton, Franklin counties' 1st in 20 years For the 1st time in almost 20 years, a death-penalty case is going to trial in Pennsylvania's 39th judicial district, this time out of Fulton County. Anthony Lyn Hollenshead, 36, will be tried on 2 counts of criminal homicide starting Monday. Fulton County District Attorney Travis Kendall filed notice of "aggravating circumstances" in July 2015, making the case a death-penalty case. Pennsylvania's 39th District, which includes Franklin and Fulton counties, has only seen 2 death-penalty cases in the last 25 years. Both came out of Franklin County, for homicides committed in the 1990s. Hollenshead is accused of fatally shooting his wife and daughter, Laura Hollenshead and Jaedi Weed, respectively, with a 20-gauge shotgun at around midnight May 5, 2015, according to police. Both women were found in front of their home in the 1200 block of Great Cove Road, in Big Cove Tannery. During Hollenshead's preliminary hearing, troopers testified to the scene they found upon being called to the home. 2 girls, related but not identified by police, were home during the shooting. Hollenshead allegedly admitted to police to shooting his wife and daughter, saying it happened after an argument, according to court documents. Hollenshead was not at the home when police arrived, having fled, but later peacefully surrendered, according to police. Read: Franklin County's drop in overdoses in 2017 is progress, but not 'success' Hollenshead was being held at Bedford County Jail while awaiting trial, according to online court records. He was denied bail after being charged with 1st-degree homicide. The only other cases that involved the death penalty in the district in the last 10 years were for Jeffrey Miles, Kevin Cleeves and Carl Varner. In each case, the death penalty was taken off the table before the cases went to trial. Cleeves took a plea to first-degree murder in the 2012 deaths of his estranged wife, her boyfriend and the boyfriend's mother, to avoid the death penalty. Miles and Varner had the notice of aggravating circumstances withdrawn before their cases went to trial, but were both convicted of murder and are serving life sentences. Miles was convicted in 2013 and 2014, respectively, of the murders years earlier of Kristy Dawn Hoke and Angie Daley, while Varner was convicted with Jason Shauf in the 2012 death of Victor Hugo Campos-Olguin. Fulton County currently has no inmates on death row, according to a report from the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections. Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf ordered a "moratorium" on death-penalty cases in 2015, declaring that the system was flawed and needed to be addressed before death sentences could be carried out. No cases in the 39th district, aside from Hollenshead, have been filed as death-penalty cases since the moratorium. (source: publicopiniononline.com) NORTH CAROLINA: Death penalty or life? Sentencing phase begins in Donovan Richardson trial The sentencing phase for the trial of Donovan Richardson, a man convicted Friday of 1st-degree murder in the deaths of 2 Fuquay-Varina seniors in 2014, is set to begin Monday. Court will begin at the Wake County Justice Center at 9:30 a.m., and the arguments will be streamed live on WRAL.com. A Wake County jury on Friday found Richardson guilty of murdering Arthur Lee Brown, 78, and David Eugene McKoy, 66, on July 19, 2014 at their home on Howard Road. The sentencing phase of the trial will determine whether Richardson will face the death penalty or life in prison. Richardson is 1 of 3 men accused in the crime. Gregory Crawford pleaded guilty in May 2016 to charges of 1st-degree murder, robbery with a dangerous weapon and burglary in connection with the slayings. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Kevin Britt was charged with 2 counts of 1st-degree murder, robbery with a dangerous weapon and burglary. He has not been sentenced yet, but he did plead guilty to being an accessory to murder. He also testified against Richardson during his trial. Jurors found Richardson guilty on all counts, which included 2 charges of 1st-degree murder, robbery with a dangerous weapon and burglary. Wake County has tried and failed to get the death penalty in 8 cases since 2007, causing district attorneys to question its effectiveness, as fewer jurors are willing to give it. The last person sentenced to death in Wake County was Byron Waring in 2007, who was convicted of 1st-degree murder for fatally stabbing Lauren Redman on Nov. 8, 2005. The last time a North Carolina convict was put to death was in 2006. There are currently 143 people on death row in North Carolina -- 140 men and 3 women. (source: WRAL news) OHIO: Death Penalty Documentary Includes Troubling Ohio Executio A new documentary on the
