[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
April 17 UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: Appeal court upholds death penalty of boy's killerAbu Dhabi appellate court convicts boy's uncle of raping and killing him; case will now go to apex court The Abu Dhabi Criminal Court of Appeal on Tuesday upheld the death sentence awarded to a Pakistani man who raped and killed his 11-year-old nephew in the emirate. Earlier, the Criminal Court of First Instance had awarded death sentence to the man. The body of the boy was found on the rooftop of his building on May 31, 2017, a day after he went missing. The appellate court also ordered the convict to pay the blood money of Dh200,000 to the family. The convict, who was termed by the Public Prosecution as "a wild beast", was identified as Mohsen Bilal, 34, from Pakistan. The Presiding Judge of the Court of Appeal, in his judgement, said, "Mohsen Bilal was found guilty on counts of raping and killing and the court awards him the death penalty and a blood money [payment] of Dh200,000." "The accused was found guilty on all counts - of wearing an abaya [to disguise his identity], driving a car without a number plate and raping and strangling the boy with a rope," the judge said. The boy's father, Russian mother and grandfather were present in the court. They expressed their satisfaction at the appeal court's ruling. Speaking to Gulf News after the judgement, the boy's father, Dr Majid Janjua, said, "We are satisfied with the ruling against the criminal. This is what we were expecting. The accused has been changing his statements but nothing worked. He lied on all counts," the father said. They hoped that a similar judgement would be handed out when the case reaches the apex court. The boy, Azan Majid Janjua, went missing on May 30 last year after he left home to go to the mosque for Asr prayers. The Court of First Instance found the man guilty in November 2017 on the charges of rape and murder and sentenced him to death and the payment of Dh200,000 in blood money. According to records, witnesses said they saw the boy leaving the mosque but he never reached home. His body was found the next morning on the rooftop of the building by some AC technicians repairing a malfunctioning unit. "His body was half-naked and a copy of the Quran was lying beside him," Dr Janjua had told the police. The mother, who used to visit her son in Abu Dhabi, was in the city when the tragedy occurred. On August 8, the 1st trial of the case began at the Abu Dhabi Criminal Court where the accused denied the charges of raping and killing the boy. As the case progressed, the defence lawyer appointed by the court claimed that his client was mentally and psychologically unfit at the time of the crime. But medical examination reports presented to the court proved him to be mentally and psychologically fit. The accused blamed the Public Prosecution of fabricating evidence against him, but the CCTV footage and forensic evidence proved his involvement in the crime. Azan was Dr Janjua's 1st son born to his 1st wife whom he had met while studying medicine in Russia. Azan, who was also a Russian national, lived with his mother in Russia for sometime. As part of a mutual agreement between his parents, Azan started living with his father around 2 1/2 years before his death. (source: Gulf News) ___ A service courtesy of Washburn University School of Law www.washburnlaw.edu DeathPenalty mailing list DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty Unsubscribe: http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/options/deathpenalty
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----NEB., USA
April 17 NEBRASKA: Pardons Board denies clemency hearing for death-row inmate Carey Dean Moore The Nebraska Board of Pardons removed an obstacle to the state's 1st execution in 21 years Tuesday by denying a clemency hearing for death-row inmate Carey Dean Moore. Gov. Pete Ricketts, Attorney General Doug Peterson and Secretary of State John Gale voted unanimously to reject Moore's application for a commutation hearing. The votes from Ricketts and Peterson were expected, given that both are vocal proponents of capital punishment. None of the board members commented about their votes during Tuesday's brief meeting. Like all inmates who petition the board, Moore was not permitted to attend and no one spoke for or against his application. The governor declined to comment on his way to an appointment after the meeting. The attorney general said he believes the Nebraska Supreme Court may now act on a recent motion for Moore's death warrant, which cannot be issued while a clemency request is pending. Gale, however, said there's still a chance Moore could get a commutation hearing. If the Supreme Court orders Moore's execution to be carried out, the board could reconvene and take up the question again, Gale said. Typically the board places a 2-year moratorium for new clemency requests following a denial, but an exception could be made for an inmate facing imminent execution, he added. Gale said the board routinely denies hearing requests except under extraordinary circumstances. Few inmates have escaped death row via a commutation by the Pardons Board. The last was 1964. Moore, 60, was sentenced to death for the 1979 killings of 2 cabdrivers in Omaha. He has spent nearly 2/3 of his life under the threat of execution and is by far the longest serving of Nebraska's 11 death row inmates. Moore recently told The World-Herald that he is no longer fighting to block his execution in the courts. In his clemency application, however, he said since Nebraska officials "are either lazy or incompetent to do their jobs, or both, I should receive a full pardon." The attorney general recently petitioned the Supreme Court to issue a death warrant for Moore. Peterson's court filing said Moore has no pending appeals or motions for postconviction relief that would impede the execution. Peterson, however, did not mention Moore's application for a pardon hearing in the death warrant filing. Although Moore filed the application in September, the attorney general said Tuesday his office was unaware of it until after he filed the document seeking the death warrant. Moore, 60, shot and killed Omaha cabdrivers Reuel Van Ness and Maynard Helgeland in summer 1979. Both men were 47-year-old fathers and military veterans. The state has not carried out an execution since 1997 and has never used lethal injection to end the life of a condemned inmate. In November, prison officials announced they had obtained supplies of 4 drugs they planned to use to carry out a lethal injection. Prison officials then notified Moore in January that they intended to proceed with his execution. The American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska has filed legal actions challenging the state's death penalty protocol, which it argues should force a delay in Moore's execution until they are resolved. (source: Omaha World-Herald) USA: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Still Gagged As Death Penalty Appeal Grinds On As the 5th anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombing comes and goes, we can't help but wonder what Dzhokhar Tsarnaev might have to say for himself - if he were allowed to speak. For one thing, we'd like to ask him if he could fill in some details about his brother Tamerlan's mysterious activities in the years leading up to the bombings - much of which the government continues to withhold as "classified." Dzhokhar is being held at the maximum-security federal penitentiary in Florence, Colorado - known as the "Alcatraz of the Rockies" - under extreme confinement conditions called Special Administrative Measures (SAMs). He was convicted and sentenced to death in 2015 for his role in the bombing near the finish line of the 2013 Boston Marathon. Tsarnaev is appealing his federal death penalty conviction. (All death penalty convictions are automatically appealed.) Essentially a form of solitary confinement, SAMs prevent inmates from communicating with all but a few pre-approved individuals. Tsarnaev is not even allowed to communicate with other inmates in the facility. The government justifies the imposition of SAMs by pointing to the possibility that Tsarnaev could try to secretly communicate with criminal compatriots or incite violence of one kind or another. It's not clear who that might be, since the government insists that Dzhokhar and his brother Tamerlan acted on their own. The few statements Dzhokhar made that we heard about actually sounded apologetic and
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
April 16 PAKISTAN: PHC admits appeals in Mashal lynching case The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday admitted for hearing appeals challenging the verdict of an anti-terrorism court in Mashal Khan lynching case. A 2-judge bench of the high court issued notices to all parties involved in the case on appeals filed by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, Mashal’s father and the convicts who were awarded jail terms by the trial court. The bench, comprising Justice Qalandar Ali Khan and Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim, directed the appellants whose conviction have temporarily been suspended to be in attendance at the next hearing. Mashal, 23, a student at Abdul Wali Khan University (AWKU) in Mardan, was beaten and shot to death on April 13 last year by an unruly mob instigated by rumours that he had committed blasphemy by posting sacrilegious content online. The high court circuit bench in Abbottabad earlier had suspended the conviction of 25 suspects in the case On February 07, the ATC sentenced the prime suspect to death while five others to 25 years’ imprisonment in the case. ATC Judge Fazal-i-Subhan Khan acquitted 26 suspects and awarded three years of jail term to 25 other accused in the case. Convict Imran, who has been awarded capital punishment, was found guilty of firing shots at the victim student from his pistol, which led to his death. He had also confessed to the crime before the court. Nearly 50 prosecution witnesses testified against the suspects during the course of the hearing conducted inside Haripur Central Jail. The prosecution charged 61 people in the case, while 57 of them were arrested and produced before the court for trial. (source: arynews.tv) INDIA: Federal law for death to rapists unlikely despite Kathua gangrape case The gangrape and murder of 8-year-old Kathua girl has shook the nation's conscience once again. Drawing parallels with the Nirbhaya gangrape case of December 2012, chorus for awarding death penalty for the rapists has grown in the recent days in the country. Cutting across party lines, politicians have demanded that the rapists, particularly of minors below 12 years, should be handed out capital punishment. Both leaders at the national level and in the states have joined chorus to press for their demand. NATIONAL LEADERS Union Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi has asked her department to work on a proposal to amend the Protection of Children Against Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. The move is aimed at including the provision of death penalty for the rape of a minor below 12 years of age. The present POCSO Act does not have any provision for capital punishment. The maximum sentence at present is life imprisonment for penetrative sexual assault. Actor-turned-politician Hema Malini reiterated the views expressed by Maneka Gandhi. The BJP MP from Mathura in Uttar Pradesh demanded that rapists of children below 12 years must be "hanged to death". STATE GOVERNMENTS Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti last week said her government would soon introduce a new law to make death penalty mandatory for those who rape minors. Mehbooba Mufti's decision holds significance because Kathua falls in the Jammu region. Not just Mehbooba Mufti but her PDP's arch rival National Conference president Farooq Abdullah has also demanded convening of a special session of the state Assembly to bring in a bill to award capital punishment to the rapists of minors. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also said his government would amend the law for awarding death to the rapists of minor girls. Kejriwal assured bringing law in the next Assembly session. He also said the AAP government in Delhi would also set up fast-track courts to complete trial of the cases of crime against women in 6 months. Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chairperson Swati Maliwal is sitting on an indefinite hunger strike for the past 4 days to protest the Kathua gangrape case and alleged rape by BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar in Unnao. In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Maliwal demanded that child rapists should be given capital punishment within 6 months of committing the crime. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS At least 3 states have passed bills seeking death penalty for those convicted of raping girls under 12 years of age. Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led Madhya Pradesh was the 1st state to legislate a bill in December 2017 which would send convicts of such rapes to the gallows. Last month, ML Khattar government in Haryana and Vasundhara Raje government in Rajasthan too passed similar bills. Coincidentally, all the three states are ruled by the BJP. Moreover, the bills in all these 3 states were passed unanimously. The 3 states have made amendments to the Indian Penal Code (IPC). DEVELOPMENTS SINCE 1998 The demand for securing capital punishment to rape convicts is almost 19 years old. The
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news---TEXAS, MASS., GA., FLA., ALA., S. DAK., IDAHO, CALIF.
April 17 TEXAS: Northeast Texas man on death row for strangling girlfriend turned down by The U.S. Supreme Court turned down Daniel Acker's appeal on Monday. A northeast Texas man convicted of strangling his girlfriend moved one step closer to a possible execution date after the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday turned down his appeal despite what his lawyer described as a "compelling case of actual innocence." Daniel Acker was sent to death row in 2001 for the slaying of Marquetta George. The two were sharing a rented trailer in Hopkins County in March 2000 when they got in a fight after a night at the Bustin' Loose nightclub. Afterward, they parted ways and later Acker went searching for the 32-year-old Sulphur Springs woman, according to court filings. Her body was eventually found bloodied and beaten on the side of a road, and investigators fingered Acker for the killing. At trial, the defense argued that George jumped out of the couple's truck and was hit. Prosecutors said her boyfriend strangled her, then dumped her body. Acker was sentenced to death and has spent the past 18 years fighting his case, at times filing appeals on his own. The latest appeal, filed by attorney A. Richard Ellis, argued that prosecutors used false testimony from experts and repeatedly changed their theory of the crime. The case at trial was predicated on the theory that George was strangled - and the defense argued that she wasn't, and that an expert for the state later admitted it. Ellis also contended that the trial court of wrongly refused to allow evidence that could have shown Acker's innocence. But this week the nation's highest court without comment turned down the case. "I am of course very disappointed that the Supreme Court declined to review Mr. Acker's compelling case of actual innocence," Ellis said. "This was a tragic accident, where the victim jumped from Mr. Acker's truck -- an accident for which he has taken full responsibility from the time he turned himself in to the authorities -- but not a murder," he continued. "Going forward, we will be assessing our options to prevent a terrible miscarriage of justice." Acker does not yet have an execution date set. (source: Houston Chronicle) MASSACHUSETTS: Massachusetts lawmaker pushes to reinstate death penalty after cop killing A police officer on Cape Cod was shot in the head and killed Thursday while serving a warrant, local media reported. A Massachusetts lawmaker is reportedly pushing the state to bring back the death penalty in response to the recent killing of a police officer gunned down while serving a warrant. State Rep Shaunna L. O’Connell, a Republican, said the state has a reputation of being soft on crime and that puts the public in danger. “We need to send a message to criminals that ‘you kill law enforcement officers, you are going to get the death penalty,” she said, according to Fox25Boston. Yarmouth K-9 Officer Sean Gannon was shot and killed last Thursday while he and other officers were serving an arrest warrant at a home in Barnstable on Cape Cod. Gannon, who was married, was an 8-year veteran of the department. Gannon's dog, Nero, also was shot but underwent surgery and is recovering. Thomas Latanowich, 29, was charged in the killing. Latanowich hung his head throughout his brief arraignment in Barnstable District Court last week, speaking only to answer “yes” when the judge asked if he understood the proceedings. Latanowich has been arrested numerous times, according to police and court records, though many of the charges were later dismissed. Authorities said the last prison time Latanowich served was a 4- to 5-year sentence on gun charges. The prosecutor expressed frustration that prior charges had not resulted in more lengthy sentences. Gov. Charlie Baker, a Republican, said in a statement that he supports the death penalty when a police officer is killed. (source: Fox News) * Some crimes merit death penalty The death penalty would be a fitting end to Thomas Latanowich if he is found guilty in the slaying of Yarmouth police officer Sean Gannon. Latanowich has an immense criminal record including recent arrests for strangling a pregnant woman and stabbing a man at a traffic light. Unfortunately there is no stomach for capital punishment on Beacon Hill. Opponents fear that an innocent man could be executed, and suggest the death penalty is not a deterrent to crime. Our justice system is imperfect and preventing collateral damage in our sentencing should always be a concern, but it is absurd to posit that the death penalty cannot be deterrent. Who are the respondents of such a survey? How can we prove a negative? Across the country, if the death penalty is ineffective it is because it is never implemented properly — with many on death row for decades, long after the impact of an execution would resonate in the
