[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
July 23 NIGERIA: Why rapists must be sentenced to death by hanging– FIDA The International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA), has called on Kaduna State government to change the punishment for rape and defilement from 14 years to death penalty by hanging. Mrs. Zainab Atoba, President, FIDA, Kaduna branch, made the call on Monday during a courtesy visit to Alhaji Aminu Shagali, the Speaker Kaduna State House of Assembly. She said this had become imperative because the rate of violence against women and children in the society was getting out of hand. Atoba said the daily report of violence, which includes sexual assault, battery, rape, defilement, trafficking, forced marriage, abuse and host of other vices against women and children must be tamed. She said one in every three women had suffered some form of gender-based violence in her lifetime. According to her, the statistics translates to a staggering one billion women globally who have been abused, beaten or sexually violated because of their gender. Atoba said it was so unfortunate that gender-based violence continued to be a global epidemic with dire consequences for women, their families and communities. She said it usually led to negative mental and physical health consequences for women and limited their decision-making ability and mobility, thereby reducing productivity and earnings. The FIDA President noted that the time had come to ensure that women were capable of fully enjoying their rights and achieving their full potential. “Legal protection from violence is crucial but it must be backed up with sensitisation,’’ she stated. Atoba said lack of awareness in different local languages of such an issue had led to poor awareness about women’s rights among the general public and refusal of the government to consider such issue. She, therefore, suggested implementing a project on sensitising the women and children in the remote areas by creating sustainable public awareness and translating some of the laws into the local languages in the state. “We must all realise that laws alone are not sufficient, rather concerted action is needed to end violence against women and girls. Atoba said the move was within the mandate of FIDA, as its primary objective “is the promotion, protection and preservation of the rights of women and children which also include their civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights. Responding, Alhaji Shagali, Speaker Kaduna State House of Assembly also advocated capital punishment for anyone convicted of rape and other forms of violence. He said this had become imperative following the outrage on rape, kidnapping, armed robbery and violence against women which had become major crimes now in the country, NAN reports. (source: dailypost.ng) SINGAPORE: Lawyer: Singapore acting like N. Korea in treatment of Malaysian death row inmate with mental disability Lawyers for Liberty legal adviser N. Surendran today likened Singapore to North Korea in its treatment of mentally challenged inmate on death row, Nagaenthran Dharmalingam. Surendran said executing a mentally challenged man was against international law and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which Singapore had ratified. “It is beyond dispute that he suffers from mental disability and the evaluation was made by an independent psychiatrist and the evidence has been submitted to court,” he told a press conference here today. “Singapore is putting itself in the same category as Iran or North Korea in sentencing to death or putting on death row a mentally challenged individual. This is a matter of grave seriousness” he said. Surendran said Nagaenthran or Naga, 31 was found to have an IQ of 69. "This means he has an “extremely low range of functioning” and has borderline intellectual functions," he said. Naga’s condition was also assessed by an independent and prominent psychiatrist, Dr Ken Ung Eng Khean, who diagnosed him with mental and intellectual impairment. The Singapore courts hired 3 psychiatrists of their own and two of them concurred that Naga suffers from a mild form of ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) of the inattentive type where his executive functioning skills are impaired. The 3rd psychiatrist Dr Koh Wun Wu’s expert evidence was made without further independent medical examination of Naga, but was made from reading the reports of the other 2 state psychiatrists. “In considering the views of psychiatrists, the State (Singapore) has been shown to be inherently biased in its attitude towards independent psychiatrists. This is highly prejudicial to the accused persons and accordingly breaches their rights to a fair trial. “The very fact they rejected the report and condemned Naga’s mental disability is indicative of the state of Singapore and their judicial attitude towards drug offenders and
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----PENN., S.C., OHIO, ARIZ., CALIF.
July 23 PENNSYLVANIA: Lawmakers Weigh In On Legal Effort To End Capital Punishment In Pennsylvania A group of Republican state senators has urged the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to reject an attempt to overturn the death penalty. 2 death row inmates contend that the punishment is administered in an unconstitutional way, but the Republicans say that only the legislature can decide to repeal the death penalty. State Sen. Camera Bartolotta (R-Monongahela) is one of the 13 legislators who made that argument in a friend-of-the-court brief filed earlier this month. “The Supreme Court can only decide if something is constitutional or not,” Bartolotta said. “They’re not a branch of government that writes legislation or puts things in statute.” Her position echoes that of the state attorney general's office, which said in its brief filed last week that action by the justices would be based on “factually unsettled matters of policy entrusted to the legislative branch, not constitutional issues to be resolved by courts.” In addition, the office noted that both the state and U.S. Supreme Courts have upheld the constitutionality of the death penalty in the past. But the inmates who brought the case argue that new evidence shows Pennsylvania’s capital punishment system is discriminatory and prone to error. In a brief submitted in February, they cite a legislative report that was released last summer. It found that since 1972, 6 death row inmates have been exonerated while just 3 have been executed. And as of May 2018, 150 inmates sentenced to death since 1978 have had their convictions or sentences overturned due to ineffective assistance of counsel, according to the report. Today, there are 131 Pennsylvania prisoners on death row, according to the inmates. The legislative study found that whether defendants are sentenced to death depends on the county in which they are prosecuted. The race of the victim was also shown to be a factor. Cases involving white victims were more likely to result in a death sentence, regardless of the race of the accused perpetrator, the report said. The Republican state senators write in their brief, however, that the report was meant to provide guidance to the legislature, not “to stand in for judicial fact-finding or to eliminate important policy debates.” State Rep. Dan Miller (D-Mount Lebanon), who opposes capital punishment, said the report’s findings raise constitutional questions on which courts have the authority to rule. “Just because the legislature refuses to review something doesn’t mean that the courts should be taking a blind eye to its constitutional ramifications,” Miller said. But Bartolotta, who belongs to the Senate Judiciary Committee and co-chairs her chamber's criminal justice reform caucus, countered that lawmakers will address the issue. “That’s exactly what we’ve been doing,” she said. “We only got the report back last year. So now, we go back in the fall, now that the budget was done in June ... and I am sure the judiciary committee and other committees are going to be taking those findings ... and then moving forward.” Miller, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, doubts the GOP-controlled legislature will follow through. “I don’t know how long people need to control majorities, control committees, and then feign some sort of interest in these topics before people realize that they are not going to make any progress on it,” Miller said. “These things are not going to change. They have no interest in doing so.” Nonetheless, state Rep. Frank Ryan (R-Lebanon County) has said he plans to introduce a bill to repeal the death penalty with state Rep. Chris Rabb (D-Philadelphia County) in the fall. Former state Sen. Stewart Greenleaf (R-Montgomery County) was the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee before retiring last year. He said he tried to bring the death penalty up for a committee vote, but could not get enough support to bring it up. But, the former lawmaker believes the political climate has changed. “It wasn’t long ago when there was overwhelming support for the death penalty among people in Pennsylvania,” Greenleaf said. “That has changed significantly. And of course … the number of other states that have repealed the death penalty is high as well. So things are going in that direction.” 21 states have outlawed capital punishment, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Pennsylvania is 1 of 4 states where governors have halted all executions, even though the law permits them. Bartolotta said Gov. Tom Wolf should stop his practice of granting reprieves to all death-row inmates, which he has done since 2015. “We should honor the jury’s decision. We should honor the rule of law,” Bartolotta said. “If we don’t like the law, we should change the law. But you have to do it the right way.” The Washington County lawmaker did not say whether she
