[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, USA
September 4 TEXASexecution Texas executes Billy Crutsinger in Fort Worth slayings of two elderly women Crutsinger had pushed to stop his execution based on claims of bad lawyering during his trial and in the appellate process. In 2003, an 89-year-old woman and her 71-year-old daughter were stabbed to death in their Fort Worth home. On Wednesday, Texas executed Billy Crutsinger for the crime. Crutsinger was sentenced to death for the home robbery and slayings of Pearl Magouirk and her daughter, Patricia Syren. The 2 women were found 2 days after their murders, and police tracked Crutsinger to a Galveston bar using Syren’s credit card, according to court records. In Tarrant County, Assistant Criminal District Attorney and lead prosecutor Michele Hartmann said Tuesday the loss of the mother and daughter “is still felt deeply by their family and the Fort Worth community.” After his last appeals were denied by the U.S. Supreme Court just minutes before his execution was scheduled to begin at 6 p.m., Crutsinger, 64, was strapped to a gurney in the death chamber in Huntsville. No relatives of the women were present to witness the execution, according to a prison spokesman. Crutsinger had three friends in the viewing room, who, in his final words, he thanked for coming and supporting other death row inmates. Into the microphone hanging above his head, he said the system "is not completely right," but he was at peace and was going to be with Jesus and his family. "I am going to miss those pancakes and those old time black and white shows," he said. "Where I am going everything will be in color." Crutsinger was then injected with a lethal dose of pentobarbital at 6:27 p.m., and pronounced dead 13 minutes later, according to the prison department. He was the fifth person executed in Texas this year and the 14th in the country. After the murders, Crutsinger was arrested — albeit illegally — after he didn’t identify himself to police in Galveston. He consented to a DNA swab that linked him to the crime scene and confessed to the murders while in custody, the records state. A judge ruled that police were not justified in arresting Crutsinger on the spot for credit card abuse because they didn’t have a warrant, and he didn’t commit the crime of failure to identify himself before his arrest. Still, despite the illegal arrest, the judge found his confession and DNA sample were admissible evidence in court because the police conduct was not “purposeful or flagrant,” and there was probable cause for his arrest, just not a warrant. During his nearly 16 years on death row, Crutsinger appealed his sentence arguing against the legal validity of his confession and DNA sample. But more recently, he pointed to his lawyers’ failings. Crutsinger argued that his trial lawyer failed to adequately investigate mitigating factors that could have swayed the jury to hand down a sentence of life in prison instead of execution. Specifically, he claimed the attorney overlooked evidence of mental impairment caused by alcohol addiction, head trauma, depression and low intelligence, according to a recent federal district court ruling. His most recent lawyer, Lydia Brandt, had also knocked his state appellate lawyer — claiming his incompetence and the courts’ refusal to grant investigatory funding kept Crutsinger from any meaningful appeals process. She noted that a judge in another capital case found Crutsinger’s state appellate lawyer “sloppy” and lacking professionalism, and that his filings were “poorly done and of minimal assistance to the court,” according to Crutsinger’s petition. “The State of Texas denied Mr. Crutsinger his initial right to one full and fair opportunity to present his claims concerning violations of his fundamental constitutional rights,” Brandt wrote in a final appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court last week. Brandt did not respond to The Texas Tribune on Tuesday. The federal courts, as well as the Texas Criminal Court of Appeals, rejected his arguments. U.S. District Court Judge Terry Means ruled last month that despite a lack of funding for Crutsinger to investigate it, Means fully addressed the merits of the ineffective counsel claim and found it was without merit. He referred to trial records that revealed the lawyer presenting multiple witnesses at the phase of trial where jurors weigh questions that lead to life in prison or death, including prison officers who testified to his good behavior and family members who described his grief and issues with drinking. According to the testimony of his ex-wife and wife at the time of trial, Crutsinger had lost a newborn daughter; his toddler son to drowning; his teenage son to lymphoma; his brother from illness; his father, who was hit by a car; and his sister, who was killed in a car crash in which he was driving. “The assertions that the denial of funding precluded a true merits
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
Sept. 4 SRI LANKA: 3 sentenced to death for hacking to death another at Egoda Uyana The Panadura high court today sentenced to death 3 persons found guilty of hacking to death another at the Egoda Uyana junction in Moratuwa on February 1, 2009. While 7 suspects were accused of this incident, the high court judge Weeraman Serasinghe acquitted and discharged 4 of the 7 suspects when the case was taken up before the Panadura high court today (Sept. 2). Panadura high court judge Weeraman Serasinghe imposed the death penalty on the other 3 suspects found guilty of the offence. (source: sundaytimes.lk) PAKISTAN: Christian mother Asia Bibi demands justice for blasphemy law victims: 'The world should listen' Christian mother Asia Bibi condemned Pakistan’s harsh blasphemy laws and issued an urgent call for reform in her 1st interview since being released from prison after spending 8 years on death row on a false blasphemy charge. In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, Bibi thanked Pakistan’s supreme court for acquitting her but said others also need fair trials. “There are many other cases where the accused are lying in jail for years and their decision should also be done on merit. The world should listen to them,” she said. “I request the whole world to pay attention to this issue,” Bibi continued. “The way any person is alleged of blasphemy without any proper investigation without any proper proof, that should be noticed. This blasphemy law should be reviewed and there should be proper investigation mechanisms while applying this law. We should not consider anyone sinful for this act without any proof.” Bibi’s ordeal began nearly 10 years ago when 2 Muslim farm laborers accused her of drinking from the same container as them and refused to drink after her because she's a Christian. Bibi, also known as Asya Noureen and a mother of 5, was subsequently accused of insulting the Islamic prophet, Muhammad. In Pakistan, where 97 percent of its 180 million inhabitants are Muslim, being charged with committing blasphemy against Islam is punishable by death or life in prison. After spending 8 years on death row, Bibi was acquitted by the Supreme Court of Pakistan, which ultimately said there were many inconsistencies in the testimonies against her. However, she was kept in custody for another seven months as the government struggled with how to free her without angering hardline Islamist groups. Speaking about her time in a Pakistani jail, Bibi told The Telegraph that her Christian faith had never faltered and also said she never cried in front of her daughters when they visited her in jail. “I used to cry alone filled with pain and grief,” she said. Still, Bibi said she feared for her future. “Sometimes I was so disappointed and losing courage I used to wonder whether I was coming out of jail or not, what would happen next, whether I would remain here all my life,” she said. “My whole life suffered, my children suffered and this had a huge impact on my life.” In May, Bibi was finally brought to Canada, through mediation by the European’s Union special envoy on religious freedom, Jan Figel. Due to security concerns, she was unable to say goodbye to her father or her homeland. The University of Findlay was one of 159 schools named in the “Best in the Midwest” college listing. Overall, The Princeton Review recognized 656 regional colleges in 5 zones for its “2020 Best Colleges: Region by Region” accolades. “My heart was broken when I left that way without meeting my family. Pakistan is my country, Pakistan is my homeland, I love my country, I love my soil,” she said. Now 54, Bibi said that while she hopes to move to Europe with her family in the coming months. They are currently living in Canada. Figel told the Telegraph that Bibi is “an admirably brave woman and loving mother” whose story “can serve as a base for reforms in Pakistan, which has very outdated system of blasphemy legislation easily misused against neighbors and innocent people.” The U.S. State Department reports that there are an estimated 77 others in prison in Pakistan under blasphemy laws. But Shaan Taseer, the son of late Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer, believes there are over 200 people jailed for blasphemy. Lawyers and rights groups say blasphemy accusations are often false and made to settle scores or silence rivals. Over the years, thousands of Pakistani Christians, who make up just 2% of the country's population, have fled to nations like Thailand, Sri Lanka and Malaysia in hopes of being given asylum in a safer country. Following Bibi’s case, the U.S. called on Pakistan to release more than 40 members of the religious minorities facing blasphemy charges. It also urged Pakistani leadership to appoint an envoy to address the various religious freedom concerns in the country. Pakistan was listed in January as No. 5 on Open Doors USA's
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., OHIO, TENN., ARK., CALIF.
Sept. 4 TEXASimpending execution Texas set to execute Billy Crutsinger in Fort Worth slayings of 2 elderly womenCrutsinger has pushed to stop his execution based on claims of bad lawyering during his trial and in the appellate process. In 2003, an 89-year-old woman and her 71-year-old daughter were stabbed to death in their Fort Worth home. On Wednesday, Texas plans to execute Billy Crutsinger for the crime. Crutsinger, now 64, was sentenced to death for the home robbery and slayings of Pearl Magouirk and her daughter, Patricia Syren. The two women were found two days after their murders, and police tracked Crutsinger to a Galveston bar using Syren’s credit card, according to court records. In Tarrant County, Assistant Criminal District Attorney and lead prosecutor Michele Hartmann said Tuesday the loss of the mother and daughter “is still felt deeply by their family and the Fort Worth community.” Unless his execution is stopped by the U.S. Supreme Court or delayed by Gov. Greg Abbott, Crutsinger will be put to death after 6 p.m. in Huntsville. After the murders, Crutsinger was arrested — albeit illegally — after he didn’t identify himself to police in Galveston. He consented to a DNA swab that linked him to the crime scene and confessed to the murders while in custody, the records state. A judge ruled that police were not justified in arresting Crutsinger on the spot for credit card abuse because they didn’t have a warrant, and he didn’t commit the crime of failure to identify himself before his arrest. Still, despite the illegal arrest, the judge found his confession and DNA sample were admissible evidence in court because the police conduct was not “purposeful or flagrant,” and there was probable cause for his arrest, just not a warrant. During his nearly 16 years on death row, Crutsinger has appealed his sentence arguing against the legal validity of his confession and DNA sample. But more recently, he has pointed to his lawyers’ failings. Crutsinger has argued that his trial lawyer failed to adequately investigate mitigating factors that could have swayed the jury to hand down a sentence of life in prison instead of execution. Specifically, he claims the attorney overlooked evidence of mental impairment caused by alcohol addiction, head trauma, depression and low intelligence, according to a recent federal district court ruling. His current lawyer, Lydia Brandt, has also knocked his state appellate lawyer — claiming his incompetence and the courts’ refusal to grant investigatory funding has kept Crutsinger from any meaningful appeals process. She noted that a judge in another capital case found Crutsinger’s state appellate lawyer “sloppy” and lacking professionalism, and that his filings were “poorly done and of minimal assistance to the court,” according to Crutsinger’s petition. “The State of Texas denied Mr. Crutsinger his initial right to one full and fair opportunity to present his claims concerning violations of his fundamental constitutional rights,” Brandt wrote in a final appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court last week. Brandt did not respond to The Texas Tribune on Tuesday. The federal courts, as well as the Texas Criminal Court of Appeals, have so far rejected his arguments. U.S. District Court Judge Terry Means ruled last month that despite a lack of funding for Crutsinger to investigate it, Means fully addressed the merits of the ineffective counsel claim and found it was without merit. He referred to trial records that revealed the lawyer presenting multiple witnesses at the phase of trial where jurors weigh questions that lead to life in prison or death, including prison officers who testified to his good behavior and family members who described his grief and issues with drinking. According to the testimony of his ex-wife and wife at the time of trial, Crutsinger had lost a newborn daughter; his toddler son to drowning; his teenage son to lymphoma; his brother from illness; his father, who was hit by a car; and his sister, who was killed in a car crash in which he was driving. “The assertions that the denial of funding precluded a true merits review and that trial counsel's representation was egregious, border on frivolous,” Means wrote in a ruling last month. “... His conclusion that trial counsel failed to explore his alcoholism, his ‘personality change’ after a single drink, his history of domestic violence and abuse, and his repeated losses of significant friends and relatives, is completely false.” Earlier rulings in Crutsinger’s case from the federal district court and the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals have been highlighted by the U.S. Supreme Court, though, when pointing out that the appellate court overly limited investigatory funding. Although the courts reexamined the case and still denied funding and declined to reopen the case for further review, one appellate judge split
