[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
Sept. 18 SOUTH AFRICA: Online petition calling for death penalty surges to over 580k in 2 weeks SIGNATURES on an online petition calling for the reinstatement of the death penalty now number nearly 600 000, despite Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola describing the campaign as flawed. The petition on Change.Org was started by Agent of Change and is addressed to the government of South Africa and President Cyril Ramaphosa. It was started 3 weeks ago following the murders of University of Cape Town student Uyinene Mrwetyana; female karate and boxing champion Leighandre “Baby Lee” Jegels; Mitchell’s Plain pupil Janika Mallo; Pinetown Girls’ High School pupil Ayakha Jiyani; and her Lyndhurst Primary siblings Siphesihle, Khwezi and Kuhlekonke Mpungose. Lamola said last week the Constitution stated that everyone has the right to life following the Constitutional Court’s landmark judgment in the 1995 case of convicted killers Themba Makwanyane and Mvuso Mchunu. However, 2 weeks after the petition was started there were already 400 000 signatures and by last Saturday 580 000 people had registered their support, with the goal of getting 1 million signatures. A link to the petition has also been doing the rounds on local WhatsApp groups. While a constitutional law expert and Emeritus Professor at UKZN said he was personally opposed to the reinstatement of the death penalty, people in favour of its reinstatement had every right to be heard. “We are a democracy; they are entitled to organise, petition and lobby Members of Parliament to support them and help them persuade the ANC, which is strongly against the death penalty. “Every year under apartheid executions increased, but the number of homicides went up,” said Professor George Devenish, who was chairman of the local chapter for the abolition of the death penalty. Last Tuesday the IFP re-tabled its motion to debate in Parliament reinstating the death penalty. IFP spokesperson Mkhuleko Hlengwa said yesterday they expected the debate to be held as and when the schedule allowed as outlined by the National Assembly’s programming committee. “We hope the signatures (on the petition) increase so that they can be a stamp of approval as a voice of the nation, because this is not just a political party thing but a societal thing,” he said. Oshnee Singh from Pietermaritzburg shared a link to the petition, which she had already signed, in a local crime discussion group. “Many of us are bearing the brunt of serious crimes with too relaxed punitive measures and these serious offences are increasing at an alarming rate. There is so much fear among citizens and that means no peace and harmony prevails any more,” she said. (source: iol.co.za) INDIA: Bengal lynching bill under governor scrutinyThe Congress and the Left bring the ‘grave irregularities’ to governor Jagdeep Dhankhar’s notice The Mamata Banerjee government’s plan to pass a bill to prevent lynching in Bengal has come under the scanner of Raj Bhavan with the Congress and the Left bringing to governor Jagdeep Dhankhar’s notice the “grave irregularities” and “legislative improprieties” in the procedure. The West Bengal (Prevention of Lynching) Bill, 2019, which has the provision of the death penalty, was passed in the Assembly on August 30. It is now awaiting the governor’s seal of approval. On Tuesday, the leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, Congress MLA Abdul Mannan, and Left Legislature Party leader Sujan Chakraborty met the governor and sought his intervention. “It was indicated by them (the Opposition representatives) that the bill placed in the House on 30.8.2019 was different than the draft copy of the bill that was circulated amongst the members of the Assembly on 26 August, 2019, and the one to which the governor had recommended introduction,” a Raj Bhavan media release said. Senior bureaucrats said they could not recall an earlier instance of Raj Bhavan issuing a media release following a representation from the Opposition over a bill. The fact that the bill will face the scrutiny of Raj Bhavan was clear in the language of the release. “The governor, after hearing them, indicated that he would look into the available records and if required, would go through the proceedings of the Assembly, even thereafter, if a situation is occasioned, he would seek inputs from the Hon’ble Speaker and the advocate general,” said the release. Raj Bhavan sources said Dhankhar, a senior Supreme Court advocate, had expressed surprise when he was informed about the manner in which the bill was passed. “The government inserted the provision of the death penalty in the final bill, but the bill that had been circulated among the members had life imprisonment as the highest penalty. These changes were made without bringing in any amendment,” Chakraborty said. Mannan said that as the two
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news---WYO., UTAH, ARIZ., NEV., ORE
Sept. 18 WYOMING: Suspect in Deadly Cheyenne Shooting Could Face the Death Penalty A 25-year-old Cheyenne man could face the death penalty after allegedly killing 2 people and seriously injuring 2 others in a shooting in east Cheyenne. Andrew Weaver was booked into the Laramie County jail Monday night on 2 charges of 1st-degree murder and 2 charges of aggravated assault. He has yet to make his initial court appearance. Weaver is accused of killing 37-year-old Adrien Butler and 30-year-old Shaline Wymer, who were found shot to death inside their home at 3436 E. 11th Street around 4:30 p.m. Monday. Police spokesman Officer Kevin Malatesta says 2 14-year-old Cheyenne boys, whose names aren't being released, were also in the house and suffered life-threatening injuries. "They are all unrelated," said Malatesta, who didn't know why the teens were in the house. "Last I knew, which was this (Tuesday) morning, they were both in the hospital," he added. "One had been life-flighted to Denver and the other is here at CRMC." Malatesta says police "have evidence to believe" the shooting was methamphetamine-related. The case remains under investigation by the Cheyenne Police Department. (source: KGAB news) UTAH: Should religious ‘delusions’ keep Ron Lafferty from a Utah firing squad?Inmate wants federal appeals court to rehear arguments it rejected last month Condemned killer Ron Lafferty wants a federal appeals court to rehear arguments it rejected last month that would keep him from facing a firing squad. Lafferty’s federal public defenders filed a brief Monday seeking an “en banc” hearing before the entire 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver. En banc hearings are rarely granted. A 3-judge panel last month rejected his request for a certificate of appeal, a legal document required for another court to hear arguments that a prior appeal was wrongfully denied. State attorneys said after that ruling that Lafferty could be months away from execution. Lafferty’s lawyers argue that the panel’s decision conflicts with previous U.S. Supreme Court decisions on a defendant’s mental health. The judges rejected Lafferty’s claim that a 4th District judge erred in finding him competent to stand trial in 1996. They also rejected his contention that the judge improperly relied on a psychiatrist’s opinion that Lafferty was “situationally competent.” Lafferty and his brother, Dan Lafferty, were convicted of slitting the throats of his sister-in-law, Brenda Lafferty, and her infant daughter, Erica, in 1984 — crimes they committed after Ron Lafferty claimed a revelation from God told him to kill them. A jury convicted Ron Lafferty in 1985 and sentenced him to die. In a separate trial, a jury convicted Dan Lafferty and sentenced him to life in prison. Ron Lafferty was retried in 1996 after an appeals court found the judge used the wrong standard in finding him competent for trial. A jury again convicted him and sentenced him to die. He chose the firing squad. One psychiatrist testified at a 1996 competency hearing that Lafferty’s buttons could be pushed in some instances by defense attorneys or prosecutors who could manipulate him and render him incompetent. Therefore, he found that Lafferty was “situationally competent” because he worked well with his lawyers and they were skilled at dealing with him. The judge in 1996 also relied on a theory of delusions that was not accepted in the medical community, according to Lafferty’s latest court filing. The court failed to take into account that Lafferty’s severe delusions, which stemmed from his mental illness, prevented him from rationally understanding his legal proceedings and assisting his attorneys, according to the court filing. Mental health experts testified that Lafferty received revelations, some of which came from God, but some of which came from evil beings or spirits he called “travelers.” Lafferty identified the “travelers” as homosexual spirit beings with the power to inhabit the bodies of living persons or hosts, including the judge, the prosecutors, the experts, his lawyers, witnesses and the jurors. Travelers have the power to “exude evil” and to control the persons they inhabit. They have the ability to travel from one human host to another since they knew the “key words” necessary to travel, according to court testimony. Two of the experts testified that Lafferty referred to some of the travelers as “factors”: the “B factor” was Beelzebub/Buddha/Mormon/Japan; the “M factor” was Lucifer/Mussolini/Moroni; and the “H factor” was Satan/Hitler/and Lafferty’s father, Watson. Lafferty also believed that he was enlisted in a war between good and evil on the side of God in a premortal existence in which he did spiritual battle with Lucifer. Experts testified that Lafferty believed he had “Christ-like powers.” One psychiatrist conceded in his testimony that
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN., PENN., FLA., OHIO
Sept. 18 TEXAS: Supporters Rally for New Trial for Rodney Reed, Sentenced to Death by All-White Jury in ?‘Jim Crow Trial’ in Texas Supporters of Rodney Reed are calling for a new trial for the Texas death-row prisoner sentenced to death in 1998 by an all-white jury in a racially charged trial. On September 10, 2019, Reed’s family and supporters protested Texas’ death penalty outside the governor’s mansion in Austin. Their plea for a new trial based on evidence of his innocence has been joined by a growing chorus of supporters, which include the Innocence Project, the victim’s cousin, Texas state representative Vikki Goodwin, and Sister Helen Prejean. Reed, who is black, faces a November 20, 2019 execution date for the 1996 murder of a 19-year-old white woman, Stacey Stites, with whom he was having a secret affair. He has consistently maintained his innocence. Reed has argued that Stites was murdered and that he was framed by her fiancé, Jimmy Fennell, an Austin-area police officer who was later fired and jailed based on allegations that he had kidnapped and raped a woman while on duty. In August, the Innocence Project filed a civil rights lawsuit in federal court seeking DNA testing of evidence from the crime, including the belt that was used to strangle Stites. Sandra Reed, Rodney’s mother, has been advocating on his behalf for years. “He never had a chance,” she told the supporters at the rally. In an interview with The Guardian, she said “[r]ace was a big factor in this case. A ‘Jim Crow trial’, an all-white jury, none of his peers.” Rodney Reed has said he and Stites had kept their affair secret because it would have caused a scandal in their small Texas town and because Stites feared Fennell’s reaction if he found out. According to the Innocence Project court filing, witnesses said they had heard Fennell on several occasions threaten to kill Stites if she cheated on him, including saying “he would strangle her with a belt.” The lawsuit says that, in addition to the sexual abuse charges that led to his conviction, Fennell had been the subject of several complaints about “racial bias and use of excessive force at the Giddings police department where he worked.” The Innocence Project pleading says Fennell gave “inconsistent statements” about his activities on the night of the murder. According to the pleading, “prominent forensic pathologists” have concluded Fennell’s testimony that Stites was abducted and killed on her way to work is “medically and scientifically impossible.” As Reed’s scheduled execution date approaches, he has received support from some prominent and unusual sources. Heather Campbell Stobbs, a cousin of Stacey Stites, has publicly expressed doubts about Reed’s guilt. “Too many things point to the ineptitude of law enforcement when they first started working the case,” she said. Texas state representative Vikki Goodwin is calling for a retrial, or for Reed to be removed from death row. “I don’t think anyone can say he is guilty without a shadow of a doubt,” Goodwin said. “I don’t believe we should carry out the death penalty when there’s doubt about the truth of the case.” She pointed to other cases of innocence, saying, “I believe history has shown that in too many cases what seems to be true and just has turned out not to be so when new information or new scientific advances occur.” Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking and the recently released River of Fire, has also spoken out on Reed’s behalf. “Racial discrimination infects the death penalty system as a whole and we see it in this case,” her spokesperson, Griffin Hardy, said. “It’s disturbing to see these kind of biases and prejudices that can ultimately cost someone their life.” (source: Death Penalty Information Center) *** Goliad County grand jury returns murder indictments for 2 accused of fatal shooting A Goliad County grand jury has returned murder indictments for 2 people arrested in connection with the shooting of a vehicle carrying a mother, a father and their infant child. Arrested on capital murder charges, Goliad residents Daniel Mendoza, 18, and Jade Ayana Culpepper, 26, are now charged with murder among other charges returned during a Sept. 6 grand jury, said Assistant District Attorney Tim Poynter. In Texas, capital murder can carry the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole. It is defined, among other criteria, as the murder of a person during the commission of a kidnapping, burglary, robbery, aggravated sexual assault or arson. Grand jury proceedings and testimony are confidential, and Poynter declined to specify why jurors may have decided against capital murder indictments. “It just wasn’t supported by the evidence,” he said. Goliad County sheriff’s deputies and investigators arrested Culpepper and Mendoza, initially charging them with the June 13 capital
