[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
October 14 ST. KITTS: Leanna’s Convicted Killers Could Face Death Penalty The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) wants the death penalty for 2 convicted Killers of 17-year-old Leanna ‘Tiney’ Napoleon in the May/June 2017 homicide; 1 of whom is the teen’s brother. According to the Police Public Relations Department, the application for such is expected to be submitted to the court this week. On Friday 11th October, the deceased’s brother 21-year-old Brandon Lee Wells of Buckley’s Estate and his friend 20-year-old Travien Liddie of St. Johnston Village were both convicted after a 12- member jury gave its decisions. The jury returned unanimous guilty verdicts for the offences of Murder and Attempting to Pervert the Natural Course of Justice for Wells, a unanimous guilty verdict for Liddie for the offence of Attempting to Pervert the Natural Course of Justice and an 11-1 guilty verdict for the offence of Murder. Both young men had previously been charged for the incident which occurred between May 08 and June 14, 2017. The DPP indicated to the court that he intends to make an application for the death penalty for both accused persons. The judge ordered a Social Inquiry Report and Psychiatric Report be completed in preparation for sentencing. Both Wells and Liddie have been remanded to Her Majesty’s Prison. On June 24, 2019, 27-year-old Ivan Phillip of LaGuerite pleaded guilty to the offence of being an Accessory After the Fact to Murder. On Tuesday 24th September, he was sentenced to five (5) years and nine (9) months in prison commencing from that day. Notably, in June 2017 Phillip age was given as 18-year- old and was said to be a resident of Shadwell. Wanted by police back then, he reported Basseterre Police on Wednesday 21st June. On Wednesday 14th June, the missing school girl (Napoleon) was found dead and buried in a shallow grave overnight in a far out mountainous region of the Olivee’s area located beyond the Buckley’s community. Napoleon, who had been missing for over a month, was last seen on Monday 8th May in the vicinity of Buckley’s Site and Fort Street. Napoleon was a 5th form student of the Basseterre High School (BHS). (source: The Labour Spokesman) INDIA: Death Penalty In POCSO Act Imperils Child Victims Of Sexual Offences Amendment bills should fix loopholes in the original law but the amendments contained in the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act of 2019 do not improve upon the original bill of 2012, child rights activists say. The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Amendment) Bill of 2019 actually weakens the POCSO Act, Shailabh Kumar, lawyer and co-director of Haq: Centre for Child Rights, said. Including death penalty as punishment could reduce the number of cases reported and might lead to murder of the victim. Further, there has been no amendment to provide for compensation of victims, and no strong solution for reducing pendency of cases. Most members of parliament across political parties welcomed the amendments, and the bill--though debated in the house for nearly four hours--was passed without being referred to any parliamentary standing committee. In this monsoon session of the Lok Sabha, 34 other bills were passed, each receiving little attention from lawmakers. This is the fourth story in our series analysing the most significant of these 35 bills. The POCSO Act was amended with 5 new clauses, including extending punishment from 10 to 20 years for penetrative sexual assault with children below the age of 16 and death sentence for aggravated penetrative sexual assault by a person in a position of authority--which includes police officers, members of the armed forces and public servants. It also includes cases where the offender is a relative of the child, or if the assault injures the sexual organs of the child. The death penalty can also be given in case of aggravated sexual assault which results in the death of a child or for assault during a natural calamity or in any situation of violence, the amendment says, replacing the words ‘communal or sectarian violence’ in the original bill. Other provisions change the length of prison sentences for certain kinds of crimes, and would not have an impact on the rate of crime against children, activists said. Death penalty not a deterrent “Introducing death penalty was nothing but a populist move,” said Kumar. Activists are concerned, as we said, that the introduction of death penalty will reduce the number of reported cases of sexual offence against children. As many as “94% of the accused are known to the victims in cases of child sexual abuse”, said Mohd Ikram, manager, child safeguarding policy at Breakthrough, a women’s rights organisation in Delhi. “When most accused are personally known to the victims and their families, the possibility of death may deter the victims to file a
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----ILL., CALIF., ORE.
October 14 ILLINOIS: State lawmaker files bill to reinstate death penalty in Illinois A state lawmaker filed a bill Thursday calling for the reinstatement of the death sentence in Illinois. Republican Rep. David McSweeney's bill, HB 3915, would "serve as a deterrent to violent crime with the specific goal of reducing mass shootings, serial killings, and gun violence," according to the measure. McSweeney first introduced the bill in August after the El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio shootings, according to the Capitol News Illinois. Illinois abolished the death penalty in 2011 and in 2018, former Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner proposed reinstating it for mass killers and people who gun down police officers. (source: KMOV news) CALIFORNIA: California must take the final step by abolishing the death penalty I do not believe in coincidence. Too many of the events along my journey from death row to exoneration were filled with deeper meaning. In 1985, I was a 24-year-old honorably discharged Marine who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I was arrested, convicted, and sentenced to die in Maryland for a crime I did not commit. Then in 1989, I got “The Blooding” by Joseph Wambaugh from the prison library. It was a book about a new forensic breakthrough called DNA fingerprinting. I later became the 1st person exonerated from a death sentence through the use of DNA evidence. In a bizarre twist of fate, I discovered that the true perpetrator of the crime had lived in a cell right below mine for years. Oct. 10 was World Day Against the Death Penalty. It was also California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s birthday. I believe it is very auspicious that these two events share a day. It seems fitting for a man who has used his authority as governor to take the bold stand that “the intentional killing of another person is wrong,” and declare that as governor, he “will not oversee the execution of any individual.” I am now the executive director of Witness to Innocence, an organization led by exonerated survivors of death row with similar stories to my own. There are at least 166 of us, men and women who have been exonerated from death row in the U.S. since 1973. We thank Gov. Newsom for remembering our stories when he said “we’ve created a system that allows for innocent people to be put to death.” We don’t think that. We know that.” We, the survivors of death row, also know that the problems with the death penalty go far beyond the real risk that we will execute an innocent person. As Gov. Newsom said: “It’s a racist system. You cannot deny that. It’s a system that is perpetuating inequality. It’s a system that I cannot in good conscience support.” California’s death row, the largest in the nation by far, is emblematic of those problems. The majority of people sentenced to death in California are people of color. Many suffer from severe mental illness, intellectual disabilities, brain injury, or long histories of abuse and trauma, and nearly a quarter were age 21 or younger at the time of their alleged crimes. Whether a person will be sentenced to death depends more on which county he or she is from and who their attorney was than on the facts of the case. California spends $150 million a year on this problematic system, which is a vivid illustration of the deep flaws that remain in our criminal justice system. Gov. Newsom’s moratorium on executions is a great first step, and the journey toward justice must continue. I hope next year on his birthday and World Day Against the Death Penalty we have more to thank the governor for, and I look forward to the day when we count California among the jurisdictions in the U.S and the vast majority of countries that have come to recognize that death can never advance justice. (source: Commentary; Kirk Bloodsworth is the executive director of Witness to Innocence, a national organization of death row exonerees in Philadelphia with a mission to abolish the death penalty. He wrote this commentary for CalMatters, a public interest journalism venture committed to explaining how California’s Capitol works and why it mattersNapa Valley Register) OREGON: A 2nd childhood for a cold-blooded killer?: Steve Duin Since murdering Rod and Lois Houser in 1987, Randy Guzek apparently has had one hell of a time finding a decent lawyer. It took him 32 years to find attorneys willing to argue he should have been tried as a child, not an adult. Guzek’s new legal champions are Jeffrey Ellis and Karen Steele. Hoping to free him from Oregon’s death row, they first filed a court document listing the “deficiencies” of his previous legal counsel. It runs 1,856 pages . Guzek’s former defense attorneys, we’re told, screwed up time and again. They failed to counter allegations that Guzek sexually abused his younger sister, Tammy. They botched their cross-examination of Lynn Fredrickson,
