[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, MASS., PENN., FLA., ALA., MISS., OHIO, NEB., CALIF.
April 14 TEXAS: Why This Judge Dreads Execution Day“I wondered whether the system I have been a part of for so long was, simply, barbaric.” The execution was set for 6 p.m. I knew because I set the date and time myself. With a little more than an hour to go, I sat alone by the phone in my office. More than three decades had passed since the defendant was first convicted of murdering a police officer. I had been the judge at his final trial, and now there was a chance I’d be called on to spare his life. Higher courts and the Texas governor had already denied the man’s last-ditch appeals. His lawyers had tried to broker a deal with prosecutors to keep him alive, but that had failed, too. Now he was down to his last shot: The defense could present some new argument or evidence to convince me to intervene and stop the execution. If they did, I would have to make a life-or-death decision with essentially no time for research or discussion. I waited. As the minutes passed, I felt a familiar sense of unease. In the years since I’d presided over his trial, the defendant had become a gray-haired, middle-aged man. He had put together a nearly flawless record helping other inmates. It was hard to see how he still constituted a violent threat to society, a requirement for death penalty cases in Texas. Now, barring a final legal maneuver, he would be erased from the Earth by a system in which I was a key participant. I stared out the window, feeling jealous of folks headed home or to a happy hour. Eventually, the clock ticked to 6 pm. My phone never rang. I turned on the TV, and learned from the evening news that the execution had proceeded as planned. As I left the office, I fell into a dark funk. Usually, I was proud and confident about my work as a judge, but a terrible feeling settled over me—the same feeling I had each time I was involved in a death penalty case. Sometimes I was able to rationalize that my role in the outcome of these cases was minimal. After all, jurors were the ones who weighed evidence and reached a lawful verdict. But other times I wondered whether the system I have been a part of for so long was, simply, barbaric. I ran for office and took the oath knowing that the death penalty would be part of my job, whether I liked it or not. Each time I encountered a capital case — 8 came before me during my 2 decades on the bench - there would be at least one moment that brought my internal conflict starkly into focus. These moments are painfully fresh in my mind. In my first death penalty trial, in 1998, the defendant had sexually assaulted and brutally slashed and stabbed a woman who had befriended him. The jury found him guilty of capital murder, but it was my duty to formally pronounce his sentence in open court. He displayed no emotion - during the trial, he’d only seemed interested in the crime scene and autopsy photos - and there was evidence he was a psychopath, that he felt no remorse. Still, after announcing his sentence, I felt an urgent need to drink and gulped 2 huge glasses of water. I wondered: Is my throat dry, or am I trying to wash the words out of my mouth? Years later, I had to sign the order setting a time for this man’s death—“by intravenous injection of a substance or substances in a lethal quantity sufficient to cause death and until such convict is dead”—and I remember staring at the paper, feeling strange and unnerved. Later, in my journal, I wrote about how I felt I was “invading God’s province.” I heard about another judge who placed a smiley face next to his signature on a death warrant. I couldn’t comprehend that attitude. Writing in my journal helped me stay balanced and objective. Once, I wrote about a defendant who was facing the death penalty, “He was almost always seated with his head tilted slightly downward and his eyes staring downward into space.” During the trial, he had showed little emotion. But when it was time for me to say the required words pronouncing his death sentence, I looked him in the eye. As I wrote later, “I was struck by a sight I will never forget. He looked so small, helpless, pathetic. His eyes looked like those of the proverbial deer in the headlights. He had been convicted of being a brutal, sadistic killer, and it was hard to argue that he was not getting what he deserved—but at that moment, for an instant, I saw the other side of the man, the side his family loved.” I continued: “If only we could execute the bad side and keep the good side alive.” On another occasion, as an execution was approaching, I was visited by the defendant’s lawyers. The appeals had been exhausted; there was nothing they could do. They suggested we get together on the night of the execution. At first, I thought the idea was sick, demented, heartless - a social hour during an execution! But I knew these lawyers; they were compassionate, serious. We kept talking about the
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
April 14 PAKISTAN: Amnesty slams Pakistan military courts over death penalties Amnesty International has slammed Pakistan's military courts for violating UN principles and international fair trial standards in imposing death sentences. Amnesty International's report -- Death Sentences and Executions 2017 - released here on Thursday, expressed concern that Pakistan's military courts "were run by military officers subordinate to the military chain of command - and who had no formal legal training - in breach of the UN Basic Principles on the Independence of the Judiciary". "The charges against the defendants were not made public and those convicted did not have the right to appeal to civilian courts," it said. The report said that Pakistani military courts also sentenced civilians to death and added that its special courts "whose proceedings did not meet international fair trial standards imposed death sentences". Pakistan's Field General Court Martial (FGCM) in April 2017 sentenced Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav to death on charges of espionage and sabotage. India has denied that Jadhav worked for Indian intelligence agencies or that he has worked in Pakistan. The Amnesty report did not specifically mention Jadhav. "People continued to be sentenced to death or executed for crimes that did not involve intentional killing and therefore did not meet the threshold of 'most serious crimes', as prescribed by Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political rights," the report said. Amnesty said that Pakistan carried out more than 60 executions in 2017, imposed over 200 death sentences and there were more than 7,000 people on death row. During 2016, Pakistan executed at least 87 people and imposed more than 360 death sentences, according to the report. Briefing reporters, Amnesty International Senior Director for Law and Policy Tawanda Mutasah said that death penalties have dropped steeply since a peak in 2015 when 326 people were executed. (source: Khaleej Times) NIGERIA: Nigeria’s death sentences highest in sub-Saharan Africa Nigeria imposed the highest number of death sentences in the sub-Saharan Africa region in 2017 with 621 people put to death, Amnesty International has said. The country bucked the trend seen elsewhere in the region, as Sub-Saharan Africa made great strides in the global fight to abolish the death penalty with a significant decrease in death sentences being imposed. Guinea became the 20th state in sub-Saharan Africa to abolish the death penalty for all crimes, while Kenya abolished the mandatory death penalty for murder. Burkina Faso and Chad also took steps to repeal this punishment with new or proposed laws. “The progress in sub-Saharan Africa reinforced its position as a beacon of hope for abolition. The leadership of countries in this region gives fresh hope that the abolition of the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment is within reach. Unfortunately, some states in Nigeria continue to expand the scope of death sentences,” said Amnesty International’s Secretary General Salil Shetty in the organisation’s 2017 global review of the death penalty. There are a total of 2,285 people on death row in Nigeria, which is also the highest in the region, though no executions were carried out in 2017. Death sentences in the country have spiked massively over the past two years. In 2015, 171 death sentences were handed down, while in 2016 there were 527. Amnesty International recorded a drop in the number of executing countries across Sub-Saharan Africa, from five in 2016 to two in 2017, with only South Sudan and Somalia known to have carried out executions. However, with reports that Botswana and Sudan resumed executions in 2018, the organisation highlighted that this must not overshadow the positive steps being taken by other countries across the region. Elsewhere in Africa, The Gambia signed an international treaty committing the country not to carry out executions and moving to abolish the death penalty. The Gambian President Adama Barrow established an official moratorium (temporary ban) on executions in February 2018. Developments across Sub-Saharan Africa in 2017 exemplified the positive trend recorded globally, with Amnesty International’s research pointing to a further decrease in the global use of the death penalty in 2017. Amnesty International recorded at least 993 executions in 23 countries in 2017, down by 4% from 2016 (1,032 executions) and 39% from 2015 (when the organisation reported 1,634 executions, the highest number since 1989). At least 2,591 death sentences in 53 countries were recorded in 2017, a significant decrease from the record-high of 3,117 recorded in 2016. These figures do not include the thousands of death sentences and executions that Amnesty International believes were imposed and implemented in China, where figures remain
