[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----USA, LA., ORE., CALIF., ALA., FLA., PENN.
Dec. 11 USA: Unfit for Execution To the Editor: You correctly note that the State of Georgia, by forcing capital defendants to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they are mentally retarded, has eviscerated the Supreme Court’s ruling in Atkins v. Virginia, which held that the Constitution prohibits the execution of the mentally retarded (“An Intolerable Burden of Proof,” editorial, Nov. 30). But you are ingenuous to believe that the Supreme Court might correct this error, because, in fact, the justices have encouraged this very response. In the nearly 10 years since Atkins, around 100 death row inmates have been deemed mentally retarded and moved off death row. But there are dozens more whose cogent claims of mental retardation were denied by lower courts. Many of these denials were based on standards enacted by the states that undercut the principle of Atkins, and many were based on tendentious clinical evidence. Of all these denials, the Supreme Court has not reversed a single one. It is fair to fault Georgia for undermining the Atkins decision. But we should not overlook the Supreme Court’s role in nullifying its own ruling. DAVID R. DOWHouston, Nov. 30, 2011 The writer is a professor at the University of Houston and Rice University and represents death row inmates. (source: Letter to the Editor, New York Times) LOUISIANAnew death sentence Bossier City man sentenced to death for triple murder A Bossier City man convicted of murdering his estranged wife's parents and son has received the death penalty. Robert McCoy, 37, was found guilty of 3 counts of 1st degree murder this past August. A jury found McCoy shot and killed his estranged wife's mother, Christine Colston-Young; stepfather, Willie Young; and son, Greg Colston inside their home. Following the May 2008 crime, McCoy fled to Idaho where he was caught 4 days later. (source: Bossier Press) OREGON: Calling the question on the death penalty John Kitzhaber has invited a debate about Oregon's death-penalty law, but is the governor prepared to accept the results of another vote? When Gov. John Kitzhaber granted a reprieve from the death penalty sought by two-time killer Gary Haugen and declared a moratorium on all executions, he also said Oregonians should debate and then reform their capital punishment law. That raises a question: What if voters are fine with the law the way it is Kitzhaber is convinced that Oregon's death penalty is broken and a perversion of justice, but there is no sign that most Oregonians agree with him. You can parse polls and argue about the extent of support for the death penalty, but no survey suggests Oregonians are prepared to reverse their 1984 vote reinstating capital punishment. The governor has the constitutional authority to grant death penalty reprieves or pardons. But those who heaped praise on Kitzhaber for blocking all executions in Oregon ought to think about the precedent of cheering on an elected official who declares that he finds something written into the constitution immoral and simply can't abide it. Suppose some day the issue is abortion or gay marriage. Would they still think a chief executive who overrode a law voters put into the constitution courageous and bold? Kitzhaber called on lawmakers to bring potential reforms before the 2013 legislative session and encourage all Oregonians to engage in the long-overdue debate that this important issue deserves. OK, but does the governor want a real debate, or the kind of I-talk-you-listen conversation Kitzhaber was famous for during his first 2 terms? The governor's staff has blocked release of many emails between the governor and key advisers leading up to his decision in the Haugen case. A judge also has refused to release the results of a psychological evaluation of Haugen. Kitzhaber's legal counsel says the emails need to be kept secret to encourage frank communication among the governor, his legal advisers and other staff. About now, Oregonians could use some frank communication on the death penalty, which they didn't get in Kitzhaber's recent campaign for governor. For starters, when and where does the will of the people come into the discussion? The people of Oregon put the death penalty into their constitution. Eventually, somebody's got to ask voters whether they still want it there. Why not call the question? Death penalty opponents keep saying the nation is moving away from capital punishment. Numbers of death sentences and executions are down. In just the last four years, three states -- New Jersey, New Mexico and New York -- have banned capital punishment. In California, opponents of capital punishment are seeking to place an initiative on the November 2012 ballot that would replace the death penalty with life imprisonment. A similar effort was considered in Oregon in 2002, and abandoned after a poll apparently suggested the
[Deathpenalty] [SPAM] death penalty news----worldwide
Dec. 11 BELARUS: Belarus death-row bomber appeals for clemency Vladislav Kovalyov, 1 of the 2 men sentenced to death in Belarus for bombing a metro station in the capital, Minsk, has appealed to President Alexander Lukashenko for clemency. “In the appeal, he wrote he was not guilty of this heinous crime,” his mother, Lyobov Kovalyova, told reporters on Friday. The 11 April attack killed 15 people and injured hundreds of others. Kovalyov, 25, was found guilty of “assisting in an act of terrorism,” and Dmitry Konovalov, also 25, was convicted of carrying out the attack. The Supreme Court said on November 30 the 2 men will be executed by firing squad. About 160,000 people have signed a petition to President Lukashenko not to execute the men, Amnesty International researcher Heather McGill told a news conference in Minsk on Friday. Belarus is the only country in Europe which still uses capital punishment. (source: Ria Novosti) CHINA: Truth about laughing prisoner who wanted to look her best to be shot She was the Chinese woman seen by millions laughing and joking during her final hours on death row. Pictures circulating on the internet last week showed her asking for a black top to wear to make her look ‘less fat’ for her execution. Finally, she was seen weeping while being marched off to be shot for heroin trafficking. But The Mail on Sunday can reveal that 25-year-old He Xiuling was not a hardened criminal but a ‘simple girl’ from the countryside sucked into the drugs trade and used as a ‘mule’ by a domineering boyfriend. Worse still, it appears she was led to believe she might receive a lighter sentence if she confessed. She did just that – and was condemned to death. At her trial Xiuling had pleaded to the judge: ‘Please give me a second chance to live. I want to live. I am still young.’ But while wealth and political connections can often secure leniency in China, Xiuling had neither. Just 9 months after her court appearance she was executed with a bullet in the back of her head. Such was her naivety she believed right to the end that she would be spared and handed instead a 15-year jail term. She excitedly told fellow inmates: ‘I’ll still only be 40 when I’m free.’ Details of her case, gleaned from court records, official reports and interviews, are likely to further stir debate about the death penalty in China, where more prisoners are killed every year than in the rest of the world combined. The pictures were taken inside No 1 Detention Centre for Women in Wuhan, central China on June 24, 2003. But they were deemed too sensitive for release at the time. They chronicle the 10-hour period before Xiuling and 3 other women were shot – an execution timed to coincide with a United Nations no-drugs day. The daughter of a small-time businessman, Xiuling grew up in Xiantao, a shabby city in China’s rural Hubei province. Though vivacious and outgoing, she found herself trapped in a £2-a-day factory job after finishing high school with average grades. But aged 24, she defied her family and moved to the relatively cosmopolitan city of Zhongshan in Guangzhou, southern China, in search of excitement. There she became besotted with a boyfriend, Wang Qizhi. When she discovered he was a drug dealer she threatened to leave him, but he won her back with gifts of jewellery and a mobile phone. In January 2002, Wang persuaded Xiuling to take a consignment of heroin hidden in a microwave oven from Guangzhou to Wuhan and deliver it to a hotel. She was talked into doing 2 more drug runs for Wang, in February and March, but on the 3rd trip she was arrested in Wuhan and caught with 15lb of heroin. Wang fled and was never caught. Advised by police to confess in return for the possibility of a lighter sentence, Xiuling pleaded guilty and was sentenced to death in September 2002. According to a journalist who visited her, Xiuling was convinced her sentence would be revoked. ‘Her fellow inmates told her the sentence would be changed to 15 years in prison,’ said the journalist. ‘She would sing in her cell. ‘She was a simple girl who never thought her execution would really go ahead. ‘I think warders encouraged her to believe that, maybe out of kindness. But they must have known she had no chance.’ It was only a few hours before her execution that Xiuling finally accepted her fate. She penned a letter to her parents apologising for being ‘such a disappointment’. ‘You used to tell me off for being naughty,’ she wrote. ‘But I never knew I would get into so much trouble. I wanted to go away and make money to send back and to look after you but it all went wrong.’ It was newspaper photographer Yan Yuhong, 36, who captured her last hours. He said Xiuling looked so relaxed because she was surrounded by fellow prisoners and warders she regarded as friends. But in the hour before execution her mood changed. ‘She was
