[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----PENN., N.C., GA., USA
Sept. 27 PENNSYLVANIAimpending execution Pennsylvania's big question: To kill or not to kill Terrance Williams Pennsylvania is still a state that has the death penalty. Since re-enacting capital punishment in 1978, only 3 people have died at the hands of the state. It has been 13 years since the last inmate was executed, but on Wednesday, Terrance Williams, 46, will be led to the death chamber. Williams was convicted of murder in 1984 of Amos Norwood. He was 17 at the time of the crime but sentenced as an adult and given the death penalty. The controversy is that Williams allegedly killed Norwood because of years of sexual abuse by the neighbor. Though convicted of 2nd-degree murder, he was still given the death penalty. Several community leaders, clergy and Norwood's widow, who says she forgives Williams, are protesting the execution. Those protesting are asking for the sentence to be commuted and Williams be given life in prison without parole. There is no doubt he killed his neighbor and had committed other criminal acts as a youth, including the death of a man that was ruled self-defense. To many, he is simply a hardened criminal and should pay for his crime. However, others feel because of the abuse that was inflicted there should be mercy by the court. The other issue is that because he was convicted of 2nd-degree murder, it seems somewhat extreme that capital punishment was even an option. As a Christian, I am opposed to the death penalty, but I do understand it is the law of the land in the state I reside in. That being said, I also believe that this particular case is a good reason to grant Williams his life and commute his sentence. Our state was just shocked by the allegations of sexual abuse by former Penn State coach Jerry Sandusky and his ultimate conviction. We know all too well the damage this kind of crime does to children. For years, we have heard of victims of abuse within the Catholic Church coming forward and finally getting justice for their pain. While many sit back in disgust over these heinous acts toward children, here we have a 46-year-old man who has spent much of his life in prison for a horrible crime even though he was himself a victim. He is obviously guilty and should be punished for the crime of murder, but why death? Perhaps many would argue that he did the crime so he should pay for it, which is fair, but do we consider why? Is sexual abuse, especially now that we are learning more and more about its negative effects, something to consider when sentencing someone? There is no doubt Williams killed Norwood in 1984, but was the fact he was a victim any excuse? The life of Terrance Williams now rests in the hands of Common Pleas Judge M. Teresa Sarmina, who plans to give her final ruling by Friday on whether to delay the execution and Gov. Tom Corbett, who seems pretty much sold on the idea that Williams should die for his crime. If that happens, it will be a sad day not just because of my feelings toward capital punishment but also due to the tragedy of this man's life. The idea that an adult would take a child's innocence and permanently damage them is beyond me. What Mr. Norwood allegedly did to Williams was no different than what Jerry Sandusky, priests or countless other adults have inflicted on thousands of children. None of this justifies their murders, but it does speak to the motivation of the killer. That is precisely why I believe Williams should not die for his crime but also should remain in prison because of it. It is true we reap what we sow, but we also must hold our legal system to a standard of justice that includes mercy for those who have been hurt, abused or victimized by people. This case is one of tragedy for Williams, who is facing execution on top of a life behind bars and the pain of his life of abuse and for the Norwood family who were victims of murder. It is my hope that our governor grants Williams his life, but if not, we at least can reflect on our own beliefs about justice and punishment. I also urge us to continue the fight for the rights of victims of abuse and the rehabilitation of sexual offenders. (source: Op-Ed, Jeremy RitchThe Patriot-News) * Inquirer Editorial: Time to call off Terrance Williams' execution The case for sparing the life of condemned killer Terrance Williams has never been more compelling than now, just days away from his scheduled appointment with Pennsylvania's executioner. Working along 2 tracks, Gov. Corbett and the courts still have a chance to head off an irreversible injustice - and what would be the state's 1st execution in a half-century of someone who had not given up on appealing his death sentence. The 1st opportunity comes Thursday, when the state Board of Probation and Parole is set to review its rejection of Williams' clemency bid. New evidence that weighs heavily in Williams' favor
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----MO., FLA., OHIO, AM. SAM.
Sept. 27 MISSOURI: State presents new DNA evidence The new evidentiary hearing for Missouri death row inmate Reginald Clemons ended last Thursday afternoon on a high note for the State of Missouri, which is defending its conviction of Clemons for 1st degree murder in response to a writ of habeas corpus challenging that conviction, which Clemons filed with the Missouri Supreme Court. The state called DNA analysts from the Missouri Highway Patrol and a private company that performs paternity tests to present data concerning a used condom found on the Chain of Rocks Bridge the morning after the April 4, 1991 events and from boxer shorts and pants that Clemons' codefendant Marlin Gray wore that night. Though the evidence dates back to Clemons' 1993 jury trial, more sensitive DNA analytics developed since then now make it possible to develop DNA profiles from the scant amount of DNA material left on the objects, the DNA analysts testified. The new DNA profiles conform to the state's case that Robin Kerry and Julie Kerry endured a group rape on the bridge that night. DNA with female characteristics extracted from the condom matches DNA with female characteristics extracted from Gray's boxers and pants, according to Stacey Bolinger, DNA analyst for the Missouri Highway Patrol. And according to Kim Gorman, DNA analyst for Paternity Testing Corp. in Columbia, this female DNA is 99.99 % (and really many more 9s than that) more likely to be a daughter of the Kerry girls??? parents than a random person, according to comparisons to the parents' DNA profiles. The DNA on both Gray's shorts and pants was subjected to a process that separates out sperm cells, enabling a separation of male DNA profiles. The male DNA on his shorts contains a mixture of at least 2 individuals, Bolinger said, and neither Gray nor Clemons could be eliminated from a possible match, based on a comparison to their DNA profiles. She said the male DNA on Gray's pants contains a mixture of at least 3 individuals, and Gray, Clemons and their codefendant Antonio Richardson could not be eliminated from a possible match. Under cross examination by Andrew Lacy of Clemons' legal team, Bolinger said there was no exact DNA match for Clemons in any of the evidence. She also said there is no test for how old DNA is or when it was deposited, so no way to confirm that this DNA dates back to the crimes. Contamination is possible, Bolinger admitted. She also said the DNA separated out for sperm could be non-sperm. Gray, Richardson and Clemons all were convicted of first degree murder of the Kerry sisters in 3 separate trials in 1993, and all were sentenced to death. Clemons was charged with rape in the incident, but has never been tried for rape. Clemons pleads the 5th 29 times Last Wednesday, Clemons refused to answer 29 questions from the state about the crimes on the grounds his answer could incriminate him. Initially, he pled the 5th Amendment 32 times, but after Judge Michael Manners encouraged him to meet with counsel to rethink his decision, Clemons answered 3 of those questions. Previously, Clemons answered 4 questions about the crimes posed by Andrew Lacy of his legal team: Did you kill Robin or Julie Kerry? Were you aware of any plan to kill Robin or Julie Kerry? Did you intend to kill Robin or Julie Kerry? Did you intend to assist in the killing of Robin or Julie Kerry? To all 4 questions, Clemons answered, No. These questions and his answer are critical to Clemons' death sentence, since 1st-degree murder is the only criminal charge eligible for the death sentence, and to be considered first-degree a murder must be premeditated. Clemons denied killing the victims and denied intending to kill them. The question and answer about assisting in their murder also is critical, since Clemons was convicted as an accomplice. In the scenario presented by prosecutor Nels Moss in Clemons' 1993 jury trial, Clemons and Gray were accomplices to Richardson. In 2003 Richardson's sentence was commuted to life without possibility of parole. Gray was executed in 2005. Clemons was scheduled for execution in 2009 when a federal court granted a stay while a federal appeal was pending, and then the Missouri Supreme Court surprisingly appointed a Special Master, Judge Michael Manners, to convene a new evidentiary hearing. Next Judge Manners will submit his findings to the Missouri Supreme Court, which will then consider Clemons' writ of habeas corpus. Clemons has petitioned both to receive a new trial and to have his death penalty vacated because it is not proportional, given his age at the time of the crime (19), his lack of a prior criminal record and the fact that he was convicted as an accomplice. (source: The St. Louis American) FLORIDA: MENTAL ILLNESS: Evangelical Leaders Call for Mercy for Condemned Inmate On September 26, Florida Governor Rick Scott agreed to temporarily
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
Sept. 27 PAKISTAN: Death penalty for man who shot friend deadMansoor Khan had shot dead one of his best friends when he stopped him from smoking hash. Drugs can kill you. For Mansoor Khan, hashish spelled his doom - not directly but by death penalty. In a fit of intoxicated rage, he shot dead one of his best friends when he stopped him from smoking hash. To be hanged till death, announced the district and session judge, Muhammad Yamin on Tuesday, striking the gavel. Mansoor Khan was convicted under Section 265-H(2) of the Criminal Procedure Code for murdering Mohammad Zeeshan. The case was proved with the help 6 witnesses, a post-mortem report and ballistics investigation. The murder took place on May 31, 2009, when the accused, the victim and their two friends, Zubair Mohammad and Ashraf Ali, were sitting at a cattle farm in Shah Faisal Colony. Zeeshan had a quarrel with Mansoor over smoking hashish. The shouting match turned ugly when Mansoor took out his pistol and shot at Zeeshan, killing him on the spot. The case (95/2009) was registered at the Sharafi Goth police station. The killer was arrested and the murder weapon - a .30 pistol - was seized. Three bullet casings were found at the crime scene. The charge sheet against Mansoor was submitted for his trial in the court by the investigating officer, Malik Jahan Khan. Both witnesses, Zubair and Ashraf, were subjected to a lengthy cross examination, but corroborated each other without any significant contradictions. The forensic report confirmed that the shells collected from the cattle farm were fired from the same pistol found with the accused. The striker pin marks, breech marks and chamber marks were all similar. Zeeshan died due to an acute chest injury. Irreversible hypovolaemia shock [blood loss] led to the cardio-respiratory arrest caused by through the firearm discharge, stated Dr H. Zeeshan Haider, who did the autopsy. The defence lawyer did his best to cross-examine the doctor at length but failed to falsify the cause of death, said the lawyer of Zeeshan???s family, Riaz Ahmed Bhatti, while talking to The Express Tribune. Earlier, Mansoor had claimed that Zeeshan???s brother, a policeman, had always objected to their friendship and he had falsely implicated him in the case. He declined, however, to give a sworn statement under Section 340(2) of the Criminal Procedure Code against the allegations. Zeeshan and Mansoor were childhood friends, said the victim's bother, Muhammad Imran. Mansoor killed my brother because he was jealous of his success, he alleged. Zeeshan had helped him at every stage of his life with whatever he could from lending money to trying to take him to London with him. But Mansoor had other plans for him. Zeeshan's wife, Isha Ishaque, a British national, says her son, Zackariyah, was just 3 months old when his father was murdered. Now he is 3 years old and asks about his father all the time, she said. Zackariyah believes that his father sleeps in a box. I don't have the answer to his questions. She had earlier complained about the slow judicial process also. We have spent so much money [on the case]. It was such a disorganised system. (source: The Express Tribune) BRITAIN: 2/3 of Britons Would Bring Back Capital PunishmentMost respondents who support the death penalty believe it would serve as a deterrent for potential murderers. The views of people in Britain on capital punishment have not changed over the past year, a new Angus Reid Public Opinion poll has found. In the online survey of a representative national sample of 2,009 British adults, 65 % of respondents support reinstating the death penalty for murder in Great Britain, virtually unchanged since 2011. The highest level of support for the return of capital punishment comes from men (68%) and Britons over the age of 55 (69%). Most supporters of the death penalty believe it would serve as a deterrent for potential murderers (66%), it would fit the crime because a convicted murderer has taken a life (62%), and would save taxpayers money and the costs associated with having murderers in prison (58%). Opponents of capital punishment are primarily concerned with the possibility of a person being wrongly convicted and then executed (80%). A majority of respondents (62%) believe the death penalty is sometimes appropriate, while 1-in5 (20%) think it is never appropriate. When given a choice between 2 possible punishments for a convicted murderer, 1/2 of respondents (51%) select the death penalty, while 35 % pick life imprisonment. 3-in-4 Britons (75%) would agree with MPs debating in the House of Commons whether the death penalty should be reinstated in the country. (source: Angus Reid Public Opinion) INDONESIAforeign national gets death sentence Banten court sentences British man to death Banten High Court has sentenced British citizen Gareth
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----USA, GA., N.C.
Sept. 27 USA (PUERTO RICO): Puerto Rico jury rejects death penalty A Puerto Rican jury rejected the death penalty Thursday for a convicted drug dealer accused of killing an ex-girlfriend who was an informant for the U.S. government. Edison Burgos Montes will face life in prison for the July 2005 killing of Madelyn Semidey Morales, who had been cooperating with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in the investigation against him. He was found guilty of the killing in late August. Among those celebrating the verdict was Semidey's mother, Georgina Morales, who said earlier this year that she did not believe in capital punishment. I'm satisfied that justice was served, she told reporters after the verdict was announced. Morales used the opportunity to publicly ask Burgos to tell the family where her daughter's still-missing body is located. Please tell us where you put it, what you did with her body, she pleaded. This will cause us anguish for the rest of our lives. The victim's father, Carlos Semidey, also expressed satisfaction with the verdict. They did their job. The system worked, he said. Capital punishment is constitutionally illegal in Puerto Rico, but Burgos was being tried in federal court, which allows for the death penalty. Many Puerto Ricans had criticized the U.S. government for ignoring the island's constitution and becoming involved in local affairs. The jury of 8 men and 4 women deliberated for 2 days before issuing their verdict. Burgos remained motionless when the decision was read. Defense attorney Steven Potolsky cried. The defendant's sibling Efrain Burgos said his brother maintains his innocence. U.S. Attorney Rosa Emilia Rodriguez said she respected the verdict, and acknowledged that life imprisonment is also a severe punishment. Rodriguez said she wasn't concerned whether Puerto Rican ideologies would prevent any jury from favoring capital punishment. I think we will soon be ready for the appropriate case, she said. It was the 3rd time a Puerto Rico jury had rejected a federal death penalty case. 2 other federal death penalty cases are expected to go to trial in January, including 1 involving a man accused of masterminding a 2009 bar shooting that killed 8 people. The other centers on a man accused of killing an undercover police officer during a drug transaction. Puerto Rico's governor has asked that federal authorities prosecute certain cases, including carjackings and drive-by shootings, to reduce violent crime. The island of nearly 4 million people reported a record 1,117 homicides last year. Osvaldo Burgos, president of the human rights commission of the island's Association of Attorneys, said he doubted any Puerto Rican jury would ever seek capital punishment. Burgos is not related to the defendant. It's a measure that does not respond to the idiosyncrasies of our people, he said. It is a product of failed federal policies. Puerto Rico banned the death penalty in 1929, 2 years after farmworker Pascual Ramos was hanged for beheading his boss with a machete. The island reiterated its stance after approving its 1st constitution in 1952, calling the death penalty a human rights violation. In 2000, Puerto Rican Judge Salvador Casellas ruled that applying the death penalty would violate Puerto Rico's constitution as well as the federal statute concerning its status as a self-governing entity. His decision was overturned in 2001 by the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston, which ruled that Puerto Rico is subject to federal law. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld that decision. Puerto Rico joins 17 U.S. states that do not apply the death penalty. (source: Associated Press) GEORGIA: Marcus Wellons' Death Penalty Upheld After Chocolate Penis Appeal Giving a judge a penis-shaped chocolate may be tasteless and inappropriate, but it doesn't make for an unfair trial, a federal appeals court ruled on Wednesday. Marcus Wellons, now 57, was convicted of the 1989 rape and strangling murder of 15-year-old India Roberts and sentenced to death in 1993. In 2010, however, the Supreme Court ordered a review panel to take another look at the case after Wellon's lawyer, Mary Elizabeth Wells, argued that her client could not have received a fair trial because the judge and bailiff received gifts of erotically shaped chocolate from jurors. Superior Court Judge Mary Staley received a piece of white chocolate shaped like a penis from juror Mary Jo Hooper, while bailiff Loretta Perry was reportedly gifted a breast-shaped chocolate from a juror who has yet to come forward. Wells maintained that the bawdy nature of the gifts indicated that the jury was not taking the murder trial seriously. On Wednesday, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court unanimously upheld the death penalty for Wellons, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. The court said that although the gifts were tasteless and
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
Sept. 27 MALAYSIA: Malaysia offers pirate suspects 'no execution' plea bargain Prosecutors have offered 7 suspected Somali pirates charged with offences that carry the death penalty the chance to admit lesser crimes and escape execution, their lawyer said Wednesday. Malaysia became the 1st nation in Asia last year to lay charges against Somali pirate suspects, as part of growing legal moves around the world to counter the piracy crisis off the lawless east African country. All 7 were originally charged with firing at the Malaysian armed forces while committing a robbery, in January last year. The suspects have now been offered the chance to admit a lesser charge of using a weapon with the intention of preventing their arrest, which carries a maximum sentence of 14 years in jail, according to lawyer for 2 of the accused Saranjeet Kaur Sidhu. The long-delayed trial, held up in order to find lawyers and an interpreter for the Somalis, has now been adjourned until October 8 to allow the defendants to decide whether to accept the plea bargain, Saranjeet said. Edmund Bon, another defence lawyer, said he could not say whether the 7 would accept the deal. It's a different charge... we have to talk to our clients, he said. Three of the accused were aged just 15 when charged. Minors do not face the possibility of execution in Malaysia, where the death sentence is carried out by hanging. The MT Bunga Laurel, a chemical tanker, was bound for Singapore with a cargo of lubricating oil worth more than $10 million when pirates armed with AK-47 rifles hijacked the ship. Malaysian naval commandos from a vessel protecting shipping in the Gulf of Aden, along with a navy attack helicopter, responded to a distress call and captured the suspects after a shootout. Piracy has surged in recent years off Somalia, a war-torn country that sits astride one of the world's most important shipping routes. But many of those caught by international warships are freed because there is nowhere to try them. Malaysian prosecutors have said the country has the jurisdiction to put the suspected pirates on trial since their alleged actions threatened the security of its citizens. (source: Daily Express) ___ DeathPenalty mailing list DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty Search the Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/deathpenalty@lists.washlaw.edu/ ~~~ A free service of WashLaw http://washlaw.edu (785)670.1088 ~~~
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----CALIFORNIA
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