[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
Sept. 30 IRAN: 74-year-old Iranian, who hosted 'half-naked parties', sentenced to deathThe chief prosecutor said the man led "a corruption gang" which held parties with drugs and alcohol, and where women were "sexually harassed". Iran has sentenced a 74-year-old man to death for hosting "mixed and half-naked parties", the head of Tehran's judiciary said. Chief prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi said the man led "a corruption gang" which held parties with drugs and alcohol, and where women were "sexually harassed". "The head of this corruption gang has been sentenced to execution and the case has been sent for appeal to the supreme court," he said, according to the judiciary-linked Mizan news agency. Dolatabadi mentioned another case in which 6 people had been arrested for downloading "obscene" Hollywood films and dubbing them into Persian. "The gang's website was the largest download centre for Hollywood films and series, and in the past 3 years they have published 18,000 dubbed films and series, many of which were obscene and pornographic," said Dolatabadi. (source: hindustantimes.com) KUWAIT: Death penalty of 15 Indians commuted to life term by Emir of Kuwait Death sentences handed down to 15 Indians lodged in a Kuwaiti jail have been commuted to life imprisonment by the Emir of Kuwait, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj said on Saturday. Swaraj said the Emir has also directed that the sentences of 119 Indian nationals be reduced. "The Emir of Kuwait has been pleased to commute the sentence of 15 Indian nationals from death to life imprisonment," she tweeted. Swaraj thanked the Emir of Kuwait for his "kind" gesture and said the Indian Embassy in that country will extend assistance to the Indian nationals who will be released from jails. (source: english.manoramaonline.com) PAKISTAN: FIA challenges ATC verdict in Benazir Bhutto murder case The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Friday filed a petition challenging the anti-terrorism court's (ATC) decision in the Benazir murder case. The petition that had been filed in the Rawalpindi bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) maintains that the FIA has irrefutable evidence against the acquitted suspects. Subsequently, the FIA has requested death penalty be awarded to the 5 accused acquitted and two police officials imprisoned. The petition states that the ATC has not done justice through its verdict. The LHC on Thursday accepted petitions challenging detention of those acquitted in Benazir murder case for regular hearing. A division bench of LHC Rawalpindi bench comprising Justice Tariq Abbasi heard the petitions filed by relatives of Sher Zaman, Hasnain Gul and Rafaqat Hussain acquitted in Benazir murder case against their detention after acquittal in the Benazir murder case. After hearing preliminary arguments of the petitioners' counsel, the court accepted the petition for regular hearing and issued notices to the Rawalpindi's deputy commissioner. Earlier, ATC Judge Asghar Khan at Adiala Jail had announced the verdict in Benazir Bhutto murder case, sentencing 2 police officers to 17 years imprisonment for being "negligent" and had acquitted the 5 suspects belonging to Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) - who were indicted in 2008 over lack of evidence. The court had also declared the then-president Pervez Musharraf an absconder in the case. Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in a gun and bomb attack after an election rally in Liaquat Bagh on Dec 27, 2007. The then government of Pervez Musharraf had blamed TTP chief Baitullah Mehsud for the killing but Mehsud had denied any involvement in the murder. (source: Pakistan Today) INDONESIA: AGO Waits for Supreme Court Decision on Pardon for Death Penalty Execution The Indonesia Supreme Court (MA) has yet to issue a decision regarding the time limit for the submission of pardon for death row inmates convicted by the Attorney General Office (AGO) since August 2017. "We are still waiting [for the Supreme Court decision], we must be careful on this, as this is a decision on life or death of a human being," said Attorney General HM Prasetyo in Jakarta, Friday (29/09/2017). He asserted the death execution was related to the life of a person, and therefore the AGO needs to request for a decision from the Supreme Court , since the decision of the Constitutional Court about the pardon did not mention the time period for submission of pardon. The Constitutional Court, through Decision No. 107/PUU-XIII/2015 abolished the enactment of Article 7 paragraph (2) of Law no. 5 of 2010 on Amendment to Law no. 22 of 2002 on Pardon related to the time limitation of submission of pardon to the president. That is, the Court "frees" the convicted person to apply for pardon at any time. This ruling changed the preceding rules, the submission of pardon is done no later than a
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., ALA., TENN., ARK., OKLA., COLO.
Sept. 30 TEXAS: Texas Set to Execute Man Despite DNA Evidence Excluding him from Murder A Texas man on death row is scheduled to be executed on November 16, even though DNA evidence excludes him from a 1998 murder for which he was convicted. In 2000, Larry Swearingen was sentenced to the death penalty for the murder and rape of 19-year-old Melissa Trotter. Since then, Swearingen has maintained his innocence and fought for DNA testing of evidence including Trotter's clothes, the murder weapon and a rape kit. Texas courts have struck down his repeated requests. But some DNA testing has been performed. And it supports Swearingen's innocence, according to the Innocence Project. Blood from beneath Trotter's fingernails excluded Swearingen and yielded the profile of an unknown man. To this day, Trotter's clothes have never been tested for DNA and the swabs in the rape kit collected from her body were also never tested. Cigarette butts found at the scene of Trotter's murder could have been swabbed for saliva, which would reveal DNA. But they never were. Since Swearingen's conviction, Texas has made improvements with its post-conviction DNA testing statute. Swearingen was twice granted DNA testing. But the state Court of Criminal Appeals struck down his request, ruling the court should only consider whether the DNA evidence would exclude Swearingen and should not be required to "rely on the ramifications of hypothetical matches" to an unknown genetic profile. "The notion that they're expressing - which is that we only consider exclusionary results - has nothing to do with how DNA actually works," Bryce Benjet, one of Swearingen's attorneys, told The Intercept. "I don't know why they haven't figured that out, but the end result of that error is that DNA testing is no longer available to most people in prison." Under a 16-year statute, defendants have rights to testing only if several conditions are met including the requirement to establish "by a preponderance of the evidence" that "the person would not have been convicted if exculpatory results had been obtained through DNA testing." In 2011, legislators revised the statute to require unidentified DNA profiles be uploaded to a government database. The DNA found under Trotter's fingernails was not linked to a known offender, which would bolster Swearingen's claim of innocence. DNA matches to offenders in the government database occurred in roughly 42 % of 351 DNA exonerations to date, according to the Innocence Project. (source: photographyisnotacrime.com) FLORIDAimpending execution Florida Supreme Court denies Death Row inmate's appeal. Execution scheduled Thursday. The Florida Supreme Court on Friday said it won't reconsider the case of a longtime death row inmate who is scheduled to be put to death next week. The ruling means the execution of convicted double-murderer Michael Lambrix will, for now, take place as planned at 6 p.m. Oct. 5. Lambrix had filed another challenge to his death sentences - his 8th successive post-conviction motion, the court said - on the basis of recent changes to Florida's death-penalty sentencing procedures, which were prompted by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a case known as Hurst v. Florida. That ruling in January 2016 demanded Florida fix its then-unconstitutional procedures. The Legislature enacted changes this spring so now a unanimous jury recommendation is required in all death penalty cases. In his latest request for the Florida Supreme Court to rehear his case, Lambrix argued that his death sentences are unconstitutional under Florida's new law because they came from non-unanimous juries. He also argued the state Supreme Court's decisions on how the Hurst opinion applied retroactively to previous death sentences was a violation of equal protection rights. Following Hurst, the Florida Supreme Court in December cemented death sentences for nearly 200 prisoners - including Lambrix - whose sentences were finalized before a June 2002 U.S. Supreme Court ruling referenced in the Hurst decision. The justices cited their December decision and related rulings as their reasons for denying Lambrix's request for a rehearing. The Supreme Court had also previously ruled that Lambrix "is not entitled to relief based on Hurst" because of when his sentences were finalized, which they emphasized again Friday. "While it is true that the jury non-unanimously recommended death for the 1983 murders of the 2 victims, Lambrix's sentences were final in 1986," the court wrote in its majority opinion. "No rehearing will be entertained by this court." The decision was 5-1, with Justice Barbara Pariente dissenting. The court's 7th justice, Peggy Quince, recused herself. Pariente said she preferred to vacate Lambrix's death sentences and send the case back to a lower court so Lambrix can be re-sentenced - the same process that's
