[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS
Oct. 12 TEXASexecution Texas executes man convicted of killing prison guard with shank Texas executed a man on Thursday convicted of murdering a prison guard in 1999, after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a last-minute appeal to spare his life despite arguments by his lawyers that he was innocent. Robert Pruett, 38, was put to death by lethal injection at the state’s death chamber in Huntsville and pronounced dead at 6:46 p.m. (2346 GMT), the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said. He was the 544th person executed in Texas since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, the most of any state. It was Texas' 6th execution this year. "I've hurt a lot of people and a lot of people have hurt me. I love ya'll so much. Life don't end here it goes on forever. I've had to learn lessons in life the hard way. One day there won't be a need to hurt people," Pruett was quoted as saying in his last statement by the criminal justice department. About an hour before the scheduled execution, the Supreme Court said it rejected Pruett's petition. It did not provide a reason. Pruett, sent to prison as a teenager and serving a 99-year sentence as an accessory to a murder committed by his father, was convicted of killing prison guard Daniel Nagle by stabbing him repeatedly with a shank. The Nagle family said in a statement released by the department: "Though it has been over 18 years since he was taken from us, we still miss Daniel every day and the execution will in no way minimize our loss." Prosecutors said he murdered the corrections officer because Nagle had reprimanded him for carrying a sandwich into the recreation yard. Torn pieces of the disciplinary report on Pruett were found near Nagle’s body. “No witnesses testified they observed the attack, and no physical evidence connected Robert Pruett to the murder,” Pruett’s lawyers wrote in their petition to the Supreme Court filed on Tuesday. They said Pruett, who has maintained his innocence, was convicted on the unreliable testimony of prison informants and that neither Pruett’s fingerprints nor DNA material were found on the torn report. Lawyers had also asked the state to release the shank and Nagle’s clothes for DNA testing after inconclusive tests took place in 2000. In a legal filing with the Supreme Court, the state of Texas said: “Pruett has raised nothing new that casts any doubt on his guilt.” Pruett becomes the 6th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Texas and the 544th overall since the state resumed capital punishment on December 7, 1982. Pruett becomes the 20th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1462nd overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977. (sources: Reuters & Rick Halperin) ** f http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/death_row/dr_scheduled_executions.html Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present25 Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982present-543 Abbott#scheduled execution date-nameTx. # 26-Oct. 18-Anthony Shore-545 27-Oct. 26-Clinton Young--546 28-Nov. 8--Ruben Cardenas---547 29-Nov. 16-Larry Swearingen-548 30Dec. 14-Juan Castillo---549 31Jan. 30-William Rayford550 (sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin) ___ A service courtesy of Washburn University School of Law www.washburnlaw.edu DeathPenalty mailing list DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty Unsubscribe: http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/options/deathpenalty
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
Oct. 13 PAKISTAN: Executions must not violate rights obligations: HRCP The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has urged the government to urgently institute safeguards to ensure that a generalised resumption of executions does not violate Pakistan's human rights obligations. According to Justice Project Pakistan, 8,200 people are on death row in Pakistan and 477 people have been executed since December 2014. As many as 2,393 Pakistanis were executed in Saudi Arabian jails. According to the World Coalition against Death Penalty, 104 countries have abolished the death penalty for all crimes, 7 countries have abolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes and 30 countries are abolitionists in practice. According to statistics, 23 countries carried out executions in 2016. In 2016, top 5 executioners were China, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. According to Amnesty International, it is believed that thousands of executions took place in 2016. In Pakistan, executions decreased by 239 in 2016. Indonesia executed 4 people, Taiwan 1, Singapore 4, Japan 3 and Malaysia 9. Amnesty has not given any estimates for North Korea and Vietnam. South Eastern countries like Maldives and the Philippines took steps in the wrong direction, towards resumptions of executions, after more than 6 decades, according to Amnesty International. In a statement on World Day against the Death Penalty, HRCP said: "As we observe the 15th World Day against the Death Penalty, HRCP calls upon the government to take stock of the pressing issues that have arisen ever since it terminated the moratorium in December 2014. "In addition to various and well-documented challenges that a generalised recourse to capital punishment presents, there is an urgent need to introduce safeguards in instances where age of the convict or his or her mental or physical ability is in question." Furthermore, the socio-economic status of a convict tends to be directly proportional to their risk of being sentenced to death and execution. This year the World Day against Death Penalty is bringing into focus the link between poverty and capital punishment. "While HRCP calls upon the government to suspend the death penalty in the country as a 1st step towards abolition, it demands that these new issues should be urgently addressed through a conscious policy and not merely through last minute action in response to pleas from civil society in individual cases." HRCP also staged a demo outside the Lahore Press Club. (source: The Nation) 527 prisoners on death row in Sindh jails The death warrants of 7 condemned prisoners in Sindh can be issued any time as the President of Pakistan has rejected their mercy petitions. The total number of prisoners currently on death row in Sindh is 527, out of which 13 have been awarded capital punishment from military courts, said personal staff officer to prisons IG, Shunail Hussain Shah. Shah added, "The appeals of many prisoners on death row are either pending with the high court, Supreme Court or with the President of Pakistan after they have been awarded the death penalty by trial courts." Among such prisoners, 122 have been incarcerated at the Central Jail, Karachi, 227 in Hyderabad, 135 in Sukkur while 38 are detained in Larkana, Shah informed. 4 women on death row are in Karachi jail while 1 other woman is in Hyderabad. According to the prisons department, 18 prisoners have been executed in Hyderabad, Sukkur and Karachi since the moratorium on executions was lifted. The move came in the wake of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan's attack at the Army Public School (APS) in Peshawar in December, 2014. Prominent prisoners on death row in the prisons of Sindh include the murderer of American journalist Daniel Pearl, Omer Saeed Sheikh, Jundullah militant Mohammad Qasim Toori who carried out an attack on the convoy of the Karachi corps commander in June, 2004, and Azhar Ishrat, who was involved in the Safoora bus carnage. Opposition to death penalty "Capital punishment is a murder committed by the state and we need to abolish it," remarked Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) Vice-Chairperson Asad Iqbal Butt, while talking to The Express Tribune. According to Butt, human life needs to be respected and for this we need to reconsider our ways to treat criminals. "The government needs to construct healthy society to curb crimes." Army chief confirms death sentences of 4 'hardcore' terrorists "The death sentence could only be awarded for 2 felonies, murder and treason, before the partition. However, this has swelled to 28 in Pakistan," he maintained. The 15th World Day Against the Death Penalty was observed on Tuesday. Opponents of the death penalty organised demonstrations, arguing for its abolishment. The crime rate cannot be lowered through extreme punishments, Butt opined. The 40 counties which have abolished
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
Oct. 13 GLOBAL: UN: 170 Countries Abandoned the Death Penalty The countries that abolished the death penalty have reached 170. 87% of the death sentences are carried out in 4 countries. They are Iraq, Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. These figures were released on Tuesday by the United Nations on the World Day against the Death Penalty - Oct. 10. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres says there is "no room for the death penalty in the 21st century", quoted by news.bg. Some of the 170 countries have abolished it or ceased to practice it last month. 2 African States. Gambia and Madagascar - have taken important steps to end the death penalty, - said the UN chief. In 2016, the number of convicted persons decreased by 37% compared to the previous year. The UN also believes that there are a large number of executions in China, but there is "no accurate data" on this issue. It should not be forgotten that several states in the United States still have the heaviest punishment. (source: novinite.com) Pope Francis: The death penalty is contrary to the Gospel Pope Francis declared Wednesday that the death penalty is "contrary to the Gospel." He said that "however grave the crime that may be committed, the death penalty is inadmissible because it attacks the inviolability and the dignity of the person." He did so in a major talk on Oct. 11 to an audience of cardinals, bishops, priests, nuns, catechists, and ambassadors from many countries on the 25th anniversary of the promulgation of the catechism, affirming that there has been a development of doctrine in the church and a change in the consciousness of the Christian people on the question of the death penalty. The pope's comments and the timing of them suggest that a revision of the Catechism of the Catholic Church may be forthcoming to reflect this new development in the church's understanding. "One has to strongly affirm that condemnation to the death penalty is an inhuman measure that humiliates personal dignity, in whatever form it is carried out. And [it] is, of itself, contrary to the Gospel, because it is freely decided to suppress a human life that is always sacred in the eyes of the Creator, and of which, in the final analysis, God alone is the true judge and guarantor," Pope Francis said. "One has to strongly affirm that condemnation to the death penalty is an inhuman measure that humiliates personal dignity, in whatever form it is carried out." Reiterating an observation in his Letter to the President of the International Commission against the Death Penalty, March 20, 2015, Francis said that "No man ever, not even the murderer, loses his personal dignity, because God is a Father who always awaits the return of the son who, knowing that he has done wrong, asks pardon and begins a new life." For this reason, he said, "life cannot be taken away from anyone" and there must always be "the possibility of a moral and existential redemption that will be to the favor of the community." His statement is sure to be welcomed by bishops' conferences and the overwhelming majority of the Christian faithful around the world, many of whom have long called for the church to take this stance. His predecessors have been slowly moving towards the position taken today by Francis. Every pope since St. John XXIII has appealed to governments worldwide on behalf of persons condemned to death, asking for clemency. When St. John Paul II published the catechism in 1992 it still admitted the use of the death penalty (No. 2266). But strong reaction from bishops and the faithful in many countries led him to revise the text in 1997, with the help of then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. The revised text (No. 2267), however, still did not exclude the death penalty on moral grounds as Pope Francis did today; it said that given the possibilities the modern state has of rendering the criminal incapable of doing harm again, then "the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity 'are very rare, if not practically non-existent.'" When St. John Paul II published the catechism in 1992 it still admitted the use of the death penalty. Several times since becoming pope, Francis has made clear his total opposition to the death penalty, including in his speech to the U.S. Congress and to the United Nations in September 2015. But today he took a much greater step than any of his predecessors by declaring publicly on a solemn occasion, directly related to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, that the death penalty is "contrary to the Gospel" and "inadmissible," making clear that the catechism must address the question in this more complete way. The Jesuit pope began his talk by recalling that at the opening of the Second Vatican Council on Oct. 11, 1962, John XXIII said, "It is necessary first of all that the church should never depart from the sacred
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., LA., OHIO, IND., ARK., USA
Oct. 13 TEXASimpending executions Man convicted in Texas prison guard's death to be executed A Texas death row inmate who sued unsuccessfully to try to halt his execution, arguing that more DNA testing needed to be done, is now trying to convince the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the punishment scheduled for Thursday. Robert Pruett was already serving 99 years for a neighbor's killing when he was convicted in the death of a prison guard who was stabbed in an attack that prosecutors say stemmed from a dispute over a peanut butter sandwich. Pruett wanted to take the sandwich into a recreation yard against prison rules, they said. An autopsy showed corrections officer Daniel Nagle died of a heart attack brought on by the December 1999 stabbing. Pruett, 38, has insisted he's innocent of Nagle's death at the McConnell Unit near Beeville, about 85 miles (136 kilometers) southeast of San Antonio. He would become the 6th prisoner executed this year in Texas, which carries out the death penalty more than any other states. Texas executed a total of seven inmates last year. Pruett avoided execution in April 2015 when a state judge halted his punishment just hours before he could have been taken to the death chamber. His lawyers had convinced the judge that new DNA tests needed to be conducted on the tape-wrapped, 7-inch sharpened steel rod used to repeatedly stab the 37-year-old Nagle. The new tests showed no DNA on the tape but uncovered DNA on the rod from an unknown female who authorities said likely handled the shank during the appeals process after the original tests in 2002. The execution was put on the schedule again. After seeking even more DNA testing and being rejected by the courts, Pruett's attorneys filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in August in which they argued that the courts denied Pruett due process. The lawyers asked the federal courts to halt the rescheduled execution, allow the additional DNA testing and then check the results for matches in law enforcement databases.Last week, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the lawsuit. But Pruett's attorneys appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday, arguing that a lower court judge wrongly rejected the case after sitting on it for 2 months. In a second appeal to the Supreme Court, also filed on Tuesday, the attorneys asked the high court to revisit the question of whether it is constitutional to execute a prisoner who claims actual innocence because of newly discovered evidence. U.S. Supreme Court justices in 1993 ruled 6-3 in a Texas case that it was constitutional to do so. State attorneys say Pruett's lawyers have long engaged in "a pattern of delay." No physical evidence tied Pruett to Nagle's death. At his 2002 trial, prisoners testified that they saw Pruett attack Nagle or heard him talk about wanting to kill the guard. According to some of the testimony, he talked about possessing a weapon as well. Pruett has said he was framed and that Nagle, an officer for more than 3 years, could have been killed by other inmates or corrupt officers at the McConnell Unit. "I never killed nobody in my life," Pruett testified at his trial. He said he was in a gym when he learned the officer had been stabbed. Pruett's 99-year murder sentence that he was already serving was for participating at age 15 with his father and a brother in the 1995 stabbing death of a 29-year-old neighbor, Raymond Yarbrough, at the man's trailer home in Channelview, just east of Houston. Pruett's father, 70-year-old Howard Pruett, is serving life in prison. His brother, 47-year-old Howard Pruett Jr., was sentenced to 40 years. (source: Associated Press) * Houston serial killer loses appeal 1 week before scheduled execution With just a week to go before his scheduled execution, Houston serial killer Anthony Shore lost a last-ditch appeal claiming decades-old unrealized brain damage left him so impaired he was not morally culpable for his crimes. The so-called Tourniquet Killer slated for execution Wednesday was convicted of capital murder in 2004 after he confessed to brutally slaying 4 young women in the Houston area. In the latest appeal, turned down by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Tuesday, Shore's lawyers argued that the extent of his brain damage rendered the execution unconstitutional, likening it to executing an intellectually disabled prisoner. "Mr. Shore does not claim he is ineligible for the death penalty because he is unintelligent or uncharismatic," his lawyers wrote earlier this month in a court filing. "Mr. Shore is ineligible for the death penalty because his brain injury decreases his moral culpability for his crimes, in the same way that a juvenile, despite intelligence or charisma, is nonetheless ineligible for the death penalty." But the state's highest criminal court didn't buy into that argument. "We find that applicant has
