[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
September 27 GLOBAL: Top Vatican diplomat calls for universal abolition of death penalty Abolishing the death penalty worldwide would reflect the brave and hope-filled belief that crime can be dealt with without capital punishment and that a criminal should be given the chance to reform, a top Vatican diplomat told world leaders. "Respect for the dignity of every human person and the common good are the two pillars on which the Holy See has developed its position" of advocating for an end to the death penalty, Archbishop Paul R. Gallagher, Vatican foreign minister, said Sept. 25 at the United Nations in New York, where he led the Vatican delegation at the 73rd session of the U.N. general assembly. The Vatican released a copy of his speech Sept. 26. Speaking at a high-level U.N. side event on the death penalty and the role of poverty and the right to legal representation, the archbishop said that the universal abolition would be a "courageous reaffirmation" that humanity can successfully deal with crime while also refusing "to succumb to despair before evil acts, offering the criminal a chance to reform." The archbishop cited Pope Francis' recent revision of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which states that "the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person" and the church "works with determination for its abolition worldwide." The catechism's paragraph on capital punishment, 2267, had been updated by St. John Paul II in 1997 to strengthen its skepticism about the need to use the death penalty in the modern world and, particularly, to affirm the importance of protecting all human life. The original text recognized "the right and duty of legitimate public authority to punish malefactors by means of penalties commensurate with the gravity of the crime, not excluding, in cases of extreme gravity, the death penalty." However, as Pope Francis recently highlighted, there have been steady improvements of the penal system, and countries have the capability to protect the public order and safety with means other than the death penalty. Additionally, the pope has warned against the possibility of judicial error and the misuse of capital punishment in totalitarian and dictatorial regimes as a way to suppress political opposition or to persecute religious and cultural minorities. According to the Death Penalty Information Center based in Washington, D.C., 56 countries still retain the death penalty for ordinary crimes. The remainder of countries have abolished it, either in law or practice. China, Iran and Saudi Arabia executed the most people in 2016, according to Amnesty International figures. Amnesty says that China carries out judicial killings in the thousands every year, reporting the country as "the world's top executioner." In 2016, the United States dropped out of the top 5 executioner countries for the 1st time since 2006. The U.S. put 20 people to death, which was the lowest number since 1991, according to Amnesty. (source: cruxnow.com) EGYPT: Egypt executed 32 people since military coup Egyptian authorities have executed 32 people since the army overthrew the first democratically elected President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013. According to the New Khaleej, Egyptian authorities have executed 32 people in nine cases since the coup d’état while 64 people are awaiting the death penalty in 13 other cases. There is no precise count of the number of death sentences pending appeals in Egypt, however human rights organisations say they amount to hundreds. Since 2013, Egyptian courts have sentenced hundreds to death, with most of the sentences appealed, while few were carried out. While Cairo denies having political detainees in its prisons, human rights organisations have estimated the number of detainees to be tens of thousands. In September 2016, the Cairo-based Arabic Network for Human Rights Information said that the number of political detainees in Egypt has exceeded 60,000 individuals. (source: Middle East Monitor) IRANexecution Prisoner Hanged at the Northern City of Tonekabon's Prison A prisoner was executed at Nashtarud-Tonekabon Prison on murder charges this morning. According to a report by HRANA, on the morning of Tuesday, September 25, one prisoner was executed at Nashtarud-Tonekabon Prison. The prisoner, sentenced to death on murder charges, was identified as Majid Pili, 41. He was married and had a 9-year-old child. The prisoner was transferred to the solitary confinement a day before. The execution of this prisoner has not been announced by the state-run media so far. According to Iran Human Rights annual report on the death penalty, 240 of the 517 execution sentences in 2017 were implemented due to murder charges. There is a lack of a classification of murder by degree in Iran which results in issuing a death
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, VA., FLA., ALA., ILL., OKLA., CALIF., USA
September 27 TEXASexecutions Texas puts Daniel Acker to death, the 2nd execution in 2 daysAcker was convicted in the 2000 murder of his girlfriend in East Texas. Her body was found on the side of the road after neighbors said they saw him abduct her. For the 2nd time in 1 days, Texas carried out an execution Thursday. It was the state's 10th execution of the year, and the 18th in the nation. Daniel Acker, 46, was put to death in Huntsville's execution chamber hours after the U.S. Supreme Court denied his last appeal, just 24 hours after another man, Troy Clark, died by lethal injection in the same spot. Acker was sentenced to death in the 2000 East Texas murder of his girlfriend, 32-year-old Marquetta George. Her body was found on the side of the road several miles away from the trailer they shared in Hopkins County after their neighbors said they saw Acker grab her, toss her over his shoulder and shove her into his truck, according to court records. Acker had maintained that he was taking her to confront a man she had slept with and she jumped from his moving vehicle. With all appeals exhausted, Acker was injected with a lethal dose of pentobarbital shortly after 6 p.m. and pronounced dead at 6:25 p.m., according to the prison department. He gave no final statement. George's brother attended the execution, according to a prison witness list. Acker had no friends or family present at the time of his death. Both Acker and the state agreed that he kidnapped his girlfriend during a fight on March 12, 2000. The 2 had argued at a club the night before, and he spent the night searching for her around town, he testified at trial. Shortly after a man brought her home the next morning, she ran to her neighbor's home asking for help, and Acker took her away in his truck. But there are multiple theories as to what happened between George’s abduction and her severely wounded body being found on the side of the road. At Acker’s trial in 2001, the state told the jury that George died by strangulation, blunt force injuries or both, court records show. The state's main theory was that Acker strangled George to or near death, pulled her out of his truck and then ran her over. But during an appellate hearing, the state’s own expert said George's injuries weren't consistent with strangulation, and the theory arose that Acker pushed her from the truck and then ran over her. The federal judge who took over the case after the hearing wrote in a later opinion that the evidence pointed to her having been "unconscious or incapacitated" when pulled from the truck and then run over by Acker. Acker's attorney argued that the change of theory necessitated a new look at his case. He said in a filing last year that his conviction and death sentence were upheld "based on false evidence, a now-discredited theory, and a new theory never presented to his jury." "There are now serious doubts as to whether this case was a homicide at all," wrote Acker's attorney, Richard Ellis, in a recent filing to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. "Mr. Acker was tried and convicted on the theory that he had abducted the victim Marquetta George and then strangled her while driving, a theory that the State has now disavowed in federal court." But despite the shifting primary theory, federal and state courts upheld Acker's murder conviction, saying the indictment and jury charge allowed the jury to decide George was killed by blunt force injuries alone, even if much of the evidence presented - including autopsy testimony - focused on strangulation. "The district court found that the jury could have convicted Acker based on a theory of strangulation, a theory of blunt-force injury, or a combination of the 2," wrote the federal appellate court in its opinion upholding the lower court's ruling. "... Although the prosecution referred to strangulation in closing argument, the same argument could easily apply to running over George, regardless of whether she had been strangled." Acker turned himself in after George's death - he flagged down a patrol car as it passed by his mother's house, according to court documents. His attorney wrote that he has admitted to her kidnapping and has expressed remorse for that but that George's death was "a tragic accident, and never a homicide." The state, represented by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and his office, said in its last briefing filed Tuesday at the U.S. Supreme Court that Acker has already failed to persuade the courts - and the jury - of this claim. "Acker produces no new evidence showing he did not commit the crime but continues to assert that George’s death resulted from her leap from the vehicle - a theory rejected by the jury at the time of trial," wrote Assistant Attorney General Ellen Stewart-Klein. (source: Texas Tribune) ** Texas man put to death in state's 2nd execution in 2
