Sept. 3
INDIA:
71 on death row in Uttar Pradesh jails
Lucknow, As many as 71 convicts are on death row in different jails in
Uttar Pradesh, where no one has been hanged to death in the past 15 years.
The mercy appeals of 11 of the convicts have been pending with the
president for some time, said a senior official of the state jails
department.
"No one has been hanged in Uttar Pradesh in the last 15 years as the
appeals of several convicts have been pending before different courts or
before the president," the official told IANS on condition of anonymity.
"The last time a murder convict was hanged in Uttar Pradesh was in 1989
and that was at the Naini jail in Allahabad."
Most appeals before the Allahabad High Court or the Supreme Court against
death sentences awarded by different lower courts have been pending since
1995. Even mercy appeals before the president were said to be pending for
over a year, the official claimed.
Of the 11 convicts whose death sentences had been confirmed by the Supreme
Court, 4 were lodged in Bareilly jail, 4 in Naini, 2 in Agra and 1 in
Meerut.
6 of these 11 convicts belonged to Lakhimpur-Kheri district.
Involved in a mass murder, they were convicted by the local district and
sessions court way back in 1995. The high court and the Supreme Court
upheld the punishment.
Subsequently, a petition was moved before the state governor, after whose
rejection the last and final mercy appeal was made to the president.
(source: Indo-Asian News Service)
CHINA----new death sentences
China gives death sentence to five Taiwanese for drug crimes
5 Taiwanese have been sentenced to death in China's south-east Fujian
province after being convicted of trafficking the illegal methamphetamine
drug, ice.
The official Xinhua news agency says the group is accused of smuggling a
total of 360 kilograms of the substance from neighbouring Guangdong
province to Shishi city between October and November, 2002.
One of the group was seized while transporting 100 kilograms of the drug
by long-distance bus.
All 5 were given death sentences but one was given a 2-year reprieve
because of his relatively minor role in the operation.
The group has appealed to a higher court.
(source: Radio Australia News)
GLOBAL:
News Release Issued by the International Secretariat of Amnesty
International
AI Index: POL 30/033/2004------3 September 2004
World: International medical experts urge an end to child executions
Amnesty International and medical experts from seven countries have sent
an open letter to the heads of government in China, Pakistan, the
Democratic Republic of Congo, Philippines, Iran, Sudan and the USA urging
them to stop using the death penalty against children.
The letter has been signed by 17 medical experts with outstanding
credentials in the field of child and adolescent psychology, psychiatry
and social development.
"Although adolescents generally know the difference between right and
wrong, they can suffer from diminished capacities to reason logically, to
control their impulses, to think through the future consequences of their
actions, and to resist the negative influences and persuasion of others,"
says the letter. "They should face punishment for criminal actions, but
the sanctions which can be imposed on mentally competent adolescent
offenders should not be the same as those faced by adults found guilty of
the same offences."
Endorsing the call of the experts to abolish juvenile executions, Irene
Khan, Secretary General of Amnesty International, said, "Child offenders
should not be punished as if they were adults. Governments must amend
their laws and practices to confirm with international human rights
standards and end the death penalty for offenders under the age of 18."
Background Information
International standards prohibit the execution of child offenders --
people who were under 18 years old at the time of the crime. These
standards include the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the American Convention
on Human Rights and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the
Child. This prohibition is now so widely accepted as to constitute a
principle of customary international law. The relevant standards are
respected by the overwhelming majority of the 80 countries which still
retain and use the death penalty.
(source: Amnesty International)
