[Deathpenalty]death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 22


AUSTRALIA:

Govt to allow death sentence extraditions, says Civil Liberties The
Australian Council for Civil Liberties has called on the Federal
Government to confirm a change in policy relating to extraditing suspects
who face the death penalty in the United States.

President Terry O'Gorman says Australia has a long standing convention not
to extradite people if they face the death penalty.

Mr O'Gorman says the Howard Government has indicated they have reached an
agreement with the US which opens the way for possibly handing over
suspected terrorists who face capital charges.

Mr O'Gorman has called on the Government to publicly confirm the policy
change.

"Since DNA technology has come, it's been established that a number of
people who have been waiting on death row to be executed were in fact
wrongly convicted," he said.

"We're going to find the risk that an Australian could be sent to the US,
tried for terrorism, convicted then executed, and later down the track
found to have been the [victim of a] miscarriage of justice," he said.

"It's a bit late once you've killed someone to find that they've been the
victim of a miscarriage of justice."

(source: ABC News)