June 21
JAMAICA:
Jamaica AG: Abolish or make death penalty mandatory
Out of the ongoing emotional debates, across the Caribbean Community, on
judicial execution for murder, has come a proposal from Jamaica's attorney
general and Minister of Justice, A J Nicholson:
The member states of Caricom, he has suggested, should agree to either
legally abolish the death penalty, or pursue a new policy, based on
constitutional amendments, to ensure the enforcement of execution of
convicted murderers within a specified time frame.
After outlining ten steps that are still constitutionally available in
Jamaica for convicted killers seeking to avoid the gallows by a series of
appeals, Nicholson found rather positive the recent move by Barbados to
overcome rulings by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council by making
mandatory implementation of the death penalty.
Without coming down on any side, legal abolition or mandatory execution,
what seems particularly appealing to Nicholson was the unity demonstrated
by the government and parliamentary opposition in Barbados to recently
make constitutionally mandatory the death penalty for murder.
It was a course pursued by his Barbadian counterpart, Mia Mottley, as her
government was also finalising arrangements to sever ties with the Privy
Council as Barbados' final appellate court, and to access the Caribbean
Court of Justice as the country's legal institution of last resort, which
it now is, along with Guyana.
By contrast, in Jamaica, where both the governing People's National Party
and the parliamentary opposition Jamaica Labour Party favour execution of
convicted murderers, there is no indication of support from the opposition
to emulate, for example, the Barbados initiative for mandatory death
penalty.
As Nicholson sees it, if Barbados, with its comparatively "few murder
cases", has found strictures imposed by Privy Council rulings to be an
unnecessary burden that could be removed by the mandatory death penalty,
then why such cooperation cannot take place elsewhere within Caricom,
including Jamaica, between governments and parliamentary opposition
parties.
Such an approach, he thinks, would be helpful if those who claim to favour
the death penalty cooperate in removing constitutional strictures, instead
of constantly blaming governments, accusing them of incompetence and other
allegations, when the execution of death row prisoners fail to occur with
various appeals open to them, including to the Privy Council.
(source: Trinidad Express)
PHILIPPINES:
Death penalty for poll cheaters sought
Senator Jose "Jinggoy" Estrada has filed a bill seeking to amend the
Omnibus Election Code (OEC) whereby capital punishment will be imposed on
candidates found to have engaged in election fraud.
Estrada asked his colleagues in the Senate to support his proposal to stop
the illegal act from being committed in future elections.
Estrada filed Senate Bill (SB) 1786 after an alleged wiretapped
conversation between President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and former Comelec
Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano came about.
A tape of the supposed conversation showed that Arroyo allegedly ordered
Garcillano to ensure a one million-vote lead over her closest rival then,
movie actor Fernando Poe Jr.
Estrada said electoral fraud should be considered a heinous crime because
it abuses the right of suffrage.
"In order not to undermine the exercise of the right of suffrage by every
citizen, penalties for certain election offenses are hereby increased
while those are grievous and odious, aside from being inherently depraved,
repugnant and outrageous to the common standards of decency and morality,"
he said.
The bill seeks to upgrade the penalty for election offenses and classify
certain poll offenses as heinous crime to ensure fair, honest, orderly and
peaceful elections.
Estrada said the move would be the best way to protect and safeguard the
integrity and sanctity of the ballot.
(source: Manila Sun-Star)
CHINA:
Deadlock over China death penalty
A man suspected of murdering a Chinese student and leaving her body to rot
for 6 months in a Canberra apartment could get away with the crime because
Australian authorities refuse to help the investigation, fearing he could
be sentenced to death.
In an exclusive interview with The Australian, the parents of 25-year-old
Zhang Hongjie called on the Howard Government to co-operate with China so
their daughter's killer could face an executioner.
"I am calling on the 2 governments to co-operate with each other and give
the deserved punishment," said the girl's father Zhang Defa, speaking on
the anniversary of his daughter's death. "They should not be fussing
around with the details and hindering the resolution of this affair."
Mr Zhang's lawyer Chris Zhu said: "Both Chinese law and Chinese tradition
say that the murderer should pay with his life."
Australia has already ruled out trying to bring back to Australia the
prime suspect, the girl's 24-year-old fellow student and boyfriend Zhang
Long, because "it is very clear that (China) simply would not accede to
that request", said a spokesman for Justice Minister Chris Ellison.
The 2 governments are understood to be deadlocked in sensitive secret
negotiations over the case.
The minister's spokesman said that while Australia would do "whatever it
can" to help bring the killer to justice, "the assistance the Australian
Government can provide is limited unless China is able to provide the
undertaking that the death penalty won't be imposed or carried out".
No such undertaking has yet been made.
The Chinese Ministry of Public Security failed to respond to requests by
The Australian for further information.
Because of its opposition to the death penalty, Australia has no
extradition treaty with China. The practice has been to co-operate in the
repatriation of people accused of serious crimes only if China gives a
written guarantee they won't be executed.
The body of Zhang Hongjie, a communications student at the University of
Canberra who had been in Australia since 2000, lay for 6 months in the
Belconnen apartment she shared with her boyfriend until January, when
police were called by neighbours complaining of a foul smell.
Mr Zhang said the killer had doused the body with perfume and insecticide
and wrapped it in a rug before locking the apartment and fleeing to China.
He was reported to have given himself up to police at the urging of his
family in his home city of Dalian, a northern Chinese port, on March 3,
after the Australian Federal Police issued an international warrant for
his arrest.
Six days later, Zhang Long's family travelled to Shanghai, where they
attempted to make peace with Zhang Hongjie's parents.
"They wanted to express repentance and they wanted to pay compensation to
solve this privately," said Mr Zhang. But he refused to meet them. "We are
just ordinary people but the murderer's family is a family of wealth and
power," he said.
With the loss of their only daughter, the quest for justice over her
killing is the only thing he and his wife have to live for, he said.
It was only when her boyfriend's family tried to meet them that Zhang
Hongjie's parents believed that she was dead, because they had continued
to receive emails from her Canberra address, which they now believe to
have been sent by the killer.
As late as February 15, her mother received an email, purportedly from her
daughter, telling her to be ready to meet her at Shanghai airport the
following month.
Until June last year, when Zhang Hongjie was killed, mother and daughter
spoke on the phone at least once, and often twice a week, for up to an
hour at a time.
The method of killing has not been disclosed, but is believed to be
material to a case for premeditation
(source: The Australian)
