death penalty news June 24, 2005
USA: Death penalty debate finally produces useful result For the past half century, the nation has been locked ? deadlocked might be a better word ? in a bitter debate over the death penalty. But what if there is a middle ground? With little fanfare, a compromise has been gaining favor more than a decade, drawing support as DNA evidence has exonerated inmates on death row. Last week, it reached a milestone. Texas, site of one in three executions, gave juries the option to sentence defendants in capital cases to life without parole rather than death. All but one death-penalty state, New Mexico, now offers that choice, a marked change from the era when life sentences were a meaningless illusion. But why stop at making life without parole just an optional alternative to execution? It is a fitting replacement, assuring severe punishment for the worst of crimes but with a safety valve to protect those falsely accused or wrongly sentenced. Evidence of the need pours in weekly now. Five times in the past seven months, the Supreme Court has had to rein in state courts that mishandled death penalty cases. On Monday, the court ordered a new sentencing trial in a Pennsylvania case involving shoddy work by the lawyer for an accused murderer. Last week, the court sent back cases from Texas and California that reeked of racial discrimination in jury selection. Earlier, the court ruled against Texas (again) and Missouri (twice) in cases of excluding relevant evidence, making defendants appear in shackles and executing juveniles. Just last week at the state level: ?An Oklahoma appeals court ordered a new trial for a man sentenced to death in a 1982 murder on the basis of testimony from a police chemist who has since been fired for poor and unreliable lab work. ?An Illinois man jailed for eight months and facing the death penalty in his daughter's death was released when a long-overdue DNA test finally came back ? negative. ?A former North Carolina judge urged the state Legislature to impose a two-year moratorium on executions. Against this backdrop, the rate of executions has dropped 40% from its onetime high. Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, the Supreme Court has tried to make clear that it is to be applied carefully and evenhandedly. Nevertheless, cases of incompetent lawyering, suppression of evidence, local prejudice and other affronts to justice keep appearing. The result is evident in the numbers who narrowly escaped execution: While 972 people have been put to death since the 1970s, at least 119 have been taken off death row because of evidence they were wrongly convicted or sentenced. According to a Gallup Poll in May, 74% of the public supports the death penalty, but backing for capital punishment drops to 56% when respondents are given the alternative of life without parole. Even in Texas, a Scripps-Howard poll last October found that while 75% supported the death penalty, 78% favored the option of life without parole. Already, life without the death penalty is the norm in a growing number of states. In addition to the 12 that don't allow it, five others have had no executions in more than 30 years; six have used it only once in that time. Abolishing the death penalty and using life without parole instead can't fix all the injustices exposed in courts across the nation. But at least no one would be executed as a result. (source: Editorial, USA Today) Death penalty works In two recent decisions, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned death sentences of convicted murderers, sparking renewed calls for an end to capital punishment. A shifting majority on the court has struggled with the death penalty in recent years, sometimes exceeding its authority to grant new rights to murderers. But the two newest decisions focused on case-specific issues, adding very little to the larger debate. Both involve clearly guilty murderers who won new trials because of procedural errors: ?Ronald Rompilla was sentenced to death for the robbery and brutal stabbing murder of an Allentown, Pa., bar owner in 1988. The high court overturned his sentence with a narrow holding that his attorneys were ineffective because they failed to thoroughly investigate the record of his 1974 conviction for raping a woman at knifepoint. ?Thomas Joe Miller-El received a death sentence for the 1985 execution of a Holiday Inn employee during a robbery. He left a second victim permanently disabled. The high court granted him a new trial because prosecutors might have intentionally excluded some blacks from his jury. Claims of ineffective assistance of counsel and biased jury selection are made in thousands of criminal cases each year. These claims rarely raise questions about the defendant's guilt and do not justify abolishing sentencing laws. A growing body of research suggests that ending the death penalty would result in more murder victims. Studies released over the past several years by economists from Emory University, the University of Colorado, Clemson University, State University of New York, Western Illinois University, University of Houston and the University of Chicago, among others, found that for each murderer executed, five to 18 murders are prevented. And in direct conflict with opponents' claims, recent Gallup and TNS/Washington Post/ABC polls have reported that public support for the death penalty has either remained steady at 65% or increased from 63% to 70% over the past five years. The fact that there have been nearly 27,000 fewer murders over this period may explain why Americans are not ready to abandon the death penalty for our worst murderers. [Michael Rushford, the author, is president of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, which is based in Sacramento.] (source: Editorial, USA Today) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/private/deathpenalty/attachments/20050624/6b453569/attachment.htm From [email protected] Fri Jun 24 12:08:56 2005 From: [email protected] (Rick Halperin) Date: Tue Aug 16 12:16:06 2005 Subject: [Deathpenalty]death penalty news-----worldwide Message-ID: <[email protected]> June 24 BELARUS: Belarusian president submits death penalty bill to parliament Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka seeks to amend the Penal Code with a provision about a temporary nature of the death penalty in Belarus. As Interfax has learnt at the Belarusian president's press service, Lukashenka submitted a bill to this effect to parliament today. "Specifically, a provision regarding the temporary nature of the death penalty is included in the Penal Code. The death penalty as an exceptional measure of punishment for grave crimes associated with the loss of human life with aggravating circumstances may be applied in Belarus until its cancellation," the presidential press service said. (source: Interfax-Ukraine news agency) VIETNAM: Death penalty for Taiwanese wife murderer in Vietnam A provincial court in central Vietnam has sentenced an elderly Taiwanese national to death after he was convicted of the brutal murder of his wife, who was a Vietnamese. The Peoples Court in the central Khanh Hoa province on June 21 found Chen Kun Sung, 69, guilty of killing his own wife, Ha Thi Lan, 29, on November 11, 2004. Mrs. Has body was found with 40 wounds caused by knife and hammer, according to local police. At the court, Chen said he attacked his wife with a hammer first then stabbed her to death after a fight as he suspected her of having extra marital affairs. After killing his wife, Chen attempted to commit suicide and was found by Mrs. Has 10-year-old son from a previous marriage, who just returned home from school. Chen was taken to hospital and was rescued from death. After being discharged from hospital, Chen was arrested by local police on December 3, 2004, and then eventually pled guilty. Chen, who came to Vietnam as a woodwork expert, got married with Mrs. Ha in December 2002. (source: Thanh Nien Daily) AFRICA: Death penalty opponents hail Africa for cutting executions Campaigners against the death penalty hailed African countries Friday for reducing executions, dedicating their annual report to Zambia's president and awarding a prize to Senegal's. The abolitionist group Hands off Cain said that Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa "has given a strong boost to the process of democratisation in the country" and "refused to sign any death warrants since he took office" in 2001. It said that Mwanawasa had commuted to jail terms the death sentences of scores of people, including 44 soldiers convicted of treason, and said that government intended to propose the abolition of the death penalty to parliament. Since January 1997, when in a single day eight people were put to death, "Zambia has had a de facto moratorium on capital punishment, that continues to be observed thanks to the firm beliefs of President Mwanawasa," the report said. It quoted the Zambian president as saying, "You cannot be slaughtering people like chickens and I will not sign any death warrant for as long as I remain president. I do not want to be the chief hanger." Hands off Cain also presented its Abolitionist of the Year Award to President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal, "whose proposal led to the complete abolition of the death penalty in Senegal on December 10, 2004, World Human Rights Day." Wade said in the ceremony in Rome that he accepted the award "with intense emotion." While the death penalty was "not a simple matter", Wade said, he did not feel he had the right to "take away a life that was given by God." Presenting the bronze trophy, Italian parliament speaker Pier Ferdinando Casini noted that Senegal was 94 percent Muslim, adding, "Between Islam and the western world the distance is not as great as some would like us to believe, and we are called upon to work for this distance to be even smaller." Hands off Cain said that 14 Muslim-majority states carried out at least 412 executions in 2003, mostly imposed by Islamic courts applying strict interpretations of Sharia law. But it added that of the 48 Muslim-majority states worldwide, 19 can be considered abolitionist in various forms, while of the 29 retentionists only 14 applied capital punishment in 2003. It noted that Africa "is the continent with the highest number of countries that have not carried out executions for over 10 years ... 18 of the total 32 de facto abolitionist UN member states." In civil wars, millions died in Sierra Leone, Burundi, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan, but capital punishment could not be the redress, as all those countries practised it, the group said. DRC, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Zambia were among countries where the process of democratization has also included positive steps towards abolition. Consequently African countries could tip the balance in a vote against the death penalty at the UN General Assembly, taking on a "role that would be both symbolic and decisive." "By an active participation in a global campaign such as the one for a worldwide moratorium on executions, Africa could demonstrate that it is no longer just the land of coups, summary and capital executions, but, on the contrary a continent able to communicate the message of non-violence." Hands Off Cain, founded in 1993, describes itself as "a league of citizens and parliamentarians for the abolition of the death penalty worldwide." (source: Agence France Presse) MEXICO: Mexico moves closer to killing death penalty Mexico's House Thursday approved a measure striking the death penalty from the constitution and inserting language expressly prohibiting capital punishment. The amendment now must be passed by legislatures in a majority of the nation's 31 states, where it is expected to face little opposition. The Mexican legal system has not put anyone to death since 1961, and courts usually refuse to extradite suspects to the United States or other countries if there is a chance they could wind up on death row. But capital punishment is still technically legal, especially in military courts. By a vote of 412-0, with two abstentions, lawmakers passed a measure approved in March by the Senate. The vote came during a special House session convened during what is normally a recess period. The constitution's Article 14 reads "no one can be deprived of life, liberty or their property, possessions or rights without a trial." It would be modified and new language inserted that forbids legal executions, mutilations and other forms of cruel and unusual punishment. The measure that cleared Congress on Thursday states that "even though it is still mentioned in our legislation, there has not been an execution in 43 years, since Aug. 9 1961." (source: Associated Press) ********************** Ban on death penalty heads to states for OK Mexico's House of Representatives on Thursday approved a measure striking the death penalty from the constitution and inserting language expressly prohibiting capital punishment. The amendment now must be passed by legislatures in a majority of the nation's 31 states, where little opposition is expected. The Mexican legal system has not put anyone to death since 1961. But capital punishment is still technically legal. (source: Mercury News) TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO: The Punishers The curious thing about statistics presented in defence of theories seeking to prove the futility of corporal or capital punishment is that they are all constructed on conjecture; saying punishment of convicted criminals in such fashion would have little or no positive effect on our future. Where that argument collapses completely is against the reality that an executed criminal is in no position to commit another murder, whereas if kept in jail for the rest of his/her natural life, pardoned or released via some legal technicality, society is offered no such guarantee. Religion has only added to the confusion, some advocating death as punishment for killing, while others see it as State-sponsored violence, both sides of the debate proffering reams of evidence, invariably culled from sometimes skewed interpretations of writings or teachings of spiritual leaders. Christianity has its own brand of built-in conflict on the issue of capital punishment, given The Bible's vacillation on the subject, saying in one instance "an eye for an eye" and three verses later asking victims of physical abuse to "turn the other cheek," saying too that all vengeance is for the domain of The Lord. Among Bible verses most often cited in support of the abolitionist position is the tenet described in John (8:3 to 8:11), where Jesus petitions executioners, throwing them into a collective quandary as they gathered to stone an adulteress to death, saying: "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." Interestingly, it is also one of The Bible's most contested accounts, with the anti-execution crusade quoting it to indicate Jesus' opposition to capital punishment, even as scholars declare the report a forgery, since it only appeared in later editions of the Gospel of St John, presumably added by a sneaky creative writer. But nothing in that quotation suggests Jesus is challenging the right of the accusers to kill the adulteress, in keeping with the template set out in laws God gave to Moses. If indeed, among the executioners, there were many without sin, presumably the stoning would have proceeded without further hindrance; having satisfied the proviso. Perhaps because Jesus was a victim of a most brutal mode of capital punishment, Christian passion for abolition of such penalties is enhanced but there too the teachings are at least contradictory for, if he were not put to death, the very religion would not exist today. And if it be argued regardless that the crucifixion was for a greater good, including unassailably noble justification like saving us from eternal hell and damnation, it may be useful to consider that much the same philosophy must have informed what the law of the land currently believes; even if on not quite so grand a scale. Interestingly, according to Biblical accounts, God Himself imposed the death penalty on individuals guilty of certain transgressions. In Acts (5:1 to 5:11), the story of Ananias and Sapphira indicates that the former was killed on the spot and the latter after she repeated the lie to Peter; all for no greater crime than falsely declaring profits from the sale of a piece of real estate. Jesus also featured in an episode of corporal punishment, driving the money changers from the temple at Jerusalem, a story whose graphics show Christ with a whip, summarily dishing out a penalty on the bankers, having determined them guilty of corruption and outright gouging of the poor; already forced to purchase a special temple currency if they wished to do any business in the Holy City. As with any proposition for dealing with criminals, whether it be Justice Herbert Volney's idea of discarding the apparently ineffective birch and returning to the cat-o-nine tails for sex offenders, corporal punishment at large, or execution of convicted murderers, a country's social circumstances should help determine whether they are acceptable elements of the correction system. Of course, there is no refuting the pro-abolition argument that justice can miscarry, sending an innocent man to the gallows. In the US, during the 20th Century alone, 75 persons were incorrectly convicted of homicides and according to a 1987 Stanford University survey at least 23 of them wrongly executed. The nightmarish possibilities intensify with DNA testing that, over the past 15 years, freed a number of persons, some detained for decades. Neither compensation nor delayed release is any good to a corpse, such errors ranking for much greater contemplation than spilt milk but something rather final must be done to debar sexual predators and career killers, if we are to protect society from repeat offenders. But while the lobby to abolish the death penalty continues its crusade, the average law-abiding citizen is being punished, living behind bars, in fear of ruthless murderers, confident the worst that can happen to them is life in prison. (source: Opinion, Trinidad Express)
