Feb. 6
INDIA:
SC upholds death sentence for Doon triple murder
A person facing death sentence for butchering a retired Brigadier and his
2 children in Dehradun in 1994 has lost his last hope of survival after
the Supreme Court dismissed his curative petition on Monday.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Y K Sabharwal, Justice Ruma Pal and Mr
Justice K G Balakrishnan dismissed the petition of convict Zaccarias Lakra
after refusing to take notice of an age certificate issued by a private
school to prove that he was a juvenile (15 years of age) at the time of
commission of crime.
It was the only ground on which the convict has challenged the dismissal
of his review petition by the Supreme Court.
The Apex Court had earlier dismissed his appeal challenging the death
sentence confirmed by the High Court awarded to him by the trial court.
Lakra had shown extreme cruelty towards the pets of his master and had
killed them in a manner showing desperate and cruel nature of the
petitioner. The Brigadier who on being informed by his children about the
killing of the pets had thrown him out of his house and also removed Lakra
from the job. The deceased had to pay with his life when he and his 2
children were killed by the convict in a cold-blooded manner with a khukri
(sharp-edged weapon) and the triple murder had created terror in the
capital of Uttaranchal.
(source: WebIndia 123)
JAMAICA:
Death row inmate gets 2nd lease on life
The man who was sentenced to hang for the murder of 66-year-old Dougal
Wright who was killed during a robbery in a bar was resentenced last week
to life imprisonment.
He is Garnett Edwards, 28, vendor of Whitfield Avenue, Kingston 13. Mr.
Justice Horace Marsh who resentenced Edwards recommended that he serve 15
years before he was eligible for parole.
Attorney-at-law Nancy Anderson who represented Edwards, pleaded with the
judge not to impose the death sentence.
Edwards was convicted in March 2002. He appealed and the Court of Appeal
dismissed it. Edwards has filed an appeal before the United Kingdom Privy
Council and it is set for hearing next month.
Mr. Wright was fatally shot during a robbery at the Mango Tree Bar, Allman
Town, Kingston on February 13, 1999.
A policeman who was in the bar tried to grab the gun from Edwards, but the
cop was then shot and injured in the stomach. The bullet exited the
policeman's stomach and struck Mr. Wright in the chest.
Mr. Justice Marsh, in passing sentence in the Home Circuit Court, said
said he took into account the fact that Edwards had been in prison for the
last 7 years.
(source: Jamaica Gleaner)
