March 1
ENGLAND:
Death penalty a step too far say families of victims
Tougher sentencing should be introduced for drivers who kill - but not the
death penalty.
That's the verdict of 2 families whose lives have been devastated by road
tragedies.
They spoke to the WHT after our story last week, in which a grieving dad
called for teenager Shahan Hayavi to face capital punishment after
admitting causing death by dangerous driving.
The 17-year-old was jailed for 3 years and four months for running down
and killing pedestrian Andrew Tollon in Bournemouth.
However, Ann Williamson doesn't agree the death penalty - abolished in the
UK in 1965 - should be reintroduced.
Her son Carl was killed by a speeding motorist in St Albans Road,
Hatfield, in 2001.
David Follett, then 24 and of Colney Heath Lane, St Albans, admitted
causing death by dangerous driving, but was jailed for just 7 months, and
banned from driving for 2 years.
Mrs Williamson said: "Sentencing powers are far too light. It's just
awful.
"If you rob someone you're likely to get 5 to 6 years, but kill someone
and they just don't seem to bother.
"I know exactly how this poor father and family feels. But I don't agree
with a life for a life."
Mrs Williamson, who moved from Welham Green to Lowestoft, Suffolk, in
1999, added her family was still affected by the accident.
"It's something that will never, never ever go away," she added.
Lena Williams also believes legislation should get tougher - but not
include capital punishment.
Her husband Steve was killed when pensioner Peter Wingar pulled out in
front of his motorbike in Howlands, WGC, in October 2004.
Wingar, then 72, of Wheatley Road, WGC, who admitted careless driving, was
banned from the road for 28 days and fined 400.
Mrs Williams, of The Commons, WGC, said: "Sentences should be longer and
tougher.
"I don't wish that man was strung up, but I strongly feel the sentencing
is not right."
She added: "A 28-day driving ban is just ridiculous. I don't feel he
should be driving again.
(source: Editorial, Welwyn & Hatfield Times)
VIETNAM:
Court hands death penalty to drug trafficker from Laos
The Peoples Court of Quang Ninh Province handed the death penalty to a Lao
citizen for trafficking in heroin and bribery on Monday.
Shomphone, 30, was arrested by Vietnamese authorities for trafficking a
large amount of drugs from Laos to the country in 2005. Shomphone was
caught while smuggling drugs via the Lao Bao border gate in Viet Nams
central Quang Tri Province to Mong Cai District, Quang Ninh Province.
He was carrying 74 bars of heroin (25.1 kg) and 4,050 amphetamines in his
car, and driving without a license, when Quang Ninh police apprehended him
last April.
Shomphone then entrusted three Vietnamese, Nguyen Van Quang, Pham Thi Mai
from Hai Phong City and Nguyen Hoang Duong of Ha Long City, to bribe the
police and retrieve the car.
The court also handed verdicts ranging from 3 to 8 years in prison to
Shomphones Vietnamese accomplices.
(source: Vietnam News Agency)
PHILIPPINES:
Mamburao 6 Meted Death Sentence
The 6 farmers accused of killing brothers Michael and Paul Quintos - sons
of a local landlord in Mamburao, Occidental Mindoro - on Dec. 13, 1997
were meted out the death penalty this morning in an 80-page decision by
Judge Teresita Yadao of Branch 81, Quezon City Regional Trial Court.
Manolito Matricio, Eduardo Hermoso, Mario Tobias, Josue Ungsod, Ruel
Bautista, and Ruben Balaguer - who had been charged together with Mamburao
local politician Jose Villarosa, a known political opponent of the
victims' father Ricardo - were all meted the maximum penalty of death even
as the Lucio de Guzman Command of the clandestine New People's Army (NPA)
had earlier admitted to the killing. Meanwhile, Villarosa has yet to be
sentenced.
In an interview with Bulatlat, lawyer Edre Olalia, counsel for 3 of the
accused, said the farmers - who were locked in a land dispute with Quintos
- ended up as "sacrificial lambs" in a battle between their accuser and
Villarosa.
"They could not have been the killers of the Quintos brothers," Olalia
added. "Aside from the NPA's public admission of the killing, there are
also witnesses testimonies pointing to the perpetrators as all young men.
We can see that the 'Mamburao 6' are all middle-aged."
In a separate phone interview, with Bulatlat, Danilo Ramos - chairman of
the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP or Philippine Peasant Movement)
of which the 6 are all members - hit Yadao for relying too much on the
testimony of Hermoso - who, he said, had been "tortured by the goons of
Quintos." Likewise, he scored Yadao for giving "too much credence" to the
testimonies of 6 procesucution witnesses whom he described as "paid hacks
of Quintos.
"Without these testimonies, the case would collapse," Ramos said.
Ramos also said that their organization plans to contest Yadao's decision
before the Court of Appeals and, if need be, the Supreme Court. "We will
definitely fight this out," Ramos said. "We will exhaust all legal,
paralegal and meta-legal means to secure their freedom."
(source: Bulatlat)
