[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

July 25


JAMAICA:

House to vote on death penalty in September


PARLIAMENTARIANS will in September decide if Jamaica should retain the
death penalty for capital murder.

Prime Minister Bruce Golding tabled a motion in the House of
Representatives on Tuesday, calling on the House to either affirm support
for the death penalty, or request its removal, as specified in the
Offences Against the Person Act.

He said that the matter would remain on the table of the House during the
summer recess, which started Wednesday, and would continue to the first
week of September. He said that he expects the vote by the end of
September.

Responding to questions at Wednesday's post-Cabinet press briefing at
Jamaica House, Golding said a decision had been made from as far back as
1995 for a conscience vote in Parliament on the issue, but said that
nothing had been done about it.

The prime minister said he had already advised Government MPs that they
should vote according to their conscience. However, he could not say
whether the Opposition would take the same position.

(source: Jamaica Observer)






IRAN:

30 prisoners will face gallows on Sunday


In a statement by Tehran's prosecutor's office as many as 30 prisoners
will face gallows on Sunday.

The "names" of the prisoners, the statement said, will be published later
this week.

"Twenty of the convicts will be executed in accordance with the 'boosting
public security plan' and disturbing the public order," the statement
added.

"Sentences for [other] offenders with records of violating the 'public
security plan' will soon be handed down by the [judges] and published,"
the statement said.

The hanging orders came despite repeated condemnation by the international
community.

On Thursday, the EU current president France issued a statement calling on
the mullahs' regime to halt the death by stoning orders for 9 prisoners  8
women and 1 man.

Likewise, on July 24, France, on behalf of the bloc, expressed grave
concern over the imminent death sentences for 2 teenagers, Behnood Shojaee
and Mohammad Fadaei. Both were under 18 at time of the alleged crimes.

On July 22, the clerical regime passed a judgment to cut off the hands of
3 prisoners identified as Ali, 39; Safar-Ali, 35 and Rahmant-Allah, 40;
for petty theft.

The Rome-based Hands Off Cain, which campaigns to stop the death penalty,
said on Friday that while countries were increasingly renouncing the death
penalty, "Executions jumped by a third in Iran" last year.

According to Hands Off Cain, the mullahs' regime executed 355 prisoners in
2007.

(source: National Council of Resistance of IRan)






LIBERIA:

AI calls for repeal of death penalty law


An Amnesty International press statement today says the human rights
organization has condemned the signing by Liberian President Ellen
Johnson-Sirleaf of a law calling for the death penalty for anyone
convicted of armed robbery, terrorism or hijacking offences if these
crimes result in death.

The organization called on President Johnson-Sirleaf to repeal the law.

Amnesty International said that the law directly violates Liberia's
obligations under the Second Optional Protocol to the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which Liberia acceded to
on 16 September 2005 and which abolishes the death penalty.

Liberian law already included the possibility of the death penalty, but in
2005, the country should have incorporated into law the Second Optional
Protocol, thereby abolishing the death penalty for all crimes.

Under customary international law, as reflected in Article 27 of the
Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, which Liberia ratified on 29
August 1985, a state "may not invoke the provisions of its internal law as
a justification for its failure to perform a treaty."

The continent of Africa is largely free of executions, with only 7 of the
regions 53 countries known to have carried out executions in 2007.
According to Amnesty International's information, 14 countries in Africa
are abolitionist in law and a further 21 in practice.

While states have the duty to protect the right to life and security of
individuals from violent crimes, there is no valid scientific evidence to
support that the death penalty deters crime more effectively than other
punishments.

All too often, politicians have found the death penalty a useful tool in
appearing to address crime and make the public feel safe. In reality, the
death penalty has no such effect and simply distracts from the need to
address the causes of crime and providing effective remedies - which is
what the Liberian government should be doing.

Background information The Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR, aimed at
the abolition of the death penalty worldwide, was adopted by the UN
General Assembly in 1989. It provides for the total abolition of the death
penalty but allows states parties to retain the death penalty in time of
war if they make a reservation to that effect at the time of ratifying or
acceding to the Protocol.

Any state that is a party to the ICCPR can become a party to the Protocol.

(source: The Patriotic Vanguard)






INDIA:

CBI seeks capital punishment for Khairlanji massacre accused


The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has sought death penalty for all
the 11 accused in the Dalit family massacre at Khairlanji in neighbouring
Bhandara district.

The CBI counsel before First Adhoc Sessions Judge S S Dass on Thursday
contended that all accused be awarded death sentence looking at the
gravity of the crime in which a Dalit women Surekha Bhotmange, along with
her 2 sons Sudhir, Roshan and daughter Priyanka, was brutally killed on
September 29, 2006.

(source: PTI)