[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Jan. 17



PAKISTAN:

Rapists awarded death penalty


The additional district session judge West, Ms. Sher Bano Karim has
sentenced rapists Haider, Karim Baksh, and Taj Wali to death while Michael
has been sentenced to life term imprisonment.

All the confirmed criminals have also been ordered to pay the hapless
victim Rs. 50,000 each.

The hapless victim, Taj Bibi had registered a case against the said
criminals on 03rd Feb 2004 complaining that her 14 year old Sumaira worked
as a maid in a Defense Colony house, whence the driver, Michael also
employed there came to her and took her in car on the pretext of being
wanted by her employer.

Instead of taking her to the employer`s bungalow, he took her somewhere
else and handed her over to two of his accomplices Haider, Karim Baksh and
Taj Wali, who took her to an under construction house and subjected her to
gang rape.

(source: Pakistan Tribune)






NIGERIA:

Rev King Appeals Death Sentence


Controversial Lagos clergyman, Chukwu-emeka Ezeuko (a.k.a) Dr. Rev King)
yesterday filed a notice of appeal before the Court of Appeal, holden in
Lagos, asking the upper court to set aside a death sentence currently
hanging on his neck, after he was found guilty and convicted for attempted
murder and murder by a Lagos High Court (Ikeja Division) judge, Justice
Olubunmi Oyewole.

The convict, who is currently held in Kiri-kiri Maximum Prisons in Lagos,
was on Thursday, January 11, sentenced to death by hanging for murder, in
addition to a 100 year jail term on 5 counts of attempted murder, for
setting members of his church, the Christian Praying Assembly (CPA) on
fire for allegedly committing fornication, an act which led to the death
of one of them, Ann Uzoh King. The convict, in a 9-page Notice of Appeal
with Charge No ID/133C/2006, filed on his behalf by his counsel, Chief
Mike Okoye, also urged the higher court to strike out all the 6 counts in
the charge, and to reverse his convictions, adjudge him 'Not Guilty' and
to order his discharge and acquittal from the counts preferred against
him.

According to the notice, the convict wrote, "I, Chukwuemeka Ezeuko (a.k.a
Dr. Rev King), seek orders striking out the six (6) count charge, setting
aside, quashing, and reversing all my convictions, and all my joint
several sentencing, and orders (in substitution) adjudging me 'Not Guilty'
on all the relevant counts of the 'Amended Charge', and further
consequential orders directing that I be discharged and acquitted in
respect of each and every one of the said 'counts', and an order (finally)
that I do be released from imprisonment (and re-instated in liberty)
unconditionally, immediately, and forthwith".

On the grounds of appeal, King contended that the trial judge erred in law
by assuming jurisdiction over the case when the six-court charged against
him was not dated; that he failed to consider the adduced evidence in
relation to all the counts and to make a finding on whether each count has
been proved beyond reasonable doubt; and that Justice Oyewole erred in law
in believing and accepting the evidence led by the prosecution (Lagos
State Ministry of Justice) before considering the evidence led by the
defence.

The convict also claimed the trial judge erred in law when he held that
the prosecution had proved beyond all reasonable doubt the burning
incident that occurred on the night of Saturday, July 22, 2006; and that
the convict planned to kill the burn victims, who are his church members,
by pouring petrol and throwing a lit match on them.

To King, the judge erred in law by convicting him on both the 5 counts of
attempted murder, and the 6th count of murder, after holding that the
prosecution had established a case of murder against him. He also claimed
the judge erred when he expunged the oral and documentary evidence led by
the prosecution in proof of its case, even when the judge had no
jurisdiction to do so.

King was alleged to have attempted to murder seven people on July 22, at
No. 6B, Canal View, Ajao Estate, Lagos by pouring petrol on them and
setting them on fire; an offence punishable under Section 332 of the
Criminal Code, Laws of Lagos State, 2003. The victims include Miss Onuorah
Chizoba formerly known as Hope King; Olisa Chiejina; Uche Chukwu Iwoba;
Vivian Ezeocha; Kossi-sochukwu Henry; Nwere Jessica; and Ann Uzoh King,
who died on August 2, 2006, allegedly from overwhelming infection and
hypo-volemic shock occasioned by injuries from her 2nd and 3rd degree
burns.

During the accelerated trial, twelve prosecution witnesses (including 5
eye-witnesses) were called by prosecuting officers of the Lagos State
Ministry of Justice (led by Mrs. Jacquina Gbadebo, Director of Public
Prosecution); 9 witnesses including King himself were called by the
defence team, led by Chief Mike Okoye; and a total of 25 exhibits were
tendered as evidence before the court.

(source: This Day)






GLOBAL:

Renewed calls to abolish the death penalty worldwide


The gruesome decapitation of Saddam Hussein's half brother and Saddam's
own undignified hanging have prompted renewed calls to abolish the death
penalty worldwide as critics blamed the executions for fanning hate in the
Middle East.

Governments in the European Union, which has outlawed capital punishment,
reiterated their opposition to the death penalty but stayed away from
commenting on the manner of Mondays executions in Iraq of Saddams half
brother Barzan Ibrahim and former Revolutionary Court chief Awad
al-Bandar.

Ibrahim plunged through the trap door and was beheaded by the jerk of the
thick rope at the end of his fall; the Iraqi government said the
decapitation was an accident. Saddam's Dec. 30 execution drew
international outrage after a clandestine video showed the former
president being taunted on the gallows. A 2nd leaked video showed Saddams
corpse with a gaping neck wound.

Hours after Ibrahim and al-Bandar were executed, European Commission
President Jose Manuel Barroso and Italian Premier Romano Prodi condemned
the hangings.

"Our position, born out of principle, is against the death penalty,"
Barroso said in Rome. "It's an issue of values. We consider that no man
has the right to take the life of another man."

Italy has been leading a diplomatic drive since Saddam's execution to have
the U.N. General Assembly take up a worldwide moratorium on the death
penalty.

On Tuesday, President Bush said Saddam's execution looked like "kind of a
revenge killing" and showed that the government of Prime Minister Nouri
al-Maliki "has still got some maturation to do."

Bush criticized the circumstances of Saddams hanging and the other 2
executions. "I was disappointed and felt like they fumbled the -
particularly the Saddam Hussein execution," the president told PBS.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she hoped that those who made
cell phone videos of Saddam's execution would be punished. "We were
disappointed there was not greater dignity given to the accused under
these circumstances," she told reporters in Egypt.

Portugal's Justice Minister Alberto Costa said an international conference
against the death penalty his country is hosting in October as part of an
EU drive for a worldwide ban on capital punishment has been "lent greater
importance" by the executions in Iraq.

And in London, a spokesman for Prime Minister Tony Blair said Britain
opposes the death penalty but recognizes the right of countries to use it.
"We did emphasize that if the executions were to be carried out they
should be done so in a dignified way. If, as it appears to be the case,
this did not happen, then that clearly was wrong." The spokesman spoke on
condition of anonymity in keeping with government policy.

Newspaper editorials, cartoons and some politicians criticized the
hangings as an inhumane and terrifying form of punishment.

(source: The Independent)