[Deathpenalty] death penalty news---worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 2



CHINA:

Death sentence in rampage sparks debate in China


Yang Jia, convicted in the July stabbing deaths of 6 officers, had been in
police custody last year. The attack prompted many Chinese to question
police treatment of suspects.

An unemployed man charged with killing 6 Shanghai police officers in a
knife attack was sentenced to death Monday, state media reported.

However, the 28-year-old seemed to engender as much sympathy as
condemnation from many Chinese, who expressed concerns online about police
treatment of suspects and the fairness of the legal system.

The Shanghai No. 2 People's Intermediate Court found Yang Jia guilty of
premeditated murder and ordered the death penalty for the Beijing man,
said the official New China News Agency. On July 1, Yang stabbed a
security guard at a police building in Shanghai's Zhabei District, started
a fire at the gate, then attacked nine officers inside the building with a
knife.

Shanghai's public security bureau said at a news conference July 7 that
Yang had sought revenge after Zhabei police interrogated and detained him
for 6 hours last fall over a stolen bicycle.

In the wake of the stabbing attack, there has been an outpouring of
comments online from citizens nationwide, as well as from Chinese media,
questioning how a seemingly minor incident could trigger a rampage that
left six people dead and 4 others injured.

Many Chinese raised suspicions that Yang was beaten by police, which
Shanghai authorities denied. Police said Yang in fact had rented the
bicycle, and that he demanded about $1,450 in compensation from
authorities for mental anguish.

The legal proceedings and the secretive trial of Yang fanned more
criticisms on Internet sites, some of which apparently were blocked or
shut down Monday.

"If you and I were Yang Jia, we could be sentenced under such namely legal
but unclear ways," said one posting on a lawyer's blog. Said another:
"They have a guilty conscience, so all the websites closed the comment
function for this news. This is red terror."

Officials at Shanghai police headquarters and the No. 2 People's
Intermediate Court would not comment Monday. It was unclear whether Yang
would appeal the ruling. A death sentence faces automatic review by
China's Supreme Court.

Yang's attorney, Xie You- ming, was not taking media calls Monday, said a
colleague at Shanghai's Mingjiang law firm. Xie has been an advisor to
Zhabei District, the local jurisdiction, prompting questions about whether
the lawyer could represent Yang fully.

Xiong Liesuo, a Beijing lawyer, said that Yang's father in Beijing had
retained him to represent the defendant. But Xiong said that when he went
to Shanghai in mid-July, the court told him that Yang already had accepted
the services of a lawyer arranged by his divorced mother, and would not
allow Xiong to see Yang. Xiong has not been able to reach the mother in
Beijing.

"Yang's father is obviously very worried about the result and feels it's
unfair, unjust and not transparent," Xiong said, noting that relatives
were not allowed to attend the trial. Xiong added that Yang's father, an
electrician, would like to have another appraisal of his son's
psychological state.

Shanghai authorities said July 7 that a judicial appraisal found that Yang
was mentally competent during the attack. But Liu Xiaoyuan, another
Beijing attorney who has been following the case, said there was no
indication a qualified medical team had examined Yang.

Liu said Shanghai police had released the recording of four minutes of a
40-minute interrogation session with Yang, during which police reaction
appeared professional. "But why won't they release the rest of the
recording?" Liu asked.

Liu said he believed that the extensive public reaction to this case
reflected ordinary citizens' generally negative view of the police and
their power, as well as of the lack of transparency in China's legal
system.

Zou Rong, a professor at East China University of Politics and Law in
Shanghai, said Chinese law allows some cases to be closed to the public.
Nor did he see a problem with Yang's lawyer being a consultant to the
district government that is prosecuting the case.

"China is a country of law," Zou said, "but it still is far from reaching
the full construction of its legal system."

(source: Los Angeles Times)






ST. KITTS/NEVIS:

Latest attempts to carry out the death penalty thwarted


The death penalty is still on the books and the Government of St. Kitts
and Nevis is determined to carry out court-ordered sentences of death by
hanging.

This was disclosed last Friday by Prime Minister and Minister of National
Security, Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas, who told a Rally at the CEMACO
Parking Lot in New Town, following a March for Hope, Peace and Unity, that
a recent attempt to carry out the sentences of death on four persons, just
after the August holiday period, were thwarted when unnamed lawyers for
the condemned men filed the necessary papers in Court to stay the
execution.

Dr. Douglas said that following an emergency meeting of the Mercy
Committee, the recommendation to carry out the sentence of death was made
to the Governor General, but when enquires were made later, he was
informed that lawyers for the men had filed the necessary appeals.

"We do our part, but others are also doing their part. The lawyers are
doing their work, those that are to be hanged made reference to their
lawyers, their lawyers got their papers together; lodged them at the
appropriate place which is the Court and as a result of that the
sentencing - the hanging is put aside for now," said Prime Minister
Douglas.

"The wheels of justice must be seen to be turning and I give you a
commitment again that those wheels will turn as long as I am in charge of
this country," said Dr. Douglas.

There are some seven persons on death row in St. Kitts and Nevis. Appeals
are made to the Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeal and the Privy Council.

Friday's March Against Crime was organised by the Methodist Church of St.
Kitts and Nevis and was attended by some 75 persons.

(source: SKNVibes.com)






IRAN----executions

3 prisoners hanged in Zahedan


The mullahs' inhuman regime hanged 3 prisoners on Sunday identified as
Hossein-Ali Shahraki, Mojtaba Mozafari and Habibollah Pirani in the
southeastern city of Zahedan, reported the semi-official daily
Jomhouri-Islami.

It also sentenced another prisoner to death on Monday named Moharmali, 35,
in Tehran, according to the state-run daily Qods.

The Iranian regime pays no heed to international appeals for a halt to new
wave of executions especially in the summer. It hanged 29 prisoners on
July 25, in the notorious Evin prison.

Execution of minors who were under 18 at the time of the alleged crimes
provoked much international condemnations in August. Hanging of Reza
Hejazi and Behnam Zare were the latest in the teen executions by the
clerical regime.

(source: NCR)

**********************

UN rights office concern at rising Iran executions


The U.N. human rights office voiced concern on Tuesday at a recent rise in
executions in Iran and implored the Islamic Republic to stay death
sentences handed down for all convicts accused of committing crimes as
minors.

2 men, named as Mohammad Fadaaee and Amir Amrollahi, face imminent risk of
execution on murder charges, but carrying out the death penalty would
violate international law ratified by Tehran, as they were juveniles as
the time, it said.

"We urge the government of Iran to stay the executions of both of them in
strict compliance of its international human rights obligations and not to
impose the death penalty on juvenile offenders in the future," United
Nations human rights spokesman Rupert Colville told a news briefing.

The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner of Human Rights was "also
concerned over reports of a recent increase in the number of executions in
Iran in general," he said.

Iran is believed to have already executed 220 people so far this year,
including 6 juvenile offenders, Colville said. Among them were 29
convicted criminals hanged on July 27 and 5 people hanged a week ago,
including a woman.

Police in recent months have arrested dozens of people in a new drive
against "immoral behaviour" in Iran, which Amnesty International has
listed as the world's second-most prolific executioner in 2007 after
China.

The U.N. rights office was concerned that two Iranian men, Reza Hejazi and
Behnam Zarei, were hanged last month for murders committed at age 15 and
16, according to Colville.

"These executions appear to be in clear violation of international law,
which contains an absolute prohibition of the death penalty for juvenile
offenders," he said.

Iran has ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights, as well as the Convention on the Rights of the Child, both of
which ban the death penalty for crimes committed by people under age 18.

Iran rejects accusations it is violating human rights and accuses the West
of double standards and hypocrisy.

Murder, adultery, rape, armed robbery, apostasy and drug trafficking are
all punishable by death under Iran's sharia law, practised since the 1979
Islamic revolution.

Iran has executed at least 30 juvenile criminals since 1990, including 7
in 2007, according to activists who say Saudi Arabia and Yemen are the
only 2 other countries to do so.

On July 8, major human rights groups including Amnesty International urged
Iran to commute sentences against nearly 140 juvenile offenders known to
be on death row at the time.

U.N. human rights officials raised the issue as a "matter of urgency"
while in Iran earlier this year, Colville said.

South African judge Navanathem Pillay, who took over as U.N. High
Commissioner for Human Rights on Monday, vowed to speak out firmly for
victims of rights abuses around the world -- and against the abusers.

(source: Reuters)






TRINIDAD:

Ruling Dismays Death Penalty Advocates


A court order lifting the threat of execution hanging over 52 convicted
killers in Trinidad and Tobago has put the government under renewed
pressure from the opposition, death penalty supporters, the public and
lawyers to set out clearly its position on the ultimate sentence.

On Aug. 15, high court judge Nolan Bereaux ruled that 49 men and three
women awaiting execution should be taken off death row and their sentences
commuted to life imprisonment

They were all benefiting from a 2004 decision of the Privy Council, the
twin-island's highest court of appeal, that it would have been "unfair" to
execute those on death row because a year before they had been told that
they could expect a review of their death sentences and even the
possibility of a presidential commutation.

The Privy Council had ruled on an appeal by four death row prisoners from
Trinidad, Barbados and Jamaica against the mandatory death penalty in
their countries. The judges struck down mandatory death penalty in
Jamaica, but reversed their 2003 decision abolishing the automatic death
penalty in Trinidad. The reason for this change of opinion was that the
wording of Trinidad's constitution differed from that of Jamaica.

The judges based their reasoning for commuting the Trinidad death
sentences on a constitutional provision relating to "human rights and
fundamental freedoms". It was this power, also in the Jamaican
constitution, that the Privy Council had invoked to justify its ruling in
1993 that it would be "inhumane" to execute anyone after spending more
than five years on death row.

Bereaux's order for 52 death sentences in Trinidad to be commuted only
applied to those on death row up to Jul. 7, 2004. About 30 people have
been sent to death row since and are awaiting execution.

But there has been an outcry over the commutation of most of the nation's
death row inmates at a time of a soaring violent crime rate. So far this
year, there have been 344 homicides, making it one of the highest murder
rates in the world.

The government should have commuted the sentences immediately after the
2004 Privy Council ruling, said Dana Seetahal, a lawyer and independent
legislator.

"It may be that the authorities did not want a message being sent that
convicted murderers would not pay the price of their crime," Seetahal
said. "The government needs to make up its mind what it intends in
relation to the death penalty."

Former attorney general and human rights lawyer Ramesh Maharaj agreed that
the government should have acted immediately after the judges ruled in
2004.

After that the legal position on the death penalty was unclear and should
have been "reviewed", Maharaj said, adding: "Punishment is an important
factor in the fight against crime."

Criticism of the mass commutation has also been expressed by the president
of the non-governmental organisation Crime Watch, Ian Alleyne.

"These people should not be spared...They broke the law, they murdered and
then should face the ultimate penalty for murder which is death by
hanging. Criminals will continue to terrorise, kill, murder and rape our
innocent law-abiding citizens," he said.

Radio and television talk shows have also been inundated with callers
questioning Bereaux's ruling and urging the government to resume
executions.

"Even before the day is over, we will record at least 2 more murders,"
said one irate caller. "We need to put an end to that."

The government has responded to its critics by insisting that the death
penalty remains in force.

It has also promised unspecified measures, presumably to re-start
executions, the last of which were in 1999 when eight members of a gang
were hanged for several murders.

"The government will take all steps which it considers necessary,
including the enactment of relevant legislation to give effect to the
law," said the attorney general, Brigid Annisette-George.

Some of these measures would "affect" the Privy Council. She referred
specifically to the 1992 Privy Council Pratt and Morgan ruling halting
executions after 5 years on death row, hinting that the government would
propose an amendment to its constitutional amendment bill.

Israel Kahn, a lawyer, has called on the government to restrict the death
penalty to premeditated murder.

"Murder at this point should be classified in 3 degrees. 1st, 2nd and 3rd
and the death penalty retained only for 1st degree murder until our
society has developed to such a state that one day we would be able to
abolish the death penalty," Kahn said. "Without the classification in
reality, the death of the death penalty already exists."

(source: IPS News)




PHILIPPINES:

House bill seeks to restore death penalty as crime-deterrent


A House bill has been filed pushing to restore the death penalty.

Manila Rep. Bienvenido M. Abante (6th district) said in a statement that
House Bill (HB) 4882 will revive Republic Act (RA) 8177, or an Act
Designating Death By Lethal Injection; RA 7659, or the Death Penalty Law;
and all other laws, executive orders and decrees imposing the death
penalty. He said this will deter criminals and criminally inclined
elements from committing capital offenses.

Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz of the Catholic Bishops
Conference of the Philippines said the Catholic Church will lobby against
the passage of the bill.

"The Catholic Church is against the death penalty, so the opposition to
such a bill and the instruction that we speak against the bill is a
given," he told BusinessWorld.

(source: GMA News)