[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Apil 16



PHILIPPINES:

Commutation of death sentences receives backing of lawmakers


Administration allies expressed support yesterday for President Arroyos
decision to commute all death sentences to life imprisonment.

"The Philippines is on the verge of rejoining the league of progressive
nations which have abolished the death penalty," said Albay Rep. Edcel
Lagman.

He said since Mrs. Arroyo took over from ousted President Joseph Estrada
in January 2001, "there has been a de facto abolition of the death penalty
because she has not executed a single convict."

Lagman recalled that last Feb. 22, he wrote Mrs. Arroyo asking her to
certify a bill abolishing the death penalty. He is a principal author of
the House measure.

He said capital punishment must be scrapped because of its cruelty and
inhumanity, the imperfection of human justice, the inequality between the
poor and the rich in the access to and salvation from the courts, and its
failure to deter the commission of heinous crimes.

Lagman said it is not true that the Presidents decision was designed to
court the Catholic hierarchy to support administration initiatives like
Charter change.

"The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines has been campaigning
for the repeal of the death penalty law," he added.

Deputy Majority Leader Abraham Mitra said those who criticize the
Presidents decision should realize that life in jail is more cruel than
the easy way out provided by lethal injection.

"Its also wrong to claim that a moratorium on executions signals an open
season for crime and mayhem because what has not been refuted is the fact
that certainty of arrest and conviction remains the strongest deterrent to
crime," he said.

"The President reinforced this doctrine by allotting P1 billion for 3,000
more policemen and 500 new patrol cars this year. More policemen on the
streets, and not more inmates in death row is what will stop crime," Mitra
stressed.

Both Majority Leader Prospero Nograles and Cebu City Rep. Antonio Cuenco
said with Mrs. Arroyos refusal to carry out any death sentence, Congress
should now revisit the death penalty law.

Nograles said no one should question the commutation of death sentences
because "it is a presidential prerogative."

"This will surely trigger a full-blown debate in Congress," said Cuenco.

House Deputy Majority Leader Eduardo Gullas said Congress would have to
decide soon whether it wants to keep or abolish the death penalty law.

"We are not saying we should do this right away. But we have to make a
conscious decision one way or the other," he said.

Gullas said the President could certify a bill abolishing the death
penalty, which "will at least oblige both the House of Representatives and
the Senate to eventually decide on the matter."

He also defended Mrs. Arroyos order for the mass commutation of death
sentences, saying her power to do so "is absolute, just like the power to
grant pardon. Nobody can question it."

The Presidents decision effectively made the Philippines "a death penalty
abolitionist in practice," Gullas added, noting that there are 26
countries worldwide that "have retained the death penalty in their statute
books for certain crimes, but have not actually carried out any
executions, and have a conscious policy not to carry out executions."

He identified these "abolitionists in practice" as Algeria, Bahrain,
Benin, Brunei Darussalam, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Congo,
Gambia, Grenada, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Maldives, Mali, Mauritania,
Morocco, Myanmar, Nauru, Niger, Papua New Guinea, Russian Federation, Sri
Lanka, Suriname, Togo, Tonga and Tunisia.

Catanduanes Rep. Joseph Santiago hailed Mrs. Arroyo for "one of the
boldest moves made by a Philippine president in recent history," and said
her decision was not without precedent in other parts of the world.

He said that in 1999, then President Boris Yeltsin decreed the blanket
commutation of the death sentence on all 716 convicts on Russias death
row.

Santiago also said that then Illinois Gov. George Ryan made history when
he commuted the death sentence of all 156 inmates on his states death row
in 2003, and called the capital punishment system "arbitrary, capricious,
immoral" and unfair.

Santiago said Congress should follow the Presidents lead and promptly
repeal the death penalty law "in favor of a new, harsher form of life
imprisonment with hard and productive labor, and without allowances for
good behavior."

He proposed that those convicted of heinous crimes "be kept in prison
until they are 70 years old, or until they have served a minimum of 40
years, whichever comes first, before becoming eligible for parole. This
means they will effectively spend the rest of their natural lives in
prison."

Santiago said numerous international scientific studies, including those
conducted for the United Nations, have convincingly demonstrated that the
death penalty serves no purpose that cannot be achieved effectively by the
lesser punishment of lifetime captivity.

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. also called for the abolition
of the death penalty, saying Mrs. Arroyos commutation order was a
"half-measure."

"Death penalty has no place in a civilized society. The EU (European
Union) has abolished it," he said, adding that she should "prod her House
allies" to abolish the death penalty law.

Opposition Sen. Panfilo Lacson, a former chief of the Philippine National
Police, said Mrs. Arroyo should have considered how the victims families
would feel before she issued the commutation order.

"She should have also thought of the agonies that they go through waiting
for justice to be served... Another question is, What comes after, parole?
Or another commutation maybe? (She) talks tough on crime but doesnt
deliver. Very much like her," Lacson said.

(source: Philippene Star)

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

Anticrime groups slam death penalty reduction


Anticrime groups yesterday slammed President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's
decision commuting the sentences of all death convicts to life
imprisonment, claiming it will worsen criminality.

But an official said the President would not seek a repeal of the death
penalty law despite the decision, saying it would give the state something
to fall back on.

"The President has made it a policy that she does not want to impose the
death penalty, but that does not mean the law has been abrogated," Justice
Secretary Raul Gonzales said.

However, at least three congressmen said they would review the death
penalty with a view to abolishing it following the President's decision.

"The Philippines is on the verge of rejoining the league of progressive
nations which have abolished the death penalty," said Rep. Edcel Lagman of
Albay.

"Commutation is a presidential prerogative," House Majority Leader
Prospero Nograles said. "Maybe it's time to revisit the death penalty."

Dante Jimenez, chairman of the Volunteers against Crime and Corruption,
and Teresita Ang-See, leader and spokeswoman of the Citizens Action
against Crime, accused the President of "abuse of authority" for the
commutation.

They said the families of the victims of heinous crimes might be forced to
take the law into their own hands or to resort to vigilante justice if
they saw that the state was too soft on offenders.

"This is really condemnable," Jimenez said. "It smacks of disregard for
the rights of the victims of gruesome crimes and their families. This is
very painful to us."

"This is very traumatic for the victims and their families," Ang-See said.
"They are forced to pay ransom. They are forced to cooperate with the
police to have the kidnappers arrested, prosecuted and convicted only to
see their death sentences lowered to life imprisonment."

Ang-See said some kidnapping victims had been forced to hire hit men to
get back at their tormentors, and the Presidents latest action would
likely increase their numbers.

"Cases of salvaging [summary executions] do happen when the criminal
justice system grinds very slowly," she said. "They just hire killers to
solve the problem once and for all."

Jimenez said the commutation of the sentences of more than 1,200 death
convicts was unwarranted because the death penalty law had not been
repealed.

"How do we know if the law is working or not if the government will not
implement it?" he said.

(source: Manila Standard Today)






(In) ENGLAND:

Danny in death penalty play


Lethal Weapon star Danny Glover has come to London's West End to star in
the award winning theatre production The Exonerated.

The production is based on the true stories of death row prisoners whose
sentences are overturned when their innocence is eventually proved.

The play was so successful in the US that several people were taken off
death row after a governor saw a performance in Chicago.

Danny said: "The performance, I would like to think, was a part of that,
but for the most part he made the moral decision.

"He took his authority as representative of the state, for government to
make the right decision.

"My entire adult life even back to when I was a teenager I've been an
opponent of the death penalty."

Also in the show is real life exonerate Sunny Jacobs, whose death penalty
was reversed after nearly 17 years in prison.

Sunny explained why she agreed to be part of the show: "This is a very
positive thing to do.

"You can't really leave it behind, so its best if you can find something
positive to do with it. "

(source: ITV .com)