[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

May 18


GHANA:

Amnesty International Writes to Attorney General On Abolition of Death
Penalty


THE CHRONICLE has been bombarded with series of letters from members of
Amnesty International living abroad and addressed to Mr. Joe Ghartey,
Attorney General and Minister for Justice reminding him of the need to
abolish the death penalty in West African States and Mauritania.

Amnesty International noted in the letter that for several years, it has
observed a trend in favour of abolition in Africa and in West Africa
where, since 2004, both Senegal and Liberia have abolished the death
penalty. It noted that Ghana seems to fit in with this movement and that
Amnesty International was very pleased to learn that in 2005 the Attorney
General publicly stated his opposition to the death penalty. "We are
therefore urging you to take all the necessary measures to ratify the
Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights.

"Furthermore, as 152 people are imprisoned on death row according to the
Ghana Prison Services, we are urging you to do everything in your power to
adopt a moratorium on all executions and, we ask you to urge President J.
A. Kufuor to use prerogative of mercy, as he did in 2003, by commuting all
death sentences", the letter added.

(source: Ghanaian Chronicle)






GUATEMALA:

Inmates in Limbo


21 inmates have spent years on death row in Guatemala because of a legal
vacuum that has brought a de facto halt to executions but has done away
with the president's right to pardon prisoners or commute their sentences.

"I have never been a trouble-maker, nor a lover of violence," said Carlos
Garca*, a former Guatemalan police officer who has spent 11 of his 41
years of life in high security prisons, sentenced to death on charges of
planning a kidnapping.

In the Centro de Detencin Preventiva in Guatemala City, the dark-skinned
man with a thick moustache told IPS he is innocent, and complained about
the discrimination suffered by death row inmates. "The only thing they
haven't done is shackle us to the wall," he said.

No executions have been carried out in this impoverished Central American
country since 2000, but the death sentence remains in place, applicable to
crimes like kidnapping (even if the victim does not die), rape of children
under 10, and some drug trafficking-related offences.

The death row inmates, 16 of whom were defended by court-appointed public
defenders and five of whom have private attorneys, have spent between five
and 11 years in prison, most of them in isolated wings of high security
penitentiaries, and with no chance of exhausting the legal process
available.

During the government of Alfonso Portillo (2000-2004), Congress overturned
an 1892 law on presidential pardons, leaving Guatemala without any
procedure for prisoners to be pardoned or amnestied or to have their
sentences commuted.

The de facto moratorium has been in place since the law was repealed,
David Augusto Dvila, in charge of the death penalty and extrajudicial
executions programme of the non-governmental Institute for Comparative
Studies in Penal Science of Guatemala, explained to IPS.

That means Guatemala is in contravention of international conventions that
it has ratified, like the American Convention on Human Rights, the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the United
Nations Safeguards Guaranteeing Protection of the Rights of Those Facing
the Death Penalty, adopted in 1984 by the U.N. Economic and Social Council
(ECOSOC).

Guatemala is one of only three countries in the Americas, along with Cuba
and the United States, where the death penalty is still applicable to
common crimes.

A draft law to reinstate the presidential pardon power was introduced to
Congress in August 2006 by the small Unionist Party.

But according to Dvila, the draft law would actually be favourable to
executing the death row inmates, because it would give the president only
30 days to decide on cases, and would allow the execution to go ahead if
the president does not take a stance.

Garca, one of 78 prisoners who escaped in 2001 from "Infierno" (Hell) --
as the Maximum Security Prison of Escuintla in the southeast of the
country has been dubbed -- and were recaptured, said he does not believe
in the justice system. "The laws are ok, but not those who apply them," he
told IPS.

His court-appointed lawyer alleges that the courts did not respect the
constitutional principle of equality when his client's sentence was handed
down, because in similar cases, the death penalty has been commuted to
life in prison.

A father of five, whose partner left him, Garca said he does not think
about death. "You don't really accept that that moment will come, because
that would be like accepting that I won't help take care of my
grandchildren, just like I have missed out on raising my children. It's
sad and fills you with a sense of desperation."

"The uncertainty, the not knowing if or when they will be executed,
creates anguish, desperation and anxiety among the inmates, and wears down
their health," said Dvila, who also pointed to the stigma borne by death
row inmates and the poor overall conditions, like overcrowding and lack of
basic services in prisons, where riots are frequent.

For 5 years, Garca was hardly ever allowed out of his cell. "They would
open a tiny little slot in the door to give us our food, and they let us
out only for showers."

A month ago he was transferred to a wing that holds 1,500 inmates. He said
he is grateful to have more contact with other prisoners.

His hope is not that his sentence will be commuted. "The justice I am
hoping for is my freedom," he said.

"Waiting to be executed is torture," the national coordinator of the unit
in the office of the public defender that challenges sentences, Nidia de
Corsantes, told IPS.

She said that of the 67 death penalty cases assigned to the unit since
1994, the public defenders have gotten 51 of the sentences overturned
because of procedural errors and other reasons, while 16 are still
standing.

Two verdicts handed down by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights
against Guatemala in 2005 warned that justice is not always properly
administered in this country and called for the reinstatement of the
presidential power to pardon death row inmates, Diego de Len, in charge of
political affairs in the Myrna Mack Foundation, a local human rights
group, told IPS.

Thanks to the Inter-American Court rulings, Fermn Ramrez, who was
sentenced to death for the rape and murder of a 10-year-old girl, and
Ronald Raxcac, who was given the death penalty for kidnapping charges, had
their sentences commuted.

When 2 men were executed by firing squad in 1996, one of the executions --
which were televised -- was botched, requiring a coup de grace to complete
the job. The howls of outrage from the international community prompted
the government to switch methods.

The latest executions, one of which took place in 1998 and two in 2000,
were carried out with lethal injection, and went ahead despite appeals for
clemency lodged by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

At least 1,591 people were executed in 25 countries in 2006, according to
the London-based Amnesty International.

60 % of those on death row in Guatemala have been sentenced for kidnapping
(some of the cases involved the death of the victim), and 40 % for
homicide.

"It has been clearly demonstrated that capital punishment does not work as
a dissuasive element," said de Corsantes.

The secretary of Guatemala's Catholic Bishops' Conference, Gonzalo de
Villa, told IPS that the death penalty is "indefensible" and "a morally
illicit formula that does not achieve the objectives it pursues."

Dvila argued that an increase in social spending is the only way to bring
crime levels down in a country where 56 % of the population of 12.7
million is living in poverty (or closer to 80 %, according to unofficial
figures).

Official statistics indicate that 5,000 people are murdered annually and
dozens are kidnapped in Guatemala, where youth gangs known as "maras",
organised crime and extrajudicial killings are extremely pressing
problems.

Opinion polls show that a majority of Guatemalans support the death
penalty and even the "social cleansing" of suspected gang members carried
out by members of the security forces.

"There is a great deal of hypocrisy in the justice system" because "on one
hand, people are sentenced to death, and on the other you have
extrajudicial killings. But it isn't by executing people, either
judicially or extrajudicially, that the problems will be solved," said
Edgar Celada, an adviser to the Human Rights Ombudsman's Office.

The candidates in the campaign for the Sept. 9 general elections are
promising "total security" and a tough approach towards crime.

"The people are tired of being victims and feeling vulnerable to appalling
crimes," said Mario Polanco, director of the Mutual Support Group (GAM), a
human rights organisation that forms part of a network of groups opposed
to the death penalty.

GAM reported that 927 murders were committed in the 1st quarter of the
year, and that 116 of the victims were women, 11 were girls and 6 were
boys.

Given the spiral of violence, the organisations fighting for the abolition
of the death penalty are "swimming against the current" and draw fire from
people who accuse them of "defending criminals," said Polanco.

In 2002, then president Portillo submitted a draft law to abolish capital
punishment, but it was almost immediately voted down in parliament.

Against that backdrop, it would seem unlikely that President Oscar Berger,
who has publicly come out against the death penalty, or whoever is elected
in the upcoming elections will take the political risk of attempting to do
away with capital punishment or deciding the fate of the 21 death row
inmates, say observers.

It's visiting time at the Centro de Detencin Preventiva, and dozens of
women, many of them with small children, are lined up outside, waiting to
see their loved ones.

"I'm afraid I might die," Garca admits, finally. "I feel sorry for my
daughters. I only regret not having been with them all of these years."

(source: IPS News)






JAMAICA:

Jamaican in landmark 1990s death penalty case freed from prison


A convicted murderer whose case led to a landmark death penalty decision
was released from prison on Friday in Jamaica.

In the 1993 ruling, Britain's Privy Council  the highest court of appeal
for many former colonies  ruled that Earl Pratt and other inmates who
spend more than 5 years on death row should have their sentences changed
to life.

Pratt, who was convicted of murder and originally sentenced to death in
1979, served 28 years before he was freed from the St. Catherine District
Prison.

Also Friday, Jamaica released Kingston dress designer Mary Lynch, who had
been given a life term in 1994 for murdering her husband.

(source: Associated Press)






EUROPEAN UNION:

OSCE: Statement of the European Union on Death Penalty in the USA


The EU reiterates its longstanding and active opposition to the death
penalty in all circumstances. We consider that the abolition of the death
penalty contributes to the enhancement of human dignity and the
progressive development of human rights. On the other hand, the death
penalty does not serve as an effective deterrent, and any miscarriage of
justice, which is inevitable in any legal system, would be irreversible.

While aiming for the universal abolition of the death penalty the EU seeks
a moratorium in all countries that retain capital punishment as a first
step towards this end. The EU is therefore concerned about an imminent
breach of the de facto moratorium in the State of Arizona. The EU has
learned that Mr. Robert Charles Comer is to be executed on 22 May 2007.
This would be the 1st execution in that state since November 2000. The EU
wishes to encourage the appropriate authorities in the State of Arizona to
continue the moratorium on the death penalty and urges them to grant
clemency to Mr. Comer.

The EU trusts that the competent authorities in the State of Arizona will
be informed of this statement.

On a different matter the EU has learned that the Nebraska Supreme Court
has stayed the execution of Carey Dean Moore on 2 May 2007 over concerns
about a new electrocution protocol. Nebraska is the only US federal state
which still relies solely on the electric chair for capital punishment.
The EU has intervened in this case on the basis of the breaking of a de
facto moratorium in the state.

The Candidate Countries Turkey, Croatia and the former Yugoslav Republic
of Macedonia, the Countries of the Stabilisation and Association Process
and potential candidates Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and
Serbia, EFTA countries Iceland and Norway, members of the European
Economic Area, as well as Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova align
themselves with this statement.

(source: European Union)