[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Aug. 29



UGANDA/CHINA:

Deport Drug Traffickers, MPs Request


Convicted Ugandan drug traffickers should not be killed in China but left
to serve their sentences back home, members of Parliament pleaded
yesterday.

"They should not be killed but sentenced to life imprisonment back home
(in Uganda)," Ms Loy Kiryapawo, the chairperson of the Parliamentary
Foreign Affairs committee, said yesterday while presenting her committee
report on the Ministerial Policy Statement and budget estimates for the
financial year 2007/2008.

7 Ugandans were arrested in China in possession of heroin weighing more
than 50 grammes each, the threshold upon which the death penalty can be
imposed in Communist China. Death is usually by hanging.

Ms Kiryapawo told Parliament that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is
trying to persuade the Chinese government to commute the death sentences
to life imprisonment. She said they want the traffickers handed over to
Uganda.

1 of the 7 drug traffickers Jason Mukiibi was sentenced to death on August
3 but the Uganda government has since appealed to China to reverse its
decision against him and others who are still on trial.

The other suspects, who face death are Henry Kakooza, 24; Paul Muwonge,
31; Faridu Kalema, 35; Keren Ocokoru, 36; Lillian Nakungu, 48; and Salim
Nassuru.

The minimum penalty for selling, smuggling or transporting drugs in China
is imprisonment for 15 years, although that punishment applies only when
the weight of drugs is 50 grammes or less.

There is no extradition treaty between Uganda and China, which has
shrugged off international pressure to stop handing down the death penalty
on drug-related offences.

The committee members also looked at the harmonisation of the education
system in the East African countries.

"The partner states of the East African Community have different education
systems yet when the free movement of persons within the community is
operationalised it will be very important to have the education system of
all the member states hamonised," the MPs noted in the report.

They recommended that Swahili should be made compulsory in all East
African Community schools. On the deployment in Somalia, the MPs
recommended that Parliament should be briefed about the new developments.

(source: The Monitor)




RWANDA:

Kagame to Be Awarded for Scrapping Death Penalty


President Paul Kagame flew to Italy yesterday where he is expected to
receive an award for Rwanda's recent abolition of death penalty.

The President will be awarded with "The Abolitionist of the Year 2007"
which is presented by Hands Off Cain (HOC) at a high-profile ceremony to
be graced by top Italian government officials.

"The award (which is presented) to recognise the person, who, above all
others, has demonstrated an extraordinary commitment in the struggle for a
moratorium on executions and the abolition of the death penalty, is
conferred this year upon President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame," a release from
HOC said.

Founded in Brussels in 1993, HOC is an international pressure group of
citizens and parliamentarians championing a campaign to abolish the death
penalty the world over.

The release said Kagame's "personal statement is found as the Preface to
Hands Off Cain's 2007 Report."

The report, dubbed "The Death Penalty Worldwide", will also be launched
during the same function.

Italy's President of the Council of Ministers, Romano Prodi, will present
the award to President Kagame.

"The abolition of the death penalty and the adherence to the campaign for
a universal moratorium on capital punishment are acts of remarkable
symbolic value, through which Rwanda has emblematically shown the world
the possibility of an end to the absurd cycle of vendetta and that justice
and lawfulness cannot be achieved with capital punishment," the
organisation said.Prodi himself wrote the report's introduction.

The report 'confirms a positive trend towards the abolition of the death
penalty, underway for more than a decade.'

During the ceremony, there will also be a briefing on the international
campaign to hold a UN General Assembly vote on a universal moratorium on
capital punishment this year.

Expected at the function due to kick-off at 4:15 Rwandan time are
President of the Italian Senate, Franco Marini, HOC President Marco
Pannella, Italian MPs and foreign ambassadors.

The name "Hands Off Cain" is inspired by the Bible's first book, the
Genesis, where it is stated: "And the Lord set a sign for Cain, lest any
finding him should smite him" in reference to Cain who slaughtered his
young brother Abel.

The organisation says it stands for "justice without vengeance."

The process for Rwanda to outlaw death penalty, which was initiated by the
ruling RPF political organisation, came to the climax on July 25 when a
new law was published in the Official Gazette.The government said the move
was intended to underline the value it attaches to life. Rwanda suffered
one of the cruellest bloodletting in the 20th Century when at least one
million people died during the 1994 Genocide.

The move is also expected to encourage foreign governments to arrest and
extradite to Rwanda key Genocide suspects, who remain at large thirteen
years after the killing spree.

The new law saw over 1,350 Rwandan convicts who were on death row in
various prisons having their sentences commuted to life imprisonment.

Prior to lifting the capital sentence altogether, the country had already
enacted a specific law waiving the penalty from suspects due to be
transferred from the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR),
which closes shop come December 2008.

Thousands of hundreds of Genocide suspects, most of whom outside prisons,
are awaiting trial.

(source: AllAfrica.com)






FRANCE:

French refuse senators' request----Suspect in slaying won't be extradited


Despite mounting political pressure, the French Consulate in Chicago said
Tuesday that the suspect in the murder of a Loop dermatologist would not
be extradited to the United States and instead would be tried in a French
court on murder charges.

But Cook County State's Atty. Dick Devine said Tuesday that his office has
not given up the fight, expressing confidence that there are still avenues
to pursue to get Hans Peterson extradited back to the U.S.

Peterson, 29, is being held in a French jail on the Caribbean island of
Guadeloupe, where he was transferred after he turned himself in this month
in St. Martin. He allegedly confessed to killing Dr. David Cornbleet in
October in his Michigan Avenue office.

Peterson has dual citizenship, both U.S. and French, because his mother is
French and he was born in the U.S. The French last week refused to
extradite Peterson, saying they would not do that to a French national.

Cornbleet's family, Cook County prosecutors and public officials --
including Sens. Dick Durbin and Barack Obama and Mayor Richard Daley --
have sent letters asking the French government to reconsider. They have
argued a treaty between the countries does not obligate the extradition
but urged the French to use its discretion to send him anyway.

At a press briefing Tuesday in his Chicago office, Jean-Baptiste de
Boissiere, the French consul general, said that the letters "misinterpret"
the treaty and French law. He said French law makes it illegal to
extradite any national.

"Our law provides very clearly that French nationals are not to be
extradited," he told reporters. "It's a law which doesn't give room for
maneuvering."

De Boissiere said steps already have been taken to charge Peterson with
murder under French law. He would remain in custody until trial, he said.

In a telephone interview later Tuesday, Devine pointed out that a European
Union treaty appears to make exceptions for nationals to be extradited.

"Despite the claims of how rigid everything is, the European Union treaty
does allow for French nationals to be extradited," he said. "If you can
find that flexibility for European countries, there's nothing in the world
of law -- international or otherwise -- that says you couldn't do it
here."

De Boissiere said he couldn't talk about European treaties but indicated
it wouldn't be relevant anyway because of the French law.

Anthony D'Amato, a professor of international law at Northwestern
University, said treaties typically supersede any country's laws. Still,
the French could deny extradition based on their own interpretation of the
treaty, he said.

If the French continue to refuse extradition, Devine said, the U.S. could
withdraw its warrant for Peterson's arrest. The French could then
prosecute him on their own murder charge or drop the case, Devine said.

Either way, if Peterson ever left French soil, the U.S. then could arrest
Peterson and prosecute him in Illinois, without risking double jeopardy
protection, he contended.

Peterson would face much lighter penalties if convicted in France. He
could be sentenced to a maximum of life in prison, but defendants
typically serve no more than 20 years, Devine said.

Jon Cornbleet, the victim's son, said a trial in the Caribbean would be
difficult for supporters to attend.

"I don't think the French are considering our family," he said. "We're the
victims here."

(source: Chicago Tribune)






CANADA:

Canadian Court Overturns 1959 Murder Verdict


An appeals court on Tuesday overturned a 1959 rape and murder conviction
that had sentenced a 14-year-old boy to hang -- the youngest Canadian ever
to face execution.

The defendant, Steven Truscott, was victimized by a "miscarriage of
justice" 48 years ago when he was convicted of killing a 12-year-old
classmate, Ontario's highest court ruled.

Mr. Truscott, now 62, had long insisted on his innocence. "I never in my
wildest dreams expected in my lifetime for this to come true," he said
after the ruling.

His death sentence had been commuted 3 months after his conviction because
Canada's government at the time feared that the country's image would
suffer if it allowed a 14-year-old to be executed. Mr. Truscott was given
a life sentence and paroled after 10 years in prison. His ordeal helped
bring about the abolishment of Canada's death penalty in 1976.

Mr. Truscott was convicted of raping and murdering Lynne Harper on Sept.
30, 1959, about 3 months after her body was found in a wooded area in
southwestern Ontario. He said then that he had given the girl a ride on
his bicycle, then saw her get into a passing car on a rural highway.
Prosecutors argued he had taken the girl down a path, where he raped and
strangled her.

Last year, the Ontario Court of Appeal heard evidence that the original
autopsy conclusions allowed for a time of death much later than that cited
by the prosecution, perhaps a day later, when Mr. Truscott was in school.

"The conviction, placed in the light of the fresh evidence, constitutes a
miscarriage of justice and must be quashed," the court said in a unanimous
judgment.

The Ontario attorney general, Michael Bryant, said he would not appeal and
asked a judge to advise on compensation. "On behalf of the government, I
am truly sorry," Mr. Bryant said.

Mr. Truscott said he felt that the apology was not sincere because the
government knew of the evidence in recent years yet fought against his
appeal. After his release in 1969, Mr. Truscott lived under an assumed
name.

"What we've known for years and years, now other people will know," he
said.

(source:  New York Times)