Aug. 26
TRINIDAD:
Hanging not the answer----Rowley: Death penalty talk 'political gimmickry'...
Only 3 convicted killers currently on death row can be considered to be hanged,
Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley said yesterday.
Rowley made the statement as he sought to show that the return to hanging may
not necessarily be the best way forward to combat the crime scourge.
He said the bandying about of the death penalty as the answer to the country's
crime problem was nothing more than "political gimmickry".
Rowley was speaking during a press conference at the Office of the Opposition
Leader, 11 Charles Street, Port of Spain.
An Opposition team led by Rowley met with Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar
and her Cabinet last Thursday at the Diplomatic Centre in St Ann's to discuss a
way to arrest the crime problem.
During that meeting, Rowley said he presented a 10-point plan to
Persad-Bissessar.
The Government in turn raised the matter of hanging, Rowley said.
"We reaffirmed our commitment to upholding the relevant law but the Government
must do all the administrative things to comply with the guidelines set out by
the Privy Council. We await any new proposals of the Government on this matter,
but will not be encouraged to make bad law in the process of attempting to
accelerate expectations."
Rowley said, however, the death penalty comes at the end of the process.
Persad-Bissessar, Rowley and their respective teams are scheduled to meet again
Thursday.
So far, there has not been any agreement on the measures to be taken, Rowley
said.
"If they will not do these things (the ten proposals presented) then the
population must know that and must take it into account as to whether these are
things that should be done to give us a better chance in fighting crime and
improving our security," Rowley said.
"That is why I am here this morning to let you and the population know, or let
the population know through you, that these are the proposals we have put
before the Government and we are willing and able to support these proposals
with action that is urgent.
"If the Government does not agree with these by putting alternative proposals
that we find unacceptable then we will know and if the Government has other
proposals that are better than these we will support them," he said.
Rowley said the country has a crisis on its hands and it is time we turn a new
leaf.
He said so far the only crime plan presented by the Government is one of
"voopsing, vapsing and blind folding."
(source: Trinidad Express)
ICELAND:
Burial Rites by Hannah Kent - review-----Hannah Kent's meticulously researched
historical novel tells of the final months of the last woman executed in
Iceland
The last case of capital punishment in Iceland was on 12 January 1830 with the
double execution of supposed partners in crime Agnes Magnusdottir and Fridrik
Sigurdsson. They were found guilty of murdering 2 men, Natan Ketilsson and
Petur Jonsson, whose bodies - each with wounds of a deliberate nature - were
found in the burnt-out ruins of Ketilsson's farm. Magnusdottir was a workmaid
at the farm along with Sigurdsson's intended, Sigridur Gudmundsdottir, the 3rd
guilty party. She was the only one of the trio to escape the death penalty,
seeing out her days in a Copenhagen textile prison.
The murders took place on the night between 13 and 14 March 1828, at
Illugastadir, on the Vatnsnes peninsula in northern Iceland. 4 months later,
Magnusdottir, Sigurdsson and Gudmundsdottir were found guilty in a district
court and sentenced to be beheaded, with Gudmundsdottir's sentence later
commuted.
The Hunavatn district, in which they resided, was ill-prepared to hold the
prisoners, so as the case progressed - first through the land court in
Reykjavik, then the supreme court in Copenhagen for the king of Denmark's
approval - it was decided that they would be "placed in farms, homes of upright
Christians, who would inspire repentance by good example, and who would benefit
from the work these prisoners do as they wait their judgment". So it was that
Magnusdottir spent her final days with a family of dutiful Icelanders at a farm
of Kornsa. This much is fact, a single gory interlude from the expanse of
history, but Hannah Kent has turned Magnusdottir's story into fiction - her
interpretation of the Illugastadir murders and Magnusdottir's fate informed by
significant research.
She scoured ministerial records, parish archives and censuses - translated
extracts of which appear at the beginning of each chapter. She read local
histories and publications about the case, and spoke with Icelanders. All this
research has paid off in spades: the end result is a novel so steeped in period
detail that the extracts lifted from original sources sit eloquently alongside
the fictionalised account, the transition between the 2 being effortlessly
smooth.
Kent begins her novel with Magnusdottir's arrival at Kornsa, the "turf croft"
home of Jon and Margret and their daughters Steina and Lauga. Her hosts are
resentful of the duty heaped on them and suspicious of their charge; the wait
for her arrival is a "month of fear", tight "like a fishing line, hooked upon
something that must inevitably, be dragged from the depths". Murderesses belong
in the sagas, Margret thinks, expecting Agnes to be beautiful but deadly, yet
the woman dragged into her home looks more "like a new corpse, fresh dug from
the grave. Wild black hair strung with grease, and the brown-grey of dirt
sitting in the pores of her skin." No siren, just a "landless workmaid raised
on a porridge of moss and poverty", who was too free with her affection and
undone by her jealousy.
A young preacher, Reverend Thorvardur Jonsson, is given the responsibility of
preparing Magnusdottir to meet her maker, but rather than preach, he encourages
her to speak about her past, providing her with "a final audience to her life's
lonely narrative". At first she is reticent, but during the long winter nights,
she begins to unburden herself, the real story of the murders eventually
"boiling over", the telling of which leaves her tongue so tired "it slumps in
my mouth like a dead bird, all damp feathers, in between the stones of my
teeth". Burial Rites is a debut of rare sophistication and beauty ??? a simple
but moving story, meticulously researched and hauntingly told.
(source: The Guardian)
MALAYSIA:
Mother of dead abused girl charged with murder
The mother of the 5-year-old girl who died at the Raja Permaisuri Bainun
Hospital yesterday after being in coma for 11 days, believed from physical
abuse, was charged at the Magistrate Court here with murder.
Choong Mee Chin, 30, was alleged to have caused the death of her daughter at
the living room of their house at No. 19 Laluan Kledang Utara 7, Taman Wang in
Menglembu here at around 9 am in August 12.
Choong appeared calm and nodded her head in understanding when the charge was
read to her in Chinese language before Magistrate Nor Haslinda A Raof.
However, no plea was recorded and remention was set for October 25.
The charge under Section 302 of the Penal Code carries a mandatory death
penalty upon conviction.
Deputy public prosecutor Mohd Amril Johari appeared for the prosecution, while
Choong was not represented.
At the same court last Tuesday, Choong pleaded not guilty to 2 counts of child
abuse after beating her daughter into coma on the same day and at the same time
and place.
Magistrate Suhaima Mohd Noor ordered the accused to be sent to Hospital Bahagia
for mental observation for a month and set September 20 for re-mention.
Meanwhile, Perak CID chief told a press conference today said that it was
confirmed by a post mortem that the girl had died of accumulation of pus in the
brain, which commonly occurred when bacteria or fungi infect the brain blood
vessels.
He said it was believed that it was due to past injuries suffered by the girl.
"The victim was a person with disabilities (OKU) and had sustained multiple
injuries, probably due to child abuse or other causes. We will let the court to
decide," he said.
(source: Mayamailonline.com)
INDIA:
People's Movement Against Death Penalty's online initiative to save
Perarivalan's life
The People's Movement against Death Penalty (PMADP), headed by former Supreme
Court Justice VR Krishna Iyer, has taken a new initiative along with
Perarivalan's mother Arputham Ammal to create an online repository of all
information relating to Perarivalan, ` of the 3 death row convicts in the Rajiv
Gandhi assassination case.
The online repository will have details of the case against Perarivalan and
photos and videos of various protests and events relating to cause for the
abolition of capital punishment.
The PMADP has launched a website, a Facebook page and a Twitter account for the
cause. The Tamil, English, Malayalam and Hindi versions of Perarivalan's book -
'An Appeal from Death Row' - is available here for sale.
The PMADP would conduct online polls to gauge the support for Perarivalan and
that for the abolition of capital punishment, said Selvaraj Murugaiyan,
secretary of PMADP Chennai chapter.
'Perarivalan Speaks,' a sensational and revealing series of articles written by
Perarivalan, is being published on the website. The first letter from
Perarivalan is already available on the website.
"The response is good. More than 12,000 people visited the website in 2 weeks
even before it was officially launched. There are a good number of comments for
Perarivalan's letter," Selvaraj added.
As one of the initiatives towards abolition of death penalty, the PMADP
produced a documentary titled 'Uyirvali- Sakkiyadikkum Satham,' a two-minute
musical trailer. The documentary is available on the website.
"This documentary is scripted against death penalty as a whole and had taken
Perarivalan as a case study and travels through his life. It will leave a
question in the mind of viewers about his undeserving punishment. This
documentary is non-political and does not intend to antagonise any human or
organisation at all," the PMADP said.
(source: The Times of India)
****************
Mane's death confirmation hearing to begin in HC from Sep 16
The Bombay High Court will commence from September 16, hearing into the
confirmation of death sentence awarded to Santosh Mane, the Maharashtra State
Road Transport driver who mowed down nine people in Pune last year.
A division bench of Justices P V Hardas and P N Deshmukh has also posted Mane's
appeal challenging the death penalty, for final hearing on September 16.
On April 8 this year, the rogue bus driver was sentenced to death by a sessions
court in Pune which declared his crime as 'rarest of rare'.
On January 25, 2012, Mane hijacked a ST bus from Swargate depot in Pune and
went on a rampage, killing 9 people and injuring 37 besides damaging over 25
vehicles.
During the course of trial, while the prosecution maintained that Mane was in a
complete sound state of mind when he committed the crime, the defence had
claimed that Mane was suffering from a psychiatric disorder when he committed
the act and should be given advantage under Section 84 of the IPC, which deals
with acts done by a person with an unsound mind.
(source: Business-Standard)
_______________________________________________
DeathPenalty mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty
Search the Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A free service of WashLaw
http://washlaw.edu
(785)670.1088
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
