Oct. 11
PHILIPPINES:
PHL joins int'l declaration for death penalty abolition
As part of World Day against the Death Penalty, the Philippines on Friday
joined an international joint declaration calling for the abolition of the
death penalty.
Joint Declaration as posted by DFA
As we mark the 12th World Day against the Death Penalty, we jointly call for a
world which respects human dignity. The death penalty, one of the most complex
and divisive issues of our time, continues to question the fundamental values
of our societies and to challenge our understanding of criminal justice.
We respect the views of those who still support the use of the death penalty,
and we believe that everyone has a right to be protected from violent crime.
However, we consider that state executions should not be taking place in the
21st century. Modern justice systems must aspire to more than retribution.
The main objections to the death penalty are well known. Despite popular
belief, there is no evidence supporting the claim that executions deter or
prevent crime. No justice system can ever be guaranteed free from error,
meaning that death sentences may cause the innocent to be put to death. Often,
capital sentences are disproportionately imposed on poor, vulnerable and
marginalised persons, aggravating discrimination against the weakest in
society.
Finally, the capital sentence provides victims of crime and their families
neither with commensurate compensation nor with spiritual relief. On the
contrary, state killing results in more hatred and violence - the exact
opposite of what modern justice systems should be trying to achieve.
This joint call, which we address to the world at large, is the first ever
launched by Foreign Ministers of both abolitionist and non-abolitionist States.
We recognize that exchange and cooperation are needed to move together towards
more effective and more humane justice systems.
Together, our countries have the experience and the drive to turn the death
penalty into a sentence of the past. A vast majority of countries already
supports worldwide death penalty abolition; we hope that all countries will
soon join this trend.
Philippine foreign affairs secretary Albert del Rosario joined 11 counterparts
in issuing the declaration in favor of the abolition of death penalty, the
Department of Foreign Affairs said.
"For the 1st time, countries still seeking to achieve abolition are joining
their voices to those of abolitionist countries. The Declaration contains 1
central message: The growing awareness about the numerous risks and failures of
capital punishment is adding strength and dynamism to the worldwide trend
towards universal abolition," the DFA said.
It added informed discussions on the death penalty's shortcomings and myths are
"more than ever needed."
The DFA noted the number of countries still with the death penalty continues to
steadily decrease - while only 14 countries abolished capital punishment in
1974, "that number now stands at about 100 and is set to increase further."
"If we add those countries that have not carried out executions for at least 10
years, there are now nearly 160 death penalty-free countries," it said.
On the other hand, the DFA said the "risks and failures" of the death penalty
are becoming clear with innocents being wrongly sentenced to death.
Also, it lamented convicts spend years in legal battles while sitting on death
row, amid discrimination against the poor and the marginalized.
In the case of the Philippines, the DFA noted the 1987 Constitution and laws
underline its policy against the death penalty.
Citing the Charter's Section 11, Article 11, it said the State "values the
dignity of every human person and guarantees full respect for human rights."
Section 19 provides that "Excessive fines shall not be imposed.. Neither shall
the death penalty be imposed."
Also, the Philippines enacted Republic Act 9346 or An Act Prohibiting the
Imposition of the Death Penalty in the Philippines on June 24, 2006.
"The Philippines believes that imposing the death penalty cannot fully deter
crime, and that the deterrence to criminality is a combination of several
factors, such as an empowered citizenry, a skilled and trusted law enforcement
sector, an effective prosecutorial service, and an independent judiciary," it
said.
(source: GMA News)
ZIMBABWE:
No executions under my watch, Mnangagwa
"The death penalty is the ultimate denial of human rights and a cold blooded
and abhorrent killing of a human being by the state in the name of justice."
Justice Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa on Friday said Zimbabwe will not see an
official execution under his watch.
Mnangwagwa was addressing delegates at a function organised by the Zimbabwe
Association for Crime Prevention and Rehabilitation of the Offender (ZACRO).
The meeting was held to observe the Anti-Death Penalty Day.
"I want to pronounce myself clearly that the death penalty is the ultimate
denial of human rights and a cold blooded and abhorrent killing of a human
being by the state in the name of justice," Mnangagwa said.
"Cases have been clinically documented where the death penalty actually incited
capital crimes it was supposed to deter."
He added: "Since time immemorial the death penalty has been a contentious issue
the world over.
"It's barbarism, sadism and inhumanity coupled with the inevitable fallibility
of the human judgement on the part of those pronouncing the verdict is
persuading an increasing number of governments both developed and developing to
move away from the imposition of the death penalty."
Mnangagwa's strong position against the death penalty probably stems from the
fact that he came within a whisker of being hanged by Ian Smith's regime during
the liberation war, only to be saved by his age.
He said there have been numerous cases of miscarriage of justice that had been
discovered way after capital punishment had been exercised.
"I take pride in the fact that Zimbabwe has also recently become a de facto
abolitionist country given that we have not carried out any executions in the
past 10 years and there is not a likelihood of that happening under the current
circumstances," Mnangagwa said.
Zimbabwe's constitution, crafted under the coalition government and confirmed
in a referendum last year, came short of abolishing capital punishment.
Section 48 (1) of the Constitution says every person has a right to life but
section 48 (2) qualifies this by stating that a law may permit the death
penalty to be imposed on a person convicted of murder committed in aggravating
circumstances.
Section 48 (2) (c) further provides that the death penalty must not be imposed
on a person who was less than 21 years old when the offence was committed and
who is more than 70-years-old. Section 48 (2) (d) prohibits the death penalty
on a woman.
According to Mnangagwa, the constitution also stipulates that the death penalty
may not be imposed as a mandatory punishment and that convicted persons have a
right to seek clemency from the President.
"In comparison with the Lancaster House constitution, the new constitution has
reduced the number of capital crimes from three to one excluding treason," he
said.
The Justice Minister also revealed that starting this week, he will seek
cabinet authority to commute the sentences of 98 prisoners currently on death
row to different levels of punishment.
"We have 98 inmates on death row including one female and I had bundled them
into 1 group and approached cabinet to consider commuting their sentences
either to life or to some other jail term.
"I lost that fight because I was asked to look at all these on a case by case
basis. But after consultations and representations I was allowed to bring these
cases in batches of 10.
"So I can tell you now that beginning this Tuesday when cabinet meets the first
10 cases will be argued and I am sure some will succeed some will not," said
Mnangagwa adding that it is guaranteed that the woman will not be executed with
her commuted sentence to be known after next week's cabinet meeting.
(source: New Zimbabwe)
INDIA:
Gallows only for meticulously executed diabolic murders: SC
The Supreme Court has said that when an accused executes a meticulously planned
diabolic murder, without provocation or acting on the spur of the moment, and
becomes a menace to society, then the crime falls in the category of rarest of
rare cases warranting the death sentence.
"In our considered view, the "rarest of the rare" case exists when an accused
would be a menace, threat and anti-thetical to harmony in the society," said
the apex court bench of Chief Justice H.L. Dattu, Justice R.K. Agrawal and
Justice Arun Mishra in their Oct 9 order.
Holding that the death sentence in such cases was the only appropriate
punishment, Chief Justice Dattu pronouncing the order said, "Especially in
cases where an accused does not act on provocation, acting in spur of the
moment but meticulously executes a deliberately planned crime inspite of
understanding the probable consequence of his act, the death sentence may be
the most appropriate punishment."
The court said this while upholding the July 2, 2009, order of the Jharkhand
High Court which had confirmed the Aug 1, 2008, order of the trial court
convicting 4 accused of murder who had wiped out an entire family of 8 of their
immediate relative over a land dispute.
The trial court awarded all the 4 convicts the death sentence. However, the
high court while confirming the conviction of the 4 by the trial court upheld
the death sentence of 2 and commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment of
the other 2 - Saddam Khan and Wakil Khan.
"We are mindful that criminal law requires strict adherence to the rule of
proportionality in providing punishment according to the culpability of each
kind of criminal conduct keeping in mind the effect of not awarding just
punishment on the society," the order said.
"Keeping in view the said principle of proportionality of sentence or what it
termed as "just-desert" for the vile act of slaughtering 8 lives including four
innocent minors and a physically infirm child whereby an entire family is
exterminated, we cannot resist from concluding that the depravity of the
appellant's offence would attract no lesser sentence than the death penalty,"
the court said while upholding the order of conviction and sentencing by the
trial court and its being confirmed by the high court with modification.
In the present case on June 6, 2007, one Mofil Khan and others attacked his
brother Haneef Khan when he was offering prayers at a mosque in Makandu village
in Jharkhand with sharp-edged weapons. Haneef died on the spot. Thereafter, the
assailants went to Haneef Khan's house and killed his 6 sons and wife. 1 of the
sons was physically disabled.
(source: Indiatv.com)
TAIWAN:
Advocates for death penalty demonstrate against court rulings
Clad in black T-shirts with "gross injustice" written across their chests,
about 30 supporters of capital punishment rallied in front of the Judicial Yuan
yesterday to protest several recent court decisions, which they say failed to
deliver justice for murdered children and their families.
Led by Taiwan Children's Rights Association director-general Wang Wei-chun, the
protesters voiced their discontent with 3 recent court rulings regarding crimes
of a grisly nature, demanding capital punishment.
The 3 cases include a ruling that sentenced Tseng Wen-ching to life in prison
for killing a 5th-grade student by slitting his throat; another life prison
sentence for Huang Wen-jing, who allegedly raped, gassed and murdered a college
student after swindling NT$5 million (US$165,000) from her through blackmail;
and an 8-year sentence for a man surnamed Chiu, who reportedly tortured to
death the 5-year-old daughter of his coworker.
The protesters draped large banners across barricades in front of the judicial
building, chanting: "All shall refuse to feed criminals who torture and murder
children."
"Our judicial system has been kidnapped by a small handful of human rights
groups," Wang said as she accused the Ministry of Justice and President Ma
Ying-jeou of inaction. "If you don't interfere with unfair court rulings, what
do the people want you for?"
Minister of Justice Luo Ying-shay on Wednesday said she respected the court's
verdict on Tseng. Luo said although she was personally against the death
penalty as a Buddhist, she also acknowledged it received support from a
majority of Taiwanese.
Protesters hurled water balloons toward the steps of the Judicial Yuan, in a
symbolic gesture to cleanse the blood of children passed away."
1 protester surnamed Chuang said that court rulings in Taiwan have long been
far too lenient on criminals.
"I think the sentences should be harsher. Basically, a life should be exchanged
for a life," Chuang said.
Wu Hsiao-ping, section chief of the Judicial Yuan's criminal department,
received the group's complaints, saying that the government has heard their
concerns.
Wang's nephew was Wang Hao, a toddler who died after horrific abuse 2 years
ago. The child's torturers allegedly used hammers to break his limbs and used
pliers to rip off his nails.
After a temporary moratorium from 2006 to 2009, Taiwan reimplemented capital
punishment in 2010, with between 4 and 6 executions carried out each year since
then.
(source: Taipei Times)
GHANA:
France Embassy holds seminar on the Abolition of the death penalty
On the occasion of the 12th World Day for the Abolition of the death penalty,
the Embassy of France to Ghana invited Anne Souleliac, a lawyer practicing in
Paris, specialized in human rights and a member of the Global Coalition for
abolition of the death penalty.
A seminar was organized with 50 people from Ghanaian institutional bodies in
charge of Human Rights (the National Commission on Human Rights and
Administrative Justice, Ministry of Justice), the civil society organizations
engaged in the defense of human rights, lawyers, criminal law specialists,
professors and law students, representatives of religious organizations and
some international donors.
The aim was to encourage and support the set-up of a coalition that will bring
together key players from civil society acting in favor of the abolition of the
death penalty in Ghana. Ghana has declared a moratorium on executions since
1993, but criminal courts still issue capital punishment.
On the occasion of the constitutional review process, a referendum should be
held in the coming months; the question of the abolition of the death penalty
will be put to voters.
(source: Ghanaweb.com)
CHINA:
China cult murder trial: 2 members sentenced to death ---- The trial of the 5
cult members began in August
A Chinese court has sentenced 5 cult members for beating a woman to death at a
McDonald's restaurant in Shandong province last May.
2 members were given death sentences, 1 was given a life sentence, and 2 were
given 10 and 7-year jail terms.
The victim was allegedly killed after she refused to give her phone number to
the members, who tried to recruit her.
The Church of the Almighty God cult is banned in China.
However, it claims to have millions of members.
'A demon'
Zhang Fan and her father Zhang Lidong were given death sentences by the Yantai
Intermediate People's Court in Shandong on Saturday, state media reported.
Lu Yingchun was sentenced to life imprisonment, while two other members, Zhang
Hang and Zhang Qiaolian, were given 10 and seven-year jail terms.
China's supreme court reviews all death sentences issued by lower courts and
has the right to overturn them.
The killing of 37-year-old Wu Shuoyan in May sparked national outrage.
The cult members had entered a small McDonald's branch in Zhaoyuan, soliciting
phone numbers and hoping to recruit members to their cult.
Ms Wu was waiting in the restaurant with her seven-year-old son when she
refused to give her phone number. The cult members then beat her to death,
while screaming at other diners to keep away or face the same fate.
Interviewed in prison later, Zhang Lidong showed no remorse.
He said: "I beat her with all my might and stamped on her too. She was a demon.
We had to destroy her."
The public face of the Church of the Almighty God is a website full of
uplifting hymns and homilies. But its core belief is that God has returned to
earth as a Chinese woman to wreak the apocalypse.
The only person who claims direct contact with this god is a former physics
teacher, Zhao Weishan, who founded the cult 25 years ago and has since fled to
the United States, correspondents say.
Since the killing, Chinese authorities say they have detained hundreds of
members of the cult.
(source: BBC news)
PAPUA NEW GUINEA:
PNG rules out lethal injection in hunt for execution method
Papua New Guinea's government has ruled out lethal injection as it continues in
its hunt for a method to execute people.
While the death penalty has never been outlawed in PNG, the government
controversially revived it for violent crimes last year after a string of
sorcery-related murders.
The Secretary for Justice and the Attorney General, Lawrence Kalinoe, told a
gathering in Southern Highlands that lethal injection had been dropped as an
option because of restrictions placed on accessing the drugs needed by the
manufacturer.
Mr Kalinoe says a comprehensive report has been submitted to cabinet for it to
choose from the remaining options: hanging, electrocution, deprivation of
oxygen or firing squad.
The Post Courier reports 13 people are currently on death row in PNG.
(source: Radio New Zealand)
NIGERIA:
World Day Against The Death Penalty: 2 Exonerated Juveniles Call For Total
Abolition
In a press statement, Chino Obiagwu, the National Coordinator of the Legal
Defence & Assistance Project (LEDAP), asserted that death sentences do not
deter criminality. "Severity or harshness of the punishment is not a solution
to crime," he said. "What deters potential criminals is not the extreme
sentence for the offence, but the possibility of being caught and prosecuted."
As the world again spoke out Friday against the death penalty, 2 exonerated
Nigerian juveniles joined in urging Nigeria to abandon the much-criticised
mechanism. She is 1 of only 51 countries that still have it in her judicial
books.
Monday Ilade Prosper, now 30, and Sopurichi Obed, both of whom were released
from death row this year, spoke in favour of its total abolition. Prosper spent
11 years in Kirikiri Maximum Security Prison, 8 of them on death row, on which
Obed spent a decade.
In a press statement, Chino Obiagwu, the National Coordinator of the Legal
Defence & Assistance Project (LEDAP), asserted that death sentences do not
deter criminality.
World Day Against The Death Penalty "Severity or harshness of the punishment is
not a solution to crime," he said. "What deters potential criminals is not the
extreme sentence for the offence, but the possibility of being caught and
prosecuted."
In that connection, he pointed out that in Nigeria, the possibility of arrest
and prosecution when a crime is committed is nearly less than 10%.
"As the world today reminds all the 51 retentionist nations including Nigeria
of the dangers of continued use of the death penalty, LEDAP and hundreds of
exonerated ex-death row prisoners call on Nigeria's National Assembly, and
States Houses of Assembly to review their Criminal Code and the Penal Code laws
to replace the punishment of death sentences with life imprisonment or other
term of years. Such alternative humane punishments are the universally accepted
norm, and Nigeria must join other democracies to say 'yes to life' and 'no to
State murder'. When the government kills, it motivates citizens to belittle
life and to wrongly pursue revenge as justice."
Full text of the press statement:
World Day against the Death Penalty: 2 Exonerated Juveniles call for total
Abolition
October 10, 2014: Today, as the world speaks out against the use of the Death
Penalty, another exonerated juvenile walks home free after 11 years in Kirikiri
Maximum Security Prison, 8 of which was spent on death row.
Monday Ilade Prosper was barely 18 years in 2003 when he was charged with armed
robbery in Benin City for forcefully collecting hissalary from his employer. He
was a private driver to an industrialist who refused to pay his salary for 3
months. As his employer collected money from a bank, Mr. Monday threw sand on
his face, took the bag of money and counted out his salary. He was arrested by
the police and charged with armed robbery, convicted and sentenced to death in
2006 by Edo State High Court. This innocent boy waited for the hangman for 8
yearsin great trauma, especially with Governor Oshiemohle's resumed executions
last year. But it was not to be, because now, the Court of Appeal Benin City
division has allowed his appeal and overturned hisconviction and sentence.
Their Lordships said the evidence was 'spurious' and the prosecution's case was
too weak for a conviction for armed robbery.
But what happens to Mr. Monday, who, now 30 years, faces the world in
hopelessness and without a skill.
Today, as he walks out of the prison, he will join millions of opposers of
death penalty across the country to call on Nigeria as a nation to re-examine
the continued use of the death sentence as punishment for crime.
"It is time to abolish the death penalty. Many of my friends on CC (condemned
cell) in Kirikiri are innocent. I know that as a fact. It is true," said
Sopurichi Obed, another exonerated juvenile who was acquitted and released by
the appeal court in Lagos in February 2014 after a decade on death row.
Like Mr. Monday and Mr. Obed, the Legal Defence & Assistance Project (LEDAP), a
legal services NGO, has in the last decade litigated over 210 cases of persons
charged with capital offences or convicted and sentenced to death. In nearly
2/3 of the time, the charges were dismissed or convictions quashed, either for
lack of credible evidence or on technical grounds. Most of the charges were
armed robbery, and 95% of them were based on confessional statements of the
defendants to the police, which in almost all cases the defendants would at the
trial court deny their voluntariness or totally recant the confessions.
A 2010 report on death penalty cases in Nigeria published by LEDAP showed that
36% of convictions and sentences to death over 10 yearsperiod between 1999 and
2009 were overturned by the Court of Appeal or Supreme Court, indicating a very
high rate of wrongful convictions. In a 2010 national poll survey on the use of
death sentences in Nigeria conducted by LEDAP and consortium of 28 NGOs across
Nigeria, nearly a half of young Nigerians under the age of 30 years said they
were opposed to the use of death penalty in Nigeria because it has not stopped
violent crimes from increasing. Almost 52% of all the respondents in the survey
supported the abolition of death sentence for offences that did not result in
murder, with the highest of support for such abolition found in the South West
states (71%) and the least in the North West (14%).
The dangers of continued use of the death penalty are so grim to be ignored or
avoided for political or religious reasons. Death sentence is dangerous to the
society. It wrongly teaches that revenge is good justice, when indeed, it
promotes sinister circle of violence and bloodshed.There is always a high
likelihood that innocent persons may be sentenced and executed, as indeed many
who had been executed in the past had pleaded of their of their innocence till
they were done with the hangman or the firing squad.
Death sentence does not deter criminality. Severity or harshness of the
punishment is not a solution to crime. What deters potential criminals is not
the extreme sentence for the offence, but the possibility of being caught and
prosecuted. In Nigeria, the possibility of arrest and prosecution when crime is
committed is nearly less than 10%. With a population of over 170 million and
crime victimization rate of nearly 920 out of every 100,000 per year, Nigeria
still has a prison population(remand and convicted) of fewer than 75,000. This
means that most crimes are unresolved, and most criminals are not arrested and
unpunished. This high rate of impunity and high possibility escape from justice
for criminals is the motivation for crime and criminality, not the death
sentences. This is demonstrated in many states in the south-east and
south-south regions that introduced death sentence as punishment for the
offence of kidnapping. Despite this severe punishment, the offence was still on
the rise, with only in a handful of the incidents were the culprits arrested
and prosecuted.
As the world today reminds all the 51 retentionist nations including Nigeria of
the dangers of continued use of the death penalty, LEDAP and hundreds of
exonerated ex-death row prisoners call on Nigeria's National Assembly, and
States Houses of Assembly to review theirCriminal Code and the Penal Code laws
to replace the punishment of death sentences with life imprisonment or other
term of years. Such alternative humane punishments are the universally accepted
norm, and Nigeria must join other democracies to say 'yes to life' and 'no to
State murder'. When the government kills, it motivates citizens to belittle
life and to wrongly pursue revenge as justice.
Chino Obiagwu
National Coordinator, LEDAP - Legal Defence & Assistance Project.
Winner: 2008 MacArthur Foundation award for Creative and Innovative Institution
(source: saharareporters.com)
PAKISTAN:
Rallies seek abolition of death penalty
Demonstrations were staged in Karachi and Hyderabad on Friday under the banner
of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, demanding legislation to abolish
capital punishment.
Rights activists from various civil society organisations participating in the
demonstrations were informed that in 1947 capital punishment could be awarded
on murder and mutiny charges only, but at present there were 27 offences for
which the death penalty could be awarded.
Speaking at the demonstration organised at the Karachi Press Club by the HRCP
and the Joint Action Committee, JAC's Mir Zulfiqar and HRCP's Akhtar Baloch
said that many developed countries had already abolished this punishment.
They said that capital punishment should also be abolished in Pakistan.
The demonstrators were holding banners inscribed with their demand. They also
raised slogans in support of their demands.
In Hyderabad, rights activists marched from Radio Pakistan to the press club to
mark the international day of abolition of capital punishment.
Addressing the marchers, HRCP's Dr Ashuthama and civil society representatives
Lala Hassan Pathan and Fareeda Channa said that civilized nations were
examining the law of capital punishment. They said it was in 1863 when
Venezuela abolished capital punishment for the 1st time in the world.
Referring to a recent report, they said that death sentence had been abolished
in 137 countries, while 60 other countries had the capital punishment law for
murder cases only. They said it was a cause for concern that there were 27
different charges in which the death penalty could be awarded.
However, they said, it was a positive sign that capital punishment was not
awarded in the country during the past 6 years. They demanded that lawmakers
move a bill in the national assembly to abolish law of capital punishment.
(source: Dawn)
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