Nov. 9
INDIA/SRI LANKA:
End fishermen issue permanently: Vasan
Expressing concern over the death penalty given by a Sri Lankan court to 5
Tamil Nadu fishermen, former Union Minister G.K. Vasan said the Centre should
find a permanent solution to the issue without any delay and bring the
fishermen back home.
Though the Narendra Modi government has been promising to change India for the
good on very many fronts, there has not been any significant progress even four
months after its coming to power.
Critical issues such as those concerning the fishermen have not been resolved.
As a result, the livelihood of the fishermen has gone bleak.
On the law and order front in Tamil Nadu, he said crimes are on the rise.
Media reports are alarming as robberies and murders are happening every day.
Stern action should be taken by the police , Mr. Vasan told reporters at the
airport here on Saturday.
Mr. Vasan was accorded a rousing reception on arrival by his supporters here as
it was his maiden visit to the city after announcing his new party.
Asked to comment on the demand made by DMK treasurer M.K. Stalin to convene the
Assembly to discuss about the lawlessness in the State, the fishermen issue,
etc., Mr. Vasan said it was the government's responsibility to protect the
common man. The government should bring back the 5 fishermen because the cases
had been foisted on them.
On the critical remarks made by some Opposition parties on the functioning of
the State government and Chief Minister O. Paneerselvam, Mr. Vasan preferred to
be guarded on his response.
He said every party would be looked at as an opponent. "The new outfit, under
my leadership, will focus on people's issues - be it in a remote hamlet or
urban location."
The name of the party and its policies will be announced at a conference in
Tiruchi by this month end, Mr. Vasan said.The exact date will be announced in
about a week. "The process of getting things formalised with the appropriate
authorities is under way," he said.
The new party will focus on giving a clear direction to the youth of the State.
Initial feedback from a cross-section of people during the last 4 or 5 days has
been encouraging, Mr. Vasan said.
*******************
Eminent citizens unite against death penalty
Terming death penalty a "cruel and barbaric" punishment used mainly against the
"marginalised and poor", hundreds of eminent citizens, including Nobel laureate
Amartya Sen, actor Aamir Khan, sociologist Andre Beteille, economist Jagdish
Bhagwati and author Vikram Seth among others, issued a public statement on
Sunday opposing the practice.
Arguing that more than 70 % of the world's countries were abolitionist in law
or practice, they said India "clings to the death penalty against a worldwide
trend of abolition" when it served no purpose and had no deterrent value.
The signatories to the statement included Aamir Khan, Abhijit Banerjee, Amitav
Ghosh, Anand Teltumbde, Andre Beteille, Aruna Roy, Bezwada Wilson, Gurcharan
Das, Jagdish Bhagwati, Javed Akhtar, Justice Prabha Sridevan, Justice V.R.
Krishna Iyer, K.B. Saxena, Karan Thapar, Medha Patkar, M.S. Swaminathan, N.R.
Narayana Murthy, Nandita Das, Ness Wadia, Pankaj Mishra, Prabhat Patnaik,
Ramachandra Guha, Sharmila Tagore, Shyam Benegal, Surjit Bhalla, Swaminathan
S.A. Aiyar, Upendra Baxi, Vikram Seth, Vrinda Grover and hundreds of lawyers,
artists, economists, writers and citizens.
"It is irreversible and therefore cannot be part of an error-prone legal
system," read their statement titled "We Oppose the Death Penalty".
"India, however, still lingers in the company of authoritarian regimes that
execute people in violation of international standards. United in opposing the
death penalty and demanding its repeal in India," they pledged to "work for the
abolition of the death penalty" in their domains of action and influence.
Economist Amartya Sen, in a separate personal statement, wrote: "Since I have
been committed to the abolition of the death penalty throughout my life, I am
very happy to add my voice to those of others who want the repeal of this
terrible legal provision."
Besides other objectionable aspects of the death penalty, "any attempt to
remedy the harm done by the taking of one life through taking another life
encourages bad - indeed dangerous - moral reasoning. The approach of death
penalty is foundationally misconceived," wrote Dr. Sen.
(source for both: The Hindu)
IRAN----execution
Man hanged in public in city of Mashhad
The Iranian regime's henchmen hanged a man in public in a main square in the
northeastern city of Mashhad on Saturday.
The state-run news outlets are running copies of a short story on Saturday
describing the executed man a 'thug'.
The prosecutor general in Mashhad identified the man by his first name Saeed
without providing any other information.
The man was hanged publicly in Ressalat Square in the city.
The public hanging in Iran takes place a few days after many of the more than
100 diplomats who took the floor on November 1 at a United Nations debate
regarding the violations of human rights in Iran voiced outrage at the surge in
executions in the country and the situation of political prisoners, women and
religious minorities.
Many diplomats raised the issue of the escalating numbers of executions,
highlighted by the UN's Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in
Iran, Dr. Ahmed Shaheed.
Meanwhile Amnesty International issued a statement on November 6 urging the
Iranian authorities to "take concrete steps to improve their abysmal human
rights record."
The statement said: "On 31 October 2014, a high-profile Iranian delegation,
headed by Mohammad Javad Larijani, the head of Iran's High Council for Human
Rights, part of the country's judiciary, appeared before the UN Human Rights
Council to defend Iran's human rights record since the country's 1st UPR in
February 2010. The delegation presented a distorted picture of the human rights
situation in Iran, which bore little resemblance to the realities on the
ground. Issues of concern for Amnesty International include the claims by the
delegation that Iran strictly adheres to international fair trial standards;
fully respects freedoms of expression, association and assembly; guarantees
full equality between men and women in law and practice; and ensures the
enjoyment of human rights by members of Iran's ethnic and religious
minorities."
"Iran's commitment to the UPR will ring hollow for as long as the Iranian
authorities continue to deny well-established patterns of serious and
systematic human rights violations. As Iranian authorities take away all the
recommendations received during the UPR for further consideration, Amnesty
International calls on Iran to reconsider the dismissive stance taken during
the examination and match its fine words with decisive measures to guarantee
the promotion, protection and defense of human rights", the statement added.
(source: NCR-Iran)
BANGLADESH:
Tribunal will decide on death warrant, review after getting full verdict: AG
Bangladesh's war crimes tribunal will issue a death warrant for Mohammad
Kamaruzzaman once it gets a copy of the Appellate Division verdict, the
attorney general has said.
Whether a summary or the full verdict will be sent depends on the Appellate
Division, Mahbubey Alam said on Sunday.
"We'll know whether the tribunal's verdict has been upheld or altered once the
tribunal gets the Appellate Division's verdict," he said at a media briefing at
his office.
"As I've said before, an abridged order will do."
On Nov 3, the top court upheld the death penalty handed down to
Jamaat-e-Islami's Assistant Secretary General Kamaruzzaman by the tribunal for
his war crimes.
A day later, the attorney general said the government did not need to wait for
the full verdict since the death sentence had been upheld.
Several hours later, Law Minister Anisul Huq said he had ordered the jail
authority to prepare for the hanging of the war criminal.
But the defence claimed the minister went beyond his jurisdiction and said they
would file a plea after reviewing the verdict. They also said they were not
thinking about seeking presidential mercy before that.
Rumours that Kamaruzzaman may be executed anytime spread after the
prosecution-defence spat created ambiguity.
Alam said, "Once the tribunal gets the Appellate Division order copy, it will
only issue a death warrant if the death penalty is upheld. It (the warrant)
will be sent to the jail.
"The convict will be informed that his sentence had been upheld and that a
warrant has come."
He said the ambiguity over filing review will be cleared once the Appellate
Division's full verdict scrapping war crimes convict Abdul Quader Molla's
review was published.
Responding to another question, Alam said, "The defence say they will file a
review plea. I've said this before that there's no scope for a review."
"All confusions will be cleared once we get Quader Molla's review verdict," he
added.
Alam further said the defence would try to do something once the verdict on
Molla came out. "Then the court's stance will be clear."
Kamaruzzaman will get 7 days to seek presidential mercy, starting from the day
he is informed of the top court's decision. When asked if Kamaruzaman's
execution would be halted until Molla's review verdict was published, the
attorney general said: "No, unless the Appellate Division orders so."
(source: bdnews24.com)
***********************
Halt Kamaruzzaman's execution: HRW----Trial seriously flawed, the rights body
says
The death sentence against war criminal Muhammad Kamaruzzman should immediately
be stayed, Human Rights Watch said today.
The Jamaat-e-Islami leader should be granted a right to appeal against the
death sentence, said a statement of the New York-based rights body published in
its website.
The HRW is deeply concerned at news that the government has ordered the
authorities at Dhaka Central jail to make preparations for the execution of
Kamaruzzaman convicted of war crimes committed during Bangladesh's 1971 War of
Independence.
"Human Rights Watch opposes the death penalty in all circumstances as an
irreversible, degrading, and cruel punishment," said Brad Adams, Asia director
at the HRW.
"It is particularly problematic when proceedings do not meet fair trial
standards and where the right to appeal against a death sentence by an
independent court is not allowed," the director added.
The statement said Kamaruzzaman was transferred to Dhaka Central Jail following
the appeals verdict, a signal that his execution is imminent.
He and his counsel have yet to receive the full text of the final verdict,
which is necessary for him to be able to lodge a petition for review of the
decision within 30 days, a standard procedure in all death penalty cases.
Government officials have indicated that the execution is possible before the
full verdict is issued which goes against standard policy in death penalty
cases, the HRW alleged.
A presidential pardon, technically possible, is highly unlikely in these
politically charged cases, it said.
Kamaruzzaman was originally arrested in July 2010 on the orders of a special
tribunal set up to prosecute war crimes committed during the 1971 war.
He was given no reason for his arrest, leading to the UN Working Group on
Arbitrary Detention to classify his arrest as arbitrary and a violation of
international law, it claimed.
Following a trial replete with procedural defects, Kamaruzzaman was sentenced
to death in May 2013 after the International Crimes Tribunal found him guilty
of participation in and planning of the unlawful killings of civilians in the
village of Sohagpur in collaboration with the Pakistani army.
On November 3, the Supreme Court on appeal upheld the trial court's conviction.
Kamaruzzaman's death sentence was the third in a war crimes case in less than a
week.
Human Rights Watch noted that trials before the ICT including that of
Kamaruzzaman have been replete with fair trial concerns. In Kamaruzzaman's
case, defence evidence, including witnesses and documents, were arbitrarily
limited. Inconsistent prior and subsequent statements of critical witnesses
were rejected by the court, denying the defence a chance to challenge the
credibility of prosecution witnesses.
This follows a disturbing precedent from other cases. In December 2013, Abdul
Qader Mollah was hanged following hastily enacted retrospective legislation
which is prohibited by international law, the HRW said.
Another accused, Delwar Hossain Sayedee, was convicted in spite of credible
allegations of the abduction by state forces of a key defence witness with the
ICT refusing to order an independent investigation into the charge, it said.
Human Rights Watch, the journalist David Bergman, and members of The Economist
have all been tried for contempt for publishing articles critical of the
trials, the statement mentioned.
The HRW reiterated its long-standing call on the government of Bangladesh to
restore fundamental rights protection to the war crimes accused.
Article 47A (1) of the constitution specifically strips war crimes accused of
their right to certain fundamental rights, including the right to an
expeditious trial by an independent and impartial court or tribunal, and the
right to move the courts to enforce their fundamental rights.
This pernicious amendment to the constitution allows the ICT overly broad
discretion to deny these accused the rights and procedures accorded to other
criminal accused.
"Human Rights Watch has long supported justice and accountability for the
horrific crimes that occurred in 1971, but we have also stated repeatedly that
these trials must meet international fair trial standards in order to properly
deliver on those promises for the victims," Adams said.
"Delivering justice requires adhering to the highest standards, particularly
when a life is at stake. The death penalty is irreversible and cruel, and
Bangladesh needs to get rid of it once and for all," he said.
(source: The Daily Star)
UNITED KINGDOM:
Executions of robbers-turned-killers in 1964 marked the end of the death
penalty in United Kingdom----Gwynne Evans and partner in crime Peter Allen were
hanged for the murder of bachelor John West. Labor Party-led government
abolished capital punishment on Nov. 9, 1965.
At a synchronized moment 50 years ago, 2 convicted killers dropped into the
hereafter when gallows trap doors gave way at English prisons 35 miles apart.
Gwynne Evans, 24, swung at Walton Prison in Liverpool. His partner in crime,
Peter Allen, 21, was executed just to the east at Manchester's Strangeways
Prison.
The hangings on Aug. 13, 1964, were payment in kind for a robbery-murder that
the men connived and committed four months earlier, on April 7.
Except for the killers' ineptitude, the case was not remarkable. It was murder
most ordinary.
But the executions would mark an end to the British law of talion, based on the
ancient idea of retributive justice - an eye for an eye.
Poor timing and bad choices placed Evans and Allen in the crime history books.
They were petty criminals, stealing scrap metal and vending machine coins.
Evans had twice washed out of the military, and he couldn't keep a civilian
job, either. At age 19 he changed his name (from John Walby) to try to obscure
his slacker past, but he wasn't able to change his nature. Thieving came
naturally, followed closely by handcuffing.
Allen had a similar resume: brief military service and a string of sackings
from dirty-knuckle jobs in trucking and agriculture. His bad habit was stealing
cars.
Allen had married in 1961, at age 18. 2 years later, as they struggled
financially, he and his wife decided to rent a room in their flat in the gritty
Lancashire city of Preston.
Gwynne Evans came knocking just after Christmas 1963, and Evans and Allen soon
were stealing together. They weren't very good at it, despite years of
practice. They stole a van, planning to use it to haul booty. But they got
caught and hauled into court, where a judge levied a 10 pound fine against each
man.
That meager debt became the impetus for murder.
Facing jail time as the default date approached for payment of the fine, Evans
came up with a plan.
In 1960, Evans had worked briefly at a laundry service in Workington, 100 miles
north of Preston. A coworker, John West, had been the subject of break-room
gossip.
A middle-aged bachelor, West had spent more than 3 decades driving laundry
delivery trucks. He was rumored to be gay and to have a small fortune concealed
in his house.
So on April 7, Allen pinched a car, a tiny Ford Prefect, and he and Evans set
off to rob John West. Squeezed into the back seat were Allen's wife, Mary, and
their two toddlers.
They arrived at West's after midnight. Evans went inside while the Allen family
waited in the car.
"I knocked on Mr. West's door and he said, 'I didn't expect to see you
tonight,'" Evans later told police. "He asked me to go to bed with him."
The 1965 hangings led U.K. to abolish capital punishment.
Evans got comfortable. He removed his coat and spent an hour or more in the
house. He was eventually joined by Allen, who ordered West to turn over his
imagined fortune.
At 3 a.m. neighbors heard thumping and wailing. A few minutes later, the little
Ford scuttled away in a hurry.
Police found John West's body in the morning. Naked below the waist, he had
been bashed 25 times with a metal rod, then stabbed in the heart.
The killers sprinkled clues everywhere. Allen asked a friend if he could
abandon the stolen Ford on his property. The friend called police, who linked
the car to the Workington murder.
Evans left his coat at the murder scene. In a pocket police found a medallion
inscribed with Evans' name. They also found the name and address of a Liverpool
teenager who had dated him.
Following some elementary detective work, the men were behind bars 34 hours
after the murder.
"It started off as an innocent robbery," Allen confessed. He said West "made a
lunge at me" after he was called into the house by Evans.
"I panicked, drew back my fist and hit him," Allen said. "The next thing I can
remember is seeing Gwynne hitting West with a bar."
Both were charged with capital murder.
Convicted killers routinely faced the death penalty in Britain for more than 2
centuries. But the public's appetite for capital punishment diminished after
World War II.
The U.K.'s Homicide Act of 1957 had limited the use of hanging to the most
heinous criminals, including serial killers and those who murder law enforcers.
Executions were rare by 1964.
But Evans and Allen qualified under a provision of the law that allowed
execution of those who killed during commission of a theft. After a brief
trial, a jury surprised the defendants by sentencing them to "suffer death."
Even after appeals were denied, many observers expected Home Secretary Henry
Brooke, the final arbiter, to recommend commutation of the sentences to life in
prison.
But the case in the northwest hinterlands drew no attention from the London
press, and the executions were carried out with little national notice.
2 months later, the Labor Party defeated the ruling Conservatives, and the new
government abolished the death penalty 49 years ago today, on Nov. 9, 1965.
After some 10,000 British executions over 250 years, Evans and Allen were the
last to die.
(source: Daily Mail)
********************
100 years of capital punishment: From Michael Barratt to Ruth Ellis
50 years ago today, the House of Commons voted to abolish the death penalty for
murder in Great Britain. We look at the most memorable cases of those executed.
The hangman pocketed his 15 pounds fee, signed the official forms and closed a
bloody chapter of British history. Within 3 months of the execution of jobless
criminals Gwynne Evans and John Walby, Parliament had voted to wipe away
centuries of capital punishment.
The year 1964 was pivotal for Britain, with a modernising force raging through
society. The Beatles released A HardDay's Night, Top Of The Pops was launched
and the Post Office Tower was completed.
Then on November 9 the House of Commons took the momentous step of voting to
abolish capital punishment for murder. The wooden gallows and executioners'
ready-reckoner booklet to calculate the drop needed for a quick and efficient
death were consigned to history. The vote became law in 1965.
Estimates put the number of executions at almost 12,000: 11,305 men, 633 women,
from the 1st rudimentary recording process in 1735.
Reform was a long, slow process but glaring miscarriages of justice helped
persuade politicians to sign hanging's death warrant. A YouGov poll last year
showed that support for capital punishment for murder had dropped to 45 %, a 6
% fall from 2010.
In the next few pages we delve into a century of the UK's "bloody code" that
once featured "being in the company of gypsies for 1 month" and "strong
evidence of malice in children" as capital offences.
1860s
This was a reforming decade with the number of capital crimes reduced to four:
murder, high treason, arson in a Royal Dockyard and piracy.
A Royal Commission also abolished public hangings with the last being
27-year-old Michael Barrett, a member of Irish republican group the Fenian
Brotherhood. He was executed outside Newgate Prison in London on May 26, 1868,
in front of a mob after being found guilty on flimsy evidence of planting a
bomb that killed seven people.
The last woman to be publicly hanged, Frances Kidder, met her end at Maidstone
a month earlier for murdering her step-daughter.
1870s
Despite the ban on public executions, prisons all around the country were
authorised to carry them out and the decade saw 144 hangings from Dorchester to
Durham.
The most shocking was 21-year-old Spanish sailor Joseph Garcia who wasjailed
for burglary while on shore leave at Newport, Wales, but on his release killed
5 members of one family during a burglary on only his second day out of jail.
He was hanged on November 18, 1878, at Usk.
1880s
The murders of 2 prominent Irish government officials in Phoenix Park, Dublin,
set off a train of betrayal and revenge ending in 6 executions. The Irish
National Invincibles claimed responsibility for the 1882 Phoenix Park murders;
both men were stabbed to death with hospital scalpels but one of their leaders,
James Carey, turned informer and 5 members were hanged on his evidence. Carey
was given a new identity and passage with his wife and seven children to South
Africa but let his guard slip during a drunken row.
Irish republican Patrick O'Donnell, who by chance was on the same boat as it
steamed 12 miles off the Cape Town coast, shot Carey in the neck and back, in
an act of revenge. He was returned to England and hanged at Newgate.
1890s
The last triple execution was held in Britain on July 21, 1896, when hangman
James Billington dispatched three men at Winchester Prison for unconnected
crimes.
Philip Matthews killed his 6-yearold daughter; Frederick Burdenmurdered his
common-law wife and 18-year-old Private Samuel Smith, of the King's Royal
Rifles, shot Corporal Robert Payne dead because he thought he was being
victimised.The practice was ruled to be too cruel to the condemned.
1900s
After 1,120 men and 49 women were executed there, including 3 burned at the
stake, Newgate Prison was closed in 1902 with executionstransferred to
Pentonville Prison three miles away.
In 1903, the Finchley Baby Farmers Annie Walters and Amelia Sach became the 1st
of 5 women hanged at the new Holloway Prison.
They took advantage of women wanting to avoid the ruinous stigma of having a
child out of wedlock by taking in babies and re-homing them. But the couple
also poisoned dozens of unwanted babies. They were hanged in a double
execution.
1910s
The nation was scandalised by the Dr Hawley Crippen case, the bespectacled
doctor who poisoned and dismembered his wife then fled to North America. It was
the 1st of 42 cases Home Secretary Winston Churchill had to rule on. Crippen
was given a brief reprieve and Churchill spared 20 people from the gallows
during his office.
Britain was at war when the scandalous Brides in the Bath sent further
shockwaves through the nation. George Smith was identified as the "husband" of
3 women who all drowned in their baths leaving him with legacies and insurance
pay-outs.
Smith, 43, used aliases and travelled around the country duping vulnerable and
lonely women to part with their savings. Three of them met with murderous ends
but he was arrested as he turned up to collect the insurance money on his final
victim.
The serial killer was convicted in a case where evidence from connected crimes
was used to secure a prosecution. Smith was hanged in August 1915 at Maidstone
Prison.
1920s
A tortured love triangle led to the double execution of Edith Thompson and her
lover Freddy Bywaters for the murder of her husband Percy who discovered the
affair.
He confronted 18-year-old Bywaters, who had been a lodger, and he left their
London home to go to sea. Shortly after his return, the Bywaters were attacked
after they left the Criterion Theatre in London???s Piccadilly Circus and Percy
was stabbed to death.
The police quickly picked up Bywaters and 60 love letters fromEdith sealed
their fate. Bywaters protested repeatedly that Edith had nothing to do with the
murder but her evidence at the Old Bailey was disastrous and both were
convicted.
The public was outraged and a million people signed a petition to commute the
sentence but they went to the gallows at 9am on January 9, 1923, in prisons
just half a mile apart. Edith spent her final three days in hysterics and the
execution was so traumatic that offi cial hangman John Ellis, a veteran of 203
executions including that of Dr Crippen, retired the following year and
attempted suicide. He turned to drink and, never fully recovering from the
ordeal, took his own life a decade later.
1930s
Fresh reforms were ushered in so that pregnant women were no longer hanged
after giving birth and the death sentence only applied to people over 18.
Harold Wilkins, 16, was the last juvenile sentenced to death in November 1932,
but he was reprieved.
1940s
German spy Josef Jakobs was tied to a chair, blindfolded and shot by a firing
squad at the Tower of London rifle range on August 15, 1941, at 7.15am. He was
the last of 11 men executed by firing squad at the Tower.
Haw-Haw, was hanged for High Treason at Wandsworth Prison, on January 3, 1946.
A day later, 27-year-old British soldier Theodore Schurch was hanged at
Pentonville Prison for treachery.
5 German soldiers were also executed at Pentonville during the war for
murdering a fellow PoW with an iron bar and lynching him at the Cultybraggan
Camp in Perthshire, which held 4,000 fanatical Nazis.
The 35-year-old victim, who was not a Nazi, was sent there by mistake and
immediately suspected of informing on an earlier escape attempt.
1 of the 5, all aged 20 and 21, reportedly said: "Long live the Fatherland" as
the noose was placed around his neck.
1950s
The seeds of discontent were beginning to sprout and, despite reprieves being
granted on about 40 % of death penalties, the number of miscarriages of justice
became disturbing.
Merchant seaman Mahmood Mattan, 28, was convicted of murdering shopkeeper Lily
Volpert in Cardiff in March 1952 on doubtful evidence of a violent criminal
desperate for the reward money. It would take 45 years before the case was
overturned and his family offered compensation.
The following year, 19-year-old Derek Bentley was hanged for the murder of a
police officer after he and accomplice Christopher Craig were cornered on a
Croydon warehouse roof. Craig, only 16, shot 1 policeman dead and wounded
another but because he was under 18 could not face the death penalty.
Bentley, who had not fired a shot, was hanged in Wandsworth Prison on January
13, 1953. Craig served 10 years.
Bentley was granted a posthumous Royal Pardon in 1993 and the conviction
officially quashed in 1998.
But the cause celebre of the 1950s was Ruth Ellis, who was the last woman to be
executed in Britain. The 30-year-old had a tempestuous love life and endured a
violent relationship with motor racing driver David Blakely while also living
with former World War 2 bomber pilot Desmond Cussen. Consumed by guilt and
jealousy, she ambushed Blakely one night and shot him 4 times at point blank
range outside a pub in north London.
The jury took just 23 minutes to convict her and she was hanged in Holloway
Prison on July 13, 1955.The conviction has caused concern ever since because of
the nature of abuse she suffered at the hands of Blakely, who caused her to
miscarry after punching her in the stomach while she was pregnant. An appeal in
2002, however, failed to overturn the original sentence.
1960s
James Hanratty, convicted of a savage murder and rape that shocked the nation,
was one of the last people to be hanged in Britain when the trapdoor opened at
Bedford Prison in April 1962.
The 25-year-old serial criminal shot scientist Michael Gregsten and raped his
girlfriend Valerie Storie after abducting them.
Executions ran at more than 100 a year for a century but the last, of Gwynne
Evans, and John Maltby, were carried out simultaneously at Walton Prison,
Liverpool, and Strangeways Prison, Manchester, on August 13, 1964, for their
murder of laundry worker John West.
THE FAMILIES WHO DOMINATED BRITAIN'S PRISON GALLOWS
2 families dominate the history of hangmen in Britain, the Billingtons and
Pierrepoints, who were paid a small fee for every execution and continued with
their everyday jobs in between service for the Crown.
James Billington, a barber from Bolton, started a dynasty when he obtained the
job as Yorkshire's hangman in 1884 aged 37. He accounted for 145 men and 5
women in a 17-year career before dying of severe bronchitis in 1901.
His eldest son Thomas assisted at 5 hangings before dying of pneumonia aged 29
and younger brother William carried out 60 executions, including the 1st at the
new all-female Holloway Prison in 1903. Another son, John, is credited with 14
hangings and 24 as assistant before he died, aged 25.
Henry Pierrepoint was admitted to the Home Office list in 1900 and carried out
63 executions in his 10-year tenure before being dismissed for being drunk when
arriving for an execution in Chelmsford. His elder brother Tom managed 37 years
in the profession from 1906 to 1946 with a tally of 203.
Tom was appointed official executioner for the US Military in Europe and
carried out 16 hangings of servicemen at Shepton Mallet Prison during the
Second World War, assisted by his nephew Albert who became the UK???s most
prolific 20th century hangman with an estimated 434 executions, including 16
women.
A publican in his day to day life, Albert hanged 190 male and 10 female Nazi
war criminals after the 2nd World War including the Beast of Belsen, Josef
Kramer. He also hanged Acid Bath murderer John Haigh, Derek Bentley and Ruth
Ellis.
"These executioners regarded what they did as a profession and something to be
proud of," said Richard Clark, a writer and historian of the subject.
"Pierrepoint had a very high regard for himself and only stopped the job after
a disagreement over how much he should be paid for an execution that was
commuted even though he had travelled to the prison.
"He was very efficient and the act from leaving the cell to the trapdoor
opening normally took 15 seconds, although the record is seven seconds. 4
people have survived their hangings and were reprieved before a more foolproof
method was invented. "It may not have been a socially acceptable profession but
we have always had a fascination with hangmen and executions."
(source: The Express)
EGYPT:
Egypt receives 300 recommendations in UN human rights review
Egypt has been provided with 300 recommendations by the United Nations Human
Rights Council, following its Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in Geneva on
Wednesday.
The list includes recommendations relating to the controversial Protest and NGO
Laws, media freedoms, freedom of association, the use of the death penalty, and
women's rights.
This is Egypt's 2nd UN UPR, which occur every 4 years. Egypt received 165
recommendations following its 1st review in 2010.
This year, Bosnia and Herzegovina, which was reviewed on the same day as Egypt,
received 167 recommendations. Iran and Iraq's reviews occurred at the end of
October, with Iran receiving 290 recommendations, and Iraq receiving 229.
There were at least 20 recommendations that dealt with the status of civil
society organisations in Egypt and called for a revision of the current law, to
bring it in line with provisions set out in the constitution and "international
norms".
7 Egyptian NGOs refused to participate in the UN UPR, citing a fear of
reprisals by the Egyptian government.
The Ministry of Social Solidarity issued a 10 November deadline for civil
society groups to register under the NGO Law of 2002. Groups that do not
register in time could face closure or prosecution. Some organisations have in
the past declared that the ministry either refused to accept or ignored their
attempts to register.
The controversial Protest Law was referenced at least 13 times among the 300
recommendations, with calls to amend the law and "bring it in line with
international standards".
Hundreds have been arrested under the law issued by interim president Adly
Mansour in November 2013. Prominent activists such as 6 April Youth Movement
co-founder Ahmed Maher have received jail sentences for violating the law. Most
recently Yara Sallam, a researcher for the Egyptian Initiative for Personal
Rights, was sentenced to three years in prison along with 22 others for
participating in a demonstration against the law earlier this year.
Among the recommendations in the 30 page report, Egypt was urged to ratify
international conventions on the death penalty. During the review Egypt's
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs for Human Rights and NGOs Mahy Abdel-Latif
stressed there is "no international consensus on the death penalty", adding it
is restricted to the most serious crimes. She pointed out that "around 50
countries" still have death as a punishment within their criminal justice
systems.
A recommendation by Iceland read "Ensure thorough, independent and impartial
investigations into the mass killings in [Rabaa Al-Adaweya] Square in 2013 and
hold the perpetrators accountable". Iceland was the only country to explicitly
refer to the dispersal of the pro-Mohamed Morsi sit-in last summer, while other
countries such as the United States and Belgium called for investigations into
"excessive use of force by security forces".
The US also recommended that Egypt "release those detained solely for
exercising rights to freedom of expression or for membership in a political
group, and ensure remaining detainees full fair trial guarantees on an
individual level".
The list also included recommendations to tackle corruption, human trafficking,
the promotion of human rights, and investment in education for young people.
Bahy Eldin Hassan, director of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies
(CIHRS), met with UN human rights representatives in Geneva following the
review to discuss "the appalling deterioration in the state of human rights in
Egypt".
CIHRS is one of the organisations that decided not to participate in the
review.
He said the government's "war on terror is simply a pretext for the systematic,
daily repressive measures against young secular activists, non-terrorist
Islamists, independent journalists and media figures, and human rights
defenders". He added that this "explains the ongoing failure to defeat
terrorism".
Hassan expressed that he would like to see the government "reconsider its
policies and orientation before Egypt slides into an abyss of unremitting
terrorism and political violence".
Egypt has until March 2015 to respond to the recommendations.
(source: Daily News Egypt)
_______________________________________________
DeathPenalty mailing list
DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu
http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty
Search the Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/deathpenalty@lists.washlaw.edu/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A free service of WashLaw
http://washlaw.edu
(785)670.1088
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
