Nov. 23
BAHAMAS:
Bishop Hanchell Backs Use Of Death Penalty
Despite calls by Archbishop of the Catholic Archdiocese Patrick Pinder for
regional legislators to abolish the death penalty, another religious leader has
come forward with demands for the enforcement of capital punishment.
In a detailed statement to the press on Monday, Citizens for Justice (CFJ)
Chairman and local bishop, Walter Hanchell said he disagrees with the
archbishop's position on the issue, calling it "biblically and morally"
contrary to scripture.
Bishop Hanchell, of Great Commission Ministries, said his church remains a firm
supporter of "restorative justice" for all those convicted of crimes other than
murder.
For those convicted of murder, Bishop Hanchell said they ought to "suffer the
penalty of death for their crimes as prescribed by law".
Archbishop Pinder, last week, in a joint pastoral statement from the Bishops of
the Antilles Episcopal Conference (AEC) in commemoration of the Catholic
Church's Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy, urged governments and citizens in
the region to abolish capital punishment. 19 bishops signed the statement.
The statement said to take away a person's "basic right to immunity from fatal
harm" is to "compromise his/her sacred dignity".
"However, responding to these claims on Monday, Bishop Hanchell suggested that
capital punishment was not an act conceived in the mind of any human being, but
was an act instituted by God according to scripture to "punish and remove"
murderers from society.
"It was never meant to be a deterrent even though studies show that it most
certainly is," wrote Bishop Hanchell.
"Cries that capital punishment is inhumane and barbaric in the 21st century are
irrational when we consider that God has not changed and his word, which is His
will for mankind, certainly has not changed and never will.
"The Holy Bible in both the Old Testament and the New Testament commands that
persons guilty of committing the crime of murder be punished by death. God is
both a God of love and a God of justice.
"All moral laws, including capital punishment, have their root in the Bible. A
close study of scripture will reveal that the death penalty was always
mandatory except in cases of accidental or intentional death. The word of God
is clear concerning punishment for murder and no bishop, government,
parliament, judiciary or agency such as Amnesty International, has the power or
authority to overrule the laws of God," he added.
Bishop Hanchell said rather than advocate for the removal of a law, perhaps
religious and political leaders should look at the plight of the thousands of
children who are left fatherless and the families who mourn the loss of their
loved ones because of senseless killings.
"If you believe that human life is a sacred gift from God, then why is the life
of a wicked murderer more precious than that of his innocent victim? Nobody has
the right to take a life except the state in capital offences."
Analysing the issue from a political perspective, Bishop Hanchell noted that
despite the valiant efforts of the police force, the government and legislators
have intentionally refused to enforce the laws of the Bahamas to the detriment
of all who live here.
"The ruling Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) government led by Prime Minister
Perry Christie did not carry out a single execution during their first term in
office from 2002 to 2007. While serving as the Leader of the Opposition in
2011, Mr Christie declared his party's support for capital punishment. Despite
record murder statistics in the current term, not a single person has been
executed for the hundreds of brutal murders that have been committed in the
Bahamas over the past 15 plus years."
The last time capital punishment was carried out was in 2000.
Bishop Hanchell said politicians who were elected to enforce the law have
failed "miserably in this endeavour."
He added: "In March 2006, the Privy Council ruled that the mandatory death
sentence was unconstitutional. Members of Citizens For Justice believe that
this ruling was flawed since the Constitution of The Bahamas clearly makes
capital punishment legal.
"Capital punishment has long been abolished in the United Kingdom and most of
Europe and we are of the view that members of the Privy Council have attempted
to bring an end to the practice in The Bahamas."
In June 2011, the Privy Council overturned Maxo Tido's death sentence in
connection with the killing of 16-year-old Donnell Connover, whose body was
found off Cowpen Road, battered and bruised and her skull crushed. There was
additional evidence that parts of her body were burned after her death.
But the Privy Council concluded that the murder was not an example of the
"worst of the worst."
In November 2011, Parliament passed legislation to define the types of murder
constituting the "worst of the worst" guidelines set out by the London court.
Bishop Hanchell added: "A simple legal definition of what the 'worst of the
worst' or the 'rarest of the rare' has caused cold-blooded killers to have
their death sentences commuted to life in prison and many are walking the
streets because of technicalities in our justice system."
He said it remains a mystery why Parliament has not addressed this extremely
important national concern.
"We are calling again on the government to defend the Constitution of The
Bahamas and for Prime Minister Christie to deliver on his promise to the
Bahamian people to resume capital punishment. Citizens For Justice also calls
for the removal of the Privy Council as our final Court of Appeal."
(source: tribune242.com)
******************
Politicole: The Church And The Death Penalty
I woke the other morning to the news that another armed robbery had occurred in
my home city. Another store robbed early in the morning of its cash that many
had laboured to earn, because others somehow thought it their entitlement and
so they took it by force.
Thankfully, no one was physically harmed in the ordeal, but emotionally there
was some harm done. My cousins were there and they experienced the trauma of
wondering whether or not they would come face to face with a madman and his
gun. After all, you'd have to be a madman, or extremely desperate, to think
that someone else's laboured-for possessions are yours and you should take them
by force with a weapon.
While searching for more details of this crime news story, I came across and
was reminded of another news story that had replicated itself into sub-stories,
you know, in the way that a reporter asks a dozen people he/she interviews in
one day for their opinions on the same things ... and that all becomes the
news.
The main story was a repeat of the Catholic Church's position on capital
punishment. The sub-stories were heartfelt commentaries by Member of Parliament
Leslie Miller and Democratic National Alliance (DNA) leader Branville
McCartney, who were both clear on their favour of the death penalty. Reporters
also interviewed Reverend Simeon Hall, who himself declared that he straddled
both sides of the fence on the issue.
Essentially, the Catholic Church, via the Catholic Archbishop Patrick Pinder,
is calling yet again for the abolition of the death penalty in our country, in
our region, in our world. And I wondered why all of a sudden this was news
again. Well, it's partly because the Church uses certain seasons to say certain
things, and they also seem to think that politicians in this election season
will use their advocacy of capital punishment to win votes ... something the
Church, of course, abhors.
The Antilles Episcopal Conference (AEC) is still, since making a similar
statement in 2000, "urging governments to abolish the death penalty in the
region". The Catholic Church has denounced the death penalty on paper for the
past 16 years, at least, and insisted that "a more meaningful method" be used
to deter criminals.
They say: "We believe that human life is a gift from God and is sacred" and "We
should protect and defend human life in all circumstances".
It seems the Church is concerned about capital punishment not being a good
deterrent and not falling in line with its concepts of "reconciliation,
conversion, reform, restitution and forgiveness".
The Church further iterates that "the death penalty is both cruel and
unnecessary". Well so is murder, no? Unless it is very clearly accidental or
committed in obvious self defence. And murder is also irreversible.
The whole of the Church's statement focuses on capital punishment as a
deterrent. It is not meant to be a deterrent. It is not a deterrent. It is a
punishment. People who support capital punishment are not trying to reconcile
with capital punishment. The purpose of capital punishment is to punish for
extreme wrongdoing against another human being. And a would-be murderer who
sees that the Church's - or a government's - intention is not punishment will
seek to more readily perpetrate crime. Hence our current problem in The Bahamas
- and the region.
The original statement by the Church/AEC declares "to take away a person's
basic right to immunity from fatal harm is to compromise his/her sacred
dignity". And somehow this applies only to the murderer and not the victim?
The Church is against capital punishment because the criminal/murderer should
"have a chance to reform", but the victim has no chance to live again.
The Church acknowledges that "there are 2 parties involved in reconciliation:
the wrongdoer and the victim". But the victim cannot reconcile with anyone or
anything once dead, so what is the point of that acknowledgement?
Yes, forgiveness is good. But you must still pay the equal cost for your crime,
unless of course one person's eye or tooth is better than someone else's.
"You reform on one end, yes. But you must punish on the other. Without
attacking the problem from both ends, it will never diminish.
There is DNA testing in modern forensics that affords an accuracy for
conviction unlike before when innocent people may have met their end on account
of poor evidence and weak judgments. So, if the religious men/leaders are
concerned about this they need not be.
They say themselves that "modern society has a means of protecting itself
without definitively denying criminals the chance to reform". Yes. That is
agreeable. And that mechanism is called law and law enforcement. You abide by
the law, you don't get punished. Surely there are laws in the Catholic Church
that must be adhered to and, when they are not, repercussions are met.
Of course, all of this argument by the Church is based on the assumption that
it is filled with "prophets", men who fail to accept that someone who commits a
crime can repent on his or her own. There is no need for a Church, or priest,
or a confession booth to say "I'm sorry, I was wrong." If we cultivated people
to rely on the God within them, the mercy that emanates from that spirit of
goodness, then we wouldn't have a crime problem in the first place. But I
suppose that's the curse of religion; it tells you that your salvation is
always in someone else's hands.
The bottom line is, if you ignore and abolish capital punishment, there is no
ultimate penalty for murder. The society will implode from within, as is
currently underway.
But why is the Church so concerned about something that isn't even being used
with any regularity? Is it so that the region can officially fall in line with
a global view?
It would be more helpful for the Catholic bishops to offer suggestions on real
alternative penalties, if they don't support capital punishment. But they need
to give some hard and fast measures, not these notions of suffering and
sacrifice that float in the air and you can't do anything tangible with them
when the circumstances call for it. And "socialisation, rehabilitation and
reconciliation" don't count, because they are not punitive. I put to the
Church, while you wait for a better society, what exactly will the urgent
action on crime be? How is your idea of abolishing the death penalty helpful,
other than to keep the Church relevant?
And the Privy Council's 2011 ruling that "the death penalty should be reserved
for the worst of the worst and the rarest of the rare" is no help either.
Putting a grade of one to 10 on how bad a murder is, or how important a victim
is, is an abomination against equal justice.
I wonder ... what would the Church's position be, if one of its own was
murdered? I guess they would call it 'God's will'.
Leslie Miller says "if the bishop and his crew could bring back the dead, okay,
then I would say we should abandon capital punishment".
Miller lost his own son years ago to crime, and while many have debated his
son's involvement in crime and whether or not his lifestyle was conducive to
his demise, as people often judge, Miller knows and understands the loss
associated with crime, murder in particular. He says "who feels it knows it".
And he asks who will speak for the victims, when the Church is not speaking on
their behalf?
Branville McCartney, who lost his brother to crime, murder specifically, says
that he totally disagrees with Archbishop Pinder that the death penalty should
be completely abolished.
"I find this incredible ... for that comment to be made. Those who take a life,
are they entitled to life? My brother was killed on the streets of New
Providence because of these criminals. You don't believe that I'm going to deal
with crime? When I become Prime Minister? I'm the one, and the only one, who
will deal with crime." He says "the DNA will fix the law so that the Privy
Council can't wiggle around it".
If it's one thing he'll do, I think you can be assured this is it.
Many people say men like Miller and McCartney are too close to the problem,
and, because of their personal experiences they are too impassioned about
capital punishment. People believe their experiences create strong prejudices
for them. But would you not want someone who was impassioned about a job to do
a job, as long as it was done responsibly?
In particular, rather than ridicule McCartney's comments as too emotive or too
feeling, maybe you can appreciate the fact that maybe he is someone who can
feel loss ... someone who can actually feel ... possibly someone with a
conscience, and a notion of right and wrong. Unlike the other leaders you have
now.
(source: Nicole Burrows tribune22.com)
INDONESIA:
Police release circular on 'treason' amid planned mass rally
Jakarta Police have issued a circular, reminding people that an act of treason
could face the death penalty amid a plan by some Islamic conservative
organizations to carry out another large-scale demonstration on Dec. 2.
"In expressing one's thought in public, it is illegal to carry out [an act that
will jeopardize] the nation's security such as treason against the president or
the vice president," the circular stated, which was signed by Jakarta Police
chief Insp. Gen. Mochammad Iriawan.
"[The person responsible for] the act could be sentenced to death or with a
life sentence," the circular added.
A group called the National Movement to Save the Indonesia Ulema Council's
Fatwa (GNPF-MUI), the same group that organized the rally on Nov. 4, previously
said they would carry out another mass rally on Dec. 2 because their demand of
having the inactive Jakarta Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama arrested had
not been fulfilled by the police.
Ahok, a Christian of Chinese descent, has been accused of blasphemy when he
mentioned a Quranic verse in a public event that was recorded and eventually
went viral on social media last month.
The allegations triggered uproar among Muslim conservatives, where over a
100,000 protesters conducted a mass rally on Nov. 4 to demand the immediate
arrest of Ahok.
Police named Ahok a suspect in the case last Wednesday but was not arrested.
(source: Jakarta Post)
PAKISTAN:
ATC sentences 5 to death over burning alive Christian couple in Kot Radha
Kishan in 2014
An Anti-Terrorism Court on Wednesday sentenced 5 men to death on 2 counts for
their involvement in the burning alive of a Christian couple in Kot Radha
Kishan in 2014.
ATC-I Judge Chaudhry Muhammad Azam imposed a fine of Rs200,000 on the 5 men
identified as Mehdi Khan, Riaz Kambo, Irfan Shakoor, Muhammad Hanif, and Hafiz
Ishtiaq - a local prayer leader - for their involvement in the lynching.
8 others have also been charged with involvement in the lynching and sentenced
to 2 years each in prison.
The 8 men were identified as Muhammad Hussain, Noorul Hasan, Muhammad Arsalan,
Muhammad Haris, Muhammad Muneer, Muhammad Ramazan, Irfan and Hafiz Shahid.
A challan submitted in court claimed the 5 men handed the death penalty
gathered a large mob of hundreds by making announcements over a mosque
loudspeaker and incited them to violence with incendiary speech.
Kot Radha Kishan lynching
A mob of around 400 people lynched Shahzad and Shama for their alleged role in
desecrating the Holy Quran in November 2014. Both husband and wife were brick
kiln workers from Chak-59 of Kot Radha Kishan, a town in Kasur district. The
woman, mother of 3, was pregnant.
Police and witnesses told Dawn in Nov 2014 that announcements had been made
from mosques on Tuesday asking villagers to gather at the Yousaf brick kiln
where 25-year-old Shama and her husband Shahzad Masih worked as bonded
labourers.
Over 1,000 charged people from 3 villages took out the couple from a room
(where they had taken shelter) after tearing apart its roof.
The mob tortured the couple before putting them into the kiln's furnace.
The mob held hostage 5 policemen who tried to rescue the couple. The villagers
also manhandled some media personnel and snatched their cameras.
Police registered a case against 660 villagers, including 60 who were nominated
in a First Information Report lodged on the complaint of Sub-Inspector Muhammad
Ali of Chowki Factory Area.
The FIR said the mob had thrashed the couple and dragged them to a kiln where
Mohammad Yousaf Gujar, the kiln owner, and his accountants Shakeel and Afzal,
allegedly removed a lid from one of the openings of the furnace and threw the
couple into it.
"Both Shama and Shahzad were reduced to ashes in no time," the FIR stated.
'No one listened to her'
Bilqees, a local Muslim resident, recounted the horrific incident to Dawn in
2014.
She said that Shama, known in the village as Saima, married Shahzad Masih about
10 years ago. They had 3 children aged between 2 and 7. She said Shama was
pregnant at the time of the incident.
Nazir Masih, father-in-law of Shama, was a faith healer and died a few weeks
ago. After his death, Shama had burnt some of his belongings, including papers.
She added that Shama was illiterate.
Bilqees said a vendor who had visited the brick kiln found the pages of the
Holy Quran and showed them to the villagers.
Later on Tuesday morning, hundreds of villagers gathered at the kiln and burnt
the couple alive without even listening to Shama.
"She was screaming that she was unaware of what the papers were about, but no
one listened to her," Bilqees said.
International uproar
The lynching of Shama and Shehzad caused international uproar. In 2014, A top
Vatican official described the lynching of the couple as a humiliation for all
of humanity.
Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, the chair of the Roman Catholic church's council
for interfaith dialogue, had said he was profoundly shocked by accounts of the
horrific death of Shehzad and Shama.
"How can we remain impassive before such crimes, justified in the name of
religion?," Tauran had earlier said on Vatican Radio, urging Muslim leaders in
Pakistan to vigorously condemn the killings.
"It is all of humanity that is humiliated," he had said, adding: "The 1st
victims are in fact Muslims because these misdeeds give an image of Islam that
is terrible."
(source: dawn.com)
ANTIGUA:
45 years to life for ex-death row convicts
Mellanson Harris and Marvin Joseph will be in their 60s by the time they have
served 45 years of the life sentence imposed on them yesterday by High Court
Justice Darshan Ramdhani.
At that time, the convicts who were on death row, will qualify for a review of
their sentences in relation to the time being spent for the 1994 murders of US
and UK visitors William and Kathleen Clever, Ian Cridland and Thomas Williams
who were gunned down on the Computa Centre Challenger vessel moored just off
Barbuda.
The judge asked the men to stand in the prisoner's box, before declaring
"Marvin Joseph ... Mellanson Harris you are sentenced to life imprisonment. You
shall serve a minimum of 45 years as representing the punitive element of this
sentence. All time spent on remand or under detention shall be deducted from
this period. On the expiry of this period, you shall be reviewed by a court in
accordance with Section 3 (b) of the Offences against the Person Act for the
possibility for early release."
The men, who have been behind bars since 1994 were stoic, while relatives of
the Clevers were in tears for most of the proceedings.
The judge noted, "This is perhaps one of the worst cases of public criminal
violence ... They were bound, gagged ... they initially offered no resistance
thinking that the men were going to rob them and then escape ... This is a case
where the seriousness of the offence is exceptionally high, and committed in a
heinous manner."
He also noted that although the quartet was helpless, they were murdered and it
must have been a traumatic experience to listen to the attackers plan their
death and then take them out execution style one at a time.
Harris and Joseph who were 21 and 20, respectively, at the time of the
killings, were initially sentenced to death following their conviction in 1996.
While they were incarcerated, they were measured for their coffins and they
observed the preparation of the gallows while awaiting the imposition of the
death penalty as the date drew near.
This was the mandatory sentence at the time, but years later, the Privy Council
ruled it as unconstitutional, stating that each case should be treated on its
own merit and the convict must be given an opportunity to mitigate and plead
with the court prior to sentencing.
Although the Privy Council's ruling was made more than a decade ago, the 2
convicts were only called up for resentencing in 2013.
(source: Antigua Observer)
IRAN:
Iranian MPs to mull plan ending death penalty for drug offences
Iranian lawmakers agreed to give urgency to addressing a plan for ending death
penalty for drug offences in the country, Iran's ILNA news agency reported Nov.
23.
The urgency plan was approved by 147 MPs voted in favour, 21 against and 4
abstained.
Murder, rape, armed robbery and trafficking of drugs in quantities exceeding 5
kilograms are among the crimes punishable by death in Iran.
Iran ranks 2nd after China in terms of the number of executions.
Without specifically referring to drugs, Iran's Justice Minister, Mostafa
Pourmohammadi, announced in October that the death penalty is applied as
punishment in too many cases.
Pourmohammadi's comments came shortly before it was announced that a motion
signed by 76 MPs has been submitted to parliament with the aim of ruling out
the death penalty for 1st-time drug smugglers.
(source: trend.az)
SOUTH AFRICA:
SAIRR report finds in favour of the death penalty
The death penalty could deter brutal crimes in South Africa, where almost 500
000 people have been murdered since 1994.
Based on an analysis of annual SAPS crime statistics, many others have been
injured and traumatised.
The South African Institute of Race Relations released a report on Tuesday that
focused on whether capital punishment should be reinstated, after the
Constitutional Court abolished it 21 years ago.
The SAIRR found that crime in the country could be characterised as cruel and
violent.
The organisation cited the Rhodes Park murder and rape case as an example.
3 men are on trial for allegedly murdering 2 men and sexually assaulting and
raping their partners.
The 2 couples were taking a stroll in the Kensington park in October last year
when the gang pounced. SAIRR chief executive Dr Frans Cronje said its board
members were approached by various interest groups and those in the field of
criminal justice to study whether the death penalty was a viable solution to
South Africa's high violent crime level.
"We were asked to look into the death penalty as a way to deter the most cruel
and violent crimes, such as the Rhodes Park murders. These are crimes
characterised by gratuitous violence in which victims are tortured, family
members raped or executed in front of their loved ones, and children harmed,"
he said. M
Cronje said the perpetrators in those types of cases went beyond the violence
needed to execute the robbery or whatever initially motivated the crime.
"The examples are frightening: women tortured by having kettles of boiling
water thrown over them, people burnt with irons or on stove tops, families
executed."
The SAIRR said that while compiling the report, it managed to overcome certain
objections in favour of reinstating the death penalty. These included whether
the death penalty was cruel and unusual, a form of retribution, arbitrary, and
that it didn't serve as a deterrent.
The institute said that according to its research, capital punishment wasn't
necessarily cruel and unusual, society was entitled to a measure of
retribution, and arbitrariness wasn???t unique to that form of punishment.
It added that although international evidence was mixed, in the South African
context the death penalty could be a deterrent to the commission of the most
cruel and violent of crimes.
The SAIRR found that the most compelling argument against the death penalty was
the possibility of error, particularly in the case of the criminal justice
system.
It concluded that while a case could be made to reopen a debate into the death
penalty, the issue of whether an irreversible error could be made would have to
be overcome.
The Institute for Security Studies (ISS) said there was no substantial evidence
showing that the death penalty deterred perpetrators from committing serious
crimes.
ISS governance, crime and justice division head Gareth Newham said the
certainty of criminals getting caught and punished could possibility stop them
from committing, and not necessarily capital punishment.
SAPS spokesperson Brigadier Selvy Mohlala said police couldn't deviate from the
constitution, which prohibited the death penalty.
The SAPS doesn't keep more than 10 years of statistics on its website, but they
indicate there were about 174 000 murders from April 2006 to March this year.
Other sources, based on SAPS stats, indicated that more than 270 000 people
were murdered in the 12 years before that, giving a total of about 445 000
murders over the past 22 years.
The argument against was the possibility of an irreversible error.
(source: iol.co.za)
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