Dec. 2
CHINA:
'My son is innocent': Chinese man exonerated 21 years after execution
More than 2 decades after her son was executed for rape and murder, Zhang
Huanzhi has finally proven his innocence.
China's top court overturned Nie Shubin's conviction Friday, in a landmark case
that exposed deep flaws in China's criminal justice system.
"I wanted to tell my son: you're a good person, you're innocent," Zhang told
CNN.
Amid emotional scenes in the courtroom, judges ruled that Nie's original trial
didn't "obtain enough objective evidence," saying there were serious doubts
about the time of death, murder weapon and cause of death.
"The moment the justice announced the verdict, Zhang burst into tears," lawyer
Li Shuting said. "Not only her, other people in the courtroom felt emotional
too. I almost stood up and applauded but I didn't, I had to comfort Zhang as
she was crying so hard."
Innocent
Another man, Wang Shujin, confessed to the crime that Nie was executed for in
2005 -- 10 years after Nie was executed.
"In this case, the Supreme People's Court changed the original sentence and
ruled Nie Shubin is innocent," according to state-run news agency Xinhua.
"As the evidence is not accurate or adequate and nor can it exclude the
possibilities of other suspects, it is recommended that the Supreme People's
Court retry the case."
The Supreme People's Court had told Nie's mother in June that the case would be
reviewed.
"After his death, his mother repeatedly dreamed of him knocking at the window
and muttering 'Mom, I'm back'," Li said.
Nie would have been 42 this year. Following his execution his father Nie
Xuesheng tried to commit suicide, but survived.
"My son can finally rest in peace," the older Nie told the Beijing Times
Friday.
Mother fights for her son
Zhang hopes the government would do whatever it takes to protect other families
from the kind of anguish she has suffered.
In July, Zhang told CNN she was very excited about the review.
"I'll visit his grave soon to tell him that mom's efforts all these years
weren't in vain -- and justice will prevail in your case," she said.
The court said that Nie's family could ask for compensation from the
government.
CNN first met Zhang in her small village in 2011, when the farmer from Hebei
Province was still fighting in earnest to clear her son's name, making
countless journeys to the provincial capital of Shijiazhuang -- some 320
kilometers (200 miles) southwest of Beijing.
Her refusal to stay quiet appears to have made a difference in this case.
Authorities tried Nie behind closed doors and barred the parents from the
courtroom, but Nie told a lawyer hired by his family that he was beaten into a
confession on his s6th day in jail.
7 months after he was first detained, the government executed Nie -- without
notifying his parents.
After the initial shock, Zhang had to endure more agony to locate her son's
remains and deal with a failed suicide attempt and subsequent half-paralysis of
her husband, who was devastated by Nie's execution.
Flawed system
For years, it seemed no one would listen, but Zhang later found an unlikely
ally in the People's Daily -- the official newspaper of the ruling Communist
Party. It ran a scathing commentary in September 2011 that asked: "In a case
where someone was clearly wronged, why has it been so difficult to make it
right?"
"Rehabilitation means little to the dead, but it means a lot to his surviving
family and all other citizens," the paper said. "We can no longer afford to let
Nie's case drag on."
Many have viewed Zhang's plight -- and the case involving her only son -- as an
egregious example of widespread police torture, deficient due process and lax
review of death sentences.
China is the world's most prolific executioner, killing thousands of people
last year, according to rights group Amnesty International.
In 2013, China's top court banned the use of torture to extract confession amid
widespread concern that it was being used to wrap up cases quickly.
(source: CNN)
BELARUS:
EU Confirms Execution Of 3rd Inmate In Belarus In November
The European Union says it has confirmed that Belarus carried out a total of 3
executions during the month of November -- raising the total number of
executions in the former Soviet republic during 2016 to 4.
European foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said on December 1 that the EU
had confirmed reports by the rights group Amnesty International that death-row
inmate Hyanadz Yakavitski had been executed by authorities in Belarus.
Mogherini did not specify when Yakavitski's execution took place. But Amnesty
International said on November 30 that Yakavitski was put to death sometime
after November 5.
The EU on November 30 said it had confirmed the execution in November of 2
other death row inmates who had been convicted on murder charges -- 28-year-old
Ivan Kulesh and 31-year-old Syarhey Khymyaleuski.
A 4th prisoner, Syarhey Ivanou, was executed in Belarus on April 18.
The EU condemned all of the executions, saying the death penalty runs counter
to Belarus's stated willingness to engage with the international community.
Amnesty International's campaigner on Belarus, Aisha Jung, says the "sudden and
shameful purge" of death-row prisoners in Belarus is "additionally shameful"
because executions there "are typically shrouded in secrecy and carried out at
a moment's notice."
Amnesty International says the 3 executions in November were carried out with
gunshots to the back of the head.
The nongovernmental human rights organization says it also is concerned about
the fate of another man on death row in Belarus -- Syarhey Vostrykau.
The EU, Amnesty International, and other human rights organizations have been
calling on Minsk to join a moratorium on the death penalty for years.
Before April, an execution had not been carried out under the Belarusian legal
system since November 2014.
According to rights groups, more than 400 people have been sentenced to death
in Belarus since the early 1990s.
(source: Radio Free Europe//Radio Liberty)
**********
Statement by the High Representative/Vice-President Federica Mogherini on the
recent executions in Belarus
Today, we have learnt of yet another execution that has taken place in Belarus,
that of Henadz Yakavitski. Earlier this week, the executions of 2 others, Ivan
Kulesh and Sergei Khmelevsky, were confirmed, adding to that of Syarhey Iwanov
in April.
The upsurge in executions in 2016 is against the commitment, made by Belarusian
authorities within the framework of the United Nations, to consider the
introduction of a moratorium on the use of the death penalty.
The European Union opposes capital punishment, which fails to act as a
deterrent to crime and represents an unacceptable denial of human dignity and
integrity.
Steps taken by Belarus to respect universal fundamental freedoms, rule of law
and human rights, including on the death penalty, will remain key for the
shaping of the EU's future policy towards Belarus.
(source: europa.edu)
****************
ODIHR Urged Belarusian Authorities To Impose Moratorium On Death Penalty
The ODIHR OSCE condemned the execution of death sentences in Belarus and called
on the authorities to impose an immediate moratorium on their executions. This
is stated in the statement of the Director of the Bureau for Democratic
Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) Michael Georg Link, interfax.by reports.
"Carrying into execution Siarhei Khmialeuski's death sentences, as well as
other reports on the execution of death sentences, are a cause for serious
concern, as the ongoing death penalty executions in Belarus run counter to the
growing international trend towards abolition of this inherently cruel, inhuman
and degrading penalty," Link stressed.
"The majority of the OSCE participant-states have already abolished the death
penalty, and I urge the Belarusian authorities to introduce a moratorium as a
first step towards the complete abolition of the death penalty," the OSCE ODIHR
Director said.
The Bureau also recalled that the OSCE participant-states have committed
themselves to keep the capital punishment abolition under consideration.
"The secrecy of most of the death penalty executions is cruel, inhuman and
degrading treatment of prisoners and their families. And no matter how it is
carried out, the death penalty is an unacceptable denial of human dignity,"
Link stated.
Each year, the ODIHR publishes a report "The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area",
containing information on the status of the death penalty in 57 countries -
members of the Organization. Belarus and the United States are the only states
OSCE members, which support the death penalty in practice.
It is to be recalled that since the beginning of this year 4 convicted have
already been executed in Belarus - Ivan Kulesh, Siarhei Khmialeuski, Siarhei
Ivanou and Henadz Yakavitski. 3 of them were executed in November this year.
Presumably, that all the 3 of "November" condemned men were executed in the
same day.
At the moment there is only 1 person in the "death row cell" - Homel resident
Siarhei Ostrykau (for the rape and murder of two women).
Belarus is the only country in Europe and the former Soviet Union, which still
applies the death penalty. Since the beginning of 1990, more than 400 condemned
men have been sentenced to death, for all that time only 1 person's death
penalty was commuted to a prison term.
The European Union once again condemned the death penalty in Belarus. The head
of EU diplomacy Federica Mogherini also stressed that the issue of the death
penalty will shape the EU's policy towards Belarus.
(source: Charter 97)
UNITED KINGDOM:
UK Christians appeal to US Christians: stand against capital punishment
During the just concluded Year of Mercy, Pope Francis called for a moratorium
on the death penalty throughout the world, declaring that rendering justice
"does not mean seeking punishment for its own sake, but ensuring that the basic
purpose of all punishment is the rehabilitation of the offender." He declared
that the system of penal justice must allow the guilty party's reinsertion in
society, because: "Punishment for its own sake, without room for hope, is a
form of torture, not of punishment."
In December the U.N. General Assembly is to vote on the Resolution on a
Moratorium on the Use of the Death Penalty. Similar resolutions proposed in
previous years have not passed, and it is unlikely that this year's attempt
will succeed. Most certainly the moratorium will not be supported by the United
States, which is one of only 11 countries in the world to have carried out
executions in the last 5 years, according to Amnesty International.
Despite the fact that that the death penalty is irreversible, that it clearly
kills innocent people and also that there is no empirical evidence to show that
it is an effective deterrent, 31 U.S. states and the federal government still
use capital punishment. In Europe only 1 state retains it - Belarus. Three
states had referenda on the ballot this November: California voted not only to
keep the death penalty but to expedite the court process for it; Nebraska voted
to overturn a previous ban on the use of the death penalty; and in Oklahoma
voters approved the use of any method of execution that is not banned by the
U.S. Constitution.
Especially for Christians, whose faith is centered on Christ's unjust
execution, there is surely an obligation to campaign for the abolition of the
death penalty which denies the condemned the right to life and the opportunity
to reform. It is to be hoped that just as Francis has spoken out against its
use, Christians, especially those with public platforms in the United States,
will do likewise.
(source: Audrey Wells a member of the management committee of Action by
Christians Against Torture in the United Kingdom and coordinates the group's
campaigns against the death penalty----National Catholic Reporter)
SOUTH KOREA:
Seoul Light Performance Calls for Abolishment of Death Penalty
A public performance was held on Wednesday night outside Seoul City Hall, with
lighted words such as "abolish death penalty", "life", and "peace" reflecting
off the building and the adjacent green space, Seoul City Hall Plaza.
The event was arranged by the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Korea, marking
the World Day Against the Death Penalty.
Capital punishment is currently legal in South Korea, and the latest death
sentence was handed down to an army sergeant in 2015 (confirmed in 2016 by the
supreme court) only disclosed as Lim, for a mass killing spree in 2014 that
left 5 people dead.
The punishment, however, has not been enforced in more than 10 years, with the
last execution taking place on December 30, 1997.
(source: Korea Bizwire)
INDONESIA:
8 arrested on treason charges ahead of rally
The Jakarta Police announced on Friday that they had arrested eight people for
alleged treason, several hours before the start of a large-scale rally to
demand the arrest of Jakarta Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama in a
blasphemy case.
"8 people have been arrested and are undergoing interrogation by the Jakarta
Police. We will wait for the interrogation results," National Police spokesman
Insp. Gen. Boy Rafli Amar said at National Monument (Monas) Square on Friday
morning.
A message circulating among journalists suggests that a number of activists,
including musician-cum-politician Ahmad Dhani, retired 2-star Army general
Kivlan Zein, former lawmaker Sri Bintang Pamungkas and Rachmawati
Soekarnoputri, sister of former president and ruling Indonesian Democratic
Party of Struggle (PDI-P) chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri, have been arrested
on treason charges.
Boy, however, refused to confirm the information, saying the investigation was
currently under way.
Last month, the Jakarta Police issued a circular to remind people that an act
of treason could face the death penalty amid a plan by some Islamic
conservative organizations to carry out a large-scale rally on Friday to push
for the arrest of Jakarta Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama in a blasphemy
case.
"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.
(source: The Jakarta Post)
UNITED KINGDOM:
UK Christians appeal to US Christians: stand against capital punishment
During the just concluded Year of Mercy, Pope Francis called for a moratorium
on the death penalty throughout the world, declaring that rendering justice
"does not mean seeking punishment for its own sake, but ensuring that the basic
purpose of all punishment is the rehabilitation of the offender." He declared
that the system of penal justice must allow the guilty party's reinsertion in
society, because: "Punishment for its own sake, without room for hope, is a
form of torture, not of punishment."
In December the U.N. General Assembly is to vote on the Resolution on a
Moratorium on the Use of the Death Penalty. Similar resolutions proposed in
previous years have not passed, and it is unlikely that this year's attempt
will succeed. Most certainly the moratorium will not be supported by the United
States, which is one of only 11 countries in the world to have carried out
executions in the last 5 years, according to Amnesty International.
Despite the fact that that the death penalty is irreversible, that it clearly
kills innocent people and also that there is no empirical evidence to show that
it is an effective deterrent, 31 U.S. states and the federal government still
use capital punishment. In Europe only 1 state retains it - Belarus. Three
states had referenda on the ballot this November: California voted not only to
keep the death penalty but to expedite the court process for it; Nebraska voted
to overturn a previous ban on the use of the death penalty; and in Oklahoma
voters approved the use of any method of execution that is not banned by the
U.S. Constitution.
Especially for Christians, whose faith is centered on Christ's unjust
execution, there is surely an obligation to campaign for the abolition of the
death penalty which denies the condemned the right to life and the opportunity
to reform. It is to be hoped that just as Francis has spoken out against its
use, Christians, especially those with public platforms in the United States,
will do likewise.
(source: Audrey Wells a member of the management committee of Action by
Christians Against Torture in the United Kingdom and coordinates the group's
campaigns against the death penalty----National Catholic Reporter)
SOUTH KOREA:
Seoul Light Performance Calls for Abolishment of Death Penalty
A public performance was held on Wednesday night outside Seoul City Hall, with
lighted words such as "abolish death penalty", "life", and "peace" reflecting
off the building and the adjacent green space, Seoul City Hall Plaza.
The event was arranged by the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Korea, marking
the World Day Against the Death Penalty.
Capital punishment is currently legal in South Korea, and the latest death
sentence was handed down to an army sergeant in 2015 (confirmed in 2016 by the
supreme court) only disclosed as Lim, for a mass killing spree in 2014 that
left 5 people dead.
The punishment, however, has not been enforced in more than 10 years, with the
last execution taking place on December 30, 1997.
(source: Korea Bizwire)
INDONESIA:
8 arrested on treason charges ahead of rally
The Jakarta Police announced on Friday that they had arrested eight people for
alleged treason, several hours before the start of a large-scale rally to
demand the arrest of Jakarta Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama in a
blasphemy case.
"8 people have been arrested and are undergoing interrogation by the Jakarta
Police. We will wait for the interrogation results," National Police spokesman
Insp. Gen. Boy Rafli Amar said at National Monument (Monas) Square on Friday
morning.
A message circulating among journalists suggests that a number of activists,
including musician-cum-politician Ahmad Dhani, retired 2-star Army general
Kivlan Zein, former lawmaker Sri Bintang Pamungkas and Rachmawati
Soekarnoputri, sister of former president and ruling Indonesian Democratic
Party of Struggle (PDI-P) chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri, have been arrested
on treason charges.
Boy, however, refused to confirm the information, saying the investigation was
currently under way.
Last month, the Jakarta Police issued a circular to remind people that an act
of treason could face the death penalty amid a plan by some Islamic
conservative organizations to carry out a large-scale rally on Friday to push
for the arrest of Jakarta Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama in a blasphemy
case.
"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.
(source: The Jakarta Post)
SOUTH AFRICA:
Capital punishment: A thin line between life and death
For 28 years, Anthony Ray Hinton woke up every day in a 5ft by 7 ft death cell.
From that cramped space, he saw 54 men being led to the execution chamber,
where electrocution put an end to their lives. The next day the air would be
thick with the smell of burnt human flesh. Awaiting your death in prison is a
horrible fate for anyone, but having to survive in those circumstances while
you're innocent, like Hinton, is unimaginably harsh and cruel. According to the
Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), who assisted Hinton in proving his innocence
and securing his release, 152 people have thus far been wrongfully convicted to
death.
Polls in this country consistently reveal a majority of South Africans who are
in favour of the reinstatement of capital punishment. Last week, the report
Capital Punishment in South Africa, by the Institute of Race Relations (IRR),
dealt with that question. It looked into the pros and cons of reinstating
capital punishment. South Africa executed approximately 4,000 people from the
introduction of the sentence in 1910 to 1995, when the Constitutional Court
abolished capital punishment in its Makhanyane ruling. Judges in that case
referenced the African principle of Ubuntu and pointed out that the law should
not sanction vengeance.
Despite that ruling, many still believe the death penalty has a place on our
criminal law books. One of the authors of the report, Graham Macintosh,
explained: "Tony Leon and Mmusi Maimane from DA have said that capital
punishment is an option for certain categories of crimes. They believe that a
death sentence should be open to the courts both because of our very high
levels of violent crime, including the killing of policemen, but also because
communities are 'privatising' the death penalty and killing (lynching and
necklacing) criminals. A death sentence would give South Africans more
confidence in our justice system and make 'private' executions less prevalent."
However, the deadly margin of error in death penalty cases, which the
miscarriage of justice in Hinton's case points to, should come as a salutary
warning to those wanting to reinstate capital punishment in SA.
Escaping reality on death row
"I married 3 beautiful women. Halle Berry was my first love, we had an amazing
relationship. But our union ended and we divorced. And then I remarried, to
another beautiful woman: Sandra Bullock. What a lady. My third and last
marriage was to the fabulous Kim Kardashian. Do you know what she said to me
when she came home every day? 'Baby, what would you like for dinner tonight?'"
Anthony Ray Hinton, a tall man with a disarming smile and a Southern drawl,
married the celebrities from the confines of his single cell on death row in
Holman Prison, Alabama (US). He also travelled the world and he drank tea with
the queen of England who told Hinton she preferred her tea with a "spot of
lemon".
"You can't survive on death row without escaping reality. The reason I didn't
kill myself was because of my imagination," says the 59-year-old Hinton who in
1985 was arrested and convicted for a double murder he never committed.
Hinton lives in the same house where one sunny day, 31 years ago, he was mowing
the lawn. 2 white police officers appeared in the driveway. "They asked me if I
was Anthony Ray Hinton. When I confirmed they said they were there to arrest
me. For what? I said, before they handcuffed me," Hinton remembers.
It's a sunny day when I visit him, birds twitter in the garden, which borders
on woody undulating fields. Quinton, the small village close to Birmingham
where Hinton lives, is remote and rural. The only traffic is a pick-up truck
and a tractor that pass by on the dirt road.
The 2 white cops took the then 29- year-old Hinton, the last-born son in a
family of 10 kids, to the police station. "In the car on the way there they
asked me if my mother owned a gun. I told them that my mom did indeed keep an
old pistol under her mattress."
What Hinton didn't know at the time was that the police were desperate to solve
3 armed robberies on fast-food restaurants in Birmingham. 2 white men had been
killed but the third had survived the attack. He told the police that a
light-skinned black man with a beard had committed the robbery. "I'm a
light-skinned black man with a beard and someone must have mentioned my name,"
Hinton says. "There was no further evidence: no fingerprints, no eyewitnesses.
Nothing."
Guns and bullets
During the trial, his mother's pistol was presented as evidence. The prosecutor
in the case, Bob McGregor, who died in 2010, wrote in his self-published
memoir, Whiskey Bent and Hell Bound, that Hinton was "evil personified", a "rat
bastard" and "a sociopath with a glare as steady and cold as the polar ice".
McGregor had a ballistics expert testify before court that the bullets found at
the crime scene matched the Hinton's mother's gun. "I knew he was lying,"
Hinton recalls.
It took 3 decades before that lie - the only tangible proof in the case - was
debunked, which set in motion Hinton's release.
His Legal Aid lawyer did not contest the evidence and casually disregarded
Hinton's claim to innocence by saying, "Y'all always say you're innocent." When
an entirely white jury found him guilty of double homicide and attempted
murder, everyone knew what the sentence would be.
"The 1st thing that crossed my mind when the judge sentenced me to death was:
what about my mother, how can anyone explain to her that the state of Alabama
will kill her baby?"
Hinton couldn't eat anything during his first few days on the 'row'. "I had
entered hell. My cell was 5 by 7 feet. I didn't breathe any fresh air or get
any exercise for weeks. There was concrete everywhere I looked."
As he showed me around his house, Hinton mentioned that he sleeps on his huge
king-sized bed with his knees drawn up to his chest. "I'm a tall guy and I
couldn't stretch out on my prison bed. So I got used to sleeping in a foetal
position. I still can't stretch out."
After a while, death row became his home and his fellow inmates were like
family. "I always tried to make others laugh. Having a sense of humour on death
row is incredibly important."
During his 28-year stay on death row, Hinton witnessed 54 executions.
"The execution chamber was 30 feet from my cell. Death row inmates used to be
killed through electrocution. What was sad is that after they executed this
person, I would smell burned flesh. The electric currents literally set the
body on fire and we would smell it the next morning and complain."
Forgiveness
Hinton hit rock bottom when his mother died in 2002. "She was the love of my
life. When she passed, I also wanted to die. I didn't see why I should continue
to live." The reason he pulled through that difficult phase is Lester Bailey, a
middle-aged man with a pot belly who visits his best friend during the
interview. Every month, for 30 years, Bailey would drive about 300 kilometres
to visit his childhood friend in jail. After his mother passed on, Bailey was
his only visitor. His best friend now lives down the road and the men see each
nearly every day.
Hinton experienced a profound spiritual turning point in his life during his
lengthy stay on death row. "Right after my conviction I was filled with hate,
against McGregor, the police and the system. But slowly I arrived at the
realisation that that hate would destroy me and no one else. It was a process
that took years, but in the end I found forgiveness in my heart. I made a
choice to enjoy the life God had given me."
In 1995, Hinton was struggling to find a lawyer who believed in his innocence.
Until he saw Bryan Stevenson on TV. "I knew immediately: I need this guy. I
wrote him a letter. Stevenson and his organisation, the Equal Justice
Initiative (EJI), literally saved my life."
Stevenson was convinced of Hinton's innocence and the first thing he did was
arrange for an independent ballistics expert who analysed the bullets and the
gun. Eventually, the case came before the Supreme Court of Appeal and that
institution decided, based on the lack of any ballistic evidence, that Hinton
was entitled to a retrial.
Attempts to thwart and delay his release were overcome and on April 1, 2015
Hinton was finally a free man. "'The sun is shining,' that's the 1st thing I
said as I left the prison."
Police investigators desperate to solve a crime, an overzealous prosecutor with
tunnel vision and a criminal justice system with an obvious racial bias
contributed to Hinton's wrongful conviction. In South Africa, it is not much
different. The IRR concluded that the most important reason not to introduce
the death penalty is the many errors that are made in the criminal justice
system. It is a well-known fact, documented by, among others, the Wits Justice
Project that the South African police use torture to extract confessions from
suspects. The IRR pointed out that in 2014/2015 the Independent Police
Investigating Directorate (IPID) recorded 3,856 complaints of assault or
torture against the police. But only 19 criminal officers were convicted in
that same year.
In the US, the increasing number of wrongful death penalty convictions has led
to waning support for capital punishment. A Pew research poll revealed that
only 49 % of Americans are in favour of the death penalty for murders, while 42
% oppose it, an all-time low.
(source: Ruth Hopkins of the Wits Justice Project was awarded the Sylvester
Stein Fellowship and used it to conduct research in the United States and to
compare criminal justice issues in South Africa and the US, analysing how race,
demographics and the unequal distribution of wealth affects the systems in both
nations----Daily Maverick)
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