July 26
BAHAMAS:
Former BCC president comes out against capital punishment
Former Bahamas Christian Council (BCC) President Bishop Simeon Hall said
yesterday that he is no longer a supporter of the death penalty.
“I am no longer a supporter of that kind of dealing with our crime problem,” he
told Eyewitness News Online.
“If government feels it’s best to go forward and ask the Bahamian people, then
that’s their right.
“The majority of the Bahamian people are pro-capital punishment, but I am not.”
Amid calls from domestic and international organizations for an abolishment of
capital punishment in The Bahamas, Attorney General Carl Bethel said in March
that capital punishment is not going anywhere.
The issue of capital punishment in The Bahamas has repeatedly been the subject
of widespread public debate over the years.
Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis reiterated support for the measure a year ago.
At the time, however, Minnis said he was bound by the law.
He said the matter will be discussed in Cabinet.
In July 2018, Attorney General Carl Bethel said the government was considering
enacting constitutional changes to preserve capital punishment as an effective
penalty under the law, noting that several decisions of the Privy Council had
rendered the penalty to be essentially ineffective.
At the time, Bethel noted that the move might require a referendum.
“A standard has been set by the Privy Council as it relates to the worst of the
worst when it comes to certain crimes,” he said at the time.
“Now, I’ve said it before, but I will say it again; there is always something
worse than the worst; so, it’s a standard that might not be able to ever be
met.
“So, we feel that there has to be some intervention by statute or by
constitutional amendment to settle this issue.
“That is what we are going to look at.”
Bethel did not provide a timeline on when the government could hold a
referendum on capital punishment.
There have been few public announcements on the government’s plans on the issue
since then.
Meanwhile, prominent attorney Fred Smith said yesterday that as a human rights
activist he is completely opposed to the death penalty.
But he agreed that if the government chose to amend laws related to capital
punishment, it should conduct a referendum.
“They (proposed amendments) should be properly debated,” Smith said.
“Everybody’s view is deserving of respect.
“I can understand the reactions on both sides of the fence, but I think as we
progress to trying to be a respectful society this is a very difficult
question.”
In 2011, the Privy Council said the death penalty would only be reserved for
the worst of the worst.
Despite the issuance of the death sentence over the last decade, there has not
been an execution in The Bahamas since David Mitchell was executed on January
6, 2000.
(source: Eyewitness News)
PHILIPPINES:
Duterte warned vs ‘political cost’ of reviving death penalty
President Rodrigo Duterte’s renewed push to restore capital punishment may come
at a huge political cost compromising his government’s ability to appeal for
Filipino workers on death row abroad, an international human rights group
warned Friday.
In Malaysia alone, at least 48 Filipinos were facing the death penalty as of
March this year. A Filipino woman was arrested earlier this week for allegedly
trafficking illegal drugs in Kota Kinabalu.
“Ultimately, the Philippines is going to pay a very, very high political price
around the world if it decides” to revive the death penalty, said Phil
Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia Division.
The Philippine government’s ability to negotiate for its citizens on death row,
he said, would be “significantly diminished” because other countries could now
argue that “you guys kill people, too.”
“They would be accused of being hypocrites,” he told ANC.
A foreign affairs department report for 2016 showed 130 Filipinos were awaiting
execution abroad, mostly due to illegal drugs.
Domestic worker Mary Jane Veloso was earlier convicted of smuggling heroin in
Indonesia, but was granted reprieve in 2015. A Philippine court is still
hearing a criminal case against her recruiters, who allegedly duped her into
working as a drug mule.
MORAL ASCENDANCY
Previous requests by the Philippine government to save its citizens on death
row were granted partly because other countries knew that Manila had abolished
capital punishment, said former human rights chief Loretta Ann Rosales.
“We will now lose our moral ascendancy,” she told ABS-CBN News. “This is what
our senators and congressmen should remember.”
Duterte wants to restore death penalty at a time when at least 142 countries
have already abolished it “in law or practice” as of 2017, according to human
rights group Amnesty International.
“Is (The Philippines) going to be one of the nations in the world to turn its
back and buck the trend around the world that is moving toward the abolition of
death penalty?” Robertson said.
The president sees capital punishment as a crucial component in his war against
illegal drugs, which has killed at least 5,526 suspects in police operations.
“That’s a small number if you will consider the complexity of the entire drug
menace, which destroys families,” his spokesman Salvador Panelo said over ANC’s
“Matters of Fact” podcast.
NEBULOUS
Rosales said restoring the death penalty would “legitimize” widespread killings
under Duterte, giving them “a semblance of rule and order.”
“What he does are mass killings (and) he’s gotten so much criticism (for) that.
So what he does now is to say, ‘Okay, let’s have the death penalty. At least,
there’s due process there,’” she said.
The Philippine constitution bans the death penalty “unless for compelling
reasons involving heinous crimes.”
Duterte sought the capital punishment for high-level drug traffickers and
plunderers, a proposal backed by many of his allies in Congress.
But the Philippines is also a signatory, along with 87 other countries, to the
“Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights,” noted Rosales.
State parties to the agreement committed to “take all necessary measures to
abolish the death penalty within its jurisdiction,” which Manila did in 2006.
Prior to that, the Philippines executed 7 of its citizens through lethal
injection during the Estrada administration.
Rosales said “international law and norm should prevail” even if the 1987
constitution allows Congress to restore capital punishment for heinous crimes.
“The constitution is nebulous,” she said.
LIFE AND DEATH
Human rights groups have cautioned the Philippines against restoring the death
penalty, given serious loopholes in its criminal justice system.
A 2004 Supreme Court ruling, for instance, noted that 7 out of 10 cases of
capital punishment it reviewed since 1993 were either “modified or vacated.”
In a 2012 decision, the high court said 56 percent of drug cases led to
dismissal and acquittal “because of the failure of the police authorities to
observe proper procedure under the law.” The cases covered 5 years since the
Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act took effect.
“You have a very high rate of acquittal and dismissal and you’re going to pass
a death penalty bill in the context of a criminal justice system, which does
not seem to work,” said Maria Socorro Diokno, secretary general of the Free
Legal Assistance Group (FLAG).
Robertson warned that reinstating capital punishment would mean “handing the
power of life and death to justice system that everybody likes to criticize.”
(source: ABS-CBN News)
*******************
13 senators to possibly favor reimposition of death penalty
The reinstatement of the death penalty may have a glimmer of hope to be passed
in the Senate with a seeming majority vote.
Thirteen senators have, so far, manifested to vote for it which include Senate
President Vicente Sotto III, Senators Bong Go, Ronald Dela Rosa, Sherwin
Gatchalian, Aquilino Pimentel III, Panfilo Lacson, Lito Lapid, Imee Marcos,
Bong Revilla, Francis Tolentino, Cynthia Villar, Pia Cayetano and Manny
Pacquiao.
“Basta death penalty, kahit anong paraan, lethal injection , kahit ano, basta
death penalty [As long as it’s death penalty, however way it is done. Lethal
injection, whatever, as long as it’s death penalty],” said Senator Manny
Pacquiao.
13 is enough a number to have the bill passed in the higher chamber of
Congress.
However, this could still narrow down as the versions they are pursuing vary,
with most of them wanting to limit the imposition of the death penalty to
high-level drug trafficking only.
This is in contrary to what President Rodrigo Duterte is pushing which is also
to include plunder.
The senators are also divided as to how the said capital punishment must be
carried out.
On the other hand, 10 senators comprised of Senators Franklin Drilon, Risa
Hontiveros, Leila De Lima, Francis Pangilinan, Juan Miguel Zubiri, Richard
Gordon, Grace Poe, Nancy Binay, Ralph Recto and Joel Villanueva have openly
opposed the bill.
Senator Sonny Angara has yet to state his position as he prefers to hear the
debates regarding the death penalty first.
(source: untvweb.com)
INDIA:
Death Penalty Awarded To Accused In Angul Minor Girl Rape & Murder Case
In the case of rape and murder of a 12-year-old girl in Angul on January 20,
death penalty was awarded to accused Anam Dehury on Friday.
The penalty was pronounced by Additional District Judge in a Fast Track Court
on the basis of statements given by 36 witnesses.
On January 19, a 12-year-old girl was kidnapped when she was going to her
father's farm to give him lunch. She was subsequently raped and murdered at
Kangula village. After probe, cops had arrested accused Anam Dehury from
Kolkata.
It is notable to mention here that the Rajya Sabha had passed the Protection of
Children from Sexual Offences (Amendment) Bill (POCSO Bill) proposing death
penalty to the culprits in the cases of sexual assault and stringent
punishments like life imprisonment for other crimes against children.
(source: ommcomnews.com)
IRAN----execution
Man Hanged at Bandar-Abbas Prison
A man was hanged at Bandar-Abbas prison for murder charges Wednesday morning.
According to IHR sources, on the morning of Wednesday, July 24, a man was
hanged at the Iranian southern city of Bandar-Abbas’s prison. The prisoner,
identified by IHR as Peyman Hamdollahi Boroujerdi, was sentenced to death for
murder.
“Peyman was arrested for killing a man during a fight. The plaintiffs asked
some money (around 35000 USD) to forgive him. Unfortunately, his family could
not afford the blood money,” a well-informed source said.
According to the Iranian Islamic Penal Code (IPC) murder is punishable by qisas
which means “retribution in kind” or retaliation. In this way, the State
effectively puts the responsibility of the death sentence for murder on the
shoulders of the victim’s family. In qisas cases, the plaintiff has the
possibility to forgive or demand diya (blood money). In many cases, the
victim's family are encouraged to put the rope is around the prisoner's neck
and even carry out the actual execution by pulling off the chair the prisoner
is standing on.
(source: Iran Human Rights)
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