[Deathpenalty] Urgent Action 113/12 - Iranian-Canadian Man Facing Execution in Iran
URGENT ACTION APPEAL - From Amnesty International USA -- For a print-friendly version of this Urgent Action (PDF): http://www.amnestyusa.org/actioncenter/actions/uaa11312.pdf UA 113/12 Issue Date: 26 April 2012 Country: Iran IRANIAN-CANADIAN FACING EXECUTION IN IRAN A man with dual Iranian-Canadian nationality, Hamid Ghassemi-Shall, appear to be at imminent risk of execution. His family was told on 15 April that his death sentence had been passed to the body within the Judiciary that carries out executions. Hamid Ghassemi-Shall was arrested on 24 May 2008 while visiting his elderly mother in Iran. His older brother, Alborz Ghassemi-Shall, have been arrested about two weeks earlier. Both brothers were held in solitary confinement without legal representation, in Tehran's Evin prison for 18 months; in November 2009 the brothers were transferred to a section of the prison holding other prisoners. On 29 December 2008 both men were sentenced to death following an unfair trial by a Revolutionary Court. They were convicted of moharebeh (enmity against God) for espionage and cooperation with the proscribed People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI). Amnesty International understands that the evidence used against the brothers during trial included a "confession" and an email the authorities alleged Hamid Ghassemi-Shall had sent to his brother Alborz Ghassemi-Shall, who had previously worked as a mechanical engineer in the Iranian army, which he denied sending. On 7 November 2009, the Supreme Court upheld the sentence. In January 2010 Alborz Ghassemi-Shall, who was suffering from stomach cancer, died in prison. Hamid Ghassemi-Shall have said that while in Evin Prison, before he had access to legal representation, he was under "extreme pressure" to "confess". "Confessions" made under torture are frequently accepted as evidence in Iranian courts, violating the right to a fair trial. The Iranian authorities had previously threatened to arrest the brothers' sister Mahin Ghassemi-Shall, who has since died, for speaking out on behalf of her brother. Please write immediately in Persian, English or your own language: - Urging the Iranian authorities to stop the execution of Hamid Ghassemi-Shall; - Urging them to retry him in proceedings which fully comply with international fair trial standards and without recourse to the death penalty; - Calling on them to ensure that Hamid Ghassemi-Shall is given immediate and regular access to his family, his lawyer and any necessary medical treatment. PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 7 JUNE 2012 TO: Leader of the Islamic Republic Ayatollah Sayed 'Ali Khamenei The Office of the Supreme Leader Islamic Republic Street – End of Shahid Keshvar Doust Street Tehran ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN Email: info_lea...@leader.ir Twitter: "Call on #Iran leader @khamenei_ir to halt the execution of Hamid Ghassemi-Shall" Salutation: Your Excellency Head of the Judiciary Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani [Care of] Public Relations Office Number 4, 2 Azizi Street intersection Tehran ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN Email: bia.j...@yahoo.com (Subject Line: FAO Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani) Salutation: Your Excellency And copies to: Secretary General, High Council for Human Rights Mohammad Javad Larijani High Council for Human Rights [Care of] Office of the Head of the Judiciary Pasteur St., Vali Asr Ave. south of Serah-e Jomhouri Tehran 1316814737 ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN Email: i...@humanrights-iran.ir (subject line: FAO Mohammad Javad Larijani **Iran does not presently have an embassy in the United States. Instead, please send copies to: Iranian Interests Section c/o Embassy of Pakistan 2209 Wisconsin Ave NW Washington DC 20007 Tel: 1 202 965 4990 -OR- 1 202 965-4991 Fax: 1 202 965 1073 Email: reque...@daftar.org Please check with AIUSA Urgent Action Office if sending appeals after the above date. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Hamid Ghassemi-Shall's wife, Antonella Mega, who lives in Canada, told Amnesty International on 20 April 2012 that her husband had called her on 15 April, and told her that his mother and his sister, Parvin Ghassemi-Shall, had been allowed to visit him at Evin Prison earlier that day. They had met in the office of a judge from the Office for the Implementation of Sentences. His mother and sister told him that another sister, Mahin Ghassemi-Shall, had died following an illness. The judge, who was present, immediately told the grieving family that Hamid Ghassemi-Shall's death sentence was "on his table" and that he was awaiting orders from Tehran Province's Chief Prosecutor to carry out Hamid Ghassemi-Shall's execution. There were serious flaws in the fairness of the brothers' trial. They were held for months undergoing interrogation but without access to legal representation. Access to a lawyer from the outset of detention is essential to ensuring a fair trial. International fair trial standards require that anyone accused of a serio
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
April 26 IRANexecutions 13 prisoners, among them 5 Afghan citizens, were executed in Iran 5 prisoners were executed in the prison of Shahrud (northern Iran) Tuesday April 25. reported the offcial Iranian sources. 8 other prisoners were hanged in Karaj (west of Tehran) according to unofficial reports. According to the official website of the Iranian judiciary in Semnan Province 5 prisoners, among them 4 Afghan citizens, were hanged in the prison of Shahrud. The prisoners were identified as "M. M.", "S. P.", "A. S.", "M. B." (all Afghan citizens) and "H. P.", and were convicted of keeping and carrying large quantities of narcotic substances, according to the report. 8 prisoners, among them one Afghan citizen, were hanged in Karaj: According to unofficial reports published by the "Human Rights and Democracy Activists in Iran" (HRDAI) eight prisoners were hanged in the Rajaei Shahr prison of Karaj (west of Tehran) on Tuesday April 25. The report identified these prisoners as "Mohammad Shafi Heydari (33 year old, Afghan citizen), Hossein Bagheri (20), Mohammad Rezaei (60), Mohammad Jafghaei (42), Yadollah Kabiri (50), Abbas Beigi (38), Abolghasem Pourhasan (37) and Alireza Shokohi-Manesh (37). The charges were not mentioned in the report. (source: Iran Human Rights) ___ 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 ~~~
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, USA
April 26 TEXASexecution Texas man executed for role in robbery-shooting A Texas man was executed Thursday for his role in a 2002 robbery in which three people were shot, one fatally. The lethal injection of Beunka Adams, 29, was carried out less than 3 hours after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a last-day appeal to postpone the punishment, the 5th this year in Texas. Adams expressed love to his family and apologized to witnesses, including one of the women who survived the attack and relatives of the man who was killed. He said he was a stupid kid in a man's body at the time of the crime. "I'm very sorry. Everything that happened that night was wrong," Adams said. "If I could take it back, I would. Not a day goes by I wish I could take it back. ... I messed up and can't take that back." He asked those gathered to not let any hate they had for him "eat you up." "Find a way to get past ... I really hate things turned out the way they did. For everybody involved, I don't think any good came out of it." Adams took about a dozen breaths, then began wheezing and snoring. Eventually, he became still. He was pronounced dead at 6:25 p.m. CDT, 9 minutes after the lethal drugs began to flow into his body. His attorneys had asked the nation's highest court to halt the execution, review his case and let him pursue appeals claiming he had deficient legal help at his trial and during earlier stages of his appeals. He won a reprieve from a federal district judge earlier this week, but the Texas attorney general's office appealed the ruling, and the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the death warrant Wednesday. Adams was 1 of 2 East Texas men sent to death row for the slaying of Kenneth Vandever, 37. He was in a convenience store on Sept. 2, 2002, in Rusk, about 115 miles southeast of Dallas, when 2 men wearing masks and carrying a shotgun walked in and announced a holdup. After robbing the store, Adams and Richard Cobb drove off with the 2 female clerks and Vandever in a car belonging to 1 of the women. Testimony at Adams' trial showed he gave the orders during the holdup and initiated the abductions. They drove to a remote area about 10 miles away in Cherokee County, where Adams demanded Vandever and 1 woman get into the trunk of the car and then raped the other woman. Testimony also showed he forced all 3 to kneel as they were shot. Vandever was fatally wounded. The women were kicked and shot again before Cobb and Adams, believing they were dead, fled. Both were alive, however, and one was able to run to a house to summon help. Adams and Cobb were arrested several hours later in Jacksonville, about 25 miles to the north. Adams was identifiable because he had slipped off his mask after one of the women said she thought she knew him. Adams becomes the 5th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Texas and the 482nd overall since Texas resumed capital punishment on December 7, 1982. Adams also becomes the 243rd condemned inmate to be put to death since Rick Perry became governor of Texas in 2001. Adams becomes the 17th condemned inmate to be put to death in the USA this year and the 1294th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977. Adams is the 4th person to be executed in the USA since April 18; 4 more condemned inmates are scheduled to be executed in the country in May. (sources: Associated Press & Rick Halperin) USA: Shifts detected in support for death penalty The campaign to abolish the death penalty has been freshly invigorated this month in a series of actions that supporters say represents increasing evidence that America may be losing its taste for capital punishment. As early as this week, Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy, a Democrat, is poised to sign a bill repealing the death penalty in that state. A separate proposal has qualified for the November ballot in California that would shut down the largest death row in the country and convert inmates' sentences to life without parole. Academics, too, have recently taken indirect aim: The National Research Council concluded last week that there have been no reliable studies to show that capital punishment is a deterrent to homicide. That study, which does not take a position on capital punishment, follows a Gallup Poll last fall found support for the death penalty had slipped to 61% nationally, the lowest level in 39 years. Even in Texas, which has long projected the harshest face of the U.S. criminal justice system, there has been a marked shift. Last year, the state's 13 executions marked the lowest number in 15 years. And this year, the state — the perennial national leader in executions — is scheduled to carry out 10. Capital punishment proponents say the general decline in death sentences and executions in recent years is merely a reflection of the sustained drop in violent crime, but some lawmakers and legal a
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
April 26 TRINIDAD: Trinidad wants to withdraw from Britain's Privy Council Trinidad and Tobago plans to stop sending appeals in criminal cases to Britain's Privy Council, a move that could make it easier for death sentences to be carried out in the Caribbean country. Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar said the government will submit legislation to parliament to abolish appeals to the London-based Privy Council, the final court of appeal for former and current British territories in the Caribbean. The jurisdiction of the Privy Council in criminal appeals is "a matter of grave concern," Persad-Bissessar told parliament late on Wednesday, adding it "affects the dispensation of criminal justice at a time of high crime in our country." "The situation has been complicated by the issue of the death penalty on which the Privy Council, reflecting contemporary English mores and jurisprudence, has been rigorous in upholding Caribbean appeals in death sentence cases," she said. A former British colony, Trinidad and Tobago has faced criticism from human rights groups over its use of executions for some violent crimes. Capital punishment, however, enjoys wide support among Trinidadians who view it as a crime deterrent. The energy rich, twin-island country is battling a high murder rate. Police say it is linked to drug trafficking in Trinidad and Tobago, a trans-shipment point for South American cocaine headed to Europe and the United States. Last year, Persad-Bissessar imposed a four-month state of emergency to crack down on drug-related crime and gang activity. Under the proposed legislation, appeals in criminal cases would be handled by the Caribbean Court of Justice - based in Port of Spain and now the final court of appeal for several Caribbean countries. The last execution held in Trinidad and Tobago was in 1999 and involved a man found guilty of murdering a taxi driver. Earlier that year, nine members of a criminal gang were hanged for murder. (source: Reuters) ___ 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 ~~~
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN., GA., NEV.
April 26 TEXASimminent execution Justices refuses stay for Texas man's execution The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to halt the scheduled execution of convicted killer Beunka Adams. The 29-year-old Adams faces lethal injection in Huntsville Thursday evening for a slaying a decade ago during an East Texas robbery where 3 people were shot and abducted and one of the victims was raped. The ruling came about 3 hours before Adams could be taken to the Texas death chamber. Adams' attorneys argued the justices should halt the punishment, review his case and allow Adams to pursue appeals focusing on whether his legal help at his trial and during earlier stages of his appeals was deficient. Earlier this week, Adams won a reprieve from a federal district judge but the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the decision, reinstating the death warrant. Adams, 29, would be the 5th person executed in Texas this year. His attorneys asked the nation's highest court to halt the execution, review his case and let him pursue appeals claiming he had deficient legal help at his trial and during earlier stages of his appeals. Adams won a reprieve from a federal district judge earlier this week, but the Texas attorney general's office appealed the ruling, and the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the death warrant Wednesday. Adams was 1 of 2 men sent to death row for the slaying of Kenneth Vandever, 37. He was in a convenience store on Sept. 2, 2002, in Rusk, about 115 miles southeast of Dallas, when 2 men wearing masks and carrying a shotgun walked in and announced a holdup. After robbing the store, Adams and Richard Cobb drove off with the 2 female clerks and Vandever in a car belonging to one of the women. Testimony at Adams' trial showed he gave the orders during the holdup and initiated the abductions. They drove to a remote area about 10 miles away in Cherokee County, where Adams demanded Vandever and 1 woman get into the trunk of the car and then raped the other woman. Testimony also showed he forced all 3 to kneel as they were shot. Vandever was fatally wounded. The women were kicked and shot again before Cobb and Adams, believing they were dead, fled. Both were alive, however, and one was able to run to a house to summon help. Adams and Cobb were arrested several hours later in Jacksonville, about 25 miles to the north. Adams was identifiable because he had slipped off his mask after one of the women said she thought she knew him. During questioning by police, Adams "didn't fully say what he did but enough to show guilt under the law of parties," said Cherokee County District Attorney Elmer Beckworth. That Texas law makes an accomplice equally culpable as the actual killer. Beckworth said evidence pointed to Cobb as the gunman, although testimony at trial showed Adams bragged to another jail inmate that he was the shooter. The law of parties became an issue in some of Adams' appeals, with his lawyers arguing trial lawyers and earlier appeals attorneys should have contested jury instructions related to the law. Assistant Attorney General Ellen Stewart-Klein countered in court documents that Adams showed "total participation in a capital murder and the moral culpability required of one sentenced to death." Cobb, who was 18 at the time of the holdup, was convicted and sentenced to die in a separate trial 8 months before Adams, who was 19 at the time of the crime. Evidence tied the 2 to a string of robberies that happened around the same time. "You could see with their prior aggravated robberies the level of intensity was rising," Beckworth said. Cobb does not yet have an execution date set. At Adams' trial, Adams was portrayed as "a kind of tag-along" influenced by Cobb, said Sten Langsjoen, a trial lawyer for Adams. The two had met as ninth-graders at a boot camp. Evidence showed they began committing burglaries together, then switched to more lucrative armed robberies. Adams declined to speak from death row with reporters as his execution date neared. Vandever had suffered a brain injury as a result of a car accident, said Beckworth, who described him as mentally challenged. He was known around Rusk for riding his bicycle and keeping folks company at the convenience store, the prosecutor said. Vandever was in the store's eating area, not near the women, and the robbers apparently didn't spot him until he got up to leave. (source: Associated Press) CONNECTICUT: Connecticut Abolishes Death Penalty – Is Decades of Work Turning the Tide? Yesterday, Connecticut Gov. Daniel Malloy quietly signed a bill that would abolish the death penalty in that state. In doing so, Connecticut became the 17th state to abolish it. The last state to abolish the death penalty was Illinois, and the next may be Maryland; Kansas and Montana are also considering it. California has a controversial ballot measure set for Nove
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----FLORIDA
Please help with this Florida Poll in a major newspaper now running 3 to 1 against us: http://southflorida.sun-sentinel.com/news/sfl-should-florida-ban-the-death- penalty-poll-20120425,0,3633291,post.poll Mark Elliott Executive Director Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, FADP P.O. Box 82943 Tampa, FL 33682 727-215-9646 FADP is a coalition of individuals and organizations united to abolish the Death Penalty in Florida ___ 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 ~~~
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----Kansas Poll -
Please vote yes on this poll. http://www.leavenworthtimes.com/homepage/x1780491846 ___ 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 ~~~
[Deathpenalty] [SPAM] death penalty news----TEXAS, LA., VA., CONN., USA, ARIZ., CALIF.
April 26 TEXASdeath sentence overturned Christian Olsen's death sentence overturned The death sentence of a 24-year-old Bryan man who fatally beat and strangled his 68-year-old neighbor was overturned Wednesday after an appeals court ruled that jurors should have heard from an expert who believed the man was a victim of sexual abuse. The 8-to-1 ruling by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals comes more than 4 years after Christian Olsen was convicted of capital murder. That conviction remains intact, but Olsen may not receive a new punishment trial to determine his sentence. That trial can only end with 2 results: life in prison without parole or another death sentence. District Attorney Bill Turner said his office will review the situation and talk with the victim's family before deciding how to proceed. Olsen's lawyer, Billy Carter, said he was pleased with the court's decision and hopes to have the case resolved soon. "We are hoping that the DA's office will review everything and might decide not to seek death," he said. In that case, there would be no trial. Olsen would be automatically sentenced to life in prison. If the case does go back to trial, it likely won't happen until next year, lawyers said. Olsen was 19 when he was arrested in 2006 and charged with the murder of Etta Jean Westbrook, his across-the-street neighbor on Oak Hollow Drive near Bryan High School. A few weeks after his arrest, he was also charged with the murder of 63-year-old Geraldine Lloyd, the mother of Olsen's girlfriend, who was found buried in her own backyard. Authorities later determined that Olsen had been living in Lloyd's house with Lloyd's daughter and granddaughter for months after the murder. The former Bryan High School student was never tried for the slaying of Lloyd, but prosecutors presented evidence that he committed the crime during the 2 1/2-week punishment phase of his trial for the Westbrook killing. The jury of 4 men and 8 women deliberated for about 8 hours before sentencing him to death. Defense attorneys argued that Olsen had been manipulated into committing the murders by Lloyd's daughter, Kelly Sifuentez. Olsen and Sifuentez had a sexual relationship that began when he was 14, they said. She was in her mid-30s at the time, they said. But the jury never heard from Donna Vandiver, a criminal justice expert at Texas State University who was one of the defense's key witnesses. Vandiver reviewed Olsen's case and concluded that Sifuentez's actions toward Olsen were consistent with the way that a female sex offender "grooms" her victims. Prosecutors objected to Vandiver's statements, saying she hadn't spoken with Olsen or Sifuentez and wasn't qualified to testify. District Judge Steve Smith agreed and didn't allow her to take the witness stand. The Court of Criminal Appeals disagreed. "Olsen's inappropriate relationship with Sifuentez, and its potential negative effect on him, were the core of the defense's cast at punishment," wrote Judge Michael Keasler in the court's majority opinion. Keasler later added: "Her testimony would have educated the jury concerning the harmful effects and influence that a relationship like the one between Sifuentez and Olsen could have on a teenaged boy, and the typical behavioral problems exhibited by the victims of such relationships." The lead prosecutor in the case, Shane Phelps, said he was disappointed in the court's decision, mostly for the family of the victims. He said he believes the jury would have reached the same verdict if it had heard Vandiver's testimony. "No lawyer likes to be reversed, but death penalty cases are different," he said, explaining that judges must be extra careful in capital murder cases. Phelps no longer works at the Brazos County District Attorney's Office, so he will have no say in how the case is handled moving forward. Westbrook's son declined to comment when reached by phone Wednesday. (source: The Eagle) impending execution Convicted killer in East Texas holdup set to die A Texas inmate looked to the U.S. Supreme Court to spare him a trip to the death chamber for an East Texas man's slaying 10 years ago during a convenience store robbery. Beunka Adams faces lethal injection Thursday evening in Huntsville. The 29-year-old Adams is 1 of 2 men sent to death row for the 2002 fatal shooting of Kenneth Vandever. The 37-year-old Vandever and 2 women clerks at the store robbed in Rusk in 2002 were abducted and shot. Both women survived, although 1 of them also was raped. Adams earlier this week won a reprieve from a federal judge, but state attorneys Wednesday won an appeal overturning the order. Adams' lawyers are asking for a Supreme Court review of the case. (source: Associated Press) ** One Slated, One StayedRick Perry's death tally notches another this week On the eve of the state'
