[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----N.C., ILL. WIS., FLA.
April 19 NORTH CAROLINAimpending execution Lawyers ask 2 courts to halt Brown execution Lawyers for a man convicted of a 1983 slaying have asked a federal appeals court and the U.S. Supreme Court to stop his execution scheduled for this week, citing different reasons in each court. In a filing with the 4th U.S. Circuit of Appeals in Richmond, Va., lawyers for Willie Brown Jr. argued that there's a chance he could be awake and suffer pain during his execution. The appeal filed with the nation's highest court argued that Brown was poorly represented by his trial lawyer and that the judge gave the jury erroneous instructions. Both appeals were filed Monday. Earlier that day, U.S. District Judge Malcolm Howard declined to issue a stay for Brown, saying the state had taken sufficient precautions to ensure that Brown would remain asleep during his execution. Howard had said in an earlier order that he would stop the execution without that assurance. In the appeal before the 4th Circuit, defense lawyers contend that the state's plan to require that a doctor and a nurse observe a monitor from an adjacent room is insufficient. The defense also questions the medical team's credentials. (source: Associated Press) ILLINOIS: Death penalty foes lament lost legacy A longtime friend and associate of former Gov. George Ryan is lamenting the taint this week's corruption conviction is placing on Ryan's record. And an opponent of the death penalty who worked with Ryan on that issue thinks the former governor was sincere in his concern about the capital justice system and that history will focus on his steps toward abolition of capital punishment. The views of Tony Leone and Rob Warden offer a look at another side of Ryan from the man a federal jury found guilty Monday of mail fraud and racketeering conspiracy, including steering government contracts to friends. Leone, of Springfield, has known Ryan for three decades and first met him when Ryan, as Republican leader in the Illinois House, appointed Leone to the state's election laws commission. Ryan later hired him, and Leone served as clerk of the House when Ryan was House speaker. It's really tragic that a conviction will probably overshadow what any non-biased observer would believe was Ryan's long governmental record of accomplishment, Leone, a businessman who also does some lobbying, said Tuesday. I feel sorry for his family, especially his devoted wife, Lura Lynn, who has been his partner in life dating back to high school. Whether you agree or not with all of his stands, no one can deny he was a very effective leader. He is a victim today of trusting some staff and friends who took advantage of the access for their own personal benefit. Leone noted that it is a year since the dedication of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum and that Ryan was a strong advocate of the museum and the adjoining library. All of us in Springfield should recognize (that) without George and Lura Lynn's enthusiastic support, we would not have (an) Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum as it exists today, Leone said. I am disappointed, as I am sure George is, with some past friends and staff that have turned their back on him. I'm not one of them. But for now, shame on those who see this tragedy with hatred in their hearts. Leone noted that when he emceed the unveiling of Ryan's portrait at the Statehouse in November 2003 - at a time when Ryan had yet to be charged with a crime but people close to him had been convicted - there was an outpouring of bipartisan praise for Ryan. Former Republican Gov. James Thompson, GOP state Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka, Democratic Secretary of State Jesse White and the Democrats who lead the legislature, Senate President Emil Jones Jr. and House Speaker Michael Madigan, were among speakers. Warden, executive director of the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University School of Law in Chicago, said that while he attended a couple of days of Ryan's trial, he really knows Ryan only in the context of his actions involving the death penalty. Ryan issued a moratorium on executions in 2000 after 13 Illinois death row inmates had been exonerated since 1977, the year when legislators - including Ryan - voted to reinstate the ultimate punishment in Illinois. Ryan also used his clemency powers to empty death row just before leaving office in 2003. I know a lot of people have said that he did this only in some sort of a cynical effort to distract attention from his problems, but I am absolutely certain that that was not the case, Warden said. Here was a man who was genuinely moved and troubled, he said, with the release of Anthony Porter, a death row inmate who came within 48 hours of being executed and whose innocence was proved with the help of college students from Northwestern. Warden noted that Ryan, after leaving office, became an out-and-out abolitionist, seeking an end to the death penalty. Warden,
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----USA, CALIF., IND.
April 19 USA: High court to examine insanity defenseOutcome of the Arizona challenge may impact cases elsewhere, such as Andrea Yates' A year and a half before Eric Clark shot and killed an Arizona police officer, he was an ostensibly normal high school student who earned good grades and excelled in sports. Then something went wrong. Gripped by alarming mood swings, he rigged his room with fishing line hung with beads and wind chimes to alert him to intruders. Just before 5 a.m. on June 21, 2000, someone reported that the 17-year-old Clark was circling the block in a pickup with the radio blaring. When Officer Jeffrey Moritz responded, Clark shot and killed him. Experts agreed Clark was suffering from chronic paranoid schizophrenia and was psychotic. First he was deemed incompetent to stand trial. But after 3 years in a mental hospital, he was tried for 1st degree murder, convicted and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. Today, in a case that could affect insanity defenses such as that of Andrea Yates of Houston, Clark's assertion of an insanity defense and his challenge to the state law will be argued before the U.S. Supreme Court. Its outcome could help determine whether states must allow such defenses at all, and if so, what evidence can be presented at trial to bolster them. The court also will decide whether the state of Arizona violated Clark's constitutional right to due process by forbidding him to present evidence of his mental condition to counter the prosecution's contention that he intended to kill a police officer. Clark pleaded guilty but insane, which under Arizona law would have required him to show he was so mentally ill that he didn't know that shooting and killing a police officer was wrong. Texas law is similar The case is being closely watched in Texas and around the country because of controversial prosecutions and verdicts involving mentally ill defendants such as Yates, who drowned her 5 children in a bathtub in 2001. Despite the fact that Yates had a history of schizophrenia and postpartum depression and had attempted suicide twice before killing her children, a Harris County jury - following a Texas law similar to Arizona's - found her to be sane. It convicted her of capital murder and sentenced her to life in prison. A new, pending trial was ordered because of an unrelated issue. The Supreme Court could rule only on Arizona law or say something broader about insanity defense laws and other statutes affecting mentally ill defendants. If the Supreme Court acknowledges that mental illness is real and literally affects the cognition of the (defendant) ... I think that will have far-reaching impact across the country, said George Parnham, Yates' lawyer. Alan Curry, an assistant Harris County district attorney who handled the Yates case on appeal, said the high court is likely to rule narrowly in Clark's case and preserve states' rights to deal with mentally ill defendants. He pointed to Atkins v. Virginia, the landmark 2002 case in which the court outlawed executions of mentally retarded killers. Even in that case, the justices still left it to the states to define what mental retardation is and how it should be determined, Curry said. In this case, the Supreme Court may give some guidance as to how far a state can go in preventing a defendant from presenting evidence (of mental illness), but I don't think they'll define insanity. Parnham acknowledged the court is likely to defer to the states on defining insanity. But he hopes the justices will provide some guidances and strike a chord for uniformity of standards across the country. I don't think that how mental illness is handled by states ought to be so diverse as to have different outcomes depending on what your address is, he said. Hinckley challenge The Arizona case is the 1st direct constitutional challenge to an insanity defense law to be considered by the high court since many states, including Texas and Arizona, adopted stricter standards in response to the case of John Hinckley Jr. Hinckley was found insane and hospitalized after his 1981 shooting of President Reagan, enraging many who thought the would-be assassin got off easy. Kansas, Utah, Idaho, Montana and Nevada eliminated the insanity defense. Nevada later reinstated it. Other states, including Texas, crafted compromises that preserved the defense but restricted it to cases in which a defendant suffers from a several mental illness and does not know their actions were wrong. Defense attorneys and some legal and mental health experts say the laws make it extremely difficult to convince juries that a defendant is insane. Arizona, supported by the Bush administration, contends its law did take into account Clark's mental illness. Even though the court did not find him legally insane, it considered his mental problems as a mitigating factor during sentencing. (source: Houston Chronicle) Moussaoui Is Insane,
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
April 19 INDONESIA: Death-row Bali bomber defends Ba'asyir in court The 'smiling assassin' and death-row Bali bomber Amrozi testified Wednesday that the jailed Muslim militant cleric and alleged terrorist leader Abu Bakar Ba'asyir was not involved in the 2002 Bali bombings. Security was tight with hundreds of police and military personnel, including heavily-armed paramilitary officers, police dogs and bomb squads, as well as navy soldiers stood guard for the courtroom appearance of death-row Bali bomber Amrozi in support of Ba'asyir's claim of innocence. Hundreds of people attended Wednesday's court hearing at Central Java's Cilacap district court. Many of the attendants were outside the courtroom, watching the hearing through televisions set up by authorities. Amrozi arrived at the court amid extra-tight security from the prison island of Nusakambangan, dubbed 'Indonesias Alcatraz,' located a short distance off the coast from Cilacap. He is the key witness in defence of handing jailed hardline Muslim cleric Ba'asyir a case review. He returned shouts of 'Allahu Akbar', or God is Great, from some 200 supporters of Ba'asyir's Indonesian Mujahedin Council (MMI) before entering the courtroom. 'Ustadz (cleric) Abu (Bakar Ba'asyir) was not involved whatsoever in the (2002) Bali bombings,' Amrozi told the court, adding that he and others had been tortured into implicating Ba'asyir in the attacks. 'All of us who make confession about Ustadz Abu involvement had been tortured,' Amrozi said. 'We were all tortured to admit we were ordered by (Abu Bakar) Ba'asyir.' Ba'asyir, 67, was sentenced in March last year to 30 months in prison for his involvement in the conspiracy that led to the October 2002 Bali bombings, which killed at least 202 people, mostly foreign visitors. But the verdict against the cleric relied heavily on a police statement purportedly made by a convicted Bali bomber named Mubarok, the veracity of which was not proven during the trial. Mubarok, who told authorities that he and Amrozi met Ba'asyir at the cleric's home two months before the attack, allegedly told police during questioning that Ba'asyir said, 'I leave it up to you. You are the ones who know the situation on the ground,' when he was notified by Amrozi that he and his friends were planning 'an event' in Bali. Ba'asyir's defence lawyers have claimed Amrozi's statement in court would be used as evidence of the cleric's innocence and be given to the Supreme Court in Jakarta. Ba'asyir has consistently denied any involvement in terrorism and says he is being victimized because he campaigns for strict Islamic law in Indonesia. Amrozi's court appearance may be the last in public before he faces a firing squad. Along with 2 co-conspirators, Imam Samudra and his elder brother Ali Gufron, Amrozi are awaiting execution for masterminding the 2002 Bali bombings. The three are behind held at Nusakambagan prison. The US and Australia have publicly accused Ba'asyir of being the spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI). The US Treasury Department last week declared Ba'asyir was a terrorist and said any bank accounts or other financial assets held by Ba'asyir found in the US would be frozen. Ba'asyir's close aide, Fauzan Al Ansori, said the accusations were malicious slander and a 'dirty trick aimed at making up reasons for re-arrest.' Ba'asyir, who is expected to be released from prison in June, was first arrested a week after the Bali bombings on October 12, 2002. He was put on trial the following year. Using the ordinary criminal code, the court said there was not enough evidence to prove Ba'asyir led JI. However, the court sentenced him to 18 months for immigration offences. Police rearrested Ba'asyir in late April 2004, immediately after being released from jail, and charged him with Indonesia's anti-terror law passed in the wake of the Bali bombings. (source: Deutsche Presse-Agentur) PHILIPPINES: Arroyo certifies as urgent bill abolishing death penalty PRESIDENT Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has certified as urgent a bill abolishing the death penalty. Arroyo made the announcement to reporters in a gathering in Malacaang Wednesday to celebrate the 61st birthday of Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye. Arroyo said she certified as urgent Committee Report 1142 of House Bill 4826 (An Act Prohibiting the Imposition of Death Penalty in the Philippines) Tuesday night. Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita signed the transmittal letters to Senate President Franklin Drilon and Speaker Jose de Venecia. But Arroyo said she expected problems at the Senate where things were moving slowly because they were always investigating. That's why we have to change the system of government, Arroyo said, referring to a Malacaang-backed initiative to shift to a parliamentary system from a presidential form of government. Signed in 1994, the death penalty law was carried out on 7 convicts during the term of deposed president Joseph Estrada. When
[Deathpenalty] FW: [thenobelpeaceprizetoryan] Ryan Verdict
that killed six children was quashed by Ryan aides: I thought the government had a good case. I'd have been happy with just one guilty count. He loses his pension with that. Outstanding. Outstanding. Tammy Raynor, former license examiner who uncovered bribes being traded for licenses and was discredited by Ryan aides: This will act as a deterrent, and people will see this as a new day in Illinois. For me, it will provide much-needed closure. I'm feeling enormous vindication today. Former Ryan press aide Dave Urbanek: I just did not think the evidence was there. It's hard to fight a system where the prosecution has used the media to convict him before the trial started. Actor and anti-death penalty activist Mike Farrell, who testified for Ryan during the trial: Well, that's devastating. It must be to the family certainly and to those of us who are fans of the governor and believe in his character. . . . Certainly, I think he will do down in history as a man whose action was a watershed event in the American use of the death system. Taylor Pensoneau, a political reporter from 1965 to 1978 who has written biographies of former Governors Richard Ogilvie and Dan Walker: This will dominate his legacy. Illinoisans, almost to the last person, will not recall hardly anything about his governorship, about his accomplishments or his defeats, only this. GRAPHIC: Color Photo: (Glenn Poshard.); Photo: (Mike Farrell.) LOAD-DATE: April 18, 2006 102QTM ** Print Completed ** Time of Request: April 19, 2006 05:35 AM EDT Print Number: 2842:94664347 Number of Lines: 87 Number of Pages: 1 YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS *Visit your group thenobelpeaceprizetoryan http://groups.yahoo.com/group/thenobelpeaceprizetoryan on the web. *To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: thenobelpeaceprizetoryan-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.com mailto:thenobelpeaceprizetoryan-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.com?subject=Uns ubscribe *Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ . -- next part -- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/private/deathpenalty/attachments/20060419/e661c2e9/attachment.htm
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----SINGAPORE
URGENT ACTION APPEAL -- 19 April 2006 UA 94/06Death Penalty SINGAPORE Took Leng How (m) aged 22, Malaysian citizen Malaysian citizen Took Leng How, who was sentenced to death in August 2005, has had his final appeal rejected by the Court of Appeal. The President still has the power to grant clemency. Took Leng How's lawyers are currently preparing a clemency appeal: for maximum impact they have asked that all UA network appeals should arrive by 11 May, before they submit the appeal to the President. Took Leng How was sentenced to death for the October 2004 murder of an eight-year-old girl, Huang Na. In Singapore a murder conviction carries a mandatory death sentence. A panel of three Court of Appeal judges rejected his appeal by two votes to one, in late January. The judge who voted against execution, Kan Ting Chiu, wrote in his dissenting opinion that there was reasonable doubt whether the appellant caused the deceased's death by smothering her mouth and nose, or whether she died as a result of a fit. He concluded that Took Leng How should be convicted for an offence of voluntarily causing hurt. Took Leng How's family has reportedly gathered more than 30,000 signatures on a petition for clemency. BACKGROUND INFORMATION There is usually little public debate in Singapore about the death penalty, partly as a result of tight government controls on the press and civil society organizations. However, activists in the country claim the debate on the death penalty in 2005 was possibly the most prominent in four decades, after national and international campaigning for clemency for two men facing execution for drug-related offences, Shanmugam s/o Murugesu and Van Tuong Nguyen. (See UA 104/05, ASA 36/001/2005, 29 April 2005 and UA 279/05, ASA 36/003/2005, 24 October 2005, and follow-ups). In his report to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights on 24 March 2006, the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Philip Alston, observed: Measures taken by the Government of Singapore suggest an attempt to suppress public debate about the death penalty in the country. For example, in April 2005, the Government denied a permit to an Amnesty International official to speak at a conference on the death penalty organized by political opposition leaders and human rights activists... If public opinion really is an important consideration for a country, then it would seem that the Government should facilitate access to the relevant information so as to make this opinion as informed as possible. The UN Special Rapporteur has previously argued that the mandatory nature of the death sentence is a violation of international legal standards. Singapore, with a population of just over four million, is believed to have the highest per capita execution rate in the world. More than 420 people have been executed since 1991, the majority for drug trafficking. The government has consistently maintained that the death penalty is not a human rights issue. Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases as a violation of the most fundamental of human rights: the right to life. It is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment and there is no escaping the risk of error, which can lead to the execution of an innocent person. RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible: - urging the President to grant clemency to Took Leng How and commute his death sentence; - urging the authorities to impose a moratorium on executions, with a view to complete abolition, in line with the April 2005 UN Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) resolution on the question of the death penalty; - noting that the UNCHR has urged states which still maintain the death penalty not to impose it as a mandatory sentence; - calling on the authorities to be transparent by making full statistics on death sentences and the background of those on death row regularly available to the public. APPEALS TO: President: His Excellency S R Nathan Office of the President Istana, Orchard Road Singapore 0922 Fax:011 65 738 4673 Email: s_r_nathan at istana.gov.sg Salutation: Your Excellency COPIES TO: Prime Minister : Lee Hsien Loong Office of the Prime Minister Istana Annexe, Orchard Road Singapore 0923 Fax:011 65 732 4627 Email: lee_hsien_loong at pmo.gov.sg Minister of Law: Professor S. Jayakumar Ministry of Law 100 High Street The Treasury 08-02 Singapore 179434 Fax:011 65 6332 8842 Ambassador Heng Chee Chan Embassy of the Republic of Singapore 3501 International Place NW Washington DC 20008 Fax: 1 202 5370876 Email: singemb.dc at verizon.net or singemb_was at sgmfa.gov.sg Please send appeals immediately. Check with the AIUSA Urgent Action office if sending appeals after 11 May 2006. ** POSTAGE RATES ** (as of January 8, 2006): Within the United States: $0.24 - Postcards $0.39 - Letters and
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, MO., USA, TENN.
April 19 TEXAS: Prosecutors to ask jurors to keep Garza on death row Prosecutors began reconstructing the 1998 killing of a retired preacher for a jury who will determine if the man convicted for his murder will remain on death row. A jury convicted and sentenced Joe Franco Garza of Lubbock six years ago on one count of capital murder for strangling and robbing 71-year-old Silbiano Rangel in 1998. Garza, now 34, wrapped a sock around the man's neck and choked him to death, before stealing Rangel's truck, wallet and ring reportedly for beer money, according to court records. Members of Rangel's family gathered in the courtroom as attorneys began to argue the case. I never expected to be here again, Silbiano Rangel Jr. said as he took the stand to testify about his father. His father was devoted to his faith and family, he said. Rangel founded a baptist church in Littlefield and loved to work with his children and fish with his grandchildren. Rangel never returned home after giving Garza a ride to a liquor store in December 1998. His body was later discovered face down in the 7300 block of King Avenue. A sock was knotted around his neck. Witnesses testified that Garza began drinking early on the day of the killing; he then left with Rangel and returned home in the victim's truck. Garza and his girlfriend a 13-year-old who was pregnant with his child then fled to Dallas and returned after ditching the pickup, according to the testimony. Rosemary Dominguez, Garza's cousin, testified that she witnessed the strangulation but did not report it to police. Joe said he was going to put it on me and my son, she said I was scared and confused. Garza's attorney did question Dominguez's credibility and her involvement, citing two statements given to police which an investigator testified contained false information. Dominguez also said she helped Garza put Rangel's body into the backseat of the truck. The jury will not be asked to dispute Garza's guilt. They will only consider his sentence. A federal judge in August found that information omitted in Garza's first trial may have led a jury to sentence him to life. U.S. District Judge Sam Cummings ordered that a Lubbock County District Court retry the punishment phase of Garza's trial and include information about his criminal record as a juvenile. The only punishments in Texas for a capital offense are a life sentence or the death penalty. The trial is expected to last through the week. (source: Lubbock Avalanche-Journal) *** Johnson's execution date could soon be set Michael Dewayne Johnson is in line to become the 2nd murderer convicted in Waco to be executed this year. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans has denied a motion from Johnson asking that the court reconsider its ruling from last month that rejected the death row inmates latest appeal. That means that Johnson is eligible to have an execution date set, which 54th State District Judge George Allen likely will do next week. Prosecutor Crawford Long said the attorney generals office, which handles federal appeals filed by death row inmates, has suggested that Johnsons execution date be set for early fall. Johnson, formerly of Balch Springs, was sentenced to death after a 1996 trial in Waco in the September 1995 shooting death of Jeff Wetterman during a robbery at the Wetterman family convenience store in Lorena. Waco attorney Greg White, who is handling Johnsons appeals, said he now will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review Johnsons case. Allen also has set an Aug. 30 execution date for Billie Wayne Coble, whose motion for rehearing was rejected last month by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Coble has been on death row since his conviction in Waco in April 1990 in the shooting deaths of his estranged wifes parents, Robert and Zelda Vicha, and her brother, Waco police Sgt. Bobby Vicha. (source: Waco Tribune-Herald) MISSOURI: Defense seeks to depose doctor involved in executions Attorneys for a death row inmate want to depose a doctor and nurse so they can argue that a drug combination used to kill condemned prisoners is unconstitutionally cruel. But the state has blocked the move, in part out of concern that the medical personnel would be harassed. The defense said it had agreed to shield their identity. The defense team is not seeking a reprieve of the death penalty for convicted killer Michael Taylor of Kansas City. Attorney Donald Verrilli Jr. of Washington, D.C., told a federal appeals court panel in St. Louis that the 3-drug cocktail used in Missouri and around the country can result in a horrible, excruciating death if the anesthesia doesnt take effect or wears off. Similar arguments are being made in death penalty cases around the country. But the defense in this case offered an alternative: a single dose of barbiturate, said to be constitutionally permissible and to attain the same result. Verrilli asked the
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
April 19 PHILIPPINES: AMNESTY INTERNATIONALPublic Statement AI Index: ASA 35/003/2006 (Public) News Service No: 098 19 April 2006 Philippines: Largest ever commutation of death sentences Amnesty International warmly welcomes what it believes to be the largest ever commutation of death sentences, as announced by President Arroyo on 15 April. The move will affect at least 1,230 prisoners who have been sentenced to death since 1994. At least 290 prisoners have had their sentences confirmed on appeal and the policy change will benefit these people first of all. The Philippines has taken another important step in the long road towards abolition, said Amnesty International. The organization now urges President Arroyo to follow through on earlier pledges to prioritize legislation that is currently before Congress which, if given the support of Senators and Representatives from across the political spectrum, could lead to the complete abolition of the death penalty in the Philippines. The organization appeals to Congress to seize this historic opportunity and abolish the death penalty once and for all. Amnesty International is tomorrow also releasing its global statistics on the death penalty. Over 40 countries have abolished the death penalty for all crimes since 1990 and now 123 countries have abolished the death penalty in law or in practice. By commuting these death sentences President Arroyo is signalling the end of the death penalty in the Philippines and is joining other governments around the world in recognizing the brutality of the sentence, said Amnesty International. AI opposes the death penalty worldwide in all cases without exception as a violation of one of the most fundamental of human rights: the right to life. The death penalty is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. There is no escaping the risk of error that can lead to the execution of an innocent person. Scientific studies have consistently failed to find convincing evidence that the death penalty deters crime more effectively than other punishments. Moreover, in practice the death penalty is applied in an arbitrary, selective way that falls disproportionately on the disadvantaged, the ill-educated and those unable to afford competent legal defence; and there is an ever-present risk of trial errors leading to the irrevocable judicial murder of the innocent. In the Philippines, Amnesty International is particularly concerned that the risk of judicial errors may sharply increase due to credible reports of patterns of ill-treatment and torture of criminal suspects in pre-trial detention by law enforcement officials in order to coerce confessions. Background In 1987 the Philippines set an historic precedent by becoming the 1st Asian country in modern times to abolish the death penalty for all crimes. However, the death penalty was reintroduced in the Philippines in late 1993 for a total of 46 different offences. Executions resumed in 1999 after a period of 23 years. Former President Estrada in 2000 announced a moratorium on executions, which President Arroyo has continued, in practice, into her presidency. Following President Arroyo's re-election in May and inauguration in July 2004, there were reports that executions would again resume. However the President indicated she would grant a series of reprieves to those facing imminent execution. Bills calling for the repeal of the death penalty law have since been filed and several have been incorporated in House Bill 4826, which currently is under consideration in Congress. (source: Amnesty International)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----PENN., VA.
April 19 PENNSYLVANIA: Philly man already freed from death row now wins new trial An inmate who was days away from being executed in 1995 - nearly becoming the first person executed in Pennsylvania in 3 decades - was awarded a new trial because of ineffective counsel. Florencio Rolan said his trial lawyer never interviewed witnesses who could have bolstered his self-defense claim. Rolan had met with his attorney just twice before his 1984 capital murder trial in Philadelphia, each time briefly. The lawyer, Melvin Goldstein, put on no defense, prompting Rolan to call out in open court, Yes, I have 2 other witnesses who are willing to come and testify, according to court records. After some wrangling between counsel and the court, Goldstein refused to call the witnesses, U.S. Circuit Judge Jane R. Roth wrote in Tuesday's ruling, which upheld a district judge's decision. The jury returned a verdict of guilty and sentenced Rolan to death. Rolan spent 19 years on death row before a state appeals court awarded him a new sentencing hearing on the ineffective counsel claim in 2003. His sentence was then reduced to life in prison. His lawyers continued to appeal his conviction, winning a new trial in 2004 that prosecutors appealed. Roth and 2 colleagues on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals this week agreed that the conviction was flawed. Prosecutors argued at the time that Rolan had killed Paulino Santiago in 1983 in a robbery over $5 in drug money. Rolan later said he shot Santiago in self-defense as the victim charged at him with a knife. The shooting took place in an abandoned house in the city's Spring Garden section. Lawyer Bruce Merenstein of the firm Schnader Harrison Segal Lewis, which worked on the case for more than a decade, said the most important potential defense witness is still alive and willing to testify. The prosecution's chief witness - the victim's brother - has since died, as have other witnesses and Goldstein, he said. It's really astounding that he not only could have been found guilty of first-degree murder but sentenced to death, given what little his trial counsel did, Merenstein said Wednesday. Like any of these cases, it teaches us the importance of having effective trial counsel, particularly for those in capital cases, he said. Pennsylvania has since established minimum standards for lawyers in capital cases. The Philadelphia District Attorney's Office believes Rolan is guilty but has not decided whether to retry the case, spokeswoman Cathie Abookire said Wednesday. In January 1995, Rolan - then 38 - was moved from Graterford prison to Rockview State Prison in Centre County, where he was to be executed by legal injection. He would have been the 1st Pennsylvania inmate put to death since 1962, but he was granted a stay. Federal and state court challenges to the death penalty created a de facto moratorium during the intervening years. The potential defense witness, Daniel Vargas, had refused to cooperate with police after the murder, a stance that state courts said suggested his unwillingness to testify. However, Vargas later said he would have backed Rolan's account had he been asked. In testimony at a post-conviction hearing in about 1997, Vargas said he saw the victim enter the building with a knife screaming, I'll kill you... He said he then heard a shot. Vargas' testimony, plus that of Rolan's cousin, would have substantiated Rolan's self-defense claim and undermined the Commonwealth's witnesses, Roth wrote. (source: Associated Press) VIRGINIA: U-M professor testifies Moussaoui's death-sentencing trial A University of Michigan professor whose son died in the September 11th terrorist attacks testified today in the death-penalty sentencing trial of Zacarias Moussaoui. But medical sociologist Marilynn Rosenthal was there to testify on behalf of the team trying to save the 37-year-old Frenchman from execution. Rosenthal, whose son Josh was killed at the World Trade Center, said her family believes something good has to come out of what happened. Family members have endowed an annual lecture on 9-11 at U-of-M. Another defense expert testified that Moussaoui has paranoid delusions and other psychological problems that hurt his ability to defend himself. (source: Associated Press)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----GLOBAL
April 20 GLOBAL: PRESS RELEASEANNUAL DEATH PENALTY REPORT REVEALS 20,000 ON DEATH ROW WORLDWIDE Execution numbers down in 2005, trend toward abolition continues There are around 20,000 prisoners on death row around the world, said Amnesty International today (20 April), as it released its annual report on the global death penalty. The report, The death penalty worldwide: developments in 2005, also shows that at least 2,148 people were executed last year - the vast majority in China (1,770), Iran (94), Saudi Arabia (86) and the USA (60). These 4 countries alone accounted for 94% of executions recorded during 2005. The figure for the preceding year (2004) was 3,797 executions, meaning that last year saw a substantial drop in recorded executions as well as a fall in the number of countries carrying out executions (22, down from 25). The number of countries carrying out executions has halved in the last 20 years and has dropped for the 4th consecutive year. Amnesty International's report however cautions that these figures are minimum figures only, as countries like China refuse to publish full official statistics on executions. Vietnam, for instance, has made death penalty information a state secret. A Chinese legal expert has estimated that China actually executes about 8,000 people every year, while a Chinese state official said in 2004 that nearly 10,000 people are executed in China each year. A person in China can be sentenced to death for 68 different crimes, including non-violent ones like tax fraud, embezzlement and drugs offences. Amnesty International UK Director Kate Allen said: It is an affront to human rights that in 2006 20,000 prisoners are currently on death row waiting to be taken out and killed by their governments. The death penalty is cruel and unnecessary, does not deter crime and often comes after torture, false confessions and deeply unfair trials. It is particularly disturbing that China is executing thousands of people every year (more than all other countries combined) - not least because China's legal system is deeply flawed. We need to ramp up international pressure on the Chinese authorities for executions to end. One of the world's 20,000 death row prisoners is Kenny Richey, a Scotsman from Edinburgh, who was convicted in 1987 of murder and arson in Ohio, USA. Mr Richey has always protested his innocence, turning down a plea-bargain deal that would have seen him avoiding a death sentence. An appeal court in Ohio is currently considering his case, as Mr Richey seeks to have fresh evidence heard by the courts. Speaking about his predicament last year, Kenny Richey said: It's a 24-hour-a-day torture. You have no life. You're just existing from one day to the next. Believe me, it's an ... existence you don't want. Amnesty International's report shows that in 2005 2 prisoners were released from death row in the USA after evidence of their innocence emerged. This brought the number of such exonerees in the USA since 1973 to 122, more than 1/10 of the number executed in that time. Amnesty International continues to warn of the danger of executing wrongly convicted prisoners as well as pressing for the abolition of the death penalty in all cases - whether guilty or not. The death penalty worldwide also shows that Iran was the only country in the world in 2005 to execute child offenders (those convicted of committing crimes when aged below 18). Despite promises to halt child offender executions (banned under international law), Iran allowed 8 to go ahead last year - 2 involving prisoners still aged below 18 at the time of their execution. Cases Iwuchukwu Amara Tochi, 19, a Nigerian citizen, and Okele Nelson Malachy, 33, reportedly a South African, currently face execution in Singapore. Mandatory death sentences have been imposed on the men after they were arrested for heroin trafficking in 2004. The men lost appeals on 16 March and their final recourse is now presidential clemency. Singapore has a mandatory death sentence of at least 20 drugs offences. More than 420 people have been executed in Singapore since 1991 and the per capita execution rate is believed to be the world's highest. DD Ranjith de Silva, EJ Victor Corea and Sanath Pushpakumara, all Sri Lankans, currently face execution in Saudi Arabia. The 3 were reportedly arrested in March 2004 in connection with a series of armed robberies. They were sentenced to death in October 2004 and remain on death row in Riyadh. Saudi Arabia applies the death penalty for a wide range of offences. Court proceedings in the country fall far short of international fair trials standards and are held in secret. Defendants do not have the right to formal representation by a lawyer. Convictions may be solely on the basis of confessions obtained under torture. Executions in 2005 China: 1,770+ Iran: 94+ Saudi Arabia: 86+ USA: 60 Pakistan: 31 Yemen: 24 Vietnam: 21 Jordan: 11 Mongolia: 8 Singapore: 8 Kuwait: 7
