[Deathpenalty] death penalty news---GA., ARIZ., KAN., ARK., WASH.
Jan. 30 GEORGIA: Bill to end requirement for unanimous death penalty juries It takes 12 jurors to decide whether to sentence a defendant to death in Georgia, but that would change under a bill introduced in the General Assembly. House Majority Whip Barry Fleming of Harlem and other legislative leaders introduced a measure Monday to give judges discretion to issue the death penalty even if up to three jurors voted against it. Fleming says changing the law would prevent a handful of jurors who oppose capital punishment from sabotaging the death penalty. Defense attorneys warn that the measure would almost certainly lead to a legal challenge. They say a death sentence should be the most difficult punishment for the state to obtain. The law currently requires jurors in death penalty cases to determine unanimously whether the suspect is guilty. Then, all 12 must decide whether the crime is worthy of capital punishment. Before jurors can be seated in those cases, they must say whether they are morally opposed to the death penalty, If so, a judge must excuse them. (source: WMGT News) *** Death penalty could be easier to imposeBill would allow execution if nine jurors agreed A Gwinnett County jury in 2005 unanimously concluded that Wesley Harris kidnapped and murdered a 2-year-old girl and her mother, stuffed them in a trunk and set the car on fire. But only 10 of the 12 jurors voted to give Harris the death penalty, so his life was spared. Some Georgia legislators are hoping to change state law so people like Harris could be condemned to death even if only 9 jurors agree on the sentence doing away with the unanimous jury requirement in death penalty cases. House Majority Whip Barry Fleming (R-Harlem) cites the Harris case in introducing House Bill 185. The bill, which was filed Friday, would give judges the discretion to impose the death sentence on nonunanimous jury verdicts in which at least nine jurors voted for execution. That means verdicts of 9-3, 10-2 and 11-1 could lead to a death sentence. HB 185 does not change the requirement of a unanimous jury needed for conviction. Prosecutors say the change will help them secure death penalty verdicts, which are increasingly difficult to get as questions mount over the imposition of capital punishment in the United States. Defense lawyers say such a change would put Georgia in a category of only a few states that allow elected judges to impose a death penalty without a unanimous verdict. Fleming said prosecutors, including the district attorney in Augusta near his hometown, sought the bill. He said that during jury selection some people will say they can impose the death penalty if necessary, but later refuse to do so on moral grounds. People morally opposed to the death penalty obviously aren't opposed to fibbing, Fleming said Monday. Other key lawmakers, including House Majority Leader Jerry Keen (R-St. Simons Island), have signed on to the bill. Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter cheered HB 185. His office tried the Harris case. One juror said she could not vote to put another black man on death row and that was the end of that case, Porter said of the case. In interviews following the Harris verdict, one juror backed up Porter's assertion that the holdout was based on race, although other jurors said they weren't sure why the black woman held out. The other holdout was Asian. Harris was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Porter said he thinks in death penalty trials defense attorneys try to pick jurors based on race and gender who are less likely to impose capital punishment. Veteran death penalty attorney Jack Martin dismissed such claims by prosecutors as urban myth. Martin did not represent Harris. Martin said there can be many reasons why jurors don't impose the death sentence: They might find something redeeming about the defendant; there might be a lingering question of guilt; there might be a mental illness that could help explain the crime. Before you impose the ultimate sentence, there needs to be a consensus of the community not a majority, said Martin. Majority verdicts could allow minorities, particularly African-Americans, to be ignored during jury deliberations, he said.It would be venturing into uncharted waters under the U.S. and the Georgia Constitution, Martin said. Stephen Bright, a senior lawyer at the Atlanta-based Southern Center for Human Rights and a nationally recognized expert on death penalty law, said the bill represents a marked departure from current law. Juries in Alabama and Florida currently make only a recommendation on the death penalty, and the decision is ultimately up to the judge. In those states, the jury recommendation does not have to be unanimous. Bright said leaving the decision to elected judges in nonunanimous verdicts, as proposed in HB 185, is particularly troublesome. In other states, he said, judges have been more likely to choose
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----CALIF., LA., FLA., ALA., N.Y.
Jan. 30 CALIFORNIA: Potential jurors quizzed on death penalty views Jury selection in the Vincent Brothers case hit some bumps Monday because many jurors were confused about questions on the death penalty. Kern County Superior Court Judge Michael Bush quizzed about 30 potential jurors with Deputy District Attorney Lisa Green and defense attorneys Michael Gardina and Anthony Bryan. In this phase of jury selection, the judge and attorneys hope to weed out jurors who cannot fairly consider the death penalty or who have been overly influenced by publicity. The judge and attorneys asked many of the potential jurors if they would automatically vote for the death penalty if they found Brothers guilty of planning and executing the deaths of his wife, 3 children and mother-in-law. Many said yes. But Green insisted this line of questioning wasn't fair because the jurors do not understand the process. First the jurors must decide if Brothers is guilty of first-degree murder. If he is convicted, each side presents further evidence before the jury decides on a sentence -- life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty. Without this explanation, many jurors didn't realize they were expected to listen to more evidence before making their final decision, Green argued. The judge explained in greater detail during the afternoon session, which eased some of the juror confusion. After much questioning, some of the potential jurors said they would consider both options. But others said that if Brothers killed 5 people and planned the killing, they would vote for the death penalty without considering the other evidence at the penalty phase. The people who said they could not consider both options were dismissed. A few jurors said they were against the death penalty and could not sentence anyone to death for any reason. One woman welled up with tears after intense questioning about the death penalty. She was dismissed. Another woman said she was against the death penalty and discussed the issue at length during college classes. But she said she could vote for the death penalty in this case because of the severity of the alleged crime. This isn't the abstract, Green told the woman. This is looking this man in the eye and because of what you say, he dies. He dies. ... Do you have what it takes to return a death penalty verdict? Yes, the woman said quietly. She was kept in the jury pool. The names of the jurors have been withheld from the public to protect their privacy. Only about 9 jurors were asked to return for further questioning. The rest were dismissed for various reasons. Brothers, a former vice principal, is accused of killing his wife, Joanie Harper; their 3 children, Marques, Lyndsey and Marshall; and Joanie Harper's mother, Earnestine. Brothers has pleaded not guilty. His family was found dead on July 8, 2003, and he was arrested in April 2004 on suspicion of committing the murders. More jurors will be questioned today. (source: Bakersfield Californian) ** DA may seek death penalty for man accused of poisoning daughter Santa Clara County prosecutors served notice today they will seek either a life sentence without parole or the death penalty against a San Jose man accused of killing his 2-year-old daughter by giving her a sippy cup filled with a date-rape drug. An amended complaint against Minh Phu Le, who has been held in jail since the Dec. 1 death of his daughter, Skyla, was handed to his defense attorney, John Vaughn, during a brief Superior Court appearance. The new complaint cites poisoning as a special circumstance. If a jury agrees, it would allow the district attorney the option to ask for the death penalty. Le, 32, was in court today for a scheduled plea hearing before Judge Jerome Nadler, but the hearing was reset for March 7. Police say Le, a married man, poisoned Skyla on Dec. 1 in an act of revenge against the little girl's mother -- Le's mistress -- who had broken off their relationship. Skyla's body was discovered by her mother, Serena Garcia, at Le's apartment. Le was also in the residence, unconscious after overdosing on GHB in a suicide attempt. Paramedics and physicians saved Le's life. He had left a note saying the child did not suffer. But evidence indicated otherwise: Skyla had vomited blood after drinking a lethal dose. Investigators also allege that Le peddled GHB or gamma hydroxybutyric acid, the so-called date rape'' drug capable of rendering a person unconscious when a few drops are mixed in a drink. Defense attorney Vaughn said Le continues to grieve over Skyla. Mr. Le is heartbroken at what happened,'' Vaughn said. I believe he is hopeful that a settlement can be arrived at in this case. He knows the consequences can be significant . . . He is sad about what happened and he is sad that he survived.'' (source: Mercury News) Dumanis To Consider Death Penalty In Stabbing Case A decision
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----S. DAK., ILL., N.C.
Jan. 30 SOUTH DAKOTA: Death penalty bills before panel FridayRepeal unlikely, lawmakers say A bill to repeal South Dakota's death penalty and two bills changing the way it is administered are grouped for a public hearing on Friday by a state House committee. A spirited debate about the merits of capital punishment and the most humane way to carry it out is anticipated. Rep. Kathy Miles, D-Sioux Falls, said she'll vote to repeal capital punishment if she gets the chance. I've been against the death penalty from day one, Miles said. I think there could be more support (for repeal) than you might think. You never know for sure. Other lawmakers say they doubt the 2007 Legislature will be the one that votes to repeal the death penalty, but they also say the delayed execution last August of a convicted killer has heightened awareness of the death penalty. I think a majority of the legislators would vote in the end to continue the death penalty, said Rep. Roger Hunt, R-Brandon. I do think there could be some support for repeal, but I don't believe it would be a majority. Bills repealing the death penalty have been introduced in each house. Lawmakers will have 2 other death-penalty bills to consider. One of those, proposed by Gov. Mike Rounds, would give the penitentiary warden power to choose the drugs used in the state's lethal injection process. The other would eliminate the state law that requires the prison physician and two other licensed physicians to witness an execution. It's my intention to take up all three bills dealing with the death penalty on Friday, said Rep. Larry Rhoden, R-Union Center, who heads the House State Affairs Committee. A focus on capital punishment was expected this session after the execution delay last August. Rounds stayed for a year a scheduled lethal injection for Elijah Page, convicted of beating and killing Chester Allan Poage of Spearfish in 2000. Page's execution was delayed after questions about the possible conflict between state law and prison procedure over what combinations of drugs should be used in the lethal injection. Rounds wants to clarify that. Republican Rep. Tom Hills of Spearfish, where the Poage killing happened, had been planning to cosponsor a fix to the drug conflict. He and others backed away when they learned the governor was to be involved. Hills said he plans to support the fix and vote against repeal of capital punishment. For those who support repeal, I have just three words: Chester Allan Poage, Hills said. Rep. Chuck Turbiville, R-Deadwood, also stepped aside when Rounds decided to sponsor the bill to handle the drug protocol question. Turbiville said he can't imagine that a majority of legislators would get rid of the death penalty, although many of them want it limited to only a few of the worst crimes. I think we'll fix the problems and move on, he said. Miles supports an end to abortion and said her stance on that and the death penalty are consistent. Hunt also supports eliminating abortion, but he said there's no inconsistency between that position and his support for capital punishment in limited situations. An unborn child has done nothing wrong, he said. An unborn child also has no advocates, Hunt said. Convicted killers have the right to a legal appeal process and advocates in the form of defense lawyers, he said. Besides that, Hunt said, advances in technology and testing make it less and less probable that an innocent person would be convicted and executed. The only public testimony on the topic on Monday came from an Onida farmer who said that being opposed to murder but sanctioning the death penalty is somewhat like a parent warning a child against smoking while lighting a cigarette. Mark Weinheimer made that analogy. If people accept the idea of the state taking a life, Weinheimer said, We will always have the problem of murder in society. (source: Argus Leader) Capital Punishment Repeal Offered An almost-annual attempt to repeal the death penalty in South Dakota is expected to meet the usual chilly reception today in the state Legislature. Lawmakers have long favored capital punishment for the most serious crimes, although it's been 6 decades since anyone was executed in South Dakota. The state currently has 4 men on death row. One of them, Elijah Page, is scheduled to be executed in July. Page is 1 of 3 men who kidnapped, tortured and killed 19-year-old Chester Allan Poage of Spearfish 6 years ago. (source: Keloland News) ILLINOIS: Former Illinois Governor George Ryan Nominated For The 2007 Nobel Peace Prize University of Illinois College of Law Professor Francis A. Boyle has nominated former Illinois Governor George Ryan for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize because of his courageous and heroic opposition to the death penalty system in America. Despite tremendous opposition and criticism, Ryan single-handedly started what he calls a rational discussion on capital
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
Jan. 30 MOROCCO: Activists hope Morocco will abolish death penalty Rabat will host the third congress for the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty in February. Organizers say many of the country's political parties support the abolishment of the death penalty. The World Coalition Against the Death Penalty will hold its 3rd world congress on Thursday (February 1st) through Saturday in Rabat. Activists hope the event will persuade Morocco to become the first Arab country to abolish the death penalty. According to Michel Taube, spokesman for the World Coalition, the execution of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was a cloud with a silver lining. He hopes the images from the execution will make people in the Arab world realise the horror and futile violence of the death penalty So if we condemn this execution we also have to condemn the death penalty, because if it was unacceptable for Saddam Hussein, one of the worst tyrants history has ever known, we have to recognise that its unacceptable for people who have committed less serious crimes, he told Magharebia. Taube believes it is very important that the coalition seek to persuade at least one Arab country to move towards abandoning the death penalty. According to the organisers of the World Congress against the death penalty, no North African or Middle Eastern country has abolished it to date; in 2006 the number of executions rose sharply. Campaigners are hoping that Morocco will become the first of these countries to abolish the death penalty. The last execution in Morocco took place in 1994. In January 2006, the Equity and Reconciliation Commission asked for the death penalty to be abolished. Recently, many of those sentenced to death have had their sentences commuted to a life sentence by King Mohammed VI. At present, 127 Moroccan prisoners, including 5 women, are on death row. Four of these were sentenced in 2006. Under the Moroccan penal code, 36 articles call for the death penalty, and 563 crimes are punishable by this sentence. The Moroccan Coalition Against the Death Penalty, founded in October 2003, has been working to get the support of political parties, according to Youssef Madad, the co-ordinator of the coalition. All the political parties we met during our visit to Morocco -- the Istiqlal Party, the Socialist Union of Popular Forces, the Party of Progress and Socialism, the Islamic Party and the Justice and Development Party -- confirmed they will support us, Meryem Kaf, the Moroccan press officer at the Paris-based Ensemble Contre la Peine de Mort, told Magharebia. This also signalled that they support the abolition of the death penalty in Morocco, with or without prior ratification of Protocol 2 of the UN. The death penalty is a law in the penal code, so we need more and more Moroccan politicians to take up the issue so that it will be discussed in parliament. Thats where the struggle against the death penalty will end and be won, Taube said. (source: Magharebia.com) GLOBAL: Death penalty - MEPs set to back International moratoriumDeath row - an ominous wait Death by beheading, electrocution, hanging and a firing squad: all deeply repulsive and legal ways to die in many countries around the world. Amnesty International reports that in 2005 over 2,100 people were executed in 22 countries. This week MEPs are set to add their support for a UN sponsored international moratorium on executions. A debate and resolution on Wednesday and Thursday are likely to demand an immediate and unconditional halt to executions. 2007 Congress against the death penalty Later in the week a cross-party delegation of MEPs will attend the World Congress Against the Death Penalty in Paris. This is the 3rd such meeting - the first being held in the Parliament in Strasbourg in 2001. The aim is to discuss ways of persuading countries to end executions and put pressure on them to halt executions. The organisers have organised a petition to the Chinese government asking them to show an Olympic spirit and halt executions prior to the 2008 Olympics Games in Beijing. Ahead of the visit one member of Parliament's delegation - Roberta Anastase of the European People's Party said the Parliament is acting today to promote human rights, to impose a ban on the death penalty...to envisage the value of every human being. International pressure The foundation stone of the anti-death penalty case is the UN's 1948 Universal Declaration on Human Rights guaranteeing the right to life, liberty and security of person... On the 50th anniversary of this declaration in 1998 the EU reaffirmed its commitment to these principles. None of the current 27 states of the Union currently has the death penalty. Just last week MEPs unanimously voted to support a resolution that called for the overturning of death sentences against 5 Bulgarian nurses and 1 Palestinian doctor in Libya. They were convicted in 2004 for allegedly infecting 400 children with the
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
Jan. 31 GLOBAL: The Second Death of the Death Penalty The 2nd death of the death penalty is programmed in the near future, when the parliament meeting at Versailles writes its abolition into the stone of the Constitution, a gesture with high symbolic value wished for by Jacques Chirac in the twilight of his political life. The land of Voltaire, Hugo and Camus, which was long in abolishing the death penalty, now wants to be in the forefront of this great cause, whose partisans keep gaining ground throughout the world. France, which will host the world congress against the death penalty from February 1st to 3rd, is an excellent observation post for this historic evolution. In 1981, when it abolished capital punishment, it was the only Western European democracy still applying it. Today, in all Europe, only Belarus is still resisting. A quarter of a century ago, France was the 36th country to give it up, while today, some 130 States are abolitionist, de jure or de facto. Jacques Chirac, who wants to leave for history the image of a convinced abolitionist, for a long time shilly-shallied. Candidate for president in 1981, he only spoke out against capital punishment at the last minute. As late as February 1981, he was of the opinion to let the French decide by referendum, which, on such a question, involved revising the Constitution. In other words, by letting the people speak this way, the guillotine would still have had a long life ahead. For the great majority of the French were against its disappearance. By an irony of history, it is a penitent who, in a few days, will present, in the name of the government, the bill desired by Jacques Chirac: Pascal Clment, Minister of Justice, who long resisted abolition. En June 1981, as a modest UDF legislator from the Loire area, he defended in the National Assembly the prior question, whose adoption would have cut short the debate wished for by Franois Mitterrand. Society, Mr. Clment then claimed, has the right to give death to defend itself. Otherwise, he pleaded, one must be logical: Let's be pacifists and refuse to arm our soldiers. To which Robert Badinter, the Minister of Justice at the time, replied that, at this solemn moment, a certain concept of man and of the society was involved. It is this concept of man that Jacques Chirac has favored in deciding to write into the Constitution the principle that no one can be sentenced to death. Like the President of the Republic, like the Minister of Justice, French society has greatly evolved in 25 years. Mostly in favor of the death penalty when it was abolished - by 60% - it now says it is opposed to its reestablishment, by 52%, according to a TNS-Sofres poll taken in September 2006. Alone of all the presidential candidates, Jean-Marie Le Pen and Philippe de Villiers still talk about rehabilitating it. And only 47 legislators from the majority party were willing, in April 2004, to sign a bill proposing to reestablish the death penalty for those committing terrorist acts, among them Alain Marleix, national secretary of the UMP (Chiracs party), in charge of choosing candidates for the legislative elections. Certain abolitionists are only half abolitionists. Abolitionists of course, except for: terrorists, child rapists, murderers of old ladies or policemen, depending on the fears of the moment. For principled abolitionists, on the contrary, it is exactly when it faces terrorists, or blind violence, that a democracy best defends its values by refusing an eye for an eye. In spite of people like Le Pen, de Villiers or Marleix, the death penalty is now seen by the French as contrary to the principles of the Republic. What is the cause of their support for this ethic of justice? Sociologist Raymond Boudon (in his book Renewing Democracy, published by Odile Jacob in 2006), sees it as a victory for what he calls, referring to Max Weber, common sense. Just as democracy imposed itself in France as the most rational method of government, so the wisdom of the citizens may have instructed them against the death penalty, which seems to them today neither dissuasive nor moral. In Against the Death Penalty (Fayard 2006), Robert Badinter says he too is convinced that the death penalty is called upon to disappear from this world. Under the influence of jurists who conform to the principles of the United Nations, neither the International Penal Court nor the jurisdictions created after the genocides in the ex-Yugoslavia, Ruanda or Cambodia can send a man to the gallows. One can measure the distance traveled since the Nuremberg trials. In the name of this international morality, the United Nations and the Council of Europe today invite their member countries to forbid the reestablishment of the death penalty. Such is the goal of the optional protocol... aiming at abolishing the death penalty. (UN) And protocol no. 13 of the European Human Rights Convention relative to the abolition of the death penalty in all
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.Y., WASH., US MIL., N. M.
Jan. 31 TEXAS: Texas executes man for killing 2 A man was executed Tuesday for killing his pregnant wife and mother-in-law 4 years ago. Christopher Swift, who spurned appeals that could stop or delay his execution, made no final statement. Receiving the death penalty is what he's wanted from Day 1, from the first day I met him, said Derek Adame, one of Swift's trial lawyers. Swift was pronounced dead at 6:20 p.m., 7 minutes after the dose of drugs began, in front of five friends. No relatives of survivors attended the execution. Evidence showed Swift's 5-year-old son watched as the former laborer and parolee stabbed and strangled his 27-year-old wife, Amy Sabeh-Swift, in the family recreational vehicle in Irving. She was eight months pregnant. He then took the boy to Lake Dallas and strangled his wife's mother, Sandra Stevens Sabeh, 61, at her home. The boy was found the next day, April 30, 2003, wandering the lobby of a hotel in Irving where his father had rented a room. Swift had left after the child fell asleep. Hotel staffers fed the boy breakfast and let him watch cartoons in the lobby but called police after no one claimed him and he grew frightened. When police arrived, the child told them his father had killed his mother and grandmother. Officers found their bodies, and Swift was arrested within hours. Defense lawyers tried to show Swift should be found innocent by reason of insanity. Prosecutors presented witnesses who said Swift knew what he was doing and was not insane. He never denied doing the killings, prosecutor Lee Ann Breading said. (source: Associated Press) NEW YORK: Federal death penalty jury: NYPD officers' killer had no remorse Ronell Wilson proclaimed at his federal death penalty trial last week that he was truly sorry for the execution-style slayings of 2 undercover detectives during a gun buy gone awry. On Tuesday, he learned the hard way that the jury didn't buy it. Jurors - after unanimously agreeing that they believed Wilson was still dangerous and had no remorse - made him the first federal defendant in more than 50 years to receive a death sentence in New York City. The last time was in 1954 for a bank robber who killed an FBI agent. The jury had found Wilson, 24, guilty last month of 2 counts of murder, along with robbery, carjacking and firearms charges. At the guilt phase of the trial, prosecutors claimed the defendant knew that Rodney Andrews and James Nemorin were undercover New York Police Department detectives when he climbed into the back seat of their unmarked car on the pretense of selling them an illegal gun on Staten Island in 2003. Both officers took bullets to the head, Nemorin after he pleaded for his life. An accomplice testified that he and Wilson were in on a plot by a violent drug gang to rob the undercover detectives, believing they were carrying $1,200 to buy guns. But the defense contended there was no convincing evidence the men knew their victims were police officers. I'm not good with words, Wilson read from a statement last week, addressing the victims' families. I wish I could explain myself more better, but I am truly sorry for the pain I have caused them all. On Tuesday, the jurors left the courthouse in Brooklyn without speaking to reporters about their two days of deliberations at the trial's penalty phase. But a verdict form that asked them to weigh several competing factors told part of the story. According to the form, all 12 jurors agreed with the defense that Wilson suffered through a rough background - that he was exposed to drugs and violence, that his parents were substance abusers, which resulted in poor parenting, and that he had a history of physical and mental problems as a youth. But asked to list the number of jurors who thought that Wilson had taken responsibility for his actions, the response was zero. It was the same when asked if the defendant has remorse for the murder of detectives Andrews and Nemorin. The jury also agreed that Wilson represents a continuing danger to the lives and safety of other persons, even behind bars. The prosecution had presented evidence that the defendant had made threatening phone calls from jail while awaiting trial. As the jury foreman announced the death sentence in a packed courtroom, Wilson showed no emotion. But one person seated with the victims' families could be heard calling Wilson a dead man. A union official later claimed the defendant stuck out his tongue in defiance before he was led away; his lawyers said they didn't see it. I just want to say thank you to God and thank you to the jurors, Rose Nemorin, the widow of one of the slain officers, said outside court. The same courthouse has been the venue for an unprecedented 3 simultaneous death penalty trials - Wilson's and those of a notorious druglord and a gang member accused of shooting a man in the head to pay off a debt to a cocaine supplier. Jurors were still deliberating in the druglord's
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----N.C., NEB., IND., IDAHO, FLA.
Jan. 31 NORTH CAROLINA: Governor holds clemency hearing Those who want to see James Adolph Campbell executed and those who want to see his life spared made their cases Tuesday to Gov. Mike Easley. The clemency hearing took place even though a Wake County judge last week delayed Campbell's Feb. 9 execution, as he did for two other inmates, because of questions about whether top state leaders had approved a doctor's limited role in executions. Prison officials have not said whether they will appeal the ruling or take other action to get the executions back on schedule. Also Tuesday, another death row inmate, Archie Lee Billings, filed a lawsuit in Wake Superior Court to stop prison officials from setting his execution date. The lawsuit raises the same issues that led to the judge's ruling last week. Billings was convicted of the 1995 rape and murder of an 11-year-old Yanceyville girl and the stabbing her 13-year-old brother. Campbell, 45, was sentenced to death for the 1st-degree murder of Katherine Price, a 20-year-old Kannapolis woman. On Sept. 9, 1992, Campbell raped Price, twice attempted to strangle her and stabbed her 22 times in the face and neck. At the time, prosecutors say, Campbell had recently been released from a South Carolina prison after kidnapping and rape convictions. Rowan District Attorney Bill Kenerly described Campbell as a serial rapist, saying Campbell had raped four women before Price. He is the most dangerous person I've ever prosecuted. And I've prosecuted people for their second murder, Kenerly said in an interview last week. On Tuesday, Kenerly and lawyers with the state Attorney General's Office said they told Easley why Campbell should be executed. For Kenerly, there is no question that Campbell is guilty. Kenerly said that in a 27-page confession, Campbell offered a specific time of Price's death, telling investigators this detail: He looked at his watch when he saw the lights go out of her eyes. His past crimes in addition to this crime justify the ultimate punishment, Kenerly said. Campbell's appellate attorneys, William Livesay and Gordon Widenhouse, urged Easley to spare Campbell's life, saying his trial attorneys and the judge failed him. Livesay said that Campbell's trial attorneys didn't tell the jury details of Campbell's horrific childhood and mental illness that might have explained how and why the crime occurred. They said Campbell snapped when he killed Price, and therefore committed at most 2nd-degree murder. The lawyers also said the jury asked during its deliberations how long Campbell might spend in prison and whether he could get out for good behavior. The judge refused to answer the question, they said. He would have been 92 before he could be considered for parole, Widenhouse said. The lawyers said that if the jurors had known, they might have sentenced Campbell to life in prison. (source: The News Observer) Death Penalty Needs Review North Carolina's use of the death penalty increasingly is raising concerns about its fairness, its cost and its irrevocable nature at a time when a number of condemned inmates here and elsewhere have been exonerated. Now another major issue has surfaced, involving the role of doctors in executions. A ruling by Judge Donald W. Stephens of Wake County Superior Court gives state officials a solid reason to put the capital punishment machine on hold. Stephens' ruling requires the Council of State to approve a change in the procedure by which executions are conducted. What's involved is the role of a doctor. State law specifies that a doctor must be present when inmates are put to death. However, the N.C. Medical Board, which licenses and sets ethics standards for doctors, declared earlier this month that while physicians may serve as observers at executions, they will be acting unethically if they do anything more. The reason this is problematic has to do with a controversy over lethal injection. Lawyers for death row defendants have argued that the drugs used in executions could leave an inmate in agonizing pain, although unable to signal it. Thus, they contend that the process could amount to cruel and unusual punishment, which is unconstitutional. N.C. officials responded to that concern by installing monitors intended to ensure that an inmate has been rendered unconscious before paralyzing and heart-stopping drugs are injected. Officials with the prison system say that in light of the medical board's ruling, technicians will observe the monitors, not the doctor on duty. But whether that change will pass legal muster is uncertain. Further, the arrangement could put a doctor in a difficult position. What happens, for instance, if the death drugs fail to kill the person in the expected time frame? Does the doctor, following a health care provider's instincts and training, spring into action to revive the inmate - and violate the policy? Or should he instruct the executioner on
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----worldwide
Jan. 31 BANGLADESH: Bangladeshi Militants Sentenced To Death Seek Leniency 6 Islamic militants condemned to death in Bangladesh for killing 2 judges said their actions were not criminal as they were guided by religious beliefs on setting up an Islamic state in the Muslim majority country, prison officials said Wednesday. The militants, including the founder of the Jamiatul Mujahideen group Shaekh Abdur Rahman and his deputy Bangla Bhai, stated in their mercy petitions to President Iajuddin Ahmad that they could only be tried under Koranic laws as they were waging a jihad (holy war). Senior prison officer Shamsur Haider Siddiqui said the 6 inmates of the condemned cells sought mercy from the Head of State making references to the Koran, Islam's holiest book. The condemned sought a presidential pardon in a last attempt to save themselves from the gallows, Siddiqui said. The president has the power to commute death sentences or life- long imprisonment or pardon any convicted person under the country's constitution. But this authority has rarely been used. A criminal court in southern Bangladesh sentenced to death both top Mujahideen leaders along with four other Islamic militants for their involvement in the attack by suicide bombers which killed junior judges Sohel Ahmad and Jagannath Pandey in Jhalakathi town on 14 November 2005. The High Court last November confirmed the death sentences and ordered the prison authorities to implement the sentences at the earliest time. The Jamiatul Mujahideen grabbed global attention after its activists carried out orchestrated bombings at nearly 60 locations across Bangladesh 3 years ago. The government banned the Islamic militants, seizing hand grenades, guns and propaganda material after raiding hideouts. (source: DPA) PHILIPPINES: 30 - Death sentences of 6 OFWs downgraded The sentences of 6 overseas Filipino workers (OFW) charged with offenses punishable by death have been downgraded to jail terms through the efforts of the Philippine government, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs. In a memorandum for President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo dated Jan. 22, 2007, Acting DFA Secretary Franklin Ebdalin also reported that two other OFWs are awaiting court hearings on the Tanazuls or Affidavits of Forgiveness being executed in their favor by the families of their victims. The 6 OFWs are: Guen Aguilar, Zenaida Taulbee, Ronilo Arandia, Fernie Salarza, Melvin Obejera and Ma. Fe Cruzado. Sarah Dematera and Marilou Ranario are both awaiting the Dammam Grand Court and the Kuwaiti Appellate Court, respectively, to issue orders lifting the death penalty imposed on them. Aguilar was given a death sentence by a Singapore court for the 2005 killing of fellow domestic worker Jane La Puebla in Singapore. Her death sentence was downgraded to 10 years imprisonment due to her mental state. Taulbee was given the maximum penalty of death for her participation in the murder of her husband, James, in his Aragona Village home in the United States on Jan. 5, 2004. It was, however, lowered to 25 years imprisonment in the US after she pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of conspiracy to commit murder in exchange for her testimony against Reuben Wright and Randy Linniman, her alleged accomplices. Arandia, a worker of a royal household in Saudi Arabia, was charged for the October 2004 killing of co-worker Jameel Al Rehman, a Pakistani national. His death sentence was lowered to 5 years imprisonment in a Saudi jail. He is expected to be released sometime in 2009. Salarza, a construction worker in the African nation of Sudan, was meted the death penalty for killing fellow Filipino named Berin in January 2006. His penalty now stands at two years imprisonment and the payment of blood money amounting to 14,140 US dollars. Obejera was charged with killing fellow Filipino Charito Tabag in 2004. He has since been repatriated to the Philippines since August 2006 thanks to the efforts of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Cruzado, who was meted the death penalty for killing an Indian national in 2004, is now serving 20 to 30 years jail term. The President brokered the release and mass pardon of 338 Filipinos facing charges with the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, during her 4-day state visit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia last May. (source: Philippine News Agency) BULGARIA/LIBYA: Bulgaria Appeals Death Sentences of Libya-Jailed Nurses The defence team of the Libya-jailed 5 Bulgarian medics announced it will appeal their death sentence. Lawyer Hari Haralambiev departed for Libya on Wednesday morning. The solution of the HIV trial is expected in 2007, Haralambiev said. It will be a crime if we don't appeal the death sentence, he added. The nurses, who were accused of knowingly infecting Libya children with HIV, now face another indictment for slandering the police. The charge came to punish the Bulgarians for
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
Jan. 31 VIETNAM: Son La court hands death sentences to 8 drug dealers 8 heroin producers and distributors were handed death sentences while 13 others were given life imprisonment, by the People's Court in Son La northern mountain province, yesterday. Masterminds Trinh Nguyen Thuy, Le Van Tinh and their accomplices were convicted of producing, trading, transporting and storing nearly 1 ton of drugs. The 6 others who were sentenced to death were Dang Van Au, Vu Hong Diep, Ngo Trung Hieu, Pham Xuan Tho, Nguyen Xuan Thanh and Pham Khac Hung. Le Van Tinh's wife, Vu Thi Hue, was among the 13 that were given life imprisonment terms. Other members of the ring that included family members of the leaders, were also handed sentences ranging from 6 months to 20 years. The court also fined the accused from between VND5 million to VND500 million. The case is the 1st to involve drug production in the country, and the biggest to be handled by the provincial court. (source: VietNam News) INDIA: Death sentence for rape, murder In Angul, a local court has convicted and sentenced a 25-year-old youth to death for raping a minor girl and murdering her 2 years ago. Additional district and sessions judge, Angul, Ajay Kumar Dey, yesterday convicted Duryodhan Rout for the crime he committed on September 11, 2004 on the basis of circumstantial evidence. According to the prosecution, Rout had lured the girl to a nearby jungle at Kundajhari village under Thakurgarh police station limits and raped her. He then strangled her to death. In his judgement, the judge observed that life imprisonment would be inadequate for such a crime. (source: Chennai Online News Service) *** Tihar has 10 inmates facing death sentence Mohammad Afzal, convicted for his role in the 2001 attack on the Indian parliament, is not the only inmate at the Tihar jail here facing capital punishment. There are 9 more. Of the 10 convicts, 2 have filed mercy petitions before the president and 3 have their special leave petitions pending before the Supreme Court. The others' petitions are in the Delhi High Court. 'Ten inmates are facing the gallows but they have appealed to various authorities for reconsideration of their punishment. We are ready to execute them as per the direction of the judiciary,' jail director general Brijesh Gupta told reporters Wednesday. A trial court sentenced Afzal to death Dec 18, 2002 and the Delhi High Court confirmed the sentence in August 2005. The apex court, which ratified it last year, has dismissed his special leave petition and curative petition. However, Afzal's mercy petition is still pending before the president. Among the others, Mohammad Arif was convicted Oct 31, 2005 for the terror attack on the Red Fort here in December 2000 along with his Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) lieutenants. He has appealed against the sentence before the Delhi High Court, where his petition is pending. Sushil Sharma, convicted for murdering his wife Naina Sahni and burning her body in a tandoor (clay oven), has moved the Delhi High Court with a petition to review the death penalty awarded on Nov 7, 2003. Davinder Pal Singh Bhullar, a Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF) militant, was sentenced Aug 25, 2001 for his involvement in a bomb attack. The Supreme Court dismissed his special leave petition Dec 27, 2006. His mercy petition is with the president. S.K. Singh, sentenced on Oct 17, 2006 by the Delhi High Court, has moved the apex court. A local court awarded capital punishment to Mohammed Hussain Nov 11, 2003 and the Delhi High Court upheld the judgement Aug 4, 2004. His special leave petition is pending before the Supreme Court. Others facing the death row are Atbir, Zameel Ahemad, Dilshad and R.P. Tyagi. Tihar, one of the biggest prisons of South Asia, is home to over 14,000 prisoners as against its capacity of 6,250. It has 864 prisoners including 25 females who have been awarded the life term. (source: Indo-Asian News Service) CHINA: Oil thieves to face death penalty Serious cases of oil and gas theft could result in the death penalty, according to a legal document released by the Supreme People's Court recently. The document, issued on Jan. 15 and reported yesterday by the Sinopec-backed China Petrochemical News, is the first to deal specifically with the theft of oil and gas and the damage of equipment, and is aimed at reducing rampant criminal activities in the industry. The new document makes it clear that anyone caught hacking into oil or gas pipes is endangering public safety and will be punished accordingly, the report said. Any act of oil or gas theft that leads to serious consequences such as the death of more than one person and the injury of more than three people, causes a well to blow out, leads to heavy pollution or creates heavy economic losses of more than RMB 500,000 ($64,000), will be subject to the death penalty, the document said. All oil and gas reserves belong to the
