[Deathpenalty] [POSSIBLE SPAM] death penalty news-----TEXAS
July 29 TEXAS: Legendary DA's convictions thrown out by DNA testing The late Henry Wade was district attorney of Dallas County, Texas, from 1951 to 1986 Wade and his team had conviction rates over 90 % DNA testing has overturned 19 convictions by Wade and his successors New DA, critics charge shoddy investigations, win at all costs culture As district attorney of Dallas for an unprecedented 36 years, Henry Wade was the embodiment of Texas justice. A strapping 6-footer with a square jaw and a half-chewed cigar clamped between his teeth, The Chief, as he was known, prosecuted Jack Ruby. He was the Wade in Roe v. Wade. And he compiled a conviction rate so impressive that defense attorneys ruefully called themselves the 7 Percent Club. But now, 7 years after Wade's death, The Chief's legacy is taking a beating. 19 convictions -- 3 for murder and the rest involving rape or burglary -- won by Wade and 2 successors who trained under him have been overturned after DNA evidence exonerated the defendants. About 250 more cases are under review. No other county in America -- and almost no state, for that matter -- has freed more innocent people from prison in recent years than Dallas County, where Wade was DA from 1951 through 1986. Current District Attorney Craig Watkins, who in 2006 became the 1st black elected chief prosecutor in any Texas county, said that more wrongly convicted people will go free. There was a cowboy kind of mentality and the reality is that kind of approach is archaic, racist, elitist and arrogant, said Watkins, who is 40 and never worked for Wade or met him. But some of those who knew Wade say the truth is more complicated than Watkins' summation. My father was not a racist. He didn't have a racist bone in his body, said Kim Wade, a lawyer in his own right. He was very competitive. Moreover, former colleagues -- and even the Innocence Project of Texas, which is spearheading the DNA tests -- credit Wade with preserving the evidence in every case, a practice that allowed investigations to be reopened and inmates to be freed. (His critics say, of course, that he kept the evidence for possible use in further prosecutions, not to help defendants.) The new DA and other Wade detractors say the cases won under Wade were riddled with shoddy investigations, evidence was ignored and defense lawyers were kept in the dark. They note that the promotion system under Wade rewarded prosecutors for high conviction rates. In the case of James Lee Woodard -- released in April after 27 years in prison for a murder DNA showed he didn't commit -- Wade's office withheld from defense attorneys photographs of tire tracks at the crime scene that didn't match Woodard's car. Now in hindsight, we're finding lots of places where detectives in those cases, they kind of trimmed the corners to just get the case done, said Michelle Moore, a Dallas County public defender and president of the Innocence Project of Texas. Whether that's the fault of the detectives or the DA's, I don't know. John Stickels, a University of Texas at Arlington criminology professor and a director of the Innocence Project of Texas, blames a culture of win at all costs. When someone was arrested, it was assumed they were guilty, he said. I think prosecutors and investigators basically ignored all evidence to the contrary and decided they were going to convict these guys. A Democrat, Wade was first elected DA at age 35 after three years as an assistant DA, promising to stem the rising tide of crime. Wade already had spent four years as an FBI agent, served in the Navy during World War II and did a stint as a local prosecutor in nearby Rockwall County, where he grew up on a farm, the son of a lawyer. Wade was one of 11 children; 6 of the boys went on to become lawyers. He was elected 10 times in all. He and his cadre of assistant DAs -- all of them white men, early on -- consistently reported annual conviction rates above 90 %. In his last 20 years as district attorney, his office won 165,000 convictions, the Dallas Morning News reported when he retired. In the 1960s, Wade secured a murder conviction against Ruby, the Dallas nightclub owner who shot Lee Harvey Oswald after Oswald's arrest in the assassination of President Kennedy. Ruby's conviction was overturned on appeal, and he died before Wade could retry him. Wade was also the defendant in the 1973 landmark Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion. The case began 3 years earlier when Dallas resident Norma McCorvey -- using the pseudonym Jane Roe -- sued because she couldn't get an abortion in Texas. Troubling cases surfaced in the 1980s, as Wade's career was winding down. Lenell Geter, a black engineer, was convicted of armed robbery and sentenced to life in prison. After Geter had spent more than a year behind bars, Wade agreed to a new trial, then dropped the charges in 1983 amid reports of shoddy evidence and allegations Geter was singled out because
[Deathpenalty] [POSSIBLE SPAM] death penalty news----USA, ALA., OKLA., TENN., N.Y.
July 29 USA: Pro-life, death penalty at odds Re: Louisiana asks Supreme Court to revisit ban on death penalty in child rape cases, Monday Dallasnews.com. America must decide at which point is it acceptable to become so wrapped up in pro-life movements that we lost respect for innocence. When a child is raped, a crime against society has not only taken place, but also a crime against morality adn nature. It is the utmost responsibility of the law to uphold morality. If the principle of an eye for an eye holds any resonance in the law, then the only proportional punishment to child rape is to allow every child sex offender to be forced into sex by an individual larger and stronger than himself. Do not forget to tell them that, constitutionally speaking, the death penalty is a little extreme for the offender; after all , the victim wasn't harmed irrevocably. I am sure that the death penalty will suffice until another great idea comes along. Alexandria Perkins, Memsquite (source: Letter to the editor, Dallas Morning News, Sunday, July 27) ** US high court urged to revisit death penalty for child rape The US Justice Department has appealed to nation's highest court to re-hear a major death penalty case involving sentencing for child rapists, saying the ruling was made without all the facts. The Supreme Court last month ruled 5-4 against the death sentence for child rapists, but did so without considering a 2007 executive order that makes child rape a crime punishable by death according to military law, the Justice Department said in a rare motion filed this week. In the high court's ruling in Kennedy v. Louisiana on June 25, Justice Anthony Kennedy said there is a national consensus against capital punishment for the crime of child rape, due to the lack of recent executions and the low number of states that permit the death penalty for such crimes. However, by striking down Louisiana's law to accord the death penalty for child rape, the court did not take into account a presidential order authorizing the military to condemn to death convicted child rapists, the Justice Department said. The United States has a substantial interest in rehearing because the Court's decision casts grave doubt on the validity of a recent act of Congress and executive order of the president authorizing capital punishment for child rapists under the uniform code of military justice, acting solicitor general Gregory Garre said in the motion. Because the court did not have a complete description of the relevant legal landscape, the court's decision rests on an erroneous and materially incomplete assessment of the 'national consensus' concerning capital punishment for child rape. The Supreme Court ruling was based on both existing legal precedent and its own independent judgment regarding interpretation of the US constitution; and the justices held that the death penalty is not a proportional punishment for the crime of child rape. It is rare that the Supreme Court agrees to revisit a case on which it has already ruled. Any decision to do so would require the consent of at least five justices, including one who voted with the majority the 1st time. The Justice Department said it regrets that it did not previously bring those pronouncements to the court's attention. According to media reports, the omission was brought to light by an expert in military law who wrote about it on his blog. Louisiana asked for a rehearing, and the solicitor general filed a motion with the Supreme Court asking it to grant Louisiana's request. Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976 it has only been carried out for crimes of murder. The last execution in the United States of someone other than a convicted murderer was in 1964. (source: Agence France Presse) ALABAMAimpending execution Court won't stop execution The Alabama Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to delay Thomas Arthur's scheduled execution for a 1982 contract murder, rebuffing his call for more time to allow DNA testing of trial evidence he claims could clear him. Without comment, the court voted 6-2 in denying Arthur a stay. Arthur, 66, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 6 p.m. Thursday at Holman Prison near Atmore. The condemned inmate had sought more time for DNA testing of trial evidence stemming from the Feb. 1, 1982, killing of Troy Wicker Jr. of Muscle Shoals. Arthur has twice come within a day of execution before obtaining court delays. His attorney is still expected to pursue a U.S. Supreme Court stay of execution. Last week, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also refused to delay the execution for DNA testing. His appeal last year challenging lethal injection as a form of execution was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court after granting a stay on the eve of his Dec. 6 execution date. Arthur's execution would be the first in Alabama since the high court, in April, upheld the use of lethal injection.
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----MD., PENN., US MIL., ARIZ., KAN., FLA.
July 29 MARYLAND: First death penalty hearing heldMd. panel listens to evidence on disparities A state commission appointed to study the death penalty began its work yesterday by hearing testimony on statistical evidence of racial, geographic and socioeconomic disparities in different states' imposition of death sentences. University professors, a former judge and statisticians from across the country appeared before the panel, which is assigned to offer recommendations to the General Assembly to ensure the administration of capital punishment in Maryland is free from bias and error and capable of achieving fairness and accuracy. In the most emotional testimony of the more than four-hour hearing, the brother of the Unabomber and the brother of a Marine convicted of killing an elderly woman during a flashback from his service in Vietnam offered accounts of their starkly different experiences with the criminal justice system. Although both murder cases were eligible for capital prosecution, Ted Kaczynski was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for mail bombings that killed three people and injured 23, and Manny Babbitt was executed for the fatal beating of a Sacramento, Calif., woman. This can't be happening in America, David Kaczynski, executive director of New Yorkers Against the Death Penalty, told commission members. The death penalty is not made for people like [Bill Babbitt]'s brother. Yesterday's testimony focused primarily on statistical studies completed in recent years that have documented geographic and racial disparities in the imposition of death sentences in Maryland and beyond. Other aspects of the death penalty, including the effects of prolonged capital court cases and the risk of executing innocent people, will be the subject of future hearings. Pointing out that none of the five convicted killers executed in Maryland since 1978 or the 5 who remain on the state's death row was sentenced to death for killing a black person, 1 law professor said that inexorable zero should get people's attention. In short, the system appears to be broken, said David C. Baldus, a professor at the University of Iowa's College of Law who has specialized in state and federal courts' use of statistical evidence in discrimination cases. Of particular concern, he explained, is that Maryland's appeals courts have been unwilling to consider evidence of the pattern of discrimination. It appears, he testified, that repeal of capital punishment is the only feasible way of eradicating the arbitrariness. Established this year by the state legislature, the 23-member commission is charged with examining a number of issues, including disparities in the application of the death penalty, the cost differential between litigating prolonged capital punishment cases and life imprisonment, and the impact of DNA evidence. Led by Benjamin R. Civiletti, a former U.S. attorney general who served under President Jimmy Carter, the commission includes a police chief, a former death-row inmate who was exonerated by DNA evidence, a rabbi, a bishop, three family members of murder victims, several legislators and a county prosecutor who has handled capital cases. The commission must submit a final report on its findings and recommendations by Dec. 15. There has been an effective ban on Maryland's use of its death chamber since December 2006, when its highest court ruled that the state's execution protocols were improperly developed without legislative oversight or public input. In May, Gov. Martin O'Malley took the 1st step toward ending that moratorium, ordering the drafting of new procedures for executing inmates by lethal injection. That process could be completed by the end of the year. The governor, who opposes capital punishment, had held off ordering new lethal injection protocols to give lawmakers another chance during this year's legislative session to consider repealing the death penalty. But a bill to replace capital punishment with life without parole stalled in a Senate committee for a second year in a row. The protocols outline the 3-drug procedure used for putting condemned prisoners to death. In April, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Kentucky's use of lethal injection protocols that are virtually identical to those used in Maryland. Yesterday's public hearing in Annapolis was the first of four public scheduled through September by the death penalty commission. In addition to the expert witnesses who testified, the hearing drew capital punishment opponents who urged the commission to recommend a repeal of the death penalty on broader grounds. I think this is an ethical and moral issue, said Brother Gerard Sullivan, a Fells Point resident and a brother in the Roman Catholic Marian Society who has served as a jail chaplain and has worked with convicted felons serving life sentences at a maximum-security prison in Missouri. My experience was that people can change, he
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
July 29 EUROPEAN UNION/IRAN: EU Rebukes Iran for Mass Executions The executions took place behind the walls of the Evin prison The European Union said that the execution of 29 convicted criminals in Iran was an affront to human dignity. The bloc called on Teheran to put an end to capital punishment. The 27-member bloc condemns in the strongest terms the 29 simultaneous executions which took place in Evin prison, Iran, on Sunday, said a statement released by the French government, which currently holds the EU's rotating presidency, and approved by all EU member states, on Tuesday, July 29. The EU considers that the Iranian regime's action of staging these executions and making them the focus of media attention is an affront to human dignity, said the statement. The EU is a firm opponent of the death penalty and has long lobbied internationally for an end to the practice. Not basis for fair judiciary Capital punishment cannot form the basis of a fair and effective prosecution policy: the dissuasive effect of this penalty has never been proved and any judicial error is irreversible, the statement said. On Sunday Iranian state broadcaster IRIB showed interviews with 10 of the condemned men in which they said that they deserved their sentence, due to the wrong path they had chosen. The 10 had all been convicted of repeat capital crimes such as murder, rape and drug trafficking, Tehran prosecutor Said Mortazavi told the IRIB Web site. IRIB also broadcast street interviews with people who unanimously approved the executions as a correct policy of deterrence. More than 290 convicts were reportedly executed in Iran last year, many in public. However, Sunday's hanging was the 1st mass execution to be carried out in the last 28 years. The EU is deeply concerned by the increasing recourse to the death penalty in Iran in recent months, the statement said. It urges the Iranian authorities to put an end to death sentences and executions. (source: DPA) *** Iran executions an affront to human dignity-EU The European Union on Tuesday denounced Iran's execution of 29 convicts at the weekend as an affront to human dignity and said it was deeply concerned about Tehran's increasing use of the death penalty. Iran's state media said the drug smugglers and other criminals were executed in Tehran's Evin prison at dawn on Sunday, following an expanded crackdown on crime. The French EU Presidency said the 27-nation European Union, which opposes the death penalty, condemned the executions in the strongest terms. It considers that the Iranian regime's action of staging these executions and making them the focus of media attention is an affront to human dignity, it said in a statement. It said the EU was deeply concerned by Iran's increasing use of the death penalty in recent months and urged it to end the practice. Amnesty International has listed Iran as the world's second-most prolific executioner in 2007. It said Iran executed at least 317 people last year while China executed 470. Iran is often accused of rights abuses by rights groups and Western governments, although Tehran dismisses the criticism and accuses the West of double standards and hypocrisy. Murder, adultery, rape, armed robbery, apostasy and drug trafficking are all punishable by death under Iran's sharia law, enforced since the country's 1979 Islamic revolution. (source: Reuters) * Executions Increasing in Iran On Sunday, 29 people were hanged while 9 others await execution by stoning. Over the past 7 months, 155 people or more have been executed in Iran according to an Agence France-Presse (AFP) count. The European Union and the United States call on Iran to adhere to its international human rights obligations. In what the AFP calls one of the largest mass execution in years, 29 men were hanged at the notorious Evin prison. Tehran Chief Prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi claims, These convicts had long criminal records and after being released from prison they again entered the drug smuggling groups and returned to the same criminal activities. Meanwhile, 8 women and 1 man await execution by stoning, sentences that could be administered at any moment. The Islamic Republic of Iran claims the death penalty promotes Islamic social welfare and deters crime. Capital offenses in Iran include murder, adultery, rape, drug trafficking, and armed robbery. Under Iran's Islamic laws, adultery remains the only capital offense punishable by stoning. The human rights group, the Defenders of Human Rights Centre, run by Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi denounced the hangings, It seems that the hanged men were deprived of a fair judicial procedure... No authority has the right to deprive defendants of their rights during the arrest, trial and tribunal procedures as well as the right to legal representation. On Tuesday, July 15, U.S. Department of State Spokesman Sean McCormack issued a press statement
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS
July 30 TEXASimpending execution Killer in Amarillo robbery to die Thursday Larry Donnell Davis doesn't deny that less than 4 months after he was released from prison he was at an Amarillo home participating in a robbery and beating of the man who lived there. But Davis insists he wasn't responsible for 26-year-old Michael Barrow's death, a killing 13 years ago that has left him scheduled for a trip Thursday evening to the Texas death chamber in Huntsville. I'm getting railroaded, Davis, 40, said from a visiting cage outside death row. Life (sentence) for robbery, I can accept that. But the dude wasn't dead. He was stabbing at me and I was kicking him. Davis said some companions who took a plea deal for lesser sentences killed Barrow. I've been set up the whole time, he said, disagreeing with prosecutors in Amarillo who said he orchestrated and helped carry out the murder so his friends could earn a gang tattoo: a teardrop on their faces. Pat Murphy, an assistant Potter County district attorney who prosecuted the case, said Davis provided the weapons, showed the accomplices what to do and took an active role in the killing. I kind of referred to him as the coach-killer, Murphy said this week. Davis would be the 4th Texas inmate executed this year and the 2nd in as many weeks. Executions were on hold in Texas and around the country for more than 7 months until the U.S. Supreme Court in April rejected an appeal from 2 Kentucky prisoners who argued lethal injection was unconstitutionally cruel. Texas resumed carrying out executions last month and Davis is among at least 15 with death dates in the coming months, including 6 in August. No late appeals were filed to try to stop the execution. The prosecution case was bolstered by Davis' detailed 14-page confession. Certainly he painted himself as a party, said Warren Clark, one of Davis' trial lawyers. The state's evidence suggested he acted more than just a party and took a role in killing. It was a brutal homicide - very, very difficult to defend. According to his confession, Davis told police Barrow's death was a plot by two friends, brothers Raydon and Donald Drew, who needed money so they could get the teardrop tattoos, a gang symbol that can represent involvement in a killing or loss of a loved one in a slaying. Davis, who has such a tattoo by his eye, supplied the knife and an ice pick used by Raydon Drew to kill Barrow, the confession said. Davis also said he held down the victim while Raydon Drew hit Barrow with a pipe, then ran to the kitchen to get a butcher knife to supply yet another weapon and instructed Raydon to stand on Barrow's neck to ensure the man was dead. I signed, Davis said of the confession. I wasn't in my right mind. Davis' trial lawyers tried to show he was only a passive participant, may have been guilty of aggravated robbery or murder but not capital murder. Jurors disagreed. 4 others charged in the case, including the Drew brothers, accepted lesser sentences, which Clark called sweetheart deals. You have to question why does Larry have to pay the supreme price, Clark said. Davis and his accomplices all apparently knew Barrow, whose body was found by his parents. Police recovered items stolen from the home, mostly electronics and some jewelry, at pawn shops. Davis said Barrow had been tied up and worked himself free as he and his buddies were robbing the place. The dude came at me with a knife, he said from death row. I kicked wildly. You panic when somebody comes at you. They killed the dude, he said of his friends. They finished him. ... I don't mind being punished for something I did - not for something I didn't do. Davis said he'd lived at a church-run children's home beginning in the seventh grade and dropped out of school in the 9th grade. The father of 2 boys and 2 girls is divorced. His ex-wife testified against him at his capital murder trial and told jurors of how he abused her. Davis 1st went to prison in 1992 with a 2-year term for a weapons and theft conviction, was released after 5 months, then was returned about a year later as a parole violator. In May 1994, he was released again, but was back in prison 6 weeks later after violating parole and picking up a new 4-year term for theft. He was released on mandatory supervision after 10 months. The Barrow slaying occurred less than 4 months later. He was accused but never tried for another murder in Dallas, where authorities said the victim was fatally beaten with the top of a toilet tank. 2 more executions are set for next week, beginning with Jose Medellin, set to die Tuesday for his participation in the gang rape and beating deaths of 2 Houston girls. (source: Associated Press) *** Larry Donell Davis Execution Set for Thursday An Amarillo man, convicted of murder, will be executed in 2 days. The State of Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles denied all appeals from Larry Donell Davis. It was back in August of
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----CALIF., MD., FLA., USA, TENN.
July 30 CALIFORNIA: DEATH ROW COST OVERRUN: $40 MILLION-New San Quentin housing also could run out of room, report says The cost of new housing for San Quentin State Prison's growing number of death row inmates will exceed estimates by nearly $40 million, and the compound could run out of space soon after it is completed, according to a state auditor's report released Tuesday. The auditor's new $395.5 million price tag for the project, which is expected to be completed by 2011, is new bad news for a state facing billions of dollars in budget shortfalls. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Democrat-controlled Legislature are still trying to hammer out a spending plan for the fiscal year that began nearly a month ago. California's prison system is already a big-ticket item, representing about 10 % of roughly $100 billion general fund spending. And with severe inmate overcrowding and claims of inadequate health care for prisoners, a federal receiver appointed by a judge in 2006 has asked the Legislature for an additional $7 billion to get the prison system to run adequately. This is a giant black hole, said Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, chairwoman of the Senate public safety committee. It's a never-ending gravitational force that'll continue to suck away money that should be spent on local government, education, health and human services and higher education. Seth Unger, a spokesman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, said the latest figures for the San Quentin project are estimates at best. He added that the report does validate that California needs a newly constructed, modern facility to house our condemned inmate population. The new complex would house a maximum of 1,152 inmates, providing adequate capacity until 2035 if most inmates are housed two per cell, the report said. But if plans for double-celling are challenged in court and the state loses, San Quentin could run out of space in 3 years. We would simply go back to square one after spending all this money, said Assemblyman Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, whose district includes San Quentin. Since the state Legislature reinstated the death penalty in 1977, there have been 14 inmates executed, starting with Robert Alton Harris in 1992, while the number of condemned inmates has risen steadily to the current number at 674. The vast majority of those prisoners - 635 - are held at San Quentin; 15 are held at the Central California Women's Facility in Chowchilla, and the rest are being held near courthouses, in long-term medical care facilities or in other states. Plans for new housing for San Quentin's death row inmates got its initial boost five years ago when state prison officials requested $220 million and the state Legislature approved the spending. New facilities were needed, prison officials said, because the 3 existing units - built in 1930, 1934 and 1960 - don't meet the state's standard for maximum-security facilities. Prison officials later said construction costs would be far greater as a result of rising prices of construction materials, design changes and unforeseen problems such as cleaning up contaminated soil. The corrections department also reduced the number of housing units from eight to six, which reduced the number of cells from 1,024 to 768. Despite the smaller size of the complex, the corrections department placed its latest construction cost estimate at $356 million, with the funds to be raised by selling lease-revenue bonds. California's Public Works Board would borrow the money to build the facilities and lease the building to the corrections department, whose rent payment would be used to repay the bond debt. But the state auditor concluded that prison officials underestimated the cost of construction by nearly $40 million. In addition, the report said operating costs for the facility would require an additional $1.2 billion over 20 years. It looks very, very likely that we would be forced to build additional facilities whether we like it or not, Huffman said. Frankly, I think we ought to be stepping back and taking a look at all of our alternatives in a comprehensive way. Huffman argued that the state should consider housing death row inmates in other areas of the state, given its plans to build more prisons. Assemblyman Todd Spitzer, R-Orange, said he has little doubt that the corrections department has underestimated the cost of building the new housing units. But the lawmaker, who supports death penalty, said the San Quentin project is the kind of prison infrastructure work that the state has ignored too long. Costs are going up because we don't pay attention to our prisons on a regular basis, Spitzer said. We've seen prisons largely as a place where you send people and don't think about them. Now, the chicken's come home to roost. Condemned in California 1,152--Inmate capacity in planned new death row housing at San Quentin 674--Number of California's
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
July 30 INDIA: Catholic delegation seeks abolition of death penalty Representatives of a Catholic movement working among prisoners have appealed to Indian President Pratibha Devisingh Patil to abolish capital punishment. 6 officials of the Prison Ministry India met Patil on July 26 and submitted a memorandum. The 22-year-old ministry works under the Commission for Justice, Peace and Development of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India. According to the memorandum, India has 273 people on death row, 44 of whom are awaiting the president's decision on clemency petitions, their last recourse to have their death sentences commuted. Among the arguments it makes, the memorandum asserts that while India justifies capital punishment as a means of deterring crime, the death penalty has never acted and would never act as deterrent. Crime has only increased over the years, the prison ministry notes. Archbishop Vincent Concessao of Delhi, who accompanied the ministry officials, told UCA News Christians should advocate love, compassion and forgiveness for those on death row. The archbishop expressed hope that one day we will succeed in amending the constitution to abolish the death penalty. Amaladoss Jesuraj, a delegation member, argued India should abolish the death penalty before it asks other nations not to execute Indian citizens convicted of crimes. Speaking with UCA News, he cited the case of Sarabjit Singh, an Indian now on death row in Pakistan, where he was convicted of spying and planting bombs. India has requested clemency. Similarly, it has also pleaded with China to spare 2 Indians facing execution for drug smuggling. Father Josekutty Kalayil, the prison ministry's national coordinator, told UCA News the national debate over Singh encouraged him to push for the abolition of capital punishment. The Missionary of St. Thomas priest said his ministry, begun in 1986, has about 6,000 volunteers who visit 850 prisons. The memorandum pointed out that worldwide, 91 nations have abolished executions and 30 more have had no executions in the past 10 years. This global trend was confirmed on Dec. 18, 2007, when the United Nations passed a resolution for a moratorium on executions with a 104-54 vote. Regrettably India voted with the minority, the Church group said, noting the resolution calls on nations to impose an immediate moratorium on executions as the first step toward abolition. The death penalty puts India in a precarious situation, the memorandum adds, since the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union does not allow anyone to be extradited to a country where the person could face the death penalty. Hence, in seeking anyone's extradition from a European nation, India would have to give a commitment not to execute that person. The Church group maintains such a commitment would amount to unequal treatment of Indian citizens. On the basis of religion, it argues that Hinduism, Islam and Christianity, the three largest religions in India, all speak about God punishing evildoers. Religions also talk about reformation, and giving a chance to the culprit to compensate the victim would go a long way in reforming the person, the memorandum suggests. It quotes Biblical passages to underscore the need to reject sin while forgiving the sinner. Thou shall not kill, is the cultural quintessence and spiritual majesty of our republic's justice system, the memorandum said, quoting from Justice Krishna Iyer, a former Supreme Court of India judge. It also cites India's nonviolent heritage as expressed through Buddha and Mahatma Gandhi, which has stood for a culture of compassion for living creatures, in stating that even the most foul murderer should be given an opportunity to reform. However, the most valid argument against capital punishment, according to the memorandum, is that people can be executed in error. In 2007, the Church prison ministry collected more than 150,000 signatures in support of its demand for abolition of death penalty and sent them to the Indian president. (source: The Indian Catholic) Parcel bomb case: Victim`s father moves Delhi HC The 79-year-old father of a businessman killed by a parcel bomb 26 years ago on Tuesday approached the Delhi High Court and sought death penalty for convict and bomb-maker former Lt Col S J Chaudhary, who was sentenced to life imprisonment by the trial court. Filing the petition, H D Sikand, father of Krishan Sikand, who was killed due to the parcel bomb at his house, submitted that Chaudhary deserved to be awarded the capital punishment. Stating that the murder was committed in a premeditated and cruel manner by Chaudhary, the owner of automobile showroom Sikand Motors contended that the trial judge has ignored the fact that the crime was heinous and the parcel bomb had created a great risk of serious bodily harm or death to any other person. Choudhary, in his early 70s, was convicted by a trial court for
