[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
June 30 EGYPT: UN experts urge Egypt to overturn largest confirmed mass death verdict A group of United Nations human rights experts on Monday called on the Egyptian government to impose a moratorium on the death penalty, and to offer new and fair trials for 183 people whose death sentences have been confirmed. (source: APP news) ISRAEL: Hevron Council Head Calls for Death Penalty for Teens' MurderersHead of the Hevron Hills Council says terrorists who murdered 3 Israeli teens - and those who helped them - must be punished severely. Yohai Damai, head of the Hevron Hills Regional Council, emotionally decried the murders of Israeli teens Eyal Yifrah (19), Naftali Frenkel (16), and Gilad Sha'ar (16). The 3 were found in the area of Halhoul, located in the jurisdiction of the regional council. "They murdered our sons," Damai said. "We cannot remain silent. These murderers must be the first ones to pay with their own lives for these murders. They must be brought to justice, alive or dead. "The 3 teens were murdered in order to force us to leave our land," Damai said." We have to do the opposite - add homes, add towns, add lives. We must impose sovereignty on the Judea region. Only thus will they learn that their behavior doesn't pay. "And in the area where these murdered boys were found, the relatives and friends of these monsters have no guilt, and riot, even at this moment. The entire area must be locked down immediately," he added. In a tragic end to an intensive search by the IDF, intelligence services and police, it has been released for publication this evening (Monday) that IDF forces have discovered the bodies of the 3 teenagers abducted 18 days ago as they hitchhiked home near the town of Alon Shvut in the Gush Etzion region. The 3 teens went missing on June 12th, and officials soon identified Hamas as the culprits. Their bodies were found near Hevron, where the search operation for them - dubbed Operation Brother's Keeper - had been focused. (source: Israel National News) OMAN: State Council backs death penalty for drug trafficking in Oman Proposals to introduce death penalty for drug dealers trafficking narcotics into Oman have received the backing of the State Council, according to a member. In a move to combat drug trafficking more aggressively, the State Council has called for death penalty to drug traffickers. The suggestion has been welcomed by many on social media with many saying there must be an end to the drugs trade in the Sultanate. Welcoming the move, Khalid Hamdan, a psychologist working in Sultan Qaboos University, said that death penalty would indeed deter drug traffickers. "This will lead to a significant drop in drug trafficking cases as well as drug abuse cases in the Sultanate," he said. The State Council approved the amendment to include the proposal of death penalty in the drugs law, in the session chaired by Dr Yahya bin Mahfoudh Al Mantheri, chairman of the State Council. This proposal still needs to be discussed at a higher level before becoming a law. "A number of the State Council members focused in their discussions on how to tighten the penalties on drugs trading or abusing," said a member, while adding that most of them called for death penalty for drug traffickers. "Due to trafficking of drugs, the number of victims jumped five times between 2009 and 2013, therefore, there must be heftier penalties for drug traders," said the member. While in 2009, the number of drugs trafficking cases was 66, it reached 290 in 2013. The number of cases registered in the Central Register were 4,150 until the end of 2013, an increase of 215 cases over 2012. The State Council session discussed the report of the Social Committee on the amendments to the drugs law and psychotropic substances No. (17/99). "The State Council made changes to the Articles No. 1.6.43.56.61 and inserted 2 new ones," said the member. The State Council also suggested a proposal to develop a comprehensive national strategy to combat drugs and psychotropic substances, the member added. Meanwhile, an official at the Directorate- General for Combating Narcotic and Psychotropic Substances told the Times of Oman that seas and oceans that surround the Arab countries turn them into an easy transit route between the drug-producing areas in Asia and the areas where drugs are consumed in Europe and the Middle East. About the drug menace in the Sultanate, the official said that the issue is very pertinent, particularly because drugs target the youth segment, both men and women, and more efforts need to be made to combat it. The Sultanate, with its 3,165km coastline, is exposed to drug smuggling, the official added. According to the official, heroin was the main drug seized by the ROP in 2013. The number of drug addicts reached more than 1,400 in 2013, compared to 1,258 in 2012. (source: Times of Oman) _
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., USA
June 30 TEXAS: Houston-area man sent to death row for fatal shooting in $8 robbery loses federal appeal A federal appeals court has rejected an appeal from a Harris County man sentenced to die for fatally shooting a 36-year-old Houston-area man during an $8 robbery nearly 16 years ago. Attorneys for 34-year-old Juan Martin Garcia contend he had poor legal help during his trial in 2000 and that he's mentally impaired and ineligible for the death penalty. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals late Friday rejected the arguments. Evidence showed 36-year-old Hugo Solano was shot three times in the head while he was in his van at his Harris County apartment complex. When Garcia was pulled over for a traffic stop 11 days after the slaying, a gun fell to his car's floorboard as he got out. It was matched to the weapon used in Solano's murder. (source: Associated Press) ** 4 Texas Death Row Inmates Lose Appeals 2 Texas death row inmates lost appeals Monday before the U.S. Supreme Court and a federal appeals court rejected the appeals of 2 others. The Supreme Court refused Monday to review an appeal from Manuel Garza, Jr., 33, who was sent to death row for the shooting death of a San Antonio police officer in 2001. Evidence showed Officer John Riojas was trying to arrest Garza on several outstanding warrants when Garza tried to flee. The officer was shot with his own gun as he struggled with Garza. The Supreme Court also rejected the appeal of a Nicaraguan man sent to death row for shooting a customer to death during a robbery at a Houston-area dry cleaning store. Bernardo Tercero, 36, contended he was younger than 18 at the time of the slaying, making him ineligible for the death penalty. Prison records show Tercero gunned down Robert Berger during a struggle more than 17 years ago while Berger's 3-year-old daughter stood nearby. Tercero and a companion then fled with 2 cash registers. Tercero wound up in Nicaragua and was returned to Texas to face trial. Tercero has conflicting birth certificates and insisted the accurate one showed he was younger than 18 at the time of the shooting. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected an appeal from Juan Martin Garcia, 34, who was sentenced to death for the shooting death of a 36-year-old Houston-area man during a robbery nearly 16 years ago that authorities said netted him $8. His attorneys contend that he's mentally impaired and ineligible for the death penalty. Hugo Solano was shot 3 times in the head while he was in his van at his Harris County apartment complex. When Garcia was pulled over in a traffic stop 11 days later, a gun fell to his car's floorboard as he got out that matched the weapon used in Solano's murder. The 5th Court also rejected the appeal of Randall Wayne Mays, 54, who was sentenced to death for a shootout that left 2 Henderson County sheriff's deputies dead 7 years ago. The former welder and oilfield worker argued he had deficient legal help at his 2008 trial. The court also rejected contentions that sentencing Mays to death was unconstitutionally cruel because he's mentally ill. Mays was convicted in the death of sheriff's Deputy Tony Ogburn. The shooting left a 2nd officer, Paul Habelt, dead and a 3rd deputy wounded. The shootings occurred after Mays barricaded himself in his house in Payne Springs, about 55 miles southeast of Dallas. (source: KWTX news) PENNSYLVANIAnew execution date Execution scheduled for Washington County man Gov. Tom Corbett today signed an execution warrant for a Washington County man who was convicted in the 2003 beating, strangulation and stabbing of a widow during a robbery in her Upper St. Clair home, his office announced. The execution of Patrick Stollar, 36, is scheduled for Aug. 20, according to the governor's office. He is incarcerated at the State Correctional Institution at Greene. Stollar had been convicted of 1st-degree murder in the June 4, 2003, death of Jean Heck, 78. Heck hired him and a crew to help with yard work a few days before she was killed. Before a jury found him guilty in 40 minutes, the prosecutor said in February 2008, "By far and away the most damning evidence was Patrick Stollar's confession" to Allegheny County homicide detectives 2 days after the slaying. In the recording, Stollar is heard saying, "I drove to [Mrs. Heck's] house with nothing less than the intention to take her life." (source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) USA: Rally outside Supreme Court calls for end to death penalty in US People with a sign reading "38 years of blood on our hands" calling for an end to the death penalty as the anniversary of Gregg v. Georgia neared stood outside the US Supreme Court building on the last day of its session. People with signs called for an end to the death penalty as the anniversary of Gregg v. Georgia neared. A person dressed as a Bible also sto
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
June 30 IRANexecutions 2 prisoners hanged at Rajai Shahr Prison 2 prisoners have been hanged at the Rajai Shahr Prison in Karaj. According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), at least 2 prisoners have been hanged on charge of murder at the Rajai Shahr Prison on Karaj on Wednesday, June 25th. 1 of them is identified as Mehrdad Bagheri from section 6 and the other man's name is Benjamin from section 4 of Rajai Shahr Prison. The state run media has not published any report about these executions yet. (source: Human Rights Activists News Agency) UNITED KINGDOM: Chloe Dewe Mathews's Shot at Dawn: a moving photographic memorialDuring the 1st world war hundreds of soldiers, many of them teenage volunteers, were shot by firing squad for cowardice or desertion. Chloe Dewe Mathews's photographs of the mostly forgotten sites of their execution provide a poignant memorial of their tragic fate James Crozier was 16 when he presented himself at his local army recruiting office in Belfast in September 1914. He was accompanied by his mother, Elizabeth, who tried in vain to prevent him enlisting. The recruiting officer, who also happened to be called Crozier, assured her he would look out for her son and "would see that no harm comes to him". Throughout the winter of 1915-16, Private James Crozier fought on the Somme in the 36th Ulster Division, 9th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles. In early February 1916, he failed to report for sentry duty in the trenches near Serre on the Western Front. A week later, he was found wandering in a daze some distance behind the front line. An army doctor examined him and declared him fit in both mind and body and, on 14 February 1916, he was court-martialled for desertion. James Crozier defended himself, saying that he had not known what he was doing when he went absent and had been wracked with pains throughout his body. He was sentenced to death. Frank Crozier - the officer who had reassured Crozier's mother - was asked to supply a recommendation as to whether or not the sentence should be commuted. He recommended that it should be carried out. On the eve of the execution, whether out of compassion or guilt, he insisted that the condemned soldier be plied with drink through the night. As dawn broke on 27 February 1916, 18-year-old Private James Crozier, a boy who had defied his mother to fight for his country, was carried, unconscious from alcohol, from a holding cell to the grounds of a commandeered villa nearby. As he was incapable of standing, he was tied upright to a post and blindfolded. His officer namesake later recorded the proceedings in his memoirs: "There are hooks on the post; we always do things thoroughly in the Rifles. He is hooked on like dead meat in a butcher's shop. His eyes are bandaged - not that it really matters, for he is already blind." The firing squad, which was made up of soldiers from James Crozier's own regiment, shot wide and, after an army doctor confirmed that Crozier was still alive, an officer drew his revolver and fired a single bullet into the victim's head. "Life is now extinct," Crozier later concluded in his recollection of the execution. "We march back to breakfast while the men of a certain company pay the last tribute at the graveside of an unfortunate comrade. This is war." Almost 100 years later, at dawn on a freezing December morning in 2013, the British photographer Chloe Dewe Mathews set up her camera in the grounds of a French chateau in Mailly-Maillet in Picardy. The resulting photograph is austere: a tangled bush stands in the middle of a green field which slopes upwards to bare trees and a grey wintry sky. This ordinary-looking landscape is imbued with a melancholic power because of what happened there on a cold February morning in 1916. It is the place where Private James Crozier was executed. Dewe Mathews's series Shot at Dawn records many of the sites where around 1,000 British, French and Belgian soldiers were executed for cowardice or desertion (records of where German soldiers were shot were destroyed during the 2nd world war). It was commissioned by the Ruskin School of Art at the University of Oxford as part of a commemorative art series, 14-18 NOW, and will be published as a book in July and exhibited at Tate Modern in November. "Initially, I was wary of taking on a project about the first world war as I have no personal connection with it," says Dewe Mathews, "but, from a documentary photography perspective, I was drawn to the idea of arriving somewhere 100 years afterwards. It's almost the opposite of war photography. So, instead of the photographer bearing witness, it is the landscape that has witnessed the event and I who am having to go into that landscape in the hope of finding anything tangibly connected to the event. It was almost like having to find a new language or way of seeing." She spent the
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----MO., USA
June 30 MISSOURI: Missouri's Nixon dinged by journalist group Secrecy surrounding Missouri's death penalty has garnered Gov. Jay Nixon a "Golden Padlock" designation from a national journalism organization. The award, handed out by Investigative Reporters and Editors, is designed to "honor" the most secretive U.S. agency or individual. Nixon shared the award with Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin, who also supported secrecy involving executions in that state, and the U.S. Navy Freedom of Information Act office, which won for blocking access to records about a deadly shooting rampage in Washington, D.C., that killed 12 people last year. From the IRE's announcment: "After Missouri announced last year it was making the state's execution drug supplier a legally protected secret, officials began redacting all identifying information in response to freedom of information requests. When journalists eventually learned the name of the hidden supplier, they reported the company was not licensed in the state, had been cited in the past by regulatory agencies and was paid thousands of dollars for its services in cash deliveries by a high-ranking state official. Rather than embracing greater openness and transparency following the revelations, the state again shrouded its new, unknown execution drug supplier in secrecy where it remains today." The Kansas City Star, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Springfield News-Leader, Associated Press and The Guardian U.S. sued the Missouri Department of Corrections earlier this year arguing that the department is violating the First Amendment by refusing to identify the sources of lethal drugs used in its executions. Another execution in Missouri is scheduled for Aug. 6. (source: Kansas City Star) USA: US Lawmaker Questions Terror Suspect's Trial A senior U.S. lawmaker says terror suspects, including the accused leader of the deadly 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, should be held at the U.S. military detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Representative Mike Rogers, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, told CNN Sunday that Ahmed Abu Khatallah should be treated as an enemy combatant and not as a criminal on U.S. soil, arguing that doing so would be costly and could hamper the ability of U.S. officials to extract valuable intelligence from suspected terrorists. Khatallah pleaded 'not guilty' to terrorism charges Saturday in a federal court in Washington. Rogers said Khatallah has been "compliant but not cooperative" with U.S. interrogators. The United States alleges Khatallah led a conspiracy that resulted in the September 11, 2012, attack that killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. That crime is punishable by up to life in prison, but the government is expected to file additional charges that could lead to the death penalty. Khatallah's next court appearance is scheduled for Wednesday. U.S. Special Forces and the FBI arrested Khatallah earlier this month near Benghazi. Authorities questioned him aboard the Navy ship that brought him to U.S. soil. Republicans in Congress accuse the Obama administration and the State Department of being negligent in providing enough security in a volatile region prone to terrorism. The case also represents a test of the Obama administration's goal of prosecuting terror suspects in civilian courts in the face of Republican critics who say such defendants are not entitled to the protections of the American legal system. (source: Voice of America News) * Hawaii juror favored death for ex-soldier, 8-4 Jurors who decided the fate of a former soldier convicted of killing his 5-year-old daughter said their labored deliberations ended with 8 of them wanting him sentenced to death and 4 of them wanting him to spend the rest of his life in prison. Because they couldn't agree, Naeem Williams will be sentenced to life in prison without possibility for release for the 2005 beating death of his daughter, Talia. Weighing the decision meant considering the violent beatings Williams said he inflicted on Talia to discipline her for bathroom accidents, graphic descriptions that 1 juror said will haunt him forever. "I have a 4 1/2-year-old granddaughter, and for the rest of my life in her I'm going to see the girl," juror Clarence Kaona told The Associated Press. "I'll never get those autopsy pictures out of my mind." He voted for the death penalty. "I'm a little disappointed," he said. "I feel like we let the girl down." It was the same jury that convicted Williams of murder in April that deliberated for about 7 days before deciding they couldn't agree on a sentence. An indication of their turmoil was their announcement that they had reached their verdict Thursday afternoon but wanted to wait until Friday morning to read it because some of them were "emotionally drained." The concept
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., OHIO, TENN., OKLA.
June 30 TEXAS: Nicaraguan on Texas death row loses at high court A Nicaraguan man sent to Texas death row for fatally shooting a customer during a robbery at a Houston-area dry cleaning store has lost a U.S. Supreme Court appeal that contended he was under 18 at the time of the slaying, making him ineligible for the death penalty. Prison records show 36-year-old Bernardo Tercero gunned down Robert Berger during a struggle more than 17 years ago as Berger's 3-year-old daughter stood nearby. Tercero and a companion then fled with 2 cash registers. Tercero wound up in Nicaragua and was returned to Texas to face trial. Tercero had conflicting birth certificates. He insisted the accurate one showed he was younger than 18 at the time of the shooting. The Supreme Court, without comment Monday, refused to review his case. (source: Associated Press) ** Death-row inmates 'A blessing to me' I am a Southern Baptist and a "missionary kid" from Mexico. My parents served there 36 years as missionaries. I had no idea Baptists supported the death penalty and was shocked when I found that out upon moving to the United States. I totally agree with Pastor Jeff Hood's view of the death penalty as a Christian. I am ministering to 7 death-row inmates at Polunsky Unit. There were 9, but 2 have gone to be with the Lord through execution. It is a ministry God put on my heart when I moved to the United States 7 years ago. I can tell you that seeing the spiritual growth, changes, peace and joy in these men is the greatest joy in my life. They are a blessing to me. I want to commend Jeff Hood for being so brave and standing for what a true follower of Jesus Christ is. Dorothy Lee RuelasRosenberg (source: Letter to the Editor, Baptist Standard) FLORIDA: Judge blasts lawyer in Rasheem Dubose death-penalty case as status of appeal becomes muddied One of the most high-profile murder cases in recent Jacksonville history has devolved into an ugly death-penalty appeal with the trial judge accusing the defense lawyer of misleading him and the Florida Supreme Court in an effort to get his client off death row. Circuit Judge Lawrence P. Haddock accused attorney Richard Kuritz of hiding the fact that he simultaneously represented Rasheem Dubose and 1 of the jurors in the case after that jury convicted Dubose and recommended he be sentenced to death. Kuritz declined comment. Attorney Bill Sheppard, who is representing Kuritz, said his client did nothing wrong. "I'm confident this lawyer with 20 years' experience knows what he's doing," Sheppard said. Death penalty cases tend to bring out the worst in people when it comes to anger and allegations, and that's what's happening here, Sheppard said. Dubose, 30, was convicted of killing 8-year-old DreShawna Davis and sentenced to death. DreShawna, who died in 2006 protecting her cousins from a hail of bullets into her home, became the face of Jacksonville's state-leading homicide rate and galvanized city leaders to do something about it. The Jacksonville Journey anti-crime initiative was launched soon after DreShawna's death and is credited with helping lower the homicide rate. Kuritz represented juror Tomi Chavez for 2 traffic tickets and in a civil personal injury lawsuit while he was handling Dubose's appeal, which hinged on Chavez's claim that juror misconduct occurred. Kuritz said in court filings that he did his legal work for Chavez after she was a juror in the case. "The days I served as a juror are a blur," Chavez said in an email to the Times-Union on Thursday. "It was stressful and done wrong." Chavez said other jurors, in a racist manner, made fun of the way Dubose spoke, researched the case on their cellphones while they deliberated and debated whether a teardrop tattoo on Dubose's face was a gang symbol or a sign that he'd killed someone. In her email to the Times-Union, Chavez, who now lives in Hawaii, said jurors were already familiar with the case before the trial began. "The other jurors had knowledge of this because they watched the news and lived in Jax," Chavez said. Haddock declined comment for this story because he said the 66-page order he wrote on these claims was under seal and not supposed to be released to the public. The Times-Union obtained multiple documents in the case from the Florida Supreme Court after making a public records request, including Haddock's order. The Times-Union chose to publish this story, which extensively quotes Haddock from that order, because of the seriousness of the allegations by a judge against a lawyer in a high-profile case. In his order, Haddock said Chavez was not credible and blasted Kuritz for his conduct. Kuritz took Chavez's concerns of misconduct to the Florida Supreme Court without ever revealing she was his client in unrelated cases because he knew it was a conflict of interest, Haddock sai
