[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., GA., FLA., WASH., USA
Sept. 15 TEXAS: We recommend Bert Richardson for Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, Place 3 Deep experience in the law. Impeccable credentials. Exposure to a range of issues. Energy. Intellectual engagement. Widely traveled. If these are ideal qualities for a member of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, Republican Bert Richardson is an ideal candidate for Place 3 on November's ballot. Richardson, 58, was a state district judge in San Antonio for 10 years before taking senior status and assignments to cases across 45 Texas counties. The cases he's handled reflect some of the big challenges in criminal justice. Richardson is also board certified in criminal law, a qualification achieved by fewer than 2 % of lawyers. Richardson has been involved with numerous death penalty cases, both as a prosecutor in Bexar County and as a judge. His observations to this newspaper on capital punishment are remarkable for a jurist: Richardson said there is no consistency in Texas in deciding when to seek the death penalty and that the state could benefit from a review process similar to one used by the U.S. Justice Department. Richardson once worked as a federal prosecutor. Richardson's Democratic opponent, John Granberg, 38, is an El Paso criminal lawyer and former assistant county prosecutor who says he would improve the court's awareness of immigration law. With no experience in state appeals or death cases, Granberg lacks credentials needed for this post. Libertarian Mark W. Bennett also appears on the ballot. (source: Editorial, Dallas Morning News) * No-Knock Raid Leads To Dead Officer But No Drugs: Prosecutors Pushing For Death Penalty Anyway A no-knock raid is a law enforcement technique designed to search for incriminating evidence while taking suspects by surprise. However, on the morning of May 9, it left one officer dead and another injured. Now prosecutors in Killeen, Texas, are hoping to impose the death penalty on the suspect, 49-year-old Marvin Louis Guy (pictured above), in spite of the fact that no drugs were found. The Washington Post writer Radley Balko looks at why this may not be such a good idea. Perhaps this was a major drug operation that justified a pre-dawn, no-knock raid. But it doesn't seem like it from the evidence found, Balko said. I'd imagine that a good percentage of households in Texas have at least 1 firearm and that a good percentage of households elsewhere in America have cellphones and a set of walkie-talkies [items found in the raid]. While there was a drug pipe found at the scene, this suggests drug use, not distribution, and Balko rightly points out that while an informant saw white bags of cocaine transported in and around the house, criminal informants are not typically that reliable. But all of that is mostly beside the point, Balko concludes. The fact that the police didn't find any drugs in the house suggests that Marvin Louis Guy didn't know he was shooting at cops. Drug dealer or no, unless he had a death wish, it's unlikely that a guy would knowingly fire at police officers when he had nothing in the house that was particularly incriminating. Still, the Killeen Police Department lost one of its own in 47-year-old Officer Charles Chuck Dinwiddie, and that isn't lost on the prosecution, notes KWTX. The outlet originally broke the news prosecutors would be seeking the death penalty in spite of the probability that Guy, awakened at 5:30 a.m/ by the no-knock raid, was simply shooting wildly at what he believed to be armed intruders. His gunfire also struck the femur of Officer Odis Denton, 37, who underwent surgery and was later released from Scott White Hospital. Guy also shot 2 additional officers, who were unharmed due to the bullets striking protective gear. While the evidence presented thus far does not indicate that police had substantial reason to believe Guy was a drug dealer, the case is still in the early stages of being tried, so it'll be interesting to see how it develops. (source: Inquisitr) PENNSYLVANIA: Death penalty trial to open in 2012 slaying of suburban Philadelphia baby, grandmother Jury selection is scheduled Tuesday in the trial of a suburban Philadelphia man accused of having killed a baby and her grandmother in a botched kidnapping plot. 27-year-old Raghunandan Yandamuri of Upper Merion could face the death penalty if convicted of 1st-degree murder in Montgomery County Court. Prosecutors allege that he kidnapped 10-month-old Saanvi Venna from her family's King of Prussia apartment in October 2012 and killed the baby's grandmother after the woman tried to protect the child. The girl's body was found several days later. Yandamuri plans to represent himself on charges of first and second degree murder, kidnapping, burglary and robbery. The trial was scheduled to open last week but was delayed to allow him to look into forensic
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
Sept. 15 IRANexecutions Ghezelhesar Prison: 8 prisoners hanged, 4 others committed suicide During last week, 8 prisoners were executed by hanging in Ghezalhesar prison, in Karaj, and 4 other death row inmates committed suicide. According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), on Wednesday 10th September 8 prisoners with charges of possessing and carrying drugs were executed by hanging in Karaj, Ghezalhesar prison. 5 of these prisoners were from ward 1, Unit 2 and 3 others from other wards of the same Unit. Also, during last week 4 prisoners who were sentenced to death, in Ghezalhesar prison, committed suicide. 2 of them lost their lives and 2 others were admitted in medical centers outside the prison. Executions in drug related crimes has increased while the experts believe that drug problem in Iran cannot be solved by using death penalty. (source: Human Rights Activists News Agency) AFGHANISTAN: Court Confirms 5 Death Sentences in Afghan Rape Case An Afghan appeals court confirmed death sentences on Monday against 5 of the 7 defendants in a notorious robbery and rape case, despite their claims that their confessions were extracted through torture. For the other 2 defendants, the court found insufficient evidence to justify the death penalty, so it reduced their sentences to 20 years' imprisonment. The 7 men were accused of dressing in police uniforms and stopping a caravan of cars returning from a wedding in the Paghman district, less than half an hour's drive from Kabul; robbing the occupants and raping 4 of the women by the roadside. The Kabul police department was under enormous public pressure to solve the case, which prompted national outrage and revulsion. But women's rights activists have noted that the outrage was less an expression of concern about the women's welfare than about the perceived dishonor to the victims' husbands. That pervasive sense of male privilege - to the degree that Afghan women and girls are still commonly seen as marital property, and are frequently subject to so-called honor killings even when they are the victims of sexual attacks - has remained despite efforts to reform Afghanistan's legal code to enshrine more protections for women. Qaisullah was one of the defendants sentenced to death in a rape case in Kabul.Credit Shah Marai/Agence France-Presse - Getty Images Almost from the beginning, questions have been raised about whether the suspects were being railroaded by the government. President Hamid Karzai promised to approve the death penalty against the men even before their hurried, 2-hour-long trial on Sept. 7. The entire case against them rested on their confessions and on their identification by victims at a police lineup. But all seven men said that they were severely beaten by police officers until they confessed to the rapes, and that the victims were told by the police whom to identify in a lineup that included no one other than them. When the lady who picked me out first came in, she put her hand on the chief of the criminal investigation division, and then on the cook, Qaisullah, 1 of the 5 condemned men, said at the appeals court hearing Monday, referring to 2 police employees who would have been in plain clothes. Then they showed me to her, and she picked me. Like many Afghans and several of the other defendants, Mr. Qaisullah uses only 1 name. Human Rights Watch said the police identification procedure was not a lineup but a showup, in which the police indicated to the victims who the suspects were. The 5 men whose death sentences were confirmed on Monday did not deny being part of the gang that carried out a robbery at the scene, but they said they had nothing to do with the rapes. After that beating, I would have confessed to adultery with my mother, said Azizullah, 1 of the 5 men, describing his interrogation by police at the hearing. Another, Mohammad Nazar, said he had only acted as a lookout and that the police beat him for 5 days until he confessed. I never even saw the women taken from the cars, he said through sobs at the hearing. Mr. Azizullah's wife and sister were in the audience at the hearing on Monday, wearing blue burqas. Why are the victims not present here? the sister, Habiba, asked the court. Why are none of their relatives here? You should have strong proof when you are handing down death sentences. The 2 men whose death sentences were reduced to prison terms testified that they were in the process of committing a separate burglary when the police arrested them, and then were beaten until they confessed to involvement in the rapes. One of them, Saifullah, said the police had forcibly put a uniform on him before photographing him to support their case against him. The other 5 defendants confirmed to the appellate judge, Atiqullah Aqiq, that they did not know the 2 burglars. There was little sympathy in the
