[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----OKLA., WYO., NEV., ARIZ., CALIF., ORE., WASH., USA
Jan. 17 OKLAHOMA: Capital punishment raises questions Asking the wrong questions always leads to the wrong answers. When considering the death penalty, the question may not be whether it is right or wrong, but is it worth the cost. Since the companies in the European Union that produce a key ingredient of the chemical cocktail used to carry out the death penalty began withholding them from the United States as a protest against their use in executions, the method used to exact the state's most severe punishment has come back under fire. More than 35 years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court signed off on the chemicals used in lethal injections. With sodium thiopental - the 1st drug used in the process that renders inmates deeply unconscious - being withheld by European companies, states that still use the death penalty are forced to use different combinations of drugs. Oklahoma and Ohio have both had difficult executions since the change in chemicals. Part of the problem appears to be the chemicals used and part in how they are administered. Thursday night, Oklahoma ended a nine-month hiatus from capital punishment when Charles Warner was executed. Warner earned his trip to death row by raping and killing the 11-month old daughter of his roommate. Because that crime landed him on death row, he hasn't even been forced to stand trial for the abuse and rape of a 5-year-old girl. It is going to be difficult to convince me that anything we do to bring his life to an end was overly cruel or unusual. Warner did his best to convince courts and medical personnel that the process should be stopped. Before I give my final statement, I'll tell you they poked me five times. It hurt. It feels like acid, he said as the execution process began. I'm not a monster. I didn't do everything they said I did. My body is on fire. The only physical signs that Warner even felt the effects of the drugs was a slight twitching in his neck for a few minutes. That will make it hard to make a case that the punishment is cruel and or unusual. When compared to the crimes he was convicted of and accused of that he never faced trial for, I don't expect an outpouring of sympathy. As a member of the media, I witnessed executions using the former combination of drugs. I never walked out of that chamber with any sympathy for the felon whose sentence was carried out. My focus has always been on those families whose last hope for closure came after the person who devastated their lives was finally out of the picture for good. I don't think criminals have a constitutional right to know what chemicals will be used to fulfill their death sentence. The information should be a public record, but the fact that it isn't doesn't appear to violate Eighth Amendment protections. However, we don't intentionally torture these convicts to death because we are not knit together with the same evil thread that became knotted in the consciousness of those facing the state???s ultimate punishment. I also wonder if death sentences accomplish any goal beyond vengeance. I understand the desire for vengeance, but is it worth the increased risk and costs involved? There are 3 arguments I would consider for abolishing the death penalty in its entirety. First, the death penalty is impossible to overturn if you find a mistake after the sentence is carried out. That's a valid argument. However, that can be resolved easily enough by raising the bar even higher when deciding which cases are eligible for the death penalty. Second, the death penalty tends to be more attractive to juries considering the fate of minority defendants - especially minority defendant accused of crimes against white people. The executions I witnessed were white males. But statistics show that poor minorities face a far greater likelihood of being executed. Being represented by court-appointed counsel with limited budgets compared to private practice defense attorneys obviously plays a role in this inequity. Once again, the argument is valid but could be easily - if not inexpensively - resolved. The final argument that is exemplified in the recent Oklahoma actions will never be resolved. Thanks to the severity of the punishment, and the fact that no one wants to execute the wrong person, death row inmates have increased access to courts and that is very expensive. It can cost 4 times as much to try a suspect facing the death penalty. It usually costs far more to house them and hear their appeals and motions as well. I have no problem with the death penalty, but I am willing to consider whether life in jail with no chance for parole wouldn't be a less risky and more efficient way to punish the worst among us. (source: Guest Columist Kent Bush is publisher of Shawnee News-Starposted in the Alice (Texas) Echo Journal) WYOMING: Legislators Pass Firing Squad Bill In the Senate A bill passed the
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
Jan. 17 ETHIOPIA: MPs seek release of British citizen on death row in Ethiopia A delegation of British parliamentarians will be in Ethiopia next month in an attempt to secure the release of a British citizen who is facing the death penalty in Ethiopia. Andargachew Tsege, a British national who was born in Ethiopia, was the secretary-general of exiled Ethiopian opposition movement Ginbot 7, labelled by the Ethiopian government as terrorist entity in 2011. Tsege was sentenced to death in absentia in 2009 on charges of planning to assassinate government officials and thereby to stage a coup, an allegation he denies. He was arrested by Yemeni authorities at Sana'a airport on 23 June while he was in transit to Eritrea and was subsequently extradited to Ethiopia under a security arrangement Yemen has with Ethiopia. The Independent newspaper, reported that the delegation of British legislators will be headed by Jeremy Corbyn, vice-chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Human Rights. The UK government and prime minister David Cameron himself were criticised by Tsege's family and right groups for not doing enough to secure his release. He is a British citizen so there is no reason on earth why the British government should not take a very robust view on this, said Corbyn on Thursday while announcing the planned visit. He added Tsege's constituent is a British national in prison with no understandable, comprehensible or acceptable legal process that's put him there. Clive Stafford-Smith, director, Reprieve, who will accompany the MPs to Ethiopia, said: I think Mr Cameron doesn't understand how serious this is. I think that Tsege is going to be seen, as the years go by, as Ethiopia's Nelson Mandela A spokesperson for the Ethiopian Embassy in London claimed that Mr Tsege belongs to a terrorist organisation seeking to overthrow the legitimate government of Ethiopia. He is being well treated and torture is inhumane and has no place in modern Ethiopia, he added. According to the Foreign Office, the British government is pressing authorities in Ethiopian not to carry out the death penalty. Tsege, who recently appeared on the state-run Ethiopia Television, said he was working with neighbouring Eritrea, long standing Ethiopia's foe, to destabilise the Horn of Africa nation. He also confessed he has been recruiting and training people in Eritrea who will cross borders to carry out attacks in Ethiopian soil. However, opposition sources cast doubts over the seriousness of such confessions, saying they were obtained using methods of torture. Between 1998 and 2000, Eritrea and Ethiopia fought a 2-year-long bloody border war in which over 70,000 people lost their lives. The 2 neighbours regularly trade accusations of hosting and providing support to each other's rebel groups. (source: Sudan Tribune) IRANexecutions Execution of 2 Prisoners at Shiraz Adel-Abad Prison On Sunday morning, 11 January 2015, 2 prisoners charged with armed robbery were hanged at Shiraz Adel-Abad Prison. According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), on Sunday 10 January 2015, 3 prisoners convicted of armed robbery were transferred to solitary confinement so their death sentence could be carried out. 2 of these prisoners were executed on Sunday 11 January 2015, but the 3rd one was returned to his cell for unknown reasons. It is important to mention that these executions were not covered by Iranian national media. (source: Human Rights Activists News Agency) JAPAN: Japan's final sarin gas trial unlikely to bring closure11 members of Aum Shinrikyo cult face execution, yet group that carried out Japan's worst domestic terrorist attack lives on The final trial of a member of the Aum Shinrikyo cult opened in Tokyo today, nearly 20 years after followers of the apocalyptic group released sarin nerve gas on the city's subway system. When the case concludes, and cult members are no longer required to give testimony against each other, the executions can begin. 11 followers of Shoko Asahara, who declared himself a reincarnation of Christ and founded the cult in 1984, have been sentenced to death for crimes that include murder, abduction, the production of weapons and creating nerve gas. In total, 189 people were indicted for crimes carried out by Aum, culminating in Japan's worst case of domestic terrorism and an incident that still has reverberations today. The last cult follower to appear in court is Katsuya Takahashi, who was spotted in a comic book cafe in Tokyo in June 2012. On the run for more than 16 years, 56-year-old Takahashi is charged with murder for his part in the morning rush-hour sarin gas attack on March 20, 1995, in which 13 commuters and station staff died, with 6,000 more hospitalised. The trial is expected to last until April and prosecutors have indicated that they will
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
Jan. 17 INDONESIAexecutions Indonesia executes 6 for drug offences Prisoners killed included foreigners from Brazil, the Netherlands, Vietnam, Malawi and Nigeria. Indonesia has executed 6 people convicted of drugs offences, including 5 foreigners, a spokesman for the attorney general's office said. All the convicts were executed by firing squad shortly after midnight local time on Sunday morning. The foreigners were from Brazil, the Netherlands, Vietnam, Malawi and Nigeria. The execution of the 6 convicts has been carried out, spokesman Tony Spontana told AFP news agency. He said 5 were executed on Nusakambangan Island, off the south coast of the archipelago's main island of Java and home to a high-security prison. The 6th was executed in Boyolali district in central Java. The executions mark the 1st time capital punishment has been carried out under new President Joko Widodo. Widodo, who took office in late October, signed off on the executions last month. He pledged no clemency for drug offenders, despite pleas from the European Union, the Brazilian government and Amnesty International. Indonesia resumed executions in 2013 after a 5-year gap. Widodo has taken a strong stance on the rule of law, not only on drugs but also on corruption and maritime law. In his first few months in office, he has ordered illegal fishing vessels to be blown up by the navy and supported the unprecedented move of dismissing the entire board of energy giant Pertamina. (source: Al Jazeera) Indonesia Executes Brazilian Citizen Archer in Drug Case Marco Archer, 1 of 2 Brazilians condemned to death for drug trafficking in Indonesia, was executed soon after midnight Jakarta time, the Brazilian presidency said. The decision to execute Archer gravely affects relations between the 2 countries, the presidency said in an e-mailed statement. The Brazilian ambassador to Indonesia, based in Jakarta, is being summoned to Brasilia for consultations, the statement added. Indonesian President Joko Widodo yesterday rejected a plea from President Dilma Rousseff to spare Archer and Rodrigo Gularte from the death penalty, saying he couldn't commute the sentence because all judicial proceedings had followed Indonesian law and the Brazilian citizens had been granted due process. Brazil's Prosecutor General Rodrigo Janot also sent a letter to Indonesia's Attorney General HM Prasetyo yesterday, requesting an 8-week delay to Archer's execution by firing squad. In the same letter, he said he saw the possibility for commutation of Gularte's death sentence for immunity reasons. Gularte was not scheduled to be executed today. (source: Bloomberg News) * Indonesia to execute 6 drug convicts by firing squad this weekend The Indonesian government will execute 6 people by firing squad this weekend for drug-related offences in the 1st capital punishment deaths in the nation since 2013. The list of death row inmates expected to be executed this year sits at 20, after Indonesia's new President Widodo stated he will not grant clemency to 64 drug-related death row inmates - who will all be killed. Indonesia is known for its harsh penalties for drug convictions, after halting the execution of drug offenders in 2004, the country resumed killings in 2013. There is no pardon for this matter, President Widodo said at a press conference on Dec. 10, I think we are aware that Indonesia is in a state of emergency due to drugs. Brazilian man Marco Archer Cardoso Moreira will be the 1st foreigner executed in Indonesia this year, according to Fairfax Media. On Wednesday, he was transferred to an isolation cell, which is common practice before facing the death penalty. His lawyer said he had feelings of shock, sadness and fear at facing a firing squad for attempting to smuggle 13.4 kilograms of cocaine into Jakarta. The Brazilian government has pleaded for him to be spared. Indonesian national Rani Andriani, Nigerian national Daniel Enemuo, Dutch national Ang Kim Soei, Vietnamese national Tran Thi Bich Hanh and Nigerian national Namaona Denis are the other inmates scheduled to be killed this weekend. The group has been given 3-days notice as is required by law and their final wishes have been requested. The execution announcement shocked Australian drug traffickers, Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan, who are imprisoned in Indonesia and are now expected to be executed this year, News Limited reported. The pair were arrested and convicted of being the ringleaders in a plan by 9 Australians, dubbed the Bali 9, to smuggle 8.3 kilograms of heroin from Bali, Indonesia, to Australia in 2005. All other members of the drug ring were given life sentences, while the ringleaders were sentenced to death by firing squad. The men have pleaded for clemency, but according to News Limited, the government is not budging on the
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., GA., FLA., MISS., OHIO
Jan. 17 TEXAS: Court Suspends Death Row Inmate's Lawyer Over Late Filing On Wednesday, the judges of Texas' highest criminal court told a defense attorney named David Dow he would not be able to practice in front of them for the next year. The Court of Criminal Appeals decided that Dow had filed a motion to stop the execution of his client, Miguel Angel Paredes, too late, and that since he'd done the same thing in a different case in 2010, he will now be suspended. Neither the court nor Dow, a professor at the University of Houston Law Center and one of the best known death penalty defense attorneys in the country, will comment publicly. But this move is the latest evidence of an ongoing feud in Texas between lawyers who appeal on behalf of inmates facing executions, Dow chief among them, and the judges who rule on their claims. On the surface, the fights have been about deadlines, but, as criminal justice blogger Scott Henson described Dow's relationship with the judges back in 2009, Basically these folks just don't like each other on a level that transcends any given issue. Miguel Paredes was executed last October for a triple murder of gang rivals, committed in 2000. The summer before the execution, he wrote a letter to Dow asking for help, and Dow volunteered - without being appointed to the case - to investigate Paredes' claims. It took a while owing to Dow's busy schedule, but he found that Paredes' original lawyer had called no witnesses at the trial and that Paredes was allowed to waive an early appeal while on anti-psychotic medications. Dow filed an appeal and a call for a stay 7 days before the execution. The court said he should have filed it the day before. The court has explicitly said the deadline is 7 days before an execution, but in practice, attorneys know that they must have it in eight days before. It wasn't the first time Dow had clashed with the court over deadlines. One evening in October 2007, shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to review Kentucky's lethal injection protocol, Dow and his colleagues raced to write a new appeal for their client Michael Richard. As they worked to argue how the Kentucky case mirrored their own, they later said, their computers broke down, and they asked the Court of Criminal Appeals to wait 20 minutes after its 5 p.m. deadline so they could deliver the appeal by hand. We close at 5, was the response by the court's head judge, Sharon Keller. Those 4 words became a rallying point for the death penalty's opponents and made her a villain (Sharon Killer) in newspaper editorials across the country. The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers sent a complaint about her actions to the Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct. The commission's report on the matter called Keller's conduct not exemplary of a public service, but cast firm doubt on Dow's computer breakdown story and took him to task for making inaccurate statements in the press about how soon the appeal was actually ready, which spun out of control into a public groundswell of opposition against Judge Keller. In June 2011, Keller's court issued a new rule about filing deadlines. A pleading would be deemed untimely if it was filed fewer than 7 days before the scheduled execution date. The rule goes on to say that a request for a stay of execution filed at 8 a.m. on a Wednesday morning when the execution is scheduled for the following Wednesday at 6 p.m. is untimely. Dow filed a motion to stay Paredes' execution at 12:37 p.m. on Oct. 21. The execution was set for Oct. 28 at 6 p.m. It was more than 7 days in advance, but violated the rule's example. Pull out a calendar if you find this all a bit confusing. At a hearing last month, Dow went before the court to defend his late filing. The court found that he and his partner failed to show good cause for the untimely filings. In Dow's corner are defense attorneys who think the narrow and peculiar application of deadline rules allows the judges to avoid what went wrong at the original trial. The judges were focusing very narrowly on 15 hours of time rather than the case as presented, said Kathryn Kase, director of the Texas Defender Service and a former colleague of Dow???s. It's somewhat like saying, 'You were working too late in the emergency room,' while not focusing on the grievous injuries the patient has. As for the trial defense lawyer, who called no witnesses even as his client faced a death sentence, the judges had no complaints. (source: Texas Tribune) ** Capital murder trial costs county Information from the county auditor's office indicates that so far, the Gabriel Armandariz double homicide case has cost Young County about $427,334 and will likely cost taxpayers much more than that by the time the trial concludes. The Jeremy Thornburg murder case that concluded last October cost Young County $42,897, but a
