[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
Aug. 20 IRANexecutions 2 Public Executions in Zanjan and One Execution in Shiraz's Adel Abad Prison17-year-old Alireza was hanged in public in Karaj early this morning On Tuesday August 18th 2 prisoners charged with rape were hanged to death in public in the province of Zanjan, according to the Justice Department in Zanjan. On Sunday August 16th a prisoner, identified as Omar Parastandeh Khial, with drug related charges was hanged to death in Shiraz's Adel Abad Prison, according to the Baluch Activists Campaign group. Iranian authorities have not reported on Khial's execution. The identities of the 2 prisoners who were hanged to death in Zanjan have not been announced to the public. The prisoners were reportedly accused of the kidnap and rape of a 9 year old child. (source: Iran Human Rights) SAUDI ARABIAexecutions Saudi executes Chadians for killing FrenchmanVictim was shot as he was driving home from supermarket Saudi Arabia on Thursday executed 2 Chadians for killing a French man last year. The interior ministry said Eisa Saleh Hassan and Ishaq Eisa Ahmad were found guilty of joining a terrorist organisation and shooting the French national and of monitoring vehicles belonging to a consulate in the Red Sea city of Jeddah and shooting employees. The 2 also faced charges of seeking to target foreign nationals and of being in possession of weapons to attack people and undermine security. The court said the duo followed a deviant ideology that permitted the targeting of some people. Despite all steps the two men took to evade justice, the security agencies were able to arrest them and foil their plans, the interior ministry said. Investigations led to levelling charges against them and to referring them to the competent court. The death penalty ruling issued by the judges was upheld by the Court of Appeals and subsequently by the Supreme Court. A royal order was issued to carry out the sentence, the ministry said in a statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency (SPA). According to Saudi reports last year, Laurent Barbot, the Frenchman who was killed in September on a quiet residential street in Jeddah by the 2 Chadians, worked for a military technology systems company. According to Arab Times, Barbot, in his 40s, was shot through the front window of his car while driving back to Al Zahra district's Sierra Village compound, home to a large expatriate community. Barbot reportedly was on his way home from a supermarket located less than 400 meters from the residential compound and had to slow down at a speed bump. At that moment, an unknown car pulled up alongside his vehicle and its occupants opened fire with a machine gun, striking Barbot in the neck and chest. (source: Gulf News) PAKISTAN: Inside the mind of an executioner: Hangman shares his thoughts An executioner has revealed that his mind is a perfect blank when he takes the life of another human being. Hangman Sabir Massih said he never feels anything when he ties the noose around the neck of a prisoner and pulls the lever on a trapdoor, sealing their fate. I don't think about them at all, he told BBC correspondent Shaimaa Khalil. For me, it's a technical thing. We have 3 minutes flat to get this done, so I try to do it as quickly as possible. I want to get there on time, I want to go in and out in the time that's allocated and I want to do the job right. The Pakistani's relatives have been in the business of death for generations. His father, uncles, grandfather and great-grandfather were all hangmen before him. It's just part of our family, he said. Pakistan lifted a s7-year moratorium on the death penalty last year after massacre of 150 students at a school in Peshawar by Taliban militants. More than 200 death-row inmates have been hanged in the past 8 months, and the country now has one of the highest execution rates in the world, alongside Iran, Saudi Arabia and China. Massih told the reporter that even the very 1st time he took a life, he was calm. I had only seen 1 hanging before, that was done by my father, he said. It was him who taught me at home how to tie a noose properly. The superintendent of the jail reassured me and said that there is no reason to get confused or to be anxious. He gave me the signal, I pulled the lever and opened the trap. It was only after I looked that I saw the person hanging. It was a matter of seconds. Massih's real passion is breeding roosters for cock fighting, and he reserves his emotion for the birds. This is what I think about when I go home, he said. Reporter Khalil told Public Radio International that she suspected his complete detachment was a coping mechanism, and he had to maintain a matter-of-fact attitude to the grisly job. He said prisoners sometimes begged for forgiveness, and others could hardly walk to the gallows. In 1 case, 2 convicted militants hugged each other
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN., PENN., N.C., S.C., FLA., OKLA., ARIZ., NEV.
Aug. 20 TEXASimpending execution//foreign national Death Watch: After Little Help From Counsel, Inmate to DieTercero's execution would be 12th in Texas this year On March 31, 1997, Robert Berger and his 3-year-old daughter walked into the Park Avenue Cleaners in Houston at the same exact time Bernardo Aban Tercero and an accomplice were trying to pull off a robbery. His interruption irked Tercero, and the 2 started scuffling. When Berger tried to separate himself, Tercero shot him in the head. Tercero returned to his native Nicaragua after the robbery, but on Nov. 20, 1997, he was indicted for capital murder. He was found thanks to the help of a female acquaintance in July 1999 in Mexico, attempting a return to the United States. Tercero's attempts to take control of his own fate suffered mightily immediately thereafter. Apprehended, his requests to speak with the Nicaraguan Consulate-General (a right under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations) was denied, and he was returned to Harris County, where a trial began in October of 2000. There, he received the counsel of 2 attorneys - Gilbert Villarreal and John Denninger - who did little to aid their client, filing no motions to request a mitigation investigator or any other experts that could conduct background investigations or prepare a social history. In fact, of the $21,670 trial counsel was provided by the court in order to perform due diligence in preparing a case to defend Tercero against capital murder, the 2 only used $13,200 - to travel to Nicaragua (2 weeks before the trial), and pay for travel and lodging for Tercero's family during the trial. There, they did an inept job of representing Tercero, calling one witness to the state's 17. That 1 witness was Tercero himself; he testified that the murder was unintentional. Nevertheless, a weeklong trial returned a guilty verdict. The state called 6 witnesses at punishment, most of whom were Nicaraguan and could testify to Tercero's history of robberies and kidnappings. He was sentenced to death on Oct. 20, 2000. Attorneys Dick Wheelan and James Crowley, assigned at different times to aid Tercero's appeals process, did little to help his case, either. They glossed over interview opportunities with jurors, trial counsel, or any of the involved witnesses. Further, in Wheelan's case, he neglected to secure any type of background records, including birth records - an important item as Tercero maintained that his age - 17 - barred him from the death penalty under the Supreme Court's decision in Roper v. Simmons. No surprise, then, that his claims for relief weren't upheld in federal court, where a judge ruled that each was either exhausted and/or procedurally defaulted, or at the Court of Criminal Appeals or the state habeas court. On Tuesday, Tercero's counsel filed a petition for a stay of execution based on their client's mental competency (a prison doctor has diagnosed Tercero with psychosis), as well as a motion to reconsider certain claims that had been barred. He's currently scheduled for execution at 6pm on Wednesday, Aug. 26. Should it happen, he'd be the 11th Texan executed this year, and 529th since the state's reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976. (source: Austin Chronicle) ** IACHR Concludes that the United States Violated Bernardo Aban Tercero's Fundamental Rights and Requests that his Execution be Suspended The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) urges the United States of America to stay the execution of Bernardo Aban Tercero, a Nicaraguan citizen, which is scheduled to take place on August 26, 2015, in the state of Texas, and to grant him effective relief, including the review of his trial in accordance with the due process and fair trial guarantees set forth in the American Declaration. The United States is subject to the international obligations derived from the Charter of the Organization of American States and the American Declaration since it joined the OAS in 1951. Accordingly, the IACHR urges the United States, and in particular the state of Texas, to fully and properly respect its international human rights obligations. The IACHR granted precautionary measures to protect the life and physical integrity of Bernardo Aban Tercero on April 4, 2013. The request for precautionary measures was filed in the context of a petition alleging the violation of rights recognized by the American Declaration. Through the precautionary measures, the Commission asked the United States to refrain from carrying out the death penalty until the IACHR had the opportunity to issue a decision on the petitioner's claims regarding the alleged violations of the American Declaration. The IACHR decided the case was admissible on June 24, 2015. On August 18, 2015, the IACHR adopted Report No. 50/15 on the merits of the case and determined that the United States is
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news:----MISSOURI----Roderick Nunley Execution Set for September 1
Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty Execution Alert: Roderick Nunley Faces Lethal Injection Execution Date: September 1, 2015 Missouri plans to execute Roderick Nunley on September 1 at 6 p.m. The state charged Nunley with first-degree murder for the abduction and death of a young woman, Ann Harrison, who was waiting for a school bus in Kansas City, Missouri. Expressing genuine remorse, Roderick immediately took responsibility for his crime following his arrest. He gave the police a detailed statement, told his attorney he was guilty and accepted that he deserved punishment. He was ready to accept life in prison without the possibility of parole. Despite repeated judicial directives, a jury never heard Roderick’s social history or received mitigation evidence to evaluate the sentence appropriate to his case. A judge alone made the capital sentencing decision. Medical examiners testified that Roderick suffers from “severe personality disorder,” stemming, in part, from a “seizure disorder from numerous [childhood] head injuries.” Finally, they also indicated cocaine use rendered Roderick “acutely intoxicated” during the time in question. While the rest of the nation is moving away from the death penalty because of concerns about systemic geographic and racial arbitrariness, cost, and the impact on those with serious mental health problems and intellectual disabilities, Missouri is continuing on pace for a record number of executions this year. MADP extends its condolences to the Harrison family and all families that have lost loved ones to violence, but we firmly believe that the death penalty only continues the cycle of violence and fails to make our society safer. Actions Needed Immediately * Contact Governor Nixon to urge that he stay Mr. Nunley’s execution. Call 573-751-3222. * Contact Attorney General Chris Koster to urge that he ensure justice by facilitating the stay. Call 573-751-3321. Please join us as we gather around the state to remember victims of violence and urge the state to not commit another act of violence in their names. Missouri is planning vigils in cities across the state to raise awareness and call attention to the case of Roderick Nunley, who faces execution on Tuesday, September 1 at 6 p.m. The vigils will take place on September 1, unless otherwise noted. Bonne Terre: A candlelight vigil will be held outside the prison where the execution takes place, 2727 Highway K. For more information email stlo...@madpmo.org, or call Margaret at 314-322-5159. Columbia: 5 pm to 6 pm, Boone County Courthouse, in front of the columns, corner of Walnut and 8th. For more information contact 573-449-4585. O-Fallon: Monday, August 31, 7 p.m. Sisters of the Most Precious Blood in O'Fallon. Coordinatior: Sr. Ellen Orf: email: el...@cpps-ofallon.org phone: 636-293-8253 Instructions to the Chapel: I-70 to O'Fallon K--M exit (Main St.). Turn right from the exit ramp and head north to railroad tracks; after crossing tracks, you will see the O'Fallon City Hall complex, the former convent and junior college; go past the entrance to the next right and turn in there. Jefferson City, Capitol vigil: 12 pm - 1pm. A respectful Vigil for Life outside of the Governor's office, Second Floor (Room 216) of the State Capitol Building. Jefferson City: Prayer service, 4:30 pm, in St. Peter's Chapel, Broadway St. 5- 6 pm. Vigil across from the Supreme Court Building at 207 West High Street, 4:30-5:30. For more information contact 573-301-3529. Joplin: Prayer begins at 5:30 pm. St. Peter the Apostle Church, Mass begins at 6 p.m. followed by continued prayer. Contact Fr J. Friedel for more information, at 417-623-8643. Kansas City: Watch at Intersection of 39th and Troost, 5-6 pm. For more info contact 816-206-8692. Springfield: Park Central Square, 12 noon to 1 pm. For more information call Donna, 417-459-2960. St. Joseph: 4:30 pm at the intersection of Belt Frederick. Contact Jean at 816-671-9281 for more info. St. Louis: 3 p.m. - 4 p.m. Vigil on the steps of St. Francis Xavier Church at the corner of Grand and Lindell. A group will carpool from there to reach Bonne Terre before 6 p.m.. For more information email stlo...@madpmo.org, or call Margaret at 314-322-5159. 6320 Brookside Plaza, Suite 185 Kansas City, MO 64113 United States___ A service courtesy of Washburn University School of Law www.washburnlaw.edu DeathPenalty mailing list DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty Unsubscribe: http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/options/deathpenalty
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
August 20 PAKISTAN: Pakistan to hang paraplegic convict 'from his wheelchair'Wheelchair-bound Abdul Basit, 43, will be hanged despite appeals from human rights groups A paraplegic man is facing the prospect of being hanged by prison officials in Pakistan from his wheelchair as he is unable to mount the scaffold. Abdul Basit, 43, was convicted of murder in 2009 but developed tuberculosis one year later, leaving him paralysed from the waist down. A Black Warrant was issued for his execution on July 29 but appeals from Basit's legal team led to a stay of execution. They now await a final hearing on August 25 which will decide whether to go ahead with the procedure. It means that prison officials are grappling with the conundrum of how much rope is required to hang a man who cannot support his own body weight. Basit's lawyers at Justice Project Pakistan have issued an urgent mercy appeal to Pakistan's president, Mamnoon Hussain, claiming that hanging a wheelchair-bound person is in breach of its own prison regulations. Given that the condemned prisoner is unable to use his lower body to support his own weight and unable to stand, it is not possible to accurately measure the length of rope required for his hanging, they wrote. Consequently, no provision can be safely made for the accurate measurement of the rope that would hang him and to proceed with an inaccurately-measured length of rope would place him at risk of an appalling death. Extracts from a prison handbook, seen by The Telegraph, stipulate that prisoners must be able to stand on the scaffold. One extract reads: The drop is the length of the rope from a point on the rope outside the angle of the lower jaw of the condemned prisoner as he stands on the scaffold, to the point where the lope is embraced in the noose after allowing for the constriction of the neck that takes place in hanging. The condemned prisoner shall mount the scaffold and shall be placed directly under the beam to which the rope is attached, the warders still holding him by the arms. As Basit would be unable to mount the scaffold or stand beneath the noose, and there are no legal provisions in place for hanging disabled people, the execution should be called off, his lawyers said. Pakistan has carried out a spate of executions after it lifted a moratorium in response to last year's Peshawar massacre, which saw Taliban soldiers gun down around 130 schoolboys. Nearly 200 convicts have been hanged since the December 2014 attack, ostensibly in a bid to crack down on terrorism - though critics note that many of those executed are not convicted of terror-related offences. Maya Foa, the head of legal charity Reprieve's death penalty team, warned Basit's hanging would be a cruel and violent spectacle. The decision to go ahead with the hanging of a severely disabled man would mark a new low for the Pakistani justice system, she said. Abdul Basit contracted tubercular meningitis while imprisoned; authorities failed to provide proper medical assistance and as a result, his illness worsened, leaving him entirely paralysed from the waist down. Abdul's hanging would be a cruel and violent spectacle, unlawful under both Pakistani and international law, and an affront to justice and humanity. Abdul's execution should be stayed, and the moratorium reinstated, before more lives are senselessly lost. A medical report seen by The Telegraph describes Basit's paraplegia as a complication of tuberculous meningitis. At this moment, he is having 0/5 power in lower limbs and 4/5 power in upper limbs, Dr Javaid Iqbal and Dr Anjum Mehdi wrote in the report. In our opinion, patients with this condition are usually permanently disabled and there is almost no chance of any recovery. He is likely to remain bed bound for his life, they added. Earlier this month Pakistan hanged Shafqat Hussain, a young man whose murder confession was extracted through torture when he was just 14 years old, according to his legal team and human rights groups. United Nations rights experts said his trial fell short of international standards and had urged Pakistan to investigate claims he confessed under torture, as well as his age. Should Basit's hanging go ahead, it is understood to be the 1st case in Pakistan's history of a state execution of a wheelchair-bound convict. A similar incident occurred in 1993 in the United States where an extremely disabled killer was put to death in a Virginia prison. Charles Stamper, 39, who suffered spinal injuries after a fight in prison, used leg braces and a walker to take his final steps to the electric chair. (source: The Telegraph) *** Pakistan police arrest 3 Christians over poster Pakistani police have arrested 3 Christian men under terrorism laws for using the word prophet to describe a dead pastor on a poster, officials said Thursday. The men were arrested in
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----NEB., COLO., USA, US MIL.
Aug. 20 NEBRASKA: Death penalty battle in Nebraska just beginning Editor's note: This is the 1st of a 3-day series of stories on the status of the death penalty in Nebraska, amid efforts to gather enough signatures to place the issue on the November 2016 ballot. Coming into last year's legislative session, state Sen. Paul Schumacher didn't have a strong opinion on the death penalty. My predisposition was that we have the best of both worlds, said the Columbus legislator. What he meant was that because Nebraska hadn't executed anyone since 1997, it made the death penalty practically nonexistent, and that appeased opponents. But having it as state law allowed county attorneys across the state the benefit using the threat of it in negotiating plea deals. As a former Platte County attorney, Schumacher respected that. But by the end of the 2015 legislative session, Schumacher was praising the repeal of the death penalty in Nebraska, and a photo of him bumping arms in celebration with state Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha was an image that helped rally death penalty supporters. The Legislature voted to repeal the death penalty via Legislative Bill 268 and, later, to override Gov. Pete Ricketts' veto by a vote of 30-19 - the exact number needed to preserve the repeal. It's a decision that's spurred a petition drive to place the issue before Nebraska voters in 2016, provided tangible proof of the effects of term limits for state lawmakers and caused a statewide and even national examination of capital punishment in Nebraska. Each side has opinions on how the decision came to be. For proponents of repeal, it was a practical decision resulting from a broken system. But for the opposition, it was an out-of-touch Legislature not making good on its constituents' wishes. The latter is how Vivian Tuttle of Norfolk and many others around the state feel. Tuttle is the mother of Evonne Tuttle, who was 1 of 5 people killed in the 2002 U.S. Bank shootings of Norfolk. She wants the perpetrators of that horrific crime - Jorge Galindo, Erick Vela and Jose Sandoval - given the sentence handed to them: the death penalty. Vivian Tuttle, who was part of an effort to raise public support for the death penalty as the Legislature debated the issue this spring, said the situation is a direct result of bad politics. We wanted people to know what was going on, and we wanted people to get a hold of their senators, she said. Many tried but weren't given an opportunity to speak in person with lawmakers and express their support for retaining the death penalty. They (senators) went ahead and voted how they wanted to, she said. Now Tuttle and others like her around Nebraska are gathering signatures as part of a petition drive financially backed by Nebraskans for the Death Penalty, of which Ricketts' $200,000 donation comprises nearly a third of funding. Tuttle, like some others, isn't taking any compensation for her work and guesses that she'll spend more than $2,000 of her own money traveling to towns to circulate petitions. But it's worth it, she said. The purpose is to allow Nebraskans to vote on repealing LB268 and thereby retain the death penalty. The possibility also exists that, if enough additional signatures are collected, that LB268 would not become law until the 2016 vote is taken. If that happens, those individuals on Nebraska's death row will remain on the path toward execution. Schumacher said the Legislature's action came from a policy-focused effort to hear out both sides and see what did and didn't work about Nebraska's system. Schumacher said that, in his opinion, proponents of the death penalty ended up making the weaker argument. At the legislative hearing on the issue, for example, there were more than 40 advocates of repeal who testified, while just one testified in favor of retaining the death penalty. Schumacher, who has a legal practice in Columbus, sums up the arguments against the death penalty in terms of the standard 4 reasons for criminal punishment: deterrence, rehabilitation, incapacitation and retribution. Of the 4, deterrence - keeping similar acts from happening again - has always been touted by those in favor of the death penalty. The governor, for example, has used the argument of public and police safety multiple times as a need for the death penalty. But when proponents of repeal shared studies showing the death penalty's presence had no definitive effect on violent crime - and supporters couldn't present an effective counter-argument - Schumacher said it was clear to him that deterrence isn't all it's cracked up to be. The overwhelming evidence shows that the death penalty, or even a life sentence, isn't on people's mind when they commit a murder, Schumacher said. For deterrent purposes, it's not there, and such a weakness in
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., ALA., KAN., OKLA.
Aug. 20 TEXASimpending execution//foreign national Petition to Greg Abbott, Governor of the State of Texas: To stay the execution of Bernardo Aban Tercero and grant him clemency see: https://secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/Greg_Abbott_Governor_of_the_State_of_Texas_To_stay_the_execution_of_Bernardo_Aban_ Tercero_and_grant_him_clemency/ (source: avaaz.org) NORTH CAROLINA: Crime lab backlog continues to delay death penalty case Nearly 3 years after an Ardmore woman was shot to death, only 1/3 of the physical evidence that Winston-Salem police seized in their investigation has been sent to the State Crime Lab, according to a letter from an attorney representing one of the defendants. And only about 20 % of the evidence sent has been examined, David Botchin, an attorney representing Anthony Vinh Nguyen, writes in a July 29 letter to Jennifer Martin, the chief assistant district attorney who is 1 of 2 prosecutors in the case. Nguyen, 23, is charged with 1st-degree murder, 1st-degree burglary, 1st-degree kidnapping and armed robbery in the death of Shelia Pace Gooden, 43. Authorities say Nguyen and 2 other men -- Daniel Aaron Benson, 24, and Steve George Assimos, 23 -- broke into Gooden's house at 700 Magnolia St. on Oct. 11, 2013, held her against her will and stole a flatscreen television valued at $200. Benson, Assimos and Nguyen are all facing the same charges, but only Nguyen is facing the death penalty because prosecutors allege that Nguyen shot Gooden in the head. The delay is largely due to protocols that the State Crime Lab has put into place for dealing with backlog. The State Crime Lab sets limits on the amount of evidence that law-enforcement agencies send at one time. According to the State Crime Lab guidelines, homicides are limited to 10 pieces of evidence per discipline for the 1st submission and 5 items for subsequent submissions. The lab has been criticized for having too few analysts to handle the backlog of requests from law enforcement to review evidence. At this rate it will take, as a minimum, another year-and-a-half to complete the process, Botchin wrote in his July 29 letter. Has your office made any inquiries of the Lab about the long delays in examining the evidence or what can be done to move things along? Botchin said in the letter that Martin has told him previously that she waits closer to the trial to let defense attorneys review physical evidence and that she would want all three defendants in this case to view the evidence at the same time. Botchin and Nguyen's other attorney, John Bryson, also had complained last year about delays in getting access to physical evidence. We have a statutory right to examine the evidence and we know of no statutory right that permits the State to determine when and how it is to be viewed, Botchin wrote. Martin said the rules of professional responsibility prohibited her from commenting on pending criminal matters. Martin had filed a motion last September asking the state Crime Lab to waive the policy. She said in the motion that the policy would cause lengthy delays in the prosecution of the case and could potentially prejudice both prosecutors and Nguyen's attorneys. At a hearing in October 2014, she said that she and Assistant District Attorney Ben White had talked to officials at the State Crime Lab about the policy. She said she had confidence that some of the items could be analyzed without too much delay in the case. Some progress has been made. Last fall, a Forsyth County judge ordered that defense attorneys can have access to cellphones and laptops that were seized. A hearing on Botchin's request to view physical evidence is scheduled for Sept. 10. No trial date has been set. All 3 defendants are in the Forsyth County Jail with no bond allowed. (source: Winston-Salem Journal) ALABAMAfemale may face death penalty Heather Keaton to be sentenced in deaths of stepchildren Heather Keaton, who was convicted of killing her 2 stepchildren, will be sentenced on capital murder and manslaughter charges on Thursday. Keaton could face the death penalty for the killing of Jonathan and Natalie DeBlase. A jury convicted Keaton in May of capital murder for the death of Jonathan Chase DeBlase, and manslaughter in the death of Natalie DeBlase. If sentenced to death, Keaton would be the 1st woman in Mobile County to face the death penalty. In January, her common-law husband, John DeBlase, was sentenced to death by lethal injection for his role in the murders. The 2 young children, were killed on separate occasions, according to prosecutors. Prosecutors said Keaton played a vital role in their deaths, knowing that the children were mistreated, knowing that their lives were in danger and then willingly participated in the disposal of the bodies in a wooded areas near Vancleave, Mississippi and Citronelle, Alabama. When questioned in the
