[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
Nov. 7 SINGAPORE: Murderer granted stay of execution on 11th-hour motion Yesterday, a 5-judge Court of Appeal allowed the 11th-hour motion to give his newly appointed lawyer more time to prepare his case. Kho, a 31-year-old from Sarawak, had been due to go to the gallows today for the brutal murder of a construction worker 7 years ago, after his appeal for clemency was rejected by the President last month. But his new lawyer, Mr Chandra Mohan K Nair - who was briefed by Kho's family only on Tuesday night - filed a criminal motion on Wednesday asking for a stay pending a ruling on arguments to quash his death sentence. He is seeking a partial retrial focused on issues relating to Kho's sentence. At yesterday's hearing, the motion was objected to by the prosecution, which contended that no arguable issues have been raised. Kho's mother, sister and cousin were in court. On Feb 17, 2008, Kho and an accomplice attacked construction workers Cao Ruyin, 40, and Wu Jun, 44, in Geylang Drive while trying to rob the Chinese nationals. Mr Wu received outpatient treatment but Mr Cao, who was bludgeoned with a tree branch, died from head injuries 6 days later. Kho's fate has seen many twists and turns since he and accomplice Galing Kujat were given the death penalty - then mandatory for murder - in 2010. Kujat, who used his belt buckle as a weapon, in 2011 successfully appealed against the murder charge. He was convicted of robbery with hurt and sentenced to 18 1/2 years' jail and 19 strokes of the cane. Kho's appeal failed. But he was re-sentenced to life imprisonment in 2013, after the law was changed to give judges the discretion to opt for a life term for murder with no intention to cause death. The prosecution appealed, arguing that Kho's vicious crime warranted the death penalty. In a landmark ruling in January, the 5-judge court gave a split 3-2 decision in favour of sending Kho to the gallows for the fatal attack. The case has attracted the attention of human rights groups, including Amnesty International and local outfit Second Chances. No date has yet been set for the next court hearing. Significance of the case Jabing Kho's case is a landmark decision in which a rare 5- judge Court of Appeal decided, three to two, that the convicted murderer will hang. It is the 1st murder case to come before the apex court since laws kicked in giving judges the option of imposing life imprisonment on those who commit murder without the intention to cause death. The apex court had to decide when the death penalty was warranted when it is not mandatory. All 5 judges agreed that capital punishment would be appropriate when the offender had "acted in a way which exhibits viciousness or a blatant disregard for human life". But the court was divided on whether Kho deserved to be hanged. Judges of Appeal Chao Hick Tin and Andrew Phang and Justice Chan Seng Onn said the "sheer savagery" Kho displayed in continuing to strike Mr Cao Ruyin even after he was floored, justified the death penalty. However, the dissenting judges, Justices Woo Bih Li and Lee Seiu Kin, said there was not enough evidence to conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that Kho had struck Mr Cao 3 or more times, or that he had used such force that it caused most of the 14 fractures on the victim's skull. (source: asiaone.com) ENGLAND: Albert Pierrepoint: a 'haunted hangman' and the death penalty today 50 years ago this Sunday, Britain passed a law which brought an end to the death penalty for murder and consigned the noose to history. One executioner, though, did not simply recede into the shadows. Albert Pierrepoint was not the last British hangman, but he was certainly the most famous. His legacy lives on as a symbol of the terrible responsibility of those charged to do the state's killing and a benchmark for our understanding of the job. The 1965 Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act was a trial measure, with abolition finalised in 1969. But parliamentary votes on reintroduction continued into the 1990s, and it was only relatively recently that the last remnants of the death penalty were definitively removed from UK law. Only in 1998 did treason and piracy cease to be capital offences. Bridge to the past Pierrepoint came to embody our strange relationship with the institution. As the son and nephew of hangmen, he seemed to continue some kind of artisan family tradition. His oddly sympathetic public profile was established during the 1940s when he carried out multiple hangings of Nazi war criminals. By the time Pierrepoint had resigned from the executioners' list in 1956 he had hanged around 450 people. After his retirement, he dispensed expertise about hanging for television and radio audiences, acted as a film consultant and, in 1974, published a memoir, Executioner: Pierrepoint. In the post-abolition era, Pierrepoint was an authentic link with the practice of
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., FLA., OKLA., ARIZ., CALIF., USA
Nov. 7 TEXAS: State To Seek Death Penalty In Shotgun-Slaying Of Local Woman McLennan County prosecutors announced late Friday afternoon that they'll seek the death penalty against James Ray Brossett, 48, of Arlington, who was indicted last month for capital murder and attempted capital murder in connection with an early-morning shooting on July 6 in a home in the China Spring area outside of Waco that left a woman dead and her 18-year-old son injured. Prosecutors made the announcement during a late-afternoon hearing in 54th State District Court during which Brossett pleaded not guilty to capital murder and attempted capital murder charges. His request for a bond reduction from $5 million to $500,000 was denied. Laura Lynn Easter Patschke, 48, was shot several times at close range with a shotgun. Her son was shot in the arm after he heard "the sound of someone forcing entry into the house," grabbed a gun and went to his mother's bedroom "where he was confronted by a subject shining a flashlight in his eyes," an arrest warrant affidavit said. The teenager, who told investigators he recognized Brossett's voice, ran out of the house after he was shot and heard several more shots from inside the home while he was running, the affidavit said. He said he recognized the voice because Brossett "had recently been involved in a dating relationship with his mother." Patschke was shot several times at close range with a 12-gauge shotgun loaded with large 000 buckshot rounds, the affidavit said. Investigators found 12-gauge shotgun shell casings around her body, the affidavit said, but later said just five were recovered. 2 other children, a 13-year-old girl and a 16-year-old boy, were inside the home when the shooting happened but neither of them was injured. Patschke was a global deployment, engagement and improvement manager at Shell Oil Company where she had worked almost continuously since 1992, according to her profile on LinkedIn. She was a graduate of Lorena High School and Texas A&M University, which she attended on a track scholarship, earning degrees in safety and industrial engineering. Authorities say Brossett parked his pickup truck a mile or more from the home and made his way through a wooded area along a trail that led to the rear of the house. After the shooting, authorities say, he stole a car that Patschke had rented and fled, driving back to where the pickup was parked. The rental car was found abandoned in a ditch along State Highway 6. Authorities were searching for Brossett at the time of the shooting and had urged Patschke, to leave her home several days before she was killed, McLennan County Sheriff Parnell McNamara said in an interview after the incident. Patschke, however, said she wouldn't leave the house, he said. McLennan County deputies, police in Arlington and the U.S. Marshal's North Texas Fugitive Task Force were all actively looking for Brossett as early as July 3 after the sheriff's office obtained warrants for him on stalking and violation of bond charges, McNamara said. Documents show that Brossett was arrested on a warrant charging harassment on June 30, posted bond and was released. 2 days later Patschke told an investigator that "she was in fear for her safety" after receiving more than 200 texts on July 1 from Brossett that indicated he was coming to her home, and additional texts and more than 10 phone calls from him on July 2. Warrants were issued for violation of bond/protective order and stalking, and those were still active at the time of the shooting. One of the affidavits issued in the case shows Patschke had made a complaint about an assault in which she named Brossett as the attacker, but that case remained under investigation and no warrant had been issued, McNamara said. (source: KWTX news) * Judge denies bail in Crawford murder case, DA to seek death penalty Judge Matt Johnson of Waco's 54th State District Court denied a request from James Ray Brossett to lower his $5 million bond after Reyna recounted Brossett's extensive criminal past and his obsession with Laura Patschke that eventually led to her death. The stocky Brossett, 48, a former bodybuilder, wore black-and-white jail garb to the brief hearing. He pleaded not guilty to capital murder and attempted capital murder charges, although Reyna told the court that Brossett has confessed to the crimes. Brossett was free at the time of Patschke's death on 2 bonds related to stalking and violating a protective order involving Patschke. He also is charged with shooting Patschke's 18-year-old son, Trevor, in the arm during the early-morning incident at their home. Reyna told the court it was no accident that Brossett drove from Arlington to Crawford that Sunday night or early Monday morning when Trevor and his younger brother and sister had just returned to their mother's home from a holiday visit w
