[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
Feb. 9 BANGLADESH: Supreme Court starts hearing Mir Quasem Ali's appeal against war crimes verdict The Supreme Court has started hearing the appeal by Jamaat-e-Islami leader Mir Quasem Ali against the war crimes tribunal's verdict. The 5-member Appellate Division bench led by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha started the proceedings on Tuesday. The hearing began with defence counsel SM Sajahan reading out the charges against his client. Attorney General Mahbubey Alam represented the State during the hearing. The Jamaat leader has been given the death penalty by the International Crimes Tribunal for crimes against humanity on Nov 2, 2014. A top financier of the party, he filed an appeal seeking acquittal on Nov 30 that year. Mir Quasem is said to have been the 3rd man in vigilante militia Al-Badr's command structure during the 1971 Liberation War. Under his command local collaborators of Pakistan Army let loose a reign of terror to suppress the Bengali freedom struggle in Chittagong. An executive council member of Jamaat, he was arrested on June 17, 2012 from the office of newspaper Naya Diganta less than 2 hours after the tribunal issued a warrant for his arrest. (source: benews24.com) GAZA: Palestinian human rights defenders condemn execution by Hamas Palestinian human rights defenders are condemning the killing by Hamas of one of the resistance organization's own members in Gaza. On Sunday, the Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, announced it had executed Mahmoud Rushdi Ishteiwi. In a brief statement on its website, Qassam said that the slaying of Ishteiwi implemented a death sentence issued by "the military and Sharia judiciaries of Qassam Brigades for behavioral and moral excesses that he confessed." The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), which gave Ishteiwi's age as 35, condemned the slaying and called on the "attorney general to investigate it and take all necessary legal measures to ensure justice." "Killing Ishteiwi in such a way constitutes an assault on the rule of law and might institutionalize a serious case of extrajudicial execution," PCHR added. According to its investigation and information given to PCHR by Ishteiwi's sister Buthaina last July, her brother was arrested in January 2015 on suspicion of "collaboration with the Israeli forces, misappropriation of funds and behavioral excesses." "Prosecuting collaborators with the Israeli forces is necessary, and the Palestinian armed groups play an important role in such prosecution," PCHR stated. "However, only official authorities should open investigations and hold the perpetrators to account." Following news of Mahmoud Ishteiwi's execution, Buthaina Ishteiwi told the Wattan news outlet that she believed her brother had been killed due to a dispute with his superiors. While PCHR's statement on Ishteiwi suggests that collaboration may have been one of the accusations against him, the Qassam Brigades statement announcing the execution does not make that claim. Typically, when Hamas has announced killings of alleged collaborators, it has not published their names, supposedly to spare their families the public ostracism that comes with such a grave accusation. Split authority Under the laws of the Palestinian Authority, death sentences issued by courts can only be carried out after ratification by the PA president. The West Bank-based PA leader Mahmoud Abbas has not ratified any death sentences in a decade. Hamas has however continued the use of the death penalty in Gaza. The surprise victor in legislative elections in 2006, Hamas took control of the internal governance of Gaza in 2007 after fierce battles with Abbas' rival Fatah party, which refused to hand over power. This has meant in practice that most areas of governance, including the judicial system, have been split. According to PCHR, a total of 172 death sentences have been issued since the PA was established in 1994, of which 30 were in the West Bank and 142 in Gaza. 84 death sentences were issued since Hamas took over in Gaza in 2007. Up to 2010, according to PCHR, about 1/2 the death sentences were for homicides and about half for collaboration with Israel. Earlier this month, a military court in Gaza, ostensibly operating under the Palestine Liberation Organization's Revolutionary Penal Code of 1979, sentenced four individuals to death by hanging on accusations of collaboration with Israel, according to the Gaza-based Al Mezan Center for Human Rights. And last week, Hamas reportedly arrested a woman on suspicion of spying. The woman allegedly used a condolence visit to the families of Hamas fighters recently killed in tunnel collapses to try to glean sensitive information. Rule of law Collaboration is seen by Palestinians, as it has historically been seen among all occupied populations, as a serious threat to life and safety as well as to the op
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TENN., MO., COLO., CALIF., US MIL.
Feb. 9 TENNESSEE: State will seek death penalty in Memphis police officer';s death Prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty in the case of the man accused of killing Memphis police officer Sean Bolton last year. Tremaine Wilbourn was arraigned in Criminal Court Monday, and the state filed notice that it intends to seek the death penalty, according to documents in the case. The state listed 3 aggravating factors in the decision: the victim was an on-duty police officer; Wilbourn has a felony conviction for a prior crime of violence, in this case a federal bank robbery in 2005; and the killing was committed to avoid arrest. The tragedy began Aug. 1 in the Parkway Village area when Bolton, who would have turned 34 the week after the shooting, pulled in front of a red 2002 Mercedes-Benz that was stopped on the side of the street. Bolton got out of his cruiser and approached the car, police said, but the passenger got out and a struggle ensued. Police say that Wilbourn pulled out a gun and fired at Bolton at close range. An autopsy report showed that Bolton was hit 8 times. Police later found drug paraphernalia as well as 1.7 grams of marijuana in the Mercedes. A man who lives in the neighborhood picked up Bolton's police radio and called dispatchers for help. Bolton was rushed to the Regional Medical Center in critical condition, where the autopsy report shows doctors spent an hour trying to revive him, but could not. After a massive manhunt, Wilbourn surrendered 2 days after the killing. Officials have charged Wilbourn, 30, with 1st-degree murder in Bolton's death. Although Wilbourn was officially being held on a $10 million bond, a judge revoked that potential bond Monday in light of the death-penalty filing. Wilbourn is due back in court March 7. (source: The (Memphis) Commercial Appeal) * Death penalty to be considered in Kirsten Williams murder case It could be years down the road, but Shelby County District Attorney Amy Weirich says she is prepared to consider the death penalty in the murder of 7-year-old Kirsten Williams. 4 men have been charged with 1st degree murder in the April shooting, which resulted in the death of the young girl as she played down the street from her home. The preliminary hearing in this case will take place on June 23, but legal maneuverings have already begun on both sides. Weirich explained the upcoming process to FOX13. "If those charges are murder 1st degree, then the conversation begins with the D.A.'s Office about the death penalty and that's a decision that I make in meeting with the prosecutors assigned to the case," Weirich said. FOX13 did some digging regarding both the statistics and recent histories concerning death penalty cases in Memphis and Shelby County. Our research revealed 3 convicted murderers have been sent to death row since 2010. We looked specifically at Jessie Dotson, the infamous Lester Street killer of six, and Sedrick Clayton, who was convicted in 2014 for 3 murders. Well before their respective trials, both underwent a mental evaluation. It is a process that's apparently being conducted with some, but not all, of the co-defendants in the Williams murder. "The mental exams were on the co-defendants, not on Mr. Stokes," Carlos Stokes' Attorney, Marty McAffee, said. "I didn't see any problem at this point. No need to have an evaluation of Mr. Stokes at this point." When the time comes, the District Attorney's office will have to make the call of whether or not they want to pursue the death penalty. For those having to make the decision, it is not a choice that is made lightly. "It is a difficult decision to make and it's completely guided by the law of the State of Tennessee," Weirich said. "Not everyone in a 1st degree murder case is eligible for the death penalty." (source: Fox News) MISSOURI: Missouri Senate debates repealing death penalty The Republican-led Missouri Senate for the 1st time in years debated a bill to repeal the state's death penalty, though the measure is unlikely to advance. A bipartisan group of lawmakers to implored their colleagues Monday to end capital punishment. Missouri has executed 18 killers in the last 2 years. Republican Sen. Paul Wieland of Imperial, who is Catholic, introduced the measure. He opposes both abortion and the death penalty. Others who testified in support cited people on death row who were later exonerated. Some argued black defendants are disproportionately sentenced to death. Sen. Kurt Schaefer, a Columbia Republican running for attorney general, opposed it. He says killers sentenced to death commit the most egregious crimes. Wieland says he doesn't think the bill has enough support to pass the Senate and doesn't plan to bring it up again. (source: Associated Press) COLORADO: Colorado bill would allow death sentence without unanimous voteLawmakers are conside
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, DEL., N.C., FLA., ALA.
Feb. 9 TEXAS: State Bar board affirms disbarment of prosecutor who sent innocent man to death row The disciplinary board of the Texas State Bar on Monday affirmed the agency's decision to disbar Charles Sebesta, the former prosecutor who oversaw the wrongful death sentence of Anthony Graves. Graves, who spent 18 years in prison, including 12 on death row, for a fiery multiple murder he did not commit, filed a complaint against Sebesta in January 2014. He asked the Bar to hold Sebesta accountable for withholding critical evidence of his innocence. "The bar stepped in to say that's not the way our criminal justice system should work," Graves said. "This is a good day for justice." In June, the Texas State Bar revoked the former Burleson County district attorney's law license finding that he had engaged in prosecutorial misconduct in Graves' case. Sebesta appealed that ruling, and last month his lawyers told the State Bar of Texas Board of Disciplinary Appeals that he should not be disbarred based on technicalities in the rules that govern lawyer discipline. They argued that in 2007 the Bar had already ruled that there was no cause to disbar Sebesta and that the agency couldn't change its mind in response to a new complaint Graves filed. But a lawyer for the commission for lawyer discipline at the State Bar argued, among other things, that lawmakers in 2013 had changed the statute of limitations governing prosecutor discipline specifically to allow the kind of sanction Sebesta faced. Under the new law, those who have been wrongly convicted have up to four years after their release to seek discipline against prosecutors who engage in conduct such as withholding evidence and eliciting false testimony. Graves was sentenced to death in 1994 and close to execution twice. The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Graves' conviction in 2010. The court found that Sebesta secured Graves' conviction through several instances of prosecutorial wrongdoing, including withholding key evidence and suborning false testimony. In their ruling on the Sebesta's disbarment Monday, the disciplinary board called his conduct in the Graves case "egregious." The board's decision on Sebesta's appeal is final. (source: Dallas Morning News) DELAWARE: Moral Monday rallies target Delaware's death penalty About 20 people stood outside Dover's Legislative Hall on Monday morning, chanting and holding signs that called for an end to the state's death penalty. Organizers promised to hold more of the rallies, called Moral Monday protests, to try and pressure lawmakers into ending the punishment. "Lawmakers cannot just reject our desire to repeal the death penalty at the outset of the legislative session and expect us to simply go away," said the Rev. Donald Morton, executive director of the Complexities of Color coalition. "We intend to be here every week making a lot of noise with old fashioned protests, speeches and rallies to remind the politicians that they can't keep ignoring these festering issues of basic human rights." A bill to abolish the state's death penalty failed in the state House of Representatives last month, 23-16. Organizers said they plan to push lawmakers to listen to their constituents. "This is a growing coalition. More folks are going to come," said Jeremy Collins, a member of Delaware Repeal Project. "There are going to be demonstrations all across the state, but we're going to occupy this space until the Delaware Legislature makes up their mind that they are going to do the right thing." Kristin Froehlich, board president of the Delaware Citizens Opposed to the Death Penalty, said people should know that the death penalty does not bring the closure that lawmakers think. Because most death penalty cases linger in the court system for more than a decade, Froehlich said families of victims are often re-traumatized when the matter comes up for appeals. Ending the death penalty brings legal finality and allows survivors to move forward, said Froehlich, whose brother was murdered in Connecticut in 1995. "My Christian values support life," she said. "They don't support murder. They don't support killing." While state lawmakers are not in session on Mondays, Morton explained that Moral Monday is a movement started in 2013 by the Rev. William Barber II, pastor of Greenleaf Christian Church in Goldsboro, North Carolina, and president of the North Carolina NAACP. The rallies, started in response to several actions by North Carolina's government, have been characterized by civil disobedience. "We wanted to make sure that there is a consistent proverbial badgering of individuals who have consistently voted 'No' against repeal," Morton said. "And to let them know that not only is it us symbolically gathering like this, but it is also to let them know that for those that occupy those seats that have voted 'No' continu
