[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
May 12 IRAN: Teenager tortured into confessing is days away from execution in Iran The Iranian authorities must urgently halt the scheduled execution this Sunday of a teenager who was just 15 years old at the time of his arrest, said Amnesty International. Alireza Tajiki, now 19 years old, was sentenced to death in April 2013 after a criminal court in Fars Province, southern Iran, convicted him of murder and rape primarily on the basis of "confessions" extracted through torture which he repeatedly retracted in court. His execution is due to take place on Sunday, May 15 in Shiraz's Adel Abad Prison in Fars Province. "Imposing the death penalty on someone who was a child at the time of the crime flies in the face of international human rights law, which absolutely prohibits the use of the death penalty for crimes committed under the age of 18. It is particularly horrendous that the Iranian authorities are adamant to proceed with the execution when this case was marked by serious fair trial concerns and primarily relied on torture-tainted evidence," said James Lynch, deputy director of the Middle East and North Africa Program at Amnesty International. "Iran's bloodstained record of sending juvenile offenders to the gallows, routinely after grossly unfair trials, makes an absolute mockery of juvenile justice and shamelessly betrays the commitments Iran has made to children's rights.The Iranian authorities must immediately halt this execution and grant Alireza Tajiki a fair retrial where the death penalty and coerced 'confessions' play no part." Amnesty International has repeatedly called on the Iranian authorities to establish a moratorium on all executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty. Tajiki was arrested along with several other young men in May 2012 on suspicion of murdering and raping his friend who was stabbed to death. He was denied access to lawyer throughout the entire investigation process. He was placed in solitary confinement for 15 days, without access to his family. During this period he was subjected to torture and other ill-treatment, he said, including severe beatings, floggings, and suspension by arms and feet, to make him "confess" to the crime. He later retracted the "confessions" both before the prosecution authorities and during his trial, and has since maintained his innocence consistently. However, despite this, his "confession" was admitted as evidence during proceedings against him. In April 2014, a year after Tajiki was first convicted his verdict was quashed by a branch of the Supreme Court which found the investigation incomplete due to a lack of forensic evidence linking him to the sexual assault. It ordered the Provincial Criminal Court in Fars Province to carry out further investigations and to examine his "mental growth and maturity" at the time of the crime in light of new juvenile sentencing guidelines in Iran's 2013 Islamic Penal Code. The Code allows judges to replace the death penalty with an alternative sentence if they determine that there are doubts about the juvenile offender's "mental growth and maturity" at the time of the crime. In November 2014, the criminal court resentenced him to death, referring to an official medical opinion that found he had attained "mental maturity." However, the court's decision made no reference to concerns the Supreme Court had raised about the lack of forensic evidence, suggesting the investigation that had been ordered was not carried out. The court also relied once again on Tajiki's forced "confessions" as proof of his guilt, without conducting any investigation into his allegations of torture and other ill-treatment. Despite these flaws, the Supreme Court upheld the sentence in a paragraph-long February 2015 ruling that relied on the principle of "knowledge of the judge," which grants a judge discretionary powers to determine guilt in the absence of conclusive evidence. More than 970 people were put to death across Iran last year. In January 2016 Amnesty International published a report which found that despite piecemeal reforms introduced by the Iranian authorities in 2013 to deflect criticism of their appalling record on executions of juvenile offenders, they have continued to condemn dozens of young people to death for crimes committed when they were below 18, in violation of their international human rights obligations. (source: Amnesty International USA) ** The List of the Names of 56 Death Row Prisoners in Uremia Prison At least 100 prisoners with charge of murder are kept in wards number 4 and 5 in Uremia prison. HRANA is trying to gain public attention in order to save them from execution by publicizing their identities. For this reason the identities of 56 death row prisoners is being published in this report. After the authorities called more than 100 death row prisoners in this prison and said that
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----ALABAMA
May 12 ALABAMAstay of impending execution Alabama Delays Execution of Cop Killer Vernon Madison by Lethal Injection A federal appeals court has delayed the execution of an Alabama inmate, saying there should be more time to review his claim that he is no longer competent because of strokes and dementia. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued the stay Thursday morning, about seven hours ahead of when Vernon Madison was scheduled to die by lethal injection. Madison was convicted in the 1985 killing Mobile police Officer Julius Schulte. Schulte had responded to a domestic call involving Madison. Prosecutors said Madison crept up and shot Schulte in the back of the head as he sat in his police car. Madison's attorneys had argued that he no longer had a rational understanding of his impending execution. The court said it will hold oral arguments on Madison's competency in June. A circuit court last month ruled Madison was competent to be executed despite a decline in his cognitive abilities after a stroke. "Over the course of the past year, Mr. Madison has suffered from multiple strokes that have resulted in significant cognitive decline, suffers from a major vascular neurocognitive disorder, or vascular dementia, and does not rationally understand why the State of Alabama is attempting to execute him," attorneys for Madison previously wrote. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that it violates the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment to execute prisoners who lack a rational understanding that they are about to be executed and why. Madison's attorneys argued a lower court erred and did not fully consider the scope of his dementia when it ruled him competent. A defense expert found that Madison had an IQ of 72 and his attorneys said he is confused about the status of his case and has talked of going to live in Florida when he is released from prison. The stay request came after an Alabama circuit judge ruled Madison was competent and a federal judge refused a stay. Alabama has seen a lull in executions of more than 2 years because of difficulty obtaining lethal injection drugs and litigation over the death penalty (source: Associated Press) *** Alabama leads nation in death row inmates per capita Tonight Alabama will put to death 65-year-old Vernon Madison, a man who grew old awaiting his sentence for the 1985 slaying of police Officer Julius Schulte. Madison's execution will leave 184 death row inmates in Alabama, highest number of inmates per capita in the nation. 19 states do not or no longer employ the death penalty. About half of the remaining 31 use it seldom and have few inmates awaiting execution. Alabama leads nation But even among the state's that regularly sentence violent criminals to death, Alabama stands apart. Alabama houses nearly 4 inmates on death row for every 100,000 residents. That's 4 for every Tuscaloosa stadium's worth of Alabamians. That's the equivalent of 7 or 8 death row inmates for the population of Mobile or Birmingham or Huntsville. That's more death row inmates per city than many places see per state. Perhaps more surprising, when adjusting for population, an Alabamian is about 4 times as likely as a Texan to end up on death row. Much larger states like Texas and California have more inmates on death row, but none employ death row at the same rate as small Alabama. Alabama puts people on death row at twice the rate of Florida, 3 times the rate of Oklahoma. Only Nevada comes close. And it's not that close. See the breakdown by state below: Who is on death row In Alabama, inmates on death row are nearly all men. That's 85 white males and 92 black males. There are just 5 women on death row in Alabama -- 4 white women and 1 African-American woman. Many cases span decades. 10 of the Alabama inmates, like Madison, have been awaiting execution since before 1990. It's not that Alabama halted the use of the death sentence. Today's execution marks 8 under Gov. Robert Bentley. State records show 25 executions under former Gov. Bob Riley. There have been 211 executions since 1929. About 72 % of those executed by Alabama were African-American males. The state has executed only 4 women. Houston County leads Alabama However, not every district attorney in Alabama is as likely to seek a death sentence. Certain counties within Alabama tend to see it far more often than others. Adjust for total population shows that no county uses the death penalty more often than Houston County, home to Dothan in southeast Alabama. That puts Houston County in rare territory in the United States. That means Houston imposes the death penalty more often than any other county in a state that imposes the death penalty more often than any other state in the nation. (source: al.com) ___ A service courtesy of Washburn University
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
May 12 PAKISTAN: Army Chief awards death penalty to 5 terrorists including Sabeen Mahmud's killer, IBA student Saad Aziz Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif on Thursday signed the death warrants of 5 hardcore terrorists, including the killers of Sabeen Mahmud. An ISPR statement said the men were convicted for "perpetrating the Safoora bus attack". They were also involved in improvised explosive device (IED) blast near Saleh Masjid Karachi, the killing of social worker Sabeen Mahmud and various attacks on law enforcement agencies, according to the statement. (source: Daily Pakistan) EGYPT: Irish juvenile Ibrahim Halawa marks 1000 days facing death penalty in Egypt An Irish student who was arrested in the wake of protests in Egypt marks 1000 days of detention facing a potential death sentence. Ibrahim Halawa faces the death penalty despite having been a juvenile - aged just 17 - at the time of his arrest in August 2013. He is being subjected to an ongoing mass trial alongside hundreds of adults, which has been delayed on multiple occasions. Following his arrest, the Egyptian police beat Ibrahim and denied him medical treatment. He has since been subjected to periods of solitary confinement in cells with no light or toilet. Despite the fact that Ibrahim was a juvenile when he was arrested he has been held in adult prisons and is being tried by adult courts. International human rights organisation Reprieve has discovered that hundreds of children - including some as young as 6 - were arrested in the same breakup of protests as Ibrahim. Efforts to have Ibrahim's case transferred to a juvenile court have been rejected. The 493 defendants in Ibrahim's mass trial are charged with attending an illegal protest during which protesters allegedly caused deaths and criminal damage. They are being held jointly responsible for these offences, despite a lack of specific evidence linking the vast majority of them to these crimes. Commenting, Harriet McCulloch, Deputy Director of the death penalty team at Reprieve, which is assisting Ibrahim, said: "Ibrahim has now suffered 1000 days of appalling mistreatment in violation of both international and Egyptian law. It is a scandal that the Egyptian authorities continue to seek the death penalty for Ibrahim despite his having been a child at the time of his arrest. The Egyptian authorities must immediately call an end to this mass trial and others like it and release Ibrahim and the hundreds of others like him who have been illegally detained for so long." (source: reprieve.org) BANGLADESH: Legal notice served to abolish death penalty A Supreme Court lawyer today sent a legal notice to the government requesting it to abolish the provisions of death penalty from all laws of the country within 24 hours. Eunus Ali Akond served the notice to cabinet secretary, law secretary and home secretary for taking the step in this regard. In the notice, he said there are 140 countries in the world including the Europeans have abolished the provisions of death penalty from their laws. He will file a writ petition with the High Court seeking necessary order if the government does not repeal the provision of death penalty, Akond said. Death penalty is cruel, inhuman and degrading, Akond said. (source: The Daily Star) *** UN raises concerns over hanging of JI leader in Bangladesh United Nation (UN) Secretary General Ban Ki-moon regrets the hanging of the Bangladesh Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) chief Motiur Rahman Nizami. The spokesman of the Secretary-General in a press briefing said that UN chief stands against the death penalty under any circumstances, reflecting the global trend away from capital punishment. He said we have raised our concern to Bangladesh over the handling of this case. (source: Pakistan Today) IRANexecutions 2 Prisoners Hanged in Northern Iran 2 prisoners with murder charges were reportedly hanged at Karaj's Rajai Shahr Prison (northern Iran) on Wednesday May 11. One of the prisoners has been identified as Reza Cheshmenour, the identity of the other prisoner is not known at this time. According to close sources, these 2 prisoners were among 12 who were transferred to solitary confinement at this prison on Saturday May 7 in preparation for their executions. The other 10 prisoners were returned to their cells after they received an extension on their execution order or received consent for a suspension by the plaintiffs on their case files, say close sources. Iranian official sources, including state-run media and the Judiciary, have been silent on these 2 executions. One of the prisoners has been identified as Reza Cheshmenour, the identity of the other prisoner is not known at this time. According to close sources, these 2 prisoners were among 12 who were transferred to solitary confinement at this prison on Saturday May 7 in
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----MO., NEB., COLO., NEV., CALIF., USA
May 12 MISSOURI: Missouri's 1st Execution of 2016The state executed Earl Forrest on Wednesday night by lethal injection for a triple homicide in 2002. Missouri executed Earl Forrest on Wednesday night by lethal injection, marking the state's 1st execution in 2016. A Missouri Department of Corrections spokesman said Forrest was executed at 7:10 p.m. local time at a state prison in Bonne Terre. He was pronounced dead 8 minutes later. Forrest received a death sentence in 2004 for the 2002 slayings of Harriet Smith, Michael Wells, and Dent County police officer JoAnn Barnes. St. Louis Public Radio has more details: According to court documents, Forrest went to Smith's house to demand she buy a mobile home and a lawn mower for him, in exchange for his introducing her to someone who could provide her with methamphetamine. He fatally shot Wells in the face during the confrontation, then shot Smith 6 times, killing her. Forrest later killed Deputy Barnes during a shootout at his home with law enforcement. He also shot his then-girlfriend, Angela Gamblin and Dent County Sheriff Bob Wofford during the standoff. Wofford and Gamblin survived. In his final filing to the U.S. Supreme Court, Forrest challenged his death sentence as a violation of the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishments. The petition cited Justice Stephen Breyer's lengthy dissent last year in Glossip v. Gross urging the court to reconsider the death penalty's constitutionality. "The death penalty has outlived any conceivable purpose," the filing stated. "It is imperfect in application, arbitrary in result, and serves no legitimate penological purpose." Missouri officials stood by Forrest's death sentence. "Earl Forrest callously murdered 3 people, including a deputy sheriff, over a box of methamphetamine," Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster said in a statement after the execution. "Missouri's law enforcement officers put their lives on the line every day. They need to know that we will fight just as hard for justice for them and their families." The U.S. Supreme Court denied the last-minute request for a stay of execution on Wednesday with no recorded dissents. Missouri Governor Jay Nixon also issued a statement declining to grant clemency to Forrest hours before the scheduled execution. Forrest was the 14th person to be executed in the U.S. this year and the 1,436th person executed since the Supreme Court revived capital punishment in 1976. (source: The Atlantic) NEBRASKA: Nikko Jenkins declared competent to face death penalty proceeding Here comes Round 3. Lincoln Regional Center doctors have declared spree killer Nikko Jenkins competent to face a death penalty proceeding. Now, Douglas County District Judge Peter Bataillon likely will set the case for a competency hearing this summer, when he will weigh opinions from the Regional Center and from a psychiatrist hired by the defense. It has been 6 months since Bataillon ordered Regional Center psychiatrists to evaluate Jenkins. Since then, Jenkins has continually cut himself - once doing so with a badge a prison guard had left on a chair just outside Jenkins' cell. He also has filed fruitless appeals with the U.S. Supreme Court - citing various constitutional rights, federal and state laws. And he often has been required to wear a mask over his mouth because of his propensity to spit on prison or Regional Center officials who come near him. Jenkins' case has been pending since early September 2013, shortly after he killed 4 Omahans in a spree. Fresh out of prison after serving 10 years for robberies, Jenkins killed Juan Uribe-Pena and Jorge Cajiga-Ruiz on Aug. 11, 2013; Curtis Bradford on Aug, 19, 2013 and Andrea Kruger on Aug. 21, 2013. All told, his case has been delayed a year and 3 months by competency evaluations alone. Bataillon will have to decide between polar-opposite opinions. About 1/2 of the 8 or so psychiatrists who have evaluated Jenkins over the years believe he is feigning mental illness and is concocting grandiose descriptions of how an Egyptian snake god speaks to him. The other 1/2 have diagnosed Jenkins with everything from bed-wetting (as a child) to bipolar disorder to schizophrenia. The competency hearing is not designed to determine Jenkins' mental state at the time of the killings. It is designed to determine only whether Jenkins understands the proceedings against him and whether he is able to assist Public Defender Tom Riley in his defense against the death penalty. Court observers have watched Jenkins in action - representing himself, questioning witnesses and defiantly declaring his rights. If or when he's declared competent, Judge Bataillon will set a death penalty hearing, the fourth time he has done so. Jenkins then would go before a 3-judge panel that will decide whether his crimes merit the death penalty. (source: omaha.com)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., ALA., LA., OHIO
May 12 TEXAS: State, Lawyers Debate Identifying Execution Drug Supplier Revealing Texas' supplier of execution drugs could have a harmful effect on the provider and as a result leave the state empty-handed, a lawyer for the state suggested Wednesday during an appeals court hearing. State Deputy Solicitor General Matthew Frederick told a 3-judge panel on the Austin-based 3rd Court of Appeals that a "substantial risk" comes with naming the state's supplier. Specifically, he said, people who are against the death penalty might lash out against the supplier. "Pharmacies don't have security details," Frederick said. "Their only protection is anonymity." But 3 lawyers who have filed suit to release the identity of lethal injection drug suppliers say that no "substantial threat of physical harm" exists; therefore, the information legally cannot be withheld, their attorney, Philip Durst, argued. The appeals court had challenged attorneys for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and the group of 3 lawyers - who have represented clients on death row - to differentiate between risks and threats when explaining what the harm is in identifying a compounding pharmacy that has provided the state with lethal injection drugs. The court did not offer a timeline for when it would make a ruling, but either party could appeal a future ruling to the Texas Supreme Court. The 3 lawyers sued the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in 2014 after the agency refused a request to identify the compounding pharmacy that supplies the state with lethal injection drugs. The attorneys - Maurie Levin, Naomi Terr and Hilary Sheard - had made the request through the state's Public Information Act. A state district court later that year ordered the prison agency to release the pharmacy's identity because it was public information, but the agency appealed. Since then, major pharmaceutical companies have refused to supply capital punishment states with the drugs needed to execute the condemned, forcing Texas to scramble and find alternative providers. In 2015, Texas made it legal to conceal the identity of parties that supply lethal injection drugs to the state. As a result, the attorneys are challenging the Department of Criminal Justice to release the identity of lethal injection drug suppliers from before the law went into effect last September. The 3 lawyers say that identifying lethal injection drug providers makes it easier to hold them accountable. But the state argues that releasing that information could lead to physical harm of its supplier. There may be risk, but there is no sign of an imminent threat, attorneys for both sides acknowledged before the appeals court. Justice Bob Pemberton pushed back Wednesday on the state's "substantial risk" characterization, saying that there is a difference between a risk and a threat, and that individuals such as former Gov. Rick Perry have been vocal about their position on capital punishment, which hasn't led to threats being realized. A pharmacy supplier is a soft target, though, Frederick responded. Also, Frederick referenced the 2013 revelation that the Woodlands Compounding Pharmacy supplied the state with execution drugs led to significant amounts hate mail and messages. As providers have been identified over the years, they have stopped making the drugs, according to multiple media reports. Equating people who oppose the death penalty to anti-abortion activists, Durst said that such activists generally protest peacefully. There's never been anything other than "How could you?" and other responses protected by the First Amendment, he said. The judges also asked how allowing the supplier's identity to remain secret because of safety concerns would not gut the state's Public Information Act. Frederick said that keeping the identity secret falls in line with the physical safety exemption from complying with a public information request. Durst said that labeling someone or something a threat should be based on concrete evidence. Theories from experts alone is not enough, he said. "It can't be that," Durst told the panel. Until a few years ago, major pharmaceutical companies provided execution drugs to death penalty states, Frederick said. As soon as smaller companies are identified, they might leave the market, he said. "They don't want to stick around long enough to see what happens," he said. After the larger companies dropped death penalty states as clients, Texas began seeking alternative providers to make the lethal drugs, but the federal government has weighed in on a couple of occasions. In April, the Food and Drug Administration barred the Texas Department of Criminal Justice from importing sodium thiopental, a drug used in executions. Last year, Texas and Arizona reportedly tried to import execution drugs from India but were unsuccessful. (source: Texas Tribune) FLORIDA: Death
