[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
May 15 SINGAPORE: Imminent executions in Singapore and Indonesia must be halted We the undersigned, human rights organizations, and concerned human rights defenders condemn the imminent executions of Kho Jabing in Singapore and at least 15 individuals which apparently includes, 4 Chinese nationals, 2 Nigerians, 2 Zimbabweans, 1 Senegalese, 1 Pakistani and 5 Indonesian nationals in Indonesia. We call on the authorities of the 2 countries to halt the impending executions. On 12 May 2016, the family of Kho Jabing, a Malaysian national on death row in Singapore, received a letter from the Singapore Prisons informing them that Kho Jabing would be executed on 20 May 2016. Kho Jabing was convicted of murder in 2011. Of particular concern is the fact that there was a lack of unanimity in sentencing Kho Jabing to death, which demonstrates that reasonable doubt exists as to whether Kho Jabing deserved the death penalty. As regards the imminent executions that will be taking place in Indonesia, Indonesia would contravene her own international obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Right by executing these individuals. The Association of South East Asian Nations Member States (???ASEAN???), including Singapore and Indonesia, have continuously emphasized the importance of the rule of law and the protection of rights. The death penalty therefore stands out as an aberration. In December 2014, the United Nations General Assembly adopted its latest resolutions calling on all States to adopt a moratorium on the use of the death penalty, with a view towards abolition. A record number of 117 Member States supported the Resolution. Regrettably, Indonesia abstained and Singapore voted against the Resolution. The ASEAN Member States must use the opportunity presented by this Resolution to align themselves with the global movement towards abolition. Singapore has recently undergone its second Universal Periodic Review in January 2016. The continued use of the death penalty was one of the key highlights of the review, with Singapore receiving over 30 recommendations related to the death penalty, including recommendations to abolish the death penalty. In 2015, Indonesia, a United Nations Human Rights Council Member until 2017, executed 14 individuals convicted of drug-related offences amid strong international opposition. The imminent executions would further damage Indonesia's human rights record and erode her standing in the international community. The death penalty has no place in the 21st Century. Not only is there a real possibility of wrongful executions, it deprives inmates of their life and dignity, and creates new classes of victims. We strongly urge the governments of Singapore and Indonesia to halt the upcoming executions, immediately impose a moratorium on the use of the death penalty and take meaningful steps towards its eventual abolition. List of Signatories: Anti-Death Penalty Network Asia (ADPAN) Center for Prisoner's Rights Japan (CPR) Community Action Network (CAN, Singapore) Free Community Church (Singapore) Function 8 (Singapore) MADPET (Malaysians Against Death Penalty and Torture) Maruah (Singapore) International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) Journey of Hope Legal Aid Community (LBH Masyarakat, Indonesia) Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights (MVFHR) Ocean Pusat Studi Hukum dan Kebijakan Indonesia (The Indonesian Center for Law and Policy Studies) Reprieve Australia Sayoni (Singapore) Singapore Anti-Death Penalty Campaign (SADPC) Suara Rakyat Malaysia (SUARAM) Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty (TAEDP) The Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence (KontraS, Indonesia) The Indonesian Center for Law and Policy Studies (PSHK, Indonesia) The Institute for Criminal Justice Reform (ICJR, Indonesia) The Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy of Indonesia (ELSAM) The National Human Rights Society, Malaysia (HAKAM) Think Centre Singapore We Believe in Second Chances (WBSC, Singapore) (source: wordpress.com) * Questionable validity of the Court of Appeal in resentencing of death for Kho Jabing MADPET (Malaysians Against Death Penalty and Torture) in a letter to the press, states that the questionable validity of the Court of Appeal that re-sentenced Kho Jabing to death is enough reason for immediate stay of execution of Kho Jabing that has been scheduled for Friday 20 May 2016 It states that the Justice Andrew Phang should not have sat on the 2 Court of Appeal as such a judge who had previously heard and determined a case involving the same accused person reasonably would not satisfy the conditions of an independent and impartial tribunal. It also noted that when Kho's case was sent to the High Court for re-sentencing by the Court of Appeal, the judge that heard and considered the re-sentencing was not the High Court judge that originally
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
May 15 UNITED KINGDOM/TRINIDAD: UK judges to rule on death penalties for 'intellectually disabled' Case of 2 Trinidadians on death row may set global precedent that could prevent the execution of people with extremely low IQs The fate of 2 Trinidadian prisoners, both of whom have been condemned to death despite having extremely low IQs, will be decided by British judges this week. The 2-day hearing at the judicial committee of the privy council (JCPC) in London may set an international precedent that could prevent the execution of people on death row who have been diagnosed as "intellectually disabled". The JCPC, based in Westminster, acts as an ultimate court of appeal for smaller Commonwealth countries, including many in the Caribbean that retain capital punishment. Justices from the UK's supreme court hear its cases. Lester Pitman was convicted of a joint enterprise, triple killing of 3 Britons carried out in the island's capital, Port of Spain. In December 2001, the bodies of a former BBC newsreader, Lynette Lithgow, 51, her mother Maggie Lee, 83, and brother-in-law John Cropper, 59, were found in a blood-splattered bathroom at a 12-room bungalow. Cropper had moved to Trinidad several years earlier. All 3 were found with their hands tied behind their backs and their throats slit. The initial motive appeared to have been robbery. Pitman, who is now 36, was convicted of the killings in 2004 and sentenced to hang. The death penalty for murder is mandatory in Trinidad. Because he had waited for so many years on death row, however, his sentence was commuted in 2013 to 40 years in jail. At the end of the hearing, Trinidad's court of appeal declared that Pitman had previously been "properly sentenced to suffer the death penalty". Pitman's IQ was measured initially at 52 then at 67 - both figures are below the World Health Organisation guideline that classifies anyone with an IQ of below 70 as being "intellectually disabled". His mother, Cheryl Pitman, told the Trinidad Guardian: "People should have mercy for Lester because his IQ is very low. He thinks like a child." Neil Hernandez was convicted of killing a woman, Christine Henry, and her 6-year-old son, Philip, in the coastal village of Toco on Trinidad in May 2000. He was found to have slashed them with the cutlass he used for harvesting coconuts. Hernandez claimed he had not intended to kill them and had been tricked into signing a confession. In 2004, he was sentenced to hang. At a hearing in 2014 , the Trinidad appeal court commuted his death sentence to 25 years on the same principle as Pitman, that he had already spent too long on death row. Evidence given showed he had an IQ of 57. Delivering their decision, the appeal court judges in Port of Spain said: "If the members of this society [in Trinidad] hold the view that it is repugnant to evolving standards of decency to impose the death sentence on mentally retarded persons, then those members are entitled to make their views felt and to lobby members of parliament to introduce legislation which reflects those standards." An earlier Jamaican JCPC case, known as Pratt and Morgan, established in 1993 that it was "inhuman or degrading punishment" to impose a delay of more than 5 years after sentencing on anyone facing execution. Pitman and Hernandez are being represented at the JCPC by Saul Lehrfreund, the co-executive director of the Death Penalty Project, which is based at the London law firm Simons Muirhead and Burton, and provides free legal assistance to prisoners facing the death penalty around the world. He said: "These cases raise a novel constitutional point about the imposition of the death penalty on people who have intellectual disability. "It's important for both Commonwealth countries and the wider world where the death penalty is still in use. This could establish a principle that it's cruel and unusual punishment to impose a sentence of death on someone if they are intellectually disabled or suffer from significant mental illness." In court, the cases will be argued by Edward Fitzgerald QC and Paul Bowen QC. Pitman's appeal is against both conviction and sentence, Hernandez's only against sentence. Lehrfreund added: "Neither Pitman nor Hernandez are going to be executed, because the court in Trinidad has recognised they have been on death row for too long. If we are right, however, they should never have been sentenced to the cruelty of the death penalty in the first place. "We say there should have been a judicial determination to look into their intellectual disability before they were sentenced. If we are successful, it will create a precedent that would be persuasive and resonate in other countries [including Malaysia and Singapore] which also continue to impose mandatory death penalties for murder and other offences." : Pitman's conviction is also being contested on the grounds that it
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----ALA., KAN., UTAH, CALIF., USA
May 15 ALABAMA: With Vernon Madison's execution in limbo, are Christians conflicted over the death penalty? How do we, as Christians, reconcile the death penalty with "Thou shalt not kill"? I may be living in the very worst part of the country to bring this up - or maybe, in truth, this is the best place to do it, so what the heck. Many of us don't even try to reconcile the 2 seemingly diametrically opposing forces. We simply site the sixth commandment, and that's pretty much that": Thou shalt not kill. Period. But then something heinous happens. An innocent child is murdered, or an entire family. Or a cop. Or any number of crimes that cause us to, well, reveal our humanness and want to see the perpetrator PUNISHED. To some of us, even Christians, that means: They don't deserve to live. But it's typically pretty easy to simply avoid the conversation altogether. Sure, crime dominates the headlines but as the accused perpetrators wind their way through the byzantine criminal justice system, the names, faces and allegations fade from the headlines and our consciousness. But then something happens. The state - which is us, really - schedules an execution. Years after the crime. Years after the initial trial, after the appeals and motions have been exhausted, someone is scheduled to be put to death. And then we have to think...Is this right? Alabama, of course, is 1 of 31 states executing people right now. Right now, we're trying to execute death row inmate Vernon Madison for the slaying 31 years ago of Mobile police Cpl. Julius Schulte. We (yes, I am saying 'we" for a reason) wanted to do so by lethal injection on Thursday night at 6 p.m. at the Holman Correctional Facility near Atmore. But a federal appeals court granted a stay on Thursday morning, and late Thursday evening the Anthony Scalia-less United States Supreme Court, in a 4-4 decision, denied the state's attorney general's request to carry forth the killing. As the events surrounding the killing unfolded yesterday, it caused me to re-ponder and ultimately reaffirm my own view on the death penalty: I'm against it, period. Oh, I haven't always been against it, unequivocally. I've been human. I've thought some perpetrators of heinous crimes were wasting precious air on this Earth. But as I've grown and strived to live more as Christians are asked to live - emphasis on strived; Lord knows I'm far from there - I come around to believe the sixth commandment says what it says. There is no asterisk, allowing for killing in some circumstances. Now, some open their Bibles and cite the Mosiac Law of the Israelites' justice system noted in the Old Testament as justification for the death penalty: But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise. Exodus 21: 23-25 "We should not be about the business of taking lives." Rev. Van Moody, pastor, The Worship Center I'm no Biblical scholar, not by any means, so I reached out to a minister friend for some clarity. She says it is a misuse of that scripture to justify the death penalty because it was written before Jesus came along and, in the parable of the Unmerciful Servant, charged Peter (and, by extension, all Christians) to forgive...and forgive...and forgiveand ... Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to 7 times?" Jesus answered, "I tell you, not 7 times, but 77 times. Matthew 18: 21-22 (NIV) "We should not be participating in [the death penalty] because we are supposed to turning other cheek," the minister says. "Yes, the [perpetrator] should be jailed, pay their debt back to society or somehow make amends. But we are supposed to forgive 7 times 77 times a day - 7 means completion, so it means absolute forgiveness." Rev. Van Moody, pastor of The Worship Center, says it is frustrating that many Christians, especially in these divisive times, are selective when it comes to how their faith shapes their views on society's hot-button issues, such as abortion and the death penalty. "What breaks my heart about the Christian position on issues is that we pick and choose how to apply our faith," he told me. "Gandhi said he likes Christ but not Christians because so they're so unlike Christ. We're selective on which scriptures we want to follow and which we want to ignore. "Regarding the death penalty, the biggest issue some Christians grapple with is that God loves all people, even those who commit mass atrocities." He cites 3 pertinent scriptures: Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the
