[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
Oct. 30 CHINA: Kiwi facing death sentence for smuggling 30kgs of meth begins third year in Chinese jail A Kiwi facing the death penalty for attempting to smuggle 30 kilograms of methamphetamine out of China will begin his 3rd year in jail without knowing his fate. And Peter Gardner will have to wait for at least another 3 months after the Chinese court deliberating his fate had extended his detention to 25 January 2017. His lawyer Craig Tuck said Gardner was holding up as best as could be expected under the circumstances. "There is no indication about how long this will continue or when a decision will be made. "He is deeply grateful for the love and support of his family and friends. The situation is extremely difficult for his family and they seek to maintain their privacy until this matter is resolved." Gardner, a Kiwi and Australian citizen, was stopped from boarding his Sydney-bound China Southern flight from Guangzhou in November with travelling companion Kalynda Davis, after customs officials detected 30 kilograms of the drug methamphetamine, also commonly known as ice, in their bags. With a rough street value of $20 million, it was the biggest single haul of the drug ever seized at the airport. In May, Gardner told a court in Guangzhou that he had been duped into being a drug mule by a sophisticated international smuggling syndicate. "This is the biggest mistake of my life." Gardner thought he was performance-enhancing peptides used by athletes. A Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesman said consular staff continued to visit Gardner regularly. "Consular staff from the New Zealand Consulate-General in Guangzhou continue to provide advice to Mr Gardner and his family, and regularly visit to check on his well-being. Consular officials most recently visited Mr Gardner earlier this week." He was detained on November 8, 2014, and for most of the past two years, he has shared a small cell with 20 other foreigners. Former prisoners have said the lights are kept on for 24 hours, no running water, and prisoners are fed 2 small portions of rice each day. According to figures released earlier this year, there are an estimated 800 Kiwis in foreign prisons around the world. (source: stuff.co.nz) UNITED KINGDOM: Ukip Leadership Candidate Supports Referendum On Bringing Back Death PenaltyIf enough people signed a petition Paul Nuttall would trigger referendum. A frontrunner in Ukip's leadership race has said he would hold a national referendum on bringing back capital punishment. Paul Nuttall told Sky News that "if enough people" signed a petition to bring it back, he would be "quite committed to" triggering a referendum on the death penalty. Ukip's former deputy leader has long been in favour of bringing back capital punishment for some crimes in Britain. "I've been quite open that I believe in capital punishment for the killers of children, for Ian Brady, which is what the majority of the British people think", he told the programme. He said he was in favour of holding more UK-wide referendums in the interests of "direct democracy", which could include reinstating the death penalty. "What we are quite committed to is holding national referendums. If a certain number of people sign a petition it would trigger referendums. It is called direct democracy", he said. In 2011 Nuttall himself signed a controversial petition on the matter, saying "I am in favour of restoring the death penalty for child and serial killers". "I think capital punishment is needed for such heinous crimes and I know that many other people feel the same. A YouGov poll last year found that 74% of people supported the death penalty for murder in some circumstances". "With improvements in science there is virtually no chance of mistaken identity - especially when it comes to serial killers. "While is not Ukip policy to bring back the death penalty I would vote yes if any such referendum was held on capital punishment", he said at the time. Nuttall told Sky News he would also hold a referendum on whether the legal period for abortions should be shortened, should the public want it. There are currently 7 candidates in the leadership contest, which closes in November. Nigel Farage has temporarily returned to lead the party, after his successor, Diane James, resigned 18 days into the job. (source: huffingtonpost.co.uk) INDIA: Manipur activists to seek pardon for woman on death row The Malaysian high court's verdict of death penalty for a Manipuri woman held for trafficking drugs has left many in the state shocked. The state women's commission is looking ways of obtaining clemency for Sangeeta Sharma Brahmacharimayum, 41, owner of a beauty parlour in New Delhi who was found guilty of trafficking over 1.6 kg of drugs (methamphetamine) at Penang International Airport on October 7, 2013. The court charged her
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, ALA., KAN.
Oct. 30 TEXAS: Texas on trial for using fictional character in death penalty casesThe US state of Texas has come under fire for its use of a character from "Of Mice and Men" in determining if defendants are mentally ill. The so-called "Lennie Standard" has put several men on death row. In November, the United States Supreme Court will hear a case that might shock even those familiar with Texas' reputation for being hawkish when it comes to capital punishment. Although the court outlawed execution of the mentally incompetent in 2002, Texas has continued to use the murky legal definitions of sanity and disability to execute mentally ill prisoners. At the center of the upcoming "Moore versus Texas" is not only the state's reliance on outdated medical parameters, but the use of the so-called "Lennie Standard." This is the name Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Cathy Cochran gave "an unscientific seven-pronged test ... based on the character Lennie Smalls from John Steinbeck's 'Of Mice and Men,'" according to the Death Penalty Information Center. In Steinbeck's 1937 novel, Lennie is the large, mentally disabled farmhand who serves as the protagonist's constant companion. The climax of the novel hinges on Lennie's unwitting murder of a woman as he goes to stroke her hair, unaware of his own strength. The "Lennie Standard" asks questions such as whether a defendant showed forethought or an ability to act deceptively as determiners of mental competency. 'Borderline intellectual functioning' In the case now before the Supreme Court, the state of Texas has argued that Bobby James Moore was mentally fit because he employed the use of a wig and hid his weapon during the armed robbery of a grocery store that ended in the death of the store's owner, Jim McCarble, in 1980. This is despite the fact that, according to a piece from Adam Liptak of the New York Times, Moore "reached his teenager years without understanding how to tell time" and had a psychiatrist testify on his behalf that he "suffers from borderline intellectual functioning." Liptak, who follows the Supreme Court for the Times, told DW that the source of the conundrum was in no small part due to the court "allowing states, within broad limits, the ability to decide for themselves who was and wasn't mentally disabled ... bringing about Texas' use of this, shall we say, unusual system." This is what led Cochran to come up with the "Lennie Standard" in 2003 after the state legislature failed to provide adequate parameters. The definition dilemma The case highlights not only the Lone Star State's history of executing mentally ill patients - for example, Andre Thomas, a man who removed one his eyes with his own hands and ate it, still sits on death row - but also the legal conundrum of defining disability. There is no X-ray that reveals mental illness, and the Supreme Court ruled in 2014 that relying soley on a low IQ, a system which was employed by the state of Florida, was not a solid enough legal basis to rule someone incompetent. Even the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Illness (DSM), the gold standard for defining mental disability put out every few years by the American Psychiatric Association, is subject to the changing interpretations of medicine's perhaps most inexact branch. The novelist Steinbeck's son Thomas had some very cutting words for the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, saying in 2012 that "I find the whole premise to be insulting, outrageous, ridiculous and profoundly tragic ... I am certain that if my father, John Steinbeck, were here, he would be deeply angry and ashamed." Supreme Court 'unlikely to accept Texas standard' Liptak, however, saw reason to believe the "Lennie Standard" will be struck down. "If the Supreme Court wasn't willing to accept the Florida standard based on a hard number, they are unlikely to accept the Texas standard." He said, though, that this would likely have more to do with the state's out-of-date medical criterion than "Of Mice and Men." "In general, the trend at the Court is to cut back on the death penalty," Liptak added, though a nationwide ban is unlikely to follow, particularly in the face of staunch public support for the practice in states like Texas. Capital punishment in Texas accounts for about 1/3 of the national total, the state having executed 538 inmates since the US brought back the death penalty in 1976. (source: Deutshce Welle) ALABAMAimpending execution Arthur's execution set for Thursday Douglas Arthur and his sister, Sherrie Stone, have been on an emotional rollercoaster for 40 years, and now they are preparing for what they believe could be their last ride. Their father, Tommy Arthur, is scheduled to be executed Nov. 3, for his involvement in the 1982 murder-for-hire death of Muscle Shoals resident Troy Wicker. "I was 15 when my father went to prison (for the 1st
