[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
Nov. 27 IRAN: Iranian Court Sentences Another Juvenile Offender to Death Iran Human Rights has obtained information about an 18-year-old juvenile offender detained in Sanandaj Prison who was recently sentenced to death by an Iranian court. His case file was reportedly sent to Iran's Supreme Court for review. According to close sources, Ayoub Shahbazi, who was born on August 30, 1998, was arrested by Iranian authorities in 2014 and charged with murder at the age of 16. "When Ayoub was a young child, he lost his father. Due to financial poverty, Ayoub was unable to attend school and therefore is illiterate. From a young age, he was working with his mother cleaning people's homes. 4 years ago, because he had no one to guide him, Ayoub became a drug addict. He ended up killing 1 of his own family members for money," a confirmed source tells Iran Human Rights. Under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Iran is a signatory to, the Iranian authorities have an obligation to not issue the death penalty sentence for offenses committed under the age of 18. According to Article 91 of Iran's revised Islamic Penal Code, it is up to the presiding judge's discretion to deem the juvenile mature enough to understand the nature of the offense: "In the cases of offenses punishable by hadd or qisas, if mature people under eighteen years do not realize the nature of the crime committed or its prohibition, or of there is uncertainty about their full mental development, according to their age, they shall be sentenced to the punishments prescribed in this chapter." The Islamic Penal Code puts the age of criminal responsibility for males at 15 and 9 for females. Ayoub Shahbazi is the latest juvenile offender to receive a death sentence by an Iranian court. In August 2016, Iran Human Rights published a report identifying seven juvenile offenders on death row. (source: Iran Human Rights) PHILIPPINES: Lawmakers urged to reject revival of death penaltyAmnesty International says bringing back the death penalty would be a 'major setback' for human rights and would also be a violation of the Philippines' obligations under international law Global human rights group Amnesty International urged lawmakers in the country to reject the revival of the death penalty, one of the priority bills of President Rodrigo Duterte. "The re-introduction of the death penalty would not only represent a major setback for the promotion and protection of human rights in the country but also violate the Philippines' obligations under international law," said Amnesty International in a statement on Friday, November 25. "The Philippines, which fully abolished the death penalty for the second time in 2006, is party to an international treaty that categorically prohibits executions and commits the country to the abolition of this punishment. These obligations cannot be withdrawn at any time." In his 1st month in office, Duterte had asked lawmakers to revive the death penalty, especially for drug traffickers. The war on drugs has been one of the key campaigns of the government since Duterte took office last June 30. For the President, the death penalty is a way to exact payment from a perpetrator of a heinous crime. Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez earlier led several lawmakers in filing measures seeking to restore capital punishment for heinous crimes. The Speaker wants the House of Representatives to pass the consolidated version of the bills on 3rd and final reading by December. Last month, the House justice committee also recommended the reimposition of the death penalty for drug-related cases. The House independent minority bloc has accused the justice committee of "railroading" the passage of the death penalty bills. At the Senate, Senator Manny Pacquiao has also echoed Duterte's desire to bring back the death penalty. Pacquiao even went as far as saying that God supports the death penalty to "punish" and "discipline wrongdoers." Amnesty International and other human rights groups have long said, however, that there is no evidence to prove that the imposition of capital punishment deters crime. "There is no conclusive evidence that the death penalty has a deterrent effect. Statistics from countries that have abolished the death penalty show that the absence of the death penalty has not resulted in an increase in the crimes previously subject to capital punishment, while evidence shows that punitive policies have little influence on the prevalence of drug use," Amnesty International reiterated on Friday. The Philippine government, the group also pointed out, has been issuing appeals on behalf of Filipinos on death row in other countries. "[Reviving the death penalty would] undermine the country's strong track record of advocating for the commutation of the death sentences imposed on Filipino nationals abroad, such as overseas
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., NEV., USA
Nov. 27 TEXAS: Death penalty, the mentally disabled at issue for justices The U.S. Supreme Court is set to examine whether the nation's busiest state for capital punishment is trying to put to death a convicted killer who's intellectually disabled, which would make him ineligible for execution under the court's current guidance. Lawyers for prisoner Bobby James Moore, 57, contend that the state's highest criminal court, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, ignored current medical standards and required use of outdated standards when it decided Moore isn't mentally disabled. That ruling removed a legal hurdle to Moore's execution for the shotgun slaying of a Houston grocery store clerk in 1980. The Texas court is a "conspicuous outlier" among state courts and "defies both the Constitution and common sense," Clifford Sloan, Moore's lead lawyer, told the justices in written briefs submitted ahead of Tuesday's scheduled oral arguments. Such a "head-in-the-sand approach ... ignores advances in the medical community's understanding and assessment of intellectual disability over the past quarter century," he wrote. Moore's lawyers want his death sentence set aside, contending his punishment would violate the Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment and the Supreme Court's 2002 ruling in a North Carolina case that prohibited execution of the mentally disabled. The Texas attorney general's office says the state "fully complies" with Supreme Court precedents. The state points to its use of 1992 clinical definitions for intellectual disability as cited by the high court in its 2002 decision. And the office says it has consulted and considered more recent standards. The question before the high court "rests on a false premise," Texas Solicitor General Scott Keller said, arguing that Moore's claim of intellectual disability is refuted "under any relevant standard." Two years ago, the Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional a Florida law that barred any other evidence of intellectual disability if an inmate's IQ was over 70. Texas uses a 3-pronged test to define intellectual disability: IQ scores, with 70 generally considered a threshold; an inmate's ability to interact with others and care for him or herself; and whether evidence of deficiencies in either of those areas occurred before age 18. The state says Moore had a troubled childhood with little supervision and scored 57, 77 and 78 on IQ tests before dropping out of school in the 9th grade. He'd been convicted 4 times of felonies by age 17 but never was diagnosed with an intellectual disability as a youth, the state argues. It describes him as living on the streets, playing pool for money and mowing lawns. During the fatal robbery of 72-year-old Houston supermarket clerk James McCarble, Moore wore a wig and fled to Louisiana afterward, and had represented himself in legal actions, showing the required intellectual capabilities, the state contends. Moore's lawyers argue the state "cherry-picked" specific higher IQ scores, and that at age 13 Moore had no basic understanding of the days of the week or seasons of the year, couldn't tell time and couldn't read or write or keep up in school. Since the Supreme Court allowed capital punishment to resume in 1976, Texas has carried out 537 executions, far more than any other state. Moore arrived on death row in July 1980, and only 5 of the state's some 250 condemned inmates have been there longer. In 1999, an appeals court threw out his death sentence, ruling that the legal help at his trial was deficient. At a new punishment hearing 2 years later, a Harris County jury again sentenced him to die. In an appeal of that verdict, the Court of Criminal Appeals returned the case to the trial court for a hearing, where the judge decided Moore was mentally disabled and ineligible for execution. But the appeals court rejected that recommendation, saying the trial judge had disregarded case law. 8 of the appeals court's 9 members participated in the case, and 2 of them disagreed with the majority. (source: Associated Press) FLORIDA: Anti-death penalty event planned for Wednesday in St. Augustine Less than a year after a St. Johns County priest was found shot to death in Georgia, parishioners and officials from the Catholic Diocese of St. Augustine, as well as other community members, will gather to say that no one convicted of a violent crime should ever be put to death. The 1-hour, anti-death penalty event, billed as Cities for Life and co-hosted by Equal Justice USA, will be held at the Shrine at Mission Nombre de Dios at 101 San Marco Ave. on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. Father John Gillespie, pastor at San Sebastian Church, told The Record last week that the event wasn't necessarily planned in response to the death of his friend, Father Rene Robert. But the topic, he said, has taken on a greater meaning since Georgia
