[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
Dec. 6 INDIA: Can stay execution of Chhattisgarh-based convict: Delhi HC The Delhi High Court today said it can hear and grant stay on the execution of a man held guilty for murder of 5 persons, including 2 children, in 2004 in Chhattisgarh, as the decision rejecting his mercy plea was taken here by the President of India. A bench of Justices G S Sistani and Vinod Goel said this while dismissing the plea of the Chhattisgarh government that the Delhi High Court did not have jurisdiction to hear the matter. The state government had contended that rejection of mercy plea by the President and the Governor of Chhattisgarh does not give rise to any cause of action. The high court, however, refused to accept the contention, saying mercy petition was the "last thread" between convict and the gallows and its rejection, which leads to issuance of warrants of execution, "closes the last hope upon which his very life is reliant". "Therefore, in our view, the rejection of mercy petition does give rise to a cause of action at Delhi," it said. The bench also said, "The material to be examined is the advice tendered by the cabinet and all the documents and records pertaining to the same are in Delhi and the decision has also been taken in Delhi. "Further the location of the convict also makes no difference, as the convict being the dominus litis (the main litigant) is free to invoke the jurisdiction of this court." The court also rejected the state government's argument that cause of action was linked with crime, saying that "concept of cause of action in respect of criminal proceedings cannot apply sensu stricto (strict sense) to the present proceedings as the same are not a continuation of the judicial proceedings but premised upon executive orders". It said that the act of the President of India under the constitutional power is entirely different from the judicial power and cannot be regarded as an extension of it. "Accordingly, it cannot be said that the power exercised by the President of India (rejecting the mercy plea) is in continuation of the judicial proceedings," it said. The state government's application was filed in the main petition of the convict, Sonu Sardar, who has sought that his death penalty be commuted to life imprisonment on account of delay in deciding his mercy plea as well as for allegedly keeping him in "solitary confinement illegally". The Delhi High Court had on March 2, 2015 stayed the execution of Sardar after which the state government had approached the Supreme Court challenging the Delhi High Court's jurisdiction to hear the matter. The apex court had asked the high court to decide the state's application in 4 weeks. Sardar, along with his brother and accomplices, had killed 5 persons of a family, including a woman and 2 children, during a dacoity bid in Chhattisgarh's Cher village on November 26, 2004. The trial court had slapped death penalty on him and the Chhattisgarh High Court had upheld it. The Supreme Court in February 2012 had concurred with the findings of 2 courts below and affirmed the punishment. His mercy petition was also dismissed by both the state Governor and the President of India. In February 2015, the apex court had also rejected his review plea. (source: Business Standard) UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: Dubai Sentences 10 Punjabi Citizens To Death In Murder Case A civil court in Dubai in the province of United Arab Emirates has issued the death penalty to 10 Punjabis who had gone there to earn a living. The men have been found guilty in a case pertaining to the murder of a Pakistani citizen in a clash over alcohol drinking. The 10 men were originally from Malerkotla, Tarn Taran, Samrala, Ludhiana, Moga, Patiala and Gurdaspurs districts. The court's verdict has distressed the families of the young men and they have started approaching the Indian authorities to make efforts to save them. It is learnt that efforts were being made to lodge an appeal against the court's verdict. (source: sikh24.com) MIDDLE EAST: Theresa May should condemn Saudi death penalties at GCC meeting The British PM should use her meeting with the King of Saudi Arabia to condemn the country's sentencing to death today of 15 Shia Muslims for alleged espionage. Theresa May is visiting Bahrain to meet with leaders of Persian Gulf states, who are in the country for a meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council. She will attend a dinner with the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman on Tuesday, before addressing the plenary session of the summit on Wednesday. IHRC believes the meeting is an opportune moment for the PM to raise concerns about Saudi Arabia's liberal use of the death penalty against the country's minority Shia under the pretexts of terrorism and spying. In January, Saudi Arabia executed prominent Shia cleric Nimr Baqir al-Nimr, a
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----GA., FLA., ALA., USA
Dec. 6 GEORGIAexecution Georgia executes William Sallie for 1990 murder of father-in-law William Sallie, 50, has been executed by lethal injection at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison, making him the ninth inmate the state has put to death this year. Sallie's death occurred at at 10:05 p.m. The U.S. Supreme Court denied a stay of execution for Sallie shortly after 9:30 p.m. Sallie was scheduled to die by lethal injection at 7 p.m., but Georgia does not act until all courts have weighed in, which usually puts the actual time of death well into the night and sometimes into the early morning hours of the next day. This afternoon, the Georgia Supreme Court unanimously denied Sallie's request for a stay of execution. His lawyers then petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court, even though the high court had previously turned him down. As he waited, Sallie ate all of what he'd requested for his final meal and visited with 6 family members, 4 friends, 3 members of the clergy and 4 paralegals. Sallie, 50, repeatedly failed to get any court to consider his claim of juror bias, and on Monday the State Board of Pardons and Paroles also rejected that argument and refused to grant a stay of execution. Sallie was convicted in Bacon County of murdering his father-in-law John Moore in 1990, shooting and wounding his mother-in-law Linda Moore, and kidnapping his estranged wife and her sister. Sallie broke into his in-laws' home - where his wife, Robin, and their 2-year-old son, Ryan, were sleeping - after he lost a custody battle and his wife filed for divorce. In court filings and a clemency petition, Sallie's lawyers wrote that the domestic turmoil in William and Robin Sallie's lives was much like that lived by a juror who denied ever being embroiled in a volatile marriage, a custody dispute or domestic violence. When the woman was questioned during jury selection for the Sallie murder trial, she said her marriages - 4 of them - had ended amicably. Sallie's lawyers said that was false, contending in their clemency petition that the juror fought with soon-to-be ex-husbands over child custody and support payments and lived with domestic abuse. That juror also told an investigator for Sallie's lawyers that she pushed 6 fellow jurors to change their votes from life in prison to death, making the jury's decision unanimous. In numerous filings, Sallie's lawyers tried to get a hearing on the issue of juror bias, which has not been argued in any court because Sallie missed a critical deadline to bring that appeal. Sallie's attorney Jack Martin said that deadline came at a time when Sallie did not have a lawyer, as Georgia law does not mandate that the state pay for appellate attorneys for death row inmates. Martin said former Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Norman Fletcher told the Parole Board about Georgia's history of not providing lawyers for condemned inmates. Fletcher wrote an op-ed in The New York Times this week - "Georgia's dangerous rush to execution" - in which he talked about problems inherent in Georgia's application of the death penalty. "A door that would have been open to Mr. Sallie in almost any other state was closed to him in Georgia," Fletcher wrote of the state's refusal to provide people with legal counsel. "If it were open, he would be able to present the facts about his trial, which appear to show serious problems with juror bias." Now that Sallie has been put to death, Georgia has nearly doubled its record for the number of executions carried out in a year since the death penalty was reinstated here in 1973. Georgia executed 5 people last year and also in 1987. Georgia also leads the nation in executions this year. Texas is 2nd, with 7 executions in 2016. Sallie becomes the 9th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Georgia and the 69th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1983. Sallie becomes the 19th condemened person to be put to death this year in the USA and 1441st overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977. There is 1 more execution scheduled in the country this year, as Ronald Smith Jr. faces death in Alabama on Thursday evening, Dec. 8th. The nation carried out 28 executions in 2015. There are 7 executions scheduled for January, 2017. (sources: myacj.com & Rick Halperin) FLORIDA: Prosecutors to seek death penalty for man accused of lighting woman on fireCarol Renee Demmons, 56, attacked inside Golden Corral, died at hospital Prosecutors will seek the death penalty against a 58-year-old man accused of killing his girlfriend by lighting her on fire inside a Golden Corral. Carol Renee Demmons, 56, who worked at the restaurant, was doused with lighter fluid by Darryl Tyrone Whipple, who then ignited her with a lighter as she ran away, according to the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office. Demmons suffered burns on 62 5 of her
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
Dec. 6 NIGERIA: The faux outrage of Lagos state's death penalty for criminals The Lagos State House of Assembly, incensed by the rising spate of kidnappings in the state, has passed a bill that stipulates a death sentence for kidnappers whose victims die in their captivity. On the surface, such proposed law, awaiting the signature of the State Governor Akinwumi Ambode, seems like a good-intentioned move to clamp down hard on hardened criminals. But then, the surface never tells the true value, or lack of, of anything. And beyond the faux outrage of the State House of Assembly, its proposed death sentence will not deter kidnappers, prevent deaths from kidnappings or make residents of Lagos any more safe. While the immorality and inhumanity of the death penalty may be disputed, albeit ingeniously, the ineffectiveness of such state-sanctioned murder as deterrent to crime is indisputable. The highest record of state executions for criminal offences in Nigeria were carried out during the periods of military rule in the 1980s and 1990s. Yet, crimes punishable by death remained at their peak during these times. Even the high-profile executions of notorious armed robbers such as Lawrence Anini, Monday Osunbor, Peter Presley Preboye and Shina Rambo did nothing to the continuously rising crime rates. Suffice it to say that the killings of these armed robbers were just that, killings. They were no deterrent to crime. In the same vein, the Lagos State Government's Death Sentence for kidnappers will have no effect on kidnappings in the state, just as rampant extrajudicial killings of robbery suspects haven't reduced current robbery rates. If death sentences won't curb kidnappings, then what will? To answer this pertinent question, one must return to the primary reason for the increase in kidnappings and other money-motivated crimes - economic desperation. Nigeria is knee-deep in recession, jobs have become more scarce and less secure, wages have either stagnated or fallen while commodity prices are running amok. All of these are occurring in a country with already sky high unemployment, gulf-wide inequality, pervasive poverty, endemic corruption and inept government institutions. It is not difficult to draw the parallels between these blatant failures of the Nigerian society and the rising incidences of kidnappings and other money-motivated crimes. Investigating the relationship between crime level, unemployment rate, poverty rate, and corruption level and inflation rate in Nigeria between 1980 and 2009, researchers, writing in the Global Advanced Research Journal of Management and Business Studies, came to the conclusion that the above mentioned societal problems impact significantly on crime rate. "There is a link between crime level, unemployment, poverty, corruption and inflation; but even if people were unemployed, poor and corrupt, criminality may not be that high, but when the cost of living which is determined by inflation is high, crime level becomes high." In light of the above, it is clear to see that what needs the utmost attention is the optimisation of economic opportunities, not an adaptation of state-sanctioned killing. Thus, if the Lagos State Government was really keen on deterring kidnappers, it would have been more interested in creating massive job schemes, radically increasing vocational training opportunities and championing programmes that will help small businesses thrive. The government would also have been doing more about making education more qualitative, less expensive and open beyond primary, secondary, and tertiary levels, but also to include adult education. However, the Lagos State Government, by choosing to kill kidnappers, has opted for what seems like an easy way to curb kidnappings. Only that it actually doesn't. It is destined will only add to the State Government's growing list of ineffectual policies, a recent one of which was the ban on highway hawking. The government had threatened desperately poor and opportunities-bereft youths, whose sole source of a daily bread was chasing down cars to sell cheap snacks and accessories, with fines and jail time. This, it did without working to combat socio-economic problems which are the root causes of highway hawking. Expectedly, the ban achieved nothing as the highways are still surfeited with hawkers. The same will be the case with kidnappings and armed robberies if a death sentence is the only sentence the government can muster. (source: venturesafrica.com) PAKISTAN: COAS endorses 4 death sentences A military court has awarded death sentences to 4 suspected terrorists belonging to the banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi and Al Qaeda for the attack on Karachi airport and assassination of a senior counterterrorism official. The death sentences have been endorsed by Army Chief Gen Qamar Bajwa. "Today Chief of Army Staff confirmed death sentences awarded to
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----OHIO, IOWA, OKLA., NEB., NEV., US MIL.
Dec. 5 OHIOimpending execution State rejects execution delay for man who raped, killed girl The state has rejected a proposal to temporarily delay the January execution of a man set to die for the 1993 rape and killing of his girlfriend's 3-year-old daughter. Assistant Ohio attorney general Thomas Madden ruled out the possibility of a 1-month reprieve for death row inmate Ronald Phillips in a Friday email made public Monday. The state and attorneys for Phillips discussed the possibility of a reprieve while arguments are made over Ohio's new 3-drug lethal-injection method. Phillips, who was found guilty by a jury, is scheduled to die Jan. 12. An initial proposal would have postponed the execution until Feb. 15. Madden's email said the proposal was rejected after Phillips' attorneys proposed a delay until April. Phillips' attorneys also went beyond the agreement by not limiting the issues that a federal judge would consider during arguments over the new lethal-injection method, Madden said. "As we seem to be unable to reach an agreement, we consider the matter closed," according to Madden's email, included in a Monday court filing. The attorney general's office declined to comment. Messages were left for Phillips' attorneys. Phillips is the 1st death row inmate scheduled for execution next year under a new process for putting condemned prisoners to death. The Department of Rehabilitation and Correction plans to execute Phillips and 2 other inmates with a three-drug combination that's similar to a method it used several years ago. Phillips, 43, was sentenced to death for the fatal attack on Sheila Marie Evans. His attorneys have asked the Ohio Parole Board to recommend clemency, with a decision coming Friday. The case is tragic, but Phillips is not among the worst of the worst offenders, his attorneys told the board. Summit County prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh says Phillips refuses to accept responsibility and it"s time for justice to be served (source: The Tribune) IOWA: Reinstating Iowa's death penalty would be a mistake Re: "Does Iowa Need the Death Penalty for Cop Killers?" When you are young, you are taught "not to fight fire with fire" and "violence is not the answer," so why is it that we cannot transfer this into our adult lives? I completely understand and share the outrage following the tragic murders of 2 Des Moines-area police officers, but by reinstating the death penalty in response to such violence, we would be doing more harm than good. A person who decides to kill a police officer is unlikely to change his mind based on whether the punishment is a life sentence without parole or the death penalty. I understand that we want to make people more afraid of the punishments so they will not resort to shooting officers, but imposing capital punishment will not act as an effective deterrent for a criminal to think twice before committing murder. Our police officers deserve to feel safe, but their safety will more likely be enhanced through improvements to mental health care and reasonable gun laws. By reinstating the death penalty, we would be signaling that violence is the answer to our problems, which we know is not true. We would all be better off if we were to focus on enforcing the laws we already have in place in Iowa. Lauren McDowell, Des Moines (source: Letter to the Editor, Des Moines Register) OKLAHOMA: Carter County DA to seek death penalty in Ardmore double homicide The Carter County District Attorney's office spokespersons said they will seek the death penalty for a man charged with a double homicide. Craig Stanford is accused of shooting and killing Aaron Lavers and Athony Rogers in their ardmore apartment back in Maythen stealing an ipad. District Attorney Craig Ladd says he filed for the court to pursue the death penalty. "The aggravating circumstances I have alleged against Mr. Stanford are murdering someone to prevent a lawful arrest of prosecution of him," Ladd said. "Another was that he would be a continuing threat to society. And another was that he exposed more than one person to a risk of death." Stanford will be due back in court Wednesday for his arraignment. (source: KXII news) NEBRASKA: Nebraska Agency Defends Illegal Execution Drug Purchase As A "Unique Process"Last year, Nebraska spent more than $25,000 on illegal execution drugs they never received from a man in India. The department of corrections defended its conduct to auditors in a report released Monday. The Nebraska Department of Correctional Services defended the state's conduct in paying $26,000 for illegal execution drugs it never received, arguing it was a "unique process," in response to questions from a state auditor looking into the sale. A report by the auditor was requested by 2 state senators earlier this year, and was released on Monday. Many of the facts in the
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., GA. FLA., ALA., LA.
Dec. 6 TEXAS: Families have exchange in capital murder hearing The family of a 13-year-old shot on his grandparents' front doorstep and a relative of the man accused of the killing faced each other in a court hearing Monday. David Davila appeared briefly before 148th District Judge Guy Williams after a Nueces County grand jury indicted him last week on a capital murder charge. The indictment accuses Davila of shooting 13-year-old Alex Torres as part of a retaliation. Davila, 27, pleaded not guilty. As Torres' grandmother walked out of the courtroom, she stared at a woman sitting in the gallery with Davila's mother. The women made eye contact. "What are you looking at?" the woman sitting down said loudly to Torres' grandmother. Several others in the audience turned to look. A nearby bailiff put himself between the women and ushered Torres' family out of the courtroom. Torres was shot Jan. 13, 2015 when he answered the door of his grandparents' Southside apartment in the 2200 block of Treyway Lane. His grandparents were grocery shopping. The killing went unsolved more than a year before a tipster told Corpus Christi police Davila was responsible but that the gunshot was intended for his ex-girlfriend who lived in a nearby apartment. According to an arrest affidavit, Davila's ex-girlfriend reported him to Child Protective Services. Davila's girlfriend at the time of the shooting, Christina Trevino, was also indicted on the same charge last week and is accused of driving the getaway vehicle. Davila's lawyer, Adam Rodrigue, declined to comment after the hearing. During the hearing, a prosecutor gave Rodrigue a box of evidence, including CDs. Davila and Trevino, 24, remain in the Nueces County Jail in lieu of $500,000 bail each. Capital murder is punishable by life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty. (source: Corpus Christi Caller-Times) NORTH CAROLINA: Man accused of murdering Granville County couple seeks to avoid death penalty Nearly 2 years have passed since Jerome and Dora Faulkner were ambushed and killed inside their rural Granville County home by what prosecutors have described as a father-and-son team who selected the retirees at random while on the run from Texas authorities. Eric Alexander Campbell, son of the late Edward Campbell, is facing the death penalty in a crime spree that made national headlines after it ended in West Virginia in a shootout with deputies. In a court document associated with a hearing set for Tuesday in Granville County Superior Court, Amos Tyndall, a Chapel Hill attorney representing the younger Campbell, provided details of a multi-state crime spree in which Eric Campbell reportedly was so afraid of his father that he could not extricate himself from his grip. In the request to take capital punishment off the table for Eric Campbell, Tyndall described Edward Campbell as a tyrant parent who abused drugs and manufactured methamphetamines, held his children upside down and beat them, shot the family dog and beat up his wife so viciously that she escaped him late one night while he slept. "When Eric was prescribed Adderral for ADHD as a child," the court document states, "Edward Campbell took all the pills for himself." Edward Campbell, 54, died in March 2015 when officials at Central Prison found him unresponsive in his cell after he had attempted to hang himself. That left Eric Campbell, now 23, to stand alone on 2 counts of murder, as well as charges of 1st-degree burglary, 2nd-degree arson and identity theft. He also was charged with robbery with a dangerous weapon, larceny of a motor vehicle, financial card theft and 2 counts of cruelty to animals - charges stemming from the spear-deaths of the Faulkners' 2 dogs. Crime spree The court document details a crime spree that began in Brezoria County, Texas, in September 2014 after Edward Campbell was arrested for severely assaulting his wife after believing she was cheating on him. In that incident, according to court documents, Holly Campbell told law enforcement officers that her husband threatened to shoot her in front of their children and held her hostage for hours - beating her, choking her and continually threatening her. After being released from jail on bond in that case, Edward Campbell skipped a court date, stole a 2007 Chevy Suburban from a school and left Texas with Eric on Christmas Eve of 2014, telling his adult son they were going camping. The men made it across the southern United States to Georgia in 4 days. They stopped at an Advanced Auto Parts for a new alternator in Suwanee, Ga., on Dec. 28, 2014. Later that day, they stopped in a Home Depot in Greenville, S.C., purchasing a sprayer, muriatic acid, drain opener, lighter fluid, a chain, padlock, jam nut and U bolt. They camped for a few days near Hillsborough, and are seen on surveillance footage of a Wal-Mart buying
