[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
Jan. 24 PHILIPPINES: Curbs on death penalty interpellation scored AKBAYAN party-list Rep. Tom Villarin yesterday accused the majority bloc at the House of Representatives of prohibiting some neophyte members from being included in the line-up of interpellators on the death penalty bill, which is expected to be sponsored on the floor next week. Villarin, a member of the opposition, said the move was a bid to expedite the revival of capital punishment. House majority leader Rodolfo Farinas, however, laughed off Villarin's claim, saying there is no such thing as misinforming neophytes. "I did not know that Rep. Villarin is the spokesperson of the committee on rules," said Farinas, who chairs the rules panel which is in charge of calendaring the measures that will deliberated upon on the floor. Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman said the House leadership should just allow lawmakers to vote based on the dictates of their conscience. Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez has been informed that a "party vote" will be followed since the bill is a priority measure of the administration. The justice panel approved the bill, which is principally authored by Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, before Congress adjourned session last month for the Christmas break. House leaders aborted their plan to have the measure approved on final reading before the break following vehement opposition from some lawmakers and the Catholic Church. House Bill No. 1, filed by Alvarez, seeks to punish offenders convicted of drug felonies, murder, rape, robbery, carjacking, kidnapping, bribery, plunder, parricide, infanticide, destructive arson, piracy and treason. It also seeks to impose capital punishment on the following: importation of dangerous drugs and paraphernalia; sale, trading, distribution and transportation of dangerous drugs; maintenance of a drug den, dive, or resort; manufacture of dangerous drugs; possession of dangerous drugs; cultivation or culture of plants classified as dangerous drugs; unlawful prescription; criminal liability of a public officer or employee for misappropriation, misapplication, or failure to account for the confiscated, seized and/or surrendered dangerous; criminal liability for planting evidence concerning illegal drugs. There are 22 crimes that will be meted with the capital punishment under the measure but lawmakers have decided to lower it when the bill is amended in the plenary. (source: malaya.com.ph) SUDAN: Sudan: Judge postpones verdict in death row case A Christian advocacy charity has appealed for Christians to pray for a positive outcome in the case against a religious leader, aid worker and a Sudanese activist. The judgement in the case against Rev Hassan Abduraheem, Christian aid worker Petr Jasek and Dafuri activist Abdulmonem Abdumawla was meant to be given this week but has been postponed until 29 January. The group was first detained in December 2015 and were charged with crimes against the state. The sentences for some of the charges against them include the death penalty or life imprisonment. The case against the group centres around the provision of funds for the medical treatment on a man who was injured in a student protest. A 4th defendant, Rev Kuwa Shamal, was released earlier this month. A source from Christian Solidarity Worldwide told Premier's News Hour that the men were facing another week of uncertainty over their fate. "They are having to spend another week in prison - another week of uncertainty of knowing whether the ordeal is over for them so it's really important for us to continue praying for them. "It's been a very long time that they have been in prison." The CSW source appealed to Christians to continue praying for the men. The source said: "We can be praying for the men's spiritual condition and their families who have been on this journey with them. Rev Hassan's family did not even know where he was for the 1st 5 months of his incarceration. "We can be praying for the lawyers who represent the men who have been doing a very good job under very difficult circumstances." Sudan is ranked 5th on Open Doors World Watch List 2017 for Christian persecution. (source: premier.org.uk) GAZA: 2 New Death Sentences in Gaza On Tuesday, 24 January 2017, 2 new death sentences by hanging were issued in the Gaza Strip. The 1st one was issued by Deir al-Balah Court of First Instance against (Gh. E.) from the central Gaza Strip after being convicted of premeditated murder of his brother (30). The 2nd one was issued on the same day by the Gaza Court of First Instance against (Kh. Sh.) from Gaza City after being convicted of premeditated murder of (N. A.) with the participation of another person. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) is concerned over the excessive application of this punishment in the Gaza Strip in light of absence of fair trial guarantees and lack of fragile
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, ALA., MISS., USA
Jan. 24 TEXAS: Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present21 Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982present-539 Abbott#scheduled execution date-nameTx. # 22-January 26---Terry Edwards-540 23-February 2---John Ramirez--541 24-February 7---Tilon Carter--542 25-March 7--Rolando Ruiz--543 26-March 14-James Bigby---544 27-April 12-Paul Storey---545 28-June 28--Steven Long---546 29-July 19-Kosoul Chanthakoummane---547 (sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin) ALABAMA: Alabama judicial override safe from Supreme Court review The US Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear a challenge to Alabama's system of judicial override for the death penalty from several death-row inmates in the State. In a list of orders on pending cases released Monday, the Court denied certiorari in the case of Thomas Arthur v. Alabama. Arthur and 2 other death-row inmates petitioned the high court in November to review Alabama's death row laws. Those laws allow judges in the State impose the death penalty in some capital murder cases, even when the jury refused to impose the death penalty. Last year, the Yellowhammer State became the last state in the US to have judicial override after the US Supreme Court ruled against a similar law in Florida. Over the next several months, the Florida Supreme Court and the Delaware Supreme Court killed judicial override in 2 out of the last 3 states with the provision. Arthur escaped death for the seventh time in November when the US Supreme Court Chief Justice issued a stay from the Court on the night of the 74-year-old's scheduled execution. That night, Arthur's attorneys filed 2 briefs before the Court. The petition for writ of certiorari denied Monday asked the Court to review the death penalty sentencing laws, which Arthur argued were unconstitutional based on the Supreme Court's January 2016 decision in Hurst v. Florida. Another petition, which is still before the Court, asks the Court to review Arthur's request for an alternative form of execution beside Alabama's lethal injection cocktail. Arthur believes Alabama's 3-drug lethal injection regimen would be cruel and unusual, violating the Eighth Amendment. In Hurst v. Florida, the Court ruled Florida's judicial override laws were unconstitutional. That law, like Alabama's, allowed trial court judges to overturn a jury's verdict of life. Attorney General Luther Strange said Monday in a statement that Alabama's judicial override sentencing law is different from Florida's and that the Court's decision was a victory. "The US Supreme Court's denial of certiorari ... is a reaffirmation that Alabama's death sentencing law is constitutional," Strange said. "Convicted murders [sic] have repeatedly challenged Alabama's death penalty sentencing system because it allows for judicial override similar to Florida???s law." Alabama's law, unlike Florida's, requires that a jury unanimously "find an aggravating factor at either the guilt or sentencing stage" before determining a death sentence. In other words, judges can't impose the death penalty without at least some input from the jury. In the Hurst decision, the Court applied a 2002 decision that found that a jury must find the "aggravating factors" necessary for imposing the death penalty. Florida's laws did not require the jury's input on those factors. Aggravating factors are often whether the murder occurred during the course of a robbery, burglary or kidnapping - or whether the defendant was "under sentence of imprisonment," as was Arthur's case. That small provision present in Alabama's criminal procedure giving juries the responsibility to find those "aggravating factors" likely saved the State's sentencing system, though the Court's exact reason is unknown. For Alabama, Strange said, it's still a victory. "It should, therefore, be clear to all that Alabama's death penalty sentencing system is constitutional," Strange said. But even with Monday's legal victory, Alabama's system remains the only "hybrid sentencing system" in the country. Juries give a nonbinding advisory sentence - either for death or for life - and the judge then makes the final determination. In Arthur's case, his trial jury voted 11-1 for an advisory verdict of death, but the vote wasn't unanimous, as most other states' death-penalty sentences require. Since 1976, more than 92 % of 107 overrides have resulted in a judge imposing the death penalty when a trial jury voted to recommend life in prison, according to Montgomery's Equal Justice Initiative. And it's not just the Supreme Court reviewing judicial override in the State. The Legislature will take it up next month
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
Jan. 24 INDIA: Prez mercy means little to death row convicts' kin President Pranab Mukherjee's decision to commute the death sentence of 4 persons convicted for killing 34 upper caste people at Bara village in Gaya district in 1992 means little for the family members of the convicted men. Setting aside the state government and Centre's recommendation, the President had commuted the death sentence of the 4 persons - Krishna Mochi, Nanhe Lal Mochi, Bir Kuer Paswan and Dharmendra Singh alias Dharu Singh - on Sunday. While the quartet languish in Bhagalpur central jail, their family members are not enthused by the President's decision, the reason being that they will spend their remaining lives in jail. "Life in jail is no life," says Chandrami, wife of Krishna Mochi. 1 of the 4 children of Krishna, who is a local band master, was born when the Bara case accused was in jail. Krishna's other children, including a daughter, are now married and have their own families. The four marriages took place in Krishna's absence. Notwithstanding the conviction by the TADA court and its approval by the Supreme Court, the family continues to regard Krishna as innocent. Krishna's son Ajay, a daily wager, said being poor he can hardly afford to visit Bhagalpur jail to see his father. "If he is transferred to Gaya, we can visit him once in a while," Ajay added. Since Nanhe Mochi's family migrated to some other distant village soon after the massacre, they could not be contacted. Dharmendra's family members refused to talk. Legal circles are not surprised by the turn of events and the commutation of death penalty into life imprisonment. According to Sartaj Ali Khan and Ashok Kumar, 2 of the defence lawyers in the Bara massacre case, the inordinate delay in disposal of the mercy petition favoured the accused. BJP functionary and former chairman of Bihar Legislative Council Tarakant Jha presented the main argument on behalf of the accused in the TADA court presided by Jawahar Prasad, the then district and sessions judge. "Holding condemned men on death row for long goes in his favour," said Khan, now the public prosecutor of Gaya. The mercy petition was filed in 2003 and its disposal took 14 years. 34 male adults belonging to the Bhumihar caste were butchered on the outskirts of Bara village on February 12, 1992 under the then Tekari (now Alipur) police station. The TADA court's judgement was upheld by the Supreme Court. (source: The Times of India) SINGAPORE/MALAYSIA: NGOs appeal to Singapore to spare Malaysian on death row Several non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have appealed to the Singapore government on Tuesday to spare a Malaysian man who is on death row there for drug trafficking. Amnesty International Malaysia (AIM), Lawyers for Liberty and Suaram met a representative of the High Commission in Kuala Lumpur, where they conveyed their concerns over supposedly unfair trial aspects in the case of 30-year-old S. Prabagaran. "We have sent appeal letters to Singapore's President and Prime Minister and hope the 2 leaders will hear our calls for Prabagaran to be spared the death penalty," said AIM executive director D. Shamini Darshni Kaliemuthu. She added that the NGOs are reiterating calls for Singapore to review its death penalty laws once again to abolish the death penalty in its entirety. Prabagaran is currently awaiting the result of a clemency petition to the Singapore President. The clemency request was sent in February last year, with its result due anytime soon, according to lawyers. However, Singapore has not granted a clemency request for the past 13 years. Prabagaran's 54-year-old mother V. Eswary also applied to the Malaysian High Court to compel the Government here to take his case to the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Eswary sent a memorandum to the Malaysian High Commission in Singapore to refer the case to the ICJ on Dec 21 last year, but there has been no response. Prabagaran was arrested at the Woodlands checkpoint in April 2012 for possession of 22.24g of heroin, which were found in a black bundle in the centre arm-rest console of the car he was driving. He had said that he borrowed the car from a friend to enter Singapore that day because he was afraid that his motorcycle would be repossessed. (source: thestar.com.my) PHILIPPINES: 'Solons prevented from interpellating on death bill debate' Members of the House of Representatives are being prevented from interpellating in the debate on the death penalty bill in the plenary in a bid to railroad the passage of the reimposition of capital punishment, opposition lawmakers said. In a press conference on Tuesday at the House of Representatives, Akbayan Rep. Tom Villarin said he had heard of "misinformation" that lawmakers would not be allowed to interpellate in the debate on the death penalty bill on the floor if they were members of the
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
Jan. 24 UNITED KINGDOM/BAHRAIN: UK funds Bahrain parliament as it reverses reforms and backs executions The British government is using a multi-million pound aid programme to fund Bahrain's parliament while the Gulf country bans opposition parties, reverses human rights reforms and carries out executions, Middle East Eye can reveal. Funding for the parliament, which critics say is a "rubber-stamping" body for the kingdom's ruling family, was revealed in a breakdown provided under the Freedom of Information Act. The funding, which is part of the Foreign Office's 2m pounds "technical assistance" programme in the county, supports officials in the Council of Representatives despite internal concerns from advisers that it could be used as PR "fig leaf" over human rights concerns. The revelation that the UK is funding the parliament comes as the Gulf state reverses key rights reforms and carries out executions in the face of international condemnation. The British government says it opposes the death penalty, but it is working with Bahrain's parliament where politicians are encouraging the King to execute prisoners - Human rights group Repreive Bahrain has been rocked by unrest since March 2011 when security forces brutally crushed an Arab Spring-inspired uprising. The largest opposition group in the country, al-Wefaq, boycotted the parliament in 2014 before it was banned last summer, while the party's secretary general Sheikh Ali Salman is languishing in prison after he was sentenced to 9 years for giving speeches against the government. MPs have also backed the use of the death penalty for critics of the government, and last week Bahrain executed three men charged with killing members of the security forces. The 3 Shia men were convicted of killing an Emirati police officer and two Bahrain police officers in a 2014 bomb attack, but human rights campaigners say that confessions were extracted from Abbas al-Samea, 27, Sami Mushaima, 42, and Ali al-Singace, 21, under torture, including beatings, electric shocks and deprivation of food and water. 2 more men - Mohamed Ramadhan and Hussain Ali Moosa - are now at risk of execution, according to right group Reprieve. Both men claim they were tortured and their claims have not been properly investigated. Maya Foa, a director of Reprieve, told MEE: "The British government says it opposes the death penalty, but it is working with Bahrain's parliament where politicians are encouraging the King to execute prisoners like Mohammed Ramadhan, who has always insisted on his innocence and was tortured into making a false confession. "Just weeks after Bahrain's parliament made alarming calls for death sentences like his to be implemented without delay, a firing squad executed three men who were also tortured into falsely confessing. The UK Foreign Office should urgently tell Bahrain's authorities that the executions following such deeply unfair trials are unconscionable." In Westminster, political pressure has been building over the FCO's response to the executions and ongoing British support for Bahrain, and the Liberal Democrats have called for funding to Bahrain to be "stopped immediately". Tom Brake MP, the party's foreign affairs spokesman, told MEE: "The FCO must undertake a root and branch review to determine whether any of the UK funds invested in prisons or parliament in Bahrain are leading to greater respect for human rights. "After the recent extrajudicial executions carried out in Bahrain, it's looking more and more apparent that they are not and funding must be stopped immediately." The FCO must determine whether any of the UK funds invested in prisons or parliament in Bahrain are leading to greater respect for human rights - Tom Break, Liberal Democrat MP MEE can also reveal details of 11 projects in Bahrain that the British government is funding through the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund, a controversial pot of aid money that is currently focus of an investigation by British MPs over transparency concerns. These projects range from implementing a Criminal Justice Board and creating a social inclusion unit to a contract with Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Prisons to build the capacity of Bahrain's National Preventive Mechanism against torture. The CSSF, which operates in more than 40 countries, is overseen by the National Security Council, a secretive cabinet committee including senior ministers, military chiefs and secret service heads. Last year MPs probing the fund, which is worth more than 1bn pounds a year, expressed frustration that Mark Lyall, the national security advisor to the prime minister, was providing scant details of how the money is spent. During an evidence session Lyall refused to rule out granted funds from the CSSF fund to countries that use torture. Bahrain consistently denies it uses torture and says it adheres to international norms
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, DEL., VA., FLA., ALA., MO., USA, US MIL.
Jan. 24 TEXASimpending execution Is Texas About to Execute an Innocent Man?Terry Edwards' murder conviction is irrevocably flawed. Unless the courts or Gov. Greg Abbott step in to stop it, Texas will execute Terry Edwards on Thursday. This would be a reprehensible miscarriage of justice. Edwards' conviction for capital murder was won at least in part due to a faulty forensic argument pushed by the prosecution and what appears to be a racially biased and likely unconstitutional jury-selection process. If this execution proceeds as planned, it would be an irrevocable stain on a state justice system that leads the nation in wrongful convictions. Terry Edwards is not a saint. He and his cousin Kirk Edwards were responsible for the 2002 homicides of Tommy Walker and Mickell Goodwin. But while Terry Edwards took part in the burglary that led to the murder of 2 of his former co-workers at a Subway restaurant in the Dallas suburbs, it's less clear that he was the triggerman. In a series of filings earlier this month, Edwards' attorneys requested that his execution be stayed and a new writ of habeas corpus be considered. It will be up to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals to decide whether new evidence ought to be considered at the federal level, while the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals is also considering whether to stay the execution. The appeal makes for damning reading, dismantling key portions of the case against Terry Edwards. The principal evidentiary problem with Edwards' case surrounds the use of forensic testimony about gunshot residue. Despite the shooting having occurred at point-blank range, Edwards had no blood on his body, no gunshot residue on his hands, and none of the victim's DNA on his person when he was picked up by police immediately after the crime occurred. He was tested for gunshot residue within an hour of his arrest, according to the appeal. A state forensic analyst named Vicki Hall tested Edwards' hands for gunshot residue and found it wasn't there. Given that negative result, the defense called Hall to testify at Edwards' trial; she was the defense's only witness during the guilt-innocence phase. On cross-examination, though, Hall explained away her test results, testifying that Edwards might have either sweated away or wiped off "some of that residue." Hall had also indicated in her forensics report that 1 of the 3 elements that would have been found in the gunshot residue was present on Edwards. In closing arguments, prosecutor Thomas D'Amore used Hall's testimony to argue that the presence of that 1 element - the relatively commonplace barium - proved that gunshot residue had been present, and that Edwards had somehow wiped off the other 2 chemicals. In Edwards' appeal, a former FBI agent writes that this wipe theory is "scientifically unsupportable": The three chemicals, barium, antimony, and lead, exist in the same particle, or in particles that contain two of the three. If you remove any of the components they would be removed linearly. It does not occur that just 1 of the components is removed; the components all increase or decrease together. It is not possible that a defendant who had gunshot residue on his hands could simply wipe 2 of the 3 components off of his hands and not the 3rd. Or, as 1 of Edwards' current attorneys John Mills put it to me, "It is scientifically impossible to remove trace elements of 2 chemicals and not 1." According to Mills, there is reason to believe gunshot residue would have been present on the shooter in the immediate aftermath of the attack. Hall, the forensic analyst, ran a trace analysis of the victim Mickell Goodwin and found all three elements on her right hand near a defensive wound. That result is "important for 2 reasons," Mills told me. "It does demonstrate that the gun that was used does emit a relatively high volume of gunshot residue when fired, and it heightens the significance of the absence of gunshot residue on Mr. Edwards." Hall and the state, however, failed to disclose this test to Edwards' lawyers in advance of the trial, and his new legal team didn't uncover this fact until very recently. At trial, though, Hall did testify about the negative results from tests conducted on the hands of the other victim, Tommy Walker. D'Amore, meanwhile, has had three previous convictions overturned. In one of those cases, Hall testified that the presence of two of three chemicals on the hands of defendant Richard Miles indicated that he had "fir[ed] a weapon or handl[ed] a very dirty weapon." Miles was convicted, but the disclosure that Hall's trace-evidence testimony was faulty - a fact she later admitted herself - helped exonerate him years later. Edwards' attorneys argue in his appeal that "Hall's testimony and the direct examination by D'Amore in the Miles case were dishonest in a manner that reflects not only collusion and fraud, but also bears
