[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
April 15 NIGERIA: Amnesty International urges Nigerian govt to issue moratorium against executions Amnesty International advises Lagos govt against executing death row inmates Amnesty International has called on the Nigerian government to issue a legally binding official moratorium against executions as a first step towards the abolition of the death penalty in the country. It said this will be in line with global trends. The country director of the civic group, Osai Ojigho, said this during a launch of Amnesty International Global Report titled “Death sentences and Executions 2017” in Abuja on Thursday. According to her, Nigeria cannot afford to be left behind and must show a great commitment for protecting lives and ensuring that the criminal justice system is fair. She said there is need for reforming the judiciary in order to strengthen the system. “Nigeria imposed the highest number of death sentences in the sub-Saharan Africa region in 2017,” she said, with 621 people sentenced to death. She said Amnesty International believes that these death penalties are retrogressive, unjustifiable as there is no evidence to suggest the death penalty deters crime more effectively than other punishment “In our reports, it is obvious that executions are reducing and death sentences with death penalty is also reducing but the reverse is the case in few countries in the world and unfortunately Nigeria is among those countries with increasing rate in death sentences and the potential for death penalty is still a risk many people face in the country.” She said it is essential for the federal government to invest in security agencies on the use of technology in the prevention of crime thereby limiting people going through the justice system that is weak, which can be described as discriminatory against the poor and the vulnerable. Similarly, Damian Ugwu, a researcher with the group said 2285 people were on death row as at December 31, 2017 which includes four foreign nationals. According to him, Nigeria recorded no known executions in 2017 as compared to 2016 where it executed three death row inmates, although, 621 people were sentenced to death in 2017 compared to 527 in 2016. Mr Ugwu said death penalty is discriminatory and often used against the most vulnerable in society which includes the poor, ethnic and religious minorities and people with mental disabilities. “Some government use it to silence their opponents. Where justice system are flawed and unfair trials rife, the risk of executing an innocent person is ever present and when death penalty is carried out, it is final. Mistakes that are made cannot be unmade. An innocent person may be released from prison for a crime they did not commit, but an execution can never be reversed,” he said. But a legal practitioner, Olayinka Ogunmodimu, who spoke with PREMIUM TIMES on Thursday evening, said death penalty should not be totally abolished. “Once someone is found guilty of a capital offence, the governor should not have the discretion of choosing whether or not to sign. Death penalty should not be abolished. Once a life has been taken, the punishment can only reduce from death sentence to life imprisonment,” Mr Ogunmodimu said. “By Nigerian law, the death penalty will serve as justice for someone who has taken the life of another but the disadvantage is that most governors refuse to sign death warrants by the reason of values, culture and beliefs as they prefer the inmates to die a natural death.” He said Nigeria lacks effective legal system that can quickly dispense justice without considering factors like favouritism, power among others while noting that the judiciary system needs to be strengthened. “A crime can be prosecuted in Nigeria for 20 years but (that) cannot happen in a developed country. The only case in Nigeria’s legal system in which you can know the starting and finishing is election petition and it is because the law have said that it must start and finish within 180 days,” he said. “It is a matter of here and there, when you look at event around you, one might have to agree with existing laws in which death penalty is part of the punishment but Amnesty International is right to say that in most cases, most people at the back end of the law are always victims of the law. Let us look at the case of Offa, will we say death penalty is not an option if the offenders were captured?” Ola Adeosun, a legal practitioner and political analyst said Mr Adeosun said the law should be reviewed that the manner of offence should be put into consideration before pronouncing death penalty. “Someone who robbed with a toy gun, blade and knife if arrested, prosecuted and found guilty will be sentence to death, for me it is too harsh. The manner of the offence should be put into consideration but there are some people who are serial murderers and since there are no
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, ALA., OHIO, ARK., NEB.
April 15 TEXAS: Texas seeks to fast-track executions A request by Texas to opt in on the 1996 Federal Anti-terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act is drawing sharp criticism from civil rights groups and local defense attorneys. According to the state Attorney General's office, the move would avoid "stressful delays" and "excessive costs" associated with executions. Defense attorney Raymond Fuchs said opting in to the act is "a horrible idea." "Texas spends very little money on counsel, on investigators, on mitigation experts, on psychologists and psychiatrists," he said. "They're as penny-pinching as you can get. "When I read that (U.S. Attorney) Jeff Sessions is actually considering Texas' application for this fast track, I thought it was a joke. We now have people running this state, who I guess think it's a Wild West show where the idea is, 'Let's have a trial and string 'em up.'" Whether Texas gets to opt in on the federal law is up to Sessions. (source: KSAT news) ALABAMAimpending execution Walter Leroy Moody seeks stay of execution for judge's pipe bomb slaying Walter Leroy Moody Jr., 83, the oldest inmate on Alabama Death Row, is waiting to see if a court will block his execution by lethal injection Thursday for a bombing nearly three decades ago that killed a federal appeals court judge. Moody maintains he didn't do it. And in the past few months since his April 19 execution date was set he and his attorneys have filed a flurry of appeals in federal and state courts. Last week both he - in a hand-written motion - and his attorneys filed requests for stay of execution. And now he and his attorneys are awaiting a ruling by the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, which listened to arguments in the case last Thursday. U.S. 11th Circuit of Appeals Judge Robert Vance Sr. was killed Dec. 16, 1989 in a blast from a pipe bomb hidden in a package sent to the judge's Mountain Brook, Ala., home. The judge's wife, Helen, was seriously injured in the blast. In 1991, a federal jury convicted Moody of 71 charges related to the pipe-bomb murders of Vance and Georgia civil rights attorney Robert E. Robinson, who also was killed in a pipe-bomb blast two days after the judge. That federal trial was conducted in Minnesota. Moody was placed on death row after a jury convicted him of capital murder at a trial in Alabama five years later. The jury recommended 11-1 that the death penalty be imposed and the judge agreed. Alabama asked that an execution date be set for Moody on Jan. 9, the day after the U.S. Supreme Court denied his request to consider an appeal. Moody recently argued to a federal appeals court that the federal government which convicted him first on non-death penalty charges should have him in custody instead. Both the Alabama Attorney General and U.S. Justice Department have said that the federal government had the right, under an agreement, to allow the state to take custody of Moody and have him serve his state sentence first. "Moody cannot challenge any determination by the United States or Alabama as to the order in which he will face his federal and state sentences. The comity rules that govern priority of jurisdiction between the United States and Alabama do not confer on Moody any legally enforceable right that he may assert in a federal habeas proceeding," according to a federal appeals court brief filed April 10 by the U.S. Justice Department. Moody lost his appeal on another issue in January before the U.S. Supreme Court. He had appealed an 11th Circuit decision in March 2017. That appeal was about his decision to represent himself at his 1996 capital murder trial in Alabama. After convicting him, the jury voted 11-1 to recommend a death sentence. Courts have found that the trial judge did not err in allowing Moody to represent himself. Much of prosecutors' evidence centered on the similarities between pipe bombs Moody had previously been convicted of using. According to a summary of the bombings and investigations in one federal court document, prosecutors claimed that in May 1972, a bomb exploded in Moody's home in Macon, Ga. "The bomb, contained in a package addressed to a car dealer who had repossessed Moody's car, exploded when opened by Moody's wife. Moody was convicted in federal court in Macon for possessing the bomb, although he was acquitted of manufacturing it, and he served three years in federal prison." "Moody eventually became obsessed with overturning his 1972 conviction. He devised an elaborate story to shift the blame to a mythical "Gene Wallace," who Moody had claimed at trial had been attempting to assist him in regaining possession of his car and was responsible for the bomb," according to the court document. "Moody recruited a witness to substantiate his account, a destitute, young handicapped woman, Julie Linn-West, and he paid her in small monthly installments as
