[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
April 16 INDIA: Kashmir bar association seeks death penalty for accused, calls for transferring Kathua case to High Court Qayoom said atmosphere is not “conducive” in Kathua for holding trial in the case. Saying death sentence should be awarded to the guilty by court in Kathua minor rape and murder case, Jammu and Kashmir Bar Association President Mian Qayoom on Monday said “High Court should transfer case to itself”. Qayoom said atmosphere is not “conducive” in Kathua for holding trial in the case. “We are not in favor of transferring case. Our demand is that the atmosphere at Kathua is not conducive for holding fair trial of the case. So, High Court has a wing in Jammu, we have a wing in Srinagar. This case should be transferred to HC itself ... They should nominate a judge for this purpose and that judge should be given exclusive task of trail of this case as quickly as possible”. Demanding harsh punishment for the guilty in the case, Qayoom said quantum of punishment in the case should not be less than “death”. Qayoom also said that Bar is ready to provide legal assistance to the victim’s family. “If somebody approaches us, we will see how we can help them legally. Till today nobody has approached us. But if they come to us and say we need some kind of legal assistance, we are here; we can provide legal assistance to them,” he said. (source: greaterkashmir.com) EGYPT: Court upholds death sentences against 4 over forming terrorist cell The Court of Cassation has rejected Sunday appeals by 4 defendants against death sentences in the case known as “Awsim Terrorist Cell.” The court also rejected appeals against sentences of 15 years imprisonment against 14 other defendants, and upheld life imprisonment (25 years) for other defendants in absentia. In February, Cairo Criminal Court sentenced 4 defendants to death and 12 others to life imprisonment in the “Awsim Cell” case. The defendants in the “Awsim Cell” case are accused of forming terrorist cells to incite chaos, attack public and private facilities and target security and army personnel. They are also charged with attempted arson and placing fake explosive devices outside the Awsim Town Council and the local electricity company, as well as detonating an explosive device outside the home of Judge Fathy Bayoumi while he was inside. On Saturday, Egypt’s Court of Cassation upheld a life imprisonment sentence against former Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie over charges of inciting violence in the “Rabaa Operation Room” case. Earlier this month, the Court of Cassation accepted on Tuesday the appeals against sentences imposed on 5 defendants in the case publicly known as the “Warraq [terrorist] Cell” case, ordering the retrial of the defendants before another criminal court. The defendants had faced various sentences, including the death penalty, life imprisonment and five years in prison. (source: Egypt Today) SOUTH SUDAN: South Sudan: One of just two executing states in sub-Saharan Africa in 2017 South Sudan is 1 of just 2 countries in sub-Saharan Africa known to have carried out executions in 2017, going against a clear trend by other countries in the region to move forward towards abolishing the death penalty, Amnesty International’s Global Report on Death Sentences and Executions 2017 revealed. South Sudan carried out 4 executions in 2017, 2 of those who were put to death having been juveniles at the time of the commission of the crime, in flagrant violation of international law. The other country that executed people in sub-Saharan Africa is Somalia, which carried out 24 executions in the same period. “With governments in the region continuing to take steps to reduce and repeal the death penalty well into 2018, the isolation of the remaining executing countries could not be starker. Now that 20 countries in sub-Saharan Africa have abolished the death penalty for all crimes, it is high time that the rest follow their lead and consign this abhorrent punishment to the history books,” said Amnesty International’s Secretary General Salil Shetty. South Sudan continues to hand down death sentences and execute people. In February 2018, 2 men were sentenced to death - James Gadet, former SPLM-IO Spokesperson, and South African William Endley, a former advisor to rebel leader, Riek Machar. Amnesty International calls on the South Sudan Government to immediately establish an official moratorium on executions, and quash the convictions of Gadet and Endley and grant them a new trial that meets international fair trial standards. Background Amnesty International’s Global Report on Death Sentences and Executions 2017 finds that sub-Saharan Africa is a ‘beacon of hope’, having made positive steps towards abolishing the death penalty. (source: Amnesty International) IRAN: Iran Supreme Court Upholds Death Sentence For Kurdish
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, WASH.
April 16 TEXAS: A rush to death risks executing the innocent Since the Supreme Court’s lifting of the moratorium against the death penalty in 1976, more than 1,400 men and women have been killed at the hands of various states. Of that number, nearly a third were executed by the state of Texas. That’s 549 people — killed by our state. The cost of those executions has been enormous. According to the group Death Penalty Focus, imposing capital punishment costs taxpayers approximately 2.3 million dollars per defendant. If you’re doing the math, one death penalty conviction costs more than three times what it would take to incarcerate a person under the highest level of security for 40 years. Ed Barnes, writing for Fox News U.S. in 2010 put it even more simply when he stated, “Every time a killer is sentenced to die, a school closes.” Now, according to an article recently published by the Houston Chronicle, it appears Texas (in a effort to lessen the costs of capital convictions) wants to “opt in” to new federal legislation that would limit the appeals process in death penalty cases and speed up executions. That decision is wrong. Since 1973, 161 people nationwide, 13 of them right here in our Great State of Texas, have been released from death row, due to their wrongful convictions. If the numbers are accurate, it means Texas has spent nearly $30 million dollars getting it wrong. Just for a moment, however, let’s forget about the exorbitant costs associated with killing a fellow human being. The very idea that a person, innocent of a capital crime, could be caused to sit on death row for any amount of time or, worse, wrongfully killed by our government, is offensive to our fundamental notions of liberty and justice. As celebrated English jurist Sir William Blackstone once said, “It is better that 10 guilty persons escape, than 1 innocent suffer.” Some of our founding fathers agreed. Both Benjamin Franklin and John Adams, our nation’s first Vice President, echoed Blackstone’s sentiments. According to Ben Franklin, “It would be better for 100 guilty persons to escape than one innocent person suffer.” Mr. Adams went even further when he said, “When innocence itself is brought to the bar and condemned, especially to die, the subject will exclaim, ‘It is immaterial to me whether I behave well or ill, for virtue itself is no security.’” Our Founding Fathers were right. It is unconscionable for us to live in a society where innocence is condemned, virtue has no security and our society’s greatest punishment is expedited for the sake of political expediency. Granted, at a time when even basic facts are up for debate and every issue is, invariably, reduced to a cacophony of talking heads yelling at one another about right versus wrong, left versus right and conservative versus liberal, there’s no wonder that very few in our criminal justice system, aside from the criminal defense bar, have had the courage to stand up and voice their collective opposition to this attempt to limit a defendant’s ability to appeal a death penalty conviction. The truth, however, is that speaking out against a proposed course of action that is, at best, legally questionable and, at worst, morally wrong should not fall solely on those who are willing to defend citizens accused of committing society’s most heinous crimes. We should all stand together. It shouldn’t matter what one’s feelings about capital punishment are or what position a person holds in our system of jurisprudence. Be they judge, prosecutor or defense attorney, for or against capital punishment, each and every member of the criminal justice system should speak with one voice on at least this issue: The ability of a person to lodge a full and fair defense of a death conviction, irrespective of the costs, must be held sacrosanct. (source: Opinion, Michael Fields is the judge in Harris County Criminal Court No. 14Houston Chronicle) OHIO: Trial today for last of 8 charged in Hamilton’s summer of deadly shootings A trial is scheduled to begin today for a Hamilton man who is the last of 8 defendants charged in two deadly incidents in the summer of 2016. Michael Grevious II, 25, is facing the death penalty if found guilty of aggravated murder for a retaliation shooting that followed a shoot out at the former Doubles Bar in Hamilton’s West Side. He is charged with felonious assault for that incident. The trial is scheduled to begin with jury selection in Butler County Common Pleas Judge Greg Stephen’s courtroom. Michael Grevious II — charged in the 2016 drive-by shooting that killed two men in Hamilton — was in Butler County Common Pleas Court today, Nov. 3. His death penalty trial has been continued. NICK GRAHAM/STAFF Staff Writer According to court records, Grevious was part of of the violence at Doubles, standing on a pool table inside the bar and opening fire, along with others. In
