[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
August 19 INDIA: It's been 10 years, but India still doesn't want to replace hanging with lethal injectionA decade after looking at options to replace death by hanging with a 'more humane' way, ministry says no such proposal being examined. About a decade after the Centre started looking at various options, including lethal injection, to find a 'more humane' way to replace death by hanging for convicts awarded death penalty by the courts, the process seems to have been discarded without any decision being taken. In a cryptic response to an RTI application filed by ThePrint asking what progress, if any, had been made on the proposal to replace the system of administering death through, what many call gruesome, hanging, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said, "...It is stated that at present there is no such issue (of giving death through a means other than hanging) being examined in this Ministry." History of demand Under Section 354(5) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, the mode of execution of death sentence is hanging till death. In 2008-2009, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs had begun consultations with stakeholders, including state governments - law and order is a state subject - on whether death by hanging should be replaced with a 'more humane' method. The move came after careful examination of the 187th report of the Law Commission of India on "Mode of Execution of Death Sentence and Incidental Matters," which was submitted to the government in October 2003. In its report, the commission recommended that Section 354(5) of the CrPC be amended by providing an "alternative mode of execution of death sentence by lethal injection until the accused is dead". "It will be in the discretion of the Judge to pass an appropriate order regarding the mode of execution of death sentence. The convict shall, of course, be heard on the question of mode of execution of death sentence before such discretion is exercised," it said. In the same report, the Law Commission also recommended that death sentence matters must be heard only by a 5-judge bench of the Supreme Court. Interestingly, the report also mentioned various methods of administering death that have been used since ages including crucification (Jesus Christ), burning at the stake, the wheel, guillotine (King Charles I), hanging and garrote, headman's axe, firing squad, gas chamber, electrocution, and death by hanging. In its report, the commission also cited the landmark Supreme Court judgment on death penalty - Bachan Singh versus State of Punjab - where the court observed that physical pain and suffering which the execution of the sentence of death (hanging) entails is no less cruel and inhuman. MHA consultations with states Between 2008 and 2010, the MHA wrote to state governments seeking their views on the Law Commission report as also the need to replace death by hanging with some other method. Barring a few states, majority of the governments strongly favoured replacing death by hanging with lethal injection. Several governments also agreed with the commission recommendation that death sentence matters be heard only by a 5-judge bench of the Supreme Court, with some even suggesting that in case of even 1 judge dissenting, death should not be awarded. But, it now seems the Centre has put an end to the consultations and has decided to stick to the death by hanging method. Incidentally, the clamour of awarding death sentence to rapists and terrorists has also been receiving more support in recent times. In a report on the issue of death penalty, in 2015, the Law Commission suggested abolition of the death penalty from the statute books, saying it should be awarded only in cases where the accused is convicted of involvement in a terror case. However, the government hasn't accepted the report so far. (source: theprint.in) *** Death penalty for child rapists must stay The Supreme Court has rightly upheld the death penalty because India cannot furnish free shelter, food and education to child rapists, terrorists and dissolute murderers. They must be sent to meet their Maker who alone knows why some human beings were born notwithstanding the United Nations insisting that the death penalty should be gradually reduced in all member countries until the utopia of its complete abolition is reached. India has adopted a middle path between Saudi Arabia, which beheads those accused of crimes against morality and the Vatican, which teaches that as God is the creator of life, no country has the right to execute any human being, including murderers and child rapists. Human rights activists who toe this line find themselves being isolated within India. A middle path is the correct path which is why the Central government wants to retain the death penalty. Although government statistics claim 52 persons were executed since independence, the
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----MO., NEB., CALIF.
August 20 MISSOURI: Death penalty sought for man accused in 3 St. Louis killings Prosecutors say they will seek the death penalty for a St. Louis man charged with killing 3 people in 2 separate shootings last year. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Friday that prosecutors have filed notice that they will seek to have 26-year-old Ollie Lynch Jr. put to death if he's convicted. Lynch is charged with 3 counts of 1st-degree murder. He's accused in the May 2017 shooting death of 31-year-old Jeramee Ramey and June 2017 shooting deaths of 17-year-old Jalen Woods and 25-year-old Amber Green. Police say Ramey was shot with a AK-47 during an argument over a dice game. Woods and Green were among 5 people inside a car at a gas station ambushed by masked men. 2 other people were injured in that shooting. (source: Associated Press) NEBRASKA: UNL students, faculty respond to Carey Dean Moore's execution The state of Nebraska executed Carey Dean Moore on Aug. 14, 2018 - the 1st use of capital punishment in Nebraska in 21 years. Moore was convicted for the 1979 killings of Omaha cab drivers Reuel Van Ness and Maynard Helgeland when he was 22. Following his conviction, he remained a death row inmate for 38 years. Moore's execution was the 1st since 1997 and the 1st since voters reinstated the death penalty in the 2016 referendum. Nebraska, having exclusively used the electric chair until now, executed Moore on Tuesday with diazepam, cisatracurium besylate, potassium chloride and fentanyl - an intense opioid never before used in the US for execution purposes. Specifically used to reduce breathing in those condemned to death, fentanyl has made many death penalty opposers question the ethics of using an untested opioid on an inmate, especially in a country that has a rising opioid epidemic. "The capital punishment system in the U.S. is terribly broken and problematic," Eric Berger, assistant dean of faculty and professor of law at University of Nebraska-Lincoln, said in an email. "It is not easy to end a human life humanely. Most recently, numerous botched lethal injection executions have helped shed light on the fact that this supposedly serene, sterile procedure can in fact inflict excruciating pain on the condemned." The Omaha World-Herald reported, "Moore's face became red and then purple ... and at one point his abdomen heaved and his breathing became faster." The Vice President of the UNL College Republicans issued a statement regarding the issue: "If you believe in democracy and the democratic process, than you must respect the will of the people, and Nebraska voted overwhelmingly to reinstate capital punishment. The government is only a vehicle for the execution of the will of the people, and the people of Nebraska spoke." The Daily Nebraskan reached out to the UNL Young Democrats, but they did not respond at the time of publication. In his final statement, Moore, who claimed that while he is guilty, there are "at least 4" death row inmates "who are innocent." When asked about Moore's statement, Berger fervently said, "There are almost certainly innocent people on death row in the United States. Error, unfortunately, is simply part of the criminal justice system.: (source: Daily Nebraskan) CALIFORNIA: Triple-murder case could be affected by improper Orange County jail phone recordings A triple-murder case - involving 2 children missing since 2012 and presumed dead - could be affected by the improper recording of telephone calls between Orange County jail inmates and their attorneys. About 34 recorded calls by defendant Shazer Fernando Limas to his lawyer were accessed by law enforcement, attorney Joel Garson said Sunday. Garson's prodding as part of another felony case led to the discovery that 1,079 calls between inmates and lawyers had been recorded since January 2015. It is a crime to record attorney-client calls from the jail, as well as a violation of one of the most sacrosanct tenets of the law. The sheriff's telephone contractor acknowledged in a July 27 letter to Sheriff Sandra Hutchens that 87 recordings were accessed. Among those were calls involving Limas' case as well as Garson's case representing Joshua Waring, the son of former "Real Wives of Orange County" cast member Lauri Peterson. Waring faces attempted murder charges for a Costa Mesa shooting, but Garson is attempting to get the case dismissed by the court because of "outrageous government conduct." Limas is accused of stabbing his girlfriend to death and killing their 2 young sons in their apartment in Orange. The body of their mother, Arlet Hernandez Contreras, 31, was found in 2012 under a tarp in a gutter in Los Angeles County. The bodies of the children - ages 1 and 3 at the time - have not been found. Revelations that telephone carrier GTL Corp. apparently recorded the confidential conversations because of a technical
