[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
September 22 BARBADOS: Barbados death penalty chucked Barbadian legislators are reluctantly pushing aside a law directing the death penalty for murder, only because the island’s lawmakers know that they are compelled to obey a Caribbean Court of Justice ruling making executions illegal. In one of his last judgements retiring CCJ President, Sir Dennis Byron, delivered in June, the court ruled out the mandatory death sentences on persons convicted of murder in Barbados because such a practice is unconstitutional. This ruling forced the new government of Prime Minister Mia Mottley to dust off and bring to parliament a 2014 bill amending the Offences Against the Person Act that shelves the aspect that the CCJ deemed unconstitutional but does not erase the death penalty from the statute books. It was passed through the lower chamber of that law-making body, House of Assembly, this week. After consideration in the Senate it is expected to be proclaimed into law. "Today Barbados has a death penalty and when this bill is passed in the House and passed in the Senate of Barbados and proclaimed to be the law of Barbados, the country of Barbados will still have a death penalty," said Attorney General Dale Marshall as he indicated that government is not abolishing the death penalty but shoving the stipulation aside where it remains an option. In fact, the bill to amend the act reads in part, "a person who is convicted of murder shall be sentenced to death; or imprisonment for life." This grudging shelving of the death penalty by these legislators, many who profess to support capital punishment, is being done only because the CCJ is the island's court of last resort and its ruling is law of the land. "If we choose to disobey the ruling of the CCJ on this point, what else will we choose to disobey the ruling of the CCJ on?" asked Marshall, whose government had reaffirmed in no uncertain manner its commitment to the CCJ immediately after it came to power, following former prime minister Freundel Stuart's vow to take the island out of this Caribbean court if his party had won the elections. Barbados was not bound by the June CCJ ruling alone, but had years earlier given a commitment to that Caribbean court and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights that it would rectify the mandatory death sentence. This is the reason that the amendment bill to the Offences to the Person Act dates back to 2014, as the previous government had drafted it but possessed no will to go against popular sentiment on the island and legally curtail hanging. The shelving of the mandatory death sentences in Barbados has an impact of many persons ranging from those already convicted of murders and sentenced to death, to individuals awaiting sentencing, and individuals awaiting trial for causing death of another. "As at today, there are 62 Barbadian men and women who are awaiting trial for murder. There are 6 awaiting trial for manslaughter. There are 11 people on death row," said Marshall in parliament Tuesday. "So as we speak today we have 79 people whom this statute could possibly affect." He explained that the 11 death row inmates will have to be resentenced in-keeping with the soon to be proclaimed amended law. The attorney general echoed sentiments of a pro-hanging conservative Caribbean when he regrettably mused on the island's future court guidelines on sentencing murderers. "It must be a frightening prospect for us sir, that we have 62 people who are charged with murder but on the law as it stands, we would likely not be able to inflict capital punishment on them," he said. (source: caribbeanlifenews.com) SINGAPOREfemale sentenced to death Singaporean woman sentenced to death for drug trafficking A 40-year-old Singaporean woman who claimed she was stocking up on heroin for her own use during the fasting month has failed in her bid to escape the death penalty. Saridewi Djamani, who was charged with trafficking a total of 1kg of drugs containing 30.72g of pure heroin, also claimed she was suffering from persistent depressive disorder and severe substance use disorder. In his grounds of decision released on Thursday (20 September), for his sentence delivered last Friday (14 September), High Court judge See Kee Oon noted that Saridewi did not deny selling heroin, methamphetamine, cannabis and Erimin from her HDB flat but sought to downplay the scale of her trafficking business. The High Court had heard how on 17 June 2016, at about 3.35pm, Saridewi's accomplice Muhammad Haikal Abdullah, 41, met her at the block of her flat. He passed her a plastic bag containing drugs in exchange for 2 envelopes containing $15,550 in total. Unbeknownst to the duo, officers from the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) were monitoring them. Haikal, a Malaysian, was intercepted at a traffic junction on his motorcycle shortly after he left the block.
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----GA., FLA., OHIO, ARK.
September 22 GEORGIA: Change in defense postpones Columbus death-penalty trial until 2019 2 weeks before trial, the only defendant now facing the death penalty in Columbus, Ga., has run out of money and needs a state indigent defense team to represent him, his attorneys say. The Columbus death-penalty trial once set for Oct. 1 now is postponed until next year. After Brandon David Conner's private lawyers argued Monday that their client is out of money and needs a state-funded defense team, Superior Court Judge William Rumer ordered the case removed from his October docket and set the next hearing for 1:30 p.m. Jan. 14. The Georgia Office of the Capital Defender will take over Conner's representation, though 1 of his 2 private attorneys, Mark Shelnutt, may remain on the defense team to facilitate the transition and offer advice. Jerry Word, director of the capital defender's office, told Rumer at Monday's hearing that his staff is prepared to assume Conner's defense. "After hearing the evidence, the court orders the substitution of defense counsel and orders that the Office of Capital Defender shall take over representation of the defendant in this case from this day forward," Rumer wrote in his order. "Mr. Word stated that the capital defenders may keep Mr. Shelnutt as 3rd chair in an advisory capacity and as a bridge between teams that have worked on Mr. Conner's defense," the judge added. "Because of this change in representation, the trial on October 1, 2018, is not possible." Shelnutt told the court Monday that Conner has had no income since his arrest in the deaths of his girlfriend and infant son in 2014. Both his parents were working when they hired Shelnutt and partner William Kendrick 4 years ago, but Conner's father since has died, depriving the family of that income, Shelnutt said. Conner's mother still is working in Texas, but she can't afford to take on the legal expenses alone, so Conner needs an indigent defense team, Shelnutt told Rumer: "He is no longer capable of funding any more of his defense." Word told the court his office was ready to take over: "The only thing we ask is sufficient time to prepare the case properly," he told Rumer. Senior Assistant District Attorney Don Kelly told the court then that an extended delay was likely, if Conner changed attorneys: "There's just no other way around it," he said. Conner, 39, is accused of fatally stabbing 32-year-old Rosella "Mandy" Mitchell and killing their 6-month-old son Dylan Ethan Conner before setting their 1324 Winifred Lane home afire on Aug. 21, 2014. The fire was reported at 12:35 a.m. About 30 minutes later, Officer Jason Swails saw Conner’s blue 2001 BMW turn from Wynnton Road onto Cedar Avenue in midtown as Conner parked near Davis Broadcasting, where he worked. Conner then sat in the car for 10 minutes, the officer said. Finding that suspicious, Swails questioned Conner, who told the officer he had just left work to get some food, but changed his mind and returned. Swails said he knew that wasn't true, so he arrested Conner for breaking a city law against lying to police. Because police routinely search suspects being detained, officers checked Conner's pockets, and found a bloody, yellow dishwashing glove, a bloody baby wipe, a cigarette lighter and an extended grill lighter. Learning of the bodies found on Winifred Lane, police had Conner's BMW impounded, and got a warrant to search it. Inside they found a bag of bloody clothes, a bottle of bleach and a bent steak knife with blood on the handle, they said. Arson investigators searched the burned home with a dog that alerted to flammable liquids poured in 3 places. They also found a gas can stored in a closet. An autopsy revealed Mitchell was stabbed multiple times in the throat and torso. Authorities have not said how the infant died. On April 14, 2015, a grand jury indicted Conner for murder, aggravated battery, 1st-degree arson and using a knife to commit a crime. 6 days later, Slater filed notice she would seek the death penalty. (source: Columbus Ledger-Enquirer) FLORIDA: Jury to decide whether Waffle House murderer lives or dies Christina Delarosa's last moments had to be pure terror. In March 2002, 2 robbers marched her into the freezer of the Davie Waffle House where she worked. They ordered her to her knees. She wondered if she would ever see her baby, Kyle, again. She wouldn't. Gerhard Hojan gunned her down as she called out for her child. Delarosa was 17. In 2003, a jury determined by a 9-3 vote that Hojan deserved to die for her murder and that of her co-worker, Willie Absolu. But under current law, that's not good enough. Hojan is off death row and back in Broward County ready to face a new jury. Lawyers will join Broward Circuit Judge Paul Backman on Tuesday to begin picking a jury to determine not whether Hojan is guilty - that was decided
