[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----LA., OHIO, TENN., WASH.
Oct. 23 LOUISIANA: Louisiana Supreme Court denies appeal by death row prisoner Louisiana's Supreme Court has denied an appeal from a man sentenced to death for the slaying of 4-year-old girl in 2001. The American Press in a Friday report quotes the court as saying 43-year-old Jason Manuel Reeves had claimed his attorneys provided ineffective counsel during the penalty phase of his trial. But the court said he was trying "to re-litigate an issue upon which he has already sought review." The court says it's not clear that his lawyers failed to present evidence about his troubled upbringing because Reeves himself didn't disclose evidence to help explain his difficult childhood and the history of sexual abuse he suffered. Reeves has been on death row since 2004 for the abduction, rape and killing of Mary Jean Thigpen from Moss Bluff. (source: Associated Press) OHIO: Warren County brother could face death penalty in sister's killing The trial of a South Lebanon man who could face the death penalty if convicted of murdering his sister began Monday in Warren County Common Pleas Court. Judges Joe Kirby, Donald Oda II and Robert Peeler, rather than a jury, will decide if Christopher Kirby, 38, should be sentenced to death for allegedly murdering his adoptive sister, Deborah Power, and badly beating her husband, Ronnie Power, at the home they shared with Kirby, his wife and children in South Lebanon. "This is really a story about drugs," defense lawyer John Kaspar said during opening statements. Kirby is charged with aggravated murder, aggravated robbery, murder, felonious assault, grand theft and tampering with evidence. He is alleged to have committed these crimes in September 2017 to fund his and his wife's heroin habit after Deborah Power changed the password on her bank card. In April, Jacqueline "Jackie" Kirby, 31, was sentenced to 3 years on probation for her part in the case and ordered her to enter the Women's Recovery Center, an outpatient substance abuse program in Xenia. The trial, which is expected to last into next week, is scheduled to resume at 9 a.m. today. On Monday morning, Assistant County Prosecutor John Arnold said the extended family, all living in the South Lebanon home where the alleged crime occurred, relied on Social Security payments. "The only source of income for the household was Social Security," Arnold said in his opening statement. Arnold said prosecutors would show the 3-judge panel that Kirby should be sentenced to death for his crimes. "While he presented part of the story, it's not the whole story," Kaspar told the judges in his opening statement. Kaspar said the case would also demonstrate the poverty of their conditions and "the vital importance of a $290 check." Prosecutors called the 911 operator who took the initial call from Kirby's 8-year-old son after his parents had left in the Powers' truck, allegedly leaving Ronnie Power with a bad head wound and Deborah Power's body under blankets in a locked room. A number of deputies were also called to begin to develop the chain of evidence designed to prove Kirby was guilty of the capital crime. Testimony indicated that at the house, before being taken to the University of Cincinnati Hospital in West Chester, a bleeding Ronnie Power said he had fallen and hit his head. The Kirbys were found later at the hospital in West Chester. Testimony indicated they drove there after buying and using heroin in Cincinnati. Ronnie Power was initially treated at this hospital before being taken to another hospital. The prosecutors also called a video expert to map the Kirbys' movements after leaving the house, and LCNB bank officials testified to show the bank card number had been changed after Deborah Power visited the bank about her overdrawn account. Still, Deborah Power had not mounted a formal complaint or filed a police report against her adoptive brother or his wife. "She was going to address it and I guess get back to me," Christina Harris, manager of the bank’s South Lebanon branch, said. The trial is to resume this morning and continue into next week. (source: Dayton Daily News) * Court hears case of inmate who killed girlfriend's parents The Ohio Supreme Court has set oral arguments in the case of a man convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend's parents with a sledgehammer 10 days after stabbing their daughter. Shawn Ford Jr. was convicted by a Summit County jury in 2015 of aggravated murder and other charges in the slayings of Margaret and Jeffrey Schobert 2 years earlier. That same jury recommended the 24-year-old Ford receive the death penalty for killing Margaret Schobert, and the judge agreed. Death penalty cases in Ohio are automatically appealed to the state Supreme Court, which has set arguments for Jan. 8. Defense attorneys unsuccessfully argued that Ford's low IQ should have pre
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
Oct. 23 NIGERIA: Time To Abolish Death Penalty In Nigeria The recent decision by Malaysian authorities to abolish death penalty is a welcome development and a reminder for Nigeria to join the evolving global trend. While announcing the proposed bill to the Malaysian Parliament, its Law Minister, Liew Vui Keong, also called for a halt on all executions until the decision is in effect. If Malaysia succeeds in abolishing the death penalty law, it would be the latest in the series of countries that have done same. It is interesting that today about 106 countries around the world have succeeded in abolishing capital punishment for all crimes in law. It must also be noted that there have been a global wave of disapproval for the tiny spectrum of the globe which still practice death penalty. The aim of such global campaign is to ensure that capital punishment is abolished the world over. Indeed, the global advocacy for countries to end capital punishment is hinged on the fact that the right to life is the most fundamental of all human rights, and it is a universal right. According to United Nations Commission on Human Right, "the right to life is a fundamental right in any society irrespective of its degree of development or the type of culture which characterises it...The preservation of this is one of the essential functions of the state and the numerous provisions of national legislation establish guarantees to ensure the enjoyment of the right". In recent times, there have been a number of international and regional instruments against death penalty. Research reveals that every year, since 1997, the United Nations Commission on Human rights has passed a resolution calling on countries that have not abolished the death penalty to establish a moratorium on executions. Unfortunately, death penalty still remains constitutionally legal in Nigeria. This is enshrined in section 33 (1) of the 1999 constitution which provides that "Every person has a right to life, and no one shall be deprived intentionally of his life save in execution of the sentence of a court in respect of a criminal offence of which one has been found guilty in Nigeria". According to Amnesty International Nigeria's 2016 global review of death penalty, te country handed down 527 deaths sentences in 2016, which is triple of its 2015 figure and placing it second only to China in death sentences recorded throughout the world in 2016. The report also shows that Lagos State recorded the most executions in Nigeria in 2016 with 68, closely followed by Rivers State with 61 executions. It is therefore worrisome that that Nigeria's death sentences are the highest in sub-Saharan Africa. Indeed, there has been a national debate on whether or not to expunge death penalty from the country’s penal code. On the one hand, proponents of death penalty argue that a murderer, for instance, has given up his human rights, including the right to life, and therefore death penalty becomes a retributive measure. More so, letting such individual stay alive would make him a threat to others. To that extent, just as the individual has the right to safeguard as well as take his life whenever he pleases, the state has the right and duty to take the life of a citizen in order to increase its welfare. It is also argued that the death penalty acts as a deterrent to future crimes. Furthermore, it has also been argued that abolishing the death penalty would lead to an increase in the number of extra judicial killings by overzealous security agents and hardened criminals when they know that they would only get life sentences with a possibility of a state pardon. But we are averse to capital punishment considering that death penalty is irreversible and that absolute judgments may lead to people paying for crimes they did not commit. This is because there have been cases where new evidences have emerged in a case where a defendant has already been sentenced to death which has ended up turning the verdict in the convict's favour. Again, we also believe that the argument that death penalty serves as deterrence to crime more than a prison term is a hasty conclusion, considering that there is no evidence to support suc argument. On the contrary, available information reveals that since Canada abolished death penalty in 1976, the country's murder rate has steadily declined and was the lowest in 2016 since 1966. Again, according to United Nations, UN, human rights, considering that most death sentences are executed publicly, it is a gross desecration of human dignity. Death penalty is a gross violation of the inherent dignity of every human person. Moreover, considering that its application as retribution to certain crimes is increasingly going out of fashion around the world, it has become essential that Nigeria strongly considers joining the global death penalty abolition fray. * Oko
