[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
April 25 PAPUA NEW GUINEA: Death penalty debate finds new life The debate on the implementation of the death penalty is timely and should be encouraged, outgoing Minister for Justice and Attorney-General Davis Steven says. “The question is whether it’s available, whether it can be enforced,” he said after explaining that it was part of the country’s laws. “The judges say it can be because they have imposed judgments with penalties reflecting the death penalty. The executive arm of the Government under the prime minister did what it could to help our authorities, mainly the commissioner for correctional institutions, to decide on the method that should be employed in executing death penalty orders.” Steven said the delay became one of a mixture of political will and also the implementation and the resourcing constraints. “One of the final National Executive Council submissions I’ve signed is to give the NEC an information paper, an update on where this issue is with a strong recommendation that we begin to enforce the death penalty. “The current government has recognised the importance of this particular law or provision of law as a deterrent to the rising crime situation. That’s now before Cabinet again as one of my final submissions which I will not be there to deliberate on. “In one of the amendments that we have made to the criminal code in the last term of parliament is to make death penalty applicable to thefts, of cases of stealing of public monies that exceed the amount of K10 million.” Steven said this Government had tried to push some of the amendments as part of its commitment to fighting corruption. He said the national coordination mechanism had the death penalty matter as an agenda in the next meeting. “I have requested for the report to the law and justice sector ministerial committee meeting because I find two years of inaction totally unacceptable at the bureaucratic level,” Steven said. “Somebody has to tell me why we are delaying this, especially when the National Executive Council and this Government had spent money for some high-level official enquiry or visit throughout the world and they came up with reports.” (source: The National) NORTH KOREA: North Korea ‘executed 4 officials’ after failed US summit, report claims North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ordered the execution by firing squad of 4 foreign ministry officials after the failure of his Hanoi summit with Donald Trump, a report has claimed. The officials were reportedly executed after the February talks between North Korea and the US came to an end without any deal being made. Pyongyang had accused the 4 officials of selling information to Washington before the Hanoi summit, according to a Japanese news agency. The executions, which included a diplomat from North Korea’s embassy in Hanoi, have not been verified. Asia Press claimed its reporter spoke to a trade official who was told the rumour about the executions. It is claimed that the executions were watched by members of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea and Korean People’s Army. The Hanoi summit had the aim of achieving denuclearisation on the Korean Peninusla and North Korea was hoping to have its sanctions lifted. When the talks failed, Washington insisted that dialogue with North Korea would continue and that the collapse was not a major disappointment. Following the summit, President Trump said: “Kim is a person I’ve gotten to know very well, and respect and hopefully, and I really believe over a period of time, a lot of tremendous things will happen. “I think North Korea has a tremendous potential.” Kim arrived in Russia on Wednesday, April 24 to discuss bilateral ties with President Vladimir Putin. North Korea’s leader has said he was hoping for a “successful and useful” visit where he hopes to discuss the situation in the Korean Peninsula. (source News) BANGLADESH: Death penalty for 2 war criminalsTribunal convicts them of committing genocide in Netrakona in 1971 The International Crimes Tribunal-1 Tuesday handed down death penalty to 2 Netrakona men after holding them guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity committed during the Liberation War. They were members of local Razakar Bahini, an auxiliary force of Pakistan army, and directly took part in crimes like confinement, torture, killing and an act of genocide that left 7 Hindus dead. “Both the accused are found to have collaborated with the Pakistan occupation army in conducting attacks with extreme aggression and antagonism that resulted in barbaric crimes like crimes against humanity and genocide,” the tribunal said. The convicted criminals are -- Hedayet Ullah Anju, 80, and Sohrab Fakir, 88. Of them, Sohrab is now in jail while Hedayet is on the run. The 3rd accused -- Enayet Ullah Manju, 70, a brother of Anju, died of old age complications in custody on January 25, 2017 and
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----MO., NEV., CALIF., USA
April 25 MISSOURI: State Supreme Court considers death penalty appeal in mid-Missouri case The Missouri Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Tuesday in Jefferson City in convicted killer David Hosier’s death penalty appeal. Hosier was convicted of first degree murder and was sentenced to death for the September 2009 killing of Angela Gilpin in Jefferson City. Court documents say Hosier was having an affair with Gilpin, who was a married woman. Hosier, who’s now 64, is also suspected of killing Angela’s husband Rodney during the 2009 incident. However, Hosier has not gone to trial for the second murder. The court documents say Hosier was captured after the 2009 murders in Oklahoma, after urging Oklahoma officers to shoot him “and get it over with.” The court documents indicate Oklahoma authorities found 15 guns inside Hosier’s vehicle, along with numerous forms of ammunition, a bulletproof vest, gloves, a homemade police baton and a knife. The state Supreme Court heard about 40 minutes of oral arguments in the case on Tuesday. Hosier’s public defender, Amy Bartholow, is asking for a new trial, saying Hosier’s trial counsel was ineffective. “We’d also ask, in the alternative, for a new penalty phase where David can show, through mental health testimony, mental health expert testimony, why he deserved to live,” Bartholow says. Counselor Bartholow tells the Supreme Court that Hosier’s trial counsel should have called a psychiatrist at trial to testify about a stroke and brain damage that Hosier had suffered. “She (the trial counsel) didn’t read a report about the MRI, she never talked to a doctor about the MRI,” says Bartholow. “And we’ve placed that in the record because it shows that David’s brain is dead in places.” But Missouri Assistant Attorney General Greg Barnes says Hosier was represented by highly-experienced legal counsel. “Trial counsel, guilt phase trial counsel had over 150 trials worth of experience over many years in both Texas and in Missouri,” Barnes tells the Supreme Court. Barnes is critical of Hosier’s death penalty appeal, and questions the public defender’s argument that Hosier had a stroke in 2007. The stroke “didn’t explain the 1986 assault on his wife or his threat to kill multiple law enforcement officers or to kidnap his kids and take them to Mexico during that time,” says Barnes. Barnes tells the Supreme Court that “Hail Mary’s is all they’ve got in this case,” referring to Hosier’s public defender. Bartholow tells the Supreme Court that Hosier’s trial counsel should have also moved to strike two jurors who she says could not consider life imprisonment. The appeal also says the judge who presided over the trial, Cole County Judge Patricia M. Joyce, should have recused herself. The Missouri Supreme Court has not announced when they’ll issue a ruling in the case. Missouri Department of Corrections spokeswoman Karen Pojmann tells Missourinet that Hosier is one of 23 Missouri prisoners currently under a death sentence. Hosier is incarcerated at the maximum-security Potosi Correctional Center in Mineral Point. Pojmann notes there are no executions scheduled at this time. (source: Missourinet) NEVADA: Death of 4-year-old boy in Las Vegas ruled homicide The Clark County coroner’s office ruled the death of a 4-year-old boy a homicide Tuesday, about a month after prosecutors said they would seek the death penalty for the woman accused of torturing and killing him. Brandon Steckler Jr., a nonverbal autistic boy, was found July 30 in an apartment in the 300 block of East Silverado Ranch Boulevard, after he had spent weeks in the care of 42-year-old Crystal Stephens. He died at Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center the next day from multiple injuries and complications, the coroner’s office said Tuesday. Prosecutors in March said they will seek the death penalty for Stephens, who faces charges of murder, first-degree kidnapping, sexual assault on a minor and 24 counts of child abuse, neglect or endangerment. If convicted and sentenced to die, Stephens would be the only woman on death row in Nevada, Chief Deputy District Attorney Jacqueline Bluth has said. The prosecutor said in March that a medical examiner had not determined Brandon’s cause of death because he had suffered from so many injuries, including burns, multiple bruises and scars, broken ribs, a lacerated liver, a broken collarbone and a collapsed lung. Stephens told police that she was watching Brandon and his sister for 2 weeks while Brandon’s mother was living in a domestic violence shelter. Stephens’ trial is set for Feb. 25, according to District Court records. (source: Las Vegas Review-Journal) CALIFORNIA: Golden State Killer trial could put anti-death-penalty Newsom in hot water with voters 1 year ago Wednesday, a former policeman was arrested and accused of being the Golden State Killer who raped a
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., GA., FLA., ALA., LA., TENN.
April 25 TEXASexecution Texas executes John William King in racist dragging death of James Byrd Jr.King and 2 other white men were convicted in the brutal East Texas murder of Byrd, who was black. King was the 2nd man executed for the crime; another man is serving a life sentence. It’s been more than 2 decades since an infamous hate crime in East Texas, where 3 white men were convicted of chaining a black man to the back of a pickup truck, dragging him for miles and then dumping the remains of his body in front of a church. On Wednesday evening, John William King, 44, became the 2nd and final man to be executed in the 1998 murder case of James Byrd Jr. Lawrence Brewer was put to death in 2011 for the crime, and Shawn Berry is serving a life sentence. King had previously been involved in a white supremacist prison gang, and he was notoriously covered in racist tattoos, including Ku Klux Klan symbols, a swastika and a visual depiction of a lynching, according to court documents. But King maintained that he was innocent in Byrd’s murder — claiming that Berry dropped him and Brewer off at their shared apartment before Byrd was beaten and dragged to death. In a last-minute appeal, King’s attorney argued that a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling entitled his client to a new trial because his original lawyers didn’t assert his claim of innocence to the jury despite King’s insistence. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals narrowly rejected this appeal in a 5-4 ruling Monday, and the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against stopping the execution about 30 minutes after it was scheduled to begin Wednesday. After the ruling, King was taken from a holding cell and placed on a gurney in the death chamber and hooked up to an IV. He had no personal witnesses at his execution and spoke no final words, but he did provide a written statement beforehand, stating "Capital Punishment: Them without the capital get the punishment." He was injected with a lethal dose of pentobarbital at 6:56 p.m., and pronounced dead 12 minutes later, according to the prison department. 2 of Byrd’s sisters and his niece planned to watch King's death. One of the sisters, who also watched Brewer's execution in 2011, told The Texas Tribune Tuesday that she didn’t understand why King’s case was tied up for so long with numerous appeals. He was sentenced to death in February 1999. “He wants to find a way not to die, but he didn’t give James that chance,” said Louvon Harris. “He’s still getting off easy because your body’s not going to be flying behind a pickup truck being pulled apart.” Byrd’s brutal murder drew a spotlight on the small town of Jasper and violent racism in the modern world. Evidence at trial showed police found most of the 49-year-old’s body on June 7, 1998, with three miles of blood, drag marks, and other body parts — including his head — on the road behind it. At the beginning of the gruesome trail, police found evidence of a fight, Byrd’s hat and cigarette butts later tied to King, Berry and Brewer, according to court documents. The three men were arrested shortly afterward. Though King didn’t give an official statement to police or testify at his trial, he wrote a letter to The Dallas Morning News while awaiting trial proclaiming his innocence, saying Berry knew Byrd from jail and stopped the truck to pick him up after seeing Byrd walking down the road. King told The News that Berry then dropped him and Brewer off before leaving with Byrd alone. But in a jail note written to Brewer, he said he didn’t think his clothes police took from their apartment had blood on them, but his sandals may have had a “dark brown substance” on them. “Seriously, though, Bro, regardless of the outcome of this, we have made history and shall die proudly remembered if need be…. Much Aryan love, respect, and honor, my brother in arms,” King wrote, according to a court filing. Still, King maintained before and through his trial that he wanted to argue for his innocence and unsuccessfully complained to the court when he said his attorneys refused, his current lawyer, Richard Ellis, said in his latest appeals. King claimed that because his attorneys instead conceded his guilt in the murder, a 2018 U.S. Supreme Court ruling should have allowed him to get a new trial. In Robert McCoy’s case out of Louisiana, the high court held last year that a defendant has the right to choose the objective of his defense — so trial lawyers can’t concede guilt if the defendant wants to assert innocence. King said his lawyers didn’t assert his innocence, instead largely focusing on whether the murder could be considered death penalty eligible. The Jasper County District Attorney’s Office knocked the appeal, saying in a brief that King pleaded not guilty and his lawyers, unlike McCoy’s, didn’t concede guilt but were “substantially limited” based on the given physical evidence, his letter
