[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
August 28 BELARUS: Belarusian authorities consider death penalty moratorium The Belarusian authorities, together with representatives of the Council of Europe, plan to develop a road map of this process. 4 people last year, and already 2 this year, were shot in the name of the state through the death penalty. The number of those executed is not made public, nor is the an exact figure given to the public. Belarus allows for possible moratorium on the use of the death penalty or even its abolition, said the other day a representative of the Directorate General of Human Rights and the rule of law of the Council of Europe, Tatiana Termacic. “So far, it’s been a question of working out a joint roadmap with the Belarusian authorities on the abolition of the death penalty. We’ll see whether this will be transformed into a specific media campaign later on,” said Termacic. The conference “Public Opinion and the Death Penalty” has brought together representatives of Europe, government agencies and civil society in Minsk. “The main goal is not to campaign but to inform citizens on this topic. But what I can say for sure is that the number of supporters of the death penalty has decreased in our country. Since 1996, 23 years have passed,” says Alyaksandr Markevich of the House of Representatives Commission on Legislation. In 1996, a referendum was held which left the death penalty in force. During these 23 years, 2 generations have changed, and the state has carried out 199 sentences. The company “Satio” conducted a survey in April in the middle-populated Belarusian cities. It was held at the request of the local human rights organizations: 31% of respondents are “firmly for” the death penalty, while another 40% – “rather for it”. Against are only 27%. “Some questions can and should be put to the referendum, but the death penalty is not one of such areas, as public opinion on this matter is very volatile and emotional,” said the Chairman of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, Aleh Hulak. It depends on the sources through which compatriots hear about the death penalty. Instead of showing “death sentences” in the style of “for what”, representatives of the European community urge the media to mention the inhumanity and ineffectiveness of this type of punishment, which should be removed from the law. “If this step is taken, it will improve relations and remove many claims, which the European Community has against Belarus,” adds Hulak. The application of the death penalty does not allow Belarus to claim membership in the Council of Europe, spoiling the political and investment climate of the country. (source: belsat.eu) IRAQ: Iraqi court sentences 11 ISIS members to death for terrorist acts in Babil Iraq’s Babil Criminal Court on Wednesday announced it had sentenced 11 members of the Islamic State to death for their involvement in exploding a strategic bridge in the Iraqi province. The members confessed their membership to the jihadist group and participating in a terrorist act in Babil (Babylon) Province, the Court’s press office stated.P> “The terrorists confessed to carrying out an attack they called ‘Invading Fadhliya,’ on a strategic bridge in the area of ??Jurf al-Nasr, north of the province, in 2014, which ended with a full explosion and led to the death of three people, wounding 19 security members stationed nearby,” read the statement. It also mentioned that experts had estimated the cost and value of the destroyed bridge at about 18 billion Iraqi dinars (US $15 million). In addition to Babil, the Islamic State members admitted to committing other terrorist acts in other locations at different times. “The sentence for the convicts is handed down in accordance with the provisions of Article IV/1 of the Anti-Terrorism Law,” the statement added. Since 2017, the Iraqi judiciary had issued death sentences and life in prison for hundreds of alleged Islamic State members, among them, foreign nationals. The country has been highly criticized for its implementation of capital punishment in recent years. The death penalty in Iraq was suspended on June 10, 2003, but was reinstated the following year. International groups and human rights organizations, including the United Nations and Human Rights Watch, say efforts by Iraqi authorities to accelerate the implementation of death sentences could lead to the execution of innocent people, pointing to major flaws endemic to the nation’s deficient criminal justice system. (source: kurdistan24.net) IRANexecution Hamid Reza Derakhshandeh hanged in public in Kazerun A man who killed the notorious Friday Prayer leader (Imam) of the city of Kazeroun, southern Iran, was hanged in public this morning, August 28, 2019. Hamid Reza Derakhshandeh had stabbed to death Mohammad Khorsand on May 29 as he was returning from a religious ceremony at 3:30 in the morning. The
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----N.C., FLA., USA
August 28 NORTH CAROLINA: Lawyers square off over death sentence being reimposed Nearly 22 years after Tilmon Golphin and his younger brother gunned down a Cumberland County deputy and a state trooper on Interstate 95 near Fayetteville, Golphin’s lawyers went before the N.C. Supreme Court on Tuesday morning to argue for his life. The question at hand: Was North Carolina wrong to reinstate the death penalty for Golphin after Cumberland County Superior Court Judge Gregory Weeks commuted his death sentence to life without parole in 2012? The state Supreme Court faces this same question with 3 +other Cumberland County convicted murderers who also in 2012 had their sentences commuted to life without parole under North Carolina’s short-lived Racial Justice Act. The other 3 cases were argued before the court on Monday. The court also on Monday heard arguments from two convicted murderers from other counties who were denied the opportunity to use the Racial Justice Act to try to commute their sentences before the legislature repealed the law in 2013. The state legislature passed the Racial Justice Act in 2009 to address institutional racism thought to be in North Carolina’s criminal justice system. It gave death row defendants an opportunity to prove in court that racism was a factor in the conduct of their trials. If they could prove this, the judge was to convert their death sentences to life without parole. In the 4 Cumberland County cases, Weeks was persuaded that the prosecutors used their peremptory challenges during jury selection to prevent black jurors from being seated on their juries solely because they were black — a violation of the jurors’ constitutional rights to serve their communities. It was argued that this was done based on a perception that black jurors would be less likely to sentence someone to death. The 4 inmates were removed from death row. The Supreme Court overturned Week’s rulings in December 2015, saying he had made mistakes that biased his decisions. Golphin and the other three inmates were returned to death row. In January 2017 another judge (Weeks having retired) dismissed the inmates’ Racial Justice Act claims because the Racial Justice Act had been repealed. Lawyer Jay Ferguson told the justices that this was wrong. He said that once Golphin’s sentence was reduced from death to life without parole, the state was legally and constitutionally barred from reverting the sentence back to death. Some of Ferguson’s key points from his arguments and legal brief: • He believes that Golphin was technically acquitted of the death sentence when his sentence was converted to life in prison, and to re-impose the death sentence is a form of double-jeopardy — the state is not allowed to prosecute someone more than once for the same crime once jeopardy is considered to have attached to the case. • He thinks the legislature’s decision to repeal the Racial Justice Act was aimed specifically at Golphin and the other three defendants. It’s unconstitutional to pass a law designed to punish specific individuals (a concept known as a “bill of attainder”). • The constitution also prohibits “ex post facto” laws — those that impose a punishment retroactively. Ferguson contends Golphin, under the Racial Justice Act, was sentenced to life in prison. The repeal law of 2013, he said, can’t take that away without violating the ex post facto provisions in the state and federal constitutions. • Golphin’s right to use the Racial Justice Act was “vested” with the passage of the law and the state can’t take away a vested right. For this, Ferguson cited a state Supreme Court of 1869 regarding a former Confederate soldier accused of committing murder during the war. North Carolina had passed an amnesty for former Confederate soldiers for crimes they committed during the Civil War. Later the amnesty was repealed and the state tried to prosecute a soldier accused of murder. The Supreme Court said the amnesty was a vested right and could not be taken away, so the soldier couldn’t be prosecuted. In Golphin’s case, Ferguson says his life sentence can’t be upgraded to death. Senior Deputy Attorney General Danielle Elder urged the justices to keep Golphin on death row. “The defendant here has not been acquitted of the death penalty,” she said. Weeks’ ruling that changed Golphin’s sentence was procedural, and not his criminal liability. “Acquittal” happens when there is a determination that the prosecution’s evidence is insufficient to determine if someone committed a crime, she said. Elder’s arguments and brief also contend: • Golphin’s right to use the Racial Justice Act never became “vested” because he never received a final order that granted him the life sentence — this would have happened had the Supreme Court upheld the 2012 ruling instead of rejecting it in 2015. • There is no ex post facto issue, she said. Specifi
