[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
Oct. 6 BOSNIA: Constitutional Court of BiH abolished Death Sentence Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) abolished death sentence in Republika Srpska (RS) entity! Considering the appeal of the Bosniak Club to the RS Council for the Constitutional Review of Article 11 paragraph 2 of the RS Constitution, the BiH Constitutional Court decided that such a norm could no longer exist in the RS Constitution. Namely, the Constitutional Court stated that with the entry into force of Protocol No. 13 to the European Convention, the death penalty was abolished in all circumstances, and that the said Protocol constitutes a legally binding act for all levels of government in Bosnia and Herzegovina, including its entities. In a statement to the RTRS, the President of the Constitutional Court of BiH, Zlatko Knezevic, said that the RS institutions have three months to delete that provision, which virtually ceased to exist today with the Constitutional Court’s decision. Currently, only Belarus still enforces the death penalty, and Russia has imposed a moratorium on its execution since 1999, Radio Sarajevo reports. (source: Sarajevo Times) LEBANON: Lebanon Hails Court Verdict on 1999 Killing of 4 Judges Lebanese officials hailed on Saturday a court verdict indicting the accused in the 1999 assassination of 4 judges in the southern city of Sidon. President Michel Aoun said: “Justice has been served even if it is late,” said Aoun, as he called for amendments in the Code of Criminal Procedure in order to prevent any delay in future proceedings. In 1999, four judges were assassinated inside the South Lebanon Criminal Court at the old Justice Palace in Sidon. “Justice is served even after a while. A salute to the Judicial Council which issued its verdict in the assassination case of the 4 judges. Our sincere solidarity today is with the families of the martyrs,” said Prime Minister Saad Hariri in a tweet. Justice Minister Albert Serhan said: “Justice is taking its course... the decision of the Judicial Council is good news for all, judges and citizens.” On Friday, the Judicial Council led by Judge Jean Fahed inflicted the death penalty on Ahmed Abdulkarim aka Abu Mehjen. 5 of his companions were sentenced to death in absentia for hiding in the southern Palestinian camp of Ain al-Hilweh camp, the National News Agency said. Wissam Hussein Tuhaibesh, Palestinian, was acquitted for insufficient evidence and released immediately unless convicted of another crime, NNA added. (source: naharnet.com) IRAN: New Signs of Expanded Reliance on the Death Penalty in Iran Authorities in the northern Iranian city of Rasht carried out the latest in a long line of public executions on Wednesday, hanging a man who had allegedly killed a security agent. The incident took place on the same day that four others were put to death in Rajai Shahr Prison alone, signifying a probable acceleration of the implementation of capital punishment throughout the country. The apparent increase in executions only serves to further safeguard Iran’s status as the nation with the highest per-capita rate of executions in the world. No other country exceeds the Islamic Republic in terms of the raw number of death sentences carried out each year. Iran also leads the world in terms of death sentences meted out and implemented for persons who were under the age of 18 at the time of their crimes. As a signatory to both the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Iran is formally barred from this practice under all circumstances, but the Iranian judiciary routinely dismisses that provision by saying that it conflicts with the religiously-based laws of the Islamic Republic. The same international agreements also technically bar Iran from other activities that nonetheless remain commonplace, including the execution of supposed criminals whose offenses do not rise to an international standard for the “most serious crimes.” Wednesday’s executions may have included at least two offenses of this type. Of the 4 men hanged at Rajai Shahr, 2 had been convicted of murder, while the other 2 had been accused of “enmity against God.” This vague, political charged was originally established so as to apply only to armed insurrection against the Iranian regime. But in practice, the charge is known in Farsi as “Mohabareh” has been applied to a wide range of individuals deemed to be a threat to the theocratic system. This includes supporters of the leading Iranian opposition group, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI, Mujahedin-e Khalq or MEK) – even those whose support is limited to financial donations. It is unclear what, if any, actual activities were undertaken by the two men executed on Wednesday which justified their death sentence. And Iran’s state media is little help since it often f
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news---N.C., FLA., WYO., USA
Oct. 6 NORTH CAROLINA: Trial begins in prison murders The trial of 1 of 4 inmates charged with 4 counts of 1st-degree murder in the October 2017 slaying deaths of 4 prison employees is scheduled to start Monday in Dare County Superior Court. Mikel Brady will go on trial for causing the deaths at Pasquotank Correctional Institute of Correction Enterprises Manager Veronica “Ronnie” Darden, 50; corrections officers Justin Smith, 35, and Wendy Shannon, 49; and maintenance mechanic Geoffrey Howe, 31. District Attorney Andrew Womble is seeking the death penalty against Brady and the 3 other inmates charged in the prison workers’ deaths: Wisezah Buckman, Seth Frazier and Jonathan Monk. Prosecutors allege Brady and the 3 other inmates viciously assaulted the 4 prison workers on Oct. 12, 2017 during their failed attempt to escape from PCI. Darden and Smith died from their injuries the day of the attack; Shannon and Howe died later from their injuries. Womble said Friday that the death penalty will remain on the table even if Brady chooses to enter a guilty plea. “I can’t stop them from coming in and pleading guilty to first-degree murder,” Womble said. “But that is not going to stop me from trying to impose the death penalty.” The question of the penalty will go to the jury and “only the jury can decide that,” Womble said. Although the trial is not being held in Pasquotank County, it is still taking place within the 1st Judicial District. Brady’s attorneys, who requested a change of venue, had asked that the trial be held outside of the 1st Judicial District. Resident Superior Court Judge Jerry R. Tillett will preside over the trial. Buckman will be the next of the inmate defendants to be tried after Brady. Womble said Friday that Buckman’s trial is scheduled for March. At the time of the murders, Brady was serving a prison sentence for the attempted 1st-degree murder of a state trooper in Durham County. Buckman was serving a sentence for 2nd-degree murder in Mecklenburg County. Monk was in prison serving a sentence for attempted 1st-degree murder in Cumberland County. Frazier was serving a sentence for 1st-degree burglary in Onslow County. (source: dailyadvance.com) FLORIDA: Polk County's tie to the women of death row In July, a Polk County jury unanimously agreed that Cheyanne Jessie should be executed for brutally killing her 6-year-old daughter, Meredith. Should Circuit Judge Jalal Harb follow that recommendation, 29-year-old Jessie would become the first woman to be condemned to death for a Polk County murder, but she wouldn't be the 1st Polk County woman on Florida's death row. That would be Virginia Larzelere. Those who grew up with her in Lake Wales might not have recognized the name emblazoned across headlines nearly 30 years ago. To them, she was Gail Antley — one of William "PeeWee" Antley's 4 daughters and a 1970 graduate of Lake Wales High School. But that was then. Since 1993, she's been inmate #842556, the moniker assigned to her after a Volusia County jury found her guilty of masterminding the execution-style killing of her husband, Norman, 39, who was gunned down in the hallway of his Edgewater dental practice in March 1991. Prosecutors argued she wanted to cash in on his $2.1 million in life insurance. To this day, Larzelere maintains she's innocent. Larzelere, now 66, spent 15 years on death row before the Florida Supreme Court overturned her death sentence in 2008 on grounds that her lawyer, the late Jack Wilkins of Bartow, failed to adequately prepare her case during her trial's sentencing phase. The state's high court sent the case back to Volusia County, and lawyers there agreed to a life sentence without presenting any testimony. But those 15 years, spent in part in #2201, Quad 2, T Dorm at Lowell Correctional Institution near Ocala, remain burned in her memory. "During my death row stay at Lowell, the entire compound was locked down anytime that I exited the cell," she said in a recent email to The Ledger, "and I was accompanied by six of the largest and meanest staff available. There were days without communication from anyone. "The following people will peer into the cell window once a week: the warden, the chaplain, the colonel," she wrote. "A mental health specialist would come once a week to ask if you are suicidal or homicidal, and then tells you to do the best you can." Larzelere said she's survived by immersing herself in her education, receiving her college degree in education and working with other women — 183 to date — who've received their high school equivalency diplomas. "The sterling record I have is because I choose to live life in a manner that allows me to atone for all the years of my greedy, narcissistic, promiscuous ways," she wrote. Through gain time and good behavior, she's scheduled for release in August 2034. She'll be 81 and have served half her lif
