[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
Oct. 9 INDIA: SC confirms death penalty awarded to 'tantrik' couple The Supreme Court has upheld the death penalty awarded to a 'tantrik' couple from Chhattisgarh, for killing a 2-year-old boy as a human sacrifice perform during a religious ritual. A bench of Justices R F Nariman, R Subhash Reddy and Surya Kant termed the case the rarest of the rare, wherein main accused Ishwari Lal Yadav and his wife Kiran Bai planned and committed the murder of 2-year-old child Chirag, as a sacrifice to the God. The court also noted an aggravating circumstance, that the couple was already convicted and sentenced to death for the similar murder of a six-year-old girl but the high court had commuted their punishment to the life term without remission. They were not possessed of the basic humanness, they completely lacked the psyche or mindset which can be amenable for any reformation,” the bench said, noting that the couple had 3 children of their own. On November 23, 2010, 2-year-old Chirag went missing from his home in Durg. The family members, who started looking for him, noted loud music being played in the house of Yadav. When they entered the house, they found mounds of freshly dug earth. On being questioned by the crowd, the convicts confessed that they had sacrificed Chirag, whose body and severed head were retrieved. During the investigation, the couple, who claimed to be 'tantrik', confessed to killing another child 6-7 months before the incident. The clothes and skeletal remains of the 6-year-old girl they had sacrificed were recovered after their confession. In their appeal, the same bench confirmed the high court judgment sentencing them to life imprisonment for this killing. (source: deccanherald.com) PAKISTAN: Death penalty doesn't stop child abuse. What's it for then? The call to murder is the ultimate distraction. It is the most cynical act of manipulation. The bodies of 3 young children who were raped and killed in Kasur were discovered less than one year after the execution of Imran Ali for the rape and murder of young Zainab. Imran Ali, despite calls for a public hanging, was executed inside the walls of Kot Lakhpat jail, Lahore. Yet, his execution was public in the sense of it being inescapable in the national conversation, as a response to an unspeakable assault on common decency and moral fabric of the society. The cries for revenge, public hanging and the execution itself did not, however, stop the perpetrator of the next round of rape and killings. Before Imran Ali, there was Javed Iqbal, the serial killer who confessed to the murder of 100 young boys. The judge, while sentencing him to the gallows in March 2000, wrote “you will be strangled to death in front of the parents whose children you killed. Your body will then be cut into 100 pieces and put in acid, the same way you killed the children." Javed Iqbal later died in an apparent suicide while in prison. The point in the dominant discourse for Imran Ali and Javed Iqbal was not about protecting our children from the next Imran Ali or Javed Iqbal, but about looking tough as a government and a society in the face of an elementary, unconscionable failure. The death penalty is always about just that: demonstrating our willingness and capacity to inflict murder. The message is not directed to the future murderers and rapists (it demonstrably doesn’t work on them), but to the public at large. The relationship between an authoritarian state and the death was eloquently highlighted by Robert Badinter, French Minister of Justice under Francois Mitterrand in his September 1981 speech to the French parliament. “It is anti-justice…it is passion and fear prevailing over humanity.” More importantly, “in countries of freedom, abolition is almost the rule; in dictatorships, capital punishment is everywhere in use. This division of the world doesn’t result from just a coincidence. It shows a correlation. The true political signification of capital punishment is that it results from the idea that State has the right to take advantage of the citizen, till the possibility to suppress the citizen’s life.” Following the revolution in Iran, the Ziaul Haq regime began disseminating the news of executions being carried out under Ayatollah Khomeini. Archives of Pakistani newspapers following the overthrow of the Raza Shah’s regime in February 1979 have the death sentences being handed down as headline news and Khomeini doing “nashta” of “dozens” (of people). It seemed slightly odd; yet, it was deliberately aimed at creating acceptance for state-sponsored violence and setting up the stage of the biggest execution/murder of Pakistan’s history, the execution of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto on April 5, 1979. In 1983, the murderer of Pappu, a young boy from Lahore, was publicly executed and the body of the killer was left hanging for an entire day as a spectacle. The rape
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----MASS., DEL., N.C., GA., FLA., TENN., OKLA., NEV., CALIF.
Oct. 9 MASSACHUSETTS: Bill named after fallen police officers would bring back death penalty to Massachusetts 2 Massachusetts state representatives have filed a bill that would allow the state to impose the death penalty on adults convicted of murdering law enforcement officers. The "Chesna-Gannon" bill, named after 2 slain police officers, would cover police, corrections officers, sheriffs and deputies. A death sentence would not be mandatory, but would be an option during sentencing. Reps. Shauna O'Connell and David DeCoste, both Republicans, presented the proposed legislation in front of the state's Joint Committee on the Judiciary on Tuesday. They were joined by the mother and widow of fallen Weymouth Police Sgt. Michael Chesna. "My son was taken from us totally unexpectedly on a beautiful Sunday morning in Weymouth -- our hometown for almost 50 years -- doing what he loved, but dying because of it," Maryann Chesna said. The Supreme Judicial Court invalidated the death penalty in 1984, but those sponsoring the bill said the legislation would send a strong message. "Allowing capital punishment will help law enforcement do their job," O'Connell said. "It will save lives and it will help law enforcement keep our communities safe." "The justice system seems to me to be broken, not bent. There is no consequence. It's arrest and release, arrest and release," Maryann Chesna said. "The death penalty, obviously, it's a drastic measure," said Chelsea Police Chief Brian Kyes. "However, our hope would be that by having this codified into the law that we would never have to use it -- meaning we would hope that it would act as an effective deterrent, that individuals would know that should they commit a murder against a police officer, that the death penalty hangs in the balance." Chesna, 42, was shot and killed July 15, 2018, while pursuing a suspect. The U.S. Army veteran and Purple Heart recipient is survived by his wife, Cindy, and two children, Olivia and Jack. The bill's other namesake, Yarmouth Police Sgt. Sean Gannon, and his K-9 partner, Nero, were shot April 12, 2018, while serving an arrest warrant in Marstons Mills. The 32-year-old officer was taken to an area hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The "Chesna-Gannon" bill was one of 60 bills that were on Tuesday's agenda for the joint committee. Other proposals mitigated the most severe punishments that could be imposed, including a bill that could make prisoners serving life-without-parole sentences -- including those convicted of murder -- eligible for parole after 25 years. Rep. Antonio Cabral has a bill before the committee that would allow local sheriff's offices and corrections facilities to perform immigration enforcement only if the federal government pays for all of the related costs (source: WCVB news) DELAWARE: Hearing set in appeal by former Delaware death row inmate A Delaware judge is holding an evidentiary hearing in an appeal by a former death row inmate who is now serving life in prison. Tuesday's hearing involves a motion for post-conviction relief filed by Ralph Swan. Swan and an accomplice, Adam Norcross, both were sentenced to death for the 1996 murder of Kenneth Warren of Kenton. Warren was shot four times in a home invasion robbery. Swan was resentenced in 2017 to 3 life terms behind bars after Delaware's Supreme Court declared the state's death penalty law unconstitutional in 2016. Norcross also has been resentenced to life without probation or parole. (source: Associated Press) NORTH CAROLINA: Man accused of killing Lumberton teen appointed 2nd attorney Michael McLellan, 34, has been appointed a 2nd attorney in the killing of 13-year-old Hania Aguilar last November in Lumberton. McLellan was listed on the Robeson County Court docket for this week, but Robeson County District Attorney Matthew Scott said the case won’t be heard. Scott said McLellan’s attorneys have been given his case file to prepare for his defense. The State of North Carolina announced back in June that it was seeking the death penalty against McLellan in Hania's death. McLellan is charged with 10 felonies in her death, including 1st-degree rape and 1st-degree kidnapping. He has been denied bond on those charges. Prosecutors said McLellan was a suspect early on in the investigation, but they didn't want to immediately release that information. Hania was shoved into an SUV back on Nov. 5 outside of her family's home in the Rosewood Mobile Home Park off of Elizabethtown Road in Lumberton. Police recovered the green SUV on Quincy Drive Road in Lumberton on Nov. 8 and her body was found on Nov. 27 in a swamp off of Wire Grass Road in Lumberton. It's not clear if McLellan will appear in court this week or if his attorney will appear on his behalf. (source: WPDE news) Jury selection begins in 1st prison murder trial
