News and Updates (as of 12/22/96)

JULY 26, 2024:

TEXAS:

Commentary: After witnessing an execution, questions about the death penalty haunt

As we entered the witness room of the execution chamber on June 26, the condemned turned his head to us and smiled. Ramiro Gonzales was already strapped to the gurney, IV tubes had been inserted into his outstretched arms and in a few minutes a lethal dose of pentobarbital would flow into his veins.

Gonzales was in the death chamber because he was a rapist and a murderer. There is no disputing the facts that in 2001 he raped, tortured and murdered Bridget Townsend.

“To the Townsend Family, I’m sorry. I can’t articulate, I can’t put into words the pain I have caused y’all, the hurt. What I took away I cannot give back,” Gonzales said in his final statement. Followed by “Warden, I’m ready.”

The lights suddenly went dark in the witness room. I thought that might be part of the execution ritual, but it was a law enforcement officer who accidentally leaned on the light switch. He quickly turned the lights back on.

After the drug flowed into Gonzales, he took 6 labored deep breaths. Then he snored about 8 times, and he stopped breathing. It’s a natural comparison to say he went to sleep, but that’s not accurate. He wasn’t ushered into the sweet embrace of a restful slumber. He was delivered to the unforgiving cold void — perhaps to an afterlife, perhaps not.

This is the most extreme and brutal act that the state performs. In his 1957 essay, “Reflections on the Guillotine,” Albert Camus took an uncompromising position for the abolition of the death penalty. The French philosopher said it was worse than the crime of premeditated murder.

“For there to be an equivalency, the death penalty would have to punish a criminal who had warned his victim of the date on which he would inflict a horrible death on him and who, from that moment onward, had confined him at his mercy for months. Such a monster is not to be encountered in private life," Camus wrote.

While in Huntsville and walking toward the Walls Unit to attend Gonzales’ execution, a TV news crew from Norway approached me. The European Union is staunchly opposed to the death penalty, and its abolition is a requirement for countries to join the EU. Public opinion in Europe is also overwhelmingly against capital punishment. I had the feeling the reporter looked down on us in Texas for continuing this barbaric custom in the name of justice.

On the street corner during a hurried interview, the reporter asked me about my personal view about capital punishment. “Do you think the death penalty is right or wrong?”

And I answered, honestly, “I don’t know.” I was there as a reporter to cover the event and not to pass judgment. I was there to be the eyes for Texans, to make sure the controversial lethal injection drug worked properly and that the ultimate punishment was carried out.

Nevertheless, I do wish more care and attention were given to making absolutely certain that every person put to death in Texas is guilty and deserving of execution. This is not the case. Cameron Todd Willingham, Carlos DeLuna and Ruben Cantu are notable examples of people Texas executed who have since been regarded as innocent.

Texas is preparing to add 1 more name to the list. Robert Roberson has been assigned to die Oct. 17. The East Texas man was convicted of the shaken baby syndrome death of his 2-year old daughter Nikki. Shaken baby syndrome is largely debunked as junk science, and there is new evidence that proves she died from a high fever resulting from chronic illness.

According to the Innocence Project, Roberson’s case is riddled with unscientific evidence, inaccurate and misleading medical testimony. Furthermore, police were not aware that Roberson had autism. They interpreted his nontypical response to his daughter’s grave condition as suspicious behavior.

It must be nice for the Europeans to recline in their collective decision to absolutely reject the death penalty. But this is Texas, and frontier justice, as crude and imprecise as it is, is our inheritance.

But Texans can insist that no more innocents will be put to death in their name. When it comes to capital punishment, the criminal justice system can be toughened to reject flawed evidence, inadequate defense and politics in the courtroom. Appeals should be more open to hearing evidence of actual innocence.

(source: Commentary; David Martin Davies, San Antonio Express-News)

PENNSYLVANIA----female to face death penalty

Chester County couple who police say tortured and starved a 12-year-old were charged with murder. Prosecutors to seek the death penalty.----The Chester County District Attorney’s Office says Malinda’s father, Rendell Hoagland, and stepmother, Cindy Warren, denied the girl food and chained her to a dresser, among other abuse.

A West Caln Township couple prosecutors say tortured and starved 12-year-old Malinda Hoagland, who died after she was found malnourished and confined in her Chester County home in May, have been charged with murder and prosecutors will seek the death penalty for the pair.

Prosecutors from the Chester County District Attorney’s Office say Malinda’s father, Rendell Hoagland, and stepmother, Cindy Warren, subjected the girl to more than 2 years of relentless physical and psychological abuse, including by chaining the girl to a dresser and forcing her to perform calisthenics, and repeatedly beating her when she would falter in their West Caln Township home.

The couple denied the 12-year-old food as she wasted away to 50 pounds, prosecutors said. When the injuries to her face were too severe to hide, said Chester County District Attorney Christopher de Barrena-Sarobe, the couple would abruptly pull the girl from school.

When medics took Malinda to the hospital in May, she was “broken and barely alive,” authorities said. She had cuts and bruises on her head and chest, and at least 6 broken bones and significant damage to her liver, authorities said.

Hoagland and Warren were previously charged with attempted murder and related crimes for Malinda’s alleged abuse. Authorities on Thursday announced they would be upgrading charges against Hoagland and Warren to 1st-, 2nd-, and 3rd-degree murder charges, along with charging them with numerous related crimes.

The abundance of video evidence that catalogued the alleged abuse and medical results that showed the extent of Malinda’s physical torture solidified prosecutors’ decision to charge Hoagland and Warren with murder and to seek the death penalty for both of them, de Barrena-Sarobe said at a Thursday news conference.

The case was “truly unimaginable,” said de Barrena-Sarobe. “It’s difficult to hear. It’s trying to process.”

Malinda’s sister Emily Lee told The Inquirer she began to worry about her sister’s safety when her father met Warren through a Facebook dating app in 2019 and her concerns only grew. Warren, 45, had pleaded guilty to endangering the welfare of a child in Monroe County in 2009 after her ex-husband abused and neglected their son. The abuse in that case was similar to what Malinda endured, prosecutors said.

Warren was sentenced to 3 to 7 years in prison in that case, and was released after 3 years. Her ex-husband also pleaded guilty to killing his 2-year-old daughter from a previous relationship, and is currently serving a 25-to-50-year sentence in state prison.

Hoagland and Warren have been held in custody since their arrests in May. The couple did not receive bail.

Hoagland’s attorney, Stuart Crichton, did not return a request for comment. It was unclear whether Warren had hired an attorney.

Hoagland and Warren initially told police that Malinda had sustained her injuries after falling off a mountain bike and an accident on a water slide, police records show. Hoagland said the couple intended to take Malinda to a doctor in the Pocono Mountains when asked about his daughter’s severe emaciation, records show.

But more than 400 videos laid bare Malinda’s alleged abuse, authorities said. Footage showed Malinda often balancing books on her head for long periods of time, with either Hoagland or Warren beating her if she dropped the books, de Barrena-Sarobe said.

Some of the videos were recorded by Warren’s younger son, who was not abused, he said.

Outside the Chester County Justice Center, lawyers for Malinda’s sisters Emily Lee, Jamie Hoagland, and Abbey Hoagland said Malinda’s alleged torture and eventual death was a systemic failure, starting with Chester County’s Department of Children Youth and Families (CYF).

At least two calls to Childline, Pennyslvania’s child abuse hotline, were made, said de Barrena-Sarobe. But Hoagland and Warren lied to workers who called to check on Malinda about her condition, he said. Malinda’s sisters plan to file a civil suit against Hoagland and Warren, along with CYF, said Tom Bosworth, one of the sisters’ attorneys.

The agency, said Bosworth, should have visited and spoke with Malinda.

“They knew the child was in the home with this individual who had a record in black and white,” he said. “The child was displaying both physical and psychological signs of abuse.”

Representatives for the agency could not immediately be reached.

Malinda’s sisters, who were present at Thursday’s news conference but did not comment, had mixed feelings about prosecutors’ announcement they’d be seeking the death penalty for Hoagland and Warren, said Ally Crauthamel, one of the sisters’ attorneys.

“It’s a torn reaction,” she said. “They are very upset to hear the extreme details released today. But at the same time they want justice for Malinda.”

(source: The Philadelphia Inquirer)

******************

DA to seek death penalty in abuse, death of 12-year-old girl

New charges have been filed against the father and stepmother of a 12-year-old girl who died in May after what authorities say was years of "extensive torture and abuse."

Rendell Hoagland, 52, and Cindy Warren, 45, are now facing charges of 1st-degree, 2nd-degree and 3rd-degree murder, as well as involuntary servitude and hundreds of other offenses, said the Chester County District Attorney's Office.

The DA's office says it intends to pursue the death penalty.

The Chester County district attorney held a news conference to discuss upgraded charges against a father and stepmother in years of alleged torture and abuse that led to the death of a 12-year-old girl.

The couple, formerly of the Poconos, was initially arrested on May 6 in West Caln Township after the death of Hoagland's daughter, 12-year-old Malinda, who was found severely underweight and with about 75 individual bruises and other injuries on her body, the DA said.

Warren, who was previously convicted in a Monroe County case related to the beating death of a 2-year-old and abuse of a 4-year-old, is not married to Hoagland but lived in the home with them. Warren's biological son, who is younger than Malinda, also lived in the home but evidently was not subjected to any abuse, the DA said in a news conference Thursday streamed on WFMZ.com.

Disturbing details of the case were released in May when Hoagland and Warren were arrested and initially charged with attempted homicide, assault and other offenses, but the DA's office says the investigation has since found a "years-long pattern of extensive torture and abuse."

The DA says texts and hundreds of videos from security cameras installed in the home to watch Malinda show a "calculated and systematic method of terrorizing, manipulating and dehumanizing Malinda," the DA said in a news release.

Investigators released a timeline of the alleged years of abuse.

Malinda was shackled to furniture, beaten and subjected to forced exercise, to the extent that there was "no sign of body fat" on her, the DA said. She was forced to stand, march, hold books over her head and do pushups, sometimes for hours on end.

She was also verbally berated and often not allowed food, the DA said. She was "reprogrammed to accept abuse as part of her life," the DA said in a news conference.

Her father and stepmother often texted about hiding injuries from concerned family members and mandated reporters, like teachers, the DA said.

They often used makeup to cover up her injuries, and in one instance, she had rug burn on her face so severely that it could not be covered up and her parents kept her home from school for a month until the injury healed, officials alleged.

Malinda was pulled from in-person school in November of 2023, and attended a cyber school. The DA notes that there's no evidence that either school failed to report suspected abuse, but rather that teachers often checked in with Malinda.

The district attorney also notes that Malinda's biological mother has a severe medical condition in which she needs a caretaker, which is likely why the girl's father had full custody.

Hoagland called 911 in the early morning hours of May 4 to report that Malinda struck a tree while riding her bike. EMS and medical staff found Malinda was unconscious, severely underweight, weighing just 50 pounds, with numerous injuries and failing organs. She died in surgery later that night, officials say.

The girl's cause of death was starvation and multiple blunt force injuries, a pathologist found.

Hoagland and Warren have been behind bars since their arrest in May on $1 million bail. Since the new charges have been filed, bail has been withdrawn.

(source: WFMZ news)

OHIO:

Gurpreet Singh asks Ohio Supreme Court for stay of execution pending appeal of 4 murder convictions----The death penalty has been on hold in Ohio since 2020 on the order of Gov. Mike DeWine

Gurpreet Singh, the West Chester man sentenced to death for the 2019 slayings of his wife and 3 of her relatives, is asking the state’s top court for a stay of execution while his legal team tries to overturn his conviction, newly filed court records show.

The state is not opposing the stay pending the Ohio Supreme Court’s resolution of his direct appeal, Butler County prosecutors wrote in response.

FOX19 NOW is seeking comment from both sides and will update this story once we hear back.

A 3-judge panel put Gurpreet Singh on death row 2 months ago after convicting him of 4 counts of aggravated murder.

The trio of Butler County Common Pleas Court judges - Greg Howard, Keith Spaeth and Greg Stephens - were unanimous in both decisions.

They deliberated less than 3 hours on May 10 before agreeing Singh, 41, killed his wife, Shalinderjit Kaur, 39; her parents Parmjit Kaur, 62, and Hakiakat Singh Pannag, 59 and his wife’s aunt, Amarjit Kaur, 58.

It happened on the evening of April 28, 2019, at the Lakefront at West Chester apartment complex on Wyndtree Drive.

Singh’s financial troubles and a romantic relationship with a woman who lived out of state were possible motives for the slayings, according to prosecutors.

Singh’s 1st trial ended with a hung jury and mistrial in October 2022.

This time, he opted for a bench trial.

Because he faced the possibility of the death penalty, his fate was decided by the panel of judges, not just 1.

Taxpayers footed the bill for Singh’s legal expenses at both trials because he was declared indigent and this is a death penalty case.

And now, he is being represented by 3 attorneys from the Ohio Public Defender’s Office in Columbus.

It’s not clear if Sing’s death penalty sentence, if it is upheld, will be carried out.

Gov. Mike DeWine halted the death penalty in Ohio in December 2020.

He said there weren’t enough lethal injection drugs available unless state lawmakers picked an alternative execution method.

So far, they have not.

Ohio’s death penalty law was enacted in 1981.

The last prisoner put to death in Ohio was a local man, Robert Van Hook, 58, of Sharonville.

He was executed on July 18, 2018, more than 30 years after murdering a man he met in a bar in downtown Cincinnati in what prosecutors say was a particularly vicious and gruesome slaying.

There are 119 death row inmates right now in Ohio with a combined 121 death sentences pending throughout the state, according to the “2023 Capital Crimes Report” from the Ohio Attorney General’s Office.

From 1981 through Dec. 31, 2023, the report says, 336 people have received a combined 341 death sentences.

Of those, only 56 sentences – just 1 in every 6 – have been carried out.

On average in Ohio, a condemned inmate spends more than 21 years on death row – mostly due to the numerous avenues for appeal – before an execution date is set, according to the report.

The reluctance of pharmaceutical suppliers to provide lethal injection drugs for executions also contributes to delays.

In January, Attorney General Dave Yost and 2 lawmakers proposed a solution to the drug impasse, announcing legislation to permit the use of nitrogen hypoxia as an alternative to lethal injection.

The announcement followed the Jan. 25 execution in Alabama of murderer Kenneth Eugene Smith – the 1st time that a state used nitrogen, a colorless and odorless gas, in an execution.

“No criminal penalty – capital or otherwise – should carry an empty promise of justice,” Yost said in a news release last month.

“Ohioans on both sides of the death penalty debate can agree that our current system of capital punishment is unworkable, and something needs to change.”

A bipartisan mix of lawmakers have proposed various legislation over the years to abolish the death penalty and replace it with a life sentence without the possibility of parole, most recently Senate Bill 101 and House Bill 259.

Support is waning for the death penalty in the state, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio.

But so far no bill has passed both the House and the Senate and made it to Gov. DeWine’s desk.

Ohio juries haven’t returned a death sentence in 3 years and recent polls indicate most Ohioans favor other sentencing options, the ACLU said in a news release earlier this year.

(source: WXIX news)

INDIANA:

Indiana man found competent for trial in police officer's killing----An Indiana judge says a man accused of killing a police officer during a traffic stop can stand trial

An Indiana judge has found a man accused of fatally shooting a young police officer during a traffic stop competent to stand trial in the death penalty case.

One doctor concluded that Carl Roy Webb Boards II “is not just competent, he is very competent,” the judge noted.

The order from Madison County Circuit Court Judge Andrew Hopper Tuesday cited evaluations from 3 doctors who evaluated Boards, and noted that all agree the Anderson man is competent to stand trial in the killing of Elwood police Officer Noah Shahnavaz.

Defense attorneys had argued that their client was incompetent because he believed his lawyers caused him to receive unfavorable treatment in jail, but Hopper wrote that “disagreement with or dislike of counsel or declining counsel’s help does not render the defendant incompetent.”

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty if Boards, 44, is convicted of murder, resisting law enforcement and unlawful possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon in the shooting of Shahnavaz, 24, during a July 2022 traffic stop in Elwood, northeast of Indianapolis.

Shahnavaz was shot through the windshield, before he could exit his police cruiser during the early morning traffic stop. He had joined the Elwood Police Department about 11 months earlier.

Hopper also rejected Boards' request for a venue change, ordering the trial to start in September 2025 in Madison County, with jurors from neighboring Delaware County.

(source: Associated Press)

MISSOURI:

Racial justice groups say Wesley Bell falls short on promise----Prosecutor refutes report, questions its timing

Several racial justice organizations claimed this week through a report that the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office is not keeping its progressive promises to the community.

Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell said the organizations that released the report “was complimentary of my work,” before he chose to challenge Congresswoman Cori Bush for the 1st Congressional District Democratic nomination.

The 43-page St. Louis County Prosecutor Watch report focused on 5 areas including transparency, charging decisions, pretrial detention decisions, conviction and sentencing and commitment to alternatives. It also provides recommendations for the office to help improve its legal system.

The justice groups that make up the Prosecutor Organizing Table include ArchCity Defenders, Action St. Louis, Forward Through Ferguson, Freedom Community Center, Missourians to Abolish the Death Penalty, Organization for Black Struggle, and Roderick & Solange MacArthur Justice Center.

The team released the report to hold prosecuting attorney offices in the area accountable for the promises that were made to the community during the prosecutor’s campaign.

“It is just as a general principle for an elected official, the expectation is always to be transparent,” said Mike Milton, founder of Freedom Community Center.

“If we don’t have that information, then there’s no way to know how that office is functioning.”

In a statement to the St. Louis American, Bell said, “As St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney, I have worked with police and community partners to protect people from violence while expanding access to treatment for those who need help. I have made the most of limited resources to build the public’s trust in prosecution by holding police and prosecutors accountable for misconduct and ending the death penalty.”

“The agenda of Prosecutor Watch is to defund the police and prosecutors, yet prior to my run for congress, this group was complimentary of my work and we found common ground around which to collaborate.”

The justice groups that make up the Prosecutor Organizing Table include ArchCity Defenders, Action St. Louis, Forward Through Ferguson, Freedom Community Center, Missourians to Abolish the Death Penalty, Organization for Black Struggle, and Roderick & Solange MacArthur Justice Center.

Bell stated “Many of this group (if not all) have endorsed my opponent for Congress who refuses to debate these issues with me in a public forum as requested by numerous impartial news outlets and community groups.”

The group began collecting data from St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell’s office in August 2022. They presented the office with questions such as whether the office keeps a “Brady List” or an officer exclusion list, whether the office seeks the death penalty, how long are people detained in jail, how frequently the office recommends concurrent sentences vs. consecutive sentences and what efforts Bell’s office has made to develop relationships with social service organizations.

The report also offers responses to the entire list of questions posed to the office. Bell responded to some of the group’s questions, a few were listed as partial responses, and others he did not answer.

Members of the Prosecutor Organizing Table said while collecting data there were periods of time where Bell’s office made it difficult to receive some of the requested information.

William Waller, ArchCity Defenders’ managing attorney for direct representation of criminal and municipal, was able to receive internal database reports by charge type, which he said was helpful to the report. However, there were reports that the office could not run.

“It became clear that sort of a routine assessment of their charging practices was not a priority … it should be something that is freely publicly available,” he said.

In an earlier statement, Bell said he is proud of the work he has done in St. Louis County as a progressive prosecutor and will continue to do more for the community.

“I was the first prosecutor in Missouri to refuse to prosecute abortion cases, I implemented a first-of-its-kind diversion program to help keep nonviolent offenders out of jail and get them on a better path, and I’ve fought to overturn wrongful convictions,” Bell said.

“I respect the work of organizations in the St. Louis community that are committed to criminal justice reform, and agree that there is more work to be done, which is why I’ll work to get progressive results for the St. Louis region in Congress.”

The report finds the county jail population is nearing the same level as it was in 2018, the last year of former county prosecutor Bob McCulloch’s term.

“The last time we checked it was about 3% less,” Milton said. “That points to … possibly prosecutorial discretion around recommendations of bond, how he charges, what he charges and how and what he is doing to reduce the jail population.”

Members acknowledge that they have seen some improvement since Bell assumed the prosecutor’s role. They are grateful for his decision to not seek the death penalty, how he is reducing the amount of child support prosecutions and limiting prosecuting some misdemeanor charges. However, they say more work is needed to reform the courts and its legal system.

The group hopes the prosecutor’s office finds the report useful to help those who are deeply impacted by the county’s legal system and that families see this as not just data points, but to learn more about the prosecutorial system.

Bell said 1st Congressional District “deserve to hear where the candidates stand.”

“My opponent refusing to answer questions and hiding behind this group is disingenuous and does a grave disservice to this community. I am proud to run on my record of doing justice in St. Louis County, and I look forward to continuing to collaborate with all of our community stakeholders.”

The Prosecutor Organizing Table will release a report on the city’s prosecutor’s office this fall.

(source: The St. Louis American)

UTAH----death sentence overturned

Utah Supreme Court overturns Doug Lovell's death sentence over religious talk at trial

The Utah Supreme Court has overturned the death sentence of Doug Lovell over discussion of religion and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at his sentencing.

In a ruling issued Thursday, the Court declined to overturn Lovell's murder conviction. But in a unanimous decision, the justices ordered a new sentencing.

"We agree that Lovell did not receive the representation the United States Constitution guarantees him. Lovell’s two attorneys provided ineffective assistance when they failed to object to, among other things, testimony regarding Lovell’s excommunication from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints," Associate Chief Justice John Pearce wrote. "This prejudiced Lovell’s ability to have a fair sentencing hearing."

Lovell was convicted of the 1985 murder of Joyce Yost. He was accused of killing her to prevent her from testifying against him for kidnapping and raping her. Yost's body has never been found.

Lovell originally pleaded guilty the day his original trial was to begin. He promised to lead police to her body, which he claimed was in Ogden Canyon. He was then sentenced to die and appealed. In 2011, the Utah Supreme Court ruled he had not been properly advised of his trial rights and overturned his conviction. He went on trial all over again in 2015 and was convicted and sentenced to execution.

It was during that sentencing hearing that religion came up. Specifically, Lovell's involvement in prison with lay clergy for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who volunteered at the prison. They testified about Lovell's attempts to reform himself and how he was a model prisoner. But it was prosecutors who asked witnesses Mormon doctrinal questions, like if Lovell had been excommunicated from the faith.

"We agree that reasonable counsel would have recognized both the problems with this testimony and its potential to invite the jury to base its decision on something other than its own assessment of Lovell. And we agree that reasonable counsel would have done something—either object to the entire line of questioning, seek curative instructions, or move for a mistrial—to protect their client," Justice Pearce wrote.

The Court declared that "by inserting a religious test for remorse into the proceedings, the State gave the jury a way out of making a decision that is difficult for any person to make about another: whether a defendant has truly changed. The State offered jurors an off-ramp by intimating that it could use readmission to Church membership as a gauge for whether Lovell was actually remorseful and had changed his ways."

Justice Pearce added later in the ruling: "The prejudicial nature of [witness] testimony is even more acute considering our State’s religious demographics," referencing that at the time of his sentencing, a majority of Utahns identified as members of the LDS Church.

The Utah Attorney General's Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Lovell's attorney, Colleen Coebergh told FOX 13 News she had not yet spoken with her client and so she had no comment. Yost's children, who have attended hearings in the past, did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment on the Utah Supreme Court's decision.

The Utah Supreme Court sent the case back to a lower-court for a new sentencing. It is unclear if Lovell could be re-sentenced to death or if a judge will instead impose a life sentence.

It's not the first time the LDS Church has been a focus of the death penalty case. In 2019, FOX 13 News reported Lovell sought another trial accusing the faith of interfering in his case by refusing to allow a group of bishops who ministered at the prison to testify on his behalf. One suggested he broke ranks to testify anyway and a judge ruled the Church didn't interfere in the case.

(source: Fox News)

****************

Utah should spare Taberon Honie, and end the death penalty once and for all----Globally, the death penalty is a sign of backwardness.

The question before the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole is a narrow one. Should Taberon Honie, convicted and sentenced to death in the 1998 murder of his ex-girlfriend’s mother, be spared the ultimate punishment?

Honie’s case is strong and the board would demonstrate great humanity by granting his petition.

The man’s whole life up to that horrible day was a tale of abuse and neglect, alcohol and drugs, seriously impairing his judgment and his ability to control himself. He admits the crime, though he says he does not clearly remember it, shows great remorse and now pleads only to be spared the death penalty. In part because his daughter, who has already lost her grandmother, does not want to lose her father as well.

Honie does not expect to ever be released from prison. He claims, reasonably, not to be a threat to anyone ever again.

The question before the rest of us, not within the purview of the pardons board, is a larger one. Does the death penalty have a place in a civilized society?

It does not.

There is no reason to suppose that it is a useful deterrent to crime. Nearly half the states — 23, plus the District of Columbia — have abolished capital punishment. In another 6, governors have halted executions indefinitely.

Globally, the death penalty is a sign of backwardness. It is forbidden across the 27 nations of the European Union in accordance with the European Convention on Human Rights. Most nations that allow, and most often use, capital punishment — China, Saudi Arabia, Iran — are not places most of us would consider good examples of how to dispense justice.

Americans have tried for generations to pretend we can make executions clean and tidy, minimally painful to those put to death and not disturbing to the rest of us. We have pushed executions from gruesome displays in the public square to private, seemingly clinical, events behind closed doors.

The result has been placing upon honest and dutiful public servants the gruesome responsibility of scrounging around for the best drugs to kill someone with. That is an ever-more-difficult task, as pharmaceutical companies resist having their life-extending and life-improving products being put to life-ending purposes.

Even if Utahns have no sympathy for the condemned, we should show more care for the public employees — attorneys and administrators, guards and clerks — whose psyche cannot help but be damaged by even the most tangential participation in the workings of death. And we should remember that all of us, in whose name and with whose money our government acts, are sullied by the cold-blooding killing of now-pathetic human beings.

There was a serious attempt in the 2021 session of the Utah Legislature to end the death penalty. It fell short, despite sponsors’ valid argument that state imposition of the ultimate penalty is not in keeping with our state’s limited-government conservatism.

Other relatives of Honie’s victim implored the pardons board to allow the execution, now set for August 8, to proceed. It was, they argued, time to “just get this over.”

Understandable.

But a decision to commute Honie’s sentence to life in prison would also put an end to this story. There would be no more proceedings and no more wondering.

Better, legislative action to end the death penalty in Utah, ending such cases with life sentences, would mean no more legal dance macabre in our state.

(source: Salt Lake Tribune Editorial Board)

MALAWI:

Minister of Justice, Honorable Titus Mvalo

Ministry of Justice

Capital Hill Lilongwe Malawi

Monday, 22 July 2024

Subject: Joint Open Letter to the Minister of Justice of Malawi on the abolition of the death penalty

Dear Minister of Justice, Honorable Titus Mvalo

Ahead of this joint letter, the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty would like to express its deepest condolences to the Government and people of Malawi for the passing of Vice President Mr. Saulos Chilima on 11 June 2024.

The World Coalition Against the Death Penalty is an alliance of more than 170 NGOs, bar associations, local authorities, and unions, whose aim is to strengthen the international dimension of the fight against the death penalty. The last few years have been marked by many advances in the abolitionist movement at the global level. This abolitionist momentum is particularly evident on the African continent. In recent years, fourteen African States have abolished the death penalty for all crimes: Rwanda in 2007, Togo and Burundi in 2009, Gabon in 2010, Benin in 2012, Congo and Madagascar in 2015, Guinea in 2016, Burkina Faso in 2018, Chad in 2020, Sierra Leone in 2021, and Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea for ordinary crimes, and Zambia in 2022. In 2023, Ghana adopted a law to abolish the death penalty for ordinary crimes. Today, 27 out of 55 African Union Member States have abolished the death penalty in law and 15 States have a de jure or de facto moratorium on executions.

The steps that the Republic of Malawi have recently taken in view of abolition of the death penalty have been commendable. In this regard, we at the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty note the progressive decision by His Excellency Dr. Lazarus Chakwera, President of the Republic, to commute all death sentences in Malawi to life imprisonment in 2022. We are further pleased to note that since His Excellency the President’s clearance of the death row through clemency, no Malawian court has sentenced anyone to death, ensuring that at the writing of this letter, Malawi’s death row remains empty.

The World Coalition Against the Death Penalty and 67 other co-signing organizations are impressed to note that in 2022, the Parliamentary Legal Affairs Committee organized public consultations on the use of the death penalty, resulting in an overwhelming majority supporting abolition. We understand that this extensive consultative process was followed by another nationwide enquiry on the same topic, led by the Minister of Justice in January of 2023. We note that the majority of the delegates to this public enquiry also supported your Ministry’s plans to abolish capital punishment in Malawi. At the end of last year, the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty partnered with the non-governmental organization Reprieve and the Parliament of Malawi in a highly successful engagement involving the women’s caucus of Parliament. At this event, women law-makers in Malawi decisively endorsed abolition and pledged their support for an abolition bill if it were to be brought to Parliament.

It is against this background that the World Coalition is certain that Malawi is ready to abolish capital punishment once and for all. Drawing on its observation of successful abolitionist movements across the African continent, that notably includes Zambia (who engaged in a learning-based exchange with Malawi officials in October 2023 on the importance of abolition), the World Coalition and its member organizations believe that the Malawian Government, through the Ministry of Justice, holds the key to abolition; initiating a government bill to abolish the death penalty.

Taking decisive action on abolition will reaffirm Malawi’s position as a leader in the respect, protection, and promotion of human rights both in Africa and the world at large. Abolition will also go a long way towards securing Malawi’s place as a leader in criminal justice reform on the African continent and allow Malawi to join her neighbours who have led in the region on the abolition of the death penalty. Importantly, abolition at this time will also reflect well upon Malawi’s status as a member of the Human Rights Council and will cement the current Government’s legacy of commitment to the rule of law and the promotion of human rights. With the desire to build on this positive momentum towards abolition in Malawi, the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty and the following 67 cosigning organizations look forward to progress in your country’s next parliamentary session that may include a government bill to abolish the death penalty.

Yours sincerely,

Matthew Goldberg

President of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty

Letter co-signed by:

1. A World Without Chemical & Biological Weapons- WWW (Iraq- Kurdistan)

2. Abolition Death Penalty of Iraq Organization (Iraq)

3. Action by Christians for the Abolition of Torture Congo- ACAT (Congo)

4. Action by Christians for the Abolition of Torture Germany- ACAT (Germany)

5. Action by Christians for the Abolition of Torture Ghana- ACAT (Ghana)

6. Anfal Story’s Organization (Iraq- Kurdistan)

7. Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network- ADPAN

8. Association of Defending the Anfal Victims & their Families (Iraq- Kurdistan)

9. Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (Malawi)

10. Capital Punishment Justice Project- CPJP (Australia/ International)

11. Center for Prisoners’ Rights- CPR (Japan)

12. Centre d’Observation des Droits de l’homme et d’Assistance Sociale- CODHAS (DRC)

13. Centre for Human Rights Education, Advice and Assistance (Malawi)

14. Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (Malawi)

15. Children Education Society- CHESO (Tanzania)

16. Coalition of Somali Human Rights Defenders- CSHRDS (Somalia)

17. Communità du Sant’Egidio (International)

18. Community of Sant’Egidio (Branch in Malawi)

19. Congolese Coalition against the Death Penalty (Republic of the Congo)

20. Cornell Center on Death Penalty Worldwide (USA/ International)

21. Death Penalty Focus- DPA (USA)

22. Ditshwanelo- The Botswana Centre for Human Rights (Botswana)

23. Droits et Paix (Cameroon)

24. Foundation for Human Rights Initiative- FHRI (Uganda)

25. German Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty- GCADP (Germany)

26. Halabja Chemical Victim’s Society (Iraq- Kurdistan)

27. Hope Behind Bars Africa (Nigeria)

28. Human Rights Dallas (USA)

29. Humanity Diaspo (France)

30. International Association of Lawyers- UIA (International)

31. Italian Federation for Human Rights- FIDU (Italy)

32. Ivory Coast Human Rights League- LIDHO (Ivory Coast)

33. Just Detention International- JDI-SA (South Africa)

34. Kenya Human Rights Commission (Kenya)

35. Kurdistan Without Genocide (Iraq- Kurdistan)

36. Kurdpa Human Rights Organization (Iran)

37. Kurdish Organizations Network Coalition for the International Criminal Court- KONCICC (Iraq- Kurdistan)

38. Lembaga Bantuan Hukum Masyarakat- Community Legal Aid Institute (Indonesia)

39. Life Campaign to Abolish the Death Sentence in Kurdistan (Iraq- Kurdistan)

40. Manawa Organization for Martyrs & Anfal’s Inquiry (Iraq- Kurdistan)

41. Network of Human Rights Organizations and Activists for the Abolition of the death penalty- RADHOMA (DRC)

42. Burundi Prison Observatory- Observatoire Burundais des Prisons (Burundi)

43. Organization Against Torture in Tunisia (Organisation contre la torture en Tunisie) (Tunisia)

44. Organization Against Weapons of Mass Destruction in Kurdistan (Iraq- Kurdistan)

45. Organization of Defending Mass Graves Victims’ Rights (Iraq- Kurdistan)

46. Organization of the Justice Campaign (Iraq- Kurdistan)

47. Paralegal Advisory Service Institute (Malawi)

48. Paris Bar Association (France/ International)

49. Parliamentarians for Global Action- PGA (International)

50. Pax Christi Uvira absl (DRC)

51. Penal Reform International- PRI (International)

52. Prisoner's Future Foundation- PFF (Zambia)

53. Reprieve (International)

54. Rescue Alternatives Liberia – RAL (Liberia)

55. SALAM for Democracy and Human Rights (Bahrain)

56. Southern Methodist University Human Rights Program (USA)

57. Syndicat National des Agents de la Formation de l’Education du Niger- SYNAFEN (Niger)

58. Transitional Justice Working Group- TJWG (South Korea)

59. The Advocates for Human Rights (USA/ International)P> 60. The International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute- IBARHI (International)

61. The Kenyan Section of the International Commission of Jurists (Kenya)

62. Think Centre (Singapore)

63. Together Against the Death Penalty- ECPM (France/ International)

64. Topzawa: A Magazine Specialized in Genocide and Anfal Issues (Iraq- Kurdistan)

65. Tunisian Coalition Against the Death Penalty (Tunisia)

66. Youth and Society (Malawi)

67. Witness to Innocence (USA)

(source: World Coalition Against the Death Penalty)

BELARLUS:

German sentenced to death in Belarus asks for pardon on TV----A German citizen who was sentenced to death in Belarus has asked Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko for mercy in a video broadcast on state television.

A 30-year-old German man sentenced to death in Belarus asked for pardon from President Alexander Lukashenko on Thursday in a television appearance.

"I really hope that President Lukashenko will forgive me and pardon me. I deeply regret what I did and I am relieved that there were no victims," Rico Krieger said on Belarusian public television, as per Russian news agency TASS. He also added that he felt he had been "abandoned" by the German government.

"I regret every single second. I can count myself lucky that no one was killed or injured. Thank God," he said.

Several human rights organizations have called on Belarus not to carry out the execution.

What is Krieger accused of?

He said Ukraine had asked him to photograph Belarusian military sites last year. Krieger was also accused of putting an explosive device on a railway line in Minsk.

The Viasna Human Rights Center said he had been convicted under six articles of the criminal code, including terrorism. A trial was held in June in secretive conditions. The verdict was made public only a month later.

The organization also said Krieger had been employed as a security officer with the US embassy in Berlin and worked as a medic for the Red Cross, according to his LinkedIn profile.

The German embassy in Minsk was "providing the person in question with consular services and are making intensive representations to the Belarusian authorities on his behalf," a source at the German Foreign Ministry told AFP news agency last week.

The source also added that Germany rejected the death penalty as a form of punishment under any circumstances.

The death penalty is legal in Belarus, and the country has carried out about 400 executions since gaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. However, executions of foreign citizens are very unusual.

Recently, Lukashenko's government has cracked down on dissent and protest, and detained thousands who speak up against him.

(source: dw.com)

IRAQ:

Kurdistan has nearly 500 inmates on death row

The Kurdistan Region has 466 inmates with pending death sentences, their fate uncertain, according to data from Kurdistan’s correctional facilities.

“Those who have execution sentences, their fate remains undetermined. If the execution is not carried out, their sentence will not be shortened or changed,” Aram Gardi, Kurdistan Bar Association spokesperson, told Rudaw on Wednesday.

Courts in the Kurdistan Region issue death sentences but the government has a de facto moratorium on carrying out executions. The 466 inmates on death row are neither executed nor given a new sentence, leaving their fate unclear. Legal experts have criticized this method, saying it creates a legal gap.

According to latest data from the Kurdistan Region Directorate of Corrections, 5,563 inmates are in their 6 correctional facilities - 3 for male prisoners and 3 for women and juvenile pretrial detainees and prisoners.

“Among those who have been sentenced, 1,386 are for [charges related to] narcotics and the number has increased a lot compared to before,” Ihsan Abdulrahman, head of the corrections directorate told Rudaw on Wednesday.

Kurdish security forces have arrested more than 1,000 people on drug-related charges this year, with more than half of them in Sulaimani, which is the largest province by area and population in the Kurdistan Region, according to the Kurdistan Region Statistics Office.

Last October, Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani said that the region is “seriously and widely working to eradicate and combat” the threat of drugs, calling on Kurdish and international communities to cooperate with Erbil to eliminate what he described an “endemic” problem.

Since the rise of the Islamic State (ISIS) in 2014, thousands of people have been detained across Iraq for suspected links to terrorist groups, including ISIS, while hundreds have been executed in extrajudicial processes - to the dismay of human rights organizations.

Iraq was the 4th country in the Middle East and North Africa region for the number of executions carried out in 2022, according to an Amnesty International report released in May. Only Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Iran recorded more executions than Iraq in the region in 2022.

(source: rudaw.net)

IRAN----execution

Iran hangs final defendant in 2008 case after 'unfair trial': NGOs

Iranian authorities on Thursday executed Kurdish man Kamran Sheikheh, the last surviving defendant in a case linked to a Muslim cleric's killing in 2008, rights groups said.

Sheikheh, 1 of 7 men first arrested in the case more than 14 years ago, was put to death in Urmia prison in northwestern Iran, the Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) and US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said in separate statements.

Sheikheh's 6 co-defendants, also members of Iran's Kurdish minority, had all been executed in separate hangings since November 2023.

Amnesty International has said they had been sentenced to death "in a grossly unfair trial" that had been "marred by allegations of torture and other ill-treatment".

The 7 were convicted on the capital crime of corruption on earth.

IHR described Sheikheh as a "political prisoner" who had been sentenced to death "based on torture-tainted confessions in a grossly unfair trial".

The execution "was unlawful according to international law and the Islamic republic's own laws, amounting to an extrajudicial killing," said IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam.

HRANA said that the proceedings related to the killing of an imam of a mosque in the northwestern city of Mahabad in September 2008.

Sheikheh and the 6 others were arrested in connection with the killing in January and February 2010 and sentenced to death in 2018.

Activists say that Iran's use of the death penalty disproportionately targets members of the Kurdish and Baluch ethnic minorities in western and southeast Iran, who generally adhere to the Sunni strain of Islam rather than the Shiism otherwise dominant in Iran.

In one of the latest cases, rights groups said the Revolutionary Court of Tehran had sentenced Pakhshan Azizi, a Kurdish woman held in the capital's Evin prison, to death on charges of "rebellion".

Earlier this month, Iranian authorities have sentenced to death another Kurdish woman, Sharifeh Mohammadi, on the same charges over accusations of links to an outlawed Kurdish organisation.

IHR warned that Sheikheh's execution is part of a new surge in hangings in Iran marking the end of an apparent lull coinciding with snap presidential elections several weeks ago.

The rights group said at least 20 people have been executed since Saturday.

(source: Agence France-Presse)

****************

60 women at Tehran's Evin Prison protest death sentence of fellow inmate

60 female political prisoners at Tehran’s Evin Prison staged an overnight sit-in on Wednesday to protest the recent death sentence of fellow inmate, Pakhshan Azizi.

The Instagram accounts of Nobel Laureate Narges Mohammadi, Iranian civil rights activist Golrokh Iraee, and German-Iranian rights activist Nahid Taghavi jointly announced that Evin's women unanimously demand the annulment of the Iranian-Kurdish political prisoner's death sentence.

The political prisoners at Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj also stated solidarity, condemning the "violation of the right to life of the Iranian people by the execution machine of the Islamic Republic."

They emphasized that resistance and protest against repression and executions would continue unabated. They urged international human rights organizations to address the new wave of executions.

Since the establishment of the Islamic Republic, Iran's Kurdish minority has experienced significant persecution. The rights organization Hengaw reports that during the first half of 2024, Iran executed at least 266 people as part of an ongoing execution spree. Of those executed, 72 were Kurds, Iran's largest minority.

Azizi is the second woman in the past month sentenced to death for "armed rebellion," following labor activist Sharifeh Mohammadi. The Hengaw Human Rights Organization which focuses on Iran's oppressed Kurdish minority, reported that Azizi was deprived of legal counsel and family visits for months, denying her a fair trial.

Hengaw published a letter from Azizi detailing torture and hanging during her detention. Authorities have also refused her family contact for the past 2 weeks.

The death sentence for labor activist Sharifeh Mohammadi, convicted on fabricated charges of armed rebellion, was announced a day before Masoud Pezeshkian's victory in the July 5 presidential runoff. The Campaign to Defend Mohammadi, initiated by her family on Instagram, argues the sentence is unjust based on her decade-old membership in a legal labor organization.

In early July, the Norway-based Iran Human Rights Organization (IHRNGO) warned of a probable surge in executions following the Iranian presidential election.

Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the director of IHRNGO, noted that Iranian authorities historically decrease executions "to encourage participation in the elections," only to increase them afterward sharply. He urged both the international community and the Iranian public to brace for and appropriately respond to this potential wave of executions.

Amnesty International's annual report on the death penalty, released in May, highlighted Iran's rising execution rates, revealing that nearly 74% of all recorded executions worldwide last year occurred in Iran.

The report found that the Iranian government has intensified its use of the death penalty following the Mahsa movement to "instil fear among the people and tighten its grip on power."

(source: iranintl.com)

JULY 25, 2024:

TEXAS----impending execution

Stop the Execution of Arthur Burton in Texas

Arthur Burton is scheduled for execution in Texas on August 7, 2024 for the 1997 murder of Nancy Adleman.

Arthur Burton, 47, has been on death row since 1998 for the rape and killing of Houston jogger Nancy Adleman, a mother of 3. Burton has lost all of his initial and subsequent appeals. His 1998 death sentence was vacated and he was sentenced to death again in 2002. He expressed deep remorse directly to the victim's family at his sentencing.

Texas' aggressive execution schedule marks it as an outlier in its use of the death penalty while the majority of other states are on a downward trend of executions. In the last few years, Texas has been one of only a handful of states that have carried out death sentences - and it continues to do so targeting the poor, the mentally ill and people of color.

Please sign the petition asking Governor Abbott and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to do everything within their power to stop this execution, including issuing a stay, and seeking a path to clemency in the case.

see: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/stop-the-execution-of-arthur-burton-in-texas/?link_id=1&can_id=d7ae93eebfc0128cd15585c7ed4a6fba&source=email-utah-execution-two-weeks-from-thursday&email_referrer=email_2397288&email_subject=two-weeks-from-today-and-thursday

Additionally, you may reach out now to the Board at bpp_clemency@tdcj.texas.gov and the Governor at https://gov.texas.gov/contact/and (512) 463-1782. You can simply leave a voice message, or choose to speak to a representative if you prefer.

Please note: In Texas, the Governor does have limited power when it comes to the death penalty. But the story we are told that "it's out of the governor's hands," is only true if we allow it to be. Yes, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles must recommend clemency in that state in order for the Governor to grant clemency (mercy) by commuting a death sentence. But the fact is that the governor appoints the members of the Board of Pardons and Paroles. He can choose to appoint members who will take valid claims and concerns more seriously, instead of acting like rubber-stamping gate-keepers. He can still use his position of power and influence to enact justice in the State of Texas

(source: Death Penalty Action)

******************

One activist’s decades-long fight to end the death penalty----What began as a personal struggle for her brother’s freedom became a battle against systemic forces.

We recently heard from Delia Perez Meyer, whose brother Louis Castro Perez was sentenced to death in 1999 for the brutal murders of 2 women and 1 girl. He was never executed, but Perez died in May while still on death row. Perez maintained his innocence until his last breath.

After Perez’s conviction, Meyer became a staunch death penalty abolitionist, working with groups like Texas After Violence Project and Witness to Innocence. Although her brother is gone, Meyer continues to fight for his exoneration and the end of the death penalty.

Her brother’s conviction left her with a sense of obligation toward the death penalty abolition movement, but Meyer first had to work through her own grief.

“I just couldn’t believe that this was happening to him and to our family,” Meyer said. “It took me almost two years to get up and start the fight.”

Meyer and her fellow abolitionists have personally witnessed many executions over the last 25 years. But, she said, they have also had success stopping some executions. At least some of that success can be attributed to former death row inmates who became activists after their exoneration.

With the activist group Witness to Innocence, Meyer worked alongside death row exonerees like Shujaa Graham, Gary Drinkard and Ron Keine. Meyer said standing with exonerees gave her the strength to speak publicly about her brother. They shared stories of innocence and wrongful convictions at rallies and in the halls of state legislatures.

Although the death penalty remains legal in Texas, a lot has changed since Meyer began her activist work. A 2021 University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll found that 63 % of registered voters support the death penalty. That number was down from 78 % in 2010 when the poll started.

Nationwide executions spiked in 1999, the same year Perez was sentenced. That year, 98 people were executed. The number of yearly executions has trended down since then, bottoming out at 11 in 2021.

Throughout her time as a death penalty abolitionist, Meyer has maintained lasting friendships with other death row inmates’ families. Their shared grief bonds them together as a community and fuels their activism.

3 brothers, Gavin, Nick and Nathan Been, started the activist group, Kids Against the Death Penalty in honor of their uncle, death row inmate Jeffery Wood. As kids, the Been brothers accompanied their mother Terry to marches and demonstrations against the death penalty. That’s where they first met Meyer.

“They were just knee-high to a grasshopper, but they were out there with us, holding signs,” Meyer said.

As the years passed, those boys became men.

“To see those little kids grow up, graduate from high school, go to college, they’ve been married and now they’re having children and their uncle is still on death row,” Meyer said.

“That is my motivation.”

Meyer said there is 1 question that people often ask her at anti-death penalty demonstrations: If one of her children were murdered, would she want the murderer to face the death penalty? She admits that it’s a difficult idea to wrestle with. Even though her brother’s claims to innocence inspired her activism, Meyer believes the death penalty is an immoral punishment even for those who are legitimately guilty.

“Whether they did it or didn’t do it, that’s not an issue,” Meyer said. “We’re either going to stop killing our own citizens, or we’re not.”

*****************

Advocacy groups work to keep people with intellectual disabilities off of death row----In a recently filed brief, the Arc of the United States and other groups prod the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to abide by Supreme Court precedent.

Blaine Milam is an East Texas man who’s on death row for the 2008 beating death of 13-month-old Amora Carson. Milam was scheduled to be executed back in 2021, but a Texas appeals court granted a request to stay his execution; his lawyers argued he displayed significant limitations in intellectual functioning.

Back in 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court barred the execution of people with intellectual disabilities, though it gave states some discretion to decide how to determine such disabilities. Last week, the Arc, a disability rights advocacy group, was among several organizations filing a “friend-of-the-court” brief with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

Shira Wakschlag, legal director for the Arc of the United States, joined the Standard with more.

This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:

Texas Standard: Tell us about what this brief is urging the court to do here.

Shira Wakschlag: So the Arc’s advocacy led to the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling more than 20 years ago that you mentioned that bars the execution of defendants with intellectual disability. But too often, outdated stereotypes and misconceptions are leading to unjust outcomes, particularly in these capital cases.

So the Arc, alongside our partners, are fighting to ensure that courts are relying on clinical standards, as the Supreme Court requires, to ensure that people with intellectual disability are properly identified and protected from execution

When you say clinical standards, what are the legal standards for making that determination currently?

So the Supreme Court has barred people with intellectual disability from execution. It’s cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment. To determine intellectual disability, there’s a 3-prong standard and we talk about this extensively in the brief.

To sum it up, the 3 prongs are determining significant impairment and intellectual functioning, significant impairment in adaptive functioning and conceptual, social and/or practical skills; and then the 3rd prong is the onset of the disability during the individual’s developmental period.

And so there can be a number of ways to determine each of those pieces. Some of it may come from a doctor’s note. Some of it may come from an IQ score. Some of it may come from records during the developmental period – for example, school records or psychological records.

And so it’s really a comprehensive look at the individual’s overall development and really taking into account each of these three prongs: intellectual, adaptive: and age of onset.

We’ve been talking about the legal theory behind what this amicus brief is calling for. But I’m curious about Blaine Milam’s situation in this case. Was intellectual disability a factor at his trial?

Absolutely. This is an interesting case because he was actually already determined to have intellectual disability. But then the state’s evaluator brought in a second expert who used a partial IQ score rather than the full score that’s required by clinical standards.

By using a partial IQ score, the state’s second expert determined that Blaine Milam did not have intellectual disability. And so the brief is urging the court to really go back to rely on well-established clinical standards rather than using partial scores.

Another issue with the state’s 2nd state evaluator was misusing clinical judgment and relying upon isolated strengths, such as reading ability, to rule out the possibility that Mr. Milam may have intellectual disability. But people with intellectual disability have both strengths and weaknesses. And so one isolated strength does not determine that an individual does not have an intellectual disability diagnosis.

Why file this amicus brief now? What is the posture of the case, and what are we looking at in terms of a timeline?

So the reason now is because the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals is going to be making its ultimate determination on Mr. Milam’s habeas petition. And it is the 1st time that this 2nd expert’s assessment which does not comport with clinical standards is before the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

So even though this case has been back and forth, this is the 1st time this court is reviewing this new, expert report. And it is our opinion that this expert report does not comport with clinical standards. And so it is critical that the Arc and our partners give guidance to the court on why this new expert opinion should not be considered and does not comply with Supreme Court precedent.

If the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals agrees with the case that you’re making here, what does this mean more broadly?

Well, it simply reaffirms what is already very well established in many cases in Supreme Court precedent, which is that it’s critical that courts rely on clinical standards and not their own modes of diagnosis of intellectual disability. They have to rely on well-established standards. And it’s not acceptable for courts to make up their own standards on what it means to have intellectual disability.

So while it may be true that there is some discretion that the court left to the states, the court continues to affirm year after year, case after case, that it is absolutely critical that these well-established standards be relied on. It’s critical that groups like the Arc and our partners in the disability community really remind the court what that means and how to make sure that they’re complying with Supreme Court precedent.

(source for both: texasstandard.org)

SOUTH CAROLINA:

South Carolina death row inmate resentenced to life in prison as sheriff warns 'he'll kill again'----Quincy Allen killed 4 people in 2002 and was sentenced to death for 2 of the slayings. A federal court overturned his death sentence in 2022 and he's now been handed life in prison instead

A man who was on South Carolina's death row for nearly 2 decades has been granted life imprisonment without parole, 2 years after his original sentence was overturned by a federal court.

In 2002, Quincy Allen committed 4 murders: a woman he picked up on a Columbia street; a man in the restaurant where he worked; and 2 men at a Surry County, North Carolina, convenience store. He received a death sentence for the two South Carolina killings and a life sentence for the North Carolina crimes, to which he pleaded guilty.

However, in 2022, a federal appeals court overturned his death sentence. The court stated that the judge who ordered his execution overlooked psychiatric issues resulting from a troubled childhood, including a mother who began evicting him from home in fourth grade and a stepfather who pointed an unloaded gun at his head and pulled the trigger.

Rather than pursuing the death penalty again, prosecutors agreed to a life sentence. In return, Allen, now 44, agreed never to appeal, as per news reports. With Allen's resentencing, the number of inmates on South Carolina's death row has dropped to 32, down from 63 in early 2011 when the state last carried out an execution.

The remaining inmates have either died of natural causes or, like Allen, had their death sentences commuted to other prison terms following successful appeals. South Carolina's death penalty operations have been in a state of uncertainty for 13 years, ever since the pharmacy supplying essential drugs for lethal injections ceased its services demanding anonymity.

The state has implemented a protective law, altered its lethal injection method to a single drug approach and obtained the required compound. It has also authorized executions by firing squad and the old-fashioned electric chair.

Nonetheless, the legality of this protection law and the question if executing via gunshots or electrocution falls under cruel and unusual punishments are being examined by South Carolina Supreme Court. Speaking of Allen's situation, prosecutors revealed that after his death sentence was overturned in 2022, the victim's families chose to end the legal fights and agreed on his life imprisonment.

Allen murdered Jedediah Harr, the brother of Scott Farewell, as Harr courageously tried to shield a pregnant woman. Farewell confessed he had wished for Allen's death until almost 15 years ago, when hearing an interview with an Alabama prison warden profoundly changed his perspective.

The warden shared about his raw, intense conversations with death row inmates in their last weeks. "They're men, just like me, with emotions," exclaimed Farewell. "Suddenly, I had this overwhelming urge to forgive."

Among those present in court on Monday, Farewell was reportedly the only family member. Sheriff Leon Lott of Richland County, who led the investigation into the South Carolina murders, expressed his belief that Allen deserved capital punishment due to the fear he instilled in the community.

"He's going to kill again. He likes it," Lott shared with WIS-TV outside the courtroom, adding, "He's a lucky man because the system wore the victim down."

Prosecutor Byron Gipson concurred that Allen merited death but emphasized that he couldn't let his personal sentiments override the desires of the victims' families. Before his resentencing, Allen read out an apology for his crimes, stating that despite seeking help for his severe mental issues, he never found the right resources.

"After years of reflection, I have come to understand how my background and upbringing did not prepare me to navigate conflicts or handle stressful situations," he confessed. Allen's legal team pleaded with the judge who initially sentenced him to death to spare his life, referencing reports from psychologists and others that a history of abuse during his childhood resulted in serious mental illness.

The reports indicated that Allen was either sent or voluntarily went to a psychiatric hospital 7 times in 5 years leading up to the murders, which occurred when he was 22. They mentioned an instance when Allen threatened to commit suicide by jumping off a roof.

When the police contacted his mother, she arrived hours later, laughed, and simply walked away. Allen's mother began forcing him out of the house when he was in 4th grade, with Allen recalling nights spent sleeping in bushes, a friend's treehouse, or on the McDonald's playground, as per the reports. However, Judge G. Thomas Cooper expressed disbelief in these accounts and sentenced Allen to death.

(source: themirror.com)

GEORGIA:

New Court Filings Allege Prosecutor Withheld Critical Evidence of Plea Deal with Co-Accused, Improperly Excluded Black Jurors from Warren King Trial

Defense attorneys for Warren King, a man convicted and sentenced to death in Georgia in 1988 for the murder of a store clerk, claim they have found evidence Prosecutor John B. Johnson withheld critical evidence from the defense team and used racial prejudice in jury selection.

According to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) last week, a new court filing revealed King’s co-accused and the only witness to the crime, Walter Smith, reached a plea deal with ADA Johnson who had told jurors during King’s trial that there were “no deals” in place for Smith.

This plea deal allowed Smith to avoid the death penalty and plead guilty to life in prison with the possibility for parole 3 years after King’s trial and conviction, despite the DPIC noting Smith and King were charged with the death of the clerk and Smith testifying during cross-examination there were no deals in place.

One of Smith’s trial lawyers, John Brewer III, issued a new statement according to the DPIC, stating ADA Johnson approached his client with a possible deal “several months before Mr. King’s trial” and recommended Smith’s sentence of a life sentence with the possibility of parole in exchange for his testimony against King.

The DPIC quotes Brewer, who said he “would have never recommended Smith testify against King unless (he) knew for certain that he had a deal and would avoid the death penalty.”

Under long-standing legal precedent established by the U.S. Supreme Court in Brady v. Maryland (1963) and an ethical obligation for prosecutors to turn over all favorable evidence to the defense team, the DPIC argues counsel for King should have been provided this information, and with proof of this deal, Mr. King’s attorneys could have impeached Smith’s credibility as a witness.

The filings summarized by the DPIC state the prosecution’s failure to disclose the deal, “deprived Mr. King of a fair trial and produced the ultimate miscarriage of justice: an unreliable conviction and death sentence.”

During the trial, Smith testified that King was responsible for shooting the clerk and afterward had said, “I hope I killed the b*tch,” while the DPIC said Mr. King told the jury during the sentencing phase that Smith had given him the gun and told him to shoot the clerk but he gave the gun back to Smith who then fired the fatal shots.

Smith’s testimony was the only evidence pointing to King being the triggerman and had Johnson disclosed the deal with King’s trial attorneys, the DPIC shows the motion claimed they “would have been able to powerfully challenge Mr. Smith’s testimony by highlighting his motive to paint Mr. King, rather than himself, as the shooter, in order to save his life.”

The DPIC also lists the evidence from the motion as follows: ADA Johnson struck 87.5 % of eligible Black jurors, while striking 8.8 % of white jurors who were all women, a Black juror was 10 times more likely to be excused than a white juror, and women were 4 times more likely to be excluded than men.

Despite these statistics from the motion and the Supreme Court’s decision in Batson v. Kentucky (1986) prohibiting attorneys from excluding potential jurors from the service based on their race, on July 2 the Supreme Court refused to hear claims that ADA Johnson had improperly excluded Black jurors from King’s trial; lower courts have since upheld King’s conviction.

While ADA Johnson provided race-neutral reasonings for his exclusion of Black jurors during King’s trial, the DPIC writes, King’s attorneys have uncovered handwritten notes from ADA Johnson which indicate he closely tracked which potential jurors were Black and which were women.

In DPIC’s article, King’s lawyers see these handwritten notes as “concrete proof that (ADA) Johnson was indeed considering race and gender of potential jurors.” (source: Estelle Masse is an upcoming junior at the University of California, Davis, pursuing a double major in Economics and Political Science----davisvanguard.org)

FLORIDA:

Information from Ecuador indicates Nelson Serrano hospitalized with terminal illness----Information from Serrano’s family and attorney in Ecuador indicates Serrano is currently in a hospital in Jacksonville, Florida, suffering from a terminal condition.

Nelson Serrano has been on Florida’s death row since 2007. He is 85 years-old and set to turn 86 in September. Information from Serrano’s family and attorney in Ecuador indicates Serrano is currently in a hospital in Jacksonville, Florida, suffering from a terminal condition.1

Nelson Serrano was sentenced to death for crimes that occurred in 1997 following the jury’s recommendations for death by a vote of 9-3 on four counts of first-degree murder. He was in his late 50s at the time of the crime and has always maintained his innocence.

The Florida Supreme Court originally affirmed his sentences of death on direct appeal in 2011.2 In 2017, Serrano was granted a new penalty phase in light of Hurst.3 His new penalty phase remains pending.

A Forbes article written by Serrano’s attorney published on July 19 said:

Nelson Serrano is dying in a hospital bed in Jacksonville, Florida. He has a brain tumor that has left him bedridden, on the verge of unconsciousness, and with several silent blood clots that are accumulating in his legs and are on their way to his heart. The situation is hopeless, the doctors have said.

NOTE: The quote above is the translated version of the information from the article, which is in Spanish.

The article further states that Serrano’s family did not learn of his condition from the prison but, instead, from another prisoner at Raiford who called the family to advise them of Serrano’s condition.

A Twitter account run by Serrano’s family posted similar information on July 19:

Serrano has a brain tumor, he became unconscious without medical assistance, nobody from Raiford prison notified Nelson's family, they found out thanks to the call of another prisoner, Nelson is in the hospital, he has a brain tumor that has left him prostrate, on the verge of unconsciousness, and with several silent clots that accumulate in his legs and are on their way to the heart. The situation is irremediable, the doctors have said.

On Monday, July 22, the account posted that “Ecuadorian Nelson Serrano is dying in a Florida hospital,” and “his children ask[ed] Governor Ron DeSantis to let them be by his side in his last hours of life.” Serrano’s son was interviewed on the news in Ecuador on July 22.

Yesterday evening, an account for Francisco Serrano (Serrano’s son) posted that “Ecuador sent a letter to Gov DeSantis this morning requesting clemency so Nelson Serrano’s family can be by his side immediately.”

Serrano is still listed on the Florida Department of Corrections (DOC) death row roster. As pictured below, the DOC Inmate Search shows his sentence as pending because he was granted a new penalty phase in 2017, which remains pending. The docket indicates a status conference is set for August 16.

1--Jacksonville is about an hour from Raiford, where Union Correctional Institution is located. NOTE that I have done my best to verify the information in this post, but DOC does not report when a prisoner is in the hospital. The information has mostly come from news articles and social media.

2--Serrano v. State, 64 So. 3d 93 (2011).

3--For a full explanation of Hurst, see the five-part TFDP series available here, at: https://fladeathpenalty.substack.com/p/other-related-publications.

(source: fladeathpenalty.substack.com)

*********************

'Deadpool' killer's death row fate delayed at the final hour as doctors make last minute request----Wade Wilson will have to wait to receive his sentencing

Wade Wilson, who has been given the nickname 'Deadpool' killer on account of sharing his name with the Marvel superhero, has had his sentencing delayed.

He has been convicted of the murders of 2 women - Kristine Melton, 35, and Diane Ruiz, 43 - and the jury voted to send him to death row.

Wilson was convicted of 6 offences in total, including 2 counts of 1st-degree murder, battery, burglary, theft and grand theft auto.

While the jury recommended that Wilson be sent to death row that decision will ultimately rest with a judge, and the murderer's sentencing hearing was supposed to take place 23 July.

However, Wilson's sentencing will now take place next month after doctors argued that they needed more time to evaluate the convicted murderer.

Newsweek reports that the defendant's lawyers are allowed to present additional evidence before the judge passes their sentence.

They report that court records say 'two additional mental health experts were not able to modify their schedule to testify at the penalty phase proceedings'.

As per Fox 4, one doctor wants to run a brain scan on Wilson while the other reportedly needs more time to run tests on the convicted murderer.

The State Attorney's Office said the scans were not needed as Wilson didn't have previous evidence of brain injuries, and they reported that the move had been slated as a 'fishing expedition'.

A request from Wilson's team for him to be allowed to wear street clothes in court next time he is there was denied, and it may be 27 August when the convicted killer learns what his sentence will be.

He is already covered in a series of tattoos, including a swastika on his face, and a body language expert said that while Wilson was trying to appear 'casual and calm', there was a 'lot of anxiety and stress that he doesn't want to show'.

Wilson, who killed the 2 women in 2019, heard his father tell the court during his trial that he'd confessed to the murder over the phone.

The killer's biological father Steven Testasecca said he didn't believe his son initially, recounting that Wilson said there were '2 people who were gone and would not be coming back'.

At first Testasecca didn't believe his son and thought he was 'a good storyteller', but in further calls the son told his father he 'choked that b***h' as he described murdering Kristine Melton in her own home.

Even if a judge decides not to impose the death penalty, which would go against the jury's recommendations, on Wilson he would still be facing the prospect of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

A former forensic psychologist has shared his thoughts on killer Wade Wilson's reaction to hearing jurors vote for the death penalty.

Wilson - who has been dubbed the 'Deadpool killer' due to the fact that he shares a name with the Marvel antihero - was found guilty of brutally killing Kristine Melton, 35, and Diane Ruiz, 43, in October 2019.

He was also convicted of battery, burglary, theft and grand theft auto.

The 30-year-old had refused to testify during his trial, however, his comments about the killing have gone viral in the media due to their horrifically graphic nature.

As his biological father Steven Testasecca recalled how his son bragged about running over one of the victims until 'she looked like spaghetti', Wilson's heavily tattooed face remained seemingly emotionless.

Wilson - whose face is covered with symbols such as multiple swastikas and a Joker-like mouth tattoo - appeared to be indifferent when the jurors read out that they'd voted for him to receive the death penalty, however, a forensic psychologist has since explained that he was trying to conceal his true emotions.

Breaking down Wilson's body language in a detailed YouTube video, Dr John Paul Garrison explained that he believed Wilson was attempting to 'appear casual and calm' during the verdict, but was most likely 'feeling very intense' underneath.

Dr G further explained that Wilson was purposely leaning back in his chair with his 'nose in the air' in order to appear 'casual' and nonchalant, but there was several giveaways in his behaviour with it being suggested that he was feeling 'a lot of anxiety and stress'.

He went on to add that Wilson's heavy breathing and hard swallowing were also further pointers of his discomfort, adding: "You're seeing him swallowing which means that he's got a lot of anxiety right now, you're also seeing him look around everywhere. That's the last way that he would want you to think that he feels right now.

"The leaning back is an attempt to counterbalance how he's feeling."

Dr G also suggested that Wilson was showing several signs of 'contempt' during the reading - due to the fact that he had no control over the process.

Analysing the exact moment the death penalty was confirmed, Dr G explained that Wilson appeared to 'freeze' - which is the body's fight or flight response to danger.

Moving onto the fact that Wilson was looking at each juror while they confirmed their decision, Dr G said it was an attempt on his behalf to be 'intimidating'.

"He wanted to intimidate, he wanted to scare the jury, he wanted to feel powerful in these moments because this is a very real situation where he doesn't have any power," he said.

"The amount of control that's lost right here is almost too much to bear. It's so significant for somebody like this to be on the receiving end of having no control."

Wilson was originally meant to be sentenced tomorrow (23 July) for his crimes, however, a judge has since pushed the date back to 27 August.

The change came after Wilson's defence team submitted a request to move sentencing due to scheduling conflicts for t2appointed mental health experts to testify during proceedings, as per News-Press.

(source: ladbible.com)

INDIANA:

'He is very competent': Suspect in Elwood officer shooting death found competent to stand trial

The man charged with Murder in connection to the death of Elwood police officer Noah Shahnavaz has been found competent to stand trial.

Carl Boards II was found competent by a Madison County judge on Tuesday. His defense lawyers were claiming Boards had an intellectual disability.

Three separate doctors examined Boards and found him to competent, according to Tuesday's order.

One doctor was quoted by the judge as saying, "He (Boards) is not just competent, he is very competent."

The judge also ruled the trial would stay in Madison County.

(source: WRTV news)

MISSOURI----impending execution

Missouri man faces execution in 2 months, despite DNA mismatch----Prosecutor of case calling for reversal of conviction

Marcellus Williams has maintained since 1998 that he’s innocent of the murder of local newspaper reporter, Felicia Gayle in a St. Louis suburb.

Williams was convicted and received the death penalty in 2001.

The original conviction hinged not on physical evidence, but on the testimony of 2 witnesses.

It wasn’t until 2015 that DNA testing of the murder weapon was allowed, and found a profile not matching that of Williams.

Michelle Smith, who co-directs Missourians to Abolish the Death Penalty, said this type of legal outcome is one of the reasons the group opposes capital punishment.

“We do believe that this [legal] system is faulty, that this system has failed repeatedly,” Smith said. “We don’t think that this ultimate punishment should be something that this system uses because there are so many mistakes and failures here.”

The DNA evidence was so compelling, that the original prosecutor of the case, current senate candidate Wesley Bell, concluded Williams is innocent.

The St. Louis Prosecuting Attorney’s Office filed a motion to vacate William’s conviction and said it won’t comment on the case until the judge rules.

The Missouri Attorney General’s office filed a motion to block a new evidence hearing for Williams, arguing that a lower court cannot “usurp” what a higher court has already determined.

The Attorney General’s Office did not immediately respond to questions about the motion to block the hearing.

If it withstands the challenge, that new evidence hearing will happen on August 21.

(source: WGEM news)

OKLAHOMA----impending execution

Stop the Execution of Emmanuel Littlejohn in Oklahoma

Emmanuel Littlejohn has been scheduled for execution in Oklahoma on September 26, 2024 for his presence at the 1992 murder of Kenneth Meers.

There's just one problem: Prosecutors told one jury he's the killer, and another jury that he's not.

Emmanuel's attorneys are also raising concerns about extensive brain damage that Emmanuel suffers from as a result of multiple factors including his teenage mother’s prenatal substance abuse which significantly affects his executive functioning. His cognitive limitations were exacerbated by the relentless trauma and pervasive neglect of his childhood. Emmanuel’s jury did not know about these aspects of his background, nor were they aware that his co-defendant, the actual killer, was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Emmanuel's clemency hearing is set for August 7, 2024 in Oklahoma City. This particular execution is just 1 in a series of 25 executions scheduled by Oklahoma despite serious concerns around the fairness and accuracy of Oklahoma's capital punishment system.

Oklahoma's aggressive execution schedule marks it as an outlier in its use of the death penalty while the majority of other states are on a downward trend of executions. In the last few years, Oklahoma has been one of only a handful of states that have carried out death sentences - and it continues to do so targeting the poor, the mentally ill and people of color.

Please sign the petition asking Governor Stitt and the Pardon and Parole Board to do everything within their power to ensure this execution does not go forward, and to seek a path to clemency in the case.

(see: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/stop-the-execution-of-emmanuel-littlejohn-in-oklahoma?link_id=8&can_id=d7ae93eebfc0128cd15585c7ed4a6fba&source=email-utah-execution-two-weeks-from-thursday&email_referrer=email_2397288&email_subject=two-weeks-from-today-and-thursday)

(source: Death Penalty Action)

UTAH----impending execution

Stop the Execution of Taberon Honie in Utah

Taberon Honie is scheduled to be executed in Utah on August 8, 2024 for the 1999 murder of Claudia Benn.

The Utah Board of Pardons & Parole held a clemency hearing on July 22 & 23 and is expected to issue its decision in the next week or two. Read news reports about the clemency hearing here and here. Taberon Honie is deeply remorseful, and is the not the same person that he was at age 22, when the crime was committed more than 25 years ago.

According to news reports, mitigating evidence about his difficult childhood were heard for the 1st time in an official proceeding during the clemency hearing. Certainly, he has behaved well in prison and is not a future threat. If he receives mercy, he hopes to be part of his daughter's and granddaughter's lives as best as he can from prison.

Additional information is forthcoming.

In seeking its 1st execution since 2010, Utah positions itself to become an outlier in its use of the death penalty. The majority of U.S. states are on a downward trend of executions, and increasingly, states are abolishing the practice altogether, including the southern state of Virginia, which repealed its death penalty law in 2021. Only a handful of states that has carried out an execution since 2020.

Please sign the petition asking Spencer J. Cox to do everything within his power to prevent an execution from occurring, including issuing a stay and seeking a path to clemency in the case.

(see: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/stop-the-execution-of-taberon-honie-in-utah/?link_id=5&can_id=d7ae93eebfc0128cd15585c7ed4a6fba&source=email-utah-execution-two-weeks-from-thursday&email_referrer=email_2397288&email_subject=two-weeks-from-today-and-thursday)

(source: Death Penalty Action)

CALIFORNIA:

VANGUARD INVESTIGATION: THE STORY OF KEITH DOOLIN – ‘FACTUALLY INNOCENT MAN BEHIND BARS SINCE 10/18/95’

Keith Doolin was convicted of killing 2 sex workers and severely injuring 4 others, but the truck driver has never strayed from declaring his innocence along with his mother Donna Doolin-Larsen, defense attorney Pamala Sayasane and other advocates.

Doolin signs all of his mail received in San Quentin during his time on death row as “factual innocent man behind bars since 10/18/1995.”

During his time on death row, Doolin has been kept inside a solitary cell, often for 23 hours a day.

He still chooses to wear a tattered blue shirt that the prison provided him more than 2 decades ago, which lacks the “inmate” label or the “California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation” marking, which Doolin proudly explains: “I’ll wear this shirt until it falls off. Here, they strip you of your name and give you a CDC number. It’s part of the psychological warfare- tearing you down, making you feel worthless, and not even acknowledging you as a human.”

The Initial Arrest

At the time of his arrest on Oct. 18, 1995, Doolin was taking his mother to a doctor’s appointment. His vehicle and weapon had matched the description of the crime scene, and Doolin, a Fresno truck driver without a prior criminal record, was sentenced to death row in San Quentin State Prison in 1996 after his conviction.

The deaths were alleged to have occurred in Fresno between November 1994 and September 1995. 2 women (Inez Espinosa and Peggy Tucker) were killed, with Alice Alva, Debbie Cruz, Marlene Mendibles, and Stephanie Kachman severely injured.

Information to Exonerate Doolin Is Still Hidden Due To Attorney Client Privilege

Josefina Saldana, using the name Josefina Sonya Hernandez, had testified in Doolin’s trial in Fresno County Superior Court. Saldana had told the court she was watching television before attempting to go to bed around 11:30, but that she had difficulty falling asleep in the Central California heat.

Saldana claimed in court that shortly before midnight she heard dogs barking, along with a gunshot and a voice saying, “Oh my God, oh my God.” The transcript states that she did not call the police.

2 years later, Saldana had been arrested and charged with killing Margarita Flores, who was eight months pregnant. After killing Flores, Saldana had dismembered the body and scattered it in both Southern California and Tijuana, Mexico.

A court declaration describes how Fresno attorney David Mugridge had told the court that a previous client of his (Josefina Sonia Saldana) had committed suicide in 2001 after being convicted of killing a pregnant woman, but that she had provided information to him that could exonerate Doolin in one of his killings.

Saldana’s testimony in court was particularly about Peggy Tucker, one of the names alleged to be a victim of Doolin. According to court records, Tucker’s body was located in an alley behind Saldana’s home on South Grace Street. Peggy Tucker is cited as one of the two names to be centric to why Doolin was convicted.

In the declaration, while Mugridge stated he strongly believes in doing what is right, which includes making sure an innocent man is protected from wrongful execution. He would also cite attorney client privilege as binding him from disclosing how he came across the information or the nature of the evidence, unless “a court directed him.”

Mismanagement Of Money From Disbarred Defense Representation

In addition to uncovering new information indicating innocence towards Doolin, the court appointed lawyer for Doolin at the time of the trial has since been disbarred and not allowed to practice law, and known for a gambling addiction and mismanagement of money meant for clients.

While court records show that Doolin had requested trial judge James Quaschnick 3 times to replace Rudy Petilla, the judge refused each motion.

The Fresno Bee previously covered the story on the day of Doolin’s sentencing when Fresno attorney Katherine Hart, who appeared pro bono, came to court with various declarations and legal motions and a transcript to a bankruptcy hearing which showed evidence Petilla had committed fraud by borrowing money to pay for his gambling habits.

However, Quaschnick denied Hart’s request, and later said Doolin had received a fair trial and the California Supreme Court agreed, having denied many of Doolin’s issues.

While lawyers have explained death penalty cases generally take years to prepare before going to trial, court records indicated Petilla had completed Doolin’s preliminary hearing within two weeks of receiving his appointment before taking the case to trial within 60 days of the preliminary hearing.

Petilla swore he would spend $60,000 on investigators and expert witnesses, and keep another $20,000 as his own retainer. After Doolin was convicted, court officials found out that Petilla spent less than $9,000 on investigators and experts, pocketing $71,000 for himself.

Only months before accepting Doolin’s case, Petilla was currently in his own bankruptcy proceedings from massive gambling debts. He had resigned from the California Bar in 2004 after claims of misconduct in another unrelated case.

What Is Next For Doolin In 2024?

The Vanguard was generously able to recently communicate with both Doolin’s defense attorney Pamala Sayasane and his mother Doolin-Larsen over email, both advocating for Doolin’s innocence this entire time, to ask about Doolin’s wrongful conviction and inquire a bit about the next steps with the announced closure of San Quentin.

Recently, attorney Sayasane has filed another habeas petition on his behalf. It relies on recent amendments to Penal Code section 1473.

The statute allows incarcerated individuals to seek relief if the preponderance of the evidence establishes that their conviction or sentence was the result of false evidence, or if new evidence (such as that related to innocence) more likely than not would have changed the outcome of the case.

“This is important, as the Fresno County District Attorney’s office will need to show why they continue to hold an innocent man in prison and on death row,” Doolin Larsen – who went to law school after the wrongful conviction of her son – tells the Vanguard.

Defense attorney Sayasane explained to the Vanguard it has been more than 25 years since first meeting Doolin and his mother in either 1997 or 1998, which she clarifies was not too long after Doolin had been sent to San Quentin.

Said Sayasane, “I was a young attorney at the time, working for a solo practitioner who specializes in capital litigation. We were there visiting other clients, and Donna Larsen was there visiting her son. Over the years, Donna and Keith would often walk by and say hello when they saw us in the waiting room.” (Note: She explains that San Quentin formerly had a large open room containing tables and chairs where attorneys and family could meet with death row inmates). Sayasane praises Donna’s commitment to Keith and her unwavering faith that one day he would be vindicated, noting that when Keith’s previous attorneys had to withdraw from his case for health or other reasons, she and co-counsel decided to step in at their request.

When asked for any possible comment regarding her opinion of the case, Sayasane shared, “Keith’s case represents a great injustice, one of the worst I have ever seen. From the outset, he never had a fair chance. We are hopeful that the evidence we have been able to uncover of his innocence, as well as the State’s misconduct in the case, will finally earn Keith his freedom.”

The desired outcome for attorney Sayasane regarding the case is for Doolin to be out of prison “yesterday,” explains Sayasane over email, adding, “He has been wrongfully incarcerated for almost 30 years. Although there is finally light at the end of the tunnel, it has taken far too long to reach this point.”

Sayasane referenced Doolin previous trial attorney, Petilla, and how the case ought to have never been allowed to go to trial in the manner in which it had, arguing, “Rudy Petilla had a poor reputation within the legal community, yet was appointed to Keith’s capital case. Petilla was both incompetent and unethical. His contract with Fresno County allowed him to pocket money not used on investigation, and he instead kept the funds for himself.”

“It was clear that he rushed Keith’s case through trial so that he could be paid quicker,” Sayasane informed the Vanguard.

Sayasane concluded that given the complexity of Doolin’s case, which involved 2 separate murders and 4 attempted murders, it should have taken years to prepare.

Sayasane also emphasized how troubling it was that the case had been rushed, noting, “A mere 8 months passed from the time of (Doolin’s) arrest on Oct. 18, 1995, to his death sentence on June 18, 1996.”

The injustice of how Doolin’s proceedings took place put him in the situation of where he had been located at – San Quentin. However, with the closure of San Quentin death row and the emergence of San Quentin Rehabilitation Center, Doolin has felt some uncertainty about the future of his case.

History of San Quentin State Prison

San Quentin State Prison, established in 1852, has an infamous record of being the state’s only death row for incarcerated males. The prison is known for their harsh conditions especially for those on death row and the various escapes the prison has faced.

According to an article published by Best Diplomats, San Quentin has been ranked in the top 10 most dangerous prisons in America as of 2024.

The article states “San Quentin gained further notoriety as the site of California’s executions, transitioning from hanging to gas chamber and eventually lethal injection. However, overcrowding became a significant issue in later years, straining resources and increasing security concerns.”

These issues are in relation to the inhumane conditions that death row face such as living in small box-like rooms with no communication, no contact with others besides prison guards and lack of access to basic necessities.

Because of these issues, there has been uncertainty among the functionality of the prison, causing concerns to be raised upon whether death row is effective for the incarcerated population.

In addition, San Quentin’s infamous history of harsh conditions and as a “site of violence,” and the lack of appropriate high security and resources, raised California Gov. Gavin Newsom to propose solutions.

San Quentin’s Status Now – San Quentin Rehabilitation Center

Newsom has analyzed the prison’s issues and issued an order for San Quentin to be transitioned into a rehabilitation center, imposing a moratorium on the death penalty and the closing of the prison’s execution chamber.

His goal is to transform San Quentin into a Scandinavian-style prison with a focus on rehabilitation, education and job training.

This decision was introduced and declared to begin in March 2023. Within this order, Newsom reimagines the prison system to take the form of rehabilitation and educational programs being the main priority rather than allowing the incarcerated population to languish in harsh conditions.

Newsom hopes to not only de-institute death row but to also reinstitute the duties and training of guards in order to better facilitate the incarcerated population.

In an article published by Cal Matters, Newsom states, “Instead of shying away from ‘overfamiliarity’ with incarcerated people, prison guards should ask them about their families or favorite NFL teams. Instead of only reporting offenses, guards should note positive change in inmates. Instead of adopting a militarized footing against prisoners, guards should meet them in a common area to eat or watch movies.”

What Will Happen to the Incarcerated Population at San Quentin?

Many have been skeptical with what potential outcomes look like. Will this affect the status of those on death row? Gov. Newsom has indicated currently incarcerated people will be transferred to other California prisons.

A goal of Newsom’s is to decrease the number of the incarcerated people at San Quentin to prevent overcrowding and offer “opportunities for more effective rehabilitation, since fewer people will be competing for the same programs,” such as those shared in an article by the LA Times.

But, for many, like Doolin, this change has led to many feeling uncertain about their future. For Doolin’s case specifically, the transfer from San Quentin could potentially allow for more leeway and freedoms.

However, he fears that the transfer may cause him to be further away from his mother and his lawyers. Moreover, the move can disrupt his ongoing battle of pleading for his innocence as he’s concerned the new prison he will be transferred to won’t let him keep any of his legal documents with him, as revealed by The Guardian.

However, many are also hopeful about the transfers and their ability to correct the injustices inflicted by the prison in the past. As disclosed in an article released by The Guardian, “Some on death row hope that the transfers will bring them one step closer to leaving prison, especially as some state lawmakers push for reforms to undo some of the harshest prison terms.”

(source: davisvanguard.org)

BELARUS:

What do we know about German sentenced to death in Belarus?

In June, a Belarusian court charged Rico Krieger with terrorism, espionage and mercenary activity, and sentenced him to death. Human rights organizations have said the German citizen must not be executed.

On June 24, the news broke that German citizen Rico Krieger had been sentenced to death in Belarus. In response to a DW inquiry, the German Foreign Ministry said it was familiar with the case and was coordinating with the embassy in Minsk to provide "consular support to the person concerned" and was "working hard on his behalf with the Belarusian authorities."

"The death penalty is a cruel and inhumane form of punishment that Germany rejects under all circumstances. We are working worldwide for its abolition and are working hard against its implementation with all those affected," the statement added.

Krieger was found guilty of 6 articles in the Belarusian Criminal Code: mercenary activity, espionage, being part of an extremist organization, destruction of a vehicle, illegal handling of weapons, explosives and ammunition and terrorism.

Who is Rico Krieger?

Little is known about Krieger. 2 profiles on the LinkedIn platform, both created in August 2023, have identical data and photos — one is for Rico Krieger and the other for Rico Krieger Heinemann. Recently, a photo of a Belarusian court was posted on a Telegram channel loyal to the regime of Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko. The defendant in the court looked like the person in the LinkedIn photos.

In a job application posted on the platform, the person going by Rico Krieger wrote that he was 29 years old. He said he was born in the German capital, Berlin, and currently lived in Germany, but was hoping to move to the US within a year. He also gave a US phone number.

A Telegram account, which uses the same photo as on LinkedIn, also exists.

On LinkedIn, Krieger described himself as a mechanic, security guard, social worker and medical worker. It was in the latter capacity that he started working for the German Red Cross in June 2021. The Red Cross has confirmed that Krieger worked for the organization, but said this had nothing to do with his trip abroad.

What is the case about?

According to Pavel Sapelka, a lawyer for the Belarusian human rights center Viasna, Krieger was remanded in custody on October 6, 2023. It is unknown where he was arrested.

Belarusian media outlets loyal to Lukashenko have reported that Krieger made contact with the Ukrainian secret service in autumn 2022 and intended to join the Kastus Kalinouski Regiment, a unit of Belarusian volunteers fighting with Ukrainians against Russia. The unit has declared that it has never had anything to do with Krieger.

"It is unclear why he would have wanted to join the Kastus Kalinouski Regiment and not the International Legion of the Ukrainian Army, which was set up for foreigners. And why would he have gone to Belarus of all places?" asked Belarusian-German historian Alexander Friedman.

According to the court that sentenced him, Krieger entered Belarus as a tourist on October 2 "with phones and a drone" — it is not known from which country and on which visa. Private individuals have not been allowed to import drones into Belarus since September 2023, and checks at the border with the European Union are very thorough.

Krieger accused of terrorism

Sapelka told DW that Krieger had been charged with terrorism because he is supposed to have been involved in an explosion. But what kind of explosion and where is not known. At the trial, it was said Krieger had been ordered by Ukraine's SBU security service to spy and take photographs in Asipovichy, which is around 100 kilometers (about 60 miles) southeast of the Belarusian capital, Minsk.

The court argued that Krieger had photographed military barracks and equipment in Asipovichy on October 4 and had also photographed the Azyaryshcha railway station near Minsk the next day. He was accused of sending the material to the SBU and then receiving the coordinates of a hiding place where he could find an explosive device. He allegedly placed this device on the railway tracks of the same station.

There was reportedly an explosion at the station on October 5, 2023, which the independent Community of Railway Workers of Belarus reported as being powerful. But there were no casualties or major damage.

Could Krieger be used in an exchange?

Anatoly Glaz, spokesman for the Belarusian Foreign Ministry, confirmed ongoing talks about the Krieger case with German diplomats. He said Belarus had suggested various options on request of the German Foreign Ministry, which has not yet made a statement on the proposals.

"They didn't conduct this whole trial to execute Krieger, but to exchange him and get something in return," said the historian Friedman.

Vadim Prokhorov, a lawyer who fled Russia, told DW that Vladimir Putin's regime needed a German citizen to haggle with thanks to the help of its vassal Lukashenko.

The Belarusian state media have reported that Krieger did not protest against the sentence, which could be carried out at any time. More than 300 people have been executed in Belarus since 1991.

Human rights organizations have called on Belarus to abolish the death penalty. The Berlin-based human rights organization Liberico said that "in light of the grave human rights violations, many of which might amount to crimes against humanity, including the 'numerous and systematic violations of the rights to due process and a fair trial' before Belarusian courts documented by the OHCHR, the use of the death penalty is particularly alarming."

Viasna and Liberico and other rights organizations have called for the "Belarusian authorities to immediately stop the execution of Rico Krieger, regardless of the charges, and to fully abide by Belarus' international human rights obligations."

(source: dw.com)

DR CONGO:

DR Congo Trial Against Members Of M23 Rebellion Begins

The trial of 25 people accused of being part of the M23 group began Wednesday in DR Congo, some two and a half years after the rebels began seizing large parts of the east of the country.

Only five defendants were present when the trial began in a military court in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) capital Kinshasa.

The main defendant, former DRC electoral commission president Corneille Nangaa, is currently on the run.

Nangaa announced in December in Nairobi the creation of a political-military movement the AFC, or Alliance Fleuve Congo, an alliance of rebel groups including the M23.

The justice ministry announced on Monday the opening of the "trial of Corneille Nangaa and his accomplices".

"This trial is part of terrorist activities, war crimes and high treason perpetrated in the eastern part of the DRC," the statement said.

If convicted, they could face the death penalty.

The defence requested an adjournment of the trial after the first suspect was questioned to allow lawyers time to read their client's files.

"The time we are given is very short, in such a serious case, in which some defendants risk the death penalty," said one of the defence lawyers, Clement Muza Kayembe.

The lawyer also spoke out about the presence of Justice Minister Constant Mutamba at the trial.

"In which country have you seen a justice minister go to hearings?” he told AFP.

"It’s a moral pressure," he said, asking for "equitable and not fanciful justice" for the defendants.

The list of defendants contains some of the best-known figures of the Rwanda-backed M23, including the group's president Bertrand Bisimwa, its military leader Sultani Makenga and spokespersons Willy Ngoma and Lawrence Kanyuka.

Other people included on the list include members of the People's Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD) who joined the AFC.

The PPRD is the party of former President Joseph Kabila, who was in power from 2001 to 2019.

Those not present at the trial will be judged in their absence.

The Congolese authorities accuse Nangaa of being behind the bombing of a displaced persons camp last May that killed 35 people.

The trial is set to resume Thursday.

The M23 ("March 23 Movement") took up arms again at the end of 2021 and seized, with the help of the Rwandan army, large swathes of the North Kivu province.

(source: Agence France-Presse)

MALAYSIA:

Nur Farah Kartini’s murder: Cop to be charged with murder tomorrow, death penalty awaits if found guilty

The policeman arrested in connection with the murder of former Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI) student Nur Farah Kartini Abdullah will be charged on Friday (July 26).

Selangor police chief Datuk Hussein Omar Khan in a statement today said the suspect will be charged with murder under Section 302 of the Penal Code, which prescribes the death penalty.

“Yes, he will be charged at 9am at the Kuala Kubu Baru court tomorrow,” he said in the statement.

On July 22, the police’s Sub-Aquatic Forensic Investigation Unit discovered a car key in Sungai Trolak, Kampung Batu 4, Trolak, during the search for evidence related to Nur Farah Kartini’s murder.

A handbag believed to belong to Nur Farah Kartini was found on July 17 during a search operation conducted at Sungai Trolak Kampung Batu.

Nur Farah Kartini, 25, was reported missing on July 10 before her body was found in an oil palm plantation in Kampung Sri Kledang, Hulu Selangor, at about 6pm on July 15.

Following this, a 26-year-old suspect, who is a police lance corporal, was arrested under Section 302 of the Penal Code.

(source: malaymail.com)

**************

Suhakam against death sentences in Zulfarhan's case

The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) described the Court of Appeal's decision to sentence six former National Defence University of Malaysia (UPNM) cadets to death for the murder of Zulfarhan Osman Zulkarnain as a somber moment in Malaysia's judicial history.

In a statement today, Suhakam acknowledged the ruling, expressing solidarity with the family in their grief over the tragic loss of Zulfarhan on June 1, 2017. Despite recognising the severity of the crime, Suhakam said it firmly opposes the death penalty.

"We express our deepest condolences to the family of Zulfarhan, whose tragic death on June 1, 2017, has profoundly affected the nation.

"However, we believe that the death penalty is not a just or effective solution. The death penalty is a form of punishment that is irreversible and does not allow for the possibility of rehabilitation in the event of judicial error.

"It also goes against the global movement towards the abolition of capital punishment, which many countries have recognised as inhumane and a violation of fundamental human rights."

Suhakam said in this context, it is essential to emphasise the need for rehabilitation, which can transform offenders into responsible and constructive members of society.

This approach, Suhakam said, not only addresses the root causes of such violent behavior but also helps prevent future occurrences by promoting understanding, empathy, and social responsibility among offenders.

"Our commitment to human rights mandates that we advocate for the abolition of the death penalty. We call upon the Malaysian government to reconsider the use of capital punishment and to continue working towards a justice system that is fair, humane, and just for all."

Yesterday, the Court of Appeal sentenced 6 former UPNM cadets to death for the murder of navy cadet Zulfarhan, 7 years ago.

The court described the case as the "rarest of the rare".

A 3-member bench comprising Datuk Hadhariah Syed Ismail, Mohamed Zaini Mazlan and Datuk Azmi Ariffin unanimously allowed the prosecution's appeal to reinstate a charge under Section 302 of the Penal Code and impose the death penalty.

The court also set aside the previous 18-year jail sentence.

The 6 are Muhammad Akmal Zuhairi Azmal, Muhammad Azamuddin Mad Sofi, Muhammad Najib Mohd Razi, Muhammad Afif Najmudin Azahat, Mohamad Shobirin Sabri and Abdoul Hakeem Mohd Ali, who are now 28 years old.

(source: nst.com.my)

****************

‘They shall be taken to the gallows’

The cruel nature surrounding the demise of National Defence University of Malaysia (UPNM) Navy cadet Zulfarhan Osman Zulkarnain was so heinous that the Court of Appeal sent his tormentors to the gallows.

Justice Hadhariah Syed Ismail, who chaired a 3-judge panel, described the crime against Zulfarhan as “shocking and rare” and only the death sentence would befit the crime.

Zulfarhan died 7 years ago from injuries sustained from being burned by hot iron all over his body, including his private parts.

“We agree with the prosecution that the way the murder was conducted ‘shocked not only the judicial conscience but even the collective conscience of the society’.

“This case is the rarest of the rare involving a heinous crime. Such cruelty must be stopped,” she said in a 93-page judgment yesterday.

6 former UPNM cadets, who were sentenced to 18 years in jail for Zulfarhan’s death, appealed for a lower prison sentence while the prosecution made a cross-appeal to press for the death sentence.

The 6 are Muhammad Akmal Zuhairi Azmal, Muhammad Azamuddin Mad Sofi, Muhammad Najib Mohd Razi, Muhammad Afif Najmudin Azahat, Mohamad Shobirin Sabri and Abdoul Hakeem Mohd Ali.

In yesterday’s decision, the judge also spoke of how Zulfarhan’s parents must have felt upon having their son’s damaged body returned to them.

“Only Allah would know how they must have been destroyed when they saw that their son was treated that way,” she said.

Justice Hadhariah, who took more than 3 hours to read the decision, dismissed the 6’s appeal and allowed the prosecution’s appeal to reinstate Section 302 of the Penal Code because the trial judge had erred when he reduced the charge against them.

She called upon all 6 accused to stand in the accused dock before passing the sentence.

“Therefore, we unanimously decide that there will be only 1 sentence for all 6 accused persons, where all of them shall be taken to the gallows where they will be hung to death,” she said.

The other judges on the bench were Justices Mohamed Zaini Mazlan and Azmi Ariffin.

The first 5 accused persons were initially charged with murder under Section 302, which carries the mandatory death sentence upon conviction, while Abdoul Hakeem was charged with abetting the murder under Section 109, which carries the same penalty.

However, the High Court later amended the charge to Section 304(a) and convicted them on Nov 2, 2021, for causing Zulfarhan’s death without intent to kill him.

Section 304(a) of the Penal Code provides a prison sentence of up to 30 years and a fine upon conviction if the act is committed with intent to cause death.

Meanwhile, the appellate court also decided on the appeal of another 12 former UPNM students who were found guilty and sentenced to three years in prison for intentionally causing injury to Zulfarhan to coerce a confession that he stole a laptop.

The former students were charged under Section 330 of the Penal Code, which, upon conviction, carries a maximum prison sentence of 7 years and a fine.

They are Mohd Hafiz Fauzan Ismail, Mohamad Lukhmanul Hakim Mohd Zain, Ahmad Shafwan Berdal, Muhammad Amirul Asraff Mala, Luqman Hakim Shamsuri Agus, Muhammad Sufi Mohd Mustapha, Noriznan Izzairi Noor Azhar, Muhamad Ashraf Abdullah, Muhammad Danial Firdaus Azmir, Muhammad Hasif Ismail, Muhammad Adib Iman Fuad Ady Sani and Mohamad Syazwan Musa.

The panel allowed the prosecution’s appeal to increase the sentence and dismissed the group’s appeal to have leniency on their sentence.

“We unanimously found that the aggravating factors overcome the accused’s personal factors. In our mind, an appropriate sentence is 4 years imprisonment.

“Therefore, the three-year imprisonment is set aside and replaced with four years from the date of conviction,” she said.

The former students, who are all 28, were charged with committing the offence in a room at the Asrama Jebat block, UPNM, between 4.45am and 5.45am on May 22, 2017.

Zulfarhan died at Hospital Serdang on June 1, 2017.

(source: thestar.com.my)

TAIWAN:

The Constitutionality of Taiwan’s Death Penalty: Discussions at the Recent Constitutional Court Hearing

What do Voldemort, Confucius and Albert Camus all have in common?

One was a fictional villain, one a great Eastern philosopher before the common era, and one a French philosopher specializing in existentialism. While all from vastly different timelines, each found their way into the ideological discussions of the constitutionality of the death penalty that occurred in the Taiwan Constitutional Court (TCC) on April 23.

Constitutional Civil Case No. 904052 for the Minguo Year 111 was petitioned by Wang Xinfu, the oldest man on death row (age 72), and all other 36 death row inmates were consolidated petitioners. The main questions raised in this hearing came in 2 parts (which may be found in the May schedule of the TCC webpage). First, is the death penalty, as one of the penalties by law, unconstitutional? Second, is the death penalty system to be considered constitutional? This second question asks which types of crimes for which the death penalty is applicable, the scope of criminal defendants eligible for the death penalty, and the supporting procedures for the death penalty.

During the TCC hearing, the constitutionality of the death penalty was posed through a series of ideological lenses. The main themes that kept coming back up for discussion around the basis of constitutionality were, whether the abolition of the death penalty was a “Western value” in conflict with “Eastern values;” whether Taiwan was bound to international norms on the death penalty; and the proper role of the constitutional court in interpreting the Republic of China constitution in relation to human rights norms.

“Western Values” versus “Eastern Values” on the Death Penalty

A number of questions raised related to the cultural differences between states and their stance on the death penalty. If abolition of the death penalty were to be based in cultural differences, could Taiwan’s notion of traditional Chinese familial vengeance as emphasized in society be the basis of the constitutionality of the death penalty in Taiwan?

One response came from Huang Cheng-Yi, a researcher at the Institutum Iurisprudentiae of Academia Sinica, who first mentioned the difficulty of incorporating cultural differences in constitutional interpretation. If the emphasis by society is grounded in Chinese tradition, based on Confucian values, using this to evaluate ideas of the death penalty lacks a straightforward basis for interpretation. Huang detailed that China’s imperial period saw a number of changes in its principles of the death penalty. After Emperor Han Wendi, personal name Liu Heng , ruling from 180-157 BCE], abolished corporal punishment, amputation or castration), for three to four hundred years the debate to reinstate corporal punishment rarely revolved around Confucianism—thereby making the necessity to include Confucian ideas in the modern debate on the constitutionality of the death penalty somewhat extraneous. Huang further stated that two judicial systems—Macau and Hong Kong—do not have the death penalty, meaning that Chinese societies have the ability to be death penalty free. Recalling these 2 systems, the argument that the death penalty is part of Chinese culture becomes less substantial.

As far as finding a principle of the death penalty based in Taiwanese ideology, Huang points out that the indigenous people of Taiwan have virtually no culture of the death penalty—so there is no precedence of the death penalty being a Taiwanese tradition.

Law professor Yen Chueh-An responded to the claim that it is hard to operationalize culture in terms of constitutionality by presenting the perspective of cultural constitutionalism, which in Yen’s view is a necessary requirement to prevent the conversation from revolving solely around academic considerations. In addition, Yen argues that viewing the world in an east-west dichotomy is a mistake, as culture is complex and multifaceted. “Discussing culture isn’t about the clash of civilizations between Eastern culture, Western culture, European culture, and Taiwanese culture, but about the value judgments, choices, and developments within cultures,” Yen says. Yen further iterated that, “from a perspective of cultural balance, we cannot claim that the culture of the Republic of China predominantly advocates for the death penalty.”

From the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) viewpoint, Deputy Director of the Department of Prosecutorial Affairs Chien Mei-Hui indirectly referred to constitutional values by citing Xunzi: “Rewards not matching deeds, punishments not fitting crimes, there is nothing more serious or worse than this.” This quote was interpreted by the MOJ to state that the death penalty allows for proportionality between crime and punishment, therefore necessary to balance society. The decision to cite a famous Chinese philosopher and an early architect of Confucian philosophy provides an implication as to which values the MOJ deems to be more relevant to Taiwan’s constitutional values. In addition, the MOJ highlights that “the consensus of most Asian countries is still to maintain the death penalty.”

While state systems are built and look to emulate others with similar values, the debate during the constitutional hearing provided a perspective as to whether retaining the death penalty was truly an Asian value, or Chinese value, as many in Taiwan argue. These conversations give an inkling that there is no sure historical perspective that could argue the death penalty is an Asian value–and as Yen Chueh-An argues, even if it is an Asian value, is it the value that Taiwan is stuck with?

Taiwan and International Norms

In 2009, Taiwan enacted the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (hereafter referred to as ICCPR) into domestic law. As Taiwan is not a member of the United Nations, Taiwan has not been able to officially ratify the binding treaty. However, incorporating the treaty into domestic law applies a sufficient enforcement mechanism to require the international legal basis to be followed domestically. In addition, the legislative enactment uses language to also require any further general comments or resolutions on the ICCPR to also be practiced by Taiwan. The hearing discussion tried to determine where Taiwan seeks to stand under international law in conjunction with constitutional law.

The MOJ representatives, in their opening statements, acknowledged the requirements of the ICCPR on the death penalty in regards to which crimes shall be punishable by death. In addition, the MOJ noted General Comment No. 36, which further specifies that intentional murder is the only punishment eligible for the sentencing of death. The MOJ states that Taiwan follows all international directions, and claims that international reviewers have not found any violations to the covenant.

While the MOJ has made this comment, they neglected to acknowledge other aspects of General Comment No. 36, such as the requirement for retentionist countries to gradually abolish the death penalty. Professor Hsieh Yu-Wei remarked that Article 19(2) of the Criminal Law indicates that the ability to bear responsibility should be reduced from “may” reduce the punishment to “must” reduce the punishment in the application of the death penalty to better align with General Comment No. 36 of the ICCPR. This reinforces the present gap between Taiwan’s practice and ICCPR General Comments intention.

Commissioner Kao Yung-cheng from the National Human Rights Commission argues that Taiwan is arbitrarily and disproportionately applying the death penalty–and that therefore it is in violation of the ICCPR. He further states that “as Taiwan has internalized both covenants (ICCPR and ICESCR), several international review conclusions have recommended that Taiwan abolish the death penalty to become a benchmark for human rights in Asia.” This is to contend to the justices that it is not only about the international legality of Taiwan’s role in implementing death penalty punishment, but it is also about the symbolic role Taiwan would play by abolishing the death penalty—and showing that Taiwan, although largely unrecognized by the international community, still recognizes and abides by international human rights norms.

The Court’s Role in Human Rights Norms

The role of Taiwan’s constitution, due to the nature of when the constitution came about, presents one question to which each justice may have varying answers. The ROC Constitution was enacted in 1947. During this period, the ROC Constitution was established in Nanjing, China. Now, the relationship between the constitution and the ROC presents an enigma as to how it should be viewed. As a democratic system, should the constitution also be interpreted to include democratic principles and values such as the right to life–or shall we interpret the functions and meanings of the constitution as envisioned under an authoritarian system?

Attorney Jeffrey Li, reminded the court that in Interpretation No. 748 regarding same-sex marriage, the court stated that the protection of fundamental rights is a constitutional duty of the judiciary. Professor Yen added to how the court has seen its role in past cases by citing Interpretation No. 261—overturning previous Interpretation No. 31, effectively saving Taiwan’s democracy and playing a significant role in reflecting the democratic values of Taiwan.

Additionally, Attorney Li continues, if the Constitution is to represent the principles of the present society, as some may advocate, then who must the justices listen to in order to rule on these principles? As Taiwan has presented an interest in gradual abolition since 2006 under the administration of Chen Shui-bian—and reinforced this interest in human rights and gradual abolition in 2009, when Taiwan signed the ICCPR into domestic law under the administration of Ma Ying-jeou—but if Taiwanese society is more invested in victims’ rights and retribution, whose ideas must place precedence?

The Association for Victims Support led the debate on public support, centered in the discussion around victims’ rights. Citing the public’s opinions as reflected in news media, the association highlighted both support for the death penalty among victims’ families, and also general public support for the death penalty in the past 3 years after high profile cases.

In the opening remarks of attorney Essen Lee, one of the petitioner’s legal representatives, he speaks as a family member to a murder victim. Lee presents his personal story of transformation from one once wishing to kill the perpetrator, to 20 years later, no longer sharing that same sentiment. Lee questions whether a court conviction truly brings restoration to the victim, as he states there is silent trauma that a court decision is incapable of healing.

Lee highlighted the story of Harry Potter to apply an analogy as to how Taiwan’s society may improve crime prevention. From books 4 to 6 of that series, Voldemort’s return was not accepted by the administrative system. Lee says this reluctance to recognize Voldemort’s presence occurred in order to prevent having to admit that mistakes were made by the wizarding government. Lee suggests we are better off learning from this fantasy series by facing evil in society at the root of the issues with remedies, rather than waiting until crime occurs.

On this issue, the MOJ held that there must be a societal consensus before the justices are able to declare the death penalty unconstitutional. The MOJ believes, from a perspective of separation of powers, that judges are required to adopt a self-restraining stance towards reviewing issues, and that rulings must be based on social development and public consensus.

The Justices announced on July 12 that they will extend their deliberation time from 3 months to 6 months, with the official date of announcement still to be determined. This gives the court until September 23 to announce its decision. Several human rights organizations in Taiwan remain hopeful that the court will, even if not finding the entirety of the death penalty to be unconstitutional, recognize a number of components of the regulations and application of the death penalty to be unconstitutional. There remain a number of considerations that the justices must thoroughly consider. If the court decides to look purely at the use of the death penalty in Taiwan and determine whether it violates the constitution, there has been explicit evidence both presented at the hearing and from international experts’ submitted amicus curiae to illustrate how the death penalty has been applied arbitrarily and disproportionately, violating both local and international law. If the court feels that societal support is the major concern in this issue, the court will be responsible for specifying its reasons as to why Taiwan’s use of the death penalty abides by the ROC Constitution.

The main point: In April, Taiwan’s Constitutional Court heard arguments related to a challenge that the death penalty is unconstitutional, per the ROC Constitution. Arguments were conducted on multiple grounds, to include “Eastern” versus “Western” values, international norms, and victims’ rights. The court is expected to render a decision related to these arguments sometime in September.

(source: globaltaiwan.org)

IRAN----executions

see: https://iranhr.net/en/

**************

3 Men at Imminent Risk of Execution in Tabriz

Behzad Sabouri, Ali Ashrafi and Davoud Bipanah who are all on death row for drug-related charges, have been transferred to solitary confinement in preparation for their executions in Tabriz Central Prison.

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, 3 men were transferred to the pre-execution solitary confinement cells of Tabriz Central Prison on 23 July. Their identities have been established as Behzad Sabouri, Ali Ashrafi and Davoud Bipanah.

They were all sentenced to death for drug-related charges by the Revolutionary Court and their executions are likely to be carried out in the coming hours.

Drug-related executions have continuously risen every year since 2021. According to IHRNGO’s 2023 Annual Report on the Death Penalty, at least 471 people were executed for drug-related charges, an 84% increase compared to 2022 (256) and about 18 times the average of drug-related executions in 2018-2020. In the first 6 months of 2024, at least 147 people were executed for the charges.

On 10 April 2024, 80+ Iranian and international organisations and groups called for joint action to stop drug-related executions, urging UNODC to make “any cooperation with the Islamic Republic contingent on a complete halt on drug-related executions.”

(source: iranhr.net)

*****************

18 Executions in 4 Days: 7 Prisoners, including 3 Women, Calling for Urgent Action----International appeal for immediate action to release political prisoners and prevent executions of inmates on death row

On Tuesday morning, July 23, Khamenei’s executioners hanged 7 prisoners, including 3 women, in Birjand prison. The day before, a prisoner named Hassan Fallahi was hanged in Qom Central Prison. 6 prisoners were executed on Sunday, July 21, in Qezelhessar and Diesel Abad prisons in Kermanshah, and 4 prisoners were executed on Saturday, July 20, in Adel Abad prison in Shiraz. Thus, in 4 days (July 20-23), 18 prisoners were executed in Iran, including 4 female prisoners.

On Sunday, July 21, a prisoner named Danial Kazeminejad was hanged in Diesel Abad prison in Kermanshah in retaliation for the death of a criminal Revolutionary Guard named Sajjad Amiri. Sajjad Amiri had been involved in killing people in Iraq and Syria for some time.

In another criminal act, Pakhshan Azizi, a female Kurdish political prisoner, was sentenced to death on charges of “rebellion” fabricated by the mullahs in Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court of Tehran, presided over Iman Afshari. After this news was announced, female political prisoners in the women’s ward of Evin prison protested.

In another development, on Tuesday, July 23, at least 10 prisoners in Birjand, Sanandaj, and Urmia were transferred to solitary confinement for execution.

On July 23, for the 26th week, prisoners in 16 prisons participated in the “No to Execution Tuesdays” campaign by going on hunger strike. These prisons included Evin Prison (women’s ward, wards 4, 6, and 8), Qezelhessar Prison (units 3 and 4), Karaj Central Prison, Khorramabad Prison, Tabriz Prison (women’s ward), Ardabil Prison, Qaemshahr Prison, Khoy Prison, Naqadeh Prison, Saqez Prison, Mashhad Prison, Urmia Prison, Marivan Prison, Kamyaran Prison, Baneh Prison, and Salmas Prison. In their statement, the striking prisoners said: “While the government is unable to respond to the legitimate demands of the people, it intends to create fear and terror in society by killing and executing prisoners on various charges to create an obstacle to future protests and uprisings by the oppressed people.”

The acceleration of the mullahs’ criminal executions after the presidential election show is, more than anything, indicative of Ali Khamenei’s fear of a popular uprising. This regime cannot continue its disgraceful existence for a single day without repression and execution.

The Iranian Resistance once again calls on the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Iran, and all human rights organizations to take immediate action to free political prisoners and save the lives of prisoners on death row. It also calls for referring the human rights violations dossier of the religious fascism ruling Iran to the UN Security Council. Khamenei and other leaders of this regime must face justice for 4 decades of crimes against humanity and genocide.

(source: Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) )

*******************

3 Baluch Women Executed in Birjand Central Prison

3 Baluch women were among 7 prisoners executed at dawn on Tuesday, July 23, 2024, in Birjand Central Prison, located in South Khorasan Province.

The identities of these 3 Baluch women, who were arrested and executed on drug-related charges, have not yet been confirmed. As of the release of this news, these executions have not been reported by the state-run media in Iran.

On Saturday, July 20, another woman with the surname “Mahmoudinia” was executed at Adelabad Central Prison in Shiraz along with 3 other prisoners. She, a victim of forced marriage, was sentenced to death for the murder of a man whom she had been forcibly married to.

With the execution of the 3 Baluch women in Birjand Central Prison, the number of women executed in 2024 has reached 14. According to statistics compiled by the Women’s Committee of the National Council of Resistance since 2007, at least 243 women have been executed in Iran.

By executing 4 women within 4 days, the regime’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, has surpassed Raisi, who executed 3 women within 3 days in May.

Record holder of executions of women

The Iranian regime is the world’s top record holder of executions of women.

No government in the world has executed so many women. The list does not account for the tens of thousands of women executed in Iran on political grounds.

The NCRI Women’s Committee previously mentioned that many of the women executed by the mullahs’ regime are themselves victims of domestic violence against women and have acted in self-defense.

An average of 15 women were executed every year under the former government in Iran.

However, 26 women were executed under Raisi government in 2023, which is 11 more than the previous average.

The NCRI Women’s Committee calls on the United Nations, the European Union, and other relevant international organizations to take urgent action to save the lives of those on death row and stop the use of death penalty in Iran.

(source: women.ncr-iran.org)

*****************

Iran Tyranny: Female Activists Sentenced to Death

Shia religious leaders and political elites in Iran utilize tyranny to crush any signs of freedom outside their Islamist worldview. Hence, the recent announcement of the death penalty on the Kurdish female activist Pakhshan Azizi is all too predictable.

Voice of America reports, “This marks the second death sentence for a female political prisoner in Iran in recent weeks. Earlier, Sharifeh Mohammadi, a labor activist held in Lakan Prison in Rasht, was sentenced to death by the city’s Islamic Revolutionary Court, also on charges of rebellion.”

Iranian authorities have been increasingly fearful of female activists since mass protests in 2022 -following the brutal murder of Mahsa Amini.

Medya News reports, “Azizi has been deprived of the right to contact her family or receive visits from them since 6 July 2024 on the orders of Evin Prison’s security authorities. She has also been denied the right to instruct her lawyer during her detention, and was subjected to torture and duress to force her to make confessions.”

The United Nations (UN) fact-finding mission said it has “established the existence of evidence of trauma to Ms Amini’s body, inflicted while in the custody of the morality police.”

The UN fact-finding mission also said the state apparatus of Iran used shotguns, assault rifles, and submachine guns against demonstrators, “thereby committing unlawful and extrajudicial killings.”

The tyrannical Shia Islamic theocratic state seeks complete power concentration. Hence, the authoritarian state apparatus of Iran killed Mahsa Amini (22), Sarina Esmailzadeh (16), Hadis Najafi (22), Nika Shakarami (16), and many others for how they dressed – and because they held notions of freedom, liberty, and hope.

Depravity since the Iranian Revolution of 1979 is nothing new because untold numbers have been killed – while others tortured and imprisoned for long periods.

The UN report confirmed the reality of Iran. It said, “Some of the detainees faced sexual violence, including rape, rape with an object, threats of rape, electrocution to the genitalia, forced nudity, groping, touching and other forms of sexual violence.”

One can only imagine the hardship, mental torture, and tyranny befalling Pakhshan Azizi, Sharifeh Mohammadi, and many others at the hands of the tyrannical state.

In the 1980s, Ayatollah Hussein-Ali Montazeri (1922-2009) wrote to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. He said, “Did you know that young women are raped in some of the prisons of the Islamic Republic?”

Accordingly, from the concerns and warnings of Ayatollah Hussein-Ali Montazeri – to the deaths of Mahsa Amini, Sarina Esmailzadeh, Hadis Najafi, Nika Shakarami, and many others – to the recent death penalty against Pakhshan Azizi and Sharifeh Mohammadi: the tyrannical Islamic Republic of Iran continues to crush dissent and kill and persecute the women of Iran.

(source: moderntokyotimes.com)

JULY 24, 2024:

TEXAS:

FINAL JUDGEMENT: THE TEXAS COUNTIES THAT SENTENCE THE MOST PEOPLE TO DEATH

Here in Texas, if you are about to commit a capital crime, you might want to see how far you are from the county line.

While death penalty sentences are on a steady decline here in Texas and across the U.S., there are still some areas of Texas that are more likely to hand down the most severe of punishments.

There is a clear frontrunner for most death penalty sentences since 2013- Harris County with 9 total death sentences.

Harris County is followed by Smith County (3), Walker County (2), Jefferson County (2), Bexar County (2), El Paso County(2), Kaufman County (2), McLennan County (2), Bowie County (2), and Hunt County (2).

Every other county has had one or less since 2013, with many having no death penalty sentences, despite Texas' reputation for being death penalty "trigger-happy."

This doesn't figure in per capita death penalty convictions, and that is important to consider with a county like Harris- which is the county that holds all of Houston- Texas' most populous city.

Meanwhile, Austin is spread over 3 counties, surely diluting its death penalty numbers. Likewise, the Dallas/ Fort Worth metroplex is spread over several counties.

It is up to the discretion of the prosecutor to seek the death penalty in capital murder cases, and far fewer are choosing to go that route.

It could be their personal views on the matter, their response to the local political climate/ attitudes of constituents or it can simply come down to the fact that death penalty cases are much more expensive than seeking life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Is death row itself dying out? Probably not for quite some time, however, it's rapidly becoming a rarity.

Long Timers: A Look At Texas Inmates On death row 30+ Years

A look at every man, and his crimes, who has sat on Texas death row for 30 years or longer.

Tony Egbuna Ford----Ford was convicted in the shooting death of an 18-year-old man as part of a home invasion gone wrong, which resulted in the murdered young man's mother and sister also being shot and wounded. However, Ford has maintained his innocence, saying he only gave his codefendants a ride and had been told they were collecting a debt. Ford was convicted only on, "extremely impoverished verbal descriptions." He has been on death row for 30 years.

David Leonard Wood AKA "Desert Killer"----Wood was convicted of the serial murders of 6 young women, whose bodies were discovered in shallow graves on the outskirts of El Paso. Wood was caught after a victim of his was sexually assaulted but not murdered, as Wood had "heard voices" and escaped, leaving her there. The woman showed police the area where she was assaulted, leading police to discover the bodies of the slain victims. Wood also confessed to other cell mates that he committed the murders. Wood had sexual assault priors, including the sexual assault of a child. He has been on death row for 30 years.

George Edward Mcfarland----McFarland was convicted, along with an accomplice, of the robbery death of a grocery store owner who had $27,000 cash on his person in order to cash customer payroll checks. He has been on death row for 31 years.

Eugene Broxton----Eugene Broxton is a suspected serial killer, but was convicted in the shooting death of a newlywed woman in her hotel room. Her husband was grievously injured as well, testifying in court with a bullet still lodged in his neck. He is also the sole suspect in three other violent and seemingly random murders. It appears that Broxton killed to rob and fuel a drug habit. He has been on death row for 31 years.

William Michael Mason----Mason was convicted of kidnapping his wife and beating her to death under a highway bridge for playing her radio too loud. He put her body in a garbage bag and attempted to weigh it down so it would sink into the San Jacinto River. He had recently been released from prison for another murder. He spent 13 years for the robbery (and possibly racially motivated) death of a black man in 1977. While in prison, he became a high-ranking member of the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang. He has been on death row for 31 years.

Brian Edward Davis----Davis, along with a female accomplice, drove a man with mental disabilities to his apartment. David then stabbed the man multiple times and took his leather jacket. Davis would have his death sentence overturned and retried. During the punishment phase of Davis's retrial, he was once again sentenced to death after jurors heard that he had also allegedly murdered an 18-year-old store clerk in 1988. He has been on death row for 31 years.

Daryl Keith Wheatfall----Wheatfall was convicted of the shooting deaths of an elderly couple when they could not repay a $50 debt. The couple's son was also shot and wounded in the scuffle. There is some indication he may have also killed others before this incident and he has since stabbed a guard with a makeshift weapon while on death row, where he has sat for the last 32 years.

Steven Kenneth Staley----Staley was convicted of murdering a man during a robbery/ hostage situation/ car chase. Along with two accomplices he held up an entire Steak & Ale restaurant, forcing 30 people to hand over their wallets, and for the restaurant to open the safe. Police were tipped off by an employee who managed to escape. Staley's victim was shot inside a vehicle during the subsequent police chase. Staley has been on death row for 32 years.

Mark Allen Robertson----Robertson was convicted of the shooting deaths of an elderly woman and her grandson during a robbery. Robertson was apprehended while driving the woman's 1985 Cadillac. He also confessed to the murder of a store clerk for $55. He has been on death row for 32 years.

Warren Darrell Rivers----Rivers was convicted of luring an 11-year-old boy into an abandoned building where Rivers beat, stabbed, and sexually abused the child with a broken broomstick. During a punishment phase re-trial, Rivers attorneys attempted to convince a jury that Rivers was the victim of neglect and head trauma, which may have caused his actions. The jury didn't buy it. Rivers has been on death row for 25 years.

Emanuel Kemp Jr.----Kemp was convicted of the sexual assault and murder of a woman who was the lone rider on a bus. He also stabbed the bus driver and forced them to drive around while he committed his crime. Kemp had been recently released from prison for aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon. He has been on death row for 35 years.

Nelson Wayne Mooney----Mooney was convicted in the shooting death of a 63-year-old man, having robbed him of his van and about $100. He, along with an accomplice, were apprehended when they attempted to rob a convenience store. They were in the murdered man's van, which had been spray painted and the license plates changed. He has been on death row for 36 years.

Willie T Washington----Washington was convicted of the robbery death of 2 store employees for $8 in cash and food stamps. He was arrested when he returned to the scene with the stolen money still in his pocket. He has been on death row for 37 years.

Arturo Daniel Aranda----Aranda shot and killed a law officer during a drug bust on 7/31/1976. Aranda and his brother were transporting 500 pounds of Cannabis when they were stopped by undercover agents. Aranda had plenty of priors, including burglary, theft and rape. He has been on death row for 45 years.

Clarence Curtis Jordan----Jordan was convicted of the robbery death of a store clerk and was implicated in eight other aggravated robberies. He may have psychiatric issues, claiming at one point, "Jesus Christ endowed him with unique and superior abilities." He has been on death row for 45 years.

Harvey Earvin----Earvin was convicted of the murder of an elderly service station attendant after he and his minor girlfriend robbed him. Earvin had worn and wig and fake mustache during the crime. He has been on death row for 46 years.

(source: KFMX news)

SOUTH CAROLINA:

Death row inmate in South Carolina resentenced to life in prison

A man who spent nearly 2 decades on South Carolina's death row for killing 2 people has been granted life in prison without parole 2 years after a federal court overturned his original sentence, news outlets report.

A federal appeals court overturned his death sentence in 2022, saying the judge who ordered his execution ignored psychiatric problems stemming from a mother who started kicking him out of the house when he was in 4th grade and a stepfather who pointed an empty gun at his head and pulled the trigger.

Instead of seeking the death penalty again, prosecutors agreed to the life sentence and Allen, 44, agreed to never appeal, according to the news reports.

Allen's life sentence leaves 32 inmates on South Carolina's death row, down from 63 in early 2011, when the state last carried out an execution.

The inmates have either died of natural causes or, like Allen, been resentenced to other prison terms after successfully appealing their death sentences.

South Carolina's death penalty has been in limbo for 13 years since the state's supply of lethal injection drugs expired and the pharmacy that provided them refused to continue if it couldn't do so anonymously.

The state has passed a shield law, changed its lethal injection method to 1 drug and obtained the necessary drug. Legislators also passed a law allowing executions by firing squad, as well as the century-old electric chair. But the legality of the shield law and whether death by bullets to the heart or an electric shock are cruel and unusual punishments are under review by the South Carolina Supreme Court.

In Allen's case, prosecutors said the families of his Columbia victims decided after his death sentence was overturned in 2022 that they were ready to be done with the legal battle and have him sentenced to life.

Allen killed Scott Farewell's brother, Jedediah Harr, as Harr tried to protect a pregnant woman. Farewell said he wanted Allen dead until about 15 years ago, when he heard an interview with an Alabama prison warden who talked about the frank, heartfelt and emotional conversations he had with death row inmates in the weeks before their executions.

“They’re men, just like me, with emotions,” Farewell said. “Suddenly, I had this overwhelming urge to forgive."

Farewell was the only family member in court Monday, according to news outlets.

Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott, whose agency investigated the South Carolina killings, said Allen deserved the death penalty because of the terror he unleashed in the community.

“He's going to kill again. He likes it," Lott told WIS-TV outside the courtroom. “He's a lucky man because the system wore the victim down.”

Prosecutor Byron Gipson agreed Allen deserved to die but said he couldn't let his feelings outweigh the wishes of the victims' families.

Before he was resentenced, Allen read a statement apologizing for his crimes. He said he had sought help for his serious mental problems but never found the right resources.

“After years of reflection, I have come to understand how my background and upbringing did not prepare me to navigate conflicts or handle stressful situations,” he said.

Allen's attorneys had asked the judge who sentenced him to death to spare his life, citing reports from psychologists and others that a litany of abuse during his childhood led to severe mental illness.

According to the reports, Allen either was sent or volunteered to go to a psychiatric hospital seven times in 5 years leading up to the killings, which took place when he was 22. They cited a time when Allen threated to kill himself by jumping off a roof. Police called his mother who arrived hours later, laughed and walked away.

Allen’s mother also started kicking him out of the house when he was in 4th grade and Allen remembered sleeping in bushes, a friend’s treehouse, or on the McDonald’s playground, according to the reports. Judge G. Thomas Cooper said he didn’t believe the reports and sentenced Allen to die.

(source: Associated Press)

FLORIDA:

State Of Florida Seeks Death Penalty For Tampa Man Accused Of Killing Ex-Wife And Boyfriend

State Attorney Suzy Lopez has announced her intention to seek the death penalty against Robert Craig-Webb, 65, who is accused of the 1st-degree murders of his ex-wife and her new boyfriend in a premeditated ambush on June 1st.

Craig-Webb, who was married to the victim for 40 years before their divorce in 2023, reportedly exhibited “stalker-like behavior” towards his ex-wife when she started dating another man.

The victims were fatally shot as they exited the woman’s apartment in the Encore neighborhood. Craig-Webb confessed to the murders, admitting that the victims posed no threat to him.

“This defendant lay in wait, preying on 2 innocent people who were simply enjoying a quiet afternoon together with their families. His actions were especially heinous, atrocious, and cruel and a jury deserves to decide if the death penalty is an appropriate punishment for his actions. Not 1, but 2 families, are changed forever because of his ruthless actions,” said State Attorney Suzy Lopez.

Lopez has personally met with the victims’ families, expressing her admiration for their strength and commitment to seeking justice for their loved ones.

The investigation revealed a history of domestic violence by Craig-Webb against his ex-wife, including a broken arm.

If you or someone you know is a victim of domestic violence, resources are available, such as The Spring of Tampa Bay’s 24-hour crisis hotline: 813-247-SAFE (7233).

(source: Tampa Free Press)

**************

Prosecutors seeking death penalty for Tampa man accused of killing ex-wife, new boyfriend

Several weeks after Tampa police say a 65-year-old man shot and killed his ex-wife and her new boyfriend, prosecutors announced on Tuesday they're seeking the death penalty in the case.

Investigators say Robert Craig-Webb ambushed the victims off Ray Charles Blvd. in the Encore neighborhood on June 1, shooting them as they walked out of an apartment.

The State Attorney's Office says Craig-Webb and his ex-wife were married for 40 years before the couple divorced in 2023. Their adult children told police that Craig-Webb displayed signs of "stalker-like behavior" in the months that followed their split. Family members also said Craig-Webb had a history of domestic violence, including breaking the victim's arm when they were married.

"His actions were especially heinous, atrocious, and cruel and a jury deserves to decide if the death penalty is an appropriate punishment for his actions," State Attorney Suzy Lopez said in a statement. "Not 1, but 2 families, are changed forever because of his ruthless actions."

Craig-Webb is being held without bond in the Hillsborough County Jail on 1st-degree murder charges.

(source: Fox News)

****************

Hillsborough prosecutors seek death penalty in robbery, stabbing case----The office of State Attorney Suzy Lopez filed notice last week that they will ask for capital punishment in the case of Dayham Ruenes Vinet.

The office of Hillsborough State Attorney Suzy Lopez will seek the death penalty for a man accused of stabbing to death another man and stealing his jewelry.

A written notice filed in court Friday declared that prosecutors will ask for capital punishment in the case of Dayhan Ruenes Vinet.

(source: Tampa Bay Times)

ALABAMA:

Prosecutors want the option of the death penalty for Birmingham man accused in woman's death

The legal proceedings of a man charged in the kidnapping and death of a woman earlier this year may be a death penalty case.

Michael Spellman has been charged with capital murder in the death of Genise Carter.

Police said a Birmingham city worker discovered her body in a location just north of the downtown area in January.

Prosecutors filed a motion on July 22 seeking the death penalty in this case.

Court records show prosecutors are also seeking the death penalty for the other defendant in this case, Jayden Gildersleeve.

(source: WVTM news)

INDIANA:

Suspect in killing of Elwood PD Officer Noah Shahnavaz ruled competent to stand trial

A central Indiana judge has ruled the suspect accused of shooting and killing an Elwood police officer is competent to stand trial and face the death penalty.

Carl Roy Webb Boards II, a 44-year-old Anderson man, faces felony murder and resisting arrest charges in relation to the shooting death of Elwood police officer Noah Shahnavaz in July 2022. If found guilty, Boards could be put to death.

Over a year ago, a Madison County judge ruled that Boards must undergo mental health evaluations to determine if he was competent to stand trial. In September 2023, the same judge asked evaluators to rule whether Boards was intellectually disabled.

Now, concerns over Boards’ competency have been quelled.

Order of Competency

In a ruling filed Tuesday in Madison Circuit Court 3, Judge Andrew Hopper said that the courts have found “overwhelming evidence” that Boards is competent to be tried in the case.

“The defendant has the ability to understand the proceedings and assist in the preparation of a defense, and is competent,” the judge wrote.

Boards’ defense team originally argued that their client was incompetent because he believed they caused him to receive unfavorable treatment while in jail.

However, Judge Hopper wrote that disliking your counsel does not mean that you are incompetent.

Judge Hopper also wrote that Boards has gone through 3 separate mental health evaluations since his arrest, all of which he passed.

“I am extremely confident in my opinion of Mr. Boards’ competence.” one doctor wrote. “There was nothing at all in my evaluation that indicated any failing in his competence. He did not present with any deficit in this regard at all. He is not just competent, he is very competent.”

Order of Venue

While arguing that their client was incompetent, Boards’ defense team also appealed to the court to move the trial to another county.

Citing “prejudicial pretrial publicity” in the case, the attorneys said that jurors from Madison County would be unable to make an impartial decision. The defense team entered several news articles covering Boards’ case to back up their claims.

While Judge Hopper wrote in a Tuesday filing that mere exposure and publicity in a case does not warrant a venue change, the defense and judge did come to an agreement.

Rather than moving where the case is being, jurors in the case will now be drawn from Delaware County residents. The trial, set to begin in January 2025, will still be held in Madison County.

Boards was arrested in the early morning hours of July 31, 2022, in Elwood after investigators say he shot at EPD Officer Shahnavaz 36 times during an attempted traffic stop.

At the time, EPD said responding officers found the 24-year-old Shahnavaz sitting in his vehicle with his gun still in his holster.

Shahnavaz was transported to Ascension St. Vincent Mercy in Elwood and later was flown to an Indianapolis area hospital. He was pronounced dead soon after.

A newer member of the Elwood police force, Shahnavaz had joined the police academy 11 months before the shooting after serving in the Army for 5 years.

Officials claim Boards fled the scene of the shooting in his car, which was recovered later that morning after a police pursuit and eventual arrest.

Court documents filed in the case claim Boards possessed cocaine and marijuana during the July 31 incident, and that he had delta-9 THC and cocaine metabolite in his blood during the incident.

A look at Boards’ lengthy criminal history shows he was sentenced to a 25-year aggravated sentence in connection to a 2006 incident in which he shot at Indianapolis police officers.

(source: Fox News)

UTAH----impending (indigenous) execution

Hopi man on death row asks parole board for mercy

Utah officials are set to hear testimony about whether a Hopi man facing execution should be spared the death penalty and remain imprisoned for life.

Taberon Dave Honie, who was convicted of the 1998 murder of his girlfriend's mother, will have his case come before the July 22 state parole board hearing.

His execution is scheduled for Aug. 8 and would be Utah's first since a man was killed by firing squad in 2010, according to the state’s department of corrections.

A 2-day hearing is scheduled on Honie's commutation request. His attorneys blame poor legal advice for allowing him to be sentenced by a judge instead of a jury that might have been more sympathetic to him and spared him death.

The parole board hearing comes after state officials said July 20 that they no longer planned to use an untested combination of execution drugs that Taberon Dave Honie's lawyers said could have caused him "excruciating pain." They will use a different drug instead — pentobarbital.

Honie's lawyers said a traumatic and violent childhood coupled with his long-time drug abuse, a previous brain injury and extreme intoxication fueled his behavior when he broke into his girlfriend's mother's house and killed her.

"Mr. Honie has always expressed genuine remorse and sadness ... from the moment he was arrested," they wrote in a commutation petition filed last month. They added that Honie has a grown daughter and is "worthy of mercy."

Attorneys for the state urged the board to reject the request.

They said the judge who sentenced Honie already considered his remorse, his difficult upbringing and his state of intoxication when he killed 49-year-old Claudia Benn. Honie, then 22 years old, smashed a glass door to enter Benn's house while she was home with her grandchildren then severely beat her, according to court documents.

Police arrived at the home to find him covered in blood, the documents said.

"Honie says the board should show him mercy because he has taken responsibility for killing Claudia," the state's lawyers wrote. "The commutation petition itself is a long deflection of responsibility that never once acknowledges any of the savage acts he inflicted on Claudia or her granddaughters."

Honie was convicted in 1999 of aggravated murder.

A decision is expected to come at a later date.

After decades of failed appeals, Honie's execution warrant was signed last month over the objections of defense attorneys who raised concerns about the planned lethal drug combination. When Honie's attorneys filed a lawsuit over the issue, corrections officials agreed to switch to pentobarbital, which has been used previously in numerous states. There's been evidence that pentobarbital can also cause extreme pain.

(source: Navajo-Hopi news)

*************

Family members of 1998 Utah murder victim want 'an eye for an eye'----Family members of a woman killed in a 1998 murder pressed Utah officials Tuesday to carry on with the perpetrator’s scheduled execution during emotional testimony about a crime that still traumatizes their close-knit Native American community.

Taberon Dave Honie is asking Utah's parole board to commute his death sentence to life in prison. He faces execution by lethal injection on Aug. 8.

Relatives described the 49-year-old victim, Claudia Benn, as a pillar in their family and community — a tribal council member, substance abuse counselor and caregiver for her children and grandchildren.

“Taberon, you robbed us,” said her cousin, Betsy China. “25 years of missing out on her knowledge, her ability to read at a higher level and comprehend and help us.”

Honie, who had a volatile relationship with Benn's daughter, broke into the victim's house in Cedar City, repeatedly slashed her throat throat, then stabbed her in the genital area.

Benn's grandchildren — including Honie's 2-year-old daughter — were in the house at he time. Authorities said Honie sexually abused 1 of them while Honie was hiding after killing Benn.

“You showed such disrespect to a woman, any woman,” China said.

Sarah China Azule, who said Benn was her aunt, testified that she later found blood all over the house when she entered it.

“She fought for her life. She saved her grandkids, too. That's a strong Paiute woman right there,” Azule testified during the 2nd day of the 2-day hearing at the Utah State Correctional Facility in Salt Lake City.

“The way he killed her, that's just sick...An eye for an eye, as God says it. It's a sad day today,” she later testified.

Honie told the 5-member parole board on Monday that he wasn’t in his “right mind” when he killed his Benn after a day of heavy drinking and drug use. He told the five-member parole board that he wouldn't hurt anyone if his sentence was commuted to life.

He said he never planned to kill Benn and doesn’t remember much about the killing, but acknowledged that the attack made him a “monster.”

“I earned my place in prison. What I’m asking today for this board to consider is ‘Would you allow me to exist?’,” he said.

Utah Board of Pardons & Parole Chairman Scott Stephenson said a decision would be made “as soon as practical” after the parole board hearing.

Attorneys for the state urged the board to reject the request for a lesser sentence. They described his commutation petition as a “deflection of responsibility that never once acknowledges any of the savage acts he inflicted on Claudia or her granddaughters.”

The execution would be Utah’s 1st since Ronnie Lee Gardner was killed by firing squad in 2010, according to the state Department of Corrections.

Honie was convicted in 1999 of aggravated murder.

After decades of failed appeals, his execution warrant was signed last month despite defense objections to the planned lethal drug combination of the sedative ketamine, the anesthetic fentanyl and potassium chloride to stop his heart. Honie’s attorneys sued, and corrections officials agreed to switch to pentobarbital.

(source: Associated Press)

IDAHO:

Lawyer for man charged with killing 4 University of Idaho students wants trial moved to Boise

Lawyers for the man accused of fatally stabbing 4 University of Idaho students are urging a judge to move his murder trial away from the county, arguing the intense media coverage and public interest in the case make it impossible for him to get a fair trial.

“The prolific media coverage, in Latah County, is not a mere passing story,” Anne Taylor, a public defender for Bryan Kohberger, said in a change-of-venue motion made public Tuesday. “The content is not benign, rather, it is inflammatory, emotion evoking and often misleading, false, and poorly sourced. There is no reasonable belief that media coverage will slow, regardless of how long the case takes to prepare for trial.”

In order to protect Kohberger's constitutional right to a fair trial, it should be moved to Boise, she said.

Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson has said he opposes moving the trial. He has argued that the case has received national and international attention so taking it away out of the county would not affect a potential jurors' familiarity with the case.

The 2 sides are scheduled to argue their positions at an Aug. 29 hearing.

Kohberger, a former criminal justice student at Washington State University in nearby Pullman, Washington, is charged with fatally stabbing four students — Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin — at a rental home near campus in Moscow, Idaho, sometime in the early morning hours of Nov. 13, 2022.

Police arrested Kohberger 6 weeks later at his parents’ home in Pennsylvania, where he was spending winter break. Investigators said they linked Kohberger to the crime using DNA found on a knife sheath at the scene, surveillance videos and cellphone data.

Kohberger has maintained his innocence. His defense lawyers have said in court documents that he was out driving alone the night of the killings, something he did often.

His trial is tentatively sent for June 2025.

It will be up to Judge John C. Judge to decide whether it remains in Moscow, with a population of 41,000, or moves 296 miles (476 kilometers) south to Boise, with a population of 236,634.

“Latah County, Idaho is a small, tightly knit community; based on survey results it is a community with a prejudgment for conviction and death sentence,” Taylor wrote. “Some of the major employers in the community are people connected to law enforcement and the University of Idaho.”

(source: Associated Press)

ARIZONA:

Mitchell, Mayes fight over who gets to execute inmates

Attorney General Kris Mayes insists that she is “the state.”

But Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell says she, too, can be “the state.” So, she said, is every other prosecuting agency.

And now the Arizona Supreme Court has to decide who is legally right, with the fate and execution of at least one man on death row hanging in the balance.

The conflicting claims come in new legal briefs filed with the high court, which has to decide who has the statutory authority to seek a warrant of execution.

If the justices side with Mitchell, she has made it clear she will move promptly to get the Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry to execute Aaron Gunches. She said he should have been put to death by now except for the fact that an earlier warrant sought by Mark Brnovich, Mayes’ predecessor, expired before the execution was carried out.

Mayes, for her part, has yet to seek a new warrant, waiting, at least in part, until a special commissioner named by Gov. Katie Hobbs on her first days in office to study the death penalty completes his report. And that may not be done before the end of the year.

Strictly speaking, Hobbs plays no legal role in whether someone is put to death. But a finding by retired Judge David Duncan that there are problems with the procedure could lead Mayes to further delay future executions until there are changes that make the procedure not just legal but ensure there are no “botched” executions as has happened in the past.

No matter, Mitchell is telling the justices.

She contends Arizona law says the Supreme Court must issue a warrant of execution if “the state” files a notice saying that there are no more post-conviction or habeas corpus proceedings. And that, Mitchell said, includes her.

“‘The state’ unequivocally includes all prosecuting agencies and prosecutors,” she wrote in her new pleadings. “What the definition does not say is that ‘the state’ means the Arizona Attorney General and only the Arizona Attorney General.”

Bottom line, Mitchell said, is she has as much authority to seek a warrant of execution as Mayes.

Gunches pleaded guilty to first degree murder and kidnapping in the 2002 death of Ted Price, his girlfriend’s ex husband.

His convictions were affirmed but the death sentence was thrown out. A new jury, however, reinstated the death penalty.

Gunches waived his right to post-conviction review and in November 2022 filed a motion on his own behalf seeking an execution warrant. That was joined the following month by then-Attorney General Mark Brnovich.

But Gunches withdrew that request in January 2023 and Mayes sought to withdraw the warrant.

The high court refused. Only thing is, the warrant , which has a fixed time limit, expired before the execution was carried out. And Mayes has refused to seek a new one.

Mitchell in May asked the Supreme Court to issue a new warrant. And now Mayes is telling the justices to ignore her request.

“The attorney general unquestionably maintains the exclusive authority to request a warrant of execution from this court,” she told the justices in her own filing.

“The Legislature has specifically designated the attorney general the ‘chief legal officer of the state,” Mayes continued. And that includes the “sole responsibility to prosecute and defend in the Supreme Court all proceedings in which this state or an officer of this state is a party.”

At least some of that, she said, is based on the fact that her office represents the Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry which is the agency that would have to carry out any execution.

“Requesting a warrant of execution involves an inherent avowal that the state is prepared to ‘carry out the sentence in compliance with state and federal law,’ ” Mayes said. “As ADCRR’s legal counsel, the attorney general is in a unique position to provide this avowal.”

What all that involves is access to information, including the agency’s execution protocols and lethal injection drugs,” she said, including identifying execution team members, providing training sessions and conducting equipment testing. That also involves confirming that the agency possesses the materials to compound injectable pentobarbital and has retained a compounding pharmacist who can do that within the allocated time frame.

All that, Mayes said, is confidential, meaning the agency cannot discuss its ability to comply with these procedures with a county attorney.

Mitchell, for her part, points the court’s attention to the Victims’ Bill of Rights, a set of constitutional and statutory provisions. Key to that, she said, is ensuring “a prompt and final conclusion of the case after the conviction and sentence.”

In this case, Mitchell said, the victims – Karen Price who was Ted Price’s sister, and Brittney Kay, his daughter – have asserted their rights and have asked her to help enforce them, something state law legally requires her to do. That, she said, gives her “not only the authority but the duty to do so.”

Whatever the justices rule in this case is likely to have implications beyond Gunches.

There are currently 109 men and 3 women on death row.

(source: azcapitoltimes.com)

DR CONGO:

58 NEW DEATH SENTENCES

In March 2024, the DRC made official its decision to suppress the moratorium on executions dating back to 2003. By means of a circular note from the Ministry of Justice, CPJ and ECPM are denouncing the numerous “grouped” death sentences against military personnel handed down since then.

Since the circular note was published, at least 58 soldiers have been sentenced to death, notably for desertion, cowardice, fleeing the enemy and pillaging. The month of July saw a peak in death sentences, with 50 condemned in just 4 days.

These death sentences demonstrate the determination of the army and the military justice system to increase the sense of fear in the ranks of the troops engaged at the front in the various theaters of the war. However, it does not resolve the main and deep-rooted reasons leading to such behaviour.

All these death sentences are currently being appealed. If the death sentences are upheld, these soldiers will find themselves under direct threat of execution.

(source: ecpm.org)

PAKISTAN:

The price of justice: is death penalty the answer?

The recent death penalty verdict for a mobile phone snatcher in Karachi has sparked a critical question: can state-sanctioned execution ever truly serve justice? This case, which involves the tragic killing of a young boy, forces us to confront the efficacy and ethics of capital punishment. The court remarked that “stringent measures to deter crime are essential” and that “the imposition of appropriate and timely penalties will serve as a powerful deterrent for potential offenders”. While the intent behind these statements is understandable, the reality of capital punishment is far more complex and troubling.

2 years ago, I spent considerable time engaging with death row inmates, uncovering the psychological and emotional torment they endure. These individuals live in a state of perpetual limbo, haunted by the uncertainty of their fate. The prolonged period between sentencing, appeals and execution, often spanning over a decade, subject them to immense mental suffering. This phenomenon, known as ‘death row syndrome’, raises serious ethical concerns. Is it just to subject anyone, regardless of their crime, to such prolonged agony? The court’s emphasis on swift adjudication often does not align with the reality of the protracted appeals process in our justice system.

The court’s assertion that stringent penalties will deter crime is a common justification for the death penalty. However, empirical evidence does not support this claim. Studies from around the world, including those conducted by Amnesty International and the United Nations, consistently show that the death penalty does not effectively deter crime more than other forms of severe punishment, such as life imprisonment. In fact, countries that have abolished capital punishment have not seen a rise in crime rates; some have even experienced a decline. The belief in the death penalty as a powerful deterrent is more myth than reality.

Our justice system, despite its best efforts, is not infallible. The risk of wrongful convictions is a critical flaw in the application of the death penalty. In Pakistan, where the legal system is burdened with inefficiencies and inconsistencies, the potential for miscarriages of justice is significant. A 2019 study revealed that the Supreme Court overturned the death penalty in 78 % of cases over the past few years. An irreversible punishment like the death penalty leaves no room for rectifying such errors, leading to the tragic possibility of executing innocent individuals. This risk alone should give us pause and prompt us to reconsider whether we can justify capital punishment.

Proponents of the death penalty often argue that it is the only appropriate punishment for the most heinous crimes. However, this perspective overlooks several critical issues such as the lack of a proven deterrent effect, the risk of wrongful convictions and the ethical and human rights concerns associated.

Instead of capital punishment, Pakistan should consider alternative approaches that are both humane and effective: life imprisonment without parole? Restorative justice programmes? Strengthening the judicial process to ensure fair trials, proper legal representation and adherence to due process? Addressing the root causes of crime, such as poverty, lack of education and inadequate social services?

While the crime was abhorrent and the loss of a young life deeply tragic, the consideration of the death penalty as an effective response urges a more nuanced approach to justice. At its core, capital punishment is a severe violation of human dignity and the right to life, fundamental principles enshrined in international human rights law.

In conclusion, while the court’s call for stringent measures and timely penalties aims to deter crime, the death penalty is not the solution. The risks of wrongful execution, the lack of a proven deterrent effect, and the violation of human dignity all point to the need for Pakistan to reconsider its stance on capital punishment.

(source: Fatima Farooqi----The writer is research coordinator at the Committee for the Welfare of Prisoners; tribune.com.pk)

INDIA:

Kerala High Court commutes death sentence of Pathanamthitta man who killed nephews aged 3 & 7

(see: https://www.onmanorama.com/news/kerala/2024/07/23/kerala-hc-commutes-death-sentence-pathanmathitta-man.html)

MALAYSIA:

6 former students in Malaysia sentenced to death for murder of navy cadet---The judges found that the 6 former students of Universiti Pertahanan Nasional Malaysia (UPNM) had taken turns pressing a steam iron on the body of the victim, Mr Zulfarhan Osman Zulkarnain, 7years ago.

6 former students of Universiti Pertahanan Nasional Malaysia (UPNM) were sentenced to death by a Malaysian court on Wednesday (Jul 24) for the murder of navy cadet Zulfarhan Osman Zulkarnain 7 years ago.

The Court of Appeal, led by Judge Hadhariah Syed Ismail, overturned the initial 18-year prison sentences imposed by the Kuala Lumpur High Court, reinstating the mandatory death penalty under Section 302 of the Penal Code.

Judge Hadhariah stated in her ruling that the 3-judge panel found that the 5 students had taken turns pressing a steam iron on the body of the deceased, including his private parts, while the last student, Abdoul Hakeem, was complicit in inciting and instructing the other 5 to do so.

The 6 students are Muhammad Akmal Zuhairi Azmal, Muhammad Azamuddin Mad Sofi, Muhammad Najib Mohd Razi, Muhammad Afif Najmudin Azahat, Mohamad Shobirin Sabri, and Abdoul Hakeem Mohd Ali.

"Therefore, we unanimously decide that a single sentence is appropriate for all six defendants, and they shall be taken to a place of execution where they will be sentenced to death by hanging.

"Thus, the court overturns the 18-year prison sentence imposed by the High Court on the 6 defendants and replaces it with the death sentence," said the judge.

5 of the students had initially faced murder charges under Section 302 of the Penal Code, which provides for a mandatory death penalty upon conviction.

Abdoul Hakeem was charged as an accomplice under Section 109 of the same Code, which also carries a mandatory death penalty.

The Kuala Lumpur High Court then found all 6 of them guilty of causing injury to Zulfarhan with intent but without the intention to kill, under Section 304 (a) of the Penal Code, which provides for imprisonment of up to 30 years and a fine if the act was committed with the intent to cause death.

The 6 were accused of committing the acts in a room at the Jebat Hostel block, UPNM, between 4.45am and 5.45am on May 22, 2017.

Zulfarhan died at the Serdang Hospital on Jun 1, 2017.

The 3-judge panel also overturned the 3-year prison sentences imposed on 12 other former students of the same university for injuring Zulfarhan to four years of imprisonment.

They were found guilty of deliberately causing injury to Zulfarhan to obtain a confession that he had stolen a laptop and were charged under Section 330 of the Penal Code, which provides for a maximum penalty of seven years in prison and a fine, upon conviction.

All of them, now aged 28, were accused of committing the acts in two rooms at the Jebat Hostel block, UPNM, between May 21, 2017, and May 22, 2017.

(source: channelnewsasia.com)

JULY 23, 2024:

TEXAS:

El Paso Walmart gunman due back in court in September

The man who admitted to the Aug. 3, 2019, Cielo Vista Walmart mass shooting is scheduled to be back in a state courtroom in September, more than 5 years since the shooting that killed 23 people and wounded 22 others.

District Judge Sam Medrano has set a scheduling conference for 9 a.m. Sept. 12 in his 409th District Court. The hearing could lead to a trial date on state charges of capital murder and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon against Patrick Crusius, who turns 26 on Saturday.

Medrano has waived Crusius’ appearance in other state court hearings since his arraignment on Oct. 10, 2019. But the notice for the Sept. 12 hearing says the defendant’s appearance isn’t waived, meaning he must attend the hearing.

Crusius pleaded guilty last year to federal hate crimes and weapons charges and sentenced to 90 consecutive life prison terms.

The guilty plea came after federal prosecutors decided not to seek the death penalty. Federal prosecutors have declined to explain that decision, but at his sentencing hearing in July 2023 said he had a long history of mental health issues and had been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder.

No trial date has been set on state charges, which carry a possible death sentence. Three different district attorneys and multiple state prosecutors have handled the case since the shooting.

District Attorney Bill Hicks, who was appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott in December 2022 after Yvonne Rosales resigned 2 years into a 4-year term, has said he will seek the death penalty if Crusius is convicted of capital murder. Hicks is being challenged in the Nov. 5 election by Democrat James Montoya, who also has said he will seek the death penalty. But Montoya has also indicated he might be open to a plea agreement if a trial date hasn’t been set by the start of the next district attorney’s term in January 2025.

The Sept. 12 hearing is a scheduling conference, where defense and prosecutors can propose dates for a series of actions – such as motions filings – leading to a court date and the start of jury selection.

Medrano also had a scheduling conference in September 2023, but no schedule emerged after defense attorneys said they were still sifting through millions of pages of potential evidence turned over by prosecutors earlier that year.

The most recent hearing came in February, where prosecutors and defense lawyers continued to argue over the exchange of evidence.

The Sept. 12 hearing could be the first time in almost five years that the public can see the Walmart gunman through media video and still photos. The media has not been allowed to photograph Crusius since his last appearance in state court in October 2019. Cameras are not allowed in federal courtrooms, where Crusius appeared several times last year.

Medrano generally has allowed media photography in his court for hearings related to the Walmart shooting, although cameras have not been allowed in the last 2 hearings.

The 2019 mass shooting was one of the deadliest domestic terrorism attacks in U.S. history. In a screed published online just before the shooting, Crusius said he was trying to stop “the Hispanic invasion of Texas.”

Since the shooting, conservative media and politicians have expanded the use of the word “invasion” to describe unauthorized immigration, despite warnings that the language is inaccurate and could lead to further violence.

(source: elpasomatters.org)

PENNSYLVANIA:

DA Will Seek Death Penalty in Pruitt MurderFree Access

In Bradford County Court this morning, the district attorney said he would seek the death penalty against two defendants if they are found guilty of first-degree murder in the homicide of 40-year-old Michael Pruitt in Springfield Township.

The 2 defendants are 46-year-old Terry Parker of Harrisburg and 48-year-old Ronda Parker of Springfield Township.

Both Terry and Ronda Parker waived their arraignments in Bradford County Court, which were scheduled for this morning.

As a result, a plea of not guilty was entered on their behalf to all the charges that have been lodged against them, which are conspiracy to commit criminal homicide, abuse of a corpse, and tampering with/fabricating physical evidence.

Summer L. Heil, 35, of Harrisburg, who is accused of participating in the dismemberment of Pruitt’s body after he was murdered, appeared by ZOOM this morning for her arraignment from the Bradford County Correctional Facility (BCCF), where she is being held without bail.

Heil pleaded not guilty to all the charges that have been lodged against her, which are abuse of a corpse, tampering with/fabricating physical evidence, and hindering apprehension or prosecution/conceal or destroy evidence.

Ronda Parker is accused of conspiring with Terry Parker to lure Pruitt to her home in Springfield Township where Terry Parker allegedly fatally shot him in early March.

Ronda and Terry Parker have not yet been formally charged with 1st-degree murder. However, District Attorney Richard Wilson has said he might modify the charges against both of them.

Ronda and Terry Parker are also being held without bail at the BCCF.

(source: rocket-courier.com)

SOUTH CAROLINA:

Columbia man on death row resentenced to life in prison following court appeal

Quincy Allen was removed from South Carolina’s death row in the early afternoon of July 22, nearly 2 decades after a judge sentenced him to death for 2 killings in Richland County.

“Mr. Allen, I think you’re a very lucky person,” state Circuit Court Judge Debra McCaslin said before resentencing him to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the fatal shootings of Dale Hall and Jedediah Harr in 2002.

Allen, 44, was resentenced according to his plea agreement with local prosecutors. The South Carolina 5th Circuit Solicitor’s Office agreed to recommend a life sentence — rather than once more seek a death penalty — in exchange for Allen’s abandoning any further court action or appeals.

Allen's court appearance on July 22 was the result of a successful appeal in federal court. In 2022, the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned his death sentence after finding errors by the original sentencing judge. The appellate court ordered a new sentencing hearing.

Solicitor Byron Gipson told the court July 22 that his office “struggled” with whether to pursue the death penalty again. He said the victims’ families wanted closure from the case and a negotiated life sentence would finally give them that.

They have “a right to move in this direction,” Gipson said. “Quincy Allen will die in the custody of the South Carolina Department of Corrections."

(source: Post and Courier)

FLORIDA:

Capital murder trial for Nicholas Canfield delayed due to death in public defender's family----It is the 2nd delay in the capital murder case in less than 6 months.

Months after a judge postponed a capital murder trial once a jury was seated and opening arguments were set to begin again, a North Fort Myers man accused in the brutal death of a toddler is again set to face a judge.

Nicholas Canfield, 29, faces 1 count of capital 1st-degree murder; 1 count of sexual battery on a child younger than 12; and 3 counts of aggravated child abuse.

The postponed capital murder trial was set to begin Monday with jury selection. However, on Wednesday, Lee Circuit Judge Bruce Kyle OK'd a motion filed the same day by public defender Kathleen Smith.

According to the motion, Smith said a relative of hers died July 16, making her unavailable starting this week.

Canfield's trial began Jan. 29 with jury selection, but was postponed Feb. 7 after a jury had already been seated. Lee Circuit Judge Bruce Kyle briefly called in jurors, and said the trial would be postponed due to unforeseen circumstances. He did not specify the factors that led to the postponement at the time.

Canfield's counsel on Nov. 28 filed a motion challenging the new death penalty guidelines, which allow juries to recommend death in an 8-4 vote. Kyle denied that motion Jan. 28.

Before the bill took effect April 20, 2023, all 12 jurors had to unanimously find at least one death-penalty aggravating factor existed during deliberations in the guilt phase of the trial.

The State Attorney’s Office filed on Nov. 23, 2020, a notice of intent to seek the death penalty against Canfield.

A Lee County grand jury indicted Canfield on Oct. 23, 2020, in the death of 2-year-old Jaliyah Ramos.

The toddler died April 29, 2020. Rescue workers were called to the Ramos' home 6 days earlier, where they found her unresponsive.

Lee County deputies arrested Canfield on April 30, 2020. He has been jailed since.

In May 2020, Sheriff Carmine Marceno said 2 of the 3 children in the home showed signs of injury and called the situation "pure evil." Officials called him the children's "caretaker."

Canfield's indictment said the crimes happened on 1 or more occasions between March 1, 2020, and April 29, 2020, and included a male child.

Kyle has set an Aug. 14 status hearing in the case.

(source: Fort Myers News-Press)

ALABAMA:

The last execution

One day Alabama will conduct its final execution.

The witnesses present won’t know that, of course. If capital punishment disappears, it will be by law or ruling that comes after these men and women gather in the small, tomb-like room at Atmore Correctional Facility.

They will look through a window framed in a concrete wall and watch a person die. As hundreds of people have before. They will leave that grim scene not knowing anything will change.

But they will be the last witnesses to capital punishment in Alabama.

That day is far off in Alabama. The state last week executed Keith Edmund Gavin for the murder of William Clinton Clayton Jr. in 1998. He was the 3rd person put to death by Alabama this year. The state plans a 4th execution in September.

More capital punishment awaits. As of April, there were 166 people on Alabama’s death row. The U.S. Supreme Court has signaled that no level of injustice or incompetence will make them stop an execution. State officials have done everything they can to speed up the machinery of death.

It may seem that nothing can stop it. A majority of the states – 27, to be precise – still have the death penalty on the books.

But do you know how many have conducted executions this year?

5, according to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC): Texas; Oklahoma; Missouri; Georgia and Alabama. Utah is scheduled to conduct an execution next month. Idaho attempted to carry one out in February but failed.

And if look through all the executions conducted over the last 5 years, and the number of states on the list only gets to 12. And that’s overstating the case. Arkansas, Maryland and Iowa are on because of federal executions (Maryland and Iowa do not allow the death penalty in state law); Virginia, which conducted an execution in 2021, abolished the death penalty shortly after.

In other words, more than 1/2 the states with the death penalty haven’t employed it in recent years.

That’s a major decline from 1998. In that year alone, 18 states put people to death.

And fewer people are going to death row. In 2013, there were 79 death sentences handed down across 15 states. At the time, that was the 2nd-lowest number of condemnations since the U.S. Supreme Court restored the death penalty in 1976.

In 2023? There were 21. And it had fallen to 7 states.

Alabama is still sentencing people to death but at a far slower pace. In 1998, Alabama courts sent 25 people to death row. Last year, they sent 3.

There have been some explanations for the decline of the death penalty, including declines in crime rates, better access to defense attorneys, the cost of trials and awareness of the stark racial disparities in applying the death penalty.

Alabama conducted 153 executions between 1927 and 1976, according to DPIC. And 127 of the people executed were Black.

No trend is inevitable. The U.S. Supreme Court has made it next to impossible for a death row inmate to challenge a sentence. The Republican nominee for president conducted 13 federal executions in the final six months of his first term in the White House, a spree The Associated Press said led to cut corners and at least one botched execution.

Nor does this mean that the alternative — life without parole — is free from misuse and injustice.

But that sentence is reversible. A death sentence is not.

The state of Alabama cannot go back in time and stop the execution of Nathaniel Woods, who was executed for being present when three police officers were killed, even though Woods was not the gunman.

If the state executes Toforest Johnson, a person even his local district attorney says deserves a new trial, there will be no opportunity to undo that.

I don’t expect the government to limit executions any time soon. If officials execute a person over the objections of the family members of his victims, no appeal to humanity or justice will stop them.

But Alabama is now an outlier in putting people to death.

And it would not be surprising if we end up as the last state with capital punishment. Our leaders’ minds are 30 years in the past. Cruelty is a proven formula for success in Alabama politics, and we have a federal judiciary that indulges officials’ gross irresponsibility with death.

But imagine what it will be like as other states end executions or, for whatever reason, can no longer carry them out.

Imagine the death march continuing because our leaders are too committed to the death penalty or too frightened of the political consequences to give it up. Think of Alabama continuing to tie people to a gurney, long after the rest of the nation has moved on.

The people who gather for Alabama’s last execution won’t know that it will be the last. All they will know is that the state has clung to a process poisoned by racism and conducted with cruelty.

And as they look through the glass and watch that process unfold one final time, they’ll the cruelty that defines so much of Alabama government reflected at them.

(source: Commentary, Bill Lyman, alablamareflector.com)

MISSISSIPPI:

MS Supreme Court denies rehearing again in Timothy Ronk death row case

Timothy Ronk, 44, was sentenced to death in 2010 in Harrison County for capital murder and an additional 30 years for armed robbery in the stabbing death of Michelle Craite in her Woolmarket home. His convictions and sentences were upheld on appeal in 2015.

(source: Hattiesburg American)

KENTUCKY: Kentucky Attorney General pushes to resume lethal injections

The debate over whether to resume executions, lifting a 14-year ban on the death penalty, has made its way to a Kentucky appellate court.

Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman told the Courier Journal this week that he has promoted a seasoned prosecutor in his office to oversee legal challenges in various death cases as his office pushes for the resumption of lethal injections. The Commonwealth's last execution, of Marco Allen Chapman, took place in 2008.

Coleman's office is challenging the continuation of a stay on all executions issued in 2010 in Franklin Circuit Court.

Currently, there are 25 condemned inmates, including 1 woman. The prisoners and the death chamber are housed at the Kentucky State Penitentiary, a male maximum security prison in Eddyville, 180 miles southwest of Louisville.

Attorneys for death row inmate Ralph Baze, who killed 2 police officers, successfully argued before Franklin Circuit Court Judge Phillip Shepherd in 2010 that some of the Kentucky Department of Corrections lethal injection protocols were unconstitutional. Attorneys with the Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy's capital post conviction branch are representing Baze on appeal.

Changes have been made to comply with the judge's order, with Governor Andy Beshear's administration publishing the final amended capital punishment regulation in March. This change allows for an automatic stay of execution if a DOC review finds reasonable grounds to believe the condemned inmate is intellectually disability.

Then, Coleman filed a motion in March to dissolve the injunction barring lethal injections to clear the way for the executions of Baze and others. Baze, 69, who was sentenced to death in 1994 in Rowan County for the murder of two lawmen. Arthur Briscoe, Powell County deputy sheriff, went to Baze's home to serve an active warrant from Ohio. When Briscoe returned with Sheriff Steve Bennett, Baze killed both men with an assault rifle.

Coleman argued that the latest DOC action brought the state protocols into full compliance with the judge's 2010 ruling. The judge decided not to lift the injunction, since questions may arise over the constitutionality of the new regulations.

Coleman's office filed an appeal of the judge's decision, which remains pending before the Kentucky Court of Appeals.

Regardless of which side wins in the appellate court decision, the issue is expected to reach the Kentucky Supreme Court. Coleman's office is hoping for the opportunity to make oral arguments before the high court later this year or early 2025.

The Kentucky Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty continues to lobby lawmakers through online petitions for a death penalty abolition bill. Its website cautions: "Kentucky's death penalty is dormant, but many are trying to revive it!" They also urged the governor to sign a bill to abolish the death penalty.

Earlier this year, a group of state lawmakers proposed legislation to abolish the death penalty, commuting current death sentences to life without parole, but it failed to make it out of either the House or the Senate.

In another death penalty case, Assistant Solicitor General Elizabeth Hedges, with the Kentucky Attorney General's Office of Criminal Appeals, is urging a federal appellate court in ongoing motions to uphold the death sentence of Karu Gene White.

White, awaiting execution for 3 murders in 1979, is asking the U.S. Court of Appeals to review his case, court records show. A jury convicted White in 1980 of the murders of Charlie Gross, 75, his wife, Lula Gross, 74, and Sam Chaney, 79.

White has remained on death row for 44 years - longer than any other inmate awaiting execution - for the murders of 3 elderly shopkeepers in Breathitt County, 159 miles southeast of Louisville.

"For 40-plus years, the families of the victims have been forced to wait for justice, enduring unacceptable delays and frustrating appeals," Coleman said.

"We are asking the court to respect the jury's verdict, deny this last-ditch appeal and clear the way for lawful punishment."

(source: Louisville Courier-Journal)

MISSOURI----impending execution

After Filing by Missouri AG, Court Maintains Death Penalty for Marcellus Williams Despite Evidence, Charges Innocence Project

Missouri’s Attorney General Andrew Bailey submitted a writ of prohibition to the Missouri Supreme Court that prevented the St. Louis County Circuit Court from reviewing DNA evidence that could absolve Marcellus Williams of the crime and the death penalty.

According to a late July press release from the Innocence Project the court had scheduled a hearing for August 21 to consider the evidence, which Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell believes could overturn Williams’s wrongful conviction and death sentence.

Despite the strong evidence supporting Williams’s innocence, his execution is continued to be set for about two months from now, Sept. 24.

Tricia Rojo Bushnell, one of Williams’s attorneys, condemned the Attorney General’s actions, charging, “Instead of using the office’s time and resources to review the merits of Marcellus Williams’s innocence claim, the Attorney General seeks to delay a court from even hearing the evidence until it is too late.”

Bushnell noted the Attorney General delayed filing an opposition until after the execution date was set and called for collaboration in the pursuit of justice.

In an article by the Innocence Project, it’s stated Williams has been on death row for 24 years, convicted of the 1998 murder of Felicia Gayle, a former journalist, who was found stabbed to death.

The article reports the crime scene yielded significant forensic evidence, such as fingerprints, a bloody shoe print, hair, and DNA on the murder weapon, but none of it matched Williams.

The article reveals that Williams’ conviction was mainly based on the testimonies of 2 unreliable witnesses who were promised leniency and rewards.

Recent DNA testing, however, has shown Williams is not linked to the crime, yet the article states that “no court has considered that evidence.”

Attorney Bell appointed a special prosecutor who Bell said reviewed findings from 3 independent DNA experts, who all concluded Williams was not the source of the DNA on the murder weapon.

According to the motion filed by Attorney Bell to vacate the conviction, “DNA evidence supporting a conclusion that Mr. Williams was not the individual who stabbed Ms. Gayle has never been considered by any court.

“This never-before-considered evidence, when paired with the relative paucity of other, credible evidence supporting guilt . . . casts inexorable doubt on Mr. Williams’s conviction and sentence.”

Despite this, the article states MO Attorney General Bailey opposes reviewing the new evidence, and this is consistent with the office’s history of opposing innocence claims, even with supporting DNA evidence.

For instance, the article refers to a 2003 case, where an assistant attorney general argued that a man should be executed despite potential proof of innocence. The Missouri Supreme Court ultimately disagreed and exonerated the man.

As the article emphasizes, the Williams case highlights serious issues in the justice system, including reliance on unreliable witnesses, racial bias, and resistance to overturn wrongful convictions despite new evidence. With his execution date approaching, the article urges for a need for judicial review of all evidence, particularly in death penalty cases.

(source: Kaylynn Chang is an undergraduate student at UC Berkeley looking to major in Legal Studies with a strong interest in criminal justice and judicial law----davisvanguard.org)

OKLAHOMA:

SUPREME COURT’S HAND-PICKED ADVOCATE ARGUES IN FAVOR OF KILLING RICHARD GLOSSIP----Oklahoma’s attorney general believes Glossip’s conviction should be overturned. Chief Justice John Roberts chose a former clerk to argue that the AG is wrong.

TO HEAR LAWYER Christopher G. Michel tell it, the case against Richard Glossip is straightforward. Glossip, who has been on death row in Oklahoma for more than two decades for the brutal 1997 murder of his boss, is clearly guilty, Michel says, and there is no reason for the U.S. Supreme Court to stand in the way of his execution.

More than that, Michel argues that the court should be willing to force Oklahoma to carry out an execution that even its attorney general opposes.

Ordinarily, a state’s attorney general would be the one arguing to the high court that an execution should move forward. But since virtually the moment he took office in January 2023, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond has taken unprecedented action to spare Glossip’s life. In Drummond’s view, the case against Glossip was so tainted by prosecutorial misconduct that his conviction should be overturned.

Drummond told the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals as much last year, when he came forward to ask the court to vacate Glossip’s conviction and order a new trial. The court rejected the overture, however, clearing the way for Glossip’s execution. Glossip appealed to the Supreme Court for intervention, an effort that Drummond joined. As such, there was no one from Oklahoma arguing in favor of killing Glossip. Enter Michel.

Michel, a partner at the white shoe law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan and co-chair of its national appellate practice, has argued before the court 10 times. He was a speechwriter for President George W. Bush and collaborated on his memoir. More importantly, Michel worked as a law clerk to Chief Justice John Roberts and to Justice Brett Kavanaugh when he was a jurist on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. When it became clear no one would defend the Oklahoma court’s ruling, Roberts tapped Michel to take on the job.

While it is extraordinary for a state attorney general to decline to defend a death sentence before the Supreme Court, it’s not entirely unusual for the court to appoint an outside advocate for a position not otherwise represented in a case. Michel, a seasoned Supreme Court litigator with impeccable conservative credentials, was well positioned for the job.

In a brief filed on July 8, Michel took on the task with gusto — even if his recitation of the facts of Glossip’s case, and of the lower court’s ruling, was misleading and incomplete.

Michel argues that the court should pay no mind to Drummond’s concerns about the legality of executing Glossip. “Nothing in the Constitution compels a state court to provide a particular measure of deference to a state official’s confession of error,” Michel wrote. In other words, it doesn’t matter how flawed Drummond believes the case is, the court is under no obligation to take those concerns seriously.

Oral arguments in the case are expected to happen in the fall, with a decision unlikely to come before spring 2025. For Glossip, the court’s ruling could ultimately determine whether he lives or dies. But it could also have far-reaching consequences for criminal defendants across the country. Michel relies on arguments that dismiss long-standing protections against prosecutorial misconduct and the courts’ obligation to address it. In doing so, Michel encourages the justices to, at best, disregard decades of legal precedent meant to ward off wrongful convictions or, at worst, to undo them.

A Significant Omission

Richard Glossip was twice convicted and sentenced to die for the 1997 murder of Barry Van Treese inside a seedy Best Budget Inn that Van Treese owned on the outskirts of Oklahoma City. No physical evidence linked Glossip, the motel’s live-in manager, to the crime. The case against him was based almost entirely on the testimony of a 19-year-old maintenance man named Justin Sneed, who admitted to bludgeoning Van Treese to death but insisted it was Glossip’s idea. In exchange for testifying against Glossip, Sneed escaped the death penalty and was sentenced to life without parole. Glossip has always sworn he is innocent, and, over the last decade, evidence that he was wrongly convicted has steadily mounted.

Much of this evidence supports Glossip’s contention that Sneed — a chronic drug user prone to unpredictable bouts of violence — murdered Van Treese and only later set up Glossip as the mastermind. New witnesses have countered the state’s portrayal of Sneed at trial, where he was cast as a hapless follower who acted under Glossip’s complete control. Those witnesses have described Sneed as cunning, manipulative, and quite capable of killing a man on his own.

In August 2022, the state began releasing boxes of previously undisclosed case documents that included evidence of serious prosecutorial misconduct. The records show that Sneed gave false statements at Glossip’s second trial — and that prosecutors were aware of his misstatements yet failed to correct his testimony. While he was in jail, Sneed had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and prescribed lithium to manage it. However, when he testified against Glossip, Sneed denied ever seeing a psychiatrist and said he had no idea why he’d been given lithium.

This was a significant omission. Sneed’s frame of mind was central to the question of whether he was capable of committing such a brutal and reckless crime on his own. Moreover, Sneed’s mental health disorder combined with his chronic drug use could have negatively affected his ability to accurately recall what happened the night he killed Van Treese. Knowing about this combination of factors might have given the jury reason to be skeptical of his account.

Murder at the Motel

For years, Glossip’s lawyers had been trying to unlock records related to Sneed’s mental health. A competency evaluation prior to Glossip’s first trial noted that Sneed was unstable, but when defense lawyers sought access to Sneed’s health records they were rebuffed by the state, which called their efforts a “fishing expedition.”

Among the recently released case documents were notes from a meeting between Sneed and prosecutor Connie Smothermon that took place not long before Glossip’s 2004 retrial.

In the notes, Smothermon wrote the name of a doctor — “Dr. Trumpet?” — and a reference to the powerful mood stabilizing drug lithium — “on lithium?”

The significance of those notes was immediately apparent to Glossip’s lawyers. As they later argued to the Oklahoma court, “Trumpet” was clearly a reference to Lawrence Trombka, the lone psychiatrist working in the Oklahoma City jail at the time Sneed was incarcerated there, and thus the only person authorized to diagnose Sneed’s disorder and to prescribe lithium. The notes made clear that Sneed had, at best, misrepresented the situation under oath — and that Smothermon did nothing to correct his misstatements.

At Glossip’s 2nd trial, Sneed testified that while in jail he had a cold and asked for Sudafed, but that “somehow they ended up giving me lithium for some reason. I don’t know why,” he said. “I never seen no psychiatrist or anything.”

“So you don’t know why they gave you that?” Smothermon asked.

“No,” Sneed replied.

This exchange was at the heart of Drummond’s 2023 motion to vacate Glossip’s conviction — and of the question currently before the Supreme Court. “There is no dispute that Sneed was the state’s key witness at the second trial. If Sneed had accurately disclosed that he had seen a psychiatrist, then the defense would have likely learned … the true reason for Sneed’s lithium prescription,” Drummond wrote in his motion to the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals. “With this information plus Sneed’s history of drug addiction, the state believes that a qualified defense attorney likely could have attacked Sneed’s ability to properly recall key facts at the second trial.”

“The state has reached the difficult conclusion that the conviction of Glossip was obtained with the benefit of material misstatements to the jury by its key witness,” he wrote.

In his brief to the court, Michel dismisses Smothermon’s notes as “cryptic” and “barely decipherable” and calls into question whether they mean what everyone else thinks that they mean. Glossip and Drummond’s argument relies on a “significant overreading” of the notes, Michel argues. Even if the notes do show that Sneed was prescribed lithium by a psychiatrist, he says, this information would not have made a difference to the jury. Sneed mentioned lithium in his testimony and everyone knows that lithium is prescribed for mood disorders, Michel argued, so knowing the full and correct story wouldn’t have changed the outcome of Glossip’s trial.

Widespread Violations

At play in the current dispute before the Supreme Court are three key legal principles designed to protect criminal defendants and to keep state actors honest. The first is a requirement that prosecutors turn over to the defense any materials that are exculpatory to the defendant or that could impeach a witness. The second obligates prosecutors to ensure that witnesses testify truthfully. The third requires courts to consider the cumulative impact on a case when prosecutors violate such rules.

In Glossip’s case, the state’s failure to turn over the notes regarding Sneed’s diagnosis and treatment violated the first principle, which comes from a case called Brady v. Maryland. Smothermon’s failure to correct Sneed’s false testimony about his use of lithium violated the second principle, which stems from Napue v. Illinois. Finally, Kyles v. Whitley enshrines the third principle.

As Michel presents it, Drummond and Glossip’s lawyers want to overturn Glossip’s conviction based solely on the “Dr. Trumpet” note and Sneed’s misleading trial testimony — neither of which he sees as a violation of Brady nor Napue.

But this mischaracterizes what Drummond and Glossip’s lawyers are actually arguing. In their filings to the court, they argue that the note and Sneed’s false testimony are part of a constellation of violations. “The state’s suppression of Sneed’s psychiatric evidence did not occur in isolation,” Glossip’s lawyers wrote. “It was part of an expansive effort to unfairly shore up the testimony of the State’s star witness and mask vulnerabilities in the State’s theory of the case.”

The 8 boxes recently turned over to Glossip’s legal team contained a slew of additional materials that had been previously hidden from the defense.

Among the records was a letter written by Sneed to his public defender in 2003 — a year before Glossip’s retrial — in which he suggested he wanted to take back his testimony against Glossip. “Do I have the choice of re-canting my testimony at any time during my life, or anything like that,” Sneed wrote. Four years later, Sneed wrote to his lawyer again, saying there were a lot of things “eating at me” that “I need to clean up.”

Other documents revealed that Smothermon collaborated with Sneed’s attorney during the retrial to modify Sneed’s testimony to make it fit the forensic evidence. At the first trial, Sneed had denied attacking Van Treese with a knife even though there had been a knife found at the scene — and despite the medical examiner’s findings that there were puncture wounds on Van Treese’s chest. But at the second trial, Sneed testified that he had, in fact, stabbed Van Treese.

Glossip’s lawyers have raised these issues in various appeals in Oklahoma, all of which have been rejected by the state Court of Criminal Appeals. But it has done so without considering the cumulative impact of the prosecutorial misconduct. The effect has been to diminish those violations to individual errors that the Oklahoma court — and now Michel — claims would not have made a difference to Glossip’s fate. This was the very issue the Kyles case was trying to address by requiring a holistic review.

“Absent this Court’s correction,” Glossip’s lawyers wrote, “the OCCA’s disregard of Kyles also heralds a powerful incentive for prosecutors to trickle exculpatory evidence just slowly enough that a defendant can never present a full-throated Brady claim.”

Dire Consequences

Aside from the cursory dismissal by the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals, none of the evidence withheld from Glossip’s team has ever been fully vetted as part of an evidentiary hearing. Smothermon has never had to testify about the substance of her notes or her interactions with Sneed during Glossip’s trial.

Glossip’s team has asked for a hearing, but the Court of Criminal Appeals has rejected that request too. Yet even Michel’s brief suggests that an evidentiary hearing might be in order — and that could present a way forward that would allow the Supreme Court to avoid having to decide Glossip’s fate at this time.

“At a minimum,” Michel wrote, “the Court should remand for further fact development rather than vacating the conviction.”

If the Supreme Court chooses to go forward with the case and to rule in a way that degrades legal precedent, groups that have filed friend-of-the-court briefs in the case warn of dire, national consequences. Nearly a dozen legal scholars say that “embracing the OCCA’s decision,” for example, “would give prosecutors and other attorneys free rein to make decisions, on which the integrity of judicial proceedings will turn, that attorneys cannot be expected to make objectively and reliably. The result will be to increase the problem of false testimony in judicial proceedings — and, consequently, to erode public confidence in the courts’ commitment to judicial integrity.”

(source: Liliana Segura and Jordan Smith, theintercept.com)

UTAH----impending execution

Attorneys for state of Utah ask parole board to keep death sentence for man convicted in 1998 murder

Attorneys for the state of Utah are expected on Tuesday to urge a parole board to deny a death row inmate's request for his life to be spared ahead of his scheduled Aug. 8 execution.

Representatives of the 49-year-old victim, Claudia Benn, were scheduled to testify before both sides deliver their closing arguments during the commutation hearing at the Utah State Correctional Facility in Salt Lake City.

Inmate Taberon Dave Honie testified Monday that he wasn’t in his "right mind” when he killed his girlfriend’s mother in 1998 after a day of heavy drinking and drug use. He asked the 5-member parole board to commute his sentence to life in prison.

Utah Board of Pardons & Parole Chairman Scott Stephenson said a decision would be made “as soon as practical” after the parole board hearing.

Honie told the Utah parole board that he never planned to kill Benn and doesn’t remember much about the killing, which happened when Benn’s 3 grandchildren — including Honie’s 2-year-old daughter — were in her home.

“I earned my place in prison. What I’m asking today for this board to consider is ‘Would you allow me to exist?’,” he said.

Attorneys for the state have urged the board to reject the request for a lesser sentence. They described his commutation petition as a “deflection of responsibility that never once acknowledges any of the savage acts he inflicted on Claudia or her granddaughter The execution would be Utah’s 1st since Ronnie Lee Gardner was killed by firing squad in 2010, according to the state Department of Corrections.

Honie was convicted in 1999 of aggravated murder.

After decades of failed appeals, his execution warrant was signed last month despite defense objections to the planned lethal drug combination of the sedative ketamine, the anesthetic fentanyl and potassium chloride to stop his heart. Honie’s attorneys sued, and corrections officials agreed to switch to pentobarbital.

(source: Associated Press)

CALIFORNIA:

Op-Ed: Rosen’s Lawless War Against The Death Penalty, Part II----Reader writes in to criticize District Attorney Jeff Rosen's attempt to change the death sentences for 14 people convicted in South Bay courtrooms.

3 months ago, District Attorney Jeff Rosen unveiled his controversial scheme to have the death sentences of 14 South Bay murderers reduced to prison terms. Although his plan faltered out of the gate because he failed to coordinate scheduling with the courts, the misstep bought him valuable time that he could have used to correct course. He blew the chance.

If Rosen had only taken that opportunity to re-read the statute he thinks allows him to elevate his personal opinions over the rule of law and looked for the first time at an important intervening court decision, he would have quietly backed down. Rosen has instead doubled down with Giveaway 2.0, a repackaged version prepped for rollout at 14 hearings scheduled between August and October that is just as lawless and even more dishonest than the original.

Unlike his first effort, Rosen’s new pitch comes adorned with “proposed orders” announcing the 14 sentence reductions he seeks. (Proposed orders are documents prepared by lawyers that recite both the bottom-line outcome they hope the court will endorse; as such they reflect the submitting lawyers’ own understanding of their strongest grounds for prevailing.)

It, therefore, might seem odd that Rosen’s proposed orders contain not one word of justification for reducing anyone’s death sentence; they simply announce the reductions as accomplished facts, done deals. That won’t work because the law requires courts to “state on the record the reasons” for reducing anyone’s sentence. No self-respecting judge, therefore, would even consider signing the legally defective orders Rosen has drafted. And that’s Rosen’s dilemma: He couldn’t include his actual reason for reducing all 14 death sentences because it is no more legally sustainable than no reason at all.

Rosen claims that he only recently “just began to feel like we don’t have the moral authority as a society to execute someone.” Only “God should decide when” those 14 murders should die, he insists. He thinks the public doesn’t “deserve” the prerogative it rightly enjoys to disagree with him. The law, however, is clear: Rosen’s personal policy preferences are legally irrelevant.

Here are some things the law says could be relevant: the murderer’s behavior while in prison, the danger he continues to pose to others, the fairness and integrity of his particular trial or sentence, and whether he suffered childhood trauma or similar abuse before committing murder. Every factor listed is of the sort that the California Supreme Court, in a closely related context, has called “intrinsic” to the sentencing process. Such factors are “case-specific and defendant-specific.” They differ from forbidden “extrinsic” factors, such as “idiosyncratic views of justice” informed by the prosecutor’s or the court’s “bare antipathy” for the particular law involved.

To be sure, the statute also says permissible factors “include, but are not limited to” those specifically mentioned. But that won’t allow Rosen to nullify all death sentences based on his disapproval of capital punishment. Unmentioned things “included” by such language are only things “that are similar to those which are enumerated specifically.” Rosen’s personal opinions are nothing remotely like the case- and offender-specific factors mentioned in the statute.

Thus, it is also of no moment that Rosen now claims he has no “faith in the integrity” of any death sentences because he is uncertain whether any was “attained without racial bias.” While alleging that “implicit bias and structural racism” played “some role,” he can’t say what role that was and he admits he has no basis for accusing anyone involved with being a racist. His only point is purely hypothetical—“if the structure was infected with racial bias, then we cannot have faith in the integrity of the ultimate sentence.” Rosen’s unproved hypothesis might well be worth exploring, but until then it cannot logically or legally provide a basis for nullifying all the sentences imposed on every capital murderer in the county — more than half of whom are white.

Rosen concedes there’s no reason to believe any of the 14 murderers are innocent, but he wants their sentences reduced anyway because he cannot “deny the possibility of error.” These speculative musings too are just another way of saying he believes capital punishment is bad policy, a viewpoint California voters have repeatedly rejected.

Rosen also insists “it offends equality under the law to have people serving a capital sentence when they would not receive such a sentence for the same conduct today.” But this insult to “equality” is entirely of his own making, the result of his decision, beginning in 2020, never to seek the death penalty for any murderer no matter the circumstances. His argument might not quite match the level of chutzpah displayed by the man who murdered his parents and then begged for mercy on the ground that he’s an orphan, but it’s close.

Nor does it help Rosen to continue arguing that reducing sentences will “expedite” all litigation generated by the murderers and “pave the way” to finality. Easing court congestion, like gratifying Rosen’s hostility toward capital punishment, is “extrinsic” to the considerations on which individualized sentencing decisions must properly turn.

At any rate, Rosen’s rosy predictions are unfounded, and incorporating them into his proposed orders would have only highlighted his duplicity. After all, if Rosen really wanted those 14 cases to wind down, he’d demand that the 14 murderers waive further litigation in exchange for reduced punishment. He hasn’t. Far worse, he has inserted into some proposed orders language that guarantees the murderers will continue to “pursue claims related to the convictions in current and future state and federal litigation” even if their sentences were reduced.

Rosen’s campaign against the death penalty is an exercise in showmanship that plays well with anti-death penalty activists. But Rosen should expect-and the public certainly deserves-a far more skeptical reception from the courts. After all, ours is “a government of laws, and not of men.”

(source: Over his 35-year career as a deputy district attorney and later a deputy attorney general, Ron Matthias personally handled scores of death penalty appeals in state and federal court, including that of William Dennis, whose pending death sentence is among those Rosen is seeking to have reduced. From 2007 until retiring in 2019, he oversaw the litigation of hundreds more death penalty cases while serving as the statewide capital case coordinator for three administrations of California Attorneys General----svvoice.com)

********************

Life on Death Row

Woke up from a deep sleep at around 6:00 a.m., looked around and saw iron mesh with 13 black bars surrounded by concrete and cement. Whoever thought of this place had a sick sense of humor. Sheets and clothing hung from a line along my cell, drying from yesterday. Probably dry but I’ll give them another day to be sure. Hit the sink, wash up then do my morning ritual. Bits and pieces of conversations come from all directions; free staff mixed with inmates produce unintelligible sounds I’d rather ignore, sounding like babble.

This morning I woke up thinking back to my 1st day on trial when the district attorney looked at me and said, “I know the informants are lying.” This is true. They claimed I was born, raised and went to school in Sacramento, California with them until I went to Youth Authority (YA). All a lie, of course, I was born and raised in Watts and Compton, California. Joined the US Navy, turned 18 in boot camp, and never went to YA. Of course, my dumptruck lawyers didn’t think the jury needed to hear the truth. Threatened to gag me if I blurted it out. 30 years later facts like that still haunt me. Like dozens of dead friends, I like to socialize with, long gone by the token of time. It took a while but mentally I eventually changed the theme. Get up, fix my rack, put coffee on, and start my day. Promised a good friend I’d write something about death row (DR). After about 45 minutes this is what I’ve managed so far.

By 6:30 a.m. a corrections officer (CO) slides my breakfast tray through the tray slot, mystery meat with onions, oatmeal, roll, half a carrot and milk. I take down half of it and slide my tray back out when they come back around. If they miss a tray East Block will get torn up in a massive search. It’s happened before.

Since I have a group today from 11:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m., my morning’s main focus is to get ready for that. Then from 1:30 p.m. until 3:00 p.m. I have yard, with a yoga class. Half the time I teach that class so I must always be ready if I’m called upon. By about 10:40 a.m. the CO comes cell front and searches everything I’m taking out. Between now and then the cages on the 1st tier are filled with prisoners going to various ducats. I’m on the 2nd tier. It’s so loud they may as well be sitting in my cell. The strange thing was if I fell back to sleep after breakfast, I wouldn’t hear them at all, no matter how loud they grew. A side effect of 30 years in cages, sleeping in the middle of a herd.

Luckily the houses are single cells. If I want to give a neighbor a bag of food, it’s a serious task. Can’t think of any other prison whose grade “A” program enforces such a rule.

There’s 7 yards here with between 50 and 100 prisoners. Certain cliques can’t be on the same yards as each other. At some point, back in the day, they attacked each other. The sad thing is, for some of them, they weren’t even born when the original beef began.

Several guys here happened to catch their murders in another prison. Thinking they’d never get out, they committed several acts of violence since they arrived. Especially the people who came in under 25 years of age. What they didn’t know is the law would change, giving everyone who caught their case under the age of 25 special consideration. Something to do with the young brain being underdeveloped. Sadly there’s not even a conversation about DR prisoners in their seventies with the same mentality they had when they drove up in their 20s.

So many people have gotten reduced sentences and been sent to mainline or home, I never would have thought it possible when I arrived back in April of 1995. Thanks to the people of California, a law called Prop 66 was passed a few years ago that calls for all of us to be transferred to other prisons within California. I think this might put most of us in a better situation. In fact, there’s been a list of laws that may even allow me to be resentenced or released. Gov. Newsom and Attorney Rob Bonta are giving many of us a real bite at the apple. They’re creating integrity units all over the state and exposing issues previously ignored. If there is one thing that changed this system, that must be it.

It’s 3:30 p.m. and I had an awesome day for a Friday. My group had interesting conversations about current events. My yoga teacher called on me to teach the class. For about an hour we had a ball. Which helped my confidence.

Saturday Morning I was dead asleep like a newborn baby, somehow I thought I heard the guys around me talking about the DR being ended, the fellas were up in deep banter. I was sleeping like a 68-year-old who had worn out a group of 30-something-year-old youngsters the previous day. Which I am, and I did.

When the yard came back in at 12:30 p.m. I asked about the DR news. Yes, there’s news: They’re emptying San Quentin’s death row. Now that I know I can have such vivid dreams, my next one might be of me finally being free.

(source: Glen Cornwell, davisvanguard.org)

USA:

Death row is not a science lab, and we should not experiment on inmates

Since the late 19th century, the United States has been on a quest to find a method of execution that will allow it to reconcile the use of the death penalty with the Constitution’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment. This has turned out not to be an easy thing to do.

States have used different methods to accomplish this difficult task at different times. Hanging, the electric chair, the firing squad, the gas chamber, lethal injection and nitrogen hypoxia have, at one time or another, found their way onto the menu of execution methods used in this country. Each one of them remains on the books in one death penalty state or another.

Each new method of execution has brought with it a period of experimentation in which people condemned to death have been used as human guinea pigs. Now, the state of Utah, long known for its embrace of the firing squad, is planning to use a previously untried drug combination in a lethal injection of Taberon Honie on Aug. 8, the state’s 1st death row inmate to face an execution warrant in more than a decade.

Honie was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1998 sexual assault and murder of Claudia Benn, the mother of his then-girlfriend. His case is just the latest symptom of what I call “the lethal injection quandary.” Once touted as the most humane and reliable method of execution, lethal injection has turned out to be neither.

Lethal injection’s earliest proponents argued that it would make execution an undramatic and private event. Rather than creating a spectacle, it would produce a death like falling asleep. The condemned person’s heart would be stopped, and they would die quickly.

The procedure was said to be simple and would be easily administered. And it would be cheap. All that would be required would be an IV, tubing to carry the lethal drugs, and the drugs themselves.

But history has belied these hopes. Of all of the methods used in executions over the last century and more, lethal injection has proven to be the least reliable and most frequently botched.

And that situation has not been improving over time. Indeed, in 2022, there were so many problems with lethal injection executions that the Death Penalty Information Center dubbed it “the year of the botched execution.”

Part of the problem is that over the last 15 years, the lethal injection paradigm has broken down. From the time of its first use in 1982 through 2009, lethal injection signified a single thing: a standard three-drug protocol that was used everywhere in lethal injection executions.

But, since 2009, that can no longer be said.

Between then and now, states have used at least 10 distinct protocols in their executions. Some have involved barbiturate combinations using drugs like sodium thiopental, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride, or alternatively pentobarbital, rocuronium bromide and potassium chloride.

Others involve barbiturate overdoses, using massive doses of either sodium thiopental or pentobarbital alone. Still others have involved a distinctive sedative combination with other drugs like midazolam or etomidate.

Some protocols have been used multiple times, while others were used once. Even so, the traditional 3-drug protocol was all but forgotten.

As it contemplates resuming executions, the state of Utah now plans to add to the variety of lethal injection protocols by using a novel drug combination: ketamine, fentanyl and potassium chloride. According to the Utah Department of Corrections, “Ketamine serves as an anesthetic, Fentanyl relieves pain, and Potassium Chloride stops the heart.”

Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic that can lead to hallucinations, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. The drug is “notorious for creating a psychotic state,” which can result in paranoia, anxiety, strong hallucinations and out-of-body experiences.

If it is administered intravenously, someone being executed could experience “unnecessary mental anguish” and be rendered “incompetent.” It can cause suffocation, nausea and vomiting.

And the more ketamine that’s administered, the worse the effects become. Higher doses don’t necessarily correlate to lesser pain.

Utah initially was not deterred by the prospect of becoming the 1st state in the country to use ketamine in an execution by lethal injection. No one knew what to expect since Utah, following the example of other death penalty states, went to great lengths to shroud its plan in secrecy.

But, we know Honie would be a guinea pig in Utah’s effort.

As reported in the Utah News Dispatch, Honie sued to avoid that fate, claiming the novel approach could lead to unnecessary pain and suffering while triggering hallucinations, paranoia, and “mental anguish.”

In addition, his suit challenged the use of the opioid fentanyl, which has only been used in one U.S. execution, a 2018 lethal injection in Nevada, where it was one of four drugs. Even in high doses, Honie alleges, fentanyl can’t “reliably induce unconsciousness.”

In combination, ketamine could cause “psychological torture,” fentanyl could lead to painful suffocation, and neither drug will mask the pain brought on by potassium chloride, the drug used to stop the heart.

That’s a grim prospect for someone facing an execution.

Taken together, Honie claimed that Utah’s plan for his execution violates the 8th Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.

In a court hearing on Wednesday to begin consideration of Honie’s contention, Utah officials told the judge that they “stand by the 3-drug combination as an effective and humane method.” At the same time, they indicated that they were exploring whether it would be possible to change course.

The state, as the Salt Lake Tribune put it, is “scrambling” to get a different drug for the lethal injection.  It announced that it is “looking into the feasibility” of obtaining pentobarbital to use in Honie’s execution. Officials offered little explanation for their willingness to consider abruptly changing course and no certainty about whether they would do so.

On Saturday, Utah announced that it had found a supply of pentobarbital, which it hoped would arrive in time for Honie’s execution.

Whether or not Utah goes through with its new plan or ends up using ketamine and the 2 other drugs, Honie’s case is a reminder that in the grim business of capital punishment, states like Utah experiment, innovate and improvise. They do so even if it means using death row inmates as guinea pigs as we try to keep the machinery of death running.

That is a price that we shouldn’t ask anyone to pay.

(source: Opinion; Austin Sarat is the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science at Amherst College; thehill.com)

*****************

Arnold & Porter to Receive Exceptional Service Award from ABA Death Penalty Representation Project

Arnold & Porter is proud to announce that the firm has been selected to receive the American Bar Association (ABA) Death Penalty Representation Project’s 2024 Exceptional Service Award for its “longstanding commitment to representing death-sentenced prisoners, often in the face of overwhelming odds” and making a “lasting impact on the lives of [its] pro bono clients and on public awareness of issues in the death penalty system."

Since capital punishment returned to the U.S. in the late 1970s, Arnold & Porter has advocated on behalf of death-sentenced prisoners in numerous cases, including six recently resolved or ongoing matters. The firm's work includes challenging inhumane methods of execution, among the many other complex legal issues involved in death penalty cases.

The award will be presented on September 12 at the ABA Death Penalty Representation Project's annual dinner in Washington, D.C.

(source: arnoldporter.com)

******************

DP3 Analysis: The Death Penalty Does Not Deter Mass Shootings----80% of the Deadliest U.S. Mass Shootings Were Committed in Death-Penalty Jurisdictions and Accounted for 84% of the Deaths from the Worst of the Worst Shootings

The defense had just moved to bar the death penalty in the federal trial in the Tops supermarket shooting in Buffalo, New York and the Sandy Hook elementary school children had just graduated from high school in Newtown, Connecticut.

Appeals were underway from the federal death penalty verdict in the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and multiple death penalty proceedings were crowding the courts in Florida after the life verdict in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School mass shooting led the state legislature, responding to a fit of gubernatorial pique, to enact the lowest threshold in the nation for imposing the death penalty in any capital eligible crimes.

It was June 24, 2024. The headline read: “Mass shootings across the US mark the first weekend of summer.”

The threat of judicial punishment had failed to deter any of these attacks.

Fewer than 1% of gun deaths in the United States are a product of mass shootings, but mass shootings are, by definition, the deadliest and receive the most media attention. When the shooter survives, media coverage reflexively focuses on whether the perpetrator faces or will receive the death penalty and on calls by public officials demanding the ultimate punishment. The process of meting out punishment, rather than policy steps that can be taken to prevent mass shootings or mitigate the deadliness of those attacks, becomes the dominant and recurring theme of subsequent coverage.

With that in mind, the Death Penalty Policy Project analyzed available data on mass shootings to see what the relationship is between where the deadliest U.S. mass shootings have taken place and whether the jurisdictions in which they took place have or don’t have the death penalty. DP3’s analysis of the data exposes the notion that the death penalty is a deterrent to mass shootings as a false and dangerous fantasy.

A prior Death Penalty Policy Project analysis in January 2024 found that the death penalty is a public safety policy failure when it comes to gun violence in general. As a group, states with the death penalty have higher rates of death from gun violence than states that have abolished capital punishment. And among death penalty jurisdictions, states with the most executions tend to have much higher rates of deaths from gun violence than do states with formal moratoria on executions or that permit executions but rarely carry them out.

If the most extreme punishment available in the U.S. legal system made no discernible contribution to public safety when it comes to gun deaths in general, is it possible that it could nevertheless be a valuable deterrent against the worst of the worst shootings?

To find out, DP3 looked to data compiled by the Gun Violence Archive (GVA), an independent non-profit data collection and research organization created in 2013 to, in its own words, “provide free online public access to accurate information about gun-related violence in the United States.” GVA compiles information on gun violence from more than 7,500 law enforcement, media, government and commercial sources “to document incidents of gun violence and gun crime nationally [and] provide independent, verified data to those who need to use it in their research, advocacy or writing.” According to its mission statement, “GVA is not, by design, an advocacy group.”

DP3 examined every mass shooting in the past 50 years in which ten or more people other than the shooter were killed and compared the death-penalty status of the locations in which the shootings occurred to assess whether, and to what extent, the threat of capital punishment has prevented the most significant carnage from taking place. We found that, since the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the death penalty in 1976, 80% of those mass shootings have taken place in death penalty states or on federal property subject to the federal death penalty. If we limit the review to the deadliest 25 mass shootings — an admittedly arbitrary distinction given the fortuity of whether a victim survives or is killed in these attacks — 88.0% occurred in death penalty jurisdictions. Similarly, 8 of the 9 mass shootings in which 20 or more people were killed (88.9%) took place in death penalty states.

24 of the 30 mass shootings in which 10 or more victims were killed occurred in death penalty states or on federal civilian or military property. 22 took place in states where the death penalty was active at the time; 2 others in states in which governors had imposed moratoria on executions but local prosecutors were still free to seek the death penalty. The other 6 mass shootings in which 10 or more victims were killed took place in non-death penalty states or former death penalty states that had recently abolished capital punishment.

But even this data understates the availability of the death penalty as a punishment for the mass killings and its failure to deter them. The Pittsburgh Tree of Life Synagogue killings took place after Pennsylvania had imposed a moratorium on executions. Though the shooter was still subject to potential state capital prosecution, federal prosecutors sought and obtained the death penalty in that case. The perpetrator in the Tops Supermarket shootings in Buffalo did not face the death penalty under New York law but is being capitally prosecuted by the federal government. If the Tops shooting is included as occurring in a death penalty jurisdiction, then 83.3% of the nation’s worst mass killings were not deterred by an available death penalty.

The worst of the worst mass shootings took place in 14 different jurisdictions (13 states and on federal property in the District of Columbia). 11 of those jurisdictions (78.6%) authorized the death penalty at the time of the mass shooting —Alabama, California, Colorado, Florida, Nevada, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, Washington state, and the federal government. Colorado had 2 mass shootings with 10 or more fatalities while it had the death penalty and has had a 3rd such shooting after abolition. 3 other non-death-penalty states — Connecticut, Maine, and New York — have had mass shootings with 10 or more fatalities. 7 states have had multiple incidents in which 10 or more victims were killed in mass shootings. Texas has had 6 such incidents; California, 4; Colorado, Florida, and New York, 3 each; and Pennsylvania and Virginia, 2 each.

6 of the 7 states (85.7%) had multiple mass shootings with 10+ fatalities despite authorizing the death penalty at the time. New York was the only non-death-penalty state with multiple mass shootings in which 10 or more victims were killed.

Even considering the heavy casualties in the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting (27 killed, 2 more wounded), the worst of the worst mass shootings in the U.S. have been deadlier in death penalty states. The six mass shootings in Texas that have killed 10 or more people have collectively left 116 dead and another 131 wounded. In Florida, three mass shootings have killed 77 and wounded another 76. The music festival massacre in Las Vegas, Nevada killed 60 and wounded 439. California’s 4 incidents have killed 58 and wounded 49. The 3 mass shootings with 10 or more fatalities that occurred before there was a moratorium on executions in the state left 47 victims dead and wounded 40 others. The mass shootings at on the campus of Virginia Tech and at the Virginia Beach Municipal Center killed 44 and wounded 21.

Collectively, the 30 mass shootings that have resulted in 10 or more deaths have taken the lives of 540 people and wounded 840 others. 452 of those who were killed (83.7%) and 818 of those who were wounded but survived (97.4%) were shot in death-penalty jurisdictions. The worst of the worst mass shootings in death-penalty jurisdictions took an average of 18.8 lives and wounded an average of 34.1 people. Excluding the mass shootings that took place in death-penalty states while execution moratoria were in effect, those averages rise to 19.5 killed and 36.5 wounded.

In contrast, the 6 of the nation’s worst of the worst mass shootings that took place in jurisdictions with no death penalty resulted in 88 deaths (an average of 14.7 per shooting), with an additional 22 people wounded (an average of 3.7 per shooting).

The relatively small sample sizes and the statistical skewing effects of incidents such as the Las Vegas music festival shooting make meaningful numerical comparison difficult. But the numbers clearly show that the worst of the worst mass shootings in the U.S. have occurred more often and have been more deadly in states that have the death penalty.

Why the Death Penalty Does Not Deter Mass Shootings

The death penalty has not deterred mass shootings, nor can it. The rational assessment of consequences assumed by deterrence theory simply doesn’t apply to these crimes.

DP3 looked at expert commentary on the Violence Project Mass Shooter Database to explain why. The Mass Shooter Database has collected data from open sources on nearly 200 mass shootings in the United States since 1966. The database, which is housed at the Violence Prevention Project Resource Center at Hamline University, was compiled with support from the Department of Justice’s National Institute of Justice. It’s aim, according to the Violence Project website, “is to build a broader understanding on the part of the public, the justice system, and the research community of who mass shooters are and what motivates their decision to discharge firearms at multiple people.”

The data show that a majority of mass shooters are suicidal, “commonly troubled by personal trauma before their shooting incidents [and] nearly always in a state of crisis at the time.”¹ The Hamline University researchers describe mass shootings as “public spectacles of violence intended as final acts.” They say that whether death is “self-inflicted, or comes at the hands of police officers, or after [judicial punishment], a mass shooting is a form of suicide.”

According to the database, 31% of mass shooters were suicidal prior to committing the mass killing and another 40% were suicidal while they were carrying it out. And as NIJ points out, these numbers “were significantly higher for younger shooters.” 92% of high-school-aged or younger perpetrators of mass school shootings were suicidal, as was every college or university student who committed a mass school shooting.

For a potential mass shooter who is suicidal, the threat of judicial execution is not a deterrent. But mass shootings typically never get to that point. NIJ notes that “[m]ost [shooters] died on the scene of the public mass shooting, with 38.4% dying by their own hand and 20.3% killed by law enforcement officers.” That’s 58.7% of all mass shootings.

DP3’s review of the 30 deadliest mass shootings in the past half-century found that the on-the-scene death toll for the shooters in those cases was even higher. 63.3% (19 of 30) of the individuals who committed the worst-of-the-worst mass killings did not survive to be arrested, including the shooters in nine of the ten deadliest incidents.

Other factors underscore the ubiquity of mental health issues that make belief in judicial deterrence a fantasy in mass shooting cases. The data indicate that 30% of the shooters were affected by psychosis at the time of the killings. Psychotic thought or perception played a “major role” in 10.5% of the mass shootings and a lesser, but nevertheless contributing, role in another 19.7% of the shootings.²

Moreover, as NIJ explains, “nearly all persons who engage in mass shootings were in state of crisis in the days or weeks preceding the shooting.” The latest findings from the Violence Prevention Project Resource Center indicate that 80% of mass shooters “were in a noticeable crisis prior to their crimes.” The signs of crisis included increased agitation (66.9%), abusive behavior (41.9%), isolation (39.5%), losing touch with reality (33.1%), depressed mood (29.7%), mood swings (27.3%), inability to perform daily tasks (24.4%), and paranoia (23.8%). 43.15% of mass shooters “exhibited between one and four crisis signs,” the Violence Prevention Project notes, and “more than a third of shooters [37.7%] showed 5 or more crisis signs.”

It seems absurd to even have to say it out loud, but individuals who are in the throes of emotional crisis are not engaging in the rational assessment of consequences required for a deterrent to deter. It is even more absurd to believe that they are consulting the punishments provided in a state’s criminal code to guide their conduct.

Instead of deterring violence, the death penalty may actually make the problem of mass shootings worse.

A significant number of mass shooters — 21.6% according to the Violence Project database — study past mass shooters. Many, NIJ says, are radicalized online. And the Harmelin researchers have noticed a disturbing new development: “shootings motivated by hate and fame-seeking have increased since 2015.” The sensationalized publicity surrounding the decision whether a mass shooting case becomes a death penalty case, and the supercharged true crime coverage the trial then receives becomes part of the radicalizing and fame-seeking on-line environment.

So, while the death penalty does nothing to prevent mass shootings, it may play an indirect role in causing them. The way society sensationalizes high profile death penalty cases confers upon the mass shooter a notoriety another at-risk individual in emotional crisis may crave, and that may, in turn, contribute to that person’s decision to attempt a mass shooting.

Finally, the politics of punishment is the politics of diversion. Attention and resources directed to post-offense retribution is attention and resources diverted from programs and policies that can make the public safer.

What Policies Might Prevent Mass Shootings or Make Them Less Lethal?

No one who cares about saving innocent lives by preventing even a single mass shooting believes that the death penalty should have a seat at the policy table. The death penalty does nothing to keep deadly weapons out of the hands of potential offenders or to deter people with those weapons from committing mass shootings.

But there are evidence-based policies that can help to prevent mass shootings and make the ones that do happen less lethal. The non-profit research and policy organization Everytown for Gun Safety has proposed a series of common sense public safety policies that have proven histories of making a difference. These include requiring background checks on all gun sales, enacting “extreme risk” or “red flag” laws that remove guns from people who show warning signs of violence, prohibiting people with dangerous histories (including hate-crimes convictions) from having guns, and prohibiting assault weapons, high-capacity magazines, and rapid-fire conversion devices such as bump stocks.³

The prohibition on automatic high-powered weaponry is perhaps the most important step that can be taken to reduce the death toll from mass shootings. Mass shootings in which four or more people are killed are much more lethal when the shooter uses an assault rifle. In those incidents, the death toll is an average of 2.3 times greater and an average of 22.7 times more people are wounded.

The same is true of mass shootings in which the killer employs high-capacity magazines. In mass shooting incidents in which the magazine type was known, Everytown found that 2.5 times more people were killed and there were nearly 10 times more casualties overall when high-capacity magazines were involved.

Everytown researched the weaponry used in the ten deadliest mass shootings in the U.S. since 2016 and was able to identify the type of gun used and the magazine type present in 9 of those shootings. 8 of these 9 mass shootings (88.9%) involved an assault weapon, and the shooters in 8 of the 9 incidents used high capacity magazines.4

What is the bottom line? The death penalty has not deterred and cannot prevent mass shootings. Its continued use is a harmful diversion of attention and resources from policies that can.

1--National Institute of Justice, Public Mass Shootings: Database Amasses Details of a Half Century of U.S. Mass Shootings with Firearms, Generating Psychosocial Histories (Feb. 3, 2022).

2--The Violence Project, Key Findings (webpage last visited July 21, 2024).

3--Everytown for Gun Safety, Mass Shootings (webpage last visited July 21, 2024).

4--Everytown for Gun Safety, Mass Shootings in the United States (last updated March 2023).

_____________________________________

(source: Rob Dunham, The Death Penalty Policy Project (“DP3”)

******************

BUFFALO MASS SHOOTER ARGUING TO AVOID DEATH PENALTY----Federal attorneys filed arguments against rejecting Tops shooter too young for death penalty consideration.

After driving several hours from central New York to Buffalo with the intent of killing as many people as possible in May 2022, the person responsible for killing 10 people in the Tops on Jefferson Avenue was 18 years old, a legal adult under U.S. law.

His attorneys have argued that given his age at the time of his crime to — which he has pleaded guilty — he should not face the death penalty on the federal level.

In 2005, under the second administration of President George W. Bush, the Supreme Court ruled the death penalty was not to be considered for those facing federal criminal charges who were under the age of 18 when the crime was committed. In the case of the Tops shooter, he was almost a full year over that age at the time of the attack, which he plotted specifically in a predominantly Black neighborhood.

Now 20, the shooter is already serving life in prison without the possibility of parole for the 15 charges filed against him in New York State, which no longer has the death penalty and for which he also pleaded guilty. His attorneys say his mind was not that of a fully developed, rational adult at the time of his actions.

Federal prosecutors, on behalf of the U.S. Department of Justice, have filed 2 motions arguing in support of consideration of the death penalty.

“The Constitution expressly authorizes the death penalty as a form of punishment,” the DOJ writes. “While the defendant attempts to marshall evidence of changing attitudes as a basis for declaring the death penalty unconstitutional, the Supreme Court has not altered its views or its rulings, consistently recognizing that capital punishment is, indeed, constitutional.” If the Supreme Court decided to reconsider this stance, it would need to evaluate the case and medical arguments and law pertaining to mental development progress according to age, but unless and until the court does so, this remains the standard, the attorneys write. They note that it doesn’t matter that federal prosecution “inconsistently” applies or calls for the death penalty or that other, similiar cases had the punishment removed from consideration; because the law has not changed, the ability to have that option available during the federal case against the Tops shooter still stands and should not be dismissed.

The shooter’s attorneys also argue that the Federal Hate Crimes Prevention Act is unconstitutional and have asked to have those indictments dismissed.

Any discussion of the shooter’s mental state or capacity, his age, and whether that impaired his judgment in making the pre-meditated drive to Buffalo to carry out the attack, can be presented to the jury at the time of sentencing, the prosecuting attorneys say.

The court documents can be viewed here at https://www.scribd.com/document/698479820/DOJ-to-seek-death-penalty-in-Tops-mass-shooting, and here, at https://www.scribd.com/document/751823718/12916419877.

During the court proceedings in Buffalo, reactions from those who lost loved ones in the attack were mixed.

Zeneta Everhart, whose son Zaire was injured during the shooting, said at the time that while she wouldn’t wish the death penalty on anyone, “I’ve also said that if the U.S. attorney general decided to go that route for the death penalty, then so be it. Because for me, I believe in the greater good of that. There should be a trial. The country should see what happened that day. They should know what led up to that. They should hear all about the manifesto and the guns that he used and modified.”

Mark Talley, who lost his mother Geraldine in the attack, said he “understand(s)” why the death penalty would be considered. “It’ll make some people happy, some people glad. With me, I’m more of a dark person. If, God-willing, I live to 80, he lives to 80, I would have preferred to see him tortured for the rest of his life in prison, particularly here….I would’ve preferred he spend the rest of his life in prison, suffering every day.”

(source: wyrk.com)

BELARUS:

Stop the execution of Rico Krieger

The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), Viasna and the undersigned organizations call on the Belarusian authorities to stop the execution of German national Rico Krieger, sentenced to death in Belarus on 24 June 2024.

On 24 June, German national Rico Krieger was sentenced to death by firing squad by the Minsk Regional Court in a secretive trial. As reported by Human Rights Center Viasna, Krieger, a former employee of the German Red Cross, was inter alia charged with “mercenary activities”, “terrorism”, the “creation of an extremist foundation”, and the “intentional disrepair of a vehicle or communication lines". While the details of the case and the exact allegations remain unknown, the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed the death sentence on 19 July.

According to Viasna, Rico Krieger had been detained in October 2023, and convicted on 24 June 2024, in a trial partially held behind closed doors. It remains unknown whether Krieger appealed the sentence, with the Belarusian authorities and news agencies not reporting about the case at all.

Krieger’s trial and conviction is the first known case based on the charges of “mercenary activity” in Belarus. His case might reportedly be linked to the activities of the Kastus Kalinouski Regiment, a Belarusian volunteer military unit within Ukraine’s Armed Forces fighting against Russia’s aggression in Ukraine.

As pointed out by Viasna, which monitors the application of the death penalty as part of the “Human Rights Defenders against the Death Penalty in Belarus” campaign, it is the first time since the beginning of the campaign in 2009 that a foreign citizen is sentenced to death in Belarus.

Belarus is the only country in Europe that still applies the death penalty, including for crimes like terrorism, treason or certain international core crimes, carrying it out against men only. In light of the grave human rights violations, many of which might amount to crimes against humanity, including the “numerous and systematic violations of the rights to due process and a fair trial” before Belarusian courts documented by the OHCHR, the use of the death penalty is particularly alarming.

FIDH, Viasna and the undersigned organizations urge the Belarusian authorities to immediately stop the execution of Rico Krieger regardless of the charges, and to fully abide by Belarus’s international human rights obligations, including the right to life, the right to be free from torture and ill-treatment, and the right to due process and a fair trial.

FIDH, as a founding member of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty (WCADP) and a member of its Steering Committee, Viasna, and the undersigned organizations strongly oppose the death penalty for all crimes and in all circumstances, and recall that capital punishment inherently constitutes torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. The organizations therefore call on the Belarusian authorities to impose a moratorium and to make further progress towards the abolition of the death penalty.

(source: fidh.org)

MALAYSIA:

6 FORMER UPNM STUDENTS SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR ZULFARHAN'S MURDER

(see: https://www.bernama.com/en/news.php?id=2320901)

DR CONGO:

Why death penalty for army deserters in DRC is a thorny topic----Capital punishment to military deserters in the DRC has reignited the debate on whether falling back on the death penalty is the proper deterrent to an offence whose underlying cause remains unaddressed.

A 2002 law outlining the sanctions, incriminations, and procedures related to misdemeanours involving members of the armed forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo is back in focus as the judiciary cracks the whip on one of the more severe offences in the military playbook: the act of desertion.

Between May and July this year, a total of 50 Congolese soldiers have been tried and sentenced to death by military courts for what is considered an act of high treason.

They have all been held guilty of desertion – variously described as "cowardice" or "fleeing in the face of the enemy" — during a military mission in North Kivu, where M23 rebels are said to be becoming increasingly active.

While handing down these sentences, the judiciary has repeatedly emphasised that "the law remains the law", referring specifically to Law No. 024/2002 of the Military Penal Code enacted on November 18, 2002.

Since then, there have been calls for clemency and the law to be used sparingly, albeit without being seen as encouraging desertion.

This school of thought believes that although desertion should be viewed as an unpardonable offence equivalent to treason, deterrents incorporated into the law shouldn't reflect an antiquated mindset.

Frontline lapses

So, what has prompted the government and the military to think otherwise?

In March, DRC's justice ministry lifted a moratorium on the death penalty, citing treason and espionage in recurring armed conflicts as the reason for allowing a resumption of executions.

The Central African nation introduced the moratorium on the death penalty in early 2000.

The March 13 circular quoted justice minister Rose Mutombo as saying that capital punishment had been reintroduced to rid the army of traitors and curb the resurgence of terrorism and banditry.

The council of ministers had endorsed the decision on February 9.

Article 55 of the Military Penal Code stipulates that "any soldier or person in a similar position who is found to have deliberately rendered himself unfit or unfit for service, either temporarily or permanently, with the aim of evading his military obligations, shall be punished".

The quantum of punishment differs depending on the circumstances.

In peacetime, a soldier found guilty of desertion, as defined by the law, can be imprisoned for ten to twenty years of penal servitude and disqualification from exercising civic and political rights for 5 to 10 years.

In times of war or exceptional circumstances, the sentence is life imprisonment or the death penalty. The court would pronounce death if the soldier "were in the presence of an armed band or the enemy".

Different perspective

In judicial matters, sentences outlined in laws governing various aspects of enforcement should be applied.

However, in some instances, circumstances and context are used to mitigate the rigour of the law.

In this regard, the Nobel Prize winner Albert Camus wrote in his essay Réflexions sur la peine capitale (Reflections on capital punishment), "Legislation that is too severe defeats its purpose."

The Convention for the Respect of Human Rights (CRDH), a Congolese NGO, has used Camus' words as motivation in its commitment to defending soldiers accused of desertion in the DRC.

The CRDH argues that unless they have committed a crime such as colluding with the enemy, Congolese soldiers should not be sentenced to death for leaving the battlefield.

The NGO agrees with the principle of punishment but does not want "fleeing death" to be "condemned by a death stamped by the state".

''More than 70 soldiers have been tried for fleeing from the enemy. The CRDH recommends that the government first respond to the needs of soldiers before condemning them," says the NGO.

According to some analysts, salaries and working conditions of military personnel also need to be considered.

Official position

In response to these voices, the authorities maintain that a soldier must not turn his back, whatever the perils that lie ahead.

"The purpose of these hearings is to deter and educate. They aim to prevent soldiers from abandoning their posts on the frontline," Captain Melissa Kahambu Muhasa, representing the public prosecutor, told the press at the beginning of July.

Her statement followed the sentencing to death of 16 soldiers in Lubero in North Kivu, some of them for desertion.

President Felix Tshisekedi, too, took a tough stand. "This sad and sombre reality (desertion) demands a firm and determined response. Although the Democratic Republic of Congo is firmly committed to respecting human rights and the rule of law, it cannot afford the luxury of passivity when its security and people are threatened," he said.

Prof Pamphile Biyoghé, who teaches at Ecole Normale Supérieure in Gabon's Libreville, approves of the principle of punishing deserters but has reservations about the nature of the penalty applied in the DRC.

"Yes, capital punishment, in this specific case, could be a response, but not the response to discourage desertions from the ranks of the army," he tells TRT Afrika.

Dr Houenou believes that the military art referred to by his university counterpart can be cultivated and developed through a combination of elements that are currently lacking in the DRC.

(source: trtafrika.com)

IRAQ----executions Iraq hangs 10 ‘terror’ convicts; rights group calls for end to death penalty

Iraq hanged 10 “terror” convicts on Monday, officials said, in the 4th such execution in 3 months, prompting a rights group to call for an end to the death penalty.

Courts have handed down hundreds of death and life imprisonment sentences in recent years to Iraqis convicted of “terrorism”, in trials rights groups have denounced as hasty.

Under Iraqi law, terrorism and murder offences are punishable by death, and execution decrees must be signed by the president. A health official said 10 Iraqis “convicted of terrorism crimes and of being members of the militant Islamic State group were executed by hanging” at Al-Hut prison in the southern city of Nasiriyah.

A security source confirmed the executions. They were hanged under Article 4 of the anti-terrorism law and the health department had received their bodies, the health official said.

Al-Hut is a notorious prison in Nasiriyah whose Arabic name means “the whale”, because Iraqis believe those jailed there never walk out alive. Iraq has been criticised for the trials, with the “terrorism” offence carrying the death penalty regardless of whether the defendant had been an active fighter.

On May 31, Iraq executed 8 people convicted of “terrorism”. 11 people were hanged on April 22 and another such group was executed on May 6, security and health sources said.

In June, UN experts said they were “alarmed by the high number of executions publicly reported since 2016, nearly 400, including 30 this year. “When arbitrary executions are on a widespread and systematic basis, they may amount to crimes against humanity,” said the special rapporteurs including the expert on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary execution.

They added that according to official records there are 8,000 prisoners on death row in Iraq.

‘Halt executions’

The experts urged Iraqi authorities to “halt all executions”. They also said they were “horrified” by the high number of reported deaths in Nasiriyah prison due to “torture and deplorable conditions”.

The experts, who are appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, do not speak on behalf of the United Nations. Rights groups have also denounced the proceedings as rushed, warning confessions were sometimes believed to have been obtained under torture.

“Iraq’s continuous implementation of the death penalty — despite national and international outcry — means we could be hurdling toward a human catastrophe unfolding on its death row,” said Amnesty International’s Iraq researcher, Razaw Salihy.

She said Iraqi authorities “must halt executions immediately in order to address the gross injustices that landed thousands on death row and the horrendous conditions they languish in”.

The IS overran large swathes of Iraq and neighbouring Syria in 2014, proclaiming its “caliphate” and launching a reign of terror.

It was defeated in Iraq in 2017 by Iraqi forces backed by a US-led military coalition, and in 2019 lost the last territory it held in Syria to US-backed Kurdish forces.

But its remnants continue to carry out deadly hit-and-run attacks and ambushes, particularly from remote areas and desert hideouts.

(source: dawn.com)

IRAN----execution

Prisoner Danial Kazeminejad Executed in Kermanshah Prison

The execution of a prisoner named Danial Kazeminejad, who was sentenced to death for the "premeditated murder of an IRGC member," was carried out in Kermanshah Central Prison (Dizelabad).

According to information received by Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO), on the morning of Sunday, July 21, the execution of a man was carried out in Kermanshah Central Prison. This prisoner, identified as Danial Kazeminejad, 30 years old and a resident of the village of Lor in the suburbs of Eslamabad-e-Gharb, was sentenced to death for "murder."

An informed source regarding the execution of this prisoner told Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO): "Danial Kazeminejad, a Kurdish citizen, was arrested and sentenced to death for the murder of an IRGC member named Sajad Amiri during an armed conflict."

The execution of this prisoner has not been announced by Iranian domestic media or official sources at the time of this report.

The lack of classification for premeditated murder in Iran means that any type of murder, regardless of the severity or the motive of the accused, leads to a death sentence.

(source: iranhr.net)

JULY 22, 2024:

FLORIDA:

Nassau County: Patrick McDowell sentenced to death----This week, the trial court sentenced McDowell to death, following the jury's 11-1 recommendation for death.

As TFDP previously covered, in April, a jury recommended by a vote of 11-1 that Patrick McDowell, a Marine Corps veteran, be sentenced to death for killing Nassau County Sheriff’s Deputy Joshua Moyers.

On May 14, McDowell filed a Motion for New Penalty Phase Hearing. On June 11, the trial court issued an Order denying the Motion.

This week, the trial court sentenced McDowell to death. In the Sentencing Order, the trial court found the following aggravating factors (as found by the jury) and applied the noted weight:

The capital felony was committed by a person previously convicted of a felony and under sentence of imprisonment or placed on community control or on felony probation (moderate weight);

Defendant was previously convicted of another capital felony or of a felony involving the use or threat of violence to the person (very great weight);

The capital felony was committed for the purpose of avoiding or preventing a lawful arrest or effecting an escape from custody, and the victim of the capital felony was a law enforcement officer engaged in the performance of his or her official duties (very great weight); and

The capital felony was a homicide and was committed in a cold, calculated, and premeditated manner without any pretense of moral or legal justification (very great weight).

As to mitigation, the trial court found the following and applied the noted weight:

Moderate weight: McDowell’s parents separated when he was six-months old, and he saw his father only at Christmas and summertime until he was 18 years old. He was a well-adjusted child who was polite, obedient, and respectfully toward others, including to his step-father who was a police officer. He was respectful to other police offers who socialized with his family.

Little weight: In high school, McDowell lost 2 friends to an automobile accident and served as a pall bearer at the double funeral for the students. He volunteered with a rescue service responding to scenes where people were injured. He loved his mother and was close to her in spite of mental health problems she suffered.

Moderate weight: While he was in high school, McDowell applied for, and was accepted into the U.S. Marine Corps Delayed Entry Program at a time when the United States was heavily engage din a ground war with Iraq and Marines were being killed.

Moderate weight: McDowell attended high school regularly without failing a grade, graduating from high school on time with a GPA of 3.02. McDowell’s entry into the Marines was delayed because of a knee injury and a subsequent arrest at the age of 18. He moved to Florida where he worked to pay restitution, leading to a misdemeanor disposition of his charges in Harrisburg, Indiana.

Great weight: McDowell enlisted in the Marines in Florida in 2005 at a time when he knew the United States was still engaged in a ground war in Iraq. During his four-plus years in the Marines, McDowell worked hard and served his country and his unit with distinction, in the United States and abroad. He was promoted in rank to Sergeant, was selected as the Battalion Commander’s radio operator and Personal Security Detail in Jump Platoon and received outstanding performance evaluations and Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medals. He was respected as a mentor and teacher of junior Marines. He was honorably discharged.

Great weight: McDowell extended his enlistment in the Marines to deploy to a war zone in Iraq.

Great weight: While he was in Iraq, he was singularly responsible for communications between the Battalion Commander and the Battalion and all air support.

Moderate weight: McDowell returned from deployment in Iraq with symptoms of PTSD apparent to his family.1

Little weight: McDowell formed friendships with Michael Patrick Fowler and others on the Airsoft Team and was a good teammate, giving some members of that team advice about how to enter the military service. He also attended Florida State College in Jacksonville for two semesters to prepare for a job as a firefighter.

Moderate weight: McDowell returned to Iraq as one of the youngest employees of Triple Canopy, a private military contractor, at a time when terrorists and insurgents were still trying to kill Americans. At Forward Operating Base Delta, he worked in the Tactical Operations Center and also assisted at the Entry Point where he observed military casualties and children intentionally burned by their parents. He was present when the base received indirect fire.

Moderate weight: McDowell still suffers from PTSD as a result of his service to his country in the Iraq War - either during his service with the U.S. Marines or his service with Triple Canopy, or both. PTSD is a mental condition that requires treatment to reduce its impact on everyday life.2

Little weight: McDowell never made a claim for Social Security or VA disability for PTSD or any other disability.

Little weight: McDowell was a trusted employee of the Gold Leaf Security Company and Signal 88 Security Company while working at industrial locations and multi-family housing.

Moderate weight: McDowell has good relationships with police officers in Jacksonville who responded to calls at the apartment complexes where he worked.

Moderate weight: McDowell was distressed when he learned in 2017 that Ryan Baker, a Jump Platoon member and junior radio operator, died by suicide.

Moderate weight: McDowell maintained employment during most of his adult life.

Moderate weight: McDowell completed the Matrix drug program and was doing well in VTC when COVID hit in March 2020, bringing an end to regular reporting, regular court appearances, and regular urinalysis.

Moderate weight: McDowell was an attentive and caring father to his 13-year-old son, Nathan, before he became addicted to drugs, and he has reconnected with his son since his arrest in this case.

Moderate weight: McDowell became addicted to methamphetamine. When used frequently over a period of weeks or days, meth can cause illogical thinking, paranoia, psychosis, bad judgment, sensations of skin damage, and resultant “picking,” and a physical need for more meth. Addiction is a medical condition that requires extensive treatment during which addicts often relapse.

Moderate weight: At the time of the crime, Patrick McDowell had been going without sleep for three days, was on a methamphetamine binge, and was under the acute influence of methamphetamines he had used with Breiana Toler earlier in the day and with Noelle Gale shortly before the crime. He had used an intense method of ingesting meth known as “hot-railing.”

Moderate weight: McDowell has behaved appropriately in jail during his incarceration and in court during sentencing. He pleaded guilty and testified, taking full responsibility for his crime and explaining the remorse he feels for the family of Deputy Moyers and everyone affected by his crime.

Moderate weight: McDowell cares about the members of his family, and he has repaired and strengthened his relationships with his family since his incarceration. He eagerly participates in visits, reads the books they send him and engaged in regular sessions of Bible study with his aunt and other family members. His family members have benefitted from these interactions with Mr. McDowell.

Little weight: If he is given a sentence of life without parole, McDowell will live in prison until he dies.

Moderate weight: McDowell has expressed to his aunt and to David Abramowitz a desire to act as a mentor to other veterans in prison, especially through the Prison Ministry of the Church of Eleven-22.

After weighing the aggravation and mitigation, the Court determined that the aggravation outweighs the mitigation.

Accordingly, the court sentenced McDowell to death.

(source: fladeathpenalty.substack.com)

UTAH----impending execution

Utah Officials Backtrack on Untested Execution Drug----An execution, scheduled for next month, would have used an experimental 3-drug combination that critics said could inflict serious pain.

Plans to use an experimental 3-drug combination in an upcoming execution in Utah — a cocktail that critics said could inflict serious pain — have been scrapped after state officials said in court documents released Saturday that they would be able to seek an alternative.

Taberon D. Honie, who was convicted of aggravated murder in 1999, is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Aug. 8. It would be the 1st execution conducted by that method in the state in nearly 25 years. The Utah Department of Corrections recommended using an untested 3-drug cocktail of ketamine, fentanyl and potassium chloride when it could not find sodium thiopental, the drug required by Utah law, or other alternatives.

That drug has been challenging to obtain for more than a decade, after Hospira, the only American producer of sodium thiopental, announced it would stop selling it, citing concerns about producing the drug in Italy. But many states across the country where the death penalty is legal have struggled for years to obtain and properly use suitable drugs for lethal injections.

A lawsuit filed last week by Mr. Honie’s lawyer against several Utah prison officials expressed many concerns about the proposed drug cocktail, including that it would not create the anesthesia Mr. Honie needed to be “unconscious, unaware and insensate to pain,” when the potassium chloride, which stops the heart, is administered. The drugs carried the risk “of serious pain and unnecessary suffering,” the lawyer, Eric Zuckerman, wrote in the complaint.

On Friday, Brian Redd, the executive director of the Utah Department of Corrections, agreed instead to obtain the sedative pentobarbital for Mr. Honie’s execution, a drug that is now used by other death penalty states. Mr. Redd also vowed to abandon the idea of using the 3-drug combination in any execution if pentobarbital could be supplied.

“We still believe that the 3-drug combination would have been effective, but we also recognize we could’ve been caught in a lengthy court battle,” said Glen Mills, a spokesman for the department.

In addition to confronting the difficulty of obtaining lethal drugs, many states have bungled executions with lethal injections. As a result, some have turned to other methods. In January, Alabama became the first state in the nation to carry out an execution by administering nitrogen gas.

Some witnesses said the prisoner writhed on the gurney in pain, though the state’s attorney general called the execution “textbook.” Since then, other states have begun considering the method.

In July 1998, Mr. Honie murdered and sexually assaulted Claudia Benn, his ex-girlfriend’s mother, according to court documents. He stabbed Ms. Benn and slit her throat in the presence of her grandchildren and sexually abused one of the children.

Utah has put to death 7 people since it resumed executions in 1977, 4 of them by lethal injection. The other 3 were by firing squad, including the most recent execution in Utah, when Ronnie Lee Gardner was put to death in 2010.

“Serious uncertainty still remains about the state’s last-minute execution plan,” Mr. Zuckerman said in a statement. “We are reviewing the information provided by the state and will continue to work to ensure that Mr. Honie’s constitutional rights are protected.”

(source: New York Times)

*****************

Utah death row inmate who is imprisoned for 1998 murder asks parole board for mercy ahead of hearing

Utah officials are set hear testimony Monday about whether a man facing execution next month should be spared the death penalty for a 1998 murder and remain imprisoned for life.

The parole board hearing comes after state officials said Saturday that they no longer planned to use an untested combination of execution drugs that Taberon Dave Honie’s lawyers said could have caused him “excruciating pain.” They will use a different drug instead — pentobarbital.

The scheduled Aug. 8 execution would be Utah's first since Ronnie Lee Gardner was killed by firing squad in 2010, according to the state Department of Corrections.

Honie's lawyers said a traumatic and violent childhood coupled with his long-time drug abuse, a previous brain injury and extreme intoxication fueled his behavior when he broke into his girlfriend's mother's house and killed her.

They blamed poor legal advice for allowing Honie — a native of Arizona's Hopi Indian Reservation — to be sentenced by a judge instead of a jury that might have been more sympathetic and spared him the death penalty.

“Mr. Honie has always expressed genuine remorse and sadness ... from the moment he was arrested,” they wrote in a commutation petition filed last month. They added that Honie has a grown daughter and is “worthy of mercy.”

Attorneys for the state urged the board to reject the request.

They said the judge who sentenced Honie already considered his remorse, his difficult upbringing and his state of intoxication when he killed 49-year-old Claudia Benn. Honie, then 22 years old, smashed a glass door to enter Benn's house while she was home with her grandchildren then severely beat her and slashed her in the throat, in the vagina and around her anus, according to court documents.

Police arrived at the home to find him covered in blood, the documents said.

“Honie says the board should show him mercy because he has taken responsibility for killing Claudia,” the state's lawyers wrote. "The commutation petition itself is a long deflection of responsibility that never once acknowledges any of the savage acts he inflicted on Claudia or her granddaughters."

Honie was convicted in 1999 of aggravated murder.

A two-day hearing is scheduled on Honie’s request the request commutation. A decision is expected to come at a later date.

After decades of failed appeals, Honie’s execution warrant was signed last month over the objections of defense attorneys who raised concerns about the planned lethal drug combination. When Honie's attorneys filed a lawsuit over the issue, corrections officials agreed to switch to pentobarbital, which has been used previously in numerous states.

There’s been evidence that pentobarbital can also cause extreme pain, including in federal executions carried out in the last months of Donald Trump’s presidency.

(source: Associated Press)

USA:

5 Things to Know About Kamala Harris’ Criminal Justice Record----Here’s where Vice President Kamala Harris, a former prosecutor, stands on important criminal justice issues.

President Joe Biden, who announced the end to his re-election bid in a letter on X, has endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to replace him on the Democratic ticket.

Now, Harris’ record on criminal justice — as a former prosecutor, senator and 2020 presidential candidate, as well as vice president — will face new scrutiny. In recent years, the country has witnessed protests following the murder of George Floyd, pandemic-related fluctuations in crime rates, as well as heated rhetoric over immigration and crime. Where does Harris stand on these and other criminal justice issues?

Here are 5 things to know:

The Biden-Harris Administration has a mixed record on criminal justice reform.

Over the last 3 1/2 years, the administration has promoted some criminal justice reforms — but its track record has come under criticism from advocates.

Following 2 mass shootings — 1 at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, and another at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York — Biden signed into law the Safer Communities Act in 2022. The legislation marked the 1st substantial package of gun safety laws in nearly 30 years, included a new law on gun trafficking, and expanded an existing law preventing people convicted of domestic abuse from owning a gun.

But efforts on many issues that Biden campaigned on — like ending the federal death penalty and pledging to undo former President Donald Trump’s immigration policies — have not materialized.

Harris’ early missteps on immigration could be used against her.

One of Harris’ first assignments as vice president in 2021 was a diplomatic role at the U.S. Southern border, but the rollout was fairly disorganized. News headlines described Harris as the “point person on immigration” — but the vice president doesn’t oversee the border; the U.S. Department of Homeland Security does.

This, combined with verbal slip-ups in press interviews, including a viral clip from a speech in Guatemala — in which she told people who were considering making the “dangerous trek” to the U.S.: “Do not come. Do not come.” — bruised her image.

In June, Biden announced an executive order to bar migrants who unlawfully cross the southern border from seeking asylum. The order is conditional and goes into effect when crossings “exceed our ability to deliver timely consequences,” according to an announcement from The White House. Advocates have decried the move, saying it raises the bar for asylum seekers.

Republicans have seized on Harris’ earlier flubs on immigration and for years have referred to her as the “border czar” — a jab that also came up again during the Republican National Convention.During the Republican convention, former presidential candidate Nikki Haley said: “Kamala had one job. One job. And that was to fix the border. Now imagine her in charge of the entire country.”

Harris has billed herself as a “progressive prosecutor” — but her record is complicated.Before joining the U.S. Senate in 2017, Harris spent years as a prosecutor in California, including as the San Francisco District Attorney and the state attorney general. It’s difficult to fit her time in those roles into a clear box as a “reformer,” a “progressive” or as a “tough-on-crime” campaigner, in large part because those definitions have changed substantially since her prosecutorial career began decades ago.

According to Jamilah King, writing for Mother Jones in 2018, “Harris has long tried to bridge the tricky divide between social progressivism and the work required as a prosecutor — sometimes more successfully than others.” One characteristic example: As San Francisco district attorney, Harris vowed not to seek the death penalty, but as California attorney general, her office argued it should stand.

In her 2019 memoir, “The Truths We Hold: An American Journey,” Harris observed, “America has a deep and dark history of people using the power of the prosecutor as an instrument of injustice.”

But critics on the left have frequently criticized Harris over a record they say has fueled mass incarceration.In a first-of-its-kind town hall hosted by and for incarcerated people and their loved ones that same year, Harris touted her record as a prosecutor and district attorney. She singled out a small reentry program called “Back on Track,” for people charged with first-time, nonviolent offenses, like low-level drug sales.

In 2020, Harris ran to the left of Biden on key issues regarding incarceration and policing.

During the 2020 presidential primary, Harris worked to shed some of her tough-on-crime image and ran to the left of Biden on most criminal justice issues, including solitary confinement, federal mandatory minimum sentences and decriminalizing border crossings.

Candidates Harris and Biden also split on clemency. It’s one of the few criminal justice realms where the president has the power to make sweeping unilateral changes by releasing people from federal prisons.

Harris proposed creating a federal sentencing review unit that would consider early release for people who have served at least 10 years of sentences of 20 years or more. So far the Biden administration has been comparably restrained on clemency, approving a smaller share of petitions than any president in recent history.

Harris also outflanked Biden on policing reform, saying she would support a national standard for police use of force, and proposing a new federal board with the power to review police shootings. The effort, popular with some policing think tanks, would function like National Transportation Safety Board reviews of airplane crashes.

After nearly 4 years as vice president, some of Harris’ positions may have changed.

The national criminal justice landscape has changed dramatically since Harris’ 2020 presidential bid and her time as a prosecutor in California. The murder of George Floyd, increased crime rates amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and record crossings at the southern border are just a few of the events that have reshaped the political landscape over the last 5 years.

Those events have pushed some voters and politicians toward endorsing “tough on crime” policies, and have fueled ideological conflicts in a Democratic Party that — as recently as 2020 — largely backed reforms to a system they saw as overly punitive. That means it’s less obvious which approach Harris would take as the party’s standard-bearer.

Harris has also spent the past year rehabbing her image following the missteps earlier in her term, with people in her close circle observing a more confident vice president. Harris has made more than 60 trips so far this year, speaking on issues related to race, abortion rights, and the war in Gaza. (source: Jamiles Lartey is a New Orleans-based staff writer for The Marshall Project. Previously, he worked as a reporter for the Guardian covering issues of criminal justice, race and policing. Jamiles was a member of the team behind the award-winning online database “The Counted,” tracking police violence in 2015 and 2016. In 2016, he was named “Michael J. Feeney Emerging Journalist of the Year” by the National Association of Black Journalists. Lakeidra Chavis is a staff writer for The Marshall Project. She has written extensively on gun violence and gun enforcement in Chicago, as well as Black suicides, gang structures and the opioid crisis. Her work currently focuses on juvenile justice----themarshallproject.org)

*******************

Lush launches campaign to abolish U.S. death penalty----Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics is taking its charitable partnerships one step farther with a new campaign that will benefit the group Death Penalty Focus which aims to abolish the death penalty.

"We believe this archaic practice of punishment is failing us in 4 key ways," the brand stated. "It doesn't create safer communities, doesn't address the root causes of crime, is not applied fairly across the country, and exonerees are living proof that the system is flawed."

The campaign will run both in Lush's 200 stores nationwide and online. It will include events and calls to action for consumers to learn more about the capital punishment system in our country and to mobilize against it.

Carleen Pickard, Ethical Campaigns Specialist at Lush Cosmetics said, "The more people learn about the death penalty, the less they like it, and we're excited to bring this important issue to our customers."

The events will include speakers who were charged with the death penalty and have been exonerated; activists; and additional grass roots partner organizations joining in the fight against the death penalty.

In the push to deliver authentic brand storytelling to consumers, focusing on the death penalty is a bold move for Lush. It appears to be taking a page from the playbooks of Nordstrom and Tiffany & Co. whose bold political statements have served them well with their consumer bases.

Lush originally partnered last year with Death Penalty Focus when the organization was a recipient of Lush's Charity Pot grant.

Death Penalty Focus President Mike Farrell said, "Not only is Lush's business model based on ethical, environmental, and socially conscious principles, but it brings awareness of the death penalty and its flaws to a different segment of the population."

Lush is releasing a limited edition bath bomb called "31 States" after the 31 states where the death penalty has not been abolished. 100% of proceeds will go to the cause with a goal of raising $150,000.

The campaign will hold events in key cities where abolishing the death penalty is an active discussion including Chicago, Atlanta, St. Louis and Phoenix.

(source: fashionnetwork.com)

IRAQ:

Iraq sentences 8 to death on terror-related charges

A Baghdad court issued death sentences on Sunday for 8 individuals charged with aiding 3 suicide bombers for attacks which took place in Iraq around 9 years ago.

A statement from the Iraqi Federal Supreme Court said that the 8 men who were sentenced had “confessed to transporting 2 suicide bombers who blew themselves up in Bab al-Sharqi area and al-Wathba Square in 2015,” referring to 2 popular shopping locations in the Iraqi capital.

The sentences were issued in accordance with the provisions of the 2005 Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Law, the statement added.

At least 19 people were killed and dozens others were wounded as a result of 2 suicide bombings that targeted central Baghdad in 2015. The Islamic State (ISIS) claimed responsibility for the attacks at the time.

Since the rise of ISIS in 2014, thousands of people have been detained across Iraq for suspected links to terrorist groups, including ISIS, while hundreds have been executed.

The United Nations has criticized Iraq’s trials of ISIS suspects, saying the proceedings have not met fair trial standards and raising concerns about allegations of torture.

Amnesty International criticized Iraqi authorities in April for carrying out the death sentences of 13 men who were executed on the same day in Nasiriyah, saying the prisoners were denied fair trials and expressed concern that many others have been executed secretly.

More than 8,000 people are purportedly on death row in Iraq with at least 150 in imminent danger of execution, according to Amnesty.

(source: rudaw.net)

PHILIPPINES:

Senate won’t prioritize divorce, death penalty bills – Escudero

The Senate will not prioritize the divorce and death penalty bills.

Senate President Francis Escudero confirmed this after the upper chamber opened the 3rd regular session of the 19th Congress on Monday ahead of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s third State of the Nation Address (Sona).

“No, it will not, but it does not necessarily mean that it will not be tackled,” Escudero said when asked if the death penalty and divorce bills would be prioritized.

He cited his experience when he was the chairperson of the Senate Committee on Higher Education, recalling that even though he disagreed with the controversial Reserve Officers’ Training Corps bill, he still assigned it to another senator.

“All 23 of us now have their own respective principles and beliefs and will vote according to what they believe is right — regardless of the branding media or anyone else would like to make,” he added.

(source: newsinfo.inquirer.net)

NIGERIA:

A’Court affirms death penalty on Dane for killing wife, daughter

The Appeal Court Lagos Division has dismissed the appeal of a Denmark national, Peter Nielsen, who was sentenced to death for killing his Nigerian wife, Zainab and daughter, Petra Nielsen.

The appellate court upheld the conviction of Nielsen by the trial court and dismissed his appeal for lack of merit.

When the case was called on Friday, Mr Adebayo Haroun, leading Jubril Kareem, announced his appearance for the respondent, while Mr A.D Taiwo Nsirim with Tochukwu Amaefule, appeared for the appellant.

Delivering the judgment, the appeal court held that the respondent (Lagos State) proved the offence of murder against the appellant beyond reasonable doubt.

It resolved the appeal in favour of the respondent and dismissed the appellant’s case.

The appellate court held, “The corroborative evidence of DNA also strengthened the circumstantial evidence against the appellant.

“There was no proof of breaking into the apartment as suggested by the appellant.

“The missing exhibits as a result of the #EndSARS attack on the court do not affect the defence of the appellant as he had ample opportunity before the attack on the court. The findings of the forensic examiner corroborate the evidence of the children.”

Nielsen was found guilty and convicted of the murder of Zainab and Petra, by Justice Bolanle Okikiolu-Ighile,(retd.), of the Lagos State High Court, at the Tafawa Balewa Square.

Okikiolu-Ighile, in her judgment delivered on May 20, 2022, held that Nielsen smothered Zainab and Petra Nielsen to death.

She ruled, “He was the one who killed Zainab, and Petra Nielsen. Zainab had already predicted her death when she told their driver that this man would kill her. She told her stepfather, Chris Madaki, when she went to Abuja that this man would kill her.”

The judge also held that the evidence of the sixth prosecution witness (PW6) that on April 5, 2018, at 4:10 am, she saw Peter Nielsen beating and hitting Zainab’s head on the floor collaborated with the oral evidence of Prof John Obafunwa (PW4).

The judge held, “It is the judgment of the court that you, Peter Nielsen, is found guilty of the murder of Zainab and Petra Nielsen on April 5, 2018.

“I hereby pronounce that you Peter Nielsen shall be hanged by the neck till death. May God have mercy on you,” she said.

Justice Okikiolu-Ighile found him guilty of counts 1 and 2 of murder preferred against him by Lagos state.

She held that the oral and documentary evidence before the court showed that the prosecution proved beyond reasonable doubt that Nielsen killed his wife and daughter.

“This is one of the cases of domestic violence. The DNA analysis of nail scraping brought out the assailant of Zainab.

“Zainab tried so much to defend herself. The evidence shows that Peter Nielsen killed his wife and daughter.

“There is evidence before the court that there is a fight between Peter Nielsen and his wife,” the judge held.

She held that Prosecution Witnesses (PW5 and PW6) testified that they heard Zainab calling Mimi (one of the girls living with the couple) for help and they heard Zainab telling Nielsen to check her phone but he kept hitting her head.

“The act of Nielsen shows that he suffocated his wife and daughter.

“Nielsen has always domestically abused his wife which was shown in the police extract from the Ikoyi Police Station.

“She didn’t know that her marriage to the convict was void abi nitio because Peter was already married in Denmark.

However, on the issue of the nightgown worn by Zainab on the night she died, the judge expunged the evidence.

She said that the pathologist who analysed the DNA on the nightgown was thoroughly examined and cross-examined by the defence.

The judge, however, said that on October 20, 2020, the High Court of Lagos was vandalised and burnt, during the #EndSARS protest which affected the nightgown, a jumpsuit, towel and pants worn by Zainab and Petra.

The judge, however, said that the contention of the convict was not for cross-examination but for them to take the items for DNA examination for their case.

“It is trite law that all documentary evidence must be scrutinised but the defence argued that the convict didn’t have the opportunity to produce his examination.

“The defence made an application to expunge such items from the evidence.

“I have considered the application, exhibits, PWN (Zainab’s nightgown, Petra’s jumpsuit, towel and pants) is hereby expunged,” she said.

But dissatisfied with the judgment Nielsen approached the appeal court to challenge his conviction.

Nielsen was arraigned on June 13, 2018, on 2 counts of murder.

He pleaded not guilty, to the 2 counts of murder contrary to Section 223 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015, following which trial commenced.

The Lagos State Government accused Nielsen, now 57, of smothering Zainab and their daughter Petra Nielsen, to death at about 3:45 am, on April 5, 2018, at No. 4, Flat 17, Bella Vista Tower, Banana Island, Ikoyi.

When the trial commenced, the prosecution called nine witnesses and closed their case on September 20, 2019.

The defence opened its case and also called nine witnesses with the convict as the 9th witness.

(source: punchng.com)

KUWAIT:

Supreme Court handed down one death sentence per month in drug cases last year

The Kuwaiti Ministry of Interior’s intensified efforts to combat drug trafficking have resulted in a significant rise in the number of cases reaching the courts. The ministry’s crackdown has led to a monthly death sentence for drug dealers, with 2023 witnessing a dramatic increase in drug-related court cases.

According to data from the General Court, obtained by Al-Qabas, the Supreme Court issued death sentences to 12 drug and psychotropic substance dealers throughout 2023. These individuals were apprehended by the Ministry of Interior in separate operations. Among those sentenced, three were caught cultivating drugs in residential gardens and manufacturing poisons, while nine were convicted for importing drugs in coordination with international criminal networks.

In addition to the death sentences, 59 drug traffickers were sentenced to life imprisonment. The total number of drug-related court rulings for the year reached 6,911. This figure includes 6,034 convictions, 877 acquittals, and 1,893 cases pending. Approximately 88% of these cases resulted in convictions, a figure attributed to the effectiveness of enhanced control and inspection measures.

The judicial statistics reveal the following breakdown of life sentences:

Drug Cultivation: 8 defendants

Drug Possession and Trafficking: 32 defendants

Drug Possession for Consumption: 12 defendants

Possession of Psychotropic Substances: 4 defendants

Drug Use and Trafficking: 3 defendants

Furthermore, 5 defendants received prison terms of 20 years or more, 124 were sentenced to 15 years or more, and 54 received terms of 10 to 15 years. The majority of prison sentences were between 3 and 5 years, with 570 defendants in this category. Additionally, 364 defendants received sentences ranging from 1 to 3 years.

A total of 1,371 defendants were fined in addition to their prison sentences. Only 16 defendants were acquitted without imprisonment, and one was sentenced to a reformatory.

A source informed Al-Qabas that the Ministry of Interior is implementing a comprehensive plan to tighten control over drug dealers and users. This includes developing advanced detection technologies for land and sea ports to enhance evidence collection against drug traffickers.

Key Statistics for 2023:

6,911 rulings in drug-related cases

59 life imprisonment sentences

12 death sentences for drug traffickers

1,371 fines imposed

16 cases with no imprisonment

The high conviction rate reflects the effectiveness of strict enforcement and inspection procedures. A legal source noted that the development of these mechanisms has addressed many legal loopholes that previously allowed drug traffickers to evade conviction.

The Public Prosecution’s statistics indicate that the intensified crackdown is crucial for safeguarding the youth from drug abuse. The increased vigilance within Kuwait and at its borders underscores the commitment to protecting the community from the adverse effects of drugs.

(source: arabtimesonline.com)

IRAN----executions

The execution of political prisoner Idris Jamshid Zahi in Zahedan Prison

Early morning on Thursday, July 18, 2024, a 45-year-old Baloch political prisoner named Idris Jamshid Zahi was executed in Zahedan Central Prison. This prisoner was arrested on charges of killing a Basiji member in Iranshahr and subsequently sentenced to execution by the Zahedan court.

According to the reports received by Iran Human Rights Monitor (Iran HRM), Idris Zahi was arrested in 2017 on charges of killing a native Basij commander and a friend of Qasem Soleimani named Seyed Abdolkarim Sajadi in Iranshahr. He was subsequently sentenced to execution by the Revolutionary Court, Branch 2, in Zahedan. His execution was carried out early morning yesterday in accordance with the issued verdict.

Idris Jamshid Zahi, a father of 5 children and a resident of Tighap village in the outskirts of Iranshahr, had his last meeting with his family 1 day before his execution.

The execution of this prisoner has not been announced by Iranian judiciary-affiliated media or official sources up until the moment of this publication, and the execution took place quietly without media coverage or news reports.

(source: iran-hrm.com)

***************

Execution of 9 Prisoners, Including a Woman, in Iran; Urgent International Call to Save Death Row Inmates

Over the past3 days, Khamenei’s executioners have hanged 9 prisoners, including a woman, in Ghezel Hesar, Adel Abad (Shiraz), and Lakan (Rasht) prisons.

Today, Sunday, July 21, 4 prisoners named Davood Barahoui, Saeed Mohammadpour, Mehdi Ali Akbari, and another prisoner were hanged in Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj. Davood Barahoui, a 47-year-old Baluch compatriot, has been in prison since 2018.

On Saturday, July 20, Mansour Tavakoli, Hamed Shekasteh, Mohsen Ostovari, and a female prisoner named “Mahmoudinia” were executed in Adel Abad Prison in Shiraz. On Friday, July 19, another prisoner named Taher Sadeghi was executed in Lakan Prison in Rasht.

The recent actions of the regime’s proxy groups and IRGC mercenaries in the region, as well as the renewed acceleration of the killing and execution machine after the presidential election show, once again, demonstrate that the main components of Khamenei’s policy, such as internal repression, the nuclear weapons project, and warmongering and exporting terrorism, which are necessary for the regime’s survival, not only remain unchanged but are intensifying.

The Iranian Resistance once again calls on the UN Human Rights Council, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Special Rapporteur on Iran, and other human rights advocates to take immediate action to save the lives of prisoners on death row, especially political prisoners. It also demands that the human rights violation case of the religious fascism ruling Iran be referred to the UN Security Council and that its leaders be brought to justice.

(source: Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) )

**************

Central Prison of Shiraz, Execution of a Woman: A Case of Coerced Marriage

On the morning of Saturday, July 20, 2024, the death sentences for 3 men and 1 woman were carried out at the Central Prison of Shiraz, also known as Adelabad.

The woman who was executed alongside the three male prisoners was named Mahmoudinia (first name unknown). She had been sentenced to death for “premeditated murder.”

Ms. Mahmoudinia was arrested and sentenced to death for killing her fiancé. She was unwilling to marry him and had been forced into the marriage by her family.

The lack of classification for premeditated murder in Iran means that any type of murder, regardless of its severity or motive, can lead to a death sentence.

According to the information compiled by the Women’s Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, with the execution of Ms. Mahmoudinia in the Central Prison of Shiraz, the number of women executed in Iran since 2007, has reached 240. 11 women have been executed since January 2024.

Record holder of executions of women

The Iranian regime is the world’s top record holder of executions of women.

No government in the world has executed so many women. The list does not account for the tens of thousands of women executed in Iran on political grounds.

The NCRI Women’s Committee previously mentioned that many of the women executed by the mullahs’ regime are themselves victims of domestic violence against women and have acted in self-defense.

An average of 15 women were executed every year under the former government in Iran.

However, 26 women were executed under Raisi government in 2023, which is 11 more than the previous average.

The NCRI Women’s Committee calls on the United Nations, the European Union, and other relevant international organizations to take urgent action to save the lives of those on death row and stop the use of death penalty in Iran.

(source: women.ncr-iran.org)

JULY 21, 2024:

FLORIDA:

Defendant James Guzman was sentenced to death for his murder conviction by the Honorable Dawn Nichols.

In March following a week-long resentencing hearing, a Volusia County jury voted 12-0 to recommend death for Guzman for the brutal murder and robbery of a Virginia businessman he chauffeured.

Guzman has previously been found guilty 3 different times for using a sword to kill the victim in Daytona Beach on August 10, 1991. The defendant then stole money and a diamond ring from him, which he sold for crack cocaine and cash.

The first two convictions were overturned on appeal and were sent back for new trials. The most recent conviction of the defendant for the crime was in 2016. At that time, a jury voted in favor of the death penalty for Guzman in an 11-1 decision, but that sentence was nullified the following year after Florida courts began requiring unanimous jury recommendations in death penalty cases.

However, in April 2023, Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill authorizing a new non-unanimous sentencing standard of 8-4 in capital cases. This new law was utilized for March’s resentencing.

“33 years after the brutal and callous murder, the defendant is finally held accountable,” State Attorney R.J. Larizza said about the case. “This case confirms that – in Florida – there is no time limit on making Justice a Reality. My only regret is that the family of our murder victim had to wait so long!”

The case was investigated by the Daytona Beach Police Department. Assistant State Attorney Andrew Urbanak successfully prosecuted the case for the state.

(source: West Orlando News)

UTAH----impending execution Utah scraps untested lethal drug combination for man’s August execution

Utah officials said Saturday that they are scrapping plans to use an untested lethal drug combination in next month’s planned execution of a man in a 1998 murder case. They will instead seek out a drug that’s been used previously in executions in numerous states.

Defense attorneys for Taberon Dave Honie, 49, had sued in state court to stop the use of the drug combination, saying it could cause the defendant “excruciating suffering.”

The execution scheduled for Aug. 8 would be Utah’s 1st since the 2010 execution of Ronnie Lee Gardner, by firing squad.

Honie was convicted of aggravated murder in the stabbing of his girlfriend’s mother, Claudia Benn, 49.

After decades of failed appeals, Honie’s execution warrant was signed last month despite defense objections to the planned lethal drug combination.

They said the first 2 drugs he was to have been given —- the sedative ketamine and the anesthetic fentanyl — would not adequately prevent Honie from feeling pain when potassium chloride was administered to stop his heart.

In response, the Utah Department of Corrections has decided to instead use a single drug — pentobarbital. Agency spokesperson Glen Mills said attorneys for the state filed court documents overnight Friday asking that the lawsuit be dismissed.

“We will obtain and use pentobarbital for the execution,” Mills said. He said agency officials still believe the 3-drug combination was effective and humane.

State officials previously acknowledged that they knew of no other cases of the 3-drug combination being used in an execution.

At least 14 states have used pentobarbital in executions, according to the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C.

However, there’s been evidence that pentobarbital also can cause extreme pain, including in federal executions carried out in the last months of Donald Trump’s presidency.

Honie’s attorney in the lawsuit, federal defender Eric Zuckerman, did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Meanwhile, a hearing is scheduled for Monday on Honie’s request to the state parole board to commute his death sentence to life in prison.

Honie’s lawyers said in a petition last month that a traumatic and violent childhood coupled with his long-time drug abuse, a previous brain injury and extreme intoxication fueled Honie’s behavior when he broke into his Benn’s house and killed her.

They blamed poor legal advice for allowing Honie — a native of the Hopi Indian Reservation in Arizona — to be sentenced by a judge instead of a jury that might have been more sympathetic and spared him the death penalty.

(source: Associated Press)

*******************

State changes execution drug, at 'significant cost,' to dismiss death row civil suit

The state of Utah announced Saturday it is changing its method of lethal injection for Taberon Dave Honie, under 3 weeks from the scheduled execution, amid a civil rights lawsuit that was brought against Department of Corrections officials.

On June 7, the department notified parties that it would use a lethal cocktail of ketamine, fentanyl, and potassium chloride for the method of execution, but a month later, lawyers for Honie filed a lawsuit asking Judge Linda Jones in the 3rd District Court to declare the state's 3-drug protocol unconstitutional.

Honie was convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend's mother, Claudia Benn, in front of Benn's 3 grandchildren in 1998.

With the Aug. 8 execution date looming, and all other legal avenues for seeking relief from the over 25-year-old sentence seemingly exhausted, this civil suit asked for "adequate time to investigate the medical implications" surrounding the untested protocol, and enjoined the state to not use the cocktail proposed.

The Department of Corrections, and the state of Utah's response — they will "no longer be using the three-drug combination under any circumstance in (Honie's) execution."

In a declaration from Randall Honey, chief of prison operations, filed Saturday, the Department of Corrections had been trying to obtain pentobarbital, a central nervous system depressant, according to the National Institutes of Health. It is normally used as a sedative, and commonly for euthanizing animals.

The Death Penalty Information Center reports that pentobarbital has been used by 14 states and the federal government in executions, but the supply has been more difficult with some pharmaceutical companies refusing to sell to prisons.

Since October 2023, Honey and his predecessor tried to secure a supply, but were forced to look for alternatives when they could not secure a dosage for the execution, according to the declaration, asking 12 states and a pharmacist with no progress. They ultimately landed on the contested ketamine, fentanyl, and potassium chloride cocktail.

But an unnamed individual read news coverage of the current lawsuit, Honey said, and offered to put the state in touch with a supplier for the drug.

The supply of pentobarbital would come at a "significant cost," according to the declaration. The estimated cost of the three-drug combination was $7,900, but the doses of pentobarbital would cost $200,000.

Saturday, the Department of Corrections filed to dismiss the civil suit contesting the use of the drug combo, arguing that Honie's stance is now moot, because it is able to obtain the preferred drug.

The quick change in execution method, however, "may raise an alleged due process concern challenging the timing of the disclosure for pentobarbital," which the corrections officials admitted to in the dismissal motion, opening the door for another legal challenge to the execution timing.

No response to the dismissal filing has yet been submitted by Honie. A commutation hearing is scheduled for July 22-24 regarding Honie's request to the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole to commute his death sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

(source: ksl.com)

BELARUS:

Death sentence in Minsk: German doctor faces execution

The district court in Minsk has issued a death sentence in the case of a German citizen, as reported by the opposition channel MotolkoPomogi on Telegram. According to foreign media, the convicted individual is 30-year-old Rico Krieger. The Human Rights Centre Viasna states that he is a military doctor for the Red Cross.

The convicted man was accused of mercenarism, espionage, an act of terrorism, creating an extremist formation, deliberate destruction of a means of transport, and illegal actions involving weapons.

The opposition channel MotolkoPomogi, run by activist Anton Motolka, reported on Telegram that Krieger was sentenced to death by execution. Meanwhile, the Human Rights Centre Viasna has stated that they do not have confirmation of this information at present but are attempting to clarify the fate of the German citizen.

Independent Belarusian and Russian media reported that Krieger appeared before the court. The trial began on 6 June, and 12 hearings have since taken place. Judge Aleh Lapeka presided over the proceedings. The sentence was passed on 24 June. It is not known if an appeal has been filed.

Human rights defenders from Viasna do not have information on the specific charges brought against Krieger, and official structures have not reported any arrests in a similar case.

The Zierkalo portal states that Krieger had been working as a paramedic since 2021. From 2014 to 2017, he was reportedly a security guard at the US embassy in Berlin.

The German Foreign Ministry has said that Berlin remains in intensive contact with the authorities in Minsk regarding his fate. "The case is known to the foreign ministry. The foreign ministry and the embassy in Minsk are providing consular support to the person concerned and are working hard on his behalf with the Belarusian authorities," read the statement.

Belarus is the only country in Europe and the post-Soviet Commonwealth of Independent States where the death penalty is still carried out. The sentence is executed by shooting.

According to estimates by human rights defenders, since the establishment of an independent Belarus, about 400 executions have been carried out.

(source: msn.com)

TANZANIA:

A Tanzanian court upholds death sentence for man convicted of murdering his sister

(see: https://www.thecitizen.co.tz/tanzania/news/court-news/a-tanzanian-court-upholds-death-sentence-for-man-convicted-of-murdering-his-sister-4696790)

INDIA:

Rape-cum-murder case: SC stays execution of death sentence awarded to convict

(see: https://legal.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/litigation/rape-cum-murder-case-sc-stays-execution-of-death-sentence-awarded-to-convict/111890356)

KUWAIT:

Death Penalty Looms for 4 Suspects in 160 kg Hashish Smuggling Case

4 individuals have been referred to the Public Prosecution on charges of importing narcotics for trafficking, a crime that could carry the death penalty. The Ministry of Interior’s General Department for Combating Narcotics and the General Department of Coast Guard arrested the suspects as they attempted to smuggle 160 kilograms of hashish by sea. The arrests followed a tip-off and approval from the Public Prosecution.

SAUDI ARABIA:

Executions rise despite pledge to human rights----Human rights observers have recorded a 42% increase in executions, despite the kingdom's claims to modernization. A lack of accountability and arbitrary rulings contributed to the rise, observers say.

Executions have almost doubled in Saudi Arabia in 2024 despite the oil-rich kingdom's pledges to uphold human rights.Image: KEVIN DIETSCH/newscom/picture alliance

The number of executions in Saudi Arabia has risen sharply in the first half of this year. As of July 15, the state executed 98 men and two women for charges related to murder, terrorism and drugs. This marks a 42% increase compared to the same period in 2023, according to a recent report by the Berlin-based European Saudi Organization for Human Rights (ESOHR).

"Some executions are not even for recognized common crimes, but for such political offenses as 'endangering national unity' or 'undermining societal security,'" Kenneth Roth, the former director of Human Rights Watch and current professor at Princeton's School of Public and International Affairs, told DW.

Political dissidents and rights' supporters often face trials at the country's secretive Specialized Criminal Court, which is the country's designated counter-terror tribunal. A report by the human rights group Amnesty International found that authorities were using this court "as a weapon to systematically silence dissent."

Executions contravene Saudi attempts at improving public image

The crackdown on civil rights' activists is in contrast to Saudi Arabia's so-called Vision 2030, an ambitious project to drive societal and economic overhaul in the country.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had introduced the set of reforms in 2017 in a bid to diversify the country's dependence on oil sales by investing in green technologies, boosting foreign investment, and opening the country to non-religious tourism. Part of this strategy included hosting global sports events, such as the upcoming Olympic Esports Games or the football World Cup in 2034. Critics say that Saudi investments in major sports events are an attempt to "sportswash" — or whitewash through the use of sports — the kingdom's human rights records by boosting its international popularity.

The latest increase in executions also contradicts recent statements by the Saudi Human Rights Commission. In July, Hala Al-Tuwaijri, President of the Human Rights Commission told the UN Human Rights Council that "Saudi Arabia is determined to move forward towards achieving the best international standards in protecting and promoting human rights, based on its established principles and values."

Council members had issued recommendations to Saudi Arabia on how to improve its human rights record. These included the abolition of the death penalty and the fostering of fundamental freedoms.

Ali Adubisi, who heads the Berlin-based non-governmental ESOHR organization, said the statement by Al-Tuwaijiri rang hollow. "Actual human rights would allow criticism, monitoring and accountability in the authoritarian system," he told DW.

DW reached out to Saudi Arabia's Human Rights Commission with a request for comment but had not received an answer by the time of publication.

Why are more people being executed?

Executions in Saudi Arabia have been on a steady rise in the past years: In 2023, Saudi Arabia executed 172 people, though in 2022, it was 196 people, triple the number executed in 2021 and a seven-fold increase compared to 2020.

"It's our position that the Saudi government under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has not been held accountable for prior abuses by the international community, and this has allowed him to go forward with his repression," Joey Shea, Saudi Arabia researcher at Human Rights Watch, told DW.

"We have seen that these death sentences result from an incredibly arbitrary and cruel criminal justice system that allows individuals who have not received a fair trial to be executed," Shea said.

Another reason for this year-on-year increase is the country's return to the death penalty for minors and drug-related offences. A moratorium, which was introduced in January 2020, ended in November 2022.

"The Saudi government promised to curtail the use of the death penalty, particularly in non-violent drug-related offences and for child offenders," Shea told DW, adding that "unfortunately, we have seen a complete and utter reversal of this trend and a very clear breaking of the promises to curtail the use of the death penalty."

As of now, of the 100 executions in 2024, 66 detainees faced charges of murder, while the remaining 34 death penalties affected individuals who were charged for terrorism and drug-related offenses.

The rise in executions has been further exacerbated by the increased application of so-called ta'zir rulings. Punishments based on ta'zir rulings are widely considered to be arbitrary, as the punishment is not set out by any codified application of law, but left to the discretion of independent judges.

ESOHR is currently monitoring the cases of nine minors on death row, 8 of whom were handed the death sentence through ta'zir rulings.

How women's rights, free speech, and accountability tie together

While human rights experts say women's rights in Saudi Arabia have significantly improved, they've noted that none of the country's latest modernization reforms have extended to curtailing punishment for political dissent or calls for human rights.

"If there was free speech in Saudi Arabia, people would start expressing their opinions on different matters, not only on the regime," Lina al-Hathloul, a women's rights activist at the London-based human rights watchdog Alqst, told DW.

In her view, a vibrant society would have the space to critically question the role of Crown Prince bin Salman, who is set to become king once his father dies. "If his rule was built on institutions and on the rule of law, [Mohammed bin Salman] himself, as well as the country, would be in a very robust situation, rather than him being at the top and micro-managing the country," al-Hathloul said.

Free speech would also benefit the country's human rights record, she added, as it would lay the foundation for a system of checks and balances, as well as mechanisms for accountability.

"But if we continue to turn a blind eye [to human rights abuses by authorities], they will double down and muzzle everyone who might be seen as potential dissident," she told DW.

IRAN----executions

At Least 8 Prisoners Executed in Karaj and Shiraz in 2 Days

On Saturday and Sunday, at least 8 prisoners were executed in the cities of Karaj and Shiraz. The death sentences of 4 of these prisoners were carried out in a group on Sunday, July 22, in Qezelhesar Prison in Karaj. On Saturday, July 21, 4 prisoners, including a woman, were executed in Adelabad Prison in Shiraz.

In a report announcing the execution of 4 prisoners in Karaj's Ghezel Hesar Prison, HRANA wrote that they were transferred to solitary confinement on July 21 to carry out their executions.

HRANA stated that the identities of 3 of the executed prisoners, Davoud Barahoui, Saeed Mohammadpour, and Mehdi Ali Akbari, have been confirmed, and that the 4th executed prisoner was an Afghan citizen and his identity is under investigation.

These prisoners had previously been arrested and sentenced to death on drug-related charges.

Iran Human Rights also reported on the execution of 4 prisoners in Shiraz's Adelabad Prison, 3 of whom were men and 1 were women.

According to the investigations, 2 of the prisoners, who were sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder, have been identified as Mansour Tavakoli and Hamed Shokteh.

Another prisoner who was sentenced to death on the charge of "rape" has been identified as Mohsen Ostovari.

Iran Human Rights stated that the woman who was executed along with the 3 prisoners was named Mahmoudinia (first name unknown), and wrote that the woman had been sentenced to death on the charge of "premeditated murder."

An informed source told Iran Human Rights: "Ms. Mahmudinia was arrested for the murder of her fiancée and sentenced to qisas-e-nafs. He was not satisfied with this marriage and had married the victim by force and coercion of the family."

According to human rights organizations, more than 270 people have been hanged in various prisons in Iran since the beginning of this year.

On July 5, Iran Human Rights published a new report on the human rights situation in Iran, warning of the intensification of executions in the days following the presidential election.

Referring to the experience of previous periods, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the director of Iran Human Rights, believes that the Islamic Republic's authorities "reduce the number of executions in order to encourage people to participate in the elections, and immediately after the elections, the number of executions increases sharply."

Amiry-Moghaddam warned the audience and the international community about the upcoming wave of executions and asked them to "prepare from now on to confront and respond appropriately to the possible wave of executions."

In its latest annual report on the death penalty in the world, Amnesty International noted a significant increase in executions in Iran, reporting that nearly 75 percent of all executions recorded in the world last year occurred in Iran.

Amnesty International says that since the Mahsa-Jina Amini movement, the Islamic Republic has increased its use of the death penalty to instill fear among the population and tighten its grip on power.

(source: iranintl.com)

JULY 20, 2024:

FLORIDA:

DeSantis increased executions during his campaign. Then he slowed down.----DeSantis signed 6 death warrants last year as he was running for president after 3 years of not signing any.

Last year, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed execution warrants for 6 Florida inmates, the most in any year in the state since 2014. He was also running for president.

DeSantis had signed off on just two executions — both in 2019 — to that point. The sudden step up, along with legislation he signed lowering Florida’s death penalty jury requirement, seemed to signal a new approach to capital punishment.

When DeSantis signed the 1st of those 6 death warrants in January 2023, Bryan Griffin, a spokesperson for the governor, said that COVID and state emergencies, like hurricanes, can delay some executions, but that “the process has resumed.”

DeSantis’ office did not return emails requesting comment on why he hasn’t signed any death warrants this year.

But this year, DeSantis hasn’t moved forward on any executions, leading some to question whether the governor’s 6 executions last year were motivated by his campaign for president and a desire to be seen as tough on crime. DeSantis suspended his campaign in January.

DeSantis’ primary opponent for the Republican nomination, former President Donald Trump, oversaw a record spate of federal executions: 13 inmates were killed from July to January in the final months of his presidency.

“I think most observers believe that Governor DeSantis was trying to outflank Donald Trump to show how tough he was on crime,” said Robert Dunham, an expert on the death penalty and former director of the Death Penalty Information Center. “And his miscalculation, of course, is people weren’t voting for or against Donald Trump based on views on the death penalty.”

Capital punishment used to play a substantial role in campaigns for Democrats and Republicans alike. But that has become less true over the last 20 plus years as the American public has reconsidered, and become less favorable of, the death penalty.

Austin Sarat, a professor at Amherst College, said politicians do still use the death penalty for political purposes, particularly if there’s a sensational crime they can build on that’s in the news during a campaign.

But by the time of the actual execution, which often happens decades after a death sentence, the public focus has been lost.

Sarat said he thinks the issue is more complicated than politicians just wanting to have executions because they’re on a campaign. DeSantis, even with the increased number of executions he oversaw last year, has signed far fewer death warrants than previous Gov. Rick Scott.

“My suspicion is he talked more about woke in schools than he did about executions in Florida,” Sarat said.

Frank Baumgartner, a political science professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said elected officials expect a benefit from acting tough on crime.

But he said voters don’t feel differently about executions compared to other tough-on-crime measures like increasing police funding or creating harsher laws.

“It all adds up in the tough-on-crime bucket,” he said. “People don’t make those fine distinctions.”

Whether DeSantis will resume executions during his final years as governor is unclear. Florida has nearly 280 people on death row, some of whom have been incarcerated since the 1970s.

But his impact on people sentenced to death row could last for years to come – and not just in Florida. The DeSantis-led changes to Florida’s death penalty concerned some death penalty opponents, including activists, attorneys and religious groups, who point out that Florida has the highest number of death row exonerations.

Along with signing a bill requiring only eight people on a jury to sentence someone to death, giving Florida the lowest threshold in the nation, DeSantis also passed a bill that seeks to challenge U.S. Supreme Court precedent and execute child rapists.

The 1st Florida prosecutors to attempt to charge a man with the death penalty for sexually abusing a child ended up dropping their pursuit after a request from the victim’s family.

But before then, DeSantis was an enthusiastic supporter of their attempt to levy capital punishment. On social media, DeSantis said it would be the “1st case to challenge SCOTUS” since he signed the legislation and that the prosecutors have “my full support.”

(source: Tampa Bay Times)

*****************

Florida Supreme Court Releases Opinion Reaffirming Death Sentence Despite Constitutionality Issues Presented

In the Allen Ward Cox v. State of Florida capital resentencing case last week, Justice of the Florida Supreme Court Meredith Sasso explains the affirmation of Cox’s death sentence following the initial unconstitutional non-unanimous death sentence.

As detailed by Judge Sasso, Allen Ward Cox was involved in a high-profile capital resentencing case in Florida. Cox was originally sentenced to death for the 1998 premeditated murder of Thomas Baker, a fellow inmate at Lake Correctional Institute. His case has gone through many appeals and legal proceedings, the opinion states.

Judge Sasso stated, “The charges against Cox resulted from a chain of events within LCI that culminated in the death of Baker and an assault upon Lawrence Wood.” According to the evidence presented at Cox’s guilt phase trial, Cox was stolen from and promised to retaliate. The next day, Cox allegedly beat Baker before stabbing him with a shiv and hiding the weapon.

The opinion reports Cox testified witness statements were correct, however, “…they had not seen what truly happened when he, Baker, and Vincent Maynard, a third inmate, were close together.” Cox asserted he was defending himself from the two, when Maynard unintentionally struck Baker.

Judge Sasso’s opinion confirms that in 2002, the Florida Supreme Court upheld Cox’s conviction and death sentence. However, a new penalty phase was granted because Cox challenged this sentence with a motion for post-conviction relief. The jury reached a unanimous decision to execute Cox.

The court affirmed this decision in 2022, which prompted a direct appeal in 2024. Cox raised seven issues regarding the proceedings of his resentencing?. The court categorized and rejected these issues in the statement provided.

Judge Sasso’s opinion ultimately evaluated mitigating and aggravating circumstances. 2 aggravators were mentioned by the jury: imprisonment and prior violent felony, with 57 non statutory mitigating factors were recognized, yet “…were outweighed by the two significant aggravating circumstances.”

The opinion indicates that in regard to the issue of dementia, since a doctor did not explicitly state what type of dementia Cox suffers from, the court concluded no error was made in rejecting the circumstance.

Judge Sasso writes that “because the testimony did not conclusively establish progressive dementia, the trial court therefore rejected the non-statutory mitigator of ‘early signs of dementia,’ which implies progressive dementia.”

Additionally, the Florida Supreme Court believes factors affecting behavior such as impulse control deficits and antidepressant withdrawal do not bear enough weight against their evidence for the case, Judge Sasso asserts.

Court cases were cited as proof that mitigating circumstances can be established but not considered mitigating due to the accused’s purposeful actions throughout the crime, Judge Sasso highlighted. Expert testimony disproves Cox’s claims of withdrawal and Sinequan discontinuation.

Judge Sasso wrote in the opinion Cox did not establish fundamental error; a mistake committed in court that is serious enough to have an impact on the case outcome. Cox argues the prosecutor’s closing comments influence the process of deliberation and results in fundamental error.

However, Judge Sasso stated that “the defense did not make any contemporaneous objections to the prosecutor’s comments. And in context, the small number of improper remarks made during the trial were not so prejudicial as to call into question the jury’s verdict.”

The ruling opinion said issues brought up by Cox regarding the constitutionality of Florida’s death penalty scheme were rejected because cases cited support the court’s application of established precedent.

Judge Sasso said, “Cox has not presented any reason for this Court to reconsider its precedent on this issue.”

Judge Sasso concluded the opinion by stating fundamental error was not demonstrated and the court affirms the death sentence decision.

(source: Perla Chavez is a 1st-generation college student that has obtained a paralegal certificate from the UCLA Extension Paralegal Program----davisvanguard.org)

ALABAMA:

Anti-Death Penalty Group Decries Alabama’s Third Execution This Year: ‘This is Not Justice’

Keith Gavin, a 64-year-old man convicted of fatally shooting a delivery driver during a 1998 robbery attempt, was executed by lethal injection on July 18 in Alabama.

He was the 3rd inmate to be put to death in Alabama this year and the 10th to be executed in the country. The execution took place soon after the Supreme Court rejected Gavin’s handwritten request for a stay.

While Gavin and state prison officials awaited the court’s announcement, Catholic Mobilizing Network, a group that opposes the death penalty, asked readers on X to “join us here as we hold vigil to pray for every person impacted by this act of state-sanctioned violence.”

They also said they were praying “for the repose of the soul of William Clayton, Jr., whose life was taken in an act of violence” and for the “lawyers, advocates, friends, family, and people around the world who have worked diligently” to oppose Gavin’s execution.

When the state was given the go-ahead to move on with the execution, Catholic Mobilizing Network posted: “We ask God that you send forth your Spirit upon him in his final moments. May Keith know your love and grace.” After his death, the group added, “The death penalty continues cycles of harm and violence that hurt all of us. This is not justice.”

Gavin was found guilty of fatally shooting Clayton, a father of 7 who had stopped at an ATM to get money for a date night with his wife.

A jury convicted him of capital murder and voted 10-2 to recommend a death sentence, which the judge agreed to. Today, most states require unanimous agreement among jury members to impose a death sentence.

In 2020, a federal judge ruled Gavin had ineffective counsel at his sentencing hearing because his original lawyers failed to present mitigating evidence of Gavin’s violent and abusive childhood.

A federal appeals court overturned the decision, allowing the death sentence to stand.

The Associated Press reported that Gavin, who is Muslim, said in his final statement: “I love my family.” He also appeared to move his lips in prayer as his spiritual adviser stood beside him.

Clayton’s youngest son, Matthew, who witnessed the execution, told USA Today that his family had “long forgiven” Gavin. He described his father as a “gentle giant” who worked hard to help provide for him and his six siblings.

“I don’t think anyone anticipated that his life would end this way,” he said. “Certainly not his family … It was quite shocking.”

Gavin has always maintained his innocence and has appealed the court’s decision, claiming his cousin, who was with him, killed Clayton.

He also filed a lawsuit seeking to stop the state’s plans to do an autopsy on him after the execution, which he said would violate his religious beliefs. State officials accepted the request and announced they would forgo the traditional post-execution autopsy.

Gavin’s execution took place 2 days after the Supreme Court stopped the scheduled execution of a Texas death row inmate, ruling that a lower court needed to consider the inmate’s arguments for DNA testing first.

(source: thetablet.com)

MISSOURI----impending execution

AG Bailey asks Missouri Supreme Court to halt St. Louis County prosecutor’s efforts to vacate Marcellus Williams murder conviction

The state attorney general is asking the Missouri Supreme Court to put an end to a St. Louis County prosecutor’s case seeking to overturn the 1998 murder conviction of Marcellus Williams.

Williams was convicted in 1998 of the first-degree murder of Lisha Gayle and sentenced to death.

However, since new DNA evidence related to the murder weapon was uncovered in 2016, the case has seen several legal challenges.

The most recent was a motion to vacate filed by St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell that would set aside Williams’s conviction. The motion cites the 2016 DNA evidence, states that other physical evidence in the case is lacking and that Williams is not guilty.

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey has challenged Bell’s case at the circuit level and on Thursday sought the intervention of the state supreme court, asking for a writ of prohibition that would end proceedings in St. Louis County.

A spokesperson for Bailey’s office did not immediately return an email seeking comment on the recent filing.

The attorney general’s office argues that because Williams’s appeals are exhausted and the Missouri Supreme Court has set an execution date for Sept. 24, the circuit court does not have authority to hear the case and should have dismissed Bell’s motion.

“This Court has issued an execution warrant, and the Circuit Court of St. Louis County is not a competent authority to litigate matters affecting an execution ordered by this Court,” the petition reads. “Therefore, respondent exceeded his authority by not dismissing Movant’s motion to vacate or set aside Williams’s conviction and sentence of death.”

Asked for comment, a spokesperson for Bell’s office told First Alert 4 that any response to the attorney general’s recent action would be in court.

A law passed in August 2021 gives Missouri prosecutors the authority to challenge a conviction if they believe that person to be innocent.

Bell’s office in a June 26 motion argues the motion to vacate Williams’s sentence is proper, that Bailey’s role is limited by statute and his office is overstepping by trying to quash the case before it has been heard.

“Putting aside the substance of the Motion to Dismiss, the Attorney General having filed it was improper, and at best premature” the motion states. “If the legislature had intended for the Attorney General to be able to challenge the court’s authority or attempt to dismiss claims prior to a merits hearing, it could have easily drafted that into the statute.”

St. Louis County Assistant Presiding Circuit Judge Bruce Hilton is set to preside at a pretrial conference on Aug. 16 and a hearing is set for Aug. 21 on Bell’s motion to vacate.

In light of that upcoming hearing, Williams recently sought to have the Missouri Supreme Court withdraw his upcoming execution date but was denied.

Williams is also being represented by attorneys with the Midwest Innocence Project, who argue the DNA evidence found on the murder weapon shows he did not murder Gayle.

In a statement following the attorney general’s Thursday filing, Williams’s attorney Tricia Rojo Bushnell said Bailey’s office should stop trying to prevent the hearing and focus on finding the truth.

“Indeed, when the prosecutor filed a motion to vacate Mr. Williams’s conviction in January, the Attorney General told the circuit court it was planning to file an opposition but waited four months, until after an execution date was set, to argue the court cannot hear the case,” Bushnell said. “The evidence could have been heard in those four months. It can still be heard now.”

“Instead of trying to prevent the circuit court from considering the DNA evidence that exonerates Mr. Williams, the Attorney General should join us in this truth-seeking process in Mr. Williams’s case,” Bushnell said.

(source: KMOV news)

BELARUS:

German Red Cross medic sentenced to death in Belarus, activists claim

Belarus is the last country in Europe still to apply the death penalty, executing several people each year by firing squad.

The Minsk Regional Court in Belarus sentenced a German national to death last month, human rights activists reported on Friday.

The man, Rico Krieger, was put on trial in May on charges of terrorism as well as "being a mercenary", "creating an extremist group", "intentionally damaging a vehicle", and "illegal operations with firearms, ammunition, and explosives".

The sentence is said to have been delivered in late June, according to the activists.

No other details, including whether Krieger is still alive, are known about the case at this time.

According to Krieger's LinkedIn profile, he had been working at the German Red Cross since 2021 as an emergency medical technician.

He was also listed as working at the US embassy in Berlin as a security guard between 2014 and 2017.

Silencing dissent continues

A former Soviet republic, Belarus is the last country in Europe still to apply the death penalty, executing several people each year by firing squad.

Many of the charges in Krieger's case carry a death sentence for sabotage-related acts by a sentenced terrorist, a law introduced in May 2022 as part of President Alexander Lukashenko's crackdown on protesters.

Lukashenko has also been subject to EU and US sanctions for his tacit support of Russia's war in Ukraine, but also his authoritarian rule and violent suppression of democracy.

Since the vast protest movement of 2020 against Lukashenko's re-election — in power since 1994 — many opponents have been charged and arrested for attempting or preparing an act of terrorism.

A number of opposition figures were sentenced to long prison terms, and independent NGOs and media were banned and branded as extremists.

Belarusian authorities arrest scores of people in latest crackdown

It is believed that Krieger's court case is part of a recent escalation in persecution of Lukashenko's regime.

Earlier this month, the Brest regional court opened proceedings against 63-year-old Natallya Malets, who is charged with "facilitating extremist activities" for allegedly wiring funds to political prisoners 125 times. She is facing up to 6 years in prison.

On 8 July, the Hrodna regional court began the trial in absentia of journalist Aliaksandr Ales Kirkevich on the same charge. It remains unclear what Kirkevich, a writer and local historian, did to be charged with the offence.

The charges brought up against him in March also accuse another independent journalist, Iryna Charniauka, of the same crime.

(source: euronews.com)

*****************

German national sentenced to death in Belarus, Berlin confirms----Secretive trial of Rico Krieger, 30, may be linked to Belarusian volunteer unit fighting alongside Ukraine against Russia

A German national has been sentenced to death in Belarus, the German foreign ministry has said, hours after a Belarusian human rights group said a German combat medic had been sentenced to death by firing squad.

The German ministry did not name its national but the Viasna Human Rights Centre said earlier on Friday that Rico Krieger, 30, had been convicted under six articles of Belarus’s criminal code in a trial held at the end of June. It said he had been in custody since November.

The exact allegations against Krieger were not immediately clear and Belarus’s official news agency did not report anything about his case.

The German ministry statement said: “The Foreign Office and the embassy in Minsk are giving the person in question consular support and are working intensively with Belarusian authorities on his behalf.”

Belarus’s justice ministry, which had not reported any such case, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The case may be linked to the Kastus Kalinouski Regiment, a group of Belarusian volunteer fighters fighting against Russia in the war in Ukraine, Viasna reported.

This was the first time someone had been tried for mercenary activity in Belarus, the rights group said.

According to a LinkedIn profile Viasna said belonged to Krieger, he worked as a medical worker for the German Red Cross and as an armed security officer for the US embassy in Berlin.

The exiled Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya said she was “concerned” by the reports and was “collecting more information on his case”.

Belarus is the only European country to actively use capital punishment, reserving it for serious crimes including murder under aggravating circumstances, terrorism and treason.

Russia still has the death penalty but has a moratorium and has not carried out an execution since the mid-1990s.

It was not immediately clear whether Krieger had appealed against the sentence.

The Kastus Kalinouski Regiment is named after the Polish-Belarusian writer and leading figure in the January uprising against the Russian empire in 1863.

The group is one of many foreign-founded volunteer units fighting alongside the Ukrainian army. It is considered an extremist group in Belarus, a close ally of Russia.

(source: theguardian.com)

INDIA:

Kerala: SC stays death penalty to convict in rape and murder of Dalit law student----The apex court has sought a report from the prison authorities with regard to the conduct and behaviour of the convict in jail within a period of 8 weeks.

The Supreme Court, on Tuesday, July 16, stayed the death penalty awarded to the convict in the murder and rape of Dalit law student in Perumbavoor in 2016. The Ernakulam Principal Sessions Court in 2017 found a migrant labourer from Assam, 24-year-old Ameerul Islam, guilty of all charges except for destruction of evidence, and violations under the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act. This verdict was upheld by the Kerala HC in May 2024.

A three-judge bench of the apex court has sought a report from the prison authorities with regard to the conduct and behaviour of the convict in jail within a period of 8 weeks. The Kerala government has been directed to submit reports of all probation officers concerned within 8 weeks. The court has also given 8 weeks time to Thrissur Government Medical College to constitute a team, conduct a psychological evaluation of the convict and submit a report. A new mitigation investigation report, which would be carried out as a series of interviews by Nuriya Ansari of Project 39 A, should be submitted within 12 weeks, when the case would be heard again. The bench headed by Justice B R Gavai and included Justices Sanjay Karol and K V Viswanathan said “The execution of the death sentence shall remain stayed, pending the hearing and final disposal of the present appeal.”

The Ernakulam Principal Sessions Court in 2017 pronunced death penalty to Ameerul Islam and said that the charges under Sections 449 (trespass), 342 (wrongful confinement), 376 (rape), 376 (a) (causing death/resulting in persistent vegetative state) and 302 (murder) had been proved. 2 days later, the court sentenced him to capital punishment. On May 20 this year, Kerala High Court upheld the conviction, challenging which Ameerul filed the petition at the Supreme Court. The HC had ordered a mitigation investigation into the case on May 11 to better ascertain the background and circumstances of the crime, so that nothing remained unaddressed before the court decided to commute or uphold the death penalty.

The 30-year-old law student, hailing from Perumbavoor in Ernakulam district, was raped and murdered at her house in Kuruppampadi on April 28, 2016. Following a long investigation, the investigative team finally submitted a 1,500-page chargesheet on September 17, 2016. The trial in the case began on April 4, 2017. Through the hearings that spanned 85 days, the prosecution presented as many as 195 witnesses, 290 documents and 36 pieces of material evidence against Ameerul, including DNA reports.

One of the men who was initially named as the accused in the crime, 37-year-old Sabu, died by suicide in July, 2017. Another man, who resembled one of the sketches put out by the police, nearly lost his job after his picture began to circulate on social media as the prime suspect in the case. Ameerul had claimed innocence when the verdict was pronounced. He was heard saying, "I haven't done anything, I don't know anything about this. I was just picked up by the police. I don't know anything, there must be a proper investigation."

(source: thenewsminute.com)

JULY 19, 2024:

TEXAS:

Midland County jury spares Lebron-Rivera from death penalty

A Midland County jury voted against the death penalty in considering the punishment for 46-year-old Angel Luis Lebron-Rivera.

According to a press statement from the Midland County District Attorney Laura Nodolf, the decision in the capital murder trial was decided late Thursday afternoon that the defendant would not receive the death penalty. Instead, he will serve life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Lebron-Rivera was found guilty of capital murder by the Midland County jury on July 3. The trial had begun in April of this year, with the jury selection process taking April, May and June to conclude.

Lebron-Rivera was convicted of capital murder for killing 2 teenagers in 2015 and burying their bodies on a tree farm in Midland County. He was not charged with the crime until 2018 when their bodies were discovered by the Midland County Sheriff’s Office. Lebron-Rivera was captured in the Dominican Republic and extradited back to Midland.

The same jury that found Lebron-Rivera guilty of capital murder then heard nearly 2 weeks of additional evidence from a variety of witnesses on the issue of what his punishment should be. After approximately five and half hours of deliberations; the jury returned their verdict with presiding judge David G. Rogers sentencing the defendant to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

"The process by which the jury decides punishment in a death penalty case requires the jury to answer 2 questions based on the evidence," the Midland County District's Attorney's Office said in a press release. "First, whether it is likely the defendant will commit acts of criminal violence that constitute a continuing threat to society, and then whether there is any evidence, known as 'mitigation,' which causes the jury to believe the defendant should receive a life sentence instead of the death penalty."

The case was prosecuted by Midland County District Attorney Laura Nodolf, First Assistant District Attorney Tim Flathers and felony trial team Chief Kyle McCardle. Lebron-Rivera was represented by the office of the Regional Public Defender for Capital Cases based in Lubbock. The trial was held in the 142nd District Court and presided over by Judge David G. Rogers.

(source: Midland Reporter-Telegram)

FLORIDA:

Prosecutors to seek death for 4 charged in 2021 mass shooting at Miami-Dade banquet hall----Prosecutors announced Thursday that they are seeking the death penalty for the 4 men charged in the May 30, 2021 shooting outside the El Mula banquet hall that left 3 people dead and 20 others injured

4 men who were charged last month in connection with the deadly 2021 mass shooting outside a Miami-Dade banquet hall are now facing a possible death sentence.

Prosecutors announced Thursday that they are seeking the death penalty for the 4 men charged in the May 30, 2021 shooting outside the El Mula banquet hall that left 3 people dead and 20 others injured.

Allen Gregory Chambers, Jr., Willie Zavon Hill, Eugene Anthony Holmes and Jacarree Brian Green were charged last month with 3 counts of 1st-degree murder, 20 counts of attempted 1st-degree murder with a deadly weapon and 1 count of conspiracy to commit 1st-degree murder in the shooting.

All 4 have pleaded not guilty, and are due back in court in September.

3 of the 4 suspects charged in connection with the deadly mass shooting at “El Mula" banquet hall in 2021 were in court Friday.

Prosecutors said the men went to El Mula that night to target members of a rival gang as the banquet hall hosted an album release party.

Surveillance video showed masked gunmen run from a stolen white Nissan Pathfinder, opening fire and killing 32-year-old Shanique Peterson, 26-year-old Desmond Owens and 26-year-old Clayton Dillard III.

According to an arrest warrant, cell phone and GPS records established Holmes as the driver of the Pathfinder, and Green as the driver of a black Cadillac, and revealed Hill and Chambers as gunmen who exited that car.

A fifth suspect, Davonte Barnes, had been previously arrested in the shooting. In November, Barnes was sentenced to life in prison for his role as a lookout in the shooting.

In 2021, police also arrested Warneric Buckner for his suspected role in the shooting—Buckner was identified as one of the men in the Pathfinder, but prosecutors had to drop charges after they said detectives improperly got a confession after he asked for attorney.

Buckner was also charged in connection with the murder of 6 year-old Chassidy Saunders in 2021. He pleaded not guilty in that case, which is ongoing.

(source: nbcmiami.com)

************************

James Guzman Given Death Penalty For ’91 Daytona Murder

59-year-old James Guzman, the man convicted in the 1991 murder of David Colvin in Daytona Beach, has been sentenced to death with unanimous recommendation from a Volusia County jury. The sentencing came after a week-long resentencing hearing resulting in a 12-0 decision by the jury to put Guzman to death.

Guzman was first convicted of murder in another killing, that of a woman in Miami-Dade County. He’d been released from prison for less than four months when he stabbed Colvin 19 times with a sword at a now-defunct hotel on Ridgewood Ave in Daytona. He then stole money and a diamond ring from the victim, reportedly selling them for crack cocaine.

A Long, Hard Process

The process of sentencing Guzman for the grisly murder of Colvin has been tricky, and has now drawn on for over 3 decades. He’s been convicted 2 other times, with the state’s policy on the death penalty serving to kick the can down the road. The last conviction was in 2016, in which a jury voted 11-1 for the death penalty. That was overturned by the Florida Supreme Court on the grounds that it wasn’t unanimous.

Then, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a law in April 2023 allowing for death sentences with a new standard of 8-4, opening Guzman up to a resentencing. The state pursued this opportunity, easily clearing the bar with their 12-0 jury decision. “The jury spoke loudly with a 12-0 death recommendation,” said State Attorney R.J. Larizza. “We are one step closer to reaching a final disposition in a case that has eluded justice for too long.”

Executions of Volusia County Killers

Provided this death sentence isn’t also overturned for some reason, Guzman would be the 5th person executed by the state for crimes committed in Volusia County. The ones to come before him are as follows:

Johnny Paul Witt (March 6th, 1985) – 1 victim

Jeffrey Joseph Daugherty (November 7th, 1988) – 4 victims

Roy Allen Harich (April 24th, 1991) – 1 victim

Gerald Eugene Stano (March 23rd, 1998) – 1 victim

(source: askflagler.com)

****************

Delay requested on life or death decision of Florida killer Wade Wilson----It is the 2nd time Wade Wilson's defense requests a delay since his trial began in June.

Counsel for a man convicted of brutally murdering two Cape Coral women in 2019 is requesting a delay in his sentencing scheduled next week, citing scheduling complications.

A jury recommended on June 25 in 9-3 and 10-2 votes for each of the victims that Wade Wilson, 30, receive the death penalty. The same jury convicted him June 12 of the slayings of Kristine Melton, 35, and Diane Ruiz, 43, and other charges linked to the crimes.

According to the latest motion, filed Wednesday, Kevin Shirley — who has represented Wilson along with Lee Hollander — said the court has appointed four mental health experts to assist the defense.

Shirley indicated 2 of the experts did not have "sufficient advance warning so as to modify their respective schedules" to attempt to conduct examinations, interviews and tests of Wilson. He later added that the other 2 potential witnesses have been provided materials given to the testifying experts, but they have insufficient information to provide opinions at the July 23 Spencer hearing to assist without personal contact with Wilson.

A Spencer hearing allows the judge to hear arguments and witness statements ahead of sentencing.

Shirley said one of the doctors is committed to testifying in two capital murder cases during the time interval surrounding Wilson’s hearings and is unavailable July 23. He added both doctors are able to schedule examinations if Lee Circuit Judge Nicholas Thompson resets the sentencing date.

"Without their potential testimony, the defense has little evidence to present for the Court’s consideration at the Spencer hearing," the motion reads in part.

In a motion filed July 10, Hollander requested that Wilson be allowed to attend the Spencer hearing, as well as his afternoon sentencing hearing, dressed in civilian clothing instead of his orange Lee County Jail uniform.

It is the 2nd time Wilson's counsel requested a delay since the trial began.

Penalty phase delayed due to illness

The penalty phase, which began after the jury convicted Wilson and concluded with the death recommendations, was expected to begin June 20, but Thompson on June 19 OK'd a motion filed by the defense that argued Hollander had been unavailable for three days, citing illness.

The penalty phase ultimately began June 24.

As of Thursday morning, Thompson had not ruled on Shirley's request to delay Wilson's sentencing.

Thompson has received at least three letters from community members who asked that he sentence Wilson to life without parole. The letters condemned the capital punishment.

An online petition that seeks to "prevent the death penalty for Wade Wilson" as of Thursday morning collected more than 8,600 signatures toward its 10,000 goal.

(source: Fort Myers News-Press)

ALABAMA----execution

Alabama executes man convicted of killing delivery driver during a 1998 robbery attempt

A man convicted of fatally shooting a delivery driver during a robbery attempt in 1998 was executed by chemical injection Thursday evening in Alabama.

Keith Edmund Gavin, 64, was pronounced dead at 6:32 p.m. at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in southwest Alabama, authorities said. He was convicted of capital murder in the shooting death of courier service driver William Clayton Jr., 68, in Cherokee County on March 6, 1998. Clayton had just finished work and was getting money at an ATM to take his wife to dinner, according to a court summary of trial testimony.

“After receiving a death sentence, Mr. Gavin appealed time after time for years to avoid justice, but failed at every attempt. Today, that justice was finally delivered for Mr. Clayton’s loved ones,” Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said in a statement. “I offer my prayers for Mr. Clayton’s family and friends who still mourn his loss all these years later.”

The execution began shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court turned down Gavin’s request for a stay of execution, which he had filed himself in a handwritten document.

“I love my family,” Gavin said in his final statement at about 6:10 p.m., which appeared to be followed by a few words that were not audible. Gavin, who is Muslim, appeared to move his lips in prayer as his spiritual adviser stood beside the gurney. He had a finger lifted on both hands in what appeared to be the Islamic gesture meaning Allah is the only god.

As a sedative began flowing through the IV line, his head, which had been lifted, fell back on the gurney, and Gavin appeared to lose consciousness. At about 6:20, a corrections officer performed a consciousness check — saying his name, brushing his eyelids and pinching his arms — which is done before the final 2 drugs are administered. Soon afterward, his breathing faded.

Prosecutors said Gavin shot Clayton during the attempted robbery, pushed him into the passenger seat of the van he was driving and drove off in the vehicle. A law enforcement officer testified that he began pursuing the van and the driver — a man he later identified as Gavin — shot at him before running away into the woods.

At the time of the killing, Gavin was on parole in Illinois after serving 17 years of a 34-year sentence for murder, according to court records.

Clayton was retired from a job at a railroad company and was a Korean War veteran, according to a 1998 obituary published by The Birmingham News. The father of 7 was still working to help provide for his family, his son said.

Matthew Clayton, who witnessed the execution, said afterward that his father was a “slice of Americana,” sometimes working two jobs to support his family.

“He was a good man. He left behind children and a wife who miss him, an extended family that mourns his loss. It’s quite unfortunate that his final years were taken from him in such a brutal way,” the younger Clayton said, adding this father “did not deserve to die this way.”

The younger Clayton questioned how Gavin was able to be free and in Alabama after his murder conviction in Illinois.

Alabama agreed last week in Gavin’s case to forgo a post-execution autopsy, which is typically performed on executed people who are incarcerated in the state. Gavin said the procedure would violate his religious beliefs. He had filed a lawsuit seeking to stop plans for an autopsy, and the state settled the complaint.

A jury convicted Gavin of capital murder and voted 10-2 to recommend a death sentence, which a judge imposed. Most states now require a jury to be in unanimous agreement to impose a death sentence.

A federal judge ruled in 2020 that Gavin had ineffective counsel at his sentencing hearing because his original lawyers failed to present more mitigating evidence of Gavin’s violent and abusive childhood in Chicago.

Gavin grew up in a “gang-infested housing project in Chicago, living in overcrowded houses that were in poor condition, where he was surrounded by drug activity, crime, violence, and riots,” U.S. District Judge Karon O. Bowdre wrote. A federal appeals court overturned the decision, which allowed the death sentence to stand.

“There is no doubt about Gavin’s guilt for this heinous offense,” Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said Thursday.

Gavin’s execution was the 10th in the U.S. this year and the 3rd in Alabama, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Texas, Georgia, Oklahoma and Missouri also have conducted executions this year. The Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit takes no position on capital punishment but has criticized the way states carry out executions.

Gavin becomes the 3rd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Alabama and the 75th overall since the state resumed capital punishment on April 22, 1983. Only Texas (588), Oklahoma (125), Virginia (115), Florida (105), Missouri (99), and Georgia (77), have carried out more executions in the modern era since the US Supreme Court’s decision in Gregg v. Georgia on July 2, 1976.

Gavin becomes the 10th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1,592nd overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977, when Gary Gilmore was executed by firing squad in the Utah State Penitentiary.

(sources: USA Today & Rick Halperin)

CALIFORNIA:

Woman could face death penalty in crash that killed Vacaville police officer----A Vacaville police officer on a motorcycle was killed in the intersection of Leisure Town Road and Orange Drive.

A woman who fatally struck a Vacaville police officer with her car has been charged with murder and could be eligible for the death penalty, her defense attorney said.

Serena CJ Rodriguez is accused of deliberately driving into Vacaville Police Officer Matthew Bowen on July 11 while he was on a traffic stop with another vehicle, the California Highway Patrol said in a news release. Rodriguez allegedly tried to run away from the scene but was caught by bystanders who witnessed the crash. She was initially booked on suspicion of driving under the influence of drugs but was ultimately charged with murdering a peace officer Monday.

Bowen, 32, died at the hospital. He is survived by his wife, 2 sons, parents and brother.

“We are disappointed that the prosecution chose to file charges that could result in the death penalty against a troubled young woman under these circumstances and we hope that the community will not rush to judgment while the investigation is ongoing,” said Rodriguez’s public defender, Elena M. D’Agustino, in an email.

Rodriguez has had encounters with law enforcement in Placer County before and had an outstanding bench warrant at the time of the crash, according to CBS-affiliate KOVR.

In November 2022, prosecutors charged Rodriguez with intentionally flooding her apartment, the station reported. About a month later, she was found with a fixed blade while in jail, leading to a felony charge, according to the outlet.

Rodriguez will appear for her arraignment Monday at 1:30 p.m. at the Fairfield Courthouse.

Bowen’s public memorial service is scheduled for Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. Vacaville police announced they will share it in a public livestream.

(source: Los Angeles Times)

USA----impending/scheduled executions

With the execution of Keith Gavin in Alabama on July 18, the USA has now executed 1,592 condemned individuals since the death penalty was re-legalized on July 2, 1976 in the US Supreme Court Gregg v Georgia decision.

Gary Gilmore was the 1st person executed, in Utah, on January 17, 1977. Below is a list of further scheduled executions as the nation continues its shameful practice of state-sponsored killings.

NOTE: The list is likely to change over the coming months as new execution dates are added and possible stays of execution occur.

1593-----Aug. 7------------Arthur Burton---------Texas

1594-----Aug. 8------------Taberon Honie---------Utah

1595-----Sept. 24----------Travis Mullis---------Texas

1596-----Sept. 24----------Marcellus Williams----Missouri

1597-----Sept. 26----------Alan Miller-----------Alabama

1598-----Sept. 26----------Emmanual Littlejohn---Oklahoma

1599-----Oct. 1------------Garcia White----------Texas

1600-----Oct. 17-----------Robert Roberson-------Texas

(source: Rick Halperin)

JULY 18, 2024:

TEXAS:

Death penalty sought for suspect in Deputy Fernando Esqueda's murder, prosecutors say

Harris County will seek the death penalty against the 2nd suspect charged in Deputy Fernando Esqueda's murder.

Court records show that 26-year-old Dremone Francis is the neighbor of the 1st suspect, identified as 44-year-old Ronald "Ronnie" Palmer Jr.

Palmer is charged with capital murder for Esqueda's death and 2 counts of aggravated assault for an incident earlier that night.

Francis was also arrested over the weekend in the case and charged with capital murder and tampering with evidence. He is also being held without bond on the capital murder charge.

Investigators say Palmer shot Esqueda multiple times after he assaulted an employee at a Little Caesars in northeast Harris County on July 10.

Eyewitness News learned ammunition found at Francis' home matched one of the murder weapons used in the shooting.

Prosecutors said Francis admitted to helping Palmer get rid of the guns.

On Monday, during Francis' first court appearance in the 248th District Court, the judge declined to set bond in his capital murder case.

The district attorney's office filed a motion to hold him in jail until trial. That will be decided after a proof-evident hearing in September.

During Wednesday's court hearing, prosecutors said that they are seeking the death penalty in the case.

Esqueda will be laid to rest on Friday at 10 a.m. at the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart.

A viewing will be held on Thursday from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, located at 2405 Navigation Blvd.

(source: KTRK news)

********************

Delay of Texas death row inmate's execution has not been the norm for Supreme Court, experts say

Texas inmate Ruben Gutierrez had spent some of the hours leading up to his scheduled execution Tuesday evening talking with his wife and attorney before being eventually transferred to a holding cell at the state prison in Huntsville to await his lethal injection.

But about 20 minutes before he was to be taken into the nearby death chamber, the prison warden told Gutierrez the U.S. Supreme Court had granted him an execution stay.

Gutierrez prayed with a prison chaplain and said, “God is great! I wasn’t expecting this.”

Gutierrez's wife and lawyer were overjoyed over the high court's decision while family members of the 85-year-old South Texas woman he was convicted of fatally stabbing decades ago said they were devasted by the delay. Gutierrez had received a similar last-minute stay in 2020.

The granting of 11th-hour reprieves for death row inmates has been rare from the Supreme Court, with a majority of justices expressing skepticism and even hostility to such requests, according to experts.

Here are some things to know about Gutierrez’s case and the Supreme Court’s history with last-minute requests to stay executions:

Who is Ruben Gutierrez

Gutierrez was sent to death row after being convicted of capital murder for the 1998 killing of Escolastica Harrison at her home in Brownsville in Texas’ southern tip.

Prosecutors said the killing of the mobile home park manager and retired teacher was part of an attempt to steal more than $600,000 she had hidden in her home because of her mistrust of banks.

Gutierrez has sought DNA testing for more than a decade that he claims would help prove he had no role in her death. His attorneys have said there’s no physical or forensic evidence connecting him to the killing. Two others also were charged in the case.

Prosecutors have said the request for DNA testing is a delay tactic and Gutierrez was convicted on various pieces of evidence, including a confession in which he admitted to planning the robbery.

Gutierrez was convicted under Texas’ law of parties, which says a person can be held liable for the actions of others if they assist or encourage the commission of a crime.

“The fact that the court stepped in and stopped this execution will give us the opportunity to try to convince other actors in the state to allow us to do the testing that we’ve been asking for forever,” said Shawn Nolan, one of Gutierrez’s attorneys. Nolan said such execution delays by the Supreme Court are rare.

How often does the Supreme Court grant requests to stay executions

Robin M. Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said Wednesday that out of 26 requests to stay executions that were submitted last year to the Supreme Court, only 1 was granted.

A 2023 analysis by Bloomberg Law found that of the 270 emergency stays filed by death row inmates in the U.S. between 2013 and 2023, only 11, or 4%, were granted by the high court, she said.

In a 2019 ruling by the Supreme Court denying Missouri inmate Russell Bucklew's request to stop his execution, Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote, "Last-minute stays should be the extreme exception, not the norm."

Maher said Gorsuch’s statement has been used by state prosecutors in pro-death penalty states to push back against efforts to give inmates and their lawyers more time in their cases.

“I think the majority at the Supreme Court views requests for stays of execution with deep suspicion and even hostility,” said Maher, whose Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit takes no position on capital punishment but has criticized the way states carry out executions.

What is it like for an inmate to be minutes away from execution

Nolan said being minutes from execution on two different occasions within the last four years has taken a psychological toll on Gutierrez, who had spent part of Tuesday meeting with his family for what he thought was the final time.

“We all think about our own end of life in very difficult ways, or psychological, emotional ways. That’s certainly how Ruben has tried to deal with this,” Nolan said.

Maher said what Gutierrez has now twice experienced in being minutes away from death is a form of torture.

What was the reaction by the victim’s family to the execution stay

Harrison’s family, along with Cameron County District Attorney Luis Saenz, expressed frustration with the delay.

"It's just devastating news, you know? It's already been over two and a half decades waiting for this to happen," Alex Hernandez, Harrison's nephew, told KRGV.

Maher said she understands the frustration of the victim’s family but the delay is necessary to hopefully allow for the DNA testing so “that no one is executed that doesn’t deserve that sentence.”

Nolan said if the Supreme Court decides to accept Gutierrez’s case, it will be argued before the justices. If the high court declines it, the stay will be vacated and prosecutors could ask the trial judge in the case for a new execution date. By Texas law, a new date would have to be set three months out from when a judge would enter a new order.

(source: Associated Press)

PENNSYLVANIA:

Judge limits taxpayer funds for father's death penalty defense in New Kensington slaying

A Westmoreland County judge said she will limit defense spending of taxpayer funds for the pending trial of a Brackenridge man who faces a potential death sentence in connection with the alleged killing of his 9-year-old son.

Common Pleas Judge Meagan Bilik-DeFazio said Wednesday excessive costs incurred by public defenders who represent Jean Charles already exceed budgetary limits for all court-paid expert witnesses.

“I felt I needed to limit it,” Bilik-DeFazio said during a court hearing in which she announced she will reject efforts by Charles’ lawyers to have the murder case against him dismissed based on violations of the state’s speedy trial rights law.

Charles, 42, was charged with 1st-degree murder, abuse of a corpse and other offenses involving the May 2022 death of his son, Azure Charles. According to police, the boy was strangled, dragged over an embankment and hidden under lawn furniture near his East Ken Manor home in New Kensington.

Prosecutors contend Charles was allowed by his former wife to watch their son and 3 daughters in defiance of the court orders that barred him from having contact with the children.

Charles previously pleaded guilty to assaulting the boy in 2019 and was charged with doing so again in November 2021, according to court records.

Luella Elien, 32, of New Kensington, the boy’s mother, was charged in 2022 with aggravated assault, child endangerment and hindering the prosecution in connection with allegations she knew about the court order barring Charles from having contact with her son but allowed him to stay in her home.

The case against Elien, who officials said is cooperating with prosecutors, is pending. She is free on $50,000 bail.

Prosecutors said they will seek the death penalty against Charles if he is convicted in his son’s death.

Westmoreland County public defenders hired Insight Mitigation, a private Pittsburgh-based firm, to assist in preparing a defense to argue Charles should not be sentenced to death should his trial end in a conviction of first-degree murder.

According to the county’s court administration office, Insight Mitigation has so far been paid nearly $35,000 for its work on the Charles case. Deputy Court Administrator Pam Neiderhiser said just $20,000 was budgeted for the county to pay all expert witnesses throughout 2024.

The judge in late June started reviewing expert bills in Charles’ case and said she will approve specific payments for required work. The company’s pay will be limited to only work deemed necessary for the defense of Charles.

“Mr. Charles is entitled to a defense but not carte blanche. I want to be more efficient with the spending,” Bilik-DeFazio said.

Assistant Public Defender Mike Garofalo said the defense will continue preparing potential mitigation testimony and expects this month to file pretrial motions challenging the evidence and prosecution’s theory of the case.

Charles has been in jail without bond since his arrest in September 2022.

Defense attorneys sought to have the case dismissed. They argued that prosecution delays in turning over evidence violated Charles’ speedy trial rights. State law requires prosecutors to bring to trial jailed defendants within six months of their arrest.

Bilik-DeFazio said in court Wednesday she will deny the defense motion to dismiss the case on those grounds.

No trial date has been set.

(source: Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)

GEORGIA:

A Georgia death row inmate says a prosecutor hid a plea deal with a key witness, tainting his trial----Attorneys for an inmate who’s spent 25 years on Georgia’s death row are accusing a prosecutor of hiding a deal that they say casts doubt on the credibility of a crucial trial witness

Attorneys for a Georgia inmate sent to death row 25 years ago are accusing a prosecutor of hiding a deal that they contend casts doubt on the credibility of a crucial trial witness.

Warren King was sentenced to death in September 1998 after an Appling County jury convicted him of murdering Karen Crosby, a convenience store clerk who was fatally shot during an armed robbery in southeast Georgia.

Now, King’s lawyers say they have evidence that the assistant district attorney who prosecuted the case, John B. Johnson, made a previously undisclosed deal with the only eyewitness to the crime. They’re asking a Superior Court judge in Butts County, home of Georgia’s death row, for a hearing in hopes of King getting a new trial.

Evidence at King’s murder trial showed that he and Walter Smith went together to rob the rural convenience store in September 1994, and that Smith brought his uncle’s gun and a mask. Both men were charged with Crosby’s murder, with King standing trial first.

Prosecutors granted Smith immunity to take the witness stand at King’s trial, and Smith told the jury it was King who shot the woman. King’s lawyers say no other witnesses or physical evidence pointed to King as the shooter.

What prosecutors didn’t disclose to defense attorneys or the trial jury is that Johnson had promised to spare Smith from a possible death sentence in exchange for his testimony, King’s lawyers said in a July 8 legal filing.

Prosecutors would have been required to disclose to defense lawyers any favorable treatment Smith received in exchange for testifying, King’s appellate lawyers said. Had King’s trial attorneys known about the deal, they could have used it to attack Smith’s credibility as a witness.

“Had this suppressed evidence been disclosed, there is a reasonable probability that the outcome of the trial would have been different,” attorney Anna Arceneaux wrote in King’s legal filing.

Arceneaux wrote that not only did prosecutors withhold knowledge of the deal from defense attorneys before the 1998 trial, but Johnson and Smith both denied its existence in remarks to the jury.

The Associated Press left a telephone message seeking comment with Johnson on Wednesday. The veteran prosecutor retired from the district attorney’s office for the Brunswick Judicial Circuit in 2021. He unsuccessfully challenged District Attorney Keith Higgins in a Republican primary election in May.

The new legal documents include an affidavit from one of Smith’s attorneys, John B. Brewer III, saying that Johnson and Smith reached a plea agreement before the trial. The terms were that Smith would receive a life sentence with a chance for parole in exchange for him testifying against King. Smith received that punishment in 2001 when he pleaded guilty to a charge of murder in Crosby’s death.

“These terms were not reduced to writing, but there was a verbal agreement,” Brewer’s affidavit said. He added: “I would never have recommended that Mr. Smith testify against Mr. King unless I knew for certain that he had a deal and would avoid the death penalty.”

According to a transcript of his closing arguments during the 1998 trial, Johnson told the jury that he would have been required to disclose any deals with Smith “because it tests his credibility.”

“There are no deals or he would have told you that,” Johnson told the trial jury. “And defense counsel would have made sure you heard that if there was one.”

King’s latest attempt to overturn his death sentence comes after the U.S. Supreme Court on July 2 declined to consider his claims that Johnson improperly excluded Black jurors during the trial. King is Black; his trial was heard by 10 white and 2 Black jurors.

Lower courts upheld King’s conviction and sentence after his lawyers presented evidence that Johnson used strikes to eliminate 87.5% of the eligible Black jurors for the trial and only 8.8% of the eligible white jurors, all women.

A 1986 U.S. Supreme Court decision prohibits attorneys from excluding prospective jurors based on their race. At the trial, Johnson gave other, nonracial reasons for keeping Black panelists off the jury.

In their July 8 legal filing, King’s attorneys repeat their assertion that potential Black jurors were struck because of their race. They cite new evidence: Johnson’s own handwritten notes, which they obtained last fall. The lawyers say the notes show Johnson carefully tracked which prospective jurors were Black and which were women.

King’s attorneys said Johnson took notes on how potential Black jurors answered questions about the death penalty and whether they had criminal histories. They say he didn’t make similar notes for white panelists, but rather tracked which potential white jurors had family members who were crime victims.

King’s lawyers said the prosecutor’s notes provide “concrete proof that Johnson was indeed considering race and gender” of prospective jurors.

(source: Washington Post)

FLORIDA:

James Guzman Given Death Penalty for '91 Daytona Murder

59-year-old James Guzman, the man convicted in the 1991 murder of David Colvin in Daytona Beach, has been sentenced to death with unanimous recommendation from a Volusia County jury. The sentencing came after a week-long resentencing hearing resulting in a 12-0 decision by the jury to put Guzman to death.

Guzman was first convicted of murder in another killing, that of a woman in Miami-Dade County. He'd been released from prison for less than 4 months when he stabbed Colvin 19 times with a sword at a now-defunct hotel on Ridgewood Ave in Daytona. He then stole money and a diamond ring from the victim, reportedly selling them for crack cocaine.

A Long, Hard Process

The process of sentencing Guzman for the grisly murder of Colvin has been tricky, and has now drawn on for over 3 decades. He's been convicted 2 other times, with the state's policy on the death penalty serving to kick the can down the road. The last conviction was in 2016, in which a jury voted 11-1 for the death penalty. That was overturned by the Florida Supreme Court on the grounds that it wasn't unanimous.

Then, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a law in April 2023 allowing for death sentences with a new standard of 8-4, opening Guzman up to a resentencing. The state pursued this opportunity, easily clearing the bar with their 12-0 jury decision. “The jury spoke loudly with a 12-0 death recommendation," said State Attorney R.J. Larizza. "We are one step closer to reaching a final disposition in a case that has eluded justice for too long.”

Executions of Volusia County Killers

Provided this death sentence isn't also overturned for some reason, Guzman would be the 5th person executed by the state for crimes committed in Volusia County. The ones to come before him are as follows:

Johnny Paul Witt (March 6th, 1985) - 1 victim

Jeffrey Joseph Daugherty (November 7th, 1988) - 4 victims

Roy Allen Harich (April 24th, 1991) - 1 victim

Gerald Eugene Stano (March 23rd, 1998) - o1 victim

(source: newsdaytonabeach.com)

ALABAMA----impending execution

Alabama set to execute man for fatal shooting of a delivery driver during a 1998 robbery attempt

A man convicted of killing a delivery driver who stopped for cash at an ATM to take his wife to dinner is facing scheduled execution Thursday night in Alabama.

Keith Edmund Gavin, 64, is set to receive a lethal injection at a prison in southwest Alabama. He was convicted of capital murder in the shooting death of William Clayton Jr. in Cherokee County.

Alabama last week agreed in Gavin's case to forgo a post-execution autopsy, which is typically performed on executed inmates in the state. Gavin, who is Muslim, said the procedure would violate his religious beliefs. Gavin had filed a lawsuit seeking to stop plans for an autopsy, and the state settled the complaint.

Clayton, a courier service driver, had driven to an ATM in downtown Centre on the evening of March 6, 1998. He had just finished work and was getting money to take his wife to dinner, according to a court summary of trial testimony. Prosecutors said Gavin shot Clayton during an attempted robbery, pushed him in to the passenger’s seat of the van Clayton was driving and drove off in the vehicle. A law enforcement officer testified that he began pursuing the van and the driver — a man he later identified as Gavin — shot at him before fleeing on foot into the woods.

At the time, Gavin was on parole in Illinois after serving 17 years of a 34-year sentence for murder, according to court records.

“There is no doubt about Gavin’s guilt or the seriousness of his crime,” the Alabama attorney general’s office wrote in requesting an execution date for Gavin.

A jury convicted Gavin of capital murder and voted 10-2 to recommend a death sentence, which a judge imposed. Most states now require a jury to be in unanimous agreement to impose a death sentence.

A federal judge in 2020 ruled that Gavin had ineffective counsel at his sentencing hearing because his original lawyers failed to present more mitigating evidence of Gavin’s violent and abusive childhood.

Gavin grew up in a “gang-infested housing project in Chicago, living in overcrowded houses that were in poor condition, where he was surrounded by drug activity, crime, violence, and riots,” U.S. District Judge Karon O Bowdre wrote.

A federal appeals court overturned the decision which allowed the death sentence to stand.

Gavin had been largely handling his own appeals in the days ahead of his scheduled execution. He filed a handwritten request for a stay of execution, asking that “for the sake of life and limb” that the lethal injection be stopped. A circuit judge and the Alabama Supreme Court rejected that request.

Death penalty opponents delivered a petition Wednesday to Gov. Kay Ivey asking her to grant clemency to Gavin. They argued that there are questions about the fairness of Gavin's trial and that Alabama is going against the “downward trend of executions” in most states.

“There’s no room for the death penalty with our advancements in society,” said Gary Drinkard, who spent five years on Alabama’s death row. Drinkard had been convicted of the 1993 murder of a junkyard dealer but the Alabama Supreme Court in 2000 overturned his conviction. He was acquitted at his second trial after his defense attorneys presented evidence that he was at home at the time of the killing.

If carried out, it would be the state’s 3rd execution this year and the 10th in the nation, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Texas, Georgia, Oklahoma and Missouri also have conducted executions this year. The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday halted the planned execution of a Texas inmate 20 minutes before he was to receive a lethal injection.

(source: Associated Press)

*******************

Family of Alabama man killed during botched robbery has 'long forgiven' death row inmate----William Clayton Jr.'s son says his family has forgiven Keith Edmund Gavin but does feel that he has shown a lack of remorse and has been living a sad existence

The son of an Alabama father of 7 who was fatally shot while taking money out of an ATM says the family has "long forgiven" the death row inmate set to be executed Thursday for the murder.

Keith Edmund Gavin, 64, will become the 3rd inmate executed in Alabama this year and the 10th in the nation if his lethal injection proceeds as scheduled on Thursday. He was convicted in the 1998 death of 68-year-old William Clinton Clayton, Jr., who was a great dad and a "gentle giant," his son, Matt Joseph Claying, told USA TODAY this week.

"I don't think anyone anticipated that his life would end this way," said Matt Clayton, who was 28 when his father was gunned down. "Certainly not his family ... It was quite shocking."

As Gavin's execution nears, USA TODAY is looking back at the crime and who William Clayton was.

Who was William Clinton Clayton, Jr.?

Clayton, who went by Bill, was a native of Clay, Alabama, and a contract courier for Corporate Express Delivery Systems, Inc.

At 6 feet, 6 inches tall and 280 pounds, Bill was "quite a large man" but also "a bit of a gentle giant," Matt Clayton recalled.

One thing Clayton will always remember about his dad is how hard he worked to provide for his 7 children and wife of 38 years

"He worked about 14 hours a day, usually from 5 o'clock in the morning until 8 o'clock at night, Monday through Friday," Clayton said. "He would work about a 10-hour day on Saturday. Really work was all that the man knew."

After William Clayton did not graduate high school, he worked many unskilled professions, including custodial work, railroad work and several driving-related jobs, according to his son. He also had learning disabilities and was "a simple man."

Matt Clayton said his mother, who is now 94 years old, lives independently and is "very healthy and very vibrant."

"It's truly been a blessing to have her around for so much of my life, particularly since my father was gone at a younger age," he said.

What happened to Bill Clayton?

On March 6, 1998, Clayton was gearing up to take his wife of 38 years out to dinner. He was driving in his Corporate Express Delivery Systems van when he stopped at Regions Bank in downtown Centre to grab some money from the ATM for the couple's date night.

Meanwhile, Gavin had driven to the region from his hometown of Chicago with his cousin, Dewayne Meeks, to track down a woman Gavin had met in the past. Gavin and Meeks arrived in downtown Centre just as Clayton went to the ATM, according to court documents obtained by USA TODAY.

While the men were stopped at an intersection near Regions Bank, Meeks testified in court that Gavin got out of the car, walked up to the driver's side of Clayton's van and fired two shots. Meeks then drove off in his car, while Gavin got in Clayton's van - with Clayton still in it and bleeding out - and followed Meeks, court records say.

Danny Smith, an investigator with the local district attorney’s office, testified that he was in the area when he heard about a shooting over the radio and that both the shooter and victim were in a white van. Soon after that, Smith spotted the van speeding and driving erratically.

A pursuit ensued for several minutes before the van abruptly stopped and the driver jumped out and fired a shot at Smith before running into nearby woods, Smith testified. Smith immediately went to the van to check on Clayton, who was "barely alive" and died shortly after at a hospital, court records say.

Gavin was convicted of capital murder on Nov. 6, 1999, largely based on his Meeks' eyewitness testimony.

Keith Edmund Gavin has shown a 'lack of remorse'

Gavin has always maintained that he did not shoot Clayton and has filed numerous appeals of his conviction and death sentence.

And while the family has forgiven Gavin, Matt Clayton said he does feel that he's shown a "lack of remorse for taking the lives of his victims."

He cited Gavin's upbringing as part of why the family has forgiven him, saying he was "born in poverty and ... raised in a crime-infested environment."

"As we look at the unfortunate events unfold during the course of his life, I think that Mr. Gavin may have been indoctrinated into gang violence at an early age, as many young people are who lacked strong male role models," he said.

He added that "it's truly sad to think about this person."

"He's facing the end of his life and most of his life has been spent incarcerated," he said. "A significant portion of his life has been spent on death row."

Matt Clayton said he is glad Gavin received appropriate legal representation and was "given the benefit of the criminal justice system for the series of appeals."

"The criminal justice system is there for everyone and I'm certainly pleased that all citizens are well-served," according to Matt Clayton.

Clayton, who is now 54, said he will be attending Gavin's execution at the Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama, to "represent his family" and recognize the efforts by the state officials who "brought Mr. Gavin to justice."

"No one wants to view an execution, so let's be clear about that," he said. "However, I cannot choose to not attend given the work that has been put forth."

(source: usatoday.com)

UTAH----impending execution

Utah prison officials are abandoning the plan to use an untested drug combo in an upcoming execution. Here’s what they want to use instead.----Taberon Honie is scheduled to be executed on Aug. 8. Utah officials initially said they would kill him with the never-before-used drug combination of ketamine, fentanyl and potassium chloride.

With 3 weeks to go until Taberon Honie’s scheduled execution, state officials are scrambling to get a different drug for the lethal injection — an attempt, it seems, to abandon their original plan to kill the death row inmate with an untested 3-drug combination.

Honie sued prison officials last week, challenging the state’s initial plan to execute him on Aug. 8 using the combination of ketamine, fentanyl and potassium chloride.

His attorney, Eric Zuckerman, raised questions about whether the never-before-used drug combination would cause Honie unnecessary pain, which would violate the state’s Constitution by subjecting him to cruel and unusual punishment. They have asked 3rd District Judge Laura Jones to stop the state from executing him using those 3 drugs.

But during a Wednesday scheduling conference, a lawyer with the Utah attorney general’s office told Jones that state officials are working to purchase a different drug for the execution: pentobarbital.

It’s been used in executions in other states, and Zuckerman identified it in the new lawsuit as a possible alternative to the combination of ketamine, fentanyl and potassium chloride. Honie’s attorney noted that pentobarbital — which acts as both the anesthetic to ensure Honie does not feel pain and the fatal drug that would kill him — is the authorized drug to use in executions in at least 10 other states.

Subscribe To Top Stories Newsletter Get the latest news by subscribing to our Top Stories newsletter. Enter your email below to receive more stories like these right to your inbox. State officials consulted with an unnamed pharmacist who suggested using ketamine, fentanyl and potassium chloride — and who, according to the lawsuit, seemed to believe that pentobarbital would be “unavailable.”

It is expected that the state will confirm in court papers due Friday whether prison officials believe they will be able to get the dose of pentobarbital.

“We stand by the three-drug combination as an effective and humane method,” said Glen Mills, the communications director for the Utah Department of Corrections. “However, the defense has proposed pentobarbital as an acceptable alternative, and we have been looking into the feasibility of obtaining it.”

Wednesday’s hearing was the first time state officials have publicly indicated they were changing course — and it was the first time Zuckerman was informed that his client may be executed with another drug. He asked the judge to order state officials to provide more information about the dose — such as its expiration date and how much of the drug they plan to use — which they said they would do.

Utah law requires lethal injections be conducted with “sodium thiopental or other equally or more effective substance sufficient to cause death.” It is illegal to import sodium thiopental, a fast-acting barbiturate, and the only U.S.-based supplier stopped production in 2011.

Honie has been on death row for 25 years. In July 1998, Honie called his ex-girlfriend and demanded she visit him, threatening to kill her family if she refused. Later that evening, sometime before midnight, Honie took a cab to the house of Claudia Benn, his ex-girlfriend’s mother. He broke the door in with a rock and then beat, bit, stabbed and sexually assaulted Benn as he killed her, court documents state.

Jones, the judge overseeing Honie’s latest lawsuit, scheduled a two-day evidentiary hearing for the case to begin on July 30. If the state is not able to get pentobarbital and instead intends to use the three-drug combination, attorneys will present evidence about whether the drugs could possibly inflict unnecessary pain. They also will discuss whether Zuckerman should be allowed to have access to a phone during the execution.

Zuckerman argued in the lawsuit that prison officials have no written backup plan if the execution is botched. He also said they have decided that Honie’s legal counsel cannot bring a phone or laptop into prison while it is carried out — which Zuckerman said he would use to alert a judge and ask for a stop to the execution if something goes wrong and Honie appears to be suffering.

Honie also has a commutation hearing scheduled to begin Monday, where he will ask Utah’s parole board to spare his life.

(source: Salt Lake Tribune)

CALIFORNIA:

2 death row inmates to be resentenced amid review into decades of prosecutorial misconduct in Alameda County, DA announces

The Alameda County District Attorney’s office on Tuesday announced the resentencing of 2 death row inmates amid an ongoing ordered review of dozens of death penalty cases to determine whether prosecutors in those cases intentionally excluded Black and Jewish jurors.

Ernest Dykes, the “lead case that triggered” the review, is one of the inmates who will be resentenced, Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price said at a Tuesday news conference. He would be set to be released next year on probation, the district attorney said.

Dykes was sentenced to death in 1995 for the murder of 9-year-old Lance Clark during a 1993 robbery in Oakland, California. Dykes admitted to the robbery and shooting, but denied it was intentional, Price said.

While preparing for his appeal, an Alameda County deputy district attorney found handwritten notes about potential jurors from the trial back in the 1990s – notes that “clearly indicate that Black and Jewish jurors … were being tracked and excluded from the jury that ultimately convicted Mr. Dykes and sentenced him to death,” Price said.

Prosecutors, by law, cannot exclude jurors because of race, ethnicity, gender or sexuality.

CNN previously shared images of notes believed to be written by prosecutors during Dykes’s trial. In those notes, Black potential jurors – and only Black potential jurors – had their race marked. “Must go,” was written next to the name of a Black man; another juror had the word “Jewish” underlined on their questionnaire. Farther down, a handwritten note reads: “I liked him better than any other Jew. But no way.”

“Put in the context with the evidence and other cases… it became clear there was potentially a pattern and a practice of that kind of prosecutorial misconduct in other cases,” Price said.

Federal Judge Vince Chhabria ordered the DA’s office to review death penalty cases dating back to the mid-1980s after being alerted to those notes. Among those cases are convicted mass shooters, serial killers, rapists and murderers.

“I’m almost at a loss for words,” Lance Clark’s sister – who did not want her name published – told CNN following the announcement of his upcoming release. “Our system really has done a disservice to our family.”

Price on Tuesday also announced plans to resentence Keith Thomas, who was initially sentenced in 1997. A judge will need to approve the resentencing motions before the sentences are changed.

“Mr. Thomas will receive a sentence of 23 years to life, he has already served 31 years. So, he will be eligible for parole…and possible release,” Price said.

Thomas had been sentenced to death for the kidnap, rape and murder of Francia Young, a 25-year-old woman on her way home from work. “Racist imagery and stereotyping used… during the trial, from opening statement to the penalty phase, essentially undermined the integrity of this conviction,” Price said.

The DA’s office is currently reviewing 56 death penalty cases.

“In 40 out of 56 death penalty cases since 1978, approximately 70%, jury selection materials are missing,” she said. “There may well have been an effort to sanitize the files. We intend to look into that.”

So far, the DA’s office has found evidence of racial profiling of juries as late as 2015 and has identified 7 prosecutors potentially involved. “In addition to violating the Constitution,” Price said last month, their behavior “may have been criminal.” 1 of the 7 still works at the DA’s office, but now with a “supervisor,” according to Price. Another currently serves as a judge in Alameda County, and yet another was just appointed as a judge in nearby Contra Costa County.

Price – who took office last year – has previously said she believes the racial profiling of jurors was potentially widespread and well-known in the department under her predecessors because, in 2003, during an appeal of a death penalty conviction, John Quatman, a former deputy DA, testified a judge “said I could not have a Jew on the jury.” He went on, “It was standard practice to exclude Jewish jurors in death cases: as it was to exclude African-American women from capital juries.”

Studies have also found patterns of racial bias in jury selection from California and Washington to Connecticut and New York as well as the Deep South.

On Tuesday, Price apologized on behalf of the DA’s office to the families of victims Clark and Young for the misconduct. She also apologized “to the African American community of Alameda County, to the Jewish community, to the LGBTQ+ plus community who were also denied their constitutional rights.”

(source: CNN)

MALAYSIA:

4 MEN ESCAPE DEATH PENALTY, SENTENCED TO 20 YEARS FOR DRUG POSSESSION

(see: https://www.bernama.com/en/news.php/news.php?id=2319101)

JULY 17, 2024:

TEXAS----stay of execution

Supreme Court grants Texas man a stay of execution just before his scheduled lethal injection

The U.S. Supreme Court granted a stay of execution for a Texas man 20 minutes before he was to receive a lethal injection Tuesday evening. The inmate has long maintained DNA testing would help prove he wasn’t responsible for the fatal stabbing of an 85-year-old woman during a home robbery decades ago.

The nation’s high court issued the indefinite stay shortly before inmate Ruben Gutierrez was to have been taken to the death chamber of a Huntsville prison.

Gutierrez was condemned for the 1998 killing of Escolastica Harrison at her home in Brownsville in Texas’ southern tip. Prosecutors said the killing of the mobile home park manager and retired teacher was part of an attempt to steal more than $600,000 she had hidden in her home because of her mistrust of banks.

Gutierrez has sought DNA testing that he claims would help prove he had no role in her death. His attorneys have said there’s no physical or forensic evidence connecting him to the killing. Two others also were charged in the case.

The high court’s brief order, released about 5:40 p.m. CDT, said its stay of execution would remain in effect until the justices decide whether they should review his appeal request. If the court denies the request, the execution reprieve would automatically be lifted.

Gutierrez, who had been set to die after 6 p.m. CDT, was in a holding cell near the death chamber when prison warden Kelly Strong advised him of the court’s intervention.

“He was visibly emotional,” prison spokeswoman Amanda Hernandez said, adding he was not expecting the court stay. “We asked him if he wanted to make a statement but he needed a minute.”

“He turned around to the back of the cell, covered his mouth. He was tearing up, speechless. He was shocked.”

She said Gutierrez then prayed with a prison chaplain and added: “God is great!”

Gutierrez has had several previous execution dates in recent years that have been delayed, including over issues related to having a spiritual adviser in the death chamber. In June 2020, Gutierrez was about an hour away from execution when he got a stay from the Supreme Court.

In the most recent appeal, Gutierrez’s attorneys had asked the Supreme Court to intervene, arguing Texas has denied his right under state law to post-conviction DNA testing that would show he would not have been eligible for the death penalty.

His attorneys argued that various items recovered from the crime scene — including nail scrapings from Harrison, a loose hair wrapped around one of her fingers and various blood samples from within her home — have never been tested.

“Gutierrez faces not only the denial of (DNA testing) that he has repeatedly and consistently sought for over a decade, but moreover, execution for a crime he did not commit. No one has any interest in a wrongful execution,” Gutierrez’s attorneys wrote in their petition to the Supreme Court.

Prosecutors have said the request for DNA testing is a delay tactic and that Gutierrez was convicted on various pieces of evidence, including a confession in which he admitted to planning the robbery and that he was inside her home when she was killed.

Gutierrez was convicted under Texas’ law of parties, which says a person can be held liable for the actions of others if they assist or encourage the commission of a crime.

In their response to Gutierrez’s Supreme Court petition, the Texas Attorney General’s Office and the Cameron County District Attorney’s Office had said state law does not provide “for postconviction DNA testing to show innocence of the death penalty and, even if it did, Gutierrez would not be entitled to it.”

Lower courts have previously denied Gutierrez’s requests for DNA testing.

Authorities said Gutierrez befriended Harrison so he could rob her. Prosecutors said Harrison hid her money underneath a false floor in her bedroom closet.

2 of Harrison’s nephews and 3 of their friends were to have witnessed the execution. They declined to comment on the court’s reprieve.

Police charged 3 people in this case: Rene Garcia, Pedro Gracia and Gutierrez. Rene Garcia is serving a life sentence in a Texas prison while Pedro Gracia, who police said was the getaway driver, remains at large.

(source: Associated Press)

*********************

Supreme Court blocks Texas man’s execution as he seeks DNA testing

The Supreme Court on Tuesday temporarily blocked Texas from executing a man convicted of stabbing a retired schoolteacher as he attempts to secure DNA testing that he claims would remove him from death row.

Ruben Gutierrez, 47, was scheduled to be executed Tuesday evening after being sentenced to death over the 1998 murder of Escolastica Harrison.

In a brief order without any noted dissents, the Supreme Court granted Gutierrez’s last-minute, emergency request to temporarily put his execution on hold.

Gutierrez has separately filed a petition urging the high court to take up his appeal that, if successful, would revive his bid to have certain evidence in the case DNA tested.

The justices have not yet acted on the petition. Their rare move to delay the execution, however, signals that they may be inclined to take up the case when they return from their summer recess.

The newly issued pause lasts until the court resolves the appeal one way or another.

Prosecutors say Gutierrez and 2 others in 1998 beat and stabbed Harrison, an 85-year-old woman, at her Brownsville, Texas, home as they robbed her of nearly $600,000 in cash. Gutierrez has maintained he never entered the woman’s home or knew anyone would be harmed.

Gutierrez has long sought DNA testing of evidence like a blood-stained shirt, the woman’s nail scrapings and a loose hair found wrapped around her finger.

His years-long battle recently ended up before the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which found Gutierrez didn’t meet federal requirements for legal standing, meaning the right to sue.

Gutierrez’s lawyers called that decision “wrong and pernicious,” saying it conflicts with the Supreme Court’s ruling last year over another Texas death row inmate’s attempt to seek DNA testing.

“The Fifth Circuit has ignored this Court’s clear precedent and gone out of its way to create an impractical, burdensome standing test requiring federal courts to probe the parties’ dispute and litigation history with a fine toothcomb in order to foretell the future, contingent actions of state officials,” they wrote in their Supreme Court petition.

In their response, the Texas attorney general’s office told the justices that the man has “failed to identify any error” despite having “litigated and re-litigated” challenges for more than 20 years.

“Thus, his punishment is just, and his execution will be constitutional,” the state wrote.

(source: thehill.com)

************************

Stay of execution granted for death row inmate in Brownsville murder

The U.S. Supreme Court granted a stay of execution for a man who was scheduled to be executed Tuesday afternoon.

Ruben Gutierrez was expected to be executed moments ago after being convicted of murdering 85-year-old Escolastica Harrison in 1998.

Records show that a stay of execution was presented to Justice Samuel Alito and by him referred to the Court is granted, pending the disposition of the petition for a writ of certiorari.

“Should the petition for a writ of certiorari be denied, this stay shall terminate automatically,” records show.

Gutierrez’s legal team asked to stop the execution, citing that the state denied his right to DNA testing that would show he would not be eligible for the death penalty.

On Sept. 5, 1998, Gutierrez and two other men entered Harrison’s home with the intent to rob her of money she had in her safe. She was struck repeatedly, and stabbed multiple times in the head. Police added that she was stabbed 13 times with a screwdriver before dying from her injuries.

His legal team argues that Gutierrez never entered Harrison’s home, nor knew anyone would be harmed. The petition to the court states Gutierrez has been seeking DNA testing of items from the crime scene, including a blood-stained shirt belonging to Harrison’s nephew, nail scrapings from Harrison, loose hair, and various blood samples.

“These items were collected from the crime scene by detectives and continue to be preserved because they contain biological material that can reveal who was in Harrison’s home during the crime,” the document stated. “Yet this critical evidence has never been tested.”

Should the petition for a writ of certiorari be granted, the stay shall be terminated upon the sending down of the judgement of the Supreme Court.

(source: KTSM news)

GEORGIA:

Prosecutor hid deal in death-penalty case, court filing alleges

After the state’s star witness gave devastating testimony against Warren King at his 1998 death-penalty trial, prosecutor John B. Johnson told jurors there were “no deals” in exchange for his appearance on the stand. “That would be a requirement to come out in this case because it tests his credibility,” Johnson said during closing arguments. He also asked, “Do we want to hide anything from you? No.”

But a recently filed court motion on King’s behalf contends Johnson had indeed made such a deal months before the trial. He had agreed to allow Walter Smith, King’s co-defendant, to escape a death sentence in exchange for his testimony, the motion said. Both King and Smith were charged with the murder of a woman during an attempted convenience store robbery in coastal Georgia.

King’s lawyers are hoping the revelations are enough to get a new trial for King, who has been on death row for more than 25 years.

The filing is buttressed by a sworn statement from Smith’s lawyer at the time. He said for Smith’s testimony, Johnson agreed to recommend a sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole, even though Johnson acknowledged the victim’s family might not be happy with it.

Johnson broached the possibility of a deal “several months before Mr. King’s trial,” John Brewer III, one of Smith’s lawyers, said in a June 7 affidavit.

“I would never have recommended that Mr. Smith testify against Mr. King unless I knew for certain that he had a deal and would avoid the death penalty,” Brewer said.

Lawyers for King, who was sentenced to death, should have been provided this information under the 1963 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Brady v. Maryland, the recently filed motion said. That landmark decision requires prosecutors to turn over evidence they have that could be used to help exonerate a defendant a trial.

“It deprived Mr. King of a fair trial and produced the ultimate miscarriage of justice: an unreliable conviction and death sentence,” the filing said.

For Johnson, it is another allegation of misconduct in a career littered with them. In a 2020 investigation by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, a number of judges found the prosecutor withheld critical information to obtain convictions in other cases.

When asked Monday about King’s motion, Johnson said, “I have no comment.”

King’s trial lawyers had filed motions to get Johnson to reveal any deals and they repeatedly asked Smith on cross-examination if one was in place. But both Johnson and Smith said there was no agreement, the motion said. King’s lawyers had good reason to suspect one because Johnson had given Smith immunity for his testimony, all the while keeping the murder charge and a potential death sentence in place against him.

Three years after King’s trial, Johnson allowed Smith to plead guilty for his role in the killing in exchange for a sentence of life with the possibility of parole.

‘Give it up’

Security video showed that Karen Crosby was humming “Amazing Grace” as she closed up the convenience store in the small southeast Georgia town of Surrency on the night of Sept. 13, 1994. Waiting outside were King and Smith with a handgun Smith said he’d taken from his aunt and uncle’s house.

Smith testified that after Crosby locked up the store and was walking to her car, King jumped out from behind the ice machine, pointed the gun at her and demanded, “Give it up.” Smith said after Crosby threw the store keys to them, he went inside to get the money at the cash register. But Smith said that triggered the alarm and as he fled the store he heard 1 gunshot and then another.

When King caught up to him, King said, “I hope I killed the bitch,” Smith testified.

King, who did not testify during the guilt-innocence part of the trial, took the stand during its sentencing phase. He said that Smith initially had the gun but handed it over after Crosby threw Smith the keys and just before he entered the store. After the alarm went off and Smith ran out of the store, Smith told King to shoot Crosby, but instead, King testified, he handed the gun back to Smith, who fired the fatal shots.

King’s motion said Smith’s testimony was the state’s only evidence tying King to having been the trigger man. If Johnson had disclosed the deal, King’s trial lawyers “would have been able to powerfully challenge Mr. Smith’s testimony by highlighting his motive to paint Mr. King, rather than himself, as the shooter, in order to save his life,” the motion said.

The motion was filed in Superior Court of Butts County, home to Georgia’s death row. King is almost out of appeals. Earlier this month, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear King’s latest appeal that alleged Johnson improperly excluded Black jurors from the trial.

‘Intentional misconduct’

Johnson began working for the district attorney’s office in the five-county Brunswick Judicial Circuit in 1977. He resigned from the office in 2021 but challenged incumbent DA Keith Higgins in this year’s Republican primary. Higgins won with 62 percent of the vote.

Johnson was highly regarded as a skilled trial lawyer but he has a dark history of being found hiding evidence he was legally required to share with the defense:

In 2005, a judge found Johnson’s prosecution team “committed intentional misconduct” by withholding evidence in the death-penalty case against Larry Jenkins. Judge Anne Workman threw out the murder convictions and death sentence against Jenkins, requiring him to be retried.

3 years later, a different judge overturned the murder convictions and death sentence against Larry Lee after finding Johnson illegally withheld evidence favorable to the defense. “The rights, which were enshrined to prevent miscarriages of justice and ensure the integrity of the fact-finding process, were all violated in this case,” Judge Gary McCorvey wrote.

In 2020, a judge ordered a new trial for Dennis Perry, all but saying Johnson had obtained the conviction for the wrong person in the murders of a husband and wife at a Camden County church. Judge Stephen Scarlett noted that before Perry’s 2003 trial, Johnson told a judge “there are none that we know of at this time” when asked if there were any deal or inducements for state witnesses — when in fact a star witness had been promised a $12,000 reward. Perry’s exoneration occurred after he spent 20 years in prison.

'The Imperfect Alibi': The special AJC investigation that helped free Dennis Perry

The recently filed motion in Butts County also says King’s new lawyers from the Georgia Resource Center, which represents people on death row, had obtained previously suppressed evidence that shows Johnson’s “discriminatory intent in jury selection against Black and female jurors.”

The attorneys are relying on the notes Johnson took during jury selection and which were recently turned over by the Brunswick DA’s office. They show Johnson noted the race and sex of every prospective juror, the motion said.

At trial, Johnson struck 7 of 8 qualified Black jurors while striking only 3 white jurors, all of them women. Because he struck no white men from the jury, a Black juror was 10 times more likely to be excused than a white juror, while women were 4 times more likely to be struck than men, the motion said.

(source: Bill Rankin, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

FLORIDA:

Nassau County deputy’s killer to be sentenced Wednesday after jury recommended death penalty----Patrick McDowell shot, killed Deputy Joshua Moyers during traffic stop in 2021

A man who shot and killed a Nassau County deputy during a traffic stop almost 3 years ago will learn his fate Wednesday.

The jury voted 11 to 1 in April to recommend a death sentence for Patrick McDowell, who pleaded guilty to gunning down Nassau County Deputy Joshua Moyers during a traffic stop in 2021.

But the judge will have the final say.

He can follow the jury’s recommendation or commute McDowell’s death sentence to life in prison without parole.

McDowell himself encouraged jurors to recommend the death penalty for him during his sentencing trial.

“I can’t take away the pain I’ve caused, but I can pay for it. So make me pay for it,” McDowell told the jurors before their near-unanimous vote.

Gene Nichols, a local defense attorney not affiliated with the case, explained that it is “incredibly rare” to see a case where a judge sets aside a jury recommendation.

“Judges will typically want to side with a jury, especially in a case like this,” Nichols said. “It has happened in the past, but for a number that strong, and based upon the evidence that came out in this case, I’d be very surprised for the court to overturn this death sentence.”

Breiana Tole, who pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact for trying to help McDowell escape capture was sentenced to 3 years in prison, followed by 3 years of probation.

McDowell pleaded guilty to 1st-degree murder of a law enforcement officer, injuring a police dog and 8 counts of aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer.

‘Officer down’

During McDowell’s sentencing trial, dash cam video of the Sept. 23, 2021, traffic stop off U.S. 301 and testimony from McDowell and Noelle Gale -- a woman who was in the van with McDowell -- painted a vivid picture of what happened the night Moyers was murdered.

When Moyers tried to pull McDowell over after following him from a nearby gas station, McDowell told Gale he wasn’t going to stop.

“I’m not going to jail,” he told her.

But McDowell did eventually stop for Moyers, pulling off U.S. 301 onto Sandy Ford Road, and stopping just short of the railroad tracks.

McDowell said he gave Moyers a false name because he had warrants out for his arrest.

Gale said that when Moyers approached the van asking for their IDs, McDowell reached behind his seat for his handgun but then told Moyers there were no guns in the van when the deputy asked.

Moyers learned the tag on the burgundy-colored minivan belonged to a different vehicle, and investigators later learned the vehicle had been stolen from Jacksonville.

Right after McDowell handed over what Gale thought was an ID, the railroad crossing arms suddenly activated with bells ringing and lights flashing.

The video shows Moyers turn to look at the crossing arms for a split second, and when he turned back, McDowell had a gun in his face and pulled the trigger, shooting Moyers just below his eye.

The video from Moyers’ dash cam shows McDowell quickly leaning out of the van and firing again at Moyers, hitting him in the back. Then he slams on the gas and speeds through the railroad crossing as the arms come down.

Nassau County Deputy Barnes arrived about 30 seconds later and found his friend and mentor lying on the ground, shot in the face.

Barnes’ frantic “Officer Down” down call can be heard on Moyers’ dash cam video.

The manhunt

Gale testified that McDowell thought Moyers was calling for backup.

“(He) didn’t want to go back to jail,” Gale said. “He said he was going to run from the cop.”

Gale testified that after McDowell shot the deputy and drove away, she told him she wanted out and he grabbed her by the arm, they ran into a wooded area, and she told him she wanted to go back. He let her go, and she called 911. McDowell ran the other way, sparking a 5-day manhunt.

More than 200 local, state, and federal law enforcement officers searched for days for McDowell in the Nassau County woods.

Body camera video from Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office K-9 Chaos’ handler, Officer Dale Cullen, was also shown in court. The video shows K-9 Chaos picking up McDowell’s trail in the woods in the hours after the shooting.

Cullen lets Chaos go when he realizes the dog might have found something in the woods. And then Chaos starts barking.

“Two gunshots rang out. Heard Chaos yelp. Thinking Chaos’ been hit, and I returned fire -- 18 rounds to what I thought was gunshots coming toward me,” Cullen said.

Multiple officers joined Cullen and fired their rifles into the darkness.

This encounter is what led to McDowell’s injuring a police dog charge and the eight counts of aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer.

The capture

Tole, McDowell’s friend, was accused of driving to the sports complex where McDowell was hiding out in an attempt to get him out of the area and escape arrest, according to an arrest report.

Despite the dozens of shots fired in the woods by law enforcement during the encounter with K-9 Chaos, when McDowell was found days later, he had only 2 minor flesh wounds.

In drone video of McDowell’s capture at the Kirsten Higginbotham Sports Complex off Ball Park Road, McDowell can be seen crawling out of a concession stand and then being subdued by K-9 Huk.

McDowell was treated for a dog bite wound and then transported to UF Health Jacksonville -- wearing Deputy Moyers’ handcuffs.

The aftermath

The sentencing hearing also included emotional testimony from Moyers’ family, including his fiancée, brother and mother, about what it was like for them when Moyers died days after the shooting at the hospital.

A victim advocate read a powerful statement from Moyers’ fiancée, Ivy Carter, who said Moyers lived and breathed law enforcement and that she spent many nights not worrying about if something would happen, but when.

Now, Carter said, she is left praying and asking God to help her get over the hatred and honor his memory.

Moyers’ brother, Jordan, was visibly angry on the stand, and his testimony brought tears to some jurors’ eyes.

Jordan Moyers spoke about his profound grief and about how the loss affected more than his family.

“When Josh was murdered, this community lost a great cop, a civil servant who cared for people, for his community, and for making it a better place. I’m not the only one sharing in this loss. And when Josh was murdered, I lost my brother and it has torn every aspect of my life into shreds,” Jordan Moyers said. “I never left the hospital; I feel like a part of me is still there sometimes.”

Victim impact statements ended with Moyers’ mother, Brenda, who talked about their special bond and how he had so much more to live for.

“He deserved so much more,” she said. “It’s a horrible nightmare as parents as our child was brutally murdered while he protected the community he loved and called home.”

After the jury recommended the death penalty for McDowell, Nassau County Sheriff Bill Leeper expressed gratitude, saying the sheriff’s office still deals with the tragedy of Moyers’ death.

“Lord willing when this death sentence is carried out, I’ll be sitting on the front row with a box of popcorn, eagerly waiting for him to take his last breath,” Leeper said. “It just ripped the guts out of our agency, out of our employees. The dispatchers who had to hear the cries for help on the radio, the deputies who responded, who tried to save Josh’s life. That’s something to live with forever.”

(source: news4jax.com)

ALABAMA----impending execution

Alabama Set to Execute Prisoner This Week, Despite Serious Constitutional Questions in the Case

On Thursday, July 18, 2024, the state of Alabama is scheduled to execute Keith Gavin by lethal injection, despite court findings that his trial counsel was ineffective. Mr. Gavin was convicted and sentenced to death in 1999 for the shooting death of a delivery driver. A non-unanimous jury voted 10-2 in favor of the death penalty for Mr. Gavin, and the trial court accepted the jury’s sentencing outcome. During the penalty phase of trial, Mr. Gavin’s defense team did not present any mitigating evidence. In 2020, a federal district court found that Mr. Gavin had not received effective representation and remanded the case for a new sentencing hearing, but a federal appellate court reversed this decision.

In the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Woodson v. North Carolina (1976), the Court held that the Constitution requires that jurors must be “allow[ed] consideration of the character and record of individual defendants before inflicting the death penalty,” which would include the presentation of mitigating evidence. At Mr. Gavin’s trial, defense counsel failed to present this critical evidence that may have persuaded jurors to vote in favor of a life sentence without the possibility of parole. Following an evidentiary hearing, the federal district court found that Mr. Gavin “grew up in a gang-infested housing project in Chicago, liv[ed] in overcrowded houses that were in poor condition, where he was surrounded by drug activity, crime, violence, and riots.” Mr. Gavin also faced violence both at the hands of his father and peers as a child, but successfully completed his GED and took college courses while incarcerated in Illinois. After 17 years in an Illinois prison, Mr. Gavin had only one disciplinary write-up, and even Alabama’s expert witness testified during the post-conviction proceedings that he considered Mr. Gavin to be a “model prisoner.”

Mr. Gavin’s jury did not hear any of this evidence, as his counsel failed to investigate his background and life in preparation for the penalty phase of trial. The district court held that Mr. Gavin’s trial lawyers “were totally unprepared for the penalty phase,” calling just two witnesses—Mr. Gavin’s mother and a minister who did not know Mr. Gavin before arrest. Trial counsel admitted to the court that they had not prepared Mr. Gavin’s mother for testimony. At trial, the jury took just over an hour before returning a 10-2 verdict in favor of the death penalty, which is the minimum vote requirement for a sentence of death in Alabama. In nearly every other death penalty state, a non-unanimous jury verdict would preclude a death sentence. The federal district court ruled that Mr. Gavin’s trial counsel’s failure to present the mitigating evidence the Woodson decision requires undermined the reliability of his death sentence. However, the 11th Circuit of Appeals overturned this decision, ruling that the lower court did not have the authority to order a new penalty phase hearing.

(source: Death Penlty Information Center)

*****************

Anti-death penalty advocates protest Alabama's pending execution of Keith Edmund Gavin

photos: see: https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/picture-gallery/news/2024/07/16/protest-against-execution-of-keith-edmund-gavin-held-in-montgomery/74428191007/

LOUISIANA:

Daniel Callihan Denies Murder and Kidnapping, Faces Potential Death Penalty

Alleged killer and kidnapper Daniel Callihan previously confessed to being the one responsible for the Murder of Callie Brunett and the kidnapping of her 2 daughters, 1 of which was found deceased in a wooded area in Jackson, Mississippi. He blamed the side effects of his antidepressant medication for his crimes, "I’m on Lexapro. Sober. No drugs in my system. I did it".

In the jarring confessional, he even says he thinks 'lethal injection' is what he deserves and he does not have an explanation as to why he did it saying "I have no reason for what I did. All I know is, I want to say I was sober and only on Lexapro, I think it was the side effects of the Lexapro".

However, despite this confessional, he pleaded not guilty on 2 counts of 1st-degree murder, 1 count of aggravated kidnapping of a child, and 1 count of 2nd-degree kidnapping in court Monday.

KSLA reported that following Callihan's 'not guilty' plea, the Twenty-First Judicial District Attorney Scott Perrilloux filed a notice that they would be seeking the death penalty against him.

Callihan also faces 7 counts in Mississippi for 1 count of capital murder, 3 counts of sexual battery, 2 counts of kidnapping, and 1 count of receiving stolen property. His alleged accomplice, Victoria Cox, has also been arrested and indicted on one capital murder charge.

(source: KPEL news)

TENNESSEE----female could face death penalty

State ‘could seek death penalty’ for Hendersonville mother charged with drowning 7-year-old daughter

The death penalty is an option for the state, according to a Tuesday hearing for a Hendersonville mother charged with drowning her 7-year-old daughter.

Brandi Elliott, 33, was charged with first-degree murder following the incident. No bond was set at the hearing because it could be a capital case. However, the District Attorney said they were not sure if they would seek the death penalty in this case.

When told that the state could pursue the death penalty, Elliott simply said “Yes, sir.” Her bond could be reviewed following a preliminary hearing.

Elliott is not currently under the care of any mental health professional, though she has been in the past. Elliott does not have any prior criminal court record. Elliott’s attorney declined for her to be placed under a mental health evaluation.

Hendersonville Police officers were notified about a child who had drowned in Drakes Creek on Saturday, July 13. Detectives later determined that Elliott was responsible for the child’s death. According to court documents, Elliott said that she wanted alone time “after having a rough day.”

Elliott also told officers she held her daughter under the water “like a largemouth bass” in a shallow area off the greenway until she felt her” bubbling,” according to court documents. She reportedly told the girl to be quiet while she held her under the water.

“When my daughter was 2, I kind of lost it like I did this time,” Elliott said in court on Tuesday. “I had postpartum depression and they gave me medicine for it. I was having a really bad time with sleeping.”

Once she pulled the girl from the water, Elliott reportedly said she realized she had done something wrong and tried to revive her with CPR. However, the child was pronounced dead at a Hendersonville hospital around 11:45 p.m. The Davidson County Medical examiner told News 2 that an autopsy on the girl is still pending.

Elliott is currently being held in the Sumner County jail. No special accommodations have been made for her, according to Chief Deputy Eric Craddock. Elliott’s next hearing has been scheduled for August 14.

(source: WKRN news)

KENTUCKY:

State will seek the death penalty for Brown-Graves

At his pretrial conference on July 11, Dailin Marquez Brown-Graves found out that he will be facing the death penalty when his case goes to trial in November.

Brown-Graves, 23, of Lebanon, is charged with murder, 1st-degree forced entry-residence, 1st-degree robbery-residence-gun, and 2 counts of 1st-degree wanton endangerment. He was arrested on May 12 by the Kentucky State Police and charged with the Feb. 13, 2023 murder of Kaitlyn Marie Wise, who was found shot to death inside a residence on Harrison Street.

The Commonwealth informed the court of its decision to seek the death penalty, it was ruled that Brown-Graves’ case would be turned over for representation to the public defender who handles death penalty cases. A status conference was also set for Aug. 8 at 9:00 a.m. and his jury trial will still take place on Nov. 25 at 8:30 a.m. When reached for a comment, Commonwealth’s Attorney Shelly Miller said “our office policy is that the Commonwealth will not comment on pending cases.”

(source: pmg-ky2.com)

CALIFORNIA:

3 Alameda County death row inmates resentenced following probe, DA Price says

3 death row inmates have been resentenced, Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price announced Tuesday afternoon. Ernest Dykes, who was convicted of killing a 9-year-old boy in 1993, is expected to be released from prison next year with 2 years of probation. Keith Thomas, sentenced to death in 1997, will receive 23 years to life in prison. But having served 31 years, Thomas will be up for parole.

And Gregory Tate, sentenced in 1993, will receive a life sentence without parole. In April, a U.S. District Court judge ordered Price to conduct a review of all of Alameda County’s 35 death penalty sentences with inmates still alive, which date back to the late 1970s. The order came after the court, while reviewing Dykes’ case, found that prosecutors had excluded Black and Jewish people from the jury.

Price said that the inquiry identified a number of cases with prosecutorial misconduct. Thomas’ case, she said, relied on racist imagery and stereotypes used by prosecutor James Anderson that have since been banned through recent California laws like 2020’s Racial Justice Act. However, Price said the District Attorney’s Office did not concede any misconduct in Tate’s case and that the reversal was based on other factors in his “sentencing structure.”

7 individuals associated with the DA’s office were under suspicion of misconduct, Price said, including current Assistant District Attorney Michael Nieto. Nieto was nominated in June by Gov. Gavin Newsom to a position on the Contra Costa County Superior Court, and he has a supervisor to look over his cases while the investigation is ongoing, Price said.

The other 6 individuals are no longer employed at the DA’s office, but one was a current judge, Price said. Over two days of hearings with the District Court, the DA’s office reviewed many cases, Price said, but “quite a few” still remain.

However, those may be more difficult to review, since more than 70% of the cases have minimal or nonexistent notes on jury selection, according to Price. The DA’s office is entertaining the possibility that past prosecutors “sanitized” those records and concealed misconduct, Price said.

“We are now following the law,” Price said. “And we will not have an office where people are not held accountable for violating their ethics or engaging in prosecutorial misconduct.”

Price apologized on behalf of the District Attorney’s Office to the victims of both the Dykes and Thomas cases for the prosecutorial misconduct, as well as to the larger Black, Jewish and LGBTQ communities for denying them opportunities to serve on juries.

“Jurors called to jury service have a right to serve without regard to their religion, their race, their national origin or their sexual orientation,” she said. “And the victims who rely upon prosecutors as guardians of the Constitution, as the light bearers of the law, as ministers of justice, are entitled to be able to rely on us to do the right thing.”

Price’s investigation comes at an uncertain time for her and other Oakland leaders. She and Mayor Sheng Thao will both face a recall in November after both have come under fire for the city’s crime rate.

In February, Gov. Gavin Newsom deployed state attorneys to assist Oakland in pursuing criminal convictions, only to abruptly rescind his offer last week, saying Price’s office was uncooperative.

“The people elected me to reform this office. To participate in the reform of the criminal justice system that had gone wrong, that had gone bad, that had hurt many people,” Price said. “I am here for that reason, and I intend to do just that.”

(source: KRON news)

****************

Murderer to be freed as DA's death penalty review expands----Ernest Dykes, who is 51, is slated to be released next year on parole, the result of a settlement agreement, the DA said.

A murderer who spent decades on death row is now set for release due to alleged prosecutorial misconduct in jury selection, DA Pamela Price announced Tuesday.

Ernest Dykes had been convicted of murdering 9-year-old Lance Clark while robbing the boy's 70-year-old grandmother, Bernice Clark, in Oakland in 1993. His conviction was repeatedly upheld on appeal.

But, earlier this year, Price announced that Black and Jewish jurors had apparently been excluded from hearing the case.

The alleged misconduct was identified during a probe, driven in part by a federal judge, into 35 Alameda County death penalty cases dating back to the 1980s.

On Tuesday, Price said Dykes, who is now 51, would be released next year on parole, the result of a recent settlement agreement before U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria.

In a press conference at her office Tuesday, Price said her team had now identified 56 death penalty cases dating back to 1978 as part of its ongoing analysis.

In 40 of those cases, she said, jury selection materials were "missing."

"There may well have been an effort to sanitize the files," Price said. "We intend to look into that, hopefully with the assistance of the California attorney general's office."

Price said the materials had gone missing following a 2005 review of alleged misconduct related to jury selection in Alameda County where Black, Jewish and gay individuals appeared to have been "tracked and excluded" from death penalty cases.

(In 2005, the state Supreme Court reviewed those claims but rejected them, KQED reported earlier this year.)

"Jurors called to jury service have a right to serve without regard to their religion, their race, their national origin, or their sexual orientation," Price said Tuesday. "And the victims who rely upon prosecutors as guardians of the Constitution, as the light-bearers of the law, as ministers of justice, are entitled to be able to rely upon us to do the right thing."

Alameda County death penalty cases under review over alleged misconduct

The death penalty audit may be just the start, DA Pamela Price said: Other Alameda County cases “may be implicated.”

DA Price also shared brief updates in relation to 2 other Alameda County death penalty cases, including that of Keith Thomas, who was convicted in 1997 of the kidnapping, robbery, rape and murder of an East Bay woman.

In that case, Price said "racist imagery and stereotyping" used by the prosecutor during the trial had "essentially undermined the integrity of this conviction."

Price said Thomas's original death penalty sentence had been converted to 23 years to life.

He has already served 31 years, she added, so the parole board will now review the case and decide whether he should be released.

Price also said Gregory Tate would be coming off death row due to changes in state law and that he would be sentenced to life in prison without parole.

"We are not conceding any wrongdoing … with respect to the case of Mr. Tate," she said.

Alameda County death penalty review continues

Price said her office had identified at least seven prosecutors who had been linked to the ongoing death penalty misconduct probe: one current Alameda County prosecutor who was recently tapped to become a judge, one former prosecutor who is already on the bench, and five who are no longer with the office.

"The people elected me to reform this office, to participate in the reform of a criminal justice system that had gone wrong, that had gone bad, that had hurt many people," Price said. "I am here for that reason and I intend to do just that."

She continued: "As we uncover misconduct, we will expose it, we will address it and we will hold people accountable."

(source: The Berkeley Scanner)

USA:

Anti-Death Penalty Activists Celebrate 200th Death Row Exoneree: ‘Undoubtedly Optimistic’----Murphy said that the hundreds of exonerations are 'a significant indicator of the brokenness of the death penalty.'

Opponents of the death penalty in the United States are celebrating a milestone as the country marks the 200th death row exoneree in roughly 50 years and more states continue to abolish capital punishment.

Catholic Mobilizing Network (CMN), which advocates ending capital punishment in the U.S., said in a press release this month that California prisoner Larry Roberts had become “the 200th death row exoneration since 1973.” Roberts had been on death row since 1983 after his fellow prisoners claimed he killed both a prison guard and another inmate.

CMN Executive Director Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy said in the press release that the 200 exonerations were the result of “the tireless efforts of faithful advocates and committed lawyers.”

Exonerations, according to CMN, are cases involving former death row inmates who have, since 1973, either been acquitted of all charges related to the crime that placed them on death row or had all charges related to the crime that placed them on death row dismissed by the prosecution. It also includes prisoners who have been granted a complete pardon based on evidence of innocence.

“[W]hile we praise God that these lives have been spared, we also remember the many individuals — both innocent and guilty — who did not, and will not receive the same grace, whose lives are discarded by a system determined to throw them away,” she said.

Murphy told CNA in a phone interview that the hundreds of exonerations are “a significant indicator of the brokenness of the death penalty.”

‘The Trends Are Moving in Our Favor’

On its website CMN says it plays “a central role in state and federal repeal campaigns, collaborating closely with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, state Catholic conferences, local dioceses, religious communities, and secular abolition groups.”

The group helps spearhead “prayer vigils, press events, webinars, and speaking tours” against the death penalty; it also works at “connecting key players, like Church leaders and abolition movement organizers.”

Asked if the anti-capital punishment movement is optimistic about its efforts, Murphy said: “Undoubtedly.”

She pointed out that nearly half of all U.S. states, as well as the District of Columbia, have abolished the death penalty.

“The trends are moving in our favor,” she said. “The use of the death penalty is decreasing, as are the people being sentenced to death. The repeals are much more bipartisan than they’ve ever been.”

“I think Americans are getting less and less tolerant of this practice,” she said. “For all these reasons we’re continually encouraged.”

Among the groups with which CMN has partnered against the death penalty include Witness to Innocence, which works “to empower exonerated death row survivors to be the most powerful and effective voice in the fight to end the death penalty and reform the justice system in the United States.”

Herman Lindsey, the executive director of Witness to Innocence, was sentenced to death in Florida in 2006 for murder. The state Supreme Court subsequently exonerated him in 2009, ruling that Florida “had failed to produce any evidence in this case placing Lindsey at the scene of the crime at the time of the murder.”

Lindsey told CNA in a phone interview that Witness to Innocence offers exonerees — many of whom have trouble finding work — a chance for employment while speaking out against capital punishment.

“We run a lot of campaigns at one time,” he said. “We’re involved in a lot of cases. We work with each and every state, and with attorneys on the cases.”

“If it’s a case that’s out there, most likely we’re active in it in some type of way, somehow,” he said.

Murphy said there are “exciting things on the horizon for Catholics to help us mobilize and speak on this issue more effectively.”

“We’ve got Oct. 10 coming up, the World Day Against the Death Penalty,” she said. She praised Pope Francis for making it “explicit” that Catholics should work against the death penalty in the upcoming Jubilee Year of 2025.

The death penalty “is at odds with the Christian faith and eliminates all hope of forgiveness and rehabilitation,” Murphy said. “We should be thinking and acting on this issue in the Jubilee Year.”

Both Lindsey and Murphy expressed happiness at the milestone 200th exoneration while lamenting the need for those exonerations at all.

“It’s a great thing, but it’s a bad thing, that we reached the 200 mark,” Lindsey said. “But the good thing about it is it shows that organizations and attorneys are working hard.”

Murphy, meanwhile, said she was “delighted that there has been success in more cases to get people off of death row.”

“But at the same time, it’s also sad that so many people have had to go through that, where they’re sentenced to death and then exonerated,” she said. “Can you imagine that?”

(source: National Catholic Register)

UNITED KNGDOM:

Robert Rinder reveals he changed his anti-death penalty stance after finding out about the executioner who hanged a Nazi responsible for his grandfather's torture; Barrister and TV star researched into England's last hangman Albert Pierrepoint----He executed 200 Nazis, including one who tortured TV star's grandfather ---- His great-grandparents and other relatives were murdered by Nazis at Treblinka

Barrister and TV star Rob Rinder says he changed his anti-death penalty stance after finding out about the executioner who hanged a Nazi responsible for his grandfather's torture.

The presenter's grandfather, Morris Malenicky, escaped the death camps because he was a teenager and capable of working – so forced into slave labour at Buchenwald concentration camp instead.

Mr Rinder's Jewish ancestors - great grandparents, as well as four great aunts and a great uncle - were murdered at Treblinka death camp during the Holocaust.

As part of research for his latest programme, Britain Behind Bars: A Secret History, Mr Rinder, still a member of the Bar although not currently practising, found out about one of the country's last and most famous hangmen Albert Pierrepoint, who executed 200 Nazis, as well as a string of notorious UK murderers.

The 46-year-old said his experience as a defence barrister has always made him a staunch advocate of Article 2 of the Human Rights Act – the right to life – and against state executions.

But finding out about how Pierrepoint dispatched one of Buchenwald's commanders, 'responsible for torturing my grandfather', Mr Rinder said: 'It changed my view (against capital punishment).

'It made me less confident (and see) that the issues are complex.'

Mr Rinder's grandfather Mr Morris, a Lithuanian Jew, arrived in Britain as one of 300 'Windermere children' – orphans who survived the Holocaust and were brought to the Lake District.

The television star, speaking at the Buxton International Festival, Derbyshire, learned about Pierrepoint while filming at Shrewsbury's historic former prison for his latest series, currently showing on Channel 4.

He said the programme director invited him to read a two-page summary about Pierrepoint, who was appointed to be one of the hangmen after the Nuremberg trials of senior Nazis following the end of World War Two.

The first page was about the hangman as a person, including a grim tale of how he executed a string of prisoners on one day 'two by two', adding: 'I did it early, because I wanted to be home to have my supper in time.'

But Mr Rinder recalled how the director then urged him to 'have a sip of Scotch' before turning over the page to find a list of the notorious criminals Pierrepoint had dispatched at the gallows – including Nazi figures.

'One of them was at Buchenwald, who was personally responsible for torturing my grandfather.

'The director asked me, 'so what do you think (of capital punishment) now?'

The programme, which began last week, saw Mr Rinder visit three prisons in total, also including Dartmoor, Devon, and Shepton Mallet, in Somerset.

The barrister spoke out against repeatedly sending prisoners to jail for short periods without proper rehabilitation.

He said: 'What's fascinating in terms of short-term sentences is we've been doing the same thing again and again over the years, expecting a different outcome, which is the definition of madness.'

During the talk, Mr Rinder also confirmed he would be filming another series of The Grand Tour, with fellow television presenter Rylan Clark – which has been rumoured since the first series aired in May.

Asked by an audience member about his next project, he replied: 'The next series will be another tour with Rylan. I don't think it's been announced (yet).

'I don't make telly for telly's sake. There's a reason we went on the Grand Tour – we were exploring something personal for ourselves and it was something cultural as well.'

But as well as exploring art and culture in Rome, Florence and Venice, Mr Rinder told how he and Mr Clark came under homophobic abuse – and had to be saved by four elderly women.

He likened the 'four Nonnas' to Roman soldiers, saying they formed a 'Praetorian Guard' around the pair in Venice and walked them to St Mark's Square after they were insulted while being filmed dressed in drag.

(source: dailymail.co.uk)

MALAYSIA:

‘I don’t want forgiveness, I want the death penalty’, Singaporean man tells court in JB for 2013 murder of wife’s boyfriend

A Singaporean man asked the Federal Court in Johor Baru to uphold the death sentence imposed on him for murdering his wife’s boyfriend in 2013.

Quah Tee Keon, 56, who was also accused of stabbing his wife and causing injuries that could have resulted in death, withdrew his application to review the death penalty, reported online news portal Berita Harian today.

“I do not want to ask for forgiveness, I only ask for the death penalty. Thank you,” he was quoted by BH Online as saying.

The panel of judges, led by Chief Justice Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat and comprising Federal Court judges Datuk Nordin Hassan and Datuk Hanipah Farikullah, subsequently decided to dismiss the review application, thereby maintaining the death penalty for the man.

Quah, represented by lawyer Bernard George, was arrested after surrendering to the police in Kuala Lumpur on October 28, 2013.

According to the facts of the case, Quah murdered a man named Ruan Chao Qiang, who was a Chinese citizen, at a residence in Taman Mawar Indah, Triang, Bera, Pahang, at around 3:30am on October 13, 2013.

He also injured his wife with a knife, causing various injuries to her neck, hands, and back at the same time and location, reported BH Online.

The case was prosecuted by deputy public prosecutor Ng Siew Wee.

(source: malaymail.com)

*****************

Apex court upholds death sentence on man who murdered stepson

The Federal Court has upheld the death sentence on a former land broker who murdered his 6-year-old stepson 13 years ago.

A 3-member panel led by Chief Justice Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat unanimously decided this here on Tuesday (July 16) after rejecting the application by Azman Abd Rahman, 49, for a review to commute his death sentence.

Also presiding were Federal Court Judges Datuk Nordin Hassan and Datuk Hanipah Farikullah.

The prosecution was led by the head of the Trials and Appeals Division of the Attorney General's Chambers, Datuk Mohd Dusuki Mokhtar, while the defendant was represented by S. Vijay Rathnam.

Vijay requested the court's leniency as his client had chronic health conditions, including hepatitis B and high blood pressure.

However, Mohd Dusuki argued for the sentence to be upheld based on the autopsy report, which revealed over 72 injuries to the child's body.

He said there was bleeding in several parts of the victim's body, particularly in the muscles, lungs, head and abdomen, caused by strong blows with a blunt object.

The doctors determined that "severe muscle contusion and lung contusion due to blunt trauma" was the cause of death, he noted.

According to the charges, Azman was accused of murdering Muhammad Firdaus Mohd Dan, six, in an oil palm plantation in Kampung Solok Pinang, Gadek, Alor Gajah, between 10.30am and 2.15pm on Oct 10, 2011.

He was charged under Section 302 of the Penal Code for murder.

Based on the facts of the case, on the day of the incident, Azman took the victim to the plantation at Kampung Pinang in Gadek, Alor Gajah, at 10.30am.

The victim defecated in his trousers during the journey to the plantation, which angered the accused.

Upon arriving at the location, the accused reportedly beat the victim with a tree branch and kicked him before taking him to Hospital Alor Gajah, where he was pronounced dead.

On June 5, 2015, the Ayer Keroh High Court in Melaka sentenced Azman, from Lubok Cina in Linggi, Alor Gajah, to death by hanging after finding him guilty of killing his stepson.

Azman sought to have his death sentence overturned at the Court of Appeal in Putrajaya on Sept 7, 2016, but failed.

On Oct 5, 2017, he was also unsuccessful in his first appeal to the Federal Court.

His latest appeal came after the abolition of the mandatory death penalty last year.

(source: thestar.com.my)

EGYPT:

Cairo court seeks death penalty for man who killed three Egyptians in Doha----The final verdict is set to be announced in September, following a Sharia review of the case.

A criminal court in Cairo has escalated the case of a 43-year-old man accused of murdering three Egyptian men in Doha, seeking the death penalty. The case has now been referred to a senior Islamic legal authority for a Sharia-based opinion on his execution.

The court has scheduled the final verdict for September 8, Egypt’s Al Masry Al Youm outlet reported on Monday.

He faces charges for murdering Ali Shabaan and siblings Abdelsalam and Jom’a Mahrous during a botched robbery attempt in April last year.

“The defendant committed an act that chills the spine. He fatally stabbed the 1st victim and then turned to the 2nd, delivering multiple fatal wounds until they both lay dead,” the prosecutor told the court.

Mystery of 3 Egyptians allegedly ‘killed’ in Qatar

The defendant’s lawyer argued that due to poor health, he is not the perpetrator of the triple homicide.

“My client’s kidney function is only 30%, and he was not able to carry out these crimes at all,” the defense said.

The attorney also requested that the court conduct an examination of the 43-year-old’s condition.

But in June 2023, the defendant actually admitted he was guilty of the crimes to a Cairo court. “I just wanted to steal,” he said.

He further explained that he was in Qatar for the FIFA World Cup games and decided to stay and search for work opportunities.

He added that he befriended the would-be victims, who welcomed him to their home as he tried to get back on his feet. However, with no prospects in sight, the hosts booked him a return flight to Egypt, which is when he devised a plan to steal from them and flee.

The culprit was immediately arrested upon his arrival at Cairo’s airport after fleeing Doha following the killing. The arrest was coordinated between Interpol and the Egyptian authorities.

During the 6th court hearing on Monday, the prosecution denounced the brutal killing as a “betrayal of friendship.”

(source: dohanews.co)

SAUDI ARABIA:

Saudi Arabia executes a person every 2 days so far in 2024----Human rights NGO says the surge indicates the government's commitment to extensive use of the death penalty

Saudi Arabia has executed 100 people since the beginning of 2024 through to 15 July, the European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights (ESOHR) said on Monday.

According to the rights group, which monitors executions in the kingdom, the rate amounts to an execution nearly every two days, representing a 42 % increase compared to the same period in 2023, which recorded 172 executions.

ESOHR said that the surge indicates an “insistence on using the death penalty extensively, in violation of international laws and its official commitments.”

Despite the rise in execution numbers, the group said that they had identified only three individuals facing imminent execution, indicating that many executions are taking place in secret.

According to Reprieve, which documents death penalty cases in the kingdom, in many cases the families of the victims are not aware they were on death row.

ESOHR noted that in 19 of the cases they monitored, the type of sentence and the court that issued it are often concealed in official reporting.

They added that this lack of transparency is “a new form of manipulation by Saudi Arabia to evade its commitments and continue using the death penalty as a tool”.

In 2023, a joint report by ESOHR and Reprieve revealed that Riyadh's execution rate has almost doubled since King Salman and his son Mohammed bin Salman came to power in 2015. Between 2015 and 2022, executions surged by 82 percent.

In February this year, seven Saudi men were killed in a mass execution, the highest number put to death in one day since 81 were killed in March 2022.

According to the report, Saudi authorities routinely used the death penalty to quash political dissidents, in contravention of international law which stipulates it should only be used for the most serious crimes.

According to Reprieve, foreign nationals, including female domestic workers and drug offenders, are “disproportionately” targeted.

Despite the crown prince’s pledge in a 2018 interview that he would minimise executions, the country remains one of the world’s most prolific executioners.

(source: middleeasteye.net)

IRAN:

Video report: Professor Javaid Rehman’s New Report on the 1988 Massacre – Geneva, June 19, 2024

The Iran Human Rights Monitor (Iran HRM) has prepared a video report of Professor Javaid Rehman's conference on June 19, 2024. This conference, titled ‘Examining the Ongoing Crimes against Humanity by the Iranian Regime,’ was held with the presence of Javaid Rehman, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Iran. The Iran Human Rights Monitor (Iran HRM) has released the text of this report on its website prior to this. Parts of this speech have been presented in the form of video recordings in this report.

The First Part of Professor Javaid Rehman’s speech at a conference in Geneva on 19 June 2024.

So, all of these crimes I have analyzed in great depth when I’m looking at the 1988 massacre. And just to give you a brief summary of my analysis, the key elements of what happened in 1988 was that thousands of political prisoners were targeted and murdered. There was no fair trial for them.

The Second Part of Professor Javaid Rehman’s speech at a conference in Geneva on 19 June 2024

There was this fatwa. Imam Khomeini issued that fatwa, in which he said that all of those monafiqeen (Mojahedin), as he termed it, all of those monafiqeen who remain steadfast must be executed. And he used this terminology through a religious prism, but he also urged the commissioners that he mentioned to show their revolutionary zeal, or religious zeal, to show no kind of consideration to principles of rule of law and human rights.

The third Part of Professor Javaid Rehman speech at a conference in Geneva on 19 June 2024

So that was the basic agenda on which he ordered the executions. Now, you could not, by any stretch of imagination, call these commissions lawfully constituted. They were arbitrary. They were judging people not on the basis of any offenses that people may have committed.And it is interesting that the people who were prisoners, actually, many of them had not committed offenses of any sort. They were there because they were activists. Many of them were incarcerated for small activities, such as publishing pamphlets or distributing them, or simply not having been able conscientiously to repent for what they had done

The fourth Part of Professor Javaid Rehman speech at a conference in Geneva on 19 June 2024

These mass executions, arbitrary executions, were dispensed. And then what happened was that, obviously it was not a court of law, so they did not have any rights. They could not question the judgments of these commissions.

The fifth Part of Professor Javaid Rehman speech at a conference in Geneva on 19 June 2024

They were executed at a very short notice. Many of them could not defend their case. They were asked questions that were not legal. They were asked, for example, would you betray the PMOI, or would you help support the execution of your prison mates?I mean, these were not legal questions

(source: iran-hrm.com)

JULY 16, 2024:

TEXAS----impending execution

TEXAS PLANS TO EXECUTE MAN AFTER COURTS REFUSE DNA TESTS----Ruben Gutierrez was convicted of murder in 1999 under Texas’ “Law of Parties.” He says he had nothing to do with the killing.

Less than a week after an NPR investigation revealed glaring problems with the previously secret supplier of Texas’ lethal injection drugs, the state plans to execute a man on Tuesday evening who has maintained his innocence for more than 20 years.

Ruben Gutierrez was convicted under Texas’ so-called law of parties for the 1998 murder of 85-year-old Escolastica Harrison. Harrison was killed during a robbery of the Brownsville home she shared with her nephew. Shortly after, three men were arrested in connection with the crime: Pedro Gracia, Rene Garcia, and Ruben Gutierrez, who was friends with Harrison’s nephew.

Gutierrez is the only one who received a death sentence. Gracia never stood trial—he disappeared after being released from jail on bond more than 20 years ago. Garcia is serving a life sentence at the Estelle Unit in Huntsville for his role in the crime.

The state’s original theory, and the case they presented against Gutierrez in his 1999 trial, was that he and Garcia had killed Harrison. But in Texas, they didn’t actually have to pin the killing on Gutierrez for him to receive a death sentence. A Texas law allows anyone involved in a crime that led to death to be convicted of murder, even if they never hurt the person or touched a weapon.

The law of parties was instituted in Texas in 1973 to address for-hire killings and organized crime, but it’s become controversial for its modern applications. Jessica Dickerson, director of the Law of Parties Campaign with Texas Prisons Community Advocates, said she documents individual cases because no one is officially tracking how the law is used in Texas. She’s found a startling trend: The person who pulled the trigger usually gets the lightest sentence.

That’s because the person who actually committed the crime usually pleads guilty, often striking a deal for a lesser sentence, Dickerson says. Other co-defendants, however, are more likely to fight their murder charges in court, where juries often find them guilty by association.

“If the state is going to continue to use the death penalty, it really needs to be used in an ethically and morally responsible manner, and executing people who never killed anybody doesn’t seem to be ethically or morally responsible,” Dickerson told the Observer.

In the 1999 trial, state prosecutors argued that because of his friendship with Harrison’s nephew, Gutierrez knew of and planned to steal a large sum of money from Harrison’s home the night of the murder. Gutierrez’s defense—which he maintains today—is that he didn’t enter Harrison’s home that night, that he didn’t participate in the violence, and “he didn’t even know of any plan by anyone to assault or kill her.”

But the jury was told that Gutierrez could be found guilty of capital murder even if he was just “a party” to the death. Jurors decided that was the case and convicted him. An appeals court upheld his conviction in 2002, and several unsuccessful appeals attempts followed in the decades since.

In June, Gutierrez’s lawyers asked the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and Governor Greg Abbott to commute Gutierrez’s sentence to life in prison, an appeal supported by two of the original jurors who signed on to the clemency application saying that they no longer believe Gutierrez should be killed. The board denied the request last week.

The application calls out the fact that, despite years of requests, none of the evidence from the crime scene—including fingernail scrapings from the victim and hair found on her body—has ever been tested for DNA.

“The State thus possesses evidence that could prove who actually killed Mrs. Harrison, but the courts have denied every plea Mr. Gutierrez has made for testing,” his lawyers wrote in the clemency application.

Gutierrez has been trying to get both state and federal courts to allow for DNA testing for more than a decade. He filed a federal civil rights suit in 2019, questioning the constitutionality of the Texas law that governs how DNA is tested after someone has already been convicted of a crime. A federal judge partially ruled in his favor in 2021 but the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals struck a blow in February, saying Gutierrez didn’t have standing to file the suit. His lawyers have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to grant a stay of execution and to rule on the case.

“[Post-conviction DNA] is a really interesting issue, and it’s an issue that we think the Supreme Court will and should be interested in, because it has to do with access to courts and standing to bring lawsuits in these kinds of situations,” Gutierrez’s attorney Shawn Nolan told the Observer.

The state’s original case against Gutierrez relied on eyewitness testimony and incriminating and contradictory statements he made to police. In the years since, Gutierrez has said his statements were false and coerced. ltogether, he and his co-defendants gave nine statements to police in the immediate aftermath of the murder, none of which fully agreed with each other or the crime scene evidence. His lawyers have also called into question the validity of the eyewitness testimony, stating in the clemency application that the lead detective in the case, “testified falsely about the time of death to make it appear that witnesses put Mr. Gutierrez on the scene at the time of the murder.” Two of the eyewitnesses have disavowed their testimony, according to the document.

“In light of all these uncertainties, the State should not be permitted to execute Mr. Gutierrez before DNA testing has been performed,” says the application.

This is the seventh time the state has issued an execution warrant for Gutierrez since 2018. Most of the dates were withdrawn because of clerical or procedural errors, including one instance in which the Cameron County District Attorney’s Office “named the wrong person to be executed” in the warrant. Since 2018, Gutierrez has spent more than 500 days on “death watch”—the high-surveillance housing area for people with scheduled executions.

(source: MICHELLE PITCHER is a staff writer at the Texas Observer covering criminal justice, housing, and education)

**********************

Texas death row inmate one day away from execution loses last-minute bid to save his life----The 57-year-old is scheduled to be executed on Wednesday. He was convicted in 1999 of murdering a woman in her trailer

The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles has denied a clemency application filed by Ruben Gutierrez, paving the way for his execution for the murder of a woman over 2 decades ago.

Concretely, the board said that they "have completed their consideration" of the request and that after a "full and careful review of the application and any other information filed with the application, a majority of the Board has decided not to recommend a Commutation of Death Sentence to Lesser Penalty or in the alternative a 90-day Reprieve of Execution."

Gutierrez, who worked as a fork lift operator and was 21 at the moment of the crime, was convicted in 1999 of murdering 85-year-old Escolastica Harrison in her trailer in Brownsville the year prior.

He believed along with 2 co-defendants that the woman hid over half a million dollars in a safe in her home. After repeatedly hitting her and stabbing her in the head, they ended up stealing $56,000.

Gutierrez has seemingly exhausted his appeals after receiving several rejections from state and federal authorities over the years. A prior execution date was halted just an hour before it was set to take place in 2020, after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld an appeal seeking a religious adviser to be allowed in the death chamber. However, the process later moved on.

Should it effectively be conducted, Gutierrez's would be the 3rd inmate to be executed in Texas this year. The latest execution took place in late June, when Ramiro Gonzalez received a lethal injection for the 2011 rape and murder of a woman in the state.

Gonzalez was killed with a lethal dose of pentobarital and pronounced dead at 6:50 p.m. on June 27, the state's Department of Criminal Justice said. He was already serving a life sentence for the abduction and rape of another woman in 2002 when he confessed to the same crime of a Texas woman, Bridget Townsend, in Medina County, west of San Antonio, and told police where her remains were.

The crime took place in 2001, when both González and the victim were 18 years old and after she tried to prevent him from stealing drugs at her boyfriend's house. The execution day would have been Townsend's 41st birthday.

González issued a final statement in which he apologized to Townsend's family and thanked his loved ones and prison administrators for "the opportunity to become responsible, to learn accountability and to make good." He added that his life on death row had the purpose of making restitution and being responsible for his actions.

(source: The Latin Times)

***********************

Who is Ruben Gutierrez? The Texas man is set for execution in retired schoolteacher's murder----Gutierrez was a young married man with 2 children and a bad cocaine habit when he and two other men decided to rob 85-year-old Escolastica Harrison, a retired schoolteacher in Brownsville

A Texas man convicted in the beating death of an elderly retired schoolteacher in her own home says he didn't take part in her murder and that DNA testing would prove his innocence.

Ruben Gutierrez, 47, is set to be executed Tuesday at a state prison in Huntsville, about 70 miles north of Houston. That would make him the 3rd inmate put to death in the state this year and the 10th in the nation.

Gutierrez was convicted in the 1998 beating death of 85-year-old Escolastica Harrison, who was targeted because she didn't trust banks and reported had $600,000 in cash in her home in the south Texas border city of Brownsville, according to court records.

As Gutierrez nears his execution by lethal injection, USA TODAY is looking closer at the crime he was convicted of, why he argues he shouldn't be put to death and who he was before that terrible night in 1998.

Ruben Gutierrez is set to be executed for his participation in the robbery and murder of an elderly woman on Tuesday, July 16.

Who is Ruben Gutierrez?

At the time of the crime, Gutierrez was a 21-year-old married father of 2 kids who had been working as a security guard at a resort on South Padre Island. He had married at the age of 17 when his then-girlfriend became pregnant.

A native of Fort Myers, Florida, his parents moved him and his older brother to Brownsville when Gutierrez was about 8 years old, according to Diane Mosnik, a clinical neuropsychologist who evaluated Gutierrez in 2019.

The Gutierrez brothers grew up in a low-income house with an alcohol father who frequently beat both his sons and his wife, who at one point was hospitalized after a nervous breakdown, Mosnik wrote in her report.

His parents eventually separated but Gutierrez’s father frequently showed up, once “holding his mother by her neck over the side of the sink with a knife at her neck, threatening to kill her right there,” Mosnik wrote.

As a young adult, Gutierrez struggled with behavioral problems in school and with drug use, first trying cocaine at age 13 and eventually progressing to using it on a “near daily basis” up until his arrest, she wrote.

Mosnik diagnosed Gutierrez with post-traumatic stress disorder.

“That exposure to such intense and violent trauma to loved family members at such a young age is known to result in significant psychological and behavioral disturbance, as evidenced by Mr. Gutierrez throughout his life,” she wrote. “The exposure and psychological consequences of the traumatic exposure has been the cause of significant distress and impairment in his level of functioning across important aspects of his life and led him to his current situation.”

More about what Ruben Gutierrez was convicted of

The victim, Harrison, had been living with her nephew, Avel Cuellar, in 1998. Gutierrez was a friend of Cuellar's and was frequently at Harrison's home socializing and drinking with friends, and befriended the 85-year-old and ran errands for her, eventually learning about the cash she kept in her home and crafting a plan to steal it, according to court records.

On Sept. 5, 1998, Gutierrez and 2 other men - Rene and Pedro Garcia - went to Harrison's home to rob her. The accounts of what happened in her home vary, with Gutierrez arguing that he waited outside and had no idea things would get violent.

Regardless, Harrison ended up “face down in a pool of blood” after having been beaten and stabbed, court records say. Though Gutierrez thought Harrison had $600,000 in the home, the men made away with at least $56,000.

A jury found Gutierrez guilty of capital murder in 1999 and sentenced him to death 1 month later. His execution has previously been set six times and then postponed over mostly clerical errors - a process that amounts to torture, his attorney argues in a petition for clemency that the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles denied on Friday.

Robert Harrison and Escolastica Harrison attend sister Estella Cuellar Perez's 1986 wedding.

What has Gutierrez argued in his appeals?

Arguing that he didn't participate in Harrison's murder, Gutierrez has said that DNA testing on items collected from the crime scene can prove as much. They include fingernail scrapings, hair, clothing and blood samples.

Gutierrez also argues that a number of other issues make his death penalty unjust, including a lack of evidence, undisclosed evidence by prosecutors, jury misconduct, attorney failure, and coerced confessions, among others according to court documents.

On top of that, authorities failed to properly investigating a “main alternative suspect,” who knew the victim personally, had just as much access to Harrison, and provided inconsistent statements to authorities, Gutierrez argues.

Cameron County District Attorney Luis Saenz refutes Gutierrez's claims, telling USA TODAY last week that his efforts are merely a “delay tactic.”

"Justice delayed is justice denied," he said. "I think the public is just frustrated with how long it takes for justice to be served. For Mrs. Harrison and for any victim in these situations."

In court records, his office has argued that Gutierrez's arguments about DNA testing amounted to an "abusive delay."

“Gutierrez purposefully forewent DNA testing at his trial in 1999, and he has leveraged that strategic decision for the last 20 years to delay enforcement of his sentence," prosecutors wrote this month.

In his ultimately failed clemency petition, Gutierrez argued that jurors never heard about his traumatizing background, and one of his jurors now doesn't want him executed and another juror thinks the DNA testing should be performed.

Gutierrez currently has a petition pending before the U.S. Supreme Court, which is expected to rule on the matter sometime between now and the start of Gutierrez’s execution.

Only a Supreme Court ruling or a pardon from Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott could stop the execution.

Abbott, who has referred to the death penalty as "Texas justice,” has overseen the execution of 74 inmates since he took office in 2015 and granted clemency in 1 case.

When will Ruben Gutierrez be executed?

Gutierrez is set to be executed by lethal injection on Tuesday, July 16 anytime after 6 p.m. CT.

It is the most common execution method in the country, with jurisdictions employing one, two, or as many as three drugs to put an inmate to death.

Gutierrez will choose a meal from a menu available to all inmates in the Huntsville Unit since Texas no longer accommodates last meal requests from condemned inmates, Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesperson Hannah Haney previously told USA TODAY.

One of Harrison’s nephews, Alex Hernandez, plans to witness the moment Gutierrez is put to death to fulfill a promise he made on his mother’s deathbed.

(source: usatoday.com)

FLORIDA:

Several plead with Judge to sentence convicted murdered Wade Wilson to life over death

A Lee County jury, on June 25, 2024, recommended Wade Wilson should die for his crimes.

After deliberating for an hour and 45 minutes, they voted 9-to-3 in favor of the death penalty for Kristine Melton’s murder and 10-to-2 for the killing of Diane Ruiz.

Melton was found dead in her Cape Coral home on October 7, 2019. Ruiz’s body was found in a Cape Coral field four days later after she was reported missing.

Lee County Circuit Judge Nicholas R. Thompson will consider the death penalty recommendation. But he will get the final say on whether Wilson lives or dies.

Now, others are weighing in. Court records show people from as far away as Canada and California have written Thompson and asked that he sentence Wilson to life without parole instead of death.

One woman from Visalia, California, wrote, “As someone who cares unconditionally for Wade, I have deeply reflected on the gravity of the situation and impact of your decision.”

Another person asked Judge Thompson to “impose a lighter sentence that reflects the possibility of recovery and rehabilitation.”

A 3rd person mentioned concerns for Wilson’s mental health and the difference it makes when he is on medication.

“If you look past his tattoos to his face structure since being in prison and medicated he is healthier, his face is fuller compared to his booking picture where his face is gaunt, pale and he looks unhealthy,” wrote the mother of 2 from Canada.

The Code of Judicial Conduct prohibits a judge from considering ex parte communications or other communications made to a judge outside the presence of the parties concerning a pending or impending matter.

Wilson is scheduled for sentencing on July 23, 2024.

(source: WINK news)

LOUISIANA:

State to seek death penalty for Daniel Callihan, suspected killer of Callie and Erin Brunett

Prosecutors filed a formal notice Monday that they would seek the execution of a man accused of killing a Loranger woman and her young daughter during a violent assault that spanned two states last month.

Daniel Callihan, 36, pleaded not guilty Monday during his arraignment at the Tangipahoa Parish Courthouse. He faces 3 counts of 1st-degree murder, two counts of aggravated kidnapping of a child and 1 count of unauthorized entry of an inhabited dwelling.

Previously, prosecutors accused Callihan of killing Callie Brunett, 35, and Erin Brunett, 4. It wasn't immediately clear why a 3rd homicide charge was added; the sheriff's office, which investigated the case, did not return a call seeking clarification.

Callihan also faces charges in federal court and in Mississippi state court.

Callihan is accused of killing Callie Brunett, 35, and kidnapping her 2 daughters on June 13. One day later, 4-year-old Erin Brunett's body was found in a wooded area outside Jackson, Mississippi. The FBI said that Callihan told an investigator he wanted to keep the other kidnapping victim as a "sex slave."

(source: WBRZ news)

*********************

DA files notice of intent to seek death penalty in Callihan case----Daniel Callihan pleads not guilty in court

Twenty-First Judicial District Attorney Scott Perrilloux has filed a notice of intent to seek the death penalty against Daniel Callihan.

The announcement from the DA came after Callihan pleaded not guilty in court on Monday, July 15, and was formally booked into the Tangipahoa Parish Jail.

After being booked into the jail, Callihan was arraigned at the Tangipahoa Parish courthouse on the charges in the previously announced indictment by the 21st JDC District Attorney’s Office.

Callihan faces multiple charges in connection with the alleged murder of Callie Brunett and 1 of her daughters as well as the alleged kidnapping of her other daughter.

Authorities said Callihan is accused of killing Brunett in Loranger, Louisiana before allegedly abducting her 2 daughters. One of those daughters was found dead in Jackson, Mississippi. His alleged accomplice, Victoria Cox, was also arrested and indicted on a capital murder charge.

Callihan was booked into the Tangipahoa Parish Jail on the following warrants on Monday, July 15, according to TPSO:

3 cts First Degree Murder (includes Indictment warrant)

2 ct Aggravated Kidnapping of a Child (includes Indictment warrant)

1 ct Second Degree Kidnapping (Indictment warrant)

1 ct Armed Robbery

1 ct Unauthorized Entry of an Inhabited Dwelling

1 ct Simple Arson

2 cts Theft of a Firearm

1 ct Burglary of a Residence

(source: KALB news)

INDIANA:

Indiana Commission on Court Appointed Attorneys seeking public comment on recommendations for state’s death penalty rule

The Indiana Commission on Court Appointed Attorneys wants to hear from the public on its recommendations for changes to the state’s death penalty rule.

The request follows Governor Eric Holcomb and Attorney General Todd Rokita‘s announcement that they would be seeking to resume executions.

Of the several proposed changes, one would change the rule’s language from requiring 2 attorneys be appointed on death penalty cases to “no fewer” than 2. Recommendations also include requiring two appellate attorneys and creating a new qualifications section for post-conviction relief.

Holcomb and Rokita announced last month that they would seek to start the resumption of executions with a man convicted of killing four people in Fort Wayne in 1997.

A jury found Joseph E. Corcoran guilty of killing his brother James Corcoran, his sister’s fiancé Robert Scott Turner, and their friends Timothy Bricker and Douglas Stillwell in 1999. Allen Superior Court Judge Fran Gull sentenced Corcoran to death following the jurors’ recommendation.

Corcoran’s attorneys, Joanna Green and Laura Volk, filed a response to the state’s motion to set their client’s execution date last week, saying he is “seriously mentally ill.” They say Corcoran, who has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, has delusions of prison guards torturing him with sound waves and conversations with people who are not there.

Dr. Philip Coons, who diagnosed Corcoran with paranoid schizophrenia and testified he was suffering from it at the time of the murders, said that noted attempts from Corcoran to conceal his delusions and hallucinations during his trial are typical of someone with his diagnosis.

“The person with paranoid schizophrenia generally minimizes their symptoms and doesn’t bring attention to them…unless you know what door to open, what question to ask, you may well miss it because they keep it to themselves,” Coon testified. “And that was true of Mr. Corcoran.”

“Had I not known about some kind of sleep problem, I don’t think I would have uncovered this delusional system.”

Symptoms of Corcoran’s mental illness predated his trial, his attorneys added. They cite two affidavits from individuals who knew Corcoran before the murders that describe him having hallucinations and delusions before the murders.

Dr. George Parker, who evaluated Corcoran post-conviction, said the prisoner’s ability to make rational decisions was impacted by his mental illness. He noted that Corcoran attached a stigma to his mental illness and badly wanted to downplay it.

“It speaks to how powerful the stigma is against serious mental illness, that he would rather be executed than admit that schizophrenia might be contributing to his desire to die,” the doctor said.

Beyond concerns about whether executing Corcoran would violate the Eighth Amendment’s protections against cruel and unusual punishments, Corcoran’s attorneys also note worries about the drugs that would be used to kill him.

They say no date should be set until the state delivers a new protocol and affirms no state or federal laws were broken to obtain the drugs. His attorneys add there has been no disclosure of how much of the drug is in the state’s possession or whether it is expired, how potent it is or how sterile it is.

Corcoran’s attorneys are asking the state’s highest court to deny setting an execution date and instead order briefing and entertain arguments in the case to determine if executing him would violate his Eighth Amendment rights. They also ask for time to investigate the “legality and efficacy” of the drug that would be used to carry out the execution.

(source: WPTA news)

********************

Indiana Catholic leaders urge state not to resume use of death penalty

The heads of the 5 Catholic dioceses serving Indiana, including Gary Bishop Robert McClory, are strongly urging state leaders to reverse their plans to resume legal executions of convicted murderers.

In a statement issued by the Indiana Catholic Conference, the church leaders declare their emphatic opposition to use of the death penalty in Indiana, in accordance with the Catholic commitment to protect human life from conception to natural death.

"We are grateful for Indiana's commitment to protecting human life, particularly for the preborn. However, the church holds that human dignity is also offended when the state's punishment takes a life," the bishops said.

"The convicted, the executioner and society are all harmed when violence is unnecessarily carried out, especially when the penal system can adequately protect the social order from further harm."

The bishops express solidarity with the family and friends of crime victims in their statement, and explicitly say "we do not dismiss the evil and harm caused by people who commit horrible crimes, especially murder."

But they also note, in addition to the church's moral teaching, Indiana would be better off without the death penalty because there are other means of protecting society and punishing criminals; the death penalty demonstrably does not deter crime; its application is flawed and can be irreversibly wrong; death penalty cases are extremely expensive compared to other criminal cases; and 29 other states have eliminated it.

"The Indiana Catholic Conference calls upon the attorney general, members of the Indiana General Assembly, and the governor, respectively, to rescind the motion asking the Indiana Supreme Court to set an execution date for Joseph Corcoran; legislatively repeal the use of the death penalty in Indiana; and remove plans to include a death chamber in the new state prison under construction in Westville," the bishops said.

"These actions would bring Indiana closer to implementing a consistent protection of human life and social order through law. We make this appeal alongside a commitment to working with our elected leaders and public officials to continue strengthening the culture of life in our great state."

That appeal, so far, appears to have fallen on deaf ears as Republican Attorney General Todd Rokita, a Munster native, continues pushing the Indiana Supreme Court to set an execution date for Corcoran, with the clear backing of Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb.

Corcoran, 49, of Fort Wayne, was convicted in 1999 of 4 counts of murder for the July 26, 1997, shooting deaths of his brother, James Corcoran, 30; Robert Scott Turner, 32; Douglas A. Stillwell, 30; and Timothy G. Bricker, 30.

Attorneys for Corcoran have asked the court to not set an execution date due to Corcoran's severe paranoid schizophrenia that leads him to believe prison guards are using an ultrasound machine to torture him with sound and broadcast his thoughts.

There is no timeline for action by the Supreme Court.

Executions in Indiana are carried out at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City. By law, the condemned inmate must be killed by the state prior to sunrise on the date designated by the court.

A total of 20 people convicted of murder have been executed by Indiana since the 1977 reinstatement of the death penalty in the Hoosier State, but none since 2009 when the state lost access to its supply of execution drugs.

Indiana also is home to the federal death chamber at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute where 16 people have been executed since 2001, most recently in 2021.

(source: nwitimes.com)

USA----female faces death penalty

Nearly 2 years after alleged kidnapping and murder, Amber Waterman set to appear in Benton County court----Since her arrest, Waterman has been held by authorities in Missouri awaiting a federal jury trial.

Amber Waterman was arrested in Missouri in 2022 and charged federally for allegedly kidnapping a pregnant woman and killing her with the intent to claim her unborn child as her own.

Since her arrest, Waterman has been held by authorities in Missouri awaiting a federal jury trial.

With 2 capital murder charges and one count of kidnapping also pending against Waterman in Benton County, Prosecuting Attorney Josh Robinson has spent almost 2 years waiting for Waterman to make her 1st appearance in court here. He is seeking the death penalty.

"We let the U.S. Attorney's office know pretty quickly that if they get the approval to seek death, we'll back off. We'll dismiss our case, as long as somebody can do what the family wants," says Robinson. But the U.S. Attorney will not seek the death penalty, only life in prison.

"We've never been able to secure Miss Waterman's presence in court. We offered to do it by video so she never had to leave federal custody, that was denied," Robinson adds. "Now, the only time we can demand her presence is after there's been a verdict or conviction in the federal case."

That is because of a double jeopardy statute, meaning a defendant can not be re-tried in the same criminal case.

Waterman is set to change her plea from not guilty in Missouri federal court on July 30th, which means she's likely not going to trial there.

In Benton County court on July 15, Judge Robin Green ruled that Waterman must appear on Oct. 28, where the prosecuting and defense attorneys should be prepared to argue the double-jeopardy statute.

Robinson says "We wanted to be able to get some things moving and make sure that a lot of the preliminary stuff was taken care of. But now the judge is wanting to push things forward because we've missed a lot of time."

With Bush's family reportedly pushing for the death penalty, Robinson says he's prepared them for if the case does not end that way.

"I've done my best to try to tell them about all the pitfalls and things that could go wrong," Robinson says. "I think they're frustrated and I think they're tired."

(source: KFSM news)

*******************************

USA----impending/scheduled executions

With the execution of Richard Rojem Jr. in Oklahoma on June 27, the USA has now executed 1,591 condemned individuals since the death penalty was re-legalized on July 2, 1976 in the US Supreme Court Gregg v Georgia decision.

Gary Gilmore was the 1st person executed, in Utah, on January 17, 1977. Below is a list of further scheduled executions as the nation continues its shameful practice of state-sponsored killings.

NOTE: The list is likely to change over the coming months as new execution dates are added and possible stays of execution occur.

1592-----July 16------------Ruben Gutierrez-------Texas

1593-----July 18------------Keith Gavin-----------Alabama

1594-----Aug. 7-------------Arthur Burton---------Texas

1595-----Aug. 8-------------Taberon Honie---------Utah

1596-----Sept. 24-----------Travis Mullis---------Texas

1597-----Sept. 24-----------Marcellus Williams----Missouri

1598-----Sept. 26-----------Alan Miller-----------Alabama

1599-----Oct. 1-------------Garcia White----------Texas

1600-----Oct. 17------------Robert Roberson-------Texas

(source: Rick Halperin)

SWITZERLAND:

The FDFA launches the Action Plan on the universal abolition of the death penalty 2024-2027

Switzerland is mobilizing in favor of a world without the death penalty. Its universal abolition is one of the objectives of the Federal Council’s Foreign Policy Strategy 2024-2027 and one of the four thematic priorities of the FDFA’s Guidelines for Human Rights 2021-2024. The action plan makes it possible to concretize Switzerland’s action and present its priority areas in the fight against the death penalty.

Switzerland is categorically and in all circumstances opposed to the death penalty. According to its legal conception, the death penalty violates the fundamental right to life as well as the prohibition of torture and ill-treatment. Consequently, Switzerland is mobilizing to work towards the universal abolition of the death penalty. Its action is part of the promotion of respect for human rights. It contributes to lasting peace and security as well as strengthening the rule of law.

The abolition of the death penalty has made significant progress around the world. In the space of 30 years, the number of States having abolished this practice has increased from 55 to 113. On the other hand, the number of death sentences and executions has not decreased for several years.

Based on this observation, the FDFA not only wants to continue to support the general trend towards universal abolition, but also to contribute to a further reduction in the figures for death sentences and executions.

The FDFA achieves this objective through the following 3 areas of action:

Field of action 1: Mobilization of diplomacy

Switzerland is counting on dialogue with states which continue to apply the death penalty to encourage them to abolish this sentence or, at least, to initially limit or suspend its application.

Action field 2: Strengthening the normative framework

Switzerland is working to strengthen the international framework aimed at suspending or restricting the application of the death penalty. It plays a leading role in initiatives at the UN on this theme and supports regional institutions which are embarking on the path to abolition.

Action area 3: Strengthening international collaboration

Based on the observation that the progress made in the abolition of the death penalty throughout the world is the fruit of a collective effort, Switzerland is committed to deepening collaboration with states sharing its views as well as with organizations of civil society.

Within the FDFA, coordination of the implementation of the Action Plan is ensured by the Peace and Human Rights Division (DPDH) of the State Secretariat.

Address for sending questions

Communication FDFAWest Federal PalaceCH-3003 BerneTel. Press service: 41 58 460 55 55E-Mail: kommunikation@eda.admin.chTwitter: @EDA_DFAE

Federal Department of Foreign Affairshttps://www.eda.admin.ch/eda/fr/dfae.html

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is a translation. Apologies should the grammar and/or sentence structure not be perfect.

(source: foreignaffairs.co.nz)

IRAN:

Swedish Iranian academic faces imminent execution----Ahmadreza Djalali, a Swedish-Iranian academic, has been arbitrarily detained in Iran for over 8 years. He is now at grave risk of execution, having exhausted all legal avenues to overturn his death sentence. From June 26 to July 4, 2024, Ahmadreza went on a hunger strike to protest his continued detention following a prisoner swap between Iran and Sweden on June 15, 2024. The Iranian authorities must quash Ahmadreza Djalali’s conviction and death sentence, which were imposed after grossly unfair trial proceedings. He should be released immediately.

Here’s what you can do:

Write to the Head of Judiciary urging the Iranian authorities to:

Immediately halt any plans to execute Ahmadreza Djalali, quash his conviction and death sentence, and release him immediately due to the arbitrary nature of his detention and the severe non-observance of his fair trial rights.

Pending his release, provide Ahmadreza Djalali with adequate medical care and protect him from further torture and other ill-treatment.

Conduct prompt, independent, effective, and impartial investigations into those suspected of ordering, committing, aiding, or abetting unlawful acts against Ahmadreza Djalali, and bring those responsible to justice in fair trials.

Establish an official moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty.

Write to:

Head of judiciary,

Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei

c/o Embassy of Iran to the European Union,

Avenue Franklin Roosevelt No. 15, 1050 Bruxelles,

Belgium

Salutation: Dear Mr. Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei,

On June 15, 2024, the Swedish government pardoned Hamid Nouri, leading to his return to Iran. This action confirmed Amnesty International’s concerns that Iran was holding Swedish nationals as hostages to exchange for Nouri. Johan Floderus and Saeed Azizi, both Swedish nationals, returned home the same day after enduring numerous human rights violations in Iran.

Amnesty International warned that Sweden’s decision to release Nouri contributes to the impunity crisis in Iran. This action emboldens Iranian authorities to commit more international crimes, including hostage-taking, without fear of consequences. It undermines the right to justice for survivors and victims’ families and raises concerns about Sweden’s commitment to international law.

Ahmadreza Djalali’s ordeal

Ahmadreza Djalali, a Swedish-Iranian academic, has been held hostage by Iranian authorities who threatened to execute him. On December 19, 2023, the Svea Court of Appeal upheld his conviction and life sentence. The following day, Iranian state media aired a propaganda video with Djalali’s forced “confessions,” accusing him of being a spy for Israel.

In August 2017, Djalali wrote from prison that he was tortured to force a confession, including threats against his family. He was held because he refused to use his academic ties to spy for Iran. The same video included forced confessions from Habib Chaab, a Swedish-Iranian national secretly executed on May 6, 2023.

Continued human rights violations

Ahmadreza Djalali, a medical doctor and academic, was living in Sweden and working as a visiting professor in Brussels. He was arrested on April 26, 2016, during a business trip to Iran and held in Evin prison. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention called for his immediate release in November 2017, citing severe violations of his fair trial rights.

From late November 2020 to April 2021, Djalali was tortured and held in prolonged solitary confinement. He suffered mental distress and inadequate health care. On July 3, 2024, while on hunger strike, he was briefly transferred to Evin prison’s medical clinic due to his deteriorating health.

Escalation of executions in Iran

Following the “Woman Life Freedom” uprising from September to December 2022, Iranian authorities have increased their use of the death penalty to instill fear and maintain power. In 2023, they carried out at least 853 executions. As of June 30, 2024, there have been at least 274 executions.

Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception, as it violates the right to life and is a cruel, inhuman, and degrading punishment.

Please take action as soon as possible until September 27, 2024! The UA will be duly updated should there be the need for further action.

(source: amnesty.ca)

JULY 15, 2024:

PENNSYLVANIA:

Grown man paid 14-year-old boy in money and drugs to exact ‘revenge’ in murder-for-hire plot, could face death penalty: Prosecutors

More than a year after a 14-year-old boy allegedly shot and killed a Pennsylvania man, prosecutors announced a criminal case against the suspected mastermind.

Calvin Jay Huffman, 38, is accused of hiring Antonyo Owens, then 14, to take the life of Anthony Jones, 38, in a solicitation to commit murder case that authorities allege was motivated by “revenge” and funded in part by drugs.

“We are alleging that at the time of Anthony Jones’ murder, Huffman was in a dispute with the victim over narcotics and paid Owens a significant amount of money and drugs to exact Huffman’s revenge against the victim,” Fayette County District Attorney Mike Aubele said in a press conference covered by CBS Pittsburgh.

Prosecutors additionally said their office “will be filing a notice of aggravating circumstances against the Defendant, and if he is convicted, we will be seeking the death penalty.”

Authorities claim Huffman gave the teenager $5,000 in cash and 3 large bags of marijuana, according to the Observer Reporter.

As authorities already said, Owens gunned down Jones near Cavalry Methodist Church in Uniontown at around 11:30 a.m. on June 6, 2023. Authorities arrested the teenager after five days. Now prosecutors say that Huffman had allegedly paid other people in money and drugs to hide Owens from law enforcement. The teen, charged as an adult, faces a count of criminal homicide.

A person authorities did not identify allegedly stepped forward in March 2024 with digital evidence purportedly showing that Owens received payment in money and drugs to commit the killing. DA Aubele said troopers used further evidence, including other witness statements, cell phone data, and geolocation.

Investigators did not have to go far to track down Huffman. He was locked up in the Bedford County Correctional Facility since April because he allegedly kidnapped a Good Samaritan who stepped in to help after Huffman crashed a vehicle.

Huffman, who was convicted in a 2011 case for shooting a woman outside a bar, said he did not want to go back to jail and made the good Samaritan drive around, authorities said. The driver managed to get to safety after the defendant left the truck at a Sheetz convenience store in Everett Borough, authorities said, according to the Observer Reporter.

Huffman, however, allegedly attacked other people, and was later charged with attacking another inmate while in jail.

(source: lawandcrime.com)

INDIANA:

Indiana death row inmate’s lawyers say mental illness should preclude him from execution

Attorneys for Indiana death row inmate Joseph Corcoran appealed the state’s request for an execution date on Thursday, maintaining that he is “unquestionably seriously mentally ill” and therefore should not be subject to the death penalty.

Corcoran, who was convicted of murdering 4 people in Fort Wayne in 1997, filed his response with the Indiana Supreme Court two weeks after Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb and Attorney General Todd Rokita announced that the state’s Department of Correction (DOC) has obtained the drug necessary to carry out the death penalty.

State and federal public defenders said in their challenge that Corcoran has long been diagnosed as mentally ill and continues to suffer from paranoid schizophrenia that causes him to experience “persistent hallucinations and delusions.”

As such, they said the state supreme court should deny the motion to set an execution date and hear oral arguments on whether executing Corcoran — who they describe as “unquestionably seriously mentally ill” — would be permitted under the Indiana and United States constitutions.

“An unspeakable tragedy took the lives of four people who unquestionably deserved to live,” Corcoran’s lawyers said in Thursday’s filing. “This tragedy, however, has a nexus to a serious mental illness that persists through.”

There is still no execution date set for Corcoran. It’s now up to the state’s high court justices how to proceed.

Does mental illness preclude Corcoran?

Corcoran’s public defenders specifically pointed to the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which restricts capital punishment to offenders who commit “a narrow category of the most serious crimes and whose extreme culpability makes them the most deserving of execution.”

They noted, too, that individuals with severe mental illness, “particularly those whose mental illness results in psychosis, like Corcoran,” have many of the same features as juveniles and those with intellectual disabilities — whom the United States Supreme Court rendered the death penalty as “disproportionate punishment.”

Corcoran’s public defenders said he “has consistently been diagnosed with a severe mental illness. They recalled that multiple experts testified in Corcoran’s trial that his mental illness “prevents him from making rational decisions.” They additionally argued that Corcoran’s “overwhelming desire to escape his psychiatric symptoms” likely led him to waive his earlier opportunities for appeals.

“Corcoran would have avoided the death penalty altogether were it not for his mental illness which affected the decision-making process during Corcoran’s legal proceedings,” his attorneys told Indiana’s Supreme Court justices.

Corcoran’s lawyers also made the case that his symptoms of schizophrenic hallucinations and delusions existed even before the murders. They further referenced previous expert testimony from Dr. Phillip Coons, who said Corcoran’s “ultimate refusal to accept either a plea bargain or a bench trial without the death penalty was a product of his mental illness.”

“Moreover, a national consensus has emerged against executing the severely mentally ill,” Corcoran’s attorneys continued. “Every other contiguous death penalty state in this area of the Midwest has banned the death penalty for the seriously mentally ill.”

Many other states have also introduced bills to ban the death penalty or execution for people with severe mental illness, including schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder, the attorneys added.

“There is a regional consensus clearly established in this area of the Midwest as well as an emerging national consensus to ban the death penalty for the seriously mentally ill,” they said in Corcoran’s filing with the state supreme court.

An Ohio statute that took effect in early 2021, for example, prohibits the death penalty for defendants who have been diagnosed with a severe mental illness, such as schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder, and whose mental illness “significantly impaired the person’s capacity to exercise rational judgment in relation to the person’s conduct.”

The Ohio legislature specified that an offender’s condition does not need to meet “the standard to be found not guilty by reason of insanity … or the standard to be found incompetent to stand trial.”

Kentucky followed in early 2022 with a law exempting offenders with “active symptoms and a documented history, including a diagnosis” from the death penalty. Corcoran’s counsel emphasized that one of the listed mental illnesses in Kentucky is schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder.

Corcoran’s lawyers said Indiana also “recognized this consensus” in the case against Elijah Dorsey, who earlier this year was convicted in the killing of an Indianapolis police officer. Although Marion County prosecutors had sought the death penalty, they ultimately dismissed it after Dorsey was deemed mentally ill and ineligible for the death penalty.

Ongoing questions about execution drug

Corcoran’s legal counsel also called into question the execution drug, pentobarbital, recently acquired by the state but largely shrouded in secrecy by Hoosier officials.

When asked last month by the Indiana Capital Chronicle where DOC acquired the drug and how much the state paid, Holcomb said he “can’t go into those details, by law.”

What is pentobarbital? More questions than answers surround Indiana’s new execution drug.

Lawmakers made information about the source of the drugs confidential on the last day of the 2017 legislative session.

The Capital Chronicle has filed an official records request seeking the cost of the drugs.

Advocates have additionally said it’s critical for the public to know who will be administering the drug — and how — as well as what training those individuals will receive.

“The State moved for a date after, at some point, most likely recently, acquiring drugs from some unknown source. While a secrecy statute is in place, the date should not be set until the State delivers the new protocol and affirms no state or federal laws were broken in obtaining the drugs. A secrecy statute cannot condone the illegal acquisition of controlled substances,” Corcran’s attorneys said. “There has been no disclosure regarding the amount of the drug in their possession, whether they are expired, or their potency and sterility. The State should provide the Court and Corcoran this information. This can and should be done in a manner that complies with the secrecy statute prior to this Court permitting the execution to proceed.”

The one-drug method is a departure from the state’s protocol used since 1995, involving a series of 3 chemicals.

Although no state-level executions in Indiana have used pentobarbital before, 13 federal executions carried out at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute have been carried out with the drug. Fourteen states have used pentobarbital in executions, too.

After Indiana’s last execution in 2009, the state was effectively forced to pause. Increased scrutiny of lethal injection drugs led pharmaceutical companies to refuse to sell their products for use in executions. Holcomb said that made acquiring the necessary drugs “harder to get.”

There are currently 8 men on Indiana’s death row, including Corcoran. No one has been added to the state’s death row since 2014.

(source: indianapublicmedia.org)

USA:

Tennessee lawmaker proposes death penalty for illegals convicted of sex crimes

U.S. Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN-D5) has proposed legislation which would allow for the death penalty being applied as a sentence to illegal immigrants convicted of committing rape or sexual abuse while in the country illegally.

Rep. Ogles filed the bill in Congress last week, otherwise known as the Justice for American Women and Children Act of 2024.

Under the proposed law, “Whoever commits an offense under this section while present in the United States without lawful status under the immigration laws (as such term is defined in section 101 of the Immigration and Nationality Act) may be sentenced to death."

In a statement Nashville TV station WZTV, Ogles cites an illegal immigrant in Franklin, Tennessee which had been jailed for recording himself allegedly raping at least 15 unconscious young boys. “Foreign rapists know that they can illegally enter our country, commit their horrific crimes, and, at most, get sentenced to time in an American prison, which is often luxurious compared to the prisons in their home countries where they’d otherwise likely rot,” Rep. Ogles says. ” We must remove this incentive for rapists to flood our country by letting them know that if they are here illegally to brutally assault and rape vulnerable Americans, they could face the death penalty, the strictest penalty available in our country.

(source: svalleynow.com)

VIETNAM:

Truong M? Lan faces additional charges in Vi?t Nam’s biggest financial fraud

V?n Th?nh Phát Chairwoman Truong M? Lan, who is on death row, is facing additional charges, including misappropriation of assets through fraudulent bond issuances, as part of what is considered Vi?t Nam’s biggest financial scam ever.

The Supreme People’s Procuracy has issued an indictment to prosecute 34 individuals, including the chairwoman, for misappropriation of assets, money laundering, and illegal transportation of currency across borders.

The 68-year-old chairwoman is the mastermind behind the bond fraud at Saigon Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SCB), according to the Supreme People’s Procuracy.

Lan’s multiple fake companies under the V?n Th?nh Phát Group carried out fraudulent bond issuances worth over VNÐ30 trillion (US$1.24 billion) and sold them to over 35,000 victims, mostly SCB depositors, according to the police.

Since her arrest in October 2022, the victims have not received any interest or principal payments.

The central bank has guaranteed bank savings accounts but not the bonds purchased through the lender.

Authorities have confirmed that any money and assets recovered from the scandal will be returned to the rightful owners, including bondholders.

Police have seized multiple assets, frozen accounts worth millions of US dollars, and placed freezes on assets associated with the chairwoman.

Authorities continue to urge victims in possession of bonds to come forward with information and documents.

In addition, Lan and her accomplices, including her Chinese husband, have also been accused of illegally transporting over $4.5 billion and laundering over VNÐ445 trillion across borders over a 10-year period.

At her trial in April, Lan received the death penalty for financial fraud at SCB and was also ordered to pay compensation of VNÐ673.8 trillion ($27 billion) to the bank.

Her Chinese husband, Eric Chu Nap-kee, chairman of the board of Times Square Vietnam Joint Stock Company, received a nine-year prison sentence for violating banking regulations at Lan's direction.

Lan’s niece, Truong Hu? Vân, CEO of Windsor Property Management, was sentenced to 17 years in prison for aiding Lan in committing the crimes.

Other bank executives and State officials involved in the scandal received various sentences ranging from three years to life for embezzlement and violating banking regulations.

Lan, who did not hold a position at the bank but indirectly owned a significant stake in it, was found guilty of using it for loans to fund her own company’s operations.

Her arrest was part of a national anti-corruption campaign which has intensified since 2021.

Lan was known as a wealthy Chinese-Vietnamese businesswoman.

In 1992, Lan and her family founded V?n Th?nh Phát, one of the country’s most prominent real estate companies. It owns major projects and buildings in prime locations in HCM City, Hà N?i and Ðà N?ng.

While Lan’s arrest has exposed the massive scale of the fraud, experts have warned the scandal is just the “tip of the iceberg” in the financial sector.

(source: vietnamnews.vn)

MALAYSIA:

Security guard who killed bank officer gets death sentence commuted

A 47-year-old former security guard has successfully gotten his death sentenced commuted to 38 years in prison for the 2013 murder of an AmBank officer in Subang Jaya.

The decision was made by a Federal Court panel of three judges led by Chief Justice Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat, alongside Datuk Nordin Hassan and Datuk Hanipah Farikullah.

La Ode Ardi Rasila will also receive 12 lashes of the cane for the sentence under Section 302 of the Penal Code.

La Ode, from Sulawesi, also received 33 years and 12 lashes under Section 3 of the Firearms Act (Increased Penalties) 1971 for robbery and intentionally discharging a shotgun after the death penalty was set aside.

Both sentences run concurrently from his arrest date, November 10, 2013.

According to the charge sheet, La Ode was accused of killing Norazita Abu Talib, 37, in the AmBank building in Jalan Sentral 2, USJ Sentral, Subang Jaya, Selangor, between 6pm and 6.30pm on Oct 23, 2013.

In the incident, La Ode reportedly asked the victim's colleague to fill a bag with approximately RM500,000 before fleeing on a motorcycle.

The case was handled by deputy public prosecutor Muhamad Iskandar Ahmad, while the accused was represented by lawyer S. Selvi.

On February 29, 2016, the Federal Court upheld the death sentence after a 5-judge panel led by Court of Appeal president Tan Sri Md Raus Sharif, unanimously rejected La Ode's appeal, satisfied with sufficient evidence to uphold the Shah Alam High Court's decision.

La Ode lived in Malaysia using a fake identity card and sought work in Malaysia before becoming a security guard in 2012.

(source: nst.com.my)

****************

Federal Court sets aside death penalty for 2 men convicted of high-profile murders

The Federal Court has set aside the death sentence against 2 men convicted of 3 high-profile murder cases in 2011 and 2013.

Chief Justice Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat presided over a 3-member panel which sat here on Monday (July 15).

The other members were Federal Court Judges Datuk Nordin Hassan and Datuk Hanipah Farikullah.

In the first case, the panel set aside the death sentence against Indonesian national La Ode Ardi Rasila, 47, who was convicted by the Shah Alam High Court in 2014 of murdering bank officer Norazita Abu Talib the year before.

Instead, La Ode was sentenced to 38 years imprisonment with 12 strokes of the cane for the charge under Section 302 of the Penal Code for murder.

He was also sentenced to 33 years in jail with 12 strokes of the cane for the (a) second charge under Section 3 of the Firearms (Increased Penalties) Act 1971.

The sentences were ordered to run concurrently from the date of his arrest, which was on Nov, 10, 2013.

On Feb 29, 2016, the Federal Court in Putrajaya upheld the death sentence against La Ode after a panel of 5 judges led by Court of Appeal president Tan Sri Md Raus Sharif unanimously rejected his appeal because they were satisfied that there was sufficient evidence to uphold the decision of the Shah Alam High Court.

La Ode settled in the country using a fake identity card to find work before becoming a security guard in 2012.

He was convicted of killing Norazita, 37, in a building along Jalan Sentral 2 at USJ Sentral in Subang Jaya between 6pm and 6.30pm on Oct 23, 2013.

La Ode then reportedly asked the victim's colleague to place about RM500,000 in cash in a bag before escaping.

Meanwhile, a former trader escaped the gallows after the Federal Court also set aside his death sentence for murdering a French tourist in May, 2011.

Instead, the court sentenced Asni Omar, 49, to 36 years in jail with 12 strokes of the cane starting from the date of his arrest, July 21, 2011.

Asni was convicted by the Kuantan High Court under Section 302 of the Penal Code for killing Stephanie Foray, 30, at a house in Kampung Tekek between 8pm on May 10 and noon on May 12, 2011.

Foray's remains were found some three months later buried in a cave in Pulau Tioman.

On Aug 16, 2016, the Federal Court upheld Asni's death sentence after his appeal was ultimately rejected by a five-member panel led by the then chief justice, Tun Arifin Zakaria who decided that there was no merit in the appeal.

Deputy public prosecutor Muhamad Iskandar Ahmad prosecuted the two cases while S. Selvi represented La Ode and Kee Wie Lon and Ee Gen You represented Asni.

(source: thestar.com.my)

IRAQ:

Backlash Over Secret Executions in Iraqi Prisons

Controversy has arisen over the secret executions of prisoners in Iraq’s southern Hoot prison, where authorities notify relatives to collect the bodies only after the executions are carried out. This unprecedented measure, both in terms of the number of executions and the lack of prior announcement, has sparked outrage and concern.

According to Al-Arabiya al-Jadeed, Iraqi authorities have executed dozens of prisoners on charges of terrorism and membership in the Islamic State (IS) since the beginning of this year. Many of those executed reportedly confessed under torture or beatings. Some executions are believed to be motivated by religious conflicts, despite warnings from international organizations about the lack of justice and transparency in the process.

Most executions occur in Hoot prison, located in the southern city of Nasiriyah. An official from the Justice Ministry stated that eight convicts at a time are taken to the execution hall. "The recent execution mechanisms are in accordance with the government's recommendations, without being announced, to avoid political and legal criticism," the official told Al-Arabiya al-Jadeed. However, this practice violates legal requirements to inform relatives before executions.

Another Justice Ministry employee, speaking anonymously, confirmed that the ministry acts on directives from President Latif Rashid’s office. The official noted that families are notified to collect the bodies from forensic medicine on the same day as the executions.

In April, Amnesty International called on Iraqi authorities to halt all executions immediately. The organization expressed concern about a possible increase in secret executions after 13 people were executed on April 22 in Nasiriyah prison on terrorism charges. Amnesty International criticized the trials, stating they did not meet international human rights standards, and urged the Iraqi federal government to abolish the death penalty.

Hoot prison, Iraq’s largest since the closure of Abu Ghraib, houses over 40,000 prisoners and is plagued by disease. Ahmad Abd, a member of the Iraqi Human Rights Observatory, reported new rounds of detainee executions without prior notice to reduce public outcry over large execution numbers.

He also highlighted violations involving the execution of inmates with severe health issues or those over 75 years old, noting that families are informed only on the day of execution.

Ayad Dlemi, an expert on Iraqi political affairs, criticized the current Iraqi presidency for signing off on death penalties in such numbers. Previous presidents had refrained from approving executions, but the current president has been quick to sign cases, despite doubts about the confessions' validity due to alleged torture. Dlemi suggested that the president’s actions reflect a susceptibility to pressure.

"There are about 8,000 death row inmates in Iraq awaiting execution," Dlemi stated, holding the current president responsible for not halting executions to review death sentences.

(source: basnews.com)

***************

Iraq Ministry of Justice denies secret executions in controversial Al-Hout prison, commits to legal action

The official spokesperson for the Iraq Ministry of Justice, Ahmed Laibi Abdul Hussein, strongly refuted a news article accusing the Ministry of carrying out secret executions in Al-Hout prison. The Ministry is braced to pursue legal action against the site.

According to the Ministry of Justice, the accusations “aim to mislead domestic and international public opinion and distort facts for political purposes”. Hussein affirmed Iraq’s commitment to human rights, as well as Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ Al Sudani’s ongoing efforts and close involvement in the reform of correctional departments and improvement of inmate conditions. Hussein was critical that the news website did not seek comment from the competent authority before publishing the article. Hussein stressed that the Ministry’s doors are always open to press inquiries.

Al-Hout prison, also known as Nasiriyah prison, is the largest prison in Southern Iraq and the only prison that carries out executions. The conditions in the prison are dire – overcrowding, illness, and reports of torture are commonplace. According to Human Rights Watch, Al-Hout prison has earned the nickname “the whale” for “swallowing people up and never spitting them out”.

Amnesty International explained:

Iraq’s courts have routinely accepted torture-tainted “confessions” as evidence and sentenced individuals to death based on those confessions, and they have routinely failed to investigate allegations of torture. Defendants were either denied legal representation or given a court-appointed lawyer whom they could not meet privately.

Hussein’s appeal to media outlets follows October 2023, when the Ministry of Justice released a statement discussing the Ministry’s development of a media strategy to combat corruption. According to the Ministry, the strategy will “combat corruption through media channels and social media programs to enhance transparency across state institutions”. Building trust between the judicial departments and citizens is a key focus of this strategy.

Nevertheless, since December of 2023, executions have accelerated. The execution of 13 prisoners on December 24 marked the 1st mass execution carried out by Iraq’s Ministry of Justice since 2020. According to Amnesty International, over 8,000 prisoners are believed to be on death row in Iraq.

Following the execution of at least another 13 men in April, Amnesty International called on Iraqi authorities to immediately halt all executions. “The Iraqi government must immediately establish an official moratorium of executions and work towards abolishing the death penalty”, Razaw Salihy, Amnesty International’s Iraq Researcher, said.

(source: Emma Burns | U. Auckland Law School, NZ----jurist.org)

KUWAIT:

Court upholds death sentence for Bedoun man for father’s murder

Kuwait Appeals Court rules death penalty for patricide case.

The Court of Appeal, led by Counselor Abdullah Al-Othman, has affirmed the death sentence for a young Bedoun man convicted of killing his father. The incident occurred in the Al-Firdous area following a domestic dispute over breakfast.

The court’s decision to uphold the death penalty reflects its stance on the severity of the crime. The convict, whose identity has not been disclosed, used a Kalashnikov rifle to commit the murder after an argument between his parents escalated.

In its ruling, the court emphasized that the nature of the crime warranted the maximum punishment. “The accused deserved the death penalty,” the court stated, indicating a firm refusal to show leniency.

(source: arabtimesonline.com)

IRAN----executions

Iran executes over 260 prisoners in 1st half of 2024

At least 266 prisoners were executed across Iran during the 1st half of 2024 according to rights group Hengaw as Iran's execution spree continues.

Prisoners included 72 Kurds, 42 Turks, 32 Balochs, 23 Afghans, 10 women, and 1 child, as religious and ethnic minorities continue to be among those most persecuted in the country. The majority of the charges were drug related offences.

It follows a record year of executions in Iran last year with over 850 carried out as the government quashes dissent.

Globally, a total of 1,153 executions were recorded last year, with Iran responsible for 74% of these and Saudi Arabia for 15%, according to rights group Amnesty International.

Amnesty's report titled "Don't Let Them Kill Us", called for urgent international intervention to halt the surge in executions, which it describes as transforming Iranian prisons into grounds for mass executions.

(source: iranintl.com)

JULY 14, 2024:

ALABAMA----impending execution

Civil rights group welcomes Alabama’s decision on a Muslim death row inmate

The Council on American-Islamic Relations is welcoming a decision by the State of Alabama to grant a request of a Muslim death row inmate. The Department of Corrections will not conduct an autopsy following the planned execution of Keith Gavin. The civil rights group, known as CAIR for short, previously supported the inmate’s request, which is in accordance with the Muslim beliefs.

CAIR’s National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper said in a news release to APR…

“We welcome the decision not to conduct an autopsy in this case as a sign that the religious rights of incarcerees will be respected and protected. Religious freedom should not end when an individual is incarcerated.”

CAIR goes onto say…

“In Islamic beliefs, autopsies are generally viewed as impermissible mutilation of the deceased but are permissible in cases of necessity and only to the extent required.”

The civil rights group offers an educational toolkit for correctional officers and administrators called ‘A Correctional Institution’s Guide to Islamic Religious Practices.’ It’s designed to help correctional officers and administrators gain a better understanding of Islam and Muslims.”

Gavin was convicted of capital murder for the 1998 shooting death of William Clinton Clayton Jr. in Cherokee County in northeast Alabama. Clayton, a delivery driver, had stopped at an ATM to get money to take his wife to dinner when he was shot, prosecutors said. A jury voted 10-2 in favor of the death penalty for Gavin. The trial court accepted the jury's recommendation and sentenced him to death.

CAIR’s mission is to protect civil rights, enhance understanding of Islam, promote justice, and empower American Muslims.

(source: Alabama Public Radio)

INDIANA:

Indiana death row inmate who killed his own brother in quadruple murder wants execution halted----Joseph Corcoran was sentenced to death after killing his brother, his sister's fiancé and 2 other men but his lawyers argue he shouldn't face the death penalty because he is 'seriously mentally ill'

A death row inmate convicted of killing 4 people, including his own brother, is asking the Indiana Supreme Court to deny a request to set a date for his execution.

Attorneys for Joseph Corcoran argued that he should not be subject to the death penalty as they insisted he is “unquestionably seriously mentally ill," in a filing on Thursday. It came in response to a request from Gov. Eric Holcomb and Attorney General Todd Rokita on June 26 to set a date for his execution as the Indiana Department of Correction has now acquired a drug to carry out lethal injection.

Corcoran's execution would mark the 1st in Indiana since 2009. The 49-year-old was acquitted of shooting his parents to death in November 1992.

After this, he had plans to finish high school and follow in his late father's footsteps by joining the Marines. But on July 26, 1997, he shot and killed his brother, his sister’s fiancé and two other men at his sister’s home in Fort Wayne.

He was convicted of the killings and sentenced to death in 1999. But his attorneys argue the court should deny the request to set his execution date as they claim Corcoran has long been diagnosed as mentally ill and suffers from paranoid schizophrenia that causes him to experience “persistent hallucinations and delusions.”

"An unspeakable tragedy took the lives of four people who unquestionably deserved to live," Corcoran's attorney noted. "This tragedy, however, has a nexus to a serious mental illness that persists through today."

They continued: "No one contests that Corcoran suffers from a mental illness. This is clear from his delusion that prison guards torture him daily with an ultrasound machine, his conversations with individuals who are not there, and his delusion that he suffers from an involuntary speech disorder."

His attorneys said they believe if it hadn't have been for Corcoran's mental illness, he could have avoided the death penalty as they claimed it "affected the decision-making process", noting Cocoran's “ultimate refusal to accept either a plea bargain or a bench trial without the death penalty was a product of his mental illness.”

The death row inmate's attorneys are also calling for the court to determine whether state and federal constitutions permit the execution of a person with a severe mental illness. They pointed to the Eighth Amendment to the US Constitution, which restricts capital punishment to offenders who commit “a narrow category of the most serious crimes and whose extreme culpability makes them the most deserving of execution.”

They have also raised concerns about the execution drug, pentobarbital and a secrecy statute that protects the drug protocol and source of drugs used for lethal injections.

“The State moved for a date after, at some point, most likely recently, acquiring drugs from some unknown source. While a secrecy statute is in place, the date should not be set until the State delivers the new protocol and affirms no state or federal laws were broken in obtaining the drugs. A secrecy statute cannot condone the illegal acquisition of controlled substances,” Corcoran’s attorneys said.

They continued: “There has been no disclosure regarding the amount of the drug in their possession, whether they are expired, or their potency and sterility.

(source: themirror.com)

USA:

Can A Guilty Defendant Request The Death Penalty?

The last person that the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania executed was a man named Gary Heidnik. The common person may not be familiar with that name but the author of The Silence of the Lambs used him as one of the inspirations for fictitious serial killer Buffalo Bill. Sparing those gruesome details, one notable detail about Heidnik was that he personally petitioned the state courts to “conduct no appellate review and to expedite his execution.” His request was denied and he was subject to many of the appeals that come with a death sentence in the United States.

Curiosity inspires the question, does a death row inmate have the freedom to request the death penalty? Would the state oblige, and if so, wouldn’t that just become state-sanctioned suicide? Regardless of view of the death penalty, is it justice to allow a death row inmate to seek their own death? Wouldn’t that potentially strip the surviving victims of the crime of the justice they’re entitled to?

Whether a death row inmate has the right to expedite their execution is legally complicated and ethically… gray, shall we say. For the more bloodthirsty among us, there might be a sentiment of “let ‘em fry.” For the more compassionate among us, there is probably a feeling of “do not let ‘em fry.” There are legal realities if a death row inmate wanted to press the accelerate button on their own demise. Can a death row inmate request their own execution? The answer is yes, but how?

First Things First, Is It Legal?

The long and short of it is that there are legal avenues within which a death row inmate can speed up their own execution. This can be accomplished by waiving their rights to appeal. When you are sentenced to death, there is an automatic appeal to that judgment called “the direct appeal.” In many states, this is mandatory and in others, it is optional. A convict can pursue appeals all the way up the court chain to the U.S. Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari, or, “to be more fully informed,” in Latin. If the Supreme Court denies this appeal, then all appeals have been exhausted and there is now nothing the inmate can look forward to except for their final meal.

If an inmate wanted to expedite their execution, they can do so by waiving their appeals. In capital punishment, this type of inmate is known as a “volunteer.” As long as they are ruled as competent and they are making this decision voluntarily and without coercion, inmates have the right to waive their appeals so long as their state has optional appeals. In Whitmore v. Arkansas, the Supreme Court ruled that as long as the defendant is competent and understands that they will be put to death, they have the right to waive their appeals.

Successful Execution Volunteers

Over 150 death row inmates have successfully volunteered for execution, about 10% of all executions, since the Supreme Court ruled that executions were Constitutional in 1976’s Gregg v. Georgia. A death row inmate like Gary Heidnik would have had a Philadelphia defense attorney file appeals and motions to stay their execution. But plenty of death row prisoners choose to waive those appeals and face execution with no obstacles slowing the inevitable down.

Perhaps the most notable case is of Utah-death row prisoner Gary Gilmore, who, in 1977, became the first inmate executed after Gregg. Gilmore “withdrew his rights of appeal from Utah’s legal system and requested that the courts enforce his death sentence as soon as possible.” His mother sued for a stay of execution on his behalf, but the Supreme Court had refused to hear her claim. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), against Gilmore’s wishes, successfully won a few stays. Gilmore was not pleased with their efforts, stating, “They always want to get in on the act. I don’t think they have ever really done anything effective in their lives. I would like them all—including that group of reverends and rabbis from Salt Lake City—to butt out. This is my life and this is my death. It’s been sanctioned by the courts that I die and I accept that.” Gilmore was executed by firing squad.

Another example would be Nevada death row inmate Scott Dozier in 2018. Dozier had been permitted by the state to waive his appeals and force his own executions. Through some complicated matters regarding the drugs intended for lethal injection, his execution was halted. Dozier subsequently hung himself in prison.

The most recent instance of successful execution volunteering is Florida inmate James Barnes in 2023. In a statement released by Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (FADP), “Without appointing any experts, the judge found Mr. Barnes competent to commit state-assisted suicide, and cleared the path for him to die in our name.”

The Ethics of Execution Volunteering

We, as a free society, have a foundational respect for an individual’s decision-making capacity. We believe that, if you have agency, you are free to exert it as you see fit. Unless, of course, that exertion impinges on or harms others. From a logical perspective, the freedom to volunteer for your own execution is sound. And from society’s perspective, we are usually happy to oblige their request. A lot of the time, a death row inmate has done something truly egregious to find themselves in that position.

The psychological impact of being on death row can’t be ignored. We acknowledge that suicidal ideation, and seeking to end one’s life are mental disorders. When you want to kill yourself, you are not of sound mind. We can appreciate a terminally ill patient’s desire to end it all, and we accept a dangerous criminal’s stroll down dead man’s row, but does that make it right? When almost all of your death row prisoners have struggled with mental health issues to varying degrees, are they really competent and of sound mind to volunteer for their own execution?

It’s hard to say. As it stands, we accept these inmates’ desire to “get it over with,” so long as there aren’t any glaring cognitive concerns. And yet, even when some inmates do show clear mental disconnects between their impending execution, the state will put them to death anyway.

Ricky Ray Rector, an Arkansas death row inmate with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head that was effectively a lobotomy, loved to save his desserts for later. When asked if he understood that he was being put to death, he confirmed that he understood. His final meal consisted of steak, fried chicken, cherry Kool-Aid, and pecan pie. As he was known to do, he set aside his pecan pie for later. He told the corrections officers, as he was being taken to be executed, that he was “saving it for later.”

The mental state of death row inmates is low on the list of society’s concerns. Why care about people who (generally speaking) do not care about others? Legally, death row inmates have the right to waive their appeals and expedite their execution as long as they aren’t suffering from mental handicaps. The law is clear but the ethics are not. The one time we respect prisoner autonomy is when they are seeking to end their own lives.

(source: Janice Ruiz, ajs.org)

KENYA:

Mandatory death sentence on robbery with violence constitutional

The mandatory death sentence imposed on robbery with violence suspects is constitutional, the Court of Appeal in Kisumu has maintained.

Judges Hannah Okwengu, Hellen Omondi and Joel Ngugi said the issue of the constitutionality of the mandatory death sentence under Section 296 (2) of the Penal Code is yet to be addressed as recommended by the Supreme Court, the death sentence under Section 296(2) of the Penal Code is not unconstitutional as it remains valid under the law.

The judges made the pronouncement in judgment on an appeal by 6 convicts on robbery with violence.

Samuel Wafula, Constant Sifuna, Patrick Wafula, David Masinde, John Masindani, and Calistus Simiyu had appealed against the decision of the High Court in Bungoma that upheld a death sentence imposed on them.

They were accused of robbing Rukia Naskanda Asman of her property worth Sh50,000 in April 2013 at Kware village Luongo location within Bungoma County while armed with offensive weapons, namely pangas and rungus.

6 witnesses testified in the case.

Evidence presented before the court indicates that Rukia was asleep in her house when she was woken up at around midnight by the sound of the door to her bedroom breaking open. She woke up, took a torch, switched it on, and saw intruders she identified entering her bedroom.

Upon considering the evidence for the prosecution and the appellants’ defences, the trial magistrate found all 6, including Kennedy Juma Makhoka (who jumped bail before the court delivered its judgment), guilty of the charge and sentenced each of the appellants to death.

The decision saw the 6 lodge an appeal in the High Court.

The 6, through lawyer Byron Menezes, challenged their conviction and sentence at the Court of Appeal, contending that the sentence meted out against them was excessive and unconstitutional.

They faulted the trial judge in sentencing them to death, adding that the mandatory nature of the death sentence is unconstitutional as per the law and that the offence of robbery with violence was not sufficiently proved.

In their case, they relied on the Supreme Court decision in Francis Karioko Muruatetu & Another -vs- Republic, wherein the mandatory death sentence concerning section 204 of the Penal Code was declared unconstitutional.

They argued that the death sentence imposed against them was unfair, as it took away their dignity contrary to Article 28 of the Constitution.

The Attorney General opposed their application and submitted that the sentence of death imposed upon the six as per the law was neither excessive nor illegal.

The judges noted that the 6 challenged the death sentence because the sentence was illegal and unconstitutional and that the trial magistrate did not exercise his direction in sentencing.

They noted that the 6 could not find refuge in the decision by the Supreme Court to declare unconstitutional the mandatory nature of the death sentence for the offence of murder under section 204 of the Penal Code.

“The appellant cannot find refuge under Muruatetu 1 because the sentence of death imposed upon them is prescribed under section 296(2) of the Penal Code, for the offence of Robbery with violence, and not the offence of murder regarding which sentence is prescribed under section 204 of the Penal Code,” ruled the appellate court judges.

The Supreme Court in Muruatetu 2 they said gave clear directions that its decision in Muruatetu 1 only applied to the mandatory death sentence for the offence of murder under sections 203 as read with section 204 of the Penal Code.

To clear the confusion that exists concerning the mandatory death sentence in offences other than murder and in respect of other capital offences such as treason, robbery with violence, and attempted robbery with violence, the Supreme Court said that a challenge on the constitutional validity of the mandatory death penalty in such cases should be properly filed, presented, and fully argued before the High Court and escalated to the Court of Appeal, if necessary, at which a similar outcome as that in this case may be reached.

Muruatetu, they said, as it now stands, cannot directly apply to those cases.

Judges Ngugi, Omondi, and Okwengu noted that the issue of the constitutionality of the mandatory death sentence under Section 296 (2) of the Penal Code is yet to be addressed as recommended by the Supreme Court.

“…the death sentence under section 296(2) of the Penal Code is not unconstitutional as it remains valid under the law. The trial magistrate properly imposed the death sentence upon the appellants, and the learned Judge was right in upholding the sentence. Consequently, the appellant's appeal fails in its entirety and is dismissed,” they ruled.

(source: standardmedia.co.ke)

PAKISTAN:

Pakistan court hands death sentence to mobile snatcher for killing Karachi youth

A sessions court in Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi this week sentenced a convict to death on charges of killing a youth in 2018 for resisting robbery.

Additional District and Sessions Judge Ameeruddin sentenced to death convict Shakoor Khan on Saturday for shooting dead Sajid Hussain, 21, when he resisted Khan’s attempt to snatch his mobile phone on September 25, 2018.

According to the prosecution, Hussain was sitting outside his home in Karachi’s Baldia Town area with his friends when Khan and his accomplice, Shoukat, attempted to rob them. Hussain resisted and a scuffle ensued following which Khan shot Hussain in the chest and fled with the accomplice. Hussain succumbed to his wounds on the way to the hospital.

“The convict deliberately fired at the deceased from close range while the latter resisted a robbery of a mobile phone alongside co-accused,” the judge’s written order read.

The court noted that the eyewitness testimonies, police investigation of the crime scene and medical evidence all corroborated the prosecution’s account.

“Given these circumstances, the death penalty is a fitting punishment as a necessary measure to deter such heinous crimes of murder during robberies and to ensure that justice is served,” the order said.

Karachi, a metropolis of 20 million that hosts the stock exchange and central bank, has for decades been beset by armed violence. While an armed campaign by the military, with help from police, paramilitary Rangers and intelligence agencies, against armed gangs and suspected militants in the city brought down murder rates after 2013, street crimes have been on the rise again since last year, with shooting deaths in muggings and robberies once again becoming a daily headline.

The judge ordered Khan to pay compensation of Rs300,000 [$1080] to the legal heirs of the deceased. He also slapped the convict with a 20-year jail sentence for crimes committed under Sections 397 (robbery or dacoity, with an attempt to cause death or grievous hurt) and 392 (punishment for robbery) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

However, the judge said the guilty had the right to appeal against the sentence.

The court observed that Karachi, once a vibrant city that is also the country’s commercial hub, now grapples with a “troubling surge” in crime rates, particularly mobile snatchings and robberies which are often compounded by acts of murder.

It said that this surge in crime not only affects the sense of security of the city’s residents but also tarnishes Karachi’s long-held reputation as a prosperous urban center.

“Stringent measures to deter crime are essential, with a focus on the swift and fair adjudication of robbery and snatching cases within the judicial system,” the court noted.

“The imposition of appropriate and timely penalties will serve as a powerful deterrent for potential offenders.”

(source: arabnews.com)

*******************

Man sentenced to death for killing citizen during robbery bid

A model court on Saturday sentenced a street criminal to death for killing a citizen during a robbery bid in 2018.

Shakoor Khan was found guilty of murdering Sajid for putting up resistence during a robbery bid outside his house within the Ittehad Town police station’s limits in September 2018.

Additional Sessions Judge Ameeruddin of the Model Criminal Trial Court (West) observed that the convict deliberately fired at the deceased from close range when the latter resisted theft of his mobile phone. "Given these circumstances, the death penalty is a fitting punishment as a necessary measure to deter such heinous crimes of murder during robberies and to ensure that justice is served," he stressed.

The judge ordered the convict to pay Rs300,000 as compensation to the legal heirs of the victim and in case of default, he would have to undergo a one-year simple imprisonment.

Additionally, the judge awarded five years of rigorous imprisonment to the convict for offence punishable under the Section 392 (robbery) of the Pakistan Penal Code and another 14 years for offence committed under the Section 397 (robbery or dacoity, with attempt to cause death or grievous hurt) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

The death penalty is subject to confirmation by the Sindh High Court.

In the detailed order, the judge wrote: "Karachi, once a thriving metropolis celebrated for its vibrant economy and rich cultural diversity, now grapples with a troubling surge in crime rates, particularly snatchings and robberies, often compounded by acts of murder. This surge, carefully contextualized within the city's current situation, not only undermines the sense of security for residents but also tarnishes Karachi's long-held reputation as a prosperous urban center.

While the city's historical vibrancy persists, it is increasingly overshadowed by growing apprehension of street crimes. Law enforcement authorities are demonstrably challenged in curbing this wave of criminal activity, leading to a decline in public trust. Stringent measures to deter crime are essential, with a focus on the swift and fair adjudication of robbery and snatching cases within the judicial system. The imposition of appropriate and timely penalties will serve as a powerful deterrent for potential offenders."

The judge observed that by imposing suitable penalties and ensuring justice, the courts could act as a significant deterrent, discouraging would-be offenders and contributing to the restoration of law and order in the city.

The court kept the case against absconding accused Shaukat on the dormant file till his arrest or surrender.

According to state prosecutor Muhammad Tahir Khan, on September 25, 2018, a man, ,Sajid was sitting outside his house with his friends Danish and Sheraz, and playing a game on his mobile phone when at around 10:45pm two men came on a motorcycle and attempted to rob him of his valuables. Upon resistance, they shot him in the chest and fled the scene, abandoning their motorcycle. The victim later succumbed to his injuries.

The prosecutor contended that Shakoor was riding the motorcycle while his absconding accomplice Shaukat tried to rob the victim's mobile phone, and when he resisted, Shakoor dismounted and fatally shot him. There was sufficient ocular as well as medical and forensic evidence to link the accused with the commission of the offence, the prosecutor said.

Shakoor, however, claimed innocence saying he had been falsely implicated in the case.

(source: thenews.com.pk)

INDIA:

Law student's murder; Ameerul Islam approaches Supreme Court against death sentence

(see: https://keralakaumudi.com/en/news/news.php?id=1343895&u=law-students-murder-ameerul-islam-approaches-supreme-court-against-death-sentence)

TAIWAN:

US Taiwan Caucus condemns Chinese measures allowing death penalty for Taiwan independence 'diehards'----US lawmakers say guidelines will have severe chilling effect on China exchanges

The co-chairs of the U.S. Congressional Taiwan Caucus said on Friday (July 12) that they condemn Chinese guidelines issued in June that allow for the death penalty to be imposed on “diehard” Taiwan independence seekers.

“These guidelines will have a severe chilling effect on exchanges with China and represent a destabilizing policy approach to cross-strait relations,” Representatives Ami Bera, Andy Barr, Gerald E. Connolly, and Mario Díaz-Balart said in a joint statement. The statement called on other international actors to also condemn the guidelines, and support a “secure, free, and democratic Taiwan.”

The guidelines were issued by Beijing on June 21 with immediate effect and were swiftly condemned by Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council. The guidelines widened the scope of existing regulations that allowed for the death penalty to be imposed on those found guilty of inciting succession to specifically mention Taiwan independence.

According to the guidelines, an “extremely small number of ‘Taiwan independence’ diehards” who “damage the fundamental interests of the Chinese nation” risk the death penalty. Despite that, some legal scholars have said that the guidelines are broad, and could potentially target a wide range of figures in Taiwan.

(source: taiwannews.com)

************************

Human rights organizations criticize China guidelines targeting Taiwan independence advocates

Amnesty International and 4 other human rights organizations on Thursday criticized China’s new judicial guidelines targeting individuals advocating for Taiwan’s independence, calling the guidelines “a blow for human rights protections.”

Amnesty International, the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network, The Rights Practice, the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty and the Capital Punishment Justice Project jointly condemned the guidelines, stating that the directives encourage violations of international human rights standards. The organizations specifically argued that the directives contravene the rights to life, freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, association and fair trial as established under international human rights law.

The rights groups stated:

Our organizations are gravely concerned by the violations of human rights that are encouraged and would be carried out through the implementation of these guidelines. By explicitly criminalizing and demanding harsh punishments for peaceful acts that aim at advocating for Taiwan’s independence, the Chinese authorities are cracking down under the pretext of national security on the rights to freedom of expression, freedom of peaceful assembly and other human rights.

The guidelines were issued on June 21, 2024, by the Supreme People’s Court of China in conjunction with the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of State Security and the Ministry of Justice. The document, titled “Opinions on Punishing ‘Taiwan Independence’ Diehards for Conducting or Inciting Separatism in Accordance with Law,” outlines severe penalties for acts deemed separatist, including peaceful acts that advocate for Taiwan’s independence.

The directives stipulate that individuals found guilty of colluding with foreign entities or committing acts of secession may face harsher punishments, including death, if the crimes are deemed particularly serious. The directives also broaden the scope of what constitutes secessionist activities to include actions such as establishing separatist organizations, promoting Taiwan’s entry into international organizations and deviating from the Chinese narrative in fields such as education, culture and media.

Taiwan responded by raising alert levels for its nationals traveling to China, citing recent cases of arbitrary arrests and detentions. The Taiwanese government also warned its citizens of the potential risks and the likely increase in self-censorship among the approximately 150,000 Taiwanese living in China.

The Chinese government defended the guidelines as necessary measures to protect national sovereignty and territorial integrity. However, critics argued that these actions are part of a broader strategy to stifle dissent and control political expression beyond China’s borders.

(source: jurist.org)

JULY 13, 2024:

TEXAS:

Unmarked cars and secret orders: How a pharmacy prepared drugs for Texas’ executions

The state of Texas, blocked from purchasing lethal injection drugs by major pharmaceutical companies that refuse to participate in executions, bought them instead from an in-state compounding pharmacy with a history of more than a dozen safety and cleanliness violations, NPR has learned.

Rite-Away Pharmacy and Medical Supply in suburban San Antonio produced injectable pentobarbital from 2019 through at least late 2023 for Texas to use in executions, records from the state Department of Criminal Justice and the federal Drug Enforcement Administration revealed.

According to inspection documents from the Texas State Board of Pharmacy, Rite-Away was cited more than a dozen times over the past decade. Over the course of multiple inspections, the pharmacy repeatedly failed to maintain clean and sterile facilities and failed to keep complete and correctly labeled records and drugs in stock, among other violations.

Federal authorities alleged that another Rite-Away branch, owned by the same family, “fueled and profited from the opioid epidemic” and was implicated in the overdose death of a patient.

Death penalty opponents say the revelations raise questions about whether the state is being cavalier in its treatment of inmates it intends to execute.

“They're literally relying on those who have been known to cause harm to carry out their death penalty, their execution,” said Bianca Tylek, a lawyer and the executive director of a nonprofit that advocates against exploitation of prisoners. “They are exhibiting a tremendous amount of carelessness that should never come into contact with the death penalty.”

In an interview with NPR, one of the owners of the pharmacy, Rohit Chaudhary, confirmed Rite-Away’s involvement with the sale of injectable pentobarbital to Texas. Officials with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice declined an interview with NPR and declined to comment.

The pharmacist who said he prepared the pentobarbital at the Rite-Away in the Thousand Oaks suburb of San Antonio confirmed that an employee from the state approached him seven or more years ago to ask if the pharmacy would make the drug for Texas. NPR agreed not to name the pharmacist, who no longer works at Rite-Away, because he said he fears professional repercussions.

The Rite-Away branch where the drugs were prepared is a compounding pharmacy, which means it can create drugs in-house from raw ingredients. Multiple states, including Texas in the past, have turned to compounding pharmacies to prepare their supplies of execution drugs from raw materials.

Since they make drugs to order, the pharmacies can be helpful for people who are allergic to ingredients in medicines that are mass produced. But the finished drug products are not approved by the FDA, and the FDA has acknowledged that it has “observed troubling conditions during many of its inspections of compounding facilities including toaster ovens used for sterilization, pet beds near sterile compounding areas, and operators handling sterile drug products with exposed skin, which sheds particles and bacteria, among many others.” Poorly compounded drugs have led to serious patient injury and death.

After Rite-Away agreed to make the pentobarbital injections, a state representative started hand-delivering small amounts of the active ingredient in pentobarbital, in powder form, to Rite-Away, the pharmacist said. The powder came in a bag stamped with a photocopied label that he guessed came from the original container, he said. The pharmacist said he figured the state purchased the larger stash from a “chemical company.”

“The most important logo on something like that is the thing that shows the federal drug schedule on it,” the pharmacist said. “And it was always clearly marked as it is.”

But the employees made the deliveries in cars that were not marked at all, he said. The vehicles they came in when delivering the powder looked like their personal ones, the pharmacist remembered. They were not marked as property of the Department of Criminal Justice.

“I don't remember any of them ever coming in a DOC vehicle,” the former Rite-Away employee said, “because, again, that would attract attention.”

The pharmacist said he was the one who processed the regulatory paperwork for the pentobarbital, a controlled substance, when the powder arrived. Then he combined the necessary ingredients inside the pharmacy’s sterile room to make the product that could be injected into prisoners.

Sterile injectables are harder to compound than pills; purity and sterility standards need to be high because the pharmaceutical products are inserted directly into veins. Still, the pharmacist said the formula itself wasn’t overly complex. It consisted of four basic ingredients: sterile water, a synthetic liquid substance, alcohol and the pentobarbital powder from Texas.

Only Chaudhary, the pharmacy owner, and a few other staff members knew what he was doing.

“No one has a microscope on you,” said the pharmacist. “For most of the other people that were there, there was just no need to know because it would just attract more and more and more attention. And we definitely wanted to keep that low-key.”

The pharmacy charged the state less than $100,000 in total, the pharmacist said.

“Maybe two or three hundred a bottle and we wouldn't do more than about 10 at a time,” he added. “I even had the guys from the DOC saying, you know, you can charge more for this.”

The pharmacist said the work did trouble him, but he eventually made peace with it.

“I guess I satiated my guilt, to whatever degree I experienced it, with the knowledge that whatever they did was deserving of capital punishment,” he said. “And I'm not the one who decided that they would get that punishment. I was just the one that provided the means for it.”

The violations found recently by inspectors from the Texas State Board of Pharmacy were “faux pas for anyone trained in sterile prep,” the pharmacist said, and he confirmed that there was “a tech that came out of the room and went back in and didn't de-gown or anything like that.”

He downplayed the issues, though, and said he made the pentobarbital injections for Texas carefully.

But the Rite-Away pharmacy where the execution drugs were prepared wasn’t the only one with problems.

In 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice sued another San Antonio Rite-Away office that is also owned by members of the Chaudhary family. Lawyers asserted that it broke federal law for years by dispensing powerful opioids to people without valid prescriptions, falsifying hundreds of prescriptions for controlled substances and ignoring serious red flags that indicated people intended to abuse their medications. One woman died from an overdose shortly after the pharmacy filled her fentanyl prescription despite red flags, attorneys for the federal government alleged.

A federal court ordered Rite-Away and the pharmacist in charge, Jitendra Chaudhary, to stop the illegal activity and pay a $275,000 penalty. The pharmacy and Chaudhary agreed to pay the fee in the civil suit but denied liability.

In 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice brought this second Rite-Away branch in South San Antonio to court for allegedly breaking federal law by dispensing powerful opioids to people without valid prescriptions, falsifying hundreds of prescriptions for controlled substances and ignoring serious red flags that indicated people intended to abuse their medications.

The use of execution drugs prepared in compounding pharmacies has raised issues for some prisoners and their attorneys, who have argued that injecting drugs in poor condition into prisoners' veins could violate their constitutional protection against cruel or unusual punishment. Compounded drugs have a shorter shelf life than conventionally manufactured drugs. Instead of throwing out old doses of pentobarbital, however, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice has been known to retest old vials of pentobarbital, then relabel them with updated “beyond-use” dates, similar to expiration dates.

Lethal injections in Texas have not always gone according to plan. Witnesses at the 2018 execution of Texan prisoner William Rayford said that after he was injected with pentobarbital, he writhed and jerked on the gurney as he died. As they were dying, other prisoners have said they felt like the drug was burning them.

A 2020 NPR review of more than 200 autopsies of people executed by lethal injection across the U.S. found that most bodies showed evidence of pulmonary edema, a condition where the lungs are filled with fluid that can cause people to feel like they’re suffocating and drowning. NPR did not analyze autopsies from Texas since the state does not conduct autopsies after executions.

Texas plans to execute prisoner Ruben Gutierrez with pentobarbital on July 16 and has 4 more executions scheduled later.

When NPR asked whether the state intends to use drugs prepared by Rite-Away to stop Gutierrez’s heart next week, the Department of Corrections declined to comment.

(source: gpb.org)

******************

'My brother spent 25 years on death row for a triple murder - but I'm proud of him'----Louis Castro Perez was found guilty of murdering two of his friends, Michelle Fulwiler and Cinda Barz, along with Barz’s 10-year-old daughter, Staci Mitchell in 1998 and sentenced to death - but his death penalty abolition activist sister says she's still proud of him

Nearly 25 years after Louis Castro Perez was found guilty of murdering two of his friends and a 10-year-old girl, his sister remembers him proudly - despite all that happened.

Perez died while on death row in May of 2024, but he maintained his innocence in the case until his last breath. In 1999, he was sentenced to death for the murders of Michelle Fulwiler, Cinda Barz, and Barz’s 9-year-old daughter, Staci Mitchell.

He claimed that the evidence was largely circumstantial and his prints were never found on the murder weapon. His sister, Delia Perez Meyer, became a death penalty abolitionist, inspired by her brother's courage while in prison.

She fought alongside him for his freedom, right up until he died from health issues while locked up in the Polunsky Unit in Livingston, Texas. She visited him every Thursday for 25 years.

"He knew in his heart he was innocent," Meyer told the Texas Standard. "And so that’s the way he lived his life," explaining that he had a sense of humor until his last days. "He was a jokester; we always laughed when I visited."

The murder Perez was accused of took place on Sept. 10, 1998. The next day, a friend of Meyer's called the family home and asked if anyone had seen Louis. He filled the family in on the murder and accusations. "And that was the introduction to this nightmare," Meyer said.

Perez was friends with the 2 murdered women, Fulwiler and Barz, and frequently spent time at their house. He slept there the night before the murders he said. But he went out in the morning, and when he returned, he says he found the 2 women dead. Panicking, he fled the house.

"Around 5:30 that evening, he opened the door and found Cinda on the floor," Meyer said. "He picked her up and she scratched him and that’s basically what sent him to death row." Perez testified that he'd been drinking and using drugs that day.

"My brother walked away from that house that day, rather than calling 911," Meyer said. "And everybody, including the police, jumped to conclusions."

His Texas state government record states: "Perez entered the residence of a 38-year-old white female and her daughter, a 10-year-old black female. Also occupying the home was a 30-year-old white female. Perez struck the two adult victims on the head with a cast iron skillet, resulting in their deaths. Perez then strangled the 10-year-old with a pair of pantyhose, also resulting in her death."

But Perez and his sister always argued that while his fingerprints were all over the house, because he visited often, they were never found on any of the murder weapons. The argument did not sway the jury or the judge.

Once Perez was on death row, he fought on behalf of himself and other prisoners to abolish the death penalty. He wanted to be free, and created artworks while locked in his tiny cell. In Texas, death row prisoners are not given access to classes or recreational activities.

According to Windows to Death Row, Perez drew and wrote messages that “'Sueltame! Let me go out of here!' It’s like they’re squeezing the life out of me. I felt a lot of frustration and fear. But I will never allow this place to change me. Death penalty is not about justice, it’s about revenge and payback...I’ve been on death row for 17 years. When I heard that door slam on me, 'bang!'"

(source: themirror.com)

VIRGINIA:

NPR fights for access to Virginia execution records shrouded in secrecy----On behalf of NPR, RCFP attorneys who administer UVA Law’s First Amendment Clinic are seeking to uncover rare execution tapes.

Next week, the Virginia Court of Appeals will consider whether to lift the veil of secrecy over execution tapes that give the public a rare glimpse into how the state administered capital punishment before abolishing the practice in 2021.

The tapes, recorded in the execution chamber by prison employees, were hidden for years before NPR journalist Chiara Eisner unearthed four recordings that a former prison employee donated to the Library of Virginia archives. That audio, which NPR published in 2023, revealed new details about oversight by prison employees moments before carrying out the state’s ultimate punishment.

The Virginia Department of Corrections has disclosed that it recorded 32 additional tapes concerning 27 executions over 3 decades, but it refused to turn them over when NPR and Ian Kalish, a clinical supervising attorney at the Reporters Committee, requested the audio under Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act. Last year, NPR sued for the tapes’ release with free legal support from the First Amendment Clinic at the University of Virginia School of Law, which is administered by attorneys from the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

A circuit court in Charlottesville sided with the Department of Corrections, finding that the recordings were protected under a Virginia FOIA exemption that protects records of prisoners. Throughout the school year, Reporters Committee attorneys worked with students in the UVA First Amendment Clinic to brief the case in the Court of Appeals. (Attorneys from Ballard Spahr LLP filed a friend-of-the-court brief in support of NPR’s appeal on behalf of a large media coalition.)

NPR, Eisner, and Kalish have been represented in the case by clinic co-directors Lin Weeks, an RCFP senior staff attorney, and Gabe Rottman, director of RCFP’s Technology and Press Freedom Project. Ahead of oral argument on July 16, we spoke with Kalish to learn more about why the clinic got involved in the fight for public access to execution records and what implications the case could have on efforts to hold Virginia prisons accountable.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

How did the UVA Law Clinic and Reporters Committee attorneys get involved in this case?

It originally came to the clinic’s radar because Chiara was going to report on the fact that she had submitted the FOIA request and that had been denied, so the clinic offered some commentary about the request and the denial. We continued to work with Chiara and NPR in terms of figuring out if there was a potential way to push back, and then the clinic ended up partnering with them on the litigation.

What makes this such an important case for clinic students to work on?

I think these records are very valuable because this process is largely happening within sort of a black box. It’s important for the public to understand what happens in these situations because these actions are being taken in the name of the public. I think just being able to facilitate that type of oversight is quite important.

More generally, I think public access cases are good for students because they offer discrete legal issues, generally issues of statutory interpretation regarding what an exemption in a statute says and what it means and how it applies to a specific record. It’s a little bit more teed up and focused than other types of cases are at times, so it allows the students a little bit more opportunity to really dig in and shepherd a case from its initiation to its conclusion.

What is it about these execution tapes that make them worth pursuing in court?

I think the four tapes are very rare. The fact that they’re publicly accessible doesn’t happen often, but they are very valuable.

I think it’s important to have information about execution and what it looks like in general because while Virginia is no longer engaged in the practice, other states are. There’s always the potential that things might change. I think that execution remains such a significant political issue that it’s important for people to understand what the procedure looks like, what happens, just for them to make an informed decision about whether they support the practice of capital punishment or not.

What are the key arguments that Reporters Committee attorneys have made about why these records should be public?

The main argument that is being teed up on appeal is this question regarding the interpretation of an exemption that prevents the public from gaining access to records of inmates, which we interpret to mean information that would otherwise be in the possession of inmates or information generated by the inmates, such as correspondence that is being held by the prison. Just because an inmate’s information is held by the agency because of the nature of the jailer-prisoner relationship doesn’t necessarily mean that anyone who puts a FOIA request to the agency should be able to get access to it.

But in contrast, we interpret this exemption to not reach administrative documents or information created by the agency that relates to the conduct of the agency. For example, procedures followed during the execution process are state action. We don’t think that exemption for the records of the individual should be read so broadly as to shield that type of thing from public oversight because in effect, you’re walling off the prison system significantly from all oversight.

By its nature, the actions that agency takes are for the most part directed toward or involving individual inmates. So you really need to preserve the ability to access records and information about those actions.

How do you think the outcome of this case could shape the application of Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act in the future?

I think the nature of Virginia FOIA is sort of interesting in that it has this blanket presumption of access but then exemptions are very particularized, and there are a lot of them. Because of that, there’s not a lot of really binding authority about what each one means. Some exemptions have had the benefit of judicial analysis and guidance, others haven’t.

I think whenever you don’t have this type of clear guidance from a court, people relying on the statute to access records are at a bit of a loss. There’s really no clear case to point to if a FOIA officer denies a request to say, “Hey, this court says that this material is reachable,” or, “This court says that this exemption should be interpreted this way.” I think any opportunity you have to clarify what the statute means is important.

Particularly with this exemption, it can be applied very broadly if it means what the Department of Corrections has argued and what the trial court seems to have endorsed. If it just means that things involving or related to a specific inmate can be withheld, it’s unclear to me what type of meaningful oversight you could have over the Virginia Department of Corrections or the prisons at all. So I think this one in particular is even more important just because of the potential scope of its use moving forward.

(source: rcfp.org)

FLORIDA:

Florida Supreme Court affirms 2 death sentences on direct appeal----Yesterday, as part of what is likely the Court’s last regular release of opinions before summer break, the Florida Supreme Court issued decisions in two direct appeals.

This is Allen Ward Cox’s direct appeal from his sentence of death imposed on resentencing granted as a result of Hurst.1 The opinion is authored by Justice Sasso.

Cox was originally sentenced to death for crimes that occurred in 1999 while he was imprisoned at Lake Correctional Institute. In 2017, Cox was granted a new penalty phase based on Hurst.

Cox’s resentencing proceeded under Florida’s prior capital sentencing scheme that required a jury’s unanimous recommendation for death, among other findings. At the end of the penalty phase, the jury unanimously recommended that Cox be sentenced to death. On October 24, 2022, the trial court resentenced Cox to death.

On direct appeal, Cox raised 7 issues:

(1) the trial court erred in rejecting the nonstatutory mitigating circumstance that Cox suffers from the early signs of dementia, (2) the trial court erred in rejecting 2 of the proposed nonstatutory mitigators, (3) the cumulative effect of the prosecutor’s comments during closing was so prejudicial as to taint the jury’s recommended sentence, (4) the trial court erroneously placed the burden of showing mitigating circumstances on the defendant, (5) executing an offender with brain damage violates the Eighth Amendment, (6) Florida’s capital punishment scheme violates the Eighth Amendment, and (7) the death penalty itself violates the Eighth Amendment.

The State filed a cross-appeal presenting 1 issue.

As to Cox’s final 4 claims regarding the constitutionality of Florida’s capital sentencing scheme, the Court said the claims “are well-worn” and have been “repeatedly rejected.”

The Court denied relief on all claims and affirmed the death sentence. Because the Court did not find merit to Cox’s claims, they declined to address the State’s cross-appeal.

Justice Labarga concurred in result, reiterating his disapproval of the Court’s abandonment of “its decades-long practice of conducting comparative proportionality review in death penalty direct appeal cases.”

The full opinion can be accessed here, at: https://supremecourt.flcourts.gov/Opinions/Most-Recent-Opinions?sort=opinion/disposition_date%20desc,%20opinion/case_number%20asc&type=written&view=embed_custom&searchtype=opinions&recent_only=1&hide_search=1&hide_filters=1&limit=20&offset=0

****************************

This is Tyrone T. Johnson’s direct appeal from his sentence of death. The opinion is authored by Justice Couriel.

Johnson was sentenced to death for crimes that occurred in 2018. The jury recommended a sentence of death unanimously under Florida’s prior capital sentencing scheme, and the trial court sentenced Johnson to death.

On appeal, Johnson raised 7 issues. The Court focused on 3: (1) those arising from a video of Johnson’s interrogation that was admitted in the guilt phase, (2) Al Johnson’s testimony at the Spencer hearing,2 and (3) the trial court’s sentencing order. On the first 2 issues, the Court found no error. As to the third issue, the Court found the trial court made an error by misunderstanding the “no significant history” mitigator. (The State conceded error on this point.) However, the Court determined this error was harmless and denied relief. The Court affirmed Johnson’s conviction and sentence of death.

Justice Labarga concurred in result, reiterating his disapproval of the Court’s abandonment of “its decades-long practice of conducting comparative proportionality review in death penalty direct appeal cases.”

The full opinion can be accessed here, at: gov/Opinions/Most-Recent-Opinions?sort=opinion/disposition_date%20desc,%20opinion/case_number%20asc&type=written&view=embed_custom&searchtype=opinions&recent_only=1&hide_search=1&hide_filters=1&limit=20&offset=0

(source: fladeathpenalty.substack.com)

*****************************

Florida killer Wade Wilson tied to violent prison gang. What to know about the Unforgiven

Wade Wilson, the Fort Myers man facing the death penalty in the murders of 2 Cape Coral women, has reputed ties to a violent Florida prison gang.

Wilson was found guilty in June of the 2019 murders of Kristine Melton, 35 and Diane Ruiz, 43.

The jury recommended the death sentence for each of the homicides, and sentencing is scheduled for later this month. Wilson's attorney has filed a motion seeking a new trial.

While awaiting trial, Wilson was charged with masterminding an escape attempt from the Lee County Jail.

Court records in that case connect Wilson to the Unforgiven, a white supremacy prison gang.

Wilson sports several swastika tattoos, including on the right side of his head and below his right eye.

The swastika was adopted in 1920 as the symbol of Adolf Hitler's Nazi party, and since 1945 has "served as the most significant and notorious of hate symbols, anti-Semitism and white supremacy," according to the Anti-Defamation League.

Here's what to know about Wade Wilson's crimes and the Unforgiven gang:

What did Wade Wilson do?

Kristine Melton, 35, grew up in Illinois and moved with a friend to Cape Coral where she worked as a waitress.

Melton and her friend Stephanie Sailors met Wilson, then 25, at a Cape Coral bar on Oct. 7, 2019. That morning, the trio ended up at Melton's duplex.

After Sailors left, Wilson strangled Melton to death as she slept in her bed and stole her car.

Diane Ruiz, 43, was a mother, engaged to be married and worked as a bartender.

A short time after killing Melton, Wilson saw Ruiz walking along a Cape Coral street and asked her for directions to a nearby school.

Wilson lured her into the car and when she tried to leave he beat and strangled her before pushing her out of the car and running her over 10 to 20 times.

Her body was found in a field 3 days later, as vultures circled overhead.

Wade Wilson's father Steven Testasecca's played key role in his capture

After the murders, Wilson called his biological father several times confessing to the crimes in gruesome detail.

"I am a killer," Wilson said, according to Testasecca's testimony.

Testasecca said Wilson confessed to choking Melton after she went to sleep and stopping Ruiz for directions before she got into the car, choking her while he drove.

According to Testasecca's testimony, Wilson said Ruiz was still breathing before he repeatedly ran her over.

After initially dismissing the calls and attributing the admissions to Wilson being a "good storyteller," Steven Testasecca, 46, put his phone on speaker with Wilson's biological mother listening in and relaying information to police.

Testasecca asked Wilson for his location and told him he would send an Uber to him. Instead, his whereabouts were provided to police who arrested Wilson on Oct. 8, 2019.

Wade Wilson sentence

On June 12, 2024, Wilson was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder, grand theft, battery, burglary and petty theft.

During the penalty phase of the trial, the jury voted 9-3 and 10-2 in favor of the death penalty for the murder convictions.

Judge Nicholas Thompson will decide whether to impose the death sentence or life in prison without the possibility of parole.

On July 3, Wilson's legal team filed a motion for a new trial or acquittal on the murder, burglary and grand theft charges. Trial judge Nicholas Thompson has not ruled on the motion.

Sentencing is scheduled for July 23.

According to the Anti-Defamation League, the Unforgiven gang was founded in the Florida prison system in 1986 and is the largest white supremacist prison gang in the state.

Unforgiven seeks to expand its power, territory and reputation – in and out of prison – by systematically recruiting members and indoctrinating them in a vicious form of white supremacist ideology that permeates everything they do, court documents in a 2021 federal racketeering case involving 16 Unforgiven members show, according to USA TODAY.

It requires its members to study and propagate “Aryan philosophy,” to pay dues and to perform violent acts to join and remain in the group, prosecutors said.

Tattoos of swastikas, Iron Crosses, SS bolts and other Nazi symbols allegedly are also required.

Members must enrich the broader enterprise through distribution of weapons, narcotics and contraband – and by creating a united front to “resist and rebel” against the perceived “constant and almost brutal victimization of Whites” in the Florida penal system, according to a 2021 federal indictment examined by USA TODAY.

The Unforgiven gang's main symbol consists of an interlocking Iron Cross and swastika, with SS lightning bolts in the center, according to the ADL, and the group reportedly uses the numeric symbol 21-2-12, substituting letters for numbers.

The number 21 stands for U ("Unity"), 2 for B ("Brotherhood") and 12 for L ("Loyalty").

(source: Fort Myers News-Press)

ALABAMA----impending execution

Alabama grants Muslim death row inmate’s wish to forgo autopsy after execution

Alabama will forgo an autopsy on a Muslim death row inmate who sued the state, saying the procedure following his execution by lethal injection next week would violate his religious beliefs.

Keith Gavin, who is set to be executed next Thursday or Friday, said in the lawsuit an “invasive autopsy” violated his “sincerely held religious beliefs,” as well as Alabama state law, according to the complaint filed by his attorneys last month.

Gavin is a devout Muslim, the complaint said, and his religion “teaches that the human body is a sacred temple, which must be kept whole.” An autopsy, he argued, would desecrate his body and “violate the sanctity of keeping his human body intact” along with his right to the free exercise of his religion.

On Friday, Alabama Department of Corrections spokesperson Kelly Windham Betts told CNN: “No autopsy will be performed on Keith Edmund Gavin. His remains will be picked up by the attending funeral home.”

CNN has reached out to Gavin’s attorneys for comment.

Among those named in the lawsuit were Escambia County District Attorney Steve Billy, Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner John Hamm and Terry Raybon, warden of the William C. Holman Correctional Facility where Gavin is on death row.

“We are working on a resolution,” the office of Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall told CNN this week.

The complaint had sought a judicial order preventing the defendants from performing the autopsy and requiring them “to respect Mr. Gavin’s constitutional rights and sincerely held religious beliefs.”

The lawsuit claimed Gavin’s attorneys had repeatedly attempted to reach state officials in charge of the autopsy process regarding his request for his “earthly remains to be handled consistent with his faith,” but had received no response.

Immediately after Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed Gavin’s April 25 letter setting his execution date, the lawsuit said the defendants failed to respond to phone calls, emails and in-person visits or have declined to speak with Gavin’s attorneys.

Under Alabama law, a medical examiner is required to investigate any death that takes place in any penal institution in the state, and the law gives discretion to state officials to order a postmortem autopsy if the death is “unlawful, suspicious or unnatural.”

“This law is intended to establish with certainty the cause of death in any such event. After Mr. Gavin’s execution, there will be no question as to who or what caused Mr. Gavin’s death. The State will execute him by lethal injection,” the lawsuit argued.

On Thursday, the Council on American-Islamic Relations – the largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization in the country – called on Alabama officials to accept Gavin’s request.

“In Islamic beliefs, autopsies are generally viewed as impermissible mutilation of the deceased but are permissible in cases of necessity and only to the extent required,” CAIR said in a statement.

“The religious freedom guaranteed to every American in our founding documents does not cease to apply behind bars,” CAIR Research and Advocacy Director Corey Saylor said. “We urge Alabama state officials to accept Mr. Gavin’s request that his body not be autopsied after execution.”

Alabama has faced scrutiny over its executions after multiple failed lethal injections prompted an internal review of the state’s capital punishment system in 2022.

Ivey asked the state Department of Corrections to conduct a “top-to-bottom review of the state’s execution process” after the problems came into the national spotlight, CNN previously reported. The state resumed executions last spring after the review was completed.

(source: CNN)

TENNESSEE:

Articles of Interest: Op-ed says new Tennessee law that expands the death penal­ty to child rape ?“cre­ates more prob­lems than it solves.”

CRIMES PUNISHABLE BY DEATH TENNESSEE

A July 7, 2024 op-ed in the Tennessean argues that the recent enaction of SB 1834, which makes the rape of a child punishable by death, “does more harm than good.” Sarah McGee (pictured), coordinator for Tennesseans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, explains that during her work as a victim-witness coordinator for Davidson County District Attorney’s Office, probation officer, and assistant public defender, she “learned that when child service providers and experts, the people caring for these children every day all over our state, have repeatedly stated that this legislation will not make children safer but will instead keep children from reporting the crime at all, or could even endanger their lives, we should heed their expert advice.”

Experts warn that SB 1834, which is effective as of July 1, 2024, will lead to drastic under-reporting by the child-victims and might inadvertently encourage perpetrators to kill their victims since the punishment is now the same for both murder and rape. Despite Supreme Court precedent finding that the death penalty for non-homicide crimes is unconstitutional, SB 1834 passed the Senate 24-5 and the House 77-19. Ms. McGee describes issues with the “inherently flawed” capital punishment system, such as the risk of wrongful conviction and the high costs. She points to the failed efforts of 2 legislators to amend the bill—one seeking to mitigate the risk of wrongful convictions by requiring bodily injury or physical evidence be present to corroborate the charge and another proposing trauma support services for the child victims and their families.

(source: Death Penalty Information Center)

INDIANA:

Indiana wants to execute Joseph Corcoran. Here's why his attorneys say it would be wrong

The Indiana Supreme Court should deny a request to set a date for the execution of convicted murderer Joseph E. Corcoran and, instead, determine whether the state and U.S. constitutions prohibit his execution due his "serious mental illness," the condemned man's attorneys said in a filing Thursday.

The brief filed with the state's highest court by attorneys for Corcoran came in response to a June 26 request from Gov. Eric Holcomb and Attorney General Todd Rokita to set a date for his execution, which would be the 1st in Indiana since 2009.

Holcomb said the Indiana Department of Correction has now acquired a drug to carry out lethal injections and asked the Indiana Supreme Court to set an execution date for Corcoran, one of four men on X Row who have exhausted their appeals. The governor said he believes the death penalty, and resuming executions, will discourage particularly gruesome violent acts.

Corcoran, 49, of Allen County was sentenced to death in 1999 for fatally shooting four people on July 26, 1997. He has been held on death row at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City longer than all but two of the seven other men facing the death penalty in Indiana.

Joseph E. Corcoran is 1 of 8 men on death row in Indiana.

Corcoran is being represented in the case by 2 attorneys from Public Defenders of Indiana and a federal public defender.

"An unspeakable tragedy took the lives of four people who unquestionably deserved to live," Corcoran's attorney noted. "This tragedy, however, has a nexus to a serious mental illness that persists through today."

The attorneys said the state previously conceded Corcoran was mentally ill, suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. And they say his mental illness persists.

"No one contests that Corcoran suffers from a mental illness. This is clear from his delusion that prison guards torture him daily with an ultrasound machine, his conversations with individuals who are not there, and his delusion that he suffers from an involuntary speech disorder," they wrote.

In fact, the attorneys said, Corcoran could have avoided the death penalty initially "if not for his mental illness which affected the decision-making process" during his initial prosecution. Corcoran’s “ultimate refusal to accept either a plea bargain or a bench trial without the death penalty," the response said, "was a product of his mental illness.”

Corcoran's attorneys said the state's high court also must determine if the state and federal constitutions even permit the execution of a person with a severe mental illness. They note the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution "restricts the ultimate sanction of capital punishment 'to those offenders who commit ‘a narrow category of the most serious crimes and whose extreme culpability makes them the most deserving of execution.'"

8 killers facing death penalty held at Indiana State Prison

They said the U.S. Supreme Court has indicated the key question is not whether offenders knew right from wrong or were legally competent, but rather does a mental impairment “make it less defensible to impose the death penalty as retribution for past crimes and less likely that the death penalty will have a real deterrent effect?” Laws enacted in Ohio in 2019 and Kentucky in 2022 prohibit the implementation of the death penalty for offenders with severe or active mental illnesses, including schizophrenia.

Corcoran attorneys also raised concerns about a secrecy statute enacted by state lawmakers to protect the drug protocol and source of drugs used for lethal injections, an issue that was partially responsible for the state halting executions over the last 14 years.

No execution date should be set "until the State delivers the new protocol and affirms no state or federal laws were broken in obtaining the drugs," Corcoran's attorneys said. "A secrecy statute cannot condone the illegal acquisition of controlled substances. There has been no disclosure regarding the amount of the drug in their possession, whether they are expired, or their potency and sterility," the attorneys argue.

"Thus, the State should provide the Court and Corcoran this information. This can and should be done in a manner that complies with the secrecy statute prior to this Court permitting the execution to proceed."

(source: Indianapolis Star)

*********************

Indiana death row inmate’s lawyers say mental illness should preclude him from execution----A motion filed with the Indiana Supreme Court on Thursday seeks to stymie the state’s recent request for an execution date.

Attorneys for Indiana death row inmate Joseph Corcoran appealed the state’s request for an execution date on Thursday, maintaining that he is “unquestionably seriously mentally ill” and therefore should not be subject to the death penalty.

Corcoran, who was convicted of murdering 4 people in Fort Wayne in 1997, filed his response with the Indiana Supreme Court 2 weeks after Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb and Attorney General Todd Rokita announced that the state’s Department of Correction (DOC) has obtained the drug necessary to carry out the death penalty.

State and federal public defenders said in their challenge that Corcoran has long been diagnosed as mentally ill and continues to suffer from paranoid schizophrenia that causes him to experience “persistent hallucinations and delusions.”

As such, they said the state supreme court should deny the motion to set an execution date and hear oral arguments on whether executing Corcoran — who they describe as “unquestionably seriously mentally ill” — would be permitted under the Indiana and United States constitutions.

“An unspeakable tragedy took the lives of four people who unquestionably deserved to live,” Corcoran’s lawyers said in Thursday’s filing. “This tragedy, however, has a nexus to a serious mental illness that persists through.”

There is still no execution date set for Corcoran. It’s now up to the state’s high court justices how to proceed.

Does mental illness preclude Corcoran?

Corcoran’s public defenders specifically pointed to the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which restricts capital punishment to offenders who commit “a narrow category of the most serious crimes and whose extreme culpability makes them the most deserving of execution.”

They noted, too, that individuals with severe mental illness, “particularly those whose mental illness results in psychosis, like Corcoran,” have many of the same features as juveniles and those with intellectual disabilities — whom the United States Supreme Court rendered the death penalty as “disproportionate punishment.”

Corcoran’s public defenders said he “has consistently been diagnosed with a severe mental illness. They recalled that multiple experts testified in Corcoran’s trial that his mental illness “prevents him from making rational decisions.” They additionally argued that Corcoran’s “overwhelming desire to escape his psychiatric symptoms” likely led him to waive his earlier opportunities for appeals.

“Corcoran would have avoided the death penalty altogether were it not for his mental illness which affected the decision-making process during Corcoran’s legal proceedings,” his attorneys told Indiana’s Supreme Court justices. Corcoran’s lawyers also made the case that his symptoms of schizophrenic hallucinations and delusions existed even before the murders. They further referenced previous expert testimony from Dr. Phillip Coons, who said Corcoran’s “ultimate refusal to accept either a plea bargain or a bench trial without the death penalty was a product of his mental illness.”

“Moreover, a national consensus has emerged against executing the severely mentally ill,” Corcoran’s attorneys continued. “Every other contiguous death penalty state in this area of the Midwest has banned the death penalty for the seriously mentally ill.”

Many other states have also introduced bills to ban the death penalty or execution for people with severe mental illness, including schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder, the attorneys added.

“There is a regional consensus clearly established in this area of the Midwest as well as an emerging national consensus to ban the death penalty for the seriously mentally ill,” they said in Corcoran’s filing with the state supreme court.

An Ohio statute that took effect in early 2021, for example, prohibits the death penalty for defendants who have been diagnosed with a severe mental illness, such as schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder, and whose mental illness “significantly impaired the person’s capacity to exercise rational judgment in relation to the person’s conduct.”

The Ohio legislature specified that an offender’s condition does not need to meet “the standard to be found not guilty by reason of insanity … or the standard to be found incompetent to stand trial.”

Kentucky followed in early 2022 with a law exempting offenders with “active symptoms and a documented history, including a diagnosis” from the death penalty. Corcoran’s counsel emphasized that one of the listed mental illnesses in Kentucky is schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder.

Corcoran’s lawyers said Indiana also “recognized this consensus” in the case against Elijah Dorsey, who earlier this year was convicted in the killing of an Indianapolis police officer. Although Marion County prosecutors had sought the death penalty, they ultimately dismissed it after Dorsey was deemed mentally ill and ineligible for the death penalty.

Ongoing questions about execution drug

Corcoran’s legal counsel also called into question the execution drug, pentobarbital, recently acquired by the state but largely shrouded in secrecy by Hoosier officials.

When asked last month by the Indiana Capital Chronicle where DOC acquired the drug and how much the state paid, Holcomb said he “can’t go into those details, by law.”

Lawmakers made information about the source of the drugs confidential on the last day of the 2017 legislative session.

The Capital Chronicle has filed an official records request seeking the cost of the drugs.

Advocates have additionally said it’s critical for the public to know who will be administering the drug — and how — as well as what training those individuals will receive.

“The State moved for a date after, at some point, most likely recently, acquiring drugs from some unknown source. While a secrecy statute is in place, the date should not be set until the State delivers the new protocol and affirms no state or federal laws were broken in obtaining the drugs. A secrecy statute cannot condone the illegal acquisition of controlled substances,” Corcran’s attorneys said. “There has been no disclosure regarding the amount of the drug in their possession, whether they are expired, or their potency and sterility. The State should provide the Court and Corcoran this information. This can and should be done in a manner that complies with the secrecy statute prior to this Court permitting the execution to proceed.”

The 1-drug method is a departure from the state’s protocol used since 1995, involving a series of 3 chemicals.

Although no state-level executions in Indiana have used pentobarbital before, 13 federal executions carried out at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute have been carried out with the drug. Fourteen states have used pentobarbital in executions, too.

After Indiana’s last execution in 2009, the state was effectively forced to pause. Increased scrutiny of lethal injection drugs led pharmaceutical companies to refuse to sell their products for use in executions. Holcomb said that made acquiring the necessary drugs “harder to get.”

There are currently 8 men on Indiana’s death row, including Corcoran. No one has been added to the state’s death row since 2014.

(source: Indiana Capital Chronicle)

*************************

He killed 4 people—his lawyers say he's too sick to be executed----It has been 27 years since Joseph Corcoran killed 4 people in Fort Wayne. Now he could be the 1st person executed by the state of Indiana since 2009.

Lawyers for Joseph Corcoran are asking the Indiana Supreme Court to prevent his execution.

Indiana hasn't executed a prisoner since 2009, but recently acquired the drug needed to carry out the death penalty. Corcoran could be the 1st death row inmate executed with it. The state has requested the Indiana Supreme Court to set an execution date for him.

Corcoran was convicted in the July 1997 killings of his brother, James Corcoran; along with Douglas A. Stillwell; Robert Scott Turner; and Timothy G. Bricker. He allegedly killed the men with a semiautomatic rifle in the living room of the home he shared with his brother and sister because he couldn’t stand to hear them talking about him.

Corcoran also suffers from paranoid schizophrenia.

According to filings by his lawyers, Corcoran believes his prison guards are torturing him with 'ultra-sonic weapons', he has conversations with people who aren't there and believes he has a speech impediment that he doesn't have.

There is no Indiana law saying mentally ill people can't be executed if convicted of a death penalty crime, but that isn't true in other states.

"This tragedy had its roots in mental illness," said Corcoran's lawyers in a statement. "Mr. Corcoran is a person with a serious mental illness. Ohio and Kentucky, the only other two death penalty states around Indiana, have taken the pro-life position of not executing those people suffering from serious mental illnesses. Our filing simply suggests Indiana should consider doing the same."

According to our partners at the Indiana Capital Chronicle, an Ohio statute that took effect in early 2021, for example, prohibits the death penalty for defendants who have been diagnosed with a severe mental illness, such as schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder, and whose mental illness “significantly impaired the person’s capacity to exercise rational judgment in relation to the person’s conduct.”

Kentucky followed in early 2022 with a law exempting offenders with “active symptoms and a documented history, including a diagnosis” from the death penalty. Corcoran’s counsel emphasized that one of the listed mental illnesses in Kentucky is schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder.

The lawyers also brought up the recent trial of Elliahs Dorsey, who murdered IMPD Officer Breann Leath. The Marion County Prosecutor dropped his request for the death sentence, saying:

"...after thoroughly reviewing the psychiatric evaluations from the two court-appointed doctors. The United States Constitution forbids the execution of mentally ill defendants. Based on all the available evidence, the State has determined that it is constitutionally prohibited from seeking the death penalty." This is not the 1st legal challenge in Corcoran's case.

Several courts, including the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court, have ruled on the case.

The judge who sentenced Corcoran to death rewrote her sentencing order in 2000, explaining how she came to her decision and reaffirming the sentence.

Corcoran is 1 of 8 men on Indiana's death row. If the Indiana Supreme Court rules he can't be executed, the man next up may be Benjamin Ritchie, who shot and killed Beech Grove Police Officer Bill Toney.

You can read the state's motion to resume executions by clicking at: https://www.wthr.com/article/news/local/indiana/indiana-governor-attorney-general-file-motion-resume-executions-state-prisons/531-6b43e40b-414f-4c8f-93b4-ae7c0075a5c6

(source: WTHR news)

MISSOURI----impending execution

Missouri Supreme Court Refuses to Reschedule Marcellus Williams’ Execution Date After Innocence Hearing Set----The Missouri Supreme denied a motion seeking to withdraw the September 24 execution date for Marcellus Williams, an innocent man on death row.

Today, the Missouri Supreme denied a motion seeking to withdraw the September 24 execution date for Marcellus Williams, an innocent man on death row. Mr. Williams had moved the court to reconsider its order scheduling his execution after the St. Louis County Circuit Court set a hearing for August 21 on the county prosecuting attorney’s motion to vacate Mr. Williams’s wrongful conviction. Prosecuting Attorney Bell filed that motion to vacate based on new DNA evidence that proves Mr. Williams was not the source of male DNA on the murder weapon.

Additional information about the flimsy case that led to Mr. Williams’s conviction and the overwhelming evidence supporting his innocence claim appears below.

Below is a statement from Tricia Bushnell, an attorney for Marcellus Williams:

“We will continue to pursue justice in the circuit court. We are confident that any court, when presented with all the evidence — including the DNA evidence — will come to the same conclusion as St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell: that Marcellus Williams is innocent and his conviction must be overturned. No court has ever held a hearing to consider all of the exculpatory evidence of innocence. There is still time to right this wrong. No one wants to see Missouri execute an innocent man.”

The Missouri Supreme Courts’ order is available here, at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qVIn-i296uhqOcBgyBB4kcDMWU6Sq7Qv/view

Read more about Marcellus Williams’s case at www.savemarcellus.org or www.marcelluswilliams.org.

(source: innocenceproject.org)

********************

We Cannot Let Missouri Kill Marcellus “Khaliifah” Williams: The Black Man Proven Innocent But Scheduled to be Executed in September----Despite DNA evidence proving Marcellus’ innocence, the State of Missouri prepares to execute him in less than 80 days. The public must intervene to save his life.

For over 24 years, Marcellus “Khaliifah” Williams has suffered on Missouri’s death row for a crime he did not commit. No evidence has linked him to the victim or crime scene. The two “incentivized informants” who testified against him were promised reward money and leniency in their own pending cases.

In 2015, Marcellus requested a DNA test, which exonerated him and pointed to another individual as the perpetrator. This year, St. Louis County Prosecution determined he is an innocent man. Despite all this, Missouri plans to execute him in less than 80 days.

A Poet and Leader: Marcellus Williams’ Life and Influence

Marcellus Williams is a lifelong poet and has become the imam (Islamic leadership position) for his community at the Potosi Correctional Center.

“I don’t have to write. In fact, there have been long periods of time that I didn’t write a piece at all,” he told the Innocence Project. “But it’s a way for me to express myself and communicate and be understood.” The Innocence Project has also published a handful of his poems.

Though he writes through many different topics and lenses, Williams has used poetry to connect with others enmeshed in the same horrifying, confusing legal system.

“If I felt that a poem would aid someone in looking at a traumatic, stressful or difficult situation in a different light from another perspective that could possibly be a step upon the path of healing, then I would write a poem for that person,” Williams also told the Innocence Project. He has written many poems for the friends and family he has inside.

The Fight for Marcellus Williams’Life

While organizers work tirelessly to end policing violences here and across the state of Missouri, those already held hostage in the court system require a different kind of advocacy.

Negotiating confusing and predatory legal proceedings, Missourians to Abolish the Death Penalty (MADP) have been mobilizing around clemency and innocence cases since 2005. As the only organization doing death penalty work here statewide, MADP navigates the 3rd highest (per capita) execution rate in the country.

Missouri is 1 of 5 states with an active death penalty, and it is set to murder Marcellus “Khaliifah” Williams in September unless the public can intervene.

Michelle Smith joined MADP as the Racial Justice Coordinator in 2021; this was a first and crucial step in establishing Black leadership in the organization. Smith now serves as the organization’s Co-Director. She told us, “Historically in the death penalty movement, Black folks have not been included. Religious white folks and attorneys are the most visible."

As organizations like MADP teach, the death penalty finds a historical precedent in state-sanctioned killings like lynchings and the mass genocide of Indigenous people. Movement leadership from Black people, people of color, and formerly incarcerated individuals is incredibly vital.

As a potential ruling in dozens of different crimes that change in each state, the death penalty is an extremely subjective sentence. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, while Black people make up 14.4% of the population, they are 33.9% of people sentenced in death penalty cases.

Studies from Santa Clara Law Review and the University of North Carolina both found that death sentences were at least 3 times more likely when the victim was white. Altogether, 3 in 4 cases that resulted in a death penalty charge had white victims. Death penalty rulings operate with the same racist bias that is baked into the entire legal system.

Smith elaborated further on the deadly conditions that threaten all people experiencing incarceration: “There’s so much injustice going on in Missouri prisons: murder, torture, truly horrifying things. We exist to educate folks. A lot of people in Missouri don’t even know we have the death penalty. We killed four people last year, and two already this year.” As the Defender reported on in a recent story about Othel Moore Jr., 13 people a month die in Missouri prisons.

Deaths—even those like the torture-murder of Moore Jr.—are considered by presiding officials to be “natural” byproducts of incarceration, many never receiving state attention or trials. Education on the death penalty is not just about immediate cases of clemency but creating broader awareness about the deeply violent mindset of our legal system. Prisons do not and cannot provide rehabilitation—they cannot even guarantee safe or habitable living conditions.

News outlets too often present state murders as inevitable, objective, and just. Readers are acclimated to stories of police murdering unarmed, non-threatening people and presenting these killings as the only reasonable outcomes for public safety.

Death penalty murders are no exception; there is nothing inescapable about a well planned, government-funded killing that takes place only after someone has sat awaiting death for—on average—a decade. It is a waste of human life that becomes even more sickening when one considers how the government prioritizes murders like these over its own basic social services.

Marcellus “Khaliifah” Williams’s case is a startling example of how far the court system will go to delay and ignore evidence that their ruling was hasty, incorrect, and deeply biased.

As the Innocence Project recounts, Williams’s case was decided through the testimony of 2 purported witnesses who were offered both reward money and leniency in their own pending cases. Neither witness was able to provide new information about the case, let alone anything verifiable or consistent with what was already known.

Many years later, in 2015, Missouri’s Supreme Court stayed Williams’s execution to review significant DNA evidence. Testing of the substantial evidence left both on the murder weapon and at the scene of the crime revealed that Williams was not involved in the killing.

Through deep court mismanagement, Williams’s case was sent back to the Supreme Court without any of this new evidence being officially brought into record. In 2017, the case was once again stayed by then-Governor Eric Grietens. In June 2023, Governor Mike Parson disbanded the board of inquiry that was supposed to review the case; he gave neither warning nor explanation.

In turn, Williams sued Mike Parson for violating both the law and his constitutional rights, and Parson then asked the Missouri Supreme Court to intervene. The Court dismissed the lawsuit in June 2024 and scheduled the execution of Williams for Sept. 24, 2024.

Earlier in 2024, the St Louis County prosecutor office’s Conviction & Incident Review Unit reviewed the evidence in Williams’s case; working with three different DNA experts, the prosecutor determined that Williams could not have committed the crime and filed a motion to vacate his conviction. Still, Williams awaits his death.

On average, four people on death row are exonerated each year. Much like in the case of Williams, almost half of these cases involved incentivized informants. Wrong convictions are rampant, and even with evidence, many lack the means for legal representation amidst a long uphill battle with the state.

The court system’s deep inefficiencies and convoluted rules actively torture those caught inside its proceedings; while a board deliberates unsuccessfully for six years on a very clear-cut matter, a human being experiences daily torment about their livelihood while held hostage in unsanitary, unsafe, and fully inhumane conditions.

This week, MADP launched a full campaign and toolkit to #FreeKhaliifah. We join MADP in this call. Organizers can complete the MADP partnership form, and anyone in the community can sign and share the #FreeKhaliifah petition or pick up fliers, posters, and yard signs from MADP.

A rally will be held outside the St. Louis County Courthouse on August 21 for Williams’s evidentiary hearing. There is a deep need for solidarity organizing around the death penalty—for organizers to see the ways that every single social issue is exacerbated by the judicial comfort with state-sanctioned murder. Every Missourian needs to understand not only that their government is openly funding and plotting murder, but that prisons are built to waste and end life.

“Capital punishment is an egregious, arbitrary and inhumane systemic response to societal failures,” Smith said. “When an innocent person is wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death, the egregiousness and inhumanity surpasses all rationale for such a system.”

Community organizing is the most vital tool in combating a legal system and predatory government that consistently changes its own terms.

“We have seen that in response, the greater the community outcry in the face of such injustice sends a clear message to those in power,” Smith said. “I believe this amplified message will aid in saving the life of Marcellus ‘Khaliifah’ Williams as well as further push toward abolition of the death penalty.”

(source: Cassandra Gillig, The Kansas City Defender)

USA:

Lawmaker proposes death penalty for illegal immigrants convicted of rape, sex abuse

A Tennessee lawmaker has proposed legislation which would allow for the death penalty being applied as a sentence to illegal immigrants convicted of committing rape or sexual abuse while in the country illegally.

U.S. Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN-D5) filed the bill in Congress this week, otherwise known as the Justice for American Women and Children Act of 2024.

Under the proposed law, "Whoever commits an offense under this section while present in the United States without lawful status under the immigration laws (as such term is defined in section 101 of the Immigration and Nationality Act) may be sentenced to death."

In a statement release on the bill to FOX Nashville, Rep. Ogles cites an illegal immigrant in Franklin, Tennessee which had been jailed for recording himself allegedly raping at least 15 unconscious young boys. "Foreign rapists know that they can illegally enter our country, commit their horrific crimes, and, at most, get sentenced to time in an American prison, which is often luxurious compared to the prisons in their home countries where they’d otherwise likely rot," Rep. Ogles says." We must remove this incentive for rapists to flood our country by letting them know that if they are here illegally to brutally assault and rape vulnerable Americans, they could face the death penalty, the strictest penalty available in our country.

The lawmaker added “Just 15 minutes from my house, an illegal alien recorded himself raping at least 15 unconscious boys between the ages of 9 and 17. In the last month, an illegal alien from Honduras raped a twelve-year-old girl in Iowa, and another from Ecuador raped a 13-year-old girl in a New York Park. If these evil acts aren't enough to convince you of this epidemic, think of this: in just 11 days, ICE apprehended 275 sex offenders unlawfully present in our country.”

(source: Fox news)

KENYA:

State won’t pay Sh150m for Kenyan on Saudi death row

Kenya will not pay the Sh150 million ‘blood money’ required to save a Kenyan on death row in Saudi Arabia, Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi has said.

Appearing before the Senate plenary on Wednesday, Mr Mudavadi said the government lacks the necessary funds for the payment, but negotiations are ongoing after the Ministry of Foreign and Diaspora Affairs intervened to halt the execution.

“I wish to state that, a few weeks ago, I officially wrote to the foreign minister of Saudi Arabia, intervening on behalf of Mr Munyakho. The execution was deferred and did not take place,” Mr. Mudavadi said.

“Despite this reprieve, the victim’s family still demands a compensation sum of Sh150 million. Mr. Munyakho’s family has raised about Sh10 million and continues to seek more funds,” he added.

The Kenyan, Stephen Munyakho, 50, is accused of killing a co-worker in 2011 and was scheduled for execution on May 15 this year.

Munyakho, known as Stevo to his friends and family, went to work in Saudi Arabia in his early 20s and was a warehouse manager at a Red Sea tourist resort 13 years ago.

According to his mother, Ms Dorothy Kweyu, the man got into a dispute with a colleague who allegedly stabbed him with a letter opener. In retaliation, Stevo grabbed the letter opener and fatally attacked his colleague.

Initially found guilty of manslaughter, Munyakho was sentenced to five years in prison, expected to serve two-and-a-half years in accordance with international norms. However, an appeal in 2014 led to a harsher sentence, changing it to capital punishment.

“The court ordered that my son face capital punishment, which would have meant the death sentence,” Ms. Kweyu said. “Later on, the family of the deceased was convinced by a Kenyan delegation in Saudi to accept the diya offer of blood money.”

Under Islamic law, diya is a payment made to the victim’s family and can result in a lighter sentence or even a pardon. This practice is followed in about 20 countries in the Middle East and Africa, including Sudan and northern Nigeria.

The Kenyan government, Mr. Mudavadi said, is now seeking to reduce the amount, considering that Mr. Munyakho’s family has only managed to raise Sh10 million and is struggling to raise the balance.

(source: nairobilawmonthly.com)

NORTH KOREA----executions

North Korea executed 30 teenagers for watching South Korean dramas: reports

North Korea executed 30 middle schoolers for watching South Korean dramas, according to reports.

The shows were reportedly stored on USBs that were floated over the border by North Korean defectors.

North Korea has been accused of using harsh penalties for those caught watching South Korean media.

In North Korea, watching your favorite Korean dramas could end in tragedy.

According to reports from South Korean news outlets Chosun TV and Korea JoongAng Daily, around 30 middle schoolers were publicly shot last week for watching South Korean dramas.

The shows were reportedly stored on USBs that were floated over the border by North Korean defectors.

Business Insider was unable to independently verify the report.

South Korean officials did not comment directly on the report, but according to Korea JoongAng Daily, one unnamed South Korean Unification Ministry official told reporters that "it is widely known that North Korean authorities strictly control and harshly punish residents based on the three so-called 'evil' laws."

One of these is North Korea's Reactionary Ideology and Culture Rejection Act, which forbids individuals from disseminating media that originates in South Korea, the US, or Japan.

It is unclear whether those restrictions apply to foreigners visiting the country, like the Russian schoolchildren preparing to attend summer camps in the country.

Greg Scarlatoiu, the executive director of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, told BI that "under the circumstances created by the intensified crackdown on information from the outside world, initially conducted under the pretext of COVID, these reports are definitely plausible."

This is not the first instance of North Koreans reportedly being killed for their association with content from their southern neighbor.

According to a 2022 UN Secretary-General report, a man in Kangwon Province was killed by a public firing squad after his neighborhood watch unit saw him selling digital content from South Korea.

A 2024 report on North Korean Human Rights, released by South Korea's Ministry of Unification, claimed that phones in North Korea are regularly checked for "South Korean-style language" and that wearing white wedding dresses is punished for being "reactionary".

A video was released earlier this year showing two teenagers being sentenced to 12 years of hard labor for watching a K-pop video.

Despite eyewitness accounts compiled by Amnesty International, the North Korean government has denied that public executions take place in the country.

According to North Korean authorities, the last execution took place in 1992.

North Korea is still technically at war with its southern counterpart, with their conflict in the 1950s ending in a truce rather than a peace treaty.

A defector told the Korea Herald that in 2020, North Korean parents were forced to sign a pledge stating they would ensure their children do not watch "impure video content" at home.

Recently, experts have speculated that North Korean military personnel could be sent to aid Russian efforts in Ukraine, following closer ties between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russia's President Vladimir Putin.

Representatives from North Korea didn't immediately reply to requests for comment.

(source: Yahoo News)

INDIA:

Bombay HC Forms Special Bench For 7/11 Train Blasts Convicts' Appeals And Death Penalty Confirmation

A day after the 18th anniversary of the 7/11 serial train blasts in the city, a special bench of the Bombay High Court was formed comprising Justices AS Kilor and Shyam Chandak to hear the appeals filed by convicts and the death confirmation plea filed by the state government in the case.

A notice was issued by the high court Registrar on Friday stating that a special of Justices Anil Kilor and Shyam Chandak will take up the case from July 15 onwards. The notice comes shortly after Ehtesham Siddique, one of the convicts who was sentenced to death penalty, filed an application through his lawyer Yug Chaudhary seeking early hearing of the matter.

Last week, Chaudhary had told a bench of Justices Bharati Dangre and Manjusha Deshpande that the accused have been behind bars for the last 18 years and their appeals have not been taken up for hearing yet. He had also pointed out that this is one of the oldest confirmation case pending before the HC. The bench had then remarked that 18 years was indeed too “long a time” and had said steps would be taken to ensure that the appeals are heard.

Since the appeals and confirmation plea was filed, the matter has been listed before at least 10 different benches. However, the same could not be taken up for hearing due to various reasons, primary being voluminous documents and evidence — 192 prosecution witnesses, 51 defence witnesses, 190 huge volumes of papers.

Special public prosecutor Raja Thakare and Chaudhary had informed that the hearing into the appeals would take at least six months. On July 11, 2006, RDX blasts at seven locations on the suburban rail network of Mumbai in a span of 11 minutes had claimed 189 lives and injured 800.

In September 2015, the special MCOCA court had awarded death sentences to five convicts and life imprisonment to seven others. The state government then filed an appeal in HC seeking confirmation of the death penalty. A death sentence awarded by the trial court has to be confirmed by the HC. The convicts too filed an appeal against their conviction and the state also filed a plea.

(source: freepressjournal.in)

*******************

HC judge recuses himself from hearing NIA plea seeking death penalty for Yasin Malik

Delhi High Court judge Amit Sharma on Thursday recused himself from hearing a plea by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) seeking death penalty for separatist leader Yasin Malik in a terror funding case.

The matter was listed before a division bench headed by Justice Prathiba M Singh after a change in the roster of judges dealing with such cases.

"List before another bench, of which Justice Sharma is not a member, on August 9," Justice Singh said.

(source: ptinews.com)

*******************>{? Rajkot game zone fire: Social organisations demand property seizure, death sentence for accused----As of now, 15 individuals have been arrested in connection with this incident, none of whom are leaders or office bearers.

Various organisations protested at the Collector's office in Rajkot regarding the TRP Game Zone tragedy, that claimed 27 lives. They fervently demanded the death penalty for all the accused and urged for the confiscation of their assets, echoing these demands through passionate slogans at the office premises.

Social organisation Activist Kana Kubawat stated, 'All those responsible for the TRP Game Zone fire incident must face strict punishment, such as life imprisonment. The main offender should receive capital punishment to deter future perpetrators.”

“Additionally, the investigation must be conducted with utmost sincerity and impartiality, ensuring accountability without exceptions for any leader or official. Furthermore, the assets of the arrested individuals should be confiscated and allocated to the families of the victims. Today, we bring the symbol of justice, urging authorities to remove their blindfold and deliver justice against such criminals,” he added.

Recently, On July 10, the families of the victims met with Gujarat CM Bhupendra Patel. During the meeting, they put forth several requests, including an inquiry overseen by a panel of retired judges, a prompt trial process, and compensation of Rs 50 lakh per family.

Rajkot fire victims’ kin threaten march if no justice in 6 months

They presented a memorandum to CM Patel, which also calls for a CBI investigation into current and former corporators, local MLAs, the mayor, the standing committee chairman, as well as relevant IAS and IPS officers, to ascertain responsibility for permitting the game zone to operate in breach of multiple regulations. They cautioned that failing to meet their demands would lead to a protest campaign.

As of now, 15 individuals have been arrested in connection with this incident, none of whom are leaders or office bearers. Among those apprehended are managers of the TRP Game Zone, municipal officials and other officials implicated in the case.

The incident occurred on May 25 when a devastating fire engulfed TRP Game Zone in Rajkot city, claiming the lives of 27 individuals, including four children. Allegedly, the facility was operated by a private company without the required no-objection certificate from the fire department.

(source: newindianexpress.com)

*********************

Kerala Mother Awaits Return Of Son Freed From Saudi Death Row After 18 Years----The path to Rahim's return was paved by a remarkable fundraising effort amounting to Rs 34 crore, which was paid as blood money per the orders of a Saudi Arabian court.

In 2006, Rahim, who worked as an auto driver, had sought better opportunities in the Gulf.

At elderly Fatima's house in Kozhikode, Kerala, there's an overwhelming sense of joy as her son, Abdul Rahim, who had been on death row in Saudi Arabia, is finally set to return home after receiving a pardon. Fatima has waited anxiously for 18 years and her prayers has now been answered with Rahim's imminent return.

The path to Rahim's return was paved by a remarkable fundraising effort amounting to Rs 34 crore, which was paid as blood money per the orders of a Saudi Arabian court. This payment was crucial as the court had ruled that failure to provide the money would result in Rahim's execution. The funds were delivered in April, and the court accepted them, facilitating the legal process for Rahim's release, as per a report on IANS.

Fatima expressed her elation, eagerly awaiting her son's arrival, saying, "Even though he calls me, it's not enough. I just can't wait to see my son; I hope he comes home soon."

Rahim's nephew also shared in the excitement, mentioning that Rahim's lawyer had been informed by the Saudi Arabian court to be present on Sunday. "The lawyer told us that on Sunday, we will know when Rahim will finally be released. Once released, he will fly back home, and the entire village is eagerly awaiting his return," the nephew said, as per the report.

"With the release order in place, every minute feels like an hour," he added.

Rahim, who worked as an auto driver, had sought better opportunities in the Gulf. In 2006, he moved to Saudi Arabia and worked as a personal driver and caregiver for a physically challenged 15-year-old boy who required a medical device to breathe externally.

Rahim recounted an unfortunate incident when the boy misbehaved while he was driving and as he tried to make him silent he accidentally disconnected the medical device resulting in the boy's death. Saudi Arabia's court convicted Rahim of murder, a verdict upheld by the appeals court in 2022 and subsequently confirmed by the Supreme Court of the country.

Following extensive negotiations with the Saudi family, an agreement was reached for blood money, finally paving the way for Rahim's long-awaited freedom.

(source: abplive.com)

***********************************************