02. August 2005

USBEKISTAN

Aufhebung der Todesstrafe in Usbekistan bis zum Jahre 2008

TASCHKENT, 02. August (RIA Nowosti). Der Präsident von Usbekistan, Islam Karimow, hob per Erlass die Todesstrafe in seinem Land ab dem Jahr 2008 auf.

In dem Erlass, der am Dienstag veröffentlicht wurde, ist festgelegt, dass „ab 1. Januar 2008 die Todesstrafe als Form der strafrechtlichen Verurteilung aufgehoben und durch lebenslange oder langjährige Haftstrafen ersetzt wird“. Die Regierung des Landes wurde angewiesen, eine Verordnung über Maßnahmen zum Bau und zur Vorbereitung der Inbetriebnahme von spezialisierten Gefängniskomplexen zu verabschieden, die für die Unterbringung von Häftlingen, die zu lebenslanger oder einer langjährigen Freiheitsstrafe verurteilt wurden, erforderlich sind.

Bei der Erringung der Unabhängigkeit enthielt das Strafrecht von Usbekistan mehr als 30 Paragraphen, die die Todesstrafe vorsahen. Im Strafgesetzbuch von Usbekistan ging die Zahl derartiger Delikte im Jahre 1994 auf 13, im Jahre 1998 auf acht und im Jahre 2001 auf vier Arten von Straftaten zurück. Seit der Umsetzung eines Komplexes von Maßnahmen zur Liberalisierung des Strafrechts im Jahre 2003 ist die Anwendung der Todesstrafe nur noch bei zwei Straftaten vorgesehen: Vorsätzlicher Mord unter verschärfenden Voraussetzungen und Terrorismus. Unabhängig von der Schwere der begangenen Straftat verbietet die Gesetzgebung die Anwendung der Todesstrafe bei Minderjährigen, Frauen und Personen über 60 Jahre.

[  rian.ru

July / August

USA

Im juli und august hingerichtet :

6. juli  -  Alexander Martinez  -   TX  -   Lethal Injection

12. juli  -   Robert Conklin  -   GA  -   Lethal Injection

19. juli  -   Michael Pennington  -   OK  -   Lethal Injection

27. juli  -   Kevin Conner  -   IN  -   Lethal Injection

28. juli  -   David Martinez  -   TX  -   Lethal Injection

4. august  -   George Sibley Jr.  -   AL  -   Lethal Injection

10. august  -   Gary Sterling  -   TX  -   Lethal Injection

11.august  -   Kenneth Turrentine  -   OK  -   Lethal Injection

30. July 2005

CHINA

in china gibt es 18 dieser fahrbaren hinrichtungsautos.

MOBILE EXECUTION CHAMBER

Chinese police lead a condemned man into a special execution van, where he will be put to death immediately following his sentencing by a court, in Xian, central China's Shaanxi province. An anti-capital punishment group reported at least 5,000 of the 5,476 known executions worldwide in 2004 were held in China. While the actual number of executions in China remains a closely guarded state secret, the Beijing government insists it needs to maintain a tough line on crimes.

[  gulf-times.com

dazu gab es schon mehrere berichte von amnesty:

[  Chinese use mobile death vans to execute prisoners

[  Death Penalty in China

30. July 2005

ST LUCIA

in st. lucia wird die erste hinrichtung seit 10 jahren vorbereitet. Im vor kurzem gebauten bordelais correctinal knast wird zur zeit der galgen "getestet".

St Lucia to resume executions

St Lucia is set to resume executions of prisoners on death row, for the first time in more than a decade.The move comes as the government grapples with a significant rise in violent crime.

Attorney General Victor La Corbiniere told Caribbean Net News on Thursday that procedures for hanging are being activated in the case of one individual whose appeals have been exhausted.The gallows at the recently built Bordelais Correctional Facility are yet to be tested; and this would be St Lucia's 1st execution since Solomon Vitalis was hung, more than ten years ago, for the murder of a Dominican accountant.

La Corbiniere said, "Constitutionally, there is a framework for the death penalty (in St Lucia)."As for the impact of capital punishment on crime, the Attorney General believes "in a small country... there will be a stronger deterrent effect."The news has been met with opposition from local human rights lawyer, Mary Francis, who called the government's moves "premature."

"Government has a duty to do the right thing regardless of if it is unpopular" try to sensitize and change public opinion in St Lucia, to the point or the thinking that having the death penalty is not the right way to solve violent crime," Francis said.There are currently 4 men at Bordelais Prison who have been handed the death penalty.They include Kim John and Francis Phillip, who were convicted of the brutal New Year's Day attack on worshippers at a Catholic Church in the capital, Castries.

The unrelenting wave of violent attacks which is sweeping through the country is showing no sign of easing.Recorded homicides on the island, so far for this year, are more than double the number for the same period last year.The Government has refused to provide a firm date when the first execution will be carried out.Attorney General La Corbiniere believes that once the procedures for hanging get underway, there will be detractors who will try to stall the process.

[  caribbeannetnews.com

27. July 2005

PALESTINE

im gaza city central knast wurde ein wegen mord verurteilter mann hingerichtet.

Palestinian Authority executes convicted murderer

The Palestinian Authority executed a convicted murderer on Wednesday, defying international calls to halt capital punishment as part of reforms considered key to securing future Palestinian statehood.

An official statement said Raed al-Mughrabi, 32, was hanged in Gaza City's central prison.Mughrabi was convicted of murder and robbery in 2001 and the execution was approved by President Mahmoud Abbas, the statement said.Last month, three men were hanged and a fourth was killed by a firing squad after they confessed in a Gaza City court to murder. They were the first executions carried out in Palestinian-ruled areas since 2001.

Abbas is under domestic pressure to curb crime that has run rampant in the Gaza Strip and West Bank during 4-1/2 years of conflict with Israel.The capital punishment issue is especially acute when it comes to dozens of Palestinians jailed on charges of spying for Israel, a major crime in tight-knit Arab society.Palestinian officials said in April that planned executions of 15 convicted informers were suspended after complaints by the European Union, the biggest aid donor to the Palestinians.

Human rights groups have complained of a lack of due process of law in the judicial proceedings that have led to executions.In its statement on Wednesday's hanging, the Palestinian Authority said Mughrabi's case had gone through "all legal procedures" and he was tried and executed "in accordance with criminal law and Islamic law".

[  alertnet.org

Minutes before hanging, murderer admits another slaying

In Gaza, a Palestinian executed late Wednesday in Gaza City confessed from the gallows to another, previously unsolved homicide.A statement from the Palestinian Authority Interior Ministry said that the execution was carried out against Ra?zed Al Mughrabi, a resident of Jabalia refugee camp, "for committing a homicide one year ago."A Palestinian civil court had convicted Al Mughrabi for his role in a 1st-degree murder, which he confessed before judges in the case.

Al Mughrabi "confessed before being hanged that he committed another homicide before he committed the 1st one," said the Interior Ministry statement.The statement added that Palestinian police had failed to solve the earlier case.Since the beginning of the year, according to a survey conducted by the Interior Ministry, crime has increased in the Palestinian territories, including 54 slayings.

Families of victims had been repeatedly demonstrating in the streets of the Gaza Strip, urging Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to enforce the law and execute murderers.Palestinian security sources reported that there are more than 50 Palestinians convicted of murder and sitting on death row, awaiting higher decisions to enforce their executions.Abbas and Interior Minister General Nasser Yousef have vowed that deteriorating security in the Palestinian territories would soon be halted and law and order reimposed.

[  khaleejtimes.com

21. July 2005

IRAN

Iran Gay Teens Executed

öffentliche hinrichtung von zwei jugendlichen in der stadt mashhad.die offizielle version ist das die beiden einen 13jährigen vergewaltigt haben sollen, andere quellen behaupten das urteil sei begründet mit homosexualität.

[  read more here:

05. JULY 2005

UGANDA

nachdem ein gericht die klage der fast 500 zum tod verurteilten menschen abgelehnt hat und die todesstrafe als "rechtmäßig" erklärt hat, klagen die menschen jetzt vor dem obersten gericht.

Death Penalty Challenge Extended to Supreme Court

Hundreds of death row inmates in prisons of Luzira, Kampala and the Jinja-based Kirinya, have not rested their case.

The group challenging their sentence has now gone to the Supreme Court to challenge the June 10 decision by a lower court that death sentence is constitutional.Through their advocates, Katende and Ssempebwa Advocates, the condemned prisoners numbering to about 500, maintain that the death penalty is cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.The government has on the other hand appealed to the same court against some sections of the Constitutional Court judgement.

The court held that it is unconstitutional to keep condemned prisoners on the death row for over three years, after the Supreme Court has confirmed their sentences. It also scrapped the mandatory death sentences in some capital sentences and said the condemned prisoners would have a right to appeal against their sentence once the state fails to hang them in three years after the Supreme Court confirms their sentences.It was a two to three judges decision passed by Justices Galdino Okello, Amos Twinomujuni and Constance Byamugisha. Justices Alice Mpagi Bahigeine and Stephen Kavuma dismissed the entire petition.

In the appeal filed at the Mengo-based Supreme Court on June 24, the Attorney General, who strongly defended the death penalty at the hearing, says the lower court's orders scrapping mandatory sentencing and giving the convicts a right of appeal should be quashed.Both the Attorney General and the lawyers representing the condemned prisoners are yet to respond to each other's appeal before hearing dates are set.

Despite declining to scrap the death sentence, the court said it would within its discretion have a right of substituting the sentences of the prisoners to life imprisonment or any other, depending on the circumstances of their particular cases, if they are not hanged or released within a three-year period.They said execution after a lengthy jail term is like double punishment, given the "depressing and intolerable conditions in prisons that often result into the death of very many prisoners before their actual execution." "These prisoners are left in suspense for a long time. They live in constant fear for several years because they are not sure about when they would be executed, and they at the same time witness their colleagues being taken for execution," Justice Okello said.

The court observed that the prisoners are kept on the death row for between five and six years.On mandatory sentencing, the court said it takes away the principal of fair hearing, the judges' discretion in determination of a sentence and the right for a convict to mitigate before they are sentenced.Uganda has executed up to 377 people, including one woman, since 1938. Of those, President Yoweri Museveni's government sent 51 people to the gallows since it took over power in 1986.

[  allafrica.com

04. July 2005

SRI LANKA

in einem artikel zum todesurteil gegen 5 männer die einen richter ermordet haben soll steht das seit 28 jahren keine todesurteil mehr vollstreckt wurde. Einen antrag, die todesstrafe abzuschaffen und die urteile in lebenslänglich umzuwandeln wurde 2001 abgelehnt.

* Death sentence for judge killers *

Five men are sentenced to death in Sri Lanka for killing a high-profile judge in November last year.

Death sentence for judge killers

Five men have been sentenced to death in Sri Lanka for killing a high-profile judge in November last year.Judge Sarath Ambepitiya, who was renowned for his tough sentences on underworld figures, was shot dead as he arrived home from court.The five men convicted at the Colombo High Court were said to be members of a gang linked to the drugs trade.The government set up a special security unit to protect the judiciary after the killing.Police chief Chandra Fernando personally took over the investigation.

Gang leader

The assassination on 19 November prompted President Chandrika Kumaratunga to reaffirm her country's commitment to capital punishment, saying it applied for murder, rape and drug trafficking.No executions have been carried out for 28 years in Sri Lanka, although a move to commute all death sentences to life in prison was revoked in January 2001.The five men sentenced to death can take their case to the Court of Appeal and if that fails, go to the Supreme Court and, finally, ask for clemency from the president.

The man said to be the gang's leader, Potta Nauffer, was among those convicted.Judge Ambepitiya's bodyguard also died in the assassination in Colombo.The attack was the first time the judiciary had been targeted in a country where political figures have frequently come under fire.Judge Ambepitiya had just given a life sentence to a woman drug trafficker when he was killed.

In 2002, the judge also sentenced the leader of the Tamil Tiger rebels, Velupillai Prabhakaran, to 200 years in jail in absentia over a 1996 bomb attack.The truck bombing of the Central Bank in Colombo killed 91 people.

[  bbc.co.uk

02. JULY 2005

PHILIPPINES

21 kinder / jugendliche ( keine genaue angaben wie alt die menschen sind) sind zum tod verurteilt. In dem artikel über die seit 10 jahre bestehende kampagne zur einführung eines ?comprehensive juvenile justice law? steht u.a. das eine der vorgeschlagenen teile des gesetzes die anhebung des alters der strafmündigkeit von 9 auf 12 jahre ist.

21 children in jail await execution

Bill to save them gathers dust in Congress

TWENTY-ONE of the 2,000 or so children in jail throughout the country are on death row, an official of the Council for the Welfare of Children (CWC) has said.Eighty percent of the 2,000 are first-time offenders, and 11 percent are girls.In an interview with INQ7.net, CWC executive director Lina Laigo said the 21 condemned children were either convicted of homicide or murder.

"But nobody bothered to look into the circumstances of their crimes," said Laigo, a former secretary of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).In some instances, juvenile suspects were tried as adults for lack of record on their age, she said. "But there are other ways of determining a person's age aside from birth certificates."The CWC, DSWD and the United Nations Children's Fund have been lobbying Congress to enact the proposed Comprehensive Juvenile Justice Law. It seeks to provide special protection to children in conflict with the law.

Laigo said the bill has four key provisions: raise the child's age from nine to 12 years old to be criminally liable, establish separate detention centers for children, provide a diversion program to keep them out of jail, and to institute "restorative justice" in the law.Restorative justice, Laigo explained, essentially seeks to repair the damage done to victims. This way, public safety is enhanced as the offender, victim, and the community come together to prevent juvenile delinquency.

The campaign for the protection of child offenders has been going on for 10 years, and the bill to comprehensively address juvenile felony has been waiting Congressional action since 1998. However, it has been sidelined by other issues, Laigo lamented."We started five congresses ago," she said. "Maybe we don't realize that children, especially children in conflict with the law, must be given priority."Child advocates maintain that "jail is no place for a child" and a death sentence is too heavy a verdict for erring children.

[  news.inq7.net

12. JUNE 2005

PALESTINE

4 männer wurden in gaza hingerichtet, die ersten hinrichtungen seit 2002.

PA brings back death penalty

The Palestinian Authority on Sunday carried out the first executions in the country since 2002, reversing a stay imposed in response to international pressure.Four men who confessed to murders in a Gaza court were killed on Sunday - three by hanging, one by firing squad."Three of the four were executed by hanging and the fourth by firing squad," interior ministry spokesperson Tawfiq Abu Husa told reporters on Sunday.

"All of them were sentenced to death for murder," Mr. Abu Housa said, adding that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas rejected requests for a stay of execution.The executions come as a new sign of the Palestinian Authority's (PA) efforts to rein in lawlessness, a spokesman said.According to analysts, the death penalty is expected to be opposed by the European Union, top donor to the PA.The Palestinian leader signed the execution order on Saturday, Mr. Abu Housa said.

"There is a new policy of enforcing the law to face and fight the chaos and lawlessness in the Palestinian territories," Mr. Abu Housa said.According to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, with Sunday?s execution orders included, only nine death sentences had been carried out since the formation of the Palestinian Authority in 1994 - out of 70 imposed by the courts.Under heavy international criticism of the measure, the former Palestinian President Yasser Arafat stopped authorising executions in 2002.

Responding to pressure from Palestinians to end "security chaos" in the Gaza Strip - Abbas asked the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, on February for an Islamic legal ruling on the death penalty.Palestinian officials said last March that some 15 prisoners on death row would be executed by the end of the month, in the first use of capital punishment since August 2002, however, the first execution was carried out on Sunday.

Sheikh Sabri reviewed 51 cases - about half concerning alleged collaborators with Israel, an especially sensitive issue.Sheikh Sabri recommended the resumption of executions saying that delaying the execution orders "encouraged the phenomenon of revenge in the Palestinian community".

[  aljazeera.com

Palestinian rights group critical of Abbas' support for death penalty

Sunday's executions approved by Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, under intense internal pressure to stamp out rampant crime, appeared to be an attempt to deter criminals and send a message to the public.

The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) has carried out four death sentences this morning in Gaza City. PCHR is gravely concerned about this development, the first executions since 2002, and reiterates that the death penalty constitutes a violation of the right to life. It is a cruel and inhumane punishment that does not serve to deter crimes. PCHR calls upon President Abbas again not to convert death sentences and the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) to repeal legislation related to the death penalty.

In the early hours of this morning, Sunday, 12 June 2005, the PNA carried out death sentences handed down against four prisoners convicted of murder and other crimes between 1995 and 2000. The executions took place between 04:00 and 05:00 this morning in the police compound (al-Jawazat) and the main security compound (Saraya) in Gaza City without any prior announcement that they were to be carried out.

1. Mohammed Daoud al-Khawaja, 24, from al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza. Al-Khawaja was sentenced to death by the Higher State Security Court on 12 September 2000 after he had been convicted of murdering Mustafa Baroud on 5 September 2000. He was executed by firing squad in al-Jawazat compound.

2. Wa'el Sha'ban al-Shoubaki, 33, from Gaza. Al-Shoubaki was sentenced to death by Gaza Central Court on 15 March 1996 after having been convicted of murdering Suhail al-Sayed. He was hanged in Saraya compound.

3. 'Ouda Mohammed Abu 'Azab, 27, from Khan Yunis. ?Azab was sentenced to death by Gaza Central Court on 31 October 1995 after having been convicted of kidnapping and murder. He was hanged in Saraya compound.

4. Salah Khalil Musallam, 27, from Khan Yunis. Musallam was sentenced to death by a criminal court on 25 January 1996 after having been convicted of murder and robbery. He was hanged in Saraya compound.

These executions have been the first since 7 August 2002, when the PNA executed Bashir Sameeh 'Abdul Latif who had been convicted by a military court in Ramallah on 1 August 2002 of murdering Halima and Tamam 'Abdullah Qutairi. According to PCHR's documentation, the PNA has carried out nine death sentences since its establishment in 1994 and a further nine prisoners have been killed in other circumstances, included extra-judicially killed by gunmen who attacked prisons and court houses. Palestinian courts have handed down 73 death sentences since 1994.

On 7 February 2005, PCHR sent a letter to the newly elected Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas calling upon him not to convert death sentences. PCHR reiterated its stance in that letter that the death penalty constitutes a blatant violation of the right to life and is a cruel and inhumane punishment. PCHR further noted to President Abbas that there is a global trend towards abolishing the death penalty as it has been proven not to deter crimes in countries which it has been applied. At that time, PCHR called upon the PLC to immediately repeal death penalty legislation.

It is significant that the majority of death sentences were issued by the State Security Court which was established by the PNA in 1995. PCHR has previously and consistently criticised the existence of this court which lacks minimum standards for a fair trial - security officers act as judges, trials are summary and do not allow time for defense cases to be formed and verdicts and sentences delivered are not subject to appeal.

PCHR is gravely concerned that the implementation of these four sentences could be a prelude to more death sentences being carried out in the near future. While PCHR emphasises the rule of law, it reiterates its rejection for the death penalty. The death penalty is a cruel and inhumane punishment which violates the right to life:

PCHR calls upon the PNA and the PLC to formally abolish the death penalty in Palestinian legislation and convert death sentences issued to prison sentences. As the majority of death sentences were issued by the State Security Court, PCHR calls for a review of these sentences by civil courts.

PCHR is concerned about the criteria used to select these four prisoners for execution in favour of other prisoners who have been issued death sentences. PCHR notes that all those who were executed were convicted of criminal offences and not of collaboration with Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) for which a number of persons have been sentenced to death. PCHR rejects the selective implementation of all court rulings and asserts that dozens of decisions issued by Palestinian courts, including the Palestine High Court of Justice, but have not been so far implemented.

[  electronicintifada.net

13. JUNE 2005

USA

artikel über die entscheidung des supreme courts die todesstrafe gegen thomas miller-el ( texas) wegen rassismus aufzuheben und einen neuen prozeß anzuordnen

Supreme Court reverses conviction of Texas death row inmate claiming racial bias

(AP) - WASHINGTON-The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday overturned the conviction of a black death row inmate who said Texas prosecutors unfairly stacked his jury with whites, issuing a harsh rebuke to the state that executes more people than any other.The 6-3 ruling ordered a new trial for Thomas Miller-El, who challenged his conviction for the 1985 murder of a 25-year-old Dallas motel clerk. It was the second time justices reviewed the case after a lower court refused to reconsider Miller-El's claims.The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans was wrong to reaffirm the conviction in light of the strong evidence of prejudice, justices said.

[  findlaw.com

Death Row Conviction Overturned Over Race

Supreme Court Reverses Conviction of Black Texas Death Row Inmate Claiming Racial Bias

WASHINGTON Jun 13, 2005 - The Supreme Court overturned the conviction of a black death row inmate who said Texas prosecutors unfairly stacked his jury with whites, issuing a harsh rebuke to the state that executes more people than any other.The 6-3 ruling Monday ordered a new trial for Thomas Miller-El, who challenged his conviction for the 1985 murder of a 25-year-old Dallas motel clerk. It was the second time justices reviewed the case after a lower court refused to reconsider Miller-El's claims.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans was wrong to reaffirm the conviction by a state court in light of the strong evidence of prejudice during jury selection, justices said.The state court's conclusion that the prosecutors' strikes of people from the jury pool was "not racially determined is shown up as wrong to a clear and convincing degree; the state court's conclusion was unreasonable as well as erroneous," Justice David H. Souter wrote for the majority.

In the opinion, Souter noted that black jurors were questioned more aggressively about the death penalty, and the pool was "shuffled" at least twice by prosecutors, apparently to increase the chances whites would be selected.He was joined by Justices John Paul Stevens, Sandra Day O'Connor, Anthony Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer.

"The prosecutors' chosen race-neutral reasons for the strikes do not hold up and are so far at odds with the evidence that pretext is the fair conclusion, indicating the very discrimination the explanations were meant to deny," Souter wrote."At least two of the jury shuffles conducted by the state make no sense except as efforts to delay consideration of black jury panelists," Souter said, adding that it "blinks reality" to deny jurors were struck because they were black.

Since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976, Texas has executed over one-third of the more than 900 people put to death in the United States.Justices last year issued stinging reversals in three cases involving Texas death penalty convictions on various grounds, a striking number for a conservative-leaning court that generally favors capital punishment. All the cases involved black defendants.

Miller-El contends that Dallas County prosecutors had a long history of excluding blacks from juries and pointed to training manuals that were distributed to prosecutors from the 1960s into the early 1980s. The manuals advised prosecutors to remove blacks or Jews from death penalty juries on the theory that those groups would be more sympathetic to criminal defendants.At trial, he was convicted by a 12-member jury that included one black. Prosecutors struck nine of the 10 blacks eligible to serve.

In a dissent, Justice Clarence Thomas argued that Texas prosecutors had offered enough evidence that exclusions were made for reasons other than race.For instance, the state's explanation that jurors were struck based on their hostility to the death penalty is plausible, and the alleged racial motivation behind prosecutors' decision to shuffle the jury pool is only speculative, wrote Thomas, the court's only black member.

"In view of the evidence actually presented to the Texas courts, their conclusion that the state did not discriminate was eminently reasonable," Thomas wrote in an opinion joined by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justice Antonin Scalia.Last year, the Supreme Court overturned two Texas death sentences because jurors were not told of the defendants' learning disabilities. They were LaRoyce Lathair Smith, convicted for the 1991 killing of a Taco Bell manager in Dallas, and Robert Tennard, charged with killing a Houston neighbor in 1985.

The court also lifted Delma Banks' death sentence and delivered a strong criticism of Texas officials and lower courts, saying that prosecutors had hid crucial information that might have helped Banks' case.

The case is Miller-El v. Dretke, 03-9659.

In a separate case, the Supreme Court made it easier Monday for California defendants to claim racial bias in jury selection, siding 8-1 with a black man who was convicted of killing his white girlfriend's baby.Jay Shawn Johnson argued that prosecutors' dismissal of potential black jurors was unconstitutional. He was convicted by an all-white jury.Justice John Paul Stevens, writing for the majority, ruled the California standard for showing jury bias was too strict. Justice Clarence Thomas dissented, saying a state has a right to craft its own rules.

The case is Johnson v. California, 04-6964.

[  Supreme Court

[  abcnews.go.com

03. JUNI 2005

BARBADOS

die regierung von barbados wird vor dem kürzlich eingesetzten carribean court of justice für die wiedereinsetzung der todesstrafe gegen zwei männer klagen.Das höchste gericht in barbados hat die gegen die zwei männer verhängte todesstrafe in lebenslänglich umgewandelt.

Barbados may take first death penalty case to the CCJ

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados: The Barbados government may take its first death penalty case to the recently inaugurated Caribbean Court of Justice.It's possible that the government could approach that court to restore the death sentences of Jeffrey Joseph and Lennox Boyce, which were commuted to life imprisonment by the country's Court of Appeal earlier this week.

They had been previously sentenced to hang for the 1999 brutal murder of 22-year-old Marquelle Hippolyte, and death warrants were read to them on two occasions.Attorney General, Mia Mottley says while she has not had a chance to study the court?s ruling comprehensively, it appears to be a judgment that can be appealed. "Over the course of the next week or two, we will review our position and make a determination as to the question of the appeal," she said.Ms. Mottley says the order of the court has been stayed for 21 days and government therefore has sufficient time within which to make the determination.

"If the government does appeal we would have to apply for that stay to be extended because the case would not have received its final determination by Barbados" final court of appeal (CCJ) as yet," she said.

The Attorney General indicated that government was aware that whichever side was successful in the Barbados Court of Appeal, it was likely that the CCJ would have been called upon to ultimately settle the matter.With Barbados having signed on to the appellate jurisdiction of the CCJ, if the Boyce and Joseph case is heard there, that decision will be final.It was on Tuesday that the Barbados Court of Appeal considered whether the murderers constitutional rights were breached when death warrants were read to them before they had completed their full round of appeals.

The judges also noted that the five-year period before death sentences can be commuted is less than eight months away and the two-year delay before the appeals of Boyce and Joseph went to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council pushes the time for the completion of those appeals over the limit. Therefore, it said, a report from the Inter-American Human Rights Committee could not be compiled and reviewed by the Privy Council within the specified time.The court ruled that the delay was not the fault of the appellants and in view of the time frame and the circumstances of the case, the proper order would be to commute the sentences.

[  caribbeannetnews.com

23. MAI 2005

USA

der supreme court entschied daß wegen mord angeklagte menschen denen die todesstrafe droht, nicht in hand- und fußschellen vor einem geschworenengericht erscheinen sollen.

Court: Shackles sway jurors in death cases

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court ruled Monday that murder defendants cannot be forced to appear in shackles and chains when a jury is deciding whether they should be sentenced to death or life in prison. By a 7-2 vote, the court said the constitutional guarantee of due process forbids the use of visible shackles unless the judge determines that there are "special circumstances" to justify the restraints, such as a concern that the defendant might escape.

"The appearance of the offender during the penalty phase in shackles ... almost inevitably implies to a jury ... that court authorities consider the offender a danger to the community," Justice Stephen Breyer wrote for the majority in the case of a Missouri man who was convicted of murdering an elderly couple. "It almost inevitably affects adversely the jury's perception of the character of the defendant."

Dissenting Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia said there is no deeply rooted legal bar to using shackles, and they said the majority failed to take into account the "dire security situation faced by this nation's courts." Problems with judicial security have been at the forefront of the news this year. In March, Brian Nichols, a rape defendant in a Fulton County, Ga., courthouse, allegedly overpowered a sheriff's deputy, retrieved the deputy's gun from a lockbox and then killed four people, including a judge.

The case before the high court Monday involved Carman Deck, who was convicted of killing an elderly couple in 1996. During a sentencing hearing, Deck was shackled with leg irons, handcuffs and a belly chain. His lawyer objected repeatedly, saying the jury might believe that Deck was a continuing threat that warranted the death penalty. The trial judge overruled the objections.

After he was sentenced to death, Deck appealed. He claimed that the use of shackles violated his rights to due process under the law. The Missouri Supreme Court rejected the claim. In reversing the state court Monday, the justices noted that the law has long forbidden the routine use of visible shackles during the guilt-or-innocence phase of a case. Breyer traced that prohibition to 18th-century notions that shackles were a form of torture. In the modern era, he said, courts had forbidden such visible restraints based on a concern that it signaled a need to separate a defendant from the community.

Breyer said the same concern arises when a jury is deciding whether a defendant should receive the death penalty. He said shackles may be used only when a judge finds that special security is necessary to control a defendant. The court's majority found no such special circumstances in Deck's case. Deck's attorney, Rosemary Percival, said Deck now would be subject to a new sentencing hearing. Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon said he was disappointed: "I think that courthouse and juror safety should be the priority." Also Monday, the court upheld a federal program that requires beef producers to pay $1 for each head of cattle sold in, or imported into, the USA for a fund that produces advertising such as the "Beef: It's What's for Dinner" campaign.

Ranchers had claimed that the "check off" fee, as it is called, was a violation of their free-speech rights. They said they should not have to pay for advertising that does not distinguish between American ranchers' grain-fed beef and imported beef. By a 6-3 vote, the court said the program represented a permissible fee for government speech.

[  usatoday.com

MAI 2005

USA

durch den staat ermordet:

3. mai 2005: Lonnie Pursley, Texas

6.mai 2005: Earl Richmond Jr. , North Carolina

Mai 2005: George Miller - Oklahoma

Mai 2005: Michael Ross - Connecticut

Mai 2005: Bryan Wolfe - Texas

Mai 2005: Vernon Brown ­ Missouri

Mai 2005: Richard Cartwright - Texas

[  National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty

18. MAI 2005

USA

von 11.30 - 14.32 mußte ein mann gefesselt auf der pritsche auf seine ermordung mit der giftspritze warten.

Death-penalty opponents decry inmate's three hours on gurney

ST. LOUIS - Death-penalty opponents objected to an inmate's three hours strapped to a gurney before his execution, saying the wait adds grist to their claims that death by injection is inhumane. The state Department of Corrections defended its treatment of Vernon Brown, saying the inmate never complained of discomfort and actually slept part of the time after taking a sedative he earlier had declined. "He was sentenced to death, not torture," Margaret Phillips of the Eastern Missouri Coalition to Abolish Death Penalty said of Vernon Brown's death. "Everything about it is unsettling. The fact that lethal injection might be painful, with or without the delay, is cause for immense distress. There was no good outcome." Brown, 51, was secured to the gurney in the death chamber at a prison in Bonne Terre, south of St. Louis, about 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, 31 minutes before his scheduled execution.

But U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas issued a temporary stay five minutes before the injections were to begin. Brown remained immobilized until the high court, by a 5-4 vote, gave the go-ahead about two hours later for the sentence to be carried out.

Brown, who while strapped down accepted a sedative and remained attached to an intravenous line, got the first of three injections at 2:32 a.m. Wednesday and was declared dead three minutes later. John Fougere, a spokesman for Missouri's prison system, said the Department of Corrections was following its protocol on keeping Brown on the gurney, having been advised by the Supreme Court to "remain in the ready position" during the stay it pressed was only temporary. "We did make sure the offender was not in any physical pain. He told us he was not," Fougere said, noting that Brown fell asleep shortly after taking the sedative about 1 a.m. The inmate was awakened shortly after the Supreme Court lifted the stay about 2:10 a.m.

Though some suggested that perhaps Brown could have been taken to his holding cell near the death chamber as his 11th-hour appeals were meted out, Fougere said that "when we were having thoughts about how long this would go, (the Supreme Court) assured us they were still working on it and to be on standby mode." Fougere said that in his eight years with the Department of Corrections, "I don't believe there's been a time the offender has been on the gurney this amount of time."

Among other things, Brown's attorneys had argued that the drugs used in lethal injection could cause excessive pain, citing a recent article in The Lancet medical journal with research "showing the three-chemical process used by some states to carry out lethal injections has the possibility of causing unnecessary cruelty and suffering." "What you saw this morning was part of a process that just doesn't work," said Diann Rust-Tierney, executive director of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. "There's no nice way of doing it, and there are problems inherent with it.

Brown's execution "is part of a continuum of disturbing things that take place," she said. Brown was put to death for the 1986 slaying of 9-year-old Janet Perkins, the St. Louis fourth-grader that Brown enticed into his home, bound with a coat hangar in his basement and strangled with a rope while his stepsons were locked in their bedroom. Her body was found the next day wrapped in trash bags in an alley behind Brown's house. Brown also had been sentenced to death in the 1985 death of 19-year-old Synetta Ford, whom Brown stabbed and eventually strangled with a curling iron cord.

Fougere said the Department of Corrections would analyze Brown's execution, as it does after any death sentence is carried out. "We do a complete debriefing on every aspect to see if we handled every situation in the right way, and this one is no different," he said.

[  kansascity.com

14. MAI 2005

USA

der supreme court des bundesstaates indiana hat entschieden das ein zum tod verurteilter der gesagt hat er wolle hingerichtet werden, dann aber seine meinung geändert hat, bei seiner einmal getroffenen entscheidung bleiben muß.

Inmate can't change mind about execution, court says

A Death Row inmate who said he wanted to be executed and then changed his mind must abide by his original decision, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled.

In a 3-1 decision Thursday, the high court said it would set a date for the execution of Joseph E. Corcoran, who was sentenced to death in 1999 for killing four people, including his brother and his sister's fiance. Corcoran waived his right to appeal in 2003 despite urgings from his attorneys and a judge, and refused to sign the paperwork authorizing the next legal step in the appeals process. He said at the time that he believed he should be put to death.

Corcoran recanted his decision to waive further appeals and asked the high court to dismiss the involuntary appeal so he could restart the process. The justices denied his request in January, but Corcoran appealed again. But the justices said Thursday that Corcoran had not signed paperwork for his appeal before the required deadline. Corcoran was convicted in the shooting deaths of his brother, James Corcoran, 30; Douglas A. Stillwell, 30; Robert Scott Turner, 32; and Timothy G. Bricker, 30. Turner was the fiance of Corcoran's sister.

[  indystar.com

13. MAI 2005

USA

in einem urteil am freitag, wurde nicht nur die todesstrafe gegen einen mann wieder eingesetzt, es wurde dem staat nebraska ebenfalls bescheinigt das die hinrichtung auf dem elektrischen stuhl nicht grausam ist. Nebraska ist der einzige Bundesstaat in dem diese Tötungsmethode noch angewandt wird, in 9 anderen Bundesstaaten ist der elektrische Stuhl ein so genanntes "alternatives Tötungsmittel ".

NE - Appeals court reinstates death penalty for Palmer by Electrocution
Appeals court reinstates death penalty for Palmer

LINCOLN (AP) - A federal appeals court said Friday that there is no evidence that Nebraska's use of the electric chair as its sole means of execution amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals made the comments about the electric chair in response to a broad appeal involving Nebraska death-row inmate Charles Jess Palmer.

Friday's opinion also, as expected, reversed a 2003 ruling by U.S. District Judge Joseph Bataillon of Omaha that vacated Palmer's death sentence. In 2003, Bataillon ruled that Palmer's murder conviction was valid, but he vacated Palmer's death sentence, citing a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court decision in an Arizona case that said juries - not judges - must decide whether a murder merits the death penalty.

While the U.S. Supreme Court left unclear whether its ruling should apply retroactively to inmates awaiting execution - Bataillon ruled that it did. The high court later said its ruling in the Arizona case was not retroactive, so lawyers involved in the case expected the death sentence to be reinstated. Bataillon stopped short of declaring electrocution unconstitutional in Palmer's case. But he said he had been prepared to rule that the electric chair amounts to cruel and unusual punishment because Nebraska is the only state in the country with electrocution as its sole means of carrying out the death penalty.

In Friday's ruling, Judge Roger Wollman wrote that "there is no argument even plausible that there are differences in the level of 'evolving decency' among the different circuits or states of the union, or over the last very few years, that justifies a holding that the practice of electrocution constitutes cruel and unusual punishment." That language was important because the Nebraska Supreme Court is now considering similar arguments in the case of death-row inmate Carey Dean Moore. Such arguments have been made before, but Moore's lawyer, Alan Peterson, argued before the high court earlier this month that the "evolving standard of human decency" has made the time ripe for the court to declare death by electrocution as cruel and unusual.

"Nebraska ... now is alone in the United States, actually in the whole world, in still requiring electrocution," he said. "Nebraska is the last holdout for this universally rejected and condemned sole means of capital punishment." No American court has ever ruled that electrocution amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. But as legal challenges were mounted against its use in recent years, others states adopted alternative methods such as lethal injection as a means of execution.

Solicitor General J. Kirk Brown argued that nine other states besides Nebraska still have electrocution as an alternative method of execution. "The very practice of electrocution has been upheld by other courts within the past year, and there is no argument even plausible that there are differences in the level of `evolving decency' among the different circuits or states of the union," he told the high court.

Palmer was convicted in the 1979 murder of coin dealer Eugene Zimmerman. Moore was sentenced to death for the 1979 murders of Omaha cab drivers Reuel Eugene Van Ness Jr. and Maynard D. Helegland during two robberies. Lawmakers have since changed Nebraska's law to require juries to decide if aggravating factors exist in a murder case to merit the death penalty. A panel of three judges then decides if the defendant should be executed. Three people - Harold Otey, John Joubert and Robert Williams - have been put to death in Nebraska since executions were resumed in 1994.

[  omaha.com

13. MAI 2005

SINGAPORE

am 13. mai wurde shanmugm murugesu, wegen dem schmuggel von cannabis ( 1.029,8 gramm), hingerichtet.

shanmugm murugesu was hanged on 13. of may, because of the smuggling of 1.029,8 gram.

[  Singapore: Calls for immediate moratorium on the death penalty

[  more infos: thinkcentre.org

Singapore anti-death penalty fight lives on

16. MAI 2005

When family and friends paid a final visit to Shanmugam Murugesu on the eve of his execution Friday, he urged them to press on with a rejuvenated campaign to end the death penalty in Singapore. There were eight other convicts waiting to be hanged at Changi Prison and he did not want them to die in isolation, one visitor recalled him saying.

Murugesu, 38, a former soldier, jet-ski champion and divorced father of two, was executed for trafficking 1,029.8 grams of marijuana, yet civil rights activists who had mounted the futile attempt to save him have vowed to fight on despite admitting it will be an uphill battle.

Interest stirred through unprecedented public efforts to save Murugesu by his family, friends and civil rights advocates has injected new life into the anti-death penalty campaign. Emboldened by the fledgling support, the campaigners hope to further galvanize public opinion at a time when the government is opening up and allowing the public to speak out more on controversial issues. A candlelit vigil for Murugesu held at a Singapore hotel this month attracted about 100 people - activists and opposition politicians as well as ordinary citizens, many of whom bought and wore T-shirts opposing the death penalty. ``I feel that tonight's event is a display of courage. I think we need the courage of a lot of people for things to change,'' said Iris Koh, a music teacher who volunteered to sing at the evening vigil.

Murugesu's lawyer, M Ravi, said fear in this famously tightly controlled city-state remains a a major factor preventing more people openly supporting the campaign. In an example of the extent authorities still monitor dissenters, an ``open mike session'' at the vigil in which the audience was invited to speak was abruptly ended just after the first speaker began to talk.

Organizers said plainclothes police officers stepped in and asked them to scrap that portion of the program. Singapore, which has some of the toughest laws in the world against drug trafficking, maintains that capital punishment is a crime deterrent contributing to the safety and security its residents now enjoy. A death sentence is mandatory for trafficking more than 15 grams of heroin, 30 grams of cocaine and 500 grams of cannabis, as well as for other crimes such as murder, treason, kidnapping and certain firearm offenses. For drugs, a person caught in possession of illegal substances is assumed to be trafficking, thus putting the burden of proof on to the accused.

The death penalty ``is part of a range of punishments which has helped keep crime rates and drug abuse rates in Singapore low,'' the Home Affairs Ministry said. ``We weigh the right to life of the convicted against the rights of victims and the rights of the community to live and work in peace and security. As a result, Singapore is one of the safest places in the world to live and work in,'' it said, adding Singapore has a ``well-respected and independent judiciary'' and its legal system had been consistently rated highly in global rankings. But civil rights advocates argue there is still room for error and first-time offenders such as Murugesu should be given a second chance. Human rights watchdog Amnesty International said last year more than 400 people had been executed in Singapore between 1991 and 2003, which it described as a ``shocking number'' for a nation of just more than four million people.

The Home Affairs Ministry said eight Singaporeans and foreigners were executed last year and 19 in 2003. Amnesty has criticized Singapore for releasing scant information about death row convicts and their conditions. Sinapan Samydorai, president of civil rights group Think Centre, said this was why Murugesu's cooperation in the anti-death penalty campaign was crucial. He told them about the eight other people waiting to be hanged. One already public case is that of Nguyen Tuong Van, an Australian man of Vietnamese descent who was convicted of drug charges.

[  thestandard.com.hk

APRIL 2005

USA

Using software to model death row outcomes

Convicts on death row can wait for years while appeals are filed and protests lodged. Many never get beyond this limbo. Others are executed.

What determines the final outcome? That is the question two professors, one a criminologist, the other a computer scientist, asked as they took 28 years of data on prisoners facing the death sentence and fed it into a software program.

What the software - known as an artificial neural network - managed to do was to predict with more than 90 percent accuracy who would be executed.

The implication, says Dee Wood Harper, one of the researchers and a professor of criminal justice at Loyola University in New Orleans, is that "if this mindless software can determine who is going to die and who is not going to die, then there's some arbitrariness here in the [United States justice] system." The neural network, which learns by constantly scanning the data for patterns, was given 1,000 cases from 1973 to 2000 where the outcome was known. Once trained on that information, it was fed another 300 cases but without the outcome included. That's when its prediction proved highly accurate. What some observers find alarming about the outcome is that the 19 points of data supplied on each death-row inmate contained no details of the case. Only facts such as age, race, sex, and marital status were included, along with the date and type of offense.

"That's what makes this important," Dr. Harper says. "We didn't look at the crime itself. We didn't look at whether the defendant had received a fair or unfair representation. We simply looked at characteristics of the inmate." Although the research is in its early stages, Harper and his colleague Stamos Karamouzis plan to refine the data group and gradually remove variables until the neural network loses its ability to predict and the most significant factors become apparent.

The clues are already there, Harper says. For instance, the state where someone is convicted is key. California has the largest number of inmates on death row and has executed just 12 people in the last 38 years, whereas Texas has been "an execution machine," he says. [Editor's note: The original version incorrectly counted the number of California executions in 38 years.] The reason, in part, is the appeals process, he says, which in Texas, Virginia, and Florida is "short-circuited" compared with other states.

"If you can die in Texas three times faster than you can die in Louisiana, or you happen to have committed a murder in one of the 38 states where the death penalty occurs, then that in itself is an arbitrary thing," Harper says. "You can be one foot over the line in the next state and not be subject to this kind of penalty."

Arbitrary imposition of the death penalty has long been an argument used by those who oppose it. In a 1972 Supreme Court case Furman v. Georgia, the court found evidence of "arbitrary and discriminatory" sentencing, which violated the Constitution and its provision against "cruel and unusual treatment." As a result, states were forced to reexamine their statutes for capital offenses to ensure that they weren't capriciously applied. A later 1976 Supreme Court case, Gregg v. Georgia, set in motion a restructuring of capital trials to provide a separate phase for sentencing including guidelines for jurors, again to create more fairness. Since 1977, more than 900 executions have taken place in the US.

"Despite all our efforts since the 1970s, who gets executed still appears to be random and arbitrary," says John Wright, a habeas corpus lawyer in Huntsville, home of Texas's execution facilities. He says it surprises him that the 19 factors used in the research could produce such accurate results. In response to Harper's comment that theoretically, "everybody who receives the same sentence for the same crime should receive the same punishment in the same period of time," Mr. Wright says, "it's a standard to which to hold the justice system, but it's not something we think about very much at all." The attitude and discretion of the judge and the effectiveness of the attorneys, he says, can have a major impact on the ultimate outcome of a trial. Harper and Professor Karamouzis are now working to further refine their software model to give the research greater impact.

[  csmonitor.com

29. april 2005

USA

todesurteil für einen us- soldaten der vor zwei jahren in kuwait 2 soldaten tötete und 14 verwundete.

US army sergeant sentenced to death in grenade attack: army

A US army sergeant was sentenced to death Thursday for the murder of two soldiers in a grenade attack at a US military camp in Kuwait at the outset of the Iraq war two years ago, the army said. "Sergeant Hasan Akbar was sentenced to death by a military panel here today at 8:40 pm," an army statement issued in Fort Bragg, North Carolina said. The statement said the results of the trial would be reviewed by Major General Virgil Packett, who may approve the sentence or reduce it all or in part. The case will automatically be reviewed by the Army Court of Criminal Appeals and then by the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces. Akbar apologized in court for the attack before a military panel pronounced its sentence at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, local television station WRAL reported. "I apologize for my actions," he was quoted as saying. "When I did that I felt my life was in jeopardy and I had other problems."

Akbar was the first soldier since the Vietnam war ended 30 years ago to face a death sentence for killing another soldier in wartime. The last military execution took place in 1961, but seven other service members have been sentenced to death since the military death penalty was reinstated in 1984. Defense lawyers had blamed mental illness for Akbar's actions on March 22, 2003. He was accused of rolling grenades into three tents at Camp Pennsylvania in the northern Kuwait desert as soldiers slept. The attack was carried out the night before the unit was to cross the Kuwaiti border into Iraq. The attack killed Captain Christopher Seifert, 27, and Air Force Major Gregory Stone, 40, and wounded 14 other soldiers. At the start of the trial, the prosecution said it would prove that Akbar, a convert to Islam, knowingly and wilfully planned and carried out the attacks.

[  spacewar.com

25. april 2005

USA

125 menschen wurden 2004 zum tod verurteilt.

Death sentences fall to record low since 1976 reinstatement

WASHINGTON - The number of people sentenced to death last year fell to the lowest level since the Supreme Court reinstated the penalty in 1976. There were 125 people sent to death row in 2004, down from 144 the previous year and the sixth consecutive annual decline, according to figures compiled by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. In 1998, 300 people received death sentences. Miriam Gohara, assistant counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, said one major cause for the decline is high profile exonerations based on DNA evidence. She said that jurors are less willing to impose the penalty when they see that the system occasionally fails.

"I think people are more concerned about the irreversibility of the death penalty. Once somebody is executed, you can't bring them back," Gohara said. Dianne Clements, president of Justice for All, a pro-death penalty victim advocacy group, offered another explanation. "Not only has the murder rate declined, thank goodness, but the types of killers eligible for the death penalty have been redefined by the Supreme Court," she said. The high court has issued a series of decisions narrowing the death penalty, putting a stop to the execution of juveniles, the insane and the mentally retarded. There also are more jurisdictions where jurors are given options other than death, said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. "Juries are being given a choice of life without parole that they didn't have in the early '90s," he said. Dieter also said increased public attention has led to better legal representation for defendants who could face the death penalty.

In his State of the Union address this year, President Bush called for more training for lawyers who represent accused killers, tacit recognition that not all suspects receive an adequate defense. As governor of Texas, a state that executes more inmates than any other, Bush commuted one death sentence and allowed 152 executions. Texas sent the most people to death row last year - 23, followed by California, which sent 11 and Florida and Alabama, which each sent 8. There were 3,374 prisoners awaiting execution at the end of 2003, the latest year for which figures are available from the Bureau of Justice Statistics. That was 188 fewer than the previous year, due largely to then-Illinois Gov. George Ryan granting clemency to all 167 inmates on his state's death row because of concerns about wrongful convictions.

ON THE NET

[  Death Penalty Information Center

[  Justice for All

[  NAACP Legal Defense Fund

14. april 2005

USA

nach einer jetzt veröffentlichten studie der uni von miami erleidet jeder 4 hingerichtete fürchterliche schmerzen durch die injektion.

Study:Inmates suffer during lethal injections

Inadequate anesthesia may cause 4 in 10 to stay conscious As many as four of every 10 prisoners put to death in the United States might receive inadequate anesthesia, causing them to remain conscious and experience blistering pain during a lethal injection. Researchers in Florida and Virginia drew this conclusion after reviewing levels of anesthetic in the blood of 49 inmates after they were executed. "I approached this as a physician," said the study's lead author, Dr. Leonidas Koniaris, chairman of surgical oncology at the University of Miami. "We were asking: Is there a possibility of awareness during an execution? Is there a large degree of pain and suffering associated with it? And I think the answer we found is yes."

Of the inmates studied in a report published by the British journal The Lancet, 43 percent had concentrations of anesthetic in their blood - as measured by medical examiners during autopsies - that would indicate consciousness rather than sedation during an execution. Koniaris, who says he does not oppose the death penalty, thinks the study warrants a moratorium on executions until a publicly appointed panel can review whether some inmates remain conscious during lethal injection. "If that's the case, as a society we need to step back and ask whether we want to torture these people or not," he said.

Death penalty supporters dismissed the suggestion of a moratorium. "Lethal injection represents the most humane possible means of punishing a brutal, heinous murderer," said Andy Kahan, Mayor Bill White's advocate for crime victims "Whether or not it is painful, one thing is for sure, it is certainly less painful than the excruciating and horrific death that the victim suffered at the hand of the defendant."

And Mike Viesca, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, said his medical staff has assured him the combination of drugs used in a lethal injection renders a person incapable of feeling pain. The anesthetic, sodium thiopental, is the first of three drugs given in the execution protocol used by Texas and most other death penalty states. The amount typically administered through an IV, 2 to 3 grams, is far more than the amount used to sedate surgical patients and, doctors say, should prove fatal by itself.

Yet, some death penalty critics say poorly trained executioners - most have no formal anesthesia training - could miss a vein or otherwise err in administering a dose. The anesthetic also could wear off during a prolonged execution, which typically last at least 8 minutes. If the anesthetic somehow fails and an inmate regains consciousness, the second step of a lethal injection, administration of a muscle relaxant, paralyzes the muscles and lungs. The third drug given is potassium chloride, a toxic agent that stops the heart. The implications of an ineffective anesthetic are, in the words of a Lancet editorial accompanying the article, troubling: "It would be a cruel way to die: awake, paralyzed, unable to move, to breathe, while potassium burned through your veins."

Argument for a stay

The potential inhumanity of lethal injection is sometimes raised by lawyers trying to win a last-minute reprieve for their death-row clients. In December 2003, Texas killer Kevin Lee Zimmerman had his execution stayed after his lawyers argued that the lethal-injection procedure masked severe pain and thus constituted cruel and unusual punishment. The U.S. Supreme Court soon lifted its stay, and Zimmerman was executed six weeks later. Still, death penalty lawyers say courts may reconsider the issue if more evidence, such as that in the new study, is presented to suggest that executions are extremely painful. The study reviews the blood records of inmates from Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. Texas, the national leader in executions, refused to provide data for the study.

A critical question, the study authors admit, is whether measurements of the levels of sodium thiopental in the blood minutes or hours after death correlate with levels in the blood at the time of execution. However, they note that sodium thiopental levels remain stable in stored human blood. A local anesthesiologist, Dr. Lydia Conlay, said the extrapolation of postmortem sodium thiopental levels in the blood to those at the time of execution is by no means a proven method.

"It's an interesting and thought-provoking study," said Conlay who chairs the department of anesthesiology at Baylor College of Medicine. "I just don't think we can draw any conclusions from it, one way or the other. I just can't be sure what the numbers mean." Some opponents of the death penalty say the public accepts lethal injection as a painless medical procedure because, with the IVs, it appears to be one. "The bottom line is that the there's a real problem with the perception of how lethal injection goes down in the public, and what we believe really goes on," said Gary Clements, deputy director of the Capital Post-Conviction Project of Louisiana, a group that represents death row inmates. Lack of data and records

The study's authors said this question of whether an inmate can feel pain ultimately can't be answered because of the unwillingness of states to maintain or share their execution data and records. In addition to asserting that the TDCJ had no autopsy or toxicology reports for inmates executed by lethal injection, Texas officials told the researchers it did not even have records of how it created the protocol it uses for injections.

Another of the study's authors, University of Miami anesthesiologist Dr. David Lubarsky, said the research team would have greatly preferred to use blood data from inmates at the time of executions. But the data doesn't exist, or it wasn't provided, Lubarsky said. "What we do have is data to suggest the process might be critically flawed," Lubarsky said. "It's now up to the corrections systems to show that, at the time of death, inmates are asleep. We should accept no less when we're killing people."

[  chron.com

11. april 2005

SUDAN

weil sie angebl. mitglieder der sla ( sudan liberation army ) seien wurden zwei männer inhaftiert, schwer gefoltert und sollen jetzt anhand der geständnisse die sie unter der folter machten verurteilt werden. da sie u.a. wegen verschwörung angeklagt sind droht ihnen die todesstrafe.

Two Zaghawa Tribe Members Severely Tortured, now Face Death Penalty

by Sudan Organisation Against Torture

On 22 February 2005 at 11.30am, Sudanese armed forces arrested two men from the Zaghawa tribe in Shourom village, Nyala province, Southern Darfur state on suspicion of joining the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA). The details of the men are as follows

1. Mahmoud Abaker Osman, (38 yrs) merchant, Zaghawa
2. Diggo Abdel Jabbar, Omda (community leader), (45 yrs), merchant, Zaghawa Mahmoud Abaker Osman and Diggo Abdel Jabbar are currently detained in Nyala prison, and face charges that carry the death penalty. The two men were reportedly tortured repeatedly and severely whilst in the custody of the armed forces and military intelligence, and have serious injuries as a result. Both men have been denied access to medical treatment and there are serious concerns for their health.

Following their arrest on 22 February 2005, the two men were reportedly taken by government armed forces to a military camp in Sanya Afondu village (approximately 70 Km south east of Nyala) where they were detained in a hole in the ground for 11 days. During this time, eight soldiers, under the control of a senior ranking military official, beat the men with sticks all over their bodies, beat them with metal sticks on the head and legs, flogged them on the back and chest and burnt their feet and hands with fire. On 4 March 2005, the two men were transferred into the custody of the Military Intelligence in Nyala, where they were detained incommunicado, and denied food for five days.

On 13 March 2005, Mahmoud Abaker Osman and Diggo Abdel Jabbar were taken to Nyala Wasat (central) police station and charged under Article 51 (Waging War against the State) and Article 58 (Abetment to Mutiny) of the 1991 Sudanese Penal Code, which carry the death penalty.

On 19 March 2005, after six days in police custody, the two men were transferred to Nyala prison where they remain in detention and are denied access to medical treatment. Mahmoud Abaker Osman and Diggo Abdel Jabbar are now awaiting trial before the Specialised Criminal Courts in Darfur, which hold summary trials that fall far short of international standards and accept confessions extracted under torture.

Background

Over the past two years, a pattern of widespread and systematic recourse to torture perpetrated by the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Military Intelligence operating in Darfur has emerged. Torture is widely used in Darfur, often to extract confessions of membership or affiliation to the armed opposition groups operating in the region.

Members of the sedentary communities in Darfur, such as the Zaghawa, Fur and Maselit, are particularly targeted as they are perceived to support the armed opposition movements. Detainees in Darfur are often not informed of the reason for arrest and are detained incommunicado without charge or trial for extended periods of time. They can be brought before Specialised Criminal Courts in Darfur which hand down cruel, inhuman and degrading punishments, including the death penalty.

Specialised Criminal Courts which operate in Darfur fall far short of international standards for fair trial. Confessions extracted under torture are accepted as evidence and there are curbs on the right to appeal. The right to defence is limited, with lawyers often reliant on the good will of the judge to enable them to attend the court and represent their client. SOAT expresses serious concern for the health and well-being of Mahmoud Abaker Osman and Diggo Abdel Jabbar who have sustained severe injuries through torture and calls on the Sudanese authorities to:

- Grant the two men immediate access to medical treatment and legal advice

- Immediately investigate the alleged incidents of torture and ensure that those responsible are brought to justice

- Take all necessary measures to ensure the physical and psychological integrity of the detainees

- Ensure that Mahmoud Abaker Osman and Diggo Abdel Jabbar are brought promptly brought before a court that operates in compliance with international standards of fair trial.

SOAT is an international human rights organisation established in the UK in 1993. If you have any questions about this or any other SOAT information, please contact us:

- Argo House
- Kilburn Park Road
- London NW6 5LF, UK
- Tel: +44 (0)20 7625 8055
- Fax: +44 (0)20 7372 2656
- E-mail: info@soatsudan.org
- Website: www.soatsudan.org

[  sudantribune.com

6. april 2005

JAPAN

ein seit 1972 zum tod verurteilter mann, wird einen neuen prozeß haben. der jetzt 79 jährige mann,der seit jahren versucht seine "unschuld" zu beweisen, hat gute chancen entlassen zu werden

Man on death row since 1972 to get retrial in 1961 murder case

NAGOYA - The Nagoya High Court decided Tuesday to allow a retrial for Masaru Okunishi, who has been on the death row since 1972 when he was convicted of murdering five women in a wine poisoning case in Nabari, Mie Prefecture, in 1961, citing new evidence that could prove his innocence. The court made the decision in response to the seventh retrial application filed by the defense counsel for the 79-year-old convict. "The court has serious doubts about the credibility of the confessions of the defendant, so that he cannot be assumed as the culprit," Presiding Judge Junichi Koide said in handing down the decision. Koide said the new evidence submitted by the defense counsel has "sufficient evidential power" that may lead to an acquittal in a retrial. Kazushige Sugimoto, the deputy chief prosecutor at Nagoya High Public Prosecutors office, expressed regret over the court ruling but did not say whether prosecutors will appeal.

"We will carefully examine the court ruling and will make an appropriate decision upon consultation with the Supreme Public Prosecutors Office," he said in a statement. Five women, including Okunishi's wife and his lover, died after drinking poisoned wine at a party held at a community center in Nabari on March 28, 1961. The new evidence presented by the defense counsel focuses on experts' opinions on the type of pesticide put in the wine and the way the wine bottle was opened, which apparently contradicted the final court ruling. Okunishi initially confessed to putting pesticide in the wine in an attempt to terminate the love triangle. He later retracted his confession. Okunishi, who is in prison in Nagoya, was initially acquitted by the Tsu District Court in 1964. The Nagoya High Court reversed the decision in 1969 and sentenced him to death, which was subsequently upheld by the Supreme Court in 1972.

After hearing the latest court decision, Okunishi released a statement through one of his lawyers, saying "I am grateful for the decision as it was my ardent wish." "This is the best day for me since I got here and I would like to thank all of my counsel, experts and supporters who have supported me to this day," he said. His defense counsel said in a statement that Okunishi has finally found the day to prove his innocence after being threatened with execution for more than 30 years. The counsel also urged the prosecutors not to file an appeal and release Okunishi as soon as possible. It is the fifth time a court has decided to allow a retrial for a death row inmate. The last time was in 1986 at the Shizuoka District Court. All the convicts in those four other cases were eventually acquitted. (Kyodo News)

[  japantoday.com

6. april 2005

USA

in dem prozeß um die wiederaufnehme des verfahrens eines zum tod verurteilten mannes hat der richter geurteilt, daß der ehemalige staatsanwalt ( der ausgesagt hatte mit dem damaligen richter die geschworenen dahingehend ausgesucht zu haben daß keine jüdischen menschen dabei sind) ein lügner sei.

Judge: prosecutor fabricated tainting death penalty jury

SAN FRANCISCO A judge has ruled that a former Alameda County prosecutor who testified he kept Jews off of a death penalty jury to secure a conviction is a liar. John Quatman alleged that he conspired with a trial judge to remove Jewish jurors from a capital case. But today a specially appointed judge ruled Quatman's assertions "are not true" and that he is "dishonest and unethical." Last month, Quatman testified that he colluded with a now-deceased judge -- Alameda County Superior Court Judge Stanley Golde -- to exclude Jews so it would more than likely send a killer to San Quentin State Prison. Excluding jurors based on religion, race or ethnicity violates state and federal law and are grounds for a new trial.

[  kesq.com

6 April, 2005

IRAN

Iran, a Christian convert to face death penalty for apostasy

Tehran (AsiaNews/MEC) - Hamid Pourmand, a lay leader in a church and a convert from Islam, will appear before an Islamic court next week to face charges of apostasy, Christians in Iran have learned. If found guilty Pourmand is likely to face the death penalty. Pourmand is a lay leader in the Assemblies of God church in Bandar-i Bushehr and converted to Christianity in 1980. At the time of his arrest he was a Colonel in the Iranian army.

He was arrested September 9, 2004, together with 85 other participants of the annual general conference of denomination. The other Christians were released within the next three days, but pastor Pourmand was charged with hiding his conversion from his superiors. According to Iranian law only Muslims can be officers in the army. On February 16, 2005, pastor Pourmand was found guilty of this charge, even though he presented several papers in court which proved his superior were aware he was a Christian. He was sentenced to three years imprisonment, discharge from the army, and loss of his entire income, pension and housing for his family. A few days later his wife and two children were forced to vacate their house.

Yesterday, Christians learned of the new charges of apostasy from Islam and proselytising other Muslims. Apostasy is a capital offence in Iran. In the last 16 years 3 Iranian church leaders have been charged was apostasy and found guilty. All three were sentenced to death. Pastor Hussein Soodman was hanged in 1989. Deacon Maher already had a noose around his neck when he signalled his willingness to recant and was released after signing a paper to that effect in 1992. Pastor Mehdi Dibaj was condemned to death in December 1993. He was released three weeks later after a strong international outcry; only to be found murdered 6 months later.Christians in Iran have expressed great fears for pastor Hamid's life.

[  asianews.it

5. April 2005

amnesty international: jahresbericht zur todesstrafe

Death Penalty: New report shows world executions at second-highest level in 25 years

[  New report shows world executions at second-highest level in 25 years

[  facts and reports about deathpenalty at amnesty.org

10. März 2005

SOUTH AFRICA

obwohl die todesstrafe seit 1995 abgeschafft ist, sind immer noch 134 gefangene in todeszellen. 4 gefangene versuchen jetzt mit einer klage neue prozesse zuerreichen und aus diesen träkten herauszukommen.

'Retry death row prisoners'

Johannesburg - Prisoners sentenced to death before the death penalty was abolished should be given a fresh trial and a new sentence, the Constitutional Court in Johannesburg heard on Thursday."Since the death penalty was declared unconstitutional in June 1995, a death sentence ceased to have any legal effect," said advocate Frank Snyckers, arguing on behalf of four death row prisoners.

"Therefore no sentences are imposed on these people, therefore we need to have sentences and the only way to do so, is to have a trial in terms of the (Criminal Procedure) Act.Snyckers said: "We need to create a practical mechanisms to put these people back in the system."The Constitutional Court found the death penalty to be unconstitutional as it violated the right to life and was cruel, inhuman and degrading.

Chief Justice Arthur Chaskalson commented that it was intolerable that imprisonment on death row should have been allowed to continue for so long after sentence was scrapped 10 years ago."There are still over 100 people who do not know what their position is," Chaskalson said.The State estimated that about 134 prisoners were still on death row.

8. März 2005

USA

der ninth u.s. circuit court of appeals ( ein bundesgericht) urteilte das staatsanwälte des san joaquin county die rechte von blufford hayes jr. verletzte in dem sie wissentlich falsche aussagen während des prozesses benutzten die maßgeblich für eine verurteilung wegen mordes waren . der mann sitzt seit dem in der todeszelle.

Murder verdict rejected
Burglary made 1980 killing at motel a capital crime

CALIFORNIA
A Stockton man's murder conviction and death sentence for killing a motel manager during a 1980 burglary was overturned Monday by a federal appeals court.

In a 7-4 ruling, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the San Joaquin County district attorney's office had violated the rights of Blufford Hayes Jr. by knowingly presenting false testimony that was crucial to both his first-degree murder conviction and his death sentence. The ruling entitles him to a new trial.Hayes, now 49, was convicted of murdering Vinod Patel, who was stabbed to death on New Year's Day 1980 in a room of the Stockton motel he managed. Cartons of cigarettes and $23 in cash were taken from the motel office.

Hayes testified at his trial that he acted in self-defense in Patel's killing, but denied burglarizing the motel office. He said his only role was to help another motel resident, Andrew James, load the cigarettes into James' car. James denied that and testified that Hayes had admitted both the murder and the theft. It was the burglary that made the killing a first-degree murder, punishable by death; otherwise, it would not have been a capital crime.The jury was informed of an agreement with prosecutors to give key witness James immunity from prosecution for Patel's murder in exchange for his testimony, but was not told about a second agreement that would allow him to escape prison time on a pending, unrelated theft charge. In fact, prosecutor Terrence Van Oss, now a Superior Court judge, denied the existence of an agreement to the trial judge in Hayes' case.

Van Oss denied making any such promise until 1997, when he admitted it during proceedings in another case, said Richard Such, one of Hayes' appellate lawyers.Lower courts upheld Hayes' conviction and sentence, but the appeals court panel said Monday that the prosecutor's concealment had made it harder for the defense to dent the credibility of James, whose testimony was "the centerpiece of the prosecution's case."Whenever a conviction is obtained by deception, "the entire foundation of our system of justice is weakened,"said Judge Sidney Thomas in the majority opinion. Dissenters, led by Judge Richard Tallman, said the deception had no effect on the verdict because there were other witnesses against Hayes, and James' credibility had already been questioned on other grounds.