[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Jan. 5



JAMAICA:

PM supports retention of death penalty


Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves said the death penalty should remain on
statue books here to be used as a sentencing option for certain types of
murders.

"The government is firm on that. The death penalty should remain," he told
reporters, noting that he was certain that over 90 per cent of Vincentian
nationals supported the death penalty.

He said St Vincent and the Grenadines had started a process of
constitutional reform and he believed that there would be a consensus for
a tightening of the death penalty laws.

Gonsalves, who is a Roman Catholic, told reporters that although the
church frowned on the death penalty he did not have to agree with
everything that his church subscribed to.

(source: Jamaica Gleaner News)






MOROCCO:

DEATH PENALTY: MOROCCO CLOSE TO ABOLISHING EXECUTIONS


Morocco could soon decide to abolish the death penalty or suspend
executions, a highly placed source in the justice ministry has told
Adnkronos International (AKI). The source, who asked to remain anonymous,
said authorities have set up a special commission of jurists to review the
Moroccan criminal code and that the commission's work is now at an
advanced stage.

"The death penalty is one of the issues which most interests this
commission," the source told AKI, adding that the jurists are considering
the requests advanced by the Moroccan civil society to abolish capital
punishment.

"The debate on this is not over yet but it looks like the panel of jurists
is in favour of abolishing the death penalty or suspending executions,"
the source explained, also considering that "no one has been executed in
Morocco since 1993 despite the fact that Moroccan courts have sentenced
defendants to death during thet period."

According to the source, leading members of a number of institutions have
added their voice to calls by the 'Moroccan alliance for the abolition of
the death penalty', a non-governmental orgganization, for an end to
capital punishment in Morocco. However, Rabat authorities did not allow
members of the NGO to stage a rally in front of parliament in Rabat to
mark 10 October, world day against the death penalty.

(source: AKI)






IRAQ:

3,000 Jordanians protest Saddam's execution


In the largest pro-Saddam demonstration to date, some 3,000 protesters
marched through the Jordanian capital on Friday to lash out at American
and Shi'ite Muslim influence in the Arab world.

The protesters, mostly from Sunni Muslim or leftist opposition groups,
accused Iran of being involved in the hasty hanging of the former Iraqi
dictator, who was executed Saturday in Baghdad.

"Death to America and to Iran," shouted the crowd, who marched from a
mosque in down town Amman after the noon prayers, bearing portraits of
Saddam and waving the Iraqi flag.

(source: Associated Press)

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

Editorial ignores how death penalty is viewed


The Statesman Journal's Dec. 31 editorial "History may be kinder to man in
noose than to U.S." was a refreshingly candid and blunt editorial. In
death, Saddam will most likely be viewed as a martyr, inspiring more
violence.

I agreed with Gene McIntyre's overall perspective that the U.S.
involvement in Iraq is misled, but McIntyre errs when he suggests that
cultural misunderstandings are the root of Arab distrust of the Bush
administration.

An invasion founded on a lie that has cost the lives of over 100,000
innocent Iraqi civilians is the real reason. As Bush's current U.S.
approval rating is around 30 percent, largely related to public
disappointment about a war that has cost the lives of 3,000 U.S. soldiers,
it would seem that most Arabs and Americans have a common understanding.

Lastly, I wish that McIntyre and the editors would have mentioned that
international reaction to Saddam's execution was far from positive. Most
nations now oppose the death penalty.

I oppose the death penalty and am therefore disappointed that Saddam was
executed, vile though he was. Photographs of his execution made me feel as
though we have returned to the Dark Ages.

Andrew Parodi, Gervais

(source: Letter to the Editor, Salem (Ore.) Statesman Journal)