[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Nov. 11



CARIBBEAN:

Spurning Europe, Caribbean pushes death penalty


Jamaican pastor Terrence Brown wants killers put to death  he's even
offered to trade his collar for a hangman's hood to confront a crime wave
that has been terrorizing his parishioners.

"If the government doesn't carry out their responsibility, you're going to
have jungle justice, and that is what is growing rapidly in Jamaica and
across the Caribbean," said Brown, a preacher with the evangelical
Holiness Christian Church in Jamaica's Spanish Town.

Soaring crime has islanders demanding more executions, exhorting
politicians work around restrictions imposed by Europe and overwhelming
international opposition that have all but ended capital punishment in the
Caribbean.

In Jamaica, the beheading of a young girl and the discovery of an
11-year-old boy's dismembered body in a trash bag have increased pressure
on parliament, where debate was beginning Tuesday on whether to resume
executions after 20 years.

Advocates include Prime Minister Bruce Golding, who promised quicker
executions before winning office last year.

Opponents say governments should focus on reducing poverty and corruption
instead.

"Instead of trying to solve the crime problem, we wave the study of the
death penalty as a flag but there won't be any kind of change," said
Jamaica's Amnesty International coordinator Maria Carla Gullotta.

Polls consistently show strong support for the death penalty in the
Caribbean, but nobody has been executed in the region outside Cuba since
the Bahamas hanged a convicted killer in 2000.

Capital punishment is on the books across the English-speaking Caribbean,
and governments are stiffening penalties and limiting appeals. At least 90
prisoners are on death row in the region, including 4 men who were ordered
to hang in St. Kitts and Nevis in August before a court granted a
reprieve.

A primary obstacle is the London-based Privy Council, the highest court of
review for many former British colonies. It ruled that sentences must be
commuted to life in prison if the condemned are not executed within 5
years  a window some consider unreasonable because appeals are so slow.

Rising crime also plagues the Caribbean's French and British territories,
but capital punishment is a political nonstarter for these islands because
laws would need rewriting in the abolitionist strongholds of London and
Paris. The Netherlands and its Caribbean territories also outlawed capital
punishment.

Hit hardest is Jamaica, where 3 million people suffered more than 1,240
murders this year. But smaller resort islands are affected too. After two
British honeymooners were shot dead in July in Antigua, the government
proposed the gallows for crimes involving weapons, even if the victim is
not killed.

Brown is one of several prominent Jamaican churchmen pressing for
executions. He said the violence is destroying families, and suggested
himself a hangman to prove there would be no shortage of volunteers. The
idea stirred a national debate, and despite some criticism, many have
echoed his offer. "I know many persons who are willing to do it," he said.

Capital punishment has been abolished for decades in the Spanish-speaking,
predominantly Catholic Dominican Republic. Religious and cultural
opposition to the death penalty also holds in the U.S. territory of Puerto
Rico, where jurors often reject federal prosecutors' requests for death.

But islanders see it as a solution in Trinidad and Tobago, where the
attorney general asked legislators to amend the constitution to keep the
Privy Council from interfering after British judges ordered 52 prisoners
off death row in August.

"Apart from all the smoke screen that has been thrown up about whether the
death penalty will reduce crime, the foremost principle is the ability of
the state to carry out its laws," said Elson Crick, a spokesman for the
prime minister of St. Vincent, which is preparing to revise its
constitution. In response to citizen demands, Crick said it will likely
make executions easier.

(source: Associated Press)






AFGANISTAN:

More than 100 awaiting execution in Afghanistan


More than 100 convicted murderers, rapists and kidnappers are on death row
in Afghanistan awaiting President Hamid Karzai to sign the orders for
their execution, a senior judge said on Tuesday.

Crimes such as kidnapping, rape and killing have sharply increased in
recent years in Afghanistan where the Taliban, ousted in a U.S.-led
invasion in 2001, carried out public executions for similar acts.

5 people have been executed since Saturday after Karzai approved the
sentences following repeated appeals from many ordinary Afghans to mete
out the punishment as enshrined in the country's constitution and ordered
by Islam.

"We have 125 people who have been sentenced by various courts to the death
penalty and are to be executed after Karzai's approval," said a senior
Supreme Court judge who declined to be named.

An official at the presidential palace confirmed that lists of those
sentenced to death by the courts have been sent to the president for him
to approve their execution.

(source: Reuters)






INDONESIA:

Lawyer team to file lawsuit over Bali bombers' executions


The Bali bombers' team of lawyers, the Muslim Defence Team (TPM), are
planning to file a lawsuit against the government over their clients'
execution which they say violated human rights.

"The executions were not conducted in accordance with existing procedures.
We are preparing to take legal action," one of the lawyers, Agus Setiawan,
said as quoted by Antara.

The rights of the convicts' lawyers and families were violated because
they had been forbidden to meet the convicts at Batu Prison, Nusakambangan
Island, and were not able to fully take care of the bodies after the
executions, Agus said.

Separately, Lulu Jamaluddin, the younger brother of Bali bomber Imam
Samudera, said his family could not accept his brother's death.

"We will file a lawsuit against the Attorney General's Office," he said.

Amrozi, 47, Muklas (Ali Gufron), 48, and Imam, 38, were executed by firing
squad near their prison, shortly after midnight early on Sunday, for their
roles in the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, including 88
Australians.

(source: The Jakarta Post)






AUSTRALIA:

All executions are a failure of justice


DEATH row. The expression conjures stark images. One of them for me is the
faces of Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan, pictured, 2 of the Bali 9 being
held in Kerobokan prison. They have been sentenced to be shot. When I last
saw them 10 days ago, their anxiety was raw. Ten prisoners have been
executed in Indonesia since June and one question on the minds of those
working for Australians on death row in Bali is, what are the implications
of Sunday's execution of the Bali bombers for them?

In the light of 3 significant political events that have occurred since
Sunday, perhaps surprisingly, the implications are not all bad.

First, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith has announced that Australia will be
co-sponsoring a resolution at the UN calling for a worldwide moratorium on
executions. Australia voted to support such a motion last December at the
UN. That we now propose to co-sponsor and lead from the front is
encouraging news for all those on death row in Asia.

The fight against the death penalty has been too quiet in Asia for too
long. We are well positioned to argue the case calmly, respectfully and
convincingly in our region, and should do so. I have my own clients in
mind, but there are hundreds of others (typically poor and marginalised)
who deserve our attention. I would have preferred less silence in the past
few weeks from all our community leaders, but even so this announcement is
just what is needed. Second, other political leaders in Australia,
including Opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman Helen Coonan, and Greens
leader, Senator Bob Brown, have spoken out on the issue, reaffirming their
parties' opposition to the death penalty, even in difficult cases.

Third, Indonesia's Foreign Minister, Hassan Wirajuda, has spoken about
this very issue, saying, exactly as is the case, that the legal process
for the Australians on death row was not complete, and that there are
still the possibilities of a PK  a final legal legal appeal  and clemency.
His words are a further sign of the objective way the Australians' case is
being treated in Indonesia.

Wirajuda certainly makes no promises, but also just as clearly and
appropriately he does not link the fate of the Bali bombers with the fate
of the Australians.

It is difficult to overstate the complexities of the cases faced by
Sukumaran and Chan, who apart from having their Indonesian lawyers, are
assisted by several Melbourne lawyers, including myself. Because of the
social harm caused by drugs, many Indonesians regard drug offences as
among the most serious, easily compared to murder. For that reason, drug
traffickers have already been executed there this year.

On the other hand, newspaper articles and blog comments show there is
definitely a transition under way towards greater opposition to the death
penalty in Indonesia. Indeed, Australians may be surprised at the
liveliness of the Indonesian press, including the willingness for head-on
debate. The Constitutional Court has called for a rethink on the death
penalty and Parliament is considering a new draft code that would
radically reduce the number of executions.

Into that mix we must face the reality that some will say that if
execution is allowed for terrorists, why not for drug traffickers? Our
answer is that we must regularly explain why the death penalty is wrong.
It is premeditated, state-sanctioned, ritualised killing, a failure of
justice. To confuse hatred or vengeance with enduring principles of
justice is a mistake, allowing, as it does, emotional responses to form
foundations for how society works. The data has made it clear again and
again: Executions do not act as a deterrent. What they do is lower respect
for life. As our political leaders have shown in the past 24 hours, they
broadly agree with that analysis. It is important that they speak clearly
and consistently about their position. This will increase the chances of
saving Australians on death row, because the Asian press will report that
we are consistent in our principles, and not hypocritical.

It has been argued that we should not seek to "interfere" in the justice
systems of another country, that travellers know the penalties they risk
and must cop it sweet. This argument fails to stand up. There are some
universal principles that must be defended.

When a young woman in Somalia, condemned as an adulteress, is stoned to
death after being raped, do we stay silent as to those laws?

When apartheid is entrenched in law in South Africa, do we stay silent?
When Afghanistan wants to execute a person for converting to Christianity,
do we say nothing? So too for slavery, child exploitation, and, I say,
executions. Premeditated ritualised killings demean us all.

(source: Opinion--Julian McMahon is one of several Melbourne barristers
assisting Sukumaran and Chan. Scott Rush, also on death row, is assisted
from Darwin by Colin McDonald, QC.----The Age)