[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Nov. 1



UKRAINE:

Rebels in Ukraine 'post video of people's court sentencing man to 
death'----Footage appears to show alleged rapist's punishment being decided by 
a show of hands in an unofficial public trial


Pro-Russian rebels in Ukraine have released a video which appears to show a 
"people's court" sentencing a man to death by a show of hands.

The man, accused of rape, is brought before a panel of 3 rebels in military 
fatigues, 1 of them in a mask, on a stage in front of an auditorium where 
several hundred people are sitting.

After a brief review of evidence, the panel asks the audience to vote on 
whether the man should be executed.

Some of the people in the room giggle as the majority raise their hands. The 
senior rebel on the panel announces that he will be shot dead. A 2nd man is 
acquitted by a similar vote.

The video could not be independently verified but has been widely shared by 
pro-separatist media. It was originally published on a YouTube channel 
associated with Alexei Mozgovoy, a rebel who commands the Prizrak (Ghost) 
battalion.

It was unclear whether the punishment had been carried out. The hearing 
reportedly took place on October 25 in Alchevsk, a small city under rebel 
control in Ukraine's Luhansk region.

The rebel leadership in the neighbouring Donetsk People's Republic announced it 
was introducing the death penalty for "gravest crimes" in August.

(source: The Telegraph)






SRI LANKA:

Lanka downplays concern over death penalty to fishermen, says India 'clearly 
aware' of laws


Sri Lanka on Friday downplayed India's concerns over the death sentences handed 
down to 5 Indian fishermen for alleged drug trafficking, saying India is 
"clearly aware" of legal systems in Colombo.

Responding to a question, Keheliya Rambukwella, Sri Lankan Minister for 
Information, said India understands Sri Lanka's prevalent laws.

He said India's concerns raised on Thursday's verdict should not present Sri 
Lanka with any problems.

The 5 fishermen, all hailing from Tamil Nadu, were apprehended in 2011 by the 
Sri Lankan Navy on charges of smuggling of drugs in the seas off northern 
Jaffna's Delft islet.

"India is clearly aware of another country's legal systems, treaties signed, 
convicts exchange agreements," Rambukwella said adding that Sri Lanka need not 
make any interpretation of Indian concerns.

Rambukwella was asked about Sri Lankan government's reaction to India's 
reported bid to appeal against the Sri Lankan High Court death sentence against 
the Indian fishermen.

The court ruling drew a sharp reaction from India which took up the matter with 
Sri Lanka and said it would appeal to a higher court against the judgement 
within 14 days.

India yesterday said the 5 Indian fishermen - Emerson, P Augustus, R Wilson, K 
Prasath and J Langlet - who were apprehended on November 28, 2011 by the Sri 
Lankan Navy on charges of narcotics smuggling, have always maintained their 
innocence.

The Indian government through its High Commission in Colombo and the Consulate 
General of India in Jaffna has been extending all possible consular assistance 
to them, Ministry of External Affairs spokesman, Syed Akbaruddin said.

"Government of India is fully committed to continue providing all assistance to 
the Indian fishermen. The lawyers of the Indian fishermen will file an appeal 
to the next court of appeal within the prescribed 14 days," the spokesman said.

The court ruling had triggered violent protests in parts of Tamil Nadu 
yesterday. Sporadic violence broke out in and around Rameswaram island as a 
large number of people staged protests against the Sri Lankan court's verdict.

The issue of fishermen is a very emotive matter for both Sri Lanka and India, 
where Tamil Nadu-based parties including AIADMK and DMK have been regularly 
pressing the Centre to take up the matter with the Lankan authorities seriously 
and have often resented high-profile visits from the island nation.

Sri Lanka has been alleging that Indian fishermen regularly stray into its 
waters depriving local fishermen of their livelihood. The 2 countries are 
separated by the narrow Palk Strait which is also a rich fishing ground.

(source: firstpost.com)






NIGERIA:

Activists In Nigeria Fight For Child Bride Who Might Seek Death Penalty


A 14-year-old child bride in Nigeria was reportedly accused of murdering her 
35-year-old husband by putting rat poison in his food and could face the death 
penalty for her act, stated Nigerian prosecutors on Thursday, according to the 
media outlet AFP.

Activists, including those in Nigeria's mainly Christian south, have reportedly 
called for Wasila Tasi'u's release, claiming that she should be considered a 
victim and noting the prospect that she was raped by the man she married.

However, families on both sides have reportedly denied that Tasi'u was forced 
into marriage. According to Nigera's marriage act, anyone under 21 can marry 
provided they have parental consent, which reportedly means that evidence of an 
agreement between Tasi'u and her father Tasiu Mohammed could undermine the 
claims of any forced union.

Prosecutors at the high court in Gezawa reportedly filed an amended complaint 
that charged Tasi'u with one count of murder over the killing of Umar Suni 2 
weeks after their April wedding, according to The Guardian. When the alleged 
offenses were read to Tasi'u during the trial, she reportedly remained silent.

"The court records [that] she pleads not guilty," stated Judge Mohammed Yahaya, 
regarding her silence as her denial to the charges.

Defense lawyer Hussaina Aliyu reportedly insisted that the case was not a 
debate about child brides or the role of youth marriage in a Muslim society, 
but rather that a 14-year-old cannot be charged with murder in a high court. 
Aliyu has reportedly demanded that the case be moved to the juvenile system.

(source: kdramastars.com)


BANGLADESH:

Death penalty not to affect EU assistance: Muhith


Finance Minister AMA Muhith said Friday the European Union's opposition to 
death sentence awarded to war criminals would not affect its development 
assistance to Bangladesh.

He came up with the remark while talking to reporters after attending a 
programme in the city.

He said the new World Bank President offered to provide funds for the Padma 
Bridge project anew, but Bangladesh turned down his offer, according to a news 
agency.

(source: Financial Express)

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

JI protest against Bangladesh leader's death sentence


In Karachi, the Jamaat-i-Islami on Friday staged a protest demonstration after 
Friday prayers outside the Bait-ul-Mukarram mosque in Gulshan-i-Iqbal against 
the Bangladeshi government for awarding death sentence to Bangladesh JI chief 
Maulana Motiur Rahman and called upon the Pakistani government and the army to 
take immediate notice of this 'unjustified act' of the Bangladeshi government.

The participants in the rally were holding party flags besides placards and 
banners inscribed with anti-Bangladesh government slogans.

They were addressed by Karachi JI leaders, including Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rehman, 
Osama Razi, Younus Barai, and Nazim of the Islami Jamiat Talba Hafiz Mohammed 
Bilal.

Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rehman in his speech said that the 'mock court' of Bangladesh 
had awarded the death penalty to Bangladesh JI leader Motiur Rahman in a fake 
case.

He said that the JI leaders and workers sacrificed their lives for the 
solidarity of the country.

He described the statement of the Pakistan Foreign Office on the judgement of 
the Bangladeshi court as 'a shameful act' and condemned the 'silence' of the 
Pakistani government over the incident and added that the government of 
Bangladesh had staged the mock trial at the behest of the Indian government.

"Why are the officers of the Pakistan army and the ISI silent over the issue?" 
he said.

JI leader Younus Barai said the Bangladeshi government in order to appease the 
Indian army kept hanging Islam-loving people.

Hafiz Bilal said that silence of the world human rights organisations over the 
death penalty to JI leader Motiur Rehman had raised many questions in the minds 
of the people.

(source: Dawn)






PAKISTAN:

ATC awards death penalty to child killer


In Karachi, an anti-terrorism court on Friday awarded capital punishment to 
main accused Mohammad Munir and life imprisonment to his accomplice Jalal in 
kidnapping-cum-killing case of a child.

The ATC-II also ordered confiscation of convicts' properties.

Munir and Jalal were prosecuted for kidnapping a 7-year-old boy, Sohail, for 
ransom from the Gabol Town area on October 31, 2012 and later on killing him in 
cold blood.

According to the prosecution, the accused demanded Rs 50,000 as ransom from 
Babul, father of Sohail, and killed the boy on not getting the payment.

The body of the boy was recovered on information gathered from the accused 
during the interrogation. Both the accused were arrested by the police after 
tracing the calls made from their mobile phones to the father of the ill-fated 
child.

The court observed that prosecution proved its case against both the accused 
beyond any shadow of doubt.

5 extortionists convicted

Another ATC has sentenced 2 gangsters to aggregated 28 years imprisonment and 
awarded 14 years imprisonment to their 3 accomplices in extortion, illegal 
weapon and explosive substance case.

Mohammad Yaseen, Attaur Rehman, Saddam Hussain, Rafeequl Islam and Mohammad 
Nadeem were charged with demanding extortion from an factory owner, Abideen, in 
Korangi Industrial Area on 29 March 2014. The accused demanded Rs 1 million 
from the complainant as extortion money. They were arrested by the police and 
illegal weapons and hand grenades were recovered from their possession.

The court after finding the defendants guilty of the charges, sentenced Yaseen 
and Attaur Rehman to aggregated 28 years imprisonment in explosive substance, 
illegal weapons and extortion charges while awarded 14 years imprisonment each 
to their accomplices Saddam, Rafeequl Islam and Nadeem in illegal weapon and 
extortion charges.

(source: The News)






CHINA----execution

China executes man who killed toddler in parking row


A Chinese man who killed a2-year-old girl after a row with her mother over a 
parking space was executed on Friday, a court said.

Han Lei was convicted of taking the child from her pram and throwing her to the 
ground after her mother refused to make way for him to park his car in Beijing 
in July last year.

He and a friend in the vehicle drove away and the toddler died 2 days later of 
her injuries, provoking widespread public outrage.

Han, now 40, was sentenced to death 2 months after the incident, and appealed 
against the penalty without success.

China's Supreme Court approved the sentence and he was executed on Friday, the 
Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court said on a verified microblog account.

Han had reportedly told prosecutors last year he felt so guilty and distressed 
that he wanted to die, according to previous Chinese media reports.

"I caused such a calamity for the child...please make sure that I am sentenced 
to death," he was quoted as saying. "I don't want to live anymore."

Han was sentenced to life in prison in 1996 for stealing a car but was released 
2012 after the sentence was commuted, the reports said.

(source: Agence France-Presse)

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

Muted applause for scrapping death penalty


A Chinese fraudster who had her death sentence commuted to life imprisonment in 
July may be the last person in China to face death row for the crime.

Wu Ying, 33, was sentenced to death in 2009 for cheating investors out of 380 
million yuan (61.1 million U.S. dollars) in private lending scams. Her sentence 
caused a public outcry and was eventually commuted to life imprisonment.

Chinese lawmakers are considering ending the death penalty for nine crimes, 
including smuggling of certain items, counterfeiting, forcing others into 
prostitution, obstruction of law enforcers and raising funds by means of fraud, 
the crime of which Wu was convicted.

Liu Mingxiang, vice dean of the law school at Renmin University, considers the 
revision a big step forward. "No violence was involved in Wu Ying's case, 
despite its bad social effect," he said.

"There is a global trend against executions," Liu said. "Compared with other 
countries, China has many crimes for which the death penalty could be used, but 
some are not really applicable now."

Since reform and opening-up, economic development has rendered certain crimes 
less serious, he said.

The draft amendment to the Criminal Law was submitted earlier this week to the 
standing committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) for a first reading 
during the legislature's bi-monthly session, but not everyone is happy with the 
changes.

Tang Hui, a social campaigner whose daughter was raped and forced into 
prostitution is one of those with concerns about the changes.

Tang became well-known, and indeed was imprisoned herself, for persistently 
lobbying for harsher punishments for those guilty of the rape of her daughter 
and forcing her into prostitution.

"I find the amendment hard to accept," she told Xinhua in a telephone 
interview. "Life imprisonment is a sham, because even if someone is sentenced 
to life in prison, he will be released after ten or twenty years. This is not 
fair to the victims."

She noted that in recent years, many cases like her daughter's have been 
reported, often with teenagers involved. "The death penalty is the ultimate 
deterrent. If perpetrators of such crimes are exempted from death, surely some 
people will not be afraid of doing bad things, causing an increase of such 
crimes."

Li Zhuang, a lawyer who made his name defending organized crime suspects during 
a crackdown in Chongqing, understands people like Tang. As China endeavors to 
build a society under the rule of law, the "rule of man" mentality is deeply 
rooted among ordinary people, and is not easy to shake off.

"The biggest obstacle is convincing and pacifying victims and their relatives," 
Li said, adding that reducing executions, or even ultimately abolishing the 
death penalty altogether, is part of the advancement of civilization.

In response to Tang's question, Xu Tianqiao, attorney for the defendants in the 
case of her daughter, did not rule out the possibility of a rise in certain 
crimes. "Life imprisonment is also a serious punishment," he said. "Fifteen or 
twenty years is a long time. How many years does a man have?"

He also called for psychological support for victims and their relatives, 
considering lynching a real possibility if the amendment is passed.

In 2011, the NPC Standing Committee dropped the death penalty for 13 economic, 
non-violent crimes including some smuggling and fraud offences, forging or 
selling forged tax invoices, teaching criminal methods and robbing historical 
sites.

Liu Mingxiang saw no obvious negative effect after the change. "Even if these 
nine crimes are exempted from the death penalty, in the case of serious harm - 
if victims are killed or severely wounded - executions could take place under 
other charges," he said.

"The death penalty is not a barometer of social stability," Liu continued. "The 
best way to reduce crime is to educate people and improve public policy."

(source: Xinhua)

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

Lawmakers disagree over death penalty reductions


Some Chinese lawmakers on Friday opposed ending the death penalty for some of 
the nine crimes being discussed at the ongoing legislative session, while 
others insisted that overall punishment would not be lessened.

The death penalty for "arranging for or forcing another person to engage in 
prostitution" should remain, Long Guoying, a lawmaker from east China's Jiangxi 
Province, told a group discussion at the bimonthly session of the National 
People's Congress (NPC) standing committee. Suppose the victim dies, his or her 
right to life is infringed, said Long, and the death penalty is warranted in 
such cases. "People talked about this issue on the Internet recently and many 
opposed the removal," she said.

The other crimes under consideration include various forms of smuggling, 
counterfeiting, some kinds of fraud, obstructing law enforcers and fabricating 
rumors during wartime. If the death penalty is ended for these crimes, the 
maximum sentence would be life imprisonment, according to the draft.

Other lawmakers including Admiral Chi Wanchun and Tang Shili from Guizhou 
disagreed on the removal of the death penalty for smuggling weapons, ammunition 
or nuclear materials and for wartime rumormongering.

"The death penalty should not be removed just because it is seldom used," said 
Chi, adding that capital punishment for the above crimes is still appropriate 
and great care should be taken in matters of state security and people's lives. 
The harm done to society should be evaluated before making decisions, he said.

However, Rita Fan Hsu Lai-Tai, from Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, 
said reducing incidences of the death penalty is an international trend that 
should be followed. In practice, "death penalty with a reprieve" is a common 
punishment in China, and such penalties are often reduced, she said, adding 
that serious criminals should serve life in prison without mitigation.

The draft amendment follows the decision last year by the Communist Party of 
China to gradually reduce the number of crimes subject to the death penalty, 
said Li Shishi, director of the legislative affairs commission of the NPC 
standing committee, and does not mean the overall punishment would be lessened.

Authorities will strengthen law enforcement and give severe punishment to those 
who deserve it, ensuring public security, Li said.

(source: English People's Daily)

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

Moving away from capital punishment, 1 step at a time----Beijing is considering 
reducing China's list of capital offenses. It's the 1st step on the road to 
reform but there's still a long way to go, says DW columnist Frank Sieren.


The Chinese legal system has traditionally been based on the principle of 
deterrence. As an old saying goes: Kill the chicken to scare the monkey ("sha 
ji jing hou"). Most Chinese tend to nod in agreement when they hear it, 
especially in rural areas. They firmly believe that it's the only way to keep 
order in a country with a population of 1.3 billion.

But these days, any news that someone has been wrongly sentenced to death 
elicits a growing sense of indignation. That indignation can fast turn on the 
regional representatives of the ruling Communist party, which is partly why 
Beijing is planning to remove nine crimes from the list of offenses punishable 
by death, including smuggling weapons, ammunition and nuclear materials; 
counterfeiting currencies; raising funds by means of fraud; and arranging for 
or forcing another person to engage in prostitution. The crime of "fabricating 
rumors to mislead others during wartime" is also under review.

High number of executions

With 2,400 people put to death every year, three times as many executions take 
place in China than in the rest of the world put together. The number is 
nevertheless in decline. While 12,000 people were put to death in 2002, the 
death penalty was carried out only 6,500 times in 2007. The figure has since 
shrunk to 1/3 of what it was. In 2007 Beijing granted the Chinese Supreme 
People's Court the power to review death penalty cases. Last year, judges 
ordered provincial courts to reexamine nearly 40 % of death sentences on the 
grounds of procedural errors.

There are still stark differences between China and other countries that still 
use the death penalty. In the US, the most prominent of the countries 
criticized for using the death penalty, its application is limited to 
aggravated murders. A total of 1,386 people have been executed there since 
1976, just over 1/2 as many as those executed in China last year alone.

Arbitrary decisions

The extensive catalogue of crimes regularly leads to some strange verdicts from 
China's judges, because imprecisely formulated crimes allow judges a lot of 
room for interpretation in their decisions. One can say that this opens the 
door to arbitrary decisions of a political nature.

Last year the verdict in the case against the former minister for railways, Liu 
Zhijun, caused a stir: a death sentence with reprieve for corruption. After 2 
years good behavior, such sentences are generally commuted to life 
imprisonment. Such verdicts are favored by judges in cases involving well known 
and well-connected people.

In other cases, the sentence is often decided even before the trial. Since 
President Xi Jinping launched an anti-terror campaign in China in response to a 
series of attacks, trials now tend to be brief. In early October, 12 suspected 
terrorists were condemned to death by a court in the unstable Xinjiang 
province. Such draconian moves are unlikely to change much.

International criticism

China has long come under fire from the international community for its use of 
the death penalty. Xi is now taking a step in the right direction, but there is 
still a long road ahead.

Reforms have yet to be finalized. The list of capital offenses is slated to be 
reduced even more in a few months' time. Perhaps the next to go will be another 
antiquated, vaguely formulated crime: aggravated vegetable theft.

(soure: opinion; DW columnist Frank Sieren has lived in Beijing for 20 
years----Deutsche Welle)






IRAN:

13 executions in 11 days at central prison of Uromieh


>From Saturday, 18th October, till Wednesday, 29th October, within 3 rounds 13 
prisoners were executed in the central prison of Uromieh (Darya) by hanging.

According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), on 
Saturday, 18th October, 5 prisoners named; Nejat Karimi, Esfandiar Ghahremani, 
Bahram Sadighi, A???rash Sigari and Fakhredin Zendehdeh with drug-related 
charges were taken to solitary confinements and just after the midnight their 
execution verdict were carried out.

Also in the early hours of Monday, 27th October, 5 other prisoners were 
executed by hanging in central prison of Orumieh. Among them, Salahedin Behnam, 
Rashid Alizadeh, Reza Tahmasbi and Younes Golbahar with drug-related charges 
and Latif Mohammadi with armed robbery charge were executed in central prison 
of Uromieh.

In addition, in the early hours of Wednesday 29th October, 3 prisoners named; 
Abraham Chopani, Hamed Hajilo and Keyhan Yousefi were executed by hanging in 
central prison of Uromieh on charges of murder. According to prisoners, Abraham 
Chopani was a feeble-minded person.

It should be mentioned that none of these execution have been announced by the 
official Iranian media.

(source: Human Rights Activists News Agency)

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

Iranian regime defends rights abuses, execution of Reyhaneh Jabbari


During a debate at the United Nations Headquarters, in response to 
international calls for the Iranian regime to allow freedoms of expression and 
religion, as well as concerns at a rise in executions, Mohammad Javad Larijani, 
the Secretary General of Iran's High Council for Human Rights defended the 
Tehran regime's record, including the brutal hanging of a 26-year-old women - a 
would-be victim of sexual assault by an intelligence official.

Despite an international campaign calling for her release, Reyhaneh Jabbari was 
hanged at dawn on Saturday in Tehran's Evin prison after 7 years of 
imprisonment, coupled with the psychological and physical torture of her and 
her family.

Defending the inhuman laws of the clerical regime (known as 'qisas' or law of 
retribution), Larijani shamelessly urged the Western countries to "look into 
it."

He described 'qisas', the inhuman law sanctioning the gouging out of many eyes, 
the amputation of many hands, fingers and legs, and the execution of many 
juvenile offenders, as 'a unique particularity' of his regime, named by Iranian 
people as the "godfather of ISIS."

The chief human rights official of the clerical regime told the Geneva forum 
during a regular review of the Iranian regime's record: "Capital punishment or 
'qisas' is a unique particularity of our system. I think it would be worthwhile 
for Western countries to look into it." His regime has earned the world's 
highest death penalty rate per capita.

Also in Tehran, the government of Hassan Rouhani, on Wednesday, endorsed the 
execution of Reyhaneh Jabbari and rejected the worldwide condemnation of her 
hanging, describing it as "meddling in a judicial case."

"Meddling in a judicial case which has gone through full legal proceedings 
under the due process of law and in which the right of appeal has been granted 
is unacceptable," Hassan Rouhani's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman - Marzieh 
Afkham - said on Wednesday.

Not only does the mullahs' regime continue with the systematic violation of 
human rights in Iran, the collective and arbitrary executions and the heinous 
crimes such as splashing of acid on women, but it also ridicules all 
international conventions and laws despite sixty UN resolutions.

It is time for the United Nations General Assembly to refer the Iranian regime 
record of violations of human rights to the UN Security Council for the 
necessary measures to end the suffering of the Iranian people, and particularly 
the women.

(soure: NCR-Iran)

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

Iran says 93 % of executions drug-related


Responding to a United Nations report criticizing death sentences in Iran, a 
senior official in the Islamic Republic is saying that 93 % of executions in 
the country involve drug smuggling.

Mohammad Javad Larijani, secretary of Iran's Human Rights Council, made the 
comments in a report posted on the judiciary's website Saturday.

The Oct. 23 report by the U.N. said at least 852 people were reportedly 
executed between July 2013 and June 2014 and called it an alarming increase.

Delegates from many European countries have urged Iran to adopt a moratorium on 
the death penalty at an ongoing human rights meeting in Geneva.

Iran previously has threatened to allow drug smugglers through its territory to 
Europe if the West continues to criticize it for executing convicted drug 
traffickers.

(source: Associated Press)






GLOBAL:

Sentencing the Death Sentence to Death


By seeking to sentence Lee Jun-Seok, captain of the ill-fated ferry that sank 
in April killing 304 persons, to death, are South Korean prosecutors seeking 
justice or merely pandering to the lust for revenge?

According to Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, "No one 
shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or 
punishment". Death penalty, the ultimate form of cruel punishment, has no place 
in a modern, progressive criminal justice system. From the dark medieval ages 
that sentenced condemned prisoners to macabre gladiator fights to the present 
day, we have time and again attempted to make death penalty appear civilized 
and bloodless by changing the method of execution from beheading to hanging to 
lethal injection. But there are no humane executions; even death by the needle 
- considered the most "civilized" way of performing the barbaric act of taking 
away a life, often ends in an agonizing execution, such as in the case of 
Clayton Locket of Oklahoma, who writhed in pain over for over 30 minutes before 
dying of a heart attack. Recent medical evidence suggests that even prisoners 
who did not show visible signs of pain during execution by lethal injection 
could have actually felt pain, but been unable to indicate them because of a 
muscle relaxant used in the drug cocktail.

Proponents of death penalty believe that the "eye for an eye" approach deters 
crime, and is the only way to provide justice to those affected by heinous 
crimes. They are wrong on both counts. Firstly, there is no conclusive evidence 
that the death penalty deters crime. According to a study published by the 
University of Colorado, over 88 % of criminologists believe that the death 
penalty does not deter crime. Secondly, as capital cases slowly wind their way 
through the legal system often taking decades, the agony of victim's families 
are only prolonged. The tax payer money spent on the lengthy legal process is 
better spent in providing counseling and other support to survivors (including 
family members of the prisoner who may have lost their sole breadwinner - they 
are victims too).

The desire for retribution against hardened criminals may be understandable if 
not justified, but the mere thought of a state-sponsored killing of an innocent 
person is morally repugnant. Justice systems around the world are flawed and 
wrongful convictions occur more often than we would like to believe: the 
Innocence project, a U.S. based non-profit dedicated to exonerating the 
wrongfully convicted, has exonerated over 300 persons including 18 from death 
row; in India 14 eminent retired judges wrote to the President pointing out 
that 15 people on death row had been wrongfully convicted. The possibility of 
miscarriage of justice, resulting in a wrongful and irrevocable punishment to 
an innocent person, is on its own sufficient to make the case for abolition of 
the death penalty.

The global trend towards abolition of capital punishment is encouraging. 
According to Amnesty International, 140 countries - more than 2/3 of the world, 
have abolished the death penalty, de jure or de facto. It is time the remaining 
countries, especially democracies like the United States, recognize that the 
cruel and inhuman punishment is a blot on civilized societies, and sentence the 
death sentence to death.

(source: Ash Murthy, Huffington Post)