[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Aug. 9



PAKISTAN:

Revisiting the death penalty


If you ask anyone in Pakistan to tell you about the country's criminal justice 
system, it is likely you will be told a tale that is both horrific and 
depressing. You will hear about a police force that is poorly trained and 
ill-equipped, suffering from capacity constraints, institutionalized 
corruption, and political capture, all of which impede its ability to 
effectively discharge its duties and responsibilities. You will listen to 
stories about torture, brutality, and forced confessions, with the need to 
produce 'criminals' in the absence of proper procedures and investigations 
leading to the use of these measures to deliver results. You will leave the 
conversation with the firm belief that the police in Pakistan requires urgent 
reform and oversight, barring which it will remain an organization within which 
very little public trust can be reposed.

Should you choose to broaden the scope of your inquiry to include the courts 
and other government organizations, there is a strong chance you will hear a 
similar litany of complaints and grievances. Corruption and nepotism will 
feature strongly in any discussion of what ails Pakistan's institutions, as 
will accounts of general ineptitude, incompetence and inefficiency. In a 
country where it is all too evident that different rules apply for the rich and 
the poor, and where there is little to prevent the average citizen from being 
subjected to the arbitrary power of the state or the predatory elites that 
dominate it, it should not be surprising to discover that there is little 
popular faith in concepts like accountability, due process, and impartiality.

It is in this context that we must re-visit the case of Shafqat Hussain, 
finally executed last week after months of attempts by his lawyers to have his 
death sentence commuted on the grounds that he was a minor when he was 
convicted of murder in 2004. On 4 previous occasions, Shafqat Hussain's 
execution was postponed as attempts were made to ascertain the truth of claims 
about his age, as well as to address alleged shortcomings on the part of the 
lawyers who had represented him when he was convicted. Despite an international 
outcry against the government's relentless desire to see this man hanged, with 
much of the debate focusing on the obvious problems with the manner in which 
Shafqat Hussain's 'confession' was extracted and trial was conducted, and 
despite the best efforts of his lawyers, whose efforts were rewarded with 
constant threats and utterly unfounded allegations about their intentions, the 
government ultimately decided that 'justice' could only be served by depriving 
yet another person of their life.

Over the past few months, there have been many who have questioned the focus on 
Shafqat Hussain. The arguments advanced by these critics have generally focused 
on a couple of familiar themes. Some have insisted that an eye for an eye is a 
perfectly valid basis upon which to base the country's criminal justice system, 
and that the death penalty therefore makes sense when it comes to crimes like 
murder. Others have voiced support for the death penalty in general, believing 
that it acts as an effective deterrent to crime and should, therefore, be 
adopted as widely as possible. Predictably enough, a 3rd line of reasoning has 
focused less on the case and the death penalty and has, instead, attempted to 
discredit attempts to save Shafqat Hussain by accusing his lawyers and 
supporters of being foreign-funded agents attempting to destabilize Pakistan 
and undermine its sovereignty.

The problems with all of these arguments should be self-evident. At the outset, 
there is a principled case to be made for abolishing the death penalty 
altogether; it is not immediately clear why the state should have the right to 
take the lives of prisoners, especially when depriving them of their liberty 
remains a significant punishment, incarceration serves to eliminate any threat 
that they might pose, and rehabilitation opens up the possibility of enabling 
them to eventually become constructive members of society. Giving the state 
absolute power over life and death also creates a slippery slope; the 
government might start by executing terrorists and murderers, but could then 
use similar justifications to go after political opponents, dissidents, and 
others whose 'crimes' might not objectively merit such a severe response.

Even if these principled arguments against the death penalty were to be put to 
one side, however, there are other, practical considerations that must be taken 
into account. For one, as evidence from around the world has shown, the death 
penalty does not actually deter criminality. Secondly, and more importantly, 
there is a tremendous potential for wrongful conviction and execution; even if 
it were to be conceded that the death penalty makes sense, surely the 
possibility that an innocent might be killed for a crime they did not commit 
should lead those who support the death penalty to re-evaluate their position. 
Even in the United States, where levels of police competence and capacity are 
far higher than Pakistan, recent advances in DNA technology have meant that, 
since 2011, 273 convicts have been exonerated of crimes they did not commit, 
with this number including 17 death row convicts.

It is here that the cognitive dissonance that characterises the debate on the 
death penalty in Pakistan becomes most obvious. Amidst widespread distrust for 
the police, the lower courts, and the government machinery, it is puzzling to 
see so many people readily and eagerly endorse the idea that the state can and 
should take the lives of convicts. Even if support for abolishing the death 
penalty in principle is thin on the ground, the notion that innocent people 
might be killed, or that procedural errors could lead to irreversible 
tragedies, should provide some grounds upon which to pause and take stock of 
the vengeful and vindictive approach that is currently being employed by the 
state in the name of 'justice'. The moratorium on the death penalty in Pakistan 
was ostensibly lifted so that convicted terrorists could be executed. 
Problematic as this policy is, it is even more difficult to discern how it can 
be interpreted to justify the deaths of people convicted of offences that are 
clearly not linked to terrorism. Since the moratorium was lifted, the 
government has been indiscriminate in its pursuit of 'justice', resolutely 
ignoring the fact that the serious issues with the criminal justice system in 
Pakistan all but guarantee innocents are being subjected to state-sanctioned 
murder. Indeed, even the execution of the mentally disabled has done nothing to 
sate the government???s bloodlust. Shafqat Hussain's case is important not only 
because of the individual involved, but also because of how it is emblematic of 
broader issues that need to be discussed with regards to crime and punishment 
in Pakistan. Pointing all of this out does not make someone a foreign agent, 
nor does it undermine Pakistan in any way. Instead, it is a necessary part of 
the process through which this country might one day become a more tolerant and 
just place.

(source: Hassan Javid; The writer is an assistant professor of political 
science at LUMS----The Nation)






INDONESIA:

Death Row Convict Mary Jane Veloso's Fate Still Unclear


Like in the past years, thousands of inmates across Indonesia will receive 
sentence reductions in conjunction with the 70th Independence Day commemoration 
this year, which falls on the August 17th.

However, under Indonesian laws, jail term reductions are not given to prisoners 
serving life sentence, in addition to those who have been convicted with the 
death penalty. Among them is Filipino citizen Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso, who is 
currently a drug-related death-row inmate.

Mary Jane is currently held at Yogyakarta's Wirogunan prison. The former 
domestic helper was granted a last-minute temporary reprieve by President Joko 
'Jokowi' Widodo before she was due to be executed in April. 8 men, including an 
Indonesian national, were executed by firing squad that day in Nusakambangan, 
Central Java. They were all drug-related convicts.

President Jokowi gave Mary Jane a temporary reprieve following an effective 
campaign and pleas from the Philippine government. Philippine officials made 
stronger appeals to Indonesian authorities to spare the life of Mary Jane. One 
of the reasons was due to the on-going legal process over a Filipino woman, 
Maria Kristina Sergio, who had allegedly tricked Mary Jane to bring 2.6 
kilograms of heroin to Indonesia from Malaysia about 5 years ago. Mary Jane 
says she had been tricked by a gang of heroin traders.

However, it remains unclear whether the Philippine court will eventually 
declare that Sergio had tricked Mary Jane. Moreover, Indonesian authorities had 
not clearly said about Mary Jane's fate if Sergio is found guilty.

Meanwhile, Benny Mamoto, former deputy head of Indonesia's National Narcotics 
Agency (BNN) had asked whether the Philippine law enforcement authorities have 
seriously focused on these 2 questions: Who owned the heroin? And whom it was 
brought to?

"If Sergio could not tell about it, it all was a lie. It was useless to hand 
herself to the police. What for, then?" the police major general told reporters 
at National Police Headquarters last Friday (7/8).

Late last month, a small team of officials from the Philippine Department of 
Justice met with Indonesia's Attorney General Agung M. Prasetyo at the latter's 
office to discuss the fate of Mary Jane Veloso.

Their visit followed Prasetyo's statement early last month that Veloso could 
ask for review of her case if there was new evidence that she had been tricked.

Meanwhile, reports said that there are still about 50 drug-related death-row 
inmates waiting for execution. In January of this year, 6 were killed by firing 
squad, which also took place also in the prison-island of Nusakambangan.

(source: globalindonesianvoices.com)






AFGHANISTAN:

Taliban execute woman after raping her in front of family: police----...the 
victim was raped in front of her husband and their 3 children. She was hanged 
to death then


In a shocking incident, a woman has been raped in front of her family members 
by Taliban militants before she was executed in northern Badakhshan province, 
officials said Saturday.

The incident happened overnight in Wardoj district's Tirgaran village where 
Taliban recently seized a key police base.

Lal Muhammad Ahmad Zai, a spokesman for provincial police, explained that the 
victim was raped in front of her husband and their 3 children. She was hanged 
to death then, he added.

It was not immediately clear what provoked the act.

This is a reminder of another rape incident by Taliban militants in Badakhshan. 
However, the victim in the incident that dated back late last year was not 
human but animals - cows.

The police base holding scores fell to Taliban over 2 weeks ago. While the 
captured policemen were released, government has yet to retake the base.

(source: rawa.org)






INDIA:

Death penalty in India is a cruel game of chance: Anup Surendranath


Anup Surendranath, assistant professor at National Law University, Delhi, has 
been helming the Death Penalty Research Project, a first-of-its-kind empirical 
study to be released later this month, examining the lives of those on death 
row in India. Surendranath, who was in the news over reports that he had 
resigned from his post of deputy registrar of the Supreme Court following the 
execution of Yakub Memon, declined to comment on why he stepped down, but spoke 
to ET Magazine's Indulekha Aravind about some of the significant findings of 
the report, and his views on the death penalty. Edited excerpts:

What made you embark on this project?

The origins of my interest in the death penalty were very academic in nature, 
when I was doing my postgraduate studies in OxfordBSE -4.72 %. But soon after I 
came back, there was the Afzal (Guru) execution. The manner in which it was 
carried out made me realise that for an issue that captures so much of the 
public imagination, there's so little work done on it. Most of it surrounds the 
Supreme Court's own approach to the death penalty and the inconsistent 
applications of the legal doctrine of the rarest of the rare. But we don't 
really know how prisoners are sentenced to death, what factors push judges 
towards giving the death sentence, how death row prisoners are treated in 
Indian prisons, what their social and economic background is - you need all of 
this information to have an informed public debate on the death penalty. It 
can't just be that I believe in the death penalty and you don't, based on our 
moral and philosophical dispositions.

Yes, that's important, but the national and social context within which this 
penalty is used has to be brought to the fore. The discussion so far has been 
binary.

You also set out to examine the process of sentencing?

Considering you're giving someone the harshest punishment in the legal system, 
we wanted to find out if there is a corresponding higher standard of the 
integrity of the legal process or the investigation process before sentencing 
someone to death. In every other context, we know that the Indian police force 
is not your modern police force, and that our criminal justice system is under 
tremendous strain. Yet, when it comes to the death penalty and when these 
passions are evoked, we suddenly seem to have great faith in our criminal 
justice system. We need to look away for a moment from the Yakub Memons and the 
Afzal Gurus - there are a lot of other people, who nobody has heard about, who 
have had no legal representation worth its name. You can't ignore them as some 
incidental cost.

What were some of your significant findings?

We did 2 studies, 1 from June 2013 to January 2015, based on interviews with 
existing prisoners sentenced to death, numbering around 385. Among those 
sentenced to death for terror offences, 93.5% are Dalits and religious 
minorities.

Even in other cases, lower castes and religious minorities dominate. They also 
have very low levels of education - 24% of them have never even stepped into 
school. When you're talking about the death penalty, you're talking about some 
of the most marginalised sections of this country.

And the 2nd study?

That was to map trends in the fate of death penalty cases from 2000 to 2015. 
The results are startling: for every 100 death sentences that trial courts 
give, only 4.5 are confirmed by the higher courts. About 30% are acquitted and 
the rest are commuted. This basically shows there is rampant overuse of the 
death penalty. If these are the rates, you are unnecessarily making people live 
on death row.

What is the condition of prisoners on death row?

In most prisons, death row prisoners are kept apart.

They are not allowed to work because they are considered high risk. They are 
not allowed to interact with the general prison population. All that they are 
left to do is talk to other people in the same boat, all wondering whether they 
will live or die. It's a daily, constant anticipation of your death. Very 
often, we forget that. When you map that kind of experience with the overuse of 
the death penalty, it's particularly cruel. My worry is not so much about the 
executions we carry out as it is about this aspect: that we are forcing people 
to live on death row unnecessarily.

What is your own view on the death penalty?

There is no fair and reasonable way to administer the death penalty in India. 
There are very serious structural issues that render it impossible to 
administer.

This is irrespective of what one's moral, philosophical or political positions 
might be. As a lawyer, I believe the manner in which the death penalty is 
administered is arbitrary. There is no constitutional way in which you can 
administer this punishment fairly in India. It's a cruel game of chance.

And this would be applicable to the latest execution, of Yakub Memon?

The latest round of litigation was not about whether or not he should be 
awarded the death sentence. It was limited to the legality of his death 
warrant, which sets the time, place and date of hanging.

There's a procedure to be followed while issuing a death warrant, and one of 
the questions was whether that procedure was followed. Secondly, it was about 
whether he should be given the chance to challenge the rejection of his mercy 
petition. These were important issues for the court to consider, and they have 
considered it in the manner they thought fit.

What about your own resignation, said to be done in protest?

No comments.

Which of your findings took you most by surprise?

On a personal level, I was not quite ready for the intensity of the desperation 
and sheer helplessness (of the prisoners). Irrespective of us repeatedly 
telling them we could not help them in any way, that this was for a research 
project, they were clutching at straws. It just baffles me - why people keep 
being subjected to it despite the courts themselves saying only 4.5% need to be 
on death row. If we as a society are comfortable with the fact that in order to 
make that 4.5% suffer, we are going to make the other 95% pay this collateral 
cost, we need to introspect a lot more.

(source: The Economic Times)






ISRAEL:

Bennett supports death penalty for all terrorists - Jewish and Arab


"I support the balance between individual rights and freedoms with protecting 
Israel's security and preventing terror," Bennett tells Galey Israel Radio.

Education Minister Naftali Bennett came out in favor of equal treatment of 
terrorists regardless of background - Jewish or Arab - including the death 
penalty on Sunday.

With a heavy heart, I support the balance between individual rights and 
freedoms with protecting Israel's security and preventing [terrorist attacks]," 
Bennett told Kalman Liebskind on Galey Israel Radio. "I said it in the past and 
I stand behind my statements that it is right to use administrative detentions 
sparingly and very carefully."

When asked whether he believes in totally equal treatment of Jewish and Arab 
terrorists, including house demolitions and the death penalty, Bennett 
responded in the affirmative.

"If there is a trend - and again, we still have to put an asterisk here, 
because I haven't seen proof yet - but assuming that there's a trend, then we 
need to use parallel tools," he stated.

When Liebskind specifically asked about the death penalty, Bennett said: "Yes, 
of course, the answer is yes."

Last month, a bill by MK Sharon Gal (Yisrael Beytenu) to make it easier to 
sentence terrorists to death was voted down 94-6, with only Yisrael Beytenu MKs 
voting in favor. Though Bennett and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked said they 
support the death penalty, they voted against it because that was the 
government's position.

(source: Jerusalem Post)






SOMALILAND:

Appeal against Death Sentence Imposed on Mentally Ill Abdullahi Ali Ismail ---- 
Family says Abdullahi Ali Ismail a menatlly ill relative was sentenced to death 
in Lasanod townFamily says Abdullahi Ali Ismail a menatlly ill relative was 
sentenced to death in Lasanod town


I would like to bring your attention to my brother Abdullahi Ali Ismail, A 32 
years old mentally ill father of 9 children, who has been sentenced to death by 
firing squad by the Somaliland authorities in Las-anod town the capital of Sool 
region.

I found deplorable the Somaliland authorities are well aware of his past mental 
illness history and refused to take it to account. Mr Abdullahi has spent 2 
years in mental hospital and 6 months at the notorious mandhera jail in 
Somaliland because of his mental disorder.

The Somaliland court has sentenced my brother to death without the presence of 
a lawyer and without a psychological evaluation by a medical professional. I 
would also like to highlight that his case was delayed more than a year which 
means a lot of supporting evidence were overlooked. In addition to that, Mr 
Abdullahi's health has deteriorated since he was arrested by the Somaliland 
authority.

I believe this penalty is unlawful and seriously violates the basic right for a 
fair trial of the defendant. Please intervene the execution of my brother by 
informing the Somaliland authorities to halt the death penalty.

I am looking forward to all your support in getting my brother released

Yours sincerely,

Faisa Ali, sister of Mr Abdullahi Ali

(source: somalilandsun.com)