[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

July 17



TAIWAN:

Taipei prosecutors request death penalty for killer of 2nd-grader


A man who allegedly knifed to death a 2nd-grade girl at an elementary school in 
Taipei's Beitou District in late May has been indicted for murder, the Taipei 
Shilin District Prosecutors Office said Wednesday.

Local police said the 29-year-old accused, identified as Kung Chung-an, 
allegedly stabbed the second-grader May 29 when the child went to the bathroom 
alone at Wenhua Elementary School, in a random attack.

The 8-year-old was rushed to Taipei Veterans General Hospital, but died of her 
wounds the next day.

Prosecutors filed a request to the Shilin District Court for the death penalty 
for Kung and the deprivation of his civil rights for life, given that he acted 
in an especially heinous and cruel manner in the attack that has caused 
emotional and psychological trauma to the girl's family and has shocked many 
people in Taiwan, according to a spokesman for the Shilin District Prosecutors' 
Office.

Kung's case was referred to the Shilin District Court later Wednesday, which 
ruled that Kung should remain in detention.

Preliminary questioning by the police indicated that Kung picked the girl 
simply because she was alone and out of her classroom. He allegedly followed 
her into the toilet, where he grabbed her from behind and cut her throat.

Kung has claimed that he did it because he was under a lot of pressure and was 
having hallucinations.

(source: Want China Times)






INDIA:

State's eagerness to hang 1993 Mumbai blast convict Yakub Memon doesn't quite 
pass the smell test


There is something that does not smell right about the likely hanging of Yakub 
Memon, one of those convicted for the 1993 Mumbai blasts planned by his 
absconding brother Tiger Memon, now believed to be in Pakistan.

Yakub Memon may actually have been a side-player in the blasts, and is mainly 
accused of being part of the criminal conspiracy, especially arranging funds 
for the blasts. He has been convicted, and his death sentence has been 
confirmed by the Supreme Court. The centre has also rejected his mercy 
petition. He has filed a last-ditch petition to seek a review of the death 
penalty. Of the 11 accused awarded death sentences, 10 have been commuted to 
life, and only Yakub's date with the hangman has been confirmed. If the Supreme 
Court does not intervene, the Maharashtra government seems likely to let him 
hang on 30 July.

Memon's execution needs to be stayed. What does not smell right is the decision 
to let the "law take its own course" only in his case, which makes it a 
political act, by default or design. This is not to say he does not deserve to 
be hanged - I don't oppose the death penalty for acts that Memon has been 
convicted for - but hanging Memon alone for such acts would make it political.

Consider what has happened so far in hangings related to terrorism and 
political assassinations.

In November 2012, Ajmal Kasab, one of the 10 killers sent by Pakistan's ISI and 
the Lashkar-e-Toiba to kill innocents in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, was 
hanged. The political intent was apparent in the timing. The Gujarat elections 
were due in December 2012, and Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde wanted to show 
that the UPA was macho than Narendra Modi when it came to executing terrorists. 
It was widely expected that if Modi won Gujarat, he would become a national 
challenge to the Congress in 2014.

3 months later, when the Kasab hanging did not help the Congress politically in 
Gujarat or stop Modi's rise, Afzal Guru, convicted for being involved in the 
December 2001 parliament attacks, was also hanged. Far from being a macho act, 
this was, in fact, a cowardly decision because he was hanged even without his 
family being informed. You can't be seen as genuinely tough if you don't have 
the courage to even inform a convict's family before his hanging. Once again, 
the political intent of the hanging was to show up Modi's tough-man image. All 
it displayed was the Congress' weakness.

But 2 other terrorists with as big crimes to their names are still to be 
hanged. Their crimes were as big as those of Kasab or Guru. Balwant Singh 
Rajaona, convicted assassin of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh, is 
still to be hanged for his crime. Reason: the Punjab assembly and 
administration applied political pressure to prevent this.

3 others convicted of the plot to kill Rajiv Gandhi - Santhan, Murugan and 
Perarivalan - had their death sentences stayed by a high court after the Tamil 
Nadu assembly asked for a reprieve. The Supreme Court later commuted their 
sentences in February 2014 on the plea that the centre had delayed their mercy 
petitions for too long. The Tamil Nadu government showed great eagerness to 
release them the very next day, largely to score political points, and the 
Supreme Court was petitioned to prevent this unwholesome political act - which 
it did.

What is apparent to all but the innocent eye is this: where a convicted killer 
or assassin or terrorist has strong political backing, neither the centre nor 
the courts seem to develop the spine to deliver justice impartially as 
intended.

Now consider how the same centre, states and courts are keen to "uphold the 
law" when it comes to another category of killers: Ajmal Kasab, Afzal Guru, 
and, now, possibly, Yakub Memon. All Muslims, and their only common link to the 
hangman's noose seems to be that they lack political support.

Yakub Memon may deserve the death penalty, but not before it is implemented for 
Balwant Singh Rajaona and Rajiv's 3 assassins. Justice cannot be delivered - or 
seen to be done - if the lady with the scales and blindfold checks to see who 
is being sentenced before giving the nod. Yakub Memon's hanging needs to be 
stayed or commuted for this simple reason. The larger question of whether the 
death penalty is good or bad is not the issue.

(source: R Jagannathan; firstpost.com)






MALAWI:

Law students help reverse Malawi death penalty sentence


After 19 years in a Malawi prison under threat of a death sentence, Abraham 
Galeta has been set free, thanks to the work of students in the International 
Human Rights Clinic at Cornell Law School. In the process, the students 
acquired valuable skills they might use in future criminal cases.

The young man had killed his stepfather, who had been in the act of viciously 
beating his mother to the point that she called out for help in fear for her 
life. He was convicted of murder and sentenced to death; in Malawi such 
sentences are often delayed.

Jamu and John Banda were released from prison as a result of students' 
investigation and advocacy. They had been convicted of murder simply because 
they were present at the scene of a fatal fire. Clinic students interviewed 
Galeta in prison. He had not spoken to a lawyer since his death sentence was 
imposed in 1996. Traveling to Galeta's remote village, Malawi paralegals 
trained by Sandra Babcock, clinical professor of law, interviewed witnesses to 
bring out the extenuating circumstances.

They also interviewed village elders to establish that Galeta was of good 
character and would be accepted if he returned to the village. On the basis of 
this evidence, and drawing from both Malawian and international legal 
precedents, Cornell clinic students prepared pleadings for Malawi lawyers to 
submit to the country's high court. Galeta's sentence was reduced to a term of 
years, resulting in immediate release.

"We have achieved results because we work in collaboration with local partners, 
and we're very humble about our contribution," Babcock said. "It provides a 
really good example of how a U.S.-based university can collaborate in a way 
that is not intrusive."

Malawi has an independent judiciary and a small corps of well-trained lawyers, 
Babcock said, but it is one of the poorest countries in the world. It has fewer 
than 20 public defenders nationwide, and they have limited support.

"What we can do is provide what we have at our disposal: students who have the 
time and access to legal resources," Babcock explained.

In recent years students have reversed several other unjust convictions in 
Malawi. Since January the International Human Rights Clinic has been involved 
in 36 hearings, securing the release of 24 prisoners and commuting 12 to a term 
of years as an alternative to a death sentence.

In one case, a deranged man set fire to a building and burned to death, and 
three brothers who had gone in to rescue him were arrested because they were 
found at the scene. In another, a woman was accused of murder for killing her 
husband when he was beating her in a drunken rage. The status of women is a 
recurring issue, Babcock noted. Often, she said, a physical attack on a woman 
by a man might be reported as just a "quarrel." Alcohol also is frequently 
involved, she added.

"The whole premise of this project is that you need to look at the whole person 
and the facts of the crime," Babcock said, "and you take all those facts into 
account in deciding who should be released."

The International Human Rights Clinic is a course Babcock teaches in the Law 
School. Her title "clinical professor" means that she leads students through 
real-world cases. She encourages students to take the course more than once, 
because each time around offers a different experience. Next year, the clinic 
will continue to work in Malawi and will add new challenges.

"We hope to expand the work to another country with the same problems because 
we've learned so much," Babcock said. They also will examine women's rights 
issues in Myanmar, she added.

Cornell also has clinics on LGBT rights, capital punishment, labor law and 
immigration, all led by professors with practical experience.

(source: Cornell Chronicle)






ZAMBIA----all national death sentences commuted

LUNGU substitutes death sentences


President Edgar Lungu has commuted death sentences to life imprisonment of all 
the 332 inmates at Mukobeko Maximum Prison in Kabwe.

Meanwhile President Lungu has also pardoned musician Clifford Dimba commonly 
known as General Kanene and has appointed him his ambassador for the fight 
against gender violence.

President Lungu says he is aware that there is congestion in most prisons 
across the country and that government is doing everything possible to find way 
of decongested the Prisons.

The President says his government is committed to ensuring that standards in 
Prisons and conditions of Prisoners are in line with the United Nations 
Standards and other international protocols.

President Lungu says government is determined to amending the Zambia Prisons 
Service Act Cap 97 to include provisions that will facilitate the construction 
of prisons on a Private Public Partnership basis.

The Head of State said this will not only address congestion in Prisons but 
also improve infrastructure and general facilities for inmates.

President Lungu was speaking when he addressed inmates at Mukobeko Maximum 
prison in Kabwe this morning.

Prisons Care and Counseling Association -PRISCCA- Executive Director Godfrey 
Malembeka has hailed President Edgar Lungu for communicating the death penalty 
of 332 prisoners to life sentence.

Mr. Malembeka says President Lungu has uplifted the spirits of Zambians who 
have been calling for the abolition of the death penalty.

He has told ZNBC News in a Telephone Interview that the Prisons should not just 
be an institution for execution of offenders but also a correctional one.

And Zambia Association of Musicians -ZAM- president, Njoya Tembo has praised 
President Lungu for pardoning Musician Clifford Dimba also known as General 
Kanene.

Mr Tembo has however cautioned General Kanene not to disappoint the President 
but take his counsel seriously.

Mr. Tembo told ZNBC News in Lusaka that the association will support Kanene in 
his work as an ambassador for the fight against Gender Based Violence .

(source: Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation)