[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Oct. 17




VIETNAM:

NA Standing Committee discusses penalties


Lawmakers on the last day of the 42th National Assembly Standing Committee 
yesterday agreed that unlawful residency registration and marriage registration 
would no longer be punishable under the penal code.

On the discussion about the revised Penal Code, most of NA deputies said that 
it was necessary to review and eliminate some crimes as they did not cause 
serious consequences. Administrative provision was appropriate in these cases.

Giving opinion on the application of death penalty for elderly people, Chairman 
of the NA Law Committee Phan Trung Ly said he agreed with the revised law, 
which would not implement the death penalty for those who were more than 75 
years old. This represented a humane policy of the State.

Discussing the death penalty further, some raised their voices to support the 
removal of seven charges, including robbery, damage of buildings important to 
national security, disobeying against orders, surrender to the enemy, 
sabotaging the peace, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

However, NA Vice Chairman Uong Chu Luu said that crimes against humanity and 
war crimes should not be removed although they had not yet occurred.

The majority of NA deputies strongly affirmed that it was vital to retain the 
death penalty for corruption crimes. Those who were guilty of embezzlement 
could be free from death penalty when they actively compensate for the 
consequences of the crimes they had committed and cooperated with the 
authorities' investigation.

(source: saigon-gpdaily.com)






BURKINA FASO:

Burkina Faso charges coup leader with crimes against humanity Burkina Faso's 
General Gilbert Diendere will be tried for crimes against humanity committed 
during a short-lived coup he led in September. The military justice chief said 
the general could receive the death penalty.

Colonel Sita Sangare, director of Burkina Faso's military justice, announced on 
Friday that the leader of a short-lived coup in September would stand trial for 
11 charges, including crimes against humanity.

"General Diendere is being prosecuted for crimes against humanity ... We have 
formally charged 23 people," said Sangare.

Diendere will also stand trial for murder and attacking national security.

"The possible sentences could include the death penalty if it is established 
that murder was preceded by cruel treatment or followed by acts of cruelty," 
Sangare noted.

Former security and foreign minister Djibril Bassole is also expected to stand 
trial, although only facing 6 charges.

Both Diendere and Bassole served under former President Blaise Compaore, who 
ruled the West African nation until last year after taking power through a coup 
in 1987, during which revolutionary and former Burkinabe President Thomas 
Sankara was killed.

On September 16, Diendere and the elite presidential guard arrested the 
transitional government, including President Miche Kafando and Prime Minister 
Yacouba Isaac Zida.

During Diendere's week-long rule, 14 people were killed while 251 people were 
injured during anti-coup protests, according to government figures.

The transitional government was reinstated on September 23 after Diendere 
stepped down lacking popular support.

On Wednesday, the interim government announced that presidential and 
parliamentary elections would go ahead on November 29 after the original 
October 8 date was postponed because of the unrest.

(source: Deutsche Welle)






ERITREA:

Rights group says Eritrean players defecting to Botswana face death penalty


The Eritrean Movement for Democracy and Human Rights said that ten members of 
the Eritrean senior national football team seeking asylum in Botswana would 
suffer irreparable harm (such as death penalty), should Botswana refuse to 
recognize them as political refugees, APA learnt here Saturday.In court papers 
seen by APA, the movement said Botswana's refusal to recognise the players as 
political refugees would be a de facto legitimization of the otherwise 
reprehensible Eritrean undemocratic political conditions and human right 
abuses.

"Botswana has international obligations not only under law but as a country 
that values the rule of law. To ignore the humanitarian crisis in Eritrea and 
the human rights abuses in that country would undermine public and 
international confidence in Botswana. The irreparable harms could not be 
greater," said the Eritrean Movement for Democracy and Human Rights.

It has since emerged that some of the players are part of the country's 
military officers.

Lobatse High Court, 70 kilometers from the capital Gaborone has since 
interdicted the Botswana Government from deporting 10 Eritrean players who are 
refusing to go back to their country following a world qualifying match against 
the host.

(source: StarAfrica)






BAHAMAS:

Convicted Child Killer's Right To Fair Trial 'Not Breached By Publicity Of 
Case'


A convicted child killer's right to a fair trial was not breached by extensive 
pre-trial publicity of the case, a senior prosecutor told Court of Appeal 
judges on Friday. Garvin Gaskin, Acting Director of Public Prosecutions, was 
responding to the submissions of Wayne Munroe, QC, who, last week, argued that 
heavy focus on the prejudicial effect of the constant reporting of the case of 
Kofhe Goodman - which included the repeated reference of a proposed sex 
offender's registry bill (Marco's Law) despite no evidence of sexual assault in 
the case - was a basis for the appellate court to overturn Goodman's conviction 
for the September 2011 murder of Marco Archer.

Mr Munroe had also argued that Goodman's defence had been further hampered by 
the trial judge allowing the defence lawyer's rude behaviour to distract the 
jury from the flaws in the circumstantial evidence regarding the incident.

Goodman is seeking a deferment of a re-trial if the court were to allow the 
appeal against his murder conviction and death sentence on the grounds of 
publicity affecting the case.

Friday's proceedings before Justices Anita Allen, John Isaacs and Stella 
Crane-Scott saw Mr Gaskin dispute the submissions of Mr Munroe on pre-trial 
publicity and the conduct of defence counsel in the trial.

"We say that in the circumstances, a fair trial could be had and was had and we 
rely on the case of Montgomery and also Grant vs DPP (Jamaica)," the senior 
prosecutor said.

Those decisions, he said, required the complainant to demonstrate the 
widespread effect of the alleged prejudice.

"We submit they have not demonstrated this to the court," Mr Gaskin added, 
notwithstanding the pronouncements made by National Security Minister Dr 
Bernard Nottage within weeks of Goodman's trial.

"Was there similar pronouncement made by another minister in the case of Grant 
vs DPP?" Justice Isaacs asked.

"Not in the Grant's case" Mr Gaskin said.

"But you still find that authority case applicable in this case?" the judge 
probed.

"We say the principle applies. The utterances by the minister, we accept there 
was reference to a Marco's Law and creation of sex offender's registry. But 
with respect to the trial of this gentleman (Goodman), the minister never said 
this defendant was guilty," Mr Gaskin said.

"Even if the minister did say as much, it was the Crown's case that he 
(Goodman) was guilty of the offence and to prosecute the matter," the senior 
prosecutor added.

"Mr Gaskin, you cannot be serious?" Justice Isaacs suggested.

"We are considering this ground of pre-trial publicity after the fact, not 
before the fact (of trial)," Justice Allen noted.

"Is this case on all fours with the Grant decision? Justice Crane-Scott asked.

"Factually no, but in principle, we say it is applicable," Mr Gaskin said.

Justice Crane-Scott said the trial judge's decision on the pre-trial publicity 
of Goodman's case was missing and it left the court with not much to draw on.

"We maintain that it's not been established that he did not have a fair trial," 
the prosecutor said.

"How would they be able to demonstrate the prejudice is widespread?" Justice 
Isaacs asked.

"I don't think we would have any affidavit from any jurors," Justice Allen 
said.

Mr Gaskin said if there was evidence of a juror having commented on social 
media or online publications regarding the case, or directly making a comment 
in court about Goodman, there would have been grounds to allege that Goodman 
could not or did not receive a fair trial. This was not the case, he said.

Justice Isaacs asked the prosecutor where the evidence of sexual assault was to 
justify the adverse reports linking the creation of a sex offender's registry 
to this case.

"We say we led evidence of a child abducted, found dead, naked and wrapped in 
sheets," the prosecutor said.

"What does the pathologist say?" Justice Isaacs probed.

Justice Allen interjected that the pathologist determined that no injuries of a 
sexual nature could be found due to the level of decomposition of the body.

"There is no legal requirement that you must find an injury," Mr Gaskin 
submitted.

"And that's enough to raise the fact that this young boy was assaulted?" 
Justice Crane-Scott asked.

Addressing the issue of Geoffrey Farquharson's conduct at trial, Mr Gaskin said 
that Goodman, based on the transcripts, worked in tandem with Mr Farquharson to 
derail the progress of the trial that eventually ended after 4 months.

The senior prosecutor relied on references to the transcripts in the Crown's 
submissions which illustrated instances where Mr Farquharson made statements 
that suggested he was acting on his client's instructions.

Mr Gaskin also said that contrary to Mr Munroe's suggestion that Goodman was a 
lay person who didn't understand the judicial system, Goodman had been tried in 
about 4 criminal matters over 2 decades.

"The appellant was not a novice when it comes to the criminal justice system," 
the prosecutor submitted.

Responding to Mr Munroe's argument that the imposition of the death penalty was 
not warranted in this case, Mr Gaskin submitted that the case fell within the 
new statutory framework setting out cases that could be deemed worst of the 
worst.

He said the case of Marco Archer followed a pattern from Goodman's previous 
convictions for the sexual assault of a boy he denied murdering in the early 
1990s and the attempted murder of another young boy who resisted his sexual 
advances, for which he received 18 years' imprisonment.

The appeal hearing was adjourned to October 23 for continuation of the Crown's 
submissions and Mr Munroe's reply.

(source: tribune242.com)