[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Nov. 19




GHANA:

The death penalty is not a creative response to murder


Americans have a saying that runs as follows: "Be careful what you wish for; or 
you shall get it."

Nana Obiri-Boahen's angry call on President John Dramani Mahama to expedite the 
implementation of the death penalty is scandalously simplistic and grossly 
misplaced. And if I were Nana Akufo-Addo, the 2016 presidential candidate of 
the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), under whose John 
Agyekum-Kufuor-led governance Nana Obiri-Boahen served as a junior cabinet 
appointee, I would think twice before deciding to appoint this evidently 
unsavorily impulsive man to any position of great or major responsibility.

Definitely not to the very sensitive portfolios of Minister of the Interior, 
Justice or Defense. For a trained lawyer, Mr. Obiri-Boahen's reaction to the 
alleged jailbreak attempt by Mr. Johnson Kombian, the notorious criminal 
convict, leaves much to be desired.

Mr. Kombian, who is currently being held at the Nsawam Medium-Security Prison, 
was sentenced to death by hanging in August last year for murdering two police 
officers in the northern regional town of Nakpanduri.

Either I did not sedulously follow the preceding admittedly heinous event or 
the hectic duty of writing and publishing virtually on a daily basis, about 
momentous events in the country, has caused me to so soon forget about the 
Kombian Affair, as it were. I am, however, very familiar with the name of Mr. 
Kombian.

The exact details of the catalog or chain events leading to Mr. Kombian's crime 
are also not clear to me; not that such knowledge would in any way extenuate 
the decidedly repulsive and hideous nature of the crime. What I strongly 
believe we ought to be looking at, however, are the exact set of circumstances 
under which such horrendous crimes are committed and also the relative 
frequency with which they are committed. And then, of course, we can begin to 
seriously deliberate over the most appropriate statutory response to such 
crimes.

As well, the fact of whether, indeed, the punishment is congruent or 
commensurate with the crime may also need to be critically examined. I 
predicate the latter aspect of my argument on the fact that punitive measures, 
such as that which was reportedly imposed on Mr. Kombian, are intended to serve 
as a deterrent to both the subject of such punishment and society at large.

Now, we don't know why all the 4 presidents the country has had under its 
Fourth-Republican dispensation, including the swashbuckling and bloodthirsty 
and pathologically vindictive Chairman Jerry John Rawlings, have each and every 
one of them flatly refused to implement the death penalty. But what I know for 
a fact, both through personal experience and studious observation, is that both 
the legal and judicial systems are not foolproof. And this observation is being 
made irrespective of the level of development of the country in which the 
emotionally loaded subject of crime and punishment is being discussed.

Here in the United States, for example, presidents and governors who have been 
either slow or downright reluctant to apply the death penalty have almost 
invariably done so with significant regard, or attention, to the fact that 
crime and punishment tend to be highly racialized.

In other words, the race and/or ethnicity of the criminal suspect often tends 
to play a major role in decisions pertaining to both the length and the 
severity of sentencing. For instance, African-American and Hispanic or Latino 
criminal suspects convicted of murder are several times more likely to be meted 
the death penalty than suspects officially classified as "Ethnic Whites" or 
European-Americans. And I reasonably suspect that while it may not be very 
obvious, especially to members of Ghana's ethnic majority populace, 
nevertheless, the frequency of who gets the death penalty imposed on them may 
very well be ethnically and culturally tinged. Equally significant is the need 
to factor into the equation the identity, ethnicity and class background of the 
alleged victims of such heinous crimes.

What I clearly see in the Kombian jailbreak attempt is the glaring fact that 
rather than house this extremely dangerous criminal convict in a 
"Medium-Security Prison,' Mr. Kombian ought to have been incarcerated in a 
"Maximum-Security Prison." If Ghana does not yet have a maximum-security prison 
facility, then this is what professionally trained lawyers like Nana 
Obiri-Boahen ought to be advocating, and not the knee-jerk and infantile 
ideology of tit-for-tat.

Indeed, were he studiously observant, Nana Obiri-Boahen would since long have 
come to the morally edifying and practically constructive conclusion that the 
bloody revolutions undertaken by Chairman Rawlings have not made National 
Democratic Congress' politicians and that party's machine operatives any 
remarkably less corrupt than their counterparts of the main opposition New 
Patriotic Party.

Indeed, a credible case could even be made that the NDC operatives are today 
more thoroughgoing corrupt than the average Ghanaian politician, precisely 
because of Mr. Rawlings' bloody revolutionary bouts.

This very traumatic fact ought to inform the likes of Nana Obiri-Boahen that 
the implementation of the death penalty may actually cause a phenomenal tide in 
the rate or frequency of murders in the country. There is also no credible 
evidence indicating that the spate of murders in the country is any higher or 
lower today than it was during the Rawlings Revolution. It may actually be much 
lower today, if one stops to think about it.

*Visit my blog at: kwameokoampaahoofe.wordpress.com Ghanaffairs

(source: Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe; ghanaweb.com)






BANGLADESH:

2 get death penalty for killing schoolboy in Comilla


The trial of 2 other accused arrested in this connection has been undergoing at 
a juvenile court.

A tribunal here on Wednesday convicted 2 people and sentenced them to death for 
killing a schoolboy in 2013.

The condemned convicts are: Mahe Alam Nayan and Kuddus Alam Rabin, both 
residents of Ratnabati village in Sadar upazila.

According to the prosecution, Shihab, a class IV student of a local school and 
son of Nazrul Islam of Ratnabati village, was picked up by some miscreants on 
January 27, 2013.

Later, the abductors demanded Tk50 lakh as ransom from Nazrul Islam over phone. 
A case was filed in this connection.

Police arrested 4 people including the 2 convicts after tracking their mobile 
phone, and following their confessional statements, recovered the decomposed 
body of Shihab from a septic tank on February 4, 2013.

After examining records and witnesses, Judge of Comilla Women and Children 
Repression Prevention Tribunal, Aziz Ahmed Bhuiya, pronounced the verdict.

The trial of 2 other accused arrested in this connection has been undergoing at 
a juvenile court.

(source: Dhaka Tribune)






BAHAMAS:

Andros Murderers Tell Judge They Have "Difficulty Adjusting To Incarceration" 
At Sentencing


2 men convicted of the murder and kidnapping of an Immigration Department 
officer and his girlfriend in Andros have had difficulty adjusting to 
incarceration, a judge was told on Friday.

Zintworn Duncombe, 28, and James Johnson, 22, appeared before Justice Indra 
Charles for the penalty phase of their trial for their respective roles in the 
murder and kidnapping of Shane Gardiner and his girlfriend, Tishka Braynen, in 
2013.

Dr John Dillard, a licenced psychiatrist with the Public Hospitals Authority, 
testified on Friday that he found no evidence or record of mental illness in 
Duncombe or Johnson.

However, he did note that Duncombe said he had experienced nightmares since his 
incarceration and that Johnson had suffered from a mild adjustment disorder.

Both men, he said, were co-operative and able to communicate effectively with 
him during their clinical interviews that aided the preparation of psychiatric 
reports for the court's consideration.

The psychiatrist said he could not say definitively whether either man was 
incapable of reform when probed by Duncombe's 2nd lawyer, Jerone Roberts.

He did stress that neither Duncombe or Johnson displayed anti-social or 
psychopathic tendencies.

The matter was adjourned to November 28 at 10am for submissions from defence 
and Crown counsel.

Gardiner and Braynen were allegedly killed after a failed plot to take $8,000 
in gambling winnings from the immigration officer. Braynen, of Cargill Creek, 
and Gardiner, who lived in Love Hill, both in Central Andros, were reported 
missing around 1.45pm on November 24, 2013. Gardiner had recently been assigned 
to the island.

On December 21, 2013, police in Andros discovered the remains of a man with 
"items related to a female".

Duncombe, Johnson, Daniel Coakley, 28, and Cordero Saunders, 26, were 
unanimously convicted of double kidnapping, conspiracy to commit armed robbery 
and attempted armed robbery.

The Crown is seeking the death penalty for Duncombe and Johnson, who were 
unanimously convicted of murder. Because of the request for the death penalty, 
the court ordered the production of a psychiatric report and social inquiry 
report with respect to the 2 convicts.

Duncombe, Saunders, Johnson and Coakley, who all maintain their innocence, are 
respectively represented by lawyers Ian Cargill, Moses Bain, Donna Major and 
Terrel Butler.

Darnell Dorsett and Patrick Sweeting prosecuted the case.

(source: Bahamas Tribune)






EGYPT:

Will Egypt's parliament toughen punishment for rape?


Many Egyptians are hoping that a new bill, set to come before parliament in 2 
months, will put a stop to a surge in rapes throughout the country. The bill, 
prepared by the National Council for Women (NCW), a state-run agency that seeks 
to defend women's rights, would authorize the death penalty for rapists - a 
first in Egypt. The bill is seen as an attempt by Egyptian authorities to 
demonstrate their seriousness in criminalizing violence against women and 
putting an end to rape.

"The bill toughens penalties with the only aim of deterring rapists and 
preventing this crime from happening," Sanaa Khalil, a senior member of NCW's 
Legislative Committee, told Al-Monitor. "Rapes have reached alarming levels in 
this country."

According to the bill proposed by Khalil and his colleagues, if the rape victim 
is under 18 or has a mental or psychological disorder, the rapist will be 
sentenced to death. However, if the rape victim is over 18, the rapist will be 
sentenced to death or life in prison, depending on the court's judgment.

Egypt ranked the worst among Arab countries for women's rights, according to a 
2013 poll conducted by the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Furthermore, a 
staggering 99.3% of Egyptian women have been exposed to some form of sexual 
harassment, according to a 2013 survey by UN Women.

Growing violations in this regard have given rise to a large number of 
anti-harassment movements in Egypt that lobby for maximizing penalties for rape 
and harassment. Many sexual assault victims count the days until rapists will 
pay for their crimes. Many women say they are victimized twice - once by the 
actual assault, and again by the failure of current laws to assign appropriate 
punishments to wrongdoers.

Egypt's penal code does not allow for the execution of rapists. Instead, the 
code applies the maximum penalty of 25 years in prison to rapists who have been 
proven beyond a reasonable doubt to have committed the crime. A rapist will 
face the death penalty only if rape is followed by murder, according to the 
penal code. If the rapist is a minor, the maximum punishment he faces is 15 
years in prison.

The new bill, however, aims to make rape a legally unforgivable crime.

Currently, members of the NCW Legislative Committee are holding meetings with 
representatives from the government and civil society institutions to debate 
the bill and form recommendations on the bill before submitting it to 
parliament for final discussion. The bill is expected to be submitted within 
the next two months.

Many members of parliament say there is an urgent need for a law that toughens 
penalties for rape.

"Rape is like murder," said Margret Azer, a member of parliament's Human Rights 
Committee. "It is even more heinous." She told Al-Monitor that a rapist does 
not only psychologically kill his victim but also kills all the victim's family 
members. "Like murderers, rapists must be punished by death," she said.

In conservative Egyptian society, sex is only acceptable within the framework 
of marriage. A woman's body and sexual organs are shrouded in sanctity, and 
rape is considered a heinous, socially unacceptable act. In some parts of 
Egypt, a woman can be killed by her family members if she has an affair with a 
stranger.

This is why Azer and other members of parliament have called for rapists to 
endure the toughest penalties. They believe that rape violates the most 
sanctified part of Egyptian culture - namely, women's bodies.

"We will do our best in parliament to convince other members to vote for the 
bill when it is submitted to parliament for approval," Mona Monir, a member of 
parliament, told Al-Monitor. "Such a bill should have been submitted to 
parliament a long time ago, in fact."

Hundreds of rape victims are also waiting on tenterhooks for the bill to be 
passed.

"When such a law becomes a reality, people like me will feel that [the bill 
has] restored [our] rights," said Shaimaa Ghazal, the mother of a 5-year-old 
girl whose attempted rape and subsequent murder in 2013 shocked Egypt and gave 
rise to repeated calls for tougher action against rapists. Despite the horrific 
nature of the crime, the rapists were only sentenced to 15 years in prison.

"Having heard the judge read out the sentence, I felt as if he issued this 
sentence against me and her father, not her killers," a tearful Ghazal told 
Al-Monitor. "I will feel very satisfied, even if the potential law is not 
applied retroactively, when it is approved by parliament."

Nonetheless, not all Egyptians agree on the bill. Some oppose the proposed bill 
because they say it promotes capital punishment, which in itself is a problem.

"This punishment has already been canceled out in some countries," said leading 
feminist Hoda Badran. "The capital punishment is irreversible, which means that 
you cannot bring a person back to life after executing him if he proves to be 
innocent."

Rape can be stopped, Badran told Al-Monitor, not by introducing the death 
penalty in such cases, but by applying swift and effective justice. "Death is 
not a solution," Badran said. "Murder is punishable by death, but death has 
never prevented murders."

Khalil said the proposed bill would not open the door for the unrestricted 
killing of people suspected of committing rape. He said there would be strict 
and clear conditions for the application of this punishment in accordance with 
international law.

"We are badly in need of a law to put an end to this heinous crime," Khalil 
said. "I am sure the urgency of such a law will translate into a positive 
reaction ??? parliament."

(source: al-monitor.com)






INDIA:

India opposes UN resolution for moratorium on death penalty


India has opposed a UN resolution calling for a moratorium on the death 
penalty, saying it goes against Indian law and the sovereign right of countries 
to determine their own laws and penalties.

"The resolution before us sought to promote a moratorium on executions with a 
view to abolishing the death penalty," Mayank Joshi, a counsellor at India's UN 
Mission said on Thursday. "My delegation, therefore, has voted against the 
resolution as a whole as it goes against Indian statutory law."

The resolution, however, was adopted by the General Assembly's committee 
dealing with humanitarian affairs by 115 votes to 38 with 31 abstentions after 
an acrimonious debate and the adoption of an amendment to recognise the 
sovereign rights of nations to determine their own laws, which virtually 
nullified it.

India supported the amendment and Joshi told the committee: "Every State has 
the sovereign right to determine its own legal system and appropriate legal 
penalties."

The amendment passed by a vote of 76 to 72 with 26 abstentions. However, it did 
not mollify India, which voted against the amended resolution.

Explaining New Delhi's position on capital punishment, Joshi said, "In India, 
the death penalty is exercised in the 'rarest of rare' cases, where the crime 
committed is so heinous as to shock the conscience of society."

In the last 12 years only 3 executions - all of them of terrorists - have been 
carried out in the nation of 1.2 billion.

Last year Yakub Memon, who financed the 1993 Mumbai bombings, was executed. 
Muhammad Afzal, convicted of plotting the 2001 attack on India's Parliament, 
was hanged in 2013 and Mohammad Ajmal Amir Qasab, 1 of the terrorists involved 
in the 2008 Mumbai attack was executed in 2012.

An independent judiciary hears the cases where death penalty can be imposed and 
appeals are permitted at several levels, Joshi said. Moreover, the Supreme 
Court has decreed that "poverty, socio-economic, psychic compulsions, 
undeserved adversities in life" should be considered as mitigating factors in 
imposing the death penalty, he added.

The amendment about the sovereign right of nations to have their own legal 
systems was introduced by Singapore. Its delegate said that the original 
resolution was 1-sided and tried to impose the values of one group of countries 
upon others.

New Zealand, echoing the sentiments of several other countries, said that 
sovereignty did not absolve nations from complying with international norms of 
human rights and the death penalty violated it.

The United States also opposed the resolution saying that capital punishment 
was legal under international law and dealing with it was a domestic matter.

(source: Hindustan Times)