[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Nov. 26



GERMANY:

1 in 3 law students backs death penalty


Professor Franz Streng at the University of Erlangen in Bavaria asked his 
1st-year law students the same set of questions every year from 1989 to 2012.

"At the beginning of their studies, they've still only had their opinions 
formed by school, their parents and the media," Streng said.

He found that despite the young people feeling less at risk from crime from 
year to year, they became more and more positive about harsher punishments for 
criminals.

Asked to decide on a sentence in a fictitious case of manslaughter after a 
couple broke up, the average grew from 6 years in 1989 to 9 1/2 in 2012.

And in stark contrast to 1989, when more than 1 in 3 students wanted to abolish 
life sentences altogether, only 2 % were for ending them in 2012.

Streng notes that the effect is completely unlinked to violent crime 
statistics, which have been sinking since 2007.

"The people I survey feel more secure than they ever have," he said.

He adds that these beginner lawyers aren't yet prepared for the questions 
they're being asked - and that isn't necessarily fixed during their studies.

"Young lawyers aren't trained enough to deal with sentencing. They know the 
criminal law itself, but they don't get any knowledge about psychology, 
sociology and psychiatry."

Lawyers starting work as judges and prosecutors should have to receive 
compulsory training in criminology, Streng said.

Stefan Caspari of the Magistrates' Federation suggested that differences are 
ironed out by the time lawyers qualify, saying that "there is no difference to 
be found between young and old [judges] in terms of the sentences they request 
or hand down"

Every age group has stricter and harsher judges according to individual 
personalities, Caspari said.

But Streng suspects that societal factors are at play in the students' 
hardening attitudes.

He welcomes the focus on victims that has developed in recent years, but says 
it has "problematic side effects" - along with crime sensationalism in the 
media which leads to people feeling generally less safe.

"If you push for victims' interests, you'll tend towards higher sentences," 
Streng believes - and the same goes for those who watch a lot of crime movies.

As for the death sentence, its reintroduction is completely out of the 
question.

"It's abolished by our Constitution, and at the same time it's unthinkable that 
it could be reintroduced because of international treaties and the context of 
the European Union."

(source: The Local)






INDIA:

India Votes against UNGA Resolution on Death Penalty


India has voted against a UN General Assembly draft resolution calling for 
moratorium on the use of death penalty, saying it fails to recognise each 
nation's "sovereign right" to determine its legal system and punish criminals 
according to its laws.

The draft resolution on 'Moratorium on the use of the death penalty' was 
approved last week in the General Assembly's Third Committee, which deals with 
social, humanitarian and cultural issues. India was among the 36 nations that 
voted against the resolution, which got 114 votes in favour and 34 abstentions.

By the terms of the resolution, the General Assembly would urge Member States 
to progressively restrict the use of the death penalty and not impose capital 
punishment for offences committed by persons below 18 years of age, on pregnant 
women and on persons with mental or intellectual disabilities.

In its explanation of vote, India said the resolution seeks to promote a 
moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty.

India voted against the resolution as it goes "against our statutory law, First 
Secretary in the Indian Mission to the UN Mayank Joshi said.

"The resolution fails to recognise the basic principle that each State has the 
sovereign right to determine its legal system and to punish criminals as per 
its laws," he said.

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."

He said Indian law provides for all requisite procedural safeguards, including 
the right to a fair hearing by an independent court, the presumption of 
innocence, the minimum guarantees for the defence and the right to review by a 
higher court. India reiterated that its laws have specific provisions for 
suspension of the death penalty in the case of pregnant women and has rulings 
that prohibited executions of persons with mental or intellectual disabilities, 
while juvenile offenders cannot be sentenced to death under any circumstances.

Joshi added that death sentences in India must also be confirmed by a superior 
court and an accused has the right to appeal to a High Court or the Supreme 
Court.

Human rights groups have criticised India's use of death penalty and have 
repeatedly asked India to end the "distressing" use of executions and move 
towards abolishing the death penalty.

Last year, India executed Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru just three 
months after it hanged the lone surviving 26/11 terrorist Ajmal Kasab in a Pune 
jail.

In September last year, 4 men were sentenced to death for raping and murdering 
a young woman in New Delhi in December 2012, a tragedy that sparked wide-spread 
protests and anger across the country and united its citizens in seeking 
justice for the student, who died in a Singapore hospital.

A related draft amendment tabled in the third committee was rejected by a vote 
of 55 in favour, 85 against, with 22 abstentions.

By that text, the General Assembly would reaffirm the sovereign right of all 
countries to develop their own legal systems, including determining appropriate 
legal penalties, in accordance with their international law obligations.

India voted in favour of the amendment.

(source: The New Indian Express)

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

Is India preparing to hang an innocent 'untouchable'?


Should the court rule against Koli and were he to be hanged, it would be the 
second consecutive execution in India of a most likely, or almost entirely, 
innocent person.

Surinder Koli is a member of a Dalit, or oppressed (formerly known as 
'untouchable'), caste in imminent risk of execution for horrific crimes he may 
well not have committed.

He has been convicted of murdering a 14-year-old named Rimpa Haldar based 
entirely on his confession obtained under torture some 2 months after his 
arrest in December 2006. His confession statement, which mentioned several 
other murders, mutilation, cannibalism and worse, specifically stated that he 
was tortured and tutored during detention.

In most civilised jurisdictions, confession under torture is automatically 
ignored. The Indian Evidence Act bars a confession made due to inducement, 
threat or promise. Moreover the Supreme Court of India has ruled against it, 
also observing that prolonged custody prior to a confession is sufficient to 
deem it involuntary. There is no other evidence against Koli than his 
confession under torture during detention by the Central Bureau of 
Investigations (CBI).

Moreover, Koli's confession details stretch credibility. According to his 
repetitive and near identical statements, all the killings took place during 
the day in Moninder Singh Pandher's house where Koli was a domestic servant. He 
carried out the killing in the drawing room, stripped the clothes off, carried 
the bodies to the bathroom to be mutilated, got to the kitchen and cooked and 
ate some body parts. Some hours later he would clean the house. Not once did 
anyone surprise him in the acts, nor observe them.

15 more cases are pending against Koli - 11 in the trial court stage and 4 in 
the appeal stage in Allahabad High Court in the state of Uttar Pradesh. He was 
poorly represented by legal aid lawyers whereas his employer Pandher, who was 
also convicted in the Rimpa Haldar case, went from death penalty to outright 
acquittal by the high court.

The killings and mutilations took place in Nithari village close to New Delhi 
but in the jurisdiction of Uttar Pradesh.

In 2007, India's Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD) set up an expert 
committee of senior officials to look into the "Nithari Killings". The 
committee made a damning indictment of the investigations by the police and the 
CBI (thus raising serious doubts about Koli's role in the killings). The 
committee noted scientific information supplied by a senior medical expert, Dr 
Vinod Kumar, MD, who had carried out autopsies and who pointed out that the 
middle parts (torsos) of all the bodies were missing, giving rise to the 
suspicion that they were being used in the organ trade.

Dr Vinod Kumar noted the surgical precision with which they had been handled. 
He disfavoured the theory of cannibalism as that could have been a ruse to 
divert attention from the organ trade. In its report, the WCD committee cast 
doubts over the prosecution theory about the motive for the killings and noted 
its failure to investigate the organ trade trail. The house next to the one 
where Koli worked was occupied by a Dr Naveen Chaudhury, who had been charged 
previously in a case of organ trading.

The WCD report was never given to Koli's lawyers or to the trial or appeal 
courts. Dr Vinod Kumar's observations would have had a crucial bearing on the 
case against Koli. The prosecution failed to examine his report, record his 
statement or call the autopsy surgeon as a witness. A highly unusual lapse in a 
murder case.

Moreover, the WCD report pointed out that there was no pattern in the choice of 
victims which is generally the hallmark of serial killers: the victims were 
both male and female and ranged in age from 3 to young women. The method of 
disposal of the body - around the house in broad daylight - seems not to have 
aroused the courts' suspicion. Crucial witnesses such as other employees of 
Pandher were never called. Koli's guilt, in other words, has never been proven 
beyond reasonable doubt.

Assuming for the sake of argument that Koli did indeed do what his confession 
statements claim, he needs psychiatric and medical help, not the hangman's 
noose. Sparing mentally ill convicts the death penalty is the least amount of 
decency that retentionist states can show.

The Supreme Court, while dismissing Koli's review petition on 28 October 2014, 
was reported to have said that "in future the trial court will ensure that the 
accused in other cases by given proper legal assistance by a lawyer of 
expertise and who can devote time,". How absurdly bizarre is that? It amounts 
to saying: you have a point that Koli was not given proper legal representation 
but we'll nevertheless let this poorly represented chap hang even if he's 
innocent as he claims to be.

Following the Supreme Court's unfortunate decision, the People's Union for 
Democratic Rights went back to the Allahabad High Court, seeking commutation to 
a life sentence on the ground that there had been considerable delay in his 
case. The court set 25 November to hear the government's response.

Should the court rule against Koli and were he to be hanged, it would be the 
second consecutive execution in India of a most likely, or almost entirely, 
innocent person. In February last year, a Kashmiri named Afzal Guru was hanged 
in secret and his body buried inside the jail without informing his family 
beforehand in connection with the 2001 attack on the Indian parliament. The 
Supreme Court had almost conceded there was little merit in the case, but said: 
"The collective conscience of the society will be satisfied only if the death 
penalty is awarded to Afzal Guru."

India's political class, judiciary, police and prosecution are packed with 
members of upper or oppressor castes as is the media. Inside Indian jails, it 
is the Muslims, Dalits and Adivasis (indigenous peoples), who make up the 
majority. Officials and media people from upper classes and castes have little 
sympathy for the latter. The Supreme Court's callous dismissal of the review 
petition by Koli, an indigent Dalit, and its abominable verdict in the Afzal 
Guru case are but 2 examples.

Equally crucially, if Koli were to be hanged, a possible witness in what the 
report of the committee constituted by the Ministry of Women and Child 
Development points to a much larger criminal network would be lost forever. The 
Pandhers and their neighbours can sleep in peace, basking in the caste, class 
and communal prejudices of the institutions that fail(ed) to bring them to 
justice.

Is that what the Indian state wants?

(source: opendemocracy.net)

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

SC awards death penalty to man for raping 4-yr-old girl, stoning her to death


SC has awarded death sentence to a 47-year-old man from Maharashtra after 
finding him guilty of raping a 4-year-old girl and then stoning her to death.

The apex court said the case fell in the rarest of rare category as the child 
had always referred to the man from neighbourhood as an uncle and trusted him.

SC said the way the man betrayed the child's trust and brutally raped and 
murdered her, he deserved nothing but death penalty.

The 3-judge bench in a unanimous decision said the depraved man deserved death 
penalty as he was a threat to young girls and the balance in society.

(source: The Times of India)






VANUATU:

Vanuatu MP says black magic 'getting out of control'


A Vanuatu opposition MP who believes in 'black magic' says those who use it 
should face the death penalty.

Willie Jimmy says if he is in Government again he will push for legislation to 
punish those who practise black magic and protect those who stop people using 
it.

His comments follow the arrest of a group of church pastors and custom chiefs 
in Malekula for allegedly ordering the hanging of 2 men who they claimed were 
practising black magic.

The police have described the killings as brutal and unlawful.

In a controversial move, Mr Jimmy is defending the killings, saying he believes 
black magic is getting out of control.

"It is good for the people of the village, it is good for the people of the 
area, because they will now walk around freely without being intimidated by 
somebody through the use of black magic."

Willie Jimmy says he does not consider the death penalty an extreme measure.

(source: Radio New Zealand)



UGANDA:

A petition to have the death penalty abolished


A group of Americans is planning to petition the Ugandan parliament in efforts 
to have the death penalty abolished.

Bill Pelke, the president of Journey of Hope, says they plan to challenge the 
death penalty although he did not specify when exactly they will do so.

He says their move will help to sensitize Ugandan MPs on the cruelty of the 
death sentence - something that he believes should ultimately lead the 
legislators into advocating for the abolition of the punishment.

Uganda is one of the few countries in the world with the death penalty, 
although no execution has been carried out since 1999, when Haji Mustapha 
Sebirumbi was hanged.

Following a global campaign, 139 countries - including 13 in Africa - have 
abolished the death penalty in the last 12 years.

Presently, Uganda's prisons accommodate 393 inmates on death row. Of these, 357 
are male while 36 are female.

Pelke says the death penalty is "cruel, inhumane, degrading and traumatizing 
for the people who carry out executions".

He says that being missionaries, they came up with the idea of visiting 
countries that retain the death penalty so as to sensitize citizens on the 
cruelty of the sentence and therefore persuade them to think of other options.

He gives an example of a case where a US court sentenced a 15-year-old girl to 
death after she was deemed to be a ring leader in the killing of Pelke's 
grandmother. He says there is need for human beings to forgive whoever offends 
them.

"You don't have to be a Christian to forgive. Forgiveness is the cornerstone of 
all major religions. Forgiveness is letting go of the desire for revenge and 
moving forward, in all areas of your life."

His organization - Journey of Hope - is one led by family members of murder 
victims who are opposed to the death penalty.

Established in 1982, it has promoted forgiveness and reconciliation to death 
row inmates and the families they offended.

Every year, the group travels to various organisations to spread the message of 
non-violence and forgiveness and has so far traveled to 16 African countries 
and 40 states in the US.

"Death row family members and other activists join our traveling journey tours 
as we strive to put a human face on the issue of the death penalty."

(source: New Vision)






SYRIA:

IS stones to death 2 alleged gay men in Syria


Islamic State (IS) militants stoned to death 2 young men in Syria's eastern 
province of Deir al-Zour on charges of having "unlawful" sexual intercourse 
with other males, a monitoring group has reported.

The 1st man, 20-year-old, was stoned to death at the al-Bakara roundabout in 
the city of Mayadeen in Deir al-Zour and his execution was attended by crowds 
of civilians, including children, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights 
(SOHR) Tuesday.

It added that the man was arrested by the IS fighters earlier and a video of 
him having sex with another male was allegedly found stored in his cellphone.

Another young man, said SOHR, was also stoned to death at the al-Takya Street 
in the neighbourhood of Hamidyeh in Deir al-Zour on the same charges.

After the execution, the bodies of the 2 men were taken by the IS fighters 
without handing them over to their parents.

The IS applied the "stone to death" penalty for the 1st time Oct 21 this year 
in the city of Bukamal in Deir al-Zour on a man who was charged of committing 
adultery.

The extremist group has applied strict rules in areas under its control, 
banning smoking or drinking alcohol as well as prohibiting women from walking 
on streets without veils.

(source: The Times of India)






IRAN:

Illegal Addition of New Charges Makes Death Sentence for Soheil Arabi More 
Likely; New Charges Seem Aimed at Avoiding Commutation of Sentence


In an arbitrary and illegal act, new charges that carry a death sentence and 
which do not allow a pardon were added and the death sentence of Facebook user 
Soheil Arabi was confirmed by the Supreme Court in Iran.

"In a surprising act, the charge of 'corruption on earth' which was not 
included in the indictment, was illegally added to the case in Branch 41 of the 
Supreme Court, and [Soheil Arabi's] death sentence was confirmed and sent to 
the Enforcement Unit of the Judiciary [to carry out the death sentence]," a 
source told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.

The source stated that on November 25, 2014, Arabi's lawyers requested a stay 
of execution and a retrial for him. "Enforcement of the death sentence will be 
suspended over the next few days. Currently, his lawyers only hope to buy time 
and to delay the execution," said the source.

"Regrettably, the charge of 'corruption on earth' cannot receive a pardon, 
according to [Iranian] law. Therefore, at this stage there is only room for 
hoping that the Judge in Branch 41 of the Supreme Court announces that this 
charge was added by mistake and to eliminate it, sending the case to a lateral 
court for review. Otherwise, Mr. Arabi will be executed."

Soheil Arabi was arrested in November 2013, and was sentenced to death on 
charge of "insulting the Prophet" (sabb-al-nabi) by Branch 76 of Tehran Penal 
Court for his writings on Facebook. His lawyers had hoped, however, that the 
Supreme Court would dismiss the charges based on Article 263 of the Islamic 
Penal Code [which explicitly states that if a suspect claims in court that he 
said the insulting words in anger, in quoting someone, or by mistake, his death 
sentence will be converted to 74 lashes] and the defense provided by the 
suspect [which stated this claim], but he has now been sentenced to death for a 
2nd time on charges of "corruption on earth."

When asked on what basis the charge of "corruption on earth" was added to 
Arabi's case, the source told the Campaign, "It says in the case that because 
Mr. Arabi had several Facebook pages with different names, and that he 
repeatedly insulted the Prophet on these pages, his charges are no longer just 
'insulting the prophet.' This means that if he had only one insulting Facebook 
page, his charge would have been 'insulting the Prophet,' but because he had 
multiple pages, his charge is 'corruption on earth.' Such a justification is 
legally faulty."

"If the Supreme Court had determined that the charge of 'corruption on earth' 
should have been added to this case, they should have ordered the case to 
return to the court to inform the suspect of his new charges, instead of adding 
the charge outside of the indictment and issuing a verdict," said the source.

Agents from the Revolutionary Guards Corps' (IRGC) Sarallah Base arrested 
Soheil Arabi, 30, and his wife in November 2013. Arabi's wife was released a 
few hours later, but he was kept in solitary confinement for 2 months inside 
IRGC's Ward 2-A at Evin Prison, before he was transferred to Evin's General 
Ward 350. Branch 76 of the Tehran Criminal Court, under Judge Khorasani, found 
Arabi guilty of "sabb al-nabi" (insulting the Prophet) on August 30, 2014.

(source: iranhumanrights.org)