[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 5



PHILIPPINES:

Death penalty should remain dead


Our people are united in sympathizing with and helping Mary Jane Veloso, the 
poor Filipino female domestic worker who was convicted of heroin smuggling in 
Indonesia. Despite her defense that she was merely duped into carrying the 
prohibited drug in her suitcase, she was nonetheless sentenced to death in 
October 2010.

Saved from death. Due to a moratorium on the death penalty at that time, the 
sentence was not carried out immediately. But newly-elected Indonesian 
President Joko Widodo lifted the moratorium. So, together with 8 others, she 
was scheduled for execution by firing squad on the evening of April 29 this 
year.

At the last moment on that very evening, President Widodo - heeding the plea of 
our President Aquino - granted her a reprieve so she could testify at the trial 
in the Philippines of her alleged recruiters, Maria Cristina Sergio and 
Sergio's live-in partner, Julius Lacanilao. The other 8 convicts were however 
executed, despite the ringing protest of many world leaders.

Veloso's heart-wrenching story and the feverish effort to save her from the 
Indonesian firing squad is not yet over (she was merely granted a reprieve), 
but it reminds me of the grim finality of death as a penalty

According to Amnesty International, the death penalty has been outlawed in 140 
countries for being an inhuman and ineffective deterrent to crime.

Our 1987 Constitution has also barred the imposition of the death penalty 
"unless for compelling reasons involving heinous crimes, the Congress hereafter 
provides for it." Further, the Charter reduced death sentences already imposed 
to reclusion perpetua (or life imprisonment).

Death penalty revived. Citing the constitutional exception allowing the death 
penalty for "compelling reasons involving heinous crimes," Congress enacted 
Republic Act No. 7659 prescribing death as a penalty for certain crimes it 
defined as "heinous."

In People vs Echegaray (June 25, 1996 and Feb. 7, 1997), the Supreme Court 
upheld the constitutionality of RA 7659, adjudged the accused Leo Echegaray 
guilty of raping a 10-year-old girl, and meted out on him the death penalty by 
lethal injection, the 1st under RA 7659.

Together with 2 other justices, I dissented from this and all other judgments 
imposing the death penalty on the ground that RA 7659 was unconstitutional 
because Congress failed (1) to show "compelling reasons" to revive it and (2) 
the crimes for which it was prescribed were not "heinous."

Apart from these legal grounds, I also strongly felt that the death penalty 
unfairly targeted the poor, the weak and the underprivileged. Though the many 
decisions imposing death were per curiam, I have, on many occasions, admitted 
my dissenting opinions and votes.

Tilted vs the poor. To contribute to the worldwide clamor to abolish the death 
penalty, and to help Mary Jane (and her family) escape the agony and pain of 
death by firing squad, may I revisit some of my arguments why the death penalty 
is tilted against the poor who are exemplified by Mary Jane.

Truly, the death penalty militates against the poor, the powerless and the 
marginalized. The best example to show the sad plight of the underprivileged is 
the fact that the counsel for Echegaray (like the one for Mary Jane) was less 
than competent and enthusiastic in defending him.

The crucial issue of the constitutionality of the death penalty law was not 
raised in the trial court, not even in the Supreme Court, until Echegaray's 
counsel was replaced by the Free Legal Assistance Group, which belatedly 
brought it up only in the Supplemental Motion for Reconsideration in the high 
court.

To the poor and unlettered, it is bad enough that the law is complex and 
written in a strange and incomprehensible language. Worse still, judicial 
proceedings are themselves complicated, intimidating and damning. The net 
effect of having a death penalty that is imposed more often than not upon the 
impecunious is to engender in the minds of the latter - unfounded at times, but 
unhealthy nevertheless - a sense of the unequal balance of the scales of 
justice.

Precisely because the underprivileged are what they are, they require and 
deserve a greater degree of protection and assistance from our Constitution, 
our laws and our officials, and from the courts, so that in spite of their 
situation, they can be empowered to rise above themselves and their poverty.

The basic postulates of such a position are, I think, simply that ultimately we 
all want to better ourselves and that we cannot better ourselves individually 
to a significant degree if we are unable to advance as an entire people and 
nation.

All the glory provisions of the Constitution aim to help the poor. Yet, we were 
faced with this penalty that effectively inflicted the ultimate punishment on 
none other than the poor and the disadvantaged, a penalty so obviously final 
and so irreversibly permanent that it erased all hopes of reform, of change for 
the better.

After a long battle in the courts of law and of public opinion, Congress 
finally repealed the Death Penalty Law effective June 30, 2006. Had Congress 
not abolished the death penalty, President Aquino (and the others who labored 
for Mary Jane) would not have had the moral ascendancy to plead for her life.

This is one more reason why the death penalty should remain dead - in deference 
to and for the sake of our poor, struggling overseas Filipino workers, many of 
whom are virtually and unfairly lined up before firing squads in many countries 
of the world.

(source: Opinion, Philippine Inquirer)






PAKISTAN:

Pakistan police arrest Christian labourer for blasphemy


Pakistan police said Saturday they have arrested and imprisoned a Christian man 
accused of blasphemy in Punjab.

"Blasphemy is a hugely sensitive issue in Pakistan, with even unproven 
allegations often prompting mob violence, and acquittals in court are rare. A 
Christian laborer named Pervaiz Masih was arrested earlier this week and sent 
on judicial remand for passing derogatory remarks against the prophet of 
Islam," a local police official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Ali Hussain, a senior police official in the area, confirmed the incident.

He said the accused, a labourer, was working with several Muslim colleagues 
when the incident occurred.

"They were working on a small construction site, one Muslim fellow was 
listening to religious speech while the accused was working," he said, adding 
that when the accused told his colleague to get back to work they had an 
argument during which the Christian man made derogatory remarks about the 
prophet of Islam.

"We have registered a case under section 295C against the accused."

The alleged incident occurred in Kasur district, around 54 kilometers (34 
miles) southeast of Lahore.Under Pakistan's stringent blasphemy laws, insulting 
the Prophet Mohammed carries the death penalty, though the country has never 
executed anyone for the crime.

But anyone convicted, or even just accused, of insulting Islam, risks a violent 
and bloody death at the hands of vigilantes.

Bonded labourer Shehzad Masih and his pregnant wife Shama Bibi were beaten by a 
mob of 1,500 people then thrown into a furnace last year in a crazed reaction 
to rumours they had thrown pages of the Koran into the garbage.

Critics, including European governments, say Pakistan's blasphemy laws are 
often misused to settle personal scores.

Christians, who make up around 1.6 % of the country's 200 million people, are 
often discriminated against and marginalized by the Muslim majority.

(source: The Jakarta Post)






INDIA:

Afzal Guru, Yakub Memon hangings send signals of weak Government: Justice Ajit 
Prakash Shah----Sudden decision on Guru was purely political, says former Delhi 
High Chief Justice.


Less than a week after after he demitted office as Chairman of the Law 
Commission of India after submitting a landmark report recommending abolition 
of death penalty except in cases of terror attacks, former Delhi High Court 
Chief Justice Ajit Prakash Shah Friday said the sudden and "secretive" hanging 
of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru was a mistake by the government.

"I don't understand why it had to be done so secretly and so suddenly. In my 
opinion, it was a sign of weakness and caused great setback to attempts to 
resolve the Kashmir issue. The decision was completely political," Justice Shah 
told The Indian Express.

Incidentally, former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah had also 
said Guru had been hanged for "political reasons", and that even he had been 
informed just hours before the execution.

Asked if he agreed with the way in which the government and the Supreme Court 
handled the mercy plea and the petition filed by 1993 Mumbai blasts convict 
Yakub Memon, the jurist said, "Both the Executive and the Judiciary didn't 
perform their duty completely and transparently.

"I have so far refrained from speaking on this issue as I was holding this 
post. But now I can speak freely. I don't know what was the great hurry to hang 
him. This is not the sign of a vibrant democracy. The manner in which the 
Supreme Court handled the case, holding a hearing pre-dawn, also was not good. 
It was almost as if the Judiciary was trying to stick to the deadline to hang 
him. This hanging has alienated an entire community. Look at the crowd that 
came to attend his burial. Unfortunately, the signal that has gone out is that 
there are 2 sets of rules for dealing with such cases - 1 for killers like 
Rajiv Gandhi's and another for those from the minority community like Yakub 
Memon. This is very unfortunate," he added.

Elaborating on the role of the judiciary, he pointed out that several important 
reasons were ignored while deciding Memon's case as well as the mercy petition.

"The governments may have an ideology but it should have absolutely no impact 
on the judiciary. Were all grounds taken into consideration while deciding his 
mercy plea? My feeling is that the due process was not followed," he said.

To a question on whether he thought the entire mercy petition process was 
flawed, Justice Shah said, "It is provided for in the Constitution. But, yes, 
it is the decision of the Executive and not the President. Earlier, we had tall 
leaders as President, people who could put their foot down if they didn't agree 
with the viewpoint of the government; look at the number of people whose mercy 
pleas were accepted by earlier Presidents like Rajendra Prasad. That is not the 
case with recent Presidents."

He also agreed that the manner in which mercy pleas are decided leaves a lot of 
room for questions about the lack of transparency. "There are guidelines that 
must be followed," he said.

Asked if the NDA government would accept the Commission's recommendations on 
abolishing death penalty, Justice Shah said, "I am aware of this government's 
views. But, how can I not be hopeful?"

In its report, the Law Commission, while questioning the "rarest of rare" 
doctraine, has noted that administration of death penalty, even within the 
"restrictive environment of rarest of rare doctraine", was constitutionally 
unsustainable.

It also pointed out that in the last decade, the Supreme Court had on "numerous 
occasions expressed concern about arbitrary sentencing" in death penalty cases, 
adding, "There exists no principled method to remove such arbitrariness from 
capital sentencing."

(source: Indian Express)



BARBADOS:

Rights body not happy


THE INTER-AMERICAN COMMISSION On Human Rights (IACHR) is frustrated with 
Barbados' non-compliance with its court's order to abolish the death penalty, 
and in a hearing Thursday night, queried the delay.

In a video compliance hearing with Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) 
Charles Leacock QC and Solicitor General Jennifer Edwards QC the Inter-American 
Court of Human Rights asked why Barbados was not complying with orders made 
since 2007 and 2009, what would be the timelines for implementing new 
legislation, and whether Section 26 of Barbados' near-50-year-old Constitution 
- which maintains the death penalty - was adequate.

The compliance hearing between Costa Rica and Barbados has come after 2 
convicted murderers, Lennox Boyce and Tyrone Cadogan, took their cases to the 
IACHR in 2007 and 2009, respectively.

The Inter-American court has reminded this country that its orders are binding 
here.

"The crux of the matter is that on June 4, 2000, Barbados accepted the 
compulsory jurisdiction of the IACHR, so when its court heard the cases of 
Boyce and Cadogan, it made the orders that the mandatory death penalty was 
contrary to the OAS Convention on Human Rights, and that Section 26, which 
protects existing law, including the mandatory death penalty, is contrary to 
the convention and should be repealed," Leacock explained yesterday.

(source: Nation News)






SINGAPORE:

Murder suspect 'told victim he loved him'


A witness has told The Straits Times how a murder suspect had sat looking at 
his victim's bloodstained body and said: "Please, please, don't let anything 
happen to you, I love you."

The 39-year-old man was arrested for allegedly stabbing a 48-year-old man 
repeatedly in a covered walkway near Ang Mo Kio MRT station during yesterday's 
morning rush hour.

The attack left behind a 10m trail of bloodstains along the walkway, which 
links the MRT station with the Cheng San Community Club in Ang Mo Kio Street 
53.

It was the 3rd suspected murder in Singapore this week.

Witnesses The Straits Times spoke to did not see the stabbing, but saw the 
immediate aftermath.

One of them, Madam Connie Loh, was walking along the walkway at about 8am when 
she heard a commotion. "There was a man lying on the floor, covered in blood 
and groaning in pain - 'ahh, ahh, ahh'," said the 61-year-old housewife in 
Mandarin. "Another man was sitting on the grass patch behind him, with blood on 
his hands."

She said she then heard the suspect say in Mandarin: "Please, please, don't let 
anything happen to you, I love you."

She later saw the suspect being stretchered into an ambulance with his hands 
strapped down.

Another resident, Ms Joanne Wong, 33, was on her way to work when she saw 2 
police officers running towards the scene. She was diverted away from the 
walkway, which had been cordoned off.

"I saw 2 guys lying there, one motionless in a pool of blood, and another one 
being guarded by four policemen," said Ms Wong, who works in a hospital. "He 
(the suspect) was lying down, like in a daze, and I thought he was dead at 
first. He did not say anything, did not shout or struggle.

"There were quite a lot of people there. It is a popular route because people 
use it to get to the MRT, especially during peak period in the morning."

Police said the victim was taken to Tan Tock Seng Hospital, where he was 
pronounced dead at about 9.14am. Both men are believed to be Chinese.

Police said the suspect is expected to appear in court today and charged with 
murder. If convicted, he could face the death penalty.

(source: Straits Times)






MALAYSIA:

Cops nab 3 in family for drugs offence


A septuagenarian was among 3 female members of a family detained by the police 
in connection with the seizure of a kilogramme of heroin and 690 Eramin 5 pills 
in Tampin recently. The suspects, aged between 40 and 72, were picked up from a 
house where the drugs, worth about RM50,350 were found.

Negri Sembilan police chief Datuk Jaafar Mohd Yusof said the suspects were 
remanded for a week to facilitate investigations under Section 39B of the 
Dangerous Drugs Act which carries the mandatory death penalty upon conviction.

He said the police were monitoring the activities of the women since early this 
year.

"During the raid, we found the drugs hidden in a large water pot at the house," 
he told a press conference at the Negri Sembilan police contingent 
headquarters. Jaafar said initial investigations revealed the seized drugs were 
obtained from Penang for distribution in Malacca and Johor.

(source: The Malaysian Insider)