[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 15



BANGLADESH:

Man to walk gallows for killing wife in Barisal


A Barisal court yesterday sentenced a man to death for killing his wife 8 years 
ago.

The death penalty awardee is Sohrab Akon, 40, son of late Lal Mia Akon of Toyka 
village under Muladi upazila of the district.

Adib Ali, additional district and sessions judge, handed down the verdict after 
examining case record and 11 witnesses. The court also fined Sohrab Tk 50 
thousand.

According to the prosecution, Sohrab took his pregnant wife Mili Begum to Dhaka 
for consulting a doctor on October 20, 2007.

While returning to Muladi, Sohrab pushed Mili into the Meghna River from a 
launch, leaving her dead.

On May 10, 2008, Mini Begum, sister of Mili, lodged a case with Muladi Police 
Station, accusing Sohrab of killing her sister.

Sub-Inspector Abdur Rahim, also the investigating officer of the case, pressed 
charges against Sohrab on November 1, 2008.

Away in Faridpur, a court here on Monday sentenced a man to life imprisonment 
for killing his wife in 2011, reports UNB.

The convict, Shahid Thakur, is a resident of Shyamsundarpur village in Sadar 
upazila.

(source: The Daily Star)






INDIA:

Death sentence rate highest in J&K.


Data prepared by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) has revealed that a 
person convicted of murder in the state of Jammu & Kashmir has the highest 
probability of being handed the death penalty than anywhere else in India.

In J&K, the likelihood is 6.8 times higher than the national average and in 
Delhi the convict is 6 times more likely to be put on death row.

These stark differences in sentencing, based on NCRB data, are part of a study 
called 'Hanging in Balance: Arbitrariness in Death Penalty Adjudication in 
India', which was cited by the Law Commission as "another axis of disparity in 
death penalty jurisprudence.

The study looked at the rate of imposition of death sentences for murder 
convictions in various states. The disparities in sentencing reveal how a 
person can receive different punishment for the same crime. For instance 
instance, a man convicted of murder in Jharkhand is 2.4 times more likely to 
get the death sentence than the national average while the possibility 
increases to 2.5 times in Gujarat, three times in West Bengal and 3.2 times in 
Karnataka.

The differences among many neighbouring states were found to be high. A murder 
convict in Karnataka is 5.8 times as likely to get the death sentence compared 
to Tamil Nadu. A convict in Gujarat is again 5.8 times more likely to get death 
than one in Rajasthan. Similarly, Maharashtra sends murder convicts to death 
row 2.9 times more frequently than Madhya Pradesh.

In absolute numbers, Uttar Pradesh sentences the most number of persons to 
death row. But in terms of the proportion of death sentences to murder 
convictions, it is almost at par with the national average. In Karnataka, which 
is the 2nd largest contributor to death row sentencing, the death sentence rate 
was 3.2 times the national average.

Citing this disparity, the Law Commission headed by Justice (retired) A P Shah 
has recommended gradual abolition of death penalty with the exception of terror 
cases. To strengthen its argument on the "excessive use of death penalty", the 
commission cited data from Supreme Court analyzed by the Death Penalty 
Litigation Clinic.

Of these, 1,512 cases were decided by the high court. In 62.8% of these 1,512 
cases, the appellate courts commuted the sentence while upholding the 
conviction. In another 28.9 % cases, the convicts were acquitted, pointing to 
an even deeper systemic problem relating to the quality of adjudication in the 
lower courts. In all, the death sentence was confirmed in only 4.3% of the 
cases.

The Supreme Court's data thus shows that trial courts had erroneously imposed 
the death penalty in 95.7% of cases.

(source: The Kashmir Monitor)






EGYPT:

2 years of terror: Death sentences in Egypt since 2013


Egypt has seen seven death sentences carried out and 246 overturned, with a 
further 433 still subject to appeal, out of a total of 1,695 death sentences 
referred to the Grand Mufti since the military coup that deposed the country's 
1st democratically-elected president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013.

Most of the cases are related to protests against Morsi's ouster; some are old 
cases that resurfaced following the coup, while the rest are "terrorism" cases 
with the majority of defendants being active members of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Anadolu Agency has compiled a list of all death sentences issued in Egypt in 
the period from July 2013 to September 2015 according, to judicial and human 
rights sources.

Death sentences carried out

On 17 May, Egypt's Ministry of Interior executed six defendants accused of 
membership in a terrorist group in the case known as the "Arab Sharkas Cell"; 
the prisoners were all arrested during a raid on a house believed to be 
harbouring members of the Ansar Bait Al-Maqdis armed group in the village of 
Arab Sharkas in the north of the country.

The death sentences were carried out after the Supreme Military Court rejected 
an appeal on 24 March against a 1st-degree ruling issued against 7 defendants 
(including one fugitive) in October for membership of Ansar Bait Al-Maqdis and 
alleged involvement in the bombing of a military checkpoint in northern Cairo.

Another death sentence was carried out on 7 March against Mahmoud Ramadan after 
the Court of Cessation (the highest court for such cases) decided on 5 February 
to confirm the first-degree ruling issued on 19 May, 2014, by Alexandria 
Criminal Court, which sentenced Ramadan to death on charges of throwing a 
teenage boy off the top of a building in Alexandria.

Death sentences subject to appeal

Death sentences that are subject to appeal in the Court of Cessation have been 
issued against 433 defendants, including ousted president Mohamed Morsi, the 
1st democratically-elected civilian president in Egypt. Morsi's lawyers have 
appealed the death sentences issued against him in the Wadi Al-Natroun prison 
break case.

There is also the case over the murder of the police officer in charge of 
guarding the judge of Morsi's trial, which took place on 28 February, 2014. 
Defendants denied the charge that they murdered the officer on his way back 
from work. The officer was in charge of guarding the home of Judge Hussein 
Kandil, a member of the panel responsible to rule in the Ittihadiya case in 
which Morsi is accused. On 7 September, the court sentenced to death nine 
defendants, including four students, for the murder of Kandil; the ruling is 
subject to appeal.

Another case is known in the media as "contacting Daesh": An Egyptian court in 
the Nile Delta area decided on Sunday to sentence 12 defendants to death for 
allegedly having links to the terrorist organisation. The sentences are also 
subject to appeal.

The Court of Cessation may decide to confirm criminal courts' rulings, making 
them final, or revoke them, in which case the trial would be repeated in 
another criminal court that belongs to a different circuit. If the 2nd criminal 
court issues a second ruling, it could be appealed at the Court of Cessation, 
which may accept the appeal, repeat the trial and issue a final sentence, or it 
may reject the appeal, in which case a criminal court's 2nd ruling is 
considered final.

Revoked death sentences

The death sentences issued against 246 defendants were revoked after their 
cases had already been referred to the Mufti for approval. The defendants 
appealed the rulings and the Court of Cessation accepted the appeal, repeated 
their trials and revoked the death sentences.

A further 1,009 cases that had been referred to the Mufti did not see death 
sentences issued against the defendants. 516 defendants were given sentences 
other than the death penalty, while 493 were acquitted after their appeal was 
accepted and trials repeated.

The Egyptian government asserts that the Egyptian judiciary's rulings are not 
politicised and the government respects Egyptian laws and the Egyptian 
constitution. Since Morsi's ouster, the ruling regime has accused the Muslim 
Brotherhood's leaders and supporters of "inciting violence and terror", while 
the group says that it adheres to a peaceful approach in its opposition what it 
sees as a "military coup" against Morsi. On the other hand, Egyptian security 
apparatuses are accused of murdering thousands of protesters opposed to Morsi's 
ouster in a number of high-profile massacres.

(source: Middle East Monitor)






INDONESIA:

Bail death row Briton Lindsay Sandiford: 'No execution this year'


A British drugs smuggler on death row in Indonesia has been told sentence will 
not be carried out this year, the BBC understands.

Lindsay Sandiford, 59, of Cheltenham, has been in jail since 2012 after 
arriving in Bali from Thailand carrying drugs with a street value of ???1.6m.

She was sentenced almost 3 years ago but the government has put a hold on 
executions until at least January.

A grandmother, she is raising money in the hope of lodging an appeal.

'No execution plans'

Indonesian president Joko Widodo previously said there would be no clemency for 
more than 60 people convicted of drug offences, and 2 rounds of executions were 
carried out earlier this year.

The attorney-general's office in Indonesia told the BBC there were no plans for 
the 3rd round of executions "in the near future" due to the government's focus 
on the current economic situation.

Ms Sandiford's lawyers have argued she was pressured into smuggling the drugs 
by a criminal gang.

Alongside her appeal, an online petition calling on the British government to 
fund her legal expenses has been signed by 2,500 people.

The Foreign Office (FCO) said it was a long-standing policy of the UK to oppose 
the death penalty in all circumstances.

A spokesman added: "It has been the policy of successive governments not to 
fund legal assistance for British Nationals abroad.

"The FCO receives numerous requests for help with legal bills and cannot 
provide funding because of the costs and complexities involved."

(source: BBC news)






THAILAND:

Thai Appeals Court Reaffirms Death Sentence for Railway Worker who Raped and 
Murdered 13-year-old Kachakorn Pitakchamnong


A Thai appeals court yesterday reaffirmed the death sentence for a railway 
worker Wanchai Saengkhao, 23, for the rape and murder of a 13-year-old girl.

Wanchai Saengkhao, was sentenced to death by the court in September 2014 for 
killing 13-year-old Kachakorn Pitakchamnong.

Mr.Wanchai's defense team appealed the verdict on the grounds his life should 
be spared because he had repented his action.

"His argument that he has repented his wrongdoing is inadmissible," the judge 
said, rejecting Wanchai's call for leniency and affirming the death penalty the 
Khaosod News Reported.

Under Thai law, those sentenced to death have 60 days to appeal the verdict. 
The execution cannot be carried out unless the case is considered final.

Somjet Amnuaysawasdi, head of Seventh District Appeals Court, said prosecutors 
will not appeal the verdict, but Wanchai has the right to do so if he believes 
the sentence should be overturned.

Wanchai Bunnag, the lawyer representing the victim's family, said his clients 
are satisfied with the court's affirmation of death penalty for the convict.

The rape and murder of the 13-year-old Kachakorn Pitakchamnong took place on a 
night train operated by the State Railway of Thailand, or SRT, as it was 
passing through Prachuap Kiri Khan in the early morning of 6 July.

Wanchai, an SRT custodian, was later arrested by police and confessed that he 
committed the crime after getting high on methamphetamine while on duty.

Pro-death penalty activists also seized on the incident to campaign for making 
rapes punishable by death; under current law, rape carries a maximum penalty of 
20 years in prison, and a rape committed with use of a weapon is punishable by 
life in prison.

Capital punishment in Thailand had fallen out of favor by the time the country 
changed its means of execution to lethal injection in 2003. That year, 4 people 
were executed and since then, 2 were executed in 2009, according to Amnesty 
International. All were executed for drug-related offenses.

The campaign for capital punishment of rapists was spearheaded by former beauty 
pageant winner Panadda Wongphudee and endorsed by the family of the 13-year-old 
girl raped and murdered by Wanchai.

Supporters of the death penalty insist that executing rapists would decrease 
the number of rape incidents, though human rights activists say there is little 
proof the death penalty is an effective deterrent against crimes.

(source: chiangraitimes.com)






ENGLAND:

Former lecturer Swithin Fry talks about his fight to save a death row inmate 
from death row


Death Row prisoner Timothy Coleman has waited for 18 years for his sentence to 
be carried out.

There is now only 1 appeal standing between life and death for the 43-year-old, 
convicted of murdering a prosecution witness in the drugs case against him.

But according to retired Painswick lecturer Swithin Fry, Timothy is innocent of 
his crimes and should be released to live out the rest of his life in peace.

Swithin feels so passionately about this that he has launched a campaign to 
free him, which include a one-man show, Dear Tim: Echoes from Death Row, about 
the case.

"I would describe it as a dramatised talk," said Swithin, 66, a former lecturer 
in adult literacy at Cirencester College.

"At the start I bring the audience into Tim's cell and recreate the moment, 4 
years after his conviction, when he received a letter from an attorney saying 
that he had the name of someone who admitted to the murder that he was on death 
row for.

"Despite this, it's now 14 years later and he's still on death row, so I then 
explore the issues of why he is there."

Swithin starting writing to Timothy, who is incarcerated in the Chillicothe 
Correctional Institution in Ohio, 4 years ago when he saw an advert in the Big 
Issue, asking for volunteers.

"I was recently retired and it sounded like a really good, compassionate thing 
to do that wouldn't be too onerous," he said.

After writing regularly to him, Swithin ended up visiting him in person during 
a trip to America 6 months later. "It turned out the jail was 600 miles from 
where I was in New York!

"I hadn't taken into account how vast the country is and I though twice about 
going there but I decided I would regret it for the rest of my life if I 
didn't, and it was during that visit that I began to be convinced he was 
innocent."

When Swithin returned him, Timothy's attorneys sent him the documents about the 
case and his campaign began to take shape.

"That fully convinced me. Not so much in his innocence because the murder 
happened 20 years ago and so much water has passed under the bridge since then 
I don't think anyone will ever know, but what they did show was that there was 
no concrete evidence against him - it was all witnesses."

As Timothy has been in jail for almost 20 years, he has served almost a life 
sentence already. If his final appeal fails, he will then be executed for this 
crime, so effectively he has served 2 sentences.

"The death penalty system in America is unbelievable, particularly from our 
perspective because we got rid of it decades ago," said Swithin. "It also 
doesn't help that he is black and poor, and statistically African-Americans 
make up a big percentage of people in prison and on death row."

According to Swithin, death row inmates are allowed six mandatory appeals 
before the sentence is carried out, and Timothy's final one is coming up this 
month.

"If it follows a typical scenario, it will be denied and the execution order 
will be given at some point by the state governor.

"What he's asking for is a retrial and intuitively I really think he will get 
it and get his freedom, but how that is going to happen I don't know."

As well as starting to write to Timothy, when Swithin retired he also joined 
his local amateur dramatics company - the Painswick Players.

"I have been play writing for a number of years with a number of successes 
anyway, and then I had a whim to do stand-up comedy, with mentoring from 
comedian Susie Donkin.

"I mentioned to her about Tim and asked her if it was a subject that would work 
as a show and she said absolutely. She helped me develop it."

Swithin first performed the show 2 years ago as Dear Tim: Echoes of Death Row, 
and he is taking the latest updated incarnation to Croyden Amnesty next month 
and the King's Head in Islington in November for the Festival of New Writing.

"I always get a very supportive reaction from the audiences and I'm trying to 
build up an email address list for people who would support Tim," he said.

"From the advice I've been given, the best time for this support to happen is 
once the governor has announced the execution number. If there's enough 
international noise he might not give the final order for Timothy."

Whatever happens, Swithin is planning to return to America next year to visit 
Timothy. "If the big 'what if' happens, I really want to be there. I would find 
it incredibly difficult but I feel we've built up over the years a strong 
connection and I just feel this is my friend now.

"Tim was very pleased when he heard about the show. I think it gives him a lot 
of hope and really that's all I and other people can give him at the moment, 
hope. That is worth a lot, that's worth sanity in his situation."

(source: Gloucestershire Echo)