[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 17



TRINIDAD & TOBAGO:

CJ: Death penalty not denting serious crime but Let's talk about it


Chief Justice Ivor Archie has called for a serious and meaningful national 
debate on the mandatory death penalty for murder. He made the plea yesterday in 
his annual address at the opening of the 2015/2016 law term at the Hall of 
Justice, Knox Street, Port-of-Spain.

Pointing to statistics showing that 514 people are currently on remand awaiting 
trial for murder, Archie questioned the effectiveness of the controversial 
sentence in the reduction of violent crime in T&T.

Archie said: "Apart from the dubiousness of its value as a deterrent, do we 
really believe, assuming that a significant fraction of those persons are found 
guilty, that we will be able to hang several hundred people or that, if we 
tried, we could stomach it?"

While he was careful to underscore the Judiciary's neutral role on legislative 
issues, Archie claimed the Judiciary's input was necessary as it was the 
"independent and apolitical" organisation which is mandated to execute the 
sentence.

"Please do not misunderstand me. The question whether we have a mandatory death 
penalty or any death penalty at all is a matter for the legislature and the 
people of T&T but as the ones who pass the death sentences, we must ask, is 
there a sense in futility in doing so?

"And we must ask questions about the tactical difficulties of implementation. 
What are we going to do? Schedule 1 a day, or do it in groups? So what is the 
real problem and what can we do about it?" he asked. Archie's comments come 
hours after the murder toll for 2015 crossed the 300 toll on Tuesday after a 
12-year-old student was innocently killed during a gang-related shooting in 
Gonzales.

The last State-sanctioned execution took place in 1999 when Dole Chadee and his 
gang of 8 were executed for the quadruple murders of the Baboolal family. 
Another man, Anthony Briggs, was also executed that year for the murder of a PH 
taxi driver. Since then, legislation proposing to categorise murders into 1st 
and 2nd degrees has been laid in Parliament and debated but was never approved.

There has been a chorus of dissent by some in society to move away from the 
Privy Council, this country's highest appellate court, in favour of the 
Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) after landmark rulings which deemed the 
mandatory death penalty as unconstitutional.

Archie echoed the sentiment yesterday as he called for serious consideration of 
that issue by saying: "Why we still have a highest appellate court that one 
cannot access unless you are very rich or you are charged with murder and 
someone agrees to represent you for free."

In addition to the death penalty and the CCJ, Archie also stated that failure 
of the Prisons Service to rehabilitate offenders was also an area of concern. 
"So collectively we turn a blind eye to harsh and inhumane prison conditions 
when all the empirical research tells us that there is a positive correlation 
between a more humane, restorative approach to incarceration and lower rates of 
recidivism.

"The only punishment intended by a custodial sentence should be the deprivation 
of liberty," Archie said as he revealed that it costs the State $13,000 a month 
to incarcerate a prisoner. He also took issue with the merits of passing 
lengthy prison sentences on convicted criminals.

"Common sense tells us that we cannot incarcerate our way out of our social 
problems and crime in general because many studies internationally show a 
positive correlation between longer sentences and higher rates of recidivism as 
well as between higher overall rates of incarceration per capita and higher 
rates of recidivism," Archie said. He also preached for the need of converting 
T&T into a more secular state.

"Common sense tells me we need more respect for fundamental human rights 
because studies do not support the notion that professed adherence to any 
recognised religion is associated with reduced rates of violent crime. In fact, 
there is a considerable body of evidence to the contrary," Archie said.

As part of his continuous call to citizens to adopt a common sense approach 
when seeking solutions to issues, Archie advised against lumping blame for the 
country's crime rate on his organisation. "People need to stop blaming us for 
those aspects of the justice system that are outside our control. We need a 
little common sense here.

"What can I do about low crime detection rates or inadequate evidence or no 
proper detention facilities or slow forensic analysis or a shortage of 
attorneys at the criminal bar or prisoners arriving late for court despite our 
admonitions?" Archie asked. Although he admitted that most of the issues raised 
by him during his speech were highlighted by him in the past, Archie suggested 
that constant reminders may be the impetus for eventual change.

"Those who have listened to my past addresses may find that some of what I have 
to say today may sound repetitive but it has been my experience that sound 
arguments and exhortations often require repetition before they are noted and 
acted upon," Archie added.

(source: The Guardian)






BARBADOS:

Taken away so young----Youth dies after being struck with stone


Less than a week before he was due to join the Barbados Defence Force (BDF) 
Shakeem Turton, 18, lay dying in his mother's arms, reportedly the victim of an 
altercation with a neighbour.

And as he died, the former Frederick Smith Secondary School student gave her 
the "thumbs up", his mother Natalie Harris said.

Turton died last night at his Long Gap, Grazettes, St Michael home after he was 
allegedly struck on his temple with a stone thrown by a neighbour.

"My son died in my arms last night around 9 p.m. after giving me the thumbs up. 
My son had an altercation with one of his young neighbours and he first struck 
my son on his foot with a stone. However, he later struck him in his temple 
with a stone and that was the fatal blow," a distraught Harris told Barbados 
TODAY in an interview from her home in the presence of the young man???s father 
Mark Turton who was too distressed to talk.

"The incident occurred around 7 p.m. and we took him to FMH for medical 
attention. He was released but died at home around 9 p.m. He attended the 
Frederick Smith Secondary School and was employed at Blakeys at the time of his 
death. Shakeem was expected to enter the Defence Force on Saturday," she added.

Meanwhile, the young man's grandfather is questioning the seeming inability of 
Barbadian authorities to carry out the death penalty.

The man, who spoke with Barbados TODAY on condition that his name is withheld, 
was critical of Attorney General Adriel Brathwaite and also had some harsh 
words for Amnesty International and other abolitionist groups which he sees as 
meddling in the affairs of small states like Barbados.

"Why doesn't Amnesty International and other international agencies try to 
influence the policies of China, for example, as it relates to capital 
punishment?" asked the deceased lad's grandfather. "Why don't they try to 
change the policy in the mighty USA? I do not understand."

"Nobody goes to China and tries to tell the political directorate there to 
discontinue capital punishment. They cannot go to Singapore and Indonesia and 
tell them to abolish capital punishment. All of these countries have the death 
penalty.

"Earlier this year, Indonesia executed 2 Australian nationals ....They are 
coming to Third World countries and telling small countries what to do," the 
noticeably frustrated grandfather said.

He said in the same way death penalty opponents claim that capital punishment 
does not stop murders, it can also be argued that imprisoning thieves does not 
stop theft. "... so why is the judicial system sending them to prison? Open the 
prison then because nothing stops anything. It is a situation that baffles me."

The grandfather said Attorney General Adriel Brathwaite seems to share the view 
that the execution of convicted murderers does not show a corresponding decline 
in the incidence of murders. Even though he acknowledged this view was informed 
by research, he contended: "It is a fallacious argument."

"99 % of Barbadians are in favour of capital punishment, yet our leaders refuse 
to impose it even though it remains on our statute books," he added.

(source: Barbados Today)






KUWAIT:

Kuwait court upholds death penalty for maid----Ethopian domestic helper 
confessed to stabbing 19-year-old to death while she was asleep


Kuwait's Cassation Court on Thursday upheld a death sentence for an Ethiopian 
domestic helper for killing a Kuwaiti teenager.

The capital punishment verdict was issued late last year after the helper 
admitted to the public prosecution that she killed Siham Humood Flaitah Al 
Shemmari, 19, when the family members were resting after hosting a dinner 
reception celebrate the graduation of a relative.

According to reports on the case, the helper, identified by Kuwaiti media as 
Rabiya Mahmoud, 22, confessed that in March 2014 she took a knife and walked 
into the victim's bedroom where she stabbed her in the chest.

The victim survived the first stabs and pleaded for her life; however, the 
helper refused and stabbed her again until she died.

She then fled the house, but later headed to the Sulaibikhat police station and 
turned herself in at 5:45 am.

She told officers that she stabbed the victim who was asleep, then locked her 
inside the room before leaving her employer's house. She cited conflicts with 
the victim as the reason, and said that she had planned the murder days earlier 
and that her plans had been delayed because of the presence of the victim's 
younger sister.

The police said that officers responded to an emergency call reporting that a 
door was locked in a Sulaibikhat house with a girl inside.

Firefighters broke the door open and found the girl bleeding profusely. She was 
rushed to the hospital but doctors pronounced her dead on arrival. The medical 
report said the death was caused by four stab wounds - 2 in the chest and 2 in 
the abdominal area.

Investigators confirmed that the helper killed the Kuwaiti woman after they 
found her fingerprints on the knife used in the crime.

In November, the court sentenced her to death by hanging.

Siham was a freshman at Kuwait University's Faculty of Arts when she was 
killed. Her father, Humood, was a member of Kuwait's national team that 
participated in the 1982 Fifa World Cup.

(source: Gulf News)






IRAN----executions

9 executions in Gohardasht and Sanandaj prisons in 1 day


On Wednesday, September 16, at least 9 prisoners were hanged by the Iranian 
regime in Gohardasht (Rajai Shahr) prison, Karaj and in Sanandaj. 8 of them, 
including a 22 and a 24-year-old, were collectively hanged in Gohardasht 
Prison. And Raouf Hosseini was hanged in Sanandaj Prison after suffering 13 
years of imprisonment.

The Iranian regime, engulfed in increasing domestic and international crises 
especially after drinking the chalice of poison of the nuclear deal, is fearful 
of the uprising of Iran's fed up people and has found no avenue to survive but 
to ramp up suppression, especially the savage punishment of execution. Just in 
the 2-year tenure of Rouhani, who the people dub the president of executions, 
the number of executions has reached 2000.

Any trade with this inhuman regime should be made contingent to the cessation 
of the cruel punishment of execution.

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

Call to save 19-year-old Ahwazi prisoner from execution in Iran


The Iranian Resistance calls for urgent action to save the life of Ali Sudani, 
a 19-year-old member of Iran's Arab community, who is scheduled to face 
execution on Thursday, September 17 in public. It calls on all human rights 
organizations, in particular the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the 
UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Iran, to take urgent 
action to prevent this inhuman crime.

The mullahs' regime has accused Ali Sudani of setting ablaze a police vehicle 
during a protest by the people of Ahwaz on March 17, 2015.

Following a raid that day by suppressive forces on spectators at a football 
match between Khuzestan's Foolad side and Al-Hilal from Saudi Arabia, the 
residents of Ahwaz and other towns in Khuzestan Province staged a large protest 
against the regime's suppressive measures against the people of Khuzestan. 
Hundreds of protestors were arrested. The residents also protested the tragic 
death of Younes Asakareh, a 31-year-old street vendor, who had set himself on 
fire four days earlier due to pressures by the regime and the confiscation of 
his meagre property in Khorramshahr. Ali Sudani was among those arrested on 
March 17, 2015.

(source for both: Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran)


UNITED KINGDOM:

UK backs Saudi prisons despite impending child crucifixion - legal charity


Despite Saudi plans to crucify a child for anti-government offences, the 
British government will continue with a bid to support the Gulf Kingdom's 
prison system, the legal charity Reprieve has claimed.

It was reported this week that the final appeal to the Saudi courts by 
17-year-old Mohammed al-Nimr had been dismissed, meaning his sentence to death 
by crucifixion for anti-government activities in 2012 is likely to be carried 
out.

In a statement on its website, Reprieve says the British government has had to 
backtrack on its claim that the bid to service Saudi prisons could not be 
cancelled because to do so would incur "financial penalties."

Parliamentary records were instead amended to suggest the bid could not be 
stopped because "withdrawing at this late stage would be detrimental to [Her 
Majesty's Government's] wider interests.

"It is hard to see what British interests are strong enough to trump the 
principle that we should not be supporting the 'crucifixion' of juveniles," 
said Maya Foa, Director of the death penalty team at Reprieve.

"The UK should have nothing to do with a so-called justice system responsible 
for atrocities such as this.

"It is extremely worrying to see the British government abdicating its basic 
human rights values in the interests of cozying up to the Saudis. British 
complicity in gross abuses such as these is unacceptable and has to stop," Foa 
added.

The UK's relationship with the Saudis has long been controversial, not least in 
terms of the UK's practice of selling armaments to the regime.

In early September, Oxfam UK said the ongoing conflict in Yemen has been 
exacerbated by the UK government's arms deals with Saudi Arabia, causing a 
terrible humanitarian catastrophe and potentially placing the government in 
breach of international law.

The war has seen Saudi Arabia, armed with US and UK weaponry, carry out 
airstrikes on Houthi rebels attempting to take control of Yemen.

International law states that arms deals should be prohibited if there is a 
risk they could be used to commit war crimes or human rights abuses, the 
charity said.

(source: rt.com)






SAUDI ARABIA:

Quash Ali Mohammed Baqir al-Nimr Conviction and Death Sentence (UA 143/14)


Urgent Action

September 16, 2015

A Saudi Arabian Shi'a activist has had his death sentence upheld. The offenses 
he "confessed" to had taken place when he was 17 years old. He has exhausted 
his appeals and may be executed as soon as the King ratifies the sentence.

Please write immediately in English, Arabic or your own language:

-- Urging the authorities to quash Ali Mohammed Baqir al-Nimr's conviction and 
death sentence, and ensure that he receives a fair trial in line with 
international law and standards and without recourse to the death penalty;

-- Calling on them to open an independent investigation into his allegation of 
torture and other ill-treatment;

-- Reminding them that Saudi Arabia is a state party to the Convention on the 
Rights of the Child, which strictly prohibits the use of the death penalty for 
crimes committed by anyone below the age of 18;

-- Urging them to establish immediately an official moratorium on all 
executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty in Saudi Arabia.

(source: Amnesty International USA)






NIGERIA:

On corruption and capital punishment


SIR: As their own contribution to support President Muhammadu Buhari's 
anti-corruption war, the president of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Comrade 
Ayuba Wabba and his counterpart in the Trade Union Congress, Comrade Bobboi 
Kaigama jointly called for capital punishment for anybody found guilty of 
corruption in Nigeria.

In the old Roman Empire and Greece, it was one way of dealing with criminals 
and offenders. Some religious organisations also saw it as a method of 
eliminating anybody who was opposed to the teaching of the organisation. Now, 
Rome and Greece no longer practice this method.

Meanwhile, the use of death penalty in Nigeria has generated mixed opinions 
among people in the society. Some people find this form of punishment as a tool 
which violates the human rights to live which is considered as a fundamental 
human right.

Although, corruption has grown so deep in Nigeria that it has become a culture 
of government. But, what benefit can a nation get from the implementation of 
capital punishment? What does the victim of murder gain when the convict is 
killed? These are the questions which need to be addressed by the death penalty 
proponents.

Some who want capital punishment say that killing the offender will bring pain 
to bear on him or her. But, is it really true that somebody killed by bullet 
feels any pain? It is doubtful.

In the same vein, it is a kind of punishment that does not deter or discourage 
others who might want to commit the same offence. Honestly, once a criminal 
knows that the moment he or she is caught, only 1 bullet will silence him or 
her, such a person will become hardened.

Until the major causes of corruption are addressed, capital punishment will not 
in any significant way enhance the anti-corruption war nor reduce the tendency 
to loot public treasury.

Sunday Ogunkuade, Ogbomoso.

(source: Letter to the Editor, The Nation)