[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

April 25



IRAN----executions

3 Prisoners Hanged in Northern Iran


According to a report by the press department of the Judiciary in Gilan, 3 
prisoners were hanged at Lakan Rasht Prison on Saturday April 16.

2 of the prisoners, identified as D.A (51 years old) and F.V. (31 years old), 
were reportedly executed on murder charges and the other, identified as A.M. 
(29 years old), reportedly on drug charges.

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Prisoner Hanged in Southern Iran


A prisoner was reportedly hanged at Bandar Abbas's central prison on murder 
charges.

According to a report by the Judiciary in Hormozgan, a prisoner, identified as 
H.M. (31 years old), was hanged on murder charges on the morning of Wednesday 
April 20.

(source for both: Iran Human Rights)

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Call to save 10 prisoners about to be executed


The Iranian Resistance calls on international human rights organizations to 
take urgent action to save the lives of 10 prisoners transferred to solitary 
confinement in preparation for their antihuman execution in prisons in Karaj 
(Ghezel-Hessar) and Zahedan.

On April 24, the regime's henchmen transferred 7 prisoners on death row to 
solitary confinement in Ghezel-Hessar prison in preparation for their 
execution.

Three other prisoners on death row in Zahedan's central prison were transferred 
to solitary confinement one more time. Transfer of prisoners to the quarantined 
ward, special to the prisoners about to be executed, or taking them to the 
hanging poles to see the execution of other prisoners, are ordinary methods 
employed to pressure and psychologically torture prisoners in the prisons of 
the velayat-e faqih regime.

On April 18, Mullah Sadeq Larijani, head of the regime's judiciary, defended 
the death sentence by saying: "By the laws of the Islamic Republic, we don't 
have execution for the sake of killing people; rather, this is Qisas which is a 
sort of right." Mullah Rouhani, the so-called moderate President of this 
regime, has similarly described death sentences as "divine command" and "laws 
of a parliament that belong to the people."

The wave of executions, especially of young people, demonstrates the regime's 
fear of popular discontent and increasing protests by the disgruntled Iranian 
people and in particular millions of youths who are tired of poverty, 
corruption, addiction, unemployment and other social problems, which are the 
product of the mullahs' rule, and demand the overthrow of the religious fascism 
ruling Iran.

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






PAKISTAN:

Death-row paraplegic in Pakistan pleads for mercy as stay of execution expires


A severely disabled prisoner on Pakistan's death row has called on the 
country's President to spare his life, as a stay of execution granted to him in 
January expired.

Abdul Basit, who is paralyzed from the waist down, has had his execution halted 
at the last minute 3 separate times in the past year, after his lawyers raised 
concerns that his execution could be illegal. Pakistan's Supreme Court has said 
Basit's execution must comply with the country's Prison Rules, which set 
Pakistan's execution procedure - however, the rules contain no provisions for 
the hanging of prisoners in wheelchairs.

The Pakistani government has said it is carrying out an 'inquiry' into Basit's 
medical condition, but has sought to block his lawyers from accessing the 
results of its tests on him. This weekend, the most recent stay of execution 
granted to Basit, in January this year, was due to expire.

In comments to the Telegraph that were published today, Basit said that he 
still hoped that the President of Pakistan, Mamnoon Hussain, would grant a 
petition for mercy submitted by his lawyers. He said: "The last 2 stays [of 
execution] have given me a hint of hope that Mr. President acknowledges that I 
am a helpless paralyzed man who cannot even stand on my feet. I don't know what 
will happen when my stay expires. I don't know if they will hang me or let me 
live."

The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading 
Treatment or Punishment, Juan Mendez, has said that Basit's execution would be 
illegal under international law, and has called on Pakistan to permanently 
commute Basit's death sentence in line with the petition for mercy submitted to 
the country's President.

Pakistan is thought to have the largest death row in the world, at over 8,000 
people. The government resumed executions in December 2014, and has claimed to 
be executing only 'terrorists.' However, an investigation this year by 
international human rights organization Reprieve and the Justice Project 
Pakistan found that, of 351 prisoners executed since 2014, only 1 in 10 
involved people who could be linked to militancy.

Commenting, Maya Foa, director of the death penalty team at Reprieve, said:

"It's deeply worrying that the Pakistani authorities may now be gearing up to 
try and execute Abdul Basit - a paralyzed man who once again faces the prospect 
of being hanged in his wheelchair. Following three previous last minute stays, 
the government has still given no explanation of how it plans to avoid a 
horribly botched execution. The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture has confirmed 
that Abdul Basit's death sentence is illegal and should be commuted. The 
international community must urgently call on Pakistan's President to halt this 
cruel spectacle, and grant Basit's plea for mercy."

(source: reprieve.org.uk)






UNITED KINGDOM:

Life and Death Row: Love Triangle - your new true crime TV obsession----Like 
Making a Murderer for the time-starved telly addict, BBC3's novel new 
documentary series about death-row inmate Emilia Carr drops in daily bite-size 
episodes with a guaranteed cliffhanger every time


It's fitting that Life and Death Row is on BBC3, the network given its own 
death penalty on 15 February 2016 when it became an online-only channel. But, 
like an inmate marked for execution, BBC3 has found ways of continuing its 
appeal. This week's new series of the award-winning court-case documentary has 
been reworked for the digital crowd.

The first 3 series of Life and Death Row were documentaries built to fit the 
hour-long slots that have been the basic unit of television for most of its 
history. But the 4th instalment, Love Triangle, has been divided into 8 
10-minute episodes, which will be available online at 11am and 4pm every day 
until Thursday.

This is a radical decision, as 2 US legal series that have clearly influenced 
this show - Serial and Making a Murderer - stuck to traditional half-hour or 
hour-long chunks, even though they were made for WBEZ radio and Netflix 
respectively.

Yet the short segments prove very effective. As in all real-life crime stories, 
the audience's suspicions and sympathies swing, but the bite-size chunks 
guarantee frequent cliffhangers, as if viewers are jurors at a trial conducted 
by a weak-bladdered judge who keeps taking adjournments at especially tense 
moments.

We gradually piece together the true-life story of Emilia Carr, sentenced by a 
Florida jury to death by lethal injection for the 1st-degree murder and 
kidnapping of Heather Strong, with whom she competed for the romantic 
attentions of Joshua Fulgham, who is serving 2 life terms for the abduction and 
killing of Strong.

Some viewers will presumably stockpile episodes and watch in one block at the 
end of the week. But encouragement to take a bite twice daily is provided by 
the dropping online, alongside episodes, of supporting material that includes 
witness statements and police interviews.

An obvious risk of the flourishing genre in which trials are reinvestigated by 
documentary is to give the impression that everyone in US penitentiary is 
innocent. In this case, as in the Steven Avery proceedings in Making a 
Murderer, the concern may be more over the purity of the process (both involve 
confessions secured without legal counsel present) than the probity of the 
suspects. The conviction of Carr also raises interesting questions about 
whether women and especially those with young children (Carr gave birth to her 
4th child in jail) should be treated differently from men with regard to 
imprisonment or execution.

For UK viewers, another discussion rumbling under Life and Death Row is whether 
the British legal system should be more hospitable to film-makers. The 
interviews here with Carr, lounging in her orange prison-issue jumpsuit, would 
not be possible with a British convict, and the easy availability of suspect 
and witness videos, plus courtroom footage, is the reason the murder doc is a 
US genre.

With discussions currently taking place over the extent to which cameras should 
be admitted to British courts, viewers of Life and Death Row will reflect 
(especially if they have also seen Making a Murderer) on whether such TV 
projects usefully subject the judiciary to scrutiny or whether, as some lawyers 
argue, they risk turning the public into a baying court of appeal that has not 
heard all of the evidence.

For me, Love Triangle sensitively balances the protestations of the convicted 
with the claims of the victim, who cannot be interviewed. One of the detectives 
talks about the importance of "making Heather a person", and, by doing so 
through interviews with relatives, the programme avoids succumbing to the 
appeal-lawyer fever that can overtake such shows. The new format also makes a 
strong case for the post-execution potency of traditional networks that migrate 
online. Whether you find that encouraging or worrying may depend on your age.

(source: Mark Lawson, The Guardian)






SRI LANKA:

Best alternative to death penalty


I write to canvass support for the Death Penalty to be reintroduced as a 
deterrent, considering the horrific crimes being committed almost on a daily 
basis in our country today. The response to an article I wrote recently has 
been enormous, in fact quite a few have made a suggestion which I thought I 
should share with the reading public. When a murderer is convicted and 
sentenced to death, if that penalty is not being carried out, then the murderer 
should be placed in 'solitary confinement' for the rest of his life.

That will be an appropriate punishment. There appears to be a reluctance to put 
an end to the life of the murderers even though they have been sentenced to 
death. Yes solitary confinement for life would indeed be a form of punishment 
better than merely sentencing them to life imprisonment.

Little Seya and Vidya

When I was Chairman of the Prisons Inspection Board, I realised that most 
criminals did not regret the crimes they had committed. They lived happily in 
prison. They should also be whipped in public. That is the most appropriate 
punishment for these monsters, such as the man who took the life of that child, 
Seya, and the man who took the life of that girl, Vidya.

Do these criminals deserve to live after the crime of taking the lives of 
little Seya and Vidya Just imagine the fear and pain that Seya and Vidya would 
have suffered at the hands of these despicable monsters. How if they were 
children of any of ours Would this not have haunted us all our lives Just 
imagine the pain that their parents would be going through.

No, these monsters have no right to live. They must be put to death or if the 
government does not wish to carry out death penalty, they must be whipped in 
public and sentenced to solitary confinement for the rest of their lives.

In reference to carrying out the death penalty, if the President feels delicate 
to sign the final order to carry out the death sentence, then he could refer it 
to a bench of three SC Judges to examine the record of the case and make the 
order to carry out the sentence. There are many of us citizens prepared to 
volunteer to see that the execution is carried out. If hanging be considered 
gruesome then let us introduce the fatal injection, as is the system in some 
States of the US.

As stated earlier, I was for some years chairman of a committee which inspected 
prisons. I have met many who had been sentenced to death for premeditated 
murder, including a man who had been sentenced to death for the murder of that 
great humanist Dr. Neelan Tiruchelvam, (yes they live happily in prison). When 
I asked the man found guilty of Neelan's murder as to whether he regretted the 
horrible crime he had committed, he laughed. I have no regret that I had the 
monster beaten up. Yes I had the monster given a beating. Unfortunately I could 
not have had him hanged.

Arms Bazaars

I note that countries which have become 'civilized and enlightened' after the 
World War II, and organization in the West, have called upon us to do away with 
the death penalty, they have conveniently forgotten the crimes they were a 
party to even in recent years in Vietnam and Laos and the fact that they did 
not stop the mass murders in Bosnia and in many other places and that it is 
their arms that is killing thousands in the Middle East. Their Arms Bazaars 
never had it so good.

We, for our protection, must retain the death penalty for premeditated heinous 
murder and perhaps also consider enforcing the death penalty for drug barons 
who are finishing off our youth to make their money and to live happily. 
Countries that retain the death penalty know what a deterrent it has been and 
of how life has been made safe for law abiding citizens. The government owes 
this to us, we must hang them or put them to death by other means, all 
pre-meditated murderers and other criminals who have committed horrendous 
crimes or, at the very least, make them suffer in solitary confinement for the 
rest of their lives.

(source: K Godage, Daily Times)