[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

March 17



GHANA:

Amnesty Int. rejects Rawlings' death penalty clamour


Amnesty International has rejected calls by former President Jerry John 
Rawlings who is advocating capital punishment for convicted killers in the 
country.

The ex-president had called for a strict adherence to the laws of the country 
so that persons found to have committed murder by a court of competent 
jurisdiction are condemned to death.

He made the call when the family of the late Member of Parliament for Abuakwa 
North, J.B Danquah-Adu, visited him at his residence on Wednesday 16th March, 
2016.

Mr Rawlings charged parliament to enact legislation empowering regional 
security councils to enforce the death penalty.

"Our constitution empowers us and gives us the right to punish, to exact the 
same level of punishment, and if we cannot do it to serve as a lesson to those 
who are taking others' lives with ease, then, please, I'd like to use this 
occasion - I should have done this a long time ago - to invite parliament to 
consider the need to look into our constitution as to whether we should not now 
empower the regional security councils to sign or to approve the taking of a 
life for a life," Mr Rawlings said when the family of the late J B Danquah-Adu 
visited him at his residence in Accra on Wednesday March 16.

"We all believe in the New Testament, but if some people are determined to 
conduct their lives along the Old Testament, then please let's not give them 
the other cheek to slap," the former military leader added.

But human rights group Amnesty International has said the call is unfortunate 
and has proposed an objective discussion on the issue.

Speaking to Class News Wednesday March 16, 2016, Country Director of Amnesty 
International Lawrence Amesu said the death penalty does not deter crime in any 
society.

"Amnesty International totally opposes what His Excellency the former President 
Jerry Rawlings is proposing that people on death row should be executed," 
stated Mr Amesu.

"We think that His Excellency has taken us back to barbaric years.

"I wish that we are not discussing this issue at this time when there is so 
much pain on the heart of everybody, because people are now being emotional. 
That is why people are saying that let's execute or kill because he has also 
killed.

"I wish that time will pass, the wounds will heal, and then we discuss this 
passionately as Ghanaians. [The] death penalty does not deter crime in any 
society," he added.

(source: ghanaweb.com)






BELARUS:

A moratorium on death penalty is unlikely to be introduced since Lukashenka 
doesn't want it


A moratorium on death penalty is unlikely to be introduced since Lukashenka 
doesn't want it Belarus President appears to be ready to discuss the 
moratorium; however without any obligations. Minsk counts on further 
normalization of relations with EU without making significant concessions.

EU Special Representative for Human Rights Stavros Lambrinidis stated that a 
moratorium on the death penalty would be a very good incentive for Belarus-EU 
relations and Belarus' reputation in the world.

The issue of the death penalty repeatedly came up in Minsk-CoE negotiations in 
the past. However, despite the importance of this subject for European 
capitals, Belarusian leadership had never seriously regarded the moratorium as 
an option.

In addition, abolition of the death penalty is a very unpopular idea in the 
Belarusian society, according to the IISEPS polls. Moreover, people voted 
against the abolition on the national referendum in 1996. Such vox populi is a 
likely reflection of the state's stance in this regard and the efforts of the 
state-run media.

That said, Lukashenka regards the death penalty issue as the president's major 
privilege. For instance, the president has publicly advocated for the death 
penalty many times: "With regard to the death penalty, we had a referendum. 
Whether I want or not, regardless of my position, there was a referendum 
decision. For me, that is the law. And when they start nudging me: "The death 
penalty, the dictatorship", - I tell them, the Europeans: "Make a little u-turn 
across the Atlantic, there is a very good friend of yours. As soon as they 
abolish, we shall follow". Why am I talking about this? Not because we'll 
follow the States... I am just showing them that there should be no double 
standards in this matter".

For Minsk, the mere discussion about a moratorium on the death penalty enables 
to outline further moves in settling Belarusian-European relations.

Regardless of the reasoning by European diplomats, the Belarusian leadership is 
confident of its measures to curb crime, including the death penalty. As the 
president said in the mid-1990s, he was able to end lawlessness and "road 
racketeers" by using non-traditional methods of eliminating criminals.

In addition, the president referred to double standards applied by the EU, "... 
the death penalty... and maybe, even more stringent laws exist in the People's 
Republic of China and other neighbouring states and in the Arab countries. 
Where are they pumping oil from? Why aren't you demanding from them? But that 
is where oil comes from!"

Minsk is unlikely to seek participation of Belarusian representatives in the 
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. That would only create 
additional obligations without bringing substantial benefits, which the 
Belarusian leadership has already obtained avoiding unnecessary costs.

The Parliamentary Assembly could empower the Belarusian Parliament, which is 
not in the president's interests. In case of a political crisis, the Parliament 
could become an alternative body of governance.

Overall, the death penalty is unlikely to be abolished with reference to will 
of the people, but is likely to be supported by parliamentarians.

(source: eurobelarus.info)

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

Belarus Retains Death Penalty, Promotes UN Reform - Belarus Foreign Policy 
Digest----Lambrinidis meets human rights activists in Minsk


In the 1st half of March, the EU's top human rights official came to Minsk to 
talk President Alexander Lukashenka into introducing a temporary moratorium on 
the death penalty.

The Belarusian authorities are very willing to discuss human rights with Europe 
but remain reluctant to take specific action.

At the UN, Belarusian diplomats continue to promote greater inclusion of 
rank-and-file UN members in the decision-making process, this time by 
advocating a stronger role for them in selecting the next UN head. These 
actions are at odds with Russia's position on this matter.

Lukashenka meets the EU human rights head

On 9-11 March, Stavros Lambrinidis, the EU Special Representative for Human 
Rights, visited Belarus. The EU official met ministers for foreign affairs, the 
interior, justice and information. His agenda also included meetings with 
opposition and civil society leaders, independent journalists and human rights 
activists.

Alexander Lukashenka and Stavros LambrinidisLukashenka received Lambrinidis on 
the first day of his visit in Minsk. The Belarusian leader sounded 
reconciliatory and constructive. He expressed satisfaction with the fact that 
Belarus and Europe had "abandoned [their] head-on confrontation".

Lukashenka spoke in favour of a "permanent dialogue, permanent contacts". 
However, he claimed Belarus' right to have its own understanding of human 
rights issues.

Lukashenka and Lambrinidis agreed that trade, economic cooperation and human 
rights are interrelated but disagreed on cause and effect. The Belarusian 
president stressed that, with the development of trade and economic relations, 
human rights issues would disappear on their own.

The EU official, in his turn, believes that the improvement of the human rights 
situation in the country will result in more trade and foreign investment.

Belarus retains death penalty as a bargaining tool

Lambrinidis came to Minsk to persuade Lukashenka to introduce a temporary 
moratorium on the death penalty in Belarus. Belarus is the only country in 
Europe where capital punishment is still applied.

The issue of the death penalty remains at the top of Europe's demands vis-a-vis 
Belarus. When lifting the sanctions in February, the European Council 
"condemn[ed] the application of the death penalty in Belarus ... and urge[d] 
the Belarusian authorities to set up a moratorium as a first step towards its 
abolition:.

Stavros Lambrinidis at the conferenceOn 10 March, the Belarusian foreign 
ministry and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) office in Minsk 
organised an international conference titled The Death Penalty: Transcending 
the Divide. Speaking at the conference, Lambrinidis urged Belarus' highest 
authorities to show their political will by abolishing capital punishment.

The Belarusian authorities continue to shelter themselves behind public 
opinion. Opening the conference, deputy foreign minister Valentin Rybakov 
pointed to the fact that most Belarusians still support the death penalty. "We 
cannot and will not ignore this fact, including in the context of dialogue with 
our much esteemed European partners", Rybakov stressed.

Abolition of the death penalty would be one of the easiest steps for the 
authorities to take in order to please Europe. Unlike concessions on freedom of 
speech or assembly, such a decision would hardly undermine the regime's grip on 
society. Public opinion on this subject can be easily ignored or tweaked.

Abolition of the death penalty or even a moratorium would improve Belarus??? 
image in Europe. It would help the European bureaucracy to rationalise the need 
for more cooperation with Minsk. Belarus would finally be able to join the 
Council of Europe.

However, one should not expect the Belarusian authorities to take such a step 
in the near future. They realise full well the bargaining power that retention 
of the death penalty provides. Thus, they will likely choose to play this card 
at a more crucial moment, as they did with the release of political prisoners.

A temporary moratorium on the death penalty can hardly be an option. Lukashenka 
realises that nothing is more permanent than the temporary. Once the moratorium 
is in place, it will be difficult to withdraw it without damaging the country's 
reputation.

At this stage, the maximum Europe may expect from Belarus on the death penalty 
is more dialogue and a lot of talking. The same also applies to other divisive 
issues between Belarus and Europe.

Belarus reforms the UN

By the end of 2016, the United Nations will appoint its new Secretary-General 
for the next several years. An informal regional rotation arrangement provides 
that the next head of the UN Secretariat should come from among Eastern 
European countries.

This factor makes the forthcoming selection process an important exercise for 
Belarusian diplomacy.

Andrei Dapkiunas speaks at the UNOn 29 February, speaking at an informal 
brainstorming session, Belarus' ambassador to the UN Andrei Dapkiunas insisted 
on the appointment of the UN's chief through a secret ballot. Though the 
existing rules require such a procedure, in practice, the UN General Assembly 
(UNGA) always rubber-stamps the candidate recommended by the Security Council.

Belarus also wants the UNGA to withdraw its own recommendation (made in 1946) 
to the Security Council to "proffer 1 candidate only" for the appointment.

Throughout the UN's entire history, the UN Secretary General has remained a 
product of consensus of the Security Council's permanent members. Submitting 
more than 1 candidate to the UNGA would mean effectively letting the wider 
international community have the final say on the matter.

Even if the UNGA adopts the Belarusian proposal, it is highly unlikely that 
China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States would agree to 
relinquish their control over who will head the organisation.

Nevertheless, this year the process of selection and appointment of the 
Secretary General promises to be more transparent and inclusive for member 
states. The process starts in April when Belarus will chair the UN's Eastern 
European Group (EEG). The country's mission at the UN seeks to organise a 
high-level EEG event with participation of potential candidates.

An UN official told Belarus Digest that Belarus favoured the candidature of 
Irina Bokova, a Bulgarian politician and UNESCO's Director-General. Bokova 
visited Belarus in April 2014 to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the 
country's UNESCO membership.

Belarus' activity in reforming the appointment process has been frowned upon by 
Russia, which does not welcome any change that could undermine its role at the 
UN. Belarusian diplomats have taken this into account by softening their 
reforming zeal. However, they are still pressing ahead with their agenda.

(source: Igar Gubarevich is a senior analyst of the Ostrogorski Centre in 
Minsk. For a number of years he has been working in various diplomatic 
positions at the Belarusian Foreign Ministry; Belarus Digest)






ENGLAND:

Was this man wrongly hanged for murdering a girl and hiding her in a trunk?


Jeannette Hensby spent her working life in the NHS but in retirement she has 
become a writer and crime sleuth. Andy Smart looks at her 1st cold case.

Notts-born Andrew Anderson Bagley died on Tuesday, February 1, 1937. He was 
hanged by the neck in Armley Jail in Leeds for the brutal murder of his 
16-year-old step-granddaughter.

Despite trial judge Mr Justice Goddard - a notorious figure dubbed "the hanging 
judge" in the Press - sentencing him to death on "evidence which could leave no 
doubt ..." Bagley maintained his innocence from the moment of his arrest in 
Hucknall Library only 3 months earlier, to his final steps towards the gallows.

No one believed him and at 9am on that cold winter morning executioner Thomas 
Pierrepont sent the 62-year-old convicted man to his death.

But in her fascinating 1st book "The Rotherham Trunk Murder"*, ex-NHS director 
Jeannette Hensby argues that Bagley, born a policeman's son in the south Notts 
village of Bunny, was innocent. She examines the evidence in forensic detail, 
asks questions that should have been asked at his trial, exposes a scandalous 
appeal hearing cover-up and, in the final chapters, points an accusing finger 
at the person she believes was the real killer.

Her part in the story begins in the 1950s, more than 20 years after the murder. 
Jeannette, from Rotherham, South Yorkshire, remembers sitting on her 
grandmother's knee, listening to her stories as the rain teemed down outside.

"Whether she could tell that I was bored, or whether she had run out of other 
stories to tell, I don't know, but she certainly got my attention when she 
started to tell me about the murder of a Masbrough (Rotherham) girl that had 
been committed by somebody that she knew. She told me who the murderer was, but 
she didn't tell me the name of the victim; just that "a girl" had been 
murdered," explained Jeannette, now 67.

She tucked the memory away as she raised her family and met the demands of her 
career in the NHS, finally retiring as director of older people's mental health 
for Sheffield - but always intending to find out more about her grandmother's 
story.

In 2014, she finally came across an account in a local history book about 
murders in Rotherham.

"I was tingling with anticipation as I started to read. One of the things that 
I had never been sure about from grandma's story was whether or not the 
murderer had been brought to justice and hanged. Now I would be able to find 
out.

"I learned that the victim was 16-year-old Irene Hart ... murdered in her own 
home in Hartington Road in Masbrough, Rotherham, in 1936. Irene was strangled 
and her body was stuffed into an old green tin trunk and hidden in a clothes 
closet in her bedroom."

Suspicion fell on her step-grandfather Andrew Anderson Bagley, who lived in the 
same house as Irene, along with his daughter Avice and his disabled son 
Ambrose.

Bagley went missing immediately after the crime and police launched what became 
at the time the biggest manhunt in British criminal history. The case made the 
news around the world under the eye-catching headline "The Rotherham Trunk 
Murder".

For 6 frustrating weeks of a chaotic manhunt, police searched lodging houses, 
homeless hostels, pubs, barns and haystacks across the country.

But Bagley was an expert at staying hidden. Married in Notts in his early 20s, 
he soon left his wife and to avoid paying maintenance he moved to Sheffield, 
adopted an assumed name - Bill Smith - and there he lived in another loveless 
relationship for the sake of his 4 children.

For 40 years he had stayed 1 step ahead of debt collectors, chasing him for 
money that his drink and gambling-addicted 2nd "wife" had piled up.

He had little trouble giving police the slip until he made a fatal mistake by 
returning to his home county. On Friday, October 23, 1936, as he was sitting in 
Hucknall Library reading a newspaper, he was recognised by an old acquaintance. 
The police were called and Bagley was arrested. "I have nothing to fear," he 
told officers. "I didn't do it."

Jeannette said: "As I read it, my interest turned to disbelief and then to 
horror. My grandma - who had been close to the family - had told me who had 
committed this crime, and it wasn't Andrew Anderson Bagley. Had an innocent man 
gone to the gallows, I wondered?"

Helped by her sister Carol, Jeannette spent a year trawling through newspaper 
reports, court records and local archives.

"What we discovered was an unusual story, and a real family tragedy," she said.

"Looking at the records with the benefit of what grandma told me it became 
clear to me that the man that was hanged was not the murderer," she added. She 
found letters from members of Andrew Bagley's family, particularly his brother 
and sister.

His siblings maintained that he was mentally unstable, prone to attacks of 
dizziness and violence. His brother had concluded that the crime must have been 
committed during one of these episodes without him even knowing he had done it.

His family fought long and hard to get the death penalty reduced to a custodial 
sentence on the grounds of insanity, petitioning the Home Secretary and even 
writing to Queen Mary, but their efforts were in vain.

Jeannette says: "The family were decent, respectable people, and in order to 
distance the family from the shame of what had happened, Bagley's brother had 
the family surname changed from Bagley to Baguley after the execution had taken 
place.

"I have no idea whether the descendants of Andrew Bagley still think that he 
did kill Irene Hart.

"I guess that they, and other local people, would be interested to read that 
the records show, when read with the benefit of what my grandma told me, that I 
believe Andrew Bagley was not the heartless murderer of Irene Hart, but, in 
fact, he was a very brave and selfless man."

Jeannette believes the answer lies within Andrew's family circle ... but the 
identity of the person she believes murdered Irene Hart can only be found in 
the pages of her book.

Whether anything comes of her account remains to be seen.

Jeannette, who is now working on her second book looking at a pre-First World 
War murder case, adds: "I am very aware of how difficult it is to get a 
posthumous pardon. Iris Bentley, who spent her life fighting in vain to get her 
brother Derek pardoned, springs to mind.

"If the people of Nottingham, or Andrew's family, wished to mount a campaign, I 
would do everything that I could to support it."

(source: nottinghampost.com)






PAKISTAN:

Deterrent death sentences to curb terrorism


In yet another manifestation of unflinching commitment to rid the country of 
the menace of terrorism, Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif confirmed 
death sentences awarded to 13 terrorists. Tried by military courts, these 
terrorists were involved various heinous offences relating to terrorism 
including killing of foreign tourists at Nanga Parbat, attack on Saidu Sharif 
airport and attacks on armed forces and law enforcement agencies.

These executions might provoke some so called human rights activists to resort 
to protests but in our view the death penalty acts as a deterrent and is one of 
the effective ways to root out crime. It has also been proven through different 
studies that each execution, on average, results in fewer murders. Saudi Arabia 
is ranked amongst the countries where crime rate is very low as compared to 
even developed countries because of strict punishment for different crimes 
without undue delays. The public hanging of criminals is serving the purpose to 
deter other individuals from committing the criminal deeds. Similarly, Iran has 
set some good traditions of awarding strict punishments to the individuals 
without any discrimination. Recently, a billionaire tycoon was sentenced to 
death for involvement in massive corruption. It is therefore a natural 
phenomenon that the punishments help deter crimes. However, the deterrent 
effect is directly proportional to the delay in the execution. The longer the 
delay, the lesser the deterrent effect. Hence, it has been criminal 
indifference, silence or negligence on the part of successive governments in 
Pakistan that the hardcore criminals awarded with the death sentences were not 
brought to the gallows despite passage of so many years. The present government 
however deserves appreciation for lifting moratorium on the death penalty back 
in 2014 and reviving the process which had been done much earlier. Given the 
current situation in Pakistan where Zarb-e-Azb operation is meeting tremendous 
success and terrorists are being executed, we are sure the country will soon 
achieve the status of a civilized terror free nation. No mercy to the stone 
hearted and hardcore criminals is the right course and step in the right 
direction that will soon rid the country of the curse of terrorism.

(source: Pakistan Observer)






CAMEROON:

89 Boko Haram members sentenced to death in Cameroon - none yet in Nigeria


Cameroon has sentenced 89 members of the Boko Haram sect to death over terror 
charges, even though Nigeria, the hot bed, is yet to impose the penalty on any 
suspect.

According to the BBC, a military court tried the insurgents over their roles in 
several attacks in the northern part of the country which borders Nigeria.

Since 2009 when Boko Haram launched its campaign of violence, Cameroon has been 
its next target after Nigeria.

In January 2015, Abubakar Shekau, leader of the sect, threatened to attack Paul 
Biya, president of Cameroon, over his country's role in the regional force set 
up to fight insurgency.

"Oh Paul Biya, if you don't stop this your evil plot, you will taste what has 
befallen Nigeria," Shekau had said in a video.

"If you do not repent, you will see the dire consequences. Your troops cannot 
do anything to us. I advise you to desist from following your constitution and 
democracy, which is unIslamic. The only language of peace is to repent and 
follow Allah, but if you do not, then we will communicate it to you through the 
language of violence."

On his part, Biya vowed to wipe out Boko Haram.

About 850 members of the sect are currently in detention over alleged 
involvement in insurgency in Cameroon.

This is the 1st time that people have been sentenced to death since a new 
anti-terror law was passed in 2014.

(source: thecable.ng)