[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
Rick Halperin
rhalperi at smu.edu
Sat Nov 19 11:56:54 CST 2016
Nov. 19
GHANA:
The death penalty is not a creative response to murder
Americans have a saying that runs as follows: "Be careful what you wish for; or
you shall get it."
Nana Obiri-Boahen's angry call on President John Dramani Mahama to expedite the
implementation of the death penalty is scandalously simplistic and grossly
misplaced. And if I were Nana Akufo-Addo, the 2016 presidential candidate of
the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), under whose John
Agyekum-Kufuor-led governance Nana Obiri-Boahen served as a junior cabinet
appointee, I would think twice before deciding to appoint this evidently
unsavorily impulsive man to any position of great or major responsibility.
Definitely not to the very sensitive portfolios of Minister of the Interior,
Justice or Defense. For a trained lawyer, Mr. Obiri-Boahen's reaction to the
alleged jailbreak attempt by Mr. Johnson Kombian, the notorious criminal
convict, leaves much to be desired.
Mr. Kombian, who is currently being held at the Nsawam Medium-Security Prison,
was sentenced to death by hanging in August last year for murdering two police
officers in the northern regional town of Nakpanduri.
Either I did not sedulously follow the preceding admittedly heinous event or
the hectic duty of writing and publishing virtually on a daily basis, about
momentous events in the country, has caused me to so soon forget about the
Kombian Affair, as it were. I am, however, very familiar with the name of Mr.
Kombian.
The exact details of the catalog or chain events leading to Mr. Kombian's crime
are also not clear to me; not that such knowledge would in any way extenuate
the decidedly repulsive and hideous nature of the crime. What I strongly
believe we ought to be looking at, however, are the exact set of circumstances
under which such horrendous crimes are committed and also the relative
frequency with which they are committed. And then, of course, we can begin to
seriously deliberate over the most appropriate statutory response to such
crimes.
As well, the fact of whether, indeed, the punishment is congruent or
commensurate with the crime may also need to be critically examined. I
predicate the latter aspect of my argument on the fact that punitive measures,
such as that which was reportedly imposed on Mr. Kombian, are intended to serve
as a deterrent to both the subject of such punishment and society at large.
Now, we don't know why all the 4 presidents the country has had under its
Fourth-Republican dispensation, including the swashbuckling and bloodthirsty
and pathologically vindictive Chairman Jerry John Rawlings, have each and every
one of them flatly refused to implement the death penalty. But what I know for
a fact, both through personal experience and studious observation, is that both
the legal and judicial systems are not foolproof. And this observation is being
made irrespective of the level of development of the country in which the
emotionally loaded subject of crime and punishment is being discussed.
Here in the United States, for example, presidents and governors who have been
either slow or downright reluctant to apply the death penalty have almost
invariably done so with significant regard, or attention, to the fact that
crime and punishment tend to be highly racialized.
In other words, the race and/or ethnicity of the criminal suspect often tends
to play a major role in decisions pertaining to both the length and the
severity of sentencing. For instance, African-American and Hispanic or Latino
criminal suspects convicted of murder are several times more likely to be meted
the death penalty than suspects officially classified as "Ethnic Whites" or
European-Americans. And I reasonably suspect that while it may not be very
obvious, especially to members of Ghana's ethnic majority populace,
nevertheless, the frequency of who gets the death penalty imposed on them may
very well be ethnically and culturally tinged. Equally significant is the need
to factor into the equation the identity, ethnicity and class background of the
alleged victims of such heinous crimes.
What I clearly see in the Kombian jailbreak attempt is the glaring fact that
rather than house this extremely dangerous criminal convict in a
"Medium-Security Prison,' Mr. Kombian ought to have been incarcerated in a
"Maximum-Security Prison." If Ghana does not yet have a maximum-security prison
facility, then this is what professionally trained lawyers like Nana
Obiri-Boahen ought to be advocating, and not the knee-jerk and infantile
ideology of tit-for-tat.
Indeed, were he studiously observant, Nana Obiri-Boahen would since long have
come to the morally edifying and practically constructive conclusion that the
bloody revolutions undertaken by Chairman Rawlings have not made National
Democratic Congress' politicians and that party's machine operatives any
remarkably less corrupt than their counterparts of the main opposition New
Patriotic Party.
Indeed, a credible case could even be made that the NDC operatives are today
more thoroughgoing corrupt than the average Ghanaian politician, precisely
because of Mr. Rawlings' bloody revolutionary bouts.
This very traumatic fact ought to inform the likes of Nana Obiri-Boahen that
the implementation of the death penalty may actually cause a phenomenal tide in
the rate or frequency of murders in the country. There is also no credible
evidence indicating that the spate of murders in the country is any higher or
lower today than it was during the Rawlings Revolution. It may actually be much
lower today, if one stops to think about it.
*Visit my blog at: kwameokoampaahoofe.wordpress.com Ghanaffairs
(source: Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe; ghanaweb.com)
BANGLADESH:
2 get death penalty for killing schoolboy in Comilla
The trial of 2 other accused arrested in this connection has been undergoing at
a juvenile court.
A tribunal here on Wednesday convicted 2 people and sentenced them to death for
killing a schoolboy in 2013.
The condemned convicts are: Mahe Alam Nayan and Kuddus Alam Rabin, both
residents of Ratnabati village in Sadar upazila.
According to the prosecution, Shihab, a class IV student of a local school and
son of Nazrul Islam of Ratnabati village, was picked up by some miscreants on
January 27, 2013.
Later, the abductors demanded Tk50 lakh as ransom from Nazrul Islam over phone.
A case was filed in this connection.
Police arrested 4 people including the 2 convicts after tracking their mobile
phone, and following their confessional statements, recovered the decomposed
body of Shihab from a septic tank on February 4, 2013.
After examining records and witnesses, Judge of Comilla Women and Children
Repression Prevention Tribunal, Aziz Ahmed Bhuiya, pronounced the verdict.
The trial of 2 other accused arrested in this connection has been undergoing at
a juvenile court.
(source: Dhaka Tribune)
BAHAMAS:
Andros Murderers Tell Judge They Have "Difficulty Adjusting To Incarceration"
At Sentencing
2 men convicted of the murder and kidnapping of an Immigration Department
officer and his girlfriend in Andros have had difficulty adjusting to
incarceration, a judge was told on Friday.
Zintworn Duncombe, 28, and James Johnson, 22, appeared before Justice Indra
Charles for the penalty phase of their trial for their respective roles in the
murder and kidnapping of Shane Gardiner and his girlfriend, Tishka Braynen, in
2013.
Dr John Dillard, a licenced psychiatrist with the Public Hospitals Authority,
testified on Friday that he found no evidence or record of mental illness in
Duncombe or Johnson.
However, he did note that Duncombe said he had experienced nightmares since his
incarceration and that Johnson had suffered from a mild adjustment disorder.
Both men, he said, were co-operative and able to communicate effectively with
him during their clinical interviews that aided the preparation of psychiatric
reports for the court's consideration.
The psychiatrist said he could not say definitively whether either man was
incapable of reform when probed by Duncombe's 2nd lawyer, Jerone Roberts.
He did stress that neither Duncombe or Johnson displayed anti-social or
psychopathic tendencies.
The matter was adjourned to November 28 at 10am for submissions from defence
and Crown counsel.
Gardiner and Braynen were allegedly killed after a failed plot to take $8,000
in gambling winnings from the immigration officer. Braynen, of Cargill Creek,
and Gardiner, who lived in Love Hill, both in Central Andros, were reported
missing around 1.45pm on November 24, 2013. Gardiner had recently been assigned
to the island.
On December 21, 2013, police in Andros discovered the remains of a man with
"items related to a female".
Duncombe, Johnson, Daniel Coakley, 28, and Cordero Saunders, 26, were
unanimously convicted of double kidnapping, conspiracy to commit armed robbery
and attempted armed robbery.
The Crown is seeking the death penalty for Duncombe and Johnson, who were
unanimously convicted of murder. Because of the request for the death penalty,
the court ordered the production of a psychiatric report and social inquiry
report with respect to the 2 convicts.
Duncombe, Saunders, Johnson and Coakley, who all maintain their innocence, are
respectively represented by lawyers Ian Cargill, Moses Bain, Donna Major and
Terrel Butler.
Darnell Dorsett and Patrick Sweeting prosecuted the case.
(source: Bahamas Tribune)
EGYPT:
Will Egypt's parliament toughen punishment for rape?
Many Egyptians are hoping that a new bill, set to come before parliament in 2
months, will put a stop to a surge in rapes throughout the country. The bill,
prepared by the National Council for Women (NCW), a state-run agency that seeks
to defend women's rights, would authorize the death penalty for rapists - a
first in Egypt. The bill is seen as an attempt by Egyptian authorities to
demonstrate their seriousness in criminalizing violence against women and
putting an end to rape.
"The bill toughens penalties with the only aim of deterring rapists and
preventing this crime from happening," Sanaa Khalil, a senior member of NCW's
Legislative Committee, told Al-Monitor. "Rapes have reached alarming levels in
this country."
According to the bill proposed by Khalil and his colleagues, if the rape victim
is under 18 or has a mental or psychological disorder, the rapist will be
sentenced to death. However, if the rape victim is over 18, the rapist will be
sentenced to death or life in prison, depending on the court's judgment.
Egypt ranked the worst among Arab countries for women's rights, according to a
2013 poll conducted by the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Furthermore, a
staggering 99.3% of Egyptian women have been exposed to some form of sexual
harassment, according to a 2013 survey by UN Women.
Growing violations in this regard have given rise to a large number of
anti-harassment movements in Egypt that lobby for maximizing penalties for rape
and harassment. Many sexual assault victims count the days until rapists will
pay for their crimes. Many women say they are victimized twice - once by the
actual assault, and again by the failure of current laws to assign appropriate
punishments to wrongdoers.
Egypt's penal code does not allow for the execution of rapists. Instead, the
code applies the maximum penalty of 25 years in prison to rapists who have been
proven beyond a reasonable doubt to have committed the crime. A rapist will
face the death penalty only if rape is followed by murder, according to the
penal code. If the rapist is a minor, the maximum punishment he faces is 15
years in prison.
The new bill, however, aims to make rape a legally unforgivable crime.
Currently, members of the NCW Legislative Committee are holding meetings with
representatives from the government and civil society institutions to debate
the bill and form recommendations on the bill before submitting it to
parliament for final discussion. The bill is expected to be submitted within
the next two months.
Many members of parliament say there is an urgent need for a law that toughens
penalties for rape.
"Rape is like murder," said Margret Azer, a member of parliament's Human Rights
Committee. "It is even more heinous." She told Al-Monitor that a rapist does
not only psychologically kill his victim but also kills all the victim's family
members. "Like murderers, rapists must be punished by death," she said.
In conservative Egyptian society, sex is only acceptable within the framework
of marriage. A woman's body and sexual organs are shrouded in sanctity, and
rape is considered a heinous, socially unacceptable act. In some parts of
Egypt, a woman can be killed by her family members if she has an affair with a
stranger.
This is why Azer and other members of parliament have called for rapists to
endure the toughest penalties. They believe that rape violates the most
sanctified part of Egyptian culture - namely, women's bodies.
"We will do our best in parliament to convince other members to vote for the
bill when it is submitted to parliament for approval," Mona Monir, a member of
parliament, told Al-Monitor. "Such a bill should have been submitted to
parliament a long time ago, in fact."
Hundreds of rape victims are also waiting on tenterhooks for the bill to be
passed.
"When such a law becomes a reality, people like me will feel that [the bill
has] restored [our] rights," said Shaimaa Ghazal, the mother of a 5-year-old
girl whose attempted rape and subsequent murder in 2013 shocked Egypt and gave
rise to repeated calls for tougher action against rapists. Despite the horrific
nature of the crime, the rapists were only sentenced to 15 years in prison.
"Having heard the judge read out the sentence, I felt as if he issued this
sentence against me and her father, not her killers," a tearful Ghazal told
Al-Monitor. "I will feel very satisfied, even if the potential law is not
applied retroactively, when it is approved by parliament."
Nonetheless, not all Egyptians agree on the bill. Some oppose the proposed bill
because they say it promotes capital punishment, which in itself is a problem.
"This punishment has already been canceled out in some countries," said leading
feminist Hoda Badran. "The capital punishment is irreversible, which means that
you cannot bring a person back to life after executing him if he proves to be
innocent."
Rape can be stopped, Badran told Al-Monitor, not by introducing the death
penalty in such cases, but by applying swift and effective justice. "Death is
not a solution," Badran said. "Murder is punishable by death, but death has
never prevented murders."
Khalil said the proposed bill would not open the door for the unrestricted
killing of people suspected of committing rape. He said there would be strict
and clear conditions for the application of this punishment in accordance with
international law.
"We are badly in need of a law to put an end to this heinous crime," Khalil
said. "I am sure the urgency of such a law will translate into a positive
reaction ??? parliament."
(source: al-monitor.com)
INDIA:
India opposes UN resolution for moratorium on death penalty
India has opposed a UN resolution calling for a moratorium on the death
penalty, saying it goes against Indian law and the sovereign right of countries
to determine their own laws and penalties.
"The resolution before us sought to promote a moratorium on executions with a
view to abolishing the death penalty," Mayank Joshi, a counsellor at India's UN
Mission said on Thursday. "My delegation, therefore, has voted against the
resolution as a whole as it goes against Indian statutory law."
The resolution, however, was adopted by the General Assembly's committee
dealing with humanitarian affairs by 115 votes to 38 with 31 abstentions after
an acrimonious debate and the adoption of an amendment to recognise the
sovereign rights of nations to determine their own laws, which virtually
nullified it.
India supported the amendment and Joshi told the committee: "Every State has
the sovereign right to determine its own legal system and appropriate legal
penalties."
The amendment passed by a vote of 76 to 72 with 26 abstentions. However, it did
not mollify India, which voted against the amended resolution.
Explaining New Delhi's position on capital punishment, Joshi said, "In India,
the death penalty is exercised in the 'rarest of rare' cases, where the crime
committed is so heinous as to shock the conscience of society."
In the last 12 years only 3 executions - all of them of terrorists - have been
carried out in the nation of 1.2 billion.
Last year Yakub Memon, who financed the 1993 Mumbai bombings, was executed.
Muhammad Afzal, convicted of plotting the 2001 attack on India's Parliament,
was hanged in 2013 and Mohammad Ajmal Amir Qasab, 1 of the terrorists involved
in the 2008 Mumbai attack was executed in 2012.
An independent judiciary hears the cases where death penalty can be imposed and
appeals are permitted at several levels, Joshi said. Moreover, the Supreme
Court has decreed that "poverty, socio-economic, psychic compulsions,
undeserved adversities in life" should be considered as mitigating factors in
imposing the death penalty, he added.
The amendment about the sovereign right of nations to have their own legal
systems was introduced by Singapore. Its delegate said that the original
resolution was 1-sided and tried to impose the values of one group of countries
upon others.
New Zealand, echoing the sentiments of several other countries, said that
sovereignty did not absolve nations from complying with international norms of
human rights and the death penalty violated it.
The United States also opposed the resolution saying that capital punishment
was legal under international law and dealing with it was a domestic matter.
(source: Hindustan Times)
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