[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Feb. 12



IRAN:

International Calls to Stop Inhumane Underage Executions by Iran Regime


According to state-run IRNA news agency, Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, Iranian 
regime's Tehran Prosecutor General, announced Wednesday February 8 that based 
on regime's Islamic Penal Code, the Prosecutor Office has submitted requests to 
the courts to cancel retaliation sentences for ten under-18 convicts, of which 
6 requests have been accepted.

International human rights organizations have repeatedly expressed concerns 
over executing convicts who were under-18 at the time of their offense, saying 
that a lot of such convicts in Iran are awaiting execution.

Amnesty International had previously announced that between 2005 and 2015, at 
least 73 convicts who were under-18 at the time of the offense have been 
executed in Iran. There are at least another160 such convicts who are awaiting 
execution, according to a report by the UN.

The UN has also recently reported that Hamid Ahmadi, sentenced to death for 
committing murder at 17, has been taken to solitary confinement in Rasht's 
Lakan Prison, due to be hanged on February 11.

Jafari Dolatabadi also announced on Wednesday that according to Article 302 of 
regime's Islamic Penal Code, Tehran Prosecutor Office has requested that17 
retaliation cases be revised, which has led to 3 retaliation sentences being 
cancelled.

The UN Human Rights Committee as well as other human rights organizations have 
repeatedly criticized Iran's high execution rate. Applying death penalty for 
drug trafficker has been announced as one the reasons for Iran's high execution 
rate.

Iranian regime's Attorney General 'Mohammad Jafar Montazeri' has recently 
emphasized that the death penalty is not going to be removed from the regime's 
drug penal code.

Earlier, Mohammad Bagher Olfat, regime's Deputy Head of the Judiciary on Crime 
Prevention, had announced that execution of drug traffickers in Iran has not 
been 'deterrent'.

(source: NCR-Iran)






PHILIPPINES:

Defense team eyed for poor offenders facing death penalty


A Capital Defense Unit with a budget of P260 million that would provide legal 
assistance to convicts who will be meted death penalty has been proposed in the 
House of Representatives.

Rep. Luis Campos Jr. of Makati City (Metro Manila) made the proposal in light 
of ongoing debates on restoration of capital punishment for heinous crimes in 
the chamber.

Campos over the weekend noted that there should be a state-funded CDU that will 
provide topnotch private attorneys to poor convicts facing execution to ensure 
that nobody gets wrongfully doomed on account of his or her simply being poor 
and inability to obtain superior legal representation.

"Assuming Congress decides to revive death verdicts for the worst criminal 
offenders, we have to ensure that disadvantaged individuals accused of capital 
felonies receive the best legal defense available," he said in a statement.

According to Campos, the CDU is in accordance with Section 11, Article 3 of the 
1987 Constitution that reads, "Adequate legal assistance shall not be denied to 
any person by reason of poverty."

He suggested that the CDU be run by the University of the Philippines College 
of Law's Institute of Human Rights and the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, 
with the university paying for all the legal fees of poor defendants facing 
potential death sentences.

The Department of Social Welfare and Development, Campos said, will determine 
the beneficiaries of the CDU, which will be a different office from the Public 
Attorney's Office.

"We have to acknowledge that getting hold of adequate legal remedies has a 
price not everybody can pay," Campos said.

House leaders have announced that administration lawmakers are likely to vote 
for the passage of death penalty if the measure will provide that penalties for 
heinous crimes will range from lifetime imprisonment to death, depending on the 
judge's discretion.

But House Senior Deputy Minority Leader and Rep. Lito Atienza of Buhay 
party-list would not agree to such compromise, warning that only impoverished 
citizens inadequately represented at trial would get death sentences.

"Moneyed people who are able to retain high-priced lawyers would always escape 
conviction. Sadly, the quality of legal representation is still the single 
biggest factor that would determine whether a defendant receives or dodges the 
death sentence," Atienza said.

(soruce: Manila Times)

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


They are the biggest donors to the Church, but their employees do not get just 
wages.

Their children go to exclusive girls' or boys' schools run by Catholic priests 
or nuns, but hold bacchanalian parties on weekends and holidays.

They proudly wear uniform heralding their membership in fraternal service 
organizations, but practice open-marriage arrangements.

And they attend Mass regularly, even receive Holy Communion, but advocate the 
reimposition of the death penalty.

Split-level Christianity, that's what it is; I can now hear my high school 
teachers exclaim in unison.

So this move of resurrecting the death penalty to curb crimes will not go 
quietly into the night. It will appear or disappear from president to 
president, despite their Christian faith.

The late strongman Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law, supposedly to stem 
the tide of communism and to curb criminality. The country was placed under 
military authority, and civil rights were suspended.

Yet, after 4 years of martial rule, Marcos decreed the use of death penalty, a 
tacit admission that the tactics of the former dictator and his military 
caboodle failed.

When the genuine people power ousted Marcos to make Corazon Aquino president in 
1986, among her first moves that same year was the abolition of the death 
penalty. 6 years later, Fidel Ramos succeeded Aquino. He then reinstated 
capital punishment by lethal injection. Coincidentally, Ramos is Marcos's 
cousin and a former military man.

In 2006, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo became president. One of her better decisions 
was the abolition of the death penalty. Thus, all death row prisoners were 
moved to life imprisonment.

So, here we are again, this move to resurrect the death penalty. The move is 
nothing new nor surprising, especially because the current president has a 
penchant for violent thoughts and do-this-or-else statements.

Now, House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez is adopting the tack of his 
president-friend, both in substance and style. In Alvarez's mind, killing is 
good while preserving life is bad? Begging the question indeed. Have Alvarez 
and his fellow honorable men and women considered the findings of many studies 
on the matter?

One study corroborates the findings of an earlier study in 1996. 88 % of the 
leading criminologists in the US said they do not believe that death penalty is 
an effective deterrent to crime.

Those contemplating to commit crime do not think of consequences.

This is corroborated by an article penned by a former US District Court and 
Court of Appeals judge H. Lee Sarokin, "Is it time to execute the death 
penalty?"

He writes, "...deterrence pays no part whatsoever. Persons contemplating murder 
do not sit around the kitchen table and say 'I won't commit this murder if I 
face the death penalty. But I will do it if the penalty is life without 
parole'."

(source: Opinion; Lelani Echaves----sunstar.com.ph)

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

Church won't be silenced in opposing death penalty - bishop


The Catholic Church will not stop airing its opposition to the death penalty 
bill despite being criticized by politicians for supposedly meddling in state 
affairs, a former head of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines 
(CBCP) said on Sunday.

Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Emeritus Oscar Cruz, a vocal critic of President 
Rodrigo Duterte, said the Church would continue to proclaim its teachings on 
the sanctity of life even if priests were being subjected to attacks by 
proponents of the death penalty bill.

He was responding to House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, who once called bishops a 
"bunch of shameless hypocrites" for issuing a united stand against the spate of 
drug-related killings under the Duterte administration's war on drugs.

"I am not offended, I understand him (Alvarez), Cruz said over Church-run Radyo 
Veritas."

Cruz earlier advised Alvarez against "playing God" with the latter's threat to 
strip members of the Duterte-controlled supermajority in Congress of deputy 
speakerships and committee chairmanships if they will oppose the death penalty 
bill.

Alvarez, author of the death penalty bill, said former President and now 
Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal Arroyo would be among those who could 
be replaced if she opposed the measure. It was during Arroyo's term as 
President that the death penalty was abolished.

The measure seeking to reinstate capital punishment for heinous crimes is being 
debated at the plenary of the House of Representatives

(source: newsinfo.inquirer.net)

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

House waters down death penalty bill


The House of Representatives is watering down the bill re-imposing the death 
penalty in a move to lessen opposition to it among its members and the public.

In radio interviews yesterday, Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez said he and members of 
his super majority coalition have agreed that the imposition of the death 
penalty for heinous crimes "will not be mandatory."

"The proposed penalty would range from life imprisonment to death. In other 
words, it is the judge who will decide if he will impose capital punishment," 
he said.

He said they have also agreed to reduce the number of heinous crimes covered by 
the death penalty measure, Bill 4727.

"We will remove some crimes. The list of covered offenses will no longer be 
21," he said.

Responding to questions, Alvarez said aside from plunder, he could not remember 
the offenses that would be removed from the list.

But Mindoro Oriental Rep. Reynaldo Umali, principal sponsor of the bill, said 
the crimes to be dropped include arson, possession of marijuana and possibly 
bribery.

Umali, who is justice committee chairman, said some members feel that crimes 
that do not result in the death of a person should not be punishable by death.

The covered offenses under the bill include treason, piracy, bribery, 
parricide, murder, rape, kidnapping, illegal detention, robbery, destructive 
arson and drug-related crimes.

Alvarez kept the door open for the return of plunder in the list of heinous 
crimes.

If a member of the House proposes it during the period of amendments and the 
majority votes for it, then it would be restored, he said.

Majority Leader Rodolfo Farinas said he and his House boss voted for keeping 
plunder in the proposed law during Wednesday's closed-door majority caucus.

"But nothing is final yet, and the bill as it stands still includes plunder.

There has been no amendment to it, as we are still in the process of building a 
consensus," he said.

Many House members want plunder included in the list of offenses covered by 
capital punishment. They consider it a heinous crime "that robs the poor of 
money for education, health and other basic services."

Alvarez expressed confidence that he and other House leaders would be able to 
muster the needed votes to approve Bill 4727.

Earlier, he warned deputy speakers and committee chairmen that they would be 
replaced if they would not support the measure.

Rep. Carlos Zarate of leftist party-list group Bayan Muna, who attended the 
Wednesday caucus, said there was indeed an agreement to have a penalty ranging 
from life in prison to death and to reduce the number of covered crimes.

However, he said the agreement "has not been reflected in the original bill, 
which is still the one being deliberated in plenary session."

He said he and 6 other leftist representatives would continue to oppose the 
bill, even if it is watered down, "because we are against the death penalty."

Zarate chairs the committee on environment and natural resources. 2 other 
leftist colleagues also head committees.

Asked if they would give their posts up or wait to be replaced, they said they 
would relinquish their committee chairmanships if the House leadership tells 
them to do so.

Also in danger of losing her post as deputy speaker is former president Gloria 
Macapagal-Arroyo, who represents Pampanga's 2nd district and who is against the 
death penalty.

Alvarez has said his majority coalition would replace Arroyo if she does not 
support Bill 4727.

There are speculations in the House that the former president, a staunch ally 
of President Duterte like Alvarez, is interested in the position of speaker.

(source: Philippine Star)