[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Jan. 30



SINGAPORE:

Suspect charged with wife's murder in Woodlands


A 41-year-old man was on Monday (Jan 30) charged with the murder of his wife, 
who was found dead in a Woodlands flat on Saturday.

Singaporean Teo Ghim Heng allegedly murdered 39-year-old Choong Pei Shan 
between 8am and 11am on Jan 20 in their 6th floor flat at Blk 619, Woodlands 
Drive 52.

Channel NewsAsia understands that Teo then allegedly set Mdm Choong's body on 
fire on Saturday, the 1st day of Chinese New Year.

Speaking to Channel NewsAsia, Mdm Choong's brother, Gordon Choong, said she was 
pregnant, and was due to give birth in May. He added that Mdm Choong's family 
is still coming to terms with her death.

Teo's case will be mentioned again on Feb 6; he faces the death penalty if 
convicted of murder.

(source: channelnewsasia.com)






KUWAIT:

Kuwait executes 7 prisoners, and wants to lower the age for the death penalty


Kuwait has executed 7 prisoners - the 1st since 2013 - just days after Bahrain 
carried out its 1st executions since 2010.

The authorities in Kuwait also announced that the age of eligibility for the 
death penalty would soon be lowered to 16. This was made during a talk warning 
students about the use of social media and the internet.

"We are witnessing a disastrous resurgence in executions throughout the Gulf - 
even as the UK claims it is helping to improve human rights in the region. 
Governments with close Gulf ties - including the UK - must urgently call on 
Kuwait, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia to halt executions, before more lives are 
lost."----Harriet McCulloch, Deputy Director of the death penalty team at 
Reprieve

The rise of executions in the Gulf

The execution of juveniles is illegal under international law. But in 2016 
Saudi Arabia executed several prisoners who were arrested as juveniles. The 
Saudi authorities executed a total of 154 prisoners last year, nearing the 
previous year's record total of 158.

At least 3 Saudis who were children when they were arrested remain at imminent 
risk of execution.

In Bahrain, there are imminent fears for 2 men who were sentenced to death 
after they were arrested in the wake of political protests and tortured into 
'confessions'.

The executions come as the UK seeks closer ties with the Gulf. During a visit 
to Bahrain last month, Prime Minister Theresa May told Gulf leaders: "We in the 
UK are determined to continue to be your partner of choice as you embed 
international norms and see through the reforms which are so essential for all 
of your people."

Reprieve has urged the UK, and other governments, to intervene to prevent 
Kuwait from sentencing juveniles to death; and to take action to stop further 
executions in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

(source: reprieve.org.uk)






IRAN----juvenile executions

2 Juvenile Prisoners Executed


2 juvenile offenders were executed in Kerman (southeastern Iran) and Tabriz 
(northwestern Iran) prisons. This is in addition to the more than 70 people who 
have been executed since the beginning of 2017. Iran Human Rights calls for 
international reactions to the wave of executions and in particular juvenile 
executions in Iran.

"We want abolition of the death penalty, and as a first step abolition of the 
death penalty for all offences committed while under age of 18. We are calling 
on the international community, especially the United Nations and the European 
Union, to place abolition of the death penalty, in particilar the death penalty 
for juveniles, at the top of their talks with the Iranian authorities," says 
Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, spokesperson of Iran Human Rights.

The Iranian authorities lead the world in the most executions of minors, 
despite the revisions made to the Islamic Penal Code and that child executions 
violate Iran's international obligations.

Arman Bahr Asemani - Convicted of murder at age 16

Iran Human Rights has received confirmation on the execution of a a juvenile 
prisoner who was convicted of murder at the age of 16.

"Arman Bahr Asemani, born February 10, 1997, convicted in November 2012 of 
murdering his cousin, was hanged on Sunday January 15, 2017 at Kerman's Shahab 
Prison," a close source tells Iran Human Rights.

"Bahr Asemani, who was 20 years old at the time of his execution, had also been 
condemned to 74 lashings on the charge of consumption of alcohol. Hs lawyer had 
attempted to argue that if [Arman] was drunk, then he should not have been 
charged with first degree murder, but the lawyer never got anywhere," says the 
close source.

Iranian official sources had announced an execution at Shahab Prison of a 
23-year-old prisoner charged with murder; however, there was no mention of Bahr 
Asemani's execution.

Hassan Hassanzadeh - Convicted of murder at age 15

The human rights news agency HRANA reports on the execution of a juvenile 
prisoner at Tabriz Prison on Wednesday January 18. The prisoner, identified as 
Hassan Hassanzadeh, was reportedly around 15 years old when he was convicted of 
murder. He was reportedly jailed for about two and a half years before he was 
executed at the age of 18.

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

2 Prisoners Hanged on Drug Charges


2 prisoners were reportedly hanged at Arak Prison (Markazi province, central 
Iran) on drug related charges. According to the human rights news agency HRANA, 
the executions were carried out on Wednesday January 25. The prisoners have 
been identified as Seifollah Chezabi and Alireza Jalayeri.

Mr. Chezabi and Mr. Jalayeri were reportedly taken to solitary confinement the 
day before their executions. Iranian official sources, including the Judiciary 
and the media, have not announced the execution of these 2 prisoners.

Executions for drug related charges are increasing in Iran while the Iranian 
Parliament has proposed a law to limit the use of the death penalty for drug 
charges. The law must first be approved by Iran's Guardian Council, and it is 
not clear whether it would actually lead to a reduction in the number of drug 
related executions. Additionally, members of parliament recently wrote a letter 
to the head of the Judiciary calling for a halt to the execution sentences of 
about 5,0000 prisoners who are on death row for allegedly committing drug 
related offenses.

(source for both: Iran Human Rights)






TRINIDAD & TOBAGO:

AG admits hands are tied by court system


"You cannot just string people up and hang them."

The growing public outcry for hangings to resume come as the murder rate soared 
to 53 for the year to date over the weekend.

Al-Rawi said as AG he supported the death penalty as it was the law, but noted 
there was a convoluted court process which often times stymied the death 
penalty from being carried out.

"The death penalty has not been carried out for many years because of the 
operation of delays. It is important to remember that the system included for 
the conviction process...after one is convicted at the Assizes, it then goes 
through a 3-stage process of appeal," Al-Rawi said, adding that this included 
the Appeal Court, Privy Council and then by way of petition to the 
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

"The law right now is opened to be carried out against people only after the 
appellate process is compete. The serious delays we have as a country are faced 
really in the Privy Council and at the Inter-American Court."

He said his office is currently tracking every case in the Court of Appeal and 
Privy Council and in particular where the State has involvement.

Regarding the Inter-American Court, Al-Rawi said the delays were very worrying, 
citing that the completion of a petition, including the publication of the 
report of recommendation in that court, took some 11 years.

"So it seems almost that T&T's compliance with the rules of participation in 
that court are bound to make applications fail. That is a matter for country to 
decide on participation in the international environment," he said.

"But the Privy Council statistics are no better and what I noticed, 
particularly under the last government's management, the death penalty was not 
carried out at all and no statement of intent to carry it out was ever given. 
There was nothing in place when I came in as AG to track the system to make 
sure the State was ready on all occasions."

He said measures like the Criminal Proceedings rule, which were expected to 
come on stream in April, was part of the measures expected to speed up the 
processes. But the AG said it was a difficult to give a time frame by which 
hangings could resume.

"Until the final appellate process in those 3 stages is over you can't hang 
anyone. You have the right to appeal," Al-Rawi said, as he added that the 
introduction of public defenders would also aim to speed up the process.

There are currently 33 people on death row, out of which 11 have had their 
sentences committed to life imprisonment due to the Pratt and Morgan ruling, 
which speaks to the fact that it would be cruel and inhumane punishment to 
carry out the death penalty after a prolonged period of delay, in most cases 5 
years.

Bring on death penalty - cops

Police Service Social and Welfare Association president, Insp Michael Seales, 
has joined the public cry for the death penalty to be immediately resumed.

He said yesterday that it was totally unacceptable that the murder rate for 
this month, 53 up to last evening, was the highest in the last 4 years.

He added that it was difficult to understand why the runaway crime rate 
appeared so difficult to arrest.

"It means that people are not afraid of the Police Service at all and when you 
have murders occurring on the door step of the station, you have to understand 
that we are in a crisis and if we do not recognise we are in a crisis, anarchy 
is going to come," Seales said, warning that the situation would only become 
worse for law enforcement.

Regarding the recent press conference held by the AG, National Security 
Minister Edmund Dillon and acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams, which 
sought to allay the fears of citizens, Seales said this would not work as 
"robber talk" was not the answer.

"We need direct interaction to ensure there was some sense of tranquillity in 
this country. It also shows that our criminal justice system is not responding 
in the way it should be responding," Seales said.

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

Death penalty won't stop murders, Doma boss


The T&T Manufacturers' Association (TTMA) says while they are not surprised by 
the calls for the death penalty to be enforced, the taking of a life by the 
State will not compensate for the lives already taken.

Not convinced that murders will decrease if the death penalty law is enforced, 
TTMA president Rolph Balgobin said yesterday he in fact expects more violence, 
which will result in a further increase in the homicide rate.

However, he said no one body or group could be specifically blamed.

"It is not the fault of the acting Commissioner or the Prime Minister or any 
government; it certainly isn't going to be suppressed by the gun-toting police 
we have posing everywhere. It is our fault," Balgobin said in an emailed 
response to questions on the matter.

As though suggesting that the resignation of Acting Commissioner of Police 
Stephen Williams would not solve the crime and by extension the high homicide 
rate, Balgobin said Williams is "hostage to a dysfunctional system in which he 
has virtually no power."

He added, "The murder rate is not the product of a police problem, although 
detection rates are low, violent crime is the outcome of societal problems 
which have been completely ignored."

Former attorney general Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj and Elton Prescott, SC have 
also joined a host of people in several quarters calling for the enforcement of 
the death penalty as a deterrent to the spiralling murder rate.

In a statement on the rising murder toll over the weekend, Prime Minister Dr 
Keith Rowley also described the killings as traumatic and unacceptable.

Specific to the murder rate, Balgobin said the increase in murders was, 
"indicative of the expansion of criminal activity in our society, not merely an 
expression that we are getting more violent, although that's true too."

What is clear, he said, is that the crime is not, "the Prime Minister's problem 
to resolve. We must instead work together to fashion a common set of 
alternatives to criminal life to give people hope. We have failed to do that."

President of the Downtown Owners' and Merchants Association (DOMA), Gregory 
Aboud, meanwhile said the time for enforcement of the law had come. He said the 
business community was concerned with the state of the country and not just the 
state of the economy.

"We, like other citizens, have gotten to stage where we are becoming somewhat 
unravelled and despondent. It is not that we have lost hope for our country, 
but our hopes are being battered," he said.

"Our hopes are battered by the reality that we are facing. That reality is a 
situation that is being discussed rapidly and constantly dominates every 
conversation I have been in."

Aboud reiterated that the business community is ready to offer management 
solutions to this crisis of lawlessness. The state of lawlessness, he said, is 
entirely a management issue, the management of the judicial services, security 
services and overall management of safety.

Aboud said society is in a state where accountability has been eroded to zero. 
Whatever the motive is for the killings, he said what is clear is that people 
are not being held accountable. In other words, he said it was time to start to 
arrest and charge people for crime and homicide and then incorporate the other 
solutions for crime.

(source for both: guardian.co.tt)






PHILIPPINES:

POLL: Should the death penalty be reinstated?


Should the death penalty be reinstated? THE restoration of capital punishment 
in the Philippines took a step closer to passage as the House justice committee 
approved the death penalty bill last December 7, 2016 and the measure is now 
slated for plenary debates. Critics voiced out their opposition to the passage 
of the bill in the committee level, saying it was hastened. But should the 
death penalty be reinstated? What do you think?

see: 
http://www.sunstar.com.ph/cebu/local-news/2017/01/30/poll-should-death-penalty-be-reinstated-522888

(source: sunstar.com.ph)

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

Death penalty debates open Tuesday


The House of Representatives is expected to open plenary deliberations on the 
proposed revival of the death penalty tomorrow, Tuesday.

"The bill will be sponsored on Tuesday at the latest," said majority leader 
Rodolfo Farinas.

The substitute bill will be sponsored on the floor by its authors, including 
Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali.

The measure is a priority legislation of the Duterte administration for the 
year.

President Duterte has vowed to execute 5 to 6 lawbreakers every day once 
Congress revives the death penalty.

Buhay party-list Rep. Lito Atienza, an opponent of capital punishment, said the 
House should first pass the bill lowering individual and corporate income taxes 
before debating on the measure reviving the death penalty.

"Let us focus on passing the positives, and abandon the negatives. Tax cuts are 
highly positive. The death penalty is extremely negative," Atienza said.

The measure lowering income taxes is still being heard by the committee on ways 
and means.

"The bill lowering income taxes is obviously among the priorities of both 
chambers, so we should approve it first, more so because the Senate cannot pass 
any tax reform bill until it has been endorsed by the House," Atienza said.

The lawmaker cited Article 6, Section 24 of the 1987 Constitution, which 
mandates that: "All appropriation, revenue or tariff bills, bills authorizing 
increase of the public debt, bills of local application, and private bills 
shall originate exclusively in The House of Representatives, but the Senate may 
propose or concur with amendments."

While it is a House priority, Atienza pointed out that the proposed restoration 
of the death penalty is not among the urgent bills that the Senate plans to 
approve in the 17th Congress.

He said even Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III could not assure it would 
get the support of the higher chamber.

"We should take the cue from the Senate, which has categorically declared that 
while reducing income taxes is among their main concerns, the re-imposition of 
death sentences is not among their priorities," he said.

Farinas has said the leadership will consult with the senators on the divisive 
measure.

Atienza warned of more police abuses once the death penalty bill is revived.

"You can count on it. Corrupt police officers engaged in all sorts of criminal 
activities will have a heyday. They will use the mere threat of death sentences 
to get whatever they want from their targets - from their victims. We will have 
more cases like those of Korean business executive Jee Ick-Joo," he said.

House Bill No. 1 filed by Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez seeks to punish offenders 
convicted of drug felonies, murder, rape, robbery, carjacking, kidnapping, 
bribery, plunder, parricide, infanticide, destructive arson, piracy and 
treason.

It also seeks to impose capital punishment on the following: importation of 
dangerous drugs and paraphernalia; sale, trading, distribution and 
transportation of dangerous drugs; maintenance of a drug den, dive, or resort; 
manufacture of dangerous drugs; possession of dangerous drugs; cultivation or 
culture of plants classified as dangerous drugs; unlawful prescription; 
criminal liability of a public officer or employee for misappropriation, 
misapplication, or failure to account for the confiscated, seized and/or 
surrendered dangerous; criminal liability for planting evidence concerning 
illegal drugs.

There are 22 crimes that will be punishable by capital punishment under the 
measure but lawmakers have decided to lower it when the bill is amended in the 
plenary.

(source: malaya.com.ph)

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

Humanism and the death penalty


In his 1950 Nobel Prize lecture, Bertrand Russell reminded us that "the main 
thing needed to make the world happy is intelligence." This optimistic 
conclusion was derived from the belief that liberal education can foster the 
value and agency of each person. Liberal education looks into the sciences 
rather than biblical revelation in order to advance a way of understanding the 
world. The right thing to do, in this regard, is to introduce the human 
individual to secular principles that will ultimately make one's mind truly 
independent.

For Cicero, humans are to be distinguished from animals through language. 
Speech, when linked with the power of thought, enabled citizens to dialogue 
with one another and live in harmony "under the rule of law." Humanism teaches 
us that only an open mind trained in the arts, poetry, and philosophy can solve 
the problems bedeviling society. Thus, humanist education in our universities 
is an attempt to liberate the young from the stifling rigidity of ideology and 
dogma.

The Enlightenment taught that the love for humanity necessitates the love for 
reason. Humanism means the adherence to reason as the sole creator of virtue. 
Humanism, in this way, is an ideology as well as a religion. The humanist 
pursues one particular truth - that the human being is above all else. This is 
the spirit of the liberal tradition, which is also a way of looking at the 
world. It takes root in the nature of the individual as a free and rational 
being.

Humanism, of course, is an intellectual program. Its liberal stance primarily 
asserts the primacy and value of human freedom. A young man in college will 
learn that it is through the moral good that a person secures his place in the 
whole scheme of things. But what is the meaning of this moral good? The 
ultimate moral good, it can be argued, begins with the individual's desire to 
do one's duty to society. But this human desire must emanate from an 
unencumbered will. Moral education in the country is based only loosely on the 
humanist tradition. This is because teachers themselves, including the school 
environment, unmistakably carry certain values that are already embedded in our 
own culture. "We are what we believe we are," says C.S. Lewis. Filipinos are a 
result of an irreversible historical process. Philippine society has a very 
different situated identity from the West.

For instance, we have never been critically minded. We do not question the lack 
of decency of some of our public officials. But what is more appalling is that 
all the violence right now unfolding before our eyes might only come as 
impersonal. We no longer see the victim as a human being. Indeed, we must ask: 
What has happened to humanist education in this country? Have we Filipinos 
misplaced all the values of humanity?

The current mood of the Filipino public is that it thinks any individual can be 
sacrificed for the sake of our brand of social solidarity. As such, as long as 
public interest is used to justify the death penalty for a boy as young as 12, 
some Filipinos might believe that no moral wrong is being committed. Most of us 
reason that this very young "criminal," who has now become an enemy of the 
state, himself knows that what he has done can bring him instantaneous death. 
Yet, in so doing, we have disregarded the reality of unjust social structures 
that served as virulent preconditions for the anatomy of a crime.

It is unconscionable for many among us not to realize that bringing the tragic 
death sentence back, even to a person who is so young, only makes manifest that 
our society has not overcome the pangs of elitist rule, and this is because the 
poor will remain at the receiving end of the infirmities of our legal system. 
In reality, those who are in power are just taking advantage of our tragic 
sense of nationhood that has characterized our fate as a people.

(source: Christopher Ryan Maboloc teaches philosophy at Ateneo de Davao 
University and is the author of "Ethics and Human 
Dignity."----opinion.inquirer.net)

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

Compassion for death convicts before execution


The death penalty, as espoused by President Duterte, got the nod of the 
majority of the members of the House of Representatives ("House committee OKs 
death penalty," News, 12/8/16) and it is now the turn of the Senate to either 
approve or reject it.

The Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines has expressed its 
disapproval of the death penalty; so have other human rights groups. With the 
President's men in the Senate in full support of the death penalty, chances are 
that the Senate will approve it, too. As a nation adhering to democratic and 
Christian principles, I am sure our people are divided on the death penalty 
issue.

President Duterte has been clear about it. It's the death penalty for people 
who committed heinous crimes - a kind of retribution. There are crimes too 
inhuman, (a young student stabbed to death 39 times during a robbery in a 
vacant alley; a young girl raped and killed) that we cannot help but wish death 
upon the offenders.

In the Bible, we read about how God's divine wrath hit hard on evildoers (e.g., 
a great flood, rain of fire). But God did not mete out His punishments without 
first warning people through His prophets. And those who listened were saved. 
Here, it is clear that God hates sin but has compassion for the sinners, even 
the vilest of them all.

Is the death penalty a deterrent to the commission of heinous crimes? Will it 
rid our society of lawless elements and protect us from being victims, or will 
a life sentence be enough to do this? But won't convicts with life sentences 
cram further our already crowded prisons and compete with our hungry poor for 
funds - as during their imprisonment, government must provide them regular food 
rations? How many will stay in prison up to old age, wasting away their lives 
until they die? How many of these convicts will worsen as criminal characters 
while in jail or get killed during prison riots?

In the face of rampant criminality, especially heinous crimes against children 
and women, maybe the death penalty can serve as a strong warning for others of 
similar, criminal disposition. But there is nothing more humane and 
compassionate than leading them first into reconciliation with God, and thus be 
assured of salvation before they are executed.

THERESA PILI-NISPEROS, Gagalangin, Tondo, Manila

(source: Letter to the Editor, Philippine Inquirer)