[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Oct. 11



MALAYSIA:

Scrap death penalty on drugs to start ball rolling, Amnesty tells Putrajaya



Malaysia should abolish the mandatory death penalty for drug cases at the next 
Parliament sitting as a pledge to improve human rights here, Amnesty 
International (AI) said today after the government announced its plans to allow 
judges a choice in sentencing.

AI Malaysia acting executive director Gwen Lee said many drug cases involve 
people from lower income groups and that it would be unfair if they had to pay 
with their lives for such crimes. She added that it would be a good first step 
towards abolishing the draconian punishment.

She cited the case of one Hoo Yew Wah, a poor Johorean currently on death row 
for drug possession charges in 2005, as an example of such cases.

"The situation is no different in Malaysia, where it is often those who come 
from disadvantaged backgrounds who end up paying the price of the death 
penalty.

"The mandatory death penalty on drug is very important to be reviewed," Lee 
said in a press conference today.

She also urged Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said to ensure the law gets tabled in 
Parliament this month.

The minister in the Prime Minister's Department in charge of law previously 
said in August that the Cabinet agreed to amend the colonial-era Dangerous 
Drugs Act of 1952 to give courts a choice in sentencing.

"We want total abolition, but we see this as a good step forward. We are hoping 
that it will be tabled and it is on the list of suggested amendments," Lee 
stressed.

She said this would also help in Malaysia's bid to be reappointed into the 
United Nation's Human Rights Council.

Capital punishment is mandatory in Malaysia for murder and drug trafficking, 
among other crimes.

According to Azalina, a total of 651 Malaysians have been sentenced to death 
since 1992, most of them for drug offences.

(source: The Malay Mail Online)

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

Abolition of the mandatory death penalty: No more delays - Malaysian 
Bar-----The World Day against the Death Penalty is commemorated on 10 October 
each year.



In Malaysia, the death penalty is mandatory for persons convicted of murder, 
trafficking in narcotics of various amounts, and discharging a firearm in the 
commission of various crimes (even where no one is hurt).

The Malaysian Bar has been, and remains, in the frontline of the battle to 
uphold and preserve the rule of law, fundamental constitutional rights, the 
administration of justice, and law and order. In this regard, we have 
consistently called for the abolition of the death penalty. The Malaysian Bar 
at its Annual or Extraordinary General Meetings in 1985, 2006, 2012 and 2015 
passed resolutions condemning the death penalty and/or calling for its 
abolition.

The campaign to abolish the death penalty is not meant to confer licence to 
commit serious crimes with impunity. Persons convicted of serious crimes must 
receive proportionate punishment. But this does not mean that they therefore 
ought to die.

The Malaysian Bar has always taken the view that there is no empirical evidence 
or data that confirms that the death penalty serves as an effective deterrent 
to the commission of crimes. There has been no significant reduction in the 
incidence of crimes for which the death penalty is currently mandatory. This is 
particularly true of drug-related offences.

In short, the death penalty does not work as a deterrent.

The Malaysian Bar's primary opposition to the death penalty is because life is 
sacred, and every person has an inherent right to life. This is vouchsafed in 
Article 5(1) of the Federal Constitution of Malaysia, which eschews the 
arbitrary deprivation of life. The right to life is a fundamental right that 
must be absolute, inalienable and universal, irrespective of the crime 
committed by the accused person.

Recently, Minister Dato' Sri Azalina Othman Said stated on 7 August 2017 that 
the Cabinet had approved the abolition of the mandatory death penalty for 
drug-related offences. However, there has been no announcement of any timeline, 
or any release of draft legislation to this effect. The Malaysian Bar calls 
upon the Government of Malaysia to introduce the amending legislation without 
further delay. Any delay will mean more people being sentenced to die.

The Malaysian Bar further calls upon the Government to act swiftly to abolish 
the death penalty for all crimes, stop executions, and commute each death 
sentence to one of imprisonment.

(source: This statement is issued by George Varughese, president of the 
Malaysian Bar Council. This is the personal opinion of the writer or 
organisation and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail 
Online----themalaymailonline.com)








JAPAN:

Death penalty sought for alleged 'black widow' serial killer



Prosecutors on Tuesday sought the death penalty for a 70-year-old woman, dubbed 
the "black widow," charged with the murders of her husband and 2 common-law 
partners and the attempted murder of an acquaintance between 2007 and 2013.

Describing Chisako Kakehi's alleged crimes as "heinous and serious incidents 
that are rarely seen," the prosecutors said in their closing arguments at the 
Kyoto District Court that the victims - all elderly men - were given drinks 
laced with cyanide by Kakehi. She was heavily indebted and had been planning to 
inherit their assets.

The court is scheduled to hand down a ruling on Nov. 7, with the defense making 
its closing statements on Wednesday.

Prosecutors said Kakehi is mentally competent and can be held responsible for 
her crimes, which "were premeditated." Her "cognitive function has not 
significantly deteriorated as shown in her psychiatric evaluation," and she had 
no mental disorders at the time of the crimes, they said.

Kakehi denied the charges and pleaded not guilty. Her defense argued that she 
cannot be held responsible or stand trial due to the onset of dementia. They 
cited her incoherent statements which they said even led to her admission at 
one point during proceedings to committing murder.

According to prosecutors, Kakehi murdered her 75-year-old husband Isao as well 
as common-law partners Masanori Honda, 71, and Minoru Hioki, 75, and tried to 
kill her acquaintance Toshiaki Suehiro, 79, by poisoning them with cyanide.

In the trial held under the country's lay judge system, which involves citizen 
judges, the prosecutors built their case against Kakehi based on circumstantial 
evidence amid a dearth of physical evidence.

Kakehi was first arrested in November 2014 and indicted the following month on 
a charge of killing Isao, who died at the couple's home in Muko, Kyoto 
Prefecture, in December 2013. They married the previous month. She was later 
indicted in connection with the deaths of the 2 other men.

Kakehi, a native of Fukuoka Prefecture, married 1st at the age of 24 and 
started her own fabric printing factory in Osaka Prefecture with her 1st 
husband. But following his death in around 1994, the factory went bankrupt and 
her house was put up for auction, forcing her to ask neighbors for a loan.

She later registered with a matchmaking service, specifically asking to meet 
wealthy men with an annual income of more than Y10 million.

She was romantically involved with or associated with more than 10 men, 
enabling her to inherit an estimated Y1 billion ($8.8 million) but later fell 
into debt following her attempts to speculate in stocks and futures trading.

(source: The Japan Times)








INDONESIA:

Narcotic Agency Head Budi Waseso says death penalty critics may be part of drug 
syndicates



Tuesday was World Day Against the Death Penalty, and human rights activists in 
Indonesia used the occasion to highlight an alarming increase in death penalty 
prosecutions over the last year and to renew call for a moratorium on the 
practice until the procedures regulating it can be thoroughly reviewed to 
prevent human rights violations.

But the head of the National Narcotics Agency (BNN), Commissioner-General Budi 
Waseso, shot back at critics of the death penalty, saying that it was an 
essential deterrent in the country's war on drugs and implying that those who 
oppose capital punishment might be criminals themselves.

"Why do these 'sontoloyo' (lit. duck herders; colloquially, people who hold up 
progress with unimportant issues) keep defending (drug dealers) continuously? 
What if they are part of the drug mafia syndicate?" Budi said at a press 
conference Tuesday as quoted by CNN Indonesia.

He specifically took aim at Amnesty International, the activist NGO that 
defends human rights around the world and has asked the Indonesian government 
numerous times to place a moratorium on the death penalty in light of the 
numerous human rights violations related to its use in Indonesia in the past.

"What has Amnesty International ever done for this nation? Did they ever build 
up Indonesia? Have they ever struggled positively for the nation? Never, 
right?" Budi said.

Not only did the BNN chief defend the death penalty as a necessary, he 
suggested the government increase it???s deterrent value by having them be 
dicincang (chopped up) instead of shot.

"If we just chopped them up, there would be no need for them to be shot. 
Showing that would be a real deterrent," said Budi (who, by the way, was indeed 
the same guy who said he wanted to build a prison exclusively for drug dealers 
guarded by angry crocodiles).

Budi said that sentencing drug dealers to death could save 212,000 people's 
lives in Indonesia (not sure where he pulled that number from) and, pulling a 
card from Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte's playbook, said human rights 
activists should focus on protecting the rights of victims rather than the 
rights of drug dealers.

Besides Amnesty, the Institute for Criminal Justice Reform (ICJR), also 
recently asked that Indonesia declare a moratorium on the death penalty while 
the process in which criminals can be convicted and appeal the sentence be 
reviewed for violations of human rights, noting that one of the last people 
executed by the government, Humphrey Jefferson "Jeff" Ejike, had been denied 
the ability to exercise all of his appeal options before he was killed.

(source: coconuts.co)




PHILIPPINES:

France opposes restoration of death penalty in PHL



France on Wednesday voiced its concern on a plan by the Philippine government 
to restore death penalty, which it called an "unjust, inhumane and ineffective" 
punishment.

The French government made the statement on the occasion of the 15th World Day 
Against the Death Penalty and the 40th anniversary of the last execution in 
France.

"France is...concerned about the determination of Philippine authorities to 
reintroduce the death penalty, following its abolition in 2006," it said in a 
statement sent by its embassy in Manila.

It also expressed concern on the continued use of the death penalty, notably in 
China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Iraq and the United States.

France also took note of the resumption of executions in Nigeria, Bahrain, 
Kuwait, and Jordan, but praised efforts of other countries, such as Mongolia, 
Gambia, Benin, Nauru and Guinea to abolish death penalty.

"France is opposed to the death penalty everywhere and under all 
circumstances," the European Union-member nation said as it called on states 
that still impose the death penalty to establish a moratorium toward its 
definitive abolition.

President Rodrigo Duterte has severely criticized the EU for opposing his 
policy to reintroduce capital punishment for drug dealers and heinous crimes.

Duterte, known for using strong language against his critics, earlier 
threatened to hang EU officials for their opposition to death penalty and 
lambasted them for intervening in the country's domestic policies.

The status of the proposed revival of the capital punishment law, however, 
remains unclear as the House of Representatives, which approved its version of 
the death penalty bill last March, and the Senate excluded it from the list of 
priority measures for the 17th Congress.

(source: GMA News)








GLOBAL:

The death penalty has no place in the 21st century' - UN chief Guterres



The death penalty does little to deter crimes or serve victims, United Nations 
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Tuesday, calling on all countries 
which have not forbidden the extreme practice to urgently stop executions.

"The death penalty has no place in the 21st century," underscored Mr. Guterres, 
speaking alongside Andrew Gilmour, Assistant Secretary-General for Human 
Rights, at an event at the UN Headquarters, in New York.

Welcoming that some 170 States around the world have either abolished the death 
penalty and put a moratorium on its use - most recently, Gambia and Madagascar 
- and that executions in 2016 were down 37 % compared in 2015, the UN chief, 
however, added that at present just 4 countries accounted for 87 % of all 
recorded executions.

He also expressed concern that the countries that countries that continue 
executions are also failing to meet their international obligations, particular 
in relation to transparency and compliance with international human rights 
standards.

"Some governments conceal executions and enforce an elaborate system of secrecy 
to hide who is on death row, and why," noted Mr. Guterres, underscoring that 
lack of transparency showed a lack of respect for the human rights of those 
sentenced to death and to their families, as well as damaging administration of 
justice more generally.

Concluding his remarks, the Secretary-General urged all those States that have 
abolished the death penalty to lend their voice to the call on the leaders of 
those countries that retain it, "to establish an official moratorium, with a 
view to abolition as soon as possible."

Also today, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) 
also called on all countries to strengthen efforts to abolish the death 
penalty.

"We [...] call on all States to ratify the Second Optional Protocol to the 
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights," said Rupert Colville, a 
spokesperson for OHCHR, told journalists at a regular news briefing in Geneva.

The Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and 
Political Rights (ICCPR), now ratified by 85 States around the globe, requires 
its parties to abolish death penalty. It is the only universal international 
legal instrument that aims to end the practice.

"[OHCHR] stands ready to continue to support all efforts in this direction," he 
added.

(source: un.org)

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

World Day Against Death Penalty: 5 Countries That Ditched Capital Punishment



October 10 marks World Day Against the Death Penalty, a time where human rights 
activist come together to advocate against capital punishment.

In the United States, executions occur so frequently that I bet a lot of 
Americans don't even realize how atypical this form of punishment is, 
particularly amongst other developed nations. As Amnesty International points 
out, with fewer than 200 countries in the world, 141 of them don???t use the 
death penalty, with 104 countries explicitly banning it.

In honor of World Day Against the Death Penalty, let's look at how just a few 
of those nations from various parts of the world officially got rid of the 
death penalty:

1. Australia

Originally settled as a penal colony, Australia has strong roots tied to 
punishment - and that included capital punishment. Gradually over a period of 
decades, however, Australian states and territories opted to get rid of the 
death penalty on their own accord, starting with Queensland in 1922 and 
wrapping up with New South Wales in 1985.

Not that there was a lot of clamor to bring the death penalty back, but in 
2010, the Australian federal parliament decided to follow all of its states' 
lead and pass a law forbidding any part of Australia from reintroducing capital 
punishment down the road. It served as a recommitment to the idea that he death 
penalty is wrong.

2. Rwanda

After 800,000 people were killed in acts of genocide in the country, many of 
those responsible for these atrocities fled Rwanda to avoid punishment. Other 
countries kept tabs on these criminals on Rwanda's behalf, but refused to 
extradite them because of their own laws, which forbid them from turning over 
someone who would likely be charged with the death penalty.

If Rwanda wanted to get these murderers back, realistically, the country would 
have to choose to get rid of the death penalty.

It wasn't necessarily an easy decision for Rwandans since many survivors of 
genocide wanted to see the perpetrators of violence killed for their crimes. 
Ultimately, however, political leaders decided that achieving some sort of 
justice was preferable to letting these people go free and they voted 
overwhelmingly to end the death penalty.

3. Argentina

Argentina is an interesting case because its Constitution outlawed the death 
penalty at the time of its founding, only to see it reemerge a handful of times 
anyway. 5 times over the span of decades, Argentina decided to reinstate 
capital punishment, generally for just a couple years before opting to get rid 
of it again.

By 1984, his fickleness settled down and Argentina settled on only applying the 
death penalty for certain military-related matters. Then in 2008, Argentina 
decided even military personnel should be spared this fate. Like most of Latin 
America, it definitively eliminated the death penalty for everybody once and 
for all.

4. Vatican City

In 1929, Vatican City decided to follow Italy's lead and allow the death 
penalty. That said, the tiny Catholic country was only prepared to use capital 
punishment for one crime and one crime only - the attempted assassination of 
the pope. (To be fair, that does seem like a pretty big one.)

Luckily for the popes, the death penalty was never necessary. 40 years later, 
it hadn't been used at all, and by then Catholic leaders decided it wouldn't 
want to use it even if there were an attempt on the pope's life.

To this day, the Vatican City has been outspoken on the issue of the death 
penalty. Pope Francis has urged all countries in the world to get rid of this 
form of punishment permanently.

5. Mongolia

Only a decade ago, Mongolia was one of the Asian countries called out by human 
rights groups for conducting executions in secret, leaving it impossible to 
know how many people the government was killing.

All that changed in 2009, though, when Tsakhia Elbegdorj was elected president 
of Mongolia. A passionate death penalty abolitionist, he managed to 
singlehandedly change the course of the country by pledging to pardon all 
prisoners awaiting capital punishment in Mongolia. The following year, he put a 
moratorium on executions altogether.

At the time, pundits thought the moratorium was not likely to last past 
Elbegdorj's time in office, but that no longer seems to be the case. By 2015, 
the country's lawmakers came to see the president's point of view and 
officially abolished the death penalty.

(source: care2.com)

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

The death penalty: what's changed since 1977?



It's 40 years since we created the world's 1st international manifesto to end 
the death penalty. Since 1977, we have seen huge amounts of progress in the 
campaign to end the use of the death penalty around the world. We're so much 
closer to seeing the end of this horrific punishment - which we consider the 
ultimate denial of human rights. But we're not quite there yet.

Do something now

Stop the executions in the Maldives

The Maldives is set to start using the death penalty again after 60 years of 
not executing anyone. 3 men now face execution by hanging.

Stop 14 men being executed in Saudi Arabia

14 men are due to be beheaded for allegedly being involved in anti-government 
protests, after they were tortured into confessing.

40 years of campaigning to end the death penalty

"When the state uses its power to end the life of a human being, it is likely 
that no other right is inviolate. The state cannot give life, it should not 
presume to take it away."---- Amnesty International's Declaration of Stockholm

In 1977, we drafted the Declaration of Stockholm - a declaration calling on 
every government around the world to stop using the death penalty.

Why did we decide to campaign to stop the death penalty?

The death penalty the ultimate denial of a basic human right - the right to 
life. The state shouldn't be able to take that away from you as a punishment 
within a criminal justice system. The death penalty also denies someone the 
right to be free from torture. It is a violent irreversible punishment.

We oppose the use of the death penalty in every single case. No matter what the 
crime, who the alleged criminal is, or the method proposed to execute them - we 
always stand against it.

The death penalty is irreversible and mistakes happen. Execution is the 
ultimate, irrevocable punishment: the risk of executing an innocent person can 
never be eliminated. Since 1973, for example, 150 US prisoners sent to death 
row have later been exonerated (cleared of the crime/s they were, or were due 
to be, executed for). Many people have been executed despite serious doubts 
about their guilt.

It doesn't deter crime. Countries that execute commonly cite the death penalty 
as a way to deter people from committing crime. This claim has been repeatedly 
discredited, and there is no evidence that the death penalty is any more 
effective in reducing crime than imprisonment.

It's often used within skewed justice systems. Some of the countries executing 
the most people have deeply unfair legal systems. The 'top' 3 executing 
countries - China, Iran and Iraq - have issued death sentences after unfair 
trials. Many death sentences are issued after 'confessions' that have been 
obtained through torture.

It's discriminatory. You are more likely to be sentenced to death if you are 
poor or belong to a racial, ethnic or religious minority because of 
discrimination in the justice system. Also, poor and marginalized groups have 
less access to the legal resources needed to defend themselves.

It's used as a political tool. The authorities in some countries, for example 
Iran and Sudan, use the death penalty to punish political opponents.

Documenting executions

One of the ways we protect human rights is by reporting when governments abuse 
them. Our research is used to help hold abusers to account in courts around the 
world.

Under international law, the death penalty is banned from use - except during 
times of war - under:

The Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and 
Political Rights

Protocol No. 6 to the European Convention on Human Rights

The Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights to Abolish the Death 
Penalty.

The European Convention on Human Rights (Protocol No. 13) bans use of the death 
penalty at all times, even during war.

Although international law says that the death penalty can be used for the most 
serious crimes, like murder, we believe that the death penalty is never the 
answer.

In 1979 we started publishing statistics showing which countries were 
executing, how and why. We have reported on this every year ever since, and 
have become a key global authority on monitoring and reporting on death 
sentences and executions carried out by governments worldwide.

40 years on...fewer states are executing

Back in 1977, the death penalty was legal in most of the world, with the 
exception of 16 countries who had outlawed it.

Now, in 2017, the death penalty is illegal in 105 countries. A further 36 
countries have either repealed the death penalty for 'ordinary crimes' such as 
murder, or effectively stopped using the death penalty although it remains 
legal.

Last year, only 23 countries actually executed people. The majority of 
executions took place in a small group of countries - China, Iran, Saudi 
Arabia, Iraq and Pakistan.

We are calling on all countries that still have the death penalty in their laws 
to make it illegal. Where it is still illegal, we call on states to stop using 
the punishment and establish an official moratorium as a step towards making it 
illegal.

With your help, we won't need another 40 years to reach our goal of ending the 
death penalty for good.

Do something today

Call on the Maldives to stop its plans to resume executions

Demand that Saudi Arabia doesn't execute 14 men who have been tortured

(source: amnesty.org.uk)








ST. LUCIA:

Francis issues statement to mark World Day Against Death Penalty



Tuesday 10th October 2017 is observed as the World Day Against the Death 
Penalty. First observed in 2003 by the World Coalition Against the Death 
Penalty (WCADP), this year marks the 15th observance with focus on the theme 
"Poverty and Justice a deadly mix."

The purpose of this theme is to raise awareness about the reasons why people 
living in poverty are at a greater risk of being sentenced to death and 
executed. The World Coalition Against the Death Penalty is an alliance of 
N.G.O's, Bar Associations, local authorities and Unions.

The overall objective of the WCA against the Death Penalty is to strengthen the 
international dimension of the fight against the Death Penalty with the goal to 
achieve universal abolition of the death penalty.

The Caribbean is also part of the international campaign, through the work of 
the Greater Caribbean For Life (GCL) which is a Non-Profit, Civil Society 
Organisation established in Trinidad on October 2nd 2013 to unite the Caribbean 
abolitionist organizations and individuals.

GCL believes in stopping crime not lives and strives to create a culture of 
respect for the right to live and for the dignity of all human beings.

The Greater Caribbean consists of 25 countries/states including 13 Caricom 
countries which retain the Death Penalty.

As a member of the Greater Caribbean For Life I take this opportunity to raise 
awareness of the international campaign to abolish the Death Penalty. Although 
there has been no execution in St. Lucia since 1994, St. Lucia remains a 
retentionist country. Against the strong statements made 2 weeks ago by the 
Minister of Justice, to visit the gallows, it is necessary to state 
categorically that despite the rise in youth violent crime and murder, this is 
a backward stance, as hanging is no deterrent to crime.

In keeping with this year's theme "Poverty and Justice a deadly mix" I call on 
the Government to stop crime and not lives. Rather to focus on the issue of 
poverty and its related ills. Prevention is the key. By focusing on the social 
and economic origin of crime, such as the poverty which engenders violence and 
disregard for Law and Order. In this regard St. Lucia must adopt the 
recommendations contained in the U.N.D.P 2012 Report "Human Development and the 
shift to better citizen security."

The U.N.D.P urges Governments in the region to strive to achieve ???a better 
balance between legitimate law enforcement and preventive measures, with a 
stronger focus on prevention and to invest more, for example in youth 
development, job creation and reducing poverty and socio-economic inequality, 
inequity. These strategies can contribute to a safer and more democratic just 
society in the region.

This is the strategy for St. Lucia in preventing crime/murder instead of 
applying the Death Penalty. At the domestic level we must try to eradicate the 
drug culture, which breeds the gun culture, side by side introduce family 
support measures and rehabilitate delinquent youth. The criminal justice system 
must be strengthened, by removing the delays, ensuring prosecutions and 
improving forensic investigation.

Above all St. Lucia must live up to its international responsibility by 
adhering to the 2014 recommendations of United Nations Human Rights Commission, 
which at the Universal Periodic Review Meeting for St. Lucia in 2015 urged St. 
Lucia to take steps to abolish the Death Penalty by signing and ratifying the 
2nd Optional Protocol of the International Covenant on Civil and Political 
Rights which abolishes the Death Penalty. St. Lucia should also consider stop 
voting against the U.N Resolutions regarding the call for a moratorium on the 
death penalty, which the Caribbean States as retentionist always vote against.

As World Day against the Death Penalty is observed, the victims of violent 
crime must not be forgotten, however, injustice cannot be fought with injustice 
and our Court of Appeal has already declared the mandatory death penalty 
(hanging) to be inhuman and degrading treatment and therefore unconstitutional. 
For after all the RIGHT TO LIFE is the most fundamental human right and must be 
upheld by the citizens but more importantly upheld by the State. It is wrong 
for the State to carry out capital punishment in the name of justice. This is 
simply state killing, which most times involve the poorer marginalized in St. 
Lucia.

There must be a better way, there is nothing to fear but fear itself. As 
Christians and citizens let us educate ourselves, let us become part of the 
International Campaign to abolish the Death Penalty and save lives.

Without the right to life, there simply would be no human rights, because human 
rights are indivisible, are interrelated and interdependent. The abolition of 
the death penalty is in keeping with evolving standards of decency/practised by 
modern democratic societies which have implemented alternative punishment for 
murder so as to keep society safe. St. Lucia can do the same.

Mary M. Francis

Coordinator,

National Centre For Legal Aid and Human Rights Inc.

Member,

Greater Caribbean For Life (G.C.L)

(source: St. Lucia Times)