[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 21




IRAN:

Iranian Resistance Call to Save 25 Youth Prisoners at Death Row----Some of the 
convicts were less than 18 years old when committing the attributed crime



The Iranian Resistance calls on international authorities, especially the High 
Commissioner for Human Rights, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human 
rights in Iran, and all the defenders of the rights of children and youths to 
take immediate action to save 25 death row inmates at the youths ward in 
Ardebil's central prison youth section.

According to received reports, from 170 prisoners detained in this prison, 25 
are sentenced to death. The rulings for some of them have been verified by the 
mullahs' Supreme Court. Some of them were under the age of 18 at the time the 
crime was committed.

Meanwhile, on Monday morning, September 18, Shahin Parsajou, 23, and a 
40-year-old man were executed in Ardebil Prison. Shahin Parsajou was sentenced 
to 3 years in jail for being charged with robbery, but following a clash in 
prison, the regime formed a new case and sentenced him to death. The prisoner 
was hanged while his hands and feet were in chain. At the request of Ardebil's 
criminal prosecutor, the henchmen of Ardabil Central Prison, in order to 
exacerbate the atmosphere of intimidation, forced 50 prisoners to go to the 
execution area in order to watch the execution of these victims.

(source: Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran)








INDIA:

PIL asks Supreme Court abolish hanging as death penalty, bring in shooting or 
lethal injection



A petition in the Supreme Court has asked the court to do away with the 
practice of hanging death row convicts. The petition suggests that methods such 
as shooting or lethal injection be used instead.

The dormant debate on doing away with the practice of hanging death row 
convicts has revived momentum thanks to a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) 
filed in the Supreme Court. Petitioner Rishi Malhotra, a Supreme Court 
advocate, has sought abolition of the present practice of hanging and suggested 
alternative methods such as intravenous lethal injection or shooting.

Holding that hanging involved prolonged pain and suffering compared to the 
other two suggested procedures, Malhotra quoted earlier judgments of the 
Supreme Court and recommendations of the Law Commission to bolster his case.

The petition said in Gian Kaur vs State of Punjab (1996), the Supreme Court had 
held that "the right to life, including the right to live with human dignity, 
would mean the existence of such a right up to the end of natural life. This 
also includes the right to a dignified life up to the point of death, including 
a dignified procedure of death. In other words, this may include the right of a 
dying man to also die with dignity when his life is ebbing out."

Drawing a comparison, the petition said while in hanging the entire execution 
process takes more than 40 minutes to declare a prisoner to be dead, the 
shooting process involves not more than a few minutes. In case of intravenous 
lethal injection, it's all over in 5 minutes.

Malhotra said the Law Commission's view was that developed as well as 
developing countries have replaced the execution by hanging with intravenous 
lethal injection or shooting, "which is most acceptable and humane method of 
executing death sentence involving less pain and suffering to a condemned 
prisoner".

EARLIER PRECEDENTS

Drawing attention to another SC judgment, Deena vs Union of India, Malhotra 
said in that case it was said the act of execution should be as quick and as 
simple as possible and free from anything that unnecessarily sharpens the 
poignancy of the prisoner's apprehension.

"The act of the execution should produce immediate unconsciousness passing 
quickly into the death, should be decent and should not involve mutilation," 
the SC had said.

Malhotra argued that the law panel in 1967 in its 35th Report had also noted 
the fact that most of the countries has either adopted electrocution, firing 
squad or gas chamber as a substitute for hanging.

He wants the Supreme Court to declare Section 354(5) of Criminal Procedure, 
which says "when any person is sentenced to death, the sentence shall direct 
that he be hanged by the neck till he is dead", declared violative of the right 
to life guaranteed by the Constitution.

He also wants that the right to die by a dignified procedure of death should be 
declared a fundamental right.

"Shooting and injecting with lethal poison necessarily involves lesser agony 
compared to hanging, which involves a torturous procedure of weighing the 
convict, measuring the height, etc. in order to determine the length of the 
drop," Malhotra said.

The lawyer argues that the execution as contemplated under Section 354(5) of 
CrPC (hung by the neck till the person is dead) is not only barbaric, inhuman 
and cruel, but also against resolutions adopted by the United Nations Economic 
and Social Council (ECOSOC) that had categorically resolved that "where Capital 
punishment occurs, it shall be carried out so as to inflict minimum possible 
suffering".

(source: India Today)








SOUTH KOREA:

Death penalty sought for doctor accused of fatally poisoning wife



Prosecutors want the death penalty for a plastic surgeon accused of killing his 
wife with a lethal injection.

The Daejeon High Prosecutors' Office said on Wednesday it is seeking the 
highest punishment for the doctor, surnamed Bin, 45. He is suspected of killing 
his wife in March by injecting a lethal dose of poison into her while she slept 
at home. The doctor initially insisted she died of a heart attack. But police 
found evidence that led Bin to be prosecuted in April.

According to investigators, Bin and his wife were on bad terms for various 
reasons, and he killed her for assets registered in her name.

(source: koreatimes.co.kr)