[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

July 31




NEW ZEALAND:

The 2nd to last man to be executed in New Zealand


[Tina Shaw reviews Fiona Kidman's powerful and haunting new novel based on the 
short life and brutal death of Albert Black, hanged at Mt Eden jail in 1955.]

Fiona Kidman is adept at casting her imagination into the past and bringing to 
life significant characters and times. She stepped back to the Sydney and New 
Zealand of 1834 in her novel The Captive Wife, while The Infinite Air 
reimagined the rise and fall of aviator Jean Batten. In her latest novel, This 
Mortal Boy, Kidman explores the story of the "jukebox killer", as Albert Black 
was sensationally described in 1955.

Black was a mere 20-years-old when he was convicted of murder and then hanged 
at Mount Eden prison. He killed a man at Ye Old Barn cafe in Auckland by 
putting a knife in his neck. But it's still unclear whether the murder of 
Johnny was premeditated or an accident.

The story is told strongly in Black's favour. He's a child migrant who sees 
himself as an outsider in New Zealand, yearning to be back in Ireland. During 
the war, it was just him and his mum during the bombing raids. He's a good 
brother to Daniel, a good mate to his friend Peter. There are regrets that he 
didn't turn away Johnny McBride when he had the chance. He falls in love with 
Bessie, a girl who looks like Grace Kelly. "He'd told her she was his girl, the 
only one." And Black has plans for the future.

But mostly he's portrayed as being young; as barely having made a scratch on 
the world.

Kidman sustains narrative tension as the trial moves on inexorably, an appeal 
hearing takes place, and Black's girlfriend brings significant news to Black 
late in the piece. There's a tragic inevitability to his story. It was a time 
when old ways were being challenged by the new and Kidman portrays the social 
climate of the 1950s as having clear demarcation lines: the older, traditional 
values on one side - as seen in characters such as Rita's Dalmatian mother - 
and young people, so-called bodgies and widgies on the other. The infamous 
Mazengarb Report rears its ugly head: "Moral panic had seized the country as 
word spread of an epidemic of loose behaviour by teenagers." The word "carnal" 
is bandied about. Condoms are banned for young people.

One might almost say that the narrow-minded and conservative attitudes that 
Kidman portrays during this period could lead to no other outcome for young 
Albert Black. There's a sense that he's a kind of scapegoat for a generation 
that authority figures simply don't understand. In this respect, Kidman has 
taken the trial as a kicking-off point to delve into the social fabric of the 
50s.

An engaging aspect of this novel is Kidman's portrayal of the wide circle of 
individuals who are affected by Black's conviction and trial. There's Haywood, 
the prison supervisor, who has to prepare the condemned man. He should be at 
home with his wife but instead spends long evenings in his office drinking 
whiskey. "Once he had believed in God." But God has obviously forsaken not only 
Albert Black but Haywood as well.

Black's lawyer is similarly haunted. He looks at his grown sons and imagines 
how easily things can go wrong. "Once, he would have wished them to follow the 
law, as he has done, but now he hopes they will not. The law, as it stands at 
this moment, seems cruel and unjust."

By contrast, Rita Zilich, who gives evidence at the trial, is a fairly typical 
teenager: "Her mother can't imagine how hungry she is to feel alive."

Then there's the all-male jury, put up at the-then swanky Station Hotel on 
Symonds St - overlooking the railway station "like Grand Central in New York, 
as proud locals have it."

Black's parents, back in Belfast, must deal by distance with the news of their 
son's terrible predicament. His mother Kathleen yearns to be with her son, but 
is discouraged by Minister of Justice Jack Marshall. The government doesn't 
want a mother protesting her son's innocence, and Marshall is a supporter of 
the death penalty: "Murderers, all of them. And, frankly, if you want my 
opinion, we could do without these deplorable migrants."

It's clear where Kidman's sympathies lie, and her portrayal of Black as a youth 
who makes an awful mistake is a heartbreaking one. Her cast includes Black's 
friends who were at Ye Old Barn cafe that night, and give varying accounts of 
the incident that took place. The muddled recollection of events is chillingly 
depicted. As the trial unfolds, and events of that evening are narrated, it's 
obvious that the picture is a confused one.

And how much might the jury have been influenced by a newspaper report 
condemning the accused man? Kidman has created a fictional jury that also draws 
on her own experience sitting on a jury to show how entrenched attitudes and 
prejudices might lead to a young man being convicted of murder. It's bloody 
convincing.

The courtroom scenes are also moving, especially the eloquent closing address: 
"You have before you this mortal boy, one who has made a mistake, unintended, 
but a mistake nonetheless, with terrible consequences." The tragedy of the 
trial is that such an argument falls on deaf ears.

Meanwhile, back in Belfast, Black's mother is collecting signatures for a 
petition for clemency to present to the New Zealand government. The community 
stands behind the family, but her effort comes to nothing in the end. Although 
the reader knows the outcome of this story beforehand, Kidman still manages to 
create the ghost of hope that somehow Black will get off after all.

This very human novel is as good an argument as you'll ever find for the 
abolition of capital punishment.

This Mortal Boy by Fiona Kidman (Penguin Random House, $38) is available at 
Unity Books.

(source: thespinoff.co.nz)






INDIA:

India death penalty: Does it actually deter rape?


India's lower house of parliament passed a bill on Monday that will see the 
death penalty handed out to anyone convicted of raping a child under 12.

The amendment to the Prevention Of Child Sex Offences (Pocso) act was made at 
the behest of Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi, who said she 
believed this would deter sexual crimes against children.

It came soon after a series of high-profile cases against children, including 
the rape and murder of an 8-year-old girl in Indian-administered Kashmir, and 
the more recent rape of a young girl in the central Indian state of Madhya 
Pradesh.

India's official crime data show the number of reported rapes of children 
increased from 8,541 in 2012 to 19,765 in 2016.

In 2013, following the outrage over the rape and murder of a medical student 
aboard a moving bus in the capital Delhi, the government announced that the 
death penalty would be applicable to those convicted of rape resulting in 
death.

The new amendments will enable a court to hand out a death penalty to someone 
convicted of raping a child under 12, even if it does not result in death.

Despite these changes to the law, however, India is a country that is reluctant 
to carry out the death penalty. It is currently prescribed only for the "rarest 
of rare" cases - the interpretation of which is left to the court. The 
country's last execution was on 30 July 2015.

Although welcomed by many, the new amendment has also been criticised by a 
number of activists who have questioned whether the death penalty is really an 
effective deterrent.

This is a question that has been debated around the world - does toughening the 
sentence actually reduce crimes? Some evidence from neighbouring countries 
would suggest otherwise.

Deterrent to conviction?

Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan all hand out the death penalty for rape 
and many Indians in favour of the death penalty often point to these countries 
as those who "do not tolerate rape". A common narrative is also that there are 
fewer incidents of rape in these countries.

Experts in the region say that a major argument against imposing the death 
penalty for rape is that it actually deters the system from handing out 
convictions.

"Even though under the law, rape is treated on a par with terror, nothing has 
changed. Rape and gang rape cases are progressively increasing while conviction 
rates remain abysmally low," Zainab Malik, of the Lahore-based not-for-profit 
legal rights firm Justice Project Pakistan, told the BBC.

She says that it is because the "police are biased against women and are 
hesitant to even register cases of gang rape as that would mean the death 
penalty for a group of men. To circumvent that, often the case would be 
registered against one man only."

Activists in the country say that in many cases police tend to broker 
compromises, encouraging survivors, under threat or coercion, to withdraw their 
complaint, so that the accused is set free on the basis of "low probability of 
conviction".

This has become a similar concern in Bangladesh, where the parliament brought 
in the Oppression of Women and Children (Special Provisions) Act in 1995 to 
facilitate stringent punishments, including the death penalty for crimes such 
as rape, gang rape, acid attacks and trafficking of children.

But here again, the severity of the punishments meant many of the accused 
walked free due to "insufficient evidence" and because there was no option of a 
less harsh sentence.

'Added burden for victims'

This concern has been voiced by many Indian activists who oppose the death 
penalty for rape.

"Under-reporting is a problem because the perpetrators are mostly known to the 
victims and there are all sorts of dynamics at play that cause victims and 
their guardians to not report the crime," said Dr Anup Surendranath, the 
executive director of Project 39A, a social justice organisation.

He added that, in such a context, the death penalty could be a "further burden" 
since victims will have to grapple with the possibility of "sending a person 
they know to the gallows".

Another issue is that, in many rural areas in particular, there is still 
massive stigma associated with rape, which means that even stronger laws do not 
encourage victims to come forward.

"Ours is a society where discussion of child sexual abuse is taboo. There is a 
culture of silence that pervades our homes and our institutions in addressing 
this issue with the seriousness it deserves," Dr Surendranath said.

India has amended its laws to increase accountability of police and other 
officials dealing with violence against women, which has had a positive impact.

But the change is slow and studies suggest that a large number of rapes in 
India still go unreported.

Mohammad Musa Mahmodi, executive director of the Afghanistan Independent Human 
Rights Commission, which also publishes data on rape, said the death penalty on 
its own would never be enough to deter rape or encourage women to seek help in 
the justice system.

A 2012 report by Human Rights Watch on Afghanistan says: "Rather than finding 
support from police, judicial institutions, and government officials, women who 
try to flee abusive situations often face apathy, derision, and criminal 
sanctions for committing moral crimes."

'Years spent waiting for justice' The slow pace of the justice system has also 
been cited as an issue.

Long-drawn-out trials in India often mean that victims have to wait years 
before they can get justice. And in cases where the death penalty has been 
handed out, those convicted have many chances to appeal against their sentence.

The men convicted in India's most high-profile rape case in recent years - of a 
medical student who died of her injuries after being raped in December 2012 - 
are still appealing against the death penalties handed out by a "fast-track" 
trial court that in September 2013.

Their last appeal was turned down by the Supreme Court in July, but they still 
have the option of appealing to the president.

Another consequence of a prolonged legal process is that it often adds to the 
victim's suffering.

These experiences clearly suggest that punishments like the death penalty can 
potentially have a negative impact on the survivor's access to justice.

Robust laws would in fact have a very limited impact in reducing the crime 
unless they are accompanied with a change in the attitudes of the police, 
judiciary, government officers and society.

(source: BBC News)

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

Owaisi quoted a court ruling saying that death penalty cannot be justified on 
the grounds of retribution, proposition or deterrence.


MIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi on Monday opposed the Criminal Law Amendment Bill. 
He said if it was passed India will become like Saudi Arabia, Iran and China 
and even Sharia might follow.

"Good luck to you. Sharia is on the way. An MLA has said that a mother of 3 can 
be raped. The legislators here stood for the perpetrators of crime. What we 
require is change in the mindset of men.

The equation of power which men feel they enjoy should change. The government 
is supporting the perpetrators of child rape and all other efforts are mere 
eyewash," he said.

Mr Owaisi quoted a court ruling saying that death penalty cannot be justified 
on the grounds of retribution, proposition or deterrence. "Let me remind the 
government what was said by Delhi High court judge Justice Geeta Mittal. She 
had asked the government whether it knew what the root cause of rape was. Was 
any scientific study done to ascertain whether death penalty will prove to be a 
deterrent for rapist? How many victims will be left alive when the punishment 
for rape and murder are the same? This was the view of the judge," he said.

Even the Justice Verma committee did not recommend death penalty for rape. The 
Law Commission also favours death penalty only for terror, he said.

(source: Deccan Chronicle)






JAPAN:

As cultists are hanged, Japan asks if it still needs death penalty. For most, 
the answer remains clear


The recent executions of 13 Aum Shumrikyo cultists stirred a debate and some 
condemnation - but a large majority of Japanese still appear to support capital 
punishment

The execution of the last members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult on death row last 
week has triggered debate in Japan over the use of the death penalty, with the 
left-leaning Asahi newspaper demanding that Tokyo follow the lead of European 
nations and abolish hanging and author Haruki Murakami weighing in on the 
discussion.

The vast majority of Japanese people, however, appear to be solidly behind the 
death penalty for those convicted of serious crimes, such as the sarin gas 
attack that Aum members carried out on the Tokyo subway system in March 1995.

In an editorial on Friday, just hours after the final six Aum members were 
hanged, the Asahi newspaper declared the executions to be "shocking". 3 weeks 
earlier, Aum founder Shoko Asahara and 6 other followers had met the same fate.

"The news has come as a fresh reminder of how Japan has been left far behind in 
the global trend concerning the issue," the editorial stated, repeating the 
joint statement issued by the European Union on July 26, in which it called for 
a moratorium on the death penalty because it is "cruel and inhuman and fails to 
act as a deterrent to crime."

A spokesman for Amnesty International said "The taking of a life in retribution 
is never the answer.

"It is high time for the Japanese authorities to establish an immediate 
moratorium on all executions and promote an informed debate on the death 
penalty as first steps towards its abolition."

Murakami, who interviewed dozens of survivors of the sarin attack and relatives 
of those who died for his book Underground, wrote in an editorial for the 
Mainichi newspaper that he is opposed to the death penalty because it is wrong 
for the state to kill and there are numerous documented case of wrongful 
convictions.

Murakami bends his own rules in the very next paragraph, however, to say that 
he saw the misery the sarin attacks had inflicted on thousands of people. After 
witnessing their "sadness, agony and fresh anger with my own eyes, I cannot 
publicly state, as far as this case is concerned, 'I am opposed to the death 
penalty'."

The Japanese government has brushed off international criticism of its 
retention of the death penalty and insists that more than 80 per cent of the 
Japanese public supports hanging for heinous crimes.

"Of course we should keep the death penalty," said Kanako Hosomura, who was a 
young girl in Saitama Prefecture, north of Tokyo, at the height of the public 
panic over The Little Girl Murders in the late 1980s.

4 girls, aged between 4 and 7, were abducted in the space of 10 months from 
August 1988, raped, killed and mutilated by Tsutomu Miyazaki. He dismembered 
the girls, kept some of their limbs as trophies, drank their blood and cooked 
and ate other parts of their bodies. He cremated some of the girls' remains and 
posted them in boxes to their parents, adding taunting notes.

Miyazaki was executed in June 2008.

"There are some people who are just evil and nothing will change that, I 
believe," Hosomura said. "I'm a mother and I cannot begin to understand how the 
parents of his victims felt.

"There is no point in a person like that staying alive and wasting taxpayers' 
money by sitting in prison for the rest of his life," she said. "I feel the 
same way about the Aum cult members; they felt no remorse for the people they 
killed. Or maybe they did after they were caught."

Yoichi Shimada, a professor at Fukui Prefectural University, says it is not 
important whether the death penalty acts as a deterrent.

"I believe that retribution is necessary in order to maintain stability in 
society and show that justice is being carried out," he said. "When the crime 
is so vicious and there is no other way for the individual to atone for his 
actions, then the death penalty is completely appropriate."

(source: The Korea Times)






KENYA:

Panel seeks substitution of death penalty with life imprisonment


The taskforce on the review of the mandatory death sentence is seeking the 
substitution of the penalty with life imprisonment with eligibility for parole.

According to Anne Okutoyi, a member of the task force representing the Kenya 
National Commission on Human Rights, judges will however have the discretion to 
impose the death sentence in cases where victims are vulnerable under a new 
legislative reform to be fronted by the Office of the Attorney General.

"The taskforce proposes life imprisonment with various terms of eligibility for 
parole depending on various (aggravating) circumstances and mitigating factors 
that an offender can present before a judicial officer," she said during a 
session with members of the media and other stakeholders on Tuesday.

Okutoyi noted that the new proposal which is among a raft of measures being 
fronted by the taskforce is in line with a Supreme Court ruling issued in 
December last year which found the death sentence to be unconstitutional to the 
extent of its mandatory nature.

The death sentence however remains enshrined in statutes leaving judges with 
discretion to impose it in aggravating cases.

"We propose that in serious cases - and we shall have clarity on what these 
serious cases shall be - then a judicial officer shall have the discretion to 
impose upon the death penalty," Okutoyi, member of the Maryann Njau-Kimani-led 
taskforce pointed out.

According to the taskforce which was gazetted by then Attorney General Githu 
Muigai on March 15, terms of parole would vary depending on the magnitude of 
the offence for which the convict is serving life imprisonment.

Under the current legal framework, those serving life-long detention can only 
be set free under the president's prerogative of mercy upon recommendation by 
the Power of Mercy Committee headed by the Attorney General.

Kenya commuted all death sentences to life imprisonment in 2009 prior to which 
no executions had been carried out with the exception of Hezekiah Ochuka and 
Pancras Okumu who were in 1987 hanged for treason following an attempt to 
overthrow the government.

The proposal by the Njau-Kimani-led taskforce to have the death sentence 
retained for judicial discretion in aggravating circumstances was however 
objected to by Amnesty International Kenya.

Amnesty instead suggested an overhaul of the corrective system as the country 
moves towards the abolishment of mandatory death sentencing.

The agency's Executive Director Irungu Houghton told Capital FM News on the 
sidelines of a media forum on the review of the mandatory death sentence that 
the penalty needed to be abolished in totality and replaced with a clear 
rehabilitative correctional system.

"The death penalty is among contentious issues globally, the others being 
euthanasia and abortion. Fortunately for us we are beginning to have a 
conversation on other means of sentencing," he said.

"What we (Amnesty) think should happen is that we need to look at our 
corrective and penal systems to make sure prisons are able to rehabilitate and 
correct violent offenders in a way that they do not pose harm to the society 
nor the State," Houghton explained.

He argued the death penalty was prone to abuse with the finality of the 
sentence making restitution of convicts in light of fresh evidence impossible.

"This sentence is open to misuse because there are cases where people have been 
hanged then you later realize they were not guilty of the offence," he said.

"This penalty is final, you cannot rehabilitate someone and you may not be able 
to have a retrial. We need to think about how we manage life imprisonment in a 
manner that keeps the society safe but provide an opportunity for 
rehabilitation," he outlined.

Houghton underscored the importance of the creation of a deterrent penalty to 
ensure an effective criminal justice system.

"It is critical that the State and the public are not rendered vulnerable by 
the removal of the death penalty," he stated.

The debate on death row was ignited in the recent weeks when High Court Judge, 
Jessie Lesiit sentenced a middle-aged lady to death after she was convicted of 
stabbing her boyfriend to death.

In her ruling on July 19, Lady Justice Lesiit said she had exercised judicial 
discretion in sentencing the former Lang'ata Women's Prison beauty queen Ruth 
Kamande to death saying she had shown no remorse during trial.

"In my view, the discretion to pass a sentence other than death in capital 
offences should only be exercised in deserving cases. I do not find this a 
deserving case and I think passing any other sentence than the one prescribed 
would turn the accused into a hero," she ruled.

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

Death penalty taskforce holds open forum as debate rages


The Taskforce on the Review of the Mandatory Nature of the Death Penalty that 
was appointed by the Attorney General in March is on Tuesday due to hold an 
open forum on the controversial issue.

In the Supreme Court Ruling of December 14 last year, the Attorney General was 
given 12 months within which to come up with proposals aligned to the 
recommendations contained in the Supreme Court Ruling that abolished the 
mandatory nature of the death penalty in Section 204 of the Penal Code Act.

During the meeting, the meaning and implication of the Supreme Court ruling 
will be discussed together will all members of the taskforce.

These include the Judiciary, the Prisons and Correctional Services, the Office 
of the Director of Public Prosecutions, the National Assembly, Kenya National 
Commission on Human Rights, Kenya Law Reform Commission, among others.

Other than the legislative framework, the task force being chaired by Maryann 
Njau-Kimani will set up a framework to deal with rehearing of sentencing of 
persons on death row as directed by the Supreme Court in December last year.

In the landmark judgment, 6 judges of the Supreme Court found that the 
mandatory nature of the death sentence as provided for under Section 204 of the 
Penal Code is unconstitutional.

The court led by Chief Justice David Maraga, Deputy CJ Philomena Mwilu, 
Justices Jackton Ojwang', Smokin Wanjala, Njoki Ndung'u and Isaac Lenaola, said 
a person facing the death sentence is most deserving to be heard in mitigation 
because of the finality of the sentence.

According to the judges, during mitigation, the offender's version of events 
may be heavy with pathos necessitating the court to consider an aspect that may 
have been unclear during the trial process.

(source for both: capitalfm.co.ke)



NIGERIA:

4 Policemen Sentenced To Death By Hanging In Uyo Akwa Ibom State For Killing 
Okada Rider


4 policemen have been sentenced to death in Akwa Ibom State for killing a 
commercial motorcyclist otherwise called Okada rider in Uyo, the state capital. 
The convicted policemen are Inspector Moses Akpaete, Inspector Idoko Sampson, 
Corporal Enobong Udo and Corporal Godwin Nnanna, all attached to C Division.

The presiding judge, Justice Ifiok Ukana, found the policemen guilty of 
conspiracy in the murder of Mr. Felix Akpan of Ibiakpan in Ibiono Ibom Local 
Government Area of Akwa Ibmo State. The incident occurred on Abak Road by 
Federal Secretariat, Uyo on October 16, 2016 when the policemen on patrol fired 
at the motorcyclist, who refused to stop when they accosted him for operating 
at the prohibited area of the city. The killing caused public outrage leading 
to the arrest and prosecution of the policemen.

The convicts admitted that one of them fired at the motorcyclist because they 
were attacked by mob while attempting to arrest Akpan. But in his submission, 
Justice Ukana said there was no evidence that the policemen acted in 
self-defence as they were not attacked by the fleeing cyclist or any mob.

The judge noted that the decision of the policemen to flee from the scene of 
the incident after the shooting showed that they were united in their intention 
to kill Akpan. According to him, the law is clear on the penalty which awaits 
any person who commits or conspires to commit such heinous crime whether 
principal or accessory to the crime.

The judge prayed God to have mercy upon the souls of the convicted policemen.

(source: withinnigeria.com)






TANZANIA:

Relief As Man Facing Death Penalty Gets Lesser Sentence


The Court of Appeal has substituted the death sentence imposed on a man accused 
of killing his fellow villager for manslaughter.

Mashaka Mbezi was accused of killing Mr Simon Muhamali after he allegedly was 
provoked by him. Mbezi suspected him of having a love affair with his wife.

But, the appellant will remain behind bars for five years after the Court of 
Appeal quashed the death sentence imposed on him having substituted it for 
manslaughter.

During trial before the High Court, the appellant's wife confirmed to have a 
love affair with Mr Muhamali, which the appellant relied on as his defence that 
he was provoked.

Although Justices Kipenka Mussa, Augustine Mwarija and Richard Mziray could not 
fault the High Court's findings to reject the appellant's defence in their 
judgment delivered in Dodoma recently, there were other circumstances casting 
doubts on the prosecution's evidence.

The appellant did not deny to have killed Mr Muhamali, but he was quick to 
point out that he did so under provocation and he clearly indicated the 
circumstances leading to the killing of his fellow villager in his cautioned 
and extra-judicial statements he recorded before the police.

"For some obscure cause, the prosecution did not pick the cue and did not 
venture to produce the cautioned statement, which obviously, was within its 
reach.

Neither was the extra-judicial statement sought and produced as earlier 
promised by the prosecution," the justices noted. According to them, if 
eventually, upon a second thought, the prosecution did not wish to rely on the 
documents, the appropriate option was for it to offer them for use of the 
defence at the close of the prosecution case.

They pointed out that the prosecution did not take that option and continued to 
withhold the documents for no cause at all. As a result, the justices were 
constrained under section 122 of the Evidence Act to adversely infer that the 
contents of the withheld cautioned and extra-judicial 626470001 statements 
would have tended against the prosecution.

They resolved, therefore, that as they were denied knowledge of the contents of 
the documents they could neither tell their impact on the case nor could they 
say with certainty that the killing in the case at hand was with malice 
aforethought.

"Given the lingering doubts, we would, without hesitation, accord the appellant 
the benefit of doubt and decline to uphold the conviction for murder, which is 
quashed and substituted for manslaughter," the justices said in their 
judgement.

They added in the judgment dated July 18, 2018 that, "having taken into account 
the period spent by the appellant in custody, we think the prison sentence of 
five years from the date thereof will meet the justice of the case."

Facts show that the appellant committed the offence on March 17, 2012, at 
Mgunga Village in Dodoma.

It was alleged that on the fateful day at about 11.00am or so, Mr Muhamali and 
several others were drinking local brew in the village.

(source: allafrica.com)






CHINA:

Killer author who murdered 4 people 23 years ago then wrote acclaimed novels 
'inspired by the case' is sentenced to death in China


An award-winning Chinese author has been sentenced to death 23 years after 
murdering 4 people, including a family of 3, for money.

The 53-year-old criminal, Liu Yongbiao, and an accomplice robbed and killed the 
victims in a family-run guesthouse before living as free men for more than 2 
decades.

During the time, Liu became an acclaimed author in China. In a previous 
interview with China Central Television Station, Liu confessed that some of his 
novels were inspired by his thoughts about the murder.

But Liu did not dare to create any characters based on the people he had 
killed, he told a reporter from the China Central Television Station last year.

Liu also admitted that the bloody scenes and gory details had haunted him 
throughout the years and the feeling was 'worse than dying'.

Liu and his accomplice, named by the court as Wang, were both given a death 
penalty today during a trial in Huzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, 
according to the court.

The shocking murder took place on November 29 in 1995. The victims included 1 
lodger, an elderly couple who owned the guesthouse and their grandson.

The case remained unsolved and a mystery for 22 years due to the lack of 
evidence.

Chinese police told the China Central Television that the guesthouse had failed 
to keep any information of their guests, which made it impossible for the 
police to track down the suspects in the populous nation. In addition, there 
was no CCTV cameras anywhere in the guesthouse.

While recalling the killing, Liu told the reporter that he and Wang used rope, 
clubs and hammers.

He said the details of the murder were 'so cruel' that he should 'die 100 
times' for what he had done.

He also confessed that he and Wang killed the lodger, who shared a room with 
them, because he looked wealthy. However, he said in the end they only found a 
watch, a ring and more than 10 yuan (1 pound) cash on him.

Liu was interviewed in a prison last August after he was arrested by Huzhou 
police who had found DNA evidence.

The crucial DNA traces were obtained in June last year when police relaunched 
the investigation using genetic test technology. The evidence was extracted 
from the saliva on a cigarette butt found at the scene.

With the DNA information, the police travelled across 15 provinces in China in 
a bid to find the suspects. They compared the evidence to the data of more than 
60,000 people within the space of 2 months.

Police made a breakthrough when they were informed that the DNA evidence 
matched the record of a clan with the surname Liu in Nanling, Anhui Province.

Huzhou police travelled to Nanling to visit the clan. After talking to the 
residents and working with the local police, they locked down Liu Yongbiao as a 
suspect.

On August 8, officers in plain clothes convinced Liu to provide his saliva for 
a DNA test after telling him that they were researching about the residents' 
family trees.

He said he sent his daughter and wife away while waiting for the DNA result. He 
also called his accomplice Wang, who lived in Shanghai, and told him they 
should face their fate.

2 days later, a lab test confirmed that Liu's DNA matched with the DNA traces 
on the cigarette.

At the wee hours of August 11, Liu was arrested at his home in Nanling. A few 
hours later, Wang was arrested at his home in Shanghai.

Liu Yongbiao, simply referred to by the court as Liu, and his accomplice Wang 
received their death penalty today at the Intermediate People's Court of 
Huzhou.

The court found Liu and Wang guilty of robbery and homicide at first instance.

The court said though both suspects had admitted to their charges, their crimes 
were especially serious and brought significance consequences to the society.

Therefore, the court decided to sentence them to death.

The court did not mention if the 2 planned to appeal against the ruling.

(source: dailymail.co.uk)






UNITED ARAB EMIRATES:

Lover faces firing squad over best friend's murder in Dubai----Victim???s wife 
jailed for life for abetting lover to kill her husband after adulterous affair


A lover, who killed his best friend and set his body on fire after having an 
adulterous affair with his wife, lost his last appeal on Monday and faces a 
firing squad.

The 32-year-old lover, from Comoros Islands, lured his countryman best friend 
to a car, struck him with a rock, mowed him down and killed him before setting 
him on fire in October 2016.

In June, the Dubai Appeal Court confirmed the death sentence against the 
32-year-old accused and also lengthened the wife's punishment from 15 years in 
jail to life imprisonment.

The wife was convicted of abetting her lover in premeditatedly murdering her 
husband by running him over and burning his body.

The 2 defendants appealed their appellate judgements before Dubai's highest 
court and sought to have a reduced punishment.

Prosecutors also appealed their appellate judgements and sought to have them 
upheld by the Dubai Cassation Court.

On Monday, presiding judge Abdul Aziz Abdullah rejected the convicts' appeal 
and upheld the capital punishment against the 32-year-old defendant and the 
life sentence of the 23-year-old wife.

The 2 accused pleaded not guilty and asked for a reduced punishment.

The 32-year-old contended in his appeal that the wife incited and provoked him 
to kill her husband.

Court records said the convicted woman will be deported following the 
completion of her punishment.

Meanwhile the 32-year-old convict will face a shooting squad once the capital 
punishment gets approved by the ruler.

A watchman saw the husband's body on fire near a warehouse in Al Ghusais and 
alerted Dubai Police and the Civil Defence.

The victim's body was found to have been completely burnt when law enforcement 
officers arrived at the crime scene.

The duo were tried before the Dubai Misdemeanours Court for having unwedded 
sex.

Police interrogations revealed that the 23-year-old wife and her 32-year-old 
countryman lover had conspired to kill the husband.

The wife had been having a sexual affair with the victim, who was his best 
friend.

The male convict lured his best friend [husband] to his car, tied his hands and 
legs and then pounded his head with a rock, said records.

When he noticed that the victim was still breathing, he struck his head 
repeatedly on the car and ran his vehicle over him several times. Then he took 
the body to an area in front of the warehouse where he set it on fire after 
dousing it with petrol.

The victim's 85-year-old father said his son had been married to the 
22-year-old woman for 4 years and they shared his accommodation with their 2 
children.

"When I asked my daughter-in-law about her husband's whereabouts, she told me 
that he went to the beach. The next day she claimed that he did not show up and 
that he had not answered her calls," claimed the father.

The Indian watchman, who found the burnt body, testified that the victim was 
already dead when he called up the police at 11pm.

A police major said the wife admitted that she had an illicit affair with her 
husband's friend [the male accused] for 2 years.

"She said due to constant quarrels with her husband, she and her lover decided 
to get rid of the victim. The 22-year-old said she had planned with her 
accomplice to stage a fight with her husband and then the 32-year-old would 
intervene to resolve the dispute between them before they carry out their 
murderous intention," the major said.

Dubai Police's forensic examiner said the victim had already died before he was 
set on fire.

The ruling is final.

(source: Gulf News)