[Deathpenalty] death penalty news---worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

January 1, 2019




SAUDI ARABIA:

  Saudi seeks death penalty for 5 Khashoggi murder accused

Saudi's deputy public prosecutor, Shalaan al-Shalaan, says 5 Saudi officials 
face the death penalty over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi during a 
press conference in Riyadh. Meanwhile Turkey says the Saudi statement over 
Khashoggi's murder is "insufficient" and insists that the killing was 
"premeditated."

(source: Deccan Chronicle)




JAPAN:

In retaliation for the death penalty: the 21-Year-old driving in Tokyo, with 
car in crowd


In Tokyo, is a 21-Year-old in the new year lot of dangers night with a car 
targeted in a people. In the case of the incident 10 minutes after midnight on 
a busy shopping street in the Japanese capital, 8 people were injured, local 
media reported.

The young man attacked on the road another people and injured. A student was 
injured, according to police difficult and had to be operated on in the 
hospital.

The driver was arrested. He was killing with the “intent to” in the crowd of 
the dangers, said a police spokesman. The 21-Year-old had told the police that 
he wanted to commit a terrorist attack, reported the Japanese news Agency 
Kyodo. Therefore, he wanted to avenge himself “for an execution”.

The Japanese broadcaster NHK, according to the driver, the police said he did 
not want to practice “in retaliation for the death penalty”. More detailed 
information on his subject of the man made accordingly. It is unclear yet 
whether the alleged anger of the husband against a single execution, or against 
the System of death penalty was addressed. Against him is now being 
investigated for attempted murder.

As the 3rd largest Economy in the world, Japan ranks as one of the few 
industrialised countries to retain the death penalty. Only last week, the 
conservative government had to death 2 convicted murderers executed in July, 
several members of the apocalyptic sect Aum Shinrikyo end of the strand, which 
had shocked 23 years ago, with a deadly poison gas attack in Tokyo’s subway to 
the country.

the International criticism of the death penalty makes the government of Prime 
Minister Shinzo Abe to bounce off. Human rights activists have decried for 
years dealing with executions and prison conditions in Japan – so the death is 
not communicated to the candidate, the date of their execution. The prisoners 
Condemned to death, often live for years in solitary confinement. Since Abe 
took office in December 2012, 36 people have been executed.

(source: newsarticleinsiders.com)




INDIA:

Poor convicts on death row get a new year gift


In 2019, poor and marginalised litigants approaching the Supreme Court can 
expect quality legal aid to fight their cases. This came about after an 
in-house study by the Supreme Court Legal Services Committee (SCLSC), that 
concluded that poor litigants on death row or facing harsh punishments are 
getting a raw deal on account of poverty.

While this mechanism could take time to set in, 2 recent judgments by the apex 
court, both given in early December, did factor the poor socio-economic 
condition of prisoners while commuting their capital punishment to life term. 
One such case was death row convict Antony alias Antappan who wiped out 6 
members of a family in Kerala in 2001. The other was Rajendra Wasnaik from 
Maharashtra, who brutally raped and murdered a 3-year-old in 2007.

Quoting from the report prepared by the SCLSC in its judgment, a bench of 
justices Madan B Lokur (since retired), S Abdul Nazeer and Deepak Gupta said, 
"The poor are more often than not at the receiving end in access to justice and 
access to remedies available, as is evident from a fairly recent report 
prepared by the SCLSC which acknowledges, through Project Sahyog, enormous 
delays in attending to cases of the poor and the needy."

For 2019, the judges resolved, "Quality legal aid to the disadvantaged and 
weaker sections of society is an area that requires great and urgent attention, 
and we hope that a vigorous beginning is made in this direction in the new 
year."

For impoverished prisoners in the country, the court's judgment must come as 
welcome relief. Statistics compiled by the National Law University, Delhi, in 
its Death Penalty India Report based on interviews with 373 death row prisoners 
across the country, found out that 3/4 of these prisoners (numbering 
approximately 274) were economically vulnerable, with most of them being the 
sole or primary earners in their families. Even educationally, almost 225 
prisoners didn't complete secondary schooling, while 84 never went to school at 
all. As trials in their cases progressed, they were forced to borrow loans or 
sell valuable assets in order to engage lawyers. By the time their appeals 
reached the high courts or the Supreme Court, they were financially drained and 
relied on anything the court gave by way of free legal aid.

It is this legal aid that the Supreme Court has targeted to improve in the new 
year as part of a systemic reform in the criminal justice delivery system. 
Judges were cautious to add that consideration of convicts' socio-economic 
condition does not mean disproving his/her guilt, but to help in awarding an 
appropriate sentence.

Article 39A of the Constitution promises free legal aid to all citizens. But 
'Project Sahyog', a pilot venture of the SCLSC, upon analysis of 1,188 cases 
relating to poor convicts pending in the Supreme Court, found that in about 48 
cases, the convict's appeal couldn't be listed for more than a decade for want 
of legal aid. Similarly, about 165 cases are pending since 2006 on account of 
the convict's failure to get legal aid. Of these, 776 were criminal cases and 
412 civil matters.

(source: dnaindia.com)