[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

March 6



BAHAMAS:

Govt Urged To Abolish Death Penalty



The Executive Director of Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM) Raphael 
Chenuil-Hazan, urges the Bahamian government abolish the death penalty and 
break away from what he calls the “fake solidarity” that seems to be preventing 
The Bahamas and other English-speaking Caribbean countries from becoming 
abolitionist states.

Chenuil-Hazan made this plea to the government during an interview with The 
Bahama Journal at the 7th World Congress Against the Death Penalty in Brussels, 
Belgium where he expressed concerns over The Bahamas keeping the death penalty 
as law and not using it.

Other English-speaking Caribbean countries do the same and Chenuil-Hazan 
considers this practice as a bad example.

“It’s kind of shaming and I don’t like shaming,” he said. “But it’s a reality 
of original solidarity. I think that some countries in the Caribbean should 
stop this fake regional solidarity.”

ECPM is a French nongovernmental organization with a mission to abolish the 
death penalty worldwide

Although The Bahamas is identified by Amnesty International as one of the 52 
retentionist states around the world where the death penalty is implemented, 
The Bahamas has a de facto moratorium on the death penalty.

The last execution took place in The Bahamas in 2000 when Bahamian national 
David Mitchell was hanged after being convicted for the murders of 2 German 
tourists. Mitchell had an appeal pending before the Inter-American Court of 
Human Rights at the time of his execution.

However, the imposition of the death penalty in The Bahamas is no longer 
mandatory following a Judicial Committee of the Privy Council’s decision in a 
case which ruled that judges can exercise discretion and should sentence only 
“the worst of the worst” and the “rarest of the rare” to death.

According to Chenuil-Hazan, breaking away from the “fake solidarity” would lead 
The Bahamas to a formal moratorium on the death penalty.

He suggested that The Bahamas embrace the United Nations General Assembly 
Moratorium Resolution and not continuously follow other Caribbean countries by 
voting against it.

“The Bahamas should vote,” Chenuil-Hazan said. “It’s normal. It’s logical. 
Dominica should vote in favour, but they don’t just because of this strange 
solidarity. You should go beyond and have your own identity based on your own 
situation.”

In a report released by the Advocates for Human Rights, The Greater Caribbean 
for Life, and The World Coalition against the Death Penalty, The Bahamas has 
voted against every United Nations General Assembly Moratorium Resolution and 
up until 2012, The Bahamas also signed the Note Verbale of Dissociation from 
the resolution each year.

If The Bahamas receives a formal moratorium on the death penalty, the country 
would be globally recognized as a state with a moratorium on executions.

Amnesty International identifies countries with formal moratoriums as states or 
territories where the death penalty is implemented, but no executions have been 
carried out for at least 10 years and which did not oppose the latest United 
Nations Resolution for a universal moratorium on executions.

In addition, Chenuil-Hazan also suggested that the government should begin to 
shape the public’s opinion so that Bahamians who are in favour of the death 
penalty would understand that the death penalty is not a deterrent to crime.

Using China as an example, Chenuil-Hazan explained that thousands of Chinese 
are executed each year, but there is no decrease in China’s crime rate.

“So when you execute hundreds and thousands of people every year, you take the 
risk of becoming a dictatorship and break the rule of law,” he explained. “Do 
you want to be in a democracy with rule of law or in a dictatorship with 
hundreds and hundreds of killings?”The ECPM director added that the government 
should have a strong willingness to educate Bahamians so that public opinion 
would change and Bahamians would understand that ending the death penalty is a 
part of entering a new world that has been embraced by countries in South 
America, Europe and Africa.

While abolishing the death penalty may be complicated for some to understand, 
applying it increases crime, according to Chenuil-Hazan.

“Applying the death penalty would bring violence, state violence,” 
Chenuil-Hazan said. “The death penalty is a violence, when you kill someone. It 
is a violence and it is a symbolic state violence.”

(source: The Bahama Journal)








ST. LUCIA:

Saint Lucian gets death penalty for murdering two people including pregnant 
woman



A Saint Lucian man has been sentenced to death for the shooting death of 2 
people, including a pregnant woman, at a motel in North Carolina, United States 
(US) nearly 3 years ago.

Seaga Edward Gillard, 30, who is from Soufriere in Saint Lucia but resided in 
the US, was convicted two weeks ago for the double murder.

A Wake County jury delivered the unanimous decision about 2 hours after it 
resumed deliberations on Monday morning.

According to WRAL.com, Gillard did not show any emotion when the jury’s 
decision was handed down.

“The death penalty sentence is the first by a Wake County jury in over a 
decade,” the website reported.

The victims

The Saint Lucian was convicted by the same jury of several charges including 2 
counts of 1st-degree murder, attempted robbery with a firearm and attempted 
1st-degree rape.

WRAL.com reported that April Lynn Holland, 22, and her boyfriend, Dwayne 
Garvey, 28, were gunned down inside an Americas Best Value Inn, a motel located 
on Arrow Drive off Glenwood Avenue in Raleigh.

“Security cameras at the motel near Crabtree Valley Mall captured the deaths of 
Holland and Garvey. During the 1st phase of the trial, jurors saw the grisly 
black-and-white footage in which Gillard opened fire on Garvey inside a motel 
hallway,” the website reported.

Gillard’s mugshot

Below are further information posted by WRAL.com on the case.

Prosecutors told the jury that Holland, who was 3 months pregnant, was working 
as a prostitute at the motel, while Garvey, the father of her 3 children, was 
her partner in the operation.

[Assistant District Attorney] David Saacks told the jury Friday that despite 
the couple’s involvement in running a prostitution enterprise, their lives 
still mattered.

“They were murdered in cold blood,” Saacks said. “Now we’re deciding on the 
appropriate punishment. Do they matter?”

During the trial, the prosecution said Gillard was a repeat criminal who had 
robbed and sexually assaulted a string of women before the slayings of Holland 
and Garvey.

(source: stlucianewsonline.com)








IRAN:

UN Special Rapporteur Concerned About Executions of Minors in Iran



The UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Iran has raised 
concerns over human rights violations in Iran, particularly the widespread use 
of the death penalty against juvenile offenders, in his latest report to the UN 
Human Rights Council.

Javaid Rehman, a British-Pakistani legal scholar and Professor of Islamic Law 
and International Law, expressed regret on February 27 that children as young 
as nine years old can still be executed in Iran and advised that at least 33 
minors have been executed since the supposedly moderate Hassan Rouhani became 
president in 2013.

He urged the Iranian Regime to “urgently amend legislation to prohibit the 
execution of persons who committed [a crime] while below the age of 18 years 
and as such are children, and urgently amend the legislation to commute all 
existing sentences for child offenders on death row”.

He also asked Iran to provide the Office of the United Nations High 
Commissioner for Human Rights and the Special Rapporteur with a list of all 
child offenders currently on death row.

He also noted that the death sentence should only be applied to the “most 
serious crimes”, which is widely thought to refer to premeditated murder, 
especially as international law prohibits executions for nonviolent crimes.

In recent months, Iran has seen an increased number of financial crimes cases 
resulting in the convict being given the death sentence, which is the mullahs’ 
attempt to seem as if they are handling the ongoing economic crises that have 
led to mass protests.

Rehman also advised that a disproportionately large percentage of persons 
executed or imprisoned in Iran are from ethnic and religious minorities, 
including Kurdish Iranian H. Abdollahpour, whose sentence was upheld by the 
Supreme Court in October despite reports that he’d been tortured in detention 
and denied access to a lawyer of his choice.

He also raised concerns about the detention of dual citizens, the suppression 
of ethnic and religious minorities, and the crackdown on labour rights.

Rehman said that Iran should:

• End the death penalty for all but the most serious crimes

• Protect from prisoners torture and ill-treatment

• Allow defendants access to a lawyer of their choosing

• Ban all forms of discrimination against religious and ethnic minorities

•End the persecutions of religious and ethnic minorities

This is nothing new, of course, and the Iranian Regime has been doing all this 
and more for decades. They’ve even been emboldened by the appeasement policy of 
Europe, which has meant that Europe failed to act regarding previous rights 
violations. Europe must end this policy and hold the Regime to account.

(source: ncr-iran.org)

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

New UN Report on Iran Notes Ongoing Executions of Child Offenders



In his latest report submitted to the UN Human Rights Council February 27, UN 
Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Iran Javaid Rehman 
raised his concern over human rights violations in Iran, paying particular 
attention to the way the death penalty is carried out in Iran.

The report of the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in 
Iran has now been made available on the documentation webpage of the 40th 
session of the Human Rights Council.

The Special Rapporteur Javaid Rehman describes how the protests in the Islamic 
Republic of Iran reflect long-standing grievances related to human rights.

An amendment to the drug trafficking law has led to a decline in executions. 
Nevertheless, increasing economic challenges have intensified grievances, which 
may be exacerbated following the reimposition of unilateral sanctions. 
Discontent has been expressed through disparate protests by different groups 
across the country.

The Government has introduced some measures aimed at addressing economic 
challenges, but the arrests of lawyers, human rights defenders and labour 
activists signal an increasingly severe State response.

A British-Pakistani legal scholar and Professor of Islamic Law and 
International Law at Brunel University, Rehman describes how the execution of 
child offenders in the Islamic Republic of Iran has continued over decades in 
violation of the country’s international human rights obligations.

He expressed deep regret that children as young as 9 years old can still be 
executed, noting that at least 33 minors have been executed for their offenses 
since 2013.

Rehman said Iran must “urgently amend legislation to prohibit the execution of 
persons who committed [a crime] while below the age of 18 years and as such are 
children, and urgently amend the legislation to commute all existing sentences 
for child offenders on death row.”

Addressing the high authorities in Iran, Rehman has asked them to provide the 
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Special 
Rapporteur with a list of all child offenders on death row.

While praising the decline of the number of executions related to narcotics and 
drugs smuggling following a recent amendment of the law, Rehman noted that the 
death penalty should only be imposed for the “most serious crimes,” a term 
widely understood to mean only premeditated killings.

“Concerns were raised following the establishment of special courts in August 
2018 to try ‘economic crimes’ which carry the death penalty,” Rehman said.

Furthermore, Rehman pointed to reports indicating that ethnic and religious 
minority groups constitute a disproportionately large percentage of persons 
executed or imprisoned in Iran

“Concerns have been raised, for example, about the situation of Hedayat 
Abdollahpour, a Kurdish Iranian, whose death sentence was upheld by the Supreme 
Court upon its second review in October 2018 amidst reports that he had been 
subjected to torture in detention and had been denied access to a lawyer of his 
choice” Rehman maintained.

Rehman also raised the issues of the detention of Iranians with dual 
citizenship, the suppression of ethnic minorities, including Sufi dervishes of 
the Gonabadi denomination, Baha’is, newly converted Christians, and widespread 
detentions in the provinces of Azarbaijan, Kurdestan, and Sistan & Blauchestan.

The recent crackdown on labor rights in Iran was also given special attention 
in Rehman’s report.

Workers’ strikes at the Haft Tapeh Sugar Cane mill in the city of Shush, the 
Iran National Steel Industrial Group (INSIG) in Ahvaz, in the oil-rich province 
of Khuzestan, as well as widespread protests by teachers and truckers were 
noted.

Rehman offered the Islamic Republic a list of recommendations for improving its 
human rights record, including ending the death penalty for all but the most 
serious crimes, ensuring that prisoners are protected from torture and 
ill-treatment, including coerced confessions, guaranteeing all accused access 
to a lawyer of their choosing, and addressing all forms of discrimination 
against religious and ethnic minorities and ending persecutions of these 
groups.

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

Senior Iranian regime insider acknowledges 1988 massacre



Mostafa Pourmohammadi, former Iran’s Justice Minister in Hassan Rouhani’s 
cabinet, has acknowledged his involvement in the killings of dissidents during 
the horrendous 1988 massacre of over 30,000 political prisoners.

Pourmohammadi was the Intelligence Ministry’s representative on one of the 
3-member committees in charge of interrogating political prisoners prior to the 
1988 executions. The committee, dubbed the “death commission,” questioned 
prisoners who had already been sentenced to prison about their political and 
religious beliefs.

Those who manifested continuing loyalty to the PMOI, or even those who the 
death committee would consider were not loyal enough to the mullahs, were 
summarily executed and in most cases buried in anonymous mass graves.

“This is an active case. This dossier is now very much alive and the enemy has 
invested on this issue. And now, discussing this matter would be playing into 
the enemy’s hands. That is why I haven’t talked about this subject. I don’t 
know when it would be proper to talk about this matter… and unfortunately, the 
publication of that tape was literally an act of treason,” Pourmohammadi said 
in a state TV interview on Friday night. He was referring to the publication of 
a tape of remarks made back in 1988 by Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, 
the then successor of regime founder Ruhollah Khomeini, who criticized the 
regime’s genocide in prisons throughout the country.

“… it was a betrayal to the revolution and [Khomeini], and even to Mr. 
Montazeri. Mr. Montazeri made remarks, good or bad, wrong or whatever. He made 
a decision. That meeting and the publication of those remarks led to Mr. 
Montazeri’s sacking. When people make stupid decisions, seeking to take 
revenge, they become blind, and can no longer determine what is right or 
wrong,” he added.

“Well, I defended [Khomeini’s] move. We had a mission in regards to the 
[PMOI/MEK], back when I was the Revolutionary Court prosecutor. I issued many 
indictments against the [PMOI/MEK] and sent it to the court. Many of them were 
condemned, many were executed and many other verdicts,” Pourmohammadi 
continued.

“Some of the men and others, and reporters, have sought to ask me questions. I 
have answered that I do not play into the enemy’s hands. Unfortunately, one of 
the unwise insiders was provoked for an unknown reason and published that tape. 
There’s no reason that we should be deceived by the enemy’s plans. We should 
play into their hands. We have much to say and we will say so when the time 
comes.”

Read more about the 1988 massacre:

More than 30 years ago have gone since the horrific and brutal massacre of 
political prisoners that was carried out in just one short summer by the 
criminal mullahs ruling Iran.

Amnesty International recently released the report “Blood Soaked Secrets – Why 
Iran’s 1988 Prison Massacres are Ongoing Crimes Against Humanity,” denouncing 
the scale of the massacre and the impunity enjoyed by those responsible.

The explosive report not only sheds light on the true size of the crimes 
committed during those months but also emphasizes the continuing brutality 
suffered by the families of the victims, harassed, and tormented for seeking 
truth and justice for their loved ones.

Between July and September 1988, 30,000 prisoners were executed under direct 
orders of then-supreme leader Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini, who issued a fatwa 
ordering the execution of all prisoners who remained “steadfast” in their 
support for the PMOI.

All throughout the country, political prisoners were taken to “death 
committees” that would ask them about their political and religious loyalties.

Those who manifested continuing loyalty to the PMOI, or even those who the 
death committee would consider were not loyal enough to the Islamic Republic, 
were summarily executed and in most cases buried in anonymous mass graves.

For months and sometimes years the families were kept in the dark, wondering if 
their loved ones were still alive, while the Iranian authorities systematically 
denied both inside and outside the country that the killings were taking place.

Since 1988, the Iranian regime not only has harassed and attacked the families 
of the victims searching for justice but has denied that the massacre took 
place.

Even some officials in charge of the killings hold today important positions of 
power in the Islamic Republic. According to the Amnesty report, figures such as 
the current Minister of Justice Alireza Avaei, the previous (from 2013 to 2017) 
Minister of Justice Mostafa Pour Mohammadi, the current head of the Supreme 
Court for Judges Hossein Ali Nayyeri, and the candidate to the presidency of 
Iran in 2017 Ebrahim Raisi were all involved directly in this brutal campaign.

In 2016, after the disclosure of an audiotape recorded in August 1988 where the 
then-number 2 of the regime, Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, acknowledges and 
denounces the massacre as “the greatest atrocity in the Islamic Republic, for 
which history will condemn us,” Mohammadi boasted about his role saying, “We 
are proud to have carried out God’s commandment” concerning the PMOI and openly 
declared that he had not “lost any sleep all these years” over the killings.

The majority of the victims sent to the gallows during in this crime against 
humanity were members and supporters of the Iranian opposition People’s 
Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK).

(source for both: Iran Human Rights Monitor)








IRAQ:

Iraqi court sentences 2 to death for attacks on religious site



The Iraqi Karkh Criminal Court in Baghdad on Monday handed down a death 
sentence to 2 alleged terrorists who reportedly targeted visitors of a 
religious shrine.

The statement issued by the Information Center of the Iraqi Supreme Judicial 
Council does not provide the date of the would-be terrorist attack, simply 
including that it occurred at a religious site located in Salahuddin Province’s 
Balad district.

“The Criminal Court of Karkh examined the cases of two individuals charged for 
their involvement and support of suicide bombers wearing explosive belts who 
targeted visitors at a religious shrine in the district of Balad, Salahuddin 
Province, which led to the martyrdom of a number of citizens and injury of 
others,” the statement read.

“The convicts, in their confessions, confirmed the purpose of this crime was to 
achieve terrorist goals and destabilize the security and stability in the 
country.”

It also noted that the ruling came in accordance with Article IV/1 of the 
anti-terrorism Law No. 13 of 2005.

Iraq is home to many Shia religious sites, in the center and southern 
provinces, which welcome millions of local and foreign pilgrims every year.

In February, unidentified gunmen opened fire on a bus carrying Iranian pilgrims 
near the district of Balad, north of Baghdad.

The attack took place as the Shia pilgrims were returning from a visit to the 
religious shrine of Seyid Mohammed, about 80 kilometers north of Baghdad. It 
killed and wounded at least 8 people.

(source: kurdistan24.net)








KUWAIT:

Capital punishment sought in lawyer’s abduction



The Public Prosecution has ordered to renew the detention of 5 men for more 
interrogations who are accused of abducting a lawyer, reports Al-Rai daily. 
This came after the details of the crime were revealed by 4 Egyptians (the 5th 
suspect is a lawyer) after their arrest by securitymen. The Public Prosecutor’s 
office has begun interrogating the lawyer who is accused of hiring the 4 
Egyptians to kidnap and torture his colleague after paying each man KD 1,000.

However, the lawyer is said to have denied the confession of the 4 Egyptians 
but the 4 men are said to have made a video clip secretly which shows the 
victim being tortured by his colleague with the aim of blackmailing him and 
demanding money from him in return not to expose him, but their plan B failed 
following their arrest by the securitymen.

The 4 suspects said: “When the lawyer asked us to kidnap another lawyer for 
1,000 dinars each, we knew that the amount was small for carrying out the 
operation, but we agreed to do it. We decided to document the process and 
photograph the instigating lawyer to blackmail him later in return for our 
silence and not to publish the video clip, because it is he who would face the 
music after we leave the country.” The suspect, who was videotaped while 
torturing the victim, is said to have stood his ground and denied the charge. 
It is surprising that the accused lawyer has also filmed the kidnappers while 
gagging the mouth of the victim.

The video clip shows the men handcuffing the victim and covering his face with 
a bag. When the securitymen raided the house of the inciting lawyer in Jaber 
Al-Ali area, they found the wallet and telephone of the victim and the keys of 
the victim’s car. The prosecution is said to have also confronted the accused 
after the detectives found a tracking device installed by the accused in the 
victim’s vehicle to track the movements of his colleague, especially since the 
tracking device is connected to the lawyer’s phone. Meanwhile, the Al-Jarida 
daily said the Prosecution has asked the court slap a charge of kidnapping, 
robbery by force, torturing and photographing the victim under Article 180 of 
the penal code which calls for capital punishment.

(source: Arab Times)



SOUTH KOREA:

Korean opinions mixed on death penalty----Majority of Koreans support revoking 
execution if life without parole implemented



Last month, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Korea submitted a 
constitutional appeal against Article 41 of the Criminal Law, disputing a 
ruling for a 31-year-old surnamed Yoon who was sentenced to a life sentence for 
parricide last year.

The prosecutors sought the death penalty for Yoon, who has been suffering from 
mental illness since childhood.

Yoon testified to police that he killed his parents because a voice told him to 
do so in order to save his soul.

“We believe it is the most apt to counter (brutal crimes) with alternative 
punishment. From a legal point of view, the death penalty violates right to 
life. Also, existing research and statistics do not prove the effectiveness of 
the death sentence in preventing serious crimes,” said Park Soo-jin, a lawyer 
at Duksu Law Offices, who is working on the case with the Catholic Bishops’ 
Conference of Korea’s committee on abolishing capital punishment.

“The proportion of the public in support of the death penalty has increased 
because the public feels that offenders of serious crimes do not receive 
punishment that measure up to the gravity of the case. This is why we are 
pushing to revoke the death penalty under the condition that an alternative 
punishment is introduced,” Park added.

Capital punishment is mandated by some 100 articles in 23 laws, such as the 
National Security Law and Criminal Law, as well as the Cultural Heritage 
Protection Act and Narcotics Control Act to name a few, according to the Korean 
Institute of Criminology.

The most recent death sentence was handed to a sergeant surnamed Lim, 25, who 
killed 5 soldiers and wounded seven others in a shooting rampage in a border 
unit of the Army’s 22nd Division in Goseong, Gangwon Province, in 2014.

The number of prisoners on death row stands at 61, including the country’s most 
prolific serial killer and self-confessed cannibal Yoo Young-chul.

Prior to the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Korea’s case, there have been two 
constitutional complaints -- in 1996 and 2010 -- on which the Constitutional 
Court ruled the system constitutional. In the 1996 case, the court ruled 7-2 in 
finding the death penalty constitutional, while the 2010 case saw judges rule 
5-4 in favor of the death penalty.

6 of the 9 Constitutional Court judges would have to vote against the death 
penalty for it to be abolished.

Mixed public opinion

A series of lighter-than-expected sentences for those convicted of cruel 
murders and child rapes have sparked outrage among the public, pressuring the 
justice system to mete out tougher punishments for serious crimes.

Sending shock waves and fury across the country in 2008, Cho Doo-soon, then 57, 
was sentenced to 12 years in prison for the brutal rape of an 8-year-old girl 
in the restroom of a church in Gyeonggi Province.

Cho kidnapped, beat and raped the victim, damaging 80 % of her reproductive 
system. She is to live with artificial genital organs for the rest of her life.

Citing “mental and physical weakness under the influence of alcohol,” the Seoul 
court reduced Cho’s jail time from the maximum possible 15 years. Cho, who 
denied any memory of the incident, is due to be released in December 2020.

“I don’t think it is timely to abolish the death sentence. In the bigger 
picture, I am in support of life sentence without parole as an alternative to 
the death penalty. But stricter law enforcement for violation of the law has to 
precede it,” said Francisco Jeon, 36, a worker in the financial services 
industry.

“There are too many cases of reduced sentences and leniency for severe crimes 
on grounds of mental and physical weakness, which some perpetrators take 
advantage of. This does not serve justice to the offender and everyone 
involved,” he added.

Echoing Jeon, graduate student Nam Kyu said, “I believe capital punishment 
functions as a social safety net. Without it, bloody crimes would increase even 
more. Also I find it difficult to understand the rationale and reasoning behind 
reduced sentences for brutal offenders due to mental illness.”

Though experts argue there is a lack of evidence that the death penalty is an 
effective preventive measure and social safety net, the public, for now, 
believes otherwise.

Jeon and Kim are among the 79.7 % of citizens who back capital punishment, up 
13.7 % points from 2003, in a survey by the rights agency.

In the same National Human Rights Commission of Korea survey late October that 
asked 1,000 adults about their opinions on death sentence, 23.5 % said 
rescinding capital punishment would lead to an increase in brutal crimes; 23.3 
% said it has a preventative effect; 22.7 % said it was a punishment for the 
pain caused to the victim and families; and 15.6 % said there is a lack of 
alternative punishment.

Given the option of an alternative punishment, however, those agreeing with the 
repeal of the death penalty soared to roughly 70 %, the survey showed.

“Public opinion is a reflection of the society, and the country’s legal 
consciousness has improved in recent years. The highlight of the survey is that 
the majority of the public does not want offenders to be killed if there is an 
alternative punishment,” said professor Kim Do-woo of Kyungnam University’s 
Department of Police Science, who led the survey.

Kim attributed the increased frequency of serious crimes reported in the media 
as having an impact on public opinion in support of the death penalty.

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Korea’s committee on abolishing capital 
punishment holds a press conference on the constitutional complaint it filed 
against capital punishment in front of the Constitutional Court in northern 
Seoul on Feb. 12.

Movements at the National Assembly

“The difference between a life sentence without parole and capital punishment 
is whether the convict leaves the prison dead or killed,” said National 
Assembly Secretary-General Yoo Ihn-tae.

Yoo, whose death sentence in 1974 for involvement with the Federation of 
Democratic Young Students was commuted to a life sentence, worked on repealing 
capital punishment and implementing life in prison without parole in the 17th 
and 19th National Assembly.

“There are legal restraints to sentencing the death penalty in Korea due to the 
agreement with the EU for judicial cooperation in criminal matters. It is the 
global trend to discontinue the death penalty. And there’s also the possibility 
of misjudgment,” Yoo said.

As of 2017, 106 countries have abolished the capital sentence, a sharp rise 
compared to 70 countries in 1997, according to Amnesty International.

“Besides public opinion, there is power struggle within the National Assembly’s 
Legislation and Judiciary Committee where a significant number of lawmakers are 
former prosecutors. So revisions containing discontinuation of the death 
sentence have not been reviewed by the committee,” said an official who spoke 
on the condition of anonymity due to involvement in the matter.

Convict’s daughter pleads for death penalty

The eldest daughter of a murder victim brutally stabbed to death by her 
ex-husband surnamed Kim, 49, at an apartment complex parking lot in western 
Seoul last October urged authorities to sentence the murderer -- her father -- 
to death, fearing revenge and recidivism.

“We sought the death sentence (for the murderer), but the prosecution gave a 
life sentence. We are terrified. Our family is deeply worried that he may seek 
revenge after he gets out,” the eldest daughter said after the 1st trial in 
late January.

Kim claimed a voice had told him to kill his ex-wife.

The Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office sentenced Kim to 30 years in 
prison and ordered him to wear an electronic tracking device for 20 years.

Claiming the punishment was too lenient, the victim’s family took to the online 
community and Cheong Wa Dae’s online petition board.

On multiple posts, the family revealed the criminal’s personal information, 
photos and a detailed description of vicious attacks committed on the three 
siblings and deceased victim.

“Based on what he has done to us I don’t believe his sentence should be reduced 
because of mental and physical weakness. He is a meticulous and scary person. 
He publicly said he could get out (of prison) in six months after killing mom. 
We plead for a strict punishment,” the post said.

(source: The Korean Herald)