[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

May 19



SAUDI ARABIA----female execution

Saudi Arabia executes Philippine woman convicted of murder



A 39-year-old Filipina was executed this week in Saudi Arabia after being 
convicted of murder under Islamic Shariah law, the Philippines’ Department of 
Foreign Affairs said on Thursday.

The woman who was executed on Tuesday worked as domestic help in Saudi Arabia, 
where around 1 million Philippine immigrants work and often suffer 
exploitation, abuse and harassment by their employers.

“The Department regrets that it was not able to save the life of the Filipina 
after the Saudi Supreme Judicial Council classified her case as one in which 
blood money does not apply under Shariah law,” the DFA said in a statement.

According to Islamic law, the “blood money” system allows the commutation of a 
capital sentence for murder if the family of the victim accepts payment in lieu 
of the punishment.

During the trial, the Philippine embassy in Riyadh provided legal assistance to 
the woman, sent representatives to meet her in prison and kept her family 
informed of developments.

The DFA has not provided information about the identity of the deceased and 
also withheld details of the crime, following a request for privacy from her 
family.

In November, the Philippines repatriated Jennifer Dalquez, who had been working 
as a domestic help in the United Arab Emirates, after she was acquitted of 
murdering her employer and escaped the death penalty.

Dalquez allegedly killed her employer in self-defence when he tried to rape her 
at knifepoint and spent 4 years in prison.

The controversy over abuse and exploitation of Filipino workers abroad 
escalated in February last year when the body of Joanna Demafelis, a 29-year 
old Philippine maid was found in the freezer of her employers‘ house in Kuwait 
after she had been missing for a year.

The incident led to President Rodrigo Duterte banning Filipino workers from 
going to Kuwait, which later expelled the Philippine ambassador, although the 
two countries normalized ties in May and the ban was lifted.

According to DFA data, around 3,000 Filipinos leave the country every day on 
temporary foreign work permits, with many heading to Arab countries, where 
women tend to work as domestic workers while men are mostly employed in the 
construction sector.

Around 10 million Filipinos are migrant workers overseas and their remittances 
account for more than 10 % of the country‘s GDP.

(source: stockvisionary.com)








PAKISTAN:

Pakistan death penalty: majority of reviewed convictions overturned study 
finds----A 2-year study of cases found a litany of errors could mean hundreds 
on death row are innocent



Hundreds of innocent people could be languishing on death row in Pakistan after 
being sentenced to hang in miscarriages of justice, research from human rights 
groups claims.

A 2-year-study of capital punishment cases in the country of 210 million found 
that when reviewed by the Supreme Court, 78 % of death sentences were 
overturned and that convictions appeared to be rife with flimsy evidence and 
flawed verdicts.

Delays in the congested court system meant the victims of such miscarriages 
spent years waiting to be cleared, if the mistakes were ever uncovered at all.

The 2 groups behind the research have now called for a moratorium on executions 
while the system is overhauled and judges are retrained.

Researchers from the Pakistan-based Foundation for Fundamental Rights and 
UK-based Reprieve said a study of hundreds of capital punishment cases showed 
the system was broken.

Their research looked at 310 publicly recorded Supreme Court decisions on death 
sentence cases between 2010 and 2018. Pakistan's top court overturned the death 
sentence handed down by lower courts in nearly f4-out-of-5 cases it reviewed, 
the researchers found.

In case after case, Supreme Court judges questioned the strength of evidence 
used to send people to the gallows as well as the lower courts' reliance on 
unreliable witness testimony. Lower courts were also failing to follow the 
Supreme Court's direction and handing down death sentences for crimes that top 
judges feel no longer merit them, the researchers concluded.

“When nearly four-out-of-five cases that reach the Supreme Court are deeply 
flawed, it is safe to say that the current trial practice is broken – and is 
wasting an enormous amount of judicial energy and creating a large burden on 
the criminal justice system,” a 54-page report on their findings concluded.

Pakistan has one of the largest death rows in the world, at around 4,700 
prisoners. The country is also one of the most prolific executioners, hanging 
more than 500 people since lifting its seven-year stay on capital punishment in 
December 2014.

Lawyers told The National that a vast case backlog and a chronic shortage of 
judges were contributing to the miscarriages.

The research found the Supreme Court overturned the original death sentences in 
78 per cent of cases, either totally acquitting the accused, commuting the 
sentence, or ordering a review. 39 % of the Supreme Court's reported judgements 
were acquittals.

“Thus nearly 2 in every 5 prisoners sentenced to death in the study were 
determined to have been wrongfully convicted and may be innocent of the crime 
for which they were convicted and sentenced to death,” the research found. “The 
average accused spends an average of 10 years under the Damoclean sword of a 
death sentence before having his case heard by the Supreme Court.”

If the findings of the public Supreme Court decisions can be extended to the 
rest of death row, “then nearly two in every five of the prisoners on death row 
may be innocent of the crimes for which they were convicted and sentenced to 
death”, the researchers said. Nearly four out of every five could ultimately 
have their sentences overturned, commuted or reviewed.

Supreme Court judges repeatedly cited over-reliance on weak witness testimony, 
a tendency for police to frame suspects and a lack of evidence as they quashed 
convictions.

Lawyers said such problems were not restricted to death sentence cases.

Rani Bibi spent 19 years in jail for a crime she did not commit. Alongside her 
father, brother and cousin, she was wrongly convicted at trial of murdering her 
husband in a case filled with gross legal negligence.

Sentenced to life on flimsy evidence, it was only when a crusading lawyer took 
on her case that an appeal was heard. It later transpired her earlier attempt 
at appeal had never progressed because jailers had failed to get the correct 
signatures and thumbprints on her application.

“The allegations were groundless, the process had been concocted,” she told The 
National. Her father died while in custody.

(source: thenational.ae)








PHILIPPINES:

CHR 'ready to engage' next Congress in 'frank, factual' discussion about death 
penalty



The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) is prepared to engage in a "frank and 
factual" conversation about capital punishment with members of the 18th 
Congress, the agency's chair said Sunday.

In a statement, Commissioner Karen Gomez-Dumpit said the CHR is ready to 
"present the ineffectiveness of the death penalty and offer viable programs" to 
deter criminality, including improved police visibility and community 
vigilance.

"The Commission does not want crime to go unpunished. However, the 
apprehension, prosecution, conviction and punishment of those who have 
committed wrong doings must be in accordance with human rights standards and 
principles," Dumpit said.

The 17th Congress will adjourn in less than 3 weeks.

Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III earlier said there is a stronger 
possibility of restoring capital punishment in the Senate, as allies of the 
President Rodrigo Duterte--who has pushed for the revival of the death 
penalty--have dominated the partial, official tally of votes. Of the 12 
probable senatorial race winners, 10 are in favor of the return of death 
penalty.

“In the new Senate, there’s a possibility of 13 [votes for death penalty] for 
high-level drug trafficking alone,” Sotto said, noting that death penalty for 
other heinous crimes may not flourish.

In 2017, the House of Representatives passed a bill restoring death penalty, 
but a counterpart measures was stalled in the Senate.

Death penalty was abolished under the 1986 Constitution, but the Charter gave 
Congress the power to reinstate it for heinous crimes. Capital punishment 
returned under the administration of President Fidel Ramos, but was abolished 
again under President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

The Philippines is also a signatory to the Second Optional Protocol to the 
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which commits countries 
to abolish death penalty.

"We also have to ensure that our legal obligations as a state party to the 
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Second Optional 
Protocol aiming at the Abolition of the Death Penalty are respected and 
fulfilled. As a state party to these human rights treaties, we have perpetually 
committed not to impose nor reintroduce capital punishment," Dumpit said.

(source: CNN Philippines)