[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Oct. 7



EUROPE:

The Dark Life of a Medieval Executioner – A Cut Away from the Rest



It is no surprise that the medieval period was filled with all kinds of 
undesirable jobs. There were leech collectors, cesspool cleaners, serfs, and 
gong farmers, to name a few. But one vocation that was, perhaps, one of the 
toughest, was the job of the medieval executioner. Theirs was one of the 
darkest, most taboo jobs of the Middle Ages.

Whether employed in splendid royal courts or backwater petty castles, these 
vicious headsmen had a singular purpose – to do the job that very few could or 
wanted to do. Theirs was the role of taking lives, tightening the noose or 
decapitating those who were destined for an early grave. Their axes knew no 
class or creed – the sharp iron culled both king and peasant.

Medieval Executioners: Masters of Dirty Jobs

During much of the early medieval period, as well as the centuries that 
followed, crime and lawlessness were rampant throughout the world. From Europe 
to Asia and the Middle East, evil was an everyday occurrence. Rapes, thievery, 
murder, heresy, and leprosy – all manner of sin and decadence ran rampant in 
the unruly medieval world, under the auspices of death itself.

But where there is lawlessness, there is also justice, albeit sometimes a cruel 
one. Mercy was not the usual approach to solving crimes, much to the 
disadvantage of the budding criminal of the period. This means that once dealt, 
justice was swift and brutal – a determined and definite retribution against 
the usurpation of the order of the society. In short, the death penalty was 
often the sentence.

As the earliest epoch of the Middle Ages slowly advanced into a new, slightly 
more developed period, it also saw the rise of a new vocation. Someone was 
needed to perform the role that no one wanted - that was the executioner’s 
vocation.

>From as early as the 1200’s, the societies of Western and Central Europe were 
increasingly requiring an official position that would satisfy their needs for 
delivering capital punishment to their convicts. Prominent cities throughout 
France, Germany, and England required skilled executioners to act as the divine 
hand of justice appointed by the state and the royal court.

One of the earliest documented official executioner positions dates to 1202, 
when a prominent headsman, Nicolas Jouhanne – nicknamed “la Justice” – was 
appointed the vicomte, and official executioner of the Normandy town of Caux. 
>From then on, this official position spread through many capitals and large 
towns of Western Europe.

But even before that period, and certainly well after it, the role of the 
executioner was definitely a troubled one, straddling a grey area between good 
and evil and between acceptance and repugnance.

Executioners were very much ostracized. Death, and moreover, murder, always had 
a difficult position in society. When done by a mass of people, as in lynching, 
murder was no longer a taboo act – the group erased the perpetrator. But once 
an individual took the matter into their own hands, and performed a murder, the 
situation was different.

And such was the predicament of the executioner. A person in this position, who 
was known to be the headsman, was seen as a troubled person, a sinner beyond 
redemption, and simply put – a killer. The masses could not accept the wanton 
taking of a life – on command – and could not comprehend the state of mind that 
hid behind the eyes of the headsman.

One good example of this viewpoint of the masses can be observed from the many 
writings and memoires from the Middle Ages, and chiefly the writings of Joseph 
de Maistre. Here is a part of his observations of the character of an 
executioner:

“This head, this heart, are they made like ours? Do they not have something odd 
or foreign to our nature? On the exterior he [the executioner] is made just as 
we are; he is born, like us; but he is an extraordinary being…Is he a man?”

At the Edge of Society

The truth is not very far – a medieval executioner had a hard time in the 
society around him. In many, if not most, cultures of the medieval world, an 
executioner was an ostracized, shunned person, who belonged to a markedly 
different caste of society. Even though they sometimes enjoyed financial 
benefits and could earn reasonable amounts from their work, these people still 
suffered in solitude and lived life on the margins of society – simply because 
of their vocation. To freely deliver death, torture, and all manner of foulness 
on another person was seen as reason enough for the people to look down on an 
executioner and shun him.

In most countries, executioners and their families lived on the peripheries of 
cities, well away from the main residences. They also couldn’t be buried like 
the rest of the citizens – their graves were separated from the main graveyard, 
marked, and much less elaborate. The executioners had to be recognizable even 
when off duty – much like Jews, lepers, and prostitutes during the Middle Ages, 
they too had to wear a special marking on their person, at all times.

And the ostracizing was similar outside of Europe – in Japan, for example, an 
executioner was extremely discriminated against and denigrated. They were 
exclusively from the burakumin class – the lowest social caste of Japan.

In the Ottoman Empire, no citizen could be an executioner – this vocation was 
reserved exclusively for the Roma gypsies . This fact alone separated them in 
the Ottoman society, and they were looked down upon due to their cruelty and 
unflinching approach to all the gruesome tasks. These Roma caravans and throngs 
were an essential part of the baggage trains of Ottoman armies – they were 
tasked with the cruelest tortures and executions against the subjugated peoples 
of the empire.

The Ottoman Roma executioners were widely feared for their cruel methods such 
as impalement on a stake. This was the execution method used against brigands, 
thieves, and captured freedom fighters in occupied lands.

The medieval executioner, especially in the early periods, was actually much 
more than just an executioner. Once could hardly expect to have a fresh head to 
chop off every day, and thus different means of earning money had to be found. 
That is why the executioner was tasked with many more jobs – none of them 
decent.

In fact, an executioner never had a singular vocation in the early medieval 
period. An executioner earned his daily bread by doing many unsavory tasks, 
which were shunned by the rest of society. In France, they were known as maitre 
des hautes et basses oeuvres – masters of high and low works.

For example they would tax the prostitutes and lepers of the town, especially 
those that were illegally there. An executioner that found an illegal leper 
begging on the streets had the right to confiscate all the belongings and money 
of the leper, and to fine him an additional amount.

They were also well-known as knackers – people tasked with collecting animal 
carcasses around town, as well as killing sick, dying, and old animals. The 
carcasses would then be rendered to gather anything usable – fat, hides, 
tallow, or bone meal. This was a shunned and foul job – but very lucrative. In 
many areas knackers were also exclusively executioners.

An executioner was also employed to oversee the town’s prostitutes – another 
task that was seen as disreputable and decadent. These men were tasked with 
exacting a tribute from the prostitutes – a fixed sum, several times per year.

Curiously, the medieval executioner, particularly in France and Western Europe, 
was tasked with managing the town’s stray dogs (in what way, you can guess), as 
well as farm animals kept illegally in town premises. For example, in Dijon, 
France, the law declared that no citizen may keep any sort of pigs in the town 
premises. It was the job of the executioner to kill any pig that was found in 
town. He was in his rights to cut off the head and keep it for himself, as 
payment.

Another shunned job was related to gong farming, cesspits, latrines, and 
similar foul fecal aspects of the medieval society. While these jobs were 
highly degrading, unsanitary, filthy, and ostracized, they were nonetheless 
lucrative – and executioners were often in charge of them.

The Real Addams Families – Executioner Dynasties

But even when they had a range of tasks that were in a sense critical to the 
functioning of the town, the executioners were still ostracized. They were not 
allowed to come into contact with the upstanding, well-off citizens of the 
town, and were thus put into the corner with the same social outcasts they had 
authority over.

This shunning throughout the medieval period slowly drove executioner families 
to endogamy –the practice of marrying people that belong to the same background 
and social caste. Executioners almost exclusively married women who came from 
executioner families themselves, and in that way they almost created small 
separate executioner-communities.

In time, those headsmen that were employed in the royal courts, their sons, and 
their grandsons, all were in the family “business”. This saw the rise of many 
prominent, hereditary executioner dynasties, which were often well-off, 
(in)famous, tasked with relieving some highly important individuals.

In France, there was the Guillaume dynasty of Paris executioners, which was 
prominent in the business for more than a century. They were succeeded by the 
even more famous Sanson family, whose offspring – Charles Henri Sanson – would 
execute Louis XVI with a guillotine. Then there was the Desmorest dynasty – an 
offshoot of the Guillaumes – which gave France of the period more than 50 
prominent executioners.

In Western Europe, there was the prominent Dalembourg dynasty of executioners, 
who performed their role across Switzerland, Germany, Austria, and the 
Netherlands.

Methods of the Executioner

Execution methods were many, and most notably they were done by the axe, the 
sword, the noose, or garrote. It wasn’t always easy to complete the task.

History remembers many notable cases of clumsy executioners, which resulted in 
some botched and prolonged capital punishments . One example is the execution 
of James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, 1st Duke of Buccleuch, in 1685. He was 
executed by the infamous Jack Ketch, the executioner employed in the court of 
King Charles II. Ketch was infamous for his botched executions, which could 
have been done on purpose out of a sadistic nature.

When the Duke of Monmouth was on the chopping block, he specifically implored 
Ketch, in front of many gathered witnesses, to grant him a swift death – unlike 
the ones before. He gave Jack Ketch 6 guineas, and vouched that his servants 
would give more gold to the executioner if the death was swift. Nonetheless, 
the execution was botched and extremely unpleasant. It took Ketch 8 hacks to 
finally sever the head. The gathered masses were enraged and attempted to lynch 
the executioner – without success.

Payday Was a Chop Away

Today we are shown the slightly romanticized, perhaps inaccurate image of the 
medieval executioner as a hooded, secretive and mysterious death dealer – while 
the reality could have been very different. It was difficult for an executioner 
to remain anonymous, his post and his vocation was known by all, and thus a 
hood and a mask would have been pointless.

And we can now understand that the position of an executioner was almost always 
discriminated against. Taking lives, no matter how lowly or sinful they are, 
has never been an easy task – and it plunged the medieval executioners into the 
realm of social outcasts, forcing them to earn their money by doing all the 
gruesome and degrading jobs that were on offer – from collecting carcasses and 
burying bodies, to managing stray dogs and overseeing the clearance of 
cesspools.

Such was the hard life of the headsman. And if their lives of solitude and 
despair drove them to crime and murder, they could end up on the other side of 
the axe.

All necks were the same to the sharp iron of the executioner’s blade.

(source: ancient-origins.net)








ANGOLA:

EU welcomes Angola’s accession to key human rights conventions



The European Union welcomed on 4 October Angola’s alignment with 3 important 
international treaties on human rights.

On 2 October, Angola became party to the Optional Protocol aiming to the 
abolition of the death penalty, to the Convention against Torture and other 
cruel inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and to the Convention on the 
elimination of all forms of racial discrimination.

In this context, the Union reaffirmed in a statement its commitment to the 
universal abolition of the death penalty, to combating torture and all forms of 
racism:

“These accessions by Angola should encourage other countries to follow this 
example”, the statement reads.

(source: neweurope.eu)








PAKISTAN:

Death row prisoners acquitted in murder of NAB chairperson’s parents



The Lahore High Court has acquitted 3 death row prisoners in the murder case of 
NAB Chairperson Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal’s parents.

The prisoners, including Javed Iqbal’s step-brother Naveed Iqbal, were 
acquitted because of a lack of evidence.

Parents of the NAB chairperson–father Abdul Majeed (a retired DIG) and mother 
Zareena – were found dead at their residence near Cavalry Ground in Lahore in 
2011.

Following the murder, police had arrested 3 suspects, Naveed Iqbal, Abbas 
Shakir and Ameen Ali, over suspicion. In January 2016, a trial court had 
convicted and sentenced them to death. A fine of Rs550,000 was also imposed.

They had challenged the conviction in the Lahore High Court. In their 
application, their lawyer claimed that his clients were arrested on suspicion. 
No solid evidence was presented before the trial court and the accused were 
awarded capital punishment on mere suspicion, he said.

A 2-member bench of the Lahore High Court on Monday set aside the punishment 
and released the 3.

(source: samaa.tv)

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

End Ordeal for ‘Blasphemy’ Defendants----Repeal Law Used Against Religious 
Minorities, Vulnerable Communities



The Pakistan Supreme Court’s decision to quash the conviction of a man who had 
spent almost 18 years in prison for blasphemy spotlighted abuses inherent in 
the law, Human Rights Watch said today. On September 25, 2019, the court ruled 
that the prosecution failed to provide substantial evidence against 
Wajih-ul-Hassan, who had been sentenced to death in 2002 for writing allegedly 
blasphemous letters.

Pakistan’s government should drop the charges, order the release of all 
detainees held for blasphemy, and revise the blasphemy law with the ultimate 
aim of repealing it.

“The overturned conviction of a man imprisoned for 18 years highlights just one 
of many miscarriages of justice stemming from Pakistan’s vaguely worded 
blasphemy law,” said Brad Adams, Asia director. “Typically, it’s members of 
religious minorities or other vulnerable communities who are wrongly accused 
and left unable to defend themselves.”

Section 295-C of Pakistan’s penal code, known as the blasphemy law, carries 
what is effectively a mandatory death sentence. According to the Center for 
Social Justice, a Pakistani advocacy group, at least 1,472 people were charged 
under the blasphemy provisions from 1987 to 2016. Although there have been no 
executions, at least 17 people convicted of blasphemy are currently on death 
row, while many others are serving life sentences for related offenses.

A mere accusation of blasphemy can put the security of the accused at risk. 
Since 1990, at least 65 people have been killed in Pakistan over claims of 
blasphemy, based on media reports.

Among the most egregious blasphemy cases is that of Junaid Hafeez, a 
33-year-old university lecturer who was arrested for blasphemy on March 13, 
2013, in Multan, Punjab province. Hafeez has been in solitary confinement since 
June 2014. His trial has had numerous delays and is now before the eighth judge 
since it began in 2013.

On May 7, 2014, Rashid Rehman, who had been Hafeez’s lawyer, was fatally shot 
in his office in Multan, in apparent reprisal for representing Hafeez and 
others charged under the blasphemy law. Rehman had been threatened with “dire 
consequences” for defending Hafeez.

On October 31, 2018, Pakistan’s Supreme Court overturned the conviction of 
Aasia Bibi, who had spent 8 years on death row. She was convicted under 
Pakistan’s blasphemy law after a June 2009 altercation with fellow farm workers 
who had refused to drink water she had touched, contending it was “unclean” 
because she was Christian. When pro-blasphemy law clerics threatened violence 
after the Supreme Court decision, Prime Minister Imran Khan in a televised 
speech said that the clerics were “inciting [people] for their own political 
gain,” and were “doing no service to Islam.”

Killings of people who have criticized the blasphemy law have had a chilling 
effect on efforts to reform the law. On January 4, 2011, Salmaan Taseer, the 
governor of Punjab province, was killed by his own security guard because 
Taseer had sought to repeal the blasphemy law. And on March 2, 2011, 
unidentified assailants killed the federal minorities affairs minister, Shahbaz 
Bhatti, an outspoken critic of the law.

The law has been increasingly used to jail and prosecute people for social 
media comments. In September 2017, Nadeem James, a 35-year-old Christian, was 
sentenced to death for forwarding a poem that was deemed insulting to Islam to 
a friend. In April 2014, a Christian couple was sentenced to death for sending 
an allegedly blasphemous text message to a local cleric.

The blasphemy law is often brought against members of religious minorities, 
frequently to settle personal disputes. But the government rarely brings 
charges against those responsible for physical attacks on people accused of 
blasphemy. In May, riots erupted in Mirpurkhas, Sindh, after a Hindu 
veterinarian was accused of committing blasphemy for allegedly providing 
medicines wrapped in a paper with Islamic verses printed on it. In an unusual 
law enforcement response, he was taken into protective custody and 6 people 
were charged with rioting.

Pakistan’s government should repeal sections 295 and 298 of the penal code, 
which includes the blasphemy law and the law discriminating against the 
Ahmadiyya religious community. The government should also promptly and 
appropriately prosecute those responsible for planning and carrying out attacks 
against religious minorities.

“The Supreme Court took an important step by ending Hassan’s horrific ordeal, 
though many more charged with blasphemy are languishing in Pakistani prisons,” 
Adams said. “Repealing the blasphemy law is necessary to ensure that all 
Pakistanis can live free from fear of unjust punishment and discrimination.”

(source: Human Rights Watch)








MALAYSIA:

Malaysian parliament to decide on abolishing death penalty



Malaysia's parliament convened on Monday after a 2-month adjournment with the 
proposed abolition of the death penalty and the Defense White Paper among other 
matters high on the agenda between Oct. 7 and Dec. 5.

Currently, the law provides for a mandatory death sentence for 11 offences 
under the country's laws including murder, armed robbery, waging war against 
the King, as well as for the illegal possession and use of firearms.

The abolition of the death sentence was one of the several election promises 
made by the Pakatan Harapan (PH) administration led by Prime Minister Mahathir 
Mohamad, which won power during the national polls in May last year.

The National Defense White Paper, meant to shape the direction of Malaysia's 
defense policies and systems for the next 10 years, will also be tabled for 
parliament to review for the 1st time.

Deputy Defense Minister Liew Chin Tong had previously said the government would 
apply the whole-of-government and the whole-of-society approach in formulating 
the DWP so that all levels of society will understand their importance, and 
take joint responsibility.

Also to be tabled will be the national budget for 2020, detailing the 314.5 
billion ringgit (US$75.14 billion) earmarked for next year's expenditure.

On the political balance, former ruling United Malays's National Organization 
inked a formal pact for cooperation with Pan-Malaysia Islamic Party in 
September, ending decades of political rivalry and posing a potential challenge 
to the incumbent government.

Azmi Hassan from University of Technology Malaysia said the pact would not have 
a significance on the balance of power in parliament as the two parties had 
already cooperated in several by-elections since the national polls.

However, Azmi said UMNO-PAS partnership could have an impact on the expected 
transition of power from Mahathir to his former deputy Anwar Ibrahim, who has 
said he expected to take over next year.

"Anwar Ibrahim has already openly said next year will be his time to take over 
as the prime minister and with PAS openly said they prefer Mahathir for the 
full term. It should be interesting to observe UMNO stand since as a political 
party they never put out who they prefer," he said.

(source: shine.cn)