[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 12



SCOTLAND:

Over 41 % of Scots would like return of death penalty



A poll for the Times has found that 1.8 million Scots would support the 
reintroduction of death penalties for murderers.

According to a YouGov poll for The Times questioning 1,059 Scots, 41 % of the 
population, or 1.8 million people, would support the death penalty for 
murderers being reintroduced.

A marginally higher percentage of the population, 44 % of Scots, would continue 
to oppose the death penalty, whilst 15 % of voters were unsure.

The poll indicated that those who were more likely to back state execution were 
people who voted Leave in the 2016 EU referendum and older people, by 65 % and 
54 % respectively.

A previous poll by YouGov from 2017 showed that 53 % of Leave voters UK-wide 
wanted to revive the death penalty, which is 12 % less than Leave voters in 
Scotland this year.

Scottish citizens who backed Yes in the 2014 Independence referendum and 
Unionist were slightly less supportive, with the former polling at 44 % and the 
latter voting 42 %. Although Scotland tops European rates of imprisonment, 
several reforms have been put in place to support reintegration and 
rehabilitation, including the vote against ineffective short prison sentences 
of 12 months or less which MSPs voted on in June this year, which aims to 
increase more effective methods of both addressing offending and 
rehabilitation, like Community Payback Orders (CPOs).

The last man hanged in Scotland was Henry John Burnett, who was sentenced to 
death by the high court in Aberdeen for the murder of merchant seaman Thomas 
Guyanat and was executed in 1963 at HM Prison in Aberdeen, aged 21.

(source: The Scotsman)








MALAYSIA:

Malaysian man escapes gallows over death of teenage girl



A 29-year-old man has escaped the gallows over the death of a teenage girl 
after his murder charge was reduced by the Malaysian Court of Appeal on 
Thursday (Sep 12).

Poon Wai Hong was sentenced to death by a High Court in April last year for 
causing the death of 15-year-old Ms Ng Yuk Tim, a cosplay enthusiast.

The Court of Appeal ruled on Thursday that Poon should instead be sentenced to 
22 years' jail after his murder charge was reduced to one of culpable homicide 
not amounting to murder. His jail term will start from the date of his arrest 
on Oct 22, 2013, the court added.

Justice Kamardin Hashim, chairing a three-member bench, said the court found 
merits in Poon's appeal and set aside the death sentence.

He was convicted of causing Ms Ng's death at a house at Kampung Cempaka in 
Kelana Jaya between 3pm and 4pm on Oct 21, 2013.

Poon’s lawyer Rajpal Singh told the High Court in April last year that Ms Ng 
had gone to the house to get help with some cosplay costumes.

He said that Poon had intended to have sex with Ms Ng but a friend had 
interrupted the duo, causing him to leave the house. When Poon returned, Ms Ng 
did not want to have sex anymore, which sparked a fight.

Mr Singh said that Poon had tried to stop Ms Ng from shouting during the 
altercation. After she bit his hand, Poon pushed her away to prevent her from 
attacking him with a stun gun, the lawyer claimed.

Poon said that after retrieving his spectacles that had fallen to the ground, 
he saw Ms Ng lying motionless on the floor after falling and hitting her head 
on a dumbbell.

Mr Singh said Poon panicked and stuffed Ms Ng's body in a luggage bag instead 
of calling the authorities.

DNA evidence showed that Ms Ng’s blood was found on the ring of the dumbbell 
but the handle of the dumbbell did not have Poon's DNA, Mr Singh added.

During mitigation for a lower jail sentence, the lawyer told the court that his 
client was remorseful and had apologised to Ms Ng’s family.

Deputy public prosecutor Nurshafini Mustafha argued that there was overwhelming 
circumstantial evidence that Poon had murdered Ms Ng.

She said the deceased was 15 years old at the time, and she urged the court to 
consider that there was a loss of life as well as the way her body was disposed 
of.

Ms Nurshafini told reporters that the prosecution would be appealing to the 
Federal Court.

(source: channelnewsasia.com)

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

Bill to abolish mandatory death penalty tabled at next meeting



The bill to abolish the mandatory death penalty will tentatively be tabled at 
the next parliamentary meeting, which begins on October 7 and runs until 
December 5, said Liew Vui Keong.

The de facto law minister said it is in line with Pakatan Harapan’s election 
promise to do away with mandatory death penalty.

(source: themalaysianinsight.com)








INDIA:

Gadkari cites death penalty for rape to defend new traffic rules, says fines 
aimed to save lives



A day after a BJP-ruled state -- Gujarat -- itself slashed the traffic fines 
under the amended Motor Vehicles (MV) Act, Union Minister of Road Transport and 
Highways Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday said that states will be responsible if 
they try to dilute traffic violation fines.

“To those states who are refusing to enforce the fines, isn't life more 
important than money? This was done to save lives. People need to have a fear 
of law. Why was the death penalty for rape after the Nirbhaya case? To create a 
fear of the law,” Gadkaroi told NDTV in an interview.

The warning came a day after Gujarat announced a drastic cut in the penalties 
for traffic violations even as the Centre is justifying the steep fine amounts 
under the new Motor Vehicles Act. In some cases the reduction in the state is 
as steep as Rs 1,000 from Rs 10,000.

Meanwhile, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that she will not 
implement the new law that imposes hefty fines for traffic violations. Calling 
the amendments in the Motor Vehicles Act "too harsh", the Trinamool Congress 
chief said it was against the federal structure of the government.

Earlier today, Gadkari said that the government's intention behind bringing the 
Motor Vehicles Amendment Act was not to collect revenues through fines but to 
save lives of people.

After the implementation of the Motor Vehicle (Amendment) Act 2019, traffic 
police across the country are coming down heavily on those who are violating 
the new rules and various state government are either resisting the new MV Act 
or bringing changes to it by detuning the violation fines.

Post imposition of the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act 2019, from September 1, 
hefty challans for traffic rules violations by the police has hit the 
headlines. Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said stringent rules were "much needed" 
as people had taken traffic laws very lightly and there was neither fear nor 
respect for the law.

(source: jagran.com)








PAKISTAN:

Supreme Court acquits 7 life sentence accused giving them benefit of doubt



The Supreme Court on Wednesday void the Lahore High Court verdict and acquitted 
7 life imprisonment accused giving them benefit of doubt.

The trial court had awarded capital punishment to seven accused Amjad Ali, 
Muhammad Khalid, Zaffar Iqbal, Abdul Qayyum, Manzoor Ahmed, Muhammad Tariq and 
Muhammad Akeam alias Daku over murder of Muhammad Ashraf in two different 
incidents of murder and dacoity in Kasur city.

The Lahore High Court converted the death penalty into life imprisonment. 
Later, the accused challenged LHC order in the apex court.

A 3-member SC bench headed by Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa and 
comprising Justice Faisal Arab and Justice Yahya Afridi heard the case through 
videolink from SC Lahore Registry.

During the course of proceedings, the chief justice remarked that both police 
and plaintiff had made up the story together. The witnesses were later made by 
themselves and the post-mortem occurred 14 hours late, he added.

He remarked that usually in robbery cases, the area police know who committed 
the crime but according to Police the accused was not involved in any 
suspicious activity before.

The counsel for the accused said the accused had no differences with the 
plaintiff.

The chief justice remarked that the plaintiff's brother was murdered during 
dacoity but he did not know that the First Information Report had to be filed.

(source: urdupoint.com)