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DEATH PENALTY REPORT – NOVEMBER - DECEMBER 2017Date format; day/month/yearInternational Update (from 9.11.17 – 14.12.17)Mauritania – 9.11.17 – Mohamed Ould Cheikh Ould Mkhaitir, the blogger condemned to death in 2014 for ‘apostasy’ in a Face book post about Islam, has had his sentence overturned by an Appeals Court, and will shortly be freed. (Source: Reuters.)Egypt/UK – 11.11.17 - British woman, Laura Plummer, accused of drug smuggling and being held in an Egyptian jail, is fearful that she will face the death penalty. Her Egyptian husband supports her defence that the drugs she was carrying, illegal in Egypt, were prescription pills for his bad back. (Source: Birmingham Mail.)25.11.17 – A Cairo Criminal Court has imposed the death penalty on 7 people found guilty of involvement in the beheadings of 21 Egyptian Christians in Libya. (Note: 10 others were sentenced to life imprisonment, and 3 to 15 years in prison. All had been found to joined be members of the Isis-affiliated organisation, the Marsa Matrouh Cell. (Source: The Indian Express.)USAOhio – 15.11.17 -The execution of Alva Campbell, convicted of murder in 1998, was called off after the execution team were unable to find a viable vein for the lethal injection. The Governor has, however, set a new execution date of 5th June 2019, by which time Mr Campbell would be 71 years of age. (Source: AIUK)Florida – 18.11.17 – State Attorney Aramis Ayala issued a statement confirming that her office had missed the deadline to pursue the death penalty in the case of Emerita Mapp. (Source: Mail Online/Orlando Sentinel.)8.12.17 – Emerita Mapp accepted a plea deal for life in prison and will not now face the death penalty. (Source: WFTV Orlando.)Louisiana – 21.11.17 – Justice Scott Crichton disqualified himself from the appeal of death row prisoner, David Brown, convicted of the murder of a prison guard. Justice Crichton did not specify a reason for his recusal, but Mr Brown’s lawyers had questioned his impartiality following a radio interview in which he had expressed support for the death penalty as a deterrent against killings in prisons. (Note: Louisiana has not carried out an execution since 2010. All of the State’s cases involving the death penalty remain on hold until at least 2018, pending the outcome of the litigation challenging the State’s lethal injection protocols.) (Source: Mail Online.)8.12.17 - Trenton Foster, accused of the shooting of a police officer, whose trial is to take place in February 2019, will not face the death penalty. The decision was made by a Judge following an examination and re-examination of evidence, and was made on the basis of ‘ethical rules’, with no further clarification. (Source: .)Arizona – 24.11.17 – An appeal, which has been filed on behalf of Abel Hidalgo, a prisoner on death row, could possibly force an end to capital punishment in the State, and ultimately across the country. The appeal, filed in August, challenges the overly broad qualifying factors that can result in eligibility for a death sentence. The Court is asked to consider two factors: whether Arizona law is insufficiently narrow to be constitutional, and whether the death penalty as a whole is unconstitutional. (Source: .) Nebraska – 4.12.17 – According to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, 11 men on death row in the State cannot be executed because their death sentences were converted to life imprisonment at the time of the repeal of the death penalty in 2015. Voters overturned the decision and restored the punishment in 2016, but ACLU believes this overstepped the Nebraska Constitution’s separation of powers clause. (Source: Associated Press.)President Trump – 11.12.17 – Following the explosion in New York, allegedly a terrorist attack carried out by a Bangladeshi suspect, Akayed Ullah, the President stated that ‘terrorists deserve the death penalty’. (Source: Daily Star.)Israel – Robert Ilatov, a member of Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Liberman’s right-wing Yisrael Beytenu party, has called for legislation that would apply the death penalty to those convicted of terrorism. (Source: i24 News.) India – 26.11.17 – The Madhya Pradesh Government approved the Public Safety Bill, which would impose the death penalty on those convicted of the rape of girls aged 12 and below. The Bill will be introduced in the course of the Assembly’s Winter session. (Note: In India, the death penalty is prescribed for murder, gang robbery with murder, abetting the suicide of a child or insane person, waging war against the Government and abetting mutiny by a member of the Armed Forces.) (Source: Hindustan Times.)4.12.17 – The Bill was passed unanimously (Source: teleSUR)12.12.17 – Six people have been sentenced to death for the murder of a man from the Dalit community in an ‘honour killing which took place last year. According to Police, the victim was murdered for marrying a woman from a higher Hindu caste. (Source: BBC News.)Bangladesh – 27.11.17 – A Court in Bangladesh upheld the death sentences imposed on 139 soldiers for their role in the mutiny which took place in 2009. The trial, conducted in 2013, was criticised by the UN Rights Chief as failing to meet the basic standards of due process. The sentences will now go to appeal in the Supreme Court, which has the final say in all capital cases. (Note: of those originally sentenced to death, 1 had died in custody, 8 had their sentences commuted to life imprisonment, and 4 were acquitted. (Source: ABS-CBN News.)Malaysia – 2.12.17 – The Sabah Law Society applauded the recent amendment to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, which removed the mandatory death penalty for drug offences as being more in line with the Federal Constitution, and fairer to drug traffickers who could be victims of circumstance. The Sabah Law Society has always called for an end to capital punishment. (Source: FMT News). Iran – 9.12.17 – The Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence of Ahmadreza Djalali, an Iranian-born Swedish resident and specialist in emergency medicine, by considering and upholding his death sentence without granting his lawyers the opportunity to file their defence submissions. The established practice in Iran is for lawyers to be informed of the branch where the appeal will be considered before submitting the relevant documentation and arguments. Ahmadreza Djalali’s lawyers said they were consistently told by court clerks that the case had not yet been allocated for consideration and that they should wait. As a result, the sudden news of the Supreme Court’s decision came as a shock. No investigation into his allegations of torture and other ill-treatment is known to have taken place. (Source: Amnesty International).Urgent ActionsNo Death Penalty Urgent Actions have been received this month. CampaigningDeath Penalty Project – L and PC attended a Workshop for the campaign at AIHQ on 25.11.17. It was encouraging that of the 20+ attendees, 3 (including LC) were DP coordinators of their local groups. The DP Project has 3 main objectivesthe establishment of a stronger anti-Death Penalty community in the UK and world-widethe formation of a strong, principled, factually based and engaging narrativethe active and proactive engagement with detractors of those who oppose the death penalty.Following group discussions around these objectives, a committee was formed to produce a campaign plan.Reggie Clemons – LC took the opportunity at the Workshop to raise again the Group’s request for AIUK to take up Reggie’s case as his re-trial was due to start in January. She was, however, told that AI could not be seen to support him in the course of his actual trial as it would be interpreted as ‘trying to exercise undue influence’. This is extremely disappointing, and raises the issue of why this response could not have been received at the time of the initial request.The Group signed Christmas cards for Reggie, and these will be sent on to him in Missouri. Reggie’s address is given below should any members and supporters wish to send him good wishes for Christmas and his forthcoming re-trial –Reginald Clemons #67137 (5A-1 cell #25)St Louis City Justice Center200 South Tucker BlvdSt LouisMO 63102USA.144780043434000 ................
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