WordPress.com



DEATH PENALTY SUMMARY – AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2019Date format day/month/yearInternational Update (from: 7.8.19 – 11.9.19)UK – 7.8.19 – In the first case of its kind, a High Court Judge ruled that former Home Secretary Amber Rudd acted lawfully in depriving Ashraf Mahmud Islam of his British nationality. In 2015, at the age of 18, he had travelled to Syria from Bangladesh, where he was studying at a British educational establishment, in order to join IS. He has since been captured and is currently being held in a Kurdish-run military prison, where he faces the death penalty. In the belief that he also had Bangladeshi citizenship, the Home Office revoked his British nationality; however Ashraf’s father has argued that he does not have a Bangladeshi passport. Ashraf has a right to lodge an appeal with the Special Immigration Appeals Commission, who would consider whether or not he had been rendered stateless. Making someone stateless would be ruled a breach of international law. (Source: Rights Info.)USAThe Trump Administration – 12.8.19 – Following on from the shootings in Texas and Ohio, Attorney General Bill Barr has said the Administration will take moves next month to speed up the implementation of the death penalty against convicted mass murders. (Source: CNN)2.9.19 – According to Mike Pence’s Chief of Staff, Marc Short, the Justice Department has drafted legislation to expedite the death penalty for anyone convicted of carrying out mass shootings. The measure is expected to be included in the White House gun safety proposals to be presented to Congress. (Note: The second mass shooting in Texas within the month took place over the weekend.) (Source: CBS News.)Oregon – 13.8.19 – A new law curbing the use of the death penalty now appears to go further than intended, following a recent ruling that a former death row prisoner cannot be sentenced to death in a re-trial. The State Department of Justice have concluded that the new definition of aggravated murder in the bill applies to pending cases, including those sent back for new ‘penalty or guilt phases’. This was not the intention of supporters of the bill, and a special session has been called for to ‘fix this issue’. Note: Only two prisoners have been executed in the State in the past 50 years. (Source: KLCC FM Public Radio.)Texas – 14.8.19 – A Federal Court stayed the execution of Dexter Johnson, less than 24 hour before it was scheduled to take place. His case has been sent back to the District Court in order to investigate claims that he is intellectually disabled. (Source: Texas Tribune.)21.8.19 – Larry Swearingen was executed by lethal injection.4.9.19 – Executions scheduled to take place in Texas4.9.19 – Billy Jack Crutsinger – Executed on 4.9 1910.9.19 – Mark Anthony Soliz – Executed on 10.9.1925.9.19 – Robert SparksSource (NCADP.)914400787400Tennessee – 15.8.19 – Stephen West, (pictured, ) convicted of kidnapping and killing a woman and her daughter, was executed. He had chosen to die by means of electrocution. An application for clemency citing mental illness was denied. Mr West was the fourth prisoner to be executed in the State in the past 12 months, and the second to choose electrocution rather than the three-drug method. (Source: Fox News.)North Carolina – 25.8.19 – Seven Judges are to meet next week at the State Supreme Court to consider evidence that ‘capital punishment is so deeply flawed and riddled with racial animus that it makes a mockery of basic principles of fairness and equal justice’. They will be asking whether the State should allow death sentences to be imposed ‘despite powerful evidence that prosecutors deployed racially discriminatory tactics to put them on death row’. The case centres on four prisoners facing execution – three African American men and a Native American woman. (Source: The Guardian.)914400179705002020 Presidential Election –11.9.19 - California White House contender Kamala Harris (pictured, ) has called for the abolition to the death penalty, describing it as ‘immoral, discriminatory, ineffective and a gross miscarriage of justice’. (Source: Belfast Telegraph.)Sri Lanka – 16.8.19 - The Sri Lankan Supreme Court, while hearing the petitions to halt executions of death row prisoners, suspended all execution warrants until 29 October, the next date of hearing. As the 13 prisoners are no longer in imminent danger of being hanged, at this stage no further action is required. (Source: AIUK.)Turkey – 28.8.19 – President Erdo?an has reiterated his support for the reinstatement of the death penalty, vowing to approve the legislation if passed by Parliament. His statement follows the murder of a woman by her former husband and ‘nationwide outrage over femicides’. (Source: Daily News.)3.9.19 – Women’s Groups in Turkey have launched a campaign warning that capital punishment is the wrong approach to tackle violence, and that systemic violence against violence against women would not be solved with more violence. ‘The solution is shelters that can be accessed by all women, women’s solidarity centres, a 24-hour emergency counselling line, and rape crisis centres’, said the Foundation for Women’s Solidarity. (Source: Ahval.) Thailand – 29.8.19 – The two migrant workers, found guilty of the murders of two British backpackers in 2014, have had their convictions upheld by the Supreme Court. The police were accused of torture to extract confessions and of mishandling DNA evidence. The defence lawyers will now seek a royal pardon. (Source: The Guardian.)Uganda – 11.9.19 - President Yoweri Museveni has called for those convicted of murder to be sentenced to death in the belief that this would curb the rising number of killings in his Country, saying ‘It must be an eye for an eye’. The death penalty is not mandatory in Uganda and would require lawmakers to change the guidelines under which convictions are made, according to Vincent Mugabo, a spokesman for the judiciary. (Source: Bloomberg.)Urgent ActionsSri Lanka – UA 45/19 - Update – see above. (Circulated to DPLWG 16.8.19.)Iran - UA 38/17 - Iranian-Swedish academic Ahmadreza Djalali has been subjected to enforced disappearance since 29 July, when Iranian authorities transferred him from Tehran’s Evin prison to an unidentified location. He is under pressure to “confess” to new crimes and has been threatened with the implementation of his death sentence if he does not.?(Circulated to DPLWG 17.8.19.)CampaigningA Group Tweet was posted on 21.8.19 calling on the Governor of Texas to halt the execution of Larry Swearingen convicted of the murder of a student which he maintained he did not commit. (See above – Larry was executed on 21.8.19)World Day Against the Death Penalty (10.10 19) - An email has been sent to Mike Quinn, Co-ordinator of the Death Penalty Project, requesting information on this year’s World Day Against the Death Penalty national action in advance of the Group’s September meeting to enable planning to take place.Note: As no information has been received, a Death Penalty Urgent Action will be circulated to the wider membership early in October, with a request to take action on 10th October.The Death Penalty Project have forwarded information on a Side Event, due to take place at the 42nd session of the UN Human Rights Council, at Room IV at the Palais des Nations from 16.30 to 17.30 on Thursday 12th September. The subject will be The Death Penalty and Executions in Saudi Arabia, and speakers includeBaroness Helena Kennedy QC, Doughty Street Chambers UKBaroness Janet Whitaker, All Party Parliamentary Group on Abolition of the Death Penalty?Rodney Dixon QC, Temple Garden Chambers UKSaul Lehrfreund, Co-Executive Director, The Death Penalty ProjectAbdullah Al Odah, son of death row prisonerThis information did not arrive sufficiently early for it to be circulated but it was posted on Facebook and Twitter. It is hoped that information on the session will be received in due course. ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download