Lawyer: Beheading planned in Saudi sorcery case

(CNN) -- A Lebanese man charged with sorcery and sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia is scheduled to be beheaded on Friday, the man's lawyer said Wednesday.

May El Khansa, the attorney for Ali Hussain Sibat (pictured with his children), told CNN that she and Sibat's family were informed about the upcoming execution. She said she heard from a source in Saudi Arabia with knowledge of the case and the proceedings that Saudi authorities "will carry out the execution."

The Saudi Ministry of Justice could not immediately be reached for comment on the matter.

El Khansa said she has appealed to Lebanon's prime minister, Saad Hariri, and president, Michel Suleiman, to stop the execution. Amnesty International, the human rights group, has called on Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah to block it as well.

TV presenter gets death sentence for 'sorcery'

Sibat is the former host of a popular call-in show that aired on Beirut-based satellite TV channel "Sheherazade." According to his lawyer, Sibat would predict the future on his show and give out advice to his audience.

El Khansa told CNN her client was arrested by Saudi Arabia's religious police (known as the Mutawa'een) and charged with sorcery while visiting the country in May 2008. Sibat was in Saudi Arabia to perform the Islamic religious pilgrimage known as Umra.

Sibat was then put on trial, and in November 2009, a court in the Saudi city of Medina found him guilty and sentenced him to death.

According to El Khansa, Sibat appealed the verdict. The case was taken up by the Court of Appeal in the Saudi city of Mecca on the grounds that the initial verdict was "premature."

El Khansa tells CNN that the Mecca appeals court then sent the case back to the original court for reconsideration, stipulating that all charges made against Sibat needed to be verified and that he should be given a chance to repent.

On March 10, judges in Medina upheld their initial verdict, meaning Sibat is once again sentenced to be executed.

"The Medina court refused the sentence of the appeals court," said El Khansa, adding her client will appeal the verdict once more.

Source: CNN.com, March 31, 2010

Military in the Democratic Republic of Congo holds ‘show trial’ appeal hearing for Joshua French

Military in the Democratic Republic of Congo holds ‘show trial’ appeal hearing for Joshua French, Briton facing execution, with neither Joshua nor his lawyer present.

Briton Joshua French (pictured) was yesterday due to plead for his life in an appeal hearing at the Military High Court in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo.

Instead, both Joshua and his lawyer were trapped hundreds of miles away in Kisangani, eastern DRC, while the hearing went ahead without them.

Their absence was due to the Court’s failure to give Joshua’s legal team adequate notice, informing them of the crucial hearing only last Friday. Because Joshua’s defence lawyer is based in Kisangani, where Joshua is imprisoned, he relies on UN flights to Kinshasa which must be booked at least five days in advance -- a fact that can hardly be unknown to the Court. A judgment will be handed down within eight days.

Reprieve’s Director Clive Stafford Smith said: "Like the rest of the proceedings against Joshua, yesterday's appeal was a mockery of justice. He was not present, his lawyer was not given sufficient notice to be present. To paraphrase the famous Irishman, a system where they hold appeals in absentia really only has the right to carry out executions in absentia. The government must continue to make every effort to get this man basic fairness."

Joshua and his friend Tjostolv Moland received multiple death sentences on 8 September 2009 for murder and espionage. Joshua, who has a Norwegian mother and British father, had been forced to sign a confession after being beaten and subjected to a mock execution. Joshua is receiving assistance from Norwegian lawyers Morten Furuholmen and Marius Dietrichson, together with Parvais Jabbar and Saul Lehrfreund of the Death Penalty Project and Reprieve.

For more information please contact Katherine O’Shea at Reprieve’s Press Office katherine.oshea@reprieve.org.uk 020 7427 1099/ 07931592674 or visit www.reprieve.org.uk/joshuafrench.

Case background:

At the end of April last year Joshua French and his co-defendant Tjostolv Moland travelled to the DRC from Uganda on a motorbike trip. When their motorbike broke down in Kisangani they hired a car and a driver, Abedi Kasongo, to drive them to Beni where they had a friend who would be able to take them back to Uganda. Two Congolese passengers travelled with them. Several hours into the journey, in the middle of the rainforest, the driver, Kasongo, was shot and killed.

The authorities allege that French and Moland killed Kasongo, but both men maintain that they were ambushed by gunmen. The authorities also allege that French and Moland are Norwegian spies, and that the maps, compasses, GPS system, mobile phones and cameras they were carrying prove this. After his arrest, French, who has a Norwegian mother and British father, was forced to sign a confession after being beaten and subjected to a mock execution.

On 8 September 2009 French and Moland were sentenced to multiple death sentences for murder and espionage. These sentences were upheld on appeal on 3 December 2009. The Appeal Court also ordered French, Moland and Norway to pay the DRC US$ 500 million in damages. Both the trial and appeal were held in French, a language which neither French nor Moland understands. Large parts of the proceedings were not translated and at the appeal verdict hearing the judge told the interpreter to stop translating because “it was taking too long”.

Over time the State’s case has changed drastically. As evidence, the prosecution has produced photographs of two guns – both photographs were taken in Norway and neither weapon has ever left Norway. During the appeal Moland was suffering from cerebral malaria. He was extremely ill and was hallucinating. The prosecution allege that during this time he wrote a letter confessing that he was a spy and that he killed Kasongo. This letter has not been disclosed to the defence. An independent panel of doctors instructed by the court concluded that Moland was suffering from a psychosis and recommended that he be referred to a neuro-psychiatrist. This was ignored by the Court. The judge even accused Moland’s doctor of poisoning him and had him arrested.

Both men are former soldiers. French was born in Norway but lived in the seaside town of Margate, Kent as a child. He moved back to Norway when his parents divorced, but returned to the UK aged 20 and served in the British Army. He also served in the Norwegian Army where he met Moland. They both left the Norwegian Army in 2007 and worked as security guards in various places, including the Gulf of Aden where they worked guarding against pirates.

French and Moland are being tried in the military courts - a clear violation of the DRC’s own constitution, which stipulates that the jurisdiction of the military courts is limited to offences committed by members of the armed forces and the national police. Military courts trying civilian cases is far from uncommon in the DRC, however, and the military courts claim they have jurisdiction over any offence involving firearms regardless of whether the defendants are military or civilian. The right to a fair trial is constantly violated and judges and generals regularly abuse their power.

Prison conditions in DRC are appalling; cells are extremely small for the number of prisoners they hold and many cells have no windows, lights, electricity, running water or toilet facilities. Health care is inadequate and infectious diseases are rampant. Both men have caught malaria several times.

Source: REPRIEVE, March 31, 2010

U.S.: Application of the death penalty is a Southern tradition

There are 22 individuals scheduled to be executed from now through the month of October, with Texas the leader in the death penalty.

Texas has 11 people scheduled to die as part of its capital punishment system. The state continues to lead the nation in both its sentencing and application of the death penalty. The next highest ranking belongs to Ohio.

Franklin DeWayne Alix, age 34, and a black male, is scheduled to be executed tomorrow[written March 29, 2010]. He received the death sentence on November 12, 1998 when he was 23 years old. Alix is a 10th grade graduate and was born and raised in the State of Texas. His prior occupation is unknown, and he had no prior convictions at the time of his conviction.

According to Texas records, Alix murdered a black male on January 2, 1998. He had first kidnapped and raped the sister of the victim. Then he forced the victim to return to her apartment complex in Houston, where he loaded up his car with 2 televisions, a VCR and some stereo equipment. The victim of the shooting returned home and was chased down by Alix who subsequently shot him in the back.

Just yesterday Kathleen Garcia, who is a victims advocate and grief expert, and member of New Jersey's Death Penalty Study Commission on Capital Punishment, underlined her opposition to the imposition of the death penalty. She believes it is actually harmful to victims. She explains her position like this: "Make no mistake I am a conservative, a victims' advocate and a death penalty supporter. But my real life experience has taught me that as long as the death penalty is on the books in any form, it will continue to harm survivors". Garcia continues, by asserting that the death penalty is costly and harmful as victims families face years of trials and re-victimization. Furthermore victims families don't receive ongoing services, such as peer support and counseling to help them get through those years.

Garcia goes on to say the death penalty must be ended and replaced with life without parole. She suffered through the murder of a family member in 1984, but has found the death penalty to be much more harmful than helpful.

Just a few days ago a recently-elected Judge, Kevin Fine, said, according to the Houston Chronicle: "Based on the moratorium (on the death penalty) in Illinois, the Innocence Project and more than 200 people being exonerated nationwide, it can only be concluded that innocent people have been executed. Its safe to assume we execute innocent people."

It is expected the judge's ruling will be appealed.

From 1976 to 2008 Texas has led the country in executions having 36.9% of the total with 66% of those on death row non-white. 80% of all executions have been performed in the former slave-holding states, plus Oklahoma, reflecting the Southern tradition of executions.

Source: Digital Journal, March 29, 2010

Texas: Is the death penalty on death row?

The scene outside the Huntsville unit of the Texas state penitentiary last Wednesday evening was a familiar one.

Police officers stood casually outside the imposing red-brick walls as a small group of passionate opponents of the death penalty railed against a punishment they say has no place in modern America.

Inside, a death row inmate, Hank Skinner, was due to be executed by lethal injection.

On 24 March, Hank Skinner was given a last-minute stay of execution

But with half an hour to go, word emerged that the Supreme Court in Washington had issued a last-minute stay of execution.

Skinner, convicted of the 1993 killing of his girlfriend and her 2 adult sons in Pampa, has always protested his innocence.

His French wife, Sandrine, expressed relief, but spoke of her anger at a process that could still result in her husband's execution.

"This system has got to stop," she told the BBC. "We are not going to stop until it's over."

The death chamber at Huntsville, which carries out all Texas death penalties, is still the busiest in the nation. 24 prisoners were executed last year.

But across Texas, there has been a steep decline in the number of new death sentences handed down. There were just 9 last year. In the late 1990s, as many as 48 people a year were sent to death row.

The statistics have led some campaigners to hope that the death penalty may itself be on death row.

Costly

To the south of Huntsville, Harris County, which includes the sprawling metropolis of Houston, used to be known as the nation's death penalty capital.

But after sending about a dozen murderers to death row each year for a decade, it has been 2 years since it sent a single one.

The county's district attorney, Pat Lycos, rejects the notion that Houston has become a death penalty-free zone.

In an office adorned with photos of Margaret Thatcher, Barry Goldwater and John Wayne, she admits that some things are different.

"What has changed is the availability of life without parole," she says, highlighting a law that came into effect in 2005. Before this, the system offered two options for capital crimes: the death penalty and life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years.

But there are other factors at work here too. Take cost.

In the countryside west of Houston sits quiet, rural Austin County. Its district attorney, Travis Koehn, is busy enough at the best of times.

But Austin County saw 2 gruesome murders in four months last year. Mr Koehn and his small team have 2 hugely expensive capital murder cases to prosecute. Seeking the death penalty is the costliest option. The impact on the community could be huge.

"This is just like if a hurricane or tornado came through our community or if a 747 crashed outside our town," he says.

Koehn says the current economic crisis will not dictate how he pursues the two cases, but he has yet to decide whether to seek the death penalty.

"We're still going as best we can. We're seeking justice and we're going to do that with what we have."

As he weighs up the pros and cons, he could do worse than heed the words of one former county judge.

"We're all looking at things more closely than we did 40 years ago," says Gene Terry, executive director of the Texas Association of Counties.

Mr Terry says lawyers are better trained and juries harder to please. He puts some of this down to what he calls "the CSI effect", by which jurors make unfavourable comparisons between what they see in the courtroom and the sort of forensics they watch on popular TV shows.

The dramatised version may be highly unrealistic, but "it makes juriesmore demanding", Mr Terry says.

Religious opposition

Better training. Smarter juries. Life without parole. And economic difficulties. But is there perhaps one more reason why the death penalty is on the wane?

Texas itself is changing. Its huge and growing Latino population opposes the death penalty on religious grounds. Americans of all stripes have moved here from other parts of the country too.

In this less homogenous environment, the old certainties are being more widely questioned.

But old habits die hard in Texas and the death penalty will not be disappearing any time soon. Back in a cafe in rural Bellville, Harley Thomason puts me straight.

"It's a zero-tolerance state," he says. "They'll just kill you in the state of Texas if you mess up."

Source: BBC News, March 30, 2010

California death sentences rise as U.S. total falls

As the number of death sentences declined nationwide in 2009, death verdicts in California rose to their highest total in nearly a decade, the American Civil Liberties Union said Tuesday.

All but 5 of the 29 California death sentences last year were handed down in Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside counties, the ACLU said.

Only 2 of the death sentences came from Bay Area courts, both in Contra Costa County. Darryl Kemp was sentenced in June for a 1978 rape and murder in Lafayette, a case in which he was identified through DNA evidence in 2000, and Edward Wycoff was condemned in December for murdering his sister and her husband in the couple's El Cerrito home in 2006.

Nationally, death sentences fell to 106 in 2009, their seventh straight year of decline and the lowest total since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, according to an earlier report from the Death Penalty Information Center, a separate organization.

ACLU leaders attributed the decline to public concerns about wrongful convictions and the high costs of capital punishment.

"All California communities would be better served if California opted for permanent imprisonment as a safe and cost-effective alternative to the death penalty," said Ramona Ripston, executive director of the ACLU of Southern California.

The group cited a state commission's 2008 report that said capital punishment was costing California $137 million a year. It would cost another $95 million a year to cut appeals times to the national average, the panel said.

The California District Attorneys Association disputed the report's conclusion that abolishing the death penalty would bring major cost savings. The association's executive director, Scott Thorpe, also questioned the ACLU's report Tuesday.

Rather than focusing on one year's statistics, Thorpe said, "you have to look at a number of years to determine what is a trend or an aberration."

He noted that death sentences had averaged fewer than 20 a year statewide in the four years before 2009. He also observed that last year's total was well below the 41 death sentences issued in 1999, the most since California reinstated its death penalty law in 1977.

The ACLU report, based on state records, pointed to one long-term trend, an increase in the number of blacks and Latinos on death row. They accounted for more than 65 % of the death sentences in 2009 and make up more than 58 % of the condemned prisoners in the state, compared with 44 % of the general population, the report said.

California has the largest death row of any state with 701 prisoners, more than 1/5 of the nation's total.

A federal judge halted executions in the state in February 2006 and said California's lethal injection methods were so sloppy and poorly monitored that they could subject a dying inmate to prolonged and excruciating pain. State prison officials are preparing to submit revised procedures to the judge.

Source: San Francisco Chronicle, March 31, 2010

ACLU report: Los Angeles County sentences more inmates to death than Texas

Los Angeles County leads most of the nation in death row justice, trumping even Texas in the number of inmates who received capital punishment last year, according to an ACLU report released Tuesday.

With 13 death sentences, Los Angeles County sent two more criminals to death row than Texas, which leads the nation in the number of executions since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.

Only Florida, with 14 capital sentences, and California itself, which led the country with 29, had more.

The American Civil Liberties Union said the Golden State - with Southern California bearing the brunt of death penalty sentences - lags behind a nation moving toward permanent imprisonment rather than lethal injection for the worst offenders.

"Nationwide, we are seeing a shift due to growing concerns about the wrongful conviction of innocent people and the high costs of the death penalty in comparison," said Natasha Minsker author of the report from the ACLU office in San Francisco.

While some criticized the report for its methodology - such as failing to account for the size of L.A. County and the violence of some of its criminals - others praised District Attorney Steve Cooley for pursuing the toughest punishment.

"I am in favor of Mr. Cooley's aggressive prosecution," said LaWanda Hawkins, founder of Justice for Murdered Children, a victims rights group in San Pedro, whose only son Reginald was gunned down during a carjacking. "We should give them the sentences they are due.

"There has to be some form of punishment."

Coincidentally, the ACLU report was issued the same day that serial killer Rodney Alcala was condemned to death for the 3rd time in Orange County for murdering four women and a 12-year-old girl in the L.A. region.

Among its findings:

California sentenced more felons to death in 2009 than in the 7 previous years.

Three counties - L.A., Orange and Riverside - accounted for 83 % of the state's death sentences but just 41 percent of its population.

Blacks, representing 7 % of California, comprise 35 % of the nearly 700 inmates on death row, while the proportion of Latinos condemned to to die for their crimes has grown.

The civil-rights advocacy group said the nation's largest death penalty system costs California taxpayers $137 million a year, with some cases like Alcala's taking decades to complete, through numerous trials and appeals.

In the next 5 years, it said, California is poised to spend $1 billion on its death penalty, including $400 million to build new death row facilities at San Quentin State Prison.

The last inmate executed in California was Clarence Ray Allen, 76, convicted of ordering the murders of three people in Fresno. On Jan. 17, 2006, the supposedly disabled, deaf and blind convict walked from his wheelchair to the gurney, where he received a lethal injection.

The ACLU blamed prosecutors such as Cooley, who have full discretion whether to seek the death penalty or life in prison for the most heinous of criminals.

"He's a politician. He's looking to run for attorney general. The death penalty is a political issue," said James Clark of the ACLU office in Los Angeles. "It's one factor of L.A. being so out of step with the rest of the country." But Cooley issued a statement citing Alcala's crimes - including the torture and sexual assault of his victims - as one example of the need for capital punishment.

"Anyone who doubts the appropriateness and necessity of the death penalty should acquaint themselves with Rodney James Alcala," Cooley said. "Society has suffered by his presence."

Robert Kaufman, a conservative professor of public policy at Pepperdine University, was critical of the ACLU report.

He said the organization has advocated legal procedures that have made it extremely difficult - and costly - to prosecute death penalty cases. And now it argues that cost is one reason to abolish the death penalty.

"Their conclusions go way beyond the conclusion of the data," he said. "I'm very dubious about its methodology, of them comparing California, Texas and Florida.

"It's not surprising we're going to have more capital cases, because we have more population (and) more violent offenders."

In its report, the ACLU raised questions about the growing number of Latinos sentenced to death, most of them in L.A. and Orange counties.

Of last year's death sentences, 31 % were Latino - double the rate of 2001. Still, Latinos comprise 37 % of the state's population.

"The increasing number of Latinos sentenced to death raises questions about the choices made by district attorneys in charging death penalty cases, and the composition of juries in these cases," the report said.

But Kaufman said the report fails to take into account the severity of each crime.

"It may not be politically correct, but it may be that certain people are committing more violent crimes than others," Kaufman said. "Maybe there are more Latinos (sentenced to death) because more Latinos committed violent crimes.

"We don't know from the data."

Source: ACLU, March 31, 2010

Indonesia: No execution in 2009, but 98 convicts still on death row

Anti-death penalty activists welcomed Tuesday that the Indonesian government did not carry out executions in 2009, the first year it has not exercised the death penalty in the country since 2004.

It means Indonesia is the only Southeast Asian country with the penalty that did not apply the punishment last year, according to a report issued by Amnesty International, with the politically volatile Thailand carrying out its 1st executions in 6 years.

But activists stressed that more needed to be done to abolish what they called a "cruel form of punishment" in the country, with a remaining 98 people on death row.

"Unfortunately the death penalty as a punishment still features in many Indonesian laws. Last year, the Aceh local parliament passed a bylaw stipulating that adultery be punished by stoning to death," Amnesty International Indonesia researcher Isabelle Arradon told The Jakarta Post.

"No criminal justice system is immune from the miscarriage of justice and Indonesia should remove the death penalty from the books to ensure it does not execute innocent people," she added.

Papang Hidayat from the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) said the country needed to revise 11 legislations to abolish the death penalty.

The legislations include the criminal law, the 1951 Emergency Law, the 1999 Corruption Law, the 1997 Narcotics Law, the 2000 Human Rights Tribunal Law and the 2003 Counterterrorism Law. The criminal law alone classified 10 crimes, including treason and premeditated murder, as punishable by execution.

"We still have a number of draft laws that carry out the death penalty," Papang said, citing draft laws on state secrecy and intelligence.

Indonesian activists have been pushing the government to apply a moratorium on death-penalty convicts, whose number has reached 119 since 1998.

The Attorney Generals Office has executed 21 people, including the Bali bombers in 2008.

The latest criminal to receive the death sentence is Very Idham Henyansyah, who was convicted for premeditated murder in a high-profile mutilation case last year.

Poengky Indarti from Imparsial said 72 death convicts had been charged with drug offenses, highlighting the plight of foreign drug suspects who often stood trial without being accompanied by competent translators.

Arradon acknowledged that there had been a debate on the death penalty in Indonesia in recent years, adding it was "now time for action."

The Indonesian authorities should seize the opportunity and align themselves to the landmark decision of the Philippines, which abolished the death penalty in law and practice in 2006.

The government has executed 21 people since 1998, including the Bali bombers.

Source: Jakarta Post, March 31, 2010

North Africa: Not Quite Islamic Executions

The Middle East leads the world in executions after China, says an annual Amnesty International report released Tuesday.

"The Middle East and North Africa have the highest per capita rate of executions in the world, according to our figures," Phillip Luther, deputy director for the region with Amnesty, tells IPS.

The Middle East: must be Islam then, most people would imagine. Wrong.

"If you take Egypt, or Syria, or Yemen, or Iraq, the vast majority of death sentences and executions carried out in those countries have nothing to do with Islamic law in any sense," says Luther. "They are on the basis of civil codes - often inherited, and the death penalty provisions within it - from the previous colonial period." Most executions are carried out under the penal code for offences related to drugs and violent crimes, Luther says.

So are executions in non-Islamic countries such as the U.S. and India, to say nothing of China, which is believed to execute thousands a year that it lets the world know nothing about. And Amnesty acknowledges as much, challenging China this year to produce a figure rather than guessing one of its own.

But religion is not behind most executions in the Islamic world of the Middle East and North Africa - and not even in countries such as Saudi Arabia and Iran, says Luther. "If you look at the majority of those sentenced and executed (in Saudi Arabia and Iran), they are executed on the basis of penal codes. Those sentenced under Islamic law are very few."

In Iran, many have been charged with enmity against god, "which clearly has a religious sanction," says Luther, "but which is used in a political way against people who are perceived by the state of rebelling against the state." The motives in Iran are more political than religious because among those executed are a disproportionate number of political prisoners, or members of ethnic or religious minorities.

The sanction comes in the name of religion, but is basically a handle used by the state for its own political ends, and not because it's out to create Islam justice in society.

Amnesty International recorded 388 executions in Iran last year, but says the true figure could be higher. "At least 14 executions took place in public," the report says. "In one 8-week period between the presidential election on Jun. 12 and the inauguration of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for a second term as President on Aug. 5, Amnesty International recorded 112 executions; by contrast, in the 5 1/2 months between Jan. 1 and Jun. 12, at least 196 executions had taken place."

Many countries within the region such as Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and Lebanon have maintained a long-term moratorium on the death penalty of at least 10 years.

The Amnesty report lists 624 executions across the Middle East and North Africa last year. There are no definite figures over earlier years to compare this with, but the general trend in the region is downward, says Luther. "Only 7 countries in this region carried out executions last year (Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Yemen). In terms of the number of countries, that trend is going down, as it is across the world as a whole."

At the same time there is a louder legislative debate in many of these countries to at least reduce the number of crimes punishable by death. "In Lebanon the ministry of justice itself is campaigning to end the death penalty," says Luther. "Algeria was one of the co-sponsors in the U.N. General Assembly in 2008 for a call for a global moratorium, the first Middle East or North African state to do so."

But even though executions are carried out mostly under the penal code, they are at their highest in Iran and Saudi Arabia. "In Saudi Arabia, the authorities continued to execute at an alarming rate," the Amnesty report says. "At least 69 people were publicly beheaded during 2009.

"At the end of 2009 Amnesty International knew of at least 141 people on death row in Saudi Arabia, including at least 104 foreign nationals, mostly from developing countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Prisoners are sentenced in largely secret and unfair trials, often without a defence lawyer, and so the true figures for those under sentence of death are believed to be much higher."

Source: All Africa News, March 31, 2010

Amnesty Condemns Widespread Misuse Of Death Penalty

London-based human rights watchdog Amnesty International has flayed the blatant misuse of death penalty as a political weapon in several countries with China, Iran, Iraq and Sudan topping the list.

In its annual report on capital punishment, Amnesty noted that despite an overwhelming majority favoring abolition of the practice, its extensive and politicized use continued.

"Even as world opinion and practice shift inexorably towards abolition, the extensive and politicized use of the death penalty continues," it said.

Asia, the Middle East and North Africa accounted for majority of executions with 714 people executed in 18 countries in 2009.

Of these 366 people were executed in Iran, 120 in Iraq and 52 in the U.S. and the executions were carried out by "hanging, shooting, beheading, stoning, electrocution and lethal injection."

Saudi Arabia and Iran were criticized for putting to death juvenile offenders in violation of international law.

China is believed to have executed more people in 2009 than all the countries put together, but the actual figures are not available since Beijing maintains that it is a state secret.

Even though China claimed fewer executions since 2007 after the introduction of a mandatory review of death sentences by a higher court, Amnesty maintained that "evidence from previous years and a number of current sources indicates that the figure remains in the thousands."

"The Chinese authorities claim that fewer executions are taking place. If this is true, why won't they tell the world how many people the state put to death?," Claudio Cordone, Amnesty's Interim Secretary-General asked.

The Amnesty report particularly referred to the executions of Tibetans in the wake of the political unrest there, and those carried out in China's restive northwestern Xinjiang region.

Amnesty also expressed concern over the killing of a British national, Akmal Shaikh, executed for alleged smuggling of drugs into China and people sentenced to death for financial fraud there.

Saudi Arabia, which publicly beheaded at least 69 people in 2009, was carrying out executions "at an alarming rate," while there was a spurt in the number of Iranians sentenced to death in the aftermath of the disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad.

Amnesty, meanwhile, reiterated its view about death penalty being an "affront to human dignity."

However, African States Togo and Burundi became 94th and 95th countries to abolish the death penalty and was hailed for doing so and no executions took place in Europe or the member states of erstwhile Soviet Union.

Iran and Iraq which are placed 2nd and 3rd on the Amnesty list were part of the famous "Axis-of-Evil" trio described by former U.S. President George W Bush during his State Of the Union Address in 2002.

Source: RTT News, March 31, 2010

Could it be that the number of executions in China is actually far higher than we feared?

How many does China execute?The details of the executions of thousands of people a year is a state secret and it could be worse than Amnesty fears

You might have heard it said that China executes more people than all other countries in the world put together. Not just a handful, but thousands and thousands of people every single year. This, broadly, is true.

But suppose you actually wanted to find out exactly how many people the People's Republic executes annually. Any chance of getting this information? No. Try asking the Chinese authorities, and you'll get a stern "it's a state secret" rebuff. If you happened to get hold of some solid information (from lawyers in China, for example) you'd then be in possession of a state secret which it would be illegal to make public. It's basically as if there's a super-injunction on the information not just on the actual information, but anything relating to it.

Amnesty's new report on the death penalty worldwide does its best to cut through the secrecy by estimating that there were "thousands" of executions in China in 2009. Based on sources which we can't, for safety's sake, reveal this seems reasonable. But it's still a rough and ready guesstimate. Amazing, given the seriousness of the topic.

China likes to have it both ways. It's been boasting that it has reformed its capital punishment system and that execution numbers are down. But it won't give any figures.

One thing we know more or less is that there are approximately 68 offences in China for which you can receive a death sentence. Many are not for lethal crimes as we saw with the shocking execution of the British

man Akmal Shaikh in December for alleged drugs offences. China's capital crimes reportedly include reselling forged VAT receipts, causing damage to public property, and cattle rustling. 3 years ago a man was sentenced to death for selling overpriced ants.

However, I don't think a full list exists. That would be far too open for the Chinese authorities. If a proper source ever comes to light, it will be interesting to see if "revealing a state secret, including information about the People's Republic of China's use of capital punishment" is included as a capital crime. It wouldn't surprise me this Catch 22-like paradox would suit China's secretive use of the death penalty down to the ground.

But here's an ominous thought. State secrets are normally things like defence matters or intelligence issues. What, then, is China so keen to hide on the death penalty?

Could it be that the number of people in China going to their deaths before firing squads and in mobile lethal injection chambers is actually far higher than we already feared?

Source: The Guardian, March 31, 2010

Japan 'apprehensive' about China execution

Japan said Tuesday it was "apprehensive" about the imminent execution of one of its nationals in China, the first of such cases since the nations normalized diplomatic ties in 1972.

Beijing has told Tokyo that a Japanese man was soon to be executed for reportedly attempting to smuggle 2.5 kilos of narcotics out of China, to Japan, in 2006.

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano stressed that the decision was up to the Chinese judiciary, but said it "affects the sentiment of the Japanese public."

Source: Global Times, March 31, 2010

Texas executes Franklin Dewayne Alix

HUNTSVILLE — Condemned prisoner Franklin Dewayne Alix has been put to death for fatally shooting a Houston man during a robbery.

The 34-year-old Alix was given a lethal injection Tuesday evening for killing 23-year-old Eric Bridgeford. Bridgeford interrupted Alix during the robbery of Bridgeford's sister's apartment more than 11 years ago. The sister also was abducted and raped in what authorities said was part of a six-month crime rampage by Alix.

The execution was the fifth this year in Texas, the nation's busiest capital punishment state.

Alix's appeals to the courts were exhausted and no last-day attempts to stop the punishment were raised.

The execution was the fifth this year in Texas, the nation's busiest capital punishment state.

Alix's lawyer, Robert Rosenberg, said appeals to the courts to stop the execution were exhausted.

"I know I messed up," Alix told The Associated Press recently from death row. "I killed the dude. I wasn't trying to but I did. The dude wasn't bothering me. I was bothering him.

"I don't want to die. I'm remorseful. But I won't apologize."

According to trial testimony, Alix abducted Bridgeford's sister Jan. 3, 1998, forced her into the trunk of a car, drove around and raped her, then brought her home. As he was ransacking her apartment, Bridgeford came in, saw Alix with a gun and ran off but was shot in the back. Alix fled and was arrested a few days later.

Alix denied the rape, said he spotted the woman outside her apartment at night and considered her "easy prey."

He said he threatened to put her in the trunk of a car and she "volunteered to give me her TV" if he wouldn't kill her.

"That's how I got in her house," he said. "Her brother came home. It was just a simple robbery. My intention was never to kill anybody. I'm looking to rob, not kill."

He said he was behind a door when Bridgeford entered the apartment.

"I swung around, put the gun in his face," Alix said, "If I wanted to, I could have shot him between the eyes. I pushed off, and the gun went off. It happened in a second. It felt like hours. I looked at him and took off running."

Asked what he took in the robbery, he replied: "I didn't get nothing."

At his 1998 trial, his lawyers tried to persuade the jury he didn't intend to kill Bridgeford. Jurors deliberated five hours before convicting him of capital murder. Alix said a debt of "a couple of thousand" dollars to a friend got out of control and forced him to turn to robbery to get money.

Harris County prosecutors said the slaying was one of three plus two rapes and dozens of robberies they tied to Alix from August 1997 through January 1998.

"He was just a major league crime spree," Luci Davidson, a former prosecutor now in private practice, recalled last week. "He's probably one of the worst criminal defendants I ever tried as a prosecutor."

She said he confessed to most of the crimes. Alix said he confessed to the rape of Bridgeford's sister because he believed it would help him not get the death penalty.

"I'm on death row because I was confused," he said. "I came here with confusion. I'm leaving a better person."

DNA evidence used in his trial also played a role in a scandal involving the Houston Police Department's crime lab when retests discredited the initial results.

But the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, affirming a federal district judge's findings, said the DNA evidence was part of a "larger body of proof," including Alix's long history of violence, that showed jurors he was dangerous and should be sentenced to death.

Source: AP, March 30, 2010

Kuwaiti wife gets death sentence for wedding blaze

KUWAIT CITY — A court on Tuesday sentenced a Kuwaiti woman to death for starting a fire that killed 57 women and children at the wedding party of her husband who married another wife.

Judge Adel al-Sager read out the verdict against Nasra Yussef Mohammed al-Enezi, 23, at the court of first instance.

Death sentences in Kuwait are carried out by hanging, but it would first have to be upheld by the appeals court.

The woman who was not present in the court was found guilty of "premeditated murder and starting a fire with the intent to kill."

Press reports at the time of the blaze said Enezi had wanted to avenge her husband's "bad treatment" of her, but in court she denied any involvement in the incident.

Defence lawyer Zaid al-Khabbaz vowed he would prove Enezi's innocence in the higher courts and said the verdict had been influenced by public opinion.

"The ruling was very harsh against a woman who is innocent," Khabbaz told AFP. "It is a political judgement rather than a criminal ruling because the court came under the influence of public opinion."

He said the public prosecution failed to "unequivocally prove that Enezi was the perpetrator. The case contained many legal loopholes."

Khabbaz said the defence team was considering contacting international human rights organisations in a bid to save Enezi's life.

He also said the defence team would have a better opportunity to prove her innocence in the appeals and supreme courts.

The August 15 inferno engulfed the women-and-children-only tent in minutes and triggered a stampede. The final death toll was 57, including several Saudis and stateless Arabs.

At her first hearing in October, the suspect denied the charges.

At another hearing, an Asian domestic helper testified in court that she saw Enezi pour petrol and start the fire at the wedding tent in Jahra, about 40 kilometres (25 miles) west of Kuwait City.

Her defence lawyers had alleged at the time of Enezi's arrest on August 16, she was two months pregnant but that the embryo was "deliberately aborted" by a prison guard with the help of an Asian nurse.

The incident shocked the small Gulf Arab state and Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah ordered that relatives of each victim be paid 35,000 dollars in compensation.

Enezi was initially believed to be the groom's ex-wife but defence lawyers said she was still his wife, as men are allowed to have more than one wife in this Muslim state.

Enezi and the man have two children, both of whom are mentally handicapped.

If Enezi's sentence is upheld by higher courts, she would be the first Kuwaiti woman to be executed in the history of the Gulf state.

Another Kuwaiti woman was sentenced to death over three years ago after being convicted of drug trafficking, but her sentence was commuted to 15 years in prison.

Women from other nationalities have, however, been hanged in the past.

Kuwait has executed a total of 72 people, three of them women, since it introduced the death penalty some four decades ago. Most of the condemned have been convicted murderers or drug traffickers.

Source: AFP, March 30, 2010

Majority of D.A.s in state oppose Obama nominee

Forty-two of California's 58 county district attorneys are opposing President Obama's nomination of Goodwin Liu to the federal appeals court in San Francisco, saying they believe the UC Berkeley law professor is hostile to the death penalty.

In a letter to leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee, the prosecutors attacked a paper Liu coauthored in 2005 that criticized death penalty decisions by Samuel Alito, then President George W. Bush's nominee for the Supreme Court.

Read more.

Source: San Francisco Chronicle, March 30, 2010

India: 5 get death penalty in honour killing case

Karnal: A Haryana court on Tuesday awarded the death penalty to five people in the honour killing case of a couple in 2007.

The court in Karnal declared the quantum of punishment for the six people who were found guilty of killing the young couple – Manoj and Babli (pictured) - for marrying outside their gotra (sub-caste) three years ago.

All the five who have been given the death sentence are relatives of the girl, Babli. They include her brother Suresh, cousins Gurdev and Satish, uncles Baru Ram and Rajender.

The khap (caste) panchayat leader Ganga Ram got life sentence while the driver, who was held guilty of kidnapping, was give a jail term of seven years.

Manoj's sibling, who had been waging a lonely battle to get justice, were elated with the decision.

Manoj's sister Seema said that though she was happy with the verdict and the sentencing but wanted even Ganga Ram to be given the death penalty.

"I am very happy but the life sentence to Ganga Ram is not justified. Even he should have been given death penalty. We have asked the High Court for security cover. As of now there is a lot of police in the village. The decision of the panchayat was not justified and people should not to allowed to misuse their power. We have fought this battle alone. The society or family did not support us. There was a lot of pressure on us to take back the case. The accused even tried to bribe us to take back the case," she said.

Her brother Narender said that they would appeal for death penalty to Ganga Ram, in the High Court.

We will appeal in High Court for death penalty to the main accused, Ganga Ram. We respect the court's decision but main accused Ganga Ram should also have been given death penalty," said Narender.

Public prosecutor Lal Bahadur welcomed the decision.

"Out of seven accused, five have been given death sentence. One has been given life sentence and one has been given years of imprisonment. Rs 1 lakh as compensation has been ordered by the court to be given to victims' families," said Bahadur.

"This is a very good decision. We welcome the decision. This is a strong message to the public and this is a message to the khap," said Bahadur.

"People will have more confidence in justice. Order has been directed by the court to take action against two policemen for laxity and directions has been given to the SP to take necessary action. This is first of the kind of judgement by court involving khap panchayats," he added.

The prosecution lawyer Narayan Singh Chahar said that the verdict was a warning to the khap panchayats

"Khap panchayats should change the way they work after seeing this judgement. The leader (Ganga Ram) got away with death penalty because he intentionally disappeared during the killing," he said.

Manoj, 23, had married Babli, 19 from village Karora, against the wishes of her family. They lived in Karnal town and were murdered in June 2007 after village elders accused the couple of violating the code of conduct related to marriage.

Manoj, who ran an electronics repair shop at Kaithal, eloped with Babli, resident of Karoran village in May 2007. They were murdered the next month.

According to the police, the girl's relatives dragged the couple out of a Karnal-bound bus in June 2007. The newly weds were brutally murdered and their bodies thrown into an irrigation canal.

Source: IBNLive, March 30, 2010

Amnesty: Iran executions send a chilling message

Recent developments in Iran have prompted fears that the Iranian authorities are once more using executions as a tool to try and quell political unrest, intimidate the population and send a signal that dissent will not be tolerated.

There was a noticeable surge in the rate of executions at the time of mass protests over last year's disputed Presidential elections. Although many of the executions were for criminal offences committed before the unrest, they sent a chilling message to those involved in protests.

112 people were put to death in the 8 weeks between the June election and the re-inauguration of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in early August-almost 1/3 of the total for the entire year.

In 2009 as a whole at least 388 people were put to death in Iran - the largest number recorded by Amnesty International in recent years. Figures collated by various human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, suggest the annual number of executions has almost quadrupled since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was first elected five years ago. Many of those executed did not receive fair trials.

"The continuing surge in executions at a time when Iran has experienced the most widespread popular unrest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, combined with numerous statements by officials threatening protestors with execution, indicates that the Iranian authorities are again using the death penalty to try and cow the opposition and silence dissent," said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty Internationals Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa.

"SHOW TRIALS"

A series of "show trials" led to two men being hanged in January; the first executions which the authorities linked directly to the current unrest; although it later emerged that the pair were already in detention at the time of last June's presidential election.

Among other things, they were convicted of "mohabareh", or "enmity against God". Nasrin Sotoudeh, lawyer for one of the men, Arash Rahmanipour, told Reuters "An execution with this speed and rush has only one explanation ... the government is trying to prevent the expansion of the current (opposition) movement through the spread of fear and intimidation."

An increasing number of people have been charged with "moharebeh", a vaguely-defined offence. According to Philip Alston, the UN's Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, it is "imposed for a wide range of crimes, often fairly ill-defined and generally having some sort of political nature."

At least 9 other people, sentenced to death following the popular demonstrations which began last summer and were continuing at the end of 2009, are believed to be on death row.

Recent comments by Tehran prosecutor Abbas Ja'fari Dowlatabadi served to fan suspicions that the sentences were politically motivated. Referring to the imposition of death sentences on a group of protesters, he said: "Today the Islamic system has firmly put its opponents and dissidents in their place. The people will not allow such incidents to reoccur in the country."

EXECUTIONS UNDER PREVIOUS GOVERNMENTS

This is not the first time that Iran's leaders have been accused of using summary executions or the death penalty as a tool of political control. Executions were used extensively under the Shah, and in the early days of the Islamic Republic as a way of eliminating political enemies and suppressing opposition.

In the 1970s, an increasingly unpopular Shah used the mass arrest of political opponents to eliminate political enemies and suppress opposition. At the time, Amnesty International criticized the Iranian authorities for what it described as the "extremely high number of executions" conducted after unfair trials by military tribunals.

In 1979, more than 600 people were summarily executed by firing squad in the months following the Islamic Revolution. Many were former ministers, officials or army officers under the Shah. Some were executed after

grossly unfair trials lasting only a few minutes. By 1982, Amnesty International had recorded well over 4,000 executions since the time of the Revolution.

But the largest number of summary executions came in 1988. Up to 5,000 people many of them political prisoners - are believed to have died in the so called "prison massacre" between 1988 and 1989, in what Amnesty International described at the time as a "purposeful mass killing of political opponents." Many were members of the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran, an opposition organization accused of collaborating with Saddam Hussain's Iraq during the eight year Iran-Iraq war. But others were members of secular, left-wing political parties regarded as a threat to Iran's Islamic system. In many cases, their "trials" consisted of a few questions put to them in their prison cells by members of what prisoners dubbed "The Death Commission".

A REVIVAL OF THE DEATH PENALTY

The number of executions decreased in the 1990s. (Death sentences were handed down in the wake of student unrest in 1999, but were not implemented.) But they rose rapidly again after President Ahmadinejad was elected in 2005, pledging to improve public order, take action against "thugs and hooligans" and return Iran to the original values of the Islamic Revolution.

There was also a rise in the number of executions of juvenile offenders people sentenced to death for crimes committed when they were under the age of 18. Iran is one of only a handful of countries to continue such executions, in clear violation of international law. According to UN Special Rapporteur Philip Alston "No state really tries to defend it as a matter of principle - it's clearly outlawed. And yet Iran continues to not only charge juveniles, but to execute them in significant numbers."

Even before last summer's unrest, there were signs that President Ahmadinejad's government was increasingly using the death penalty as a way of stemming unrest in areas with large ethnic minorities. Bomb attacks in the predominantly Arab province of Khuzestan and ethnic Baluch areas of Sistan-Baluchistan province in recent years were followed by a wave of often public executions. Some of the condemned men were shown on state television making "confessions" that are believed to have been extracted from them under torture or other duress.

Ehsan Fattahian, arrested in 2008 and convicted of being a member of a Kurdish opposition group, was executed last November. In a letter sent two days before he was hanged, he said his original sentence had been increased because he refused to appear on camera confessing to crimes he had not committed. He alleged that this move was "a result of pressure from security and political forces outside the judiciary." Since last year's unrest, the number of Iranian Kurds being sentenced to death for political offences has continued to rise.

UN Special Rapporteur Philip Alston adds that "International law says very clearly that the death penalty can only be carried out for the most serious crimes. I have shown very clearly that that phrase was intended to refer to crimes which result in an intentional death of some sort - homicide - and that any lesser crimes cannot be punished by the death penalty. Again, that is a prohibition that the Iranian courts and the Iranian government have consistently neglected or ignored."

Hundreds, probably thousands, of individuals are currently on death row in Iran. Sometimes their ordeal can last for years. Amnesty International spoke to one prisoner who spent years on death row before his sentence was eventually commuted. In a telephone interview from jail he said:

"Have you ever experienced receiving a death sentence? Have your partner, parents, brother, sister and relatives been told that tonight a close relative of yours is going to be executed? Can you understand the horror and shock of hearing such news? But me, 2 of my close relatives and our families have been going through this not for a night or 2 or few nights, but for a period of over 2,000 nights."

Source: Amnesty International, March 30, 2010

Iran: Judge Salavati Sentences School Teacher to Death

Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) - Abdolreza Ghanbari, a school teacher and a university lecturer for over 14 years, has been sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Court.

According to HRANA, judge Salavati issued the execution order due to accusations of mohareb for suspicious ties with various groups. The evidence for the accusation was emails and connection to foreign television stations.

According to the report, Ghanbari was arrested January 13, 2009 by security forces.

In recent months, branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court has sentenced several people to death under the orders of judge Salavati. So far two of the execution orders have been carried out (the death of Mohammad Reza Ali Zamani and Arash Rahmanipour).

Source: Persian2English, March 29, 2010

Japan: Capital crimes soon to lose statute; Diet to heed demands of the victimized, ensure culprits can't evade justice over time

The Democratic Party of Japan-led government recently approved a bill to abolish the statute of limitations on crimes that could be punishable by hanging in a move experts say signals a major shift in the justice system.

The bill, which would amend the Criminal Procedure Law and the Penal Code, also would lift the maximum statute of limitations to 30 years for crimes punishable by life imprisonment, to 20 years for crimes punishable by 20 years of imprisonment, and to 10 years for crimes punishable by lesser prison terms.

The bill is based on proposals submitted to the justice minister in February by the ministry's Legislative Council. They discussed the revision based on the findings of the study group that worked under the previous Liberal Democratic Party-led government.

Observers said the bill, to be submitted to the current Diet session, will be passed by the end of June because the LDP, now the largest opposition force, is unlikely to vote against it.

Following are basic questions and answers about the statute of limitation and what led to the planned revisions:

What is the statute of limitations and why is it in place?

The statute demarcates the period in which specific legal action, namely prosecution, can be pursued.

According to the Justice Ministry, the general assumption is the statute exists because with the passage of time, evidence in crimes is lost, making it more difficult to file charges and lessening the chances for a fair trial.

The social demand that a culprit be brought to justice over a crime also wanes with the passage of time, the ministry said.

In 2007, the statute of limitations expired for 58 murders, 20 arsons, 146 robberies and 78 rapes, according to ministry statistics.

When was the statute of limitations established?

The system dates to the 1880 Criminal Procedure Law, based on recommendations by Gustave Emile Boissonade de Fontarabie, a French jurist who was invited by the Imperial government to assist Japan in compiling various codes.

At the time, perpetrators of heinous crimes, including murder, robbery and rape, would not face prosecution if they evaded justice for 10 years. The statute underwent minor revisions up until the end of World War II.

Then came the Criminal Procedure Law of 1948, which set a 15-year statute of limitations for crimes subject to the gallows, a 10-year statute for crimes subject to life imprisonment and a seven-year statute for crimes that could warrant a prison term exceeding 10 years.

These statutes remained until 2004, when they were extended amid demands for harsher punishment for heinous crimes.

Under the revised code, the statute for crimes punishable by death was extended to 25 years, that for crimes subject to life imprisonment was increased to 15 years, and crimes warranting sentences of 15 years or more were boosted from seven to 10 years.

Are there exclusions to the prescribed statutes?

Yes. By law the statute is suspended if a suspect flees abroad.

It can also be put on hold for an alleged offender until the trial of an accused accomplice is completed.

Why are the statutes again under review, and the one for capital crimes being abolished?

People victimized by crimes have been demanding an end to the statute and have complained that they have been left out of the justice system. This pushed LDP-led administrations to begin considering heeding their demands.

Sora no Kai, a nationwide group of murder victims' families, has been demanding that the statute for murder be abolished and, if not, at least suspended while investigations into slayings continue. In some of the slayings of their loved ones, no arrests have been made.

"We have felt a contradiction between the fact that the law allows a culprit to lead a life without punishment, despite claiming the precious life of another," they said in a statement to the ministry's Legislative Council. "Don't laws exist to protect the rights of people to pursue a happy life? Does the law protect the rights of a person who took someone's life?"

The group also wants a system established that allows the next of kin of murder victims to sue the government for compensation for failing to protect the life and property of its citizens.

Compared with the 2004 revision, the current bill would not only abolish the statute on capital crimes but would cover crimes that took place before the expected changes, as long as the statute hasn't expired.

The revisions would not be applied to closed cases.

Also, one reason for abolishing the statute on heinous crimes is that forensic science, particularly DNA analysis, has advanced to the point where it is possible to solve some cold cases.

Are there concerns about abolishing the statute for capital offenses or suspending it amid ongoing investigations?

Attorneys have claimed that ending the statute would make it difficult for them to defend clients because, for example, the memories of witnesses may have faded and evidence may be lost due to the passing of time.

The Japan Federation of Bar Associations said a better option would be to hone the investigative skills of law enforcement so cases can be resolved more promptly.

The federation also wants the government to provide greater support to people victimized by crime, including compensation and providing more information related to investigations.

The lawyers said it is too soon to change the statutes, because the effects from the revisions 5 years ago have yet to be assessed.

Experts also say law enforcement personnel, finances and other resources are limited, making it hard to justify open-ended investigations in the event there are no time limits.

The group Higaisha to Shihou wo Kangaerukai, made up of families of crime victims, said not all relatives share the same view, and some want to move on with their lives if investigations drag on for years without resolution. Some would be satisfied if authorities reported to them about the progress of their probes.

How about the statute system in other countries?

In the United States, for example, statutes may vary from state to state, but when it comes to murder, there is no statute, as well as in cases of federal capital offenses punishable by death, certain sex offenses and terrorism.

For many other federal-level crimes, prosecution must generally begin within 5 years from their commission. Exceptions to this include 10 years in cases of arson and 20 years for thefts of artworks.

As part of the European Union, where there is no death penalty, Germany, for example, has a 30-year statute on crimes punishable by life in prison, a 20-year statute for offenses warranting sentences of at least 10 years and a 10-year statute for crimes that merit at least a 5-year stretch.

Source: The Japan Times, March 30, 2010

Amnesty calls on China to give true executions number

In a new report being published today, Amnesty International calls on China to say publicly how many people it executes each year.

The call comes in the group’s annual report on the use of the death penalty worldwide.

More people are put to death in China than in the rest of world altogether, and estimates based on the publicly available statistics “grossly under-represent” the actual numbers, the report says.

The true figure was likely to be “in the thousands,” the London-based human rights group said in the report, which also highlighted executions in Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the US.

“The Chinese authorities claim that fewer executions are taking place. If this is true, why won’t they tell the world how many people the state put to death?” said Claudio Cordone, Amnesty’s interim secretary-general.

“The death penalty is cruel and degrading, and an affront to human dignity ... No-one who is sentenced to death in China receives a fair trial in accordance with international human rights standards,” he said.

The report said that at least 714 people were executed in 18 countries last year, while at least 2,001 people were sentenced to death in 56 states.

Besides China, the countries that executed the most people last year were Iran (at least 338); Iraq (at least 120); Saudi Arabia (at least 69); and the US (52).

“The past year saw capital punishment applied extensively to send political messages, to silence opponents or to promote political agendas in China, Iran and Sudan,” Amnesty said.

It said Iran executed 112 people in the eight weeks between Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s re-election in June and his inauguration in August.

Burundi and Togo abolished the death penalty for all crimes, taking to 95 the number of countries to have done this by the end of last year. Nine more countries have abolished it for ordinary crimes.

Some 35 countries retain the death penalty but have not executed anyone in the past 10 years.

Source: Taipei Times, March 29, 2010

Texas: End near for 'poster boy for death penalty'

His attorney won't seek to stop Tuesday execution.

As a youth, Franklin DeWayne Alix sang in his church's choir, taught Sunday school and drove older congregation members to their medical appointments. He was, in the eyes of some, a "typical fun-loving teenager."

But Alix's choirboy days were long past when, on the morning of Jan. 3, 1998, he accosted at gunpoint a young woman in the parking lot of her home, stuffed her into a car trunk, drove her to an ATM where he unsuccessfully tried to use her bank card, sexually assaulted her, returned to her home to steal electronics and, when caught in the act, fatally shot her brother.

Alix, 34, his court appeals exhausted, is set to be executed Tuesday for the murder of Eric Bridgeford, 23. He will be the 5th killer executed in Texas this year and the 1st from Harris County.

Alix's appellate attorney, Robert Rosenberg, said he will not appeal to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, a move he believes is futile. Only twice in Gov. Rick Perry's tenure has the board recommended commutation. In both cases, Perry allowed execution to proceed.

"I made some bad mistakes in life," Alix said in a recent death row interview. "There are things I would like to take back. ... I stopped going to church. Look at the results."

High school dropout

Alix, whose mother was an alcoholic and spent time in prison, was reared by his grandparents. He dropped out of high school in the 10th grade and began selling drugs. He claimed to have been sexually abused as a child.

In the punishment phase of his trial, prosecutors presented evidence that Alix also had committed three capital murders, two attempted capital murders, 8 aggravated robberies, 1 robbery and two aggravated sexual assaults accompanied by 4 aggravated kidnappings in a 6-month crime spree. A prosecutor described him as "a poster boy for the death penalty."

5 years after his conviction, however, questions arose about the validity of DNA evidence in 1 of the 3 capital killings.

In that case, a chemist from the scandal-rocked Houston Police Department Crime Lab testified that blood from a piece of gauze the killer had used for a mask tested positive for Alix's DNA. The victim's widow also made an in-court identification of Alix as the gunman.

When the gauze was tested a second time, the results were inconclusive, leading the trial judge to rule the chemist's testimony should be "deemed unreliable."

Appeal rejected

Alix filed an appeal based on the new DNA test results, but the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rejected it, saying that it found no "reasonable possibility" that the jury would have changed its decision based on the question of the chemist's credibility.

"We also conclude, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the introduction of the testimony of the HPD chemist, even if false, did not contribute to punishment," the appeals court wrote.

In the recent interview, Alix claimed that he sold, but did not use, drugs and that the man he worked for stuffed victims into car trunks and drove them to ATM machines. Alix said he did not sexually assault Bridgeford's sister.

"I was no angel," he said, "but I didn't do all those robberies."

Alix said he became trapped in the violent world of drug dealing because of immaturity. "I just didn't understand life," he said. On one occasion, he said, his criminal associates burned him with a blow torch because of unpaid debts.

Alix is the father of 3 children, ages 11-12.

The oldest, Frankie, occasionally is brought to death row for visits.

"He's handling it OK, but it's emotional," he said of his son's death row visits. "I'm resolved that he's better than me, that his opportunities will be better than mine. ... He needs to know that he shouldn't be afraid to communicate. Someone will always help. ...He's not alone."

Source: Houston Chronicle, March 29, 2010