Yong Vui Kong gets to see his next birthday

In a court ruling on 31 Aug, Yong Vui Kong (left) gets another stay of execution from the High Court when it ruled that the date for appeal of the High Court's judgement on judicial review will be on the week commencing from 17 Jan 2011.

Vui Kong, who will be 23 in January next year, will have spent almost 4 years in prison after his incarceration.

The average waiting time for convicts in death row in recent years have reduced dramatically as the court processes become more efficient.

The judges seem to have a compassionate streak to give Vui Kong's lawyer another 4 months to prepare and Vui Kong another 4 months to continue his daily ritual of prayers and maintain a tiny sliver of hope that one day, the Singapore President can grant him clemency.

Before passing the judgement, trial judge Justice Choo Han Teck summoned both the defence and prosecution into chamber and asked the prosecution if they would consider reducing the charge given the relatively young age of the drug offender, who was not even 19 at the age of the offence. The prosecution declined and the death sentence was handed to Vui Kong.

On 14th May, the Court of Appeal duly rejected Vui Kong's first appeal. But it acknowledged that the mandatory death sentence is considered a cruel, degrading and inhuman punishment.

The judges seem to favour giving Vui Kong a second chance, but they are unable to because of the lack of discretion due to the mandatory nature of the death penalty applicable to drug traffickers.

This is unfortunate, because day in and day out these judges see criminals, some sentenced to death, others not. High court judges should be given the powers to decide whether a person has committed a crime so heinous that he/she deserves the death sentence.

Malaysia has had a minister speaking up about abolishing the death penalty recently, when would it be Singapore's turn?

Source: Save Vui Kong, August 31, 2010

Vui Kong’s appeal set for Jan 2011

January 2011 – that’s the date the Registrar of the Supreme Court has set for the Court of Appeal to hear Yong Vui Kong’s appeal against the High Court’s decision on his judicial review application.

Vui Kong’s lawyer was today informed that the appeal hearing has been set “for the week commencing 17 January 2011”.

“This early notice is to give sufficient time for parties to be ready for the hearing, though we are aware that the record of appeals and cases have still not been filed,” the Registrar’s letter said.

The High Court had, on 13 August, dismissed Vui Kong’s appeal for judicial review concerning the authority to grant presidential clemency. Justice Chong ruled that the power to grant clemency “rests solely with the Cabinet” and that the President has no discretion in this.

Justice Chong also laid down that the courts have no power to review the clemency process.

The court was asked to adjudicate on Law Minister K Shanmugam’s remarks made in public before Vui Kong had filed his appeal for presidential clemency and while the Court of Appeal was deliberating Vui Kong’s appeal against his sentence. Vui Kong’s lawyer, Mr M Ravi, argued that the minister’s remarks had prejudiced Vui Kong’s appeal. Justice Chong, in his ruling, said he saw “nothing objectionable about the Minister’s statement”.

Mr Ravi later submitted a notice of appeal to the courts informing them that he intends to appeal Justice Chong’s decisions.

Vui Kong was originally scheduled to be hanged on 4 December 2009.

The original deadline for Vui Kong to submit his presidential clemency appeal was 26 August. The Singapore Prison Service has since informed Mr Ravi that it has extended the deadline until after the Court of Appeal’s hearing.

In the meantime, the Malaysian government sent a letter of appeal for clemency to the Singapore government on Vui Kong’s behalf on 29 July. The Singapore government has yet to respond to the letter. On 26 August, a group of Malaysian lawyers and parliamentarians handed a memorandum to the Singapore High Commission in Kuala Lumpur asking for Singapore to show mercy to Vui Kong.

Vui Kong’s family, together with MP for Sabah, Datuk Chua Soon Bui, and supporters, paid a visit to the Istana on 24 August to plead for Vui Kong to be given a second chance. The family members handed over 100,000 signatures collected in both Malaysia and Singapore in support of the plea. (Read TOC’s report here.)

The campaign to save Vui Kong has gathered pace in recent weeks, with many non-governmental organizations, politicians (both from the ruling party and from the opposition), Buddhists associations and youth groups, giving their support to the clemency request.

Singapore’s President, SR Nathan, has never granted any clemency appeals in his 11 years in office as Head of State.

Source: The Online Citizen, August 31, 2010

Iran Foreign Minister: 'No one is executed in Iran for political reasons'

In a SPIEGEL interview, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki (left), 57, discusses the consequences of Western sanctions against Iran and the risk of a military strike against his country.

SPIEGEL: Mr. Foreign Minister, you are the senior diplomat of the Islamic Republic of Iran. You represent a nation that prides itself on a cultural history stretching back more than 2,500 years. Don't you find it shameful that people are stoned to death in your country?

Manouchehr Mottaki: You come from a country that murdered millions of people during a tyrannical war, and you want to talk to me about human rights? OK, we can certainly discuss the laws in various countries and naturally we can, in a friendly atmosphere, debate the different legal principles.

SPIEGEL: It isn't a matter of legal subtleties. Stoning is a glaring violation of universal human rights. It's barbaric.

Mottaki: There is a certain framework for punishments in Islam. In Iran, we treat crimes that are punished with the death penalty with special sensitivity, because Islam assigns special value to human life. The Koran reads: ""Anyone who murders any person (…), it shall be as if he murdered all the people. And anyone who spares a life, it shall be as if he spared the lives of all the people.""

SPIEGEL: We are not talking about murder, for which the death penalty by hanging is imposed in Iran, but about the stoning of adulterers. International human rights organizations report that there have been seven cases in the last five years alone.

Mottaki: I cannot confirm your number. But it shows that this sentence is in fact carried out very rarely.

SPIEGEL: The names of 14 other potential stoning victims are also known. This places Iran on the same level as countries like Somalia and Afghanistan when it was under Taliban rule.

Mottaki: Certain groups are making these accusations, and the West must be careful not to allow itself to be misled by people who seek to harm our reputation. Many of the things that were reported on the most recent case…

SPIEGEL: …the impending stoning of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani …

Mottaki: … are either completely incorrect or contradictory. This file has existed for several years, and nothing was done about the case, deliberately so. The campaign is now backed by people who, with the help of a few European politicians and the media, are playing a rigged game. We will soon announce further information about what is behind this game. And when you speak of Afghanistan, why don't you mention the victims of the foreign troops? Countless people have died as a result of their military campaigns. But you challenge me on this one case and then compare us to Afghanistan.

SPIEGEL: Will you lobby for Ashtiani not to be stoned?

Mottaki: I am not a judge. Besides, this case requires further legal review. A final decision has not yet been made.

SPIEGEL: This case is only one example of Iran's contempt for human rights. Iran, which executed 400 people last year, is second from the top of the list of countries that still impose the death penalty -- behind China, with a population 20 times as large.

Mottaki: You have to understand our situation. Iran is in a region in which a lot of money is made in the drug trade. Most crimes are related to the trade. We have to take a firm stance against these crimes. Some 4,000 police officers and soldiers have died fighting dealers in our country. We sentence criminals on the basis of our laws. Criminals are treated fairly. Don't forget that we are the first line of defense against drugs. Iran also protects the young people and the population of your country. Germany is a target of the drug trade.

SPIEGEL: But it isn't just criminals who are executed. Death sentences are also passed against political prisoners.

Mottaki: No one is executed in Iran for political reasons. You have no evidence to prove the opposite.

SPIEGEL: The large wave of arrests after the reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last June shows that your legal system is political. Thousands have been arrested since then. The revolutionary courts have imposed long prison sentences on people whose only offence was to oppose the president.

Mottaki: This election was a triumph. We had the highest turnout for a presidential election since the 1979 revolution. Of 40 million voters, a turnout of 85 percent, 25 million voted for Mr. Ahmadinejad. But as was already the case during Mr. Ahmadinejad's first election in 2005, the West apparently expected a different election result. We think the Western countries lack political maturity.

SPIEGEL: For the West, but also for millions of people in Iran, the most recent election was a huge fraud.

Mottaki: Manipulation is an issue in elections everywhere. Just think of the differences of opinion that elections have triggered in the United States, where a court had to step in to end a dispute over the validity of ballots. The accusations were also investigated in our country, at the urging of the opposition and our leadership. The votes were recounted. Since then, the result has been legally binding.

'We Don't Want More than What Is Our Right'

SPIEGEL: The victims of your legal system included highly respected people like Mohammad Ali Abtahi, vice president under the former reformist President Mohammad Khatami, Mohammed Atrianfar, an adviser to Khatami's predecessor, Hashemi Rafsanjani, and the well-known journalist Issa Saharkhiz, who was arrested after an interview with SPIEGEL.

Mottaki: The accused have acknowledged their mistakes.

SPIEGEL: But those were extorted confessions.

Mottaki: How can you claim that? The confessions were made in an open atmosphere, in the presence of media representatives. They were also repeated in front of other witnesses.

SPIEGEL: The charges included contact with the West. What's wrong with that?

Mottaki: There is nothing inherently wrong with it. We have had contact with the West for 150 years, and we promote cooperation. But in these cases we are talking about concrete instructions that the accused were given. A number of Western news services deliberately used these people.

SPIEGEL: Isn't the crackdown by the security apparatus a sign that the Ahmadinejad government is finished, and that the only way it knows to stay in power is to use repression?

Mottaki: This government has already been in office for a year and will remain in power for another three years, that is, for the full four years for which it was elected. But what is finished is the nefarious game that was intended to distort our election victory. The Iranian people are a cultivated and intelligent people. No one can manipulate them.

SPIEGEL: Ahmadinejad came into office five years ago promising to fight mismanagement and corruption. But the situation has only worsened under his leadership. The inflation rate is estimated to be at least 25 percent, and half of Iranians live at or below the poverty level.

Mottaki: This sort of propaganda is merely meant to show that the sanctions are working. Look at our economic growth, especially in the industrial sector. Note the reduction in the inflation rate, the upturn in the market and our growing trade relations with many countries, even with countries that voted for the resolutions. The sanctions have made us immune to the global economic crisis that has hit other countries, including those in Europe. We have become self-sufficient. Iran is exporting wheat for the first time. Despite the sanctions, we have launched a satellite into space. And we have now mastered uranium enrichment.

SPIEGEL: The United States and the EU, in particular, have implemented sanctions that go beyond the United Nations Security Council resolutions. They are now affecting the important oil industry and gasoline imports. Were you surprised by the Europeans' tough approach?

Mottaki: Europe will undoubtedly suffer more under the new sanctions than we will. Europe will be the big loser in relation to this policy. We already reduced our trade relations with Europe considerably in recent years. We now produce some of the goods ourselves, and we have found new suppliers for the rest. We're not concerned about our supply of gasoline and other energy sources.

SPIEGEL: Did Turkey and China step in?

Mottaki: You don't actually expect me to tell you about the details of the agreements?

SPIEGEL: The German government was particularly adamant about setting a rigid course. Has this affected relations adversely?

Mottaki: If your government is not interested in expanding and deepening our relations, Iran doesn't have to run after it. We think it's beneath the dignity of the German people to support a certain US policy. My recommendation is for Germany (to pursue) an independent policy.

SPIEGEL: And the recommendation from Germany is that you show a willingness to compromise in the nuclear conflict.

Mottaki: I would like to direct a comment at your foreign minister, Mr. (Guido) Westerwelle, and his European counterparts: We don't want more than what is our right. We have created this right without outside assistance. And I think the best thing now would be to recognize this right, within the framework of the appropriate provisions and regulations.

'Anyone Who Attacks Iran Will Regret It'

SPIEGEL: It still isn't quite clear what Tehran wants. The president recently announced that he intends to resume negotiations on Sept. 8, after the end of Ramadan. Shortly afterwards, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ruled out talks with the United States. What next?

Mottaki: You have to keep these things carefully separated. We want to talk to the so-called Vienna Group about the exchange of fuel: We deliver low enriched uranium in return for 20 percent enriched fuel for our research reactor in Tehran. The negotiating partners are France, Russia, the United States, Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna. There are also proposals to include Turkey and Brazil in these talks.

SPIEGEL: Still, are you unwilling to show any accommodation in the real conflict over uranium enrichment?

Mottaki: We want to talk, but first the structure of the group, which consists of the five permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany, must be changed. Other countries must be added to the group. The talks can then be resumed with this new structure.

SPIEGEL: And your president also wants direct talks with the president of the United States independently of that?

Mottaki: Mr. Ahmadinejad has announced his willingness to engage in a public debate with Mr. Obama. This is quite different from official talks between the United States and Iran, which the leader of the revolution has spoken out against.

SPIEGEL: In other words, Iran is continuing to try to stall for time. You are aware that there is a substantial risk of a military strike against your nuclear plants?

Mottaki: You cannot disregard a country's rights and force it to make compromises. We are determined to defend our right. Anyone who attacks Iran will regret it.

SPIEGEL: There are growing calls in Israel for a military strike against Iran's nuclear facilities -- with or without Washington's approval.

Mottaki: Israel has been talking about this for years. The Zionist regime knows exactly what fate awaits it here. The regime would be putting its own existence at stake with an attack.

SPIEGEL: You would attack Israel?

Mottaki: I have just told you what would happen.

SPIEGEL: Your first reactor, in Bushehr, is scheduled to go online on Sept. 26 after more than 30 years of construction. Do you really want to see the Israelis reduce it to rubble?

Mottaki: Do you have evidence that Bushehr will be attacked? How probable do you think such an attack is?

SPIEGEL: The likelihood is considered high.

Mottaki: We don't see this likelihood.

SPIEGEL: Do you want to ignore reality? Don't you recognize the military threat? Don't you see the worldwide protest against the impending stoning of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani?

Mottaki: What is the point of these questions? You would be better advised to listen to us. It was our interpretations of the situation in this region that have proved to be right. We predicted that the United States would capitulate in Iraq, and that's what has happened. Instead, you are playing the human rights game. You ask me about the possible killing of a human being. But you show no sensitivity for the many, many people that are being killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. How long does the West intend to live with this contradiction?

SPIEGEL: In two conversations, we also asked you about your assessments of the region, and we found your responses to be noteworthy. But now the Ashtiani case has caused an international reaction. And the international community is extremely alarmed in light of Iran's nuclear activities. It seems to be one minute before midnight.

Mottaki: No. On my watch it's one o'clock, and precisely at that moment the Bushehr nuclear power plant, which was originally supposed to be built by the Germans, will be loaded with Russian fuel rods.

SPIEGEL: Mr. Foreign Minister, thank you for this interview.

Source: Tehran Times, August 31, 2010

Illegal Organ Harvesting Worse Under Chinese Reforms

SYDNEY—Illegal organ harvesting has become worse under reforms put in place by the Chinese leadership to stop it, says a Canadian human rights lawyer.

David Matas is in Australia to present a paper on the issue at a United Nations conference for non-government organisations (NGOs) involved with health in developing countries.

He says Chinese authorities have developed liver and kidney registries, an organ donor programme, restricted the number of hospitals permitted to perform organ transplants in China to 650 and shut down websites advertising the speedy sourcing of organs in an apparent effort to halt the trade.

However, while the reforms had reduced “transplant tourism” from Westerners seeking organ transplants, they had neither stopped the illegal organ trade nor increased transparency.

“The cover-up is worse,” he told The Epoch Times.

Mr Matas said entries into the organ registries were sporadic, hospital restrictions did not account for military hospitals where many of the transplants were performed and the touting of organs had just become more secretive.

Mr Matas also welcomed initiatives by Chinese authorities that have reduced the number of death penalty executions, but noted that the number of transplants had remained the same at around 10,000 a year. As their organ donor programme was only at a pilot stage, organs must be coming from somewhere else, he said, but identifying that source was now more difficult.

Domestic Demand Fuelling Trade

Mr Matas, a Nobel Peace Prize nominee, is co-author, with former Canadian Secretary of State David Kilgour, of two reports on illegal organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners in China.

He said that although Chinese authorities did not initially admit it, executed prisoners had long been used for organ transplants in China.

“The depersonalisation of the Falun Gong, their huge numbers in detention and their vulnerability as an unidentified population made it easy for them to become the next source of organs for sale,” he explained.

The lucrative organ trade, based on demand from the West, was further fuelled by Communist Party reforms that cut funding to the health system and left hospitals desperate for income.

“The transplants were subsidising the Chinese health system by massive amounts,” Mr Matas said, adding: “The system has become dependent on it [organ trade] for funds.”

The switch from an international market to domestic then changed the nature of the demand, not the supply, he said, quoting Chinese data that estimates over two million Chinese are waiting for organ transplants.

Mr Matas said that at the time of the first report in 2006, the ratio of organ transplants from Falun Gong practitioners to executed prisoners was around 7500 to 2500.

Now, with reforms reducing death penalty executions, he estimates the ratio is “about 1000 organs from the death penalty and Falun Gong make up the rest.”

Mr Matas says one of the reasons he was in Australia to speak at the UNDPI/NGO Conference was to raise awareness of the issue.

The illegal harvesting of organs from Falun Gong practitioners in China must stop, he said, but under the present regime, it is unlikely that the persecution of Falun Gong adherents will cease any time soon. Nor is it likely that the forced labour camp system will be shut down, he said.

Chinese authorities have said, however, that it is not right for organs to be taken from executed prisoners and have said they want that to stop.

Mr Matas said in that event, it might be “achievable” to stop the illegal harvesting of organs from Falun Gong practitioners that way.

“If they shut down the sourcing of organs from prisoners, then the issue of sourcing is solved,” he said. “This is a realisable goal.”

Source: The Epoch Times, August 31, 2010

California DR inmate hangs self days after death sentence lifted

SAN QUENTIN, Calif. (AP) — A 70-year-old California inmate who had just had his death sentence lifted has hanged himself in his cell less than a week after the reprieve.

San Quentin State Prison spokesman Lt. Sam Robinson said that a guard found George Smithey on Saturday hanging from a noose made from bed sheets tied around his cell bars.

A Calaveras County judge overturned Smithey's death sentence Aug. 23, more than 20 years after he was convicted of killing a woman there during a 1988 break-in.

The judge ruled that Smithey was mentally retarded under state standards set years after his trial and therefore ineligible for the death penalty. His sentence was commuted to life without parole.

Robinson said he did not know whether Smithey had learned his death sentence had been overturned. Authorities found no note.

Source: Indiana Gazette.com, August 31, 2010

Texas Warden Was Last Voice Heard By 140 Inmates

Charles Thomas O'Reilly:
"No reservations, no nightmares."

For about 140 people over the past six years, the soft Texas drawl of Charles Thomas O'Reilly was the last voice they heard before they died.

O'Reilly — who retired Monday from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Huntsville Unit, where he presided over more lethal injections than any other warden — leaves with no reservations, no nightmares.

"I don't have any intentions of changing my mind, reflecting on how could I have ever done this stuff," he said of the execution duty, which began for him in September 2004 when he took over the more than century-and-a-half-old 1,700-inmate penitentiary in downtown Huntsville. "If you think it's a terrible thing, you shouldn't be doing it in the first place. You don't do 140 executions and then all of a sudden think this was a bad thing."

O'Reilly, who turns 60 Wednesday, retired after more than 33 years with the Texas prison agency. On his last day, he looked like a warden from a Hollywood casting call: burly, white-haired, jeans, a western-style belt with a star dominating his buckle, a black shirt.

He didn't keep an exact tally of the number of inmates he stood over as they were strapped to the gurney and prepared for injection. The 140 inmates whose executions he estimated he oversaw account for about a third of the 463 put to death since Texas resumed carrying out of capital punishment in 1982.

Some did leave an impression, although the only name that came immediately to mind for O'Reilly was Frances Newton, who in 2005 became the third woman executed in Texas in modern times. She was the only woman executed under O'Reilly's watch.

"One guy, he cracked jokes, he cracked jokes through the whole thing," O'Reilly said. "I can't remember his name. But I remember things like that."

While O'Reilly recalls the professionalism everyone shows throughout the process, it's the last words of the inmate that tend to draw considerable attention.

With witnesses assembled and looking through windows, the chaplain normally offering a comforting hand resting on the inmate's leg and the final OK from a prison department executive, O'Reilly, standing near the prone inmate's head, leaned over.

"I ask them: Do you wish to make a statement?" he said. "I leave the words 'last' out, or 'final,' or anything like that. I think that's probably better than making a last statement, or final word. I just try to keep that out of it."

The condemned inmates arrive in Huntsville from death row, at a prison about 45 miles to the east, early in the afternoon on the day of an execution. The punishments generally occur just past 6 p.m.

Huntsville Unit holding cells where
inmates spend their last hours. Execution
chamber is at the far end of the corridor.

O'Reilly would meet with inmates when they arrived to explain what would happen.

"What I want to do is talk to him and figure out his demeanor," he said. "Whenever they get here, they're either angry, extremely upset or nervous. They know why they're here. ... It's weighing kind of heavy on them. One way or another, it's weighing heavy on everyone here.

"I tell them I want to afford them all the dignity they allow us to. I tell them I'm going to come back at 6 o'clock and tell them: 'It's time.'"

Few condemned inmates balked when the "time" arrived, O'Reilly said.

"We've had some tell us: 'I'm not going to fight, but I'm not going to walk,'" he said. "We picked them up and carried them. Ninety-nine percent of them, they walked on their own."

He told inmates they could say whatever they wanted in their last statement, but it must be in English — "That's all I understand," he said — and it can't be profane. If the obscenities start, so do the drugs.

"He's got about 15 seconds to do all the cussing he wants to and it will be all over," O'Reilly said. "It is going to be the last thing they're going to say. It ought to mean something. Most of the statements are pretty decent. They apologize to the victim's family and tell their family they love them."

Once the statement is complete, the drugs begin, normally carried through needles inserted in each arm of the prisoner. About five minutes later, a physician is summoned to make the death pronouncement.

The Huntsville Unit was the 11th stop in a career that took O'Reilly to prisons from one end of Texas to the other beginning in January 1977.

Edward Smith, a warden who worked as an assistant under O'Reilly, called him "a natural leader."

"I took from him on how to be cool in the face of crisis, being the warden everyone looks to see if you're in control. And it gives them comfort and confidence to see that ... being committed to the responsibility that comes with being a warden, not consumed by its authority," Smith said.

Although he has no qualms about capital punishment, O'Reilly would prefer to remembered for other aspects of his career. He figures he's worked with about three generations of prison staff and sees some of the grandchildren of people who were there when he started.

"The things I want to stand out in my career, my past, isn't executions," he said.

Source: The Associated Press, August 31, 2010

Related stories: Texas Death Row Chaplain Opposes Capital Punishment, November 14, 2009; Speak easy, Gamso - For the defense, September 2, 2010

Malaysian Minister: "An Eye for An Eye Leads to Blindness"

A senior Malaysian minister on Sunday reportedly urged the government to abolish the death penalty amid outrage from rights groups.

The call came during a debate over executions — carried out in Malaysia by hanging — after Kuala Lumpur last month sought clemency from Singapore for a young Malaysian drug trafficker who is facing the gallows in the city-state.

Both Malaysia and Singapore have tough anti-drug laws and rarely seek clemency for nationals facing drug charges in other countries.

“If it is wrong to take someone’s life, then the government should not do it either,” Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Nazri Aziz told the Sunday Star newspaper.

“No criminal justice system is perfect. You take a man’s life and years later, you find out that another person did the crime. What can you do?” said the senior minister.

Local rights groups have long campaigned against the death penalty, which is mandatory for murder, drug trafficking and possession of firearms among other crimes in the country. Campaigners said the sentence was inhumane.

Malaysia filed a clemency plea to Singapore last month over the case of Yong Vui Kong, a 22-year-old who is facing the death penalty after he was convicted in 2008 of trafficking 47 grams of heroin into Singapore.

The case has received wide attention in the two countries. Yong, who was19 when he was arrested, said he has repented and pledged to campaign against drugs.

Amnesty International says Singapore has one of the highest per capita execution rates in the world. It put 420 people to death between 1991 and 2004.

Activists said Malaysia carried out 358 hangings between 1981 and 2005. 

Source: Agence France-Presse, August 29, 2010

Death penalty opponents cite North Carolina forensic lab concerns

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Supporters of a man on North Carolina's death row want a new look at the case after revelations that the state's top crime lab was plagued by overstated or falsely reported evidence.

On Monday, attorneys and four men freed from prison because of faulty evidence presented at their trials will urge a review of Melvin White's death sentence. Two of the released inmates also were on death row.

White was sentenced to death in 1996 for the slayings of an elderly Craven County woman and her boyfriend. He's always proclaimed his innocence.

The only forensic evidence linking him to the murders is the bullet-tracing work of a State Bureau of Investigation analyst who didn't describe why he concluded the casings all came from the same gun.

Source: The Associated Press, August 30, 2010

Will Ohio Execute An Innocent Man?

Kevin Keith

Here we go again, this time in Ohio.

There, death row inmate Kevin Keith is scheduled to be executed on September 15, despite strong new evidence of his innocence. Keith was convicted in 1994 for a shooting spree that killed three people and wounded three others.

Eyewitness testimony was the primary evidence used to convict Keith. Along with the fact that eyewitness accounts are notoriously unreliable, the new evidence discredits the eyewitness identification in this case. The evidence also identifies an alternative suspect, Rodney Melton, who may have actually committed the crime for which Keith was convicted. Keith has an alibi for the time of the crime, supported by four witnesses.

No court has considered the entirety of the evidence in this case. Therefore, it appears that there is reasonable doubt as to Keith's guilt. And there is no excuse to execute someone when there is reasonable doubt that you've got the right guy.

Nevertheless, on August 19, the Ohio Parole Board rejected Keith's clemency petition by a vote of 8-0. Charles Keith, the convicted man's brother, described the Board's demeanor during the review as "cold" and "like a death squad." This seems to suggest that they are more interested in expediency than true justice. And it seems to suggest that they are willing to risk the possibility of executing an innocent man.

Sadly, Keith's situation is not unusual. Cases are currently in the courts in Georgia, Texas, and elsewhere in which death row inmates are fighting for the right to prove their innocence. If any of them succeed, they will be among the lucky ones. Some are not so lucky.

In 2007, the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (NCADP) published a report titled "Innocent and Executed", which highlighted four cases in which people were apparently executed for crimes that they did not commit. And those four are just the ones we know about.

One of those cases, that of Cameron Todd Willingham, made headlines last year when The New Yorker published an investigative article on the case. Willingham was executed in 2004 for setting a fire that killed his three daughters. However, a forensic review of the case led to the conclusion that "a finding of arson could not be sustained." In other words, the fatal fire for which Willingham was executed was probably just an accident.

It's no secret that lawyers, judges, juries, and crime labs make mistakes, and innocent people are convicted of crimes that they did not commit. In fact, to date more than 250 people in the U.S. have been exonerated as a result of post-conviction DNA testing. But, again, they are the lucky ones.

Given the proven fallibility and unreliability of the "justice" system, how many others may have been executed for crimes that they did not commit? And how many more innocent people will be executed in the future?

Why should Ohio or any other state take any more chances?

In the case of Kevin Keith, due to die on September 15, the final verdict now lies with Ohio Governor Ted Strickland. I hope he will do the right thing and grant clemency. Governor Strickland's office can be reached by phone at (614) 466-3555 or online at http://governor.ohio.gov.

www.maryshawonline.com

Mary Shaw is a Philadelphia-based writer and activist, with a focus on politics, human rights, and social justice. She is a former Philadelphia Area Coordinator for the Nobel-Prize-winning human rights group Amnesty International, and her views (more...)

Source: OpEdNews, Mary Shaw, August 30, 2010

Switzerland: Death penalty initiative not quite dead

Just days after it was withdrawn, the initiative to reinstate the death penalty in Switzerland is making news again.

Marcel Graf, the initiative committee’s spokesman, has called on Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf to ensure that capital criminals are tried and sentenced within a year.

In an interview with the Aarau-based Sonntag newspaper, Graf said that he would pass the initiative on to others if the justice minister was unable to promise speedier punishment.

Graf said that a huge lobby was interested in reviving the initiative and that he had received hundreds of emails. Many people mailed in petition forms full of signatures.

Widmer-Schlumpf is against the death penalty, but has said that she can understand the frustration of the committee members, who are related to a victim.

Switzerland struck capital punishment from its criminal statutes in 1942.

Source: swissinfo.ch, August 30, 2010

Virginia: Death row visits

Mississippi DR
Non contact visit area

THE VIRGINIA Department of Corrections has had a welcome change of heart on its death row visitation policy.

For the past three years, those sentenced to death have been allowed face-to-face visits with relatives, although they have not been allowed physical contact. The department said this month that it planned to toughen this already restrictive policy. Come Sept. 1, the dozen or so death row inmates in Virginia would have had to rely on video cameras to pipe in the sights and sounds of loved ones. No more eye contact, no more pressing hands against glass.

Virginia was poised to join Kansas as the only two of the 35 states in the nation that execute prisoners to prohibit in-person family visits, according to the Associated Press. The commonwealth said that efficiency and security drove the decision. For example, security personnel would no longer have to be taken off other duties to escort inmates and family members to visiting rooms.

But on Friday the department engaged in an about-face. "There will be no change in the death row visitation policy at the present time," spokesman Larry Traylor said in a statement. "We will continue to review and research current policy as well as other related issues and technical capabilities."

Pushing the pause button is welcome, but the state should permanently abandon any thought of eliminating in-person visits. We oppose the death penalty, but, if it is to be carried out, those sentenced to death and their families should be treated humanely. This is not to excuse the crimes that may have landed an inmate on death row or to diminish the loss felt in the families of these inmates' victims. But taking away all contact with visitors would be cruel and apt to accomplish little in the way of enhanced security.

Source: The Washington Post, August 30, 2010

Iran: Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani refused prison visits

A lawyer and the family of a Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning, have been denied visits to the prison where she is lodged, her son told the Guardian.

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani has been detained in Tabriz jail since 2006 and was sentenced to death on charges of adultery. She was acquitted of murdering her husband, but Iranian authorities have since accused her of being an accomplice.

Arriving for a prison visit yesterday, her son Sajad, 22 and daughter Saeedeh, 17, were told she was unwilling to see them.

Later, when she was allowed to phone her son, it emerged she had been told by guards that no one had come to visit and that her children had abandoned her, Sajad told the Guardian.

"The officials have become obstinate - they are seeking just different ways to mistreat my mother and us as her children," he said.

Mohammadi Ashtiani''s government-appointed lawyer, Houtan Kian, has been unable to visit her since she appeared on TV this month and confessed to involvement in her husband''s murder. Human rights campaigners say the confession was made under duress.

Government officials ransacked Kian's house in Tabriz this week and confiscated documents and laptops after breaking down the front door.

Another defence lawyer, Mohammad Mostafaei, was forced to flee Iran after a warrant for his arrest was issued.

Kian said: "Now it''s my turn, but I am not going anywhere. I''m here to defend her ''til the end even if they put me in jail."

He described the stoning sentence as "unbelievably ridiculous", adding that while she had been accused of adultery, her putative lover had not been named.

Source: New Kerala, August 29, 2010

Teresa Lewis: Unfit for execution

Teresa Lewis

For 6 years, I regularly spent an hour talking and listening through a small slot in a metal door. On the other side was the only woman on death row in Virginia, an inmate who pleaded guilty to hiring 2 men to kill her husband and stepson, allegedly in exchange for a cut of the insurance money. Sometimes I was allowed to sit in a chair as I stooped down to hear her, give her communion, or just hold her hand; usually I alternated between half-squatting or kneeling on the concrete floor. As chaplain at Virginia's only maximum-security prison for women, I expected to minister under challenging circumstances. These visits were unbearable, however, and not because of the physical conditions. It was my feeling—at first fleeting, now certain—that this woman doesn't deserve to die.

On Sept. 23, barring the governor's unlikely pardon or the Supreme Court taking her case, Teresa Lewis will die in the electric chair or by lethal injection (she hasn't chosen). She lost a federal appeal earlier this summer, putting her in line to be the 1st woman the state has killed in 98 years—and the 12th nationally since the high court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. She'll be the 1st of at least 16 executions scheduled across the country in the next 6 months, and the latest in a long, sad list of mentally handicapped people to receive a punishment they don't deserve. I'm not advocating for her release or making excuses for her crime. She isn't, either. But I am calling for clemency. The death penalty is too blunt and final for a world about which we can never be certain. More than 130 death-row inmates have been released for wrongful convictions in recent years. Even when someone pleads guilty, as Teresa did, there's almost always more to the story.

Teresa arrived at the Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women the same day she was sentenced in 2003. She wore blue scrubs; chains around her ankles, waist, and hands; and a bewildered expression. It's common for inmates to project you-can't-hurt-me indignation. But Teresa seemed meek, almost pliant. When I hugged her—the only hug we ever shared—she was so grateful. She didn't look like a remorseless killer, a "mastermind" who plotted 2 murders, as the judge put it (her original lawyers did little to dispute this image). In one of our sessions, she collapsed into great soul-shattering, body-heaving sobs and cried into my wrist, the only part of me I could get through the slot in the door.

Teresa stood out to me in other ways, too. Beneath a gloss of social pleasantries, she seemed slow and overly eager to please—an easy mark, in other words, for a con. A Duke University psychiatrist who testified at a 2005 postconviction hearing said she has an IQ of 72, placing her on the cusp of mental retardation as the Supreme Court defines it. Also disclosed since Teresa's original trial: a 2003 letter from 1 of the 2 men who carried out the killings admitting that it was he, not she, who masterminded the murders. Still, the state Supreme Court, a U.S. District Court, and, most recently, a U.S. Court of Appeals, have upheld the ruling that Teresa deserves to die. The actual killers got life in prison.

Last year, as Teresa's prospects receded, I left the prison ministry. On the inside, I was forbidden from speaking out. Now I can help her cause. My 5-year-old daughter recently asked me what an execution was, and I told her it's when someone is killed as punishment for killing someone else. "But she didn't actually kill anyone," my daughter said. No, but she participated, I explained, and in the state's eyes, that's enough. "Don't they know that doing bad to someone, even if they did bad to you, is wrong?" she responded. It's a good question.

Source: Newsweek, August 29, 2010. Lynn Litchfield was chaplain at Fluvanna from 1998 to 2009

Pennsylvania's death penalty exists in name only

Last week Gov. Ed Rendell signed 3 more death warrants, but don't expect the inmates to be executed any time soon.

Rendell, a death penalty supporter, has signed 113 execution warrants during his 2 terms. But it appears highly likely he will leave office in a little over 4 months without seeing any of them carried out.

Since Pennsylvania reinstated the death penalty in the 1970s, only 3 men have been put to death, and all had given up their appeals. The state's last contested execution occurred in 1962, even though the commonwealth currently has about 215 men and 5 women awaiting execution, including 50 who were sentenced back in the 1980s.

Despite the lack of executions and the continual flow of inmates sentenced to death by county courts, the number of inmates awaiting capital punishment is on a gradual decline.

At one point the Corrections Department housed nearly 250 condemned inmates, but their ranks have been thinned by appeals court and trial court reversals, resentencings to life in prison and deaths by natural causes and suicide.

But Pennsylvania still has the 4th-largest death row in the nation.

Source: Associated Press, August 28, 2010

Malaysia: Weighing the death penalty

Malaysia's efforts to seek clemency for Yong Vui Kong, who is on death row in Singapore for a drug trafficking offence, have raised questions about maintaining capital punishment in the country.

SINCE he was arrested for drug trafficking in Singapore 3 years ago, Yong Vui Kong has turned over a new leaf. He has taken to Buddhism and is always meditating, says his lawyer M. Ravi. He has shaved his head and is also teaching his fellow prisoners the precepts of Buddhism.

"The guards say they have never seen anyone as caring as Yong," adds Ravi. Yong, now 22, was sentenced to death on Jan 7 last year for the crime he committed when he was 18. He is now on death row. Last week, the Singapore Prisons Department extended the deadline for him to file a plea for presidential clemency. The deadline was initially set for last Wednesday.

Yong's case has attracted a lot of attention and there is a Save Vui Kong campaign to petition for his life to be spared. Even the Malaysian government, through the Foreign Ministry, has sent a letter to the Singapore government pleading clemency for Yong.

There is a hint of irony in Malaysia's efforts to seek clemency for Yong, however, as the death penalty or capital punishment is also used in this country.

In Malaysia, the death penalty carried out by hanging is mandatory for crimes such as murder, possession of firearms, waging war against the King and drug trafficking.

Recently, there have been suggestions that even those involved in baby dumping, ending in the death of the baby, should be tried for murder.

But human rights practitioners have maintained that the death sentence is the ultimate denial of human rights and should be abolished entirely.

According to Amnesty International, 18 countries were known to have carried out executions in 2009, ending the life of at least 714 people.

(This figure does not include the thousands of executions that were likely to have taken place in China, which refuses to divulge figures on its use of the death penalty.)

In 2007, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) called on states which maintain the death penalty to establish a moratorium with a view to abolition and in the meantime, restrict the number of offences for which it punishes and to respect the rights of those on death row. It also called on states which have abolished the death penalty not to reintroduce it.

In Malaysia, those who support the abolition of the death penalty include Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Nazri Abdul Aziz.

"If it is wrong to take someone's life, then the Government should not do the same. It's ironic and not correct," he tells Sunday Star.

Some countries would not extradite a wanted person if it is known that the person would be facing a death sentence if he was sent over, Nazri says.

Inhumane act

Another anti-death penalty advocate is Nora Murat, director of Amnesty International Malaysia, who insists that it is time to do away with this punishment. It is cruel, inhumane and degrading, among others, she says.

"People say no to stoning but say yes to the death penalty. If we value life, there is no way we can condone murder," she stresses.

Human rights lawyer Edmund Bon says most countries are now moving away from capital punishment.

In 1977, only 16 countries had abolished the death penalty for all crimes. As of December 2009, that figure stood at 95. Of the 58 countries that have retained it, only 18 are known to have carried out executions in 2009.

"The criminal justice system is not perfect. We shouldn’t be playing God. We must be consistent with international human rights standards," says Bon.

But whenever there is a spate of heinous crimes such as the rape of children, there will always be someone suggesting the death penalty.

In fact, even lawyer Karpal Singh who is known to be against it shockingly called for the death penalty to be introduced for child rape a few weeks ago.

The general public usually feels the same way for such crimes.

Even in Switzerland, there are campaigners who want murder involving sexual abuse, particularly of children, to be punishable by death. (Switzerland abolished the death penalty 70 years ago.)

"It is very natural for people to feel outraged by such crimes. This response involves anger towards the perpetrator," says psychologist Dr Goh Chee Leong of Help University.

Retired Court of Appeal judge Datuk Mahadev Shankar believes the death penalty should be repealed for offences that are out of sync with the public conscience and where it has proven to be ineffective as a deterrent.

He cites examples of drug offences, where the possessor is a proven addict, and certain firearms cases.

But for heinous crimes, he is all for capital punishment.

"In outrageous cases like the Canny Ong murder where there were absolutely no mitigating circumstances, it would be a mistake to abolish the death sentence which must deter even if it contains an element of retribution," he says in an e-mail interview.

But Nora says that no crime, no matter how heinous, warrants the death penalty.

"Politicians will say that the rakyat (people) want it, but they should be able to make hard decisions," she says.

But what about the families of the victims who were murdered? Wouldn't they want the death penalty on the convicted perpetrator?

"Human beings are emotional," says Bon.

"If their child or friend was accused of such a crime they wouldn't be saying such a thing. They would be fighting hard to release their family member."

Nora, who believes that the concept of forgiveness is much larger than revenge, says there are other forms of punishment such as life imprisonment.

"I can understand their feelings but you can’t condone murder especially if you have just lost someone yourself," she says.

Lawyers for Liberty’s N.Surendran adds that the death of the perpetrator would not ease the grieving process.

In fact, he says, there are many cases worldwide where families of murder victims do not want the convicted perpetrator to be executed.

Bon also points out that in Malaysia, any form of murder carries a mandatory death sentence. There are no mitigating factors (such as a crime of passion or killing done while blinded by rage) to reduce the sentence, he says.

"This is a breach of fair trial rights and the judges' hands are tied," says Bon, adding that an Indian court ruled a similar mandatory provision to be unconstitutional in 1983.

It is the same for drug trafficking where the act specifies a mandatory death sentence if the perpetrator is found to have more than a prescribed limit in his possession. For example, those caught in possession of 200g of marijuana or 15g of heroin are automatically handed the death sentence.

"We are hanging people based on presumptions (that they are trafficking)," says Bon.

This may be one of the reasons why the conviction rate for drug trafficking crimes is relatively low, says a well-placed source.

He explains that judges are generally reluctant to send someone to the gallows and would use the slightest doubt to throw away the case (such as not knowing the contents of the package).

"If there was no mandatory death sentencing, then maybe the conviction rate would be higher," he argues.

Mahadev admits that in drug cases where the margin of the quantity exceeded the maximum permissible, the mandatory death penalty did not sit easy with the judicial conscience. This is especially so where the offenders were mules or addicts themselves.

Former High Court and Court of Appeal judge Datuk K.C. Vohrah says his family could always sense when he was dealing with a trial involving capital punishment. He would usually be quiet and look worried as he pondered the facts of the case.

"You had to be vigilant to ensure that fairness prevailed with accordance to law," he says.

Vohrah says that he and several other judges would deliver a speaking judgement when they handed the death sentence.

"Everything that you needed to know about how we came to the decision was written down before the judgement was delivered," he says.

The burden on judges became even heavier after the jury system was abolished in 1995, says Vohrah. (In the jury system, the fate of the accused rested upon seven people.)

"It was so terrible that I never wanted to do those sorts of cases again. Before I went up to the bench to deliver the decision, I would pray to God that I did the right thing. I would ask for blessings for the accused if he were convicted. It was a terrible burden," he says.

Another former Court of Appeal judge, Datuk Shaikh Daud Shaikh Mohd Ismail, says passing the death sentence was not a pleasant thing to do.

He remembers the 1st time he had to do it.

"Just before the sentence, I adjourned the court. When I went up, my knees were shaking and I found it hard to utter the first words. After delivering it, I was sweating all over," he recalls.

He says it became subsequently easier to deliver, although there was always fear in doing it.

"With a stroke of a pen, we are taking a person's life. I didn’t like it at all but the law is there and there is nothing that you can do about it," he says.

"On reflection, it is better not to have it."

Then there is the issue of insanity. Recalling a case where the medical report of one mental hospital differed from the other, Bon says he is not convinced of the mental health regime's ability to identify or categorise different forms of mental illnesses.

"If there was no 2nd opinion, we would lose the case and end up hanging an insane person," he says.

Surendran also believes that capital punishment draws attention from the real problem, which is crime prevention. One of the reasons the death penalty is bandied about is that it will act as a stern deterrent.

"Malaysia is still a transit for the drug trade and murders still happen. This lulls people into a false sense of comfort," says Surendran, who also highlights that in drug trafficking cases, only the mules are caught while the kingpins and drug lords generally get away scot-free.

"The strata of people caught are usually from the lower income groups, marginalised and unprivileged backgrounds."

Take Yong, for instance. He comes from a broken family and left home at 12 to work.

Surendran says it would be better to seek the underlying causes of the crime and for better police work.

The wait to be executed is also another form of cruelty, he says. According to a prisons official, those sentenced to death could wait up to 4 years from the date of their sentencing before the execution is carried out (after the various appeal stages).

Irreversible move

Another, and the most important, aspect about the death penalty is its irreversibility once the sentence is carried out.

Most lawyers agree with the fact that there is no such thing as a perfect criminal justice system and that mistakes could be made.

In short, someone could be wrongly punished for something that they did not commit.

Surendran points out the case of 23-year-old Vignes Mourthi from Perak who was hanged for drug trafficking in Singapore in 2003.

The former machine operator was convicted based on a hand-written transcript of a conversation he had with an undercover officer.

The undercover officer, however, was facing allegations of rape, sodomy and bribery at the time he gave the evidence. This fact was not presented to the court at the trial. (The officer was subsequently jailed for 15 months for bribery.)

Vignes, who was jobless and recovering from an accident when he was arrested, said he had been duped into delivering packages which he believed were incense stones.

"If we make a mistake, we can't undo it," says Surendran, citing the case.

Source: Malaysia Star, August 29, 2010

Ohio DR inmate Romell Broom "can fight second execution attempt"

Romell Broom

A death row inmate who underwent a botched execution attempt can continue to argue that a 2nd try would be an unconstitutionally cruel and unusual punishment, a federal judge ruled Friday.

U.S. District Court Judge Gregory Frost denied a motion by the state to dismiss the challenge against another lethal injection attempt on Romell Broom. The inmate also can continue arguing that he should have access to attorneys during any future execution attempt that might go awry, the judge ruled.

Broom's execution last year was stopped by Gov. Ted Strickland after an execution team tried for 2 hours to find a suitable vein. Broom has said he was stuck with needles at least 18 times, with pain so intense that he cried and screamed.

Broom was sentenced to die for the 1984 rape and slaying of 14-year-old Tryna Middleton after abducting her in Cleveland as she walked home from a Friday night football game with 2 friends.

Broom's attorney, Adele Shank, said she was pleased with the decision and had expected the judge would recognize that Broom's Eighth Amendment protection against cruel and unusual punishment was "really called into question."

The state opposes canceling a second execution try. Ted Hart, a spokesman for the Ohio attorney general's office, said the judge "simply held that Broom's claim is plausible enough to survive immediate dismissal."

After trying to execute Broom, the state added a backup method that allows executioners to inject two drugs directly into muscle if a usable vein cannot be found. The addition was part of an overall protocol change that also switched the IV injection from 3 drugs to 1.

Source: Associated Press, August 27, 2010

U.S.: National Shortage of Drug for Lethal Injections Leads to Stays of Execution

Kentucky Governor Steven Beshear recently held off signing death warrants for two inmates because of a shortage of the drug sodium thiopental, a key component of the state’s lethal injection protocol.

Kentucky’s stock of the lethal injection drug expires October 1, and the Department of Corrections does not expect a new supply until early 2011 because the only supplier of this drug in the country, Hospira, is unable to obtain the active ingredient for the drug. Even when a new supplier for the active ingredient is found, FDA approval will be needed. 

The governor did set a September 16 date for the execution of Gregory Wilson, which could occur before the state's supply of the drug expires. 

In Oklahoma, the state’s Department of Corrections recently tried to substitute another drug for sodium thiopental for the execution of Jeffrey Matthews because of concerns about the purity of the supply on hand.

A federal judge stayed the execution of Matthews in order to provide time to study the situation. Attorneys for Matthews challenged the substitution of a new drug as a form of human experimentation.

Almost all states in the country use essentially the same protocol for lethal injections.

Source: Death Penalty Information Center, August 27, 2010

Shortage of Lethal Injection Drug Delays Oklahoma Inmate's Execution

The execution of Jeffrey David Matthews has been postponed because of a shortage of a drug used in the lethal injection process.

A shortage of one of the drugs used in the lethal injection process is keeping an Oklahoma death row inmate alive.

Jeffrey David Matthews was scheduled to be executed this month, but the 38-year-old's execution date was postponed because there's a shortage of the drug thiopental sodium. It's a sedative used to render a person unconscious in a matter of seconds.

Hospira, the sole U.S. company that makes thiopental sodium, says a "manufacturing issue" is the reason for the shortage. The company doesn't expect to have more of the drug until early 2011.

The Oklahoma Department of Corrections says it has the drug, but the supply is likely expired.

"We tested the drug but we weren't pleased with the quality and purity of it," said Jerry Massie, a spokesperson for the department.

Instead, the Department of Corrections wants to replace the drug with another fast-acting sedative called Brevital.

"Brevital chemically has the same requirements as sodium thiopental," said Massie.

Massie says Oklahoma statute does not require The Department of Corrections use a specific drug to sedate a death row prisoner, only that the drug be "ultra-short acting."

When Matthews' defense attorneys learned the department wanted to use a different drug, they objected and the U.S. District Judge in the case issued a stay of execution just hours before Matthews was set to die by lethal injection.

"Chances are, as long as there is a shortage of the drug, Matthews won't be executed," said NEWS 9's legal analyst, Irven Box. "It just proves over the years they've tried to say get away from cruel and unusual punishment do it by lethal injection, but they are also specific, they say do it like it's supposed to be done or it's not going to be done."

Massie says the department is working on getting more sodium thiopental.

This is the 3rd time in less than 3 months Matthews' execution date has been delayed. He was sentenced to die for murdering his 77-year-old great uncle, Otis Earl Short, during a 1994 robbery of Short's home. In TV interviews Matthews has denied having any role in the murder saying, "I did not kill my uncle and I wasn't there."

Source: Newson6.com, August 27, 2010

Japan opens up death chamber to media

Tokyo death chamber

TOKYO — Japan threw open the doors to its mystery-shrouded execution chamber for the first time on Friday, as part of a crusade by the justice minister to stoke debate about the death penalty.

The move came a month after Justice Minister Keiko Chiba, an opponent of capital punishment, announced a review of the practice after she witnessed the first executions since her centre-left government took power almost a year ago.

At the minister's urging, Japanese media were allowed on a 30-minute visit inside the glass-walled execution room in the Tokyo Detention House, where convicts, usually multiple murderers, are put to death by hanging.

A red square with a cross on the white floor marks the spot in the windowless room where convicts stand with the noose around their neck, before a trap-door opens below them and they plunge to their deaths.

The mechanism is triggered by one of three wall-mounted push buttons in an adjacent room, pressed simultaneously by three officers, although none of them is told which button is the live one that will cause the prisoner's death.

In another room, a golden Buddha statue stands in an alcove for final prayers before the handcuffed convicts are blindfolded and led to their deaths, according to footage by public broadcaster NHK and other TV stations.

"This reporting opportunity will provide information for public debate on the death penalty system," Chiba told a news conference on the media visit to one of several death chambers operated across the country.

Apart from the United States, Japan is the only major industrialised democracy to carry out capital punishment, a practice that has earned Tokyo repeat protests from European governments and human rights groups.

Japan has faced particular criticism for only informing death row prisoners of their impending execution at the last minute, and for only telling their families afterwards that their relative has been put to death.

Amnesty International last year labeled death row conditions in Japan "cruel, inhuman and degrading", blaming the mental strain they cause for tipping many long-term convicts into insanity.

"Each day could be their last and the arrival of a prison officer with a death warrant would signal their execution within hours," the report said. "Some live like this year after year, sometimes for decades."

Room where inmates meet with
chaplain prior to execution

The London-based rights group said it found that death row convicts were not allowed to talk to one another, and that contact with relatives, lawyers and others could be restricted to as little as five minutes at a time.

Amnesty called Japan's use of capital punishment "an anomaly", pointing also to the country's relatively low crime, murder and imprisonment rates.

But former lawmaker Nobuto Hosaka, an activist against the death penalty, said serious parliamentary debate was unlikely now, at a time of acute hostility between the ruling and opposition camps.

"The environment for an all-party debate on the death penalty is worsening. It's extremely difficult now," Hosaka told AFP.

He also said that Chiba, who lost her seat in July upper house elections, may be replaced soon by a new minister who could reverse her attempts to foster discussion about the death penalty.

Surveys suggest strong public support for capital punishment in a country where police boast a near-perfect conviction rate. A February survey for the Cabinet Office found more than 85 percent backing the death penalty.

Opponents believe public opinion would shift if people had a better idea of the death penalty process, at a time when a newly introduced jury system may soon ask citizens to judge capital cases.

Japan currently has 107 prisoners on death row.

Source: Agence France-Presse, August 27, 2010

Intrigue over minister's motive as Japan opens door on gallows

Toyo Detention Center

Execution chamber

TOKYO LETTER: Why did the justice minister, an opponent of the death penalty, sanction two hangings?

MINISTER FOR justice Keiko Chiba stunned many here when she signed off on two executions – then went to see the grim results for herself.

An anti-death penalty activist for 20 years, Chiba was expected to begin a moratorium on the nation’s controversial death penalty.

Instead, she sat ashen-faced through the hangings of Kazuo Shinozawa (59) and Hidenori Ogata (33), after being “persuaded to do her duty” by justice ministry bureaucrats, according to the Yomiuri newspaper.

Discussion has been raging since about her motives. Did the conservative bureaucrats who run the ministry strong-arm her into breaking her principles, or did she decide to go for herself in the interests of sparking a long-postponed debate? At least one of her predecessors – the devoutly religious Seiken Sugiura – refused to sign a single death warrant during his tenure in 2005/6. Why then didn’t Chiba simply do the same? Those questions will deepen today as the Japanese press prepares for a rare look inside the country’s execution chambers. A small group of journalists and cameramen are for the first time to be allowed to inspect the notorious Tokyo Detention Center, where the hangings are carried out.

So secretive are authorities about Japan’s gallows that even elected politicians must surrender recording and photographic equipment when they visit. Former lawmaker Nobuto Hosaka, perhaps the country’s most famous abolitionist, is one of the few to have seen it and then publicise the macabre details.

According to Hosaka, death row inmates are walked from their cells to what looks like a “lounge in an expensive hotel”, complete with curtains and a Buddhist altar.

Below the room is a Spartan concrete basement with nothing except a drain to catch the excretions of a thrashing or dead human body. “Life and death here is separated by a trap door,” Hosaka said last week.

Inmates are deprived of contact with the outside world, kept in solitary confinement and forced to wait an average of more than seven years, sometimes decades, in toilet-sized cells while the legal system grinds on.

When the order eventually comes, the condemned have literally minutes to get their affairs in order before facing the noose. Because the order can come at any time, they live each day believing it may be their last.

Amnesty International recently called the system a “regime of silence, isolation and sheer non-existence”, singling out the same-day execution notice as “utterly cruel”. The hangmen are undeterred by age, senility or handicap: the condemned include 84-year-old Masaru Okunishi, who for more than four decades has protested his innocence of poisoning five women.

Of the more than 30 people who have been hanged since January 2006, five were in their 70s. It is not unheard of for some inmates to be ferried to the gallows in wheelchairs.

Although Japan incarcerates far fewer citizens per capita than the US or many European countries, its astonishing 99 per cent-plus conviction rate means that the condemned almost certainly include innocent people.

Some have quite literally been driven mad while waiting to die. At least five of Japan’s 107 condemned prisoners are mentally ill, says Amnesty, with many more elderly inmates on the brink of senility.

Secrecy and lack of independent scrutiny means that the exact number is unknown. Recent victims include Chinese national Cheng Detong, who was “quasi-insane”, according to his defence.

A few years back I interviewed Sakae Menda, who was framed by the police for a double murder. Unlike most other miscarriages of justice victims, Menda was released – after 34 years on death row.

That’s 12,410 days believing every one would be his last. “Waiting to die is a kind of torture,” he told me, “worse than death itself.” The justice ministry is quick to point out that public support for the death penalty here is 85 per cent. One reason it is so high is that ordinary people have simply never had a chance to debate it.

Another may be that they are increasingly bewildered and angry by a series of violent crimes, often by loners who have dropped off the social grid.

Chiba may have had these issues in mind when she sat through those twin executions last month, then called up the media. The ministry has since tried to control the visit as tightly as possible, and ignored the foreign press. Only time will tell if her strategy – if that’s what it is – has kick-started a genuine abolitionist movement in Japan, or deepened support for state killings of violent criminals.

Source: Irish Times, August 27, 2010

A Walk Through Japan’s Execution Chambers

Tokyo Detention Center

TOKYO — A trapdoor, a Buddha statue and a ring for the noose: the Japanese government opened up its execution chambers for the first time on Friday, taking journalists on a tour of Tokyo’s main gallows.

The disclosure is seen as a bid by Japan’s justice minister, Keiko Chiba, to stir debate over a practice that is widely supported in here.

Of the Group of Eight industrialized nations, only the United States and Japan retain capital punishment. Japan currently has 107 inmates on death row, and no pardon is allowed. From 2000-9, Japan sentenced 112 people to death and executed 46.

“I called for proper disclosure in the hope that it spurs debate over the death penalty and criminal sentencing,” Ms. Chiba, who opposes the death penalty, told a news conference earlier this month.

In July, Ms. Chiba approved — and witnessed — the hangings of two inmates convicted of murder, saying she was carrying out her duties as justice minister. Afterward she said she still opposed capital punishment and ordered that journalists be given a tour of the facilities. She also promised to create a panel of experts to discuss the death penalty, including whether it should be stopped. The panel meets next month.Japan has long been criticized by human rights activists for its capital punishment system. The United Nations Human Rights Committee, which monitors civil and political rights, has urged Japan to consider abolishing the death penalty, citing the large number of crimes that entail the death sentence, the lack of pardoning, the solitary confinement of inmates and executions at advanced ages and despite signs of mental illness.

Inmates on death row are not told when they will be executed until the last minute — a procedure Japanese officials say prevents panic among inmates — and their family members and lawyers are informed only afterward, as are the news media. Inmates can remain on death row as long as 40 years, though executions have occurred on average after about 5 years and 11 months in the past decade, according to the public broadcast channel NHK. The Justice Ministry has refused to disclose how it makes decisions to go ahead with executions.

A large majority of Japan’s population supports capital punishment. A recent government survey showed that 86 percent of respondents are in favor of state executions for the worst crimes.

“Any debate should take into account the lifelong suffering that the victims’ families must bear,” Isao Okamura, whose wife was murdered over a work dispute in 1997, said in an interview with NHK.

All executions are carried out by hanging. Foreign news outlets, including The New York Times, were barred from the visit, despite repeated requests to take part.

According to accounts in local news outlets, journalists were taken to the execution site in a bus with closed curtains, because its exact location is kept secret. There are seven such execution sites across Japan, the Justice Ministry said.

The journalists were led through the chambers, one by one: a chapel with a Buddhist altar where the condemned are read their last rites by a priest; a small room, also with a Buddha statue, where a prison warden officially orders the execution; the execution room, with a pulley and rings for the rope and a trapdoor where the condemned inmate stands; and the viewing room where officials — and sometimes victims’ families — witness the hanging.

The inmate is handcuffed and blindfolded before entering the execution room, officials said. Three prison wardens push separate buttons, only one of which releases the trapdoor — but they never find out which one. Wardens are given a bonus of about $230 every time they attend an execution.

Chiba Keiko

Satoshi Tomiyama, the Justice Ministry official who later briefed the foreign news outlets and others excluded from the tour, said that wardens take the utmost care to treat death row inmates fairly and humanely. The Buddha statues can be switched with an alter of the indigenous Japanese Shinto religion for followers of that faith, he said. For Christians, the prison provides a wooden cross. Inmates are given fruits and snacks before their execution, and sentences are not carried out on weekends, national holidays and around the New Year.

He read out a statement from a male warden who carries out executions but refused to identify him by name. Executions “are carried out somberly, and the tension is enough to make my hand shake,” Mr. Tomiyama quoted the warden as saying.

But human rights activists criticize the conditions in which the inmates are made to await their death. They are held in solitary confinement in a cell about 50 square feet, which they leave only to exercise and bathe, both alone. They can request Japanese chess sets, but they must play alone. They are able to purchase newspapers and books, though the prison censors some of the content; stories about last month’s executions were blacked out in newspapers given to death row inmates. Relatives can visit, but friends cannot.

Meanwhile, Japan has a 99 percent conviction rate, a figure critics attribute to widespread use of forced confessions. A series of false convictions have surfaced in recent months, including one of a 63-year-old man sentence to life in prison for the murder of a 4-year-old girl. He was released after DNA tests showed he was innocent. Critics say there is a high possibility that some of those put on death row are innocent.

Kanae Doi, a lawyer who heads Human Rights Watch Japan, said she welcomed Japan’s steps toward more transparency. But “the death penalty should not be enforced by a majority opinion,” she said.

“Apart from Japan and the United States, the other countries in the world that carry out capital punishment are those accused of other grave human rights violations,” she said. “Japan should be ashamed to be on that list.”

Source: The New York Times, August 27, 2010


Officials describe executions in Tokyo as death chamber is unveiled to media

Inside the Tokyo Detention Center, a death-row inmate is blindfolded and his hands tied, as a chaplain continues to pray aloud. The curtain of the execution chamber is opened and the inmate is led inside. A few seconds after the curtain is closed a bang is heard as the trapdoor beneath the inmate's feet swings open. Then there is silence.

Command room (left)
and execution chamber (right)

Up until now, executions in Japan have been carried out by only a handful of officials, and the process is veiled up until the inmate's final moments. On Aug. 27, the Tokyo Detention Center execution venue was revealed to the media for the first time, and officials involved in executions described the process to the Mainichi.

Many death-row inmates receive no family visits with only chaplains being permitted to see them -- out of consideration for the inmate's mental stability. Once a month, the inmate and the chaplain meet in a room inside the detention center. Most of the inmates talk continuously, as if temporarily released from a stifling existence.

The announcement of the inmate's execution comes suddenly. Officials involved learn of the executions when the detention center contacts them, asking, "Are you free tomorrow?"

In the morning, the door to the room adjoining the execution room opens and the inmate enters with a pale face.

"Your sentence will now be carried out," the detention center head informs the inmate.

Most inmates quietly accept the decision.

"I will make up for what I did," one inmate says with a faint smile. "I'll be waiting a step ahead," another says.

The chaplain thanks an inmate for his meetings and touches him, conveying the warmth of his skin. The chaplain does not witness the inmate's death. A lot of inmates are baptized at the detention center, but many turn their eyes away from their crimes and simply await death.

These inmates are continuously told to think about the reason for living. One hour after the execution, a detention center official looks over the body of one executed inmate as it lies in a coffin.

"It's over," the chaplain says.

One former prosecutor who witnessed an execution in 2008 recalled his experience. Two days before the execution was carried out, the prosecutor was summoned by the deputy chief prosecutor.

"I want you to be present," the deputy chief prosecutor said, handing over the ruling that sentenced the inmate to death.

"I thought I had to attend the execution after being convinced, so I read the ruling thoroughly," the former prosecutor recalls.

At the public prosecutors office, a draw is held at the start of each fiscal year to determine the order of public prosecutors who will attend executions.

The inmate being executed in 2008 was not one that the former prosecutor had indicted, and he had never seen the inmate's ruling. He had to be convinced of his own position when he attended the execution. When he read the ruling he concluded that there was no choice but for the execution to go ahead.

Shortly after 8 a.m. the prosecutor, head of the detention center, a medical officer and other officials gathered in a waiting room. About 10 meters in front of them a white curtain was drawn and through it they saw the silhouette of the death-row inmate talking with a chaplain. The inmate was blindfolded and made to face the prosecutor and other officials, and then the curtains were opened. No one spoke during the process.

After the noose was placed around the inmate's neck, the trapdoor beneath him was opened, and his body plunged down. The medical officer announced the time and said "Sentence carried out." The officer then approached the executed inmate, felt his wrist to take his pulse, and checked for a heartbeat with a stethoscope. When the inmate was dead, the doctor announced the time of death.

The process was completed one or two minutes after the curtain was opened. When the prosecutor returned to the office, salt was spread out in a purification ritual. The deputy chief prosecutor gave him words of encouragement, saying, "I appreciate your work."

"It's work so I don't particularly think about it," the prosecutor says.

"But the execution scene still returns to me when I close my eyes."

Click here for the original Japanese story

Source: Mainichi Japan, August 27, 2010

Why is Japan, which uniquely prohibited the death penalty for 350 years, swimming against the global tide toward abolition?

Tokyo Death Chamber

Activists cite a lack of debate. "There is no discussion about this in the media," says Nobuto Hosaka. "Even in the Diet [parliament] the death penalty is something of a taboo because most lawmakers know the abolitionist cause is unpopular. It has become a vicious circle."

The gallows are shrouded in secrecy. When a group of ministers won the right to see the gallows six years ago, they were the first political delegation in three decades. Executions have been timed to coincide with Diet recesses to avoid protests from opposition MPs, prison guards are forbidden from discussing their work and until yesterday few ordinary civilians have ever set foot inside an execution chamber. The justice ministry never publicly releases the names of the people it kills. Still, a handful of former insiders have illuminated Japan's ultimate legal sanction and the people who carry it out.

Former death row prison guard Toshio Sakamoto wrote a book about his experiences. He says that prison guards are rotated every three years to prevent them building up feelings of empathy with their charges. Like the prisoners, the guards are told on the day of an order when an execution is to be carried out.

Discussing the details of the work or whether they have actually put a rope around somebody's neck is "taboo", says Mr Sakamoto, who claims the stress of the work sends some to psychiatric hospitals. "Nobody talks about the rights of the men who do this," he says. "No matter how psychologically strong they are, guards get mentally and physically exhausted serving inmates on death row because it is truly cruel."

Former prison-guard-turned lawyer Yoshikuni Noguchi says on the morning of an execution two burly guards strong enough to control a resisting man take the condemned prisoner by each arm and lead him to a concrete room. The condemned have just minutes to get their affairs in order before facing the noose because they aretold about the execution until the same day. A Buddhist or Christian altar, the prison warden and a curtain concealing the other half of the room are among the last sights he will see. The curtain is pulled back to reveal a glass-encased room and the prisoner is asked if he has any final words.

"It is not unusual for the men to say thanks to the guards or apologise for causing them trouble," according to Mr Noguchi. Mr Sakamoto says he has seen men being dragged kicking and screaming to the gallows, calling out for their mothers.

Inside the room, three guards wait before three buttons. The prisoner is handcuffed, hooded and bound at the feet and a 3cm-thick rope is slipped around his neck. The guards push the buttons but do not know which one has been rigged to open the trapdoor beneath the prisoner's feet.

A doctor waiting with a prison official checks the heart of the hanging man. They wait for 5 minutes to make sure of death and then take the body down, put it in a coffin and ship it to a prison morgue. In most cases, says Mr Sakamoto, the bodies will never be picked up.

Source: The Independent, August 28, 2010