Family of death row inmate Cheong Chun Yin to submit clemency plea tomorrow

Cheong Chun Yin

The family of a Malaysian death row inmate in Singapore said they would submit a clemency plea to Singapore president SR Nathan on Wednesday in another attempt to seek for a sentence reduction.

The 28-year-old Cheong Chun Yin was convicted of trafficking 7. 7 grams of diamorphine into Singapore in 2008.

The Singaporean court sentenced him to death last February and rejected his appeal eight months later.

Cheong's sister told the Malaysian press on Tuesday that her parents and a sister will hand a clemency plea and a petition bearing some 8,000 signatures to the Singaporean president at the Singapore palace on Wednesday.

They had insisted that he was a victim framed to traffic drugs into Singapore and were pleading for the Singaporean authority to reinvestigate the case and review the death sentence.

The DVD-seller from the Malaysian southern state of Johor, which borders Singapore, had told investigators when he was caught that he thought he was carrying gold bars.

Among those who would join Cheong's family in Singapore are advocates of another convicted Malaysian drug mule, Yong Vui Kong.

Yong was arrested in 2007 in Singapore with 47 grams of heroin and sent to the gallows two years later.

He was only 18 at the time of arrest.

The Singaporean president is expected to make a decision on clemency for Cheong next week. If he denies the plea, Cheong could be hanged by mid-May.

Source: Xinhua, April 26, 2011

8,778 plead for condemned man’s life

President SR Nathan

PETALING JAYA: The family of Cheong Chun Yin, a 28-year-old Malaysian who is on death row in Singapore, has submitted a petition to the president of the island state, asking him to stop Cheong’s execution and order a retrial of his case.

The petition carries 8,778 signatures, including 401 submitted by Singaporeans and 786 collected online. It was submitted to President SR Nathan at his palace at about 10am today.

Cheong’s cause has been taken up by the Save Vui Kong Campaign (SVKC), the anti-death penalty group that takes its name from Yong Vui Kong, another Malaysian on the Singapore death row.

In a statement released today, SVKC urged the Singapore government to “seriously look into” Cheong’s plea for clemency and called on the Malaysian government to show more concern. It urged Putrajaya to “take more pro-active steps” to help Cheong’s family.

SKVC noted a recent Foreign Ministry statement that 833 Malaysians were detained in foreign countries over drug-related offences.

“Deputy Foreign Minister Richard Riot was also quoted as saying that those arrested were often cheated into becoming drug mules and were most often single mothers and young girls,” said the SKVC statement.

“He also referred them as innocent victims (of drug barons). Cheong is an example.”

The movement also urged both Singapore and Malaysia to re-examine their tough anti-drug laws and policies.

Singapore police arrested Ipoh-born Cheong in June 2008 on suspicion of drug trafficking and the High Court convicted and sentenced him to death in February last year. The Court of Appeal rejected his appeal last October.

Cheong's family submits
clemency plea

He is now awaiting a response from Nathan to a petition for clemency presented at the end of last January. He is due for hanging in the second week of May. The Singapore president is expected to give his response by the end of this month.

Cheong told the Singapore courts he thought he was transporting gold bars for a man named Lau De, who was a regular customer at his DVD stall in Johor Baru.

His lawyers and supporters claim that his conviction and the rejection of his appeal were done hastily.

In the clemency plea, Cheong’s lawyers noted that the trial judge had said, “I do not believe your story” without justifying his statement. They also noted that the appeal court did not give grounds for its judgment.

Cheong was accused of trafficking in 7.7kg of diamorphine. He was arrested with another Malaysian, a woman named Pang Siew Fum , 54.

Source: Free Malaysia Today, April 27, 2011
_________________________

Use the tags below or the search engine at the top of this page to find updates, older or related articles on this Website.

Comments

South Carolina | Inmate who believes he’s died repeatedly can’t be executed, judge rules

SPARTANBURG — A 59-year-old man sentenced to death for killing a state trooper in Greenville County in 2000 can’t be executed because of a mental illness that’s left him incoherent and believing he’s immortal, a Circuit Court judge has ruled. John Richard Wood is the first condemned inmate in South Carolina found not competent to be executed since the state restarted capital punishment in September 2024. The seven executions since then include three men who chose to die by firing squad — the latest in November. Wood, convicted 24 years ago, was among death row inmates in line to receive a death warrant after exhausting their regular appeals.

Idaho eyes restart of death row executions as firing squad draws near

BOISE, Idaho — Idaho’s prison system has nearly completed execution chamber upgrades to carry out the death penalty by firing squad as the state’s lead method and will have a team of riflemen ready to go by the time a state law takes effect this summer. As part of the transition, the Idaho Department of Correction hopes to limit participation by its officers as the shooting of condemned people in prison to death is prioritized over lethal injection. Toward that effort, prisoner leadership sought to implement a push-button technology to avoid needing IDOC workers to pull the triggers.

Florida executes James Ernest Hitchcock

STARKE, Fla. (AP) — A Florida man convicted of beating and choking his brother’s 13-year-old stepdaughter to death nearly 50 years ago was executed Thursday evening. James Ernest Hitchcock, 70, was pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. following a lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke. He was convicted of the July 1976 killing of Cynthia Driggers. The curtain to the death chamber opened promptly at the 6 p.m. execution time. Hitchcock’s entire body was covered in a sheet up to his head. He stared at the ceiling as the team warden made a call, then gave his final statement.

20 Minutes to Death: Witness to the Last Execution in France

The following document is a firsthand account of the final moments of Hamida Djandoubi, a convicted murderer executed by guillotine at Marseille’s Baumettes Prison on September 10, 1977. The record—dated September 9—was written by Monique Mabelly, a judge appointed by the state to witness the proceedings. Djandoubi’s execution would ultimately be the last carried out in France before capital punishment was abolished in 1981. At the time, President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing—who had publicly voiced his "deep aversion to the death penalty" prior to his election—rejected Djandoubi’s appeal for clemency. Choosing to let "justice take its course," the President allowed the execution to proceed, just as he had in two previous cases during his term: Christian Ranucci , executed on July 28, 1976 and Jérôme Carrein , executed on June 23, 1977. Hamida Djandoubi , a Tunisian national, was sentenced to death for killing his former lover, Elisabeth Bousquet. He was execu...

China | Man sentenced to death for murder executed in Yunnan

Tian Yongming, who was initially sentenced for a series of violent crimes and then had his sentence changed to death early this year, has been executed in Yunnan province following approval from China's top court. The execution was carried out by the Intermediate People's Court in Yuxi, Yunnan, on Tuesday, with local prosecutors supervising the process. Before the execution, Tian was allowed to meet with his family members. The case dates back to September 1996, when Tian was sentenced to nine years in prison for the rape and attempted murder of his sister-in-law. After his release on July 15, 2002, he plotted revenge against the woman. On the night of Nov 13, 2002, he broke into her home armed with a knife.

Texas | James Broadnax's appeals: US Supreme Court denies 2 claims, confession pending

Despite an 11th-hour confession from another man, James Broadnax is slated to be executed by the state of Texas later this week. Broadnax, 37, is scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection April 30 in Huntsville. He was condemned by a Dallas County jury in 2009 for the deaths of Stephen Swan, 26, and Matthew Butler, 28, outside their Garland music studio. Broadnax and his cousin, Demarius Cummings, had set out to rob the men, but left with only $2 and a 1995 Ford, according to previous reporting from The Dallas Morning News.

Arizona | Man who murdered pastor crucifixion style requests plea deal after parents killed in plane crash

Adam Sheafe, the California man who admitted to killing a New River, Arizona, pastor in a crucifixion-style attack, has asked prosecutors to offer him a plea deal that would result in a natural life sentence rather than the death penalty he had previously sought. Advisory council attorneys representing Sheafe sent a formal plea offer to prosecutors this week, about two weeks after his father and stepmother died in a plane crash at Marana Airport on April 8, according to 12 News. Sheafe, 51, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of William Schonemann, 76, pastor of New River Bible Church, who was found dead inside his home last April.

US Department of Justice announces decision to resume federal executions

The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Friday that it will resume the federal use of capital punishment and that it is seeking death sentences against 44 defendants. DOJ also said that it will use firing squads, electrocution, or nitrogen asphyxiation if the drug used in lethal injection is unavailable. The announcement follows the Restoring and Strengthening the Federal Death Penalty report, published on April 24. The report is especially critical of the moratorium on federal executions, ordered by Attorney General Merrick Garland in July 2021, to remain until the death penalty could be conducted “fairly and humanely.” Garland was concerned about the federal lethal injection protocol, which uses only one drug, pentobarbital, and the possibility that it causes “unnecessary pain and suffering.” In response to Garland’s moratorium and concerns, President Biden commuted the sentences of 37 prisoners on federal death row, leaving only three prisoners.

Florida executes Chadwick Scott Willacy

STARKE, Fla. -- A Florida man who set his neighbor on fire after she returned from work to find him burglarizing her home was executed Tuesday evening. Chadwick Scott Willacy, 58, received a three-drug injection and was pronounced dead at 6:15 p.m. at Florida State Prison near Starke for the 1990 killing of Marlys Sather. It was Florida's fifth execution this year. The curtain to the execution chamber went up promptly at the scheduled 6 p.m. time, and the lethal injection got underway two minutes later, after Willacy made a brief statement.

Iran to execute first woman linked to mass protests after ‘forced confessions’

Bita Hemmati and three others have been sentenced to death for 'collusion' and 'propaganda.' Advocates claim the charges are baseless, citing a secretive process and state-televised interrogations. Iranian authorities are preparing to execute Bita Hemmati, the first woman sentenced to death in connection with the mass protests in Tehran in late December and January, according to the US-based non-profit the Human Rights Activists News Agency. Judge Iman Afshari, of Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, sentenced Hemmati, her husband, Mohammadreza Majidi Asl, and Behrouz Zamaninezhad, and Kourosh Zamaninezhad to death on the charge of “operational action for the hostile government of the United States and hostile groups,” in addition to discretionary imprisonment period of five years on the charge of “assembly and collusion against national security.”

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog