Taiwan envoy meets AI official over death penalty issues

Taiwan's representative to France has accepted 106,000 signatures from French people urging Taiwan to retry a death-row convict and suspend executions as the 1st step toward abolition of the death penalty.

Michel Lu accepted the signatures from Genevieve Garrigos, head of the French chapter of Amnesty International (AI), at Taiwan's representative office in Paris Thursday.

AI, a non-government human rights organization, has been watching developments in the campaign for Taiwan to abrogate capital punishment since last December.

The London-headquartered NGO has also mobilized its members to write to President Ma Ying-jeou and Justice Minister Tseng Yung-fu, urging a retrial of death-row inmate Chiu Ho-shun and a suspension of executions.

During his meeting with Lu, Garrigos reiterated AI's stance and its expectations of Taiwan eventually abolishing the death penalty.

As to the Chiu case, Lu denied AI's allegations that Chiu was tortured into confessing to a crime and that the two prosecutors and 10 police officers investigating the case have since been impeached.

Lu also told Garrigos that Taiwan's government has promoted public debate on whether the death penalty should be phased out.

In line with traditional Chinese thinking that those who commit crime should be punished, Lu said, up to 76.7 % of Taiwan's people are still opposed to abrogation of capital punishment, a sentiment that is clear from the results of a series of public opinion polls.

As Taiwan is a country that upholds rule of law, its government must execute the death penalty in accordance with the law before such a penalty is abolished, Lu said.

Nevertheless, he went on, the government respects AI's stance and its appeals and is more than willing to continue dialogue with its representatives to boost mutual understanding.

In response, Garrigos expressed gratitude for Lu's explanations, but reaffirmed AI's hope that Taiwan will suspend executions pending eventual abrogation of the penalty.

Garrigos said AI would like to provide more data to prove that crime rates in countries that have abolished capital punishment have not risen in the wake of the abrogation and that she is willing to travel to Taiwan.

Source: Focus Taiwan, Feb. 16, 2013

Florida executes Andrew Richard Lukehart

Jacksonville man who killed his girlfriend’s 5-month-old baby in 1996 executed 30 years later A Jacksonville man who confessed to killing his girlfriend’s 5-month-old daughter and throwing her body in a pond 3 decades ago was executed on Tuesday evening. Andrew Richard Lukehart, 53, was scheduled to receive a 3-drug injection starting at 6 p.m. at Florida State Prison near Starke. He was sentenced to death after being convicted of aggravated child abuse and felony murder in the death of Gabrielle Hanshaw. The baby’s mother told News4JAX she plans to attend the execution.

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Oklahoma | Richard Glossip on Life After Decades on Death Row

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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...

New Mississippi billboard warns criminals: ‘Firing squad is legal’

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Can the state execute a man who already survived? | Opinion

A second execution would be an unimaginable nightmare for Tony Carruthers and a moral horror for the rest of us. Tony Carruthers is not supposed to be alive . On May 21, Tennessee set out to execute him. It failed. Carruthers survived. He is not the first person to survive an execution in the United States, and he won’t be the last. For Carruthers, the question is: Now what? Will the state seek to arrange a second execution?

Florida | 2-time Jacksonville baby abuser is set for execution

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Iran executes Esma Zarei in Ardabil Prison after she gave birth in custody

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Tennessee | Questions Raised About the Doctor Who Was Overseeing Tony Caruthers’ Execution

Mark Fowler, according to a deposition, had not placed a central line in a patient for more than a decade when he attempted to put one in Carruthers Around 11 a.m. Thursday morning in the execution chamber at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, a medical doctor stepped in and attempted to place a central IV line in Tony Carruthers’ chest. By that point, the prison staff had spent some 30 minutes trying unsuccessfully to insert a backup IV line that would allow them to proceed with the lethal injection. According to Carruthers’ attorney Maria DeLiberato, who was in the room, after asking a staff member to attempt inserting a line through Carruthers’ jugular vein, the doctor moved on to the central line, which is identified as the last resort in Tennessee’s lethal injection protocol .

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