The mystery of Joe Biden’s views about capital punishment has finally been solved. His decision to grant clemency to 37 of the 40 people on federal death row shows the depth of his opposition to the death penalty. And his decision to leave three of America’s most notorious killers to be executed by a future administration shows the limits of his abolitionist commitment. The three men excluded from Biden’s mass clemency—Dylann Roof, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, and Robert Bowers—would no doubt pose a severe test of anyone’s resolve to end the death penalty. Biden failed that test.
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Patrick Henry, French child murderer in famous case, to be released
Patrick Henry libéré après 40 années passées en prison
Il est l'un des plus anciens détenus de France, mais aussi un symbole de la lutte contre la peine de mort : Patrick Henry, 64 ans dont 40 passés en prison pour le meurtre d'un enfant, a obtenu ce vendredi une suspension de peine pour raisons médicales. Une demande obtenue en raison d'un cancer.
Depuis des décennies, Patrick Henry est un symbole: celui d'un assassin d'enfant.
A la fin des années 1970 ce jeune VRP enlève un garçonnet à la sortie d'une école et formule une demande de rançon.
L'affaire tourne mal, le corps de l'enfant sera découvert mort par strangulation. « La France a peur » lance alors à la télévision le journaliste Roger Giquel.
Le procès qui suivit en 1977 a marqué les anales judiciaires. Patrick Henry encourt la peine capitale, mais de justesse il échappe à la guillotine.
Son avocat Robert Badinter, fervent militant de l'abolition de la peine de mort convainc les jurés.
A la cour d'assises qui venait de lui sauver la tête, Patrick Henry dira : « Vous n'aurez pas à le regretter ».
Il va passer près d'un quart de siècle derrière les barreaux. Il reprend ses études et devient un détenu modèle. En 2001, libéré sous conditions, il va cependant vite casser cette image. Il est interpellé en Espagne avec 10 kilos de cannabis, ce qui signifie pour lui un retour à la case prison.
Après 40 ans d'emprisonnement, il entend désormais mener en homme libre son dernier combat, celui contre le cancer.
Source: RFI, 15 septembre 2017
Libéré après 40 ans de détention, Patrick Henry va emménager près de Lille
Atteint d'un cancer du poumon, Patrick Henry a été remis en liberté après 40 ans passés derrière les barreaux.
Il doit s'installer dans la métropole lilloise, où il suit un traitement au CHRU, dans un appartement prêté par une amie nordiste qui le soutient depuis 25 ans.
Libéré ce samedi, Patrick Henry, l'un des plus anciens détenus de France, devrait venir emménager dans la métropole lilloise.
Martine Veys, une visiteuse de prison qui le soutient depuis 25 ans, doit lui prêter un logement proche du CHRU de Lille, où il suit un traitement pour son cancer du poumon.
Le soutien de cette amie, rencontrée lorsqu'il était en prison à Caen, et de son mari a pesé dans la décision de justice, qui a estimé que "la motivation financière, qui a toujours guidé ses passages à l'acte, semble pouvoir être écartée" aujourd'hui car sa "sortie sera entièrement prise en charge (...) par un couple d'amis qui le soutient depuis 25 ans".
Condamné en 1977 à une peine de perpétuité, incarcéré depuis 40 ans pour le meurtre par strangulation du jeune Philippe Bertrand, sept ans, était devenu un symbole de la lutte contre la peine de mort en échappant de peu à la guillotine grâce à la défense de son avocat Robert Badinter.
Depuis le 15 mai, il est régulièrement hospitalisé dans une unité sécurisée. Il va désormais pouvoir quitter cette unité et devenir un "patient ordinaire", a dit son avocat Hugo Lévy. Plusieurs médecins ont considéré que son état de santé était "durablement incompatible avec la détention", selon le jugement du tribunal de l'application des peines (TAP) de Melun.
Un couple de Nordistes lui prête un appartement
Martine Veys s'est engagé plusieurs fois devant la justice à accompagner Patrick Henry. Elle confiait l'année dernière au Parisien avoir proposé un logement, voire un contrat de travail, à chacune de ses demandes de libération depuis sept ans.
Martine Veys habite à la frontière belge et possède plusieurs biens immobiliers dans la métropole, dont un vacant qu'elle a préparé pour Patrick Henry. "Je lui ai proposé un hébergement et une aide financière pour subvenir à ses besoins", a-t-elle expliqué. L'ancien détenu est "dévoré par la maladie", a ajouté cette amie. "Aujourd'hui, il veut le silence autour de lui, se soigner le mieux possible, c'est ce qu'il m'a dit".
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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde
The mystery of Joe Biden’s views about capital punishment has finally been solved. His decision to grant clemency to 37 of the 40 people on federal death row shows the depth of his opposition to the death penalty. And his decision to leave three of America’s most notorious killers to be executed by a future administration shows the limits of his abolitionist commitment. The three men excluded from Biden’s mass clemency—Dylann Roof, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, and Robert Bowers—would no doubt pose a severe test of anyone’s resolve to end the death penalty. Biden failed that test.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A Florida man convicted of murdering a husband and wife during a fishing trip nearly 30 years ago is set to be executed next month in the state’s first scheduled execution of 2025. Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the death warrant for James Ford on Friday. Ford is slated to be put to death on Feb. 13 at Florida State Prison.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee on Jan. 9 released a redacted version of its newly completed execution manual, blacking out sporadic job titles and team names throughout the notably trimmed-down document that now provides vague guidelines and omits previously detailed steps on carrying out the death penalty. The Tennessee Department of Correction initially refused to hand over the manual when pressed by The Associated Press, arguing that the state had to keep the entire manual secret to protect the identities of the executioner and other people involved.
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama has scheduled its fourth execution by nitrogen gas as critics continue to argue the new method needs additional scrutiny. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey on Tuesday set a Feb. 6 execution date for Demetrius Terrence Frazier, 52. Her office said the execution will be carried out by nitrogen gas. It is the state’s first scheduled execution of 2025. Frazier was convicted of killing Pauline Brown while burglarizing her Birmingham apartment in 1991.
Politicians like Greg Abbott and Ken Paxton project an image of being tough on crime, but they’re also tough on those who are innocent, per a year-end report from the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. The annual report tells the stories of several individuals who faced execution in 2024 despite evidence that they were not guilty of the crime for which they were convicted. Three of the eight people the state planned to execute this year tried to present evidence of innocence.
In two videos circulating on social networks and authenticated by the site Verify.sy, the minister, a former Islamic judge in the Idlib region then under the control of al-Nosra, supervised the killing of women accused of "prostitution." The images are chilling. In one video, a man with a thick beard, wearing a chechia and qami, the traditional Muslim dress, pronounces a death sentence “for corruption and prostitution” next to a woman in a black niqab , on her knees. In another, the same man appears next to a woman also in a full veil, on the ground, who implores clemency. A fighter recites verses from the Quran and claims that there is “proof” that she committed adultery and prostitution, thus spreading “corruption on earth” . A third man then draws a handgun and shoots her in the head.
President Joe Biden is facing growing calls to use his clemency power to commute the sentences of the 40 men on federal death row before he leaves office. The U.S. Constitution grants the president the power to issue pardons—forgiving federal criminal offenses—and commutations, which reduce penalties. The president recently exercised that power to extend a broad pardon to his son, Hunter, despite previously pledging not to do so. The move spares his son a possible prison sentence after he was convicted and pleaded guilty in tax and gun cases.
SYDNEY, Australia -- The five remaining members of the Australian "Bali Nine" drug ring flew home Sunday after 19 years in jail in Indonesia, ending a saga that had frayed relations between the two countries. Indonesian police arrested the nine Australians in 2005, convicting them of attempting to smuggle more than eight kilograms (18 pounds) of heroin off the holiday island of Bali. The case drew global attention to Indonesia's unforgiving drug laws, with two of the gang executed by firing squad, while the others served hefty prison sentences.
DADU: Jamshoro’s additional sessions court on Friday sentenced a man and his son to death after they were found guilty of murdering a young woman and her father in the name of honour. The convicts Ali Mohammad Rind and his son Munir alias Farooq Rind had reportedly brutally killed 50-year-old Meer Rind and his 18-year-old daughter Ms Nimani in Joghi Khan Rind village near Sehwan in 2023.
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — An Oklahoma panel on Friday rejected a plea for clemency for a man convicted of torturing and killing a 10-year-old girl as part of a cannibalistic fantasy, paving the way for him to become the 25th and final person executed in the U.S. this year. Three members of Oklahoma’s Pardon and Parole Board voted unanimously against clemency for Kevin Ray Underwood, who is scheduled to receive a lethal injection on Thursday, his 45th birthday. An Indiana man, Joseph Corcoran, is set to die Wednesday for killing four men in 1997 in what would be the Hoosier State’s first execution in 15 years.
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