FEATURED POST

Activists Call on President Biden to End the Federal Death Penalty Before Leaving Office

Published
Image
A conversation with Death Penalty Action Co-founder and Executive Director Abe Bonowitz. Now that Joe Biden is a lame duck president, activists are holding him accountable to make good on his promise to end the federal death penalty during his remaining six months as president. Biden’s election campaign in 2020 had pledged to end the federal death penalty and incentivize the remaining 27 states that still allow executions to do the same. While he made history as the first president in the United States to openly oppose the death penalty, there has been no movement to actually end federal executions during his nearly four years in office.

Taiwan | 37 death row prisoners may petition for appeal

Published
The 37 death row prisoners in Taiwan who have exhausted their appeals may petition for extraordinary appeals to alter their sentencing following a ruling by the Constitutional Court on Friday that stated the death penalty was constitutional, but only for “exceptional” cases.

In a case brought by the 37 prisoners, the Constitutional Court ruled that the death penalty was constitutional only for “the most serious” premeditated murders and premeditated crimes resulting in death.

The ruling also prohibits the death sentence for people with a mental condition, reversing the current practice which allows only those who can prove that their mental conditions had affected their judgment when they committed their crimes to receive reduced sentences.

Any current laws incompatible with the ruling must be amended within two years, the court said.

At a news conference following the ruling, Yang Hao-ching (楊皓清), the court’s director-general, said while the death row prisoners could petition for extraordinary appeals based on Friday’s ruling, it was up to the head prosecutor of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office to decide whether to accept their petitions.

Even if the head prosecutor files for extraordinary appeals on their behalf, the Supreme Court still has to decide whether to review such appeals, he added.

The Supreme Prosecutors’ Office in a press release issued later on Friday said it would file extraordinary appeals for prisoners Chen Yi-lung (陳憶隆) and Huang Chun-chi (黃春棋) because the laws underlying their death sentences were ruled unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court.

The two were given the death penalty more than two decades ago over the kidnapping and murder of a businessman surnamed Huang (黃) in 1995.

As for the remaining 35 prisoners, the office said it would examine each of their cases before determining its next step.

The Code of Criminal Procedure (刑事訴訟法) says that the head prosecutor can also file for an extraordinary appeal — a special procedure intended to correct “improper judgments” — if a punishment imposed on an individual is considered to be “against the law.”

The Supreme Court, upon reviewing an extraordinary appeal for a case, can revoke parts or all of the judgments and either remit the case to the original court for re-examination or issue a new ruling, according to the extraordinary appeal system.

Source: taipeitimes.com, Staff, September 22, 2024

_____________________________________________________________________








"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde



Location: Taipei, Taiwan
Related content:

Most Viewed (Last 7 Days)

Activists Call on President Biden to End the Federal Death Penalty Before Leaving Office

Published
Image
A conversation with Death Penalty Action Co-founder and Executive Director Abe Bonowitz. Now that Joe Biden is a lame duck president, activists are holding him accountable to make good on his promise to end the federal death penalty during his remaining six months as president. Biden’s election campaign in 2020 had pledged to end the federal death penalty and incentivize the remaining 27 states that still allow executions to do the same. While he made history as the first president in the United States to openly oppose the death penalty, there has been no movement to actually end federal executions during his nearly four years in office.
Read more

South Carolina executes Freddie Owens

Published
Image
South Carolina inmate dies by lethal injection in state’s first execution in 13 years COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina put inmate Freddie Owens to death Friday as the state restarted executions after an unintended 13-year pause because prison officials couldn’t get the drugs needed for lethal injections. Owens was convicted of the 1997 killing of a Greenville convenience store clerk during a robbery. While on trial, Owens killed a person incarcerated at a county jail. His confession to that attack was read to two different juries and a judge who all sentenced him to death.
Read more

'Better off without it': Washington closes execution chamber at state penitentiary

Published
Image
WASHINGTON STATE — Fourteen years after the last death sentence was carried out in Washington, the execution chamber at the state penitentiary in Walla Walla was closed in a ceremony held Wednesday morning. Gov. Jay Inslee, who issued a moratorium on the death penalty ten years ago, said shuttering the chamber was the ‘final closure’ of the controversial issue in Washington state law.
Read more

Texas | Broad Coalition Supports Robert Roberson’s Clemency Petition

Published
Image
On September 17, 2024, attorneys for Texas death row prisoner Robert Roberson filed a clemency petition accompanied by letters from hundreds of supporters, including eminent scientists and medical professionals, a bipartisan group of Texas legislators, and former lead Detective Brian Wharton, urging the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and Governor Greg Abbott to reduce Mr. Roberson’s sentence. Mr. Roberson is currently scheduled to be executed on October 17, 2024. He was convicted and sentenced to death in 2003 for the death of his two-year-old daughter, Nikki, who medical experts have determined died from severe viral and bacterial pneumonia that doctors failed to diagnose, not from abuse or Shaken Baby Syndrome. Despite three new expert reports showing Nikki died of pneumonia, no court has been willing to consider the evidence that clears Mr. Roberson of any crime.
Read more

Florida | 5 things to know about how the Parkland shooter’s life was spared

Published
Image
This article was first published by The Marshall Project , a nonprofit news organization covering the U.S. criminal justice system. Sign up for their newsletters, and follow them on Instagram, TikTok, Reddit and Facebook. Nikolas Cruz was the rare mass killer in America to have his fate decided at trial; many die during the shooting. It’s a bedrock principle of American justice that every defendant, no matter how serious the crime, is owed a robust defense.
Read more

Singaporean deported from Thailand charged with drug trafficking, faces death penalty

Published
Image
Benny Kee Soon Chuan was allegedly living a life of luxury in Thailand when local authorities arrested him and handed him over to Singapore's Central Narcotics Bureau. SINGAPORE: A Singaporean man wanted for alleged links to two cases of drug trafficking was handed a capital charge on Friday (Sep 20), after being deported to Singapore from Thailand. Benny Kee Soon Chuan, 31, is accused of conspiring with Low En Quan Justin to traffic in methamphetamine sometime in early December 2020, when Kee was not in Singapore.
Read more

Pakistan | Christian woman sentenced to death for blasphemy

Published
Image
According to the judges, Shagufta Kiran shared an offensive message against Islam on WhatsApp. The woman, currently imprisoned in Rawalpindi, was sentenced to death at the end of a three-year trial. Shagufta Kiran, a 40-year-old Pakistani Christian woman, has been found guilty of blasphemy and sentenced to death under Article 295-C of Pakistan’s Penal Code, which punishes offences against the Prophet Muhammad.
Read more

"Death chamber" permanently closed at Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla

Published
Image
WALLA WALLA, Wash.-The "death chamber" at the Washington "State Penitentiary where inmates sentenced to death were executed, the last remaining one in the Washington Department of Corrections system, was taken offline on Sept. 18.  According to KING 5 reporting on the closure of the small room within the penitentiary, the closing is largely ceremonial, as Governor Jay Inslee instituted a moratorium on the death penalty in Washington in 2014.  In use since 1904, death row inmates had the choice of hanging or lethal injection in the small room within the penitentiary. 
Read more