Death Penalty News

“Singapore is Disneyland with the Death Penalty” – William Gibson  The penal policy pursued by the UK in all its colonies included the death penalty. Many of these colonies, while professing to be “anti-colonial” or even “post-colonial” have retained the death penalty after independence from the UK. To quote the Death Penalty Project : Within the Commonwealth, consisting principally of former territories of the British Empire, a disproportionate number of countries continue to impose the death penalty. Only 37% of Commonwealth countries have abolished the death penalty in law, compared to 57% on a global scale. Many Commonwealth countries have also been vocal on the international stage in defending retention of the death penalty. In December 2016, half of the 40 countries that voted against a UN General Assembly resolution calling for a moratorium on executions were members of the Commonwealth. Singapore is one such former British colony retaining the death penalty. Last week it ex...

GEORGE TOWN: The mother of a Malaysian death row inmate in Singapore has filed a last-minute attempt to halt the execution, pending a hearing of her case against the republic’s chief justice over a possible conflict of interest. The inmate, Nagaenthran K Dharmalingam , 34, is scheduled to be hanged on Wednesday.  The mother’s suit is to be heard tomorrow. In a last-minute attempt to halt the execution, his mother has filed the suit, saying there was a possible clash of interest as the chief justice was the attorney-general when Nagaenthran was charged and convicted with drug trafficking in 2011. The mother, Panchalai Supermaniam, 60, will appear tomorrow at Singapore’s highest court, the Court of Appeal, to argue the case on her own. A spokesman for Panchalai said she would represent herself and would argue the case without a lawyer because no lawyer wanted to appear on the record against the chief justice, Sundaresh Menon . Menon had turned down several appeals made by the family ...

Lawyers for Texas death-row prisoner Melissa Lucio have moved to vacate her April 27, 2022 execution date and remove the judge and district attorney in her case because of conflicts of interest stemming from their employment of key members of Lucio’s original defense team. Lucio’s lead trial counsel, Peter Gilman, is now employed as an assistant district attorney in the Cameron County District Attorney’s office and Irma Gilman, who was counsel’s paralegal at the time of trial, is now court administrator for Judge Gabriela Garcia, who is presiding over the case. In separate pleadings filed in Cameron County District Court February 18, 2022, Lucio alleges that the hiring of the Gilmans, who are married, violates due process and unconstitutionally denies him access to critical witnesses in her attempt to investigate and litigate significant issues in the case. The Cameron County D.A.’s office sought and obtained a death warrant from Judge Garcia scheduling Lucio’s execution for April 27...

A Conflict of Interest?----John Hummel's attorney calls original trial lawyer's presence in D.A.s office "an irresolvable conflict of interest," seeks to stop execution on that ground Michael Mowla, attorney for convicted capital murderer John Hummel, is working hard to keep his client from being executed on March 18. Mowla has filed motions for Hummel in state and federal courts and is asking the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to reduce his sentence to life without parole. A principal focus of Mowla's appeals is Larry Moore – Hummel's original trial lawyer, now an assistant district attorney in Tarrant County working in the office seeking Hummel's death. Mowla calls Moore's presence in the D.A.'s Office "an irresolvable conflict of interest" and in February asked Hummel's trial court in Ft. Worth to stop the execution on that ground. The court refused; Mowla will be taking his request to the appeals courts further up t...