Death Penalty News

Sierra Leone Telegraph: 9 May 2021: Sierra Leone’s High Court Resident Judge in the Kailahun District of the country – Justice Francis Banks-Kamara, on Friday 7th May 2021, sentenced a young man – Kholie Tamba to death by hanging, after he was found guilty of murder. The accused first appeared before Justice Banks-Kamara for the offence on 8th February 2021; and after three months of trial, judgment was delivered last Friday, with the jury unanimously returning a guilty verdict on one count indictment of murder. According to the particulars of offence, the accused Tamba Kholie, on a date unknown in September 2018 in Nyadehum Mabarbu in Luawa Chiefdom, Kailahun District, is said to have murdered one Amara Koroma. The case was prosecuted by State Counsel Daniel Mansaray, while Patrick Kamara Esq from the Legal Aid Board defended the accused. Addressing the jurors, Justice Banks-Kamara said they should be able to understand the elements constituting murder. He described the act of the acc...

The Alabama Senate Judiciary Committee today approved a bill that would take one step out of the death penalty appeals process at the state level, with Republicans supporting the legislation and Democrats opposing it. The committee voted 4-3 in favor of the bill by Sen. Cam Ward, R-Alabaster, that would send death penalty case appeals directly to the Alabama Supreme Court, bypassing the Court of Criminal Appeals. The bill also says the Supreme Court would give death penalty cases priority over other cases and expedite them to the extent possible. The bill approved today is a new version of the original bill, which would have given the Court of Criminal Appeals sole jurisdiction over death penalty cases as the state level. Ward, chairman of the committee, is sponsoring the legislation that was initiated by Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth. The intent is to shorten the duration of death row appeals, which now average 14 years, according to Ainsworth. Expediency Christine Fr...