Death Penalty News

Responding to the sentencing of nine police officers to death by the First Additional District and Sessions Court in Madurai for the 2020 custodial torture and killing of P. Jayaraj and P. Bennix, Aakar Patel, Amnesty International India’s Chair of Board, said:  “The court verdict marks a rare moment of accountability in India’s long struggle against police torture. The verdict acknowledges the brutality of a crime that shocked the nation. But this death penalty sentence is not justice – it is a deflection from the deeper reforms urgently required to ensure police oversight and accountability. Punishing a human rights violation with another does not end violence; it just perpetuates it.

A former sheriff's deputy has been found not guilty of failing to protect students when a gunman opened fire at a Florida high school in 2018. Scot Peterson stayed outside during the attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, near Miami. Mr Peterson, the school's resource officer, was found not guilty of 11 charges including felony child neglect, culpable negligence and perjury. The attack, among the deadliest at a US school, saw 17 killed and 17 injured. Mr Peterson, 60, put his head in his hands and began sobbing as the verdicts were read out in court in Fort Lauderdale. After the verdict, Mr Peterson told reporters that he would like to talk to the parents of the students who were killed.

Scot Peterson was on duty at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland during the 2018 shooting in which 17 students and staff were killed. A police officer who was on duty when a gunman opened fire at a Florida high school has gone on trial accused of failing to protect students during the 2018 mass shooting. Scot Peterson could have confronted gunman Nikolas Cruz and prevented the deaths of six of the 17 people killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School five years ago, prosecutor Steven Klinger told jurors at Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale. The 60-year-old former sheriff's officer, who retired and was fired retrospectively after the shooting, was charged in 2019 with 11 criminal charges. These include seven counts of felony child neglect for four students killed and three wounded on the building's third floor, three counts of culpable negligence for the adults shot on the same floor, and one of perjury - prosecutors say he lied to investigators.

JAKARTA, Oct 17 (Reuters) - The trial of a former Indonesian police general accused of orchestrating the murder of his bodyguard started at a Jakarta court on Monday, in a case that has put a spotlight on alleged impunity and corruption in the country's police force. The case against Ferdy Sambo, an ex-inspector general and head of internal affairs at the national police, has gripped the public in a country where surveys show distrust of the police remains high. Police had initially said the bodyguard, 27-year-old brigadier Nopryansyah Yosua Hutabarat, was killed in a shootout with another officer at Sambo's Jakarta residence on July 8. But claims by Hutabarat's family that there were signs of torture on the bodyguard's body led to a second autopsy, which saw the police version of events unravel. Sambo, who was dishonourably discharged in August, has been charged with premeditated murder, an offence that can carry the death penalty, and obstruction of justice. In court ...

A police chief accused of botching the response to the fatal shooting of 19 schoolchildren and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas, has been sacked. The local school board voted unanimously to fire Pete Arredondo, who had been on leave since June. His lawyers said in a written statement that he had been unaware anyone was inside the classrooms with the shooter. The firing came three months to the day since the attack and two weeks before the new school term begins. The attack at Robb Elementary School on 24 May was the deadliest US school shooting in nearly a decade. Many parents and relatives have expressed deep anger at the police response and there has been growing pressure for law enforcements to be held accountable. Mr Arredondo has taken the brunt of criticism for officers' 77-minute delay in confronting the teenage gunman, and is the first officer to be dismissed. Cheering was heard in the auditorium as Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District's board of trustees filed ...

Two deputies suspended, one Mulberry police officer on leave after video of brutal beating of homeless man goes viral In the video, three police officers are seen beating and kicking one of the accused in their custody on the ground. The video shows one officer punching the suspect in the head several times and another kneeling on the suspect’s body and another kicking him. (CNN) — Three Arkansas law enforcement officers have been removed from duty and are under investigation, their departments confirmed, after bystander video captured them appearing to punch and knee a suspect during an arrest Sunday. Two of the officers in the video are deputies with the Crawford County Sheriff's Office and the third is an officer with the Mulberry Police Department, the agencies confirmed in statements Sunday. The video, which was posted on social media, shows the officers restraining an individual near a curb, appearing to throw punches at the person's face and kneeing the individual in the...

New footage has been released that shows how a deadly shooting in a Texas school unfolded. Nineteen children and two teachers were killed when Salvador Ramos targeted Robb Elementary School in Uvalde. The video shows the 18-year-old gunman after he crashed his pickup truck, entering the building and - carrying an AR-15 assault rifle - walking down a hallway unhindered at 11.33am on 24 May. Police officers first arrive two-and-a-half minutes later. Two approach the classroom, but retreat after shots are fired. At 11.52am, more policemen arrive - armed with guns, wearing body armour and carrying ballistic shields, but they are seen milling in the hallway. At 12.30pm, another officer is seen stopping to get hand sanitiser. At 12.50pm - 77 minutes after the gunman entered the school - officers breach the classroom and kill him. The footage was recorded from hallway CCTV within the school, and portions have been published by the Austin American-Statesman newspaper and KVUE. Delays in the la...

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The head of the Texas state police pronounced the law enforcement response to the Uvalde school shooting an “abject failure," telling lawmakers that there were enough officers and firepower on the scene to have stopped the gunman three minutes after he entered the building. Col. Steve McCraw also said officers would have found the door to the classroom where the assailant was holed up unlocked if they had bothered to check it. Instead, police with rifles stood in a hallway for over an hour, waiting in part for more weapons and gear, before they finally stormed the classroom and killed the gunman, putting an end to the May 24 attack that left 19 children and two teachers dead. RELATED |  Uvalde Texas School Shooting: 19 Students, 2 Adults Killed by Shooter, Authorities Say “I don’t care if you have on flip-flops and Bermuda shorts, you go in,” McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said Tuesday in blistering testimony at a state Senate heari...

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin pleaded guilty Wednesday to a federal count alleging he willfully deprived George Floyd of his rights during the May 25, 2020, arrest that led to the Black man's death. He also pleaded guilty to an unrelated but similar count stemming from the use of force against a then-14-year-old boy, who is also Black, in 2017. Here's what the guilty pleas mean for Chauvin, and for the three other officers charged in Floyd's death. WHAT DOES THE PLEA IN FLOYD'S CASE MEAN? Essentially, it means Chauvin has acknowledged for the first time that he violated Floyd's rights. Chauvin admitted he knew what he did to Floyd was wrong and that he had a “callous and wanton disregard” for Floyd’s life, the plea agreement said. It also said Chauvin “was aware that Mr. Floyd not only stopped resisting, but also stopped talking, stopped moving, stopped breathing, and lost consciousness and a pulse.” Floyd's family member...

One of President Joe Biden's most powerful tools for advancing criminal justice reform is his voice and yet, despite his campaign promises, he has been mostly silent on the issue while in office, frustrating criminal justice reform advocates. Advocates for ending mass incarceration and mandatory minimum sentencing would have liked Biden to do more than just talk about criminal justice reform in his first six months in office, but they are even more frustrated by the fact that he isn't loudly advocating for reform and isn't letting people know when he will act on his reform promises. Andrea James, a former criminal defense attorney turned activist who voted for Biden, attended a White House virtual discussion in May about how the Biden administration can reduce incarceration and better help the formerly incarcerated reenter society, shortly after Biden's first 100 days in office. At the time, the administration didn't give her any indication when Biden would start gr...

Hennepin County District Judge Peter Cahill sentenced former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin to 22.5 years in prison for the murder of George Floyd. During Friday's hearing, Cahill said his determination was "not based on emotion or sympathy." Below is the full sentencing order from Cahill. The Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines were promulgated “to establish rational and consistent sentencing standards that promote public safety, reduce sentencing disparity, and ensure that the sanctions imposed . . . are proportional to the severity of the . . . offense and the offender’s criminal history.” Minn. Sent. Guidelines 1.A; see also State v. Hicks, 864 N.W.2d 153, 156 (Minn. 2015) (“The Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines promote uniformity, proportionality, and predictability in sentencing.”). The presumptive guidelines ranges are “deemed appropriate for the felonies covered by them.” Minn. Sent. Guidelines 1.A.6. In most cases, the maximum sentence a district court may i...