Death Penalty News

MIAMI — The U.S. Department of Justice has unsealed a historic criminal indictment charging former Cuban President Raúl Castro and five co-defendants with murder and conspiracy.  The charges stem from the February 24, 1996, shoot-down of two unarmed civilian aircraft operated by the Miami-based exile group Brothers to the Rescue. The group frequently flew over the Florida Straits to search for and assist Cuban rafters fleeing the island. The unsealed document represents a major escalation in U.S.–Cuba relations, marking the first time in nearly seventy years that top Cuban leadership has faced criminal charges in an American courtroom for violence against U.S. citizens. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the indictment outside Miami's Freedom Tower, highlighting the decades-long push for accountability.

HAVANA TIMES – On August 24, the people of Ciego de Avila woke up to the alarming news that two “high-risk” inmates had escaped from Canaleta prison. That penitentiary is located roughly halfway between the cities of Ciego de Ávila and Moron, home to two-thirds of the province’s residents. One of the fugitives was serving a 28-year sentence for homicide and other crimes; his accomplice had been sentenced to 16 years for violent offenses, illegal possession of weapons, and robbery.

Fidel Castro, Cuba's lifelong dictator, dies at 90. In April 2013, after ten consecutive years without carrying out executions, Cuba became a “de facto abolitionist” country. The Penal Code presently in force provides for the death penalty for 112 offences, 33 of which are common crimes. Offences punishable by death include: crimes against external State security; crimes against internal State security; crimes against peace and international law; acts against State security (like the violation of Cuban territory by participating as a member of the crew or travelling on board a ship or plane); crimes against the normal development of sexual relations and against the family, infancy and youth (rape when the victim is under 12 years of age or serious injury or illness results; pederasty with violence when the victim is under 14 years of age or serious injury or illness results). A February 1999 reform of the penal code expanded the application of the death penalty to ...

"A majority of Cubans want the death penalty abolished." At the beginning of July, Havana Times put forward a new initiative: to find out what Cubans think about different national and/or global issues. As far as we know, only the government and government institutions carry out surveys; the results of these are not normally very accessible to ordinary Cubans. The aim of our project is to contribute towards public opinion surveys not being administered by a centralized body and that the results of these are made easily accessible to everyone. We kicked off this project with a simple survey where the person taking it didn't have to give any personal information; all they had to do was mark the option they believed to be correct with a cross. We chose to begin with the death penalty, because it's a very sensitive and important issue when building a civilized country. In Cuba, capital punishment was abolished by the 1940 Constitution and was later reinstated...