Death Penalty News

As Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens approaches retirement, observers are beginning to assess the legacy of his almost 35 years on the bench. One issue with which Justice Stevens may be closely associated is the death penalty. In 1976, he voted with the majority to reinstate the death penalty, ending a four-year period during which capital punishment resided in constitutional limbo. Justice Stevens’ views of the death penalty and public opinion about it have evolved since 1976. In a 2007 case upholding the constitutionality of lethal injection procedures, Justice Stevens, while feeling compelled as a matter of precedent to vote with the majority, nonetheless expressed grave doubts about the death penalty, calling it “anachronistic.” But one of Justice Stevens’ last acts involving the death penalty could be the most meaningful. Last August, the Supreme Court considered the case of Troy Davis (pictured). Davis, who is on death row in Georgia for the 1989 murder of Savannah poli...

XIAMEN, June 26 (Xinhua) -- Two drug dealers convicted of selling and trafficking 12,242 grams of heroin to Taiwan were executed in southeast China's Fujian Province, local court announced Saturday. Chen Mingxiong and Jian Zhicheng were executed on June 23, according to the Zhangzhou City's Intermediate People's Court. Chen and Jian were arrested in October 2007 and were later given the death penalty by the city court in Zhangzhou, the local court said. The two appealed the death sentence, but a higher court upheld the sentence. The death sentence was approved by the Supreme People's Court. Saturday [June 26, 2010] is the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking. Source: CCTV , June 26, 2010 - Photo: Last cigarette: A police officer gives convicted drug trafficker Wang Weidang a light before his execution in Nanning, China. The sentence was carried out on China's International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking. Associated Press...

Texas' use of capital punishment will undergo legal scrutiny this fall as a judge on Friday scheduled a hearing to listen to evidence on whether there's a substantial risk the state's death penalty law allows for the possible execution of an innocent person. State District Judge Kevin Fine (left) set the hearing for Nov. 8 as part of a pretrial motion in which 2 defense attorneys for a Houston man facing a possible death sentence asked that Texas' death penalty statute be declared unconstitutional. Fine initially granted the motion in March, declaring the law unconstitutional because he believed it is safe to assume innocent people have been executed. He also questioned whether society, considering the recent history of death row inmate exonerations, can continue to ignore this reality. Anti-death penalty groups lauded his March decision and many elected officials, including Gov. Rick Perry, criticized it. Fine, a Democrat, is a judge in Harris County, which sends m...

China's highest court has published details of a regulation banning the admission of confessions obtained through torture in criminal trials. The rule comes after a man who was wrongly jailed for murder was released last month when the victim turned up alive and well 10 years later. It is 1 of the 2 regulations issued by the Supreme People's Court Thursday to prevent further miscarriages of justice and tighten the conviction criteria in capital cases. The regulations focus on corroboration of physical evidence and human testimony in death penalty cases. The regulation on principles and detailed rules for scrutinizing evidence in death penalty cases states that all physical evidence for the prosecution and defense should be revealed, identified and open to question in court. Source: English People, June 25, 2010

Maryland's death row has moved. Corrections officials say the state's five death row inmates were taken this week from Baltimore to western Maryland. They'll now be housed at the North Branch Correctional Institution (left), a maximum-security prison in Cresaptown. Death row had been located at the Maryland Correctional Adjustment Center, formerly known as Supermax, for more than 20 years. That prison is now used to house inmates in transit and awaiting court appearances. The state's execution chamber remains in Baltimore. Five men have been executed since Maryland reinstated the death penalty in 1978, most recently in 2005. The state has had a de facto moratorium on capital punishment since late 2006 because its lethal injection protocols are under review. Source: Associated Press, June 25, 2010 Death row inmates transferred to W. Maryland Under cloak of secrecy, five condemned men are moved from Baltimore to Cumberland prison. The five men on Maryland's ...

After the state executed convicted murderer Ronnie Lee Gardner, Gov. Gary Herbert said he wants to see the appeals process for condemned prisoners streamlined, so executions can be carried out more expeditiously. "25 years is just too long. There ought to be a process that's more timely," Herbert said Thursday during his monthly news conference on KUED. "It's just too long and it becomes too much of a circus atmosphere. … And it doesn't serve the families very well." Gardner was executed by firing squad June 18 for the 1985 slaying of attorney Michael Burdell during an attempted courthouse escape. He also wounded bailiff Nick Kirk. Gardner was to stand trial for shooting Melvyn Otterstrom during a bar robbery in 1984. 9 men remain on Utah’s death row; the longest-serving is Ronald Lafferty, who was first condemned in 1985 but was re-sentenced in 1996. Douglas Carter was sentenced to death in 1986 and re-sentenced in 1992. Ralph Menzies was sentenced i...

Condemned inmate Troy Anthony Davis (left) got his day in court to present new evidence he contends proves he did not kill an off-duty policeman 21 years ago. After hearing all the evidence, a federal judge now must decide whether Davis should be spared from execution. In closing arguments Thursday, a member of Davis' legal team contended police rushed to judgment and got the wrong man in the killing. But a state attorney countered that Davis had fallen far short of producing enough new evidence to convince anyone that he did not gun down Savannah police Officer Mark Allen MacPhail as he ran to the aid of a homeless man being pistol-whipped. At the close of the extraordinary two-day hearing ordered by the U.S. Supreme Court, U.S. District Judge William T. Moore Jr. did not issue an immediate ruling. He instructed attorneys to file legal briefs by July 7 and said he would rule as promptly as possible. Earlier Thursday, however, Moore handed Davis' legal team a huge blow by ru...

2 Norwegian ex-soldiers sentenced to death for murder and espionage in the Democratic Republic of Congo have written to President Joseph Kabila to ask for a pardon, their lawyer said Thursday. "We have sent a plea for grace citing the extremely difficult conditions of their detention as well as family considerations," Norwegian lawyer Morten Furuholmen told AFP. Joshua French, 28, who also has British nationality, and Tjostolv Moland, 29, were sentenced to death June 10 by a military court in the northeastern DRC town of Kisangani. They were found guilty of the May 2009 murder of a Congolese driver of a vehicle they hired in the town, and of spying. "The request is for a total pardon or, failing that, the commuting of the death penalty" to a prison term that could be served out in Norway, Furuholmen said. French and Moland did not apologise in their letter for the crimes for which they were convicted, the advocate said. "They have always said that they ar...

The Taliban's execution of an eight-year-old accused of ''collaborating'' with foreign forces ( see related story here ) has proved too much even for Afghans hardened by 3 decades of fighting. 'Islam does not permit anyone to sentence a minor to execution,'' said Mawlawi Mehr Del, deputy head of the Muslim clerical council in Helmand. ''It is against Islam, against sharia. God may be extremely upset with them. Those who do something like this are neither jihadis nor Taliban, they are enemies of human life.'' Islamic law prohibits the execution of anyone under 18. The Taliban's own code of conduct, drawn up by the movement 2 years ago, stipulates that no commander may order the execution of minors. But a senior Taliban member, Mullah Abdul Bari, suggested that code of conduct did not apply in Helmand: ''The code has been changed for Helmand because the number of infidels there has increased, and the Taliban don't have th...

SAVANNAH, Georgia — Lawyers for a US convict were to present evidence Thursday that could show a man who has spent nearly 20 years on death row is innocent of the 1989 murder of an off-duty police officer. Attorneys for Troy Davis were to spend a second day seeking to demonstrate their client deserves a retrial, a day after a string of witnesses admitted they lied during his 1991 trial. The admissions came at a special hearing ordered by the US Supreme Court last year, after seven of the nine witnesses who testified against Davis in 1991 recanted. The witnesses, some of whom were illiterate, in prison, or in their teens when they originally testified, provided the key evidence that convicted Davis, an African-American, of murdering Mark McPhail, a white police officer. Davis, now 41, has always proclaimed his innocence, and one-by-one Wednesday, witnesses admitted they had lied to help convict him. "When the police arrived, I told them I could barely recognize the shooter,...

Keep reading if Utah’s firing squad execution last week stirred a sense of “he got what he deserved.” Consider more details and you might be less appreciative for what state-sanctioned vigilante justice gives back to the taxpayer. And it doesn’t matter if the deed is done by a five-man firing squad like the one that killed Utah’s Ronnie Lee Gardner, or lethal injection. If the nation’s budget crisis is a concern, that is. If news of more cuts to services like highway repairs irks you. If you are troubled by teachers being laid off because states are fiscally strapped, or police officers not being hired, or trash collectors. The death penalty is a colossal waste of money in the 35 states that have it, including Missouri and Kansas. Adding to the insult, it is ineffective as a crime deterrent. A state can pay $1 million more to pursue a capital case compared with pursuing any other sentence, according to a 2009 report by the Death Penalty Information Center. But because only one dea...

The dirty secret of criminal justice [is] that prejudice often carries the day. - Andrea D. Lyon The issue of racial disparity in the administration of the death penalty has been a part of modern law. Starting with Furman v. Georgia and continuing on to McCleskey v. Zant , courts have struggled to come to grips with this issue as have those of us defending the most despised amongst us. Jury selection is actually a process of elimination: Potential jurors are called for jury duty and are questioned and either seated, excused for a cause or excused by a peremptory challenge from either side. Generally, a challenge for cause involves jurors who have a relationship with a party or witness, have a personal experience that would cause them to be unfair or are legally unable to sit. In capital cases, the number of potential jurors who can be excluded for cause is much larger because anyone who is against the death penalty can be turned away -- and minorities are more likely to find probl...

FUZHOU, June 23 (Xinhua) -- Six drug dealers were executed in southeast China's Fujian Province Wednesday, ahead of Saturday's International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking. Zhang Jinxuan, Li Weiliang, Dong Yunshi, guilty of trafficking and transporting drugs, were sentenced to death in June last year, according to Putian City's Intermediate People's Court. They were executed in Putian on Wednesday. Three other drug dealers, Lu Jianjun, Shi Zhongping and Li Dezhong were executed in Fujian's Quanzhou City. Lu and Shi were convicted in 2008 of manufacturing and selling heroines from 2006 to 2007, the city court in Quanzhou said. Li was given death penalty in August last year for selling 25,000 grams of ketamine. In southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, two dealers were executed Tuesday for cross-border smuggling and dealing of 12,019 grams of heroine and 2,245.5 grams of methamphetamine. Source: CCTV , June 24, 2010

4 witnesses who testified against Troy Anthony Davis (left) at his 1991 trial said Wednesday that none of their damaging testimony against him was true. The witnesses, whose prior testimony helped put Davis on death row for the killing of off-duty Savannah Police Officer Mark Allen MacPhail, said they were pressured by authorities to point the finger at Davis. At the 1991 trial, Antoine Williams testified he saw Davis shoot and kill MacPhail late one summer night in 1989 in a Burger King parking lot. But Wednesday, Williams said he was too scared to see who actually fired the weapon. "I was in my car, ducking and peeking," Williams, the first witness called by Davis' lawyers, said. He added that he did not get a good look at the shooting because his car's windows had three layers of limousine tint on them. Williams said he testified against Davis at trial because prosecutors told him to identify Davis as the shooter. "I was scared," he testified. The te...

An Iranian official says 10 suspected Jundallah terrorists are facing trial for plotting attacks in retaliation for the arrest of their leader, Abdolmalek Rigi. Iran executed the ringleader of the Pakistan-based Jundallah terrorist group on Sunday, 3 months after his arrest by Iranian security forces on February 23 on a flight from Dubai to Kyrgyzstan. "The public hearing of 10 accomplices of Abdolmalek Rigi opens later this evening," Head of the Sistan-Baluchestan Justice Department Ebrahim Hamidi said on Tuesday. The co-conspirators are charged with Moharebeh (waging war on God) for their membership in and active support of the terrorist group. Under Iranian law, Moharebeh is a crime punishable by the death penalty. "Following Abdolmalek Rigi's arrest a number of (Jundallah) terrorists sought to enter the country, but their efforts were unsuccessful due to…the timely intervention of the intelligence forces, the military and the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps,...

14 prisoners who received the death sentence were pardoned between 2000 and 2009, including 2 who were freed. Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein said 7 of them were now serving life imprisonment, while the sentence of 4 others had been reduced to 20 years' jail. 2 of the prisoners who were freed by the state Pardons Board, included an inmate whose sentence was reduced to life imprisonment, he said in a written answer to a question by Karpal Singh in the Dewan Rakyat Tuesday. He said that based on Regulation 114 of the Prisons Regulations 2000, a prisoner under death sentence may petition the Yang di-Pertuan Agong or the Ruler or the Yang di-Pertua Negeri of the state where the offence was committed. "For death row prisoners who want to file the petition, they will be assisted by the Prisons Department," he added. Source: BERNAMA, June 22, 2010

Troy Anthony Davis returns this week to Savannah, where he was convicted and sentenced to death almost 2 decades ago for killing an off-duty police officer during a late-night melee in a Burger King parking lot. For more than a decade, Davis has sought to present his claims of innocence, including the recantations of 7 key prosecution witnesses, in court. On Wednesday, in U.S. District Court in Savannah, thanks to an extraordinary ruling last year by the nation's highest court, he will finally get that chance. Davis' innocence claims have attracted international attention, including calls from former President Jimmy Carter and Pope Benedict XVI that he be spared from execution. Last August, for the 1st time in nearly half a century, and the 1st time ever in a death-penalty case, the U.S. Supreme Court took a case filed directly to its docket. It accepted Davis' last-ditch plea because Davis had exhausted all his appeals. The high court ordered a federal judge to convene ...

Saudi Arabia executed 2 murderers including a Yemeni whose body was nailed to a cross after he was convicted of killing a fellow countryman and his daughter, the interior ministry said on Monday. Shaaban al-Nasheri was beheaded for shooting dead Dhayeh al-Manbahi after barging into his family home in the southwestern town of Jazan, the ministry said in a statement cited by the official SPA agency. Nasheri was also found guilty of raping and killing Manbahi's daughter before shooting and wounding her sister. Following his execution, the murderer's body was nailed to a cross in Jazan. In the 2nd case, Saudi national Mohammed al-Zahrani was decapitated in El-Baha, in the southwest, for shooting dead compatriot Said al-Zahrani over a land dispute. The beheadings bring to 15 the number of executions reported in the ultra-conservative Gulf monarchy this year, according to an AFP count. In 2009, there were 67 reported executions in the kingdom, compared with 102 in 2008. Rape, m...

The state's highest criminal appeals judge was accused of "gross carelessness" Friday for denying a late-hour appeal for a death row inmate, but Presiding Judge Sharon Keller's attorney said she is the victim of "a pack of lies" designed to force her from the court. The hearing before the State Commission on Judicial Conduct marked the latest phase in a protracted inquiry against Keller, 56, a former Dallas prosecutor who has served on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals since 1995. The judicial panel began deliberating after the half-day hearing, but it was not clear when it will announce a decision. Keller sat at the counsel table during the proceedings and left without talking to reporters. The panel could decide to dismiss the case, issue a censure or recommend Keller's dismissal from the bench. A removal recommendation would open another phase of the inquiry, requiring the Texas Supreme Court to appoint a panel of seven appellate judg...

Iranian Railroad for Queer Refugees – The Iranian Railroad for Queer Refugees (IRQR) recently received reports from Iran regarding three more possible death sentences for homosexuality, one man receiving 74 lashes for his homosexual act, and the murder of a 23 year old bisexual man by the Iranian security forces. We asked our representative in the city of Sari (the capital of the northern Iranian province of Mazandaran) to find out more. Here is his report: Reza, 23, and Alireza, 28, are boyfriends who live together in a small rental apartment in Sari. Alireza works at his father’s real estate office. Reza stays at home, as his more outwardly ‘feminine’ behavior attracts homophobic comments from neighbors. Neither of the men’s families accept their sexuality or their consequent decision to live together as a loving couple. On May 27, 2010, Iranian security forces raided Reza and Alireza’s apartment and arrested both men along with guests who were visiting. Their computer and perso...