Waiting for Florida Supreme Court decision that could spare 390 death row inmates

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcV1ApdWbxfmGwf8Gj-QqEC62uhjkH_-BDv2oMJw0Bt7Q-0yOZ1ruAfTkOo7mZvnm_FmCLT1_1WYooJx4DpsX9dNN0k4h-x3SdmlqLg-lZ2pKax819151X5cvj4S8XIV1vt8I0Dkr9EAE/s1600/Florida+death+chamber.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Florida's death chamber" border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcV1ApdWbxfmGwf8Gj-QqEC62uhjkH_-BDv2oMJw0Bt7Q-0yOZ1ruAfTkOo7mZvnm_FmCLT1_1WYooJx4DpsX9dNN0k4h-x3SdmlqLg-lZ2pKax819151X5cvj4S8XIV1vt8I0Dkr9EAE/s400/Florida+death+chamber.jpg" title="Florida's death chamber" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Florida's death chamber</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">With one week left before the Florida Supreme Court goes on its summer recess, the justices have yet to rule on one of the most anticipated and politically charged questions facing them this year: Whether to commute the sentences of 390 death row inmates after the state’s death penalty laws were struck down and rewritten this spring.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In January, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a case called <i>Hurst vs. Florida</i> that the process used to sentence people to death in the state was unconstitutional.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Without a valid death penalty law on the books, the Florida Legislature passed new laws for death sentences that will leave the decision to the jury, which has to find one aggravating circumstance and agree to the death penalty on a 10-2 vote.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">What remains unclear is how the <i>Hurst </i>decision will impact those who have already been sentenced to death.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Defense attorneys for death-row inmates have argued their clients’ sentences should be commuted to life in prison. But the state has stood by the original death sentences.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“If the (Hurst) case were to be remanded (back to a trial court), it would have to be under the new statute,” Assistant Attorney General Carine Mitz said in the Supreme Court in May. “I still don't think we have a problem.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The seven justices don’t have to make up their minds before the summer recess — and given the complexity and controversy of the issue, they may not. But until they do, there’s deep uncertainty on the issue, not just for those convicted and sentenced to death but also within the political and legal worlds.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Gov. Rick Scott has not signed a death warrant since the Florida Supreme Court halted the executions of Michael Lambrix and Mark Asay in February and March.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Some death row lawyers and Supreme Court Justice Barbara Pariente have questioned whether the new law is constitutional because, they say, the requirement that the jury find just one aggravating factor could increase the number of convicted murderers eligible for the death penalty.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On Thursday, the court issued one death-row opinion that briefly addressed <i>Hurst</i>. Charles Brant, who pled guilty to the 2004 murder of 21-year-old Sara Radfar in Tampa.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Because Brant waived his right to a jury in the penalty phase of his murder trial, the justices wrote that <i>Hurst </i>cannot be applied to his case. They issued a similar decision in a death penalty case earlier this month, writing that a death-row inmate “cannot subvert the right to jury fact finding by waiving that right and then suggesting that a subsequent development in the law has fundamentally undermined his sentence.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The final opinions before the court goes on recess are expected at 11 a.m. July 7.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: <a href="http://www.bradenton.com/news/local/article86892057.html" target="_blank">bradenton.com</a>, Michael Auslen, June 30, 2016</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">- Report an error, an omission:<a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com" target="_blank"> deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span> <span style="font-size: small;"> - Follow us on <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> </b>and <b><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b></span></div></div>

Commutation Florida Hurst v. Florida USA Waiting for Florida Supreme Court decision that could spare 390 death row inmates

Florida's death chamber With one week left before the Florida Supreme Court goes on its summer recess, the justices have yet to rule on ...

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Connecticut: Steven Hayes First Death-Row Inmate Resentenced to Life

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjupDOOQ_kGW75wUXen7jGk3JClRfHwJY9BGEt7heOM7YCNB1npL0qIqekFnb6jV21sGOCp7kPCK3iwRGGLyESu4UTIDliJK6_0VEnBN1XBSCUaHNsV8GqrPQYAOCZrVK9lP5aNqFQXP9c/s1600/Steven+Hayes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Steven Hayes" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjupDOOQ_kGW75wUXen7jGk3JClRfHwJY9BGEt7heOM7YCNB1npL0qIqekFnb6jV21sGOCp7kPCK3iwRGGLyESu4UTIDliJK6_0VEnBN1XBSCUaHNsV8GqrPQYAOCZrVK9lP5aNqFQXP9c/s320/Steven+Hayes.jpg" title="Steven Hayes" width="263" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Steven Hayes</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">NEW HAVEN >> Superior Court Judge Jon C. Blue scolded Steven Hayes for “the depravity of your character” Wednesday as he vacated the death sentence originally imposed in the Cheshire triple-homicide and resentenced him to six consecutive life terms in prison with no chance of parole.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Hayes was convicted in 2010; co-defendant Joshua Komisarjevsky was convicted in 2011. A Superior Court jury in New Haven convicted Hayes on many counts, including murder, first-degree kidnapping and first-degree sexual assault.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Komisarjevsky also <a href="http://www.nhregister.com/article/NH/20111013/NEWS/310139954" target="_blank">was found guilty of murder and numerous other counts</a> in the deaths of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters, Michaela, 11, and Hayley, 17. Both men received death sentences but the state <a href="http://www.nhregister.com/government-and-politics/20160526/connecticut-supreme-court-upholds-abolishment-of-death-penalty" target="_blank">Supreme Court last year ruled the death penalty isunconstitutional</a>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Komisarjevsky is scheduled to receive a sentence similar to that of Hayes next month.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Hayes and Komisarjevsky broke into the Petit house at about 3 a.m. July 23, 2007, and beat Dr. William Petit Jr. on the head with a baseball bat as he was lying on a couch in the sunroom downstairs. They tied him up in the basement. Then the perpetrators tied the girls and their mother to beds upstairs.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Later that morning, Hayes forced Hawke-Petit to drive with him to her bank and withdraw $15,000. Shortly after they returned to the house, Hayes raped and strangled her and one of the two perpetrators applied a match to gasoline that had been spread throughout the home. The girls died upstairs in the fire.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Petit was able to escape from the basement and crawl out of the house to seek help from a neighbor minutes before the fire erupted. Hayes and Komisarjevsky crashed the Petit vehicle into a police barricade nearby as they fled and were apprehended.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Petit, who testified during both trials and spoke at length and with great emotion about his family during the sentencings, was not in the courtroom Wednesday.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Senior Assistant State’s Attorney Gary Nicholson, who prosecuted both defendants during their trials alongside State’s Attorney Michael Dearington (who recently retired), explained Petit’s decision not to appear.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“I spoke to Dr. Petit about a week ago,” Nicholson told Blue. “He said he did not wish to take the opportunity as a victim to appear in court and make a statement. He said none of his other family members would be here. They’ve already said what they cared to say.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Nicholson said he, too, had already said what he needed to say during the trials and sentencings. But he added that for “this horrendous crime, we ask for consecutive sentences, for the maximum sentence.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Hayes, who now has a long beard and was wearing a yarmulke because of his religious conversion in prison, nodded and smiled at the reporters in the courtroom who covered his trial. He is much thinner than he was when he committed his crimes.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">When Blue gave Hayes a chance to speak, he declined to do so. His attorney, New Haven Public Defender Thomas Ullmann, who defended Hayes during the trial, also refrained from making a statement.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Blue, who presided over both of the trials, told Hayes as he stood before him, “I think the jury verdict spoke eloquently and the Petit family spoke quite eloquently. With the gravity of these crimes and the depravity of your character, nothing more needs to be said.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">One by one, Blue handled each of the 16 original counts on which Hayes had been convicted. He began by vacating the three murder counts. He did this because a U.S. Supreme Court ruling specified this should be done with lesser included offenses of capital counts. Thus Blue also vacated the first-degree sexual assault count.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But Blue imposed sentences of life in prison without parole for murder with multiple victims, murder of a victim under 16, three counts of murder of a victim of a kidnapping and murder of a victim of sexual assault.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In addition, Blue imposed 25-year sentences for each of four first-degree kidnapping counts, five years for third-degree burglary and one year for second-degree assault.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Because Blue made all of the sentences consecutive rather than concurrent, he noted the total is six consecutive sentences of life without possibility of parole, “followed by 106 years.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Immediately after court adjourned, a reporter asked Nicholson if he had imagined being back in court on such a procedure. “Not this quickly,” Nicholson replied. “It is what it is.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Asked about Dearington’s decision not to come to the courtroom for the resentencing, Nicholson said, “He’s probably on a beach somewhere. I’m sure he’s enjoying his retirement.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Also after court adjourned, Ullmann noted Hayes’ convictions are being appealed. Although Ullmann is not handling the appeal, he did note one of the grounds for it: on the second day of the trial, one of the jurors told Blue he didn’t like the way the prosecutors were presenting their case. The defense team wanted him to remain on the jury but Blue dismissed him.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A hearing was held recently in the case against Komisarjevsky, who claims that key withheld information about the Cheshire police response should be considered as his attorneys appeal his conviction. They are calling for a new trial.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The state Supreme Court also eventually will rule on whether Komisarjevsky deserves a new trial because of newly raised appeals issues, such as his original defense team not seeing all of the <a href="http://www.nhregister.com/general-news/20151113/calls-detail-how-police-reacted-in-deadly-cheshire-home-invasion" target="_blank">Cheshire police dispatch tapes </a>from the day of the crime.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ullmann called Hayes’ resentencing “a momentous and historic day.” He explained, “The first person who was sentenced to death is now sentenced to life without possibility of release.” Ten other men who have been on death row await resentencings.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ullmann added, “It’s a relief for many of us lawyers who have worked on this for so long, to see the elimination of this barbaric punishment from our laws.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ullmann said he had “never lost faith” that this day would come. But he added, “I wasn’t sure that in my lifetime I’d see this happen.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He noted, “Connecticut has joined the movement where our whole nation is getting to, ultimately to eliminate the death penalty across the country. We’re getting to the point where it’s close to being abolished totally.” Nineteen states have eliminated capital punishment.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ullmann pointed out the only person put to death in Connecticut in recent decades was serial killer Michael Ross in 2005, because he “volunteered” to be killed; he dropped his appeals.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“So the state never achieved getting somebody executed against their will,” Ullmann said. “It was an incredibly failed criminal justice policy. The costs to the state were enormous. This money could have been used for victims and treatment programs.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ullmann, who joined a vigil of capital punishment opponents outside the prison when Ross was executed, said, “It’s such a relief to me not to ever have to attend (witness) an execution. We’ve moved forward in our criminal justice system.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ullmann declined to reveal what Hayes said to him after the resentencing. As for Hayes’ yarmulke, Ullmann said, “He’s been practicing the Jewish faith for quite some time. He sees a rabbi in prison. He’s pretty principled about that.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ullmann also addressed the question of Hayes’ mental state, especially given his suicide attempt during jury selection. “I’ve tried to talk him out of suicide. We’ve spent a lot of time doing that.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">And so is Hayes now on a better path? “I would say it fluctuates,” Ullmann replied. “Life on death row was not pleasant.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">During an interview with the New Haven Register in Northern Correctional Institution in September 2013, Hayes expressed remorse for what he had done. Facing the possibility of execution at that time, he said, “Death for me will be a welcome relief and I hope it will bring some peace and comfort to those who I have hurt so much.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: <a href="http://www.nhregister.com/general-news/20160615/steven-hayes-once-on-death-row-for-cheshire-triple-killing-resentenced-to-6-life-terms-in-prison" target="_blank">New Haven Register</a>, Randall Beach, June 15, 2016</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Convicted Killer 1st Death-Row Inmate Resentenced to Life</span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">1 of 2 men sentenced to death for the slayings of a mother and her 2 daughters during a 2007 home invasion in Connecticut has been resentenced to life in prison.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Steven Hayes is the 1st of 11 death-row inmates to be resentenced since the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled in August that their sentences violated the state constitution's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">State lawmakers abolished Connecticut's death penalty in 2012, except for those already sentenced to death.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A judge on Wednesday imposed six consecutive life sentences on Hayes for the murders of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters, 17-year-old Haley and 11-year-old Michaela, in Cheshire.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Hawke-Petit's husband and the girls' father, Dr. William Petit, was badly beaten but survived.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He didn't immediately respond to a message seeking comment Wednesday.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: Associated Press, June 15, 2016</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">- Report an error, an omission:<a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com" target="_blank"> deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span> <span style="font-size: small;"> - Follow us on <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> </b>and <b><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b></span></div></div>

Abolition Commutation Connecticut LWOP USA Connecticut: Steven Hayes First Death-Row Inmate Resentenced to Life

Steven Hayes NEW HAVEN >> Superior Court Judge Jon C. Blue scolded Steven Hayes for “the depravity of your character” Wednesday as he ...

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Texas Death Row Inmate Sentenced to Life over Intellectual Disability

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0oO7tSsNoo8yBrLGz1rhGsPcd7qpFCyzMZFvDkAdDXXc9HtF-KWE8JlLAFWB-hzEm8hAK6ZnEa_5ulzd0Cc5CgwNcV8h43R1_zhUeTKKe0M521WgOVBHrLXeAqt8uJDztBd2NKl9m5hg/s1600/Jose-Martinez.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Jose Noey Martinez" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0oO7tSsNoo8yBrLGz1rhGsPcd7qpFCyzMZFvDkAdDXXc9HtF-KWE8JlLAFWB-hzEm8hAK6ZnEa_5ulzd0Cc5CgwNcV8h43R1_zhUeTKKe0M521WgOVBHrLXeAqt8uJDztBd2NKl9m5hg/s320/Jose-Martinez.jpg" title="Jose Noey Martinez" width="234" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jose Noey Martinez</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">A man who fatally stabbed a 68-year-old woman and her 4-year-old granddaughter during a 1995 burglary in Hidalgo County will no longer face execution after he has been determined to be intellectually disabled.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state's highest criminal court, changed Jose Noey Martinez's sentence Wednesday to life in prison. The court agreed with a lower court's ruling that Martinez, now 40, “is a person with intellectual disability” and “is constitutionally ineligible for a death sentence.” Martinez had been on death row almost 20 years.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Martinez broke into the home of Esperanza Palomo to steal a TV and stereo, according to court documents. Palomo was babysitting her blind granddaughter, Amanda. Shortly after breaking in, Palomo confronted Martinez with a baseball bat. He stabbed the grandmother, who fell to the ground immediately, and raped her.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">After killing the woman, Martinez told law enforcement, he heard the granddaughter crying in another room, court documents show. He told officers that he stabbed her to death.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A Hidalgo County jury found Martinez guilty of capital murder in 1996 and sentenced him to death.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On appeal, Martinez's attorneys had claimed that he is mentally retarded and argued that executing him would violate the Eighth Amendment's prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Once the Texas Department of Criminal Justice receives paperwork from the appeals court, Martinez will be taken to the Byrd Unit in Huntsville, agency spokesman Jason Clark said in an email.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"He will be interviewed, and information will be gathered about his family structure, criminal and social behavior, drug and alcohol involvement, military and institutional experience, as well as education and employment history," he said. "The results of the tests and interviews are the basis for classification decisions that determine the unit of assignment, the level of security supervision, housing and job assignments and time-earning status."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: The Texas Tribune, Jonathan Silver, June 15, 2016</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">- Report an error, an omission:<a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com" target="_blank"> deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span> <span style="font-size: small;"> - Follow us on <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/Death-Penalty-News-206848499362906/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> </b>and <b><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b></span></div></div>

Commutation LWOP Mental retardation mentally incompetent inmates Texas USA Texas Death Row Inmate Sentenced to Life over Intellectual Disability

Jose Noey Martinez A man who fatally stabbed a 68-year-old woman and her 4-year-old granddaughter during a 1995 burglary in Hidalgo County w...

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Pakistan Supreme Court to consider case of juvenile facing hanging

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiqeFNRY1dWkD9ACns9qxcEA0zI-NrapGY8iurh_jpvoTScL3ACxJrOVjE6CGsp9JEdGojYAhvw53AZEjKOoHPvA_OnL9Z_nkRBgwp2lipL46ERseFphu9LyxJK5mosRx7aZ-kSkMLy0I/s1600/noose.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiqeFNRY1dWkD9ACns9qxcEA0zI-NrapGY8iurh_jpvoTScL3ACxJrOVjE6CGsp9JEdGojYAhvw53AZEjKOoHPvA_OnL9Z_nkRBgwp2lipL46ERseFphu9LyxJK5mosRx7aZ-kSkMLy0I/s400/noose.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Judges will tomorrow [Wednesday 8 June] consider the case of a prisoner who could be hanged at as little as three days’ notice, despite evidence that he was arrested as a child.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Muhammad Anwar was arrested when he was just 17 years old, and subsequently sentenced to death on murder charges. Although his birth certificate shows that he was a juvenile when arrested, he continues to be held under sentence of death, in violation of both Pakistani and international law.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">An execution warrant was issued for Anwar on 12 December last year, but the process was stayed at the last minute by the courts to allow the issue of his juvenility to be considered. His lawyers will tomorrow ask the Supreme Court to ensure that Pakistan’s Government complies with its legal obligations and commutes his death sentence. The court had previously been due to consider his case last month, but the hearing was postponed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Anwar was sentenced to death in 1998, five years after his arrest, and has now spent 23 years facing execution. In 2000, Pakistan introduced laws intended to bring it into line with international law banning the use of the death penalty against children. The country’s President subsequently decreed in 2001 that anyone facing the death penalty for offences committed when they were a child should have their sentence commuted to life.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Anwar’s family have since made a number of attempts to have his death sentence commuted, in line with Pakistani law, but no final decision has been taken by the authorities. They are now appealing to the Supreme Court in the hope that it will correct this historic mistake and ensure Anwar’s death sentence is commuted.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The nature of Pakistan’s death penalty system means that Anwar could face execution with as little as three days’ notice of receiving a ‘black warrant,’ which could be handed down at any time.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Maya Foa, Director of the death penalty team at international human rights organization Reprieve said: “Anwar and his family have spent years trying to get someone to take a proper look at the evidence of his juvenility. The bottom line is that he simply should not be facing execution under either Pakistani or international law. However, he has been the victim of bureaucratic incompetence by the Pakistani Government, and as a result his case has fallen between the cracks. The Supreme Court now has the chance to correct this historic wrong and commute his sentence.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: Reprieve, June 7, 2016</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">- Report an error, an omission:<a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com" target="_blank"> deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span> <span style="font-size: small;"> - Follow us on <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/Death-Penalty-News-206848499362906/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> </b>and <b><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b></span></div></div>

Commutation Juvenile offenders Pakistan Pakistan Supreme Court to consider case of juvenile facing hanging

Judges will tomorrow [Wednesday 8 June] consider the case of a prisoner who could be hanged at as little as three days’ notice, despite evid...

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