Penn State researchers analyze death penalty findings

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrkVn_fXp9K-yZSjfNh-qqaojqXfUUSVsnbbvsIaTYDxGoSLc-zpJbrOwfU8LPBe13S2-M3olivI5URk25X5MWdt6WNzptAAvdXnCfKR6DA76BhFOJvayB0t5u-2JQntdH1O4l7AT6jCw/s1600/archives-and-records.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Archives and records" border="0" height="293" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrkVn_fXp9K-yZSjfNh-qqaojqXfUUSVsnbbvsIaTYDxGoSLc-zpJbrOwfU8LPBe13S2-M3olivI5URk25X5MWdt6WNzptAAvdXnCfKR6DA76BhFOJvayB0t5u-2JQntdH1O4l7AT6jCw/s400/archives-and-records.jpg" title="Archives and records" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Penn State researchers studying whether racial bias affects the imposition of the death penalty have begun crunching the data, a move signaling the end of a 4-year saga of waiting on a state report that has officially halted executions in the state.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Penn State findings might be made public before year's end.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">While the analysis is in the early stages, the professor leading the research said he expects similar findings to what the Reading Eagle reported last week on the distribution of death sentences in Pennsylvania.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I think it'll be a good complement to what you've done, with some details that will flesh out the issues that you've raised," said John Kramer, a retired Penn State criminology professor. "I don't suspect that it will erase the (Eagle's) findings."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In an investigation spanning 5 months, the Eagle found Pennsylvania has sentenced 408 defendants to death since 1978, at a rate of 1.6 death sentences for every 100 homicides. The rate for counties varied from zero to more than 7, indicating wide prosecutorial discretion.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Following the U.S. Supreme Court's 1972 decision in <i>Furman v. Georgia</i> that found capital punishment unconstitutional, states created statutes that were intended to make its application less arbitrary, particularly for black defendants.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Going back to the Furman decision, the question is: Have we controlled that kind of discretion adequately?" Kramer said. "I'm sure we will cite your article when we're reviewing our data."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The meticulous gathering of data on more than 900 first-degree murder cases from 2000 to 2010 in 18 counties has been tedious and painstakingly slow, pushing a state report that was expected 3 years ago back several times.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Kramer's team has been out in the field since 2012 poring over court files in counties stretching from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh to identify charging and sentencing patterns in 1st-degree murder cases. The death penalty is reserved almost exclusively for the crime of murder.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Researchers hope to learn whether race is a factor in who is charged capitally and ultimately sentenced to death in Pennsylvania.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This investigation will be folded into the study state lawmakers called for in 2011. That report, by the Joint State Government Commission, isn't expected until six months after Penn State concludes its study for the Interbranch Commission for Gender, Racial and Ethnic Fairness.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As directed by lawmakers, the state report will examine 17 issues around the death penalty, including its cost, deterrence and quality of counsel.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The commission's reports often are completed within a year and include recommendations.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Recommendations in the long awaited report, however, will likely relate to data collection, which is sorely lacking. The Joint State Government Commission will not be recommending whether to continue to support or abolish the death penalty, said Glenn Pasewicz, executive director of the Joint State Government Commission.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"From the beginning, it was not the intent that the report would come up with some firm recommendations about what capital punishment should be in Pennsylvania," Pasewicz said. "We're going to leave the big questions to the Legislature itself. We'll provide them with as much information as we can, and they can sort it all out."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">For years, Pennsylvania's death penalty system has been a source of consternation among those on both sides of the issue. Having sentenced hundreds in the modern era and executed only 3, it is widely perceived as dysfunctional.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Another round</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It has been studied before.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 1999, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court directed a study on whether racial or gender bias influences the judicial system, including the death penalty. In the committee's 550-page report in 2003, it made more than 170 recommendations, including issuing a moratorium on executions. Gov. Tom Wolf issued one last year, saying executions would not resume until the state report is completed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Based on existing data and studies, the committee concluded that there are strong indications that Pennsylvania's capital justice system does not operate in an evenhanded manner," the group's report said, noting the responsibility of ensuring equal justice under the law cannot fall to a single branch of government.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The committee also took aim at the quality of capital representation, which the Eagle explored last fall, finding nearly 1 in5 inmates sentenced to death in Pennsylvania the past decade were represented by attorneys disciplined for professional misconduct at some point in their careers.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The committee's report said of capital representation, "Unless the poor, among whom minority communities are overrepresented, are provided adequate legal representation, including ample funds for experts and investigators, there cannot be a lasting solution to the issue of racial and ethnic bias in the capital system."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The group also recommended original research to study the issue further.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"It's critical that we do our own studies," said Lisette McCormick, executive director of the Pittsburgh-based Interbranch Commission for Gender, Racial and Ethnic Fairness, which conducted the review at the Supreme Court's direction.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>'There are gaps'</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Established in 2005 by Pennsylvania's three branches of government, the Interbranch Commission for Gender, Racial and Ethnic Fairness is tasked with addressing inequities in the court system.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">McCormick added, noting there is no systematic data collection on Pennsylvania's death penalty: "There are gaps. You cannot conduct a valid study with gaps."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Penn State report - Kramer said an internal draft would be completed next month - was commissioned in part to address this gap. McCormick's group is funding the report at a cost of about $325,000.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Eagle's cost and sentence-distribution findings, McCormick said, were consistent with other studies she's reviewed for the current state study.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The shortage of original research on Pennsylvania's death penalty system, Kramer and McCormick said, is directly related to the difficulty of winnowing out information buried, oftentimes in storage, in hundreds of case boxes across the commonwealth.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Kramer's data collectors could examine, at their quickest pace, a maximum of 5 cases a day and averaged only 3 or 4. And some days, they would sift through case boxes and collect no pertinent data.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"There's just not any data that you can put together to do this study without investing a tremendous amount of time," Kramer said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: Reading Eagle, June 16, 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 African-American Inadequate counsel Moratorium Pennsylvania Race Racism USA Penn State researchers analyze death penalty findings

Penn State researchers studying whether racial bias affects the imposition of the death penalty have begun crunching the data, a move signal...

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Tunisia: Death Sentence in Sufi Shrine Killing

<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/AVvXsEi5ISIV-AmoFGE39vhreS2GU4ss5jMlMvYwfP6G5IJ2ndwaPrkyHYGGInJmdToJusan1yQca-Pvd_4GQy7oPnEiV4Am3WEMJGJpjEslLD5M24a3NGmSjjBCYr675bb2Xvy_-HQhDgGX9jw/s1600/Islamist+terrorism+Tunisia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Islamist terrorism in Tunisia" border="0" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5ISIV-AmoFGE39vhreS2GU4ss5jMlMvYwfP6G5IJ2ndwaPrkyHYGGInJmdToJusan1yQca-Pvd_4GQy7oPnEiV4Am3WEMJGJpjEslLD5M24a3NGmSjjBCYr675bb2Xvy_-HQhDgGX9jw/s400/Islamist+terrorism+Tunisia.jpg" title="Islamist terrorism in Tunisia" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Islamist terrorism in Tunisia</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">The leader of a group of Takfiri Salafists has been sentenced to death for his part in the killing of a guard at a Sufi shrine in the country's southeast.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Others within the group received sentences varying from life imprisonment to five years for their part in the murder.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Court learned that the unnamed victim had been on duty at the Sufi, Zaouia Sidi Abdelkader shrine at Menzel Bouzelfa (around 60km from the capital) in February of last year when the group of 13 hooded men approached and stabbed him to death.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The court sentenced the group's leader to death for "voluntary homicide." Another member of the group received a sentence of 36 years imprisonment for involvement in the murder. The remainder of the group received sentences varying between 5 and 10 years, with 3 acquitted.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Although it is still permitted by law, Tunisia voted in favor of the 2012 UN General Assembly moratorium on executions, with no executions having taken place since 1991. Prior to the moratorium, 135 executions occurred within Tunisia, the majority under former President Habib Bourguiba. However, though unused, the sentence remains upon the statute books as the Courts' stiffest sanction.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The death penalty is opposed on principle by many human rights groups. Speaking of its application in terrorist cases, Lotfi Azouz, Director of Amnesty International in Tunis said, "When a Terrorist commits a serious crime, they do so expecting death. This is their mindset. They expect to be a martyr and be sent to heaven, so the death penalty is actually working in their favor."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Sufism is sometimes regarded as the mystical dimension of Islam, cantering upon the internal spirituality of the individual. Sufism involves the search for divine love, which is believed to lead to the path of spiritual awakening.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Given its strong focus upon the internal, as well as the building of shrines to prominent Sufists, conservative and radical preachers tend to claim the sect is heretical and opposed to the fundamental teachings of the Qu'ran.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: tunisia-live.net, June 17, 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>

Islamism Maghreb Moratorium Salafism Sufism Terrorism Tunisia Tunisia: Death Sentence in Sufi Shrine Killing

Islamist terrorism in Tunisia The leader of a group of Takfiri Salafists has been sentenced to death for his part in the killing of a guard ...

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Sentenced to death: A waiting game for 'the worst of the worst'

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXedosnEnVevuCSuR7FGA0a05RqQxdGHO51jX3RE4m572xRFlpLP4tCHfgfA0m-mgdcd_wMOMu2NdmdHZwSrXhzy8KFzy3OceZ9n1muRQd0gcon4RrwgMqhvjYsk_0AwvVGWeG7BaY780/s1600/Solitary+Confinement.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXedosnEnVevuCSuR7FGA0a05RqQxdGHO51jX3RE4m572xRFlpLP4tCHfgfA0m-mgdcd_wMOMu2NdmdHZwSrXhzy8KFzy3OceZ9n1muRQd0gcon4RrwgMqhvjYsk_0AwvVGWeG7BaY780/s400/Solitary+Confinement.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">When Antwan Andre Anthony was sentenced to death in April for the 2012 killings of 3 convenience store workers in Farmville, it marked the end of a long wait for justice and the start of another.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Anthony, 33, became the fourth man since the early 1990s to be sentenced to death for a conviction of murder in Pitt County. He is one of 150 death row inmates in North Carolina. Before Anthony, the last inmate to be received on death row was in 2014.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Most of North Carolina's death row inmates - 111 of the 151 - have been there for 15 years or longer, with much of that time spent in the appeals process. The state also has had a de facto moratorium on the death penalty, and the last execution was 10 years ago.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Will Anthony ever meet the fate assigned to him by a jury and judge in Pitt County? It's not likely, according to Frank Baumgartner, a professor of political science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who has spent nearly 20 years studying the death penalty.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"65 % of the time, death sentences are overturned on appeal, and those reversals might come 3 years later, 5 years later, 10 years later, but that's an especially shocking number," he said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Across the country, more than 8,000 death sentences have been handed down, but many of those sentences are overturned, with the defendant then receiving a sentence of life without parole, Baumgartner said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The 2nd-largest number of people who have been sentenced to death have simply languished on death row for 20 or 30 years," he said. And the least likely outcome is that the person will be executed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Nationally, it's not uncommon that the few executions that do take place, the crimes took place in the '80s," Baumgartner said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The average delay is about 20 years.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">For Anthony, Baumgartner said, "what happens now is going to be a very long waiting game."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Automatic appeals</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Anthony and other defendants sentenced to death automatically are entitled to 2 rounds of appeals, 1 on the state level and another on the federal level, Baumgartner said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It is not uncommon for the process to take 10 to 20 years, said Jeff Welty, associate professor of public law and government at the School of Government at UNC.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Generally, there are 4 steps to the appeals process, he said. In the initial step, called the direct appeal, the inmate and his defense team identify what they believe to be legal errors during trial and appeal to the N.C. Supreme Court.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"If that's not successful, we go to step 2, which is sometimes called the state collateral review, and at that point, the defendant files something called motion for appropriate relief and they file it with the superior court in the jurisdiction where they were tried," Welty said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">That already has happened in the Anthony case.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Anthony's attorneys filed a motion for appropriate relief about a week after he was sentenced on grounds that a sheriff's office employee reportedly made improper comments within earshot of jurors during the trial. The comments allegedly included the employee's opinion on what should happen to Anthony.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A hearing to determine if that occurred and if it is cause for a new trial or sentencing hearing is scheduled for Aug. 1.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The grounds for reversal have to be very serious findings from appellate court," Baumgartner said. "It would have to be some very serious flaw that could have changed the outcome, either in the trial for guilt or more likely in the penalty phase."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">If the superior court does not rule in favor of the defendant on a motion for appropriate relief, the defendant can appeal that decision to the state Supreme Court, Welty said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"If that step doesn't bear fruit, then the case moves on to step 3, which is federal habeas review," he said. "... The idea there is to allow federal courts to take a look and make sure that state courts are carrying out their constitutional responsibilities."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">That process begins in federal district court and can be appealed to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Virginia and ultimately to the U.S. Supreme Court.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">If all of those avenues of appeal fail, the defendant's last opportunity is to make a request for clemency to the governor, Welty said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Sticking points</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">North Carolina is 1 of 31 states where the death penalty is legal. It has been abolished in 19 states. While North Carolina has not declared any official moratorium on the death penalty, there have been no executions since 2006.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"There's been a whole bunch of litigation about different aspects of the death penalty that has had the effect of creating a de facto moratorium," Welty said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The 3 sticking points have been the requirement that a licensed physician be present during an execution, concerns about the lethal injection procedure and uncertainty surrounding claims filed under the now-repealed Racial Justice Act.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The Medical Board took the position that doctors couldn't participate in executions, and that caused litigation between the state and the Medical Board," Welty said. A bill that became law last year removed that requirement and allows for other medical professionals, a nurse practitioner for example, to be present instead of a doctor.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">One of the next hurdles is the contention about lethal injection.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Around the country, there's been so many controversies about lethal injections that have gone wrong," Baumgartner said, "so you can bet your bottom dollar that when they schedule the 1st execution, there will be litigation about what drug will be used and how can we guarantee the safety of the drug supply and where do they get the drugs, and all those complicated wranglings will start happening about the lethal injection process."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF6fUKet9Z3xSW14vetEBoUiVqQ0uqhmT3q7jepKCdbhSlY9rUKLrOCO-tvOmIoGfQgCDaFcHweHXzwNW_9CLXJEm2CJ97Q_VQsuJOLTt9NH65AUiHBSCijEAup3WkXBB3N8WVIJh-QZ0/s1600/pfizer-world-headquarters.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF6fUKet9Z3xSW14vetEBoUiVqQ0uqhmT3q7jepKCdbhSlY9rUKLrOCO-tvOmIoGfQgCDaFcHweHXzwNW_9CLXJEm2CJ97Q_VQsuJOLTt9NH65AUiHBSCijEAup3WkXBB3N8WVIJh-QZ0/s320/pfizer-world-headquarters.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Last month, pharmaceutical giant Pfizer took steps to prevent distribution of its products for use in lethal injections. Pfizer limited the sale of seven of its products to wholesalers, distributors and direct purchasers under the condition that the products would not be resold to correctional institutions.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Pfizer's move further complicates the lethal injection process in states that used its products for that purpose.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">There already is ongoing litigation over the Racial Justice Act, which was enacted in 2009 and allowed inmates to challenge their death sentences based on racial disparity statistics, related mostly to jury selection, Baumgartner said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Nearly all death row inmates filed claims under the act, and 4 cases were heard in court, with each defendant seeing success. But the act was repealed last year.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A Cumberland County judge assigned to hear the 4 inmates' appeals on Thursday volunteered to remove himself, following months of arguments by defense attorneys that he had conflicts of interest. Another judge will be assigned to hear the appeals.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Lawyers will be arguing probably for more than another year about whether the inmates who filed have a right to have their case heard under a law that no longer exists," Baumgartner said. "You have to be a lawyer to figure that one out, but it's still part of the landscape here in North Carolina, so I don't think we're going to be looking at the resumption of executions anytime soon."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>'Worst of the worst'</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Experts say there has been a sharp decline in the number of death sentences. In the last 5 years, 7 men have been sentenced to death in North Carolina.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Between 1993 and 1999, the number of defendants to receive the death penalty statewide generally was in double-digits. Now, the number of death sentences each year ranges from 0 to 3.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The main reason is prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty as much, and juries are loathe to hand it out anymore," Baumgartner said. That may be because a high number of the accused have had their convictions overturned after it was determined they were innocent, he said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"There's been about 1,400 executions nationally since 1976 and 158 exonerations," he said. "In North Carolina, there have been 42 (executions) and 5 or 6 exonerations. So it's almost like 1 in 10. That's a pretty scary, pretty low batting average of getting it right."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Some might ask why the state even goes to bat for the death penalty if so many sentences are overturned and there have been no executions in the last 10 years.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The death penalty is still on the books," Pitt County Assistant District Attorney Clark Everett said. "I think you have to have the death penalty there for the worst of the worst. It's got to be there.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"You have to do it because who knows what's coming next week," he said. "If you don't follow the law and have some threshold where you say, 'Alright, this is a death penalty case,' then it pretty much puts you in a situation where you're never going to be able to."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The threshold includes 3 components: The murder must be particularly horrible, a double or triple homicide, for example; overwhelming evidence of guilt; and a defendant with significant criminal or violent history.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Juries who have found a defendant guilty in a capital trial face the task of determining if he should receive a sentence of life in prison without parole or death, but for now, Baumgartner says there isn't much of a difference.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The odds are that the person won't be executed, even though the state may try its best to make it happen," he said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Nationally, there is only a 13 % chance it will be carried out, he said. Among those, the executions come decades later, after several appeals, which serve as a routine reminder of the crime. But defendants sentenced to life without parole are not guaranteed the same automatic appeals.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"LWOP is a death penalty by another name because you don't leave prison alive, and there's nothing light about that penalty," Baumgartner said. "It's like 2 forms of a death penalty we're talking about: one where you get automatic appeals and the most likely outcome is you end up on LWOP eventually, just after many years of appeals, and the other is you just go straight to LWOP, and that's the end of the story."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">For Anthony, the process is just beginning.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"What will happen now is he'll get automatic appeals, and there will be a lot of money spent and, most likely, he'll never be executed," Baumgartner said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"It's just a tragedy all the way around," he said, "because it's not helpful to anybody in the system to have a death penalty in name only."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: Reflector.com, June 12, 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>

lethal injections LWOP Moratorium North Carolina Pfizer USA Sentenced to death: A waiting game for 'the worst of the worst'

When Antwan Andre Anthony was sentenced to death in April for the 2012 killings of 3 convenience store workers in Farmville, it marked the e...

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2015: Aftab Bahadur Masih, “I just received my Black Warrant”

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrKdfcQIge5Ho_i7o7XP4lUEEAVKYcYpQQgnIvsqfGZoTq0-ucUMM9EmXAHQMmjs_nhbIx56T2sDRq1CkfoRiuFdwyScHvmGjPjSf5ZJux4r60H6N6sBc-j2PgeJZXOkWIqkQJGIQyzN0/s1600/Aftab_Bahadur_Masih.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img alt="Two faces of Aftab Bahadur Masih, separated by two decades on death row." border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrKdfcQIge5Ho_i7o7XP4lUEEAVKYcYpQQgnIvsqfGZoTq0-ucUMM9EmXAHQMmjs_nhbIx56T2sDRq1CkfoRiuFdwyScHvmGjPjSf5ZJux4r60H6N6sBc-j2PgeJZXOkWIqkQJGIQyzN0/s320/Aftab_Bahadur_Masih.jpg" title="Two faces of Aftab Bahadur Masih, separated by two decades on death row." width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A year ago today, Pakistan amid its ravenous 2015 execution binge hanged Aftab Bahadur Masih in Lahore for a 1992 murder.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Left: Two faces of Aftab Bahadur Masih, separated by two decades on death row.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">According to the anti-death penalty organization <a href="http://reprieve.org.uk/" target="_blank">Reprieve</a>, Masih <a href="http://www.dawn.com/news/1187331" target="_blank">was only 15 years old</a> when he committed the crime. According to Masih himself, he never committed it at all -- but instead was tortured into confession by the police.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Don't take my word for it. Masih wrote a <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jun/09/22-years-pakistan-death-row-what-purpose-execution" target="_blank">moving first-person essay</a> for the Guardian (read below) that was published hours before his hanging.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I just received my Black Warrant. It says I will be hanged by the neck until dead on Wednesday, 10 June. I am innocent, but I do not know whether that will make any difference.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jun/09/22-years-pakistan-death-row-what-purpose-execution" target="_blank">Read the rest here.</a> Masih was also a self-taught painter; one of his products can be seen in <a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2015/06/09/as-pakistan-resumes-executions-a-juvenile-catholics-case-sparks-alarm/" target="_blank">this Wall Street Journal</a> story.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Reprieve launches the "<b>Juveniles on Death Row Project</b>" to find those detained as children who are now languishing on death row, and stop their executions. Together we can save many lives, but we urgently need extra funds to get this new project off the ground. <a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.fr/2016/06/reprieve-juveniles-on-death-row-project.html" target="_blank">Click here to find out HOW YOU CAN HELP</a>.</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: <a href="http://www.executedtoday.com/2016/06/10/2015-aftab-bahadur-masih-i-just-received-my-black-warrant/" target="_blank">ExecutedToday.com</a>, June 10, 2016</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">My 22 years on Pakistan’s death row could end this week. What purpose will my execution serve?</span></b></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: center;">By Aftab Bahadur</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: center;"><i>I am an innocent man who’s spent all my adult life awaiting death, sentenced under legislation meant to stop terrorists. But I still paint and live in hope</i></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />The following piece was published by The Guardian on June 9, 2015:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Aftab Bahadur is currently in Central Jail Lahore (Kot Lakhpat), where he is scheduled to be hanged at roughly 3am BST on Wednesday morning. He was sentenced to die for a crime on 5 September 1992 where a woman – Sabiha Bari – and her two sons were murdered. Ghulam Mustafa, a plumber with whom Aftab worked as a plumber’s apprentice, was arrested early in the morning of 6 September 1992, and implicated Aftab under torture. Ghulam is set to die on Wednesday as well, but has recanted his statement and said Aftab had nothing to do with the crime. The only “eyewitness” to the crime who testified against Aftab has recently made a statement before a religious minister that he was coerced into his testimony, that he was not even there, and that he certainly did not see Aftab commit the crime. Aftab insists he is innocent. According to Aftab, when he was arrested the police asked for a 50,000 rupee bribe and said they would let him go if he paid. As a plumber’s apprentice, Aftab said he could not pay.</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Aftab was convicted under the Speedy Trials Act in April 1993. Special trials under the Act were intended for terrorists, but they been abused in a number of high-profile cases. Aftab has now been on death row for over 22 years. This is an essay he recently wrote from his prison cell, translated from the Urdu by Reprieve, who are helping to provide him with pro bono legal assistance:</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">I just received my Black Warrant. It says I will be hanged by the neck until dead on Wednesday, 10 June. I am innocent, but I do not know whether that will make any difference. During last 22 years of my imprisonment, I have received death warrants many times. It is strange, but I cannot even tell you how many times I have been told that I am about to die. Obviously it feels bad whenever the warrants are issued. I start to count down the days, which is in itself painful, and I find that my nerves are shackled in the same way as my body. In truth, I die many times before my death. I suppose my life experience is different from that of most people, but I doubt there is anything more dreadful than being told that you are going to die, and then sitting in a prison cell just waiting for that moment. For many years – since I was just 15 years old – I have been stranded between life and death. It has been a complete limbo, total uncertainty about the future.</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">I am a Christian, and sometimes that is difficult here. Unfortunately, there is one prisoner in particular who has tried to make our lives more difficult. I don’t know why he does it. I got very upset over the Christian bombings that took place in Peshawar. This hurt me deeply, and I wish that Pakistani people could possess a sense of nationality that overrode their sectarianism. There is a small group of us here who are Christians, just four or five, and we are now all in one cell, which has improved my life.</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">I do everything I can to escape my misery. I am an art lover. I was an artist – just an ordinary one – from my early days, when I was first conscious of anything. Even back then, I was inclined towards painting, as well as writing verses. Although I had no training, it was just a gift of God. But after I was brought to jail I had no other way to express my feelings, as I was then in a state of complete alienation and loneliness. I began some time ago to paint all the signs for the Kot Lakhpat jail, where I am held. Then I was asked to do signs for other jails. Nothing in this world can give me more happiness than the feeling when I paint some idea, or feeling on the canvas. It is my life, so I am happy to do it. My workload is great, and I am exhausted at the end of each day, but I am glad of that, as it keeps my mind off other things.</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">I have no family to visit me, so when someone does come, it is a wonderful experience. It allows me to reap ideas from the outside world that I can then lay down on my canvas. Being asked about how I was tortured by the police brought back terrible memories that I turned into pictures, though it would perhaps have been better not to have to think of what the police did to try to get me to confess falsely to this crime.</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">When we heard the news about lifting the death penalty moratorium in December 2014, fear prevailed throughout the cells of the prison here. There was an overriding sense of horror. The atmosphere hung, gloomy, over us all. But then the executions actually started at Kot Lakhpat jail, and everyone started to go through mental torture. Those who were being hanged had been our companions for many years on this road to death, and it is only natural that their deaths left us in a state of despair.</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">While the death penalty moratorium was ended on the pretext of killing terrorists, most of the people here in Kot Lakhpat are charged with regular crimes. Quite how killing them is going to stop the sectarian violence in this country, I cannot say. I hope I do not die on Wednesday, but I have no source of money, so I can only rely on God and on my volunteer lawyers. I have not given up hope, though the night is very dark.</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">-- Aftab Bahadur was executed in the early hours of Wednesday 10 June 2015.</blockquote><div><b>Related article:</b><br /><br /><ul><li><a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.fr/2015/06/pakistan-executes-aftab-bahadur.html" target="_blank">Pakistan executes Aftab Bahadur, sentenced to death at 15, despite evidence of innocence</a>, June 10, 2015</li></ul><br /><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></div>

Innocence Juvenile offenders Moratorium Pakistan 2015: Aftab Bahadur Masih, “I just received my Black Warrant”

A year ago today, Pakistan amid its ravenous 2015 execution binge hanged Aftab Bahadur Masih in Lahore for a 1992 murder. Left: Two faces of...

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Kazakh President: Aqtobe Attacks Orchestrated From Abroad; Suspects Will Face Death Penalty

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeCmQHZ1kLfur5Z4JrtV94UVR9cpFnqyDVus2_KH0-LJ7mXdlrsws0XPtdT4iByxHfP8m4OJ8Zuev9gnKoOu1R8yk5cBCgIWKfDdvZExxGrtkg3hgF4Xv4wCCewv_dnoNXXuMiJpGT7IQ/s1600/aktobe3-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeCmQHZ1kLfur5Z4JrtV94UVR9cpFnqyDVus2_KH0-LJ7mXdlrsws0XPtdT4iByxHfP8m4OJ8Zuev9gnKoOu1R8yk5cBCgIWKfDdvZExxGrtkg3hgF4Xv4wCCewv_dnoNXXuMiJpGT7IQ/s400/aktobe3-3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev has claimed that the attackers who carried out the recent attacks that rocked the northwestern city of Aqtobe "received instructions from abroad," and suggested that suspects will face the death penalty.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The June 8 comments were the first made by the Kazakh leader since dozens of gunmen carried out the attacks on June 5, prompting a "counterterrorism operation" and leaving a growing death toll of more than 20 dead, including attackers.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">There have been no credible claims of responsibility for the attacks, which targeted two gun shops and a National Guard base and have left the country in a state of high alert, with several attackers still at large.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In separate statements posted to the president's official website, Nazarbaev said that "pseudo-religious radical movements who received instructions abroad" were behind the attacks, and that "a person who has taken up arms and killed people should be punished with the death penalty."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The long-serving president introduced a moratorium on capital punishment in 2003 and the death penalty was officially abolished in 2007, but the country's constitution makes an exception in cases of terrorist acts.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Also on June 8, Nazarbaev was quoted by his official website as telling security chief Vladimir Zhumakanov that in the course of the continuing manhunt, suspects "should be eliminated in the case of armed resistance."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"We are aware that they are in the region, we have identified them, and local people have been warned about it," Nazarbaev said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The claim that the attackers had received instructions from abroad offered no indication of who may have given the instructions.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Interior Ministry told RFE/RL's Kazakh Service on June 8 that 13 suspected attackers were killed and 4 of them injured, while 6 remain on the run. 9 have been arrested, according to the ministry.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Kazakhstan plans to hold a national day of mourning on June 9 to commemorate the victims, the president's website announced.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Security chief Zhumakanov said during his meeting with Nazarbaev that the authorities had identified and questioned 20 people who allegedly "refused to take part in the preparation stage" of the Aqtobe attacks. Zhumakanov provided no further details.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Kazakh police spokesman Almas Sadubaev has said the attackers are suspected to be followers of "nontraditional religious movements," a term often used in Central Asia to describe Islamic extremist groups.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Kazakhstan's Senate, however, in condemning what it described as a "foul criminal attack" against the country's peace and stability, has said the perpetrators' actions had "nothing to do with religion."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The country is in a state of high alert, but there are signs that life is returning to normal in Aqtobe. RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reported that businesses and schools have reopened and public transportation has resumed normal operations in the city of nearly 400,000.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Funerals took place on June 8 for 3 of the civilians killed, the service reported.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Aqtobe incidents are a rare burst of violence in the tightly controlled country of around 18 million people.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Kazakhstan witnessed major protests against planned agricultural-land reforms in April and May. More than 1,000 activists were detained around those demonstrations, and many received 10-15-day jail sentences after being convicted of planning or attending the unsanctioned rallies.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, June 9, 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>

Abolition Islamism Kazakhstan Moratorium Terrorism Kazakh President: Aqtobe Attacks Orchestrated From Abroad; Suspects Will Face Death Penalty

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev has claimed that the attackers who carried out the recent attacks that rocked the northwestern city of ...

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