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Florida's death penalty system will face renewed stress in 2017

<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/AVvXsEhfa-zDWS01p-6_-EybgwT-GrmbtB6wUP4WFrHxNZ5fEOW8GqQXFmcj2YEWRwrNBxONmBko_Xr5xdqE0F72ZtR5pjUDfPRRUp0_qNw2rJo6jo3K6ucnDepGtsHd8bFTioV1ntXtJiTKzQM/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/AVvXsEhfa-zDWS01p-6_-EybgwT-GrmbtB6wUP4WFrHxNZ5fEOW8GqQXFmcj2YEWRwrNBxONmBko_Xr5xdqE0F72ZtR5pjUDfPRRUp0_qNw2rJo6jo3K6ucnDepGtsHd8bFTioV1ntXtJiTKzQM/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;">TALLAHASSEE — Florida's death penalty system, under sustained legal assault for the past year, faces renewed pressure in 2017 that will strain courts, victims and taxpayers in ways sure to rekindle a debate over capital punishment.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A series of federal and state court rulings will bring upheaval to a system long criticized for racial disparities and for seemingly endless and unjust delays. Now the state must confront the enormous impact of a case known as Hurst vs. Florida, in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that constitutional rights of defendants were violated because their juries had too little say in recommending sentences of death.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Applying the Hurst case to Florida — the state with the second most death row inmates at 384 — the state Supreme Court decided that about half of those inmates should still face execution.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Those inmates were sentenced before 2002, when another case, Ring vs. Arizona, found that it was unconstitutional for a judge instead of a jury to find the facts necessary to impose the death penalty. At the time, the Florida Supreme Court decided the Ring decision did not apply because Florida had a different sentencing scheme and that in another case, the nation's highest court upheld the constitutionality of Florida's system.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But the other half of the death row population — most inmates sentenced after Ring in 2002 — could be resentenced to life without parole, depending on the facts in each case, because they were condemned to die under a law ruled unconstitutional by the Hurst case.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Attorney General Pam Bondi will continue to seek to carry out as many death sentences as possible, arguing that any previous sentencing errors were legally harmless. But as a flurry of post-Hurst appeals clogs the courts, legal experts foresee an expensive and, for the families of victims, agonizingly painful review of as many as 200 cases in which defendants seek sentences of life without parole.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Two hundred do-overs," said Robert Dunham of the Death Penalty Information Center, a national group critical of how states, especially Florida, carry out the death penalty. "There are not enough judges, court personnel, prosecutors or defense lawyers to timely move these cases forward."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">That's not all. A pro-death penalty Legislature must fix the law a second time after the Florida Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional a provision that does not require all 12 jurors to agree on a death sentence when they recommend punishment to a judge who issues the final life-or-death verdict.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Because jury recommendations of death in Florida are usually not unanimous, the practical effect will be more do-overs, with new sentencing hearings in dozens of cases.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Prosecutors will have to track down old trial transcripts and witnesses, and families of victims will have to endure a public spectacle of some of the state's most horrific crimes a second time.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"It's an absolute nightmare for these families," said Bruce Bartlett, the chief assistant state attorney in Pinellas County. "And it's a logistical nightmare for us as you've got to reconstruct all these cases."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Bartlett identified nine cases in his Pinellas-Pasco circuit alone in which death row inmates could be resentenced to life because of split decisions by juries that recommended death.</div><b><a href="http://web.tampabay.com/news/politics/legislature/floridas-death-penalty-system-will-face-renewed-stress-in-2017/2307829" target="_blank"><br /></a></b><b><a href="http://web.tampabay.com/news/politics/legislature/floridas-death-penalty-system-will-face-renewed-stress-in-2017/2307829" target="_blank">Click here to read the full article</a></b><br /><br />Source: Tampa Bay Times, Steve Bousquet, December 30, 2016<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">⚑ | Report an error, an omission; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: <a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com">deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a>.</div><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="4" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px solid rgb(255, 204, 0); color: black; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr>   <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL4sspwgGptzvuHVklum5TwxKppRN-lIC5TN8RLZFq_B4ZOtBrX1ssXPNKQ6XpSyQFRJRtVQN45HMkpt3VX0JtOW0TovwxZAurG-AV6gh98IAXo7Ip6QlpkZr9WrM3_m943Mwy-gGxBAY/s1600/Find+us+Facebook.jpg" /></a></div></td>   <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiULIPEaT_P6oIauxAZd17XRRxljesDLS7iIjdQXT7Xct99uHeohx4IYmiAB6S044gTjMDGSy50sL2vDzOyPZ-3vJj9zwcYQ2rgzJh9v1-QDiunKAQtLLLqJ83s38qN3HABxGIC8GsIOD0/s1600/Find+us+twitter.jpg" /></a><span id="goog_1427852018"></span><span id="goog_1427852019"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a></div></td>  </tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><b>Opposed to Capital Punishment? 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Florida's death penalty system will face renewed stress in 2017

Florida's death chamber TALLAHASSEE — Florida's death penalty system, under sustained legal assault for the past year, faces renewed...

6:21 AM

Washington Governor Jay Inslee grants reprieve to child killer on death row

Washington Governor Jay Inslee grants reprieve to child killer on death row

Washington Governor Jay Inslee BELLINGHAM - Gov. Jay Inslee granted a reprieve Thursday to a Bellingham man sentenced to death for the rape ...

1:53 AM

EU calls on Japan to abolish death penalty

<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/AVvXsEgC7iSKq9iJbb7njmjvXMk7sGEsR5Vu9msu1hoW7TDh4wdjiCJXB5vk3E4TQZ2MlTkQy4fcvDwkqsMHeUUg5LbOy_LgoA6hry1rRYfqXe6NVhZcclfg1joeHrN1CTQEorSzplOruJdl88Q/s1600/Gallows+trap+door+at+an+execution+chamber+at+the+Tokyo+Detention+Center+in+Tokyo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Gallows trap door, Tokyo Detention Center" border="0" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC7iSKq9iJbb7njmjvXMk7sGEsR5Vu9msu1hoW7TDh4wdjiCJXB5vk3E4TQZ2MlTkQy4fcvDwkqsMHeUUg5LbOy_LgoA6hry1rRYfqXe6NVhZcclfg1joeHrN1CTQEorSzplOruJdl88Q/s400/Gallows+trap+door+at+an+execution+chamber+at+the+Tokyo+Detention+Center+in+Tokyo.jpg" title="Gallows trap door, Tokyo Detention Center" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gallows trap door, Tokyo Detention Center</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">TOKYO — The European Union has called on Japan to abolish the death penalty, saying “it is a key priority of our external human rights policy” to work towards its universal elimination to protect human dignity.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“As friends, we have an obligation to speak up. Application of the death penalty in Japan, in the 21st century, is running against the global trend,” said Francesco Fini, EU Delegation minister to Japan. “We hope that Japan will finally join the big and growing family of countries without the death penalty.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He made the comments in a speech at a Tokyo symposium on capital punishment sponsored by the Japan Federation of Bar Associations.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The federation is seeking the abolition of the death penalty by 2020, when the U.N. Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice will be held in Japan.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Fini said governments are obliged under international law “not to impose cruel and unusual punishment even on the worst criminals” in view of the fundamental human dignity of every person, “even on someone who has committed the most atrocious crime.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He said it has not been proved that the “death penalty has a direct correlation with reducing serious crime, or that abolishing it increases serious crime.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Fini also noted that while no court system is perfect, the death penalty is irreversible. “If a mistake is made, and then discovered, a person who was wrongfully executed can never be brought back.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Commenting on a government survey that shows more than 80 percent of people in Japan support the death penalty, Fini said “public opinion can change, and depends on information, courage and leadership.” The history of the abolition of the death penalty in Europe “was driven by brave women and men that exercised leadership to inform the public.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Legal experts and lawmakers also joined the symposium. Maiko Tagusari, a Tokyo-based lawyer, said, “We cannot avoid miscarriages of justice, as our legal system is operated by human beings. And it is impossible to make a distinction between those who should be executed and those who should not.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Tagusari also said that support for the death penalty in Japan may change as a result of the introduction of the lay judge system in 2009, in which six citizens join three professional judges to deliberate serious crimes, including capital cases.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">People are “now obliged to directly face the worst criminals in court as lay judges,” she said, adding that those with criminal justice knowledge need to help educate the public.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Sayaka Sasaki, an upper house member from the Komeito party, a coalition partner of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, told the symposium that many people believe judges never make mistakes and that prosecutors only indict the guilty.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj45nU0lY7nAgnMDfsdeemW-sy0mpnb_XJKWzQpsxELDc17CWi3xS6wwqe8J2t0SU_XMjA0i5cfQ90-kLu8JEqnxDn4_3GR9lFNilopKq1zLkbzUrrsP7LTxz1UwCIGaD1v4hIVTtmzagM/s1600/european-flags-outside-european-commission-headquarters-brussels.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj45nU0lY7nAgnMDfsdeemW-sy0mpnb_XJKWzQpsxELDc17CWi3xS6wwqe8J2t0SU_XMjA0i5cfQ90-kLu8JEqnxDn4_3GR9lFNilopKq1zLkbzUrrsP7LTxz1UwCIGaD1v4hIVTtmzagM/s320/european-flags-outside-european-commission-headquarters-brussels.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">EU: "A strong position against the death penalty"</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">“But we need to have a common recognition that they also make mistakes” in thinking about how to deal with the capital punishment system, Sasaki said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In Japan, anti-death penalty campaigners sometimes come into collision with crime victims or their bereaved families.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Referring to victims and their families, EU’s Fini said, “We should do everything we can to alleviate” their emotional burden.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He also said, however, that “using the victims’ families’ legitimate grief to justify executions, and taking a life as a response to crime is just fulfilling a cycle of misery.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Japan has faced international criticism over capital punishment, with the U.N. Human Rights Committee in 2014 urging Japan to “give due consideration to the abolition of the death penalty.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Tokyo most recently hanged an inmate on Nov. 11—the 17th execution in almost four years during Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s current term as Japanese leader.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The move prompted the EU Delegation to issue a statement together with the heads of mission of EU member states and the heads of mission of Norway and Switzerland saying, “We hold a strong and principled position against the death penalty and we are opposed to the use of capital punishment under any circumstances.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">At the symposium, Shinji Oguma, a lower house member from the main opposition Democratic Party, said “maintaining the death penalty has ruined the image of Japan, as the international community thinks Japan does not share the same values” at a time when more than two-thirds of nations have abolished the death penalty by law or in practice.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“It calls into question how Japan should be when we think about how to deal with the death penalty,” he said.</div><br />Source: <a href="https://www.japantoday.com/category/crime/view/eu-calls-on-japan-to-abolish-death-penalty" target="_blank">Japan Today</a>, December 21, 2016<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">⚑ | Report an error, an omission; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: <a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com">deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a>.</div><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="4" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px solid rgb(255, 204, 0); color: black; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr>   <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL4sspwgGptzvuHVklum5TwxKppRN-lIC5TN8RLZFq_B4ZOtBrX1ssXPNKQ6XpSyQFRJRtVQN45HMkpt3VX0JtOW0TovwxZAurG-AV6gh98IAXo7Ip6QlpkZr9WrM3_m943Mwy-gGxBAY/s1600/Find+us+Facebook.jpg" /></a></div></td>   <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiULIPEaT_P6oIauxAZd17XRRxljesDLS7iIjdQXT7Xct99uHeohx4IYmiAB6S044gTjMDGSy50sL2vDzOyPZ-3vJj9zwcYQ2rgzJh9v1-QDiunKAQtLLLqJ83s38qN3HABxGIC8GsIOD0/s1600/Find+us+twitter.jpg" /></a><span id="goog_1427852018"></span><span id="goog_1427852019"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a></div></td>  </tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><b>Opposed to Capital Punishment? 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EU calls on Japan to abolish death penalty

Gallows trap door, Tokyo Detention Center TOKYO — The European Union has called on Japan to abolish the death penalty, saying “it is a key p...

10:22 AM

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Florida's death penalty system will face renewed stress in 2017

Washington Governor Jay Inslee grants reprieve to child killer on death row

EU calls on Japan to abolish death penalty

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