China: Arsonist sentenced to death

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7GVelHj4_t2bKHP0veWPhkebidQnsYMwmZ87HJpQrIYLF4o3MKexTo-8bhig8CxbzQDf9LB-uY12IEitYLDtN2Z-CXmoXO6MadlA9rJNjwxwWIwV47ONJN9u0n_WGBKQoKazC4cZy16g/s1600/Chinese+flag.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7GVelHj4_t2bKHP0veWPhkebidQnsYMwmZ87HJpQrIYLF4o3MKexTo-8bhig8CxbzQDf9LB-uY12IEitYLDtN2Z-CXmoXO6MadlA9rJNjwxwWIwV47ONJN9u0n_WGBKQoKazC4cZy16g/s320/Chinese+flag.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">December 30, 2016: A man convicted of setting a bus on fire two years ago was sentenced to death by the Intermediate People's Court of Liuzhou City, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The defendant Song Yanli set the bus on fire using gasoline to vent his anger over a personal dispute on Nov. 21, 2014 in Liuzhou, Guangxi. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Eleven people were injured, and the bus was left as an empty shell. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Song fled the scene but was caught by police three days later. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Song, convicted of arson, posed a severe threat to public security and showed no remorse, a court statement said. Accordingly, the court sentenced Song to the death penalty. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The statement did not mention whether the defendant would appeal. </div><br />Source: Xinhua, 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? Help us keep this blog up and running! <a href="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=JBVXEBZLP3WKW" target="_blank">DONATE!</a></b></div><form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post" target="_blank"><div style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/fr_FR/i/scr/pixel.gif" width="1" /></div></form><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div>

China: Arsonist sentenced to death

December 30, 2016: A man convicted of setting a bus on fire two years ago was sentenced to death by the Intermediate People's Court of L...

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Alabama court rules death penalty law constitutional in 3 cases SCOTUS sent back for review

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfqMRqid7JyFlFbXKd6gRF5W4hjDtchqkIlqwt-TTrFoyVLAKMx-JeJ1cDvRfWw_WKyoI5kj40a80K76BbJovNpoJlLu64J1yyRmMaMCbnhUyYpymwhVgrmth0gF6ms3hdR93fnPKF-wk/s1600/Alabama.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Alabama" border="0" height="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfqMRqid7JyFlFbXKd6gRF5W4hjDtchqkIlqwt-TTrFoyVLAKMx-JeJ1cDvRfWw_WKyoI5kj40a80K76BbJovNpoJlLu64J1yyRmMaMCbnhUyYpymwhVgrmth0gF6ms3hdR93fnPKF-wk/s400/Alabama.jpg" title="Alabama" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals on Friday ruled the death sentences of 3 state inmates are constitutional and don't conflict with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down Florida's similar death penalty sentencing scheme.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The U.S. Supreme Court had vacated the sentences of Alabama death row inmates Ronnie Kirksey, Corey Wimbley, and Ryan Gerald Russell, this year and sent them back to the state appeals court to review in light of its Florida ruling.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Alabama's death sentencing law has been compared to Florida's because both allowed judges to override jury recommendations for life and instead impose death.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On Friday the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals said it wasn't the same and affirmed the convictions of Kirksey, Wimbley and Russell. The court said Alabama's law is constitutional and does not "run afoul" of the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Hurst v. Florida in January.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Prosecutors and Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange have repeatedly argued that Alabama's law was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1995 and is not the same as the portion of the Florida law struck down in Hurst.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Florida's law had required the judge -- not the jury -- to find the existence of an aggravating circumstance in order for the defendant to be subject to the death penalty.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Alabama's law already requires the jury to find an aggravating factor, such as murder during the commission of a robbery, kidnapping or rape, prosecutors argue. Therefore, at the time of conviction, the jury has already agreed upon at least one aggravating factor before the sentencing phase began.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In Alabama, after the jury unanimously convicts a defendant with at least one aggravating factor at the trial jurors in a separate hearing then weigh any other aggravating factors and mitigating circumstances and recommend life without parole or death. Jurors must vote 10-2, 11-1 or 12-0 to recommend death. The judge then imposes the final sentence and at that time can override the jury's life or death recommendation. Most of the overrides in Alabama have resulted in the death penalty.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In its order in Wimbley's case, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals found that the jury - not a judge - had determined Wimbley was eligible for the death penalty because it had unanimously convicted him of murder during the course of a robbery and arson. Robbery and arson are both aggravating factors.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Consequently, the jury's guilt-phase verdict satisfied Wimbley's Sixth Amendment right to a jury finding as to the existence of an aggravating circumstance," the appeals court stated. "That, as the Alabama Supreme Court explained, is all that "Ring (a previous SCOTUS ruling) and Hurst require ... nothing more and nothing less."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Florida's legislature enacted a new law that gives the jury, not the judge, the power to impose a death sentence. In Delaware, the only other state that allowed judicial overrides, that state's Supreme Court struck down its override law in August. That leaves Alabama as the only state that allows judicial override.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Alabama is now the only state to allow judges to override jury recommendations for life without parole and for those recommendations to be non-unanimous.</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Jefferson County Circuit Judge Tracie Todd in March ruled in four of her capital murder cases that Alabama's capital punishment sentencing scheme is unconstitutional based on the Hurst case.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In its order the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals told Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge Tracie Todd to vacate her March 3 order</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In June the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals ordered Todd to vacate her rulings and declared the state's law is constitutional.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Then on Sept. 30, the Alabama Supreme Court weighed in. The Alabama Supreme Court ruled in the case of death row inmate Jerry Bohannon that Alabama's death penalty law is constitutional in light of the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Hurst v. Florida.</div><br />Source: al.com, December 17, 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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Alabama court rules death penalty law constitutional in 3 cases SCOTUS sent back for review

The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals on Friday ruled the death sentences of 3 state inmates are constitutional and don't conflict with ...

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