New Mexico: GOP to revive death penalty proposal during session

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM4VhB6bJnpsknngby5-KEVLHYw2smb0fqQjGNmEkcsS5uIeCmhxrpHGfvV43Uzi73qWukVm7VSf0VlQ-WCOWmwm6M6J1uMkIY1jhB53MMeQf4GbUR5rQso1ERGIv2VAv4vwLHOPPX7V0/s1600/New+Mexico.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM4VhB6bJnpsknngby5-KEVLHYw2smb0fqQjGNmEkcsS5uIeCmhxrpHGfvV43Uzi73qWukVm7VSf0VlQ-WCOWmwm6M6J1uMkIY1jhB53MMeQf4GbUR5rQso1ERGIv2VAv4vwLHOPPX7V0/s400/New+Mexico.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The death penalty will again be an issue in the state Legislature when it reconvenes next week.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A capital punishment bill, sponsored by Rep. Monica Youngblood, R-Albuquerque, is identical to what was perhaps the most divisive piece of legislation in last fall’s special session of the Legislature.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But unlike last year, Republicans — who lost control of the House in the November election — will have a much harder time getting a capital punishment bill to the House floor.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“It’s my hope that people don’t see it as a full reinstatement of the death penalty,” Youngblood said Monday.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The state abolished the death penalty in 2009.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Youngblood said her bill, House Bill 72, targets “only the most heinous criminals, the ones that prey upon our children and our police officers.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Like last year’s bill, which she co-sponsored, Youngblood’s new bill would make murdering a law enforcement officer, corrections personnel or a child the only crimes that would be eligible for a death sentence.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Youngblood said polls show most New Mexicans favor capital punishment for certain crimes.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But Rep. Matthew McQueen, D-Galisteo, said Monday the death penalty is riddled with problems.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“There have been numerous examples around the country as well as in New Mexico of people who were sentenced to death later being exonerated,” McQueen said. “And it’s tremendously expensive. I believe it’s a waste of resources. I’m hopeful this year we’ll make short work of it.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Bringing back capital punishment would bring additional costs to a judicial system already strapped by the state’s budget crunch.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Sen. Pete Campos, D-Las Vegas, in an opinion piece submitted to various news organizations, wrote, “New Mexico’s courts face a funding crisis that threatens to undermine the judiciary’s ability to protect our rights by delivering timely justice. … The prosecution of criminal cases is being impaired. Some courts confront the possibility of dismissing cases because the state’s public defender office lacks the staff and budget it needs to handle more cases.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A fiscal analysis by the Legislative Finance Committee of last year’s death penalty bill said reinstating executions could cost the state up to $7.2 million a year over a three-year period.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“The cost to the judicial system to process one individual through the death penalty process, which historically has taken an average of 11 years, is about $105,000 per year,” the report says. “The cost to incarcerate one individual on death row is $51,100 a year.”</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/AVvXsEheS9oAXTjvL6YAs1IMaXgtDn35NxqQzNMN8nUuB2lhsOiL4rx5S8PiR8L9I9EsRuQvvvBWSjm2Vd8OnbKk2AJbJRhhk_nBTEdic_jQjh79oC5UhmFhPprOLnJMspAagZQYPAxIiJrK3Gk/s1600/dollars.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheS9oAXTjvL6YAs1IMaXgtDn35NxqQzNMN8nUuB2lhsOiL4rx5S8PiR8L9I9EsRuQvvvBWSjm2Vd8OnbKk2AJbJRhhk_nBTEdic_jQjh79oC5UhmFhPprOLnJMspAagZQYPAxIiJrK3Gk/s400/dollars.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In the analysis, the Administrative Office of the Courts estimated that a death penalty jury trial would cost $12,000 to $17,000 more than a nondeath penalty case. More jury costs would be incurred because after finding someone guilty in a death penalty case, a jury would have to determine whether to impose capital punishment.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The report also said that in cases stemming from the 2007 Santa Rosa prison riot — in which prosecutors initially sought the death penalty for three inmates in the killing of a corrections officer — the state Public Defender’s Office spent $474,600 on contract defense attorneys, $1 million on expert witnesses and $76,800 on other costs before trial. The total expense to the department was $1.6 million.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In that case, the state Supreme Court ruled that unless the Legislature appropriated funds in addition to the $1.1 million previously allocated for the case, the death penalty could not be imposed. The Legislature didn’t approve those funds, so prosecutors dropped the death penalty from the case.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">HB 72 includes a number of mitigating circumstances — such as the defendant’s age, mental capacity and prior criminal record — that could be weighed by a jury in considering imposing the death penalty. Executions would not be allowed if the defendant suffers “intellectual disabilities.” And if a condemned inmate is pregnant, the execution would be held until the baby is born.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">At the end of October’s special session, the House voted 36-30 along party lines to reinstate the death penalty, with Republicans in the majority. This followed a debate that started after midnight and ended just before 6 a.m. Many critics, including state religious leaders, blasted House leaders for holding the debate during the wee hours without any public notice. Hours later, the Senate voted to adjourn without considering the bill.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Last year was the first time that capital-punishment supporters made a serious effort to bring back the death penalty. The push came following several cases of police killings and child murders, including the rape and dismemberment of 10-year-old Victoria Martens.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Democrats criticized the idea of considering the capital punishment bill during the special session, which originally was meant to deal with the state’s budget crisis. Some said it was nothing but a political ploy for Republicans to use during the general election.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">If so, that plan backfired. Republicans lost control of the House after two years of being the majority. Though Republican Gov. Susana Martinez’s political team was successful in bringing down Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez, D-Belen — who opposed the death penalty bill — the GOP suffered a net loss in the Senate.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Between 1979 and 2007, when the death penalty was an option to prosecutors, there were more than 200 death penalty cases filed, but only 15 men sentenced to death and only one execution.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Though the death penalty was repealed in 2009, two inmates who previously were convicted for murders remain on death row. They are Timothy Allen, convicted in 1995, and Robert Fry, convicted for a murder in 2000.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>Source: <a href="http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/gop-to-revive-death-penalty-proposal-during-session/article_66a64a09-d3b9-5467-87c0-2f7d46f1682b.html" target="_blank">The New Mexican</a>, Steve Terrell, January 9-10, 2017<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>

New Mexico: GOP to revive death penalty proposal during session

The death penalty will again be an issue in the state Legislature when it reconvenes next week. A capital punishment bill, sponsored by Rep....

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'Philippines could go down as world's new top executioner' - Atienza

<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/AVvXsEgZ97QIqHByfr5WJ2iMphjqbb9rBLa0nVCHwRSkSCOa85r-x5JeLolRm3IynpgQXZ9yRo9TBVQQvsouM8zHjwZ5zICGqVPRCEIc-9pJahngvCfuFQ2bLoIsG6zAEuMCe8Wrfkm56QelfRA/s1600/President+Rodrigo+Duterte.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte" border="0" height="337" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ97QIqHByfr5WJ2iMphjqbb9rBLa0nVCHwRSkSCOa85r-x5JeLolRm3IynpgQXZ9yRo9TBVQQvsouM8zHjwZ5zICGqVPRCEIc-9pJahngvCfuFQ2bLoIsG6zAEuMCe8Wrfkm56QelfRA/s400/President+Rodrigo+Duterte.jpg" title="Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"The real problem is clearly corruption," says Rep. Lito Atienza</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>The wish of President Rodrigo Duterte to execute 5 to 6 convicts daily would plunge the country into the dark ages of "savagery" and make the country a top executioner, a pro-life solon said. </i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In a statement, Buhay Rep. Lito Atienza said the President's wish to have 5 to 6 criminals put to death every day, or more than 2,000 every year, under the death penalty would put the country into "an unprecedented era of darkness and medieval savagery."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Atienza said daily executions would make the predominantly Catholic country the world's top executioner, worse that non-Catholic countries such as China, Iran and Pakistan.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"If the President had his way, our predominantly Catholic country could go down as the world's new top executioner, ahead of non-Catholic countries such as China, Iran and Pakistan," Atienza said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Last month, Duterte said there would be daily executions of drug convicts once death penalty is restored.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Restore it and I will execute criminals every day - 5 or 6. That's for real," Duterte said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Atienza said moves in Congress to restore death penalty are an "anathema to our celebration of life."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"We Filipinos celebrate life. In fact, we celebrate life so much that despite our usual troubles, we've been persistently rated among the happiest people in the world," Atienza said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Atienza said it is bad enough that even without the death penalty, the country is hounded with a spate of extrajudicial killings of suspected drug criminals at the height of the administration's bloody war on drugs.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"We do not want to be brutalized by constant bloodshed. We Filipinos loathe killings, whether judicial or extrajudicial, as much as we detest violent crime," Atienza said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"It is bad enough we already have a virtual death penalty in place, with the unabated summary executions of alleged suspects sans the benefit of a full and fair trial," he added.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Atienza said the real problem is rampant corruption in the criminal justice system, as revealed in a House inquiry on the Bilibid drug trade and the millions of alleged kickbacks for Bureau of Correction officials.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The real problem is clearly corruption. The problem is not with the severity of the punishment for crime. In fact, corruption is the primary reason why many felons are not getting caught, and not getting punished, and this in turn has only abetted even more crime," Atienza said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The bill is expected to undergo plenary debates under second reading once Congress resumes from its Christmas break on Jan. 16.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The bill hurdled the justice committee on Dec. 7.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The bill seeks to impose death penalty for more than 20 heinous offenses, such as rape with homicide, kidnapping for ransom, and arson with death.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, Duterte's staunch ally in Congress, filed the bill seeking to reimpose the death penalty after former President now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo abolished capital punishment in 2006 for its failure to deter crime.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Alvarez filed the bill pursuant to President Duterte's campaign promise of returning capital punishment against heinous criminals.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Philippine society is left with no option but to deal with certain grievous offenders in a manner commensurate to the gravity, perversity, atrociousness and repugnance of their crimes," according to the bill. Duterte won the elections on a campaign promise to restore death penalty.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Alvarez said Congress would look into the cheapest way of carrying out the death penalty, either by firing squad, lethal injection or by hanging.</div><br />Source: newsinfo.inquirer.net, January 3, 2017<br /><br /><br /><h2>Philippines: Pro-life coalition formed vs death penalty revival</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Pro-life advocates have formed a coalition to oppose moves by the House of Representatives to revive capital punishment in line with President Duterte's tough stance against criminality, opposition lawmakers bared yesterday.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman said there has been a "widening coalition of legislators, religious ministers both from the Catholic Church and other religious denominations, civil society and NGO networks, and college students and youth" opposing the reimposition of the death penalty.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The broad coalition of anti-death penalty advocates will sustain the campaign against the proposed reimposition of capital punishment until the archaic proposal is finally consigned to the legislative dustbin," he said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Lagman stressed that death penalty is not a solution to criminality and the drug menace.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The prevention of heinous crimes involves a complex and multidimensional process relative to problems ranging from poverty and inequity to police corruption and brutality, inept and discriminatory prosecution, and flawed judicial system," he explained.</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/AVvXsEhIiw6i03j9M6-HN8Itgq4xKTp2wAdmj1rl33Wd23jKcDb0TTR3KNOoKB4cd6E-MPrd1F3ZAObRZ5Tb_jeanvCQsJAq3FqstVL51eWM1kxFPgvP8UKF5vUW1ABYQCxe40q9r6Eoq7d3P4A/s1600/1%252C800+drugs-related+killings+recorded+since+president+Duterte+took+office+seven+weeks+ago.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Summary and drugs-related killings in the Philippines" border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIiw6i03j9M6-HN8Itgq4xKTp2wAdmj1rl33Wd23jKcDb0TTR3KNOoKB4cd6E-MPrd1F3ZAObRZ5Tb_jeanvCQsJAq3FqstVL51eWM1kxFPgvP8UKF5vUW1ABYQCxe40q9r6Eoq7d3P4A/s400/1%252C800+drugs-related+killings+recorded+since+president+Duterte+took+office+seven+weeks+ago.jpg" title="Summary and drugs-related killings in the Philippines" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"It is bad enough we already have a virtual death penalty in place, with unabated<br />summary executions of alleged suspects sans the benefit of a full and fair trial."</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">"All of these negative factors contribute to the fallibility of human justice, which ensnare to the gallows even the innocent. Consequently, punishment alone is not the solution to crimes," he added.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Another opposition legislator, Rep. Lito Atienza of Buhay party-list, also hit Duterte's plan to execute through lethal injection 5 to 6 convicts a day.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"It will sink the Philippines into an unprecedented era of darkness and medieval savagery. If the President had his way, our predominantly Catholic country could go down as the world's new top executioner, ahead of non-Catholic countries such as China, Iran and Pakistan," Atienza said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Duterte's execution plan means that more than 2,000 will be undergoing state-sanctioned killings per year. Compare this to the 1,634 convicts executed in 25 countries around the world in 2015 recorded by Amnesty International (AI).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Excluding China, only 3 countries - Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia - were responsible for nearly 90 % of the executions.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Iran executed 977 convicts by hanging in 2015, Pakistan put 326 to death by hanging, while Saudi Arabia killed 158 by beheading. The number of executions in China is regarded a state secret.</div><br />Source: Philippine Star, January 3, 2017<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>

'Philippines could go down as world's new top executioner' - Atienza

"The real problem is clearly corruption," says Rep. Lito Atienza The wish of President Rodrigo Duterte to execute 5 to 6 convicts ...

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The Growing Gap Between the U.S. and the International Anti-Death-Penalty Consensus

<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/AVvXsEgzYtit8NJDCRLIRlPKKePilrpPrgqvvSJJBLPmvCxqlhBl0iw0IaNUoc55CgHp6LLD3M9qJnPQVLaPhx25qJuvQiXgEPWYkagbnUz2SSF1ZOG8HSqdNmNxfTJNShoQ3hQP-meHLGxu_FI/s1600/Gallows%252C+Department+of+Corrections%252C+Smyrna%252C+Delaware%252C+1991.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Disused gallows in Smyrna prison, Delaware, 1991" border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzYtit8NJDCRLIRlPKKePilrpPrgqvvSJJBLPmvCxqlhBl0iw0IaNUoc55CgHp6LLD3M9qJnPQVLaPhx25qJuvQiXgEPWYkagbnUz2SSF1ZOG8HSqdNmNxfTJNShoQ3hQP-meHLGxu_FI/s400/Gallows%252C+Department+of+Corrections%252C+Smyrna%252C+Delaware%252C+1991.jpg" title="Disused gallows in Smyrna prison, Delaware, 1991" width="373" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Disused gallows in Smyrna prison, Delaware, 1991</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>In employing the death penalty, the U.S. insists it abides by international law. But it declines to make the most important international commitment - to reject the penalty as a violation of human rights. </i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Last week, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted a resolution calling for a worldwide "moratorium on the use of the death penalty" - the 6th that the U.N. has approved in the past decade. Each one has gained the support of more of the organization's members. The latest vote was 117 countries in favor to 409 against. (31 abstained, and 5 did not vote.) In addition to a call for a halt to executions worldwide, the resolution urges countries that maintain the death penalty to increasingly restrict its imposition and to apply international laws that protect the rights of those facing the penalty. The rights include that a death sentence may be imposed only for the "most serious crimes," defined as intentional crimes that have "lethal or other extremely grave consequences," and that execution be carried out only after "a final judgment rendered by a competent court," following a legal process that insures a fair trial and that provides access to appeal to a higher court and the opportunity to seek a pardon or a commutation of the sentence.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">At the General Assembly, the United States cast one of the nay votes. Stefanie Amadeo, the deputy representative to the U.N. Economic and Social Council, explained the country's position, which is basically unchanged since the U.S. opposed the 1st resolution against the death penalty, in 2007: "The ultimate decision regarding these issues must be addressed through the domestic democratic processes of individual Member States and be consistent with their obligations under international law," which does not prohibit capital punishment. The position reflects the American reality of supporting the death penalty in principle, but increasingly outlawing it in practice. As Jeffrey Toobin reported recently, the U.S. maintains the death penalty under federal and military law and under the laws of 31 states - even though only 5 states conducted executions in 2016 and executed only 20 people in total, the lowest number in 25 years.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><h3>Global norms</h3><br />The U.S. stresses the importance of observing global norms. "Just as the United States is committed to complying with its international obligations," Amadeo said, "we strongly urge other countries that employ the death penalty to do so only in full compliance with their international obligations." Meanwhile, in the past 40 years, the U.S. Supreme Court has increasingly sought to restrict the application of the death penalty to the worst of the worst offenders - 1st, to people who commit the most heinous murders and, then, only to adults who commit them, excluding youth under the age of 18. In addition, it generally takes a decade or more for a state to carry out an execution because of challenges to a death sentence allowed under due process of law.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Among the states with the death penalty, 12 have not carried out an execution for a decade or more, and another five have not executed anyone for at least 5 years. In California, where the last execution was in 2006, there were 750 people on death row as of December 2nd. Rather than being executed (the state has executed only 13 people since 1978) it is much more likely that a death-row inmate will die as a result of natural causes or suicide.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Roger Hood, an emeritus professor at Oxford, and Carolyn Hoyle, who directs Oxford's Centre for Criminology, last year published the 5th edition of "The Death Penalty: A Worldwide Perspective." Their book documents the many ways that people are sentenced to death in violation of international law - for drug-trafficking, for example, rather than for "the most serious crimes," in unfair proceedings and with no opportunity to ask for clemency, and while imprisoned in terrible conditions. These and other realities, they write, are moving "the debate about capital punishment beyond the view that each nation has, if it wishes, the sovereign right to retain the death penalty" to persuading "countries that retain the death penalty that it inevitably, and however administered, violates universally accepted human rights." Countries that employ the death penalty and insist that they are abiding by international law, including the U.S., decline to join in making the most important international commitment about the penalty, which is to reject it as a violation of human rights.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">There has long been a gap between the idealism that the U.S. expresses when boasting of its dedication to the rule of law, especially the protection of individual rights, and the reality of its persistent refusal to abide by major international human-rights commitments. The U.S. was a leader in the development of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which the U.N. adopted in 1948, but stopped supporting the international system to carry it out because, among other reasons, Jim Crow laws directly violated the declaration. There is a sizable list of human-rights treaties - on the Rights of the Child, for example, and on the International Criminal Court - that the U.S. has signed but not ratified. Even when the U.S. ratifies treaties, the government often adds a caveat that excludes protection of some basic rights.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As a result, the U.S. has ended up in some rough company, particularly when it comes to the death penalty. In the past generation, the number of countries that have stopping using the death penalty has doubled, from about 50 to about 100. Of the 57 member states of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, and of the 35 member states of the Organization of American States, only the U.S. carried out executions last year. The countries that executed the most offenders were, in order, China, Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the United States. China executed thousands of people, though its secrecy about its use of capital punishment makes it impossible to know exactly how many. Excluding China, Iran (with close to 1000 or more), Pakistan (326), and Saudi Arabia (158) executed almost 9 out of 10 people put to death worldwide - "often after grossly unfair trials," according to Amnesty International, and "for crimes - including drug trafficking, corruption, 'adultery,' and 'blasphemy' - that do not meet the international legal standards for the use of the death penalty." In 2015, according to Amnesty International, at least 1634 people were executed, an increase of more than 50 % from the year before and the highest number in a quarter of a century. (The organization expects to release figures for 2016 in the spring.)<br /><br /><h3>The influence of the U.S. on the death penalty worldwide</h3></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The United States, in other words, ranks with countries that conspicuously are not in full compliance with their international obligations. And its responsibility is sometimes worse than guilt by association. As Maya Foa, the director of the death-penalty team at Reprieve, an international human-rights organization, told me, "The U.S. clearly leads and influences global death-penalty practice. Our partners, who are lawyers and human-rights defenders in jurisdictions that retain the penalty, tell us that the use of the death penalty by the U.S., a 'developed' nation, is used to justify the death-penalty practice in the jurisdictions they work in." Reprieve is providing legal and investigative assistance to people facing execution in 11 countries, in Africa, the Middle East, and South and Southeast Asia, and in the U.S.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In August at a rally in Istanbul, after the failed coup attempt in Turkey, the BBC reported, the country's President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said, "They say there is no death penalty in the E.U. ... Well, the U.S. has it; Japan has it; China has it; most of the world has it. So they are allowed to have it. We used to have it until 1984. Sovereignty belongs to the people, so if the people make this decision I am sure the political parties will comply." He said that the Turkish people might want to restore the death penalty to punish those responsible for killing hundreds of citizens during the attempted coup. That has not happened yet, but, if it does, its purpose, Erdogan suggested, will be a display of cold-blooded power.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The influence of the U.S. on the death penalty worldwide has sometimes been constructive. In 1976, for example, when the Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional for a state to make the death penalty mandatory for any crime, it marked the beginning of the decline of mandatory death sentences around the world. "The fundamental respect for humanity underlying the Eighth Amendment," the Court said, "requires consideration of the character and record of the individual offender and the circumstances of the particular offense."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Indian Supreme Court employed this logic when it struck down the mandatory death sentence in the country's penal code, in 1983. The legislature, it held, could not compel judges "to shut their eyes to mitigating circumstances and inflict upon them the dubious and unconscionable duty of imposing a preordained sentence of death." More recently, the Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide reports, 18 other countries have followed suit and struck down the mandatory death penalty, including almost every Caribbean nation and Uganda, Malawi, and Kenya.<br /><br /><h3>Replacing Justice Scalia</h3></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In their latest edition of "The Death Penalty," Hood and Hoyle write optimistically about the U.S. example: "Those who campaign for abolition worldwide can hope that it will not be many years before the U.S. Supreme Court will be able to find that the majority of states, in line with a majority of countries worldwide, does not support the death penalty for anyone." Donald Trump has said that he will replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia - the Court's most vehement defender of the death penalty for almost 30 years - with someone in his mold. But, even when that happens, there will be a possibility that Justice Anthony Kennedy will join the Court's moderate liberals in striking down the death penalty, for reasons Justice Stephen Breyer articulated in 2015: "The Court in effect delegated significant responsibility to the States to develop procedures that would" insure the fairness of the capital-punishment system, he wrote. "Almost 40 years of studies, surveys, and experience strongly indicate, however, that this effort has failed." If the Court continues to uphold the death penalty, on the other hand, the gap between the U.S. and a large and growing majority of the rest of the world will continue to increase.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: The New Yorker, Lincoln Caplan, December 31, 2016. Mr. Caplan, a former New Yorker staff writer, is a senior research scholar at Yale Law School and the author of the new book "American Justice 2016: The Political Supreme Court."</div><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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The Growing Gap Between the U.S. and the International Anti-Death-Penalty Consensus

Disused gallows in Smyrna prison, Delaware, 1991 In employing the death penalty, the U.S. insists it abides by international law. But it dec...

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Philippines: A moral, ethical issue for our people

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ-sjP1LRymXP7DA6y7GXHOiwI1gpD_jv2Z7bXXCk94fjdYp07j6dzT4HGlc76g4raj7lwR_fkhFsNrKuHxvm4bMXbKB9xH8YmrTNeFaZWkp_Cj519ziB93gSYWswsM1Og90T4K1J-le8/s1600/Philippines+police+officers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ-sjP1LRymXP7DA6y7GXHOiwI1gpD_jv2Z7bXXCk94fjdYp07j6dzT4HGlc76g4raj7lwR_fkhFsNrKuHxvm4bMXbKB9xH8YmrTNeFaZWkp_Cj519ziB93gSYWswsM1Og90T4K1J-le8/s400/Philippines+police+officers.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In the ongoing discussion on the death penalty, which President Duterte wants to return so as to strengthen the rule of law, it is useful to note that the world - and the Philippines with it - has long debated this issue in the United Nations.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 1966, the UN General Assembly, of which the Philippines is a founding member, adopted the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) which, together with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, make up what is known as the International Bill of Human Rights. The Philippines signed the ICCPR on December 19, 1966, and ratified it on October 23, 1986.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 1989, the General Assembly adopted the Second Protocol on Civil and Political Rights, calling on all states to abolish the death penalty. The Protocol was a treaty signed by 83 states, including the Philippines. The Philippines signed the Protocol on September 20, 2006, and ratified it on September 20, 2007.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In between these 2 international agreements, the Philippines became the 1st Asian country to abolish the death penalty when the nation ratified the Constitution in 1987, but Congress could reimpose it should the need arise. In 1993, such a law was passed to address the rising criminality in the country. 7 convicts were executed in 1999, followed by a moratorium in observance of the Catholic Church's "Jubilee Year." In 2003, 2 men were about to be executed when new evidence came up that exonerated the 2.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">All the while, the Commission on Human Rights vehemently opposed efforts to reimpose the death penalty. It said it was not convinced that the death penalty is the answer to rising criminality. The proper response, it said, lies in effective law enforcement, quick and impartial delivery of justice, and a responsive penal system. "To mete out to criminals the very final and irrevocable and inhuman verdict of death is tantamount to punishing them for the failure of the system," it declared.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Today we are again in the middle of debate on the death penalty. Right after he won the presidential election last May, President Duterte said he wanted Congress to restore the death penalty - by hanging - for convicts involved in illegal drugs, gun-for-hire syndicates, and for those who commit "heinous crimes" like rapists and robbers who kill their victims.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">We are also in the middle of a nationwide anti-drug campaign in which thousands have already been killed, many allegedly for resisting arrest - moving some to ask if there is still need for a death penalty to discourage criminals.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The critical debate on this issue will soon be taking place in the halls of Congress. Along with all the legal arguments and all the Philippines' commitments to the international community, the Church has also weighed in against the ancient system of "a tooth for a tooth, a life for a life." More than a legal issue, it will be a moral and ethical one which will determine what we really are as a people.</div><br />Source: tempo.com.ph, Editorial, 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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Philippines: A moral, ethical issue for our people

In the ongoing discussion on the death penalty, which President Duterte wants to return so as to strengthen the rule of law, it is useful to...

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Nebraska: Hearing on controversial lethal injection protocol proposal

<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/AVvXsEjnAh4PRMLVNVUqLZN65-ItpMTZUcPfRRvbsE61WhDEKPByTFMNJf84HU0AByW-N8ARKz7BjrDRPtYkjE03MWTTQ5ysKwyhxfmeTDUyBTwAE9-qPoGPmZyVetVwvgy8me2pPKFGSZQ7zWg/s1600/Nebraska+death+chamber.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Nebraska's death chamber" border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnAh4PRMLVNVUqLZN65-ItpMTZUcPfRRvbsE61WhDEKPByTFMNJf84HU0AByW-N8ARKz7BjrDRPtYkjE03MWTTQ5ysKwyhxfmeTDUyBTwAE9-qPoGPmZyVetVwvgy8me2pPKFGSZQ7zWg/s400/Nebraska+death+chamber.jpg" title="Nebraska's death chamber" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nebraska's death chamber</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">A state hearing on a controversial lethal injection protocol proposal will begin at 9 a.m. Friday at the State Office Building in Lincoln. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Omaha Sen. Ernie Chambers, who opposes the death penalty, and says the proposed protocol raises constitutional questions, will be at the hearing, he said, and ACLU of Nebraska will submit testimony. ACLU presented a petition with 2,000 signatures gathered from across the state to the hearing officer earlier this week, said ACLU Executive Director Danielle Conrad.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The petition tells Gov. Pete Ricketts that Nebraskans want transparency in death penalty protocols. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Dale Baich is an assistant federal public defender in Arizona who has witnessed executions, including John Joubert's in Nebraska in 1996, and has been involved in challenges to execution protocols in a number of states.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He said Thursday that transparency is important in execution protocols, because any time the government acts, its citizens should be fully informed. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The protocol as drafted is incredibly vague," he said, "and raised more questions than it answers."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It doesn't seem that a lot of thought was put into the protocol, he said. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Because of this I see years of litigation trying to resolve issues not addressed or contemplated by the drafters," he said. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The state Department of Corrections has said its attorney, Julie Smith, drafted the protocol, but no drafts, documentation, correspondence or paper trail was available when requested through Freedom of Information requests by the Journal Star. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Those wanting to testify on the revisions to the protocol, written shortly after Nebraskans voted to keep the death penalty as an option for first-degree murder convictions, can do so before a hearing officer at 301 Centennial Mall in the lower level conference room. Testimony is limited to 5 minutes per person. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The hearing officer is there to take testimony and will not answer questions on the protocol," said Dawn-Renee Smith, Department of Correctional Services communications director. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Corrections Director Scott Frakes said he would keep an open mind about any comments or testimony received by the department on the proposed protocol. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As it is proposed, it allows for the department to change the lethal injection drugs for an execution based on availability, and to notify the condemned inmate of the drug(s) to be used and the order they will be administered, if more than one, 60 days before a death warrant is requested from the Nebraska Supreme Court. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">They may be directly purchased or obtained through the Department of Pharmacy or any other "appropriate source," including a compounding pharmacist or chemist. A chemical analysis will verify the substance, according to the protocol. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The director may authorize any records or information identifying a person, company or entity supplying the drugs to be confidential.</div><br />Source: <a href="http://journalstar.com/legislature/death-penalty-protocol-hearing-will-be-friday/article_96a4e187-4634-5906-98f1-0156b1c83454.html" target="_blank">Lincoln Journal Star</a>, Joane Young, December 29, 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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Nebraska: Hearing on controversial lethal injection protocol proposal

Nebraska's death chamber A state hearing on a controversial lethal injection protocol proposal will begin at 9 a.m. Friday at the State ...

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Philippines leader Duterte faces investigation over killings claim

<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/AVvXsEi0EFf8Cmvyr_UoCBqMyobpwdRpClF_t6yZ3FfZZs9TszXSijYq7bEDxTCLkD2IyaikuqdRVS149MiZCkwGp6VD_W3FCNRbgWtxIhUnAc_bYzcXldfNX_MN5bHsBtHweb2T5gmv2ocXk5k/s1600/Rodrigo+Duterte.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="President Rodrigo Duterte" border="0" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0EFf8Cmvyr_UoCBqMyobpwdRpClF_t6yZ3FfZZs9TszXSijYq7bEDxTCLkD2IyaikuqdRVS149MiZCkwGp6VD_W3FCNRbgWtxIhUnAc_bYzcXldfNX_MN5bHsBtHweb2T5gmv2ocXk5k/s400/Rodrigo+Duterte.jpg" title="President Rodrigo Duterte" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">President Rodrigo Duterte</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>The Philippines independent human rights watchdog has said it will investigate claims by President Rodrigo Duterte that he personally killed drug suspects while mayor of Davao.</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Commission on Human Rights will also examine reports that so-called death squads killed several hundred people in the southern city.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mr Duterte confirmed to the BBC last week that he shot dead three men.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Since being elected in May, he has waged a brutal anti-drugs crackdown.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Critics say he has encouraged police, vigilantes and mercenaries to shoot suspected drug dealers and users on sight. Nearly 6,000 people are said to have been killed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mr Duterte was mayor of Davao for two decades, during which time he earned a reputation for harshly suppressing crime and was accused of sponsoring death squads.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On Tuesday, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein said Mr Duterte's claims "clearly constitute murder" and he called on authorities to investigate.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Chito Gascon, who heads the Philippines Commission on Human Rights, said on Wednesday a team of investigators would look into the matter.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He told the BBC that a previous investigation into events in Davao, that concluded in 2012, had not found any evidence that Mr Duterte was directly involved in killings but the commission had recommended charges be filed against him "under the doctrine of command responsibility".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Prosecutors, however, had not taken up the recommendation.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Now, with his admission... we are looking into new evidence that directly links Mr Duterte to the killings," he told the BBC's Newshour programme.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mr Gascon added that Mr Duterte was immune from prosecution while in office.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But he added: "Even if we cannot file charges while Mr Duterte is president I think it is important that we do have a record and documentation [of events] so that at the time of appropriate reckoning we have the evidence preserved so that people may ultimately be held to account for what they have done."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Earlier this month, Mr Duterte told a group of business leaders that in Davao "I used to do it [kill] personally. Just to show to the guys [police] that if I can do it, why can't you".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">His spokesman later dismissed the comments as "tough talk" and denied that Mr Duterte had killed anyone.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But speaking to the BBC hours later, Mr Duterte said: "I killed about three of them... I don't know how many bullets from my gun went inside their bodies. It happened and I cannot lie about it."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">One of the president's most strident critics in the Philippines, Senator Leila de Lima, has said his admission could be grounds for impeachment.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But on Wednesday, the government filed criminal charges against Ms de Lima, accusing her of trying to sabotage a congressional investigation into her alleged involvement in the drugs trade. She strongly denies any wrongdoing.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Earlier this week, Ms de Lima told the BBC that she feared for her life, but will not be silenced.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mr Duterte has dismissed concerns over his anti-drugs policies.</div><br />Source: <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-38403977" target="_blank">BBC News</a>, December 22, 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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Philippines leader Duterte faces investigation over killings claim

President Rodrigo Duterte The Philippines independent human rights watchdog has said it will investigate claims by President Rodrigo Duterte...

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Philippine President Duterte confirms he killed people as mayor, with no remorse

<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/AVvXsEgWYWpnpaTO1CmdF0RbnR580AWSGiQ55jM2jnn3hD-ltSOXPpKzqJ8BQpayMGvIZxJe2cqONDnwtAydncf4Jken41KnoHm0ZkdghRSQOuquagm0FpldRmKWkPUASxi1kD9oWeyMc-eGcQw/s1600/Rodrigo+Duterte+in+Jakarta%2527s+State+Palace+9+SEPT+2016.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Philippine President Duterte: "Looking for a confrontation so I could kill."" border="0" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWYWpnpaTO1CmdF0RbnR580AWSGiQ55jM2jnn3hD-ltSOXPpKzqJ8BQpayMGvIZxJe2cqONDnwtAydncf4Jken41KnoHm0ZkdghRSQOuquagm0FpldRmKWkPUASxi1kD9oWeyMc-eGcQw/s400/Rodrigo+Duterte+in+Jakarta%2527s+State+Palace+9+SEPT+2016.jpg" title="Philippine President Duterte: "Looking for a confrontation so I could kill."" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Philippine President Duterte: "Looking for a confrontation so I could kill."</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte affirmed on Friday that he shot dead three people as mayor, dismissing any uncertainty and displaying no remorse. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“I don’t really know how many bullets from my gun went inside their bodies,” he said. “It happened. I cannot lie about it.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">His confirmation, reported by the Philippine Star, followed boasts to business leaders on Monday that he killed criminal suspects as the Davao City mayor to set a precedent for his police officers.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“I used to do it personally, just to show to the guys that if I can do it, why can’t you?” he said, according to a video posted by the Star.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“I’d go around in Davao with a motorcycle, with a big bike around, and I would just patrol the streets looking for trouble,” he said. “I was really looking for a confrontation, so I could kill.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The president elaborated on the shootings Friday, calling them incidents with hostage-takers that saved people’s lives. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But his comments already had prompted a warning from U.S. officials and handed critics ammunition to demand his ouster.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The United States on Thursday announced it had <a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.com/2016/12/us-cancels-major-aid-package-to.html" target="_blank">deferred a decision to send the Philippines a major economic aid package</a>. White House spokesman Josh Earnest called his remarks “deeply troubling” and “certainly at odds with the Philippine government’s stated commitment to due process and rule of law.” </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Sen. Leila de Lima, the president’s most high-profile opponent, told CNN that his admissions amount to “mass murder” and <a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.com/2016/12/philippine-dutertes-admission-he-killed.html" target="_blank">grounds for impeachment</a>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Duterte, instigator of a bloody drug war during his presidency that has led to the death of more than 3,000 people, is known for his outlandish statements. He has compared himself to Hitler, declared he was not a killer and then threatened to kill officers who disobeyed him, and hinted at his own overuse of a powerful painkiller. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He has mentioned killing criminal suspects before, but his repeated remarks this week are the strongest declarations since he took office in June. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Duterte’s popularity has only increased since then, and it’s unclear what effect his comments will have throughout the island nation. Philippine officials who support the president have tried to play them down.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“The president always resorts to hyperbole,” Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II said on Wednesday, according to the Star. “He always exaggerates just to put his message across.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Duterte’s confirmation that he had killed challenged such claims.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“I would not have any second thoughts about cutting your head off,” he told the paper on Friday, speaking about drug dealers. “Should I allow it to continue? And be like the Latin American states?</div><br />Source: <a href="http://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-philippines-duterte-killings-20161216-story.html" target="_blank">Los Angeles Times</a>, Jessica Meyers, December 16, 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>

Philippine President Duterte confirms he killed people as mayor, with no remorse

Philippine President Duterte: "Looking for a confrontation so I could kill." Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte affirmed on Frid...

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Philippines: "Death penalty has no moral necessity"

<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/AVvXsEi0Qz3Adp1jjiIrZ1QhTSx6KBCNgYVvzuIwFLjCW0z2KsDrTDgGZpmhbsmMoHPvlvXx321VojRlzevW269HLVjN6fe6l7-aAitizTop0_hfX1kKYyZk645RGXB5mbjIRCluhZKAMY2GfAE/s1600/Duterte%2527s+war+on+drugs+PHIL.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs in the streets of Manila" border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0Qz3Adp1jjiIrZ1QhTSx6KBCNgYVvzuIwFLjCW0z2KsDrTDgGZpmhbsmMoHPvlvXx321VojRlzevW269HLVjN6fe6l7-aAitizTop0_hfX1kKYyZk645RGXB5mbjIRCluhZKAMY2GfAE/s400/Duterte%2527s+war+on+drugs+PHIL.jpg" title="President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs in the streets of Manila" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs in the streets of Manila</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">Representative Teddy Brawner Baguilat of the Lone District here said the reimposition of the death penalty is "a backward step without moral necessity," and urged the public to join the call to stop hasty moves by the House of Representatives in reviving the law.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Baguilat cited the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines' firm stand that the abolition of the death penalty by the 1986 Constitution was "a very big step toward a practical recognition of the dignity of every human being created in the image and likeness of God, and the value of human life from its conception to its natural end."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Thus to reimpose the death penalty would mean a backward step without moral necessity," he said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 2006, the capital punishment was suspended by then-President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo with the support of a Congress noted to be overwhelmingly supportive of the tenet that life has value.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Baguilat, a member of the opposition bloc in Congress known as the "Magnificent 7," said the Constitution requires that there must be a compelling reason to reimpose the death penalty but that he finds "none."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He added that the better move today is to strengthen the justice system to make sure that justice is served quickly and that real criminals will go to jail.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"As it is, everybody is saying that the justice system is flawed. We need more reform to avoid wrongful convictions. Without reforms, the poor will again bear the consequence of the weakness and inconsistency in the application of the criminal justice system," the lawmaker said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">According to Baguilat, the plan to railroad passage of the death penalty is a grave cause for concern considering that it had already been established that imposing the capital punishment would not deter proliferation of crime.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"We need to strengthen [the justice system]first to make a more lasting impact on criminality. I have never believed in legislating this ultimate retribution," he said, adding that there is no credible data showing that the death penalty is a crime deterrent.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"That is why I am again appealing to my colleagues in Congress to not rush into passing such a bill and instead allow extensive and intelligent discussion," Baguilat said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Apparently as part of the campaign against illegal drugs and criminality, the House majority led by House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez remained resolute in immediately passing a law that will bring back the death penalty.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">President Rodrigo Duterte has consistently said that he wanted the death penalty law as part of the package of measures to stop the proliferation of drugs and criminality.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I have always said that I am supportive of the President's campaign against drugs and criminality. But there is the right way to do it and reimposing the death penalty, which will violate our international commitments, is not the right way," Baguilat pointed out.</div><br />Source: Manila Times, December 15, 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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Philippines: "Death penalty has no moral necessity"

President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs in the streets of Manila Representative Teddy Brawner Baguilat of the Lone District here said t...

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US cancels major aid package to the Philippines over human rights concerns

<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/AVvXsEgJZH7DQDyIvH-N1EO41H-OQZ1g7KfsA1JAlW8ftA_gnt0x1Mg-2NZNet9g_L0t7r9HpWWcA0hE43Tqk6crCx03eiIZwtSl7Ge1W6VFRYhIMGnLD4vliQOnzcQlGXxqS2eU2kk9DX1U1Kk/s1600/Philippines-President-elect-Rodrigo-Duterte.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="President Rodrigo Duterte" border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJZH7DQDyIvH-N1EO41H-OQZ1g7KfsA1JAlW8ftA_gnt0x1Mg-2NZNet9g_L0t7r9HpWWcA0hE43Tqk6crCx03eiIZwtSl7Ge1W6VFRYhIMGnLD4vliQOnzcQlGXxqS2eU2kk9DX1U1Kk/s400/Philippines-President-elect-Rodrigo-Duterte.jpg" title="President Rodrigo Duterte" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">President Rodrigo Duterte</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>US embassy says there are 'significant concerns' about civil liberties under President Duterte</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The US government says it will not renew a major aid package to the Philippines worth hundreds of millions of dollars, due to concerns over the leadership of President Rodrigo Duterte.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The US embassy to the Philippines said it had “significant concerns” about civil liberties infringements in the country and declined to renew the Millennium Challenge Grant for a further five years.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The grant, said to be worth over $430 million, is open to nations that "demonstrate a commitment to just and democratic governance, investments in its people, and economic freedom”. It is aimed at reducing poverty in deprived areas.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"This decision reflects the Board's significant concerns around rule of law and civil liberties in the Philippines," the embassy said in a statement.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The Millenium Challenge Corporation will continue to monitor unfolding events in the Philippines and underscores that all country partners are expected to maintain eligibility, which includes not just a passing scorecard but also a demonstrated commitment to the rule of law, due process and respect for human rights."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The US has been openly critical of Mr Duterte's controversial 'war on drugs', during which an estimated 5,900 people have been killed in five months.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">More than 1.6 million houses of drug suspects have been visited by police to invite them to surrender and stop using drugs, or disengage from the drug trade.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mr Duterte responded by declaring the Philippines was to "separate" from the US in a diplomatic sense, after decades of close ties between the two countries.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“By partnering with developing countries that meet rigorous standards for good governance, from fighting corruption to respecting the rights of women and the rule of law, we are maximizing our ability to fight poverty and transform people’s lives,” Millenium Challenge Corporation CEO Dana Hyde added.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The corporation announced that new grants had been given to Burkina Faso, Sri Lanka and Tunisia, with the Philippines still eligible for consideration in the future.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In October, Mr Duterte called US President Barack Obama "a son of a whore" and told him to "go to hell" following criticism of his policies.</div><br />Source: <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/us-cancels-aid-package-philippines-human-rights-concerns-rodrigo-duterte-a7476606.html" target="_blank">The Independent</a>, Gabriel Samuels, December 15, 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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US cancels major aid package to the Philippines over human rights concerns

President Rodrigo Duterte US embassy says there are 'significant concerns' about civil liberties under President Duterte The US gove...

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Philippines: 'Death penalty backers banking on emotions, not facts'

<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/AVvXsEjdEL62K-BuEp1bZPo62x1t8jI8O9YNwke0VU3JRCc8psG91jNVlCQJniAGj6urzSCfgQa1cFF3U_MGtpUibop52zVI1sqJspQ9-_XpQ6r4XjpvwZjvmecucctZY-GHl3XA_dU2zWAx-Fo/s1600/A+victim+of+summary+execution+PHILIPPINES.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Philippines: Extrajudicial killings of alleged trug traffickers are soaring" border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdEL62K-BuEp1bZPo62x1t8jI8O9YNwke0VU3JRCc8psG91jNVlCQJniAGj6urzSCfgQa1cFF3U_MGtpUibop52zVI1sqJspQ9-_XpQ6r4XjpvwZjvmecucctZY-GHl3XA_dU2zWAx-Fo/s400/A+victim+of+summary+execution+PHILIPPINES.jpg" title="Philippines: Extrajudicial killings of alleged trug traffickers are soaring" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Philippines: Extrajudicial killings of alleged trug traffickers are soaring</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">A human rights activist said those in favor of death penalty is banking on the emotions of victims of crimes to justify the push to reinstate death penalty in the country.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Speaking on ANC, Carlos Conde of Human Rights Watch said there is not enough factual evidence to show that death penalty can prevent crimes.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"We're still waiting for statistics for the proponents of the bill to show to us, for instance, that there's an upsurge of crime fueled by drug use, which is the usual argument by those who are pushing for this bill but we haven't seen any significant data or statistics that would convincingly show that," he said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This is also the reason why backers of death penalty bills are banking on people's emotions instead to gain support for their cause.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"This is why the proponents of death penalty are making this a very emotional issue, citing, for instance, cases of crime supposedly related to drug use or heinous crimes supposedly related to drug use but they haven't shown data that would support the assertion that death penalty is a deterrent to crime," Conde said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The death penalty is a highly-charged political issue that legislators and politicians often latch on to as their advocacy because it's a very popular issue. People respond to the death penalty with this very highly emotional response," he added.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">According to Conde, the death penalty is a very popular issue because of President Rodrigo Duterte.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"This push for the death penalty arises from the popularity of President Rodrigo Duterte; so as long as he's extremely popular, we expect politicians and lawmakers to follow his lead," he said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Conde admitted that it will be difficult for those who are against death penalty to convince pro-death penalty lawmakers.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"If there is enough groundswell of dissent against these death penalty proposals in Congress, certainly all those people who did not vote for President Duterte could make a dent in the argument against death penalty, but you know, the death penalty is not a very popular issue among advocates," he said. "It would take a lot of work, to be honest, for those against the death penalty, to sway the legislators to not push this bill," Conde added.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: justify;">DETERRENCE</h3><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Meanwhile, Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) spokesperson Arsenio Evangelista reiterated that the death penalty will prevent crimes.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"It will deter. For us, it is the biggest weapon now for crime prevention, deterrence. When it comes to data, pro-life is saying that it is not a deterrent. It is a deterrent on a very high percentage," he said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Precisely, the absence of death penalty will increase extra-judicial killings because for us, death penalty is a retribution for acts being done to victims... The certainty of death will create fear among would-be criminals," Arsenio added.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Last week, the proposal to reimpose the death penalty has advanced to the plenary of the Lower House, 10 years after it was abolished.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Voting 12-6-1, the House justice committee approved the committee report of the substitute bill of the bills restoring the death penalty.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The vote of the mother committee came after an earlier vote of 12-5 adopting the subcommittee report of the same.</div><br />Source: ABS-CBN news, December 14, 2016<br /><br /><h2>Drop plans to expand death penalty, bishops ask Philippines</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Catholic prayer and protests greeted proposals to expand the use of the death penalty in the Philippines, with the move drawing outspoken opposition from the country's bishops.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Christ died for the criminals and the victims. The love of God is for all. Our love should be like God's love. For all," said Archbishop Socrates Villegas of Lingayen-Dagupan at a Dec. 12 prayer rally in San Carlos City.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"We are not protesting without a solution. We are protesting with an alternative. Reform the criminal justice system," he added. "If there's a death penalty but the criminal justice system is corrupt, slow and 1-sided, rapist and plunderer, and (drug) pusher and killer will remain confident."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 2006 the country abolished the death penalty for crimes involving drugs, rape and arson. Now, President Rodrigo Duterte and his supporters have sought to reinstate capital punishment for such crimes, citing rising crime rates and drug use.</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/AVvXsEgWYWpnpaTO1CmdF0RbnR580AWSGiQ55jM2jnn3hD-ltSOXPpKzqJ8BQpayMGvIZxJe2cqONDnwtAydncf4Jken41KnoHm0ZkdghRSQOuquagm0FpldRmKWkPUASxi1kD9oWeyMc-eGcQw/s1600/Rodrigo+Duterte+in+Jakarta%2527s+State+Palace+9+SEPT+2016.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="President Rodrigo Duterte" border="0" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWYWpnpaTO1CmdF0RbnR580AWSGiQ55jM2jnn3hD-ltSOXPpKzqJ8BQpayMGvIZxJe2cqONDnwtAydncf4Jken41KnoHm0ZkdghRSQOuquagm0FpldRmKWkPUASxi1kD9oWeyMc-eGcQw/s400/Rodrigo+Duterte+in+Jakarta%2527s+State+Palace+9+SEPT+2016.jpg" title="President Rodrigo Duterte" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">President Rodrigo Duterte</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">Archbishop Villegas, however, said that the courts can make mistakes, and there is no way to correct a mistake after a prisoner is executed. He said the death penalty is "a lazy form of penalty" that does not help reform "those who made mistakes."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Since July 1, when the new president took office, more than 2,000 people have died in police operations against illicit drugs, Reuters reports. Those killed are mainly street level drug dealers, accused by police of resisting arrest.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In the same time frame, another 3,000 people have been killed by masked men and vigilantes on motorcycles. President Duterte has denied claims of extrajudicial killings.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Senators have reported that they have no clear proof the killings are linked to state-sponsored actions. They have told the president to observe due process for the accused.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Cardinal Luis Tagle of Manila and the Manila archdiocese's presbyteral council urged a prayer against the death penalty to be recited at all Sunday Masses in the archdiocese Sunday Dec. 8.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Father, source and giver of life, we lift our hearts and voices to you. Help us to build a society that truly chooses life in all situations," began the prayer, with the response "Lord, heal our pain."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The prayer was on behalf of victims, perpetrators and society.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"There is in our land a cry for vengeance and a move to fill up death rows and kill offenders but disguised as a call for justice," the prayer continued. "Let true and lasting justice spring forth."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The prayer petitioned that Jesus, who suffered execution at the hands of the powerful, help Christians "reach out to victims of violence so that our enduring love may help heal their wounds."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A separate proposal in the Philippines would lower the age of criminal liability to 9 years old from 12. The bishops have warned this could escalate violence related to anti-drug campaigns.</div><br />Source: Catholic News Agency, December 14, 2016<br /><br /><h2>Death penalty debate set early 2017</h2><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">House Deputy Speaker Capiz Rep. Fredenil Castro yesterday said the discussions on the bill to reinstate death penalty, a priority legislative measure of President Duterte, will be moved to early next year, so that congressmen would have a thorough plenary debate.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In a radio interview, Castro said he was responsible for moving back the bill's discussion on the floor because he wanted to prepare to defend it at the plenary.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Castro is one of the principal authors of House Bill No. 1, which seeks to reimpose capital punishment for heinous crimes after it was abolished by then President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"We have to let people know, make them understand and study this measure because at first glance, you could say you don't want this bill because life should be respected. This is a reason that is based on one's belief in God and what they call human rights," Castro said in Filipino.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"It's funny because our people might again be misled. This is why I myself said I want to prepare for the debate because I will be the one to stand at the plenary. I will be the one to fight for this bill ... there would be very good interpellators who are now saying they have not made up their mind whether or not they would support this bill," Castro said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He said the measure could be passed in the Lower House if there would be daily plenary debates on it.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Castro also said he informed House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez and Majority Floor Leader Rodolfo Farinas, his coauthors, that the proposal should not single out drug dealing and drug use.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Castro said if he had his way, he would add more crimes that are as heinous as the use and sale of illegal drugs to be punishable by death - crimes such as illegal recruitment, plunder, economic sabotage and human trafficking, including the ones conducted via cyberspace.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">There are 21 heinous crimes proposed to be punishable by death in the bill approved by the House justice committee - a number which Castro still considers "too small."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Among the "heinous crimes" included in House Bill No. 1 are treason, qualified piracy, qualified bribery, parricide, murder, infanticide, rape, kidnapping and serious illegal detention, robbery with violence, destructive arson, plunder.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It also includes dangerous drug importation, sale and trading, manufacture, possession, cultivation and unlawful prescription, misappropriating confiscated illegal drugs and planting of evidence by public officers, and car theft.</div><br />Source: newsinfo.inquirer.net, December 14, 2016<br /><br /><h2>Ifugao solon joins anti death penalty law advocates</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Representative Teddy Brawner Baguilat has urged the public to add their voice to the growing chorus calling for a stop to hasty moves in Congress to reimpose the death penalty.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Commission on Human Rights as well as the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines have already taken a firm stance against the death penalty with the CBCP saying that the abolition of the death penalty by the 1986 Constitution was "a very big step towards a practical recognition of the dignity of every human being created to the image and likeness of God, and the value of human life from its conception to its natural end."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Baguilat added reimposing the death penalty would mean a backward step without moral necessity.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Indeed the Constitution says that there must be a compelling reason to reimpose the death penalty and there is none today," said Baguilat, a member of the legitimate opposition bloc in Congress known as the "Magnificent 7".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Ifugao solon reiterated his stand as the House majority led by House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez remained resolute in its stance to immediately pass a law that will bring back the death penalty, ostensibly as part of the campaign against illegal drugs and criminality. Baguilat had said the plan to railroad the passage of the death penalty was a grave cause for concern considering that it had already been established that having a death penalty would not deter the proliferation of crime. "It is not a deterrent. There is no reliable and credible data to show that it is," said Baguilat. "That is why I am again appealing to my colleagues in Congress to not rush into passing such a bill and instead allow extensive and intelligent discussion."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Cordilleran lawmaker also said the better move is to strengthen the justice system to make sure that justice is served quickly and that the real criminals will go to jail.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"As it is, everybody is saying that the justice system is flawed. That means what we need is more reform to avoid wrongful convictions. Without reforms, what will happen is that the poor will again bear the consequence of the weakness and inconsistency in the application of the criminal justice system. We need to strengthen that first to make a more lasting impact on criminality. I have never believed in legislating this ultimate retribution," Baguilat said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Capital punishment was last suspended in 2006 by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. At that time, Congress was overwhelmingly supportive of the tenet that life has value. President Duterte, however, has consistently said that he wanted it back as part of the package of measures to supposedly stop the proliferation of drugs and criminality.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I have always said that I am supportive of the President's campaign against drugs and criminality. But there is the right way to do it and reimposing the death penalty, which will violate our international commitments, is not the right way," said Baguilat.</div><br />Source: sunstar.com.ph, December 14, 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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