Fort Lauderdale shooter faces death penalty but actual execution is unlikely

<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/AVvXsEiS6F_L9jLkMsXye1SkW2BMJfQHa0dNAvr7VTJxBnCh1zi2Gui2rkWm_vHdlfdBhIf4Wskzo-V07o9DQy6pxoUEikEy13s_CJ9yhtOvmvhJoUDoZhWlZ8MTPIVc_fjcuXlvKVTzjzaWMJ0/s1600/Esteban+Santiago+FLORIDA.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Esteban Santiago" border="0" height="273" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS6F_L9jLkMsXye1SkW2BMJfQHa0dNAvr7VTJxBnCh1zi2Gui2rkWm_vHdlfdBhIf4Wskzo-V07o9DQy6pxoUEikEy13s_CJ9yhtOvmvhJoUDoZhWlZ8MTPIVc_fjcuXlvKVTzjzaWMJ0/s400/Esteban+Santiago+FLORIDA.jpg" title="Esteban Santiago" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Esteban Santiago</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">Federal death penalty cases are exceedingly rare, but prosecutors are already exploring the possibility of seeking execution for a military veteran who flew from Alaska to Fort Lauderdale to gun down nearly a dozen airport travelers.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">For federal prosecutors, the contemplated capital case against 26-year-old Esteban Santiago won’t be so much a whodunit — after all, he surrendered immediately after the deadly attack at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Rather, they will have to prove the former Army reservist premeditated the violent assault — and disprove the defendant’s likely insanity defense that he didn’t know right from wrong when he opened fire in a baggage claim area last Friday.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The decision to pursue the death penalty against Santiago, accused of killing five people and injuring six others, carries such gravity that it must be made by the U.S. Attorney General, with significant input from the U.S. Attorney’s Office as well as the defendant’s lawyers in South Florida.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Prosecutors will be weighing the pros and cons, deciding whether to put a federal grand jury on notice of their plans to pursue the death penalty when it considers an indictment before Santiago’s arraignment on Jan. 23.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“There just aren’t that many murder cases that lend themselves to the federal system and so almost all of them go to the state,” said Miami defense lawyer Allan Kaiser, who worked as a federal prosecutor in South Florida for 16 years. “And as rare as these cases are, you can’t just jump at the prospect of seeking a death penalty.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: justify;">Federal executions rare</h3><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Even if Santiago were convicted and sentenced to die, an execution could be unlikely.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The U.S. government, using lethal injection, has only executed three inmates since the federal death penalty was brought back in 1988.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The last execution came in 2003, when Gulf War veteran Louis Jones was put to death for raping and murdering a teenage Army recruit in Texas. The feds earlier executed Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, and Juan Raul Garza, a drug trafficker who murdered three rivals in Texas.</div><br /><b><a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article126066479.html" target="_blank">Click here to read the full article</a></b><br /><br />Source: Miami Herald, David Ovalle, Jay Weaver, January 12, 2017<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">⚑ | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; 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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Fort Lauderdale shooter faces death penalty but actual execution is unlikely

Esteban Santiago Federal death penalty cases are exceedingly rare, but prosecutors are already exploring the possibility of seeking executio...

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Court stays execution of mentally ill ex-policeman in Pakistan

<div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy4msNTBH5ch86442X1hdULbc8riaS_Wvputth-3rruWx3FCMQQ9-es0sF6Q2bK6pqrIfrrZh3M9t7c3jzJLNIsQOZCMQ7YbMrWfIQDjyY0-aFd7tbOl1OOtPrN2-QxfpDpr9N9YB_Wv8/s1600/Death+Penalty+News.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy4msNTBH5ch86442X1hdULbc8riaS_Wvputth-3rruWx3FCMQQ9-es0sF6Q2bK6pqrIfrrZh3M9t7c3jzJLNIsQOZCMQ7YbMrWfIQDjyY0-aFd7tbOl1OOtPrN2-QxfpDpr9N9YB_Wv8/s400/Death+Penalty+News.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><b>A Pakistani court has stayed the execution of a severely mentally ill man, who had been due to be hanged next week.</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">At a hearing in Lahore today, the court granted a stay of execution for Khizar Hayat – a former policeman who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia – until January 30th. Mr Hayat’s lawyers at the Justice Project Pakistan (JPP) had argued that his hanging would be illegal.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mr Hayat’s execution had been set for Tuesday (17th), even though proceedings in his case are still pending before the Lahore High Court. Presiding today, Justice Shahid Hameed Dar reportedly said it would be “unjust” if the Court did not wait for an upcoming Supreme Court judgment in a similar case – that of mentally ill prisoner Imdad Ali – to determine how to proceed with Mr Hayat.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mr Hayat is detained in isolation in a prison hospital ward. In 2015, the courts halted an initial government plan to execute him after seeing jail records documenting his severe mental illness. The documents include comments from doctors that Mr Hayat “is suffering from active symptoms of severe psychosis”.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The execution of mentally ill people is prohibited under Pakistani and international law. Pakistan has faced criticism from the UN, and from countries including the UK, over its plans to hang mentally ill prisoners such as Mr Ali and Mr Hayat.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Concerns have also been raised over wrongful executions in Pakistan, after two brothers who had already been hanged were found to be innocent by the Supreme Court. As in Mr Hayat’s case, a warrant was issued for their execution by the lower courts, despite the pending proceedings in a higher court.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Pakistan’s 8,000-strong death row is the largest in the world, and the government has hanged over 421 prisoners since resuming executions in December 2014.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Commenting, Maya Foa, a director of Reprieve – which is assisting Mr Hayat – said:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“The court's decision to stay the execution of Khizar Hayat is extremely welcome. However, Khizar’s case – like that of Imdad Ali – is yet another example of how Pakistan’s death penalty system is broken. Since the authorities’ execution spree began two years ago, there have been disastrous miscarriages of justice – including the hanging of juveniles and innocent people. The Pakistani government has issued execution warrants for Khizar three times despite ongoing legal proceedings, in clear breach of international law. The authorities should establish a moratorium on executions, and stop any further injustices from being carried out their name.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">➤ More information about Khizar Hayat’s case is available on the Reprieve website, <a href="http://reprieve.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=d176b31fc0ccbde9f3f3a6349&id=f3ea5fed39&e=37be39f8bd" target="_blank">here</a>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: Reprieve, January 12, 2017. Reprieve is an international human rights organization. </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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Court stays execution of mentally ill ex-policeman in Pakistan

A Pakistani court has stayed the execution of a severely mentally ill man, who had been due to be hanged next week. At a hearing in Lahore t...

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Mentally ill ex-policeman must be spared hanging in Pakistan, say lawyers

<div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPApCLcQvYGhiACjeJGBz3gK4kkn3paaO6LMoEWSMemx0AZUB410UnnSC_-AQy2PVgbV-vU_eYAmmTuOrIaVpjs3UuON_FFX3BNKDjEtdCCgOXf8My4z0ZJ6FErPfGuPwUVZhJyjRybdE/s1600/Death+Penalty+News.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPApCLcQvYGhiACjeJGBz3gK4kkn3paaO6LMoEWSMemx0AZUB410UnnSC_-AQy2PVgbV-vU_eYAmmTuOrIaVpjs3UuON_FFX3BNKDjEtdCCgOXf8My4z0ZJ6FErPfGuPwUVZhJyjRybdE/s400/Death+Penalty+News.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>A Pakistani court will tomorrow (12th) decide whether to halt the execution of a severely mentally ill man.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">At a hearing in Lahore, lawyers for Khizar Hayat – a former policeman who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, and is detained in isolation in a prison hospital ward – will argue that his hanging would be illegal.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mr Hayat’s execution is set for 17th January, even though proceedings in his case are still pending before the Lahore High Court.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 2015, the courts halted an initial government plan to execute Mr Hayat after seeing jail records documenting his severe mental illness.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The documents include comments from doctors that Mr Hayat “is suffering from active symptoms of severe psychosis”.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The execution of mentally ill people is prohibited under Pakistani and international law.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Four UN Special Rapporteurs have recently criticised Pakistan’s plans to hang another severely mentally ill man, Imdad Ali, after the Supreme Court controversially claimed that schizophrenia was ‘not a mental illness’.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Concerns have also been raised over wrongful executions in Pakistan, after two brothers, Ghulam Sarwar and Ghulam Qadir, who had already been hanged were found to be innocent by the Supreme Court. As in Mr Hayat’s case, a warrant was issued for their execution by the lower courts, despite the pending proceedings in a higher.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Pakistan’s 8,000-strong death row is the largest in the world, and the government has hanged over 421 prisoners since resuming executions in December 2014.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Commenting, Maya Foa, a director of Reprieve, said:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">“Like Imdad Ali, Khizar Hayat suffers from severe mental illness. It is outrageous that the authorities are trying to rush through his hanging while Imdad’s case is still pending a decision from the Supreme Court and while Khizar’s case is still under consideration by the High Court itself. The issuance of a warrant while proceedings were still pending in another case has already lead to two innocent men going to the gallows. Now Pakistan risks carrying out another wrongful execution of a severely mentally ill prisoner. The court tomorrow must stay Khizar’s execution. Pakistan’s death penalty system is broken, and the government should halt executions or risk grave and irreparable injustices being carried out in its name.”</blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>Source: Reprieve, January 11, 2017. Reprieve is an international human rights organization.<br /><br /><br /><h2>Man hanged over judge's murder in Adiyala Jail</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">A death row prisoner was executed in Adiyala Jail on Tuesday morning over murdering 2 people, which included a judge, ARY News reported.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">According to details, the murderer Naveed Hussain executed in the wee hours of Tuesday morning. After execution, the body was handed over to the relatives.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Jail sources said that Hussain had murdered a anti-terrorism court judge Jamshed Khan in 2006. He had escaped from Skardu Jail in 2013 and killed another person during that period.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Pakistan lifted a moratorium on the death penalty - on 17th December 2014 - a day after Taliban gunmen attacked Army Public School Peshawar, killing 132 students and 9 teachers.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The bloodshed had shocked the nation and put pressure on the government to do more to tackle the Taliban insurgency.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A moratorium on the death penalty was imposed in 2008 after the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) government took reins of power in the country and only 1 execution took place during its 5-year tenure.</div><br />Source: arynews.tv, January 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>

Mentally ill ex-policeman must be spared hanging in Pakistan, say lawyers

A Pakistani court will tomorrow (12th) decide whether to halt the execution of a severely mentally ill man. At a hearing in Lahore, lawyers ...

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What's next for Dylann Roof?

<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/AVvXsEjA17MM5WZ0DDLfvyk-4KHxVH7atKNdN_eWf_l9gDIcK9fpE7B2rI3rNHQrykU_b3IDRgPFdUNxNirprXqtOP8anBmvKm-ocTsAEr-k-ClKp6vZQogJTVdAv1FQUDNKZjKKoxPWqCBbHdw/s1600/Dylann+Roof+SC.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Dylann Roof" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA17MM5WZ0DDLfvyk-4KHxVH7atKNdN_eWf_l9gDIcK9fpE7B2rI3rNHQrykU_b3IDRgPFdUNxNirprXqtOP8anBmvKm-ocTsAEr-k-ClKp6vZQogJTVdAv1FQUDNKZjKKoxPWqCBbHdw/s400/Dylann+Roof+SC.jpg" title="Dylann Roof" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dylann Roof</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">Charleston, South Carolina (CNN) -- Dylann Roof will be formally sentenced Wednesday <a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.fr/2017/01/dylann-roof-is-sentenced-to-death-in.html" target="_blank">after jurors recommended the death penalty</a> for killing nine people in a 2015 massacre at a historically black church in Charleston.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Roof will become the first federal hate crime defendant to be sentenced to death, a Justice Department spokesman said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">US District Judge Richard M. Gergel, who has presided over the trial, will hold the formal sentencing Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. ET.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Roof, who <a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.fr/2016/11/charleston-shooting-dylann-roof-to.html" target="_blank">had chosen to represent himself during the penalty phase</a>, has told the judge he wants to file a motion for new lawyers. Gergel said Roof can argue that on Wednesday but the judge is not inclined to let that happen.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The avowed white supremacist was <a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.fr/2016/12/dylann-roof-found-guilty-in-charleston.html" target="_blank">convicted last month of federal murder and hate crimes charges</a>. During the penalty phase, he cast his defense attorneys aside, telling jurors that he chose to represent himself to "prevent my lawyers from misrepresentation."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On Tuesday, he expressed <a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.fr/2017/01/dylann-roof-calls-no-witness-offers-no.html" target="_blank">no remorse during his closing argument</a>. Roof reiterated that he had no choice but to kill nine people at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in June 2015.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I felt like I had to do it, and I still do feel like I had to do it," he said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">His statement followed the prosecutor's impassioned, two-hour argument. Assistant US Attorney Jay Richardson reminded jurors that Roof sat with the church members for 40 minutes before opening fire. He pulled the trigger "more than 75 times ... reloading seven times" as he stood over his victims, shooting them repeatedly, Richardson said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Jurors had the option to recommend life in prison without the possibility of parole, but the 10 women and two men delivered a unanimous vote for the death penalty.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Yet, the jury's recommendation and the sentencing phase may not mean the end for the case.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: justify;">Case could go on for 'very long time'</h3><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Death penalty cases are notorious for their complexity, often spending years in appeals and processes.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A group of defense attorneys and others who worked on Roof's behalf issued a statement, saying the death penalty decision means the case will not be over for a "very long time."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A former prosecutor in South Carolina, Holman Gossett said it's possible for Roof could ask for a new trial.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"He didn't have any attorneys helping him in the penalty phase so he may make that motion after reflecting on it," Gossett told CNN affiliate WSPA. "Then it would go through the process of automatic hearings with appellate courts to see if there's any reason under the law that it should not stand legal grounds."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: justify;">Federal executions rare</h3><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Since the federal death penalty was reinstated in 1988 after a 16-year moratorium, three federal inmates have been executed in the United States. There are 63 federal prisoners awaiting execution.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">And Roof's court appearances may be far from over.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He is also set to be tried on state murder charges, and prosecutors have said they'll also seek the death penalty in that case.</div><br />Source: <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2017/01/11/us/dylann-roof-sentencing/" target="_blank">CNN</a>, January 11, 2017<br /><br /><br /><h2>Charleston bishop opposes death sentence for man convicted of killing churchgoers</h2><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4NZCSq4lXb_NYaBYjvpVhEha5CToypPJ1XbaLTbpmjEIUxuf5xKX3CXYWQAak5f82IkJdeSRwCoWJtQGM49QXbEtdx29NIOwQ4E3aOkQsH1FLyydBCKt02VQkmkHzMC-QIJjtgfEhNwE/s1600/Police+tape+surrounds+the+parking+lot+behind+the+AME+Emanuel+Church.+Dylann+Roof+SOUTH+CAROLINA.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4NZCSq4lXb_NYaBYjvpVhEha5CToypPJ1XbaLTbpmjEIUxuf5xKX3CXYWQAak5f82IkJdeSRwCoWJtQGM49QXbEtdx29NIOwQ4E3aOkQsH1FLyydBCKt02VQkmkHzMC-QIJjtgfEhNwE/s400/Police+tape+surrounds+the+parking+lot+behind+the+AME+Emanuel+Church.+Dylann+Roof+SOUTH+CAROLINA.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Jurors unanimously agreed to sentence Dylann Roof to death for killing 9 black churchgoers.</i></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Bishop Robert E. Guglielmone said in a statement that the Catholic Church opposes capital punishment and reminded people that all life is sacred. "We are all sinners, but through the father's loving mercy and Jesus' redeeming sacrifice upon the cross, we have been offered the gift of eternal life. The Catholic opposition to the death penalty, therefore, is rooted in God's mercy. The church believes the right to life is paramount to every other right as it affords the opportunity for conversion, even of the hardened sinner," Bishop Guglielmone said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Sentencing Dylann Roof to death conflicts with the church's teaching that all human life is sacred, even for those who have committed the most heinous of crimes. Instead of pursuing death, we should be extending compassion and forgiveness to Mr. Roof, just as some of the victims' families did at his bond hearing in June 2015," the bishop added.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The jury had to reach a unanimous decision to sentence Roof to death. Had they disagreed, he would have been automatically sentenced to life in prison. He was convicted of 33 federal charges last month, including hate crimes. Roof acted as his own attorney and did not question any witnesses. In his FBI confession, he said he hoped the massacre would bring back segregation or start a race war, the Associated Press reported.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Bishop Guglielmone offered prayers of support for those who were killed and their families.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Our Catholic faith sustains our solidarity with and support for the victims of the Emanuel AME Church massacre and their relatives. We commit ourselves to walk with these family members as well as the survivors as they continue to heal from the trial and this tragedy," he said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The bishop asked people to continue to pray for the victims, survivors and families connected with the shooting. He also encouraged people to pray for Roof and his family.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"May he acknowledge his sins, convert to the Lord and experience his loving mercy," Bishop Guglielmone said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Rev. Clementa Pinckney, pastor of Emanuel AME Church, Tywanza Sanders, the Rev. Sharonda Singleton, the Rev. DePayne Middleton-Doctor, the Rev. Daniel Simmons Sr., the Rev. Cynthia Hurd, Myra Thompson, Ethel Lance, and Susie Jackson were killed in the shooting.</div><br />Source: catholicregister.org, January 11, 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? 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What's next for Dylann Roof?

Dylann Roof Charleston, South Carolina (CNN) -- Dylann Roof will be formally sentenced Wednesday after jurors recommended the death penalty ...

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Dylann Roof Is Sentenced to Death in Charleston Church Massacre

<div style="text-align: justify;"><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/AVvXsEgh3psWBGxf_X3jCVwYgHygOppsW40fkXziegQ3NdryI-vZNTlsWaX1y79Nc_CBuKGABtVuz367DjTLAZqSqVcQORAkcPulfaw89a9i7ijdu6ZnZDT-4T6BN1gFyQ-2qmwIDOlm1BLxSpw/s1600/Dylann+Roof+SC.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Dylann Roof" border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh3psWBGxf_X3jCVwYgHygOppsW40fkXziegQ3NdryI-vZNTlsWaX1y79Nc_CBuKGABtVuz367DjTLAZqSqVcQORAkcPulfaw89a9i7ijdu6ZnZDT-4T6BN1gFyQ-2qmwIDOlm1BLxSpw/s400/Dylann+Roof+SC.jpg" title="Dylann Roof" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dylann Roof</td></tr></tbody></table>CHARLESTON, S.C. — Dylann S. Roof, the impenitent and inscrutable white supremacist who killed nine African-American churchgoers in a brazenly racial assault almost 19 months ago, shocking the world over the persistence of extremist hatred in dark corners of the American South, was condemned to death by a federal jury on Tuesday.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The jury of nine whites and three blacks, who last month <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/15/us/dylann-roof-trial.html" target="_blank">found Mr. Roof</a> guilty of 33 counts for the attack at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Charleston, S.C., returned their unanimous verdict after about three hours of deliberations in the penalty phase of a heart-rending and often legally confounding trial.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The guilt of Mr. Roof, who <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/09/us/dylann-roof-shooting-charleston-south-carolina-church-video.html" target="_blank">coolly confessed</a> to the killings and then <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/05/us/no-regrets-from-dylann-roof-in-jailhouse-manifesto.html" target="_blank">justified them without remorse</a> in a jailhouse manifesto, was never in serious doubt during the first phase of the proceedings in Federal District Court in December. By the time the jurors began their deliberations on his sentence, it seemed inevitable that they would lean toward death, not only because of the heinous nature of the crimes but because Mr. Roof, 22, insisted on denying any psychological incapacity, called no witnesses, presented no evidence in his defense and mostly sidelined his court-appointed lawyers.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mr. Roof, who showed no emotion as the verdict was read, will be formally sentenced on Wednesday. The decision effectively capped Mr. Roof’s first trial for the killings on June 17, 2015, the Wednesday when, after six scouting visits to Charleston, he showed up in Emanuel’s fellowship hall and was offered a seat for Bible study by <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/26/us/clementa-pinckney-felt-called-to-spiritual-and-political-service.html" target="_blank">the Rev. Clementa C. Pinckney</a>. Mr. Roof sat quietly, his head hung low, for about 45 minutes while the group considered the meaning of the Gospel of Mark’s account of the Parable of the Sower.</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Then, with the parishioners’ eyes clenched for a benediction, Mr. Roof brandished the .45 caliber semiautomatic handgun he had smuggled into the church in a waist pouch. First taking aim at Mr. Pinckney, who was a state senator and the youngest African-American ever elected to South Carolina’s Legislature, he began to fire seven magazines of hollow-point rounds.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The reverberation of gunfire and clinking of skittering shell casings subsided only after more than 70 shots. Each victim was hit repeatedly, with the eldest, Susie Jackson, an 87-year-old grandmother and church matriarch, struck at least 10 times.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">During the brief siege, the youngest victim, Tywanza Sanders, 26, pleaded with Mr. Roof not to kill. “You blacks are killing white people on the streets everyday and raping white women everyday,” Mr. Roof said during the rampage, according to a jailhouse manifesto he wrote after his arrest.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Before leaving shortly after 9 p.m., Mr. Roof <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/14/us/dylann-roof-trial-charleston.html" target="_blank">told one of three survivors</a>, Polly Sheppard, that he was sparing her so she could “tell the story.” He stepped over one minister’s bleeding body on his way out the side door, Glock pistol at his side. The killer expected to find officers waiting for him, and had saved ammunition to take his own life, Mr. Roof said in his confession to two F.B.I. agents.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But the police, alerted by 911 calls from Ms. Sheppard and Mr. Pinckney’s wife, Jennifer, who was hiding with their 6-year-old daughter under a desk in the pastor’s study, had not yet arrived. Mr. Roof got into his black Hyundai Elantra and drove north through the night on country roads.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Officers in Shelby, N.C., detained Mr. Roof the next morning after a florist on her way to work spotted his car, which had been depicted in nationally broadcast alerts based on images from the church’s security cameras. Mr. Roof offered no resistance, admitted that he had been involved in the shootings and directed the officers to the murder weapon under a pillow on the back seat.</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">In addition to Ms. Jackson, Mr. Pinckney and Mr. Sanders, six other people were killed: Cynthia Hurd, Ethel Lee Lance, the Rev. DePayne Middleton Doctor, the Rev. Daniel L. Simmons Sr., the Rev. Sharonda Coleman-Singleton and Myra Thompson.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">They were familiar, frequent presences at the church known as Mother Emanuel, the oldest A.M.E. congregation in the Deep South and one with <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/19/us/charleston-killings-evoke-history-of-violence-against-black-churches.html" target="_blank">a storied history</a> of resistance to slavery and civil rights advocacy over nearly 200 years. In 10 days of testimony, their names and photographs appeared again and again. Family members filled the reserved seats on the right side of the courtroom each day, and 23 relatives and friends delivered emotional testimonials to their character and the impact of their loss.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ms. Hurd, a librarian, had adopted a simple motto for her life: “Be kinder than necessary.” Ms. Lance was a perfume aficionado with a gentle smile that unified her family. Ms. Middleton Doctor’s first sermon had been titled “The Virtuous Woman.” Mr. Simmons, a veteran of the Vietnam War, had been among the first blacks in South Carolina hired to drive a Greyhound bus. Ms. Coleman-Singleton was a beaming mother whose ebullient preaching made her a popular figure in Charleston’s churches. Ms. Thompson was a workhorse of Emanuel who had chaired its trustee board. Mr. Sanders, whose parents found hundreds of poems in his bedroom, aspired to become an entertainment lawyer.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“That night, they were getting basic instructions before leaving earth,” Felicia Sanders, Mr. Sanders’s mother and a survivor of the attack, testified.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The jury found Mr. Roof guilty in December of hate crimes resulting in death, obstruction of religion and use of a firearm to commit murder during a crime of violence. Eighteen of the 33 counts carried a potential death sentence.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Although Mr. Roof declined to testify or present any evidence, his trial was unusual for the jury’s ability to hear from an accused mass murderer in his own unapologetic words. They watched video of his two-hour confession to the F.B.I., and heard readings of his online manifesto, a journal found in his car, suicide letters to his parents, and a jailhouse essay written within seven weeks after his arrest.</div><br />The trial became a duel of competing narratives on the slightly-built, ninth-grade dropout from the Columbia area. In the prosecution’s depiction, Mr. Roof was the personification of evil, a racist ideologue, radicalized on the internet, who plotted an intensely premeditated assault over more than six months, waiting only until he was 21 and old enough to buy a weapon.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">He downloaded a history of the Ku Klux Klan 10 months before the attack, used the online handle LilAryan to communicate with like-minded white nationalists, created the website <a href="http://www.lastrhodesian.com/" target="_blank">www.lastrhodesian.com</a> to post a deliberative screed against blacks, Hispanics and Jews, and audaciously adorned his canvas prison shoes with supremacist symbols, even wearing them to court. He proudly embraced his mission to incite a race war, and admired himself in his writings for having the courage to carry out actions that less-committed racists only prophesied.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Sometimes sitting in my cell,” Mr. Roof wrote while in jail, “I think about how nice it would be to watch a movie or eat some good food or drive my car somewhere, but then I remember how I felt when I did these things, and how I knew I had to do something. And then I realize it was worth it.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But in the portrayal suggested by defense lawyers, Mr. Roof was a deeply disturbed delusionist who most demonstrated his incapacity by denying it. Indeed, Mr. Roof <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/01/us/dylann-roof-execution-defense-charleston-church-shooting.html" target="_blank">insisted on representing himself</a> during the sentencing phase for the purpose of preventing his experienced capital defender, David I. Bruck, from introducing potentially mitigating evidence about his family, educational background or mental health. Mr. Roof sat impassively at the defense table, almost every minute of every day, showing no interest or expression even when his own words were read aloud.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The results of at least two psychiatric evaluations have been <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/02/us/dylann-roof-charleston-church-killer-is-deemed-competent-for-sentencing.html" target="_blank">kept under seal</a> by Judge Richard M. Gergel, who ruled Mr. Roof competent to stand trial and to represent himself. Jurors heard little of Mr. Roof’s family, which arrived in Lexington County from Germany in the first half of the 18th century and included Lutheran ministers, Confederate soldiers, slaveholders and two county sheriffs, according to a family genealogy.</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">His paternal grandfather is a well-regarded lawyer and his father a construction contractor. Mr. Roof was born in 1994 to parents who had already divorced but had briefly reconciled. Mr. Roof began his online treatise by absolving them of any responsibility for his beliefs: “I was not raised in a racist home or environment.” Experts on white supremacists said Mr. Roof was younger than most who resort to violence, and stands apart for his lack of contact with organized groups.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Carol S. Steiker, a Harvard law professor who has written extensively about the death penalty, said that the two narratives about Mr. Roof were not necessarily inconsistent, and that a concealed psychological defect could have left Mr. Roof susceptible to a disconnected worldview. “It’s pretty hard to tell the difference between bad and mad, between evil and crazy,” she said, “and that’s why we need the investigation needed to present a mitigating case.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mr. Roof’s rampage staggered this area, which was already reeling from the April 2015 <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/08/us/south-carolina-officer-is-charged-with-murder-in-black-mans-death.html" target="_blank">shooting death</a> of an unarmed black man, Walter L. Scott, by Michael T. Slager, a white police officer in North Charleston.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But two days after the church shootings, with Mr. Roof standing expressionless in the Charleston County jail, five relatives of the victims publicly <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/20/us/charleston-shooting-dylann-storm-roof.html" target="_blank">offered him forgiveness</a> during an extraordinary bond hearing. The following week, President Obama argued in <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/27/us/thousands-gather-for-funeral-of-clementa-pinckney-in-charleston.html" target="_blank">a soaring eulogy for Mr. Pinckney</a>, which culminated in an a cappella rendition of “Amazing Grace,” that the attack’s lessons offered a way forward for race relations.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Later, South Carolina lawmakers <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/11/us/south-carolina-confederate-flag.html">voted to remove</a> the Confederate battle flag from the grounds of the Statehouse in Columbia, where it had flown for more than a half-century and enjoyed decades of political protection.</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The Justice Department <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/25/us/dylann-roof-will-face-federal-death-penalty-in-charleston-church-killings.html" target="_blank">announced last May</a> that its prosecutors would seek the death penalty for Mr. Roof, in part because of what officials described as his “substantial planning and premeditation” and his “hatred and contempt” toward black people. Although federal capital prosecutions are complex and expensive, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/26/us/death-penalty-dylann-roof-charleston.html" target="_blank">the government rejected</a> Mr. Roof’s offer to plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence.</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Federal law classifies the jury’s decision as a binding “recommendation,” and Mr. Roof will be sentenced formally at a later hearing, when survivors of the attack and relatives of the victims may testify without constraints in the trial intended to preserve his due process rights.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Yet the verdict confers no certainty about whether Mr. Roof will ever be put to death at a federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind. His case could spur years of appeals — the courts could well consider his mental competency and even the tearful tenor of the sentencing phase — and the scarcity of lethal injection drugs could hinder his execution.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The federal government has not killed one of its prisoners since 2003. Mr. Roof also faces a separate capital prosecution for murder in South Carolina, where no inmate has been put to death in more than five years. The state trial, initially set for Jan. 17, has been indefinitely postponed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">That it at times seemed more important to Mr. Roof to not be depicted as mentally ill than to avoid execution prompted some in the courtroom to question whether he simply preferred to die than to serve a long life in prison. His writings and confession offered evidence on both sides of that question, wavering between glimmers of hope — even that he might someday be pardoned — and an attraction to the prospects of martyrdom. But his commitment to his cause — the restoration of white power through violent subjugation — never publicly flagged.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“I have shed a tear of self pity for myself,” he wrote in 2015. “I feel pity that I had to do what I did in the first place. I feel pity that I had to give up my life because of a situation that should never have existed.”</div><br />Source: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/10/us/dylann-roof-trial-charleston.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a>, Alan Blinder, Kevin Sack, January 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? 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Dylann Roof Is Sentenced to Death in Charleston Church Massacre

Dylann Roof CHARLESTON, S.C. — Dylann S. Roof, the impenitent and inscrutable white supremacist who killed nine African-American churchgoers...

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Dylann Roof Calls No Witness, Offers No Evidence in Death Penalty Hearings

<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/AVvXsEj9azbJLd60yG4hgq7cswRtx3-HBMxdlX1PR6-Ka83XQT27seFSkJf6xEw6ipIciI6PSoArV5L0Ln5aEEi0W1vUNtKmhDdMkMW7noaAKGM5hrQ-yDnV7VYOMtsBuXQ04WIvzyOAOLfeHtU/s1600/Dylann+Roof+SC.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Dylann Roof" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9azbJLd60yG4hgq7cswRtx3-HBMxdlX1PR6-Ka83XQT27seFSkJf6xEw6ipIciI6PSoArV5L0Ln5aEEi0W1vUNtKmhDdMkMW7noaAKGM5hrQ-yDnV7VYOMtsBuXQ04WIvzyOAOLfeHtU/s400/Dylann+Roof+SC.jpg" title="Dylann Roof" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dylann Roof</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">Federal prosecutors rested their case on Monday that convicted killer and self-proclaimed white supremacist Dylann Roof should be executed for gunning down nine worshipers at a South Carolina church in 2015.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">So did Roof, who is representing himself during the penalty phase of his federal trial.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Over four days of testimony, Roof, 22, didn't make much of an argument that he should be spared. He didn't challenge any of the government's witnesses — some 38 victims of the attack on Emanuel AME Church were expected to testify — nor did he call any of his own witnesses.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Roof did, however, seek to limit how many victims government prosecutors could present. (In a motion, he described their testimony as "excessive".) And in his opening statement last Wednesday — his first public statement since the June 17 attack — he explained the highly unusual choice to act as his own lawyer.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I chose to represent myself to prevent my lawyers from presenting [my] mental health evaluation," Roof said, adding: "There is nothing wrong with me psychologically."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Meanwhile, the government called witness after witness to offer a window into the emotionally raw aftermath of the June 17 attack.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Denise Quarles, for instance, described in blunt terms how it felt to hear that her mother, Myra Thompson, had been killed at a place that her family had considered a sanctuary.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On Monday, Roof filed a motion that seeks to prevent government lawyers from using "unfair and constitutional" words and references in its closing argument on Tuesday. Among them are "evil," "hate" and a reference to Hitler from his personal writings.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Roof is also expected to deliver a closing argument, though it is unclear what he will say.</div><br />Source: <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/charleston-church-shooting/dylann-roof-calls-no-witness-offers-no-evidence-death-penalty-n704961" target="_blank">NBC News</a>, January 9, 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? 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Dylann Roof Calls No Witness, Offers No Evidence in Death Penalty Hearings

Dylann Roof Federal prosecutors rested their case on Monday that convicted killer and self-proclaimed white supremacist Dylann Roof should b...

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Florida airport shooting suspect will face charges that could bring the death penalty

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIBbSnJE-yVBbX_IvAuBwVFfxjNZnhmPjOQjOq0ainJiAP8tZPNOz32mW-fSag5y08BeEK-20nAmZZ6-twEvXT8gLtk4svT_HonXBDLpgXtuOI-Q_fScfbbXqvIdRsXzf6pp6v6i6zVBA/s1600/Esteban+Ruiz+Santiago+FA_USA.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Esteban Ruiz Santiago" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIBbSnJE-yVBbX_IvAuBwVFfxjNZnhmPjOQjOq0ainJiAP8tZPNOz32mW-fSag5y08BeEK-20nAmZZ6-twEvXT8gLtk4svT_HonXBDLpgXtuOI-Q_fScfbbXqvIdRsXzf6pp6v6i6zVBA/s320/Esteban+Ruiz+Santiago+FA_USA.jpg" title="Esteban Ruiz Santiago" width="265" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Esteban Ruiz Santiago</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">Investigators say Florida airport shooting suspect Esteban Santiago told them he planned the carnage and purchased a one-way ticket to Fort Lauderdale to carry it out.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But it is still unclear why South Florida was targeted.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Federal prosecutors filed court documents Saturday detailing airport violence, gun and murder allegations against Santiago. If convicted, he could face the death penalty or life in federal prison, they said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Santiago fired approximately 10 to 15 rounds of ammunition from his firearm, aiming at his victims' heads. He was described as walking while shooting in a methodical manner," FBI Agent Michael Ferlazzo wrote in court records.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Five people died and six more suffered gunshot injuries.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"At one point, he exited the Terminal 2 baggage area [and went] onto the sidewalk and then re-entered, still carrying the handgun," agents wrote.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Moments later, a Broward County sheriff's deputy approached Santiago, who "dropped the handgun on the ground, in lock-back [mode], meaning that all the ammunition had been fired, and [he] dropped to the floor," investigators wrote.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">They say Santiago told them he checked baggage that contained a Walther 9mm semiautomatic handgun and two magazines of ammunition. After claiming his baggage, he said he took it into a stall in the men's restroom, removed the gun, loaded it and put it in his waistband, authorities said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"He then left the men's restroom and shot the first people he encountered," agents wrote. "Santiago emptied his first magazine, then reloaded and shot until the second magazine, too, was out of bullets. He believes he shot approximately 15 rounds before his arrest."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The shootings were apparently recorded by security video, which agents said corroborated Santiago's confession and witnesses' statements.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Santiago, 26, of Anchorage, is due to make his first appearance at 11 a.m. Monday in federal court in Fort Lauderdale.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He traveled nearly 5,000 miles from Alaska to Fort Lauderdale. But after interviewing Santiago for hours, investigators said they had no clear answer to the question: Why did he come to Fort Lauderdale?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The early indication is that there was no specific reason why he chose Fort Lauderdale International Airport," said George L. Piro, the special agent in charge of the FBI in South Florida.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Indications are he came here to carry out this horrific attack. We have not identified any triggers that would have caused this attack, but again it's very early in the investigation," Piro said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It could be several days, or weeks, before formal charges are filed. Prosecutors will most likely seek an indictment by presenting their evidence to a federal grand jury in Fort Lauderdale.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">At the initial hearing Monday in federal court, U.S. Magistrate Judge Alicia Valle will explain the allegations to Santiago. She will probably also appoint the Federal Public Defender's Office to represent Santiago, if he does not hire a private attorney.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Though state prosecutors in Florida frequently seek the death penalty, it is uncommon for federal prosecutors to pursue it.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Federal judges and jurors in Florida have only sentenced two men to federal death row since Congress reinstated the death penalty in 1988.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">State prosecutors in Broward County could seek to file murder charges against Santiago separately because the shooting deaths occurred there.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Broward State Attorney's Office is cooperating with federal prosecutors, and no decision on that has yet been made, a spokesman said Saturday.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Federal authorities say they are still investigating the motive for the attack and have not yet ruled out terrorism. They say Santiago was acting alone.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">An Iraqi war veteran, Santiago sought out the FBI in Anchorage in November and was hospitalized for mental health treatment after what agents said was “erratic behavior," authorities said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Anchorage police and the FBI confirmed Saturday that Santiago went to the FBI office in Anchorage seeking help Nov. 7. He was hospitalized for a mental health evaluation and a firearm he had left in his vehicle outside the office was temporarily taken from him.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The gun, which investigators said may or may not be the one used in the mass shooting at the airport in Fort Lauderdale, was returned to him by law enforcement on Dec. 8.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Despite reportedly being disturbed and delusional and having had incidents of reported domestic violence, Santiago was not on the government list of people prohibited from flying that was set up after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"During our initial investigation we found no ties to terrorism," said Marlin Ritzman, the agent in charge of the FBI's office in Anchorage. "He broke no laws when he came into our office making comments about mind control."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The FBI contacted the Anchorage Police Department, which transported Santiago to a mental health facility. The department took his weapon and "logged it into evidence for safekeeping," Police Chief Christopher Tolley said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Mr. Santiago had arrived at the FBI building asking for help," Tolley said. "Santiago was having terroristic thoughts and believed he was being influenced by ISIS,” an acronym for the Islamic State extremist group in the Middle East.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The FBI closed its assessment of Santiago after conducting database reviews and interagency checks.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"He was a walk-in complaint," Ritzman said. "This is something that happens at FBI offices around the country every day."　</div><br /><b><a href="http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-florida-airport-shooting-20170107-story.html" target="_blank">Click here to read the full article</a></b><br /><br />Source: Los Angeles Times, Paula McMahon, Megan O'Matz, Deborah Ramirez, January 8, 2017<br /><br /><br /><h2>Florida airport gunman charged, US seeks death penalty</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAst1MqCI2r6TLhRuerCF8PoT90t8hM3U5_DGXXYCFD3O3UXQ2_NvvZBuQTWJy3YH4XLI9G1J4OPztUpbhb-GcWmB3NxVyi4qJ7yvX2ot8qz_XrWA60IuqPgoGfg5CdubQk3MV5mQSdkE/s1600/another+day.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAst1MqCI2r6TLhRuerCF8PoT90t8hM3U5_DGXXYCFD3O3UXQ2_NvvZBuQTWJy3YH4XLI9G1J4OPztUpbhb-GcWmB3NxVyi4qJ7yvX2ot8qz_XrWA60IuqPgoGfg5CdubQk3MV5mQSdkE/s400/another+day.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>The Iraq war veteran accused of killing five travelers and wounding six others at a busy international airport in Florida was charged Saturday and could face the death penalty if convicted.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Esteban Santiago, 26, told investigators that he planned the attack, buying a one-way ticket to the Fort Lauderdale airport, a federal complaint said. Authorities don't know why he chose his target and have not ruled out terrorism.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Santiago was charged with an act of violence at an international airport resulting in death — which carries a maximum punishment of execution — and weapons charges.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Today's charges represent the gravity of the situation and reflect the commitment of federal, state and local law enforcement personnel to continually protect the community and prosecute those who target our residents and visitors," US Attorney Wifredo Ferrer said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Authorities said during a news conference that they had interviewed roughly 175 people, including a lengthy interrogation with the cooperative suspect, a former National Guard soldier from Alaska. Flights had resumed at the Fort Lauderdale airport after the bloodshed, though the terminal where the shooting happened remained closed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Santiago spoke to investigators for several hours after he opened fire with a Walther 9mm semi-automatic handgun that he appears to have legally checked on a flight from Alaska. He had two magazines with him and emptied both of them, firing about 15 rounds, before he was arrested, the complaint said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"We have not identified any triggers that would have caused this attack. We're pursuing all angles on what prompted him to carry out this horrific attack," FBI Agent George Piro said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Investigators are combing through social media and other information to determine Santiago's motive, and it's too early to say whether terrorism played a role, Piro said. In November, Santiago had walked into an FBI field office in Alaska saying the US government was controlling his mind and forcing him to watch Islamic State group videos, authorities said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"He was a walk-in complaint. This is something that happens at FBI offices around the country every day," FBI agent Marlin Ritzman said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On that day, Santiago had a loaded magazine on him, but had left a gun in his vehicle, along with his newborn child, authorities said. Officers seized the weapon and local officers took him to get a mental health evaluation. His girlfriend picked up the child.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On Dec. 8, the gun was returned to Santiago. Authorities wouldn't say if it was the same gun used in the airport attack.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Santiago had not been placed on the US no-fly list and appears to have acted alone, authorities said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The attack sent panicked witnesses running out of the terminal and spilling onto the tarmac, baggage in hand. Others hid in bathroom stalls or crouched behind cars or anything else they could find as police and paramedics rushed in to help the wounded and establish whether there were any other gunmen.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Over the course of about 45 seconds, the shooter reloaded twice, he said. When he was out of bullets, he walked away, dropped the gun and lay face down, spread eagle on the floor, Lea said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">By that time, a deputy had arrived and grabbed the shooter. Lea put his foot on the gun to secure it.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Santiago had been discharged from the National Guard last year after being demoted for unsatisfactory performance. Bryan Santiago said Saturday that his brother had requested psychological help but received little assistance. Esteban Santiago said in August that he was hearing voices.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"How is it possible that the federal government knows, they hospitalize him for only four days, and then give him his weapon back?" Bryan Santiago said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">His mother declined to comment as she stood inside the screen door of the family home in Puerto Rico, wiping tears from her eyes. The only thing she said was that Esteban Santiago had been tremendously affected by seeing a bomb explode next to two of his friends when he was around 18 years old while serving in Iraq.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Santiago will make his first court appearance Monday.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It is legal for airline passengers to travel with guns and ammunition as long as the firearms are put in a checked bag — not a carry-on — and are unloaded and locked in a hard-sided container. Guns must be declared to the airline at check-in.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Despite his mental evaluation, US Attorney Karen Loeffler said Santiago would have been able to legally possess a gun because he had not been judged mentally ill, which is a high standard.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Santiago arrived in Fort Lauderdale after taking off from Anchorage aboard a Delta flight Thursday night, checking only one piece of luggage — his gun.</div><br />Source: The Associated Press, January 8, 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? 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Florida airport shooting suspect will face charges that could bring the death penalty

Esteban Ruiz Santiago Investigators say Florida airport shooting suspect Esteban Santiago told them he planned the carnage and purchased a o...

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Pakistan: The love of hanging

<div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbc_zsbdDalAnCERM7nttum4zrUSuCMpXhKNDF-AIa38ww8RPBYAeJEj9D5ThUCZJnVBTP263BoXqtIpmkryZzmbrIg8v3yGIlQtIw68ISLx-Zk72-GcufW8e8aqo4mZI-UZ1PLBvRyqE/s1600/Gallows.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Gallows" border="0" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbc_zsbdDalAnCERM7nttum4zrUSuCMpXhKNDF-AIa38ww8RPBYAeJEj9D5ThUCZJnVBTP263BoXqtIpmkryZzmbrIg8v3yGIlQtIw68ISLx-Zk72-GcufW8e8aqo4mZI-UZ1PLBvRyqE/s400/Gallows.jpg" title="Gallows" width="400" /></a></div>Pakistan chose to vote against the recent resolution in the United Nations General Assembly that had called for a global moratorium on the death penalty and was adopted by a majority of member-states.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The gist of this resolution has been adopted by the UN General Assembly every 2 years since 2007. The resolution adopted on Dec 19, 2016 was backed by 117 states, while 40 voted against it and 31 abstained. As against the voting pattern in 2014, the new supporters of the moratorium call were Guinea, Malawi, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka and Swaziland.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">South Asia maintained its fondness for the death penalty as Pakistan joined Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India and Maldives in rejecting a universal moratorium, while Bhutan, Nepal and Sri Lanka voted in favour.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Those who defend the death penalty as a principle enjoined by Islam may look at the division among the Muslim states (the category includes all members of the OIC).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Those voting in favour of a moratorium included: Albania, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Benin, Bosnia Herzegovina, Burkina Faso, Chad, Cote d'Ivoire, Eritrea, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mali, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Suriname, Togo, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Those who abstained included: Bahrain, Cameroon, Comoros, Djibouti, Indonesia, Jordan, Lebanon, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Uganda and the UAE.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Muslim states that voted against were: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Brunei, Egypt, Guyana, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Malaysia, Maldives, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">We find that 24 of the OIC's 57 member states voted in favour of the moratorium, while 13 abstained and only 18 voted against. In other words, Pakistan is in the minority group of 18 OIC member-countries that opposes the moratorium.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It is for Pakistan's government and its Islamic scholars to ponder as to why a majority of the OIC members do not find any faith-based bar to the acceptance of a moratorium on capital punishment. They may also consider the possibility that, as in the case of some international treaties, reservations expressed in the name of religion are in fact dictated by the culture or custom of the countries concerned.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">What is more distressing for human rights activists, abolitionist groups and promoters of humanitarian laws in Pakistan is the authorities' aversion to any scrutiny of the rationale for their love of the death penalty regime.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">What one hears of references to the death penalty during the Universal Periodic Review or at talks with the European Union on the GSP+ status is not the result of any serious deliberation. Indeed, one doubts if any discussion on the subject has ever taken place in Pakistan. That there is an urgent need for such a discussion can easily be established.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The recent cases in which the Supreme Court acquitted two individuals who had already been executed, or ordered the release of persons who had spent long years on death row, have strengthened the call for abolition of the death penalty on the ground of high risk of miscarriage of justice. A number of other issues that have surfaced over the past many years also need to be addressed. These are:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">-- The view that the death sentence is not a deterrent to crime has not been challenged nor has the view that hangings brutalise society.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">-- The Qisas law has prevented the president from pardoning death convicts or commuting their sentence although his power to do so under Article 45 of the Constitution remains intact. How does one explain the fact that the army chief can pardon a person awarded the death sentence by a military court while the president cannot do so?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">-- The scholars agree that Islam prescribes the death penalty in only 2 instances. How does the state defend the fact that capital punishment is prescribed for 27 offences in the name of religion?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">-- The judiciary has pointed out the problems it faces in cases in which capital punishment is mandatory if the evidence on record warrants a lesser penalty.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">-- The possibility of a minor or a mentally challenged person being executed keeps cropping up every now and then.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">One ventures to suggest a look at the Indian response to the issue of the death penalty in view of the shared legal tradition.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Law Commission of India recommended in August 2015, vide its Report No. 262, that "the death penalty be abolished for all crimes other than terrorism-related offences and waging war". The commission agreed to retain capital punishment for certain offences in view of the parliamentarians' plea that "abolition of death penalty for terrorism-related offences and waging war will affect national security", although in the commission's view "there is no valid penological justification for treating terrorism differently from other crimes."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The commission noted the significant steps taken during India's decades-long efforts to restrict the use of the death penalty: removal of the requirement of giving special reasons for awarding life imprisonment instead of death (1955); introduction of the requirement of imposing the death penalty (1973); and the Supreme Court's decision that the death penalty should be restricted to the rarest of rare cases (1980). The conclusion reached by the commission was:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Informed also by the expanded and deepened contents and horizons of the right to life and strengthened due process requirements in the interactions between the state and the individual, prevailing standards of constitutional morality and human dignity, the commission feels that time has come for India to move towards abolition of the death penalty."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">During the latest debate in the UN General Assembly, however, India again voted against the resolution calling for a moratorium although it could have shown some respect for the Law Commission's recommendation by abstaining. Which only goes to show that, in developing countries, state policies are often determined by authorities that are too timid to disturb the status quo or too proud of their conservatism to heed the counsel of experts who are conscious of the call of the age.</div><br />Source: dawn.com, January 6, 2017<br /><br /><br /><h2>Pakistan: Reviewing the death penalty</h2><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCMrehjtnKWFCuyKdj8RCaoNR8xtTkR8f5XYwT9Vri3mpFfiaSO3xNRb0uLpRpxDhE3qOg7eG3b_207J_3H2hz2zyf5Y1lA5r8zAoj5rhmAAufnOv7X9Q4JaEcmcvvo-Wc-JDAkabngPM/s1600/Peshawar+Central+Prison.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Peshawar Central Prison" border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCMrehjtnKWFCuyKdj8RCaoNR8xtTkR8f5XYwT9Vri3mpFfiaSO3xNRb0uLpRpxDhE3qOg7eG3b_207J_3H2hz2zyf5Y1lA5r8zAoj5rhmAAufnOv7X9Q4JaEcmcvvo-Wc-JDAkabngPM/s400/Peshawar+Central+Prison.jpg" title="Peshawar Central Prison" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>The first thing you notice about the death penalty is how much preparation is involved. In two years, Pakistan has carried out 419 executions. 419 death row prisoners wore a hood as six warders accompanied them to the scaffold each time. 419 bodies remained suspended for 30 minutes after being hanged. Some of these bodies likely ended up in prison graveyards, unable to break free from jails even in death.</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On December 17, 2014, Pakistan lifted the moratorium on the death penalty in the wake of the tragic terrorist attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar. Originally lifted for terrorism related offences in March 2015, the moratorium was lifted for all capital offences. In the face of international opposition, the government has consistently maintained that the death penalty is the only effective means of fighting terrorism.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">However, an analysis of the 419 executions that have occurred in less than 2 years by Justice Project Pakistan (JPP), a rights group, reveals significant flaws in this narrative. In Pakistan, criminal culpability is at best, widely misunderstood and at worst, casually measured with irreversible consequences. The numbers that confirm this are frightening.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">27 offences are liable for a black warrant in this country, explaining the macabre achievement of having one of the world’s most populated death rows.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The 100th prisoner to be hanged after executions resumed was mentally ill, unaware until his death as to why he was being punished. Undiagnosed until 2014, Muneer Hussain was mentally unwell since childhood and later, killed two family members.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">There have been at least six juveniles executed since the moratorium was lifted in December 2014. Between then and March 2016, at least 444 mercy petitions were sent to the President of Pakistan, including one for schizophrenic prisoner, Imdad Ali and Abdul Basit who is a paraplegic prisoner. So far, the known number of presidential pardons granted stands at zero.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In Pakistan, the judicial system that enables the carrying out of death sentences warrants close examination. The legal infrastructure is faulty, mired in red tape, beholden to power, creating a permissive environment for the routine miscarriage of justice.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In November this year, the Supreme Court exercised its suo moto right to reassess a case of kidnapping in Bahawalpur in Punjab, for which two brothers had been sentenced to death. Unsurprisingly, the prosecution’s case was riddled with contradictions, with insufficient evidence and incongruous eyewitness testimonies, and the SC acquitted the condemned prisoners. Only Ghulam Qadir and Ghulam Sarwar were no longer prisoners, having been executed last year.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Given the Bahawalpur case, it is critical to overhaul a system that hangs the living, and exonerates the dead. The dearth of resources for law-enforcement incentivises corruption and other abuses of authority. Police lack forensic capabilities and other reliable means of investigation. As a result, there is over-reliance on confessions, easily obtained through torture.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">1,424 cases of torture have been uncovered in just one district of Faisalabad from 2006 to 2012, according to Justice Project Pakistan</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">444 mercy petitions have been sent to the president between Dec 2014 and March 2016; none have been granted so far</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">JPP uncovered 1,424 cases of torture in just one district of Faisalabad from 2006 to 2012. At 17, Abd-ur-Rehman was subject to such brutal torture following his detention that he admitted to every accusation levied at him, including being told that his name was Azam. Today, no one in Karachi Central Jail, where he remains imprisoned, knows him by the name he was born with. His involvement in an attempted burglary has kept him on death row for the last 18 years — well over half his life.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Every defendant is entitled to effective legal counsel at all stages of proceedings under the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Pakistan is a signatory. Though Pakistan provides needy capital defendants with counsel at state expense, the quality of representation is poor. In fact, it is generally not perceived as acceptable for lawyers to be seen in a jail.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Such scant contact between lawyers and their clients in criminal cases actively enables the miscarriage of justice, given the former essentially forgoes the chances of uncovering potentially exculpatory evidence. But with a fee below the minimum wage (a minimum of Rs2,000, with a daily fee of Rs200), there is little motivation for a state-appointed attorney to pursue a case.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">International law dictates that capital punishment be reserved only for the most serious crimes, subject to fair and legitimate processes that protect a defendant’s basic rights and provide avenues for post-conviction relief. Pakistan has not lived up to its obligations. At each stage of a defendant’s encounter with this system, severe violations emerge.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Calling for anything short of a complete moratorium on executions means the continued killing of individuals whose rights have repeatedly been violated from the time of their arrest to their conviction and beyond. Sending even one innocent person – and the government sent two in the Bahawalpur case – to the gallows should prompt this step.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Given these systemic failings, legal reforms, while an important first step, are inadequately implemented at the local level. An executive mechanism to examine mercy petitions must be assembled which refers credible mercy petitions to the presidency.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Because of the lack of transparency, it is recommended that independent actors such as the National Human Rights Commission, a statutory body constituted under the National Human Rights Commission Act 2012, conduct investigations into cases.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Wrongful and unjust death sentences must be commuted. Because the death sentence warrants a high standard of proof, the state should also commute cases for individuals whose convictions were based primarily on confessions, in recognition of the high prevalence of custodial torture and inadequate safeguards in place.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Passing the Anti-Torture Bill, which has been pending since 2012, would be a good place to start. In short, Pakistan’s criminal justice system needs to undertake a detailed review of the death penalty.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: <a href="http://www.dawn.com/news/1303817" target="_blank">Dawn</a>, Rimmel Mohydin, Zainab Malik, December 22, 2016. Rimmel Mohydin and Zainab Malik work on public and policy advocacy at Justice Project Pakistan.</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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Pakistan: The love of hanging

Pakistan chose to vote against the recent resolution in the United Nations General Assembly that had called for a global moratorium on the d...

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Charleston: Dylann Roof found competent for sentencing, gets extra prep day

<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/AVvXsEg4NZCSq4lXb_NYaBYjvpVhEha5CToypPJ1XbaLTbpmjEIUxuf5xKX3CXYWQAak5f82IkJdeSRwCoWJtQGM49QXbEtdx29NIOwQ4E3aOkQsH1FLyydBCKt02VQkmkHzMC-QIJjtgfEhNwE/s1600/Police+tape+surrounds+the+parking+lot+behind+the+AME+Emanuel+Church.+Dylann+Roof+SOUTH+CAROLINA.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="The AME Emanuel Church in Charleston where 9 were killed in June 2015" border="0" height="258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4NZCSq4lXb_NYaBYjvpVhEha5CToypPJ1XbaLTbpmjEIUxuf5xKX3CXYWQAak5f82IkJdeSRwCoWJtQGM49QXbEtdx29NIOwQ4E3aOkQsH1FLyydBCKt02VQkmkHzMC-QIJjtgfEhNwE/s400/Police+tape+surrounds+the+parking+lot+behind+the+AME+Emanuel+Church.+Dylann+Roof+SOUTH+CAROLINA.jpg" title="The AME Emanuel Church in Charleston where 9 were killed in June 2015" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The AME Emanuel Church in Charleston where 9 were killed in June 2015</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — After a judge ruled Monday that Dylann Roof is competent to represent himself, the same jury that last month unanimously found him guilty in the slayings of nine black parishioners at a South Carolina church will return to court to begin contemplating his punishment.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">With the 22-year-old representing himself, the process is sure to be unconventional. But even if Roof is sentenced to death, it's highly unlikely he'd be executed anytime soon.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">While prosecutors plan to call up to 38 people related to the nine people killed and three who survived the June 2015 slaughter during Bible study at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, Roof said last week he plans on calling no witnesses and presenting no evidence.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Roof was found guilty last month on 33 federal charges, including hate crimes and obstruction of the practice of religion. A jury took less than three hours to return its verdict, and a judge dismissed the jury for a break over the holidays. That same jury returns to court Wednesday.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Typically in what's known as the sentencing phase, defense attorneys call relatives and other witnesses to testify about their client's unsteady state of mind before and during the crimes. Given that background, the defense hopes, a jury might be more likely to spare the defendant's life and opt against the death penalty.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But Roof, who is acting as his own attorney, has said he plans to do no such thing.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In his journal, which was read in court during his trial, Roof said his doesn't believe in psychology, which he called "a Jewish invention" that "does nothing but invent diseases and tell people they have problems when they don't."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Roof also seems determined to try to keep evidence embarrassing to him or his family out. Not only did he take over his own defense, but he asked the judge at a hearing last week if he could file a motion limiting what prosecutors can introduce.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Roof also was adamant that a transcript of a hearing where he was found mentally competent not be released to the public.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I know this is not a legal argument, but the unsealing of the competency hearing defeats the purpose of me representing myself," Roof said at last week's hearing.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Neither Roof, nor U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel nor prosecutors have given specifics on the evidence Roof is objecting to.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On Thursday, Gergel ordered another competency evaluation of Roof "in an abundance of caution," after his standby counsel filed a sealed motion again questioning Roof's mental ability to proceed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On Monday, over the objection of an attorney representing media outlets including The Associated Press, Gergel ordered the competency hearing to be closed to the public. Saying he'd have to sequester jurors if he opened up the proceedings, the judge promised to release a transcript after Roof is sentenced.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"This is an incredibly sensitive moment in this proceeding," Gergel said. "We are putting in the hands of 12 people the life and death of a person."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">After a daylong hearing, Gergel ultimately ruled Roof is competent to stand trial and also to represent himself at sentencing. He also granted Roof's request for an extra day to prepare for his case.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Roof's lawyers tried repeatedly both to stop him from being his own lawyer and to work mental health-related evidence into the first phase of his trial, saying they feared Roof fired them because he feared the attorneys would present evidence that would embarrass him when trying to save his life.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Prosecutors objected at every turn, and Gergel wouldn't allow any of it into court, ruling mitigation evidence is allowable during sentencing and not before.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Court papers show prosecutors are expected to present evidence showing Roof picked his victims because of their race, killed them to incite more violence, showed no remorse and killed three particularly vulnerable people who were 70 years old or older.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><table align="center" 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/AVvXsEhIABGaIvjeT0isEb4lusmgWPGMl01944pG9n_ImBB_ZDnkJqAjYj2o34MjaMGcdv_47oc4I1kKA_SPVHi9I03FjKWztPZusmET_VZPssRHF_mjTA1bwHS_hohuP_qsvXEIK5q2kwcepZE/s1600/Dylann+Roof.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="328" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIABGaIvjeT0isEb4lusmgWPGMl01944pG9n_ImBB_ZDnkJqAjYj2o34MjaMGcdv_47oc4I1kKA_SPVHi9I03FjKWztPZusmET_VZPssRHF_mjTA1bwHS_hohuP_qsvXEIK5q2kwcepZE/s400/Dylann+Roof.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"The Dylann Roof case is a classic example of the type of problem you can have<br />when an obviously mentally ill or emotionally disturbed defendant is permitted<br />to represent himself," says Robert Dunham, Death Penalty Information Center. </td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">Evidence speaking to Roof's mental state, one expert argues, could make the difference between life and death.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The Dylann Roof case is a classic example of the type of problem you can have when an obviously mentally ill or emotionally disturbed defendant is permitted to represent himself," said Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. "There's a huge difference in the eyes of a jury between someone they perceive as evil or despicable and someone they perceive as being seriously mentally ill. ... If you take mental health out of it, you are putting a thumb on the scale of death."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Both the judge's decision to allow Roof to represent himself and waive the introduction of mental health evidence are sure to be raised in an inevitable appeal, Dunham argued.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Roof also faces nine murder charges in state court, where prosecutors have also said they will seek the death penalty in a trial likely to begin sometime next year.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Whether he's sentenced to death or not, it's unlikely Roof would be executed anytime soon, in either jurisdiction. The federal government hasn't executed anyone since 2003, and there are years of appeals between a death sentence being levied and carried out.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">South Carolina's death chamber hasn't been used since 2011, due at least in part to a lack of availability for the drugs the state uses for lethal injection.</div><br />Source: Associated Press, January 3, 2017<br /><br /><br /><h2>Dylann Roof barred from approaching jury and witnesses during sentencing</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>A judge has issued an order limiting Dylann Roof’s movement within the federal courtroom where he will be acting as his own lawyer during sentencing.</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">US district judge Richard Gergel on Monday ruled that Roof cannot approach witnesses or the jury during court, set to get under way on Tuesday. He will also be sitting in a chair furthest from the jury and victims’ family members.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The same jury that last month unanimously found Roof guilty of the slayings of nine black parishioners at a South Carolina church is returning to court to begin contemplating his punishment.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The 22-year-old is representing himself, and the process is likely to be unconventional. Roof could be sentenced to death, but it is highly unlikely he would be executed any time soon.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Roof’s lawyers tried repeatedly both to stop him from being his own lawyer and to work mental health-related evidence into the first phase of his trial, saying they feared Roof fired them because he feared the attorneys would present evidence that would embarrass him when trying to save his life.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Prosecutors objected at every turn, and Gergel would not allow any of it into court, ruling that mitigation evidence was allowable during sentencing and not before.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Court papers show prosecutors are expected to present evidence showing that Roof picked his victims because of their race, killed them to incite more violence, showed no remorse, and killed three particularly vulnerable people who were 70 years old or older.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Evidence speaking to Roof’s mental state, one expert argues, could make the difference between life and death.</div><br />Source: <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/02/dylann-roof-sentencing-charleston-shooting-death-penalty" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>, January 2, 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? 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Charleston: Dylann Roof found competent for sentencing, gets extra prep day

The AME Emanuel Church in Charleston where 9 were killed in June 2015 CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — After a judge ruled Monday that Dylann Roof is...

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