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

<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/AVvXsEjUm1vRnmAgvN9ZpfVCWGfzhs0RARxd1pREQhfW9IrBh_v6XHnPqYcW-NYTIlZMw_H8Au3For8tyy8jXlPiqD1y2nVR-1jJgE2u5Q2wl8fmNPIdIigiIDPd68TCIJ75FvZXo-909PJah58/s1600/Washington+Gov+Jay+Inslee.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Washington Governor Jay Inslee" border="0" height="295" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUm1vRnmAgvN9ZpfVCWGfzhs0RARxd1pREQhfW9IrBh_v6XHnPqYcW-NYTIlZMw_H8Au3For8tyy8jXlPiqD1y2nVR-1jJgE2u5Q2wl8fmNPIdIigiIDPd68TCIJ75FvZXo-909PJah58/s400/Washington+Gov+Jay+Inslee.jpg" title="Washington Governor Jay Inslee" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Washington Governor Jay Inslee</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">BELLINGHAM - Gov. Jay Inslee granted a reprieve Thursday to a Bellingham man sentenced to death for the rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A Whatcom County jury sentenced Clark Richard Elmore to death in 1996, for the killing of his girlfriend’s teenage daughter. Elmore raped Kristy Lynn Ohnstad in a van, choked her until she passed out, drove a metal skewer through her skull, beat her with a sledgehammer, and dumped her body in the woods. She was 14.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Over the past two decades Elmore has appealed to successively higher courts. In October the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear his case. An execution date was set for Jan. 19.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Inslee formally granted a reprieve Thursday. Two years ago earlier he had announced a moratorium on death sentences in Washington state.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Governor Inslee has been very consistent that his moratorium on the death penalty cases in Washington isn’t about individual cases,” reads a statement released Thursday by the governor’s office. “As he stated when he announced the moratorium in 2014 the action is based on the governor’s belief that the use of capital punishment across the state is inconsistent and unequally applied — sometimes dependent on the budget of the county where the crime occurred.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Prosecutor Dave McEachran met with Inslee last week to ask him to consider making an exception and allow the execution to proceed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Kristy’s family spoke with Inslee, too, and “expressed a preference to see Elmore serve life in prison,” according to the governor’s office.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Elmore will remain at the state prison in Walla Walla, where he’s effectively serving a life sentence.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Gov. Jay’s Inslee office released the following statement:</div><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">Under state law, Article III, Section 9 of the Washington Constitution and RCW 10.01.120, the governor is granted the authority to issue reprieves — or stays of execution— and, consistent with his intent to issue a moratorium on death penalty executions, Governor Inslee has issued a reprieve in Clark Elmore’s case. This action does not commute Mr. Elmore’s sentence nor issue a pardon and he will remain in the State Penitentiary in Walla Walla for the rest of his life. In recent weeks the governor spoke with the Whatcom County prosecutor, who asked the governor to reconsider his position, as well as the victim’s family who expressed a preference to see Elmore serve life in prison.</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">Governor Inslee has been very consistent that his moratorium on the death penalty cases in Washington isn’t about individual cases. As he stated when he announced the moratorium in 2014 the action is based on the governor’s belief that the use of capital punishment across the state is inconsistent and unequally applied – sometimes dependent on the budget of the county where the crime occurred.</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">The governor urges the state legislature to end the death penalty once and for all. </blockquote><br />Sources: <a href="http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/article123674119.html" target="_blank">The News Tribune</a>, <a href="http://www.kiro7.com/news/local/gov-jay-inslee-grants-reprieve-in-child-murderers-execution/479777125" target="_blank">Kiro7</a>, December 29, 2016<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">⚑ | Report an error, an omission; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: <a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com">deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a>.</div><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="4" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px solid rgb(255, 204, 0); color: black; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL4sspwgGptzvuHVklum5TwxKppRN-lIC5TN8RLZFq_B4ZOtBrX1ssXPNKQ6XpSyQFRJRtVQN45HMkpt3VX0JtOW0TovwxZAurG-AV6gh98IAXo7Ip6QlpkZr9WrM3_m943Mwy-gGxBAY/s1600/Find+us+Facebook.jpg" /></a></div></td> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiULIPEaT_P6oIauxAZd17XRRxljesDLS7iIjdQXT7Xct99uHeohx4IYmiAB6S044gTjMDGSy50sL2vDzOyPZ-3vJj9zwcYQ2rgzJh9v1-QDiunKAQtLLLqJ83s38qN3HABxGIC8GsIOD0/s1600/Find+us+twitter.jpg" /></a><span id="goog_1427852018"></span><span id="goog_1427852019"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a></div></td> </tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><b>Opposed to Capital Punishment? 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Washington Governor Jay Inslee grants reprieve to child killer on death row

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

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Ohio judge stays three executions amid challenge over lethal injection drugs

<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/AVvXsEgUWyymBVPA1fn150F6YRQNUNMmuxAoXlicylhFuTCMQr-x7VFm1Wl6MBz2FxFQe5dwvyZ3_j8-j_qDKJkA61TjNjvLidkha1C9m5u7kEFQL0U7wb5cj47h2LKAN7mxPJwG8muN0-CQFzY/s1600/Ronald+Phillips.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Ronald Phillips" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUWyymBVPA1fn150F6YRQNUNMmuxAoXlicylhFuTCMQr-x7VFm1Wl6MBz2FxFQe5dwvyZ3_j8-j_qDKJkA61TjNjvLidkha1C9m5u7kEFQL0U7wb5cj47h2LKAN7mxPJwG8muN0-CQFzY/s320/Ronald+Phillips.jpg" title="Ronald Phillips" width="211" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ronald Phillips</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Execution of Ronald Phillips dependent on outcome of his legal challenge over law shielding details about drugs, as state moves to new three-drug combination</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A federal judge issued a stay on Monday in the planned January execution of an Ohio death row inmate and for the next two inmates scheduled to die in 2017, a move that could delay the state’s plan to carry out the death penalty for the first time in three years. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The order comes amid a challenge to a state law that shields details about the lethal injection drugs the state plans to use.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">US district magistrate judge Michael Merz in Dayton said the stay could be lifted if a federal appeals court hands down a ruling in the related challenge of the shield law before the scheduled execution of <a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.fr/2016/12/no-mercy-for-ronald-phillips-execution.html" target="_blank">Ronald Phillips</a> on 12 January.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Merz said it would only be minor inconvenience for the state to set new execution dates.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Phillips is scheduled to be executed for the rape and murder of his girlfriend’s three-year-old daughter, Sheila Marie Evan, in Akron in 1993.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">His execution has already been delayed several times, including in 2013 when he made a last-minute request that was later denied to donate a kidney to his mother, who was on dialysis.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Phillips asked for a delay in November so he can have more time to challenge the state’s new three-drug method for carrying out death sentences. He and other inmates want to block the new procedure, arguing that it will result in a painful and barbaric death.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Dan Tierney, a spokesman for Ohio’s attorney general, Mike DeWine, said the office’s attorneys are reviewing whether to appeal against the order issuing the stay.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The state in October announced plans to use a new three-drug combination for at least three executions.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ohio hasn’t executed any prisoner since January 2014, when death row inmate Dennis McGuire repeatedly gasped and snorted during a 26-minute procedure using a never-before-tried two-drug combo.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Executions then went on hold as the state had trouble finding new supplies of drugs, which were made off limits for executions by drugmakers.</div><br />Source: The Guardian, Associated Press, December 19, 2016<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">⚑ | Report an error, an omission; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: <a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com">deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a>.</div><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="4" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px solid rgb(255, 204, 0); color: black; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL4sspwgGptzvuHVklum5TwxKppRN-lIC5TN8RLZFq_B4ZOtBrX1ssXPNKQ6XpSyQFRJRtVQN45HMkpt3VX0JtOW0TovwxZAurG-AV6gh98IAXo7Ip6QlpkZr9WrM3_m943Mwy-gGxBAY/s1600/Find+us+Facebook.jpg" /></a></div></td> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiULIPEaT_P6oIauxAZd17XRRxljesDLS7iIjdQXT7Xct99uHeohx4IYmiAB6S044gTjMDGSy50sL2vDzOyPZ-3vJj9zwcYQ2rgzJh9v1-QDiunKAQtLLLqJ83s38qN3HABxGIC8GsIOD0/s1600/Find+us+twitter.jpg" /></a><span id="goog_1427852018"></span><span id="goog_1427852019"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a></div></td> </tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><b>Opposed to Capital Punishment? 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Ohio judge stays three executions amid challenge over lethal injection drugs

Ronald Phillips Execution of Ronald Phillips dependent on outcome of his legal challenge over law shielding details about drugs, as state mo...

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