Ohio Can Keep Execution Drug Supplier Secret From Death Row Inmates

<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/AVvXsEj4prr7Lix0XC23ycAmNCJuJkzYXJYXiePE4smMSGe5vosalehmnwtc9Jo8oYWmyQnAaciin4Qdm6ty2ck4n5dUlIZ4s1R4DB4n-tHCt2qQCabrWmjm77ni1DdkNEASCOlkVnn1sSHJ0xw/s1600/Ohio+Death+Chamber.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Ohio's death chamber" border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4prr7Lix0XC23ycAmNCJuJkzYXJYXiePE4smMSGe5vosalehmnwtc9Jo8oYWmyQnAaciin4Qdm6ty2ck4n5dUlIZ4s1R4DB4n-tHCt2qQCabrWmjm77ni1DdkNEASCOlkVnn1sSHJ0xw/s400/Ohio+Death+Chamber.jpg" title="Ohio's death chamber" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ohio's death chamber</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">A federal appeals court on Friday ruled that Ohio can keep information about its execution drug supplier a secret in litigation challenging the state's execution procedures.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In the 2-1 ruling from the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, Judge Eugene Siler wrote that a district court judge had not abused his discretion in shielding the state from having to turn over information about its execution drug suppliers to the death row inmates who are challenging the state's lethal injection process. Judge Alan Norris joined Siler's opinion for the court.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The ruling comes as Ohio is attempting to restart executions in the coming year after a several-year gap. Ohio has not held an execution since it put Dennis McGuire to death in January 2014. One witness to the execution described how McGuire "struggled and gasped audibly for air" even after the procedure began.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ohio has since changed its protocol - although it will continue to use the controversial sedative, midazolam, that has been the subject of litigation - and is aiming to hold an execution in the first months of 2017. (A hearing on that new protocol is set for Jan. 3.)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Siler wrote that the district court was not wrong to grant the order protecting the identity of drug suppliers after finding there would be a "particularized harm to the drug manufacturers and Ohio's capability to perform executions" if the information was turned over to the inmates as part of their lawsuit.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"As the district court's findings support, but for the protective order, Defendants will suffer an undue burden and prejudice in effectuating Ohio's execution protocol and practices," he continued.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The appeals court in November had upheld a constitutional challenge to Ohio's execution secrecy law itself. The question before the court in Friday's ruling was whether the state could avoid having to turn over such information in federal court litigation.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Although knowledge of the facilities and handlers of the drugs could inform Plaintiffs' testing methodologies, the harm presented by identification of those intimately involved in an execution outweighs the speculative benefit of complete understanding of an industry already heavily regulated," the court concluded, upholding the validity of the protective order.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Judge Jane Stranch dissented, writing that the district court had not properly followed the federal rules regarding when evidence must be turned over to opposing parties in litigation. She found the alleged harm the state and anonymous drug suppliers presented to the court regarding risk of harassment and violence to be "too speculative to validate this protective order."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In detailing the claims presented by the state, Stranch took particular aim at the state's "threat assessment" expert, Lawrence Cunningham, who was the subject of a BuzzFeed News investigation earlier this year.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Cunningham's testimony was undoubtedly speculative. His methods for determining whether there was a security risk consisted mainly of surfing the internet, and attempting to extrapolate the existence of potential threats in the death penalty arena by looking at advocacy regarding other issues: abortion, animal rights, and the morning-after pill," she wrote. "Cunningham himself stated that he was unaware of any known threat against anyone involved in implementation of the death penalty in Ohio, and unaware of threats against any compounding pharmacy that supplies Ohio."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: techfeatured.com, January 1, 2017</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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Ohio Can Keep Execution Drug Supplier Secret From Death Row Inmates

Ohio's death chamber A federal appeals court on Friday ruled that Ohio can keep information about its execution drug supplier a secret i...

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Nebraska's new lethal injection protocol comes under fire at hearing

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhboAh7AyYtbRPVvbXaDmc-WnCwX_uJuo18WaTN95Hc7fwK9LMLJ5yUHZrwBc2JsQumh9lutWD3cQpSL9KecMq5O3s8nOscIJcd9-u51aRZwKR9br9A5FPYJ2YIvHGPfXwJ-hDv0_uaX38/s1600/Nebraska+the+good+life.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Nebraska, the good life" border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhboAh7AyYtbRPVvbXaDmc-WnCwX_uJuo18WaTN95Hc7fwK9LMLJ5yUHZrwBc2JsQumh9lutWD3cQpSL9KecMq5O3s8nOscIJcd9-u51aRZwKR9br9A5FPYJ2YIvHGPfXwJ-hDv0_uaX38/s400/Nebraska+the+good+life.jpg" title="Nebraska, the good life" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Opponents of the death penalty predicted Friday that a new lethal injection protocol being sought by Gov. Pete Ricketts will mire the state in more lawsuits rather than revive capital punishment.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"This is only going to trigger more litigation that the state will not win," said Spike Eickholt of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska. Eickholt was among 20 people who testified during a public hearing Friday concerning a new execution protocol drawn up by the Ricketts administration to make it easier to obtain the necessary drugs for an execution.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">All but 2 of those testifying criticized the proposal. It was lambasted as violating Nebraska's public meeting laws, allowing unlicensed "pharmaceutical chemists" to participate and permitting the purchase of drugs from secret and shady sources.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"It looks to me that a (Corrections Department) director could buy drugs in a back alley," said Dr. Gregg Wright of Lincoln, a former state health director.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Friday's hearing was the 1st step in reviving Nebraska's stalled death penalty. The state hasn't carried out an execution in 19 years, and it has not been able to obtain the necessary drugs to carry out a lethal injection execution.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">2 people testified in support of the new lethal injection protocol, and both were leaders in the campaign that overturned at the ballot box in November the 2015 repeal of capital punishment by the Nebraska Legislature.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">1 supporter, Pierce County Sheriff Rick Eberhardt, who gathered hundreds of signatures for the successful referendum drive, said that voters last month delivered a "work order" to state leaders.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"They are instructing our leaders to find a workable way to carry out a death sentence," Eberhardt said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ricketts, in a statement after the hearing, called Friday's session "1 step toward enacting the will of the people of Nebraska on the death penalty."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He added that his administration would review comments from the hearing before finalizing the proposed regulation.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The new protocol would give the state corrections director wide latitude to choose the type and source of drugs being used, and to keep that information confidential.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The secrecy provisions brought objections from a variety of groups and individuals, including Media of Nebraska, the ACLU, the state's Tea Party and Nebraska's most ardent opponent of the death penalty, State Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Anything that the government does on behalf of the people should be done in plain sight," Chambers said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He vowed to introduce another bill to repeal the death penalty when the State Legislature begins its 2017 session next week, and promised it would be better drafted than the "slapdash, loosey-goosey" proposal for the new lethal injection protocol.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Nebraska's current protocol was adopted in 2009 after the state switched from the electric chair to lethal injection. It calls for the use of 3 drugs.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But the state has been thwarted in its attempt to obtain them, contributing to the Legislature's vote in 2015 to repeal the death penalty.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Shawn Renner of Media of Nebraska, which represents the state's major newspapers and broadcasters, said the new protocol was directly contrary to the state's public records laws by allowing the state corrections director to pick and choose what records will be released and which ones will be withheld.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Renner called the proposal "illegal" and predicted it would be overturned in court.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Others said that the lack of transparency could lead to the use of impure and suspect drugs, which could result in botched executions or courts tossing out lethal injection as unconstitutionally cruel and unusual punishment.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">There have been 47 botched executions since 1982, according to a study by University of Colorado professor Michael Radelet, and 35 of those involved lethal injection.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">More than one testifier pointed out that an open process was needed, given Nebraska's track record in obtaining lethal injection drugs. In 2015 the state lost $54,000 when it purchased 2 lethal injection drugs from a broker in India, then was blocked from importing the drugs.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Joni Cover of the Nebraska Pharmacists Association said that while the association was not taking a position supporting or opposing capital punishment, it was opposing the new protocol as having multiple flaws.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">She asked that a requirement to have a "pharmaceutical chemist' as part of the execution team be stricken. Such chemists are unlicensed and lack the education or legal authority to prepare, compound or administer drugs, Cover said. In addition, the state corrections director lacks the authority to write a medical order for lethal injection drugs, she said, and the secrecy surrounding the drugs could put Nebraska in violation of state and federal laws about how such drugs should be handled.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">10 inmates sit on Nebraska's death row.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It may take several weeks before state corrections officials decide if the proposed protocol should be approved or revised.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The attorney general must also review and OK the rules, and the governor must sign them, before they take effect.</div><br />Source: The Smithville Herald, December 31, 2016<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">⚑ | Report an error, an omission; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: <a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com">deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a>.</div><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="4" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px solid rgb(255, 204, 0); color: black; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL4sspwgGptzvuHVklum5TwxKppRN-lIC5TN8RLZFq_B4ZOtBrX1ssXPNKQ6XpSyQFRJRtVQN45HMkpt3VX0JtOW0TovwxZAurG-AV6gh98IAXo7Ip6QlpkZr9WrM3_m943Mwy-gGxBAY/s1600/Find+us+Facebook.jpg" /></a></div></td> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiULIPEaT_P6oIauxAZd17XRRxljesDLS7iIjdQXT7Xct99uHeohx4IYmiAB6S044gTjMDGSy50sL2vDzOyPZ-3vJj9zwcYQ2rgzJh9v1-QDiunKAQtLLLqJ83s38qN3HABxGIC8GsIOD0/s1600/Find+us+twitter.jpg" /></a><span id="goog_1427852018"></span><span id="goog_1427852019"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a></div></td> </tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><b>Opposed to Capital Punishment? 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Nebraska's new lethal injection protocol comes under fire at hearing

Opponents of the death penalty predicted Friday that a new lethal injection protocol being sought by Gov. Pete Ricketts will mire the state ...

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Georgia led nation in number of executions in 2016

<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/AVvXsEja2ex-PCybelludYMrhFOi5V9UENpNBJb6VR0v7tzLIQjQNmIgOerT087uAVIytsShs_agSzN3GQ8AHKU0FS2srsN6wXAwycE_dV2fTWd3u6WyXPqB7YvkJJEx7irAMwiWuEw-AXab0FY/s1600/Georgia+death+chamber.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Georgia's death chamber" border="0" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja2ex-PCybelludYMrhFOi5V9UENpNBJb6VR0v7tzLIQjQNmIgOerT087uAVIytsShs_agSzN3GQ8AHKU0FS2srsN6wXAwycE_dV2fTWd3u6WyXPqB7YvkJJEx7irAMwiWuEw-AXab0FY/s400/Georgia+death+chamber.jpg" title="Georgia's death chamber" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Georgia's death chamber</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">Georgia led the nation in the number of executions carried out in 2016 by putting 9 men to death.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But as the number of executions has been high in Georgia in the past 2 years, the number of people on death row has shrunk and no new death sentences were imposed last year.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The last person sentenced to death in Georgia was Augusta resident Adrian Hargrove, 39, in March 2014. 6 years earlier, Hargrove stabbed to death pregnant teen Allyson Pederson and her mother and stepfather, Sharon and Andrew Hartley.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Fewer prosecutors seek death sentences now, District Attorney Ashley Wright said. When she filed notice of her intention to seek a death sentence if Steven Murray is convicted of murder for the slaying of a 71-year-old priest this year, it was only the 2nd death penalty notice filed in Georgia in 2016, Wright said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">2 changes in the law account for some of the decline - since 1993, jurors in death penalty cases have the option of imposing a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole, and since 2010, prosecutors could seek a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole without first seeking a death sentence.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A look at the sentencing dates for the 58 men on Georgia's death row currently shows the effects. 27 of the inmates were sentenced to death in the 1990s and 18 were sentenced in the 2000s. But only 5 death row inmates were sentenced since 2010.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">When a prosecutor seeks to prosecute a homicide as a death penalty case, time slows to a crawl. It is not uncommon for cases to take several years to make it to trial, and if there is a conviction and death sentence, decades can pass before appeals are completed. And over the years, more death row inmates have had their sentences vacated and re-sentenced to life in prison than executed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Of the men executed in 2016, the years spent on death row ran from nine years by Steven Spears, who waived his appeals, to 36 years for Brandon Jones, who was 72 years old when executed Feb. 3.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">While few people have received death sentences in the past decade, the majority of Georgia's death row inmates are in the final stage of their appeal process, the federal habeas corpus. 30 of the 58 inmates are in the final rounds, although the final round can take years to litigate. Virgil Presnell has been on death row since 1976 for the rape and murder of a Cobb County child.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Another inmate with a pending federal habeas corpus petition is Reinaldo Rivera, a self-confessed serial killer sentenced to death in Richmond County Superior Court in 2004. His case is before U.S. District Judge J. Randal Hall.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A 3rd death row inmate from Augusta, Robert Arrington, was denied relief in his state habeas petition in December. He can appeal through the federal habeas corpus next. Arrington was sentenced to death in 2004 for the slaying of 46-year-old Kathy Hutchens in 2001. Arrington had previously served time in prison for killing his wife.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: The Augusta Chronicle, December 31, 2016</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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Georgia led nation in number of executions in 2016

Georgia's death chamber Georgia led the nation in the number of executions carried out in 2016 by putting 9 men to death. But as the num...

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Saudi executes 153 in 2016: Amnesty International

<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/AVvXsEhDfN8wQG-3XirCKSl7YLHJNwzBPuGFa-E7OFgn14eN09eUA-os_fEH_JFDh0-8wbzlve4BEV8y0135chbHMEwkQfX5wsdcxWtAhcz-1CuSuk5P3UNwoaz5x0cyEhzICv5K-WsembhZQN0/s1600/Public+execution+of+a+Burmese+woman+in+KSA.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Public execution of a Burmese woman in Saudi Arabia in 2016" border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDfN8wQG-3XirCKSl7YLHJNwzBPuGFa-E7OFgn14eN09eUA-os_fEH_JFDh0-8wbzlve4BEV8y0135chbHMEwkQfX5wsdcxWtAhcz-1CuSuk5P3UNwoaz5x0cyEhzICv5K-WsembhZQN0/s400/Public+execution+of+a+Burmese+woman+in+KSA.jpg" title="Public execution of a Burmese woman in Saudi Arabia in 2016" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Public execution of a Burmese woman in Saudi Arabia in 2016</td></tr></tbody></table><i>Saudi Arabia executed more than 150 prisoners in 2016 for breaking kingdom's strict Islamic laws</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Saudi Arabia executed more than 150 prisoners under their strict Islamic laws, new figures have shown.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The ultra-conservative kingdom, one of the world's most prolific executioners, punishes crimes such as murder, drug trafficking, armed robbery, rape, homosexuality and apostasy with the death penalty.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">According to Amnesty International a total of 153 executions were carried out in 2016, slightly down in the 158 carried out the previous year.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Murder and drug trafficking cases account for the majority of Saudi executions, although 47 people were put to death for 'terrorism' offences on a single day last January.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">They included prominent Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr, whose execution prompted Iranian protesters to torch Saudi diplomatic missions, leading Riyadh to sever relations.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Most people put to death in Saudi Arabia are beheaded with a sword and the grisly event can often draw a small crowd.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Human rights group Amnesty International says the number of executions in Saudi Arabia last year was the highest for 2 decades.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">And the level of executions was criticised today by Allan Hogarth, Amnesty International UK's head of policy and government affairs, who said the kingdom is 'making a mockery of justice'.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mr Hogarth told the Independent: 'The death penalty is always cruel and unnecessary, but the Saudi justice system lacks evens the basics of a fair trial system.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">'It's truly frightening that its courts are sentencing so many people to death... Saudi Arabia is making a mockery of justice and dozens of people are paying with their lives.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">'It's time that 'strategic allies' like the UK started speaking out about this shocking state of affairs. For too long Downing Street has bent over backwards to avoid 'offending' the Saudi royals.'</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: dailymail.co.uk, December 31, 2016</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><h2>Saudi executes 153 in 2016</h2></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Saudi Arabia carried out 153 executions in 2016, according to an AFP tally based on official announcements, slightly down from the year before.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The ultra-conservative kingdom is one of the world's most prolific executioners and has a strict Islamic legal code under which murder, drug trafficking, armed robbery, rape, homosexuality and apostasy are all punishable by death.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Rights group Amnesty International said Saudi Arabia carried out at least 158 death sentences in 2015, coming third after Iran and Pakistan.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Amnesty's figures do not include secretive China.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Murder and drug trafficking cases account for the majority of Saudi executions, although 47 people were put to death for "terrorism" offences on a single day in January.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">They included prominent Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr, whose execution prompted Iranian protesters to torch Saudi diplomatic missions, leading Riyadh to sever relations.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: Agence France-Presse, December 31, 2016<br /><br /><br /><h2 style="text-align: left;">Saudi Arabia: Generosity of Saudi Man Saves Indian from Execution</h2><br />December 28, 2016: Limbadri, an Indian worker, never had it in his wildest dreams that he would escape death sentence especially after he had spent eight years behind bars waiting for execution. <br /><br />He thought his head would be separated from his body in an implantation of a court rule which sentenced him to capital punishment after killing a Saudi during a fight. <br /><br />With the date of execution coming closer, Awad bin Guraiah Al-Yami, a Saudi businessman, intervened with the family of the victim to pardon the killer offering them SR1.3 million as diyah (blood money). <br /><br />Yami’s good offices were fruitful when the family accepted the blood money and pardoned the murderer. <br /><br />The court endorsed the pardon and the Indian worker is now waiting to be released from prison. <br /><br />The Indian was working in a farm in Najran.<br /><br />Source: saudigazette.com.sa, December 18, 2016</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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Saudi executes 153 in 2016: Amnesty International

Public execution of a Burmese woman in Saudi Arabia in 2016 Saudi Arabia executed more than 150 prisoners in 2016 for breaking kingdom's...

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Kenosha Police Officer Kendal J. West Facing Multiple Felony Charges For New Year's Day Altercation

<div class="mobile-photo"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjznkyx9_5s3M3R7hcgKSKdvgnQpWhfPBnzq5R9F1UhwOcEWRqJudoSzXXBFf-USaF_N7WCal6gs9oT-RPrv_5rRyCtUR5piHSvwCPICo-aw_EdhKMNc_e9QBnd8LbQtcrbUY4d2HwEvCo/s1600/Kendal+J.+West-784355.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_6371544408061592770" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjznkyx9_5s3M3R7hcgKSKdvgnQpWhfPBnzq5R9F1UhwOcEWRqJudoSzXXBFf-USaF_N7WCal6gs9oT-RPrv_5rRyCtUR5piHSvwCPICo-aw_EdhKMNc_e9QBnd8LbQtcrbUY4d2HwEvCo/s320/Kendal+J.+West-784355.jpg" /></a></div>Kenosha Police Officer West was booked at the Racine County jail and is facing multiple felony charges including a battery charge for an early New Year's Day altercation.<br /><div><br /></div><div>By H. Nelson Goodson</div><div>Hispanic News Network U.S.A.</div><div><br /></div><div>January 2, 2017</div><div><br /></div><div>Kenosha, WI - The Kenosha Police Department (KPD) confirmed, that Kenosha Police Officer Kendal J. West, 29, has been taken into custody on early Sunday around 2:00 a.m. in connection with an altercation early New Year's Day. Officer West was booked at the Racine County jail and the incident is being investigated by the Racine County Sheriff's Office.</div><div>West is facing multiple felony charges including a charge for battery.<br /><br />West was booked at the Racine County Sheriff's jail with the following charges:<br /><br />• Battery/Special Circumstances (Class I Felony) if found guilty, West is facing up to 3 years and 6 months in prison and up to $10,000 in fines<br /><br />• 1st-degree Reckless Endangering Safety (Class F Felony) West, if found guilty is facing up to 12 years and 6 months in prison and up to $25,000 in fines<br /><br />• Misconduct in office (Class I Felony)  if found guilty, West is facing up to 3 years and 6 months in prison and up to $10,000 in fines<br /><br />• Disorderly Conduct (Class B Misdemeanor) if found guilty, West is facing up to 90 days in jail and up to $1,000 in fines<br /><br />Cash bond for West was set at $22,650, according to the Racine County Sheriff's Office.<br /><br />Kenosha Police Chief Daniel Miskins cited that Officer West has been placed on administrative duty and the "altercation stemming from a personal problem."</div><div>West was hired in 2013 by the KPD and was a former police officer with Montgomery Alabama Police Department. West is originally from Kenosha, according to the KPD.</div><div><br /></div>

Kenosha Police Officer Kendal J. West Facing Multiple Felony Charges For New Year's Day Altercation

Kenosha Police Officer West was booked at the Racine County jail and is facing multiple felony charges including a battery charge for an ear...

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Mauricio Luna Jr. Celebrating His Birthday Arrested In Rockford For Firing Gushots On New Year's Day

<p class="mobile-photo"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPQ1VKSos7V53s_KpHULt_Vt4cvL_o5LgmPVa-uVrv103wiJ5WBRdoVPsrTVf2NwGk1zqLCCj6TOphwYTB-evp2vWBZI-zFqRCYx1tqB7qKeqopxAVEgIt6SnM0rPfJRa7EchQ6tnewvs/s1600/Mauricio+Luna+Jr.-738419.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_6370809776611817378" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPQ1VKSos7V53s_KpHULt_Vt4cvL_o5LgmPVa-uVrv103wiJ5WBRdoVPsrTVf2NwGk1zqLCCj6TOphwYTB-evp2vWBZI-zFqRCYx1tqB7qKeqopxAVEgIt6SnM0rPfJRa7EchQ6tnewvs/s320/Mauricio+Luna+Jr.-738419.jpg" /></a></p>Luna Jr. discharged at least nine gunshots in the air after a local Rockford restaurant refused Luna re-entry.<div><br></div><div>By H. Nelson Goodson</div><div>Hispanic News Network U.S.A.</div><div><br></div><div>January 1, 2017</div><div><br></div><div>Rockford, Illinois - On Sunday, the Rockford Police Department reported that Mauricio Luna Jr., 24, was taken into custody around 12:38 a.m. on New Year's Day by a Metro Law Enforcement officer shortly after Luna while allegedly intoxicated discharged at least nine gunshots into the air and then went to his vehicle and sat down. Rockford police say, Luna was celebrating his birthday at Franchesco's Ristorante located at 7128 Spring Creek Rd in Rockford when he left the establishment and was refused re-entry. Luna went to his vehicle and retrieved a handgun and fired gunshots into the air in the parking lot.</div><div>A Metro Law enforcement officer arrived at the scene and spotted Luna in his vehicle. When the officer approached Luna, he pointed the weapon at the officer, but the officer was able to take the weapon from Luna and arrested him.</div><div>Rock police arrived and took Luna into custody. Nine spent cartridges were recovered from the parking lot.</div><div><br></div><div>Luna was charged with:</div><div><br></div><div>• Reckless Discharge of Firearm<br>• Aggravated Assault</div><div>• Violation CCW Law (While Under the Influence of Alcohol)<br><br>Luna had a valid FOID and a Concealed Carry License. No one was injured and no property was damaged during the incident, according to the Rock Police Department.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div>

Mauricio Luna Jr. Celebrating His Birthday Arrested In Rockford For Firing Gushots On New Year's Day

Luna Jr. discharged at least nine gunshots in the air after a local Rockford restaurant refused Luna re-entry. By H. Nelson Goodson Hispanic...

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

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzYtit8NJDCRLIRlPKKePilrpPrgqvvSJJBLPmvCxqlhBl0iw0IaNUoc55CgHp6LLD3M9qJnPQVLaPhx25qJuvQiXgEPWYkagbnUz2SSF1ZOG8HSqdNmNxfTJNShoQ3hQP-meHLGxu_FI/s1600/Gallows%252C+Department+of+Corrections%252C+Smyrna%252C+Delaware%252C+1991.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Disused gallows in Smyrna prison, Delaware, 1991" border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzYtit8NJDCRLIRlPKKePilrpPrgqvvSJJBLPmvCxqlhBl0iw0IaNUoc55CgHp6LLD3M9qJnPQVLaPhx25qJuvQiXgEPWYkagbnUz2SSF1ZOG8HSqdNmNxfTJNShoQ3hQP-meHLGxu_FI/s400/Gallows%252C+Department+of+Corrections%252C+Smyrna%252C+Delaware%252C+1991.jpg" title="Disused gallows in Smyrna prison, Delaware, 1991" width="373" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Disused gallows in Smyrna prison, Delaware, 1991</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>In employing the death penalty, the U.S. insists it abides by international law. But it declines to make the most important international commitment - to reject the penalty as a violation of human rights. </i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Last week, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted a resolution calling for a worldwide "moratorium on the use of the death penalty" - the 6th that the U.N. has approved in the past decade. Each one has gained the support of more of the organization's members. The latest vote was 117 countries in favor to 409 against. (31 abstained, and 5 did not vote.) In addition to a call for a halt to executions worldwide, the resolution urges countries that maintain the death penalty to increasingly restrict its imposition and to apply international laws that protect the rights of those facing the penalty. The rights include that a death sentence may be imposed only for the "most serious crimes," defined as intentional crimes that have "lethal or other extremely grave consequences," and that execution be carried out only after "a final judgment rendered by a competent court," following a legal process that insures a fair trial and that provides access to appeal to a higher court and the opportunity to seek a pardon or a commutation of the sentence.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">At the General Assembly, the United States cast one of the nay votes. Stefanie Amadeo, the deputy representative to the U.N. Economic and Social Council, explained the country's position, which is basically unchanged since the U.S. opposed the 1st resolution against the death penalty, in 2007: "The ultimate decision regarding these issues must be addressed through the domestic democratic processes of individual Member States and be consistent with their obligations under international law," which does not prohibit capital punishment. The position reflects the American reality of supporting the death penalty in principle, but increasingly outlawing it in practice. As Jeffrey Toobin reported recently, the U.S. maintains the death penalty under federal and military law and under the laws of 31 states - even though only 5 states conducted executions in 2016 and executed only 20 people in total, the lowest number in 25 years.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><h3>Global norms</h3><br />The U.S. stresses the importance of observing global norms. "Just as the United States is committed to complying with its international obligations," Amadeo said, "we strongly urge other countries that employ the death penalty to do so only in full compliance with their international obligations." Meanwhile, in the past 40 years, the U.S. Supreme Court has increasingly sought to restrict the application of the death penalty to the worst of the worst offenders - 1st, to people who commit the most heinous murders and, then, only to adults who commit them, excluding youth under the age of 18. In addition, it generally takes a decade or more for a state to carry out an execution because of challenges to a death sentence allowed under due process of law.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Among the states with the death penalty, 12 have not carried out an execution for a decade or more, and another five have not executed anyone for at least 5 years. In California, where the last execution was in 2006, there were 750 people on death row as of December 2nd. Rather than being executed (the state has executed only 13 people since 1978) it is much more likely that a death-row inmate will die as a result of natural causes or suicide.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Roger Hood, an emeritus professor at Oxford, and Carolyn Hoyle, who directs Oxford's Centre for Criminology, last year published the 5th edition of "The Death Penalty: A Worldwide Perspective." Their book documents the many ways that people are sentenced to death in violation of international law - for drug-trafficking, for example, rather than for "the most serious crimes," in unfair proceedings and with no opportunity to ask for clemency, and while imprisoned in terrible conditions. These and other realities, they write, are moving "the debate about capital punishment beyond the view that each nation has, if it wishes, the sovereign right to retain the death penalty" to persuading "countries that retain the death penalty that it inevitably, and however administered, violates universally accepted human rights." Countries that employ the death penalty and insist that they are abiding by international law, including the U.S., decline to join in making the most important international commitment about the penalty, which is to reject it as a violation of human rights.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">There has long been a gap between the idealism that the U.S. expresses when boasting of its dedication to the rule of law, especially the protection of individual rights, and the reality of its persistent refusal to abide by major international human-rights commitments. The U.S. was a leader in the development of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which the U.N. adopted in 1948, but stopped supporting the international system to carry it out because, among other reasons, Jim Crow laws directly violated the declaration. There is a sizable list of human-rights treaties - on the Rights of the Child, for example, and on the International Criminal Court - that the U.S. has signed but not ratified. Even when the U.S. ratifies treaties, the government often adds a caveat that excludes protection of some basic rights.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As a result, the U.S. has ended up in some rough company, particularly when it comes to the death penalty. In the past generation, the number of countries that have stopping using the death penalty has doubled, from about 50 to about 100. Of the 57 member states of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, and of the 35 member states of the Organization of American States, only the U.S. carried out executions last year. The countries that executed the most offenders were, in order, China, Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the United States. China executed thousands of people, though its secrecy about its use of capital punishment makes it impossible to know exactly how many. Excluding China, Iran (with close to 1000 or more), Pakistan (326), and Saudi Arabia (158) executed almost 9 out of 10 people put to death worldwide - "often after grossly unfair trials," according to Amnesty International, and "for crimes - including drug trafficking, corruption, 'adultery,' and 'blasphemy' - that do not meet the international legal standards for the use of the death penalty." In 2015, according to Amnesty International, at least 1634 people were executed, an increase of more than 50 % from the year before and the highest number in a quarter of a century. (The organization expects to release figures for 2016 in the spring.)<br /><br /><h3>The influence of the U.S. on the death penalty worldwide</h3></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The United States, in other words, ranks with countries that conspicuously are not in full compliance with their international obligations. And its responsibility is sometimes worse than guilt by association. As Maya Foa, the director of the death-penalty team at Reprieve, an international human-rights organization, told me, "The U.S. clearly leads and influences global death-penalty practice. Our partners, who are lawyers and human-rights defenders in jurisdictions that retain the penalty, tell us that the use of the death penalty by the U.S., a 'developed' nation, is used to justify the death-penalty practice in the jurisdictions they work in." Reprieve is providing legal and investigative assistance to people facing execution in 11 countries, in Africa, the Middle East, and South and Southeast Asia, and in the U.S.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In August at a rally in Istanbul, after the failed coup attempt in Turkey, the BBC reported, the country's President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said, "They say there is no death penalty in the E.U. ... Well, the U.S. has it; Japan has it; China has it; most of the world has it. So they are allowed to have it. We used to have it until 1984. Sovereignty belongs to the people, so if the people make this decision I am sure the political parties will comply." He said that the Turkish people might want to restore the death penalty to punish those responsible for killing hundreds of citizens during the attempted coup. That has not happened yet, but, if it does, its purpose, Erdogan suggested, will be a display of cold-blooded power.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The influence of the U.S. on the death penalty worldwide has sometimes been constructive. In 1976, for example, when the Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional for a state to make the death penalty mandatory for any crime, it marked the beginning of the decline of mandatory death sentences around the world. "The fundamental respect for humanity underlying the Eighth Amendment," the Court said, "requires consideration of the character and record of the individual offender and the circumstances of the particular offense."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Indian Supreme Court employed this logic when it struck down the mandatory death sentence in the country's penal code, in 1983. The legislature, it held, could not compel judges "to shut their eyes to mitigating circumstances and inflict upon them the dubious and unconscionable duty of imposing a preordained sentence of death." More recently, the Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide reports, 18 other countries have followed suit and struck down the mandatory death penalty, including almost every Caribbean nation and Uganda, Malawi, and Kenya.<br /><br /><h3>Replacing Justice Scalia</h3></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In their latest edition of "The Death Penalty," Hood and Hoyle write optimistically about the U.S. example: "Those who campaign for abolition worldwide can hope that it will not be many years before the U.S. Supreme Court will be able to find that the majority of states, in line with a majority of countries worldwide, does not support the death penalty for anyone." Donald Trump has said that he will replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia - the Court's most vehement defender of the death penalty for almost 30 years - with someone in his mold. But, even when that happens, there will be a possibility that Justice Anthony Kennedy will join the Court's moderate liberals in striking down the death penalty, for reasons Justice Stephen Breyer articulated in 2015: "The Court in effect delegated significant responsibility to the States to develop procedures that would" insure the fairness of the capital-punishment system, he wrote. "Almost 40 years of studies, surveys, and experience strongly indicate, however, that this effort has failed." If the Court continues to uphold the death penalty, on the other hand, the gap between the U.S. and a large and growing majority of the rest of the world will continue to increase.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: The New Yorker, Lincoln Caplan, December 31, 2016. Mr. Caplan, a former New Yorker staff writer, is a senior research scholar at Yale Law School and the author of the new book "American Justice 2016: The Political Supreme Court."</div><br /><div style="text-align: center;">⚑ | Report an error, an omission; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: <a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com">deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a>.</div><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="4" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px solid rgb(255, 204, 0); color: black; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL4sspwgGptzvuHVklum5TwxKppRN-lIC5TN8RLZFq_B4ZOtBrX1ssXPNKQ6XpSyQFRJRtVQN45HMkpt3VX0JtOW0TovwxZAurG-AV6gh98IAXo7Ip6QlpkZr9WrM3_m943Mwy-gGxBAY/s1600/Find+us+Facebook.jpg" /></a></div></td> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiULIPEaT_P6oIauxAZd17XRRxljesDLS7iIjdQXT7Xct99uHeohx4IYmiAB6S044gTjMDGSy50sL2vDzOyPZ-3vJj9zwcYQ2rgzJh9v1-QDiunKAQtLLLqJ83s38qN3HABxGIC8GsIOD0/s1600/Find+us+twitter.jpg" /></a><span id="goog_1427852018"></span><span id="goog_1427852019"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a></div></td> </tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><b>Opposed to Capital Punishment? 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The Growing Gap Between the U.S. and the International Anti-Death-Penalty Consensus

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

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No refills: Last remaining Arkansas death penalty drugs expire soon

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7b04hJwgUVBGWhgX6w-OwAKqyOH-b0vEJTM5zuHN3JAcP4VnBB0UzDHirHhB4S8uCrB4QW53u3yZunpPGntdppmgyoV7R8nPL5NXy235nkB4AWaRbNPsu81EBgTXHZuSBwmlFe9haMMM/s1600/Lethal+injections.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7b04hJwgUVBGWhgX6w-OwAKqyOH-b0vEJTM5zuHN3JAcP4VnBB0UzDHirHhB4S8uCrB4QW53u3yZunpPGntdppmgyoV7R8nPL5NXy235nkB4AWaRbNPsu81EBgTXHZuSBwmlFe9haMMM/s320/Lethal+injections.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">After waiting 11 years to die, 35 death row inmates in Arkansas are likely to be around for even longer. The state's lethal injection supply of potassium chloride is set to run out by January 1, 2017.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Arkansas has not had an execution since 2005, due to legal problems centered around their lethal drugs.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 2015, Governor Asa Hutchinson (R) set execution dates for 8 death row inmates, but they were put on hold until the state Supreme Court decided on the legality of the state's secrecy law.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">9 inmates challenged the state's secrecy law, arguing that Arkansas was violating the Eighth Amendment of the US Constitution by not revealing the maker, seller and other information about the drugs used in executions. Due to a previous botched execution in Oklahoma, they also argued that one of the drugs, midazolam, failed to properly block pain receptors, which lead to "cruel and unusual" executions.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On June 23, the Arkansas Supreme Court voted 4-3 to uphold the state's secrecy policy, enabling the state to continue concealing information about the drugs used in executions.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">However, this was just after the press discovered that the state had obtained lethal drugs from a subsidiary of Pfizer.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">RT reported on Pfizer declaring its opposition to using their products in executions, citing their website at the time, which stated: "Pfizer makes its products to enhance and save the lives of the patients we serve. Consistent with these values, Pfizer strongly objects to the use of its products as lethal injections for capital punishment."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Since then, many pharmaceutical companies in the US have decided to stop selling lethal drugs to states with capital punishment, and many regulations in Europe have made it hard for states to import any of the necessary drugs for lethal injections.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As pharmaceutical companies continue to make lethal drugs difficult to obtain, states have resorted to alternative sources, but they are not having much luck. The American Pharmacists Association came out with a statement discouraging its members from selling lethal drugs to states for their executions, saying, "Such activities are fundamentally contrary to the role of pharmacists as providers of health care."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Without a path to buy lethal drugs, the number of executions has reached its lowest point in a quarter-century, according to a year-end study from the Death Penalty Information Center. The study finds that executions went from a high of 98 in 1998, to only 20 in 2016. This year also saw the fewest death penalty sentences since 1972, when the US Supreme Court case of Furman v. Georgia led to a 4-year-long moratorium on capital punishment sentencing.</div><br />Source: rt.com, December 31, 2016<br /><br /><br /><h2>Arkansas says it hasn't found new execution-drug seller</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">An Arkansas prison system spokesman said Friday that the state doesn't have a replacement for a lethal injection drug that's set to expire today, the latest obstacle in the state's effort to resume executions after more than 11 years.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Department of Correction spokesman Solomon Graves confirmed that the state's supply of potassium chloride - 1 of 3 drugs used in lethal injections - expires Sunday. Graves declined to say whether officials are working to find a replacement. "Our current supply remains unchanged," Graves said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Arkansas hasn't put an inmate to death since 2005, and executions are on hold while the U.S. Supreme Court considers a request to weigh in on a ruling upholding the state's death penalty law.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The state Supreme Court in June reversed a lower court's decision against the state's execution secrecy law, which requires the Department of Correction to conceal the maker, seller and other information about the execution drugs. Justices have stayed that ruling while the inmates appeal to the nation's high court.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Death row inmates challenging the law say using the drugs could lead to cruel and unusual punishment and that the state reneged on an earlier pledge to share information about the drugs.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Arkansas has 35 inmates on death row. Gov. Asa Hutchinson set execution dates in 2015 for the 8 inmates involved in the lawsuit before the executions were put on hold by the state Supreme Court during the challenge to the secrecy law.</div><br />Source: Associated Press, January 1, 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>

No refills: Last remaining Arkansas death penalty drugs expire soon

After waiting 11 years to die, 35 death row inmates in Arkansas are likely to be around for even longer. The state's lethal injection su...

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Philippines: A moral, ethical issue for our people

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ-sjP1LRymXP7DA6y7GXHOiwI1gpD_jv2Z7bXXCk94fjdYp07j6dzT4HGlc76g4raj7lwR_fkhFsNrKuHxvm4bMXbKB9xH8YmrTNeFaZWkp_Cj519ziB93gSYWswsM1Og90T4K1J-le8/s1600/Philippines+police+officers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ-sjP1LRymXP7DA6y7GXHOiwI1gpD_jv2Z7bXXCk94fjdYp07j6dzT4HGlc76g4raj7lwR_fkhFsNrKuHxvm4bMXbKB9xH8YmrTNeFaZWkp_Cj519ziB93gSYWswsM1Og90T4K1J-le8/s400/Philippines+police+officers.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In the ongoing discussion on the death penalty, which President Duterte wants to return so as to strengthen the rule of law, it is useful to note that the world - and the Philippines with it - has long debated this issue in the United Nations.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 1966, the UN General Assembly, of which the Philippines is a founding member, adopted the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) which, together with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, make up what is known as the International Bill of Human Rights. The Philippines signed the ICCPR on December 19, 1966, and ratified it on October 23, 1986.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 1989, the General Assembly adopted the Second Protocol on Civil and Political Rights, calling on all states to abolish the death penalty. The Protocol was a treaty signed by 83 states, including the Philippines. The Philippines signed the Protocol on September 20, 2006, and ratified it on September 20, 2007.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In between these 2 international agreements, the Philippines became the 1st Asian country to abolish the death penalty when the nation ratified the Constitution in 1987, but Congress could reimpose it should the need arise. In 1993, such a law was passed to address the rising criminality in the country. 7 convicts were executed in 1999, followed by a moratorium in observance of the Catholic Church's "Jubilee Year." In 2003, 2 men were about to be executed when new evidence came up that exonerated the 2.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">All the while, the Commission on Human Rights vehemently opposed efforts to reimpose the death penalty. It said it was not convinced that the death penalty is the answer to rising criminality. The proper response, it said, lies in effective law enforcement, quick and impartial delivery of justice, and a responsive penal system. "To mete out to criminals the very final and irrevocable and inhuman verdict of death is tantamount to punishing them for the failure of the system," it declared.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Today we are again in the middle of debate on the death penalty. Right after he won the presidential election last May, President Duterte said he wanted Congress to restore the death penalty - by hanging - for convicts involved in illegal drugs, gun-for-hire syndicates, and for those who commit "heinous crimes" like rapists and robbers who kill their victims.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">We are also in the middle of a nationwide anti-drug campaign in which thousands have already been killed, many allegedly for resisting arrest - moving some to ask if there is still need for a death penalty to discourage criminals.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The critical debate on this issue will soon be taking place in the halls of Congress. Along with all the legal arguments and all the Philippines' commitments to the international community, the Church has also weighed in against the ancient system of "a tooth for a tooth, a life for a life." More than a legal issue, it will be a moral and ethical one which will determine what we really are as a people.</div><br />Source: tempo.com.ph, Editorial, December 30, 2016<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">⚑ | Report an error, an omission; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: <a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com">deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a>.</div><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="4" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px solid rgb(255, 204, 0); color: black; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL4sspwgGptzvuHVklum5TwxKppRN-lIC5TN8RLZFq_B4ZOtBrX1ssXPNKQ6XpSyQFRJRtVQN45HMkpt3VX0JtOW0TovwxZAurG-AV6gh98IAXo7Ip6QlpkZr9WrM3_m943Mwy-gGxBAY/s1600/Find+us+Facebook.jpg" /></a></div></td> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiULIPEaT_P6oIauxAZd17XRRxljesDLS7iIjdQXT7Xct99uHeohx4IYmiAB6S044gTjMDGSy50sL2vDzOyPZ-3vJj9zwcYQ2rgzJh9v1-QDiunKAQtLLLqJ83s38qN3HABxGIC8GsIOD0/s1600/Find+us+twitter.jpg" /></a><span id="goog_1427852018"></span><span id="goog_1427852019"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a></div></td> </tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><b>Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! <a href="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=JBVXEBZLP3WKW" target="_blank">DONATE!</a></b></div><form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post" target="_blank"><div style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/fr_FR/i/scr/pixel.gif" width="1" /></div></form><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div>

Philippines: A moral, ethical issue for our people

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

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129 inmates on death row in Japan at end of 2016

<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/AVvXsEiC6EoRPwsy-jk_gDUBlGLBqvCvISafQotincyMleAbJY7LCathKKHFtwO7Kj2lo7fvF2wUIEmoSRjrB2fVUVD2jTM-13hbhsYgIGiawqTNfEEf8ofUu_h9AMwtI4MGR57mUabRQKvSV-0/s1600/japan+tokyo+death+chamber.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Gallows at Tokyo Detention Center" border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC6EoRPwsy-jk_gDUBlGLBqvCvISafQotincyMleAbJY7LCathKKHFtwO7Kj2lo7fvF2wUIEmoSRjrB2fVUVD2jTM-13hbhsYgIGiawqTNfEEf8ofUu_h9AMwtI4MGR57mUabRQKvSV-0/s400/japan+tokyo+death+chamber.jpg" title="Gallows at Tokyo Detention Center" width="333" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gallows at Tokyo Detention Center</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">TOKYO — The number of death row inmates in Japan in 2016 was 129 on Saturday, a rise of two people from 2015, while continuing to surpass the threshold of 100 since 2007.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Three inmates were executed during the year, while seven people were given the death penalty, the Ministry of Justice told Kyodo News.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Of the total figure, 128 people are officially registered as inmates at detention centers. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Iwao Hakamada, 80, a former professional boxer convicted in the murder of four people in 1966, was released in 2014 after a court decided to open a retrial.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Yasutoshi Kamata, 75, who was convicted of murdering a 9-year-old girl in Osaka and four women between 1985 and 1994, was put to death in March. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Junko Yoshida, 56, a former nurse who masterminded two murders for insurance money in 1998 and 1999 in Fukuoka Prefecture, was also executed in March.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In November, Kenichi Tajiri, 45, who killed two women in two murder-robbery cases in 2004 and 2011 in Kumamoto, southwestern Japan, was hanged, according to the ministry.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The seven people newly sentenced to death last year include 25-year-old Yutaro Chiba, who in July became the first to be given capital punishment under the lay judge trial system for a crime committed by a teenager. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Chiba was convicted of murdering two women in 2010 when he was 18 years old.</div><br />Source: Japan Times, January 1, 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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129 inmates on death row in Japan at end of 2016

Gallows at Tokyo Detention Center TOKYO — The number of death row inmates in Japan in 2016 was 129 on Saturday, a rise of two people from 20...

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