SOME
NEWS
| Mumia Abu-Jamal's case - update |
WASHINGTON
(AFP) The US Supreme Court Monday refused to hear arguments for a new
trial for Mumia Abu-Jamal, a former Black Panther accused of killing
a police officer, who has become an international symbol for the fight
against capital punishment.
His lawyer Robert Bryan has already said he will seek to bring a second
Supreme Court appeal for the 54 year old former radio journalist accused
of the 1981 murder, this time for racism.
Abu-Jamal's
death sentence was overturned in March by a federal court in Philadelphia,
which voted two-to-one to uphold his conviction, which now automatically
becomes a life sentence unless prosecutors bring him back before a jury.
But
Bryan has said he will not rest until client is freed. "Even though
the federal court granted a new trial on the question of the death penalty,
we want a complete reversal of the conviction," Byran said in July.
Abu-Jamal
has argued he was denied a fair trial in 1982 because the prosecution
barred 10 qualified African-Americans from sitting on the jury, which
in the end consisted of 10 whites and two blacks. The Philadelphia appeals
court had rejected his arguments on lack of evidence of any racist intent
on the part of the prosecution.
| Troy Davis : an innocence case |
October 25, 2008 /
Execution of Georgia Man in Killing of Officer Is Stayed a Third Time
By
ROBBIE BROWN
ATLANTA
— A federal appeals court on Friday halted the execution of a
Georgia inmate convicted in the 1989 killing of a police officer,
the third time in 16 months that a stay of execution has been ordered
in the case. Read
more (Source The New York Times)
October
16, 2008 : The Death Sentence of Troy Davis A Supreme Injustice
By ALAN MAASS
The
U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal by death row prisoner Troy
Davis, clearing the way for the state of Georgia to set a third execution
date in the coming weeks. Read
more and how to act
GEORGIA----execution
- Alderman's death by lethal injection took 14 minutes
The 20th man executed in Georgia by lethal injection took 14 minutes
to die Tuesday night.
Witness described Jack Aldermans manner as calm, almost serene, his
eyes closed the entire time. For a few minutes before he was declared
dead, they said he smiled.
"There was no jerking," said Jan Skutch, a media witness from The Savannah
Morning News. "He was calm. It was almost antiseptic."
Adlerman, pronounced dead at 7:25 p.m. Tuesday, has been on death row
almost 35 years -- longer than any of the 109 death row inmates in Georgia.
He was convicted of the 1974 Chatham County murder of wife Barbara Alderman
for $10,000 in insurance money.
When that conviction was overturned by a federal appeals court, he was
convicted in a 2nd trial in 1984.
An accomplice in the murder, John Arthur Brown, beat Barbara Alderman
with a crescent wrench. Then he and Alderman choked her and put her
underwater in a bathtub to be sure she was dead.
Brown was paroled in 1987 and died a free man in New York in 2000.
Alderman's attorney, Michael Seiml, said Tuesday night after he
had exhausted his last appeals to the Georgia parole board for clemency
and to the U.S. Supreme Court -- that Alderman, 57, was a model prisoner
who deserved to have his death sentence reduced to life. [...]
(sources: Atlanta Journal-Constitution & Rick Halperin)
Dallas
DA to examine all death row cases in county
DALLAS
- A Texas district attorney known for his willingness to examine cases
of possible wrongful convictions now plans to investigate all death
row cases prosecuted in his county.
Dallas
County District Attorney Craig Watkins said Monday he would seek to
halt executions until he has reviewed the cases.
He
acknowledged that his concerns stem from Dallas' nationally unmatched
number of inmates whose convictions were tossed aside after DNA testing.
A hearing is scheduled Friday for a 56-year-old who could become the
20th man since 2001 to have a wrongful Dallas County conviction reversed.
"I
don't want someone to be executed on my watch for something they didn't
do," Watkins said in Tuesday editions of The Dallas Morning News.
There
are 41 inmates from Dallas County on death row, and two execution dates
are scheduled in the next couple of months. Two people have been sent
to death row since Watkins became district attorney in January 2007,
according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
The
exonerations frequently reveal eyewitness misidentification and occasionally
indicate prosecutorial misconduct as underlying causes for sending innocent
people to prison.
Watkins
said reviewing the capital murder convictions obtained by his predecessors
could reveal systemic problems in the justice system and spur lawmakers
to pass reforms.
"It's
not saying I'm putting a moratorium on the death penalty," Watkins told
the Dallas newspaper. "It's saying that maybe we should withdraw those
dates and look at those cases from a new perspective to make sure that
those individuals that are on death row need to be there and they need
to be executed."
Watkins
has previously asked to withdraw an execution date in at least one instance.
Last September, a judge granted a reprieve for Joseph Roland Lave, convicted
of a 1992 robbery and double murder, when the district attorney's office
discovered evidence requested by Lave's lawyers had not been released
and that a previous administration may have lied about it.
Watkins
maintains that Lave is guilty but said his trial was unfair because
evidence was withheld.
Southern
Methodist University law professor Fred Moss called Watkins' decision
to review death penalty cases "extraordinary." But former prosecutor
Toby Shook, whom Watkins defeated in 2006, said the DA is in effect
appointing himself as a one-man court of appeals.
"Perhaps
he hasn't thought this through, but essentially what he's saying is,
'There is one more court of appeal and that's me,'" Shook said. "That's
going to be devastating to a family."
source
: Atlanta
Journal-Constitution September 17, 2008
Declaration
by the Presidency on behalf of the EU following the execution of three
people under sentence of death in Japan
The European
Union is deeply concerned at the Japanese authorities' announcement
that three people under sentence of death – Mr Yoshiyuki Mantani,
aged 68, Mr Mineteru Yamamoto, aged 68, Mr Isamu Hirano, aged 61 –
have been hanged.
The acceleration
of executions in Japan confirms a particularly disturbing trend at a
time when there are more than 100 prisoners waiting on death row.
The EU
reiterates its longstanding opposition to the death penalty, whatever
the circumstances, and is striving to achieve its universal abolition,
seeking a global moratorium on the death penalty as the first step.
The EU considers that the elimination of the death penalty is fundamental
to the protection of human dignity and to the progressive development
of human rights. Any miscarriage of justice in the application of capital
punishment represents an irreparable and irreversible loss of human
life. No legal system is immune from mistakes and there is no irrefutable
evidence that the death penalty provides added value in terms of deterrence.
http://www.ue2008.fr/PFUE/lang/en/accueil/PFUE-09_2008/PFUE-12.09.2008/PESC_Japon
| Death penalty - female |
| Antoinette
Franck |
T
exas - Antoinette Frank gets new execution date
A
state judge has scheduled the execution of convicted killer Antoinette
Frank for December 8. On Wednesday, Judge Frank Marullo rejected arguments
by her attorney that he lacks sufficient documentation from the police
and district attorney's office to file a post-conviction appeal. Frank,
a former New Orleans police officer convicted for her role in the murders
of 3 people at an eastern New Orleans restaurant in 1995, last year
lost an appeal to the Louisiana Supreme Court. That appeal was about
whether Frank received sufficient expert assistance during the penalty
phase of her trial, when the jury who convicted her of murder considered
whether to impose death by lethal injection or life in prison. Gary
Clements, director of the Capital Post-Conviction Project of Louisiana,
says he plans to file an appeal of the death warrant signed by Marullo
by October 1. (source: Associated Press) - read more about the story
of this woman on wikipedia
| US Suprem Court / Kennedy v Louisiana |
"
In a rare move, the Supreme Court said it might reconsider its June
decision that struck down the death penalty for crimes that fall short
of murder, after a law blog revealed that the government left out a
fact that would have bolstered its argument that executions for such
offenses are constitutional. The case involves a Louisiana statute authorizing
a death sentence for the rape of a child. In a 5-4 decision, the court
found that capital punishment for the crime violated the Eighth Amendment
prohibition of "cruel and unusual punishments." In finding the penalty
excessive, Justice Anthony Kennedy's majority opinion noted that neither
the U.S. government nor the overwhelming majority of states permit capital
punishment for child rape. Justice Kennedy relied on briefs filed by
Louisiana and the U.S. Justice Department. But Justice Department lawyers
overlooked a 2006 amendment to the Uniform Code of Military Justice
authorizing death for certain sexual assaults on children under age
16. The error was found by Dwight Sullivan, an attorney and Marine Corps
Reserve colonel and military-justice blogger. Louisiana and the Justice
Department asked the court to reconsider the decision. ... "
source
Wall Street Journal
Read
more about the opinion
 |
DETOUR
TO DEATH ROW by David Atwood, Founder, Texas Coalition to
Abolish the Death Penalty Foreword by Rosalyn Falcón Collier.
Since
1982, more than 400 executions have taken place in Texas. No other
state in the nation executes its citizens like Texas, a state
that clearly has a love affair with the death penalty. Detour
to Death Row is the story of David Atwood — a retired oil company
engineer, committed Christian, student of nonviolence and tireless
activist — and his 15-year effort to abolish the death penalty
in Texas. It is also the story of the people he met on his journey:
me n and women on death row, their families, the families of the
victims, and fellow death penalty activists across the globe.
It is the story of a failed system of retribution and a story
of hope that there is a better way of justice. >>> read
more
http://1.salsa.net/peace/ebooks/detour.html
|
| TEXAS
- J. L. WOOD EXECUTION - UPDATE |
Aug.
21
STAY OF EXECUTION GRANTED IN TEXAS DEATH PENALTY CASE OF MENTALLY-ILL
INMATE WHO WAS NOT TRIGGERMAN
WOOD EXECUTION HALTED BASED ON TEXAS STATE COURTS FAILURE TO PROVIDE
DUE
PROCESS ON ISSUES RELATING TO WOOD'S MENTAL ILLNESS
Austin -- Today, the Federal District Court granted a stay of execution
in the case of Jeff Wood to allow the court to consider compelling evidence
that Jeff Wood is too mentally ill to be executed. The Court held that
the Texas state courts have not carefully reviewed the question of Wood's
competence and that a stay of execution is necessary to ensure that
Wood's mental health issues are fully presented and considered by the
courts. The Court's Order Granting Stay of Execution is attached.
"We applaud the Federal District Court for upholding Jeff Wood's
rudimentary due process right to have his competency evaluated,"
said Andrea Keilen, executive director of Texas Defender Service, who,
along with attorney Scott Sullivan, are representing Mr. Wood.
The Federal District Court authorized an attorney and the assistance
of mental health experts, pointing out that the Texas state courts had
not complied with the basic due process that the United States Supreme
Court required in another Texas case - that of Scott Panetti, a mentally
ill death row inmate with a 20 year history of schizophrenia, who was
permitted to represent himself at trial dressed in a purple cowboy costume.
In its 20-page order, the Court stated, "With all due respect,
a system that requires an insane person to first make "a substantial
showing" of his own lack of mental capacity without the assistance
of counsel or a mental health expert, in order to obtain such assistance
is, by definition, an insane system."
Prosecutors have indicated they will not appeal today's decision. Yesterday,
the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles denied the application for clemency
on a vote of 7-0 despite the mental health evidence and fact that it
is undisputed that Jeff Wood did not kill the victim in this case, but
rather was outside the building in a car at the time of the murder.
The actual killer, Daniel Reneau, was already executed by the State
of Texas in 2002.
Wood was convicted and sentenced to death as a party for the death of
Kriss Keeran in Kerr County, Texas. Mr. Wood was convicted under Texas'
"law of parties" statute that allows for the conviction of
participants in a crime even if they have do not know a murder will
be committed or commit murder themselves.
Wood has never taken a human life by his own hands. Keeran's unfortunate
death was the result of a reckless scheme devised to steal the money
that had accumulated in a Kerrville convenience store over a holiday
weekend. Reneau armed himself, entered the store, and shot the victim.
Wood was involved in the robbery this case because of his longstanding
mental illness that allowed him to be easily manipulated by the principal
actor,
Daniel Reneau. Wood's emotional and psychological impairments, including
his intellectual limitations, diminished Wood's capacity to anticipate
what Daniel Reneau would do inside the convenience store.
At the punishment phase of the trial, influenced by his mental health
issues, Woods directed his lawyers not to present any evidence in his
defense. Mr. Wood's attorneys made no cross examination of any of the
State's witnesses. They presented no evidence or witnesses on Mr. Wood's
behalf. And they offered no reasons or arguments why the twelve people
sitting on Mr. Wood's jury should extend mercy to him and spare his
life.
Wood's mental illness was a critical element at trial and in 1997, Wood
was initially found incompetent to stand trial. Mr. Wood suffers today
from the same psychological and emotional impairments for which a jury
found him incompetent to stand trial in 1997. He has never received
psychiatric or mental health care for these impairments. The same deficiencies
that prevented Mr. Wood from communicating with his trial lawyer with
a reasonable degree of rational understanding prevent Mr. Wood from
having a rational understanding of his death sentence and impending
execution.
A neuropsychologist who evaluated Wood's competence to stand trial said
that Mr. Wood "ha[d] a delusional system, an inability to grasp
the reality surrounding the issues specific to this case, his role in
it, in the crime, as well as other things that present a direct threat
to his own well-being, his own sense of self."
(source: Texas Defender Service)
| TEXAS - J.
L. WOOD EXECUTION - LAW OF PARTIES |
August
20, 2008
Texas Panel Rejects Plea to Halt Execution of Accomplice in 1996 Murder
By
JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr. -
The New York Times
HOUSTON
— Jeffrey Lee Wood is sentenced to die this week for the murder
of a store clerk during a robbery, even though he was sitting in a
truck outside the convenience store when it happened.
Mr. Wood
is the latest person to face the death penalty under a Texas
law that makes accomplices subject to the death penalty if a murder
occurs during a crime.
His lawyers
say Mr. Wood is a gullible man of limited intellect who suffers from
delusions. In their view, Mr. Wood was never mentally competent to
stand trial in the first place.
Nor,
they argue, was Mr. Wood aware that his partner in the robbery, David
Reneau, was carrying a gun, according to testimony presented at Mr.
Reneau’s trial but never brought up during Mr. Wood’s
trial.
These
arguments failed to sway the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, however.
On Tuesday afternoon, the seven-member board unanimously rejected
a petition from Mr. Wood’s lawyers for a commutation of his
sentence.
That
means he will be executed Thursday evening, unless Gov. Rick
Perry grants a 30-day reprieve or a judge issues a stay. “The
governor hasn’t made a decision,” Mr. Perry’s spokeswoman,
Allison Castle, said.
Mr. Wood,
who is 35, also lost a motion before the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals
on Tuesday. His lawyers had asked the court to appoint a lawyer to
pursue the argument that Mr. Wood lacks the mental competence to be
executed.
Mr. Wood
and Mr. Reneau were tried separately for the killing of Kriss Keeran,
a 31-year-old cashier who was shot in the forehead during the robbery
of a gas station and convenience store in Kerrville, Tex., on Jan.
2, 1996.
Mr. Reneau
was executed in 2002.
The two
robbers were roommates and knew the victim. Evidence at the two trials
showed the pair had planned the robbery for about two weeks and had
talks with Mr. Keeran and an assistant manager at the store, William
Bunker, about staging a fake robbery.
But that
plan went awry, and Mr. Reneau ended up walking into the store and
shooting Mr. Keeran between the eyes with a .22-caliber pistol while
Mr. Wood waited outside.
Then
he and Mr. Wood carried the store safe and the store’s security
camera out and retreated to a house belonging to Mr. Wood’s
parents, where they tried to break open the safe. At the house, Mr.
Wood bragged to a relative about the robbery.
A jury
found Mr. Wood incompetent to stand trial after listening to testimony
from a psychiatrist who said Mr. Wood was delusional and could not
grasp reality. But after Mr. Wood spent a short stint in a mental
hospital, a second jury found him competent. The judge did not let
Mr. Wood’s lawyers cross-examine some witnesses at that hearing.
After
his conviction, Mr. Wood wanted to represent himself in deliberations
on his sentence, but the judge refused. Mr. Wood ordered his lawyers
not to cross-examine any witnesses in the proceeding, a decision his
lawyers at the time called “a gesture of suicide.” The
jury voted for the death penalty.
Lucy
Wilke, the Kerr County assistant district attorney who prosecuted
Mr. Wood, did not return calls from a reporter. After Mr. Wood’s
trial in 1988, she said that he was “not a dummy” and
that the slaying was “cold-blooded, premeditated.”
Under
the Texas “law of parties,” the question of whether Mr.
Wood anticipated the murder is important. People who conspire to commit
a felony are all responsible for an ensuing crime, like murder, if
it can be shown they should have known it would happen.
The United
States Supreme Court has upheld the principle, ruling in 1987 that
the Constitution does not forbid the death penalty for a defendant
“whose participation in a felony that results in murder is major
and whose mental state is one of reckless indifference.”
At least
seven people have been executed in the United States since 1985 for
being accomplices in crimes during which one of their partners committed
murder, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Three of
those were executed in Texas.
David
R. Dow, a law professor in Houston who oversees the Texas Defenders
Project, which is trying to forestall the execution, said he doubted
Mr. Wood was mentally competent to stand trial, much less that he
knew in advance the murder would happen. In addition, Mr. Dow said,
he did not receive proper legal representation during the sentencing
phase.
“This
case has in it virtually every feature that makes the death penalty
system in Texas so scandalous,” he said.
The New
York Times - www.nytimes.com
UN
voices serious concerns about US execution of Mexican national
8
August 2008 – The United Nations human rights office has voiced serious
concerns about the execution of a Mexican national by United States authorities
in defiance of an order from the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
José Ernesto Medellín was executed by the authorities in the US state
of Texas by lethal injection on 5 August. This despite the fact that
the ICJ, also known as the World Court, ordered the US last month to
delay the executions of Mr. Medellín and four other Mexican nationals
on death row in its prisons until the court issues a final ruling on
the matter.
“The
United States has an international legal obligation to comply with decisions
of the International Court of Justice, an obligation which cannot be
set aside because of domestic constitutional arrangements,” Rupert Colville,
spokesperson for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
(OHCHR), told a news conference in Geneva today.
A 2004 ruling by the ICJ, which is based in The Hague, Netherlands,
on the same issue found that the US had been in breach of its international
obligations because authorities did not inform 51 Mexican nationals
of their right to contact their consular representatives “without delay”
after being arrested.
“Mr.
Medellín had been found guilty of very serious crimes,” stated Mr. Colville.
“However, at the time of his arrest, he was not informed of his right
to consular assistance in accordance with international treaty obligations
under the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.”
The Court had ordered that the US take all measures necessary to ensure
that Mr Medellín, and others, not be executed until he received a review
and reconsideration of his case to determine whether the breach of the
Vienna Convention prejudiced his defence. Judgments of the ICJ are binding
and cannot be appealed.
OHCHR notes that the ICJ orders remain valid for another 50 Mexican
nationals on death row in the US whose situation is similar to that
of Mr. Medellín.
“The
finality of the death penalty makes it essential that it is applied
with scrupulous attention to safeguards set down international law,”
noted Mr. Colville. “One of those safeguards is that foreign nationals
should have access to consular services.
“This
is crucial for the protection of all individuals who travel abroad.
It is imperative that all States take every possible action to ensure
reciprocal compliance of this safeguard, not least for the sake of their
own nationals,” he said.
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=27638&Cr=ICJ&Cr1=Mexico
Oficina
de la ONU deplora ejecución en Texas
08
de agosto, 2008 La
Oficina del Alto Comisionado de la ONU para los Derechos Humanos expresó
profunda preocupación por la decisión de las autoridades de Texas de ejecutar
al mexicano José Ernesto Medellín, pese a la orden de la Corte Internacional
de Justicia de postergar el cumplimiento de esa sentencia.
Medellín fue
hallado culpable de delitos muy graves, destacó la Oficina en un comunicado.
Sin embargo, cuando fue arrestado no se le informó sobre su derecho de
pedir asistencia a su consulado, como lo dispone la Convención de Viena
de 1963.
La Corte había instado a Estados Unidos a suspender su ejecución y la
de otros 50 mexicanos hasta que se determinara si el haber sido privados
de contacto consular había perjudicado su defensa.
El país, añadió la nota, tiene la obligación internacional de cumplir
las decisiones de la Corte y no las puede poner de lado debido a arreglos
constitucionales internos.
El hecho de que la pena de muerte sea irreversible exige que se apliquen
las normas del derecho internacional y se preste cuidadosa atención a
sus salvaguardas, continuó la Oficina.
Subrayó que la orden de la Corte continúa siendo válida para los 50 mexicanos
que se encuentran en el pabellón de los condenados a la pena capital.
Press release
- 570(2008)
Execution
in Texas: US should end its pick and choose attitude towards international
law
Statement
by Council of Europe Secretary General Terry Davis
Strasbourg,
06.08.2008 - “I am most concerned by the execution of Mexican national
José Medellin yesterday in Texas. Mr Medellin was not informed of his
right to consular help at the time of his arrest even though the United
States are legally bound to guarantee this right under the 1963 Vienna
Convention on Consular Relations. This is a regrettable attitude by
a country which is very vocal about its commitment to the rule of law.
The judicial authorities also blatantly ignored the order by the International
Court of Justice to stay the execution on the grounds of the violation
of the right to consular assistance. I wrote to the Texas Board of pardons
and paroles in July, asking for a stay of the execution, but my appeal
has been disregarded in the same way as the calls from the Mexican government,
the UN Secretary General and several other governments and international
organisations.
The issue
at stake is not the guilt of Mr Medellin. He was found guilty of a particularly
gruesome crime and he deserved to be punished.
The problem
is the death penalty, which is rejected by a great majority of democratic
and civilised countries across the world and also the pick and choose
attitude of the United States of America – and its individual states
- when it comes to respecting international law. The execution of Mr
Medellin was therefore not only a violation of human rights and human
dignity, but also an act of arrogant defiance which undermines the collective
mechanisms for peace and security in the world.”
Council
of Europe Press Division
Tel: +33 (0)3 88 41 25 60
Fax:+33 (0)3 88 41 39 11
pressunit@coe.int
www.coe.int/press
Presidency
declaration on behalf of the European Union on the execution of Mr José
Medellin in the United States (Texas)
On: 11.08.2008
The EU
profoundly regrets that, despite its repeated appeals and decisions
by the International Court of Justice, Mr José Medellin, a Mexican national,
was executed on 5 August 2008 in the state of Texas in the United States.
The EU
again confirms its opposition to the death penalty, whatever the circumstances.
The death penalty is an affront to human dignity. Furthermore, there
is no irrefutable proof that the death penalty has any dissuasive effect,
and any judicial error in the execution of a death sentence is irreversible
and irreparable.
The EU
appeals to the United States to introduce a moratorium on executions
with a view to abolishing the death penalty in accordance with the United
Nations General Assembly's Resolution of 18 December 2007.
The EU
deeply regrets that Mr Medellin was unable to exercise his right to
consular assistance as provided for in the Vienna Convention on Consular
Relations of 24 April 1963 and that the Texas authorities took no account
of the International Court of Justice's decision of 16 July 2008 ordering
stay of his execution and of those of four other Mexican nationals.
The EU
calls on the state of Texas to stay the executions of those four prisoners.
The EU
requests the US authorities at both federal and Texas state level to
take the necessary legislative measures to give appropriate effect to
the decisions of the International Court of Justice.
The EU
calls on the United States to fulfil all its international obligations
and in particular to make every effort to ensure that foreign nationals'
rights under international conventions, such as the 1963 Vienna Convention,
ratified by the United States, are effectively respected.
The Candidate
Countries Turkey and Croatia*, the Countries of the Stabilisation and
Association Process and potential candidates Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Montenegro, Serbia, and the EFTA countries Iceland, Liechtenstein and
Norway, members of the European Economic Area, as well as Ukraine, the
Republic of Moldova, Armenia and Azerbaijan align themselves with this
declaration.
* Croatia
continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.
http://www.ue2008.fr/PFUE/lang/en/accueil/PFUE-08_2008/PFUE-11.08.2008/PESC_execution_medellin
| International Court of Justice |
July
16, 2008 / World Court urges U.S. to halt Mexicans' executions
The
U.N.'s highest court on Wednesday ordered U.S. authorities to do everything
in their power to halt the executions of five Mexicans on death row
in Texas until their cases are reviewed.
The
Bush administration has said the World Court does not have jurisdiction
in the case.
The
ruling followed hastily convened hearings last month at which Mexico
argued that the United States is defying a 2004 order by the International
Court of Justice to review the cases of 51 Mexicans sentenced to death
by state courts.
That order was based on the court's finding that the condemned prisoners
had been denied the right to help from their consulate following their
arrest.
When
the executions were cleared to go ahead despite that ruling, Mexico
turned again to the court last month and asked the judges to issue an
emergency injunction to stop the schedule of killings.
The World Court agreed Wednesday that it would consider Mexico's case
and sought to prevent the imminent execution of 5 of the Mexicans.
"There
undoubtedly is urgency," said the court's president, Rosalyn Higgins.
Higgins said U.S. authorities should "take all measures necessary to
ensure that [the five Mexicans] are not executed pending judgment on
the request for interpretation."
(source:
Associated Press)
CHRONOLOGY
- March
31, 2004: The United Nation's International Court of Justice issued
an order that U.S. courts must review the cases of 51 condemned
Mexican prisoners. The court ruled the prisoners' rights to speak
with Mexican consular officials after their arrests had been violated.
•
- Feb.
28, 2005 : President Bush directed state courts to abide by the
world court's decision. He also asked Texas specifically to review
the case of Jose Medellin, now scheduled to die by lethal injection
Aug. 5.
-
March 25, 2008 : The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Bush could
not compel Texas to review Medellin's case. Chief Justice John
Roberts said the president cannot unilaterally carry out an international
treaty without concurrence of the legislative branch.
- June
20: The Mexican government made an emergency appeal to the U.N.'s
highest court to block the executions of its citizens on death
row in the U.S.
- July
16 : The world court ordered the U.S. to halt the five pending
executions of Mexican nationals on Texas' death row.
PRESS
CONFERENCE BY SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON EXTRAJUDICIAL, SUMMARY OR ARBITRARY
EXECUTIONS,
PHILIP ALSTON, ON HIS COUNTRY VISIT TO UNITED STATES
30
June 2008
There
was a need for greater transparency and accountability in the United
States in the criminal justice processes that led to the death penalty,
Philip Alston, United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary
or arbitrary executions, told correspondents at a Headquarters press
conference today.
“Generally,
it’s not laws and procedures that are lacking, but it is an openness
and a preparedness to provide access to key information that is missing,”
Mr. Alston said, introducing the preliminary findings of his country
visit to the United States, from 16 to 30 June. As an independent observer
for the Human Rights Council in his individual capacity, he explained
that his mandate was to ensure that due process guarantees were protected
in the application of the death penalty.
During
his United States visit, he said, most of his interviews with national
officials in Washington, D.C., and state officials in Texas and Alabama,
had been constructive. However, instead of obtaining access to the
information he needed, he had often been assured that there was accountability.
Whether or not it existed, private or internal accountability could
not take the place of genuine public accountability. “A Government
open and accountable to its people is the foundational premise of a
democratic State, and one certainly expects no less in the United States,”
he said.
Unease
over the death penalty in the United States had been sparked by, among
other factors, the exoneration of 129 individuals waiting on death row
since 1973, he said. He had visited Alabama because it had the highest
per capita rate of executions in the country, and Texas because it had
the largest number of executions and prisoners on death row. He had
found limited openness in Texas and little openness in Alabama on the
issue.
Clearly,
there was something wrong with the way the death penalty was being administered
in both states, he maintained. Among other problems he had found were
the political pressure felt by judges to apply the death penalty, the
uneven quality of the indigent defence system, an impression of bias
in applying the penalty as regarded the race of both the victim and
the defendant, and the breach of international legal obligations regarding
defendants from other countries.
At
the national level, he said, there was no way that fair trials could
be conducted for the six “alien enemy combatants” detained
at Guantanamo Bay and charged with capital offences under the Military
Commissions Act. By all indications, they would not meet the due process
standards required for a fair trial under international humanitarian
and human rights law, with the defence highly constricted in regard
to access to counsel and evidence. In addition, evidence not normally
admissible, such as coerced statements, could be used in the trials.
He
also called on the Government to publish information on civilian casualties
in military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and to make the workings
of the military justice system transparent, saying that was crucial
for the “hearts and minds” of the people in those countries.
Concerning prosecutions of private military contractors, he said that
the Department of Justice had been “AWOL” (absent without
leave), with only one case pursued, and that legislation proposed on
the issue had serious gaps. He called for a special unit to ensure
that laws already on the books were applied.
Among
other problems requiring improved transparency and accountability, he
cited the deaths of people in detention in both military and immigration
facilities. Areas where much progress had been made had included compensation
for civilian victims of United States military operations, which, he
suggested, provided a model to be emulated.
Asked
by a correspondent for the kind of changes that were needed in the Military
Commissions Act to make it just by international standards, Mr. Alston
said that the Act was so deeply flawed that it was better to start over.
The United States was setting itself up for a legal disaster because
of the likelihood that the courts would overturn convictions reached
under the current process.
Asked
to give a grade to the United States, or to compare its performance
in criminal justice issues to that of other countries, he said that
was meaningless. He added that the United States was a model for justice
around the world and had the obligation to do everything it could to
comply with the highest standards.
In
many areas, he said, the United States’ record was good. He hoped
his criticisms would not be met with a defensive reaction, but instead
bring about renewed consideration of improvement. Many of his concerns
had already been addressed in draft legislation, so it was not as if
he was bringing problems to light for the first time.
The
receptiveness of the officials he had met to his proposals had varied
considerably, he said, noting that officials at the Department of Homeland
Security seemed very willing to speak about the problem of deaths in
detention, while officials at the Department of Defence “listened
to my suggestions, and that’s all”.
http://www.un.org/News/briefings/docs/2008/080630_Alston.doc.htm
| US Suprem Court / Kennedy v Louisiana |
June
25, 2008 WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled, 5 to 4, on Wednesday
that sentencing someone to death for raping a child is unconstitutional,
assuming that the victim is not killed. “The death penalty is not a
proportional punishment for the rape of a child,” Justice Anthony M.
Kennedy wrote for the court. He was joined by Justices John Paul Stevens,
David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer. The dissenters
were Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Antonin Scalia,
Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr., generally regarded as the conservative
wing of the tribunal.
Supreme
Court Rejects Death Penalty for Child Rape By LINDA GREENHOUSE Published:
June 26, 2008 - New Yor Times
Read
the
opinion
EU
guidelines on the death penalty - Council conclusions
The
Council adopted the following conclusions: "The Council recalls
the adoption of the EU Guidelines on the Death Penalty on 29 June
1998. They were the first ever EU Guidelines on Human Rights to
be adopted, thus underlining the priority placed on the issue of
the death penalty by the EU. These EU Guidelines have gone on to
become a key practical tool of the EU's human rights policy towards
third countries.
The
Council adopts the revised and updated version of the EU Guidelines
on the Death Penalty as set out in doc. 10015/08 and reaffirms that
working towards universal abolition of the death penalty constitutes
an integral objective of the EU's human rights policy.
The
Council notes that since the adoption of these Guidelines 10 years
ago, considerable progress has been made worldwide towards the abolition
of the death penalty. The adoption by the UN General Assembly last
year of a cross-regional initiative calling for a moratorium on
the use of the death penalty, in the view of the Council, is a significant
achievement in this regard. The Council draws attention to the establishment
of a 'European Day against the Death Penalty' in December 2007,
which is to be celebrated on 10 October each year.
The
Council recalls the opposition of the European Union to the death
penalty in all cases and in all circumstances. The abolition of
the death penalty contributes to the enhancement of human dignity
and the progressive development of human rights. For this reason,
the Council regrets that a number of States still maintain the death
penalty. We call on all these States to abolish the death penalty;
if necessary with the immediate establishment of a moratorium on
the use of death penalty, with a view to abolishing it."
Source
: 2878th
Council meeting General Affairs and External Relations General Affairs
Luxembourg, 16 June 2008
Mexico
asked the World Court on Thursday to take urgent steps to stop imminent
U.S. executions of five Mexicans on death row who were denied their
rights to consular assistance.
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsMaps/idUSTHO92388620080619
THE HAGUE
(AFP) — Mexico pleaded in the UN's highest court Thursday the case of
50 of its citizens who face execution in the United States despite having
been denied a mandated review of their sentences.
Its lawyers told the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that the United
States had breached its international obligations and snubbed the court
itself by failing to carry out the reviews [...]
Mexico
accuses US of violations in death sentence dispute - June
21, 2008
High
Court: Guantanamo detainees have rights in court
From
the Associated Press 7:32 AM PDT, June 12, 2008
The
Supreme Court ruled today that foreign terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo
Bay have rights under the Constitution to challenge their detention
in U.S. civilian courts.
The
justices handed the Bush administration its third setback at the high
court since 2004 over its treatment of prisoners who are being held
indefinitely and without charges at the U.S. naval base in Cuba. The
vote was 5-4, with the court's liberal justices in the majority.
Justice
Anthony Kennedy, writing for the court, said, "The laws and Constitution
are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times."
It
was not immediately clear whether this ruling, unlike the first two,
would lead to prompt hearings for the detainees, some of whom have been
held more than 6 years. Roughly 270 men remain at the island prison,
classified as enemy combatants and held on suspicion of terrorism or
links to al-Qaida and the Taliban.
The
administration opened the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay shortly
after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to hold enemy combatants,
people suspected of ties to al-Qaida or the Taliban. The Guantanamo
prison has been harshly criticized at home and abroad for the detentions
themselves and the aggressive interrogations that were conducted there.
The court said not only that the detainees have rights under the Constitution,
but that the system the administration has put in place to classify
them as enemy combatants and review those decisions is inadequate.
The administration had argued first that the detainees have no rights.
But it also contended that the classification and review process was
a sufficient substitute for the civilian court hearings that the detainees
seek.
In dissent, Chief Justice John Roberts criticized his colleagues for
striking down what he called "the most generous set of procedural protections
ever afforded aliens detained by this country as enemy combatants."
Justices
Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas also dissented.
Justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, David Souter and John
Paul Stevens joined Kennedy to form the majority.
The
court has ruled twice previously that people held at Guantanamo without
charges can go into civilian courts to ask that the government justify
their continued detention. Each time, the administration and Congress,
then controlled by Republicans, changed the law to try to close the
courthouse doors to the detainees.
In addition to those held without charges, the U.S. has said it plans
to try as many as 80 of the detainees in war crimes tribunals, which
have not been held since World War II.
A
military judge has postponed the first scheduled trial pending the outcome
of this case. The trial of Salim Ahmed Hamdan, Osama bin Laden's onetime
driver, had been scheduled to start June 2.
Five
alleged plotters of the Sept. 11 attacks appeared in a Guantanamo courtroom
last week for a hearing before their war crimes trial, which prosecutors
hope will start Sept. 15.
_____________________________________
Arbour
Welcomes U.S. Supreme Court Decision on Guantanamo Bay
12
June 2008 GENEVA -- The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise
Arbour, welcomed Thursday's decision by the United States Supreme Court
in Boumediene v. Bush that the U.S. Constitution extends to foreign
detainees held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and that they have the right
to challenge their detention by habeas corpus in the civilian courts.
“The Supreme Court has sent a vitally important message that the protections
afforded by fundamental human rights guarantees extend to these individuals
and that effective remedies must be available to them. After up to six
years in detention in Guantánamo Bay without satisfactory review of
the reasons for their detention, these detainees have the right to prompt
review in the civilian courts,” Arbour said.
“I
welcome the Court’s recognition that security and liberty are not trade-offs,
but can be reconciled through the framework of the law, and that it
is the courts that apply that law,” she said. “This has long been the
hallmark of American constitutionalism.”
The High Commissioner expressed the hope that, now that these legal
issues have been clearly and definitively settled, the civilian courts
will be able to move promptly to assess the situation of individual
detainees.
The High Commissioner submitted an amicus curiae brief to the Supreme
Court. In it, she argued, as a matter of international law, for the
same conclusion the Court reached today. >>>http://www.ohchr.org/FR/NewsEvents/Pages/Media.aspx
_________________________________________
AMNESTY
INTERNATINAL USA CAMPAIGN / Supreme Court upholds habeas; tell Congress
to respect the court >> read it and sign here
| The death penalty for a terrorist |
June
6, 2008 /
The
alleged mastermind of the 9/11 terrorist attacks told a US military
tribunal yesterday that he would welcome being "martyred" by the death
penalty. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the one-time No 3 leader of al-Qaida,
and four other accused co-conspirators were arraigned on war crimes
charges at the detention camp in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
He refused legal representation. Laughing and murmuring with his fellow
defendants, Mohammed defiantly embraced the prospect of capital punishment.
"Yes, that is what I wish," he told the tribunal judge, US marine colonel
Ralph Kohlmann. "I am looking to be martyred for a long time."
Read
more : 'I
want to be a martyr' - alleged planner of 9/11 attacks defiant in face
of death penalty - Elana Schor in Washington - The Guardian,- Friday
June 6 2008
U.S.
Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Virginia Case on Quality of Representation
On
May 12, the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari in Bell v. Kelly,
No. 07-1223, where the petitioner challenged a lower court's dismissal
of his claim of ineffectiveness of counsel. Edward Nathaniel Bell stated
that his trial lawyers presented no mitigating evidence on his behalf
at his sentencing hearing, despite the existence of many sympathetic
facts that might have led a jury to vote for a life sentence. read
more
PACE
President calls on the US to abide by its international obligation to
review cases of death row prisoners denied consular access
Strasbourg,
07.05.2007 – Lluís Maria de Puig, President of the Parliamentary Assembly
of the Council of Europe (PACE), made the following statement today:
“I would
like to express my dismay at yesterday’s announcement of a recent date
for the execution of José Ernesto Medellin, the Mexican on death row
in Texas. Mr Medellin says that he was never given prompt access to
consular officials, as required by international law.
Mr Medellin’s
execution would be wrong morally, but it would also show a clear disregard
for international law and a lack of respect for the UN’s highest judicial
body, which has ruled that the United States breached its international
obligations in this case and others and ordered it to review them.
I call
on the US authorities to abide by their international treaty obligations,
and on Congress to intervene if necessary to ensure this takes place.
I also invite them to review the cases of Mr Medellin and 50 other Mexicans
on death row who did not receive prompt consular access, as is their
right, and as ordered by the International Court of Justice.
I also
deplore the execution yesterday of William Earl Lynd, ending a seven-month
national suspension of executions following the Supreme Court’s ruling
that lethal injection is legal. However it is done, the death penalty
is wrong, and my hope is that one day it will cease in the United States
too.
http://assembly.coe.int/ASP/Press/StopPressView.asp?ID=2044
129th exoneration :
The
state of North Carolina dropped all charges against Levon Jones, and
he was freed today after spending 13 years on death row.(May 2, 2008)>>
read more http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?did=2703&scid=64
April
29, 2008 : New Look at Death Sentences and Race By Adam Liptak - N.Y.Times
About
1,100 people have been executed in the United States in the last three
decades. Harris County, Tex., which includes Houston, accounts for
more than 100 of those executions. Indeed, Harris County has sent
more people to the death chamber than any state but Texas itself.
Yet Harris
County’s capital justice system has not been the subject of
intensive research — until now. A new study to be published in
The Houston Law Review this fall has found two sorts of racial disparities
in the administration of the death penalty there, one commonplace
and one surprising.
The unexceptional
finding is that defendants who kill whites are more likely to be sentenced
to death than those who kill blacks. More than 20 studies around the
nation have come to similar conclusions.
But the
new study also detected a more straightforward disparity. It found
that the race of the defendant by itself plays a major role in explaining
who is sentenced to death.
It has
never been conclusively proven that, all else being equal, blacks
are more likely to be sentenced to death than whites in the three
decades since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.
Many experts, including some opposed to the death penalty, have said
that evidence of that sort of direct discrimination is spotty and
equivocal.
But the
author of the
