An outrageous pending matter: Aasia Bibi case

Aasia Bibi

4 1/2 years after she was first charged with blasphemy, what exactly is happening with Aasia Bibi and her case?

People seem to have forgotten Aasia Bibi while she languishes in one jail or the other for the last 4 1/2 years. Her appeal for review of her death conviction remains pending before the Lahore High Court.

In June 2009, Aasia Bibi was asked by her co-workers to fetch water while working on a farm in Lahore's outskirts. Some of the Muslim women are said to have refused to drink it because they considered the utensil "unclean" after being touched by a Christian woman. An argument ensued where Bibi allegedly uttered derogatory remarks about Prophet Muhammad. A few days later Bibi was charged of blasphemy and arrested from arrested in Ittanwalai village.

Bibi, a blasphemy accused under Section 295-C of Pakistan Penal Code, was sentenced to death by a local court in December 2009.

Under the blasphemy laws, a high court must confirm a death sentence from a lower court. Due to this legal procedure, many of those who are convicted remain on death row for years.

Talking on telephone with TNS, from an undisclosed location, Aasia's husband Ashiq Masih said, "She is scared. There is no hope for her release".

He recalled how a mob dragged his wife to a local police station, where she was jailed and charged with blasphemy. "She has not done anything," he maintained.

Bibi's husband and 5 children are living in hiding. Fearing violence from extremists, they prefer to hide their identity and often relocate their home. Last June, when they went to see her in jail in Sheikhupura, they were told that Bibi had been shifted to the Central Jail in Multan. This came as a surprise both for the victim's counsel and the family.

The case of Aasia Bibi gained prominence when Salmaan Taseer, then the Punjab governor, went to jail to meet her and to assure her of all possible legal help. Taseer had maintained that the case against Bibi was fabricated and based on wrong grounds. He had moved a request to the former president of Pakistan to pardon Bibi's sentence.

Taseer's open support for Aasia Bibi cost him his life. His police guard, Mumtaz Qadri, who thought Taseer was a supporter of a blasphemer, killed him on Jan 4, 2011 in Islamabad.

An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) awarded Qadri a death penalty in October 2011, nine months after he had committed the murder. His appeal against the conviction is also pending before the court.

About 2 months after the assassination of Taseer, the then federal minister for minorities Shahbaz Bhatti was also killed in the country's capital for talking about the need to revise the controversial blasphemy laws.

Aasia Bibi's case had prompted widespread international attention. Pope Benedict XVI had also issued a condemnation statement.

"Taseer was the last hope for Aasia Bibi," says Nadeem Anthony, council-member of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP). "The complainant of the case, a cleric of the local mosque in Bibi's village, is not a witness in the case. He believed what the local women told him. She was sent to jail and the case was lodged a few days after the alleged incident occurred."

The HRCP has documented scores of cases in which the blasphemy laws have been misused - to settle personal scores or to victimise the marginalised sections of society and religious minorities. The mere fact of being a Christian or an Ahmadi in Pakistan makes an individual vulnerable to the misuse of blasphemy laws.

"There are enough legal grounds which can help Bibi's release conditionally, if the appellate court hears her case at the earliest on humanitarian grounds. We have moved an application for this purpose," said S.K. Chaudhry, victim's counsel.

The hearing is expected in the coming weeks and Chaudhry hopes to get justice.

"In my view, Bibi is in jail quite unnecessarily," said Hina Jilani, a human rights activist, asking: "But even if her appeal is heard and she is set free by the court, who is going to protect her in the society?"

These past couple of years, Taseer's death anniversary has been marked by thin candle light vigils in his memory, as opposed to thousands of religious extremists congregating across Pakistan in support of his murderer Qadri, upholding him as a hero.

Jilani thinks it is quite unfortunate - "Our politicians are not taking such issues seriously. First, many people, if their sentence is overturned, remain on the mercy of the society where they are unsafe and continued to be victimised by extremist elements. There are serious concerns about the safety of such people."

Source: Asian Human Rights Commission, January 9, 2014

Asia Bibi pens a letter to Pope Francis I from Pakistani prison

The Pakistani woman jailed in Pakistan, charged with blasphemy, has written a letter to Pope Francis I.

According to an article in the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines News Service (CBCP News), Asia Bibi said, “I also hope that every Christian has been able to celebrate the Christmas just past with joy. Like many other prisoners, I also celebrated the birth of the Lord in prison in Multan, here in Pakistan.”

She continued by saying that “only God will be able to free me” and made a point of thanking the Renaissance Education Foundation that helped make her “dream come true” to spend Christmas with her husband and children by bringing them to Multan.

“I would have liked to be in St Peter’s for Christmas to pray with you, but I trust in God’s plan for me and hopefully it will be achieved next year,” she told Pope Francis.

Bibi is awaiting the conclusion of an appeals process after being incarcerated for four and a half years without trial.

During 2009 she served water for some co-workers but they refused to drink it, saying that they considered Christians to be “unclean”.

Arguments reportedly followed and witnesses maintain that Bibi verbally abused the two women, their religion, and the prophet Muhammad.

A few days later, complaints were made to a cleric about these alleged derogatory comments, resulting in a mob coming to her house and beating her and members of her family.

Bibi was rescued by the police but, under pressure from the crowd, they charged her under Section 295 C of the Pakistan Penal Code, the country’s notorious anti-blasphemy law. She was sentenced to be hanged in 2010.

“I am very grateful to all the churches that are praying for me and fighting for my freedom,” CBCP News said she continued in the letter.

Bibi added, “I do not know how long I can go on and on. If I am still alive, it is thanks to the strength that your prayers give me. I have met many people who speak and fight for me. Unfortunately still to no avail. At this time I just want to trust the mercy of God, who can do everything, that all is possible. Only He can liberate me.”

Source: The Global Dispatch, January 6, 2014

Remembering Troy Davis and Ending the Death Penalty

Troy Davis

Two years ago, the state of Georgia ignored the facts, doubts and pleas of hundreds of thousands of people and killed Troy Anthony Davis. Today, on the anniversary of his execution, we rededicate ourselves to ending the immoral, biased and ineffective practice of capital punishment.

For 15 years, we fought alongside Troy to clear his name for the killing of Savannah Police Officer Mark Allen MacPhail. Troy remained adamant about his innocence to his last breath. As explained in the new book I Am Troy Davis, by author Jen Marlowe and Troy's sister, Martina Davis-Correia, the case against Troy lacked conclusive evidence after many of the key witnesses recanted testimony from the time of the original trial.

In the last weeks of Troy's life, the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles received 663,000 petitions from people imploring the group to reconsider the execution given the sheer amount of doubt surrounding the case. World figures, including Pope Benedict XVI and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, human rights groups and commentators urged the execution to be halted -- all to no avail.

In the hours before his death, the NAACP held a rally and lobbied the Department of Justice to intervene on the grounds of a civil rights violation. The glimpses of sadness and quiet resolve I saw on the faces of Troy's family when his death became imminent will stay with me forever. The last time I saw Troy, he told me "This movement started before me, and it needs to continue, no matter what, until we destroy the machinery of death."

While many of the supporters who stood in solidarity with Troy have put away their signs and returned home, the battle to end the shameful practice of capital punishment wages on in his name. Side by side with Troy's family, we remain on the frontlines of this fight to abolish a system that is ineffective and steeped in racial bias.

Racial disparities pervade every component of the justice system. A report from Amnesty International concluded that 77 percent of people executed since 1977 were people convicted of crimes involving white victims, compared to only 15 percent of people executed for killing blacks. A full 42 percent of the 3,100 inmates on death row are people of color.

Furthermore, we know that the death penalty is a poor deterrent of crime. FBI data shows that all 14 states without capital punishment in 2008 had homicide rates at or below the national rate.

The only effective way to deter killings in our streets is to ensure justice is swift and certain. In order to do so, we must ensure both that we have police leadership that builds strong partnerships and trust with all communities and also that they have enough officers and detectives to ensure every homicide in every community is responded to with the requisite resources to find and catch killers quickly.

Since Troy's death, we have made definitive strides in our effort to end the death penalty. We have worked with a diverse and multifaceted coalition of advocates including Amnesty International and the National Coalition to Repeal the Death Penalty fix our nation's broken justice system. Last year our work led to Connecticut repealing the death penalty. This year, Maryland became the first state south of the Mason-Dixon Line to do the same. Those two states now join New Jersey, New York, New Mexico and Illinois as the fifth and sixth state in six years, and the 17th and 18th in the nation to abolish the death penalty.

Our strategy is clear. Our strategy is simple. We will outlaw capital punishment in a majority of states, and then we will go to the United States Supreme Court and make the argument that the punishment is cruel by its very nature but also unusual because most states have passed laws against it.

"I Am Troy" reminds us that each year September 21 will serve as both a solemn anniversary and a call to action. It is and will continue to be an annual reminder that justice and common sense we end this brutal practice of capital punishment.

Source: Huff Post, Benjamin Todd Jealous, President and CEO, NAACP, Sept. 21, 2013

Sentenced To Death At 16, Indiana Woman Is Now Free

Paula Cooper

Paula Cooper, 43, left prison Monday morning, decades after she became America’s youngest resident of death row at age 16. She had confessed to the 1985 murder of Bible studies teacher Ruth Pelke, 78, in Gary, Ind. Cooper’s death sentence was commuted in 1989, after widespread appeals for mercy.

“An appeal from Pope John Paul II, an international campaign to overturn the death sentence and legal challenges helped to spare Cooper’s life,” reports The Indianapolis Star. “The Indiana Supreme Court commuted the death sentence in 1989 and sent her to prison for 60 years. She earned credits for an early release.”

Cooper admitted to killing Pelke as part of a robbery in which she and three other teenage girls went to Pelke’s house. Cooper, who was 15 at the time of the murder, said that she used a kitchen knife to cut Pelke more than 30 times. The other girls in the case have already been released from prison.

The case shocked the public, and Cooper’s death sentence drew protests and calls to spare her life. One of her supporters was Bill Pelke, a grandson of Ruth Pelke. He tells the AP that his grandmother would have been “appalled” by the thought of a young girl being executed.

Over the years, Pelke became friends with Cooper during her prison sentence. And yesterday, Pelke, who now lives in Alaska but has reportedly traveled to Indiana for Cooper’s release, told CNN that he plans to take her shopping when he meets with her.

Saying that Cooper is supposed to call him, Pelke tells CNN, “I told her whenever she got out, I’d treat her. I have a friend who would like to buy her an outfit, and I want to buy her a computer.”

The Star reports that Cooper has worked to rehabilitate herself, after some rough years in the first half of her prison sentence.

“I was very bitter and angry, so I was in a lot of trouble. I hated it. But I learned to adapt eventually,” Cooper told The Star in 2004. “I decided for myself it was time to really sit down and buckle down and get it, because it wasn’t gonna always be there.”

Cooper took classes in prison and earned her bachelor’s degree. “She also helped train dogs as companions for the disabled and, since 2011, has worked as a tutor,” the paper says.

In 1988, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that convicted killers could not be executed in cases where they committed the crime before they were 16. In 2005, the court abolished capital punishment for people under the age of 18, saying that such executions “violate the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment,” as NPR’s Nina Totenberg reported.

Back in 1985, Indiana state law allowed for the execution of killers who were age 10 and over. The former prosecutor who worked on Cooper’s case, attorney Jack Crawford, says he is now against the death penalty.

“When we asked for it, it was controversial because she was so young,” Crawford tells The Star. “But my feeling was that, if the law allowed for imposition of the death sentence on a teenager, this was the case because of the facts. I couldn’t imagine a worse set of facts for a defendant. But if it was ever justified, this was the time it was probably justified.”

Source: wuft.org, June 18, 2013

Paula Cooper leaves death row for freedom

Paula Cooper was 16 when she was sentenced to death for killing an elderly Bible study teacher.

That made the Gary, Ind., teen the youngest person ever in the state to face the death penalty. At the time in 1986, she also was the youngest death row inmate in the United States.

To many, Cooper was a monster beyond rehabilitation. But others saw her as a victim of an abusive childhood and racist criminal justice system.

A legal challenge and international campaign to overturn her death sentence, which included an appeal from Pope John Paul II, saved Cooper's life.

The Indiana Supreme Court commuted the death sentence in 1989 and sent her to prison for 60 years. For the past 24 years, she has lived in relative obscurity.

Cooper was 15 when she was charged with murder in the stabbing of 78-year-old Ruth Pelke during a robbery. 3 other co-defendants - also teenage girls at the time - went to prison but have been released.

Where Cooper will go and what she plans to do remain unclear. She did not respond to an interview request from The Indianapolis Star.

What is known is that she will leave prison with at least $75, a new outfit provided by the state and a bachelor's degree, according to DOC spokesman Douglas Garrison.

"People still know about this case," said Indianapolis attorney Jack Crawford, who was the prosecutor when Cooper was charged and convicted. "The name Paula Cooper still resonates, and she's going to attract some attention when she is released."

That's Bill Pelke's fear. A grandson of the murder victim, Pelke has forgiven and befriended Cooper. He declined to talk about her release.

"My main concern," he said, "is seeing her get settled and find a job."

Pelke said media coverage could make the already hard task of building a new life even more difficult.

Cooper's sister, Rhonda Labroi, said she hopes people look past the frozen-in-time image of her younger sister as a teenage killer.

"She's a very different person," Labroi said. "She is a lot more educated and older and wiser now. I think things will be different." Cooper, she added, "has paid her price."

"There are 2nd chances," Labroi said. "It seems like God has given her another chance. I think if people give her a 2nd chance, she'll do fine."

In a 2004 interview with The Star, Cooper expressed remorse for her actions and a desire to turn around her life.

"Everybody has a responsibility to do right or wrong, and if you do wrong, you should be punished," she said. "Rehabilitation comes from you. If you're not ready to be rehabilitated, you won't be."

Jack Crawford, who was the prosecutor when Cooper was charged and convicted, said he has come to oppose the death penalty but thought it was appropriate at the time of Pelke's murder. Indiana law then allowed prosecutors to seek the death penalty for those as young as 10 - and he did.

The case and reaction to the death sentence, Crawford said, attracted more scrutiny and notoriety than any other in his 12 years as a prosecutor in Lake County.

"It got a lot of attention for a lot of different reasons: She's a female, she's 15 years old, the ferocity of the killing, the white-black thing," said Crawford.

"It was 4 teenage girls on their lunch break from high school going over and committing a horrific crime. It was just incredible. It was so amazing that these girls could have killed so dispassionately and viciously."

The girls, Crawford said, "planned to kill (Pelke) from the get-go." Cooper, who was identified as the ringleader in the murder-robbery, brought a 12-inch butcher knife when she and 3 friends went to Pelke's home on May 25, 1985. Pelke welcomed the teens into her home after the girls said they were interested in Bible study lessons.

One of the teens then hit Pelke on the head with a vase, knocking her to the ground.

"Paula Cooper got on top of her and kept saying to her, and this is her own admission, 'Where's the money, bitch?'" Crawford said.

When Pelke responded that she didn't have any money, Crawford said Cooper "started torturing her, slicing her with the butcher knife across her chest."

As Pelke lay on the floor, Crawford said the investigation revealed, "she was saying the Lord's Prayer as she died."

Cooper and the 3 other teen girls - Denise Thomas, 14, Karen Corder, 16, and April Beverly, 15 - fled with about $10 and Pelke's car. The were arrested days later, Crawford said, after bragging about the killing.

An autopsy revealed Pelke had been stabbed more than 30 times, with one strike going through her chest and leaving a mark in the wooden floor beneath her body.

Beverly turned state's witness, cooperating with police and prosecutors, and was sentenced to 25 years for robbery. She was released from prison in 1999.

Reached at her home in Colorado, Beverly hung up when asked about the case.

Thomas was convicted of murder and sentenced to 35 years. She was released in 2003. Corder also was convicted of murder and sentenced to 60 years. She was released in 2008. The Star was unable to locate them.

When it came time to go to court, Cooper pleaded guilty to the murder charge.

Kevin Relphorde, who was her public defender, said they hoped "the guilty plea and her remorse" would be considered mitigating factors that might save Cooper from the death penalty.

"I guess," he said, "the judge felt as if he had no choice."

That's the way Crawford recalled it, too.

At the sentencing, Crawford and Relphorde said, Lake County Judge James Kimbrough gave a long explanation of why he opposed the death penalty. Then he dropped the bomb: He was sentencing Cooper to death.

That's when attention generated by the case shifted. No longer was the focus on a grisly murder committed by a group of teen girls. Now, the outcry was over a 16-year-old being sentenced to death.

Cooper was only the 4th woman in Indiana to receive the death penalty and that Indiana, however, has never executed a woman.

Crawford remembers the shift in public reaction. You don't forget, he explained, when an emissary from the pope shows up at your office.

Amnesty International also became involved, and the case took on a life of its own in Europe, particularly in Italy.

Letters and petitions signed by death penalty opponents flooded the prosecutor's office and, later, the Indiana Supreme Court.

An Indiana Historical Society background sheet on items in its collection related to the case notes: "Appeals were made to the Indiana Supreme Court, which received 2 million signatures; to Governor Robert Orr, who received an appeal from the pope in September 1987; and to the United Nations, which received a million signatures."

The uproar came as the U.S. Supreme Court was wrestling with the issue of sentencing teens to death. In 1988, the high court ruled it was unconstitutional to execute anyone who was younger than 16 at the time they committed a crime.

The following year, Indiana lawmakers upped the minimum age from 10 to 16.

Indiana raised its minimum age to 18 in 2002. In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional to execute anyone younger than 18.

Cooper made efforts in prison to turn around her life but also had numerous scrapes with authorities.

Her conduct seemed to improve with time after a low point in 1995, when she was sentenced to 3 years of solitary confinement for assaulting a prison guard.

In all, DOC records show she was cited 23 times for rules violations, including 10 low-level violations - unruly conduct, being in an unauthorized area and sexual contact - since 2005.

"I was very bitter and angry, so I was in a lot of trouble. I hated it. But I learned to adapt eventually," she said in the 2004 interview. "I decided for myself it was time to really sit down and buckle down and get it, because it wasn't gonna always be there."

She earned her GED, then a vocational degree and, in 2001, a bachelor's degree. She also helped train dogs as companions for the disabled and, since 2011, has worked as a tutor.

Crawford, the former prosecutor who led the push for Cooper's execution, said he wishes her well as she enters a new chapter of her life.

"She has served her time, and perhaps she can make some contributions to society," he said. "I hope she continues to try to rehabilitate herself and make some amends for the crime she committed some 30 years ago."

Source: USA Today, June 17, 2013

Tareq Aziz "depressed", plans to ask Pope to call for his speedy execution

January 23, 2013: Tareq Aziz, the late Saddam Hussein's ailing former deputy premier now on death row, is suffering from depression and plans to ask the Pope to call for his speedy execution, his lawyer said.

Badie Aref said Aziz, a Christian, believed he was being treated well in prison, but was suffering from ill health and simply wanted an end to his "misery."

"He is in total depression," Aref told AFP by telephone after meeting with Aziz earlier on Wednesday.

The lawyer said Aziz had told him: "I will now write an appeal to the Pope. Even though I have never met him in person, I will call for him to end my misery, because I would prefer to be executed rather than stay in this condition."

Aziz, a close confidante of now-executed dictator Saddam, was sentenced to death in October 2010 after having been found guilty of "deliberate murder and crimes against humanity."

The Vatican, the European Union and several Western governments have called on Baghdad for clemency.

Aziz has been in prison since surrendering in April 2003, days after the fall of Baghdad in the US-led invasion of Iraq.

His family has repeatedly called for his release on health grounds, particularly after he suffered a heart attack in late 2007.

He also suffers from high blood pressure, heart problems, diabetes and ulcers.

Source: AFP, January 23, 2013

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Death Penalty News: Jailed Tareq Aziz handed over to Iraqis

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Death Penalty News: Former Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz to Hang

Oct 26, 2010

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Iraq court agrees execution of Baghdad church attackers

BAGHDAD: Iraq’s highest court ratified death sentences on Thursday for three men convicted of a 2010 attack on a Syrian Catholic cathedral in Baghdad, the bloodiest attack on Iraqi Christians after the 2003 invasion.

Gunmen linked to Al-Qaeda seized hostages during Sunday mass at the Our Lady of Salvation church in Baghdad on Oct. 31, 2010. Around 52 hostages and police were killed and 67 wounded in the attack, which ended when security forces stormed the church.

Al Qaeda’s Iraqi affiliate, Islamic State of Iraq, claimed responsibility for the attack.

“There are three convicted criminals. All of them are Iraqis and they were convicted based on the terrorism law,” said Abdul-Sattar Al-Birqdar, spokesman for the Supreme Judicial Council.

“The sentence is final and it will be sent to the presidency to issue a decree to the Justice Ministry to execute it.” Last week, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay criticized Iraq for carrying out a large number of executions and questioned the fairness of its judicial proceedings. On Wednesday, Iraq executed 17 people.

While most of the sectarian fighting that followed the 2003 US-led invasion was between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, attacks on Christians in Iraq have increased in recent years.

The brazen assault on Our Lady of Salvation struck fear into the Christian community, prompting hundreds of families to flee to Iraq’s northern Kurdish region or overseas. Pope Benedict condemned the attack.

Iraq once had about 1.5 million Christians but the number has fallen sharply in recent years, according to church reports. Iraq’s total population is estimated at about 30 million.

One of the alleged leaders of the church attack, Huthaifa Al-Batawi, known as Al-Qaeda’s “Emir of Baghdad,” was killed in an attempted jailbreak last May, officials said.

Sources: Arab News, Reuters, Feb. 2, 2012

Pope supports death penalty opponents

Pope Benedict XVI expressed his support this week for efforts by the Rome-based Community of Sant’Egidio to abolish the death penalty worldwide.

“I express my hope that your deliberations will encourage the political and legislative initiatives being promoted in a growing number of countries to eliminate the death penalty,” the pontiff said in English during his weekly audience on November 30.

He added that he hoped the group would “continue the substantive progress made in conforming penal law both to the human dignity of prisoners and the effective maintenance of public order.”

Sant’Egidio this week hosted an event in Rome that brought together justice ministers and government officials from countries that have abolished the death penalty, together with witnesses, former death row inmates and relatives of crime victims.

The group has campaigned for decades against capital punishment, calling on governments and international institutions to abolish or suspend all executions.

The United Nations General Assembly voted in favor of a moratorium on the death penalty in 2007.

“Asia is the continent where the death penalty is most present,” said Stefano Argentino of Sant’Egidio, but he added that the latest ‘good news’ for the campaign came from Mongolia.

After Mongolia’s President Tsakhia Elbegdorj commuted all capital sentences to 30-year jail terms in January 2010, the government is now set to adopt a UN protocol binding it to abolish the death penalty.

The Philippines, Cambodia, Timor L’Este, Nepal and Bhutan, along with the Central Asian ex-Soviet republics, are the only countries in Asia who do not have the death penalty.

China is reported to carry out the most capital punishments of any country in the world, while Iran has the highest number of executions to population ratio.

Other Asian countries, including Afghanistan, South Korea, India, Indonesia, Laos, the Maldives, Myanmar, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Thailand, have suspended capital punishment while still handing down death sentence verdicts.

Source: CathNews of India, September 2, 2011

Idaho governor petitioned to halt inmate's execution

Idaho Gov. Butch Otter, a Catholic who once studied for the priesthood, is the only one who can spare the life of condemned inmate Paul Ezra Rhoades, a multiple murderer scheduled for execution Friday [Nov. 18]. Otter, a supporter of the death penalty, has stuck by his position even in the face of pleas for mercy from the pope, the Swiss ambassador and the bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Idaho.

"It's tough, it's tough," said Otter, a conservative Republican, when asked about balancing his faith and the death penalty. He's been reluctant to discuss the matter as Idaho approaches its 1st execution since 1994, when murderer Keith Eugene Wells dropped his appeals and requested to be put to death.

Unlike Wells, Rhoades has tried every appeal, exhausted every remedy, and is still fighting in federal court to challenge Idaho's lethal-injection execution method as unconstitutionally cruel; a federal judge will decide Monday if that challenge should delay the execution.

An Idaho governor has commuted a death sentence once before. In 1996, Gov. Phil Batt agreed with Idaho's pardons and parole commission and commuted the sentence of Donald Paradis from death to life without parole, amid questions about his original conviction; Paradis was released in 2001, after pleading guilty to being an accessory to murder.

There are no such questions in Rhoades' case, however. His supporters simply plead for mercy.

"Paul is not the same man he was in 1987," Rhoades' mother, Pauline Rhoades, said in a statement. "Over the past 24 years, he has returned to being the same caring and unselfish person he was before we lost him to drugs. ... He has taken responsibility for his actions, and he is doing everything in his power to make up for what he did."

Otter told The Spokesman-Review this past week, "I support the death penalty," adding that it's an issue he's given a lot of thought to "all my life."

"I think that as our criminal justice system ... suggests, people have to be held responsible, and sometimes it's to the max, and this is one of those cases," Otter said. "They have to be held accountable for their actions."

Rhoades' crimes terrorized eastern Idaho in 1987, when 2 women and 1 man were killed in the space of 3 weeks. The string of kidnappings, rapes and slayings shocked the community. Rhoades received the death penalty for the murders of Stacy Baldwin and Susan Michelbacher, plus 2 life sentences for the murder of Nolan Haddon.

Mia Crosthwaite, a Catholic activist in Boise and spokeswoman for Idahoans Against the Death Penalty, said, "It's just morally wrong. It's unnecessary. My children will be no safer next Saturday after the execution is done than they are today, because the state of Idaho is perfectly capable of holding Paul Ezra Rhoades in prison for the rest of his life and protecting society."

But some Idahoans who have flooded Otter's office with letters and emails in recent weeks disagree.

"Did he show mercy to his victims?" asked Sharann Nafus, of Blackfoot. "You are in our prayers," wrote a couple from Idaho Falls, urging the governor to uphold the sentence.

Most of his messages in recent weeks, however, oppose the execution, including one from Monsignor Jean-Francois Lantheaume, the personal representative in the United States of Pope Benedict XVI, who issued "a call for mercy beyond the strict confines of justice."

The Rev. Michael Driscoll, bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Boise, wrote to Otter, saying, "Other ways are available to punish criminals and to protect society that are more respectful of human life."

Rhoades' appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court was rejected Oct. 11, and Idaho's state board of pardons and parole has rejected his bid for a clemency hearing. Preparations for the execution are under way at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution south of Boise.

Crosthwaite said she and other Idaho death-penalty opponents met with Idaho Department of Correction officials Thursday and were briefed on where they can protest, in a prescribed area at the state prison compound's main gate south of Boise; a separate area will be set aside for people supporting the execution.

"They said dress very warmly, which we already knew, but that was very kind of them to point that out," Crosthwaite said. "They said it's going to be cold. We intend to be prayerful and peaceful and just be present."

Source: Seattle Times, November 13, 2011

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Commission: No clemency for condemned Idaho inmate

The Idaho Commission of Pardons and Parole says it won't consider a clemency request from condemned inmate Paul Ezra Rhoades., who is scheduled to die by lethal injection Nov. 18.

Rhoades was sentenced to death for the murders of Susan Michelbacher and Stacy Baldwin in 1987, and he was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Nolan Haddon the same year.

Commission director Olivia Craven said the panel decided Friday to deny Rhoades' request for a clemency hearing. Under Idaho law, only the governor has the authority to grant clemency on death penalty cases, but in order for the governor to do so, the parole commission must first consider the request and make a recommendation to the governor.

Craven said she met personally with Rhoades and his attorneys Oct. 14 to answer any questions they had about the clemency process. Inmates are only allowed to petition for clemency once every 12 months, and so she wanted to make sure Rhoades had all the information he needed, Craven said. The commissioners spent the last couple of weeks reviewing Rhoades' case before making the decision, she said.

"They take this very seriously. They put in a lot of their personal time, and I know they spent a lot of time reviewing everything over and over," Craven said. "So, their decision was not made lightly."

Defense attorneys called the decision disappointing and criticized the board for acting without taking the opportunity to get a fuller picture of Rhoades' story from witnesses. Rhoades' lawyers planned to have witnesses recount his addiction to methamphetamine and what the drug did to his behavior — details not shared with judges who sentenced him to death.

"We maintain the Commission is making a grave and irreversible mistake by relying primarily on a paper record," according to a statement issued Monday by the federal defender's office in Boise. "It is shameful that Mr. Rhoades will not have an opportunity to present his entire case and show that the man he is today is not someone whom society would want to put to death."

There is still a possibility that a federal judge could issue a stay of execution. Rhoades sued Idaho in federal court last month over the state's method of execution, but as of Monday afternoon, no stay had been ordered.

If the execution goes forward, Rhoades will be only the second Idaho inmate to be put to death since 1957, and the first one during that time to exhaust all his appeals. The last inmate to be executed, Keith Wells in 1994, gave up all of his remaining appeals and asked the state to carry out his lethal injection.

Idaho Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter said in a prepared statement that he appreciated the commissioners for carrying out their statutory duty "respectfully and professionally."

"Paul Ezra Rhoades has taken full and unfettered advantage of his right of due process of law for more than two decades," Otter said. "That process is running its course. The law requires and justice demands that Mr. Rhoades be held accountable for his actions as a judge and jury have directed."

So far, Otter has received about 17 letters about Rhoades' case since his death warrant was signed, Otter's spokesman Jon Hanian said. Most of them — including letters from the Pope's U.S. representative, Monsignor Jean-Francois Lantheaume; the head of the European Union's delegation to the U.S.; and the ambassador of Switzerland to the U.S. — urged Otter to stop Rhoades' execution. A few were in favor of Rhoades being put to death, saying the heinousness of his crimes merited the ultimate punishment.

Idaho Catholic Bishop Michael Driscoll also wrote Otter a letter asking him to commute Rhoades' sentence to life in prison without parole. Driscoll told the governor, who is Catholic, that while he didn't condone Rhoades' crimes, Catholic teachings on the death penalty make it clear that executions shouldn't take place when other means can protect society from criminals.

A Facebook group called Idahoans against the Death Penalty is also arranging protests, vigils and letter-writing campaigns on Rhoades' behalf. The organizer of that group did not immediately return an email from The Associated Press.

Source: Associated Press, November 10, 2011

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Boise: "Ending the use of the death penalty would be one important step away from a culture of death, towards building a culture of life."

On Tuesday, The Roman Catholic Diocese of Boise expressed its sadness that the Idaho Commission of Pardons and Parole decided to deny Paul Ezra Rhoades his request for clemency.

The Catholic Church is an opponent of the death penalty.

Bishop Michael Driscoll with the Diocese of Boise wrote a letter to Gov. Butch Otter detailing the Church's position on this controversial issue.

"For the Catholic community, this issue - like all life issues - is more than public policy," Bishop Driscoll said. "It involves our faith and the central issue that all human life is sacred. Catholic teaching on this issue is more than just how to respond to violent crime. It's about justice and what kind of society we want to be."

Bishop Driscoll is urging members of the Catholic community all throughout Idaho to write the Pardons and Parole commission and ask the commissioners to reconsider their decision.

Paul Ezra Rhoades is scheduled to be executed November 18. This will be Idaho's 1st execution since 1994.

Source: KIVI TV News, November 10, 2011

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Lawyers seek details on Ohio executioner's cancer, hoping to shed light on closely guarded job

The Ohio executioner known only as Team Member 17 has cancer, and a federal judge is allowing lawyers for a condemned inmate to seek details about his condition despite state concerns their request is merely meant to annoy and embarrass him.

The legal battle comes amid a renewed debate over the death penalty after the execution this week of a Georgia inmate whose pleas of innocence sparked worldwide outrage.

It also opens a window into the secrecy-shrouded lives of the teams responsible for putting inmates to death. States conscientiously protect their identities to shield them from harassment and questions about medical ethics.

Lawyers for condemned inmates often raise 11th-hour questions in an effort to buy their clients time, and often they're successful. The information about the Ohio executioner's health is relevant because it bears on his "ability to fulfill the demands of that position," U.S. District Judge Gregory Frost said Tuesday.

Inmate Joseph Murphy, 46, is scheduled to die by lethal injection Oct. 18 for slashing the throat of Ruth Predmore in Marion in a 1987 robbery that netted her penny collection. The Ohio Parole Board was expected to make a recommendation Friday morning on a separate request by Murphy's lawyers for mercy.

Ohio's execution team consists of three individuals who prepare and administer the drug and a bigger group that serves as security, escorting inmates to the death chamber. The training executioners receive for inserting IVs has long been fought over in several lawsuits.

Team Member 17 is a full-time prison guard at Oakwood Correctional Facility in Lima who does not insert IVs as part of his regular job, according to testimony he gave in a related federal lawsuit 2 years ago.

Like all Ohio executioners, he volunteers for the procedures, which take place at the maximum-security prison in Lucasville. He has been both a backup executioner, preparing the drugs beforehand, and the administrator of the injection.

Team Member 17 has had cancer at least since May 2010, when he missed the execution of Michael Beuke, a hitchhiker who killed three people in the Cincinnati area in 1983 and was put to death last year, according to a court document filed by the state seeking to shield information about the cancer. The state proceeded without Team Member 17 and without finding a backup.

The court documents say nothing about the type of cancer or how he is being treated.

The only previous exposure he had to inserting IVs was during his part-time work as a volunteer emergency medical technician, he testified. At that time, he had served on the execution team for several years. He said he joined the team after the prison warden asked him.

He couldn't recall exactly what he did during the 2005 execution of Herman Ashworth, who beat a man to death in 1996.

"I might have been the one that pushed the drugs on that one there, but I'm not sure," he testified in 2009.

A car accident caused him to miss the January 2010 execution of Vernon Smith, a Toledo man who shot a store clerk in 1993, according to court documents.

Murphy's lawyers "have produced no evidence that Team Member 17's physical condition has had any effect on the performance of his duties related to the conduct of court-ordered executions," Thomas Madden, an assistant Ohio attorney general, wrote Sept. 14.

The state opposed the request by Murphy's attorneys as intrusive and potentially putting the executioner's identity at risk. The state also said the judge should recognize a physician-patient privilege.

Murphy's attorneys say they agree the executioner should remain anonymous but argued that his health has everything to do with his job.

"There are hundreds of different types of cancer," federal public defender Carol Wright said in a Sept. 16 filing. "The symptoms, treatment, prognosis, and other factors are dependent on the type of cancer."

The relevance of an executioner's health has arisen elsewhere. A judge banned Dr. Alan Doerhoff from participating in Missouri executions after he acknowledged in 2006 he had dyslexia and it was not unusual for him to make mistakes.

The same year in California, a judge said the state had inconsistently screened execution team members, including the lead executioner, who had post-traumatic stress disorder from his work in prisons.

Arizona removed an execution team member after a judge's 2009 order noting the man had been treated for post-traumatic stress disorder following military service in Iraq.

During the 2009 hearings in federal court, a doctor testified that Ohio's chief executioner — Team Member 18 — was being treated for several ailments, including diabetes, hypertension, obesity and depression.

At the time, Frost ruled that while Team Member 18's health didn't affect executions, the issue could be raised in other cases.

The judge wrote, "This is not to say that the physical or mental health of an execution team member can never give rise to an issue that informs the constitutionality of Ohio's process."

In 2009, Ohio became the first state to switch to a single drug for executing inmates instead of the usual three-drug cocktail. It switched to a different single drug this year because of a shortage. In both cases, other states followed suit.

Frost has noted problems with Ohio's execution procedures but said they fall short of violating the constitution. In July, he ruled the state didn't follow its own rules for executions on everything from staffing to checking an inmate's veins, a decision that has postponed three executions while the policies are changed.

In September 2009, executioners — including Team Member 17 — tried for more than an hour to find a suitable vein in inmate Romell Broom, only to have to postpone the execution.

On Wednesday, Georgia executed Troy Davis for the murder of an off-duty police officer despite his insistence that he didn't do it, a case that captured the attention of thousands worldwide, including former President Jimmy Carter and the pope.

Source: Associated Press, Sept. 23, 2011

Parole board delays decision on Troy Davis' fate

Troy Davis petitions being delivered

The state Board of Pardons and Paroles on Monday delayed a decision whether to grant or deny clemency to Troy Anthony Davis after hearing pleas for mercy from Davis’ family and calls for his execution by surviving relatives of a murdered Savannah police officer. 

The state Board of Pardons and Paroles in Atlanta is scheduled to meet today to decide whether Troy Anthony Davis is executed Wednesday. 

Davis’ case has already taken more unexpected turns than just about any death-penalty case in Georgia history and his innocence claims have attracted international attention. Its resolution was postponed once again when the parole board late Monday announced it would not be making an immediate decision as to whether Davis should live or die. 

Davis, 42, is scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the state prison in Jackson. He was sentenced to death for the 1989 murder of off-duty Savannah Police Officer Mark Allen MacPhail. 

On Monday, Davis’ lawyers said they believed they’d made their case that there is too much doubt in the case. But members of MacPhail’s family expressed confidence the board would deny clemency. 

After Davis’ lawyers made their 3-hour presentation, attorney Stephen Marsh emerged from the hearing and said, “We believe we have established substantial doubt in this case.” 

Davis’ nephew, DeJaun Davis-Correia, pleaded for mercy from the board, Davis’ lawyers said. 

Late Monday, Davis’ sister, Martina Correia, said her family is glad the parole board is taking its time. 

“I know they have a lot to consider,” she said. “We’re just praying for a good outcome.” 

As for her brother’s execution date being set on repeated occasions, “It’s been like reliving a nightmare over and over. … But we believe in our brother’s innocence.” 

The surviving relatives of the slain officer presented a decidedly different front. They resolutely told the news media they believe Davis is a cop killer who deserves to die for what he did. 

“He’s guilty,” MacPhail’s widow, Joan MacPhail-Harris, said. “We need to go ahead and execute him.” 

MacPhail-Harris expressed confidence the board would deny clemency. “What a travesty it would be if they don’t uphold the death sentence. … It’s time for justice today. My family needs justice. He was taken from us too soon, too early.” 

As for the case presented by Davis’ legal team that Davis was wrongly convicted, she said, “It’s been a lie.” 

MacPhail-Harris was flanked by her 23-year-old daughter, Madison MacPhail, and 22-year-old son, Mark MacPhail Jr., who were a toddler and an infant when their father was killed. 

“A future was taken from me,” said Madison MacPhail, unable to hold back tears. “The death penalty is the correct form of justice. … Troy Davis murdered my father, no questions asked.” 

The officer’s mother, Anneliese MacPhail, said the family “has been through hell without Mark. He did his duty. He loved his country.” 

When asked about the possibility of Davis being granted clemency, she said, “I don’t even want to think about it. Please.” 

Officer MacPhail, a 27-year-old former Army Ranger, was moonlighting on a security detail when he ran to help a homeless man, who had cried out because he was being pistol whipped. MacPhail was shot three times before he could draw his handgun. 

The parole board has the sole authority in Georgia to grant or deny clemency. Three years ago, the board denied clemency to Davis but it has 3 new members since that decision. Davis’ lawyers say there is also new evidence that indicates another man at the scene was the actual trigger man. 

Over the past decade, the board has commuted 3 death sentences — Alexander Williams in 2002, James Willie Hall in 2004 and Samuel Crowe in 2008. If the 5-member board grants Davis clemency, it would commute his death sentence to life in prison with the possibility of parole or life without parole. 

As the board considered the case Monday, dozens of protesters, many carrying “I Am Troy Davis” and “Justice For Troy Davis” placards, held vigil outside the Sloppy Floyd Building across the street from the Capitol. State troopers and guards provided a robust security presence throughout the state office building. 

Among witnesses to testify on Davis’ behalf was Brenda Forrest, a juror who voted to sentence Davis to death at the 1991 trial. She now says she has too much doubt about her verdict and is asking the board to grant clemency. 2 other jurors who voted to sentence Davis to death have signed affidavits asking the board to spare Davis from execution. 

Also testifying before the board was Quiana Glover, a Savannah woman who says that she heard Sylvester “Redd” Coles, who was with Davis shortly before MacPhail was killed, say he was the actual killer. Coles made the statement during a party in June 2009 when he had been drinking heavily, Glover said in a sworn affidavit. 

Coles, the 1st to implicate Davis to the police, testified at trial that he left the scene before shots were fired. 

Calls for Davis to be spared execution have been made by numerous dignitaries, including former President Jimmy Carter, Pope Benedict XVI, former FBI Director William Sessions, former Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Norman Fletcher and Larry Thompson, the former deputy U.S. attorney general. Davis’ advocates, including Amnesty International and the NAACP, have used social media to rally worldwide support. Last week, Davis’ supporters presented the parole board with the names of more than 663,000 people asking that Davis be granted clemency. 

This is the fourth time the state of Georgia has set an execution date for Davis. On three prior occasions, he was granted stays — twice just hours before his execution was to be carried out. 

On one occasion, the U.S. Supreme Court stepped in and ordered an extraordinary hearing, giving Davis the chance to clearly establish he was an innocent man. But a Savannah judge, after hearing 2 days of testimony, ultimately ruled that while Davis’ new evidence “cast some additional, minimal doubt on his conviction, it is largely smoke and mirrors.” 

His legal appeals are exhausted, so his latest last-ditch effort before the parole board appears to be his last chance to be spared execution. 

Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution, September 20, 2011

Declaration by the High Representative, Catherine Ashton, on Behalf of the European Union on the Case of Mr. Troy Davis Sentenced to Death in the United States

The European Union has followed with great concern the case of Mr. Troy Davis, a U.S. citizen sentenced to death in the State of Georgia. It has now been announced that date of Wednesday September 21, 2011 has been set for his execution.

Serious and compelling doubts have persistently surrounded the evidence on which Mr. Davis was convicted, and these were recognized by the appeal judges. The European Union therefore calls for his execution to be urgently commuted.

While we are aware of the suffering of the victims of violent crime and their families, we recall that with capital punishment, any miscarriage of justice, from which no legal system is immune, represents an irreversible loss of human life. As a result, the European Union reaffirms its principled and longstanding opposition to the use of capital punishment under all circumstances.

For more information, see: http://www.eurunion.org/eu/Hot-Topics/Death-Penalty.html.

Source: Delegation of the European Union to the United States, September 19, 2011

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Troy Davis faces execution on 21 September, despite 7 of 9 non-police witnesses recanting. Where is the justice in that?

Troy Davis

Death brings cheers these days in America. In the most recent Republican presidential debate in Tampa, Florida, when CNN's Wolf Blitzer asked, hypothetically, if a man who chose to carry no medical insurance, then was stricken with a grave illness, should be left to die, cheers of "Yeah!" filled the hall. When, in the prior debate, Governor Rick Perry was asked about his enthusiastic use of the death penalty in Texas, the crowd erupted into sustained applause and cheers. The reaction from the audience prompted debate moderator Brian Williams of NBC News to follow up with the question, "What do you make of that dynamic that just happened here, the mention of the execution of 234 people drew applause?"

That "dynamic" is why challenging the death sentence to be carried out against Troy Davis by the state of Georgia on 21 September is so important. Davis has been on Georgia's death row for close to 20 years, after being convicted of killing off-duty police officer Mark MacPhail in Savannah. Since his conviction, seven of the nine non-police witnesses have recanted their testimony, alleging police coercion and intimidation in obtaining the testimony. There is no physical evidence linking Davis to the murder.

Last March, the US supreme court ruled that Davis should receive an evidentiary hearing, to make his case for innocence. Several witnesses have identified one of the remaining witnesses who has not recanted, Sylvester "Redd" Coles, as the shooter. US District Judge William T Moore Jr refused, on a technicality, to allow the testimony of witnesses who claimed that, after Davis had been convicted, Coles admitted to shooting MacPhail. In his August court order, Moore summarised, "Mr Davis is not innocent."

One of the jurors, Brenda Forrest, disagrees. She told CNN in 2009, recalling the trial of Davis, "All of the witnesses – they were able to ID him as the person who actually did it." Since the 7 witnesses recanted, she says: "If I knew then what I know now, Troy Davis would not be on death row. The verdict would be not guilty."

Troy Davis has 3 major strikes against him. First, he is an African American man. Second, he was charged with killing a white police officer. And 3rd, he is in Georgia.

More than a century ago, the legendary muckraking journalist Ida B Wells risked her life when she began reporting on the epidemic of lynchings in the Deep South. She published Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All its Phases in 1892 and followed up with The Red Record in 1895, detailing hundreds of lynchings. She wrote:

"In Brooks County, Georgia, 23 December, while this Christian country was preparing for Christmas celebration, 7 Negroes were lynched in 24 hours because they refused, or were unable to tell the whereabouts of a colored man named Pike, who killed a white man … Georgia heads the list of lynching states."

The planned execution of Davis will not be at the hands of an unruly mob, but in the sterile, fluorescently lit confines of Georgia diagnostic and classification prison in Butts County, near the town of Jackson. The state doesn't intend to hang Troy Davis from a tree with a rope or a chain – to hang, as Billie Holiday sang, like a strange fruit:

"Southern trees bear a strange fruit

Blood on the leaves and blood at the root

Black body swinging in the Southern breeze

Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees."

The state of Georgia, unless its board of pardons and paroles intervenes, will administer a lethal dose of pentobarbital. Georgia is using this new execution drug because the federal Drug Enforcement Administration seized its supply of sodium thiopental last March, accusing the state of illegally importing the poison.

"This is our justice system at its very worst," said Ben Jealous, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Amnesty International has called on the state board of pardons and paroles to commute Davis' sentence. "The board stayed Davis' execution in 2007, stating that capital punishment was not an option when doubts about guilt remained," said Larry Cox, executive director of Amnesty International USA. "Since then, two more execution dates have come and gone, and there is still little clarity, much less proof, that Davis committed any crime. Amnesty International respectfully asks the board to commute Davis' sentence to life and prevent Georgia from making a catastrophic mistake."

It's not just the human rights groups the parole board should listen to. Pope Benedict XVI and Nobel peace prize laureates President Jimmy Carter and South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, among others, also have called for clemency. Or the board can listen to mobs who cheer for death.

Source: The Guardian, Sept. 14, 2011