Malaysian Minister: "An Eye for An Eye Leads to Blindness"

A senior Malaysian minister on Sunday reportedly urged the government to abolish the death penalty amid outrage from rights groups.

The call came during a debate over executions — carried out in Malaysia by hanging — after Kuala Lumpur last month sought clemency from Singapore for a young Malaysian drug trafficker who is facing the gallows in the city-state.

Both Malaysia and Singapore have tough anti-drug laws and rarely seek clemency for nationals facing drug charges in other countries.

“If it is wrong to take someone’s life, then the government should not do it either,” Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Nazri Aziz told the Sunday Star newspaper.

“No criminal justice system is perfect. You take a man’s life and years later, you find out that another person did the crime. What can you do?” said the senior minister.

Local rights groups have long campaigned against the death penalty, which is mandatory for murder, drug trafficking and possession of firearms among other crimes in the country. Campaigners said the sentence was inhumane.

Malaysia filed a clemency plea to Singapore last month over the case of Yong Vui Kong, a 22-year-old who is facing the death penalty after he was convicted in 2008 of trafficking 47 grams of heroin into Singapore.

The case has received wide attention in the two countries. Yong, who was19 when he was arrested, said he has repented and pledged to campaign against drugs.

Amnesty International says Singapore has one of the highest per capita execution rates in the world. It put 420 people to death between 1991 and 2004.

Activists said Malaysia carried out 358 hangings between 1981 and 2005. 

Source: Agence France-Presse, August 29, 2010

Death penalty opponents cite North Carolina forensic lab concerns

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Supporters of a man on North Carolina's death row want a new look at the case after revelations that the state's top crime lab was plagued by overstated or falsely reported evidence.

On Monday, attorneys and four men freed from prison because of faulty evidence presented at their trials will urge a review of Melvin White's death sentence. Two of the released inmates also were on death row.

White was sentenced to death in 1996 for the slayings of an elderly Craven County woman and her boyfriend. He's always proclaimed his innocence.

The only forensic evidence linking him to the murders is the bullet-tracing work of a State Bureau of Investigation analyst who didn't describe why he concluded the casings all came from the same gun.

Source: The Associated Press, August 30, 2010

Will Ohio Execute An Innocent Man?

Kevin Keith

Here we go again, this time in Ohio.

There, death row inmate Kevin Keith is scheduled to be executed on September 15, despite strong new evidence of his innocence. Keith was convicted in 1994 for a shooting spree that killed three people and wounded three others.

Eyewitness testimony was the primary evidence used to convict Keith. Along with the fact that eyewitness accounts are notoriously unreliable, the new evidence discredits the eyewitness identification in this case. The evidence also identifies an alternative suspect, Rodney Melton, who may have actually committed the crime for which Keith was convicted. Keith has an alibi for the time of the crime, supported by four witnesses.

No court has considered the entirety of the evidence in this case. Therefore, it appears that there is reasonable doubt as to Keith's guilt. And there is no excuse to execute someone when there is reasonable doubt that you've got the right guy.

Nevertheless, on August 19, the Ohio Parole Board rejected Keith's clemency petition by a vote of 8-0. Charles Keith, the convicted man's brother, described the Board's demeanor during the review as "cold" and "like a death squad." This seems to suggest that they are more interested in expediency than true justice. And it seems to suggest that they are willing to risk the possibility of executing an innocent man.

Sadly, Keith's situation is not unusual. Cases are currently in the courts in Georgia, Texas, and elsewhere in which death row inmates are fighting for the right to prove their innocence. If any of them succeed, they will be among the lucky ones. Some are not so lucky.

In 2007, the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (NCADP) published a report titled "Innocent and Executed", which highlighted four cases in which people were apparently executed for crimes that they did not commit. And those four are just the ones we know about.

One of those cases, that of Cameron Todd Willingham, made headlines last year when The New Yorker published an investigative article on the case. Willingham was executed in 2004 for setting a fire that killed his three daughters. However, a forensic review of the case led to the conclusion that "a finding of arson could not be sustained." In other words, the fatal fire for which Willingham was executed was probably just an accident.

It's no secret that lawyers, judges, juries, and crime labs make mistakes, and innocent people are convicted of crimes that they did not commit. In fact, to date more than 250 people in the U.S. have been exonerated as a result of post-conviction DNA testing. But, again, they are the lucky ones.

Given the proven fallibility and unreliability of the "justice" system, how many others may have been executed for crimes that they did not commit? And how many more innocent people will be executed in the future?

Why should Ohio or any other state take any more chances?

In the case of Kevin Keith, due to die on September 15, the final verdict now lies with Ohio Governor Ted Strickland. I hope he will do the right thing and grant clemency. Governor Strickland's office can be reached by phone at (614) 466-3555 or online at http://governor.ohio.gov.

www.maryshawonline.com

Mary Shaw is a Philadelphia-based writer and activist, with a focus on politics, human rights, and social justice. She is a former Philadelphia Area Coordinator for the Nobel-Prize-winning human rights group Amnesty International, and her views (more...)

Source: OpEdNews, Mary Shaw, August 30, 2010

Switzerland: Death penalty initiative not quite dead

Just days after it was withdrawn, the initiative to reinstate the death penalty in Switzerland is making news again.

Marcel Graf, the initiative committee’s spokesman, has called on Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf to ensure that capital criminals are tried and sentenced within a year.

In an interview with the Aarau-based Sonntag newspaper, Graf said that he would pass the initiative on to others if the justice minister was unable to promise speedier punishment.

Graf said that a huge lobby was interested in reviving the initiative and that he had received hundreds of emails. Many people mailed in petition forms full of signatures.

Widmer-Schlumpf is against the death penalty, but has said that she can understand the frustration of the committee members, who are related to a victim.

Switzerland struck capital punishment from its criminal statutes in 1942.

Source: swissinfo.ch, August 30, 2010

Virginia: Death row visits

Mississippi DR
Non contact visit area

THE VIRGINIA Department of Corrections has had a welcome change of heart on its death row visitation policy.

For the past three years, those sentenced to death have been allowed face-to-face visits with relatives, although they have not been allowed physical contact. The department said this month that it planned to toughen this already restrictive policy. Come Sept. 1, the dozen or so death row inmates in Virginia would have had to rely on video cameras to pipe in the sights and sounds of loved ones. No more eye contact, no more pressing hands against glass.

Virginia was poised to join Kansas as the only two of the 35 states in the nation that execute prisoners to prohibit in-person family visits, according to the Associated Press. The commonwealth said that efficiency and security drove the decision. For example, security personnel would no longer have to be taken off other duties to escort inmates and family members to visiting rooms.

But on Friday the department engaged in an about-face. "There will be no change in the death row visitation policy at the present time," spokesman Larry Traylor said in a statement. "We will continue to review and research current policy as well as other related issues and technical capabilities."

Pushing the pause button is welcome, but the state should permanently abandon any thought of eliminating in-person visits. We oppose the death penalty, but, if it is to be carried out, those sentenced to death and their families should be treated humanely. This is not to excuse the crimes that may have landed an inmate on death row or to diminish the loss felt in the families of these inmates' victims. But taking away all contact with visitors would be cruel and apt to accomplish little in the way of enhanced security.

Source: The Washington Post, August 30, 2010

The Emmy Awards

David attended the the 62nd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards held at the Nokia Theatre L.A you can see some pics above.

FACTUM ARTE- TUTANKHAMUN

This report is required reading for all lovers of the tombs. The current scale of numbers is destroying the tombs and whilst I would be the first to demand that scholars can still get access to the originals I feel that the majority of tourists would not miss out if they visited a reproduction. We have to preserve these tombs. There was a lecture at the November symposium about the work of Factum Arte, the technology was impressive. Several ideas were presented about how these reproductions could be set up, the hill and area behind the Carter House is a favoured spot. Making that whole area part of the West Bank experience. Anyway this report gives an update on the workFACTUM ARTE- TUTANKHAMUN: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"