We attach the latest death penalty report thanks to group member Lesley for the work in assembling it.
Urgent Action: Iran
Two prisoners at risk of execution in Iran
Death row prisoners from Iran’s Baluchi ethnic minority, Hamed Rigi and Mehran Naru’i, are at risk of execution. They have been subjected to serious human rights violations including enforced disappearance and torture and other ill-treatment to extract “confessions” used to convict and sentence them to death in unfair trials.
Since mid-December 2020, the Iranian authorities have executed 18 Baluchi men, raising fears that Hamed Rigi and Mehran Naru’i may be executed imminently.
Fuller details and a model form of words can be found here and we hope you can find time to write.
Members of the Salisbury group might like to know we hope to hold a Zoom meeting on 11 March in the evening.
Death penalty report: Jan-Feb
The latest monthly death penalty report is attached with thanks to group member Lesley for the work in compiling it.
Urgent Action: Nigeria
Young man at risk of execution in Nigeria for alleged blasphemy
Yahaya Sharif-Aminu (pictured), 22, a singer, is in prison in Kano, Nigeria and is at risk of execution for alleged blasphemy. This is an urgent action asking you to write to the authorities for his release.
The death sentence handed down to Yahaya Sharif-Aminu by the Upper Sharia Court in Kano state, Nigeria was widely criticized across Nigeria and also by Amnesty International after a huge outcry by several individuals and religious bodies urging the Governor of Kano state not to sign his execution warrant.
There were serious concerns about the fairness of Yahaya Sharif-Aminu’s trial and the framing of the charges against him. Before and during the trial, he was not permitted legal representation. He was granted access to legal advice to prepare an appeal after human rights lawyers and activists pressured the court to respect his right to legal representation.
In Kano state under the Sharia law, blasphemy is a criminal offence with a death penalty. The death penalty remains a legal sanction in Nigeria and continues to be imposed throughout the country. In 2019, over 54 death sentences were recorded. In total, over 2,700 people were under death sentence by the end of the year. In Nigeria, the 2004 National Study Group on Death Penalty and the 2007 Presidential Commission on the Administration of Justice both stressed that the Nigerian criminal justice system cannot guarantee a fair trial and called for a moratorium on the death penalty.
Sentence of death for singing a song
In 2008, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Commission) adopted its second
resolution on the death penalty, calling on States Parties to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights –
such as Nigeria – to “observe a moratorium on the execution of death sentences with a view to abolishing the
death penalty” and to ratify the ICCPR-OP2. In a study published on 19 April 2012, the Working Group on the
Death Penalty of the African Commission reaffirmed the necessity of the abolition of capital punishment and
suggested ways for its achievement.
We would be grateful if you can find time to write. There is an email address as well.
Death penalty in Belarus
Two people at risk of execution
Belarus is the last European nation to maintain the death penalty and this urgent action is asking you to take part in the campaign please. In addition to the penalty itself, the execution is carried out in secrecy with neither the family or their legal representatives told when it will be nor where where they are buried afterwards.
The US execution spree
The US rushed to execute 13 before Jo Biden became president
January 2021
Shock was widely expressed following the execution of 13 people in the final days of the Trump presidency and just days before president elect Jo Biden takes office on 20th. President Trump has been the most prolific executioner in more than a century. There has been a gradual drift away from this use of the penalty in the USA – the only American nation still to have the penalty – and the executions are out of step with trends and attitudes among the US public. These executions took place in federal prisons. It has been criticised as vindictive.
The Attorney General, William Barr said:
[…] We owe it to the victims and their families to carry forward the sentence imposed by our justice system. US Department of Justice statement when federal executions were resumed after two decades. July 2019 [accessed 16 January 2021]
Death Penalty report December – January
The death penalty report for December to January is now available thanks to group member Lesley for the work in compiling it.
Lisa Montgomery executed
Lisa Montgomery was executed in the Federal prison of Terre Haute, Indiana today (Wednesday, 13 January 2021) after a long legal struggle to save her from this punishment. The case has caused a major debate in the US partly because Lisa was the first woman to be executed in nearly seven decades. She was executed in a federal prison, not a state one.
There is no doubt that her crime was horrific. But there seems little doubt also that her upbringing, which included being gang raped more than once, contributed to her lack of mental wellbeing and borderline personality disorder. It is unlikely she was aware of what was happening to her. She was the 11th person to be executed at Terre Haute since President Trump resumed federal executions.
The US is the only country in the Americas to retain the death penalty and not all states in the union practise it.
There is no evidence to support the maintenance of this penalty. It does not deter and it brutalises those involved in it. It can make securing convictions harder if juries are unwilling to agree a guilty verdict if there is a risk of execution. It is extremely expensive as we noted in a previous post and it has cost California for example, around $12bn to administer since 1978. For poor people, unable to employ expensive lawyers, the system is stacked against them. Mistakes – and there are many – cannot afterwards be rectified.
Death penalty in America: CNN interview
This is an interview on CNN of Helen Prejean who is an active campaigner against the death penalty in the USA. Helen is a Roman Catholic, born in Baton Rouge Louisiana, and was chair of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty up to 1995. She is the author of a book, Dead Man Walking.
The interview was made because of President Trump’s programme of carrying out a string of Federal executions in the lame duck period before President elect Joe Biden takes over in January. The number of these is unprecedented.
Death penalty Report: Nov- Dec
This months Death Penalty report is now available thanks to group member Lesley for putting it together. Two cases in particular are noted and links to those can be found below. Note that China executes more of its citizens than the rest of the world put together but details are a state secret.
Amnesty in Salisbury & South Wiltshire 