Amnesty in Salisbury & South Wiltshire
Promoting human rights from Salisbury UK
The following three factsheets have been produced by the group for use on stalls and on campaigns generally. They can be downloaded here (pdf files). One is about the group and what it does and has achieved; another is a death penalty case in Japan for the World Day Against the Death Penalty on Saturday, and the last is about refugees.
[If any Amnesty group would like one of these sheets we are happy to modify them, with their own group details on for example, and send you an amended pdf]
There is something of an execution spree going on in Indonesia at present with a number of people already executed by firing squad and more likely to follow. This is a message sent out by Amnesty UK: –
I’m getting in touch with sad news. Last night, Indonesian authorities killed four prisoners by firing squad. All four had been convicted of drugs crimes, their families only told yesterday morning that their loved one would be killed that night.
Indonesian Fredi Budiman, and Nigerian prisoners Humphrey ‘Jeff’ Jefferson Ejike, Michael Titus Igweh, and Seck Osmane had their right to life taken from them in the depth of night in the middle of a raging storm. They were shot dead by a firing squad on Indonesia’s infamous ‘execution island’.
But ten more prisoners received a last-minute stay of execution.
The lives of ten more people hang in the balance. And we need to make sure the Indonesian authorities do not go ahead with these executions.
Thanks to [Amnesty supporters] contacting the Indonesian authorities and sharing the story, the tragic execution of four people last night made headlines around the world. All we can do now is keep calling for justice and for an end to the executions – with the hope that pressure from around the world will save the ten lives at stake.
Do please share our action to stop the remaining executions. Go to the Amnesty UK site for more details on how to take action.
action@amnesty.co.uk
The group’s death penalty report for June – July 2016 is now available thanks to group member Lesley for
compiling it. USA features strongly where there are a number of struggles going on. The Maldives appear and we have written to our local MP Mr John Glen, who has a special interest in the country, to intercede.
China remains the country which executes the most followed by Iran and Saudi Arabia. Details of executions in China are a state secret.
A former Swindon Amnesty member and lawyer, Catherine Dunmore, has secured funds from a crowdsourcing site to enable her to go to the state of Florida in the USA to work on first degree murder cases. She has been there three weeks now and she has a blog which is worth reading. Florida is one of the states still using the death penalty.
We hope you will follow her blog and also be moved to send funds to her crowdfunding site.
We attach the monthly death penalty report, this time for 2 months, prepared by group member Lesley. China doesn’t figure in the report as its executions are a state secret but is believed to be the world’s leader in the numbers executed.
Interim International Update (from 14.4.16 – 28.4.16)
Date format: day/month/year
UK –
o 14.4.16 – Mya Foa, Death Penalty Director of Reprieve stated, ‘
It is easy for Ministers to condemn the death penalty from Foreign Office briefing rooms. But if the words are to mean anything, the UK must be willing to engage in targeted ways on specific cases, including making its concerns public where appropriate. The countries driving a global surge in executions are amongst the country’s closest allies. This gives us a voice and we should use it in service of our values.
She highlights Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and also Iran, where the recent resumption of diplomatic relations demonstrates how we can make a difference. She quotes the instance of how David Cameron’s intervention in 2013 in the cases of three young men who had faced torture and abuse, and were given death sentences, had contributed to their pardon and release.
o 24.4.16 – Catherine Dunmore, a young lawyer from Swindon, who supported Amnesty while at secondary school, is about to spend 3 months in Florida, working as an unpaid volunteer for Amicus. This organisation provides legal representation for those on death row – For anyone who might wish to support her, please go to Crowdfunder appeal The Salisbury Group wishes Catherine well.
o 14.4.16 – Non Profit Quarterly have reported on the steady decline in executions since 2009 – from 52 
to 28 in 2015. They attribute this in part to changing public opinion and increased media scrutiny, but also to the activism of death penalty opponents which has led to the limited availability of drugs essential in the use of the lethal injection.
The review shows that, while 31 states have the death penalty, only 4 are actively executing prisoners using lethal injection – Missouri, Texas, Alabama and Georgia. Florida are currently reviewing their procedures, while Louisiana, Virginia, Arizona and Arkansas have, or are about to, use the last of their supplies. Ohio have had to re- schedule their executions, and Nebraska are looking for a legal source of drugs.
The Danish Company Lundbeck were exposed as the suppliers of phenobarbital by Maya Foya of Reprieve, and the campaign against its supply and use was joined by Amnesty International. One of Lundbeck’s straplines on its UK site is: ‘Improving human life for almost a century.’ Although a number of states are considering alternative methods of execution, it is hoped that the delays and setbacks will provide sufficient time for the Supreme Court to consider the constitutionality of the death penalty.
o Texas –
United Nations – 19.4.16 – The first special session held in nearly 20 years to address drug policy resulted in tensions between countries as to whether criminalisation and punishment, or health and human rights, should be the main focus. AI reported that 30 countries have laws supporting the use of the death penalty for drug related offences, with at least 685 executions in 2015.
The outcome adopted by the member states included no criticism of the death penalty, stating only that countries should ensure punishments were ‘proportionate’ with the crimes.
UK/Indonesia –
o 19.4.16 – AI called on Mr Cameron to challenge the President, Mr Widodo, on his decision to re-implement the death penalty for drug related offences, and to raise the case of the British woman, Lindsay Sandiford.
o 28.4.16 – The Guardian reports that, a year after the execution of eight people convicted of drug trafficking, there are rumours of preparations for further executions, which could take place in the next few weeks. Prisoners on death row include two Britons – Lindsay Sandiford and Gareth Cashmore, and a young man – Yusman Telaumbana – believed to have been a minor at the time of the crime, and to have been tortured. (Note: Indonesia was booed at the United Nations session on drug policy).
Nigeria – 21.4.16 – It was reported in the Nigerian media that prosecutors in Kaduna were seeking the death penalty for members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) for the killing of a soldier in the course of two days of violence in December 2012 in the northern city of Zaria.
Iran – UA 65/16 – Alireza Pour Olfat was scheduled to be executed on 16.4.16 for a fatal stabbing committed at 16 in the course of a group fight. His execution was postponed to allow more time for seeking a pardon from the victim’s family. (Circulated to DPLWG 15.4.16).
Iran – New Zealand Amnesty petition – an online petition from Amnesty New Zealand calling on the Iranian Authorities to cease the execution of those who were children at the time of their sentences.(Circulated to DPLWG 27.4.16 and on the website)
Campaigning
China remains the country with the highest level of executions – believed to be in the thousands – but the statistics are a state secret.
Thanks to group member Lesley for compiling this report.
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WE are sad to report that on 12th April, Kenneth Fults was executed by lethal injection in Georgia USA. The United States is the only country in the Americas which still has the death penalty. The case revealed the usual catalogue of dubious legal practice that is so common in these cases: a black defendant poorly represented by lawyers one of whom was allegedly asleep during part of the proceedings; a plea bargain and a juror who made derogatory racial remarks about Fults. Other factors are set out in a previous blog.
Amnesty International’s senior death penalty campaigner Jason Clark said:
Those troubling factors are typical of Georgia’s use of the death penalty.
Virtually every execution that’s happened in Georgia has been emblematic of problems with the death penalty.
He noted that the 28 executions in the U.S. last year were carried out by just six states.
In states like Georgia that are still carrying on a lot of executions, it’s because they’re not implementing issues of fairness.
Amnesty is opposed to the death penalty in all cases.
A sad day…
UPDATE: 8 October. Richard Glossip has been given an indefinite stay of execution (Oklahoma)
We attach an urgent action on behalf of Richard Glossip with whom visitors to this site will be familiar with. He has won a temporary stay of execution. His legal team has presented new evidence to the appeal court. The evidence against him is weak as we have pointed out before and relies partly on a plea bargain by the man who committed the actual murder. Oklahoma is a hard line state as far as the death penalty is concerned.
We hope you can find time to write. See also this month’s death penalty report.
Richard Glossip’s execution has been deferred by two weeks only hours before he was due to killed. This was an urgent action by Amnesty International and members of our group have written to the Oklahoma authorities. You can read the full report in the New York Times here.
There is no physical evidence linking Glossip to the scene and a major part of the evidence is a plea bargain by Sneed who admitted to the murder but escaped execution by implicating Glossip.
Amnesty is opposed to the death penalty and this case reveals one of the reasons: flimsy evidence combined with a plea bargain means the likelihood of a wrongful conviction leading to a man’s death with no prospect of putting it right in future if fresh evidence appears.
The group is holding a vigil against the death penalty on 17 October in Salisbury starting at 12.45. Further details here and on Twitter soon.
We attach an urgent action on behalf of a man called Glossip (52) who is due to be executed on 16th of this month. The case against him is circumstantial and seems quite flimsy. He has been on death row since 1998 – around 17 years. If you can find time to write or email, that would be appreciated. Full details are here: Case file (pdf)
There is also a web site the accuracy of which we cannot warrant:
See also USA death penalty site with further information and a petition [You will find it on their Facebook page and there is a wealth of statistical information on the site as well. There is a permanent link to the site at the bottom of this site]
Amnesty in Salisbury & South Wiltshire 