Amnesty in Salisbury & South Wiltshire
Promoting human rights from Salisbury UK
December 2025
We are pleased to attach our monthly death penalty report thanks to group member Lesley for the work in compiling it. Contains a lot about America, or specifically the US the only nation on the continent still to have the penalty. Note as usual that there is no mention of China which is believed to execute more of its citizens than the rest of the world put together but the statistics are a state secret.
November 2025
UPDATE: 21 November. Randolph was executed yesterday making it the 17th in the state. Further background can be read in a Tallahassee Democrat post. There is also material on Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty FADP.
There has been a big increase in executions in Florida – 15 so far this year and another one due to take place today (20 November) of Richard Barry Randolph. This compares with 1 last year and a downward trend in the US as a whole. The reason for this surge is hard to determine but much of the US media and opinion seems to point to the Governor Ron DeSantis. It is alleged that this sudden surge is part of his campaign to run for president in 2028 at the end (?) of the Trump era.
There are many troubling aspects about the executions. Florida is almost unique in allowing the governor
to have the final decision. Other states now leave this to the judiciary. But there is also disquiet about the secrecy of the decision making process. ‘Florida’s governor has no criteria, procedure, or guidelines in place for selecting who lives and who dies…Granting the governor unfettered discretion has, in practice, led to a completely arbitrary process for determining who lives and who dies‘ [attorney for Thomas Gudinas]. De Santis has offered no explanation for this sudden increase in executions.
Anyone who has read Clive Stafford-Smith’s book Injustice will know the inefficient court process in the US particularly for poor people. The level of mistakes in the state is high. Since 1989 there have been no less than 93 individuals wrongfully convicted and exonerated. Needless to say, if someone has already been executed it’s a mistake that cannot be rectified.
The judicial process seems to offer little confidence with 6 or the seven justices on the Florida Supreme Court appointed by the governor. The jury system has been altered so that only 8 out of the 12 jurors is needed for a guilty verdict. The results are clear to see with 35% of those on death row are Black whereas they represent only 17% of the population.
There is no evidence that the death penalty is a deterrence. As we have noted, mistakes cannot be afterwards rectified. It would appear that this sudden rise is due to the Governor’s desire to raise his credibility with a view to the presidential election in 2028. As the Palm Beach Post notes, ‘the system is riddled with issues ..’ (18 November).
Sources: Palm Beach Post, WUSF, The Conversation, Guardian, FADP
See our monthly Death Penalty Report
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November 2025
We are pleased to attach the current death penalty report for mid October to mid November thanks to group member Lesley for the work in compiling it. Florida features quite strongly as does Iran which is executing young people – a truly horrific act. There is also material on Israel which is considering laws for Palestinians quite different from the Jewish population, an example of apartheid which operates there. We note as ever that even though China makes a brief entry, the country is believed to execute more of its citizens than the rest of the world combined but details are a state secret.
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Material on this site is free to use by other Amnesty or human rights groups.
April 2025
We are pleased to attach the group’s death penalty report thanks to group member Lesley for the work in compiling it. In a previous post (see below) we refer to the Amnesty annual report for 2024 which shows that while the number of countries using the report has held steady, the number of executions has risen markedly. We do not know of the huge number executed in China since the statistics are a state secret.
September 2023
We are pleased to attach the latest death penalty report produced by group member Lesley for the period mid August to mid September 2023. As ever there is good news and bad with some countries engaged in heavy use of the penalty. China – believed to be the world’s largest executioner of its citizens – is briefly mentioned but detailed statistics are not available because they are a state secret. It is depressing to note in the UK, that following the conviction of Lucy Letby of murdering new born infants and attempting to murder others, a national newspaper ran a poll showing a strong majority to bring the death penalty back for such crimes.
May 2023
We are pleased to attach the latest report thanks to group member Lesley for the work in compiling it. Note that although China appears briefly, it remains the country thought to execute more of its citizens than the rest of the world combined but details are a state secret.
Today is Marita Maharaj’s birthday.
She is 81 years old – she’s now had 34 birthdays without her beloved husband Kris by her side.
It’s been a difficult year for the elderly couple. A judge found that Kris was innocent by “clear and convincing evidence” but still refused to order his release.
Marita worries about Kris, this year more than ever before – he’s 81 years old, in poor health and at risk of the worst effects of coronavirus in a crowded Florida prison. And because of the pandemic, instead of a visit each week, she has not been able to see him since March.
Further details can be found on this link about this shocking case and miscarriage of justice in America.
We have some bad news from Reprieve. Kris Maharaj’s request for a conditional medical release was denied by the Florida Department for Corrections. The DOC didn’t even bother to send a doctor to evaluate him, or include a reason for denying Reprieve’s request. And that’s why they have filed a challenge to their decision.
At the end of the day, the question is a simple one: is Kris a danger to others? No.
Kris never has been. But the prison is a danger to him. He is 81 and particularly vulnerable as COVID-19 sweeps through the prison system. He should be at home with his wife Marita right now.
When we have further news we shall publish it here.
Justice for Kris Maharaj has been denied again in Florida. After all the work that was done to prove that he was innocent, he still languishes in gaol after 33 years. It was hoped his hearing – already delayed by several months – would have been heard this month and he would be freed. But now it has been delayed again, this time indefinitely. You can read the full story by Clive Stafford Smith of Reprieve who must be close to despairing that this rotten US justice system will ever admit its mistake and release him.
WE attach the latest message from Reprieve about this man’s continuing incarceration in Florida despite his innocence being demonstrated beyond doubt. We have written about this case before.
Every time I [Clive Stafford Smith] think that Kris Maharaj cannot be subjected to any more injustice, agents of the State of Florida comes up trumps. I last visited Kris in the euphemistically named South Florida Reception in September. I went to share the good news that the Magistrate Judge had set a hearing for October 17th. This meant we would finally be allowed to prove that his trial was manifestly unfair – and the last 33 years he’s spent in Florida’s prison system are unjust.
I should have known the devastating impact of a broken justice system could not be remedied so quickly – 33 years and counting. The Magistrate had already agreed that we had submitted proof such that no reasonable juror could now convict Kris of the murders of Derrick and Duane Moo Young in Room 1215 of Miami’s Dupont Plaza Hotel all those years ago on October 16th, 1986. We dismantled every element of the prosecution case against Kris, and obtained sworn testimony from six unimpeached alibi witnesses who placed him far away. Kris even passed his lie detector test: the prosecution’s star witness did not.
Lastly, we lined up half a dozen Colombian cartel witnesses who expressed shock that Kris was locked up for killing the Moo Youngs. The murders were a hit ordered by Pablo Escobar, they said – the Moo Youngs had been stealing from the Narcos and “had to die.” One might imagine that this would be sufficient for Kris to be restored to the arms of his long-suffering wife Marita, but under current U.S. precedent it is – we are told – possible that a fair trial should come to the wrong result. Hence, logic mandates, the mere fact that you are innocent is not enough: you must prove the trial was itself marred.
I stayed with Marita the night before my prison visit. She lives a lonely life in Florida, only permitted to visit her husband every week or two. Those visits are sacred to both of them. The only disciplinary sanction Kris has got in the last three decades he has spent in prison involved a violation of the visitation policy – he stole a second kiss with his wife, when the rules only allow one. Marita’s cottage is a shrine to the life they once had, with pictures of the couple in their London heyday, when Kris was a self-made millionaire.
She served me breakfast at the table where, every Christmas for the past 33 years, she has set a place for her husband, maintaining the fantasy that he might walk in any moment. In the prison visitation area, Kris and I planned for his hearing. Though the Magistrate had only given us three weeks to prepare, we would meet the deadline. After all, it meant that Kris and Marita might – at long last – actually share their Christmas dinner this year.
AFTER 26 years working on the case, we were ready to prove multiple constitutional violations – from the suppression of exculpatory evidence (a government informant told them in 1986 that the cartel committed the murders), to the fact that the judge had himself been arrested on the third day of the trial for taking a bribe from a law enforcement agent posing as a drug dealer.
The first slap came with the State’s request for three months extra to prepare. That may not seem much, but it takes us into 2020, by which time Kris will be 81-years-old and Marita 80. The potential knock-out blow came the next day when the State filed an appeal, to try to prevent the hearing altogether. For 20 pages they argued that Kris should be barred from presenting evidence at all. It is all nonsense, of course.
They even had the gall to argue that we have not been diligent in pursuing proof of innocence, when I have been to Colombia and back to get it. We will do what we have always done: trudge on towards justice, hoping to persuade the appellate judge to respond with expedition. Meanwhile the State’s lawyers callously run down the clock on Kris’s life. I do sometimes wonder how people sleep at night. I know I have often not been able to in the 26 years when Kris and Marita have been my responsibility, but that is because I fear I have not done enough, rather than too much.
I am working with Kris and the team at Reprieve to prepare for Kris’ trial in January. Hopefully, no other blows hit us between now and then. Kris and Marita should not have to spend any more time apart because of an unfair trial 33 years ago.
Thank you for reading,
Read our latest death penalty report.
If you live in the Salisbury/Amesbury/Downton area and would like to join our group you would be most welcome. You can come to one of our monthly meetings which take place on the second Thursday at 7:30 in Victoria Road Salisbury or come along to one of our events and make yourself known. Keep and eye on this site or on Facebook or Twitter to see what we have planned.
Amnesty in Salisbury & South Wiltshire 