Tag: USA

Amnesty success


650 prisoners released last year

It sometimes seems like a forlorn battle being an Amnesty supporter.  The tide of executions, arrests for peacefully protesting, torture and other state crimes seems inexorable.  Despite countries signing solemn pledges in the UN, persecution by states of their own people and minorities continues on a grand scale around the world.

But a light sometimes does shine and in a recent report, Amnesty claims that 650 prisoners were released last year due in part to our

Albert Woodfox. Pic: Amnesty

campaigning.  Albert Woodfox was released from 44 years in solitary confinement in Louisiana, USA and he said:

Even when it feels like you are not going to win, when you grow disillusioned with politics which put geed before people’s human rights. when you don’t think you can make a difference – please remember that if you had not taken a stand and joined hundreds of thousands of activist around the world, I may not have been able to write this to you today.

 

 

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Death penalty report


The latest death penalty report covering four weeks to mid August is attached thanks to group member Lesley for compiling it.  Please remember China remains the world’s biggest executioner but details are a state secret.

Report July/August

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Reggie Clemon’s trial delayed


Clemon’s trial delayed again until January
Reggie Clemons (picture Amnesty USA)

The trial of Reggie Clemons in Missouri has been delayed yet again until January.  This has come about because the defense has claimed that Reggie’s phone calls and visitor logs have been accessed by the Attorney General’s office since March 2016.  They claim that at least three of these calls to his lawyers and may have revealed names of expert witnesses to called to testify at his trial.  The Attorney General office deny these claims and said that Clemons had waived his attorney client privilege.

He has been in prison now for 22 years and the trial had been set for August.

The group sent a card to Reggie in anticipation of the trial taking place in August.

Here is a factsheet produced by Amnesty USA giving background to this disturbing case.

Sources: St Louis Dispatch and Amnesty USA

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Death Penalty report


Latest Death Penalty report

The latest death penalty report for June/July is available thanks to group member Lesley for the hard work in compiling it.

Death Penalty report

If you would like to join the local group – because for example you have strong convictions against the use of the death penalty – you would be most welcome.  Or you can just write using one of the urgent actions in the report above.

China is the world’s leading executioner.

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Reggie Clemons (picture Amnesty USA)
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Death penalty report


The latest monthly death penalty report is now available thanks to group member Lesley for compiling it.  There is news of Reggie Clemons who has been on death row for 26 years now and we have heard from a family member.

Death penalty report (Word)

Reggie Clemons (picture Amnesty USA)
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Death penalty report


Attached is the Death Penalty report for April – May prepared by group member Lesley.  It contains an update on the rush to execute people in Arkansas USA because of the imminent expiry of the drugs used.  There is also an update on the situation with Reggie Clemons.

Report (pdf)

 

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Death penalty


Five reasons to end the death penalty

We are attaching the recent post issued by RightsInfo which gives 5 reasons to end the death penalty.  There is a rising tide of executions around the world as the recent Amnesty report makes clear with China the country which leads the world (if ‘lead’ be the appropriate word) in executing the greatest number which it keeps a secret.  Saudi Arabia and Iran are also major executioners often in barbaric circumstances.

Our local group produces a monthly report and these can be found on this site.

Briefly, the Rights Info report, entitled: 5 Reasons the UK is Trying to Stamp Out the Death Penalty Worldwide, says that the death penalty:

  1. will often execute the innocent.  We have documented many instances on this site where for various reasons, the wrong person has been executed.  Once done, it cannot be undone
  2. is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and often involves people incarcerated for decades under threat of execution
  3. it has no effect on crime rates, indeed there are more murders in those states in the United States where capital punishment is used
  4. it damages international crime fighting because we cannot extradite individualswhere there is the risk of someone being executed

[we were unable to find a fifth in the report]

5 Reasons the UK is Trying to Stamp Out the Death Penalty Worldwide – RightsInfo copy (pdf)

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Arkansas: petition


Petition to the Governor Asa Hutchinson to stop the execution due this week

The rush to carry out executions in Arkansas, USA, continues apace with another one due tomorrow (Thursday 27th).  This is a petition (see below) to send to the Governor asking him to stop.  The panic to get the executions done is because the drugs being used are due to expire.  Adds a new meaning to ‘sell by date’ we see on our foodstuffs.

The death penalty is the ultimate denial of human rights, as it violates the right to life. It is also a cruel and inhumane punishment that may constitute torture.

Amnesty always oppose the death penalty in every case because it violates rights. The idea of lethal injection as a ‘humane’ form of execution is simply a myth. There have been numerous cases of ‘botched’ executions by lethal injection in the US in recent years, with prisoners failing to die quickly or ‘quietly’.  See our post on the process to be followed in California.

If you get time to send an urgent email that would be appreciated.

 

Petition to Arkansas

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Death penalty saga in Arkansas


UPDATE: two executed today (25 April)

April 2017

‘Execution by assembly line’

The death penalty saga in Arkansas continues with a blizzard of legal writs and appeals to the Supreme Court.  The heart of the matter was the desire of the Governor, Asa Hutchinson, to execute eight inmates before the drugs run out.  Ledell Lee was executed last Thursday.  States with the death penalty are finding it harder to obtain the medication to carry out the executions.  This is partly due to the activities of anti-death penalty groups, waning support for the penalty with 49% of Americans in favour, and the refusal by drug companies to supply them.  The EU has banned European firms from exporting them.  Indeed, two firms who have supplied drugs – in particular Midazolam – have filed claims against its use on the basis that they were not supplied for that purpose.  These claims have been rejected.

A recent appeal to the Supreme Court was rejected 5 – 4 and key was the vote by the newly appointed Justice Gorsuch.  He was one of President Trump’s appointments.

One of the appeals was to re-examine crime scene materials using modern DNA techniques.  These should prove conclusively either way whether the defendants were guilty or otherwise.  These claims were denied which seems bizarre in the extreme when someone’s life is at stake.  Ledell Lee has now been executed so it is too late for him.  The inadequate nature of trials which lead to the use of the death penalty is describe in Clive Stafford Smith’s book Injustice.   The gruesome process of the death penalty is laid bare in the State of California’s procedure and protocol summarised here.

Arkansa now wants to execute two on the same day which is the first time that will have happened since 1970 in Texas.

This is a fast moving story and no doubt this item will be updated soon.

Sources:

Reuters; BBC; Arkansas Democrat-Gazette; Time; Arkansas Times; Death Penalty Information Center


Follow the links to Twitter and Facebook on the left.

If you live in the Salisbury (UK) area and are interested in Human rights we would be delighted to see you.  The best way is to keep an eye on events and come along and make yourself known.  See also the Joining tab at the top of the page.

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Death Penalty report


Death penalty report for March – April 2017

This is the death penalty update report for mid March to mid April thanks to group member Lesley for compiling it.  Some good news – even in China – where the statistics on the use of the penalty are a state secret, tempered by heavy use in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam and Iran.

Report (Word)


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