Tag: USA

Urgent Action: Richard Glossip, Oklahoma


No to the death penalty

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.

Glossip Urgent Action

glossip

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Glossip execution deferred


Oklahoma

glossipRichard 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.

No to the death penaltyAmnesty 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.

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#Deathpenalty report for September now available


No to the death penaltyThe death penalty report for September is now available thanks to Lesley for compiling it.  Links to other blog posts and in particular the continuing correspondence with John Glen MP concerning the government’s policy change on the death penalty.

Death penalty report, September

Report on possible reductions in the use of the death penalty by India and China.  This is to be welcomed although we cannot verify the situation in the latter country because the numbers executed are a state secret.

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Urgent Action: #Oklahoma #USA #deathpenalty


No to the death penaltyWe 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:

Richard Glossip

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]

Richard Glossip
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#Deathpenalty report for August


No to the death penaltyBelow is the death penalty report for August thanks to Lesley for its preparation.  It links in part to other items on this blog and in particular the decision by the UK’s Foreign Office to drop explicit reference to the abolition of the death penalty from its list of policies.

Report (pdf)

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#deathpenalty report for June now available


No to the death penaltyThe monthly report on the state of the death penalty around the world is attached – thanks to Lesley.

July death penalty report (pdf)

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#Deathpenalty report for June


No to the death penaltyAttached is the #Deathpenalty report for June prepared for the group by Lesley.  It reports on the increasing tide of executions in #Pakistan.  We note again that China doesn’t feature because, although they lead the world in the number of executions, it is a state secret.

Death penalty report

NB: the date given in the report for the World Day Against the Death Penalty should be 10th not 11th October.

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Deathpenalty report for May now available


No to the death penaltyThe monthly death penalty report is available here thanks to Lesley for compiling it.  A great deal of interest in the subject in the past month especially the executions in Indonesia.  The use of hair evidence by the FBI in America – which has led to a number of people being executed or dying on death row – has now been discredited.  Another interesting development is the criticism by the French President Francois Hollande of the use of the death penalty in Saudi Arabia.  Like the UK, France has big arms sales contracts with the kingdom but unlike the UK, feels free to criticise them for their barbaric public beheadings.  The Willie Manning case is also featured.

May death penalty report

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Outpouring of protest about #Indonesia #executions


The media has devoted considerable space to the #executions of five people in #Indonesia.  It has been on No to the death penaltythe main news and in all of the main papers in the UK to a greater or lesser extent.  There is a general sense of outrage that the execution and the manner of its doing – that is by firing squad – are barbaric.  One would be forgiven for thinking that Indonesia is the only place where people are being executed.

It isn’t.   We must not forget that China continues to execute more than the rest of the world put together although the precise number is not known because it is a state secret.  Executions continue at a faster rate than previously in Iran.  Public beheadings still continue in Saudi Arabia.  And in the southern states of USA, many are executed after spending years and years on death row.  Pakistan has been busy too.  The list is a long one.

Amnesty is opposed to the death penalty in all cases.  We should be outraged wherever it happens not just in one country such as Indonesia.  If you feel outraged at the use of this penalty, why don’t you join us and write letters or send emails?  Follow this site or the Amnesty site for urgent actions.

Latest death penalty report

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Unreliable hair evidence used in #deathpenalty trials


It has been revealed in the last week or so that FBI analysis of hair samples is seriously flawed and that astexas execution many as 32 people have been sentenced to death based on this evidence, of whom 14 have been executed or have died in prison .  The problem has arisen because of sloppy work by FBI examiners who have made claims about the ability to identify people from hair samples that are scientifically unsound.  It is, according to the Washington Post, possibly the largest forensic science scandal in America’s history.  Another 1,200 cases remain to be investigated.

Our view of the American justice system is strongly influenced by programmes like CSI and NCIS where clean cut, young, handsome and amazingly certain forensic examiners solve cases by clever scientific means.  Stories often centre (or should we say ‘center’ for our American readers) around one of them poring over a crime scene and finding a tiny piece of evidence.  Then back to the lab where they announce that said tiny piece of evidence is crucial in identifying the killer.  Forensic scientist and police officers dash about the place and sure enough, find the killer who has a matching piece of evidence tying him to the scene.  There seldom seems to be any doubt in what they say and we are left at the end of the episode with the right man or woman ‘going down’.

The problem is that not all science is like that.  There is not always that degree of certainty, merely probabilities.  When it comes to condemning a person to death – the ultimate penalty from which there is no retreat – then it is necessary to be certain.  The problem is made worse because defendants who are poor are not able to employ lawyers able to challenge the evidence properly.  Some lawyers may be doing their first capital trial and have little relevant experience.

You might think that having admitted a major flaw in the evidence given by FBI experts, speedy reviews would be underway to put matters right.  Well no, not in every state there isn’t.  Appeal courts often refuse to look at newly discovered evidence because claims of actual innocence are never grounds for habeas corpus relief.

The USA is the only country in the Americas with the death penalty and the southern states are the keenest users of it.  As we have commented before, it may seem unfair that we frequently highlight the use of the death penalty in the States:  China is the worlds biggest user of the death penalty, the precise number is unknown because it is a state secret, but it runs into thousands.  Iran is close behind.  The difference is that the States is the de facto leader of the free world.  But there is a point here that China is a closed society which severely limits access to the internet and curtails a free press.  America by contrast is a more open society and newspapers like the Washington Post are able to publish this information.  So we can read about it and comment on what we see.

No to the death penaltyAmnesty is opposed to the use of the death penalty in all circumstances.  It is the ultimate cruel and degrading punishment.  It is not a deterrent and there is plenty of evidence to show that it acts against the poor and those least able to defend themselves.  That one of the main methods of condemning people is flawed is yet another plank in the argument to end the use of this penalty in the USA.

Sources:

Washington Post: 18 April

Guardian: 23 April

Wikipedia

Social Science Research Network The Shifted Paradigm: Forensic Science’s Overdue Evolution from Magic to Law.  William Tucker Carrington, University of Mississippi and M Chis Fabricant, Innocence Project Inc.

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