END DEATH PENALTY IN UNITED STATES

Stop the death penalty in the United States!

Florida is preparing to execute a man diagnosed with schizophrenia next Thursday, Ed Pilkington of The Guardian reports on-line:

"David Glant, a judge with Florida's eighth circuit, has found that John Ferguson, 64, can be given lethal injections next Thursday despite a US supreme court injunction that prohibits executions of the insane. In his concluding remarks, the judge agrees with the prisoner's defence lawyers that Ferguson is a paranoid schizophrenic who genuinely believes he is "Prince of God"."

IRANIAN PRES. AHMADINEJAD COMES TO NYC FOR NUCLEAR CONFERENCE; SOME COUNTRIES WALK OUT

Instead of France, Germany and England walking out on a speech by Iranian Pres. Ahmadinejad, how about listening to what he has to say, and then debate him on the issues. I know the Iranian government has illegitimately cracked down on citizens protesting the unfair recent election. I also know that Iran supports fellow Shiites in Hezbollah and that it imposes the death penalty even on juveniles. But is that any legitimate reason to walk out on the topic of nuclear weapons? What do my Iranian friends think?

DEATH PENALTY IN IRAQ

Once again we receive reports that Iraq is imposing the death penalty on people convicted of major crimes.

Nada Bakri writes in today's The New York Times:

"A Baghdad court sentenced 11 Iraqis to death on Thursday for planning and carrying out a series of devastating attacks last summer.

"The bombings, on Aug. 19, struck Iraq’s Foreign and Finance Ministries in the heart of the capital and embarrassed the government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki ahead of important parliamentary elections in March. the attacks also came less than two months after American combat troops withdrew from Iraqi cities, raising fears among many Iraqis that their security forces are not capable of maintaining security yet."

I don't care what the crime, governments should not be allowed to punish by taking a criminal's life. No matter if the convict is a mass murderer, the state should not be allowed to respond and take an eye for an eye. One evil does not justify the state to impose the same evil on the convict.

Furthermore, the death penalty is harsh and cruel. It has no place in a modern liberal democratic society.

Besides Iraq, other countries that still allow the death penalty include Saudi Arabia, Iran, Japan, China and the United States.

JAPAN INFLICTS SEVERE MENTAL ANGUISH ON PEOPLE CONDEMNED TO HANGING

The BBC today reports on Amnesty International's criticism of Japanese procedures for executing convicts. Amnesty specifically calls the death penalty in Japan "shameful" for the several reasons.

The condemned person is put in solitary confinement without the ability to talk to or interface with anyone else. Exercise is short and limited, and the prisoner must at all other times be seated.

No date is given the condemned for execution. That means that a condemned person spends every night thinking that it could be his/her last.

Japan seems intent on inflicting the severest and cruelest punishment it can on the condemned. Amnesty reports a large number of psychoses appearing in persons who have received the death sentence. Amnesty calls for an immediate halt in Japan's system of executions. I fully agree.

STOP DEATH PENALTY IN IRAQ

The BBC reports that an Iraqi court has sentenced Chemical Ali to a second sentence of death.

Reports the BBC:

"An Iraqi court has sentenced to death Ali Hassan al-Majid, also known as Chemical Ali, for his role in crushing a Shia uprising in 1991.

"It is the second death sentence passed on Majid, a cousin of Saddam Hussein."

Just as in the United States, when a state sentences someone to death, the state is shown as barbaric, cruel, medieval.

I don't care what Ali did, the extent of his crimes, or how many people he himself killed. He should be punished by a jail sentence, but a state, in this case, Iraq, should not take a person's life. The state is all too powerful. A state goes over the line of humanity, what is acceptable in an enlightened society, when it condemns and inflicts the death penalty.

Stop the death penalty where ever it is imposed. Stop the death penalty in Iraq.

CRUEL EXECUTIONS OF CHILDREN IN IRAN & SOMALIA

I tend to object to the Bush/Cheney attempt to demonize Iran and make it an "enemy." However, I certainly view Iran's use of the death penalty as egregiously wrong as I find it severely objectionable when carried out in the United States.

For a state, any state, to take the life of a person, even though that person has been adjudged to have committed some heinous act, is morally wrong and an immoral overreaching of a state's powers.

I refer to reports of the latest execution of a juvenile in Iran. The BBC reports:

"The New York-based Human Rights Watch said the Afghan man, identified as Gholamreza H, was hanged in Isfahan province on 30 October. He was 19 when the execution was carried out, but had been convicted for a murder he committed in November 2006 as a 17-year-old. .. . .

"Human Rights Watch says 26 juvenile offenders have been executed in Iran since January 2005, out of a worldwide total of 32 known executions."

Furthermore, I want to strenuously protest the stoning of a 13-year old girl in Somalia after being gang raped by three adult males.

Here is the BBC's account of the gruesome and cruel happening.

For this resurgence in primitive fundamentalist Islamic morality, I place the blame squarely on Bush and Cheney. It was these American leaders who overturned the government of the Islamic Courts in Mogadishu several years ago by egging the Ethiopians, centuries old enemies of Somalians, to invade and occupy much of Somalia. Just at the time when a moderate Islamic government was restoring commerce and a normal course of living to Somalia, Bush and Cheney upset the whole equilibrium by their misplaced zeal against any Islamic form of government.

The result has been two years of armed conflict, shelling of civilians, disintegration of any civilized life, destruction of the city of Mogadishu, and total lawlessness. What then happens are outrages like this one where fundamentalist militants impose their savage morality on some unfortunate 13-year old child.

END DEATH PENALTY NOW

Maureen Fan writes today on the web site of The Washington Post that a court in China has sentenced an Olympic official to death for taking millions in bribes. The court then gave a reprieve from the death sentence.

Reports Fan:

"Liu Zhihua, 59, oversaw construction, real estate, sports and traffic projects for the Beijing Olympic Games until he was fired in June 2006 over charges of corruption and bad morals. His high-profile antics and "decadent lifestyle" attracted the shocked attention of the country's top leaders, according to Chinese media reports."

The official is lucky in receiving a reprieve. How many others in China are sentenced to death, and then suffer the execution of the sentence?

When will "civilized" countries do away with the death sentence? I mean not only China but the United States, Iraq and Iran?

Proponents claim the death penalty prevents and deters other criminals from committing serious crimes. But there is no credible evidence that this is true. Other proponents say that the death penalty is a just penalty, in other words, proportional retribution for crimes that offend society. But why should the state take a person's life, no matter how serious a crime was committed? Saddam Hussein should not have been hanged; that was cruel and violent and unworthy of the state of Iraq. And certainly no one can argue that the death penalty "rehabilitates" because the condemned loses his life and his chance to reform.

The death penalty is cruel and unusual and inflicts horrible physical and emotional punishment on the condemned. A state, given all its power, overreaches its powers when it condemns and then executes the person convicted. And there is no evidence whatsoever that the death penalty deters others.

The United States is just as guilty of inflicting cruel and unusual punishment via the death penalty as the rest of the unenlightened countries that put their citizens to death.

SUDAN CONDEMNS EIGHT TO DEATH BY HANGING

Sudan, notorious for its treatment of Black non-Muslims in Darfur, has condemned eight rebels to death by hanging. In a court specifically designed to try these insurgents, the judged pronounced the verdict guilty.

So then, what's the difference between Bush's military tribunal at Guantanamo and the Sudan special court? There is no difference. When a government or regime wants to punish those fighting against it, it sets up a special court and renders a death sentence usually by hanging.

Consider Bush's latest move with the death penalty. He has just approved a death sentence against an Army private for killing and rape.

I don't care whether it is Saddam Hussein or Khalid Sheik Mohammed. The state should not be allowed to impose the death penalty. It is barbaric and cruel and it offends against the Eighth Amendment barring cruel and unusual punishment.

The U.S. under Bush is not all that different from Sudan under Oram al-Bashir or Iran under Ahmadinejad. All three countries approve and utilize the barbaric and cruel death penalty to punish offenders.

IRAN HANGS 29 CRIMINALS IN CRUEL IMPOSITION OF DEATH PENALTY

As my readers know, I am adamantly opposed to military action by the U.S. or Israel against Iran on account of its nuclear power development. However, from time to time, I think actions of the Iranian government are reprehensible and cruel. Consider for example the news reports today that Iranian authorities executed 29 criminals this morning by hanging.

The BBC reports:

"The latest hangings were carried out after the death sentences were approved by the country's Supreme Court, IRIB reported. "Twenty-nine drug smugglers and well-known bandits were hanged in Evin prison on Sunday at dawn," the statement said. "These criminals had smuggled thousands of kilos of narcotics in the country and outside the country." "

The only countries to rival Iran as the leading executioners are the United States and China. You might think that more civilized a country is, the less it would utilize the death penalty. But that apparently is not so.

For a state to impose and carry out taking a person's life is barbaric, cruel and without societal benefit. Some argue that the death penalty is a deterrent. If so, why does the world still have people who commit crimes punishable by death?

When the state takes a life, it is just as inhumane and barbaric as any murderer. Every imposition of the death penalty must be condemned whether done by China, the U.S. or Iran.

MEAN JUSTICE SCALIA SAYS CONSTITUTION DOES NOT MANDATE LACK OF PAIN IN EXECUTIONS

One of the most important reasons to oppose any more judicial appointments by Bush and Cheney is the position the Bush cronies and supporters take on capital punishment. Consider today the comments of Justice Antonin Scalia on the death penalty in which he seemed unmoved by any discussion of pain caused by a three-drug cocktail administered to the condemned, as if the Constitution said nothing about "cruel and unusual punishment."

Mark Sherman reports for the AP appearing in today's The Washington Post:

"Supreme Court justices indicated Monday they are deeply divided over a challenge to the way most states execute prisoners by lethal injection, which critics say creates an avoidable risk of excruciating pain.

"With executions in the United States halted since late September, the court heard arguments in a case from Kentucky that calls into question the mix of three drugs used in most executions."

The difference of opinion on allowing the death penalty is the hallmark of conservative judges. Conservative jurists love the death penalty, and they don't find anything repulsive or cruel about it in any of its forms.

Consider the report on über-conservative Scalia:

"Justice Antonin Scalia was among several conservatives on the court who suggested he would uphold Kentucky's method of execution and allow capital punishment to resume.

"States have been careful to adopt procedures that do not seek to inflict pain and should not be barred from carrying out executions even if prison officials sometimes make mistakes in administering drugs, Scalia said. "There is no painless requirement" in the Constitution, Scalia said."

Has Scalia ever heard of the Eighth Amendment that bars cruel and unusual punishment? Furthermore, the U.S. is among the few countries that still impose the barbaric death penalty. Other countries include China, Iran and Iraq. Why must the U.S. still cling to the outdated and repudiated reason that criminals will be deterred from committing murder because of the death penalty?

"Both sides in the case said they are bothered by the seemingly endless series of death penalty cases that come to the court.

"Justice David Souter urged his colleagues to take the time necessary to issue a definitive decision about the three-drug method in this case, even if it means sending the case back to Kentucky for more study by courts there.

"Scalia, however, said such a move would mean "a national cessation of executions. We're looking at years. We wouldn't want that to happen.""

NEW JERSEY REPEALS DEATH PENALTY

Hooray for the state of New Jersey, the first to repeal the death penalty in more than a generation.

Jeremy Peters reports today on the web page of The New York Times:

"Gov. Jon S. Corzine signed into law a measure repealing New Jersey’s death penalty on Monday, making the state the first in a generation to abolish capital punishment. . . .

"In an extended and often passionate speech from his office at the state capitol, Mr. Corzine declared an end to what he called “state-endorsed killing,” and said that New Jersey could serve as a model for other states.

"“Today New Jersey is truly evolving,” he said. “I believe society first must determine if its endorsement of violence begets violence, and if violence undermines our commitment to the sanctity of life. To these questions, I answer yes.”"

AFGHANISTAN EXECUTES 15 BY SHOOTING THEM

Afghanistan has resumed imposing the death penalty. The BBC reports that Hamid Karzai's government executed 15 people on last Sunday evening.

"Fifteen people in Afghanistan have been put to death for crimes including murder, government officials say.

"They say that the firing squad deaths are the second confirmed executions since the fall of the Taleban in 2001.

"Officials say the 15 were shot at Afghanistan's largest prison Pul-e-Charkhi. The last such executions were in April 2004. "

And I heard the BBC Radio report within the past several hours that Karzai has defended these executions by saying that other nations too have and impose the death penalty, obviously referring to the practice in many states in the U.S.

Here we see the cruelty of Karzai. Just because other states impose the cruel and inhumane penalty is no excuse for Karzai and Afghanistan to take a person's life. Just as I oppose Iraq as well as any other state, including the United States, executing prisoners, no matter how heinous their crime, so I vehemently oppose Karzai in this barbaric act.

IRAQ - STOP ALL EXECUTIONS

Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali," the cousin of Saddam Hussein, and two other accomplices are to be hanged during the next ten days. The BBC reports that their second trial has resumed in Baghdad after a hiatus of one month. Writes the BBC:

"On 4 September, Majid's death sentence in another genocide trial was confirmed by an appeals court and under Iraqi law he must be hanged within 30 days. Majid and two other top officials in Saddam's regime had been found guilty of organising what was known as the Anfal campaign against the Kurds."

I have no doubt that they are guilty as charged of "crimes against humanity."

However, their executions will also be offenses against the concept of human dignity and human life. No matter how guilty, no matter what the crime, the state should not take away life. Never.