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9-11
Meta Index September 11 2001
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Military
- 
Terrorism
- 
Intelligence
- Torture
- Death
Penalty - Human
Rights - War
Crimes - 
Law
- 
Politics
- "Many
Rights in U.S. Legal System Absent in New Bill."
... "Included in the bill, passed by Republican majorities in the Senate
yesterday and the House on Wednesday, are unique rules that bar terrorism
suspects from challenging their detention or treatment through traditional
habeas corpus petitions. They allow prosecutors, under certain conditions,
to use evidence collected through hearsay or coercion to seek criminal
convictions." ... "The bill rejects the right to a speedy trial and limits
the traditional right to self-representation by requiring that defendants
accept military defense attorneys. Panels of military officers need not
reach unanimous agreement to win convictions, except in death penalty cases,
and appeals must go through a second military panel before reaching a federal
civilian court." ... "By writing into law for the first time the definition
of an "unlawful enemy combatant," the bill empowers the executive branch
to detain indefinitely anyone it determines to have "purposefully and materially"
supported anti-U.S. hostilities. Only foreign nationals among those detainees
can be tried by the military commissions, as they are known, and sentenced
to decades in jail or put to death." ... "At the same time, the bill immunizes
U.S. officials from prosecution for cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment
of detainees who the military and the CIA captured before the end of last
year. It gives the president a dominant but not exclusive role in setting
the rules for future interrogations of terrorism suspects." ... "But Tom
Malinowski, the Washington office director for Human Rights Watch, said
Bush's motivation is partly to protect his reputation by gaining congressional
endorsement of controversial actions already taken. "He's been accused
of authorizing criminal torture in a way that has hurt America and could
come back to haunt our troops. One of his purposes is to have Congress
stand with him in the dock," Malinowski said." -By
R. Jeffrey Smith -WashingtonPost
Illinois
- Politics
- Capital
Punishment - "Ex-Illinois
governor gets prison sentence." ... "Former Illinois
Gov. [Republican governor] George Ryan, promoted as a Nobel Peace Prize
candidate for his vigorous opposition to capital punishment, was sentenced
to 6-1/2 years in prison on Wednesday for corrupt dealings while in office."
... "The 72-year-old Ryan, his voice cracking, told the court before sentencing:
"I realize ... the people of Illinois have lost faith in their government.
And for that I am very sorry. I let them down."" ... "On April 18, after
a nearly six-month trial, a jury convicted Ryan and friend and lobbyist
Larry Warner on 18 counts of racketeering, conspiracy, fraud and other
offenses involving favoritism and kickbacks for state contracts and property
leases that enriched Ryan and his friends." ... "Ryan's lawyers have already
appealed the verdict and asked for a new trial." (1, 2)
-By Andrew Stern -Reuters
Iraq
- 
US
- Execution
- Terrorism
- Politics
- "Pentagon
Cites Spike In Violence in Iraq: Averting Civil War
Called Main Goal." ... "Rising sectarian bloodshed has pushed violence
in Iraq to its highest level in more than two years, and preventing civil
war is now the most urgent mission of the growing contingent of 140,000
U.S. troops in the country, according to a new Pentagon report released
yesterday." ... "Executions, kidnappings and other sectarian attacks targeting
Iraqi civilians have soared over the past three months, contributing to
a 51 percent rise in casualties among the population and Iraqi security
forces, the report said. More than 3,000 Iraqis are killed or wounded each
month, and by July, 2,000 of the casualties were the result of sectarian
incidents, it showed." ... "The Pentagon report, though consistent with
what news media have reported for months, is significant because it represents
an official acknowledgment of trends that are widely believed to be driving
the country toward full-scale civil war." ... ""It's a pretty sober report
this time," said Peter Rodman, assistant secretary of defense for international
security affairs. "The last quarter . . . it's been rough, and the levels
of violence are up and the sectarian quality of the violence is particularly
acute and disturbing," he said at a news briefing." ... ""This is reality
catching up with Rumsfeld and the Pentagon," said Michael O'Hanlon, a military
analyst at the Brookings Institution." -By Ann Scott
Tyson -WashingtonPost
Noteworthy
- 
International
- US
- 
Afghanistan
- Iraq
- Military
- Intelligence
- Terrorism
- Detainee
- Death
Penalty - Human
Rights - Politics
- 
History
- "Detainee
Abuse Charges Feared: Shield Sought From '96 War
Crimes Act." ... "An obscure law approved by a Republican-controlled Congress
a decade ago has made the Bush administration nervous that officials and
troops involved in handling detainee matters might be accused of committing
war crimes, and prosecuted at some point in U.S. courts." ... "Senior officials
have responded by drafting legislation that would grant U.S. personnel
involved in the terrorism fight new protections against prosecution for
past violations of the War Crimes Act of 1996. That law criminalizes violations
of the Geneva Conventions governing conduct in war and threatens the death
penalty if U.S.-held detainees die in custody from abusive treatment."
... "In light of a recent Supreme Court ruling that the international Conventions
apply to the treatment of detainees in the terrorism fight, Attorney General
Alberto R. Gonzales has spoken privately with Republican lawmakers about
the need for such "protections," according to someone who heard his remarks
last week." ... "Gonzales told the lawmakers that a shield is needed for
actions taken by U.S. personnel under a 2002 presidential order, which
the Supreme Court declared illegal, and under Justice Department legal
opinions that have been withdrawn under fire, the source said." ... "Since
the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003, hundreds of
service members deployed to Iraq have been accused by the Army of mistreating
detainees, and at least 35 detainees have died in military or CIA custody,
according to a tally kept by Human Rights First. The military has asserted
these were all aberrant acts by troops ignoring their orders." ... "Defense
attorneys for many of those accused of involvement have alleged that their
clients were pursuing policies of rough treatment set by officials in Washington.
That claim is amplified in a 53-page Human Rights Watch report this week
that quoted interrogators at three bases in Iraq as saying that abuse was
part of regular, authorized procedures. But this argument has yet to gain
traction in a military court, where U.S. policy requires that active-duty
service members be tried for any maltreatment." (1, 2)
-By R. Jeffrey Smith with contributions by Julie Tate
and Madonna Lebling -WashingtonPost
Secret
- US
- 
Philippines
- 
Dick
Cheney
- Leandro
Aragoncillo
- 
Government
- Military
- Intelligence
- Politics
- 
New
Jersey - Death
Penalty - "Ex-VP
aide, FBI analyst admits spying: Former Marine pleads
guilty to taking part in Philippine coup plot." ... "A former [Republican
Dick Cheney] vice presidential military aide and FBI analyst pleaded guilty
Thursday to supplying documents to unnamed individuals in the Philippines
on how to orchestrate a coup attempt against Philippine President Gloria
Macapagal Arroyo." ... "In a federal court hearing in Newark, New Jersey,
Leandro Aragoncillo entered into a plea agreement that would keep the death
penalty off the table for him." ... "Aragoncillo, a former U.S. Marine,
acknowledged to prosecutors that he supplied top secret U.S. defense information
-- which he wasn't authorized to obtain -- to officials in the Philippines."
-By Julian Cummings -CNN
Afghanistan
- Religion
- Law
- Politics
- US
- Military
- "Death
could await Christian convert." ... "In the days
of the Taliban, those promoting Christianity in Afghanistan could be arrested
and those converting from Islam could be tortured and publicly executed."
... "That was supposed to change after U.S.-led forces ousted the oppressive,
fundamentalist regime, but the case of 41-year-old Abdul Rahman has many
Western nations wondering if Afghanistan is regressing." ... "Rahman, a
father of two, was arrested last week and is now awaiting trial for rejecting
Islam. He told local police, whom he approached on an unrelated matter,
that he had converted to Christianity. Reports say he was carrying a Bible
at the time." ... ""They want to sentence me to death, and I accept it,"
Rahman told reporters last week, "but I am not a deserter and not an infidel.""
... "The Afghan constitution, which is based on Sharia, or Islamic law,
says that apostates can receive the death penalty." ... "Rahman's case
illustrates a split over the interpretation of the Afghan constitution,
which calls for religious freedom while stating that Muslims who reject
Islam can be executed." -Contributed to by Elise Labott
-CNN
Government
- 
Flying
- Transportation
- Terrorism
- 
Law
Enforcement - Execution
- "Judge
Calls Halt to Penalty Phase of Terror Trial." ...
"An angry federal judge delayed the sentencing trial of Zacarias Moussaoui
on Monday and said she was considering ending the prosecution's bid to
have him executed after the disclosure that a government lawyer had improperly
coached some witnesses." ... "Judge Leonie M. Brinkema said she had just
learned from prosecutors that a lawyer for the Transportation Security
Administration gave portions of last week's trial proceedings to seven
witnesses who have yet to testify. In e-mail messages, the lawyer also
seemed to tell some of the witnesses how they should testify to bolster
the prosecution's argument that Mr. Moussaoui bore some responsibility
for the deaths caused by the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks." ... ""In all my
years on the bench, I've never seen a more egregious violation of the rule
about witnesses," Judge Brinkema said before sending the jury home for
two days. She said that the actions of the government lawyer, identified
in court papers as Carla J. Martin, would make it "very difficult for this
case to go forward."" -By Neil A. Lewis
-NYTimes
New-Jersey
- Law
- Politics
- "N.J.
lawmakers vote to suspend executions: Task force
to study fairness and cost of capital punishment." ... "New Jersey lawmakers
voted Monday to suspend executions while a task force studies the fairness
and costs of imposing the death penalty." ... "Under the measure, a 13-member
commission would have until November to report on whether the death penalty
is fairly imposed and whether alternatives would ensure public safety and
address the needs of victims' families." -CNN
Opinion
- Samuel
Alito
- Government
- Abortion
- 
Education
- Religious
- Executions
- Military
- Terrorism
- Politics
- "How
Alito would shift high court on key issues: His confirmation
hearings begin in the Senate Monday." ... "Where O'Connor rejected restrictions
on abortion, Alito is likely to uphold them, legal analysts say. Where
O'Connor voted to uphold an affirmative action plan at the University of
Michigan Law School, Alito is more likely to vote with conservatives who
viewed it as an impermissible quota system. He is likely to vote to uphold
the kind of public displays of the Ten Commandments O'Connor voted last
summer to strike down, analysts say." ... "In death penalty cases he is
expected to side with conservatives who reject the "evolving standard of
decency" test embraced by O'Connor, which has made it more difficult for
states to carry out executions. He also will be more likely than O'Connor
to let stand death sentences despite claims that defense lawyers weren't
effective enough. And even though O'Connor is viewed as a reliable vote
in states' rights cases, Alito is expected to be an even stronger champion."
... "One looming question about Alito is how he might vote in cases challenging
President Bush's unilateral assertion of powers as commander in chief to
wage the war on terror." -By Warren Richey -CSMonitor
US
- World
- Iraq
- Death
Penalty - 
UN
- "Rice
Scolds Holdouts on Iraq Trial: Nations not aiding
the Hussein proceedings are ducking duty to law and human rights, she says."
... "Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sharply criticized other nations
Tuesday for failing to provide support for the trial of Saddam Hussein,
saying that the world community's "effective boycott of Saddam's trial
is only harming the Iraqi people."" ... "U.S. officials have differed with
many other governments almost from the outset of the war on how to conduct
trials of Hussein and top aides. The U.S. and its Iraqi allies wanted the
trials to be overseen by national authorities in Iraq, whereas officials
with the U.N. and from many other countries favored hybrid proceedings
with a larger international component." ... "Officials of other governments,
including many in Europe, have said they would avoid a proceeding they
feared could be seen as an American-run show trial. They also have been
put off by the possible death penalty, which is legal in Iraq and the United
States but banned in much of the world." -By Paul
Richter with contributions by Richard Boudreaux
-LAtimes
California
- Los
Angeles - History
- Politics
- "Stanley
Tookie Williams executed: Crips gang co-founder put
to death for 4 murders." ... "Stanley Tookie Williams -- the cofounder
of the violent Crips street gang who became an anti-gang crusader while
on death-row -- died by lethal injection early Tuesday for the 1979 killings
of four people in two Los Angles [California] robberies." ... "Williams'
case set off intense debates over the death penalty and redemption, with
celebrities, activists and anti-death penalty advocates saying his initiatives
and anti-gang message from behind bars had proven his life was worth saving.
He had even been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and the Nobel Prize
in Literature by an array of college professors, a Swiss lawmaker and others."
... "Before Williams went to the execution chamber, the stepmother of one
of the men Williams was convicted of killing said she felt "justice is
going to be done tonight."" ... "[...] Sister Helen Prejean, a Roman Catholic
nun and a prominent death penalty opponent, compared the death penalty
to "gang justice."" ... ""Gang justice is, if you kill a member of our
gang, we kill you -- and don't tell me anything about how you changed your
life or what you're going to do," she said. "You kill, and we kill you.
And that's what the United States of America is doing with this."" -With
contributions by Ted Rowlands, Kareen Wynter, and Bill Mears
-CNN
California
- Los
Angeles - Law
- History
- "Gov.
Schwarzenegger Denies Clemency for Crips Co-Founder."
... "Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced today that he would not grant
clemency to Stanley Tookie Williams, whose bid to avoid being put to death
shortly after midnight tonight has gained wide attention." ... "Governor
Schwarzenegger's decision not to halt Mr. Williams' execution by injection
at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday is his third rejection of a petition for a stay of
execution or clemency since he took office in 2003. Clemency has not been
granted to a death row inmate in California since 1967." ... "Mr. Williams,
51, is the co-founder of the Crips gang of Los Angeles and has been on
death row since 1981, following his conviction for murdering four people
in 1979." -By Sarah Kershaw and Shadi Rahimi .NYTimes
Death
Penalty
- Law
- California
- Illinois
- "Putting
Tookie in Context." ... "While I have opposed the
death penalty as long as I have been aware of it, the media attention generated
by the Tookie Williams case has left me with more ambivalence than outrage,
raising issues for me about the death penalty, the so-called criminal justice
system, gang violence, and the peculiar manner by which Black leaders set
priorities." ... "Stanley Tookie Williams is just one of the 3,415 people
on death row in the United States, just one of nearly 650 on death row
in California. More than 40 percent of those awaiting execution are
African American, even though we are less than 13 percent of the nation's
population." ... "The death penalty isn't fair – too many death row inmates
have been unrepresented or inadequately represented. Too many have been
convicted on faulty circumstantial or eyewitness evidence. Too many
mistakes have been uncovered after conviction, so many that the state of
Illinois has suspended executions indefinitely." -By
Julianne Malveaux -BET.com
US
- 
North
Carolina - Legal
- History
- World
- "N.
Carolina carries out 1,000th execution." ... "Double
murderer Kenneth Lee Boyd became the 1,000th prisoner executed in the United
States since the reinstatement of capital punishment when he was put to
death by lethal injection on Friday." ... "Boyd, who was 57, died at 2:15
a.m. (0715 GMT) at Central Prison in North Carolina's state capital, Raleigh,
spokeswoman Pamela Walker of the Department of Corrections said." ... "Boyd,
a Vietnam war veteran with a history of alcohol abuse, was sentenced to
death for the murder in 1988 of his wife and father-in-law committed in
front of two of his children." ... "His execution drew world attention
because of its symbolism since the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the death
penalty to be brought back in 1976 after a nine-year unofficial moratorium."
(1, 2,
3)
-By Andy Sullivan -Reuters
Virginia
- Execution
- Law
- Politics
- North
Carolina - 
South
Carolina - "UPDATE
1-Virginia governor stops milestone U.S. execution."
... "Virginia Gov. Mark Warner halted the execution of a convicted murderer
who would have been the 1,000th person put to death in the United States
since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, a spokesman
said on Tuesday." ... "Since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty
in 1976 and executions resumed in 1977, 999 people have been executed in
the United States. North Carolina and South Carolina have scheduled executions
later in the week." -By Andy Sullivan
-Reuters
Texas
- 
Louisiana
- Death
Penalty - "US
death row escapee recaptured: Police in the United
States have recaptured a convicted murderer, three days after he walked
out of jail." ... "Death row inmate Charles Victor Thompson fooled at least
four prison employees to flee a Texas prison." ... "He was captured on
Sunday while using a public telephone in Shreveport in the neighbouring
state of Louisiana."-BBC
/News
Samuel
Alito
- Political
- Abortion
- 
Privacy
- 
Worker
- Capital
Punishment - Law
- "Partisan
divide already forming over Alito pick." ... "Ironically,
[Harriet] Miers — who had no judicial legacy — leaves a political precedent
that could haunt Republican supporters of Alito in the coming weeks." ...
"Conservatives had argued during the nomination of Supreme Court Chief
Justice John Roberts earlier this year that it was inappropriate to probe
how a nominee might come down on issues such as abortion rights. But when
it became clear that Miers had no strong public track record on issues
like abortion, many conservatives pressed for her or the White House to
produce more evidence she was not a closet liberal. The White House even
suggested that Miers' membership in an evangelical church should calm conservative
fears." ... "Democrats are likely to recite the GOP's probe of Miers in
pushing Alito to talk in detail about his views on a host of issues, from
the right to privacy to worker protection laws to capital punishment."
-By Chuck Raasch -USATODAY
Texas
- Legal
- History
- "Newton
is executed for slaying her family: She is the first
black woman put to death in Texas since Civil War." ... "Frances Newton,
convicted of killing her husband and two children to gain $100,000 in insurance
benefits, was executed Wednesday as dozens of death house protesters fervently
prayed for her deliverance and chanted their opposition to the state's
death penalty." ... "After weeks of intense legal wrangling, Newton's execution
went ahead after the U.S. Supreme Court and Gov. Rick Perry refused to
intervene. She was the 349th killer put to death in Texas since executions
were resumed in 1982, and the first black woman executed in Texas since
the Civil War." ... "For death penalty opponents, Newton's case seemed
to embody everything they found wrong with capital punishment. In her initial
trial, she was represented by an attorney who acknowledged he had done
little to research the case and later was suspended by the State Bar of
Texas." -By Allan Turner and Cynthia Leonor Garza
-HoustonChronicle.com
John
G. Roberts Jr.
- Abortion
- Religion
- Executions
- Secrets
- NY
-
- "Parties
Ask if More Roberts Surprises Wait." ... "Senate
Democrats are accusing the White House of delaying the release of Roberts'
paperwork to ensure Republicans aren't blindsided by information that could
hurt his confirmation. "The time for such partisan review of documents
was before the nomination of Judge Roberts to the Supreme Court," said
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. [New York]" ... "Last week the Justice Department
said it would not give the Senate internal records from 16 cases in which
Roberts dealt with such issues as abortion, affirmative action, school
prayer and capital punishment." -By Jesse J. Holland-AP
via -SFGate.com
- 
-
- Sandra
Day O'Connor
- Executions
- "O'Connor
had immense power as swing vote: Over 24 years, justice
shifted her views on abortion and death penalty." ... "Justice Sandra Day
O'Connor, who announced her retirement Friday, was guaranteed a place in
the history books when she became the first woman to serve on the Supreme
Court." ... "But in her 24 years on the court she became far more significant
than simply the first female justice. She was often the swing vote that
decided high-profile cases." ... "Never as consistently conservative as
those on the right would have liked, but sometimes providing the decisive
fifth vote in cases dear to the hearts of conservatives, such as her vote
in 2002 to approve Ohio's school voucher plan, O'Connor, 75, has wielded
immense power in her years on the court." ... "Far from doctrinaire, in
many cases O'Connor felt her way toward a compromise position on an ideologically
fractured court." (1, 2)
-By Tom Curry -MSNBC
Connecticut
- "Connecticut
execution is region's first in 45 years." ... "Michael
Bruce Ross, who confessed in 1984 to kidnapping, raping and killing young
women over a three-year period, was pronounced dead at 2:25 a.m. Friday,
the first convict executed in New England in 45 years." ... "In the end,
the man described as both monster and manipulator controlled his own fate.
He had until 2:01 to call off the execution by saying he wanted to pursue
more appeals. He did not, and then was injected with three lethal drugs."
-By Lynne Tuohy -Courant.com
via -StarTribune
-
- 
-
-
- Executions
- "Sergeant
Sentenced to Death for Killing Two Officers in Iraq."
... "A military jury on Thursday sentenced Sgt. Hasan Akbar to die for
the 2003 murders of two officers in a grenade attack at an Army camp in
Kuwait during the opening days of the Iraq invasion." ... "The sentence
will be the subject of an automatic appeal. If Akbar is executed, it would
be by lethal injection." ... "The last U.S. military execution was in 1961."
-AP via-WashingtonPost
- Oklahoma
-
- Executions
- Oklahoma
City Bombing
- "Oklahoma
City remembers bombing." ... "Timothy McVeigh was
executed for the attack on 11 June 2001." ... "Co-conspirator Terry Nichols
was sentenced to life in prison without parole last year." ... "The attack
was the worst act of domestic terrorism in US history and brought to the
attention of the American people the world of radical rightwing paramilitary
groups and their followers."-BBC
/News
-
- Alabama
- Georgia
- North
Carolina
- Executions
- "Rudolph
set to plead guilty in 4 blasts: Victims expected
in Birmingham [Alabama], Atlanta [Georgia] courtrooms." ... "Eric Robert
Rudolph is scheduled to appear in two courtrooms in two cities Wednesday
to plead guilty to four bombings, including a deadly blast during the 1996
Olympics in Atlanta." ... "Rudolph's plea deal with prosecutors spares
Rudolph the death penalty." ... "Rudolph, a survivalist who avoided capture
for more than five years by hiding in the woods of North Carolina, is expected
to appear in federal court in Birmingham around 8 a.m. (9 a.m. ET) to plead
guilty to a January 1998 bombing of a women's clinic that killed a policeman
and injured a nurse." -CNN
US
- Afghanistan
- Military
- Terrorism
- Prisoner
- War
Crimes Act - Human
Rights - Death
Penalty - Politics
- "Memos
Reveal War Crimes Warnings: Could Bush administration
officials be prosecuted for 'war crimes' as a result of new measures used
in the war on terror? The White House's top lawyer thought so." ... "The
White House's top lawyer warned more than two years ago that U.S. officials
could be prosecuted for "war crimes" as a result of new and unorthodox
measures used by the Bush administration in the war on terrorism, according
to an internal White House memo and interviews with participants in the
debate over the issue." ... "The concern about possible future prosecution
for war crimes-and that it might even apply to Bush adminstration
officials themselves- is contained in a crucial portion of an internal
January
25, 2002, memo by White House counsel Alberto Gonzales
obtained by NEWSWEEK. It urges President George Bush declare the
war in Afghanistan, including the detention of Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters,
exempt from the provisions of the Geneva Convention." ... "In the memo,
the White House lawyer focused on a little known 1996 law passed by Congress,
known as the War Crimes Act, that banned any Americans from committing
war crimes-defined in part as "grave breaches" of the Geneva Conventions.
Noting that the law applies to "U.S. officials" and that punishments
for violators "include the death penalty," Gonzales told Bush that
"it was difficult to predict with confidence" how Justice Department prosecutors
might apply the law in the future. This was especially the case given that
some of the language in the Geneva Conventions-such as that outlawing "outrages
upon personal dignity" and "inhuman treatment" of prisoners-was "undefined.""
... "One key advantage of declaring that Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters
did not have Geneva Convention protections is that it "substantially reduces
the threat of domestic criminal prosecution under the War Crimes Act,"
Gonzales wrote." -By Michael Isikoff
-MSNBC/Newsweek
-
- Virginia
News - Sniper
- "Virginia
Judge Formally Sentences Sniper John Muhammad to Death."
... "John Allen Muhammad, of two men accused in the sniper-shooting deaths
of 10 people in the Washington, D.C., area in 2002, was sentenced to death
by a Virginia judge today for murdering a man at a gas station." ... "A
jury in Virginia Beach, Virginia, convicted Muhammad of capital murder,
terrorism, conspiracy and firearms violations in November for the death
of Dean Harold Meyers, 53, who was gunned down in Manassas, Virginia, in
October 2002. Meyers was the seventh sniper victim." -By
Chris Dolmetsch -Bloomberg
-
-
-
- Religion
- "Aum
guru gets death." ... "Aum Shinrikyo founder Chizuo
Matsumoto was sentenced to death today for masterminding a deadly reign
of terror that culminated in the 1995 sarin gas attacks on the Tokyo subway
system." ... "Matsumoto, 48, faced 13 charges involving the deaths of 27
people." ... "The key charges concerned a sarin nerve-gas attack in Matsumoto,
Nagano Prefecture, in 1994 that killed seven people and left hundreds injured;
the slayings of anti-Aum lawyer Tsutsumi Sakamoto, his wife and infant
son in 1989; and the subway attack that killed 12 and sickened thousands."
... "Matsumoto, who went by the name of Shoko Asahara, is the 12th cultist
to receive the death sentence." -Asahi
Shimbun/English
- "Minutes
before execution, killer admits to more murders."
... "Time finally ran out for condemned killer Billy Frank Vickers, but
the career criminal went to his death by leaving behind an unexpected disclosure
he may have been involved in more than a dozen murders, including the Cullen
Davis case in Fort Worth [Texas]." ... "Jack Strickland, a former prosecutor
who worked on the Davis case, said Wednesday night that he had never heard
of Vickers and doubted that he was involved in the 1976 shooting." -By
Michael Graczyk -AP
via -HoustonChronicle.com
- Sniper
- "Jury
sharply split in sparing sniper Malvo." ... "The
Virginia jury that spared the life of teen sniper Lee Boyd Malvo was apparently
sharply split, with five jurors favoring a death sentence but others saying
he was too young to be executed." ... "The jurors decided Tuesday -- after
nine hours of deliberation over two days -- to sentence the 18-year-old
to life without parole for his role in the Washington-area sniper slayings."
-CNN
- 
-
-
- "Analysis:
Putting Saddam on trial: The Iraqi Governing Council
intends to put Saddam Hussein on trial by an Iraqi court." ... "It is determined
to resist calls for an international tribunal. Saddam Hussein could face
the death penalty. It has been suspended by the occupation authorities
but could be reinstated by an Iraqi government." ... "That in itself would
be controversial. Britain, as a coalition partner, objects to execution
on principle. But Iraqis may want it." ... "The British Foreign Secretary
Jack Straw said that Iraqis would "express a strong preference" for a trial
in Iraq. International law, he said, also called for a domestic trial in
such cases if possible." ... "The United States is firmly behind the Iraqi
desire to try Saddam Hussein themselves" -By Paul
Reynolds -BBC/News
-
- 
- GENETICS
- "DNA
meets Death Row: Testing guilt and the system." ...
"Inside a walk-in freezer in a Richmond, Calif., laboratory sits a tiny
vial that holds one-fifth of one drop of a 20-year-old sperm sample. It
is forensic DNA evidence extracted from the body of a brutally murdered
young bride, evidence that no one is permitted by law to touch, evidence
that-if tested-could determine whether an innocent man was executed in
Virginia 11 years ago." ... "Since DNA “fingerprinting” began to revolutionize
criminal forensics in the late 1980s with precise identifications, it has
freed more than 130 convicts, 12 of whom have walked off death row. But
in other cases, prosecutors have successfully blocked the testing of DNA
before an execution and then fought posthumous tests just as vigorously."
-By Lois Romano with contributions by researchers
Lucy Shackelford and Alice Crites -WashingtonPost
-
- "Justices
sympathetic to execution appeal: Criticize prosecutors
in 1980 Texas trial." ... "Even conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin
Scalia, a staunch death penalty supporter, couldn't help the lawyer for
the state of Texas on Monday to defend the conduct of prosecutors during
a 1980 capital murder trial." ... "In the end, it appeared to be a very
good day for Delma Banks Jr., one of the country's longest-serving death
row inmates and whose execution the high court halted with 10 minutes to
spare earlier this year." ... "The justices will decide Banks' case by
next summer." -By Patty Reinhart
-HoustonChronicle.com
- Sniper
- "Sniper
John Muhammad guilty on all counts." ... "John Allen
Muhammad faces the death penalty after being found guilty Monday of capital
murder and terrorism for his role in the sniper-style shootings that terrorized
the Washington, D.C., area last fall." ... "The Virginia jury returned
the decision after only a few hours of deliberation. Mr. Muhammad, 42,
was found guilty of all four counts, including conspiracy and using a firearm
in a crime." -By Oliver Moore
-GlobeAndMail
-
-
-
-
- "From
Iraq's secret files, a trail of mass murder." ...
"Over the past few days, the US Army has taken custody of hundreds of thousands
of Iraqi secret-police files. The dossiers - an impeccable detailing of
two decades of mass murder reminiscent of the meticulous recordkeeping
of Hitler's Germany or Stalinist Russia - could contain crucial evidence
in any trial that former President Saddam Hussein or his top officials
might face." ... "Already the files have yielded fragments of Iraq's secret
past. The group of former prisoners who gathered the documents have so
far gleaned the names of more than 5,500 prisoners who were executed, according
to the files. The Committee of Free Prisoners has posted them on the walls
of its makeshift headquarters by the Tigris River. Every day, thousands
of ordinary men and women crowd around the rosters, seeking names of missing
relatives." -By Peter Ford
-CSMonitor
-
-
- "California
should rethink executions, says former Illinois gov.."
... "California should consider halting executions while it takes "an in-depth
look" at whether it administers the death penalty fairly, former Illinois
Gov. George Ryan told state lawmakers Tuesday." ... "Repeated failures
in Illinois' system prompted Ryan to commute the sentences of all his state's
167 condemned inmates before he left office this year." ... "The public
seems to favor the death penalty, "but they want a system that's fair,
just and accurate," Ryan told the Senate Select Committee on the California
Correctional System. "If you're poor and minority, you haven't got a prayer.""
-By Don Thompson -AP
via -SFGate.com
-
- "Illinois
ex-governor showed clemency to 643 prisoners." ...
"Including the 167 death sentences he commuted days before he left office,
the Republican granted 643 clemency requests during his four-year term,
almost twice as many as his predecessor granted in eight years." ... "Ryan's
unprecedented decision to wipe out every death sentence, reducing most
to life in prison, brought international attention to a state system where
17 people sent to death row had been cleared since capital punishment was
reinstated in 1977." -By Nicole Ziegler Dizon
-AP via -Boston/Globe
- -
"Execution
Possibility Intensifies Spy Trial: Jury Selection
Opens In Landmark Case." ... "On the quiet shuttle from the Dulles International
Airport terminal to its midfield gates, where there's really no place to
run, FBI agents arrested intelligence analyst Brian P. Regan in August
2001 before he boarded a plane to Germany. He faced charges of trying to
sell classified documents to Iraq, Libya and China." ... "The indictment
didn't allege any large security leaks, but Sept. 11 came three weeks later,
and soon Attorney General John D. Ashcroft said Regan should face the death
penalty. With that announcement, Regan became the first espionage defendant
in the United States to face execution since Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
were convicted more than 50 years ago. Jury selection in his trial begins
today." -By Tom Jackman-WashingtonPost
-
- "Big
setback, and new ire, on death penalty." ... "Most
Americans still believe in the death penalty. But a rising number of them
are asking: Is it used fairly?" ... "The answer, increasingly, seems to
be no." ... "Academic reports have revealed persistent bias. Media outlets
have publicized cases of error-prone defense attorneys, as well as the
potential for new DNA and other evidence to overturn death sentences."
... "This weekend, in the most dramatic move of all, Illinois Gov. George
Ryan emptied out the state's entire death row by handing out reduced sentences
to all 156 inmates. That marks the largest commutation of such sentences
since the United States Supreme Court overturned the death penalty in 1972."
-By Laurent Belsie
-CSMonitor
- "19
Journalists Killed [Worldwide] For Their Work In 2002:
Lowest number on record; Russia, Colombia, and the West Bank top list."
... "A total of 19 journalists were killed worldwide for their work in
2002, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). This number
marks a sharp decrease from 2001 when 37 journalists were killed, eight
of them while covering the war in Afghanistan. Of the 19 journalists killed
in 2002, most were targeted in direct reprisal for their work, and their
killers had not been brought to justice at year's end." ... "This is the
lowest number of journalists killed in the line of duty that CPJ has recorded
since it began tracking the deaths in 1985." ... "Still, in 2002, journalists
remained at great risk. In countries such as Russia, Colombia, Pakistan,
India, Bangladesh, and the Philippines, local journalists were murdered
in direct reprisal for their reporting on crime and corruption, most of
them with impunity. Cameramen and photographers were especially vulnerable
to cross fire and targeting by military forces—five were killed in 2002,
including two who were covering conflict in the West Bank." ... "Some statistics
fluctuate from year to year, but others remain constant in such countries
as Russia and Colombia, where journalists die virtually every year because
of their work." -CPJ.org
- "19
Journalists Killed In 2002." - CPJ.org's
list of Journalists who "either died in the line of duty or were deliberately
targeted for assassination because of their reporting or their affiliation
with a news organization." An additional 13
were killed with the "motive unconfirmed." -CPJ.org
- "Bush
Has Widened Authority of C.I.A. to Kill Terrorists."
...
"The Bush administration has prepared a list of terrorist leaders the Central
Intelligence Agency is authorized to kill, if capture is impractical and
civilian casualties can be minimized, senior military and intelligence
officials said." ... "Despite the authority given to the agency, Mr. Bush
has not waived the executive order banning assassinations, officials said.
The presidential authority to kill terrorists defines operatives of Al
Qaeda as enemy combatants and thus legitimate targets for lethal force."
... "The president is not legally required to approve each name added to
the list, nor is the C.I.A. required to obtain presidential approval for
specific attacks, although officials said Mr. Bush had been kept well informed
about the agency's operations." ... "But the decision by the Bush administration
to authorize, under certain circumstances, the killing of terrorist leaders
threatens to thrust it into a murky area of national security and international
law that is almost never debated in public because the covert operations
are known only to a small circle of executive branch and Congressional
officials." (1, 2)
-By James Risen and David Johnstone
-NYTimes via
-AltaVista-News
- "Nigerian
state stands firm on Sharia: "Support Sharia,
Allah's Law is Supreme," says a road sign on the way into the northwestern
Nigerian city of Gusau." ... "Sharia, the Islamic penal code, is certainly
a force to be reckoned with in Gusau, the capital of Zamfara state." ...
"Last week the state's deputy governor declared a fatwa religious edict
calling for the death of a Nigerian journalist for alleged blasphemy over
an article at the centre of a recent controversy surrounding the Miss World
beauty pageant." ... "The authorities seem to be standing firm, despite
the fact that Nigeria's two main Islamic bodies and religious leaders in
Saudi Arabia have harshly criticized the order."
-Reuters via -CNN
/World
-
- 
- "CIA
Target: Americans: Officials: U.S. Citizens
Working for Al Qaeda Can Be Killed in CIA Actions." ... "American citizens
working for al Qaeda overseas can legally be targeted and killed by the
CIA under President Bush's rules for the war on terrorism, U.S. officials
say." ... "The authority to kill U.S. citizens is granted under a secret
finding signed by the president after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that
directs the CIA to covertly attack al Qaeda anywhere in the world. The
authority makes no exception for Americans, so permission to strike them
is understood rather than specifically described, officials said." ...
"Previously, the government's authority to kill a citizen outside of the
judicial process has been generally restricted to when the American is
directly threatening the lives of other Americans or their allies." -By
John J. Lumpkin -AP
via -ABCNEWS.com
-
- "Nigerian
state issues death threat on Miss World journalist."
... "A Nigerian state has ordered Muslims to kill a journalist whose report
on the Miss World contest led to riots in which 200 people died." ... "An
Islamic fatwa has been decreed against Isioma Daniel, whose article in
the This Day newspaper suggested that if the prophet Mohammed were alive
today, he would have wanted to marry one of the Miss World contestants."
... "Violence erupted in Nigeria last week when the article angered Muslim
fundamentalists." ... "Estimates suggest that besides the 200 people killed,
1,200 have been hospitalised and 12,000 made homeless as a result of the
riots." -By Julia Day
-Guardian.co.uk /media
- "Illinois
puts death penalty on trial." ... "Clemency hearings
are scheduled to begin this week for almost every prisoner facing the death
penalty in the US state of Illinois." ... "The cases of 142 murderers -
convicted of killing around 250 people - will be reviewed with the possibility
that the state's Governor George Ryan will commute all their sentences
to life in prison." ... "Governor Ryan, who leaves office in January, was
the first to declare a moratorium on executions three years ago after three
murder convictions were overturned with new examinations of DNA evidence."-BBC/News
Google [News] Search: Texas death penalty
Witness to an Execution - http://www.npr.org/programs/atc/witness Frontline: The Execution - http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/execution Frontline: Angel On Death Row - "The Real Life Cases in "Dead Man Walking"."- http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/angel Frontline: The Case for Innocence - "Why do inmates remain in prison despite DNA evidence which exonerates them with near certainty?" - http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/case
Bureau of Justice Statistics Capital Punishment Statistics - http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/cp.htm Bureau of Justice Statistics Capital Punishment 2000 - http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/cp00.htm U.S. Department of Justice Statistics: Capital Punishment 1999 - http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/cp99.htm Capital Punishment - http://usinfo.state.gov/topical/rights/hrpage/cp.htm
LII: Law about...the Death Penalty - http://www.law.cornell.edu/topics/death_penalty.html CORNELL DEATH PENALTY PROJECT - Home Page - http://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/library/death Death Penalty; Capital Punishment; Ethics; Punishment - http://ethics.acusd.edu/Applied/deathpenalty Capital Punishment - http://www.ll.georgetown.edu/lr/rs/capital.html Death Penalty Information (from: http://www.soci.niu.edu/~critcrim) - http://sun.soci.niu.edu/~critcrim/dp/dp.html Capital Punishment [Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy] - http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/c/capitalp.htm Death Penalty Curricula for High School - http://deathpenaltyinfo.msu.edu/
CDC Capital Punishment
Death Penalty Initiative - http://www.ConstitutionProject.org/dpi Death Penalty Information Center - http://www.DeathPenaltyInfo.org
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