Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani is the woman we wrote about last week — she faces the horrible, horrible death sentence of stoning in Iran. Her crime? Adultery. Evidence? None. Trials? Two (no double jeopardy protection there).
Was the Stoning Carried Out?
There have been no news reports since our post to confirm that Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani has
Recently, I received a very nice letter from a student in Great Britain who was studying capital punishment – specifically, the American Death Penalty. She asked my take on things, generally speaking, and I was honored by the query and proud to be able to reply. Having taken some of the language of my response from this blog, I thought it only fitting to share with its readers what I sent to Pavan last week.
Dear Pavan,
Thank you so much for writing me and asking my thoughts on the death penalty, as an American death penalty criminal defense attorney. I’m honored to be asked, and I hope that the following is helpful to you:
I’ve been practicing criminal law for a long time, and still I get asked on a weekly basis, why DO I defend what some call "the worst of the worst"? Just why is it that I defend those people that have been described on more than one occasion (and by more than one prosecutor) as the worst of the worst?
First, a word about what I do. I’m a private practice criminal defense attorney who focuses upon death penalty cases. In Florida, where I live and do most of my work, death penalty cases have two lawyers, known as first chair and second chair.
As first chair in a death penalty case, my job is concerned with the guilt finding of the defendant – the focus is judgment. As second chair, my job is to convince the jury to spare the life of the person if they are convicted – the focus is mercy. Here, arguing for mercy is legally known as "mitigation," a specialized area. Within that area, I have further specialized in mental health aspects of mitigation.
I represent young and old, the unknown and the infamous. Most recently, I was given extensive media coverage as the initial death-penalty qualified attorney in the Casey Anthony case. (I withdrew from the representation a long while back.)
"How can you represent those people?"
There are all the usual stock answers. "I am defending the Constitution." "The death penalty is not a cost effective solution." "There is no deterrent value." "As for retribution, is a life in a cage worse than death?" "The system is not perfect, and innocent people have been sentenced to death." "Death row is overwhelmingly populated by the poor and disadvantaged."
And all of these answers are true, but they don’t tell you the whole story.
Fundamentally, I do this because I want to understand. Why did this happen? How did this person arrive at my figurative doorstep, accused of a horrendous crime? What are the factors, the background, the events that led this person here?
Every person has a story. There is always some underlying common humanity in even those convicted of the most brutal crimes. It is my job to bring these mitigating factors to the jury, to shed light on the darkest heart and most disturbed mind.
To help us all to understand WHY. Continue Reading Dear Pavan — My Letter to a British Student about the American Death Penalty
Last year, we had a series of in-depth articles posted over several weeks discussing capital punishment in China, and the horrific reality of the China Death Vans. Please take the time to read thru this information — information that we found was simply not covered to any great extent in the mainstream media.
China
World news reports regarding attitudes toward the death penalty in other countries is downright frightening. As much as we fight against injustice in the United States, the news reports coming out of Pakistan, Iran, and Singapore today only serve to reiterate how the American system of justice is much more merciful and compassionate than so many other jurisdictions on this planet.
Facebook Founders charged with Death Penalty Crimes in Pakistan for "Draw Muhammad Day"
At first, this seems to be something from Will Ferrell’s Funny or Die series, or maybe another Ashton Punk, or even some twisted publicity attempt for that new Facebook movie. No. The ugly truth is that a Pakistani High Court judge has indeed brought in the police after an a Pakistani attorney named Muhammad Azhar Siddique filed documentation with the court requesting a "First Information Report (FIR)," legalese for asking that that a criminal investigation be ordered.
In his application, Mr. Siddique allegedly asserts that Facebook principals have violated Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code, which states:
"Use of derogatory remark etc, in respect of the Holy Prophet, whoever by words, either spoken or written, or by visible representation, or by any imputation, innuendo, or insinuation, directly or indirectly, defiles the sacred name of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) shall be punished with death, or imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable for fine."
What’s the brouhaha? Back in May, Facebook sponsored "Everybody Draw Muhammad Day," when a 27-year-old Canadian woman created a Facebook page joining a Seattle cartoonist in an online protest of cable TV’s Comedy Central’s decision to censor an episode of "South Park," where the Prophet Muhammad was drawn wearing a bear costume.
After the Royal Canadian Mounted Police visited the Canadian Facebook page administrator’s home, telling her of possible reprisals and death threats against her, she took their advice and removed the page. The FBI, likewise, visited the Seattle cartoonist, giving similar advice to her — and she likewise took down her online protest and has taken herself out of the public eye. The names of both the Seattle cartoonist and the Canadian Facebook page administrator appear on hit lists.
But this must not be enough, to put names on assassination lists.
There are reports that Pakistan’s Deputy Attorney General has begun an investigation into Facebook Founders Mark Zuckerberg, Chris Hughes, and Dustin Moskovitz, as well as the German woman who initiated the "Draw Muhammad" contest under a pseudonym. Attorney Sidiqque has told media that he expects the Pakistani officials to enlist the aid of Interpol in coordinating the arrest of these four individuals. Additionally, Pakistan’s United Nations representative has purportedly asked to escalate the issue in the UN General Assembly.
Singapore Writer Arrest and Iran Stoning after the jump…. Continue Reading World View of the Death Penalty: Pakistan Death Penalty Charge Against Facebook founders, Writer Alan Shadrake Charged In Singapore – Not Free to Leave, Iran Stoning To Occur Today Without Evidence
Yesterday, Sharon Keller learned the discipline that she would be receiving from the Texas Judicial Commission after a review of her actions as Chief Justice of Texas’ highest criminal court on the day that Michael Richard was executed by lethal injection.(Read the ruling in its entirety here.)
It’s a story we’ve been following
Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Charles Canady, 56, began his two-year term on July 1, 2010, and his first order of business was to create the Florida Innocence Commission, which will "conduct a comprehensive study of the causes of wrongful conviction and of measures to prevent such convictions." (For the complete enacting language, read the
California attorney Brad Levenson, a federal public defender, was revealed this week to be the new head of a brand new agency over in Texas: the Office of Capital Writs. Levenson starts work on September 1st.
Texas’ Office of Capital Writs is an Attempt to Solve the Indigent Defense Crisis – In Part
In
Georgia Defendant Jamie R. Weis is getting lots of media attention today, as an article written by Adam Liptak in yesterday’s New York Time’s Sidebar column is being republished and discussed all over the country.
What NYT’s Liptak has done is place a spotlight upon a case that has been pending before the U.S. Supreme
[The following post is being republished here with the permission of its author, James Clark, field organizer for the ACLU, Southern California. It was previously published on the Huffington Post on June 28, 2010.]
California’s governor has proposed closing the state’s $20 billion budget gap with a drastic cuts-only approach; slashing funding for vital human services without working to increase revenue. Yet one state program seems to be immune from these cuts: the death penalty.
We think the time has come to CUT THIS. (see video below)
California spends vast amounts of money prosecuting death penalty cases and supporting death row. To avoid executing an innocent person, the death penalty process is long, complicated, and expensive. Each prosecution seeking death costs approximately $1.1 million more than a trial seeking permanent imprisonment, and with more than 700 inmates, California’s death row is by far the largest and most costly in the nation. In total, California’s death penalty system costs taxpayers $137 million per year.
Contrast that with just $11 million per year if we replace the death penalty with permanent imprisonment. Top that off with $400 million saved if we don’t build a new death row, needed because the existing one is so old and overcrowded.
Today, if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger were to convert the sentences of all those on death row to permanent imprisonment, the state would save $1 billion over the next five years without releasing a single prisoner.
But the death penalty is not on the chopping block. Rather than cutting the death penalty, the governor has focused on cutting the "rehabilitation" side of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Programs emphasizing education, rehabilitation, and addiction treatment have all seen cuts to their budgets, while death penalty prosecutions continue statewide. Continue Reading Guest Post: Cut This: The Death Penalty by James Clark
Before I begin to get queries on the recent departure of Andrea Lyons from the Casey Anthony Defense Team (since both Ms. Lyon and I served as death penalty qualified counsel for Casey Anthony at one point), I ask that anyone interested read the quote that I gave to Anthony Colarossi of the Orlando Sentinel: