death penalty – praag.org

Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan gets death sentence

A military jury sentenced a US Army officer to death Wednesday for carrying out an Al-Qaeda inspired mass shooting on the Fort Hood base in Texas that left 13 dead.

After a short deliberation, the forewoman of a jury of military officers said it was their unanimous verdict that 42-year-old Major Nidal Hasan should be executed.

“It is my duty as president of this jury to inform you that… the court martial in closed session in a secret ballot of all members concurs to the sentences, to forfeit all pay and allowances, to dismissal from service, to be put to death,” said the forewoman, a colonel.

Hasan, who elected to conduct his own defense during the trial but who called no witnesses and gave no testimony, sat in his wheelchair staring ahead of himself the verdict was read.

Under US military justice, death penalty verdicts are automatically reviewed under an appeals procedure that could take years.

It can then be appealed through the civilians courts, and any execution would have to be approved by the US president.

Death penalty verdicts are often overturned, and no soldier has been executed since 1961.

Hasan has nevertheless made no attempt to deny the charges and court appointed defense attorneys had expressed concern that he is seeking execution.

The US-born Muslim of Palestinian descent is the first member of the army to receive a death sentence since the 2005 conviction of Hasan Akbar, who killed two in an attack on fellow soldiers in Kuwait in 2003.

On November 5, 2009, Hasan opened fire at a medical facility in the sprawling Fort Hood base in Texas that serves as a staging point for soldiers to deploy to combat zones.

Twelve of the dead and 30 of the wounded were soldiers. Hasan was himself shot by a civilian police officer who responded to the attack and he is now partially paralyzed.

The court had heard that Hasan was opposed to the US military’s occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, and that he had spoken online with an alleged Al-Qaeda figure, radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, an American citizen subsequently killed in a US drone strike in Yemen.

Following the sentence, Hasan was rushed quickly out of the military courtroom, which is in Fort Hood, to be transported back to a local civilian jail where he has been held for more than three years.

He is to be taken to military death row in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, to await execution.

Seven relatives of victims slain in the shooting held back tears during the sentencing after repeatedly being warned not to not make any public declarations of support or opposition to the sentence.

“We are thankful for the just verdict that has finally been rendered. However, we are also dissatisfied with the media attention to Hasan and his extremist views,” Melissa Czemerda, daughter of Hasan’s victim Lieutenant Colonel Juanita Warman, said after the hearing.

“These types of murderers thrive on media attention. It promotes violence from other disturbed individuals seeking a platform for their sick and twisted views.”

Former Fort Hood police officer Sergeant Kimberly Munley, who was wounded in a gun battle with Hasan, immediately took to Twitter to welcome the sentence.

“He will wither away to nothing in his jail cell while waiting on the appellate courts!” she wrote

And Teena Nemelka, mother of slain Private First Class Aaron Nemelka, said: “We have all heard that Hasan believes with the death penalty that we will be seen as a martyr, but I feel that he is a coward, a traitor and a murderer.” – AFP

The world has gone mad

by Yolande du Plessis

I truly believe that the world is going mad. I was reading a news site the other morning and besides the “normal” stories of corruption, murder and other crimes, I came across two very disturbing articles.

The first was Boy, 7, ‘battered by Grade 1 classmates’. Now, what is wrong with that heading? Grade ones. What the hell is going on? A young boy of 7, grade one, was asked by the teacher to report noise-makers while she stepped out. When he reported the boys who had made noise, they viciously attacked him, damaging his liver, kidneys and spine. This boy will not be able to walk properly again. To make this even more bizarre, the teacher requested the boy’s family to amicably resolve the issue with the wrong-doers’ families. I ask you – amicably?

These boys need a good lashing. Six of the best. That will make them think twice about committing such an act again. With that I also believe that punishment in the form of community work would be good, but only after the lashings.

Now I know there are some of you who would think it child abuse, but it is not. Even government is attempting to put in place laws to prevent parents to give their children hidings. I say that is wrong. How will kids learn if they don’t feel the result of their actions? Sometimes, talking will not do the trick. We will be raising killers in our society if we take away the basic form of punishment, namely a good hiding when the occasion calls for it. And frankly, the occasion is screaming for those boys.

The other article, which could be seen as the possible result of not giving out hidings when they are due, is South African black jailed for raping and killing his own grandmother. Again I will ask: what is wrong with that sentence? Raping and killing his own grandmother, 92 years old. What in the world could this man have been thinking? Maybe if he had had a few hidings in his youth, he would not even have contemplated such an act. Now the question is: how long will he actually spend in jail for his life sentence? A few years and then he could be released on parole. With board, lodgings, studies and DSTv paid for by our tax monies? Sounds like a fair punishment. Not!

This is where the old forms of punishment could make a good example of this criminal – and don’t think he is anything other than a criminal. How about the good old-fashioned cat o’ nine tails? Now that would make him think of his rape. And then the good old noose for the killing. Or firing squad, whatever is cheaper on us as tax payers.

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Yes, I am angry, but aren’t you? Why are we allowing these acts to be committed? Why are we not standing up and demanding – demanding being one of the things some people in this country have got down to a tee – these criminals to get their just punishment, instead of living off our monies that are suppose to help the poor and upgrade our roads, etc. I mean, if you take the amounts lost in corruption each year, then surely we should cut the head off somewhere. We pay for corruption, we pay for crimes, but we never see our hard-earned money go to those who truly need it. And don’t come with human rights to me. Human rights should only be applied to those who have not taken the human rights of others away. In my opinion you give up your human right when you have so outrageously disregarded the rights of another human being.

Think about it and see if you don’t feel the same… We can still try to make a difference in this country. We should just stand up and fight for what is right!

Yolande du Plessis is a blogger from Pretoria. Read her opinions here.

Ohio set to execute Donald Palmer for double murder 23 years ago

An Ohio death-row inmate set to be executed is sorry for killing two strangers 23 years ago and wants to give their families justice, according to the inmate’s attorney.

Donald Palmer, 43, was in the state’s single-cell death house in Lucasville in southern Ohio as officials prepared to execute him by lethal injection at 10 a.m. (1400 GMT) Thursday.

His lawyer, David Stebbins said Wednesday that he doesn’t plan to file any other appeals on Palmer’s behalf and expects the execution to proceed.

“He has always accepted responsibility for this and wants the families of his victims to have justice,” said Stebbins, who plans to be among the witnesses to the execution.

Palmer was convicted of aggravated murder in the May 8, 1989, shooting deaths of Charles Sponhaltz and Steven Vargo along a Belmont County road in eastern Ohio. The married fathers both were shot in the head.

Stebbins said that Palmer has wanted to apologize to his victims’ families but that he didn’t have the means to do so.

Both Sponhaltz’s and Vargo’s widows planned to attend the execution, as well as Sponholtz’s two daughters and his brother.

Palmer will be given an opportunity to say his last words before receiving a lethal dose of pentobarbital.

Palmer had decided not to request mercy from the Ohio Parole Board, which can recommend clemency for a condemned inmate to the governor.

Belmont County prosecutor Christopher Berhalter told the board the execution should proceed because Palmer’s guilt is undisputed and because of the brutality of the crimes.

According to court records, Palmer told police that he and co-defendant Edward Hill were driving from Columbus to the Belmont County home of a man who had dated Palmer’s ex-wife and Hill’s sister.

As they were driving back and forth in front of the home, Sponhaltz – who was keeping an eye on the house – lightly hit the back of their pickup with his own truck and yelled at them: “What in the hell are you trying to prove?” according to the records.

Palmer then shot Sponhaltz twice in the head.

Vargo, a passing motorist, stopped and asked “What the hell did you guys do,” Palmer told police, according to the records. Palmer then shot Vargo twice in the head.

Sponhaltz’s body was dumped in a field; Vargo’s was left on the road.

Hill, 46, was convicted for his role in the crimes and sentenced to 35 years to life in prison.

Valerie Vargo Jolliffee, 51, Vargo’s widow, told The Associated Press that she plans to attend Palmer’s execution because he ruined her life.

She said that she and Vargo fell in love at first sight and had been married just two months when he was killed.

“I was looking forward to growing old with him,” she said. “I just can’t wait until it’s over. And it won’t be over until they put him to death.”

Corrections officials say Palmer asked that his last meal include a chipped ham and Velveeta cheese sandwich, Doritos, peanut M&Ms, hazelnut ice cream, cheese cake and soda.

Ten Ohio inmates, including Palmer, are scheduled for execution through March 2014. Palmer will be the second this year if the execution goes forward. – AFP

Amnesty International urges Gambia to stop mass executions

Amnesty International on Tuesday said it was appalled at the execution in Gambia of nine death row prisoners by firing squad and urged government not to kill an estimated 38 prisoners remaining.

“We are appalled that the Gambian authorities carried out the nine executions and urge them to ensure that no further executions take place,” said Paule Rigaud, Amnesty International’s deputy director for Africa.

Gambia’s interior ministry said Monday nine death row prisoners including a woman had been executed by firing squad on Sunday night, a week after President Yahya Jammeh vowed to carry out all death sentences by mid-September.

The president’s feared plain-clothed security officers could be seen on the streets of the capital Banjul Tuesday, and tension was palpable among citizens who are afraid to talk about the executions lest their words be recorded by Jammeh’s agents and punished.

In a televised address to mark this year’s Muslim feast of Eid al-Fitr Jammeh said: “By the middle of next month, all the death sentences will have been carried out to the letter.

“There is no way my government will allow 99 percent of the population to be held to ransom by criminals.”

Jammeh, a former military officer who seized power in a 1994 coup, rules the tiniest nation on the African mainland with an iron fist and brooks no dissent.

The regime of the man who claims he can cure AIDS is often pilloried for human rights abuses, enforced disappearances, extra-judicial killings, torture and the muzzling of journalists.

In November 2011, Jammeh won a fourth term in power, brought to power by an electorate who the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) said was “cowed by repression and intimidation.”

While the last official execution took place in 1985, AFP’s correspondent in Banjul said that executions in Gambia, a sliver of land wedged into Senegal, have continued unofficially with the most recent before Sunday’s death squad firing taking place in 2007.

Amnesty International had considered Gambia to be among the 22 of Africa’s 54 states which are abolitionist in practice. Sixteen are abolitionist in law for all crimes.