DEATH PENALTY March 1999 NEWS AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL 1 Easton Street AI Index: ACT 53/02/99 London WC1X 8DJ Distribution: SC/DP/PO/CO/GR United Kingdom A QUARTERLY BULLETIN ON THE DEATH PENALTY AND MOVES TOWARDS WORLDWIDE ABOLITION PHILIPPINES RESUMES EXECUTIONS “...let us give [the death penalty] a try to see whether it has a deterring effect” Serafin Cuevas, Philippine Secretary of Justice quoted by Agence France Presse, 12 January 1999 The effort to restore respect for human rights the Free Legal Assistance Group had been in the Philippines received a blow on 5 rejected, Leo Echegaray’s execution date was February when Leo Echegaray, a convicted scheduled for 4 January 1999. child rapist, was executed by lethal injection. Local and international human rights His death marked the end of a 23-year de facto groups and the Roman Catholic Church had moratorium on executions. campaigned against the reimposition of the Since the reintroduction of the death death penalty for many years. In March 1998 penalty in law in 1993, the Philippines has a coalition of Philippine non-governmental gone from an abolitionist position to having organizations invited members of the one of the highest death sentencing rates in the US-based “Journey of Hope” group to help world. More than 900 people convicted of raise awareness of arguments against the death capital offences are now under sentence of penalty in the country (see DP News death; in January alone, 51 persons were September 1998). sentenced to death. In late 1998, despite international The congressional decision in appeals and a Philippines Senate resolution December 1993 to reintroduce capital suggesting that President Joseph Estrada punishment for “heinous” crimes was founded commute Leo Echegaray’s sentence or defer on a sense of public frustration at apparently the execution for two years to allow a spiralling rates of violent crime. With public congressional review of the efficacy of the faith in the effectiveness of the criminal justice death penalty law, President Estrada refused system at a low ebb, the reintroduction of the to grant clemency to Leo Echegaray. The death penalty was portrayed as a symbol of the President had been elected earlier in the year authorities’ determination to confront on a platform which included combatting criminality. crime. In September 1994 the Supreme Court The Supreme Court, in an unexpected confirmed the first death sentence passed move three hours before Leo Echegaray’s under the new law, that of Leo Echegaray. scheduled execution, ordered a stay of After all appeals lodged by his lawyers from execution in consideration of a bill pending Death Penalty News March 1999 1 ___________________________________________________________________________ in Congress to review the death penalty law. through the capital, Manila, calling for Leo The stay of execution sparked an emotional, Echegaray’s immediate execution. The broad-based public outcry, with bomb threats march was led by President Estrada’s wife and against the Supreme Court and a march Leo Echegaray’s now 15-year-old rape victim. It was against this setting that Congress Sergio Antonio Duarte Scull and Carlos Rafael on 19 January voted overwhelmingly not to Pérez Prieto were sentenced in January for consider reviewing the death penalty law. The killing four foreigners in Cuba and Francisco Supreme Court then lifted the stay of Portuondo Medina was sentenced to death in execution and a new date of execution was set. March for killing a policeman in 1998. Death On 5 February Leo Echegaray was executed by sentences are sometimes carried out within lethal injection. weeks of trial judgment. Shortly before the execution, 27 USA - EXECUTION OF FOREIGN Philippine women’s organizations issued a NATIONALS CONTINUES joint public statement opposing the death penalty for rape because “the death penalty Two German nationals have been executed in will not put an end to violence against women the US state of Arizona despite a request for and children”. adjudication lodged by the German It is feared that this first execution will government at the International Court of open the door for further executions of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague. In its application prisoners whose death sentences have been for a hearing at the ICJ, the German confirmed by the Supreme Court. Three men government maintained that the brothers Karl convicted of armed robbery with homicide - and Walter LaGrand were tried and sentenced Dante Piandiong, Archie Bulan and Jesus to death without being advised of their right to Morallos -are reportedly scheduled to be consular assistance as required by the Vienna executed on 7 April. Eight other men face Convention on Consular Relations, which the execution this year. USA unconditionally ratified in 1969. Article CUBA EXTENDS SCOPE OF 1 of the Optional Protocol to the Vienna DEATH PENALTY Convention cedes compulsory jurisdiction over disputes arising from the treaty to the On 16 February the Cuban National Assembly ICJ. passed a law to revise the Penal Code, extending the death penalty to include serious The brothers Karl LaGrand, who died involvement in drug trafficking, corruption of by lethal injection on 24 February, and Walter minors and armed robbery. The new law LaGrand who was executed on 3 March by follows President Fidel Castro’s speech in lethal gas, were convicted of murder during an January when he said that drug traffickers attempted robbery in 1982. Karl LaGrand caught in Cuba should face the death penalty. had originally chosen death by lethal gas. The execution was subsequently stayed by the Cuba maintains the death penalty for a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on the grounds large number of offences. At least five people that death by lethal gas constituted cruel and were reportedly executed in 1998. Since unusual punishment in violation of the US reporting of human rights issues in Cuba is Constitution. The US Supreme Court restricted and the authorities do not make overturned the stay and allowed the execution statistics on the death penalty public, the true to proceed. Karl LaGrand ultimately chose figure may be higher. execution by lethal injection instead. At least three men have reportedly been sentenced to death to date in 1999. Death Penalty News March 1999 2 ___________________________________________________________________________ The ICJ had intervened earlier in the death and later exonerated. On 11 March, case of Angel Breard, a national of Paraguay. one of the two men, Anthony Porter, who had Despite an unanimous ICJ order that the US come within two days of execution in government stay that execution pending the September 1998, had his murder conviction Court’s decision, Angel Breard was executed finally thrown out by a judge. Several of the in Virginia on 14 April 1998 (see DP News 11 men released from death row were June 1998). At that time a spokesperson for convicted in part on the basis of confessions the Chairman of the US Senate Foreign that later proved to be unreliable, the same Relations Committee described the Court’s issue on which the lawyers for Andrew intervention as “an appalling intrusion” into Kokoraleis had appealed to the courts. the affairs of the state of Virginia. However, on 3 November 1998 the US government Michigan - The Board of Directors of the issued a formal apology to Paraguay over its Michigan Catholic Conference at their failure to notify Angel Breard of his consular quarterly meeting in March issued a statement rights which stated: “This...was saying the death penalty should not be unquestionably a violation of an obligation reintroduced in the state. The statement owed to the Government of Paraguay...The quotes from the Catechism of the Catholic United States must see to it that foreign Church and adds: “Our century has seen too nationals in the United States receive the many people killed in ‘improving’ society for same treatment that we expect for our citizens us to accept lethal means as anything but a overseas. We cannot have a double failure of human compassion and imagination standard.” that solves nothing.” There are currently over 70 foreign citizens of 26 nationalities under sentence of Missouri - Following a personal appeal from death in the USA. In reportedly almost all Pope John Paul II during his visit to the state cases the arresting authorities have breached capital, St Louis, in January, Governor Mel the consular notification requirement under Carnahan commuted to life imprisonment the Article 36 of the Vienna Convention. death sentence of Darrell Mease, convicted of murdering three people in 1988. The Pope USA - OTHER NEWS had earlier addressed around 100,000 people at a stadium in the city where he said: Illinois - Andrew Kokoraleis was executed by “Modern society has the means of protecting lethal injection on 17 March. He had been itself without definitively denying criminals sentenced to death in 1987 for rape, the chance to reform. I renew the appeal I aggravated kidnapping and murder. The US made most recently at Christmas for a Supreme Court on 16 March rejected an consensus to end the death penalty, which is appeal to stay the execution which had been both cruel and unnecessary.” brought before it following an emergency stay granted the previous day by Justice Moses Harrison of the Illinois Supreme Court COUNCIL OF EUROPE because of doubts about Andrew Kokoraleis’ RESPONDS TO THREATS TO guilt in this case. RESUME EXECUTIONS Andrew Kokoraleis was executed amid increasing pressure for a moratorium on Several organs of the Council of Europe have executions in Illinois following the recent responded firmly to threats by high officials in release from death row of another two Albania and Ukraine to resume executions in condemned prisoners. They were the tenth defiance of commitments made when the two and eleventh such inmates to be released in countries joined the organization.