Sierra Leone pardons 96 prisoners - including 5 death-row inmates - on independence anniversary

Sierra Leone feted its 50th anniversary of independence from Britain on Wednesday with a colourful parade and government pardon of 96 prisoners, five of whom were on death row.

In a nationwide broadcast President Ernest Koroma hailed the country's progress since the end of a devastating decade-long civil war in 2002, one of the continent's bloodiest in which tens of thousands were killed and mutilated.

"We fought a war but we have sustained the peace that is the envy of the world. We have had spells of unelected leadership but we are today the shining example of a country that is consolidating its democracy," he said.

The speech was followed by a parade by the country's armed forces and some 4,000 school children at the national stadium in the capital Freetown.

Presidents from Mali, Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Liberia and Senegal were present as well as high-ranking delegations from the European Union, South Africa, Israel, Britain and China, foreign ministry officials said.

After Sierra Leone was recently named among countries that have officially expressed opposition to a proposed universal moratorium on the death penalty, Freetown on Wednesday pardoned five death row prisoners, including a woman.

The state pardon now leaves 8 males and 1 woman on death row, a prison officer told AFP.

According to state records, there has not been any execution in the former British colony since 1998 when 24 military officers were executed after a 1997 coup attempt.

Sierra Leone's 1991 constitution allows the use of the death penalty for aggravated robbery, murder, treason and mutiny.

Source: Agence France-Presse, April 27, 2011

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Saudi king pardons Filipino sentenced to death

MANILA, Philippines—The Philippine government said Tuesday that it obtained a pardon from the king of Saudi Arabia sparing the life of a Filipino man who was sentenced to death for drug smuggling.

The man, an overseas worker in the conservative kingdom, was convicted in 2009 and sentenced to death by beheading after Saudi authorities seized a package that was mailed to him containing methamphetamine, said Philippine Foreign Affairs spokesman Eduardo Malaya.

The man was freed Sunday and returned to Manila late Monday. He has not been identified due to privacy concerns.

The pardoned man was the third Filipino in recent months who had been sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia and released following appeals by the government in Manila.

The Philippines, which has no death penalty, unsuccessfully appealed to China last month seeking clemency for three Filipinos who were eventually executed for drug smuggling.

The plight of overseas workers is a sensitive issue in the Philippines, which has some 10 percent of its 94 million people toiling abroad to escape widespread poverty and unemployment at home.

Source: Associated Press, April 18, 2011

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Irishman, the last person executed in Rhode Island set to be exonerated 166 years after

“Poor Johnny Gordon”, the wronged Irish Catholic immortalized in this infamous ballad by the same name, may find some good fortune yet. That is 166 years after the Irishman was unfairly hanged on a murder charge.

State officials are looking to exonerate him after opening the cold case. The Catholic Church and the American Civil Liberties Union are lending their support.

Mr. Gordon was the last person to be hanged in Rhode Island. The death penalty was abolished 7 years after his death on February 14th 1845. In 1870 capital punishment was reinstated but abolished in the 1980s.

Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee may be called upon by legislators to pardon Gordon. The governor supports this measure. “I think it's appropriate as a symbolic gesture. There could have been errors. There could have been emotional issues at play."

Anti-Irish sentiment was rampant during the late 19th century in Rhode Island. This is believed to be the motive behind Gordon’s death. History and law professor Patrick Conley commented on the social climate for Irish Catholics during this time. 'It was the temper of the times. Bigotry, hostility toward Irish Catholics was widespread.'

Gordon sought a better life in this country after escaping the potato famine in 1943. His brothers ran a profitable bar. A well-heeled Yankee mill owner, Amassa Sprague, wanted the tavern closed because he claimed his workers spent too much time at the tavern. He used his family connections in the Senate to shut down the pub. Mysteriously Sprague was murdered.

Johnny Gordon was arrested on the grounds of conspiracy to murder Sprague in retaliation for having the bar’s license revoked. The circumstances surrounding his 9 day trial were suspect. For starters the jurors were instructed by the judge to “give more weight to the Yankee jurors than the Irish ones”.

Also a gun was discovered near the body. Witnesses claim they saw the brothers carrying a weapon days before.

A prostitute testified that she heard one of the brothers vowing to kill Sprague in spite of her inability to tell any of the brothers apart. It was later revealed that this woman was in the employ of Sprague.

After 75 minutes of deliberation Gordon was found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging. The sentence was carried out against the wishes of the governor and the General Assembly.

His funeral prosession was attended by thousands. He is buried in a church cemetery in Pawtucket.

The effort to find Gordon innocent is important in preventing this history from repeating itself.

Father Bernard Healy echoes this sentiment. 'John Gordon was put to death because he was Catholic. It was Catholics in the 19th century. Who will it be this century?'

Source: Irishcentral.com, April 8, 2011

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Taiwan's President apologizes over wrongful execution

January 31, 2011: Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou and the Ministry of National Defense (MND) formally apologised to the family of former air force private Chiang Kuo-ching.

Kuo-ching was wrongful executed for the rape and murder of a five-year-old girl in the R.O.C. Air Force Command Headquarters compound on RenAi Road in Taipei in September 1996.

Ma also instructed the MND to seek ways to restore Chiang's reputation via legal procedures and help the family get compensation.

The president also wanted the ministry to hold accountable those responsible for the mishandling of the rape-murder case that led to the soldier's wrongful indictment and execution.

This case showed that all public agencies should exert maximum caution to prevent a repeat of a similar incident and to safeguard the human rights of all citizens in the country, said Ma.

Source: China Post, January 31, 2011

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Outgoing Tennessee Governor commutes death sentence of Harbison, pardons 22

Outgoing Gov. Phil Bredesen on Tuesday commuted a Tennessee inmate's death sentence to life in prison without parole and issued 22 pardons.

The Democratic governor acted during his last days in office to change the sentence of convicted murderer Edward Jerome Harbison.

"It's obviously a heinous crime, but when I compare it to others I don't think it rose to the level of a death penalty crime," Bredesen told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview. "So I knocked it down one notch to life without parole. And that's enough said, I guess."

Bredesen, who leaves office on Saturday, said he had discussed the commutation with Republican Gov.-elect Bill Haslam.

"He was totally fine, I think he understands completely," he said. "He thought it was appropriate even though the execution would have happened on his watch."

Bredesen also exonerated 1 man, commuted the sentences of 3 inmates and issued 22 pardons.

Harbison was convicted in Chattanooga of the 1983 slaying of Edith Russell, a woman for whom he had done handy work. He initially confessed but later claimed he was forced to do that because police threatened to arrest his girlfriend and put her children in foster care.

The exoneration erases the conviction of James Green, who was arrested in 2006 and charged with abducting and groping a child. 2 years later, the alleged victim recanted the claims and the district attorney dropped the charges. Green served more than 2 years of a 16-year sentence before he was released.

Source: Associated Press, January 11, 2011

Colorado: 72 years after execution, a posthumous pardon

Joe Arridy (left)
and warden Roy Best

David Martinez didn't count the hours. That wasn't what the work was about.

"It is about making a right out of a terrible wrong in our state's history," he said.

He missed time with friends and his two daughters as he worked late defending someone he never met but considers a son.

"I refer to him as Joey," Martinez said.

Prisoner 19845, Joe Arridy was an inmate at the Colorado State Prison in Canyon City in the 1930s. He had been convicted of being an accomplice in the murder of Dorothy Drain.

Police questioned him after they found him wandering. The sheriff at the time said that Arridy mumbled a confession. Martinez doesn't believe it.

"No on else heard it and this was a sheriff who never took notes and had a very big ego," he said.

The idea of the young man recalling specifics like the sheriff claimed was also unlikely because 23-year-old Arridy functioned like a toddler.

"The State classified him as an imbecile," Martinez said.

Martinez explained that Arridy had an IQ of 46. Today, the cut off for being competent is 70.

Despite false confessions, the likelihood that Arridy was not in Pueblo at the time of the murder and an admission of guilt by someone else, Arridy was put on death row.

The man who ran the prison was Warden Roy Best. He was known as a strong-fisted man with a short fuse.

"It speaks volumes when I tell you that over Christmas the year before Joe Arridy was executed, Best took him home, he spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with his wife and his nephew," Martinez said.

The warden gave Arridy a toy train.

Most newspaper articles about Arridy showed him holding that train. He was said to have played with it ever waking minute of the day. The warden would buy new batteries for it whenever they ran out.

Arridy told reporters that he wanted to live with the warden for the rest of his life. He did.

Best walked him down the hall to the gas chamber on a Friday in 1939. By all accounts, Arridy had no idea what was going to happen.

Shortly before execution, Joe Arridy
gives away the toy train he received from
warden Roy Best to a fellow prisoner.

"All the way up to the time they put the black hood over him in the gas chamber he was smiling," Martinez said. He shakes his head while talking about it. "He did not deserve to be executed as a murderer."

After 3 years of research, Martinez compiled 600 pages in a binder.

It would end up on Gov. Bill Ritter's desk and compel him to grant the 1st posthumous pardon in Colorado history on Friday.

"I salute him for doing it. It is monumental and it brings a lot of hope for the future for the disabled community," Martinez said.

Just behind the prison tower at the state prison in Canyon City there is a place known as Woodpecker Hill. It is a place where license plates are grave markers. Arridy is buried there, now a pardoned man.

A man named Frank Agular is buried there as well. He is the man that confessed to the crime. He maintained until his execution that Arridy had nothing to do with it.

In 2002, the Supreme Court ruled that someone with Arridy's developmental disability could not be put on death row.

Related article: "1939: Joe Arridy, on Woodpecker Hill", Executed Today, January 6, 2011

Source: Denver 9 News, January 8, 2011

Outgoing Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland grants clemency to another 159; none of the cases involved the death penalty

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The outgoing Ohio governor has granted clemency to an additional 159 people after a review of 766 applications, most of them nonviolent offenders.

Gov. Ted Strickland on Friday issued 152 pardons to former inmates and commuted the sentences of seven people currently behind bars. He denied 607 other requests.

The Ohio Parole Board had recommended Strickland grant clemency in 137 cases.

None of the cases involved the death penalty, and Strickland's office said most are associated with minor or nonviolent offenses.

The pardons were granted to people who have completed their entire sentences, often years ago, or never went to prison.

Strickland, a former prison psychologist, leaves office Sunday.

Related article: "Ohio: Outgoing Governor Strickland grants mercy to 39 convicts; no DR inmate involved in clemency process", The Toledo Blade, November 23, 2010

Source: WLWT.com, January 7, 2011

Pakistan court: Christian convicted of blasphemy must wait for pardon

Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- A court in Pakistan on Monday blocked the government from pardoning a Christian woman sentenced to death for blasphemy until her case has been heard by an appeals court, a senior government law officer said.

Chauhdary Hanif Khatana, deputy advocate general of Punjab province, said the Lahore High Court has ruled that because Asia Bibi's death sentence is not final and subject to confirmation by a higher court, the president must wait to legally use his powers to pardon.

Bibi's defense lawyer, Khan Chauhdary, said that he has filed an appeal against the death sentence but that the appeal would take two or three years to be heard.

There have been calls for a presidential pardon, and last week Pakistan's minister for foreign affairs concluded a three-day investigation into the case, saying Bibi is innocent and should be released.

"This case was filed on the basis of religious and personal enmity," Minister Shahbaz Bhatti said.

A spokesman and spokeswoman for Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, however, said Wednesday that the president would pardon Bibi if necessary and only after the legal process has taken its course.

Zardari did ask Bhatti to propose names for a committee of scholars and experts who would recommend reforms "to effectively prevent the misuse of the blasphemy law for personal and political reasons."

Bibi was convicted of defiling the name of the Prophet Mohammed during an argument last year with Muslim fellow field workers.

Source: CNN.com, November 30, 2010

Don't pardon Christian woman, Pakistan Muslim leaders demand

Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- Two prominent Pakistani Muslim leaders threatened Wednesday to call for nationwide protests if the president pardons a Christian woman sentenced to death for insulting the Muslim prophet Mohammed.

"If the president pardons Asia Bibi, we will raise our voices across the country until he is forced to take his decision back," nationally known mufti Muneer Ur Rehman said.

Hafiz Ibtisam Elahi Zaheer, a leading cleric in Lahore, said pardoning the woman would be "criminal negligence" and would cause inter-religious tension.

Punjab Gov. Salman Taseer told CNN Tuesday that President Asif Ali Zardari would pardon Bibi if the High Court did not grant her request for mercy.

Source: CNN.com, November 24, 2010

Blasphemy case splits Pakistanis

PAKISTAN'S President faces mounting pressure to intervene in the case of a Christian woman sentenced to death for blasphemy.

The case has drawn the Vatican's attention and sparked street protests in this Muslim-majority nation.

In a report delivered to President Asif Ali Zardari, Minorities Minister Shahbaz Bhatti recommended that the woman, Asia Bibi, 45, be pardoned or released from prison if her pending appeal is not quickly addressed.

Mr Bhatti said he also recommended amendments to the nation's controversial blasphemy law.

The report followed calls for clemency by Pope Benedict XVI, rights groups, newspapers and the governor of the province where Bibi became the first woman condemned to hang for blasphemy.

But opponents have been equally loud, and the response of Mr Zardari's government will be viewed as a barometer of its will to stand up to hard-line religious groups, including some political allies.

Hundreds of Muslim demonstrators in Lahore threatened violence this week if Bibi is released.

Her ordeal began last year when Muslim women in her village near Lahore accused her of speaking ill of the prophet Muhammad. Human rights organisations have long urged a repeal of the blasphemy law, and Mr Zardari's Pakistan People's Party - whose government depends on a fragile coalition with conservative religious parties - has vowed, but done little, to prevent its abuse.

''All Pakistanis, no matter what their religion, are equal under the law,'' said Farahnaz Ispahani, a spokeswoman for Mr Zardari. ''President Zardari has followed the case of Asia Bibi closely and will take appropriate action, if necessary, to issue a pardon or grant clemency.''

Several people have been sentenced to death for blasphemy in Pakistan, but none have been executed. Instead, rights activists and lawyers say the law is widely used to ostracise religious minorities or settle personal scores.

Though police are supposed to investigate cases, lawyers say that accusers often do little more than gather an intimidating group to lodge a claim and police make an arrest to avert an uprising.

That is what happened in Bibi's case, according to Mr Bhatti, who is a Christian. He said Bibi drew the ire of fellow farmhands after a dispute in June 2009, when they refused to drink water she collected and she refused their demands that she convert to Islam.

The women complained to a cleric, who gathered a crowd that forced her to the police station, Mr Bhatti said. He said police did not investigate and a court, without hearing her full account, handed down a death sentence four months later.

Mr Bhatti said he had concluded that Bibi, a mother of five who has been in prison for 17 months, never criticised Islam and the case against her was riddled with flaws.

People accused of blasphemy are frequently so threatened that they must leave their towns, and several convicted blasphemers have been killed in jail, said Ali Dayan Hasan, a researcher for Human Rights Watch.

''The cases that go to trial are really the tip of the iceberg,'' Mr Hasan said. ''The law creates this legal infrastructure which is then used in various informal ways to intimidate, coerce, harass and persecute.''

Bibi's husband and children were in hiding, Mr Bhatti said.

''We are frightened,'' Bibi's husband, Ashiq Masih, a brickmaker, told reporters in Islamabad on Wednesday. ''We are receiving threats, especially from clerics.''

Sahibzada Fazal Karim, the leader of the Sunni Ittehad Council, a key Muslim body, said he agreed that the law should be amended - but not towards leniency. Instead, he said, it should make blasphemy against other religious figures, such as Jesus, also punishable by death.

''Death is the only punishment for a person who commits blasphemy,'' Mr Karim said. ''If such a man or woman is set free by the President, ignoring the decision by the judiciary, it will have a ruinous effect on peace and harmony in the country.''

Source: theage.com.au, November 27, 2010

No quick pardon for Pakistani Christian

Pakistan's president will not immediately pardon a Christian woman sentenced to die for insulting Islam, but may do so later if an appeals court delays her case too long, an official said on Thursday.

The case against Asia Bibi has inflamed religious passions in Pakistan. Hard-line Muslims demonstrated again on Thursday against any pardon for her, and minority Christians held their own protests calling for abolishment of the blasphemy law, which critics say is misused by some to settle personal scores and persecute minorities.

Pope Benedict XVI has appealed for the release of Bibi, a 45-year-old mother of five who has said she was wrongly accused by a group of Muslim women with a grudge against her. The Pope said her case highlights the persecution of Pakistani Christians, who make up less than 5 per cent of the country's 175 million people.

Bibi, 45, is the 1st woman condemned to die under the blasphemy law. She has been jailed for 18 months and was sentenced November 8 to hang for insulting Islam's Prophet Mohammed.

Her lawyer has filed an appeal with the Lahore High Court, and President Asif Ali Zardari has decided to let the appeal process play out instead of immediately pardoning her, said Minister for Minority Affairs Shahbaz Bhatti, who met with Zardari on Thursday.

Pardoning Bibi would carry political risk for Zardari, whose broadly secular ruling party relies on the support of Islamist groupings in parliament.

However, the president agreed to pardon Bibi later if the appeal case is unduly delayed, said Bhatti, who delivered a report to the president on Thursday recommending Bibi be immediately freed. Zardari's spokesman could not be reached on Thursday.

Bhatti said Zardari did not specify any deadline but he believes the president "will not wait months or weeks."

About 100 Muslim demonstrators rallied on Thursday in the central city of Multan, warning against any presidential pardon for Bibi and burning an effigy of the Punjab provincial governor who has supported her appeal.

"We will resist if the government moves against the court verdict and attempts to amend the blasphemy law," warned Tariq Naeemullah, a leader of Citizen Front of Multan.

Dozens of Christians held their own protest in the southern city of Karachi, carrying a large crucifix and placards reading Down with Black Law and Stop Discrimination Against Religious Minorities.

Pakistan's higher courts have always struck down lower courts' death penalties in past blasphemy cases. Still, Bhatti said many who are falsely accused are unjustly jailed for months and often targeted by violence. 2 Christian brothers in Punjab were gunned down earlier this year as they were leaving a court hearing on a blasphemy charge.

The minorities minister acknowledges that repealing the blasphemy law is politically unfeasible but has proposed changes to it including making it a crime to falsely accuse someone, abolishing the death penalty for the crime and requiring initial cases to be heard by higher courts instead of local ones.

Source: Associated Press, November 27, 2010

Ohio: Outgoing Governor Strickland grants mercy to 39 convicts; no DR inmate involved in clemency process

Outgoing Gov. Ted Strickland

Outgoing Gov. Ted Strickland has granted clemency to 39 people after a review of 176 cases pending from 2008.

Strickland, a Democrat, issued 33 pardons Tuesday to former inmates and commuted the sentences of 6 convicts. Those still behind bars will become eligible for parole or release. The governor denied clemency in 137 of the 2008 cases.

None of the cases involved the death penalty, and Strickland's office said most are associated with minor or nonviolent offenses.

"Executive clemency power is an important part of our justice system it provides a 2nd chance to those who have earned one and ensures that unusually long sentences are in line with similar cases," Strickland said in a statement. "This process also provides an opportunity to show mercy and forgiveness to those who have recognized what is expected of them in our society and who remain committed to being productive and responsible citizens."

Those granted mercy were convicted of sentences including theft, burglary, passing bad checks, drug trafficking and marijuana possession.

Among case decisions released Tuesday, Strickland sided with the Ohio Parole Board 163 times and parted ways 13 times. Of the 13 cases where he disagreed, 2 were cases where the board had recommended clemency and 11 were cases where the board recommended denying clemency.

Strickland, a former prison psychologist who supports the death penalty, most recently granted clemency in a death penalty case last week, when he spared the life of murderer Sidney Cornwell in part because of the handling of evidence during his trial related to an undiagnosed medical condition that led to developmental and physical issues. Cornwell was the 3rd death row inmate spared execution this year.

In November 2009, Strickland granted clemency to another 78 people in non-death-penalty cases. Those decisions followed a review of 3 years of earlier requests for mercy or pardon that had accumulated.

Source: The Toledo Blade, November 23, 2010