Missouri Governor Commutes Richard Clay's Death Sentence

Missouri's governor decided to spare a convicted murderer's life Monday, a little more than a day before the man was scheduled to die by injection for a 1994 killing.

Gov. Jay Nixon said in a statement that he was commuting the sentence for Richard Clay, 45, to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Clay was convicted of killing Randy Martindale of New Madrid in 1994 but has maintained his innocence. Nixon's statement did not explain why the governor decided to commute the sentence, and in fact said that after an exhaustive review, the governor is "convinced of Richard Clay's involvement in the senseless murder of Randy Martindale" and finds "the evidence clearly supports the jury's verdict of murder in the first degree."

Nixon spokesman Scott Holste said the written statement "will be the extent of comment from the governor or his office."

It wasn't clear if Nixon's decision had anything to do with allegations last week by the American Civil Liberties Union that Missouri cut corners on execution rehearsals because of a national shortage of sodium thiopental, one of three drugs used in most executions. The ACLU said Missouri didn't use sodium thiopental in an October rehearsal aimed at determining if staffers understood how to properly administer the drugs - possibly to stretch a dwindling supply. Corrections officials said the state was adequately prepared for the execution.

Clay's attorney, Jennifer Herndon, said she and Clay were elated by Nixon's decision, but will continue to seek a new trial.

"I've always believed he is innocent and will continue to fight," Herndon said. "This is only the first step."

In a Monday interview before Nixon announced his decision, Clay told The Associated Press he was not optimistic the governor would halt the execution because Nixon was attorney general at the time of his trial and one of Nixon's assistants, Kenny Hulshof, aided in the prosecution.

"Mr. Nixon said there were no mistakes at that time, that Mr. Hulshof did a fine job and I had a fair trial," Clay said.

A spokeswoman for Hulshof, now a private attorney, said he was out of the state and not available for comment Monday.

Riley Bock, the New Madrid County prosecutor who handled the case along with Hulshof, said he had no problem with Nixon's decision and he continues to be convinced of Clay's guilt.

"Commutation is always on the table," Bock said. "The governor, that's his job to do whatever he thinks is right. End of case."

During Nixon's 16 years as attorney general, his office defended Missouri's death penalty in numerous appeals to the state Supreme Court. It also provided assistant attorney generals to aid local prosecutors pursuing the death sentence in murders.

After Nixon won election as governor in November 2008, a coalition of death penalty critics called for a moratorium on executions so Missouri's death penalty system could be studied. A Nixon spokesman said at the time that Nixon backed the use of the death penalty and that families of victims deserved closure and justice without lengthy delays in death sentences.

Commutation requests are common but rarely granted. The previous one in Missouri drew worldwide attention.

In 1999, then-Gov. Mel Carnahan heeded the request of Pope John Paul II during the pontiff's visit to St. Louis and spared the life of Darrell Mease hours before the scheduled execution. Carnahan, a Baptist, cited "the extraordinary circumstances of the pope's request."

In the interview with AP, Clay admitted he was no Boy Scout - but said he was no killer, either.

At the time of the killing, Clay already was facing a methamphetamine-related charge. He said he decided to start selling drugs again to pay off his attorneys in that case.

On May 19, 1994, Clay and his friend, Chuck Sanders, went to the home of Stacy Martindale to sell her drugs. The three were friends and Sanders was dating Martindale, who was estranged from her husband, Randy.

Clay said Randy Martindale showed up unexpectedly at the house, saw the men there, and told them to leave or he would call police. Stacy Martindale gave them the keys to her Camaro, and the men drove off, with Sanders behind the wheel.

Sanders didn't realize the car had struck a toy in the driveway. The toy became lodged under the car and caused sparks. A New Madrid police officer saw the sparks and pulled over the Camaro.

Clay said he panicked because he had meth and marijuana with him in the car, so jumped out and ran to a flooded field where he hid through the night. He still was hiding in the swampy area the next morning when he was surrounded by police. He said it seemed like a lot of manpower for a low-level drug suspect.

When he arrived at the sheriff's office, a detective asked, "Where's the gun?" Clay said he didn't understand.

"He said, 'Mr. Clay, we've got a serious problem here. You're being charged with first-degree murder.'"

Randy Martindale had been gunned down in the bedroom of his home. Authorities alleged Stacy Martindale wanted her husband dead and unsuccessfully tried to convince Sanders to do it. Authorities said she then turned to Clay.

Clay said he doesn't know who killed Randy Martindale. Stacy Martindale was convicted of second-degree murder for her role and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Source: KansasCity.com, January 10, 2011

Artists, politicians write letter to free Iran's Ashtiani

LONDON (Reuters) - More than 80 artists, academics and politicians including actor Robert Redford, British singer Sting and France's Bernard Kouchner on Monday called for the release of an Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning.

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani has been accused of adultery and of being complicit in her husband's murder but her sentence to be stoned to death was suspended after an international outcry.

"Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani has suffered enough," the signatories said in an open letter to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on the front page of The Times newspaper.

"We, the undersigned, call on the government of Iran to release immediately Ms Ashtiani, her son Sajad Ghaderzade, and her lawyer, Javid Houtan Kian, from incarceration," they said.

The European Union's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, the leader of Britain's Labour party Ed Miliband, American actor Robert De Niro, Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe and Nobel literature laureate Wole Soyinka are among the signatories.

Ashtiani's sentence to be stoned for adultery -- the only crime which carries that penalty under Iran's Islamic sharia law -- was suspended earlier this year, but she still faces possible execution by hanging for complicity in the murder of her husband.

The European Union has called the sentence "barbaric," the Vatican pleaded for clemency and Brazil, which has tried to intervene in Iran's standoff with the West over its nuclear programme, offered Ashtiani asylum.

While Iranian officials say Ashtiani's case is purely a matter for the judiciary, it has become an international political cause and the head of Iran's Council of Human Rights said last month there was "a good chance that her life could be saved."

Source: Reuters, Iran Focus, December 13, 2010

UN asks Iraq to abolish death penalty

The top U.N. envoy in Iraq is calling on the country's government to abolish the death penalty amid demands by Iraq's interior minister for the swift execution of terror suspects.

United Nations Special Representative Ad Melkert made his appeal Friday on the 62nd anniversary of a U.N. treaty calling for worldwide human rights.

Last week, Iraqi Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani demanded death sentences for 39 suspected insurgents before they have been tried or convicted of involvement in bomb plots in Baghdad.

Melkert's appeal comes after several European governments and the Vatican have requested amnesty for Tariq Aziz, the only Christian in Saddam Hussein's inner circle who was sentenced to death in October for persecuting Shiite political parties.

Source: Associated Press, December 10, 2010

Saddam Hussein’s only Christian cabinet member seeks presidential pardon

Lawyers for the only Iraqi Christian in the late Saddam Hussein’s inner circle requested recently for a presidential pardon for their client from death by hanging.

Attorneys for Tariq Aziz, the former vice prime minister of Saddam Hussein, opted for a presidential pardon rather than appeal the death sentence Aziz was given for the complicity in the persecution of Shiite Muslims under Saddam, the AP said.

Aziz’ sentence sparked international requests for leniency and/or amnesty from the Vatican, Greece, Moscow and anti-death penalty European countries, the UPI said. It is largely believed that under Saddam, Christians in Iraq were protected because of Aziz.

Giovanni Di Stefano, lawyer of Aziz, said his client was hardly involved in the despot’s ethnic cleansing of the Shiites, and noted that there were no witnesses in the trial who could prove otherwise, according to the AP.

Di Stefano also cited several constitutional issues that absolve Aziz and said, “It is thus necessary that in all democratic societies where the judiciary potentially or even remotely fails the constitution, the president is duty bound to intervene. The powers of pardon are granted to ensure that injustice does not occur,” according to UPI.

Unjust, vengeful

Archbishop Louis Sako of Kirkuk said that Aziz “could not oppose the government of Saddam Hussein, since those who dared to express a different opinion were killed,” the Catholic News Agency reported.

Sako said the death sentence is “unjust” and “an act of vengeance that will not help bring about peace,” according to the Catholic News Agency.

Risky

According to the AP, the move for presidential pardon is risky. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, after five years in office, has granted minimal to no pardons, and even if he does, there are constitutional means to bypass it.

The AP said this could be done through an act of parliament, or with the approval of a deputy of Talabani. Furthermore, the constitution only permits presidential pardon “on the recommendation of the prime minister,” who is Nouri al-Maliki of the Shiite Dawa party, one of Saddam’s victims.

If a pardon is not granted, Aziz could be hanged at any time. However, the appeals court has no time limit for deciding whether to uphold or reverse a sentence, the AP said.

An unnamed Justice Ministry official told the AP that appeals tend to focus on specific objections unlike the government, making it a better option for Aziz. However, because the 30-day period to file an appeal has lapsed, it is all moot.

Unfazed

Di Stefano is not fazed by constitutional limits and said an appeal would only waste time because he doubted the court would reverse the sentence adding, “If the trial was unfair, then imagine the appeal.”

Instead, Di Stefano said with the many international appeals, a presidential pardon provides “the diplomatic solution people have been waiting for.” He said Aziz does not seek special treatment for being a Christian, but “He seeks the pardon as a step toward reconciliation of Iraq. Enough people have been killed, enough people have been executed,” the AP reported.

Archbishop Sako said that death penalty sentences show a government is weak. He said Iraq should ban the death penalty “so that the country can truly develop towards democracy and reconciliation,” Catholic News Agency reported.

Last week Talabani, when speaking to reporters from Paris, said that he wouldn’t sign the execution warrant of Aziz, according to the UPI.

Source: The Underground, November 26, 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