Tidligere Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal, dømt til døden for et drap på en politimann i 1981, har for europeere blitt "et symbol på kampen for å avskaffe dødsstraffen", sa en fransk politimann onsdag.
Aline Pailler, en fransk kommunist som sitter i Europarådet, kalte Jamal en "politisk fange", overkjørt av et korrupt, statlig rettssystem. Hun uttalte seg til reportere via en translatør etter et to-timers besøk med Jamal i State Correctional Institute i Greene County.
"Jeg kjemper sammen med mange europeere for hans frihet, eller i det minste for en ny rettsak som ville være rettferdig", sa Pailler.
Pailler er det første medlemmet av europarådet som besøker Jamal og forlanger at dødsstraffen blir avskaffet over hele verden, hvilket Frankrike selv gjorde i 1981.
Da Jamal, som tidligere var radio journalist og medlem i Black Panthers, ble dømt i 1982 for drapet på Daniel Faulkner var det motstridende bevis hvorvidt den dødlige kula passet Jamal's våpen og vitner som i åpningsfasen vitnet mot ham, har kommet med beskyldninger for å fysisk å ha tvunget dem til å implisere Jamal. Jamal, som har publisert en bok etter at han kom til death row, har hele tiden vedholdt sin uskyld.
Streiken, der omtrent 10.000 havnearbeidere i havner fra San Diego til Bellingham deltar lørdag, ble offentliggjort på en nyhetskonferanse onsdag.
(Kilde: Rick Halperin Amnesty - Texas)
Håper at mange stiller opp på demonstrasjonen lørdag i Oslo sentrum!
Vennlig hilsen
Turid Sandberg Jacobsen
CALIFORNIA:
Charles Ng is "a despicable person," a serial killer who victimized
even his own parents through his actions and deserves the death penalty,
a prosecutor told jurors today in his final argument of the trial's
penalty phase.
Calaveras County District Attorney Peter Smith showed the jury excerpts
from videotapes of 2 women being taunted by Ng and his partner, Leonard
Lake, as well as a video of a naked Ng being massaged by one of his 11
victims.
In one of the tapes, murder victim Brenda O'Connor pleads for the life
of her 16-month-old son, crying out plaintively, "That's my baby!"
Members of the jury dabbed at their eyes repeatedly as Smith spoke. He
urged them not to be swayed by the defense claim that Ng's father,
Kenneth, created a monster when he began to beat his son ferociously
during his childhood in Hong Kong.
"I'm not standing here and professing these beatings were OK," said
Smith. "They were harsh."
But he said that Kenneth Ng came from a tough background and thought
that was the way to prod his son toward a better life.
"Yes, maybe it was too harsh, but all he wanted was an education for his
son," Smith said.
He claimed that Charles Ng lived a privileged life in which he was loved
by his parents and his aunts and was sent to good schools.
Smith showed jurors photographs of all 11 murder victims including family
portraits with children who were slain. He then turned toward Ng and
said, "He has earned the death penalty, ladies and gentlemen, and the
people of the state of California ask that you give it to him."
The defense will present its final argument on Monday, when the jury is
expected to begin deliberating. The case is being heard in Orange County
rather than Calaveras County because of extensive news coverage in
Northern California.
The defense closed the testimony portion of its case with tears from
the serial killer's mother and a plea to jurors to spare Ng's life.
Oiping Ng told jurors Wednesday she carries a burden of guilt for failing
to stop the ferocious beatings her husband inflicted on Charles when he
was a child.
"When my husband was hitting Charles so fierce I didn't know what to
do," said Mrs. Ng. "Maybe we did not know how to teach Charles
properly."
Defense lawyers have suggested the beatings warped Ng's personality and
made him vulnerable to authority figures such as Lake, the man who
masterminded a killing spree with Ng as his lieutenant.
She said she still cannot believe the crimes her son committed.
Ng was convicted in February of murdering 6 men, 3 women and 2 baby boys
during a spree of bondage and sadism carried out in Northern California
during 1984-85.
Co-conspirator Lake committed suicide in custody after his arrest in 1985
and Ng fled to Canada. The Hong Kong emigre finally went on trial late
last year.
Ng's mother was the final witness before the defense rested in the
penalty phase of his trial. The jury will have the choice of recommending
the death penalty or life in prison without possibility of parole.
Asked by a defense attorney how she would feel if her son was put to
death, Mrs. Ng could barely speak.
"I'll be very sad, of course," she sobbed, speaking through a Cantonese
interpreter.
Mrs. Ng said she and her husband have lived in anguish since her son was
arrested. In their home city of Hong Kong, she said, news reports
describe her son as a "devil."
"Of course I love him very much," she testified. "Ever since he was in
jail I never had a good day. I think of him all the time."
As she spoke, Ng, 38, sat at the counsel table looking straight ahead.
His lawyer said later that he cried softly.
Some jurors also blinked back tears.
Mrs. Ng reiterated stories already told by other family witnesses about
Ng's sensitivity as a child, his fondness for a pet chicken, his artistic
nature and his silences.
Now, she said, she and her husband come once a year from Hong Kong to
visit their son in prison. Often, she said, he doesn't speak out of shame.
"He doesn't want me to see him this way," she said. "He doesn't want
us to visit."
She said Ng's sister in Canada felt too embarrassed to come and testify
and another sister who was closest to him is expecting a baby soon and
could not come.
That sister, Betty, filed a declaration that was read to jurors. She
cited her brother's fondness for his family and his penchant for sending
them gifts and his artwork.
(source: San Jose Mercury News)
KENTUCKY:
A Kenton County judge on Wednesday summarily overruled every attempt by
defense attorneys to delay a murder trial scheduled to begin next week.
Meanwhile, the public defenders have gone to the state Supreme Court,
asking it to stop the trial until it rules whether a jury will have the
option to sentence their client to life in prison without parole if he
is convicted of murder.
The attorneys - Mary Rafizadeh, Bill Spicer and Michael Folk - say they
cannot be ready for the trial because of the complexity of the case.
Kenton Circuit Judge Steve Jaeger has said the attorneys had plenty of
time to prepare.
The attorneys represent Fred Furnish, 31, who is charged with murder in
the strangulation death of Ramona Jean Williamson, found dead in her
Crestview Hills home on June 25. Furnish also is charged with burglary,
theft, fraudulent use of a credit card and being a persistent felon.
He faces the death penalty if convicted, but his attorneys want the
jury to be allowed to consider a sentence of life without parole.
Because Mrs. Williamson was killed before new sentencing guidelines
took effect July 1, 1998, Furnish will be tried under old guidelines.
Those guidelines have a maximum sentence - short of death - of life
without parole for 25 years.
The new guidelines include a sentence of life without any chance of
parole, and Furnish's attorneys believe that if a jury convicts him, they
may be less likely to choose execution if they can be sure Furnish will
never leave prison.
Jaeger ruled the new guidelines will not apply.
But, Furnish's attorneys argue, 2 other circuit judges in the state
have reached the opposite conclusion in similar cases, and the Supreme
Court has agreed to decide the issue.
Furnish's attorneys want their case delayed until such a ruling is made.
The state's highest court "has the constitutional authority to address a
conflict where one circuit court judge allows a capital defendant to opt
into the new sentencing provisions, while another does not," the
attorneys said in their plea to the justices.
"To proceed to trial without a settlement of the question invites the
potential of reversible error" they said.
"And, the waste associated with a new trial many years down the road."
On Wednesday, Jaeger overruled without comment the attorneys' request to
hold a hearing on whether they are providing Furnish with an effective
defense.
They also wanted Jaeger to appoint Furnish another attorney for that
hearing, and to step aside to allow another judge to decide the issue.
The attorneys say Jaeger made comments in a court document that
questioned their work.
(source: Kentucky Post)
Rick Halperin
AI-Texas