|
|
|
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
|
Kenneth Foster Will Not Be Executed
| |
 |
|
Sometimes, we win. Never forget that.
From The Guardian:
Texas governor spares man from execution
A man in the US was today saved from the death penalty just hours before his scheduled execution.
The
Texas governor, Rick Perry, accepted a parole board recommendation and
commuted the sentence of Kenneth Foster, who had been due to die via
lethal injection this evening.
Foster, 30, was the getaway driver
in a 1996 murder but his sentence had been criticised as he had nothing
to do with the shots being fired.
He was convicted of murder and sentenced to death under the Texas law
of parties, which makes non-shooters equally accountable for a crime.
Another condemned man was executed under the same statute earlier this year.
"I
believe the right and just decision is to commute Foster's sentence
from the death penalty to life imprisonment," Mr Perry said in a
statement.
August 30, 2007 | Permalink
| Comments (0)
| TrackBack
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Alberto Gonzales, War Crimes, and The Need for Inquiry
| |
|
|
Godwin violation (and the author's unfortunate sharing of the subject's name) aside, this is a good piece, and the author makes the point better than I could: Gonzales and other Bush Admin. officials involved in violations of international humanitarian and human rights law must be held accountable. Gonzales’ Resignation Should Not Impede Inquiry Into War Crimes
by Roberto J. González
In the aftermath of Alberto Gonzales’ resignation and the U.S. attorney firings scandal, many have forgotten about the role he played in creating policies profoundly more troubling from a global perspective - policies that violate international law. They warrant not only Gonzales’ resignation, but an independent investigation into his involvement in war crimes.
These policies are best exemplified by the “torture memos” Gonzales prepared from 2001 to 2003 while serving as President Bush’s legal counsel. The documents, written by him and other administration lawyers, led to grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions and the U.N. Convention against Torture at Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib and overseas secret prisons.
The most infamous memo was a Jan. 25, 2002, letter from Gonzales to Bush, which argued that “the war against terrorism is a new kind of war … this new paradigm renders obsolete Geneva’s strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners and renders quaint some of its provisions” regarding treatment of suspected al Qaeda and Taliban members. Days later, Bush made it official policy.
During 2002, Gonzales chaired meetings with CIA and Pentagon advisers regarding the limits of interrogation and torture. The meetings included discussion of the relative merits of handcuffing, sleep deprivation, exposure to near-freezing temperatures and “water boarding” (simulated drowning). The advisers eventually relayed new policies down the chain of command, paving the way for ghastly abuses at Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib and the CIA’s secret prisons.
As early as January 2005, a dozen retired generals and admirals publicly opposed Gonzales’ nomination for the post of U.S. attorney general, declaring that “U.S. detention and interrogation operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Guantanamo Bay, and elsewhere … have fostered greater animosity toward the United States, undermined our intelligence-gathering efforts, and added to the risks facing our troops serving around the world.”
Jordan Paust, a former member of the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General Corps, recently wrote that “not since the Nazi era have so many lawyers been so clearly involved in international crimes concerning the treatment and interrogation of persons detained during war.”
You can read the rest here.
As legitimate as the author's argument is, and as much as I share his sentiments and then some, I have to say I agree with the commenter who wrote: What “inquiry into war crimes?”
We damn well know the Democrats in Congress won’t go there. And that our legal system won’t go there. And that we’ll use our money and muscle to stop any international inquiry.
So, what inquiry into war crimes are we talking about here? The imaginary one in your head that you think should take place?
Don’t get me wrong. I think there should be a BIG inquiry into war crimes. But lets not fool ourselves into pretending that its going to happen.
The system has broken down.
August 30, 2007 | Permalink
| Comments (0)
| TrackBack
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
More From Texas: The Death State
| |
|
|
Tomorrow, Texas will carry out another execution, this time of a man who did not personally commit the crime he is being executed for. If that doesn't make sense, good, it's senseless.
Amnesty USA has more on this terrible, still-unfolding story:
Please read it all, and call the office of Texas Governor Rick Perry and tell him to stop the execution and move his state into the civilised world. Foster was sentenced to death in 1997 for the murder of Michael LaHood under Texas' controversial "law of parties." This law abolishes the distinction between principal actor and accomplice in a crime and allows both to be held equally culpable.
"This is a new low for Texas," said Larry Cox, executive director of AIUSA. "Texas has the most far-reaching 'law of parties' in this country, further marking it as the death penalty capital of the United States. In essence, Kenneth Foster has been sentenced to death for leaving his crystal ball at home. There is no concrete evidence demonstrating that he could know a murder would be committed. Allowing his life to be taken is a shocking perversion of the law."
In the early hours of August 15th, 1996, Mauriceo Brown, DeWayne Dillard, Julius Steen and Kenneth Foster stopped outside the house of Michael LaHood. Brown got out of the car, robbed LaHood, and then shot him. To convict Kenneth Foster of capital murder under the law of parties, the prosecution had to prove that there was a conspiracy between him and Brown to rob LaHood, and that Foster should have anticipated that murder might have occurred during the robbery. At the trial Brown testified that there had been no discussion of robbing LaHood before he got out of the car.
Dillard testified at a state appeal that after the shot was heard, Foster had appeared surprised and panicked. Steen signed an affidavit in 2003 stating that, "There was no agreement that I am aware of for Brown to commit a robbery at the LaHood residence. I do not believe that Foster and Brown ever agreed to commit a robbery. I don't think that Foster thought that Brown was going to commit a robbery."
Brown was executed on July 19, 2006. Neither Steen nor Dillard, the two other accomplices, was prosecuted for LaHood's murder. Yet, as the evidence stands today, their and Foster's culpability in the crime appears to be the same.
Perry's office contact info:
Telephone
- Citizen's Assistance Hotline: (800) 843-5789
[for Texas callers]
- Citizen's Opinion Hotline: (800) 252-9600
[for Texas callers]
- Citizen's Assistance and Opinion Hotline: (512) 463-1782
[for Austin, Texas and out-of-state callers]
- Office of the Governor Main Switchboard: (512) 463-2000
[office hours are 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. CST]
- Citizen's Assistance Telecommunications Device
If you are using a telecommunication device for the deaf (TDD), call 711 to reach Relay Texas
Fax
Office of the Governor Fax: (512) 463-1849
Mailing Address
Office of the Governor
P.O. Box 12428
Austin, Texas 78711-2428
August 29, 2007 | Permalink
| Comments (0)
| TrackBack
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Texas Responds to the EU, Rudely
| |
|
|
The Belarus of North America (that's my nickname for the Lonestar state, so sue me) got a letter from the EU (and its many groupies) in advance of its 400th execution since re-imposing the death penalty. Please note the diplomatic, human-rightsy tone: "The European Union notes with great regret the upcoming execution in the State of Texas which would be the 400th since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976. Therefore, the European Union strongly urges Governor Rick Perry to exercise all powers vested in his office to halt all upcoming executions and to consider the introduction of a moratorium in the State of Texas.
The European Union is unreservedly opposed to the use of capital punishment under all circumstances and has consistently called for the universal abolition of this punishment. We believe that elimination of the death penalty is fundamental to the protection of human dignity, and to the progressive development of human rights. We further consider this punishment to be cruel and inhumane. There is no evidence to suggest that the use of the death penalty serves as a deterrent against violent crime and the irreversibility of the punishment means that miscarriages of justice - which are inevitable in all legal systems – cannot be redressed. Consequently, the death penalty has been abolished throughout the European Union.
In countries that maintain the use of capital punishment, the European Union seeks the progressive restriction of both its scope and the number of offences for which capital punishment may be employed, as defined in several human rights instruments.
In this regard, the European Union welcomes the United States Supreme Court rulings of June 2002 and March 2005 declaring the execution of persons with mental retardation and the execution of juveniles respectively, to be unconstitutional. The European Union urges the US authorities to extend these restrictions, in particular, to the execution of persons with severe mental illness. The European Union welcomes the US commitment to the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (VCCR). However, the European Union regrets the US decision to withdraw from the Optional Protocol of the VCCR, which gives the ICJ jurisdiction over disputes arising from the convention.
The EU appreciates and values its co-operation with the US on a wide range of human rights concerns around the world. The European Union therefore takes this opportunity to renew its call for a moratorium to be placed on the application of the death penalty, by both the US federal and state authorities, in anticipation of its legal abolition.
The Candidate Countries Turkey, Croatia* and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia*, the Countries of the Stabilisation and Association Process and potential candidates Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, and the EFTA countries Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, members of the European Economic Area, as well as Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova, Armenia and Azerbaijan align themselves with this declaration."
In sigh-worthy fashion, Texas Governor Rick Perry sent the following letter or reply (note the brevity, and sarcastic, dismissive tone): "230 years ago, our forefathers fought a war to throw off the yoke of a European monarch and gain the freedom of self-determination. Texans long ago decided that the death penalty is a just and appropriate punishment for the most horrible crimes committed against our citizens. While we respect our friends in Europe, welcome their investment in our state and appreciate their interest in our laws, Texans are doing just fine governing Texas."
In other words, we like your money, for it makes us richer!, but we'll put to death as many severely mentally ill and questionably guilty human beings as satisfies our illiberal desire for government-sponsored rituals of revenge, thank you very much.
So, Texas carried out the execution. The total number of people executed in the United States since the death penalty was re-instated in 1976 exceeds one thousand. More than a third of those were in Texas.
August 29, 2007 | Permalink
| Comments (0)
| TrackBack
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Water Rights in Colombia
| |
|
|
I ran across this article today and thought you all might enjoy it! It's from the Inter Press Service News Agency.
----
COLOMBIA: Campaign Seeks to Make Water a Constitutional Right
By Helda Martínez
BOGOTA,
Aug 24 (IPS) - Sixty environmental, indigenous, labour and social
organisations in Colombia are carrying out a campaign for a
constitutional amendment that would make access to clean water a
fundamental right.
The proponents of the initiative have
already fulfilled the first legal requirement by collecting some
135,000 signatures, equivalent to five out of every 1,000 registered
voters.
But they now face a bigger challenge.
Once the signatures are certified as valid by the Registraduría
Nacional del Estado Civil (national registry), the organisations will
have to gain the support of 1.5 million Colombians in order for
Congress to call a referendum in which voters would decide in favour of
or against the proposed constitutional amendment.
The initiative included an awareness-raising caravan along the
Magdalena river, which ended Friday when it reached the port of
Girardot, 133 km southwest of the capital.
In this country of 42 million, nearly 12 million people have
no access to clean water and four million have limited access, i.e. to
a public faucet, according to the Defensoría del Pueblo (ombudsman’s
office).
Ironically, Colombia is the second country in Latin America in
terms of average annual renewable freshwater resources, and seventh in
the world, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture
Organisation (FAO).
But despite the abundance, the governmental Institute of
Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies (IDEAM) predicts that
69 percent of the Colombian population will suffer from a lack of clean
water in 2025.
The non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and trade unions
promoting the constitutional amendment point to the privatisation of
water utilities, which was authorised by law in 1993, as one of the
causes of the problem.
"Of the country’s 349 water companies, 141 are private and 24
are mixed," reports the CENSAT Agua Viva/Friends of the Earth Colombia.
One of the NGO’s researchers, Danilo Urrea, told IPS that
"privatisation has significantly driven up the cost of water services,
and the granting of concessions to private operators has also given
rise to scandals and corruption."
In addition, there has been an attempt to charge a toll for
navigating the Magdalena river along the stretch where it flows into
the Barranquilla port on the Caribbean coast.
The Magdalena river emerges in southwestern Colombia and runs
through 18 of the country’s 22 departments (provinces) for over 1,500
kilometres before reaching the Caribbean.
In the 1970s, 70,000 tons of fish were caught in the river
annually, an amount that shrunk to 40,000 in the 1980s, 20,000 in the
1990s and just 8,000 today.
That problem is also on the agenda of the groups carrying out
the campaign. "You can't just put an end to public utilities arguing
that the state is corrupt. What must be achieved is management of water
for the benefit of the population as a whole," said Urrea.
The petition drive to collect signatures in favour of the
constitutional amendment was launched on May 1, International Workers’
Day, in several cities around Colombia.
Various actions were carried out in the following two months,
mainly organised by young people. This month, during the first forum
for water and life in the Caribbean, held in the city of Barranquilla,
the caravan set out on the Magdalena river, reaching Girardot on
Friday.
One of the country’s most heavily polluted rivers, the Bogotá
river, flows into the Magdalena at the port of Girardot. The Bogotá is
a dumping ground for chemical residues from the cut-flower industry and
tanneries.
This first stage of the campaign is coming to a close with "a
positive evaluation," said Urrea. "Even if we are not successful in our
attempt to hold a referendum, we have carried out awareness-raising
efforts in cities and towns along the river, which was part of our
overall objective. And of course we will continue working."
Minister of the environment, development and housing Juan
Lozano recently stated in a televised debate that he will put a
priority on recuperating the country’s water resources, and that
maintaining a public water service and preserving the environment were
aims that he shared.
If a referendum is held and voters come out in favour of a constitutional amendment, Colombia will be following Uruguay's lead.
In late 2004, that small South American country became the
first nation in the world to introduce a constitutional amendment
declaring water resources a public good and prohibiting the
privatisation of water and sewage services. (END/2007)
August 27, 2007 | Permalink
| Comments (0)
| TrackBack
|
|
|
|
|
