Death Sentences and Executions 2013 - Americas
| Publisher | Amnesty International |
| Publication Date | 27 March 2014 |
| Cite as | Amnesty International, Death Sentences and Executions 2013 - Americas, 27 March 2014, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/53bd2e28b.html [accessed 25 May 2023] |
| Disclaimer | This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. |
The USA was the only country in the Americas to carry out executions in 2013, as in every year but one of the past decade.[8] A slight decrease in the use of the death penalty was recorded in the region last year, with another US state, Maryland, abolishing the death penalty in May, and three more countries in the Greater Caribbean, Grenada, Guatemala and Saint Lucia, reporting empty death rows for the first time since Amnesty International began keeping records.
The Caribbean remained execution-free. Continuing high murder rates in some countries, such as the Bahamas and Trinidad and Tobago, were met with calls on the authorities to strengthen the capacity of the police to detect and prevent murders, and of the judiciary to secure convictions.
The number of executions in the USA fell again, with an approximate 10% drop from the 43 executions of 2012. Last year 39 executions were carried out in nine states, 82% of which were in the Southern states. Texas alone accounted for 41% of all executions, an increase from 34% in 2012.
While the number of executing states remained the same as the previous year, four resumed executions in 2013 after not carrying out any in 2012 (Alabama, Georgia, Missouri and Virginia), while four states which had carried out executions in 2012 did not do so in 2013 (Mississippi, South Dakota, Delaware, Idaho). In October 2013 the US-based Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) reported how a small number of local jurisdictions are responsible for the majority of death sentences. For instance, the more than 1,300 prisoners executed since 1976 were sentenced to death in just 15% of the counties in the USA.[9]
DPIC reported 80 death sentences imposed in the USA in 2013, a slight increase from the 77 recorded in the previous year. The use of capital punishment remains significantly lower than a decade earlier – there were 138 death sentences in 2004 – and dramatically down from the 1990s, when the annual number of death sentences averaged nearly 300.
| THE DEATH PENALTY IN THE USA IN 2013[10]
39 executions: Alabama (1), Arizona (2), Florida (7), Georgia (1), Ohio (3), Oklahoma (6), Missouri (2), Texas (16), Virginia (1) 80 death sentences: Alabama (5), Arizona (3), California (24), Florida (15), Georgia (1), Indiana (3), Missouri (3), Mississippi (2), North Carolina (1), Nevada (2), Ohio (4), Oklahoma (1), Pennsylvania (4), Texas (9), Washington (1), federal (1), military (1) 3,108 people on death row, including 731 prisoners in California, 412 in Florida, 298 in Texas, 198 in Pennsylvania and 197 in Alabama No commutations from the executive; one exoneration; three posthumous exonerations |
At least 15 new death sentences were imposed elsewhere in the Americas: two in the Bahamas, two in Barbados, at least six in Guyana and at least five in Trinidad and Tobago. This does not represent a significant increase from 2012, when at least 12 new death sentences were recorded. There were no executions carried out or death sentences imposed in Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Cuba, Dominica, Grenada, Guatemala, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Suriname. As of 31 December, no one was known to be on death row in Cuba, Dominica, Grenada, Guatemala, Saint Lucia and Suriname.
No new death sentences were recorded in Antigua and Barbuda. On 14 November, the Offences Against the Person (Amendment) Act, 2013 came into effect, removing the mandatory imposition of the death penalty for murder and bringing the law in line with regional and international standards.[11] The new law moves the power to set out the time, the place and method by which the execution of a death sentence should be carried out from the Governor-General to the Court, and introduces the possibility for the family of the executed prisoner to claim the remains for burial. Seven men who had been under sentence of death for more than five years, the timeline set by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council[12] after which death sentences should be commuted, reportedly remained on death row.[13]
Two new death sentences were imposed in the Bahamas in two separate murder cases in October. The death penalty was also sought as punishment in a third case, but the sentencing was postponed as the defendant's psychiatric evaluation report had still to be submitted to the court when the hearing was held. Three men were known to be under sentence of death during the year.
The Bahamas was reviewed under the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) at the UN Human Rights Council on 23 January. The government rejected recommendations to introduce an official moratorium on executions; abolish the death penalty; and ratify the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The Bahamas delegation emphasized that national legislation recognized the lawfulness of the death penalty when imposed on a discretionary basis for the crimes of murder and treason; and that there was no international consensus on the abolition of capital punishment.
On 8 July the Constitutional Commission presented its report[14] to the Prime Minister of the Bahamas on proposed reforms to the Constitution, following consultations carried out in the country. In relation to the death penalty, the Constitutional Commission noted that there was a widespread call for renouncing the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council as the final appellate court of the Bahamas, but recommended to continue sending appeals to this body for the time being. However, the Constitutional Commission recommended that an amendment to the Constitution be made to enable the implementation of the death penalty in appropriate cases, by precluding constitutional challenges based on criteria developed in case law and to the chosen method of execution. The current method of execution in the Bahamas is hanging.
In December the leader of the opposition Hubert Minnis announced his intention to propose draft legislation seeking to amend the Constitution of the Bahamas to renounce the London- based Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, in an attempt to circumvent legal standards set by the Court and facilitate the resumption of executions in the country. On 3 January 2014, the government clarified[15] that the matter will be addressed by the Constitution Review Commission as part of the broader constitutional reforms which began in August 2012.
Two new death sentences were recorded in Barbados. Eight men were reported to be on death row in December.[16] The government rejected recommendations made during its UPR on 25 January to establish an official moratorium on executions and abolish the death penalty, but accepted calls to remove the mandatory death penalty for murder and treason from national legislation. The country's representatives also stated that, while the government does not have a mandate to abolish the death penalty, it is open to facilitating and supporting public and open debates on the death penalty. Draft legislation to abolish the mandatory imposition of the death penalty was not tabled before the Parliament in 2013.
Belize did not impose any new death sentences last year. One man was on death row as of 31 December. Belize was reviewed at the UPR on 28 October, during which the government agreed to examine recommendations to ratify the Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR, take steps towards abolition and undertake a public consultation on the complete abolition of the death penalty and provide a response on those issues at the 25th session of the UN Human Rights Council in March 2014.
No new death sentences were imposed in Cuba. The government of Cuba responded in September to recommendations made during the country's UPR, held in May, to abolish the death penalty or establish an official moratorium on executions by stating that, while some of the issues raised are being addressed by Cuba, assurance of their implementation could not be guaranteed. In the national report submitted ahead of the UPR, the authorities stated that "Cuba is philosophically opposed to the death penalty. It is in favour of eliminating it when suitable conditions exist. Cuba has been forced, in the legitimate defence of its national security, to adopt and enforce severe laws against terrorist activities and crimes designed to destroy the Cuban State or the lives of its citizens, while always adhering to the strictest legality and respecting the most ample guarantees. Cuba understands and respects the arguments of the international movement that advocates the abolition of or a moratorium on the death penalty."[17]
No new death sentences were imposed in Dominica and its death row was once again empty at the end of the year. The government took steps towards renouncing the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council and recognizing the Caribbean Court of Justice as the final appellate court of the country.
The last person on death row in Grenada had his death sentence commuted in 2013. No new death sentences were imposed and no one was under sentence of death at the end of the year.
No new death sentences were imposed in Guatemala, where the last death sentence was commuted in February. On 7 June, the Commission on Legislation and Constitutional Matters of the Congress of Guatemala rejected a draft law which would have paved the way for the resumption of executions in the country.[18]
At least six people were sentenced to death and at least 25 were on death row at the end of the year in Guyana. Eleven men had their death sentences commuted to life imprisonment during the year. A planned national consultation, part of the UPR commitments made by the authorities in 2010, on the abolition of the death penalty was not carried out during the year.
No new death sentences were known to have been imposed in Jamaica. Two men remained under sentence of death at the end of the year, while three people had their death sentences commuted.
No new death sentences were known to have been imposed in Saint Kitts and Nevis, while one person was believed to be on death row at the end of the year.
The last remaining person on death row in Saint Lucia, Mitchel Joseph, had his death sentence commuted to life imprisonment on 8 July. No new death sentences were known to have been imposed.
No new death sentences were recorded in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, where one person, Patrick Lovelace, remained on death row at the end of the year.
Courts in Suriname did not impose any new death sentences and death row was empty at the end of the year. In a statement presented before the Inter-Parliamentary Union on the occasion of the World Day Against the Death Penalty, the Vice-speaker of the National Assembly of Suriname, Ruth Wijdenbosch, stated that a "new version of the Penal Code has been drafted in which the articles relating to the death penalty are abolished. Furthermore, there is consensus amongst the leading political parties in The National Assembly and also within the Government about this very important amendment."[19]
At least five new death sentences were imposed in Trinidad and Tobago and at least 39 prisoners were known to be on death row at the end of the year. Two death sentences were commuted to terms of imprisonment and the mandatory imposition of the death penalty was retained in national legislation.
The delay in the decision on the commutation of one of the two cases, Lester Pitman, sparked debate in the country highlighting lack of resources in the judiciary and timely delivery of judgments in the country. Lester Pitman had been convicted with his co- defendant in relation to the murder of three people committed in 2001. His case had been remitted to the Court of Appeal by the Privy Council in 2008, in light of fresh evidence showing he is affected by severe mental impairment and casting doubts about the admissibility of his confession and conviction. The delay of three years in the reconsideration of his case by the Court of Appeal focused the media's attention on the backlog of cases pending before the courts.
| REHABILITATION AT THE CENTRE OF SENTENCING GUIDELINES IN MURDER CASES
In a case[20] that is likely to have implications for other prisoners in Trinidad and Tobago, on 17 December 2013 the Court of Appeal ruled on the question of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, or "imprisonment for the rest of the natural life of the prisoner" as defined in the jurisprudence of Trinidad and Tobago. The ruling was made on an appeal brought by Alexander Don Juan Nicholas, Gregory Tan and Oren Lewis, who had been sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for felony murder, after having pleaded guilty.[21] The judge found that, in cases where the death penalty is not a sentencing option and life imprisonment is a possible sentence, the first fact that should be "determined is the rehabilitative possibilities of the convict". As the murder did not meet the "worst of the worst" or "rarest of the rare" standard and therefore did not warrant the death penalty, the judge quashed the previous punishment of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole and sentenced the three men to 30 years' imprisonment as reports indicated that the defendants were "all good candidates for reform and social re-adaptation". |
In the context of rising murder rates, the government once again presented the death penalty as the solution to crime, and proposed measures aimed at reducing people's fundamental freedoms and expediting judicial proceedings. These measures were proposed with a view to avoiding the five years' timeframe set out by the Privy Council for commutations of death sentences for prisoners who have spent lengthy periods of time on death row. The proposed legal amendments were met with criticism, including by the Law Association of Trinidad and Tobago. Legislative amendments on the death penalty were expected to be introduced in Parliament in 2014.
In response to announcements by the authorities regarding an imminent resumption of executions to tackle murder rates, the Law Association of Trinidad and Tobago and some public opinion called for tougher gun control measures and enhanced crime detection and conviction rates.[22]
| THE GREATER CARIBBEAN FOR LIFE
On 2 October the Greater Caribbean for Life (GCL) was formally established in Trinidad and Tobago, at the end a two-day regional conference on the theme of crime, public safety and the death penalty. The GCL, a network of activists and organizations campaigning against the death penalty in the Caribbean region, pledged to work towards the abolition of the death penalty, including by creating a culture of promotion and protection of human rights, and called on governments of countries that still retain the death penalty in the Greater Caribbean to urgently and effectively tackle crime, but without resort to the death penalty.[23] |
A continued decline in the use of the death penalty in the USA was reflected not only in lower numbers of executions and death sentences compared to previous decades, but also in abolitionist initiatives in state legislatures. In May, Maryland became the 18th abolitionist state, and the fourth state to abolish the death penalty in the past five years.[24] Bills to repeal capital punishment were also considered, although not passed, in six other states: Colorado, Indiana, Montana, Nebraska, Oregon and Washington.
The death penalty in the USA continued to be marked by error, inconsistency, racial disparities and, in a number of cases, a lack of adherence to specific provisions of international law or safeguards.
Texas scheduled the execution of Mexican national Edgar Arias Tamayo in violation of an order from the International Court of Justice requiring that he have judicial "review and reconsideration" of the impact on his case of the denial of his consular rights after arrest. He was not advised of his right to seek consular assistance and the Mexican authorities did not learn of the case until a week before the trial. Without access to the sort of assistance the consulate subsequently provided, Edgar Tamayo's trial lawyer failed to present evidence of the deprivations and abuse his client suffered as a child, his developmental problems, a serious head injury he sustained when he was 17 and its impact on his behaviour, including a worsening dependency on drugs and alcohol. In 2008 a psychologist put Edgar Tamayo's intellectual functioning in the "mild mental retardation" range, which would render his execution unconstitutional under US law.
On 12 June, William Van Poyck was executed in Florida after 25 years on death row. Claims persisted that he had received inadequate legal representation at the trial, including the defence lawyer's failure to present the full mitigating evidence of his client's background of childhood abuse and mental health problems. Three of seven Florida Supreme Court judges dissented against upholding the death sentence, arguing that the case represented a "blatant example of counsel's failure to investigate and prepare a penalty phase defense". Final appeals based on this issue, and on evidence that it was William Van Poyck's co-defendant who had actually shot the victim, who was a prison guard, were unsuccessful. This co- defendant, who was also given the death penalty, died in 1999 as a result of massive injuries sustained during an alleged beating by guards.
Paul Howell's execution in Florida was stayed on 25 February, one day before it was scheduled, to allow a federal appeals court to consider whether his claim of inadequate legal representation could be reopened in light of recent US Supreme Court rulings in other cases. The claim related not only to his initial appeal lawyer's missing a deadline to file an appeal, thereby defaulting it, but also to the failure of his trial lawyer to present certain mitigating evidence, including of physical childhood abuse and deprivations in his native Jamaica, as well as details of mental health problems as an adult. In September the court ruled against Howell. One of the three judges dissented, describing Howell's representation at trial and on initial appeal as "incompetent, ineffective and deeply unprofessional".
Florida passed the Timely Justice Act (TJA) aimed, in part, at speeding up the pace of executions. Such legislation is inconsistent with international human rights standards which seek eventual abolition of the death penalty, and ignores the reality of Florida's high error rate in capital cases. Florida accounts for some 15% of the more than 140 inmates released from death rows in the USA since 1973 on grounds of innocence. When Florida's Governor
Rick Scott signed the TJA into law on 14 June 2013, Representative Matt Gaetz, the sponsor of the bill in the House of Representatives, responded by tweeting his thanks, adding: "Several on death row need to start picking out their last meals".
| DEATH PENALTY AND MENTAL DISABILITIES
International standards on the use of the death penalty state that the death penalty should not be imposed against people with mental disabilities. This safeguard continues to be ignored in the USA. Florida executed John Ferguson on 5 August, despite his decades-long history of mental illness which pre- dated his crimes. He was first diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1971. In 1975 a court-appointed psychiatrist concluded that Ferguson's severe mental illness rendered him dangerous and meant that he "should not be released under any circumstances" from a maximum security mental hospital. He was, however, discharged, and within three years was on death row for eight murders. The diagnoses of serious mental illness, including by prison doctors, continued on death row. On 21 August, the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit found Texas death row prisoner Scott Panetti competent for execution and rejected the claim that he had been incompetent to represent himself at his 1995 trial. Scott Panetti was sentenced to death for murdering his parents-in-law in 1992, several years after he was first diagnosed with schizophrenia. He had been hospitalized for mental illness, including bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, on a number of occasions prior to the crime. Warren Hill's execution was stopped three hours before it was due to be carried out on 19 July in Georgia, in connection with litigation on the state's lethal injection protocol. Despite all seven experts to have assessed Warren Hill stating that he had "mental retardation", the execution was not stopped on these grounds. The execution of those with "mental retardation" has been prohibited in the USA since 2002, but concerns remain about implementation of this US Supreme Court ruling. A year earlier, on 17 July 2012, the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary extrajudicial executions had urged the US authorities to stop the execution of Warren Hill. He voiced "particular concern that Georgia is now the only US state that requires proof of what it calls 'mental retardation beyond a reasonable doubt,' rather than a preponderance of the evidence as in other jurisdictions."[25] |
Murder charges against Reginald Griffin in Missouri were dismissed on 25 October, making him the 143rd person to be released from death row in the USA on grounds of innocence since 1973, according to the US-based Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC). He had been sentenced to death in 1983 for the murder of a fellow prison inmate. The Missouri Supreme Court overturned his conviction in 2011 because the state had withheld exculpatory evidence from the defence, and ordered that he be retried or released.
Legislation passed in Alabama in April allowed the Board of Pardons and Paroles to grant posthumous pardons in cases involving racial or social injustice. Three black men, Charles Weems, Andy Wright and Haywood Patterson, were posthumously exonerated in Alabama in November in relation to their wrongful convictions by all-white juries for the rape of two white women in 1931. After years on death row, they and their co-defendants had been released. The three posthumously pardoned in 2013 were the last of the group not to have been pardoned or to have had charges dismissed.
Concerns over racial discrimination also marked the 500th execution in Texas since judicial killings resumed in the USA in 1977. The case concerned Kimberly McCarthy, a black woman sentenced to death for the murder of her white neighbour. At her 2002 retrial the jury consisted of 11 white people and one black person, selected from a jury pool in which African-Americans were under-represented and from which three of the four black individuals who were on it were dismissed by the prosecutor during jury selection.
A petition filed in June 2013 by Kimberly McCarthy's new lawyer, seeking to present evidence of racial discrimination during the jury selection and to challenge the failure of her previous lawyers to raise the claims at trial or appeal, was dismissed on the grounds that the claims should have been raised earlier. Kimberly McCarthy was executed by lethal injection on 26 June.
Mississippi expanded the scope of the death penalty to include acts of terrorism resulting in death in April. Following a shortage in the availability of drugs normally used in lethal injection protocols, the states of Arkansas, California, Florida, Louisiana, Montana, North Carolina and Ohio amended their executions procedures to include a one-drug protocol and/or allow to change the chemicals used.
In February the US federal government sought the death penalty in Puerto Rico in the on- going case of Lashaun Casey, charged in relation to a murder committed in 2005. The death penalty in Puerto Rico was abolished in 1929 but can be imposed under US Federal laws. In a separate federal trial, Alexis Candelario Santana was spared the death penalty by the Puerto Rican jury in March.
On 9 October, on the occasion of the World Day against the Death Penalty, the Inter- American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) urged the Member States of the Organization of American States that still have the death penalty to abolish it or at least to impose a moratorium on its application. The IACHR stated it was "concerned about the persistence of significant and worrisome challenges regarding the application of the death penalty in the region. In particular, the IACHR notes that OAS Member States have executed individuals sentenced to death in defiance of precautionary measures granted by the Commission or provisional measures granted by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in the context of cases or petitions alleging serious violations to due process, among other violations".[26]
Footnotes
8 With the only exception of 2008, when one execution was carried out in Saint Kitts and Nevis.
9 Death Penalty Information Center, "The 2% Death Penalty: How a Minority of Counties Produce Most Death Cases at Enormous Costs to All", October 2013, available at http://deathpenaltyinfo.org/twopercent.
10 See also Death Penalty Information Center, "The Death Penalty in 2013: Year End Report", 19 December 2013, available at http://deathpenaltyinfo.org/documents/YearEnd2013.pdf (accessed 4 March 2014).
11 The bill was adopted by the House of Representatives on 30 August 2013 and by the Senate on 12 September 2013. The final version of the Act is available at: http://laws.gov.ag/acts/2013/a2013-4.pdf (accessed 4 March 2014).
12 Pratt and Morgan v. the Attorney General of Jamaica, [1993] UKPC 37 (2 November 1993).
13 "Reaction to Death Row Reprieve", Caribarena News, 20 May 2013, available at http://www.caribarenaantigua.com/antigua/news/latest/103912-reaction-to-death-row-reprieve.html (accessed 4 March 2014). No further information was available during the year.
14 See also: http://www.thebahamasweekly.com/publish/bis-news-updates/Bahamas_Constitution_Commission_Report_PDF_Document29417.shtml
15 "Government to address the death penalty", Nassau Guardian, 3 January 2014, available at: http://www.thenassauguardian.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=44267&Itemid=27 (accessed on 4 March 2014).
16 "End death penalty", Nation News, 11 December 2013, available at http://www.nationnews.com/articles/view/end-death-penalty/ (accessed on 4 March 2014).
17 Human Rights Council, "National report submitted in accordance with Human Rights Council resolution 16/21, annex, paragraph 5, Cuba", 7 February 2013, available at http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G13/106/93/PDF/G1310693.pdf?OpenElement (accessed on 4 March 2014).
18 "Rechazan proyecto para regular la pena de muerte", Agencia Guatemalteca de Noticias, 7 June 2013, available at http://www.agn.com.gt/index.php/component/k2/item/5576-rechazan-proyecto-para-regular-la-pena-de-muerte (accessed on 4 March 2014).
19 Parliamentarians for Global Action, "Statement by PGA Board Member Ruth Wijdenbosch on behalf of the National Assembly of Suriname for the Abolition of the death Penalty", 10 October 2013, available at http://www.pgaction.org/news/press-releases/statement-by-pga-board-member-ruth-wijdenbosch-for-the-abolition-of-the-death-penalty.html (accessed on 4 March 2014).
20 Alexander Don Juan Nicholas, Gregory Tan, Oren Lewis v. the State, Cr. App. Nos. 1-6 of 2013.
21 Discretion in the sentencing for felony murder was introduced in Trinidad and Tobago with Nimrod Miguel v. The State of Trinidad and Tobago [2011] UKPC 16.
22 See for instance "Al-Rawi responds to PM: Death penalty already law in T&T", Trinidad Guardian, 17 August 2013, available at: http://guardian.co.tt/news/2013-08-17/al-rawi-responds-pm-death-penalty-already-law-tt; "Sociologist—Tougher gun control to deal with murder rate", News Day, 18 August 2013, available at: http://www.newsday.co.tt/news/0,182402.html; "Hanging not the answer", Trinidad Express, 26 August 2013, available at http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/Hanging-not-the-answer-221250161.html.
23 See also Greater Caribbean for Life, https://en-gb.facebook.com/GCFLife.
24 New Mexico abolished the death penalty in 2009; Illinois in 2011; and Connecticut in 2012.
25 UN News Centre, "UN expert urges US authorities to stop execution of two persons with disabilities", 17 July 2012, available at http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=42493&Cr=death+penalty&Cr1#.Uu5Htvl_tIU (accessed on 4 March 2014).
26 Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, "IACHR Urges States to Abolish Death Penalty or Impose a Moratorium on its Application", 9 October 2013, available at https://www.oas.org/en/iachr/media_center/PReleases/2013/074.asp.
