Baze Files New Lawsuit Kentucky double-murderer Ralph Baze, who lost a Supreme Court decision on his challenge to lethal injection last year, now claims that he is mentally incompetent for execution, as reported by Brett Barrouquere in the Fort Mill Times. Baze's attorneys argue that the condemned cop-killer has become depressed recently and that Kentucky's process to determine if he is mentally competent is unconstitutional because it is almost identical to a Texas law the lawyers claim was struck down by the Supreme Court's 2007 holding in Panetti v. Quarterman. (Note: saying the Panetti decision "struck down" the Texas law is a bit loose.)
Japan Executes Four Killers CNN writer Kyoug Lah reports that four convicted murderers were hanged in Japan today in what Amnesty International called blatant violations of human rights. Two of the murderers killed four people each during home invasion robberies and the two others killed two women and burned their bodies in steel barrels. All of the victims undoubtedly felt that their rights were violated. Japan executed 15 murderers in 2008, and currently has 95 on death row. According to the most recent international survey of crime rates in 62 nations, the murder rate in Japan ranked 60th, well below other countries with death penalties like the United States, but also far lower than France, England, Germany and the other European Union members which do not have a death penalty.
Judge Denies Request to Stop Gitmo Trial Citing "the public interest in a speedy trial" after years of complaints about detainees being denied their day in court, the chief judge at the Guantanamo Bay tribunals has rejected a request by the Obama administration to halt the trial of the suspected mastermind of a bombing that killed 17 American sailors. AP writers Mike Mella and Andrew O. Selsky report that Col. James Pohl's decision to go on with the trial of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, charged with planning the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, leaves the Obama administration with few options according to the defendant's attorney. Quoting Navy Lt. Commander Stephen Reyes, "The next step, if the government wants to halt the proceedings, is to withdraw the charges."
More Gitmo. John Yoo has this op-ed in the WSJ. "In issuing these executive orders, Mr. Obama is returning America to the failed law enforcement approach to fighting terrorism that prevailed before Sept. 11, 2001. He's also drying up the most valuable sources of intelligence on al Qaeda, which, according to CIA Director Michael Hayden, has come largely out of the tough interrogation of high-level operatives during the early years of the war."
Japan Executes Four Killers CNN writer Kyoug Lah reports that four convicted murderers were hanged in Japan today in what Amnesty International called blatant violations of human rights. Two of the murderers killed four people each during home invasion robberies and the two others killed two women and burned their bodies in steel barrels. All of the victims undoubtedly felt that their rights were violated. Japan executed 15 murderers in 2008, and currently has 95 on death row. According to the most recent international survey of crime rates in 62 nations, the murder rate in Japan ranked 60th, well below other countries with death penalties like the United States, but also far lower than France, England, Germany and the other European Union members which do not have a death penalty.
Judge Denies Request to Stop Gitmo Trial Citing "the public interest in a speedy trial" after years of complaints about detainees being denied their day in court, the chief judge at the Guantanamo Bay tribunals has rejected a request by the Obama administration to halt the trial of the suspected mastermind of a bombing that killed 17 American sailors. AP writers Mike Mella and Andrew O. Selsky report that Col. James Pohl's decision to go on with the trial of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, charged with planning the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, leaves the Obama administration with few options according to the defendant's attorney. Quoting Navy Lt. Commander Stephen Reyes, "The next step, if the government wants to halt the proceedings, is to withdraw the charges."
More Gitmo. John Yoo has this op-ed in the WSJ. "In issuing these executive orders, Mr. Obama is returning America to the failed law enforcement approach to fighting terrorism that prevailed before Sept. 11, 2001. He's also drying up the most valuable sources of intelligence on al Qaeda, which, according to CIA Director Michael Hayden, has come largely out of the tough interrogation of high-level operatives during the early years of the war."
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