Tuesday, October 05, 2010
Super Puma helicopters deliver supplies
Playig with a Philippine child
(DoD photo by Lance Cpl. John T. Kennicutt, U.S. Marine Corps/Released)
Thursday, September 09, 2010
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL CALLS ON GOV. RILEY TO COMMUTE WOOD DEATH SENTENCE; CITES INADEQUATE LEGAL REPRESENTATION, MENTAL DISABILITY
Wed, Sep 8, 2010 at 9:56 PM
Washington, D.C.: Amnesty International today made a final plea to Alabama Governor Bob Riley, asking him to commute the death sentence of Holly Wood, a 50-year-old African American man with significant mental impairments who is scheduled for execution tomorrow. The human rights organization sent the governor a letter explaining its concerns about the case, and for several weeks Amnesty International members worldwide have written to the governor’s office to raise the issue of Wood’s legal representation, which four federal judges found to be constitutionally inadequate at the sentencing stage of his 1994 trial.
Wood was convicted of murdering an ex-girlfriend in September 1993. At the sentencing hearing, Wood was represented by a lawyer who had been admitted to the bar five months earlier, had no trial or criminal law experience and had never before worked on a capital case. This was counter to Alabama law, which required that lawyers appointed to capital cases had at least five years’ experience in criminal law.
“When four federal judges at three courts believe that an individual’s legal representation doesn’t square with constitutional protections, the state should really question the appropriateness of meting out such a severe and irreversible punishment,” said Laura Moye, director of Amnesty International USA’s (AIUSA’s) Death Penalty Abolition Campaign. “Ruby Gosha’s life was tragically cut short, an injustice that cannot be ignored. But two wrongs don’t make a right. Alabama cannot correct the past by executing a man, especially one whose mental functioning is so clearly impaired.”
The presentation of mitigating evidence at the sentencing was minimal. There was no evidence about Wood’s mental ability despite his lawyers being in possession of an expert report indicating that Wood operated, “at most, in the borderline range of intellectual functioning.” Because of the lawyer’s inadequate investigation, the fact that as a child Wood had been in special education classes for low IQ children was not investigated or presented to the jury. The U.S. Supreme Court recognized in 2004 that “impaired intellectual functioning is inherently mitigating” and in 2000 said that a capital defendant who is “borderline mentally retarded, might well…influence[e] the jury’s appraisal of his moral culpability.”
Amnesty International unconditionally opposes the death penalty. The United States has carried out 1,224 executions since resuming judicial killing in 1977. Alabama accounts for 47 of these executions. There have been 36 executions in the United States this year, three of them in Alabama.Amnesty International is a Nobel Peace Prize-winning grassroots activist organization with more than 2.8 million supporters, activists and volunteers who campaign for universal human rights from more than 150 countries. The organization investigates and exposes abuses, educates and mobilizes the public, and works to protect people wherever justice, freedom, truth and dignity are denied.
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For more information, please visit www.amnestyusa.org.
Alabama Should Question ‘Meting Out Such a Severe and Irreversible Punishment’
Washington, D.C.: Amnesty International today made a final plea to Alabama Governor Bob Riley, asking him to commute the death sentence of Holly Wood, a 50-year-old African American man with significant mental impairments who is scheduled for execution tomorrow. The human rights organization sent the governor a letter explaining its concerns about the case, and for several weeks Amnesty International members worldwide have written to the governor’s office to raise the issue of Wood’s legal representation, which four federal judges found to be constitutionally inadequate at the sentencing stage of his 1994 trial.
Wood was convicted of murdering an ex-girlfriend in September 1993. At the sentencing hearing, Wood was represented by a lawyer who had been admitted to the bar five months earlier, had no trial or criminal law experience and had never before worked on a capital case. This was counter to Alabama law, which required that lawyers appointed to capital cases had at least five years’ experience in criminal law.
“When four federal judges at three courts believe that an individual’s legal representation doesn’t square with constitutional protections, the state should really question the appropriateness of meting out such a severe and irreversible punishment,” said Laura Moye, director of Amnesty International USA’s (AIUSA’s) Death Penalty Abolition Campaign. “Ruby Gosha’s life was tragically cut short, an injustice that cannot be ignored. But two wrongs don’t make a right. Alabama cannot correct the past by executing a man, especially one whose mental functioning is so clearly impaired.”
The presentation of mitigating evidence at the sentencing was minimal. There was no evidence about Wood’s mental ability despite his lawyers being in possession of an expert report indicating that Wood operated, “at most, in the borderline range of intellectual functioning.” Because of the lawyer’s inadequate investigation, the fact that as a child Wood had been in special education classes for low IQ children was not investigated or presented to the jury. The U.S. Supreme Court recognized in 2004 that “impaired intellectual functioning is inherently mitigating” and in 2000 said that a capital defendant who is “borderline mentally retarded, might well…influence[e] the jury’s appraisal of his moral culpability.”
Amnesty International unconditionally opposes the death penalty. The United States has carried out 1,224 executions since resuming judicial killing in 1977. Alabama accounts for 47 of these executions. There have been 36 executions in the United States this year, three of them in Alabama.Amnesty International is a Nobel Peace Prize-winning grassroots activist organization with more than 2.8 million supporters, activists and volunteers who campaign for universal human rights from more than 150 countries. The organization investigates and exposes abuses, educates and mobilizes the public, and works to protect people wherever justice, freedom, truth and dignity are denied.
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For more information, please visit www.amnestyusa.org.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Amnesty International Criticizes Kenya for Refusing to Arrest Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir at Constitution Celebratio
London : Amnesty International is criticizing the Kenyan government for its failure to arrest Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir during celebrations ushering in Kenya’s new constitution today. The human rights organization says the refusal to arrest President al-Bashir is an obstruction of justice for victims in Darfur.
“Kenya has regrettably followed the example of Chad, which violated its obligations under international law by providing safe haven to President Bashir during his visit to the country last month,” said Michelle Kagari, deputy director of Amnesty International's Africa program.
Kagari said: “It is disturbing that the Kenyan government is celebrating a new constitution – the national center-piece of the rule of law – while obstructing justice for victims of such serious human rights violations in a neighboring country.”
The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for al-Bashir for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur.
Kenya has ratified the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which obligates countries to cooperate with the court, including arresting persons it has charged.
Amnesty International regrets that African states – which led efforts to create the court – last month undermined their commitment to international justice by renewing an African Union decision not to arrest President al-Bashir.
Kagari said: “We are calling on those 31 African states that have ratified the Rome Statute to support international justice and uphold efforts to deliver justice, in particular in countries like Sudan where victims have no prospect of justice before national courts.”
Amnesty International is calling on all members of the international community to ensure full accountability for international crimes committed in Sudan.
Amnesty International is a Nobel Peace Prize-winning grassroots activist organization with more than 2.8 million supporters, activists and volunteers in more than 150 countries campaigning for human rights worldwide. The organization investigates and exposes abuses, educates and mobilizes the public, and works to protect people wherever justice, freedom, truth and dignity are denied. (Issued on:Friday, August 27, 2010)
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For more information, please visit: www.amnestyusa.org
Friday, August 27, 2010
Mike Mullen addresses at Wayne State University in Detroit
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Barbara Starr interviews U.S. Navy Adm. Mike Mullen
CNN correspondent Barbara Starr interviews U.S. Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in Detroit, Aug. 26, 2010. Mullen is on three-day Conversation with the Country tour to the Midwest discussing how community leaders can support the needs of returning troops and their families. DoD photo by U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Chad J. McNeeley
Monday, August 23, 2010
A combat videographer
DoD photo by Lance Cpl. Marionne T. Mangrum, U.S. Marine Corps/Released)
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