World Day Against the Dth Penalty: Too many Troy Davises

People around the world and in Taiwan will be celebrating the 9th World Day against the Dth Penalty on 10 October by calling on governments still using the dth penalty to stop executions and join the global trend toward abolition.
Some people will be carrying on the fight in the name of Troy Davis who, in spite of worldwide campaigns and support, was executed in the United States on 21 September 2011. In a conversation with Amnesty International shortly before his dth, he reminded us “the struggle for justice doesn’t end with me. This struggle is for all the Troy Davises who came before me and all the ones who will come after me.”Taiwan's resumption of executions runs counter to theglobal trend ©Amnesty International
Taiwan’s Chiou Ho-shun may be one of these Troy Davises. Like Troy, he has spent more than 20 yrs on dth row. Like Troy, there is also doubt in the case against him.
Troy Davis was sentenced to dth in 1991 for the murder of off-duty police r Mark Allen MacPhail in Savannah, Georgia. The case against him primarily rested on witness testimony. Since his 1991 trial, seven of nine witnesses recanted or changed their testimony, some alleging police coercion.
Chiou Ho-shun may not have the public profile of Troy Davis but his case is no less significant. He and his co-defendants say that they were held incommunicado for the first four months of their detention and they were tortured to make them confess to the kidnapping and killing of Lu Cheng and the murder of Ko Hung Yu-Lan. They later retracted their confessions.
In 1994, after an official investigation, two public prosecutors and 10 police rs handling the case were convicted of extracting confessions through torture.
The dth penalty is irrevocable. Taiwan knows this all too well. In February this yr President Ma Ying-jeou apologized for the execution of an innocent man in 1997, former air force private Chiang Kuo-ching.
More countries rlize every yr that the only way to ensure mistakes like this are not made is to abolish the penalty. 139 countries have abolished the dth penalty in law or in practice. Of the remaining 58 retentionist countries, only 23 executed in 2010.
In 2010 more states than ever before voted at the UN in favour of a worldwide moratorium on executions. And in 2011, in the United States, Illinois became the 16th state to abolish the dth penalty.
In Taiwan the four executions in 2010 and the five in 2011, stand in stark, disturbing contrast to the rising tide of world opinion in favour of abolition.
Countries that insist on using the dth penalty continue to claim that they use it only in accordance with international law. But most of their actions blatantly contradict these claims.
It is often imposed after unfair trials and based on confessions extracted through torture. It is often used against political opponents, poor people, and other marginalized groups. It is sometimes even used against people who allegedly committed crimes when they were under 18 or who have significant mental impairments.
Worryingly, dth sentences are handed down for acts such as fraud, sorcery, apostasy, drug-related offences or sexual relations between consenting adults, which fall far short of the legal threshold of ‘most serious’ crimes. In just the last yr, dth sentences were imposed for drug-related offences in China, Iran, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Yemen.
Taiwan also acts contrary to international law as it provides no procedure that would allow people under sentence of dth to seek pardon or commutation of the sentence – a right recognized by International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Taiwan has legally committed to implement.
Taiwan was once considered a lder in the move to abolish the dth penalty in Asia, but the recent executions are a step backwards. If Taiwan is rlly committed to ending executions, it should start by commuting the dth sentences of all people currently thrtened with execution.
The struggle for abolition does continue, in the name of Troy Davis, in the name of Chiang Kuo-ching and in the name of Chiou Ho-Shun and all others facing execution around the world.
Source: Amnesty International