Entries tagged with “Torture”
State & Federal Info
Military
,Aug 02, 2024
U.S. Military Reaches Plea Agreement to Avoid the Death Penalty with Three Men Accused of Plotting September 11 Attacks
UPDATE: On August 2nd, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin revoked the July 31, 2024 plea agreement reached between military commissions prosecutors and defense counsel for three of the 9/11 defendants being held at Guantanamo. In a two-paragraph memo, Secretary Austin revoked the authority of Susan Escallier, the head of the Military Commissions Convening Authority, to enter into the plea agreements and reserved that authority for himself. This unexpected development negates at least two years…
Issues
Federal Death Penalty
,Military
,Sep 28, 2023
Guantanamo Bay Judge Rules 9/11 Capital Defendant Mentally Incompetent to Stand Trial
On September 21, 2023, a military judge in Guantanamo Bay ruled that Ramzi Bin al Shibh, one of five defendants in the 9/11 case for whom the death penalty is being sought, is mentally incompetent to stand trial. Mr. Bin al Shibh, who has been detained for 21 years, will remain in custody at Guantanamo as authorities attempt to treat the post-traumatic stress disorder caused when he was forced to undergo “enhanced interrogations” by the U.S. government. “[T]he totality of the facts…
Issues
Women
,Nov 10, 2022
Death Penalty Information Center Launches Series on Human Rights and the U.S. Death Penalty
The Death Penalty Information Center, supported by the Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany, launched a new project on Human Rights and the U.S. Death Penalty on November 4, 2022, with a live-streamed panel discussion at the German embassy in Washington, D.C. The recorded event, which featured noted experts and was attended by scholars, advocates, and members of the world diplomatic corps, was the first in a series of webinars that will spotlight human rights issues in the use and…
Issues
Military
,Sep 16, 2022
Guantánamo Prosecutor Who Advocated Use of Torture Testimony Removed from U.S.S. Cole Bombing Case
A second military commissions prosecutor who had advocated using testimony obtained by torture against defendants in the death penalty trial of the Guantánamo detainees charged with the October 2000 bombing of the U.S.S. Cole (pictured) in waters off the coast of Yemen has been removed from the case. Mark A. Miller, the lead prosecutor in the Cole case, was not present at a scheduled status conference on September 14, 2022 and defense lawyers for the five men charged in the bombing said they…
State & Federal Info
Federal Death Penalty
,Military
,Mar 18, 2022
Plea Talks Are Under Way in Guantánamo September 11 Case that Could Take Death Penalty Off the Table
Military prosecutors and defense attorneys are reportedly discussing plea deals that could take the death penalty off the table in the Guantánamo military commission cases of five men accused of involvement in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The negotiations, first reported by the New York Times on March 15, 2022 and subsequently confirmed by defense counsel, would require alleged 9/11 planner Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and four others to plead…
Issues
Military
,Feb 15, 2022
Department of Justice Reverses Course, Rejects Use of Evidence Obtained by Torture in Guantánamo Death Penalty Case
In what one analyst described as “an important step to restore the rule of law,” the U.S. Department of Justice has pledged not to use statements obtained by torture in its Guantánamo Military Commissions prosecution of Abd Al-Rahim Hussein Al-Nashiri. Al-Nashiri is accused of masterminding the Al Qaeda suicide bombing of the U.S.S. Cole that killed 17 U.S. sailors in October 2000. The U.S. government is seeking the death penalty against him. In a brief filed January 31, 2022, the Department…
Issues
Military
,Jul 21, 2021
At Odds with Biden Administration’s Concern Over Use of Statements Obtained by Torture, Chief Guantánamo Prosecutor Retires
After clashing with Biden administration officials over the propriety of using statements obtained through torture from Guantánamo detainees, Army Brigadier General Mark S. Martins (pictured), the chief prosecutor in the Guantánamo Military Commissions trials, will retire from the military on September 30, 2021. Martins, who had served as the commissions’ chief prosecutor throughout the Obama and Trump administrations, abruptly submitted papers on July 7 providing notice of his early…
Issues
Apr 25, 2019
Saudi Arabia Condemned for Mass Execution of 37 People, Including Juveniles, After Unfair Trials
In an action condemned by the United Nations and human rights groups as a flagrant violation of international law, Saudi Arabia beheaded 37 people, including juvenile offenders, in six separate locations on April 23, 2019. It was the nation’s largest mass execution since January 2016. Most of the people executed were members of the Shi’a Muslim minority community. The human rights advocates blasted Saudi officials for targeting politically disfavored groups and disregarding international fair…
Issues
Military
,Aug 20, 2018
Military Commission Bars Guantánamo Death-Penalty Prosecutors From Using Statements by 9/11 Detainees
A Guantánamo military commission judge has barred prosecutors from using statements five accused 9/11 plotters made to the FBI after they had been subjected to years of torture in CIA black sites. On August 17, 2018, the military judge, Army Colonel James L. Pohl (pictured), suppressed all use of the statements, ruling that restrictions prosecutors had placed on the ability of defense counsel to interview witnesses and investigate the torture made it impossible for the defense to meaningfully…
Issues
Sep 14, 2017
Human Rights Groups Urge U.S. Government To Sanction Officials Accused Of Torture, Executions Under New Law
A coalition of 23 human rights groups, including Human Rights First, Human Rights Watch, and Reprieve, has urged the United States government to issue sanctions against foreign government officials who they say have used the death penalty to repress political dissent by torturing peaceful protesters into confessing to capital offenses they did not commit. In a September 12, 2017 letter to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, the non-governmental organizations…
Issues
Death Row Overview
,Apr 27, 2017
Study: Texas’ ‘Harsh and Inhumane’ Death-Row Conditions Amount to ‘Torture’
The conditions in which prisoners on Texas’ death row are confined are “harsh and inhumane,” violate international human rights norms, and amount to “a severe and relentless act of torture,” according to a new study by the University of Texas School of Law Human Rights Clinic. The study, “Designed to Break You,” collected accounts from former death-row prisoners who had been exonerated or who had received lesser sentences after their death sentences had been overturned. Their stories revealed…
State & Federal Info
Military
,Mar 22, 2017
Lawyers Seek Supreme Court Review Of Alleged Torture As Accused USS Cole Bomber Awaits Capital Trial
Lawyers for Abd al Rahim al-Nashiri, the man accused of plotting the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000, are seeking U.S. Supreme Court intervention to prevent his trial before a military tribunal in which Nashiri faces the death penalty if convicted. The petition for a writ of certiorari asks the Court to allow Nashiri’s lawyers to challenge his military detention — and efforts to try him in a military tribunal rather than a civilian court — because the CIA admittedly subjected him to 14 years of…
Research
Feb 20, 2017
BOOKS: “The Death Penalty As Torture: From the Dark Ages to Abolition”
In his newest book, The Death Penalty As Torture: From the Dark Ages to Abolition, John Bessler chronicles the historical link between torture and the death penalty from the Middle Ages to the present day and argues that both are medieval relics. The book, released on February 17, 2017, asserts that capital punishment is itself a form of torture, despite modern legal distinctions that outlaw torture while permitting death sentences and executions. Bessler draws on the writings of philosophers…
Issues
Death Row Overview
,Nov 01, 2013
STUDIES: Human Rights Groups Examine Death Penalty in California and Louisiana
The Center for Constitutional Rights and the International Federation for Human Rights recently released an analysis of the death penalty in California and Louisiana. The report concluded that those states’ application of capital punishment “violates U.S. obligations under international human rights law to prevent and prohibit discrimination and torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.” Researchers conducted interviews with many of those involved in the legal system and examined data on…
Issues
Executions Overview
,Death Row Overview
,Time on Death Row
,Aug 15, 2013
Repeated Execution Dates Called Psychological Torture
According to some experts, the process of repeatedly submitting a person to imminent execution is a form of psychological torture that should be banned. The Center for Constitutional Rights has said that “the intense strain of repeatedly coming within hours or days of execution” is torture. Citing the case of Troy Davis, who was executed in Georgia in 2011 after repeated execution dates and stays, the Center remarked, “Is there any significant difference between mock executions, long…
Issues
Death Row Overview
,Oct 31, 2012
INTERNATIONAL: UN Investigator Claims Executions are Increasingly Viewed as Torture Around the World
On October 23, the United Nations’ special rapporteur on torture, Juan Mendez, told a UN General Assembly human rights committee that countries around the world are increasingly viewing capital punishment as a form of torture because of the severe mental and physical pain it inflicts on those sentenced to death. Mendez told the committee, “States need to re-examine their procedures under international law because the ability of states to impose and carry out the death penalty is diminishing as…
Issues
Methods of Execution
,Foreign Nationals
,Time on Death Row
,Nov 12, 1998
The US Death Penalty and International Law: US Compliance with the Torture and Race Conventions
Ford Foundation Symposium November 12, 1998 by Richard C. Dieter, Esq. Executive Director, Death Penalty Information Center Introduction The U.N. Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (the Torture Convention) was adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on December 10, 19841 and ratified by the United States ten years later. In all, 176 countries have either ratified or signed the torture convention. The thrust of this treaty…