The Law Office of David E. Coombs: PFC Manning Forced to Strip Naked

The Law Office of David E. Coombs: PFC Manning Forced to Strip Naked:

Last night, PFC Manning was inexplicably stripped of all clothing by the Quantico Brig. He remained in his cell, naked, for the next seven hours. At 5:00 a.m., the Brig sounded the wake-up call for the detainees. At this point, PFC Manning was forced to stand naked at the front of his cell.

The Duty Brig Supervisor (DBS) arrived shortly after 5:00 a.m. When he arrived, PFC Manning was called to attention. The DBS walked through the facility to conduct his detainee count. Afterwards, PFC Manning was told to sit on his bed. About ten minutes later, a guard came to his cell to return his clothing.

This type of degrading treatment is inexcusable and without justification. It is an embarrassment to our military justice system and should not be tolerated. PFC Manning has been told that the same thing will happen to him again tonight. No other detainee at the Brig is forced to endure this type of isolation and humiliation.

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Bill To End Death Penalty In Illinois Sent To Governor : NPR

Bill To End Death Penalty In Illinois Sent To Governor : NPR

The Illinois Senate voted Tuesday to abolish capital punishment, sending the historic issue to Gov. Pat Quinn and putting the state back at the center of an ongoing national debate.

In a state that has removed 20 wrongly condemned people from death row since 1987, the Senate voted 32-25 to end state-sponsored execution more than a decade after a former governor halted the punishment he said was "haunted by the demon of error.''

"We have a historic opportunity today, an opportunity to part company with countries that are the worst civil rights violators and join the civilized world by ending this practice of putting to death innocent people,'' said Sen. Kwame Raoul, the Chicago Democrat who sponsored the measure.

National experts and advocates said repeal in Illinois — which has executed a dozen people in the last three decades and at one time had 170 condemned inmates — puts weight behind the national discussion.

"This is a state in which this was used and then stopped, it was debated for years, fixed — or reformed — and finally there was a resolution by just getting rid of it, so that's about as thorough a process as any state could do,'' said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. "That's significant.''

But Democrat Quinn, already wrapped up in a debate over a massive tax increase that could impact his political future, won't say what he will do with the legislation. He supports the death penalty but said he would not lift the moratorium on executions imposed in 2000 by then-Gov. George Ryan until he was sure the system worked.

Former law enforcement officials in the Senate argued prosecutors need the threat of death to get guilty pleas from suspects who opt for life in prison. They said allowing police and state's attorneys to continue seeking death will make them more willing to accept reforms in the ways crimes are investigated and prosecuted.

Others argued citizens still want the option of the death penalty for the worst of crimes.

"It's not a question of vengeance,'' said Sen. Bill Haine, D-Alton. "It's a question of the people being outraged at such terrible crimes, such bloodletting.''

Illinois would join 15 states and the District of Columbia in ridding its books of capital punishment, including three — New Jersey, New Mexico, and New York — since 2007.

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The Canadian Press: US rejects call in UN human rights body to abolish death penalty

The Canadian Press: US rejects call in UN human rights body to abolish death penalty

GENEVA — The United States dismissed international calls Tuesday to abolish the death penalty as friends and foes alike delivered their recommendations on how Washington can improve its human rights record.

U.S. State Department legal adviser Harold Koh said capital punishment was permitted under international law, brushing aside long-standing appeals by European countries and others to temporarily halt or completely abolish the death penalty, which critics say is inhumane and unfairly applied.

"While we respect those who make these recommendations, we note that they reflect continuing policy differences, not a genuine difference about what international law requires," Koh told the Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Council.

The call to abolish the death penalty was repeated throughout the list of 228 recommendations by other nations that formed part of the first comprehensive review of Washington's human rights record before the council.

Other nations also urged the U.S. to reduce overcrowding in prisons, ratify international treaties on the rights of women and children, and take further steps to prevent racial profiling.

Koh said the U.S. was committed to rooting out injustices and would seriously consider some of the recommendations, including one to sign a U.N. declaration on the rights of indigenous people.

But in response to recommendations made by adversaries such as Iran, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea, Koh said some proposals were "plainly intended as political provocations, and cannot be taken seriously." He didn't elaborate.

Civil society groups have praised the United States for involving them in the review process, which all U.N. member states have to undergo every four years.

"This international engagement must be followed by concrete domestic policies and actions and a commitment to fixing all domestic human rights abuses, not just the ones that are most convenient," the director of the American Civil Liberties Union's human rights program, Jamil Dakwar, said in a statement.

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Death To Gang Members: The Feds' New Tactic : NPR

Death To Gang Members: The Feds' New Tactic : NPR

Alejandro Enrique Ramirez Umana has an unfortunate claim on history. He is the first member of the MS-13, or Mara Salvatrucha, gang to be sentenced to death under the federal system of capital punishment, according to the Justice Department.
Prosecutors and FBI officials say the Umana investigation, which took them from North Carolina to California to El Salvador, is a model for how federal authorities will attack a growing gang threat that is leaching into smaller cities across America's heartland.
Umana is only 25. But over the course of his relatively short life, he allegedly killed five people in his role as a traveling evangelist for the MS-13 gang.

More...

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