IPS-English DEATH PENALTY-GUATEMALA: Green Light for Executions Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2008 15:46:02 -0800 Inés Benítez GUATEMALA CITY, Feb 13 (IPS) - Guatemalan President Álvaro Colom said Wednesday that he would not pardon those on death row -- a presidential option that was restored by parliament in a decision that ended a de facto moratorium on executions in place since 2000. On Tuesday, the Guatemalan Congress passed a law that allows the president to pardon prisoners on death row or commute their sentences to life in prison -- a decision that drew heavy criticism from human rights groups because they say it will expedite executions. While the new law allows the president to pardon the 21 inmates currently facing capital punishment, by filling a legal vacuum that has blocked executions since 2000 it actually gives the go-ahead for the application of the death penalty. ”The law has major technical flaws, because it does not guarantee an effective pardon and because it contravenes international law,” David Dávila at the Guatemalan Institute for Comparative Studies in Penal Sciences told IPS. Dávila announced that a group of non-governmental organisations would ask Colom to veto the law, which was approved by more than two-thirds of the members of parliament after a wave of killings of bus drivers last week. In the space of just four days, youth gangs known locally as ”maras” murdered seven bus drivers who they were extorting for ”protection” payments. But analysts say it is unlikely that Colom, a social democrat who took office on Jan. 14, will veto the new law. Although he said in the election campaign that capital punishment was not a ”solution” to violent crime, he clarified that it was provided for by Guatemalan legislation and said he would respect the country's laws. In addition, opinion polls show that a majority of people in this impoverished Central American country, which has one of the highest per capita homicide rates in the world, support the death penalty. At any rate, a presidential veto would be fairly easy for the legislature to overturn. Doing so would require the votes of 105 of the 158 members of the single-chamber parliament, when in fact 140 lawmakers, including Colom's supporters, approved the law on Tuesday. ”They are trying to speed up the executions,” said Dávila, who said application of the death penalty would hurt the international image of Guatemala, which on Dec. 18 voted in favour of a global moratorium on executions in the United Nations General Assembly. During the government of Alfonso Portillo (2000-2004), Congress overturned an 1892 law on presidential pardons, leaving Guatemala without any procedure for prisoners to be pardoned or amnestied or to have their sentences commuted, and creating a de facto moratorium on executions. Dávila pointed out that the 30-day timeframe given the president to decide on each death penalty case was criticised in an open letter sent to Guatemalan legislators in May 2007 by the International Federation of Human Rights Leagues (FIDH). The FIDH also expressed concern over the fact that if the president fails to make a pronouncement on a case, the sentence automatically proceeds to execution, based on the tacit denial of a pardon. The American Convention on Human Rights, which was ratified by Guatemala in 1978, states that the death penalty cannot be applied as long as any appeal is pending. Although the law was not on the legislative agenda, it was put to a vote Tuesday on the initiative of the rightwing opposition Patriot Party (PP). Only the leftist Encuentro por Guatemala and Guatemalan National Revolutionary Union parties voted against it. PP leader Otto Pérez Molina said the death penalty, along with the declaration of a state of emergency in the country's most violent areas and the participation of the military in policing could help the government deal with the country's severe problems with violent crime. ”We are opposed to the application of the death penalty,” Iduvina Hernández, the head of the non-governmental Association for the Study and Promotion of Security in a Democracy (SEDEM), told IPS. She said the approval of the law was ”a political show that does not resolve the underlying problem of violence.” In Guatemala, one of the poorest countries in Latin America, less than 10 percent of homicides are solved. The high levels of violence and the continued existence of death squads that carry out ”social cleansing”, often targeting suspected gang members, are holdovers from the 1960-1996 civil war in which 200,000 mainly rural indigenous people were killed, the great majority by the security forces and allied paramilitary groups. According to the Mutual Support Group, a local human rights organisation, 3,319 murders were reported in this country of 13 million in 2007. Most of the victims were shot to death. In 1996, two men were executed by firing squad in Guatemala. But one of the executions -- which were televised -- was botched, requiring a coup de grace to complete the job. The howls of outrage from the international community prompted the government to switch methods. The latest executions, one of which took place in 1998 and two in 2000, were carried out by lethal injection, and went ahead despite appeals for clemency lodged by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Sixty percent of those on death row in Guatemala have been sentenced for kidnapping (some of the cases involved the death of the victim), and 40 percent for homicide. Commenting on how routine murder has become in Guatemala, Unionist Party legislator Pablo Duarte said during Tuesday's parliamentary debate that ”It's outrageous to see children eating ice cream every day at crime scenes, standing right next to the dead bodies. I hope those sentenced to death are executed.” But Hernández argued that ”Guatemala should move forward, not backwards,” and added that if the president does not veto the law, a group of non-governmental organisations will file a lawsuit arguing that it is unconstitutional. ***** + GUATEMALA: Bus Drivers Targets of Organised Crime Killings (http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41131) + DEATH PENALTY-GUATEMALA: Inmates in Limbo (http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=37790) + Stop the Killing - More IPS News on the Death Penalty (http://ipsnews.net/new_focus/deathpenalty/index.asp) (END/IPS/LA IP HD DP CS/TRASP-SW/IB/JSP-DM/08) = 02140321 ORP006 NNNN [drugawareness] ANTIDEPRESSANTS: School Shooter was Withdrawing from Depression Med & An... Resent-Date: Sat, 16 Feb 2008 22:57:35 -0600 (CST) In case you have not yet heard what we all knew we would hear in this case, here is the release about which medications Stephen Kazmierczak, the NIU shooter, was taking. I have also heard there are reports that he had a diagnosis of Bipolar - what else after nine years of antidepressants?????? Do you get Bipolar Disorder any other way anymore?? Ann Blake Tracy, Ph.D., Executive Director, International Coalition For Drug Awareness Website: _www.drugawareness.www_ (http://www.drugawareness.org/) & _www.ssristories.www_ (http://www.ssristories.com/) Author: Prozac: Panacea or Pandora? - Our Serotonin Nightmare & CD or audio tape on safe withdrawal: "Help! I Can't Get Off My Antidepressant!Off Order Number: 800-280-0730 ____________________________________ Paragraph 3 reads: "Kazmierczak, 27, was treated for mental illness nine years ago. He was considered volatile, according to a staff member who worked at the facility at the time, and violent if he stopped taking the antidepressant and anti-anxiety pills prescribed for him. It was medication he was supposed to still be taking and apparently stopped a couple of weeks ago." _http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=5959663 _ (http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=5959663) Shooter obtained guns legally DEKALB, Ill. (WLS) -- The gunman was known as a quiet, polite, engaging student at NIU, but a darker side of Stephen Kazmierczak is now coming to light. Authorities have not figured out what motivated the man, described as a hardworking, award-winning former honor student by NIU faculty, to go on a shooting rampage that killed five students. Kazmierczak, 27, was treated for mental illness nine years ago. He was considered volatile, according to a staff member who worked at the facility at the time, and violent if he stopped taking the antidepressant and anti-anxiety pills prescribed for him. It was medication he was supposed to still be taking and apparently stopped a couple of weeks ago. Shortly after Kazmierczak graduated from Elk Grove Village High School in 1998, his parents became unable to handle him, according to a woman who worked as a residential manager at a psychiatric treatment center for mentally and behaviorally troubled teenagers. Kazmierczak lived at the Mary Hill Home on Chicago's Northwest Side and received psychiatric treatment for more than a year after he was diagnosed as mentally ill in the late 1990s. His parents sent him for treatment. nt "He was already on medication, but he was not taking it at home and would not follow instructions," said Louise Gbadamashi, former manager of Thresholds, the company that ran the home. She said the first thing she thought when she learned the shooter was Kazmierczak was, "he didn't take his meds. He was kind of quiet, kept to himself. He picked his friends, he was kind of passive aggressive. "He was a cutter," said Gbadamashi. "He would cut himself. Then he would let you discover it. He wouldn't tell you, he would roll up his sleeve and ask you a question, and you'd turn around and see it." She said Kazmierczak's expression rarely changed, so it was hard to tell if he was depressed. "He strikes out, and you have to really know him," said Gbadamashi. "In his eye, you can see it. You can't look at him like, 'I'm angry, you're going to know it.' It's just stoic, just stoic." Officials at Thresholds declined to comment for this report. At their last briefing, Northern Illinois University officials said they had no evidence Kazmierczak had received psychiatric treatment. After he finished treatment and left the group home, he enlisted in the Army but never made it out of basic training. He was discharged from the Army. There's a report he told his girlfriend he was discharged for psychological reasons. Despite all this, Illinois gun statutes did not preclude him from legally buying firearms. Kazmierczak studied sociology, acting as a graduate teaching assistant and mentor to undergrads at NIU, before going to University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for graduate school. His faculty adviser, U of I professor Jan Carter-Black, said she's stunned. Carter-Black said she "saw nothing to suggest that there was anything troubling about his behavior." In 2006, he was a dean's list student and officer on a student criminal justice organization. Police said Kazmierczak started acting erratically after he stopped taking his medication. That medication and his condition are not known. Alexandra Chapman was a friend of Kazmierczak. "He was one of the most genuine people I have ever met. I want people to know that he was a really great person, that he was just a really great guy, he was so kind and would always do anything for you. So it doesn't make sense. I just don't want people to think of him as a monster," said Chapman. The Weapons All four of the weapons sued in the attack were legally purchased from a Champaign store, Tony's Gun Shop. Kazmierczak moved to the area in 2007. Because Kazmierczak had no criminal record and did not cite any psychiatric hospitalization in his past, he obtained a valid Illinois Firearms Owners Identification Card. Two of the guns- a high-point 380 handgun, a compact pistol with an 8 round magazine, and a Sig Sauer 9mm luger with a 13-round clip, were purchased last year. The handgun was purchased on December 31, 2007 and the Sig Sauer was purchased in August. The two other guns -- a Remington shotgun and Glock 9-mm pistol with a 15 round magazine-- were purchased on February 9, 2008, just five days before the shooting. Kazmierczak carried the Remington shotgun, which he fired first and reloaded several times, according to witnesses, in a guitar case. Kazmierczak grew up in northwest suburban Elk Grove Village and graduated from Elk Grove High School in 1998 with a 'B' average. His mother died shortly after his parents moved to Lakeland, Florida last year. His father did not want to talk to reporters. "No comment, OK?" said Robert Kazmierczak, NIU gunman's father. "This is a very hard time." The key to unlocking the mystery of Kazmierczak may be his mental health history. While officials said he was off his medication, they have yet to identify what drugs the 27-year-old was taking. (Copyright )2008 WLS-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.) **************Ideas to please picky eaters. Watch video on AOL Living. (http://living.aol.com/video/how-to-please-your-picky-eater/rachel-campos-duffy/ 2050827?NCID=aolcmp00300000002598) [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]