Author: Claim Your Innocence

U will find on this website Death penalty news. Scheduled executions Inmates  cases (innocent or not) Books,  movies Studies  of psychology

Why Is The US Still Executing Teenage Offenders ?

June 11, 2012 Source : http://blog.amnestyusa.org

Texas is preparing to execute Yokamon Hearn on July 18th. If his execution is carried out, he would become the 483rd person put to death since Texas resumed executions in 1982.

Yokamon Hearn was 19 years old when he and 3 other youths set out to steal a car. They ended up shooting and killing Frank Meziere, a 23-year-old stockbroker. All four defendants were charged with capital murder, but the other three plead guilty and received deals. One got life imprisonment, the other two got ten years for aggravated robbery.

Yokamon Hearn was a teenager at the time of his crime, but not a juvenile. Article 37 of the Convention on the Rights of Child lays out the international standard for not executing juvenile offenders, defined as those who were under 18 at the time of the crime. (The U.S. is the only country except for Somalia that has not ratified this treaty.)

Likewise, Part III of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (to which the U.S. isa Party) also calls on states to prohibit the execution of offenders under 18. Upon ratification of the this treaty in 1992, the U.S. explicitly reserved for itself the right to ignore this provision and continue to kill these young offenders. But finally in 2005, with the Supreme Court decision in Roper v. Simmons, the U.S. put an end to executions of anyone under 18 at the time of the crime.

None of this helps Yokamon Hearn. Yet eighteen is an arbitrary age. There is no magic age at which one suddenly becomes a responsible adult, fully capable of making smart, informed decisions and not acting on impulse. Recent science tells us that brain development continues well into one’s 20′s, as does psychological and emotional maturation. 18 and 19 and 20 year-olds are not considered responsible enough decision makers to drink legally, yet they can be held fully responsible for their crimes and sentenced to the ultimate, irreversible punishment of death.  On he one hand, we seek to protect our youth from their immaturity; on the other we punish (and even kill) them for it.

The fact that their development has not been fully realized also means that young offenders who may have carried out impulsive, thoughtless actions as teenagers are more likely than their adult counterparts to successfully change and redeem their past mistakes. Executing people for crimes committed when they were teenagers ignores the fact that, in prison, they can grow up and become productive, functioning members of society.

Despite extensive scientific evidence of the differences between youth and adults related to culpability, decision making, and susceptibility to peer pressure, U.S. states continue to execute people for crimes committed when they were teenagers. Since 1982 Texas alone has killed at least 70 people who were aged 17, 18 or 19 at the time of their crime. This practice needs to stop immediately.

ARIZONA – Arizona court approves fifth execution this year

June 12, 2012 Source : http://www.chron.com

Tuesday approved the execution of a death-row inmate who was spared from the death penalty last year after winning a last-minute delay from the nation’s highest court.

Daniel Wayne Cook, 50, is now scheduled for execution on Aug. 8 at the state prison in Florence.

Cook was sentenced to death for killing a 26-year-old Guatemalan immigrant, Carlos Cruz-Ramos, and a 16-year-old boy, Kevin Swaney, in 1987, after police say he tortured and raped them for hours in his apartment in Lake Havasu City in far western Arizona.

Cook had been scheduled for execution on April 5 of last year, but the U.S. Supreme Court granted him a last-minute stay to consider whether he had ineffective counsel during his post-conviction proceedings. They since have turned him down.

FLORIDA – George Zimmerman’s Wife Arrested: Shellie Zimmerman Charged With Perjury

June 12, 2012 Source : http://www.huffingtonpost.com

Shelliezimmerman

ORLANDO, Fla. — The wife of Trayvon Martin’s shooter was charged with perjury Tuesday, accused of lying when she told a judge that the couple had limited funds during a hearing that resulted in her husband being released on $150,000 bond.

Shellie Zimmerman, 25, was released on $1,000 bond on the third-degree felony that is punishable by up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine. George Zimmerman has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in the teen’s slaying and had been out on bond after the April 20 hearing. However, Circuit Judge Kenneth Lester on June 1 revoked the bond and ordered Zimmerman returned to the Seminole County Jail. In a strongly worded ruling, Lester said the Zimmermans lied about how much money they had.

George Zimmerman’s attorney Mark O’Mara has said the couple was confused and fearful when they misled court officials about how much money they had. A call and email to him on Tuesday weren’t immediately returned.

Records show Shellie Zimmerman in the days before the hearing transferred $74,000 in eight smaller amounts ranging from $7,500 to $9,990, from her husband’s credit union account to hers, according to an arrest affidavit. It also shows that $47,000 was transferred from George Zimmerman’s account to his sister’s in the days before the bond hearing.

Four days after he was released on bond, Shellie Zimmerman transferred more than $85,500 from her account into her husband’s account, the affidavit said. The affidavit also said that jail call records show that George Zimmerman instructed her to “pay off all the bills,” including an American Express and Sam’s Club card.

A state attorney investigator met with credit union officials and learned that she had control of transfers to and from her husband’s account.

Jeffrey Neiman, a former federal prosecutor now in private practice, said cash transactions in excess of $10,000 usually trigger a reporting requirement by the bank to multiple government agencies – including the IRS.

“If Mrs. Zimmerman intentionally structured the financial transactions in a manner to keep the offense under $10,000, not only may she have committed perjury in the state case, but she also may have run afoul of several federal statutes and could face serious federal criminal charges,” Neiman wrote in an email to The Associated Press.

George Zimmerman, a 28-year-old neighborhood watch volunteer, has maintained since the Feb. 26 killing that he shot Martin in self-defense because the unarmed 17-year-old was beating him up after confronting Zimmerman about following him in a gated community outside Orlando.

Zimmerman was arrested 44 days later and at the bond hearing, he took the stand and apologized to Martin’s parents.

At the hearing, Shellie Zimmerman testified that the couple, who married in 2007, had limited funds for bail because she was a full-time student and her husband wasn’t working. Prosecutors say they actually had then already raised $135,000 in donations from a website George Zimmerman created. They suggested more had been raised since then.

Shellie Zimmerman was asked about the website at the hearing, but she said she didn’t know how much money had been raised. Lester set the $150,000 bail and Zimmerman was freed a few days later after posting $15,000 in cash – which is typical.

In bringing a motion to have Zimmerman’s bond revoked lead prosecutor Bernie De la Rionda complained “This court was led to believe they didn’t have a single penny. It was misleading and I don’t know what words to use other than it was a blatant lie.”

The judge agreed and ordered Zimmerman returned to jail where he has been since turning himself in on June 3. He didn’t perjure himself, but Lester said he knew his wife was lying.

“Does your client get to sit there like a potted plant and lead the court down the primrose path? That’s the issue,” Lester said in revoking Zimmerman’s bond. “He can’t sit back and obtain the benefit of a lower bond based upon those material falsehoods.”

He has another bond hearing set for June 29.

De la Rionda presented to the judge during the revocation hearing a partial transcript of telephone conversations Zimmerman had with his wife from jail, days before the original bond hearing.

Zimmerman and his wife discussed the amount of money raised from the website, and Zimmerman spoke in code to tell his wife how to make fund transfers, according to the transcript. The code referred to amounts of “$15” in place of “$150,000.”

In the arrest affidavit, they also spoke about small amounts when really, prosecutors said, they were referring in code to thousands of dollars that Shellie Zimmerman withdrew from her account to pay the bail bondsman.

___

MISSISSIPPI – Michael Brawner Execution – Last Hours EXECUTED 6:18 P.M

final statement, Brawner said he wished to apologize to the victims’ family, adding he could not change what he had done. “Maybe this will bring you a little peace. Thank you,” 

June 12, 2012 Execution of Jan Michael Brawner 7:00 p.m. News Briefing

Parchman, Miss. – The Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) today conducted the mandated execution of state inmate Jan Michael Brawner. Inmate Brawner was pronounced dead at 6:18 p.m. at Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman.
MDOC Commissioner Christopher Epps said during a press conference following the execution that the evening signified the close of the Jan Michael Brawner case. Brawner was sentenced to death in April 2002 for the crimes of capital murder of Candice Paige Brawner, Barbara Faye Brawner, Martha Jane Craft and Carl Albert Craftin Tate County, Miss.“The State of Mississippi – Department of Corrections has today carried out a court order. It is our agency’s role to see that the order of the court is carried out with dignity and decorum. That, ladies and gentlemen, has been done.” said MDOC Commissioner Chris Epps. “Through the course of 11 years, death row inmate Jan Michael Brawner was afforded his day in court and in the finality, his conviction was upheld all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.”
“I ask that you join me in prayer for the family of Candice Paige Brawner, Barbara Faye Brawner, Martha Jane Craft and Carl Albert Craft. The entire MDOC family hopes you may now embark on the process of healing. Our prayers and thoughts are with you as you continue life’s journey,” said Epps.
Epps concluded his comments by commending Deputy Commissioner of Institutions Emmitt Sparkman,
Parchman Penitentiary Superintendent Earnest Lee, Mississippi State Penitentiary security staff and the entire
staff of the Mississippi Department of Corrections for their professionalism during the process.

June 12, 2012 Scheduled Execution of Jan Michael Brawner
4:45 p.m. News Briefing
___________________________________________________________________________________
Parchman, Miss. – The Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) today briefed
members of the news media of death row Inmate Jan Michael Brawner’s activities from 2:00 p.m. to approximately 4:45 p.m., including telephone calls and visits.

Inmate Brawner’s Collect Telephone Calls
 Today, Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Four phone calls to Louwlynn Williams (attorney)

Update to Inmate Brawner’s Visits
 He had no family visitors
 Attorneys David Calder and Laurence Komp visited with Inmate Brawner from 3:00p.m. until 3:25 p.m.
 His spiritual advisors, Father Marvin Edwards (MDOC Chaplain) and Father Todd Pittman (spiritual advisor), visited with the inmate from 3:15 to 4:00pm. They left Unit 17 at 4:00 p.m.

Activities of Inmate Brawner:
 Inmate Brawner ate all of his last meal except a small portion of the salad.
 Inmate Brawner does not want to take a shower.
 He has requested a sedative. (Diazepam 5 mg)
 Inmate Brawner remains under observation. Officers have observed Inmate Brawnerto be in a good mood and talkative

The United States Supreme Court has denied Jan Michael Brawner’s certiorari petition and application for stay of execution.

June 12, 2012 Scheduled Execution of Jan Michael Brawner
2:00 p.m. News Briefing
__________________________________________________________________________________
Parchman, Miss. – The Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) will hold three news
briefings today related to events surrounding the Tuesday, June 12, 2012 scheduled
execution of death row Inmate Jan Michael Brawner, MDOC #R3430. The following is an
update on Inmate Brawner’s recent visits and telephone calls, activities, last meal to be
served, and the official list of execution witnesses.
Approved visitation list:
Brian Peyto (friend)
Louwlynn Williams (attorney)
David Calder (attorney)
Laurence Komp (attorney)
Father Marvin Edwards (MDOC Chaplain)
Father Todd Pittman (spiritual advisor)
Davey Hammons (MDOC chaplain)
Visits with Inmate Jan Michael Brawner

Monday, June 11, 2012
 David Calder (attorney)
 Laurence Komp (attorney)
 Davey Hammons (MDOC Chaplain)
Visits today, thus far:
 Davey Hammons (MDOC Chaplain)

Activities of Brawner
 Inmate Brawner was transferred from Unit 29 to Unit 17 on Sunday at 6:00 p.m.
 This morning, at Unit 17, Inmate Brawner was offered breakfast. He ate one serving of
grits, 1 cinnamon roll, 2 boxes of milk. He did not eat the two boiled eggs or the one cup of
coffee that were also offered.
 Inmate Brawner was offered lunch today. He ate two slices of turkey ham, squash and
tomatoes, a salad, white bread, and one 10-ounce cup of punch. He did not eat the turnip
greens or sliced peaches that were also offered.
 Inmate Brawner has access to a telephone to place unlimited collect calls to persons
on his approved telephone list. He will have access today, June 12th until 5:00 p.m.

2:00 p.m. News Briefing – Scheduled Execution of Jan Michael Brawner

June 12, 2012
Approved Telephone List
Brian Peyto (friend)
Louwlynn Williams (attorney)
Laurence Komp (attorney)
David Calder (attorney)
Linda Conn (friend)
Denise Richards (friend)
Ruby Havard (friend)
Vermell Williams (friend)
Daphne Lee (friend)
Jill Rider (friend)

Inmate Brawner’s Collect Telephone Calls

 Monday, June 11, 2012
Two phone calls to Louwlynn Williams (attorney)
One phone call to Brian Peyto (friend)
Today, June 12, 2012
Thus far today:
Two phone calls to Louwlynn Williams (attorney)
According to the MDOC correctional officers that are posted outside his cell, Inmate
Brawner is observed to be very talkative and in a good mood. He discussed the crimes that he was convicted of.Brawner’s Remains
Inmate Brawner has requested that his body be released to Mississippi Mortuary Service, in Pearl, MS.

Last Meal
Inmate Brawner requested the following as his last meal: One DiGiorno Italian Style Favorites Chicken Parmesan pizza, One DiGiorno Italian Style Favorites Meat Trio pizza, a small salad (lettuce, pickles, black olives, tomatoes, shredded cheddar cheese with Ranch dressing), small bottle Tabasco sauce, ½ gallon brewed iced sweet tea and 1 pint Breyers Blast Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup ice cream.
Execution Witnesses
Spiritual Advisor(s) for the condemned Inmate Brawner requested Father Marvin Edwards and Father Todd Pittman witness the execution.
Member(s) of the condemned’s family Inmate Brawner requested no family member witness the execution.
Attorney(s) for the condemned David Calder (attorney), and Laurence Komp (attorney)
Member(s) of the victims’ family David Wayne Craft (uncle of Candice Paige Brawner, brother of Barbara Faye Brawner, son of Martha Jane Craft and Carl Albert Craft)
Sheriffs Sheriff James Haywood, Sunflower County
Sheriff Brad Lance, Tate County
District Attorney John Champion, 17thCircuit Court District (Tate County)
Chuck Poe, Former Investigator, Tate County Hwy Patrol
Members of the Media Holbrook “Burt” Mohr Associated Press Jackson, MS
Chiyoko Nakamoto Fuji TV Network New York, NY / Japan
Daniel Cherry
MS Public Broadcasting
Jackson, MS
Candace McCowan
WREG TV 3
Memphis, TN
##

Tennesse – Memphis man released after 27 years in prison

June 12, 2012  Source : http://www.commercialappeal.com

A former death row inmate who won a new trial in the 1983 murder of a Memphis grocer has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to time he already has served.

Erskine Leroy Johnson, 54, was released Friday morning after serving 26 years, 11 months and five days for the shooting death of Joe Belenchia during a holdup on Oct. 2, 1983, at the Food Rite Grocery at 2803 Lamar.

“He is overjoyed at being out,” said Gerald Skahan, chief capital-case attorney in the Public Defenders Office. “He is looking forward to enjoying the rest of his life and spending it helping others.”

He said Johnson has always maintained his innocence, but entered an Alford plea, also called a best-interests plea, so he could get out of prison and avoid putting his family through a trial.

He was released Friday morning from the Shelby County Jail after entering his plea this week in Criminal Court.

Johnson was on death row from Jan. 26, 1995, to Nov. 15, 2004, but was re-sentenced to life in prison after the state Supreme Court ruled prosecutors did not give the defense a police report showing the defendant could not have fired a shot that wounded a customer in the store.

Then last December the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals awarded Johnson a new trial, ruling that newly discovered evidence raised by the defense may have caused the jury to reach a different verdict.

The court found that new evidence indicating close relationships among several of the state’s witnesses, if true, could have been viewed as a motive to protect other possible suspects and could have weakened the witnesses’ credibility before the jury.

Johnson said that around the time of the murder he was in St. Louis at a birthday party for his mother.

Prosecutors said Johnson’s palm print was found on the getaway car and that one witness told the jury that Johnson had confessed to “a cold-blooded” shooting in Memphis.

Deputy Dist. Atty. John Campbell said the state offered the settlement because the case was nearly 30 years old and Johnson already had served nearly 27 years in prison. A life sentence under laws in effect at the time of the murder was at least 25 years.

Campbell said prison officials had called Johnson “an exemplary prisoner” and that the state parole board had granted his release scheduled for June 11.

 

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Mississippi may see most executions since 1950s

June 11, 2012 Source : http://www.timesdaily.com

With four execution so far and two scheduled this month, Mississippi is on pace to have more executions in 2012 than it has had in any year since the 1950s.

The last time Mississippi executed more than four inmates in any single year was in 1961, when five died in the gas chamber. There were eight executions in each of the years 1955 and 1956. In those days, inmates were put to death for crimes like armed robbery, rape or murder. Today, the only crime punishable by death in Mississippi is capital murder — a murder that happens during the commission of another felony.

The increase in executions comes as fewer people are being sentenced to death across the country. Some experts say the upward trend in Mississippi isn’t likely to last.

Don Cabana, a former Mississippi corrections commissioner and author of the book, “Death At Midnight: The Confessions of an Executioner,” said the increase “was absolutely predictable” and has more to do with timing and the pace of appeals than anything else.

“You have a number of people who have been sitting on death row for a long time whose cases kind of simultaneously, or in close proximity, started exhausting their appeals,” Cabana said.

Three of the men executed so far this year were convicted of crimes committed in 1995 and the other was convicted in the 1990 stabbing deaths of four children.

Jan Michael Brawner, who’s scheduled for execution on Tuesday, was convicted in the 2001 killings of his 3-year-old daughter, his ex-wife and her parents in Tate County. Gary Carl Simmons Jr., scheduled to die by injection June 20, was convicted of shooting and dismembering a man in Pascagoula over a drug debt in 1996.

“Mississippi went for a long time with no executions, or hardly any executions. It’s due to the slowness of the appellate process. But now these cases are coming to fruition,” said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit group that collects and analyzes information on the death penalty.

Jim Craig, an attorney who has worked on appeals for death row inmates, believes there’s more to it than that.

Craig said that seven out of 11 men executed in Mississippi since 2008 were represented on appeal by the Mississippi Office of Capital Post-Conviction Counsel when it was led by attorney Bob Ryan, who took over the office in 2002. Glenn S. Swartzfager took over the office in 2008.

In a 2006 affidavit obtained by The Associated Press, Ryan described a situation in which the office lacked manpower and funding and he sometimes relied on trial summaries when filing appeals in numerous cases. At one point, he was essentially “the sole counsel on 21 cases,” he wrote in the affidavit.

Craig says he’s convinced that some of those men would be alive, either still appealing their cases or having their death sentences reduced, if they had better representation. Craig said many appeals were filed based only on the court transcript, and the post-conviction office didn’t bother to interview witnesses.

“This is more than just the usual things moving at the usual speed. This is a breakdown in the system of providing lawyers to poor people when the state is trying to execute them,” he said.

The Mississippi Office of Capital Post-Conviction Counsel was created by the Legislature in 2000 to represent indigent death row inmates in appeals.

“A pace of one or two executions a year is about what Mississippi has averaged. The reason why we have had 11 since 2008, I think it has to do with the failures of the post-conviction office in those years,” Craig said.

The number of executions in Mississippi has fluctuated from year to year. There were two executions last year, three in 2010, none in 2009 and two in 2008. There also have been long gaps in executions over the years because of litigation. There were lulls between 1964 and 1983 and again from 1989 to 2002.

So far this year, Mississippi is only one execution behind Texas. Texas, however, has more executions scheduled for the remainder of the year than Mississippi. Texas has executed some 460 more people than Mississippi since 1976, but Texas has a much larger population.

There are 52 inmates on death row in Mississippi, which ranks 15th among death penalty states. Two of the inmates on Mississippi’s death row are women, though it has been decades since a woman was executed in Mississippi. California has the most death row inmates with around 723.

Richard Jordan, 66, who was first convicted in 1977, is the oldest person on Mississippi’s death row and has been there the longest, according to the Mississippi Department of Corrections. Jordan has an appeal pending in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Mississippi Supreme Court sets execution date for Gary Carl Simmons Jr.- June 20

June 5, 2012 source : http://www.therepublic.com

JACKSON, Miss. — The Mississippi Supreme Court set a June 20 execution date Tuesday for 49-year-old Gary Carl Simmons Jr.

The court set the date and granted Simmons’ request for in-person contact visits with a forensic psychologist and a neuropsychologist for the purpose of conducting mental health evaluations. His attorneys had argued that the mental evaluation was necessary because Simmons may have post-traumatic stress disorder or other illnesses and had suffered from abuse as a child.

Simmons was convicted for shooting and dismembering Jeffrey Wolfe, who was killed in August 1996 after going to Simmons’ Pascagoula home to collect on a drug debt.

Timothy Milano, Simmons’ co-defendant and the person authorities said shot Wolfe, was convicted on the same charges and sentenced to life in prison.

Simmons worked as a grocery store butcher when he and Milano were charged with killing Wolfe. Police said the pair kidnapped Wolfe and his female friend and later assaulted the woman and locked her in a box. Police later found parts of Wolfe’s dismembered body at Simmons’ house, in the yard and in a nearby bayou.

Simmons also argued his original lawyers were ineffective at trial and that he never later had lawyers good enough to point out shortcomings.

In addition, he argued his legal cause suffered in part because of ineffective assistance by Bob Ryan, formerly head of the state office meant to handle post-conviction appeals for people sentenced to death.

The state’s high court, however, denied Simmons’ request to challenge the performance of prior post-conviction counsel.

Amnesty International Usa – Support a strong Arms Trade Treaty this July!

KILLER FACT: Just six countries export 74% of the world’s weapons! The world’s most powerful countries must put human rights before profits and stop arming abusers.

Support  click here

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Is The Death Penalty Moral ?

Sentencing reforms need to be set in place preventing ‘permanent’ punishments. Sentencing needs to be derived from a ‘protect us from the bad elements’ point of view and not from a ‘pay them back for their nefarious deeds’ point of view.

When a law is created from a retribution or payback perspective, it violates the spirit of law and order, particularly, when a sentence option is death, having the wrong person or an aggressive prosecution and then doing something as ‘unacceptable’ as they did sounds like childish retribution and just doesn’t weigh in as making sense.

If you have the wrong person and you kill them, then heaven save us all. It could be you, me, any family member, friend or a complete stranger; it doesn’t matter because they are dead. This is dangerous to us all and why are we paying taxes to have a law like this if there is a potential that we can be easily killed by accidentor wrongly but legally. It doesn’t matter how rarely it might happen, death just doesn’t sound smart to me.

Again, if the prosecution believes that the person is guilty, their expert experience with the judicial system give them an advantage as well as increase the likelihood that an innocent person gets the death penalty.  I am not insinuating that prosecutors are evil, maybe, maybe not; the point is when the sentencing is so permanent it leaves NO room for mistakes. In this era of human rights I find it difficult that the most valuable right we have, the right to life, is not protected.

How can we punish someone for something we say is wrong and are abhorred by and then go and do the exact same thing to them ourselves, collectively, and feel justified in our actions.  We ignore the reality of it all by saying we are more humane and we would not be doing it if they did not make the choices they have chosen.  Then we sit down, contemplate, debate, and plan laws, voting on them and finally making a decision in the first degree of culpability to impose a death penalty.

If you say killing is wrong, then it’s wrong. Period.

Source : http://socyberty.com

Canada – Luka Rocco Magnotta likely to be extradited from Germany by end of June

June 07 , 2012 Source : http://www2.canada.com

BERLIN – German prosecutors said Thursday the Canadian porn star accused of the grisly killing and dismemberment of a Chinese student in Montreal last month will likely be extradited by the end of June.

“We hope that he can be extradited by the end of the month,” a spokesman for the Berlin public prosecutor’s office, Martin Steltner, told AFP following the arrest of Luka Rocco Magnotta in the German capital on Monday.

Steltner said the first official step in the extradition procedure should be taken later Thursday.

Luka Rocco Magnotta

Luka Rocco Magnotta

“Berlin prosecutors will submit the extradition request for Luka Rocco Magnotta to Berlin’s higher regional court, which is to examine whether it complies with the law,” he said.

If the court upholds the legality of the request, the public prosecutor would then submit it to the German government for a routine examination of whether the penalty the suspect would face in his home country could violate his human rights, Steltner said.

Germany does not extradite to countries that have the death penalty, which Canada does not.

The 29-year-old Magnotta was picked up in a Berlin Internet cafe looking up online articles about himself after a witness tip ended a 10-day-long international manhunt while he was on the run to Paris and then Berlin.

He is awaiting extradition to face charges in Canada of murdering 33-year-old Chinese student Lin Jun, believed at one point to have been his lover.

Magnotta allegedly filmed himself on the night of May 24-25 killing Lin with a pickaxe and dismembering the body before sending a foot and a hand to the headquarters of Canadian political parties, including the ruling Conservatives.

Canadian police said Wednesday they were probing a macabre new twist in the case after further body parts sent from Montreal turned up at Vancouver schools. It was not immediately clear whether the limbs belonged to Lin.

A torso, which has been identified as belonging to Lin, was discovered in a suitcase outside Magnotta’s apartment building, but his head and his second hand and foot were all unaccounted for before Tuesday.

A series of new videos from Magnotta – likely filmed after the murder – have surfaced on the Internet and appear to be authentic, according to police.

In one, posted on the video-sharing site YouTube, a seemingly cavalier Magnotta is seen smoking and says, “what’s up and hi to all my fans,” while Madonna’s song “La Isla Bonita” plays in the background.

Police called the initial video showing the murder “sordid” and said the crime scene was virtually covered in blood.

Lin had been studying computer science in Montreal before his gory death.

His grieving parents, accompanied by his sister and uncle, arrived in Montreal late Tuesday from China to meet with Chinese diplomats, police and university administrators, the Chinese consulate told AFP.

Vancouver police said the packaging and addresses on the boxes sent to two schools there, in the far west of the country, were similar to those on the parcels discovered at the political offices in eastern Canada.

Montreal police spokesman Ian Lafreniere told reporters that a note was included with one package sent to a Vancouver school, as well as one of the packages delivered to Ottawa, but did not discuss the contents of the notes.

After a warrant was issued for Magnotta’s arrest, local media reported that a note sent with a severed foot to Conservative Party headquarters indicated that more body parts had been sent in the mail, and that the person who dismembered the victim would kill again.

Magnotta, who has been dubbed the “Canadian Psycho” and the “Butcher of Montreal,“ fled Canada on May 26, initially to Paris, before boarding a bus to Berlin on Friday.

Canadian authorities said he will face charges of first-degree murder and committing indignities to a body. He is also expected to be charged with publishing and mailing obscene matter to Canadian politicians.

Magnotta, who has worked as a bisexual porn star and as a gay prostitute called “Angel,” has changed his name and used several aliases. He had several fraud convictions on his record.

A series of judge-imposed conditions reportedly banned him from owning or using a camera or a computer, and from accessing the Internet.

Germany’s daily Bild, reporting on Magnotta’s past, said he was a high school graduate who had grown up with his grandparents.

———————————-

I ask  : Magnotta will not fight for his extradition, it seems normal because Canada no longer practices the death penalty. In such cases, is – what Canada should reconsider to reinstall the death penalty ? What do u think ? 

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