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USA: Begnadigung für Todeskandidaten!
Amnesty-Mahnwache gegen die Todesstrafe in den USA vor der US-Botschaft in Berlin (Archivaufnahme)
© Amnesty International, Foto: Christian Jungeblodt
Benjamin Cole soll am 20. Oktober im US-Bundesstaat Oklahoma hingerichtet werden. Er wurde im Dezember 2004 wegen der Tötung seiner neun Monate alten Tochter zum Tode verurteilt. Bei ihm wurden eine paranoide Schizophrenie und eine Hirnschädigung diagnostiziert. Am 27. September findet vor dem Begnadigungsausschuss von Oklahoma eine Anhörung zu seinem Fall statt. Amnesty International fordert die Mitglieder des Ausschusses auf, Gouverneur Kevin Stitt zu empfehlen, das Todesurteil von Benjamin Cole umzuwandeln.
Appell an
Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board
2915 N Classen Blvd #405
Oklahoma City, OK 73106
USA
Sende eine Kopie an
Botschaft der Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika
I. E. Frau Amy Gutmann
Clayallee 170
14195 Berlin
Fax: 030-83 05 10 50
E-Mail: feedback@usembassy.de
Amnesty fordert:
- Ich bitte Sie, Gouverneur Kevin Stitt die Umwandlung des Todesurteils von Benjamin Cole zu empfehlen.
Sachlage
Benjamin Cole soll am 20. Oktober in Oklahoma wegen des Mordes an seiner kleinen Tochter im Dezember 2002 hingerichtet werden. Am 27. September wird der Begnadigungsausschuss sein Gnadengesuch prüfen. Benjamin Coles Rechtsbeistände hegen seit langem ernsthafte Zweifel an dessen geistigen Fähigkeiten. Aufgrund einer lange bestehenden psychosozialen (geistigen) Behinderung seien diese eingeschränkt. Er sei über die Jahre nicht in der Lage gewesen, sie bei der Bearbeitung seines Falls zu unterstützen, weder bei der Haupt- noch bei den Berufungsverhandlungen. Ihm fehle das Verständnis für das Gerichtsverfahren, für die Berufungen und in den letzten Jahren auch für seine geplante Hinrichtung. Seit Beginn des Falls hätten sie Benjamin Cole als Mandanten erlebt, der nicht in der Lage ist, auf rationale und kohärente Weise mit ihnen zu kommunizieren.
Im Jahr 2008 wurde bei Benjamin Cole eine paranoide Schizophrenie diagnostiziert. Berichten zufolge wurde diese während der jahrelangen Haft im Todestrakt nicht behandelt, sodass sich sein Zustand weiter verschlechtert habe. Bereits 2004 wurde außerdem erstmalig eine Läsion in seinem Gehirn festgestellt. Diese könnte einem Neuroradiologen zufolge seine geistige Behinderung noch verschlimmern und wäre auch eine Erklärung für seine sich verschlechternde Motorik, die möglicherweise auf eine Parkinson-Erkrankung hinweist. Benjamin Cole nutzt einen Rollstuhl.
Eine Person hinzurichten, die nicht in der Lage ist, ihre Strafe rational zu erfassen, verstößt gegen die US-Verfassung. Auch internationale Menschenrechtsnormen verbieten die Verhängung von Todesurteilen gegen Menschen mit psychosozialen (geistigen) und intellektuellen Einschränkungen.
In diesem Jahr gab es bereits zehn Hinrichtungen in den USA, drei davon in Oklahoma. Seit der Verabschiedung der neuen Todesstrafengesetze durch den Obersten Gerichtshof im Juli 1976 sind in den USA insgesamt 1.550 Todesurteile vollstreckt worden, 117 davon allein in Oklahoma. Damit liegt der Bundesstaat nach dem benachbarten Texas an zweiter Stelle. Auf Texas und Oklahoma zusammen entfallen 10 % der US-Bevölkerung und 45 % der Hinrichtungen seit 1976. Amnesty International wendet sich in allen Fällen, weltweit und ausnahmslos gegen die Todesstrafe.
Hintergrundinformation
Benjamin Cole was charged with the first-degree murder of his nine-month-old daughter, who died on 20 December 2002, with the official cause of death recorded as fracture of the spine with aortic laceration. In a videotaped statement to the police, Benjamin Cole said he had been trying to get the child, who was lying on her stomach, to stop crying. He had pushed her forcefully by the ankles, causing her to flip over on to her back. This action resulted in the fatal injuries. The prosecution offered Benjamin Cole a plea deal to avoid the death penalty – if he pled guilty, he would receive a sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. He rejected the deal, and the case went to trial in late 2004. He was convicted as charged and sentenced to death.
Lawyers representing Benjamin Cole have described a client unable to engage in rational and coherent communication with them. For example, in 2003, his trial lawyers questioned his "ability to understand the nature of the charges against him and meaningfully assist his attorneys", and in 2004, they reported that his "responses to questions pertaining to his defense are unrelated and unresponsive to what was asked and appear to be based on unrealistic and irrational thoughts and ideas." He was twice found competent to stand trial.
In 2008, Benjamin Cole’s appeal lawyers retained a psychiatrist to reassess their client’s mental status. The psychiatrist concluded that Benjamin Cole was incompetent to assist his appeal attorneys and that this was "not based on rational thought" but stemmed from "schizophrenia, paranoid type", manifesting in "hyper-religiosity" and "persecutory and grandiose delusions". The psychiatrist opined that this mental disability existed "long before" the crime (and may have contributed to it). He pointed to the possibility of post-traumatic stress disorder, and to a family history of mental disability and a childhood of substance abuse, incest, and emotional, physical, and sexual abuse. Because his report was not part of appeals in state court, the federal courts have not taken it into account under the 1996 Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act which limits federal review of state court decisions.
Benjamin Cole received an execution date in 2015 (eventually stayed under lethal injection litigation). In this context, a psychologist retained by the defence concluded that Benjamin Cole "presents as a classic example of a severely regressed chronic schizophrenic patient (with catatonic features), whose condition is likely further compromised by the previously detected brain disorder captured by neuroimaging studies." The psychologist described the mental disability in this case as "chronic", "persistent" and "severe". He further noted that the effect of the "brain lesion located in the deep white matter of the frontal-parietal region of the left hemisphere of his brain that was discovered by neuroimaging studies in September 2004", but not followed up, was unknown. The psychologist concluded in 2016 that Benjamin Cole was not competent to be executed. In April 2022, he accompanied Benjamin Cole’s lawyers to death row and reported that he did not observe any behaviour on the part of Benjamin Cole that he would consider "rational or coherent", and that his "current clinical presentation is consistent with his diagnosis of severe and chronic schizophrenia with catatonia, as well as MRI-documented organic brain damage".
In 2022, a physician qualified in neuroradiology conducted a review of the 2004 MRI scan and concluded that it revealed "markedly abnormal" detail and "demonstrates multiple pathologic findings". He concluded that the location of the brain lesion "may be exacerbating" Benjamin Cole’s schizophrenia, and that his need for and use of a wheelchair may relate to this brain damage and possible Parkinsonism.
The UN Human Rights Committee, established under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) to oversee its implementation, has said that "States parties must refrain from imposing the death penalty on individuals who face special barriers in defending themselves on an equal basis with others, such as persons whose serious psychosocial or intellectual disabilities impede their effective defence, and on persons who have limited moral culpability. They should also refrain from executing persons who have a diminished ability to understand the reasons for their sentence". The USA ratified the ICCPR in 1992. The treaty body for the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) has similarly clarified that the CRPD prohibits the imposition of the death penalty on people whose mental and intellectual disabilities have impeded their effective defence. The USA has not ratified the CRPD, but in signing it in 2009 bound itself under international law not to do anything that would undermine its object or purpose.