Nigerian convicted of murder escapes hangman’s noose
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A Nigerian, reputed to be one of Malaysia’s longest serving condemned prisoners, has escaped the gallows following the decision of the Pardons Board to commute his death sentence to natural life imprisonment.Michael Philip Spears, who has spent 20 years in jail, the last 16 in solitary confinement, was convicted for murder.Spears’ lawyer Azreen Ahmad Rastom said the Prisons authorities recently informed her that the board had substituted the capital punishment to life imprisonment.His earlier plea for clemency to the board was turned down in July 2013.“He has escaped the gallows but will remain for life in a Malaysian prison,” Azreen told news men.Following this development, she said Spears had also withdrawn his suit filed against the government, arguing that his long detention and delay in carrying out the hanging was cruel, inhuman and a degrading punishment.He wanted the capital punishment to be set aside.The High Court in November 2014 struck out Spears’ suit on the ground that it had no jurisdiction to deal with the matter but the Court of Appeal last year ordered that the merit of the case be heard.Just-retired Court of Appeal judge Varghese George, who delivered the 19-page judgment, said being on death row did not extinguish Spears’ constitutional rights or remove the court’s jurisdiction to consider the remedy he had applied for.Azreen said the prison authorities broke the good news just before the trial could commence in the High Court last month.“We withdrew the suit since it would be academic,” she added.Spears, 45, is suffering from a mental disorder and this was conceded by a government lawyer.Fresh evidence had come from the Hospital Bahagia Medical Board that Spears had been diagnosed with schizophrenia as early as 2004.Spears was arrested, together with two others, on Feb 20, 1997, and later charged with three counts of murder at the Kuala Lumpur High Court.In June 2000 the trial judge convicted them on all three charges and the Federal Court in August 2008 affirmed the sentence of Spears and another person.The third accused was acquitted.Spears has been in solitary confinement in the ”˜bilik akhir’ (death row) since June 2000.His execution was scheduled by the Prison Department for March 2014 but it was called off. The reason was not disclosed. Source:freemalaysiatoday Discover more from NewsBreakers
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