group 48 newsletter - may 2014

Amnesty International USA Group 48

Newsletter5.14

1 Nigeria: Campaign Of Violence And Abductions Against Civilians Must End

2 New ‘Panic Button’ App Provides Safety Net To Human Rights Activists

3 IRAN: Urgent Action - Evin Prisoners At Risk After Re-port Of Riot

5 MEXICO: Congress Must Seize An Historic Opportunity To Curb Military Impunity

6 CHINA: Urgent Action - Hunger Striking Uighur Prisoner Critically Ill

8 USA: Another ‘Botched’ Execution Underscores Call To Abolish Death Penalty

Nigeria: Campaign Of Violence And Abductions Against Civilians Must EndMay 2nd, 2014Last night’s deadly car bombing in a suburb of the Nigerian capital Abuja displays a callous disregard for human life and highlights the urgency of bring-ing an end to the campaign of violence against civilians being waged by Islamist armed groups in Nigeria, Amnesty International said.

No group has yet claimed responsibil-ity for the latest attack, which killed 19 people and injured more than 60 in the Abuja suburb of Nyanya. It comes less than three weeks after the armed group Boko Haram killed more than 70 people in a similar attack on the same area.

“Besides showing a callous disregard for human life, violent attacks target-ing civilians, like the one carried out in Nyanya last night, are unlawful and

must end immediately,” said Susanna Flood, Director of Media at Amnesty International.

“Boko Haram and other armed groups must renounce their unlawful and counterproductive campaign of vio-lence against civilians. The Nigerian au-thorities, for their part, must do more to protect civilians and bring the perpetra-tors of all such attacks to justice – but it is crucial that they do so without carry-ing out further human rights violations.”

More than 1,500 people were killed in the first three months of 2014 amid fighting between Nigerian security forc-es and Islamist armed groups, which are based mainly in the north-east of the country but occasionally launch attacks in the capital and elsewhere. Last night’s

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attack comes just days before the World Economic Forum on Africa opens in Abuja on May 7th.

Abducted schoolgirls The latest attack also comes as many Nigerians are demand-ing the release of more than 200 schoolgirls abducted in an overnight raid by an armed group in Chibok, north-eastern Nigeria, on 15 April. It is not yet known who is responsible, but Islamist groups including Boko Haram – whose name translates as a call to ban “Western” education – have carried out similar abductions on a smaller scale in the past.

On Wednesday, hundreds of people – including mothers of the abducted schoolgirls – marched to the National Assembly

in Abuja to hand over a letter demanding more action from the Nigerian authorities to secure the girls’ release.

“Amnesty International stands in solidarity with Nigerians calling for the immediate and unconditional release of the schoolgirls from Chibok and an end to the armed groups’ abductions of civilians,” said Susanna Flood.

“Armed groups carrying out such abductions should know that these are serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law, and Amnesty International will keep urging the Nigerian authorities to ensure those responsible are brought to justice in fair trials.”

New ‘Panic Button’ App Provides Safety Net To Human Rights ActivistsMay 1st, 2014

real that to have a tool like the ‘Panic Button’ could be of help in an emergency.”

Protection from harm In nations across the globe, individuals suspected of posing a threat to state authority are routinely kidnapped, arrested and forcibly ‘disappeared’, often without any warning. “Panic But-ton” will provide thousands of activists at daily risk of perse-cution and arrest a new tool in their fight for justice.

The official website for the “Panic Button” app is up and run-ning. Amnesty International hopes that activists and mem-bers of the public will help to improve the tool by download-ing and testing Panic Button in their country as part of the beta – or testing - phase.

Mitigating the risk Authorities know that campaigners coordinate meetings, protests and other activities using mobile phones and have ramped up their surveillance capabilities to monitor and track activists, journalists and campaigners.

In a bid to mitigate some of these dangers, the “Panic Button” tool uses a screen disguise feature and requires users to enter a pin number before accessing the application. The alarm itself is triggered by rapidly pressing the phone’s power but-ton, after which an SMS message is sent to three pre-entered contacts chosen by the user, alerting them of the distress call. When a GPS function is enabled, this message includes a map

Human rights activists in some of the world’s most repres-sive states will have improved access to assistance when facing the risk of attacks thanks to a smart, easy-to-use app launched by Amnesty International today. “Panic Button”, a mobile app for Android, transforms a user’s smart phone into a secret alarm which can be activated rapidly in the event of an emergency, alerting fellow activists and enabling them to respond faster.

“Defending human rights is an incredibly dangerous job in large parts of the world, with activists facing anything from threats to imprisonment and even torture as punishment for their legitimate work,” said Tanya O’Carroll, Technology and Human Rights Officer for Amnesty International. “By intro-ducing technology to the fight for human rights ‘Panic Button’ is bringing them a new tool to alert others about the danger they may be facing with a simple click.”

An activists from the Philippines who tested the app said: “I hope I won’t have to use it in the future but the threat is so

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link showing the user’s coordinates and the user can pre-set regular location updates so their network is updated every few minutes when active.

“We are currently working with activists in 16 countries on how to use the tool and on the growing and omnipres-ent threat of surveillance so they are clear on the risks they take when using a mobile phone in their work,” said Tanya O’Carroll.

Panic Button goes global After receiving £100,000 from the Google Global Impact Awards last year, Amnesty International begun testing the app with human rights defenders in three regions across the globe.

Over a period of six months, hundreds of activists in the Philippines, Central America and East Africa are testing and

being trained in using “Panic Button”. They are also being trained in teaching others to use it, ensuring that the reach of the tool stretches as far and as wide as possible to those who need it most.

After testing pilots took place in the Philippines and Central America in March this year, human rights activists empha-sized how important the tool is in their work and the poten-tial effect it could have for many others in their country.

“The ‘Panic Button’ is a fundamental tool for alerting but also for devising a security plan and articulating this with our contacts so that the plan is strategic and coordinated…The workshop has forced us to sit down and work out what would we do and how to be able to guarantee a greater level of secu-rity for human rights defenders,” said a human rights activist in Mexico.

IRAN: Urgent Action - Evin Prisoners At Risk After Report Of Riot, Fear for safety, Health concern, Risk of torture/ill-treatmentAbdolfattah Soltani (m), Sa’id Metinpour (m), Mohammad Amin Hadavi (m), Behnam Ebrahimzadeh (m), Behzad Arabgol (m), Esmail Barzegari (m), Akbar Amini (m) and Hootan Dolati (m)

Evin Prison, possibly to conduct a search. It is not clear what happened next, but some sort of confrontation with prison-ers opposing the raid appears to have ensued, and several prisoners seem to have been injured. At least four of the injured prisoners have been transferred to a hospital outside of the prison. Another 26 prisoners are reported to have been injured, but it is not clear whether they have received medi-cal treatment inside the prison. At least two prisoners, Esmail Barzegari and Akbar Amini, are reported to have suffered broken ribs. A third is said to have suffered a heart attack and has been transferred to the intensive care unit of a hospital outside of the prison.

Another 32 individuals were taken to solitary confinement, including lawyer Abdolfattah Soltani; minority rights activist and member of the Azerbaijani minority in Iran Sa’id Metin-pour; former prosecutor Mohammad Amin Hadavi; labor-rights activist Behnam Ebrahimzadeh; and political activists Behzad Arabgol and Hootan Dolati. It has been reported that all those transferred to solitary confinement were beaten with batons by guards during the transfer.

Reports of prison guards raiding Section 350 of Tehran’s Evin Prison, where many political prisoners are held, have emerged raising fears about the safety of prisoners. The unrest appears to have resulted in prisoners sustaining injuries, including broken ribs. It has been reported that at least 32 individuals from Section 350 have been transferred to solitary confinement in Section 240 of the prison.

According to media reports, on the morning of April 17th Ministry of Intelligence officials, along with about 100 guardsdressed in riot gear reportedly entered Section 350 of

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Action Please Write Immediately In Persian, English, Arabic Or Your Own Language

◌ Calling on the Iranian authorities to ensure that all prison-ers receive any medical care they may require;

◌ Urging them to protect those in solitary confinement from torture and other ill-treatment, and to have access to family and lawyers;

◌ Calling on them to immediately conduct an independent, impartial, and thorough investigation into what took place at the prison, including why so many prisoners were injured, and whether guards and officials used unnecessary or exces-sive force.

Appeals To Please send appeals before May 29th, 2014 to

Leader of the Islamic Republic Ayatollah Sayed ‘Ali Khamenei The Office of the Supreme Leader Islamic Republic Street End of Shahid Keshvar Doust Street Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran Twitter: @khamenei_ir Email: [email protected] Salutation: Your Excellency

Head of the Judiciary Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani c/o Public Relations Office Number 4, 2 Azizi Street intersection Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran (Subject line: FAO Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani)

Salutation: Your Excellency

President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Hassan Rouhani The Presidency Pasteur Street, Pasteur Square Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran Email: [email protected] Twitter: @HassanRouhani (English) @Rouhani_ir (Persian) Salutation: Your Excellency

Copies To Iran does not presently have an embassy in the United States. Instead, please send copies to: Iranian Interests Section 2209 Wisconsin Ave NW, Washington, DC 20007 Phone: 202 965 4990 Fax: 202 965 1073 mail: [email protected]

Additional Information Abdolfattah Soltani, a prominent lawyer and co-founder of the Centre for Human Rights Defenders, who has been held in Tehran’s Evin Prison since his September 2011 arrest, is currently serving a 13-year prison sentence. In November 2013 Abdolfattah Soltani, along with other prisoners, went on hunger strike to protest the lack of medical care, as well as the Iranian authorities’ refusal to grant medical leave to some prisoners to receive specialized treatment outside prison. For further information see http://amnesty.org/en/library/info/MDE13/044/2013/en.

Sa’id Metinpour, a member of the Azerbaijani minority and advocate for the linguistic and cultural rights of the Azerbai-jani minority, is serving an eight-year prison sentence. He is a journalist and a member of the board of editors of the weekly Azerbaijani Turkic publications Yarpagh (Page) and Moj-e Bidari (The Awakened Wave), in addition to writing his own blog.

Following his arrest in May 2007, Sa’id Metinpour was tortured and later sentenced to imprisonment by Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran after being convicted of “espionage” and “spreading propaganda against the system”. He suffers from severe back pain, but has not been granted temporary leave to seek medical care.

Behnam Ebrahimzadeh, a worker at a polyethylene pipe-man-ufacturing factory in the outskirts of Tehran, is a member of the Follow Up Committee to Set Up Free Trade Associations and a children’s rights defender. He reportedly suffered two broken ribs as a result of beatings during his arrest in June 2010, and is currently serving a five-year prison sentence.

Behnam Ebrahimzadeh was initially sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment in December 2010 on national security charges. »


This was overturned by the Supreme Court, and after a retrial he was sentenced to five years in prison after conviction of

“gathering and colluding with intent to harm state security”, apparently in connection with his trade unionist activities on behalf of the Follow Up Committee to Set up Free Trade Associations. This sentence was upheld on appeal in October 2011.

At the end of May 2013, Hootan Dolati was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment on vaguely -worded national secu-rity charges including “distribution of propaganda”; “publica-tion of statements by…” and “membership of ” the banned political group, Iran’s National Front Party. The sentence was only conveyed to him orally but in mid-November 2013, and it was reduced to 18 months’ imprisonment. He also received

a suspended sentence of 18 months and was banned from joining

political parties and from taking part in any social network for five years. He has been imprisoned solely for the peaceful exercise of his right to freedom of expression and is therefore a prisoner of conscience. He has also been repeatedly denied medical treatment by the clinic in Tehran’s Evin Prison and suffers from a chronic heart condition, angina, for which he is dependent on medication. He also suffers the effects of knee and back injuries, which are believed to have been made worse by ill-treatment in detention. He is now understood to have great difficulty walking. Hootan Dolati was the subject of Urgent Action (MDE 13/054/2013) http://amnesty.org/en/library/info/MDE13/054/2013/en.

MEXICO: Congress Must Seize An Historic Opportunity To Curb Military ImpunityApril 28th, 2014

“The bill represents an important advance in the protection of human rights, and is the result of years of campaigning and litigation by human rights organizations representing victims,” said Rupert Knox. “The civilian justice system is far from perfect but it offers better guarantees for the victims and their relatives to secure truth, justice and reparation in line with international human rights standards.”

The reform is part of Mexico’s measures to comply with judge-ments of the Inter American Court of Human Rights in the cases of Rosendo Radilla, Valentina Rosendo Cantu, Ines Fer-nandez Ortega and Teodoro Montiel-Rodolfo Cabrera, who all suffered a range of grave human rights violations at the hands of military personnel in recent decades. Nevertheless, Amnesty International believes that the reform falls short of full compliance with these judgements as human rights viola-tions committed against military personnel by other members of the military are not covered by the reform and will remain within the jurisdiction of the military courts. There is also concern that the reform leaves the door open to military prosecutors and police conducting investigations of ordinary crimes increasing their role in the criminal justice system.

“In subsequent reforms, we urge the Mexican government and legislature to accept that military victims also deserve equal protection of the law and address these issues,” said Rupert Knox.

The Mexican Congress must pass a reform of the Code of Military Justice that would see military personnel implicated in human rights violations against civilians face investigation and trial in the civilian justice system, Amnesty International said today. The proposed reform, approved last week by the Senate is due to be debated and voted this week by the Cham-ber of Deputies, just before the current legislative session ends.

“The reform of the Code of Military Justice would be an historic move. The lack of independence and impartiality of the military justice system has ensured impunity until now, preventing justice for the victims of human rights violations committed by the Mexican military,” said Rupert Knox, Am-nesty International’s researcher on Mexico.

Over the years, Armed Forces personnel suspected of involve-ment in ill-treatment and torture, unlawful killings, enforced disappearances and other human rights violations, have routinely escaped justice.

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CHINA: Urgent Action - Hunger Striking Uighur Prisoner Critically IllAbdukiram Abduveli (m)

2008 and 2011. His family has received a written court verdict explaining the additional prison sentences only once. Accord-ing to that verdict, dated July 1st, 2009, Abdukiram Abduveli was given four additional three year sentences for undermin-ing the order of prison administration (Article 315 of the China’s Criminal Law). According to the law, three years is the maximum sentence for this offence – only to be applied when circumstances are serious.

Action Please write immediately in English, Chinese or your own language:

◌ Urging that the authorities ensure Abdukiram Abduveli receives immediate and adequate medical care;

◌ Urging the authorities to release Abdukiram Abduveli without delay;

◌ Urging the authorities to clarify the grounds on which he has been given an additional prison sentence, and to ensure he has access to legal representation of his choosing.

Appeals To Please send appeals before June 4th, 2014 to President XI Jinping Guojia Zhuxi The State Council General Office 2 Fuyoujie Xichengqu, Beijingshi 100017, People’s Republic of China Fax: +86 10 6238 1025 Email: [email protected] Salutation: Your Excellency

Religious leader and ethnic Uighur, Abdukiram Abduveli, has been on hunger strike since mid-February in protest against being given an additional five year prison sentence. Despite having been initially sentenced to 12 years in prison, he has since been given additional sentences on five separate occasions and has been in custody for nearly 24 years. He is in critical ill-health and in need of urgent medical attention.

Abdukiram Abduveli is held in Xinjiang No. 3 Prison in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region in north-west China. His family was able to last meet with him on April 8th. According to them, he has been on hunger strike since mid-February when he was given an additional five year sentence. He had been due to be released in June 2014, and it is not known why he has been given the addi-tional sentence.

Abdukiram Abduveli’s family said that his health condition is serious. He is thin and malnourished, requires a wheelchair and does not even have the strength to hold a telephone for more than two minutes. Previously, the family had been informed that Abdukiram Abduveli had developed bone cancer. It is not known whether he is receiving the treatment he needs.

This is the fifth time Abdukiram Abduveli has been given an additional prison sentence. He was first detained in 1990 and sentenced to twelve years in prison in 1993 on charges including “organizing a counter-revolutionary group”. On his scheduled release date of November 16th, 2002, prison guards told his family that his sentence had been extended by three years. They were told this three more times in 2005,

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Minister of Justice of the People’s Republic of China WU Aiying Buzhang Sifabu 10 Chaoyangmen Nandajie Chaoyangqu Beijingshi 100020 People’s Republic of China Fax: +86 10 65292345 Salutation: Dear Minister

Copies To Director of Department of Justice Abuliz Usour Tingzhang Xinjiang Weiwuer Zizhiqu Sifating 27 Renminlu Urumqi 830 Xinjiang Weiwuer Zizhiqu People’s Republic of China Fax: +86 99 1231 1590

Additional Information Prior to his imprisonment Abdukiram Abduveli often travelled within the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR) speaking about the Koran and advocating the spread of Islam and for economic equality between Han Chinese and Uighurs.

The copy of the verdict received by his family in July 2009 explained that Abdukiram Abduveli was given additional sentences for breaking prison administrative rules (Art 315 of the Criminal Law). It further states that according to the wit-ness statements from other prisoners Han Qiang, Liu Xiaolin, Li Tianbao, Wang Chao and Du Xianfa and Yu Yaqi, Abduke-rim Abduveli consistently refused to accept prison education, engaged many times in praying, announced a hunger strike, and swore at and hit his supervising inmates. The verdict furthermore states as a consequence, he has had his “reform points” deducted, was sent to solitary confinement and also that unspecified “precautionary weapons were used against him”.

According to the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treat-ment of Prisoners, every prisoner shall be allowed to satisfy the needs of his religious life. Furthermore, no prisoner should be punished twice for the same offence.

Denial of adequate medical care is common in all forms of detention in China and constitutes cruel, inhuman and de-grading treatment, in breach of China’s international obliga-tions as a state party to the UN Convention Against Torture. In March, a human rights activist Cao Shunli died from organ failure after being denied medical treatment while in deten-tion in Beijing. Amnesty International has also documented the practice of using the other prisoners to monitor, carry

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the 1989 protests and government crackdown in Tianan-men Square. AI has launched a social media campaign to reach out to young people, including young Chinese-speaking people, to recall the criti-cal moments leading to the crackdown on June 3-4, 1989.

The campaign was officially launched with the hashtag #89June425 on April 26 – to mark the date when the People’s Daily, China’s largest official newspaper, published an editorial in 1989 that la-beled the students’ assembly in Tiananmen Square as an “upheaval”. The assembly had started on April 15 to commemorate the death of Hu Yaobang, former general secretary and chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, and to demand an end to corruption.

Daily tweets and posts (hashtag #89June425) with pictures of major events and significant moments, the crackdown on June 3-4 and the end of June 1989 can be found at:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/amnestyonline Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/amnestyglobal

Instagram: http://instagram.com/amnestyonline

Please retweet or repost to spread the word.

Amnesty International’s Social Media Campaign For 25th Anniversary Of

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out “thought work” or “re-education”, and sometimes pun-ish or torture other inmates. It is particularly common that common criminals who have proven their “reliability” to the prison authorities are used against political prisoners, and may be given sentence reductions, better food, living condi-tions, and other privileges for carrying out these actions.

The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, has also raised concerns regarding “disturbing” practice of “re-education” in relation to political crimes, especially abolished “counter-rev-olutionary crimes”, abolished from China’s criminal code in 1997, saying that the combination of deprivation of liberty for the peaceful exercise of basic freedoms, with the practice of re-education through coercion, humiliation and punishment constitutes inhuman and degrading treatment.

Uighurs are a mainly Muslim ethnic minority who are concentrated in the XUAR in China. Since the 1980s, the Uighurs have been the target of systematic and extensive human rights violations. This includes arbitrary detention and imprisonment, incommunicado detention, and serious

restriction of religious freedom as well as cultural and social rights. Local authorities might tighten control over religious practice, including prohibiting all government employees and children under the age of 18, from worshiping at mosques. Chinese government policies that limit the use of the Uighur language, severe restrictions on freedom of religion and a sustained influx of Han migrants into the region are destroy-ing their customs and, together with employment discrimina-tion, fuelling discontent and ethnic tensions. The situation has worsened following the attacks in the USA on September 11th 2001 as the Chinese authorities have used the context counter-terrorism, to attempt to justify further repression to the human rights of Uighurs. In December 2013, Com-munist Party of China launched a new “grand strategic plan” for the XUAR. This new plan pledged to make “maintaining social stability” the primary strategic goal within the XUAR. Similarly, on 16 January Beijing’s Mayor, Wang Anshun, said that the government would tighten control of the internet in connection with anti-terrorism measures.

USA: Another ‘Botched’ Execution Underscores Call To Abolish Death PenaltyApril 30th, 2014

lethal injection process had begun, officials drew a curtain across the viewing window, preventing witnesses from see-ing what was happening. Almost half an hour later, Clayton Lockett was pronounced dead of a heart attack. A second execution scheduled for the same evening, of Charles Warner, was stayed.

“What happened last night to Clayton Lockett is shocking in anyone’s book. But this is far from the first ‘botched execution’ in the USA, whether by electrocution, asphyxiation, or lethal injection using the ‘traditional’ three-drug protocol,” said Rob Freer, Amnesty International researcher on the USA, citing more than three dozen executions reported to have gone awry.

The sole US manufacturer of sodium thiopental, one of the drugs traditionally used in US lethal injections, withdrew from the market in early 2011 and the European Commission tightened its regulations on the trade of such substances for use in capital punishment. As a result, the USA’s death penalty states have sought alternative sources for lethal injections drugs and have amended their execution protocols so as to be able to continue this state-sanctioned killing.

Last night’s “botched” execution in Oklahoma provides yet another stark reason why authorities across the USA should impose an immediate moratorium on judicial killing and work for abolition of this inescapably cruel punishment, Am-nesty International said today.

Witnesses have described how the condemned man, Clayton Lockett, began to gasp and writhe after he had been declared unconscious and when the second and third drugs began to be administered. At that stage, about 16 minutes after the

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“If the sort of tenacity shown by authorities pursuing the death penalty were to be turned to bringing their country into line with the global abolitionist trend, then we would see rapid progress on this fundamental human rights issue in the USA,” Rob Freer added.

“Instead, the ugly history of US executions has continued well into the 21st century even as country after country has stopped this practice.”

Clayton Lockett and Charles Warner had unsuccessfully challenged an Oklahoma state law that blocks officials from revealing the identities of those involved in administering executions as well as of those who supply the drugs or equip-ment used.

“Time after time, we have seen how government secrecy can be the enemy of respect for human rights. But what also must not be forgotten in all of this is that, even if executions go according to plan, the death penalty remains a deeply flawed exercise in state power. It is irrevocable in outcome, inconsis-tent and discriminatory in application, and incompatible with basic human rights principles,” said Rob Freer.

As a number of states in the USA have abolished the death penalty in recent years, bringing the total to 18, Amnesty International renews its call on authorities across the country

– whether at federal, state or local level – to seize the oppor-tunity provided by the problems in sourcing lethal injection drugs to work against the death penalty, rather than trying to fix the unfixable.

Background Since judicial killing in the USA resumed on January 17th, 1977, US executioners have killed nearly 1,400 men and women – 90 per cent through lethal injections. Other meth-ods used have been gas, hanging, electricity and firing squad.

Until around 2010, most of the USA’s death penalty states employed three-drug lethal injection protocols. Since the sole US manufacturer of sodium thiopental, one of the drugs used in this combination, suspended production, and in early 2011 withdrew from the market altogether, the USA’s death penalty states have turned to each other, to domestic “compounding pharmacies” (used in the USA to meet prescription needs of individual patients), to sources overseas, and to the federal government, to seek solutions.

In November 2010, it was first learned that a small company based in London in the UK had supplied sodium thiopental to the state of Arizona where it was used to execute Jeffery Landrigan on October 26th. Amnesty International and Re-prieve called on the UK government to prohibit the export of the drug from the UK where it was for use in executions.

Amnesty International worked with a coalition of non-gov-ernmental organizations to call on the European Commission to amend regulations on the international trade in certain equipment to include drugs used in the lethal injection protocol and to introduce a “torture-death penalty end use clause”, to enable EU states to refuse export licenses for items that clearly have no practical use other than for the purposes of capital punishment; or where there are reasonable grounds to believe that such items would be used for the purposes of capital punishment.

In 2013 the US states of Arkansas, California, Florida, Loui-siana, Montana, North Carolina and Ohio amended their executions procedures to include a one-drug protocol and/or allow to change the chemicals used in the executions.

Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception regardless of the nature or circumstances of the crime, the culpability of the condemned, or the method chosen by the state to carry out the execution.

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