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OKLAHOMA (USA): ANTHONY ROZELLE BANKS EXECUTED
September 10, 2013: Anthony Rozelle Banks, 61, Black, was executed after he apologized for taking the victim's life and said his execution "is justified."
Banks was convicted of 1st-degree murder and sentenced to death for the June 6, 1979, raping and killing of Sun I. "Kim" Travis, 24, in Tulsa County.
Banks was already serving a life prison sentence following his conviction for the April 11, 1978, slaying of David Fremin, a convenience store clerk during an armed robbery, when genetic evidence linked him to Travis' death.
Banks and a co-defendant, Allen Wayne Nelson, 54, were charged in the victim's death in August 1997, when their DNA was detected in evidence found on Travis' body and clothing. A 12-member jury convicted Nelson of 1st-degree murder and sentenced him to life in prison. Banks was convicted of 1st-degree murder by a Tulsa County jury that imposed the death penalty in the Fremin case. But the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a new trial in 1994, saying prosecutors failed to disclose evidence to the defense that the jury could have used to find Banks innocent. The court also said Banks received ineffective counsel. Rather than face the possibility of being sentenced to death again, Banks pleaded guilty to the murder charge in exchange for a sentence of life in prison. In July, Banks waived his right to ask the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board to commute his death sentence to life in prison.
About 5 people protested the execution at the governor's mansion in Oklahoma City. On Sept. 6, a message came from Marina Schuster (Germany), General Rapporteur on the abolition of the death penalty for the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. Schuster called on the authorities in Oklahoma not to execute Anthony Rozelle Banks. "The world is becoming a lonely place for states that continue practising executions. Oklahoma unfortunately remains one of the states which carry out the highest number of executions. Many other U.S. states have repealed capital punishment in recent years. The Council of Europe calls on Oklahoma to join this movement and refrain from executing Anthony Rozelle Banks," the rapporteur stressed.
"The capital punishment system is an intolerable denial of civil liberties inconsistent with the values of the Council of Europe and its member and observer states. Its abolition is a key objective for the Council of Europe's human rights policy," concluded Marina Schuster.
Banks becomes the 4th inmate to be put to death this year in Oklahoma, the 106th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1990, the 24th to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1344th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977. (Sources: Associated Press & Rick Halperin, 10/09/2013)
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