Dead Pool 14th November 2021

In the week that has every anti-vaxxer boycotting Tesco as they made an advert about Santa being double jabbed, at least we now know which supermarket is the safest to shop in, I suppose we should be more worried about COP26 failing like we all knew it would, we’re all gonna die! Anyhow, as someone said on the Telegram Group, they’ve been dropping like flies this week! Which is good news for Trish, who correctly guessed that Dean Stockwell would pass away this year, 65 points! Well done! 

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Andy Barker, 53, British musician (808 State).  
• Maureen Cleave, 87, British journalist, conducted John Lennon’s “more popular than Jesus” interview.  
• Shawn Rhoden, 46, Jamaican-American professional bodybuilder, Mr. Olympia winner (2018), heart attack.  
• Dean Stockwell, 85, American actor (Quantum Leap, Married to the Mob, Paris, Texas).  
• Gwyneth Guthrie, 84, Scottish actress (Take the High Road).  
• Roy Holder, 75, English actor (Sorry!, Pride & Prejudice, Robin Hood).   
• F. W. de Klerk, 85, South African politician, state president (1989–1994), deputy president (1994–1996) and Nobel Peace Prize laureate (1993), mesothelioma.  
• Glen de Vries, 49, American businessman and space tourist (Blue Origin NS-18), plane crash.  
• Graeme Edge, 80, English drummer (The Moody Blues), songwriter and poet, cancer.  
• Ron Flowers, 87, English footballer (Wolverhampton Wanderers, Northampton Town, national team), world champion (1966).  
• Henry Woolf, 91, British actor (The Bed Sitting Room, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Gorky Park).  
• Wilbur Smith, 88, Zambian-born South African novelist (When the Lion Feeds, The Courtney Novels, The Ballantyne Novels). 
• Gavan O’Herlihy, 70, Irish-born American actor (Never Say Never Again, Willow, Happy Days).

In Other News 

The Queen has sprained her back and will not attend the Remembrance Sunday service at the Cenotaph in London, Buckingham Palace said, adding she is “disappointed” to miss the event. The central London service was due to be the Queen’s first public appearance in two weeks since a hospital stay last month, after which she was advised by doctors to rest. Buckingham Palace said that “The Queen, having sprained her back, has decided this morning with great regret that she will not be able to attend today’s Remembrance Sunday Service at the Cenotaph. “Her Majesty is disappointed that she will miss the service. As in previous years, a wreath will be laid on Her Majesty’s behalf by the Prince of Wales.” The palace previously said it was the Queen’s “firm intention” to attend the annual Remembrance service to honour the country’s war dead. The Queen, who regards the service as one of the most significant engagements of the year, was due to watch the service at the war memorial in central London from the balcony of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office building.  

Engelbert Humperdinck has announced the last-minute cancellation of his UK tour due to illness. The 85-year-old was due to return to the city to perform at De Montfort Hall this month as part of the long-awaited tour across 14 cities. But in a sad announcement to fans, the star revealed he had come down with a “viral bronchial infection” and was unable to perform. He said in a statement: “I am so upset in having to relate to you that we have to cancel our UK tour. I have come down with a viral bronchial infection & am being treated for it now. This has never happened before and I so much wanted to see all of you in the 14 cities. We are going to reschedule the shows for early next year. Stay well and remember……I love you.” The tour cancellation will come as a disappointment to many fans who adore the singer not only for his voice but for his personality. Engelbert has continued to stay in touch with his fans across the world through his YouTube channel and social media. Engelbert received an MBE for his services to music earlier this year. He dedicated this honour to his late wife Patricia, who died in February after contracting Covid-19. She had been suffering Alzheimer’s disease for more than a decade. Born Arnold George Dorsey, he is known globally for his chart-topping love songs and as well as his striking stage name. Over a career spanning seven decades, he has crooned his way around the world, attracting a devoted army of fans with ballads including Release Me and The Last Waltz.   

Coronation Street cast member Victoria Ekanoye, 39, has been diagnosed with breast cancer, just months after giving birth to her  “miracle” son. Ekanoye opened up about her shocking diagnosis, revealing that she first discovered a lump when breastfeeding her 11-month-year-old son Theo. The Coronation Street star was told she had DCIS, which is Ductal carcinoma in situ, on October 13th. Victoria described how, in spite of her breast cancer news, she actually feels “lucky” that the doctors had “caught it early”. The actress experienced a traumatic ordeal in January when she gave birth to Theo, who she calls a “miracle” baby.  At the time, Victoria feared her son would die during her three-day labour, due to complications with her sickle cell anaemia. “Back in July I was feeding Theo and I noticed there was a small lump protruding at the top of my left breast. My mum had breast cancer at 41, and her sister at 39 – so many people in my family, in fact. So I don’t really leave any time before I check these things…” she continued “We’re being really optimistic, and positive, and really lucky that we’ve caught it as early as we have. I don’t know if lucky is the right word, but that’s how I feel.”

On This Day

• 1851 – Moby-Dick, a novel by Herman Melville, is published in the USA.
• 1889 – Pioneering female journalist Nellie Bly (aka Elizabeth Cochrane) begins a successful attempt to travel around the world in less than 80 days. She completes the trip in 72 days.
• 1922 – The British Broadcasting Company begins radio service in the United Kingdom.
• 1967 – American physicist Theodore Maiman is given a patent for his ruby laser systems, the world’s first laser.

Deaths

• 1687 – Nell Gwyn, English mistress of Charles II of England (b. 1650).
• 2001 – Charlotte Coleman, English actress (b. 1968).
• 2003 – Gene Anthony Ray, American actor, singer, dancer, and choreographer (b. 1962).
• 2014 – Glen A. Larson, American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1937).
• 2015 – Warren Mitchell, English actor and screenwriter (b. 1926).
• 2020 – Des O’Connor, English comedian, singer and television presenter. (b.1932). 

Last rites rights of condemned around the world

Death row inmate John Ramirez does not want to die alone; he wants to be comforted as he passes, by the hands of his pastor.

But that request was denied by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and now his final moments lie in very different hands – the US Supreme Court.

The 37-year-old former Marine, sentenced to death for robbing and fatally wounding a shop worker in 2004, said “prayer, song and human touch” at the point of death was an essential part of his Christian faith.

He felt having his last rites given to him by his Baptist pastor was his right, but Texas officials didn’t buy his claims. They believed he was merely stalling his execution and manipulating the process with a “game of ecclesiastical whack-a-mole”. 

He sued them, claiming a violation of his First Amendment religious freedoms, and justices agreed to take up his objection, postponing Ramirez’s scheduled execution date of 8th September until after Tuesday’s hearing.

Ramirez’s is the third execution halted in three years by the Supreme Court over how, if at all, religious advisers are allowed to attend to condemned prisoners as they die.

In 2019 there was public criticism after a Muslim inmate’s plea to have his imam with him was rejected but a similar request from a Buddhist prisoner just a month later was allowed.

But the battle over religious – and other rights – at the point of death is not exclusive to the US.

Across the world, in countries where the death penalty is allowed, delicate negotiations have taken place over what is considered acceptable – and authorities don’t always get it right.

In Japan, two death row inmates last week took legal action after being told they face same-day executions.

There, prisoners are notified only hours before they are put to death by hanging, but now rights groups are saying the short notice is “extremely inhumane” and materially affects mental health.

The men filed a suit in the district court in the city of Osaka last Thursday, in what is believed to be a first, arguing the rapid turnaround does not give them time to mentally prepare and contemplate the end of their lives.

It is secret executions that are causing international blowback against Iran.

In Iranian murder cases, where the defendant is sentenced to qisas (executions), family members of the victim are encouraged to carry out the actual execution themselves.

They can also grant a reprieve to an offender on death row – and it is this, that led to the extraordinary story of a grieving mother who, when faced with the man who killed her son standing before her with a noose around his neck, decided to forgive him and removed the rope.

The woman and the murderer’s mother then hugged in front of the crowds who had gathered to witness an execution.

According to Iranian law, a defendant’s legal representative must be informed 48 hours before any execution, but campaigners say this is not always happening, especially in political and security-related cases. 

Further, it is claimed by Iran Human Rights, a non-profit campaign group, that standard practice throughout the country is to take prisoners to solitary confinement several days before death and leave them with hands permanently cuffed.

Meanwhile, in Singapore concerns are being raised about the execution of a man with an IQ of 69, a level widely recognised as indicating an intellectual disability.

Nagaenthran Dharmalingam was arrested in 2009 for bringing 42.7g (1.5 ounces) of heroin into Singapore and was due to be hanged on Wednesday morning, but his case has sparked rare disquiet in the island nation where support remains high for the death penalty.

Dharmalingam’s lawyers and rights groups fighting to save him say Singapore is violating international law by executing a person with a mental impairment. They have exhausted all other legal appeals and a petition to the president for clemency was unsuccessful.

But the Singapore government remains steadfast, saying the 33-year-old “clearly understood the nature of his acts and did not lose his sense of judgment of the rightness or wrongness of what he was doing”.

Anger is also brewing over Egyptian capital punishment procedures.

Although the country’s Child Law provides that all children under the age of 18 who have infringed the Penal Code shall not be “sentenced to death, life imprisonment, or forced labour”, a report by Reprieve (a global campaign group led by international lawyers) says that at least 17 children have received death sentences there since 2011.

Prosecutors, say Reprieve, are using a loophole to put children before adult courts for trial, as the law allows for those over 15 where a co-defendant is an adult, to be tried jointly.

When the US Supreme Court this week rules on the case of Ramirez, it will be asked to focus on how to execute someone in a way that doesn’t violate religious rights. But the tension between the principle of human dignity and the practice of capital punishment is inextricably entangled with that – and is one that applies throughout the world.

It is sure to turn into a larger debate around the rights of all men and women who face execution.

Last Week’s Birthdays

Olga Kurylenko (42), Russell Tovey (40), Paul McGann (62), Sandahl Bergman (70), Gerard Butler (52), Rahul Kohli (36), Whoopi Goldberg (66), John de Lancie (73), Anne Hathaway (39), Ryan Gosling (41), Wallace Shawn (78), Max Grodénchik (69), Neil Young (76), Leonardo DiCaprio (47), Stanley Tucci (61), Demi Moore (59), Calista Flockhart (57), Taron Egerton (32), Hugh Bonneville (58), Tracy Morgan (53), Neil Gaiman (61), Robert Duncan McNeill (57), Lou Ferrigno (79), Parker Posey (53), Tara Reid (46), Gretchen Mol (49), Alfre Woodard (69), Matthew Rhys (47), Richard Curtis (65), Gordon Ramsay (55), and Jack Osbourne (36).