CRIME D'HONNEUR : LA PEINE DE MORT

Cleveland ‘honor killer’ sent back to death row

Posted on July 24, 2010
by creepingsharia

No discussion about honor killing, possibly because this occurred in 1992,

but he killed his wife and her brother after she filed for divorce.

CLEVELAND, Ohio

— Abdul Awkal is back on death row for killing his estranged wife and brother-in-law inside Lakeside Courthouse in Cleveland.

A three-member panel of appellate judges overturned the 51-year-old former Cleveland resident’s two murder convictions in March 2009, but the full 6th Circuit Court of Appeals decided otherwise Thursday.

The judges decided 10-4 to uphold a lower court ruling that denied Awkal’s claim that he received ineffective counsel and should be retried or freed.

Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason applauded the ruling.

“His execution is long overdue,” Mason said. “He shook the foundation of the legal system and I am pleased an overwhelming majority of the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed that Awkal’s death sentence should be affirmed. However, I am certain this murderer will continue his legal maneuvering to delay his walk to the death chamber.”

“There is no dispute that Awkal shot and killed his estranged wife and brother-in-law,” wrote Judge Ronald Gilman for the majority. “The trial instead focused on whether he was legally insane at the time of the crime, and the evidence overwhelmingly indicates that he was not.”

Awkal shot Latife Awkal and her brother, Mahmoud Abdul-Aziz, in 1992 before a meeting in the family conciliation services office of the Domestic Relations Court on Lakeside Aveneue.

Awkal, 51, had come to the Untied States from Lebanaon when he was 24, settling in Detroit and then the Cleveland area. His marriage to Latife was troubled form the start. Latife and her family felt Awkal was not a good Muslim.

Latife filed for divorce after learning her husband gave her a venereal disease. Awkal became distraught.

The shooting occurred prior to a meeting over custody of their child. Awkal claimed he planned to kill himself and that he tried to hug his baby when his brother-in-law interfered.

Distraught or humiliated, infuriated, dishonored?

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