On February 16, 2024, Utah Governor Spencer Cox signed Senate Bill 109, Corrections Modifications, into law, “amend[ing] provisions related to the [Utah] Department of Corrections.” S.B. 109, described as an “uncontroversial” legislative measure, was belatedly amended to include a provision preventing the public disclosure of “identifying information” about individuals involved in carrying out executions, the procurement of drugs and supplies needed for executions, and any identifying information about those involved in the manufacturing or producing of the drugs and supplies. The new secrecy provision will now make it almost impossible for members of the public or prisoners to learn critical details about the execution process.
S.B. 109 was introduced in the Utah legislature in early January by Senator Derrin Owens. At the initial House Law Enforcement and Criminal Committee Hearing, along with Executive Director of Utah Department of Corrections (UDC) Brian Redd, he told committee members that the bill would “help improve retention and recruitment, better supervise people on parole, and help people be more successful when they reenter the community and to reduce the number of people who return to prison.” Two weeks after the bill’s introduction, an amendment was introduced “without any discussion, debate, or public comment,” and added the secrecy provision to Utah Code 64-13-27. Importantly, the language of this amendment prevents the release of information even when ordered by a court “through discovery or other judicial processes or orders; and may not be introduced as evidence in civil proceeding, criminal proceeding, an agency proceeding, or any other administrative or judicial proceeding.”
This month, DPIC celebrates Women’s History Month with weekly profiles of notable women whose work has been significant in the modern death penalty era. The second entry in this series is Sarah Belal, founder and executive director of Justice Project Pakistan (JPP), a nonprofit organization in Lahore, Pakistan.
Now a prominent international lawyer and human rights advocate, Sarah Belal says she was “thoroughly uninspired” by law school. It was not until her first visit to a Pakistani prison where “there were hundreds of people abandoned, forgotten and sentenced to die,” that she realized what she was called to do.
Ms. Belal’s inspiration for founding Justice Project Pakistan (JPP) began when she read a letter in the newspaper. It was from a man whose brother, a Pakistani father of two, was sentenced to death for a crime he committed in self-defense, and he was begging for someone to help him. “Zulfiqar was my first client,” Ms. Belal recounted. “I just picked up the phone, called the newspaper’s office, and got his brother’s number. The next thing I knew, he was standing outside my door with a mountain of case files. That was 2009.” Now, Ms. Belal leads a dedicated staff of attorneys, mitigation specialists, investigators, and researchers who provide direct representation, train judges and lawyers, educate the public, and work toward systemic reform of the criminal justice system in Pakistan. Ms. Belal describes JPP as “a legal action non-profit organization that provides pro bono representation to the most vulnerable Pakistani prisoners facing harsh punishments in the courts of law and the court of public opinion.”