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Arkansas Supreme Court Decision Allows New DNA Testing in Case of the ​“West Memphis Three,” Convicted of Killing Three Children in 1993

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On April 18, 2024, the Arkansas Supreme Court decided 4-3 to reverse a 2022 lower court decision and allow genetic testing of crime scene evidence from the 1993 killing of three eight-year-old boys in West Memphis. The three men convicted in 1994 for the killings were released in 2011 after taking an Alford plea, in which they maintained their innocence but plead guilty to the crime, in exchange for 18 years’ time served and 10 years of a suspended sentence. 

Yemen executes man for rape, killing 11-year-old

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Yahia al-Raghwa, 22, was found guilty of raping and murdering Hamdi Abdullah, 11, at his barber shop in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, last December.

He was shot by a firing squad in a public square in the capital on Monday, in the presence of hundreds of people including the family of the victim.

Photographs of the execution showed al-Raghwa being led by guards to the square before he was forced to kneel. He was then shot in the back of the head in public view before his body was dragged away.

His death brings the number of executions in the country this year to nine.

Yemen is one of 59 countries which retains the death penalty, and one of its most prolific users, according to Amnesty International.

It is deployed for a variety of violent and non-violent crimes including apostasy and adultery.

Last year Yemen executed 13 people, according to those Amnesty has verified. But as no official figures are released the real toll could be far higher.

All of those died by firing squad but in recent years there have been reports of stonings and beheadings.

The deeply religious desert country has a poor human rights record and it is unclear if al-Raghwa had a fair trial.

Under sharia law, which applies in Yemen, relatives of the victims of certain categories of murder have the power to pardon the offender in exchange for compensation, grant a pardon freely or request his or her execution.

Source: telegraph.co.uk, July 7, 2009
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