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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. 

Secret mass executions continue in Iran: 25 prisoners in Ghezel Hesar prison executed; 33 executions in one day

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Iran Human Rights, July 4: According to reliable sources Iran Human Rights (IHR) has been in contact with, 25 people in Ghezel Hesar prison (in Karaj, west of Tehran) were hanged on July 3rd.

According to this report, all those executed were men convicted of drug-related offences. The executions took place in the prison’s yard.

These executions have not been reported by the official Iranian media.

According to the group "Iranian Activists for Human Rights and Democracy", 7 people were hanged in Tehran’s Evin prison also on July 3rd. Six of the prisoners were transferred from Ghezel Hesar prison and one was transferred from Rajai Shahr prison. One of the men, who was not identified by name, was an Afghan citizen. The other six men executed were identified as, Hamid Nader, Seyed Abolfazl Azimitabar, Mehdi Bashir, Javad Abdollahvand (54 years old), Asghar, and Masoud Ali Moradi (30 years old, transferred from Rajai Shahr prison).

Iranian authorities have not reported on these executions.

Several human rights groups had reported earlier about secret mass executions in prisons in the province of Khorasan. According to our reports, secret mass executions have also been occurring in other Iranian prisons like Ghezel Hesar.

It is believed that the number of executions in Ghezel Hesar prison might even exceed those in Mashhad’s Vakilabad prison.

According to the IHR annual report on the death penalty in 2010 , in Iran, at least 474 people were executed as a result of the secret mass executions in Khorasan province. At least 205 of the executions were not included in the annual report due to ongoing investigations.

Most of the people executed were convicted of drug trafficking.

The Prosecutor of the southern Khorasan province confirmed in a press conference last week that 140 prisoners convicted of drug trafficking had been executed in that region from the period of March 2010 to March 2011. The majority of these executions had not been reported by the Iranian media.

IHR urges the newly appointed United Nations Special Rapporteur Mr. Ahmad Shaheed to pay special attention to the reports concerning the secret mass executions in the Iranian prisons.

Source: Iran Human Rights, July 4, 2011
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