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Japan | Hakamada found religion, but then felt under attack by ‘the devil’

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Editor's note: This is the last in a four-part series on letters that Iwao Hakamada wrote while on death row. About a decade after cursing God, Iwao Hakamada was baptized Catholic at the Tokyo Detention House on Dec. 24, 1984. “Since I have been given the Christian name Paul, I am keenly feeling that I should be aware of the greatness of Paul.” (June 1985)

Iran: Two executions on Christmas day

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Iran Human Rights,25: Two prisoners were hanged in the prison of Mashhad (north-eastern Iran) today, reported the Iranian state media.

Quoting the head of the prison organization in Khorasan Province, the news site Asr-e-Iran reported that two prisoners convicted of murder were hanged in the prison of Mashhad today, December 25.

One of the prisoners was a 30 year old drug-addict who was convicted of murdering his wife in 2009, while the other prisoner was a young man who had murdered the husband of a woman he had an affair with.

No further details were given in the report.

Source: Iran Human Rights, December 25, 2013
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The following document is a written record of convicted killer Hamida Djandoubi's last moments before he was guillotined in a Marseilles prison on September 10, 1977. This written record -- dated September 9 -- was written by a judge appointed to witness the execution. Djandoubi's execution was the last execution carried out in France before capital punishment was abolished in 1981. Then-President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, who had voiced his "loathing for the death penalty" before he was elected to office, flatly turned down Djandoubi's appeal for clemency and chose to let "Justice run its course", as he did on two previous instances ( Christian Ranucci , executed on July 28, 1976 and Jérôme Carrein , executed on June 23, 1977). Hamida Djandoubi , a Tunisian national, was sentenced to death for killing his former lover, Elisabeth Bousquet. He was executed in Marseilles' Baumettes prison in September 1977. The following text was writ
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Missouri | Man Facing Execution Next Month Is Hospitalized With Heart Problem

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