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After acquittal of ex-death row inmate, debate needed on Japan's death penalty

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Japan should be ensuring the safety of its citizens, but instead it is taking people's lives. Is it acceptable to maintain the ultimate penalty under such circumstances? This is a serious question for society. The acquittal of 88-year-old Iwao Hakamada, who had been handed the death penalty, has been finalized after prosecutors decided not to appeal the verdict issued by the Shizuoka District Court during his retrial.

Missouri: Federal court stays Russell Bucklew's execution hours before controversial injection

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Russell Bucklew
The eighth US circuit court of appeals has granted a stay of execution for Missouri inmate Russell Bucklew, hours before he was to be put to death.

Bucklew, 46, was scheduled to die with a lethal injection at 12.01am CT on Wednesday at a state prison in Bonne Terre, despite questions over the secrecy with which the state has shrouded its procedures and particularly the source of the drugs it intends to use to kill him.

The stay is valid for 60 days.

On Tuesday, Bucklew’s lawyers lodged their petition with the eighth circuit court of appeals calling for a stay of execution. They argued that the inmate’s rare congenital condition, known as cavernous hemangioma, had caused malformations of the veins in his face, head and throat that could easily rupture during the execution.

The petition said that his medical problem, combined with the one-size-fits-all procedure enshrined in Missouri’s death penalty protocol, could cause him to “cough and choke on his own blood. His vascular abnormalities could also impair the circulation of the lethal drug – leading to a prolonged and excruciating execution.”

The appeals court agreed. "Bucklew's unrebutted medical evidence demonstrates the requisite sufficient likelihood of unnecessary pain and suffering beyond the constitutionally permissible amount inherent in all executions,"

Source: The Guardian, May 21, 2014 (UK time)
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