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Photographing the Community on Tennessee’s Death Row

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From 2010 to 2015 I was incarcerated in Riverbend Maximum Security Institution, the Tennessee prison that houses death row for the men’s system. On one side of a gate, 250 of us lived in a “support staff” unit working maintenance, landscaping, kitchen service or whatever else kept the facility operational. On the other side of the gate were maximum-security prisoners and those in protective custody, and a unit just for the condemned.

Saudi minister says beheading, lashings 'cannot be changed'

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Public beheading in Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia’s Justice Minister has defended tough Sharia punishments such as beheading, cutting off hands and lashing, claiming they “cannot be changed” because they are enshrined in Islamic law.

“These punishments are based on divine religious texts and we cannot change them,” Mohammed Al Eissa reportedly said during a recent speech in Washington.

The minister said Islamic law had helped to reduce crime in the conservative kingdom.

Capital punishment was carried out in many other countries, including the US, and was not isolated to Islamic states, he said.

“Islam sympathises with the victim, not the criminal,” Al Eissa said.

“If it was not a good religion, it would not have lasted for more than 1400 years and won millions of followers around the world.”

Speaking to American lawyers, legal consultants and academics, Al Eissa criticised international human rights groups that call for changes to the kingdom’s judiciary, claiming they made “big mistakes” because they misunderstood the country and Islam.


Source: ArabianBusiness.com, Courtney Trenwith, June 11, 2014
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From 2010 to 2015 I was incarcerated in Riverbend Maximum Security Institution, the Tennessee prison that houses death row for the men’s system. On one side of a gate, 250 of us lived in a “support staff” unit working maintenance, landscaping, kitchen service or whatever else kept the facility operational. On the other side of the gate were maximum-security prisoners and those in protective custody, and a unit just for the condemned.
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