FEATURED POST

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

Published
Image
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.

Pakistan: First civilian to hang in six years

Published
RAWALPINDI: A district and sessions judge has ordered the Adiala Jail superintendent to hang a murder convict on September 18.

Rawalpindi District and Sessions Judge Abdul Sattar had found Shoaib Sarwar guilty and awarded him a death sentence on July 2, 1998. Sarwar was accused of murdering Awais Nawaz on January 21, 1996 in Wah Cantt.

The Lahore High Court’s Rawalpindi bench rejected the appeal to overturn the sessions court’s verdict in July 2, 2003 and on April 3, 2006, the Supreme Court confirmed the sentence. The convict’s plea for clemency was also denied by the presidency.

The victim’s brother, Jamshed Nawaz, had moved the high court against the delay in implementing the court verdict despite exhaustion of all appeals by the convict. The high court ordered the district and sessions judge to implement the execution of the sentence.

Sarwar, who is imprisoned in Haripur, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, will be shifted to Adiala Jail next week. Jail sources say the family visitation is scheduled for September 17.

The convict’s relatives have once again asked the president to overturn the sentence and are also trying to settle the issue through blood money.

There has been no execution of a civilian convict since 2008. Former President Asif Ali Zardari issued an unofficial moratorium on November 14, 2008 which expired on June 30, 2013. In between, a former army soldier was executed in Mianwali jail in 2012.

According to Amnesty International, there are more than 8,000 prisoners on death row in Pakistan.

Source: The Express Tribune, September 7th, 2014.
Related content:

Most Viewed (Last 7 Days)

Photos of maximum-security prisons in Norway and the US reveal the extremes of prison life

Published
Image
US Administrative Security Facility, or ADX Florence, in Florence, Colorado. Inside the walls of the toughest prison in the US, a fork is a deadly weapon. Inside the walls of Norway's toughest prison, a fork is, well ... a fork. The differences extend far past silverware. In just about every way, the approaches that the US and Norway take to criminal justice fall on opposite ends of the spectrum. While the US uses isolation to punish offenders and keep them away from civil society, Norway prefers to rehabilitate its inmates so they can return to the outside world — there are no life sentences . No two prisons make that difference more clear than the super-max Administrative Security Facility, or ADX Florence , in Florence, Colorado and Halden Prison , in Halden, Norway. Not all US prisons are as strict as ADX, and while Halden is technically maximum-security, it's still closer to the rule than the exception in Norway. Here's what life is like at both e
Read more

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

Published
Image
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.
Read more

Idaho death-row inmate survived injection intended to kill him. Now state will try again.

Published
Image
A day after Idaho prison’s system advised that it is again ready to perform a lethal injection, an Ada County judge issued the latest death warrant for Thomas Creech, the state’s longest-serving death row prisoner, and scheduled him for another execution.  Creech, 74, is now set to be executed on Nov. 13. If fulfilled, the execution would be Idaho’s first in more than a dozen years. Prison officials called off Creech’s planned execution earlier this year when for nearly an hour they were unable to locate a suitable vein for an IV to inject him with the lethal chemicals. 
Read more

Switzerland | The Guillotine of Geneva

Published
Image
During the French annexation, 36 prisoners were executed using this device. Built in 1799, this structure basically consists of a tall, vertical oak frame fitted with a heavy steel blade with an oblique cutting edge and suspended from the top. It was designed for a rapid execution by decapitation of those who were condemned to death in the Swiss canton of Geneva during the French period. Today it is part of the Permanent Collection at the Tavel House, the oldest building in Geneva.  
Read more

Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denies Robert Roberson’s stay of execution request

Published
Image
(Austin, Texas, October 11, 2024) - The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (CCA) – without a written opinion – has denied Robert Roberson’s request to stay his execution, scheduled for Thursday, October 17. The CCA also denied, without issuing an opinion, Mr. Roberson’s request that the Court reconsider its denial of post-conviction relief. The CCA, once again, failed to consider any of the extensive medical and scientific evidence Mr. Roberson has submitted demonstrating that his chronically ill, two-year-old daughter, Nikki, died from illness, accident, and medical error, not because of any abuse.
Read more

Wyoming | One of Matthew Shepard’s Murderers Denied Sentence Reduction

Published
Image
Russell Henderson is serving consecutive life sentences in Wyoming after being convicted of homicide and hate crime One of the men who murdered gay college student Matthew Shepard in 1998 was denied a commutation of his sentence this week, the Wyoming Board of Parole has confirmed. Russell Henderson, who along with Aaron McKinney was convicted of homicide and hate crime charges for murdering Shepard 25 years ago, is currently serving two consecutive life sentences in Wyoming prison. Henderson applied for a reduction in his sentence earlier this year per the Board’s regulations, which allow prisoners who have served at least 10 years of a life sentence to submit a commutation petition once every five years. But the board ruled against sending Henderson’s petition to the governor, Executive Director Margaret White confirmed in statements to The Advocate this week.
Read more

Activists Call on President Biden to End the Federal Death Penalty Before Leaving Office

Published
Image
A conversation with Death Penalty Action Co-founder and Executive Director Abe Bonowitz. Now that Joe Biden is a lame duck president, activists are holding him accountable to make good on his promise to end the federal death penalty during his remaining six months as president. Biden’s election campaign in 2020 had pledged to end the federal death penalty and incentivize the remaining 27 states that still allow executions to do the same. While he made history as the first president in the United States to openly oppose the death penalty, there has been no movement to actually end federal executions during his nearly four years in office.
Read more

Alabama executes Derrick Dearman

Published
Image
Derrick Dearman, who killed 5 in south Alabama axe murders, executed Thursday  Alabama death row inmate Derrick Dearman, who was convicted in the 2016 slayings of 5 people with an axe and 2 guns, was put to death Thursday night by lethal injection. He had given up his appeals earlier this year and volunteered to have his execution set.
Read more

Alabama set to tie record for executions in 50 years with upcoming lethal injection

Published
Image
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) -Alabama is on track to tie its record for the most executions in a single year, as Derrick Dearman, a 35-year-old Mississippi man, is scheduled to be put to death next Thursday for the 2016 murders of five people in Mobile County. Described by officials as a “gruesome and horrific” crime, Dearman was convicted of using an axe and a gun to kill his five of his girlfriend’s relatives.
Read more