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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. 

Saudi Arabia: 2 inmates beheaded in first executions of 2015

Two Saudis convicted of drug trafficking became the first people executed in 2015 in the Muslim kingdom, which beheaded 87 people last year, according to an AFP tally.

Malik bin Said al-Sayaari was put to the sword Thursday in the Al-Hasa district of Eastern Province after a repeat conviction for hashish smuggling, the interior ministry said.

And Hussein al-Dussari was beheaded in the Riyadh region for shooting dead a policeman on anti-drugs patrol who was trying to arrest him.

Saudi Arabia has stepped up its use of the death penalty despite repeated appeals from the United Nations and human rights watchdogs.

Last year's tally marked a significant increase on the 78 executions recorded in 2013.

Rape, murder, apostasy, homosexuality and armed robbery as well as drug trafficking are punishable by death under Saudi Arabia's Islamic sharia law.

Source: Agence France-Presse, January 2, 2015

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