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First Third Of 2024 In Saudi Arabia: Executions Rise By 189% And Portend Another Bloody Year. At Least 71 Currently Facing Execution.

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Since the beginning of 2024 until the end of April, the Ministry of Interior in Saudi Arabia announced the execution of 55 individuals. This figure constitutes a 189% increase compared to the executions in the first third of 2023, which witnessed 19 executions. The European Saudi Organization for Human Rights views these numbers as a clear indication of the Saudi government's continued approach towards executing and issuing death sentences, and that the promises made in recent years have become elusive.

Alabama death row inmate Robert Melson granted stay of execution by federal appeals court

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Robert Melson
Robert Melson
A federal appeals court granted a stay of execution Friday for Robert Melson, who was scheduled to be put to death Thursday for the shootings of three fast food employees at a Popeye's in Etowah County in 1994. 

Melson is challenging his execution on grounds that the three-drug cocktail Alabama uses for lethal injections "has failed to work properly."

The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals issued the stay so it can rule on Melson's challenge, which is also being appealed by four other death row inmates.

"To enable us to process these consolidated appeals in an orderly fashion, we grant Melson's application for a stay," the court said in its ruling. "His execution is accordingly stayed pending our resolution of these appeals."

Melson's attorney, John Palombi, said in a statement sent to AL.com that he was "pleased with the ruling.

"This allows the court to take time deciding the important issues surrounding Alabama's execution protocol, particularly whether the present protocol violates the Constitution," he said.

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall's office could not immediately be reached for comment.

Melson has been on death row since May 1996. He was convicted along with Cuhuatemoc Peraita in the shooting deaths of fast-food employees Tamika Collins, 18, Nathaniel Baker, 17, and Darrell Collier, 23, during a robbery of a Gadsden's Popeye's restaurant. 

A fourth person, Bryant Archer, was shot four times but survived; Archer identified Melson as the shooter in the incident.

Source: al.com, Howard Koplowitz, June 2, 2017

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