FEATURED POST

U.S. | Execution by nitrogen hypoxia doesn’t seem headed for widespread adoption as bills fall short and nitrogen producers object

Published
Image
The day after Alabama carried out the first-known US execution using nitrogen gas, its attorney general sent a clear message to death penalty states that might want to follow suit: “Alabama has done it, and now so can you.” Indeed, in the weeks immediately following the January execution of Kenneth Smith, it appeared a handful of states were listening, introducing bills that would adopt the method known as nitrogen hypoxia or a similar one. Officials behind each framed the legislation as an alternative method that could help resume executions where they had long been stalled.

Philippines mayor accused by Duterte of drugs trade links shot dead

Published
Rodrigo Duterte
Rodrigo Duterte
A Philippine mayor accused by President Rodrigo Duterte of having links with the illegal drugs trade has been shot dead in a police raid.

Reynaldo Parojinog, mayor of the city of Ozamiz on Mindanao island, was killed with his wife and 10 others at his home as police served a warrant.

Officers were fired on by the mayor's security guards, officials said.

More than 7,000 people are said to have been killed since Mr Duterte launched a war on the drugs trade in July 2016.

Police were serving an arrest warrant when they were "met with a volley of fire" by Mr Parojinog's security guards, officials said.

"The Parojinogs, if you would recall, are included in President Duterte's list of people involved in the illegal drug trade," Mr Duterte's spokesman, Ernesto Abella, said in a statement.

A spokesman for the Parojinogs denied that there had been any exchange of fire and said the mayor's camp did not fire a shot.

Mr Parojinog's brother was also killed in the dawn raid in Ozamiz. His daughter, the city's vice-mayor, was arrested and faces charges relating to drugs offences, police said.

Officers recovered rifles, cash and illegal drugs at the address, according to provincial police chief Jaysen De Guzman.

Mr Parojinog is the third Philippine mayor to be killed in the government's bloody narcotics crackdown, in which Mr Duterte has singled out local officials, policemen and judges.

The move has made him popular with many Filipinos but has been condemned by human rights groups and other critics.

Mr Duterte took office just over a year ago following an election campaign in which he promised to kill tens of thousands in order to put an end to the illegal drugs trade.

Earlier this month, legislators in the Philippines voted overwhelmingly to extend martial law in Mindanao to help deal with violence on the island linked to an Islamist insurgency.

Mr Duterte said the extension was necessary to crush the insurgency, but his critics have said that it is part of a wider power grab.

Source: BBC News, July 30, 2017

⚑ | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com.

Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE!

Location: Philippines
Related content:

Most Viewed (Last 7 Days)

Oklahoma prepares for first execution in nearly seven years on Thursday

Published
Image
OKLAHOMA CITY — Pam Carter wrote in 2000 that she still looked at the answering machine every day expecting a message from her mother. “Mom never failed to leave a daily message on my answering machine,” she wrote in a letter given to the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board. “It was usually just an ‘I love you.’” Her mother, Gay Carter, worked at the Dick Connor Correctional Center in Hominy in 1998 when inmate John Marion Grant pulled her into a mop closet and stabbed her 16 times. Five stab wounds struck vital organs. She died of internal bleeding. Grant on Thursday could become the first inmate executed in Oklahoma in nearly seven years since the state halted executions due to problems with the lethal-injection procedure. According to DOC protocol, he will be offered a mild sedative no later than four hours before the execution. If no stay is issued by a court, he will be given an opportunity to say his last words about 4 p.m. Thursday. He then will be administered a lethal dose of che
Read more

U.S. | Execution by nitrogen hypoxia doesn’t seem headed for widespread adoption as bills fall short and nitrogen producers object

Published
Image
The day after Alabama carried out the first-known US execution using nitrogen gas, its attorney general sent a clear message to death penalty states that might want to follow suit: “Alabama has done it, and now so can you.” Indeed, in the weeks immediately following the January execution of Kenneth Smith, it appeared a handful of states were listening, introducing bills that would adopt the method known as nitrogen hypoxia or a similar one. Officials behind each framed the legislation as an alternative method that could help resume executions where they had long been stalled.
Read more

U.S. | He prayed with man being executed in Missouri. What happened in the death chamber

Published
Image
Rev. Jeff Hood served as the spiritual adviser for David Hosier, who was executed by the state of Missouri on June 11, 2024. Shortly before 5:45 p.m. Tuesday, the Rev. Jeff Hood was escorted through a maze of halls and security checks at the prison in Bonne Terre, Missouri, leading him into the state’s execution chamber. “Big door after big door closes,” he said. “Every time one of the doors closes, you can ... feel it in your soul.” He was taken into the chamber where he sat down and put his right hand on David Hosier’s shoulder.
Read more

Missouri | My Last Four Months On Death Watch: David Hosier

Published
Image
David Hosier, who was executed on June 11 for a crime he insisted he didn't commit, described the harrowing conditions of Missouri's death row, where he spent the last 11 years of his life During the last four months of his life, David Hosier spent almost all of his time in a 7-foot-wide by 15-foot-long cell, completely isolated from everyone, only allowed to leave if he was shackled head-to-toe, had a full security escort and a legitimate reason to venture out into the rest of the prison.
Read more