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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. 

Egypt frees Irish student after four-year ordeal

The Egyptian authorities have released an Irish citizen who was arrested at a protest at the age of 17, and who had been facing a death sentence.

Ibrahim Halawa from Dublin, was 17 when he was arrested with hundreds of other people in 2013, as part of a crackdown on protests in Egypt. 

He was held in pre-trial detention for over four years, and reported being regularly tortured.

Ibrahim was tried as an adult alongside 493 other people, despite having been a juvenile at the time of his arrest. 

The mass trial – one of several to have taken place since 2013 – was frequently postponed. 

Hearings of the trial were criticised for failing to meet basic standards. 

Maya Foa, Director of human rights organization Reprieve – which has been assisting Ibrahim – said:

"It is fantastic news, and long overdue, that Ibrahim is finally free. He and his family have been through an unimaginable ordeal, even though Ibrahim's only 'crime' was to attend a protest. He must now be given time and space to recover with his family. Meanwhile, Egypt's allies – including the UK and the US – must strongly urge Sisi to end the brutal repression that continues in the country, including mass trials and hundreds of unlawful death sentences."

Source: Reprieve, October 20, 2017


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but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde

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