Reverend Jeff Hood, 40, wants to help condemned inmates 'feel human again' and vows to continue his efforts to befriend murderers in spite of death threats against his family A reverend who has made it his mission to comfort death row inmates in their final days has revealed the '"moral torture" his endeavor entails. Reverend Dr. Jeff Hood, 40, lives with his wife and five children in Little Rock, Arkansas. But away from his normal home life, he can suddenly find himself holding the shoulder of a murderer inside an execution chamber, moments away from the end of their life.
Get link
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Email
Other Apps
China led world executions in 2007
Get link
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Email
Other Apps
Published
LONDON, England (CNN) -- China executed at least 470 people last year -- more than any other country in the world, according to an annual report on the death penalty by the human rights group Amnesty International.
The group said that five countries carried out 88 percent of all known executions worldwide: China (470 people), Iran (317), Saudi Arabia (143), Pakistan (135) and the United States (42).
Exact figures for how many people were put to death in China are difficult to come by because the country considers the death penalty a "state secret," Amnesty said.
"As the world and Olympic guests are left guessing, only the Chinese authorities know exactly how many people have been killed with state authorization," the group said.
Last year, China reformed the way capital cases are handled, with the Supreme Court deciding all cases. This led to a drop in the number of executions, with "half of the cases changed to a reprieve in the end," according to an article last week in China's state-run news agency, Xinhua.
In December, the United Nations General Assembly called for a global end to the death penalty. But for now, the Amnesty report said, many countries continued to execute people for offenses that trigger much less severe sentences in other countries.
In Iran, for example, a father of two was stoned to death for adultery. An Egyptian national was beheaded in Saudi Arabia for practicing sorcery. And a factory manager in North Korea was shot by a firing squad because he appointed his children as managers and made international phone calls.
Reverend Jeff Hood, 40, wants to help condemned inmates 'feel human again' and vows to continue his efforts to befriend murderers in spite of death threats against his family A reverend who has made it his mission to comfort death row inmates in their final days has revealed the '"moral torture" his endeavor entails. Reverend Dr. Jeff Hood, 40, lives with his wife and five children in Little Rock, Arkansas. But away from his normal home life, he can suddenly find himself holding the shoulder of a murderer inside an execution chamber, moments away from the end of their life.
The Islamic Republic's judiciary has executed one more prisoner amid a surge in the death penalty. Nategh Hosseini was executed at Qazvin Central Prison on Saturday, reportedly in the presence of his seven-year-old son. According to the Iran Human Rights Organization, Hosseini had been arrested three years ago on charges of alleged murder and subsequently sentenced to death.
Texas executed Ramiro Gonzales on Wednesday despite a stunning reversal from a psychiatrist who helped send him to death row 17 years ago. Gonzales, 41, was killed by lethal injection as punishment for kidnapping, raping and murdering Bridget Townsend when they were both 18. At the time, Gonzales was struggling with drug addiction. He killed Townsend, his drug dealer’s girlfriend, while trying to steal drugs. He had turned 18 two months before the killing, making him barely old enough to be legally eligible to be sentenced to death.
INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana is one of 27 states where state-backed executions are still legal, but no one has been put to death in a Hoosier prison in 15 years. Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb and Attorney General Todd Rokita look to change that. On Wednesday, Rokita’s office filed a motion with the Indiana Supreme Court seeking to set a date for the execution of Joseph Corcoran — a Fort Wayne man found guilty of murdering four people in 1997.
Richard Rojem’s death sentence was twice overturned by appellate courts, but his conviction itself has never been fully revisited. RICHARD ROJEM JR. had 20 minutes to address the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board. Wearing a maroon prison uniform, he raised his cuffed right hand and swore to tell the truth, then gave his pitch for why his life should be spared. It would take less than 90 seconds.
Governor Eric Holcomb says he isn’t worried about a plan to put to death a state prisoner with a drug that’s never been used in an Indiana execution. Holcomb said Thursday that while Indiana has never used pentobarbital in an execution, “Other states have, and we've done our due diligence.”
Days before his scheduled execution in Texas, Ramiro Gonzales speaks on faith, legacy — and apologizing to the family of his victim, Bridget Townsend. On Wednesday evening, Texas prison officials plan to execute Ramiro Gonzales, the 41-year-old who kidnapped, raped and murdered Bridget Townsend when they were both 18.
The North Carolina mother who tortured and murdered two of her adopted children could face the death penalty after the children's partial remains were found in a metal burn barrel in the back of her house. The siblings Blake and London Deven have not been seen for years, but were never reported missing by their adoptive mother, Avantae Deven.
Judge to decide fate of ex-prison guard trainee Zephen Xaver, who pleaded guilty to 2019 execution-style murders A jury on Wednesday recommended a former prison guard trainee be sentenced to death for his execution-style murders of five women inside a Florida bank five years ago. Jurors voted 9-3 to recommend Zephen Xaver, 27, receive the death penalty for the 23 January 2019 murders at the SunTrust Bank in Sebring, about 85 miles (135km) south-east of Tampa.
OKLAHOMA CITY — The state of Oklahoma has set an execution date for a man convicted of murdering a 7-year-old girl in the 1980s. The Court of Criminal Appeals decided that Richard Rojem will be put to death after decades behind bars for the murder of Layla Dawn Cummings. Rojem has always claimed that he's innocent.
