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U.S. | 'I comfort death row inmates in their final moments - the execution room is like a house of horrors'

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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. 

Japan Executes 3 for Murders

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By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: June 17, 2008

TOKYO (AP) — Japan executed three murderers on Tuesday, including a serial killer, Tsutomu Miyazaki, who mutilated the bodies of four young girls in the late 1980s.

Mr. Miyazaki, 45, was hanged at a detention center in Tokyo, Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama said.

Mr. Miyazaki had burned the body of one 4-year-old and left her bones on her parents’ doorstep. He also wrote letters to the media and victims’ families taunting the police. Japanese newspaper reports said he ate part of the hand of one of his victims and drank her blood.

The two others executed Tuesday were Shinji Mutsuda, 45, who had been on death row for the murder and robbery of two people, and Yoshio Yamasaki, 73, who was convicted of killing two people for the insurance money, Kyodo News agency reported.

Japan, one of the few industrialized countries with capital punishment, has now hanged 13 death-row inmates in the past six months.

Source: The New York Times

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