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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. 

Algerian parliamentarians filed a bill aimed at abolishing capital punishment

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December 6, 2008: a group of Algerian parliamentarians filed a bill aimed at abolishing capital punishment, a move supported by the World Coalition.

The text was sponsored by 20 other lawmakers and states: “The death penalty is abolished. No one shall be executed.” The bill seeks to replace capital punishment with life imprisonment in Algerian law.

Once vetted by the Committee of Algeria's National Popular Assembly, the text will be in the hands of the government, which sets the parliamentary agenda. “It will all depend on us and on whatever international pressure may be applied”, said Ali Brahimi. The sponsors of the bill will organise a conference on the death penalty on December 15.

Another event will take place in January thanks to Algeria's National Commission for the Promotion of Human Rights and to World Coalition member organisation Penal Reform International. Apart from Brahimi's RDC party, representatives from two other political movements, including the ruling FLN, told Le Soir d'Algérie newspaper that they favoured abolition.

However the April 2009 presidential election may shift attention away from the abolition bill.

Source: Worldcoalition.org, 09/12/2008
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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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