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As clock ticks toward another Trump presidency, federal death row prisoners appeal for clemency

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President-elect Donald Trump’s return to office is putting a spotlight on the U.S. penitentiary in Terre Haute, which houses federal death row. In Bloomington, a small community of death row spiritual advisors is struggling to support the prisoners to whom they minister.  Ross Martinie Eiler is a Mennonite, Episcopal lay minister and member of the Catholic Worker movement, which assists the homeless. And for the past three years, he’s served as a spiritual advisor for a man on federal death row.
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Japan hangs four

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Japan has hanged four convicted murderers, despite international calls for it to stop executions.

Japan is the only industrialised country other than the United States to enforce the death penalty.

The four executed prisoners had all been convicted of murder and each was given only last-minute notice that they were heading to the gallows.

Japan is stepping up its hangings of death row prisoners and last year it executed 15, the highest number in three decades.

While the death penalty has strong public support in Japan, international human rights groups have called on it to stop the executions.

Amnesty International says it will issue a protest to the Japanese Government over the latest hangings.

Source: ABC News.net.au, January 29, 2009
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