FEATURED POST

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

Image
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.

Saudi Arabia: two police officers beheaded

So far for 2009, there have been 11 beheadings in the Oil Kingdom. The record was set in 2007 with 153 such executions.

Corporal Shaalan Bin Nasser al-Qahtani and Lance Coporal Fah bin Hassan al-Sebeyi, convicted of rape in Saudi Arabia, were beheaded by the sword on February 21, 2008. This brings the number of beheadings in the oil kingdom to 11 announced for 2009 as of February 21. Rape, like apostasy, adultery, armed robbery, and drug trafficking, carries the death penalty in Saudi Arabia, where executions are held in public.

The 2 police officers stopped a man and a woman late at night at a checkpoint. After beating the men and locking him in a police car, the pair then raped the man's niece. The incident was reported shortly afterward and the officers were arrested.

The year 2007 holds the gruesome record of 153 executed in the land where Islam was founded, which applies a strict observance of shariah Islamic law. In 2006, 37 persons were executed while the previous record was reached in 2000 with 113 executions. In January 2009, 2 men were beheaded for raping another man.

Source: Energy Publisher, Feb. 24, 2009

Comments

Most Viewed (Last 7 Days)

Biden Has 65 Days Left in Office. Here’s What He Can Do on Criminal Justice.

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

Alabama executes Carey Dale Grayson, carries out nation's 3rd nitrogen gas execution

Singapore executes third drug trafficker in a week

Indonesia | Bali Nine prisoners to be sent home

Missouri bishops urge state to refrain from executing convicted child-killer next month

USA | Kentucky sheriff who shot best friend judge in his chambers now facing death penalty

Singapore | Imminent unlawful execution for drug trafficking

Mary Jane Veloso to return to Philippines after 14-year imprisonment in Indonesia

USA | Pro-Trump prison warden asks Biden to commute all death sentences before leaving