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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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Alabama Gov. Riley plans to sign bill to increase the number of witnesses

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Alabama Gov. Bob Riley plans to sign a bill into law in time to allow six siblings to witness the scheduled Thursday execution of their mother's convicted killer.

The measure, passed last week by the Legislature, would increase from 2 to 6 the number of immediate family members of a crime victim who can witness the perpetrator's execution. The measure would extend the same right to immediate family members of the inmate condemned to death.

"The governor plans to sign this bill as soon as it is transmitted to our office on Thursday morning," Riley spokesman Jeff Emerson said in an e-mail. "It takes effect immediately, which means it would be in effect for the execution scheduled for Thursday evening."

Willie McNair of Abbeville is scheduled to die by lethal injection Thursday evening at Holman Correctional Facility. McNair has been on Death Row since 1991, having been sentenced to death for the 1990 robbery-murder of Ella Foy Riley in her Abbeville home.

Until the witness bill passed the Legislature, Riley's daughter, Pat Jones, and her youngest brother Wayne had planned to watch McNair's execution. If Riley signs the bill as planned, 4 other Riley siblings - Calvin, Don, John and Bobby - also are expected to be witnesses.

Source: Birmingham News, May 12, 2009
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