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Japan | Hakamada found religion, but then felt under attack by ‘the devil’

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Editor's note: This is the last in a four-part series on letters that Iwao Hakamada wrote while on death row. About a decade after cursing God, Iwao Hakamada was baptized Catholic at the Tokyo Detention House on Dec. 24, 1984. “Since I have been given the Christian name Paul, I am keenly feeling that I should be aware of the greatness of Paul.” (June 1985)

16 death row inmates sue Mississippi

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Sixteen death row inmates in Mississippi filed suit Thursday, saying their executions should be halted because their state-appointed attorneys were untrained, inexperienced and overwhelmed.

One of those inmates, Gerald James Holland, is scheduled to be executed May 20. At 72, he is the oldest inmate on death row. Holland's execution is set to follow the May 19 execution of Paul Everette Woodward, 62.

James Craig, of Jackson, the attorney for the 16 inmates, said by the end of this year, the state could begin to resemble Texas and Florida for frequency of executions.

"This is not something we've seen in Mississippi before," he said.

Glenn Swartzfager, director of the state Office of Capital Post Conviction Counsel, agreed with the assessment of a "bumper crop of executions."

Under Mississippi law, the state must provide "competent and conscientious" counsel for death row inmates before their execution dates can be set.

The lawsuit filed Thursday in Hinds County Chancery Court alleges the state-appointed lawyers did not meet that criteria and were overwhelmed with cases. Read more>>>

Source: Clarion Ledger, May 7, 2010
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First Third Of 2024 In Saudi Arabia: Executions Rise By 189% And Portend Another Bloody Year. At Least 71 Currently Facing Execution.

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Since the beginning of 2024 until the end of April, the Ministry of Interior in Saudi Arabia announced the execution of 55 individuals. This figure constitutes a 189% increase compared to the executions in the first third of 2023, which witnessed 19 executions. The European Saudi Organization for Human Rights views these numbers as a clear indication of the Saudi government's continued approach towards executing and issuing death sentences, and that the promises made in recent years have become elusive.
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20 Minutes to Death: Witness to the Last Execution in France

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The following document is a written record of convicted killer Hamida Djandoubi's last moments before he was guillotined in a Marseilles prison on September 10, 1977. This written record -- dated September 9 -- was written by a judge appointed to witness the execution. Djandoubi's execution was the last execution carried out in France before capital punishment was abolished in 1981. Then-President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, who had voiced his "loathing for the death penalty" before he was elected to office, flatly turned down Djandoubi's appeal for clemency and chose to let "Justice run its course", as he did on two previous instances ( Christian Ranucci , executed on July 28, 1976 and Jérôme Carrein , executed on June 23, 1977). Hamida Djandoubi , a Tunisian national, was sentenced to death for killing his former lover, Elisabeth Bousquet. He was executed in Marseilles' Baumettes prison in September 1977. The following text was writ
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Mississippi | Biloxi man gets death penalty for torture, murder of toddler

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Tennessee | New law allows death penalty for child rape

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