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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. 

China executes man after rare retrial

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Chinese police officers
rehearsing executions
September 29, 2011: a man convicted of killing a young woman and her 3-year-old brother after his offer of marriage was refused was executed in Zhaotong city, Yunnan province, according to the local court.

Li Changkui, 29, was executed by the Zhaotong Intermediate People's Court after the Supreme People's Court (SPC) approved the death penalty, as every execution is subject to SPC review.

Li pled guilty to raping 19-year-old Wang Jiafei before killing her and her brother Wang Jiahong in the village of Yingge in May 2009 in Yunnan.

The execution came after the Yunnan Provincial Higher People's Court sentenced Li to death in August, after he was tried for the third time.

The sentence overturned a lenient one made by the same court, which sparked public outcry demanding that Li be sentenced to death.

The SPC supported the verdict the Provincial Higher Court made after the second retrial, saying that all the trial procedures were conducted according to the law, and the facts were reliable, clear and sufficient, and the conviction and measurement of Li's crimes were accurate and proper.

Months earlier, the Provincial Higher Court in the second trial had given Li the death penalty with a two-year reprieve, almost tantamount to life imprisonment in China, overturning the death sentence made by the Zhaotong Intermediate People's Court in July last year.

The Provincial Higher Court said the second retrial was made after the relatives appealed to the court.

Source: China Daily, September 29, 2011

Related articles:
Death Penalty News: Killer's case and death penalty dilemmas in ...
Aug 23, 2011
BEIJING ( Caixin Online ) — By raping and murdering a 19-year-old woman before killing her 3-year-old brother, Li Changkui incurred the wrath of the victims' relatives, a Yunnan Province village stunned by the horror, and ...
http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.com/
Location: Zhaotong, Yunnan, China
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