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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)

Michael Archuleta, Utah Death Row Inmate, Chooses Execution By Firing Squad

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A Utah man has opted for execution by firing squad to carry out his death sentence for a 1988 murder in which he stabbed a man in the liver with a tire iron.

Michael Archuleta, 49, beat his victim with a jack handle before killing him, according to CNN. He will become only the 4th U.S. prisoner to die by firing squad since the death penalty was reinstated in the United States in 1976.

KSL.com reports that the state won't oppose the firing squad decision, even though the state did away with that option in 2004.

In 1988, Archuleta and Lance Wood met victim Gordon Ray Church, 28, at a convenience store to engage in sexual acts with him, CNN reported. At some point, the trio stopped what they were doing, and Wood and Archuleta bound Church, shoved him into a trunk, and drove him 80 miles away.

They attached battery jumper cables to Church's testicles and tried to electrocute him. When they failed, they killed him with the tire iron.

Archuleta is now in line to be the 1st person to die by firing squad in Utah since Ronnie Lee Gardner in June 2010.

Archuleta still has an appeal hearing before his execution date this spring.

Wood was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Source: Huffington Post, Feb. 10, 2012
Location: Utah, USA
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