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)
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Colorado rampage: Legally, focus to be death penalty, expert says
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Colorado shooting suspect James E. Holmes is expected to make his first appearance Monday morning in a court case that appears so clear-cut that at least one expert said the legal machinations could come down to one straightforward question:
If he's convicted, does the suspect deserve the death penalty?
"It is all but certain that prosecutors will file first-degree murder charges against Holmes in the Arapahoe County courthouse and that they'll seek the death penalty, criminal law expert Sam Kamin, a law professor at the University of Denver, told the Los Angeles Times.
Kamin predicts that as the case moves forward, points of dispute between the prosecution and the defense will revolve less on the question of what Holmes did or did not do on Friday morning, and more on his state of mind at the time.
"The evidence of his guilt is pretty strong," Kamin said. "The ... case for death is strong. So the question becomes, what is the case for mitigation? Is there a history of mental illness? Is there some instance of abuse in the past? Is there anything in the defendant's past that might make a jury willing to spare him?
The current hard-line district attorney for Arapahoe County is likely to seek capital charges for accused mass murderer James Holmes — but she will be out of office in five months and Colorado has not executed a single prisoner in nearly 35 years, experts note.
“If they do go for death it will cost tens of millions of dollars at a time when Colorado is shutting down elementary schools,” said University of Colorado Institute of Behavioral Science professor Michael L. Radelet, a leading authority on capital punishment. “If the death penalty were a deterrent, this guy would not have done (what he allegedly did) in the top death-penalty jurisdiction in the state.”
Under Colorado state law, a prosecutor must inform the court and the defendant that the state will seek capital punishment within 60 days of arraignment. Under the law, defendants are eligible for the death penalty if found guilty of first-degree murder with at least one aggravating factor, which can include ambushing a victim or using an explosive device.
Colorado theater shooting suspect makes first court appearance
(CNN) -- The man accused of opening fire Friday in a packed movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, made his first court appearance Monday, giving the public its first look at the 24-year-old former doctoral candidate since his arrest.
James E. Holmes, his hair dyed various shades of red, looked downward, then straight ahead. He sat without blinking for long periods. At times, his eyes fluttered, then squeezed tight and reopened in a blank stare. Occasionally, his eyebrows arched, giving his face a mournful mien.
But the man who identified himself to police as "The Joker," dressed in a maroon jumpsuit over a white T-shirt, gave little indication that he was paying attention to the courtroom procedure that ensured he will be continue to be held without bond.
He is to be charged next Monday. Those charges are likely to include first-degree murder -- an offense that carries a possible death penalty, if he is convicted -- in the shooting deaths, given allegations over the weekend by police that there is evidence to suggest "calculation and deliberation" in the rampage.
Holmes is being held in connection with the early Friday shootings that left 12 dead and 58 wounded, and the subsequent discovery of his booby-trapped apartment, which authorities believe he rigged before leaving for the Century Aurora 16 multiplex.
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.
Luo Chongchuang, a man who raped and molested multiple girls for a long time, was executed after China's top court approved his death penalty. The execution was carried by the Hainan First Intermediate People's Court, where he was convicted of rape and child molestation and given the death sentence.
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)
Every few years, from childhood until my late teens, my granddad would take me along with him to the small Texas town where he grew up—Normangee, population 522—to visit old relatives and even older graves. The drive took us up I-45, beyond the Houston sprawl, past pine forests, and eventually through Huntsville, epicenter of the state prison system. One of the city’s seven prisons was just off the interstate, and as we passed by I’d stare at the guard towers and barbed wire before turning my attention across the street to the Texas Prison Museum, which had its own mock guard towers in the parking lot. (“Prison” and “museum” were words that never seemed to go together.) Later, I learned that the museum’s central attraction was the wooden electric chair the state used for executions until 1964.
A 20-year-old Jewish man is scheduled to be executed by Iranian authorities on Saturday, according to Iranian media reports. The young man has been sentenced to death following his involvement in a fatal altercation with a local non-Jewish Iranian.
NAIROBI, Kenya, May 13 – Saudi Arabia has acceded to Kenya’s request to postpone the execution of Stephen Munyakho that was set for Wednesday to allow for further negotiations between all parties. According to Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Korir Sing’Oei, Kenya will be engaging stakeholders in Nairobi and Riyadh, including religious leaders, to agree on the next urgent steps.
Thousands of years ago in ancient China, felonies were not simply punished with a stint in jail, but serious crimes often entailed the amputation of a limb, specifically legs. This harsh culture of punishment, known as yue , disciplined people for various crimes, such as desertion from duties, stealing, or defrauding the monarchy. It was also used in lieu of the death penalty.
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
David Hosier, who is weeks away from execution, is in a hospital after suffering what a Missouri Department of Corrections spokeswoman described as a “medical emergency." ST. LOUIS (AP) — A Missouri death row prisoner who is due to be executed next month has been hospitalized because of a “medical emergency,” a spokeswoman for the Missouri Department of Corrections said.
Buried on page 554 of the plan is a directive to execute every remaining person on federal death row — and dramatically expand the use of the death penalty. During the final six months of Donald Trump’s presidency, his administration carried out an unprecedented execution spree, killing 13 people on federal death row and ending a 17-year de facto federal execution moratorium.
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