FEATURED POST

U.S. Presidential Election 2024: Death penalty absent from campaign, but not from minds

Published
Image
Kamala Harris, once openly opposed to the death penalty despite political costs, now avoids the topic as a candidate. Meanwhile, Donald Trump advocates tougher criminal policies, though presidential authority in this area is limited. A few blocks from downtown Richmond, Virginia, the intersection of Spring Street and Belvidere Street now presents a completely different view. Where once stood a grim, old brick building, there is now a modern building with a glass facade reflecting the sun shining on Virginia’s capital. Trees along the wide Belvidere Street give the neighborhood a promenade-like feel, with the James River flowing nearby along the memorial for American war dead.

Libya court condemns five army officers to death in absentia

Published
A Libyan military court on Wednesday ordered the execution of five army officers, who were being tried in absentia, on charges of indiscriminate shelling of civilians and of rape during the 2011 conflict.

The court in the eastern city of Benghazi also handed down 10-year prison terms to three soldiers charged with rape, who were present at the hearing, the official LANA news agency reported.

Colonel Gaith Isbaa, Colonel Saad Abdel Rahman, Lieutenant Colonel Altaher Mohammed, Captain Khaled al-Akremi and First Lieutenant Mohammed Mohammed were condemned to death by firing squad.

This is the first time a court has issues the death penalty since the NATO-backed rebel uprising that toppled veteran dictator Moammar Qaddafi.

Rights organizations maintain that Libya's justice system is in urgent need of reform, with thousands of detainees held without process. Only a handful of Qaddafi-era officials are currently being tried in civilian courts.

Source: Agence France-Presse, November 7, 2012
Location: Libya
Related content:

Most Viewed (Last 7 Days)

Singapore | Inside the prison that executes people for supplying cannabis

Published
Image
Singapore CNN  — Though he is provided with a straw mat, Matthew says he prefers to sleep on the concrete floor of his cell in the maximum-security wing of Singapore’s Changi Prison. “It’s more cooling that way,” says the 41-year-old former schoolteacher, who was sentenced to more than seven years in prison and seven strokes of the cane for selling methamphetamine. CNN met Matthew, who spoke on condition that his last name be withheld, during an exclusive tour of Changi Prison provided by Singapore authorities as they defended the city-state’s uncompromising position on drugs.
Read more

U.S. Presidential Election 2024: Death penalty absent from campaign, but not from minds

Published
Image
Kamala Harris, once openly opposed to the death penalty despite political costs, now avoids the topic as a candidate. Meanwhile, Donald Trump advocates tougher criminal policies, though presidential authority in this area is limited. A few blocks from downtown Richmond, Virginia, the intersection of Spring Street and Belvidere Street now presents a completely different view. Where once stood a grim, old brick building, there is now a modern building with a glass facade reflecting the sun shining on Virginia’s capital. Trees along the wide Belvidere Street give the neighborhood a promenade-like feel, with the James River flowing nearby along the memorial for American war dead.
Read more

Tennessee | A Death Row Pastor’s View of Executions

Published
Image
From 2010 to 2015 I was incarcerated at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, Tennessee, the site of death row for the men’s prison system. Though I wasn’t housed on death row, as the editor of the Maximum Times prison newspaper and, for a time, the chaplain’s clerk, I was on occasion able to visit. It was there that I was fortunate enough to meet author, prison volunteer and death row pastor Joseph B. Ingle.
Read more

China | Woman who trafficked 17 children sentenced to death

Published
Image
Yu Huaying, a woman who abducted and trafficked 17 children for financial gains between 1993 and 2003, was sentenced to death by a court in Guizhou province on Friday after a retrial. "Considering the circumstance of her offense was extremely serious, bringing great damage to the victims and their families, we impose the death penalty on her," said the Guiyang Intermediate People's Court.
Read more

Iran executes four for selling contaminated alcohol

Published
Image
Iranian authorities, on Wednesday, executed four people convicted of selling contaminated bootleg alcohol that killed 17 people last year.  The defendants had been sentenced to death in September 2023 for selling the contaminated alcohol that killed at least 17 people and put more than 190 others into a hospital in the province of Alborz, west of Tehran.  “The death penalty against four defendants in the case of poisoning caused by the consumption of alcoholic beverages was carried out at Karaj central prison,” the judiciary’s Mizan news agency said.
Read more

Editorial: Robert Roberson death penalty case in Texas has turned into a horrific circus

Published
Image
Robert Roberson’s death sentence has become a circus, with gruesome acts playing simultaneously in three distinctly American rings. In the center are Texas politicians battling one another for power to end or preserve Roberson’s life. In a side ring, celebrities weigh in on whether the condemned man might be telling the truth about his young daughter’s death, and in another, medical experts debate the credibility of shaken baby syndrome and the meaning of the autism spectrum.
Read more

Kenya strikes deal with Saudi Arabia over Kenyan man facing execution in Riyadh

Published
Image
The Kenyan government has been actively involved in seeking a resolution to Munyakho's case, where he is set for execution after he accidentally killed a Saudi colleague in an altercation The government has successfully negotiated the postponement of the execution of Stephen Munyakho, a Kenyan national who has been incarcerated in Saudi Arabia for over a decade. Munyakho, who was set to face the death penalty on November 26, 2024, has been granted an additional year as both parties work towards a resolution.
Read more

Saudi Arabia Executes Seven Over Drug Trafficking

Published
Image
Saudi Arabia executed seven individuals on Wednesday, including five for drug trafficking, according to the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA). The executions bring the total number carried out this year in the Gulf kingdom to 236 , based on an AFP tally using official statements. Yahya Lutfullah, Ali Azib, Ahmed Ali, and Salem Nahari were executed in the southern province of Asir for “smuggling hashish” into the country, the interior ministry stated in a report published by SPA.
Read more

Iran | Man Executed in Isfahan Due to Inability to Pay Blood Money

Published
Image
Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); October 21, 2024: Mohammad Ashouri, a man on death row for murder, was executed in Isfahan Central Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was executed in Isfahan Central Prison on 16 October. His identity has been established as 32-year-old Mohammad Ashouri from Mamasani county in Fars province. He was arrested six years ago and sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder.
Read more

California | What’s next for the Menendez brothers as DA recommends their resentencing decades after their parents’ killing

Published
Image
More than three decades after Lyle and Erik Menendez were convicted of the murders of their parents and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, the brothers now see a path to their potential release. Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón on Friday will recommend that a judge resentence the siblings – a decision that was the culmination of a review that came after defense attorneys said in 2023 they had new evidence pointing to abuse by their father.
Read more