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As clock ticks toward another Trump presidency, federal death row prisoners appeal for clemency

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President-elect Donald Trump’s return to office is putting a spotlight on the U.S. penitentiary in Terre Haute, which houses federal death row. In Bloomington, a small community of death row spiritual advisors is struggling to support the prisoners to whom they minister.  Ross Martinie Eiler is a Mennonite, Episcopal lay minister and member of the Catholic Worker movement, which assists the homeless. And for the past three years, he’s served as a spiritual advisor for a man on federal death row.
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Man’s hand cut off for theft on Saudi court orders

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A Yemeni man had his hand cut off by Saudi police after he was convicted by a local court of carrying out many thefts in the conservative Muslim Gulf country.

The official Saudi press agency said Ahmed Mohammed Afandi was found guilty by a criminal court in the southern province of Jazan near the border with Yemen.

It said the sentenced by an initial court was upheld by the supreme court and ratified by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, adding that his right hand was cut off at the wrist.

Saudi Arabia strictly is one the most conservative Moslem nations and strictly enforces Sharia (Islamic law), under which convicted thieves have their right hand cut off by the sword in certain cases.

Source: Emirates 24/7, December 18, 2013
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