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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. 

Ex-Marine Jorge Torrez formally sentenced to death by federal judge

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Jorge Torrez
A former Marine convicted last month of strangling a fellow service member at an Arlington military base was formally sentenced to death Friday in federal district court in Alexandria.

The result was no surprise. Jurors had already recommended that 25-year-old Jorge Torrez face capital punishment for the 2009 killing of 20-year-old Navy Petty Officer Amanda Jean Snell, and U.S. District Judge Liam O’Grady was bound by law to impose the penalty. He did so after a minutes-long hearing, saying Torrez had committed “unconscionable crimes” and no errors had been committed to invalidate the outcome of his trial.

Torrez confirmed with the judge that he planned to appeal the case — though he did so only after sighing deeply and asking for a moment to confer with his attorneys. He declined the judge’s invitation to speak on his own behalf.

“There’s nothing I’d like to say, your honor,” he said just before O’Grady imposed the sentence.

Torrez will join six other inmates from Virginia cases on federal death row, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, which tracks death-penalty cases nationwide. Torrez’s execution, though, is far from imminent. The post-sentence legal process generally takes years, and according to the center, no federal inmate from Virginia has been put to death since 1927, which is as far back as the group’s database tracks.

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Source: The Washington Post, May 30, 2014

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