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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)

California: ‘Yom Kippur Killer’ Michael Homick Dies Of Natural Causes On Death Row

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Michael Homick
Michael Homick
SAN QUENTIN (AP) — State prisons officials say a San Quentin death row inmate convicted of two 1985 murders in Los Angeles has died of natural causes.

California’s Department of Corrections says 74-year-old Michael Homick was pronounced dead Wednesday at 11:26 a.m. at a hospital near the prison.

Homick was sentenced to death by a Los Angeles County jury for the September 25, 1985 contract killings of Gerald Woodman, 67, and Vera Woodman, 63.

The couple was killed in an underground garage at their Brentwood condominium after a family gathering to celebrate the end of Yom Kippur.

Homick had been on death row since January 25, 1995.

The department says 65 condemned inmates have died from natural causes since California reinstated the death penalty in 1978. There are 749 people on California’s death row.

Source: The Associated Press, Nov. 5, 2014
Location: California, USA
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First Third Of 2024 In Saudi Arabia: Executions Rise By 189% And Portend Another Bloody Year. At Least 71 Currently Facing Execution.

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20 Minutes to Death: Witness to the Last Execution in France

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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
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Cruel and Unusual: Documentary explores epicenter of Texas’ prison system

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Saudi authorities agree to postpone execution of Kenyan national

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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.
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