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Arkansas Supreme Court Decision Allows New DNA Testing in Case of the ​“West Memphis Three,” Convicted of Killing Three Children in 1993

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On April 18, 2024, the Arkansas Supreme Court decided 4-3 to reverse a 2022 lower court decision and allow genetic testing of crime scene evidence from the 1993 killing of three eight-year-old boys in West Memphis. The three men convicted in 1994 for the killings were released in 2011 after taking an Alford plea, in which they maintained their innocence but plead guilty to the crime, in exchange for 18 years’ time served and 10 years of a suspended sentence. 

China: Man who killed toddler in parking row executed

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Han Lei (photo: AP)
A Chinese man who killed a two-year-old girl after a row with her mother over a parking space was executed on Friday, a court said.

Han Lei was convicted of taking the child from her pram and throwing her to the ground after her mother refused to make way for him to park his car in Beijing in July last year.

He and a friend in the vehicle drove away and the toddler died two days later of her injuries, provoking widespread public outrage.

Han, now 40, was sentenced to death two months after the incident, and appealed against the penalty without success.

China's Supreme Court approved the sentence and he was executed on Friday, the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court said on a verified microblog account.

Han had reportedly told prosecutors last year he felt so guilty and distressed that he wanted to die, according to previous Chinese media reports.

"I caused such a calamity for the child... please make sure that I am sentenced to death," he was quoted as saying. "I don't want to live any more."

Han was sentenced to life in prison in 1996 for stealing a car but was released 2012 after the sentence was commuted, the reports said.

Source: Agence France-Presse, October 31, 2014

Related articles:
- China toddler death: Suspect trial begins, BBC News, Sept. 5, 2013
- Chinese Man Sentenced to Death for Killing Toddler, AP, Sept. 2013
- China: Beijing Baby Killer Appeals for Light Sentence, CRI English, Oct. 8, 2013
- China: Death penalty upheld for Beijing road-rage baby killer, SCMP, Nov. 29, 2013
Location: Beijing, Beijing, China
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