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U.S. | I'm a Death Row Pastor. They're Just Ordinary Folks

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In the early 1970s I was a North Carolinian, white boy from the South attending Union Theological Seminary in New York City, and working in East Harlem as part of a program. In my senior year, I visited men at the Bronx House of Detention. I had never been in a prison or jail, but people in East Harlem were dealing with these places and the police all the time. This experience truly turned my life around.

Rights Group Says Convicted Killer Alyaksandr Hrunou Executed In Belarus

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Alyaksandr Hrunou in court
Alyaksandr Hrunou in court
Authorities in Belarus, the only country in Europe that practices capital punishment, has reportedly executed a man sentenced to death for murder.

The unofficial Vyasna (Spring) human rights center in Minsk said on November 4 that Alyaksandr Hrunou, who was sentenced last year after being convicted of stabbing a woman to death in 2012, had been executed.

Vyasna cited Hrunou's mother as saying that she had received her son's belongings, including clothes he wore in a death row cell, by mail.

Vyasna also said they learned on November 3 that Hrunou's appeal for clemency was denied in early October.

Relatives of people executed in Belarus are rarely informed officially and are not told what has been done with the body.

Belarus is known to have executed two other convicts this year.

Vyasna says five people were executed in Belarus from 2010 to 2012 and at least one person remains on death row.

Source: Radio Free Europe, Nov. 4, 2014


Secretary General of Council of Europe: Death penalty is not justice

The Secretary General of Council of Europe Thorbjorn Jagland has urged the Belarusian authorities to establish a moratorium on executions.

A statement on this issue has been made by them in connection with the reports that an execution of 26-year-old Homel dweller Alyaksandr Hrunou had been carried out, BelaPAN informs.

Thorbjorn Jagland stressed that he was deeply concerned by reports about the third execution in Belarus.

"Death penalty is not justice. It contradicts all European values," he noted. He urged the authorities of Belarus to establish moratorium on executions immediately and replace death sentences [with life sentences].

It had been informed by Belarusian human rights watchdogs that the sentence of 26-year-old Homel dweller Aleksandr Hrunou had been enforced the day before. It is the third execution in Belarus since the beginning of the year. Meanwhile, there is no official confirmation of the execution still.

The day before it was also reported that Lukashenka denied pardon to Alyaksandr Hrunou. The papers of Hrunou's case returned to Homel regional court with a corresponding mark. It was also stated that all the procedural actions related to appeal against the death-warrant had been used.

Source: charter97, Nov. 5, 2014
Location: Belarus
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