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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. 

Saudi beheads killer of soldier, police officer

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Saudi Arabia executed on Wednesday a man who donned women's clothing in a bid to escape after shooting dead a soldier and police officer, state media said.

Salih bin Yateem bin Salih al-Qarni was beheaded in the southwestern city of Abha, the official Saudi Press Agency said.

Qarni was intially arrested on other charges and was transported in an official vehicle by the soldier and a member of the Muttawa religious police.

"He shot them with a gun that he was carrying," the SPA said, without explaining how he obtained the weapon.

After stealing the keys from the security officer driving the vehicle, Qarni chewed some narcotic qat "and disguised himself in women's clothing" in an attempt to flee, but was recaptured, it said.

Saudi women are required to cover from head to toe, often with only their eyes exposed.

The report did not say when the escape bid occurred.

Qarni is the latest of 69 Saudis and foreigners executed in the kingdom this year, despite international concern.

Rape, murder, apostasy, drug trafficking, homosexuality and armed robbery are all punishable by death under the kingdom's strict version of Islamic sharia law.

Source: Agence France-Presse, November 19, 2014
Location: Saudi Arabia
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