FEATURED POST

To U.S. Death Row Inmates, Today's Election is a Matter of Life or Death

Published
Image
You don't have to tell Daniel Troya and the 40 other denizens of federal death row locked in shed-sized solitary cells for 23 hours a day, every day, that elections have consequences. To them, from inside the U.S. government's only death row located in Terre Haute, Indiana, Tuesday's election is quite literally a matter of life and death: If Kamala Harris wins, they live; if Donald Trump wins, they die. "He's gonna kill everyone here that he can," Troya, 41, said in an email from behind bars. "That's as easy to predict as the sun rising."
Post a Comment

Zhou Yongkang, Former Security Chief in China, Gets Life Sentence for Corruption

Published
Zhou Yongkang
Zhou Yongkang
HONG KONG — Zhou Yongkang, China’s former domestic security chief, was sentenced to life in prison Thursday for accepting bribes, abuse of power and revealing state secrets, according to Xinhua, China’s state-run news agency.

He is the most senior official to be convicted of corruption in the history of Communist rule in China.

Mr. Zhou, 72, was tried in secret in the northeastern city of Tianjin. Xinhua said he admitted guilt and would not appeal his conviction.

Mr. Zhou retired in 2012 after a career of building an extensive power base in China’s law-and-order apparatus and the country’s oil and gas industry.

He had served on the Politburo Standing Committee, China’s highest echelon of political power, from 2007 to 2012, and his downfall makes him the highest-ranking figure to be ensnared in President Xi Jinping’s continuing campaign against official corruption.

Prosecutors called the circumstances of his wrongdoing “particularly grave” when they announced charges against him in April. In its verdict, the Tianjin First Intermediate People’s Court said that the bribes were “extremely large” but had been recovered and that the sentence against Mr. Zhou was in accordance with the “degree of harm to society” caused by his crimes.


Source: The New York Times, Austin Ramzy, June 11, 2015

Report an error, an omission: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com
Location: China
Related content:

Most Viewed (Last 7 Days)

To U.S. Death Row Inmates, Today's Election is a Matter of Life or Death

Published
Image
You don't have to tell Daniel Troya and the 40 other denizens of federal death row locked in shed-sized solitary cells for 23 hours a day, every day, that elections have consequences. To them, from inside the U.S. government's only death row located in Terre Haute, Indiana, Tuesday's election is quite literally a matter of life and death: If Kamala Harris wins, they live; if Donald Trump wins, they die. "He's gonna kill everyone here that he can," Troya, 41, said in an email from behind bars. "That's as easy to predict as the sun rising."
Read more

Idaho | Federal Judge Grants Stay of Execution for Thomas Creech; Defense Asks Court to Bar Death Penalty for Bryan Kohberger

Published
Image
After surviving a botched execution attempt in February, Thomas Creech (pictured) was scheduled for  execution a second time on November 13 in Idaho. On Wednesday, November 6, a federal district court issued a stay of execution to allow more time to consider Mr. Creech’s legal claims. The Idaho Department of Corrections announced that “execution preparations have been suspended” and the execution warrant will expire.
Read more

Indiana | Media unlikely to witness first execution in 15 years

Published
Image
Hoosier prison staffers, the condemned’s friends and family members, and the victims’ family members may soon witness the state of Indiana’s first execution since 2009. But it’s likely that no independent witnesses will be included. Joseph Corcoran, who killed four people in 1997, is scheduled to be executed Dec. 18. In Indiana, the death penalty is only available for the crime of murder. It will also be the state’s first time killing a prisoner with pentobarbital instead of a traditional three-drug cocktail.
Read more

Texas | Jewish death row inmate granted new trial over claims that judge was antisemitic

Published
Image
A Texas appeals court has ordered a new trial for Randy Halprin because of antisemitic bias by the judge in his case A Texas appeals court ordered a new trial Wednesday for a Jewish man on death row — who was part of a gang of prisoners that fatally shot a police officer in 2000 after escaping — because of antisemitic bias by the judge who presided over his case. Lawyers for Randy Halprin have contended that former Judge Vickers Cunningham in Dallas used racial slurs and antisemitic language to refer to him and some of his co-defendants.
Read more

U.S. will appeal judge's ruling that 9/11 defendants can plead guilty and avoid the death penalty

Published
Image
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Defense Department will appeal a military judge's ruling that plea agreements struck by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, and two of his co-defendants are valid, a defense official said Saturday. The ruling this past week voided Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's order to throw out the deals and concluded that the plea agreements were valid. The judge granted the three motions to enter guilty pleas and said he would schedule them for a future date to be determined by the military commission.
Read more

Burkina Faso aims to reinstate death penalty, government source says

Published
Image
Burkina Faso's military regime wants to reinstate the death penalty, which was abolished in the country in 2018, a government source told AFP news agency on Saturday.  The latest execution in Burkina Faso was in 1988, according to rights group Amnesty International. It concerned four leaders accused of an attempted coup d’état to depose president Blaise Compaoré – defence minister Jean-Baptiste Boukary Lingani, minister of economic promotion Henri Zongo, and two unidentified men.
Read more

Iran | Executions in Zanjan, Shiraz, Ahar, Zahedan, Khorramabad, Karaj, Jiroft, Kanuj, Hamedan, Urmia, Arak, Tabriz

Published
Image
Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); November 7, 2024: Soleiman Abbaspour, a possible child offender on death row for murder was executed in Zanjan Central Prison on Saturday. Yesterday, a man named Ezat Seyedi who according to his relatives, suffered from “intellectual disabilities,” was executed for unintentionally killing his friend while they were joking around with a rifle.
Read more

Iran issues death sentence for Kurdish political prisoner Verisheh Moradi

Published
Image
Verisheh Moradi, a Kurdish political prisoner and a member of the East Kurdistan Free Women Society (KJAR), has been sentenced to death by Branch 15 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran on charges of “armed insurrection” (baghi). The verdict, handed down by Judge Abolghassem Salavati, followed two court hearings on 16 June and 5 October, and the death sentence was formally notified to Moradi’s lawyers on 10 November. 
Read more