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As clock ticks toward another Trump presidency, federal death row prisoners appeal for clemency

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President-elect Donald Trump’s return to office is putting a spotlight on the U.S. penitentiary in Terre Haute, which houses federal death row. In Bloomington, a small community of death row spiritual advisors is struggling to support the prisoners to whom they minister.  Ross Martinie Eiler is a Mennonite, Episcopal lay minister and member of the Catholic Worker movement, which assists the homeless. And for the past three years, he’s served as a spiritual advisor for a man on federal death row.
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Saudi executes Pakistani for drug trafficking

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Public execution in Saudi Arabia
Public execution in Saudi Arabia

Saudi authorities executed a Pakistani man on Sunday for attempting to smuggle drugs into the ultra-conservative kingdom, the interior ministry said. 

Up to 129 people have been executed in Saudi Arabia so far this year, including the latest execution, compared with 87 for the whole of 2014, according to AFP tallies. 

Mohammed Sharif was arrested while attempting to smuggle heroin into the country hidden in his stomach, the ministry said in a statement published on the SPA state news agency. 

He was executed in the Quwaiya district, near Riyadh. 

Most people sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia are beheaded, but sometimes executions are carried out by firing squad. 

Amnesty International on Tuesday appealed for a moratorium on executions in Saudi Arabia, criticising the kingdom's "deeply flawed judicial system". 

Under Saudi Arabia's strict Islamic legal code, drug trafficking, murder, armed robbery, rape, homosexuality and apostasy are all punishable by death. 

Amnesty says Saudi Arabia is one of the world's most prolific executioners, along with China, Iran, Iraq and the United States. 

Source: Agence France-Presse, August 31, 2015


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Location: Saudi Arabia
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