Bangladesh: 20 sentenced to death; HC urged to uphold 152 death sentences

Bangladesh Supreme Court

High Court urged to uphold death penalty of 152 BDR mutiny convicts

Attorney General Mahbubey Alam today prayed to the High Court to uphold the lower court verdict that sentenced 152 convicts for killing 74 people including 57 army officials in the 2009 Pilkhana mutiny.

74 people, including 57 army officials, were slain in the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) mutiny on February 25-26, 2009 at the force's Pilkhana headquarters in Dhaka.

In November 2013, a Dhaka court sentenced 150 soldiers of BDR, now Border Guard Bangladesh, and 2 civilians to death, and jailed 161 for life for their involvement.

It also gave rigorous imprisonment, ranging from three to 10 years, to 256, mostly BDR soldiers. The remaining 277 were acquitted.

A total of 844 people, 823 of them BDR personnel, stood trial in Bangladesh's biggest criminal case in terms of the number of accused and convicts.

Source: The Daily Star, November 30, 2015 (wr)

Cop among 3 to walk gallows for killing 9-yr-old boy

A Sylhet court today awarded death penalty to three persons including a sacked police constable for killing nine-year-old Abu Sayeed for ransom.

Judge Abdur Rashid of Sylhet Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal also fined the condemned convicts Tk 1 lakh each.

The convicts are Abdur Rakib, general secretary of Sylhet district unit Olama League, Ebadur Rahman, a sacked constable of Sylhet Airport Police Station, and Ataur Rahman Geda, a police informant.

The court also acquitted Mahib Hossain Masum, publicity secretary of the district unit of Olama League, of the case as allegation against him was not proved.

The convicts abducted Abu Sayeed, son of Andul Matin, on March 11 for a ransom of Tk 5 lakh and later killed him for recognizing the policeman.

On March 12, Ebadur confessed to the crime before a magistrate. 2 days later police recovered Sayeed's body from the attic of the building where both Ebadur and Sayeed resided.

Source: The Daily Star, November 30, 2015 (wr)

Munshiganj court sentences 2 to death, 2 to life in jail for 2009 murder

A Munshiganj court has sentenced 2 persons to death and 2 others to life imprisonment in the Riaz Byapari murder case.

District and Sessions Judge Md Shawkat Ali Chowdhury delivered the verdict on Sunday afternoon in a packed courtroom.

Those given the death penalty were Ripon Khan, 28, and Md Shamim, 26. The 2 who were awarded life in prison were Shah Jalal, 32, and Monjil Mia, 31.

The victim and the convicts, all labourers, were from the district's Gajaria Upazila.

After the verdict, Public Prosecutor Abdul Motin said only Monjil Mia was still absconding.

Quoting the case details, Motin said the convicts strangled Riaz to death on Mar 14, 2009 following a dispute. Riaz's body was recovered from a paddy field the next day.

His father Golboksh Byapari filed the murder case against the 4 on that day.

Byapari on Sunday expressed satisfaction over the verdict and called for speedy execution of the convicts.

Source: bdnews24, November 30, 2015 (wr)

Court sentences 4 to death for 2008 Boalkhali murder

A Chittagong court has sentenced 4 men to death and 2 others to life in prison for the 2008 murder of an auto-rickshaw driver in Boalkhali Upazila.

Chittagong Divisional Public Security Tribunal's judge Syeda Hosne Ara delivered the verdict on Monday on the 7-year-old case.

Those given the death penalty were Nurul Alam, Abul Kalam, Md Kausar and Md Rubel. The 2 who were awarded life imprisonment were Ariful Islam and SM Noimuddin.

Only Kausar and Noimuddin are behind bars. The 4 others are still absconding.

According to case details, on May 3, 2008, the accused hired the auto-rickshaw from the port city's Bahaddarhat to go to Anwara.

They murdered the driver 'Yusuf' and made off with the 3-wheeler. Yusuf's body was dumped on a road in West Gomdondi area at Boalkhali.

The vehicle's owner later found it in Satkania, where police later arrested 5 of the accused.

Yusuf's cousin 'Hashem' filed the murder case at Boalkhali Police Station.

Police named the 6 convicted on Monday in their chargesheet in the case.

Public Prosecutor Md Jahangir Alam said 17 out of 27 witnesses in the case had deposed at court.

Source: bdnews24.com, November 30, 2015 (wr)

11 get death penalty for killing Jubo League leader

A Gazipur court has sentenced 11 persons to death for killing Jubo League leader Jalal Uddin Sarkar in 2003.

Judge Fazle Elahi Bhuiyan of Gazipur Additional District and Session Judge Court 1 pronounced the verdict on Monday afternoon.

The court also fined Tk10,000 each.

Victim's elder brother Milon Sarkar said the convicts hacked his brother to death in broad daylight when he was chatting his friends at a field near Bolkhela Bazar in Kapasia upazila on August 17, 2003.

Later, Milon Sarkar filed a case against the convicts over the murder of his brother.

Source: Dhaka Tribune, November 30, 2015 (wr)

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Florida Set to Execute Man Who Said He Killed to Reach Death Row, Challenging Misconception that Death Penalty Deters Crime

Florida is scheduled to execute James Robertson at noon on Tuesday, October 13, at Florida State Prison. His execution remains scheduled despite the withdrawal of William Lee Thompson’s death warrant, which had called for a 2nd execution that evening. If completed, this will be Florida’s 17th execution of 2026. Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (FADP) and partners will be holding a series of vigils and demonstrations across the state.

Christa Pike's Survival Wasn't a Miracle. That's What Should Scare Us.

What happened in Tennessee's execution chamber is one of the most common failures in medicine Christa Pike is awake. A week after Tennessee strapped her to a gurney and gave her two doses of pentobarbital , she is off the ventilator and speaking from a hospital bed, still shackled to it. Her lawyers call her recovery " medically unprecedented. " Legal scholars say she is the first person in American history to survive a lethal injection after the drug was actually given. I understand the impulse to make such claims. I consulted for Pike's legal team, but I have also spent three decades in operating rooms and intensive care units (ICUs), and I want to resist the word "unprecedented" and the word "miracle" that hovers just behind it.

Christa Pike: 4 Major Questions As She Returns to Death Row

As Christa Pike returns to death row after surviving Tennessee’s attempt to execute her, several questions remain about her case and what comes next. Pike, 50, was discharged from hospital and moved back to the Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center, the women’s prison where she was housed for 30 years, her attorneys said on Saturday. She was hospitalized after surviving 2 doses of the lethal drug pentobarbital as Tennessee attempted to execute her on September 30. Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, her classmate at a Job Corps training program in Knoxville, Tennessee. Pike was 18 at the time.

Florida executes James Robertson

STARKE, Fla. — A Florida prisoner who said he killed his cellmate specifically to get on death row was executed Tuesday, nearly 18 years after the attack. James Robertson, 63, declined to offer any last words before receiving a three-drug injection and was pronounced dead about 10 minutes later. It was a stark contrast to the failed execution of Christa Pike in Tennessee two weeks ago, where she was rushed to the hospital after surviving two lethal doses of pentobarbital.

USA | Firing squad execution to be livestreamed, Pentagon says

The public will be able to watch the execution of a former US Army major by firing squad, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has said. A Defense Department official told the BBC the execution of Nidal Hasan, who shot dead 13 unarmed US soldiers at Fort Hood in 2009, would be livestreamed. It is believed it would be the first public execution in the US in almost a century. The decision to livestream it is "unprecedented in the modern era" and "on uncertain legal terrain", said John Mills, a lawyer who works with inmates sentenced to death.

Saudi Arabia executes two Bangladeshis over 'immoral act' inside mosque

Saudi Arabia has carried out the death penalty on two Bangladeshi nationals in Mecca. The country's Interior Ministry announced this in a statement on Wednesday. According to the report, they were sentenced over allegations of involvement in immoral acts inside a mosque in Mecca. The information was reported by Ajel News, citing the Saudi Interior Ministry's statement. The two Bangladeshis executed were a man and a woman, Nazrul Islam Abdul Basir and Sithi Akhter. The “immoral acts” referred to illicit heterosexual intercourse, not homosexual activity.

What Tennessee wants to do next to Christa Pike is beyond grim

Christa Pike, the woman who survived two execution attempts in Tennessee earlier this week, remains hospitalized in critical condition, where presumably medical staff is at work trying to keep her alive. If she wakes from the coma she had entered, Tennessee officials want to start anew to inject lethal drugs into her seemingly too-small veins to kill her and carry out the state death warrant. Pike also is being treated for “significant injuries to both arms” sustained when two lethal injections of pentobarbital failed to kill her. If she dies, there will be no need to try again. As we know by now, Tennessee tried to put Pike to death Wednesday night by lethal injection for a murder she committed when she was 18. She would have been the first woman executed in the state in 200 years.

Tennessee | Republicans legislature to investigate other execution methods after failed lethal injections

Republican leaders in Tennessee’s legislature say they will investigate the reliability of lethal injection as an execution method after the state failed to execute two death row inmates in the span of five months. Gov. Bill Lee stopped the May execution of Tony Carruthers after a physician unsuccessfully attempted to insert intravenous lines to begin the lethal injection process for over an hour. Death row inmate Christa Pike survived two failed rounds of Tennessee’s lethal injection protocol on Sept. 30 before the execution was halted. Pike, who was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer, is receiving medical care in a Nashville hospital.

Buffalo Tops shooter files last-minute bid to avoid death penalty

Payton Gendron, who is already serving life without parole for killing 10 Black people in a racist mass shooting at a Buffalo supermarket in 2022, is asking a federal judge to throw out the case that could send him to death row. Defense attorneys filed the motion Monday — a day before jury selection was scheduled to begin — seeking to dismiss Gendron’s federal indictment. They argued that Black residents are underrepresented in the jury pool for New York’s Western District, according to WIVB and WKBW.

Tennessee | Christa Pike’s lawyer says she has not regained consciousness since her failed execution

Christa Pike has remained unconscious and on a ventilator at a hospital in the four days since her failed execution in Tennessee, and her prognosis might not be known for days more, one of her lawyers said Sunday. Little has been released about Pike’s condition since Wednesday night’s execution attempt. She has since remained hospitalized under guard as doctors try to get the massive dose of the barbiturate pentobarbital out of her system. When asked whether she ever regained consciousness after the execution attempt, Assistant Federal Defender Stephen Ferrell, Pike’s lawyer, said on CNN’s “State of the Union”: “Not that I am aware of.”

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