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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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Pyongyang imposes death penalty for dealers in drugs and South Korean videos

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North Korea is executing people who distribute illegal drugs and South Korean videos, says the Korea Institute for National Unification.

The institute published "North Korean Human Rights Report 2016" on Monday after conducting in-depth interviews with 186 North Korean defectors who came to South Korea from the end of 2014 to last year.

According to the report, three North Koreans including a Hyesan University of Agriculture and Forestry student were shot dead in Hyesan, Yanggang Province in 2013 because they distributed drugs and South Korean videos.

2 men were also executed at Hyesan airport in 2014 after being charged with smuggling drugs and watching South Korean dramas. 

The defectors said 11 people had been sentenced to death for the same offences since 2011.

North Koreans did not face the death penalty just for distributing South Korean TV programs. 

However, they were sentenced to death when police caught them dealing in or buying illegal drugs as well as the videos.

The institute said illegal drugs were widely distributed in North Korea. 

Because of the growing number of cases involving drug dealing and distribution of South Korean videos, North Korean authorities had recently launched a crackdown and introduced severe punishment.

Source: Korea Times, April 26, 2016

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