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Iran Execution Trends Six Months After the New Anti-Narcotics Law

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IRAN HUMAN RIGHTS (MAY 28, 2018): On Monday, May 10, 2018, Iran Human Rights (IHR) reported the execution of Kiomars Nasouhi, a prisoner sentenced to death for drug offenses. This execution is the first drug-related execution registered by IHR since the latest amendment to the Anti-Narcotics Law was enforced on November 14, 2017.
According to reports by IHR, at least 77 people, among them three juvenile offenders have been executed between January 1. and May 20, 2018. Four were hanged in public spaces. Of the reported executions 62 were sentenced to death for murder, seven for Moharebeh (being an “enemy of God”), seven for rape, and 1 for drug offenses. For comparison, it is reported that during the same period in 2017, at least 203 people were executed, 112 were executed for drug offenses. The significant reduction in the number of executions in 2018 seems to be due to a temporary halt in drug-related executions as the number of executions for murder charges were nearly the same as …

Indonesia: Cleric calls on govt not to carry out executions... during Ramadhan

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A local leader of Indonesia's biggest Islamic organization has called on the Attorney General's Office (AGO) not to carry out the anticipated execution of several drug convicts during the fasting month of Ramadhan, which begins on July 6.

KH. Maslahuddin, the chairman of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) in Cilacap, Central Java, said it was hoped the government would respect the holiness of Ramadhan and give the death row inmates a chance to repent before God in the special month for Muslim people.

"After that, please carry out the execution as quickly as possible. Do not postpone it further," Maslahuddin told journalists last week. 

He said if necessary the executions could even be conducted before Ramadhan. "So that prosecutors, firing squad personnel, the Muslim death row inmates and other parties involved in the execution can be devoted to carrying out their Ramadhan religious services," Maslahuddin said. [Hypocrisy and bigotry rule the world - DPN]

He said it was important that the AGO not repeatedly postpone the execution of the convicts, especially in the case of those whose court ruling was already final and could not be legally challenged, so the punishment would create a deterrent effect on other drug crime perpetrators.

"It should be conducted as soon as possible -- the sooner the better. The execution and threat of the death penalty must be continuously communicated to the public so that potential perpetrators think twice before committing such crimes," said Maslahuddin.

Repeatedly postponing the execution of the sentences would only open room for perpetrators to file appeals or use other legal measures in an effort to escape the death penalty.

Citing an example, Maslahuddin said the second appeal and a repent and forswear request letter filed by drug convict Freddy Budiman at the Cilacap District Court were merely aimed at postponing the execution of his death sentence.

As reported earlier, the AGO confirmed it would soon carry out a 3rd round of executions conducted under President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo. However, the AGO has not yet provided details on the date of the execution and the number of inmates to be executed.

The government reportedly delayed the execution due to ongoing legal measures by lawyers of several convicts. The AGO executed 14 people convicted for drug crimes in 2 rounds last year.

Source: Jakarta Post, May 30, 2016

- Report an error, an omission: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com - Follow us on Facebook and Twitter
Location: Cilacap, Cilacap Regency, Central Java, Indonesia

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After 21 Years on Death Row, Darlie Routier Still Says She's Innocent of Murdering Her Young Sons

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Texas woman Darlie Routier has sat on death row for two decades now, ever since her 1997 conviction for the murder of one of her two slain children. Some think the case is open-and-shut, but others believe Routier has been framed for the grisly deaths of sons Devon, 6, and Damon, 5. Now, a new TV show called The Last Defense, executive produced by Viola Davis, will reinvestigate the events of June 6, 1996, in Rowlett, TX.
At 2 a.m. local time that night, Routier called 911, yelling, "They just stabbed me and my children." When first responders showed up to her house, they found the then-26-year-old wife and mother holding a towel to a stab wound on her neck. They also found Devon dead and Damon dying, both boys having sustained deep stab wounds to the chest. Routier told the cops she had woken up to find a man on top of her, but soon they grew suspicious.
"There were these inconsistencies with her story and physical evidence," Lt. David Nabors, head of the Rowlett…
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Florida seeks death penalty for Miami mom whose baby died from scalding bath

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A Homestead mother accused of killing her toddler in a burning-hot bath could face the death penalty after a grand jury indicted her for first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse.
Christina Hurt, shackled and in a jail jumpsuit, appeared in court Friday to plead not guilty as prosecutors announced the upgraded criminal charge in the January death of 1-year-old Ethan Cooley.
Hurt, who had a long and troubling history of abusing her children, is accused of refusing to take Ethan to a hospital after he suffered burns in the bathtub. She claimed to police that her 10-year-old daughter put Ethan in the hot bath, causing him "severe burns" and "peeling skin."
But Hurt did not seek medical help for the baby, instead calling friends to ask "about remedies on treating burn injuries," according to an arrest report.
The child suffered overnight, throwing up, and became "lethargic" the next day as she took her other children to school — even bypassing…
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Oklahoma: Death row inmate in Tulsa bank teller's murder found dead at state penitentiary

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A death row inmate who killed a Tulsa bank teller in 2004 and who exhausted his appeals reportedly hanged himself Saturday in his jail cell.
Oklahoma State Penitentiary staff found Jeremy Williams, 35, dead in his cell from an apparent suicide, according to an Oklahoma Department of Corrections incident report. Matthew Elliott, a DOC spokesman, said Williams' death remains under investigation.
DOC security officers found Williams "hanging from the vent with a ligature tied around his neck," officers state in the report. Williams was convicted for his part in a 2004 shooting death during a botched bank robbery.
He was sentenced to death after his conviction and exhausted his appeals in January 2016 when the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his final appeal. Williams was on death row for nearly 12 years before he was found dead in his cell.
In June 2004, Williams and Alvin "Tony" Jordan were the masked gunmen who robbed First Fidelity Bank, located in the 2600 block …
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Alabama prison system sees steep rise in suicides

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The SPLC argued in federal court today that Alabama’s mistreatment of prisoners with mental illness has led to a dramatic increase in suicides.
Since the beginning of 2018, four people in ADOC custody – three in solitary confinement and one on death row – have died by suicide. The suicide rate in Alabama prisons is one of the highest in the country.
In June 2017, U.S. District Judge Myron H. Thompson declared the mental health system in Alabama prisons “horrendously inadequate,” an unconstitutional failure that led to what Thompson called a “skyrocketing suicide rate” among prisoners.
Thompson’s ruling followed a two-month trial in the SPLC’s lawsuit against the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC). Today’s hearing was about ADOC’s routine use of segregation – solitary confinement – for prisoners with mental illness.
“As far as we can tell, the state has done very little beyond promising to improve conditions in Alabama prisons,” said Maria Morris, senior supervising attorney for …
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Texas: White supremacist gang members sentenced to death for killing fellow supremacist inmate

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All three men — Ricky Fackrell, Christopher Cramer and victim Leo Johns — were members of the white supremacist gang, Soldiers of the Aryan Culture.
Two white supremacist gang members were sentenced to death this week after being convicted of killing a third gang member while incarcerated at a Texas prison in 2014.
Ricky Fackrell, 34, from Vernal, Utah, and Christopher Cramer, 36, of Ogden, Utah were both incarcerated at a prison in Beaumont, Texas when they began conspiring to kill fellow inmate Leo Johns in March 2014, according to a press release [see below] from the Department of Justice. All three men were members of the white supremacist prison gang Soldiers of the Aryan Culture.
Cramer and Fackrell stabbed Leo Johns to death in June 2014 and were indicted by a federal grand jury and charged with murder and conspiracy to commit murder nearly two years later, on March 3, 2016.
Both men were convicted by a federal jury of murder in the first degree on May 9. They were sentenced to…
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Kentucky Supreme Court rules death penalty IQ law is unconstitutional

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LOUISVILLE, Ky., (WDRB) – The Kentucky Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the state's practice for determining if someone is intellectually disabled and not eligible to receive the death penalty is “unconstitutional” and has established new guidelines.
The order changing Kentucky’s rules on capital punishment came in the case of Robert Keith Woodall, who was sentenced to death for raping and killing a 16-year-old girl in Greenville two decades ago.
The high court ordered a lower court to hold a hearing to determine if Woodall is intellectually disabled, preventing him from being executed. 
It is unconstitutional to sentence a mentally disabled person to death – which has been defined in Kentucky as someone with an IQ below 70.
However, Kentucky's high court ruled a person cannot be found intellectually disabled simply because they have an IQ of 71 or above. Instead, the justices determined defendants must undergo a “totality of the circumstances test,” including whether they h…
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California: Jury recommends death penalty for serial killer

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A jury in Orange County, California, recommended the death penalty for convicted serial killer Andrew Urdiales on Wednesday, according to multiple reports. 
The 53-year-old was convicted in late May of killing five women in Southern California from 1986 to 1995. Urdiales was already serving a life sentence for three killings in Illinois when he was connected to the murders in California. 
In the late 1990s, it was Urdiales himself who told Chicago prosecutors they should ask him about killings in California, prosecutors said, according to KNBC. He was brought to California in 2011 to be tried for the murders. 
The defense argued that Urdiales, a former Marine, had a troubled life and showed signs of brain damage, potentially from fetal alcohol syndrome. But, according to KNBC, Senior Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy argued the gruesome murders and the victims outweighed any such concerns—specifically referencing the horrific experience of a woman who managed to escape Urdiales. 
…
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Belarus: Unprecedented Supreme Court decision to suspend death sentences

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Responding to the news that the Supreme Court of Belarus has in an unprecedented move decided to suspend and review the death sentences of Ihar Hershankou and Siamion Berazhnoy while their appeals are under consideration, Marie Struthers, Director of Amnesty International’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia Regional Office, said:
“This is a hugely significant and unprecedented decision for the only country in the region that has continued to execute people all these years. We are not aware of other cases where the Supreme Court of Belarus has suspended an execution.”
“We continue to monitor the case closely, but it gives us hope that after years of discussion on the death penalty Belarus is ready to walk the talk. We urge Belarus’ highest authorities to build on this development by immediately establishing a moratorium on executions and commuting all death sentences as first steps towards making Belarus death penalty-free.”
Background
Since 1994 the Supreme Court of Belarus has upheld …
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Texas: Gustavo Tijerina-Sandoval formally sentenced to death for murder of Border Patrol agent

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Gustavo Tijerina-Sandoval appeared in court Tuesday for his formal sentencing, almost a week after a Cameron County jury sentenced him to death for the murder of Border Patrol Agent Javier Vega Jr.
The courtroom was filled with dozens of Border Patrol agents and other law enforcement, who were there in support of the Vega family.
Judge Migdalia Lopez presented the verdict, sentencing Tijerina-Sandoval to death for the capital murder charge and life for attempted capital murder.
At that hearing, Marie Vega, the mother of the Border Patrol agent Javier Vega Jr., read a final statement addressed to Tijerina-Sandoval.
"I hope you spend the rest of your time on death row thinking about the day you are finally put to death, " said Marie Vega. She went on to say, "You sentenced yourself to the death penalty. Tijerina, you broke the law. You killed an innocent man. You thought you were so brave and tough, now be brave and tough and suck it up and die like you need to."
Ti…
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Bangladesh: 2 sent to gallows for drug trafficking; 4 to hang for raping girl

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Sylhet Metropolitan Sessions Judge Mujibur Rahman Bhuiyan in Sylhet sentenced two people to death in a drug trafficking case. 
The convicts are: Hossain Ahmed Manik, 51, a resident of Razzakpur village, and Parvez Alam Sumon, 26, a resident of Tikorpara-Uttarbhag village in Bianibazar upazila. 
According to the prosecution, the foreign division of South Surma Post Office in Sylhet received a parcel containing 8.45 kilograms of heroin on March 9, 2014. 
The parcel came from Pakistan's Lahore. Addresses of four recipients written in the parcel were found fake. 
Later, police identified two men-- Manik and Parvez-- through tracing their mobile phone numbers and nabbed them. 
The convicts used to traffic heroin in the UK after bringing from Pakistan.
Four sentenced to death in absentia for raping girl in 2003
A court in Narayanganj today handed death penalty to four people for raping a ten-year-old girl in 2003. 
The four convicted rapists -- Sumon, Alamin, Abul and Shahadat -- all r…
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