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U.S. | I'm a Death Row Pastor. They're Just Ordinary Folks

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In the early 1970s I was a North Carolinian, white boy from the South attending Union Theological Seminary in New York City, and working in East Harlem as part of a program. In my senior year, I visited men at the Bronx House of Detention. I had never been in a prison or jail, but people in East Harlem were dealing with these places and the police all the time. This experience truly turned my life around.

Saudi Arabia carries out first execution of 2017

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Public execution in Saudi Arabia (file photo)
Public execution in Saudi Arabia (file photo)
RIYADH -- Saudi Arabia carried out its first death sentence of the year on Tuesday, following more than 150 executions in 2016.

Mamdouh Al Anzi was sentenced to death following his conviction for shooting dead another Saudi in a dispute, the interior ministry said.

He was executed in Arar, a city near Iraq.

Beheading with a sword is the most common form of execution in the kingdom.

Saudi Arabia executed 153 locals and foreigners last year under its Islamic legal code, down slightly from the previous year when it carried out at least 158 executions, according to Amnesty International.

Rights group Amnesty International said Saudi Arabia carried out at least 158 death sentences in 2015, coming 3rd after Iran and Pakistan. 

Amnesty's figures do not include secretive China. 

Rights experts have raised concerns about the fairness of trials in the kingdom but the government says the death penalty is a deterrent.

Source: Agence France-Presse, January 17, 2017

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Location: Arar Saudi Arabia
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