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Women Being Sent to the Gallows in Alarming Numbers in Iran

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Many Were Child Brides Hanged for Murder of Abusive Husbands From Whom There Was No Protection  December 18, 2024 — Amidst a huge surge in executions in the Islamic Republic— 862 so far in 2024, the highest per capita execution rate globally—the Iranian authorities are now increasingly including women in those it sends to the gallows. Since the start of 2024, Iran has executed at least 29 women. More executions of women may have taken place that are unknown.
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Pennsylvania death-row inmate Michael Travaglia, half of 'Kill for Thrill' pair, dies at 59

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Michael Travaglia
Michael Travaglia, a longtime death row inmate and one of Pennsylvania’s most notorious killers, has died of natural causes.

He was 59.

The state Department of Corrections reported his death Monday morning at Washington Hospital in Washington, Pa.

No one could be reached at the Washington County coroner’s office about Travaglia. 

It was unclear whether any outside agency investigated the death.

Travaglia and John Lesko were convicted of four homicides dubbed the “kill-for-thrill” murders during an eight-day rampage the week after Christmas in 1979.

Their victims were rookie Apollo police officer Leonard Miller on Jan. 3, 1980, and civilians Peter Levato on Dec. 27, 1979, Marlene Sue Newcomer on Jan. 1, 1980, and William Nicholls on Jan. 2, 1980.

Both men were sentenced to death by a jury but have been appealing their convictions in federal and state courts for the past 30 years. 

In February 2015, Gov. Tom Wolf issued a moratorium on executions.

Travaglia was housed at the State Correctional Institution Greene since 1998. Lesko is at SCI Graterford in Montgomery County.

Source: Post Gazette, Jonathan D. Silver, Sept. 5, 2017


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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde
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