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2018 Death Penalty report: Saudi Arabia’s False Promise

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With crown prince Mohammed bin Salman at the helm, 2018 was a deeply violent and barbaric year for Saudi Arabia, under his de facto leadership.
Photo: Deera Square is a public space located in front of the Religious Police building in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in which public executions (usually by beheading) take place. It is sometimes known as Justice Square and colloquially called Chop Chop Square. After Friday prayers, police and other officials clear the area to make way for the execution to take place. After the beheading of the condemned, the head is stitched to the body which is wrapped up and taken away for the final rites.
This year execution rates of 149 executions, shows an increase from the previous year of three executions, indicating that death penalty trends are soaring and there is no reversal of this trend in sight.
The execution rates between 2015-2018 are amongst the highest recorded in the Kingdom since the 1990s and coincide with the ascension of king Salman to the t…

Iran: Two Executions in Urmia

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Public execution in Iran
Iran Human Rights (Jul 4, 2018): Two prisoners were executed at Urmia Central Prison.

According to close sources, on the morning of Wednesday, July 4, two prisoners, sentenced to Qisas, were executed at Urmia central Prison. 

It should be noted that three prisoners were scheduled to be executed today, but one of them was able to win the consent of the plaintiffs at the last moment.

The execution of these prisoners has not been announced by the state-run media so far.

According to Iran Human Rights annual report on the death penalty, 240 of the 517 execution sentences in 2017 were implemented due to murder charges. 

There is a lack of a classification of murder by degree in Iran which results in issuing a death sentence for any kind of murder regardless of intensity and intent.

Considering the fact that the number of drug-related executions has been reduced in recent months due to the enforcement of the new drug law in 2018, most of the executed prisoners were those sentenced to Qisas (retribution in kind). 

Source: Iran Human Rights, July 5, 2018


Iran reduces death penalty, life sentence against 1700 drug convicts


Abbas Jafari-Dolatabadi, the Tehran prosecutor general, announced on Tuesday that 1,700 sentences of narcotic-related cases have been commuted from capital punishment and life sentence to less severe forms of punishment.

The change in the law on narcotics-related punishments have revolutionized the country's policies in fighting against narcotics, Jafari-Dolatabadi told a meeting on social harms caused by narcotics, IRNA reported.

He further said out of 3000 requests made to commute narcotics-related sentences, 1700 have been reviewed and 1300 remain to be reviewed very soon.

Source: Tehran Times, July 4, 2018


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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
Location: Urmia, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran

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New Hampshire again considers death penalty repeal

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New Hampshire lawmakers are once again considering a bill to repeal the death penalty, less than six months after failing to override Republican Gov. Chris Sununu’s veto of an identical measure.
The state hasn’t executed anyone since 1939, and the repeal bill would not apply retroactively to Michael Addison, who killed Manchester Police Officer Michael Briggs in 2006 and is the state’s only death row inmate. But supporters of capital punishment argue that courts will see it differently.
“If you repeal the death penalty, I want you to understand that Michael Addison’s sentence will be commuted to life without parole, which would not be just and would send the wrong message to criminals when it comes to killing police officers in the state of New Hampshire,” former U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte told the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee on Tuesday.
Ayotte, a former attorney general, was the lead prosecutor in the Addison case. She reminded lawmakers that the shooting happened…
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Executed for being gay: 13 nations threaten it, 4 do it.

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How many countries execute people for being gay? This blog’s best estimate: The laws of 13 nations call for the death penalty for gay sex, but only four countries go through with it.
This blog’s updated list of 13 nations with such harsh anti-gay laws is a decrease from the previous tally, which had included Daesh/the Islamic State/ISIS/ISIL. 
At its height, ISIS repeatedly executed men accused of homosexuality. (For example, from 2015: ‘Islamic State’ has reported 15 LGBTI executions.)
Now that violent extremist Islamist enterprise, thank God, has been eradicated as a government controlling territory and administering laws. So now it’s off the list.
Here’s a summary of the complete list, which is more fully discussed in the article “13 nations have death penalty for gay sex; 4 carry it out.”
Nations with such laws on the books; executions have been carried out in the recent past:
1. Iran
Iran is No. 2 in the world for frequency of executions of any kind, behind China. Those include e…
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Nevada lawmakers propose ending death penalty, citing costs

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LAS VEGAS -- Two Democratic state lawmakers proposing an end to capital punishment are pointing to costly appeals and court-ordered postponements of a lethal injection case that ended last month when the inmate killed himself.
"It's a burden to taxpayers," said state Sen. James Ohrenschall, who is sponsoring the bill with Assemblyman Ozzie Fumo. The two lawmakers separately backed similar measures that failed in 2017.
"Folks committing heat-of-passion crimes or calculated crimes don't look at a state sentencing structure," Ohrenschall said. "Bottom line, I don't believe it has proved to be a deterrent."
The law would add Nevada to the list of 20 states and the District of Columbia that ban capital punishment.
"In effect, we don't have the death penalty in Nevada," Fumo said. "This just codifies it."
The state hasn't carried out an execution since 2006, and the two lawmakers pointed to court challenges that twice st…
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Gay teen fighting for asylum in Sweden as he could be executed in Iran

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This teen says he's both Christian and gay - both death sentences in Iran - but Sweden's government says he's lying
A gay 19-year-old is fighting for survival as he fears being executed in his home country of Iran.
Mehdi Shokr Khoda, who also identifies as Christian, is hoping he will be granted asylum in Sweden in his final appeal.
The final decision will be made in two weeks.
Terrified of being deported to Iran
‘I cannot live open as a gay in Iran,’ Mehdi told Gay Star News.
‘They won’t understand something about you. They will just kill you first.’
In his corner is his partner, 23-year-old Carlo Rapisarda – originally from Italy.
The two of them have been together close to a year.
Mehdi followed his transgender sister, who fled to Stockholm from Iran a few years ago. 
Because she was granted asylum, he traveled to Sweden in 2017 in the hopes he would be given the same protection.
Their parents are unaware of their two children’s true sexual or gender identity.
Finding l…
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Three Bishops Stand Against an Execution in Georgia

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It’s clear that racism played a part in Keith Tharpe’s death sentence.
There is no toxin more pernicious than hatred based on racial stereotypes. Despite progress in overcoming the sin of racism in recent years, racism still exists in American society—causing pain and hurt, and even leading to death. As a case in point, Keith Tharpe sits on death row in Jackson, Georgia, convicted of a gruesome murder 28 years ago. While we cannot speak to the legal issues of this case, it is apparent that racism may have played a part in Tharpe’s death sentence. After the trial, one of the jurors displayed shocking racial prejudice in an affidavit, liberally using racial slurs as he “wondered if black people even have souls.”
Lower courts have been unwilling to reconsider the verdict, but the case is now before the United States Supreme Court, which could grant a writ of certiorari to consider the merits of Tharpe’s contention of racial bias. The failure to thoroughly consider the effect of racism i…
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Texas: Man convicted of killing 3 scheduled to die Feb. 28

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Billy Wayne Coble, 70, who was convicted of the 1989 slayings of his brother-in-law Bobby Vicha, a Waco police sergeant, and Vicha’s parents in Axtell, is set to die on Feb. 28, having exhausted all of his avenues to appeal.
Coble, 70, learned last week the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals had rejected his latest request for a stay of execution, citing it as a, abuse of the appeals writ process, which cleared the way for imposition of his sentence.
The execution would be the 2nd of the year in Texas.
Coble was convicted of the killings of Bobby Vicha and his father and mother Robert and Zelda Vicha, then of tying up 4 children who were at the scene, restraining and kidnapping his estranged wife Karen Vicha Coble, whom he’d threatened to rape and kill.
He led authorities on a high speed chase into Bosque County but was caught and arrested after he wrecked his car.
He has been granted several stays of execution over the years after filing a number of appeals on several different grounds…
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Malawi: ‘The hangman was too tired to hang me – three times’

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On death row in Malawi, Byson Kaula was nearly executed three times - but on each occasion the hangman stopped work before hanging all the prisoners on his list. So he survived… until the country stopped executing people altogether.
Byson Kaula says jealous neighbours were responsible for him being found guilty of murder. It was 1992 and murder in those days carried a mandatory death sentence.
Brought up in a small village in southern Malawi, Byson had made enough money working in the gas industry in Johannesburg, South Africa, to return home and buy land. He employed five people and grew fruit, wheat, maize, and cassava.
"That is when my sad times began," he says.
Neighbours attacked one of his employees, Byson says, leaving him badly injured. The man couldn't walk without assistance, and while helping him get to the toilet - navigating steps that were slippery after heavy rain - Byson fell and dropped him. The man died later in hospital, and Byson - then in his 40s - w…
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Former Alcatraz inmate claims notorious missing fugitives ‘beat this place’

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Three Alcatraz inmates who pulled off one of the most infamous escapes in history have never been found. One of their cell mates says he knows why.
It’s one of the most enduring prison mysteries of all time: what happened to the infamous Alcatraz escapees?
One former inmate, William “Bill” Baker, 86, reckons he knows the answer.
“They beat this place,” he told news.com.au.
Baker, who did a three-year stint in cell #1259 from 1957-60, is one of the last surviving inmates of America’s most notorious prison.
He was just 23 years old when he was transferred to Alcatraz, about 2kms offshore in San Francisco, after breaking out of another prison where he had been serving a sentence for car theft.
It was there he became mates with one of the facility’s most infamous escapees: Frank Lee Morris, who along with brothers Clarence Anglin and John Anglin, escaped from Alcatraz on the night of June 11, 1962 and were never seen again.
In an interview with news.com.au on Alcatraz Island — also known …
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Sri Lanka: 200 kilo stone to test new hangman’s noose

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The strength of the hangman’s noose which is slated to be imported will be tested with a 200 kilogramme stone, Sri Lanka Standards Institute (SLSI) Director General Dr. Siddhika Senaratne told the Sunday Times.
“The existing noose was found to be damaged and unusable,” she said. It is 12 years old and had been imported from Pakistan.
There are no Sri Lankan regulatory standards that an imported noose should comply with.
“The SLSI will have to carry out a standards test based on the regulatory standards that are followed in the country from which the noose is being imported,” Dr Senaratne said.
This week, the Prisons Department advertised for two individuals of stable mental health and between 18 and 45 years, with “an excellent moral character” to be recruited as hangmen.
They would be paid a monthly salary of Rs 36,410 based on the Public Administration Circular 03/2016.
Amnesty International’s South Asia director Biraj Patnaik condemned the advert saying it should never have been p…
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Sri Lanka: Thirteen inmates definitely in line for the death penalty

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COLOMBO (News 1st) – The Ministry of Justice and Prison Reforms claims that the death penalty will definitely be carried out on 13 inmates who are on death row and convicted of drug-related offences.
A senior official of the Ministry noted that of the total 17 inmates who are on death row that 4 are foreign nationals. 
Thereby the death penalty can only be carried out definitely on the rest of the inmates. 
This matter has been notified to the Presidential Secretariat as well. 
The four foreign inmates on death row in Sri Lanka are Pakistani nationals and it is reported that the Pakistan government had made several requests for the release of these inmates.
The senior official further claimed that a total of 48 persons convicted of drug-related offences are currently on death row, however, 30 of them have filed appeals against their verdicts and thus death penalty cannot be imposed on them as of yet. 
RELATED | Sri Lanka: 200 kilo stone to test new hangman’s noose
The list comprising …
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