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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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Iran: At Least Five Prisoners Executed at One Prison

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Iran Human Rights (IHR); September 25, 2019: At least five prisoners were hanged this morning at Rajai-Shahr prison near the Iranian capital, Tehran. 

According to IHR sources, on the morning of Wednesday, September 25, 2019, at least five people were executed at Rajai-Shahr prison near the Iranian capital, Tehran. 

Four of them were sentenced to death for murder charged and one for drug-related charges.

However, at least 9 prisoners had been transferred to the solitary confinement of the prison for execution on Monday. 

IHR is investigating the other death-row prisoners’ whereabouts. 

Therefore, the number of Wednesday executions might be higher than reported here.

Prisoner Mostafa Bakhti was among the executed people. “Some civil activists were present outside the prison to ask the plaintiffs not to execute Mostafa. Even former Iranian National Football Team’s Capitan, Ali Parvin, was among the activists. But they could not win the plaintiff’s consent.”

Mostafa was sentenced to qisas for a murder during a street fight. According to the Iranian Islamic Penal Code (IPC) murder is punishable by qisas which means “retribution in kind” or retaliation. 

In qisas cases, the plaintiff has the possibility to forgive or demand diya (blood money). 

In this way, the State effectively puts the responsibility of the death sentence for murder on the shoulders of the victim’s family.

In many cases, the victim's family are encouraged to put the rope is around the prisoner's neck and even carry out the actual execution by pulling off the chair the prisoner is standing on.

Out of the 110 people who were executed in the first half of 2019, 83 were sentenced to qisas (retribution in-kind) for murder.

Source: Iran Human Rights, Staff, September 25, 2019


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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: Tehran, Tehran Province, Iran
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