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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.

Iran Executes 11 People Including a Woman in 2 Days

Iranian authorities hanged 3 inmates during the early morning hours of Thursday, September 26. 

The horrific executions of the prisoners identified as Rauf Azadikhah, Shahaboddin Mohammad Pour, and Ebrahim Ahmadi Pour were carried out in Urmia Prison, northwest Iran.

All of the victims were sentenced to death on drug related charges. 

A woman identified as Leila Zarafshan was also hanged Thursday in the Central Prison of Sanandaj. She had been imprisoned for 5 years for murdering her husband in the Central Prison of Sanandaj. As in previous cases, the execution of this woman has not been published in the clerical regime’s state-run press and media. Research done on women who murder their husbands indicate that they were victims of domestic violence.

With the execution of Leila Zarafshan, the number of women executed during Rouhani’s presidency reaches 95.7 of these women have been executed only in a 3-month period since the beginning of summer.

On September 25, Iranian regime authorities also executed six men in Raja’i Shahr prison of Karaj, 30 km west of the capital Tehran.

2 of the victims were identified as Mojtaba Soleimani and Mostafa Bakhti. They had been found guilty of murder.

4 other prisoners who were not identified by name, were executed on drug charges.

On the same day another man was also executed on drug charges in the Central Prison of Borujerd in Lorestan Province, west of Iran. He was identified as Soltan Fathi Rad.

Iran’s deliberate use of capital punishment has been a constant source of international outrage and condemnation. According to several independent international bodies, including the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran and Amnesty International, Iran is the leading state in executions per capita, 2nd only to China in terms of figures. Iran also tops the charts in the number of executions of women and juvenile offenders.

The Iranian regime has also carried out a large number executions based on drug-related charges, including crimes not considered major offences according to international norms.

Iran is estimated to have executed 285 people in 2018, the 2nd highest figure in the world, according to statistics compiled by Iran Human Rights Monitor.

The actual number of executions are much higher because the majority of executions in Iran are carried out secretly, away from the public eye where only the masterminds and perpetrators are witness to them.

Source: iran-hrm.org, Staff, September 27, 2019


Iran: Three Hanged in One Day at One Prison, Man Executed on Drug-Related Charges


According to the Iran Human Rights (IHR), on the morning of Wednesday, September 25, three men were hanged for drug-related charges at the prison of the Iranian city of Urmia (also known as Darya Prison).

IHR could identify the prisoners as Raouf Azadikhah, Ebrahim Ahmadipour and Shahaboddin Mohammadpour. 

Out of the 110 people who were executed in the first half of 2019, nine were sentenced to death for drug-related charges.

Man Executed on Drug-Related Charges


According to the Iran Human Rights (IHR), on the morning of Wednesday, September 25, a man was hanged for drug-related charges at the prison of the Iranian city of Borujerd, Lorestan province.

IHR could identify the prisoner as Soltan Fathi-Rad. “Soltan was in prison for three years. He was sentenced to death for carrying 8 kilograms of Methamphetamine and 3 kilograms of Heroin,” a well-informed source told IHR.

Out of the 110 people who were executed in the first half of 2019, nine were sentenced to death for drug-related charges.

Source: Iran Human Rights, Staff, September 26,2019


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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

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