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U.S. | 'I comfort death row inmates in their final moments - the execution room is like a house of horrors'

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Reverend Jeff Hood, 40, wants to help condemned inmates 'feel human again' and vows to continue his efforts to befriend murderers in spite of death threats against his family A reverend who has made it his mission to comfort death row inmates in their final days has revealed the '"moral torture" his endeavor entails. Reverend Dr. Jeff Hood, 40, lives with his wife and five children in Little Rock, Arkansas. But away from his normal home life, he can suddenly find himself holding the shoulder of a murderer inside an execution chamber, moments away from the end of their life. 

Iran: Man Executed in Isfahan

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Iran Human Rights (IHR); September 28, 2019: A man was hanged at Isfahan Central Prison for murder Thursday.

On the morning of Thursday, September 26, a man was hanged at Isfahan Central Prison for murder , Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

According to the Head of Isfahan’s Judiciary, Mohammadreza Habibi, the prisoner was sentenced to death for murdering a truck driver during a robbery. 

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

Woman Hanged in Sanandaj Prison


Iran Human Rights (IHR); September 29, 2019: A woman was hanged at the Iranian city of Sanandaj’s Prison, Kurdistan province Thursday.

According to IHR sources, on the morning of Thursday, September 26, a woman was hanged at Sanandaj prison. Her identity is revealed by sources as Leila Zarafshan, 37. 

“Leila was suffering from a mental disability. She killed her husband on their 40th day of marriage. Civil activists had tried to win the consent of the plaintiffs but they failed,” the source told IHR, “Leila was suffering from a mental disability. She had to be treated not executed.”

According to the Iranian Islamic Penal Code (IPC) murder is punishable by qisas which means “retribution in kind” or retaliation. 

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

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

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.

According to Maf News which was the first website published the news, Leila was held in prison for five years before the execution.

Source: Iran Human Rights, Staff, September 28-29, 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: Iran
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