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Arkansas Supreme Court Decision Allows New DNA Testing in Case of the ​“West Memphis Three,” Convicted of Killing Three Children in 1993

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On April 18, 2024, the Arkansas Supreme Court decided 4-3 to reverse a 2022 lower court decision and allow genetic testing of crime scene evidence from the 1993 killing of three eight-year-old boys in West Memphis. The three men convicted in 1994 for the killings were released in 2011 after taking an Alford plea, in which they maintained their innocence but plead guilty to the crime, in exchange for 18 years’ time served and 10 years of a suspended sentence. 

Iran | Uncle Executes His Own Nephew

Iran Human Rights (IHR); March 19, 2020: Death-row prisoner Alireza Sa’daei was hanged at Zanjan prison on March 11, 2020. 

According to IHR sources, Alireza Sa’daei was executed on the morning of Wednesday, March 11, at the central prison of Zanjan city, Iran.

He was sentenced to qisas (retribution) for murdering his cousin four years ago. 

The plaintiff was Alireza’s own paternal uncle. 

“Alireza had lost his father several years ago. His mother begged the uncle to forgive Alireza but he refused. The uncle said he wanted to see the moment Alireza is dying,” the source told IHR. 

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). 

Executions in Iran have continued to be carried out even after the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak in the country.

Source: Iran Human Rights, Staff, March 19, 2020


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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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