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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 | Vahed Rostamzadeh, 30, Executed on Drug Charges in Hamadan

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Iran Human Rights (IHR); April 30, 2020:  A prisoner sentenced to death on “drug” charges has been executed in Hamadan Central Prison.

According to IHR sources, Vahed Rostamzadeh who was sentenced to death on “drug” charges, was executed in Hamadan Central Prison on Thursday morning, April 30.

He was transferred to solitary confinement on Monday, April 27 when Iran Human Rights warned of the imminent danger of his execution. 

An informed source had previously told IHR: "Vahed Rostamzadeh was arrested five years ago on drug trafficking charges and sentenced to death."

It is unclear why his sentence was upheld following the 2017 drug-related law reforms, which replaced the death penalty with life imprisonments and fines in many cases.

At the time of publishing this article, Vahed’s execution has not been announced or acknowledged by either government officials or media outlets inside Iran.

At least five prisoners have been executed on drug-related charges since the start of 2020.

According to reports compiled by Iran Human Rights, 30 people were executed on drug charges in 2019.

Source: Iran Human Rights, Staff, April 30, 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
Location: Hamedan, Hamadan Province, Iran
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