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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 | Prisoner Executed in Yazd

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Iran Human Rights (IHR); September 21, 2020: A prisoners sentenced to death on “drug-related” charges was executed in Yazd Central Prison.

According to Iran Human Rights, on the morning of Wednesday, September 16, a prisoner was executed in Yazd Central Prison. 

His identity has been established as Kashan native, Elias Bakhtiari, who had been sentenced to death on drug-related charges.

An informed source told IHR: “Elias Bakhtiari was arrested in 2016 on charges of carrying 90 kilograms of methamphetamine and sentenced to death. 

He had previously been arrested on drug charges twice and spent 7 years behind bars.

At the time of writing, Elias Bakhtiari’s execution has not been announced by domestic media or officials in Iran.

So far, at least 13 prisoners have been executed on drug-related charges in Iran since the beginning of the year.

According to Iran Human Rights’ annual report on the death penalty in Iran, at least 30 people were executed on drug-related charges in 2019.

Source: iranhr.net, Staff, September 21, 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: Yazd, Yazd Province, Iran
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