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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 | Juvenile Offender Arman Abdolali Sentenced to Death Despite Lack of Evidence

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Arman Abdolali, who was under 18 years old at the time of committing the alleged murder, has been sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) again by Branch Five of the Tehran Criminal Court despite the victim’s body never being found.

According to the Iran newspaper website, Branch Five of the Tehran Criminal Court has sentenced Arman Abdolali to qisas (retribution-in-kind). 

Per the reports, Arman confessed to murder during interrogations but withdrew his confession in court. As the victim’s body was never found, the defence lawyer has suggested that he may be alive.

Arman Abdolali was previously taken to the gallows in Rajai Shahr Prison on 1 January 2020 but was returned to his cell after the sentence was suspended.

Iran is one of the few countries in the world that still carries out the death penalty for crimes committed as minors. 

However, Article 91 of the new Islamic Penal Code, ratified in 2013, gives judges the power to not issue death sentences for minors who did not understand the nature and sanctity of their crimes.

According to Iran Human Rights’ annual report on the Death Penalty in Iran, in 2019, at least 4 children were executed in breach of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which has been signed and ratified by the Islamic Republic.

Given the repression of civil society and the limitations in contacting prisoners, it is very likely that the number of child offenders executed is much higher than the official numbers recorded.

Source: iranhr.net, Staff, September 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: Iran
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