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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. 

Japan | Death penalty demanded for man charged with 9 murders

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Japanese prosecutors have demanded the death penalty for a 30-year-old man charged with murdering nine people at his apartment in the city of Zama, near Tokyo.

Prosecutors demanded the death sentence for Shiraishi Takahiro at the Tachikawa branch of the Tokyo District Court on Thursday.

Shiraishi is charged with killing 1 man and 8 women, aged 15 to 26, whose remains were found at his apartment in October 2017.

Shiraishi is charged with killing the victims, stealing their belongings and abandoning their remains in coolers. 

He is also charged with sexually assaulting the female victims.

He has pleaded guilty to the charges.


However, his defense team has argued that the victims had agreed to be killed.


In demanding the death penalty on Thursday, prosecutors said all the victims fiercely resisted when Shiraishi strangled them, and this clearly shows that they did not want to be killed.

Prosecutors also said the defendant's testimonies in court are natural and logical and consistent with the objective facts. 

They said it's obvious that the credibility of his testimonies cannot be denied.

The court is expected to hand down its ruling on December 15.

Source: nhk.or.jp, Staff, November 26, 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: Japan
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