FEATURED POST

Communist Vietnam's secret death penalty conveyor belt: How country trails only China and Iran for 'astonishing' number of executions

Published
Image
Prisoners are dragged from their cells at 4am without warning to be given a lethal injection Vietnam's use of the death penalty has been thrust into the spotlight after a real estate tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to be executed in one of the biggest corruption cases in the country's history. Truong My Lan, a businesswoman who chaired a sprawling company that developed luxury apartments, hotels, offices and shopping malls, was arrested in 2022.

U.S. | Lisa Montgomery's lawyers have COVID-19, ask U.S. judge to delay execution

Published
Lisa Montgomery
(Reuters) - The two lead lawyers for Lisa Montgomery, the only woman on federal death row, asked a U.S. judge on Thursday to delay Montgomery’s execution next month because they have contracted COVID-19 after traveling to meet with her to prepare her clemency petition.

The lawyers, Kelley Henry and Amy Harwell, are both too sick to meet the deadline set for this Sunday to file Montgomery’s clemency petition, and the Department of Justice has denied their request for an extension, according to the complaint filed in the U.S. District Court in Washington.

The complaint says the Justice Department is denying Montgomery’s right to counsel and her constitutional right to due process, and that Attorney General William Barr was reckless to schedule executions during a pandemic.

A department spokeswoman declined to comment, but provided a copy of an email sent by the department’s Office of the Pardon Attorney to Montgomery’s lawyers saying it had no power to reprieve an execution date but would extend the clemency deadline by a day if the lawyers wanted to file a “placeholder” petition.

The Justice Department announced in October that it would execute Montgomery on Dec. 8, the first time the federal government has executed a woman since 1953. The Trump administration has already carried out seven executions since reviving the punishment at the federal level this year after a 17-year hiatus.

Montgomery was convicted in 2007 in Missouri for kidnapping and strangling Bobbie Jo Stinnett, who was eight months pregnant when she was killed. Montgomery butchered Stinnett to cut the fetus from her womb. The child survived.

Montgomery’s lawyers say she has long suffered severe mental illness, exacerbated by being repeatedly gang raped by her stepfather and his friends during an abusive childhood.

Her lawyers say her mental health has noticeably deteriorated since she learned of her execution date, and that they intended to cite this as part of the basis for her clemency petition to President Donald Trump.

Montgomery is at the Federal Medical Center in Carswell, Texas, a prison for inmates with mental illness. Texas is grappling with one of the worst coronavirus outbreaks in the country, reporting hundreds of thousands of new cases within a single week.

The two lawyers developed COVID-19 symptoms within days of their most recent flight from Tennessee to Texas to visit Montgomery, and both are now “virtually bed-ridden” with “debilitating fatigue,” the complaint says.

This week, 41 current and former prosecutors wrote to Trump asking him to reduce Montgomery’s sentence to life in prison.

“Although Lisa committed terrible crimes, her lifetime of extreme suffering and abuse weighs heavily in favor of clemency,” the letter said.

Source: Reuters, Jonathan Allen, November 13, 2020


🚩 | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com.

Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE!



"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: Washington, DC, USA
Related content:

Most Viewed (Last 7 Days)

Communist Vietnam's secret death penalty conveyor belt: How country trails only China and Iran for 'astonishing' number of executions

Published
Image
Prisoners are dragged from their cells at 4am without warning to be given a lethal injection Vietnam's use of the death penalty has been thrust into the spotlight after a real estate tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to be executed in one of the biggest corruption cases in the country's history. Truong My Lan, a businesswoman who chaired a sprawling company that developed luxury apartments, hotels, offices and shopping malls, was arrested in 2022.
Read more

Iran sentences popular rapper to death for supporting Mahsa Amini protests

Published
Image
An Iranian court has sentenced to death a popular rapper jailed for more than a year and a half for supporting nationwide protests sparked by Mahsa Amini's death, local media reported Wednesday . "Branch 1 of Isfahan Revolutionary Court sentenced Toomaj Salehi to death on the charge of corruption on Earth," the singer's lawyer Amir Raisian said, quoted by the reformist Shargh newspaper.
Read more

Malaysia urged to extend moratorium on executions until full abolition of death penalty

Published
Image
PETALING JAYA: Amnesty International Malaysia has commended Malaysia for the abolition of the mandatory death penalty and for imposing a moratorium on the execution of the death sentence, which has led to an overall decrease in the use of the death penalty by the courts. However, the rights group urged the government to extend the moratorium on executions until the death penalty is fully abolished.
Read more

Iraq executes 13 on ‘vague’ terrorism charges

Published
Image
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Amnesty International on Wednesday criticized Iraqi authorities for carrying out the death sentences of 13 men on the same day, saying the prisoners were denied fair trial, and expressed concern that many others had been executed in secret. A total of 13 prisoners were executed in Dhi Qars Nasiriyah central prison on Monday, and scores more have been executed since April 10, said the Amnesty report citing activists and lawyers of the death row prisoners.
Read more

Could Moscow attack suspects face execution in Belarus?

Published
Image
After the deadly terrorist attack at Moscow's Crocus City Hall, some Russian politicians are debating trying the suspects to Belarus, which still has death penalty. But it's not that simple. The terror attack on Moscow's Crocus City Hall has ignited debate about the reintroduction of the death sentence in Russia. Given that 140 people died and more than 500 were wounded at the concert hall on March 22, 2024, emotions are running high.
Read more

Iran | 9 prisoners executed in a single day

Published
Image
9 prisoners of drug charges executed in the central prisons of Kerman, Chabahar and GhezelHesar According to the Iranian Human Rights Society website, on Sunday, April 21st, 2024, 9 prisoners including, Baloch and Kurdish drug suspects were executed in the central prisons of Kerman, Chah bahar, and GhezelHesar.  
Read more