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After acquittal of ex-death row inmate, debate needed on Japan's death penalty

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Japan should be ensuring the safety of its citizens, but instead it is taking people's lives. Is it acceptable to maintain the ultimate penalty under such circumstances? This is a serious question for society. The acquittal of 88-year-old Iwao Hakamada, who had been handed the death penalty, has been finalized after prosecutors decided not to appeal the verdict issued by the Shizuoka District Court during his retrial.

Texas court stays execution on intellectual disability grounds

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Feb. 25 (UPI) -- The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has stayed the execution of a man who says he's intellectually disabled and thus can't constitutionally be put to death.

The court handed down the ruling Wednesday, ordering a lower court to review the merits of Ramiro Ibarra's arguments.

Ibarra, 66, was sentenced to death in 1997 for the sexual assault and murder of 16-year-old Maria Zuniga a decade earlier in McLennan County. 

He was scheduled to be executed March 4.

Ibarra has challenged his death sentence a number of times on intellectual disability grounds, saying it violates the Eighth Amendment, which bars cruel and unusual punishment.

The court declined the stay on seven other claims presented by Ibarra's lawyers, including that the state relied on "outdated and unreliable DNA tests" to secure his conviction, that the state presented false and misleading evidence, that the death sentence was based on false testimony, and that his execution would violate due process.


Source: upi.com, Danielle Haynes, February 25, 2021


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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: Texas, USA
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