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.
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Iran | "Ballad Of A White Cow": Wrongful execution forms grim backdrop to Berlinale contender
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Guilt and atonement in Iran. After her husband’s execution, Mina learns that the death penalty was unjustly imposed. She is offered compensation but she wants to meet with the judges responsible for the death sentence...
BERLIN (Reuters) - When her husband is executed for murder, Mina is left to fend for herself in a society that is reluctant to allow her even to find somewhere for her and her daughter to live.
But when it turns out that her husband was wrongfully executed, events take on a whole extra layer of complexity in ‘Ballad of a White Cow’, a film by Iranian directors Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha that is in the running for a coveted Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival.
Moghaddam herself plays Mina, whose struggles with grief are compounded first by the difficulty of dealing with her immediate loss in social status and then by the struggle to win compensation for her husband’s wrongful death.
“Mina is fighting to survive in such a misogynistic society, where law is a burden,” Moghaddam said. “This story is not made up - it’s the story of many people in countries where there is a death penalty.”
The film, one of 15 in the Berlinale’s main competition, comes with a burden of expectation on its shoulders: last year’s Golden Bear was won by fellow Iranian Mohammad Rasoulof’s ‘There is No Evil’, a study of the injustices caused by capital punishment. Rasoulof is a festival judge this year.
Securing permission to make the film took three and a half years, Sanaeeha said, describing how it proved impossible to film an actual prison, forcing the team to film a museum instead.
Despite all the effort, the film is unlikely to get a showing back home, both directors agreed.
“We hope that maybe we can find a way of showing it in Iran, but there is very little hope of this,” Sanaeeha said. “The main audience of people who should see it are the Iranians.”
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.
The Osaka District Court on Monday dismissed a lawsuit by death row inmates that claimed same-day notifications of executions violate the Constitution — the first ruling of its kind. The plaintiffs filed the lawsuit against the government in hopes of sparking a wider discussion on the rights of death row prisoners. They also sought ¥22 million in compensation and plan to appeal to a higher court.
In a rare joint statement, the district attorney and the defense agreed that prosecutors withheld evidence that could point to a Rio Grande Valley woman’s innocence in the death of her toddler. A district judge who previously presided over a woman’s capital murder case recommended last week that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturn Melissa Lucio's 2008 conviction after a district attorney’s office admitted that prosecutors withheld evidence from her defense.
Programme on state television discloses new details and punishments from espionage cases as part of a campaign marking National Security Education Day Authorities in Beijing have revealed that a Chinese scientist who was convicted in 2015 of selling state secrets to foreign spy agencies was executed in 2016, one of several “shocking” spy cases.
Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); April 15 2024: Marjan Hajizadeh and Esmail Hassaniani, a couple sentenced to death for drug-related charges in a joint case, were executed in Zanjan Central Prison. Marjan is reported to have been 16 at the time of arrest, which IHRNGO is working to confirm. If verified, she will be the first child offender executed for drug charges since 2014. She was also a child bride forced into marriage.
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments centering on an Arizona death row prisoner that could set new precedent to determining ineffective assistance of counsel. A Mohave County Superior Court jury convicted Danny Lee Jones for the 1992 murders of Robert Weaver and his daughter Tisha, as well as the attempted murder of Weaver’s grandmother. A judge sentenced Jones to death for the two murders.
The Islamic Republic has executed eight more prisoners over the past few days amid a significant spike in death penalties. On April 14, 2024, Hamedan Prison executed Arsalan Hashemi, a man convicted of drug offenses, according to human rights group HRANA.
There’s an effort underway, in the current legislative session in Baton Rouge, to reverse course on the controversial execution method with Senate Bill 430. When Louisiana legislators approved the use of nitrogen gas asphyxiation as an execution method during a second special legislative session in February, the move attracted national attention; not the least because it has only been used in the U.S. once. That’s when Alabama executed convicted killer Kenneth Eugene Smith on January 25th of this year. Now there’s an effort underway, in the current legislative session in Baton Rouge, to reverse course on the controversial execution method with Senate Bill 430.
BAGHDAD, April 15 (Reuters) - Iraqi lawmakers postponed voting on Monday on a bill that includes the death penalty or life in prison for same-sex relations - a measure that diplomats from Western countries said could have serious consequences for Iraq's political and economic ties if it goes through. Parliament was in session on Monday, with the bill - an amendment to an anti-prostitution law - second on its agenda.
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WAFF) - An Alabama House committee rejected a bill that would have impacted sentences for dozens of death row inmates. The proposal would have required courts to resentence people sentenced to death by a judge who overrode a jury’s recommendation of life in prison. That practice was outlawed in 2017. Representative Chris England passionately argued it should be retroactively applied for more than 30 death row inmates who were sentenced to death over a jury’s recommendation.
