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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 | 2 men executed on drug charges at Urmia prison

Published
Iran Human Rights (IHR); July 3, 2021: Death row prisoners, Nasser Azmoudeh and Shahriar Amiri have been executed in Urmia Central Prison. 

At least 42 prisoners, including one woman, have been executed on drug-related charges in Iranian prisons in 2021.

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, two men were executed in Urmia Central Prison this morning. 

Their identities have been established as Nasser Azmoudeh and Shahriyar Amiri, who were on death row for drug-related executions.

Yesterday, IHR reported that the two men had been transferred to solitary confinement in preparation for their executions.

Nasser Azmoudeh and Shahriyar Amiri have been detained since 2018 and sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Court of Urmia.

At the time of writing, their executions have not been reported by domestic media or officials in Iran.

It has been almost four years since an article was added to the Anti-Narcotics Law in 2017 to limit death sentences specifically and provide a general degree of reprieve in some cases. 

However, while the numbers reduced that year, the death penalty is still being used in drug-related cases.

According to Iran Human Rights’ Annual Report on the Death Penalty in Iran, at least 25 people were executed on drug-related charges in 2020.

However, at least 42 people have so far been executed on drug-related charges in 2021.

On May 3, IHR published a report on the death penalty in the first four months of 2021 expressing concern at the significant increase in the number of drug-related executions and continues to warn of the continuation of this trend.

Source: Iran Human Rights, Staff, July 3, 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: Urmia, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran
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