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As clock ticks toward another Trump presidency, federal death row prisoners appeal for clemency

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President-elect Donald Trump’s return to office is putting a spotlight on the U.S. penitentiary in Terre Haute, which houses federal death row. In Bloomington, a small community of death row spiritual advisors is struggling to support the prisoners to whom they minister.  Ross Martinie Eiler is a Mennonite, Episcopal lay minister and member of the Catholic Worker movement, which assists the homeless. And for the past three years, he’s served as a spiritual advisor for a man on federal death row.
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Iran | Two Secretly Executed in Shiraz

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Iran Human Rights (IHR); September 29, 2021: Sohrab Naji and Vahab Samadi were executed in Shiraz Central Prison. Sobhrab was sentenced to death on drug-related charges and Vahab on murder charges.

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, two men were executed in Shiraz Central Prison on September 25. Their identities have been established as Sohrab Naji who was sentenced to death on drug-related charges and 44-year-old Vahab Samadi, who was sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder.

Speaking to IHR, an informed source said: “Sohrab Naji was arrested and sentenced to death for 130 kilograms of narcotics in 2018. Vahab Samadi had killed his employer with a stone after he fired him.”

At the time of writing, neither of their executions have been reported by domestic media or officials in Iran.

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 78 people have so far been executed on the same charge 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.

According to Iran Human Rights’ Annual Report on the Death Penalty, at least 211 of the 267 people executed in 2020 were sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for "premeditated murder."

As there are no legal distinctions made between murder and manslaughter, whether voluntary or involuntary in Iran, those charged under the umbrella term of “premeditated murder” will receive the death penalty regardless of the intent and circumstances.

Source: Iran Human Rights, Staff, September 29, 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: Shiraz, Fars Province, Iran
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