India | Man gets death penalty for raping, murdering 7-yr-old girl

PTI — A court in Prakasam District of Andhra Pradesh on Wednesday awarded death sentence to a man for raping and killing his relative, a seven-year-old girl in July 2021.

The Judge of the Special POCSO court M A Somasekhar found the accused D Siddaiah guilty under relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and IPC and sentenced him to capital punishment.

The girl's body was found in a plastic bag in a drainage canal on the outskirts of Ambavaram village in Giddalur Mandal of the district after she went missing on July 8, 2021. The girl's parents subsequently lodged a complaint with police and a case was registered under relevant sections of POCSO and IPC in Giddalur Police Station.

Prakasam District Superintendent of Police Malika Garg, who took the case very seriously instructed the police officials to investigate the case thoroughly, to collect proper physical evidence and to arrest the accused immediately.

During the course of the investigation, police found that Siddaiah, 30, a close relative of the girl, who was estranged by his wife and living in the same street where the girl lived, had left the village since the day the girl went missing and suspected Siddaiah's role in the crime.

The sniffer dog tracked from the crime scene and went to Siddaiah's house where a blood- stained blanket, a bicycle and the girl's sandals were found. The accused was subsequently arrested and lodged in a jail in Ongole.

According to prosecution, on July 8, 2021 the man noticed the girl playing in the area and with an intention of raping her lured her by offering her money and took her into his house and raped her.

When the girl started weeping, he brutally killed her by hitting her head against a cot frame suspecting that he would be arrested if the matter came out. Later with the intention of avoiding suspicion and tampering with the evidence, he wrapped the girl's body in a plastic bag, took it on his bicycle and dumped in the drainage canal.

Garg, who monitored the investigation process of the case, got the chargesheet filed in the court and also played a vital role in the prosecution, and got briefed all the witnesses thoroughly, produced proper and sufficient evidence in the court for speed trial.

She appreciated the police officials and staff in getting the accused punished in the case.

Source: PTI, Staff, January 25, 2023

Rajasthan cancels bill awarding death for rape of girls aged up to 12 years

The Rajasthan government has withdrawn a bill, providing for death penalty or life sentence to those convicted of gang rape of girls aged up to 12 years, after it failed to get presidential assent.

The Criminal Laws (Rajasthan Amendment) Bill, 2018, was passed during the previous BJP government’s tenure.

On Monday, speaker CP Joshi informed the assembly that the governor had returned the bill, pointing out that after the central government passed the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012, the state law had no relevance.

The state government then withdrew the bill under Article 200 of the Constitution.

As per the Constitutional norms, the Bill needed the consent of the President of India and failed to get it.

Source: rclipse.com, Staff, January 24, 2023

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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

Former FedEx driver sentenced to death for killing 7-year-old girl after delivery at her Texas home

DALLAS (AP) — A former FedEx driver was sentenced to death on Tuesday after he pleaded guilty to killing a 7-year-old girl he took from her Texas home while delivering a Christmas gift. Jurors in a Fort Worth courtroom decided on Tanner Horner's punishment after hearing about a month of testimony and evidence that included audio of Athena Strand's last moments from inside his delivery van. Horner, 34, pleaded guilty to capital murder last month in the 2022 killing just as his trial began. Athena's body was found two days after she was reported missing from her home in the rural town of Paradise, near Fort Worth.

South Dakota | Latest appeal from state's lone death row inmate denied

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit has rejected the latest appeal from Briley Piper, the only person on death row in South Dakota. In March 2000, Briley Piper, along with co-defendants Elijah Page and Darrell Hoadley, conspired to burglarize the Lawrence County home of 19-year-old Chester Poage before abducting and murdering him by beating, stabbing, and stoning in a remote area. Piper was subsequently arrested, convicted of murder, and sentenced to death, while his accomplices received either a death sentence—carried out against Page in 2007—or a sentence of life imprisonment without parole.

20 Minutes to Death: Witness to the Last Execution in France

The following document is a firsthand account of the final moments of Hamida Djandoubi, a convicted murderer executed by guillotine at Marseille’s Baumettes Prison on September 10, 1977. The record—dated September 9—was written by Monique Mabelly, a judge appointed by the state to witness the proceedings. Djandoubi’s execution would ultimately be the last carried out in France before capital punishment was abolished in 1981. At the time, President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing—who had publicly voiced his "deep aversion to the death penalty" prior to his election—rejected Djandoubi’s appeal for clemency. Choosing to let "justice take its course," the President allowed the execution to proceed, just as he had in two previous cases during his term: Christian Ranucci , executed on July 28, 1976 and Jérôme Carrein , executed on June 23, 1977. Hamida Djandoubi , a Tunisian national, was sentenced to death for killing his former lover, Elisabeth Bousquet. He was execu...

South Carolina | Inmate who believes he’s died repeatedly can’t be executed, judge rules

SPARTANBURG — A 59-year-old man sentenced to death for killing a state trooper in Greenville County in 2000 can’t be executed because of a mental illness that’s left him incoherent and believing he’s immortal, a Circuit Court judge has ruled. John Richard Wood is the first condemned inmate in South Carolina found not competent to be executed since the state restarted capital punishment in September 2024. The seven executions since then include three men who chose to die by firing squad — the latest in November. Wood, convicted 24 years ago, was among death row inmates in line to receive a death warrant after exhausting their regular appeals.

Idaho eyes restart of death row executions as firing squad draws near

BOISE, Idaho — Idaho’s prison system has nearly completed execution chamber upgrades to carry out the death penalty by firing squad as the state’s lead method and will have a team of riflemen ready to go by the time a state law takes effect this summer. As part of the transition, the Idaho Department of Correction hopes to limit participation by its officers as the shooting of condemned people in prison to death is prioritized over lethal injection. Toward that effort, prisoner leadership sought to implement a push-button technology to avoid needing IDOC workers to pull the triggers.

Will the US Supreme Court end nitrogen gas executions?

When President Donald Trump returned to office in January 2025, he directed his administration to “ restor[e] the death penalty .” His embrace of capital punishment helped fuel a surge in executions at the state level last year, as I previously reported , and led the Justice Department to produce a report on “strengthening” the federal death penalty, which was released late last month. In the report, the Justice Department defended the use of pentobarbital – a powerful sedative – for lethal injections, criticizing the Biden administration’s determination that it may cause “unnecessary pain and suffering.” Nevertheless, citing ongoing legal challenges to pentobarbital use and related problems obtaining the drugs used in lethal injections, the DOJ recommended expanding the list of federal execution methods by adding firing squads, electrocution, and lethal gas.

Arizona | Man who murdered pastor crucifixion style requests plea deal after parents killed in plane crash

Adam Sheafe, the California man who admitted to killing a New River, Arizona, pastor in a crucifixion-style attack, has asked prosecutors to offer him a plea deal that would result in a natural life sentence rather than the death penalty he had previously sought. Advisory council attorneys representing Sheafe sent a formal plea offer to prosecutors this week, about two weeks after his father and stepmother died in a plane crash at Marana Airport on April 8, according to 12 News. Sheafe, 51, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of William Schonemann, 76, pastor of New River Bible Church, who was found dead inside his home last April.

China | Man sentenced to death for murder executed in Yunnan

Tian Yongming, who was initially sentenced for a series of violent crimes and then had his sentence changed to death early this year, has been executed in Yunnan province following approval from China's top court. The execution was carried out by the Intermediate People's Court in Yuxi, Yunnan, on Tuesday, with local prosecutors supervising the process. Before the execution, Tian was allowed to meet with his family members. The case dates back to September 1996, when Tian was sentenced to nine years in prison for the rape and attempted murder of his sister-in-law. After his release on July 15, 2002, he plotted revenge against the woman. On the night of Nov 13, 2002, he broke into her home armed with a knife.

American Fugitive Flees to Italy hoping to Escape the Death Penalty

American Murder Suspect Cut Off His Ankle Bracelet and Fled to Italy to Escape the Death Penalty Lee Mongerson Gilley Flew From Houston to Milan on Two False Identities. He Was Caught the Moment He Landed. It reads like the opening of a thriller. A man under electronic surveillance in Houston, suspected of killing his pregnant wife, cuts off his ankle bracelet, boards a flight to Canada under a false identity, transfers to a second flight to Italy under a second false identity, and lands at Milan Malpensa with a single objective: to place himself beyond the reach of Texas justice and its death penalty. The plan failed at the first step on Italian soil. Lee Mongerson Gilley, 39, an American software engineer wanted in the United States on suspicion of murdering his ex-wife in October 2024, was identified and detained the moment he arrived at Malpensa. He had cut off his electronic monitoring bracelet in Houston, flown first to Canada using one set of false documents, and then to Italy u...

Florida executes James Ernest Hitchcock

STARKE, Fla. (AP) — A Florida man convicted of beating and choking his brother’s 13-year-old stepdaughter to death nearly 50 years ago was executed Thursday evening. James Ernest Hitchcock, 70, was pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. following a lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke. He was convicted of the July 1976 killing of Cynthia Driggers. The curtain to the death chamber opened promptly at the 6 p.m. execution time. Hitchcock’s entire body was covered in a sheet up to his head. He stared at the ceiling as the team warden made a call, then gave his final statement.

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