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Japan | Hakamada case underscores folly of maintaining death penalty

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The Tokyo High Court’s decision on March 13 to grant a retrial for an 87-year-old man who spent decades on death row strongly shows that he was wrongly convicted. The retrial should be held immediately to provide a legal remedy for Iwao Hakamada. In granting the retrial in the high-profile case, the high court said reasonable doubt has arisen on the guilt of Hakamada. He was arrested on suspicion of murder in August 1966, two months after an executive of a miso-producing company and three of his family members were killed in what is now Shizuoka. Hakamada, who had worked at the miso company, spent most of his adult life in detention. His latest request for a retrial was filed 15 years ago.

Iran | Execution of 21 Prisoners in 9 Days, at Least 70 Executions in January

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On Wednesday, February 1, the regime executed Mehdi Rasi in Gohardasht prison, on Tuesday, January 31, executed Ali Allahverdi and Farhang Zakai in Adel Abad prison of Shiraz, and Hassan Javanrudian in Karaj prison and another in Tabriz prison.

On Monday, January 30, 4 Baluch prisoners named Rasul Safarzaei, Abidullah Safarzaei, Habib Sarani and Behzadi were hanged in Kerman prison and a prisoner named Ismail Kachlanlu in Mako prison.

On Thursday, January 26, 2 brothers named Reza and Omid Shokri along with another prisoner were hanged in Karaj Central Prison. 

On Wednesday, January 25, a prisoner named Reza Agha Leh, 56, who was in prison since 8 years ago, was hanged in Qazvin Central Prison and Hamed Heydari in Khalkhal Prison and Mansour Yusef Zehi in Bandar Abbas Prison. 

On Tuesday, January 24, a prisoner named Omid Azni and two others were hanged in Arak Central Prison.

In the week beginning on January 20, 2 prisoners named Ahmad Zali Tabar and Omid Ali Kuhi were hanged in Karaj Central Prison.

Thus, since January 20 to date, at least 21 prisoners have been hanged and a total of at least 70 prisoners have been hanged in January.

The Iranian resistance once again calls for effective measures by the international community to save the lives of the prisoners sentenced to death and refer the dossier of the regime’s crimes to the United Nations Security Council and bring to justice the leaders of the regime, especially its Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, President Ebrahim Raisi and Judicial chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje’i, and the IRGC Commanders for four decades of crimes against humanity and genocide in an international tribunal.

Source: Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), Staff, February 3, 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
Location: Iran
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Japan | Hakamada case underscores folly of maintaining death penalty

Published
Image
The Tokyo High Court’s decision on March 13 to grant a retrial for an 87-year-old man who spent decades on death row strongly shows that he was wrongly convicted. The retrial should be held immediately to provide a legal remedy for Iwao Hakamada. In granting the retrial in the high-profile case, the high court said reasonable doubt has arisen on the guilt of Hakamada. He was arrested on suspicion of murder in August 1966, two months after an executive of a miso-producing company and three of his family members were killed in what is now Shizuoka. Hakamada, who had worked at the miso company, spent most of his adult life in detention. His latest request for a retrial was filed 15 years ago.
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China | Man who killed wife executed in Hangzhou

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Xu Guoli, who killed his wife in 2020, was executed on Tuesday in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, after the Hangzhou Intermediate People's Court approved his death sentence, which was handed down in July 2021. The court turned down Xu's appeal.  He had confessed in court that he killed his sleeping wife on July 5, 2020, because of "family conflicts". The death penalty verdict was submitted to the Supreme People's Court for re-examination and approval. The verdict said that Xu was "extremely vicious and ruthless" in the premeditated homicide and had fabricated false information to cover up his crime, which was extremely harmful to society.
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India | Supreme Court reopens debate over right to dignified execution

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A bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud has reopened a decades-old debate over whether there can be a more humane and dignified way of executing the death penalty. The Supreme Court on Tuesday (March 21) asked the Centre to defend the law that allows hanging by the neck as a mode of execution.  Attorney General for India (AG) A R Venkataramani agreed to seek instructions from the government before the court sets up a committee to examine the issue. A bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) D Y Chandrachud is essentially reopening a decades-old debate over whether there can be a more humane and dignified way of executing the death penalty.
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Nicholas Yarris spent 22 years on death row for a murder he didn't commit

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Nicholas Yarris One in a series on issues pertaining to the death penalty in Pennsylvania. On Jan. 16, 2004, Nicholas Yarris walked out of prison a free man after 22 years on Pennsylvania's death row. Yarris, now 54, is one of 15 people in the United States - and the only person in Pennsylvania - to be released from death row after being found not guilty of a capital murder by means of a DNA test. "I'm kind of a walking encyclopedia on the death penalty," Yarris joked during a recent phone interview from his home in California. In 1981, Yarris, 20 at the time, was driving with a friend in what turned out to be a stolen car. A Chester police officer pulled Yarris over and the encounter turned violent, the officer claimed. The incident ended with Yarris being charged with the attempted murder of a police officer. Yarris said the charges against him were trumped up and when the case went to trial, he was acquitted of the attempted murder charge
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Death row minister sues Oklahoma Corrections agency for $10M

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OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A death row minister who was inside the execution chamber during Oklahoma’s last lethal injection sued the Department of Corrections for $10 million on Friday, alleging the agency and its spokesman defamed him in a statement to the media. The Rev. Jeff Hood of Arkansas alleges in the federal lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Oklahoma City that the Jan. 9 statement attributed to Department of Corrections spokesman Josh Ward was false and defamatory. “The words that Defendant Ward of the ODOC released worldwide have injured Plaintiff Hood’s reputation and caused obvious emotional distress,” the lawsuit states.
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Court: Arizona governor not required to carry out execution

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PHOENIX (AP) — The Arizona Supreme Court has ruled that state law doesn’t require Gov. Katie Hobbs to carry out the April 6 execution of a prisoner who was convicted of murder. The decision marks a legal victory for the newly elected Democratic governor whose office said the state isn’t currently prepared to carry out the death penalty. The high court had set the April execution date for Aaron Gunches, who fatally shot Ted Price near Mesa, Arizona, in 2002. The order came after Hobbs said executions will not be carried out until Arizonans can be confident that the state isn’t violating constitutional rights when it enforces the death penalty. The governor vowed two weeks ago that she wouldn’t carry out the court’s order while the state reviews death penalty protocols that she ordered because of Arizona’s history of mismanaging executions.
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Why Poor People in Texas End Up on Death Row and Face Execution

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An in-depth piece in the Huffington Post examines Harris County’s (Texas) system for providing representation to those facing the death penalty who cannot afford their own attorney. The process is explored through the story of Obel Cruz-Garcia, a prisoner on Texas’ death row. The author described his case: “Like most people who end up on death row, Cruz-Garcia could not afford to hire a lawyer for the resource-intensive process of a capital trial, and Harris County, Texas, doesn’t offer public defenders in death penalty cases. Instead, he was appointed a private defense lawyer named R.P. ‘Skip’ Cornelius, who made a living billing the county to represent more than 100 indigent clients a year. Cornelius was paid a flat fee to represent Cruz-Garcia, regardless of how much time he spent working on the case.”
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Idaho bill to execute inmates by firing squad clears Legislature, heads to governor

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Idaho is poised to become the fifth U.S. state to approve prisoner executions by firing squad after the proposed law cleared the Legislature on Monday on its way to the governor’s desk.  House Bill 186, sponsored by Rep. Bruce Skaug, R-Nampa, and Sen. Doug Ricks, R-Rexburg, passed the Senate by a 24-11 vote. The bill would establish a firing squad as the state’s backup method of execution to lethal injection. Backers argued that death sentences are effectively unenforceable in Idaho at the moment because prison officials have been unable to secure the drugs needed to carry out the state’s only current execution method.  A lethal injection execution scheduled for December had to be postponed after the state could not obtain the drugs — with officials again acknowledging earlier this month that they have still to find them.
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Taiwan | High court upholds death penalty for Malaysian student's killer

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Kaohsiung, March 23 (CNA) The Taiwan High Court Kaohsiung Branch Court has upheld the death sentence of a man who raped and murdered a Malaysian student of Chang Jung Christian University in Tainan in October 2020. Speaking with reporters after the court issued its ruling Thursday, Chiu Ming-hung (邱明弘), chief judge of the hearing, said that the court had upheld Liang Yu-chih's (梁育誌) sentence due to his lack of remorse or empathy for his 24-year-old victim, surnamed Chung (鍾), as well as his high risk of recidivism. The ruling can be appealed. On Oct. 28, 2020, Liang abducted Chung while she was walking by herself along a railway overpass near her school around 8 p.m., according to prosecutors.
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Missouri | Prosecutor will seek death penalty against accused North Kansas City cop killer

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LIBERTY, Mo. — The Clay County Prosecutor plans to seek the death penalty for the man charged with killing North Kansas City police officer Officer Daniel Vasquez. Joshua T. Rocha is charged in Clay County with first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the death of 32-year-old Officer Daniel Vasquez. Prosecutors said officer Vasquez died in August after Rocha shot him during a traffic stop.  Investigators said Vasquez stopped Rocha’s car because of an expired temporary tag. According to a probable cause statement, video from Vasquez’s dash camera showed Rocha opening the door of his car and immediately shooting at Vasquez.  Rocha then got out of the car and shot Vasquez two more times after the officer fell to the street.
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