UAE | Pardon saves 2 Pinoys from death row

MANILA, Philippines — The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has pardoned three convicted Filipinos – two of them on death row due to drug trafficking, Malacañang announced the other night.

President Marcos had phoned and thanked UAE President Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan on Friday for granting his request to pardon the three Filipinos, Presidential Communications Office (PCO) Secretary Cheloy Garafil said.

In a statement, the PCO said it was Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos Jr. who first informed Marcos about the pardons late Thursday after receiving a message from UAE Ambassador to the Philippines Mohamed Obaid Salem Alqataam Alzaabi.

The PCO quoted Alzaabi’s message to Abalos as follows: “Good evening, Secretary. I am pleased to inform you that the appeal of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. for three Filipinos, two of which are sentenced to death because of drug trafficking and one sentenced for 15 years for the crime of slander, has been granted for humanitarian pardon by our President H.H. Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan.”

In two separate letters last April 27, Marcos asked Sheikh Mohamed to grant the three Filipino prisoners pardon.

During their phone conversation, Marcos also thanked the UAE leader for extending assistance to families displaced by the ongoing Mayon Volcano eruption in Albay.

The UAE has sent 50 tons of food supplies and medicines.

For his part, Sheikh Mohamed noted the valuable contribution of some 600,000 Filipinos working in his country.

Marcos told his counterpart he is thankful for their mutual efforts to strengthen bilateral relations and mentioned “the very good treatment of Filipino nationals in the UAE.”

Towards the end of their conversation, Sheikh Mohamed reiterated his invitation to Marcos to attend the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Dubai (COP28) in December. Marcos in turn invited Sheikh Mohamed to visit the Philippines.

The invitation to visit Dubai was first relayed to the President by UAE Ambassador Mohamed during his courtesy call in Malacañang last week.

In an interview in Taguig City on June 15, Marcos said he is keen on attending the COP28 in Dubai from Nov. 30 to Dec. 12.

News about the UAE pardons drew elation from the OFW party-list group in Congress, with Rep. Marissa Magsino thanking Marcos for initiating the appeal on behalf of the three convicted Filipino workers.

“These highlight our efforts to protect the welfare of our workers on death row abroad. It is really important to provide them legal assistance to defend them and to reverse their sentence,” Magsino said.

She noted how much of a “life-threatening challenge” it is for OFWs to deal with the “risk of getting criminally charged [abroad], whether with factual basis or merely fabricated, and face the possibility of incarceration or meted with the death penalty as the penal laws of the host countries may impose, if found guilty.”

Magsino stressed the need for a comprehensive evaluation of the government’s support in the ongoing legal battles faced by Filipinos working overseas and ensure improved conditions if they are incarcerated.

This assessment aims to establish and execute immediate and enduring policies, as well as effective assistance programs, with the ultimate goal “to save their lives and to serve justice,” she said.

Source: philstar.com, Staff, June 25, 2023

_____________________________________________________________________

FOLLOW US ON:

CONTACT: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde

'No Warning': The Death Penalty In Japan

Stakes for wrongful convictions are high in Japan, where the death penalty has broad public support despite criticism over how it is carried out. Tokyo: Capital punishment in Japan is under scrutiny again after the world's longest-serving death row prisoner, Iwao Hakamada, was awarded $1.4 million in compensation this week following his acquittal last year in a retrial. Stakes for wrongful convictions are high in Japan, where the death penalty has broad public support despite international criticism over how it is carried out.

South Carolina | Spiritual adviser of condemned inmate: 'We're more than the worst thing we've done'

(RNS) — When 67-year-old Brad Sigmon was put to death on March 7 in South Carolina for the murder of his then-girlfriend's parents, it was the first time in 15 years that an execution in the United States had been carried out by a firing squad. United Methodist minister Hillary Taylor, Sigmon's spiritual adviser since 2020, said the multifaceted, months long effort to save Sigmon's life, and to provide emotional and spiritual support for his legal team, and the aftermath of his execution has been a "whirlwind" said Taylor, the director of South Carolinians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.

Louisiana's First Nitrogen Execution Reflects Broader Method Shift

Facing imminent execution by lethal gas earlier this week, Jessie Hoffman Jr. — a Louisiana man convicted of abducting, raping and murdering a 28-year-old woman in 1996 — went to court with a request: Please allow me to be shot instead. In a petition filed with the U.S. Supreme Court on March 16 seeking a stay of his execution by nitrogen hypoxia, a protocol that had yet to be tested in the state, Hoffman requested execution by firing squad as an alternative.

A second South Carolina death row inmate chooses execution by firing squad

Columbia, S.C. — A South Carolina death row inmate on Friday chose execution by firing squad, just five weeks after the state carried out its first death by bullets. Mikal Mahdi, who pleaded guilty to murder for killing a police officer in 2004, is scheduled to be executed April 11. Mahdi, 41, had the choice of dying by firing squad, lethal injection or the electric chair. He will be the first inmate to be executed in the state since Brad Sigmon chose to be shot to death on March 7. A doctor pronounced Sigmon dead less than three minutes after three bullets tore into his heart.

Bangladesh | Botswana Woman Executed for Drug Trafficking

Dhaka, Bangladesh – Lesedi Molapisi, a Botswana national convicted of drug trafficking, was executed in Bangladesh on Friday, 21 March 2025. The 31-year-old was hanged at Dhaka Central Jail after exhausting all legal avenues to appeal her death sentence. Molapisi was arrested in January 2023 upon arrival at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka, where customs officials discovered 3.1 kilograms of heroin hidden in her luggage. Following a trial under Bangladesh’s Narcotics Control Act, she was sentenced to death in May 2024. Her execution was initially delayed due to political unrest in the country but was carried out last week.

USA | Federal death penalty possible for Mexican cartel boss behind 1985 DEA agent killing

Rafael Caro Quintero, extradited from Mexico in 2022, appeared in Brooklyn court as feds weigh capital charges for the torture and murder of Agent Enrique Camarena NEW YORK — The death penalty is on the table for notorious drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero, the so-called “narco of narcos” who orchestrated the torture and murder of a DEA agent in 1985, according to federal prosecutors. “It is a possibility. The decision has not yet been made, but it is going through the process,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Saritha Komatireddy said in Brooklyn Federal Court Wednesday.

Oklahoma executes Wendell Grissom

Grissom used some of his last words on Earth to apologize to everyone he hurt and said that he prays they can find forgiveness for their own sake. As for his execution, he said it was a mercy. Oklahoma executed Wendell Arden Grissom on Thursday for the murder of 23-year-old Amber Matthews in front of her best friend’s two young daughters in 2005. Grissom, 56, was executed by lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester and pronounced dead at 10:13 a.m. local time, becoming the first inmate to be put to death by the state in 2025 and the ninth in the United States this year.

Inside Florida's Death Row: A dark cloud over the Sunshine State

Florida's death penalty system has faced numerous criticisms and controversies over the years - from execution methods to the treatment of Death Row inmates The Sunshine State remains steadfast in its enforcement of capital punishment, upholding a complex system that has developed since its reinstatement in 1976. Florida's contemporary death penalty era kicked off in 1972 following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Furman v. Georgia , which temporarily put a stop to executions across the country. Swiftly amending its laws, Florida saw the Supreme Court affirm the constitutionality of the death penalty in 1976's Gregg v. Georgia case.

Execution date set for prisoner transferred to Oklahoma to face death penalty

An inmate who was transferred to Oklahoma last month to face the death penalty now has an execution date. George John Hanson, also known as John Fitzgerald Hanson, is scheduled to die on June 12 for the 1999 murder of 77-year-old Mary Bowles. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals on Tuesday set the execution date. The state’s Pardon and Parole Board has a tentative date of May 7 for Hanson’s clemency hearing, executive director Tom Bates said.

Louisiana executes Jessie Hoffman Jr.

Louisiana used nitrogen gas Tuesday evening to execute a man convicted of murdering a woman in 1996, the 1st time the state has used the method, a lawyer for the condemned man said. Jessie Hoffman Jr., 46, was put to death at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, defense lawyer Cecelia Kappel said in a statement. He was the 1st person executed in the state in 15 years, and his death marked the 5th use of the nitrogen gas method in the US, with all the rest in Alabama. Hoffman was convicted of the murder of Mary "Molly" Elliott, a 28-year-old advertising executive. At the time of the crime, Hoffman was 18.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog