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Activists Call on President Biden to End the Federal Death Penalty Before Leaving Office

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A conversation with Death Penalty Action Co-founder and Executive Director Abe Bonowitz. Now that Joe Biden is a lame duck president, activists are holding him accountable to make good on his promise to end the federal death penalty during his remaining six months as president. Biden’s election campaign in 2020 had pledged to end the federal death penalty and incentivize the remaining 27 states that still allow executions to do the same. While he made history as the first president in the United States to openly oppose the death penalty, there has been no movement to actually end federal executions during his nearly four years in office.

Iran | At Least 237 Executions in 5 Months; 64 Executed in May

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Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); June 10, 2024: Iran Human Rights has recorded at least 64 executions in May and 237 executions in the first five months of 2024.

According to data collected by Iran Human Rights, at least 64 people were executed in 18 different Iranian prisons and at least 237 were executed in the first five months of 2024.

Of the 64 executions recorded in May, 35 were for drug-related offences, 26 were for murder charges, two people for charges of moharebeh (enmity against god) and one person for rape. Amongst them were 4 women, 6 Baluch, 4 Kurds and 3 Afghan nationals.

Of the 237 executions recorded in the first five months of 2024, 138 were for drug-related offences, 83 were for murder charges, 14 for charges of moharebeh and two for rape. Amongst them were 10 women, 31 Baluch, 14 Kurds and 13 Afghan nationals.

There was a 32% drop in the number of executions compared to the same period in 2023 when 314 executions were recorded. This decrease was due to the parliamentary elections in February and the presidential elections currently taking place as a result of Ebrahim Raisi’s death. 

According to IHRNGO’s recorded execution trends over the last two decades, execution rates typically decrease during those events and there is a meaningful correlation between the timing of the executions and political events. However, there has been a 117% increase in the number of Afghan nationals executed compared to the previous year.

There has also been a 67% increase in the number of women executed compared to the same period last year when six executions were recorded. Of the 10 recorded executions in 2024, 60% were hanged for drug-related offences.

Kurdish-Sunni political prisoners Davoud Abdollahi, Farhad Salimi, Anwar Khezri and Khosro Besharat who were sentenced to death based on torture-tainted confessions and without due process and a fair trial in a joint case of seven people, were all executed in the first five months of 2024. Two of their co-defendants, Ghasem Abasteh and Ayoub Karimi were executed in November 2023. The last surviving defendant, Kamran Sheikheh who was recently transferred from Ghezelhesar Prison to Mahabad Prison, is at grave risk of execution.

Arvin Ghahremani, a 20-year-old Jewish man who is on death row for a murder he is alleged to have committed when he was 18, is also at grave risk of execution in Kermanshah Central Prison after his appeal was rejected by the Supreme Court which intentionally ignored key errors in the case.

Source: Iran Human Rights, Staff, June 10, 2024

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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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