U.S. among top 5 using death penalty as global executions spike

The United States ranks among the top countries using capital punishment, contributing to a worldwide surge in executions last year.

That’s according to data released last week by Amnesty International, which opposes capital punishment in all cases.

The London-based rights group’s annual report on the global use of the death penalty documents more than 1,100 executions in 2023.

That’s about a 30-percent increase over 2022.

The United States was responsible for 24 executions last year, up from 18 the year before.

The report’s U.S. total includes all executions inside the country last year, although the federal government itself hasn’t executed anyone since 2021.

Abe Bonowitz is executive director of Death Penalty Action, an anti-capital punishment advocacy group. He said the U.S. uptick is the result of legal hurdles and health restrictions that prevented some planned executions from taking place in recent years.

“Everything slowed down due to COVID. Also, various legal challenges,” Bonowitz said. "In a lot of ways, this is playing ‘catchup’ more than spurring some new execution spree.”

According to the report, Iran is mostly responsible for the 2023 increase. The others in the top five include Somalia, Saudi Arabia and China.

The report doesn’t include precise numbers for China but Amnesty researchers suspect it carried out thousands of executions last year.

North Korea and Vietnam likely executed prisoners, too.

Bonowitz said the list of other top executioners should give Americans pause.

“We don’t see executions happening in countries that we’d think are the ones we wish to emulate or stand with,” he said. “That’s a whole other reason we should reconsider the death penalty. Is this who we want to stand with?”

Indiana hasn’t carried out an execution in more than a decade.

But the state is home to federal death row — it’s inside a U.S. facility in Terre Haute. The facility is also where the United States carries out all federal executions.

The last federal execution, in January 2021, was one of 13 carried out by the Trump administration during its final six months.

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland placed a moratorium on federal executions shortly after taking office. He said the U.S. justice department was studying the lethal injection protocol and changes to federal regulations at the end of Trump's term.

At the state level, the Amnesty report also includes data suggesting capital punishment is broadly on the decline by certain measures. Only five states carried out executions in 2023, down from six the year before. Two states were responsible for more than half of all the 2023 executions: Texas and Florida.

However, the report also notes plans in several states to change procedures or circumvent courts in order to impose death sentences more often or carry them out faster.

Legislators in several states also introduced bills to add execution methods.

The Amnesty report says 25 defendants in the U.S. received death sentences in 2023. They include one imposed by the federal government — the first since President Biden took office.

U.S. officials transported that prisoner to Terre Haute last year.

Source: wboi.org, George Hale, June 3, 2024

_____________________________________________________________________

Twitter/X | Facebook | Telegram | Contact Us

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

— Oscar Wilde

Singapore executes three drug mules over two days

Singapore hanged three people for drug offences last week, bringing the total number of executions to 17 this year - the highest since 2003. These come a week before a constitutional challenge against the death penalty for drug offences is due to be heard. Singapore has some of the world's harshest anti-drug laws, which it says are a necessary deterrent to drug crime, a major issue elsewhere in South East Asia. Anyone convicted of trafficking - which includes selling, giving, transporting or administering - more than 15g of diamorphine, 30g of cocaine, 250g of methamphetamine and 500g of cannabis in Singapore will be handed the death sentence.

Florida | After nearly 50 years on death row, Tommy Zeigler seeks final chance at freedom

The Winter Garden Police chief was at a party on Christmas Eve 1975 when he received a phone call from his friend Tommy Zeigler, the owner of a furniture store on Dillard Street. “I’ve been shot, please hurry,” Zeigler told the chief as he struggled for breath. When police arrived at the store, Zeigler, 30, managed to unlock the door and then collapsed “with a gaping bullet hole through his lower abdomen,” court records show. In the store, detectives found a gruesome, bloody crime scene and several guns. Four other people — Zeigler’s wife, his in-laws and a laborer — lay dead.

Oklahoma board recommends clemency for inmate set to be executed next week

A voting board in Oklahoma decided Wednesday to recommend clemency for Tremane Wood, a death row inmate who is scheduled to receive a lethal injection next week at the state penitentiary in McAlester. Wood, 46, faces execution for his conviction in the 2001 murder of Ronnie Wipf, a migrant farmworker, at an Oklahoma City hotel on New Year's Eve, court records show. The recommendation was decided in a 3-2 vote by the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board, consisting of five members appointed by either the governor or the state's top judicial official, according to CBS News affiliate KWTV. Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Sitt will consider the recommendation as he weighs whether to grant or deny Wood's clemency request, which would mean sparing him from execution and reducing his sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Louisiana death row inmate freed after nearly 30 years as overturned conviction upends case

A Louisiana man who spent nearly 30 years on death row walked out of prison Wednesday after a judge overturned his conviction and granted him bail. Jimmie Duncan, now in his 60s, was sentenced to death in 1998 for the alleged rape and drowning of his girlfriend’s 23-month-old daughter, Haley Oliveaux — a case long clouded by disputed forensic testimony. His release comes months after a state judge ruled that the evidence prosecutors used to secure the conviction was unreliable and rooted in discredited bite-mark analysis.

Vietnam | Woman sentenced to death for poisoning 4 family members with cyanide

A woman in Dong Nai Province in southern Vietnam was sentenced to death on Thursday for killing family members including two young children in a series of cyanide poisonings that shocked her community. The Dong Nai People's Court found 39-year-old Nguyen Thi Hong Bich guilty of murder and of illegally possessing and using toxic chemicals. Judges described her actions as "cold-blooded, inhumane and calculated," saying Bich exploited the trust of her victims and "destroyed every ethical bond within her family."

Afghanistan | Two Sons Of Executed Man Also Face Death Penalty, Says Taliban

The Taliban governor’s spokesperson in Khost said on Tuesday that two sons of a man executed earlier that day have also been sentenced to death. Their executions, he said, have been postponed because the heir of the victims is not currently in Afghanistan. Mostaghfer Gurbaz, spokesperson for the Taliban governor in Khost, also released details of the charges against the man executed on Tuesday, identified as Mangal. He said Mangal was accused of killing members of a family.

Afghanistan's Taliban rulers carry out public execution in sports stadium

The man had been convicted of killing 13 members of a family, including children, and was executed by one of their relatives, according to police. Afghanistan's Taliban authorities carried out the public execution of a man on Tuesday convicted of killing 13 members of a family, including several children, earlier this year. Tens of thousands of people attended the execution at a sports stadium in the eastern city of Khost, which the Supreme Court said was the eleventh since the Taliban seized power in 2021 in the wake of the chaotic withdrawal of US and NATO forces.

Utah | Ralph Menzies dies on death row less than 3 months after his execution was called off

Judge was set to consider arguments in December about Menzies’ mental fitness Ralph Menzies, who spent more than 3 decades on Utah’s death row for the 1986 murder of Maurine Hunsaker, has died. Menzies, 67, died of “presumed natural causes at a local hospital” Wednesday afternoon, according to the Utah Department of Corrections. Matt Hunsaker, Maurine Hunsaker’s son, said Menzies’ death “was a complete surprise.” “First off, I’d say that I’m numb. And second off, I would say, grateful,” Hunsaker told Utah News Dispatch. “I’m grateful that my family does not have to endure this for the holidays.”

Burkina Faso to bring back death penalty

Burkina Faso's military rulers will bring back the death penalty, which was abolished in 2018, the country's Council of Ministers announced on Thursday. "This draft penal code reinstates the death penalty for a number of offences, including high treason, acts of terrorism, acts of espionage, among others," stated the information service of the Burkinabe government. Burkina Faso last carried out an execution in 1988.

Iran carries out public hanging of "double-rapist"

Iran on Tuesday publicly executed a man after convicting him of raping two women in the northern province of Semnan. The execution was carried out in the town of Bastam after the Supreme Court upheld the verdict, the judiciary's official outlet Mizan Online reported. Mizan cited the head of the provincial judiciary, Mohammad Akbari, as saying the ruling had been 'confirmed and enforced after precise review by the Supreme Court'. The provincial authority said the man had 'deceived two women and committed rape by force and coercion', adding that he used 'intimidation and threats' to instil fear of reputational harm in the victims.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog