FEATURED POST

Biden Fails a Death Penalty Abolitionist’s Most Important Test

Published
Image
The mystery of Joe Biden’s views about capital punishment has finally been solved. His decision to grant clemency to 37 of the 40 people on federal death row shows the depth of his opposition to the death penalty. And his decision to leave three of America’s most notorious killers to be executed by a future administration shows the limits of his abolitionist commitment. The three men excluded from Biden’s mass clemency—Dylann Roof, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, and Robert Bowers—would no doubt pose a severe test of anyone’s resolve to end the death penalty. Biden failed that test.
Post a Comment

Iran | Man at Risk of Execution in Karaj due to High Diya (Blood Money) Demand

Published
Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); July 23, 2024: Omid Assadi who is on death row after unintentionally killing a man in a car accident, is scheduled to be executed on 22 August if his family cannot raise the €160k demanded diya amount.

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a Saqqez native named Omid Assadi is at risk of execution in Karaj Penitentiary. He was arrested after being involved in a car accident that caused the death of the other driver.

Omid was sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder and has been set a deadline by Branch 6 of the Karaj Criminal Court to pay the 10 billion tomans (around €160,000) diya (blood money) demanded by the victim’s family. Omid’s family have until 22 August 2024 to raise the amount which they cannot afford.

His father, Ataollah Assadi told Iran Human Rights: “Omid’s execution was scheduled to be carried out in early June but we managed to obtain more time. In this time, I suffered one heart attack and my wife had two heart attacks due to the pressures of trying to save our son’s life.”

According to his father, Omid was the sole breadwinner of his family and has a son who suffers from thalassaemia disease.

Those charged with the umbrella term of “intentional murder” are sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) regardless of intent or circumstances due to a lack of grading in law. Once a defendant has been convicted, the victim’s family are required to choose between death as retribution, diya (blood money) or forgiveness.

The Head of Judiciary sets an annual indicative amount for diya based on inflation and other considerations, but the victim’s family can choose their own amount. They can demand a lower or higher amount than the judiciary’s indicative number but crucially, no upper limit is set. 

The diya indicative amounts, which are determined every March, were set at 900 million tomans (€18,000) for a Muslim man and 450 million tomans (€9,000) for a Muslim woman in March 2023. 

The amount set by families is usually higher than the indicative amount and even the indicative amount is higher than what most families can afford.

Source: Iran Human Rights, Staff, July 23, 2024

_____________________________________________________________________








"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: Karaj, Alborz Province, Iran
Related content:

Most Viewed (Last 7 Days)

Biden Fails a Death Penalty Abolitionist’s Most Important Test

Published
Image
The mystery of Joe Biden’s views about capital punishment has finally been solved. His decision to grant clemency to 37 of the 40 people on federal death row shows the depth of his opposition to the death penalty. And his decision to leave three of America’s most notorious killers to be executed by a future administration shows the limits of his abolitionist commitment. The three men excluded from Biden’s mass clemency—Dylann Roof, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, and Robert Bowers—would no doubt pose a severe test of anyone’s resolve to end the death penalty. Biden failed that test.
Read more

Congo executes 102 ‘urban bandits’ with 70 more set to be killed, officials say

Published
Image
Some 102 men were executed by the Congolese government in the past week, and 70 more are set to be executed, the country’s minister of justice said Sunday in a statement to the Associated Press. It said the men, aged 18 to 35, were armed robbers and “urban bandits,” locally known as Kulunas, who were executed in northwest Congo at Angenga prison. Forty-five were killed in late December, and the remaining 57 were executed within the last 48 hours. A flight of 70 more people from Kinshasa has arrived at Angenga, but the government hasn’t commented on the status of the prisoners.
Read more

Syria | New Justice Minister Identified in Video of Women Execution in Idlib in 2015

Published
Image
In two videos circulating on social networks and authenticated by the site Verify.sy, the minister, a former Islamic judge in the Idlib region then under the control of al-Nosra, supervised the killing of women accused of "prostitution." The images are chilling. In one video, a man with a thick beard, wearing a chechia and qami, the traditional Muslim dress, pronounces a death sentence “for corruption and prostitution” next to a woman in  a black niqab  , on her knees. In another, the same man appears next to a woman also in a full veil, on the ground, who implores clemency. A fighter recites  verses from the Quran  and claims that there is “proof” that she committed adultery and prostitution, thus spreading “corruption on earth” . A third man then draws a handgun and shoots her in the head.
Read more

USA | Two federal inmates challenge Biden’s clemency, refuse commutation of death sentences

Published
Image
In an unusual move, two prisoners who are among the 37 federal inmates whose death sentences were commuted by President Joe Biden in December have refused to sign paperwork accepting his clemency action Two federal inmates, Shannon Agofsky and Len Davis, are refusing to accept outing US President Joe Biden’s decision to commute their death sentences to life imprisonment without parole. Their refusal comes after Biden commuted the sentences of 37 federal death row inmates last month, sparing them from execution.
Read more

Alabama schedules fourth nitrogen gas execution amid debate over method

Published
Image
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama has scheduled its fourth execution by nitrogen gas as critics continue to argue the new method needs additional scrutiny. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey on Tuesday set a Feb. 6 execution date for Demetrius Terrence Frazier, 52. Her office said the execution will be carried out by nitrogen gas. It is the state’s first scheduled execution of 2025. Frazier was convicted of killing Pauline Brown while burglarizing her Birmingham apartment in 1991.
Read more

Tennessee reverses course, releases redacted execution manual with vague details

Published
Image
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee on Jan. 9 released a redacted version of its newly completed execution manual, blacking out sporadic job titles and team names throughout the notably trimmed-down document that now provides vague guidelines and omits previously detailed steps on carrying out the death penalty. The Tennessee Department of Correction initially refused to hand over the manual when pressed by The Associated Press, arguing that the state had to keep the entire manual secret to protect the identities of the executioner and other people involved.
Read more

The Last 24 Hours on Death Row In America

Published
Image
It’s December 18th, 2024. In the Oklahoma State Penitentiary, a guard approaches one of the 200 cells in Death Row and finds a prisoner inside, sitting on the edge of his bed. It’s 3 p.m. Kevin Ray Underwood has 24 hours left to live. Not every state in the US allows – or uses – the death penalty. The ones that do all have different execution protocols. But generally speaking, the timeline features similar events with slight differences in the details.  These protocols can take months of preparation—all so that the day of execution is well… perfectly executed. 
Read more

Texas Continues Sending People to the Execution Chamber, Innocent or Not

Published
Image
Politicians like Greg Abbott and Ken Paxton project an image of being tough on crime, but they’re also tough on those who are innocent, per a year-end report from the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. The annual report tells the stories of several individuals who faced execution in 2024 despite evidence that they were not guilty of the crime for which they were convicted. Three of the eight people the state planned to execute this year tried to present evidence of innocence. 
Read more

Singapore seizes drugs worth over US$700K in major bust, arrests four suspects

Published
Image
SINGAPORE, Jan 6 — Singapore’s Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) seized drugs estimated to be worth over S$1 million (US$700K) on Saturday, potentially enough to fuel the addiction of around 4,590 drug abusers for a week. CNB said in a statement that four Singaporean suspects — three men and one woman — were arrested in connection with the drug haul, which included heroin, ice, ketamine, ecstasy, and cannabis. Two of the suspects, men aged 25 and 27, were arrested by CNB officers at a car park in the vicinity of Cassia Crescent.
Read more