Death Penalty News

Convicted on drug trafficking charges, Malaysian Pannir Selvam Pranthaman was baptized in prison. September 3, 2014, felt like any other ordinary day for Angelia Pranthaman—until the Malaysian national found out that Singapore’s police had arrested her older brother Pannir Selvam Pranthaman for trafficking drugs into the Southeast Asian country. Singapore’s Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) officers stopped 27-year-old Pannir for a random search as he tried to cross the Malaysia-Singapore border at Woodlands Checkpoint, the world’s busiest land crossing. The officers discovered he was carrying diamorphine, or heroin.

A prominent Christian leader, along with 14 other Christian leaders and their families, was arrested in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania earlier this month.  These leaders represent a significant portion of the nation’s small Christian community, estimated to be around 1,000 individuals.   Mauritania’s current penal code, specifically Article 306, imposes the death penalty for apostasy, with the provision for a lesser penalty if the accused repents. 

For the first time, the Vatican has given an entire family one of Catholicism's highest honors. Jozef Ulma, his wife Wiktoria and their seven children were killed by Nazis in 1944 along with eight Jews they were hiding. The Vatican on Sunday beatified an entire family for the first time to honor it for giving shelter to Jews during World War II while Poland was under German occupation. Jozef Ulma, 44, his pregnant wife Wiktoria, 31, and their children, all under 8 years of age, were killed by German police on March 24, 1944, after being betrayed to Nazi authorities for sheltering eight Jewish people in their attic. The eight Jews were also killed.

Amber McLaughlin, the first openly transgender woman set to be executed in the United States, is getting baptized three weeks prior to her scheduled execution date. ST. LOUIS — The first openly transgender woman set to be executed in the United States is getting baptized three weeks prior to her scheduled execution date. Amber McLaughlin raped and stabbed her ex-girlfriend in 2003. There is no known case of an openly transgender inmate being executed in the U.S. before, according to the Anti-Execution Death Penalty Information Center. The crime 5 On Your Side searched through our own archives, uncovering what happened on Nov. 20, 2003. The victim's neighbor said Guenther was in fear of her ex-girlfriend for six months. According to the neighbor, we learned a police officer was walking Guenther from work to her car for a week. However, the one time she stopped asking for an escort, the murder happened. Guenther was about to file another order of protection against McLaughlin the ver...