Death Penalty News

WASHINGTON (AP) — Theodore “Ted” Kaczynski, the Harvard-educated mathematician who retreated to a dingy shack in the Montana wilderness and ran a 17-year bombing campaign that killed three people and injured 23 others, died Saturday. He was 81. Branded the “Unabomber” by the FBI, Kaczynski died at the federal prison medical center in Butner, North Carolina, Kristie Breshears, a spokesperson for the federal Bureau of Prisons, told The Associated Press. He was found unresponsive in his cell early Saturday morning and was pronounced dead around 8 a.m., she said. A cause of death was not immediately known. Before his transfer to the prison medical facility, he had been held in the federal Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado, since May 1998, when he was sentenced to four life sentences plus 30 years for a campaign of terror that set universities nationwide on edge. He admitted committing 16 bombings from 1978 and 1995, permanently maiming several of his victims.

TOKYO -- A 28-year-old man was arrested early Sunday after a three-hour siege at a Tokyo yakiniku restaurant. Police said the man, Akito Araki, of unknown occupation, entered the restaurant in the basement of a building in Yoyogi, Shibuya Ward, Fuji TV reported.  He had dinner and then at around 9:30 p.m., he gave the manager a note in which he said he had activated a home-made bomb in a box.  He also brandished two knives, ordered other customers out of the restaurant and told the manager to call 110. Araki locked the door and barricaded it with chairs. He refused to come out while police negotiated with him.  The stand-off continued until about 12:30 a.m. when police decided to break in.  The manager was able to escape out the back door and was not harmed. Police said three objects wrapped in adhesive tape with cell phones attached were found in the box but none were explosive devices.  Police did not say what the objects were. Araki was quoted by police as sa...

The Supreme Court has decreed the death penalty for six men convicted of a string of bombings and attempted bombings in central Pattani in 2016. Facing the death sentence are Ibrohim Yosoh, Amri Lueyoh, Santi Chatharakul, Ayub Paolee, Isamae Tuyong and Noroning Nordeh. They were among 10 people convicted of charges relating to bombings and attempted bombings in six incidents which occurred in downtown Pattani from June to December 2016. The other four were Masun Salae, Abdulloh Hayee-uma, Hamid Jehma and Rusran Wahayee. The Supreme Court sentenced Masun, Abdulloh and Rusran to life imprisonment and Hamid to 36 years and eight months in jail. The six offences include planting a bomb near the central mosque in central Pattani on July 3, 2016 and the explosion at a noodle stall in the market on Pipit Road on Oct 24 that year. The explosion killed one person dead and injured 20 others. The 10 men were also found guilty for their roles in bombing two fishing trawlers in Muang district on Ju...

A 23-year-old suspected of planting the deadly bombs that terrorised Austin for three weeks was described yesterday by his uncle as a smart and kind “computer geek” and a friend said he was an assertive person who would end up being “kind of dominant and intimidating in conversation”. Neither had any idea what motivated Mark Anthony Conditt, who authorities say died after detonating a bomb in his ute as officers moved in to arrest him near Austin. The attacks in the Texas capital and suburban San Antonio killed two people and wounded four others. “I mean, this is coming from nowhere. We just don’t know what. I don’t know how many ways to say it but everyone is caught off guard by this,” said Conditt’s uncle, Mike Courtney of Lakewood, Colorado. Austin Police Chief Brian Manley said he considered a 25-minute recording on mobile phone found with Conditt a “confession”. On the recording, Conditt describes seven explosive devices, and “we have accounted for the devices t...