Death Penalty News

The decision comes amid the revelation that actor Ammar Zoni, currently serving a four-year sentence at Salemba Penitentiary in Central Jakarta for narcotics-related charges, was allegedly involved in drug trafficking inside the facility, along with five other inmates. JAKARTA – More than 1,000 prison guards are undergoing retraining at the maximum-security prisons on Nusakambangan Island, following a string of scandals involving criminal activities orchestrated from behind bars, a senior minister has said. Coordinating Minister for Law, Human Rights, Immigration and Correctional Services Yusril Ihza Mahendra said the retraining program was intended to reinforce discipline among correctional officers and improve their oversight of inmates, particularly to curb the widespread circulation of narcotics within penitentiaries across the country.

A man who blocked a motor vehicle using his motorcycle and robbed the occupants of mobile phones, cash and personal effects in Nairobi has been sentenced to hang. Michael Odhiambo was handed the death penalty by senior principal magistrate Philip Mutua of Kibera law courts after he was convicted for three counts of robbery with violence contrary to section 295 as read with section 296 (2) of the penal code. The convict had sought a lenient sentence claiming he is a family man with dependants but Mutua said the law provides for only one penalty – death sentence for the offence. Odhiambo had robbed Peter Kenyatta of Sh5000 and a mobile phone worth Sh14,000 on December 30, 2015. He also robbed John Karani and Peter Gichuhi of different amounts of money and mobile phones. He blocked their car claiming they had knocked down a bodaboda rider in a hit-and-run accident before terrorizing them while robbing them in broad daylight. He was joined by others including Stanley Amos Misiko who was ch...

The Southern California jury that convicted a man of murdering his business associate, the man's wife and two children with a sledgehammer will now have to decide whether he is sentenced to death or life in prison - as major questions concerning the quadruple homicide remain unanswered nearly a decade later.    Charles 'Chase' Merritt, 62, was found guilty on Monday, following a trial that spanned more than four months and hinged largely on circumstantial evidence in the February 2010 slayings of Joseph McStay, 40, Summer McStay, 43, and the couple's sons, four-year-old Gianni and three-year-old Joseph Jr.  What is still unknown, despite a large-scale investigation and a months-long murder trial, is where the victims died, and when.  Merritt, who has maintained his innocence, has not been forthcoming with that information.   Merritt's defense attorney James McGee said after the verdict, which was reached on Friday but announced in court ...

Fellow militant says mastermind of attacks used cellphones smuggled in by his followers The ongoing trial of a radical Indonesia ideologue has revealed a disturbing fact: the 2016 Jakarta attacks that killed four innocent by-standers was directed by a death row terrorist inmate whose verdict was handed-down 13 years ago. Australian embassy bomber Iwan Darmawan Munto, alias Rois, arranged the funding and procurement of firearms for the attacks, said their field coordinator, Abu Gar, in a recent court hearing. He said Rois, 42, used mobile phones his followers had smuggled into his cell to communicate with the would-be suicide bombers. The terrorist's case is the tip of an iceberg highlighting the loopholes in the weak Indonesia legal system that had resulted in terror attacks that could have been avoided. Abu Gar, whose real name is Saiful Muhtorir, was testifying in the ongoing trial related to radical preacher Aman Abdurrahman, and said he met Rois three tim...

A gunman opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. The victims included students and adults The authorities on Thursday charged a 19-year-old man who is suspected of gunning down students and adults at his former high school with 17 counts of premeditated murder. The suspect, Nikolas Cruz, was booked into jail in Broward County. He had been expelled from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, a small, bucolic city about an hour north of Miami, which on Wednesday became the site of one of the deadliest shootings in modern United States history, adding to the growing toll of mass killings on school grounds. “This is catastrophic,” said Sheriff Scott Israel of Broward County, who has three children who graduated from the school. “There really are no words.” • The authorities said the AR-15 rifle that Mr. Cruz used in the attack was purchased legally. “No laws were violated in the procurement of this weapon,” said Peter J. Forcell...