Death Penalty News

Meant to terrorize people, the sentences are making the judicial system a joke, rights groups say. Lawyers and human rights experts in Myanmar have condemned the junta’s liberal use of the death penalty, including several recent cases where anti-junta activists received multiple death sentences. Such sentences are meant to terrorize opponents of the junta, which is losing ground to ethnic armies and resistance fighters in a civil war now in its third year, but the absurdity of doing so is turning the judicial system into a farce, rights groups say.

Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin has again stirred an outcry over his fiery political rhetoric — this time for saying certain Democratic governors should be executed for treason. Griffin, who founded the group Cowboys for Trump, also told the Daily Beast on Tuesday that anti-lockdown protesters might be justified in using violence. During the interview, published Wednesday, Griffin said top Democrats, such as Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, are traitors who deserve the death penalty. Both governors have imposed restrictions to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. “You get to pick your poison: You either go before a firing squad, or you get the end of the rope,” Griffin told the Daily Beast. He was asked if people protesting pandemic-related shutdowns are increasingly considering violence. “I’ll tell you what, partner, as far as I’m concerned, there’s not an option that’s not on the table,” Griffin replied. Griffin ag...