Death Penalty News

With his execution date looming, convicted killer William Reaves will soon be moved from Raiford's Union Correctional Institution to a death watch cell in nearby Florida State Prison, a maximum-security complex also known as "The Rock." Reaves, 77, a former Gifford resident in Indian River County who’s been on death row for 38 years, is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Oct. 20 at 6 p.m. His execution will fulfill a sentence of death imposed for the 1986 fatal shooting of Indian River County Sheriff’s Cpl. Richard “Raz” Raczkoski outside a Zippy Mart store on State Road 60 west of Vero Beach.

Advisory urges travellers to avoid carrying items for strangers and stay vigilant at transit points as arrests of foreign nationals rise under stricter legal regime The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Thursday issued a strong warning to Indian nationals travelling to the Maldives, cautioning them about that country’s recently strengthened anti-drug laws that now impose life imprisonment and even the death penalty for drug-related offences. RELATED |  Maldives: Death penalty law for drug trafficking now in effect Under the amended Maldives’ Drugs Act, which took effect last month, the country has introduced some of the world’s most stringent penalties for drug-related crimes. The NCB warned that under the new legal framework, “ignorance of the law is not a defence”, and any violation will result in severe judicial consequences.

KUWAIT CITY, Nov 26: Divorce rates in Kuwait are rising, with recent statistics indicating that addiction—particularly among wives—has become a significant contributing factor. In response, authorities are preparing to introduce surprise premarital drug testing as part of a broader set of reforms under Kuwait’s new drug law. The countdown has officially begun for the enforcement of this new legislation, which was drafted by a judicial committee formed by the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, Sheikh Fahd Al-Yousef. The committee is headed by Counselor Mohammed Rashid Al-Duaij.

Jakarta, Dec 14 (IANS) Indonesian Minister of Law Supratman Andi Agtas has said that President Prabowo Subianto would grant amnesty to several categories of prisoners, including drug users and prisoners with long-term illnesses. According to Supratman, the move aims to reduce overcapacity in correctional facilities while addressing humanitarian concerns, Xinhua news agency reported. Prisoners suffering from chronic illnesses like HIV/AIDS and individuals with mental disorders are among those eligible.

Kim* is a young professional who started using cannabis when family life became messy. Things improved, but her drug habit stuck - and by then, her social circle was primarily made up of people who also used. With a reliable local supplier of weed, Kim’s friends asked her if she would get some for them. “That’s what I did,” Kim says. “I never marked up the price in any way, because this was friendship... It’s like, I’m helping you to purchase something we both use anyway.”

Derrick Dearman, who killed 5 in south Alabama axe murders, executed Thursday  Alabama death row inmate Derrick Dearman, who was convicted in the 2016 slayings of 5 people with an axe and 2 guns, was put to death Thursday night by lethal injection. He had given up his appeals earlier this year and volunteered to have his execution set.

Alabama is preparing to execute a man who admitted to killing five people with an ax and gun during a 2016 drug-fueled rampage and dropped his appeals, so his execution go forward. Derrick Dearman, 36, is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection at 6 p.m. Thursday at William C. Holman Correctional Facility in south Alabama.

Earlier charges of drug trafficking were dropped, it would’ve carried the death penalty A court in Indonesia has sentenced an Australian man to 6 months of medical rehabilitation after finding him guilty of possessing methamphetamine on the tourist island of Bali.

A court on the Indonesian tourist island of Bali has began the trial of an Australian man who faces up to 12 years in prison if convicted of possessing methamphetamine under the country’s tough drug laws DENPASAR, Indonesia -- A court on the Indonesian tourist island of Bali on Thursday began the trial of an Australian man who faces up to 12 years in prison if convicted of possessing methamphetamine under the country's tough drug laws.

The Senate, yesterday, passed a bill which upgraded the maximum sentence of life imprisonment to death penalty for manufacturers of hard drugs. The legislation, titled: ‘National Drug Law Enforcement Agency Act (Amendment Bill) 2024’ passed a third reading at the Senate, yesterday.  The Bill sought to review penalties provision, update the list of dangerous drugs, strengthen the operations of the NDLEA, and empower the NDLEA to establish laboratories. 

A convicted killer on death row in Alabama told NBC News he no longer wants to delay justice for the families of the five people he murdered eight years ago and is ready to pay the ultimate price for his crimes. In his first-ever interview with a reporter, Derrick Dearman said he mailed nine letters earlier this week to Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, Attorney General Steve Marshall, as well as the judges and others involved in the horrific case, informing them he is dropping his appeals and wants to be executed.

The Missouri Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to halt the execution of Brian Dorsey, who is scheduled to die by lethal injection next month for killing his cousin and her husband 18 years ago. Judge W. Brent Powell wrote in the unanimous decision that Dorsey "has not demonstrated he is actually innocent" of the first-degree murder convictions that brought him to death row, despite previously pleading guilty to those charges and failing to deny that he committed the crimes. 

“A chilling whisper lingered in the air as he disclosed these unsettling words, meant for my ears only. ‘You believe these sentences from the Judiciary hold weight? We don’t concern ourselves with judgments and court rulings. We execute at our discretion, whenever we see fit. You may languish for years on death row, or be summoned in the dead of night. It matters not. We take lives when we choose…” This is the harrowing testimony of a former Iranian political prisoner and a prison guard. This prisoner endured 12 long years within the confines of Evin, Gohardasht, and the Central Prison of Tabriz during the tumultuous 2010s. It is a damning indictment of the regime that holds the unfortunate record of the highest number of state-sanctioned executions globally, surpassed only by China, a country with a population of 1.4 billion.

The corridors of power within the Islamic Republic are ablaze with a series of sex scandals – seemingly more with each passing day.  Fresh revelations spotlighting the moral and sexual transgressions of high-ranking officials within the system continue to threaten or even topple yet another leader or pillar of Iran’s ruling Islamic system. The latest jolt came on August 19 when a new shockwave of explicit images in contravention of Sharia law emerged. The central figure in the latest scandal was Mohammed Masoudianfar, director general of the state radio and television educational and welfare complex, who featured in images of an act of sexual intimacy with a veiled woman. The woman was later revealed to be a married employee of state radio and television – amplifying the shock. The exposé surfaced through the Radio Gilan Telegram channel. 

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysia wants to introduce a law to decriminalise the possession and use of small quantities of illicit drugs, its home affairs minister said on Monday, citing a need to reduce prison overcrowding. The move is the latest in a series of criminal justice reforms pursued by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim's government, which this year abolished the mandatory death penalty and natural-life prison terms, and said it would seek to decriminalise suicide attempts. Malaysia, like many of its Southeast Asian neighbours, has harsh penalties for drug crimes.  Under reforms passed last month, it retained the death penalty for drug trafficking but said it will no longer be mandatory, with judges allowed to decide whether or not to impose the sentence on convicted offenders.

ROME (AP) — Italy’s highest court has ordered a retrial for two American citizens who were convicted in the slaying of an Italian police officer during a sting operation gone bad. The Court of Cassation late Wednesday threw out the guilty verdicts against Finnegan Lee Elder, now 23, and Gabriel Natale-Hjorth, 22, both convicted in the stabbing death of the 35-year-old caribiniere during a plainclothes operation while the Americans, teens at the time, were on vacation in Rome in the summer of 2019. The court will issue its reasons for the verdict in the coming weeks, and instruct an appeals court on the issues to examine in a new trial. Elder’s lawyer, Roberto Capra, expressed satisfaction at the decision, saying a new trial would open the possibility of recalculating the sentence.

Singapore: An Australian man who was facing a possible death sentence in Indonesia for bringing heroin into Bali will instead spend eight months in a rehabilitation facility after a judge on the island accepted that he was an addict and not a drug trafficker.

An Australian man facing the death penalty after being caught at Bali international airport with heroin has apologised for his actions, just hours before a court is due to hear his case. An Australian man facing the death penalty after being caught at Bali international airport with heroin has apologised for his actions, just hours before a court is due to hear his case. Graham Welton Jeffrey Huynh has broken his silence to profess his sorrow for the first time since he was allegedly found with 8.09 grams of heroin secreted in his anus. He had arrived in Bali in September from a flight from Vietnam and is a dual Australian-British passport holder. The 52-year-old, flanked by his lawyers and speaking from the Anargya Sober House in capital Denpasar, with his hearing to be held via zoom, wanted to publicly express regret and say sorry. “I just want to say that I am very sorry for breaking the law in Indonesia and I am very grateful for the current attention and opportunity to get (medica...

Laws to tackle the menace of new psychoactive substances (NPS) will be tightened in the coming months, reflecting Singapore’s uncompromising stance against drug trafficking. Minister for Communications and Information Josephine Teo said on Saturday the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) will propose that the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) be allowed to take action based on the psychoactive effects of a substance, even if the substance itself has not yet been scheduled under the Misuse of Drugs Act (MDA). In her speech at MHA’s Minister’s Appreciation Lunch at HomeTeamNS Khatib, Mrs Teo, who is also Second Minister for Home Affairs, said: “In the next few months, we will tighten the laws to allow us to deal more effectively with new psychoactive substances. “Because the NPS are easy to manufacture in drug labs that are not difficult to set up, we find it a challenge to keep up with all the stuff that is coming into the market,” she said. RELATED |  The truth about Singapore’s war on dru...

There has never been a question of Nikolas Cruz’s guilt. But for the past two weeks his lawyers have argued that decisions made by other people – including some before Cruz was born - affected his behavior the rest of his life. While they concede these decisions don't excuse the murder of 17 people, they are seeking to underline their role in his actions. In this penalty phase of the Parkland shooting trial, they just need to persuade one member of the jury to vote for a life sentence, in order to save Cruz from the death penalty. The jury had already heard every detail of what happened on Feb 14, 2018, at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, as the prosecution laid out its case. Now they’re hearing about everything that, the defense say, led to the shooting. “Wounded and damaged people wound and damage other people. But we don't excuse the horrific acts of damaged and wounded people. We punish them," defense attorney Melisa McNeill told jurors. "But we take into con...