Death Penalty News

A British court ruled Tuesday that Julian Assange can’t be extradited to the United States on espionage charges unless U.S. authorities guarantee he won’t get the death penalty, giving the WikiLeaks founder a partial victory in his long legal battle over the site’s publication of classified American documents.

The United States Supreme Court is facing, yet again, the controversial question of the death penalty. This time, the issue arises in a high-profile case coming out of the District of Massachusetts: the prosecution of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev for participating, with his older brother Tamerlan (who died in a shootout with police), in the bombing at the Boston Marathon finish line that killed three people and injured more than 260 others. The jury recommended that the judge sentence him to death, which District Court Judge George O’Toole did. However, on July 31, 2020, the Court of Appeals, while upholding the guilty verdict, vacated the death penalty on the ground that Judge O’Toole had failed to sufficiently question the jurors about their knowledge of highly publicized aspects of the crime. As a result, Tsarnaev will spend the rest of his life in a federal “supermax” prison, probably the one in Florence, Colo. — provided that the Supreme Court does not step in to reverse the First Circuit a...

LONDON (AP) — WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange would have to be “almost dying” to get out of arguably the most notorious prison in the United States if convicted of espionage charges and sent there, a court at London's Old Bailey heard Tuesday. Assange, who is fighting an extradition request from the U.S., would likely be sent to the federal Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado, if convicted, according to Maureen Baird, a former warden at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York. U.S. prosecutors have indicted the 49-year-old Assange on 17 espionage charges and one charge of computer misuse over WikiLeaks’ publication of secret American military documents a decade ago. The charges carry a maximum sentence of 175 years in prison. Assange’s defense team says he is entitled to First Amendment protections for the publication of leaked documents that exposed U.S. military wrongdoing in Iraq and Afghanistan. They have also said he is suffering from wide-ranging mental health i...

✔ Click here to Google translate this article into your own language. Condamnée à mort dans son pays pour blasphème en 2010 puis acquittée, cette mère de famille, qui vit désormais au Canada, a demandé l'asile politique à la France. Un mois après l’affaire Mila, une adolescente iséroise victime de harcèlement sur internet après avoir tenu des propos prétendument insultants sur l’islam, le président de la République va recevoir à l’Élysée la chrétienne pakistanaise Asia Bibi, condamnée à mort dans son pays pour blasphème en 2010.  Acquittée huit ans plus tard, elle avait trouvé refuge au Canada et demande aujourd’hui l’asile en France.  La mère de famille de presque cinquante ans sera reçue vendredi à l’Élysée. «Comme nous l’avons toujours dit, la France est prête à accueillir Mme Asia Bibi et sa famille si tel est leur souhait, fait savoir la présidence de la République. Depuis sa condamnation en 2010 pour délit de blasphème, la France a été mobilisée au côt...

London (AFP) -- WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Friday faces his first British court hearing since the US submitted a formal extradition request on espionage charges that have upset defenders of press freedom and human rights. The 47-year-old Australian is currently serving a 50-week prison sentence for violating bail conditions in 2012 when he was wanted on accusations of sexual assault in Sweden. The hacker was sensationally dragged out shouting from the Ecuadoran embassy in London by British police in April after Quito terminated his seven-year asylum stay. Washington says Assange violated the Espionage Act by releasing a vast trove of classified military and diplomatic files in 2010 about US bombing campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq. The initial revelations about civilian casualties and embarrassing statements made by US officials about foreign leaders were published in coordination with newspapers such as The New York Times and The Guardian. Those storie...

I asked Great Britain the guarantee that Mr Assange will not be extradited to any country in which he could suffer torture or face the death penalty, President Lenin Moreno said. QUITO:  WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, arrested in London on Thursday after Quito withdrew his political asylum, will not be extradited to any country where he could face "torture or the death penalty," Ecuador's president said. "I asked Great Britain the guarantee that Mr Assange will not be extradited to any country in which he could suffer torture or face the death penalty," President Lenin Moreno said in a video message posted on social media. READ MORE | Quito withdraws Assange's Ecuador citizenship "The British government has confirmed this in writing," that they will meet this requirement, Moreno said. Assange has been living at Ecuador's embassy in London since 2012 when he sought refuge there after being accused of sexual assault in ...

Assange took refuge in London embassy in 2012 (CNN) - British and Ecuadorian authorities have held discussions over the future of Julian Assange, the Ecuadorian president said on Friday, fueling speculation that the WikiLeaks founder may soon be stripped of the country's diplomatic protection in London. Speaking in Madrid, President Lenín Moreno suggested Ecuador was seeking guarantees that whatever Assange's eventual fate, he would not face the death penalty. Assange took refuge in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in 2012 when he was facing allegations of sexual assault in Sweden. The case was eventually dropped but Assange has always feared being extradited to the US, and in the past his lawyers have claimed he could face execution there. Moreno said the previous Ecuadorian government granted Assange asylum because it agreed his life was in danger. "The death penalty does not exist in Ecuador, and we knew that possibility existed... The only thing we w...