Death Penalty News

It reads like the order of a deluded junk-food addict: 2 bacon cheeseburgers, French fries, onion rings, coleslaw, fried okra, a pint of rocky road icecream, a quart of milk and 2 diet Cokes. It is, in fact, the last meal ordered and eaten by Larry Hayes before he was given a lethal injection by Texan authorities on September 10, 2003. Which makes the request for those 2 diet Cokes bizarre: was it just for the taste of it? Hayes' last meal has been emblazoned in capital letters on the prominent billboard at the Republic Tower on La Trobe Street, as part of the latest art work to appear on that traffic-stopping site, courtesy of provocative Tasmanian art collector and museum builder, David Walsh. The work is certain to intrigue, perhaps even baffle, passers by. On the surface, the work is not as strange or titillating as the 2 previous billboards at the site, with their emphasis on odd creatures with bare breasts. On the surface, it is simply a description of a meal, and a ...

Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold (D-Wisconsin) reintroduced legislation to abolish the death penalty at the federal level. According to the Senators April 2009 e-newsletter to his constituents, Feingold's Federal Death Penalty Abolition Act of 2009 would put an immediate halt to federal executions and forbid the use of capital punishment in cases where federal law is violated. Feingold states that he opposes the death penalty "because it is inconsistent with basic American principles of justice, liberty and equality." Wisconsin is 1 of 15 states that does not use the death penalty, having abolished capital punishment in 1853. In the past 2 years 3 states have enacted laws abandoning the practice. New Jersey and New York abolished capital punishment in 2007, and New Mexico's Governor Bill Richardson signed a bill in March of this year ending capital punishment in that state. The use of the death penalty in the U.S. has been controversial for a long time. In 2007, the Am...

The 200th execution under Gov. Perry is now scheduled to take place on June 2, 2009. This appalling milestone will be marked by protests around the state. In Houston, the 200th legal lynching protest will be held at The Old Hanging Tree on the corner of Rusk and Bagby in downtown Houston from 5:00 until 6:30. A press conference will be held at 5:00. Following the press conference, there will be an open mic so all can register their outrage at another day of infamy for the state of Texas in its quest for executions. If your organization would like to co-sponsor this protest in Houston, contact the Abolition Movement. If you are not in Houston, organize a protest in your city. If you are not in the USA, organize a protest at the nearest American Embassy. Call Gov. Rick Perry to voice your opposition at 512-463-2000 or e-mail at www.governor.state.tx.us/contact The event / protest can change dates depending on whether any of the previous executions are stayed. WE HOPE ...

Death Row & Death Watch cells A Death Row cell is 6 x 9 x 9.5 feet high. Florida State Prison also has Death Watch cells to incarcerate inmates awaiting execution after the Governor signs a death warrant for them. A Death Watch cell is 12 x 7 x 8.5 feet high.  Men on Death Row are housed at Florida State Prison in Starke, FL, and Union Correctional Institution in Raiford, FL. The women on Death Row are housed at Lowell Correctional Institution Annex in Lowell, FL.

IRAN has hanged 3 men convicted of a mosque bombing which left 14 people dead in the southern city of Shiraz a year ago, the official IRNA news agency reported. Mohsen Eslamian, 21, and Ali Asghar Pashtar, 20, both university students and Rouzbeh Yahyazadeh, 32, had been charged last year as "mohareb" (enemies of God) and corrupt on the earth by a revolutionary court in Tehran. The 3 men were hanged in the city's Adelabad prison after being convicted for the April 2008 bombing of a packed mosque during evening prayers in Shiraz that also wounded more than 200 people. Iran's judiciary had accused the defendants of having ties with a monarchist opposition group outside Iran and of taking orders from an Iranian US-based CIA agent to try to assassinate a high-ranking official in Iran. The authorities also accused the group of seeking to overthrow the Islamic regime in Iran. The latest hangings bring to 68 the number of people executed in Iran this year. Iran executed 246...

Efforts to expand the death penalty in Virginia have failed. The General Assembly did not find enough votes Wednesday night to override a Governor Tim Kaine veto. In March, Kaine vetoed a bill expanding capital punishment to murder accomplices and to those who kill on-duty fire marshals and auxiliary police officers. The proposals would have increased the number of people eligible for execution in what is the nation's 2nd-busiest death chamber. "Virginia is in the very vast minority of states that treat accomplices different from principals in the first degree in the area of capital punishment," said Delegate Todd Gilbert (R-15th District). Delegate Joe Morrissey (D- 74th District) added, "You know, sometimes we get it wrong. And in the last decade, we have gotten it wrong over 200 times." Supporters of the vetoed bills say they'll bring the measures back to the legislature next year. Source: NBC News, April 10, 2009

BEIJING, China (CNN) -- Two men were executed Thursday for an attack on police that killed 17 in northwestern China in the run-up to the 2008 Olympics, state-run media reported. Abdurahman Azat, 34, and Kurbanjan Hemit, 29, were sentenced to death on December 17 after being convicted of homicide and illegally producing guns, ammunition and explosives, the Xinhua news agency said. The Uyghur men, who were armed with knives, axes and explosives, rammed a stolen truck into a group of 70 police officers in Kashgar, Xinjiang, authorities said. They then flung explosives at a police station and stabbed officers. Fifteen people were injured in the attack, in addition to the 17 killed. Azat and Hemit were executed at an unknown location, the news agency said. It did not say how they were executed. The August 4, 2008, attack happened four days before the Olympics. Chinese authorities regarded the violence as a terrorist act, saying they knew of five groups in the region that were plotti...

3 men convicted of murdering a fellow Pakistani were beheaded by the sword in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, the interior ministry announced. Mohammed Akram Shafi, Mohammed Kamran Qassem and Asghar Ali Abdulaziz were executed in the central city of Burida for murdering Mohammed Firyad Mohammed, it said, quoted by the state news agency SPA. It said the trio had kidnapped Mohammed who worked as a courier for a jewelry shop to steal his money and the gold he was carrying. They took him out to a deserted area, where he was struck on the head with a stone until he died. The beheadings brought to 22 the number of executions announced since the start of the year, according to an AFP tally. A total of 102 people were executed last year and a record 153 in 2007. Under Saudi Arabia's strict sharia system of Islamic justice, the death penalty can be applied to crimes of rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking. Source: Agence France-Presse, April 7, 2009

March 27, 2009: The man convicted of leading a gang that abducted nine boys in central China's Henan Province, was executed by lethal injection with the approval of the Supreme People's Court. Ye Zengxi, 55, and his younger brother, Ye Xiaolin, led a gang to capture nine boys between April to December 2007 in Xixian County, Henan. Eight of the boys, aged from two to seven years old, were sold to rural families for 12,000 yuan to 33,000 yuan each, in Henan and the neighboring Shandong Province, according to the Nanyang Intermediate People's Court. The other boy was held captive by his abductors. Ye Zengxi was executed, his brother was given a death sentence with a two-year reprieve by the Supreme People's Court and was deprived of political rights for life. All his possessions were confiscated. The other five criminals were given prison terms ranging from two to 13 years. All the gang members were ordered to pay 68,000 yuan (9,700 U.S. dollars) to the children's fami...

Holding cells at "The Walls" Unit, Huntsville, TX. The death chamber where executions are carried out is located at the far end of the corridor. This text was dictated by Billy Vickers to Hank Skinner after he survived an execution date on December 9, 2003 at The Walls Unit, in Huntsville, Texas. Billy waited until midnight (time when the death warrant expires) in a death watch cell next to the execution chamber at the Walls Unit (left). Billy Vickers wanted to share his experience with as many as possible. Billy and Hank were in cells next to each other and Billy no longer had the strength to write. He asked Hank to transcribe their conversations about the last weeks of his life, between two execution dates. Billy was executed on January 28th, 2004. It all started when I got "the date" in September. Up until then it was just something in the distance. Now it was all too real. It seemed like a giant weight descended onto my shoulders. Suddenly the calenda...

April 4, 2009: a Saudi Arabian man convicted of murdering a compatriot was beheaded by the sword, according to an Interior Ministry statement carried by the official SPA news agency. Salehm Dhibani was executed in Tabuk, in northwest Saudi Arabia, after being found guilty of fatally shooting Rafaa al-Hawiti during a dispute. Source: Star News Services, 04/04/2009

Sister Helen Prejean (left), known for her crusade against the death penalty and her book "Dead Man Walking," warns that the "culture of death" is still celebrated despite waning support for the death penalty in states around the country. Sister Helen Prejean says it took her 40 years to "wake up" to the social injustices around her in New Orleans, but maybe it would have happened faster "if I had grown up in California." With the mesmerizing cadence of a preacher and the down-home humor of her Louisiana upbringing, Prejean spoke at the Diablo Valley Peace and Justice Center in Walnut Creek on March 30. A nun of the order St. Joseph of Medaille, the 60-year-old described awakening to her calling: a crusade against capital punishment. "Enlightenment is a gift," she said to a packed auditorium. "It's always a surprise. You never know when it comes and you cant make it happen." Prejean is one of the most visible public...

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a bid today for a new trial for Mumia Abu-Jamal, who has been on death row for more than 25 years for the 1981 murder of Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner. Abu-Jamal and his lawyers had been hoping for a new trial based on their contention that prosecutors unfairly excluded African-Americans from his jury during his 1982 trial. But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, in a 2-to-1 decision last March, refused to order a new trial, but the panel agreed unanimously that his death sentence should been thrown out. The panel said that Abu-Jamal must either be sentenced to life in prison, or receive a new sentencing trial only on the issue of whether he should be sentenced to death or life in prison. But the epic struggle over the fate of Abu-Jamal, who has become an international symbol in the debate about the death penalty, is not over. The nation's high court is still weighing the state's petition to have his death sentence rein...

The Texas appeals court judge who declined to keep her office open late the night of an execution will appear before a state panel on misconduct charges in August. Sharon Keller, the top judge in Texas' highest criminal appeals court, will have a public hearing before a specially appointed judge Aug. 17, the Judicial Conduct Commission said Monday. Keller is accused of ignoring execution day procedures on the Court of Criminal Appeals and bringing "public discredit on the judiciary" by refusing to keep the court open past 5 p.m. Attorneys for Michael Wayne Richard say keeping the office open later may have helped in their appeal efforts hours before Richard was executed. Keller has said she did nothing to stop attorneys from using other established routes for after-hours appeals. More on Judge Keller on this blog... Source: Associated Press, April 7, 2009

New Mexico might have done away with the death penalty, but the possibility of future executions in the state hasn't been totally swept away. In fact, the courtroom saga of those currently on death row or facing charges punishable by death could be played out for years to come. New Mexico became the 15th state in the nation without the death penalty on March 18 when Gov. Bill Richardson signed a bill into law that replaces capital punishment with life in prison without the possibility of parole. Richardson, however, said he wouldn't commute the sentences of the 2 men who are currently on death row - convicted murderers Robert Fry of Farmington and Timothy Allen of Bloomfield. And prosecutors say that since the death penalty repeal applies only to crimes committed on or after July 1 - not those currently pending or others that might occur in the next 3 months - they see no reason to take the death penalty off the table until required to do so. In Portales, prosecutors will appea...

A death row inmate's blog is drawing hundreds of hits daily, but not only for its unique perspective into prison life and the mind of a convicted man.  The site is also turning into a venue where readers debate capital punishment.  The mounting interest comes as the country prepares to launch its new citizen judge system in May. Under that system, ordinary people will sit alongside judges to decide the fate of people facing murder and other serious charges.  Titled "A blog by a death row inmate behind bars," the site posts commentary by Tetsuo Odajima, 65, who is incarcerated in the Tokyo Detention Center. He was arrested in 2005 and later convicted of killing 4 people in 3 cases in 2002.   In the most high-profile case, Odajima and another man entered the Chiba Prefecture home of Takaichi Mabuchi, the chairman of Mabuchi Motor Co., and strangled Mabuchi's wife, Etsuko, 66, and Yuka, a 40-year-old daughter. The pair then stole hundreds of thousands of yen in c...

Changes would lower costs, emotional toll A legislative committee has taken a brave step toward abolishing Connecticut's death penalty, a law that is all but unworkable, not to mention expensive, unfair and risky. By unfair, we refer to the lopsided application of such laws nationwide. Minorities make up more than half of death row inmates. By risky, we mean that 130 death row inmates have been exonerated around the nation in the past decade. There is evidence that others who were executed might have been innocent. By expensive, we refer to the cost of the endless appeals that make Connecticut's law practically unworkable. Finally, the death penalty puts the state in the morally compromising position of committing the act for which it is punishing someone. Everyone is entitled to due process, even convicted killers. Michael Ross, the only death row inmate to be executed in Connecticut in decades, asked to die. Yet his case was made only after it was laid out again and again in ...

London, 30 March 2009 Urgent action is needed to halt the execution of 128 prisoners on death row in Iraq. Many of those awaiting execution were convicted for the ‘crime’ of homosexuality, according to IRAQI-LGBT, a UK based organisation of Iraqis supporting gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people in Iraq. According to Ali Hili of IRAQI-LGBT, the Iraqi authorities plan to start executing them in batches of 20 from this week. IRAQI-LGBT urgently requests that the UK Government, Human Rights Groups and the United Nations Human Rights Commission intervene with due speed to prevent this tragic miscarriage of justice from going ahead. “We have information and reports on members of our community whom been arrested and waiting for execution for the crimes of homosexuality,’’ said Mr Hili. “Iraqi lgbt has been a banned from running our activities on Iraqi soil.” “Raids by the Iraqi police and ministry of interior forces cost our group the disappearing and killing of 17 members working fo...

For 17 years, 8 months, and 1 day, Juan Melendez (pictured), a native of New York who was raised in Puerto Rico, lived as a condemned man in a Florida prison, sentenced to die by the electric chair. One day, with no warning from the guards or prison administration, he was sent to a booking office, where they asked him for his name, social security number, and other information. "I had no idea why I was there. When the lady told me I was being released, I was like one of those cartoon characters that gets hit by a hammer and has stars circling around his head. But I was smiling." Now Melendez tours the country speaking to students and citizens about the horrors of death row and the fundamental injustice of the death penalty in a criminal justice system which is fallible and racially biased. On Monday, March 30, Melendez spoke to HLS students about his life at an event sponsored by the Harvard BLSA and ACLU. Melendez recalled how he once lived as a migrant farm worker, tra...

A new report from Amnesty International that compiled statistics about the death penalty for 2008 reveals a global trend downward in the number of state-sponsored executions. The report, "Death Sentences and Executions in 2008," found that 25 of the 59 countries that use the death penalty carried out any executions in 2008. In the United States, only 9 of the 36 states that retained the death penalty in 2008 carried out executions, and most of these took place in the South, including Georgia. Texas accounted for half (18 of 37) of the U.S. executions in 2008. "Executions in the United States are increasingly a regionally isolated phenomenon. Elsewhere, concerns about cost, the possibility of executing the innocent, and racial bias have led to a significant decline in support for capital punishment," Sue Gunawardena-Vaughn, director of AIUSA's Death Penalty Abolition Campaign, said in a press release obtained by APN. AIs report addresses the discriminator...