Death Penalty News

Around 5,000 children at Islamic weekend schools are being taught homophobic and anti-semitic views, it has been claimed. According to a BBC Panorama investigation to be screened tonight [Nov. 22, 2010], the Sharia law classes use textbooks which tell children that the penalty for gay sex is execution, that “Zionists” are plotting to take over the world for the Jews and the correct way to cut off the hands and feet of convicted thieves. One book for six-year-olds asks children what happens to someone who does not believe in Islam. The answer, according to the programme, is “hellfire”. There are said to be around 40 weekend schools, which are run under the banner of Saudi Students Clubs and Schools in the UK and Ireland. They teach the Saudi national curriculum and, as they are weekend schools, are not inspected by Ofsted. According to the Daily Mail, one textbook for 15-year-olds identified by the programme says: “For thieves their hands will be cut off for a first offence, and th...

An Afghan Christian, detained for months for allegedly converting to Christianity from Islam, could face trial as early as next week - and could face a potential death penalty, officials said Sunday. Said Musa was arrested by Afghan Interior Ministry intelligence authorities near the German Embassy in Kabul because of the allegations, said Qamaruddin Shenwari, director of the Kabul courts' north zone. The exact date of his arrest is not known. The case against Musa has not yet been finalized, said Mohammad Najim Hamidi, director of public security at Zone 3 of the Kabul courts. He could face trial next week if the case is prepared by then, Hamidi said. It was earlier thought Musa's trial would begin on Sunday. The Afghan Constitution does not mention converting from one religion to another, so the judge will take Islamic law into account, officials said. "According to Afghanistan's constitution, if there is no clear verdict as to whether an act is criminal or not i...

A federal judge ruled Friday that Oklahoma can use a drug regularly given in physician-assisted suicide and animal euthanasia in its lethal injection formula for death row inmates. Oklahoma is likely to become the 1st state to use the pentobarbital for lethal injection on Dec. 16, when the state's next execution is scheduled. The use of pentobarbital "falls short of the level of risk" considered cruel and unusual punishment by the U.S. Supreme Court, U.S District Judge Stephen P. Friot said after a hearing in his Oklahoma City courtroom. Friot's ruling means the stay of execution for inmate Jeffrey Matthews expires today and his execution will be rescheduled by the state Court of Criminal Appeals. The ruling also means the lethal injection of inmate John David Duty remains scheduled for Dec. 16. Matthews was convicted of killing his great uncle during a 1994 McClain County home-invasion robbery. Duty strangled his cellmate in 2001 while in was in prison for armed...

Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has stayed the execution of a Christian mother sentenced to death on charges of blasphemy. On Friday, Zardari directed the federal minister for minorities, Shahbaz Bhatti, to submit a report in this regard within three days, The News reported. The lawyer for the accused, SK Shahid, has already challenged the verdict in the Lahore High Court. Earlier, a religious leader of the local mosque, Qari Saleem, had lodged an FIR against her for allegedly passing derogatory remarks against the Holy Prophet. On November 8, Asia Bibi was sentenced to death by an additional sessions judge in Nankana Sahib district on charges of committing blasphemy under the Pakistan Penal Code. The judge also imposed a fine of 300,000 rupees on her. The case has drawn huge attention in the media, and there is deep sympathy for Aasia Bibi. Several NGOs have called for repealing the blasphemy law because it was "being used by illiterate masses in rural areas to hoodwink ...

A Saudi man was beheaded by the sword on Saturday after being convicted of shooting dead a policeman over a traffic violation, the interior ministry said. Mohsen al-Dussari had shot the officer when a police patrol tried to stop him as he drove against the flow of traffic, the ministry said in a statement carried by the official SPA news agency. His beheading in Kharj near the Saudi capital Riyadh brings to 23 the number of executions reported this year in the Gulf kingdom. In 2009, 67 executions were reported in Saudi Arabia, compared with 102 in 2008. Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking are all punishable by death under the kingdom's strict interpretation of Islamic sharia law. Source: Agence France-Press, November 21, 2010

A shortage of a drug used in lethal injections has disrupted executions in the U.S. and the country's sole manufacturer of the drug says it won't have more supply until next year. In the meantime, states have obtained the drug from British manufacturers. Allowing the export of a drug for use in lethal injections is a clear violation of the British government's position on the death penalty. In November, Vince Cable, the British Secretary of State for Business Innovation & Skills, refused to block the export of sodium thiopental for executions, despite a law clearly granting him this power. The U.K. already bans the export of guillotines and tools used in gas chambers and electrocutions. The issue is now before U.K. courts, but please sign the letter below to urge Cable to change his position and ban the drug's export for executions. (November 21, 2010) Petition Text: Stop Exporting Drugs for American Executions Greetings, I'm writing to urge you to change ...

Anthony Graves is grateful for his freedom and a donation from anti-death penalty group the Texas Moratorium Network. The donation is to help him start a new life. “This is about humanity coming forward so I am very grateful for that,” Graves said. “It's a bigger picture than the check that has been written, so I am very grateful for the show of humanity.” The donation is a token, compared what Graves could receive from the State. He was wrongfully convicted of the 1992 murders of a family of six in the Central Texas town of Sommerville. Graves' conviction was based solely on testimony from the real killer, Robert Earl Carter, who recanted before he was executed in 2000. Journalism students from The University of St. Thomas in Houston later conducted research that would lead to Graves' freedom. The State could now give Graves 1.5M dollars for his ordeal. “I was basically kidnapped by the criminal justice system and put on Texas Death Row,” Graves says. Texas e...

But all supplies of one drug will expire in March, which could scuttle plans unless new supply found. Texas has enough lethal drugs on hand to execute 39 condemned criminals, but all doses of one key drug in its inventory expire in March, a situation that could delay executions unless additional supplies are found, state officials revealed Friday. Melinda Bozarth, general counsel for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, said she was not aware of whether Texas has a supplier that can provide additional doses of sodium thiopental — one of three drugs used in executions that is in short supply across the country. "I don't know for sure, but I thought we didn't have a current supplier for the first drug (sodium thiopental) and do for the other two," she said. Officials on Friday also revealed that Texas spent $1,220.34 on the three lethal injection drugs between September 2009 and August 2010, when 24 convicts were executed. All three drugs are used for each execu...

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit this week seeking to force the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to release records detailing how the agency obtained a key lethal injection drug . Officials have refused to disclose the source of the state's 12 grams of sodium thiopental. The anesthetic is the 1st of a fatal 3-drug cocktail, used to render condemned inmates unconscious before the following two paralyze breathing and induce cardiac arrest. Sodium thiopental is in extremely short supply in the United States, prompting some states to share their reserves, or to purchase the drug from overseas. The latter scenario has stirred concerns over whether the drug meets U.S. quality control standards. If the drug does not work as intended, inmates would likely experience extreme pain, violating their Eighth Amendment rights against cruel and unusual punishment. California's previous stockpile of the drug expired Oct. 1. The corrections departme...

Killer said 'Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee...' 53 times The final words of condemned prisoners in Ohio could be shortened under new state prison rules. The move comes after an inmate took 17 minutes to make his final statement before he was executed. Michael Beuke, a hitchhiker who killed a motorist and then shot two others, spent his final moments reciting the rosary, apologising and saying prayers. While holding rosary beads, he went through the five Glorious Mysteries of the Roman Catholic church, the Apostles' Creed, several accompanying prayers and repeated 'Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee...' 53 times. The Department of Rehabilitation and Correction has said it did not have a problem with the subject matter or length of Beuke's comments, but decided to revisit the rules because of the potential for future problems. The new rules state: 'The warden may impose reasonable restrictions on the content and length of th...

A hearing is under way in Chancery Judge Claudia Bonnyman's court to decide whether the 3-drug cocktail used to execute Tennessee inmates violates the state's constitution. 10 days before Stephen Michael West was to be executed in a Nashville prison, the chancery court in October delayed his death after the convicted Knoxville murderer's lawyers brought to the court evidence that autopsies of executed inmates reveal that the 1st drug, sodium thiopental, did not cause the inmates to lose consciousness. Dr. David Lubarsky, an anesthesiologist and Duke University professor, testified today that inmates are awake and conscious when they are given the other 2 drugs, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride, which paralyze the person and stop the heart. "It makes it very palatable to those observing," Lubarsky said. "...It's extremely painful and disturbing" to the inmate. Lubarsky will continue his testimony at 1 p.m. West is not in the courtroom. ...

Amnesty International today criticized the latest TV broadcast of a "confession" by Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, who is awaiting execution by stoning for adultery in Iran. Self-incriminating statements by her son Sajjad Qaderzadeh and two German journalists were also broadcast on the program, which aired on Iranian state TV on Monday night. A voiceover also said that the 43-year-old mother's lawyer, Javid Houtan Kiyan, had admitted to telling her son to lie. Amnesty International noted that international standards for fair trial, to which Iran is a state party, guarantee the right not to be forced to incriminate oneself or to confess guilt. Malcolm Smart, director of Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa program, said: "Amnesty International believes these statements were made under duress and should not be accepted as evidence. Televised 'confessions' should have no bearing on Iran's legal system." Smart said: "The stateme...

Texas must disclose the source of a controversial drug used in capital punishments, according to the state attorney general, in a move that could prompt other states to be more transparent about their drug supplies. The ruling concerns thiopental sodium, a drug used to render inmates unconscious during lethal injections; a nationwide shortage of the anesthetic has caused delays in capital punishment and has made states search far and wide for backup supplies, including purchasing thiopental made overseas. Criminal-defense lawyers and advocacy groups have pushed states to divulge the steps they have taken to acquire thiopental, citing concerns that inmates could suffer severe pain during executions if states acquire thiopental overseas that is less effective or powerful than the domestic variety. Texas and other states, meanwhile, have resisted disclosure, claiming that suppliers could suffer retribution from death-penalty opponents if the...

A United Nations panel has deleted a reference to gays and lesbians in a resolution condemning unjustified executions. The motion was introduced by Morocco and Mali and the vast majority of countries in support were African or Arabic. Many of the supporting countries criminalise homosexuality and five treat it as a capital offence. The amendment called for the words “sexual orientation” to be replaced with “discriminatory reasons on any basis”. The resolution makes explicit reference to a large number of groups, including human rights defenders, religious and ethnic minorities and street children. It narrowly passed 79-70 and was then approved by the UN General Assembly committee with 165 in favour and ten abstentions. The amendment, which condemns extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary executions and other killings, is voted on by the UN General Assembly every two years. It has contained a reference to sexual orientation for the last ten years. Cary Alan Johnson, executive direct...

Indonesian prosecutors have called on the country's supreme court to uphold the death sentences of Bali Nine ringleaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran (pictured). Prosecutor Siti Sawiyah on Friday said death by firing squad was the appropriate punishment for the Sydney drug traffickers and that their final appeal - known as a judicial review - should be thrown out of court. "These man have committed a crime that was organised, with a neatly arranged plan, it was orderly and secretive," Ms Sawiyah told the Denpasar District Court. "The Indonesian Supreme Court in Jakarta, which will examine this case should ... reject the judicial review." Fellow prosecutor Ida Ayu Sulasmi said the death penalty was necessary to deter others from committing similar crimes. "The Indonesian people and society, especially the people of Bali, consider Bali a tourist destination and illegal distribution of narcotics is a serious threat that could alter the image of Bali ...