Death Penalty News

Leaders of Muslim, Jewish and Christian congregations gathered Thursday at the Capitol to call for an end to the death penalty in Mississippi. Death penalty supporter Ann Pace of Jackson, meanwhile, held pictures of her daughter, who she said died at the hands of a serial killer. The main point of contention between the Mississippi Religious Leadership Conference and Pace is whether the death penalty effectively deters crime, but the issue also hinges on inequity in the criminal justice system and religious principles. “We face the real possibility of three state-sanctioned executions within the next month,” said the Episcopal Rev. Carol Borne Spencer. “The organization thus felt that the time was now for us to ask our state leaders to find new ways to deal with one of the largest societal dilemmas of our time, that is how to deal with heinous criminal actions of murder and violence and still hold people accountable in ways that do not require the killing of a person." On Wedn...

Tahrir Square, Cairo January 2011 Deposed President Hosni Mubarak could face execution or life imprisonment if convicted of the charges of complicity to murder, corruption and plunder of public money, for which he is currently being investigated. All of Egypt was taken aback by Prosecutor-general Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud ordering that the detention of deposed President Hosni Mubarak should be extended for a further 15 days. Not only did Abdel-Meguid’s order come after conflicting reports on the health condition of the deposed president, who is currently being held in Sharm El-Sheikh International Hospital, but also after widespread rumours that he might not be taken to Cairo to face more extensive questioning or to be placed at the hospital attached to Tora prison, where his two sons and most of his ex-regime’s henchmen are held in custody. An official statement emphasised that Mubarak was questioned on two serious charges: ordering the killing of pro-democracy protesters in Tahrir S...

San Quentin's new death chamber Nearly 2/3 of the 16 states with active death chambers are switching to an alternative sedative for execution -- even as the drug's manufacturer argues against its use in capital punishment and some European countries push to ban the export of such drugs. 10 states, including Texas, have switched to pentobarbital or are considering a switch as part of their 3-drug methods, according to a survey of all death penalty states by The Associated Press. At issue is a shortage of sodium thiopental, a sedative that states used for more than 3 decades until its only U.S. manufacturer stopped making it in 2009 and dropped plans to resume production this year. The shortage forced several states to scramble to find new supplies, and executions were temporarily delayed in Arizona, California, Georgia and Oklahoma. States swapped supplies of sodium thiopental or looked overseas, to England, India and even Pakistan. Several states turned to England and o...

Kayem Pharma Mumbai office entrance Source: Reprieve  More here The Nebraska Supreme Court late Thursday rejected a complex appeal by death-row inmate Carey Dean Moore and ordered him to be executed on June 14. In doing so, the court rejected arguments by Moore's lawyers challenging the legality of Nebraska's purchase from an Indian company of 1 of 3 drugs used in the state's lethal-injection protocol and questioning whether the state even bought the right drug. Jerry Soucie, a lawyer with the Nebraska Commission on Public Advocacy, had asked the court to order a lower court to hear the issue of the state's purchase. "The subject matter of the proceeding pending herein is not one which the Nebraska Supreme Court may ‘remand' to a district court," Chief Justice Michael Heavican wrote. Soucie declined immediate comment. Meanwhile, court documents filed earlier Thursday said the state might have bought the lethal injection drug from a rogue pharmacy...

Todd Willingham and daughter A state panel on Friday recommended more education and training for fire investigators following its review of a case involving a Texas inmate executed after a fire labeled arson killed his three daughters. The Texas Forensic Science Commission also recommended establishing procedures for revisiting old cases. Cameron Todd Willingham was executed in 2004. Prosecutors accused the 36-year-old unemployed mechanic of setting the fire at his home in Corsicana, about 60 miles south of Dallas. A jury convicted him of capital murder and sent him to death row. His conviction was upheld nine times on appeal. Willingham didn't testify at his trial but always insisted _ even in an obscenity-filled tirade the moment before his death _ that he was innocent. He suggested the fire could have been started accidentally by his 2-year-old daughter, Amber, who died along with her 1-year-old twin sisters, Karmon and Kameron. Death penalty opponents have questioned ar...

April 20, 2011: press reports said an Arab man who murdered his wife in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, was facing both pardon and death sentence after one relative decided to forgive him and another insisted on his execution. The unnamed defendant stabbed his wife seven times in 2010 following a heated argument at their house in Musaffah just outside Abu Dhabi city. He had told court that the argument was triggered by her suspicious behavior and that she tried first to kill him by pulling a knife. As his wife’s first relative, his own son, is still a baby, not exceeding three months at the time of the murder, the court named his grandfather, the defendant’s father, as the baby’s client. “The grandfather told court he pardoned his son but the victim’s daughter from a previous husband refused to pardon him and insisted on his execution,” the semi official Alittihad newspaper reported. Source: www.emirates247.com, April 20, 2011 _________________________ Use the tags below or the se...

Frankfurt - Authorities in Germany have ordered the expulsion of a visiting imam who argues that practicing homosexuals should be sentenced to death, officials said Thursday. The move comes a day after Abu Ameena Bilal Philips delivered an open-air speech to around 2,000 Muslims in Frankfurt. The convert to Islam, who is in his 60s, did not repeat his views on homosexuality during Wednesday's rally. Bystanders said the speeches at the rally for Islam were not inflammatory. About 500 opponents demonstrated against him as he spoke. German officials said they had prepared an order, before he was due to speak, instructing Philips to leave the country by Saturday night and never return. German immigration law allows for the expulsion of aliens who 'incite hatred against parts of the population' or advocate violence against them. In a video on YouTube , Philips has defended the death penalty for proven homosexual acts. Philips is entitled to appeal the order, but only from a...

Public hanging in Shiraz, Iran April 16, 2011 OSLO, Apr 21, 2011 (AFP) - Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere on Thursday blasted a sharp hike in public executions in Iran and the high use of the death penalty in the country. "The increased number of public executions using brutal methods such as suffocation by being hoisted up by a crane are particularly grotesque and not worthy of a modern society," Stoere said in a statement. He added Norwegian research showed Iran had executed 15 people in public so far this year, compared to 19 for all of last year. A foreign ministry spokesman told AFP the data was obtained through human rights activists in Iran as well as international organisations. Stoere added Norwegian figures showed Iran had executed a total of 187 so far this year, while the total number in 2010 had been as high as 682 executions. That toll is higher than an AFP count based on media reports that put at 101 the number of executions so far this yea...

Iran Human Rights, April 21: Four people were hanged in public in the city of Bandar Abbas, south of Iran, this morning. According to several Iranians, the men, who were not identified by name or age, were convicted of rape and murder. The men were hanged in the popular beach area of "Bostan-e saheli-e Ghadir" under strict security measures. "Bostan-e- Saheli-e Ghadir" is a popular beach area used for beach sports or photographing the sunset. This is the 8th public hanging so far in Iran. Source: Iran Human Rights , April 21, 2011 At least two juvenile offenders among the four executed in public in Bandar Abbas Iran Human Rights, April 25: According to the reports that Iran Human Rights (IHR) has received from reliable sources, at least two of those who were hanged in Bandar Abbas last week, were 17 years old at the time of the alleged offence. Four young men were hanged by cranes on April 21. on a beach in the Iranian city of Bandar Abbas. Three of the ...

BRITISH efforts to halt the sale of lethal-injection drugs to the US have been seized on by American death-penalty supporters. They are calling for the method to be scrapped in favour of firing squads or a return to the gas chamber. Within hours of a British export ban on sodium thiopental and other drugs coming into force on Friday, a leading death-penalty advocate in California said that a modernised gas chamber was "the obvious solution" to a backlog of more than 700 death-row inmates whose fate depended on state approval of a new method of execution. In New York, a prominent law professor who favours execution as "retributive" justice called for a return to the widespread use of firing squads as a form of capital punishment that "doesn't pretend to be something else". International pressure on suppliers of the three drugs most commonly used for lethal injections over the past three decades -- sodium thiopental, pancuronium bromide and potassium...

Iran Human Rights, April 20: One man was hanged in the town of Kazeroun, south of Iran according to official Iranian sources. According to the local news website "Kazeroun-e-ma", a man identified as "Morteza Jokar" known as "Sardar" was hanged in public "Kenar Takhteh" near town of Kazeroun on April 16th. The man was convicted of murdering 10 people and was sentenced to four times hanging in public, said the report. According to the report the sentence was implemented in front of the people and the prosecuter of Kazeroun. After publishing several pictures from the public hanging the news website "Kazeroun-e-ma" was asked to remove the pictures by the prosecutor. The reason for removing the pictures where "negative consequences" from the international community. On the same day three other people where hanged in public in the city of Shiraz , the capital of the Fars province which Kazeroun is located in. Source: Iran Human...

To the Editor: “Different Drugs, Both Lethal” (Week in Review, April 10) barely mentioned the most troubling chemical in the 3-drug formula that states use to execute prisoners: the paralyzing drug. With all the controversy surrounding several states’ switch from thiopental to pentobarbital to anesthetize prisoners, the fact that these states are paralyzing inmates before executing them is getting lost. Pentobarbital may be used in animal euthanasia, but no veterinarian would paralyze an animal during a euthanasia procedure. To do so would be illegal in 42 out of 50 states. Paralyzing prisoners before injecting them with the potassium chloride that kills them serves one purpose: to make the executions appear peaceful and humane. Are they in fact? It’s almost impossible to know. That’s why the veterinary community rejects the practice of paralyzing animals during euthanasia. Our standards for human executions are not as high. TY ALPER----Berkeley, Calif., April 11, 2011 Source: L...

Prisons typically use the drug sodium thiopental as an anesthetic during lethal injections. But a DOC spokesman says although 14 people sit on death row, the state's supply has run out. The execution of a convicted killer from Mishawaka has been put on hold along with all executions in the state of Indiana after the Department of Corrections ran out of a drug used during lethal injections, according to our reporting partners at the News Dispatch. Prisons typically use the drug sodium thiopental as an anesthetic during lethal injections. But a DOC spokesman says although 14 people sit on death row, the state's supply has run out. Indiana is not alone. According to a study, at least 16 of the 34 states with the death penalty have run out of the anesthetic. The shortage comes after some Italian companies stopped making the drug because of legal restrictions there. The state did not say whether it is considering other alternatives, but all executions, including that of Wayne...

MANILA, Philippines—The Philippine government said Tuesday that it obtained a pardon from the king of Saudi Arabia sparing the life of a Filipino man who was sentenced to death for drug smuggling. The man, an overseas worker in the conservative kingdom, was convicted in 2009 and sentenced to death by beheading after Saudi authorities seized a package that was mailed to him containing methamphetamine, said Philippine Foreign Affairs spokesman Eduardo Malaya. The man was freed Sunday and returned to Manila late Monday. He has not been identified due to privacy concerns. The pardoned man was the third Filipino in recent months who had been sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia and released following appeals by the government in Manila. The Philippines, which has no death penalty, unsuccessfully appealed to China last month seeking clemency for three Filipinos who were eventually executed for drug smuggling. The plight of overseas workers is a sensitive issue in the Philippines, which ha...

Parliament today accepted the amendment presented by Jumhoree Party (JP) MP Ibrahim Muthalib which requires the death sentence be implemented as execution if the Supreme Court upholds a death sentence issued by a lower court or if the Supreme Court itself issues a death sentence. Out of the 59 present MPs there were 14 MPs who declined the amendment and 3 MPs that did not vote on either side. MDP MPs Alhan Fahmy, Eva Abdulla, Hamid Abdul Gafoor, ‘Reeco’ Moosa Manik, Ilyas Labeeb, Imthiyaz Fahmy, Ibrahim Rasheed, Rugiyya Mohamed, Mohamed ‘Colonel’ Nasheed, Ahmed Rasheed, Mohamed Aslam, Ibrahim Mohamed Solih and DRP MPs Ali Azim and Hussein Mohamed voted to dismiss the amendment. Meanwhile MDP MPs Ahmed Easa, Ahmed Hamza and Independent MP Mohamed Nasheed were the 3 that did not vote on either side. If the amendment is passed the president will not have the authority to grant clemency on those sentenced to death and law enforcing agencies will be left with no other choice but to exec...

Execution by the sword in Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia has pledged to release more than 300 Indonesians jailed in the country for various offenses, Justice and Human Rights Minister Patrialis Akbar said on Sunday. The minister, speaking by video conference from Riyadh, said his counterpart, Muhammad bin Abdul Karim al-Issa, had agreed to the unconditional release of the prisoners following talks during his state visit. “The Saudi government will release 316 Indonesians who are serving time in prison,” he said. “But that doesn’t include Indonesians who [were given] the death sentence.” The minister did not give a time frame for the release, but said the Saudi government would shoulder repatriation costs. Patrialis was in the Arab state to seek clemency for 23 Indonesians on death row, as well as commuted sentences for 316 others serving between three and 12 years in Saudi prisons. Most of the 339 inmates went to the country as migrant workers. Patrialis said the Saudi government h...

BOONE, N.C. - "End the death penalty in North Carolina," suggests a recent study, which asserts that capital punishment is not a deterrent to criminals and costs the public more does than a sentence of life in prison. Another factor is the recent revelation that evidence has been mishandled by the state crime lab, possibly sending innocent people to death row, as study author Dr. Matthew Robinson, professor of government and justice studies at Appalachian State University, explains. "It's not fixable. It's not something that we can make effective. It's not something that we can bring about justice with. It's not something we can guarantee won't be used against the innocent." Executions in North Carolina haven't taken place since 2006, in part because of a dispute over the constitutionality of the lethal-injection process. Meanwhile, the murder rate declined by 19 percent from 2008 to 2009. In March, Illinois became the fourth state in the ...

Drug shortage means TN must change its method of execution or drop the death penalty Tennessee has 86 killers on death row and no way to execute them after the state’s supply of a key lethal injection drug was seized by the federal government. Now, Tennessee has to make a death penalty decision. If it doesn’t change its lethal injection drug or the legislature doesn’t pass a law allowing the state to use alternative means of executions — electrocution, hanging, gas chamber or some other method — death row inmates will remain indefinitely imprisoned and families of murder victims will be left waiting for final punishment to be meted out. “It’s extremely frustrating. We are carrying on our lives, but it’s just such a heavy burden,” said Misti Ellis, whose father, Jerry Hopper, was killed in a shooting rampage in 2005 in Jackson. “I hope that it’s a procedural bump in the road. I hope they can find some way to resolve it or find a new method. I certainly would not want to see, for mys...

Israel is very unlikely to mete out the death penalty for the two terrorists who slaughtered five members of the Fogel family, but calls are mounting to make it mandatory in such cases. Israeli civilian law allows the death penalty only for Nazi criminals, and the only time it has been implemented was for Adolf Eichmann. Military courts could impose a death sentence on terrorists in Judea and Samaria, which are under military law, but this has never happened. Chava Chai, the neighbor of the Fogels and whose house was the first to be entered by the terrorists while the Chai family was away for the Sabbath, told The New York Times, “We hope they will receive the same justice as the Fogel family. They should be given the death penalty.” The death penalty is the least that the terrorists deserve, said National Union Knesset Member Uri Ariel, quoting a saying by Rabbinic sages that “whoever takes mercy on cruel people will eventually be cruel to merciful people." Likud MK Tzipi Hot...

April 13, 2011: Mao Ran, 26, was executed in Xiamen, China, for ordering others to conduct large-scale drug trafficking at Xiamen Gaoqi International Airport. Mao asked two women, Huang and Wu, to bring drug raw materials to China via the airport. On July 26th, 2009, Wu was seized carrying 2358.3 grams of heroin. The following day, Huang was seized carrying 993.6 grams of heroin. Source: Whatsonxiamen.com, April 14, 2011 _________________________ Use the tags below or the search engine at the top of this page to find updates, older or related articles on this Website.