Death Penalty News

Iran Human Rights, January 26, 2014: According to the Iranian news website Arshnews two men and one woman from the villages of Delfan (Lorestan Province, Western Iran) were executed during the last week. Two of the individuals from the village of Golestaneh were identified as “R. H.” and “M. Sh.” and were convicted of trafficking 6 kilograms of heroin, said the report. According to this report another individual from the village of Abdolhosseini, was hanged in the town of Malayer convicted of trafficking 500 grams of the narcotic drug crystal. The latter individual was not identified by name. Source: Iran Human Rights, January 26, 2014

Edgar Arias Tamayo took 17 minutes to die. The 46-year-old Mexican national was taken into the Texas execution chamber, strapped down and given a lethal injection which would eventually kill him. He didn't have any final words to say, instead choosing to remain silent. Tamayo, who was convicted of the 1994 shooting and killing police officer Guy Gaddis, 24, as he was being arrested for robbery was in the US illegally. His execution went ahead despite objections from the US and Mexican governments arguing it violated international law, ignoring a 2004 court order from the International Court of Justice. The ICJ argued that Edgar Tamayo, along with other Mexican nationals, was not informed of his right to seek consular advice without delay following his arrest. This move denied him assistance that anti-death penalty advocates say could have provided crucial evidence in the case. In 2008 a psychologist put Edgar Tamayo's intellectual functioning in t...

Wednesday night's execution in Texas of a Mexican national convicted of killing a Houston police officer has given the candidates vying to be the state's next attorney general an opportunity to weigh in on the death penalty - revealing only slight differences in how they might have handled the case. Texas officials went ahead with Edgar Tamayo's execution despite pressure from both the Mexican and U.S. governments to delay it. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry warned that the execution "could impact the way American citizens are treated in other countries." Among the Republicans vying to replace Attorney General Greg Abbott, who is running for governor, all of them said they would have proceeded with the execution. Enrique Marquez, state Rep. Dan Branch's campaign manager, said in an email that Branch "has never wavered in his belief that the death penalty is a just punishment for the most heinous crimes." Marquez said that because ...

The defense in the Aurora movie theater murder case won't be able to present evidence at trial about the history of the death penalty or about how the gunman's possible execution would impact his family, a judge ruled Thursday. In 2 orders, Arapahoe County District Court Judge Carlos Samour said neither type of evidence would be relevant to jurors deciding whether to sentence gunman James Holmes to death. Instead, Samour ruled that jurors should be given a "succinct and clear instruction" about the current laws regarding sentences to death or life in prison without parole. Samour also concluded that, while defendants are allowed to present mitigating evidence during a death-penalty trial, only information about the accused's character and history and about the circumstances of the crime are valid for the jury to consider. "Because neither the love that family members, friends, and others may feel about the defendant nor the impact his execution...

The Texas execution of Edgar Tamayo for the murder of a U.S. police officer was heavily criticized by Mexican officials, who say their country rightly banned capital punishment years ago. But if the Mexican people had their way, the death penalty would be an option for justice for murderers such as Tamayo, say surveys and criminal experts here. Surveys by polling firms and media outlets in Mexico over the past seven years show that support for the death penalty has been increasing to a point where a majority would like to see it reinstated. Recent polls found between 70% and 80% would like to see the death penalty imposed for crimes such as murder and kidnapping, a rate that is above the majority support for the death penalty in the United States. The rising support for the death penalty in Mexico comes amid the gruesome kidnappings and mass murders committed by criminals and drug cartels in recent years. Tamayo's execution made front-page news in Mexico and pro...

Death penalty may be removed from the Kazakhstan's Criminal Code. Such a suggestion has been made in the country's Majilis (lower chamber), Tengrinews reports. "We believe there is a unique possibility to take a sound decision to completely remove death penalty from the Criminal Code", some majilismen said when unveiling draft amendments into the Criminal Code. In December 2003 Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev introduced an unlimited moratorium on capital punishment. From 1990 to 2003 there were 536 executions carriedty out in Kazakhstan. Currently about 100 people are serving life-long sentences. According to Johan Merkel, Vice General Prosecutor, the General Prosecutor's Office doesn't support full abolishment of capital punishment. "I heard no arguments in favor of abolishment [of death penalty] apart from the argument that having death penalty in the list of punishments is a sign of backwoods mentality (...) Then let ...

The UK Government must take immediate steps to protect an elderly, mentally-ill British man sentenced to death today for blasphemy in Pakistan, legal charity Reprieve has said. Mohammad Asghar (71), from Edinburgh, has a long and documented history of psychological ill health. Just four months before his arrest by the Pakistani authorities in September 2010, Mr. Asghar was sectioned in Scotland under the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003, and taken to Royal Victoria Hospital in Edinburgh. He was soon diagnosed as suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, and kept under observation at the hospital for over a month. He moved to Pakistan shortly after his release. Mr Asghar’s legal team at Reprieve have obtained information confirming his mental and physical ill health, and stating that he requires constant care. These include his NHS records and an affidavit signed by Dr. Jane McLennan, Senior Consultant at Royal Victoria Hospital. Throughout his trial pr...

Philippe El Shennawy, a French convict infamous for being the longest-serving prisoner alive in France and a string of escape attempts, will be released on parole on Friday. “It is a big relief,” his lawyer told reporters on Wednesday, adding that the convict would have to wear an ankle bracelet for a period of two years. “He is going to live with his wife. He is very, very happy.” Short in comparison to prison sentences in other countries, the 38 years El Shennawy spent behind bars made him the longest-serving inmate alive in France. In France, prison sentences even for the worst crimes are usually limited to 30 years of incarceration, with inmates often paroled or freed after that time. El Shennawy, now 60, was found guilty of robbing a Paris bank and taking hostages in 1977, crimes he has always denied committing. He was released in 1990, but wound up back in jail after breaking the rules of his parole. He took flight in 1997 and again in 2004, hiding from...

Kenneth Eugene Hogan OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma executed a man on Thursday, who was convicted of murder after stabbing a woman 25 times more than two decades ago and then attempting to blame the crime on an intruder. Kenneth Eugene Hogan, 52, was convicted of murdering Lisa Stanley in her Oklahoma City apartment on January 28, 1988. Hogan, who had stabbed her 25 times, had said he was acting in self-defense after Stanley lunged at him with a knife. The execution was carried out at 6:13 p.m. Central Time at the state's death chamber in a penitentiary in McAlester. The state Pardon and Parole Board denied clemency for Hogan this month by a 4-1 vote. Prosecutors said that after killing Stanley, Hogan tried to make the crime scene appear as if an intruder had broken in. He cleaned his wounds and went to the emergency room. Hogan's murder conviction was overturned by a federal court in 1999 on the grounds that the jury should have been allowed to consider ...

Iraq's Ministry of Justice said it executed 11 convicts for terror crimes Thursday, 2 days after it announced the execution of 26 convicts, despite international calls for Baghdad to abolish the death penalty. "The ministry of justice executed 11 people after they were found guilty of terrorism crimes... The total number of those executed this week becomes 37, all of them Iraqis," Xinhua quoted the ministry as saying in a statement On Tuesday, the ministry said it had executed 26 convicts Sunday morning after the Iraqi president approved their penalties, a procedure required by the law. Iraq's recent increase in executions sparked calls for Baghdad to abolish capital punishment by the UN mission, the EU and some rights groups, which have criticised the lack of transparency in the proceedings of the Iraqi courts. The death penalty in Iraq was suspended June 10, 2003 for over a year. The Iraqi government reinstated it Aug 8, 2004, saying it woul...

Iran Human Rights, January 23: Seven prisoners were hanged in the prison of Kermanshah (western Iran) reported the Iranian state media. Five of the prisoners were convicted of trafficking of 102 kilograms of various narcotic drugs and two were convicted of murder said the report. None of the prisoners were identified by name. According to the official and unofficial reports received by Iran Human Rights near 50 people have been executed in different Iranian cities since the beginning of 2014. In an official statement published yesterday January 22, three UN right experts urged the Iranian authorities to halt the executions. Source: Iran Human Rights, January 23, 2014

Edgar Tamayo HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — Edgar Tamayo, a Mexican national, was executed Wednesday in Huntsville, Texas, for the slaying 20 years ago of a Texas police officer, Guy Gaddis, 24.  The US Supreme Court had temporarily put on hold the execution of Edgar Tamayo, as justices considered appeals to keep him from the Texas death chamber. Tamayo's appeals were eventually denied by the high court. Justices Ginsburg, Breyer and Sotomayor would've granted Edgar Tamayo a stay. Tamayo was put to death at 9:32 p.m., three hours after his scheduled execution. Tamayo's execution was the 1st of 2014, and the 1st of 4 convicted Harris County killers scheduled to be put to death in the next 4 months. Texas officials have opposed appeals to stop the scheduled lethal injection, despite pleas and diplomatic pressure from the Mexican government and the U.S. State Department. Tamayo's attorneys and the Mexican government contended Tamayo's case was t...

Dennis McGuire I first began to visit [Ohio death-row inmate] Mcguire in November. He told me about the evil act he had committed, the murder in 1989 of a young woman Joy Stewart who was pregnant and whose unborn child also died. He confessed his sin to me, and expressed sorrow for what he had done. I said he should pray for forgiveness from the woman he had killed, and from that unborn child, and over the course of the final eight weeks, I know that he did. After that, I had to deal with him as I do anyone else who repents: as a forgiven sinner. It can be very difficult for people not in the religion to accept that with regard to a murderer, but the faith is clear: once forgiven, you are forgiven, no matter how heinous the sin. On the day of his execution, last Thursday, I gave him his last sacraments at Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, which lodges the "death house". Shortly before the execution was due to start, his son, daughter and daughter-in-law, who w...

Public execution in Iran GENEVA (22 January 2014) – The United Nations Special Rapporteurs on the situation of human rights in Iran, Ahmed Shaheed, and on summary executions, Christof Heyns, today called on the Government of Iran to urgently halt the abrupt surge in hangings in the country since the start of 2014. “We are dismayed at the continued application of the death penalty with alarming frequency by the authorities, despite repeated calls for Iran to establish a moratorium on executions,” the independent experts said, stressing “the inherently cruel, inhuman and degrading nature of the death penalty.” At least 40 persons have been reportedly hanged in the first two weeks of January, of which at least 33 executions were carried out in the past week alone. 625 executions, including at least 28 women and a number of political prisoners were reported to have been carried out in 2013. The majority of those executions were for drug-related offences, but a number of in...

A historic decision by India's Supreme Court commuting the death sentences of 15 prisoners and setting out guidelines to safeguard the rights of prisoners on death row and their families is a positive step for human rights in the country, Amnesty International India said today. The Supreme Court commuted the death sentences of Suresh, Ramji, Bilavendran, Simon, Gnanprakasham, Meesekar Madaiah, Praveen Kumar, Gurmeet Singh, Sonia Chaudhury, Sanjeev Chaudhury, Jafar Ali, Shivu and Jadeswamy, on the ground of delay in the disposal of their mercy petitions by the President ranging between 5 and 12 years. The Court commuted the death sentences of Sundar Singh and Magan Lal Barela on the ground that they suffer from mental illness. "While acknowledging the need to strike a balance between the rights of the accused as well as the victims, this momentous decision reaffirms the rights guaranteed to death row prisoners under the Constitution of India and international la...

The judge at Putrajaya Higher Court, Malaysia, has released 2 Indonesian workers from death penalty in the case of drug possession, according to information from Indonesian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, received here on Wednesday. Azhar bin Zakaria and Ismail bin Ibrahim were caught by the Malaysian police last May 2012. Both were detained after police found 20 kg of Cannabis in the trunk of a car used by Azhar and Ibrahim. According to previous trial at the Malaysian High Court, both defendants were sentenced to death for drug possession. The defendants then appealed to the Higher Court arguing that there were different versions of the arrest process between the police and the defendants. The defendants lawyer further added that the prosecutor, during previous trial, had failed to show the physical evidence in the case, namely the car used by the defendants during the time of the arrest. Considering the lawyers argument, the judge at Putrajaya Higher Court gave the verdict t...

A Sri Lankan man has been executed in UAE for murdering an Emirati resident, a media report said. The execution has been carried out today after 19-year old Ravindra Krishna Pillai was convicted of premeditated murder. According to reports, he has been found guilty of running over the Emirati in an SUV during an argument between the 2. The report say it is believed that the execution has been carried out using a firing squad. Relatives of the murdered Emirati has refused to accept blood money from Krishnan and has insisted the authorities to impose the death penalty. Krishan has been working in the UAE as a electrician. Source: news360.lk, January 22, 2014

The Walls Unit, Huntsville, where executions are carried out in Texas With his scheduled execution just hours away, the state Board of Pardons and Paroles has denied a clemency request from a Mexican national convicted of gunning down a Houston police officer in 1994. Parole officials said Wednesday the seven-member board refused a request for clemency or a reprieve request by a 6-0 vote. Board member Roman Chavez, a former Hoston policeman, did not vote. The decision came after attorneys for Edgar Arias Tamayo on Tuesday asked U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel of Austin to delay the execution scheduled Wednesday evening, alleging the clemency process is legally flawed. No decision has been announced. In announcing its vote, the parole board noted that federal appellate courts have upheld its authority to deny clemency. Tamayo, 46, was convicted of capital murder in the shooting death of Houston officer Guy Gaddis, 24. Authorities at the time said Gaddis had arrested ...

Oregon death-row inmate Gary Haugen's legal quest to force his own execution ended Tuesday when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to consider his case. Without comment, the court denied his petition for writ of certiorari. The court turns down the vast majority of requests it receives each year to review a case. The decision effectively guarantees that Haugen, twice-convicted of murder and sentenced to death by a jury in 2007, will continue to live on death row for the duration of Gov. John Kitzhaber's term in office. Haugen had waived his legal appeals in 2011 as a way of protesting the legal system, and demanded that the state carry out his death sentence. But two weeks before Haugen's planned execution date, Kitzhaber issued a reprieve and declared he would not allow any executions as long as he is governor. Kitzhaber criticized capital punishment as "morally wrong" and argued that Oregon's system "fails to meet basic standards of justice....

San Quentin's brand new death chamber For decades supporters of the death penalty in America have embraced lethal injection not just as an evolutionary plateau in the method of capital punishment but as a convenient solution to a problem that is both legal and moral. By purporting to ease the suffering of the condemned as he is killed, the procedure is supposed to neutralize concerns that any particular execution is “cruel” under the Eighth Amendment. And by purporting to put the prisoner to deep sleep first before the poison was administered, the practice is supposed to assuage whatever guilt exists in the minds of the executioner, or the administrator, over the intentional taking of life. We hide behind science, in other words, and then pat ourselves on the back for our ingenuity. But these two pillars of support for lethal injection have always been based on a form of deceit. Making executions tidier does not make the dead any less dead or those who authorize the poison...