Death Penalty News

The video appears to show an execution-style killing organized by an armed group. A shocking video showing an execution-style killing by an armed group at a football stadium in eastern Libya highlights the authorities’ failure to prevent parts of the country from descending into violence and lawlessness, Amnesty International said today. An amateur video published on social media sites shows the purported execution of an Egyptian man apparently organized by an armed group called the Shura Council of Islamic Youth in the eastern city of Derna. “This unlawful killing realizes the greatest fears of ordinary Libyans, who in parts of the country find themselves caught between ruthless armed groups and a failed state,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Deputy Director. “Such acts can only lead to further human rights abuses in Derna, where residents have no recourse to state institutions and therefore no means to seek justice or...

Georgia Death Chamber I am dropped off at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison as a witness to an execution. I am uncomfortable, but as a physician providing expert anesthesiology testimony in lethal injection cases, I feel compelled to see this for myself. The afternoon is hot and muggy, and I am standing in a field bounded by a yellow rope. I am overdressed in a suit jacket and was not planning on being outside. What does one wear to an execution? Several corrections officers soon approach. This staging area is full of corrections officers in paramilitary regalia. It's off-putting, and I can't help but wonder what the show of firepower and force is supposed to convey. What army would attack such an event? I am expected. My name is found on the invited list, and I am addressed politely as Dr. Zivot, but I am asked to hand over my suit jacket (which actually is a relief) and also my cell phone, watch, pen, and wallet -- everything except for m...

The sisters had lodged an appeal against the execution in the Mumbai High Court A court in India has put on hold the execution of 2 sisters convicted of murdering children they kidnapped and forced to beg and steal, a lawyer said. Renuka Shinde, 45, and her step-sister Seema Gavit, 39, were convicted of carrying out the crimes in the state of Maharashtra between 1994 and 1996. They kidnapped 13 children from train stations, temples, fairs and gardens and killed at least 5 of them. Few women have been given the death penalty, which is rarely carried out. In 2006, the Supreme Court upheld the death sentences, saying it did not find "any mitigating circumstances in favour of these women except for the fact they are women". The court said the nature of the crime and the systematic way in which each child was kidnapped and killed "demonstrated the depravity of mind" of those accused. Police recovered the bodies of 5 murdered children - all ...

Germany says a German man has been sentenced to death in China after being convicted on 2 counts of premeditated killing. German Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Schaefer said the sentence against the unnamed man was delivered Tuesday by a court in Xiamen. Schaefer said Wednesday the verdict can be appealed and underlined Germany's "categorical" opposition to the death penalty. He said Berlin will do what it can to ensure that the death sentence is commuted or not carried out. A man answering the phone Wednesday at Xiamen Intermediate People's Court confirmed that a German national was sentenced to death the previous day, but declined to give any other details.  The man also declined to give his name. Source: ABC news, August 20, 204

A Saudi national convicted of murder was decapitated by the sword in the southwest of the Gulf kingdom on Tuesday, the interior ministry said. Wail al-Shehri, convicted of shooting dead Meshaal Assiri during an argument, was executed on Tuesday in Abha, capital of Assir province, the ministry said in a statement carried by the official SPA news agency. The beheading by sword raises to 33 the number of executions announced in Saudi Arabia so far this year, according to an AFP tally. Rights watchdog Amnesty International on Monday denounced in a statement what it called a "disturbing surge" in the use of the death penalty in Saudi Arabia. "The Saudi Arabian authorities must halt all executions," it said after two sets of brothers were beheaded on Monday after being convicted of drug smuggling. Amnesty said the convictions of the 4 men came "reportedly on the basis of forced confessions extracted through torture". The rights group s...

Public execution in Mianeh, Aug. 18, 2014 Iran Human Rights, August 18, 2014: One man was hanged publicly in the town of Mianeh, in the Iranian East-Azerbaijan province, reported the Iranian state media.  According to the Mehr news agency the man was identified as Asghar Azizi, convicted of “corruption on earth” for possession and trafficking of narcotic drugs. He was hanged on Monday August 18, in front of the eyes of tens of citizens including children.180814-Mianeh-1 At least 10 prisoners were executed in the Gehzelhesar prison of Karaj according to the “human rights activists’ news agency” (HRANA). The executions took place early today August 18, said the report. Iran Human Rights (IHR) has confirmed the executions. At the present moment there are no further details about who these prisoners were. There have been several reports about protests in the Gheselhesar prison yesterday Sunday August 17. According to the reports several prisoners have been killed as ...

In a sign that separatist leaders in eastern Ukraine are struggling with discord in the ranks, Donetsk separatists announced Monday they were setting up military tribunals and bringing in the death penalty. The self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, or DNR, said it would bring in military tribunals with the right to pass the death sentence for a string of offences including treason, espionage, attempts on the lives of the leadership and sabotage. The announcement, issued on the Donetsk's separatists website, quoted leading rebel officials as saying that other serious violations including looting would also be dealt with harshly. "Introducing the death penalty is not revenge, it is the highest degree of social protection," a senior separatist leader, Vladimir Antyufeyev, was quoted as saying. Reports of executions orchestrated by separatists in eastern Ukraine have, for months, been used as a propaganda tool by both sides in the Ukraine conflict,...

PHOENIX — In an execution in 2010 in Arizona, the presiding doctor was supposed to connect the intravenous line to the convict’s arm — a procedure written into the state’s lethal injection protocol and considered by many doctors as the easiest and best way to attach a line. Instead he chose to use a vein in an upper thigh, near the groin. “It’s my preference,” the doctor said later in a deposition , testifying anonymously because of his role as a five-time executioner. For his work, he received $5,000 to $6,000 per day — in cash — with two days for practice before each execution. That improvisation is not unusual for Arizona, where corrections officials and medical staff members routinely deviate from the state’s written rules for conducting executions, state records and  court filings show. Sometimes they improvise even while a convict is strapped to a table in the execution chamber and waiting for the drugs coursing through his veins to take effect. In 2012, when ...

California Death Row The countries the US most rails against for their undemocratic tyrannies: Iran, China, Afghanistan etc.. are countries that the US has more in common with than it would like. America has democratic structures that the other ‘less enlightened’ countries don’t possess: a powerful constitution, the Rule of Law, Due process, Habeas Corpus, and a Constitution that enshrines equal rights for all (in theory, and in practice if rich and white). It is therefore imperative that the US proves that it is far more sophisticated and refined than a common murderous thug that chooses to kill. How does the US set the example by killing in retort? A rapid glance at the states that have committed the most executions since 1976, post-segregation reveals a sombre, but predictable pattern: if I told you that Texas, Oklahoma, Virginia, Florida, Missouri and Alabama led the way in executions, would you blink an eye? If I then asked you for an ethnic composition of the death row i...

Oklahoma Death Chamber Logs pertaining to the botched execution of an inmate were requested over 3 months ago.  Logs from the final hours before Clayton Lockett's botched execution still haven't been released by the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, more than 3 months after initially requested by the Tulsa World.  Officials at DOC have declined to say when the logs or other records requested by the World will be released. The agency keeps detailed logs during every execution, documenting the timeline of what occurred during the days leading up to the execution and on the day of the execution.  Oklahoma's execution protocol states that beginning 7 days before an execution, a log will be maintained to "provide a detailed chronological history of every aspect of the execution proceedings."  The World requested the logs and other records following Lockett's April 29 execution, which took 43 minutes and was halted shortly before he di...

Beirut/Amman - The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) militant group has executed 700 members of a tribe it has been battling in eastern Syria during the past two weeks, the majority of them civilians, a human rights monitoring group and activists said on Saturday. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has tracked violence on all sides of the three-year-old conflict, said reliable sources reported beheadings were used to execute many of the Al Sheitaat tribe, which is from Deir Al Zor province. The conflict between Isil and the Al Sheitaat tribe, who number about 70,000, flared after the militants took over two oil fields in July. “Those who were executed are all Al Sheitaat,” Observatory director Rami Abdul Rahman said by telephone from Britain. “Some were arrested, judged and killed.” Reuters cannot independently verify reports from Syria due to security conditions and reporting restrictions. Proclaiming a ‘caliphate’ straddling parts of Iraq and ...

Andrew Chan, Myuran Sukumaran Two Australians on death row in Bali should have their sentences reduced to life, the Kerobokan prison governor has announced. And other Bali Nine drug mules who have applied for their life sentences to be reduced to a fixed term should also have their wish granted. Bali Nine members Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan appealed to the Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono about two years ago for a grant of clemency, so they would not have to face the firing squad. But the president — whose term ends in October — has given no indication yet whether he will grant it. “It’s just something simple. I just don’t want to be shot, really,” Sukumaran said yesterday. Kerobokan prison governor Farid Junaedi told reporters at a ceremony to mark Indonesia’s independence day in Bali on Sunday that he had made “several recommendations” for sentence reductions for good behaviour. “These include the Bali Nine — from death sentence to life, a...

(Reuters) - The Taliban executed five people in a busy opium market in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province and left their bodies hanging overnight after accusing them of kidnapping a businessman, officials told Reuters. The militant group has stepped up its fight for control of the southern region since June, launching a string of attacks on government buildings, seizing territory and imposing its brand of Islamic justice. Thursday's public hanging, in the largely Taliban-controlled Kajaki district, was the second group execution reported in Helmand since the offensive began. "Five kidnappers ... were hanged to death by an order from the Islamic Emirate's prosecution authorities," a Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, said in a text message. "We hanged them in order to teach others a lesson." Mass public executions, common when the Taliban ruled Afghanistan from 1996, ceased after the movement was ousted in the U.S.-led inva...

Killing ones’ own citizens has become a harsh endeavor these days, but as always money buys everything, drugs and bills of secrecy to hide the dirty deeds. Nobody seems to care though, why bother to stand by those on death row who have a legitimate right to know how they are going to be murdered in the name of justice? Because transparency is not an option where matters of life and death are concerned. We are talking about an irreversible process here, something that doesn’t leave any room for error or even mistakes. Still, mistakes are made and those on death row have become the mere guinea pigs in a country that has clearly lost its mind, its soul and any kind of consideration for its “high” constitutional standards. So the killing states contract compounding pharmacies, outside of any FDA supervision, to provide the killing poisons. Should these pharmacists need to look for a hiding place instead of taking responsibilities for their actions? No! But it appears to be a matter of t...

Kerobokan Jail, Bali Police on the Indonesian island of Bali said on Saturday an American couple arrested in connection with the death of the woman’s mother could be charged with premeditated murder, which carries a maximum penalty of death. Nineteen-year-old Heather Mack and her 21-year-old boyfriend, Tommy Schaefer, both from Chicago, were arrested on Wednesday, a day after the body of 62-year-old Sheila von Wiese-Mack was found stuffed inside a suitcase in a taxi parked at an upscale hotel in the island’s exclusive Nusa Dua section. The couple were charged with murder on Friday . Colonel Djoko Hari Utomo, chief of police in Bali’s capital, Denpasar, said on Saturday police had enough evidence to charge them with premeditated murder. An autopsy on Saturday found that Von Wiese-Mack died of asphyxiation from a broken nose bone resulting from a blunt blow. Sourceq: AP, The Guardian , August 16, 2014

Texas is paying 4 times more for its execution drugs from a new supplier, putting it in line with a local consumer rate but well below the cost in at least 1 other death penalty state. The prison agency in the nation's busiest death penalty state paid $13,500 for its most recent batch of pentobarbital at a cost of $1,500 per vial, compared to $350 per dose spent last year, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press under an open records request. The extra cost - a minuscule part of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's $3 billion annual budget - comes after the state's previous supplier refused to provide more of the powerful sedative last year, claiming it had become a target of execution opponents. Prison officials have since found a new compound pharmacy for pentobarbital, and have waged a successful legal battle to keep the business' name secret. Backlash from capital punishment adversaries has curtailed the number of mainstream drug...

NCRI - At least four more people were hanged in Iran last week, including a 22-year-old who was under 17 at the time of arrest. Three prisoners were executed on Tuesday August 13, in the central prison in the city of Bandar Abbas, southern Iran. The public relations office of the regime’s judiciary declared on Friday August 15. Another young man who was 18 years old when had been arrested on drug related charges was hanged on Wednesday, August 14, in a Prison in city of Birjand, north-eastern Iran. The recent executions brings the total of the announced executions during the past three weeks to at least 40 executions. The number of executions has been on the rise since Hassan Rouhani assumed office as the president of the Iranian regime August 2013. New wave of executions takes place at a time when hundreds have been subjected to degrading and inhumane punishments such as flogging in public and being paraded in streets. Some very brutally before being hanged. ...

Texas Gov. Rick Perry AUSTIN, Tex. — A grand jury indicted Gov. Rick Perry on two felony counts on Friday, charging that he abused his power last year when he tried to pressure the district attorney here, a Democrat, to step down by threatening to cut off state financing to her office. The indictment left Mr. Perry, a Republican, the first Texas governor in nearly 100 years to face criminal charges and presented a major roadblock to his presidential ambitions at the very time that he had been showing signs of making a comeback. Grand jurors in Travis County charged Mr. Perry with abusing his official capacity and coercing a public servant, according to Michael McCrum, the special prosecutor assigned to the case. The long-simmering case has centered on Mr. Perry’s veto power as governor. His critics asserted that he used that power as leverage to try to get an elected official — Rosemary Lehmberg, the district attorney in Travis County — to step down after her arrest on...

Public flogging, Iran, Aug. 13, 2014 NCRI- The Iranian regime's henchmen lashed two men on Wednesday in public for 'disrupting public order' in a city near the country's capital Tehran. A police commander in Qods city was quoted by state-run Mehr news agency as saying: "the men who were thugs in the city... were arrested by the police and a ruling by the revolutionary court in the city sentenced them to 74 lashes in public." He said the sentence was carried out for the men how were identified by their initials as V.Y. and A.N. but no further information were provided. Police colonel Hojatollah Karami-zand said: "the police and the judiciary in the city are determined to more harshly deal with those that disrupt public order and public security. Since Hassan Rouhani became the clerical regime's president a year ago, human rights violations including execution, public hanging carrying out inhuman punishments such as flogging have in...

Max Soffar Max Soffar has a long history of self-medicating. When he was 4, his parents found him passed out next to their car, gas cap in hand. Since birth, Max's brain has been damaged. That damage has been made worse by years of physical and mental abuse by adoptive parents and staff at mental institutions.  At the age of 24 in 1980, Max had the mentality of an 11-year-old. His brain was "fried," according to police, who knew him as a dropout and wannabe police informant. Officers arrested Max on a stolen motorcycle after an infamous robbery-murder at a Houston bowling alley that year.  The police locked Max in a small room and subjected him to a 3-day marathon of aggressive, unrecorded interrogation - marked by prodding, pressure, and lies - which culminated in a false confession, typed by police, that the officers convinced a worn down Max to sign.  Max has spent the last 34 years on death row in Texas, but he won't be alive long enough to be exe...