Death Penalty News

The United States is set to resume using the [federal] death penalty after an almost 2-decade moratorium on the practice. The US Attorney General William Barr directed the federal bureau of prisons on Thursday to schedule the executions of 5 people convicted of murder and in some instances of torturing and raping children and the elderly. It will also adopt a new execution protocol and carry out capital punishment with the injection of a single lethal drug called pentobarbital. It is unclear where the US will get its supply of the drug because there is a shortage of the drug in the country. Euronews contacted the Department of Justice for comment but did not receive a response at the time of publication. Europe limits exports of lethal drugs The US shortage has been in part attributed to European pharmaceutical company Lundbeck's 2011 decision to stop distributing the drug "to prisons in U.S. states currently carrying out the death penalty by lethal inje...

The federal government has announced plans to resume capital punishment. But the order will likely face challenges. The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has directed the Federal Bureau of Prisons to allow the federal government to resume capital punishment for the first time since 2003. In the announcement released Thursday, Attorney General William Barr ordered the executions of five federal death row inmates, scheduled to take place in December of 2019 and January of 2020, with an intention to schedule additional executions at a later date. "Under Administrations of both parties, the Department of Justice has sought the death penalty against the worst criminals, including these five murderers, each of whom was convicted by a jury of his peers after a full and fair proceeding," Barr said in a statement. "The Justice Department upholds the rule of law—and we owe it to the victims and their families to carry forward the sentence imposed by our justice ...

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Amnesty International Indonesia affirms that they are against the idea of handing death penalty to the repeat offender of corruption, Kudus Regent M. Tamzil. The corruption eradication commission (KPK) previously talked about the possibility of charging Tamzil with the death penalty as the regent has been arrested twice for committing graft. “We strongly reject any form of death penalties in any type of cases,” said Amnesty International Indonesia Director Usman Hamid as Tempo reached him on Monday, July 29. The death penalty, he says, is a cruel punishment, inhumane, demeaning, and clearly violates the basic human right to live, which he said the state is obliged to provide for its citizens. Although against the death penalty, Usman asserts his organization continues to support severe punishments to be enforced upon those proven guilty of corruption. “What we are against is the use of the death penalty, whatever the crime may be,” said Usman....

Jakarta: The affluent city-state of Singapore is preparing to execute as many as 13 people, including four Malaysian nationals, according to lawyers and human rights groups. The Singaporean government is notoriously tight-lipped about executions before they are carried out, preferring to avoid public scrutiny, and did not respond to questions. Executions are carried out by hanging and can be applied in murder, treason, kidnapping and drug cases. Their number has risen in recent years - from four in 2016, to eight in 2017 and 13 in 2018 - according to statistics buried in the Singapore Prison Service's annual report. There are reportedly more than 40 prisoners on death row in Singapore, according to Amnesty International. Australian man Nguyen Tuong Van was executed by Singapore back in 2005. According to N Surendran, a lawyer and co-founder of the Malaysian campaign group Lawyers for Liberty, who is acting for some of the condemned men, a "bloodbath...

Thursday, Attorney General William Barr announced that the federal government would begin executing people for the 1st time since 2003. He seemed to justify this decision in 4 ways: 1st, the death penalty is what the American people want, 2nd, these people have committed acts so heinous that no one should care if they live or die, 3rd, the system is fair and accurate, and 4th, killing prisoners will bring peace to victims. “Congress has expressly authorized the death penalty through legislation adopted by the people’s representatives in both houses of Congress and signed by the president,” Attorney General Barr said. “Under administrations of both parties, the Department of Justice has sought the death penalty against the worst criminals, including these 5 murderers, each of whom was convicted by a jury of his peers after a full and fair proceeding. The Justice Department upholds the rule of law—and we owe it to the victims and their families to carry forward the sentence imposed by...

The Catholic Bishops of the United States express concern over the U.S. Justice Department’s announcement scheduling the executions of 5 people on death row. The last time the U.S. federal government executed someone was 16 years ago.  Over the past 2 decades, an informal moratorium on the death penalty at the national level in the United States has seen the annual number of death sentences decrease by 85%. Justice Department announcement On Friday, U.S. Attorney General William Barr, announced that 5 death-row inmates would be executed by lethal injection within the next 6 months. “We owe it to the victims and their families to carry forward the sentence imposed by our justice system”, he said. Catholic Bishops’ reaction The Chairman of the USCCB Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development is Bishop Frank Dewane of Florida.  In a statement reacting to Mr Barr’s decision, he said the Catholic Bishops of the United States are “deeply conc...

The Marrakech Court of Appeal sentenced to death the 2 Dutch nationals involved in the shooting at La Crème café in Marrakech. On July 26, the Court of Appeal in Marrakech sentenced to death the main suspect Gabriel Edwin, from the Republic of Suriname, and his Dominican accomplice. Both defendants have Dutch nationality. The case goes back to November 2017 when the two defendants, on a large motorcycle, opened fire at café “La Crème.” The shooting caused the death of a young medical student and seriously injured his female classmate. The 2 Dutch defendants faced several charges. They were convicted of intentional premeditated homicide, participation in an attempted homicide, criminal gang formation, damage to public property, as well as drug production and trafficking. The owner of the café and his cousin were sentenced, respectively, to 15 and 8 years in prison. Both were convicted of involvement in drug trafficking operations which led to the shooting. 2 furth...

Two American teenagers were jailed in Rome on Saturday as authorities carry out a murder investigation in the killing of Italian police officer Mario Cerciello Rega, 35. A detention order issued by prosecutors was shown on Italian state broadcaster RAI, naming the suspects as Gabriel Christian Natale Hjorth and Finnegan Lee Elder. Rome (CNN) -- Friends, family and a grieving community gathered at a church in Rome Sunday to pay last respects to a fallen officer who was allegedly stabbed to death by two young Americans. Hundreds laid flowers and prayed during the wake for Carabinieri police officer Mario Cerciello Rega

Officers said the man had stalked the victim from his house, stood near the door of the mosque, and waited until the victim was left alone. A resident who shot a man dead inside a mosque in Al Ain in 2017 has been sentenced to death. The Abu Dhabi Cassation Court has upheld the earlier rulings of the lower courts, which found the 30-year-old GCC national guilty of premeditated murder, among other charges. It was an incident that shocked Al Ain city in March 2017, court records show.  The victim was reportedly seated inside the mosque near his home when the man shot him several times, leading to his death. Officers said the man had stalked the victim from his house, stood near the door of the mosque, and waited until the victim was left alone. "He walked towards the victim from behind, and then shot him in the head and other body parts," they said. After killing the man, the convict ran away but later surrendered at a police station in Al Ain cit...

The Trump administration’s latest move to revive the death penalty for federal capital punishment cases is indefensible, and not just because it is doubling down on a practice abandoned by the rest of the developed world. To carry out the sentences, the administration will need to recruit private companies that will profit off these killings — and the public will likely have no way of knowing who these new hooded executioners will be. Attorney General William P. Barr has already picked out the five prisoners on death row to be scheduled for lethal injection, ending the federal government’s 16-year moratorium on the death penalty. He also announced that to do so, the government will use a lethal injection drug known as pentobarbital. This is significant because there is only one manufacturer approved by the Food and Drug Administration to sell the chemical, which is most typically used to euthanize animals: Akorn Pharmaceuticals . Akorn, like most drug manufacturers, is stau...