Death Penalty News

Many of Malaysia’s most infamous criminals were put to death at Pudu Jail in Kuala Lumpur. The death penalty can be handed down for 33 offences in Malaysia and it is mandatory for 12, of which drug trafficking offences are the most common and the most controversial. According to Amnesty International’s report, “ Fatally Flawed: Why Malaysia Must Abolish The Death Penalty ”, which was issued in October last year, there were 1,281 people on death row as at February last year, of whom 73% had been convicted of drug-related offences. By gender, 89% were men and 568 of these prisoners were foreign nationals. The main nationalities were Nigerian (21%), Indonesian (16%), Iranian (15%), Indian (10%), Filipino (8%) and Thai (6%). Twelve executions have been carried out since 2010, with the four most recent being in 2017, according to Amnesty International. Having been under pressure for many years to follow the world trend to abolish the death penalty, the government ...

The Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor of Shahinshahr and Meymeh announced it had issued prison, exile and death sentences for some of the protesters arrested during Iran protests in November 2019. In a press briefing on June 27, 2020, Nassruddin Salehi also pointed out that the verdicts would be imminently executed and carried out.  He did not say anything about the identities or the number of the victims. On June 26, 2020, the head of the Justice Department of Isfahan Province also announced that eight protesters arrested during protests in 2018 and 2019, had been condemned as “corruptors on earth.” During a sermon in the Friday prayer of Isfahan, Mohammadreza Habibi declared that the charge of “corruptor on Earth” has been proven in the cases of the eight convicts.  He warned other protesters, that they would be dealt with decisively. Corruption on Earth is one of the heaviest charges under Iran’s clerical regime’s Judiciary punishable by death s...

Yusuf Memon, one of the convicts of the March 1993 Mumbai serial blasts, died in the Nashik Central Jail on Friday Nashik (Maharashtra): Yusuf Memon, one of the convicts of the March 1993 Mumbai serial blasts, died in the Nashik Central Jail on Friday, officials said.  The younger brother of absconding prime conspirator Tiger Memon, Yusuf Memon was convicted for the terror strikes and was serving a life sentence.  The exact cause of the death is not yet clear and his body has been sent for an autopsy to a Dhule hospital, said an official.  Among other things, Yusuf Memon was found guilty of allowing the use of his premises in Mumbai for terror activities to Tiger Memon, who allegedly masterminded the attacks along with the fugitive mafia don Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar and others.  Incidentally, another of their brothers - Yakub Memon who was convicted and awarded a death penalty in the same case - was hanged in 2015 at the Nagpur Central Jail. ...

‌The Iranian Supreme Court upheld a ruling for cutting the four fingers of the right hands of four men in the Central Prison of Urmia, capital of West Azerbaijan Province. Three of the convicted prisoners are Hadi Rostami, Mehdi Sharifian and Mehdi Shahivand, whose sentences have been passed on to the Office for the Implementation of Verdicts of the Justice Department of Urmia. The ruling of Branch 13 of the Iranian Supreme Court was issued on May 2, 2020, but the convicts were informed of their sentence just last week.  According to the verdict handed down by Ali Shushtari, the primary ruling by the First Branch of the First Penal Court of West Azerbaijan for Juveniles and Children fully complied with the legal conditions for inflicting the sentence stipulated in Article 268 of the Islamic Punishment Law.  The Supreme Court branch rejected the convicts’ appeal and finalized the ruling. The three individuals were convicted in a joint case on November 19,...

Eight protesters in Iran have been sentenced to death for “spreading corruption on earth,” in parallel with the confirmation of three other death sentences in Isfahan. The Chief Justice of Isfahan, Mohammad Reza Habibi, announced that “we will deal decisively with the puppets and the rioters.” In announcing that the sentences would be finalized during Friday prayers, Habibi vowed that the actions of the protesters would not be repeated. The Chief Justice of Isfahan did not comment on the identities of the defendants and their charges, nor did he specify the reason for raising the issue during Friday prayers. In the penal code of the Islamic Republic, the punishment for the accusation of “spreading corruption on earth” is the death penalty. Other judicial officials have not commented. Confirmation of Death Sentences of Three People Two days before the speech of the Chief Justice of Isfahan, the human rights website “HRAI” had announced the confirmation of the death se...

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt on Saturday executed a Libyan militant convicted of plotting an attack that killed at least 16 police officers in 2017, the military said. Abdel-Rahim al-Mosmari was hanged in a Cairo prison after a military appeals court upheld his death sentence last week, the military said. The deadly attack southwest of the Egyptian capital took place in October 2017. Al-Mosmari was arrested a month after the attack. He was tried by a military court and sentenced to death in November last year. The court also sentenced 15 other defendants for their involvement in the attack, including 10 in absentia, to life in prison. Another 17 got 5- to 15-year sentences. Al-Mosmari was from Libya’s eastern city of Derna, which served as a safe haven for years for militant groups before the self-styled Libyan Arab Armed Forces took control of it early in 2018. The LAAF is led by military commander Khalifa Hifter, an ally to Egypt. The defendants were accused of plotting ...

A group of 15 administrative law experts have filed an amicus curiae brief in support of death-row prisoners seeking U.S. Supreme Court review of a challenge to the federal government’s proposed execution protocol.  The brief was filed June 19, 2020 in Roane v. Barr , a case brought by federal death-row prisoners asking the Court to overturn an appellate court’s ruling that lifted an injunction on federal executions.  According to the amicus brief, “This case presents a trifecta of classic administrative-law problems: The Bureau of Prisons (BOP) (1) misinterpreted a statute, (2) after having failed to engage in required notice-and-comment processes, and (3) the court below upheld BOP’s action on grounds not provided by the agency itself.” The brief supports the prisoner’s assertion that the federal appellate court “violated bedrock principles of statutory interpretation, federalism, and administrative law.”  On April 7, 2020, a three-judge panel of the ...

It's been more than five years since what Tulare County District Attorney Tim Ward describes as a surprising, horrific incident of workplace violence, carried out by a then 24-year-old parolee named Hernan Rodriguez. DINUBA, Calif.  — A Reedley man has been sentenced to death for murdering two men in a Dinuba orchard back in 2015. On May 20th, 2015, field workers in a plum orchard were gathered around to heat up food for lunch. That's when the Tulare County District Attorney's Office says one of their co-workers, now 29-year-old Hernan Rodriguez, walked up to them with a sawed-off 9mm semi-automatic rifle. The District Attorney says Rodriguez hid behind a van and fired seven shots at the men sitting there. "There was some evidence talked about that there may have been some statements from other workers making fun of the defendant or something (like) that," Tulare County District Attorney Tim Ward said. "But certainly no matter what the ...

Bangkok’s Criminal Court handed down life imprisonment to Laotian drug ring leader Xaysana “Mr. X” Keopimpha, on charges of smuggling 1.2 million methamphetamine pills, known as “yaba,” into Thailand.  He was initially sentenced to death, and the sentence was upheld by a lower court in December, but the penalty was commuted to life imprisonment because he cooperated with the court. The Thai Court of Appeals found that Xaysana arranged for the drugs to be smuggled from Laos in a vehicle with a false roof compartment.  That court ruled Xaysana must serve his time in Thailand since the smuggling attempt was aimed at harming Thai citizens. He was taken to hear the judgment from the Central Correctional Institution for Drug Addicts, where he’s been detained since he was arrested at Suvarnabhumi airport in January 2017, arriving on a flight from Phuket. Police captured some members of his network in Oct0ber 2016, after seizing 1.2 million yaba pills smuggled i...

A local court ordered two convicted drug dealers to be executed immediately. They were caught dealing 9.5kg of heroin and 27,5kg of crystal meth in Hainan. Four other dealers received suspended death sentences during the same trial A court in China has ordered 2 convicted drug dealers to be executed immediately during an open trial this week. The pair, Lin Shanju and Li Zhiping, were caught dealing 9,511 grams (21 pounds) of heroin and 27,211 grams (60 pounds) of crystal meth in the southern province of Hainan in the space of a month, according to the court. 4 other drug dealers were put on death row during the group sentencing on Wednesday. Courts around China have sentenced dozens of drug traffickers in the past few days as the country cracks down on the crime during the National Drug Control Publicity Month in June. Police also found 252.4 grams (0.56 pounds) of heroin, 163.8 grams (0.36 pounds) of caffeine and 140,000 yuan (£16,000) of profit from drug traffi...