Capital punishment

What does Pope's death penalty shift mean for Catholic politicians?

Pope Francis earned a standing ovation when he told Congress in 2015 that he supports protecting human life "at every stage of its development." When he added that "this conviction" includes working to end the death penalty, the response was far more subdued.

"You didn't see people jumping up and clapping," said John Carr, who was in the room, and is director of Georgetown University's Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life.

For decades, Catholic politicians who support capital punishment, including the senators and representatives in the chamber that day, had an "out" when it comes to church teaching: The Catholic Catechism, the church's book of moral and religious teachings, had allowed the use of capital punishment in certain cases. Any other opinions, even the Pope's, were just that, opinions, and not necessarily binding on Catholic consciences.

Capital punishment

Tokyo Sarin attack: Aum Shinrikyo cult leaders executed

Seven members of the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult which carried out a deadly chemical attack on the Tokyo underground in 1995 have been executed, including cult leader Shoko Asahara.

The Sarin attack, Japan's worst terror incident, killed 13 people and injured thousands more.

The executions took place at a Tokyo detention house on Friday morning.

Japan does not give prior notice of executions, but they were later confirmed by the justice ministry.

Shoko Asahara and his followers were also accused of several other murders and an earlier Sarin gas attack in 1994 which killed eight and left 600 injured.

Their execution, by hanging, had been postponed until all those convicted had completed their final appeals. That happened in January.

Capital punishment

ISIS Wives, With Children In Tow, Are Handed Long Jail Sentences Or Death Penalty

A young woman in a traditional long black cloak and a pink prison shirt holds a baby as she stands before a judge.

Then a toddler, becoming agitated in the hallway, is led into the wooden dock to join her mother. The little girl is perhaps 2 years old. She clutches the folds of her mother's black abaya with a chubby hand, as she peers out through the wooden bars.

Her mother is one of about 28 foreign women who appeared in an Iraqi court in a single day in April, accused of being married to ISIS. They are among around 560 detained women recently or currently on trial in the country for their links to the extremist group, according to Baghdad's central criminal court. The women are largely from Russia, Turkey and other countries including Azerbaijan and Tajikistan. Several are from France and Germany.

They have between them more than 1,100 young children, according to the court's president. Detained and mostly shunned by their home countries, the children and mothers face a perilous future.

Capital punishment

Saudi Arabia criticised for 48 beheadings in four months of 2018

Saudi Arabia has executed 48 people in the past four months, half of them on non-violent drug charges, Human Rights Watch has said.

The US-based group urged the kingdom to improve what it called a “notoriously unfair criminal justice system”.

Saudi Arabia has one of the world’s highest rates of execution: suspects convicted of terrorism, homicide, rape, armed robbery and drug trafficking face the death penalty.

Rights experts have repeatedly raised concerns about the fairness of trials in the kingdom, which is governed by a strict form of Islamic law. The government says the death penalty is a deterrent for further crime.

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Sarah Leah Whitson, HRW’s Middle East director, said: “It’s bad enough that Saudi Arabia executes so many people, but many of them have not committed a violent crime. Any plan to limit drug executions needs to include improvements to a justice system that doesn’t provide for fair trials.”

HRW said Saudi Arabia had carried out nearly 600 executions since the beginning of 2014, more than a third of them in drug cases. Nearly 150 people were put to death last year in the kingdom, where convicts are beheaded using a sword.

Capital punishment

I Never Knew That Abraham Lincoln Ordered The Largest MASS HANGING IN US HISTORY, Or Why He Did It

People think that Abe Lincoln was such a benevolent President. He was actually a bit of a tyrant. He attacked the Confederate States of America, who seceded from the Union due to tax and tariffs. (If you think it was over slavery, you need to find a real American history book written before 1960.)This picture is of 38 Santee Sioux Indian men that were ordered to be executed by Abraham Lincoln for treaty violations (IE: hunting off of their assigned reservation). Yes, the “Great Emancipator” as the history books so fondly referred to him as.

Authorities in Minnesota asked President Lincoln to order the immediate execution of all 303 Indian males found guilty. Lincoln was concerned with how this would play with the Europeans, whom he was afraid were about to enter the war on the side of the South. He offered the following compromise to the politicians of Minnesota: They would pare the list of those to be hung down to 38. In return, Lincoln promised to kill or remove every Indian from the state and provide Minnesota with 2 million dollars in federal funds.

Capital punishment

China boasts after news report it executed CIA informants

China reacted to the revelation it had purged a network of CIA informants with a victory lap, boasting that the execution of a dozen spies within the last seven years was a triumph for its “anti-espionage activities.”

The network was terminated between 2010 and 2012, The New York Times reported Saturday, with 12 or more people killed and several more imprisoned. Without providing confirmation, the Global Times newspaper, which is published by the official People’s Daily, said in an editorial smashing the ring with extreme prejudice was a “sweeping victory.”

“If this article is telling the truth, we would like to applaud China’s anti-espionage activities,” read the editorial. “Not only was the CIA’s spy network dismantled, but Washington had no idea what happened and which part of the spy network had gone wrong.

Capital punishment

Global executions fall 37% since 2015, Amnesty International says

The number of executions recorded worldwide in 2016 fell by 37% on the previous year, human rights group Amnesty International says.

At least 1,032 people were executed last year, down from 1,634 in 2015, Amnesty said.

The fall was largely driven by fewer deaths recorded in Iran and Pakistan.

China is believed to have executed more than all countries combined but has not been included in the figures given the lack of reliable data, the group adds.

The US was removed from the top five for the first time since 2006, according to Amnesty.

Despite fewer executions, Iran and Pakistan remain in Amnesty's top five list, along with China, Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

Capital punishment

US military to execute first inmate in over 50 years

Eight years after he was sentenced to die, Ronald Gray could be the first death row inmate executed by the US military in more than half a century.

In January 1987, Pvt. Ronald Gray was arrested for the rape of a woman near Fairlane Acres Mobile Home Park. Shorty after, police found the bodies of Kimberly Ann Ruggles and Pvt. Laura Lee Vickery-Clay. Evidence in the victim’s cars implicated Gray, and he pleaded guilty to two counts of murder, as well as five other rape charges.

A military jury found Gray guilty on all charges and sentenced him to death. He also received eight life sentences from a civilian court for his initial convictions.

For more than 25 years, Gray filed appeals claiming that he had an incompetent lawyer, that the military courts lacked the proper jurisdiction to prosecute him, and that he was not mentally stable enough to stand trial. These appeals were repeatedly denied.

Capital punishment

Executions and death sentences plummeted this year as capital punishment declined nationwide

A year that began with the U.S. Supreme Court striking down the death penalty in one of the most active capital punishment states ended with the country reaching modern lows in executions and death sentences, the most glaring signs yet about how the practice has dwindled in America today.

Still, even as capital punishment has declined in both sentencing and practice, there were also signs this year of its persistence from lawmakers, judges and the public, reminders that the death penalty is far from fading away.

The United States saw 20 executions this year, the fewest nationwide in 25 years. As noted here last week, this number has dropped from the modern peak of 98 executions in 1999, coming as states have struggled to obtain lethal injection drugs and halted executions in the face of court rulings.

Capital punishment

History’s most gruesome inventions

One of the most brutal methods of execution ever created took the form of a hollow bull statue. Invented in ancient Greece by Perillus, a bronze worker in Athens, it was given as a gift to a cruel tyrant named Phalaris of Agrigentum. As well as roasting criminals alive, the device also doubled as a musical instrument, converting the victim’s desperate cries into what Perillus described as “the tenderest, most pathetic, most melodious of bellowings”.

Distrustful of the inventor’s claims, Phalaris ordered Perillus to climb inside and prove the device’s musical capabilities himself. However, as soon as he was inside, Phalaris shut the door and lit a fire beneath, causing Perillus to scream for real. However, rather then letting him die at the hands of his own creation, Phalaris had him removed and thrown off a cliff instead.

Capital punishment

Executions: China, Iran, Pakistan,Saudi Arabia, US top Amnesty report

Amnesty International has expressed “alarm” at the surge in recorded executions in Pakistan, claiming that most of those recently executed were not convicted of terrorism related offences.  The charge by Amnesty International UK's Director Kate Allen comes as the human rights organisation released figures showing that at least 1,634 people were executed in 2015 worldwide, a rise of 54% on the year before.

The figures -- contained in the report Death Sentences and Executions in 2015 -- show that the top five executioners in the world in 2015 were China, Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the USA. In a statement to The News, Champa Patel, the Director for South Asia, said:  “Over the past year Pakistan has vaulted to the number three spot for recorded state executions in the world – a shameful position no one should aspire to. Only to be beaten by Iran and Saudi Arabia, Pakistan executed 326 people last year. Most of those executed were not convicted of terror-related offences and there is evidence that at least two and possibly more of them were juveniles when they committed their alleged crimes.

Capital punishment

Saudi Arabia is going to double its beheading count again this year

Saudi Arabia has executed 82 people so far this year, putting it on course to double the number of executions carried out in 2015. The figure was uncovered by human rights organisation Reprieve who say Saudi's current pace of executions is record-breaking.

If Saudi doesn't slow down with its beheading spree, Reprieve estimates that they will kill 320 prisoners this year. If this happens it will continue a recent trend for the country to double the number of prisoners it kills each year. In 2015 it executed 158 and in 2014 it executed 88. 

The figures from Reprieve come just a week after Defence Secretary Michael Fallon went to Saudi Arabia and met Crown Prince Mohammed bin Naif, the man who runs the Saudi Interior Ministry, which is responsible for carrying out the beheadings. Here's the statement the Ministry of Defence put out after Fallon's meetings...

Capital punishment

TEN YEARS AFTER LAST EXECUTION, CALIFORNIA’S DEATH ROW CONTINUES TO GROW

Today, a growing number of Californians have reached the inevitable conclusion that it’s time to get rid of the death penalty once and for all. In 2012, a hard-fought ballot initiative to replace capital punishment with life without parole lost by a narrow margin — and in 2014 support for the death penalty dropped to a 50-year low. Yet some remain committed to reviving executions in California — and late last year the state took a number of steps in that direction. In November, the same month a federal judge overturned a ruling that had declared the state’s death penalty unconstitutional on 8th Amendment grounds, officials introduced a new “humane and dignified” lethal injection protocol, replacing its embattled three-drug cocktail with an array of one-dose options. 

Capital punishment

Saudi Arabia executes prominent Shiite cleric and 46 others in 12 cities

Prominent Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr was among 47 people executed by Saudi Arabia on Saturday, triggering an angry response from across the Shiite world, including the kingdom’s archenemy, Iran.

The official Saudi Press Agency listed Nimr’s name among 47 people who were executed on Saturday morning in the capital Riyadh and 12 other cities. Some were beheaded, others were killed by firing squads, according to Saudi Arabia’s Interior Ministry.

Nimr, 56, was a key figure in the protests that erupted among Sunni Saudi Arabia’s Shiite minority in 2011, inspired by the Arab spring revolts elsewhere in the region.

Capital punishment

Protests As Saudi 'Plans To Execute 50 People'

Around 1,000 Shi'ite protesters have gathered at a Saudi mosque as officials plan to execute more than 50 prisoners in a single day, reports say.

The demonstrators assembled at Imam Hussein Mosque in Awamiya, a largely Shi'ite town in the oil-producing Eastern Province, to demand the release of activists on death row.

They also closed off roads in the area with burning debris, residents said.

Those about to be put to death reportedly include Ali al Nimr, who was only 17 when he was arrested in 2012.

Capital punishment

Executions in Iran could top 1,000 in 2015, says UN
Executions in Iran have been rising at “an exponential rate” since 2005 and could top 1,000 this year as the country cracks down on drug offenders, a UN investigator said Tuesday.Ahmed Shaheed said in a report to the General Assembly and at media briefings that Iran executes more individuals per capita than any other country in the world.

He said the majority of executions violate international laws that ban the use of capital punishment for non-violent offenses and for juveniles. He urged Iran to impose a moratorium on the death penalty in those cases, and for all but the “most serious crimes” where it can be shown there was an intention to kill that resulted in the loss of life.

Capital punishment

Death penalty states illegally imported drugs for executions despite warnings

Death penalty states are locked in a legal battle with the federal government after regulators intercepted shipments of illegally imported anesthetics that were destined to be used in executions as part of lethal injection protocols.

Documents released by the Arizona department of corrections as a result of a lawsuit led by the Guardian and joined by several Arizona news organizations reveal that the state’s department of corrections (DoC) was clearly warned by federal officials against illegally importing the drugs. Yet the documents in Guardian versus the DoC director Charles Ryan show that days later the state went ahead with importing the drugs regardless.

Capital punishment

IRAN KICKS OFF 2015 EXECUTIONS AT RECORD-SETTING PACE

At its current pace, Iran will put around 1000 people to death, which would shatter last year’s record under “moderate” President Hassan Rouhani, which saw 721 Iranians reportedly executed by their own government.

The Iranian regime started 2015 off with a bang, executing a reported fifteen individuals,including four women. In an officially recognized execution on January 17th, the Fars Province Justice released a picture showing two men hanging from a noose.

On Christmas Day, 2014, the Iranian government hanged at least nine prisoners, according to multiple reports.

Capital punishment

Arkansas judge halts executions following challenge to secrecy law

An Arkansas judge on Friday halted the upcoming executions of eight death row inmates, dealing a blow to the state's efforts to begin putting prisoners to death for the first time in a decade.

Pulaski County Circuit Court Judge Wendell Griffen issued a stay for all eight of the state's scheduled executions, the first two of which were set for Oct. 21. In a separate filing, he denied most of the state's request to dismiss the case and said within a few days he would schedule a hearing in the inmates' ongoing case.

The inmates are challenging a new Arkansas law that allows the state to withhold any information that could publicly identify the manufacturers or sellers of its execution drugs.

Capital punishment

How Lethal Injection Works

Virtually all of the 32 American states that allow the death penalty rely on a deadly chemical cocktail to slowly and quietly kill the condemned. But America has found itself running dangerously low on sodium pentothal, the injection's primary ingredient, after the only US supplier stopped making it. So how are they supposed to kill the 3,000-plus inmates currently on Death Row? Guillotine? Actually, the doctor who developed lethal injections in the first place thinks it might be more humane.

Whether you personally agree with the practice or not, capital punishment has long been a fundamental component of government. From the founding of the earliest city-states, the rule of law has been built on the state-sanctioned execution of a society's most heinous transgressors. While the method of execution has changed over the millennia, its message remains the same: government—and only government—has the right to take the lives of its citizens.