[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
Sept. 11 IRANexecution Prisoner Hanged in Borujerd CityThe execution has not been announced by the Iranian authorities or media so far. A prisoner was executed almost a month ago at a prison in Lorestan province, Iran. The execution has not been announced by the Iranian authorities or media so far. According to IHR sources, on the morning of August 7, 2019, a prisoner hanged at the central prison of the Iranian city of Borujerd, Lorestan province. His name was revealed as Toranj Feizi, 37. He was arrested four years ago and sentenced to death for a murder charge. At least 110 people were executed in Iran in the first half of 2019; Only 37 of the executions have been announced by authorities or Iranian media. Iran Human Rights (IHR) could confirm 73 more through its sources. IHR only reports the unannounced executions if it could confirm those with two separate credible sources. Therefore, the actual number of executions may be even higher than reported. There is a lack of a classification of murder by degree in Iran which results in issuing a death sentence for any kind of murder regardless of intensity and intent. (source: Iran Human Rights) SINGAPORE: Man gets death penalty for trafficking heroin A 59-year-old man was sentenced to death in the High Court after being found in possession of 52.75 g of diamorphine, also known as heroin, for the purpose of drug trafficking. Justice Aedit Abdullah, in judgment grounds issued on Monday, held that the case against Sulaiman Jumari had been proven beyond reasonable doubt. He found that Sulaiman had control over the room where he had been arrested and no one else would have had access to it, and the elements of the charge had been made out by the prosecution. Sulaiman had been nabbed by Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) officers while alone in a rented room in Lorong 39 Geylang on June 23, 2016. The drugs, contained in 22 packets, were recovered from a wardrobe, a bedside table and a bed in the room. At issue were three packets containing 49.86g of heroin inside a wardrobe drawer that did not have his DNA on them, unlike other exhibits. Sulaiman did not dispute possession of the other packets containing 2.89g of heroin recovered from the bedside table. But he claimed he did not know the three packets with 49.86g of heroin were in his room. The Misuse of Drugs Act provides for the death penalty if the amount trafficked exceeds 15g. He said other people had access to the room, including on the day he was arrested, and the packets could have been placed in the wardrobe drawer without his knowledge. His defence lawyers, led by Mr Anand Nalachandran, further argued that the statement he gave at the time of his arrest should not be admitted, or it should be given minimal weight, alleging that Sulaiman had been induced to give it. But the prosecution led by Deputy Public Prosecutor April Phang said Sulaiman had admitted clearly, in the statement he gave shortly after the drugs were discovered in his room, that the drugs in the three packets belonged to him, and he knew they contained heroin and were meant both for smoking and for sale. Among other things, when asked by CNB officers if he had anything to surrender as he was placed under arrest, Sulaiman said "three" and gestured at the wardrobe. A search revealed the 3 packets. The prosecution noted the drug trafficking paraphernalia found together with the quantity of drugs showed he meant to sell drugs. Justice Aedit said no evidence was presented during the 11-day trial to support Sulaiman's version that the packets had been put in the wardrobe by someone else. "For someone to have left the (3 packets) there without his knowing of it was beyond any reasonable belief," said the judge. He also found that Sulaiman's statement at the time of arrest was not given as a result of any inducement or any adverse conditions. Sulaiman, having been convicted, faces the death penalty unless he was a courier who had given substantive help to the authorities or was found to have mental abnormalities. "As the accused was found to have had the drugs for sale, he did not qualify for the alternative sentencing regime, and accordingly the death sentence was passed against him," said Justice Aedit. (source: straitstimes.com) PHILIPPINES/SYRIA: Manila hails conviction of Filipina’s murderer in Syria Filipino authorities said on Tuesday that justice has finally been served in the case of an overseas worker after her Syrian employer was found guilty of her murder in Kuwait last year. The body of 29-year-old Joanna Demafelis was found stuffed in a freezer at an abandoned apartment. The Department of Foreign Affairs said on Monday that a Syrian district criminal court had found Mouna Ali Hassoun guilty of her murder, with a prison sentence ranging from 8-15 years expected. “We welcome the news, which means that
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., S.C., OHIO, WYO., CALIF., USA
Sept. 11 TEXASexecution Texas Inmate Mark Soliz Executed for 2010 Killing“I want to apologize for the grief and the pain that I caused y’all,” he said before receiving a lethal injection. A Texas death-row inmate convicted of murdering a 61-year-old woman during a robbery in 2010 was executed on Tuesday night, becoming the state’s 6th execution this year. Mark Soliz, 37, died by lethal injection despite claims by his lawyers that he suffered from fetal alcohol spectrum disorder and therefore should be spared from execution. Soliz was the 15th prisoner put to death this year. Despite his hopes for a reprieve from the death penalty, Soliz reportedly did not file a last-minute appeal with the Supreme Court. According to The Huntsville Item, Soliz was apologetic to the family of his victim—Nancy Weatherly—in his final statement. “I want to apologize for the grief and the pain that I caused y’all,” Soliz reportedly said to the 2 members of the Weatherly family who attended the execution. “I’ve been considering changing my life, it took me 27 years to do so. I don’t know if me passing will bring y’all comfort for the pain and suffering I caused y’all. I’m at peace.” Soliz and his lawyers went through the appeals process for years, with the most recent denial reportedly coming last week. His lawyers had cited a decision two weeks ago by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which stayed the execution of Dexter Johnson based on new standards for evaluating mental disability. “They’re almost identical,” Soliz’s lawyer, Seth Kretzer, said of the 2 cases. “It’s simply not right to execute the mentally disabled,” Kretzer said, adding that he knows they may not prevail. “Hope is a very dangerous thing to have in prison. We’ve used every legal tool we can to fight this and now we just have to wait.” Under the old medical standards, Soliz’s IQ of more than 70 meant he did not qualify as mentally disabled. But under new criteria, Soliz’s lawyers say his diagnosis of fetal alcohol syndrome should qualify him as mentally disabled and ultimately save him from a lethal dose of pentobarbital. “Because Mr. Soliz suffers from fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, he should be categorically exempted from the death penalty under the 8th amendment to the United States constitution,” his lawyers argued in court documents. “[Fetal alcohol syndrome] is the functional equivalent of the conditions already recognized as disqualifying exemptions to the death penalty such as intellectual disability.” Soliz’s mother was a prostitute who drank and huffed glue during her pregnancy. He scored 75 on his last IQ test, which falls within the 70-84 range considered borderline intellectual functioning, according to an evaluation paid for by his lawyers and reported in the Austin Chronicle. Greg Westfall, who represented Soliz during his 2012 trial, said that in a different jurisdiction, his client would have received a life sentence. “Johnson County has a huge evangelical presence and a large amount of people who believe in the death penalty,” he said, adding, “and there’s racial overtones to the case. He’s a Hispanic who killed a white grandmother.” Soliz’s deadly crime spree began in June 22, 2010, when he and co-defendant Jose Ramos stole several guns. The pair went on to steal from several stores and killed a man in one of the robberies, making a widow of his eight-months pregnant wife. (Ramos pleaded guilty and was given a life sentence for the slaying.) On June 29, 2010, Weatherly, a grandmother and engineer at an aerospace company in Godley, Texas, heard her doorbell ring around 10:30 a.m. and opened her front door to find Soliz pointing a Hi-Point 9 mm semiautomatic handgun in her face. Soliz brought her inside and began to search the house for valuables. When she asked him not to take her deceased mother’s jewelry box, he told her she would join her mother shortly and shot her in the back of the head. (source: thedaiylbeast.com) Texas executes man who killed woman during spate of crimes A Texas death row inmate was executed Tuesday for fatally shooting a 61-year-old grandmother at her North Texas home nearly a decade ago during an 8-day spate of crimes that included thefts and another killing. Mark Anthony Soliz, 37, received a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville for the June 2010 slaying of Nancy Weatherly during a robbery at her rural home near Godley, located 30 miles (48 kilometers) southwest of Fort Worth. Soliz was the 15th inmate put to death this year in the U.S. It was the 6th execution in Texas and the 2nd in as many weeks in the state. 9 more executions are scheduled this year in Texas, the nation's busiest capital punishment state. During a 5-minute final statement, Soliz apologized profusely from the death chamber gurney. "I don't know if me passing will bring y'all comfort for
