[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
May 4 IRANexecutions Iran's Rajai Shahr Prison: 8 Prisoners Including Women Hanged in 1 Day On Wednesday May 3, 8 prisoners, including 2 unidentified women, were reportedly hanged at Karaj's Rajai Shahr Prison. According to close sources, the majority of these prisoners were executed on murder charges. 5 other prisoners, including Mehdi Bahlouli, were returned to their cells after their execution sentences were halted. The men who were executed were among a group of 11 prisoners who were transferred to solitary confinement on May 29 in preparation for their executions. Iran Human Rights had reported on these imminent executions. Close sources have identified the men as: Maziar Alaie Bakhsh, Jabbar Mollahashemi, Shayan Shaddel, Mohammad Jegarki, Mahmoud Bayat and Ali Maleki. "In September 2012, Ali got involved in a group fight situation to defend his little brother. At that time, he had accepted responsibility for the murder that occurred, in order to protect his brother," a family member of Ali Maleki tells Iran Human Rights." The names of the 2 women who were also executed are not known at this time. A prisoner has reported to Iran Human Rights that these 2 women were transferred to Rajai Shahr Prison from Gharchak Varamin Prison. Close sources say that they were sentenced to death on murder charges. Execution Sentences of 5 Prisoners Halted 5 prisoners, including Mehdi Bahlouli and Majid Agharahimi, were temporarily spared from execution. Iranian official sources, including the media and the Judiciary, have not announced any of the executions or imminent executions mentioned in this report. (source: iranhr.net) IRAQ: Death penalty for suspects charged with Islamic preacher's murder in Erbil A court in Erbil has issued the death penalty for individuals charged with the murder of Islamic preacher Hoshyar Ismail in November last year, the family's lawyer said on Thursday (May 4). Gunmen shot and killed Ismail at his home at around midnight on November 22 in Erbil. He died at West Erbil Emergency Hospital as a result of the gunshot wounds from the attack. Following the attack, Erbil security forces detained 2 suspects on November 27. The lawyer taking charge of the murder case on behalf of Ismail, Birzo Saeed, told reporters that Erbil court had sentenced the perpetrators to death according to Article 406 of Iraqi Penal Code. The lawyer added that the case will remain open and a further investigation would be launched to see if other people were behind the murder. The brother of the Islamic preacher, Kamal Ismail, said the family was "happy for the court's decision." Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU) representative, Bakir Qadir, who attended the trial told NRT that the Erbil court had carried out its job. The perpetrators in the case admitted to the murder of Ismail and said no one else was behind the killing. Head of KIU's Political Council, Hadi Ali, said last month that the perpetrators were known and from the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP). The murder of Ismail led to overwhelming reactions from senior Kurdish officials and political parties at the time who called for a fair investigation into the incident. Ismail, who was 40 years old, had a doctorate in philosophy in the interpretation of the Quran. He was a preacher for 13 years in the Kurdistan Region. (source: nrttv.com) QATAR: Murdered teacher's mother 'relieved' as Qatari court upholds death sentence The mother of a British primary school teacher murdered in Qatar 4 years ago has spoken of her relief after the killer had his death sentence upheld. Badr Hashim Khamis Abdullah Al-Jabar was found guilty by a court in Doha in 2014 of killing Lauren Patterson, 24, in the Gulf state a year earlier. His accomplice Muhammad Abdullah Hassan Abdul Aziz was jailed for 3 years for reportedly helping burn the body of the Briton, originally from Chislehurst, in south-east London. Miss Patterson had been working at the Newton British School in the Qatari capital. She disappeared in Doha on October 12, 2013. Local media reported at the time that she was last seen outside the city's 5-star La Cigale hotel. On Sunday, an appeal court in Qatar upheld the death penalty, a spokesman at the Foreign Office said. In a statement on Wednesday, her mother Alison said the family remained devastated but felt justice had been done. She said: "Following Sunday's court hearing, I am feeling very emotional but relieved that the trial is now over. "The family remain devastated by the senseless and tragic events of October 2013, but due to the thoroughness of the judicial process in Qatar we now feel that justice has thankfully prevailed for Lauren. "I would like to thank all those who have supported me during this difficult process and request that our family's privacy be respected at this time." (source: aol.co.uk) INDIA: Indian court
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----ARK., OKLA., KAN., NEB., COLO., USA
May 4 ARKANSAS: Recent Arkansas Executions Demonstrate Need For Greater Media Access To Capital Punishment Arkansas' recent spate of executions of prisoners on death row, conducted with the use of nearly expired and improperly obtained drugs, was marred by reports that the drugs used were ineffective and caused the inmates to suffer. But uncertainty about what happened to inmates in the death chamber illustrates the need for greater reporter access to these events -- life and death stories for which they may be the only impartial witness. The Arkansas Department of Corrections executed 4 men in 8 days, an abridged version of its initial, unprecedented plan to execute 8 men in 11 days before 1 of its lethal injection drugs expired. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer called using the expiration date "as a determining factor separating those who live from those who die ... close to random." 4 other planned executions were blocked by court orders for multiple reasons, including possible issues with the clemency process and concerns over use of the sedative midazolam. The four executions were the first in Arkansas since 2005, and at least two of them may have been botched. But because of Arkansas' restrictions on media access to executions, the public may never know for certain. As The Associated Press' (AP) Kelly Kissel noted: About 2 dozen people witness each execution in Arkansas, though the term "witness" is a misnomer. No one among the media or citizen witnesses can see as the inmate is secured to a gurney, watch as medical personnel place intravenous lines or hear what's happening as the actual execution takes place. If there's a dispute over what happened, resolution is difficult. Sure enough, events in two of four executions in Arkansas are already in dispute. Lawyers say that during Jack Jones' execution, "infirmary workers had tried unsuccessfully to insert a central line in Mr. Jones's neck for 45 minutes, before placing it elsewhere on his body" and that "Mr. Jones gulped for air during the execution ... 'evidence of continued consciousness.'" The state of Arkansas contradicted these reports, and because of the witness restrictions Kissel described, neither claim is independently verifiable. Similarly, during the execution of Kenneth Williams, as NBC News reported, "Media witnesses reported [Williams] 'coughing, convulsing, lurching, jerking' for a 10 to 20 second period." Kissel, who was present at the execution, "explained that Williams 'lurched' 15 times in quick succession, followed by 5 slower lurches, 3 minutes after the sedative midazolam was introduced." Witnesses stated that Williams could be heard even after the mic was shut off. State Sen. Trent Garner, R-El Dorado, a citizen witness to the execution, described the movements in a federal court affidavit as "brief involuntary muscle spasms" and noted that he saw no evidence of "pain or suffering," such as a grimace. As a result of the conflicting witness accounts surrounding Williams' death, a federal judge has called for his execution to be investigated more closely. It is reportedly not unusual for states to record executions. Of the four states in which executions were held this year, taping was permitted at least in Texas (Media Matters was unable to ascertain whether Virginia or Missouri allow audio or video recording during executions). But the Arkansas Department of Corrections does not audio or video record its executions and, even in written next-day logs, the department does not typically document the specific times that the drugs are administered or that the inmate is deemed unconscious. And in the case of Ledell Lee, the 1st person Arkansas executed this year, the state told media witnesses that they would not be allowed to document his execution using pen and paper. Although the Department of Corrections reversed its decision just half an hour before Lee was set to be executed, it is unclear whether the reversal will remain. Over the last several years, a number of executions in various states have been both reported and confirmed to have been botched, as states use untested and potentially dangerous combinations of drugs, many of which were not created for the purpose of lethal injection. Drug companies are increasingly objecting to use of their drugs to kill people, making it harder for states to obtain those drugs. And the relationship between prisons and lethal injection drug manufacturers that do permit the use of their drugs in executions has become less transparent, with several states attempting to enact secrecy laws to protect their suppliers. Questionable execution practices make transparency and media access a needed check on the system, but reports suggest that some states are actually making the execution process less transparent. KUAR, an NPR affiliate in Little Rock, AR, reported that Texas, Missouri, and Virginia -- the only
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, DEL. N.C., GA., FLA., ALA., OHIO
May 4 TEXAS: 13 % of Texas death row inmates wait 25 years or more for execution Texas has executed 23 inmates since 2014, but 32 of the 238 condemned inmates have been awaiting execution for 25 years or more. That wait is nearly a decade more than the average time elapsed between conviction and execution nationally. Scroll through the gallery to see which Texas death row inmates have waited more than 25 years for execution For some Texas death row inmates, being condemned can feel like a life sentence. Roughly 13 % (30 of 238) of the inmates awaiting execution in the Lone Star State have been on death row for 25 years or more. That length of stay is nearly a decade above the national average time awaiting execution of 15 years and 9 months. The longest resident of death row in Texas, Raymond Riles, has been sitting in solitary confinement (except for doctor visits and court appearances) since February 1976. Since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976, 41 inmates on death row have died either of natural causes or suicide while awaiting execution. This is in a state that has executed 23 people in the last 3 years and isn't shy about carrying out death sentences. But, the state is also suing the federal government to get a hold of a shipment of the lethal injection drug Pentobarbital. While that is tied up in court, there's little the state can do if it runs out of the current supply of the sedative, prolonging the time on death row for the inmates and the wait for the victim's families. (source: Houston Chronicle) DELAWARE: Death penalty supporters pass 1st test Legislators from both parties say they will try to re-institute the death penalty in Delaware this year, but might they face an uphill battle. The General Assembly took the 1st step towards reinstating the death penalty in Delaware on Wednesday when a committee voted 7-4 to send legislation to the the full House of Representatives for a vote. A vote in the full House is expected on Thursday. The "Extreme Crimes Protection Act" comfortably passed the 11-member House Judiciary committee, but the almost 2-hour hearing foreshadowed the intensity of the battle that will be waged in Legislative Hall over the coming weeks. Supporters of the legislation said it would limit the punishment to truly abominable crimes that can be proved with the highest standards of truth. But opponents of the legislation said changing the way sentences are delivered doesn't change their opinion that the death penalty is fundamentally wrong. "I don't think the state should be in the business of committing homicide, no more than I think anyone else should be in the business of committing homicide," said Rep. J.J. Johnson, D-New Castle. Delaware's current capital punishment law is unenforceable after the state Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional last year. In a 4-1 vote, the Court faulted the law for allowing a judge to find that aggravating circumstances in a crime merited a death sentence without a unanimous jury agreeing. Aggravating circumstances can include things like crimes committed against a police officer, crimes in which hostages are taken or if the crimes that are "outrageously or wantonly vile, horrible or inhuman in that it involved torture or depravity of mind." A group of lawmakers, both Republicans and Democrats, are pushing to change the law to address those concerns. Their legislation would require a unanimous jury to rule on the aggravating circumstances and raise the burden of proof to the highest standard. "We're not trying to enact capital punishment, we're trying to restore it," said Rep. Steve Smyk, R-Milton, the bill's chief House sponsor. Dozens of members of the public testified during the hearing. Many of those speaking in favor of the bill were law enforcement officers. "We have seen over the years that there are some truly evil people who commit truly heinous crimes," said Lt. Tom Brackin, head of the Delaware State Police Troopers Association. "The troopers I represent and myself believe you do have to have the ultimate punishment for the ultimate crime." Peggy Marshall Thomas, the former chief prosecutor in Sussex County, recalled prosecuting a person who was convicted of five homicides, including 2 different incidents after being jailed the first time. She invoked the death of Lt. Stephen J. Ballard, who was gunned down in Bear last week. "The murder of the uniformed officer is an extreme act of violence that undermines our peaceful and lawful society," she said. Brendan O'Neill, the state's public defender, said the cost of the death penalty should give state leaders pause. His office alone has saved significant money in the period without capital punishment cases, he said. O'Neill and many other speakers who opposed the bill also noted that those executed by the death penalty are disproportionately poor and black. "If
