[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., GA., ALA., OKLA., USA
April 20 TEXAS: Arlington shoe store murder trial begins with death penalty on the table The trial of a man accused of killing a shoe store clerk during an Arlington robbery back in 2014 began on Monday. Jacob Everett, 21, is charged with capital murder and could face the death penalty if convicted. He pleaded not guilty as his trial began, but pleaded guilty to a charge of aggravated robbery. On Feb. 25, 2014, Randy Pacheco, 23, was working his shift as a manager at the Red Wing Shoe Store on Cooper Street in Arlington, when police say Everett shot and killed him while stealing $200. During opening arguments on Monday, the prosecution revealed Pacheco was shot once in between the eyes. There was surveillance video of the suspect, and it was broadcasted widely on television at the time of the murder. Dozens of tips led police to learn the vehicle involved in the crime had been traded in. Police eventually tracked down the owner of that vehicle and arrested Everett. By lunchtime Monday, the prosecution had already called 3 witnesses -- the 1st officer on scene, a crime scene investigator and the store's owner. The prosecution says it plans to call 12 witnesses in total, and the defense announced during opening statements that Everett would also be testifying in his own defense. (source: WFAA news) NORTH CAROLINA: Raleigh man could face the death penalty if convicted of pregnant girlfriend's murder A Wake County district court judge on Monday told a 25-year-old Raleigh man he could be put to death if he is convicted of the 1st-degree murder of his pregnant girlfriend. Daniel Joseph Steele, who lives on Snowcrest Lane, made his 1st court appearance after he was charged late Saturday with the shooting death of Kimberly Dianne Richardson. Emergency dispatchers alerted police at 9:40 p.m. Saturday about a shooting in the 3600 block of Sumner Boulevard near the Triangle Town Center mall in North Raleigh. Police found Richardson, who was 6 months pregnant. Emergency workers rushed her to WakeMed in Raleigh, where she later died. Richardson's baby, a girl, survived the shooting. She remained hospitalized Monday at WakeMed. A hospital spokeswoman said she could not comment about the child's condition because the family has requested privacy. Investigators arrested Steele at his home later that night. Police have not disclosed a motive for the slaying. They have not yet said if Steele is the father of Richardson's baby. Richardson lived in Raleigh, but grew up in Youngsville, according to her Facebook page. She also posted on her Facebook page that she worked at Zales jewelry store at the mall where she was shot, as well as being a freelance videographer and trained cosmetologist. Richardson was behind Party City, a retail store, where she used her cellphone to dial 911 and ask a dispatcher for help. I been shot, she told the dispatcher, in a weak, fading voice. I can't talk. He shot me. (source: newsobserver.com) GEORGIA: Man Charged in 4 Deaths Driven by 'Bloodlust,' Document Says A man accused of killing 3 men as they slept outside and a woman walking to her car near Atlanta initially set out to rob people but was driven by a bloodlust after killing his 1st victim, according to a court filing. Aeman Presley, 34, faces charges including murder in the killings of 2 homeless men in Atlanta, a man sleeping outside a shopping center in neighboring DeKalb County and a hairdresser who was heading home after a dinner out with friends in a nearby suburb. The Fulton County and DeKalb County district attorneys have both said they intend to seek the death penalty against him. Presley is due for his 1st appearance before a DeKalb County judge Monday. Presley took a Greyhound bus from Los Angeles to Atlanta in May 2014 hoping to rejuvenate his beleaguered acting career, according to a sworn statement by an investigator with the Fulton County district attorney's office. The statement was made in support of a request for a search warrant to obtain Presley's cellphone records. Presley moved into a homeless shelter in Atlanta and took odd jobs at a restaurant and catering company to make money. But as his money began to run out, he sought other ways to earn a living, the statement says. He bought a Taurus .45 revolver from someone on the street in August and took a bus to DeKalb County on Sept. 26 intending to find someone to rob, the statement says. He saw a man, later identified as 53-year-old Calvin Gholston, sleeping in a breezeway at a shopping center, and instead of trying to rob him, Presley shot him three times, killing him, the statement says. Immediately thereafter, Presley experienced a self-described adrenaline fueled high, the statement says. This high manifested into a 'bloodlust' which compelled Presley to commit 2 more murders in Fulton County. Presley approached 42-year-old Dorian Jenkins
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
April 20 GUINEA: Guinea prosecutor demands death penalty over Ebola murders A prosecutor called Monday for the death penalty for 15 people accused of the murders of a nine-member Ebola education team in southern Guinea, judicial sources said. The victims, including local health officials and journalists, went missing after their delegation came under attack from angry locals during an outreach visit to the southern town of Womey in September last year. 8 bodies were recovered from the septic tank of a nearby primary school 2 days after the attack. Williams Fernandez, prosecuting at the trial in the southern city of N'Zerekore, said 26 defendants had been accused of a raft of offences including murder, criminal conspiracy, robbery, assault and theft. He called for 15 accused to be sentenced to death and for the remaining 11 to be acquitted. Michel Labile Sonomou, who is defending 1 of the accused, told AFP the 5-week trial was due to sum up at the end of the week. Closing arguments for the defence begin on Tuesday. The deadliest Ebola epidemic on record has killed nearly 11,000 people in west Africa, according to the World Health Organization. The virus emerged in Guinea in December 2013 and quickly spread, accompanied by fear and paranoia among villagers who felt the government and the international community could not be trusted. Many Guineans believed local and foreign healthcare workers were part of a conspiracy to deliberately introduce the outbreak, or invented it as a means of luring Africans to clinics to harvest their blood and organs. A police lieutenant told AFP the Womey outreach team was targeted by protesters who had come to kill them because they think Ebola is nothing more than an invention of white people to kill black people. At least 21 people were wounded during violent scenes in which the team was pelted with stones, according to local police. (source: Agence France-Presse) IRAN: Executions in a week reaches 81 Coincident with mass executions in the prisons of Ghezel-Hessar, Karaj and other cities, the anti-human regime of mullahs sent 16 other prisoners to the gallows in Mashhad and Birjand (northeastern Iran). 12 of them were hanged collectively in Vakilabad prison of Mashhad on April 16, and the other 4 were executed in Birjand prison the following day. Thus, the number of executions from 12 to 18 April reached 81, meaning 12 executions per day. The unprecedented increase in the wave of executions after the Lausanne nuke framework is a clear indication of the mullahs' desperate need of creating an atmosphere of fear in the society to confront the explosive situation. Iranian Resistance calls on Iranian brave youths to express their solidarity with the families of the executed and prisoners, and to protest against this criminal move in the country. It also underscores the need for ousting this bloodthirsty and fascist regime from the world community. (source: Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran) INDONESIA: Bali nine executions: Iranians on Indonesia's death row have sentences commuted to life in prison 2 Iranians found guilty of smuggling 40 kilograms of methamphetamine in Indonesia have had their death sentences commuted to life imprisonment. The Bandung High Court said in its decision that sentencing was not about revenge, but a form of education so that in the future the defendant wouldn't conduct another criminal act, according to news website Rappler. This ruling is at odds with Indonesian president Joko Widodo's repeated claims that the death penalty for drug felons is a necessary shock therapy for a country facing a drug emergency. 10 drug offenders, including Bali nine organisers Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan, are facing imminent death by firing squad in Indonesia. The date has not yet been fixed but the Attorney-General said it would be unseemly to kill them while the Asian African conference was being held this week. The Iranians, Mosavipour bin Sayed Abdollah, 36, and Moradalivand bin Moradali, 32, were arrested by the National Narcotics Agency on February 26, 2014. They were caught picking up the methamphetamines in bags which had been buried in the Tangkuban Perahu Nature Reserve in West Java. The Iranians were sentenced to death in January, even though the prosecutors only sought sentences of 15-20 years. However the death penalty was overruled by the Bandung High Court on March 30, according to the decision published on the court website on Monday. The inconsistency of the application of the law in Indonesia is deeply distressing for those on death row and one of the reasons advanced for the abolition of capital punishment. Meanwhile, 1 of the 10 felons on death row, Nigerian Raheem Agbaje Salami, had his appeal thrown out of the Administrative Court on Monday. The court said clemency was the prerogative of the
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----OKLA., USA
April 20 OKLAHOMA: 'No guarantee nitrogen gas execution is painless' Oklahoma has added the gas chamber to its execution methods. The head of the Death Penalty Information Center, Robert Dunham, told RT the decision was made hastily, with no medical research and that nitrogen was inappropriate for use on humans. RT:What was your reaction to the news? Robert Dunham: I think my reaction is the one of disappointment. It shows first that the legislature in Oklahoma and the government of Oklahoma are out of step with the views of vast majority of Americans and are certainly out of step with the views of the rest of the world. Oklahoma moved very very swiftly because their lethal injection protocol is under attack to come up with some alternative method of execution. But in doing so there is no medical research, there is no indication of a very very fast legislative response here. There is no indication that they looked into what the experience has been with the veterinarians, and animals and things along those lines. And it turns out if you look at what the American Veterinarian Association has said, nitrogen gas is inappropriate for use among most mammals, and particularly large mammals which of course human beings are. RT: State officials say the new method is painless. But it has never been tested on humans - so how do they know? RD: It has not been tested on humans because it is unethical to test it on humans. But I think what is really instructive is the language used by the Oklahoma legislatures and the Oklahoma governor drawing this entire process. It is virtually identical to what the legislatures were saying when they went into lethal injection. They without a whole lot of research and without medical experience to back it up were saying that the lethal injection is going to be swift, is going to be painless, and is going to be effective. So this is the same rhetoric. There is no guarantee whatsoever. It may work. It may be painless, but we don't know. And it is unethical to experiment and find out. RT: Are there any humane ways of executing people? RD: I don't know what the answer to that is. I can tell you that the people of good will, whether you're for the death penalty or against the death penalty, if it is going to get carried out you want it to get done in a manner as quick and as painless as possible. And recent polls in the US show that among the death penalty proponents that view is held by over 70 % of people who say that they support the death penalty. As Pope Francis recently said, the is no humane way to execute somebody. At its core the death penalty is a violent act. The execution of a person, the taking of their life against their will is a violent act. And I think the failures of lethal injection and the swift but not particularly thoughtful reaction by states like Utah with their firing squad proposal and Oklahoma with the gas proposal just kind of illustrates that when legislatures are having these really fast, thoughtless responses, they're not taking into consideration things you would expect a careful legislature would. RT: How do you believe this sensitive subject should be handled? RD: I think there is a rising concern about the problems with the death penalty in the United States. And that concern - there're a lot of reasons for it. With the innocence revolution, with the development of DNA technology, there have been more and more instances we've seen people who are innocent coming off the death row. In the last month alone in the US there have been two death row exoneration. And one of the scariest things about this is, you know with DNA you're able to examine whether somebody did the offense or did not do the offense. DNA is not present in vast majority of these cases. It is available as an evidentuary tool in maybe 10-15 % of the cases. And what we have learned with the DNA cases is, every other piece of evidence that was used to convict the person is wrong. And so we have seen a disturbing number of confessions that are either false or fabricated. We have seen eye witness identification that simply is incorrect. We have seen things like prison informants giving false information, and an extraordinary amount of preceptorial or police misconduct. So what the DNA has shown us is that you can't really have a whole lot of confidence in the rest legal process in capital cases. And I think the folks in the US are very concerned about that and it is one of the reasons why support for the death penalty is at a forty year low in our country. (source: rt.com) USA: More marathon survivors come out against death penaltyPenalty phase of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev trial to begin Tuesday 2 people who lost limbs in the Boston Marathon bombing have come out in opposition of the death penalty for convicted bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Married couple Jessica Kensky and Patrick Downes join the parents
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
April 20 IRANexecutions 13 Unreported Executions in Different Cities During Last 2 Weeks During the last 2 weeks, 13 prisoners who had been sentenced to death, were hanged in different cities in Iran, which has not been mentioned in any report, so far. According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency in Iran (HRANA), these executions have not been announced by the authorities or the media, and its report just recently has been given to HRANA. According to HRANA, 3 prisoners of drug related crimes were hanged on 26th March, in Vakil Abad Prison in Mashhad and on 29th March, one prisoner alleged with drug crimes, named Hashem Firouzi was executed in Shiraz. On 30th March, 2 prisoners in Bushehr prison, who were sentenced to death, in retaliation of murder, were executed. On 31st March, a prisoner who had been charged with homicide was executed in prison of Dizelabad, in Kermanshah. Also, 4 prisoners who had been charged with drug related crimes, in Shiraz, were executed on 5th April, and on 9th April, 2 prisoners with homicide charges, named Eisa Ali Zehi and Manochehr Ghafori were executed in prison of Bandar Abbas. *** 6 Prisoners Hanged in Esfahan and Shiraz 6 prisoners were hanged in Shiraz and Isfahan. According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency in Iran (HRANA), on Monday 13th April, 4 prisoners with drug-related charges were executed in Esfahan prison. One of them has been identified as Siamak Ranjbari. Also, on Tuesday, retaliation sentences for 2 brothers, Ali and Reza Sardari, were executed in Adel Abad prison in Shiraz. No official information in this regard has been announced by the judiciary and other official institutions, whereas, according to Human Rights Activists in Iran, the process of executions in the last several weeks has intensified in most of cities in Iran. (source for both: Human Rights Activists News Agency) 65 executions in one week In face of extensive domestic and external crises, especially pursuant to one-step retreat in the nuclear negotiations, and concurrent with the expansion of protests by teachers and workers, as well as other strata of the society, the anti-human clerical regime has unprecedentedly ramped up executions in fear of growing popular uprisings. Over 70% of the executions have been carried out in secret and the clerical regime has not published any information on these atrocities. In the past week (from April 12 to 18), henchmen hanged at least 65 prisoners. Forty-five of these have been executed just in Karaj City prisons. On April 13, 8 prisoners were hanged in Karaj???s Central Prison while 13 other prisoners were executed in Ghezel Hessar Prison. On the next day, 19 prisoners were hanged in Gohardasht Prison. And on April 15, henchmen hanged five prisoners in Gohardasht. Among those executed was Javad Saberi, a juvenile at the time of his arrest. During this period, 1 prisoner was hanged on April 12 in Mehriz (Yazd Province), 8 prisoners were hanged on April 12 and 15 in Arak, 3 were hanged on April 14 and 15 in Shiraz, 4 prisoners were hanged on April 13 in Esfahan, and 4 were hanged in Zahedan on April 18. 2 of those executions, in Mehriz and in Shiraz, were public hangings. A considerable number of prisoners executed were young under 30 and were among the prisoners who had protested the wave of collective executions in Ghezel Hessar Prison back in August. A number of the prisoners executed on pretext of drug smuggling had no drug related cases according to their families. Prisoners in Karaj prisons staged protests on April 12 following the transfer of their cellmates to solitary confinement in preparation to carry out the criminal execution sentences. Protesting prisoner chanted: We shall not let you kill us. Similarly, families of the prisoners on the verge of execution also gathered in front of the prisons and shouted: We shall not let you execute them. It is said that in the weeks ahead, the clerical regime is planning to hang 200 prisoners on the death row in Gohardasht and Ghezel Hessar prisons. Many of the families of prisoners have been asked to refer to prisons to meet with their loved ones for the last time. In fear of prisoners' revolt, mullahs' regime has transferred those to be executed to prisons in nearby cities, including the Larger Tehran Prison in Hassanabad Varamin Road and the Central Prison of Qazvin. The Iranian Resistance urges the people, especially the youth, to protest these criminal executions and to express their sympathy and solidarity with the victims' families. It further stresses that the silence and inaction of the international community for the sake of nuclear talks in the wake of the spike in collective and arbitrary executions only encourages these murderers to kill more of the Iranian people while continuing their march to obtain the
