[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
September 28 VIETNAM: 3 drug traffickers arrested in northern Vietnam Police of Vietnam's northern Son La province said on Friday they detained 3 local men on Thursday when they were transporting 10 cakes of heroin. The trio included Hang A Giong, 38, Hang A Ho, 34, and Hang A Ly, 29, all from Son La's Muong La district. The provincial police were further investigating the case. According to the Vietnamese law, those convicted of smuggling over 600 grams of heroin or more than 2.5 kg of methamphetamine are punishable by death. Making or trading 100 grams of heroin or 300 grams of other illegal drugs also faces death penalty. (source: xinhuanet.com) INDONESIA: Bengkalis court sentences 2 drug traffickers to death A group of activists ask President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo to postpone the execution of death row inmate Merri Utami in a peaceful rally on Jl.Pahlawan in Semarang, Central Java, on Thursday. The President was also called on to grant the clemency request Merri had filed. The Bengkalis District Court in Riau sentenced 2 people to death on Wednesday after they were found guilty of violating the Narcotics Law by transporting 10 kilograms of powdered methamphetamine. According to court documents, the police arrested 38-year-old M. Hanafi of Batubara, North Sumatra, and Riko Fernando of Pekanbaru, Riau, after they were caught transporting pressed methamphetamine powder last December during a raid in Siak Kecil district, Bengkalis regency, Riau. Both Hanafi and Riko claimed that they were instructed by a Lampung Prison inmate to deliver the meth packages from Dumai, Riau, to Lampung for Rp 130 million (US$8,700). However, they had only received Rp 4 million as transport money. They said they had no idea where the packages of meth had come from as they were only ordered to pick up the packages from Dumai. The prosecutor from the Bengkalis District Attorney's Office demanded the defendants receive capital punishment as per the 2009 Narcotics Law. "They have worsened the drug trafficking problem in the country," presiding judge Sutarno said. Their lawyer, Farizal, said they were still considering whether to file an appeal for the sentence. In response, prosecutor Agrin Nico Reval said they would also consider the possibility of an appeal. "If the defendants decide to go forward with the appeal, we are ready to file one too," he said. (source: The Jakarta Post) IRAN: Kurdish member of Iran’s Guards sentenced to death on espionage charges A rights group on Thursday confirmed an Iranian Kurdish (Rojhilati) member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) was handed a capital punishment sentence in August on charges of association with opposition groups to Tehran. Arsalan Khodkam, nearly forty days ago, was "sentenced to death by the Military Prosecutor Office's 23rd branch on charges of espionage and cooperation with the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan [PDKI],' according to a report by Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, an entity that logs human rights violations involving Kurds in Iran. The report explains that Khodkam, 50, was from the Kurdistan Province's city of Mahabad and was a Peshmerga in the PDKI in his youth. But, in the early nineties, he turned himself in and shortly after, joined the ranks of the IRGC. Mahabad security forces arrested him in March and have since held him in Urmia Central Prison. On Aug. 20, the Second Branch of the Revolutionary Court of Urmia condemned Mohyeddin Ebrahimi to death on charges of membership in the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDP-I), another group that separated from the aforementioned one after internal disputes in 2006. In late-2017, Ebrahimi was shot at a checkpoint in Oshnavieh in Iran while working as a Kulbar - a Kurdish term for individuals who smuggle small amounts of goods between the Iran-Kurdistan Region border. The Islamic Regime is notorious for the number of executions per capita it carries out every year. Recent cases that garnered international attention were that of Ramin Hossein Panahi and 2 cousins, Loghman and Zanyar Moradi, who were executed on Sep. 8. In total, 6 Kurdish political prisoners were killed since then. On the same day at the executions, Iran carried out a cross-border missile attack on the headquarters of the KDP-I and PDKI in the Kurdistan Region's town of Koya, killing 15 people and injuring 42 others. (source: kurdistan24.net) *** 2 Political Prisoners Sentenced to Death The Revolutionary Court of Urmia city in Iran sentenced Mohiaddin Ebrahimi, a political prisoner, to death. Moreover, the Supreme Court accepted the death sentence of Arsalan Khodkam, another political prisoner at the same Urmia prison. According to a close source, Mohiaddin Ebrahimi was sentenced to death on the charge of "cooperation with Kurdish opposition parties" at Branch 2 of the
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----OKLA., NEV., USA
September 28 OKLAHOMA: Oklahoma prepares to become 1st state to execute inmates using gas Oklahoma is preparing to be the 1st state in the nation to execute inmates using gas. After all the mistakes and missteps in administering the death penalty, what state are leaders looking at in their effort to prepare for this new generation of capital punishment? The last time members of Gov.Mary Fallin's office wanted to rush through executions using the wrong drug, her general counsel now so famously told the attorney general to "Google it" when he was pushing to allow for the use an unauthorized drug to kill Richard Glossip. It was more than just Google that got Oklahoma to the point of making history as the 1st state to transform it's death chamber from lethal injection to gas. Lead researcher Michael Copeland teaches criminal justice at East Central University in Ada. His past research for the state has helped on everything from uninsured motorists to how law enforcement handles the mentally ill; this request was different. "I knew it was a controversial subject and that's not normally the type of help I give so that part did make me a little apprehensive," Copeland told FOX 25. There were 3 researchers who contributed to the initial report the legislature relied on to adopt nitrogen gas as the primary execution method. One was opposed to the death penalty, one in favor of it, and then there was Copeland. "I'm sort of caught in between," Copeland told FOX 25. "I do feel some concerns, but our question wasn't to solve whether or not Oklahoma should have the death penalty. The question was do we have anything better than the electric chair which would have been the alternative had we not come up with this." The attorney general expanded on that to include other inter gases, like helium, which according to the research the state relied on promise a quick and painless death. "Typically within about 18-20 seconds they'll pass out," Copeland said. "Most of the time they won't notice it at all; some of the time they'll feel a slight bit of inebriation as if they had been drinking alcohol before they pass out and a very small percent of the time they'll feel a little bit of nausea." "My book has no connection with judicial execution. It is purely for the terminally ill and those degeneratively ill to end their lives if their suffering is so great," said author Derek Humphry from his Oregon home. "I'm sorry it is used, however indirectly, with capital punishment." Derek Humphry began campaigning for the right-to-die, the assisted suicide movement, 40 years ago. He is opposed to the death penalty and says his work is about preserving humanity and dignity in death, not forcing it upon others. Humphry did not know his research and experiences were being used to justify gas executions until FOX 25 contacted him after finding his work referenced in the state's research on nitrogen. He said it might not be as easy for prisons to use gas because it is unlikely inmates will be willing participants. "We have found that the only secure way of ending life via nitrogen or helium is by putting it into a plastic bag which is over the person's head and secured at the neck," Humphry said, "But how the penal authorities plan to do it I do not know." The state is not commenting on how it will carry out inert gas executions. In response to a request for letters or emails about the planning of gas executions by Oklahoma Watch and also provided to FOX 25, the only document the Department of Corrections provided was a hand written letter faxed in from a man in Pennsylvania detailing how the state could build a room. The letter contains a sketch of the room in which the man says nitrogen could be pumped in while the condemned prisoner sits in a chair perhaps sipping on the supplied pitcher of cold beer. Copeland, who hasn't been asked for input on implementation, says the procedure should be designed to withstand legal challenges. "If it were me," Copeland said, "I would probably buy a high altitude training chamber that is used for pilots so that we know exactly what that experience is like, buy a used one so you could have people that sat in that very chamber come and testify what it is like to pass out breathing nitrogen." Oklahoma hasn't executed anyone since January of 2015 and even if new protocols were approved today, it would be well into 2019 at the earliest before executions could resume due to the state's promise to the courts it would allow 5 months between adoption and implementation of new execution procedures. (source: okcfox.com) NEVADA: I'm on Death Row for Punching a Man"After 3 decades, I now feel like I'm dying a slow death." It's 1988. Me and my homeboy - Schoolboy we called him - are sitting in a car in Las Vegas, drinking. A woman we know comes up to us. She has a black eye, and we ask her what happened.
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, S.C., GA., FLA., KY. ARK.
September 28 TEXAS: Killer felt lethal injection 'burn' during executionTexas man executed after torturing and drowning roommate A Texas inmate who taunted a jury to sentence him to death was executed Wednesday evening for torturing and drowning an East Texas woman in his bathtub and then stuffing her body into a barrel. Troy Clark was condemned for the May 1998 slaying of a former roommate, Christina Muse of Tyler. Authorities said that Clark, a drug dealer, had worried that Muse would snitch on him. Clark chuckled as he addressed several friends watching through a window a few feet from him, telling them a number of times that he loved them and "it's all good." "I'm not the one who killed Christina," he said. "But, hey, whatever makes you happy." Troy Clark said he could feel a lethal dose of penobarbital course through his veins just before his death. As the lethal dose of the sedative pentobarbital was administered, Clark was laughing and remarked that the drug "burned going in." "I feel it," he said. Then he grunted, gasped and began to snore. Seconds later, all movement stopped. He was pronounced dead 21 minutes later at 6:36pm. Margaret Bouman, Muse's aunt, said witnessing the execution was a tough experience but "kind of bittersweet." "I'm a Christian and the death penalty and accepting it was very, very difficult for me," Bouman said. "But I also believe the law of the land is important." She also said that Clark's attitude during the procedure was troubling. The 51-year-old Clark became the 17th inmate put to death this year in the US and the 9th given a lethal injection in Texas, the nation's busiest capital punishment state. Clark was the 1st of 2 executions this week in Texas. Daniel Acker was executed Thursday for fatally running over his girlfriend in a jealous rage more than 18 years ago. Asked by the warden if he had any final statement, Acker replied: "No, sir." He closed his eyes, took a breath, then slightly exhaled as the lethal dose of the sedative pentobarbital began taking effect. There was no additional movement. He was pronounced dead 14 minutes later at 6:25pm. At least 8 other Texas inmates have planned execution dates in the coming months. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles declined to recommend a commutation of Clark's sentence. After his conviction, Clark had argued his trial attorneys failed to present evidence of his childhood, marked by physical and emotional abuse, which might have convinced jurors to spare his life. Appeals courts had previously ruled that because of the overwhelming case against Clark, it's likely he still would have been sentenced to death even if the jury had heard evidence of his troubled childhood. Prosecutors said Clark subdued Muse, 20, with a stun gun, bound her with duct tape and left her in a closet for several hours while he played video games and sold drugs to a customer. Clark later moved Muse to a bathroom where he hit her with a board and threatened his girlfriend, Tory Bush, into helping him drown Muse in the tub. Muse's body was then stuffed into a barrel with cement mix and lime before being dumped in a ravine. Against the advice of his attorneys, Clark testified during his trial's punishment phase, saying, "I really ain't got no story to tell. It's just I want the death penalty." Prosecutors also presented evidence Clark had committed two other murders, including one that occurred after Muse's death but prior to his arrest. The Smith County District Attorney's Office, which prosecuted Clark, declined to comment. Bobby Mims, one of Clark's trial attorneys, said Clark denied killing Muse. "But there was pretty strong evidence that he was guilty. Tory Bush was pretty damning," Mims said. Bush, who testified against Clark, was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Mims said he and his co-counsel were ineffective during the punishment phase in presenting evidence of Clark's troubled childhood, which included having a mother who was incarcerated for most of his life and who introduced him to drugs. Mims said when Clark's case was tried in 2000, most defence attorneys didn't focus on presenting mitigating evidence of a defendant's problematic life as part of their efforts to prevent a death sentence. The 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals had previously denied Clark's appeals on this issue, saying in 2012 that Clark refused to let his trial attorneys contact family as well as others to testify on his behalf. "At the punishment hearing, the prosecutors actually had 1 or 2 of (Clark's) own relatives show up and they had indicated they wanted him to get the death penalty. It was crazy," Mims said. Mims said he doesn't know if evidence of Clark's troubled life would have made a difference with the jury. "I hope he's made peace with his maker," Mims said. Clark and Acker became the 9th and 10th condemned inmates to be put to
