Category Archives: Capital punishment

Protests mount as Oklahoma prepares to execute Julius Jones

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Jones, who has maintained his innocence for more than two decades, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection on Thursday

Students at high schools across Oklahoma City walked out of their classes. Prayer vigils were held at the state Capitol, and barricades were erected outside the governor’s mansion. Even Baker Mayfield, quarterback for the NFL’s Cleveland Browns, weighed in on Oklahoma’s highest-profile execution in decades.

Julius Jones, 41, who has maintained his innocence for more than two decades, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection on Thursday at the state penitentiary in McAlester for the 1999 slaying of Paul Howell, a businessman in the affluent Oklahoma City suburb of Edmond.

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Singapore court stays execution of man with learning disabilities

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Rights groups condemned decision to execute Nagaenthran K Dharmalingam, who has learning disabilities

Singapore’s high court has stayed the execution of a man convicted of smuggling heroin, following outrage among rights groups who said he had learning disabilities and the sentence was a violation of international law.

Nagaenthran K Dharmalingam, a Malaysian national, was arrested in April 2009, when he was 21, for attempting to smuggle 43 grams of heroin into Singapore. The drugs had been strapped to his thigh. He was sentenced to death the following year and, having spent more than 12 years on death row, was told he would face execution on 10 November.

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Japan death row inmates sue over same-day notification of execution – report

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Lawyer for two inmates says practice of giving prisoners notice of only a matter of hours is ‘extremely inhumane’

Two death row inmates in Japan are suing the government, claiming that the practice of not informing inmates of the time of their execution until only hours beforehand is “inhumane”, local media have reported.

The prisoners aredemanding change and seeking compensation.

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For African nations, capital punishment is a grim colonial legacy that lingers on | Dior Konaté

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On the World Day Against the Death Penalty, the tide is turning in west Africa against this tool of colonial repression and racism

In July, Sierra Leone became the 23rd African country to abolish the death penalty. Although its use across the continent has dwindled – thanks to concerted efforts from human rights organisations and governments – the death penalty remains on many more countries’ statute books due to its strong colonial legacy.

During the colonial period, punishments that were being abandoned in Europe found fertile ground in Africa. Among them was the death penalty, which was deployed as a key element in the mechanism of colonial repression.

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Sierra Leone abolishes death penalty

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MPs vote unanimously for abolition, making it the 23rd African state to end capital punishment

Sierra Leone has become the latest African state to abolish the death penalty after MPs voted unanimously to abandon the punishment.

On Friday the west African state became the 23rd country on the continent to end capital punishment, which is largely a legacy of colonial legal codes. In April, Malawi ruled that the death penalty was unconstitutional, while Chad abolished it in 2020. In 2019, the African human rights court ruled that mandatory imposition of the death penalty by Tanzania was “patently unfair”.

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US halts all federal executions amid review of capital punishment

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Attorney general orders temporary pause following historic use of death penalty under Trump administration

The US attorney general has imposed a moratorium on all federal executions while the justice department reviews its policies and procedures on capital punishment. Civil rights and criminal justice advocates have been pushing for a halt following a wave of controversial executions under the Trump administration.

Citing the disproportionate impact of capital punishment on people of color, and deep controversy over the drugs used to put people to death, the attorney general, Merrick Garland, ordered a temporary pause on scheduling executions.

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South Carolina court blocks executions, saying inmates must have choice of firing squad

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New law says death row prisoners must choose between electric chair and firing squad if lethal drugs aren’t available

South Carolina’s supreme court has blocked the planned executions of two inmates by electrocution, saying they cannot be put to death until they truly have the choice of the firing squad option set out in the state’s newly revised capital punishment law.

The high court on Wednesday halted this month’s scheduled executions of Brad Sigmon and Freddie Owens, writing that corrections officials need to put together a firing squad so that inmates can really choose between that or the electric chair.

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Outcry as Saudi Arabia executes young Shia man for ‘rebellion’

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Rights groups say Mustafa bin Hashim bin Isa al-Darwish was a minor when alleged offences committed

Saudi Arabia has executed a young man who was convicted on charges stemming from his participation in an anti-government rebellion by minority Shia Muslims. A leading rights group said his trial was “deeply flawed”.

It was unclear whether Mustafa bin Hashim bin Isa al-Darwish, 26, was executed for crimes committed as a minor, according to Amnesty International. The rights group said he was detained in 2015 for alleged participation in riots between 2011 and 2012.

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Texas executes Quintin Jones by lethal injection without media witnesses

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Prison agency officials didn’t notify reporters, marking first time in at least 40 years that press wasn’t present at an execution

Texas inmate Quintin Jones was executed by lethal injection on Wednesday without media witnesses present.

The press could not witness the death of the 41-year-old because prison agency officials neglected to notify reporters it was time to carry out the punishment, according to the Associated Press. It was the first time in at least 40 years that media was not present at an execution.

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North Carolina jury awards $75m to brothers wrongly convicted of 1983 murder

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Henry McCollum and Leon Brown spent decades in jail before DNA evidence cleared them of the rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl

A jury in a North Carolina federal civil rights case has awarded $75m to two, intellectually disabled half-brothers who spent decades behind bars after being wrongfully convicted in the 1983 rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl.

The eight-person jury on Friday decided Henry McCollum and Leon Brown, who are both Black, should received $31m each in compensatory damages, $1m for every year spent in prison, the News & Observer reported. The jury also awarded them $13m in punitive damages.

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Virginia becomes the first southern state to end the death penalty

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Ban comes after a yearslong battle by Democrats in the state, which previously had US’s second-highest number of executions

Virginia has become the 23rd US state and the first in the south to abolish the death penalty, a dramatic shift for the commonwealth which previously had the nation’s second-highest number of executions.

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Reprieve for Alabama death row inmate requesting pastor

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Willie B Smith III’s lethal injection was called off after the US supreme court says state cannot proceed without pastor present

An Alabama inmate won a reprieve from a planned lethal injection after the US supreme court said the state must allow his personal pastor in the death chamber.

Thursday’s scheduled execution of Willie B Smith III was called off by Alabama officials after the justices maintained an injunction issued by the 11th US circuit court of appeals, saying he could not be executed without his pastor present in chamber.

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Pakistan ends death penalty for prisoners with severe mental health problems

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Supreme court ruling welcomed by rights activists who say it opens the way to broader prison reforms

In a landmark decision, Pakistan’s supreme court ruled this week that prisoners with serious mental health problems cannot be executed for their crimes.

The verdict was hailed by rights activists, who said it laid the groundwork for broader prison reforms in the country.

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Civil and human rights groups urge Biden to end federal death penalty

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Coalition is calling on president to commute sentences of all 49 federal death row inmates

A coalition of leading US civil and human rights groups is calling on Joe Biden immediately to commute the sentences of all 49 federal death row inmates and reinstate a moratorium on executions carried out by the US government.

Related: Virginia all but certain to become first southern state to abolish death penalty

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Joe Biden urged to commute sentences of all 49 federal death row prisoners

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Led by two prominent African American congresswomen, 35 Democrats have urged Joe Biden to commute the sentences of all 49 federal prisoners left on death row – days after the Trump administration finished its rush to kill 13 such prisoners.

Related: 'This is not justice': supreme court liberals slam Trump's federal executions

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‘This is not justice’: supreme court liberals slam Trump’s federal executions

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The supreme court justices Sonia Sotomayor and Stephen Breyer have excoriated the Trump administration for carrying out its 13th and final federal execution days before the president leaves office.

Related: Dustin Higgs becomes 13th and final federal prisoner executed under Trump

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Lisa Montgomery: US carries out first federal execution of a woman in nearly seven decades

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Lisa Montgomery pronounced dead on Wednesday morning after supreme court cleared path for her death

A Kansas woman was executed early on Wednesday, the first time in nearly seven decades that the US government has put to death a female inmate.

Lisa Montgomery, 52, was pronounced dead at 1.31am after receiving a lethal injection at the federal prison complex in Terre Haute, Indiana. She was the 11th prisoner to receive a lethal injection there since July when Donald Trump, an ardent supporter of capital punishment, resumed federal executions after a 17-year hiatus.

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Lisa Montgomery: US judge grants another stay of execution

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First federal execution of woman in 67 years halted as judge cites need to determine her mental competence

A judge has granted another stay in what was slated to be the US government’s first execution of a female inmate in nearly seven decades.

Judge Patrick Hanlon granted the stay late on Monday, citing the need to determine Lisa Montgomery’s mental competence, the Topeka Capital-Journal reported.

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‘A lifetime of torture’: the story of the woman Trump is rushing to execute

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Lisa Montgomery, the only woman on death row, was found guilty of an ‘especially heinous’ crime – but those who have looked deeply into her agonized life see it differently

Lisa Montgomery’s first experiences of sexual abuse occurred indirectly when she was three years old. She would lie in bed at night beside her beloved half-sister Diane, close enough to touch, while Diane, then eight, was being raped by their male babysitter.

At the age of 11, Montgomery learnt what it was like to be attacked herself. Her stepfather Jack, a “mean drunk” who regularly beat her and her mother, began raping her once or twice a week.

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Execution of only woman on US federal death row can go ahead, court rules

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Lisa Montgomery, who strangled a pregnant woman and cut her baby out of her belly, is set to be executed by lethal injection on 12 January

A US appeals court has cleared the way for the only woman on federal death row to be executed before president-elect Joe Biden takes office.

The ruling, handed down on Friday by a three-judge panel on the US court of appeals for the District of Columbia circuit, concluded that a lower court judge erred when he vacated Lisa Montgomery’s execution date in an order last week.

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