Death Penalty
Malawi outlaws death penalty
Malawi’s highest court on Wednesday outlawed the death penalty and ordered the re-sentencing of all convicts facing execution. Capital punishment has long been mandatory in Malawi for prisoners convicted of murder or treason, and optional for rape. Violent robberies, house break-ins and burglaries could also be punishable by death or life imprisonment. Executions have however not been carried out since Malawi’s first democratically elected president, Bakili Muluzi, opposed the punishment when he took office in 1994. In a landmark ruling on Wednesday, Supreme Court judges hearing an appeal by a murder convict declared the death penalty “unconstitutional”, de facto abolishing the punishment. “The death penalty… is tainted by the unconstitutionality discussed,” the judgement said. Malawi last...
Saudi Arabia executes three soldiers for ‘cooperating with enemy’
Saudi Arabia has executed three soldiers convicted of “high treason” and “cooperating with the enemy”, with a statement from the kingdom’s defence ministry saying the trio was sentenced to death by a specialist court after a fair trial. The state-run Saudi Press Agency identified the men as soldiers working in the defence ministry. It did not elaborate on how the men aided the kingdom’s enemies. The ministry did not name the “enemy” either but the executions on Saturday were carried out in the southern province bordering Yemen where Saudi Arabia has been at war for more than six years against the Iran-backed Houthi fighters. Saudi Arabia has come under increasing global scrutiny over its human rights record since the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018 at the kingdom’s Istanbul co...
Zambia leader removes 246 inmates from death row
Zambian President Edgar Lungu has removed 246 inmates who were on death row and commuted their sentences to life sentences, a government official said on Wednesday. Minister of Home Affairs, Stephen Kampyongo, said that among the inmates includes 225 males and 21 females. He announced the commuting of the sentences during an event held at Mukobeko Maximum Prison in central Zambia’s Kabwe town which was streamed live on Facebook. Mr Kampyongo said this made the clemency of death to life sentences over 500 after 332 inmates had their sentences commuted in 2015. He said the commutation of sentences of inmates would help to congest the section of condemned inmates at the prison which was meant for 50 people but now has over 400 inmates. The move, he said, was also meant to protect inmates from...
DR Congo frees 26 prisoners for Laurent Kabila’s assassination
Jubilation at the Makala prison in Kinshasa Friday as Congolese president Felix Tshisekedi pardoned at least 26 men, who were convicted for planning the assassination of ex-president Laurent Kabila in 2001. They include Colonel Eddy Kapend, a prominent figure, Nono Lutula, a former special advisor on security and Leta Mangasa, and a former head of the National Intelligence Agency. Tshisekedi freed the men through a presidential decree read on state television over the weekend. He said the pardon was out of “humanity, compassion and national reconciliation”. The ex-Congolese president, Laurent Kabila was assassinated at the presidential palace in Kinshasa on January 16, 2001. Despite a long probe into his murder, the exact circumstances of Kabila’s assassination is still in contention. Seve...
2 Men Named Alleged Killers Of Pop Smoke May Face Death Penalty
Source: Scott Dudelson / Getty A few days ago, 5 people suspected to be tied to the February murder of Pop Smoke were finally taken into custody by the Los Angeles Police Department. And now, it’s looking like they aren’t just facing life in prison for their transgression, but two of the men find themselves standing on the doorstep of death itself. According to The Blast, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced the arrest of three men and two juveniles for the home invasion and murder of the Brooklyn rapper and explained that two of the men involved in the murder qualify for the death penalty given the charges. “Corey Walker (dob 11/22/00) and Keandre Rodgers (dob 2/12/02) were each charged today in the case BA488518 with murder with the special circumstance allegation ...
US judge orders delay of first federal executions in 17 years
Associated Press A U.S. judge on Monday ordered a delay in federal executions, hours before one was to be carried out for the first time in 17 years, hampering the Trump administration’s plan to revive capital punishment by the federal government. Washington district Judge Tanya Chutkan issued a preliminary injunction to allow the continuation of legal challenges of four death row inmates against the government’s new lethal injection protocol announced last year. “The public is not served by short-circuiting legitimate judicial processes,” she wrote in an order. The Department of Justice immediately appealed the ruling. The department planned to carry out the first executions at a federal level since 2003 over the next few weeks, starting with Daniel Lewis Lee, who is convicted of murder, ...
AGF Malami: Inmates on death row may get life
The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr Abubakar Malami (SAN), said on Tuesday that the Federal Government was planning a process of commuting the death penalty of condemned inmates with over 10 years on death row to life imprisonment. Malami who said this in Abuja at a press briefing on the achievements of the Presidential Committee on Correctional Service Reform and Decongestion, also said inmates awaiting trial for upwards of five years might be released. But he said considering the increasing number of incidents of sexual and kidnap cases, inmates who had been convicted for such offences would not be considered for release during the proposed exercise. He stated, “Also, to be revisited is the issue of condemned convicts on death row for over ten (10) years wi...
Mother Of Ahmaud Arbery Wants Death Penalty For Men Who Murdered Her Son
Source: change.org / other The mother of Ahmaud Arbery, still grieving the tragic loss of her son at the hands of a white father and son duo, has no intention of taking it easy on the men who murdered him. Wanda Cooper-Jones said that she wants the men who killed Arbery to suffer the same fate. Sitting down with TMZ Live earlier this week, Cooper-Jones presented her views that all involved in the killing of her son, including William “Roddie” Bryan, the man who filmed the fatal encounter, should face the highest charges possible under the law. When it was mentioned by the hosts of the program that Georgia does have a death penalty law on the books, Cooper-Jones did not mince her words. “Coming from my point of view, my son died, so they should die as well,” Cooper-Jones said without hesita...
