death sentence

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Iran Sentences 5 to Death for Election Protests

Brings total condemned in turmoil to eight

(Newser) - Five people have been sentenced to death over the unrest that followed Iran's disputed June presidential election, according to state television reports. The report quotes a statement by the Justice Department saying the five sentenced were members of terrorist and armed opposition groups.

Lifer Seeks Better Life on Death Row

Killer eyes amenities that come with capital punishment

(Newser) - Living on death row looks like a better deal than dying as a lifer, convicted killer Billy Joe Johnson told a California jury yesterday. "You get out of your confined cell a little more," said Johnson, whose trial has moved to the penalty phase after he was found...

Chinese Court Sentences 6 to Death for Ethnic Riots

All the condemned appear to be Uighurs

(Newser) - A court in China's far western Xinjiang region sentenced six men to death today over riots between Muslim Uighurs and members of the Han Chinese majority that killed nearly 200 people in July. The sentences—the first for any of the scores of suspects arrested in the rioting—appeared aimed...

Iranian Election Protester Sentenced to Death

Capital sentence is first since June crackdown

(Newser) - An Iranian political dissident has become the first person arrested during June's post-election protests to be sentenced to death. Muhammad-Reza Ali-Zamani is a member of the Kingom Assembly of Iran, which seeks to undo the Islamic revolution and restore the shah to power. News of the sentence, which was handed...

Gitmo Trial Could Pose a Big Dilemma for Obama
Gitmo Trial Could Pose a Big Dilemma
for Obama
OPINION
Dec 9, 2008 1:49 PM CST

Gitmo Trial Could Pose a Big Dilemma for Obama

Death penalty or move case to US courts?

(Newser) - If the trial of alleged 9/11 architect Khalid Sheikh Mohammed carries over into Barack Obama’s presidency, it would mean a “messy” moral decision for the president-elect: Follow through with a Mohammed death sentence, or overturn it and move the Guantanamo case to US courts, writes Bronwen Maddox in...

Afghan Appeals Death Sentence Over Women's Rights Charge

Argues he was tortured into false confession

(Newser) - An Afghan journalism student who has been sentenced to death claims he was tortured into falsely confessing that he had written an article championing women's rights. "I would never let myself write such an article," said the student, 24, in court today in a desperate bid to overturn...

Raul Castro Empties Cuba's Death Row

New president commutes all but 3 capital sentences

(Newser) - New Cuban president Raul Castro has commuted all but three of the country's death sentences to prison terms of 30 years to life, reports Reuters. Castro, who also has been gradually easing the country's restrictions on daily life, said the death penalty would remain on the books to deter "...

'Chemical Ali' Slated to Hang
'Chemical Ali' Slated to Hang
Feb 29, 2008 5:50 AM CST

'Chemical Ali' Slated to Hang

Convicted of genocide, cousin of Saddam has death sentence approved

(Newser) - Saddam Hussein's cousin "Chemical Ali" will be hanged now that the last legal obstacle to his execution has been eliminated by the Iraqi presidency council, Reuters reports. The execution of Ali Hassan al-Majid will take place in a matter of days, according to a spokesman for Iraqi Prime Minister...

Jury Spares Life of Killer Former Cop

He gets 57 years to life for murdering his pregnant girlfriend

(Newser) - An Ohio judge sentenced Bobby Lee Cutts to life in prison with possible parole in 57 years for the murder of his pregnant girlfriend after the jury recommended against the death penalty, CNN reports. Judge Charles Brown added years to the jury's recommended sentence—life in prison with parole in...

Killer Ex-Cop Begs Jury to Spare His Life

Pleads for life sentence for murdering pregnant girlfriend

(Newser) - A former Ohio police officer convicted last week of murdering his pregnant girlfriend yesterday begged a jury not to sentence him to death. "I'm asking you to spare my life," said a sobbing Bobby Cutts Jr. The jury begins penalty deliberations this afternoon, reports the Canton Repository.

US Seeks Death for 6 in 9/11 Case
US Seeks Death for 6
in 9/11 Case
Feb 11, 2008 9:00 AM CST

US Seeks Death for 6 in 9/11 Case

Capital punishment could put new burden on untested military tribunal system

(Newser) - US authorities are preparing to ask for the death penalty for six suspects in the 9/11 attacks who are detainees at Guantanamo. “If any case warrants it, it would be for individuals who were parties to a crime of that scale,” a Defense Department official told the New ...

Long-Held Secret Takes Man Off Death Row

Ethics board allows lawyer to speak up

(Newser) - A Virginia lawyer revealed a 10-year-old secret last year that had put a man on death row: Prosecutors coached another suspect to make his testimony match the evidence. When the state's legal ethics board reversed its gag order on Leslie Smith, the lawyer spoke up last week, and the sentence...

Saudi Rape Victim Gets Jail for Appealing

19-year-old woman earns 200 lashes and 6 months in prison

(Newser) - A Saudi woman who was gang-raped by 14 men has been sentenced to 200 lashes and 6 months in prison, the BBC reports. Her original crime was being in the car with a man unrelated to her, but her punishment was doubled and prison time added when she appealed the...

'70s Vigilantes Take '07 in Hands
'70s Vigilantes Take '07 in Hands
Sep 14, 2007 6:51 PM CDT

'70s Vigilantes Take '07 in Hands

New slate of vigilante films in era that mirrors '70s anxiety

(Newser) - Our era of economic upheaval and political powerlessness mirrors that of the 1970s, and now we’re getting our own silver screen vigilantes to clean up the mess. Everyman killers like Taxi Driver’s Travis Bickle took action when the system wouldn’t, says Slate, and this season “vengeance...

'Chemical Ali' Will Hang
'Chemical Ali' Will Hang
Sep 4, 2007 8:36 AM CDT

'Chemical Ali' Will Hang

Court confirms death sentence for genocide and crimes against humanity

(Newser) - An Iraqi court confirmed a death sentence today for "Chemical Ali," who was condemned to hang in June for genocide and crimes against humanity. Ali Hassan al-Majid and two other top lieutenants to Saddam Hussein were found guilty of the killing of thousands of Kurds in the Anfal...

Texas Gov. Spares Prisoner Hours Before Execution

Kenneth Foster was sentenced to death as accomplice to 1996 murder

(Newser) - Texas Gov. Rick Perry commuted a death-row prisoner's sentence to life imprisonment today, six hours before he was to die for his role in a 1996 murder. Kenneth Foster drove the getaway car in a robbery gone awry, and under Texas law was eligible for the death penalty. Perry, in...

Soldier Draws 110 Years for Rape, Murder

Coconspirators handed tough sentences for young girl's death

(Newser) - A military court handed Jesse Spielman a dishonorable discharge and a 110-year prison sentence for raping and murdering an Iraqi girl last year. Spielman and four comrades planned the 2006 assault on a family near Baghdad over a drunken game of cards; they then gang-raped and murdered the girl, her...

Georgia Man Faces Death Despite Collapsed Case

Since 1996, feds rarely step in on capital cases

(Newser) - A Georgia man is scheduled to be executed tomorrow even though the case against him has largely collapsed. Witnesses have recanted their statements and one confessed to lying in the trial of Troy Davis, convicted of murdering an off-duty cop in 1989. Prosecutors say the recanted testimony is not significant...

SD Carries Out 1st Execution in 60 Years

Man convicted in 2000 torture murder refused appeals, last words

(Newser) - South Dakota executed a prisoner last night for the first time since 1947. Officials administered a lethal injection to convicted murderer Elijah Page, who had pleaded guilty in 2001 to torturing and killing a 19-year-old acquaintance the year before, the Argus Leader reports. One of his two co-defendants remains on...

China Executes Ex-Food and Drug Czar
China Executes Ex-Food and Drug Czar
Jul 10, 2007 11:44 AM CDT

China Executes Ex-Food and Drug Czar

Regulator convicted of taking bribes to compromise food safety

(Newser) - China carried out a swift death sentence against the former head of its food and drug administration today, in an apparent reaction to concerns about the safety of its exports. Zheng Xiaoyu was killed just over 2 weeks after the supreme court rejected his appeal on a May conviction for...

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