No, I had no idea and I'm sorry I inadvertently outed you. Feel free to remove the offending posts and good luck with your pregnancy.Originally Posted by bowieluva
No, I had no idea and I'm sorry I inadvertently outed you. Feel free to remove the offending posts and good luck with your pregnancy.
Noob iz good at dishing but canna take it.
Yeah. I was wondering that myself. At least we know it's not me since I'm not able to give my money to mike and am currently missing out on all gossip and shenanigans. Damnit.
Just an FYI, if you hold your cursor over the names of people who have visited threads, you can see the date of their last visit, which has helped narrow down the suspects.
Here's something relevant to the discussion. Sorry to deflect with this dumbness.
http://www.fox35orlando.com/home/243928536-story
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.7efc287be58d
Rick Scott is attempting to remove a state prosecutor for refusing to pursue the death penalty.
It's super ballsy of her (in a good way) because usually cop killers are sent directly to death row, do not pass go. So of all the people to start your statement with, a guy making shooting gestures at the media is a pretty unsympathetic case.
I have a random question, but I just started posting recently so I'm not sure where to ask it. I'm moving to start a new job and have been perusing the older threads since I have so much time off in-between. I have found new info on many of the threads (cause of death, trial outcomes, etc). But I've noticed that people tend to get irritated by older threads being bumped. Should I post the info I'm finding?
I think there's nothing wrong with bumping an old thread if it's to add things like cause of death, trial outcomes, etc. Those are updates which are often interesting.
People get annoyed when old threads are bumped by someone who has nothing to add.
Ok thanks, I will add from here on out. Guess I should've asked when I first started finding the updates 😑
Yeah. Avoid the "how sad" and "I hope he gets raped in jail" bumps... but do tell us if a suspect has been arrested/convicted, or you find a blog that throws a new light on things (but do be sure we didn't spend page 3 discussing said blog.)
Wow.
You are absolutely encouraged to provide new information for old threads. People just get annoyed when someone bumps a thread to be like 'wow what a bitch!' or 'sad!'
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/arkansas...4th-execution/
VARNER, Ark. -- Arkansas wrapped up an accelerated executions schedule with a lethal injection that left the condemned inmate lurching and convulsing before he died, prompting calls for investigations and renewed scrutiny of the state's efforts to put multiple inmates to death on a compressed timeline.
Kenneth Williams on Thursday became the fourth convicted killer executed in Arkansas in eight days as the state sought to carry out as many lethal injections as possible before one of its drugs expires Sunday.
An Associated Press reporter who witnessed the execution said that about three minutes in, Williams' body jerked 15 times in quick succession - lurching violently against the leather restraint across his chest - then the rate slowed for a final five movements.
J.R. Davis, a spokesman for Gov. Asa Hutchinson who did not witness the execution, called the movements "an involuntary muscular reaction" that he said was a widely known effect of the surgical sedative midazolam, the first of three drugs administered.
Williams' attorneys released a statement calling witness accounts "horrifying" and demanding an investigation into what they called the "problematic execution."
Arkansas had scheduled eight executions over an 11-day period before one of its lethal injection drugs expires on Sunday. That would have been the most in such a short time since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, but courts issued stays for four of the inmates. The four lethal injections that were carried out included Monday's first double execution in the United States since 2000.
Williams read a prepared final statement before the execution began, apologizing to the families he "senselessly wronged and deprived of their loved ones." He also spoke in tongues, the unintelligible but language-like speech used in some religions. But his prayer faded off as the midazolam took effect. He said, "The words that I speak will forever be, will forever ..." before he fell silent.
The inmate breathed heavily through his nose until just after three minutes into his execution, when his chest leaped forward in a series of what seemed like involuntary movements. His right hand never clenched and his face remained what one media witness called "serene."
After the jerking, Williams breathed through his mouth and moaned or groaned once - during a consciousness check - until falling still seven minutes into the lethal injection.
California Supreme Court ruled that there is no way to hold California courts to the stupid prop we passed that would speed up the death penalty so yay we are back where we started, keeping inmates on death row forever. But... it also means we can start killing people again since the court challenge is resolved.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-u...-idUSKCN1B417J
Killing blacks is illegal now??
Florida set to execute first white man in killing of black man
BY ELIZABETH KOH
[email protected]
AUGUST 23, 2017 9:45 PM
In the 41 years since Florida reinstated the death penalty, a white person convicted of killing a black person has never been put to death.
But barring any last-minute legal maneuvers, that will happen around 6 p.m. Thursday at Florida State Prison in Starke. Mark James Asay, 53, convicted of gunning down two men ? one black ? in Jacksonville three decades ago, will be executed by lethal injection.
He would be the 93rd person executed since the state re-established the death penalty in 1976, following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling reinstating capital punishment. His would be the first execution in Florida in 19 months amid legal challenges to the state?s death penalty sentencing law.
Asay was sentenced in 1988 for the murders of two men in downtown Jacksonville in the early morning of July 18, 1987. According to prosecutors, 23-year-old Asay shot Robert Lee Booker, who was black, and Robert McDowell, whom Asay had found dressed in women?s clothes after agreeing to pay for sex.
McDowell was not black but was described as such during the trial, with prosecutors alleging that Asay shot both Booker and McDowell because of their race. Asay had white supremacist tattoos on his body. The jury voted 9-3 to convict Asay on two counts of first-degree murder.
But in the years since, Asay?s lawyer and death penalty opponents have raised questions about Asay?s death sentence, citing errors in the case and changes in how Florida juries decide the death penalty.
?If you?re going to take a human being?s life, you should make sure every issue has been briefed and argued thoroughly ? and that has not happened in this case,? said Stephen Harper of the Florida Center for Capital Representation at Florida International University?s law school.
Asay?s lawyer Martin McClain has filed petitions and appeals in state and federal court asking for a stay, noting past deficient legal counsel and improperly handled court records.
The Florida Supreme Court said earlier this week that McDowell?s race was mistakenly identified during the trial, but said it did not change the trial?s outcome. The U.S. Supreme Court hasn?t responded to the latest stay request.
McClain said Asay?s sentence should also be negated based on the stricter standards Florida has set for juries that recommend the death penalty.
When Asay was convicted, judges needed only seven of 12 jurors to vote for the death penalty. But a January 2016 U.S. Supreme Court ruling said the state?s sentencing law was unconstitutional.
In March, state legislators upped the required number of votes to a unanimous 12, after the state Supreme Court ruled that jurors had to be united in recommending a death sentence.
The state Supreme Court said the new law applied only back to June 2002, the date of a related U.S. Supreme Court ruling. Asay and about 128 other inmates who were sentenced to death on non-unanimous jury verdicts before that date remain on Death Row.
?He would not get a death sentence today if he went on trial today, that much is clear,? said McClain. ?I absolutely believe it?s unconstitutional to execute someone with a 9-3 vote.?
Gov. Rick Scott spokeswoman Lauren Schenone said he stood by his decision to sign Asay?s death warrant: ?Signing death warrants is one of the Governor?s most solemn duties,? she said in a statement. ?His foremost concerns are consideration for the families of the victims and the finality of judgments.?
Asay?s status as the first white person to be executed in Florida for killing a black person in the state?s modern history has refocused attention on Death Row?s racial disparities. Adora Obi Nweze, president of the Florida State Conference NAACP and an opponent of capital punishment, said the death penalty should be abolished even for Asay, but noted his case shows how black inmates are punished disproportionately.
?It does make the case even stronger that there?s this disparity gap that exists between black and white ? who gets the death penalty and who gets exonerated,? she said.
Asay?s execution will set another precedent: the use of a drug that has not been used previously in state executions. Florida approved etomidate in an untested triple cocktail earlier this year, making Asay a ?guinea pig,? McClain said.
Unless a court steps in, Asay will be the first inmate in Florida to receive the lethal combination. He is unlikely to be the last. No other executions are yet scheduled in Florida, but more than 360 other prisoners still sit on Death Row.
Wow holy fuck. This is big news.
Holy FUCK i HAD NO IDEA THAT HADN'T OCCURRED THERE BEFORE? WTF. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Florida set to execute first white man in killing of black man
BY ELIZABETH KOH
[email protected]
AUGUST 23, 2017 9:45 PM
In the 41 years since Florida reinstated the death penalty, a white person convicted of killing a black person has never been put to death.
But barring any last-minute legal maneuvers, that will happen around 6 p.m. Thursday at Florida State Prison in Starke. Mark James Asay, 53, convicted of gunning down two men ? one black ? in Jacksonville three decades ago, will be executed by lethal injection.
He would be the 93rd person executed since the state re-established the death penalty in 1976, following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling reinstating capital punishment. His would be the first execution in Florida in 19 months amid legal challenges to the state?s death penalty sentencing law.
Asay was sentenced in 1988 for the murders of two men in downtown Jacksonville in the early morning of July 18, 1987. According to prosecutors, 23-year-old Asay shot Robert Lee Booker, who was black, and Robert McDowell, whom Asay had found dressed in women?s clothes after agreeing to pay for sex.
McDowell was not black but was described as such during the trial, with prosecutors alleging that Asay shot both Booker and McDowell because of their race. Asay had white supremacist tattoos on his body. The jury voted 9-3 to convict Asay on two counts of first-degree murder.
But in the years since, Asay?s lawyer and death penalty opponents have raised questions about Asay?s death sentence, citing errors in the case and changes in how Florida juries decide the death penalty.
?If you?re going to take a human being?s life, you should make sure every issue has been briefed and argued thoroughly ? and that has not happened in this case,? said Stephen Harper of the Florida Center for Capital Representation at Florida International University?s law school.
Asay?s lawyer Martin McClain has filed petitions and appeals in state and federal court asking for a stay, noting past deficient legal counsel and improperly handled court records.
The Florida Supreme Court said earlier this week that McDowell?s race was mistakenly identified during the trial, but said it did not change the trial?s outcome. The U.S. Supreme Court hasn?t responded to the latest stay request.
McClain said Asay?s sentence should also be negated based on the stricter standards Florida has set for juries that recommend the death penalty.
When Asay was convicted, judges needed only seven of 12 jurors to vote for the death penalty. But a January 2016 U.S. Supreme Court ruling said the state?s sentencing law was unconstitutional.
In March, state legislators upped the required number of votes to a unanimous 12, after the state Supreme Court ruled that jurors had to be united in recommending a death sentence.
The state Supreme Court said the new law applied only back to June 2002, the date of a related U.S. Supreme Court ruling. Asay and about 128 other inmates who were sentenced to death on non-unanimous jury verdicts before that date remain on Death Row.
?He would not get a death sentence today if he went on trial today, that much is clear,? said McClain. ?I absolutely believe it?s unconstitutional to execute someone with a 9-3 vote.?
Gov. Rick Scott spokeswoman Lauren Schenone said he stood by his decision to sign Asay?s death warrant: ?Signing death warrants is one of the Governor?s most solemn duties,? she said in a statement. ?His foremost concerns are consideration for the families of the victims and the finality of judgments.?
Asay?s status as the first white person to be executed in Florida for killing a black person in the state?s modern history has refocused attention on Death Row?s racial disparities. Adora Obi Nweze, president of the Florida State Conference NAACP and an opponent of capital punishment, said the death penalty should be abolished even for Asay, but noted his case shows how black inmates are punished disproportionately.
?It does make the case even stronger that there?s this disparity gap that exists between black and white ? who gets the death penalty and who gets exonerated,? she said.
Asay?s execution will set another precedent: the use of a drug that has not been used previously in state executions. Florida approved etomidate in an untested triple cocktail earlier this year, making Asay a ?guinea pig,? McClain said.
Unless a court steps in, Asay will be the first inmate in Florida to receive the lethal combination. He is unlikely to be the last. No other executions are yet scheduled in Florida, but more than 360 other prisoners still sit on Death Row.
Thanks for new info for my brain/a new angry for today haha ugh.
It's funny cause the usual white guys were in the comments saying "stop race baiting" while people were trying to point out this is a step closer to all lives mattering, which they claim to give a fuck about so much.
It's literally history, and they are asking why the media is race baiting. I fucking don't get these losers.
https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/ohi...ar-2018-07-18/
Robert Van Hook has been executed on death row.
https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/re...4d89dbc7dd54bc
Billy Ray Irick, 59, is set to be executed for the brutal rape and murder of a little girl
IT WAS one of the most shocking cases the United States had ever seen. Now, the man who brutally raped and killed a seven-year-old girl will face execution.
Gavin Fernando@GavinDFernando news.com.auAUGUST 6, 20186:59AM
WARNING: GRAPHIC
IT WAS one of the most shocking murder cases the United States had ever seen.
Now Billy Ray Irick, the man who raped and killed a seven-year-old girl more than 30 years ago, is finally set to be executed.
Despite his harrowing crimes, some groups are protesting the decision to put the 59-year-old to death.
But the little girl?s mother is determined that justice is done.
HOW A YOUNG GIRL WAS BRUTALLY MURDERED
Billy Ray Irick had a troubled upbringing.
According to Knoxville TV station WBIR, he was an uncontrollable child who was regularly tied up and beaten by his parents.
He spent his early years in a mental institution and an orphanage, before eventually finding a job as a dishwasher at a Knoxville truck stop in 1983.
It was here that he met Kenny Jeffers, the father of the little girl who would later lose her life at the hands of Irick.
Billy Ray Irick, who brutally raped and murdered a seven-year-old girl in 1985, faces death by lethal injection next week.Source:Supplied
The pair became friends and Irick eventually moved in with Kenny, his wife Kathy and five of their eight children.
Several of the kids were from previous relationships, but according to Kathy, they were a close-knit family.
?All of the kids were really close and loved each other. There was no ?step? or ?half? brother or sister. They were brothers and sisters from the start,? Kathy told WBIR.
Irick became part of the family. He would help take care of the children while Kathy and Kenny worked long hours and overnight shifts.
When the family?s house caught fire, he saved two of the boys from the house, and continued living with them when they moved to a nearby neighbourhood.
A DISTURBING PHONE CALL ? AND A CONFESSION
On the morning of April 15, 1985, Irick had a fight with Kathy, which ended with her kicking him out of the family home.
Later that day, Kathy had to work the graveyard shift, and her regular babysitter was unable to come in. She told the station she thought Kenny would watch the kids, but he was busy, so he called Billy to come over.
Kathy said she wasn?t comfortable leaving the five children in his care.
?I don?t know if you call it ?intuition,? but something seemed off about him. I stopped at a payphone and called Kenny at the truck stop and asked him to get back to the house,? she told WBIR.
Paula Dyer was just seven years old when she was murdered. Kathy described her as outgoing, very friendly and extremely trusting of others.Source:Supplied
At midnight that night, Kenny received a disturbing phone call from Irick. ?It?s Paula. I can?t wake her up,? he said.
Kenny testified that when he arrived, Irick was standing on the porch outside. Paula was unconscious on the floor, covered in blood and not breathing.
He rushed the little girl to the nearby hospital, but she was practically gone by the time they arrived.
The doctors looking after her concluded from her injuries that she had been brutally raped anally and vaginally, with asphyxiation ruled as the cause of death.
One doctor noted that she had been hit in the head and may have been knocked unconscious.
By the time Kathy showed up at the hospital, the girl was gone. She never got to say goodbye.
The following day, the Knoxville Police Department told the public to be on the lookout for Irick.
That evening, he was spotted and arrested beneath the Baxter Avenue bridge.
The home where little Paula was murdered in 1985.Source:YouTube
According to WBIR, police said he was cooperative, remorseful and confessed to the crime immediately. He was 26 years old.
After a six-day trial, a Knox County jury convicted Irick of first-degree murder and two counts of aggravated rape on November 1, 1986.
The judge, John James Duncan Jr, described the incident as the most brutal case in his career.
A jury of eight men and four women sentenced Irick to die in the electric chair, which was scheduled for May 4, 1987.
But over the following decades, the case was postponed during ongoing debates around acceptable methods of execution, and last-ditch appeals including claims of new evidence and testimonies that Irick suffered from mental illness.
CONCERNS OVER IRICK?S EXECUTION
Mental health groups have urged authorities to reconsider the execution.
Last week, a letter was sent by the leaders of the National Alliance on Mental Illness calling on the court to instead give Irick life without parole.
?From all reports, Irick?s severe mental illness has continued unabated during his many years of incarceration,? reads the letter. ?The fact that eight experts, working for both the state and the defence, agree that he suffers from severe mental illness is powerful evidence in support of this point.?
The US Court has ruled that people with mental illnesses cannot be executed.
But according to the Nashville Scene, a psychiatrist who interviewed Irick during the trial concluded he did not suffer from mental illness.
Irick at his trial in 1986.Source:YouTube
A separate group are seeking to block the lethal injection of the convicted killer, saying it could have dire consequences.
Five women who were victims of the deadly 2102 fungal meningitis outbreak have warned that purchasing execution drugs from an unknown unlicensed compounding pharmacy could pose a safety risk to the public, the Tennessean reports.
?Innocent lives are put at risk when compounding pharmacies are permitted to make execution drugs without oversight or scrutiny,? the filing warns.
A compounding pharmacy was responsible for the drugs that caused the deadly 2012 virus.
?Compounding pharmacies have repeatedly been found to produce medicines of questionable quality,? the filing continues, noting the supplier does not have a licence to supply drugs over state lines.
The briefing notes that it takes no position for or against capital punishment, but does not want to repeat the mistakes of six years ago.
But Kathy ? the little girl?s broken mother ? stands firm. She wants closure, and she wants the world to remember her name.
?All you ever hear about is him. Nothing about her,? she said. ?What he did to her is the reason he?s where he is. I am sick of hearing about his pain and his suffering. What about her pain and her suffering? She was seven years old, raped, sodomised, and strangled to death. I?m sorry, I feel nothing for his pain. Nothing at all. God, forgive me, but I don?t.?
She says her little girl is more than just a name in a court document.
?She was alive. She?s real. She?s not just a name on a piece of paper. That?s what she is boiled down to now, according to the papers and the courts, is just a name. She is more than that. She is a lot more than that. She still is.
?I don?t think Paula can rest in peace until this is resolved. I honestly don?t believe she can. Paula needs to rest in peace.?
Irick?s execution is set for August 9.
I assume they were arguing that if oversight of compounding chemists is so lacking that they got meningitis due to fungal contamination of their medication purchases, it's possible other customers will be poisoned after purchasing medication contaminated with residue from death row drugs?
https://www.tennessean.com/story/new...ion/905351002/
Tennessee court denies meningitis victims' motion to intervene in Billy Ray Irick execution
WALTER F. ROCHE JR. | SPECIAL TO THE USA TODAY ? TENNESSEE NETWORK
Updated 5:15 a.m. GMT+10 Aug. 7, 2018
The death penalty in Tennessee
As of January 2017, there were 63 inmates on death row in Tennessee. Executions have been on hold pending a challenge by inmates to the single-dose drug protocol.
KAREN GRIGSBY / THE TENNESSEAN
The Tennessee Supreme Court quickly denied a motion by five victims of the deadly 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak who sought to intervene in a case related to the scheduled execution of convicted killer Billy Ray Irick.
In response to a motion filed Friday, the court issued a brief ruling Monday denying the petition to intervene. The court provided no rationale for denying the motion.
In the Friday filing, the five victims warned that purchasing execution drugs from an unknown unlicensed compounding pharmacy could put the general public at risk.
Noting that it was a compounding pharmacy that produced the drugs that caused the deadly 2012 fungal meningitis, the filing warns that "Innocent lives are put at risk when compounding pharmacies are permitted to make execution drugs without oversight or scrutiny."
Charging that the unnamed compounder Tennessee has lined up to produce execution drugs "has a history of disciplinary infractions in his home state."
The five seeking to intervene are Rosanna Bennington of Minnesota, Francis Farmer Hayes, Nancy Riley-Dargan, Leah Hyman and Vicki Scott. Though none are from Tennessee, the brief notes that Tennessee was particularly hard hit in the outbreak with 16 patients dying.
The brief states that the proposed intervenors take no position on capital punishment, but do not want to see the mistakes of 2012 repeated.
"Compounding pharmacies have repeatedly been found to produce medicines of questionable quality," the filing continues, adding that the unlicensed supplier does not have a license to supply drugs over state lines and the pharmacist does not have approval to compound drugs for use in Tennessee.
The five charge that allowing the state to use the compounded drugs will effectively circumvent reforms implemented at the state and federal level as a result of the outbreak.
State officials have stated that the compounder providing the execution drugs has applied for a Tennessee license.
PROVIDED BY NEVADA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS
The case before the state Supreme Court seeks to reverse a decision by Davidson Chancery Court Judge Ellen Hobbs Lyle, who ruled the state could proceed with executions utilizing a three drug cocktail including midalozam and potassium chloride.
The state plans to obtain a compounded version of midazolam, the first drug in the three-drug protocol. Attorneys for death row inmates argue the drug doesn't render inmates unconscious or unable to feel pain, essentially allowing inmates to be tortured to death.
Irick is scheduled to be executed Thursday. He was convicted in the rape and murder of a seven-year-old girl. The state Supreme Court is expected to rule JMonday on a motion to delay his execution.
The five victims of the 2012 outbreak cited the numerous deaths, 76, and more than 750 patients who were sickened after fungus tainted steroids were injected into their bodies.
The tainted spinal steroids were shipped from the now defunct New England Compounding Center. Two NECC officials, president and co-owner Barry Cadden and supervising pharmacist Glenn Chin, are now serving multi-year sentences for their roles in the outbreak.
More on Billy Ray Irick
Mental health: Is Knoxville's Billy Ray Irick too impaired to be executed?
Clemency petition: Gov. Bill Haslam evaluating mental health concerns ahead of Billy Ray Irick execution
Analysis: Will Billy Ray Irick receive a stay of his Aug. 9 execution?
Death row inmate?s attorney:: Tennessee Supreme Court must delay Billy Ray Irick?s execution
Tennessee Attorney General: It's time to put Billy Ray Irick to death
Supreme Court and Haslam won't stop Irick execution
DAVE BOUCHER, ADAM TAMBURIN | NASHVILLE TENNESSEAN
UPDATED 8:20 P.M. GMT+10 AUG. 7, 2018
The Tennessee Supreme Court ruled that the scheduled execution of Billy Ray Irick should proceed as planned on Thursday, denying his request for a stay.
Shortly after the Monday evening ruling, Gov. Bill Haslam announced he would not intervene and would allow the execution to go forward.
?I took an oath to uphold the law," Haslam said in a statement. "Capital punishment is the law in Tennessee and was ordered in this case by a jury of Tennesseans and upheld by more than a dozen state and federal courts."
The decisions from Haslam and the high court come despite an ongoing legal challenge of the state's lethal injection method. They move the state one step closer to executing its first inmate since 2009.
Billy Ray Irick moved to death watch before execution
NASHVILLE TENNESSEAN
The Tennessee Department of Correction confirmed Tuesday that death row inmate Billy Ray Irick had been moved to death watch, a period of increased supervision and security ahead of his execution date later this week.
Irick, 59, was moved to death watch at 11:30 p.m. Monday; he is scheduled to die by lethal injection Thursday. The Tennessee Supreme Court and Gov. Bill Haslam have both denied requests to delay the execution.
"Death watch is the three-day period before an execution when strict guidelines are implemented to maintain the security and control of the offender and to maintain safe and orderly operations of the prison," the department said in a statement.
Irick has been moved from his normal Riverbend Maximum Security Institute to one next to the execution chamber.
Irick was convicted in 1986 of the rape and murder of a 7-year-old girl in Knox County. Although Irick has exhausted appeals on his original case, he and 32 other death row offenders are challenging the drugs Tennessee intends to use in lethal injections.
http://www.arabnews.com/node/1404951/middle-east
Now Iran has executed people on corruption
LONDON: After two men convicted of financial crimes were executed in Iran, Amnesty International has strongly criticized the Iranian regime.
Vahid Mazloumin and Mohammad Esmail Ghasemi were put to death after a trial Amnesty has called “grossly unfair.”
Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Research and Advocacy Director, Philip Luther, said of the case: “With these abhorrent executions the Iranian authorities have flagrantly violated international law and once again displayed their shameless disregard for the right to life.
“Use of the death penalty is appalling under any circumstances but it is even more horrific given that these men were convicted after a grossly unfair show trial that was broadcast on state television. Under international human rights law, the death penalty is absolutely forbidden for non-lethal crimes, such as financial corruption.
“The shocking manner in which their trial was fast-tracked through Iran’s judicial system without allowing them the chance of a proper appeal is yet another example of the brazen disregard the Iranian authorities have for defendants’ basic due process rights.”
The duo were executed after being charged with “manipulating coin and hard currency markets through illegal and unauthorized deals” as well as smuggling. An unspecified number of other accomplices went to prison.
Iran detained Mazloumin, 58, in July for hoarding two tons of gold coins.
With Iran in the grip of a deepening economic crisis, authorities have carried out mass arrests of individuals whom they accuse of being “financially corrupt” and “saboteurs of the economy.”
According to Amnesty, the pair were convicted and sentenced to flogging, lengthy prison terms and eventually the death penalty after “grossly unfair summary trials.”
In August, Iran’s Supreme Leader approved a request by the Head of Judiciary to set up special courts to deal with crimes involving financial corruption. Since then, these courts have sentenced several people to death.
In a statement, Amnesty said the trials were unfair because defendants were denied access to lawyers of their own choosing, had no right to appeal against sentences of imprisonment during the process and were given only 10 days within which to appeal death sentences.
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/ne...tv-show-trial/
“The shocking manner in which their trial was fast-tracked through Iran’s judicial system without allowing them the chance of a proper appeal is yet another example of the brazen disregard the Iranian authorities have for defendants’ basic due process rights.”
Background
Amid a deepening economic crisis, the Iranian authorities have carried out mass arrests of individuals whom they describe as “financially corrupt” and “saboteurs of the economy”, convicted them of charges related to financial crimes and sentenced some of them to flogging, lengthy prison terms and the death penalty after grossly unfair summary trials.
In August, Iran’s Supreme Leader approved a request by the Head of Judiciary to set up special courts to deal with crimes involving financial corruption. Since then, these courts have sentenced several people to death. Vahid Mazloumin and Mohammad Esmail Ghasemi had been accused of manipulating Iran’s gold and currency markets and were sentenced to death in September on the charge of “spreading corruption on earth”. Dozens of other people have also been sentenced to prison terms after convictions on similar charges.
Amnesty International considers that trials before these special courts are inherently unfair because defendants are denied access to lawyers of their own choosing, have no right to appeal against sentences of imprisonment and are given only 10 days within which to appeal death sentences.
http://www.arabnews.com/node/1404951/middle-east
Now Iran has executed people on corruption
LONDON: After two men convicted of financial crimes were executed in Iran, Amnesty International has strongly criticized the Iranian regime.
Vahid Mazloumin and Mohammad Esmail Ghasemi were put to death after a trial Amnesty has called ?grossly unfair.?
Amnesty International?s Middle East and North Africa Research and Advocacy Director, Philip Luther, said of the case: ?With these abhorrent executions the Iranian authorities have flagrantly violated international law and once again displayed their shameless disregard for the right to life.
?Use of the death penalty is appalling under any circumstances but it is even more horrific given that these men were convicted after a grossly unfair show trial that was broadcast on state television. Under international human rights law, the death penalty is absolutely forbidden for non-lethal crimes, such as financial corruption.
?The shocking manner in which their trial was fast-tracked through Iran?s judicial system without allowing them the chance of a proper appeal is yet another example of the brazen disregard the Iranian authorities have for defendants? basic due process rights.?
The duo were executed after being charged with ?manipulating coin and hard currency markets through illegal and unauthorized deals? as well as smuggling. An unspecified number of other accomplices went to prison.
Iran detained Mazloumin, 58, in July for hoarding two tons of gold coins.
With Iran in the grip of a deepening economic crisis, authorities have carried out mass arrests of individuals whom they accuse of being ?financially corrupt? and ?saboteurs of the economy.?
According to Amnesty, the pair were convicted and sentenced to flogging, lengthy prison terms and eventually the death penalty after ?grossly unfair summary trials.?
In August, Iran?s Supreme Leader approved a request by the Head of Judiciary to set up special courts to deal with crimes involving financial corruption. Since then, these courts have sentenced several people to death.
In a statement, Amnesty said the trials were unfair because defendants were denied access to lawyers of their own choosing, had no right to appeal against sentences of imprisonment during the process and were given only 10 days within which to appeal death sentences.
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/ne...tv-show-trial/
?The shocking manner in which their trial was fast-tracked through Iran?s judicial system without allowing them the chance of a proper appeal is yet another example of the brazen disregard the Iranian authorities have for defendants? basic due process rights.?
Background
Amid a deepening economic crisis, the Iranian authorities have carried out mass arrests of individuals whom they describe as ?financially corrupt? and ?saboteurs of the economy?, convicted them of charges related to financial crimes and sentenced some of them to flogging, lengthy prison terms and the death penalty after grossly unfair summary trials.
In August, Iran?s Supreme Leader approved a request by the Head of Judiciary to set up special courts to deal with crimes involving financial corruption. Since then, these courts have sentenced several people to death. Vahid Mazloumin and Mohammad Esmail Ghasemi had been accused of manipulating Iran?s gold and currency markets and were sentenced to death in September on the charge of ?spreading corruption on earth?. Dozens of other people have also been sentenced to prison terms after convictions on similar charges.
Amnesty International considers that trials before these special courts are inherently unfair because defendants are denied access to lawyers of their own choosing, have no right to appeal against sentences of imprisonment and are given only 10 days within which to appeal death sentences.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...-a8636451.html
ANother take on the Iranian execution issue. This is like Iran executing Wall Street Execs. Sure some find the executions suspicious though.
The execution of two Iranian gold traders this week has raised concerns that the authorities are seeking to use them as scapegoats to divert attention from corruption at the heart of the regime.
But while the Iranian establishment has hailed the arrests and prosecutions of the traders, charged with corruption and tried by a special court dealing with cases of economic malfeasance, rights advocates have criticised what they call “kangaroo trials”.
Among the executed was Vahid Mazloumin, branded “the Sultan of Coins” for hoarding gold in an alleged effort to manipulate prices.
The pair were convicted on charges of “spreading corruption on earth”, considered a severe breach of Iranian law. Amnesty International called the trial “grossly unfair”.
“In Iran, unfortunately, instead of punishing the main elements of systematic corruption, they punish and execute persons who are not important,” said Mahdi Khalili, a reformist politician and political scientist in Tehran. “The main ones are free from any problems or punishment.”
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Iran ranked 130 out of 180 countries in Transparency International’s 2017 corruption index. Economic pressures exacerbated by tough US sanctions on Iran under the Trump administration have hammered away at the rial, which has lost 75 per cent of its value this year.
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But the executions of the two businessmen, with three more merchants on death row, shows that Iran is in danger of exacerbating its human rights difficulties in order to placate anger over perceived corruption.
Human rights specialists and jurists, including Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi, have said the suspects were condemned to death in quick trials that were unfair and failed to measure up to Iranian law much less international standards, which include a thorough appellate review process for death sentences.
Among other irregularities, the courts apply secretive national security rules to cases of white-collar crime, restricting the ability of defendants to get a lawyer.
In Iran, unfortunately, instead of punishing the main elements of systematic corruption, they punish and execute persons who are not important
Mahdi Khalili, reformist politician
“Iran’s hanging of people who have been convicted in courts without a fair trial is a blatant violation of law,” said Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the Centre for Human Rights in Iran, describing the trial venues as “kangaroo courts”.
The prosecutions suggest Tehran is attempting to shift blame for the collapse of the country’s currency to low-level traders and grey market businessmen in an effort to deflect from the Iranian system’s own incompetence and corruption, rooted in the economic power of religious charities and ideologically fervent security branches, especially the Revolutionary Guard.
It also shows what many critics have described over the years as the arbitrary nature of justice under the Islamic republic, where prominent members of ethnic and religious minorities as well as the Shia Muslim majority, and dissidents as well as businessmen, can become entangled in an obscure, Kafkaesque legal system overseen by Islamic jurists under the sway of shadowy security enforcers.
‘The Sultan of Coins goes to the gallows,’ declares the front page of Iranian newspaper Setareh Sobh, or Morning Star (Setareh Sobh)
State-dominated media hailed the executions: “Death: Compensation for betraying the people,” said a headline in the daily newspaper Tejarat, or Commerce.
Mr Mazloumin, 58, earned the moniker Sultan of Coins for his perceived mastery of the Iranian gold market, reportedly trading up to $30m worth of gold a day. Iranians have rushed to convert their savings into gold as the country’s currency has lost value.
Mr Mazloumin and his partner were reported to have been arrested in July, accused of hoarding two tons of gold in order drive up prices, according to local media. He always insisted on his innocence, explaining in an interview published after his death that gold prices rose and fell based on supply and demand.
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei approved the creation of special economic courts to handle corruption cases in August. Since then, dozens of businesspeople have been sentenced by the court.
Mr Mazloumin and Mohammad Esmail Ghasemi were tried hurriedly in a proceeding that was partially broadcast on state television in September, with hardline media clamouring for the ultimate punishment and a charge of spreading corruption on earth.
Iranians barely hanging on brace for impact of new US sanctions
“Gallows waiting for the Sultan of Coins,” the Javan newspaper declared in September.
The two men were initially sentenced to death in early October. The judiciary announced on 21 October that the death sentences against the two had been upheld.
This week they were abruptly hung at the gallows.
Mr Khalili said he suspected the executions were meant to distract the public from scrutinising the underlying causes of corruption, but also to send a warning to private sector vendors to lower their profit margins. While both may be humdrum political objectives, rights advocates say they in no way justify the death penalty.
“Under international human rights law,” Amnesty International’s Philip Luther said, “the death penalty is absolutely forbidden for non-lethal crimes, such as financial corruption.”
https://www.abc4.com/news/national/j...since-2003/?V4
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department says it will carry out executions of federal death row inmates for the first time since 2003.
The department says five inmates will be executed, starting in December.
In 2014, President Barack Obama directed the department to conduct a review of capital punishment and issues surrounding lethal injection drugs. That review resulted in what effectively was a freeze on executions.
The department says the Bureau of Prisons has completed the review and the executions can continue.
https://apnews.com/0238930de18b029e4b31ea1114d4a0d8
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has set new dates to begin executing federal death-row inmates following a monthslong legal battle over the plan to resume the executions for the first time since 2003.
Attorney General William Barr directed the federal Bureau of Prisons to schedule the executions, beginning in mid-July, of four inmates convicted of killing children. Three of the men had been scheduled to be put to death when Barr announced the federal government would resume executions last year, ending an informal moratorium on federal capital punishment as the issue receded from the public domain.
The Justice Department had scheduled five executions set to begin in December, but some of the inmates challenged the new procedures in court, arguing that the government was circumventing proper methods in order to wrongly execute inmates quickly.
The department wouldn’t say why the executions of two of the inmates scheduled in December hadn’t been rescheduled.
The move is likely to add a new front to the national conversation about criminal justice reform and raise interest in an issue that has largely lain dormant in recent years amid the culture battles that President Donald Trump already is waging on matters such as abortion and immigration in the lead-up to the 2020 elections.
The federal government’s initial effort was put on hold by a trial judge, and the federal appeals court in Washington and the Supreme Court both declined to step in late last year. But in April, the appeals court threw out the judge’s order. Lawyers for the inmates are asking the Supreme Court to order a halt to the process.
“The American people, acting through Congress and Presidents of both political parties, have long instructed that defendants convicted of the most heinous crimes should be subject to a sentence of death,” Barr said in a statement. “The four murderers whose executions are scheduled today have received full and fair proceedings under our Constitution and laws. We owe it to the victims of these horrific crimes, and to the families left behind, to carry forward the sentence imposed by our justice system.”
The resumption comes as the federal prison has struggled to combat the coronavirus pandemic behind bars, including at least one death at USP Terre Haute, where they will take place. One inmate there has died from COVID-19.
The inmates who will be executed are: Danny Lee, who was convicted in Arkansas of killing a family of three, including an 8-year-old; Wesley Ira Purkey, of Kansas, who raped and murdered a 16-year-old girl and killed an 80-year-old woman; Dustin Lee Honken, who killed five people in Iowa, including two children; and Keith Dwayne Nelson, who kidnapped a 10-year-old girl who was rollerblading in front of her Kansas home and raped her in a forest behind a church before strangling the young girl to death with a wire.
Three of the executions — for Lee, Purkley and Honken — are scheduled days apart beginning July 13. Nelson’s execution is scheduled for Aug. 28. The Justice Department said additional executions will be set at a later date.
Executions on the federal level have been rare and the government has put to death only three defendants since restoring the federal death penalty in 1988 — most recently in 2003, when Louis Jones was executed for the 1995 kidnapping, rape and murder of a young female soldier. Though there hasn’t been a federal execution since 2003, the Justice Department has continued to approve death penalty prosecutions and federal courts have sentenced defendants to death.
In 2014, following a botched state execution in Oklahoma, President Barack Obama directed the Justice Department to conduct a broad review of capital punishment and issues surrounding lethal injection drugs.
The attorney general said last July that the Obama-era review had been completed, clearing the way for executions to resume. He approved a new procedure for lethal injections that replaces the three-drug combination previously used in federal executions with one drug, pentobarbital. This is similar to the procedure used in several states, including Georgia, Missouri and Texas, but not all.
Barr told the AP in November that the federal Bureau of Prisons had been testing and conducting practice drills ahead of the first execution. He would not say where the drugs would come from.
Those chosen were among inmates who had exhausted their appeals, and the cases were forwarded to senior Justice Department officials who reviewed the cases and made recommendations to him, Barr said.
President Donald Trump has spoken often about capital punishment and his belief that executions serve as an effective deterrent and an appropriate punishment for some crimes, including mass shootings and the killings of police officers.
Lawyers for the men decried the Justice Department’s decision to move ahead with the executions.
Ruth Friedman, an attorney for Danny Lee, said the government relied on “junk science and false evidence” in his case and said he is trying to get a court to consider problems in his case. A federal judge denied Lee’s request for a new trial but noted that evidence presented by his attorneys “is reasonably likely” to have led to a different sentence.
“Given all of these circumstances, it would be unconscionable for the government to execute Danny Lee,” Friedman said.
Purkey’s attorney, Rebecca Woodman, said her client suffers from schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s disease and dementia and doesn’t understand why the government plans to execute him. “No execution should proceed unless and until the question of Wes’s competency is resolved,” she said.
And an attorney for Honken, Shawn Nolan, said Honken’s trial and sentencing proceeding were “plagued by misconduct and the ineffectiveness of counsel” and said he was been denied a full and fair review of the alleged defects in the case. Nolan described Honken as a “deeply remorseful and devout Catholic and loving father of two children.”
An attorney for Nelson did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
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