In the United States of America 143 death row prisoners have been released in the last four decades alone, after evidence emerged during their appeals process of the wrongful conviction. Most of these death row prisoners had spent more than a decade locked inside single tiny cages for 23 hours per day 7 days per week. Some had come within hours of being executed.
The death penalty is still a form of punishment in many countries. The following is an excellent thought-provoking article of the "POLITICAL GAMES" associated with and surrounding the use of the death penalty in every country that still practice this barbaric, brutal, cruel, degrading, inhuman, uncivilised and discriminative form of punishment.
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Published in The Express Tribune.
By Shivam Vij
March 3, 2014
Legally killing people in public borders insanity in Iran.
The spike in the number of executions carried out so far this year in Iran is alarming and public executions continue to increase. Last month (January) the Iranian Government hanged 33 people in one week alone. In 2013, 625 people were executed, including at least 28 women and a number of political prisoners. But the actual number of executions is a state secret and the authorities permit only a proportion of executions to be reported to the public.
American states that retain the death penalty are considering a return to long-abandoned execution methods as they grapple with a shortage of lethal injection drugs. Death row prisoners in the United States are taking twice as long to die after being injected with lethal drugs, according to a new report.
70 years ago, a 14-year-old black teenager named George Stinney, was executed by electrocution in the state of South Carolina, USA, for the murder of two young white girls,
It took the all-white jury only 10 minutes to decide whether the young quiet George Stinney was guilty. His defense lawyer made no effort to prove if George Stinney was innocent. No witnesses were called for his defense or no cross examination. His lawyer at the time would not file an appeal on behalf of Stinney.
George Stinney's family had to flee their home before the trial in 1944.
The Australian Coalition Against Death Penalty ( a registered non-profit human rights organisation working for a death penalty-free world) strongly condemns the setting of an execution date for the Mexican national, Edgar Tamayo, by the US state of Texas. The execution would constitute a clear breach of domestic and international law, and is therefore is considered illegal.
The state of Texas in the USA continues to flout International Law as it prepares to wrongfully execute a Mexican citizen.
The Mexican Goverment has demanded life in prison for a Mexico citizen on death row in Texas, USA.
Edgar Tamayo Arias, 46, is scheduled for execution on 22nd January 2014.
Ronald Ryan was the last man hanged in Australia. It was 8:00 on Friday February 3, 1967 inside 'D' Division at Pentridge Prison in Melbourne, Victoria.
To this day, more than four decades later, the facts and serious doubts remain whether Ronald Ryan was guilty of murder beyond all reasonable doubt.
China, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the USA are among the world's most prolific executioners. There have been recent executions or resumptions of death sentences after de facto moratoriums in countries such as India, Indonesia, Kuwait and Nigeria.
Which country will be the last to abolish the death penalty?
Adghanistan is considering bringing back stoning-to-death for adultery, Human Rights Watch and the justice ministry says, possibly restoring a punishment in force during the Taliban's brutal regime.
The penalty for married adulterers, along with flogging for unmarried offenders, appears in a draft revision of the country's penal code being considered by the ministry of justice. Ashraf Azimi, the head of ministry's criminal law department, confirmed to AFP that stoning to death is included in the draft.
