Council of Europe calls for US, Japan to abolish death penalty
The Council of Europe , Europe's top human rights organization, Monday called for the United States and Japan to set an example for other countries by abolishing capital punishment. COE Secretary General Terry Davis ...
Iraqi parliament considers extended death penalty for terrorist acts
A closed session of the Iraqi National Assembly debated a broad new anti-terrorism bill Monday, which would authorize the execution of perpetrators and accomplices of offenses classified as terrorist acts. The bill reportedly includes the following as...
Three convicted murders were executed in Iraq Thursday, marking the first time the death penalty has been used since Saddam Hussein lost power in 2003. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani opposes the death...
VA jury says killer at center of US high court case mentally fit for execution
A jury in Virginia Friday found that Daryl Renard Atkins is not mentally retarded, and upheld his death penalty conviction. Atkins had been convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death for the 1996 killing of...
The UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda on Wednesday sent 10 cases for suspects in the country's 1994 genocide to Rwandan national courts, citing a need to meet its deadline of completing all trials...
Jury must decide fate of mentally retarded man at center of Supreme Court decision
Jury selection began today for the competency trial of Daryl Atkins, the plaintiff in the 2002 Supreme Court case Atkins v. Virginia that abolished the death penalty for the severely mentally retarded by...
Federal jury recommends death sentence in first VT capital trial for half-century
A federal jury in Vermont Thursday recommended the death penalty for Donald Fell, convicted in June of kidnapping and murdering a supermarket worker in 2000. Vermont hasn't executed a convict since 1954,...
No deportation of Rwanda war crimes suspect from Canada unless death penalty waived
Despite a Supreme Court of Canada order that Rwandan Leon Mugesera should be deported amidst accusations of inciting genocide in his home country, Canadian Justice Minister Irwin Cotler said Friday...
International brief ~ SA court orders expedited re-sentencing of death row inmates
Leading Wednesday's international brief, South Africa's Constitutional Court has issued a unanimous ruling ordering the South African Department of Justice to expedite the alternative sentencing of the 62 individuals currently sitting on death row. South Africa [government...
The appellate body of the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled Thursday that the Turkish trial of Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan was unfair , stating that Ocalan was not...
