Tag: capital punishment

Wall Street Journal Weeps for Murderers Trump Sent to Supermax

Shortly before he left office, President Biden commuted the sentences of 37 convicted murderers. Those convicts, all on death row, were now facing life behind bars.

Two of those convicts, Norris Holder and Billie Allen, killed bank guard and former police officer Richard Heflin in a 1997 bank robbery. Other family members of murder victims were outraged and hurt by Biden’s move.

Alex Snell, the brother of Amanda Snell, was one of those people. Amanda, 20, was strangled by Jorge Avila-Torrez in 2009. “I’d rather see it go back to the way it was, where he was sentenced to death,” Snell said. “He should have gotten that penalty.”

President Biden said he commuted the sentences (save for three convicted of terrorism or hate crimes) because he had a change of heart on the death penalty, and the Wall Street Journal says he found it “needlessly cruel, as well as impossible to administer fairly.”

It seems the Wall Street Journal believes those commutations somehow absolve the convicted murderers from facing consequences for their actions, and they’re appalled that President Trump hasn’t made their lives behind bars easier.

Here’s more:

Among the last actions by former President Joe Biden before leaving the Oval Office was commuting the death sentences of 37 convicted murderers.

Hours after President Trump took over, he ordered the life sentences of these men be made, in effect, a living hell.

With that guidance, officials canceled plans to transfer most of the inmates to mainline prisons. Instead, Emil Bove III, the acting deputy attorney general at the time, ordered all but a handful requiring specialized medical treatment be housed in the U.S. Penitentiary at Florence, Colo., the harshest institution in the federal system.

Inmates at the Colorado prison—intended for the nation’s most violent—typically spend 23 hours a day alone in their cells. At a meeting in May with Attorney General Pam Bondi for families of loved ones killed by the 37 convicts, some officials said they wished conditions at the prison, known as ADX, were even worse.

Aaron Reitz, a former assistant attorney general, held a roundtable with victims’ families. “If you’re not going to be killed lawfully at the hands of the state, well, your prison sentence is going to be hard as hell,” Reitz said in an interview.

There is little sympathy for these convicts outside of the Wall Street Journal editorial room.

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Tunisian Man Sentenced to Death for Facebook Posts Critical of President Kais Saied

A Tunisian court has handed down a death sentence to a man accused of posting critical remarks about President Kais Saied on Facebook, a decision that has sent shockwaves through the country’s already tense political climate.

Lawyer Oussama Bouthalja confirmed that 56-year-old day laborer Saber Chouchane was convicted over social media posts that mocked and denounced the president.

“The judge in the Nabeul court sentenced the man to death over Facebook posts. It is a shocking and unprecedented ruling,” Bouthalja said, describing the decision as both extraordinary and alarming.

Chouchane, who has little formal education, was arrested last year after running a Facebook page titled “Kaïs le misérable” (“Kaïs the Miserable”), a name openly deriding President Saied.

Reuters reported his online activity included satirical cartoons, posts urging protests, and messages that prosecutors described as attempts to “overthrow the state.”

Authorities accused him of spreading “false news” and “insulting the president,” charges that rights advocates argue are being used to silence dissent.

An appeal has been filed, according to Bouthalja, but Tunisia’s justice ministry has not commented on the case.

Although courts in Tunisia sometimes issue death sentences, no executions have been carried out for over 30 years.

Family members expressed disbelief and anguish following the ruling. “We can’t believe it,” said Jamal Chouchane, Saber’s brother. “We are a family suffering from poverty, and now oppression and injustice have been added to poverty.”

The verdict ignited a wave of outrage online, as Tunisians flooded social media with messages of disbelief and defiance.

Many see the ruling as a blatant attempt to intimidate government opponents and restrict free expression even further.

Opposition figures have been jailed on a range of charges, while rights organizations, including the Tunisian League for Human Rights and the CRLDHT, warn that the justice system is being weaponized to punish dissent.

The absence of transparency surrounding Chouchane’s posts has also drawn attention. Authorities have not released screenshots or transcripts, a move many view as an attempt to suppress the very content that challenged the government.

For Tunisians who once celebrated the country’s post-revolution commitment to free speech, this is a chilling new chapter.

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Israeli Knesset Advances Bill To Execute Palestinian Prisoners Who Killed Jews

In yet another development which will certainly complicate current Trump administration efforts to find peace in Gaza, the National Security Committee in the Israeli Knesset is advancing a bill to impose the death penalty on Palestinian prisoners detained for killing Israelis.

Killings which are deemed motivated by “racism or hostility to the public” or aimed at harming the “State of Israel” or seeking to thwart the “revival of the Jewish people” would be a capital offensive, according to the legislation. Interestingly, the wording highlights Jewish citizens of Israel are the priority – and not for example Christian, Muslim, or Druze citizens.

It has unleashed immediate controversy both within and outside of Israel. For starters, some Israeli officials as well as families of Oct.7 victims fear that this puts the remaining hostages in Gaza at immediate risk. Notably, the bill does not apply the opposite direction – that is, it would not apply to Israelis who kill Palestinians.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s coordinator for negotiations on the captives, Gal Hirsch, has gone on record as vehemently opposing the bill.

“It’s not for nothing that we are asking not to hold this discussion. I completely disagree with your assessment of the situation, Minister [Itamar] Ben Gvir,” he said in a communication protesting the initiative. “Especially when we are engaged in a combined military and diplomatic effort to bring back the hostages, this discussion does not help us.”

An initial Sunday Knesset committee vote was 4-1 in favor, while more of rounds of votes needed for the bill to become law, according to protocol. 

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has been leading the charge, resisting calls to postpone the vote due to the precariousness of the hostage situation. 

One Palestinian rights group had this to say:

The Israeli bill was denounced by the Palestinian Commission for Detainees’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner Society as an “unprecedented savagery,” warning that it would entrench what they described as “systematic crimes” against detainees through legislation.

Increasingly, there have been shootings and terroristic attacks by Palestinians in places like Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, related to ongoing events in Gaza and the West Bank.

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Supreme Court Stays Ruling That Could Lead to Retrial of Death Row Prisoner

The Supreme Court on Sept. 26 temporarily stayed a federal appeals court ruling requiring that Alabama death row inmate Michael Sockwell be retried for murder.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit had ruled on June 30 that Sockwell’s conviction was unconstitutional because prosecutors engaged in racial discrimination during jury selection.

Justice Clarence Thomas, who oversees emergency appeals from Alabama, issued an administrative stay of the 11th Circuit ruling. An administrative stay gives the justices more time to consider an emergency appeal.

A divided three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit had ruled that Alabama prosecutors violated Sockwell’s constitutional rights by excluding blacks from the jury at his trial.

The ruling made Sockwell eligible for retrial. He was convicted in the 1988 killing of Montgomery County Deputy Sheriff Isaiah Harris. Although Sockwell was sentenced to death, his lawyers said their client’s IQ is low enough to make him ineligible for the death penalty.

The panel majority specifically found that prosecutors violated Sockwell’s 14th Amendment rights when they “repeatedly and purposefully” turned away potential black jurors who were deemed more sympathetic to him because of their shared race.

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Fox News host on mentally ill people who commit crimes: “Just kill them”

LAWRENCE JONES (FOX HOST):  We don’t have to — we feel so compassionate because you see the mental health crisis happening.

AINSLEY EARHARDT (FOX HOST): You just get — exactly.

JONES  But it’s not our job — we shouldn’t have to live in fear while they figure out what is going on right there.

EARHARDT: Right, right.

JONES: Put him in a mental institution, put him in a jail, and you guys figure it out. But people having to duck and dive on the trains and the buses, walking through the street, this is one case, but this is happening all across the country, and it’s not a money issue. They have given billions of dollars to mental health and the homeless population. A lot of them don’t want to take the programs, a lot of them don’t want to get the help that is necessary. You can’t give them a choice. Either you take the resources that we’re going to give you and — or you decide that you are going to be locked up in jail. That’s the way it has to be now.

BRIAN KILMEADE (FOX HOST): Or involuntary lethal injection.

JONES: Yeah.

KILMEADE : Or something. Just kill them.

EARHARDT: Yeah, Brian, why did it have to get to this point?

KILMEADE: Right, I would say this, we are not voting for the right people. In North Carolina, wake up. You can’t put — keep putting these people in power. They woke up in Los Angeles, they got a stronger D.A. They woke up and they got rid of Chesa Boudin in San Francisco. Hopefully they will get rid of this terrible guy Alvin Bragg in New York. And now it’s up to the people in the election which is whoever is up in November and that Senate seat that belongs to Thom Tillis who by the way yesterday said I don’t want any help from the federal government to bring crime under control in cities like Charlotte. That’s your decision. But Michael Whatley or you could have Governor Cooper. Governor Cooper gave you these terrible laws. Mike Whatley wouldn’t. And he ran the RNC. These are the people in North Carolina. Purple leaning red state. They got a big choice. On this element, it is political. Because it’s political because politics has to change this.

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Trump Calls for Quick Trial and DEATH for “ANIMAL” who Murdered Irina Zarutzka – “There Can be No Other Option!”

President Trump made a Truth Social post on Wednesday morning, calling for the death penalty for Decarlos Brown Jr., a black man who murdered murdered 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska in what was likely a hate crime. 

The Trump Administration is seeking either life in prison or death for the deranged murderer after federally charging him federally for the murder.

“There can be no other option,” but death, Trump said this morning.

Trump also addressed the senseless murder from the Oval Office on Tuesday, vowing to make America safe again and calling out radical left judges, politicians, and activists for promoting the “depraved criminal element of violent repeat offenders.”

“We have to respond with force and strength. We have to be vicious, just like they are. It’s the only thing they understand,” the President said.

WATCH:

Trump: For far too long, Americans have been forced to put up with Democrat run cities that set loose savage, bloodthirsty criminals to prey on innocent people, really, very, very innocent people. In every place they control, radical left judges, politicians, and activists, they’ve adopted a policy of catch and release for thugs and killers. In Charlotte, North Carolina, we saw the results of these policies when a 23-year-old woman, who came here from Ukraine met her bloody end on a public train. And here’s a picture of it. This is the picture of it. And this is a picture of the woman, a beautiful young girl that never had problems in life, with a magnificent future in this country.

And now she’s dead. She was slaughtered by a deranged monster who was roaming free after 14 prior arrests. We cannot allow a depraved criminal element of violent repeat offenders to continue spreading destruction and death throughout our country. We have to respond with force and strength. We have to be vicious, just like they are. It’s the only thing they understand. 24 of the top 25 most dangerous cities in America are run by Democrat mayors. 50 people were murdered in Chicago in recent weeks, with hundreds being shot. And it’s time to stop this madness. The people of our country need to insist on protection, safety, law, and order.

We have proven that it can be done because we did it right here in DC, District of Columbia. The capital of America was a blood thirsty, horrible, dangerous place, one of the worst, and now it’s a crime free city, and we’re going to keep it that way. It can be done. It can happen fast. All we want is— please, Mr. President, we need help. Chicago needs help. Other cities need help. We’ll do what has to be done, because we’re going to make America safe again, and that includes our big cities. We’re going to make those cities, safe. Thank you.

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New hate crime charges filed in killing of Israeli Embassy staffers, raising death penalty potential

D.C. federal prosecutors have filed federal hate crime and murder charges against the man accused of gunning down two Israeli Embassy staffers this spring, giving the Justice Department the option to pursue the death penalty in the case.

The newly unsealed indictment lays out the alleged digital footprint of Elias Rodriguez’s antisemitic views that prosecutors say fueled the deadly shooting of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah MilgrIm, a young couple who were days away from being engaged in Jerusalem.

The court documents include a “notice of special findings” that includes the potential for Mr. Rodriguez, 31, to receive the death penalty. 

Surveillance video showed Rodriguez advancing closer to Lischinsky and Milgrim as they fell to the ground, leaning over them and firing additional shots. He appeared to reload before jogging off, officials have said.

The defendant is accused of flying from Chicago to the District with his legally owned pistol to carry out the May 21 attack outside the Capital Jewish Museum. 

The new indictment says Mr. Rodriguez shouted “Free Palestine” when he shot the couple dead as they left the venue, according to court documents. 

Surveillance video allegedly captured Mr. Rodriguez standing over the victims and firing more shots into the couple after he initially downed them.

The filing said he then went inside the museum and claimed he killed the pair “for Gaza” and “for Palestine” while brandishing a red keffiyeh, a traditional Arabic scarf often associated with anti-Israel activists.

Mr. Rodriguez continued to shout “Free Palestine” during his arrest, the indictment said, and made statements about “intifada” and “revolution” as well. He also yelled  “shame on you” at event attendees inside the museum and “shame on Zio-nazi terror.”  

Old social media posts cited in court documents include a 2024 post that said “Happy New Year, Death To Israel.”

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Saudi Arabia Keeps Executing Foreigners On Drug Charges At ‘Horrifying’ Rate

There has been a surge in executions in Saudi Arabia, particularly in relation to drug offences, a new report published by Amnesty International on Monday has revealed.

The kingdom executed 1,816 people between January 2014 and June 2025, according to the official Saudi Press Agency. Of those, nearly one third (597) were for drug-related offences, which may not be punishable by death under international human rights law and norms. Around three quarters of those executed for drug offences were foreign nationals.

“We are witnessing a truly horrifying trend, with foreign nationals being put to death at a startling rate for crimes that should never carry the death penalty,” Amnesty’s Kristine Beckerle said. 

Executions in Saudi Arabia have risen steadily over the past year and a half. In 2024, the kingdom executed 345 people – the highest annual figure that Amnesty has recorded in over three decades. 

So far this year, 180 people have been executed. Last month alone, 46 executions were carried out, 37 of which were for drug-related offences. 

They were made up of nationals from Egypt, Ethiopia, Jordan, Nigeria, Pakistan, Somalia and Syria. In January 2021, Riyadh had announced a moratorium on drug related-executions, but that was lifted in November the following year.

‘Cruel, inhuman and degrading’

Last month, inmates and their relatives told Middle East Eye that executions could take place “any day”. The men were all from Ethiopia and Somalia and had been convicted of drug trafficking. 

“They have told us to say our goodbyes,” one of the convicted men told MEE. “We were told that executions would begin shortly after Eid al-Adha (5-9 June), and now they have started.”

In its report, Amnesty interviewed the families of 13 inmates on death row, as well as community members and consulate officials. It also reviewed court documents. 

Based on the testimonies and evidence, it concluded that limited levels of education and disadvantaged socio-economic status of foreign nationals increased their risk of exploitation and lack of legal representation. 

The family of 27-year-old Khalid Mohammed Ibrahim, who was put on death row on alleged drug trafficking charges, told MEE it had been a harrowing seven years for the family since he was arrested.

“He tried to enter the country through Yemen,” his older brother Muleta said. “A border guard encouraged him to tell his jailers that he was a drug smuggler, saying it would get him sent to court and quickly cleared since there was no evidence. He believed them.”

In addition to drug offences, Amnesty reported on the use of the death penalty against Saudi Arabia’s Shia minority on “terrorism” related charges. 

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Florida serial killer praises Trump in final words before execution

A suspected serial killer once scrutinized for a possible link to the O.J. Simpson case that riveted the nation in the 1990s was executed Thursday in Florida for the murder of a woman found dead in a Tampa motel room.

Glen Rogers, 62, received a lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke and was pronounced dead at 6:16 p.m., authorities said. He was convicted in Florida of the 1995 murder of Tina Marie Cribbs, a 34-year-old mother of two he had met at a bar.

He also had drawn a separate death sentence in California for the 1995 strangulation killing of Sandra Gallagher, a mother of three whom he had met at a bar in Van Nuys in that state. That killing came weeks before the Cribbs murder. Rogers was stopped after a highway chase in Kentucky while driving Cribbs’ car soon after her death.

In a final statement, Rogers thanked his wife, who visited him earlier in the day at the prison, according to visitor logs. He also somewhat cryptically said that “in the near future, your questions will be answered” without going into detail. He also said, “President Trump, keep making America great. I’m ready to go.” Then the lethal injection began, and he lay quietly through the procedure.

The entire execution took just 16 minutes. Once it began, Rogers hardly moved, only lying still with his mouth slightly open. At one point, a staff member grasped him by the shoulders, shook him and yelled, “Rogers, Rogers” to see if he was conscious. No family members of the Florida victim spoke to the press afterwards.

Rogers was named as a suspect but never convicted in several other slayings around the country, once telling police he had killed about 70 people. He later recanted that statement, but had been the subject of documentaries, including one from 2012 called “My Brother the Serial Killer” that featured his brother Clay and a criminal profiler who had corresponded extensively with Rogers.

The documentary raised questions about whether Rogers could have been responsible for the 1994 stabbing deaths of Simpson’s ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman.

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US First: Idaho Legalizes Firing Squads for Pedophiles

Courts in Idaho will be able to impose the death penalty on individuals convicted of aggravated lewd conduct with minors aged 12 or younger, with firing squad as the main method of execution.

Governor Brad Little signed into law a bill that will create a new criminal charge punishable by execution.

To seek the death penalty, prosecutors must show at least three of 17 specific aggravating factors. These include multiple incidents of abuse, the use of force, and the transmission of a sexually transmitted disease to the victim.

In cases that do not qualify for the death penalty but involve children up to the age of 16, mandatory prison sentences will apply.

Governor Little said the highest possible punishment should be reserved for those who sexually abuse children.

“Just like capital murder destroys lives, aggravated sexual abuse of a young child devastates victims and families for generations,” the Governor said.

State politicians have praised the legislation, saying existing laws were too weak.

According to State Representative Bruce Skaug, the new law “establishes a strong deterrent, making it clear Idaho will not tolerate these offenses.”

“Idaho currently has some of the most lenient statutes for child molestation and child rape in the nation.”

The new law will go into effect on 1 July.

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