12 Dec 2011 | Index Index, minipost
The death penalty has been dropped against a USA journalist in Philadelphia who has spent thirty years on death row. Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was convicted of killing white police officer Daniel Faulknerin 1981, will have his sentence commuted to life imprisonment, after Faulkner’s widow reportedly persuaded prosecutors to stop pushing for the death penalty. The death sentence of Abu-Jamal, a former member of the African-American leftist group Black Panther, was quashed in April, and the state of Pennsylvania was given six months to select a jury and hold a new sentencing hearing, or agree to a life sentence.
10 Nov 2010 | Index Index, minipost
Asia Bibi, a Christian mother-of-five, has been sentenced to death for blasphemy. Bibi is accused of insulting the Prophet Mohammad during an argument with a group of Muslim women. She has denied the charges and has told investigators that she is being persecuted because of her faith. It is thought she will now appeal in a local court in Sheikhupura, near Lahore. No one has ever been executed under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, most of those convicted are freed on appeal, although 10 defendants are thought to have been murdered whilst on trial.
3 Nov 2010 | News and features
British author Alan Shadrake has been found guilty of insulting Singapore’s judiciary in a book he wrote about the city state’s use of the death penalty.
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26 Jul 2010 | Index Index, Middle East and North Africa, minipost, News and features
The wife and brother-in-law of the lawyer who defended Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the mother of two who was sentenced to death by stoning for alleged adultery, have been arrested. The lawyer, Mohammed Mostafaei, who is also a human rights activist, drew international attention to the case, which eventually forced the Iranian authorites to overturn the ruling. On Saturday his office was searched and he was arrested but later released.
