Archive for the ‘Death penalty’ Category

For 33 years Manuel Valle had been prison, waiting to be executed. He was 27 when he first entered death row and he was 61 when the State of Florida took his life on Thursday. This case has brought to the fore the death row phenomenon, an aspect of the death penalty too often overlooked, [...]

Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be executed in the UK The death penalty debate has reared its head yet again after Troy Davies was executed in Georgia last week under a cloud of controversy. This occurred just as the Government has been urged to debate the re-introduction of capital punishment by petitioners on its [...]

The revival of the capital punishment debate is a truly remarkable example of how society can so easily forget the lessons of history. Where better to rehash the age-old arguments of both sides than Questiontime, and who better to referee it than David Dimbleby. Just to declare an interest, I am against the death penalty. [...]

There is a global trend in abolition of capital punishment. Amnesty state 31 countries have abolished it in the last ten years. Pat Quinn, Governor of Illinois, last month signed legislation which abolishes the punishment in the state, with fifteen death sentences being commuted to life imprisonment. In most parts of the world, human rights [...]

An Indian pharmaceutical company, Kayem, announced yesterday that it would no longer supply drugs used for the death penalty to those US states that sought them. The drug in question, sodium thiopental, is used as an anaesthetic in the barbaric procedure. The company’s website declared that, …we as Indian Pharma Dealer who cherish the Ethos [...]

Yesterday British citizen Shivan Orton was arrested in Malaysia after £16 000 worth of drugs were found on a holiday resort she runs, BBC News reports. Possession of such an amount of illegal drugs in Malaysia is a capital offence. Last year, Leon Glenister wrote a short article for the AMICUS Journal on the death [...]

This morning Akmal Shaikh, a British citizen, was executed in China for possession of 4kg of heroin. This has caused a outcry from politicians and citizens alike. This morning the Chinese Ambassador was summoned to the Foreign Office to explain the Chinese government’s actions. But why this reaction? What makes this case headline news? Two [...]