Death sentence News

Annapolis - Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley yesterday signed abolition of capital punishment into law in Maryland in a move welcomed by campaigners Amnesty International. Maryland becomes part of a worldwide trend away from state-sanctioned execution.

Columbus - According to papers filed in federal court, Ronald Post, 53, is too obese to be executed by lethal injection and carrying out his death sentence would be tantamount to torture.

Hefei - After being sentenced to death, Gu Kailai, wife of former Chinese Politburo member Bo Xilai, had her sentence suspended by the court. She will most likely now face life in prison for last year’s murder of British businessman Neil Heywood.

Dubai - A 21-year old man from the UK has been sentenced to death in the United Arab Emirates, after he and a Syrian national, 19, were convicted on drug charges in the Gulf state.

Four men in a southwestern province in Iran have been sentenced to death for “sodomy," according to a recent report by the Human Rights Activist News Agency (HRANA).

Tehran - Iranian Supreme Court confirmed the death sentence imposed on Canadian resident and web developer, Saeed Malekpour. No explanation was given for the reinstatement that was annulled in June 2011. Malekpour is one of many bloggers sentenced in 2012.

New York - Over 400,000 tons of asbestos blew into New York on September 11, 2001, when terrorists attacked the Manhattan Twin Towers, killing over 2,500 people. First responders and fleeing survivors were immediately put at risk for mesothelioma cancer.

Baghdad - Citing humanitarian grounds, the Russian foreign ministry has requested that Iraq not carry out the death sentence that was imposed on Tariq Aziz yesterday by an Iraqi court.

The Iraqi Supreme Court has sentenced former Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz to death. For years, Aziz was the international face of Iraq, often seen on TV screens during the Iraq War of 2003.

Teheran - The attorney general of Iran announced Monday that Sakineh Ashtiani Mohamadi, the Iranian woman accused of adultery and complicity in the murder of her husband, has been sentenced to death for the second crime and will die by hanging.