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She had no lawyer. She tried to defend herself. In the end the government took her to the noose. She was hung. The 16-year-old body was accused of committing "acts incompatible with chastity." Note date of article's first posting. What was happening then is happening now and will happen on into the future.

Here is how CBS News reported, in September, on the death of a census worker in Kentucky. “Terror in Kentucky: Census Worker's Murder. Body Found Naked, Hanging From Tree in Cemetery; Had Been Gagged, Duct Taped, 'Fed' Scrawled on Chest.. "'He was murdered,’ Weaver said. ‘There's no doubt.’ ... I said, 'Bill you be careful when you go over to eastern Kentucky to do your census work. Some of the people over there may not understand that you're just collecting statistics,' friend Gilbert Acciardo told CBS News.. “Although anti-government sentiment was one possibility in the death, some in law enforcement...

Remember the case of the Census worker who was found hanging from a tree with the word ‘fed' scrawled across his chest? You remember - he died at the hands of right-wing commentators and anti-government tea partiers. He was killed because of an overwhelming case of right-wing paranoia. He was murdered by Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Michelle Bachmann, and Fox News. Keep this quiet though... While the death of Bill Sparkman was a media sensation for pushing anti-conservative sentiments just a couple of months ago, it is receiving little to no coverage currently. Why? Because, as investigators have recently speculated,...

The FBI is investigating the hanging of 51 year old census worker, Robert Sparkman. Sparkman was found hanging in a remote wooded area of west Kentucky in Clay County with the word “FED” scrawled on his chest. I was reading about this case this morning and of course, the thought came to mind that “right winged” extremists would be blamed for this event. I mean, geez, there is so much hatred for those who oppose the take over of America and “fundamentally transforming” America into a European style Socialist country that, of course, when a dead fed is found that,...

BIG CREEK, Ky. (AP) - A part-time census worker found hanging in a rural Kentucky cemetery was naked, gagged and had his hands and feet bound with duct tape, said an Ohio man who discovered the body two weeks ago. Jerry Weaver of Fairfield, Ohio, told The Associated Press on Friday that he was among a group of relatives who discovered the body of 51-year-old Bill Sparkman on Sept. 12. "The only thing he had on was a pair of socks," Weaver said. "And they had duct-taped his hands, his wrists. He had duct tape over his eyes, and they...

MANCHESTER, Ky. – When Bill Sparkman told retired trooper Gilbert Acciardo that he was going door-to-door collecting census data in rural Kentucky, the former cop drawing on years of experience warned: "Be careful." The 51-year-old Sparkman was found hanged from a tree near a Kentucky cemetery and had the word "fed" scrawled on his chest, a law enforcement official said Wednesday, and the FBI is investigating whether he was a victim of anti-government sentiment. "Even though he was with the Census Bureau, sometimes people can view someone with any government agency as 'the government.' I just was afraid that he...

After the mass demonstrations in Iran the ruling Mullahs hanged numerous opposition supporters. Today the Shiite leaders of Iran have continued with their Islamic blood lust and have hanged over a dozen of their Sunni rivals.

Iran hanged 13 members of a Sunni Muslim rebel group Tuesday convicted of bombings and killings in the country's restive southeast near the borders with Pakistan and Afghanistan, the state news agency reported. The mass execution was the largest ever carried out against members of Jundallah and was likely meant as a warning to the group, which is composed of Sunnis from the Baluchi ethnic minority. They have waged a low-level insurgency in recent years, accusing the mostly Shiite and Persian Iranian government of persecution. The group, whose name means Soldiers of God in Farsi, took credit for a suicide...

NEW DELHI (AP) — India's top court has refused to replace hanging with lethal injection as the country's sole method of execution, saying there is no evidence it is less painful than other ways. Monday's ruling rejected a petition by rights activist Ashok Kumar Walia, who said hanging was a "cruel and painful" method of execution and should be replaced by lethal injection, which is used in more than 30 U.S. states as a primary method of execution. "How do you know that hanging causes pain? And how do you know that injecting the condemned prisoner with a lethal drug...

SABINA AMIDI, Special to The Jerusalem Post As the Iranian authorities warned the opposition on Tuesday that they would tolerate no further protests over the disputed June 12 presidential elections, a report emerged of the hangings of six supporters of defeated candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi. Speaking after Iran's top legislative body upheld the election victory of incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, sources in Iran told this reporter in a telephone interview that the hangings took place in the holy city of Mashhad on Monday. There was no independent confirmation of the report. Underlining the climate of fear among direct and even indirect...

As the Iranian authorities warned the opposition on Tuesday that they would tolerate no further protests over the disputed June 12 presidential elections, a report emerged of the hangings of six supporters of defeated candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi. Speaking after Iran's top legislative body upheld the election victory of incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, sources in Iran told this reporter in a telephone interview that the hangings took place in the holy city of Mashhad on Monday. There was no independent confirmation of the report.

A rep for the Phoenix Police Department has just released the following statement regarding Mike Tyson's 4-year-old daughter: I was just advised by investigators that Exodus Tyson was pronounced deceased at 11:45 AM today at the hospital. Our sympathies go out to the family. Paramedics were called to Tyson's Phoenix home at around 10:30 Monday morning when his 7-year-old son found the young girl hanging from a treadmill by its power cable. Tyson's reps have no comment at this time.

NINE people, including a 30-year-old woman, have been hanged in Iran, state media reported yesterday. The state-run daily newspaper Iran said four of the nine including the woman were convicted of murder in separate cases and were hanged on Wednesday. The woman was found guilty of killing her husband with a hammer, it said.

The city man accused of biting a chunk from his 1-year-old son's neck and stabbing his ex-girlfriend committed suicide in Berks County Prison Friday night, state police said. Aaron Barragan-Cruz, 34, who had no known address when arrested but had lived in the 100 block of Rose Street, was found about 9:30 p.m., hanging by bedsheets tied to his bed in his prison cell. He had been alone in the cell. Troopers said guards and ambulance personnel tried to revive him but could not. He was pronounced dead by members of the Berks County coroner's office at 10:40 p.m. An...

Law enforcement sources said they found David Kellermann, acting chief financial officer of mortgage company Freddie Mac, hanging in the basement of his Reston, Va., home, dead from an apparent suicide early this morning. Virginia police say they found David Kellermann, acting chief financial officer of mortgage company Freddie Mac, hanging in the basement of his Reston home, dead from an apparent suicide early this morning. (ABC News)The death was "an active investigation" and there were "no signs of foul play," Fairfax County police officer Sabrina Ruck said. Local police said they were called to Kellermann's home at 4:48am. Kellermann,...

The acting head of Freddie Mac, David Kellermann, has apparently committed suicide, Fairfax County Police tell WTOP. Fairfax County Police spokeswoman Mary Anne Jennings says Kellermann, 41, was found at his Hunter Mill Estates home Wednesday morning. Jennings says police responded to the home after family members called police around 5 a.m. "We were called from inside the house to come investigate an apparent suicide," Jennings says. Because of legal ramifications, Jennings says she can't describe the nature of the suicide. "We're not to give you details of the condition of the body, except to say it was an apparent...

If we hang all “war criminals”, economic recovery will be easy and swift. They will be all dead. The dying industry benefits from it. But it is not the way you think it is. Highest troop surge in Iraq, 163,000. My estimate of some 50,000 more intelligence agents and security homeland security officers committed, together with the soldiers who obeyed the orders of their Commander-In-Chief, “war crimes”, according to the legalese of Obama’s hatchet men. Some 373 more Senators and Congressmen and Congresspersons are said to be Bush conspirators in committing “crimes against humanity” in Iraq. It includes then Sen....

It sounds sadistic but the deafening cry of the socialist Left and their radical Liberal satellites to hang the former Republican president and vice president for alleged “war crimes” is reaches far beyond Bush and Cheney themselves. The sword of anger is drawn not only to get them but also to strike down all U.S. presidents living or dead accused of genocide by foes abroad and by the enemy within. Let us clear this confusion generated by victorious socialist Democrats who are now publicly perceived as intoxicated by their newly found power since Obama won the last presidential election.The radical...

A 20-year-old Ghanaian has been sentenced to death in Singapore for trafficking 2.6 kilograms (5.73 pounds) of cannabis, the Straits Times reported Saturday. The High Court convicted and sentenced Chijioke Stephen Obioha on Tuesday after a 21-day trial held last year, it said. Under Singapore's tough anti-drug laws, the death penalty is mandatory for anyone caught trafficking more than 15 grams of heroin, 30 grams of cocaine or 500 grams of cannabis. The death penalty is carried out by hanging. Narcotics officers arrested Obioha in April 2007 following a surveillance operation. He had come to Singapore in 2005 to try...

It's a safe bet, dear reader, that the title of this column has caused you to either (a) roll your eyes and wonder, What century do you think we're living in? or (b) scratch your head and ask, Yes, why don't we? Wherever you come down, the question defines a fault line in the civilized world's view about the latest encroachment of barbarism. Year-to-date, Somalia-based pirates have attacked more than 90 ships, seized more than 35, and currently hold 17. Some 280 crew members are being held hostage, and two have been killed. Billions of dollars worth of cargo have...

Authorities at the University of Kentucky are trying to find out who hung an effigy of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on campus. College spokesman Carl Nathe said it was found hanging from a tree Wednesday morning. Police immediately took it down. School President Lee Todd says that he plans to personally apologize to the Obama family on behalf of the university and that he is "personally offended and deeply embarrassed by this disgusting episode." It's the second time an effigy has been found on a college campus recently. Earlier this week, George Fox University in Oregon said it was...

A Halloween decoration showing a mannequin dressed as vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin hanging by a noose from the roof of a West Hollywood home is drawing giggles from some passers-by and gasps of outrage from others. The mannequin is dressed in brunet wig, glasses and a red business suit. Another mannequin dressed as John McCain emerges from a flaming chimney. Chad Michael Morisette, who lives in the house, told CBS 2 News that drivers and bus passengers have been stopping to snap pictures of the macabre scene. Morisette says the effigy would be out of bounds at any other...

Iran to hang 30 convicts on Sunday TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Thirty people convicted of drug and other criminal charges will be hanged on Sunday, Iran's semi-official Fars News Agency reported Saturday. The 30 had their cases tried by the highest judicial authorities and were found guilty of the charges brought against them, Iran's judiciary said in a statement. The verdicts are final, and the sentences will be carried out Sunday, according to Fars. According to Amnesty International, Iran executed 317 people last year, second only to China's 470. The U.S. executed 42 people in 2007, according to Amnesty International....

The executions took place in the north-eastern city of Sabzeva, Reuters news agency reported. It was not revealed what crimes those executed had been accused of, nor how they were killed or when, but the radio report said they were "wicked people". On Saturday four others, convicted of murder, were publicly hanged in the southern province of Bushehr, an Iranian newspaper reported. Murder, rape, adultery, drug trafficking, armed robbery and apostasy - the abandoning of religious faith - all carry the death penalty under Iranian Sharia law. In January, Iran's judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi-Shahroudi ordered that all public executions...

PARIS (AFP) - New evidence has emerged that a large plate of floating ice shelf attached to Antarctica is breaking up, in a troubling sign of global warming, the European Space Agency (ESA) said on Thursday. Images taken by its Envisat remote-sensing satellite show that Wilkins Ice Shelf is "hanging by its last thread" to Charcot Island, one of the plate's key anchors to the Antarctic peninsula, ESA said in a press release. "Since the connection to the island... helps stabilise the ice shelf, it is likely the breakup of the bridge will put the remainder of the ice shelf...

TOKYO (AFP) — Japan on Tuesday executed three people including notorious serial killer Tsutomu Miyazaki, a fetishist convicted of murdering four little girls and eating some of their bodies, officials said. Miyazaki, 45, was nicknamed the "killer nerd" for his obsession with sexual cartoons and pornography. But defence lawyers contended he was mentally ill and could not be held fully responsible for his actions. Japan is the only major industrialised nation other than the United States to apply the death penalty and has been stepping up the pace of executions, which enjoy wide public support. "We are carrying out executions...

Japan hangs 3 convicted murderers By MARI YAMAGUCHI, Associated Press writer 9 minutes ago A serial killer who mutilated the bodies of four young girls and reportedly drank the blood of one of his victims was among three convicted murderers executed in Japan on Tuesday for crimes an official called indescribably cruel. Tsutomu Miyazaki, 45, whose rash of grisly killings in the late 1980s triggered calls for tighter restrictions on violent pornographic videos, was hanged at a detention center in Tokyo, Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama said. Miyazaki burned the body of one 4-year-old and left her bones on her parents'...

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran has hanged five men convicted of raping and murdering a young woman, a state-owned newspaper reported Monday. The men were convicted of kidnapping the woman, raping her and then dousing her with gasoline and burning her alive. The IRAN newspaper reported Monday that the crime was apparently in revenge for the woman's failure to marry one of the men. Her family opposed the union. The convicts, all aged 19 to 24, were executed Sunday in Qom prison some 84 miles south of Tehran.

Four death row prisoners have been executed in Japan, the authorities have announced. The four inmates, aged between 41 and 64, were hanged at separate locations in Japan, the justice ministry said. Japan, one of the few industrialised countries to retain the death penalty, appears to be stepping up the pace of prisoner executions. Three capital sentences were carried out in February, as well as nine executions in 2007. Human rights groups are critical of the secrecy surrounding executions in Japan. Relatives are told only after the hangings have taken place and, until December 2007, the names of those executed...

Iraq approves 'Chemical Ali' hanging   Iraq’s presidency council has cleared the way for the long-delayed execution of Saddam Hussein’s cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majeed, known as “Chemical Ali,” to be carried out…The execution of Majeed, once one of the most feared men in Iraq, and two others for the genocidal Anfal campaign against Iraq’s Kurds in the 1980s has been delayed for months by a legal wrangle over who has the authority to green light the hangings… No date has been set for the execution to be carried out, they said.   The council source said no decision had been made regarding...

TEHRAN — Iran on Sunday executed two men — one accused of murder and the other of raping children — in a prison in the northeastern province of Khorasan, the ISNA news agency reported. The men were not identified, but the news agency said that one of the men had raped several girls under the age of 10 and that the other man had committed murder. ...

A 10-year-old boy has hanged himself within days of talking to his mother about the recent spate of internet-related suicides in Bridgend. Cameron McWilliams had few friends and spent most of his spare time reading or playing on either an Xbox or a laptop computer. He had also told his mother, Kelly, that he was interested in wearing girls’ clothes and wanted one day to have a sex change. Mrs McWilliams, of Intake, Doncaster, South Yorkshire, found him with a belt around his neck on Monday. She told an inquest in the town that her son had been teased after...

Five Hanged in Evin January 30, 2008 AFP Tehran -- Iran hanged five convicted murderers in Tehran's Evin prison on Wednesday, the Fars news agency reported, as curbs were imposed on executions being carried out in public. A man identified only by his first name of Faraz was hanged for killing his girlfriend Andia in February 2004. "This morning Faraz begged Andia's father to forgive him, but the father reminded him of how he had murdered his daughter and refused to pardon him," Fars said in the report. Ramezan, 29, was executed for stabbing his brother's wife to death after...

Iran's Chief Judge Orders an End to Executions in Public January 30, 2008 The Associated Press Santa Barbara News-Press TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran's chief judge has ordered that executions will no longer take place in public, the official IRNA news agency reported Wednesday. Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, a moderate conservative cleric, also banned publishing pictures and broadcasting video footage of executions, the report said. Executions can now only be carried out in public after special approval by the head of the judiciary, the report said. Since the start of this year, Iran has hanged more than 20 people convicted of...

Iran hangs 13 on single day: reports Wed Jan 2, 12:21 PM ET Iran hanged 13 convicted criminals on Wednesday, including the mother of two young children who had been found guilty of murdering her husband after discovering he was having an affair, reports said. Raheleh Zamani, who reportedly chopped her husband's body into pieces, was hanged alongside seven men convicted of murder, in a mass execution at Tehran's Evin prison, the Iranian Student Correspondents' Association (ISCA) reported. Three drug traffickers were also hanged on Wednesday in public in a square in the central city of Qom and another two...

Teenager Charged with Hanging 6-Year-Old Neighbor GirlLast Update: 1:04 pm CORSICANA, Texas (AP) -- A neighbor of a 6-year-old girl found hanged in her family's garage has been charged in the sexual assault and death of the first-grader, police said Friday. Shaun Earl Arender, 19, is charged with capital murder in the death of Hanna Mack, whose body was found hanging from the garage rafters before sunrise Sept. 10 by her mother. Arender lived less than a mile from the Mack's rural home about 65 miles south of Dallas, Navarro County Sheriff's Chief Deputy Mike Cox said. It wasn't immediately...

(CBS 11 News) NAVARRO COUNTY The Navarro County Sheriff’s Department arrested Kevin Anders for possession of child pornography. Anders is the live-in boyfriend of Dana Mack. Dana's youngest daughter, Hannah, was found dead in the family's garage Monday. Wednesday, police confirmed the girl was sexually assaulted before she was hanged. Police originally listed Anders as a person of interest in the death of the 6-year-old girl. Anders had been questioned by police early Wednesday, but was not arrested until sometime around 9 p.m.

Baghdad, Sept 7, (VOI) – Three of the six defendants in the Anfal case will be executed by hanging on Saturday, a Saudi newspaper quoted the lawyer of former Iraqi deputy premier Tareq Aziz as saying. "The Iraqi Criminal Court notified Ali Hassan al-Majid, alias Chemical Ali, former defense minister Sultan Hashim and former chief of staff Hussein Rashid al-Tikriti that they will be executed tomorrow," lawyer Badie Aref Ezzat told Saudi newspaper al-Watan, published on Friday. The lawyer said he was told by the three convicts that they only wanted to meet their families before the executions. Ezzat said...

BAGHDAD — Saddam Hussein's cousin and two other former regime officials were convicted Sunday of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity and sentenced to hang for the brutal crackdown that killed up to 180,000 Kurdish civilians and guerrillas two decades ago. Two other defendants were sentenced to life in prison for their roles in the 1987-1988 crackdown, known as "Operation Anfal." A sixth defendant was acquitted for lack of evidence. Death sentences are automatically appealed. The most notorious defendant was Saddam's cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali" for ordering the use of mustard gas and nerve agents...

Three members of the former Iraqi regime under Saddam Hussein -- including the man known as "Chemical Ali" -- will be executed within 30 days, senior appellate Judge Munir Haddad said Tuesday. The appellate chamber upheld their sentences of death by hanging, which were imposed in June. The three defendants are Hussein's first cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majeed, nicknamed "Chemical Ali;" Sultan Hashem Ahmed, military commander of the Anfal campaign; and Hussein Rashid Mohammed, deputy general commander of the Iraqi armed force, assistant chief of staff for military operations, and former Republican Guard commander.

Islamic Republic of Fear http://www.economist.com/world/africa/PrinterFriendly.cfm?story_id=9687617 Iran Islamic Republic of Fear Aug 23rd 2007 From The Economist print edition Restoring the revolution, taking away civil liberties AP Iran makes a grotesque spectacle of itself Get article backgroundTHE head of Iran's judiciary is a confident man. Despite foreign attempts at slander, Ayatollah Mahmud Hashemi Shahrudi recently declared, his country has presented a fine image to the world of Islamic law at work. If news were limited to such mercies as the recent release, on bail, of Haleh Esfandiari, a 67-year-old Iranian-American academic, after six months in jail on charges of espionage, or...

Stonings, hangings, floggings, purges. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad might claim that United Nations sanctions can't hurt his country, but that is not how it feels for Iran's long-suffering population which now finds itself on the receiving end of one of the most brutal purges witnessed since the 1979 Islamic revolution. The most visible manifestation of the new oppression sweeping Iran has been the wave of public executions and floggings carried out in Teheran and provincial capitals over recent weeks in a blatant attempt by the regime to intimidate political opponents. The official government line is that the punishments are part of...

Iran has hanged up to 30 people in the past month amid a clampdown prompted by alleged US-backed plots to topple the regime, The Observer can reveal. Many executions have been carried out in public in an apparent bid to create a climate of intimidation while sending out uncompromising signals to the West. Opposition sources say at least three of the dead were political activists, contradicting government insistence that it is targeting 'thugs' and dangerous criminals. The executions have coincided with a crackdown on student activists and academics accused of trying to foment a 'soft revolution' with US support. The...

In Death, a Martyr's Smile Foretells Victory August 10, 2007 The Denver Post Opinion The world has seen nothing like it. When Majid Kavosifar was hanged in public in Tehran for killing criminal judge Hassan Moghadas, no one expected to see the expression they saw on his face the day of his execution. As Kavosifar was jostled through the crowd by the regime's demonic henchmen in ski masks - and even as he was hoisted onto the platform that he was to be hanged from - he wore a triumphant, almost joyful smile on his face. If there were ever...

Iran's Rulers Revel in Rough Justice Fear is Key to Clerical Regime August 03, 2007 Scotsman Michael Theodoulou Thousands of Iranians, including children, watched in fascination and horror yesterday as two men convicted of murdering a hardline judge were hanged in a Tehran street in defiance of Western criticism of Iran's human rights record. Dozens of people have been executed in recent weeks for rape, drug trafficking, murder and other offences but public executions are relatively rare and these were the first in the capital for five years. Majid Kavousifar and his nephew Hossein Kavousifar were jostled in handcuffs to...

Iran executes nine more criminals August 2007 Iran has hanged at least nine men convicted for rape, kidnapping and armed robbery, state media reported. Seven were hanged publicly in two separate locations in the north-eastern city of Mashhad, and two others were executed in south-east Iran. Rights groups say Iran has one of the highest rates of executions in the world and it is rising. Execution numbers doubled to 177 in 2006 and so far 143 have been executed in 2007, Amnesty International says. State media has reported that police recently arrested dozens of drug addicts, smugglers, rapists and murderers...

R obert Vinyard has been in jail and in prison for crimes related to stalking. Now he's in the state hospital for insane criminals. None of those institutions stopped him from stalking the woman he's hounded, harassed and threatened for nearly three decades. Vinyard, 52, has been stalking the same woman since 1979. They met while students at the University of Colorado. She befriended him because she felt sorry for him. They were never intimate partners. But he became obsessed with her. Two years ago, Vinyard was found by a judge to be not guilty by reason of insanity on...

A 25-year-old mother apparently hanged herself and three of her four young daughters in a closet in their mobile home. An 8-month-old girl survived and was taken to a hospital, the sheriff said Tuesday. The woman's sister, who lived in the same Oak Hills trailer park about 25 miles west of Fort Worth, forced her way into the locked mobile home after the woman failed to show up for work. Parker County Sheriff Larry Fowler said the sister rescued the infant when she realized the baby girl was still alive. The mother was identified as Gilberta Estrada. The other children,...

Saddam's former deputy hanged in Iraq By KIM GAMEL, Associated Press Writer 3 minutes ago BAGHDAD - The former deputy in Saddam Hussein's government was hanged before dawn Tuesday for the killings of 148 Shiites, an official with the prime minister's office said. Taha Yassin Ramadan, who was Saddam's vice president when the regime was ousted by the U.S.-led invasion that began four years ago Tuesday in Iraq, was the fourth man to be executed in the killings of 148 Shiites following a 1982 assassination attempt against the former leader in the town of Dujail north of Baghdad. The official,...

Jordan executes killers of U.S. envoy Two with ties to al Qaeda hanged for 2002 assassination (CNN) -- The Jordanian government Saturday executed two al Qaeda-linked terrorists convicted in the 2002 assassination of a U.S. diplomat, according to Jordan's Petra news agency. Salem Sa'ed Salem bin Suweid, a Libyan national, and Yasser Fathi Ibraheem, a Jordanian, were hanged at the Siwaqa Correctional and Rehabilitation Center for the killing of U.S. diplomat Laurence Foley.