Free Republic

Among those convicted and sentenced to death on Monday was Mohamed Badie, the Brotherhood's spiritual guide. If his sentence is confirmed, it would make him the most senior Brotherhood figure sentenced to death since one of the group's leading ideologues, Sayed Qutb, was sentenced and executed in 1966. In announcing the 683 death sentences for violence and the killing of policemen, Judge Said Youssef on Monday also said he was referring his ruling to the Grand Mufti, the nation's top Islamic official — a requirement under Egyptian law, but one that is considered a formality. It does, however, give a...

Declaration by the Presidency on Behalf of the EU Concerning Death Sentences in Iran February 07, 2008 EUROPA Press Releases The EU condemns the increasing recourse to death sentences and executions in the Islamic Republic of Iran. The EU also reiterates its longstanding opposition to the death penalty in all circumstances. The EU is in favor of the universal abolition of the death penalty and urges the Islamic Republic of Iran to abolish the death penalty, if necessary by initially establishing a moratorium on executions, in line with the UN General Assembly resolution adopted in December 2007 on a Moratorium...

The number of death sentences handed out in the United States dropped in 2006 to the lowest level since capital punishment was reinstated 30 years ago, reflecting what some experts say is a growing fear that the criminal justice system will make a tragic and irreversible mistake. Executions fell, too, to the fewest in a decade. "The death penalty is on the defensive," said Richard Dieter, director of the Death Penalty Information Center, a Washington organization that looks at problems with the capital punishment system. Death sentences fell in 2006 to 114 or fewer, according to an estimate from the...

When Illinois Governor George Ryan reached the line "I will no longer tinker with the machinery of death" at Northwestern University last Saturday, announcing his decision to commute the death sentences of 167 inmates of Illinois's Death Row, his audience leapt to their feet and applauded. Now, think about that. Why would people cheer the news that 167 convicted murderers would no longer be at risk of execution? If those present were convinced that innocent men were on Death Row, they might reasonably be relieved that a grave miscarriage of justice had been averted. But they would also know that...