Latest news with #deathpenalty
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Federal prosecutors to seek death penalty for New Mexico man
Jun. 27—Federal prosecutors in New Mexico said Friday they plan to seek the death penalty for the first time since 2018 in the case of a man charged in two homicides and other crimes. The request by U.S. Attorney Ryan Ellison of New Mexico also marks the state's first capital punishment case since President Donald Trump's administration lifted the ban on federal executions on Feb. 5. The request comes in the case of Labar Tsethlikai, 52, an enrolled member of Zuni Pueblo, whom federal prosecutors have described as "a serial murderer, kidnapper and sexual abuser" who victimized Native American men, the U.S. Attorney's Office has said. He has been charged with 17 felonies, including first-degree murder and two counts of kidnapping resulting in death, according to a superseding indictment filed in December 2024. Other charges include aggravated sexual abuse, assault with intent to commit murder and nine counts of kidnapping. "The maximum penalty for the kidnapping resulting in death charges is death, and Attorney General Bondi has authorized and directed the United States Attorney for the District of New Mexico to pursue capital punishment in this case," Ellison's office said in a news release issued Friday. Federal executions in the U.S. have been on hold since former U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland imposed a moratorium in 2021. On his first day in office, Jan. 20, President Trump ordered the attorney general, now Pam Bondi, to pursue the death penalty "for all crimes of a severity demanding its use." The last time federal prosecutors in New Mexico filed a notice to seek the death penalty was in January 2018, according to the Federal Capital Trial Project website. The notice was filed in the case of defendant Kirby Cleveland, who was charged in the 2017 fatal shooting death of Houston Largo, a Navajo Nation Department of Public Safety law enforcement officer. The U.S. Attorney's Office in New Mexico withdrew the notice months later. Cleveland pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison. In Tsethlikai's case, Ellison, a Trump appointee, notified U.S. District Court Judge David H. Urias on Friday of his intent to seek the death penalty. Tsethlikai "engaged in a pattern of predatory and sexual violence against other individuals," Ellison and two assistant U.S. attorneys wrote in a notice of intent to seek the death penalty filed in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque. The alleged crimes were committed "in an especially heinous, cruel, or depraved manner in that it involved torture or serious physical abuse" of the victim, Ellison wrote. The notice also said that Tsethlikai had previously been convicted of two or more offenses "involving the infliction, or attempted infliction of, serious bodily injury or death upon another person." Tsethlikai is from Zuni but traveled extensively around New Mexico, including Gallup, Albuquerque and Santa Fe, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. He is believed to have worked in the Native American jewelry industry. Tsethlikai initially was charged in April with second-degree murder in the Jan. 18, 2024, death of a man found dead in a remote area of the Zuni reservation. Tsethlakai now faces first-degree murder in that death. In July, Tsethlikai was charged in the October 22, 2022, death of a man identified as "John Doe 1," who died as a result of a kidnapping, according to a superseding indictment. Additional charges are part of a larger series of violent crimes committed by Tsethlikai against Native American men across New Mexico between 2022 and 2024, the agency has said. Prosecutors said the victims were Native American men, but none are identified by name in court records. Most of the attacks occurred in McKinley County. "Simply put, (Tsethlikai) preys on a vulnerable segment of the population, that being males who are either homeless or addicted to controlled substances, or both," prosecutors wrote in an April 29 pretrial detention motion. U.S. Magistrate Judge Laura Fashing in May ordered Tsethlikai to remain in custody pending trial. He faces a mandatory life sentence or death if convicted of first-degree murder or kidnapping resulting in death, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
CBS News
13 hours ago
- CBS News
Man who admitted to killing Sacramento police officer in 2019 receives death penalty sentence
Adel Ramos was given a death penalty sentence for the killing of Sacramento police officer Tara O'Sullivan in June 2019, the Sacramento County District Attorney said on Friday. O'Sullivan, 26, died when she was shot while on a domestic disturbance call after being on the job for six months. Ramos, who had a history with law enforcement, was arrested after an hours-long standoff and later admitted to killing O'Sullivan. His case was delayed several times, including when he apparently injured himself in his jail cell. But in late March, a jury returned a death penalty verdict against Ramos. "Today's death penalty sentence delivers a measure of justice for the brutal and calculated murder of Sacramento Police Officer Tara O'Sullivan, who gave her life in service to her community," Sacramento District Attorney Thien Ho said in a statement. California Gov. Gavin Newsom halted executions in the state in 2019 and announced plans to close the state's death row at San Quentin prison.
Washington Post
a day ago
- Washington Post
Japan executes ‘Twitter killer' who killed and dismembered nine
A man convicted of murdering nine people has been executed in the first use of the death penalty in Japan since 2022, the country's minister of justice said at a news conference Friday. Takahiro Shiraishi, 34, was dubbed the country's 'Twitter killer' and sentenced to death in December 2020 after being arrested in 2017 for strangling and dismembering nine people, including several young women and girls contemplating suicide, whom he lured to his apartment using social media. Once he lured them to his home, he strangled them, sexually assaulted and robbed some of them, and cut up their corpses, The Washington Post previously reported. Eight of his victims were female, including girls aged 15 and 17. He also killed the male acquaintance of one victim, who had confronted him about the woman's disappearance. Shiraishi had called himself '@hangingpro' on one of his five Twitter accounts and offered to help people in pain, tweeting statements such as: 'If you cannot help yourself, I can help you,' public prosecutors revealed during the trial. Japanese Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki told media at a news conference Friday the execution had been carried out after 'careful and deliberate consideration.' 'This case was driven by the perpetrator's sexual and monetary desires — truly selfish motives,' Suzuki said, adding that the 'extremely grave' killings had caused shock and anxiety in Japan. Suzuki said he signed the order for the execution on Monday but declined to provide further details, including when Shiraishi had been notified. Japan usually reserves the death penalty for those convicted of multiple murders, with executions by hanging. It was carried out at the Tokyo Detention House, Japan's public broadcaster NHK reported. The death is the first execution carried out by Japan's government since 2022, Suzuki said, adding that popular opinion was taken into account in his decision to order the execution. A majority of people in Japan supported the death penalty, he said, citing government polls. Shiraishi was first arrested in 2017 after police tracked him down when the brother of one of his victims found messages from him in her Twitter account. Police found body parts in cooler boxes and other containers in his apartment. During his trial, Shiraishi said he had not been interested in suicide, but targeted people who had written about it on social media because it was 'easier' to 'manipulate them to my way of thinking,' Japanese media reported at the time. At the time, the case prompted Twitter, now known as X, to introduce rules against promoting or encouraging suicide and social harm. Japan's government also expanded telephone and online support for people contemplating suicide. Suzuki said Friday 105 people remain on death row in Japan. However, questions have been raised about the use of capital punishment in the country following the 2024 exoneration of Iwao Hakamata, 89, who was arrested in 1966 and spent more than four decades on death row over the murder of a family of four. He was recognized as the world's longest serving prisoner on death row before his acquittal, which came after a ruling found part of the evidence against him had been fabricated and he was effectively forced into a false confession, Japan's Kyodo News reported. Human Rights Watch said in a January 2025 report the case highlighted how the country's criminal is blighted by 'hostage justice' — where lengthy interrogations can lead to false confessions — and is badly in need of reform. 'The Japanese government should end so-called hostage justice, and capital punishment,' Kanae Doi, the Japan director at the human rights agency said in a statement at the time. If you or someone you know needs help, visit or call or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988. In Japan, the Health Ministry website has contacts for people to find support by phone or online.
The Guardian
a day ago
- The Guardian
‘Twitter killer' who murdered nine in Japan reportedly executed
Japan has executed a man dubbed the 'Twitter killer' who murdered and dismembered nine people he met online, in the nation's first enactment of the death penalty since 2022. Takahiro Shiraishi was sentenced to death for murdering and dismembering nine people he met on the social media platform, now called X, in 2017. He was hanged on Friday. Shiraishi is said to have lured his mostly female victims, aged between 15 and 26, to his apartment near Tokyo, where he killed them and cut up their bodies. He admitted murdering all nine, having made contact with suicidal victims on Twitter and offering to help them die, before stashing bits of bodies in coolers around his small apartment, according to media reports. Justice minister Keisuke Suzuki said Shiraishi's crimes included 'robbery, rape, murder ... destruction of a corpse and abandonment of a corpse'. 'Nine victims were beaten and strangled, killed, robbed, and then mutilated with parts of their bodies concealed in boxes, and parts discarded in a garbage dump,' Suzuki told reporters in Tokyo on Friday. 'After much careful consideration, I ordered the execution,' he said. Japan and the United States are the only two members of the Group of Seven industrialised economies to retain the death penalty. There is overwhelming public support for the practice, and a 2024 Japanese government survey of 1,800 respondents showed 83% saw the death penalty as 'unavoidable'. In 2022, Tomohiro Kato was hanged for an attack in 2008 in which he rammed a rented two-tonne truck into a crowd in Tokyo's Akihabara district, before getting out and going on a stabbing spree, in an attack that killed seven people. As of December 2023, 107 prisoners were waiting for their death sentences to be carried out, the Justice Ministry told the AFP news agency. It is always done by hanging. The law stipulates that executions must be carried out within six months of a final verdict after appeals are exhausted. In reality, however, most inmates are left on tenterhooks in solitary confinement for years – and sometimes decades – causing severe consequences for their mental health. There is widespread criticism of the system and the government's lack of transparency over the practice. Inmates are often informed of their impending death at the last minute, typically in the early morning before it happens. The high-profile executions of the Shoko Asahara and 12 former members of the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult took place in 2018. Aum Shinrikyo orchestrated the 1995 sarin gas attacks on Tokyo's subway system, killing 14 people and making thousands more ill. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@ or jo@ In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counsellor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at
Telegraph
a day ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
Japan executes ‘Twitter killer' who murdered nine people
Japan has executed a man convicted of murdering and dismembering nine people in his apartment near Tokyo. Takahiro Shiraishi, known as the 'Twitter killer', was sentenced to death for killing eight women and one man in 2017, most of whom had posted suicidal comments on social media. Shiraishi was arrested later that year after police discovered the bodies in cold-storage cases in his apartment. He had found the victims on Twitter and offered to assist them with their suicidal thoughts. The 34-year-old raped the three teenage girls and five women before murdering them, as well as killing a boyfriend of one of the victims to silence him. Keisuke Suzuki, the Japanese justice minister, said he signed the execution order earlier this week but did not witness Shiraishi's hanging. He told an emergency press conference: 'The case caused extremely serious outcomes and dealt a major shock wave and unease to the society.' Calls to abolish death penalty Shiraishi's death has marked the first time since 2022 that Japan has enacted capital punishment. Calls for the Japanese government to abolish the practice have continued to grow after the acquittal of Iwao Hakamada, the world's longest-serving death row inmate, in 2024. Mr Suzuki justified the need for execution and insisted that the overwhelming majority of Japan's population still supported it. 'I believe it is not appropriate to abolish execution,' he said, adding that there is concern about the country's crime rate. Some 105 criminals are on death row in Japan, with 49 seeking retrials, according to authorities. Executions in Japan are so secret that prisoners are not even informed of their fate until the morning of their death. Shiraishi was hanged at the Tokyo Detention House on Friday morning with nothing disclosed until after the execution. Japan's most recent execution before Shiraishi was in July 2022 of a man convicted of killing seven people in a vehicle crash and stabbing rampage in a crowded shopping district in Tokyo four years earlier.
