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California | San Quentin begins prison reform - but not for those on death row

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California is transferring everyone on death row at San Quentin prison to other places, as it tries to reinvent the state's most notorious facility as a rehabilitation centre. Many in this group will now have new freedoms. But they are also asking why they've been excluded from the reform - and whether they'll be safe in new prisons. Keith Doolin still remembers the day in 2019 when workers came to dismantle one of the United States' most infamous death chambers.

Saudi beheads 80th person this year

Public beheading in Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia on Tuesday [May 12, 2015] carried out its 80th beheading of the year, edging closer to the 87 executions it carried out during all of 2014, according to AFP tallies.

The interior ministry said a Saudi citizen, Rabie al-Sai'ari, had been convicted of trying to smuggle hashish into the kingdom.

He was executed in Najran, a district on the border with Yemen, a ministry statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency said.

The ministry has cited deterrence as a reason for its use of the death penalty despite criticism from human rights watchdogs.

Amnesty International ranked Saudi Arabia among the world's top three executioners of 2014.

On a visit to Riyadh this month, French President Francois Hollande said that capital punishment "should be banned", and his country is campaigning around the world for its abolition.

Drug trafficking, rape, murder, apostasy, homosexuality and armed robbery are all punishable by death under Saudi Arabia's strict version of Islamic sharia law.

Source: Agence France-Presse, May 12, 2015

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